Bye bye Illinois, hello Kentucky!

I made it across the Ohio river! Despite the significant lack of crocodiles, piranhas, submerged logs, buried treasure, and tsunamis, it was a nice, relaxing, uneventful 5 minute ferry ride across. The Ohio borders Illinois and Kentucky, so I am now officially in dog attack country. I am going to be one with my pepper spray for the next 500 miles or so (although I hope I never have to use it). 

As an update to my last post, my tent is forever lost in the bowels of the American shipping system, so I don't think I'll ever see it. Oh well! I'll pray for a cold front and a lack of Mosquitos for the next 1000 miles. 

Incidentally, sometime tomorrow I'm hitting the big 3000! I don't even know how I'm almost three quarters of the way done. Man has this trip been going fast. Every day is another adventure. 

Speaking of adventures (if you're willing to stretch the meaning of the word), last night in Goreville I was trying to find a place to stay, so I asked one of the local churches if I could camp in their yard. They said yes, invited me to dinner, and before I knew it I was helping at the arts and crafts station of their church camp! It was absolutely wonderful. Besides the name that belongs to a bad horror movie, it's a great place! They had a really nice, tight knit community, and it was fun hanging out with all of them. 

 I stopped for lunch in Elizabethtown today, and met a wonderful man named Bill Anderson. A self-described "barefoot hippy", bill is 65, and has hitchhiked over 25,000 miles around the country. He went to southern Illinois university for 7 years, earning an absurd amount of credits in various majors. After college, he was addicted to drugs for 10 years, went to jail/prison a bunch, and lost his teaching license. However, he turned his life around, and now he does odd jobs around town, and most importantly, mentors a bunch of troubled youth, and keeps them on the straight path. I wish I wasn't on my ipod, so I could post a picture of him! He had a lot of really interesting stories, and I was glad to meet him. 

Anyways, my point is that regardless of where you go, you never know who's sitting at the picnic bench next to you as you enjoy a tuna cheddar cheese wrap. 

I am now in Marion, KY staying at a church that has been hosting people since the original bikecentennial!

I'm absolutely starving, so off to the kitchen I go to make pasta mixed with dehydrated potatoes. Mmmmmmmmh!

Love,

Malcolm