Day 29, Monday, July 28.

Kewanee, IL to Kankakee, IL
Daily Mileage: 131.63 miles
Total Mileage: 2,715.4 miles
Daily Time on Bike: 8:38 hours
Average Speed: 15.2 mph
Maximum Speed: 27.6 mph

We began week five of our journey today. Five weeks of biking, and it’s all we’ve know right now—wake up every morning, roll up our tent, pack our bikes, eat breakfast, and start down the road to see what new, interesting and sometimes annoying things wait for us. We traveled a great 131 miles today with much of today’s adventure lying in our destination city, and I will never forget it.

We rolled into Kankakee, IL late in the evening. We talked with a man filing up his tank as we were stopped at a gas station on the edge of town trying to find a place to eat and camp. He told us of a trio of cyclists last week that were also doing a cross-country bike trip. As they were cresting a hill in the early morning, an oncoming trucker was blinded by the sunlight as he crested the hill and ended up hitting and killing one of the cyclists. It wasn't exactly what we wanted to hear. Actually it's not something that we will rush to tell our parents. With this depressing, and startling news, we headed for the nearest Pizza Hut.

While inside the restaurant, we started talking to a young couple just finishing their dinner. They asked us the standard trip questions and then where we intended to sleep. We told them how we usually find a campsite after dinner, and then the gentleman, who happened to be a police officer, said he would go next door to the fire station and see if we could camp there. A while later he came back and said everything was all set. David and I couldn't believe it. We were camping at a fire station.

After dinner, we rode our bikes over to the station and introduced ourselves. Once we had our tent set up, we went back inside to chat with the firefighters. They were the nicest guys. We hung out and talked until 1AM. We got their address so that we could mail them postcards from the coast when we finally made it, and they took our addresses so they could mail us Kankakee Fire Department t-shirts (which I still have and cherish as one of my only mementos from the trip).

(Photo: David and I posing with the Kankakee Fire Department truck.)

Day 30, Tuesday, July 29.

Kankakee, IL to Rochester, IN
Daily Mileage: 102.23 miles
Total Mileage: 2,817.6 miles
Daily Time on Bike: 7:39 hours
Average Speed: 13.3 mph
Maximum Speed: 23.3 mph

We awoke this morning behind the Fire Station. When we went inside to wash up and brush our teeth they told us that they had a run in the middle of the night, and we didn't hear a thing. After we packed our bikes and took a couple photos with the guys and their truck, we rolled down the street to the Blues Café—quite possibly the best breakfast spot of the entire trip.

The Blues Café was a true 50's diner. It was bustling with the morning crowd, conversation, and clanking dishes. Our waitress came over to take our order and was amazed at the amount of food we wanted. For the past two weeks, we've eaten the same thing for breakfast every morning: two eggs scrambled (David's are over easy), three pancakes, an order of hash browns (west of the Mississippi) or homefries (east of the Mississippi), toast and a Coke. Every morning when we walk into the diners of America we order the same exact thing. It’s a great way to judge the quality and cost of things as you cross the country. Well, on this particular morning, our server cut David off in the middle of his order thinking that he was done with only eggs and homefries—come on. She was even more amazed to discover at the end of the meal that we had finished every bit of our meal. One of the interesting things we heard across the country was that, “Our pancakes are plate-size.” Now, I know actual plate size can vary, but more often than not these people need to take a look at the size of the pancake and realize how much of the plate is showing around it. At the Blues Café the pancakes were plate size and you couldn't see the plate!

Once we finished our hearty breakfast and started to roll out of town, the excitement began to build as we approached our next day off. We were going to be stopping in Ft. Wayne, IN to stay with my parents for a day. One nice thing about Illinois and Indiana is that they're rather skinny states—only a couple hundred miles wide. I was getting even more excited as we made our way to the Indiana border because it’s my home state. The border eluded us since we were on country backroads, and there wasn’t a state sign greeting us as we rolled from one state to the next. Eventually, we saw a state highway sign that said Indiana and then we knew we had made it. Our destination today was Rochester, IN, approximately sixty miles from home.

