Today started off well with light winds still from somewhere at least a bit behind me and pleasant, not too hot weather, and the first part of the route on the old Route 66 running parallel to Interstate 55. We didn’t have all that far to go to get to Springfield (the Capital of Illinois) and were concerned about the suggested route through the city. It wasn’t going to be possible to follow the old route 66 as a huge man made lake has been created in the city that completely covers the old route, and as it turned out the suggested route made what seemed like hundreds of turns all of which required stopping and starting and waiting for lights to change or traffic to clear. Exhausting, very slow going, and very frustrating for Bridget in trying to work out where we should go next. Tricycling towards the Capitol was memorable.










The route took us through the Illinois State Fairground


Even getting out of the city was frustrating as there was a bike trail that they had spent a lot of money building, but absolutely zero money on providing any signage to help people find it!!

Once out of the city we were able to keep going at a reasonable pace and end up at mile marker 63 on Interstate 55. Having started at mile marker 119,



Bridget drops me off at mile marker 119 where we stopped the night before


the trip would only have been 56 miles if we could have used I 55, but with all of the detours that we had to make, the trike covered 67 miles.