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Illinois

• 03.05.10
  Bicycle gardens
  Bureau County IL (1)

  Ken Steinhoff's post about Bicycle Gardens Sprouting Up All Over made me think of this scene from a ride on August 31. In this land of corn and soybeans one might get the idea that life is strictly business -- agribusiness. Then one sees a bit of whimsy, like this red bike left to grow in a bed of flowers along a gravel road. I had started in Peru this morning, and ended up in Ohio. It wasn't that long a ride, though. Those are towns in Illinois. We had picked this ...
  
  
• 08.31.09
  Ohio, Illinois
  Bureau County IL (0)

  This morning I rode from Peru to Dad Joe Grove, then ended the outing in Ohio. Ohio, Illinois, that is. From there we drove to O'Hare airport, and now we're back home. Back to work tomorrow. Yesterday I hadn't even known there was a Dad Joe Grove. I found out about it in the motel last night while trying to figure out the location of Boyd's Grove. I had Boyd's Grove marked at a couple of locations on my maps, and it turned out both of them were wrong. But the right ...
  
  
• 08.31.09
  Gray adventures
  Marshall County IL, Putnam County IL (0)

  The Illinois official bicycle maps are excellent - still the best ones I know of even though some other midwestern states have also come out with good maps in recent years. The green roads are the ones rated the best, the orange ones are good, too, and the red ones should usually be avoided. But what about the gray roads? The Illinois maps leave those as an adventure for the rider. Often they're gravel. But the one in Putnam County circled in red (above) is different. It no longer exists as a road. ...
  
  
• 08.29.09
  Center of the Prairie
  La Salle County IL (0)

  This afternoon I stopped here, just south of Prairie Center, Illinois, because my front tire had gone flat. Earlier I had ridden along the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and now was on my way to Shabbona State Park, to revisit the scene of the "Indian Creek Massacre" of May 21, 1832. Alas, the sun was about down by the time I got there.  But it's really a better place to take photos in the early morning sun, anyway. Indian Creek itself still had a little sunlight, but the park and the sites of the killings are on the other side ...
  
  
• 06.24.09
  Morraine View
  McLean County, IL (0)

  Just before my brief, aborted trip earlier this week, I got a Nikon D60 camera. Someone at work had called my attention to the fact that SLR cameras had now come down in price. The D60 was within the range I was authorized to spend, and it's a small enough camera that it can work in my handlebar bag. A few other things had to go to make room for it, though. Now I have to get used to using an SLR again, and learn how to take advantage of digital SLR. The ...
  
  

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