The Epileptic Cyclist

My time in Chicago was wonderful thanks to the amazing generosity of everyone I met! I was constantly having food bought for me, constantly having people want to meet up with me and take care of me. I rode my bike around the first morning I was there and got a lot of my touristy type things out of the way, then started to meet up with people. That afternoon I had the owner of Same Day Cafe in Logan Square take care of me and make me a wonderful lunch. Afterwards, I met up with a girl named Sasha for coffee, who so wonderfully offered to host me for the week! I stayed with her and her housemate a block away from Wrigley and experienced Chicago in a much different way than I ever was able to before, in a much less touristy way. I was invited to dinner by Alex Evans and his wife Logan, so we went to Giordano's for a deep dish pizza. Alex's younger brother is epileptic and it was great talking to him about shared experiences. They invited me to their home afterwards and

Leaving Gilman there still was some discomfort in my knee but no real pain unless I pushed really hard. I took it easy, but had a 100+ mile day ahead of me, so I did have to keep a decent pace. The amount of gravel roads I would encounter in Illinois was unexpected, but about half of my day consisted of them, making me happy for the wider tires I fitted. Most of my day was country roads, but once I made it to Joliet, I had a nice Riverside bike path all the way into the Chicago suburbs! I rode that until I hit countryside, and started heading into the city. I rode though Cicero and up Ogden avenue all the way to Damen, which took me through Wicker Park and all the way to Wrigleyville! I had done it, I had finally made it to my destination, Wrigley Field! With tears in my eyes I asked a stranger to take my photo in front and went to the Cubby Bear bar to call my family. I sat there for over an hour talking with the bartenders about my trip and they ended up not ch

Today was very frustrating, with my knee hurting me quite a bit. I was slow going and probably on doing about 10 miles an hour, and still had pain. I planned to make it to Bourbannais but that idea was quickly out the window when I had to stop every 10 miles to ice and elevate my knee. I tried a few things with my bike for to fix my knee, one of which was what my cleat on my shoe, and I think that was the ticket, though it couldn't repair what damage head already been done. I finally made it to Gilman, Illinois and decided to set up for the night, while I was doing so, a cop rolled up and told me that I would be unable to camp, or I'd be arrested. My grandparents ended up getting me a hotel room and I iced my knee all night to try and avoid any more pain. I woke up in the morning with very little discomfort, ate breakfast, and left Gilman before 8 am.

Leaving Litchfield, I made it to Harvel, Illinois with no problems, but that was quickly cut short. I had a large piece of glass cut my tire and expose the wire bead, making it impossible to put a new tube in without puncturing. I was in the middle of nowhere and stranded until Mary Brown offered to give me a ride to the closest bike shop, almost 30 miles away in Chatham! I made it to the bike shop and got a new rear tire, and checked my map, and I was about the same distance away from Champaign as I had been in Harvel! Leaving the shop around noon I had 100 miles to go, so I started pushing. I was in the middle of corn fields all day so I was very thankful for the mild weather and the fact that I had brought food with me. I stopped and had a brief lunch around 3, but was quickly on the road again. Making it to Monticello, I started to have pretty severe knee pain and was unsure if I would make it to Champaign before dark, and sure enough I was unable to. I was cycling on corn fill

I was delayed leaving St. Louis because I wanted to buy a new tube for my tire, knowing I wouldn't see any bike shops for a while, and none of the shops were open before noon. Once I grabbed a tube, I started riding out and made it into Illinois by way of the Mississippi River, though was unable to find a welcome to Illinois sign unfortunately. Within 5 miles of getting into Illinois I find myself on a bike path that ended up extending for 30 miles! I rode that until I hit historic route 66 in Hamel, and stopped for a burger and some blackberry cobbler. Once I made it off the path, my surrounding were dominated by corn and wheat fields, something I have to look forward to for the next few days. The weather seemed to be holding off so I planned to make it to Springfield, but I ended up having a seizure outside of Litchfield and had to bed down for the night. Waking up this morning, the plan is to make it to Champaign, so I got some breakfast and started pedali

Today was supposed to be an easy day, today was not an easy day. I left Farmington headed towards St Louis around 10 am and punctured my rear tube less than 10 miles out of town. I sat down on the side of the road to pull out the offending piece metal and patched the tube, only to find that the tube had been punctured in multiple places. After finding more than 5 separate holes, I just changed out the tube, having wasted almost an hour on the side of the road.  I wasn't riding 67 today, instead opting for smaller country roads, which was wonderful until I got lost. I took a wrong turn, followed by another wrong turn that took me down a terrifying technical descent down the side of a mountain, only to hit a dead end and have to climb back up. I made it up and got back onto my route, having wasted almost another full hour. I didn't realize my route today would take me on gravel, so I was very thankful for the wider tires that I had fitted to my bike! I finally made i

Leaving Poplar Bluff I had a pretty significant headwind and lots of hills to face, so it was a slow day. Riding through the Mark Twain National Forest was gorgeous though, so it made up for how difficult it was! Within the first couple of hours, I made it to Greenville and stopped for a snack and to refill my bottle, but while leaving ran into an Australian touring cyclist named Benjamin who was hitting all 48 contiguous states! We chatted for a while but were going opposite ways so said goodbye and rode off. I didn't realize how far away the next stop was and ran out of water about 8 miles before, so when I arrived I was parched and gulping down water. I made it to Frederickown around 5:30 and stopped at a McDonald's to make a few calls and charge my phone, but was soon off again towards Farmington. On the way to town I found an iPhone 7 on the shoulder of the highway and it was in perfect working order, but the contacts in the phone wouldn't answer. I kep

Leaving Newport I had a wonderful tailwind, and I needed it if I was going to make it to Poplar Bluff, Missouri by the end of the day! I was continuing along old highway 67, and once again I didn't stop for lunch, opting for peanut butter and some danishes that I snagged from the motel breakfast. I made it to Walnut Ridge and rode on the first dedicated cycle path of my whole trip! Sadly, it only lasted a few miles, and I was quickly back on the highway. My tailwind was so strong that whenever I turned and it was a crosswind, I could see dragonflies just hovering, unable to move forward against it. Between Pocahontas and Corning, suddenly the weather changed. The wind completely flipped and I was fighting to even move. It got extremely cold and suddenly started pouring. I made it safely to a building on Datto so I could hide under the awning, and waited out the storm. It let up after about an hour, but the radar showed more coming, so I left towards Corning, trying to

Leaving the hotel in Little Rock this morning, I wanted to check out a local bike shop, so I headed to Spokes Little Rock. I'm going to start by saying that this is the coolest shop I've ever been in, with super cool employees and a coffee shop.  I sat down and talked with some of the dudes for a while and they hooked me up with a free drink at the coffee bar, which led me to find out the shop is owned by the owners of intelligentsia coffee, a big name on the cycling racing scene! I hung out for about an hour before I went to hit the road, making it a pretty late start, leaving town around noon. I rode historic highway 67, which took me through Jacksonville, a town that holds lots of civil war sites. I got a bit turned around in Searcy, but eventually found my way back to my route, adding about 12 miles to my day. I decided to skip lunch since today was starting so late and such high mileage, and just ate a bit of peanut butter every time I