Day 34 Coal City to Valparaiso

Day 34 Coal City to Valparaiso

Essence: Trying not to Hate the BIG RIDE

5:00 a.m. Camp is up and being as loud and obnoxious to our noisy neighbors as we can be. We can't hold a candle to them, but the effort is made with even a few cyclists douing laps around their tents shouting and yelling.

We leave Coal City and are glad for the lack of rain 1 1/2 days of riding in thr rain and the saddles sores are coming back to life and itis uncomfortable. Scott sets a blistering pace for the Scott Train. Kari, Stephen and I fall off the train as He and Alison push on hard after the water stop. Just befroe teh water stop we did meet this guy.




Fortunately the first 35 miles seem to go pretty quickly. We enter into Indiana with zero fanfare. Indiana doesn't even have a welcome sign. Apparently they don't like viistors. The roads are the worst we have seen. Chuckholed beyond belief, not shoulders and narrow. A cyclists dream, NOT! Crazy country road traffic, passing us and upset that we happen to be in the road. We would be happy not to be in the road if we could fly. Otherwise our choice is to be in the road.

Greg finds a roadside sofa for offer and makes use of it and lifts our spirits.



Stephen, Kari and I are worn out. We have ridden 13 of the last 14 days. Almost 600 miles in the last 7 days alone. this is 7th consecutive day. We discusss how we haven't felt strong in weeks. We can't remember the last time we felt really good on the bike. We search for the 1/2 way check point. It is listed twice on our on route guide. We pass the first listing. No stop. We pass what seems to be the next logical place to have it. No waterstop. So we crashout on a lawn and make our own lunch stop. We talk with the local farmer. He gives us some road advice: Stay off them and be careful of hte drivers. Seems to be an Indiana theme.

Back on the bikes after lunch we ride 3 block to the next turn and find the water stop. We are still gald to ahve stopped and met the farmer and had a country picnic feel to our lunch.

This is where we take a "Welcome to Indiana" picture.



After the checkpoint I announce to Stephen and Kari, my new goal - to dedicate teh next 3 hours of my life, to covering the 40 miles left and trying not to hate the BIG RIDE.

Rolling on, we don't get a mile when Stephen has a flat. KAri and I can't help but watch so I lay back on the road and 5 minutes later Kari is telling me to wake up. I was surprised that i actually fell asleep in my helmet and everything.

On down the road, we hit road cnstruction where they are fresh paving the road. They let us through but at the end flagger we have to jump back up on the newly hot-tarred road. So after glazing our tires in warm tar, we get onto another road and lightly frost them with crushed rock and sand. What a great combination.

We make okay progress and time. At 70 miles we have our last water stop which is provided by David Lambert's family who have driven 3 hours from Southern Indiana to come see him. His dad and sister even ride a tendem the last 12 miles with him in to camp.



Just as we pull out of this water stop, my back tire blows out, only 2 feet away from Mechanic Dave's face. The hot tar finally heated up the tired that when I stood the bike up, it just blew out. The explosion of the tire is deafening and Dave and I sort of look at each other shell shocked and feel like we have been gunshot. But no blood. We both have slow motiion visions of the tire exploding and rubber shrapnel spraying o utward. Very surreal.

After a tire change, we are back on the road and surprisingly do survive the last 15 miles in to Valpo.



We have made it. 7 consecutive days of riding.

We check in. We go get Dairy queen. We have dinner in the cafeteria and after dinner we sit around chatting with Larry,
a 1999 Big Rider Alumnus.



It is good to talk with him. He knows. He understands what we mean. He is the guy I wanted to talk to before the ride to find out what it is like. I now see how impossible that would have been. I wouldn't have been able to understand. Now I can hear what he means in what he says. Before I would have only heard the words, but not the meanings.

Larry has been here and shares his wisdom. Wisdom of how it has changed his life. Wisdom of how he falls back on these experiences. Wisdom of what to do, see and think about as we prepare to re-enter normal life and re-engage in a world we have missed for the past 5 weeks.

5 weeks is a long time to disconnect. We are worn and tired. I remember back to training ride weeks when I would ride 80 miles as my max and then would have to rest a day and then pace myself for 40 miles days and had 2 rest days a week. Now we are doing 80 mile minimums back to back with no rest.

It's amazing. It's astounding that 76 year old Bob Jones is right there with the 20 something "kids". We can are are doing this. And now we have been at it long enough to start being able to reflect on it.

That is okay... as long as I don't wind up hating it.


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Day 33 Belvedere to Coal City

Day 33 Belvedere to Coal City

Essense: Worst day Riding is better than the best day workin'.

1:00 a.m.

The flapping of my tent wakes me up as the breeze blowss acros my face. Taking a few seconds to remember I am under the shelter roof at the Outdoorworld. Right Got it. We were expecting rain.

My tent is on the outer perimeter of tents so that I have a “view” I have also oriented the door of my tent, so that I look out from under the shelter. This provides better cooling as the tent can act like a cave and catch the cool breeze as it comes under the shelter. However it also can catch the rain that comes with the aforementioned cool breeze.

I have been sleeping with the tent door unzipped to let the col breeze in. As I am awakened, I feel a few drops of rain in the breeze. It is going to rain. Having felt enough Thunderstorms, it is not a question of if, but when. I decided to zip up the door and roll over for another 20 minutes of sleep before I really do anything about the rain. Mostly because I am too tired to care... and I thikn I can get another 20 minutes of sleep.

Wrong answer. Exactly 2 1/2 minutes later the heavens have opened up and are trying to recreate a lake right in this campground.

There is a flurry of activity as I hear the high pitched ZEEEEPPPP of several tent zippers. Like Prairie dog protecting our colony, there are several of us standing up trhough our tent doors and surveying the threat. Fortunately since we are on the concrete floor, all we have to doo is move a few duffel bags and drag our tents inward 3 feet and we are safe. Scott helps me move mine and then I shift over and help the Dimmitt’s move their tent.

SinceI am up, a quick potty break seems like a good idea and then, it is back to bed. The whole disturbance has lasted less than 10 minutes and we are back in our tents. This time since there is not the threat of ground flooding, I lay there and listen to the rain. Falling on the metal shleter roof, it is amplified, much like the roof on my grandparents house. Soon the heavy falling rain creates a deafening roar monotone roar on the roof. In fact as I listen to it... it sounds like... yes, it does sound like Kelly, the Audio engineer form my compnay, runnig “White Noise” through the P.A. at about 90db to “ring out” the room. For those of you that didn’t follow the jargon, have you ever been in a room where and audio guy is sending what sounds like “static” through the speakers at really high volume? Well that is white noise and as annoying and deafenig as it is, it has a purpose. But not under our rain shelter. Under the shelter, the sound just refverbs off the concrete floor an dthe under side of the metal roof.

