Well the fun meter continues to soar. Yesterday, last night, and today go down in the memorable books with near perfect scores. We’re still shooting below par, swinging for the fences, and pitching a no hitter. 

Yesterday we left Niles Ohio under heavy clouds and just after a light rain fell. Most of us went into full rain gear mode but never needed it. I kind of wished for a little rain after putting all that rain crap on. 

We were quickly out of town and riding wet roads but some of the best of the trip yet. Barely a car passed it seemed and almost no trucks. We were again riding in farm lands and yes, more corn. We did see crops begin to change finally, some strawberries and Concord grapes. 

One of my favorite visuals is always the random classic car, truck or old tractor. We’ve seen some great muscle cars and yesterday the first Dodge Gremlin in decades. 

On the favorite list also are each states collegiate flags and banners. By a long shot the most seen was back in K-State territory. Everyone worn their colors in tees and ball caps. I was surprised we didn’t see more Bukeye support but you know it’s there when Old Blue coming into town. I missed a classic photo and one I regret not going back for. Yesterday we had just passed into Pennsylvania and I saw a barn right next to the road. Painted on it I read “We love our Lions” and a paw print on the side. Then the front facing the street was a ” We ❤️Penn State ”  it was really well done and cool. Darn I wish I got a picture.  A great public display of their Nittany Lions loyalty and allegiance. Joe Pa would have loved it. 

Many of the roads on many days bring back boyhood memories. I frequently see homes, ponds, woods and streets that remind me of the towns around where I grew  up. I’ll be cruising along and it feels like I’m riding along in Wyckoff, Franklin Lakes, or Allendale New Jersey. It’s great going back into that time capsule. 

It’s also really fun hearing from people in texts, emails, and blog replys telling me I’m near or in their towns and ares where they grew up or went to school Etc. That puts places into a different perspective often. Thanks all 

So yesterday we had our single best Sag stop. It was at an old fashioned Root Beer road side stand. It’s called the White Turkey Drive in and it’s right in the Ohio – Pennsylvania state line. It’s family  owned since 1952 and we met and talked to the owner for a long time. Yeah, the root beer floats were insane. 

After a Turkey sandwich and Float we stopped for pictures at the state line. Little did we know as we rode towards and into Erie Pa the fun fest night we’d be having. 

On Main Street Erie one of our rider shouts for us to stop at a Starbucks. So we U-turn and I spot the oasis. Right next to Starbucks I see Molly Brannagan’s Irish Pub. So I tell the group that I’ll be in THERE while they get coffees. So Jim says, I’m in, then Paul, then Sebene.  The next thing we know we’ve texted other riders telling them where we are. It was a classic spur of the moment that fun times are all about. We met new local friends, drank tasty Irish beers and ate Shepards Pie. Ian was the only Brit who jointed us but he enjoyed the traditional pub atmosphere. So we leave a little tired and a few brews in and coast down to our hotel right on Lake Erie. It’s the best hotel of our trip by far. 

We shower and meet for dinner and walk back up main St to the Tap House. Sure enough it’s beer time again and we enjoy a few along with really good wood fired flat breads. So 8 of us get up and after many laughs walk out. 4 guys start to turn right and say they’re headed back to bed down while 3 guys ask me if I’m up for ” one more beer” so yep we turn left and hit a dive bar. I switch to high test Crown Royal as I’m beered out. The dive bar doesn’t cut it so I suggest we revisit Molly B’s and go back a see our new local friends. After 2 Paddy’s Irish Whiskeys we get last call and close the place down. Table chairs all turned upside down on tables, floor mops start to swish so we leave after hugs and handshakes with the clan. So it’s stagger and swagger back down Main to have ” one more” at our hotel bar. Back to a tasty hop before we hear our second ” last call gents ” of the night. We pry our saddle sore butts off the bar stools at 1 am to head up and sleep it off like Rip Van Winkle. Thankfully today’s a rest day but the brain cell damage can’t be undone Many of last night liquor topics were how lucky we are to be doing what we are with such a great group. With only 8 riding days left all of us share a melancholy mind set of feelings. No one wants this magic adventure to end but everyone misses their loved ones. It’s a mix of emotions and pensiveness.  All of us knowing it’s not the destination but the journey. 

