Jeff Teel

Member Profile

Journals

Title	Ratings
The Great Plains Trail - Sort Of	7656
Metamora, USA	1235
Celebrating in Manito, Illinois	38
Central Illinois Holiday Weekends	22
Centered on Central Illinois	66
Nebraska on the Open Road	839
Wisconsin on the Kick-back	570
Getting Aligned	151
Diversion into Kansas	169
Southern Indiana on the Kick-back	185
Iowa on the Tri-speed	133
Tri-points on the Tri-speed	253
Northern Indiana on the Open Road	74
Following the Straight Path	106
To Surprise Laurie	56

About

Presently live in Morton, Illinois (Tazewell County) - a village of 17,117 located nine miles southeast of Peoria, Illinois.

Born in 1955. Grew up in Marquette Heights, Illinois. In 1973, my folks and sisters moved to Eureka, Illinois, and I went off to Valparaiso, Indiana, to study electronics at Valparaiso Technical Institute. I did my first (unintentional) overnight bike trip from there, sleeping underneath the IN-49 bridge over the Kankakee River (using a map for a blanket) on my way back from Rensselaer, Indiana. "You can't just pedal off without some thought about returning." was the lesson I learned that weekend. After graduating, I worked for several companies as a technician (Instrument, Maintenance, Electronics, Electrical), before ending up with my present job - in chemistry. December 31, 2021 update: I'm retired.

During lunch on July 7, 2008, I said to my wife, "I think I'll ride my bike to pick up the vegetables this afternoon." She didn't say anything to discourage me, so off I went on my first town-to-town adventure since my college days. We were members of a CSA at the time, and vegetables were picked up between 5:00pm and 6:00pm in Eureka - 17 miles away. I was beat that evening, but also had that satisfying feeling that I was able to do it. That trip led to other CSA pick-up trips, and eventually planned overnight trips - much to the initial consternation of my folks and sisters.

Halfway into my first town-to-town bike trip - July 7, 2008, Eureka, Illinois (photo by my dad)

I took this picture on my first planned overnight bicycle trip. It's my favorite:

May 11, 2009 - eastern Tazewell County, Illinois

BIKES: 1977 Montgomery Ward Open Road, 2010 Trek Belleville, 1965 Schwinn Typhoon, 2007 Surly Long Haul Trucker.

TENT: Coleman Sundome 3-Person 7-ft x 7-ft 2000000134.

GPSs: Magellan MAP 330, DeLorme PN-20 (retired), DeLorme PN-60, DeLorme PN-40 (retired).

CAMERAS: Oregon Scientific Dshot III DS6888A (retired), Kodak C123 (retired).

PHONE/SMARTPHONES: Nokia 5180iP on TracFone plan (retired), BlackBerry Storm 9530 (retired), Samsung Galaxy Core Prime (retired), Samsung Galaxy S22.

WEATHER RADIO: Oregon Scientific WR602.

RADIOS: Grundig FR-200 (retired), Sentry PR799 (retired), Tesslor M8 (retired), Retekess V115.

This table shows calculations on data from my trips: