Saturday I rode my bike to Kenosha with a friend. We left early [5:15am for me], stopped at Once Upon a Bagel in Highland Park and then rode straight up to Kenosha. A couple of friends rode to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in North Chicago and then turned around. George & I rode the entire trip together.
We stayed fairly close to Lake Michigan due to the cooling effect of the lake and the hot, humid weather on Saturday. There were strong storms and winds that came through the area from about Waukegan up to Kenosha which did a lot of damage. I took a picture of George with my iPhone 4 in front of a house with a huge tree laying on the roof and front of it.
We kept the pace up and were riding at just under 20mph most of the way. I was home before 10:30am which is the earliest I have gotten home from a ride to Kenosha I believe. My mileage total was just under 80 miles for this ride.
Sunday morning I rode again but only did a ride up to Once Upon a Bagel with Jerry and a small group. We rode pretty slowly. It was a good recovery ride.
Sunday evening my daughter and I went to my cousin's home in Downers Grove. Linda [my cousin] and her husband Hans have a very nice home and Linda is quite a hostess. Her brothers are scattered across the country to the west of Chicago. Gary lives in the St. Louis area, Greg lives in the Reno area and Rick lives in Hawaii on Maui. It was great to see all of them. It has been 2 1/2 years since their mother died and I believe that was the last time we were all together.
Monday Scott [my flying friend], Guinness [my dog], a I went down to the Kankakee area. We went to Enjoy Field and from there to the Cullom area. We met a group who were towing paragliders aloft via a hydraulic winch and then releasing to try to stay aloft on rising air or thermal lift. One of the group, Jaro Krupa, was able to find enough lift to stay up and fly away. The rest of us didn't find adequate lift and couldn't stay up very long. It was a nice afternoon but the lift could have been better. Scott and I both did one tow. We then went to Koerner's Airport just outside of Kankakee.
We arrived at Koerner's to find Steve and his son, Alex, working on a 1940's vintage Luscombe C restoration project. It is a beautiful, shiny, 2 seat, tail dragger aircraft. Alex has polished it to a mirror finish and they were working on aligning some masking tape for painting some striping and insignia on it. They were hoping to finish it for Oshkosh this year but they aren't going to make it apparently. They are both certified A&P [Air-frame & Power-plant] aircraft mechanics.
Lance met Scott and I there after a little while. Guinness just hung out with us. Lance helped Scott with a motor mount issue on his Skybolt RDM. My Skybolt RDM had the starter partially disintegrate in Florida a couple of months ago and it still needs a belt for its cooling fan. We thought the old cooling fan belt would hold but it didn't. I have a Top 80 which is in need of propeller repair but I also have some spare props. Lance and I found a prop which worked.
Wes arrived while all of this was going on. He and Scott were kiting their paragliders in the field and were just about ready to fly when the Top 80 was ready to be flown. I launched first and they followed. We had great flights. Fred Beagle of EAA Oshkosh fame was there flying his ultralight too. It was great to meet a legend, have the pleasure of flying with him, and shake his hand.
Wes, Scott & I landed for a bit, refueled and then relaunched again to fly until dark. We then went out for dinner and home to sleep very soundly.
It was a great weekend!
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