Time for a real blog

As the ride has progressed, i feel we have all learned a lot of new things. Things like: Beer is acceptable payment for bicycle service. Always double check your cues. Always have the iphone charged. Eat everything you can get your hands on. Always double check your cues. Drink lots of water. Dont run a triple bottom bracket with a double crank. and if you have the chance bring this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eCdIe0wdvU

since this is my first real blog entry I feel the need to hand out some thank yous. First and for most i want to thank my family especially my Mom and Dad for being so supportive through this trip. Another set of thank yous to everyone we have encountered on the road that have donated to our cause. This trip so far has been amazing. we are all getting to see so much of the country and make such an impact on all the people we meet.

Of Bagels and Bicycles

Food donations, while always appreciated, can be a mixed blessing. Case in point: bagels.  During the ride along last Sunday, we happened to run into another fundraising bike ride for cancer research which was just wrapping up and had two garbage bags of bagels to get rid of.  Naturally, we happily took the extra food off their hands, but by yesterday many of us were wishing we handn't.  After six days of bagels for breakfast, bagels for snacks, bagels for lunch, and yes, even a pizza-bagel dinner, I don't think I want to see another bagel for as long as I can manage.  The good and bad news is that we can occasionally score bagels from Panera by the garbage bagful, saving us a boatload on food costs but testing our tolerance for stomach dry, dense food units for every meal.  To be fair, the pizza bagels were both clever and delicious, but I'm looking forward to some cereal for breakfast tomorrow and some white bread PBJ for lunch.

Matt Cillick (who, by the way, just joined the team today) somehow managed to score us a tour of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester at 2, so yesterday we were on the road by 5:15 to be sure we were there in time.  As it happened, we grossly overestimated how long the ride would take, but it was nice to roll into the stayover by noon ahead of the sweltering hid of mid-afternoon.  After miles of rolling hills through fields of corn and soy dotted with the occasional dairy farm, Rochester suddenly sprung out of nowhere, complete with almost comically large buildings which towered amidst the surrounding agriculture.  We later learned that the majority of those buildings are part of the Mayo Clinic Campus, a metropolis of healthcare and one of the leading cancer research centers in the U.S.  Erik recently commented that you can tell a lot about what a town values by what's at the center.  In Mitchell, SD, they place a pretty big premium on corn, if the world's one and only Corn Palace is any indication.  In Rochester, health is king. 

The clinic was dazzling, and an impressive integration from "bench to bedside," that is, lab research to personal care.  We learned a lot more about the biology of cancer, and how malignant cells move throughout the body and establish themselves in new parts of the body.  This trip, in a way, in an integration was well - we do the fundraising, talk to patients, and learn the biology, all while somehow rolling 70 miles a day.  Not a bad deal.

-T

Minnesota, Dontcha Know

Today is our rest day in Rochester, MN.  As it turns out, Wisconsin, and the eastern part of Minnesota had some pretty big hills.  The night we stayed in La Crosse, some of us took an additional ride to the top of Grandad Bluff to watch the sunset.  Grandad Bluff was quite a climb, but it was well worth it.  It sits 580 feet above the city of La Crosse, and provides an excellent view of the town, the Mississippi River, Iowa, and Minnesota.  On the ride from La Crosse to Rochester I had my first flat of the trip.  I made it almost 1900 miles though, so I think thats pretty good.  Yesterday we got to tour parts of the Mayo Clinic, including some research labs, which was really cool.  This weekend is Rochester Fest so most of the team made its way to the streets of Rochester for some good food and live music.  Contrary to popular belief about Minnesota, I am yet to hear anyone say "Dontcha Know," which is really disappointing, but that hasn't stopped many of us from saying it while we are here.

long time no write

I have not blogged in a long time, and there is so much that has happened since then. The mountains were fun, the flats were fun, and now the rolling hills are wicked awesome. When we rode into Rochester MN the ride was one of my favorites so far. It was foggy in the morning and then as we climbed into higher places the fog disappeared and the scenery was beautiful. We arrived in Rochester early, and got to take showers before visiting the Mayo Clinic, which was super awesome. The rest day was really relaxing and I am excited to bike tomorrow. More to come in a little bit.

Farmers Tan

One of the perks of being on this trip is that you can take a shower outside of a church using a hose in a pretty metropolitan area and it is at least somewhat socially acceptable.

