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Day 19: {now north of point "E"}
JUNE 23, Bradley, Ill. to Pontiac, Ill. 62 miles via Bradley and Kankakee city streets, Illinois Route 115, Livingston County, Illinois, roads and Old U.S. Route 66. Average speed 13.8 mph. Total trip mileage to date, 1,183.
Back on the road after a welcome three-day break at my mom’s place in suburban Chicago. Throughout the weekend we ate like cross-country cyclists (which means we ate like pigs), but did no exercise and ended up feeling bloated and heavy. Of course my mother thought I had lost dangerous amounts of weight on the trip and urged me to quit. I resisted.
Key diversion during our Chicago stay: The Cubs vs. White Sox “Crosstown Classic.” Didn’t see any games in Wrigley Field (TV instead), but Ben collected a good quote from a guy in the Chicago Loop: “Of course I’m a Cub fan. I don ‘t even wear socks.”
Began this morning by driving our rental car from my mother’s place in Winnetka to the bike shop in Bradley where we had left our wheels on Thursday. Steve Linneman at Tern of the Wheel outfitted Ben with a new rear wheel and tuned both bikes. At 1:30 p.m. we were good to go.
And did we ever: Mostly on Illinois 115, we averaged nearly 14 mph on the pancake flat roads of eastern Illinois. We’re aimed toward Quincy, Ill., where the police say the Mississippi Bridge is open and river levels are dropping. We are curious about what effects the floods had on the region.
We concluded the day’s ride on Old Route 66, which runs alongside Interstate 55, the main
Stores hereabouts hawk Route 66 memorabilia, and Pontiac boasts a Route 66 museum. We didn’t stop there.