Memoirous

I’m lucky living in Chicago. Bike paths, like arteries, lead out of the city to the north, south and west. Also bicycles are allowed on trains. We could wind out of the city and head to Milwaukee or to Indiana Dunes. Through the years accessibility to recreational paths has only gotten better as they have been extended and further developed. The I & M Trail started out life as a path worn down by mules towing flat-keeled boats along the canal dug from the Chicago River to the Illinois. The 60-foot wide and 6-feet deep trench was dug by Irish immigrants most of whom died of exhaustion and sickness and were buried in anonymous mass graves along the way. The work was completed in 1848 and though in service until 1933, the railroad killed the canal less than 10 years after it opened. Tracks run parallel to the trail today. Several locks and a lockkeeper’s house remain, though the small settlements that sprang up in the canal’s heyday have vanished. The towpath is crushed limestone ...

Last week I got caught in the rain 4 times on my bike. Not normally a big deal, but Chicago has already had so much rain that I try to get out between showers. Sometimes it looks perfect and I think to myself, Stop being a slug. Get up and go downtown!, and literally ten minutes later it’s pouring. When people see me come in dripping wet they act like I’m so hardcore to ride in the rain. I want to tell them, No, I just need to get home and that’s how—on my bike. So then there was this past weekend. I wanted to take advantage of a weekend without rain in the forecast. OK, there was a 20% chance, but that’s 80% chance of NO rain. And it’s finally warmed up. The average June temp in Chicago this year was like the low 60s. So meteorologically it looked like the stars were aligning for a two-day ride and camp out. I met a woman at the Bikes of Wrath movie (see link for review). It was a movie about bike touring and afterwards I came out to the parking lot to see someone look...