Dwight to Chicago Heights, IL 05-16-2026 Day 36

When we got up, it was still raining and the wind was blowing hard. We went down to the lobby to get our breakfast. We had a lot of toast, coffee, juice and cereal. The latest weather information we had showed the rain would be ending soon. We took our time getting ready. By the time we were ready to hit the road, the rain had stopped, and the wind seemed to have gone as well. The roads were still wet, but all the water was already on the ground, not falling from the sky on us.

Gardner was 9 miles up the road. It was a little after 8 and there wasn’t much happening when we got there. They had added some signage to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of Route 66.

As we rode down main street, I saw the “Shop on Main Street” and signs leading to the “Two Cell Jail”. This small detention facility was built in 1906 and operated as a holding place until the 1950s. It was used primarily as a “Drunk tank” and a place for petty offenders to sleep off their unlawful state. After it was decommissioned, the local community preserved and relocated the jail to its current location near Route 66.

Our next major stop was in Wilmington. I was excited because 50 years ago I passed through and snapped a picture of this huge statue of what looked like a Rocket Man. It was outside a small burger place called the Launching Pad. The restaurant closed in 2022, but the Gemini Giant was moved, restored, cleaned and now sits here above me. (In a revised version of this post I will add the snap shot of 50 years ago).

Wilmington was also special because my brother, Mike had driven down to meet us, offer support and act as camera man for us. Best of all, he relieved us of our panniers so we could peddle a lot easier.

When we left Wilmington, our ride was a lot lighter without the panniers and a lot sunnier and drier.

Peddling 8 miles up the road, we turned into the town of Elwood. Being so close to Joliet, the town embraced the image of the Blues Brothers – Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues in a nice display.

We headed east to the town of Manhattan where we picked up a packed gravel trail to avoid the increasing traffic.

We had been on the road for almost 40 miles. It was getting very warm, we knew there was a Culvers nearby, and we were hungry. We pulled off to the Culvers in New Lenox for something to eat. It did involve some frozen custard “concretes”. From there were got on the Old Plank Road Trail for amost all of the final 20 miles.

We couldn’t see much of the towns as the trees often blocked our view. There was a lot of activity in Frankfort.

Even though I grew up in this area, I had never ridden this section of the trail>. It wasn’t until we got to within 4 miles of the end that I recognized where we were. We had less than a mile when we got off the trail until we rode through the streets of South Chicago Heights to Mike’s house. We got to sit on something other than a bike saddle and enjoy a cold beer. It was a good finish to a relatively easy day of riding. Almost the last of this journey.

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

The Not So Lone Rider