We biked up to this sign yesterday, and then had to decide what to do. If we turn around and go around we will add at least an hour of bicycling time and it looked like we were going to get to our destination right at dark the way it was. If we go through the sign we run the risk of getting yelled at or shot at by angry road workers or blown up by road mines. 🙂 my imagination of course! I was nervous but John said it is Saturday, there is no one here to even see us so off we went biking on fresh asphalt that no one had ever been on before. One nice thing was there was no traffic, we had the whole road to ourselves for several miles, and the only negative thing that happened was puzzled looks by people who lived next to the road, we smiled and waved!

when we are finished with the  trip in 12 days we will have actually pedaled 4,000 miles. The original estimate was 3,800 but with off route camping sites and getting lost etc we will be a few miles over 4 K. As of this moment we have gone 3,204 miles so we have 800 to go.

Today is our last rest day. We are canceling our last one because we lost a day because of rain and we are so close to the finish line shear excitement of going home will carry us for those last days. We are sitting in a very old motel, with a very old TV, but the toilet flushes, the beds are soft and the cost per night is $56. We slept until 10 am and are watching Football  now. We were going to try and go to church, but the closest one to our fine Motel was 8 miles away and we really didn’t want to bike 16 miles on our rest day so we are reading our Bibles extra instead.

when I was 50 years old I was 250 lbs and had very high blood pressure, my cholesterol level was close to butter, and I was border line diabetic. I started running, lost 20 lbs and ran my first Marathon. It was to that point the most difficult thing I had ever done physically, and when I got to the finish line I got super emotional. I am thinking that when we get on the airplane and I settle back in the seat and I start thinking about this trip and all that has happened and that it is over I will start crying like a baby. If I do I am not telling anybody.

love you all very much! Dee

This is the sky line of Cleveland, Ohio, and Lake Erie from a bike path that we road on this morning. I was really nervous about riding through a huge city like Cleveland, but several things made it a very good day. Our “Warm Shower” host offered to ride with us and be our guide through the city, and that was a huge blessing as he knew all the back streets and low traffic routs to go. Also there were a number of bike paths in Cleveland that we were able to take with zero traffic as well as many of the streets have designated bike lanes, I love bike lanes almost as much as tail winds. We rode right by the stadium that the Browns play in and through the middle of Cleveland. It turned into a fun tour of the city from a bicycle seat.

we were looking at google maps on my iPhone to figure out where to turn, and I saw the street we wanted and also saw that there was a Dairy Queen on the corner of that street and we would go right by it. That is all that we needed to be motivated to stop and get a Sunday for John and a Blizzard for me.

we rode 88 miles today which is our fifth day in a row that we pedaled over 80 miles. I am so glad that we are having a rest day tomorrow to recuperate my tired old body.

Love you all. Dee

We rode 84 miles today and most of it was along the shores of Lake Erie which is very much like the Oregon coast in the sense of tourists, traffic, and continuous  towns and shops. Most of the roads had zero shoulder to ride on so you just ride as close to the edge as you can without riding off the edge. Because of my lack of balance and proneness to wobble I get super nervous in those situations and grip the handle bars super tight and pretty soon my arms, neck, and hands are killing me. Ibuprofen really helps a lot in the evening to ease the tightness and ache. I came close to having a wreck today.  My front tire hit a pot hole and It caused my tire to jerk hard to the right and I hit the curb on the side of the road and the result was a major gyration of my bike with me on it. My thought was, oooooh, I bet this is going to hurt, but I managed to keep upright and to get everything under control. I had to stop and do some deep breathing exercises after that!

We are staying at a “Warm Shower” host home tonight in Cleveland. Young 25 year old college guy who is living with his grandmother who works as a bicycle mechanic part time. He is a music major and a very nice and personable young man. I was very impressed with his skill at asking good question and showing sincere interest in me and my stories about kids, grandkids, and Patty. He had about 6 friends over for a party which we joined, but we left early and they are still going.

