7/22 Mankato to Rochester, Mn.

 

As you can imagine, people you meet along the way, weather store clerks or bar tenders or people who just see you riding, are amazed at our undertaking. They ask “Where are you going?” Do we give them tonight’s destination or the ultimate destination? They can’t comprehend the trip. They think we’re doing the impossible. But they REALLY admire us. ‘Haven’t found anyone yet who thinks we’re crazy. I went to the bar at the Holiday Inn last night to get a glass of wine and unintentionally got into a conversation with a couple from Chicago. They were full of questions and observations – and admiration. A fun conversation. We live in different worlds.

         

The weather gods obviously didn’t consult Underground Weather; tailwinds were forecast but we felt none. We did feel some headwind however. Most unusual, we had an hour or more of fog this morning. The ride started with a tough climb (14%) two blocks from the hotel. And that set the tone for the day; we had considerably more climbing than the past four days; in fact about three times as much. So the winds and the hills sure slowed us down – another 102 mile day but a much longer one than yesterday.

         

At breakfast this morning I learned others are having difficulty in finding something worth photographing and Mike told us it will get much worse when we cross the Mississippi River. Also learned I’m not the only one who prefers riding alone over riding in a pace line; the other three riders at the table feel the same way.

At about mile 50 we had two traffic circles, very novel for this country. Which brings out one of my per peeves: stop signs and traffic lights. How stupid to stop, waste time (I only have so many minutes left!) and gasoline when there are no cars in sight. How did the British end up with a much more civilized and efficient system of traffic circles and we ended up with stop signs and stop lights? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

         

Somewhere along the ride today I got to wondering how much time I’m spending, on average, in the saddle each day. The answer is 5.9 hours.

Additional B&W photos at end of blog, but shown here are Jerseys of John Damiano, the 80 year old rider. I think he has the best looking jerseys of anyone on the ride.

Day 31, 102 miles, 1,981 feet of climbing, 7.5 hrs, 2,337 miles so far

19 days remaining, 1,368 miles remaining

7/21 Worthington to Mankato, Mn.

 

We’re barely in Minnesota when we have a Wisconsin breakfast – cheese to begin with, cheese on the eggs and cheese on the potatoes. Fortunately no cheese on the pancakes. What will it be like in Wisconsin? Nothing but cheese? --- Once again some rain before we leave – and rain after I’m at the Holiday Inn in the afternoon. Some of the riders obviously got rained on. --- This was the “fast day” we’ve been looking for. Downhill and tailwind most of the day. I did my first sub six hour (riding time) century. Only one century to go, although tomorrow’s ride is 97 miles. --- Smooth roads again today. The only downside is that a detour routed additional traffic on our road so lots of traffic for a while. But every car and truck I saw gave us a lot of room.

         

One difference in Minnesoto: we’re seeing more towns, closer together. But some of them are damn small; I saw a sign yesterday for a town with population 6; who’s going to be mayor this year?

         

A week ago Mike told us “When you road into Casper (120 miles with headwinds) you demonstrated that, physically, you can do any ride we throw at you. "From now on it's mental, getting up every morning and getting on the saddle.” In OVER THE HILLS David Lamb had thoughts on the physical vs the mental:

“The challenge was no longer physical, it was mental. My body had started to respond obediently, like a machine, pedaling on and on, day after day, week after week, through valleys,across plains, up hills. It did whatever it was told to do. Bicycling six or eight hours a day was simply what I did.”

So far my feelings are more like David's, I don't have a problem being in the saddle day after day, it's what I expect. In fact, I'm sure I'll miss it when it's over. And I will be taking a break when it’s over; three days after I return to Dallas I’m having knee surgery and will be off the bike for a while.

         

Day 30, 102 miles, 670 feet climbing, 6.2 hs, 2,235 miles so far

20 days remaining, 1,468 miles remaining

7/20 Sioux Falls, SD. to Worthington, Mn.

 

Sioux Falls was about as bad as any city I’ve tried to cycle in but leaving town this morning was a pleasant surprise. About a half mile from the motel we got on a 10 mile bike path which took us out of town along the Sioux River. We cycled in a nice park along the river and at the end found Sioux Falls themselves. They were more impressive than I had imagined.

We’re soon out of South Dakota and into Minnesota. My initial reactions were not good:

• The Welcome to Minnesota sign was not only way off the road, it was on the left hand side – really dumb unless you’re in the UK.
• The shoulder disappeared and we had no where to ride except where the cars drive.

