The trip from Decatur to Wheeling went by rather quickly. This is mostly due to interstates. Now, as the entire trip has show, I don’t like interstates. But I do admit they serve a purpose. I didn’t realize that they served such a purpose to a scooter.

Out west, the interstates are extremely fast. Add in a head wind and you’ve got a 50mph death trap surrounded by other death traps moving at around 80mph. But heading east, the wind was behind me. Throw in high gas prices making everyone drive slower (I’m just speculating about that, but I think it’s true - people are driving slower… or I somehow got faster).

Well, I did get a little faster due to the tail wind. I was drafting trucks a lot of the way, as well. A fun little game to play is get about three car lengths behind a semi, so that you’re in his slip stream, but not too close. And when another semi is passing both of you, hit the gas. The scooter will take full advantage of the slip stream. Right when you get about one car length from the semi in front of you, the semi to your left will just be passing. Do a quick lane shift and you’re riding at 80mph behind a huge truck giving you zero wind resistance. It’s pretty fun!

Sure, a little dangerous, but I’m riding a scooter across the country… so… where’s the line?

I rode around Columbus. Not like around the streets, but physically around it. I used to live there and I’m not sure I really like the place. I kept my respectful distance and rode on. From a bit before Columbus to Wheeling, I took the interstates. It was probably 150 miles or so. Maybe a little more (took US 33 to the beltway and that’s rather interstate-like).

I got to Wheeling just as quickly as if I were in a car. Very few cars passed me. Usually, it was the other way around.

After a windy (with turns and bends) West Virginia State Route 88, I found myself on US 250 and then Palace Road on my way to Rati and Dwija’s. Just a little bit after 12 noon. Fast!

I had quite an amazing ride - when you take into account it was all on the interstates and if I don’t think about bypassing half a state worth of the historic National Road.

Thursday, I’ll be here and then Friday I’ll leave, finishing out the trip. Crazy that it’s over. . .

Miles today: 283
Miles total: 10,692

It’s all winding down, isn’t it? Today was quite a long day, but mostly it was a riding day. Sure, I saw a few cool things. And yeah, I rode along the Lincoln Highway, Yellowstone Trail and Route 66. But since it was a riding day, I didn’t really get to play around with that too much.

In Wisconsin, I tried to take Great River Road, but it was blocked due to construction. I picked it up later, but it was after it moved away from the Mississippi. A little later, I rode by another wacky grotto. I stopped and got some pictures. I love weird stuff like this.

This grotto had an unsettling patriotism thing going on. I’m not really sure why. I’m not at all sure what patriotism has to do with God. Actually, I am sure. It has nothing to do with God. But when you mix the two, nothing good ever comes of it. Ever. I’ve never really found much good in or use for patriotism, mixed with other stuff or taken straight.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I obviously love this country (small “c”). I love the land and the people. I adore it. But the government, the borders, the insane foreign policy, the republican and democrats and all that horrible nonsense - I have no place for it.

And when I see patriotism mixed with religion, it just bugs me. Religion and spirituality are supposed to uplift us and fill us with love of God, not love of country. Love of God is obviously higher than love of country, yet so many churches and religious institutions focus on patriotism instead of actually teaching something that could help us. It’s a shame.

Jesus had tons of wonderful teachings. None of them had anything to do with patriotism.

Bah, I had it all thought out in my head. It’s what I do when I’m riding. I’ve got a lot of time to think and stuff almost always sounds better with the rush of wind.

As I crossed over into Illinois, I found myself in Galena. General Grant lived here before and after the war. I visited his house. There was a monument to his wife… that was sort of weird.

But I couldn’t stay long. I had to make time. I don’t like traveling this way, but I’m good at it. I have this weird level of endurance for travel. I spent 11 hours on the bike today. That’s been pretty normal on this return trip. I didn’t do as many miles today as I have been doing, but that’s because of trying to get through the Chicago/Joliet area.

