Day Eight
Sunday, October 13, 2024
Lisa: A little bit of melancholy started to descend on us as the temperature dropped and we got closer to the end of the trail.
Marianne: Leaving Ottawa felt like leaving summer camp before your friends. There were still things to do! We hadn’t gone to the oldest movie theater, we didn’t go to the Carnegie Cultural Center, we didn’t go through the Old Depot Museum! Maybe I just didn’t want to go home. I didn’t want the trip to end. The weather was getting cooler, but the skies were still such a beautiful blue! The trail felt like OUR TRAIL.
Strolling into Rantoul, we were thinking we didn’t want to spend the night in a tent with 40 degree temperatures. We were hoping Michelle would help us sleep inside!
Ottawa to Rantoul
Rantoul City Hall
12.31 trail miles, 14.87 total miles
64° at 9 a.m. with a high of 73°
Rantoul
Marianne spent time before our journey scoping out various points along the trail. Rantoul was one such place, where she ran into Michelle, the City Clerk. Michelle said we could pitch our tent on the City Hall grounds.
Click on the yellow crosses to the right to read the sections below
Downers
Lisa:
- Couldn’t get hold of Michelle when we first arrived in Rantoul
- Another story we can’t tell you on the Internet, but when we see you in person, we’ll be happy to regale you with
Marianne:
-
After walking a mile from the Airbnb in Ottawa, I realized I had left my wallet there! Had to run back!
-
Rantoul has a graveyard for airplanes just off the trail with over 6000 fuselages on the property that we didn’t get to visit.
Highlights
Lisa:
- Michelle arrived and saved us from spending a cold and windy night outside with a low temperature of 40°
- Binge watching Ricky Gervais’s series After Life on the big screen TV in the Rantoul City Hall
- Michelle brought us air mattresses, blankets, towels, and many other comforts
Marianne:
- The kindness of strangers.
Fast Facts: Rantoul, Kansas
- Founded in 1862
- Population 165 (as of 2020 Census)
- Named after Senator Robert Rantoul of Massachusetts, who thought camels would make good pack animals in America
Photo Gallery
Click on a photo for a captioned slide show to learn what you're looking at
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