Tag Archives: Chicago

Sunday 2nd June

Well rested after a comfortable night at Dave and Carols we left early. Dave very kindly offered us breakfast so we had some orange juice and a banana each. We thanked him for hosting us and set off. Tonight we had a campsite planned just outside Joliet this is a small town on Route 66. We are going to follow Route 66 as much as we can, where possible and is safe to do so. Today is not the day we will stick to the safe cycle trails to get out of the city.

The thing about cycle trails is that even though they are safe and traffic free they aren’t direct. If we took the road it would only be 40 miles, it was 56 by the time we turned into the campsite.

The Route was flat and easy and the sun was shining happy days. They are also well equipped with loo’s and rest areas.

The campsites was another run down site with basic unloved facilities we are getting used to that by now. Such a shame as we are both loving our trip and it’s the only thing spoiling it. I guess everyone that uses these sites all use there own bathrooms in their massive RV’s not to many people in little tents like us.

Nevertheless we both showered and changed and was relaxing on our picnic rug when a guy came over to talk to us. The usual conversation about what we were doing. He was suitably impressed and asked if we needed anything. He said he would drive to a shop for us if we wanted I don’t think he was impressed with our dinner of peanut butter and banana! We thanked him but honestly we were fine and didn’t feel like much! He left us to our “feast “. Half an hour later he returned with a tub of ice cream for us each what a star. The generosity of people here are second to none.

Saturday 1st June

Today is the day that we get into Chicago. A day that we’ve been looking forward to, and dreading at the same time. Excited because we pick up historic Route 66 and dreading as the thought of cycling into a big city was daunting. We filled our stomachs up with the motel breakfast and off we cycled.

We have been following google maps as we’ve had problems with our gps maps. The route it took us came to a industrial area with a shut gate and security. We stopped at the security station to re check that we hadn’t took a wrong turn, but that was the way it was telling us to go. The guard approached us and we explained what we were doing and asked if the cycle path went that way. Apparently not so we turned around and went back on ourselves. What was supposed to be a 30 mile day ended up being 56 miles.

Chicago is actually a very nice city to cycle in. It has a well equipped cycle route though nice parks and along the Lake Michigan. A good view of the city greeted us with a sandy beach.

We found the Route 66 begins sign and so the next stage of our adventure has started.

Accommodation tonight was very kindly supplied by our warm showers hosts Dave and Carol. They live 7 miles away from the sign in the direction we need to go tomorrow. We had told them that we would be there at 5.

Up until now it had been a beautiful day but for our last 5 miles or so the heavens opened. Tropical rain and hail stones, we sort out shelter under one of the many under passes. This made us a little behind getting to Daves house and when we turned the corner we saw a man on the opposite side of the road waving at us. It was Dave, he had come to look for us. He was very welcoming into his home and with in minutes we were sat down drinks in hand whilst Carol prepared a meal for us all.

A lovely way to finish off our day.