6/10 57 102mi 7:46 10mi W of eddysville,IL

Woke up hungover and tired. I mean really hungover. I thought I was going to vomit and I felt sick for the first hour of riding. Didn't get on the road until 10:15 in the morning. Met a guy who helps run the adventure cycling tours and was switching off driving the support van for the supported (no bags, aka wussy) riders doing the transam. I passed a bunch of them today in the morning and they are mostly older folks. There was one couple who was around my age. Anyway, I took the mississipps river alternate. Once you got off the main highway and away from all the semi-trucks it was awesome. It was flat country roads with absolutely no cars and you could catch glimpses of the river to my right. The rivers out here just kind of flow along, there aren't any big boulders or rapids in them at all. Just a wide lazy flowing river. Great for floating I would imagine. Got off route going into carbondale, but I managed to get back on track without to much trouble. I rode through the crab orchard national refuge and it was awesome. No cars and tree lined roads. I saw a bunck of deer and some other wildlife. It was cool. Rode until it got dark and I almost pulled into a campground but then I thought better of it and continued up the road. I rode until it got dark and I camped by th side of the road next to what I think was an old construction site. I set up my tent with my rainfly and ate some peanut butter and crackers for dinner. I set my bike on its side with the cover over it and my cycling clothes on top of it. Laid down in my tent in my boxers and I was to hot to sleep. It is so humid here that you don't really cool off and you just feel sticky and gross for most of the night if it has been a hot day. 10 minutes later it started raining with thunder and lightning which was awesome. That brought the temperature down and cooled me off a little. I decided to go outside and let the rain wash a little of the days grime off me. I stood outside for about 10 minutes and tried to wipe some of the sweat and road grime off me. Every 5-8 seconds the night would be lit up by a lightning flash. There were only a couple of times when the thunderclap was really close. There were some windgusts that would bend the tent around my body and I would stretch out an arm and leg to make it regain its shape. I didn't stake down the tent because the ground was so hard packed. My rainfly/vestibule collapsed into the sides of the tent because the rocks that were acting as stakes got blown around. I just kind of laughed and figured that its just another part of the adventure. Today was great. After my hangover wore off in the morning it was beautifulThe roads were good with little traffic and the scenery was great. The storm at the end of the day to cap it off was like icing on the cake. It did make it a little difficults to sleep though. I guess I would call this zen day number 2.