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

Day 25 - Hot in Mad-Town

We knew that our ride today from Lake Geneva WI to Fitchberg WI would be long and really hot. The forecast was 95 degrees with zero chance of precipitation, and the day turned put to be everything that it promised.  In addition, the ride was the hilliest that it has been since early Ohio, and by the end of the day, we were all drenched in sweat and pretty tired from climbing up all those hills.  We arrived at the Christ Memorial Lutheran Church just outside Madison WI around 1:30, which means that we made pretty good time on the day.  The church is really nice, and when we got here, Justin, who was in the first group, had already bought ice cream, so we were all relieved to suddenly go from 95 degree weather climbing up hills to sitting inside in air conditioning, eating ice cream.  We think we are having dinner brought in again by Kristin's mom, so it should be another relaxing night. Tomorrow we ride to Reedsburg WI, and hear that it is supposed to storm all day tomorrow, but we are hoping it will hold off until we are done.

States traveled through:12(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN, IL, WI)
Distance today: 66 mi
Total Distance traveled:  1524 mi

Pikachu, I choose you!

For the first evening in a long time I have both internet access and the energy to update this blog.  Many nights I lack in one or the other, but today's ride was accommodating. I can't update on everything this post (because it would be impossible), but here are a few things going on.

First of all, our rest day in Chicago was awesome!  Having the day off to spend with family and friends was a pleasant change of pace from our usual day schedules.  It was a blast to go out with my relatives and friends for dinner downtown, and it had to have been one of the best meals of my life.  But maybe that was due to the good company as much as the food. 

After our rest day, we had a short 30 mile day that looped us around Lake Michigan and brought us to Highland Park.  It was fun to ride around Chicago after riding miles through corn fields to get there.  From Highland Park we traveled north to our Lake Geneva stay over. Normally for lunch we stop on the side of the road and eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but yesterday we stopped by a rider's friend's place where they cooked us burgers and corn on the cob.  It definitely felt like summer that day, as when we arrived to our stay over we swam again.  It was hard to refuse after riding many miles in the rising heat these days.  And before you think we have it too easy, we have been eating old bagels many times already on this trip, I just try to skip over that boring stuff! 

That brings me up to today where we are staying in a town outside of Madison Wisconsin.  Today's ride was just about 70 miles and the first day of what I would consider to be real heat.  Each stop along the way my group made it as quick as possible to avoid the heat.  By 9am I was sweating a lot and knew it would only get warmer.  Because of our quick pace and short stops my group got in around 1:30pm which was early enough to roll in out of the heat.  Now we are getting ready to head north a little further, and then west to Portland.

First Blog of the summer!

We're about 1/3rd done with the trip, and I thought it would be a fantastic time to start my blog. So far, the ride has been absolutely amazing. The ride has been everything I had hoped for, and way more. I knew I would love spending my summer biking across the country, but I didn't know I would love every single day.

Up to this point, I still declare that my favorite day of the trip was the ride into Everitt, Pennsylvania. Although the ride was physically demanding, as it was the first day in the mountains, the scenery was absolutely gorgeous. I can recall one specific point of the ride where the trees just opened up, and I could see everywhere below that I had just been. It was awesome.

That's all the time I have now-a reporter is here to take our picture!

Day 24 - America and Great Lakes

Deerfield IL to Lake Geneva, WI. Our ride was great today, we didn't get lost once and made it 60 miles with no problem thanks to a few great things.  First of all, our trail into lunch was a beautiful trail with just enough turns, hills and scenery to make it interesting but still challenging, so I actually think that this ride might have been my favorite of the trip so far.  We had our lunch break at the house of one our rider(Kristen)'s family friend's places, so after 35 miles, we got an amazing lunch of grilled corn, chicken and burgers and also got to swim in a beautiful lake until we eventually had to drag ourselves away a few hours later.  We then traveled the last 25 miles into Lake Geneva, where we are staying at the house of our former ride leader, Brad Topol.  The house is just a few steps away from Lake Geneva, and we got to swim again, making it two different lakes that we swam in today, which we think is a first for most of the riders.  The Topols then made us a delicious dinner of burgers, salad, chili and some amazing cheesecake.  We ride into Fitchburg, WI tomorrow and hear that its gonna be another hot one, so I'm hoping we can finish pretty quickly and without many stoppages, so we can arrive before it gets too hot. 

