Hello and welcome to the official Illini 4000 website blog for the 2023 Bike America Team’s journey across the United States! We could not be any more excited about the adventure we are about to take on, nor could we be any more eager to fulfill our mission as an organization over the course of the summer. My name is Jonathan Boudreaux (boo like a ghost, drO like bro) and I am the journalist for the I4K 2023 Bike America Team. My job is both simple and one I am going to absolutely love doing: relaying all of the details of our adventures to anyone and everyone wishing to read about them! I will be posting daily barring any technical difficulties, so saddle up, helmets on, and get ready to follow along on a truly epic summer of cycling!
The team, hungry for adventure, full of pizza.
The first day, ironically called Day -1, consists of a few key objectives: 1.) get the team together 2.) get the bikes and gear together and 3.) get everyone and everything to New York in one piece. Fourteen of us met at Chicago Midway for our flight to New York, while the remaining four of us flew in or drove from other locations (shoutout to Patrick for driving the van all the way from Champaign!). The flight from Chicago was beautiful with virtually no clouds, and the route we will take across the eastern United States was visible from our plane windows. It will take us three weeks to re-cover the distance on our bikes that our plane covered in just two hours.
Gathering at Midway. Note the brown goodie bags (thank you Maya and Rahul! :) )
Leaving Chicago . . .
. . . landing in NYC!
We landed at a renovated LaGuardia Airport in the late afternoon. One bumpy bus ride into Manhattan later, we arrived at our first stayover: St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Harlem. We will be staying here for two nights prior to the start of our ride from Central Park. Mary, our stayover host and the priest of the church, provided us with a wonderful pizza dinner upon our arrival. After this, we unpacked the van and got to work reassembling our bikes. As I sit here writing this, we are settling in for our first night of a ride to remember.
Jon enjoying a slice.
Reassembling the bikes after their long trip in the van.
Attaching our saddle bags, lights, etc.
~The Dictionary of I4K~
I4K: I-four-K, short for Illini 4000.
Stayover: a location along our route where we can rest, explore the surrounding area, repair our bikes, and ultimately spend the night. Each is organized ahead of time, and usually include churches, schools, community centers, and even a few campgrounds.
The Van: our home away from home, the perfect space to store our personal gear, team gear, and take a good nap. Stops at rest stops to provide nutrition and water and follows the team as we bike.
Ready to roll.