All Creatures Great and Small, Dead or Alive

We spent our 4th in the lap of luxury with the Wyse family. Our day was highlighted by a ride in the go kart, a few exciting rounds of Yahtzee, and visits to the chicken coop. When it got dark, we had some completely legal sparklers to light on fire, since any other type of firework is illegal in Iowa, and we're all rule followers here. We may have transferred to the neighbors yard to watch them blow some stuff up that they had smuggled in from Missouri later in the night.
All in all, we had a great day off with the Wyse family, and much appreciated the hospitality and a chance to sleep under a real roof.

Saturday we were back at it. We had Russ drive us back to the exact location we had been picked up at, in order to "avoid any asterisks on our trip" as Dad says, "you know, we rode our bikes across the country... *except for that one time that Russ dropped us off a town before the one we were picked up at".

Jed Wyse and Chicken Jane

We took off with a huge tailwind, and found an easy way to cut some miles off of the Adventure Cycling map without even hitting a gravel road, just sticking to the main highway. We only rode 54 miles that day to Dyersville, Iowa, although the map believed we had done 65. Although we hoped to ride the tailwind further, there was no good place to stop further down the road, so we turned in early at a Super 8 in order to avoid an oncoming storm.

That night we met up with Dad's brother Darrin and his wife Anna from Dubuque. They drove down to have dinner with us and we had a great time finally getting to catch up with them and reminisce the good ol' days of working at Cap's Trail Service over some pie.

Downtown Dyersville, Iowa

Sunday we rode 64 miles, still heading north, and with a less noticeable tailwind. We were getting back to the Mississippi River valley, and beginning to climb and descend more hills than we've gotten used to. We finally stopped in a tourist-y town at around 3 that was right on the river. The plan was to stay at Pike's Peak State Park, which was only 3 miles outside of the town. Turns out, those three miles were straight uphill. Though we had a fabulous view of the river from the park, we had to climb a lot more than we wanted to at the end of the day and with stomachs full of bad Mexican food.

Flooded campground

It rained hard in the early evening, but had cleared up by morning. We biked 72 miles that day to La Crosse, WI. Unfortunately, the campground we had hoped to stay at, an RV resort that advertised its prime location right on the banks of the river, was flooded and closed to camping. We must have looked pathetic enough to convince the manager to let us find a patch of grass and use the bathhouse for the night.

Where are we again?

After getting dinner and breakfast supplies downtown in La Crosse, we returned across the bridge on the bike path/sidewalk next to the highway. Cruising the downhill section of the bridge, these two furry river otters pop out from the grass, and begin to scurry across the sidewalk. The first makes it across right in front of the tandem. The second, however, was less fortunate, smashed by the back wheel of the tandem, then left helplessly squirming as I hit it square with both tires. I may have screamed, and I might be traumatized. I have no idea if the otter survived.

It rained hard again last night, but we woke to a cool morning. Unfortunately the winds were entirely from the wrong direction, hitting us from the Northwest at 15-20 mph. Riding was really tough today, so we stopped at mile 15 for second breakfast at the Kwik Trip. That place is amazing. As we left, we met a lady who wanted to know all about our trip, as many we meet do. This lady in particular was very worried about Shelby and how much she was eating. Despite our attempts to explain that yes, Shelby is normally that skinny, and yes, she eats plenty, and no, this trip is not completely child abuse, she remained concerned. While most people tell us we will look back on this trip as the best experience of our lives, this lady told us that we would only look back and say "What the hell were we thinking???"

View from above the Mississippi River

Later on the road, Dad announced that there was roadkill ahead, and a big one. As we got closer, I yelled out, "I don't think that's dead!"Soon we were swerving all over the road, trying desperately to avoid the baby racoon crouched in the road eating a turtle. No one ran over this mammal, thankfully.
69 miles later we're at an RV park in Wabasha, MN. We plan to hit Red Wing tomorrow, then turn west and make our own route across South Dakota.

Roadkill Report: Rabbit, Otter, Rabbit, Bird, Snake, Deer, Raccoon, Bird, Bird, Bird, Almost A Deer, Bird, Bird, Bird, Bird, Badger, Turtle, Baby Raccoon, Bird, Mouse, Bambi, Squirrel, Snake, Frog, Turtle, Frog, Bird, Bird, Bird, Frog, Frog, Frog, Frog, Frog, Frog, Turtle, Turtle, Turtle, River Otter Meg Ran Over

Off The Grid

Saturday was into the wind and raining. We've finally been having some strong headwinds. Everybody we ride by seems to be screaming at us "You're going the wrong way!!!".

Lunch in the rain.

We did get to jump on a nice paved trail for a while in the morning to get back on route from our Wabash detour, the optimum way to catch back up. We did not realize, however, that the western part of Indiana would be lacking in services, at least while following the Adventure Cycling route. It seems as though AC was trying a little too hard to keep us out of populated areas, stores, civilization in general. We rolled into Buffalo's little convenience store, the only open store in town, to find some food at about 3pm, all pretty hungry and getting the shakes. It was the first time we had actually run out of food while on the bike, and so have kept increasingly prepared with backup food the past few days. We did 67 miles that day.
On the way we passed by the farm that our friend Ben would be staying at. The family at the barn had painted on the road an offer for bicyclists to get free water and shade, so we took advantage of that as a rest stop.

We spent the night at a mosquito infested campground across from a group of people blasting their country music very loudly until 10:30pm. We ate our late lunch and dinner in the rain, and took cold showers at the campground, then slept in the humidity. Welcome to the midwest!

Shelby stopping for a bathroom break.

Sunday we rode to Illinois. There's getting to be a whole lot of corn in these states. Illinois wasn't very welcoming with a state sign either. Instead, mom and I got chased by a big dog across the border. Dad yelled at the dog and yelled at us to take off, but we could barely outsprint it. When it finally stopped running after us, it ran off to the side of the road and just sat and watched as the tandem rolled by. Dad got out the Mace and tried to spray it, but our headwind caught the spray and missed the dog anyway. All in all, a poor showing.

Welcome to Illinois, post dog-chasing.

Trash can delivery.

We spent the night in the Ashkum City Park after 83 miles, and got the mayor to open the bathrooms for us. Unfortunately there were no showers available, and the night was hot and incredibly humid. Around 4am, we woke to flashes of lightning and thunder really close to the park. Everybody jumped up, unstaked the tent, grabbed a corner, and hauled it under the park pavilion and out of the storm. We had no idea how bad it was going to be, and at one point were making plans to run to the bathrooms in case of tornado. It finally calmed down around 5:30, so we all were able to get some sleep. Only an hour later, however, the city of Ashkum was getting brand new trash cans. And they were all being unloaded right in front of the park. Trucks pulled up with trash barrels stacked 15 high and filled with water, so the workers just knocked them over to dump the water out, sending them crashing to the ground and sounding like more thunder. Good morning indeed.

We spent the next day outrunning an even worse storm, so we got a hotel that night in Streator after 69 miles. We had to go off route to get to that town, because of course the map wouldn't want to take us anywhere with shelter or stores or any sort of traffic. There was some awesome lightning that night, nothing like what we see out west.

Flooding issues.

Tuesday we rode another 70 from Streator to a campground near Sheffield. It was decided earlier in the day that it would be possible to cut off 30 miles and go through larger towns with more services by going off route the rest of the way to Iowa. So we threw the maps to the corn and trusted our adventure to Google Maps. We had to spend a lot of the day on a busier highway, but near the end spent a few miles on the Hennepin Canal Trail, another old towpath like the Erie Canal Trail was, although this one was slightly rougher.

