Flashing Lights and Buggies

Did I really say, in last night's blog, that we had been given enough sugary cereal to last til the end of the trip? I exaggerated. We had enough to last until bedtime. 16 boxes of sugar-coated cereal gone before breakfast even thought about getting onto the table. That meant that Bryce actually requested hot cereal (Samurai) for breakfast the day after we stopped for lunch at an Italian restaurant, and all three boys ordered salads. Not one pizza, not one plate of spaghetti!

Today was a relatively short ride, so we slept in, and didn't hit the road until 9:30, an hour and a half later than usual. We managed to change routes several times and miss our rendezvous with Pat, but eventually, we found our target ... the end of Michigan and the beginning of Indiana.

Once there, the magic started to happen. First, another cyclist arrived. He had been a WarmShowers guest of Pat's in early June on his way to attempting a race across America. His bike gave out after a few days, but he lived in Indiana, so joined us for a few miles of this morning's ride. Therefore, when the police escort (yes, police escort, lights flashing, a siren) arrived and started snapping pictures, we ended up with FIVE riders for a change.

Then the real magic started. We arrived at the LaGrange American Legion Hall to find a welcoming party waiting for us, and an enormous planned fundraiser!

Three hundred people for dinner. Local, regional and former national commanders. Visitors from the community and from other Legion communities. Tee shirt sales. A pie auction. Donations. A hotel room to camp in for the night. The key to the city! A tour of the countryside! We started the day with approximately $7000 towards our goal of $10,000 in donations to Operation Comfort Warriors. As we ended the night, we will have to have a meeting to set a new goal, because we easily exceeded our old goal. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the folks who helped make the fundraiser in LaGrange such an enormous success.

About the only people who didn't contribute were the members of the large Amish community.

Gotta trade in my bike for something with more horsepower.

Oh My Aching Back (and Knees)

Before getting to the theme of tonight's  blog, let's  return for a moment to yesterday's post. I described job pie, but I misheard the recipe. Long-handled campfire implements use for two sided grilled cheese sandwiches are used...two slices of buttered bread, with pie filling grilled in the middle instead of cheese. Add some ice cream and you have one happy camper.

Tonight's campground is 60 miles south of last night. We stopped halfway for a rendezvous with Legion Commander Carl Atkinson and a reporter from the Hastings, MI newspaper, then arrived in camp near Climax, and we're soon invaded by local and regional Legion and Scouting reps. Since we  are between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, both groups were represented. Since Battle Creek is the home of Kelloggs, we gifted with boxes of snacks and sweet cereals that will keep the boys happy until we get to NYC.

I had to get my knee iced after today's ride...too much wear and tear on all the hills. A couple of days ago, it was my back. It's Inuprofin time! Glad that tomorrow's journey is shortish. And once again, we will stop midway for another press conference! We should be old pros by the time we get to NYC.

At Home in the Midwest

Tonight, we've been invited to share in some "hobo pie," a scoop of rice filled with pie filling. That's what we get for camping in the middle of an RV park that is mostly populated by several RV's that all belong to a church group. There are a lot of people who go camping together for a variety of reasons. And the more people there are, the easier it gets.

Even though our little band of tent campers consists of only five people, I'm constantly amazed at how widely supported we are, and hence how wide our influence reaches. I can't begin to name all the people who have helped right now, but in addition to all of those who have contributed to Operation Comfort Warriors, many contributed directly to our survival on the road. Some folks helped Pat get the van ready, contributed food, contributed a variety of camping supplies, and Pat herself has contributed above and beyond what is called for for most ordinary support drivers.

In addition to the support part of the trip, people have contributed beds for the night, meals, tours of their home towns, media coverage (today, we had a road maintenance worker come over while we were discussing routes, and asked whether we were the group from Oregon, because he'd heard about us on the local Christian radio program), and personal efforts to make our journey more memorable. Let me give you an example. Three days ago, in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, our local contact was a bicyclist named Joe Siebold. Joe had ridden across the country twice ... both the northern and southern routes. He had fallen ill on one trip and ended up in hospital in Bozeman Montana. But he loves cycling, and cyclists. He tried to get us sleeping berths on a submarine by the maritime museum in Manitowoc. When that fell through, he arranged for us to stay in the converted grain silo at Jon and Annette Henry's house. The house was almost literally a playground for teenaged kids, and that was all thanks to Joe, and the Henrys. The next morning, Joe even went out of his way to ride over to see us off, and to get to the ferry terminal in time to wave us off! Joe is the sort of person who makes our trip possible, and memorable. Since our journey is 59 days long, we will probably meet at least 59 people with big hearts like Joe and his wife Carol, like Jon, like Carl Atkinson, the Legion Commander who came out to join us for pizza dinner, and who is catching us along the road tomorrow with a reporter to help further publicize our journey and our cause.

It doesn't happen alone. Four of us are spinning the pedals. One of us is driving the van. But there are literally hundreds of people making our journey possible. We get to enjoy rides like today, when we had several miles along the Grand Rapids road-to-rail trails in 90-degree, 90% humidity weather, but found a swimming pool at the end.

So, time to go grab a bit of hobo pie, put on all my daily salves and ointments, brush my teeth, and go to sleep so that I can put in another 70 mile day tomorrow.

Cell Phone Blog

Tonight, I'm on my cell phone, so a sort post. We rode from Ludington to White Cloud, Michigan, then got a ride to a Legion reception at a nearby hall at Croton. Out front. A large sign welcomed us, and inside we got an ovation, dinner, and an impromptu fundraiser that grew our donations by around $400, putting our Operation Comfort Warriors donations at or beyond $7000.

We also got a tour of the area, including the world's  3rd largest earthen dam at Hardy. Here is my pic from below the dam.

Sorry for the finger in the pic. Samsung has a cheap lens on its Galaxy S2  and it got broken so I have to use the selfish camera  for now. Should have thought of that a few weeks ago when the Buffalo sneaked up on me. I'll  leave you with this sunset, which is much more dramatic than  my camera shows.

By the Sea, by the Sea, by the Beautiful Sea

We had to say good by to Xerxes this morning ... 80 pounds of playful puppy. Before he would let us go, though, he took our hostess Annette's purse, with her cell phone and keys, and hid it in the bushes where he could chew on it later. Fortunately, with a bit of detective work, we found Xerxes' hiding place. Do you think he looks innocent in the picture below?

