Today was suppose to be a very easy day... With a fierce wind blowing out of the south all day, I planned on sleeping in and riding the short 19 miles to Henry, IL, where I could camp in their park. I did sleep in to about 9am, but there were crews in the park with a backhoe refilling the playground mulch about 50 feet from my tent so I figured I might as well get up and rolling.
The morning went slow, I didn't want to strain my legs so I took it nice and easy and enjoyed the remoteness that I was in. When you don't see any cars for 30 minutes on these back roads, you start to wonder how far you are from anyone else... I have a feeling at times its a couple miles or so! While not a headwind, the strong crosswind coming out of the south did make cycling interesting. About 1/3rd of my route had me headed north, so I enjoyed the powerful tailwind for the few miles I got it. A little before noon or so I rolled over the bridge into Henry, IL, and sought out the library.
I spent the afternoon updating the last several days on my blog and finally getting a good charge on my phone. I then checked out the weather and saw that tomorrow it would be hitting 100 degrees and I'd also be getting a decent headwind (not as strong as yesterday's but still decent).
I needed to be in Kewanee tomorrow, about 40 miles away, before the post office closed so I could pick up my new phone... so I had another choice: hang out in Henry tonight and get 40 miles in tomorrow's heat and wind before the post office closes or start out now, in the evening, and try and get some miles in before nightfall.
Yup, might as well add some mileage on today. After finishing up my meal at a little local diner, I headed out, hoping to hit Bradford, about half way there, before it got too dark out. I didn't know where I would be spending the night but I figured I would find someplace when I got there.
About half way to Bradford, a collie from some farm decided to give chase. Up to now, I had been used to dogs running along their property line barking at me, and have had probably a dozen dogs come up and run along side of me, 2-3 feet away, barking, but they didn't get close enough to bite and would break off once they got a little ways from their yard. I even had a really fat rottweiler try to give chase in a hilarious but sad I'm-too-fat-to-run way. But this time, this collie got right up close to me and I felt the bike momentary slow down, like he tried to bite my tire or pannier. I had sped up so after this he had broke off chase, and about a quarter mile down the road I stopped to see if there was any damage to my tire or pannier, and amazingly I could not find even a mark, so I'm not sure if the slow down I felt really happened or if I hit some gravel orif he did bite something on my bike.
What I did know is I should probably make my pepper spray more accessible, so I dug it out of my handlebar bag and put it on top of everything so I could grab it fast. My new rule is if any dogs close in like the collie did, they were getting a face full of pepper spray.
When I reached Bradford it was dusk and I started looking for places to camp. Right outside of town there was one of the many giant wind turbines and a little gravel road going to it, I though it might be fun to camp at the base of one of those, but I figured I would hit up the police dept and see what they said first. I pedaled over to it and called the number on the door, and an officer emerged from inside about 10 seconds later. I told him what I was doing and asked if I could camp behind the police dept, he looked at me like it was a very strange question and then said "eh, I don't think anyone will care, you can set your tent up out back." As I thanked him and started to unpack he came over and asked for my ID, which I gave him, and then asked if I would mind if he ran it for warrants or whatnot. I wondered how many people with warrants would really initiate contact with the police, but it was late so I told him to go for it. As I finished setting up my tent he emerged from the building and gave my ID back to me and told me to have a good night and apologized as he would be coming and going throughout the night so it might be a little loud. I thanked him again and crawled into the tent and fell asleep.
Start: Wanona, IL
End: Bradford, IL
Distance: 44.79 miles
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