Everyone should have a Vacation Family

So we are already in Ohio.. Tomorrow we should be getting close to Cleveland, so that is kind of exciting.. none of us have ever been there before..

Yesterday morning, Lance had to leave us to return back to Kansas.. it was sad..

For us yesterday, the day went pretty smoothly though.. we biked about 80 miles, most of which we had a tailwind..! We didn’t really know where we were gonna stay last night, but I talked to my vacation-brother-in-law, Chris, who is from the area.. and he totally hooked us up!

If I haven’t told you about my vacation family, then you definitely need to ask me about them..

Anways though.. He hooked it up so that we could stay at his parent’s house for the night! Little did we know, they live right in the heart of Amish country..! As we biked along one road, we only got passed by 1 car, but we passed probably 20 buggies..! It was crazy.. (and we felt really cool when we passed them.. we don’t get to pass many things on our bikes)..

When we got to the house we learned all about the Amish people in that area.. We even went next door and met an Amish family and talked with them for a little while.. It was pretty sweet..

Oh! I forgot to mention that there was a lot of drama during our ride yesterday.. we had like 3 flat tires, and Eric broke his rear wheel! (which is not common).. So this morning, Eric and Steve (Chris’ Dad) went to the local Amish bike shop to try to find a new wheel.. They had to try a couple small towns, but they eventually found one!

Today we biked about 75 miles to a campground outside of Napolean, Ohio.. The day went pretty smooth all day today.. We stopped at an awesome ice cream/slushy place on the side of the highway.. it was pretty awesome.. We all ended up going back for two rounds of ice cream/slush.. so we were pretty pumped about it..

The campground tonight is pretty sweet, except for the fact that the shower is just mounted on a tree.. and only pumps out cold water..! L so.. unless I want to take a shower with my clothes on.. or expose myself to the whole camp...

soo.. chicago is big!

So last night we stayed just outside of chicago, in the suburbs.. and guess where we are staying tonight..

Yes.. in a different suburb just outside of chicago..!

We are trying to skip going through the middle of the city, so we are just kinda skirting around the outside of the city..

Today went pretty smoothly.. for me! The bike shops around here didn't open till 10:00, so i wasn't able to get back on the road till after lunch.. As it turns out, that was very fortunate for me.. Before came back, the guys got lost, hit some pretty sketchy trails/construction zone things, and then had to bike 15 miles through a main city road with stop lights every little bit..

They were slightly.. slash.. alot frustrated by the time i got back on the bike! The last bit that I road was pretty easy.. we even had a tailwind!

We are getting some pizzas tonight.. so i think everyone is happy again..

and although i know that i have said this before.. I think we will actually be past Chicago tomorrow!

We have 16 days left for the trip and we are a little bit ahead of schedule right now.. so we only have to average about 70-75 miles per day to get to Boston on time! We are pretty pumped about that!

One of our new big things that we want to try is to ride down a hill laying on our bikes.. yes that is right.. We saw a picture of a guy biking and he was laid out with his stomach on the bike seat and his feet straight out behind him.. It looked crazy..

I'll let you know how it works out for us..

oh.. I forgot to mention.. went to a dunkin donuts today.. yeah that was awesome..

illinois.. (the "s" is silent)

i titled it that because ryan thinks it is fun to say it with the 'S'. I tried to correct him.. he said he already knew but liked it better his way..

Can't argue with that.

Today was pretty chill.. we slept in a little.. had a big breakfast.. Then hit the road.!

The morning started out really nice! the weather was awesome and we knew we had a reasonably short day ahead of us.. so we were feelin good!

After about 30 miles though, I realized that I had broken a spoke on my back wheel.. We were about 15 miles from the next big town, so I figured I would just jump in the car with Ryan and then we could hurry ahead to fix the spoke and get it done about the time the guys caught up with us.

So I jumped in with Ryan.. looked up the closest bike shop.. then remembered that it is Sunday..

needless to say.. everything was closed..

So Ryan and i just ended up going to a local coffee shop and chilling out for the rest of the afternoon (which was about another 20 miles for the other guys).

We are staying tonight with some friend's of Ben's family.. They have been awesome and have fed us given us bedrooms and everything..!

Tomorrow we will be skirting around chicago..! (we were gonna go through it, but after getting lost in St. Paul we realized that would be a terrible idea..!)

oh! and Eric and I went for a run this afternoon.. It was raining and we decided to go barefoot.. We ended up going about 3 miles.. It was awesome!

All we have been able to talk about all night is the possibility of doing an ironman together next fall..

oh hospitality.. what terrific thing..

So the last couple days have been going pretty well. We woke up in La Cross yesterday morning and it was downpouring.. so we decided to attempt to wait out the storm.. and what else would you do while waiting out a storm than watch the Lost season finale!

So we anxiously watched the finale, all the while sneaking quick glances out the window to see if it was still raining..

Eventually it quit and we had a pretty easy going day.. Actually, in the next town, Coon Valley, we met some guys at a gas station who told us about a custom cycling clothing company that was just down the road! They sell all there seconds and leftovers for real cheap.. So of course we had to make a stop..

This stop could have been one of the most epic stops that Ben has ever made.. He finally broke down and invested in his first cycling jersey..! This whole time he has just been wearing cotton tshirts.. For those of you who don't know, the advantages of the cycling jerseys are that they have pockets in the back, are super breathable, and don't smell too bad after you sweat in them..

Anyways.. I think the stop has revolutionized Ben's life..

Last night we stayed with a younger couple outside of Richland Center, WI. They were awesome! They are definitely the most normal hippies that I have ever met, and they introduced some new things to us, including a compost toilet..

They also had some crazy stories about their house and stuff.. For example, they tried a compost hot water heater system, and when the compost pile froze over, they had to go the entire winter without hot water!

They fed us last night and this morning and then the husband, Eric, biked for a little while with us this morning.. We stopped at the farmers market in town and bought a bunch of cinnamon rolls from a young Amish girl.. They were amazing...

We stopped for lunch in Madison, WI this afternoon.. Madison is kinda the Lawrence of Wisconsin. We ate on State Street, which is very similar to Mass street in Lawrence.. We met some other bike tourers that are doing a pretty sweet project! you can you check out their website here:

www.bikeloc.org

Tonight we are staying with a couple here in Jefferson City, Wisconsin. They made us dinner and everything tonight and have let us watch tv and hangout here and stuff! It has been great..

We have had tons of fun the last couple days getting to know these people who are generous enough to take us in! We are going to be approaching Chicago tomorrow, so we are pretty pumped about that!

ok.. here are some more of our hand motions..

Ben puts his hand out, palm down, and waves it up and down.

translation: oh my gosh guys, there is totally some major bumps up here that are really freakin me out..! I just wanted to holla at ya'll and make sure you see them coming..! Luvs, Ben.

Eric puts his hand out, palm facing back, and holds it.

translation: STTTOOOOPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! or you might die. Thanks for watching my hands.

The St. Paul Fire Department deserves a solid fist pump..!

ok.. So like i mentioned yesterday (i think).. We stayed with Will Overly and his wife Alese who is a RA for the dormitories at St Thomas University there in St. Paul last night.. They put us up in these apartment/dorm things that were vacant since it is summertime..
They even went the extra mile to buy us a bunch of breakfast food and stuff.. including Bacon.. Which we quickly found out, can burn quite easily..

I had just run outside to get something from ryan's car when I first heard the alarms going off.. so i ran back to our room and was startled to be met by billowing smoke as I opened the door.. I saw Ben trying somewhat frantically to open the windows.. So i propped the door to our room open (thinking that it would help the smoke clear from our room and into the rest of the building).. Turns out, that was a horrible idea..! By leaving the door open, I allowed to smoke to set off the alarms for the whole rest of the building, thus requiring the response of the St. Paul Fire Department to shut it off..!

