Reminds me of this that I shot in a relatively flat part of Montana.



Crossed IL while riding across the country back in '99. Entered from Davenport, IA and Rock Island. I'd have to pull my maps to see the exact route, but I do have this photo. Three of us stopped at a school because we were desperate for water during a 100 mile day that ended near Streator. It was so hot that the tar used to fill road cracks was splattering on our down tubes, which resulted in tiny gravel sticking to them. This was on a Saturday. The kids were there for some sort of extracurricular learning. The teacher asked us to speak to the class about our trip so that they could see that there were so many things in the world outside of their rural farming community. We first declined to because of the heat and the ground still left to cover, but she begged us, so we agreed. She took this photo before we left. When we arrived in Bowling Green, OH for our next rest day there was a big envelope waiting for us in General Delivery mail. It contained a few copies of the photo and thanks you notes from each of the students. Sadly, a couple of them seemed functionally illiterate.