Ari and Ron North 5am heading towards Sycamore IL
The plumes of smoke from the nuclear power plant out in Oregon, IL looming in the background. We would end up riding way past this.
'Merica
Finally on some gravel
Done and done
Well I have done some stupid stuff in my time. Getting drunk, staying up all night, and heading to Ari's on Sunday morning for a 200 mile ride was one of those 'stupid' things. I showed up and we quietly left the west Chicago suburb to ride out to our meeting point of Sycamore, IL to pick up the rest of the gang. Ari and I caught up and while riding we were approached by a slow moving truck on the road. It was Ron North who said that he had gotten a slow start that morning. We picked him up and continued the chilly/foggy journey to Sycamore. We rode a steady pace and I was barely able to keep up. My legs were heavy and I felt like SHIT! My hangover was in full effect. We made it to Sycamore right on time and refueled and met up with our gang. The bonk king, jakey, wolfy, and the llama were waiting. We then headed west towards Oregon, IL. We kept a good pace and chatted with everyone as we rode along RT. 64 which can be very busy but was hardly traveled during the early hours of the morning.
We stopped in Oregon and refueled. Mr. Baggio had to be back early so he flipped and got a great 75 miles in and was riding very strong. The rest of us took some beautiful gravel roads towards Polo, IL where we swarmed a country Subway sandwich shop and had our lunch at 11 am with 100 miles under our belt. I was finally starting to feel somewhat 'normal' and getting some power back in my legs. Ari gave a passing walmart truck the devil horns and I laughed for a long time. We headed to White Pines State Park which is one of the first state parks in IL. It was beautiful back there and I look forward to camping there at some point.
The ride home was all familiar roads that I used to ride during my time in Dekalb. It was fun to ride them again and keep pushing the miles. We left the llama and jakey in Sycamore and Wolfy, Ron, Ari, and I refueled yet again at a 7-11. As we were looking at our maps back home a couple on their motorcycles were arguing about what route to take home. Ron gave them suggestions and we were on our way. Not so different after all huh?
We rode the great western trail back into the suburbs and ended the day with just over 200 miles. Ari's amazing wife Jamie had some delicious dinner ready. I took a quick rinse and devoured some food, barely able to udder a thank you...I was so trashed! So THANK YOU JAMIE!!! I drove the 1.5 hours home and fell flat on my face and passed out. Good times and thanks to our fearless leader for getting us out and about on another ass-kicker of a ride.
- JB
