September, 2021 ... Looking Back

 September, 2021

It's been twelve years since this ride.  So much has happened ... but it has been fun to go back and look back and remember friends.  I read this now and realize how motivated I was by the stats of the ride - miles ridden, elevation gained, average mile per hour.  

Life evolves - and priorities change.  On later rides I worried less about the stats and took the time to find the stories that every day reveals when you slow down enough to find them.  And I also paid more attention to the writing, so apologies in advance for the sloppiness of some of the writing here - often done after biking a 100 miles and before dinner. 

This was a challenging adventure, and I learned I was strong and thrived on challenge.  And perhaps this ride was great training for what the next decade brought where perseverance and focus and "keep pedaling" not only opened doors to new adventures on the bike, but got me through some difficult times in life.

I added some videos other riders made on the right side, as well as some photos.  

Keep pedaling!

Read more at LeighPate.com 

Final ride stats, last photos and more movies are posted

Final photos are up on the blog, and more movies are up on youtube and linked to the blog if you are interested in checking it out. (No Emmy nominations for these ... just a look at some ride moments as I pedal along).

Count: 47 Ride Days

Distance: 3,851.33 mi (should be closer to 3980 - operator errors:)

Time: 263:24:18 hh:mm:ss

Total Elevation Gain: 174,955 ft

Avg Speed: 14.6 mph (a little low due to Garmin picking up walking around)


Calories: 188,866 C (378 Cheeseburgers, 8 Cheeseburgers a day)

Avg Distance: 80.24 mi

Max Distance: 120.45 mi

Avg Time: 05:29:15 hh:mm:ss

Max Time: 07:51:52 hh:mm:ss

Avg Elevation Gain: 3,645 ft

Max Elevation Gain: 11,810 ft

Elevation Loss: 175,191 ft

Avg Elevation Loss: 3,650 ft

Max Elevation Loss: 8,035 ft

Max Avg Speed: 18.5 mph (that was on a hundred mile ride - all time record)

Day 52: Manchester to Portsmouth NH - Success! Sad Goodbyes ...

This was it. 62 miles left to get to the coast and finish a journey that took 52 days, over 3900 miles, thousands of feet of climbing and hundreds of hours in the saddle.

We were all gooey and sentimental from starting goodbyes, and excited and nervous to reach the end, and apprehensive as the dreaded "REAL WORLD" loomed very close in our future.

The ALL team (Always Leaves Last self named because we always seemed to be the last to leave the hotel every morning) was true to form today, too as I was searching for lost glasses and Chris was retrieving bags.

Team ALL is Bob from Seattle, Chuck from Florida, Chris from Ohio and me. We didn't always ride together and others joined us periodically, but we formed a bond over time that I'll miss. All were very good riders, and all were stronger than me so staying with them was often a challenge. Or when I didn't feel like chasing a wheel one would often be up lollygagging and sightseeing, too.

Bob was the navigator, did outstanding imitations of other riders, fellow Starbucks Mocha Frappichino fan (that's rocket fuel for cyclists btw), quick with a wittie or almost witty comment on everything, quick to meet folks and curious about the areas we were riding in and overall entertaining company.

Chuck is a coach and educator and you can tell he's great at it and loved by his athletes. He's an encourager - always quick to tell you were riding strong and be positive and cheerful. Could tear off a blistering pace when he felt like it. Loved to set goals and beat them. And a practical joker, completely hysterical and great company.

Chris is one of those amazing people who feels deeply and truly lives his life in a way that leads and inspires others and contributes to the world. I really admire that. He's also one heck of a rider and more than once put me on his wheel for a tow up to the back of the paceline or once we hauled in just in front of a whopper of a thunderstorm faster than I could have done it alone. And he's super competitive in a mild mannered, sneaky and very entertaining way. I. Was always rooting for him.

See, gooey and sentimental.

Anyway we set off together on our last day of riding and promptly got lost. Figured out and got turned around and headed of town, through. And then got lost again this time with the staff who were riding with us by then.

Finally off in the right direction and ease down the road. We hit one final obstacle - brown stinky water that overflowed from a lake to cover the road. It felt complete somehow to ride through flooding after all the other obstacles along the way.

Lots of photo stops. Lots of photos with other riders. Lots of procrastination.

But ... We had to be at a meeting point by 11:30 to ride to the beach as a group. When Alex on staff told us the meeting had been moved back to 11:45 we - instead of riding in to make the deadline comfortably - we stopped at a coffee shop in Exeter for a final snack. That made the last 12 miles in 40 minutes a bit challenging and we raced in at the last possible second.

You see we had to meet up because we had a Police Escort to the beach.

Man was that fun. Lights, sirens. Cars pull over out of the way for once. People cheered us from the side of the road. We could smell the brine of the ocean by now and we were whooping and whoo hooing and taking photos while riding in and poor Gerard on staff was riding along saying No Crashing!

We got to the beach at Wallis Sands State Beach and the entrance was lined with folks cheering us in. The beach was packed with hundreds of people - New England has had a miserable wet summer and folks flooded the beach on one of the rare nice days.
We picked our way to the boardwalk, ditched the helmet, water bottles, bike shoes and socks and picked up the bike and wove our way through beach umbrellas to the water. Friends and family were everywhere taking pictures and offering congratulations. We got our photos by the ocean - the victory shot, the front wheel dip, posing with all the riders. Then strip down to the bike shorts and sports bra and dive in for a swim.

Chuck's wife brought champaign so we popped the bottles and toasted coming in. Mighty tasty ... Hard earned ice cold champaign on a hot humid day. Lots of total strangers were congratulating us, shaking hands and asking lots of questions. I had several women seek me out to ask questions and congratulate me ... I love that and hope one or two will decide to do something they thought wasn't possible. It was a great end to a great ride.

Finally we suited back up and headed out. We still had a few miles to ride. So we headed north into Portsmouth and crossed the bridge and walked into Maine because - well why not add another state while we're at it. Then headed on to the hotel.

The afternoon was a frenzy of breaking down the bike and packing up. Amazing how stuck a pedal can get after 4000 miles.

8 of us - the ones who you could usually count on for a little drinking and quality eating (Meiri, Norbert, Hans, Zero, Jack, Shawn and Tom) headed to the Portland Brewing Company and then walked back to Maine to Warners for one fabulous lobster dinner. A great night.

And now it's over.

It's hard to process this trip - it seems like we left just last week, but then again it all seems like a blur. I'm grateful I blogged it to remember it. And the overall impression is so positive, I'm absolutely doing something like this again. When I left I was leaving the door open to fling my bike in the Atlantic and never ride again ... but the Orbea is safe.

Everyone asks what my favorite part of the trip was. That's a hard question. Maybe it will become more clear with time, but right now I'd say I loved the physical challenge and eye popping beauty of the Sierra and Rocky Mountains and mentally gearing up for those big climbs day after day. And Northern Missouri was such a surprisingly beautiful place. And the wonderful people I met in the midwest who were so generous with their time, knowledge and willing to invite dripping wet strangers in for cookies. And the folks I rode with and how we all worked together to make this ride successful and fun. 30 strangers together for 52 days is no easy scenario, and this group rose to the occasion and made the effort to make sure it was a good experience.

What's next? Maybe something international. I did a 2 week bike trip in Vietnam and loved it ... Maybe step it up a bit ... Cross Australia? The Silk Road? Hmmm ...

Day 51: Brattleboro VT to Manchester NH

The goodbyes have begun.

After riding across the country over mountains, dodging construction, slogging through the rain and living together in so many Comfort and Holiday Inns I can tell you what brand of shampoo each prefers, the reality of going back home is setting in.

Families are showing up. More family and friends will meet us at the beach tomorrow. Chuck has arranged to get champaign smuggled in. We're wrapping up.

