I rode alone with dreams of solving my problems and divining my future in sunbaked introspection.  I carried all my gear (too much of it), camped 4 nights (hotel-camped 2 nights ) and navigated my poorly planned route with two guide books and my G1.

Riding alone has its perks.  Plenty of time to think, and plenty of time to think about getting lost.  Fortunately my navigating skills seemed to improve after the second day (I nearly burst into tears that day after the GPS put my location in the middle of a lake, not, as I expected, between the Hennepin and I&M Canals).

Camping alone is different.  There are very few perks.  All my nights were fairly restless, and the one night I didn’t have to hiss at raccoons to shoo them away, a large storm came through at 2:00am.  My tent held out, though, and I can sleep when I’m dead.  But still, I’ve no shame now admitting to being afraid of the dark.

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Being alone in the middle of Illinois is an odd thing.  It’s possible to ride for hours without seeing another human, but at no point are you truly in the middle of nowhere.  Everything has the imprint of humanity.  The road itself is a man-made scar through the land, but moreover, the land is far from natural.  Almost every inch is cultivated, pruned, or tilled for our use.  I suppose this is the trade-off  of a civilized society (possibly the definition of it), but it still makes me glad there are areas we have set aside for the exclusive non-use by humans.

In general the trip is somewhat hazy.  I probably rode too fast and did not stop at enough towns to really soak everything in.  But still I find myself thinking of very specific things about the ride, whether it be pushing my bike up a giant hill or resting for a bit on a bench.  I will do this again.  Someday I will find the time to ride farther west or maybe even ride the entire American Discovery Trail.

Yesterday I received my xtracycle, and today I finished the assembly.  Sort of.  I’m still lacking proper shift cable and housing so I’m rocking a single speed xtracycle right now, but I took it on its maiden voyage in the middle of our giant snow.  First off, the xtracycle handles beautifully in the snow.  The bike is so long you can actually get the thing sideways and control it quite nicely.  More importantly, though, this beast can haul anything.  In the photo above, I’m hauling punch ingredients for our work Christmas party.  I can’t wait to haul crap.  If you need a large object transported by bicycle, just let me know.

And now gratuitous roller shots:

hold on!

dan is teh roller rockstar

I’ve got gears, panniers, a can opener, and, as of today, a hammock.  Time to pack up, head out on the bike, and do some stealth camping.  We’ll have to see how managing life, etc, goes, but I’d really like to do this soon…like this coming weekend.

(yes the hammock is not properly setup in this photo, but I was at a public park and people were staring at me like I was a crazy…and while I am a crazy, I started to become self conscious and packed up and left after a quick test of the hammock)

I started out on Rockport which is bike heaven and hell. There are some tremendously steep hills, but most are quite short. The flipside is the descents are terrifying. However, the views cannot be beaten. This may be the road that shows up in Breaking Away. It sure seems like it, and it goes by quite a few quarries.

Riding through the country is great. There are many things to see that I’m not used to. First, I saw a bunch of silly cows standing (and some appeared to be squatting) in a muddy little pond. They had curious looks on their faces. Then I saw a huge rooster run across the road. I stopped a bit later to take a breather and noticed a sign that read “God Bless America and Homemade Pies.” mmm….pie.

At one point in the ride I was running short on water, so I stoped at a fire station and they let me fill up my bottles (I figured a fire station has water). The fireman were nice, but gave me strange look when they found out how far I was from home. At my next break, a couple on bikes passed me, and I caught up with them a few miles up the road looking at a map. I stopped to chat and make sure I was going the right direction (I need a map). They had also made a wrong turn, but seemed to a bit more seasoned than I. We parted ways and I stopped one last time at a gas station for some gatorade (I was pretty miserable at this point). A few miles later I was home, writing this incoherent posting. I need a nap.

Update: 2800 feet of elevation change! A bit more, and I’d be ready for the hilly hundred.