I was in Chicago the exact same time you were. While bike paths are awesome for some, I don't like them. I did a 50 miler over in the Saint Charles area on Thursday. Let's just say going from the hills of Western KY to pancake flat was depressing. Tues, I rode from my FRONT DOOR in Western KY and did 62 miles and nearly 5k feet of climbing. Thursday in Saint Charles...50 miles and what? 1200 feet of climbing MAYBE. I heard the group say...here comes the hill and honestly, I'm still looking for it. Honestly, country road riding in Bowling Green is 10X better if you are a roadie. I used to live in BG and loved the climbing there.