We had a leisurely morning. The boys slept in until 9:00, then we had a lazy breakfast, packed the car, then went into town to see a bit of Manitowoc. We are even learning how to speak Wisconsinese. The town mentioned above is pronounce "Man-toe-walk" with the emphasis on the first syllable. The big city to our south is called "Muh-walk-ee." And the one to the north is pronounced "Green Bay." That's all you need to know, and you'll fit right in. Seriously, though, Wisconsin was very pleasant, as have been all the States we've visited. But it was time to pack the van and make a special journey ... book store, bike shop, and ferry. Here's our car, fully loaded. Three bikes on back, one inside, all our gear either in the back or on the roof, and we would all be piled inside shortly thereafter.

We actually covered one mile of our journey by car ... the mile from the Henry farm to the shore of Lake Michigan ... and from there, we parked the car and climbed aboard the car ferry, the SS Badger.

The SS Badger then took us across the lake. Otherwise, we would have had to cycle south through Chicago, so we chose the more expedient route.

The watery highway, which they are actually considering naming Highway 10. So, for the purists among the blog readers, we stayed on the highway, I was by my bike (just a couple of decks above it), so I'm still crossing America by my bike. And a 4-hour shortcut seems insignificant when you consider that we have 18 riding days remaining, nine days on, a rest day, then another nine days!

Although you can barely make out Bryce contemplating the coast of western Michigan in the following picture, it is actually a very significant moment. We are crossing from the Central Time Zone into the Eastern Time Zone, completing the crossing of one more State, and, as Pat likes to point out, we have now been on the road for forty days and forty nights, with more than two-thirds of our 59 days on the road behind us. Wow. So far, so good! The time is going by faster than I imagined possible.

We've traded Xerxes for a shy little rescue dog, maybe a Shitzu-miniature poodle mix named Toby, and we've lost an hour of sleep. But we are still rolling along! Hasta ma~nana (sorry, too late at night to figure out how to make an "enya" in blogspot).

Bike(s) Across America

We finally arrived somewhere that has electricity, showers, WiFi, cell phone service, and a good form of alternative transportation (other than a hard bicycle seat, that is).

The road is not always straight, and sometimes is narrow. Sometimes it doesn't go where it's supposed to. We ran into a couple of detours, for example.

In spite of all, we are now in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, on the shores of Lake Michigan. We were met by Joe Siebold, another cross-country cyclist (now retired from super-long rides) and Warm Showers host, at a country pub sort of place, and he then guided us on his bicycle to where we are spending the night ... the super farm owned by Dr. John Henry (orthopedics and sports medicine) and his wife Annette, and their 8-month old Bernese puppy, Xerxes. I don't recommend letting 80 pounds of puppy sit on your lap or nibble on your toes. Anyway, the Henry household is heaven to the three boys. They have TV that lets you watch movies anywhere in the house, including in the old grain silo that they have converted into a three-story overflow living quarters, an x-box, paintball, nerf-ball, a teen-aged son who plays basketball out behind the barn with them, another son who took them out to see a sunken wreck off the coast of Lake Michigan, a jaunt down to try out the finest Wisconsin dairy products (e.g. different flavors of ice cream), a pond with a zip line across it and a kayak, a pool table ... when they wake up in time for a 9:30 am breakfast tomorrow morning, they will think they are in hog heaven!

In spite of our second flat tire in as many days (this time Ryan, who got what looks like a fishhook puncturing his tire just as we were about to arrive at our destination), the riding has been going well for everyone. As I marveled at how well the boys were doing in comparison to how well I'm doing on the road, I began to realize -- it's not all in the legs! Some of it has to do with what we are riding. By way of comparison, I took some pictures of the different bikes we are on. First, here's mine.

 

Mine is a Trek 720, made for touring. It has places to fit panniers, water bottles, luggage racks, etc., and his sturdy gearing to get up hills, even when that means a long slow slog. Also, the frame is designed to be a bit longer between the wheels, making for a nice comfortable riding position that is stable and easy to handle under a variety of road conditions. Also, not clearly visible, the bike has disk brakes rather than rim pincher brakes. Instant stopping is available, even in wet conditions.

 

On the other hand, here is Bryce's bike.

 



Another Trek, but this one has a shorter wheel base, and is a bit lighter than mine. Bryce has somewhat hybridized the bike, putting a road bike tread on the front tire, but a touring tread on the back wheel. The performance between our two bikes seems to be fairly similar, so the two of us end up riding together frequently. I've noticed that my bike rolls better going down a hill or on the flat, but Bryce is quicker going up hills...probably because he has different gearing than I do, and his legs are 53 years younger than mine.

Then there's Ryan's bike, a Giant.

It's a road bike all the way, but it wouldn't really matter. When Ryan's intent on cycling well, he's nearly uncatchable. His strong legs mean that he doesn't need to use the lowest chain ring, and he can pull away from everyone going up hills.

Everyone except Jonathan. The little Giant.

His bike is smaller than everyone else's, which means that his wheels are not interchangeable with the other bikes. The bike is a road bike, and it has a "racing" cassette on the back wheel. The cassette is the part of the wheel with all the gears on it, for those who are not familiar with the bike lingo. What that means is that the bike is lighter, and geared for speed rather than for long-term endurance. The bike would handle well, but for a larger person, it would not be as comfortable going over bumpy roads. Riding it can be jarring. Jonathan is light enough that he doesn't get the full vibration chattering through his arms, so he's usually very quick on the hills, when he wants to be.

The bikes really do make a difference. They dictate riding style, and in some instances, can make someone (i.e. me) look a bit slower than he (I) really is (am).

So, for tomorrow, I'll be changing my riding style, at least for one day. I'll make like Huck Finn or Mark Twain, and take the ferry across the pond instead of riding around the long way. After all, Lake Michigan is mighty big, and it's a long way over to Michigan from here.

The Farmer in the Dell, the Farmer in the Dell

Okay, so I repeated the title twice, just like in the song. That's because I had to combine yesterday's post and today's, since there was no WiFi yesterday.

