Today got off to a much better start. I DID go to Starbucks after all, and had my first double latte in 3 weeks. i also bought the New York Times, with the Minnesota bridge collapse as the lead story.
The ride today was much flatter, as well as shorter, than yesterday. We entered Illinois early on, and stayed on rural roads the whole day. The leaders of this tour, Lon Haldeman and Susan Notorangelo, live near here so they know this area like the back of their hand. The countryside was generically farming........larger farms now, compared to Wisconsin. Some of the towns appeared to be a little more sophisticated, perhaps an effect of Chicago, which isn't too far away.
I left with some of the stronger riders, and went to the front after a while and rode by myself. We had a southwest wind, which normally would have been great, but we went mainly south today, so it didn't help. At the first rest stop, I got tired of fighting the wind, and waited for the clydesdale and two crew members.
We got into Dwight about 3:45, and I immediately did a load of laundry. Good thing, because about 5 pm a power outage hit Dwight and 5 other towns in this part of Illinois. No airconditioning. Restaurants had to close. Ice cream started to melt in the minimarts. What a mess! I had a cold sandwich for dinner. One of the riders had clothes halfway through the wash cycle when the outage hit. Fortunately the power came back on about 9 pm.
We have the longest day of the tour on Friday........168 miles to Wabash, IN. Apparently flat as a pancake, but still a long way to pedal. We will leave earlier, at 6 a.m.
133 miles. 2200 vertical feet.
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Your getting relatively close to Cleveland. You'll know your there when you see the burning water! Melissa and I may be out of town when you do pass through the area, but if you are so inclined...216-870-6818. We understand you may be otherwise focused to say the least. Just keep on keeping the rubber side down. Eli
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