Day 13 - Danville, IL to St. Louis, MO

Yesterday, we went to the one cafe and saw the strange brick mural of all the famous people from Danville, IL. The downtown area reminds me a little bit of Salinas. Then as we left the post office, we got stopped by traffic lights before a small storm broke over the town. Last night we watched Fear of Clowns - a fine indie film from Baltimore (probably MICA) about a painter who is tormented by clowns... and by fine indie film - I mean really crappy - how did it get distribution??

Danny's mom's house is really run down, the kind that you think would be great to live in when you're a young naive person who romanticizes the character of the house. Unfortunately the mess inside disproved any optimism I had about such a lifestyle. (I asked Danny if it was alright to divulge this in my public blog). The folks inside are nice enough, they seemed interested that I was comfortable, but nobody really took any initiative to keep up the house. They had a crate for trash, because the trashcan was placed outside when it needed taking out, two puppies were kept in the kitchen, which smelled like a health hazard, and when they got out sometimes they liked to pee on the beds we were sleeping on. This morning I stepped on some poo - and had to wipe it off with kleenex that we were using instead of toilet paper - because no one thought to buy anymore after they had run out. It was a new mark of adventure for the trip. It was nice to meet Danny's family. Danny's nephew is 17 months old and such a cutie! He would always smile at me when I came into the room. After we went to a pizza buffet (my first time to one) yesterday, Bill, Danny's stepdad, took us to some good motorcycle roads.

Illinois to Missouri... and hopefully to great roads.

But today we left - early morning - a little eager to get out of the dirty house... and we headed out for country roads of Illinois. This meant a few fun turns... but really like 3 in thirty miles. Mostly, I kicked in the throttle every once in a while... and had fun passing on the two-lane highways we were going on. We saw signs proclaiming things like "Gays: 300" and "Witt: 1200" for populations of small towns. So many mills. Now we just passed through St. Louis, I saw the arch from a distance for just a moment... but I'm eager to get on to the good roads.