States traveled through:12(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN, IL, WI)
Distance today: 66 mi
Total Distance traveled:  1457 mi

Day 23 - Family Fun

Chicago IL to Deerfield IL.  Todays ride was a fun ride, we only went 30 miles, but our friends and family were invited and I convinced my mom and Ward to ride with me.  The ride was nice, I never suspected that the Chicago trails were so nice, and we didn't get lost at all, and the paths were nice up until the slightly muddy last 10 miles.  Once we got in, we found out that another local charity for cancer had a fund-raising bike ride ending up in the same place as us, so we got to hang out with them and that was awesome.  I had a lot of fun riding today, and I was proud of everyone, I think Ward and my mom both did great, and they kept up great, and I wouldn't be surprised if they started heading out on a few more rides in the near future after seeing how easy it was!  Tonight's dinner was provided by a family friend of Matt S, and once again we were spoiled and were stuffed with burgers, hot dogs, and grilled chicken, along with watermelon and chips.

States traveled through:11(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN, IL)
Distance today: 30 mi
Total Distance traveled:  1391 mi

Day 22 - Go Cubs Go

Rest day in Chicago. I was planning on catching up on online stuff all day, but Matt suggested a Cubs game and I couldn't turn that down, so we woke up at 11 and headed into Wrigleyville to find tickets, and found someone selling decent seats for $40, and ended up catching a great game that the Cubs won from behind in 13 innings on a wild pitch from former Cub Kerry Wood.  After that, Matt and I stopped by Bill and Starr's new place which was awesome and said hi, then we hit up a local bike shop where I picked up some gloves to try and stop the possible nerve damage in my hand from getting worse.  Matt C, Saebin, Matt S and I went to Giordanos for dinner, and had some amazing pizza, so overall, it was a great weekend in Chicago, I got two of my favorite foods(Greek and Chicago deep dish pizza), and a Cubs game too. I am also proud to have introduced Matt C to the "Go Cubs Go" song, which he will now be unable to get out of his head for the rest of his life.

Day 21 - Narrowly avoiding danger

Homewood IL to Chicago IL.  We elected new ride leaders for the rest of the ride, so from here on out, Brad is done and Tim and Megan will run the I4K show.  Todays ride was supposed to be an easy 30 mile ride into the city, but once again, things went bad.  We were supposed to be in Millennium Park to meet friends and family at 12.  From the start, we were lost and ended up making up our own way to the first rest stop since the cues were so far off.  We made it to the rest stop with only an hour to make it the last 15 plus miles, and immediately got lost again, then started hearing about the awful weather in Chicago.  People were calling us and telling us that it was hailing and that there were terrible thunderstorms throughout the city, so not only were we making up our own cues again to get into the city, but we were also racing the weather.  We had almost made it into the city when Megan wiped out on some metal grates that were placed right in the middle of our supposed bike path through the city and ended up landing on her face and chipping a tooth or two, so we didn't end up making it into the city until almost an hour later.  It ended up alright though, we made it to the Bean and people were still waiting to take our picture and welcome us in, and Megan was alright in the end.  We made it into the UIC dorms and got into our rooms and ended up heading to Greektown through the pouring rain for dinner, and had a delicious gyro dinner at Spectrum. Tomorrow is a rest day, so I look forward to catching up with emails and blogging and all that.

States traveled through:11(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN, IL)
Distance today: 44 mi
Total Distance traveled:  1361 mi

Day 19 and 20 - Home Sweet Homewood

Day 19 - Champaign IL to Clifton IL.  Todays ride was not bad, we rode into some pretty intense 15 mile per hour headwinds, but we had flat lands the whole way, and got into Clifton pretty early.  The awesome pool across the street let us swim for free, so we got to show off some pretty cool half-flips and face-flops along with our sweet tans to all of the locals.