Being back in Joliet (third time this year) was nice. Sort of nice. Well, it could have been nice. It was nice going through it on the Lincoln Highway. Slow, but nice. Again, west to east - not such a great thing!

And after that, it was Route 30 to Ft. Wayne and then US 33 to Decatur, Indiana. And that’s mostly just like an interstate. Fast, but not a whole lot of fun.

Tomorrow I’ll be taking US 33 to Columbus. I used to live in Columbus, but I don’t think I’ll be visiting. And then I shall I-70 to Wheeling, where I also used to live. I used to travel between Columbus and Wheeling (New Vrndavana, actually) quite often.

While on I-70, I’ll have the opportunity to take old sections of the National Road. We’ll see if I take it.

Here are my pics!

Miles today: 470
Miles total: 10,409 (woo!)

For the curious among us (myself included), I stayed in Plymouth, Indiana last night. I was unsure of the town due to the 412 miles, cold, rain, evil and getting lost. Turns out it was Plymouth, a town on Lincoln Highway. I should have just stayed on the Lincoln Highway all day yesterday, but I didn’t.

In a way, I guess it’s a good thing. Today I took Lincoln Highway from Plymouth to Valparaiso, Indiana. I woke to a cool, but wildly sunny and cloudless morning. Because I knew that I didn’t have too far to travel today, I took my time.

I even took in a small breakfast of this amazing trail mix that Chris hooked me up with and a Clif Bar. An amazing breakfast, isn’t it?

By this time, a very ambitious member of the cleaning staff tried to break my door down, so I loaded up Ruby and rode a block down the road to Krogers. I walked more aimlessly than not around the super market. I was looking for juice or… something. I have no idea. I was hungry and just wanted … something.

I found nothing to my liking and left with empty hands.

A bit farther down, I found the Lincoln Highway, hung a right and found myself speeding down back roads - some busy, some nearly forgotten.

I first stumbled upon a ruin of an esteemed diner simply called “EAT.” It’s illegal to not stop at EAT. I pulled over and took a few pics. How could I not? What a brilliant idea - to name your restaurant “EAT.” I should have named the bookstore “READ.” There should be a gas station named “PUMP.” These things are important. Ahh, the nights we’d linger over brandy at EAT. And so passed the “EAT” phase of my life.¹

That thrilled me.

So anyway, up next was Hamlet, the town that, when the wind is southerly, knows a hawk from a handsaw.² Hamlet was an old railroad town. It’s still thriving, somehow, and got me jazzed up because they had a short line engine (The Wisconsin & South) just sitting there next to a grain elevator. Who is as excited as me?! Thanks Hamlet!

Lincoln Highway, at this point, followed the tracks. I was hoping for a train, but nothing doing for this fellow here.

As I mentioned before, Lincoln Highway, in this part of the county, is what would late become US Route 30. And when trying to follow the old Highway, you find yourself entering and exiting a four-lane Route 30. Much of the old road is gone, so it’s really difficult to tell what exactly the alignment was. I followed some dead ends and some roads I was hoping were Lincoln Highway. And who knows, maybe some where.

Next to Hamlet is Hanna. Hanna was much like Hamlet. Hanna was co-founded by a delightful chap named “Nimrod West.” Poor guy. But nice town with a GREAT railroad intersection. I’ve been wanting to see one of these for a long time. Thankfully, I got my chance!

I took Lincoln Highway to Valpraiso and discovered that I was now in the central time zone. I don’t know where it changed, you think they’d mark that better than they do. But no. I’m now an hour behind most everyone reading this.

A right I took on Indiana 49, passing US 6, I-80, I-94 and US 20 to US 12. Before me was the gates to the Indiana Dunes Park. I was told by someone to check this out and I really wanted to. But it was $10 to get in and if I’m going to pay that much, I’d want to spend a bit more time there. I’ve seen some pictures of it and it looks really great.

I took US 12 and then US 20 and then US 12 again into Gary, Indiana. Gary is pretty beat up. I’m not sure if it was ever not beat up.