Amazingly, I fall back to sleep as the rain’s racket continues.

About 5:00 a.m. the rain stops like an alram clock and I feel awakened by the ... lack of noise. A few minutes snooze and the daily routine starts.

Prepped to rain, we ride out into the mists of the day and start a rainy 100 mile day.

Getting out of the camp I see this lake with a huge heron in it. This sis the best picture I managed to take and still keep my camera dry.



The rain is heavy the skies are dark with heavy clouds and it never seems to get brighter than a dim pre-dawn glow. We ride on. A Parade of drowned rats who really need to synchronize their blinknig red tail lights. The mood is good. Sort like when you are painting and are nervous to get paint on your clothes, so every movement is careful and planned. and thre is that moment when you do get pain on your clothes and you realize your prevention is fruitless, so you jsut give up and paint happy and don’t care about the mess.

Riding in the rain is the same way. You worry about staying dry... but you can’t. And as you feel the water runnig down your legs and filling your shoes and soaking your socks, you just sort of accept the wet and try to be as comfortable as you can. So as I say the mood is then good in the group.

Our maps are disentegrating and drowning left and right, and more riders are sticking together for the comradery and the co-operative navigating. Our group is the Scott train and “The Kids” and we are about 11 strong.



We hope we are big enough that we are seen before we are run over. At least we can consider those in the backed who might get run-over to be valiant sacrifices of safety. :)

At the water stop, Alison appears to cast spells on us...



And Liz and Dave are Disappointed in Ben, when he doesn’t know the answer to some really obsure trivia question.



Rolling along we battle the forces of rain and wind as we once again are riding West? Finally a tailwind and we are still heading the wrong direction!

At last we come to the sign that states it all so simply.

I

Pictured are
(Front Row: Alex, Jodi, Alison, Dave Lambert and Kari
Back Row: Sean, Scott, Tom - under sign, Ben, Michael Yee, Liz Vern and Ane)
I am taking the pictures with about 8 different digital cameras.)

Trying to keep the cameras dry we pack them in to the middle of our packs and head back out.

Coming up on a turn the directions are matching up, but I see Jerry in the support truck coming up, so I wait for him to see what he does. Jerry goes throughthe intersection and honks and waves happily as he goes by, so I follow. 2 miles down the road, we realize we are off the route and have missed a turn. I call Jerry to see if he is off route and yes he is very lost. We advise him to turn around and scoop up the other cyclists who have already passed us, and we retrace our steps to the intersection and get back on track. Right back on to one of our favorite “Ka Chunky” roads.

This road is particularly bad and every 1/4 mile or so it has a full trench cut across that hs just been filled in with dirt and makes for really nasty riding.

At the water stop down the road, we are stopped and mildly griping about the road and such things that cyclists do, when dear sweet Lisa comes by and expresses her opinion in one vehement sentence. “Get me off this&*@#%(#@ road!”

Lisa never stopped at the water stop, her goals were set on escape, I think.

The rains stop. The road finally dries out. We take off our rain gear and cover the miles. Honestly it was numbingly nonmemorable. Navigating around corn fields in flay Illinois.

I will say that the terrain here is flat. As a cyclist you still feel every last hill and bump, but by and large it is just flat and rural corn fields. The house on the farms are growing in stature, size and investment. McMansions as we call them. Many newer larger homes that have much of the same wasted space architecture as many of today’s modern homes, and aren’t the efficient use of spce and resources like the older farm houses.

Some houses have been obviously added on to 2, 3 and 4 times.

Mother-in-law units are now full size houses set jsut apart from the main house. Life must be good in these parts.

At the Check point, Pollie tells us that we are ordering pizza tonight and polls us on how many to order. alison and I are in agreement that 1/2 a pizza a person is not unreasonable. Fo I suggest about 25 pizzas. Pollie’s estimate was 20 pizzas. In the end she order 27 and after dinner there were 8 or 9 left over. Guess we were wrong. It is hard to estimate ho hungry you will be after a ride.

Here is what 27 pizzas look like!



We camp in Coal City. I am starved by the time I get there and Kari and I stop for food before heading into camp. We are supposed to check-in first and then we can leave if we want to. Having just seen the gear truck go by, I know that it will still be unloaded and I don’t have the energy to pedal the last 2 miles, much less unload the truck, so I opt for late lunch.

In camp, we have a huge open area with some nicely arranged trees just forming the backside of camp. Of course we are inconveniently placed between 3 far away bathrooms and we have to walk waht feels like miles to the bathroom. In reality I bet it is 1/8 mile. Still a hike but not as far as we think.

Pizza and beer has us all in a pretty jovial mood. I miss the best picture of Bob, being silly. Doing his best to model the Miller beer and his Miller Jersey



he gives a come hither look that had me laughing so hard I couldn't take the picture. Forever burned in my memory as sight never to be repeated. Here is a a close approximation:




The Big news is that Kelly, the Hand cyclist from Scottsdale, rolls in having just completed her 1st Century ride ever! She is ecstatic and we are super proud of her. Hugs, and pictures go around. 109 miles. The Kids and Jo played a supporting role when then formed a cylcing pod around Kelly and cut the wind so much that she increased her speed 4 mph to over 20 for quite a portion of the morning. Seeing hte community help others in our community was very invigorating.

Late that night we had disturbances as it was Friday night and a huge group campsite had a bunch of college age kids come in and proceed to see how loud they could turn there stereos up and how loud they could shout and get themselves drunk. It was live living next to the frat house, while there are having their once ayear anual “Kegger” WE didn’t getmuch sleep. In exchange we called the police and they cme out and at least threw the underagers out, which cut ome of the noise. But mostly it was just a trial.

The air was also densely think with fog. Warm and muggy humidity lingering from the earlier rain hung right at ground level. Worried that we might have another midnight storm, I put the fly on my tent and slept wher eI could open my eyes and through the clear sky see a star.

Several times throughout the night I woke up to keep track of that star, but always the sky was clear and I could see it and in the end we never did have a storm.

This picture I took right after nightfall when there was still just a bit of dusk light out. The dark under the trees was really fascinating to me.



WE have also entered Firefly territory for about the last 3 nights which just thrills me. Having never grown up with them, I didn’t first meet them until I was Junior in high school. Then again in college and in my 20’s. Everytime I see them, though I jsut love them and I regress back to 5 years old and loving them. They at least make the calml evenings wtih dreaded mosquitoes more enjoyable, since I can slap the skeeters and watch the fireflies.