Wednesday we continued on this trail. It wasn't exactly road bike friendly the whole way. In many places it was overgrown and rocky or muddy, but it was still ridable and a nice break from traffic and the wind. This was at least the case until the trail was flooded from all the rainstorms the past few days. That required a lot of re-navigation and wrong turns. The day that was supposed to be in the 50's for mileage ended up being a 70-miler with all of our wrong turns, but we did make it to an Iowa county campground. The Mississippi River has a lot of water in it right now.

Mississippi River

Also no "Welcome to Iowa" sign, so...

Thursday we hoped to get to Lowden, IA to receive a pick up from Jed and Brenda Wyse, our friends from Cedar Rapids. We claimed we would be there by noon, as we only had to ride 31 miles according to Google. What we didn't know at the time was that Google routed us down many miles of gravel roads, a large percentage of which were made up of loose rock. Gravel riding was extremely slow. We were an hour late to our pickup, and rode 38 miles instead.

The good news is that we are safe at the Wyse ranch and plan to spend all of today here, not on our bike. Riding in a car on the way here was a strange experience. Cars suddenly can go so fast. And they have air conditioning. Imagine that.

Happy Fourth of July from all of us here!

The Land of the Above-Ground Swimming Pools

Leaving Cleveland. 

Everybody's got their own above-ground pool. Or personal pond. It's crazy.

Tuesday morning we woke up to some ominous clouds overhead and a forecast of thunderstorms for the day. Because the Cleveland Hostel was such a nice place, and cheap, we thought about taking a rest day. After crunching some numbers, we realized we're already a full day ahead of schedule. So, Dad said, "I'm done being wishy-washy, we're taking a rest day" as well as "I'm off the fence, enjoy your day off".

It's the land of above-ground pools.

Love those DQ gift cards. Thanks, Darin.

So we lounged around for a bit, until dad came back upstairs from the front desk to report that the only room that was available for Tuesday night only had one bed.

The excitement over a rest day plummeted. So we packed up and grudgingly headed out of Cleveland. At least we were able to take a short day of only 44 miles. Along the way we met a couple who was also touring, and convinced them to book the open room at the hostel. At least they were appreciative.

We also met a British guy at lunch who was apparently touring through all 48 states, no bike shorts, no helmet, just a camo baseball cap. So I guess he's more hardcore than us.

Biking through the corn.

Outrunning that storm.

Most of that day was spent trying to outrun a storm. After getting rained on while riding (again) we ended up taking shelter at a laundromat while the rain really started pouring down. As soon as it let up, we raced to Firefly Beach where we got the cash discount for a "cottage" and food at the tavern nearby. Thankfully we had a roof, because it rained all night long.

BGSU

The next day we rode out to Bowling Green, Ohio, still trying to outrun storms. We avoided some rain at a Subway for a while, then took off to beat the rest. We pushed through the last 20 miles in only an hour, which is flying with a fully loaded bike. Once in Bowling Green, we stayed with Matt, Heidi, Elizabeth, and Noah, a family who offered us food and a shower and a chance to camp in their backyard. We were lucky to get the chance to spend a night in their company. The hospitality we've received has been incredible.

Everyone in Ohio keeps seeing our "OREGON" sign on the back of the trailer and asking "are you going to Oregon, Ohio, or Oregon, the state?"Apparently Oregon, Ohio is a big destination for cyclists..?

The next morning we took a brief bicycle tour of Bowling Green State University, then headed out. Dad really wanted to go 90 miles because apparently there was free camping in Monroeville for cyclists.

So of course, we went 93 and made it all the way to Monroeville, Indiana. It was an exhausting day, but in the end we were all happy we had made it. Even got to see the Campbell's factory in Napoleon, Ohio. The Monroeville city park had a community center/shelter thing that was opened up for us to sleep in and shower in, and the town was super friendly to cyclists. It even had a Whippy Dip for ice cream! Such a wonderful place.  Bravo, Monroeville - well done.

Indiana did not greet us with a "welcome to" sign. Extraordinarily disappointing.

This morning we slept in since we rode so much yesterday and have ended up off route in Wabash 68 miles later. There was no where good to camp after Monroeville, so we're in a cheap motel.