Chicago was coming up and I was a bit nervous about riding in it. I easily found my way to Lakeshore Drive, zipping and zapping around turns. The traffic was almost nonexistent. I’ve driven this twice before and it was pretty busy. But on a Sunday morning, no problem!

My tummy was grumblin’, so I decided to find the Chicago Diner³ . I thought I knew where it was. I took Lake Shore to Foster and then Foster for several miles and … hey… nothing at all looks familiar! You guessed it, I was lost in Chicago. I rode around 30 or 40 miles through uptown and midtown looking for something familiar. I couldn’t remember the name of the street, the section of town or really anything. I knew the general location, but wasn’t really sure where I was.

I was all over. I wish I could remember where, exactly. I didn’t panic or anything. I was hungry and wanted to eat, but traffic was light and it was sort of fun. Beautiful day for such dealings.

But I did finally find it. I rode not three blocks from it a couple of hours earlier. That’s how it works.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to get the last seat in the diner. The place was literally packed. I bot a Dagwood and a vanilla shake. Delicious as usual, folks.

I’m glad I went. It’s not like I’ll be able to get vegan vittles so easy as today. Mostly, I’ll be reduced to Subway.

Well, enough putting it off, it’s time to start Route 66. I found my way (without getting lost) to Michigan Street. And there it was. “Historic Route 66 - Beginning.” I was going to try to take a pic of Ruby and the sign, but traffic was now pretty heavy. Nothing doing. So I waved as I rode by.

Route 66 through Chicago isn’t all that special. I guess there are a few things, but nothing stands out. The Mother Road graces the towns of Cicero, Lyons, McCook, Romeoville and finally, Joliet. Mostly, with the exception of Joliet, the towns run into each other. It’s all part of Chicago’s sprawl.

I saw a few of the sights to see and then after a few miles, I was in Joliet.

Joliet must have been a pretty big place during the early 1900’s. You’ve got three main east to west US highways all passing through this one town.

I was pretty confused about what was where in Joliet, so I rode around a bit and found a Circuit City so I could by a recharger for my phone. They had nothing. I went to the AT&T store at “the mall.” Same story. So then I went to Radio Shack and got a new phone. I had to re-up with AT&T, but whatever, dudes⁴.

Joliet was all starting to make some sense to me, so I found my hotel room and and decided to do some more exploring. I went to the Route 66 park (it was ok) and tried to see if I could find the Collins Street Prison, where part of the Blues Brothers movie was filmed (this part). After a bit of wandering, I found it. Huge place. It’s one of those castle-style prisons. Neat too.

And since it was now nearly dark, I headed back to the hotel and am ready to start Route 66 in earnest tomorrow. Woo!

Miles traveled today: 226
Miles traveled total: 953

High temp: 73
Low temp: 48

I forgot nothing today. But I *did* find my hat! Yay!

Here are my pics from today.

1. If you would like to know why I like this, go here. [↩]
2. Please, someone get this! [↩]
3. I’m a vegan - I don’t eat meat, eggs or dairy. Finding *good* road food is a tough one for me. Usually, it’s just Subway or something boring like that. So when I find a good, vegan place to eat, I’m THERE! [↩]
4. It was cheaper, you see, to get a free phone vs. a $30 charger for an old, craptastic phone [↩]

I knew I posted my day off goings ons a bit too early. While I was at NV, the cows stopped by the field right next to Rati & Dwija’s. It was fun to say hello. But I got a few ticks and that never goes over well when you’re a guest in someone’s house.

And a bit later that evening, Olivia stopped by. Woo! I’ve not seen her in nearly a year. Rati, Olivia and I were up till midnight or so catching up. She and I talk a lot, but we never really get to hang out. She even brought me a box of stuff that she … somehow acquired… from random places throughout the world. The best thing (by far) was an instruction pamphlet about what to do if your airplane goes down i the middle of the ocean. I wish I could scan it, it’s amazing. Thanks!

