For some reason or another I awoke at exactly 6am. I felt wide awake, rearing to go, so I packed everything up and was on the road by quarter to 8. The Shawnee College Rd. was my first real taste of a long, straight, no hills, flat road where I could see for miles. The roads from before that I’d mentioned were long and straight as well, but the hills rolled just enough so you couldn’t see forever. Here I could pretty much.
The wind was at my back, it was early so I had a long shadow in front of me, and I felt like a wandering bad ass. For six miles I strutted along, gazing about, waiting for the next town to drift in then out of again leaving me a mystery in the eyes of the locals. My first encounter was the highway, a truck stop, and a little place called Cheekos.
It was at Cheekos that I had my breakfast for the morning. It was still only about 10am. It seemed so far that no one in Illinois wanted to talk to me, so I ate my meal in silence then drifted back out the door heading west toward the town of Ullin.
Ullin was no more than two miles from there. It was here that my back road directions would truly benefit me. Talking with the locals I asked for Elco Rd. cause I was looking to head to Elco. All of them told me Elco Rd. was no good, and tried to get me to go down some other heavily traveled route. I stuck to my guns though, and after a little bit of searching I found my Elco Rd. on the edge of town and down it I went. There was absolutely no one there.
For many miles I walked that road, I even broke out the ole harmonica and discovered I am not very good at it at all. After three or four miles my Elco Rd. came to a T and this was not in my instructions. I’d seen a lady pull into one of the town houses I’d seen on that road which happened to be right there on the corner. I went over and knocked a few times only to discover she was not going to answer. Looking into my soul I chose a direction and followed it all the way to Elco. My short cut was a success.
Elco too was a town composed of no more than a collection of houses and a massive factory of some sort. I saw one man in the whole town out in his yard with a mask on spraying down weeds. To confirm my direction from there I asked him which road passed through the Shawnee National Park. Old Delta Rd. he said, Old Delta Rd. Wise words from a wise man.
It was on this Old Delta Rd. that I began to find black berries. This compensated for its definite lack of water in its creeks. Every now and again I’d spy some black berries growing and stopped to graze on them. It was a twisty back road, and for the most part a dirt road. About three trucks past me the whole time I was on it. I popped out some where in the middle of the Park to a road called the Grapevine Trail which I’d been told I should have taken out to of Tamms, but trusted in my directions instead.
I figured out my bearings and followed it up a bit, remembering that map had said its roads would come in and out of the road I wanted to go through the park. By now the heat had gotten to me and my shirt was soaked through with sweat so I took it off and draped it over my pack to dry in the sun while I walked. Going around a few bends about a mile on the Grapevine I checked my pack and the shirt was gone, blown off long ago. Oh well, three shirts was too many anyway.
Soon I came across a road called Old McClure Rd. I was well beyond the help of my written directions with all these new roads coming in and out. I knew the road I wanted went to McClure, even though I didn’t want to go there, and I knew the road I wanted would head southwest before turning north again and would cross a railroad track on the way. Trusting in my experience of finding roads with a town’s name that they go to, whether the road is old or new, I started down it. A little ways in I found an old man and asked him how far it was before the road hooked around and crossed the tracks. He told me about five miles so I knew I had it right.
The road was a dirt one, and after about two miles or so it started crossing the dried up creek bed back and forth. Eventually it got to a point where it wasn’t crossing it anymore; the road was in the creek bed and still heading south west. I started to get nervous and doubt my directions wondering if I missed a turn off since the road was so vague. Then off in the distance I heard a train whistle and was satisfied I was still on the right course.
I walked and walked on those creek bed rocks for a long while. Since I’d started so early in the day, and there were no places to really stop for a long period of time I figure I had gone some where up to about twenty miles that day. By six thirty I finally got myself to stop, sit down, and relax for the evening. I made myself a wonderful meal then went to bed.