  

I later realized that the road we were on, CR-4, is a county road, and I don’t expect shoulders on county roads. In fact, it was quite wide for a CR. A couple of miles out of Magnolia, CR-4 turned into CR-35 (In a new county?) and CR-35 may be the smoothest road we’ve experienced in four weeks! It also has a narrow shoulder.

I haven’t mentioned the weather today; we had a heavy rain about 30 minutes prior to departing. I dug through my bag and pulled out the Gortex, still in the backpack. ABB delayed the start for 20 minutes and the rain went away, although the roads were wet and clouds threatened all day. I carried the Gortex in the backpack all day to prevent the rain. But you couldn’t prevent the wind today; it was from the SE and we were going east.

-- Anyway the cloudy weather along with the silos and barns called out for black and white photography .

         

                 

Day 29, 71 miles, 769 feet climbing, 5.2 hrs, 2,133 miles so fqr

21 days to go, 1,570 miles to go

7/19 Sioux Falls, SD. Rest Day

 

Time will start flying now. In the first four weeks we’ve crossed four states (Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and South Dakota). In the next three weeks we’ll touch seven states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Vermont, Main and New Hampshire) and Ontario, Canada.

So how do you navigate across the country? In the old days, you’d get maps and a compass. With today’s technology there are a lot of options. If you use Adventure Cycling maps (best in the business), they provide GPS data along with their maps. So it’s almost as easy as using the GPS in your car. ABB doesn’t supply GPS data but each night we get route sheets, a map and an elevation profile for the next day’s ride. The last two of these are not very useful but the route sheets are dead-on accurate, maybe even better than mine! In 4 weeks and 2,000+ miles, only once have I been unsure where to go – that was on a bike path coming out of Astoria on the first day. So I have the route sheet in the map holder on the handlebar bag and my GPS (Garmin Etrix Vista HCx) and bike computer (VDO MC1.0+) close by. I use the GPS as my prime computer because it is the most accurate. But it has been giving me problems (turning itself off, losing sing data) so the bike computer is primarily a backup. I also use the bike computer on climbs to tell me the percent grade. Incidentally, I prefer this computer over others because of the amount of information displayed on a single screen (speed, trip distance, elevation, grade and temperature).

The amount of technology I’m carrying is maybe excessive; it surely adds to my allowable weight (35 pounds + a carry-on, which in my case is my laptop). In addition to the bike computer and GPS, I have a voice recorder to make notes during the ride, a cell phone of course, lap top and digital camera. And the accessories to all this: cords and chargers and batteries.

On a journey of a hundred miles, ninety is but half way. - Chinese proverb

7/18 Mitchell to Sioux Falls, SD.

 

If your objective is just to ride a bike’ today was almost perfect - smooth roads, pleasant temperature, slight wind, little traffic. What more could you want? Well, maybe scenery. Very little to see or to photograph. I thought of producing a video showing corn growing but there are more states to conquer so I can’t stay and watch corn. --- One thing I have noticed, and it was very noticeable yesterday as I rode an unofficial route through residential streets in Mitchell from the Corn Palace to the motel, is the towns no longer feel western. I’m not sure why; maybe it’s the trees in the towns. But whatever it is, they’re feeling more like what I think of as main-stream America.

         

         

Tomorrow being a lay-over day (What will I do in Sioux Falls, SD? – particularly since the laundry is done and the bike has been cleaned), it is the end of a segment and the beginning of a new segment. I know we’re losing 4 riders and picking up about the same number. There are a lot of people who can’t afford the time to ride across America in one year, so they do it a little at a time. Personally, I would not feel satisfied doing it this way. I’m glad I’m doing the whole thing, R.E.F.I.

The six international riders add a lot to the ride. I find Liz from the U.K. interesting because she is a non-cyclist – hasn’t ridden since her childhood and didn’t own a bike. Her Husband Howie (shown on the left of the photo) and his cycling buddy Richard decided they wanted to do this ride. Howie said “I need to get permission from Liz.” When he asked, she said “Yes.” and then added “And I want to go too.” So Howie bought her a bike and developed a training program for her about a year ago. So here she is, a 63 year old non-cyclist, riding across the U.S. I asked her the other day if she regretted it and she said “Absolutely not. There have been some difficult days but I’m enjoying it.” The moral of this story is that most people reading this blog could ride across the country if they decided they wanted to. Yes, you!

Day 27, 72 miles, 695 feet climbed, 4.7 hrs. 2,052 miles so far

23 days remaining, 1,640 miles remaining

7/17 Chamberlain to Mitchell, SD.

