Category: Bicycling

I had my sleeping bag and mattress pad on the wooden platform where the band or disk jockey sets up. A pretty hard surface, but better than the concrete floor. Regardless, I was tired enough so I slept well. To “check out”, all I had to do was turn off the lights and lock the…

The thunderstorms last night were weaker than expected, but the cooler air behind them still came as promised. So I was in no hurry to leave in the morning. It was five miles on US 24 until I rejoined the official route in Lagro. Now to one of the benefits of following the Adventure Cycling…

Indiana has a network of farm roads similar to Iowa’s. They’re on a grid, starting from a reference point (either the county seat or the geographical center of the county, I’m not sure which) – an east-west road one mile north is called 100N, two miles north is 200N, you get the idea. Yesterday I…

Sometimes in my haste to get these out I forget to provide insights as to my state of mind while on tour! During my Chicago stay my wife’s Uncle Bob had asked me (Bob’s always asking questions!) if I would have a hard time on the bike right after the two days off. I told…

Being about 15 miles west of downtown Chicago, today’s challenge was to figure out which way to go. So today’s ride was mostly southbound to get as much rural riding as possible. Although Highway 83 is three lanes in each direction, it has a good shoulder and was a good direct route out. Later it…

I went to Lickton’s bike shop when they opened on Monday. Talking with the staff I knew they had good experience with building wheels. Although they were busy, they were able to build a new wheel for me the same day – the guy who did it had also toured before, so he knew the…

Sunday was spent with family and waiting for recommendations for bike shops. I got several good bike shop recommendations, but Lickton’s in Oak Park was the best combination of being a good reference and closeness to my location. Furthermore, the recommendations I received indicated that they were a bit on the conversative side when it…

Steve – bike electronics/lights guru – drove up from Peoria to join me for the first half of today’s ride. With neither of us real familiar with the town, we took the direct route to Sycamore try to find the bike path to the Fox River. The path was not easy to find – we…

The best way to head east was to cross the river over to Rock Falls and then out through Dixon Road. Until it closed down recently, the steel mill in Sterling was the biggest employer in the area. Years ago, management had mansions in Sterling, while the workers lived in housing across the river in…

(I’m sure many of you are waiting with bated breath for this update, since I’ve been pretty quiet lately…) Since I was in a hotel, I had planned to get an early start (no camping gear to pack) and have breakfast at the place in town that was open at 6 AM. But because I…