Ken's Bike Ride

The biggest regret of being away for two months is missing things with the family. I’m missing hanging at the beach with Sue and Abby. I’m missing the three minutes Ethan would allocate to us this summer. I’m missing Sammy’s high school graduation ( still haven’t seen proof she got the diploma). Missing my mother and my mother in laws bday. And I don’t know if I will be back for my parents 49th wedding anniversary.
But most importantly, I am missing Matt’s big 21st birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Love
Dad

Monday

Spirit Lake IA to Mason City IA
124 miles
Travel Time 11:30
Saddle Time 8:11

Had a great dinner with Pam’s brother and sister-in-law, Brian and Gina, plus Pam’s mom, Fran. Local steak and corn, plus beans and kohlrabi from their garden. I brought out my Iowa map and asked for suggestions on what would be an interesting way to go across Iowa. They all studied the map and said the same thing……..corn. Nothing to see but corn! Then their 7th grade nephew Christopher walked in. He was a finalist in the state geography contest. He looked at the map and then said, “what about Field of Dreams”. And so it was written! Duh.

I was loaded up and ready to go at 6am. I walk into the garage and standing there is Fran. Obviously she was on assignment to get footage of my push off and had gotten up early and driven over to her son’s house. I started on my ride. About 5 miles in, I hear click click click. I look across the street, and camouflaged as a corn stalk is Fran taking more pictures of me. She was stalking me. Get it.

Everyone had said Iowa is really boring to bike thru. Corn. Corn. Corn. But truthfully it was beautiful. Pacific Northwest was amazing with their mountains. Montana was beautiful with their rolling hills of nothing and tons of cattle and hay. South Dakota was unique with the badlands and huge tracks of cattle land. But as soon as you enter Iowa, the landscape changes to agriculture. It’s not boring. Corn. Soybeans. Hogs. Grain elevators, Ethanol plants. There is life in Iowa. The towns in the prior states have died. But here, the Agra biz seems to sustain the towns. Also got an email from Janet Wells on where to find her family in Iowa if necessary. Didn’t know she grew up here.

I entered Winnebago County and wondered if there was a connection. Sure enough, 10 miles later I came to the Winnebago factory and headquarters. I had missed the last factory tour of the day which really disappointed me, but I did go to their museum. The town was seeing a steady inflow of RVs today because Wednesday starts their annual rally. As I biked on, I must have past 50 Winnebagos pulling into town.

The wind was at my back so I made great time. But if you weren’t going east or south, the wind would stop you in your tracks! And sometimes the road took me north or west and it was ugly. The roads were pretty bumpy at points and I could hear that my back wheel was again knocked out of alignment. I googled bike stores in Mason City and there were two. So if I made it to either store, I would have them true my wheel. I made it to Mason City at 4pm and then mapped out bike stores. They were two miles west. Ugh. I fought the wind and got to the first store. He showed me I had a broken spoke on back wheel. So he replaced it and trued the wheel. He commented that I am carrying a lot of weight in the rear (laugh now). It was at that point that I remembered my original plan to ship home my camping stuff once I had passed the areas I would be camping at. So I got to my hotel and got a box. Goodbye tent!

Tuesday
Mason City IA to Independence IA
112 Miles
Travel Time 10:30
Saddle Time 7:30

After 124 miles yesterday, I treated myself to the Historic Park Inn built by Frank Lloyd Wright. I also stayed around for the free continental breakfast at 6am! Never can pass that up!

Everywhere I have been riding these last few days people have been asking me if I am training for the RAGBRAI. What is that you ask? The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. This is its 42 year. There are 10,000 registered riders for this 7 day event, but there is a total of 20,000 to 30,000 people that actually ride it! The course changes every year and takes you from one side of Iowa to the other. This year it happens to be taking a northern route, which is basically what I have been riding this week. It is a 7 day circus, zoo, party…..event that everyone in Iowa knows about. The small towns on the route start preparing months in advance. The logistics of housing, feeding, managing this event are amazing. Each town creates committee after committee. They spruce everything up in preparation. Tent cities and port a johns go up on every available field and lawn. The Warm Shower family I’m staying with tonight will have 10 police officers using their lawn for their tents. And They are also part of a team preparing and feeding breakfast to a group of 1,200 cyclists.
The real cool part of this is that it seems like the whole state is involved. In every town, I get asked about the ride from the local farmer to the grocery store clerk. This is big! Do I wish I was here next week for the ride? I don’t know. But I think it would have been fun to overlap for one day. Today I came across two groups of people biking west to get to the start of the ride. One person flew up from Kentucky, and does every year.

I just enjoyed a pizza dinner with Than and Sara Chesher and their 3 children. They just signed up to host warm showers and I am their first guest! Sara is driving me to town later so I can buy groceries. They rent a house that is on a huge corn and hog farm.

And today I rode by a farm with “Jesus Saves” painted on the roof of the hog barn that houses all the pigs going to slaughter, and next to the big black manure bin.

