6/18/2011

Everytime I camp out, my body rebels against me. Last night the tent was comfy and the grass was soft. The only thing missing was a pillow. I thought I’d wake up fresh this morning. I thought wrong.

At the crack of dawn, a squirl woke me up with his Hurculean effort to join me in the tent. I’m sure he was looking for breakfast. When I attempted move, my body yelled at me. It was the same as the last couple of times I slept without a matress. This must be what senior citizens feel like when they say they are falling apart. My hip is always especially sore because I sleep on my side. No shower, no bath, I cleaned myself with wet wipes and started pushing my stroller towards a breakfast spot. I ate slowly because I was in no rush to hit the road...

6/17/2011

I got my butt up pretty early. There was nothing to eat but luckily, I had stocked up on breakfast bars the day before. They would have to suffice. I mixed them with peanut butter, chewed quickly, and packed my things even quicker. Mark arrived right on time to take me to the starting point. I didn’t realize it was the start of a very fun day.

Stage one consisted of Mark running and chatting with me for a couple of miles. He had been called the previous night by Amy to help guide me on a trail starting at Wicker Park. It is the only geography of the area I remember at this point as the rest of the towns passed so quickly.

In a couple of miles, we reached Amy and Tracey...

6/17/2011

I sadly left the city of Chicago without experiencing everything it had to offer but I had to make tracks. JC and I shot a short wrap up video of Chicago in the morning and I was on my way. It took me a while to find my stride because of the magnificent surroundings. Also, because I had lost my camera, I needed to shoot many of the photos one more time. I even decided to stroll past that milestone located on the corner of Jackson and Michigan St.; the end of route 66.

As I ran out of the city, I’m sure you can predict the change of my surroundings. If you can’t you haven’t been following this adventure. In short the city changed from majestic, to ghetto, to suburb. It happens every time. Once the visuals disappeared, I settled into a nice running pace...