We stopped at a book store and at AAA to get maps. We needed to get back on the back roads. We stopped at a bike shop to. The mechanic explained that my wheel was getting loose and rubbing my frame because of my dropouts. Newer bikes' dropouts point straight down. Mine were angled forward. The weight of the trailer and metal fatigue could then slide the hub forward on one side. The net result was that I couldn't fix the darn thing and would just have to keep adjusting the wheel everytime is started rubbing.

We road a rail trail a few miles out of town and then got on the farm roads. These turned out to be Amish farm roads. The little traffic we found was mostly the horse and buggy type. Which just meant that we had to be careful not to ride over the exhaust. We rode by a barn building. The builders waved to us and we waved back. When the roads got steep and unpaved we got back on the numbered highways. We didn't encounter much traffic.

Today I felt really down. We were both pretty tired. The wear and tear was getting to us. In Illinois we reached a state of physical fitness that let us handle the discomforts of riding 70 mile days every day. We were well passed that. We were fit enough now, but the endless miles, and especially hills, were wearing us down. We cut the day short in response.