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Day 32 Madison to Belvedere

Day 32 Madison to Belvedere

Despite the forsecast, the sky had depicted accutarely that thre would be no rain in the night. We woke to a beuatiful sunrise nad a mild morning.



Not exactly refreshed, I was at least willing to battle another day of miles on the bike. Not wanting to be alone again I made a point to ride with Scott, Alison and Kari. The company was appreciated. Nothing spectaluar and now real earth shattering conversations but it was just good to be back with friends.

The roads were covering more rolling hills. We were starting to make jogs around farms and at times found oursleves puzzled as we took on significant westbound mileage. For and easterly trip we were heading an awful lot towards the west. But alas we rode on.

We were perfecting our corn field potty stops. With no tree for cover or other bushes we were forced to go a few rows back into the corn. At this point we are all fairly cavalier about our bodily needs. The guys are to the point where we just pull over to the side of the road, wait till there is no traffic and pee while still stradling the bike. The girls still are heading into the cornfield, but even now they are opnly going 2 or 3 rows deep versus 5 or 6. There have been a few times when the girls just go int he ditch and shout out “No peeking” Itis pretty funny how nonchalant we all are about the whole thing.

It is also amazing how quickly you can disappear into a cornfield. We will watch each other in these bright red and yellow jerseys walk into the field and within 2 rows you are pretty well hidden, within 3 rows you disappear completely and there is no sign you are there. I can now see why cornfields have been portrayed as a hiding place for spooky things.

As we neared Illinois, the weahter started to turn threatening or rain. As we entered a small town on the border, the rain started. Welcome to ILLINOIS



Illinois always embodied my visualization of a mid-west, coal state with acid rain, where al the cars were rusty, the buildings seemsed dirty, etc. Now I know that isn’t fair or the real truth of Illinois, but that is how it seemed to me. So when we entered Illinois and this sign was the the Welcome sign at this rusty bridge in a very industiral area, my whole false vision seemed confirmed.

After a quick water stop and goofing around with Greg Dimmitt



We headed on down the rain and into the rain. The rain started light and built up but was really ever only rain without any hail, lightning or thunder. Paceline riding style and tactics changed in the rain. With wet breaks, we lost stopping power na dthus increased our distance between ourselves. However this then meant that you were eating the “rooster tail” of water and grime that was being kicked up off the trear tire from the person in front of you. To avoid this oh so pleasant beverage, we all separated a bit further but then we were so far back that the wind resistance was pounding us and the advantage of paceline riding was completely lost.

One tactic we could use was to ride just off to the side of the ride in front of you, so as to let the “rooster tail” go by you. We lost some of the Aero dynamics of the group and this did make us a wider presence in traffic, but it worked well enough on country roads.

I finally got my first inconvenient flat from a tenacious piece of glass. Up till now, all my flats had been in camp or at rest stops and was fairly easy to change. The rain had let up and we were riding on a bike path whhen I was attacked by this chunk of glass and it mortally wounded my tire. After a rpetty quick change we are off on the road ... and then the rain resumed in full force with Lightning and thunder.

Along with rooster tails, rain riding presents a whole new sets of challenges. First you now have to find a reasonably dry solution for your paper map that is this accessible and readible while in the saddle. My map holder, has a tear and a leak up in the upper corner so eventually even my maps are wet and I often have the driest maps. In addition to keeping your maps dry, it is also dificult to read them, because of either Fogged up sunglasses or so much water ont he lenses that we can’t see the words. Also difficult to read are our bke computers, which gives us teh mileage and thus indicated to us where we are at on the route guide.

Other rain hazards are of course the spary coming off of passing cars and trucks but a little more personally, the seat conditions wet shorts create. Keeping our shorts dry is VERY important to prevent saddle sores. 3 hours of riding in the rain in wet shorts pretty much negates any preventive measures that we have taken. All in all rain riding is not so much fun, it las lots of challenges and as a result is very stressful especially after hours at a time.

With soaked socks, soaked shoes, wet shorts and gritty faces we were happy to finally get to camp.

Camp was at “Outdoorworld” a KOA type commercial camping place that is more like a park than a forest. I was really looking forward to getting to camp and being able to grab some dry clothes and just change without needing to shower first. When we got there though Pollie wasn’t there yet so we had to wait for the gear truck and dry clothes.

Pollie finally arrived and while we unloaded the truck, she arranged for us to setup camp underneath the large metal roofed covered porch. We still set up our tents but as we were looking looking out from under teh shelter we were all fantastically happy to be under the shelter and not be exposed to the rain directly.

Sometimes it is the small dry things that make us happy.

Dinner became a bit of a disaster. The camp catered dinner, and had several ladies cookng back in the kitchen. Spaghetti was the menu choice and we were served only medium sized portions. We weren’t allowed 2nds and that was when a few words were exchanged. It turned into a stand off, with mad cooks who wouldn’t talk to Pollie and 45 hungry riders all looking for food or a solution to our appetites. Pollie didn’t discount our concerns or those of the camp and would up ordering something like 10 pizzas to fill us up, but it was one of those days that by the end Pollie was was worn out and was ready for it to be over.


Somedays you are just ready for it to be over.

I was at least to happy to have electricity, a dry seat and a place to set up the computer and write some blogs while I waited for the Pizza.

Day 31 Viroqua to way beyond Madison

Day 31 Viroqua to Madison (Actually way beyond Madison)

Essence - The wrong side of the bed

That feeling you have when you finally walk in the door after an extraordinarily long day at week and just want to collapse and hope for a better day tomorrow.

This morning I got up ready to take on a century. Someone’s alram was going off and off and off and wasn’t getting shut off. That woke me up and from there I was off on the wrong side of the air mattress.


I ddi get to wear my new Vernon Trails, Blue Dog Cyclery, Viroqua jersey. It is funny hos fast folks noticed. We all have 2-4 shirts and sort of know what to expect to see everyone in. So when someone is wearing somehting out of hte norm it draws attention pretty fast. Lots of compliments on the Jersey though and I was glad to have something new.

I was starving at breakfast. That stuck in my head as a point of concern as we were embarking on a century ride. To astart out insufficiently fueled, was a worry.

At least the morning was mild and the arm warmers weren’t necessary.

After sunscreen and tire checks we were off. Riding with the Scott Train, the mormning was beautiful. Our path ran us up and over the roling hills, and at the tops we were getting wonderful views of small hill ridges rising out of fog and low mist.





Absolutely “mistical”, (if you would allow the pun.)