When we arrived in Rochester we stopped for dinner at Taco Bell. By this point David and I weren’t eating meat, especially in Taco Bell. We went in and ordered a feast of tacos and burritos totaling $11.00, and that was without drinks! After feasting on our bountiful meal, I made a couple of calls trying to track down some place to stay for the night. I found out there was a church nearby that might work. The church was in the middle of town and when we arrived we circled it trying to find any signs of life inside. The ladies association was just finishing up their weekly meeting and invited us in for some dessert. They served us some delicious ice-cream cake and punch. Once they cleared it with the pastor, we were allowed to stay the night in the fellowship hall that was carpeted and air-conditioned, and we each had our own private bathroom (of course, one of them said “Ladies” on the door).

(Photo: Tim excited to see that it wasn’t too much further to Ft. Wayne.)

Day 31, Wednesday, July 30.

Rochester, IN to Ft. Wayne, IN
Daily Mileage: 63.11 miles
Total Mileage: 2,880.7 miles
Daily Time on Bike: 4:35 hours
Average Speed: 13.7 mph
Maximum Speed: 26.2 mph

We got a nice rest last night and were ready to go home today. Even though the trip was sixty-three miles today it all seemed so close. We say that city miles don't count, and I guess mileage on the way home doesn't count either. (Maps tell you how far it is from city to city, however they don't tell you how far it is through the city. As in Minneapolis, it's fifty miles of city miles—doesn't count, but it sure takes a lot out of you. I guess we do it because you have things to look at and there's stuff happening.) I can't remember much about the trip today except the excitement of passing familiar landmarks. We were still twenty miles on the other side of town, but it was smooth sailing from there.

As we pulled up to my parent's house my grandmother, who happened to be spending a couple of weeks with them, opened the door. A bit surprise to see me with a shaved head, dark tan lines, and really dirty clothes, she hesitated to give me a big hug but did nonetheless. As I was walking over to my dad's office he came out to greet and give me a big hug, followed by some kidding about my shaved head. I hadn't seen my parents for about six weeks or so now, and have only talked with them on the phone. After washing up and changing, David and I took our bikes to the bike shop to get our wheels trued again. It's a very strange thing to drive a car after months of being on a bike. When we bike, we have everything we need on the bike—money, food, cell phone, spare tubes and keys. When you get in a car after a month and a half on the road you really need to think carefully about what you need to take and what you might need along the way. You can't just reach back to your panniers and pull out your driver's license. Following our stop at the bike shop we made a surprise visit to my mom's office. By the time we walked up to her desk she had tears in her eyes, I'm assuming it was because she was glad to see us and not that she had just hurt herself. (David still to this day says that the hug my mom gave him was one of the best he’s ever received.)

After driving around town for a bit we went to the grocery store to rent a couple videos. Once at home again, we just sat on the couches for a few hours and watched the flashing images on TV. From Minneapolis, we placed an order with grandma asking her to please make some of her amazing chocolate meringue pies and rice crispy treats (weird things that you crave from the road, but I would still place an order for them if I could). We spent the whole rest of the day watching videos. That was all.

(Photo: David and I posing outside of my parent’s home.)

Day 32, Thursday, July 31.

Ft. Wayne, IN—Day Off #2

Our second day off during the trip was spent doing some of the same stuff we did the day before. We slept in really late, laid on the couches watching movies until the middle of the afternoon when our friends Doug and Jim arrived from Cincinnati. We were really glad that they were able to come up for the day. After running a couple of errands to the bike shop and Wal-Mart, we ended up at Don Pablos—our favorite meeting place at the time for chippies, salsa and margaritas! We must have spent a good two hours there. We talked about the trip, women, and other random things that fill the conversation when you haven't seen or talked to good friends for two months. It was great to be able to hang out again. The days are really long when you only can talk to one other person (and you've exhausted everything possible to talk with them about), and all the rest of the people you see want to ask you questions about your trip. Our stay in Ft. Wayne was nice and restful; however, we were now ready to get back on the road and complete the journey. Over the next couple of weeks we were going to be able to see more of our friends, and then finally, the big reunion for our finish in the Atlantic Ocean.