States traveled through:11(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN, IL)
Distance today: 60 mi
Total Distance traveled:  1247 mi

Day 20 - Clifton IL to Homewood IL.  The ride today started off on another bad note, as we got lost about three times within the first 5 miles, but we ended up figuring it out since all of Illinois is made up of numbered roads and it is almost impossible to get lost.  I thought the ride was easy, and I kept having to tell myself to slow down since I wanted to be home so badly.  We ended up getting into Homewood at about 1PM and we greeted by my mom and bunch of other people, who proved to be the most vocal welcoming committee that we had seen all trip.  After that, the Mayor of Homewood himself showed up, and we were treated to free Coldstone ice cream, and then Mrs. Forrestell, my second-grade teacher, set up a pool visit, so the whole team was shuttled to and from a free trip to Lions Club Pool.  After that, the amazing people from the Faith Lutheran Church made us a great dinner including fried chicken and lasagna, and then we headed over to my house for more food, a few beers, and some quality time with all my friends.  I want to thank all my neighbors, Stack, Maria, Dudek, Hallman, Kalal, Kara, Lisa, Ward, Mav, Julia, Shane, and anyone else I may have forgotten who showed up from your various homes to hang out, I had a great time, and can't wait until I get back and we can hang out again!!!  Also, a huge thank you to my mom, and everyone who provided food and supplies for the party, because we are still eating the snacks and everything that we had at the party was amazing enough as well.

States traveled through:11(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN, IL)
Distance today: 70 mi
Total Distance traveled:  1317 mi

Day 18 - The Home Stretch

Rockville IN to Champaign, IL.  Our next ride was into Champaign, where we all go to school!!  We were all excited to be back on roads that we had all been on before for the first time during the trip, but the day was not a fun ride, as it started raining, and we ended up stuck on gravel roads for most of the second half of the ride, and let me tell you, riding through gravel and clay roads in the pouring rain is not one of my favorite activities. We arrived in Homer at 11AM and had to wait two hours for the rest of the team to catch up, and also for our guest riders, who rode the rest of the way into Champaign with us.  Once we got into Champaign, we rode into the Alumni center around 3PM and were greeted by friends and family and some news cameras that were just minutes too late to get shots of us riding in together.  We also did the annual jump into the fountain, which was fun, even if it did mean getting wet again.  At night I got to sleep in a real bed for the first time on the trip, and I also got to eat some of the best food on campus at Dos Reales and hang out with Moy, Melissa, Paul and Marcus, so that was awesome, it felt awesome to be able to see familiar faces again.  Unfortunately I fell asleep at 8PM so I didn't make it out to hang out with everyone for the night, but a warm bed was just too tempting.

States traveled through:11(NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN, IL)
Distance today: 77 mi
Total Distance traveled:  1187 mi

Day 17

Greenwood, IN to Rockville, IN.  Todays ride was pretty easy, and we are still enjoying feeling rested from Dan's house.  I saw some rabbit on sale in a small store in Indiana today and decided thats since I have never tried it and who knows where else I will ever be able to buy a rabbit, I would buy it.   So our team cooler now has a frozen rabbit traveling with it, and now I just need to try and find somewhere to cook it up.  We are staying at a huge church in Rockville and tonight for dinner went to a local diner and everyone filled the table with plates and we ate for what seemed like hours. I had a huge plate of veal parmesean which was amazing, and of course I had to try their pie as well, which was also just as tasty.

States traveled through:10 (NY,NJ,PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, OH, IN)
Distance today: 80 mi
Total Distance traveled:  1111 mi

Ups & Downs

Rolling into Chicago had its ups and downs. While it was extremely wonderful to see family and friends awaiting us at the Bean, I had to walk in without my bike and without a couple pieces of my teeth. I crashed on the way in on a large metal grate covering almost half the street and couldn't get around it quick enough. Sadly, I chipped some teeth and cracked my helmet, but I was so lucky that that was all that happened. My great teammates took great care of me and the following rest day proved absolutely necessary. Shout out to my ex-duty partner Matt Dale Cady for saving my teeth and telling me I looked great, what a guy. A few hours later, I got my face fixed and it looks like nothing happened. Holy cow, how lucky am I? Seriously.

Saturday was nice and relaxing, picking up some bike stuff and spending some time with some of the important people in my life.

Then riding to Lake Geneva was awesome; we ahd the best lunch stop ever. Kristen's family made an amazing lunch for us at a lake house. Most of the team dived right into the cool water after riding in the sun for a few hours. Man, was that awesome. The Topols also provided us with the best of the best. Delicious food, a lake to swim in and tons of beds to sleep on. We have got it really good these days, I can't believe it.

