Leg 2, Ride 1: Chicago (northside) to Chicago (southside)

A quick easy day today, just 17 miles across the city from the north side to the south side. This is the second of hopefully three very short rides (next one is Detroit to Windsor). This generally has the do with the spacing of acceptable places to stay -- in this case, we preferred to do a short day then a medium day, rather than a long day.

Thunderstorms are moving through the area from the northwest today. So, we were watching the radar map, and we tried to time our ride so that we arrived at our hotel after checkin time, but before the storms caught up to us. We just barely succeeded -- rain started a few minutes after we checked in.

I had big plans to go to a baseball game today, but the rain is going to prevent that. So far, I've seen home games for the A's, Brewers, Cubs, Expos, Guardians, Orioles, Padres, Pirates, and Red Sox. On this trip, I was hoping to check off the White Sox, Tigers, and Blue Jays from the list, but that's not going to happen.

We did take a short walk around the Hyde Park neighborhood after dinner, but the rain will likely keep us in the hotel room for the rest of the night.

Legs are still feeling pretty good, and we're still in very good spirits! But, the trip kinda changes gears at this point. Over the next week and a half, we'll be in less interesting areas, without any family/friends to visit. So, it'll be interesting to see if we're still feeling great about the trip when we get to Grand Rapids. I think we will be.