Day 8

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 pedaling around 8 am.

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 7, 2017 at 6:43 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownAugust 7, 2017 at 6:49 AM

    Inspirational and well written. I'm so happy to see leaders like you finding the path. May the journey never end!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownAugust 7, 2017 at 7:28 AM

    Love you

    ReplyDelete
  4. Robin HightowerAugust 7, 2017 at 5:09 PM

    Love you so much. I continue to pray for you and for God's grace on your journey. You are such a blessing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownAugust 8, 2017 at 6:34 AM

    Finally I can leave a comment! You are amazing! I'm in awe! "Have fun. Be careful!"

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 3

Image
Leaving Arkadelphia, I decided to take a detour and go sightseeing in Hot Springs, home of Bill Clinton.  It was about a 20 mile ride from Arkadelphia to Hot Springs so I got there around 11 and checked out the downtown area, and stopped by Parkside Cycles to chat with the guys there. After filling up my bottles from some natural cold springs I was on my way, heading up highway 7 towards Little Rock. This was the most climbing I've done so far on this trip, sitting on the edges of the Ozarks, so I was doing some mild mountain climbing and I was very thankful for the low gearing I had put on my bike. With rain in the forecast I was trying to get to Little Rock before the bad weather, but it wasn't looking good. I made it to Benton around 2 in the afternoon and grabbed a quick snack at a gas station, then jumped right back on the bike. My Godfather was nervous about me camping in Little Rock and so generously got me a hotel for the night, which I really appreciated. About
Read more

Day 11

Image
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
Read more