The anticipation leading up to our departure reached a fever pitch the day of our going-away party, about 3 weeks before we left, and stayed absolutely redlined from that moment on. Saying goodbye to all of our friends and family, saying goodbye to our extremely beloved cat Jelly (who’s in the very capable hands of Alyssa’s sister in Utah), moving all of our remaining belongings into safe storage, making sure as many loose ends as possible were buttoned up in order to make our departure go smoothly… it was heartwarming, heartbreaking, energizing, and exhausting. Our going away party was lit, though.

All that anticipation led us to the morning of our departure. We packed our bags, and had one last fitful night of sleep in our shared apartment with Andy and Alayne, and woke up at 6 AM on The Big Day. Our barren bedroom only held the camping sleep gear we intended to carry with us.

We moved our bikes and bags down the three flights of stairs out to the backyard, and said our ‘final’ goodbyes to Andy and Alayne in the warm morning sunshine.

And just like that, we hopped on, and rode out of the city that brought us together, empowered and grew our love for cycling, and that we’ve called home in some capacity for our entire lives.

Even amidst the utter disbelief that we were finally doing this, we made excellent time. The weather was truly perfect – a high in the upper 70s, sunny, with the wind at our backs to help us out of town. The miles flew by in the morning, out of the city and onto the I&M Canal Trail; so much so, that by early lunchtime we’d already made it 40 miles or so out to the large suburb of Joliet. We stopped for an inordinately cheap and preposterously delicious breakfast/lunch ($3 for a biscuit egg and cheese, hash brown, and large coffee?? For real though hit up Chicken ‘n’ Spice in downtown Joliet) before continuing on our way out the southwestern suburbs of Chicago into the farmland surrounding them.

Eventually, the I&M Canal Trail became a Disney-ready fairytale wonderland, with a smooth yet overgrown path, fluttering butterflies, enormous blue herons flying by, wild onions to forage for later use, and a wealth of other beautiful plant life to fawn over. Pun sort of intended:

Our mood swelled. Backed by beautiful weather, beautiful riding, kind interactions with the people we encountered along the way, and most of all the settling in of the sensation that we were in fact finally doing this, both of us were a little euphoric to be out on the road.

We made our way out along the trail, and eventually reached the destination for the evening some 70 miles or so from our (old) back door, in Morris, IL. We quickly set up camp at the Gebhard Woods State Park, and got to cooking dinner with our foraged onions – pasta with garlic, pine nuts, parmesan, and the aforementioned onions. It was absolutely delicious, and hit just right after getting some good miles in.

After dinner, we retired to our campsite and reveled in how insane it was to finally be on the road after all this time planning. It represented a lot of work in the preceding weeks, months, and years, and truly felt surreal. We relaxed in the tent and worked on our projects journaling and doing some digital painting respectively. It was a lovely end to an absolutely wonderful first day on the road.