Jack's Bicycle Tour Across America 2006

Day 48 & 49

2006-08-09T09:49:00.000-06:00

Day 48 & 49
Originally uploaded by boulderbikeman.

Gettysburg to Clarksburg, MD - 50 miles

Clarksburg to Washington, DC - 53 miles

We did it! After 3,427 miles we arrived at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. The last two days were shorter miles but both had around 4,000 feet of climbing. We all gathered about 3 miles from the memorial and then rode in together to meet about 60 family and friends waiting to greet us. Thanks to a retired writer for Business Week, Bill Cook, there were both TV and newspaper coverage.

We spent the afternoon and evening partying and saying our goodbyes. When I reflect back on the trip it was not about the miles or how hard the ride was but it was about the friends you make and the people I met along the way.

Would I ever go on a trip like this again? Absolutely, bicycling is the greatest way to see the world. You are moving fast enough to feel like you are getting somewhere but slow enough to totally interact with your surroundings.

On a seven-week bicycle trip across the United States, we all learned a lot about ourselves, our situations, and our colleagues. Here's what our homespun Texas philosopher, cattle man, rodeo rider, and family doctor David Ramsey says he learned.

1 The smoother the pavement, the shorter the distance you'll be on it.

2 Don't try to talk during climbs, especially to women, unless you want to be embarrassed.

3 In July, nothing ever really dries out in the Midwest.

4 When you live out of a dufflebag, the things you really need are always on the bottom.

5 Age is a relatively minor feature compared to mindset.

6 Physical appearances have little to do with physical abilities.

7 You don't have to have ice in your water when you are really thirsty.

8 Real friends help you even when you say you don't need it.

8 First impressions of people are often wrong, though not always.

9 Things hurt a lot worse when you focus on them.

10 You can go to sleep while sweating profusely.

11 Awfully big projects can be accomplished by just daily working at the goal.

Day 47

2006-08-06T19:22:00.000-06:00

Gettysburg - rest day

This was a much needed rest day. I have rode for 13 days without a full day off. I got a hotel room here and it was like heaven. I spent some time seeing the town and all of the battlefield things but mainly just rested. I also had to do all of my domestic chores for the last time.

The next two days are around 50 miles each so not to hard. Tomorrow we will have our final dinner together at a restaurant. It will be fun to look back over the last 48 days and remember all of the fun and challenges.

I am looking forward to being home with everyone but am also thinking about my next trip.

Flight 93

2006-08-06T07:47:00.000-06:00

Flight 93
Originally uploaded by boulderbikeman.

Flight 93 Memorial

Day 42 to 46

2006-08-06T07:32:00.000-06:00

Day 42 to 46
Originally uploaded by boulderbikeman.

Burton to Waterford - 68 miles

Salem to Washington, PA - 63 miles

Washington to Confluence - 92 miles

Confluence to Bedford - 82 miles

Bedford to Gettysburg - 101 miles

We had one last day of riding in Ohio and then finally into the Pennsylvania mountains. There were a lot more hills to climb but not so much corn! On the day into Confluence we rode 52 miles on a rails to trail. The trail surface was crushed limestone which is smother than most of the roads we have been riding on in the last three states. The next day we started out with 31 miles on the Allegheny Highlands Trail. It was raining in the morning so that made for some messy riding.

During our ride to Bedford we stopped at the Flight 93 Memorial. I found it very moving to see the site and all of the personal things that family members have placed there. It sure brought back all of my memories of 911.

Our day into Gettysburg was great and hard. We had 101 miles with over 9,000 feet of climbing. Some of the grades were 12 to 16 percent. Most of the climbing came in the first 50 miles.

Another flat again yesterday. That is now 5. My rear tire has been replaced twice, once for wear and once for a glass cut. It is now booted because of a LARGE nail.

Today is a rest day in Gettysburg.... Only two ride days left to DC! Our groug has become a family. It will be hard to leave them and re-enter the real world.

The pictures I have uploaded are of the Flight 93 site.

Day 41

2006-08-01T05:51:00.000-06:00

Burton - rest day

I am still very sick today. I rode about 25 miles down tomorrows route to find a hotel in hopes that it might be more comfortable than the tent. I hope this gets over soon as it is really hard to ride since I have not eaten much in two days.

Burton is a small town of about 1,400 people. On Sunday evening they had an old tractor pull. It was fun to watch the 1920's tractors trying to pull much compared to the modern ones. This is the smallest town that we have had a rest day in and the first we did not have a dorm room to stay in.

Day 34 - 40

2006-07-31T09:00:00.000-06:00

Day 34 - 40
Originally uploaded by boulderbikeman.

