I live in SHampoo-Banana and ride my bicycle a lot. When I got an Xtracycle a few years ago (that’s me, trendsetter extraordinaire) I made the shift from saying “that’s the weather; should I drive or ride?” to “That’s the weather; what should I wear? How much fun will *this* be?” … and then my brother needed a car, so I sold mine to him. I strive for joy and simplicity and positive good stuff.
I’m moving over from Google since it’s decided my blog is a spamblog, with all kinds of nasty things to say about how evil spamblogs are. Well, gosh and golly, I wouldn’t want to contribute to spam. Let’s see how quickly I can get the template stuff over…
Urbana-Champaign Cycling Ventures 
In response to your comment on Sister Alma Rose re Québécois…
Xiousgeonz — You are correct. I took four years of French, for all the good it does me, but at least I should have noticed that the C did not have the little comma-like thing (cedilla) attached to the bottom to indicate a soft C. I am VERY sorry about your brother. Autoimmune diseases are nasty. You have to unlearn everything you ever learned about “strengthening your immune system.” For 10 years doctors have been changing their minds about whether I DO or DO NOT have rheumatoid arthritis. I have added your “little brother” to the prayer chain (bottom left) at http://www.zgravweb.net/59prayer_requests.html. My heartfelt warm, embracing, healing thoughts and prayers are sent to him and to your family. –Mary
first let me say I love your blog, very good reading!! 🙂
second wanted to let you know that your local uni is gonna be doing stuff for the solar decathalon in a couple weeks in DC. I dont know if you care or not but would be cool to take a trip over and get some pics up, if anything I will make sure to take some, and send them your way if interested, when I go and see them(and the other 19 teams) in DC!
http://www.solardecathlon.uiuc.edu/
cheers and keep up the good work!
I’d love pictures — they got a nice write-up in the paper and a mention on the radidio. I’d move on in if I could 😉
Hi..
Nice to know u Bro..
enjoying reading ur thread… thank you
Hello, I stumbled across your blog which is very interesting. I don’t do a lot of cycling so most of my experience of Chambana travel has been from a car but I really like how you give a different perspective to the layout, traffic, and travel in and around Chambana. I thought you might be interested in a book that we are hosting a slide show and signing for. The book is “The Lost Cyclist” by David Herlihy. It is about Frank Lenz and his attempt to travel around the world (in 1892) on his bicycle and he almost made it. There will be slides of Frank Lenz and his trip as well. The event is on Oct 28th from 5-7pm at the Jane Addams Book Shop in downtown Champaign. More information will be available on our website in a couple of days (haven’t had a chance to post the event yet). I will look forward to reading more of your adventures!
Veryy interesting reading and mucho inspiring, with all this winter riding.
Will visit again.
Found you on bikejournal.
Dave
Sorry that I can’t spell “very.”
Still haven’t figured why your old blog was spam blog.
Anyway, you are dedicated to posting which I’m not. I’m just spreading myself abit thin across several blogs. Maybe you and I can joke if we blog plus have full-time jobs somehow.
Keep cycling!
Came across your blog in my attempt to hear from someone who bikes around the Champaign area. I’m moving downstate to attend a nursing school in Danville. But I have a lot of friends who go to U of I that I would like to meet with on a regular basis. Are the rural roads between Danville and Champaign conducive to bicycle commuting? How do drivers respond to someone on a bicycle on the road?
Thank You.
IT’s a bit of a ride but I jaunt from here to Danville a couple times a year. There’s a reasonable route North of I-74; south, too, if you don’t mind riding through some territory that makes you imagine hearing the theme to Deliverance in the background… Drivers are generally reasonable but we’ve got a truly crappy track record with drivers running down cyclists while, say, downloading ring tones (Jennifer Stark who ran over Matt Wilhelm) or reading maps (Errol Maul who ran over my friend Cindy Combs and her husband; she was killed and he’s still recovering from injuries a year + later) and more… and getting “illegal use of lane” citations, so I’d strongly recommend a good mirror… CHampaign County has a ton of nice, paved, low-traffic roads. Vermillion is more likely to have gravel interruptions. In the C-U area there are enough bicyclists so drivers don’t freak out… but I get a whole lot more space when I’m on my Xtracycle than when I”m on my Trek.
Your reply made by laugh and shake at the same time. I was searching for routes on google maps, but I can only speculate as to wether routes are suitable for riding without being there. I live in Dupage county, so most of my rides are on public roads with a lot of morning commuters. I’m looking forward to moving and exploring the local area. Glad to hear that you are trek owner too. I recently traded a Brompton for my Trek 520.
Have you seen the Illinois “bikeable roads” maps? Our IDOT has maps of the county roads, color coded for how good they are for biking. It’s on their website and they’re pretty accurate.
Thanks for that. I was surprised to see the large amount of green on the Vermilion and Champaign county maps. DuPage county seems to have significantly less bike friendly roads.