The Departure

Who has time for blogging while they're adventuring? Not us! We'll attempt to write a post for each day of our trip. You can expect to read about our route, the number of miles we biked, where we camped, what kind of ice cream we had, and who we met along the way (aka new friends). Here's an account of our departure day.

The Departure 

After work, we loaded up Ashley and Ben's car with all four bikes (thanks to Ben's homemade roof rack and a borrowed trunk rack for three) and all our gear. It all fit, with plenty of room to spare. Ashley picked up Chipotle burritos that we ate in the car.

We drove to the Milwaukee Intermodal Station to catch the Hiawatha.

The conductor folks loaded our bikes into the special train car and we made our way to Chicago, with some special snacks (rumchata minis and dark chocolate!)

We arrived at Union Station and biked to the hostel. After storing our bikes and scoping our room, we ventured out to find some dogs and cold treats. Shake Shack supplied the Shack-cago dog (r) and we yum-yummed in Millennium Park. Tired and planning for an early and hot day of riding, we made our way back to the hostel and crashed. Ben and Ashley shared the twin sized top bunk. A testament to their love. :)

Stats:

Miles biked: 0
Where we camped: Hostel International Chicago
Ice cream: Shake Shack chocolate malt (Stephanie), Vanilla shack (Ashley)
New friends: train conductor!