Always looking to ride. Anyone on the forum from Illinois?

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Welcome aboard. I'm from the NW Burbs, not exactly around the corner from you. If you ever make it up this way, drop an email and we can try and hook up.

 

Welcome,

We are having a Midwest Rally for HDForums.com in Effingham, IL. on June 17th. You can read all about it if you click on the link in my sig below. I live in Charleston, IL. We expect a bunch of forum members at the Rally.

Hope to see you there.

 

Welcome from Aledo Il.

 

Hi I'm from Chicago

 

I live in Chicago. I'm always up for shenanigans, monkey business, or horseplay.

 

Anybody up for a ride out to the Broken Oar this weekend?

 

I'm booked up this weekend, bachelor party -and NOT mine. Other than that, I'd love to go. Shoot me an email sometime!

Cheers
LT

 

Decatur here.

 

I went to Broken Oar for the first time this weekend. My ex-gf (don't ask) and I decided to take a ride and get a $50 hamburger (including the cost of gas, beer, pepsi). It's a fantastic little place. The ex got a burger which was fantastic. I had a pretty decent dog. I think we arrived a bit late as it seemed the staff was recovering from a big weekend and nearly outnumbered patrons. We arrived at 7 pm on Sunday.

Funny part, I'd never been there, and don't have net access at home (only at work). So, knowing it was in Cary, I called Cary directory assistance for the number. I called the bar, and they gave me some goofy directions. We took US-14 all the way from Peterson and Lincoln in Chicago. We stopped at a Shell station, more because my *** was getting tired than the need for gas, but we filled up anyway. I knew we were close to the Fox River, and I knew 1) the bar was on the river, and 2) Cary was just across the river. The previous directions were obviously not right, so I called again. Well, really I asked my ex to call while I gases up the steed.

She asked how to get there from US 14 and the river. They said to take IL-22 (the ex didn't ask whether we should take it north or south, turns out IL 22 only goes EAST!), to 176, left on Roberts, "and if you hit the river you went too far." We ended up adding about 50% more miles because of this, and had to stop at a mini mart and ask which way 176 was. Good thing too, as the minimartier changed our direction to North, and cut off about 30 miles going in the wrong direction.

So we take Midlothian northeastish to 176. We find IL 83 and US 12 on the way. Finally we find 176 and take a left as the Oar suggested. Our next turn was to be Roberts, but apparently, we missed the sign for Roberts because it's one of those streets that is Roberts southbound, but something else northbound.

Naturally, missing the turn, we ended up crossing the river. As the instructions said, if you hit the river, you went too far, so I decided to stop and call again. I asked for directions for 176 and the river. Oddly, in spite of the fact that 176 and the river were both parts of the previous set of instructions, they couldn't find anyone who could give us directions from our location. I figured I ask an easy question, just to make sure we were talking the same language. "Are you on the East or West side of the river?" They didn't know. Keep in mind, the bar is ON that river and in fact, sell fuel to boaters. I simply cannot fathom how someone who works on a river doesn't know which side they were on. Being they couldn't answer that question, me and the ex decided to try calling everyone we knew until we got someone who was on the net.

As things work out, first, no answers, then, I get a good friend Kate on the phone, and she's walking me through it, and the ex gets her friend Smalls on the phone. While we're both on the phone, a bicyclist stops to add some aid. Turns out, had we found Roberts, the latest directions from the Oar still left out a turn. It worked out.

I estimated we'd arrive at 6 pm when I left my house and we actually arrived at 7. Not to bad considering we had no idea where we were going, and a few sets of directions were bogus. We arrived and there were plenty of bikes, but clearly the parking lot could hold more. A few girls were still lounging around in bikini's.

We ran in and got some chow. I decided to use the men's room, and because it was going to be a substantial deposit, I waited until no one else was in there. After taking the Browns to the Superbowl, only then did I realize there was NO TP at all. I shimmied around the the paper towel rack... again, empty. The ex gf was kind enough to liberate some from the lady's room and all was good.

As we were eating, a boater ordered $60 of fuel and a shot of tequila, which we found amusing. After eating, which again, was great food, we went down to sit and