The rides into and out of Madison were the hottest days ever, both in the mid 90's, which made it tough.  In Madison, I got picked up by David and spent the night at his place.  We jumped in the lake in our underpants and then walked down the lakeside trail in just our sexy briefs to dry off.  We had some beers at the UW-student union... I think its awesome they serve beer at their student union.  Its outside, right on the lake, has a stage for live music, and is perfect for a summer night... After a few beers, we got some ice cream and then had an awesome sleepover.  Joe Silberschmidt is sweet.

About 15 miles outside of Madison we ran into the largest pile of tires I'd ever seen so naturally we stopped for a picture and some climbing.  That night we were in Reedsburg, nice little small town.  I got in a solid 6 mile run with Brad on a really nice trail that ran parallel to some railroad tracks.  We listened to some live music in the park, very reminiscent of the free concerts in Heard Memorial Park in North East.

The next day we headed to Lacrosse.  I had some bike issues that day, but I got them takin care of at a bike shop as soon as we got in.  I really liked the town of Lacrosse and the UW-Lacrosse campus.  Great town right on the Mississippi River with great biking and running in every direction, according to the locals I spoke with.

Crossing the Mississippi yesterday was pretty epic, plus we just had an epic ride that day itself.  We had a tour scheduled for 2 O'clock at the Mayo Clinic so we all woke up at 4:15 AM and were on the road just after 5 as the sun was coming up.  Luckilly, we had no trouble getting all the groups in by 2 and I even had some time for a run before the tour.

Touring the Mayo Clinic was awesome and a great opportunity.  It is one of the highest profile cancer research facilities in the world and since thats what this trip is all about, it was interesting to see the types of things the money we are raising is going towards.  The lab we toured was a molecular biology lab that focused primarilly on pancreatic cancer and they had some really cool stuff to show us.  Being around all the lab equipment reminded me too much of being back in Champaign.  It was more science than I planned on participating in this whole summer... really cool though.

This weekend is Rochester-fest so good timing on our parts.  Since we had a rest day today, it was game on last night.  The festival was great, complete with very typical parade, carney food, and bad live music.  The good news was they had beer.  I went out with a group of 5 or 6 other guys and we had a ball.  After the festival we ended up at this bar called Kathy's, which turned out to be pretty nice.  They had an open rooftop on the third story that we chilled on for a long time, trying to impress girls with our summer endeavor, but no amount of good deeds could cover up our gross facial hair.  Mine is beginning to fill in quite well, at least if I was a middle schooler... I also managed to get into a few conversations with people about my Bills shirt, including one with a great Bills and Sabres fan from Cheektowaga that I high-fived repeatedly... Bills fans are the best.  After the bar we ended up at some strangers house for way longer than I wanted to be, which was weird.  He did give us a couple of beers, a granola bar, and a twenty dollar donation.

Today I slept till noon then went for a 10 mile run.  Nice long bike trail here.  I think tonight a bunch of us are gonna hit up thise Chinese buffet. 

From here on out is the part of the trip I'm looking forward to the most.  Time to conquer the west.

Johnny Flynn got draft #6 overall-  Thats nuts.

Mayo on the Roc

Early day today, we all had to get up at 4:30am and hit the road at 5 am. We all descided to get up early because we schedualed a tour of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester at 2pm. So we wanted to make shure we got there on time. We had lunch at 9am and ended up getting here way early than expected. We estinmated we'd all make it to Rochester around 1pm but in reality we all made it in before noon.

We had a two hour tour of the clinic. It was awesome to be able to walk around one of the best cancer centers in the nation. We toured the labs and learned alot about biochemistry and more aabout cell growth. We saw how they ran their tests on cancers effects on cells. They had this real big and expensive microscope that we were able to look at cells. The quality of the image was amazing, they have 3 filters, red, blue and green. that took pictures of the cells and when they were put togeather you get this amiazing image of the cell. It was called the HAL 100, but its way diffrent from its new models, like the HAL 1000 its more sentiant model.(movie refrence)

After the tour we were able to go to ROCFEST!! A really big festival going on down the block from our stayover. It was fun, lots of food and a 4hr parade. Unfortunitly the food was pretty expensive but besides the price the food was good, espically the bbq. All in all it was a pretty fun day.