Wednesday
independence IA to Maquketa IA
104 miles
Travel Time 10 hours
Saddle Time 7:15 hours

The goal I set on Sunday was to get across Iowa and see where Field of Dreams was filmed. It was 45 miles due east of where I stayed last night before. I didn’t know what to expect, but it is pretty ironic that the film was about building this field and people will come. Well guess what, people come from all over to this small town just to see the field. The weird part is that it was a little emotional riding up to it. You feel like you are part of that long line of spectators arriving at the field as seen in the end of the movie.
One interesting fact about the filming of the movie. The summer it was filmed, around 25 yrs ago, Iowa was having the worst drought in over 50 yrs. There was no corn growing. Universal pictures was able to get the county to allow them to divert a stream to this field and before they knew it, they had corn. But by the time they started filming, the corn had grown too high. They built a platform for Kevin Costner to walk on when he walked thru the fields! You might be able to read the whole story in one of my pics.

At this juncture I now cross with the original Adventure Cycling Northern Tier route, so I pulled out their maps and started following it. 10 miles later I hit a road block. Literally. The road was closed for 15 miles for construction, and no one was there to drive me thru it. The other option was the interstate for 15 miles, which I was not about to do. So I asked around and got directions on some back roads. The problem is, when I start taking back roads, I can’t read them on my iPhone. They are too faded. And they don’t show up on maps. So I wing it and harass a lot of people along the way for directions.
The bad part of this detour is that it took me further east and away from Iowa City. I had hoped to see my friend Dan Poppick. But unfortunately my bike doesn’t go West!

Food is improving as I go further East. I have no complaints about the meals cooked for me at people’s homes, or that one delicious chef salad and that all you can eat spaghetti dinner. But the gas station stops for breakfast and lunch combined with Pizza Hut for dinner is getting really old. Explains why I think I have gained weight on this trip. But now there are restaurants. And tonight I bought at Fareway my favorite meal that I haven’t had in 5 weeks…….rotisserie chicken! I’m almost done with the whole chicken.

Thursday
Maquketa IA to Princeton IL
108 miles
Travel Time 10:30
Saddle Time 7:50

Cross Mississippi River- check
See Llamas hanging with ostriches- check
Possibly finish trip earlier than projected, Saturday Aug 2 target date-TBD

My office writes a point- counterpoint on insanity of my trip. Click here to read it.

Friday
Princeton IL to Gilman IL
122 Miles
Travel Time 12 hours
Saddle Time 9:30 hours

As I was biking towards my hotel in Princeton last night, I passed a quality steak house about half a mile away. My challenge was, after biking over 100 miles, how do I get to the restaurant after I clean up at hotel. As I biked up to my hotel, my savior was standing there. 25 year old English teacher, Brandt, with his iPhone to his ear, spots me pulling up and immediately rushes over to me. He explains that he did a x-country ride two years ago and he wants to hear about my experience. Before I answer him, I ask him the one very important question, “do you have a car?” . He says that he does. I then draft a five page agreement that states in consideration of him driving me to the restaurant, I agree to buy him dinner and answer all his questions. We sign it and have it notarized. A deal is struck. Sound creepy? Well my family will attest that is how I roll.
At dinner, he tells me how he biked from Boston to California with a group called Bike and Build. It is program to build affordable housing and Brandt had to raise over $4,000 for the program to be accepted on the trip. Then during the ride, the groups stops for 10 days to help build homes. And on other days, they are often giving talks on the need for affordable housing. Brandt then asked about my trip…blah…blah…blah…the conversation then turning to the sexy world of CORN!
Were you wondering why this high school English teacher was staying at a hotel in the middle of corn fields? Well, he and and a group of students, teachers, and retirees, are all staying at this hotel because they have lucrative summer jobs watching corn grow! Really! They are paid by the big corn companies to stand in the fields and watch the corn grow. These corporations are always trying to cross pollinate different breeds of corn to create the most efficient, handsome, intelligent, good looking, athletic corn possible. They test various blends on different fields and test the results. You will see rows of corn with their secret label markers on the end of the rows. Each field is lined around the perimeter with male corn. Then the female corn is in the middle at a ratio of 4 female to each male. The female corn are detasseld, the tops are removed, so they will receive the pollen from the male corn. (Over the last two weeks I heard a couple people talking about going out to detassel some corn, and I thought it would too personal to ask them what that meant). The female corn catch the pollen in their silks, those strands we remove when we husk our corn. The job of Brandt and the other corn Gestapo are to make sure no pollen from outside male corn makes it onto the wrong field. Especially worry some is that sleazy sexy sweet corn that we like to eat. If those studs make it into one of these fields, you can forget about the purity of the breed that comes from those slutty females. And that is how a baby is born!

Brandt- I know you are listening. Please correct any inaccuracies!

Today I had a mailman talk to me while he drove his route. I had Kevin pull up in his pick up to ask about my ride and then proceed to text me biking directions to Indianapolis. And I rode by a huge oil pumping station facility where oil from Canada is pumped to Gulf Coast. Fascinating.

