Day 22, Will Illinois ever end?

Southern Illinois continues. It continues to be quite devoid of activity, and certainly culture as well, unless you consider an enormous building-sized mural of a biker babe (as in, motorcycle babe, NOT like these two biker babes) on a Harley holding a beer in hand with an American flag waving behind. That is the closest thing that we have seen to "art". We imagine that the reference to consumption of alcohol while operating a motor vehicle is clearly artistic liberty at hand.

We had 55 miles of spinning it out while Molly's mom Priscilla took our stuff in the car. Little to no headwinds, uneventful biking, by now you all are well aware of the sights we see on a daily basis, which include (surprise surprise), corn and, you guessed it, soybean. Our post-ride stop at "The Ice Cream Man" in Litchfield, IL was highly appreciated by both, although we refrained from attempting the "Headache." The Headache consists of 12 scoops of ice cream, various candy toppings, whipped cream and cherries, all of which must be consumed by one person in under a half an hour unless you want to pay the $22 for the concoction. If you succeed in under a half hour, it's on the house. One brave soul this year actually managed to scarf it all down in a mere 15 minutes (a record), which is proudly noted on the wall.

Hot tubs and freshly repainted toenails later, we were ready to try the Ariston Cafe here in Litchfield, considered the first restaurant on the old Route 66. This lovely piece of Americana was quaint and everything it promised to be, although its houseflies apparently have a penchant for alcoholic drinks. It's not every day that Molly (or anyone, really) utters the phrase, "So as I was saying before the fly drowned in my wine..."

Another state completed tomorrow! We move onto Missouri tomorrow and will cross the mighty Mississippi River near St. Louis, a la Lewis and Clark, but with better-looking legs!