IlInKy

We are spending more time than I expected in Springfield.It's really quite nice, a small, not especially healthy looking city (lots of buildings for lease in the area) but  everyone is very friendly and there is a lot to see. Today, we rode out of the main part of town - about 15 miles - to Lake Springfield. We'd found a marina that rents canoes, so we figured that would be fun. And it was, although it was not the best canoe trip ever. It was 90 degrees and humid today, so the sun was a bit intense, and the wind was fairly strong. In that heat, the wind felt good, but we didn't get very far. We did see some nice birds: white pelicans, great blue herons, and a flock of wood ducks (flying over, but I got a pretty good look). With the wind behind us, it was very easy to head back! We rode back to town and decided it would be ok to take Uber to the laundromat. Bridge to the lake We had a great dinner tonight. Our general food experience here has not been memorable. We ...

Winnie at the Bean Everything went just the way we planned...until it didn't. We flew to Chicago. Check. We checked into our oddly named hotel, Staypineapple. Check. We took the architecture boat tour Rosemary recommended. Check (and a very good tour - we had a great guide and the rain held off until quite a while after we landed.) Check. We wandered around and saw some of the park area along the lake. We had a really great thunderstorm. We picked up my bike at the LBS (local bike shop, if you're not a cyclist).  Then we got talking to the incredibly helpful guy at the shop. We told him about some of our ideas for the next few weeks. He listened, then told us why he would not choose to take a lot of the routes we were picturing. He had a close call on a country road similar to the ones we would be spending a lot of our time riding, said the farmers really didn't like bikes, and besides, the roads are all flat, and once you are off the lakeside trails on the way to In...

A few years ago I realized that I had ridden my bike in a lot of states. I sort of like counting, and keeping things in order, so it occurred to me that riding in all 50 states was an appealing goal. Here's what I've done so far: California - home, so it goes without saying that I have ridden lots and lots of miles here Washington - lots of cousins, some of whom are also cyclists, so that was added to the list soon after I realized that for me, cycling had actually become a thing Oregon - no relatives, but an office I visited every year, so the bike began to accompany me Arizona - relatives AND an office Idaho - I signed up for the inaugural Ride Idaho after a fellow club member promoted it. It was a challenge, but beautiful Ride FAR - an AIDS ride that took in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and a bit of Connecticut - did it 3 times Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Texas - friends and relatives New Mexico - travel with friends, bike ride sneaked in Hawaii - relat...