Day 5 - Dwight to Bloomington, IL

Day 5
October 8, 2016
62.7 miles today
1005 feet of climbing today
(274.6 miles, cumulative)

(5521 feet of climbing, cumulative)

We were up early for a sunny morning start in Dwight. The railroad culture along Route 66 was interesting to us, and this train station especially caught my eye:

Being the son of a sheet metal contractor, I grew up hearing about all sorts of metal, and what each was used for. So, the gutters and drain spouts on the train station stood out.

Yep, copper! I don't think I've ever seen a full copper treatment for a roof water drain system: 

Riding a bike with smaller 20" wheels we are cautious at rail crossings. We get pinch flats if we hit a rail too hard. Many of these crossings were extremely level and easy to cross. The geometry of the track layout was impressive, too:

Maybe I'm wrong, but these tracks seemed to be more substantial than others I've seen (not that I've mad a habit of examining rails up close).  My finger spread is 8.5 inches: 

The passenger trains came through incredibly fast, up to "eighty miles per hour" according to signs at the crossings:

 

Some old buildings along Route 66 have been restored. This gas station was a prime example:

The sign at the top of the right pillar said "Wash Room" which we as Canadian residents found interesting, since we rarely hear that term in the US:

Three photos of the interior:

The staff person arrived just as we were getting ready to cycle onward. Edith said she loved her job, meeting people from all over. We bought some postcards from her memorabilia shop inside the station:

Upon leaving Dwight we were out among farms in short order. Here's a shot of the old and the new:

Huge fields like these were on both sides of us:

We stopped to see what was growing:

Black-eyed peas:

Route 66 signs were posted at many remote intersections:

Some of the roads were lonely, empty farm roads:

Here we rode on a paved bike path that had replaced one half of the original Route 66 pavement. The main local road is off to the left:

Then on this stretch we rode on the shoulder of the main road, as the bike path on the old Route 66 has disappeared, and the original pavement is not really suitable for pleasant riding:

We even came upon this bike path on which we rode against the oncoming traffic, but at a safe distance:

Time for a break:

We arrived in Pontiac, IL on a Saturday morning. Downtown was full of people at a market, and fall colors were appearing on a few trees:

The street art took the form of small colorful cars in which kids could sit:

A car museum was across the street:

I think my friend Terry would have spent more than a few minutes here looking over the old cars, both inside (which we did not do) and outside:

The route continued, and so did we until we arrived in Bloomington, IL:

Day 4 - Joliet to Dwight, Illinois

Day 4
October 7, 2016
46.1 miles today
730 feet of climbing today
(211.9 miles cumulative)
(4516 feet of climbing cumulative)


Leaving Joliet we headed due south. We cycled in to the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Cemetery. Abe is not buried there, but thousands who served in the military are. We have only this photo, and the extensive, well-kept fields located over the ridge with rows and rows of uniform headstones were impressive.

The roads always took us through the small towns along the way. Many of them had "street art" in the form of murals, signs or statues (sculptures?) related to Route 66 history. Here is a mural in Wilmington:

The main street featured older store fronts such as these. We enjoyed the older styles of architecture and the extensive brickwork:

A small bridge was on our route:

Our bike is always a conversation starter, and at a grocery store Anna came over to chat. It was a Friday, and the high school football team was playing its homecoming game that evening. She was taking four of her grandchildren to the game.

A little farther along in time, Jean made the acquaintance of the King:

But James was not interested in her:

I  tried to impress the Blues Brothers:

But I could get nowhere with this gal:

Day 3 - Evanston, through Chicago, and on to Joliet, Illinois

Day 3
October 6, 2016
66.8 miles today (165.8 miles cumulative)
1519 feet of climbing today (3786 feet cumulative)


Today we set forth on the actual Route 66.

We rode from Evanston fifteen miles south to the Chicago Art Institute which is across the street from the official start of Route 66. It was raining lightly. We wondered how we would fare in the wet weather, and how difficult it would be to get through Chicago safely.

We chose to use a route that runs right through Chicago as suggested at the website RideIllinois.org, rather than follow the route suggested by the Adventure Cycling Association which follows Lake Michigan south and then turns westward.

It was a very successful day, and while we did get wet, we never got cold. Before we reached downtown Chicago we cycled through numerous neighbourhoods with gorgeous large homes. I wish we had more photos of them. Here is just one example:

At the Art Institute we did our final checks:

Jean was ready to go:

This is Adams Street, and we will ride it due west to begin:

The sign on the pole declares the start of the route:

We had only five or six blocks of Adams Street with no bike lane, though we used the non-car bus lane with ease. At our first turn south, we found this dedicated path:

We did not take photos of the roads we used, but they were excellent. Ogden and Roosevelt were especially good as bikes were separated from the main traffic for long stretches.

