For the first evening in a long time I have both internet access and the energy to update this blog.  Many nights I lack in one or the other, but today's ride was accommodating. I can't update on everything this post (because it would be impossible), but here are a few things going on.

First of all, our rest day in Chicago was awesome!  Having the day off to spend with family and friends was a pleasant change of pace from our usual day schedules.  It was a blast to go out with my relatives and friends for dinner downtown, and it had to have been one of the best meals of my life.  But maybe that was due to the good company as much as the food. 

After our rest day, we had a short 30 mile day that looped us around Lake Michigan and brought us to Highland Park.  It was fun to ride around Chicago after riding miles through corn fields to get there.  From Highland Park we traveled north to our Lake Geneva stay over. Normally for lunch we stop on the side of the road and eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but yesterday we stopped by a rider's friend's place where they cooked us burgers and corn on the cob.  It definitely felt like summer that day, as when we arrived to our stay over we swam again.  It was hard to refuse after riding many miles in the rising heat these days.  And before you think we have it too easy, we have been eating old bagels many times already on this trip, I just try to skip over that boring stuff! 

That brings me up to today where we are staying in a town outside of Madison Wisconsin.  Today's ride was just about 70 miles and the first day of what I would consider to be real heat.  Each stop along the way my group made it as quick as possible to avoid the heat.  By 9am I was sweating a lot and knew it would only get warmer.  Because of our quick pace and short stops my group got in around 1:30pm which was early enough to roll in out of the heat.  Now we are getting ready to head north a little further, and then west to Portland.