Another really hot day today. The heat index today was supposed to top out around 105 degrees. Not as hot as yesterday, but still pretty hot. I wasn’t sure I was up to another 70 miles in that kind of heat, so we decided to make a short day of it, hoping the weather forecasts for cooler weather tomorrow are correct.

So, instead of heading for Monroe, Wisconsin, we headed due north from Rockford to Janesville, Wisconsin. It turned out to be 35 miles. I was finished riding by 10:30 AM, but it was already feeling uncomfortably warm.

From Rockford, I started out north on county road 11. I remember states such as Arkansas where you could almost guarantee that a “county road” meant “unpaved road”. Well, not in Illinois and Wisconsin. County road 11 was a high-speed, four-lane road used by a lot of commuters and trucks. It did have a shoulder, and even better, I noticed a cyclist up ahead of me, but coming toward me. As he approached, I realized he was on a path that paralleled county road 11. I hopped onto it at the next intersection and for the next six miles, I enjoyed the solitude of the Perryville Path. Unfortunately, it ended abruptly in Machesney Park, Illinois. From there I had to pick my way through the suburban sprawl to Beloit, Wisconsin. North of Beloit, I picked up County Road G which wasn’t four-lane, but it was still pretty busy.

Today’s ride took us over the border into Wisconsin. Thirty-six states done now!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 at 2:52 pm and is filed under The Dream Tour, Bicycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.