8/9-The Good and the Bad of Sundays

First, though, Happy Birthday to my son, Nolan! 29 years old!

The bad thing about Sundays is the good things aren’t generally open. Such is usually the case with bakeries. Of course, the Oak View Inn didn’t have any sort of breakfast (and I might not have wanted to eat it anyway), but sadly the Fingerhut Bakery was closed. That left me with breakfast at Burger King. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t bakery quality.

The good things aren’t generally about Sundays is less traffic. I rode the highway to where the Erie Trail intersected with it at the North Judson Trailhead. 

At the trailhead…in case you forgot your bike.

The Erie Trail is 12 miles long, but I missed the first two miles riding the highway straight over. Along the trail were these planet signs. 

The rest of the planets must have been in the first two miles that I missed. 

Besides being part of the GAWR, the Erie Trail is also part of all of these routes.

GART, American Discovery Trail, and Indiana Bike Route 35

Nice trail surface

Mural on a shed

This sign gave directions to connect to the next bike path. 

After the Erie Trail, I was on quiet country roads. Especially quiet because of it being Sunday. 

I went through a few small “towns”, but none had any services until Delong. In Delong there was the L&B Country Oasis, a small market. It was about 20 miles into the day, and a good spot (the only spot, really) for a break and a snack. There was no chocolate milk, so I had ice cream and, of all things, a banana! 

I was over halfway for the day. This was a good day to have a short day because I have now crossed into my final time zone! That means, for awhile, it will be dark later in the morning, and light later at night. Just means I can sleep a little later. 

Yesterday, I said I was going to Peru. The one motel listed on the GAWR spreadsheet is closed. I did find out later there was a place a little off route, but I had decided to just go to Rochester. I didn’t know I would be losing an hour, so it worked out. I wanted to talk to my son for his birthday, and he was available at 1:30, but not for too long because the Boston Pops had a concert he had to work. 

I’m at the Quality Inn. Wouldn’t you know, there’s a Super 8 right next door! Oh well, this was pretty cheap too.

Tomorrow I will ride through Peru to Marion.

8/8-After all, She is a Fish!

And fish do like to swim! I think I caught up to some of the effects of all the recent rain today. I first rode back to the Duneland Trail, to take that to Porter. 

Then to the Lakeshore Trail

This was train number 2 I had to wait for

There was a running event where I got on the Lakeshore Trail. Fortunately, it seemed to be winding down.

The Lakeshore Trail wasn’t very long (or I wasn’t on it for very long). Next I picked up the Calumet Trail. This trail can take you to Indiana Dunes State Park, as well as Duneland Campground. 

That trail goes to the State Park and beach

Direction arrows

The Calumet Trail is gravel.

I was to follow the Calumet for about 5 miles. It started out okay. 

Nice double track

Pretty flowers

But then, puddles started appearing. No problem! Wanda rode through them like the fish she is! 

Yep, rode through all of that. 

Then it became more like lakes. I had been doing good, pedaling slowly to keep my feet dry. But then it got deeper. I was still riding, but now the pedals were splooshing through the water. Feet soaked now!

So much water!

It became too deep to ride. Now we were trudging through the long stretches of water. Some were up to almost my knees. There were tadpoles galore! At one point, I swear I saw a small fish! 

There was no way to get off the trail, and I was already half way through.

I was able to ride brief bits of dry stuff, but then it would be a long stretch of water again. 

Finally I came to a road crossing at Beverly Shores. I knew I could take that road around and hook back up with the route on the Lakeshore Road. Amazingly, Wanda was still shifting fine. Her brakes were a little screamy. When I came up to the beach parking and access, I had to brake because people were walking to the beach. They all kept looking at me. I said I was sorry for the noise, but the brakes were soaking wet. 

There it is, Lake Michigan!

I got a little bit longer ride along the lake than if I’d stayed on the route. 

Another beach access

The historic glass house

Meow meow crossing!

The route turned south away from the lake. Before too long, I was back out in the countryside. 

It was a nice tailwind here!

Big rooster!

I met a couple on e-bikes out for a ride. Their names were John and Rhonda. They were riding the same brand of e-bikes as Ken and Vivian. I told them how my friends were also riding Velotrics, and they were riding them across the country too! They were suitably amazed. They turned off, and I continued south. 

Except for one 10 mile straight road, the route made enough turns to keep it interesting. Coming into Westville, there was even a bit of a bike path!

It was only 1.75 miles long, but it was nice. It took me into town, where I stopped at McDonalds for some lunch. 

Back on the road, I was soon out amongst the corn and soybeans again.

In case you forgot what the corn looks like.