Tomorrow we continue our journey up along the shores of Lake Erie and I expect more of the same stress for me. We will be doing another 85 mile day, and then we are going to stay in a motel for two nights as we have our last rest day for the trip. Our rest day will be on Sunday so we are going to try and find a church to go to and then watch football all afternoon. Sounds like the ultimate rest day to me 🙂

love you all very much. Dee

We biked 84 miles today and we battled a head wind all 84 of them resulting in a really long day. We got to Freemont, Ohio at 8:30 pm and we rode the last 30 minutes in the dark and in heavy traffic! Whooooeeee that makes me nervous!! It looks like from the weather report we are going to have a 5 mph head wind all day tomorrow as well. We will be staying at a Warm Shower host tomorrow on the shore of Lake Erie. Talked to the guy on the phone tonight and he is excited to host us and chat about our adventures. We are going to try and get started by 7:30 am so we don’t end up on the dark again at the end of the day. We will be in the Cleveland area tomorrow with lots of cars trying to run over me! One of the sorta funny things is that while riding in bigger cities in traffic when I stop at a red light people in the cars next to me start talking to me about our trip when they see all the bags on the bicycle. Usually starts with “where you going?” “Maine?!” “Wow” “where ya from?” “Oregon!!””you gotta be kidding me!” Then the light changes and at the next light the conversation continues. Hard enough for me to navigate in that traffic with my wobbling tendencies without having to carry on a conversation as well! Well, I think I will call it a night. Super tired tonight. Love you all. Dee

Pedaled 80 miles today, but 10 of it was extra add on miles to go into Defiance, Ohio during rush hour on the Main Street in town with 4 lanes to Walmart to pick up some Parkinson’s medicine for me that is very important for me. I miscalculated or didn’t count well or something, but I realized yesterday that I only had enough meds for 3 more days and then I would be in trouble.  Called doctor Ohling and he sent a prescription to the pharmacy at Walmart in this City we would be in tonight. Walmart and the Warm Shower host we are staying at tonight are 10 miles apart. Scary riding my bicycle in all that traffic. Got into the pharmacy and discovered that Patty had all my health insurance cards and Medicare cards. Expensive stuff that medicine that I take without the insurance. I called Patty and the Pharmacist lady who I had told my bicycling across America story to and was very interested and sympathetic with my dilemma talked to her and got the information she needed so that All I paid was $5! Whooeee that worked out all right even if it took an  hour extra riding and an hour waiting in Walmart and scared 10 years off my life riding in that crazy traffic!! Our Warm Shower host is an avid biker and owns 5 bicycles which he keeps in his house. Very nice guy and we talked a bunch tonight. He ordered 3 large pizzas for us for dinner and I ate until I was stuffed, stuffed!! Nice weather today. Cold but clear. It is supposed to be warmer tomorrow as we head up towards the Great Lakes. Tomorrow we will hit the 3,000 mile mark in our trip. I thought about doing another dance, or Rap song, but decided instead to eat a big bowl of ice cream for lunch! Yeh, now that is celebrating! We lost a day in our schedule because of the bad rain a couple days ago so we have decided to move the next rest day out 2 days and eliminate the last one. We will be so excited about the prospect of coming home in a week we won’t need it anyway. Love you all. Dee

Yesterday as I rode my bike I knew something was not working right. Last night in our wonderful $50 motel room I inspected everything carefully, and discovered the problem, my chain was running off the idler or jockey sprocket on the rear derailer or shifter. I took a picture of the sprocket with the chain off with my iPhone and sent it to Pastor Gary Schmid who is a bicycle guru. He texted back and said it looked like the sprocket had all the teeth worn off. I looked at it and sure enough there were just nubbins instead of teeth.  I googled all the bicycle shops in the area, and this morning  at 8 am I called the closest one.  An old guy answered and said he was sort of retired and didn’t go into the shop until 1 pm. I explained what we were doing and my problem and he said he would be there at 9 am. I asked if he thought he had what my bike needed, and he responded rather coldly, ” I have been fixing bicycles for 40 years and there isn’t anything I don’t know or have”. We were about 30 minutes bicycle ride from his shop so we took off and got there just before he did. He fixed it in about 10 minutes and then did a bunch of tuning and tinkering and pronounced it good as new. I asked what I owed him and he said $5, but I gave him $10. He enjoyed hearing about our adventures and talked our ear off about bicycles. He did make me a bit nervous when he got out this really big set of channel locks and started bending on the arm that held the jockey wheel declaring that I must have dropped it at some point because it wasn’t quite lined up the way it should be. I didn’t want to tell him that it had tipped over often and usually with me on it! It worked like a charm today.

