DAY 21
Day 21 was spent riding through many many many more cornfields and other types of farms.
We started in Walkerton, Indiana, and finished the day near Crete, Illinois. 64.6 miles and our fourth state border crossed. We haven't yet posted a picture with state border signs because every time we enter a new state we're riding on a county road as opposed to an interstate road. Perhaps I'll write a petition trying to convince policymakers why county roads need state border signs as well. *Cough cough* So bikeforjed can take pictures for the blog and instagram.
We had some issues earlier in the day as Owen's tires began losing air pressure. We ended up discovering that one of his tires has some small punctures through it which is probably what has been causing all of his flats recently. He rode on it for the rest of the day and the next day into Chicago, where he plans to replace the punctured tire.
Toward the end of the day with just 10 miles left, Tom broke a spoke on his bike... again. This time it was because, oh yeah I forgot to mention, there was another detour we had to take today. Twice today actually. One road closure was due to maintenance on the bike path we were taking. Of course. The second closure came an hour or so later and was on the main road we were riding on. This closure helped cause Tom's broken spoke. The construction on it was a few hundred feet of rough gravel. We opted to continue through the gravel since no one was working on the construction site and any detour would have added many more miles to the ride. While riding on the gravel a rock must have caused Tom's tire to move in a position which increased pressure on the spoke causing it to break.
Tom was able to make it to the campsite for the night, riding on a broken spoke and a wobbly wheel. We set up camp in the established campsite, did some laundry, and went to bed. Staying at an established campsite was necessary because we had free camped the previous two nights and were in dire need of showers. We'd worry about the bike issues tomorrow morning.
Stats for the day:
DAY 22
We started the day a little before 10 AM and got rollin towards Chicago. The first half of the day was spent riding on another very nice bike path. Once that bike path ended we had to get on Archer Ave to get into the city. It was a little bit hectic as it was a 2 lane main road. The cars whizzing by combined with the gigantic potholes in the road were difficult to navigate for a period of time. Luckily we were only on that road for about 5 miles before we got into the city.
Here we are before hopping on the Lakefront Trail:
At around 5 PM we got into the city. Once there we hopped on another bike path called the Lakefront Trail. It was one of the most beautiful lakefront paths I've ever ridden on. It's an 18.5 mile long trail used for walking, jogging, skateboarding, rollerblading and cycling. The trails runs in between the east side of Chicago and the western shore of Lake Michigan. So as we were riding on this trail into the city, going from south to north, we saw beautiful views of Chicago to our left and beautiful views of the beaches and Lake Michigan to our right. It was gorgeous. Given that it was 5 PM on a Tuesday I thought the pathway and beaches were pretty packed and lively with many people.
After riding along that path for 25 minutes or so we pulled up to our warmshowers destination. Mark was sitting on his porch waiting for us with 3 iced bottles of water. It was pretty hot that day and we had all been running low on water -cold water at least- so that was a very nice welcome to be met with.
Mark and his family live in a very beautiful home, not even a ten minute bike ride from Wrigley Field. Mark and his wife gave us suggestions on places to go and where to eat for our rest day in Chicago. We were able to take showers and do laundry which is always a luxury never taken for granted these days.
We had some Indian food for dinner later that night. Afterwards we got some drinks and hung out around Wrigley Field as the Cubs were hosting and losing to the Phillies that night.
Stats for the day:
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