The brink of the Unknown

I'm in Minneapolis, Minnesota. From here on out towns get smaller and farther between.... The wind is unobstructed .... And we don't have a rest day for the next fourteen days. Fortunatly, there isnt so much as a hill for miles.

The trip has been incredible. I've been doing this for nearly a month now (what???) and am still enjoying every second. I know I'm getting better because I tried to put on my jeans last night for the first time in a few weeks and they didn't fit over my thighs.... Oops.

We've been riding along the Mississippi river for the past few days and it's HUGE. Wisconsin was my favorite state so far. Just the right amount of hills, beautiful, great roads for riding on, and we spent the night on an organic farm! Very cool.

We have thus far had two major issues... One girl got hit by a car about two weeks ago, broke her leg and scapula but is recovering. Two days ago, Matt Young wiped out on a HUGE down hill, going forty miles an hour... But is just fine, somehow.

My best adventure of late has been the day that we went to a fair, stole a canoe and went out on the Mississippi (we returned it right away and left a thank you note...!) and took a two hour nap on a dock.

hope you all are happy and well! I sure am!

Chicago

Someone asked me today which coast I was headed to! This is progress, because it means that I’ve gotten far enough towards the middle that is a legitimate question.

We had a day off today, and talked our way into the aquarium to see beluga whales. How cool!

The weather has been perfect, the roads a bit larger than I might have liked (turns out I don’t like biking on roads that have a speed limit of over 40 miles an hour), but wonderful rides all the same.

While some members of the trip have changed our name from HBC - Habitat Bicycle Challenge, to the IHBC - I Hate Bicycling Club, I still love my bicycle and cant wait to continue on tomorrow!

Ann Arbor

Wow! Boulder transplanted itself and added about 20 thousand people to its population... This is a very cool town. Our build day got canceled :( but that means Em and I are on our way to the farmers market!

A helicopter from Fox 2 News tried to film us riding our bikes last night. It got lost. Funny, no?

I got a set of 60 swim workouts from my coach this morning... And kind of wondered where he thought I was this summer... He doesn't actually expect me to do one for every day of this trip, does he???

Thanks so much for all those who sent me wonderful mail....

Toledo Traffic

Last night, Cleveland, tonight Toledo! Who knew we'd made it as far as Italy? We've had some great, flat easy rides recently, all around 60 miles... which kind of makes you wonder two things: 1) when are we going to be riding the majority of the distance??? All at once? and 2) why did we make the 90ish mile days the ones that go straight over mountains? These are mysteries I’m don’t expect to solve

Emily and Emily and I (aka Emily cubed) had a great ride today. It seems whatever is in our names is just about the same, because we are three like-minded cats.

While we didn’t have any good detours today, I hope to ride over to the zoo this evening or perhaps tomorrow morning. The zoo opens at 6:30, right??

signin' in the rain

In the past three days, most of the water in the pacific ocean and great lakes was released over New York state. oh joy. In the ten person group I was riding with today there were 20+ flat tires... I feel that there must be something wrong with the tire design... that is not normal...

regardless, it was a bueatful day. we road through dairy farms all morning. the black and white of the cows created a perfect contrast to the blurry vista...

While changing a flat, i met a horse... who licked my bike and face and was just generally genial. and encountered a shop that had fifty flavors of soft serve ice cream.

I'm in Buffalo, NY. Tonight, a trip to see Niagra Falls. Cant wait!