Day 1 ending at Lincoln, IL

August 24, 2015

Once again, so many good wishes for a safe and fun trip from family, friends, and co-workers - thanks!

I'd entertained leaving on Sunday afternoon, but by 11:30pm Saturday evening, I realized that wasn't going to happen. I hate packing for these trips - it uses up all the allotted time and then some. Sunday evening I was done at midnight. Figures.

Loading the bike this morning went well. The bike is a little unstable on its kickstand without the front basket bag - I'll have to watch that.

Left at 10:10am. My wife was busy this morning, so my first stop after getting a goodbye kiss/hug was Old Smokey's for breakfast. While there I met a couple who knows my daughter-in-law.

Left Old Smokey's at 11:00am, stopping by at Jim's garage to say a last goodbye to my friend, his dog Sandy, and to Jim's friend Mike, who happened to be there also.

I was finally on my way, heading south out of town on Fourth Street. What a bright sunny day! That's when it occurred to me that I'd forgotten to put on sunscreen. I stopped at a farm field entrance and corrected that.

At noon I'd gone 5.7 miles. I wasn't too concerned, since my first night's destination was Lincoln. A little later, I noticed a truck in front of me pull onto what I thought was a scale at a grain elevator. On impulse, I followed behind him, to see if I could get weighed. I stopped on the platform, ran up the stairs to ask the operator if this was a scale, and if so, could I get my bike weighted. She answered yes it is a scale, and pointed to an outdoor readout that showed I'd already had been - and was being - weighed. Just then another truck pulled up to weigh, so I took off. My numbers were '140' bike without me and '320' bike with me.

My routing for the middle part of the day took me on country roads that are next to I-155. Came to the bridge over the Mackinaw River. It's much more interesting than the freeway bridge. Later I stopped briefly at the IDOT Hopedale Operations Yard to checkout trees they have growing for (I think) later transplanting.

At 2:00pm I was at Orendorff Cemetery, where I took a break at the entrance. I was over-packed on food, so had a go at what I'd stuffed in the sleeping pad. After I finished, a short ride east and south brought me to an old double-arch bridge for a railroad that isn't there anymore.

I only back-tracked twice today. Once because I decided to not follow my routing, and once because I was looking at the map more than my GPS. The first turnaround brought me to Bethel Dist. No. 4 Schoolhouse (1862-1946) at 3:55pm. Across the road and east up a hill is Bethel Church. Interesting old buildings.

My changed routing brought me through a spot marked "Union" on the map. There's an old train station here in disrepair. Looks like the tracks went north-south.

Creeks I crossed today were 'downhill' before and seemed 'flat' on the other side. My bottle generator is working very well, though I'm probably cheating (I disengage it on uphills).

At 5:43pm, I arrived at my destination: 'Camp A While' campground. Using self check-in, I registered for Campsite H from the list of three tent sites. Shortly thereafter, the campground owner stopped by. He's a touring bicyclist who uses a 'BOB' trailer. He does many more miles-per-day than I do.

It's been pretty windy today - from the WNW. This didn't affect me much, since I was going south. But it did make setting up the tent a challenge.

Suppertime gave me a chance to work on my over-stuffed food bag. Besides its zipper no longer working, I see it's splitting at a seam.

Started work on this report after eating. The wind has calmed down now.

I'm so thankful to be back on-the-road. The weather is great and I'm feeling good. (Of course, it was just 37 miles with the wind at my back and downhill.) The bike isn't having any problems so far, except that one of the bottle holders rotated some and was catching my pants leg. That's nothing to complain about. I'm hoping tonight's low isn't either!

Jeff

Spent: $7.22 plus $2 tip (breakfast) + $15 (campsite) = $24.22.

Day 1 - Morton, IL to Lincoln, IL

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