Until we roll tomorrow. 🚴🏻

We rest in 2 days, but until then we have one more long ride. Tomorrow will be 89 miles bringing us north and to Erie Pa. We will cross our 10th state line tomorrow. To date we’ve ridden 2740 miles and have another 660 to reach bean town. Tonight we bed down in Niles  Ohio just west of Youngstown. Yep we’ve reached yet another memorable location, Niles the home of Rubbermaid !! I know you lust  with jealousy right. 

Yesterday we rode through several Amish communities. It was such an amazing experience riding a bike and having them wave and say their hellos. I saw ladies tilling their gardens by hand with a shovel and pushing hand rotor lawn movers. And kids driving small buggies with donkeys. We’ve been through a number of these communities and it’s fascinating. It is truly like seeing historic lifestyles in today’s world. Just seeing and following their horse drawn buggies along on a bicycle is hard to describe. 

Also yesterday we got to a heavily wooded area along a river. We could hear a loud buzz but none of us were sure what it was. We stopped and asked a man who was trimming his trees. He told us they were Cicadas and they only hatch every 17 years. He wanted to ask about our journey and we wanted to find out about Cicadas. They were really loud and one of them flew and landed near my bike. They are loud but pretty ugly buggers. Kind of creepy actually 

We’ve noticed a change and transformation since we crossed the Illinois River. We could feel the  mid west disappearing and the east coming out. More people, more traffic, faster pace and driving habits. As we pull out of towns we now feel the commuter buzz. People aren’t as willing to sit and wait at stop signs and at the end of their driveways. More and more people are pulling out in front of us. Also people are driving foreign made cars. People are giving us less of the roads as well. Much fewer friendly waves for sure. 

Sadly we are starting to see and feel the end of this adventure. Chuck who’s doing this ride for his third time says we are the first group that doesn’t want it to end. Past groups that he rode with were anxious to get it done. I have to say, our group is exceptional and we’ve bonded like a family. It’s amazing that every single day everyone’s spirits and moods are so pumped up. The owner of the tour company and her staff keep saying we might be the very best group ever in 21 years !!! Everyone’s always laughing despite the difficulties of making it into the next day’s hotel. The mileage alone everyday is a challenge and add in the climbing and winds and this is no walk in the park. Most of us attack it and try and get the rides done earlier rather than later. Rest and recovery are premium as is consuming enough calories. Like someone said early on, if this was easy, more people would do it. It’s truly an experience of a lifetime. 

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Rural, quiet, and peaceful roads greeted us at the Ohio state line and brought us to Maryville. We had a super pleasant Sunday ride and again near perfect weather. Sure it was humid but nothing like yesterday’s heat and steam. I noticed something I hadn’t  seen since I a youngster. I saw a good number of homes with the kids bikes just laying outside on the lawns and or leaning against trees Etc. It was nice to see and brought back memories of my childhood, Eeeeauwwwkeeee , quiet towns and no crime. 

What else did we see, corn and more corn.  I followed an Amish horse drawn buggy into the town  of Covington. I took a cool video as we glided along behind the speedy buggy driver. It was a very cool experience as we followed him for a good number of miles. Seeing the Amish in their world is a very nice experience. 

Our sag stop was at the Covington Police Dept where I met a really nice policeman. He told me the town population is 2600 and he pretty much knows every one of the 2600 residents. Covington is the home of the Flutophone. But you probably already knew that. 

We hit another road detour again but it was a short easy forge to cross. No harm, no foul and it beat adding another 50 miles to our ride. 

So where does the term Buckeye come from you ask. Local Ohio Indians referred to the nuts of the Buckeye tree as Hetuck or nuts shaped like a bucks eye. The Buckeye tree is the official tree of Ohio. It’s believed these trees are only indigenous to Ohio but that’s false. Go ahead and fact check me on it. 

We are spending  the night in Maryville where Honda and Scotts have their largest manufacturing plants nation wide. It’s a really nice town with nice folks. Like most middle American towns we see a pattern. A nice historic old town with aging buildings often many vacancies but very cool towns with historic ties in every building. I really love seeing all the architecture of the homes and businesses. Then most sizable towns then have a newer areas where you can find every fast food chain and cheaper hotels and gas stations. Those parts aren’t very nice at all. Most are located close to newer highways and are pretty tacky. Almost every hotel we stay in is located in these parts of towns. 