(Photo: Jim, Doug, David and Tim)

Day 33, Friday, August 1.

Ft. Wayne, IN to Wayne, OH
Daily Mileage: 107.78 miles
Total Mileage: 2,988.5 miles
Daily Time on Bike: 6:31 hours
Average Speed: 16.5 mph
Maximum Speed: 26.7 mph

Today we awoke inside, in comfortable beds and cool. Breakfast consisted of whatever we could find around the kitchen. After showering and shaving we all took pictures together. When dad and grandma left to run some errands, David and I finished packing, stretching and stealing (uh, relocating) food. We headed for Monroeville, IN, which took us fifteen miles closer to Ohio. We stopped to eat some more food and figure out how we got lost so quickly trying to reach Ohio. Once we were on the correct road it was fairly easy going. I think we took pictures of three different Ohio welcome signs, as well as an Indiana sign (since we didn't see one on our way into the state).

The Adventure Cycling directions were a bit confusing until we got to Defiance, OH. We took a break at a Shell gas station because David needed to use the restroom. A really friendly man and his young son stopped to talk with us about the trip. He reassured us that our custom route to Fremont, OH would be all right. We politely told him we needed to be on our way after he invited us several times to come over and eat. The most frequent reply to our, "We started in Washington State and are biking to Massachusetts," is "No Shit." Each time someone says it they use a different inflection on the phrase. It's interesting how they say it—whether it's amazement, disbelief, or just the first thing that pops out of their mouth. We started to notice people doing this in Iowa.

Tonight, we're camping in some guy's backyard. While David and I were making phone calls, a car full of women stopped near the restaurant where we were standing. They began asking questions about the trip and then one of them invited us to stay behind her dad's house a couple of blocks away. The guy seemed pretty confused at us pulling up and setting up camp; however, after a while he warmed up to us. We were able to keep our bikes in a protected area and camp on some soft grass under a big tree.

Every morning when we get ready to pack up camp we follow the same procedure. To protect what little property we have from whatever/whoever might be out there in the middle of the night, we take off all of the gear from our bikes. Usually, we just leave it under the tent rainfly; however, if it has been raining, or we feel particularly uneasy about where we are, we'll bring it into the tent with us. In the morning, we change into our bike clothes and repack our sleep sacks, raingear (that we use as a pillow), and other little things such as flashlights, cycling computer, and water bottles. Next, we tear down the tent. This takes a good deal of work to roll the tent, rain fly, and footprint, as well as collapse the aluminum poles. Once we get it back into the bag, we bungee cord it to our rear racks and do a little bit of stretching. All of this usually takes an hour to an hour and a half, depending on how tired we are and/or how thick the mosquitoes are where we camp. Speaking of mosquitoes, since Illinois we haven't really been bothered by these pesky insects. Supposedly because of all the rain up north there is a lot of standing water that serves as the perfect breeding ground for them. Now people in the mid-west are complaining about the mosquitoes right now, but for David and I, they don't even faze us anymore.

One of today’s highlights included crossing I-75, one of the interstate highways that go directly through Cincinnati. Now, we both know how far north we are, but never the less, we felt a great sense of home.

(Photo: David, very excited to be back in Ohio.)

Day 34, Saturday, August 2.

Wayne, OH to Brunswick, OH
Daily Mileage: 108.23 miles
Total Mileage: 3,097.2 miles
Daily Time on Bike: 6:48 hours
Average Speed: 15.8 mph
Maximum Speed: 33.2 mph

Today, we met up with David's brother, Steve, from Cincinnati. He was driving up to meet us and travel with us for a day or two. As we were wandering the backroads of Ohio, we ran into a road-closed sign. Normally, we bike right through “closed” roads because taking detours only lengthens our journey, and a mile out of our way is another mile we need to bike back. Right before we made our decision to take the detour in case Steve came upon it as well, he pulled up in his car. I’ve never met him before, but it didn't matter. Anyone that either of us knew quickly became like old friends. Steve brought with him a cooler full of Gatorade for us. We unloaded the packs from our bikes for the first time of the trip so we could travel a bit faster and talk about a weird feeling. Having carried twenty-five pounds on the back of my bike and now taking it off makes it feel as though I’m going to tip over any minute. David and I had a lot of fun blasting down the road as Steve drove just ahead of us so that we could draft off of his car.

