Day Off

Huh?



The steep descents of IL



New bridge on the bike path



Nice roads



Hill climbin'

Today was the day off from the bike shop and I thought I would put some miles in before the weekend. I planned a route last night and was determined to finish the ride. Rode to the west side of Springfield off of the bike path and then headed north to Petersburg where the New Salem site for one of Lincoln's home is at. There was a strong headwind all the way out to Petersburg and the going was slow on some dirt/gravel/rocky roads. The casseroll felt great with these kinds of roads. On the entire ride while looking into the shoulder and gutters of the road I saw probably close to 400 beer bottles and cans. This was a reminder of how dangerous even the lesser traveled roads can be especially at night. Through looking at most of the beer cans I figured out that these drivers preferred Bud Light and Keystone Light. While riding I kept seeing bud case boxes, cans, bottles and kept thinking of the old add campaign from budweiser with the three frogs. Except in my version the frogs were saying drunk-DRIVE-er. A lot of these gravel roads had some extremely long and steep climbs. This felt really good to get some hill climbing in even if it was only a few. I finished the ride in 5 hours and the total for the day was 70 miles. I had to stop and check the map every 5 or so miles to make sure I was staying on course, but it felt really good to go for a long ride and finish strong. So far 3 days of riding, total of 110 miles. Thinking of commuting on saturday and possible ride on sunday if the weather permits. Looking forward to my first friday night fish fry with the girlfriend tomorrow night after work.

- J