Scott was entertaining us with his new gadget of a small IPOD speaker on his handlebars that allowed us to hear some tunes ont he ride. Not being allowed to ride, with earphones, is really wearing on our sanity for a little normalcy of life. Several folks have bought small transistor radios and other are trying to find IPOD speakers to get around the “No Earphone” rule. Just to have some music is a huge luxury right now.

We had a couple dogs chase us, but Alison put them square in their place and that seemed to be the end of the dog threat. I gotta say that Alison has a very serious “No, bad dog” voice.

In our first town, Scott was goofing around and giving false directions. “Turn right here”, when we should go straight or “don’t turn when” we should. This pushed a particular hot button with me. I don’t care for fun and games, but when we are relying on each other for good route information, false info just for fun’s sake was really aggravating. After a little misdirection competition between Scott and Jodi, I decidded to leave the group behind and set out on my own. Picking up the pace I felt like I was riding strong and seeing many riders, however I developed a mechanical problem.

After getting the chainring bolt last night, the bike guy had adjusted my deraileur, and now I was having all kinds of chain rubbing problems and difficulty shifting. At the water stop, Dave, our faithful and trusty mechanic, was there ajnd he put the bike in the stand and tried several things, on e of which was trying to take the bend and warp out of the chainrings. You know you are doing delicate adjustments when you have the plain old pliers out and are just trying to bend things.

The bike repair, lasted long enough to let the Scott train come and go and put me near the very last of the riders. Ane and Liz arrived, and were such a friendly sight and in such a high mood. Seeing there good mood was such a change form the grumpyu Liz who had a difficult morning start, what with me begging batteries off of her, after she was packed and then breaking a chain only 2 miles out of camp. Since they had turned their fortunes for the day, I asked to ride with them for the day hoping ot turn my fortunes.. They were more than happy to have me join them.



The morning sun had come out and was burning off the fog and the day was starting to heat up. We rode off, taking on the hills and I let their good cheer wash over me and buoy my spiriits. The 30 miles to the checkpoint went fairly quickly and were a good time as they caught me doing some silly things and we even had a tailwind.

The Checkpoint was at a small farmers market with a little animal petting farm. This little goat was just as cute and silly as he could be.



The farm also had camel, which seemed fitting since we had seen a LLama on one of the earlier morning farms we had passed.

At the Checkpoint, Alison had to call it a day as her sprained ankle had swelled incredibly.
Checkpoint lunch was huge. Fresh fruit had been acquired from the farmers market and several of us had chocolate milk to supplement our sandwiches and goodies.

Getting a move on, as we were trying to beat the heat, we headed out about 11:30 to take on the rest of our day. A little further down the road, I saw the sign fo r the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center. Remembering a missed opportunity to visit Talisen during a earlier family vacation, I was looking forward to maybe having some time to learn about FLW this trip. I took the exit off the freeway and headed inthe direction they indicated. What I thought might be a freeway side visitor center, turned out to be directions to Taliesen and the actual visitor center, about 5 miles off the freeway. About half way there I figure out where we were being routed, but I wanted to see it bad enough that I made the effort to added the 5 out and 5 back tail on to our already long 109 mile day.

I was cheered when I saw the Jodi, had made teh same turn and was equally dedicated to get there. Unfortunately the visitor center, doesn’t have that much info. What they really want you to do is take teh 2 or 3 hour tour of the house and grounds, however we did not have that kind of time luxury. Taking a few minutes we did ride down to see the house and the famous entrance waterfall.





Jodi, my co-adventurer! Thanks for the ride Jo!


When I had been in this area during a family vacation with my Ex-wife and in-laws, we had missed Taliesen as they had elected to go to the house on the rock. As strange and remarkable as House on the Rock was, I really had wished we have put that much time and effort into Taliesen. Anyway being able to go back now, take a few pictures and flip through a few boks on the schedule that I dictated, made it up to me and made it worthwhile. Some day I will come back and take the tour. Some day...

Now it was truly hot and the time was getting on and Jo and I had 55 miles to go. So we quit fussing around and turned to the miles at hand. Pressure points or “Hot feet” plagued us as we rolled across the blacktop that was so nice and flat and smooth, compared to the Ka-chunk of Minnesota.

To cool our feet for just a moment we stopped at a histrocial marker about the remains of the town of Dover, after the residents had moved to Mazomanie after teh railroad had bypassed Dover.

It is truly fascinating how the country had been dictated and arranged by both the railroads and the freeway systems of this country. To see how transportation has focused wealth and power or similarly robbed it from places is a somewhat dispecable study of the power of money and politics.

Finally we hit the 3rd water stop and found that inded we were not the last riders, which was a bit of a lift.

Hot and muggy there seemed so rest from the discomfort. If you sat still, the bug swarmed to you. If you continued to move, then you were buring energy and not resting, which was the point.

With water bottles refilled, we set out with Micheal Yee to tackle the final 30 miles. Now being 3:00pm I calculated this to take us about 90 minutes based on our current pace. Picking up the pace, I pressed on and into some really beautiful wooded areas with trees growing over the path and forming a canopy from the now threatening rain clouds. The sections of forrest we encountered were just areas to unlevel to not be valuable for farming and meant that we were climbing hills again. Up one, only to crest it and then roll back down and face a myriad more just like it. The hills slowed the pace and now this ride was really becoming extended and the physical fatigue became very real pain.

At this point I had pulled ahead of Jo and Michael in the climbs and was riding alone.



The directions had us skirt the town of Madison and coming back in from the South to our camp. But it felt like they might as well have re routed us through New Orleans. We were way out on country roads and missed much of the traffic, but also the services of convenience stores and such.

Trying to keep track of all the turns on the country roads, I missed one. I knew I had missed one and ater being a mile overdue I turned around and retraced my steps. however not going far enough the firtst time, I wound up retracing the same 2 miles 3 times. I was hot frustrated, tired, a bit panicky and just wanted to be done. Knowing that I should have beento camp hours ago and now not knowing if my companions had made the turn, I was unsure where i was in the group, in relation to the sweeper suport vehicle and such. I had not choice but to find my error and get my self into camp. My problem was that it was still 20 miles away, an easily and hour or more ride, which would put me into camp about 5:30 or 6:00pm.

Out of food, nnowhere near civilizatino for a gas station of other food store and worryiing if I might miss the group’s dinner, things were getting stressful, which didn’t help. Finally I asked a lady at ther house and solved my navigational error and was back on route. At least that worked out. Bonking (runnig out of energy to the point of disorientation) I was making slow time and now ‘I was lokng for a place where I could get a snack. Finally I found a pseudo grocery store and got a 1/2 gallon of chocalate milk and 3 packages of salted peanuts.

