Eating fish at Mike Linnig's

Ned got a new bike. We rode from his house in Norwood, Ky to eat fish 30 miles west.

Flooding

The river was high, but the only flooding I ran into was downtown STL. 

Day 6 summary

Yesterday (Thursday) we rode 60.2 tough miles. Friday, we arrived in Missouri at about 5 p.m. I reached my driveway at 7:30. This was the longest (and hottest!) day at 73.1 miles. The maps we abandoned on day 2 showed 400 miles, but our actual trip was 351 miles. Except for the few miles down into the Mississippi river valley, the trip was all uphill--strange since the elevation of Chicago is 150 ft. higher than St. Louis. The wind was in our faces the entire trip--mostly at about 10 mph, which is a lot when biking. The trip was fun. If I did that route again, I'd start in STL and bike DOWNHILL into Chicago.

Next weekend I'll be biking from Louisville, KY to Lexington--a one-day trip of about 75 miles. Should be easy....

Bye for now.

Home at last

Sushi

Sushi in Edwardsville. Life is very good. 

Google maps

A screenshot of a part of our route yesterday between Pawnee and Farmersville. This is where we hit the tar and gravel, which Google did not tell us about. Doesn't Google know everything?  

If you look closely, you can see the one tree on the route where we stopped for a shady break.

Richard owns the road

Springfield Lake

Tarred and gravelled

As if uphill and into the wind were not bad enough, today we added no shade and the worst road in America. For about 5 miles the road was full of tar--very thick tar in spots. So thick and soft was the tar that our tires sunk in. Then the road hardened and was covered in gravel. Our tires, caked with tar, now picked up the gravel to the point we could no longer pedal.  We had to stop and clean the thick tar/gravel mixture off, which was pretty much impossible. Once I got enough off and found a hard road, I just rode fast. Much of it is still on the tire.  

Embarrassing bathroom moment

Cubs fans everywhere in Chicago and in all the towns south. We wondered where the line is between the red and the blue--where do the Cubs fans stop and the Cards fans start? 

Elkhardt, that's where. I went to use the men's room and found this Cardinal schedule hanging on the wall. I could not help myself. I finished my business and dug into my pocket for my iPhone (and yes, I washed my hands first). 

Well of course an older gentleman walked in right as I was focusing and slowly backed out closing the door gently to pretend he had not seen the pervert in the John taking pictures. 

I invited him in and explained to him the Cards/Cubs question. I said, "your town is the line." He warmed up and said, "yeah, I know--there's a Cubs poster nextdoor in the lady's room." Whoever said men can't be social in the privy? 
 

Day 4 summary

Yesterday was a hard day--"up hill and into the wind" is our modus operandi. We did 56 windy miles with a half hour of rain to boot. Today we did well for the first 33 miles into Lincoln but rested way too long talking to Mr. Dickson. Richard was pooped and wanted to stay in Lincoln for the night, which was fine with me. Well, I made a wrong turn (away from the hotels) and we ended up biking 33 more miles to Springfield. That puts us at 66 for today and 218 for the trip. 

Pain is an interesting thing. At first, it seems to hold you back. But there is a point when you simply "work through" the pain and perform much better than seemed possible.  

Too much resting

Richard rests outside Dickson's Tacos. Inside , Mr. Dickson sat and talked with us for an hour. He and his wife run the restaurant. They both used to manage chain Mexican resaurants in different cities. They've owned their own for 3 or 4 years now. The couple also run a bakery in the store a d make everything from scratch--including some nice wedding cakes. They bake through the night when the Mexican grill is closed. Hard to believe how hard they work. 

Logan Courthouse

This is the courthouse in Lincoln, Illinois. 

More Europeans

We met another group of "Euro-sixty-sixers" as we now call them--from France, Belgium, and Sweden.  They were suprised that we were riding from Chicago to STL. I'm sure I heard the phrase, "stupid Americans" muttered in French. 

Our Chateau

From camping in the tornado park to real European-style luxury.  We stayed at "The Chateau" in Normal, il. We first tried a chain hotel but it was full. We heard that this hotel was "old." We tried it anyway and were very pleasantly suprised. The lobby was beautiful and the rooms very large and updated. It was also $50 cheaper than the chain.  

Roadside Brassiere

As the sign says--people are still getting their kicks on Route 66 (now try getting that song out of your head). 

Richard Rides

Norma Jean

Richard could not resist. 

Route 66

Wayne's truck

He insisted I take a photo of his truck. "I'll be famous," he said. And he is.  

Russian Apiary

This is Wayne Field, an apiarist (fancy word for bee keeper) from just outside Pontiac. He knows a lot about bees, of course. After he lost most of his domestic bees to disease, he imported some from Russia. They are very strong and resistant to disease, he told me, but gentle toward him.   He often "works without a veil." I trust him on that.  

Day two summary

We rode 33 miles Sunday and 62 yesterday. Stayed in the nice town of Dwight last night. We checked in with City Hall for permission to camp at Garret Park. When we got to the park it was destroyed. A tornado tore through a week ago. We decided to camp there anyway figuring that if lightening doesn't strike the same place twice, maybe the same is true of tornados. 

The tornado missed the grade school but not he high school.  A few serious injuries in Dwight but no deaths.    

Wilmington Illinois. The Launching Pad.  We met a group of Swiss tourists who are riding motorcycles onRoute 66. This is a very popular thing to do for Europeans. Some of my relatives in Germany did this a few years back.  These two spoke German, not French. They laughed at my German--of course. That's the Gemini Giant in the background.    

Joliet Prison.  No breakfast. 

First day summary. Well, we planned our route using Bike Illinois maps that were to follow the old Route 66. The trouble is that the route is for cyclists who do not like riding on busier roads. So every few blocks, there is a turn. We spent more time stopping to look at the stupid map than we did pedaling. So, we finally chucked the maps and we're not looking back. Our iPhones are way better than the maps, anyway. This morning we had continental breakfast at the Super 8. Now we're headed to Joliet for real breakfast.

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Six miles into the trip we stop for all-day breakfast at a Route 66 landmark.  

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Two miles into our 400 mile ride we pose (as cyclists) in front of the Buckingham Fountain. 

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Downtown. Ready to fight the traffic. 

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Herr navigator.  

Richard renamed his iPad "rPad". He's plotting our escape from downtown Chicago. 

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My biking guru. Dr. Long, I presume?

My new blog

Well, I broke down and started a blog. For now, I'll use it to track my bike trek from Chicago to St. Louis.

Enjoy--or get a life. I mean why read this when you could be out biking yourself!? Seriously....