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

We have seen hundreds of wind Turbines as we have been riding our bicycles across Illinois. I was curious so I googled it tonight and read that Illinois has over 2,500 wind turbines which supply electricity for over one million homes. It sounds like the goal is to supply 100% of the States electrical needs from the wind eventually. There certainly is a lot of wind!!!

The other thing that there is a lot of is corn. Corn is everywhere. I can’t believe the bazillions of acres of corn there is in this State! The corn makes great cover for a potty break and because it is everywhere and right down next to the road waiting for a rest stop or gas station is not necessary, cool!

Today was very cold. 38 degrees when we started this morning, but I had my long underwear under my biking shorts and three long sleeved nylon athletic shirts on. The one next to my skin was soaked when I took it off this evening and Patty made quit a fuss about what it smelled like! It was sunny in spite of the cold and the wind was light and from the North so it was a non factor today.

We had our most miles so far on the trip today, 98 miles. It was so close to 100 I thought seriously about biking up the road a ways to make the century mark, but I was to tired to do it or really care. We are in Pontiac, Illinois tonight. One more day and Patty and Mary Ann fly home.

i love you all very much, Dee

Because of weather, hills, wind, and old tired bodies we got one day behind on our schedule. Today is our rest day so John and I took our maps and iPad and we spent some time recalculating the rest of the trip and by picking up a few miles each day we have it figured to end right on time, we will make our plane and be home October 3rd! Yeh!

i have a cool App on my iPad where you can put in pins of the route from our paper map that I purchased from Adventure cyclist Association of the sanctioned route called the “Northern Tier” that we are following. Each time I put in another pin it gives me the total miles to that point for that route for the day. When it goes over 70 miles we move to the next town that would not be over 90 miles that has a camp ground, or a Warm Shower host, or a cheap motel and begin sending texts and making phone calls until we get something lined up. We then type the name of that town in on our list along with the address and phone number where we are staying. We got the entire rest of the trip planned out today while drinking 3 cups of coffee.

I enjoy planning the future, and making plans on how to accomplish something like what we are doing. Often the planning is as fun as the doing is for me. Planning gives me a feeling of confidence and replaces a nervousness or even fear of the unknown with a great and positive sense of anticipation of adventure and accomplishment.   But, all plans are subject to change. Reminds me of one of my favorite Bible verses in Proverbs, “The mind of man plans his way, but The Lord directs his steps”. Proverbs 16:9

God expects that we will do all we can to be successful and to do well, being wise, diligent, and responsible, but we also acknowledge that He is in charge, and so we are flexible and submissive and trusting at the same time. Being diligent to plan but being genuinely flexible and trusting when our plans  change without getting uptight is a fun way to live life with God.

I love you all very much, Dee

Left Muscatine, Iowa this morning and entered Illinois, and the most observable fact was it was pretty much flat!! Yeh!! A few minor rollers, but nothing to difficult. The biggest difficulty today was it was very cold. Didn’t get above 50 degrees today and the wind was blowing at 10 mph from the North. We were pedaling East so the wind was hitting us on our left side. Didn’t hinder our riding much, but it did seem to blow right through us. By the time we finished riding today I didn’t think I would ever get warm again, but a very hot shower thawed me out and warmed me up good. We pedaled 80 miles today and saw corn, more corn, and more corn. I have never seen so much corn in my life. We are in Kewanee, Illinois tonight.

I am enjoying Patty being with us, and hearing all of her praise about my muscles and good looks 🙂 but she flies back home on Monday ;-(

Tomorrow is our rest day so I am going to sleep a lot, read a lot, do some writing, spend time talking to Patty, but I won’t even look at my bicycle!!

i love you all very much! Dee

Here is a picture of the Mississippi River from a high point above the river that we have biked along for almost a week. It has been a very beautiful part of the bicycle trip. In fact all of the trip has been so great in terms of seeing the country. Pedaling along at 10 mph you see everything and smell everything on both sides of the road. It truly is an awesome touring experience. 

