Into Central Time! Day 13

We are officially in central time and Illinois, woohoo!

(Sorry I forgot to post this before, it's from a few days ago!)

We got on the road (with wind in our faces again of course!). We passed this gigantic sign for Clabber Girl Baking Powder in the town that it was started. They were proud of their Clabber Girl in that town, that's for sure! Alec was confused, and I quote "What in the world is a Clabber...?". (Get ready for some more good Alec quotes from today)

We stopped at a picnic area in this cute, small town to eat some lunch. Alec took a nap on the picnic table, as would be expected. 

His eyes were seriously bothering him, so we looked up an eye doctor and found that there was one on our route just a mile down, perfect. 

They were SO nice and saw him right away. Actually, the doctor wasn't in on Wednesday afternoons and had already left. But they called her and she came in right away from doing crossfit with her excercise clothes still on! We were lucky they were so great and accommodating. When he came out I asked him what they did, and he said "lots of eyedrops and they even did them, not me, you should've seen me, I handled it so well...!" with a huge smile. (Alec quote number two!)

Later on in Terre Haute, IL we rode past a bike shop called Fat Bikes and decided to go in to say hi. There was a guy on the sidewalk (this is in the middle of a city/town place) trying to fix a chainsaw who kind of saw our bikes and asked us what we needed, and we just said we were coming to say hi. And after a short exchange we were confused, and asked him if he worked there, to which he responded, "Well, I might as well!" Which confused us even more...! But he was really nice, and the guy inside who worked there (not just kind of worked there!) was as well, and he gave us two water bottles for free. Which was fantastic. 

Just past that bike shop we crossed into Illinois! Our 8th state. The road that we crossed on was called "Illiana", which I thought was fun. And the big sign in the picture with Alec, below, was on an overpass over I-70 (we were on Hwy 40 that runs basically parallel). Wanting a picture with it he climbed up a hill and hopped onto the overpass. Anything for a picture!

Earlier in the day we saw two, uh, patriotic trucks. The first says "Murica" with an American flag painted on the hood, and the second has an American flag and a confederate flag on the back. 

And after Alec got up from this fall he said "I am like a snake in the grass", and insisted that it was the softest, most cushioned fall ever. 

This started him saying his "mantra", which I will write at the end of this post. 

The shoulder was kind of small for most of the day and had like a little drop down and then gravel, then usually tall grass. If you accidentally ride down into the gravel you can't really get back onto the pavement without stopping, and walking your bike back on. I tried to hop back on once without stopping an completely fell... It was grateful though and I unclipped my feet in perfect timing an landed on my feet! Alec did the same thing a couple times but instead of trying to ride back on the pavement, his thin tires would lead him into the tall grass.. But it's completely on purpose, he says, he's just exploring! He did a lot of exploring that day... :)

We thought this was a great sign, and very representative of a large percent of the demographic we have found in the Midwest!

Daily stats:

Mileage: 59.63

Average speed: 9.87

Max speed: 33.65

Elevation gain: 2248

Daily poem:

(Today it's Alec's mantra)

I am a snake in the grass

I am a crab in the sand

I am lightning

I am boy

(After reciting this mantra he always zooms ahead and sticks his elbows and knees out to the side as he rides...silly, silly Alec)

We also tried to stay at a motel that we discovered was only for weekly or monthly guests, but they had this sign up next to the office. Which was interesting. We were glad to move on..! Our favorite sign of the day (behind the welcome to Illinois of course!)

Marshal IL to Vandalia, IL

It's hard to remember so far back. We are going to try to keep up with the posts a little better from now on. 

We just ended our second week on the bike. Things have been super wet and windy but overall it's been great. We stayed in more motels than we prefer but we also don't like setting up camp in thunderstorms. .

We also just passed six thousand dollars in fundraising. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated. We are almost to our goal and are so grateful to all our supporters. Citta is a great organization and the donations will be used where they will do the most good. 

Now to our day:

We woke up around 530 and are breakfast. Got almost 45 miles done by noon, which is the longest morning we've had. We had a slower afternoon but did almost 90 miles. There was a headwind all day which made riding harder and we both got blown off the road a few times. Pretty early in the day we passed Josh 

http://joshorndorff.com/node/1249

He is riding cross country too! Started in LA 

and is finishing in Boston. He is 4 weeks in

and averaging about 90 miles a day. We are 

jealous of his tailwind. It was nice seeing him 

and talking a little about our journeys and plans

. Good luck josh! 

He wasn't the only traveler we saw that day. 

About 30 miles later we ran into another 

cross country cyclist from Korea. His name 

was Yang and he was super excited to meet 

us and talk about our adventures. He was 45 

days in to the ride and after we told him about

 josh, hoping to catch up to him. 

We pulled into a motel that night just seconds

 after it started pouring. 

We met up with some of allies good friends

from Carbondale, Jen and Madi. It was great 

meeting them and they took us out to a great dinner

At the motel we also ran into another bike traveler

 who was on his fourteen day too. His name 

is Dana and he just retired from teaching graphic

 design. Here is a picture of him and Allie with their bikes...

