Tour de Me

The weather and my body were cooperating, so I took out the Schwinn this morning to take on the Illinois Prairie Path.  It was 45 miles of relative solitude.

 

Unlike the lakefront path, the Prairie Path allows me to go miles without seeing anyone, which allows for deep and shallow thought, depending on the terrain.  When I’m going up one of those two rises the path affords, my only thought is not turning into Benny Hill on a bike.  Mission accomplished there.  Other times, I found myself thinking about Nick Madrigal.  For reasons I can’t quite explain, I’m a skeptic, although his three hits yesterday against the Royals were impressive.

 

I bike because I can and because I enjoy it.  A half-hour drive from home got me to a path that goes by farms and wetlands; as ever, the cows looked up as if to say, Hello.  I saw a heron land and nearly collided with a duck that thought it could follow behind the heron.  And, for the first time in all my years of riding, I had to avoid a frog that hopped its way across the path.

 

The weather the past two summers along with COVID has affected my biking, to the point I can’t remember the last time I did the Prairie Path, so, of course I don’t remember all the construction along the path.  For years, I went by an abandoned sand and gravel quarry.  Now, it’s undergoing residential development.  And behind the cows were houses instead of corn.  Things change, whether or not I want them to.

 

And Nick Madrigal gets the start at second base tonight against the Twins.