Heading West, Fianlly

Paul Bunyan in Atlanta, IL

June 26th we left home after 40 years in ChicagoLand to retire to Tucson. But, our tenants' lease in our Tucson townhouse would not be up till October 1. What better way to fill the gap but to load my bike in the back bay of our Nissan Quest and the scant possessions we'd actually need and road-trip for 99 days. And so it became: Tucson by way of Maine, Georgia, a Circle Tour by bike of Lake Michigan all before the first revolutions of the car wheels west of Chicago.

But Monday August 29th we did just that: headed West. It was Day 67 of travel, but it felt strangely exciting to be finally heading in the direction of Tucson.

Kinda sad it took our leave taking to get us to make a trip to Springfield to see the Lincoln Museum. But the timing was perfect with Kirk's thorough studying of Lincoln and the Civil War in anticipation of Chautauqua's Civil War Themed Week just the week before and our visits to Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown, and the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA. earlier on this Trek.

Be sure to put the Lincoln Museum on your travel Bucket List. So well done.

My father grew up in Nokomis, IL, now a little town of 2,400. While we visited my grandparents only two weekends a year, my brother and I have fond memories of the bench swing in the back yard, my grandfather's vet office in a room off the garage and its medicinal smell that strangely reminds me of Lapsang Souchong Tea. He mainly served large animals--hogs, cattle, horses, mules for which he would make "farm-calls". But there was the occasional dog and cat that would come to Doc Walcher's office at 322 Spruce Street, Nokomis, IL.

I did not have the opportunity to attend either his or my grandmother's funeral in 1969 and 1970; we made certain Nokomis was on our route West to Tucson.

322 Spruce Street, Nokomis, IL

 How to find my grandparents' graves? Three miles outside Nokomis we called one of the two funeral homes in town and posed the question. Marty, who answered the phone, instantly knew Jesse Leroy Walcher. He was buried in Plot 17, Section 1 Site 2. If we'd come by the funeral home he'd escort us to the grave site on his motor cycle. Even more remarkable was he remembered Doc Walcher well (who has now been deceased for 42 years), and that the good Doc had cared for his pet dogs when he was a kid.

Marty (left) and Kirk (right)

Tailgate lunch in the Nokomis Cemetery

Kansas was one of the few remaining states I had not yet ridden in so grabbed that opportunity after lunch with Susan Sawyer, an old friend whom we had not seen since 1988. It was well over 100, 108, I believe. I lost my heat acclimatization being off the bike for 6 weeks and traveling in the moderate climes of New England and the UP. So many miles I did not go in KS, but enough to count and enough to heed the warning of the sign where I began my ride.

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