May 12 -- Quincy IL to Springfield IL

It's morning again, I've been up for over an hour doing the usual.

Bill is back on the road today -- the local cycle shop set him up with a new, albeit temporary crankset so that he can roll today. The crankset is not right for his bottom bracket -- he cannot use the outer, large chainring, so he'll be spinning today ! That, plus he is used to the 180 cranks vs the 175's that they installed -- oh well, better than nothing for the day. Tonight he should be able to reinstall his old cranks plus the crankarm that Karen (his wife) has fedexed out to him.

We ate at Fazzoli's last night. I've never tried them before -- it's a fast food style Italian restaurant. Jerry and I both ordered lasagne and split a pizza, which worked out. Others tried spaghetti etc. -- we ate well and heartily. No vegetables though ...

I did change my chain yesterday. I'm trying the Wipperman to see how it works out. Current mileage on the odometer is 2070 -- I'll track wear on this chain and see how it lasts vs the Shimano.

Today looks to be somewhat of a repeat of yesterday -- similar weather, similar terrain -- probably a little less climbing. The two variables will be the wind, which is strengthening, 10+ mph in our face and the road itself -- as I've mentioned before, a smooth road makes up for a lot.

Our route takes us on 104 E for the first 65 miles then onto 78 N. If you're following on the map we hit Liberty, Chambersburg, Meredosia, Chapin, Jacksonville, Berlin then Springfield. We have SAG stops at 41.4 and 66.9. then nothing through the end at 107.5.

We have 1st breakfast here in the hotel then another breakfast at Mike's Place in Liberty at mile 14. Hopefully our group will keep that one short because the earlier we roll, the less wind we'll encounter.

Time to get organized, I'll finish up later.

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Geoff, Jerry, Ken and I decided to skip the breakfast in Liberty and checked with Shane & Mike who said -- ok, as long as you check in at Mike's Place. So ... we did just that -- signed the check-in sheet and continued.

The first part of the ride was the hilliest, up until we crossed the Illinois river. After that it was fairly flat and open ... and ... windy. The winds were generally cross-winds from the ENE which made it difficult to draft because there was very little shoulder and the wind was hitting you even when you were right behind the person in front of you.

In spite of the wind we were keeping up a pretty good pace so I suggested to the group that positions 1 & 3 ride 12-18 inches from the edge of the road so that positions 2 & 4 could draft on their back quarter -- after that, things got a lot easier because you could count on some drafting time.

We arrived at the motel around 1:45, having left at 7:15 -- so 6:45 elapsed time; mileage 107; 6:25 rolling time . Of course, with us missing the second breakfast, we were always ahead of the SAG van so we had to make our own SAG stops at convenience stores. Each time I called Barb to check in and let her know where we were. They don't mind as long as you check in.

Just before the motel I spotted a Subway and made a stop while the other three went on to the hotel. We went across the road to a Steak & Shake for a shake; the other three picked up their subs at Quiznos and then we sat down by the pool. Jerry's son had driven down from Wisconson and had a cooler full of beer ... so we had a great afternoon, eating subs and drinking beer -- the first such occasion.

I went into Mass -- this time the church was only 1.8 miles away so I walked. I got back a while ago and am sitting by the pool with Geoff doing this blog. He is doing his. Ken just got back from the laundromat and the three of us are going across the street for dinner.

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Back from dinner ... we went to Steak & Shake and I had a quite good bowl of vegetable beef soup with big chunks of beef and non-soggy veggies along with a chicken breast-on-a-bun and petite cut fries. We don't normally eat at many of these "family style" restaurants but some of them do a decent job.

I forgot to mention that the latter part of the ride, after crossing the river, was mostly corn fields -- mile after mile after mile. Of course, the corn was only six inches high, so was not much of a wind break, but simply an amazing amount of corn. Have you ever seen a "Jaguar" tractor -- certainly my first time. I don't expect that it is related to the Jaguar car, but it caught my eye ... but not enough to stop and take a picture. There was also this tractor with the most amazingly high wheels -- for going over top of corn fields.

Tomorrow's route has been shortened -- instead of going to Champaign IL we are going to Tuscola IL -- apparently we are hitting on prom night or something and there were just no hotel rooms available when they were finalizing things. Mileage tomorrow will only be 77 -- we'll make it up the day after, I guess, since it was supposed to be 103.

A couple of pictures from today:

Here I am crossing the Illinois river ..



and here is Geoff cleaning his rear view mirror ...