Madinson to Belvidere, IL - 84 miles

Belvidere to Coal City - 107 miles

Coal City to La Porte, IN - 104 miles

La Porte to Kendallville - 91 miles

Kendallville to Napoleon, OH - 72 miles

Napoleon to Sandusky - 94 miles

Sandusky to Burton - 92 miles

Four states in seven days! Most of the riding was rural dairyland with Amish farms, corn, more corn, lakes, more corn, heat, humidity and mosquitos. This is not an area I would ever bike through again. If you stop for anything the mosquitos find you in about 10 seconds and their buddies show up a few seconds later. The temp has been in the 90's with the heat index around 110.

I managed to get the flu again the night before the ride to Sandusky. I am writing this on our day off in Burton and I am still a little sick. I am finally able to eat today so hopefully I will regain some strength.

There is a large amusement park in Sandusky so everyone got an early start that day to leave time for the park in the afternoon. We stayed in a city park that evening and it was really noisy until 2am.

The last day we move away from Lake Erie and into the hills. We also rode through downtown Cleveland but it was Sunday so the traffic was not bad. I believe this is the biggest city that we have been through.

2006-07-23T17:59:00.000-06:00

Madison - rest day

I believe this was our best rest day so far. The dorms are air conditioned and close to all of the stores. The lake is about 4 blocks away and a great place to hang out.

Some of the group went to the Trek factory. I opted out since I have been to a number of them. I just did my normal domestic chores and then relaxed. I did buy a new pair of shoes and had to set up the cleats on them. My right foot has spread even wider this year and my custom shoes have been bugging me.

Tomorrow we start seven days of cycling before our next rest day. This is our longest ride sequence for the trip. Well it is 7pm and time for bed.....

Day 32

2006-07-23T08:43:00.000-06:00

Viroqua to Madison - 107 miles

Today was more of the same, hills, dairy farms and horse buggies. After Richland Center, about 40 miles in, things flattened some and we cruised through some large valleys.

As we approached Madison I started seeing other local riders and found Carol to ride with for about the last 20 miles. She was interested in our trip and told me all about the local ridding. It turned out we were on part of the course used by the Wisconsin Ironman race. The race is next month so people were out training.

Tonight we are staying at the University of Wisconsin in a dorm. Tomorrow will be a much needed rest day......

Day 31

2006-07-23T08:36:00.000-06:00

Day 31
Originally uploaded by boulderbikeman.

Winona to Viroqua, WI - 73 miles

We crossed the Mississippi River to enter Wisconsin, state number 7. Today we had some of the steepest climbing that we have had since the beginning. This area was never affected by the glaciers so all of the bumps are still there.

About mid day we were in Amish country with all of there farms, horse buggies and road apples. I spent some time talking with one Amish, John, who was loading a silo by hand. He explained the whole process of creating feed for his cows. His wife was out mowing their front lawn in a dress, bonnet and bare feet with a push mower.

I also stopped at a creamerie today and went through their tour. It was one that processed most of the local mike produced by the Amish farms.

We camped at a fair grounds in Viroqua and a local bike shop came out around 7pm. I think he was still working on bikes at 11pm!

Day 30

2006-07-20T16:03:00.000-06:00

Owatonna to Winona - 93 miles

Today started out nice and sunny, a lot different than yesterday. A group of us chose to begin the ride on the old route and change to the new route in Rochester. The old route was on highway 14 but the early morning traffic was not bad and the shoulders were wide and smooth.

In Rochester we rode past the Mayo Clinic as we went through the middle of town. A lot of old restored buildings and we also looked at the Ronald McDonald house which is next to the clinic.

At about 70 miles into the ride I stopped at a campground for water. The owner asked if I was interested in seeing her collection. It turned out to be 11 restored horse buggies and coaches from the late 1800 hundreds. They were all original and a story to go with each.

Our overnight is at the dorms of Winona State University. It was a nice surprise to have a dorm stay in the middle of our ride week.

Day 29

2006-07-20T15:59:00.000-06:00

New Ulm to Owatonna - 95 miles

Have you ever ridden in a thunder storm so dark that it literally looked like midnight, we did.... The storm came in at about 8:30am from behind me. In about 5 minutes time it went from full light to total darkness. I was out front by myself so I found shelter in a church just before it hit. For about 2 hours we had constant lighting and hard rain and hail. At about 9am a lady showed up at the church and offered me coffee. We had a nice time watching the storm and chatting.

The rain continued on and off for the rest of the day making it fun and a little cold to ride. About 20 of the miles were on a bike path which was a nice change.

In Owatonna we stayed at the fair grounds and since it was raining they let us use the indoor beer garden to camp in. No beer but at least it was dry.