We were soon in the outskirts of Chicago, and rows of homes like these appeared occasionally:

Numerous streets in the suburbs had interesting detached houses, often built somewhat alike, such as these:

Even farther out we came across this huge elevated roadway over a bog or marsh. We took the low road:

This canal (or was it just a portion of a river?) was interesting:

We had no trouble getting to Joliet. We stayed in yet another motel with a laundry, which was great as we had some wet, grit-covered items to clean. We like to let things dry naturally, so our 50' of parachute cord came in handy:

Day 2 - Kenosha, WI to Evanston, Illinois

Day 2
October 5, 2016
48 miles today
954 feet of climbing today
1 great hour of pie eating
(99 miles, cumulative)
(2267 feet of climbing, cumulative)


We continued to enjoy dedicated bike paths through very scenic surroundings:

A bit farther south, some were hard packed fine gravel, and the rolling resistance was not much worse than on regular pavement, much to our delight:

The paths often followed existing rail lines and ran through small towns. Here we stopped at a still-functioning train station for a break:

Here's another view with the train station behind:

A couple of close-ups of the bike...

Here is the front, with our food box sitting on the front rack that also supports two panniers:

Here is the rear, with a soft-sided "trunk" that sits on the rack. The safety triangle with the flasher mounted on top of it is attached to a water bottle that slips into a sleeve on the trunk:

A few days later we weighed everything with a digital baggage scale we borrowed from the motel. Hopefully you can read the weights of each item when the photo is at max size. If not, the bottom line is that we had 78.8 lbs of stuff:

We rode through several neighbourhoods of large homes. Here is just one example:

A bike path took us through the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston. Chicago was visible in the distance:

Upon reaching Evanston we stayed at the Homestead Hotel which apparently has been there over one hundred years. (We were asked to lock the bike on the staff bike rack, and assured that no bike had been stolen from the hotel in one hundred years.) The rooms had antiques:

Our nephew Ian once lived in Chicago and knew about a good place to eat in Evanston: the Hoosier Mama Pie Company. Here we are enjoying savoury pies:

Followed by a shared "flight" of dessert pies:

Jean had craned her neck to watch the excellent chicken pot pies being made, and the owner, Craig, came over to talk to her:

Craig's wife Paula was the one who started the restaurant. She used to be the pastry chef at the restaurant in the Homestead Hotel where we were staying. Jean made sure to thank her for the great food. Craig and Paula have twin eight year olds who were with them that evening, too.

Day 1 on our ride - Glendale, Wisconsin to Kenosha, WI

Day 1

October 4, 2016

51 miles

1313 feet of climbing

After the family wedding in northern Wisconsin we returned to Milwaukee and had some good visiting with family. We assembled the bicycle and departed for Chicago, the official start of Route 66.

We were very thankful for a soft bed and great pre-ride meal at Siri and Steve's.  They came out in the morning to see if we could actually pedal our loaded tandem:

Kathe scheduled a "meeting" in her work day so she could ride over and be our first road angel and guide us to the start of the bike path that would take us through much of Milwaukee:

Here we are, riding a fully loaded tandem for the first time in several years:

As we found when we rode the Pacific Coast route in 2012, getting around large cities is often accomplished by using bike paths along the water:

The city streets and congestion remained off to the side:

We also rode on marked bike paths on streets:

on dedicated paved bike paths along Lake Michigan:

and on paths that used to be rail lines:

We stayed in Kenosha, Wisconsin in a room with a view, looking northeast:

and then southeast:

Introduction - We plan to ride Route 66 (with some modifications)

A family wedding in Wisconsin was a destination for us in early October, and we decided to cycle a portion of the way back to the West Coast. We figured that by cycling south we might catch some good weather for a fall cycling tour across states we have not previously explored. In addition, some friends were in transition and could stay in our house during our time away, so that angle was covered.

The result was that we packed up our Bike Friday travel tandem and took it with us on Southwest Airlines to Wisconsin. We decided to ride Route 66, but also to make a side trip to visit Jean's brother and family south of St. Louis.

We have flown before with our tandem disassembled and packed in a hard shell case. This was the first time the TSA had flagged it as "SUSP" (suspicious?) and left a note inside that it had been examined. Fortunately, everything seemed to be in order and undamaged:

The wedding in Wisconsin was a wonderful gathering of family from all over the US. We wish Alison and Brandon only the best in their future together! If they can be as creative and industrious in a solving whatever comes up in their new life as they were in welcoming us all to their celebration, we are sure they will find great satisfaction as a couple and will be successful in weathering any storms that come up.

So now, onward to some days of cycling...