Thursday, May 7th, 2009 - Sunny, Hot, then... RAIN!
- Start: Urbana, IL
- ATW: Leroy, IL
- End: Lexington, IL
- Day Miles: 68.5 Ride Time: 7 hr, 2min Total Trip Miles: 751
Our friends offered their sister's place for the night if we could make it to Lexington, IL. Sure, no problem... it's only forty miles away. Turns out Heather read the map wrong and a forty miler turned to the longest day yet. After almost 50 miles of pushing into a head wind we pulled into Leroy, at 5pm. Heather grabbed a Subway sandwich and we ate on the bike as we pedaled out of town. Just before turning north on 21 we got rained on. We pulled over and slipped into our rain gear and left town eating soggy cookies. A couple miles out of town lighting flashed over head and it was time to get off the road to re-evaluate our sanity.
We pulled up to a barn and parked inside while we talked to the guys within who were working on a lawn tractor. In a few minutes the worst of the storm had passed and we rode on. With red light blinking off the back we crossed the ridge left behind by the Wisconsin Glacier. All through the day we had watched windmills in the distance. As we crossed the hill we rode within a hundred yards of their bases and Dave kept wanting to turn down the private gravel roads to investigate.
Photo Credit: Amit Gupta at http://www.flickr.com/photos/superamit/sets/72157594448325513/
Photo Credit: Amit Gupta at http://www.flickr.com/photos/superamit/sets/72157594448325513/
Photo Credit: Amit Gupta at http://www.flickr.com/photos/superamit/sets/72157594448325513/
With a slight tail wind and downhills we coasted into Lexington just before dark. We enjoyed a hearty conversation until 11:30PM when the whole house passed out.