Tonight we had a group dinner and little awards ceremony where the staff gave out gag gifts to each of us based on some act of stupidity or notoriety during the trip. I got a sewing kit for my obsession with figuring out how to mend a pair of torn bike shorts (successfully, I should add). All of us got up and got to speak about what this trip has meant to us and it was really touching to hear what folks had to say.

It was a nice end to a wonderful riding day through southern New Hampshire. Sunny. Over 90% humidity. So hot that whenever I stopped and the wind quit evaporating the sweat off I would be drenched in seconds. Incentive to keep moving. Incentive to keep living in no-humidity Seattle.

The route was 85 miles and hilly. I mean HIL-LY. Of the really steep but not necessarily long variety. These were built when they didn't have the equipment to grade roads like they do today. The steepest one we road was 15% -- some folks front wheels came off the ground on that one. Me, I had to stand up in my lowest gear and pedal within an inch of my life wheezing like a geezer trying to get up to the top.
But I loved it - the challenge of it. I hadn't realized before how much more fulfilling a physically challenging ride is until the last two days when we got 2 challenging rides after weeks of easier riding through the midwest.

The ride was beautiful. Miles through woodland. Small towns of historical buildings and old town squares. We followed a beautiful river for miles. Farms with stone walls everywhere ... And stone walls - no mortar just piles of stones - in woodland. We were speculating those may be predate the woods and mark old farm sites.
I'd like to explore this area more thoroughly.

Tomorrow we bike to the Atlantic - dip our front wheel and then take a little extra spin by Maine before heading to the hotel for a made scramble to pack.

I'll be back in Seattle the night of the 29th.

Day 50: Latham to Brattleboro VT

This was my first time visiting Vermont. After 32 miles through Eastern New York we crossed the Vermont border. I knew we were on to something when the welcome to Vermont sign had Kerry-Edwards signs stuck to it ... progressive in a retro way?

Vermont felt immediately different than New York. As we road into the first town - Bennington - I saw something I hadn't seen since Seattle: Sustainably grown organic food posted in a restaurant window. Coffee shops with real locally roasted fair trade coffee. This gave me hope so when I saw a sign that said "real fruit smoothie" I thought it might be worth checking out.

See, smoothies are theoretically simple creations. Fruit, milk or juice, Ice or yogurt. But regardless the FRUIT is key. But everywhere else that advertised smoothies across the country there is sort of mix they use that must have "real fruit" on the bottle because I would ask "Is there real fruit in this smoothie?" and they would enthusiastically say Yes. Then I would follow up No - I mean Real Fruit and they'd fess up to the evil, sneaky mix. But in Vermont - she opened the freezer and pulled out actual Fruit. Ahh ... satisfaction at last.

We biked across southern Vermont today. All of it except for less than a mile which we'll cover tomorrow. The route has been called the Molly Stark Byway. Who is Molly Stark? I had to google it when I got back to the hotel to figure it all out. She was the wife of General Stark who led American troops and won a pivotal battle in the Revolutionary War in Bennington. Apparently his version of the Henry the 8th speech was something like, "Boys, if we lose this battle Molly Stark will wake up a widow." This caught on and Molly Stark became a symbol of patriotism in the North East and there are tons of things named after her - a forest, bridges, byway, schools ...

These things struck me about Vermont. It's lightly populated, but the towns feel dense. This may be because they are tucked into valleys and by rivers in the mountains. Or it may be because it was a summer Sunday afternoon and the tourists were out. Regardless the entire area felt very empty in the green rural areas and uncomfortably full and congested in the towns.

The mountains are pretty, tree covered, various shades of green from hardwoods. You can see why it's famous for its beautiful fall color. the terrain reminded a bit of the foothills on the west side of the Cascades ... substitute evergreen trees and add big mountains in the background. But they don't really strike me as mountains. The roads are steeper, and the the mountains feel closer together and more densely placed than the West Coast mountains.

We rode east through National forest up an 8 mile climb. It was fun to climb again and did not feel very difficult. A beautiful stream parallelled much of the climb. We dropped a bit and then climbed to the summit of Hogsback Mountain. The claim to fame there is you can see 3 states from the top - Mass, NH and VT. It was raining again when I was at the top so I didn't stay long and headed down. A great descent - really fast. Flew into Brattleboro on the descent and then some rollers that felt easy and fast.

Tomorrow is our last long day - 85 miles into Manchester with lots of climbing including some 13% grades. Can't believe it's almost over.

Day 49: Little Falls to Latham NY

We are in Revolutionary War territory.

Today's ride followed the Mohawk river though a valley in the Adirondacks east into Latham, a suburb of Albany.

The valley has been a hot spot in history as a major route between the Hudson River in Albany and the Great Lakes. Conflicts with the British in the Revolutionary war and the French Indian War and with the Mohawks and other tribes of the Iroquois Federation.

One random thing I learned I want to research more is that the Tuscarora Indians, who were originally in North Carolina near where I grew up and where my family was along the Pamlico river in North Carolina, have a reservation in New York and were active in the conflicts. There was a war with the Tuscaroras in the early 1700s and the colonists - included my family - fled to Garrison point to defend themselves which is about one half mile from the family homestead on the river. The colony government sent troops in to defeat the Tuscaroras. They must have moved north to this area of New York after that and joined the Iroquois federation. That must be a fascinating story.

There were signs lining the road pointing out where there were Inns, pubs, river crossings and homesteads of noteworthy folks. This area was hopping and a source of contention.

We passed a fortified farmhouse called Fort Klock that was not open that early but was the site of a revolutionary war battle. It was built of stone up to the second story and had rifle slots at it's base. It was built this way to defend against the tribes in the area who were opposing westward expansion.

We passed a shrine to an Indian woman who was elevated to sainthood which was pretty interesting and set near the site of a major Mohawk village that was excavated in the 1940s.

We passed Fort Johnson which was a large home owned by a Johnson who was a Torey during the Revolutionary war and had to flee to Canada after the British lost.

It was also fascinating to follow the Erie Canal and its expansions.

We followed a bike path alongside the River and saw the locks at work as well as the dry locks from the original canal. The original hand dug canal was ultimately replaced by using existing waterways like the Mohawk instead.

It all made me more interested to learn more about the history of this area. And maybe come back for a couple of weeks to ride through the northeast and Eastern Canada ...

We were in a gentle part of the Adirondacks and they rose on either side of the valley in mottled greens and gentle rolling slopes. Wildflowers were everywhere. It was a beautiful day.

But best today was meeting up with my friend Zoe who was a roommate in Washington, DC and her husband Dale and unbelievably cute son Owen. They met me beside the bike trail with a picnic. Hans joined us for a tasty lunch complete with homemade oatmeal muffins that Owen helped make and cheese brought back from Ireland.

Then I walked back with Zoe for a tour of her neighborhood and house. She's in Schenectady which was a Dutch outpost in the late 1600s. The first settlement was attacked and massacred - their house was built in the stockade of the rebuilt community in the early 1700s. It's very cool - huge old board floors in the old part of the house that tilt and slant with age, a rock basement wall - no mortar, beautiful woodwork. And very homey and livable despite being a home that's nearly 300 years old.

I biked on in to Latham and cleaned up and they came and picked me up for dinner. Which (besides the good company and tasty meal at a pub overlooking the Hudson River) spared me from a meal at the Old Country Buffet (a place with tables you can extend out so obese folks can fit). Fast food gets blamed for the obesity epidemic but I think these buffet feed houses have a big share of the responsibility.

We went to some beautiful falls in an old mill town outside albany at sunset after dinner ... Lovely. Lots of water from all the rain. The town had old factories that were abandoned - some converted into condos and apartments. And run down mill worker housing that had seen better days. They were not recovering easily from the outsourcing that killed their economy.

A great day.

Tomorrow I go to Vermont for the first time ever for a healthy climbing day. Looking forward to it.

