Day 25: Evansville, IN – Mt. Vernon, IL

Daniel, my host for the night, had a morning flight so I had some incentive to get on the road early. We said our goodbyes at 7:30 and after a long breakfast spent planning my day I headed west.

It was pretty chilly this morning, so I donned my rain jacket for a second time. However, biking quickly warmed me up and the jacket was off before I got out of Evansville. The headwinds of yesterday persisted and slowed my progress.

Maybe 15 miles out of town, I ran into an older couple touring on a tandem bicycle. They were headed to a town on the edge of Indiana for a family reunion but I didn’t catch where they had started. Their pace was much slower than mine so I wished them luck and took off after talking to them for a couple minutes.

My last miles in Indiana were relaxing despite the constant onslaught of wind. Perhaps it was the weather which was warm enough to be comfortable but cool enough to keep me from sweating, or maybe it was what I was listening to – Ulrich Schnauss makes some pretty calming music. Whatever it was, getting out of the mindset of looking at every house for dogs that will chase me, looking at every fallen branch and shredded tire for a snake to jump out at me certainly improves the riding experience.

I got to thinking about what I want to do when I finish my trip. Not day-to-day things like a job or school but rather what sort of goals I should have. Before I left on my trip, I was following the blog of Mason McCord who was biking across the country. After getting fed up with his life, he made a list of life goals like running a marathon, climbing everest, visiting the poles, etc. All of them sounded like awesome things to do, but realistically you have to pick and choose what you will do in a lifetime. So that’s what I thought about today. I don’t have any answers, just ideas that I will wait to develop further.

These past few days I’ve been getting more emails from YouTube saying people have been commenting on and subscribing to my videos. Turns out I was (once again) featured on a major Warcraft blog even though it’s been 2 years since I released a video. Reading over the comments, it’s fun to see people try and analyze your work. Some of them get the gist of the message I’m trying to get across, and some are just affected by the ambiance. I think my methods of storytelling are pretty well thought out but perhaps they are too subtle if no one is getting what I’m saying. I think I need to make another video, just need to decide on what it will be.

Anyways, I continued on into Illinois. Battling headwinds, I rode and rode, stopping on average once an hour to rest. I made it to the town of Mt. Vernon, Illinois (not to be confused with Mt. Vernon Ohio where I stayed a week or two ago) and got a cheap motel room.

Today’s mileage: 95 miles
Total: 1344 miles