Weather Problems - Kankakee, IL (Day 14)

Well, nobody said there wouldn't be any adventure on this trip. Today's was more like a movie than real life, though.

The day started a little slow. Some of us (me) had to grab our clothes out the dryer from the night before. Wow, the washing machine stuff was clutch. The packing took a little longer today than usual. I had to take care of all of the care packages I received (thanks rents!), which meant that my suitcase bulged even more than usual and I had to lug an extra couple pounds of fruit snacks and granola bars.

We had the typical healthy 4K breakfast of deep-dish pizza, pad thai, and Jamba Juice. After blocking traffic with our morning circle, we took off through the most interesting parts of Chicago. I was surprised to find that all of a sudden every single sign was in Spanish (I should learn that) and then that we were biking through Midway. For a second I thought the 4K was a huge joke, and that nobody had ever actually biked across the country, you just biked to Midway, hopped a plane to San Fran, and then photoshopped yourself into pictures of the Midwest and the Rockies.

The first water stop was where today REALLY started to get fun. We had a slight change in the directions...which apparently very few of us were actually able to follow. A few groups were able to make the right turns, but my group somehow ended up on a 5 mile long detour. My group (btw it was Meg, Taylor, Amy, and MoMo) valiantly fought on to the last water stop...to find that the directions had changed again. So, we started on the road again, got lost again, then found ourselves...again...and biked down Center Rd. about 30 miles from our destination.

Until...

We got the call that there were going to be tornadoes in the area. Nobody was worried. We had been in “tornado” warnings before, and we got drizzled on and that was about it. But we pulled off the side of the road and waited to get shuttled. Just in case, we took shelter in the garage of “Jim.”

Jim was a really nice guy with a really bad cigar. He fed pheasants and killed coyotes. He also had some first-hand experience with tornadoes (two in Illinois and one in Wisconsin), so we felt safe with him. Its a good thing we did too, because very soon the sky went black/green, the cloud ceiling fell, and those fast moving clouds overhead actually started to swirl. No joke, I have it on video.

Jim told us what a tornado would sound like (a freight train) and where we would run if we had to (under his house). I was watching the cloud line across the field behind his house and started talking to him about how fast the tornado would form and touch down. He had basically just finished telling me how it would happen incredibly quickly when we actually saw a funnel cloud form. It was a few miles away, and small, but it was certainly there. It formed and then disintegrated. Other groups got to see the big one that really caused some damage while stuck in a barn. I guess thats cool too.

When we finally arrived at the YMCA, Dan flashed the sheet of paper that he used to try to track all of us down. There was chicken scratch all over the thing. What a logistical nightmare. I can only imagine how difficult it was for the church people and the 4K leaders to find us spread out all over these random roads.

Also Ben just stepped on Ankit. Oh, the 4k hi-jinx.

And the barn bikes just got here. Always something happening to keep things interesting. GO TEAM TORNADO!

-Rob Kasten