Mini Road Trip

I know I have not been good about blogging this month. I know that my last post says it's 8-8-08 when really it is 8-22-08! So, here I am, ready to update the blog this fine Friday afternoon.

Last weekend was great! It was one of the first weekends that we didn't have a million things to do or obligations to attend. Dennis wasn't on call and I spent the earlier part of the week catching up on housework, laundry, etc. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. While we spent Saturday (8-16-08) laying around, watching movies and swimming, we were a little more adventurous on Sunday.

Sunday morning, we decided to ride our motorcycles to Watseka, IL for breakfast. Watseka is a little town about an hour south of us straight down route 1. When we arrived at our destination, we enjoyed a nice breakfast and then talked about where to go next. I was considering taking Dennis to an ice cream place in Piper City, IL which is another small town about 30 minutes west of Watseka. I am familiar with all of these small towns from when I use to sell supplemental insurance policies. My territory included Will, Kankakee, Ford, Iroquois, and Champaign counties. It was a big area and I have been to just about every town in those counties.

With my iPhone in hand, I consulted the GPS to see that we could take route 24 west to get to Piper City. However, I also noticed we were only 60 miles from Rantoul if we took route 45 south and Rantoul was only 15 more miles from Champaign-Urbana. We decided to be adventurous and take route 45 all the way to the U of I campus.

It was a fun ride. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we were able to maintain a nice speed of 60mph except when we entered the main section of each town where we had to slow to 35. We drove through Ashkum, Gilman, Loda, Del Ray, Pontiac, Buckley and many other little towns with populations under 500 people. We stopped only at gas stations but thoroughly enjoyed the passing scenery. There was almost no traffic the entire trip until we hit Rantoul.

Upon arriving at the University of Illinois, we did some riding around the main streets through campus and then I showed Dennis all of the places I use to live. Thanks to my iPhone I was able to take pictures as proof that we were really there! Here are a few pictures from the day.

Illinois Street Residence Hall - My roommate Stephanie and I lived on the 8th floor here.

505 E Clark St. It looks kind of dismal doesn't it?

And here's the view of the back of 505 E Clark St. Just as dismal as the front. I lived in one of the second floor efficiency units here.

807 Oakland Ave - My favorite apartment. I had over 1,000 square feet of space for only $500 a month....those were the days. This apartment included free parking, a community pool, and a fitness center!

We even stopped to have lunch at the Hooters where I use to work. It went well until I left my invisalign braces on the table in a napkin. We turned around to go back for them but they had already thrown them away. Luckily the manager found them for me. It was a bit embarrassing to say the least.


D and his bike


me and my bike - ready to head back home.

In all, we spent the entire day from 10am - 6pm out riding. We got a little sunburned but had a really fun time.