Morton to Carlock

July 3, 2020

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I had both Friday, July 3, and Saturday, July 4, open for going on another day ride. Tahdra wouldn't be home Friday, but she would be Saturday. So I let her decide if she wanted her day-off with me or without me. She told me to ride on Friday :-)

It was a hot day already when I took off at 10:33am -- on my Schwinn kick-back for this ride. I'd filled my "coffee thermos" with ice water instead of coffee this time. Still, I almost ran out of water, except I found a faucet in Goodfield on the way home.

Google Earth map is attached. Direction of travel is counter-clockwise.

This first report picture is a shady spot I came to at 12:45pm, and I spent 15 minutes here. You may recognize this tree as the one in the picture on my CycleBlaze homepage (www.cycleblaze.com/profile/map330).

At 1:17pm I crossed the Mackinaw River. I stopped just long enough to take a few pictures of Kayakers who were past the bridge heading downstream. They were pretty far away, so I was surprised that I was able to hear one of them say to another, "I'm checking out the bike that guy's on," as he explained why he was facing the wrong way.

I was testing out an eBay-purchased camera on this trip (a Fujifilm XP130). I was disappointed with most of the pictures it took, but that might be a settings mistake on my part. So several of these photos are from my cell phone camera. However, this picture from the new camera didn't come out too bad:

At 1:26pm, I'd made it to McLean County.

This scene was along a hill (CR2100N) I was walking up at 2:15pm:

Finally made it to Carlock at 3:00pm:

The Carlock Family Restaurant had a picnic table near the highway in the shade of a tree. That provided a nice rest area for the carryout lunch I'd purchased (bacon cheeseburger and vanilla shake):

View looking northwest from E. Franklin Street:

Next I checked out the city park in the southeast corner of town, then was on my way north out of town on Church Street (CR750E) at 4:32pm. The road tar was soft enough now that road pebbles were flying/sticking everywhere.

Harvesting is what I saw at 4:54pm when I entered Woodford County:

My routing had me on shoulderless US-150 for about a mile and a half. That went better than I thought it would.

Later, CR1850E provided a pleasant gravel road:

One of these is the tower for WYZZ-TV:

Getting back across the Mackinaw River had me going north on Woodford County Highway 8 all the way to CR600N. Then back south to CR400N -- a down-up-down-up route. Shortly after, I was on Timberline Road close to Goodfield. A short bike path into town ended at the east-side park where I resupplied on water at 7:47pm.

It was about here (Goodfield Milling) where I figured I wouldn't be getting home before sunset (which would be at 8:32pm):

Being so focused on the approaching sunset west of Goodfield, I almost missed this behind me:

Things were now much more pleasant (flat roads and cooler). I worked my way over to the start of Lakeland Road, and was soon back in Tazewell County (at 8:45pm).

Looking northeast toward Cooper from Lakeland Road:

There were lots of fireworks to see off in the distance all around. Not all of them city-sponsored, I'm thinking.

The optical zoom feature of my new camera works well, at least. That's what I used to take this picture looking southeast from Tennessee Avenue just before I crossed I-74:

Finally home at 9:50pm, after 52 miles, and with the thought that I should pick cooler days for future rides. (The high for the day in Peoria was 93.)

Jeff

Today's ride: 52 miles (84 km)
Total: 189 miles (304 km)

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