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Camping has its positives, but a nice bed feels really good. Our target today was either Cliffside Park north of Racine, or another hotel in Racine if the weather doesn’t cooperate. But first, we headed up the Lakefront Trail to Evanston, IL for a short visit with Charlie Madigan, Mary’s brother.
I hadn’t seen Charlie since the last funeral we both attended and wanted to stop to say high under better circumstances. Dana had never met him, but we related the “small world” story of her dad’s dancing friendship with Charlie’s and Mary’s sister Sandy. We had a very nice visit and caught up on all the going’s on with his and Linda’s boys, and all the same with updates from SC, and a tour of their beautiful back yard. Linda, unfortunately, had commitments that morning and we had a long day ahead of us, so we didn’t see her, but we did get to see Conor for a few minutes.
It had rained on the bikes a bit, but I had covered them in anticipation. We checked the brightening skies and radar and said our good-byes and Charlie gifted us his book “Operation Bingo” (and “Mine”, too, but I have that one and space is short in our packs). Charlie had a very interesting career as a journalist for the Chicago Tribune and others. Check out his website here.
We realized pretty quickly that we weren’t going to make Cliffside or Racine that day, so Dana came up with an alternate destination of the Illinois Beach Campground. Thankfully, the rest of our 50 miles were quiet and dry. We got there around 5 and found a campsite near just over the dunes from the beach. Great spot and our neighbors Abe and Jennifer passed us on the way back from the beach and asked where our car was. They wanted to hear more about our travels and came over with offers of drinks and company and we spent a couple hours enjoying both in their campsite — a little more upscale than ours with canopies and chairs and lights and tables and a very cool class B RV that we are thinking about for our future travels. A good time and a great way to top off our day.
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