Relaxing through Day 20

For lunch, I ate at a local asian buffet. My fortune - work on improving your exercise routine......

This day off was great for recovery. Too a point, even knowing the issues that crop up (sunscreen, bug bites, sore throat), I probably don't fully appreciate the stresses I'm putting on my body. After my last post, I took a 5 hour "nap", woke up and did laundry at the local coin laundry place (Yay!) then went to lunch/dinner. As soon as I'd stuffed myself with food, immediately I was exhausted again. After I post this, I'll probably be going to sleep again to let my body work on healing and getting back a bit.

Garden City seems like a good spot to visit if you have a bit of free time. I've been very happy with my hotel (Wheatlands inn) and the locals are nice. When I was signing in, two different men came in wearing cowboy hats as well as boots with spurs on them. During lunch, at least two more men came in wearing cowboy hats.. I must be getting a bit more west! They apparently have a very nice free zoo, as well as a wide range of businesses and such.

The local place I mentioned that I stopped to eat in my last post was in Hanston, KS. While I was there, the owner mentioned a lady going through riding her horse and having a dog with her - apparently part of a long horseback trek she'd been doing!


I managed to find some spf 100 - a good thing as I'll be going up in elevation and sunscreen will become even more important. Food supplies are filled up, and I'll be ready to hit the road for a light, easy day tomorrow (planning to start late and ease back into the swing of things). The next stretch will see me back on US 50 over the La Junta, CO, then taking their local route 10 to Wallenburg. From there, it will be US 160 all the way into Arizona! That is, of course assuming I don't change up my route again! For now, more rest an relaxation. Safe travels!

Day 19 through Day 20 - Taking a Break

An interesting last few days! I made my last post in the morning, while waiting for the Subway in Larned, KS to open up. After it did, I was inside eating when a cyclist rode past, then turned around and popped his head in, asking about my trip and chatting with me for a bit. In his 50s or 60s, the guy was a local with a touring interest who chatted with me for a bit, and told me that Larned was part of a popular bicycling route, with plenty of bikers coming through. Soon after he said that, I was outside getting ready to hit the road when along came two girls on bicycles. While they didn't have much gear, their discussion of the map they had showed they weren't locals. the guy from earlier and I went over to see what was up.

It turns out one of the two girls has brain cancer and is riding across America with her friend, raising awareness of the lack of medical progress and treatments available. They were quite friendly, and actually took a fast photo. They're website is http://brainsonbikes.org/ If you explore it, you can find a photo of me there. After a bit, they were off to the east, and I headed west. Soon, I saw a turnoff for Fort Larned and headed down it, planning to check it out and nap through the hottest part of the day.

I had forgotten memorial day weekend was upon me and found that the fort was full of people dressed up in time appropriate dress. I also found another loaded bicycle and a biker near it sprawled in the shade of a tree. It turns out his name was Scott and he was on his first real tour, going the opposite direction I was. We spent some time swapping stories and suggestions before I found somewhere quite to get some napping in.

I had hoped to get to Garden City quickly, but weather decided to be difficult. Winds blew almost due north fairly hard, making me have to concentration on staying aimed in just the right direction. About 30 miles of this was exhausting, but I did find this marker in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere:

Moving on, I stopped at a local store and chatted with the owner for a bit, making sure I still had plenty of food and water, as the next stretch was empty.

Eventually it got dark and I decided to make a temporary camp for a few hours. Dad has told me stories about bad mosquito areas, but I didn't understand them fully until that night. I found that half the time I was setting up the tent I was also brushing my arms and legs to knock them off. Finally, I did minimal unpacking, got the tent up, threw in what I needed and dove in, trying to let as few in as possible. It still took about 20 minutes to kill all those that got into my tent, and as I lay there I could actually hear the buzzing of all of the mosquitoes trapped on the far side of the screen. Scary stuff! Packing up again in a few hours was another rush, then it was off on the road again, taking advantage of the dark. I made it into Garden City just about dawn. After a nap, I may write about the place. For now - sleep!

Day 19 - On Sleep Deprivation and the Bright Sun

I'm curently in Larned, Kansas. With my skin starting to get a bit pinker than I wanted, I've been doing some all night rides that are doing interesting things to my sleep schedule. While it has helped get me a long ways in a short time (over 150 miles in the last 24 hours, I believe) it has also turned me into something of a zombie. Figuring I could use a day off, I decided to grab a hotel room and spend the entire day lazing about it, letting my skin heal up as well as my body recover. That is not to be, sadly, as everything is booked due to Memorial Day Weekend. Instead, I plan to take a very easy day today, napping as I go and getting into Garden City sometime tomorrow. With any luck, I'll find a good place to stay and really recover there.

I am now past the halfway point of my trip! Sometime in the last 48 hours, I managed to get enough done to put me there and then some. With luck, I'll get a bit of cloud cover today and head west again, making good time.

On meeting interesting people, I was spending the hottest part of yesterday at a park, immediately after posting my last update. Just as I pulled up to the park bench I was going to relax on, another bicyclist pulled up. He apparently has spent the last 4 years working as a carpenter in Antarctica, being moved around to build temporary bases for the scientists. I think he's the first person I've met who has been to the south pole. He and his fiance apparently take advantage of the government flying them into Antarctica through the area around Australia to plan long "layover" vacations and had done some touring in New Zealand and Australia. Really interesting guy!!

Finally, my apologies if these last few posts have been a bit incoherent - I do need a good night's sleep soon!

The Rest of Day 18, and Some of Day 19

Wow, it's been quite a set of experiences since I last posted! Earlier in the day, I asked directions of a local to the bicycle shop and he commented that the owner "works with bicycles to stay sane" - A funny phrase, but I figured some sort of local comment. I can see how one might think that though. When I went to the bicycle shop, I entered a room full of bicycles, most of them looking rebuilt, with not a person around.

Wandering into the back, I found a radio playing and an older man working on putting it together. Trying to grab his attention, I said, "excuse me sir!", to which I heard only a mutter. This wouldn't have been a problem except he'd been muttering to himself before, so I wasn't sure if he'd heard me. After a few seconds, I tried again - he continued to mutter, but actually looked up and asked me what I needed. I was already concerned, because I hadn't seen any parts for sale in the "bike shop", but went ahead and told him what the issue was. He led me into a back room and started going through tires. None were what I was looking for, but a few would fit and work, so I figured I'd go with one of those.

Around this time, the phone George (the owner) had been carrying in his pocket rang. He answered it and was soon involved in a 10 -15 minute phone conversation about different refrigerants or oils or some such thing. I should also note that he had a fairly think accent, so I had to work a bit to understand him. After his phone call, he went back to figuring out where he'd put the tire and my wheel before the call, eventually finding them. He was a nice guy, but seemed more interested in checking out my bicycle to see how it worked than putting it together. Interesting chap! Still, after about half an hour, I was set to go.

Having spent a lot of time in the park of Ottawa, I had some time to make up. Pushing into the evening, I managed to make it to about a mile our two outside of Council Grove, KS. I set up camp, but after only a few hours sleep, woke up and felt wide awake. Figuring I could make good time, with it well past midnight and very little traffic on the road, I zipped into Council Grove to grab a bite to eat as I was heading into sparse territory. It was about 3 AM when I got into the city, and I ran into a police officer in the parking lot. We chatted about my trip and he told me I was in luck and that I would see almost no traffic at that time of night on the route (KS 177) I was taking.

The trip was great. The weather was nice and clear, with an almost full moon (one day off) hanging in the sky. Traffic was as light as the officer said - in 18 miles I saw one car, and that was near the very end of my route. Riding on a clear night also let me see the first shooting stars (two of them) that I had seen in a long time!

Once I was down to the US 50 KS 150 US 56 route, the sun was starting to come up. I made good time and the tire has held up great! I'm now in McPherson and will be looking for somewhere to nap (lack of sleep is catching up with me) as soon as I finish eating. It's 1:30 here, so if I get a good nap, I'll miss some strong sun and also be reading to ride again this evening. With luck, I"ll be able to cross the rest of Kansas in the next 3 days, putting me mostly through tornado alley.

Last night also saw me run across the kindness of strangers - I stopped at pizza hut to get some pasta for dinner and got to talking to a couple about my route as well as their children. They had been there before me ,and we had a good conversation before they left. As I got up to go, I was told that they had apparently paid my bill for me, without any warning. Experiencing this kind of kindness encourages me to be more like this to strangers, leading to a self-perpetuating system of kindness. It's a good feeling!

One thing I should note is that from this point on, it looks like my internet access may thin out, so I may be posting less often. We'll have to see. Now to eat and find a shaded napping spot!

Day 18 - The Easy Life

After posting last night, I headed off, intent on making decent time while the traffic was very light (almost nothing was moving on the road as evening set in). Soon, riding in the dark became quite fun - I had a great shoulder, and tended to use it out of habit even though I could have gone down the middle of the road, my head and tail light made sure people would be able to see me, and car headlights gave me plenty of warning when any vehicle did come on. The night air was pleasant and the road and fields surrounding it were surrounded by thousands of blinking fireflies, giving the whole ride a beautiful aura.

Immediately after posting, I left McDonalds, immediately running into another flat. Fed up, I used duct tape to line the outside of my old battered tire, before putting it back on with a decent tube and hoping for the best. It did well for me, getting me a good distance that night. Eventually I was tired enough that I hunted down a good place to throw down a tent and began to set up. As soon as my tarp was down *plop*, a small frog hopped onto the tarp and hung out for a bit before I began to set up my tent. A decent night of sleep and I was off this morning and closing with Ottowa and a bike shop.

Ironically, the only flat I had today on my cobbled together setup was when I went to open up the valve to add a bit of air, and pulled the whole valve out, releasing all the air and damaging the tire in the process. Ahh well. A quick fix and I was off again, with traffic along the whole route staying fairly light in the morning. Getting into Ottowa, I found that the only bicycle shop in town doesn't open until 1:00, so I'll be spending the day relaxing. I found the park and it conveniently had a shelter with a working electric outlet, and it's within reach of an unsecured wifi network, so I'm recharging my electronics, letting my camping gear dry out and snacking. After posting, I'll be checking the weather and then doing some reading of one of the e-books I brought along, perhaps with a short nap thrown in (I'm tempted to bicycle again tonight, as I feel it's as safe as or safer than day travel in the area I'm in).

So far, I've bicycled at least 1,300 miles. If I follow the route I'm considering taking (aiming south of US 50 to end up in Malibu, CA), I should have about 1,660 miles to go. Almost halfway! Good weather is supposed to hold up for the next bit, so I'll do what I can to get through Tornado Alley! Take care all!!!

Day 17 - Victory over Missouri!

I've concluded only half jokingly that Missouri is a sentient and malevolent force trying to destroy me. The people were great, and I had fun experiences with them, but the weather and roads have really been after me!

I ended up getting a hotel room last night and spent a dry night, then took off the next morning. I was making good time until "Pop!" There was my second flat of the trip, both of them from Missouri. Looking at my tire, it was pretty chewed up in general, so I decided to switch to my spare tire which, while a softer, weaker design was still in perfect condition. Thus began a long series of flats for the day. I've never had much luck with changing tires, often accidentally pinching them, but in this case, some of the flats just seemed to be excessive bad luck. Each flat required me to remove all of my gear, remove the tire, change the inner tube and put everything back together (getting the tire on while being careful is killer on your thumbs!)

I was up to my third or fourth flat of the day when the weather ahead looked threatening (thunderstorms were supposed to hit in the morning, NOT the evening!). This time I took shelter under an overpass and stayed there until I was sure the rain was gone. Another hour or so burned up, but that's how it goes in Missouri, it seems. Off I went again, getting another two or three flats/failed patches. Still, I was close and at this point VERY determined to get across the border into Kansas (not Texas, as I accidentally typed in my last post :)). After patching the last flat I've had so far today, I hit the road, went around a turn that was about 100 meters from where I'd been doing my repairs, and there it was - THE BORDER!!! Joys! Since then I haven't had a flat. It looks like there's a bicycle shop about 30 miles from here, so I'll be visiting it tomorrow to get a new, heavy duty tire to replace the old one.

All of the flats did let me meet more people, which was one good thing about the whole set of incidents. On the third flat, a woman stopped her car to make sure I was alright and to see if I needed anything. A gas station later, while I was cleaning up the grime I'd gotten on me during the repairs, I got to chatting with a man about my trip and life in general and got to hear about his son who is almost finished getting his commercial pilots license. While I was checking to find something to eat, the man also apparently paid for the drink I'd already got, without mentioning it - a nice treat to make the flats a little less stressful. Several other people stopped to chat with me today, including some boy scout leaders who were at the McDonald's I'm posting from and had seen me a few miles back. Good times! Despite all the flats, I managed to get in 70 miles so far today. Not the best, but a lot better than some of the days I've had lately. A bit further and I'll find somewhere to camp out, then get the bicycle fixed up with new tires tomorrow, and be off again! Good weather expected for the next few days, so hopefully I'll get on a roll again. I'd like to get through tornado alley quickly if I can!

Day 16 - Or how Missouri is my arch-nemesis

Waking up in good spirits, I was off. Scattered thunderstorms had been called for today, which meant some cloud cover and a drop in temperatures to something actually reasonable! Joy!

The first problem was getting to somewhere with shoulder. US 50 was still a bad time for bicyclists, and I'd spent last evening and this morning checking out google maps, looking for the best possible solution. The morning dawned nicely, and I gave myself plenty of time to prep for the day, deciding to take it easy today. I picked up a few things I needed at the local store, and was off.

I tried out the roads I had discovered and soon found that the only roads that parallel US 50 in this area are gravel. A local Tipton city worker stopped next to me as I was checking my map and verified that. Alright, I was just going to have to deal with US 50. Traffic in the Tipton area was light, so I set up the exhausting policy of check behind me, make sure it's clear, sprint for a few seconds, glance back, keep pedaling, and repeat until a car or truck is approaching, then pull off and wait for it to be clear again. Luck was with me, and after about 4 miles of this, I got a nice shoulder back and was off again at a good clip. I made it to Sedalia near noon and took a long break for lunch, letting the sun get a bit past its pinnacle. There were supposed to be afternoon thunder showers, and sure enough, the clouds started gathering. The heat wasn't quite as bad as the last few days either, so I took off fairly soon, noticing a dark patch of clouds looming to the south of town, but fairly clear skies ahead.

Soon after leaving Sedalia, the wind picked up, pushing North-Northwest fairly strongly and giving me a bit of tailwind to push me along. The dark clouds closed in behind me, and a few times some drops of rain hit around me, but not enough to even really dampen me. Still, I wasn't sure if the storm was going to catch me, so I pulled into a gas station about 10 miles outside of Sedalia and waited to see what it would do. The wind blew it north of me while it was still east, but as I was waiting, a man chatted with me asking where I was going and noting that Sedalia had just been hit by either 1/4 or 1/2 inch hailstones (I don't remember which he said yet). A near thing!

In good spirits at my luck, I kept heading west, but soon had a clump of dark clouds ahead of me, streaked fairly regularly with lightning and thunder. I began to get into some rain, stopping at a local park shelter to try to sit out the rain. After waiting around an hour, the rain slackened, but seemed to also be sitting in place. Hoping that it would slacken to nothing, I took off again to gain some distance. Rather than slackening, it may have picked up a bit, so now I'm soaked, including shoes. Grrr!!! I made it into Warrensburg, and am torn on what to do for the evening. Tomorrow calls for scattered thundershowers as well, but I'm hoping it will taper off by the evening. With everything fairly damp, I don't particularly want to immediately soak my clean, dry gear with a wet camp, so getting a hotel looks to be the best bet, even though I'm loathe to do so two days in a row. Still, I should remember that I'm supposed to have fun, and I have been going faster than I was planning (despite the slog of the last two days), so I may splurge if I can find a good price. Dry shoes to start out tomorrow would be great...

Things have flattened out a fair bit, but there are still plenty of trees around - no real grasslands yet. I noticed yesterday that juniper-like plants have gotten fairly common along the road, I'm assuming growing wild. Oaks are still around a lot, but today I noticed a real lack of Maples. I've been trying to keep an eye on the changing plants to really watch the interchanges between forest, plain, desert, etc. I've also become something of a connoisseur of roadkill, given the number of days I've been on the road. The number of small roadkills (songbirds, small snakes salamanders, etc) that we miss in cars is surprising. Illinois and Indiana were notable for the huge number of large snapping turtles - perhaps the most gruesome of roadkill. If I had the time and some way to clean them, collecting some of the colorful feathers from the songbirds to send home would have been an interesting idea, but I'm avoiding contact as I don't have a way to sterilize the feathers.

Tomorrow should see me in Texas, which I really hope gives me better weather than Missouri has!

Day 15 - A new set of experiences!

(My view on crossing the Mississippi river)

The glories of a motel! The AC is on (although it isn't doing much), I have a fridge with some fresh fruit I just bought sitting in it, and I have a shower! It was an interesting day. For summary, I only made about 56 miles of progress today, but I bicycled a reasonable bit further than that.

The day started out with a fast breakfast in Linn, MO. There were still plenty of rolling hills, so I was off and running, hoping to make plenty of headway before the sun got up in the sky. I was making good time, with a nice shoulder and nearing Jefferson City, when suddenly there was a jarring and I had to struggle with the handlebars to stay in control. I stopped quickly to figure out what was wrong. It turns out that one of the vertical supports coming up from my axle to the rack on the back of my bicycle had snapped. putting all the pressure on the remaining supports and letting it swing around a fair bit, throwing my cycling for a loop. Fortunately, I was within just 3 or 4 miles of Jefferson City at this point, so I walked my bicycle a bit, then discovered that I could bicycle gently without any problem. I stopped and got directions to the nearest bicycle shop - J & D Bicycle shop.

The people at the bicycle shop were very friendly. One was an older man while the other was a teenager who actually had his graduation from high school today, probably a few hours after I left. I had hoped to just replace the small screw in part at the bottom of the rack, but he didn't have those as a separate part, and I didn't want to wait around a few days or to take my chances with the damaged rack, so I got an entirely new one. He noted that this was the first time he'd ever seen this happen. I have a theory as to why - way back when I was in WV, I had a little incident I decided I didn't need to mention to save people from worrying. Basically, when going through a parking lot, a lady had backed up and hit my bicycle lightly. I'd managed to move my leg so it never touched me, but it did hit my pannier hard enough to cause the bicycle to skid a bit to the side. I'm guessing the pressure bent the metal a bit and it finally gave all the way up here after getting rocked back and forth for days. (For the record, I think the lady was more shaken than I was - of course I was pretty tired at the time, and exhaustion helps decrease being freaked out!)

While they were putting on my new rack, the high school guy and I chatted a bit about my trip and his activities. Friendly guy who is headed to college in Colorado for all of the outdoor activities that that involves. Besides the rack, they basically did a tune up on my bicycle for free, including cleaning up the chain and re-oiling the chain and cables, fixing up the brakes, etc. The whole process took a bit, but it was a good time. They suggested a possible trail to take, but after my prior experiences following trails, I was leery of heading off on this one, especially since it would have required me to head a bit north and to cross the Missouri river at least twice in total.

It turns out their advice was probably well founded. Immediately after Jefferson City, the nice shoulder I had been using lost some quality. This wasn't a bit idea until I got to California, a small town a bit after Jefferson City. From a bit before that on, the shoulder was all gravel. I had been using the gravel to get into California, but almost as soon as I left - BAM, HISSSSSSS. My first flat tired of the entire trek (incredible luck for me to have made it so far with no flats!) With temperatures in the 90s, high humidity, the sun high in the sky and no shade around, I grumpily started working on getting a new tube in. Just as I was finishing up, a police car pulled up to check on me. Some passing car had called to tell them about me and he was checking to make sure I didn't need any help. After a thanks and learning from him that the shoulder stayed miserable for as far as he knew, I was off again. Soon I got tired of dodging cars and decided I needed to just head for a parallel road - something I'd avoided thus far because of the lack of good ones. Still, I figured my time would be better if I just got away from the traffic.

I was probably a bit low on energy at this point, but I pressed on rather than eating like I should have, going several miles north before I could loop west and drop into Tipton, exhausted and frustrated by my progress. While stopping at a a grocery store for food, I saw *drumroll* a COIN LAUNDRY!!! I was definitely getting a motel for the night, and now I might have clean laundry as well! Success with the laundry, chatting with some of the locals, and getting some food in me has dramatically improved my outlook. I really think that running out of food energy can do terrible things for your outlook, but getting food into yourself again can lift even heavily sagging spirits!

So here I am, a bit closer to the end. The biggest challenge I'm now facing is sunburn. Despite layering on SPF 50 sunscreen regularly, all day long, I just keep sweating in this weather, and getting burned bit by bit despite all I can do. In the last 7 days, I've used up almost the entire bottle of sunscreen, and still am getting awfully pink. I may need to set a policy that on sunny days, I'll just not ride for the 4 hours or so when the sun is highest. It might slow me down, but a bad burn would be a disaster. For now though, I will clean my gear and take a nap. Tomorrow, we'll see where I go (more sideroads until US 50 improves again, so progress will probably be slow, but steady.)

Last of Day 13 and Day 14

Wow, it's been two weeks already....

Yesterday turned into quite the exciting little adventure! After my last post, I headed westward, but almost immediately ran into problems with Route 50 - mainly a lack of any shoulder at all! I decided to try the side roads, as this was still field country. A bit of trial and error had me headed in the right direction, with one interesting discovery of a tiny little community of about 3 blocks plopped down in the middle of a field (I had to explore the whole thing before I realized I needed to backtrack to head west). Fortunately, other bikers on these back roads sent me in the right direction!

This is where things get interesting. My goal was to get reasonably far into the city while still finding somewhere to camp, maybe alongside the river. Well, the route I was in was taking me into East Saint Louis (a separate city from St. Louis, this is still in Illinois), a place I had never heard of, and should have learned about BEFORE heading into. I headed towards a rise that would bridge me over rail tracks and saw a sign saying "watch for water on road", something I figured would be a problem for floods. This begins my somewhat unsafe adventure. As soon as I crested the rise and dropped down, I discovered that indeed, there were two spots where the road was covered in water, with swamp on both sides (only about 1/8 to 1/16 inch of water, I would guess). The sides of the road were a dumping ground for dozens of mattresses and couches, with a random truck stopped and two guys smoking marijuana out of the back of it. I kept following the road, frogs fleeing my approach and ended up in a pretty sketchy neighborhood.

I have been in the projects for Huntington, and several other spots like that, and they do not disturb me. They can't even begin to compare to this community - a place I was truly scared to be in. I just checked Wikipedia, and it is noted as having one of the highest crime rates in the USA. In the projects of Huntington, people still leave toys outside and neighbors provide a sense of community. In East St. Louis, nothing was left outside, half the houses were abandoned wrecks, and there was little neighborly interaction. It was like a community that had given up on itself, and I found myself in it as darkness began to fall.

I figured my best plan at this point was to keep moving to try to get out of the area. Pretty soon I ran into my second police officer of the trip. I had stopped for a second to check my map and try to figure out where I was when he came up beside me and noted "you're not in a very good neighborhood, sir". Gratefully, I got directions from him on how to get out of the area and across the river. Of course, I still managed to go the wrong way and it was pretty dark before I got out. I can legitimately state that being in East St. Louis after dark scared me a lot!

After crossing the Mississippi (picture to come when my battery isn't almost dead!), things were immediately much safer. I kept going, looking for somewhere to stay, only to find that the urban sprawl goes a loooong ways on the west side of the river. Fortunately, I managed to find somewhere to sack out, completely exhausted at around 1 AM. From now on, I intend to avoid such adventures, although the lack of traffic due to the late hour was nice.

Today dawned with a visit to an IHOP I found early this morning. Fueled up, but with chafed body parts from the long day before, I decided to make it an easy day, pedaling standing up 95% of the time to give my butt and inner legs a rest from chafing. Despite thinking this would slow me down a lot, I made decent time. What did slow me down was the weather - While you can hurry in cold weather, you can't go too quickly when it's 91 degrees and humid. I drank a LOT today and took frequent breaks to keep from dehydrating. With all the breaks, I got into some nice conversations with friendly Missouri locals, including two brothers (Doug and Dwight) who had done some shorter bicycling before and were eager to chat with me about my trip.

I ended up having a long day, despite my plan to go easy, after discovering that there are very few McDonalds' along Rt. 50 in Missouri. Linn was the nearest one after the morning, and a long ways off. Still, with the sun in the sky, I managed to make it (at least 90 miles) to keep everybody updated. I would also like to note that at least Eastern Missouri is not flat! In fact, compared to Indiana and Illinois, I feel like I'm already getting more rolling. I have been told things should be better tomorrow though! The battery is almost dead, so I may go for a short day and then a hotel to charge up electronics tomorrow night. If so, expect a picture and some more comments on these last two days - this post was a bit rushed for fear of battery life. Take care all!!!

Day 13, or how I have a tough time taking it easy

First, I'd like to thank everybody for their support. It really helps me keep going on the longer stretches of the trip. I'm paying attention, even if I'm not commenting back!

Last night, I made camp around Xenia, a tiny little place which had a gas station (place to get breakfast!). Getting in early, I set up camp, and with no weather dangers, left the rain fly off of my tent. That let me see a great show of fireflies as the night closed in. Very pretty!

A restful night of sleep and I was off, a bit earlier than normal. Part of that was probably my getting to sleep earlier than normal. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and things did get a bit toasty, but by continually layering on sunscreen, and keeping on both long tops and bottoms, I avoided burn I think. Most of the way had good shoulder today, and it was all fairly flat. I was a bit more concerned about traffic, as this was Saturday, but things weren't that bad. I stopped for brunch at a grocery store and got some fresh fruit (YAY!) for a change. As I was sitting outside eating, two different people stopped to chat with me. Both were more elderly folk who chatted a bit about where I was going and life in general. Other than a few drivers, Illinois people seem to be quite friendly!

During the day, I passed a car with a sign on it, followed by a runner. I'm pretty sure it was this guy:

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2010/03/15/2010-03-15_retired_queens_businessman_looks_to_make_forrest_gumplike_run_across_us_for_char.html

We were headed in opposite directions, but I yelled good luck to him as we passed. The world is full of interesting people, once again! :)

Another thing I've been wondering about. Back when I drove across the US, I noticed a lot of fields full of plants with yellow flowers. I'd just assumed they were growing wild, but it's now clear that they're growing in fields between crops (or are they crops). My best guess is they're either plants with nitrogen fixing bacteria, or they're there to wipe out nematodes or keep down weeds. They aren't carefully planted in rows like crops are, but seem more growing at random. Another mystery to explore if I run across somebody to ask, or when I have a hotel stay!

It's only about five here and they sun is high in the sky. Right now I'm in Lebanon, Il. and am quite tempted to maybe make a go at getting through St. Louis today. I should have at least 3 more hours of sunlight, and getting through at a time where traffic should be low has its advantages. See, I said I wasn't very good at "taking it easy". If I do, I'll spend the night in Missouri, and even if I don't make it, I suspect I could find somewhere along the Mississippi river to make camp.

Crossing the Mississippi is going to be a big deal for me. Even though it's closer to the 1/3 point of my trip than anything else, it has been looming large in my mind for quite a while as a major bisector of the US. We'll see what I can do while it's still warm and sunny out!

Take care all!!!

Taking it easy! (Day 12)

Whenever I go on long trips, such as hiking or bicycling, one thing I always have issues with is slowing down and really taking in the scenery. Whenever I do, I always have all the extra miles I could be laying down running through my mind. When I looked at the distance between here and St. Louis, I had two options - push really really hard for two days with the goal of getting through in the afternoon of the second day, or to relax, and take two days to reach the outskirts of the city, giving myself all of the next day to navigate my way through the city. I've already had some fun times getting through major cities as night closed in ( Baltimore and Cincinnati come to mind). I decided to slow down to really relax the next two days and cut my milage down from the between 80 and 90 mile a day average I have been going to around 50 to 60 for the next two days. A really challenge, but I've pulled it off so far, and what an interesting day it has been!

After waking up a bit later than I would camping out, I grabbed my gear. Apparently hoping my stuff, even though it is sythetic, would completely dry overnight after a washing in the sink was a bit overreaching, but it was only a little damp. I took the time also to check the weather, and saw that other than a small patch of rain ahead of me, things looked good. I had a strong hankering for pizza all day long, but most pizza shops don't seem to open until the afternoon, so I was out of luck with regards to that. I stopped by a gas station to grab enough fuel to get me to the next major town/city - Olney Il. I had read on wikipedia that there were white squirrels there, and I wanted to see one! After the twenty miles into town, I needed something to fill up the tummy (running on empty again!), so I stopped at a local diner - good food and friendly people!

I also asked for advice on where the best spot would be to maybe see one of their squirrels - it was already quite clear that they were a major aspect of the town, with squirrel crossing signs and town signs celebrating their white squirrel population. They directed me to the local park, where I saw a few gray squirrels, then finally spotted this guy (you can click to expand the image):



I was hoping to get a closer shot, but being a squirrel, (s)he was quite skittish. Still, I was happy to grab a shot of the critter. I also had cell phone access for the first time in a while, so I made some needed calls, and watching a threatening set of clouds rolling in.

Sure enough, here came the rain again. I was fairly dry, and wanted to stay that way, so I retreated to the park shelter where I relaxed as a downpour struck. Half an hour to an hour later, the storm was over and the sun was shining, and I was still dry! :) Full of good food and happy about seeing the squirrels (I also noted a placard that made it clear - they're albino gray squirrels), I made decent headway for a bit before a decent headwind began hitting me. Progress slowed a lot, but with the sun shining a fair bit for the first time in about five days, I was in good spirits!

A few miles on, I was stopping to reapply sunscreen to my face, as well as the two different lip balms I'm using (sunny weather actually gets me dressed more heavily to avoid sunburn, with long biking bottoms and a long sleeve shirt), I saw a biker coming up behind me. He came up pulling a trailer. For those of you non-tour bikers, you can carry your gear two ways - panniers (saddle bags) like me, or with an attaching trailer. The debates over which are better are apparently quite intense. He was probably more heavily loaded than I was, which made me happy that I hadn't overloaded. I gathered it was his first long trip as well. About that time, another biker who was traveling with him came up.

The two were Mike and Mitch(?) and were headed for Salt Lake City, Utah. Apparently Mitch(?) was in his last year at Duke and was going to be moving out there to take a job, so they wanted to go check it out via bicycle. We chatted for a bit. Apparently Mitch had had a fun day, with the patches he'd put on his bicycle tube blowing repeatedly, leaving him with four flats already for the day! They told me that they'd discovered that Olney, Il was a major distribution point for bicycle parts (but they didn't have a bicycle shop in town). When they were working on repairing his flat at one point, a car had pulled up and asked if they needed help. After asking about bicycle shops, the guy made a few calls. Apparently several of his family members worked for the distribution centers for bike parts. Being a wholesale location, they just gave him a free tube to send him on his way! Good times! They were off to meet Mitch's brother, who would be bicycling with them the next day. After a bit more chatting about our experiences so far and commiserating about the headwind, they took off, with me puttering along a bit behind them. After stopping for a snack, I lost them. Assuming they stay on 50, I might run across them tomorrow though. I gathered that they're doing shorter days than me, but moving faster when they're in the saddle.

With no rain and warmer temperatures in the future, I'll putter along a bit more today, find a good campsite, and rest up. Tomorrow, I should have another easy day into the outskirts of St. Louis. With any luck, the wind (apparently fairly strong compared to normal) will have abated by tomorrow! I'm off to save batteries! All in all, a good day!

Over 900 Miles, and My First Motel ( Rest of Day 11)

Ahhh, luxury! I have to say, little beats a hot shower and a large room you can move around in! I'm also across my first time zone change!

The road started out as more ups and down today, with little shoulder. Add in that US 50 is apparently a popular route for trucks in Indiana, and it was a matter of constant nervousness. I was pretty sure before that I would not be making it into Illinois today, and the road seemed to confirm it. Still, I wanted to get close. After a surprisingly fast section, I found myself in some of the (major) road I like best - wide shoulder with little gravel. I also had my first tailwind(!!!) Ahhh, the miles flew by. The weather had been gray and overcast all day, with the occasional drop or two of rain. It seems the front was finally pushing in on me, and giving me a tailwind even as I headed west. Taking full advantage of it, I shot out about 20 miles and found myself quite near the border.

There was a small segment of the route that was marked as restricted on my route, so I figured I would get dinner at the Indiana side city (Vincennes), then see about crossing. As I got closer to the border, the front I had been riding fully overtook me, and I received some real rain (not that spittery stuff from earlier). I've already discovered that a long day in damp shoes isn't that fun, so I decided that if I could find one for a decent price, this was a night for my first motel stay. Route 50 apparently doesn't really connect with Vincennes as far as a bicyclist is concerned, so I decided to press on into Illinois.

Across the border I went on roads that had nice shoulders but had that undeniable look of a road that was closed to bicyclists. I hadn't seen a sign, and that was the excuse I was going to stick with if an officer stopped me! Of course, as soon as I crossed the river into Ill, there was the sign denying access to non-motorized vehicles. Phooey! Once I was off at the first exit, I checked my map and had a heart sinking moment. It looked as if I was going to have to add on another 20 to 30 miles just to go around the five miles or so of US 50 that was restricted.

There was a small paved road that paralleled US 50, so I decided to take my chances with that (it didn't appear on my map), with the vague idea that if it got me close, and I waited until after dark, it wasn't likely that I would get stopped if I sprinted the last one or two restricted miles *whistles innocently*. The road looked very promising for about half a mile to a mile, then veered off. The entire area was fields of newly planted corn, so I headed for the nearby house to ask directions. Before I even got to the front door, an older gentleman, thin and weathered, stepped out and commented on my being a bit wet (I was pretty soaked by this point). He was quite friendly, mentioned a lot of other bicyclists he saw going by in the past, so this was the route they tended to take, and told me I could follow the way I was going and get around the restricted area, complete with directions including "turn right at the church" :)

I must say, bicycling down small farm roads was very peaceful, with no worrying about traffic. His directions were great, and I managed to get into Lawrenceville with plenty of sunlight. After asking around, it seemed that there was one motel of the two in town which local folks thought might have internet available. I stopped off at a Subway to get dinner to go, attached it, and followed the directions I had to the Gas Light Motel. I think I like non-chain motels. While the room is like any other hotel or motel room or a bit larger, the office is clearly part of a family residence. When I entered the office, the noise chimed and a little boy, probably around 8 or 9, immediately popped his head through a door to stare at me. There were a few toys lying around, and shortly a man came from the upstairs area to get me set up. He was very friendly, and we chatted for a bit about my trip. The family is from the Indian subcontinent region, and the whole time we chatted, there were delicious food smells and Hindi (I'm assuming) music floating into the "office" from upstair and the back rooms.

So here I am, in Illinois, the land of Lincoln! In some ways, this trip has been a Civil war story to this point. I started out right in the Virginia region with plenty of markers and memories of my history on the Army of the Potomac floating around. Later, I ran across several Native American references including Seip Mound and several markers for treaty locations. Now I'm into the home of Lincoln. From here, I will have to find a new story to watch unfold! Lots of sleep tonight!!!

On Indiana (Day 10 and start of Day 11)

I've discovered that one of the things you really notice as you bicycle is terrain changes you would ignore if you were driving. Ever since areas of WV where I would get into small valleys, cross them, and head into the hills, I've been curious about what exactly caused some of the terrain features I've seen (glacial valleys? would I see moraines? etc.)

Indiana is proving to be a very odd region in this way. I'll spend an hour bicycling through flat plains, with occasional tree breaks, then hit another section of what I just think is trees, only to discover that it is a sudden set of hills and valleys breaking up the terrain, then after a few of those, I am suddenly back to plains.

Usually when I have done cross country travel, fields have have crops that are fairly large in them. This time, it is early enough in the year that some fields are still lying empty, while others just have the tiny start to corn or other crops in them. I expect that I will get to watch the corn grow day after day as I pass through corn fields. For now, looking across empty fields lends itself to a sense of loneliness. While it might be well into spring, many of the fields are brown and filled with the stumps of corn from the last year. Along with that are the small towns that are plopped down in the middle of nowhere, surrounded on all sides by fields. I can't help but think that it would feel very desolate to live in a cluster of houses, surrounded on all sides by fields and lines of trees. My brother was old enough that living in West Virginia made him feel claustrophobic, unable to see very far. I'm beginning to suspect that spending most of my life in WV has done the opposite to me - I enjoy being surrounded by hills on all sides and find large flat areas to be very exposing. We'll see if that feeling holds up when I get into the desert scrubland or other areas with more terrain and cover.

Today, I should either get close to the Indiana, Illinois border or actually across it, depending on how the road is. Keeping up a good pace.

Welcome to Indiana (Day 9 and start of Day 10)

After my last post in Chillicothe, I moved a bit further and ended up having good luck again finding a camping spot - Seip Mount - an old native american earthworks which is also now a rest stop. nice level ground!

The next morning, it was off to try to get through Cincinnati. For a second day it was all overcast or splittery. I'm starting to think that rather than ever really raining in this area, it just mists down and soaks everything. The good thing is that I don't have to really worry much about sunburn in that kind of weather. The roadside was good, and I got to pass through Bainbridge, Ohio - apparently the site of the world's first dental school (who knew?).

Getting into Cincinnati wasn't hard, but getting out was something of a challenge, with me having to carry my bike and all its gear up and across a landbridge over a no bicycle/pedestrian section of the road, then down a rickety metal down stair about a mile further on. Excitement!

I had hoped to get into Indiana last night, but there is a fair bit of Ohio left beyond Cincinnati. After getting close and passing through North Bend, the site of William Henry Harrison's tomb, I decided to make camp about 4 miles from the border. I've discovered that those leveled areas that are waiting for development, but nobody has touched, make for excellent campsites, although the can be a bit rocky. Today has started out damp and overcast, but I got my tent taken down and gear stored quickly and it was off across the border. The nice thing for today is that I don't have any major goal stopping point, so I'll just move along at a comfortable pace and see what I can do!

Chillicothe, OH (Day 8)

After spending day seven recovering at my sister, Katie's, she took me to a bike shop this morning. The bicycle got checked out, and a clicking fixed (just something loose). I packed up and got a late start a bit before 12:00 to light rain. After a while, the rain let up and left me with a beautiful day of riding.

The day was marked with stands of forest mixed in with farmland, and a lot of small swollen creeks. The ride was quite pleasant, with cool air, but not too cold, and a decent shoulder on the road for most of the day. I'll be heading a bit out of Chillicothe to find somewhere to set up camp as well as to get myself a bit closer to Cincinnati. If the riding is good tomorrow, I'm hoping to pass through Cincinnati and cross into Indiana. The next few days look to be damp, so we'll see how it goes.

A restful day

I spent today relaxing with my sister and her apartment mates in Athens, Ohio. The order of the day mainly consisted of eating, sleeping and relaxing with some reading to pass the time.


Despite wanting a lot of sleep, I have been impressed with how good I feel, after just this small break. Muscle soreness is gone, with only a slightly sore rear and a numb section of one big toe to remind me what I have spent the last few days doing. I'm assuming the toe is just a pinched nerve, and will try slightly loosening my shoes tomorrow.

All of my gear is dried out and my electronics recharged, so I'll be ready to go tomorrow. The nearest bicycle shop opens at 10, so I'll head down there to get the bike checked out and replace my biking gloves (which have started to come apart), then its off. Given how late of a start I will have, that will give me a light day to get back into the groove of things. I downloaded a topographic map of the US, and sure enough, I should have several days of downhill ahead of me. If I manage to avoid strong headwinds, I should make good time. After the Appalachians, the next part should hopefully be a breeze. Next post will hopefully be from a bit further west!

The Rest of Day 5 and Day 6

Going through Bridgeport and Clarksburg wasn't the most pleasant of sections, what with heavy traffic and drivers who didn't seem willing to do much to accommodate bicyclists. There was a lot of walking of the bike, which put me behind schedule. Fortunately, after Clarksburg, things got much better. The weather was decent, and the shoulder was almost the size of an extra lane of traffic! Sadly, the need to walk my bike put me at a place where I couldn't stop by to visit the students I was student teaching for this year. I thought it would have been fun to see how they were doing, but such is life.

Worrying that I wouldn't make it to West Union, I stopped to grab dinner at a gas station (I've been doing a lot of that, as it's fast and on the way). The weather was looking a bit worse, and as I sat there, several people warned me that I should be seeking shelter as a storm with "quarter inch hail and winds up to 60 mph" was about 10 minutes out of town. The attendants at the gas station were very friendly and suggested that I stay at the gas station and even move my bicycle inside as necessary. I sat outside, eating and waiting for said storm. After a light splattering of rain, the clouds broke up. So far I've had a very good time of the weather with a few exceptions like my light fog.

I was still a ways from where I'd hoped to end, so I set off for West Union again, figuring that even if I didn't make it, the local environment was good for rolling off the side of a road and throwing up camp. I was in luck though, with light uphills and long, light downhills that gave me excellent time. The weather was funny, with the sun shining even as it was raining, although I didn't mind the rain - the weather was warm and it helped keep me cool with the wind drying me out fairly quickly. It was pretty!

I got into West Union, ate a fast dinner and then headed a bit down the rail trail. It was paved for a bit, but I'd been warned that it got rocky and puddle filled quickly. After about a mile down the path, I came across a shelter and latrine setup for campers. Setting up my tent under the shelter, I could keep off the rain fly and set out some gear to dry a bit. Over the night, there was some fairly intense lighting and thunder, but only a little rain.

