Illinois, it was my best friend!

Day 24 - Okawville to Albion, IL - 82 Miles

Can I just say, right off, that being in Illinois and getting to see trees, feel a breeze, and ride in the afternoon with ease (sorry, had to go for three...) was a treat.  Seriously, the above picture truly says it all.  For all who know of Sufjan Stevens, this probably was not the area he was talking about when writing his "Illinois" album, however, its in the state, and we were thinking and singing his songs all the way through.  It was far more humid here in this state than in any other we've experienced, but it was a great change.  There were trees everywhere--this was very cool!

Soon we'd reached our hoped for 80 miles (we're able to shave down our milage goal to 80 now that we've caught up.  It'll allow for more time to read, think, and meet people!) and as we rolled into Albion there were no parks in sight.  So we knocked on the doors of 5 houses until we came upon the house of the Wallace’s. We asked if they had a place for us to camp for the night. Don Wallace looked us straight in the face and said, “Boys, I have the best place you’ve ever camped!” 

And, he did.

A shot of the Wallace lake.

A video at the Wallaces.

Our camp area.

Les readies the paddle boat for a run around...

The Wallace clan (Aaron & Les = not Wallaces)

On top of an incredible place to sleep, we ate too.  And boy did we eat!  As soon as we finished cooking up our spaghetti for dinner Mr. Wallace rolled up on his quad (they have trails all around their land to ride their quads on!) and said, "alright boys, change of plans.  We're having spaghetti and grilled chicken.  You can hop on the quad now or just come on back to the house and we'll meet ya there and all eat together."  

Our jaws must have dropped to our toes.  I looked at our pathetic pan of camp-spaghetti mush and jokingly asked, "is it a potluck?"

We brought the spaghetti, but in addition they had fresh pasta with homemade beef sauce, boiled potatoes, grilled chicken with Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce, garlic bread, and bread and banana pudding.

"!!!"  Was all we could think.  What an awesome blessing after such a sour curve ball in Wichita, post Mr. Stroud's blessing. 

Off to the lake, once again, where we quickly set up the tent, covered our gear and went to bed.  Our stomachs were full and our minds were at ease.  This was an exciting day.