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[oliver1850]

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[Jason E]

Beautiful. How many days before the first snow? :)

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[rugbysecondrow]

Reminds me of my home town, Rochester, Illinois

[oliver1850]

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[Ken Robb]

De Kalb?

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[akelman]

Beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing them.

[oliver1850]

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[Louis]

Looks like a nice area to ride. Especially if you don't insist on 110 psi in your tires...

[oliver1850]

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[zray67]

Thanks for taking the time to take the pictures and then sharing them with us.

Also, nice bike! Hope you continue to have many happy miles with it.

[Blue Jays]

Photograph of the windmills is dramatic...I had no idea they were that massive!

[akelman]

That windmill pic is just fantastic. Driving across the country this past summer, my boys made quite a study of the areas that had the highest windmill concentrations. They were especially impressed with Wyoming and Iowa. By contrast, I'm not sure that we noticed more than a few of those behemoths in Illinois. And it's not like they can hide very easily.

[henrypretz]

Fun to go along on your ride .... thanks!

Henry

[gomango]

Thanks for posting pics of your ride.

Even though I live in a fairly large metro area, I like to ride out into the surrounding rolling hills and farmland once a week.

I grew up on a farm, and it's nice to keep that connection.

In fact, my group has me setting up three consecutive weekend plans for October that include either centuries or "100 miles in a weekend" rides.

All of them will resemble your very nice pictorial.

Good job!

[junkfood]

Nice pics. It is hard to stop and take pics for me also, but I am always glad I did.

-Jake

[HenryA]

Thanks for the ride!

[SEABREEZE]

Traveling cross country, I have memories of how nice the central to western part of Illinois was. Truly peaceful. Personally I really liked it, and could live there, at least in the spring, summer and fall.


Thanks for bringing back memories..

[Karin Kirk]

Wonderful pics and narrative - thanks for thinking of us!

Why are there fewer cattle now? Is there an economic reason?

The wind turbines look nice (to me anyway, I like them). Does that mean you get a lot of wind on your rides?

The smooth, empty roads are definitely alluring too. Looks like a great ride.

[oliver1850]

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[A1CKot]

Beautiful. How many days before the first snow? :)

I'm from a suburb north of Chicago and the ridding doesn't end for a little while. Its just a little brisk.

But now I'm in Minot, North Dakota, and it was 30 degrees Friday night and I was told that there was a small snow shower south of where I'm at :(.

Two season, construction and winter :crap: .

[snah]

Photos remind me alot of riding here in Central Indiana, lots of corn, soy beans and empty county roads.

Nice bike too!!

[bigflax925]

These are great pictures and remind me a lot of the riding I used to do when I grew up.

[Mr. Squirrel]

that is wonderful country. i may move. thank you for sharing your pictures. i know where you ride now.

mr. squirrel

[tch]

....so I know the country. And it's really nice for riding. But after having lived in New England for 30+ years, I have to laugh at your word choice: especially "rolling hills" and "ridge". If you've got 60 feet of elevation in any one place, you have a mountain in the midwest. Now WE got hills here in New England! And no wussy switchbacks like out in Colorado. Straight up and straight down is how us Puritans do it. :)

Thanks for the pics.

[oliver1850]

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[Ken Robb]

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Have the trees changed this much already?

[SEABREEZE]

Thanks for all the comments. Karin, I don't understand all the reasons why, but it's really hard to make any money with livestock in a traditional type operation. In the township (6 miles x 6 miles) I grew up in, I think there's only three farms that have any livestock at a more than hobby scale. Thirty years ago, every farm would have. These 3 all have beef cattle, there's not a hog or a dairy cow left. As to the winds, I'd say on an average day we have about 15mph wind. Anyone crossing Illinois on I-80 would always be welcome to join me for a ride.


Become an all grassfed rancher , and things will look up for you, the general public is becoming educated on harmones, antibiotics, pesticdes and petro chemicals. Conventional farming in general.. Most store bought beef is finished on grain, the educated general public, doesn't want that any more. Grassfed from start to finish.
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Good luck

[bobswire]

Thanks for sharing Oliver. It's nice to see where and what kind of roads other folks ride to gain a little perspective of person themselves.