The weirdest day yet

First off, thanks Ben! And, Chloe, I hope your boo boo heals nicely.

After Chicago hit the roads with a vengeance. From Chicago we rode 85 miles to rockford, il and did our first couch surf with the williams family. They we're wonderful! We saw inception (sam for the second time) with Lauren and we still discussing the end...

From Rockford we rode 120 miles to Dubuque, Iowa. Why does Illinois have killer hills?!?! This ride was brutul, but we were rewarded with a sweet ninja movie at the nagle home. The nagle family was the second couch wave we rode, and we seriously recommend couchsurfing.org to every traveler.




Today was the strangest day ever. It took us 6 hours to ride 15 miles. Why you ask? Well, we took a dirt bike path which blew two of my tires and broke jim's rack. But! We found a 1 week old kitten on the side of trail, Ed him some food and packed him in jim's handlebar bag.



Then, on our way to town, sam got stung in the face by a bee. He popped 4 benadryl and wanted to pass out. We fed the kitty his body weight in food and dropped him off at the vet. We continued on our 95 mile adventure through the thankfully flat roads of Iowa to cedar falls. Luckily for us, everyone loved us because of the ride across Iowa- ragbrai. We weren't referred to lance Armstrong anymore, but now were confused as a ragbrai rider. Although, this event made everyone in the area aware of what you can do on a bike, so everyone was super friendly. To top it all off, we finally ended our ride in cedar falls excited to get to laura's house. She gave us the wrong address, so we obviously went to the wrong house. At this house, we saw a girl outside and asked if she was laura. She said no, but she said she knew where Laura lived. This seemed fine to me because I know Laura said she was in the process of moving. We followed this girl and her father to laura's house somewhere off in the woods. Sam knocked on the door and a 15 year old girl answered and he asked if she was Laura. It turns out she was named Laura, but not the laura we were looking for... She had a look on her face as if we were about to kill her.

Location:Pleasant Dr,Cedar Falls,United States

Chicago

Today is our last day in chicago, resting has been peaceful. We finally got a camera connection kit, so here is a glimpse:

Bike Photos

Location:N Winnebago Ave,Chicago,United States

Ticks don't exist

We've made into south bend, Indiana- almost into another time zone. We noticed that it gets dark around 10 pm here in the heartland of America, but the sun will set at correct time tomorrow once we go back in time.

The corn in Ohio is freakishly tall due to all that gene altering mumbo jumbo. The corn in Pennsylvania was knee high, whereas the Ohio corn was full grown- hooray for monsanto and the likes of it. Luckily in Indiana the corn is the correct height. Although, indiana is quite hilly unlike its eastern counterpart, Ohio, but the hills at least get rid of the wind...








Things have been going well and as expected, we're being treated as celebrities. People are very friendly towards bikers, so go get some spandex and cash in. You can get free food, a warm shower, a place to sleep and yes, even money. We are truly surprised and very grateful for everyones' kindness, I'm not sure we could have done this without the kindness of strangers. We put a smile on faces wherever we go!

Last night we asked a man named mark where a grocery store was and we ended up sleeping at his campsite at buck lake ranch in Angola, Indiana. The Buck lake ranch stage has seen some famous acts from elvis to duke Ellington, so it was a hidden gem amongst the vast fields of corn.

Sam had a run in with 5 ticks and a patch of poison ivy, but we're all feeling just fine. And again, I am sorry for the lack of pictures, but it is really really really hard to transfer pics.

Location:N Iowa St,South Bend,United States

Stinkstank

We made an 80 mile trek to Cleveland thursday and made our way into a luxurious apartment, fully rigged with musical joys and soft cuddly animals.
Thank you to Jacqui, fat fisher, peppy and Missy for letting us stay in their home and eat their food!




Later, Jim got us drunk at the bar and refused to let us go near the guy with the blow up doll. Cleveland is a bit, how do you say- quirky? By a happy chance, we found some cool people from florida walking the mean streets of Cleveland who were more than happy to hang out with three stinkers. Glad to hang out with Missy and Ben, our fellow pbr (not pabst) drinkers.