Photos in no order 

Ohio state line sign 

Officer Mullins of the Covington PD 

My bike with a mid day heat relieve and a welcome Starbucks Frappe with 1/2 mile remaining in today’s 105 mile ride 

Road closed crossing 

Old gas pumps 

Good night and ride free my friends  

Take care Indy we have famous places to go to. Like Richmond our next stop. Famous? You bet like the Lawn Mower Manufacturing Capital of the US, that’s a fact. And the National Road Us 40, is now Main St. Also nearby New Castle which we biked though is the home of the high school basketball hall of fame. I know this is compelling. How about this one, it also is the home of the largest high school gymnasium in the country and it seats 9,000. 

So I researched the term Hoosier and its origins aren’t exactly very definitive. But in 1830 John Finley of Richmond wrote a poem, ” The Hoosier’s Nest”.  He wrote Hoosier as Hoosher. Yet a few days later on January 8,1833 at the Jackson Day dinner John W Davis offered the Hoosher State of Indiana as a toast. Following that former Indiana governor James B Ray announced he intended to publish a newspaper, The Hoosier. Although the exact history is debated it goes down with the Buckeyes of Ohio , the Suckers of Illinois and the Tarheels of North Carolina. 

Lastly Orville and Wilbur Wright grew up here and started a bike shop. It was their knowledge of bicycles that helped lead them into the cross over into aviation. 

Today we entered into our first Amish communities. I took a discrete photo of a horse drawn buggy but I’m told they do not like their pictures taken. I didn’t stop but saw a buggy stopped at a lumber yard. The horse was tied to a long hitching post, that was so cool to see. Sorry I didn’t turn around and go back for that photo. Tomorrow we are told the roads will be busy with buggies as the Amish families go to church. 

We rode a really good rate today as we wanted to beat the heat. It was 72 miles but hot and sticky. When we got to our hotel I felt  like a Cinnabon coming out of the oven, hot, sticky but not very fresh. Tomorrow we have 104 miles followed by 97, 93, then 89 OUCH !!!!! Please let the heat die as we will be hurting big if it doesn’t. 

Tonight’s route rap meeting featured everyone in an Elvis wig and glasses to goof on Howard. Apparently he was doing a classic climb in the Alps when someone dressed as Elvis passed him. As he told the story it was classic funny so Mary Bagel ( owner of GeorgeTown Bagelry ) ordered the wigs. 

In the photos you’ll see I’ve provided a spread sheet showing our donations to date. Thank you again to everyone who has donated. We just passed $15,000 and hope to raise $25,000 in less than two weeks remaining. Sorry I couldn’t do a spreadsheet or pie graph but the flowchart will bring you up to date. 

Cheers and remember to keep rolling along. 🚴🏻

Yesterday we entered our  last time zone change, hello Eastern time. Because of that and a very short 62 mile ride today we had a chance to sleep in later. Our departure was 2 hours later than the usual 7:30 push off. 

Today’s ride treated us to beautiful and tranquil country roads. All lined with meticulous farms and farm houses. I was so impressed with how manicured and well kept all of them were. It was quaint, quiet, peaceful and void of 18 wheel big rigs. 

When we passed a sign telling us we were entering Boone County it all made sense. The name fit the setting,  beautiful farmlands and barns worthy of frequent photo stops. My highlight was crossing Big Raccon Creek,now how rural is that ? I enjoyed seeing folks sitting on their front porches or under large shade trees. All of them enjoying the quiet country life and eager to return our waves of hello. The only thing missing was the smell of someone baking a fresh apple pie. At one point we rode under a full canopy of huge tress branches lining the road on each side. It was a full green tunnel.  It was like a gift to cyclists from Roy Disneys. Thanks Indiana for those memories. 

As we peddled, Debbie and Kristen went ahead to shop in Indianapolis. Yep you quessed it,  they went dress shopping at Nordies. A successful shopathon as Deb found her mother of the bride dress ! 

As we approached Indianapolis, the heat, traffic and pace quickened. As luck would have it we had another bridge closed detour !  We negotiated 7 traffic round about circles cautiously. It seems these Indy drivers secretly all want to qualify to drive around their famous speedway. I think they need to raise the caution flag and pump a few brakes. 

