blog for july 26

July 26, 2008   Rode to Cave In Rock, IL     63 miles

Breakfast at Delaney's on Broadway in Goreville got us off to a good start.  This cafe really caters to cyclist as do many stops along the way.  The walls and tables have pictures of the many cyclist that have passed through over the years.  Elizabethtown was the stop for lunch at a cafe floating on the Ohio River serving up catfish dinners.  Two ladies at the visitors center, Veldene Jerrels and Linda Jerrels, where very helpful in providing interesting information about the area.  This would be a nice town to return to.  

We camped that night at Cave In Rock State Park which is highlighted by, what else, a large cave.  The cave is huge and was a stopping place with shelter for many early pioneers, pirates. and other assorted folks. 

Fwd: Blog update

July 25, 2008

Goreville, IL     Rode 80 miles

Leaving Chester IL I rode along the levi road which goes along a levi separating the Mississippi from rich farmland.  Mid-morning I ran into a support van from The Black Bear Bicycle Tours company.   They were providing support for a group of about 60 cyclist raising funds for a conservation effort.  They  asked if I needed anything so I made use of the tire pump.  Seems like tire pressure is constantly on my mind.  Further along the way they had a snack stop set up where there were 30 or more cyclist who were interested in where I was going to and from.   I told them about my friend Jim, the fund I had set up, and gave them all sticky notes with the web site.  They were all quite encouraging about this effort.  

That night we camped at Ferne Clyffe State Park just outside Goreville.  In the night a pretty significant thunderstorm passed through with lots of rain.  The good news is that the tent does not leak.  The bad news is that after the storm Philip heard rustling of paper and when he got up to investigate found that a racoon had found the beef jerky I had stored in my pannier on the bike.  I know, I know,   It was a boneheaded thing to do.  You donn't have to tell me.  Philip has made that abundantly clear already.   They should provide big steel boxes for me to store my goodies in like they do in Yellowstone. 

Blog from July 25, 2008

Posting from Chester, Illinois on July 25, 2008

 

 

July 43, 2008   Rode 61 miles to Summersville, MO

 

This was basically a day of putting miles and lots of hills behind me.  By mid-day I had reached Houston, MO.   Some of the ride was in relatively light rain on roads that were not the best for biking. 

 

This bike 76 route was established in 1976, the year of the bicentenial.  It was called the BikeCentenial.  I am certain that 32 years ago the traffic on this route was much less intense.  Also, we notice that many of the small towns that we pass through have nearly disappeared or have lost most of their past glory.  So some of the stopping places where food was available in 1976 are no longer there.  It causes me to wonder what this ride will be like in the coming years.  If you are interested in learning more about this route and other similar routes that are mapped around the country, Google "Adventure Cycling".  That is the organization behind the planning.  Their headquarters are in Missoula, Montana, which we visited during our stay there. 

 

Back to the ride:  We decided to stay at the Green Roof Inn, a pleasant Mom and Pop kind of motel, cheap, clean with a good down home restaurant across the street.  Also a laundry next door so clean cloths again.  What a treat. 

 

That evening I had the house special of roast beef, mashed potatos on bread all smothered in rich gravy.   I notice on this ride that I am never famished, even after a long day's ride, but when food is presented I can eat everything in sight.  In fact I never really feel hungry while I am riding.   Also, only the good food looks or sounds good for the most part.  Fast food has no appeal. 

 

July 23, 2008      Rode 73 miles to Lesterville, MO

 

This day was riding through the main part of the Ozark Mts, although I actully rode in them for most of 5 days,   VERY steep grades and not much of a view after reaching the top, only another series of hills.  I had been told by many that the Ozarks are the hardest part of the ride.  So far, I think I agree.  We had a huge buffet lunch at, where else,  the HILL Cafe in Ellington.   There was a hardware in town where I finally found a metric size nut for one of the bolts on my fender.  I had been looking for one for the past month.  The Parks Bluff Campground on the Black River greeted us at the end of the day.  Philip made instant mashed potatoes - a serving for 4.  I ate most of it with hot cocoa since Philip was still full from lunch.  Sorry about all these detail about food but other than climbing endless hills, that is about all there is to talk about.