Ride stats summary so far ... this is a lot of cheeseburgers

44 Ride Days
Distance:		3,556.72 mi
Time:		241:36:27 hh:mm:ss
Elevation Gain:		152,802 ft
Avg Speed:		14.7 mph
Calories:		173,838 C (350 cheeseburgers)

Day 48: Liverpool to Little Falls, New York

Today we followed the Erie Canal as we rode east.

It's remarkable to think that thing was dug by hand in the early 1800s. It is one big ditch ... what a job. It was expanded 3 times. It had to have over 50 locks to raise the water level several hundred feet between Albany and Lake Erie so it's amazing engineering for the time. It's credited with populating Western New York and opening up commerce to the Great Lakes regions. There are several offshoots we have also seen along the way.

Now the canals are still full of water in some sections and dry in others. Roads have been built across them creating dams. Some towns are working to restore their sections for tourism, though apparently the canal-s use for commerce is up. The sections of the canals I've seen are narrow with dikes on either side with a foot or bicycle path on the top of the dike where the horses used to be led to pull the boats. Many are full of logs and plants and lily pads and the water does not look inviting for a swim ... black to green with lots of - umm shall we call it biodiversity - some that bites. Trees drape over the water and greenery and flowers line the sides.

Check out wikipedia or www.eriecanal.org for more info.

The further I rode east the wetter I got. I rode into and overtook a front that was dumping cool rain on Little Falls. Had I known that I would have ridden slower - the slower riders stayed dry for once - but I decided to go ahead and get in today so I could make sure to coordinate plans to meet a friend tomorrow, do laundry and other travel chores. Jim pointed out that it has rained 5 of the last 8 riding days ... I feel sorry for the folks up here who are getting such a cool wet summer.

And a note to New York drivers ... what they say about you - all the bad stuff - is TRUE. Slow down already! Quit pulling out in front of me - I'm traffic too and going faster than you think. And don't blow your horn with that nasty honk (as opposed to the hello I'm behind you toot)- I know I'm slower and your horn won't make me pedal at 50 mph. My life 3 seconds out of your day to slow down and be safe.

OK, thanks for bearing with me. Now I feel better with a good venting since I've been thinking it the last couple of days.

Tomorrow I'm very excited - our route goes within a short distance of my friend Zoe's and her families home in Schenectady, NY so they are meeting me on the route and then we're having dinner tomorrow night. Yeah!

We only have 4 ride days left on this trip ... that's just insane. Traumatic, even. I mean ... go back to work?!?

Day 47: Canandaigua to Liverpool NY (women's rights, salt and the Erie Canal)

The reason I became engaged in politics and motivated to learn about how be an effective advocate was because I believed so strongly that we need to continue to work for women's equality.

I learned leadership skills co-founding the women's group on campus. I did my Washington DC internship at an advocacy organization promoting women's economic parity and we got a bill passed that prohibited banks from requiring a male cosigner for a woman to get credit or a loan (among other things that were hurting divorced or widowed women and contributing to high poverty rates after divorce.). When I moved to DC after college it was with the intention of landing a job where I could help write or pass bills that would help women. The Clarence Thomas Hearings with Anita Hills testimony on sexual harassment shook me to my core and re-grounded me in why advocacy for women matters and why I was pursuing this career. I've always worked to elect women to office and help young women who want to break into this business.

So today when we went through Seneca Falls, the birthplace of the women's rights movement, it was a very moving and meaningful personal visit for me.

The National Park Service has preserved the Methodist church where the first Womens Rights Convention in 1848 as the Women's Rights National Historic Park. It's a shell of the church with a wall sculpture that includes the written declaration that women and men signed at the end of the meeting. The declaration is very powerful to read now to see how far we've come ... And that there is still more work to do. Here is more info. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_Sentiments

It was raining but not cold today which made for tolerable if damp riding. That allowed lots of lingering and exploring, even after staying in Seneca Falls for at least 2 hours. Most interesting was the town of Camillus where part of an expansion of the Erie Canal ran through. The town has established a park and a gravel path by a 2 mile stretch of the canal. I was poking around and a lady runs out and asked "Are you part of the group that rode from San Francisco?". She then informed me I must ride down the gravel path and gave me direction on ho9w to get back on route. So of course I go ... What's 2 miles of gravel at this point. The town has invested in rebuilding an aqueduct that routed the canal over a creek. They are trying to rebuild it as much as possible as it would have existed in the mid 1800s, and they have succeeded in building the bet of the canal and are not letting it fill with water. I was trying to figure out what part did what and a man walked up with a camera. So I just asked him "can you tell me about this aqueduct?". Turns out he has been down there most days watching as it has been built. He told me about where the leak was, that there were steel bolts under the pegs that were made to look like pegged joints. And how the lock works to release water into the river below, where to stand to get the best picture and how much the project was costing the city (2.9 million) and why they were building it (so they could make the dinner boat trip go 2 miles on the strip of canal rather than 1 mile). Love meeting people like him.
The trail itself was beautiful. Saw tons of wildlife in a mile stretch - turtle, rabbit, chipmunks, heron and other water birds and a healthy cadre of hungry mosquitoes.

As I got into Liverpool (just west of Syracuse) I realized our hotel was out on the edge of town, so I tooled around Main street and the town square and then headed towards Lake Onondaga. The town has built a great park with trails and the lake is lovely. But most interesting in a museum built in the 1930s as part of the public works money. This museum retold the history of the Salt works by the lake which produced huge quantities of salt from natural salt springs. A tax on the salt provided enough funds to pay for half the cost of the Erie Canal.

Better was the volunteer running the museum. When I asked here how all the canals connected, she pulled out a piece of paper and started drawing. One of her favorite things to do is take boat trips on the canals, which sounds like that could be fun. She was telling me about how the railroads would build really low bridges over the canals to make sure barges couldn't carry to large a loads ... Nasty railroads.

The younger volunteer there was very cute and asked me, "Are you a professional rider or something to do this?". No, just a normal person with a stubborn streak and a calloused butt. Actually they kept me so long the Bike staff sent out a rescue party .... Oops.

So a great if damp day. Tomorrow we ride 79 miles to Little Falls and I'm looking forward to what's next.

Day 47: Hamburg to Canandaigua, NY

My Mom is awesome.

She baked a chocolate cream cheese pound cake with a separate container of chocolate pecan sauce and mailed in to the hotel. YUM! Such a great surprise, and my team mates will be very happy to see it (or what's left of it) on the SAG tomorrow. I've felt so well treated on this ride with the tasty care packages showing up regularly - Thanks again for all the written encouragement and support. I feel so lucky to have such wonderful friends.

I almost didn't get the cake. For whatever reason the hotel was not at home when it was delivered today, so it ended up at the post office across the street - which was closed when I got in. I rode over there and rang the bell and luckily someone came to the window anyway. Thought I'd have to bring out the tears, but the tale of woe and emphasising that my mother's care package was at stake was enough to get me my cake after hours.

It was a beautiful day - the dire predictions of rain were thankfully wrong. Hopefully they will continue to be wrong. New England is getting an incredibly wet summer and all the locals are complaining.

We had a great treat this morning with a visit to a great bicycle museum in Orchards Park, NY. Carl, the owner, has assembled an amazing collection of bicycles and related stuff that tells the story of how bicycling developed in the US - from the early bone shakers (prone to kill you when they fell forward and slammed you on your head) to the Ordinary which was manufactured here in America by Columbia Bicycle Company, to the efforts to build paved roads, to the safety bikes, to the first version of the modern bike with a chain and independently supported wheels. It was very interesting. All cyclists - you should go visit. But hurry, he's looking to sell his collection and retire. Some quick factoids:

1). Bicycling was so popular by the end of the 1800s that other products started using bicycles to try and enhance their products. Example: Bicycle playing cards added 2 jokers riding bikes and changed their name.
2). Bikes helped lead to the women's movement. Women started cycling in droves by the 1880s and that led to more independence in transportation and got rid of the corsets and long dresses for clothes that allowed movement.
3). The Wright brothers invented their first plane behind their bicycle shop.

