Live for the Path

112 miles in 9 hours – Max Speed 18.5mph

I woke up, and took it easy for a little while I worked on my website. I walked outside at one point just to see what was happening, and lo and behold… wind from the west! Hallelujah. I went back in, finished my website work, and headed out.

I know that people may not necessarily understand how much of a difference having a headwind or tailwind makes when touring. But when I have a headwind, I average between 8 and 10 mph, and then when I have a tailwind it goes up to between 12 and 15mph, and it can be higher in bursts. So it can literally take me half the time to get somewhere with a tailwind compared to if I have a headwind. Believe me, 7 or 8 hour days are far preferable to 10 to 12 hour ones.

I started out and went through a few of the usual small towns, and the usual larger town (Pontiac) when the road intersects with the interstate.

Back on historic roads.

A REALLY old road.

Another look at a courthouse which is in all the towns.

None of this was anything new, so I was just cruising along until I reached the intersection of the 116 and the 115. There was a sign that said that the bridge was out around six miles ahead, so you had to take a detour down to the 24 to go around it. I thought about going on and hoping that the bridge only went over a small river that I could hop over or ford, but decided against it, and just went down to the 24.

Excitement.

There were these in every town too. They varied from having some ok deals to being exorbitantly expensive though.

The 24 started out fantastic, with the six foot shoulder I have come to know and love, but when the road stopped being a four lane divided highway and just went down to two lanes, the shoulder disappeared as well. I mean, there was still a small one (maybe 6 inches right of the white line), but when there is as much truck traffic as there was on this road, it isn’t enough to feel good. But, when the signs for the detour reappeared telling me I could go back up to the 116, I had to think. I could stay on the 24, where I knew there was an RV park coming up, in 30 more miles, or I could add 12 miles to the journey by going back up to the 116 and then back down to the 24 again. I decided to risk it on the 24.

Luckily, the traffic thinned out as I crossed I-57 somewhat and entered the town of Gilman. I stopped there for a snack, and McDonald’s actually was selling Cheeseburgers for $.59. I bought four, ate them, and then carried on, blessing my good fortune.

By far the sweetest water tower of the trip.

I crossed into the State of Indiana shortly thereafter and stopped at another McDonald’s for three more $.59 cheeseburgers.

I think that Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky should have a cage match to see who is allowed to claim Lincoln once and for all.

I went into the Eastern Time Zone, and rolled up to the RV park at about 8:30, having lost an hour to the time zone change. I picked a spot right on the lake, and went to sleep after showering and doing all the other stuff that goes with that.
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96 miles in 9.75 hours – Max Speed 26mph

Dirt Road I took in the morning.

I got up and did the customary 20 miles before breakfast, and I stopped at Burger King in Canton, IL. They had a deal where they had two Whoppers for $2.50, and not only that, but Burger King serves burgers all day. The perfect start to the day.

I headed north in Canton and got on the 116, so I was back to the John Egan route. I headed towards Peoria, and then, an unmarked Police Car passed me and pulled over and turned on its lights. Uh oh, I thought. Finally time to get in trouble for having earbuds in, perhaps (illegal in pretty much every state). Nope, he just wanted to talk because he had done a bike tour from New Mexico to Peoria when he was my age. We talked for a while, he called me crazy for going alone, and then he told me to hurry through Peoria because I was going through a bad area. I sort of shrugged it off and thanked him, and carried on.

Flower.

I headed the last couple miles towards Peoria, and then into the city. And sure enough, I was in the ghetto. I mean, this was no doubt about it, I was in the slums. And unlike in LA, I was in the residential area of the slums, and not the commercial area, which is an even worse place to be. I was pretty surprised, even though I had the warning, because in my experience police officers often overstate the roughness of an area, but not this time.

I made it through in one piece, and then had to go over the Illinois River. The bridge over it was four lanes, and had absolutely no shoulder or sidewalk. This was the worst bridge I had to go over the entire trip. I just took the center of the right lane, and chugged up the one side of it and back down the other. Then, in East Peoria (much much nicer than Peoria) the 116 had no shoulder again for five miles despite still being four lanes and very busy.

