Thursday, April 24, 2008

Bike Test 1-2-3

Greetings from Joliet!

Dylan and I have been here for 4 days now, running around doing errands, sleeping a lot eating a lot and trying to get his cats to like us. The Cubs are in first place and everyone here is very happy about it. Dylan, Grace and I went to the Chicago Diner for some delicious vegan food and stuffed ourselves more than was necessary. Dylan's mom, Theresa, bought us a bunch of rad food and we love her for it.

Yesterday Dylan and I loaded up our bikes and rode about 20 miles outside of Joliet on the I&M Canal Trail. We found a hidden spot in the woods near the trail and set up camp for the night. It was pretty simple, no fire, we cooked our baked beans and hot dogs on the little stove we bought, played rummy and went to bed very early. We woke up equally early and were back home by 10:30 to go to the diner. Everything went as well as can be expected for our first ride. Dylan hadn't affixed his rear rack tight enough and we had to stop to adjust that, and I got a flat tire (probably due to our walk through the woods). My tires are proving to be not so great unofortunately. I've gotten 2 flats on my rear (due to the same piece of glass) and one on my front. I got myself a fancy fold up spare so I should be ok, I just hope I'm not stuck changing tires all the time. Dylan's bike is awesome and works great though!

Here are some pictures for everyone!!















Dylan, Daddy, Elly and Mommy right before leaving for Joliet















Dylan doing some maintenance.
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Dylan with the bikes pre-ride.
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Elly withe bikes pre-ride.
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We saw this house in the Des Plaines river. I liked it.
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Bikes along the trail!
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Our first stealthy campsite!!!
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Dylan making dinner.
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Elly making dinner.
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Dinner!

Thats all for now. I might have gone overboard on the pictures a little...oh well.

We're leaving Joliet for the trailhead on Saturday, spending the night in a hotel probably taking long hot showers and watching TV and eating pounds of food then on Sunday we're off! I'll try to get in one last post before then.

Kisses!!

3 comments:

Rachel said...

No - it's NOT too many pictures! They are all great! I have a question,though. Are you two Elly and Dylan or Heidi and Klaus? I'm so confused... MONster hugs and tons o' love to you both. You will have my excellent vibrations throughout your adventure.
xoxoxooo

torbot said...

hey kids - it's Tor (um.. the older Tor, can't say the Washington Tor since we're both in WA now).

wow - SO cool you guys are doing this! It's nice to have more cyclists in the family :) Ell- I mean Heidi, if you want to avoid flats you guys should get some Mr Tuffie's if you haven't already (might go by a different name). They're basically plastic strips that fit between your inner tube and tires and I swear by them. I've run over some really gnarly stuff and haven't flatted in years!

Good luck on this and watch out for headwinds - can't wait to read more!

Anonymous said...

i think there can never be too many pictures. i want a billion! i hope you guys are having fun!!! i mis youuu!!!