I hope Carl can find a good buyer - the history of cycling is fascinating and pretty informative to how our modern transportation system got started.

Here is their website for the Pedaling History Bicycle Museum: www.pedalinghistory.com

One other thing that really struck me today as I rode through several towns founded in the mid to late 1700s is how dramatically the country aged as we've moved East. Towns today like Lima and East Bloomfield have very early houses, classic town squares and a very settled feeling. Farms here have long ago been divided into smaller plots, most with mature trees carefully dividing the boundaries. These towns have a sense of completeness ... While further west they feel as though they are still fluctuation with changing times. I was also thinking about how fast American explanation West happened - Western NY mid 1700s, Ohio town mid 1800s, Indiana 1860s, then the gold rushes and railroads and suddenly they were all the way to the pacific. Pretty amazing, actually considering it took over 100 years to get west of New York from the first colonies. And there is a different feeling in those places that have been around longer.

Tonight we walked down to the lake in Canandaigua - one of the finger lakes in and wine tasted at a state sponsored tasting room that featured flights of wine from around the state. That was a good experience, because they pulled some pretty good wines that I might actually buy.

I'm boycotting buffets now with a few others who cracked recently on the food front so we went to a pub boasting over 100 beers on tap for an outstanding burger and sweet potato fries. Yum.

Tomorrow we have a shorter ride - 69 miles - across the top of the finger lakes. Should be more interesting stuff to explore, and more of the beautiful and bike friendly countryside with rolling hills and gorgeous views we had today. Hopefully we won't be pedaling drowned rats.

Day 43, 44, 45: Youngstown to Erie, Rest Day, Hamburg

For most people a barrier across the road with a "Road closed" sign would logically imply that you could not go past that point. But not for us.

For us these Road Closed signs are an announcement that unknown challenges are coming up. Often the ABB staff catch a lot of the construction and re-route us. But not always, or there is not another option. So we've navigated around moving bulldozers, construction workers, torn out sections of highway, rough grade and lifted bikes over and crawled under numerous barriers. But even with all these bike gymnastics behind us, our road closed surprise for Youngstown to Erie was a doozie.

The west end of the road was pretty straight forward - walk down dirt grade, lift the bike a couple of feet onto a cement wall, walk across the wall and then climb up a small incline out. No big deal. But then half a mile down the road were two ditch diggers blocking the road with shovels down (luckily it was Sunday so no work or we would have had a big detour on an already long day and our 4th century ride in a row - no one wanted more miles).

In between the ditch diggers was a 10 foot wide and 6 foot deep gap in the road with re bar sticking out, huge loose broken chunks of road and mud. A deep, wide ditch with shoe sucking mud and water was on either side. Hmmm ... 8 or 10 of us collected and stood and discussed and pondered. Finally we send a couple of sacrificial cyclists into the ditch and had a third climb out the other side. We pass the bikes one by one across and stack them against the bulldozer. Then we make our way through the safest looking trail across and climbed out. One thing this trip has done has made me much less tentative to take my bike anywhere.

The Youngstown to Erie route went through farms and small towns in Northeast Ohio. Rolling hills, wildflowers, lots of birds and time through the woods which I hadn't realized I missed so much.

Close the Pennsylvania border I was pedaling along and saw a beautiful covered bridge hiding down curve in a hill. I pull a u turn and head down and ride through the bridge. It was the Root Road Bridge, painted with a simple v shaped roof. The sides were latticed with beautiful woodwork. And the floor were long thin vertical boards with tire grooves worn in through the middle of the bridge.

I wasn't the only one with that idea ... On the other side of the old timbered bridge the Pattons from Pennsylvania were on their driving vacation and taking a tour of the covered bridges - 21 in this county alone. They were heading on to Indianapolis and I told them about the Overbeck sisters and encouraged them visit since they are interested in art.

Shortly after we came to Richardson's White Turkey Root Beer Stand which I think may qualify as one of the best burger stands ever. First off, I don't like root beer, but they made their own in a barrel and I loved their root beer - especially with a bunch of ice cream on top for one heck of a good root beer float. Yum!

Finally properly fueled for the rest of our 100 mile ride we start approaching Lake Erie. We swung through a community park by lake and ... This is one big lake. You can't see across it. The only Great Lake I'd seen before is Lake Michigan from Chicago. It really brought home the huge size of these lakes ... Impressive. I'm psyched to be in this part of the country and the end of the trip .... It's all new country to me.

The next day was a rest day in Erie. Erie is a town that has seen better times. We stayed in a hotel downtown that has seen better days and the city had the feel of a struggling town, a little grungy but with some working class routes that still ran strong.

But rather than stay in Erie and explore, Steve from Florida organized 5 of us into a car load and we headed up the see Niagara Falls. As we were driving along the interstate north it was remarkable how this interstate could be a stretch of road almost anywhere in the country ... Unremarkable in any way. I hope when I drive in the future I will always remember to take a little extra time and get off the interstate and go through the back roads. That's where all the action is.

I must be one of only a handful of Americans who had never been to Niagara Falls. We went to the Canadian side - it was packed on a Monday. After admiring the falls, and being suitably amused and appalled by all the tacky tourist stuff (Ripleys, 2 wax museums - one featuring Britney Spears in wax, hershey chocolate store, a space needle type observatory, helicopter rides, gondola rides, haunted house, pet the animals) ... It was non-stop kitsch. And this was Canada ... Can't imagine what was on the American side.

After admiring the falls and getting very wet in the spray we headed north to Niagara by the Lake, a small town on Lake Ontario that Steve went to with his wife on their second honeymoon. He took us all to lunch at the Prince of Wales hotel - very nice, very tasty. My inner food snob was satisfied. Then we went wine tasting to a couple of wineries recommended by our waitress. First was to her husbands families vineyard ... It was OK for wine though Sean was mighty happy with the ice wine milk shake. And it was good.

Then to Hillebrand Winery - which made a Reisling I liked for lunch and wonderful Ice Wines.

Finally back in Erie after a grand day Jack, Sean (Brit) and I went to the baseball game - Erie Seawolves versus Akron Aeros. AA baseball - the Seawolves feed up to the Detroit Tigers. The stadium was packed - sanding room only and a few box seats left. It was Buck night - beer, popcorn, dogs and pizza for $1. Big draw for Monday night. Tons of fun. Erie won. One of my favorite things about minor league ball is all the crowd participation games they do in between innings - kid sack race, fans doing a hula hoop relay, hundreds of kids turned loose to run the field, men in tutus. Great community fun. Love it.

Blame the game for no blog up yesterday ...

Today

We rode from Erie 82 miles to Hamburg, New York. Claims to be the originator of the Hamburger ... I bet that's disputed.

But for me the claim to fame will be that it's the wettest, longest ride I've ever ridden. However I did keep a sense of humor ... Maybe helped by the 9AM wine tasting just before the rain really started. When I say wet, I mean foggy glasses, torrents of rain that would accumulate somewhere in my clothes and then gush in torrents down my legs. Drenched for hours, feet prunes in the water sloshing in my shoes. Every time I stood up on the saddle and then sat down again, the water would audibly squish out of the padded shorts. So much mud and road grit up my back and on my butt and thrown all the way into my hair that I stood in the bathtub to pull off the layers of clothes to collect all the dirty. Well - you get the picture. It probably would have been a beautiful ride if we could see anything ... The first few miles were lovely with all the vineyards.

Day 42: Wooster to Youngstown, OH

When I was riding with Chris today on the 92 mile ride northeast to Youngstown I asked him, "So - what Youngstown about?" He is from Columbus, OH, I figured he should know. He grimaces and looks at me and says, "Corruption. Mafia." OK ... I guess Youngstown has a bad reputation.

