Stats

For the statistic minded folks, here you go:

ST = Saddle Time
TT = Total Time from camp to camp

These are John's stats that he recorded so my day 1 was actually may 17 and day 33 is my day 35, but all in all the majority of these are when we were together. At the end of the ride I will post the total stats for the whole trip.


05-19-07-Day 1 - 101 miles, ST 8:20, Avg. 12.1 mph, TT 11:050
5-20-07-Day 2 - 106 miles, ST 11:50, Avg. 10.2 mph, TT 13:15
05-21-07-Day 3 - 70 miles, ST 7:03, Avg. 9.8 mph, TT 10:45
05-22-07-Day 4 - 100 miles, ST 9:30, Avg. 10.4 mph, TT 12:15
05-23-07-Day 5 - 92 miles, ST 7:00, Avg. 13.1 mph, TT 9:15
05-24-07-Day 6 - 98 miles, ST 7:45, Avg. 12.5 mph, TT 10:07
05-25-07-Day 7 - 91 miles, ST 7:27, Avg. 12.1 mph, TT 9:31
05-26-07-Day 8 - 88 miles, ST 7:39, Avg. 11.4 mph, TT 9:45
05-27-07-Day 9 - 108 miles, ST 7:36, Avg. 14.2 mph, TT 10:23
05-28-07-Day 10 - 129 miles, ST 6:36, Avg. 19.8 mph, TT 8:31
05-29-07-Day 11 - 90 miles, ST 5:02, Avg. 18.0 mph, TT 7:03
05-30-07-Day 12 - 122 miles, ST 8:41, Avg. 14.1 mph, TT 11:00
05-31-07-Day 13 - Rest Day...
06-01-07-Day 14 - 125 miles, ST 8:22, Avg. 14.9 mph, TT 13:30
06-02-07-Day 15 - 122 miles, ST 7:59, Avg. 15.4 mph, TT 10:45
06-03-07-Day 16 - 126 miles, ST 8:14, Avg. 15.3 mph, TT 12:25
06-04-07-Day 17 - 51 miles, ST 4:09, Avg. 12.2 mph, TT 6:50
06-05-07-Day 18 - 100 miles, ST 6:25, Avg. 15.4 mph, TT 11:35
06-06-07-Day 19 - Retreat day...(32 miles, ST 3:15, Avg. 9.7 mph,TT 5:33-Net Loss 3m)
06-07-07-Day 20 - 49 miles, ST 3:18, Avg. 14.8 mph, TT 3:35
06-08-07-Day 21 - 145 miles, ST 8:42, Avg. 16.6 mph, TT 12:42
06-09-07-Day 22 - 76 miles, ST 7:16, Avg. 10.3 mph, TT 10:55
06-10-07-Day 23 - 100 miles, ST 8:13, Avg. 12.1 mph, TT 11:05
06-11-07-Day 24 - 151 miles, ST 9:31, Avg. 15.8 mph, TT 12:54
06-12-07-Day 25 - Rest Day...
06-13-07-Day 26 - Rest Day...
06-14-07-Day 27 - 80 miles, ST 5:24, Avg. 14.6 mph, TT 7:30
06-15-07-Day 28 - 114 miles, ST 6:46, Avg. 16.8 mph, TT 8:43
06-16-07-Day 29 - 112 miles, ST 7:26, Avg. 15.1 mph, TT 12:20
06-17-07-Day 30 - 117 miles, ST 7:38, Avg. 15.2 mph, TT 12:10
06-18-07-Day 31 - 113 miles, ST 7:36, Avg. 14.9 mph, TT 11:56
06-19-07-Day 32 - 87 miles, ST 5:43, Avg. 15.2 mph, TT 7:24
06-20-07-Day 33 - 211 miles, ST 13:34, Avg. 15.5 mph, TT 17:31

Day 35: Get Big!