Do you need an ice cream for father's day?

Wisconsin is so far the number 1 state for humorous signs. In addition to the title of this blog, we saw a sign that said "June is dairy month, take a cow out to lunch". The street signs are better here as well, if only Dreamland and Enchanted Valley came to a 3-way intersection with Okay rd...
More to come in a couple of hours.

Day 28: To Rochester MN

Early wake up this morning. We needed to be in Rochester before 2pm for a scheduled tour at the Mayo clinic, so wake up was pushed up to 4:30am in order to make sure everybody would arrive on time. Since the leaders had really pushed for everybody to be packed and ready to go as soon as they woke up, we were able to get out the door by 5:15 and were on our way to Minnesota. Despite having to wake up early, I think many people actually liked getting up early as it was nice and cool for most of the morning. The terrain was much like we saw yesterday, with rolling hills with an eventual long climb out of the Mississippi River Valley. By 8am, we already had already gotten more than 30 miles down the road, and nearly half way to our destination. With a bit of a tail wind, many of us were able to make it into Rochester before noon. With a little bit of time before we had to walk across the street to the Mayo Clinic, we searched for the local YMCA where we freshened up a bit before our tour.
We had a two part tour of the Mayo clinic in the afternoon. The first part took us through one of the cancer research centers at the clinic. The particular lab that we toured looked at how cancerous cells grow differently from regular cells and how they move about in the body. I understood some of what they were talking about, but at points it seemed like you needed a few courses in cellular biology to know what it was that they were referring to. After that we toured the cancer education library. The librarian there explained to us about the library, and how various people used it to understand what was going on with either themselves or somebody that they knew. We were given some time to browse the library ourselves after the tour and stumbled upon the guest book where we discovered an entry made by last year's Illini 4000 group after they had toured the resource center.
This evening was also the beginning of Rochesterfest, a local festival which brings in groups from all over the area. Tonight they had a very long parade through town, lasting well over three hours. I caught part of it, but after an hour of watching groups walk by, I continued on in my exploration, looking for food and something to drink. After satiating those needs I wandered back to the church we were staying at found a place to sleep, and by 9:30 was out like a lightbulb.
Today's Mileage: 76.0

Don't Stop Till You Get Enough

Rest day today!  We are currently in Rochester, MN on one of our rest days, and I think everyone is enjoying it so far.  The last few days of riding have been a blast for me, and I was almost disappointed that we have another rest day already.  After having my turn come up to drive the van I appreciated all my opportunities to ride with the group during the day.  The routes in Wisconsin and Minnesota definitely have more hills, sometimes so much that it reminds me of the mountains we passed through near the coast! Difficulty aside, I enjoy these hills after riding on the flat roads of Illinois and Indiana. 

Yesterday was especially fun as we had a 4:15am wake up to head on the road by 5am.  The early departure gave us a chance to ride through the Mississippi River valley right as the sun was rising through the hilltops. Within the first ten miles I had a staple through my tire and had to make some other adjustments which put myself and two other guys in the back group.  Luckily both guys were patient and helpful and by lunch time we had taken up the position of lead group.  All the groups made such good timing that we all arrived by 12pm, two hours before our appointment at the Mayo Clinic here in Rochester.  After a quick shower and lunch break, our team was given a tour of one of the 100 labs in the Mayo Clinic.  I am very grateful for this opportunity because each time we have a tour like this I become more interested in this battle our country has been fighting for so long.  The Mayo Clinic is a fantastic facility that is really setting an example in health care around the country currently, and now I can see why.

Food is a cruel mistress

Well today we had a rest day. It seems like we kinda don't know what to do on rest days...so we ride our bikes! We all woke up some time around 11 but the few of us who were up earlier went out to braekfast at this crazy pancake house that was called Pankuken, which is apparently a Dutch pancake. It wasn't too bad - real good breakfast. After that we all did our own things, some went to the pool, others hung around the church, others slept some more. But for dinner we went to kingdom buffet. (Lordy, we ate waaaay to much!) We all agreed that the ride back to the church was the worst ride of the trip. With our bellies overflowing with food we nursed ourselves back to being just full and rested easy, patiently awaiting the supposed 20mph headwind the next day. 

At the Rochesterfest parade. B...