We spotted a familiar yet seldom seen sign and we hit our brakes. ” Boys, is that a Starbucks ? “. What a nice coffee stop it was. The Starbucks was located inside a beautiful huge market all sparkling brand new it seemed. Finally a good cup of Joe !  

Some of you may be wondering exactly how one finds their way to Boston from LA. In the photo you’ll see what we call route, or cue sheets. The tour company carefully fine tunes these each year. There is a column of accumulative mileage and another for ” lap ” or segment mileage. You’ll see all kinds of notes like dangerous railroad track crossings, hard to see road signs for turns, etc. These sheets even tell us where the Dairy Queens are ! It’s all really easy to follow with a Garmin bike computer and or Strava on an I- phone. I use both and haven’t missed many turns at all. We did miss one turn today and 3 guys behind us gave a loud shout out. When we got back on the route Howard turned to me a said how nice it was for them to shout to us. He said ” I’d have let them go on and suffer “. !!! 

As we say our good byes to Champaign, we’re hoping for better roads, hint hint to the road fairies. My vote for the worst roads is hands down Illinois so far. But first before we can roll out, it’s our mandatory decorate you helmet day. Yep, that’s right it’s a Crossroads tradition to stage a helmet decoration day. Like what are we back in the Cub Scouts? Seriously we have to stoop to these  corny summer camp skits as a grow mature proud grandfather. So naturally leading up to this day I fought it and tried to guestion it thought good natured humor. I told Tracey I wasn’t going to drink the Coolaide. But I went along with it knowing we could dismantle our works of art them get our ride on. I will admit yes it was pretty funny. Maybe that was just my inner child coming out again. For mine I attached about 16 individual packets of Butt Butter. But it was still humiliating when all was said and done. And no I’m not posting any pictures sorry. 

Yesterday was a fun rest day having Debbie and Kristen here. We hung out then went to lunch followed by and old fashioned drive out into the country. We found a cool park, the Lake of the Woods in the Prarie or something like that. We walked around the lake, found a covered bridge and then found The Museum of the Prarie. 

Next we found a cool town named Farmer City and took a cool video of a farmer on his ginormous tractor spraying his crops. My grandsons love these videos. So that had us feeling pretty thirsty which led to dinner and drinking Champaign in Champaign ! 🍾cheers . that was a fun day for sure. 

Today’s bike ride was pretty non eventful except for crossing another state line. But it was rather boring, flat and easy. We had a great foursome with the potential for some good horsepower. But the boys didn’t want to power down and let the dogs run. In fact with 14 of the 81 miles left everyone went to sleep. I wanted to ramp it up and get something out of it but they had nothing to do with it. So we glided into Crawfordsville at what felt like 40% effort. But we arrived and Debbie had found a great sandwich shop on Yelp. Great lunch stop Deb. 

Editors Note 

I apologize for a miss statement yesterday. When I said we ” lost a rider”. It was lost Richard as a rider  his fall wasn’t fatal !  Sorry for that. He’s handling the pain with out taking any pain pills and doing really well 

With much anticipation, Debbie arrived yesterday and to my incredible surprise Kristen walked in with her. All along we’ve been planning on Kristen coming along for this visit but she kept telling me she couldn’t get the time away from work. But that was a snow ball cover up for this surprise. I’m in another world having them here as its been a time warp away from my family. So after  hugs, kisses and jubilation, we headed out for a delicious Italian dinner. And I got to drive a rental car which after a month seemed a little strange. It is so nice having them here, it puts me in a different mind set. 

Today is a rest day which gives us all a chance to slowdown and reflect on where we’ve been and the experiences we’ve been having. 

I can’t say the bike riding in Illinois so far has been enjoyable. The roads are in poor shape, no shoulders and bad drivers. On top of that the traffic getting to the hotel was horrid. With that being said, our camp is in a funk. Yesterday we lost a rider. At a tricky railroad track crossing Richard was clipped by a cars side view mirror and went down. He broke his clavicle and took six stitches to his elbow. Sadly his tour is over. All of us went into a funk over this news. Fortunately he’s not going to fly home to England so he’ll be riding sag for at least 10 days. After that I’m hoping he can maybe manage some short rides I hope. But he’ll continue to be able to see and experience America. Keep your chin up Richard and heal quickly 

Yesterday’s ride was very fall like, semi cool and crisp. But that wasn’t on our minds as we set off for an 87 mile day. Yes indeed, The Wind Cried Mary…. in your face style. It was one of those rides where time seems to stand still and each mile was a grind. It was payback day after our previous day’s joy ride. Another factor came into play as well. We had endless miles of road cracks the kind that are perpendicular to your travel and are spaced every 10-15 feet. So it’s constant, bump, bump, bump. These cracks just beat you up and wear you down. I remember years ago I went to Minnesota for an Ironman race and had these exact same bumps. Same corn fields, same bumps for miles and miles. Yesterday brought back a vivid memory that I’ll  never forget. 

