Day 6
Today - 52.55, This trip - 190.95, Total 1190.95
The mileage is getting easier to handle but we still have to plan our daily trip so that we will have a place to sleep at the end of the day. Today we easily made it to Springfield, but were tested a few times. We began the morning with overcast skies and a wind from the South. My route planning from the night before hit a snag in the first 1/2. Let's blame it on a poorly marked intersection. I quickly realized the error and we turned around. That gave us the first taste of the wind in our face. I thought to myself that I was glad we weren't riding South. Back on historic Route 66 and headed North was just what we wanted. This will date those who understand it, but Mary Kay and I are getting "our kicks on Route 66."
The Illinois map tries to take us off of Route 66 before it deadends or gets to busy with traffic. That is good in some respects, but ends up adding several miles to a trip with many sideway miles. That happened today and as the wind picked up speed it also was coming more out of the Southwest. That was just the direction that many of our sideway journeys took us. Plus we got a few more hills that way. We started getting visions of Kansas. But We knew we weren't in Kansas anymore. The good thing was that those trips were short and we would quickly return to an 8+ mile stretch with the wind almost directly behind us. That was good!
It seems that this continues to be a journey of faith. First of all we have faith in each other that we can finish this trip that we began four years ago. In fact I believe we are pretty close to our old form. The other faith that keeps popping up is the more important capital F "Faith." Today after a little bit of a struggle we came upon "The Our Lady Of The Road Shrine." This was erected in 1959 by a local Catholic Youth Group to remind those journeying on Route 66 that speed was causing deaths. They erected the shrine to give travelers a place to pray for safe travels. We did.
We finally found places to sit and relax today a good old Subway and a McDonalds. What a difference that made. Most of the last 12 miles were on a paved Interurban Bike path. What a wonderful day! There was one other mishap. At the end of the day my legs don't have quite the spring in them that they usually have. We were at one of our frequent stop intersections in Springfield when my jump up, my shorts, and my bike seat just didn't mesh quite right. I broke off the first couple of inches of my bike seat. That brings up a problem that only time will tell the best solution.
1. Ride without the little pointy end of the seat - while that might be the cheapest (which is usually
my choice) it might not be the best for my physical health.
2. Buy some duct tap and tape it back on. Again, pretty cheap - so that is my choice.
3. This one we will save for later - buy a new seat. The negative are the cost and having to break in my seat to a new bike seat.
I will let you know tomorrow if my first choice works.
Our plan was to only go to Lincoln tomorrow. It looks like that woul be a really short day. So we are thinking about riding on to either Atlanta or McLean. It looks like Wednesday could be a rainout day, so I think if all goes well we will go as far as we can. With any luck we might be able to ride some on Wed. and rearrange our plan to arrive home earlier.
Today - 52.55, This trip - 190.95, Total 1190.95
The mileage is getting easier to handle but we still have to plan our daily trip so that we will have a place to sleep at the end of the day. Today we easily made it to Springfield, but were tested a few times. We began the morning with overcast skies and a wind from the South. My route planning from the night before hit a snag in the first 1/2. Let's blame it on a poorly marked intersection. I quickly realized the error and we turned around. That gave us the first taste of the wind in our face. I thought to myself that I was glad we weren't riding South. Back on historic Route 66 and headed North was just what we wanted. This will date those who understand it, but Mary Kay and I are getting "our kicks on Route 66."
The Illinois map tries to take us off of Route 66 before it deadends or gets to busy with traffic. That is good in some respects, but ends up adding several miles to a trip with many sideway miles. That happened today and as the wind picked up speed it also was coming more out of the Southwest. That was just the direction that many of our sideway journeys took us. Plus we got a few more hills that way. We started getting visions of Kansas. But We knew we weren't in Kansas anymore. The good thing was that those trips were short and we would quickly return to an 8+ mile stretch with the wind almost directly behind us. That was good!
It seems that this continues to be a journey of faith. First of all we have faith in each other that we can finish this trip that we began four years ago. In fact I believe we are pretty close to our old form. The other faith that keeps popping up is the more important capital F "Faith." Today after a little bit of a struggle we came upon "The Our Lady Of The Road Shrine." This was erected in 1959 by a local Catholic Youth Group to remind those journeying on Route 66 that speed was causing deaths. They erected the shrine to give travelers a place to pray for safe travels. We did.
We finally found places to sit and relax today a good old Subway and a McDonalds. What a difference that made. Most of the last 12 miles were on a paved Interurban Bike path. What a wonderful day! There was one other mishap. At the end of the day my legs don't have quite the spring in them that they usually have. We were at one of our frequent stop intersections in Springfield when my jump up, my shorts, and my bike seat just didn't mesh quite right. I broke off the first couple of inches of my bike seat. That brings up a problem that only time will tell the best solution.
1. Ride without the little pointy end of the seat - while that might be the cheapest (which is usually
my choice) it might not be the best for my physical health.
2. Buy some duct tap and tape it back on. Again, pretty cheap - so that is my choice.
3. This one we will save for later - buy a new seat. The negative are the cost and having to break in my seat to a new bike seat.
I will let you know tomorrow if my first choice works.
Our plan was to only go to Lincoln tomorrow. It looks like that woul be a really short day. So we are thinking about riding on to either Atlanta or McLean. It looks like Wednesday could be a rainout day, so I think if all goes well we will go as far as we can. With any luck we might be able to ride some on Wed. and rearrange our plan to arrive home earlier.
The repaired seat
When we stopped at the County Market I saw this and it reminded me of my Dad. He sold Ford tractors for a while in Plymouth after WWII
Of course this is the broken seat
A nice place to sit for a not so healthy lunch. It tasted good though.
Our Lady of the Road Shrine
Hail Mary prayer along the rode by the shrine.
Remember Burma Shave?
We are getting our kicks on the
1940 - 1977 section
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