Illinois-Indiana-Michigan

I see that it has been several days since my last post. Since then, we have left Wisconsin and cycled through parts of Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Chicago was a nice stop. We stayed at Ben's house, one of the members of our team. His parents had some Chicago deep-dish pizza for us, and we got to see Glen and Bridget. Zach's college room mate also payed us a visit. On the way out of Chicago the next day, we cycled past Wrigley Field, and stopped for pictures by the waterfront and "The Bean." Gary, Indiana was interesting...enough said. Our first night in Michigan was in Stevensville, by Lake Michigan. Most of the team enjoyed some time in the lake that evening. (I did not have my bathing suit.) Our girls even got to stay in a very nice Bed & Breakfast! Yesterday's ride (about 96 miles) from Stevensville to Battle Creek was VERY hot and humid. We were drenched in our own perspiration the entire day. Had a good meeting at the church there. Today's ride was much more tolerable. Even though we cycled 103 miles, it was a bit cooler and the humidity was low. We also had some nice, even shady roads to cycle on. We are now in southern Michigan, just outside of Toledo, Ohio. The church here tonight had a community dinner, so we got to informally share about our ride and about the cause. Tomorrow we enter Ohio and continue to go east. Our total milage is up to about 2,642 miles. Close to 100 miles again tomorrow. We are "turning the corner for home" now, with mixed emotions. What are we going to do when we don't have to get up early and put on our cycling gear and bicycle all day? Oh yes...real life!