Mile Zero
St. Charles, IL
Great Western Trail Head
12:00pm

Erin & Mom - about to set out on their great adventure - to conquer the Great Western trail by bike.

Please discount the really stupid look on my face and concentrate on Erin's nice smile. Notice how we are both standing at this point.

Mile Two

Our first rest stop. Still doing good - all smiles!

Mile Three
Wasco, IL

Our second rest stop in the beautiful (and really, really small) town of Wasco. Notice Erin is still standing....

Mile Three

...and Mom is not. Are we there yet?

(actually I was just kidding around - I'm not in THAT bad of shape)

Mile Five

Erin holds up the mile marker to prove it!

Mile ?? (more than five, less than ten)

Okay, let me explain this. This is the kind of picture you take when:

1. A deer runs out in front of you on the bike trail, and;
2. You're cruising along at about 10 miles per hour steering with one hand while...
3. ...trying to get your digital camera out of its case with the other hand without (a) crashing (b) dropping it (c) spooking this rather large animal with sharp, pointy antlers who's trotting away from you, and;
4. You're trying to take the picture before those two bicyclists coming straight at you cause the deer to dart into the woods, and potentially collide with YOU, and;
5. You're trying to hold the camera still so you can KEEP THE PICTURE FROM COMING OUT BLURRY.

So THAT'S why it's blurry, OK?

Mile Ten

There's no mile marker, but there is a pretty bridge and creek.

Mile Eleven

Okay, just to prove to you that the last photo was probably mile ten even though there was no marker. Still standing and still smiling, though hurting a bit.

Mile 15 (we think)

The mile markers stopped at mile 14, maybe we should have too? Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch. Why did we do this? Are we crazy? Let's just collapse here for a while until the pain goes away...

ummm...it's not going away, it's getting worse. We can do this, right Erin?

Erin?

Not standing anymore, but still smiling.

Mile 17.86
Sycamore, IL
2:15pm

We did it! We made it. Erin's face says it all.

Not standing anymore, and weakly smiling but deeply satisfied.