So we woke Alese up with not one.. not even two.. but 5 fire trucks..! All fully loaded with men carrying oxygen masks and axes.. They didn't say anything, but we are pretty sure they were a little ticked off when they found out that we had just burned our bacon..!

All in all.. pretty solid start to the day! (keep in mind, this all happened at about 7:30-8:00.. pretty early!)

So after the excitement died down, and we had finished eating our charred bacon, we loaded up and took off..

As we left the building, I would place our spirits in the moderate-low category.. We weren't too pumped to try to navigate the city streets.. Oh.. also.. Scott had to go home for a wedding last night, so it is just Eric, Ben, Ryan and I right now..

So we hit the streets.. We were feeling pretty cool biking through town.. We definitely stood out from the typical bikers, so we were turning some heads.. and then it was realized.. We were lost..

We stopped a couple times to review our maps, eventually found out where we were, then started out again.. After a little while we came out of some trees, looked left, and saw perfectly a huge cathedral which was located about 3 miles from the Overly's place..! Keep in mind, we had been biking for an hour and a half..! only to realize that we had made it like 6 total miles..
Needless to say, we were a little devastated...

We tried to remain positive though, so we found a detour on the map and set off again.. only to immediately encounter the st. paul monster hill..! (we met a guy at a gas station who just started laughing when we told him what street/hill we had just come up.. we forced a couple grins to be polite.. but no laughs)

After the monster.. we pulled off at a gas station, mildly frustrated, and called Ryan to come pick us up and shuttle us to the outskirts of town.. I realize this sounds like we wimped out, but we were annoyed and tired of getting rained on.. OH! thats right..! I forgot to mention that this whole time it was drizzling/raining on us...!

But with Ryan's help we got outside of town, found a pizza hut with a lunch buffet, ate away our sorrows, then forged ahead..!

Ben was feeling terrible all morning so we decided to take his rest day (all the rest of us have had one).. so it was just Eric and I on the bikes.. After eating as much as we did, we felt like we really needed to work pretty hard, so we pushed it pretty much the rest of the afternoon.. It was alot of fun with just the two of us.. We each took turns pulling for each other and stayed in the zone for quite awhile.. I felt like some sort of a professional rider because we were really utilizing all of our hand signals and stuff.. We were having conversations without even talking or looking at each others faces.. (ok maybe not conversations.. but kinda)

Here is an example of one:

Eric points to the ground on his right.

Translation: Hello Sam. You are my friend. Because you are my friend, I would like to warn you that there is something on the ground just ahead of us on our right. I wanted to warn you of this object so that you would not run over it and potentially harm yourself or your bicycle. Thank you for riding with me.

I, while riding in front of Eric, steer sharply to the left and look quickly over my right shoulder.

Translation: Hello my dearest friend Eric. I have been riding in front of you for the last couple miles, and although I hate to admit it, my legs have grown weary from the strain. I fear that if I continue to ride my bicycle in this leadership position, my legs will grow so weary that I will no longer be able to pedal my bicycle. Seeing as you are a noble gentleman, I would greatly appreciate it if I could trade my position for yours. Please pass me on my right side if this proposition will suit you, and I will fall into position immediately behind you. Also Eric, you look very nice this afternoon.

those are just a couple examples of our very specific signals.. Maybe I will share more with you later..

back to pedaling..

When we got back to where the guys were on Sunday night, we were pleased to see that Will Overly (some of you might know him) had already gotten there.. I am not sure if I already mentioned, but he lives in Minneapolis, so he took a bus to Fargo and planned to bike the three days with us from Fargo back to his apartment..! He is a great guy, so we have been having a blast hanging out with him!

Monday, the first day back after my butt's vacation, we ended up biking 110.. and it was a very traumatic, yet positive day..! All in all we got 4 flat tires and a broken spoke throughout the day.. Normally we would have gotten a little down about all the flat tires, but our spirits were high! The sun was up..! In fact, several of us were biking without shirts on for most of the afternoon!
The only bad part about it was that it was Will's spoke that broke, so he had to call it a day a little early so that him and ryan could hurry to the next town's bike shop to get it fixed.. That night we found a sweet campsite in the woods by this small lake..