Scarfing my snack as I sat outside the store, I saw our habitual last rider pass by me. That actually gave me a litle hope that I wasn’t left for dead and that I might be found by the sag van. At this point i had already riddn 114 miles and I was fully content to catch a ride for teh last 9 miles.

Pseudo fueled, I was off to cath Helyn, our last rider, and be back with comrades. Along with Helyn I found Floyd and felt like a team again. To once again feel like I wasn’t abandoned was a huge relief.

Shortly thereafter, we reacquired Jo and Micheal as they had also been lost. Somehow that large a group gave my legs some energy to ride and nded finish.

124 long long miles. The bottom bracket ( where my pedal spindle goes through the frame.) was creaking and crunchy and sounded terrible, by the end of the ride. I expect it needs to be replaced as it is the original bracket with 5000+ miles on it. But when I pulled in to camp I dismounted and I all I could do was let my bike fall over. I didn’thave the strength or energy to care if it crashed. In fact there was some small part of me that almost wished it might, so that I wouldn’t have to ride tomorrow.

Everyone seeing me come in so late and just so beaten, knew I had a tough day and was so great and supportive, to get me drinks and water and to make sure I ate.

A quick rest and dinnner was served by the families of riders Dan Scott and Bob Dumke. Wonderful Wisconsin dinners of bratwurst and kraut.

After dinner it was time to setup tent, shower and do al the chores that I usually get done before dinner. Although there was a 40% chance of rain I risked it and did not put the rain fly on since there was not a cloud in the sky or on the horizon and the wind wasn’t blowing yet.

That gamble worked out as it didn’t rain and I had a nice night.

After my bike had squeeked and creaked all day, I took my bike back over to Dave the Mechanic and he looked at the bottom bracket (which is the spindle for the pedals. Taking it all apart Dave did find that I had plenty of crunchiness and graiininess in the bracket. Dave cleaned it up, best he could I adcedied that after 5500 cumulative miles I was okay with replacing it. So a plan was set for Dave to get me a new bracket tomorrow, during hte day and we would work around it until rest day.

I spent the evening in the tent writing blog on battery power and then going to bed. Hopefully tomorrow would be a better day.

Thjat was the day. A long day. A very long day. Not a necessarilly terrible day, jsut one I was glad to have done and one I wouldn’t look to repeat any time soon.

Don’t forget to comment. I surely could use your comments today.

Day 30 Winona to Viroqua

Day 30 Winona to Viroqua

Essence - Making time to be a Be’er.

Waking up in the dorms made today an easier start.

The morning was farily uneventful. The biggest dilemma was Alision. She sprained her ankle leaving the bar last night after only one beer, but her ankle had swollen up pretty well. So we were concerned if she would be able to ride. After straining my right achilles I had also wrapped my leg with an ace bandage and we were starting to sprot a new teeam uniform for “Team injured”. Right leg ankle wraps for everyone!

Breakfast at the student union cafeteria looked tempting, but as we have discovered, the tempting sweet rolls and donuts are just the Devil’s toys when we are on the road. Generally I try to stick to the Eggs and maybe a little sausage and a pancake or toast.

This morning’s ride down the Mississippi River valley was really beautiful. Probably my favorite part of the whole day. WE were on the Western Side where huge bluffs rose up and yet the Mississippi had done her work and carved them away.






Along the way I was very entertained by this sign. Finally the Bike Camping Sign that should have accopanied us every night.



Right after taking this picture is when I noticed that I had lost a bolt in my chain rings that holds my chainring and pedal set together.



Fortunately there are 5 in a star pattern and one wasn’t necessarily going to be the end of my ride, but I was a little surprised. I have no idea where I lost it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I had lost it during the Ka chunks yesterday.

Rolling to catch up with the “Scott Train” after my photo stop I was enjoying the the smooth and fairly clean shoulder of Hwy14. A nice smoothly paved and wide shoulder, allowed for a very comofortable 2 abreast ride that was just rolling and smooth. In my head I kpet hearing and seeing Jeff, singing Johnny Cashs’s “Big River”. Over Iand over I lyrically floated down the “Big River”. The cool morning hung with river moisture and low clouds and seemed almost foggy. In the afternoon it would become sweltering, Mississippi River humidity, but in the cool morning it was just like my imagined version of Germany, cool and damp.

Rolling through small towns the greenery was phenomenal. Coming over a little rise with Scott and Tom, I saw all the cyclists stopped at a house on the side of hte road, milling about and with cones in the shoulder to give us space.

We had come to the Meyers’ Family Water stop, now a 9 year tradition.



The Meyers’ owned this house and the attached auto repair shop and they had set and then rooled out the welcome mat for us. Starting back in 1998 the Meyers had seen the cyclists come through before and decided to support the ALAW BIg Riders, after losing a Grandfather to Lung Cancer. The Meyers have missed a year of 2 they say, but now they have it down to a full famlily frontal assault. The young girls who have, grown up with the ride every summer, read the blogs, do interviews, ask for autographs on baseball card sized pictures, and turn out fruit and food and beverages and make a regular oasis. Mom, Judy offers tours of her garden which is absolutely fantastic! Coming from Phoenix, where so many things are brown, the garden with its layer of colors and textures is a real pleasure to walk through.



Megan, the Meyers daughter in her mid teens, said that as soo n as teh riders all leave, the family quick brainstorms new ideas for next year and edits the bad ideas from this year and starts planning again. One os Megan’s sisters had 3 comfortable living room chairs out and was conducting interviews! Their admiration for waht we do, matched our gratitude for the truly “Above and Beyond” water stop. The Meyers put in as much heart and planning for the year as the riders do in their training and fundraising and for me, the Meyers are just as much a part of this riding team as any one of my fellow riders.

Eventually though it did come to go and continue our quest for miles under the tires. Shjortly after leaving, the Meyers’ we were on a bike path along the the river, so the Route guide said. What we were actually on was an old KA-chunky road that ran next to the dual railroad tracks that were shieded from the river, by thick reeds and vegetation. So what sounded like a beautiful ride was more like riding down and alley. Emerging from the “alley” Scott, Tom, myself and David Lambert (my usual dorm roommate) headed off and shortly were crossing into Missouri



and then over the Mighty Mississippi.





Crossing the Mississippi is one of those moments when you can’t believe you have done it. I am sure many people had similar feelings at the continental divide. For me however, the Mississippi is something I have rarely seen and only once before crossed via bridge. It was alway so landmark to me as the center of the country. To me, things east of the river were Eastern and things west were western. And now I have ridden my bike from the West edge passed my line of demarkation and into the East! WHOA!

