After a good rest day yesterday, we were anxious to see, fi we could get out of Chicago in good style. When you are in the drill of 100 miles a day it is just something you do, but after a rest day you suddenly start to wonder wether you are up to the challenge. And on top of that we were worried about how much we should criss cross through South Chicago to find the right way.
The Lake Shore Bike Path, followed by the Lake Shore Drive (41) and then a lot of bike trails brought us not only out of Chicago but also out of Illinois and into Indiana.
Above you see a nice surface reserved for pedestrians and bicycles. In the side and head wind it felt like driving in a bicycle hyper loop.
Tony and Charles
We realize that a bicycle trip is not the travel form to build friendships for a life but resting on one of the trails gave one of those random encounters, which can become the highlight of the day. We stopped for just 10-15 minutes to drink and eat a little and apparently Tony and Charles had gotten the same idea. They ride on the trail once in a while and we found a willing audience to impose our travel history on. Charles was a retired truck driver and Tony was retired something else – he had the size to have played professional basketball but he did not talk about his occupancy but said that it was a long time ago he had played. When we told that we came from Denmark, Tony was aware that Trump and our prime minister were not the best of friends. It did not appear to influence our popularity but we did not get into politics. There was something warm and caring about the two guys on their bicycles as they pedaled west while we pedaled east.
South Bend
We lost an hour coming into St. Joseph County, so we are now on Eastern time. South Bend is known for the nearby Notre Dame University and then of course its mayor Pete Buttigieg who is campaigning to become the Democrats’ presidential candidate for the 2020 elections. He is the youngest ever mayor of South Bend and is living in a gay marriage. Though he is probably fifth or sixth in the ratings behind people like Biden, Warren and Harris, he gets quite a lot of publicity and in our European eyes seem to have a policy which is not just “let us replace Trump”. Not all South Benders support him though. The girl who served at our Italian restaurant focused on how Mayor Pete had handled an incidence where a white policeman shot a black person who had broken into some parked cars. Buttigieg is accused of focusing on his national campaign and hitting a wedge into the local community by talking about getting more minority
We have not seen any Ku Klux Klan people here yet. Maybe because they were driven out of town in 1924 by Notre Dame students.
On the map, it looks as if there is a straight bike path from San Francisco to South Bend. Many roads lead to South Bend, and here I have attempted to puzzle together our winding journey until now:
Finally we have to observe that the festivity of entering a new state is not at the same level as earlier. We assume that earlier on the number of roads crossing state boundaries were so limited that the roads could afford to buy signs. Between Wisconsin and Illinois and again between Illinois and Indiana there are so many streets, roads and trails, so we can enter a new state without noticing. But South Bend is in Indiana and we are here.
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