we didn’t get on the road until 10 am today but we still made 74 miles. We are staying in a “Warm Shower” host home tonight in Zanesville, Indiana. The weather today was wonderful and we are hoping for more tomorrow. We move into Ohio tomorrow.

love you all. Dee

My bicycle has some problems. All the teeth on my rear derailleur jockey wheel are worn off and the chain won’t stay on it. Makes it hard to peddle. I am going to make a bunch of calls in the morning to closest bike shops and see if I can find one, and then we will head off and see if we can get there before it quits working altogether. To bad the wives left already!! Just love excitement 🙂

love you all, let you know tomorrow how it all works out. Dee

Yesterday was such a nice day, and the weatherman last night said today would be nice as well, but it wasn’t. About 6 am the thunder started and when we started riding at 7:30am the rain started and rained harder and harder and harder. At noon we stopped at a little store to buy some chicken strips for lunch and my feet were so cold I couldn’t feel them. Our plan was to stay at a Warm Shower host home that was 80 miles ride. I had texted them several times and they were looking forward to having us stay with them. At 51 miles I saw an Inn beside the road that had a big sign that said rooms for $50, and I road in and John followed. It was very, very rough looking but the new owners were remodeling and it had the basics, two beds and a shower so we decided to cut our day short in the name of wisdom and long life. I texted our Warm Shower family and they understood and hoped our day tomorrow would be better, me to! So we are staying at Logansport, Indiana.

It looks like we are the only ones staying here tonight. They have fixed up a very nice lounge area with comfortable chairs, tables, WiFi, coffee, microwave pop corn and the host Lady said just make ourselves at home so we have.

Our plan tomorrow is to ride 91 miles to Monroeville, Indiana where there is a special shelter just for bicycle riders that is free. Beds, shower, laundry even bicycle parts and tools if that is a need.  The forecast is for good weather so we are hoping the weatherman gets it right this time!

Our wives left this morning so my weight loss goal should get back on track. I gained 2 lbs while Patty and Mary Ann were here. They bought all kinds of snacks and treats and would drive ahead of us exactly 10 miles and we would stop and have a nice break and then again in 10 miles, and again, and again. Sure missed seeing that car parked along side the road up ahead with chocolate, fruit, pop etc today!

My bicycle seems to have gotten a bunch of road grime in the “workings”  and my chain won’t stay tight so I am going to do a little bicycle repair work tonight in our room. Hope I do it right!!

The lounge area has a microwave so I heated up some water and poured it into my freeze dried dinner, “Chicken Terriyaki with Rice”, it actually tastes delicious, and has 500 calories, and don’t forget the microwave popcorn!

I love you all. Dee

Pedaled 88 miles today after doing 98 yesterday and we will do 80 tomorrow, so we will get to Portland, Maine on time!! Today was a wonderful day. It was cool but sunny, with no wind, flat roads, great scenery, and very little traffic. We are in Rensselaer, Indiana tonight.

We left Illinois and entered Indiana and still there is bazillions of acres of corn.! We crossed the State line while on a little country road with no lines on it so I don’t have a picture of “Entering Indiana” though Mary Ann and Patty made one on a piece of paper so I could get a picture, but it just wasn’t the same!

the ladies are flying home tomorrow so John and I will be on our own. It has been very nice having them stopped along the road every 10 miles with snacks for us to eat. Though I haven’t lost much weight since they have been here!

I will write more tomorrow. Very tired and sleepy tonight. Love you all. Dee