Failed sign, failed jump. Welcome to Indiana.

Mom got the first official tire flat of the trip today! Luckily it wasn't bad enough to stop us for long.

We also made friends with a guy named Ben from Rhode Island today. We got to ride with him and he followed us off route here to Wabash for a while. The motel we're in has an outdoor pool, the highlight of our night. It's finally getting to be a little too hot to be pleasant riding temperature, and that pool tonight was just right.

Money found: $0.00

Roadkill Report: Bird, Disgusting Snake, Squirrel, Deer, Raccoon, Twin Raccoons, Deer, Possum

Wabash Cannonball!

What's high in the middle and round on both ends?

On Lake Erie

Friday night was a late one. Since we didn't get to the hotel until 7:30, and no food until 8:30, we were up pretty late for bike tour standards.

Biking selfies.

Therefore, we slept in really late Saturday morning. We were all barely out of bed by 9:30, then took our time and ate as much complimentary breakfast as the hotel would allow. Leaving time was about 11:30, but the extra rest was definitely welcomed.

Thankfully we were cruising right along for Saturday's mileage. We had a big tailwind again today, and a perfect temperature of 70 degrees. Sleeping in didn't get us to camp any later than starting earlier has in the past.

The roads were a little rough today, but we had nice views of Lake Erie along the route. We even got to stay in the comfort of a KOA at night. We were in the city of Barcelona. New York, not Spain, unfortunately. It was a 69 mile day.

State #5!

On Sunday morning, Mom rolled out of the campground and turned East, apparently not remembering which way we had been going. So we had a false start and do-over in the morning, but otherwise easy riding with yet another big tailwind.

State #6, cheerleader-style

We hit three states in one day, leaving New York, passing through Pennsylvania for about 40 miles, and then reaching Ohio before we stopped. Sunday gave us one last tailwind day, which landed the family at camp a bit early. In an attempt to keep up with cross-country training, Shelby and I tried to run a measly three miles. After biking 69, the legs just weren't really willing to do anything but spin in a circle.

This morning we woke up to slugs all over our shoes from the campground, which was pretty gross. We biked into Cleveland today. The suburbs of Cleveland stretch on for miles, so today was a lot of urban bicycling. While waiting for a train to pass by this afternoon, we were stopped behind a teenage girl in her sparkling convertible with a license plate surround that spelled out "PRINCESS". Dad promises to get me one when we get home. We'll see if its true.

Kent State Ashtabula Campus visit.

The bike route took us on a really rough piece of road coming towards downtown today, appropriately named "Marginal Road". It started raining on us again today. There was a short burst of rain with some pretty violent thunder that sent us to a park shelter for a few minutes earlier in the afternoon. With about 15 miles left in the day, it really started raining and didn't want to stop. The bad condition of Marginal Road caused for some pretty great puddles. Thankfully we have a roof over our heads tonight, because it's still raining.

The rain today.

We're currently smack in the center of downtown Cleveland at the Cleveland Hostel after a 74 mile day. We were all pleasantly surprised to find this place, which gave us a private room and has shared bathroom and kitchen facilities. Its perfect for what we need, and cheaper than a hotel. Today the winds were not exactly in our favor, and it doesn't look like that will change in the next couple days.

We still have $40 Canadian rolling around and can't find a place to exchange it for American dollars. Silly Canadians.

Money Found: $0.06

Road Kill Report:  More dead otters and raccoons than we care to remember.

If You've Ever Navigated on the Erie Canal

Family photo at Lake Ontario

Wednesday morning we headed out for Lake Ontario. It was another pretty big day for us: we did 73 miles total. The lake was pretty, at least when we got to see it. Even though we were on "Lake Road" there were so many trees that the only time we really got a good look was on a stop at a public park.

As it was getting later in to the day we finally rode into Palmyra to get some food to take to camp. For a fun fact of the day, Palmyra is home to the only place in the nation where there is a different church on all four corners of an intersection.

