Bemidji, MN- Crookston, MN

90 miles today.  So we got up early for multiple reasons.  Beating the headwind, we were still on route 2, heat, and to get to our destination on time (4pm) we left the church at 6:30am.  I ended up in a quick double-paceline (19mph average)  with Kathy, Kristen, Bobby,Katrina, Anson, Isaiah and the birthday boy Sean. We cruised while playing a word game called contact all of the morning we made it to out lunch stop at 8:45 am, ate fast and then cruised the the second lunch stop by noon and to the church by 1pm.  Thus riding a 90 mile day by 1pm. holy cow. (but there wasn't a strong headwind) 

I am pretty nervous about tomorrow since it is a 120 mile day and there is a chance of headwind...but we are leaving the church by 5:30 am so we might beat it....eep!

Grand Rapids, MN- Bemidji, MN

Ohhhh route 2...Kristen, Quang, Zack and I decided that Geocaching is really a good way to make it through the really, really long days on the same road into a headwind.  Today our Geo treasure waited for us at mile 60 and it was pretty hard to find (hidden inside of the statepark sign) but it was lucky that we decided to look for the cache because not only did we each get cool prizes (plastic rings in exchange for neat walnuts and a business card) but we also found a bike trail that got us off the route for about 3 miles which was great! 

Once we got the Bemidji we learned that they apparently take claim for Paul Bunyan and his Ox too, so they constructed these lovely statues. The town was excited that we were there so the newspaper came and took a picture of all of us in front of good ol' Paul.

GeoCaching: Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing) is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure. A geocacher can place a geocache in the world, pinpoint its location using GPS technology and then share the geocache's existence and location online. Anyone with a GPS unit can then try to locate the geocache. (www.geocaching.com)

Duluth, MN- Grand Rapids, MN

Today I decided not to pack my camera because we had a long day and our first of many on Route 2.   I was a sweep today with my good friend Quang, we had a long (we got to our site by 6:30 on a 70 mile day after leaving at 8..)  but still very, very good day.  The night before I put my new aerobars on my bike so that was fun to test out all day which was nice (because we had a CRAZY headwind!)  On the way Quang, Kim, Arianna, Kristen and I found a Geocache at a gas station at about mile 50 which we looked for without a GPS (by just looking up the general area on google maps) so that was pretty neat-o.   Once we were about 10 miles from our destination some of our team came and gave the sweeps and friends smoothies.  

Duluth, MN- Duluth, MN (build day)

Today we had a build day with Common Grounds housing organization in Duluth.  It is a land trust organization which means that once the house is part of the land trust it is always going to be an affordable house (which differs from Habitat because Habitat homeowners can sell thier house to anyone which means that it doesn't always stay a part of the affordable housing community)  Joy, Kristen, Lindsey, Dae and I all went to a painting site for the day and painted some walls in an office.  Joy stepped in the paint tray which was pretty funny.  Today we got mail again (yay!) and we found ourselves laughing a bit at Joy again while she tried to open a box with a plastic knife.  Thank you for the package Grammy it was really great!  Dad and Mom sent me a case of Honest Tea which was pretty great too thanks! Megan Healy I love the letter!

Hinkley, MN - Duluth, MN

Happy Trails to us.  Today we rode on a bicycle path the entire 80 miles to Duluth.  Fabulous. In the morning we stopped for breakfast at a diner and then continued on the beautiful trail for the rest of the day.  Once in Duluth we went to Fin fest and compared the the last Fin fest I went to in Marquette, MI this one was quite sub-par.  We are all pretty excited about the festival and we walk about 18 blocks and then on a 1/4 mile raised indoor sidewalk (that was at least 85 degrees) and walk into the "festival" which has about 10 people there in a huge room and a polka band. 

We all started laughing at this situation and took our seats.  Then the polka announcer says "And now we'll have our traditional Finnish tango" (what?) Everyone clears the floor so Jessie (bike and builder) and Christopher (B&B'er) take full advantage of this and decide to improvise the tango with all the moves (like ones you've seen on dancing with the stars) including a lift and a point when Jessie spun away from him and he literally crawled to her the length of the dance floor.  We were laughing extremely hard by the time they'd done thier finishing dip for the third time and the polka band decided to do another round.  The song ended up lasting at least 7 minutes and was the longest song played of the night. 

Oh Duluth Fin Fest...