So, here we are. If it is the case that there is a corruption and mafia problem here, I'd say it's extremely likely they've been skimming out of the transportation budget. The roads we were riding through Northeast Ohio were collectively the worst I've ever been on. Like almost unridable in many parts except near the center line. Like break a car axle. Like layer upon layer of asphalt filling potholes and then trying again. Like long vertical tire catching ruts that went hundreds of feet near the white line. Like loose gravel over the shoulder. Chris apologized for the condition of his state's roads here ... we told him the first two beautiful days and good roads made up for it.

Today's ride was fine. Very cool today - felt like a fall day. Seemed like a long riding day - in part because the roads really beat you up and required constant attention to keep from crashing and in part because we've been putting in back to back high mileage days for a week. Tomorrow we have another long one - 97 miles into Erie where we get a rest day. (yeah!)

There has been an interesting change in the group dynamic the last couple of days. Lots of folks are talking about going home. They are making plans and talking about being ready for the riding and the trip to end. I hope everyone can stay positive as the trip closes ...

But for me the part of the trip I've been most interested in is still coming - upper state New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. I've never been there, and can't wait.

I am, however starting to get weary of the daily regimented routine and starting to think about home. I am thinking that my deck with a quality glass of Washington wine and some salmon on the grill and friends over is going to be welcome. And my comfy bed. And not packing every day for 52 days. And never, ever going to Bob Evans or Sizzler or Perkins again.

So what is the routine? Someone asked early on and I don't think I ever described what exactly we do everyday - we actually have a pretty regimented in a set schedule. In fact, Chris and I were talking about how hard it would be to think for ourselves when we get back after adhering to a schedule for so long. So here it is:

5:30 ish: Wake up
6:00 ish: Breakfast - often at the hotel, sometimes at a nearby Dennys or Bob Evans type restaurant if the hotel breakfast is too light
7:00 ish: Load the vans. Load the van basically means they open the trailer and everyone hands off their bag and signs in that they've loaded their luggage. (We sign in for everything - their way of herding us and making sure we show up and are accounted for)
7:05: Pump up tires, Riding out. On long days or big climb days we often left earlier - always after it was light.
Between mile 30 and 40 ish: First SAG stop. The SAG van is parked somewhere visible - a park, a convenience store parking lot, a church, a turnout in the road with a cooler of water, Gatorade packets for those who partake in that nasty stuff, food table and basic mechanical support. Everyone has to sign in so they can make sure you aren't dead on the road somewhere, whether or not you take any food or stay for a break. May or may not have bathrooms there. SAG usually has cookies, fruit, salty chips or mix, trail mix, granola bars. They are always low on proteins, which I think is weird since that's pretty key for endurance riding. Some weird reluctance to put out peanut butter ... So I carry my own proteins on the bike. There is a strict sanitation routine at SAG that I think is really smart. Gloves off. Everyone has to use a wipe on their hands and then sanitizer before touching anything on the food table or water cooler. Good idea ... one virus could wipe out half the cyclists and spread quickly. I guess this happened a couple of years ago where van loads of riders were so sick they just were driven from hotel to hotel until they recovered.
Between mile 60 and 70 ish: Second SAG stop. Rides shorter than 70 often only get 1 SAG. Many riders also stop for lunch along the way at a cafe. I usually don't ... I prefer to eat a little constantly than sit down too long and have a big meal in my stomach. But I'm not above a milkshake around mile 70 ... that will get you in for sure.
Anytime after 1:00: Hotel time. The time you get to the hotel in the afternoon depends on how fast you are riding and how much site seeing/lollygagging you do. Afternoon is the easiest time to do laundry, ice bath, shower, blog time, sit by the pool, go to the bar. Sometimes you jump in the shower and go straight to dinner. Often the fastest riders don't have luggage ... the support van with the trailer stays on the road as needed to make sure everyone on the road is safe. This is the right call, but it means that lots of cyclists who dash in quickly sit around in wet bike shorts for a couple of hours ... which begs the question of why rush in ...
4:00 pm ish: Mechanics Hour: Our mechanic has office hours every day and it's first come first served to get your bike worked on. Popular guys, the mechanics.
5:00 pm ish: Route Rap: This is where we get our cue sheets for the next day and review the route for tomorrow. Construction. Stuff to see. Dangerous ride areas. etc. Usually just takes 15 minutes.
5:30 PM ish Dinner: Usually a high volume, modest quality place near the hotel. They try to be done with dinner by 7:00 so some of our more senior riders can make their 7:30 bedtimes.
7:00 pm ish: Post Dinner: Prime blog time. Tour de France if we are lucky is on and we can catch the replay. Many folks sit together in a common area to do their blog where the Wifi is strongest and chat. Others disappear into their rooms till the next morning. This is also when you get all your gear ready for the ride tomorrow. Clean and disinfect water bottles and refill them with electrolytes (for me NUUN) and water. Refill the Bento box (my favorite ride fuel is currently peanut butter filled salted pretzel nuggets and peanut M&Ms ... can go miles on that). Pull out clothes for the next day. Set up your cue sheet. Recharge the Garmin and the Mobile. Pre-pack to enable sleep fogged brain to get you out the door by 6 AM the next day without out forgetting stuff.

Speaking of, I need to go get my bike ready for tomorrow ...

Day 41: Marysville to Wooster, OH

If Mrs. Stafford of Mifflin OH had tempted us with hot chocolate in addition to the cookies, Chuck and I might still be sitting in her living room.

We had taken shelter under a tree in her front yard as a storm blew in and it became clear we were not going to escape without a drenching. As the wind picked up and the rain started to blow in sideways, we eyed the front porch of the house, debated, and then headed up. The door was open and someone was clearly home but it was quiet ... we were afraid if we shouted we might disturb someone.

Soon enough a cheerful little old lady popped out the door "Well Hello". She was delightful - she told us a bit about the area and that her house was built 150 years ago. And did we notice the lovely farm at the bottom of the hill with the white house and red barn? That was her husbands family farm. I had to smile at that ... there must be some Ohio ordinance that requires a white house/red barn combo (the same color red, no less) and we had passed hundreds in our miles in the state. But of course we nodded and smiled.

Her husband came out (she had told us he had indeed been napping but he denied it). I believe her. She invited us in and offered cookies. So nice. We knew if we went in we would be there for a while ... they were elderly and we were entertainment. Normally that would be fine but we had 30 miles to go on a 106 mile hilly ride and the weather was throwing some curveballs. The last thing I want is to end up having to get in the van and be SAGged in after all these miles biking every inch cross country, and bad weather, water on the road, low visibility all make it more important to go slow and take the time to get in safely. So we politely declined and rode on when the weather cleared a bit.

If a soggy stranger showed up on my front porch, would I invite them in and offer them cookies? I hope I would, but then I don't know. While I live my life as fearlessly as I can there are definitely boundaries to how much I open my world to others. But I think one of the lessons of this trip for me how much simple openness and acts of generosity can mean to others.

The rest of the day was beautiful riding, cloudy enough to keep the high humidity from feeling like a sauna and hilly. Steep hills - lots at 14% grade (which is steep enough to have me wishing for another couple of gears after I'm in the easiest ring possible.) Wildflowers, very cool birds - blue herons and a huge hawk. Farm after farm of white house and red barn.

Wooster is a cute town. I walked around main street after dinner. Nice little restaurants and craft/art stores. Went into one that had pottery and asked if it was local and she said no, a lot of their pots come from Seabeck, NC. Which is interesting Seabeck is exporting up here ...

They seem to like their edifices here in Wooster ... in a couple of blocks there were 6 churches with huge footprints all competing for real estate. The Masons and the Elks also had their own huge buildings.

Tomorrow is another long one - 92 miles to Youngstown.

Day 40: Richmond IN to Marysville, OH

Today started out with beautiful light that streaked through the haze and the trees in long stripes of white to soft yellow. It was a beautiful start to a perfect riding day.