Today, we rode into Fitchburg, Wisonsin and the ride was about 68 miles. A few riders jumped into the river at the lunchstop, combatting the sweltering sun. That was pretty awesome. The rest of the ride was alright, nothing too grand or exciting. The best part might be the church we are at right now. There is tons of space, a shower, a piano, and some of my teammates went out and grabbed a bunch of ice cream for the rest of us. All things considered, good day for sure.

Racing against noon

Today might have been the first day that we all got out on time. It was definitely the first day where leaving on time was terribly important. Most of the previous week we have been riding through rain with a sixty percent chance of more rain, but today we were given something more challenging. With near record breaking highs it became very clear that getting most of the ride out of the way before noon would be a good idea. The day started fast and stayed that way. We stopped to fill up our water and get a few moments of shade. The lunch break, for many, lasted long enough to get off the bike and stuff a bagel in our mouths. Sure enough when noon came it got hot, and sure enough the end of the ride was challenging to say the least, especially for the group that missed the last water stop.

This ride in many ways will parallel the rest of our lives, some moments will be fantastic, others difficult, and the worst will be unbearable. Whether we like it or not we are going to get a taste of all of them, so it’s best if we take each moment, and each ride for what it is. We will be grateful of the good rides, prepared for the difficult ones, and patient during the worst. In the end if we take these moments for what they are and not what they could or should be, then we might learn something about ourselves from each.

2 lakes, 1 day

The ride in to Chicago pretty much sucked… It was supposed to be an easy 25-30 mile ride into the city, but we got super lost.  After sort of finding our way on some not bike-friendly roads, I was riding behind Megan, who I've mentioned previously, and she slipped going over some large metal grate and wiped out, hitting the metal face first and knocking out half of her two front teeth.  I slammed on the brakes and got her to the side of the road quick. 

It was a lot less bad than it looked at first and luckily, she is one of the toughest girls around.  She actually wanted to keep riding, but her helmet was cracked so we convinced her it would be best to wait for the van… So everone else went ahead and me and two other guys stayed behind and waited for the van with her.  She was such a good sport about it, even when I handed her teeth to her in a zip-lock bag.  

So that really just put me in a bad mood for the rest of the ride.  We rode in to Millenium Park to a bunch of cheers from people's friends and family, since just about everyone on the trip is from Chicago or the suburbs, but it still wasn’t enough to cheer me up.

The rest of the time in Chicago ruled though.  We stayed in the dorms at U of I-Chicago, which were really nice.  We each had our own bedroom and each apartment had a kitchen and bathroom… most people went home to their families for the weekend though, which gave me and the few guys who stayed in the dorms even more free reign in the dorms. 

Friday night we went out to eat at sweet place in Greektown and then got some more free ice cream.  Saturday was a rest day and proved to be one of the better days of the trip.  I wanted to sleep in, but my body is so used to waking up early so I rolled out of bed around 8 (still two hours later than normal) and went for a run around he campus area.  I always like checking out college campuses whenever I can.  Then, Jesse and I went to try and find tickets to the noon noon cubs-indians game at Wrigley.  We got some forty dollar limited view tickets, which weren't bad- It was my first time to Wrigley Field and was such a blast.  Perfect weather for baseball.  We did it up right- peanuts, beer, hot dogs, and I even got a bloody marry, which was probably my biggest regret of the trip.  That night we got deep dish from Giordanno's. Classic Chicago day.

Sunday we rode out of Millenium park to Highland Park.  It was an easy 35 or so mile ride and a bunch of people's family and friends tagged along so the ride was pretty easy.  Greg came out and rode with us so we had a good talk, which was super sweet.  The ride was followed up with yet another huge meal, provided by relatives of Matt Strick.

Today was a great ride.  We are so spoiled.  For lunch we stopped at friends/family of another rider who had prepared a huge BBQ for us, complete with sushi.  Getting back on he bike after that was not easy.  Although the ride was really nice.  Mostly on a trail.

Tonight we are at Brad's lake house on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin.  I went for a run when we got in and some of the houses around here are ridiculously huge.  I need to figure out how to get rich.  This lottery thing is not working.  Two swims in two lakes in the same day- life is tough.

In case you were wondering, Megan got her teeth fixed that same day and is looking as good as ever, even with the major bruises on her face.

Ok, I think I might be making these too long, but there is so much to tell and I feel like I'm leaving out so much.  I gotta go get some reading done.  Gotta finish "Watchmen" before I get to Madison tomorrow so I can drop it off with David- pumped to see that guy.