Tuesday, June 16: Man, I just hate to beat the same drum day after day. And there’s probaboy more than a few of you folks out there who are just sick and tired of hearing about this bloody rain thing. But today it really impacted the itinerary of the trip.
Well, the rain continued through about half the night last night, but before we hit the hay we did watch the local weather and they were forecasting a good day for today, so at least we had that going for us. And sure enough, at the crack of dawn the sun was out - man I think I have an inkling of how Noah felt after the deluge. It was just so great to wake up to a sunning day - really energizes you. So I worked while listening to the local news, and of course the weather. And during that weather forecast the guy is warning people to be aware of the secondary and tertiary roads - the county roads - that are closed and flooded in the county, and there were many. He also warned folks not to even drive on some of the “unpaved” roads because of all the water. “There is a good possibility of getting stuck or ending up in very deep water” he said. That was a huge downer what with the great sunny morning. Anyway, got my gazetteer out and checked out my intended route, which as I mentioned yesterday on the blog, consists of about 2 pages worth of some gravel and earthen roads to ride. There had to be stream and creek Xings every 3-5 miles. In some places the country roads hug these creeks and streams for miles.
Didn't take me long to decide that putting Judy, the van, and me in potential bad situations all day long, that wasn’t going to fly. I was looking forward to this section of riding as much if not more than the Kankakee River paddle I had to 86 way back in Indiana. But it is what it is, and there’s really nothing I can do barring just waiting for God knows how long for things to settle down - and that could take weeks - or revamp the itinerary to fit the situation. My only choice is the latter. Soooooooo…all of a sudden I was scrambling with the gazetteer trying to figure out a route that kind of paralleled my original itinerary, but that stayed on state routes where the possibility of running into flooding was much less than on the county roads. And there it is.
So with that done we hit it really early to get a good jump on the day. Got going at 8 AM. Rt 150 though Galesburg was just garbage for berm and I was hoping - big time - that the rest of the state routes wouldn’t mimic that rotten mess. And probably what contributed to the road’s crappy berm situation has been all the rain just eating the gravel away and creating a bumpy, soft and uneven surface. Out of Galesburg we got on 400N west, which was passable, and then got on Rt 41 south, which for a while was good, like this gravel berm on both sides of the road that was nearly a full lane wide. With the steady stream of truck traffic on this road, having all the space felt pretty good.
But that deteriorated down to half a lane wide, then down to about 4 feet to 2 feet wide. There were areas where the gravel was just so soft from all the water that it felt like I was riding on wet beach sand, and that feeling continued on and off all day long. Other times the gravel berm was firm and fast, but that wasn’t quite half the time today at best. Then there were other sections where it appears the IDOT crews just spread new quartz gravel and/or limestone gravel on the berm, and that was loose, washy, and amazingly bumpy. Some times I would just shake my head in frustration. Then on some of the small climbs….good God, the whole gravel berm was missing in some places, having washed downslope and into the ditch. What a mess. And of course there were some sections where I had no choice but to get on the asphalt for a hundred feet or more just to avoid riding a washout funnel right down into a ditch filled with several feet of water.
The GOOD thing about today was the temp and the wind direction. Due to this temporary cool front from the northwest, the temp and humidity were very mellow today, and I wasn’t soaked within the first 10 minutes of riding. Matter of fact I wasn’t soaked at all today. And the wind was enough to cool me off, but not so intense so as to create a barrier when riding against it. That felt good. Did a break at about 25 miles in, and felt really good, despite the rather questionable berm situations thus far. Downed a Powerade and had a slice of pizza from last night’s Pizza Hut dinner, and I was on my way.
From Rt 41, we went west on Rt 136 berm, and this was fresh quartz gravel that ranged from good and hard packed to poor and loose and bumpy. Then we were on to the next state route - Rt 67 south. This guy started out really good, with the old hard packed lime sand of about 2-4 feet wide. But heck, as I’ve found out, things can go from great to crap in the span of 100 yards, so this road had some really good sections where I could ride at 14 mph, to some just horrible stretches, like climbs where the berm was just washed away, where I could only muster about 4-5 mph out of the saddle and working it. Now along the way on Rt 67 I started hearing this horrible squeaking coming from my right pedal/cleat. My first inclination was that the cleat was worn out and squeaky from all the wet and rusting it could have gone through each and every day. So at the next rest stop by the van I checked the pedal, and the dag gone thing would barely even turn. Bearings were either frozen or destroyed. So out came the toolbox and on went another eggbeater pedal - I have 2 pr with me for this trip for just such an occasion.
Got rolling again and all was fine. So after that first break, I’d been taking a break every 12-14 miles, eating a slice of day-old pizza and chugging down a Powerade and coke/or water. Worked great today with the heat humidity on the lower end, and what’s more I didn’t sit in the van in the AC like a half melted candle as I had in days prior. I’d just pop in, eat and drink, then pop out and get rolling again. Managed to get about 4 miles south of the town of Industry, IL for the day, and snagged very good mileage for the day - 70+ of berm!
Ok, so the rain is supposed to come back again starting tonight, and then continue tomorrow and Thursday. Heck, yea then remnants of Tropical Storm Bill are supposed to come through Southern IL and the St. Louis area on Thursday, so more fun is in store!