14 June 2012

Carbondale to Chester IL 54 miles (TransAm 1,219)

Before she left on this TransAm ride, I would have said Gina had a stature more similar to Olive Oyl than Popeye:

But after 1,200 miles of pedaling, things have changed:

Welcome to Chester, Illinois, home of Popeye the Sailor Man! According to Wikipedia, the creator of Popeye and his gang of merry mates, Elzie C. Segar, based his characters on his “experiences with people of Chester.” Now to me that makes the people of Chester sound a little weird: one-eyed men with oversized forearms, pencil-thin women with size 14 feet, babies with mermaid tails. But to the folks of Chester, these be braggin’ rights. If Gina’s photos are any indication, this town is awash in Popeye paraphernalia.

Before arriving in Chester, Gina and Wendy were having their own experiences with the people of Campbell Hill. Well, one person anyway, and that person would be Sandra. Sandra is 76 years old and she and her husband fed many a TransAmmer in their day, owning a restaurant on this historic cycling route. Now Sandra is retired and helping her children with grandbabies and laundry. For Sandra’s sake, I’m hoping there aren’t as many grandbabies as there were loads of laundry (thirteen, to hear her tell it).

Gina and Wendy met Sandra at the Mini-Mart, run by Sandra’s daughter, where they stopped to savor their extravagant lunch of PB&J sandwiches. Gina, noting that Wendy was downing another double espresso (clearly Wendy’s rocket fuel of choice), thought she better gas up as well if she was going to keep up with our mini Saturn V.

Given where they were headed, I think Gina should have opted for some spinach instead.