Day 43: July 28, Kewanee, IL -> Wenona, IL

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Start: 7:54 AM

Finish: 2:27 PM  

Saddle Time: 4:57

Ascent: 381 feet

Descent:  471 feet

Miles: 64

Total Miles: 2,595

Highlight: Road conditions were a continuation of yesterday.

Lowlight: The weather looked threatening all day, like it was going thunder and lightning.  Not sure what I would do in the middle of a corn field.

Cyclemeter:  Follow this link to see the data I’m collecting with the cyclemeter app. You can see gps information, speed, elevation, distance, cadence and heart rate. Better viewed on a computer where it’s easier to play around with the graphs.

Another great day of riding in Illinois. It’s only been two days and maybe 150 miles but Illinois is shaping up to be my second favorite state for riding, second to Minnesota. The scenery isn’t special, it’s just corn and soybean fields, but it’s just so peaceful on these back country roads. For a good 3/4 of the day I was passed by maybe a dozen cars. Also, my legs appreciate the lack of hills.

For most of the ride this is about all the hills I saw.

I was in no rush to get going this morning since it will be a shorter day, only about 65 miles.  My distances are still chosen largely based on where I can find accommodations.  I’d like to do about 80 miles a day but will take what I can get.

I’m always looking for lines and colors to photograph, that’s about all I have in farm country.

I’ve gone through phases on this tour of absolutely hating the thought of going to a restaurant, last night was one of those nights.  I went to the supermarket and bought a package of 4 tamales, a bag of salad, an avocado, two containers of yogurt, a couple pieces of cheesecake and a 4-pack of beer. This was after stopping by on the way in to town for a couple pieces of fried chicken to hold me over until dinner. I figured I would eat about half tonight and the rest in the morning, except for the beer, it’s not for breakfast. Great dinner and a huge breakfast.

Typical road I was on in Illinois.

With my full fuel tank and a short ride I changed my daily plan from what I described yesterday.  Instead of stopping for second breakfast around 20-30 miles I went on to 40 miles which worked out perfectly for a DQ just before the Illinois River. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten anything but ice cream at DQ, in fact before his trip I haven’t eaten ice cream at DQ in probably 30 years, back when it was Dairy Queen. For whatever reason DQ is always on my mind. I had chicken, fries and a blizzard, fueled me up for my climb out of the Illinois River valley.  It wasn’t much of climb but was steep for a short bit, likely made more difficult with my full stomach.

More wind farms today.

The scenery was a continuation of yesterday, mostly corn and soybean but I had my mind on the weather.  In the morning my navigation app showed a severe thunderstorm warning for areas north of me.  This wasn’t close, basically south of Chicago and up Lake Michigan but the skies were getting visibly dark to the  north and quickly overcast in my area. After a while I heard thunder off in the distance and had a few drops of rain. I kept checking my weather app which showed clear blue skies for my area, obviously not the case. I went to NOAA’s live radar which showed storms to the north but not close to me. At about 10:00 the area I was in showed 80% chance of thunderstorms for 11:00 so I thought I may stay ahead of the storm plus I was zigzagging southeast. I don’t know what I would do if a severe storm hit me in a corn field.

I was trying to make time south when I saw this and thought it would make a good picture. It’s my favorite of the day but I my iPhone did a better job with the dynamic range (on my instagram).

I continued to see wind turbines, maybe it’s my route through the state but I’ve seen far more wind farms in Illinois than elsewhere. I saw more crop dusters today but this time airplanes. These guys do some crazy flying. I got a little caught up taking pictures until I realized he seemed to avoid dumping whatever he was dumping on me so I high tailed it out of the area.

Crossing the Illinois RIver on this old bridge.

My other issue for the day is my rear wheel.  I mentioned yesterday I was loosing pressure. I replaced the inner tube last night which seemed to hold overnight but that’s not my problem.  On a section of exceptionally smooth road I noticed a hump in the wheel, like I was riding over something with each revolution.  I stopped and examined the tire which looked fine, the wheel must need truing. 

Crop duster was interesting to watch.

Once at my motel I took a closer look at my wheel, clearly it needed radial adjustment. I’m no bike mechanic but I could work on my gears in a pinch or replace a cable but I know very little about truing a wheel and the closest bike shop is a couple hundred miles away so I went to YouTube. I think I could do this but the bike is totally rideable. I may just make it worse, better to wait for a professional.

This is a little too close with whatever he’s dropping.

Tomorrow is a big day, 95 miles. I may be able to shorten by 5 miles at the very end but I need to check road conditions, don’t want another dirt road situation like a couple days ago. The weather still looks hot and humid for another day but dropping to the low 70’s Friday.  I hope so.  When I walked out of my motel this evening for dinner I thought how did I bike in this?

As much as I tried to remove the haze in this photo you can still see it. Very humid day.