I finished the bike ride on Saturday!! Pennsylvania was one of the tough states we biked through but it was also beautiful so that was a great distraction. By time we got to Maryland we were almost in DC. It was an unbelievable feeling to bike into the city where I spent four years at school. The last day of the bike ride flew by as I relived all the states we had gone through and all the adventures I had had. I will sincerely miss the other Big Riders. Once again thank you for all the support and prayers and if anyone ever contemplates riding their bicycle across the country-give me a call and I’ll tell you all about it.
This is normal life, right?
Two weeks into the ride, it felt normal to get on a bike every day. Four weeks into the ride it became difficult to remember what it was like not biking every day. By week 5, I was so into the routine of biking that I couldn’t even think of anything I needed to do on my day off except for sleep a little extra. We spent our rest day in Burton, Ohio at the home of my friend Catie’s aunt. It was wonderful and relaxing and we made some cookies and banana bread to bring back to the other big riders. There was a terrible storm the night we got back to camp and I only slept three hours because my tent was bending in on me, but the next day we had only 58 miles to go, so I wasn’t to worried. We had an easy biking day and arrived in New Waterford, tired but happy.Every night we get into camp, set up our tents and go from there. Now I generally choose my camping site based on proximity to the truck(my duffle bags are not easy to carry and I’ve fallen over several times while trying to balance them) and in New Waterford,this was not a wise decision. I got into camp, saw a shady spot near the truck and set up my tent, unpacked my gear and took a nap. I woke up to an unpleasant smell and a loud bang. I had placed my tent right around the corner from the Porta Potty and I was downwind. By time Mass (it was Saturday night) and dinner were over however it was getting dark and all the other good campsites were taken. I was also way to lazy and tired to move. There is much to be said of sleeping in a state of sheer exhaustion. What would have normally driven me crazy hardly bothered me at all and I gave my stuff plenty of time to air out the next night to get rid of any lingering odors…
Ohio
After miles of corn in Illinois and Indiana, I was excited to note on my cue sheet that we were crossing into Ohio on Day 37. I should have saved the energy because Ohio-at least the first part was basically identical to the previous two states. And when I say “basically identical” I mean that if someone had picked me up and spun me around then told me to keep biking I wouldn’t have known which direction I was going.We couldn’t even tell that we had crossed into a new state except for the fact that the support staff had marked the state line with sidewalk chalk.
Kendalville, IN to Napoleon, OH 70 miles. This was an extremely pleasant and easy ride. The road surfaces improved (at least in some places) and it was still flat, so when we caught a good wind we breezed through the day.
Napoleon, OH to Sandusky, OH 92 miles-Another great day in Ohio. It was a $12 night so a couple of us rode our bikes 3 miles to the Chili’s and were treated to Margaritas by Doug. We then road the 3 miles back in record time.
Sandusky, OH to Burton, OH 101 miles. This ride can be summed up in one word “detours”. I started off the morning a little slow and about 5 miles down the road began contemplating when it would be to early to stop for second breakfast. I made it all the way to mile 27 where Rachel and I stopped at Pete’s Restaurant in a small town. We were greeted with the normal questions by the hostess, but apparently a few other people in the diner overheard our responses because before we knew it we were being peppered by questions from all corners. Literally everyone stopped eating and started asking us about the trip. It was fun to have their attention and even more fun to hear them discuss us when they turned back to each other and thought we couldn’t hear them. Big surprise folks, sound can travel across a small room when you’re shouting at each other. It was a delicious breakfast and I felt energized and back to normal afterwards. On this high note, we remounted our fearless steeds and began heading towards Burton once again. Unfortunately, the main bridge we were using to cross the river was under construction, so we were forced to detour down the river and back up the other side after we crossed. Only mildly irritated, I continued pedaling as we entered the suburbs of Cleveland. Traffic was heavy and fast so the miles flew by as I concentrated on not getting killed. After we made it through Cleveland around mile 70 we discovered that another bridge was closed so we detoured around that, got back on track and had gone barely 3 miles when we were stopped by a police officer who informed us that a tree had fallen into some power lines on the road up ahead and that we would need to detour past it. He told us, “Don’t worry,its only a couple of extra miles.” I was thinking “don’t worry, this will only hurt for a minute” as I contemplated what damage would occur if I rammed into him with my bicycle. Before I could really get upset however, we stopped at a gas station where we talked for a long while with a man who was a cyclist himself. He bought us a liter each of Powerade which I promptly chugged on the spot. I hadn’t known I was dehydrated but seeing as my stomach didn’t explode and I immediately felt much better: I’m going to guess that I was. After getting back on track once more we were greeted by some very very steep hills. I was on a sugar rush from the Powerade so I made it to Burton in record time and was closely following my cue sheet until I bumped into two other Big Riders. They stopped me and told me that I was going the wrong way and that a local woman had pointed them down the huge hill right in front of us. Being a complete nincompoop I abandoned the directions and followed them down the hill. It was a three mile hill and, go figure, the local woman was wrong. Luckily we ran into another guy who showed us a short cut to the fairgrounds we were staying in and I only had to climb half of the way back up. I arrived at the fairgrounds from the back entrance and marked off another day on the Big Ride.
