Day 28 June 19th First One!

Ottawa IL to Peru IL  21 miles (1,269)

Today I was invited to be the first cyclist to ride a newly completed section of the I&M Trail. Guess what? - I accepted the invitation! A very nice construction worker told me how to get around the area where they were working. Then she said, "No, wait. It's ready. Why don't you go ahead and be the first person to try it out?" She offered to take my picture - note the backhoe in the background. Valerie is the name of this enthusiastic, kind construction worker. I wish I had gotten her picture. Quite a contrast to the construction worker that was the cause of The Incident (see blog post Day 26) from 2 days ago.

I started today on the I&M Canal Trail again.

Jean and Gary from Michigan were the second and third cyclists to ride the newly completed section.

Beautiful views from the Split Rock spur off the I&M Canal Trail.

This is a replica of an 1800s parcel boat. Boats that delivered the US mail were called parcel boats. Here they are reenacting a mule pulling a parcel boat along the I&M Canal boat path. 

This is where tourists can sign up for the replica parcel boat ride. There is also a cafe inside where I treated myself to a lemon bar. 

I met Bob in the cafe. He rode RAGBRAI - the ride across Iowa - in 1979 and 1980. He was pleased to tell me about his custom made TREK bicycle with all Campagnolo parts.

Comments

  1. Angie RJune 20, 2021 at 6:31 PM

    What a great story in contrast to the one from a couple of days ago. Be blessed as you continue on!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Robert AJune 21, 2021 at 2:18 PM

    Yep, this sure makes up for the “incident”...
    Congrats on being first to ride the new section! 🚴‍♂️....

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownJune 21, 2021 at 3:29 PM

    wonderful, Roff!! amazing pictures!!

    ReplyDelete

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