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Thursday, June 11: Rain, Rain, and more Rain - that was the theme last evening out near Hebron, IN, where we stayed at a STUPOR 8! I mean it rain so hard you could just call it a whiteout - zero vision in front of you. The thunderstorms were so powerful and frequent that they temporarily knocked out the power in the motel, and blasted the cable out for the rest of the evening. I mean it was just a torrent of rain, with the parking lot looking like a small lake with 2-3 inches of water in it as the rain continued. We hit the hay at 9:30 just because we were so beat from the hot day and all the excitement. 


Got going in the morning on the bike where I left off yesterday, out on the west side of I-65 on 1200N. And I have to say that today was my smoothest day yet excepting for those day-long stints on established soft-surface trails like the C & O, the GAP and Northbend. The berm on these roads, when they’re not total gravel roads, is just awesome now. No more struggling at 4-6mph as I had in Ohio. On these pups out here I can crank it in the big ring at anywhere from 10-13mph. To me this is warp speed!


So let me go through the laundry list of roads I did today if you’re actually mapping this silly thing: In Indiana we went 1200N to L on 200E, to R on Rt 10 to R on Rt 41 to L on 241st Ave which turns into CR52 (3500N) when we Xed into Illinois, to L on CR13 (4000N), to L on CR13 again, to R on N. Vincennes Trail (CR14), to L on 5500N, to R on Rt 17, to L on 8000N, to R on 11000E, to L on 9000N through the town of Manteno and across I-57 to R on 1000E to L on 1200N (County Line Rd). There you have it for the day!


ALL of the aforementioned roads had fantastic gravel berms that are flush with the pavement - when there is pavement - and it made riding fast, easy and safe. Now I had said in earlier blogs that this recent spate of rain has nixed my being able to paddle the Kankakee River. This thing has got to be 15+ feet above flood level right now. I was forced to ride on the berm of Rt 41 north, to X the Kankakee, because Rt 41 is one of the only bridges in the county that is not actually flooded out by the river right now. And there was ZERO chance of me putting in a canoe to X the river when I got to it. When I crossed on the bridge the river was just 2 feet from the bottom of the bridge, and just to the east of the bridge is a RR trestle that spans the river, and it had water up over about 2 feet of bottom of the bridge with all this junk stuck on the other side like a massive debris dam. That was a hell of a sight. But there’s more, about a mile before I got to the bridge, to the south, the flood waters of the river had invaded small homes, covered access roads, and the water was right up to the berm I was riding on. It was an amazing sight to see. To my right was nothing but water covering woods, homes, roads…everything. 


Still pretty bummed that I won’t have the opportunity on this trip to do that canoe segment on the Kankakee, as this is supposed to be one of the more stunning rivers in this part of the country to paddle. So we Xed the river and then went west on this wonderful little farm road, 241st Ave. It could be considered asphalt, but heck, that’s for just about 8 feet of the road, right down the middle. For about 2-3 feet on both sides it’s just lime gravel and deteriorated asphalt gravel. And it was a very scenic and beautiful mt bike ride. This is where we crossed the IN/IL state line, getting six states down on this trip of 13 states. By this time the humidity was just out of sight. Temps were in the mid 80’s, and by the end of the day 89 degrees. Today I didn’t have that nice little headwind to cool me off. On this day there was little in the way of a breeze, thus I was just dripping water from the get-go.


We then took it north along this very active RR line I had looked at while doing recon, and today, having seen 5-6 trains on it in just about an hour as we paralleled it, I’m very happy NOT to have made that choice. This particular line consists of double tracks, and it has a double track on its east side on ballast that just went on and on and on. Looked like a good option a few years ago, but today, riding the fast and furious berms I’d been on, well that was not worth the potential hassles. Did a lunch stop just outside of the town of Grant Park, and then, trying to be as fast as possible to beat the rain and get out of the heat, I jumped back on the bike to bang out another several hours. 


Again, more fantastic berm on these little county farm roads. Said it a gazillion times, and I’ll say it again: I just love rinding through farm country. It’s peaceful. So this strint through IL is awesome thus far. There is near nothing in the way of traffic, and the people who you pass and you get passed by, they often give you a friendly wave. What a novel thing that is…to get a friendly wave rather than a middle finger salute! Feels so relaxing to be on this kind of terrain instead of getting my tush handed to me from bushwhacks and crapfests. This was my idea of American Dirt back when I kind of dreamed up the crazy scheme back in 2009. 


Now there was a little tenuous moment in the city of Manteno, where I opted to ride 9000N right though the city rather than go 2 miles north, and then a mile west and then 2 more miles south to avoid the place. I had to kind of zig zag through green spaces to actually get through there without doing a bunch of asphalt and concrete. The final stretch through town, I had to ride on devil strips, this because 9000N was the only way to get across I-57. So I did have to ride across a big concrete bridge across the interstate. After that it was like you’re right back in farmland. I mean there is just city and then boom…right back on the farm! 


The final stretch of the day was on 1200N, and it’s just bomber gravel road that’s about 1.5 lanes wide and it just goes straight as far as the eye can see. It’s a thing of beauty! Now don’t get me wrong, cycling in 90+ percent humidity in 89-degree heat is no picnic. By this time I was a soaking, dirty, muddy mess, coated with dead bugs that had gotten stuck to my soaking arms and legs, and I was sweating so profusely from the brow that my little washrag (I tuck this into my cycling shorts, up above the elastic around a leg) was totally saturated. But I was still able to enjoy the ride. Heck, I just LOVE cycling, so all that other stuff was just a minor irritant today. 


I’ve been wearing 3 pairs of cycling shorts…yea three pair at once. This because of 5-7 hrs of bumping and jostling all day long on non-smooth surfaces. I started having saddle sore issues way back in DE and MD, when I got raw spots on the old butt cheeks, just below my sit bones. I thought maybe a new saddle may do it, but then I began experimenting with multiple layers of cycling shorts. And thus far this has worked well. Now I still do apply the Vitamin A & D ointment each and every night before I go to bed. And I wash those freaking shorts in the shower every night as soon as we reach a camp site or motel. Let them air dry and they’re good the next morning. I do the same with my top and socks. But I do fear that I’ll be tossing all these guys out in the next couple weeks cuz they’re just getting destroyed by the constant sweating and washing. I do have plenty of “back-ups” packed away and ready to step up once my current kit fall apart into a bundle of rotten lycra! 


So I got in 50 miles for the day, and I think this is a PR, at least for a non-trail day. Honestly, I could have gone another 10-20 miles, but Judy was just totally cashed by the weather today, so we bagged it and got a cheap motel in Manteno so she could relax in the AC. She’s often doing more work than I, just trying to negotiate the roads, feed me, keep track of me, and endure hours of waiting in the heat and humidity. As I’ve said in the beginning, I don’t want this to become a horrible experience on her end, so compromises are a must with this trip. Right now, what with the severe thunderstorms each and every evening, and with the terrible heat and humidity each day, we’re not even going to talk about camping. Paying a few extra bucks for a motel with AC, showers and little fridge and microwave, that’s WAY more palatable than sleeping in a stuffy van and just sweating our buns off. Hopefully this weather pattern will change because we both love to camp and cook. 


I ended up about 10 miles west of Manteno, IL, out in the middle of corn country. My stop point was at the intersection of 1200N and 3500W. I’ll be going another 10 miles west to pick up the Wauponsee Glacial Trail, and then take that northwest up to the I & M Towpath Trail and then continue west across IL. 


Yup, things are actually getting easier. Late……Pete