60 miles, an art fest, and one car show later…
- Lake Shore Trail
- Green Bay Trail
- Robert McClory Trail
- Kenosha County Trail
- GPS file: Chicago to Kenosha
Sunday morning – we took a train out to bike themed cafe, Heritage Coffee, in Uptown Chicago to write this blog and carry on the biking weekend. Waking up was a slow process, but we made banana pancakes while listening to Jack Johnson’s Banana Pancakes. Ok let’s back up and tell you about our weekend journey.
Friday night we got our bikes ready. We went to Trek and bought an Ortlieb pannier bag and put Angelina’s pedals back on her velociped (Russian for bicycle). Saturday morning we headed out on Lakeshore trail toward Kenosha, Wisconsin. On our ride we stopped at an art festival in Highland Park. We got our usual caramel lattes at The Perfect Blend. About a half hour later we stopped in Lake Forest to get a sandwich from the Fresh Market. We decided we really needed to pick up the pace if we were going to catch the 6:40 train because the only one after that wasn’t until 10:40. Then in Lake Bluff we passed a car show, and Nick said it wouldn’t be terrible if we took the 10:40 train, would it? So we parked our bikes and moseyed through the car show. Angelina found her dream truck, a 1952 Ford F-3, and Nick found his Tesla. We hopped back on our bikes and hit the trail once more. As a prosthetic wearer you have to adjust your leg a lot as it sweats – gross, but if you had your leg enclosed in rubber and carbon you would sweat too! Ironically we stopped for Angelina to adjust her leg in the parking lot of a bar and outside there were two amputees! They invited us in for a drink, and we graciously accepted the water no one else was clearly drinking. We learned that the trail we were riding had been an old railroad known as the North Shore Line. We talked prosthetics for a bit and then headed out once again. Once we arrived in Kenosha we were hangry and dying for a beer. We smelled some delicious pizza and followed our noses right to Kaiser’s Pizza. Sometimes in life you gotta get the chicken – we got the 14″ pizza and each had two beers. Since we still had a while before our late train we headed over to a local brewery, Rustic Road, and got a flight before our train. The live band, Rough Cut, was excellent and we were glad we hadn’t rushed through our day to catch that 6:40. Getting home at 1:00 wasn’t enjoyable, but the day was full of laughs and so many more memories than that time we rushed to Kenosha to rush back to Chicago.
Take the late train, stop and look at old cars and talk to the men who have worked on them for 50+ years, and follow your nose to that pizza. Life is not meant to be rushed and memories are not meant to be dismissed. Enjoy all the little things.
