Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Big Bike Trip Day 4

Here we are, the last day of the trip.

The home stretch felt equally good and bad. My body was hurting and I was getting weird tan lines. It was definitely time to be done. Oh and day 4 included an extra challenge for us... wind.

 This is a picture of me smiling pretending like I'm still having a ton of fun.

Luckily day 4 ended up being a shorter day... I think it was 60 miles (I probably should have written this stuff down sooner before I forgot... whoops). Anyway, we rode 25ish miles then stopped for lunch at McDonalds (we're super healthy lol). From there it was a rather interesting ride along Route 66.

Our original plan was to hop right on the old highway (right next to the new Route 66) and take it all the way into Normal, IL. Unfortunately for us, the historical highway went about a mile then was covered in grass. After our nice photo excursion (seen below), we made the executive decision to just stay on the new highway (with barely any shoulder) until we could find a good road to get off on.


 I really don't know why I look super awkward in all these pictures, but they're good ones of my dad and brother


The highway was definitely a challenge with the head-wind and cracked, pretty much non-existant shoulder. We had to go further than expected before getting off; all the side roads ended up being dirt, but we finally made it to a restored part of the old highway that went on for two miles. After the restored section there was a perfectly paved road that was quiet and slightly sheltered from the wind by trees. It started sprinkling while we were on 66 but luckily it was light and didn't last long.

After all our riding the end came sooner than I imagined. My dad kept pushing me to kick up the speed and I was totally not feeling it until he said "hey look there's aunt Pam and Eric." My aunt and cousin had rode out a bit to find us and bring us in to the subdivision. At the end all I cared about was not stopping until we made it to their house for fear my legs would refuse to pedal any further (this is most definitely an over exaggeration I would have made it further if I had to and it wasn't that bad).

Our "we finally made it, now lets jump in the pool" picture

And that's exactly what we did, went straight for the pool. Water is a wonderful thing. 

So that's it, we had a great weekend in IL with the family and now it's all just good memories. This trip had it's challenges but it was totally worth it. Now it's on to planning the next adventure. I'm thinking coastal tour (on bike of course).

Thanks for listening.
-S

P.S. I think I might post a separate entry about what kept me motivated during the trip so look out for that. 

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