This Friday finds Frank in a town called Sumner in Southern Illinois. He is eating well (as walking does help develop a good appetite) and he is well enamoured with a restaurant called Daisy's Diner which he thinks should be in a good food guide, with a buffet of chicken and salad at just $4!

This is again a very small town of about 700 souls. He is going to become famous, at least locally as he has been interviewed and photographed by the local weekly newspaper (who sadly are not on the internet yet) and he is going to make the front page with a headline such as "Englishman seen in Sumner!" This only came about as he went into the newspaper office to ask directions to the post office! The weather is still very warm, indeed this area now has a quite serious drought as they are missing about 8 inches of rain this year.

As Frank is now looking quite tanned and a little scruffy he is attracting more attention as people want to know what he is up to. He is not having any problems with the walking itself, his muscles are fine and his blisters have given up. However, he sometimes feels weary and imagines the prospect of having a few drinks and a rest amongst palm trees for a few nights. He is planning to do this half way across this state in a place called Salem. To keep the weight he has to carry to the mimimum (together with all the water he needs to carry) he has had to send his heavy SLR camera home and is making do with his lighter compact camera and disposable cameras but there is still no sign of any pictures yet back home.

He has been told about the general election date in the UK being fixed for the 7th of June and that the South of England has actually enjoyed a few warm sunny days after one of the wettest and coldest Aprils on record.