At the Rochesterfest parade. Bluegrass band later tonight. Rest day tomorrow. Albert Lea after that.

June is Dairy Month, Take a Cow to Lunch

Wisconsin wins for best signs. Hands down.

Yesterday we rolled into La Crosse, WI which is just on the border of Minnesota. We roda over some slightly surprising Wisconsin hills and saw tons of animals: horses, llamas, goats, sheep, donkeys, and an elk. That was pretty cool. Another great sight on yesterdays ride was when we went through Portland, WI.

Today we arrived in Rochester and what a short day it was. Although the ride was about 73 miles, we decided to get up at 4:30 AM so as not ot be late for our tour of the Mayo Clinic. I drove the van for the first time today and noticed that all the groups were riding pretty fast. They arrived at the Calvary Episcopal Church across the street from the Mayo Clinic almost an hour after I did, and all before noon!

Minnesota is gorgeous, however you travel through. It was nice to see the sun rising over the valleys in total quiet as I waited for the team to get to the water stop. Extremely peaceful. Another great thing about this state is that today and tomorrow-a rest day- there's Rochester Fest! So, there will be music, food, dancing, four team human puzzle competitions, everything you could ever want!

More to come!

430am wake up tomorrow in orde...

430am wake up tomorrow in order to make it to rochester for a 2pm tour of the mayo clinic. Much too hot to sleep. Ugh.

Day 27 - "Where is this Port Land?"

Reedsburg WI to Lacrosse WI.  We arrived in Portland today!!! Portland Wisconsin, that is, but we did get some awesome pics with the sign.  Our ride today was a longer one, heading about 78 miles into the hills of Wisconsin.  The hills were steeper again today, we thought at some points we might have been heading back into Pennsylvania.  Today was hot again, the temp was 90+ when we got into Lacrosse, but we made good time and went to the local ice cream shop again.  I am pretty much living off of ice cream and peanut butter and jelly this summer, if I wasn't riding for hours every day, I might feel bad about it.  Another thing, we have gotten some amazing donations from Panera and Einstein Bros this summer, but I think that if I have to eat another dry peanut butter sandwich on a plain bagel, I might never eat bagels again.  We have eaten at least three bagels each day for the past two weeks I think.  Its getting ridiculous.  Anyways, Wisconsin is beautiful and the hills are nice to look at when you are trying to catch your breath after riding up one. Tomorrow we ride into Minnesota for the first time in my life, and we have a hospital visit at the Mayo clinic, which is supposed to be amazing, except that we have to leave an hour or two earlier than normal in order to get there in time.  So, i am excited, but not happy to have to be up at 4AM tomorrow and riding at 5AM. Well, hopefully this will mean we will avoid some of the heat, so that could be good. Well, guess we'll see yah in Meen-a-sota, eh?

Animals seen: Llamas, mules/mini horses, elk/caribou, goats, sheep

States traveled through:12(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN, IL, WI)
Distance today: 78 mi
Total Distance traveled:  1670 mi

Day 26 - "Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God"

Fitchburg WI to Reedsburg WI.  Today's ride was pretty hilly, and we were expecting rain showers to cool us off, but the rain never came, so we rode through 89 degree weather until we arrived at about 1 PM.  Reedsburg is both the US capital of butter and also the home of the second oldest Culvers and the oldest original Culvers building.  Unfortunately, Butterfest( which sounds like Homewood Days mixed with high school prom) was last week, so we missed out on the fun.  Instead we hit up the local public ice cream shop and the public pool, which once again let us in for free, and the water felt great so that was awesome.  After the pool, Matt H and Matt S made us some delicious dinner and I read and wrote in my journal.  I finished my first book, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas last week(it was really good), and I just finished Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut(which I loved, gotta find some more Vonnegut to read, also my blog title references it), so I am currently looking for something new to read.  Other than that, we are looking forward to some nice scenery on the way to Lacrosse WI tomorrow.

States traveled through:12(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN, IL, WI)
Distance today: 66 mi
Total Distance traveled:  1590 mi

Foggy Hills

When we got out to the van this morning the fog was so thick that we couldn’t see across the street. By the time we left it had cleared up slightly. The effect of the fog was really quite enchanting. That seems to be the right word for it. The large rolling hills were shrouded by the fog, which turned them into large silhouettes in the distance. When the fog cleared up the sun came out, and with the sun came the heat. It looks like the heat is here to stay, but with only one day left until or next rest day our spirits are up.