Indiana
We stopped in Valpairoso, IN for a rest day after 7 days straight of riding (our longest stretch)but a bunch of us wanted to experience Chicago so we finished the ride for the day, showered and headed into the city on a train. Tired from over 600 miles in 7 days-NO CHANCE! (well ok I was very tired but I was also motivated by a certain someone that I was meeting up with in Chicago). Chicago was an amazing time and we made the most of it, by going out and sleeping very little. The next day I slept right through my alarm and I’m sure if you read the blogs of some of the older riders you might detect a hint of irritation as they describe waiting for the irresponsible college kids to get their act together. In my defense it was the only day I’ve slept through my alarm on the trip, but I did wake up at 7:07, exactly 7 minutes after we were supposed to be leaving and along with some other guys made the group wait 10 minutes until I could get my bags on the truck. No one can leave until everyone’s gear is loaded. I missed breakfast of course, but Catie and Rachel stopped with me at McDonalds and I ate some breakfast sandwiches to get me going. I woke up around mile 30 of this 110 mile day, but luckily the girls were feeling pretty out of it as well so we took our time the whole day. Thats an understatement. It took us 11 hours to finish this ride. In addition we went through a time zone change so we didn’t finish the ride until 7:30 at night but now we’re officially on East Coast time- I’m almost home!!!!! I really felt like we were just a few short steps away as soon as we crossed into our last time zone. As we were riding along an ambulance went by and cheered us on via the loudspeakers. At least he cheered Catie and Rachel on who were riding a good half mile ahead of me as I tried to wake up (early morning still). When the ambulance passed me the guy shouted into the microphone “pick it up, you’re falling behind, go go go”. It was pretty funny and I’m sure that he had no idea that I was trying to save some energy for the 90 miles remaining at that point. At 4:00 we exited the restaurant where we had been chugging coffee and realized we still had 40 miles to go. No Big Deal. We made it into camp in time for dinner and had a great time sharing our day with the other riders. Its pretty interesting to talk through the day with other riders because everyone has a different experience. We all talk to different people at the various restaurants we stop in, whiz through certain stretches and crawl through others, and enjoy different parts of the country. There isn’t one day that I have wished that I wasn’t doing this trip, or one time that I have wished I was doing it with other people. Even on a hard route there is always something fun to see, fun people to bike with and even truly terrible food still tastes pretty good.
Indiana Stats: Valparaiso to Kendallville 111.2 miles, Kendallville, IN to Napoleon, OH 70miles.
I hope to have more time to post before this trip ends, but no promises!! Love to all!!!
