Leaving Lake Michigan!

Illinois Wanderlust? With my summer break winding down, filled with earnest home improvement, I took a moment to put my head above water and reflect.  What would be the most important thing I could accomplish before I returned to another busy year of teaching?

Though I had accomplished much on my list in the way of home improvement and car maintenance, my list also seemed to be getting longer.  But there was another list; a list of dreams. I realized the most important thing I could do before my free time was limited to occasional evenings and weekends was to make one of my "wanderlust" dreams come true.

Aside from riding to the store or a few five to ten mile rides per week that combined an appointment or other errand, I was not in particularly good shape. I remembered reading a few weeks ago some good advice from a late-in-life bicycle tourist - "just go. Take it easy, and you will get in shape." I decided at that moment I would try to ride from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River.

I had plotted out a route in my mind many times before, often scribbled down on random pieces of paper. My worst-case-scenario was I could take the train back from Geneva. I also realized that while it was important for me to experience the breadth of Illinois, my home state, it was also important for me to just be "out there." 

I yearned to be out under the open sky, to see the clouds, to stretch my eyesight and to smell the fields and forests of my youth. And so after an early morning bike ride to the lakefront, I was off!