Thursday, July 23

I expected broad expanses of dairy farms clear across Wisconsin. But after a 90-mile ride at 16 mph, I only saw about a dozen cows, a million ears of corn standing seven or eight feet high by now, and hundreds of rolling hills along the highway. Every hill climbed, leveled out for awhile, then climbed again. My map profile says that we only climbed 1500 feet, but the hills seemed to be much steeper than that. Maybe my legs are getting tired! Understandable, since we’ve traveled 2122 miles since June 18, so that’s in just 35 days. If I can get some good recovery days, or a good wind at my back, maybe I’ll actually arrive in NYC on August 15 in one piece, relatively speaking.

Our route today took us from Bloomer to Merrill, heading due east across Wisconsin. Then we head south-ish until we hit Lake Michigan in Manitowoc, not too far south of Green Bay, three days from now. For tonight, we are camping in the front yard of Warmshowers hosts Roger and Annie Wolf, several miles out in the country near Merrill. They also provided a delicious spaghetti dinner, and Pat got a grand tour of the garden. Then tomorrow morning, we will go into town for a leisurely breakfast, then we will have a short ride tomorrow, and hopefully enough of a WiFi that I can post this blog along with tomorrow’s.

Speaking of going into town … we spent last night near Chippewa Falls, several miles south of Bloomer. To get there, we had to add 11 miles to our schedule, and this morning we would have had to retrace that same extra 11 miles. So instead, we loaded everything onto the support vehicle … Jonathan’s bike on top, the other three on the rack, and everyone squeezed into the car for the 11 mile journey into Bloomer. Then we unloaded the bikes and set off from there, up and down the rolling hills for the entire 90 miles. We stopped for lunch in a town that happened to have a community swimming pool, so Ryan and Bryce cooled off in the pool for about half an hour before deciding that there were way too many screaming kids. So they changed back into their cycling gear, and we completed the last two hours of our ride. The boys were going to polish off their ride with a trip into Bloomer, but then discovered a Monopoly board, plus an X-box. So one guess what they are doing! X-box, instead of even setting up their tents.

What else can they do? No WiFi, and poor cell phone reception.

I’ll add to this blog tomorrow before posting it, since we have a short day, supposedly a good WiFi / electricity / showers situation, and did I mention, a short day? Funny, to most people, 38 miles would seem like a gargantuan task, but we’ve just done two days in a row of nearly 90 miles. It doesn’t seem like we’ve been riding at all unless we at least do a metric century (around 62 miles).

Friday, July 24

After a long ride yesterday, uphill, downhill, up again and down, and what seemed like mostly uphill, today we had it easy. Only three or four long uphill stretches, and we didn’t have to worry about the downhills because there weren’t many. We were saving them all for tomorrow, when we have a friendly downhill route profile. Today’s route was only 40 miles long, which somewhat made up for the long climbs and some head wind. We are getting near enough that we are getting weather effects from the Great Lakes, as well as beginning to run into more and more Greenbay Packers fans. 

Tonight, however, the Antigo Red Robins are hosting a baseball tournament. We are camped in a city park right next to the baseball field, and we were told that there is nowhere else available in town, so we anticipate a noisy evening, and what looks to be a rather inadequate campsite. There is no electricity (electricity was promised), there is no picnic table (a picnic table was expected as a bit of a routine amenity), and there is no nearby parking because the City of Anitgo does not allow cars to park near tents because of safety and liability issues, presumably. There are hot showers, however, and there is WiFi. So we’re half way to civilization! We can probably buy some quiet time by having dinner out, and we can grab breakfast on the road, sufficient to propel us on our way to 82 miles of downhill road, and maybe (hope hope) a tailwind.

Kept seeing road signs today that read “Dead End.” They didn’t need to remind me. My bicycle seat was giving me a very similar message every time I went over a bump.

Fifth Wheel

Before I get started on today's blog, a quick road update. We had one flat tire today (Jonathan), and we ended up for the night near Chippewa Falls, which is a bit further south than we'd planned on. That means that we had to ride an extra 11 miles, and tomorrow morning we have to decide whether to backtrack to the highway and ride from there, or just ride from Chippewa Falls, which makes for a century ride. I rode back to check on Jonathan and Ryan, then called Bryce to give him the status. The two boys did a good job putting in a new tube, and we were back on the road in no time. Otherwise, an uneventful 90-mile ride.

In yesterday's blog, I wrote about the four riders on our team. But we wouldn't even be on the road if it wasn't for the fifth member of the team, Pat Wollner, our support driver. So let me tell you a bit about the dynamic she adds to the team. First, though, I'll tell you how she came to be on the team in the first place.

Pat likes to bicycle. She hadn't ridden in awhile, and decided to look for some fellow riders for a leisurely weekend ride, so she looked on a local (Astoria, Washington) website for a group called the "Old Spokes." She saw someone looking for riders, so without further ado, she showed up at 9:00 on a Saturday morning expecting "Old Spokes." Instead, she found 16-year-old Bryce Nurding and some of his friends. She rode with them, and only later discovered that they had a grandiose scheme to ride across America. If you know Pat, you can just hear her saying, "That sounds like fun. I'd drive along and help support you." Well, pretty soon, the other support driver dropped out, the ride developed from grandiose scheme into grandiose reality, and Pat, foot firmly in mouth, felt committed. When she commits to something, she does it whole-heartedly, I've discovered.

She bought a half share in her brother's GMC Suburban, organized camping gear (she hadn't camped since she was a young girl, and she's my age), and started planning how to fit in all the coolers, food storage bins, personal duffel bags and camping gear for all the riders, including putting a luggage rack on the roof and a heavy-duty bicycle rack on the back. She spent 40 years as a surgical nurse, so fortunately had very good organizational skills. The first two weeks on the road, we played a game of trying to figure out something that she had forgotten to pack "just in case," and there was nothing we could dream up that would have been useful that she hadn't already packed. A masterful job!