We were only 2 miles from the Ohio border when we left the hotel this morning. I figured it was going to be a beautiful day when - after the obligatory state sign photo-op I looked to my right and saw a hummingbird having breakfast and ahead and saw the light falling in streaks through the mist and trees into a clearing. I let the folks I normally ride with ride on ahead and spent the next hour just enjoying the early morning.

The next 65 miles of our 106 mile ride was a relatively easy meander. Lots of navigating and searching for road signs through country roads as we worked our way north, then east in the square pattern that so many rural roads are laid out to accommodate the fields.

Green fields. Corn. Ponds. Pasture.

Queen Anne's Lace and Chicory were out and covering the road side and fields.

Ohio is not flat - surprisingly, but was a series of gentle hills with a promise of many more and steeper tomorrow.

Golden eagles - tons of them - were circling overhead and hunting in nearby fields. Huge birds - never seen so many.

We road through communities of German Baptists (also called Dunkers because of their tradition of baptism by immersion) driving horse and buggies, building a barn, a woman in her modest dress and cap mowing the lawn on a riding lawnmower, a boy driving a tractor who could hardly reach the clutch with a dog happily running along in front of him. They always waived and smiled and clearly accepted modern tools more readily than the Amish communities we visited earlier in Missouri.

I missed a turn and accidentally found an old grist mill I was hoping to find and would have missed for sure had I not been lost. It ground meal using an old water mill ... Unfortunately it was closed but it was a beautiful spot on the outside.

And had fun watching 4 kids chasing their pet pigs around and playing in the mud.

By the time I got to the small town of St. Paris I'd worked up an appetite. Luckily the mayor of the town also operated a cafe and he was ready for us. He hosted previous tours for 2 years before us. He even had the Tour de France on the big screen.

A smoothie and half a sandwich later (courtesy of Marilyn who offered to share) I decided to get on with it. I'd been riding really easy for a few days, and we had a nice brisk tailwind and I decided to make the most of it. So the last 35 miles I hauled in at well over 20 mph. It's one thing to take your time and see the sites, and another thing to just get lazy.

I hope tomorrow is more of the same. Maybe a little less corn.

Day 39: Indianapolis to Richmond, IN

I was grumpy this morning.

Alarm went off way too early at 5:20. It was supposed to rain. Whine, Whine.

By the first 30 miles it was pouring rain. I was covered in road grunge from the knees down and wet. I resolved to put my head down and finish the ride as soon as possible. I was debating today's ride ranking ... Was it worse or not as bad as the current #2 worse day of riding - the Kansas headwind day.

Then, about 53 miles into a 75 miles ride I noticed something interesting. Towns started coming quickly along highway 40 - and I noticed a sign designating it as the country's first National Road commissioned by the federal government in the early 1800s and completed in Indiana in 1834. So that means we started seeing a lot of very old houses and buildings in towns that had popped up along the road as one of the first highways extending west. Then in the town of Cambridge City I saw several historical designation signs.

One historical designation sign stirred me out of my grumpiness enough to prompt a turn off to the right ... to the home and pottery of the Overbeck Sisters. As a former obsessive Antiques Roadshow watcher I'd heard of them ... their pottery helped set the standard for American pottery in the arts and crafts period of American decorative arts. So as I rode over to the house I saw a pretty old house and a lady working in the front garden. I stopped and said hello and we chatted a bit. And she beckoned her husband over.

Meet Phyllis and Jerry Mattheis. They made my day, and I have no doubt meeting them will be a highlight of this trip. They were so generous with their time and knowledge and spent at least 2 hours with me showing me the sisters home they had bought in ruins 35 years ago from an owner who planned to turn it into a parking lot and restored themselves. We chatted about family, they educated me about the history of the sisters, the area and the pottery and about bicycling. Turns out Jerry rode from Indiana to Miami with a friend in 1951 and they stayed in fire stations and police stations along the way. Sounded like a great trip.

Phyllis and Jerry are very modest about their accomplishments but it's clear they are movers and shakers in that community. Just the act of buying and restoring the home and pottery and getting it on the National Register is a huge service to anyone who cares about art and history and a gift to everyone. And Phyllis also helped set up the local museum, sees to restoration of other buildings and is involved in the Overbeck pottery museum at the local library.

She offered to take me to the library and show me the collection and I jumped on it. So we hopped on our bikes and road on the newly built sidewalks (Phyllis likes to ride on the sidewalk) and went to the library. They opened the museum which was housed in the basement. She showed me the pieces and we watched a video that she and Jerry were featured in as preservers of the home. The library was buzzing with activity above. There were numerous nice and very valuable pieces donated to the local museum, which is great to have them here rather all in private collections.

Their pottery ranged from vases in all kinds of glazes and shapes and decor to figurines and grotesques that were funny and showed the sisters humor.

It was a wonderful experience. For more info and to see some of their pottery go to http://www.waynet.org/nonprofit/overbeck.htm

Another thing Phyllis did was help get some important women's history recognized in the town of Dublin just up the road from Cambridge City. She worked with a state women's organization to get a plaque erected recognizing the first women's rights convention, held in 1853 that demanded equality in political, social and financial rights for women. Of course this was instigated by the Quakers, who have a very strong presence in Indiana.

In fact, Quaker founded Earlham College, sister college to Guilford College where I went to school is on the route. It was founded about 10 years after Guilford, and many of the Quakers came from North Carolina. So I cruised through the college with Brian and it looks pretty similar to Guilford. Similar old buildings. Classes that emphasize how to be a good liberal. They even have an equestrian center on campus.

Jerry and Phyllis have a granddaughter going to Earlham. I assured them it was possible to graduate from a Quaker college with a liberal arts degree and actually earn a living later. They looked a little skeptical.

So a great day. Reminds me that a trip and a day - and a life - is what you make of it. And the best things on a trip are not the sites but the amazing people you meet along the way.

Day 37 and 38: Crawfordsville to Indianapolis and Rest Day

First off, I can't believe I forgot to write about the Fountain County 4-H Animal Fair for Day 36.

Not sure how many of you know about my 4-H days. In rural North Carolina where I grew up I had a horse there were a lot of activities based in 4-H, including tons of horse stuff - shows, horse judging contests, horse knowledge bowl, and tons of other projects. I was on county teams that were actually pretty good - we won state level competitions and went to nationals. So between the time I was 11 and 17 I spent all my free time either riding the horse, caring for him or cleaning up after him - no doubt smelling like a barn.

So when I saw the sign at for the 4-H show in I went. And sure enough, there they were - mop-headed horse crazy little girls riding horses ranging from high quality and well trained to the backyard swaybacked pet.

It was a hoot to watch a few classes. I'm quite sure I looked just like those bouncing little girls out there -- very serious, nervous, and barely in control (or outright no control at all in many cases as their horses shied and balked). I saw Bryan, Meiri and Norbert in there and as usual we made quite a site in our spandex and helmets.

One nice thing in Crawfordsville is we went to a nice local cafe for dinner and breakfast. This cafe served healthy balanced meals in proportions that would feed normal people. For us though, used to chowing on all you can eat buffets of marginal to outright crummy food, it didn't seem like enough. Some just went to McDonalds after dinner for a second dinner. I didn't but was interested in how hungry I was on the bike all day - maybe I am burning all that food off I'm stuffing in. I do feel like I'm eating so much food I'm getting sick of bothering to eat and in some ways it will be a relief to just eat when you are hungry and not eat out of fear of bonking and passing out on the side of the road.

Our ride into Indianapolis was short - 65 miles but we had lots of great stops and fun coming in.

Roark titanium bicycle factory was on the route and some of us went in and got a tour and met their frame maker. That was pretty interesting. He only makes about 100 frames a year - all custom. It was fun to ask him how he would build a bike differently to support a heavy rider verses a light rider (thicker tubes for the down tube and head tube) and how he might build a race bike different from a touring bike (race bike needs more reinforcement around the bottom bracket where the cranks come in to give the racer as stiff a possible platform when she pushes peddles for max speed and reinforced around the fork for strength). The factory also does work for the defense department on nuclear subs and he was very excited to show me this fusion drill that is an engineers dream toy but honestly I had not clue what he was talking about for most of it.

