July 3, 1998 - Joliet - Hardin

DISTANCE TRAVELED: 76.15 Miles

TIME: 7 Hours 15 Minutes

AVERAGE SPEED: 12.5 Miles/Hour

TRAVEL CONDITIONS: Hot and sunny in the morning turning to some small clouds in the afternoon that brought thunderstorms and hail around 5:30.

ROAD CONDITIONS: Good roads with a large shoulder for the entire trip.

TERRAIN/DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Overall a very tiring ride considering that we had head winds the entire way of about 15-20 miles an hour. We also had a long uphill for about 50 miles which ended in a large plateau when we were hoping for a good downhill. The heat also didn't help make the trip any easier.

DAILY JOURNAL COMMENTS:
I woke up around 8:30 to the unpleasant surprise that it was already morning. This was the first day that I had not been ready to get out of bed and bike. I was so tired that I just wanted to sleep for the entire day but I wasn't so lucky. I still had 90 miles in front of me! I packed up my bags and ate some more almond granola before changing into my biking clothes for the day. I finally left around 9:45 after putting a new bandage onto my leg. Everything was great except for the hot temperature. I wasn't going too fast so David, Jen, and Matt quickly passed by me. Soon after this, Jen had a flat so I helped to fix it for about 45 minutes. I left and soon came into the first small town of the day where I stopped at a local pharmacy to buy some gauze and tape. The bandage wasn't staying on very well with my muscle flexing as much as it was. Also the bandage hurt more than the cut since it pulled on my hairs so much. I replaced it with a wrapping of gauze and tape to hold it on. I got back onto the road and finally I no longer felt anything. I continued on back to I-90 where I thought that I had to go and I met up with Dan who told me that there was an alternate route that we could take. He went to Subway and bought a sandwich while I ate a typical peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a banana. Soon after we left, we were able to meet up with Katie and Tami at a small general store where I bought a Gatorade. We left soon after Katie and Tami since they had been there for a while and passed them a little way down the road. We then met up with Rachel and Pinky and traveled with them along I-90 for 4 miles until we reached 87 east to take us to Hardin. We quickly started to ascend what looked like a small hill but it just kept coming. We asked directions from a local and he said that he didn't think that the road that we were asking about had been used in 10 years! That definitely wasn't the case but it surely wasn't very well traveled. We went up to a certain point that I thought was the end since we descended for about 2 miles but as soon as we reached the bottom we began to ascend again for another 10 miles. We came to another false end that looked promising but we were led to the steepest part right after it. Finally when we reached the top, I was expecting a downhill but instead found a long plateau with even more wind in our faces! A few of us stopped at the top and ate some food and then discovered that we had 40 more miles and no water. We didn't have any places to get water except for a private house so we went up to the door and the owner let us fill up. After this we biked for another 25 miles where for a stretch of 3 miles I went at an average of 17 miles an hour since I was so ready to see the SAG, get some food and get to our destination. We didn't see it until 10 miles before the school so I got some granola to help fill me up along with some Cool-Aid before continuing on. The sky to our right was beginning to get very black and had numerous strikes of lightening. I continued on for about 2 miles before the SAG went by again and this time, to the surprise of Tom, I gave the thumbs down telling him to stop. I threw my bike in the back and drove the rest of the way since my leg was beginning to get really sore. As soon as I got to the school, I started to get dinner ready which consisted of leftover lentil soup and a salad. A few people went out for dinner which was a good decision. While I got everything ready, I had Matt get me a slurpee from a local store which tasted great after drinking so much water and some unsweetened Cool-Aid. I ate quickly and then gave my parents a call for the third night in a row to find out how to use a calling card to make a long distance call through my computer so that I can use a long distance number to update my web page. When I got back, everyone was sitting in a circle on the floor indicating that we were having a meeting. We talked about how our trip was going so far and a few of the things that we would like to change such as everyone taking care of their own dishes. After this, Matt got me three Charleston Chews which were great since it was already 11:30 and I still had things to do. I only wish that I could get them in San Diego. After cleaning up after dinner and doing a few other things, I finally got to bed around 1:00 and fell asleep in about 10 seconds. Before falling asleep I could barely see anything since my eyes were so blurred from being tired.

TRIP ROUTE: