2nd to last day!

Rode some really awesome roads today in Illinois including a little bit on an old canal. Did 94 miles today and realized of past week, 6 of 7 days spent entirely outside. Not a bad problem to have. Took some really cool pictures today so I will let those do the talking.

Illinois, the last state!

Another RAGBRAI successfully completed. Have a really great group of people to ride with so that is awesome :-) Finished Ragbrai which is an organized ride across Iowa today and added 50 more miles to get closer to home. I have 200 more miles left and am going to try to pound out three days of a century which means a hundred miles a day. We'll see how that goes :-) hopefully the weather/wind will be in my favor. Was looking into hotels for Illinois since I am on road bike with no camping gear now. Booked a hotel just because it was next to an Olive Garden :)

!OWA

Hello all! Back on bike and crossing Iowa! Doing RAGBRAI which means like 20,000 people are on ride too.  In southern Iowa which is rather hilly. Nothing like awful Montana but still....you get the idea!  Riding with a great bunch of folks, its good to know good peeps :). The weather has been rather hot most of the right now it is cooling off which also means windy. Great thing about RAGBRAI is there are about 20,000 folks to draft off.

Unfortunately I have appeared to acquired an illness from one of my wonderful teammates. Oh well. Enjoy the pics!

Day #30. =1 week ahead

I am 1 week ahead of schedule which means I get to go home for a few days! :-) Only have 2 more states left . I cannot explain in words adequately the experiences of this trip. I came up with two quotes that pretty much summarizes everything: "never forget good begets good." And "We are owed nothing, it's easier to have a profound sense of gratitude with that attitude." This has been such an amazing journey thank you for everything.  Check back in a week for Iowa, Illinois and the Best of List!

Day 27. What to do when the wind is against you.

I spent about an hour yesterday mapping out the next four days of riding to Sioux City, which is my next rest day. I did all this based upon the wind forecast. Let's just say today the route went out the window along with the wind forecast. I did try to twice to bike into 25 - 33 mph headwinds but really you go so slow it's almost worth it to head back have another breakfast so I did that..... twice and then decided to change my route. I also got to poke around some old abandoned houses while waiting for the wind shift directions the second part for the ride. I do hope and pray that the next two days the winds are doing what they're supposed to do because I have 70-plus miles to go those days we shall see. BTW, do not go into abandoned buildings!

D23ish -D#25: You say buffalo, I say bison.

Day #24: 100miles.

Got some great news  I am now in South Dakota. It is surprisingly a lot like North Dakota except for I have never seen so much freaking wind in my life. Today I was riding straight into the wind and it took me 3 hours to go 20 miles on a completely flat road. That is insane! I will have to say that I'm getting excited as I head more south and east. Also to stay ahead of the heat and the wind, I road what is called a century a few days ago that is 100 miles in one day. Gotta say when I rolled into the hotel that night I was absolutely nasty. Covered with a fine film of bugs, sunblock, and sweat. I also decided to get off the Lewis and Clark Trail which follows the Missouri River. I realized that Lewis and Clark were not on freaking bicycles and therefore did not have to climb hill after hill after hill after hill after hill. Yeah yeah, I know that they didn't have gas stations or clean water and cell phones but I am very happy with the choice I made slowly cutting across South Dakota will be in Iowa very soon like maybe 5 days :-) Lastly. I am happy to report that the tent with stands 30 mile an hour winds torrential downpour and a crazy lightning storm. I kind of got into a bit of a pickle yesterday and rolled into a campground hot and exhausted they had no spots. A really nice person said come crash my site we have an RV I'm sure you can fit in. Regardless of all the terrible things going on in the world, this trip has really given me Faith in humanity. and now for the pics:

Buffalo

 Morning after massive storm passes, BTW this is facing East at 9am!

I remember trees....

Big brother is watching.....

D#22: Tooling along in interstate.

Much to my chagrin, left a great town with a stop to neat coffee shop' Dark side of the brew'. Long day (nearly 8hrs) and lots of miles (81) most of with was on interstate, which is actually quite nice! Double wide shoulders and long climbs vs short intense ones. Debate over which climb is 'better' still rages. Rolled into first big city (Bismarck) in DAYS. Will be first Starbucks/Fast Food

in like weeks! Imagine that. CANNOT wait to get bike fixed!! Nothing like climbing a hill at mile #80, in the rain and having your chain drop. On a side note, I'm pretty sure my legs spun faster than a blender till I realized I wasn't in a gear! BUT I magically managed to unclip before falling over. :) more pics soon! BTW: I think I'm in the land of the rare and endangered "scotcharoo". If you see one of these in its native habit, at once go through extrodinary measures to procure and consume said item.  It is my new life goal to eradicate said species.

North Dakota sunset. 

Day#21. North Dakota, I think I'm in love.

Today was an absolute awesome day of riding. Decided to grab breakfast in the cafe of the town I was in overnight and wait out the rain and heavy wind. Pushed off and come noon I had put in about 20 miles and I'll be darned but the headwind switch to a tailwind just like the forecast! Temps in low 80s and beautiful weather so decided to go 15 miles more. Got to ride through some absolutely beautiful scenery as seen in the pictures below. I have been keeping an eye out for a plate from North Dakota and today I found one! That puts my plate count up to 9! I think North Dakota gets a bad rap because people stay out kinda like they say it rains all the time in Portland but that doesn't keep people out. So this state is absolutely terrible it's horrible don't come here and yes you might want to come visit my summer home here when I retire. :)

Day #20. America....!

Today is the 4th of July and also the 100year anniversary of the National Parks.  What better way to celebrate than being in a national park?!! Well, I rode through one (Teddy Roosevelt National Grasslands) and landed in this "pioneer town" which was having a parade and long story short, I rode in the parade! Best news of the day out of Montana and, TAILWINDS!!!!!!

Day 19....alright, who left the oven on?

Funny thing about riding across the country:  you have absolutely no control over the weather and you are 100% at the mercy of the weather when you are on a bicycle. I said to myself yesterday I was going to leave early today (like 5am) and beat the heat, well you know that didn't happen. Sweated out 50 miles and rolled into my hotel, the temperature was no joke 101 degrees. In those 50 miles there was not one place with water or anything.  You literally have to carry everything with you.  However, the really good news is that the weather hopefully fingers crossed will get better soon :-) found some pretty cool stuff today on the road. AND tomo is a rest day!!! HOLLA!

Patriotic!

Where the deer and the......

5Th day straight into this!o