Day 34 - Champaign, IL to Crawfordsville, IL - 82 miles - 1,158 feet of climbing - 5:09 hours in the saddle

Goodbye Illinois….the memories of my wife, brother and sister surprising me at SAG 2 were oh so sweet.  Eastward to Indiana where there is “more to discover”.

Today was helmet decoration day!  Linda’s throne for Sylvia was amazing.  As for me, with the help of my wife, sister and niece, we pursued a roadkill theme with a skunk on my helmet!  I rode with it all the weary to SAG 1 at mile 40.

As we rode out of Champaign on US Route 150 (which goes close to my childhood home in Bloomington), we said goodbye to Peyton (our firefighter mechanic) in St Joseph and proceeded through the flat Illinois farms (and past some questionable businesses) to Indiana.

In Veedersburg, we were enticed by the “free straw with drink purchase” and enjoyed an incredible chocolate milkshake.

In Hillsboro, Mark S got into a little trouble with the law!  I guess his bike was going the wrong way compared to those on the brick wall.  The officer stumbled through the Miranda rights, so we think we can get the charges dropped!

Rode most of the day with Mark S and Ron (both Indiana natives).  Got to Crawfordsville about 1:30 or at least I thought I did until I realized we crossed into another time zone.  Our last time zone of the trip.  Tooled around the square (not sure why there are paintings of strawberries on every store window).  Research tells me they have a huge annual Strawberry Festival, which starts tomorrow.  Damn, we were too early for the Unbound Gravel races in Emporia and now too early for the Crawfordsville Strawberry Festival!  

Here are my favorite town signs from today.

After dinner (actually I had breakfast) at the Cracker Barrel, we had a group meeting to discuss the schedule/logistics for the end of the ride in Boston.  Can’t believe it is already time to discuss. “Only” about 1,000 miles left to go!

Savor the Journey // Achieve the Goal