Finally, a nice six foot shoulder appeared and I went up a serious hill as I was leaving the Illinois River Valley. Then it flattened out and I got to do some easy miles.

The Americans have captured some random hill in Illinois.

I approached the town of Minonk, and I knew that there was another cheap motel 6 there, so I turned and went north to it. I walked in and took the bike. I talked to the desk guy for a while, who was a bicycler, and he gave me a big discount, so the room cost me $27.99. Not too bad. I showered, updated the website, and did laundry, as usual in places like this. The main excitement of the night came when I checked my weather app on my phone, and it said that I would get a wind out of the West tomorrow. I had had a headwind everyday since the Laramie, WY day, so this was exciting. I tried to temper my enthusiasm, but I was praying that the forecast was correct.

58 miles in 5.66 hours – Max Speed 26.5mph

I woke up early and went down to the lobby to get breakfast at 6:15, as soon as it opened. Got to love free breakfast. I went back to the room and did a bunch of website stuff until around 9:30, when I went down and ate another free breakfast. I mean, you have to make the most of what you paid for (or in this case, didn’t pay for), right? I finished the website stuff, packed up, and got out of the hotel like two minutes before the 11:00 check out time.

I headed down through downtown Keokuk and crossed the Mississippi river and passed into Illinois. Sorry for the lack of good pictures, but the bridge I was on wasn’t really the best for stopping and snapping photos.

This was taken in Iowa. You can tell we are close to other states.

Yup, that's the Mississippi.

Luckily I did not bring any cigarettes with me.

Historical Marker

Another shot of the Mississippi.

On the other side of the river I had a pretty big climb with no shoulder (worst case scenario, always), but I made it through and it got flatter as the day wore on.

I'm on a totally different historical road.

Historical Marker. Cliff notes version: If you're Mormon you're probably getting shot in Illinois.

'Mom, can we go on an adventure today?' 'No hun, but we can go on an AGVENTURE!' 'Ohhhh, not again.'

Anyway, I had diverted from the John Egan path by going to Keokuk (any bike tourers will know that name) so I was just winging it as I went along. Quickly the 136 turned into a four lane divided highway, but a quick scan of the Illinois laws didn’t say anything that would lead me to believe that I wasn’t allowed to be on it, so I went along in a gigantic shoulder. Eventually they were doing some construction, so then I not only got the shoulder, but the entire right lane as well. All you have to do is smile and wave at the county workers.

I got into Macomb, a fairly large town at around 3, and I stopped and had a late lunch. I headed back out and decided to head north on another 4 lane divided highway and then to go east on route 9. Everything was going perfect until, as I approached Bushnell, my stomach began to feel not so good. So I stopped in town while things worked themselves out. Getting stomach issues is never pleasant, but it is particularly unpleasant when you don’t really have any place to call home and cannot really move that quickly. Luckily it generally doesn’t happen to me all that often, but it happens to everyone now and then.

After a couple hour break in the local fast food establishment I felt better, but it was already getting late, so I looked and saw that there was an RV park just a few miles away. I got there, paid the ridiculous camping fee, and set up. I took a shower, worked on the blog for a few hours, and went to sleep with absolutely nothing around me.

The road to the RV park.

91 miles in 8.83 hours – Max Speed 27.5mph

Good morning from Iowa!

I got up early and did around 20 miles into the town of Bloomfield, where I had another Subway breakfast. I realized yesterday that not only was it not so bad to go around 20 miles before eating, but that I actually preferred it. I like how it breaks up the day, because the time you ride before breakfast doesn’t even seem real because I am not fully awake until I eat something. While that isn’t entirely true, I don’t know how to better explain it. The time moves really fast before breakfast.

WARNING! IOWA MENNONITES WILL RUIN YOUR DAY!

I chugged along route 2 for a while, which I have to say, in retrospect, was probably the worst road of the trip. There was a huge shoulder, but it was a soft shoulder, and therefore was unusable for me. There seemed to be a decent bit of truck traffic, and I had a lot of close calls on it. Not only that, but it’s quality was absolutely atrocious at times. There were potholes and cracks galore in it. Finally, between Centerville and Bloomfield there was a rumble strip on the entire right side of the road, so I had to ride dead center. They had paved over it, probably due to complaints from bikers, but it was still unrideable.