Day 27

2006-07-17T13:47:00.000-06:00

Tyler to New Ulm - 93 miles

Today was our first day using an ACA route. Up tell now we have been following maps prepared by the American Lung Association for their Big Ride. The Big Ride maps kept us on major highways that are very busy. Because of all of our complaints ACA has looked at the route and made some changes that will move us to more rural roads. It was nice today to not have all of the traffic.

More corn.... Today reminded me of the RAGBRI ride in Iowa. Corn, soybeans, peas and pigs.... One of the towns we traveled through was named Sleepy Eye. I tried to find out where the name came from but none of the locals seemed to know. They did have a great Dairy Queen which was a nice break at 75 miles.

We ended the ride at Martin Luther College where we will have a rest day tomorrow. New Ulm is a very "German" town with a lot of German restaurants and brew pubs. I am looking forward to exploring it tomorrow.

Day 26

2006-07-17T13:26:00.000-06:00

De Smet to Tyler, MN - 79 miles

Another state gone..... Today we rode into Minnesota. The landscape has changed to corn and soybean fields. I was the first out of camp today and no one caught me so I spent the day thinking about life by myself. It was kind of a nice change. The weather is still hot but the winds were gentle so I cruised along.

Today we stayed at the Danebod Folk School in Tyler. This is a Danish school and Lutheran Church that was started in 1888. The school was originally started in the Danish tradition to further educate adults. It has since become a meeting place to keep up their heritage in the US. I spent three hours with the pastor listening about the history and looking at all of the buildings. He seem to really enjoy having someone to tell the story of their heritage to. Since today was Sunday I went to their church meeting in the evening.

Day 25

2006-07-17T13:05:00.000-06:00

Miller to De Smet - 77 miles

Another day of rolling farm land. The weather is still hot, 107 degrees. I have been leaving camp just as the sun starts to lighten the eastern sky to try and beat some of the heat. It is a littler hard to see or be seen but it is worth it. The further east we go the landscape is getting greener with more crops. We passed through a lot of little towns and one larger one, Huron on the James River.

We ended the day in De Smet where Laura Ingalles Wilder, the author of the "Little House" books lived. They were having a pageant in honor of her. I walked around the town and seen where she had lived and went to school. We also had to make our pilgrimage to the Dairy Queen for a daily dose of ice cream.

It only got down to 89 degrees at night so it was hard to sleep. I am not looking forward to the nights further east where we will have heat and humidity.

Day 24

2006-07-14T13:26:00.000-06:00

Pierre to Miller - 73 miles

Short nice day... I got up early and was on the rode before sunrise. Today was totally flat once you climbed out of the river valley and you could see forever. The sunrise was great as I was ridding directly east into it. My average speed today was 21 MPH.

As I rolled into the first rest stop I had to wake up Bill our support person at the stop. It was just a very quiet morning with birds, pheasants and deer.

Miller is the typical small (850 population) town in South Dakota. I stopped at a lemonade stand some kinds had set up and spent about an hour talking about the town and their families. They all seemed to have multiple generations of family in the area.

Today marks about the half way point of our ride, 1,621 miles. It seems like we just started........

Day 23

2006-07-14T13:08:00.000-06:00

Kadoka to Pierre - 96 miles

Much better day today. We went through a lot of small towns with 20 to maybe 50 people each. There are still hills with a rolling road. Nothing much special to look at today just hill after hill after hill.... The end of the day we rode into Pierre on the Miissouri River. This is a large city and the capital of South Dakota.

We stayed in a park along the Missouri. It was a great place and only one block away from all of the stores and restaurants. Close is good after a long biking day.

We switched into the central time zone today. That means sunrise will be about one hour later tomorrow. Today is a "ten dollar day" which means they do not provide dinner and just turn us loose on the town. A few of us went to a Chinese Restaurant. I was having withdrawal symptoms since this is the first Chinese food since the beginning of the trip.

Day 22

2006-07-14T12:42:00.000-06:00

Rapid City to Kadoka - 102 miles

This was one of our hardest days. On top of everything else I woke up in the middle of the night with the flu. I was not able to keep anything down all day. The temp reached 112 degrees and we had 20-25 mph head winds.

We went through Badlands National Park and a lot of rolling grass lands. The highlight of the day was the Worlds Largest Prairie Dog. This is the area that Dances With Wolves was filmed.

Cheryl and Tom finally caught me and helped pull me in as the flu was taking its toll. About 10 people sagged in because of the heat.

Our camp was in the city park with dead grass and very little shade. In the middle of the night we had a thunder storm complete with tornado warning sirens. Welcome to South Dakota.....

South Dakota !!!

2006-07-11T18:49:00.000-06:00

South Dakota !!!
Originally uploaded by boulderbikeman.

