Tuesday August 12, 2008

Tuesday August 12—Day 44—Woodstock to Palos Heights-87 miles

Day 2: The day started off much the same as Monday, except that I was feeling a little more at ease with the whole process. The turnaround of sleeping to riding was more smooth, taking the tent down and getting dressed, sunscreened and lubed up, yes, you read that correctly, lubed up was also much more smooth. When you have 150 people trying to get gear in and out of laundry baskets in the gear truck, it can be a little trying. Teresa also had some good pointers here to pack a small bag with camp clothes (comfortable and loose) for the evening, pj’s, and cycling clothes for the next day. Taking just this bag, my shower bag and my gear bag to my tent made the transitions more efficient as there are not multiple trips back and forth to the gear truck.

Tuesday I rode with Len Riemersma, Lisa and Bob Brouwer, Sheryl Scheeres Taylor and Karen DeJong. We cycled out of the sleepy town of Woodstock, IL around a great cobblestone square, and out towards the east side of town where about 11 miles into the ride we met up with the Prairie Trail/Fox River Trail. We stayed on this trail for 37-40 miles and there are some pics of the trail, a covered canopy of greenery, open areas, bridges over water, and through lots of smaller and larger towns. Some of the names that come to mind are Dundee, Elgin, Batavia, and Aurora. We stopped for lunch in Aurora along the water by a dam, and Hilena who was riding with us for a while joined in some tree climbing fun, and her dismount scored a 5.2 out of 6!

In North Aurora, I rode to the Pedal and Spoke Bike Store which was located just off the trail (up a small hill). I was able to call ahead earlier in the day to see if they had a tire my size with a fair bit of tread ( I didn’t want a slick racing tire on my bike) and they had an Armadillo which they also installed quickly so I could get back to the trail.

As we were getting to the end of the trail in Aurora, we had our second portage of my leg of the tour in as many days. The end of the trail was a park, and as we were doing most of our cycling on roads, we had to get back to the road…so we portaged up a set of stairs with our bikes and were then escorted to our next water stop with an Aurora police officer on a bike. He was very gracious as he took group after group of cyclists up the busy street to our water stop at Julie’s truck.

The day was a trying one, the 87 miles had many stops and starts (city type riding) which were a tad hard for my knees to deal with. I iced at a variety store which graciously provided ice for free out of the ice cooler and also upon arriving at Trinity. Coming back to Trinity was great, seeing familiar faces, familiar spaces, and just being back.

Catching up with Ginny Carpenter and Helen VanWyck from my Trinity Days

I was able to be hosted at Betty Kerkstra’s house, my former boss while I attended Trin and worked in the bookstore. Alida and I spent some great time there, doing laundry and sleeping in a wonderfully comfy bed!