So what does she do on the road? Only just about everything except ride a bicycle. She's up by 6:00 am to start the water boiling, get the breakfast ready for the boys to inhale as soon as they get up, and to pack up her own personal gear. She now has the boys (and me) trained to repack the truck pretty much the way she wants it, so that all the heavy stuff is loaded, the tents and other camping gear securely tied on the roof, and all but the light stuff ready to go before we hit the road, usually by 8:00 am, sometimes earlier. She then finishes packing the van, does a quick check of our campsite or wherever we've been staying, then she jumps in the Suburban, does the grocery shopping, buys gasoline, then drives until she passes us, usually around 25 miles down the road, and pulls over to provide water and gatorade refills, snacks, and any further instructions for the road, including where and when we think we will be for a lunch break. Then she cleans up after us, drives to the designated lunch break area, and lays out a spread for our picnic lunch. During her "spare time," she's on the phone firming up our future nights' stays, texting status reports to the parents of the boys, and squeezing in any personal errands she has to run. Is it any wonder that she developed a case of painful carpal tunnel in her wrist? The rest of us learned pretty quickly that we had to step in and do the heavy lifting so that Pat could do the organizing. As I said, we wouldn't be on the road without her. And once we're off the road, she still has to organize dinners, get the dishes done, get her own tent set up ... and all this on a volunteer basis. Glad that all I have to do is ride a bike for 3500 miles.

So anyway, this is an addendum to yesterday's profiles of the four riders. We wouldn't be on the road if it weren't for the fifth member of the team. Pat was told by a doctor that she should have surgery ASAP on her carpal tunnel. The boys were concerned when Jonathan's mom talked about possibly joining us to give Pat some relief, and then Ryan, always the generous-hearted gentleman, said, "This trip just wouldn't be as much fun without Pat along." It wouldn't even be a trip without Pat along, so a big round of applause to the fifth member of the team, who doesn't even have the chance to spend a day on the bicycle with the rest of us. And now you understand why Pat wants a vacation as soon as everyone is safely delivered to their families in New York City in the middle of August.

Now it's time for the rest of us to get some rest so we can tackle nearly 100 miles tomorrow. We know where Pat will be ... planning the support logistics for a 100 mile ride.

Smile, and say "Cheese!"

For any “cheesehead” fans in the audience, we officially entered the Dairy State at midday, right on schedule. Actually, we were slightly ahead of schedule thanks to a fortuitous meeting with the mayor of Milaca, Minnesota while we were setting up camp in the Milaca city park. We were searching for a water spigot, and it turned out that the standpipe on the outside of the toilets had been vandalized. The mayor happened by in his truck and asked what we needed, then offered to take Bryce up to his house to fill all our water containers, since the park did not have any drinking water, and it was one week before the town’s bluegrass festival. On the way back from the mayor’s, Bryce asked about the route we were planning on following for today’s ride. The mayor had a simpler route, one that saved us ten miles, gave us wide shoulders and good pavement, along with a bit of a tail wind, and got us to St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin an hour sooner than we had budgeted. So we were actually ahead of schedule!

Because we are in a Park campground, we have no WiFi, so I’ll combine two days of blogging into one post. Tomorrow is a rest day anyway, then we have five days to cross Wisconsin, arriving at the shore of Lake Michigan in Manitowoc after five days of riding, then we will catch a ferry across the lake. The middle of our schedule seems to be heavy on days in campgrounds, then later on we will have a bit more time staying with warmshowers hosts.

Since we don’t have to go anywhere today, it’s a good day to talk about “how” we go, rather than “where” we go and stay. Every evening, Pat and Bryce and I look at the next day’s scheduled ride, including how many miles, what sort of terrain to expect, weather forecasts, etc., then set a target time to be on the road – usually by 8:00 am – then work our schedule backwards from there. I just naturally wake up at around 5:00, and Pat is usually up by 5:30. We stir about, increasing the volume until the boys wake up around 6:30, aiming for a 7:15 breakfast. By 7:30, most of the personal gear is packed up and in the car (everything has a designated place so it fits together more or less like a jigsaw, without a lot of spare space), and last of all, the heaviest of the kitchen stuff goes in. That means the coolers and the food boxes and water containers, so that Pat can clean up the smaller stuff after we are on the road. Us riders apply our chamois butter (lubricant to prevent saddle pressure sores) and sunscreen, to our bicycle ABCs (Air in the tires, Brakes working well, Chain and Crank set working), blinking strobe lights and tail lights on (this is all in theory. Some days we are more successful at getting everyone ready to roll, and other days we look like a bedraggled band of irregulars wondering why we are heading down the road). But within minutes of 8:00, or whatever hour we have appointed ourselves, we are on the road. It amazes me every day that we actually get rolling at the time we have assigned ourselves.

Once on the road, the theory is that we ride as a team. That means an easy warm-up period, then single file either on the shoulder, or as near to it as we can safely ride, and of course keeping everyone in sight. We all have mirrors, so we can see front and back. If someone near the back of the pack sees a car or a truck coming from behind, especially on the lightly traveled roads we try to follow, the yell “Car Back” so that everyone can be extra cautious while the traffic goes by. That part works pretty well. It is the “single file” and “keeping everyone in sight” that sometimes does not work so well.

Since there are four of us, and since I’m the adult on the road and I am responsible for keeping everyone safe, I end up watching out for whoever is the weakest rider, and that varies from day to day. One day this week, Bryce and Ryan decided to test each other, and they took off, racing to get to our next designated break stop. Jonathan started to follow, and I plugged along at the back. Soon, I decided that I should maybe catch up with Jonathan a bit, so I used a bigger gear, and soon caught him, then once I had gotten in front of him, I slowed down a bit. I slowed down, and down and down, and still Jonathan was falling further behind me. So I rode at a slow touring pace, stopping occasionally to make sure that Jonathan was still in touch. It was a day that I would have enjoyed riding fast, and there was a bit of a tail wind, but my responsibility was to make sure the last person got to the end of the ride as safely as the first person. When we got to where Pat had stopped, the two fast riders complained that they’d been waiting for half an hour for us to catch up. Well, we are a team, and the team doesn’t arrive until the last person has arrived. In this particular illustration, Jonathan was just bored and didn’t feel like riding fast. After a short break, he was away so fast I couldn’t begin to keep up with him.

On other days, Ryan and Jonathan will charge ahead, and Bryce and I will ride together, or occasionally, all three of the boys will charge ahead, and I’ll end up losing sight of them. It’s for times like that, that I wear a “Road ID” bracelet. If someone finds me collapsed beside the road, they will know who I am, where I’m from, my emergency contact info, my insurance carriers, and the group I’m affiliated with, Bike Trip America. Nothing works perfectly. Some days we ride as a team (yesterday was a good case in point, where we rode for most of the day in a close group at a pace that was good for everyone), and other days, I just have to surrender to the road, and recognize that there are three 16-year-old boys having a good time and/or pushing each other’s limits, and I’m just the old guy that they have to drag along. Either way, it’s fine as long as we are all safe, happy, and riding relatively strongly.