The next day, we woke up to rain..

waking up in the rain with the knowledge that you are going to have to bike in it for the next 8 hours, is miserable.. plain and simple.
After laying in our sleeping bags for awhile, yet again pondering what had convinced us that this trip was a good idea, we finally climbed out and got ready to go..

Then, as if the rain was not miserable enough, eric got another flat tire about 100 yards from the campground.. We tried to remain positive though, and were actually a little thankful for all of the flats the day before, because we had gotten fast..!
So we fixed the Flat.. got moving.. then after about a mile, we got stuck at a railroad track for about 10 minutes..

So basically, we got pumped to leave.. left.. got a flat tire.. then stood in the rain for 10 minutes shaking.. (Will was wearing a trash bag the whole time though.. so that was pretty funny)..

We biked about 3 miles, then pulled of at a gas station where we met a couple local guys who bought us coffee and talked to us for awhile.. We ended up chilling there for about 2 hours.. (yeah, we know.. but we didn't want to get back on the road)..

We finished strong though.. the full 75 mies for the day!

Today went awesome.. we woke up.. had a tailwind.. and were eager to get to minneapolis to hangout and have will show us the city! We ended up doing about 80ish miles.. but with the tailwind they went really smooth and easy!

We have just been hanging out with Will and his Wife, Alese, all afternoon.. which has been awesome! Alese is a residence hall director at a university here, so they put us up in these dorms/apartments and hooked us up with some food! It has been awesome hanging out with them and chatting it up!

Tomorrow there is a big free breakfast for bikers at this place here in town.. so we are bike over there in the morning and then try to make it 110 miles to Winona, Minnesota..!

wait up guys.. I'm coming!

well, i'm heading back north today.. The past couple days have been pretty exciting..

On wednesday night, Ryan and I left Ray, North Dakota and drove straight through the night to Salina, KS. It was my girlfriend Maggie's birthday (perhaps some of you know her) on thursday, so we surprised her when we got to town..!
My brother and sister-in law let us use their house as a pit stop/staging area, which was greatly appreciated because we were pretty gross.. Imagine biking for 8 hours, then changing clothes, eating some junkfood, and jumping in the car to drive straight through for 16 hours.. sweet.

On friday we headed to St. Joe, Missouri for my buddy Leighton's wedding. I was the best man so we thought it would be good if we tried to be there on time..!
The wedding was a blast..! We hung out all afternoon and evening friday night, then had the wedding yesterday.. I had to give a speech and everything.. then came time for the dance.. so we danced..!

Ryan and I are back at my parent's house right now in Topeka.. We are just about to head back up north.. I think the guys are going to be around Fargo somewhere, so i guess we are just gonna head that way and try to find them somewhere.. I am pretty excited to get back to it..!

This trip has been really weird for me.. After only having a bike for 3 weeks, all my thoughts about cars were considerably glorified..!
3 days ago, we thought you could get just about anywhere in a car in around 10 minutes.. I quickly realized though, that although cars are a little quicker than our bikes, it still takes a really long time to drive halfway across the country..!

oh.. also.. ryan and I feel really cool driving with my bike on the car rack.. everyone looks at us like we are a part of some mysterious club that they know nothing about when we stop at gas stations.. It seems like everyone wants to say something to us about it.. about 70% of the people actually do, and they typically have some awesome story about one of their family members who rode a bike once several years back.. You wouldn't believe how many people have a brother or uncle who have purchased/ridden a bike in this country..

Usually the conversation goes like this:
person we don't know: "Bikes huh?, where you heading?"
us: "we're biking from portland to boston."
person we don't know: "thats quite a ways.. Yeah my brother has a bike.. you ever heard of that race in Iowa?"
us: "yes we sure have.. it seems like alot of people do that one."
person we don't know: "yeah, sounds crazy to me.. Well have a good one guys."
us: "see ya"

(i am not even exaggerating, we have had hundreds of conversations very similar to that one..!)