Obviously, I got to sleep late, which I thought would be a bad thing, since I had to get up early. I wanted to be on the road by 8am. Afterall, I had 325ish miles to do today, right?

Somehow or another I woke up on time and was indeed on the road by 8am. I said my good-byes (I’m really going to miss them) and bumped on down their lane, out Palace road to a very windy US 250 to WV 88 and then National Road through Wheeling.

The sky was a bit threatening, and I figured that it was probably going to rain sometime today. I putt-putted along National Road, crossed the Ohio River in to Ohio (there was no “Welcome to Ohio” sign… weird) and it started to sprinkle. Pennsylvania has 423 different words for “rain.” It was definitely a sprinkle. I pulled under and overpass and started to change into my Devo-esque rain gear.

The sprinkle changed into a light mist and I figured that after struggling to get the suit on, the sun would come out.

Hardly. I took National Road to St. Clairsville and then OH 9 to reconnect with US 250. Ghosh suggested that I do this to avoid the insane twists of 250 below Cadiz, OH. Great tip, I bet it saved me an hour. No worries, because I can lose an hour much more efficiently than I can gain one.

The rain was coming down pretty steadily now. All through OH 9, US 250 and OH 39, the rain fell, mostly, in buckets.

While it was raining, I rode through Berlin, Ohio. Berlin is pretty much the Lancaster of Ohio. Amish everywhere. But their buggies are cooler than Pennsylvania Amish. They’re kind of high-tech. I wish I could have grabbed a few pics. They are all black, and snazzy. Sort of like the Knight Rider car of Amish buggies. They even have two “mod” lights on the front and a couple of mirrors. I think it would be pretty cool to add a bunch of lights and mirrors, Quadrophinia style!

The big attraction for me today was the Lincoln Highway. I’ve heard it was well preserved through Ohio. I was bummed that it was raining, but as I got to the town of Lucas, it stopped. In celebration, I pulled over by this weird ass building called Liquid and ate a Cliff Bar.

It was around noon, and so that was my lunch.

Mansfield, Ohio delivered the Lincoln Highway to me before I expected it, so in glee, I wandered from my directions and followed it. Now that does indeed sound like a recipe for disaster, but I promise, it’s not. All worked out because Ohio marks the Lincoln Highway really very well. Thanks, Ohio. This time, you ARE fun!

I took a really old alignment of it and I was afraid I’d get lost, so I went north to find the slightly less old alignment. I crossed US 30 and went about a mile, nearly giving up until I saw an old Lincoln Highway mile marker and squeaked in appreciation.

Heading west, I magically dodged about four storms. It got really nasty to the south and east of me. That’s right, the storms were headed north north east, so I had to keep steppin’ to avoid the wet.

Figuring that since the sun was out, I could remove the Devo-gear, I pulled over and attempted to disrobe. Though I was avoiding the storms, I wasn’t avoiding the wind. The wind kicked up and knocked Ruby over into a ditch, nearly right on top of me.

I struggled for several minutes to right her and nearly couldn’t. I’m not sure what I would have done if I couldn’t pick her up. Thankfully, I did, though I was amazingly out of breath after. There is no damage at all, but both of the mirrors got all loose on me. I’m prepared in ways that make Boy Scouts look like slackers, so I fixed it on the spot. Ten minutes later, I was on the road.

It was amazing. The sun was shining, it was 70 degrees and the road was straight and long and I was smiling ear to ear, but for the wind. The wind was blowing pretty well due-east, which meant that I had a horrible time keeping Ruby up to speed. Normally, with the weight of the bags and me, she can pull 75mph no problem. But with this wind, I couldn’t even coax her to do 60.

The Lincoln Highway isn’t anywhere near a funky as Route 66, but it has a turn of the century (like early 1900’s) charm all its own. The towns are quaint and peaceful and the sky is huge. Ohio passed really quickly.