 

July 24, 2008     Rode 93 miles to Chester, IL

 

More hills, lots of hills for 82 more miles.  Farmington was reached by mid-day where it started to rain.  Philip was at the library in town and checking the radar weather.  It looked like there was a huge storm north of us.  Luckily most of it seemed to stay north and I waited for most of it to pass, doing, what else, eating at the local Chinese cafe, soup and an egg roll.  Finally after 82 miles I reached the flood plain for the Mississippi and could see the bridge over the river in the distance.   Riding over this old bridge on a bicycle is pretty scary since one can see all of the crumbling cement with rusting rebar sticking out and many pot holes.  This bridge could be the next one to make headlines.  There was no place for cyclist to ride except in on the  roadway.  Fortunately there was a kind driver behind me who put on his fourway blinker and followed me across.   Overall, the drivers all along the way have been very considerate and this was a prime example.  Chester is famous as the home of Popeye, actually the home of Elzie Segar, his creator.   

 

It feels good to have Missouri in my mirror and 2800 miles behind me. 

 

 

Blog from July 22, 2008

Continuation from July 19, 2008

 

The five other guests who arrived at Immanual Lutheran Church were heading west and were from England.   Two guys and a gal are college students, Ben, Owen and Liz.  They are the cyclists while two of their fathers are driving the sag vehicle.  They are riding to raise money for cancer research in the United Kingdom.  Their web site is www.usa-ride.com if you want to check it out.  It was an interesting evening visiting with them and trading the information about the best and worst places to stay along the way. 

 

July 20, 2008   

 

The ride this day took me 99.25 miles to Ash Grove.... I know, I should have ridden around the block to make it an even 100.  About halfway into the ride I started to hit the beginning of the Ozark Mountains with some interesting climbs.   Much of the reminder of the state will be like this I am told.   Golden City is home to Cookies Cafe which is famous among cyclist for its pies,  22 or more diffent kinds.  The day before, I met Connor riding west who told me about the pies, and in fact he had eaten 5 pieces while he was in Golden.  At Cookies I met a couple from Calif. heading east also.  They were fully loaded and were also pulling a two wheel cart housing their dog, Jack, a Jack Russel Terrier.  When I looked in on Jack waiting outside in his cart it did not look like he was having the best time of his life. 

 

Five miles before reaching Ash Grove I rode through Everton, a little spot of a town with a saloon that was open on this Sunday afternoon.  The gang of 8 or so in there was really wound up and had all kinds of questions and advice for me.  What a crew it was sitting in a dark very smoky bar on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon.  Ash Grove is a Mayberry, USA kind of place.  The pool is free, cyclists can camp in the city park next to the pool and the police leave the restroom with a shower open all night. 

 

July 21, 2008   Rode 75 miles to Hartville, MO

 

MORE hills.   Who knew the Ozarks are FILLED with hills?   The scenery is great, especially from the top of the hills overlooking the rolling landscape.  It is also refreshing to see lots of trees where some shade can be found for a break in contrast to much of the earlier landscape I passed through.    In the morning a met a father with his son, about 14 yrs old, from the Netherlands, Jon and Jon.   They are heading to Florence, OR from Yorktown.  In the afternoon there were two more guys, college students from Mass. heading west to San Francisco.  More sharing of stories and advice of where to stay and where to find good food.  You might sense a certain theme here. 

