Miles - 100.12
Avg. Speed - 13.9
Max. Speed - 29.0
Time - 7:03:48

Today was another really fun day through the back roads of rural Ohio.  Today, it was mine and Sean’s day to wear “the jerseys.”  They were Brack and Jean Anne’s jerseys from the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.  All of the riders have been taking turns wearing the jerseys for a day as a way for Brack and Jean Anne to be with us.  About 25 miles into the route today, we found our daily morning coffee stop in a little town called Bowling Green.  It was at a little combination coffee shop / used book store.  For a couple of days, we’ve been talking about putting on some of those lick and stick tattoos and today we tried it, however, due to incomplete instructions from Ane and Liz, me and Sean didn’t take the plastic backing off of the tattoo, so it ended up sticking to the plastic and not to us…pretty funny.  This morning, I ended up bringing a package of ritz crackers in my back pocket on a whim and Mary happened to bring some cheese so that resulted in a very nice cheese and cracker stop along the route.  It was really quite fun.  For a good part of the ride today, we were all singing out pretty much any song that we could remember a good part of the words too.  I suppose some of the top moments were belting out that song from Titanic through the middle of town and randomly singing “I like big butts and I can not lie.”  Todays official mileage was 89 but we decided to just go ahead and make it a century just for fun, so we rode around for a little bit around Sandusky.  Tonight we are staying at a campground in Sandusky and it felt really good to go in the pool for a little after dinner.  Tomorrow we’re going to try to head out a little early to make it to an Indians game in Cleveland.

Miles - 69.71
Avg. Speed - 14.1
Max Speed - 35.6
Time - 4:54:11

Today I woke up feeling good, knowing that it was only going to be 70 miles.  I never thought I would be saying that but it was definitely a short ride.  I started out the morning on the right foot with a good breakfast of 3 ears of corn that were left over from last night.  Today was all farmland again, which is definitely nice.  We have been taking back roads a lot more now as opposed to the highways which are a little more busy.  Its nice to have the roads all to ourselves without having to worry about traffic or staying on the right side of the road or anything.  The only thing is that when youre on a back road in the middle of farm country there is no state sign.  But thankfully someone from the group fashioned one from chalk.  It was there in the road,  "Welcome to Ohio"  state #10.  And we could definitely tell where the line was because all of a sudden, the roads got better.  After riding most of the day with Sean, Liz, and Ane; David and Andy showed up and I spent the rest of the day going ahead with them.  We then got into Napoleon, a pretty good sized town and tonight we are staying at the fairgrounds.  On the road today, we met up with this man who owned a restaraunt in town and he ended up providing soft serve ice cream for free to all of the riders.  He even had it delivered to the fairgrounds which was really nice too.  Ok its getting dark so its time to think about going to sleep then.

Miles - 115.36
Avg. Speed - 14.3
Max. Speed - 26.4
Time - 8:01:26

Today was a pretty long, but pretty excellent day.  We left the university after our normal routine of making our lunches for the day and eating breakfast at the truck.  However, we made sure not to eat too much because we knew that Larry, a former Big rider would have a water stop for us about 20 miles in with all kinds of fruit, homemade pasteries and things.  And that stop was really nice.  We had lots of fun today.  Supposedly the route was the flattest in the country, so thats what we were expecting, but over each hill that we went over, it seemed very mountainous.  So we were riding and everything and then all of a sudden this creature starts running after us on the side of the road.  It ended up being an alpaca which looked like a "giraffe poodle."  A little later down the road, we went under this really cool railroad bridge and then on the other side was a really nice house with lots of flowers and shade where we decided to stop and take our shoes off and rest in the shade for a little while.  So there we were sitting and then all of a sudden a mennonite horse carriage went by and following right behind was one of the riders, Michael Yee.  So we yelled out to him if he wanted to join us and he shouts "no i'm drafting."  It doesn't sound so funny when I write it but I guess you just had to be there.  The rest of the day was spent riding with Ane through beautiful farmland to a lake in Kandallville where we are camping.  Tonight we had dinner in camp and Pollie bought a whole lot of sweet corn and really good sandwich stuff and other local produce and it all tasted so good.  Even though today was one of the longest days, it definitely did not seem like it because I was just having so much fun all day long.

