British charity cyclist arrives in Mt. Prospect
After 22 days of cycling Route 66, 63-year-old Jim Windass made it to Rainbow Hospice and Palliative Care in Mount Prospect on Monday morning.
The staff of Rainbow Hospice and Mount Prospect Mayor Irvana Wilks cheered Windass and his support team at the finish line.
Windass thanked them for their support, and left some books about his home region, shirts and English tea as gifts. In return, the Rainbow Hospice staff gave him T-shirts, picnic blankets and travel mugs to take home.
Windass cycled the fabled Route 66, starting in Los Angeles, to raise money for a hospice in his hometown of Hull, England, that took care of his late wife, Christine, as she was dying from cancer. Visit his Web page at www.cycle66.co.uk/.
His journey took an unexpectedly bad turn as, three days before he got to Mount Prospect, valuables were stolen out of his support vehicle, including his passport.
That caused the welcome party at Rainbow Hospice to be a bit shorter than expected, as Windass had to replace his travel documents at the British consulate in Chicago before his plane ride home on Monday night.