To Route 66

To Monticello

Rained a bit during the day, but I took shelter under a structure along a river. Then it was foggy and misty in the afternoon.

I stayed the night at a Warm Showers host’s lawn which provided me exactly what I needed: a place to sleep, place to get water and electricity, and a place to get food (via a short walk downtown). There was also an event going on for the Indianapolis Colts going on that day and I saw player who I don’t know. I ate a bacon pizza, chicken fingers, breadsticks and a shake, and felt like my stomach was going to rupture as I feel asleep.

Timbered Meadows

The next day, with the help out directions provided by my Warm Showers host, I rode out of Indiana into Illinois. This last stretch of the state was something strange, maybe due to the morning ride with the rising sun, but it felt like being inside of a giant factory more than out in nature, as all around me the farming landscape and processing machinery and buildings had been designed and optimized to eek out every percent of efficiency. Interesting. Lots of windmills too. But a friendly motorist wished me a nice ride, so that was nice.

Illinois was slightly more hot and likely to have some unused land here and there, letting more birds take shelter in the grass by the side of the road.

This was the second day of 70+ miles, which I’m less used to, and especially since it was though rural countryside with no services, I had to plan accordingly. I ate 8 doughnuts from a had station at once at one point.

My destination was an amazing little oasis of a campground/RV park with the amenities I needed, and super friendly people. The manager chose not to charge me for the night, and a man named John and his friend came by on their golf cart and we talked, then he gave me some food and drinks for the next day, which proved to be immensely helpful, as it was another 70 miler with few services.

I slept without a tent, only waking once to the sound of a train headed my direction. This surprised me not because it was a train; I had been watching the trains roll through the later part of the day, as tracks bordered the tent camping area, but rather because it was headed towards me opposed to away, shining it’s lights my direction. I thought it was some kind of ghostly runaway farm equipment or something first (the sites were right on acres of farmland) but nope, turns out trains can just travel either direction on the tracks.

Bloomington

My trip to Bloomington was a straight shot west on county roads. Thankfully there was no winds and the roads were generally good, otherwise my day could have been even more challenging.

I made it to where I was going to meet my Warm Showers host, and ate my first meal from Jimmy John’s before he arrived. It was aight.

We rode back to his home via bike, taking some amazingly cool back alleys and the Constitution Trail, which is a network of trails built in top of an old train network in the city. It’s got some really cool bridges, ties most of the city together, and is interwoven though Bloomington and the adjacent city of Normal.

I cleaned up at my hosts home and we grabbed dinner in Bloomington, then had a short night ride on the trail to get back.

The next morning I slept in accidentally and got off to a later start. My host was super kind though and rode with me the start of my day out of Bloomington, even when I had to stop at a grocery store, and even when it started to rain.

Then I was on route 66 to Lincoln Illinois. I’m going to skip writing because it’s a rest day for me and I want to use the pool. I’ll fix this later. The highlights though? Funks Grove Maple Sirup store, near the start of my route 66 trek, where the owner was so nice and gave me some candies I planning on buying, and a man named Doug gave me 20$ just for doing what I’m doing, and told me to get a meal on him. Wow.

Bye!