This was a much needed rest day after riding 13 of the last 14 days, 1,000 miles from Rapid City, SD with one rest day in Minnesota.  In the past 7 days, we've ridden 600 miles.  That is just crazy.  So today I ended up sleeping, eating, sleeping some more, and not sitting on the bike seat.  Its just starting to settle in that our little world of getting up every morning and biking all day is going to have to eventually end and that we will have to get back to the reality of work and school and real life.  It really is amazing that for 48 days, the only thing that you have to do is to get from point A to point B each day.  We were talking last night with a rider who has done this ride in the past and he was saying that the hardest part of the ride is not the 100+ mile days in the 100+ degree heat with what seems like 100+ mile per hour head winds, its the getting back to reality at the end, when its over.  He was also saying how impossible it is to explain this ride to someone on the outside.  There is no way to explain the motivation, the experience, and everything about it without going through it yourself.  And the people here are such a big part of the experience as well.  After spending every waking and sleeping hour with 45 wonderful people, you get to know them really well, and when this is over, I'll have over 45 really good friends from all over the country and a couple of other countries.  I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but one of the riders, Justine, has done this ride twice before, and she has said that she doesn't remember the route or a lot of the sights along the way, she remembers all of the people who she rode with. And it is such a great and positive experience that I hope that many many people get to have.  Well thats my deep thoughts for the day.  Now I'm hungry.

Miles - 85.50

Avg. Speed - 13.4

Max Speed - 24.7

Time - 6:21:08

Last night was a fun night full of adjacent campers deciding to have big parties with big fires, drinking, and loud music.  I was so tired that I just fell asleep, but some people didn't fall asleep that easily.  So it was pretty hilarious when everyone in our camp woke up at 5:00 and started yelling, "its time to get up," "breakfast time," "great day for a ride," and other things.  I'm sure they didn't even wake up in their RVs with the air conditioning blasting but it was still really funny.  The rest of the day was pretty rural.  The roads were really nice in Illinois, but as soon as we got into Indiana, they got crackey and really bumpy.  There wasn't even a state sign so we ended up using Ane's arm instead.  Last night, there was an exorbant amount of pizza for dinner, so at one of the water stops, Kathy had them out for us to eat, but since we were one of the last ones to go through, and there were still a lot of pizzas left, we decided to take the pack off of Ane's bike and duct tape two pizza boxes to the back so that we could have some on the road.  It was pretty funny, but it definitely helped with hunger during the day, reaching over and grabbing a slice whenever I had a craving.  A little while later in the ride for the day, yet another one of the families of a rider, David Lambert, provided a water stop with drinks, cookies, and doughnuts, though no one there was in the mood for pizza for some reason.  After that, it was a really fun and easy ride into Valparaiso and Valparaiso University where we are staying.  Tonight we ended up learning the card game "Eukere" (I have no idea if thats spelled right, but it sounds like "you ker.")  Evidently its a very regional game where the only people who know it are from Michigan or have spent time in Michigan, but I played till pretty late (and by pretty late I mean like 11:00) with Sean, Andy, and Dave the Mechanic. 

Miles - 106.92

Avg. Speed - 13.9

Max Speed - 30.2

Time - 7:39:21

Today was more riding through the back roads of Illinois through the rain in the morning, then the sun in the afternoon.  I felt just at home in the Eastern Shore of Maryland riding through the flat corn and bean fields all day.  Today, when leaving camp, there was one of those exit gates that normally lift up when you come up to it.  Some other riders went before me and it lifted up normally, but then when I got up to it, I was sitting tall, expecting it to also lift up for me, but then it didn't and I had to quickly duck down to just fit under it.  I think at that point, the highest point was my seat and it just rubbed the bottom of the gate.  In the morning, we were riding with a pretty big group of about 15 riders or so and we came across a sign in someone's front yard that said "basketcases" and after debating for a while, me and Andy decided to go back and get a picture with everyone next to the basketcase sign.  So that was a good stop.  A little later on, we met up with Kelly, the woman who is riding her hand cycle.  But it was really nice and inspiring to ride with her for a while.  A group of us formed a pack around her to block most of the wind, which definitely helped her.  When riding with her, she compared us to a pod of porpoises who take care of the baby in the middle, so I guess we were her "pod" for a while.  What was also inspiring is that she finished the whole day today, her first century ride using only her arms to power her.  We made our last stop at a Subway, where our sweet talker, Liz, again managed to get us some free meals and Bob came and met up with us, so happy to see us after doing more than 20 miles extra for the day.  But we took our time today and were again the last ones in camp.  There is a certain sense of satisfaction that I get from being last in camp, knowing that you were on the road for a long time, taking time to see all the sights, make all the stops, and taking it easy.