Megan all-smiles on The Erie Canal Trail

Camp for the night was supposed to be available at the Mid-Lakes Marina, right on the Erie Canal. Upon arrival, we were greeted by several boating couples, who were very happy to see us, but weren't sure if camping was even allowed. The owner was called and we were told to set up our tent anywhere on the grass nearby the docked boats.

That covered, the boaters wanted to know all about our trip and were very enthusiastic about it, to say the least.  Mom and Dad scored some free adult-berages and a boat tour. As it turns out, Wednesday night was potluck night for everybody who called Mid-Lakes Marina their boat parking spot, and there was more than enough food available, so they invited us in to share with them. We had tons of food and plenty of good company. Everybody wanted to know the details and give recommendations and tell stories. The laughter in the place was like nothing we've seen yet. The night was one big party and we all left full and happy. Showers there were really nice, too.

Trying to sleep at the Marina campground was interesting. There were train tracks immediately across the canal from the marina, and trains came by fairly frequently. These trains were exceptionally loud and really liked to blow their whistles. So on the hour through the night the trains would come by and wake us up then let us sleep for a bit and do it all again. It was a bit of a problem for exhausted bikers.
When it was actually light out, a goose came by our campsite and honked at us until we woke up. Apparently we had taken its favorite grazing spot and it wasn't too happy.

The marina was definitely the best place we've stayed so far. In the morning though, we had to get up and keep going. We were able to cross the bridge (which apparently wasn't closed to cyclists?) and get on the Erie Canal trail, which was about 90 miles of sometimes paved, mostly ridable dirt biker/hiker paths.
Our map instructions told us at one point to "ride through trailer park on driveway", so that was a fun addition.

Stacey & Megan on The Erie Canal Trail

The path was nice and allowed us to talk while riding. We sang the "Low Bridge" song all the way along the path (Here's the song!).  Thursday was not the day for us to move quickly, however. Only 7 miles in, we found another bike shop and decided to see if Megan's bike could be fixed - it was still clicking. A coffee shop visit later, we found out that the bike shop didn't have the right tools, but that the bearings in the bottom bracket had come loose after all the torque from the steep mountains we had been climbing the first week and a half.
7 more miles down the trail, we stopped at another bike shop. They were able to perform a quick tune and adjustment that eliminated the clicking (for now anyway).

The lock doors were opened!

We were also having some communication problems Thursday.  Dad stopped short in front of Megan which caused a rear-ending of the tandem. Later in the morning, Mom saw a bathroom sign and turned into a driveway without warning right in front of Megan, which caused a collision with the bob trailer, and sent Megan into the pavement.  No cuts or bruises, just a little embarrassment.

We got to see a boat go through the lock system on the Erie at one point as well. The water system was incredibly entertaining.  Another fun fact:  The Erie Canal is primarily used only for recreational traffic these days.  Very little if any cargo flows on the Erie Canal anymore.

University of Rochester

We then stopped at University of Rochester which was close to the canal trail.  Megan got another bike around campus self-guided tour.

Dad is eating EVERYTHING

Later we stopped at this place called Jimmy Z's whose special was always "the garbage plate".  Dad got one which was a mix of fries, tots, mac salad, hamburgers, and "meat sauce". Weird.

That day we rode 74 miles on the canal trail and stayed in Middleport behind the police station on the grass next to the canal. There were free showers and bathrooms there, as well as free camping in a safe place, so it was a good deal for us. Our many stops that day sadly had us riding until 7:30 at night.  We had showers and pizza, and Dad met four very nice (retired) New York school teachers at Pony's Bar & Grill.  They listened to Dad's bike-tour stories and even provided him with a yummy plate of buffalo wings and a beverage.

Our night went smoothly until 2:30, when we all were rudely awakened by the town alarm, which of course originated right next to the police station. We still don't know what set it off, but it was sure loud for ten minutes of the night.

