Connecting in Villa Park

This is a little blurb to go along with some photos. The set you see here is meant to be clicked upon and rummaged through.

I encourage you to explore. Every time I do, I am rewarded.

• So glad I have rain gear so I can ride no matter the weather.
• So glad I decided to try the not-fancy coffee shop.
• So glad I had my bike.
• So glad I talked to people, asked questions.

I am staying in Villa Park, IL. This is my third stint in a year and a half.

I come to the area for professional education classes in physical therapy in Oak Brook at a PT office called BodyGears. It’s in ‘burbia, with large trafficky avenues and high-end shopping malls. Chain restaurants. Some other things, too. It hides a creek with its urban self.  I saw it, once.

Villa Park is a modest village that blends into the rest of this suburban Chicago area. I stay in a room. My hosts are super-friendly and quiet and leave me to my space. This third stay we have an easy rapport. There’s a lot more to share about them, too.

I’ve learned more about this working class, on the railroad tracks village each time I come. This visit has been fun. I have my bike. I found more local places and people. Here goes.

The factory that made Ovaltine was here. It is now a big building of apartments and townhouses on the main street.

Train tracks use to run through it. Two bike trails on old rail lines have trailheads on the main street. Crushed limestone and clay that became blobs thrown onto my bike and me – Today I had time and I had my bike. It rained, then poured. Some thunder.  A little lightning. Thus the blobs!

Last night, I rode the Great Western Trail. Today, the Illinois Prairie Path (which has a large swath of restored prairie along it) through the suburbs. Green spaces and rain and birds bathing.

The part I was on was the “main stem” of the path. Get it. Prairie. Stem?

I found shelter and ate the sub I got at Mike’s. Mike’s is next to the Funky Java* coffeehouse. They are both in a strip mall that I’d normally drive by without looking into. There is a bakery (that I’ll visit) and a fitness studio.

Larry runs the coffee shop. When I asked him for some ideas on where to buy sporting goods (I forgot to bring my foam roller and balance ball for class), he encouraged me to go down to the fitness facility (also in the strip mall) and tell Josh that Larry sent me. I went down for advice, and Josh loaned me a foam roller and a balance ball. He said he had plenty! John and Josh were big and fit and really nice.

I would have driven right by it.

I was wearing my super-amazing rain coat from Sweden (warm, water-proof and vented like a charm), so I kept riding. I looked at the map in Lombard. “I want to ride to that spot I see on the map where the path crosses, where the big blue line that is clearly a river or a stream is.” The way it moved across the map, clearly that is what it was.

Nope. It was I-355. And I thought, I bet it is that shape because it is covering a stream or a river. And maybe it’s still there. And yards from I-355 IS a stream.

And yards from I-294 (in Elmhurst) is another stream.

We drive right by these. We FLY right by these.

There were also overpasses, underpasses, trains, dogs, people.

Today in the rain there were toads and robins having a shower-bath. There was a lesson in how fast organic matter can leach into water as the runoff and puddling on the path flowed over crushed black walnuts lying there. A brown-red stream like blood. It helped me avoid wiping out by running over the nuts.

There was one accidental and one planned selfie.

The museum was open in Villa Park when I got back (one end Elmhurst, the other end Glen Ellyn). They have a fantastic historic museum! Ovaltine! And trains. And other slices of history.

There is both a photo and a video of the inside of my rain coat.

And a victory photo of all my clay-globbed rain gear resting in the airbnb shower.

Thanks for joining me. There’s more to share about Villa Park and training and all these things.

*You must go to Funky Java. All are welcome. Larry is nice. There is local artwork, and all is welcome. Sometimes there is music. Or poetry. It’s small. The coffee is good. It’s been there 26 years with Larry. He will watch your stuff if you need to get up for a minute.