We did what we could to counter the winds by riding in our longest biggest pace line yet. The pulls in the front were hard but it made the ride more tolerable. Try as you may, there’s no counter punch to the road cracks. In any case we completed a 624 mile week and everyone’s ready to sleep in and catch up on life for a day. 

THE SCIENCE OF SADDLE SORE PREVENTION 

As you might imagine spending every day on a bike saddle ( seat) is a butt cheek challenge. So we enlist many products and remedies to try and stay ahead of the pain. For me, so far so good, and all is under control I’m happy to report. Chuck, who’s riding his third cross country tour told me in 2012 his saddle sores had saddle sores, ouch ! So I’ve included a photo of the many tricks in my bag of prevention. They range from baby diaper products to commercial Chamois creams and butters to farmers balms for cows tender utters, honest. As you can see there’s a true art and science and everyone manages under their own terms. Chamois creams and boy butters are semi frequent topics of riding conversations. As are brands of biking shorts and bibs and the types of chamois comfort. It’s kind of like butt cheek management which comes along with sitting for many hours on a seat not built for comfort. One thing for sure when getting ready every morning is you want to  be sure not to mix up your sun screens, chamois creams, and toothpaste !!  Not shown in my photo is the WD-40 nor axle grease. 

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Happy trails and keep riding. Thanks for all the followers and I love hearing the comments back Cheers 

Many thanks again for all the kind donations to the ALS cause as well. They continue to motivate Jim and I everyday. 

Photos note

Howard along side an American beauty. I call this shot, the Brit and the beauty, two classics together

Fuel to battle the winds espresso and sugar 

Farm equipment and road signs 

Video, crossing the Illinois River 

I have to say that this morning is the first time I’ve felt like I didn’t really want to ride. Physically I was fine with it but mentally I wasn’t convinced truthfully. Maybe it was the thought of a 107 mile day or maybe it was what I saw at 5:30 am. I woke up and the first thing I saw was dancing trees.  Oh please tell me this wind isn’t going to be kissing us on the lips.  

So the first thing I did was pop 2 Advils, just in case. On the way to breakfast I was thinking in the elevator of ways I might be able to ditch riding. Kind of like fake sick so you can miss school. I had it, brilliant, I’d order the catfish omelette and fake choke on a fish bone. But no I wasn’t  sure how I’d fake a blue face and purple lips. OK McCauley just man up and ride. No I’ve figured out a fool proof out. The old I slipped in the shower trick. I’d take the TV remote and with a few well placed whacks on the forehead, I’m riding in the sick van all the way to Champaign. On second thought I didn’t want a damage invoice for  a broken TV remote. What the heck I’ll ride, so I lube up all the appropriate moving parts, and slide into my kit  ( you know those attractive revealing works of wonder that we cyclists wear ). 

Well I’m sure glad I did ride as today was perfection. We gathered into a strong group of six and with the strong winds pushing us along we flew through the ride in 5 hrs 35 minutes. It was a hoot of a day and we didn’t even push that hard at all. We just flew literally.  We crossed the Illinois River after hours of fun in the corn fields. I did come really close to going down at a high speed but managed to keep the  shiny side up and the rubber on the road. My front wheel caught a giant gap and recess in the concrete and I thought I was heading for road pizza. I think my mountain bike riding helped and some luck. 

We freight trained right into Springfield, Lincoln’s boyhood home. I’m not sure if he was born here as I understand it only as Abe’s boyhood home place. I’ll have to Google his place of birth. Lincoln also has his tomb and presidential library here which I wish  we had time to tour. Herbert Hoover dedicated Lincoln’s tomb back in 1931. I’m not sure why it took so many years as he was shot in 1865. I’m curious as to that time line so I’m going to try and dig into it after this post. 

