I’m looking at a deep lake with a sand beach, which used to be a coal strip mine. We’re staying here tonight near Coal City, after riding 105 miles from Belvidere. The ride was mostly flat and almost all rural, but featured a headwind much of the way. As I left camp this morning, and felt the wind in my face, I knew it was going to be a long day. When riding into a headwind, one can maintain a certain (low) speed fairly easily. If you try to push harder and get your speed up, you pay a big price. “Take what the wind gives you, and enjoy the ride”, is the best advice for a day like this.
A feature of long bike rides in the country that I haven’t mention previously, is the pleasure of seeing a lot of birds. Today in the Illinois countryside, we enjoyed a wide array of different birds. I’m not a birder, but here are some of the ones I can identify that we saw today. We saw a Crane flying, a Cardinal, many swallows, Killdeer in a nearby field, and Canadian Geese at the lake tonight. There were many more, but I’m not the one to identify them. We could hear birds singing all day long, or at least when the wind noise wasn’t too loud in our ears. Every time we stopped, I noticed the birds singing, and watched them flying. I know about Killdeer because we had them living near us in Modesto when I was young, and my Dad taught me about them and their habits. They are quite distinctive.
Sometimes, we are so wrapped up in our riding, that we forget to stop and smell the roses. Today, the bird songs pulled my mind away from the headwind and the hundred miles of riding, and reminded me of the beauty and fragility of life. I trust I will take time after the Big Ride, to stop and listen to the birds, singing in my busy life at home.

Today's Montana jersey seems a bit out of place in Illinois. This is a self portrait where we ate our lunch today

Chris tells us that he has four daughters at home (here in Illinois by the way.) After finding out about his family, nobody questions just why he is leaving home for almost two months to ride across the country.