 

In Hartville cyclists are allowed to camp on the courthouse lawn.  When I arrived in town and saw the courthouse I asked the lady watering the flowers where cyclist could camp.  She pointed to a shade tree right in front of the courthouse and said, "Well, over there in the shade would be a good spot."   Somehow I can't imagine that happening in front of the courthouse in Fremont, Ohio or Hanover Courthouse, Virginia.  The Subway across the street had a great Philly Cheesesteak and A/C for cooling off.  In the morning we headed to Mom's Family Cafe for breakfast.   By 6:05 the morning crew had already arrived.  Every little town has this group of folks who assemble to solve the world's problems.   I call them the "Brain Trust".   We are really making inroads on this trip though.  This morning the Brain Trust in Harville invited us to join them at their table.  Among them was a UPS driver, retired farmer, a fellow who has 75 hives of bees (his honey was served at Mom's) a lady who is the rural mail carrier and other members who floated in and out.  It was a great start to the day. 

  

Blog posted July 21, 2008

July 18, 2008    Rode 98 miles to Toronto, KS

 

This was one of the first days to wake up with a light rain falling.  One fellow drove beside me in his pickup and asked me if I wanted a ride or if I wanted to ride in the rain.  I told him that I would ride in the rain.  How could I say I rode coast to coast if part of the way my bike was in the back of a pickup.  I actually would prefer rain to the hot sun.   Passing through the little town of Rosalia I noticed a cafe where I had a great mid-morning pizza and waited for the rain to clear.  Such a luxury to have a 10" pizza as a mid-morning snack.  Thinking the rain had quit I started out only to seek shelter at the grade school.  One of the teachers stopped to talk and gave me a description of the school environment in this little remote village, the kinds of students and what they end up doing.  She said most stay in the local area and farm.   There is a lot of corn growing in Kansas and most of it is irragated.  What a lot of work that is. 

 

Toronto KS is very small, probably less that 150 people but the state camp ground id great, even a new shower building with lots of hot water.   The little deli in town fixed a corn beef sandwich with the most generous portion of meat I have ever seen.  Tjhe meat alone was a stack easily one inch thick.  Even I could only eat have of it and had the rest for lunch the next day.  Brian Chance, the own of the deli pulled up a chair and entertained us will all kinds of stories growing up in the area and his experiences in the army. 

 

July 19, 2008

 

This was a 75 mile ride to a little Lutheran Church out on the plains about 7 miles of east of Walnut, KS.   This was a great stop.   Conner, a rider heading west, told me about the stop that morning and my cycling map also mentioned it as a stop.   Pastor John at Immanual Lutheran Church welcomed me like a long lost friend and offered that I could camp in the A/C fellowship hall.  He then offered the use of his shower in the basement of the parsonage and also picked three ears of sweet corn from his garden that I could cook in the Parish Hall kitchen for supper.   It turned out that 5 folks from England who were heading west were also going to be camping there.  So we had quite a road reunion

 

My time is up, the courthouse libarry is closing so I will finish the story next time. 

 

 

Blog from July 17, 2008

This posting is being written on July 17, 2008 from Newton, KS to catch up from the past couple of days when internet was not available for various reasons.

 

July 15, 2008

 

I cycled 65 miles to Rush Center, KS where it was 96 F when I arrived. I have no idea where the "Rush" came from for the name of this town.  On July 4th we camped in the town called Encampment which in earlier years was known as Grand Encampment.  Somewhere along the way, for what would be obvious reasons if you ever found yourself in that town, it is now known simply as "Encampment".  I  similar surgery could be done to shorten Rush Center to simply "Center".  On our way to Center we passed through Bazine where the main attraction was the Oil Rig Cafe.  There we found Bea Ribbletts twin sister waiting table.  I took a picture to prove it.  Next door was Elaine's B&B exclusively for cyclists so we stopped and chatted with Elaine for a bit. I was tempted to bring her 10 week old Golden Retriever puppy along as a surprise for Nancy but he would not fit in my bag. 

 

When we arrived in "Center" the only highlight I can remember was the 8 oz hamburger at the local watering hole.  We camped in a 4-H park next to the highway.  In the middle of the night it sounded like someone was unloading cattle next to our tent but I was too tired to investigate or care. 

