Chicago

     It's harder to find a place to upload photos while traveling then you'd think.  But one day, I swear I'll have a bunch.
     So we made it to Chicago. It took us three days of riding from Fort Wayne, which included one hotel room, lots of head winds, my back wheel exploding at a gas station, our last night of camping out in a weird place together, and a beautiful ride into the city on a bike path along the shore of Lake Michigan.
     We had a late start leaving fort Wayne due to waiting out some rain. We hit the road with intentions of riding about 70 miles to set us up for two easier days after to make riding into this big city of Chicago easier. We quickly realized how difficult this would be, we had massive winds and one and off mists of rain. It took us a few hours to go the first 30 miles.  We then decided that it would be a good idea to try and get a hotel room at the end of the day.  We hadn't showered in a long time unless you count our plunge into the pool on memorial day. This along with the fact that we had been seeing signs for 30-40 dollar hotel rooms made it seem like it was worth riding another 30-40 miles in the rainy windy weather knowing we had a bed and hot shower at the end of the road. So we did just that, our day totaled at about 67 miles, we got a room for two and snuck in the other two, went to the grocery store and bought food that we could micro wave and room temp. beers because that's the only way they sold it. we spent our night eating and watching cable TV.
    The next day we went straight to the gas station down the road after packing to get our coffee and hot water for oat meal. While I was inside Bryan came in looking confused and told me that my rear tire had just exploded.  There was nothing that I rad over or that I had leaned my bike in that could have done this. When I got outside we realized that not only did my tube pop but it popped due to the side wall of my rim. The actual metal part that holds the tube and tire, had completely separated from the rest of the wheel in an 8 inch area. Now, how this happened or why this happened is beyond me. Normally I'd say this company owes me a wheel and what not. But realistically, I rode this wheel out. I have probably put over 6,000 miles on that thing. I'm just lucky it happened when I was in a gas station with my friends and not when I was going 25 miles an hour down a hill by myself. Some how with luck on my side The one bike store in town had exactly what needed. I found this out after placeing calls to bike shops all over north west Indiana, all of which told me that did not have a wheel that would be able to replace what I had, meant for touring, to fit a 9 speed casset with enough spokes to make it as strong as I need.  But then there it was, just a mile and a half down the road for 60 dollars even. By 1:30pm we were back to riding.
     We rode a hard 50 miles that afternoon ending our day with the sun setting over corn fields to our right.  We found a nice field with a privacy way behind a truck stop that made for a perfect night of camping.  It was a bitter sweet night really. It was the eve of kylers 25th birthday, it was the eve of the day we'd enter chicago, but yet this also meant it was the last night we'd camp and cook outside together, the last morning we'd wake up and eat oatmeal and bananas outside of a random gas station together, and the last day I'd have three friends to talk to while riding miles and miles and miles throughout the day.  But this is the way things go. We all have different things going on and these guys have life's to attend to back in Richmond. I am a lucky person to have been able to share these experiences over the past month with kyler Ryan and Bryan.
     And now here we are in Chicago, the windy city. We are staying with friends of friends and spending our days riding around exploring. Yesterday we met up with Richmond friend Matt who in on his way back east after months of traveling the west coast. We spent time walking the city and went to the new wes anderson film last night.  Even on my days off here, I still somehow rode somewhere around 35 miles yesterday. Today we are going to the beach, which is Lake Michigan. (It has more of a beach front that I ever imagined in my head)  I also plan to grab a map of Illinois and a hand full of post cards.
     I haven't mentioned this yet here but I will be traveling the rest of the way solo.  Due to things beyond his control, My friend Mike who had planed to meet me here and travel west is unable to due so.  So from here on out I'll just be keeping all of my friends and family in my thoughts and will try and stay in touch as best as I can.
     I'll be leaving town in just a few days but perhaps I'll find a computer when I make it to St. Louis.
Until then. No Bad Days.