84: pleasant elementary, land mine, winded and mugged, soirée at hog's creek, cornfield speed trap, old church, mad river museum, illinois central, bad time for a house fire, the devil beats his wife, good hair day, woody's, what $80.00 gets you

July 20, 2025

Norwalk to Fremont

Because the weather report showed that it was going to rain all morning I stayed up late and slept late, and didn't leave until 12:30. Unsurprisingly, the report changed overnight. Now, instead of raining in the morning i's supposed to rain in the afternoon. It seems I'll never learn.

The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway. I keep reading "Land Mine" instead of "Land Line."

I'm on the North Coast Inland Trail almost exclusively today, and this is what I saw for most of the first part of the trip... surprisingly, no animals whatsoever, and not much change in the flora.

Each time I popped out into the open the wind assaulted me. I felt like the headwind winded me and the mugginess mugged me.

During the second part of the ride, I saw rabbits, squirrels, great egrets, and a number of other animals, including something which, from a distance, appeared to be a groundhog - and there was a 10-foot apron of wildflowers along the trail. Still windy, though, and you can see what the wind is doing to the black-eyed susans.

A few interesting tidbits about Bellevue, the one town I passed through today:
* It was originally called Hog's Creek, but some women got together and petitioned to have it changed to Bellevue because it sounds more sophisticated. It would be a bit hard to have a believable soirée in Hog's Creek.
* It's known for its "cornfield speed traps," in which the speed limit suddenly drops when you reach the outskirts of town (with plenty of corn in which to hide a patrol car).
* There was once a miniature Eiffel Tower here, on private property, but tourists took so many photos that it was removed.

This old church in Bellevue is more beautiful in person.

It was originally a Congregational Church, built in 1887, before merging into St. Paul’s in 1979, but now appears to be abandoned.

You can see the broken windows on the other side. It's a shame the building can't be repurposed.

The Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum is next door to the church, and I would have stopped if the temperature hadn't been sprinting upwards.

Even though I didn't stop, there were a number of cars I was able see.

The headwind blew the rain straight into my face. A couple of times during my ride, the devil was beating his wife (a Southern expression to describe when it's raining AND the sun is shining).

The rain sure makes for a good hair day, though.

Between showers (it was raining when I arrived and when left) I ate at Woody's and ate the coney dog recommended by Aiden, the young man who works there. I also had a root beer float, which are delicious in rain or shine. This was taken the next morning.

From Woody's, I headed out in the rain a short distance to The Great Lakes Motel in Fremont. As I was paying, I noticed the No Vacancy sign was turned on, but there was only one car in the parking lot. Only one more car came in that evening, and it made me wonder if the owner was vetting potential customers. I'm not sure why, because it's one of the most rundown places I've stayed at so far.

The pictures just don't do the place justice. With the exception of a single lamp, there was only the overhead light, containing what appeared to be a 10-watt bulb fighting back the darkness. The lone lamp hung from the ceiling in front of the window, and was the style used in the 1950s, torpedo-shaped, and mostly red with psychedelic swirls of white intermixed. I thought I took a picture, but apparently not.

You can't tell in the picture, but the paneling is bowed.

view from the back window - it's pretty dark back there, but the camera lightened it up

I'm not sure why they placed an outlet here, because I could've used one next to the bed. Either side would be okay. Maybe this one is for an air conditioner, which isn't there...

...nor is it here. At least, not any longer.

This cobweb with a long, black hair attached dangled above the entrance to the shower the entire time I was there.

Working on the journal was difficult because of the sound coming from the air conditioning unit. Approximately every two minutes I heard two chugs, then a long expiratory wheeze that sounded alarmingly like the last gasp of a dying man. The expiration itself lasted a full thirty seconds.

I went over to make some adjustments, hoping perhaps to see a "CPR button," but it was so old that the writing on the buttons had been rubbed out. This created a guessing problem, so I started guessing. Pressing what could be an "Down" arrow, or maybe the remnants of an insect that got crushed but never removed, I waited to see what happened.... two chugs, then a long expiratory wheeze. When I couldn't tell a difference in the temperature of the air I pressed it multiple times, and eventually noticed my face starting to melt. The next button turned it off ,and by trial and error I eventually determined the purpose of each button. Except that one. Having seen the where the wall unit had previously been meant that this unit is the newer air conditioner.

Now that I had the AC figured out I went back to my writing. As I was sitting in bed (there was no chair) working on the blog I heard a continuous high-pitched sound. Because I have chronic tinnitus I assumed it was that, but this was different in three respects: (1) There were actually two high-pitched sounds, the new one much higher in pitch, (2) when I turned my head it sounded different, and (3) this was very similar to the sound a mosquito makes, the kind that can cause insanity. Eventually, I localized it to the refrigerator, so I unplugged it.

On the positive side: there was hot water, the bed was comfortable, and it only set me back $80.00.

This was taken the next morning. I didn't realize that unplugging the refrigerator would also defrost the freezer inside.

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Today's ride: 30 miles (48 km)
Total: 2,150 miles (3,460 km)

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Steve Miller/GrampiesYou were probably correct about the motel vetting customers, but they were checking to see if a potential customer was enough of a lowlife (druggie, ex convict, bicycle tourist.....) to merit a stay.
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