 

July 16, 2008

 

We had a picnic b-fast that Philip fixed with his camp stove:  oatmeal, boiled eggs and tea.  He is quite the chef with the limited material he has to work with.  He also is a real drill sargent when it comes to breaking down the camp.  I can barely get out of the tent before he is stuffing it in the duffel. 

 

Rode 90 miles to Nickerson, KS.  Just before Nickerson I met a TransAm fellow heading west who had started in Yorktown about the same day we started from Astoria, OR.  Daniel, from New Zealand, was  traveling alone and had saved for seven years to make this trip.  He was around 28 - 32 in age.  We exchanged information about our experiences and I told him about our effort to promote funding for cancer research and he gave me $10 for our fund.  Thank you Daniel for your help.  

 

Nickerson has a great grocery which I immediately invaded.  Watermellons were in abundance but there were no slices.  When I explained that I could not use a whole mellon they offered to cut one for me.  It was very sweet and seedless.  I stood on the sidewalk eating it like a caveman.... probably the best mellon I have ever eaten.  Most of the food on the trip could be described as the best I have every eaten.  The combination of fresh air and burning so many calories really hightens the senses I guess. 

 

Nickerson does have library with a VERY particular librarian.   The time limit on the compter per user is 30 minutes,  and it does not matter if someone else is waiting to use it or not.   That woman must have been the character that Miss Buzzy was based on way back in "Laugh In" days, for those of you young enough to remember.  That is the reason no blog was posted yesterday.

 

A fellow cyclist, Jay,  came in the library while we were there.  He is currently a student at Va. Tech...  the second Tech student I have met on this trip.   He is also traveling alone and trying to do the trip on $10.  per day.

 

The Sunshine Cafe in Nickerson served up a good old down home special of meatloaf and homemade bread.   Also, once again we lucked out with rubarb pie, this one Edna was just taking from the oven when we had cleaned our plates.   One of the best we have had.

 

July 17, 2008

 

Today was a short 56 mile ride to Newton, KS.  Along the way in Buhler I met a nice middle age couple from The Netherlands heading west.  They left in early June and will fly home Sept. 12 from Oregon.  Newton has a population of 17,000 so we are using it as a stop to get clean and reorganize.   My heart almost stopped when I walked into the lobby of the Days Inn, it was so cold.   This is our first motel since Pueblo.   The adjacent truck stop has a laundry so all of our cloths are now clean.    We're looking for the perfect steak place next.  Seeing all the cattle munching away out on the planes has me pretty psyched for a steak.  

 

I was somewhat spooked about Kansas before getting here because it is so long, windy, with the possibility of stormes, and driving across Kansas can be rather boring.   I know, I have done it.  But on a bicycle on the secondary roads and stopping in the small towns it is competely different.   Philip says it is like looking at a DVD disc and thinking you have seen  the movie rather than actully putting it in the player and seeing what is inside.  The people here are the most friendly we have met.   Sometimes even motorcyclist  will wave to me.    That is a rareity.  We are enjoying Kansas. 

 

That's it for now.  More later. 

 

 

Blog from Dighton, KS,

July 14, 2005  

 

This update on our journey is being written from the library in Dighton, Kansas.  Looking at the past few days, Jack reports on: 

 

July 12, 2005   (the 34th day of the journey)

 

We went to the JR Truck Stop in Ordway to fuel up for the day.  We've learned that every little town has its group of local citizens that meet for coffee at 6:30 AM to solve the world's problem. Ordway was no exception.  The meeting had already begun on the front porch of JR's when we arrived.  I told the 8 guys that I could tell that they were the "brain trust" of the town.  All readily agreed and Mr. Reimschneider quickly took on the role of spokesman.  It was quite a jolly group and we enjoyed much kidding.  As is the case all along the ride everyone wants to  know where we are from, how far I've ridden, how far each day.  I eventually told them about the fund-raising effort and gave them sticky notes with the rideforjim.org weg site.  After we went inside to have b-fast, two of the fellows followed us in to follow up on our effort to promote cancer research.   It turned out the Mr. R. was a six-year survivor of cancer himself.  He owns about 20,000 acres and farms the hard way he said, compared to back east, since he has to irrigate everything he grows.   He has done quite well for himself with his 8th grade education.  He said he had the same teacher for 8 years, and after that amount of time he had taught her everything he knew so he quite going to school. 