So today was the official epic of this trip. Last night I presented John with the idea of doing a "Big Day". I put a call into my dad to find out what the weather was going to be, to see how feasible it would be. I found out that it would be cross winds in the morning and was supposed to shift into a tail wind by afternoon. Since we will soon be parting ways we both figured that now would be the best time for an epic ride. So we woke up at 5:00 am and were on the road by 6:00. It was still dark out when we started, we were able to see a beautiful sunrise shortly after the start. The first 40 miles did not hurt but they sure didn't feel good. I think it was the fact that there were many more miles lingering over my head. My chain was skipping a bit so I thought that I might need a new one because it was stretched out. We stopped in the town of Bowling Green about 90 miles into the day for lunch and brought our bikes into the local bike shop. It ended up that both of our chains were in good condition and did not need to be replaced. Just after lunch we came across a sign on the side of the road that said fresh strawberries. So of course we pulled in, loaded up and hit the road again with some strawberries to snack on for the next couple of hours. The next stop was at mile 130. We found a gas station and loaded up on Gatorade had some ice cream and continued on. From here on it was all business. We saw the potential for a 200 mile day and both wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. So far in the day the winds had not been favorable but hadn't been head winds either. As we left the gas station we soon discovered that we had a light head wind. It was not too strong though, we were still doing 16 - 17 miles an hour. So we finally made it to Lake Erie at about mile 165. We had a couple hours of daylight left and kept trucking. We stopped for pictures once near sunset. By 10:30 at night we were approaching the 200 mark. Shortly after that I stopped to see where exactly we were at. I was getting to be extremely hungry at this point, the last time I ate was at mile 90 and since then had only had energy bars and they were starting to taste bad. So I told John we need to have a game plan - Lets eat then find a place to stay. John wanted to continue on to downtown Cleveland, another 15 miles. My thinking was that it would be harder to find food in downtown Cleveland and lodging would be more expensive. After some negotiations I continued on. I could feel my blood sugar falling quickly so I found a gas station to stop for a Coke. It was there that I discovered my wallet was missing, I had left it on top of a case of water outside the gas station we had stopped at 30 miles earlier. Luckily John had a receipt from the station and I called and they had my wallet. So it was now 11:30 at night. We eventually made it into downtown Cleveland at midnight and found a hotel. We ate at a sports bar and went to bed around 2:00 am, a long epic of a day, 211 miles and 22 hours later I was in a bed and passed out.

Miles biked today: 211

Miles biked total: 2912

Day 34:

Woke up this morning at 6:00 am to rain and wind, so we went back to sleep for another 2 hours. When we woke back up at 8:30 and it was still raining. We decided to try to make a break for it and go to the local diner for a good breakfast. Although the diner was 3 blocks away we still got absolutely soaked. John and I both ordered french toast, I orderedthe regular order of 4 pieces with two eggs over easy and a side of toast. I guess that they could tell we were hungry because we both got a plate full. I had 8 pieces John had 12. After breakfast we took our time cleaning the bikes and packing up our gear. While cleaning my back wheel I noticed that one of the spokes was loose and it ends up that it was broken. So I put a new spoke in and got the wheel all trued up. We ended up not taking off until 1:00 pm. It was very muggy when we hit the road but was no longer raining. We stopped in Zainsville where we found a pizza/ convenience store. The lady was cool about letting us eat our leftover pizza in there and she even heated it up for us. We made it into Monroeville for a total of 86 miles. We found a pavilion in the city park that had nice accommodations that was free to cross country bikers. Inside there was a bathroom, washer, dryer, kitchen, T.V and cots. I guess last night four cross country bikers stayed here. The guy that came to unlock it said that they have a book of people that have stayed here since 1990. In the book there are over 1000 names, people from 48 of the 50 states and 17 different countries. He was proud to show us the two plaques on the wall, one of them was an Angel award, given to them by adventure cycling association, another was from the state of Indiana, an award of appreciation for what they were doing.

