Month: September 2019

Monday, September 30, 2019

Start: Indianapolis, Indiana
End: Richmond, Indiana
Mileage today/cumulative: 75 / 294
Elevation Ascended: 1,463′
Weather: Sunny, 72° at start; Sunny, 90º at finish; Winds: mostly behind us!
Flat tires (entire group) day/cumulative: 0 / 1

Some of you have wondered about our overall route from Chicago to New York City. You can check out the map here (there’s also a link in the right side bar).

After a rest day in Indianapolis (Day Four), today was one of those “get from point A to point B” kind of days without a lot of things to see along the way. It was also one of the few days on this trip without riding on a bike path or a trail. On top of all of that, it was ridiculously hot and humid for the last day of September, so everyone just wanted to “get it done”.

However, it wasn’t without some historical points of interest. In 1806, Thomas Jefferson signed into law an act of Congress establishing a National Road to connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Ohio River. The National Road eventually became US 40 in the original 1925 plan for U.S. Routes.  Today we rode 45 miles on US 40, a major east–west highway that runs from Silver Summit, Utah to Atlantic City, New Jersey. US 40 once traversed the entire country and is one of the first U.S. highways created in 1926. 

Continue reading “Chicago to NYC – Days Four/Five”

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Start: Frankfort, Indiana
End: Indianapolis, Indiana
Mileage today/cumulative: 61 / 219
Elevation Ascended: 571′
Weather: Sunny, 63° at start; Sunny, 90º at finish; Winds: mixed
Flat tires (entire group) day/cumulative: 0 / 1

After being beat up on Day Two, everyone was happy to wake up to sunshine and no wind. It got hot and humid as the day went along, which just made Bev and me feel right at home.

We began the morning with a two mile ride to Frankfort’s Downtown Diner, where all of the locals go for breakfast. It was pretty much what you would expect from a Midwest diner – great food, super friendly people, and very little ambience. It was sort of like the “Cheers” version of a diner, where everybody knows your name. It was a perfect way to  start the day. 

Continue reading “Chicago to NYC – Day Three”

Friday, September 27, 2019

Start: Fair Oaks, Indiana
End: Frankfort, Indiana
Mileage today/cumulative: 84 / 158
Elevation Ascended: 1,457′
Weather: Sunny, 57° at start; Sunny, 73º at finish; Wind – BRUTAL
Flat tires (entire group) day/cumulative: 0 / 1

On a trip like this, cyclists tend to be obsessed with weather forecasts. Every rider thinks that their weather app is the most accurate and you’ll find them at breakfast talking about the temperatures at the start and end points of the ride, the chances of rain all along the route, along with wind speed and direction. This always seems silly to me because we have no choice but to get on our bikes and ride to the next hotel. We can’t just say “oh, the weather’s going to be lousy today so let’s just take the day off.” If that were the case, we would have taken the day off, stayed another another night at Fair Oaks Farms (Indiana) and done the weird “dairy farm adventure“.

Continue reading “Chicago to NYC – Day Two”

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Start: Chicago, Illinois
End: Fair Oaks, Indiana
Mileage today/cumulative: 74 / 74
Elevation Ascended: 817′
Weather: Sunny, 59° at start; sunny, 71º at finish
Flat tires (entire group) day/cumulative: 1 / 1

We could not have asked for a better day to begin our ride to New York City. Perfect weather, beautiful views, and low traffic made for a very easy 74 miles. Our ceremonial start was at Buckingham Fountain in Chicago’s Grant Park and we all wore special Chicago – New York City jerseys that we purchased from Adventure Cycling. This seemed like the perfect spot for a group of baby boomers. The Fountain’s water capacity is 1.5 million gallons and depending on wind conditions, the major displays recirculate approximately 14,100 gallons of water per minute. The original pumps and motors are still in operation today. Old and still going, just like us.

Continue reading “Chicago to New York City – Day One”

Welcome back friends! In this latest chapter of our “go-go” years, we’re headed out on another epic journey.

This time we’re riding our bicycles from Chicago to New York City. We spent a few days before the trip visiting our friends Deb and Julie in Pennsylvania, where our car will stay for the duration of our journey. Deb and Julie were kind enough to drive us to the Washington D.C. Amtrak station, where we boarded an overnight train to Chicago. We will reunite with them (and our car) at the end of the trip. 

After bidding our friends farewell in the “Kiss and Drop” parking lot, we prepared to board the Capitol Limited train to Chicago. We rolled our bicycles into a baggage car and checked into our “Sleepliner Roomette”. We had expected to hang our bikes on racks in the baggage car, only to discover that racks were not available on this train. The Amtrak agent had us roll our bikes into the car and lay them down. While not the ideal method for storing bicycles, it still beats packing them in a bike box and shipping them in advance or, worse, handing them over to the airlines. The bikes were no worse for wear when we retrieved them from the baggage car in Chicago, but we were troubled by the fact that no Amtrak employee was monitoring the car and we were able to just grab them and walk out of the station.

Continue reading “Team Pea Back on Their Bikes”