Travel Tales: 8 hours of riding...all for a burger...and some yard art and a windfarm

Sunday, August 1. Headed north, destination Starved Rock. Actually the destination was a little Irish pub(Duffy's Tavern) in Utica, IL. that has a great reputation for burgers.

Normally I'd share the route we rode but honestly I have no clue as many of the roads had nothing more than a directional/numerical reference (something like N1800 or W2220). That, plus an unexpected detour due to road construction, meant I spent almost the entire day not having a clue where I was. I pondered that as I rode my Harley through the heart of the nation's "bread-basket" (for you city folk, that means this is where we grow what you eat...ok so not really "we", more like "they"). I like to keep that frame of reference, otherwise its just corn field, bean field, corn field, bean field....

I often complain about that aspect of riding in central Illinois, but there actually are some very scenic spots. If you look really close at the barn in the picture below, you'll see there is a large flag painted on the side. (for you city folk, this is a soy bean field). Picturesque, yes?

Back to the not knowing where I was - it made for an interesting day. Kind of like that team-building game you play where you're blindfolded and you have to trust your teammate to lead you around. I had my Blackberrry but didn't even have the urge to get it out and check my location. It was very relaxing, actually.

So, we meander through the country and I'm surprised to see thousands (yes thousands) of butterflies. They must be sound sensitive because it was the lead motorcycle passing that seemed to stir them up - up in the air, that is and often flying directly at those of us on the rest of the motorcycles. I felt like I was being dive-bombed. There were some Monarchs, but most were small - maybe quarter-sized - yellow butterflies. I tried to figure out what was attracting them to the area. I'm still not sure if it was the corn fields or if it was the clover that was growing in many of the ditches. Whatever the attraction, it was a very cool sight. My only regret is I didn't have a camera in hand to capture them filling the air.

I did get a few photos during one of our "where the heck are we" stops (one of the guys had a good map that showed all of the numbered roads). Those little yellow butterflies were everywhere. I liked this particular group...it looked like they were on a hike, all lined up on the side of the road headed the same direction as us. Maybe they had their little "thumbs" out and wanted to hitch a ride.

Side note - one of the guys gets off his bike and starts shaking one of his pantlegs. "I feel like a bug flew up my pants" he says. He was so right...out flies a bumble bee. Makes me wonder if I should start wearing velco straps around my boots to keep critters from flying up my pantlegs.

We're riding through Essex, a small town west and slightly north of Kankakee/Bourbonnais, when we see a yard filled with "critters". I don't know how else to describe the sight. We pulled into the drive and walked around to check out the yard art. I'm posting a few of my favorites.

I figure this indian would be appropriate in my garden as I'm a serious Illini fan. Doesn't quite look like "THE CHIEF" but cool nonetheless, don't you think?

There were lots of farm animals...horses, cows etc.

There were also some exotic zoo type's including an elephant that sprayed water out of its trunk. My favorite was the buffalo. Maybe because that was my high school mascot. Too bad he was too big to fit on the back of my Harley.

I'm not sure what Jack uses to make his yard art....maybe scrap metal? The buffalo seemed to be made of some type of metal shavings or maybe dismantled steel wool pads?? Whatever the case, Jack Barker is the artist and his address and phone number are in the photo below.

On to Utica for lunch. Utica is a small town, but obviously popular with the biking crowd as evidenced by the main street as well as by the hour we had to wait to get our order. No complaints, though - it was air-conditioned and we had baskets of popcorn to eat and lots of ice tea while we waited.

We drove through Starved Rock state park but didn't stop (not sure what that was about???). The ride home was another backroads adventure, again having no clue where I was until we hit Pontiac, IL. Dan was leading us at this point and he seemed to know the backroads very well. He drove us by the state prison...very creepy actually with all the barbed wire and the signs on the street that warned you not to pick up hitchhikers. Dan has relatives that work there. He says they get serious criminals and other prisons ship their "out of control" prisoners here. They are in lock-down all but one hour/day. I don't think I'd like to live across the street from this place...but lots of people do as it sits right next to a residential area.

Our last "Kodak moment" stop was about 20 miles east of Bloomington. To put this in context, last week, during a drive to Evansville, IN, I saw 3 - 18wheelers, each one hauling one of the blades that are used to build a windmill. I was surprised how big the blades are...in fact, at first I didn't even realize what they were. So when I saw a large number of windmills in the distance, I asked the rest of the group if they'd mind a slight detour.

Dan did better than get us sort of close..he got us right up to one. I had no idea that the tower was large enough for a doorway although I guess it makes sense that technicians would need to occassionally climb to the top to fix things.

I also learned that the blades are 130 ft long and they can be adjusted, remotely, to change the angle of the blade...either to pick up more wind, or to pick up less. I have read that the blades spin at a rapid speed (in California, there are reports that some birds are being killed in large numbers at windfarms due to this). I found references (Google) that explained the California windfarm (20 yrs old) uses old technology, including the types of blades used and the speed - which was reported at 179 mph. The newer windfarms use updated blades and they spin at a slow rate of speed...so no dead birds. I had also heard the windmills were noisy but as we stood there, near many windmills, we didn't hear anything. Last piece of windfarm trivia...the farmers who provide the land for the windmills are paid a "per acre" annual fee....$3000 to $5000. This farmer has a crop of soybeans planted around the windmills so it doesn't appear they have to give up much in the way of crops.

It was a great day of riding and socializing with some old and some new friends. I close by posting a few more photos from the day (more yard art and windmills).