St. Paul, MN - Hinkley, MN

Well we were supposed to stay in Sandstone...but apparently they didn't want Bike and Build this year, so we went to Hinkley instead. Do you know where Hinkley is? nope. And that is because there is nothing there, at all! I was pretty glad that there was nothing to do though, because I got to go to bed at 7:30pm and slept well (mostly except when the train sounded like it was coming though the wall 4 times).  We slept on the floor of a basketball court and our therm-a-rests kept sliding all around so quite often you heard people re-adjusting themselves to balance on the air mattress and not have it slide out from under us, it was pretty comical. Needless to say we were happy to leave in the morning. 

Pepin, WI- St. Paul, MN

Since the days are becoming a little bit monotonous we decided to mix it up a bit and have a photo scavenger hunt some of the events included pretending to be a statue, finding a yellow ball, a dead frog, Unicorn, a population sign of under 500..It was a lot of fun! We are still waiting to see who won the scavenger hunt, but I think our group did really well. When we got to St. Paul I got to see Christopher Aldrich!  Way cool!

La Cross, WI - PEPIN!, WI

Pepin! Its like a town of my relatives...Perhaps?  Well I'm not sure of that but I do know that we found my Great, Great, Great, Great Grandfather who was a giant Viking. Another neat fact: Laura Ingals Wilder (Little house on the Prairie) was from Pepin.  And the town was TINY, so clearly it was appropriate to make a sign that showed everything in the entire town.

Gays Mills, WI- La Cross, WI

A steep climb out of Gays Mills, but it was worth it when we went downhill and along the M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I (I feel like I need to spell it and not just say the word) and headed into Iowa and then went to Minnesota and then back to Wisconsin.  What a neat-o day!

Madison, WI- Gays Mills, WI

107 miles is what our route map told us...but was the day 107 miles?  oh. no, no, no.  When we went down a road for 10 miles and then realized we were going the wrong direction we added 20 miles to our total trip (this happened to the entire group except about 5 lucky ones) then a second wrong turn with the group added another 2 or so miles...

At our second lunch stop Christopher said "only another 20 miles left!" I was so excited until....I saw the ugliest sign in America which read 'Gays Mills 20 miles' after we had already ridden 8 miles after Christopher told us it was "only another 20"  

Exhausted we pulled into Gays Mills at 7:30pm with 127.9 miles on my odometer. OUCH!

Good thing there was homemade applesauce for dinner. (views were pretty too!)

Madison, WI - Day Off!!!

If I was supposed to choose a fun place to play for a few weekends, it would be Madison, WI.  The weather was nice, the roads were nice and we had an all around good time.  Madison was a much needed day off after a few long days of riding.

Madison, WI - Madison, WI

The Ride to Madison was really, really beautiful.  We didn't see much traffic...buut that was probably because it had flooded and we had to do a river crossing.  We decided it was a lot like playing the Oregon Trail...all our oxen died but luckily we didn't lose any people to dysentery.

Were your parents beavers?.........

...cuz, Daaaaymmm.

My patience level with the slow internet here in Pepin, WI has wiped me clean of my ability to post photos or a decent blog, this is attempt 9 sooo....I'll have to actually post updates of the last few days along with pictures during out next time with internet.  

I would like to thank everyone who is checking up on me, for checking up on me, its great! (if you want my cell # ask me or my parents and we'll be sure to give it to you) and so appreciated.  For all those who know I was really sick, I am almost over it and and enthusiastic to be spinning at full pace in the near future.  Although I was under the weather I still rode out longest day yet (which included a wrong turn. detour) which totaled 127.9 miles! epic. yes. (a good story. more on that later..)

I would also like to add that I love WI!! It is a great state, beautiful like VT or NH except bigger and with perfect roads.  Some of the towns have been realllly small which is pretty wild. (more on all of this when I have pictures and time)

But it is getting late fast and I need to pack my belongings for tomorrow and clean up my bicycle a bit.  Tomorrow I am in St. Paul, MN (sounds like a place with internet!)

and my brothers birthday was July 18! Happy Birthday Andrew!

Grayslake, WI - Madison, WI

In Grayslake we met up with a family who has a son doing Bike and Build on a Southern Route (crazy hot weather on that ride!) who wanted to have us over for dinner.  We ate grilled asparagus and lived like queens and kings for the afternoon! We gave a presentation about bike and build from the roof of their garage "here ye, here ye, one and all"...we proclaimed as if we were the king from the popular newspaper comic 'The Wizard of ID'   It was a really nice evening that let us really relax and enjoy hanging out with a nice family. 