The big difference between Indiana and Iowa is that in Iowa, these roads would all be gravel. Here I just had one .9 mile section of gravel. 

Weird thing…when I hit the gravel, I went to shift into an easier gear. It didn’t shift. Tried a harder gear…still didn’t shift. I thought, uh oh, water must have killed the derailleur battery.

At the end of the gravel, I stopped and checked the battery level on the SRAM Axis app on my phone. It said the battery was good (so were the shifter batteries). I took the battery out, then put it back in. Got on, started pedaling, shifted, and…it shifted just fine! Who knows what that was all about! 

I continued making my way to North Judson.

Interesting…garden?

Corncobs in a corn crib!

I was just about a half mile from North Judson when I saw this bike path. It looked new, and wasn’t on the route. I figured it went into town, so I hopped on. 

It did come into town by the railroad museum. 

Since I was staying in the only motel in town, I Google mapped my way there. It’s the Oak View Inn. Doesn’t get the greatest reviews, but it’s the only game in town. No camping option. Bikes aren’t allowed in the rooms. Wanda is parked under cover at least. I have to lube her chain after her swim today anyway. Seems like most everyone has also stayed here. Tomorrow I think I go to Peru, IN (second Peru of the trip).

8/7-The Great Wall of Indiana

After a great dinner with Andrew and Zoey, Bethany and I stayed up way too late. 6:00am came all too soon. Considering we had to pack up, load Wanda onto the bike rack, get back to Frankfort, and put everything back on the bikes, we got a decent start just after 8:00.

Let’s go for a ride, Bethany!

Today was another day of trails. We finished up the Old Plank Trail. It seamlessly connected to the Thorn Creek Trail.

Riding with Bethany was awesome because I had my own personal tour guide. We went through (on the trail, of course) Chicago Heights. Bethany said Al Capone had a vacation house there. She said the mafia still has a presence in Chicago Heights. What kept running through my head was Bad Bad Leroy Brown!

Waiting to safely cross the street without getting gunned down (just kidding)

We came to the end of the Thorn Creek Trail after riding through cool prairie/meadow sections, and green tunnels.

Took a snack break at this preserve shelter

Why did the turkeys cross the road? Because they were running away from Wanda!

 It was quite a bit of stop and go with the street crossings. Every once in a while a car would stop for us. It’s not the law to stop for pedestrians in Illinois. 

We had a short section on the road. We were going through neighborhood streets. The route said to continue straight, but there was a wall. We just rode the sidewalk around it. I said to Bethany it was a sly dog cut neighborhoods cut through. Not exactly. Turns out it was the Great Wall of Indiana! Yes, by going around the wall I crossed into my 9th state!

State number 9-Indiana!

I was flabbergasted! This wall is the state line? Yes!

If it wasn’t for Bethany, I would have had no idea I was now in Indiana!

She noticed the street signs were now blue (Illinois’ were yellow)

I just thought it was the funniest thing! A neighborhood that was part in Illinois and part in Indiana!

We continued on. We came to a very busy intersection. I saw a gas station across the street. We went there for chocolate milk and water (for Bethany). Then I spied a place back across the street. I said to Bethany, “Look! Oh my God, Pastries!”. Yeah, that was the name of the shop. OMG Pastries. Of course we had to go there!

Best name for a bakery!

They had very good pastries. Bethany had a lemon tart. I had a chocolate eclair. I was a little bummed because, since I had had the chocolate milk, I couldn’t eat all of the eclair!

Bethany decided this was a good turnaround spot for her. She would end up going all the way back to her car at Frankfort for a total of 48 miles! Coincidentally, I ended up riding about the same distance, only continuing on.

Bye Bethany! I’ll miss you until you get back to Washington! 

The next trail was the Monon Trail. It was just a short bit to get to the Little Calumet Levee Trail.

The Levee Trail

Nice new bridge!

The Little Calumet connected to the Erie Lackawanna Trail.

Going right!

Really nice trail

Then, the Erie Lackawanna connected to the Oak Savannah Trail!

Such good signage

Smooth trail

Funny sign!

Nice mural

I was working my way toward Portage. I had stopped to make a hotel reservation at the Baymont in Portage. I couldn’t check in until 3:00, so I had some time to kill. In Hobart I noticed a DQ just off the trail. I went over for some ice cream. 

Back on the trail, I came to this. 

It doesn’t seem like I’m actually there yet, but maybe…

Then I was on another trail into Portage. 

Now the Duneland Trail

I got off the trail at Willowcreek Rd, and headed closer to the interstate where the hotels are. Tomorrow, I will get closer to Indiana Dunes State Park. Might take some time to check it out.