Hopkins 4K for Cancer

June 10, 2006

Kankakee, IL
55 Miles

So this appears to be the last journal posted. I have no idea why Kankakee was one of the last few of the journals to be posted because it was a great city and we did plenty of things. First, there was the “Escape from Chicago”. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Chicago, but if there is one thing that Chicago has too much of its broken glass in the streets that are just waiting for unsuspecting bicyclists to pass over. I am not kidding when I say that probably a full quarter of all the flat tires the group had across the entire country came in the first 15 miles of leaving Chicago. I had 12 or so flats across the country and got 3 of them within 10 miles in Chicago and I believe y group of 4 stopped 5 different times including one stop where we changed 4 flats. Not too far outside Chicago it becomes flat, and rural, and on that particular day extremely rainy as well. The day into Kankakee is the day that sticks out in my mind when I think “rain” and probably one of only two days that I got so soaked that I stopped caring about trying to stay dry, the kind of rain that wells up in your shoes and you pour the water out at the end of the day.

So we stayed the night at the Kankakee YMCA but got to eat an awesome dinner at the First Presbyterian Church of Kankakee. I remember this dinner because the family I got to talk with happened to have a couple adorable children around and I got to talk with a high school computer class teacher which gave me my technical fix for the week. From what I remember there might have been more desert dishes on the table than main courses and salads but I don’t think any of us minded because it was all delicious. After dinner and our presentation we made an appearance at the local Relay for Life that was in progress, it was too bad that it was soaking out but everyone seemed in good spirits. In between all of this somewhere I got a game of racquetball in and I shaved my beard for what would be the last time before we reached San Francisco so in all subsequent pictures you can see the progression of my facial hair. It was cold the next morning and many of our group put on their cold-weather gear for the first time of the trip. Thank you Kankakee for a wonderful stop and best wishes to all of you!

~Ryan

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Two nights at the University of Illinois at Chicago was a real treat. Many riders had the opportunity to visit with friends and family. However, the time has come to keep moving west. It took a little longer than usual to pack the vans this morning because we had to lug all of our personal and group gear down from the fourth floor dorm rooms to the main lobby. While we were packing the support vehicles, Katie Ross’s family showed up in their bike outfits with breakfast for all of us, which was excellent. The Ross family was also generous enough to collect letters and packages for us at our first mail drop! Katie’s mother and brother rode out with us from UIC in the light drizzle. It’s always nice to have new companions every once in a while.

Riding out of the city proved to be much more eventful than we ever would have imagined! At first we had a smooth bike path along the side of the busy road, which was great. We all tried to stick together in a long line of twenty-five 4Kers. Then we got our first flat of the day. Everyone waited until the problem was fixed and we were ready to keep going as a team. Then a couple minutes later we busted our second flat, and our plan of sticking together kind of fizzled. Some of us stayed while some kept going. When the group that stayed finally got going again, it was less than a quarter mile until it ran into the front group because they too had a flat! I have never witnessed so many flats in such a short distance in my life. When we were riding through a sketchy neighborhood, Katie Ross busted her first flat of the trip. This time we all waited because we felt safer in as large a group as possible. As we were fixing the tire on the side of the rode, a policeman slowly pulls up, rolls down his window, and says, “You guys picked the wrong area to break down in.” Then he rolled out, leaving us all sitting there concerned for our lives. Eventually we fixed the tire and kept going, but for the first 16 miles of the day, we had a total of 16 flats! That’s an average of one flat tire every mile! It’s a good thing that average doesn’t play true for the whole trip… or we could count on having to fix 4,000 flat tires!

When we finally got to Kankakee, we were happy to get out of the chilly rain and into hot showers at the YMCA. After we cleaned up, we went to an awesome dinner hosted by a church that is so supportive of us. We met a lot of people from the community who offered their free time to cook and set up. They had so much food for us, and so many desserts, too! My stomach hurt after the meal thanks to all the love and care that went into the dinner!

As soon as we finished eating, we shuttled over to the public high school, where there was a Relay for Life in progress. Eric got on the microphone and announced to the whole crowd that we were here from Baltimore en route to San Francisco, and that we are happy to share in the fight against cancer just like all the walkers at the relay. We met more people walking around the track. There were fundraising games and fun activities to keep people entertained, but it definitely felt nice to walk off the dinner we just ate!

~David