And from here things would generally be uphill again until we were over teh Alleghanys in Pennsylavnia.

We crossed the river at Le Crosse and went past La Crosse Brewery, where they have 6 storage tower tanks painted to look like the largest 6-pack in the world. I did not care to photo op this.

In La Crosse I was starving. It was too early for us to really eat. So I coordinated several successive stops at traffic lights, so that I could get a aPB&J out of my carry bag and maniacally eat 3 or 4 bites of PB&J at each light. Undoubtedly the light would turn green and I would be caught trying ot clip in to my pedals, shove the left over sandwich into one of my rear shirt pockets and trying to breathe and exercise around this choking mass of Peanut butter, bread and jelly glob now filling my mouth. It was pretty comical but in a few moments I had downed the sandwich and was feeling better ans til hanging with the group.

Only about 5 miles down the road from the PB&J incidents, we found Mark manning his first water stop!



Mark is Pollie’s father who had thought he might come along jion his daughter Pollie for a few day son the ride to keep her compay. He had no idea that he would become our replacement 4th support vehicle, filling in fo rthe Kosicks who had to leave the ride. Mark is certainly behind the 8-ball on our well rehearsed 30 day water stop rhythm, but he is catching up fast, learning people’s names and fiinding out all our moans and groans and physical needs. In only 2 more days I bet it will feel like Mark has been with us for a month.

Leaving Mark we started to head inland, climbing hills and then loosing them again. Now I was riding with Steve and we saw a local creamery on our right and decided to be “Be’ers”. We thougth this was chance to get Ice cream at the factory and so we poked our heads in.




As it turned out it was a working creamery where they mostly made butter and “ghee”, a kind of clarified butter often used in East Indian cooking. Indeed we only got a glass of milk, but we did get a tour of the creamery. And this wasn’t some highly publicised, commercial tour. We had hairnets and were out on the production floor, jsut as they were cleaning up for the shift change. Being that this creamery sold under the Organinc Valley label, it was fun to see the lengths and effort they go to, to ensure the organic label.

The sun was getting hot, so we started our climbs out of the Mississippi river valley and back up on top of the bluff. Passing really healthy looking Amish farms, we waved at all the smiling children even passed a hourse carriage on the road. Seeing the hand picked and stacked wheat and the men working in the fields and the size of the horses, we were suddenly reminded how much work traditional farming was. What a contrast though to the huge mega wheat farms we had seen in South Dakota.

Climibing our last hills I was in serious discomfort as my achilles warp was now created a blistered raw spot on the underside of my foot where it wrapped. I was only too happy to making it home.

We did have the joy of one decidedly steep downhill where without a single pedal stroke I hit 44.7 mph and Steve cracked 45mph. At the bottom though was a hairpin turn, with gravel in it and just ripe for a wipeout, so we were on the brakes and slowing before it, instead of going for personal speed records.

In camp at the local fairgrounds, I laid out and took a qiuck nap in the “showing” barn on the cool concreet floor. Letting hte concrete soakd the heat out of me, I set out my tent in delayed layers so that each layer would have a chance to dry out, since it was still wet from being put away, during the rain, morning before last.

After a shower, I haed off to the post office just before 5pm to ship some stuff home. The Post Office windows were closed. However as I was trying to figure out what to do a clerk came out to lock up and saw me there in my conundrum. She stayed late and helped me package my stuff and billed me for it, promising it would go out tomorrow, whidh was just fine by me. Package shipped and a few postcards in the mail and I was on my way.

Be-bopping through old downtown I found a Bluedog Cycles, a small cycle shop. There were still open and remembering my cranks bolt problem I stopped in and got the replacement and a bit of a deraileur tune-up. I talked with Pete, the shop owner about what we were up to and he took a little extra time, going over my bike making sure it was in good shape. I also asked him about his shop jerseys. The shop jerseys wre actually part of a fundraiser to help provide monies for the construction and maintenance of some mountain biking trails in the local parks. A few years ago the city approved his plan, to form a group to build, maintain monitor some local bike trails as a recreation tourism idea. The jersey proceeds went to fund the project. All to happy to have a local jersey and something new to wear, I bought a jersey and got a little bit of retail therapy.

In the end a productive afternoon, and a good day. Tomorrow’s 109 is our 2nd longest ride, so I will end this blog here and turn in at 10p.m. to ensure a good nights rest. It has cooled down now and the “muggy”ness has relaxed so I hope I can fall asleep pretty easliy.

Planning for a big day tomorrow. But at least I have a new jersery to wear.



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Day 29 Owatonna to Winona

Day 29 Owatonna to Winona

Essence - Many small segments

1:30 a.m. The wind that had been so pleasantly been blowing and soothing me to sleep, now was turning serious. It was also starting to carry rain with it. It was enough to wake me and I quickly pulled my rain fly down as the srom that we had been antipating was apparently here. I only got a little wet pulling my rainf ly forward , but it had been worth it to have the screens open during the wind.

With the rain, though now came enjoyable but fitful rest. Waking every 1/2 hour to a sever thunderstorm and continually checking the rain worthiness of my tent. Some rain was blowing under the fly and my own condensation was condensing under the fly and then dripping on me, so I was a little bit wet. Fortunately everything held up and it was a very fun and exciting night to be sleeoping outside.

At 5:00a.m. when the alarms went off, I just laid there trying to figure out how we were going to ride in this storm. Of course there was scheudle to keep, but we couldn’t ride in this! ARe you kidding me? I heard noises from neighbor tents and decided I needed to get up and do what I could to get ready. At one point we were mostly ready. We had everythiing pakced up except for the vary tents we were sitting in.

and we sat ans watied for the storm to ease up...

and we sat...

and we sat...

Finally about 5:30, after 4 hours of heavy thunderstorms with lightning and thunder crackling just overhead, the storm receded and we all emerged like bears after hibernation.

You have never seen so many tents dismantled in such a short period of time. Within minutes the camp field was nearly empty.




And breakfast was fully underway under the shelter of the animal show barn.

And then, it was time to ride...
in the rain.

It is hard to describe the different ways it rained even with the extensive Seattle Rain vocabulary. It poured, then it became worse and was a delluge. then it eased to a sprinkle. ... then picked up the pace to a light rain... then torrentual... and on and on.

We were soaked form head to toe. Many of us had doneed our rain gear, which not being breathable, meant that we were just as wet inside our jackets from all the sweat and exertion as though of us who had not worn jackets.

As you can imagine the cameras we stowed away in dry places and very few pictures no pictures were taken.

