One morning a year, Chicago closes Lake Shore Drive to vehicular traffic to allow full access to bikers from 6-10am -- this year it was on Sunday morning of Labor Day weekend, and we decided to participate. Scott's father-in-law, George, and Steve and Shay did it too...
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Fifth Third Bank was the primary sponsor...
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Our entry tickets
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Sunrise as George was driving us down to Chicago (**so** grateful that George arranged to get parking at Moody Bible Institute and drove us and our bikes down!).
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Outside the Moody parking garage, ready to head over to Lakeshore Drive
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We found an entrance to Lakeshore Drive, and got on heading north, thinking that Steve and Shay were up near Fullerton, but... it turned out that they were in Grant Park...
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So, we got off Lakeshore at the next exit and got back on heading south.
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Action picture of George with the sunrise behind!
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Carl is good at taking pictures while he is riding -- George and I were in front...
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... then I was in front...
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We stopped over the Chicago River so I could take a picture of what-used-to-be "1 IBM Plaza" (it is the shorter dark building next to the really shiny Trump Tower) -- now The Langham Hotel is located at that address -- I think there may still be some IBM offices there too, but I don't know.
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Selfie with the Trump Tower and former IBM building behind us.
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We met up with Steve and Shay at Grant Park.
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Steve modeling his brand-new Bike The Drive teeshirt
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Continuing south on Lakeshore Drive from Grant Park
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We decided to turn around before getting to the Museum of Science and Industry - this was our turn-around point.
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This is a throwback picture - of Carl when he did Bike The Drive in 2012 -- in front of the Museum of Science and Industry.
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Shay and Steve at the point where we turned around.
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Heading back north -- Steve, Shay, Patti, and George across in front of Carl
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It was a beautiful morning - bright blue skies -- Steve, Shay, Patti, George.
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Selfie with Navy Pier in the background
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Navy Pier
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We continued north...
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Heading toward Fullerton Beach
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It doesn't look like there were a lot of bikers with us...
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... we think that the crowd was a bit smaller than they may normally have. It is usually on Memorial Day Weekend, and it was cancelled last year due to COVID. George said that they have had as many as 50,000 riders, but he got his ticket pretty late and his number was in the 8000s, so we're thinking 10-12,000 participated this year.
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After we got off of Lakeshore Drive, we were heading to a breakfast place and I saw this man with his dog in a backpack and having a cape on!
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| It turned out that the man who had his dog in the backpack with the cape went to the
same breakfast spot that we did! So I got a slightly better picture as
they were walking away. |
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Outside of the donut shop where we got our post-ride breakfast treat!
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It was in an alley -- and there was a telephone truck parked at the entrance evidently trying to figure out a fix to one of the myriad of wires above the alley.
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There was no outdoor eating area at the donut shop, so we found a bench outside a bank where we could sit and chat.
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I found this sign on the door of the bank to be ironic -- no hats, no hoods, no sunglasses -- but masks are required! (There was a separate sign for the mask requirement... I didn't take a picture of that.)
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We went separate ways after our breakfast break -- Shay and Steve back to their apartment and we headed back to Moody... It was so nice to get to spend some time with Steve and Shay!
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On our way back to Moody, we crossed Larrabee St again!
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Our Bike The Drive route (the red line) from my FitBit tracker.
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We rode about 20 miles -- the elapsed time was about 2 hours 15 minutes; I think that does not include times we were stopped -- in total, I think we were out and about for 3 hours+. We enjoyed the day, and our participation (paying for the tickets to participate) contributed to the group that helps to promote bike paths and bike lanes in Chicago.
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