Today (Day 6) saw me on the rail trail again. After following it for a while, I decided that, while scenic, it wasn't the best setup for a bicycle. Maybe I will come back sometime to hike it... Getting back onto US 50, I had great weather and lots and lots of downhills - the kind I like most (looooong, shallow ones where you just pedal lightly and zip along at a great clip.) This section of US 50 was really biker friendly. There were several day trippers who I ran into and chatted with briefly on the route. Very friendly folks.

The next story reinforces that West Virginians, and especially teachers are a great group! During on of my downhill cruises, a car pulled over in front of me, and a woman got out. When I stopped, she first said she wished she had a cold drink to give me, and mentioned that she and her husband had seen me yesterday. Apparently, they take in hikers on the American Discovery trail and the occasional bicyclist, giving them a place to stay for the night. They had been outbound from their homes the night before which was the only reason they didn't offer me a place when they saw me. We chatted for a while and it turns out that she was another retired teacher! 4 days in WV traveling (only 2 of them, full days) and I had one offer of a place to stay and one apology for not giving me a place to stay. Both from retired teachers - What a great state :)

I was planning to take two days to reach Athens Ohio to stay with my sister, but the weather was great and the trip was mostly downhill. Making great time, I decided to see how close I could get , and managed to get there with an hour or two of sunlight left. A shower and laundry and I feel like a human being once again!

Tomorrow will be spent as a day of recovery. I've pushed around 525 miles in the last 6 days by my estimate, giving me an average of nearly 90 miles per day. Way ahead of schedule, I'll take the day or so to let any damage get a chance to heal. The last thing I want is to hurt something when the trip is going so well. At 525 miles, I should be around 1/7 of the way finished with my trip!

As one final note: I've been amused by the number of other characters I've heard about or seen on this trip. The world must have far more than we normally see. Two stories come immediately to mind: A gas station attendant told me about a man who stopped by a few days before me, with a cross made out of 2x4s. He had it set up like a dolly, so that he could tilt and roll it. Apparently he was walking from Illinois to Maine, or some other good distance, carrying it. I didn't talk to him or see him, so I didn't get the full story.

The other person that comes to mind, I actually ran across. A day or two back, I was pedaling up a tough hill when up ahead of me, I suddenly saw a giant globe rolling towards me. Me first thought was wondering how I was going to dodge the renegade decoration from in front of somebody's building, but then I saw a man walking next to it, pushing it along. As I passed him, I noticed he had a dog with him, and a website written on the globe. Being on the hill, I didn't stop, but the memory stayed in my head and I finally managed to look him up. The man's website is http://www.worldguy.org/. Apparently, he has walked for over a thousand miles with his dog and the giant globe, all to raise awareness for diabetes. Sounds like a great guy - I'll try to remember to stop and chat with the next intriguing person like that I run across.

Exhaustion is setting in, so I'll run for now, but will hopefully take advantage of the internet and electricity to post some thoughts on the trip to this point, tomorrow. Take care all!

A picture of the Streisels, my hosts from the last post.

After a breakfast at the Streisels, I was off again. The weather was misty and spittering as I began, but it was supposed to clear up. The road was as bad as Mr. Streisel said it would be. I wouldn't suggest US 50 to any other biker. The early part of the day was probably my worst experience of the trip so far. The mist that was everywhere left me cold and completely soaked. I'd push my bike up one side of a mountain or hill, roasting all the way while stopping to let any large vehicles pass (there wasn't any room to ride here), then I would zip down the far side, shivering and freezing for that whole part. At Mount Storm, visibility was down to about 75 meters due to the fog, and I was legitimately concerned about safety and feeling very discouraged about the trip. Then I started down.

As soon as I lost a few hundred feet of elevation, I broke through the bottom of the fog layer and the temperature started to rise. Pretty soon I even had some sunlight. After passing through the southwestern tip of Maryland, I hit Cathedral park and Aurora, WV. The area was beautiful, probably the nicest of my trip so far. It's funny how fast things can go for terrible to great!

The big redeeming quality of US 50 is that throughout that entire region, traffic was almost nonexistent, a great change. I ended up camping out a tiny distance after Fellowsville, WV. It had gotten dark, and finding a flat spot to camp was proving very challenging, so I just headed down a side road a ways and set up camp. 4 or 5 cars went by in the morning, making me wonder what they thought of the strange guy and his tent in the middle of nowhere.

I'm in Grafton now, typing this up. Today I plan to head through Clarksburg to get on the North Bend rail trail. I'll be happy to get a break from mountains for a bit. With my arrival at Grafton, I think I've pretty much dealt with the majority of the Appalachians. Rail trails never have a grade of more than 2 1/2 degrees, so it will hopefully be a relaxing ride with no traffic worries.

Three more days and I will hopefully be in Athens, Ohio to visit the sister! Depending on how I feel, I might end up spending an extra day there recovering from aches and giving my body a chance to do some mending. It's good to be ahead of schedule.

Rest of Day 3 and Day 4

Well, a lot has happened since my last update! After making it through DC without much trouble, I ended up at a bicycle shop to get an extra tube (just being paranoid). While talking to the bike shop owner about conditions for biking on route 50, he suggested I use the local rail trail instead. I checked with him and he said it did indeed lead to Fairfax (my goal for the day). The following is a lesson about baaaad advice. It turns out that linguistics are a bit different from region to region. When I say Fairfax, I think city, when he heard it, he thought county.... So, I followed the rail trail for quite a bit, going through several very nice towns, but according to my map, I wasn't going in exactly the right direction. I thought it might just meander a bit, but chose to ask a friendly woman at the small village community center I was passing.

That's when I learned that it touched the county and not the city. Fortunately, with my handy dandy map, I managed to head back towards route 50, with only a little time lost. I checked again to get directions to make sure I could actually move the way I wanted to, and got detailed directions from a non-english speaker. This is now the segment on when you should listen to advice you get! I followed the directions to a point, but was sure I needed to turn left and not right at a given road to get to Fairfax. Clearly I was wrong, as I discovered the next time I asked somebody which way it was to Fairfax. I had already gone about 5 miles and was entering Falls Church, which I had passed though an hour ago on the rail trail. Turning around, I retraced my steps and ended up in Fairfax by going the direction I was initially told to go.

Given the rain, I was planning to get a hotel room to clean up my bicycle, etc. I figured Fairfax would have expensive rooms, so I went on to Chantilly for the night. When, quite tired, I asked about room rates, I learned that the cheapest rooms in the area were $100. Being the cheap college kid I am, I decided to forget that and kept biking until I could find somewhere to camp for the night, not far past Chantilly.