The next day Jim cured our hangovers with his magical breakfast singing and a cup full of wrung out sweat from sam's sox. We went to the rock and roll hall of fame, again thank you jacqui! We got rocked, hard.




After a well rested day off, we were back on the bikes today for a 70 mile adventure to sit in a stinky hot tent in the middle of Ohio. Made some new biking fiends and we'll post some pictures of that soon. It is really difficult to post pictures since I have to email them from my phone to my iPad and it takes about 24 hours to do it sometimes.... We're trying though! For now, we sleep with bugs.

Location:Castalia,United States

Day 7 & 8

Our stay with the O'Connor family was top notch. Mary invited us into her home to her husband, jim's, surprise. Luckily we saw right through jim's doom and gloom right to his jolly, generous and good natured core. Mary's cooking was delicious and her hospitality was most generous. Her son, Sam, Is into biking, so he led us on a ride from port allegany to kane, pa. Unfortunately, it started to rain so we got a motel room for the night and Jim and Mary took Sam home. Our motel room was outfitted with 400 wolves and we giggled ourselves to sleep. We were most fortunate to eat all three meals with the o'connor family. We'll call you when our girlfriends get a dog.





Today we had a nice ride from Kane to meadville. It was long, but we're feeling strong, so we were able to push through. The alleganys were beautiful and thankfully a lot flatter than expected. We saw a lot of road kill ranging from rabbit to woodchuck to deer- it makes Sam hungry.

Currently, we have our own house and each have our own room, thanks to our new friend Joe. He lives down the street and is fixing this up to move into, so we literally have the whole house to ourselves. Its a spacious three bedroom home that came equipped with three pints of beer. Hopefully you get your 5 person bike to take your family across the world.




Shouldn't that be a question?

Day 5 & 6

Yesterday we tried to take it easy by doing a short day, but it turned out to be incredibly hard. We rode from athens to Mansfield, pa where we tried to shower at the university's gym, but it was locked. Luckily we met the Haflett family who kindly let us pitch a tent in their backyard, use their shower and made us a wonderful breakfast- Thank you very much!

Jim hit 70.7 mph







Haflett yard with Deakin








Right now we're in port allegany, pa in the O'conner's home. We are loving the kindness of strangers! We got to take a shower again and will have a roof over our head tonight. We've been eating a ton and miraculously feel great, with the minor exception of our butts. Oh yeah, Jim broke two more spokes today.....

Day 5: 55 miles
Day 6: 75 miles

Location:Pine St,Port Allegany,United States

Day 4

We found a spot to sleep in the "field of dreams" as it was called in deposit, ny. It was great, nice and quiet and we could bathe in the stream, except it poured over night and we woke up wet.

The ride was quite nice to binghamton, ny where we ate some food and talked to some locals at some kind of street fair. The ride out was really flat and we were able to fly for about 15 miles. Soon after entering Pennsylvania:









We realized we went the wrong was, so the trusty iPad led us in a new direction. But then, Jim broke another spoke:









But the mountainous dirt road that led us back to where we needed to be was lovely, but of course Jim got a flat.




We made friends with the cops and they are letting us sleep in the park. Its not going to rain, so tonight will be nice.


Miles: 75

Location:Athens, pa

Day 2 & 3

Day 2:
Our map mysteriously took us up a 10 mile 2500 foot climb, which was only enhanced by 105 degree weather and 50 pound packs. But afterwards we took a long cruise down straight into the stream. Afterwards, we slept in the woods on the side of the road and peed in the new York city water supply.

Miles: 69

Day 3:
We were blessed by priest while pumping our tires. Fortunately the roads are getting flatter, but the towns our spreading out. "remember, limitations are possibilities." - Sam

Miles: 60

Location:Deposit, NY

Day 1

8 more miles to go, but it's hot and we need to stock up on food before we destroy the chalfin residence.

This morning we were only 20 mins in and Jim already proved to be a disappointment:








Total mileage: 83


Special thanks to Tom from ordinary cycles in pittsford, ma for healing jim's wound!

Location:Charles Smith Rd,Saugerties,United States

Delay

Due to minor mental mishaps, we leave tomorrow!

Location:New York 25A,Port Jefferson,United States