GRAIL II
By Gary Gilbert
Sunday, September 17, 2006
GRAIL II left Cary Illinois on Saturday morning September 16 2006. There were 9 riders assembled and ready to ride by 9AM. Our destination was Janesville Wisconsin, approximately 80 miles north west.
Left to right, Scott, Tom, Gary, Laurie, Mitch, Dave, Donna, Christine, and Milo.
This time of year, the soy beans have turned a beautiful golden color. Here Milo points them out.
For those of you not from the midwest, this is a fairly typical scene in northern Illinois. Mostly flat terrain.
We headed to McHenry and eventually to Harvard. Along the way we passed by a virtual town Hoganville, which is actually a large farm.
Harvard is a town of about 8000 which was almost our half way point for the day. We had a great lunch after consulting with the local police. They were out in town as there was a small fair going on along the main street in town. After lunch, Milo headed home as he only had part of the weekend to cycle with us.
We stopped for the obligatory group photo as we passed from Illinois into Wisconsin. At this point, the GRAIL ride (Gary's Ride Across Illinois) became GRAW (Gary's Ride Across Wisconsin).
Despite being known as the land of the cheeseheads, the farm land looks pretty similar to Illinois.
We headed past Clinton Wisconsin and stopped to look at the Skavlem-Williams log cabin. The log cabin is made form oak and stood on the farm of Henry Williams after being built int he 1930 by the Skavlem's. http://www.usgennet.org/usa/wi/county/rock/Mark/MarkL003.html
We passed through the unicorporated town of Shopiere Wisconsin. This clock tower is a monument to residents of Shopiere who fought in WW II.
In Shopiere, on the same grounds as the clock tower is the home of Louis Powell Harvey, governor of Wisconsin. He lived in Shopiere from 1851-1859. According to the plaque, he was a business leader, journalist, and politics. Soon after his inauguraton in 1862 he led a relief expedition to Wisconsin troops who had suffered at the Battle of Shiloh. While boarding a steamboat he fell into the Tennesse River and drowned.
We passed over a one lane bridge in Shopiere.
The bridge goes over the Turtle Creek.
We arrived in Janesville around 4PM and had a nice dinner around sunset.
We returned to Cary on Sunday. We took a slightly different route home. Saturday we had some headwinds and some "boy do my legs feel good" tailwinds. Sunday we had mostly headwinds so the day was more challenging. We had our lunch stop early, around mile 28 at Millies near Delavan Wisconsin. The rest of the route home did not pass by any communities and we relied on our SAG for water and food.
We crossed back into Illinois, actually riding for a few miles along State Line Road.
This farm, along the IL-WI border is typical of the farms in the region,
We passed a few miles east of Harvard. We road the infamous Bull Valley road with its challenging hills. Not all of Illinois is flat! Unfortunately Tom had to abandon the tour with a broken spoke and a broken rim. This spot has a mate 180 degrees across the wheel.
The SAG was able to help him and he rode back in the car. The rest of us stopped to refill.
It was a grand, but brief tour. The headwinds of Sunday meant that we took about an hour longer to ride the 80 miles on Sunday than we had the previous day.
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