bloomington
Already : Hatachi Archives
bloomington Monday October 4
the trip to bloomington was relaxing, but sometimes intense. all the way to mahomet there is a shoulder, which is nice. but after that? not so much.
the ride from mansfield to farmer city is straight for five miles, and no traffic. that was my favorite part. and in farmer city? the "family restaurant", which served up some really cheap and really tasty (and probably, really caloric) brocolli soup.
the brocolli soup. i also had a turkey melt.
following farmer city is leroy, who is doing quite well in football this year. go panthers. some supporters even went as far as to get cardboard jersey cutouts, and put every single name and number of every player on them, then put them in an serial array so that drivers could see the names and numbers of everyone as they drove pass. my thoughts are that they took this display strategy from the "guns save life" kids. or, it's the same people. eeek. which leads me to my next point.
i was truly in the country, in the middle of republican country. bush '04 posters everywhere. might as well have been texas. certainly, we need all that protectionist rhetoric out here in central illinois, because i heard that al qaeda's next major target was the leroy panthers' homecoming football game next weekend. they'd be hitting america where it hurts, the heartland. let's also not forget that crime runs rampant in the middle of nowhere, so we all have to arm ourselves to avoid getting robbed by the images of black men we see on the regional television stations.
(sarcasm off).
the liberty cafe
it was too bad i was running low on daylight -- i considered stopping here, saddling up to the counter, taking a stool, and starting a discussion about the presidential debate of the night before. but it's not fair to go pick a fight in someone else's hometown. i wasn't invited there. i thought better of it.
i made it to bloomington in 4 hours exactly, save the 30 minutes i stopped for lunch. but that 30 minutes was also the extra time that i spent getting lost, so if i had had a better bike, no hunger, and better directions, i might have done it in as little as 3:15.
try it again sometime, maybe? check the regular photo albums for pictures from bloomington.
