The ride from Ferne Clyffe State Park to Carbondale was an easy one, with mostly flat roads filling the 40-mile distance. I grabbed a shot of the roadway, which has been lined with coal since I entered Illinois. At least, I think it's coal. It looks like coal. It smells like coal. It tastes like chicken, though.
Once in Carbondale, I visited the Bike Surgeon, where my bike was quickly and cheaply fixed. Carbondale is also home to Southern Illinois University, but it doesn't feel like a college town. For one thing, there were a lot of drunks wandering around at noon on a Tuesday. The whole scene reminded me of the seedy streets that neighbor Bourbon Street in New Orleans -- filled with cheap beer joints and all-too-familiar drunks.
I bought a replacement mirror and a stove pump, then I had dinner and saw the movie Pearl Harbor. It was unbelievably bad. Without a doubt, the worst movie I have seen in 10 years.
I wandered back through town to the Uptown Motel, where $27 gets you a room that smells like your grandmother's house. Life is good in Carbondale.