June 4, 2021
Day 30: Dream Acres Campground to Ashkum, IL City Park
Beaten By The Winds
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Climbing Today; 477 ft Climbing to Date; 50,429 ft
We had breakfast on the sidewalk outside the Casey store in Monon, Indiana this morning. The breakfast pizza wasn’t bad.
It was a nice cloudy ride at first, then the sun came out and a headwind kicked up that wasn’t bad at first but became pretty rough later. That’s an understatement, we were basically crawling at 7 miles an hour against the wind all afternoon.
Second breakfast in Brook was good. Today was hot and windy, and we started stopping at every shade tree alongside the road. There weren’t many because this is flat farm country and all the land is filled with corn right now.
We were about to leave the safety of a shade tree when we saw another cyclist approaching, and we met Liz. She started in Denver and is headed east to a New York destination. While we were cursing the headwind, she was praising the tailwind! Best of luck, Liz.
We had lunch in Iroquois at a bar that was the only establishment in town. Iroquois allows camping in their city park also, and in retrospect we probably should’ve stayed there and camped - the park looked nice. The ride from Iroquois on was a death march against the wind and the sun. We arrived in Ashkum, Illinois completely exhausted at 19:00. Dinner consisted of the subway inside the minimart, and I consumed two whole bottles of Gatorade. I had rationed my water on the ride into town and arrived completely empty.
Officer Hoakes met us at the minimart and told us how to get to the city park. Then he came down with someone who unlocked the doors to the bathroom for us - wow, thanks Officer Hoakes, we really appreciate the welcome! There was a plug-in near the gazebo where we were camping but we needed an extension cord. A couple showed up in a golf cart and asked us if we needed anything and we told them what we needed and they went and got it! Brian and Amy, you guys are the greatest!
This town is really an amazing place. The city park is a beautiful place, we were assured that there’s just no crime here at all, and everyone is going out of their way to help us. So far I’m loving Illinois, but I sure wish the wind would change directions. Tomorrow we are scheduled to ride a 74 mile day directly into the wind. If the wind is as strong as it became this afternoon, we just aren’t physically strong enough to make that. So tomorrow might get to be really interesting, but isn’t every day?
Good night all, I am as tired as I have ever been and expect to sleep well. I hope you sleep well too...
Today's ride: 76 miles (122 km)
Total: 1,519 miles (2,445 km)
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Illinois was our toughest state so far! It was beautiful, and we loved the low-traffic county roads and the farmland - and the people were all fantastic - but the wind kicked our butts big time! The headwinds we experienced were harder than riding up Kancamagus Pass in New Hampshire or even Middlebury Gap in Vermont, and were much harder than the New York Adirondacks. So we were awed by the fierce power of the Illinois winds. It's a great area for wind power though, and I was glad to see a lot of those steel giants cranking out green power. Love ya,
Buddy
3 years ago