Day 20

We're on the road again! After a relaxing/busy/fun-filled rest day, we are headed west. Today's ride dedication was for the caregivers for the people who have battled cancer. We rode out of Buckingham Fountain to Caldwell Woods for a picnic lunch! Family, friends, and alumni came to enjoy lots of food with us, then we left in the afternoon for a 15-mile ride-along. It ended up having some interesting portages, from the flooded Des Plaines River to some random railroad tracks in the middle of the bike path.We said farewell to our family and friends, thus beginning the "real I4K." A joke among us is that the one-fourth of the ride which we have already accomplished before Chicago is actually just "practice I4K" and now that we are on a completely new route which has never been done, we're roughing it more. Speaking of roughing it... the last part of our 61-mile ride was a long, convoluted set of cues (the directions we use for where to bike) which frustrated us all. But we were even more glad to arrive at Zion Lutheran Church in Elgin. They provided a tasty taco dinner with some of the greatest desserts ever. Some of us went to shower, and then we were so glad to go to sleep after such a long day.