I wasn’t sure how to start; it’s been an eventful couple of days! (And I was worried I wouldn’t have anything to write about…) I guess chronological order is the way it’s going to have to be! We left you guys in Farmington, Missouri, and since then, we’ve made it over the Mississippi River into Illinois, and by the end of today will be in Marion, Kentucky, now you can see where things can sometimes get a little confusing.
We crossed the bridge over the Mississippi River where we also crossed the state line into Illinois. 
The first town in Illinois we came too happen to be Popeye the Sailor Man’s hometown! I was wondering why I suddenly had the incredible urge for a spinach salad...
Who else can say they have physical evidence of there father-in-law to be posing like Popeye, it’s really too bad I didn’t have a pipe on hand as a prop… We can only hope there are many more photo opportunities such as this one. Oh wait... Here's another! 
(P.S. if you look back to some of the previous post of us in Yellowstone, I do believe there is a photo of Arch and Skip pretending to be Lewis and Clark!) L-E and I got in on the action too!
Although it was difficult to get L-E to pose as well as Arch did!
Early this morning, very early this morning, Mother Nature gave us quite the wake up call. At 5:15 AM Skip and I were startled awake by one of the biggest thunderclaps I have heard in a long time. I believe Mother Nature had something in mind for us because it wasn’t long before we were both up and on our way to find our coffee fix. Skip needs quite a bit of caffeine to bike 100 miles a day. At a local Kroger's Doria was there to help us!
Well it turns out that Doria is also a teacher at Head Start, a not-for-profit membership organization that is dedicated to helping low-income families and their children off to the best start possible. Doria has been with the Head Start program for 21 years, her daughter also teaches, and her son is in finishing up his education. Doria is a single mom, and a great person; she even made sure we didn’t go back to the hotel empty handed since Arch and L-E were still in bed. 
I have attached a link to the Head Start website for anyone who is interested in finding out more about this great program.
This will be a short stay in Illinois, since today we will be taking the ferry over to Kentucky! Our next stop for the night will be in Marion, and hopefully our directions today will be much clearer than the ones that tried to navigate us into the ever elusive Canondale.