Overall, Pat came up with a good way to summarize the four of us as individuals. Ryan is super strong, a real athlete who sometimes loses focus and becomes a bit impetuous, but has a big heart. He's the first one to show appreciation, and has sharp insights sometimes. He saw the St. Croix river, and said that if he had named the river, he would have called it the Root Beer River. A tour guide later said that the water in the river looks like root beer, because of the tamarack tree roots lining the river. Good insight, there, Ryan. 

Jonathan is a determined kid, very bright, and surprisingly strong and energetic. He usually rides right on Ryan’s rear wheel, even when Ryan decides to zoom past us and leave us in the dust going up a big hill. Jonathan is his shadow. And during a break one day, Jonathan was contemplating the dilemma of representing worm holes as a piece of folded paper, because how could you possibly use a two-dimensional metaphor to conceptualize a multidimensional multiverse?

Bryce, who organized the trip itinerary down to the smallest detail, is somewhat torn between being the team leader and being one of the boys. He takes ownership in the success of the overall journey, but sometimes gets involved in the careless horseplay that occurs at the end of the day. He recognizes the dilemma, though, and characterizes it as wishing he were an adult already. He likes the “being responsible” part, but knows that he has to finish going through the “being a teenager” before he can be a fully-fledged adult. When he rides, Bryce always bobs his head and shoulders up and down, as if silently beating out a cadence in his head. He also studies the maps on his Garmin GPS to make minor and sometimes major route adjustments. I think all of us riders have questioned his navigation at times, but he always manages to bring us to our overnight location without too much hassle (ignoring Umatilla, where it's true, Garmin was at fault for failing to tell us that there were two streets on opposite sides of town with the same name). 

And me … I plug away, always trying to keep up with the others. This is Pat’s description, as seen from the support car. She always seems to drive past while we’re going up a hill, and that’s when I just put it in low gear and maintain an easy cadence. I know my legs won’t recover from too much lactic acid, and by this point in the trip, I’ve gone from being the most experienced rider to being the one with the oldest (and weakest) pair of legs. Nothing I can do about that, aside from hinting that we should ride more closely as a team. That way, I can grab hold of someone’s seat post and have them pull me up the steep hills!

I’m thoroughly enjoying the shifting dynamics of the ride, and enjoying watching the evolving personalities of the three boys. It makes a great trip even greater.

Now, to enjoy the remainder of my day off. We will take a boat excursion along the St. Croix Falls river, then explore the town a bit. Tomorrow, it will be another early morning start, another campground to explore, more dairy farms perhaps, and perhaps a more cohesive team dynamic. At the very least, we will all arrive at our next camp site in better shape than we are today each of us growing as individuals in our own ways, as well as growing stronger as a team. 

By the way, this afternoon, we switched from our bikes. The boys decided to paddle down the St. Croix river. Maybe we'll pick them up in New Orleans? Meanwhile, the paddle wheel river tour was enough for Pat and me.

Where West Meets East

I promised another milestone today, and without further adieu, here it is!

One guess. Long river, flows to the Atlantic Ocean via the Gulf of Mexico. That's  right, give yourself a pat on the back. We crossed the Mississippi River in the middle of Minnesota! Our second great continental divide.

The ride today was long...just over 90 miles with lots of navigation required, but now we are safely in Milana (presumably from Mille Lacs county...a thousand lakes, for those who don't  speak French). Most of the day was spent in the sort of countryside where "the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all the cildren are above average" and where one can find the Sons of Knut and the Norwegian bachelor farmers. We didn't  have any powder milk biscuits, but at least ketchup was available. And if you are now totally lost, just tune into your local public radio station and listen for "The Prairie Home Companion." Best thing on the airwaves today!

Tomorrow night, we hope  to again have wifi. Tonight's  blog was brought to you by the 4G cellphone  network! See you when we get to Wisconsin.

Bees in My Bonnet

So I suffered my first injury on our bike ride. We were zooming long a beautiful trail, when all of a sudden, a bee flew into my bike helmet. Before I could get him out, zappo, right on top of the noggin. He got me, but fortunately, I always wear a hat under my helmet to keep the sun from turning me into the burning man. That meant that the bee's stinger only went part way in...enough for a good burn, but not enough to do much damage.

We first hit the road in Pelican Rapids, leaving town in a fog bank. We rode nearly 20 miles without being able to see more than a half mile in front of us. Here is some of the fog ... with me in my aforementioned bonnet before the sting.

All in all, the first 30 miles were physically demanding. Lots of rolling hills, and the three boys roll up the hill a lot faster than I can roll down the other side, so I either have to ride extra hard or lag well behind. Usually, it’s the latter. After 30 miles, we hit the start of the Central Lakes Trail.

Central Lakes Trail is part of the “Rails to Trails” movement, and it was beautifully done. We rode for 55 miles without seeing a single car, with the exception of Pat finding side roads that allowed her to intercept us for snack breaks. The bike trail was a uniform 14 feet wide, well paved, and wended its way past dozens of lakes. We passed a number of other cyclists, mostly recreational day trippers, and with rare exception they wore NO HELMETS. I know the trail is safe relative to the highways, but accidents can happen anywhere! I think Minnesota needs the Hawaii Bicycling League folks to come give them a good safety lesson. And I think Hawaii needs to invite Minnesota to come help build some more dedicated bicycle pathways. Here’s a typical view of the trail we spent the day on!

It could have been gravel for all I knew. It could have been a dreadful experience, but as it turned out, it was every bit as good as I’d hoped it would be!

Our campground tonight is a grassy trailer park where we are the only tent campers. Two Mile Campground is listed as a resort because it’s on a lake. In fact, if it weren’t for the wind and the flies, we could be on the set of “On Golden Pond.” Nobody tried swimming or fishing, and I doubt whether any of the sixteen year olds would even know what I’m talking about, but for the more mature readers, the Golden Pond reference should give you a good picture of the area around Osakis.