Delightful.

But, at least the road does allow what has to be the lowest intersection sum in America? There are no route 0's correct?

I went through some more very small towns and stopped in the town of Farmington for a late lunch. There was a restaurant that had a buffet but they had just opened it up to the employees, but the lady said I could have it too at a discount. I agreed and ate quite a bit. I started talking to some of the locals, and one of them wrote for the local newspaper. She asked me a bunch of questions and after lunch took some pictures of me and the bike outside. They got my address so they could send me a copy if it made the paper, but I still (7/30/09) have not gotten anything from them. Oh well.

I thought the clouds in the lower right really looked funky. It doesn't really come through though in the picture. Which brings up the question of why this is here. But when you make your own website you can make your own editorial decisions.

I had been talking to my dad all day today because I knew that I was going to need to stop in a motel tonight for a shower and to do laundry, both of which I was in need of. He confirmed my suspicions that Fort Madison, my planned stop for the day was not the best for hotels and Keokuk, around 15 miles south of it would be better. So I set out and got to the town of Donaldson, where the road splits. But I noticed that the road heading south to Keokuk was a four lane divided expressway, so I didn’t know if I was allowed on it. I called him back, and he told me that he had booked me a room in the Hampton Inn using his credit card, so that if I wanted a free room I should figure out how to get down there. He then looked a little and said that there was another road that would take me part of the way down.

I hopped on the old 218 and headed south, but it again hit up with a four lane divided highway, but at least this time it wasn’t an expressway (i.e. there were no on ramps and off ramps). But, it also did not have a rideable shoulder (it being Iowa, clearly it was a soft shoulder). Sweet. So I just got on the white line and started riding. Almost immediately there was a frontage road that I got to take for around five miles, so that was a lifesaver. When that ended I was only a few miles outside of Keokuk so I just went fast until I got into the town. I checked into the Hampton Inn and then went to a nearby laundromat and did my laundry.

Showing off my stylish outfit I wore to the laundromat. That is my rain jacket, rain pants, and nothing else, cause everything else was absolutely filthy. Classy.

I worked on the website, mapped some things out, and then went to bed, late as usual in hotels.

106 miles in 12 hours – Max Speed 25mph

I got going very early, and was on the road at 6:30. I went back down the three mile side road that took me to the campground and then had to make a decision when I hit back up with route 2. I could either turn right, and climb back up the hill for around a mile to Bedford for breakfast, or I could turn left and continue East, but it looked like it may be 20 or 30 miles until I hit somewhere that might be large enough to have a restaurant. I decided to take my chances and go East.

So many hills...

I did a pleasant two hours on the road with no traffic, during which I listened to the Art of War in it’s entirety (not a very long book), before arriving at Mt. Ayr, IA which had a Subway which was open. A quick aside. It seems like Subway really is the number one fast food place in the Midwest, even more so than McDonald’s. Almost every small town has one, and there was a more obvious difference in Nebraska. While all of the other fast food places always were on the interstate, the Subway was always on the 30, as if they were going after the locals. It was an interesting difference.

Anyway, after subway I continued on past I-35 and through the town of Leon. I stopped for a snack, and then had another small snack stop in the town of Corydon. I made it to the town of Centerville at around 7pm, where I looked around for a room. I went to a cheap motel first, and saw they had a sign that said no vacancy on the outside of the door. Rats. I then went up to a Super 8 (always seems a little expensive to me), but they also had no vacancy. I asked what was going on, and the lady said that there were two weddings going on in the area, and that there was no way that anywhere had vacancy. Drat.

Sometimes there are days where there isn't a whole lot to take pictures of. Luckily sometimes there are dinosaurs in people's yards that help my plight somewhat.

Sorry. There really wasn't anything interesting at all today, so I was just grasping for straws here.

