Day Twenty-three

I rode about 80 miles today and made it to the town of my birth: Beloit, Wisconsin. It was a great day of riding, mostly on bike trails. There’s a fabulous trail that runs from Wheaton. Very well maintained, and paved for much of it. Jerry and Mary headed out with Chuck and me, all of us on bikes. It was nice to have some company for a little while! Jerry rode on after Mary stopped, and it wasn’t easy keeping up with him. I really like Jerry; he’s a free spirit (like Chuck) and does what feels good to him, without a thought to what others are thinking. I respect that. He’s very quiet during a conversation with several people, but he’s always listening. You can count on it. When he has something to say, he’ll say it, but he’ll never speak just for the sake of speaking. And he loves to sing. He sang to himself as we rode, and I joined him as best I could since I loved the song (Wouldn’t It Be Lovely). He stopped after 4 miles, said good-bye and wished me safe travels.

I rode for a while and it was absolutely beautiful. Lots of people on the path too, and most of them said “Good morning!” However, eventually, I came to point where there was a big sign that said “TRAIL CLOSED”, and there was no indication of a detour. Another biker pulled up and said he thought he could get me around it. “Do you want to take the chance?” he asked. I said, “Sure!” and followed him. He got me to a place where there was more construction, but I was able to walk around it and continue on my way.

Eventually I met up with Chuck at a gas station. We had an impromptu picnic on the grass by the highway: tuna sandwiches, pistachios and milk. It was very nice! I continued on and Chuck stayed behind. He doesn’t want to ride ahead of me, in case I need help. Having to double back to get me would add too much extra driving time. Thankfully, I was only on a busy highway for a short time. I was using Google map directions which aren’t always the best.

I was able to go from one trail to another pretty much (the next trail was the Fox River Trail), except for a section of western Illinois, where I had to ride through miles and miles of…you guessed it, CORN FIELDS. We grow a LOT of corn in this country. If I never see another corn field, that will be perfectly fine with me! It messes with your head when you ride through never-ending corn fields. You feel like you haven’t made any progress at all. It helped a little when I looked down at the pavement while I rode.

Thankfully, another bike path came fairly soon, and it had an ice cream shop on it! I stopped for a cold water and a vanilla shake. Yummy! It was very surprising to me to find this great bike trail in the middle of the corn fields of Illinois. Chuck had said he was at the Wisconsin border, and there was a beer waiting for me. I have never in my life biked so far, so fast. I was literally FLYING down that bike path (the Stone Bridge Trail). Not just because of the promise of a beer, but because I didn’t want to keep Chuck waiting. I called him when I got close to the border, but he had already moved on. Apparently, in Wisconsin, you can still smoke in bars. That’s changing on July 5th, but I guess everyone was smoking a little extra while they still could. Chuck couldn’t stand to be in the bar for too long.

I came to Highway 51, where Chuck had told me to meet him, but was like an interstate, and there’s no way I would have been allowed to bike on it. I stopped at a truck stop called “Love’s” and waited for Chuck to come and get me. We rode into Beloit and it felt very cool to be in the place where I was born. This time, I chose a place to get a beer and it was smoke free. We weren’t interested in the food there (it was very expensive), so we headed out to find our campground. We found it, but the gate was locked with a sign that said “Sorry, all full”. I went through the side gate and wandered around until I found the owner. I told him about my ride, and he said the campground was not open for the season yet, but we could stay there. I thanked him and asked him how much it would be for the night, and he said “Don’t worry about it; no charge”. Wow. We set up the tent and chairs, and it was a pretty comfy. We snacked on cheese and crackers and pistachios. Everything would have been great, but we didn’t have a mattress in the tent and I couldn’t get comfortable. I just can’t sleep on the ground. My back and neck were very sore in the morning from all the tossing and turning, and I asked Chuck if he could pick up an air mattress. He said he would. (YAY)