Monday, June 17, 1996
Day 37
Starved Rock State Park, Illinois to Kankakee, State Park Illinois
Today's Miles: 75
Cumulative Miles for the Tour: 2449
Degree of Difficulty: Easy
Terrain: Rolling Forests to Rolling Farmland
Find of the Day: Ali's Coal City Restaurant
Thanks to Sara at Ali's Coal City Restaurant in Coal City, I'm changing my attitude towards the people of Illinois. We were treated so well by the people of Iowa, I was beginning to think we would never see anything like it again.
The morning started off with a light, slanting rain which quickly turned into a full fledged monsoon. The rain was so heavy at times, it was difficult to see 100 feet up the road. Luckily, the weather has been in the 80's all week. Even though you get soaked, it's very warm and comfortable to ride in. The storms continued on and off all day, with lightning strikes every 30 seconds as we crawled into our tents at the end of the day.I didn't use a map for the first 2200 miles of the trip. We'd just wake up in the morning and head east. There weren't that many roads to choose from. It's the opposite as we get closer to the east coast. I took the wrong route this morning and ended up going to Norway, Illinois, a little south of Chicago. It was a relatively minor mistake, but it proved the need for me to start carrying a map with me.Lee and I had a quick lunch in Norway. The Norwegian Country Store is an old, wooden structure along the lines of the "pickle barrel" general store from around the turn of the century. There's a little bit of everything in here, from a small soda fountain to glass troll figurines from Norway to fresh fruits and vegetables. The staff is helpful and friendly. When I asked for some peanut butter for my bread, the girl just walked around the counter over to the peanut butter shelf, grabbed a jar and put it in front of me. "Will creamy Skippy be ok?" Yep, I guess that will do along with the Campbell's Beef Sirloin Chunky Soup you just opened and stuck in the microwave for me.We got directions on how to find Highway 113 to Kankakee without having to backtrack. The farm roads of Illinois are set out in a grid pattern of blacktop, connecting the back country farm towns. As you look at a map, these are the small, grey lines that are almost invisible within the structure of the green interstates and the red state highways. Ignore the color...go for the grey lines. Every time we've taken one of these grey offshoots, it's turned into one of the best rides of the trip.Lee and I road along the blacktop roads, stopping in Seneca for a quick lunch before taking off for the final jaunt to the state park at Kankakee. The rain let up a little bit but the temperature was still in the high 80's as we were passing through Coal City. I decided to stop in and have something cold to drink at Ali's Coal City Restaurant. That's how I stumbled on the "Find of the Day".We've been on the road, now, for over 35 days, passing through 8 states so far, on our way to Washington DC. There has been a unanimous consensus among the bicyclists that Illinois has been the least biker friendly of all the states. The service at restaurants has been chilly, to say the least. The roads don't have shoulders to ride on and it seems as if bikers are invisible to the average driver. It's been disconcerting after leaving the state of Iowa, which was the friendliest of all the places we have been. That's why Sara at Ali's was such a pleasant relief.They don't serve anything fancy at Ali's. It's just good, home cooked food with friendly service. When we asked directions on how to get to the Kankakee State Park, Sara got a look of astonishment on her face and said, "You're going to BIKE to the park?", as if it were 100 miles away. She went around the cafe asking the locals for the best route. After a discussion of 5 minutes, there was agreement on the best route to cover the 15 to 20 miles and they sent us on our way.As Lee and I were about to ride away, a man stuck his head out the door and asked if we were the biker guys. He stood and talked with us for 5 minutes about Seattle and all the places he had traveled. The whole encounter at Ali's has made me reconsider my feelings towards the state of Illinois. As we've found out everywhere along the trip, it's the PEOPLE who make a place friendly, not the place itself. I guess we hadn't run into the right people yet.Tomorrow we enter Indiana. Our riding time each day is getting shorter as we all get stronger and the terrain remains relatively flat. Eighty miles a day is very easy in this type of farmland, especially if there is a decent tailwind. We're down to 13 days and counting for our entrance into DC...
Bike America Tours
dblair@wtp.net
1-800-738-7271