I rode back down into the downtown and ate dinner at a Hardees (a.k.a. Carl’s Jr. East – quite tasty) while I planned my next step. I looked around on my cell phone, and saw that there was a state park with 8 campsites just two miles up the road. I figured that I would give that a try, but since it was Saturday night I wasn’t too hopeful.

I got up there at around 8:30 and rode all the way back to the campgrounds. When I got there, I saw it was empty. Excellent. No running water though, which was a bummer. I set up and went to bed without a shower for the first time in a long time. I lay awake listening to freaking raccoons (my least favorite animal… EVER) opening every single metal trash can in the entire park.

A quick aside. I got chased by more dogs today, I would say around 8 in total. For me, what I did is if it looked like I could outrun them, I did. If it did not, I would get past their property, and then dismount and stare them down. I have never been someone who has ever had problems with dogs, and I think that they can tell if the person is someone that they can mess with or not, and they know that I am someone that they cannot so, after some barking, they just would turn around and wander off. I do think that you need to try to get past their property though or it will take longer for them to wander off. I know many bike tourers use much more forceful and mean methods of dealing with dogs, but it really isn’t in my DNA to do those sorts of things (I don’t even kill mosquitoes or flies (though I do dream about killing raccoons) – so I am not about to blast some dog in the face with pepper spray or something worse), and all in all I didn’t feel I was ever in danger from a dog. This was the last day that I got chased by a dog on my entire trip. I guess it is just something about Southwest Iowa.

72 miles in 7.75 hours – Max Speed 32.5mph

On leaving this morning I immediately crossed the Missouri River, and passed into the state of Iowa.

Missouri River

Iowa

After crossing I stopped at a Subway for some breakfast, and talked to a truck driver who toured around the Midwest some years ago for around 15 minutes. After that I got to enjoy around 10-15 miles of flat land, but then that all ended pretty suddenly.

I had been asked once or twice when I would really feel like I was home, and I had said when I got to Pennsylvania, that would probably be the moment that I really felt like I had just about done it. However, as soon as I hit the hills in Iowa, it felt like I was home. I was in a forest that looked like it could be 5 miles away from where I grew up. I had to keep telling myself that I had another 1000 miles to do and not to get too excited.

Really, this could be from outside my house.

After a short time I left the forest behind. But while the trees had been replaced by farm fields, the hills remained with me.

Hills

See! Even the signs know.

Now some of you, particularly experienced bike tourers have noticed that something has been absent over the last 3200 miles. Notably dog attacks. I have been lucky in that I had not been chased by a single dog the entire trip. Well, that all changed today. Once I got through the forest, immediately five (!!) dogs came bolting from a property to my right. I saw I couldn’t outrun them, so I stopped and got off the bike and faced them, and we stood there for a while looking at each other. Eventually they got bored and went away. Then just a little while after that, from the left two dogs came flying down a hill after me, and one looked like a pit or half-pit. But, what they didn’t see (there were bushes on the edge of the property) was that a truck was coming the other way. The dogs literally got out into the street and across not even a full second before this truck came through. A half second later and they would both have been dead. And I know from reading other journals (dogs die chasing bikes more than you may imagine), that while the accident is 100% the fault of the dog owners, often times they are very emotional, own shotguns, and blame the bicyclist. Clearly something I want to avoid. Anyway, there were a few more dog encounters today as well, and in total I had 12 chasing me at one time or another. Welcome to Iowa indeed.

Anyway. I went through a few very small towns and ate lunch in one while it looked extremely threatening outside. It never did rain though, and I went on my way after my pit stop. I chugged along until I reached the town of Bedford at around 5:00. I went inside a cafe for dinner.

Pretty much every town for the next 500 miles would have a large courthouse that looked like this in the town square.

Barn with Ivy

I haven’t really talked about small town America much in this blog. It is a part of America that some people never really get a chance to see. Even when people travel around the country, generally the stops are in cities, but I imagine that a very large portion of the country lives in towns of 1000 or less. Bedford was a perfect example. So this cafe was really crowded, and a little while after I got there every seat was taken. But, no worries, everyone knows everyone else, so the guy who owns the store just starts sitting people with other people who also have just arrived. Everyone seems happy with this arrangement. The only person who does not get anyone sat with them is the sort of dirty looking, smelly, outsider (me). This is a pretty good example of what small town America is all about.