Miles - 83.43

Avg. Speed - 13.1

Max Speed - 33.5

Time - 6:20:10

Today was a good change in weather.  It was nice for once not to have the sun beating down on us.  It was cloudy for the first part of the day while we were winding through Wisconsin back roads.  At some times it was a little disorienting and it kind of felt like we were going in circles, but it was extremely nice to have the whole roads to ourselves unlike some of the bigger roads that we have been on in the past.  This morning, we went through both Oregon and Brooklyn, which was pretty cool.  Got my picture in front of the Oregon sign to say that I went to another state.  We also got the classic field of dreams picture of us coming out of the cornfield which was really fun.  It was funny seeing the people laugh in their cars as they went by us.  We then made it into Illinois, state 8!  And from the time we got into Illinois until we almost got to camp, it was pouring rain, and it was glorious!!  Everything was soaked but we were still having so much fun.  For a while we were singing Christmas songs at the top of our lungs in the rain because yesterday was half christmas and we forgot to yesterday.  But for me, it was just so nice to have the rain beat down on me for a couple hours and to have so much fun in it.  Tonight we are staying at some big campground and most people have decided to sleep under a big pavillion.  However, we have decided to go to a smaller one a little further away because some people get up at 4:00 for a 6:00 breakfast, and I definitely wanted to sleep in.  And by sleep in I mean get up at 5:15, but I got every minute of sleep that I could. 

Miles - 118.50

Avg. Speed - 16.7

Max. Speed - 45.8

Time - 6:42:33

I'm starting to like not having to set up the tent.  Sleeping under the stars was really cool and refreshing, and in the morning, I didn't even have a tent to take down.  Today started off with some steep up and down hills and some morning fog, which made the hills look really cool.  I started off the day by myself, which was definitely a good change.  I love riding with people, but its also really nice for me every once in a while to ride alone, go at my own pace, collect my thoughts, and enjoy everything around me.  Except I ended up missing a turn.  I was in the zone, going down a little hill and missed the turn and ended up going about 5 miles down the hill.  Finally, Pollie's dad, Mark, came to rescue me and tell me that I missed it.  I dont know how long I might have gone before I would have realized it, but a little bonus mileage never hurt anyone.  It was really nice going through the rural back roads of wisconsin, seeing the sights, hearing the sounds, and smelling the smells.  So the first half of the day I rode myself, which was pretty refreshing, then the second half, I joined up with Tom and Scott and we had a pretty good time too.  I had my first cheese curds today, which, evidently, are the thing to get in Wisconsin.  If you ever get cheese curds, they have to be squeaky, because thats how you know they are good.  And these ones were pretty squeaky.  Tonight, we are staying in a park outside of Madison, and my grandparents also came to visit from Iowa.  We went out to dinner at the Cranberry Cafe down the road.  It was really good to see them and talk with them and everything.  Going to sleep in the tent tonight, though, because the mosquitos are vicious.

Miles - 65.92

Avg. Speed - 12.1

Max Speed - 47.2

Time - 5:26:20

For being a short day, so much happened and it was amazing.  It started in the morning riding along the Mississippi River, which was pretty cool.  Its kind of neat that even up here, its still so wide.  But then we came across the little town of Dakota, Minnesota where we were greeted by the Meyers family where they provided an excellent water/food/rest stop.  They are a family with 11 kids who about 10 years ago noticed a lot of bikers going by their house at the same time every year, so one year they provided some water, and now they have gotten into it so much that it is one of the favorite stops for riders on their trip across the whole country.  Just the amount of thought and planning that went into this is humbling.  They had tents, tables, chairs, and everything ready for us when we got there.  But they had a beautiful home right on the Mississippi with some great gardens.  The muffins and bars were to die for, I even put a few into my pocket for later in the day.  One of the things that they did which I thought was really cool is that they have found pictures of every rider from every year of the big ride and have made a scrapbook with autographed pictures.  Some of the girls even made rope bracelets for us to wear or put on our bikes too.  It was just really nice and we are all really grateful for what they did.  The uncle, Neal, even rode with us for a while afterwords.  The next major event of the day was when we were about to get into Wisconsin.  Sean ran into the back of a car at a stoplight and fell down.  Everything was ok, but it was pretty funny.  We then got into Wisconsin, state #7, with the usual group of cyclists stopped at the sign taking pictures.  You can only wonder what the people driving by are thinking when they see us.  We then passed the worlds largest 6 pack in La Crosse, WI then spent most of the rest of the day poking around with Floyd, Helyn, and Ane, which was super fun.  Its really nice to just go at a super leasurely pace and stop for everything you see and just have fun.  We stopped at the Organic Valley Creamery where people showed us around and gave us some samples.  Shortly after, we did a really big climb out of the river valley into the amish farmland of wisconsin.  It was really amazing seeing all of the rolling hills and amish farms all around.  There was one steep hill that was really fun to go down and I got the fastest that I have ever gone on a bike, which was really fun.  At the bottom, I definitely wanted to do that one again and I was tempted to bike back up to do it, but I didn't.  This was definitely one of the most fun days that I have had so far.  We made it in and tonight we are sleeping at the Viroqua fairgrounds.  I think I'm going to sleep outside again in the cool breeze under the stars.  Tomorrow should be a long day, but I'm still looking foreward to it.

