On Day 18 we crossed the Canadian River east of Tucumcari, New Mexico. Since then all the ground water and rain we’ve seen ultimately drains into the Mississippi. Today we finally crossed into land which drains into Lake Erie and the Atlantic Ocean rather than the Gulf of Mexico. We also crossed into state #11,…

When Stacy first saw Ohio she described it as “painfully green.” Our ride today took us through plenty of green, including the long bike path west of Youngstown shown above. It was 94 miles in cool weather with a strong crosswind which became a tailwind at the end. The skies were lowering all day and…

The weather today was forecast to be overcast with no real rain, in sharp contrast to yesterday. (Those of you paying close attention may be wondering what I’m talking about with rain yesterday. I apparently was so sleepy when I wrote yesterday’s blog that I deleted the part about the hours of heavy rain. Yesterday’s…

Our day started at 4:19 this morning when the fire alarm sounded in the hotel. Apparently someone burned the breakfast eggs in a major way. That was followed by a rider rebellion. Every morning a group of about 6 riders leaves at 7, with the rest of us leaving at 7:30. This is meant to…

Indianapolis was the highlight of today’s 75 mile ride from Crawfordsville to Greenfield, Indiana. We were within earshot of the Speedway, in the town of Speedway, where they’re very proud of their Speedway. This is a big weekend at the Speedway, with a car stereo competition; a car exhaust competition; “car limbo”, which I assume…

Today started with Crazy Helmet Day, when many of us decorated our helmets. The photos of Chad and me aren’t up yet, but our skills paled in comparison to Linda’s. Hers has a throne for Sylvie, a stuffed flamingo which is riding with her for her granddaughter. Jean has all the states we will visit.…

Today was a lovely if visually monotonous day riding 91 miles across Illinois from Springfield to Champaign. We had 3 family visits. The first was Todd’s wife, brother, and sister-in-law who surprised Todd at the first SAG stop. He was expecting his wife, but not his brother who flew from Germany for the visit. When…

Today was a 107 mile ride through some very flat land. When I first saw the itinerary I thought, “Gee, after a month of riding a 107 mile day will seem like nothing!” Au contraire! Chad felt very strong all day, which he attributed to a large stack of pancakes in the morning. His energy…