Leg 1, Day 4: Bloomington to Springfield
Cyclemeter App: Distance: 80.30 miles, Total 240.42 (67.8% of the way)
Day began with a nice bike trail. We left early because we knew it was going to be a long day’s ride to Springfield. There was another nice trail, typical out of Bloomington.
Here’s a video clip of that trail ride out of Bloomington. The reference to corn fields was not sarcasm There were corn fields ahead on the right, not quite captured by the video.
As typical, trails end, roads begin, and then there appears out of nowhere a new nice trail, but only for a while.
The the trail ended in a few miles. And then the main road itself ended in the sense of requiring a long detour around new bridge construction. This gave us two options, the scenic one, about 8 miles, that dead-ended at an Illinois park, then requiring a dirt trail to get back to the road, or the very long, boring, official detour. We did the former. And it turns out the detour was a beautiful ride with an interesting end.
The road we took, ah the short cut, dead-ended here at Sugar Grove Nature Center, after a little but steep uphill.
All roads end.
Our ‘4 wheel driving’ included crossing the RR tracks at, ahem, an unofficial crossing. (Those are cement ties).
Here’s a video of Corky managing the woods walk back to Route 66.
We paralleled I-57 on what must have been a 2 lane remnant of Old 66. 
Another small town with another of those giant guys. This one originally had an axe in his hands, appropriate to representing Bunyon. But it was bought by a guy who had a hot dog / hamburger place, so he replaced the axe with a giant hot dog. It’s a little incongruous but you go with the spirit of the idea. Alas, the hot dog place is gone.
A very nice lady was driving by, stopped her car in the middle of the road and offered to take our picture. I was waving instructions (telling her to back up) when she snapped the picture; it turned out fine.
Courthouse where Lincoln practiced law, in Postville, Illinois. The below sign says the Mr. Lincoln practiced law 1843-47 (that very building?–alas, it’s a replica). Below is a past from the website:
http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/sites/postvill.htm
From 1840 to 1848 Lincoln visited this historic site twice a year as part of his circuit law practice when the town of Postville was the Logan County seat. The original building, erected in 1840, was a destination on the old Eighth Judicial Circuit in Illinois. The Postville courthouse was located about 25 miles north of Lincoln’s home in Springfield. When Lincoln first attended court here, he was a junior partner of John Todd Stuart. By 1844 he had opened his own law practice with William H. Herndon as junior partner. Lincoln’s friend and colleague, Samuel Treat, was the presiding judge at Postville and traveled with the lawyers on the circuit. In 1848 the town of Mt. Pulaski, 11 miles southeast, gained control of the county seat following a referendum. County records were transferred there, where another courthouse was built in which Lincoln also argued cases. By 1929 industrialist Henry Ford acquired the original Postville courthouse and had it reassembled at his Deerfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. The Illinois site, then, offers a replica of the original building. The town of Lincoln, founded in 1853, eventually succeeded Postville. It is the only town named for Lincoln before he became President.
As we closed in on the last 10 or so miles to Springfield, we were heat-weary (it was over 100 F on my bike thermometer), and at that point it had been 70 long miles. We found a very small town with one basically closed family restaurant and bar that was hosting some kind of regular bingo game. They welcomed us in and despite the kitchen being closed. We downed a lot of sodas, water, and junk food, while we cooled off for about an hour. We were inclined to join the ladies playing bingo but it was only for ‘stuff,’ like eyeliner. 
Our motel was a few blocks from the State Capital in Springfield, and directly across from Governor Rauner’s mansion.
Unfortunately, the Governor did not have room for us to spend the night; perhaps it was a problem with housing our bicycles.
But we were able to find another “mansion,” a pretty well-worn (but inexpensive) motel by that name, with very bike friendly staff:
Day 5 here