Day 16
The rest day in Champaign was truly a day filled with relaxation and writing a separate journal for what happened would have given you only just a few words. Instead, we decided to combine this Champaign day with our rolling out of town too.
After a night of spending time and socializing with the team and friends of the team, riders went various directions for where they would spend the night, whether that be at Maaike’s house, at their own apartments, or with family and friends nearby. This split many of us into our own groups for the rest day and many of the stories to share would be as simple as sleeping, packing, moving out, or talking with friends we haven’t seen in some time. There was one set of us who did get up to some fun together: Parker, Nishk, and Vedang. These three went bowling, had lunch, and would later meet up with Max to do some bike bathing as you can see in the pictures below.
This type of day almost completely away from the mission at hand is necessary once in a while and you will see from what transpired during the ride that it was indeed a tremendous help.
Day 17
We are not sore! At least mostly not sore and that makes a huge difference. The team biked and walked back onto campus to arrive for the roll out at Allen Hall (our traditional spot for training ride starts). Being well fed and rested was a huge victory because I certainly felt that the 134-mile day was still taking a toll on my body even three days later. There had been no time for recovery and now we had it, in Champaign no less! Being back at the place where this all began and that means so much to all of us was special and a welcome sight when we rolled in two days ago.
Ride Overview
Mileage: 83.4 miles
Elevation: 864 ft.
Tales of the Trail
Rolling out of Champaign this morning was a special experience because it marked, once again on this trip, leaving school for the Summer and adventuring into unfamiliar territory. We waved goodbye to campus and the buildings we have become so accustomed to seeing in our views everyday and ventured out into the unknown… actually, just cornfields.
We added Kev Murphy, 2024 rider and Illini 4000 co-president, to our group this morning. Maaike was so excited to have Kev in her group because the two of them rode together in 2024. Kev even added our first rest stop of the day. Moving North into Rantoul, we stopped at Ott’s diner for a bite to eat. This was one of those places where sometimes we may have said, “let’s just grab something quick and leave,” but instead look at the menu and decide with our stomachs it will be a longer pause in the ride. Some of the streets on the way were closing for a vintage car show coming to town. Although it was a little early to see much, we spotted an El Camino, F-100, Malibu, and Camaro among others. It’s always nice to see something to take your eyes away from staring at the tire in front of you or the monotonous road out in the distance.
In between the bookend first and third rest stops, the ride was almost entirely on Route 45 through Illinois and with a strong tailwind. We were being blown closer and closer to Chicago as if the world wanted us to get there! When the novelty of averaging somewhere around 17 mph wore off, teams on the road resorted to games to play in order to keep their minds off of the repetitive road and landscape for miles upon miles. Whether it was a quiz, or a guessing game, or a tale of life stories, our teammates knew how to keep us occupied and that was totally worth it. If a typical distance between rest stops is 20 miles, playing something and talking along the way makes it feel like that next stop just moved 15 miles closer. The sun was out, the day was lovely, and spirits were all pretty high.
At our last rest stop of the day, we had plenty of ways to cool down from the heat. For one, the gas station we had pulled off at had some incredible air conditioning. Also, the clouds decided to drop some rain right on our heads. It didn’t last long which meant that nothing got really soaked through, but it was enough to get us damp and felt amazing once we were rolling and the wind was evaporating the water off of our clothes. That has to be one of the best feelings on a bike because even running doesn’t quite give the same feeling as gliding and being cooled by your movement. The small reprieve is what really powered us through mentally until we made it to our final destination in Kankakee.
Speaking of that final destination, have you ever heard of an Adventure Church? Well Kankakee has one and this is where we had been able to find a place to spend the night. With all kinds of sports courts, a mini-golf course, and a great room for us to set up sleeping bags, this was another welcoming and very fun stayover we have had. Before bedtime and writing this journal, the team played basketball, football, soccer, and 9-holes of mini-golf. The scores for the mini-golf were announced at dinner and Parker, with a remarkable 2-under par, took home the victory! Our legs may have taken on more fatigue from all of our playing here than they did during the ride today with such favorable winds. I guess we will find out over the next couple of days.
