It was great to have company; Caroline and Mike Tobin joined me this morning for sunrise through the Chicago streets. We made our way through the bike lanes of downtown Chicago towards Lake Michigan.

Once we reached Lake Michigan, we had another 10 miles or so along the Lakefront path. Caroline joined me until that path ended. Mike bolted off and did an interval workout. I was on my own and I tried to stick to the lake’s edge as much as possible. I wasn’t sure about the best way to work my way through Gary, IN because of the large industrial area along the waterfront. I ended up riding my way through some of the industrial area having to stop for a number of trains along the way. Once I was almost through that area I ended up getting a bit of an escort out and was told that I could not be riding my bike through a steel mill. No worries, I finished the ride through Gary and onto Highway 12 towards Michigan City, IN.

I was making good time so I stopped off at our nation’s newest National Park. I met Caroline at Indiana’s Lakeshore Dunes National Park. I relaxed on the beach a little while until Caroline showed up and we had a bit of lunch on a pretty spectacular beach looking out over Lake Michigan. I could even see Milwaukee way off in the distance!

Once I got back on the road, I jumped on Highway 20, and then Highway 2 towards South Bend. At this point, I had one of the best tailwinds I’ve had all trip, behind that magnificent day in North Dakota. The winds were probably only 10 to 12 mph, but that allowed me to travel at 20 mph consistently and I made it to South Bend at a reasonable hour, especially considering that I passed through another time zone! I am now on Eastern time and that makes me feel like I am squarely on the East Coast!

I am still working out the schedule for the next couple of days but feeling like I might be able to get a couple of bigger days while the weather is good. I would like to think that my body and legs felt better today but honestly it was just the tailwind :-).