After dinner I went down a big hill, and then turned off onto a side road, and climbed three miles to a state park with a campground.

Iowa definitely had the nicest road signs of the trip.

I got there, looked around for the most remote spot that was available, and chose one and got set up. I went and took a shower in by far the dirtiest bathroom of the trip (State of Iowa! Clean your damn bathrooms!). After that bit of nastiness was done with I sat at a picnic table and did some work on the blog that does not require the internet for about 3 hours. I also talked to a guy who was camping who owned a long haul trucker. He said he really wanted to go on a bike ride like mine, but couldn’t for the usual reasons I hear (work, family, money). He talked about how he finally became clean a few years ago after being on drugs and ‘ruining his body’ for the 10-15 years before that. It seems like biking and camping really attract a lot of people who used to abuse their body. I think something about the outdoors really ends up helping a lot of these people heal.

Anyway, I crawled into the tent, listened to the loud party going on a few campsites down for a while, and then got to sleep at around midnight, again swearing I would never again go to a state park on a weekend.

60 miles in 7.5 hours – Max Speed 18.5mph

I woke up late this morning confident that I was not making a mistake in doing so since I only had 55 miles to do, and knowing that there was no way that it would take more than six hours no matter how hilly it was or how hard the wind blew.

I left the hotel at around 11 and went and rode through downtown Lincoln on the 34. It was a pretty cool town, but the 34 is a horrible street for biking, and I ended up having to bail to the sidewalk after a little while.

Looking into Lincoln

People sitting in a park in Lincoln

Go Huskers?

I needed to go to the bank, and Bank of America had an ATM in a mall in Eastern Lincoln that I was making my way towards. A piece of advice for any bike tourers – try to put your money in a bank that doesn’t charge you to use other people’s ATM’s. No matter how allegedly big your bank is (and B of A is supposedly the biggest) you will hit 500 mile stretches of the country where there simply aren’t any ATM’s within 25 miles of you. Those $5 charges end up adding up after a while.

Anyway, I got my money out and headed south to meet up with route 2, which was to be my home for the next couple hundred miles. Because of my late start the wind was picking up already, and once I got on the 2 it was really blowing.

I stopped at a Walmart with a McDonald’s in the food court (some would probably consider that the most evil of marriages… if only there was an Exxon outside) for lunch and to buy some supplies and then headed towards Nebraska City. It was slow slow slow going, but I got there after really a day where there wasn’t too much to look at at around 7.

At least I am back on some historic roads.

Maybe my favorite picture of the trip. That little guy was climbing straight up a flagpole outside of the McDonald's I ate at, and there were a bunch more higher up. His shell has got to weigh at least ten times more than he does.

I talked to the lady who ran an RV park there, and she gave me a spot for $10, which was a significant discount to what it would have cost full price. I set up, went and grabbed dinner back in town, and got to bed fairly early.

The profile of a bike tourer. Part I: Face always sunburnt and disheveled.

Part II: Don't put your fingers in campfires kids. (Just kidding, that is just my awful sunburn peeling. It really looked gross for a few days, as you can see).

Part III: Legs always cut up and bleeding. Always.

86 miles in 8.83 hours – Max Speed 22.5mph

I was looking forward to today, because if you look back over the last week, you will notice that I have done six centuries in a row, and then two in the four days before that. So I was feeling a little bit beaten down, so I was hoping that an early start would allow me to get to Lincoln bright and early in the day. Unfortunately, the story of my trip, the headwinds, would not allow it.

I set off at around 7:30, and headed back up to the 30. The roads were newly paved, so like in Utah, I got bogged down for around an hour by all the tar and rocks that get stuck to my wheel after going through that stuff.