Chicago, IL- Grayslake, IL

Do you ever have dreams that feel realistic, but are clearly to bizarre to be real? Today was a real day..but it felt really bizarre we were woken up late at 7:30 because we had a really short bike ride today (40 miles.) and then were served cotton candy for breakfast by Craig and his Father.  After that we all went to coffee at Beans and Bagels again and locked at least 15 bikes in a tiny rack and rode to our destination by 1pm.  Along the way we Kate, Bobby and I met a cyclist from GA with calve muscles at least the size of my head who had just finished a 27mile run the previous day in GA and now was in IL to ride bicycle races everyday in the area for the next 2 weeks, he rode along side of me and talked.  Perhaps the only things that seemed fake to me were the cotton candy and the calve muscles....

1,300 miles and our first day off.

Our day off was in Chicago, how fun right? About half the group woke up and went skydiving. I didn't have $200 to spend on a 15 minute endeavor today sooo... instead I decided to sleep in until 7:30am (I think I am in fact not capable of sleeping any later than this anymore) then got up and went out to Beans and Bagels with Kate, Sean and Sharon for breakfast (great food!) we read The Onion (newspaper) and then went to the church we were staying at to give a presentation and bicycle clinic to some of the church members.  Kate, Isaiah, Sean, Sharon and I went to the Vietnam War memorial where some Isaiah,  Kate and Sharon took naps and Sean and I talked on our phones and watched hornets from the nest above Isaiah walk all over him while he slept.   Once we had energy again we went for deep dish pizza (at Giordanos) and then for Ghiardelli ice cream (splitting 2 between the 5 of us).  We eventually wandered to the 95th floor of the Hancock building and experienced our own version of skydiving (dropping 95 stories in an elevator in like 30 seconds..holy high speed!) Cruised for the rest of the day and then went back to our home for the night.

Night time in Chicago after 118.7 miles

A certain amount of exploring the city at night was called for and we decided to see some of Chicago's attractions at night.  We started by checking out the bean, which is a really neat sculpture and a lot of fun to play with and around. Phase 2 we roamed the city streets and eventually settled at Rock Bottom where we sat for quite a while and then caught the last "L" train back to our church.

Edwardsburg MI- Chicago Il

At night in Edwardsburg we taught a bicycle clinic about general bike safety and then went for a ride with all the youngsters.  We went to bed while it will still light out and then awoke when it was dark...at 5:30 am because today we rode 118.7 miles to Chicago!  Sadly the morning rained...buuut then the sun came out around the stateline to Illinois. Most of us hit the century mark on the bike trail in Chicago near the stone wall where we stopped for a break and to look at the skyline of the glorious city.  Do you want to know the most wild part of all this?   Its that once we got to our destination and had a group dinner we all went out and explored the city a bit.

Camden, MI-Edwardsburg, MI

Their sign said welcome to the middle of nowhere...and it couldn't have been more accurate.  The village of Camden had 1,000 people in it and I'm pretty sure that we rode by the entire village when we headed to Edwardsburg.   Leaving Camden the Pastor (man next to the dressed up poodle...named Tiffany...) showed us an alternative route which cut 2 miles off our ride and we followed him that morning which was a really nice start to the day. Once in Edwardsburg we all ate dinner and then went to bed early for our ride into Chicago.

So I have some extra pictures.

Bowling Green, OH- Camden, MI

Praise him! (Jason Jansen quote) We are out of Ohio!   Story of the day...5 of us stopped at a Dairy Queen to pee after lunch in Bryan, Ohio and somebody who happened to be in the DQ called the newspaper because all 5 of us were wearing the same jersey.  The lady from the NP got there in under 5 minutes because she caught us on the way out of the door she explained that she was called and then hurried over "as fast as she could".  She told us the town was really small and that she wanted to put us in the Day in the Life section of the paper.  Sooo I guess you can look for me posed in front of the Bryan, OH Dairy Queen with some bicycles in the upcoming Bryan Times.

Avon Lake, OH-Bowling Green, OH

98 miles into a head wind baby. End of story. Bed time is now.  No pictures because I didn't carry my camera today..

Avon Lake

So Kate and I easily have the best host family! Thank you Maureen, Phil, Erin, and Ian (Max, and the cat who we didn't see) for hosting us.  We got to stay with them for two nights and it was amazing to have a bed to sleep in and a family to stay with.  The first night that we were there Kate and I were so tired that we just went to bed, buuut finally we got to hang out with the fam. 

Earlier that day we worked on a build site in Cleveland and my Dad sent some Honest teas with his co-workers for all of my fellow B&B'ers.  It was a really nice surprise, Thanks Dad! While we were at the build site (where we accomplished sooo much!! I'd like to add) we met someone who knew the owner of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and he got our entire group free tickets!  Awesome.  While inside I did think Cleveland rocked...and then once I went outside, where it was pouring rain and no longer had that feeling.