He was wonderfully friendly and we had a good

 time talking to him. He is a 'blue-domer' and

thinks you shouldn't waste time with negative 

people. We like both those philosophies. He 

told us all about his 14 day trip and specifically

 about his new love, Cindy, who makes him 

feel like a teenager. So sweet! Here is a picture

 of the two of them. 

An some details about his bike or those 

who are interested. 

Harley Davidson Heritage

110 Anniversary model

Number 940 out of only 1900 made

103 cubic inch 

He started on the same day as us and 

already rode 3635 miles. Sounds like a 

much better plan...

Best of luck to all our fellow travelers. 

Keep the dirty side down. 

Daily stats:

Miles: 87.47mpg

Ride time: 8:10:53

Ave speed: 10.68mph

Max speed: 28.34mph

Elevation gain: 1649ft

Daily haiku

Endless spinning wheels 

Drifting through the Bible Belt

Kansas dreams await

-AB 

Day 12

We woke up to a wonderful breakfast of oatmeal (with fruit and nuts and granola and honey, yum) and scrambled eggs that Kyle's sister, Christy, made for us. We enjoyed our breakfast and got out the door slowly. We were planning on doing a halfday of riding so we weren't in any big rush. We left at about 12:15, and wished we had left earlier when we felt the headwinds. With a combination of wind and sore legs from sprinting to Kyles house the day before (oops!) we were tired and wanted to stop as soon as we could. We saw a very sketchy sign for a motel on the side of the highway that we chose to pass up...

Probably a good decision! While stopped taking a picture of that sign I got a message from somebody riding his bike across the country west-east and was currently in Ithaca caught in the crazy storms there! He got my number off of Warm Showers (which shows I am available to host in the Ithaca area) and it was fun talking to him briefly. Unfortunately by the time I called him back he had already checked into a hotel, but if the storms persisted we told him he could stay with Alec's fraternity brothers the next night. Nice to know there are more of us cross country bikers out there somewhere, it was fun to get his call. 

Alec was excited about this sign reminding him of his home in Westport. The scenery is quite different here, but was still fun!

And we were slightly confused at this sign as we were trying to ride AWAY from Indianapolis..

Luckily it was a sign for a highway going the other way! Although with our directional skills I wouldn't be surprised if we were accidentally headed the wrong way..

We checked into a Super 8 motel for the night. Despite the good rest we got at Kyle's and the short mileage, we were exhausted from the winds, and anticipating thunderstorms during the night. It was a good choice to stay there, and after Alec talked the price down (woohoo go Alec) it was only $5 more expensive than the campsite a couple of miles away would have been. 

Daily stats:

Mileage: 42.5

Average speed: 9.5 mph

Elevation gain: 1154

Oh, and I love this barn in Ohio that we forgot to put in before. We really enjoyed Ohio, it was great. 

Daily haiku:

Strong winds from the west,

Bring our biking speed way down,

But spirits stay high. 

- AW

Day 11

We woke up right as the rain was stopping from the night before (perfect timing) and got on the road after packing up camp and having some coffee at the campsite office where we charged our almost dead phones for a bit. 

We also used the solar charger for the first time while actually riding our bikes -- we tied it to the top of Alec's back panniers so that we could charge on the go! And we were able to keep power for the rest of the day, and not get lost because we use our phones for maps. 

We made GREAT time in the morning. For the first 35 miles or so we averaged 13 mph, which is MUCH faster than we've been able to go. 

We stopped at a gas station to pump our tires up with the air compressor for car tires. And I found a new reason to love my great touring bike--my touring tires retain air so much better than Alec's racing tires do. My front tire was still at it's full psi and my back was only 10 psi low, whereas Alec's front was about 35 low and his back was worse. We continued on and ignored signs for road work ahead... nobody was working (we found out) because it was Memorial Day so we just cruised right on through, after bypassing a couple fences and steering clear of some ditches... We felt pretty cool going through where cars couldn't, yay bikes!

We stopped to get a few groceries at a place we passed and got some egg rolls and a fortune cookie from the Chinese place next door. This was our fortune...:

Thank you fortune cookie, that we are.. 

A really nice man, who I believe introduced himself as Ralph Adams (if I remember right!) outside the grocery store watched our bikes for us, and asked us a lot about our trip, and shared some stories of his own about snow storms in the middle of the summer in Colorado. He was great and donated $10 to Citta. That's actually our first donation from a person we met in passing, thanks Ralph!

After that the wind seriously picked up, right in our faces... Everybody told us the winds always blow west-east, and boy did we feel it. We slowed way down in the afternoon, but still had a great time! Kyle, who's house we were headed toward, came out on his bike to meet us and ride in with us. It was great! He actually drive 4 hours to and from Chicago, where he's interning, and back in the same day just so he could ride with us and see us, so great. He met us with about 20 miles to go. On the way back it randomly rained for like 10 seconds, and we GOT ICE CREAM FROM AN ICE CREAM TRUCK!!!! I've never done that before I don't think. It was so exciting. 