And speaking of the area around Osakis, I promised an exciting announcement today. Osakis is 1788.3 miles from where we started, and it is 1733 from where we will end. Yep. We’ve officially passed the half-way mark in total mileage. We passed the half-way point time-wise yesterday, so either way you look at it, we are on the back half of our Bike Trip America journey from here on out! And tomorrow, we mark another significant milestone. You’ll have to either get out your maps and geography texts, or do some educated guessing. Or you can tune in tomorrow, because I’ll mention it then.

Water Water Everywhere

Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes. So far, we've probably seen a dozen, and we've only traveled just over 50 miles. As soon as we got to lake country, the hills became hillier, the lakes were everywhere, and the scenery felt more like what you might find at a resort.

Here's Pat's first picture of lake country. Lots of trees, lots of boat docks.

We came through the town of Cormorant Lake, and the boys immediately pulled into a grocery store to buy goodies, even though Pat was sitting in her car not more than another 50 yards down the road. She doesn't carry a stock of ice cream sandwiches, I guess.

Anyway, it was an easy ride ... only 53 miles, from Moorhead to Pelican Rapids. Pelican Rapids is on the Pelican River, and is celebrated for its 25-foot statue of a pelican, Pelican Pete.

We are staying above the Riverview florist and gift shop, courtesy of the owners, who have given us the run of their apartment while they go to a country cabin for the weekend! As you can guess by the name "Riverview," the back deck and window of the apartment look out on Pelican Pete and the falls. The town is an artsy little town with a good cafe, good galleries, and so forth ... very pleasant place to spend the night ... reminds me a little of a smaller version of Aspen in the '60s, or of Basalt in the '80s ... places in Colorado where I spent a good deal of time. One other interesting thing about Pelican Rapids ... a paleo-indian woman's skeleton was found near here, and is thought to be the oldest human skeletal remains discovered in America.

One thing I missed out on yesterday, because my mind was just too numb to write a blog post ... the three boys went on a tour of the regional scouting headquarters, and the TV cameras were there to follow along. Check it out. Ryan does an excellent job during his brief interview! Bryce also did an interview on another TV station, but we haven't been able to find a link to it on the station's Website, so Ryan is our TV celebrity of the moment.

Tomorrow, we navigate the Minnesota Central Lakes Trail, 55 miles of paved dedicated bike trail! What a treat that will be! Been looking forward to this segment of our journey for months, and I finally get to see it in person! Hope the pavement is smooth, the wind is at our backs, and hope that the other 30 or so miles on the roadways are as good as the trail will be (hopefully).

Day Off

We left Astoria four weeks ago, and have another  four weeks before we reach NYC. Since today is a day off, I'll  take a day off from blogging.

Oh the Places We Sleep

Sometimes, a bike ride is just a bike ride, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein (and Sigmund Freud). Today, we covered an uneventful 57 miles, crossed the bridge over the Red River into Moorhead, Minnesota, and found the home of our Warmshowers hostess Terri Verkuilen. Our quiet day couldn't have lasted more than ten minutes, though, when the heavens opened up. Thunder and lightning, and flooded streets ... the bike gods had gotten us to shelter just in time!

Inside, we found hospitality, bedrooms, real beds, hot showers, a dog, and even a couch where the boys could curl up in front of a good SciFi movie.

We have been camping some nights, and on other nights, receiving various types of hospitality from local American Legion chapters.

For example, in Napoleon, we stayed with the Legion Commander, and the next morning had a good breakfast before rolling out of town.

The next night, we stayed at the high school in Enderlin, North Dakota. That meant sleeping on the floor ... the boys in the multi-media room, me in the home economics room, and Pat in a classroom. But the 100 mile ride that day didn't deter the boys from working out in the school's weight room.

On another night, the American Legion very kindly put us up in a hotel that included a water park! We could not get to sleep until after the park closed at 10 pm, but nobody complained.

Whether we are holed up in a high school ...

... or in a tent ...

We are grateful for all of the memories.

Longest Ride, Biggest Thrill (Whoopee)

This morning, we set off early from Napoleon, North Dakota. Not too early to get a delicious breakfast prepared by our hostess, Marge Horner, but early enough to beat some of the morning heat. Good thing, because we had a looooong ride ahead of us.

The first half of the ride (that is, the first 56 miles of the ride) were through some gorgeous countryside. Although the light is not very amenable to taking photos with the camera pointed eastward at 8:00 in the morning, perhaps the following hilltop photo will give you an idea of the countryside we were heading into.

Yesterday, Pat stopped the car at an intersection for one of our water breaks, and she asked whether anyone could figure out why she stopped there. Jonathan was the only one who guessed right ... it was the first time the road had turned a corner in 15 miles. But if she had just waited, today's ride had a stretch of nearly 75 miles where we could have used laser steering, because there was no cornering, no steering involved. Just slight up and down hills, and by the time we arrived in Enderlin, 113 miles after we started, it was 4:00 in the afternoon, even though we had averaged 16 mph for the entire ride.

What did we see on the way? Here's a picture that Pat took from the support vehicle and sent to a geologist friend, who assures us that this is a "pothole" lake, formed during the ice age when an iceberg had settled in and slowly melted as the receding waters deposited soil around it.

It has the look of a water color painting.

But there is one thing missing from the picture, something that I got to see close up as I zoomed by on my bicycle. At the time, I was going about 30 mph at the bottom of a big hill, and was watching a pair of cormorants who were looking for fish in the pond. As I watched, there emerged from the reeds beside me six whooping cranes! They flew from the reeds, spread their wings, and skimmed the water to the safety of the middle of the pond, where they splashed down. Of course at the speed I was going, I didn't have access to my camera, but the following picture from Wikimedia shows exactly what they looked like.

The snowy white feathers, the black wing tips, and the yellowish beak were very distinctive and decidedly different from sandhill cranes, which I've seen before. Not quite as near to me as the bison the other morning, but I let out a very loud "Wowee" as I went by, enjoying the rare sighting. I thought I had seen a small group of cranes across another pond a few miles earlier, but nothing like seeing six of them take flight, glide, and land in the water. The whooping crane was near extinction just a few years ago, so it was distinct thrill and privilege to see them taking flight in the wild like this.

