By the time I woke up and showered, our host had come back to life. I assumed he had no recollection of locking us out. He seemed happy to see us, so we didn't remind him.
We left Moline and followed the Hennepin Canal Trail east. Most of it was very poorly maintained, but it made for an interesting ride, if not an efficient one. It turns out that Mike has an eye for photography, so my current Facebook photo is now my silhouette emerging from one of many underpass tunnels on the route. This one was made of corrugated pipe, with light reflecting off of each corrugated ridge to make a cool glowing effect.
The poor condition of the trail made it seem to last forever. Eventually we ended up on farm roads, some paved and some not, and connected with a rail-trail that promised to bring us into Peoria to meet up with a host that we had met on RAGBRAI. He advised that we should try to avoid Peoria traffic and said he'd pick us up outside of town, so he gave us a ride for a few miles into Peoria proper. I felt the same conflict that I had with prior ride offers, but there was no point in fighting it if I had accepted the others. We already had something to be proud of having done ~100 miles mostly through dirt that day. If needed, I can do penance by doing a few penalty laps once I get to the end.
Our host was, again, very kind. They had two daughters who had moved out and left behind vacant bedrooms, so they were well-equipped to handle us. They did our laundry, prepared dinner for us, and brought us beer from their basement collection, further increasing my already-unrepayable karmic debt. They reviewed our planned route to Urbana, also, and confirmed that Google's suggestion seemed best.
Though I enjoy camping, I have to admit that it was nice to sleep in an actual bed, especially given the density of things that want to bite me out here.
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