Skip links

Team Illinois Finishes!

Stacy and I finally rolled into Aurora, IL last night around 6:30p.m. Thanks to everyone who was able to make it out to welcome our arrival at the Planned Parenthood. Good luck to Team Wisconsin which begins their trek today, leaving St. George’s in Aurora and making their way out to Moline.

Yesterday’s ride, on my part, was one of the toughest. Extremely strong winds of 20 something mile per hour head winds made it very slow going from the Newman Center at Bradley in Peoria to Planned Parenthood in Aurora. Stacy and I were able to maintain pretty good pace along the Great River Road where we were able to hide from the wind behind John Paul’s car and the Illinois River bluffs. Her brother Brian Hague, who joined us starting in Champaign rode the second half of yesterday’s ride with us–his presence was a great boost to morale!

Traffic entering the outer suburbs definitely got a bit crazy compared to the mostly un-trafficked country roads or secondary highways that we’d been traveling on the majority of the trip. Speaking for myself, it’s always a bit of a rush though–dodging cars with the excitement of your final destination!

While riding along somewhere in the middle of the trip it was a huge surprise to have my buddy Joe Puhr coincidentally drive right past us on his way back to U of  I! Crazy, small world.

Once again, thanks to everyone who made the ride possible for Team Illinois–Stacy and her brother, John Paul for driving and other admin jobs, Rose Schmallen for some really good videos she made (please check those out!) and putting up with moving at a snail’s pace in the car for many parts, the Brummers, my parents, the Daystar Community Center in Cairo, and the Newman Center at Bradley for housing and feeding us, and also the Newman Center at EIU for feeding us; and great thanks to those who prayed and supported the pro-life movement financially! You can still donate and keep Team Wisconsin in your prayers this week as they’ll be finishing in Champaign on Friday!