Ironically Abe Lincoln held a Republical rally here 156 years ago almost exactly to the month in 1860. Our political party rally’s of today have come a long way but I’m not sure if it’s in the right direction. Interesting to try and imagine what they were like back in those times. 

Anyway another fact I found is that Springfield was the home of National Cash Register. The mechanical cash register was invented here in 1884. Like you’ve been wondering where it was invented. 

I began to notice yesterday how many farms and homes had small ponds as we rode all of the sudden out of nowhere they appeared at almost every farm and home. So I asked a local truck driver at a general store we ate lunch at. He was a really nice guy who we talked to for quite awhile. He told us about the government work program and grants back in the 30’s and 40’s. Jobs were created to dig these ponds. I asked if they were for irrigation water and was surprised when he said no not really. According to him almost all farmers here don’t irrigate. The only one he knew of that did hasn’t used his irrigation system much. Farmers rely on Mother Nature. I also had days before noticed how on all these gigantic yards and fields of grass there are NO sprinklers at all !!! People have massive amounts of lush green grass around here. I’ve been amazed by this for days on end. It’s funny the things you notice traveling slowly by bicycle. Lawn mowing is a ever on going task I’ve been observing. 

I had a good dog chase today as this black attack lab roared out of his yard with his slower companion trying to match  his speed. His owner yelled for him to stop but he was hauling so fast he tripped himself up somewhat. His bark and look told me his intentions were to have a piece of my ankle for his morning snack. Yesterday at a sag stop one of the guys asked me if I saw  the dog chasing me for about 100 yards. I never knew he was there. I’m told it was the playful friendly Collie type of chase. There are harmless, let’s play chases and the, I’m coming to eat you chases. 

The best conversations of today were around the post ride milk shake table. The subject was drinking, bars, and closing times of bars. The Brits were saying that most bars and pubs stop serving at 4 am. We told them how this is very late by our laws. They say some don’t close until 6 am but reopen at 7 am. But if you are smart and want to to stay for ” breakfast” they won’t kick you out and let you just stay there. They also had what used to be called ” lock in’s”.  The pub would close at 1 am but if you wanted to stay ALL night they’d lock everyone IN and you’d drink until morning. But you couldn’t leave !!!! We asked Chris from Scotland what the drinking age is over there  He replied ” 7 ” !!! 

Cheers and I hope you got your  bike ride in today. 🚴🏻​

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It’s so funny after posting last night that we’ve come all this way and haven’t seen one deer. I saw three this morning, see photo. Today was a Tim  McGraw kind of Sunday ride through the country. Our 78 miles was like a day of picking low hanging fruit. Easy peasy kind of ride, fun, fast, flat- ish with really high quality road surfaces. You really become in tune and acutely aware of the surfaces you are riding. Along with that the variety of sounds each surface makes. It’s like the road actually speaking to you. Really smooth roads are a quiet symphony and gritty roads are like fingernails on a blackboard. Rough open grain begins to annoy you but you tolerate them. Rumble strips are to avoided by all means as they rattle every part of you apart. Debris laden roads are mine fields and holes can be a quick trip to urgent care.  Each dictates a totally different sound. 

Today’s early conversations ranged from being dropped, and the competitive nature of group riding. My comment on the subject  was, being dropped is like being the last kid picked in gym class. Then we switched to wondering if Ian was riding today in a cotton jersey or a poly blend. A few days ago one comment was ” boy those cows sure are black ” my reply as I wasn’t interested in where this conversation might be going was ” yep, they’re black cows “. End of conversation. 

Fun things I saw  on the road today, ? Well 2 mobile homes with confederate flags , a yard decorated in gum ball machines a road kill badger, and the biggest road kill raccoon ever. 

Best convenience store lingo from a clerk, you want that in a sack? ( bag, round these parts ) reply ” no I’ll just take the pop ( soda ). 

Best bargain, DVD 1 day rentals for .39 cents !  I had an ice cream cone a few days ago for .65 cents. !! 

Today’s only speed bump, we had to detour to another bridge across the Mississippi as the one we had in our route was closed ! That wasn’t bad but the section of interstate we had to ride was. Especially the LEFT hand exist we had to yield  across all the lanes to make. Try moving left across 3 interstate lanes  with cars and trucks going 75 mph when you’re on a bike going 25 mph ! 