They are beautiful bikes. For non-bike folks, when you decide to buy a new bike and you are ready to advance above what's available at Target you have a ton of complicated decisions to make about what bike is right for you. Because it is a gear intensive sport, nothing can be simple or straightforward. One of the basic decisions is what do you want your bike frame made of. Steel (my first bike a Bianchi - heavy but solid and a comfortable ride), Aluminum (like riding a tin can and will jar your teeth out - hate the feel of aluminum), carbon (what my Orbea is made of - light and comfortable - what Boeing is making its Dreamliner out providing one ever actually gets built. Bad thing is carbon is basically fabric wrapped in plastic and its fragile and can crack and isn't repairable. Expensive but prices are coming down) And Titanium which is light, strong, will last forever ... and really expensive. One of the custom Roark frames will run around $3000 - that's just the frame, no wheels, saddle, handle bars or the expensive components in the gears and the breaks. So a custom Roark with good quality components and pieces is probably a $7000 bike.

After drooling over the bikes, we rode on through Eagle Creek Park and saw the first evergreen trees since California if you don't count the half dead cedar tree in someone yard in Missouri. It looked like home.

And of course you can't go to Indianapolis without going to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We got pretty lost getting there and once we found it were greeted by a cranky old lady at the guard house who gave our bikes a nasty look and said we couldn't ride across the parking lot to to the bike racks we had to walk the bikes and we couldn't take all the bikes in because the bike rack wasn't big enough. Clearly we are in CARland - bikes not that welcome.

Again, I'm not a car person. So once in the museum I enlisted Lois, a very nice woman in a red jacket who spent 20 minutes answering all my dumb questions. The short version: there are only 3 races a year there. Indie cars, NASCAR and motorcycles. Indie cars are different than NASCAR and Formula 1 Cars, but look more like Formula 1. NASCAR goes slower and gets in more wrecks, which explains North Carolina's obsession with it. Formula 1 raced there for a few years and then won't come back because of some dispute about the track, but she thinks the track has made changes and F1 may come back. They must make a slug of money to operate a facility that size on only 3 races a year. It's unbelievably huge and got to cost a ton to operate. Even though they charge $8 for a brat and a soda for all the visitors that still can't do it.

So after the car racing we headed back to our own kind and went to the Major Taylor Velodrome. If you don't know, Major Taylor was an elite black athlete and cyclist at the turn of the century and competed and won in Europe since he couldn't compete here. Pretty amazing history - here's more info: http://www.majortaylorassociation.org/who.htm

A velodrome is a track for bike racing. It's oval and has steep banked ends. Races on there are single speed and have no brakes. I like my brakes so I think track racing isn't for me. But even though we have a Velodrome in Seattle and I've been to some races there I've never ridden on it. We had a good time flying around the track, and then got the competition on and started timing laps. I got a lap in 29 seconds. Not fast by racing standards but I beat a lot of our guys which is what I cared about :) That's a lot of fun and a good workout ... heart pounding and gasping for breath. You go up those steeply banked turns and it's unnerving to feel like your wheels will slip right out from under you down the bank ... but they don't. I could see doing this again ...

We followed a great bike trail into Indianapolis that went right through the river and came into the city in front of the capital downtown. Indianapolis is a great city - they've done a nice job developing their downtown. Store fronts are full - no vacancies. Lots of green space. Bike and pedestrian friendly. They've done a lot of things right here. I was impressed. And had we not been biking through I might never have thought to come here. Went and explored the city a bit today including the NCAA Hall of Fame which features all the NCAA sports and a lot of audiovisual and experiential exhibits (shoot hoops, kick the ball in a goal ... good place to take kids.)

Tonight we go over to Jay's house - he lives here and rode with us on the first leg to Salt Lake. He's hosting us for a BBQ- very sweet of him. I'm looking forward to lounging in his back yard with a beer.

Day 36: Champaign IL to Crawfordsille, IN

Today was a light-hearted ride. Perfect weather. Short by recent standards - only 82 miles.

It was pretty funny listening to people talk about our "short" day ... We'll have so much time ... Piece of cake ... such a nice break ...

When did 82 mile rides start to seem easy?

Anyway - that perception of an easy day combined with a day off after a short ride tomorrow (63 miles) made us more willing to play and less concerned about getting in and getting ready for tomorrow. A bunch of us rode together the first 30 miles to the sag stop. The group I usually ride with spent a lot of time with some of the folks who pace a little slower and we had a blast. After our 20th mile of corn we decided to practice our CORNOGRAPHY. Many staged goofy corn photos and probably a few damaged corn plants later we headed on east.

But the goofing off didn't end there. Photo stops at the Indiana photo that required a bit of slogging through weeds and thistles. Then a retro photo stop at the Illinois border since we didn't have a good sign coming in where there was a convenient corn field and prison framed in the background.

The ride was made even better by a string of small towns that were all interesting and felt like thy had a nice balance of being local and lived and having their own flavor. One thing I've noticed in the countless small towns we've been through is how many towns have succumbed to the fast food chain strips and homogenization that has stripped the character from towns that were once unique.

We had broken up into loosely formed strings of riders by the time we hit Covington, Indiana, a pretty little town with lovely old houses and a main street that looks like it has stores catering to visitors who come in for antiquing. I was navigating through the town trying to follow directions when I noticed a woman hollering out - "where are you going" at other passing cyclists. I had ridden past her, too, before it registered she was talking to us and getting a little discouraged at flagging one of us down. So I turned around and went to say hello and met Murph (a gal) who was helping move a family members antique store to smaller space. She's got the blog address, so Murph if you tune in tell us a little more about Covington cause it looks like a nice town.

Riding on we went through the town of Veedersburg that sported a mighty fine cafe with homemade cakes and pies. I had the black raspberry/lemon cake. Delicious.

Next up was Hillsboro, which had my favorite welcome sign of all time: "Welcome to Hillsboro, home of 600 happy people and a few old soreheads."

Waynetown boasted a pioneer cemetery with graves from mid 1800s, including for William Bratton, a Lewis and Clark Expedition member who successfully completed the journey to the Pacific Northwest and then came back to settle in Waynetown. Several War of 1812, Mexican War and Civil War veterans were buried there. Lots of graves of young people in their 20s and infants ... folks died young back then.

And finally I lollygagged into Crawfordsville, Indiana. I'd heard about an old jail there and set out to check it out. So instead of turning to the hotel I headed into town. And sure enough - it was at the top of the hill and miraculously still open on Sunday afternoon. I walked in during the last tour of the day from the local historical society.

This jail, like the one we saw earlier in Linn County MO, was also the home of the sheriff and his family. But ... this was a jail that was built with an ingenious system that had a rotating cell block. The jail is shaped like a double decker pie chart, with each cell being a piece of the pie. There were originally no doors on the cell, the only door was a the entrance and the entire structure rotates around to rotate the cell in front of the door. The guards could rotate the entire structure with less pounds of force than it took to open a patio door. It was pretty interesting. Here's more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_jail

A fun day and tomorrow there will be lots of side trips and interesting stuff to see. I'm looking forward to my day off.

Any suggestions for Indianapolis for food, drink and/or fun?

LeRoy's Homemade bike: Chapin, IL

Day 34 and 35: Quincy to Springfield IL to Champaign IL

Corn. Oceans of corn.

Unbelievable how much corn is grown in Southern Illinois. And I expect in Indiana, Ohio and many other places we'll be passing through. The production scale is huge ... Like the wheat in Kansas. It brings home the "breadbasket to the world" and makes that marketing phrase actually believable. Apparently even just 5 years ago you would see a lot more soybeans planted on this route, but ethinol has fueled a huge surge in corn that has all but pushed out other crops.

