After that amazing experience in Boulder, I imagined that no other city experience could come close. In terms of all the wonderful human connections, that may have turned out to be true, but in terms of natural splendor, I was pleasantly surprised by autumn’s glory in another new-to-me city, the town of Galesburg, Illinois (population just under 30,000).
I enjoyed a pleasant overnight train ride from Denver—after unfortunately getting soaked in an unexpected rainstorm right on the way to the train station—and arrived in Galesburg in the late morning of October 28th.
I hadn’t been able to find any Servas or other hosts in this area, so I booked a hotel just north of town for two nights, since the following day I was to take the train to Quincy for a day trip with my bike.
After arriving on the train, I walked across the street and enjoyed a healthy snack of tabouli at Cornucopia Natural Market and Deli, an all-vegetarian, locally owned natural foods store. From the deli, I called the hotel to see if they could receive me early, since it was now noon and my check-in time was scheduled for 3:00. I was happy to hear that they could accommodate that. I headed out on my bike in pleasant mid-50s weather… but within the 30 minutes it took me to get there, I got soaked in another sudden rainstorm.
Admittedly I was not thrilled to be so drenched, especially because when the woman who checked me into the hotel caught sight of my rig, she made me wait another half hour for them to prepare another room for me, so that my bike wouldn’t sully their carpets.
Eventually, however, I got into the room and dried out my clothes (thank goodness for fast-drying synthetics!) and within an hour, the rain had stopped and the sun was breaking through the clouds. This was my one daylight opportunity to experience Galesburg, and I could see on the map that there was a nature park nearby.
I pedaled out toward it, finding myself mostly in rather drab, open-prairie surroundings. But as I neared Lake Storey Park, the scenery changed dramatically. I entered a magical October wooded wonderland!
Here are the photos from that several-mile ride through the park. What a thoroughly satisfying excursion.
Next up: another beautiful bike path in Quincy!
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