USNA 1973 Ride-2-Remember

62 wet miles

Day 45, 17 September: Morris, IL to Munster, IN

We went over 2200 miles today (total to date – not all today!); less than 1,000 to go; and we left Illinois.

The day started out with full raingear — a good decision.

Today actually started out last night – checking the weather every hour to see if the rain being called for was going to start before dawn or wait to mid-morning, be a light drizzle or a downpour.  Every hour… all night. “It is what it is” as Tes says.  Turns out it did, in fact, rain all day. We got in a few miles before it picked up , but it DID pick up to a steady rain, turning to a good downpour the last 8 miles.

John Hults ’83 joins us — ’83 does 22 pushups each morning, for the 22 veterans who commit suicide each day.

We were joined for today’s ride by John Hults, ‘83 and his wife Lee.  John has been riding with the Class of ‘83 Ride Across America but had to take some time off to take care of his business.  He reached out to Doug about possibly joining us for this segment which was close to his home.  It was a pleasure to have him, and Lee, join us for this – very wet – day.

John on the trail; Lee Hults welcomes the team to the 30-mile SAG stop.

The day was not without “incidents”.  First, John had a flat, fixed it, and had no problem catching up to the rest of us.  Most of the route was on trail – the Michigan-Illinois Canal Trail and Old Plank Trail, not all paved, which made for a lot of puddles – and mud.  It wasn’t the mud that got Tes but a slick rubber mat that was covering a wood bridge.  Tes’s wheel caught an edge that made him slip and go down.  No damage – to man nor bike.  Then we had to come to a hard stop when the bridge we were supposed to cross was completely out and we had to navigate around the detour.

This is how the team looked at mile 30, after 15 miles of rain, wet sand and mud.

Bill and I were navigating through the town of Joliet when we came upon Tes, bike upside down, rear wheel off – yep, another flat. Mark was already pulling into a nearby parking lot to render assistance – so we knew Tes would not be far behind us.

Dave and John arrive at the motel.

I knew we were getting close to the finish when I heard Bill singing “Pedalin’ in the Rain”; maybe that’s why we missed the big “trophy” buck or red fox that Dave told us he saw.

The group says farewell to John and Lee until the reunion in October.

At the hotel, we were admonished by hotel staff to stay off the carpet. I guess five soaked old guys with mud covered bikes are not an everyday thing they have to deal with. They did get us into our rooms in a hurry, too.

Ron Bowman

bmontva

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