Chicago Heights to Chicago, IL 05-17-2026 Day 37

We had a fantastic dinner last night at Scrementi’s in Steger. This Italian restaurant is legendary in this part of the far south suburbs. I think it was the first “real meal” I’ve had on the trip. Yes, there were some good Mexican and burger joints, but they don’t stand up to what they do here. Ron graciously covered our check before we ever new what happened.

We were up early again. This time I got to make my own breakfast at Mike Andrade’s house where we spent the night. It was something I usually make for myself – an egg sandwich, banana, PBJ on toast, and coffee. Ron did his usual light fare. Mike was there to record our final start of this journey. It was easy riding without the panniers.

We were able to take advantage of bike trails yesterday. Today, we connected with multiple trails and bikeways that kept us off any major highways or streets. It was an amazingly tranquil ride to the edge of the city.

We had trail leaving Chicago Heights and through Glenwood. In Lansing, we were on residential streets with little traffic on an early Sunday morning. We were back onto a trail on the outskirts of Calumet City (Where Ray Charles lets the Blues Brothers get their gear out of hock from his pawn shop). Half of Burnham was on a trail, then we picked up another along Wolf Lake.

As we went north of 100th street, crossing the Calumet River, we hardly touched a city street for the rest of the ride. Very soon we were riding along Lake Michigan. The mental juke box turned the dial to 1974 with Alliotta, Haynes, and Jeremiah.

We got a little chilled from the wind coming off the lake, but the views made us forget about any discomfort.

One thing that was going to potentially change a well crafted plan into an adventure was a big running race that included a half marathon, 15K, and 5K distances. Some of the runners were already competing along the lakeshore trails and streets as we were leaving Mike’s house that morning. Luckily, we ran into some of the volunteer clean up crew, but not many, if any contestants.

We had pretty much clear sailing going down the Lake Trail path. We only had to worry about racing bikers passing us in both directions and a few pedestrians.

When Ron was done chasing the other riders, we made our final miles past Buckingham Fountain and the Art Museum.

The final mental jukebox. When it was tough to climb a hill, I pedalled to this rhythm. When we had ridiculous headwinds, I focused on this song. When I thought about meeting this year’s Pullman Scholars, I wanted to sing out loud.

The ride stats for today are here. The 3D video is here.

The Not So Lone Rider