I grew up in Lincolnwood, between Pratt and Touhy on East Prairie Road, about a half-mile west of your route. My grandmother lived on Spaulding near Kedzie in Albany Park next to the Ravenswood L terminal, now the Brown Line. When I was home last spring my cousin and I drove up McCormick Road and I could see the mixed-use path had been beefed-up since I saw it last. And of course none of that was there when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s. In fact my folks grow up in Chicago used to call the North Branch the drainage canal. In high school I used to go to The Varsity Theater in Evanston,l it was a Revival house showing older films. And I often rode my bike to the lakefront anywhere from Howard Street to Lake Cook Road. I bet the trail is a godsend with all the traffic.