Carbondale to Cave in Rock
In Carbondale, we took a rest day and stayed with the friends of a friend of a friend. The people we stayed with turned out to all be on the Southern Illinois University swimming and diving team, and were all super nice and friendly.
The three of us with John, a SIU diver and one of our wonderful hosts
Carbondale also had a well-established recycling program, and provides collection services to residents on a weekly basis. The program relies on residents to sort between cans and bottles and paper products. For yard waste, residents must arrange a collection time with the city. Yard waste only includes grass, leaves, and other small brush; branches larger than one foot are not accepted.
"There's a burning bush to my right." -Jewel
As we were leaving Carbondale, we drove past a pile of burning brush and branches. Perhaps thats how the residents deal with longer branches. Although several people in the area compost as well, including the university, which has three different compost sites on campus: a grounds waste compost center, a vermicomposting center, and a grounds waste and manure compost area. The vermicomposting center utilizes worms to breakdown the organic matter more quickly and more effectively. The dining halls supply the compost pile with the food waste scraps, which have decreased in the past year due to the removal of trays from dining halls—an initiative that has also saved innumerable gallons of water and watts of electricity.
The university’s farm staff also collects used cooking oil from the dining halls to use as biodiesel to power their farm equipment. Cool!
We got to Cave in Rock around three this afternoon, and I went straight to the post office. I had shown our itinerary to my friend Natalie, and, when she saw the name “Cave in Rock,” she became fascinated by the place. So she did some wikipedia research, and sent me a letter on the history of Cave in Rock via general delivery at the post office. To figure out how to send me a letter on the road, she googled “how homeless people get mail.” How fitting. Nonetheless, I was excited to get a letter, and even more excited to read about “The Blood, History, and Controversy of Our Time: The Christening of Cave in Rock, IL.”
Cave in Rock's namesake!
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