 

Internet problems: ABB sent information on the motels we’re staying in for 50 nights. Only one, the Best Western in Chamberlain, did not have wi-fi. But I checked at the desk when I checked in yesterday and they did have internet; it required a cat5 cable which they gave me. Today, at the Mitchell Best Western, wi-fi worked great for a while. But then I lost connectivity and no-one was able to help me. Or no-one wanted to. So this July 17 will be posted on July 18.

         

The main reason you cycle the U.S. west to east is for the westerly winds. In 26 days, I think we’ve had this for maybe a day. Recently the winds have been north-west or north. Although that may not be helping our riding as much as we’d like, there is another effect (or is it affect?) and that is cooler weather. In previous years, they experienced 100 degree days on the way to Mitchell so stated early. We started late today; the temperature here at 3:00 is 72 degrees! Brenda has been complaining about Dallas low of 85 so she’ll really be mad at me enjoying a high in the 70’s. The low this morning was 59. The prior two mornings I started the ride with a jacket on.

         

                     

People in South Dakota obviously don’t have an exciting social life. In Wall, there’s Wall Drug, where half the town works, raking in money from tour buses, old folks and Harley riders. Then there is Pukwana; would you want to live in a town called Pukwana? Their entertainment and claim to fame is Lawn Mower Racing.  Big time. Like NASCAR. And here in Mitchell, the central attraction is the Corn Palace. Corny as it sounds, it’s the best of the three.

Although there wasn’t much climbing today, we did have a 3 mile climb out of town. When describing this last night, Karen asked “Did you see that mountain coming into town?” Well, it wasn’t a mountain, but this raises the question “”What is a mountain?”

According to Wikipedia there is no universally-accepted definition of mountain. In the United States, the following points of measurement have been used and taught in geography classes:

• Flat to 500 feet, base to highest point - Rolling Plain
• Highest point 501 to 999 feet above base - Hill
• Highest point 1000 feet or more above base - Mountain

I’ve talked about rough roads, speculated they were frost heaves but wondered why they’re so regular. Jim, the mechanic, had a theory yesterday which I now believe is correct. We were on several miles of what looked like “original concrete” today. Every so often there is an expansion joint. So we believe that asphalt is used to cover the concrete when it gets bad, and when the concrete joints expand and contract, the asphalt heaves and creates the bumps which we’re been experiencing.

Looking at my blogs, one thing is clear. On a ride like this life is reduced to the simplest things and we focus on the most trivial (What causes cracks in roads, What is a hill?, Where’s my next meal? What room am I in? Where are we going tomorrow? Where are we now? What is forecast for the temperature and wind?).

Day 26, 73 miles, 810 feet climbed, 5.1 hrs. 1,980 miles so far

24 days remaining, 1,712 miles remaining

7/16 Pierre to Chamberlain, SD.

 

We had some decent scenery as we left Pierre and as we approached Chamberlain; both provided by the Missouri River. And there was a little – very little – variety as we saw more farming, including corn. But mostly it is an empty land. This is a sparsely settled country. --- As the miles rolled on, again a single road most of the day, with little to catch your attention, your eyes focus on the road ahead of you. I’m pretty sure I was close to being hypnotized. I can even imaging falling asleep at the wheel. --- But what kept you awake, and in misery most of the day, was the rough road surface. Not a continuous high frequency roughness like Texas’ chip seal roads, but breaks in the pavement, frost heaves I assume, that shake your bike and rattle your bones continuously. They’re one to three bike lengths apart; some minor but many the size of your arm and they will jolt you unmercifully. I began to worry about my wheels. How can they stand up to this continuous pounding? At one point near the end of the ride, on a steep descent, the jolting was so bad it scared me. I started jumping the bike over the bumps, but this can’t be good for the wheels, so I applied the brakes and wasted the down-hill momentum.

         

Dinner conversation: A week or so ago, in Wyoming, everyone was talking about looking forward to South Dakota. After a few days in South Dakota, everyone is looking forward to Minnesota. Last night someone said: “We’ll see things there – like trees and houses and churches.”

           

                          

I probably rode with Bill Borland (above) from Tucson more than any other rider.

Today marked the half-way point of the ride. We “celebrated” it at the first rest stop (which was probably 15 miles shy of the actual mid-point). Thoughts on the first half:

1. I can’t believe it’s half over. ‘Seems like it started just yesterday.
2. It’s been much easier than I imagined. Basically no aches, no pain (except for saddle sores); I recover quickly each evening.
3. And, the second half should be easier, weather permitting. (NO RAIN SO FAR!)

Day 25, 84 miles, 1,802 feet climbing, 6.5 hrs. 1,907 miles so far

25 days remaining, 1,782 miles to go