Viva La Vagabond: RUNNING FOR THE SOUTH ILLINOIS/KY

Hello old friends! Many apologies for our very delayed blog post. For those concerned, we are still very much alive and kicking. Our last adventure left us in the town of Marion Illinois sleeping in a city park baseball dugout. After a great nights sleep in the five-star dugout. We took way towards the Garden of the Gods state park in Illinois. The days ride offered great weather with over cast skies and perfect riding temperatures. Fields of corn and soy beans laid in every direction filling the air with a quite sense of peace. As the day unfolded our picture perfect day turned into a rain ridden trek to the "mythical" gardens. The last 5 miles were marked by strenuous uphills and raging descents as we entered our days destination. Hungry, cold and sopping wet we pulled into the smelliest out house in order to get out of the rain. There, we reached ultimate hobo status as we chose to ignore the foul fecal smell as we gorged ourselves with our canned lunch. We waited out the storm and pitched camp for the night after the rain had stopped. That same night we were woken up by clattering and chattering outside of our tent. Israel's food had been raided by the most cunning and devious creature that resided in the Garden of the Gods. . . COONS!

The following morning we attempted to navigate our way towards the ferry at Cave in a rock. Using google maps as our "trusty"guide we found ourselves in a sketchy gravel path deep in the woods. A sense of trouble set In after we realized that we had no idea where we were. Just at that time that two rambunctious good ol' boys came tearing down the hill on their pickup truck. Upon explaining our current situation out new friends Dwayne and Tim agreed to get us out of the sticks. Once we'd loaded into the truck Dwayne took off like a bat out of hell. Ripping through the windy wooded roads we finally reached the main road. As we said our goodbyes, Tim sent us on our way with a handshake and some "treats" from his neck of the woods. Out of respect we did not refuse. . . Down the road, we reached the city of Cave in the Rock, home of the Ohio River ferry. At Cave in the Rock we had phenomenal cornbread, met some Juggalos, visited an old pirate cave and crossed the Ohio River. Riding a ferry was a first for us vagabonds but proved to be a great way to enter Kentucky. Crossing the Ohio gave way to the vagabond's stretch back to TN but more to come on that later...