Jeff is fond of describing a riding day by the length in miles, say, 82 for example. Then he’ll say, “But it rides like 75.” Today was 82 miles but it rode like 95. After a long hard day yesterday, we were hoping for an easy ride today, but didn’t get it. I felt tired all day as we climbed many short steep hills until the end of the day. Roads were often rough, and our old friend the south wind was mostly in our face.
We crossed into Illinois in the middle of Beloit, a small city. Our rest stop was there and many availed themselves of a picture of the state sign. Since the Wisconsin sign was missed when we entered at La Cross, some even turned around and took their Wisconsin picture too. Illinois is our eighth state, and we’re staying at an RV campground with a swimming pool, outside of Belvidere.
Today, even though the mileage was less than yesterday's, or tomorrow's, I felt tired while riding. There were times when I questioned whether I could really do this for another 15 days. We have many urban areas in front of us, and the dreaded hills of Pennsylvania. Will I have the staying power? Sometimes I wonder.

The people of Illinois welcomed us. I think we look pretty happy about it too.

Here, I find myself dreaming of a new bike. There were other choice objects in this window, but I really liked the bike.