Once we crossed the mighty Mississippi, we found a well know sandwich place, the Quincy Illinois Maid Rite West, yes Maid not Made . Apparently food guru Alton Brown stopped there once. He quotes their Maid Rite sandwich is ” a Midwest Marvel  of Sandwiches”.  Honestly it was a cheesy version of a sloppy joe and no big deal 

Quincy is the very first larger city we’ve ridden into. The first thing I noticed immediately was the smell. After being in rural agricultural and Wild West open lands, the city smell wasn’t welcome.  You can have cities if you ask me. 

Before I go, please consider sharing and tagging  this blog. My goal as you know ( I hope ) is to reach out to the  ALS community. To let them know there are people and groups of volunteers like Team Godfather Charitable Foundation working to find a cure to ALS. And to make them aware that there are ALS laboratories working everyday on ALS specific studies and trials. By helping share this message, you can help by giving them hope. By helping share and tag  you’re helping the cause, Coast 2 Coast. Many thanks and keep riding along. 

This mornings departure was uneventful considering we were saying goodbye to Chillicothe, famous for being the home of Sliced Bread !  It’s hard leaving famous places but it’s time to move on. Legs were fresh considering yesterday’s beat down and its time to take the last train to Kirksville, so off we roll. 

I’m amazed as everyday I comment on how we haven’t seen one deer. With all the open country, we haven’t seen one. We have seen Proghorn and big horn sheep but no deer,  but we pass more farm equipment sales yards. Then there’s a highway sign that says ” caution planting season be alert for farm equipment”. It’s a carefree easy ride today under more clear sunny skies. 

The feature of today’s ride is 148 rollers, endless ribbons of farm road with undulating downhills that you bomb and right into a rolling climb. It’s fun  and the time flys by. At mile 50 we are treated to a lunch stop at a cute country store. 

When we pull up however we are told there’s construction detour and we’ll be adding 20 miles to our  78. So a van goes ahead to scout out the washed out bridge. The word when the vans return is we have an option either ride the added 20 or forge the washed out river ( big creek kind of ) so we take that option and it was a muddy mucky mess as everyone crossed it differently, I went barefoot others kept shoes on. Some pushed their bikes I carried mine. The mud was heavy clay so feet, shoes, and wheels and brakes got caked ! The clean up was about a 30 minute affair then off we rolled, semi cleaned up. 

Following that the real highlight came as a surprise. Just two of us stopped 2 miles before we reached our hotel for a fly by food – water stop. I noticed about a mile before this convenience, general store a confederate flag flying in front of a single wide shangrala. So we walk into the Mayville Geneal store and I ask the 3 counter girls what goes on in Mayville.  ” well you’re looking at it I guess “. Ok so then the fun starts as we starting picking up waters, and pizza slices the locals start parading in. I hear a totally different accent now, heavy redneck. A couple of landscape type guys are there, one looks like a typical rodeo bull rider. Their tee shirts reveal their occupation, lawn care ” You Grow it, We’ll Mow It”. Then next walks in a young buck who I can tell is keen on one of the counter queens. He’s small talking himself into a hole. But I can sense he’s getting around to building the nerve to ask Sadie to the rodeo  ! 

So seriously this store sells everything you’d ever need to flourish as a good old boy redneck. ” can I git  you anything else Jethrow Bowdene ?. ” reckon not, I got my Budlight, Skoal, Winchester amo, and candy cigarettes”.  Seriously they sell ammunition and candy cigarettes! 

So we settle into the 2 rocking chairs out front, yep honest and we eat our pizza and watch the show roll on. Unfortunately it’s hard to enjoy the quiet peaceful country because the locals pull up and keep their engines running. We got a choirs of diesel trucks all ideling just feet in front of us. But the show is too good to leave. We’re sitting rocking away in our Spandex watching them and they’re all watching us in amusement. So then the my favorite pulls up to the gas pumps. He leaves the store with what might be about a 58 pack of beer but the best part is his fashion statement. Obviously a local tend setter he’s proudly strutting his cowboy boots and shorts !  This is classic stuff and I’m beginning to wonder if I’m being filmed for Punked the TV show or something. I’m waiting  for Andy and Opie to pull up in the squad car next. 

Just another day on the road.