We had breakfast in the town restaurant, then finished out the last few miles of the canal trail before stopping in Lockport for "elevensies". Then we were off to Canada! At the border we were told that pepper spray for personal defense were not allowed there. Only bear spray is allowed, so we were forced to abandon our Mace.

Our short trip to Canada was entirely meant to show the best side of Niagara Falls. We took the park trail for a while until we had to walk near the falls because of all the other tourists. The falls were amazing to see and definitely worth the detour. Our favorite view was from the very edge of the falls where you could see the water just going over the edge.

30 miles in Canada over we crossed back into the States under this weird kinda sketchy pedestrian and bike tunnel, then across the Peace Bridge into Buffalo, NY. From customs, it was 9 miles more to a hotel. There was really no where to camp in the city here, so we're staying on the South side of Buffalo for tonight.

We did 69 miles today. Turns out we are already ahead of schedule, even including the 20 miles on our first day, so this is very good news.

Out of the mountains and onto the Great Lakes

Sunday: Father's Day.
Go Shannon.

So here we are, leaving our nice little campground on Schroon Lake on Sunday morning, thinking we had made it past the mountains of New England. Little did we know that on Sunday, we would climb 6000 feet and descend 5000. It was sad that we hadn't quite made it past the hills, but we knew we were close. We rolled into a region of lakes at the end of the day. We stopped at The Tap Room bar of Raquette Lake for dinner, where Shannon got his Father's day Manhattan (even though they apparently made it incorrectly), and the family got the gist of the town's gossip from the old-timers sitting around. We then rode another five to a New York State Campground at Eighth Lake. This chain of lakes had really creative names. There were eight of them.

When we got to the campground, the park ranger guy told us that since there was no established rate for cyclists to camp in the park, he let us camp for free, which was very nice of him. NYS campgrounds are actually pretty nice places.

We rolled out the next morning on Shelby's 14th birthday. Amazingly we found ourselves going downhill for an entire thirty miles. We got to Boonville, NY about midafternoon and 45 miles into our ride. Although we hoped to go further, no campgrounds (or even hotels) were answering their phones or were deemed unworthy for lack of showers or laundry services. We REALLY needed to do laundry on Monday. We ended up in the Boonville laundromat for a while, then backtracked a mile to the Big Brown Barn campground we had passed on our way into town. The day was cut short but at least we got laundry done.

Taking a break in Booneville

Shelby's day-of birthday celebration was noted with a bucket of butter pecan ice cream and a chocolate bar, as well as a game of ping pong in that Big Brown Barn.

Today we vowed to make up for our short day with a long one. We haven't exactly been getting on the road at early hours, leaving most days between 9 and 10 when we're  waking up at 7 or 8. That's been a bit challenging with 5 to 6 hours of riding each day, not including time for breaks and meals.

We were on the road before 9 this morning. Once again, our mileage today was mostly downhill, a welcome event after so much climbing the past week. We ticked off the miles pretty fast today.

Speaking of ticking, Megan's bike began to do that at about mile 5. Every time she pedaled (so pretty much all the time) her bike would start clicking. It was loud and echoed really well in the morning. After about mile 20 this became quite annoying, and there was fear the bike would simply quit working. Somehow, after climbing a steep hill out of a little town, the bike stopped clicking for no reason at all. This was good news, because the nearest bike shop was at mile 77, and we would have all been driven to insanity before then.

We kept up our fast pace to make it to Fulton at mile 83 tonight. We did get a bit turned around for about a mile after missing a turn today, thankfully still not a major mistake. Upon arrival, we hit the bike shop for a fix of Megan's bike, where we also learned that there was a major thunderstorm alert for the night. So now, we're in our third hotel. It's raining hard outside, and  they were expecting hail as well, so this was probably a good decision.

Road Kill Report: Squirrel, Rabbit, Squirrel, Squirrel, Bird
Possum, Bird, Otter, Deer, Frog, Deer, Bird, Squirrel, Frog, Chipmunk, Otter

Money Found:  $0.04