After our visit to Chicago, the next big destination was the Denver/Boulder area where our good college friend Mike Chan lives. Deb’s friend Joe lived in Naperville, just west of Chicago, so he was the first stop on the next leg of our trip. It was a short ride so we got a late start, and mostly retraced the same bike paths we had taken into the city a few days prior. Joe was appalled to learn that we hadn’t actually tried Chicago-style deep-dish pizza during our visit, so he insisted that we go get some. For dessert, some Not Your Father’s (and not for kids!) Root Beer.
The next morning, Joe decided to go into work late and took us to a cafe for breakfast. We had lined up a WarmShowers host for that night, so after breakfast we set out for Sterling, IL. The beginning of the ride took us through the outskirts of Chicago suburbs, but once we hit the farm fields of western Illinois, a strong headwind slowed us way down. We stopped at tiny Lee, IL for lunch, only to discover that the only place to get food was a pub whose kitchen wasn’t open yet. Luckily we happened to be under an awning talking to one of the pub-goers right as a thunderstorm rolled through.
We took shelter in the bar, and when they heard about our travels, they opened the kitchen a bit early and made us some delicious tacos! At this point we knew we weren’t going to make it all the way to our hosts in Sterling, so we shot them a message and revised our plans. Once the storm had passed, we biked another 20 miles towards Ashton. We were nearly there, when we encountered an interstate overpass that was under construction. The roadbed was gone, but there were still slats of concrete spanning the gap. We were feeling pretty good about our balance this far into the trip, and really didn’t want to go around, so we rode right across the slats and into town!
…just kidding Mom. There was a driveway to the left of the bridge, so we biked over there to try to cross the highway. Barbed wire, darn… “I think I saw a gate on the other side, let’s check that out.” The gate was in fact, not a gate, and actually just more barbed wire, possibly electrified. We had started to toy with the idea of biking all the way to the next overpass, when we found a path down to the interstate through the grass beside the bridge. An hour later, we had unloaded our bikes, played a quick game of frogger, loaded our bikes again, and made our way into town. Probably the slowest quarter mile of the trip.
The restaurants in town had closed, but we grabbed some food at a grocery and convenience store and head for the local high school to find shelter. We had planned on staying in the baseball field dugout, but it turned out there was a paved concession stand awning that made for a comfortable (if a bit noisy from the nearby trains) place to camp.
The next morning, so as to avoid any inconvenient questioning, we got up early and rode for Dixon, boyhood home of Ronald Reagan! After a diner breakfast and a bit more riding, we stopped in Sterling for ice cream and new cycling gloves for Deb. The rest of the day was brutally hot, but eventually we made it to Port Byron on the Mississippi river, where our WarmShowers hosts Bruce and Becky welcomed us in and let us take possibly the most refreshing showers we’ve ever had. Bruce took us out for all-you-can-eat spaghetti and showed us around town. He and Becky had some pretty impressive touring stories of their own, including trips through Alaska to Denali, and a 17 day trip across the US on a tandem bike. After a good night’s sleep, we ventured fourth into Iowa with low expectations, pessimism that would soon prove to be naive!