Battling the Wind...

At the present I have just finished a meal at the local bar in the town Lomax. I gotta say, as much as I love the small town feel and the people in them, I am getting a little sick of the foods in them. The food is good, but with limited options. In the small towns you might be lucky to come across a small service station that with the small chance, might sell a bannana or apple. Apart from that the diet is prett consistent of sandwiches, burgers and the ocasional energy bar. But, who am I to complain, I have food, that is good enough for me!

Yesterday Benita cooked up a storm in her kitchen of bacon and eggs with a delicous cheese cooked through them. After sleeping like a log, and a gutfull of good food, I forced myself again to leave the comforts of a warm house and warm people at around 9am. Oakville has a great story behind the great people there. Oakville was destroyed by floods in 2008 (or 2009 I think). It took them a long time and a lot of work, but with people like Benita, Dave and many others, they rebuilt it to a beautiful little town again. It was a pleasure to be around the country people of Oakville, they had so much pride in their little town and in each other, it was a real close community and a breath of fresh air. I loved sitting back and listening to the locals talk of their passions which were their their town, their husbands, wifes and children. Maybe a little different to the conversation that might take part at a dinner table in a big city where the passions usually lie within their property port folio, shares or the next big investment

Last night I made it to the state of Illinois. I crossed the big bridge around 5:30pm and the light was beginning to fade. I walked for another hour before coming to a service station. I met the two ladies maning the tills and asked if I could pitch the tent out the back. With a free coffee shoved in my hands they told me no problem and shiowed me where I could put it. But if I say I slept well I would be lying. Around midnight I was woken up by Coyotes again fighting outside of my tent. It wakes ya up I tell ya! This only loasted a minute or so but now the wind had picked up and the tent was copping a batterring. I slept on and off until about 7am and on exiting the tent, I could see the wind had not ceased, it was going to be a long day as the wind was coming directly from the south, right where I was headed.

So after 6 hours of walking I can tell ya, it has been a hard day. Walking into a strong wind for 6 hours, carrying 30 kgs takes it out of ya. Looking out the window now it does not seem that the wind will be letting up either.I have another 10 or kms to go until the next town of "Dallas City". This will leave todays distance of arond 26kms which is a little shorter than usual, but it does not feel it with that wind in my face! The last two days I passed around 45kms and 40kms so it is not too bad to pull up a little short today. Best get cracking, I could write for hours more as an excuse to stay indoors, but where will that get me...