Before I knew it, I was at a truck stop fueling up (Ruby’s MPG suffered horribly because of the wind). I walked inside and was stopped by a nice-ish man who had almost five teeth to his smile. He asked me how much I paid for the scooter. I told him $6000 to which he replied that he could get one just like it for $2000.

No, he couldn’t, but I had to pee really badly and didn’t want to argue. I simply didn’t care. He then asked where I was going. I told him California via Route 66 and that tomorrow I’d be in Chicago.

“You don’t need to go to Chicago to pick up Route 66, ” he said. “It’s starts in Ohio, just down the road.” I told him that it didn’t, but he insisted it did, so I said, “you’re talking about Ohio Route 66, I’m talking about US Route 66.” He said, “yep, I know, you can take it to California.”

I agreed because I didn’t care enough not to.

He kept talking, even when I tried to make it for the bathroom. I have a hard time just ending a conversation. It went on and on for about 20 minutes. Finally, I got relief and used another door to exit the truck stop, you know, just in case.

As I left, the clouds were rolling in. Luckily, Ohio was nearly at an end and Indiana was waiting with open arms. I took Lincoln Highway but a few miles into Indiana, then turned north on Indiana Route 101.

My original destination was for the KOA in Auburn, Indiana. It’s WAY too cold and windy for that, so I decided to take 101 pasted Auburn to US Route 6. It’s about 30 miles. The winds were now cross winds. My guess is probably 40mph gusts (there was a sustained wind of 32mph). It was pretty tough keeping the rubber side down. I could get higher speeds with cross winds, but it was a bit hairier.

I took Route 6 west to Kendallville, where I decided I would stop for the night. But it was only 5pm. Why not push on? So I did.

The towns of Wawaka, Nappanee and Bremmen provided really nothing at all. I was looking for a place with WiFi and nothing doing there.

By the time I hit US 31, in the town of Lapaz, it was 7:30. I had put my rain gear on again. The temperature dropped to 48 and I was freezing. I needed to find a motel, but there didn’t seem to be anything anywhere. So I called Sarah who looked it up and after a few “where am I?!” calls, she directed me to go to US 30. Yep. The same exact road I traveled 30 miles away from to be on US 6. It was now a measly 6 miles away. So yes, I could have stayed on Lincoln Highway, enjoyed a lovely ride and ended up in the same place as I am now, Days Inn … somewhere in Indiana (Plymouth?), in much less time.

Everything was wet. It’s not that the rain gear didn’t hold up. It did really well. But I got caught by surprise and the rain did its thing.

Also, my boots are not waterproof. *Slosh slosh*

The motel room is nice. Things are drying out and soon life will be back to normal.

Tomorrow is Chicago. Should be a comparatively short ride. I definitely had a better day today (save for the end bits) than I did on my first day out. I’m weary, but ready to move along.

And tomorrow is the start of Route 66! So if you’re reading just waiting for such things, your wait is soon over.

G’night, kids!

Miles traveled today: 412 miles
Miles traveled total: 727 miles

High temp: 70
Low temp: 48 (rain rain rain rain rain!)

Things forgotten: hat at Rati and Dwija’s. Grr.

Here are the pics from today and last evening.

We arrived in Chicago in effing record time. Our departure was at 430am. I slept from about midnight to 330am. Goodsleeperic.

The drive itself was rather uneventful, as would be any drive through Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. It was I-80 all the way! God, this was so exciting.

I did fall asleep at the wheel once. I love it when I do that. It kept me awake though. Until about right now. I’m in a hotel room in Joliet, Il. Where is Joliet, you ask? It’s a bit south of Chicago. The Blues Brothers had some affiliation with Joliet prison, if I remember correctly.

So basically, since I’ll be doing Route 66 in a few weeks, I’ll spare you the play-by-play. Instead, I offer you the pictures I took today. Hey, that rhymes! I should SO be a poet!

Here are the pics from today!

And here are those from Smartz.