And with that, Illinois is now behind us. Tonight we sleep in Indiana. Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were forever going through Montana and Wyoming wondering if we’d ever reach the edges of those states? But eastern states are smaller geographically so we shall click them over more quickly now.
Illinois, well that which we saw, was corn and soy bean fields Egads that is a lot of feed corn. But, contrary to the opinion of the humans and crew from Illinois, overall, the roads in Illinois were better than Wisconsin’s (sigh….so embarrassing as a bike that was manufactured in Wisconsin — you’d think with Waterford, Trek, and Milwaukee Bicycle that Wisconsin might just support infrastructure on its smaller roads….you’d think, but you’d be, alas, wrong…but that’s politics and we don’t go there)
In Illinois we had a small changing of the crew. Two left and two joined. We shall miss the two that left….oh, they were such fun (well…except for that camera that one of them carried…..grrrr….twas quite the entertaining watching the battle between the paparazzi and my human as my human avoided the camera…..but, apparently, like all good paparazzi, the paparazzi won…although we’re still waiting for the picture of proof). We, of course, welcome the new crew.
Alas, in Illinois yet another rider departed us. Oh, what a tough human….quads of steel. A week-ish back on a 140 mile windy day, she was riding with another rider. Us bikes like to stay close in the wind to make it easier on our humans and it was to be a very long day. Despite having kept a distance, a gust of wind came up and pushed her and her bike such that her front wheel touched another rider. Even a pro in that situation will go down…and down they did. A broken pelvis. Ouch. But, by the time she left, like a good athlete, she had mastered the art of crutch walking and was moving pretty good. We shall miss you!
Details 82 miles, 164 feet of climb (yes…flat, flat, flat) 14 strain
Reading List How the States Got Their Shape Mark Stein. The human heard the author on a talk show and he was quite entertaining with lots of anecdotes. So, we thought this could be a fun read now that we’re whipping through states. Alas, no….rather dry and the anecdotes were material that was omitted. Bummer. All books can’t be winners.
Travels With Edwina 