Corn and Beans

Wednesday September 9th and my first full day of riding through Illinois.  We were now truly in corn and bean country, and for the next few weeks we tramped across level plains with expanses of maize or soya beans stretching out to the horizon, beans in this case ... 

and corn (which we call maize) in others...

Denise found me a place to stay that night near Beecher with Debbie Deluca, shown here with daughter Nicole...

...and on Thursday September 10th Nicole in turn found a stall for Lady and a couch for me (thanks Nicole) in Wilmington with Jean Stanhope and husband Harold....

Jean was a champion barrel racer in her younger days, and had around 300 trophies on display! 

On the way there the clouds rolled in over the corn and beans .....

and we were forced to scoot into a barn for a couple of hours when an almighty thunderstorm arrived with torrential rain and some pretty impressive thunder and lightning though Lady was unperturbed..   

  Have no idea who the barn belonged to as there was no-one at home to ask. If it is yours, hope you don't mind, you saved us a soaking - just notice the water running off the roof!

Real or fake?...

You often see these in gardens, and it always requires a second glance.  Lady ignores them now.

 

Friday 9-11  so a day of sad memories for the USA on the media at breakfast time. 

 

I didn't stop in Wilmington to take advantage of the All-American ice-cream ..

 ...but I did stop in Braidwood for coffee and cake at Casey's (in background) while lady attracted the usual fan club  ...in this case John and Randal....

.

We said goodbye to Chicago urban sprawl here, and headed out into the real country, eventually finding a place where I could safely tether Lady overnight with Ron and Debi Manietta.  And the bonus was that I was invited to use a luxurious loft apartment in a fabulous barn that Ron has built, while Debi laid on supper.

The Barn That Ron Built...

 

with L to R - Rusty, Jenny, Debi, Ron, antique gas pump (which has managed to creep into the photo) - these are Ron's passion, and the barn contains an amazing collection, although of course we call them petrol pumps in Britain...