Miles - 89.70

Avg. Speed - 15.0

Max Speed - 32.8

Time - 5:57:34

Well last night was pretty fun.  We decided to rough it out in nature and sleep outside in the cool breeze.  So I wake up to a little sprinkle on my face and am like oh its nothing, but then the others start going inside to the building where some people were sleeping so then I decide to go too and before I even make it to the building, about 25 feet away, it was pouring and I got pretty drenched.  but then I slept well inside the pavillion with the storms blowing outside.  So it was a rainy morning and we got off to a little slow start then all of a sudden, as we were just starting to get going, Ane runs over a screw in the road and pops both tires.  So we're sitting on the side of the highway helping her get back on the road and theres just an amazing rainbow that appears behind us.  I'm glad we did stop because otherwise we probably would have missed it.  So a couple more miles down the road, I end up also getting a flat tire, and then later, Liz also gets one for a grand total of 3 people having 4 flats and needing 2 tires in the first 40 miles of the ride.  It was also kind of ironic that it happened today of all days because we were going through Ane and Liz's hometown of Rochester, MN and her parents and families were waiting with food and water.  But we got there and it was great talking to all of them and sitting and relaxing and eating too.  Later in the day, we made it to the Mississippi River valley and it is definitely not what I was expecting. Its just like mountains.  But its really nice with a lot of trees and corn.  Tonight we are staying at the dorms at Wynona State, which will definitely be nice.

Miles - 72.72

Avg. Speed - 13.7

Max Speed - 42.3

Time - 5:15:01

Today started going down the big hill which we had to climb two days ago which was definitely a good waker upper considering we were exceeding the speed limit by 12 miles per hour.  Other than that, it was what seems to be another routine day of riding, not that its routine in any way.  Every day is different and exciting and great.  Today there was a lot of corn and beans and farms but other than that, it seemed like just another day.  Today, when we arrived, one of our rider's, Vern's, family was waiting for us with pies which was definitely a good end to the day.  A little later, my aunt and uncle, Dennis and Michelle, stopped by and we went out to eat at Famous Daves where we got the feast platter.  It was kind of funny because they were pretty surprised by how much I could eat.  Tonight we're staying at the fairgrounds and are hoping that it doesnt storm too much, but we'll see.

Lazy Day.  Today I slept in until 10:00 and then rode into town to a little cafe for some good breakfast.  Then came back up that big hill again to clean the bike then take a nap on the grass.  Did laundry and stuff then went to Schell's Brewing Company to take a tour of their facility and then get some dinner.  Today was also exciting because I got my first mail!! It was a card from my mom and it was nice.  Tomorrow starts a 7 day, 4 state stretch so I should really get to sleep.

Miles - 92.55

Avg. Speed - 14.0

Max. Speed - 35.4

Time - 6:34:40

Today it was cold.  I was wearing the under armor all day.  Other than that, not too much else happened today.  Just went through a few different Minnesota towns.  Its kind of nice seeing the towns getting closer together because it breaks up the day a little more and makes it a little more interesting.  Not that I didnt like the days without towns for 100 miles, because I liked them too.  As we were just finishing up the day, there was a road with a giant hill off to the right and I was just like "I bet thats the street we have to go on" and sure enough, it was, and it was a really big hill up to the college where we are staying at.  Just a little extra encouragement at the end of the day.  Staying the night at Martin Luther College and am definitely glad to give the rear a rest for a day.