Day 4 had a goal of Winchester, but I was already fairly close. After passing through, I decided to keep going and try to hit WV by the evening. Right as I got the to border, it started to rain.. There was a small store right at the border, so I ate a meal and chatted with a motorcyclist who was also seeking shelter from the storm. I also learned that the nearest hotel was in Romney, quite a bit further along. Off I went, figuring I could make it just before it got dark. The hills quickly got much larger than they had been as I finally started moving into the actual Appalachians. Exhausted from my long day, I finally had to give in and walk my bike up Bear Mountain (2 miles at a 7% grade)

This section explains why WV is a truly great state! At the top, a young man in a truck asked where I was head, and told me that his dad tends to put up bikers for the night. This is how I met Mr. and Mrs. Streisel - retired teachers from Hampshire High (yay teachers!) They lived about 10 miles further on, and their son (the man in the truck) told me to give a call when I got there. I had no signal, so he actually caught me after I had passed by, and gave me a ride back. Less than 20 miles into WV and I already had been offered a place to stay and given a home cooked meal - the first offer of any kind like this in my trip. The Streisels let me do laundry, dry out my gear, set me up with snacks and discussed possible alternate routes, as the next part of route 50 isn't pleasant, in terms of both hills and shoulder size. With the offer to make myself at home, I was given a room with a bed and asked what time I'd like to wake up. WV is really a great state! :)

Mr. Streisel is quite a character. Apparently he likes carpentry and construction. Despite a teacher's salary, he has a heated pool and greenhouse attachment to the house, all constructed by him (including the house itself) The room I'm in has doors he built, a pendulum clock he constructed (buying only the mechanical parts) and a standing mirror with bent wood laminate supports. He heats the water for the pool with solar energy from the roof of the pool building, and I gather that he also writes for a newspaper. Very friendly people!

Given that there is no ideal way to get back to 50 if I leave it, I suspect I will be following it tomorrow and just not making much distance, walking my bike in areas were safety is a concern. If all goes well, I'll be able to make it to Gorman tomorrow.

End of Day 2 and Start of Day 3

Well, I managed to finally find somewhere to camp out. Going into Baltimore, the road was getting worse and worse for bikers. Eventually I found myself spending a lot of time walking my bicycle, while at the same time keeping an eye out for camping spots or cheaper hotels. Neither of either showed up, so I just had to keep going...and going...and going. Eventually I ended up in downtown Baltimore. Part of me actually was happy with the situation as there was plenty of lighting from artificial sources and the traffic was much less of a problem than it would have been during the day. The streets were a warren and my map wasn't ideal for the situation, but I followed my policy of "If I head in the right direction, I'll get out of this eventually". After trending south and west as possible, I finally came across a road that linked in with US 1, which I had been trying to stay on. At the same time, there was a small park-like area nearby, so I went a bit back in there and set up camp. By the time I was set up, it was about 1 am.

I woke up around 6:30 and was packed up to go by around 7:30. Heading into Washington DC has been much better than heading into Baltimore was. There has been no wind, but some rain just started, so I'll have to set up my packs for rainy weather. With any luck, I'll spend this evening in Virginia! Thanks to all the family and friends for the support!

Tom

Day 2

After I posted last evening, I bicycled on until right before Townsend Delaware. I was in luck and ran into Blackbird State Forest, where I camped the night. I was up around 7 am to nice weather, although the night was a bit cool, as was most of today.

Today's weather was great for bicycling overall. One really great thing was almost no wind! After yesterday, that was an enormous relief. It was an exciting day though. I got up to US route 40, and was then going to follow it into Baltimore. I followed this to the bridge over the Susquehanna riverust as I was about to get on it, a police car came up behind me with lights flashing. It turns out that bikes and pedestrians aren't allowed on the bridge. He told me that there was a bike shop that would ferry across bikers, but the number led to an answering machine. At that point, I could either try to thumb a ride across or head north to the US route 1 bridge. I chose to head for Route 1, up what I think was state route 222, although I could be wrong on that. Eventually I got to that bridge, which is interestingly enough also a hydropower station. There wasn't much median, but traffic was light and I was NOT detouring further, so I rushed across after I got a good wind up.

From there, I followed US 1 towards Baltimore, trying to make up lost time. I may have overdone myself though, I seem to be in the suburbs already, and finding a camping spot is going to be tough. Worst case though, I'll have to get a hotel and then rush through Baltimore and D.C. tomorrow. I may not be posting for a bit, as my laptop battery is nearing the end of its life and I'm not sure when I'll be able to recharge it again. Tomorrow will hopefully see me into Virginia!

Day 1

Last night was somewhat interesting. It turns out that the hotel I was staying in is directly across fom a club which plays loud music on outdoor speakers! While I was puttering around waiting to get tired enough to pass lout, I opened the fridge to discovered that it hadn't been cleaned since the last occupants left beer wine and liquor in it. Odd.

Next morning I was out by seven and asking a helpful lady on the beach to get a photo of me. Not a great shot, but still, it's the Atlantic! After that I was off... into a terrible headwind...all day long. My progress was not what I'd hoped for, but I still got to my first official end point (Smyrna) which is where I'm typing this. I'll probably go on a few miles and find somewhere to camp out.

One final note: I weighed myself twice before this trip began. Both measurements were within a couple pounds of 190. It will be interesting to see what it is when I finish! I'm off!

Here's Dewey!

I made it to Dewey Beach a bit later than expected, so the parents got me a hotel for the night so I can wake up well rested. The beach is right next to the hotel, so I'm fortunate tourism season hasn't started yet or the prices would be even worse!

The drive down was pretty windy, but the weather looks like it will be fine (if still a bit windy) tomorrow. The most intimidating part was having to drive from WV to the east coast. Traveling by van so far that I got tired just sitting there going 70 miles an hour was a strong reminder of just how far I'm going.

The first trickles of kids out of college have already descended, so here's hoping it's not too loud and I get a good night's sleep. If all goes as planned, tomorrow should be a warmup ride of 55 miles or so north on route 1 and US-13 to Smyrna, Delaware.

Assuming everything goes as planned, I begin my trip tomorrow! While some people may be joining me for parts of the trip, I ended up being the only person who plans to do the whole route. Tomorrow, I'll be getting a ride to Dewey Beach, Delaware where I will begin the trek. Most of the route I plan to follow will be on or near US route 50, and so far the weather for the near future looks decent.

So, what gear have I decided to bring with me? Here most of it is:



I will be bringing along my laptop and charger to keep in touch (I downloaded a bunch of ebooks as well), a light sleeping bag, a backpacking tent, a ground tarp, a water purifier, 2 water bottles for my bicycle, a backpack with a water bladder in it on my back, a reserve 2 liter water bladder, a tire pump, a spare tire and six spare inner tubes, a first aid kit and toiletries, sunglasses, a headlamp, a small LED light, a lighter, a bicycle tube patch kit, a hex wrench and tire levers, my multi-tool, chain lubricant, sunscreen, bicycle lock, duct tape, rechargeable batteries and the charger, my cell phone and its charger, my digital camera and the upload cable, flip flops, a pocket knife, an emergency poncho, 3 short and 1 long sleeve shirt, 1 set of biking shorts and 1 set of biking pants, 2 light shorts and one heavy shorts pair, swim trunks, 3 sets of synthetic socks, 3 pairs of synthetic underwear and a camp towel.

Other than adding one or two things, that is about all I will be using for the next few months. I need to be back in Morgantown for the next school year in almost exactly 100 days. My next update will hopefully come from Delaware!