After the rain we had a wonderful water break provided by the combined family efforts of Ane and Liz.



Ane’s dad, Gordy, was out video taping everyone. Her sister’s were welcoming everyone into the tent and it was we got to meet the girls’ moms and have a sit down. It was such a great rest.

From there we rode off into the farm land of Minnesota.




I don’t quite KA CHUNK...

quite know KA CHUNK...

how to describe KA CHUNK...

the roa KA CHUNK...

KA CHUNK...

roads of Minnesota.

They were KA CHUNK...

Definitely KA CHUNK...

KA CHUNK...

rough.


The Ka Chunks may seem like they are added for the effect, but it very much felt like that. you couldn’t get through a full thought without being jarred. Not even a full second between bumps and we were being bounced. And these were the holes that had been patched! Some of hte potholes that hadn’t been patched could be better described as caverns!

We hated it. We searched left, then right, and then maybe int he lane, then maybe jsut on the white line and found no smooth road. Short sections of repaving, maybe just a few 10 yards long were like the rare bit of candy as a kid. We loved the smooth road. When we had it we relished in the smooth roll. When we lost it we were bumbed out.

Most of the afternoon went this way.

Adding injury to insult, after the mornigs rains I had gotten mud in my pedal cleats and it became really hard to clip out. At one point i was was working so hard to clip out, that I strained my right achilles! Not wanting to go through that pain again, I was trying to baby it along. But with all the bumps I felt every last bump.


In the afternoon the clouds startd to rebuild and we were expecting another storm. Riding with Kari and Alison, we all decided to get something warm to drink at the gas station, mid-day check point. Hot cocoa, the every fabulous PB&J and some fruit were enough to get us on our way up some of the tough late ride hills.

One hill in particular would have beena great downhill blast if the road had been any good. As it was we Ka-chunked the whole way down.

Finally at bottom our route turned us onto a lovely country road that took us down a side valley and lead us into town. We had a slight downhill and a truly spectacularly smooth road. No traffic. It was the perfection of a ride! I was pulling for Alison who then had the added advantage of know head wind. It was a wonderful ride... and it almost made up for the Ka-chunks... Almost.

Getting in close to town, I saw Toronto Dave miss a turn, and when he didn’t hear us yell, I sprinted up to catch him and flag him down. I would have hated to see him get lost or do any more miles than necessary. Sprinting however max’d out my achilles and so the final 7 or 8 miles into town were just really painful.

The light at the end of the tunnel was that we were staying in dorms for just the one night and so we didn’t need to set up our tents or sleeping bags.

Dinner in the cafeteria was a rare taste variance of Open faced turkey sandwiches with Mashed potatoes. Mixed withthe Mashed potatoes, it was deliecious and I went back for 3rds.

In the end, the day had a little of lot of many different things. Weather, Roads, gob Bad, Sunny, rainy, ugly and blissfully beautiful.

Not quite a day of extremes, but certainly a day of variation.




Please comment. and I am taking suggestions on Essences for the today.

Day 28 New Ulm - Owatonna

Day 28 New Ulm - Owatonna

Essence - Being a “Be’er”

Starting our day in the dorm seems like it would be easier, but I often feel that iti s not. We are just a little bit out of our rhythms on dorm days. True we have no tents or sleeping bags to roll up, but still we are just out of rhythm and ultimately have to walk farther to carry our bags to the truck.

This morning was especially hectic, because my cook team also had lunch duties. Lunch prep is where we setup a folding table, about 6 loaves of bread, 3 jars of peanut butter, bushells of bananas, oranges and other fruit, boxes and boxes of granola bars and other snacks and within 20 minutes, a hurricane of activity occurs and all that is left are a few heals of bread, some spilled jelly, 2 or 3 sickly, bruised and lonely pieces of fruit and a bunch of empties boxes. Not all 50 people can descend on the table at once. There jsut isn’t enough space. It usally seems to be a rolling group of about 10 or so folks. Sometimes you make it hte first group and you get prime pickin’s sometimes youare oin the last group and you get the dregs. Nobody complains when they are the last ones and get the limited selection of the goodies. But if you can make the early groups and get your favorite treats, it is like Christmas. Fruit snacks are popular and go quickly. I love the cheesy spread cracker sandwiches. now I have to be careful because there will be teh cheesy crackers with the peanut butter filliings. Those are not as good. I alreadyusually have 2 PB&J sandwiches and a few PB flavored clif bars, so variety is key. Everytime I come up to the table I am first looking for hte cheesy crackers. Everyone else has they “gotta have it” items as well. Some folks go for the fruit. Others are after teh fruti snacks. It all balnaces out, but it sort of is like playing a game and you are lookng for the right cards to draw into your hand.

So on to my day. After lunch prep we, had catered breakfast in the cafeteria at the college. I walked over, leaving my bike int he dorm, so by the time I walked back after b’fast and got my bike, my regular Scott Train Team had already departed so I rode out by myself.

Feeling good, as I often doo after rest days, I was in a happy mood and buzzing along. Light crosswinds were going to be the order of the day and I was already fighitng them.

A bit further up, I passed Michael Yee, who said the gang was lookng for me so I pushed it a bit and ccaught the “train”. Stephen and I pushed it a bit and brok out of the train. Good conversation today. Some days we don’t talk much, but today was a chatty day and the miles just melted around us as we pushed through the winds.

Coming through Mankato, Stephen was ready his guid and almost missed the water stop. Which was kinda funny considering that his wife, Polie -our ride director, was there waiting at the stop. He gets kisses from his sweeite as abonus at each water stop, and would certainly be reason for me to make sure I didn’t miss a water stop.

Back onthe road in Mankato, I happen to think that is was Sunday and about 9:00 a.m. I thought it was about church time. Since Stephen and I had bee maikng good time and were feeling good, I offered if would like to stop for church if we found a convenient church having service. He, said yes, and not 1 1/2 blocks further we came upon a Methodist church on our right, right on the corner, we whipped around and pulled in. Fully decked out in my Harpoon Beer spandex riding costume I inquired with the Reverend if they would let us 2 vagabonds join there service, since we were on our quest and a long way from home. We were welcomed with open in arms and hit timing perfectly. Sevice was an hour and started in 5 minutes. That worked out great that is wasn’t a huge multi hour break for us.

We found some seats at the rear, not wanting to inflict our sweatiness on to m any people. Fortunately the overcast morning had kept us fairly humane. We visited with the folks around her whow were all abuzz as many of them had driven passed all of us on their way to church. And moments later I was thrilled to see a 3rd rider, Alex also come in for the service. As service started and greetings were spread we were officially welcomed by the Reverend, which was very nice as we felt comfortable but definitely stuck out like sore thumbs.

