As it turns out, last night’s last-minute hotel put us in great position to ride almost due south this morning, and shave off five miles before intercepting Route 66 at Elwood (probably named for the Blues Brother who, as we all know, spent time—er, I mean, did time—in Joliet.) We were on a fairly major roadway, some of it under construction, but it was early on a Sunday morning, and traffic was light. Not too far out of town, we caught up with two other cyclists: older-than-us gentlemen from Joliet, who were enjoying an out-and-back ride to the relatively new Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery.
Pat and Dave were their names. We kind of paired off as we rode, Jon alongside Dave and me with Pat, who is a 74-year-old member of the Joliet City Council. We learned several things: (1) there was some kind of drag racing event in the Joliet area this weekend, hence the dearth of hotel rooms; (2) the area south of Joliet is something like the intermodal transportation hub of the world… the highway was under construction was to expand and modernize it to expedite truck access to I-80; (3) that same area was once the home to extensive munitions factories; and (4) the new Lincoln National Cemetery is a very special and solemn place. So far, approximately 60,000 veterans (and spouses) are interred there (or have been re-interred there). The grounds are being prepped for the Memorial Day events to be held there next weekend.
Pat and Dave guided us through the cemetery, then took us to where we intercepted 66, at which point they turned back to Joliet… and we got on the road south.
Yesterday, I attached a photo of a rocky trail and mentioned that Ride with GPS has a knack for taking riders off of busy highways and onto side trails. As you can see from the photo above, the shoulder was good, not great, but good enough. Not too far down the road, RWGPS recommended that we detour through the trails of Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Earlier in the morning, Dave had told me about it and said it was a nice ride. The Prairie is a US Forest Service project, with a population of buffalo. (Bison Bison for you taxonomists out there.)
It was a nice ride, and we saw the bison, but it was a mistake. The path was either rough, rocky gravel or loose, sandy gravel. We were glad to get out of it and back onto the road. And then Jon noticed his rear tire was flattening. I am sure that the stupid detour through Midewin was the culprit. We flipped the bike, removed the tire, removed the tube, patched the tube, replaced the tube, and replaced the tire in a process that took a lot longer than it took me to write that, and we made our way into Wilmington, where it soon became clear that the patch wasn’t holding.
We repeated the process, this time in a Shell parking lot instead of the shoulder of a road, and found a new hole, which Jon duly patched. Except this time the tire wouldn’t hold air at all. We gave up and used a new tube that Jon had been carrying as a fail-safe. This time it worked (and is still—knocks on wood—working). Changing tires not once, or twice, but three times is no fun at all.
Tire repair/replacement notwithstanding, we were still in great shape to make it to our planned destination, Pontiac. We pulled into the hotel parking lot a little before 4:00.
Tomorrow: Lincoln.
Rideworthy 