The Ride to the Butter Capitol of the World

Today the I4K rode another day in intense heat. With the temperature at the bank we passed reading 87 degrees at 7:30A.M. it was sure to be a difficult day. We logged 67 miles in the Wisconsin hills, so much for those nice flat plains. Upon arriving at the stayover in Reedsvill, Wisconsin, we were informed that we were standing in the midst of the butter capitol of the World. This town even has a festival to celebrate all of its buttery goodness. Overall today was a fantastic day to ride with no major problems. Looks like we've gotten all our bikes tuned up and ready to roll.

Getting a Grip

Today was easily the hottest of the trip so far. I'm sure others have equally griped about this, but It was 102 degrees with the heat index! I just took a break from cleaning off the road tar that adhered to my bike to write this entry. I even bought another toothbrush so I could demote my current toothbrush to bike cleaning duty.

I must admit I was ecstatic to find out that Christ Memorial Lutheran had a garden hose ready and waiting for us. Everywhere we go we meet such enthusiastic and welcoming people. Some you would expect to be, but others are totally random, like the cashier at Wallgreens who turned out to be a cancer survivor. If I was ever a pessimistic person, I think these experiences have had a positive affect on my thoughts about others and even humanity in general for that matter.

Okay, more tar awaits, its been lovely blogging to you. Tomorrow is 84 and rain, I don't think I've ever been so happy about that forecast.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Two days ago we left Chicago on flat, slow, 30 mile ride along with many family and friends.  The first 15 miles or so out of Chicago was very nice because were on a bike trail that parallels Lake Michigan.  At night 8 of us went to see the movie "Up," in the hopes that it was in 3D.  After buying our tickets, we found out that it was, in fact, not in 3D.  3D or not, it was still a pretty good movie.

Yesterday, we had a 66 mile ride from Deerfield, Illinois to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.  We woke up to rain, but it stopped by the time we left for the ride.  Much of the ride was spent on bike trails, many of which were not paved.  Normally I would not like anything that was not paved because it is hard on tires, but these trails were packed really well, and it was nice not having to deal with traffic, plus they were pretty scenic.  For lunch we stopped at the home of the Cantys, family friends of Kristen Tully.  It was by far the best lunch stop we've had so far.  They live on a lake so we all got to jump in and cool off, plus they grilled for us.  After lounging around for a while, we completed the final 25 miles of our ride for the day.  We finished at Brad's family lake house on Lake Geneva where we once again got to go swimming.

Today we had a 68 mile ride from Lake Geneva to just south of Madison, Wisconsin.  It was extremely hot today, I have heard it got as high as 95 with a heat index of 103.  The group I was riding with skipped lunch, and opted for just a quick stop to refill water bottles, that way we could get out of the heat as soon as possible.  We did, however, use some of the water bottles just to pour on ourselves to cool off.  A couple hours after everyone had arrived at the stayover, a local news reporter showed up, so we put our riding clothes back on and staged riding up to the church.  A delicious meal was provided to us tonight by Kristen's mom that we are all thankful for.  Hopefully tomorrow will not be quite as hot.

Inferno.

I rode hard for the first time in a while today, and what a fine day to do so.  We hit hills today for the first time since eastern Indiana, and today was our hottest, most humid, most oppressive riding day yet.  I think my core body temp has finally fallen back to a healthy 98.6, but it took a solid 6 hours in a climate-controlled church to get there.  If only there had been some body of water, some single, festering retention pond to jump into, I might have felt a bit better, but there was none.  We used up all our lake karma yesterday when we hopped in Fox Lake during our deluxe lunch stop courtesy of the Cantys, and then again in Lake Geneva when we stayed at Brad's family's house.  On the upside, I did eat like a horse today and feel phenomenal about it.

Riding out of Chicago with all our family and friends, especially the dads (Happy Father's Day, Dad) was wonderful.  As I think I've said before, my favorite part of this trip has been seeing other people get excited about our ride, and nobody gets more excited than our own families. 

We have another short-ish day tomorrow, then a 90+ ride into our next rest day.  Didn't we just have one of those?

-T