Wauconda Forever!

With Summer hours in effect at work I was able to knock off early and go for a bigger ride, 10 miles more than yesterday. I really wanted to ride to Fox Lake where my Aunt keeps her boat, which would be a 50 mile round trip but I was meeting a friend from college this evening for dinner and couldn't afford the extra distance. 

Suburbia Sucks ...

... if you are a road rider.

Had to work today and since Chicago is an hour behind New York and I couldn't get up early enough this morning to beat the heat so I had to settle for a ride after work.  It didn't look like there was smoke haze today but the afternoon sun had a unique quality about it that you don't find on the East Coast.

2757 West Jerome Street, Chicago, IL

Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go! My original plan for my first day in the Chicago area was to ride my grandmother's old house in the Rogers Park section of Chicago but after the little maintenance issue I needed to tweak my route a bit. My grandmother's house is a place of many memories and having never lived in Chicago and only visited for 40 years I always considered it my second home.

Ride back from Deerfield Cyclery

 I called the shop at 2 pm and they surprised me saying that it would be ready by 3 PM!  That was awesome, only my Aunt couldn't take me to get the bike. She said, "just take an Uber." That's what I did. I got kitted up, through my cycling shoes into a little shoulder bag, requested a car and went over to the bike shop.  The bike was ready to rock!  I even bought a jersey to say thank you for turning it around so quickly.

Leaving on (another) Jet Plane ...

A cousin of mine from Chicago reached out to me in June wanting to know if I was coming to Chicago for a family reunion and I had no clue that it was happening I immediately called my Aunt and she told me what was going on and that I welcomed to stay with her. I was inadvertently left out of the planning because the thought was that I wouldn't be able to bring my family due to the cost of air travel and some other issues. As it turns out, the weekend of the event was the same time my wife would be taking the boys and her sister to Maine for a long weekend.

Turns out that it was more economical for me to come out for a week then it was to come out for the weekend so I booked my flights for Wednesday and returning Tuesday.  I borrowed a bike bag from a former Newtown Lunartic who moved to New Jersey and the Sunday before I was supposed to leave, took the Jamis apart and put it in the bag.  It was so light, both the bag and the bike together that I was able to get a bunch of other things in the bag as well. I am getting one these bags.