So I will end tonight's blog with wishes for a sweet dreams, dreams populated by a thousand cranes of peace. Meanwhile, I'll be trying to get a good night's sleep to recover from what should be the longest ride of our trip, according to the schedule.

La Marseillaise

Since it's already tomorrow in Europe, that makes it Bastille Day in France. If it's Bastille Day, then we must be in Napoleon, ND. Yep. Total coincidence, but so be it.

Allons enfants de la patrie,

Le jour de gloire est arrivé!

....

Marchons! Marchons!....

etc.

Although the French national anthem has a more militant meaning, it does well for our team of riders when loosely translated. "Go on, children of the country (the three 16-year-old boys from Astoria I'm riding with), the day of glory has come....roll on! Roll on!" That also includes Pat, who rolls on with the support van. We are dashing across the State of North Dakota at a fast clip. Today, we rode 70 miles from Bismark to Napoleon, and tomorrow, we will ride from Napoleon to Enderlin, 111 miles to the east. The name "Napoleon" comes from the town founder, Napoleon Goodsill, not from Msr. Bonaparte, but it makes a useful metaphor for tomorrow's Bastille Day celebration.

Today's ride went by at 17.5 mph, with a nice tailwind, and supposedly, we should have the same tailwind tomorrow, along with a course profile that includes just one up hill, and a long and gradual downhill.

In Napoleon, we are staying with the Legion Commander Mike Horner and his wife Marge. They arranged for a fundraising potluck at the Legion Hall, and there were close to 50 people there. Bryce and Pat and I all gave short speeches, and our donation bowl collected over $600 for Operation Comfort Warrior! Not bad for a small town ... that makes it nearly $1 from each of the town's residents!

Bryce said that his maternal grandfather came from nearby Napoleon. He started asking around, and there are something like 900 Schlects in the region. The family geneologist lives near Enderlin, so perhaps he'll be able to track down a long-lost relative or two after we finish tomorrow's long ride! At the potluck dinner tonight, he ended up deep in conversation with a local Schlect who is undoubtedly a distant relative of some sort. Anybody who doesn't believe in an intelligence behind all these coincidences just isn't looking very far.

Early to bed, early to rise ....

Lightning Strikes

The Bike Trip America team traveled for over 1400 miles before we saw our first lightning, our first thunderheads, and ... our first accident! By the time I took the screenshot above, the temperature was a lot closer to the daily high of 93!

But first, I don't want to keep anybody in suspense for too long. What writer would want to do something like that? We were zooming along in tight formation, just rolling towards the bridge across the Missouri River separating Mandan from Bismarck when our lead rider caught a stone under his tire, his large foot hit a spoke, the front break seized up, and we had a pile of boys on the ground. Thank God no cars were following us too closely. In front, Ryan went down pretty hard, and Jonathan was right behind him and couldn't avoid hitting Ryan's bike. I was third in line, and managed to dance between everyone and pull over to the side safely, and Bryce was able to stop before he got to the pile-up. Ryan had some pretty good road rash, but fortunately, he had worn his long neon green leggings this morning, which minimized the surface damage. He also (hopefully only very slightly) injured his right wrist, which is the one that he had surgery on last winter. Jonathan also had on long leggings, which staved off the road rash. The only damage there, a slight hole in one legging. It definitely wasn't the sarsaparilla that caused the accident!

Here's a before and after pic of us from this morning and from this afternoon. Both pictures show how well the American Legion is taking care of us. In New Salem, they provided us whatever we wanted for our lunch (before lightning struck) and in Bismarck, the Legion provided us wonderful lodging (the Ramkota Hotel), plus a couple of nice donations to Operation Comfort Warriors. Do consider donating if you haven't already. We are nearing the halfway point of our goal of raising $10,000 for the charity by the time we finish our trip in NYC. In the "after" picture,

And here's Ryan, enjoying a sarsaparilla at dinner while we were in Medora!

Happy to say, it looks like Ryan will be able to ride with us tomorrow morning, thanks to the folks at the Broken Spoke bike shop in Bismarck. They worked on his front wheel, fixed his front brake, and did a quick tune-up to make sure he was good to go. Hopefully his scrapes and bruises are minor annoyances, because he's a great addition to the BikeTripAmerica team.

Now it's quiz time. In the photo below, Don is happy because:

a)  He joined the North Dakota National Guard (look closely at the hat, part of a goodie bag from the Legion in Bismarck)
b)  He found the first Starbucks in nearly a thousand miles
c)  Ryan will be able to ride with the team tomorrow

If you answered "b" or "c," you are a winner. The prize: free access to all of the earlier blog posts on donsbike.blogspot.com.

Early tomorrow, we will have to leave behind the creature comforts of the Ramkota Hotel, and will set off from Bismarck to Napolean. I keep looking at the map ... there has to be a Wellington around here, somewhere! Regardless, we are scheduled to cover close to 250 miles over the course of the next three days. Think tailwind, and keep those thunderheads far far away! We do not want lightning to strike twice!

Home, Home on the Range

Hate to start a blog post with something I’ve already written about, but you’ll understand. We had a buffalo in our campsite. Again. This time, he sneaked up on me and snorted from about five feet away … there was a picnic table between him and me, fortunately. This time, my camera was not available, and everyone else was still asleep. Can you imagine a half-ton of bison sneaking up on you, then acting surprised and snorting when he sees you? He stared at me for about half a second, then went storming off through three other campsites looking like he wanted to knock something over. Fortunately, everyone was still in their tents, and the buffalo finally decided it was time to go down to the Little Missouri River for a drink.

On the road, we also saw both deer and antelope playing, so I guess that means that we're living the song!

Since yesterday was our day off, we spent the afternoon exploring town. The usual tourist trinkets for the most part, but Pat found a gem … the Harold Schafer Resource Center, e.g. museum. He’s the guy ,who started Gold Bond label, with Mister Bubble, Glass Wax, etc. to his name. He bought up the town of Medora when it was in decline, and redid the entire downtown as a sort of a tribute to life in the old west. Which leads me to the explanation for the next picture. We looked for a good spot for dinner, somewhere where everyone could have whatever they liked. They had elk and buffalo burgers, pizza, surf and turf, fish and chips, etc. Along with their dinners, Ryan and Jonathan wanted root beer. Well, I mentioned that this town was a bit of a tribute to the old west. That meant that they had old fashioned Sioux City Sarsaparilla instead of root beer. You can see from the knowing twinkle in his eye that Jonathan thoroughly enjoyed the treat! Sitting in an old western-style saloon dining room, drinking sarsaparilla.