Miles Biked Today: 86

Miles Biked total: 2,701

Day 33: Bike Problems.... again

So I woke up this morning to John asking me a question. "I've got good news and bad news, which do you want first, well the bad news is that you have a flat tire, the good new is that it is 5:30 and you got an extra half hour of sleep." What a great way to start out the day, the flat tire was on my trailer and not on my bike. So I went into all of my spare tubes and grabbed the spare trailer tube. I pull it out to find that the bike shop in Winthrop Washington gave me the wrong tube - it was too big. So I decided that only option was to patch up the existing tire. Once it was patched - 30 seconds later it was flat again. So I once again try patching it, once again it goes flat. The tire now has 5 patches on it and I decided it is just not going to work. So John and I head to the gas station in town. I ask about the closest bike shop and found out that it is about 20 miles away. It is 7:oo am, and the shop does not open till 10:00am. My options are leave my trailer at the bike shop and bike there, leave my bike and trailer at the gas station and hitchhike there, or see if I can pay some one from the bike shop to drive the tube down to me - That is assuming that the shop has the right tube for my trailer. I go eat breakfast at the only restaurant in town, John takes off at this point and we make plans on meeting up eventually in Monon, 70 miles away. After breakfast I head back to the park and fall asleep on top of a picnic table. Eventually 10 o'clock rolls around and I call the shop to find out that they do have the tube I need. I ask him about driving it down but he says that they are short handed, but he will call around to some friends. After a half hour of waiting I call again. He says he will call me back. By 11:00 I get a call from him with the number of a taxi company in the town he is at. So I end up paying a taxi $30 to drive two of the tubes I need down. One expensive tube! So I hit the road at 1:00, which does not make me too happy. I get a call from John 40 miles into the ride. He says that he is in Monon and wants to head on from there to Denver, Indiana which is 110 miles from our original starting point. So I say Ill do my best to make it there if not we'll meet in the morning. I get hit with occasional rain throughout the day and a persistent cross wind all day long. I get a call from John at 9:00 pm - he says that the only food place in town closes at 10:oo. So he says he will put in the order just before 10:00, so I have food waiting for me when I get there. The ride into Denver was amazing, heavily wooded, fast down hill and it was dark by this point. There were fire flies illuminating the road for me though, quite a spectacular site. I did not mention that I crossed into eastern time zone. So technically I did not start my ride until 2:00 pm. My ride time was 6:50 and total time was like 7:45. Not much time for breaks since I was racing the sun. I pull into town John has two large pizzas waiting, what a guy. I ate like there was no tomorrow, found the local park and used a hose for a shower.

Miles Biked Today: 113
Miles Biked Total: 2,615

Day 32:

When the alarm went off at 5:00 I decide to keep sleeping, It finally cooled of at around 2:00 am so I decide to take advantage of the cooler weather for sleeping rather than biking. John was about one hour ahead of me up until the lunch stop. I ended up taking a wrong turn which added another 10 miles to my day. Once again It was another scorcher of a day. About 30 miles into the ride I passed into Indiana. The roads lately have really made me appreciate the adventure cycling maps. There is no way I would have found roads this nice without them. They are very narrow farm roads and it seems like I am riding on a private driveway all day. I think we maybe got passed by about 10 cars thoughout the day. So finally I met up with John at another swimming pool, he had been there for over an hour by the time I got there. We stayed there for about 1 hour more, then it was off for the remaining 50 miles. We arrived in Ashkum, Indiana and found the only restaurant in town, which luckily ended up being very good. We finished the dinner off with a complimentary coconut cream pie, that the waitress gave us after we told her what we were doing. The bathrooms at the city park were locked so we found a bar in town that was open and used the bathroom there for baby wipe showers and to clean up as much as possible. Another hot night but better than the previous night.

Miles Biked today: 123
Miles Biked Total: 2,502

Day 31: Over the Mississippi

Today was a big day for John and I - We passed over the Mississippi, from the west to the east. Last night I drove from Muscatine, IA up to Davenport, Iowa to visit a good friend of mine Nick Vasquez. It was good to see him, we ended up going out to see a band playing from Chicago called the Family Groove Project. I ended up staying a little later than I was planning. So this morning came as a rude awakening after 4 hours of sleep. The good thing was that Diane had monkey bread waiting for us in the morning to get us going. Today was an extremely hot day, when I would get off my bike the heels of my shoes, which are rubber, would melt and stick to the asphalt. John and I decided that it would be nice to escape the afternoon heat - which a bank had posted at 101 degrees. So we found a community pool in the town of Kewannee. We spent 3 hours there which was a nice break from the intense heat that had been wearing on us throughout the day. After Kewanee we pulled into Bradford Illinois, our stop for the night. There were two places to eat, a local fireman suggested one over the other to us. So as we were eating a quite conversational gentlemen in the restaurant lined us up. He asked us where we were staying, we mentioned that we would like to camp in the gazebo in the city park. He then got on the phone and a few minutes later a police officer walked in. The police officer said that he could not OK this without permission from the mayor. So then the cook at the restaurant comes into the situation. He gets on his phone and calls up his father in law who is the mayor of the town. "Yea it's OK for you to sleep there", wow who would have expected in a town of about 600. Tonight was an incredibly hot night. I was sweating just lying on top of my sleeping pad.

Miles biked Today: 113
Miles biked Total: 2,379