Yesterday riding the 107 miles between Quincy IL and Springfield we estimated that at least 85 miles of the first hundred were corn miles. Corn tunnels (what I started calling the small rural roads pressed on both sides by corn fields as far as the eye could see deep. Signs identifying the corn as a special genetic modification (like that would fly in Seattle) or as seed corn. Most getting tassels and the rest just knee high. A cool wet spring meant a late planting for most farmers here. Small white houses boxed in by huge oak trees sitting in the middle of huge cornfields. Corn on rolling hills and corn on pancake flat land that stretched for miles. No wonder corn syrup is in so many foods ... We raise enough corn to demand as many potential markets as possible.

Biking both yesterday and today was essentially 200+ miles venturing through corn with the occasional soybean field and pasture land and small town.

To amuse ourselves we invented CORNY jokes like: What do you call a group of cyclists taking pictures of corn? Cornography.

Another entertainment was the various insects that seem to like the hot humid summers around the cornfields. Every now and then you pass through a cloud of gnats and can feel them plastering themselves to your arms and face. You try to remember to wipe those off before grossing out normal people when you head into a cafe or gas station.

Or there are the beatles. Low and slow flying, about half an inch long, they occasionally bounce off your helmet or arm with a THWACK! Occasionally one flies into the vents of your helmet (or better a riding companion), and then it's amusing to watch them trying to get the helmet off and the beetle out while still pedaling 18mph. Nothing like a big bug crawling around in your hair to inspire drastic action. Better is when one flies into your jersey or sports bra ... That generally entails colorful language and groping around in your clothes trying to extract those prickly little buggers while pedaling.

Yep - that's what passes for entertainment biking through 200 miles of corn. Wonder what we'll come up with tomorrow?

But thankfully there were a few non-corn related happenings that broke up our trek east.

In the tiny town of Chapin about 60 miles east of Quincy, Bob and I pulled into to a convenience store for a little caffeine rehabilitation. Parked out front was a very homemade looking recumbent bike. ... Meet Leroy. He's a former navy guy who now is the welder in Chapin. He made this enormous recumbent bike himself, complete with a tie rod to steer, a kick stand, duel rear baskets and a huge hood ornament. The wheels were solid rubber. The handlebars were like those old bars on girls bikes with the banana seat. It must have weighed well over 60 lbs. After duly admiring his wheels, he offered to let me take it for a spin. I couldn't actually reach the pedals, but felt like sitting in a homemade recliner. Both LeRoy and his Bike were a kick.

Springfield, Illinois is all about Abe Lincoln. We got into Springfield in time for me to get a bike repair done (maybe more bad news on the frame around the water bottle connectors) and then to visit Lincoln's house when he was a lawyer and elected to the state legislator and before he won the Presidency. The Park Service had restored a 4 square block area and led tours of the neighborhood and of the Lincolns old house. They had acquired much of the Lincolns furniture that they had sold off prior to moving to DC. Lots of information on the family, their philosophy on raising children ("let them be free of parental tyranny") Mary Lincoln (a hottie from an aristocratic family who was also courted by Lincolns Political Rival Steven Douglas.).

Really interesting is they just discovered some letters that confirm that Lincoln's neighbor 4 doors down was a station master on the underground railroad. The Sheriff lived next door, too. Hard to believe that Lincoln and the Sheriff didn't know about and condone UR activity happening right under their nose ... Wonder what light this can shed on his choices as president. The whole park is really well done - worth a stop through.

Then I headed back to the hotel and cleaned up for a visit from my friend Bryan Dozer who recently moved to St. Louis with his wife. We rode together for many years with Team in Training in Seattle. It was delightful to see him and catch up ... Bryan you look fabulous and clearly this move was a really positive (even though I miss riding with you.)

Today was more corn.

Springfield to Champaign was 98 miles, but it felt pretty easy with a nice tail wind and everyone was pretty mellow and not in a hurry.

We had our first rest stop at a state park where the Lincolns had a cabin when they first moved to Illinois. Then after more corn a second rest stop at a cemetery where another ABB staffer came down to visit and brought yummy watermelon. He hung around through dinner and gave us a little presentation on ... Sex in the Corn Field. Yep ... We learned about how corn reproduces ... It can self pollinate or cross pollinate - which is why corn is planted so closely together. Appropriate to end our corn ride with more corn facts.

Tomorrow we go to Indiana and no doubt pass a lot more corn.

Day 33: Kirksville Missouri to Quincy, IL

Yesterday I overdid it a bit. And today I could really feel it.

Basically it was laziness, in a twisted sort of way. Tons of hills the last couple of days. Climbing these kind of hills in a smart way requires really working your gears. You want to maintain a steady rapid cadence so you are pedaling consistently - ideally around 90 revolutions per minute. To do this on hills, you have to work your gears constantly to make it easier to pedal when you are climbing and harder when descending.

Basically I just started short cutting it and would just stand up in the pedals and mash up the climbs rather than pay attention and do the shifting. This is fine for a bit, and fine if you can rest the next day. But it really strains your muscles, and riding nearly 100 miles day after day taxes your reserve strength. Especially for me - I tend to mostly sit and spin and rarely stand to climb so some of those muscles aren't as strong as they could be anyway. So there were two 85 mile days with serious mashing that took a toll.

To top it off I didn't get my ice bath last night because the tub was draining slow which usually means something nasty is down there and I just didn't have the stomach to clean the drain and then hunt down the disinfectant from housekeeping to sanitize the tub (like a few days ago ... Yuck.)

So when today rolled around I knew I was going to hurt after the first couple of miles. Muscles on the left side cramped and tightened and pulled into my lower back and side making the back hurt. So you stretch and contort and twist on bike while riding while making complaining grunting noises. My more spry riding companions totally outpaced me today. But that's OK cause my body is demanding I slow down and behave on the hills ...

And there were plenty as we finished Missouri before dropping into the Mississippi river flood plane 70 miles into a 97 mile ride.

Today we rode a gorgeous set of small country roads through pasture land, corn and soybean fields and farms. We passed through several more Mennonite and Amish towns and I was pretty amused seeing a teenage girl in dress, apron and cap sitting on a riding lawnmower mowing the field. She looked as surprised to see us ride by as we were to see her. The clouds and fog in the morning turned into a comfortable riding day and full on sun by mid afternoon. It was quiet and peaceful for the 70 miles heading east to the Miss river ... A good day to meditate in the saddle and enjoy just being out.

We passed through some tiny towns - Barring was one and it was sobering. There was once a big hotel there that had fallen into disrepair and other buildings on main street that were almost falling down.

Finally we dropped down into Canton, a small river town where we caught a ferry to the Illinois side of the Mississippi. The ferry took about 10 minutes to cross and just ran back and forth continually. It was a small little boat with a flat deck that sat low to the water and an engineers cabin that was attached to the deck by an arm ... The engineers cabin just rotated around to push the ferry in one direction and then back across.

On the Illinois side we were greeted by a dirt road that led to a big grain silo that was a co-op for the county ... No grand hoopla for entering the state in this direction.

We rode south through the Miss River flood plain for 15 miles - pancake flat - with the ridge that was at one point the rivers edge rising several hundred feet on our left. The flood plain was planted entirely with corn for miles. Gradually we paralleled the river again and followed it south past several parks to Quincy. The river was running gently, very muddy and brown, and I was surprised how narrow it is this far north.

Quincy is an old river town known for its architecture. We ran into a woman who is a cyclist and she gave us hints about where to find the bike shop and suggested we ride through the neighborhoods and check out the historic houses off Maine Street. I did, and they were beautiful, huge and impressive. The money here came from the railroad - the bridge west to Kansas City and beyond came through Quincy and combined with steamboat traffic it made this the second largest city in Illinois in the late 1800s.

An extra long ice bath tonight has made the muscles feel better - hopefully up for a 110 mile ride to Springfield tomorrow.