Sea to Sea Week 6 Day 2

Today we rode through 87 miles of wet corn into into a headwind to an Illinois state park called Shabonna. I really have no idea where we are, other than that this park is surrounded by corn. Here is a picture of the typical road we rode on:

The recumbent rider, Dana Sommers, is from Auckland, New Zealand. We were impressed that he was staying on the right side of the road. A few other sights along the way included a covered bridge:

And my love of old barns was requited

Not much else to show. It was a hard day on the bike; cold, wet, and windy. I rode with Dan again and we hooked up with various other small groups to share the work of riding in front. I was glad to have fenders on the bike with this rain. You may also notice my "license plate" issued by Sea to Sea. They help in identifying people as you ride with them on the road. Donald is still hanging on. He got wet too.

You may wonder how we know where to go when we ride our route. Most routes are worked out ahead of time and available for download ahead of time. These routes are confirmed a day ahead by Phil Quist. Yesterday he found a bridge out and had to reroute most of the course. He (or Barb Mellema) drives the course, sometimes in the dark and paints markers on the pavement at each turn for the cyclists to follow. He also prints a finalized route sheet with mileage to each turn. Mostly, we just look for the markers on the pavement and only consult the route sheet if we think we are lost. We are usually in sight of a group in front of us so we can follow them too. Here is an example of a marker. It is the letter "C" with some kind of arrow connected to it. So, turn left ahead.

 

Overall I feel good and am having little difficulty keeping up. We don't ride as hard as some of the groups of younger riders do. I'm averaging about 15 miles per hour. Tomorrow, we ride around Chicago to Lansing, IL. A ride of about 90 miles, many of which will be on bike trails. This may slow us down because of stop lights and other obstacles. We all are praying for a dry day.

 

 

 

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