Day 6 - Marion, IL

Day 6 was a long and interesting one. Ended up throwing down 90 miles today, but far my longest, though certainly not the most difficult. I was trying to cover the entire shortcut I was turned on at the Baptist Church by other riders - basically letting get almost 2 days into 1 - with the drawbacks being the scenery was nothing special and you're traveling next to faster traffic. Since I'm trying to work in my detour up to the Katy Trail though, I decided it was worth it. Problem was the weather today - from the get-go I could tell it wanted to rain, and I was dodging storms all day, but it was dry when it needed to be - and came up just 15 miles short.

Notes from the day:

• I'm now, apparently, in territory where roads have shoulders. Makes the riding a lot different. Less worry about checking constantly for cars, but I have a lot of gravel and debris I have to watch for instead.
  
• Basically no climbs today. What a difference that makes. Doing 90 was no problem for my legs - it's just the hours on my butt and arms that start to cause problems. Gives good evidence to my theory that I'll be able to bust a few 100 mile days through Kansas/Colorado for the home stretch.
• I did however get my first flat today - due to some little metal wire on the shoulder which I never saw. Luckily weather was holding at the moment, but ended up taking me probably 1/2 hour or so to change, since I was a little rusty.
  
• Honestly, how does all that gravel get on the sides of the road? Anyone?
  
• Officially out of Kentucky now (Marion, IL for the night). Aside from the first day, I ended up really enjoying the rides for the other 5 days and am guessing it'll be the best scenery I'll see along with my hopes for the Katy Trail.
  
• Crossed over the Ohio River to get into Illinois. Crossing the bridge isn't very fun on a bike, although was lucky that when I got to the top there wasn't any traffic around so I was able to stop, hop up on the slim sidewalk and take a few pictures. Didn't realize how much bridges swayed as cars go over them though - that felt pretty weird.
• Lastly, staying at a Days Inn tonight. Supposed to be even more problematic weather tomorrow, but on the plus side, I'm actually pretty impressed with this Days Inn.
  

That's all for now. Hopefully don't have to stay put from weather tomorrow, but we'll see.