Saturday
Gilman IL to Frankfort IN
102 miles
Travel Time 10 hours
Saddle Time 8 hours

Not much to report. Thought I could make it to friends house in Indianapolis, but what I thought would be a long 130 miles was in reality closer to 150. Too much for me so I stopped and saved the balance for tomorrow.
One guy pulled up next to me as I was cycling to inquire about my trip. He had done some distance cycling. It became unsafe driving next to me so he took off. But he was waiting for me a mile up the road to make sure I had the right directions. Pic of him.
Passed huge ConAgra Popcorn plant. Makes Orville Redenbacker, Act II, Jiffy Pop, and many other brands.

A few of you asked me my daily routine. Here is what I do most evenings:

– buy chocolate milk and Gaterade as I approach destination and drink them upon completion of cycling
– write down data from GARMIN and phone about days trip before batteries run out and data disappears
– log in to any possible wifi network because it could take up to an hour for pictures to make it from phone to IPad
– plug in phone, iPad, GARMIN into portable charger. Or if in hotel, charge all those and recharge charger. Due to my phone running multiple GPS functions, it needs to be recharged   halfway thru every day.
– stretch
– shower
– wash clothing and hang them out to dry
– spend 1-2 hours writing blog. Typing on iPad is a nightmare. Transferring photos is painstaking. And WordPress sometimes loses everything I just wrote (I hit the wrong button and   goodbye to an hours worth of work)
– eat dinner
– layout clothes for next day
– pack up bike so little to do in morning
– eat dinner
– sit with multiple maps and plan next days route
– hopefully go to bed by 9

Sunday
Frankfort IN Broad Ripple IN
42 Miles
Travel Time 3 hours
Saddle Time 3 hours

Fun relaxing day catching up with old friends Thygesens (Jack’s girlfriend Emily is in picture, Lindsay lives in Boston)

Started seeing CVS stores once I entered Indiana yesterday so I must be getting close to the end.
The clocks at the cheap motel I stayed at last night were incorrectly set an hour ahead. Then I learned today that when I entered Indiana I was now in Eastern Standard Time, so I am getting close!

Monday
Broad Ripple IN to Celina OH
111 Miles
Travel Time 11 hours
Saddle Time 8:11 hours

Yesterday I forgot to post week 5 results
Week 5- 714 miles
Total through 5 weeks 2,686 miles

Got started today on a beautiful bike path for first 10 miles, then worked my way all the way over to OHIO. Was able to take a picture of Welcome to Indiana sign on the way out of the state since there was none on the way in.

Passed a beautiful barn being built by an Amish family, followed a mile up the road with a Catholic Church designed differently than any other churches I had seen thus far, and then another mile up the road was the three story turkey housing unit.

Staying with Hans and Joan in their lovely house. Just had a great home cooked bahmi (Indonesian pasta dish) followed by homemade brownies!

Good news is that I am ahead of schedule. The bad news is that I can’t plan a welcoming party in LBI. My arrival date is too up in the air with not knowing how hilly the terrain will be in PA. And as I learned with my ride into Indianapolis, I didn’t know until Saturday afternoon that I wouldn’t make it there until Sunday. So I will have a celebration in Westchester after I get home.

Tuesday
Celina OH to Tiffin OH
107 Miles
Travel Time 10 hours
Saddle Time 7:20 hours

Let me describe how generous these Warm Shower hosts can be. Yesterday, I alerted my host, Hans, that I was 10 miles from his house. He emailed me back that there are signs on his road saying the road is closed, but that I should ignore them and walk my bike around the construction. As I approached the construction zone I spotted someone biking towards me from the other side. I realize it’s Hans coming to make sure I have no issues getting to his home.

Yesterday’s blog described the great dinner meal Joan made last night. Then this morning I wake up to a spread of cereals and juice waiting for me. I get to do a mixture of cereals in one bowl (something Abby and I always compete on). Plus, Joan has baked me chocolate chip cookies for my journey. Finally, Hans bikes with me to town at 6am to give me a tour and to get me to Walmart to load up on my daily groceries! This is what makes this trip so special!
Staying with other Warm Shower hosts tonight, Chris and Rebecca and their two children.

On a down note, today I had my scariest cycling experience so far. I was riding on the small shoulder of the road when a big truck went by me very quickly and extremely close too. When large trucks pass, the wind gust always gives you a nice boost. But in this case, the gust pushed me off the road. Thank god there was gravel there and I was able to come to a safe stop. I caught my breathe and biked a few miles and then saw the same truck parked in the shade on the side of the road. I went up to the driver and told him he almost killed me and that I was almost swept into his wheels. He started to say I shouldn’t be on these roads (not true) and then he said he couldn’t see me (not true). I argued with him some more and then biked on. A few miles up the road he passed me again…..at a much slower speed!

Haven’t seen that much new interesting stuff on the road. I saw a lot of homes with small man made ponds in front of their homes that I think they use for swimming. But they are all next to farms so I can’t believe there isn’t run off from the farms into the ponds. Also the ponds are usually decorated with strange items around the borders. I will try to get a better picture tomorrow.
Also saw an A frame home in the middle of Ohio.