 

On the road that day I met several cyclist going west, Eric, from Montreal, works for IBM and was riding to Oregon.  Jacque and Mary Lou are from Paris, France and are riding from Chicago to Denver.   They gave a very positive recommendation for the steak at the resturant in Eads.  The 63 mile ride that day was harder that the miles would indicate since it was into a strong headwind all day.   

 

July 13, 2008

 

The local resturant in Eads did not open until 7:00 and I was anxious to get on the road early to pass some miles before it got too hot so Philip heated water on his little backpacking stove and made oatmeal.   We added some packaged Salmon that Nancy had sent to us and had a little b-fast picnic.  It looked like a perfect day for riding since I even had a slight tail wind helping to push me.  Less that 5 miles into the ride I had aNOTHer flat tire.  At this least this one was on the front, which is much easier to take off the bike.   I had been told about the "Texas Tacks"  which are tiny, about one-quarter inch diameter burrs that are on the ground, are very sharp and easily capable of puncturing bike tires.  I inspected the tire and found numerous little spines from these guys in the tire where they had even punctured my Kevlar, bullet-proof tire.   They are most frequently found in grassy areas or in gravel I now know and I had ridden in such areas around the camping area of the city park where we had camped. 

 

So I took the wounded tube out and replaced it with a new tube and pumped it up.  Before I could even get the wheel back on the bike the tire was flat.  So I pumped some more and the pump jammed and would no longer pump air.  Philip had already passed me and by this time was way ahead of me.  So I decided to patch the wounded tube but first had to find the hole.  This is more difficult that it is at home when I just put the inflated tube down in a bucket of water and look for the bubbles to rise.   I tried pouring water on the tube with little success so finally licked and spit on the tube.  Even the first round of spitting on the whole tube did not reveal the breach.  Do you have any idea how much spit it takes to cover a whole bicycle inner tube?  This was Sunday morning and no one stopped to see if they could assist but I suppose I would not want to stop to help some guy standing by the side of a lonely highway spitting on a bicycle inner tube at 7:00 on a Sunday morning.  I found the hole, the patch worked but the pump did not.  The worst curse word I ever heard my dad utter was "Horse Collars".   So I laid enough "horse collars"  on the poor little pump to harnes 100 21 mule teams and surprisingly the little pump got the message and started doing what it is designed to do....  pump air!!!    It may have helped that I also took the pump apart and discovered that the "O-ring"  had gotten out of its little groove and need to be pushed back into position.  I had called Philip on the cells and he came back to assist putting everything back together and get me back on the road. 

 

After that I met 9 riders heading west.  We always stop to compare stories about what lies ahead.  Among them were two young guys from Sweden, a middle age couple and several other combinations of riders.   Arrived in Tribune, KS in the early afternoon having ridden 58 miles. 

 

So that day I crossed the line into Kansas which feels like a real milestone.  At this point we have been on the road for 5 weeks and have covered 2042 miles.  Tribune turned out to be a like a big "road family" reunion.  Emerson and Copper were there as well as a really nice couple from New York  who were heading to Washington state.   Also the Swedish guys arrived and this morning there was another fellow at the site who is a grad student at Columbia. 

 

July 14, 2008. 

 

Today I rode to Dighton, KS,  for 72 miles.  This town of 1300 has a great pool so I cooled down, showered and now am at the library.    Next on the agenda is perhaps finding a steak dinner.  Not surprisingly the local Dairy King, which I located on arrival, is closed on Mondays.