Thanks new tar

Eventually it all fell off and I began looking around for some breakfast. There was a little diner in the town of Eureka that was open, and I stopped and ate my usual massive breakfast there. While I was on the road I loved going to diners. For the most part every single one had a meal where you could get eggs, hash browns, sausage, and toast for like $5 and then I would order a pancake or two on the side to go with it. It kept me going for a few hours at least.

Q: How do you get ahead in the office?

A whole bunch of stuff had Nebraska Lied this and that on it. I still don't quite know what it means, but it is a good thing.

I got back on the road and chugged through some more towns, and actually ate an early lunch despite my breakfast in York, NE.

This was exciting since UFC 100 was like three days away at the time.

It was flat, much like most of the last 400 miles were until I reached the town of Seward. Then, out of nowhere, it got really hilly. I think it actually wasn’t that hilly, but it caught me so off guard that it seemed much worse than it actually was. Between the hills and the winds I absolutely crawled the last 20 miles into Lincoln, where I got to my cheap Motel 6 at around 5:30. Still not all that bad, but it was later than what I had wanted. I ended up staying awake way to late like usual at these hotels looking at maps and updating the website.

113 miles in 10.16 hours – Max Speed 23mph

I got up as early as I could for not getting to bed until Midnight, and started off on what I knew would be another long day. I headed through Gothenburg and went through the town of Cozad early in the day. This is an important milestone because it is where the 100th Meridian lies, and is considered the cutoff between the east and west. It was pretty cool to see all the historic stuff around town.

100th Meridian!

I went on and stopped to have an early lunch in Lexington. It was really strange for me in Lexington and Ogallala because I have been there before, but only from the viewpoint of a highway driver, so I recognized both of the roads around the services near the highways, but you get a little more color on the town by coming from the 30 rather than I-80.

Historical Marker

A section of the original Lincoln Highway

Historical Marker

Once I began getting near Kearney I really did begin to feel that I was getting closer to the east, as the towns continued to get bigger. When I was like 8 miles outside of Kearney suburbs started, with neighborhoods and lots of little roads everywhere. This is something that I really haven’t seen since Salt Lake, and not for a smaller city ever on this trip. This was pretty exciting for me. I celebrated by getting ice cream at a TCBY.

Historical Marker

Historical Marker

I moved on and got to the town of Grand Island at around 7:30. I grabbed a quick dinner in town and got to the campground I was going to at around 9:00, just at twilight. I got set up and was asleep long before I was the night before.

112 miles in 10.25 hours – Max Speed 26mph

Sometimes you have these thoughts that when you think back to them, you honestly have no idea what made you believe what you believed. I got up late this day, and putzed around the room for a few hours, even though I knew I had over 100 miles to bike today. But it was okay since ‘it would be easy because it was Nebraska, and hence, flat’. I don’t know how or why I thought any 100 mile day would be easy.

I eventually got going at just after 10, and went back up to route 30. That was an interesting thing about these roads. The entire town was almost always built on the 30 (Big Springs was actually an exception), but most of the services had moved down next to the highway, usually three or so miles away. It was interesting to see how the towns had evolved to the changing conditions.

Historical Marker

Is it sad that grain elevators really were the most exciting things I saw every day?

Anyway, it was more of the same, as I went through numerous small towns, and two large ones. Ogallala and North Platte were nice changes, and I ate Lunch and Dinner in them, respectively. After dinner I got back on the road, knowing that I wasn’t going to make it to the KOA by nightfall. Oh well, that is what I get for putzing around all morning.

Old Town Ogallala

Okay, last grain elevator... I promise.

Empty train that went under me.

Historical Marker

I went through a few small towns as the twilight was waning, then did the last 13 or so miles in total darkness. It was amazing. The sides of the road were just filled with lightning bugs, there was a large shoulder, and almost no traffic. The weather was beautiful, and the headwind that I had died down. Not only that, but you could see the city as just a bulb of light ahead that kept getting larger. It really was a cool ride. Once I got to the town I made it over the freeway and to the KOA, which was somehow still open at 10:45. I got a tent site and went to sleep.

There were a lot of tiny bugs out. They went for the eyes and mouth, but as you can see some missed and only got my arm.

End of twilight

Beginning of darkness