Another aspect of a bicycle trip like this is the hours and hours of solitude, and the thinking, pondering, reflecting, creative thinking that goes along with that solitude. It is marvelously renewing and rejuvenating for me. I am very much an introvert by nature and though I love everyone at JBC very much, I get drained emotionally little by little over time and lose my passion and fire for ministry and don’t even realize how much until I get away on a trip like this, and start to feel the fire coming back with more heat each day. Pastoring is a teaching job, but mostly it is a leadership responsibility, and the leadership is a modeling style that requires enthusiasm and a contagious attitude that draws and attracts people to a way of living. A tired and dull man doesn’t motivate and attract much. 

This trip has been an experience of a lifetime and I am so thankful to The Lord and all those in my life that I have been able to experience what most just dream about. 

Today we we started pedaling at Dyersville and finished at Muscatine, Iowa. We went 87 miles in about 10 hours. Rained a little at the start and was overcast all day but cool is good when you are pushing hard on those pedals all day. Some favorable winds today. The worst was a side wind that occasionally would swing around and give us a good push. Lots of fun having a 13 mph tail wind occasionally. The hills were as many but much less steep and tall. We had a good day. The ladies drive up 10 miles ahead of us and when we get to where they are parked reading, talking or sleeping they jump out with water, bananas, gator aid, cookies, etc, and I always get big kiss from Patty, and a comment on how macho my legs are looking 🙂

tomorrow morning we cross the Mississippi River into Illinois and say goodby to Iowa. We are planning on an 80 mile day. The roads look way flatter and it is forcast to be clear but cold with a high of 60 degrees.

I love you all very much. Dee

We pedaled to Dyersville, Iowa for lunch. Nice having Patty and John’s wife Mary Ann along with us. We finished lunch and they took off in the rented car to find a camp site for tonight. We heard from the owner of the Resturant that big rain was coming tonight so we called the ladies and said, let’s find a cheap motel instead so we don’t have to camp in the rain. They were very much in favor of that. We left Dyersville and pedeled 20 miles to Farley and found the road we needed to go on was under major construction and closed. We asked around and found out that the only way to get where we wanted to go was go back to Dyersville and take a different road. The ladies called and said that they could find no camp sites, or motels any where near where we wanted to be and the only place that had anything was Dyersville. OK, back to Dyersville. We were planning on 88 miles today, but only ended up with 60 that counted. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. Looks like we will be riding in the rain tomorrow, but the hills look like they will be much smaller from the profile of the route on my iPad, and wind is minimal. The goal is 90 miles tomorrow as we try to reach Muscatine, Iowa. We have been heading South following the Mississippi River, but when we get to Muscatine we head straight East into Illinois. Flat maybe??? We can only hope 🙂 love you all. Dee

Here is what the day is like. I thought Iowa was flat!!! Lots of 8 % hills up to 2 miles to the top. Plus 10 mph head wind. We are used to it but we can’t get the miles we need to stay on schedule. We have one more sluff day and we can skip a rest day if we need to, and last resort would be to spend $150 to change our departure date. The hope is we will get some flat and some tail wind and make up some miles. I have lots of energy now with my Patty smiling at me 🙂

Wow, what a nice surprise!!! Patty flew in and joined us. I was totally surprised!! What a great wife 🙂

Today there was no wind, there was no rain, there were no bugs, there was no heat, about 70 degrees most of the day, there were no hills, and there were no panniers on our bikes, Mary Ann had them in the car. We bicycled 70 miles in about 5 hours. It was the number one easiest day of the trip. Very, very nice enjoyable day. We are camped tonight on the Mississippi River again at Lansing, Iowa.  Iowa is corn, corn, corn and more corn.

I said no bugs, but there was one exception. I had a bee or yellow jacket fly into my mouth. I didn’t know what kind of bug it was and I was trying to spit it out as it buzzed around frantically in my mouth. He stung me and I chomped down on him and then spit him out. Boy, that hurt like crazy! 

We pulled into a gas station to use the bathroom and just as we got our bikes on the kickstands about 50 motorcycles came roaring in and parked all around where we were standing. Being an ex motorcycle dude I started talking to them, and I got the coldest, rudest response. One of the young girls with the group said don’t mind them, they think that because you are riding a bicycle that you must be some kind of environmentalist or something!

tomorrow we will be going about 80 miles and it looks like from the weather report that we will have a 10 mph head wind, and the profile shows a bunch of big hills. Oh well, I guess one easy day is all we get this week. 

Love you all. Dee