What is the significance of “Route 99”?
1. I work for Community School District 99, Downers Grove, Illinois*, which includes both Downers Grove North and Downers Grove South High Schools, a combined student population of over 5000 students. This trip is as much an educational venture as it is a personal adventure. (*Downers Grove is a western suburb of Chicago, about 20 miles west of the Loop, population about 45,000.) 2. I’m making the trip in the summer of ’99. 3. The concept of “Route” conjures images of the old two-lane coast-to-coast highways of our past. These two-laners are the roads that bicyclists look for and are most comfortable on. These are the roads we travelled across the country on when I was a kid.