Illinois: State 8
Oh, so this is what everyone meant when they said I would see corn and lots of it. Have I been mentioning corn a lot lately? So sorry, its just I forget what the rest of America looks like now. I know that there are main interestates through Illinois, I even went to Chicago and saw the city: but that will never be how I remember this state. In fact, I really can’t remember much except the corn. Oh, and the corn. We crossed over into Illinois on day 32 from Madison, WI to Belvidere, IL-just under 100 miles. I forgot to wear my sunglasses on this day and the strain got to my eyes by the end of the day to the point where I was falling asleep on my bike. It was so strange because I felt like I was blinking in slow motion. The roads were pretty terrible so I couldn’t fall completely asleep because my neck was snapping around, but I definitely took a few cat naps. Several of the Big Riders and I noted that there is a reason the state is not pronounced “Illi-noise”. Corn, for the most part, is pretty quiet. The fun part about riding through corn is that it blocks the wind. We took some twisty turvy routes through the state to avoid the interstates and it felt like we were taking part in a gigantic corn maze. This is the part of the ride where we realize just how much we trust our support staff. If its cloudy out, its basically impossible to get any sense of direction in a cornfield and we kept saying “wait, this looks familiar, didn’t we already pass this?, how many miles have we gone?” One day the cue sheet was wrong and we were all halted at the last sag stop while our Mark, a member of the support staff, went out and remarked the route. I had a great time biking because the roads were faily isolated so we had plenty of room to ride alongside each other and chat.
Illinois Stats: Madison, WI to Belvidere, IL 98.6 miles Belvidere, IL to Coal City, IL 102.1, Coal City, IL to Valpairiso IN, 87.4( plus detour = 92miles).
As a side note if you would like a more day to day description of the route, check out Cleanairadventures.org–>Big Ride Across America–> and look at the blogs of Barbara, Diana, Austin, Jim or other riders who have daily access to a computer and thus can keep up a more detailed description.
Wisconsin “America’s Dairyland”
Well, I can’t eat dairy so…moving on to Illinois.
Just kidding-I loved Wisconsin! It was so interesting! We hit some great, great hills which were a lot of fun because we had been on the flats for quite some time. Climbing hills is a huge adreneline rush and it turns out that I am pretty good at it. I have learned some techniques from other riders and now feel very strong climbing hills. Our first day in Wisconsin was a piece of cake 65 mile day with the first 20 miles or so along the Mississippi River. It was beautiful with gentle hills and a nice temperature. At mile 17 we stopped at the Miller’s house-a family that prepares a spread for all the riders every year. It was a perfect second breakfast and I spent more than an hour there talking to the family and hanging out with the other Big Riders. As the ride has gone along we have become much more relaxed along the route. Unless its a 100+ day, the ride really doesn’t take the whole day so we have plenty of time to stop and talk to people, hang out in an air-conditioned building or stop just for the heck of it. I have spent time riding with almost all of the Big Riders and depending on the day, how I’m feeling or how motivated I am, I can always find someone who’s going at my pace. We have the most amazing discussions along the ride because there is nothing to distract us from the conversation. We passed through Amish country up in the hills near Viroqua, WI and saw some of the most beautiful farms that I’ve ever seen. Compared to farms that we had passed in other states the Wisconsin farms are really well kept and prosperous looking. If it wasn’t for the smell of the cows and the note on the license plate “America’s Dairyland” I would have thought of Wisconsin as a continuation of Minnesota’s corn and soybean fields: plus hills. I guess no one wants to put “America’s Cornfield” on the license plate though. I know that it is necessary to fertilize fields, but my nose was telling me that there has got to be something better than cow manure. Some of the smells were so powerful that I found myself simultaneously gagging and holding my breath as I was biking along. Its difficult, trust me. If that is what is making our corn and soybeans grow, than I don’t know how much I want to eat corn or soybeans any more.
Day 31 of the ride was from Viroqua, WI to Madison, WI 110 miles. We were unimpressed by the 110 mile projection, so we decided to get lost and add on an extra 3-right at the beginning of the day. The first 25 miles were steep hills so I quickly burned off 1st and 2nd breakfast and found myself searching for a 3rd breakfast or a 1st lunch. Chad, Catie,Rachel and Greg were all feeling the same way so we stopped at McDonalds for a power snack. The next 60 miles were fairly flat and we had lunch at a petting zoo/fruit stand. I never would have thought to put those two things together. It was a great stop besides the flies who apparantly found the combination of animals and fruit absolutely irresistable. Nonetheless we stayed there for a good 2 hours to rest up and rejuvinate for the second part of the day. We finished the day with another 25 miles of hills and pulled up into the worst campsite that I have ever seen. The showers were so far that we had to take a shuttle to them, and we were literally camped on a swamp. This was the first bad experience with mosquitos since Thompson Falls, MT where they can hardly be considered mosquitos seeing as they could easily take down a hummingbird in a fight. Not to bad considering it was day 31. Mosquitos absolutely love me and despite the fact that I was wearing long pants and a sweatshirt, still mananged to find places to bite me. I ended up eating dinner in my tent but I left the rain fly off so that I could still talk to people.
