Day 46. Watseka
94 miles 804 feet
Breakfast in an inexpensive motel is very different than in small town restaurants. The motels that I stay in are very similar: Simple room, a simple breakfast at 6 am, wifi, and A/C.
I'm biking for 3 days with Jacob, a physician from Bellevue on sabbatical who is taking a different ACA route that overlaps with mine for a short time. We have a lot in common and have shared some biking time (he's faster), meals, route planning, and conversation.
I started earlier—6:30 am—because today needed to be 94 miles to reach the next town with a place to stay. The day was rainy but warm, and the worst of the thunderstorms missed us. The route was remarkably flat so we made better time and arrived in Watseka by 5 pm. ACA picked quiet agricultural roads with little traffic. One in particular was very nicely paved but too narrow for 2-way car traffic. We had it to ourselves. It reminded me of the bike roads/paths in Majorca.
The scenery was the same as for the past few days: corn and soybeans with small towns every few miles. The roads in this part of Illinois are on a grid, so to travel in the cardinal compass directions is easy, but there are few diagonal roads and none that we saw that wind along the course of a river.
The storms last week and rain today have caused some rivers to flood. We had intended to camp tomorrow since there were no motels 70 miles east. I contacted the campground and they are closed because of flooding as are other nearby campgrounds. Se we will have a shorter day tomorrow, and be positioned to be in reach of Peru, Indiana the next day.
Flooding and storms are the norm this summer in this region. I much prefer rain to heat, however, and we can work around flooding.
I'm now just south of Chicago, so tomorrow will more east of it and closer to Lake Erie, about 300 miles east.
Breakfast in an inexpensive motel is very different than in small town restaurants. The motels that I stay in are very similar: Simple room, a simple breakfast at 6 am, wifi, and A/C.
I'm biking for 3 days with Jacob, a physician from Bellevue on sabbatical who is taking a different ACA route that overlaps with mine for a short time. We have a lot in common and have shared some biking time (he's faster), meals, route planning, and conversation.
I started earlier—6:30 am—because today needed to be 94 miles to reach the next town with a place to stay. The day was rainy but warm, and the worst of the thunderstorms missed us. The route was remarkably flat so we made better time and arrived in Watseka by 5 pm. ACA picked quiet agricultural roads with little traffic. One in particular was very nicely paved but too narrow for 2-way car traffic. We had it to ourselves. It reminded me of the bike roads/paths in Majorca.
The scenery was the same as for the past few days: corn and soybeans with small towns every few miles. The roads in this part of Illinois are on a grid, so to travel in the cardinal compass directions is easy, but there are few diagonal roads and none that we saw that wind along the course of a river.
The storms last week and rain today have caused some rivers to flood. We had intended to camp tomorrow since there were no motels 70 miles east. I contacted the campground and they are closed because of flooding as are other nearby campgrounds. Se we will have a shorter day tomorrow, and be positioned to be in reach of Peru, Indiana the next day.
Flooding and storms are the norm this summer in this region. I much prefer rain to heat, however, and we can work around flooding.
I'm now just south of Chicago, so tomorrow will more east of it and closer to Lake Erie, about 300 miles east.
Motel breakfast scene.
Old silos in Watseka
