Day 30: New Day, New State, New Harmony

At Cecil and Betty's   home we arose to a delicious breakfast of toast, oranges, cereal, and the best part homemade peach pie and ice cream.  Cecil provided us with some for our chains which were in dire need of lubrication because it had been around 1,500 miles since Montrose, Colorado where they were lasted greased.  Our morning ride through the Illinois countryside was beautiful and thrilling as we narrowly skirted along thin shoulders as the coal trucks continued their barrage against us.  Soon we were thrilled to be once again driving over yet another large body of water.  Rend Lakes' fishing boats and soft waves shone in the morning sun as we pedaled across the lake.  This morning we were able to pedal particularly fast through the flat Illinois farmland. With each of us cruising as fast as we could go we slightly separated for a time until we decided to re-converge for the final push into McLeansboro where we were surprised to find a Mcdonalds rising from the town like a yellow and red oasis.  After much discussion and research we decided to head to New Harmony Indian because there was a movie theater located there.  By taking an early lunch and biking hard we figured we could catch an afternoon matinee and still have enough time to find a house and enjoy the town.  Little did we know the movie theater only was showing two movies and only at 7 PM.  A high school teacher basketball coach encouraged us by telling us that New Harmony was a cool little historic town and that we would have lots of fun there.  Powering through the afternoon proved to be a minimal task as we descended down twoard the Wabash river and the toll bridge that would usher us into Indiana.  Recent flooding was evident here as well as we could see fields that had been plowed under after being destroyed.  The water mark on trees was at least ten feet up as we neared the rivers banks.  Surprisingly we were asked to pay a 25 cent toll to cross the bridge, which was in horrible condition.  Rumor has it that the toll money for this privately owned bridge has not been going to its upkeep and was evident in the patchwork array of different colored asphalt that peppered the bridge.  After stopping at the visitors center we found the house of Jeanie and Nathan, who were both involved in meetings that night.  So after dropping our things we hit of Samue'ls Place a local pizzeria where we unknowingly spent way more than we had intended.  New Harmony was originally founded by the Harmonists a religious cult back in the 1800's and has lots and lots of historic buildings and points of interest.  That evening we were awed at the pieces in the museum including an 8 legged calf and wondered around in the hedge labyrinth before returning to our yard.  When Jeanie and Nathan returned they invited us in for showers and soon we found ourselves sharing stories.  They had moved from Indianapolis six years earlier but now call New Harmony home.  While waiting for our laundry to finish we enjoyed watching the NBA finals.  Jeanie invited us to eat more food and we filled ourselves once more on her Pasta Concoction.  That night they offered to let us sleep inside and were again surprised by the generosity of strangers who we now could call friends.  New Harmony had been one our most memorable towns yet as we went to bed in luxury and with full stomachs.

87 Miles