Miles - 77.64

Avg. Speed - 13.9

Max. Speed - 33.5

Time - 5:32:00

We're in Gods country now, or at least thats what the Minnesotans say.  But other than that, today was pretty uneventful.  Just another great day on the road.  It was good to finally cross another state line.  It was also cool to see a couple of wind energy farms alongside of the road.  We stopped at a place alongside the road with some of the blades laying on the ground and they are huge!!  Pretty impressive.  Tonight we are staying at the Danish town of Tyler where the people are nice and the watermelon is really good too.  Tonights dinner and tomorrows breakfast were provided by "TuPhat Girls Catering"  their motto is "Never trust a skinny cook" which  I got a little chuckle out of.  Every night we make our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the next day and there are always some funny conversations that go on.  Tonights was pretty much about some kind of eating contest that we are getting excited about.  So the rule is that you can choose your challenge and it can either be accepted or vetoed by the group.  Oh and its within a one hour period.  Some of the things that different people are going to do are:  a gallon of milk, 18 crispy creme donuts, two bags of chips, a loaf of bread, a half gallon of ice creme, 2 pounds of snickers, 18 apples, and 50 slim jims.  Oh the things you think of when you are hungry.  Good times.  Ok time for sleep now.

Miles - 77.4

Avg. Speed - 13.9

Time - 5:33:36

Another interesting day in South Dakota.  Unfortunately we had our first major mishap of the trip.  Evidently, one of our riders, Brack, tangled wheels with Mike and he went over his handlebars and into the road.  He was unconsious for a little but then woke up and was standing by the time the ambulance took him away.  We were about 5 minutes behind from when it happened and it was definitely a wake up call to us all that safety is definitely our first priority.  But as bad as this situation is, it also showed our great sense of community that we have developed in this trip.  From the time that he fell, there was always someone there at his side until his wife could come and be there with him.  Its very comforting that these people are all around and that if, heaven forbid, something like this should happen again, that people will be there to support each other.  But it turns out that he has fractured his pelvis and will most likely not be rejoining us this year, which is also sad in itself.  Today we have reached our halfway point.  Wow, already halfway across the country.  Hard to believe.  Shortly thereafter, there was a very nice thunderstorm that came up.  We were in the middle of nowhere and there was lots of rain and wind, but there was really no where to take shelter, so we rode it out, which was very very fun and invigorating.  I got so soaked but it was worth it.  I learned today who Laura Ingalls Wilder is today, evidently we're staying in her hometown or something. 

Miles - 73.16

Avg. Speed - 13.0

Max. Speed - 29.5

Time - 5:35:52

Today there was lots of wind and lots more hottness.  However, it was good to see more and more green throughout the day.  Fields of corn, beans, and sunflowers instead of wheat fields and ranchland.  Today, at one of the gas stations, I noticed that they had squirt guns for sale, so I ended up getting one and that proved to be a good fun diversion for the day.  Tonight we are staying at a high school and they are letting us stay inside in the air conditioning for the night, which is going to be really nice.  Also this evening, we went to a place called Bob's Drive In where I ate so much food.  I had 2 double "Beefalo" Cheeseburgers, fries, and a really good milkshake.  Its amazing how much food we are eating during this trip, but i guess we need it.  Some people are guessing that we are burning as many as 3000-4000 calories per day in just pedaling, so we are definitely eating so much.

Miles - 93.87

Avg. Speed - 14.7

Max Speed - 35.2

Time - 6:20:06

Today was just as I expected a south dakota day to be - long, hot, dry, and windy.  But it was still very fun.  It was all very wide open all day with rolling hills and limited services.  It was very hot, but spirits were definitely up - after all, its only 93 miles.  We had showers in a hotel room which were definitely a luxery after the so called "gang showers" of other places we stayed.  Its amazing how much we appreciate the little things in life now.  Things like changes in sandwiches for lunch or whether or not the gatorade for the day is full strengh or half strength.  Life has definitely changed and I have learned to be very flexible in my lifestyles.  For dinner, we were so hungry that we decided to go to an all you can eat Chinese "Super" Buffet.  It ended up being horrible.  We resorted to eating salads and even forgot to get the soft serve ice cream at the end, we just had to get out of there.  Sat on a dock with our feet in the water of the Missouri river and watched a nice sunset too.  Alright, going to try to get to bed since we just crossed time zones and are loosing an hour of sleep tonight.  Hard to believe that we've already crossed two time zones.