97 + 94 + 81 + 113 + 0 + 40

= 425 miles

in six days,

from suburban Cleveland, through Chicago, to Grayslake,

on a bike....are you serious?!

I MAYBE put 425 miles on my car in one month.

But we're through Chicago, and in the midst of a brief riding lull. Trying to rest up before our seeming sprint through Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana. In the three days following Chicago, we'll travel only 170 miles, and have yet another rest day in Madison before another six-day stretch of over 450 miles.

That's right, I said 113 miles (on account of a detour we had to make leaving Edwardsburg, at which time we weaved in and out and back into Indiana a bit more) to Chicago to cap a four-day stretch of long-ass rides. My quads have never hurt so much in my life, but it was so worth it. We got to Chicago, and basically crashed to the floor of the church. Saturday night, upon arrival, most of us attempted to go out to explore the city, and most succeeded only to the point that our bodies would allow us. Which meant that we were all dragging, downtown to where I and several others went to Millennium Park to watch the apparently weekly fireworks over the lake. We witnessed "Cloud Gate", and dragged ourselves to a restaurant for some second dinner food. Perhaps one of these days I will write about all the amazing food we have been eating on the trip, but lets just say for now that it is not uncommon to have two, sometimes three lunches, and often two dinners (or at least two platefuls worth). Anyway, we all looked like zombies. On the L ride back to our host in Ravenswood (brown line, Montrose stop), I don't think there was a single person that didn't completely pass out. It was quite a scene, in fact. Imagine about 13 people all asleep next to or near each other in the midst of a transit ride.

The next day was a little better, after a morning doing other people's chores and assisting in a presentation to the church and bike "clinic", Laura (Maki), Sharon, Kate, Isaiah and I went in to the city for some more feet-dragging. We played tourists for a while: buying some kitsch, taking pictures of things, going to the top of the Hancock Center, and eating the best deep-dish pizza ever made (Giordano's, we got extra and had it for lunch today). But probably the most relaxing thing done was napping in the grass of a small Vietnam veterans memorial park along the Chicago River. I find I spend a lot of time enjoying napping/lying in grass on this trip.

I'm beginning to realize this is a very inarticulate post. Alas, I'm still tired. I actually haven't had a full-night sleep in weeks (by that, I mean at least 7 hours, only semi-interrupted). As a result, I have only enough energy to devote to riding, much less to actually thinking, then the rest of the day is kind of screwed.

So I will end this pitiful post soon, but I just wanted to mention our ride today. It was freaking amazing, despite the terrible roads. We rode through probably the most unbelievable display of wealth I have ever seen in my life. We were on the north side of Chicago, which is known for being one of the wealthiest places in the country. We rode through Winnetka and Glencoe, which are two of the top 10 wealthiest places in the country, as well as Wilmette and Highland Park, where I unexpectedly stumbled upon FLW's Ward Willits House. It was unmarked, and I was baffled, because I knew it looked SOOO familiar, and I knew it had to be an FLW, but I wasn't sure. So these houses, oh my god, I can't even tell you how sprawling they are. Amazing and absolutely disgusting at the same time. However with all that disposable income, they still cannot manage to maintain their roads properly, instead they were full of potholes, cracks, and bumps. And now we're in Grayslake, a not so financially fortunate, but still rather wealthy, distant suburb of Chicago. We're at the Wildwood Presbyterian Church, which is definately the snazziest church we've stayed in so far. Snazzy, because it is brand new, really huge, and really comfy. Of course our snazziest sleeping accommodations were still at Avon Lake :)

My first time in Wisconsin will be tomorrow. Until the next post, I hope you all will forget I've written this crappy thing. Goodnight.