Sevice was good. The message highlighted the difference in life between the “Do’ers” in the world and the “Be’ers” in the world. I definitely identified with his description fo being a Do’er but this message highlighted the importance of taking the time to stop, and listen and be in the moment, of God, of Friends of whatever. It was exactly what I needed to hear for this trip. So many days had I rushed through to get that days ride done, that I have sometimes missed the historical marked stops, or the just stopping and watching.

Even this stop at church was a “Be’ing” moment. That is one part of my life that I need to embrace more whole heartedly and it was good and powerful to even get that message from God today.

After the service many people were talking with us about our journey and what we were doing. It was nice to be a Be’er for those moments and meet those folks. To accept their genuine well wishes and encouragements was rejuvenating. I did ask the Reverend to keep our dear Dr. Brack in prayers for a quick and healthy recovery and the Reverend was only to happy to pass that word along for prayer fromthe whole congregation.

I left church energized and missing, my homne church and church family back in Phoenix. After a quick text message to a few chruch friends back home, to greet their service. we were roling again.

The hour break, certainly had stiffened up the legs. And now we were full on dead last of the riders. WE go warmed back up and Stephen called Pollie so she wouldn’t worry had we had gone from daily leaders to the daily tail.

Resuming our battle agains, cross winds we rode with energy and fulfillment. Feeling like Peter, as Jesus had becomed him to walk on water, I felt like I could keep up the overly fast pace as we regained time on the group. The service provided Stephen and I more topics of discussion and that distraction had as much influence on our legs as the rest from the day before.

The traffic is getting in heavier and righ now the roads are tough. Sloppy and broken shoulders have us “White lining” it a lot of the time. Riding that white line at the right edge of traffic, makes for tense an tiring days as we spend so much time and energy “playing in traffic.”

Even with our church stop we were in by 1:30. Vern’s home, Owatonna provided a huge family welcoming party opportunity, with pie for everyone and even his 92 year old mother here to greet him. Vern, in his 70s, is one of the oldest riders and it such a character and great person. It was so wonderful to see his reception and the homecoming, temporary as it is. The celebration of the day just seemed to contiune.

Tented, showered, pied and snacked it was time for a nap. And I was really looking forward to it. The wind was cool and gave a nice breeze and with looming thunderclouds, climbing in my tent felt like that warm safe place that our favorite blanket felt to us as a kid. The nap was cool a the rustle of the rain fly just soothed me to sleep as I was glad to be so near the environment yet out of its harshness. Ahhh......zzzzzzzzz..........

2 hours later, I woke uyp to find I had been deserted as everyone had gone out for $10 dinner. Rubbing my eyes and clearing the naptime cobwebs, I was trying to decide what to do for dinner, when Ane came to visit and reported ont he local Mexican Food discovery just across the street. Having just left there, she joined me for the company and off we went, and found many 15 other riders. Sort of like like being a sheep and rediscoerying your flock I was back in the fold and all was good.

The plate was hot (as all good mexican restaurants should serve) and the Chile Colorado was pretty good. Not like Arizona, but then it is Minnesota so I couldn’t be too picky. A good dinner, a good conversation and I was yet again reminded of what a woman wants and needs. As I guy I can never be reminded of that enough sometimes and it was good to be reminded of that.

Back at camp, I made my tomorrows lunch as one of the last ones and was happy for the fruit snacks I managed to acquire. Then I discovered my 3rd flat of the trip. A slow rear tire leak that I thought I had felt earlier in the day, when my tire felt spongy. Feeling at peace and a little more like a Be’er I changed my tube in now particular hurry and found the offending puncturer.

It was a peaceful day. I did not take a single picture. Today was day of feelings and moments, that pictures and scenes could not capture. Just a day of feeling right. A day of listening, if you will. Listening to God, listening to friends, listening to my body, listening to the soothing voices on the wind... and taking all those sounds into my soul.

Maybe today was even a day of changing...




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Day 27 New Ulm Day off

Day 27 New Ulm Day off

After sleeping in until the a whole 7:30 a.m. we were up ahd trying ot workout breakfast plans. During that process, I called Jeff to find out about returning his car to him. As it turned out we were invited over for batwurts on the grill for lunch at which time we could return the car.

No only had we gotten to use, Jeff’s car, but now he was offereing to feed us as well, and we were all but total strangers to him. We accepted the lunch offer and had breakfast downtown.

After breakfast we walked along the arts and crafts that were closed last night and I found some interesting things. This recycled Wine bottle booth was one of the most unique things I had seen. This lady made art and other crafts out of remelted wine bottles, which were very cool.



Poking around, Margo and I found this old unprotected entry and got to look around in this old building.



I also liked this sign.




Finally we were back and it was time to go to Jeff and Becky for lunch. We chit chateted and talked about how unusuall it was for us to leave a friends behind to hangout with a local and how nervous we had been. Becky said that she had also been worried about the car with us, but once we all returned everything in one piece it was all family.

Before Lunch Jeff gave us a little song on a rare piece of history. He had happened to befriend Johnny Cash’s guitar player and had wound up having the chance to buy one of Cash’s ld tour guitars.





Jeff really had such a voice and the guitar sounded SOOO good.



I just wish all the guys back at Pacific Staging could have seen and hear it. Jeff played a wonderful rendition of Cash’s Big River. Jeff even let me play the guitar and even though I can’t play 6-string acoustic, I did my best to pluck a little 12 bar blues. I was in heaven.

Lunch out on the Back patio was fabulous spread of brats and melon fruit and slaw and such, oh and of course the locally brewed beer.

Here are Adam, Margo, Becky and Jeff.



Here is The whole lot of us with (front row: Me, Jeff -Rider; back row Jeff - New Ulm, Becky, Adam, Helyn and Margo)



After lunch, Jeff needed to take a nap since he had 2 more concerts to play witht he band at the festival. Becky offered to drive us up the street to the local brewery and we go to take the brewery tour.



At the end of the tour we got a tasting and I enjoyed the rootbeer and got information to order some over the internet once I get home.

From there we had several miles to walk back to the dorm.

I had spent my whole day goofing off and being a tourist. Now it was time to do laundry, clean my bike, and prep for 7 days of cycling.

It was such a good day off and I really enjoyed the company. By the end of the day I forgotten about all my mail, which was brought to me with a heap of teasing. I read the postcards right away and then planned to ration my mail for the next 3 days, since we wouldn’t have mail at our rest day in Valpo.

In the end not, I was just thankful for the time and blessings of the day.


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