Daniel Kelleghan Photo

Today was an interesting day.  Last night I spent about an hour looking for a place to sleep.  I was originally going to sleep on a POD storage container, but it was on private property that I would have had to jump a fence to get into.  There didn’t seem like any good spots to sleep, until I found this, which was still better than the former.

Unfortunately I slept absolutely TERRIBLY because I happened to set down my base camp in an area that was filled with loud people, and a multitude of busses that kept me up on and off the entire night.  It was horrible.  I woke up around 5:30 and got on the road at about 6:30 though.  I was feeling good.  I took some self portraits quickly before I hit the rode though first.  I decided to start concentrating on some self portraits from then on.  It was tricky though because I didn’t bring a tripod so I was a the complete mercy of my surroundings.  I suppose it was just one more thing that was kind of fun to work around thought Here are my favorite ones from the morning

After that, I set off again on my bike heading south.  I stopped and shot some photos of some fog as I was leaving Champaign though:

After shooting those photos I was off on my journey again.  I rode about 50 miles to Charleston.  I made it there by 12:30 so I took a little bit of time walking around the small-ish town.

After eating a super good ham and cheese wrap at a local cafe, I took off for the road again.   I didn’t stop until I made it to Oleny.  It was about 115 miles total for the day, which I was more than stoked for.  That’s the most miles I’ve ever ridden in one day, let alone on a fixie.  I got a burrito dinner and talked to my waiter at length about the town.  He was super cool and I’m glad I met him!

After that it had to go on my regular hunt to find a spot to set down my stuff.  I finally found a sufficient spot after about a half hour.  There was also no cell phone service here so that wasn’t too fun.  I was really in the sticks… as they say.

I decided to lock up my bike nearby and go around town and shoot some photos of things that caught my eye.  I took some self portraits too at the end

I then set down my camp:

Goodnight for tonight!

So, I’m writing the rest of these blog entries as records of what happened.

Nothing super exciting happened on day 5 of my trip.  I decided to take a break (the only rest day that I took the whole trip) because it was supposed to be raining all day, which it did for some of the day. I walked around Champaign and ended up taking photos of people around the town.  School had just gotten out so there wasn’t too many people there.  All the people I photographed in the straight-on style portraits I asked if I could photograph them.  It wasn’t anything too specific and I really see it as a documentation of the people in Champaign.

Pretty flowers in a restaurant storefront

Random dude… thought it was funny
Sitting at Starbucks waiting for the rain to subside

While charging my phone in Adli’s parking lot, I was asked by a lady if I wanted a drink.  I said sure and she gave me a Powerade and a bag of combos.  This really restored my faith in humanity…

Finally after waiting quite awhile for my phone to recharge, I hit the rode.  I took roads that ran parallel to rt. 47 and headed south.  It took me awhile and nothing too crazy happened during the next 50 miles to Forrest, where I stayed for the night.  It got windy at times and it almost blew me off the road a couple of times.  I did pass by a few wind farms where I took a few photos of the huge windmill(?)s.

When I arrived in Forrest, I was completely dead.  My back hurt and so did my butt so I quickly found a spot to fill up my water and went on my search for a spot to sleep.  I ended up finding a little corner of an industrial yard next to the American Legion and set up my sleeping bag there.  I was pretty much on main street with a makeshift wall seperating me from the street.  Luckily for me, Forrest wasn’t the busiest town and I only saw two people when I was setting up my little spot.

Where I slept!

I feel asleep close to 7 I think and slept reasonably well… probably because I wasn’t scared of coyotes like I was the previous night.  I ended up waking up at about 8 in the morning and went a block over to charge my phone and get everything together for the ride ahead.

I went into the local grocer and grabbed an apple and some water (because I was told that the tap water tasted TERRIBLE) and tried to fit everything in my bag.  I managed to fit everything except 2 packets of crackers which I stuck in my pocket for easy access.

I also talked to a few of the locals and they informed me that it was supposed to rain.  I knew it was supposed to but I had no idea how bad it was going to be.

I finally left Forrest at about 10 and continued my way going south.  Immediately upon leaving the town it got extremely windy.  It was so hard at times that I almost wasn’t moving at all.  This is how it was for the next 50 miles.  But that wasn’t all… about 8 miles in it started to pour rain, and that didn’t end for the rest of the trip. I also saw a decapitated hawk and a dead snake… random!

Towards the end I was completely soaked, cold, tired, and wanting my ride to be over.  Luckily for me, my friend Tyler found me a place to stay in Champaign and that’s where I’m writing this from.  Big thanks goes out to Sandra for letting me dry out here overnight!

This was the view of the neighbor’s roof across the way from Sandra’s apartment.  Can you tell it’s a college town? Christmas tree, shoes, beer bottles…

It’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow so I think I might just sit tight here in Champaign for the day.  I don’t want to have to deal with another day like today, especially when I won’t have an official place to dry out.

In the meantime I’m letting all my gear dry out, including my sleeping bag, and I’m going to catch some shut eye.  Sandra is giving me crap for going to bed at 8PM but hey, I’m tired.  Night!

The bed I slept on! It felt so nice!