July 6, 2024
Slow motion riders fly the colors of the day
Day Eight: Chesterton to Chicago
We had a nice chat with our host this morning before heading out on the road. She told us how she and her husband renovated the train station from a delapidated building with a leaky roof into a bed-and-breakfast. It turns out they have a knack for renovating old buildings, and they are responsible for five or six other renovated buildings that house businesses downtown, including a restaurant and a wine bar.
Chesterton's center is a thriving little village with quite a few small businesses—restaurants, cafés and shops—in a small area just beyond the tourist zone of the Indiana Dunes region. We had marveled at it last night while checking out the downtown, and it was interesting to learn that the owners of the hotel we stayed at for the night have played a role in creating this vibrant little business community. Which is not to say that the bed-and-breakfast is something I could recommend wholeheartedly. Because dear reader: trains do run all night long. They are loud. They sometimes shake the building. And it takes quite a while before you can fall asleep.
In any event, we pedaled away from Riley‘s Railhouse about 8:30 AM and picked up the Prairie Dunelands Trail, the first of many bike paths we would be taking today. The first 10 miles went by swiftly. Before we knew it, we were on the Oak Savannah Trail. And then the Marquette Trail, and the Erie Lackawana Trail, and so on all the way to the Lakefront Trail in Chicago.
Altogether, we probably traveled about 90% of the 62-mile journey into a major metropolitan area on bike path and bike lines. We rarely had to deal with cars and traffic. Instead, we rode through canopies of woodland, town and county parks, and school campuses. It was a great example of regional planning and cooperation, and it made me wish (again) that our own area would demonstrate this kind of forethought.
Even so, the day was not without navigation challenges. We met up with two guys out for a ride who helped us thread a confusing profusion of paths through one expansive park. Later on, a guy who was riding an old mountain bike to/from work saw us trying to read a map of the area to figure out our next turn. Although he was not able to speak much English, he led us several blocks from a very hard-to-read intersection to the start of the next bike path into Chicago.
People were out in force. The weather was mostly sunny and warm, upper 70s to low 80s. They were using the paths and the parks. Naturally, the crowds grew larger the closer we got to Chicago.
The lakefront was wall to wall people. Families picnicking on the beach. Boats just offshore full of partners. Paths packed with cyclists, scooters and walkers. It was Saturday in the park in Chicago. Can you dig it? (I think you know what today’s song will be.)
Eventually, the crowds got crazy big and chaotic. NASCAR had taken over the streets of downtown Chicago for televised racing. The rip of race car engines filled the air every 90 seconds or so. We joined a throng of others to peer through chain link fencing to see what we could see (not a lot). And then it got even more crowded.
Finally, we managed to get to our hotel. More importantly, we sampled a true Chicago deep dish pizza from Giordano's. It was very, very good, but Jon Stewart is right—it's not pizza. Best of all we planned to take the next day (Sunday) off to go to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.
Today's ride: 64 miles (103 km)
Total: 391 miles (629 km)
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