In all of my excitement I apparently dropped my wallet in the middle of the road... This amazingly nice woman, Ruth, who lives in Indianapolis found it and went through some serious loops to find a way to get it back for me! In a process that involved calls to the credit card company and to her daughter (who lives in Austin, what?!) who found us in a phone book, Ruth got in touch with my mom, and then me, and Kyle's sister, Christy, drove me to pick my wallet up. Thank you so much Ruth! I'm lucky that such a wonderful person found it.

Before that whole process happened, we arrived at Kyle's (we raced at the end to try to get 12mph average for the day which was fun, but tiring, and we barely got it!) and had amazing showers, great company, and a wonderful meal. Salad, bread, and more spaghetti than we could have dreamed of. It was fantastic.. It was great meeting Kyle who I've heard a lot about from Alec as well!

Thank you so much for having us Leavitt family!!

Daily stats:

Mileage: 69.66

Average speed: 12 mph (13 in the morning tho!)

Elevation gain: 1101 ft

Favorite sign from the day:

Daily haiku:

Fastest morning yet,

Crazy headwinds we hate them,

We love Kyle a lot. 

-AW

Yesterday

Everything is so flat so we made great time. We finally got them to serve us in a drive through(go Burger King) but them we brought it inside because it's impossible to eat Burger King on a bike. We pulled into a campsite around 7 and it was hoppin. They were having a big event for Memorial Day. Live country band from Dallas Texas. A 'blinky parade' and a huge round bouncy thing that was super dangerous and fun. We danced a little and went to bed late because the band didn't end till 11. 

On the way there we passed a couple walking who let us fill water bottles at their hose and shared stories. The older couple told us a little about their thru-hike of the Appalachian trail that they took when they retired. So cool! We want to do that next.. 

We had a bunch of dogs chasing after us along all of our random back roads. They would almost always stop when they saw we weren't trying to get on their yards. This one place though the dog came out. Then another one. And another. And another. An another. 5 dogs barking. We stopped and they immediately became much more friendly. The owner came out and sortof looked at us then went back in side. Was a little strange. It was also hard to get moving because the dogs would chase us whenever we started up again. Was fun though. Here's the only picture I got. 

Allie fell immediately after this picture. 

Right when we walked in and started explaining our trip to the office and this nice woman immediately insists on paying for our $38 campsite. 

We also cooked dinner and then were offered corn and steak from our awesome neighbors. We ate 5 pieces of corn, two steaks and an entire box of basil pesto pasta(serves 8). Indianians are so nice!! 

Daily stats:

Miles: 77.76

Average speed: 11.71mph

Elevation gain: 1251ft

Haiku:

Memorial Day

Camp's crowded with friendly folk

Always past bedtime. 

-AB

Week 1 Poem

On the road with our bikes for a week from the sea,

Having fun in P.A. and before in Jersey.

New York was great too, though it lasted a day,

From our start in Connecticut we're well on our way!

It's been raining and raining and raining some more,

But don't fret, our spirits have not hit the floor.

Singing up rolling hills that are much more like mountains,

And enjoying the cool-off when skies turn to fountains. 

Looking forward to a flatter and drier Midwest,

 we're headed there now, and we're bringing our best!

-AW

Today was good

Today we were riding in Ohio which is NOT MOUNTAINS. We climbed no hills and it was great. We started our day with a delicious breakfast at the hotel and repacked our panniers. The fellow diners were nice and we gave out some of our little business cards with our websites. 

About 10 miles into our ride we passed the first bike shop of the trip. Such a good stop! I got some new (sorely needed) tired and replaced my brake pads. I also picked up some new gloves. They were curious to see if my chain and wheels make the journey (racing wheels and a badly worn chain). The owners were super nice and have us a loaf of homemade bread and some newly expired sports drink tablets. Yum!

They also told us a way to get out of town on some great back roads and avoid all the highways. 

Literally the only traffic we had to worry about was farm equipment.. What is this thing?!

We passed a Honda manufacturing plant, which is cool. 

There were cows EVERYWHERE. They would just stop and look at us. All of them, staring. It was super weird. For one herd I stopped and called them over with my cow powers. 

We also stopped at this little farm market that was having a big beer and wine tasting event. They also had tons of food samples. We tried everything. Several times. Lots of steak too. The people there were amazingly friendly and three nice ladies by the raspberry food company, robert farms. They even gave us a bunch of jars of their spreads to take with us. It was so nice. 

Someone we were talking to also have us excellent turn by turn directions to our campsite. There were about 15 little tiny roads we had to take and he knew all of them in a deep country accent. 

Someone else also came up to us and started talking vaguely about his bike touring experiences. We asked him to take a picture of us and did. (Never seen an iPhone though so we had to coach him through it. ) He said he has taken over thirteen thousand pictures in his life. He asked if we wanted a picture with the band and we said okay. He then walked over to the band and started taking pictures of them without us. It was the strangest thing. . 

Here is his best one. 

We got into camp around 8 and went to sleep late around 10. We put all of our food in one of the waterproof panniers because we were warned about the "vicious 'coons" that would eat us. 

Daily stats

Miles: 71

Average speed: 10.25mph

Elevation gain: 2025ft

Daily haiku:

Ride so beautifully

Ohio is a pancake

I am Cow Master

Favorite sign:

 

-AB