Mile 3435.5 - A little further down the line

Day 57 started with too little sleep. Mom wanted to have breakfast with me before she had to start work, so we went out to Dean's Cafe, near my mom's work. Breakfast was good, but I wouldn't have minded another hour of sleep. It's hard to get sleep in that house. My older brother drove me back to my parents' place where I packed up and loaded the bike. It was good to get back on the road.

I started on the Lily Cache Bike Trail, took the connecting trial past the new high school out to the Remington sports complex. From there I took Vetran's Parkway out to Romeoville. I pulled up in front of RC Hill, the elementary school I attended from 2-5th grades. As I came up to the main doors, the odometer on my gps hit 3400 miles. I had noticed that my tires needed more air, so I stopped at one of the gas stations nearby. The compressed air machine wanted a dollar in quarters, so I went in to get change. The station attendant nicely offered to just turn the air machine on for me. That was great. I'll prefer my air to be free.

A couple miles from my old school is the Illinois and Michigan canal. This canal was historically significant as it was the link that connected the Atlantic through the great lakes to the Mississippi river and thus the Gulf of Mexico. For the first time, goods from new england could cheaply be shipped to the midwest and south. Though supplanted by the railroads within 50 years of its completion, the I & M Canal is largely responsible for making an obscure town called Chicago into one of the world's great cities. Though the canal and it's locks no longer ship goods, there is a bike trail that follows the old towpath from Romeoville 68 miles south to the Illinois River at Peru. I wasn't going that far today, though at some point, I would like to take it from end to end. I took it instead only as far as Joliet, The City of Steel and Stone.

Coming into Joliet, I passed the ruins of what was once one of the greatest foundries in North America. Massive masonry skeletons remain of the once huge complex. I poked around a little in one of the former smelting plants, a building as long as a football stadium. I the crossed into the bulk of the city. Coming into downtown Joliet, I passed the Rialto Theater, site of several field trips in grade school. The next block beyond the theater was closed to auto traffic for a farmers' market. I stopped at one booth to get some cherries. Mmm, cherries.

After a slight misdirection caused by the need to detour around the rest of the farmers' market, I came to the southeastern corner of the city and picked up the Wauponosee Glacial Trail. This is yet another former rail line turned into a recreational trail. I passed through farmland and prairies. At one point there was a marker noting that the regular hills to the west were not natural hills, but storehouses from the old Joliet munitions plant. Much of the prairie land there was turned into farmland, and only in the last couple decades has interest grown enough to try to recover some of this lost grassland.

There was one point, in the town of Manhattan, that the trail actually passes the local railroad station. If I lived in Manhattan and worked in Chicago or Joliet, I would not need a car. I would be able to ride my bike to the train in the morning and in the evening, get to enjoy the picturesque scenery of the trail on the ride home. Much better than sitting in traffic on 55.

A little further down the trail, I stopped to take a break on a bench and watch a farmer plow his field in the warm sun.

Eventually I hit Kahler Rd, and swung left to get into Wilmington. In Wilmington is Steve, one of my best friends growing up. Steve was waiting out on his porch with his father who had come by to spend time with his grandchildren. Actually, just his grandson Gavin, as Chloe, Steve's daughter, was away at a slumber party at a friend's place. That's too bad because I was looking forward to seeing Chloe again. Steve's brother Matt was also there, and I arrived near the beginning of the Cubs-White Sox game. The Cubs didn't do so well in the game.

They asked what I wanted to do, and I expressed interest in going to a Joliet Jackhammers game, as they were in town tonight. Matt managed to score free tickets with a single phone call. This is now the secons game Matt has gotten me into for free, the other being rooftop seats at Wrigley last summer. The game was ok, then we got back and stayed up pretty late with his wife Kristina, Gavin and Matt playing Guitar Hero. It was a good afternoon spent with good friends, yet when I went to bed, I could hear the road calling me.

Day 57, Bolingbrook, IL - Wilmington, IL
40.82 miles in 3:37:41. Now a total of 3435.52 miles in 267:58:02 and a high speed of 30.2 mph.