Tomorrow I plan to do a few token miles on the Northern Tier Route just to check it out but it does not have a lot of motel options and I will need to start heading north. After that I will be off the ACA routes entirely. There is a web site called cycle.travel that does a great job of route planning and I will be using it for my routes for the rest of the journey. It knows the best cycling roads somehow.
Last night I had a choice between Subway and McDonald's ... I split the difference and had a foot long at Subway and then crossed the street for a Big Mac and large fries. McDonald's was better back in the day. One month in university I ate about 60 Big Macs in a month ... there was a 2 for 1 coupon in the student paper and I clipped a bunch and had Big Macs for lunch and dinner.
Good thing I loaded up because I didn't plan my fuel very well and ended up riding 150km on a cup of coffee, a funnel cake and some lemonade. When I finally got food it was gas station food and I'm sure it had been in the case for quite a while.
The route today provided by cycle.travel was really good. It started along the Route 66 route which north of Atlanta, IL is really good. Lots of dedicated bike paths, along side the service road, along side the Interstate. I also saw quite a few cyclists out for a Fourth of July morning ride.
In Towanda there was some event going on in the town field. Lots of booths - all seemed to be selling antiques or junk. There was a funnel cake truck so I got one and a lemonade. I did not manage my fuel well.
North of Normal, IL I left the Route 66 Bike Route and was on farm roads. Most of the day the roads were nice and smooth. My hands and butt were greatful. While the road was great there were no towns with much of anything. One town, Strawn, just off the road had a bar on the map so I detoured hoping it would be open at 11am. It was closed but the bartender was around and gave me some ice water which really helped. The bar looked fun and if you are ever there buy the bartender a beer for me.
The gas station food in Ornaga was horrible but it got me into Watseka.
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