Land of Lincoln

Illinois fancies itself the Land of Lincoln, although they share him with Kentucky and Indiana as well. I believe, by law, every town in the state, or at least the central part of the state, is required to have a Lincoln Street or Avenue. Springfield fancies itself the epicenter of Lincolndom. Outside a massive two-story sporting goods store (Scheels) with a Ferris Wheel inside the store, there is a statue of Lincoln sitting on a park bench. He’s smiling in the statue, so you know it’s not real. (Full disclosure - on other benches in close proximity are statues of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, as well as one of Ronald Reagan in a cowboy hat.). There are shops selling Lincoln souvenirs. Not far away is a rebuilt early 19th century Abe-inspired log cabin village. In Petersburg, there is a cemetery where his first love is buried and it’s etched on the back of her tombstone. He’s literally everywhere here.

Today was my first day riding with Dan McCormack - the same guy who rescued me in Alabama. We did a nice 55-mile loop with some rail trail and some back roads through the corn and soybean fields. I dropped off the rental car this morning so beginning tomorrow, it will be a return to the point to point riding for at least the next month. Dan and I will ride together for the next 4 days to La Crosse, WI. Dan will turn around and head home and I’ll be heading up to Minneapolis. From there, it’s across Minnesota, Nebraska, the Dakotas and Montana. Claire is meeting me the evening of the 28th in Bismarck, ND and is going to ride with me to Jackson, WY. What a treat for her! She picked perhaps the least scenic part of the country other than all of SE Texas.

A quick shout out to Danny Kerwin at the Scheels in Springfield. I took my bike in after the ride today because the back tire was rubbing. He spent probably 45 minutes giving my bike some TLC that it hadn’t had in a while, all the while chatting with me and Dan about bike touring and travel. After adjusting and tightening pretty much every bolt on the bike, cleaning the chain and cleaning the bike, he called ahead to their store in Minneapolis to make sure they had a replacement chain in stock for me when I get there next week because he didn’t have one. When he was finished, I asked him how much it was and he simply waved and said to be careful and have a nice ride. He gave us each a business card. I’m sure Dan will be using him for his own bike repairs in the future. I’ll probably never see him again, but I intend to send him some pics from the road. If I lived in this area, he’d have just earned a customer for life.

The grave of Abe’s first love

The locally famous Horseshoe. For the fainter of heart, you can get a Ponyshoe.

Open-face burger on toast smothered in cheese and topped with fries. I felt a little betrayed because I thought the cheese went on top of the fries. Top 5 concept but I think it fell short of earning a Top 5 spot based on the execution.