Capitol of Illinois

Made it to Springfield today. This is the location of Abraham Lincoln's boyhood home, but I didn't get time to check that out since it turned out to be a day of getting to the hotel just in time to clean up a bit for dinner.
The ride was 107 miles which is no big deal, but our start was delayed as we waited for the lightning to stop. (Again, very convenient how we could just wait at the hotel). The thunderstorm passed through pretty quickly, so we were able to start off in a mild rain at ~ 830am.

The "Dalton Four" was reduced to "two" today; Alec and Ira were feeling freakishly strong today and went off the front to ride with the Big Dogs today. Indeed, Ira finished 10 minutes after the first person in, which is pretty amazing considering Ira has the heaviest bike on the tour and is having problems with his chain slipping off into a gear he did not choose at times when he puts any force through the drivetrain! I can't imagine what would happen if we got him on a nice light bike! Harry and I kept it at our steady pace and enjoyed the scenery and the "wind in our face", then for the last 30 miles we had a very favorable wind that helped us tick off the miles at a much faster clip.
I think I forgot to mention that "Dalton Four" is one of our other self-proclaimed titles; we figured we earned the name after we put in a stellar ride to make up some time to get to the Dalton Gang Hideout on time a while back; we were going going so fast, we blew right past the turnoff! Luckily,I figured it out pretty quickly and the guys have learned my verbal cry and arm-circle signal that means "HEY, TURN BACK!!". Everyone else was entertained by seeing us come in from the wrong direction.
Back to the Springfield ride, it was pretty humid once the rain stopped. We stopped at a store for bug repellent since the bugs seem to like Harry's English blood. Interestingly, the clerk recommended vanilla extract as working better than the bug spray for the critters out here. So we were smelling pretty good! But then I of course started craving chocolate chip cookies.
Health report: Appreciating the return to the no-smoking rules for restaurants and stores now that we are in IL - nice change from MO, where folks were lighting up at the table next to us at lunch!!