Day 21

2006-07-11T15:24:00.000-06:00

Rapid City - rest day

We left the dorms at 8am for a bus ride to Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. The Monument was awesome. It is hard to believe that you can carve a statue out of a mountain. Crazy Horse is still under construction. Crazy Horse will be much larger than the presidents. Only the face is completed at this time.

Back to the dorms at noon to do my domestic chores. Cleaning the bike, washing clothes and doing any needed shopping.

Our next set of rides days is 6 days long. We start out across the bad lands of South Dakota. Jorie in our group though that they were named that because the bad cowboys hid out there.... Actually they are named that because nothing grows there.

It will be early to bed and early, 4:30am, to rise to beat the heat tomorrow.

Day 20

2006-07-10T20:34:00.000-06:00

Newcastle to Rapid City, SD - 82 miles

Another state gone and we are now in South Dakota. We spent about two thirds of the day in the Black Hills. This rates right up there as one of the best days. A group of us spent some time in the town of Custer looking at the sights and drinking coffee. We rode by the turn to Mount Rushmore where we will go tomorrow via bus. The road to Mount Rushmore is very dangerous to ride and it would have added 60 miles to the day.

We had two cattleguard crossings today. Not a big thing to us in Colorado but a lot of our riders had never seen one. Most walked over them which is harder than riding...

As we rode close to Rapid City the terrain became open grass land. I believe that is what we have to look forward to for the next couple of ride days.

Tonight we are staying at the South Dakota School of Mines and we have a rest day tomorrow. With all of the construction we passed through it will take me two hours to clean up the bike tomorrow.

Day 19

2006-07-09T19:59:00.000-06:00

Gillette to Newcastle - 76 miles

Today we passed within site of Devil's Tower. The area is covered with open pit coal mines and methane wells.

We had a train track beside us most of the day with 2 mile long trains every 10 mins. There was an 8 mile long construction zone again today, uk. I belive today was the flattest day so far but we did have 20 mph head winds.

We rode through some small towns and they look like you are back in the 40's. I don't think anything has changed in this area for years including the people.

Last night Amy, one of the twins, dislocated her shoulder on the water slide. She will be off of the bike for a few days.

One more day of riding tomorrow and then a rest day in Rapid City.

Day 18

2006-07-09T19:30:00.000-06:00

Sheridan to Gillette - 113 miles

The longest day yet... Very gradual climbs and no wind made this a great day. There were deer and antelope everywhere. I had an antelope actually run along side me and smell my arm. I was not sure if he did not want to bite me at first. I am kind of gun shy after all of the dogs.

The only services we had was a bar at mile 71 called the Spotted Horse. The people there were TOTALLY local. They thought we had to be nuts to be riding a bike at all let alone riding to DC.

There was 11 miles of construction today from hard pack to loose sand. Some chose to take a car ride across it but I was not willing to get in a car.... Now the bike needs a major cleaning.

We camped at a recreation center next to a skate park. Lots of noise all night. In the morning we found that they had locked the bathrooms, just part of the adventure.

I started late so that I could see the other end of the ride. Had a lot of fun talking and passing by everyone.

Computer Problems

2006-07-09T16:12:00.000-06:00

I am having problems with my PDA so I can not upload pictures at this point. I will try to resolve it on our next rest day....

Day 17

2006-07-09T16:05:00.000-06:00

Hardin to Sheridan, WY - 84 miles

Today we finally left Montana. That is one big state. The first 60 miles were up hill into a head wind, what fun....

As we traveled towards Sheridan we crossed the Crow Indian Reservation. I think the conditions there are worse than some third world countries. We also found that everyone had at least two dogs that were not fenced in and seemed to be very hungry. We spent most of the morning either out running the dogs or squirting them with water bottles.

We also travel past Custer's Last Stand battlefield. This seems to have turned into a tourist trap.

We have some unique bikes as well as riders on the trip. One bike has a box fairing behind the seat that he thinks makes him go faster. He has been nicknamed "Fast ass". The level of bikes is also a big spread, from about $300 to $10,000.

Day 16

2006-07-09T16:01:00.000-06:00

Billings to Hardin - 59 miles

We had a very nice climb out of Billings through a valley. There were a few dogs this morning that gave chase. One was on our heels and Tom decided to mace it. We were moving quite slowly and he forgot to check the wind direction. The next thing I heard was coughing, he had maced himself.

Past the climb we had a lot of open space with rolling hills. We also had a nice detour to cross in loose gravel. It was about 1 mile and most walked their bikes. I found it rideable with a little mountain bike skills needed.

Our overnight was at a KOA campground which has everything. Some of us took a taxi into Hardin to check out the town. While shopping we ran into a local lady that has lived there all of her life. She had a lot of stories and her family is involved in all of the town functions. She asked if she could drive us back to the KOA and even stopped at the local store on the way back.

Long day tomorrow so I am going to bed at 7:30....