Minnesota-Civilization in Sight
DeSmet, SD to Tyler, MN 75 miles
Crossing over the Minnesota border was amazing:we had made it through South Dakota! I was biking with Rachel and Simon at the time and when we crossed over the border we did a small celebration dance. Well, Rachel and I did. Simon just sorta hid and pretended he didn’t know us. We had waken up that morning to a severe thunder and lightening storm and had delayed our departure as we waited for the worst of it to pass over. Luckily for us, it not only passed over but stayed ahead of us the whole day so we didn’t have to bike in the rain at all. The roads were extremely wet, but it was still enjoyable and we made sure to take several long breaks along the way. After the prairie is was extremely refreshing to see the green prosperity of southern Minnesota, even if it was only in the form of corn and soybean fields. We have found so many different ways to entertain ourselves along the rides. Besides the many hours I spend riding by myself and just thinking about things or singing to myself, we have come up with a variety of ways to pass the time. For instance several of the riders had complicated riddles which you have to ask “yes” or “no” questions to solve. I’ve spent many miles solving those. Rachel and I played “I’m biking across America and i’m bringing with me… an atlas, a bike…etc” and i’ve come up with several songs that I’m sure will be big hits if I can ever remember the tune or the lyrics. I guess there is just something inspiring about a cornfield 
.
We had a rest day in New Ulm, MN but we spent the day with our good friend Ashley in Minneapolis. She took us out dancing in the city and I was COMPLETELY overwhelmed by the people, the noise and the pace of the city. It was so surreal to be in a city after days and days in the corn and on the prairie. Catie, Rachel and I always joke around about how we are socially awkward now in public because we forget that we’re not out alone in a field with no building in site and only the small possibility that we will see someone else (who generally is a big rider or a farmer on a tracker). We also went to the mall of America and although I was tempted to shop, I realized that buying anything would just add to the weight of my duffels and that accessories are completely unnecessary when the only place you have to wear them is in a campground or a public park. After New Ulm, MN we biked to Owatonna, MN (76 miles) which was an easy ride and an enjoyable day. There have been very few hard days since South Dakota because all my muscles are strong now and I have faced pretty much every type of problem that the weather or terrain can cause. It was extremely foggy in the morning when we left New Ulm and I felt like I was in a scary movie. I let the other girls go ahead of me, so I felt completely isolated and hidden by the mist and the cornfields. As I was riding along, one of the other Big Riders, Tony, emerged from one of the fields where he had been “checking out the height of the corn”. He offered to “pull” me up to the other riders so I got right behind his wheel and we sped along at 22 to 23 miles an hour for a couple of miles until we caught up with a group of the other riders. In Owatonna we camped at their local fairgrounds and were greated enthusiastically by the locals. The next day we biked from Owatonna to Winona,MN where we were able to stay in a college dorm. What a luxury!! Unfortunately Catie fell and hurt her shoulder at mile 45 (90+mile day) so Rachel and I went with her to the emergency room. She had to sit out for one day but got back on her bike the next day like a true champ. Rachel and I waited until we found out she was ok, and then got dropped off back at the place where she had fallen and we had all stopped riding so that we could finish the ride. Every Inch. 
. We had drank a lot of coffee in the emergency room so we were whizzing along for the next 20 miles or so. Then we were fortunate enough to pick up a wonderful tail wind and found ourselves at the college at 6pm, just in time for dinner.
One of the most amazing things about Minnesota was the size of the towns. We had noticed gradual population increases as we got further East but it was in Minnesota that we actually went into some towns with restaurant chains, numerous stoplights and plenty of public restrooms. One one day we were biking and found ourselves in a large town with lots of cars and people walking around (I can’t remember the town name right now). All of a sudden, we saw a stretch of stores including a Starbucks, a Chipotle and an Arbys. Oh the choices!! Rachel and I bought burritos and Catie carried them in her backpack for us until the lunch stop. I found myself peddaling to the rythm of “bur-ri-to, bur-ri-to” I think that will be one of the only times in my life that i can eat a 3lb burrito and still be looking for second lunch 2 hours later.