We went home early to get a good night’s sleep, because we were expecting a hard ride today … 5 miles of hills exiting the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, then another 86 miles to the tiny town of Glen Ulin. But we were fortunate. We had our first good tailwind of the journey, and the roads were practically empty. The North Dakota oil boom is in hiatus because of the international price per barrel, so North Dakota is getting a break from the boom, and we are catching a break in the truck traffic! We stopped in Dickenson for a mid-morning break, visiting the family of Ryan’s mom’s boyfriend. That meant a bit of time socializing, and savoring a delicious glass of ice water … very welcome in the 90 degree heat.

We then went to town of Richardton for lunch. There is a monastery there, but only Pat had a chance to see what she reported as being a very impressive abbey, especially for out in the middle of North Dakota. Us riders pulled into the city park for lunch, and had two surprises. First, we found “Don’s.” That was all. Just the name on the storefront, nothing inside. Hope nobody takes that too symbolically!

Then we encounter another bicycle tourist in the park. I explained to him briefly about the charitable purpose of our bike ride (raising funds for Operation Comfort Warrior, as explained on our Website and Facebook page), but he stopped me mid-sentence. Coincidence of coincidences, I had spoken to him at length last autumn when I first started looking for other riders to hook up with. I circled three ads in Adventure Cycling magazine, and had to eliminate one rider because he was in Australia and his planned trip had already fallen through. The second person I had contacted was Ron Occhiuto, a high school English teacher from Virginia. We had a long conversation about riding across America, but eventually I had chosen to go with my third option, Bike Trip America. And here, in the middle of a small park in a small town in North Dakota, I was face-to-face with Ron! I love coincidences, and it heartened me to know that he had been able to put together his own personal tour of America, even though I hadn’t been able to travel with him. Now, his tent is set up just opposite mine at a campsite in Glen Ullin, North Dakota. Small world. 

 We also saw the two Israeli cyclists on our way into Glen Ulin. Not sure what happened to them, but we thought they would be well on their way south by now. I was able to say hello as we cycled past them, but not enough time for a conversation. We also passed about 30 cyclists riding for Multiple Sclerosis ... they were headed in the opposite direction, so all we could do is wave to them. They were scattered over about 15 miles of road, so they are riding much more independently during the day than we are able to do, since we are responsible for three sixteen-year-old boys. C'est la vie.

Have Some Medora, M'Dear

What happens when you mix together three teenaged boys who decide they would rather start later in the morning, a tight schedule that has a tough 70 mile day scheduled, and two adult chaperones who tend to wake up anywhere from 4:30 am (first light) to about 6:00 am? The adults get extra votes due to seniority, and the ride starts at 8:00 am in spite of the evening rock climbing activities, and in spite of their failing to adequately douse the fire pit before going to bed, which ended up with Pat falling asleep in a chair beside the fire pit at around 3:30 am to make sure we didn’t light Montana afire before we left. 

The morning ride had a couple of changes from our routine. First, we rode for about 20 miles total on the freeway! No frontage roads existed, the freeway traffic was light, and the shoulders were wide. If it weren’t for the strong headwinds, it would have been a quick and easy day’s ride. The second change was that I complained that the boys were sometimes riding a bit faster than necessary, making me burn out my legs trying to keep up with them. As a result, they decided to let me lead all day. It would have been a nice gesture, if not for the aforementioned winds. It was like trying to ride towards Hawaii Kai along the Kalanianaole Highway when the trade winds are kicking up to about 20 miles an hour, and nobody else volunteering to buffer the wind for a few minutes.

Regardless of the wind and the freeway, it was a gorgeous ride. We crossed the border into North Dakota, and had lunch in the town of Beach. We then followed an obscure road out of Beach that paralleled the freeway. The following picture was taken by our support driver, Pat Wollner, who stopped at the top of a "hill" to look back and see if we were coming. 

With a magnifying glass, you might be able to spot us a couple of miles back, somewhere closer to the Montana border!

What started out as a pretty boring road soon turned into a ride through the paradise of the largest of America's National Grasslands (the prairie version of a National Forest), ending at the small town of Medora, at the entrance to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We are camping in TR National Park for the next two nights. (Since I won’t get this blog posted until tomorrow sometime, we will be camping in the park for just one more night). Our way back to camp was blocked (momentarily) by a rather large bison … a lot bigger than the cow elk that charged in my direction in Gearhart, Oregon, a few weeks back.

So it’s a day off from riding. Pat’s going to take a day off from support responsibilities. 

And the boys will doubtless find some way to exhaust themselves prior to getting back onto the road on Saturday morning with a 90 mile ride. The grasslands and the bison may be beautiful, but we’ve already had plenty of endless fields of grain and purple mountains’ majesty. For the next few days after our day off, we will ride hard until we get to new countryside. Or maybe North Dakota will surprise us!

Friday, July 10 – Medora, North Dakota

The Theodore Roosevelt National Park is definitely the place where “the buffalo roam.” Got up at around 6:00 am this morning, and a few minutes later, Pat got up and said, “Look! A buffalo!” We had two campsites, and there was a huge buffalo just wandering past the boys’ campsite. By the time I got my cell phone fired up, he was a couple of hundred feet away, chomping grass on his way to the Little Missouri River. 

After breakfast, we did a drive around the 36 mile loop road in the park. Lots of grassy valleys and interesting “badland” rock formations, but nary another buffalo in sight. 

TR started the National Park Service during his time as President, and it was the grasslands and badlands around Medora that inspired him to do so. Everywhere you look in town, there are movies, plays, statues of TR. There is also a North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, so maybe I’ll go over there later to see if there’s anything of interest.

All summer long, every evening, there is a presentation of “Medora, the Musical.” We are giving into temptation, and will be in attendance at this evening’s performance. Whoopee ti yi yay, or however you spell it. I’ve heard second hand that it’s actually pretty good, so looking forward to an evening of live entertainment. Hopefully the musical is not too long, since we have to be on the road early tomorrow, with a 90-mile day ahead of us.