We amazed Steve with our ability to consume large amounts of food. He couldn't believe how often we stopped to eat and how much we were eating. We had lunch at Subway, now a tired favorite. As we biked through the many small towns of Ohio, Steve was able to get a real feel for the type of things we've been doing all summer.

That evening, we stayed at a Days Inn about twenty miles south of Cleveland. The last couple miles of the day I heard a clanking sound coming from my headset that really worried me. I was afraid my headset had loosened and ovalized—an irreversible problem that occurs when the headset loosens and the fork knocks against it until it becomes oval instead of round. This condition ruins the bike frame and is a pain to deal with because the fork comes loose all of the time.

Steve drove us to the nearest mall for dinner once we showered and changed. We ate at Rio Bravo, another Tex-Mex favorite. Afterwards, we walked the mall and found a Cinnabon—amazing, cinnamony goodness.

(Photo: Steve and David.)

Day 35, Sunday, August 3.

Brunswick, OH to (Kent), OH
Daily Mileage: 53.71 miles
Total Mileage: 3,150.9 miles
Daily Time on Bike: 4:04 hours
Average Speed: 13.1 mph
Maximum Speed: 38.5 mph

Pressing on this morning's agenda was finding a bike shop to inspect my headset. Trying to find one was a bit difficult though because it was Sunday morning and not many bike shops are open in the morning, if at all. We found one shop near where we were staying. Some guy answered the phone and then handed it to a lady who gave us directions to the shop. We piled into Steve's car with the bike and made our way to the shop. By following the directions, we found ourselves in a neighborhood, and then all of a sudden at the correct address. This run-down house had two or three vans sitting in the driveway, the shrubs weren't trimmed, the grass hadn’t been mowed in quite some time, and the screens on the windows were torn. We debated turning around and leaving right away but decided to stay because you never know, they might know a lot about bikes.

When I knocked on the door some guy answered it and then called to the woman. (We were never sure what the relationship between the two was.) The lady told me to bring the bike around to the carport. It was at this point that I started to realize that we were working with an amateur who knew enough to maintain a three-speed bike or a Huffy, but not one that was trying to get us to the ocean and had already made it over 3,000 miles. Little red party lanterns hung all around the backyard like they just had a party, three years ago. She clamped my bike to a rusty bike stand—now remember, our bikes were the dearest things to us during this trip. They got us from the west coast and were going to get us clear across the country. Imagine your new car that you don't want to dent, and imagine that if you dent it you'll be stranded far from home. She pulled out these big tools and proceeded to unscrew my headset. It was at this point that she needed to go back downstairs and get another tool. By this point, I had lost all faith in her bicycle maintenance ability and was ready to get out of there. Plus, David, Steve and I couldn't stop laughing long enough to talk because the sequence of events was so random.

With the home shop option shot, we went back to the phone book. All of our traveling was done with our hotel checkout deadline looming. We couldn't bring all of our stuff in Steve's car because there wasn’t enough room, so we had to get all of this done before noon. As we were driving the forty-five minutes to the next (hopefully) legitimate bike shop, we spotted another one that was open. They quickly took my bike into the shop and inspected it. I felt that I could really trust this shop with their articulate diagnosis and rust-free tools. They tightened everything back up and said the headset wasn't ovalized.

We packed the bike back in the car and high-tailed it back to the hotel to pack up and checkout. Steve stayed with us until 1PM today. We followed the Cleveland Metroparks road south of the city for the better part of the afternoon. It was a great road with lots of bike traffic. We've seen a lot of road bikers here, more so than in any other place we've been on the trip. (The guy at the nice bike shop said it's because everything on a mountain bike is illegal—I still have no idea what he meant.)

Toward the end of our day, David called his old friend, Ryan, who is staying an hour south (by car) of where we were at the time. He's spending the summer at Kent State for the Kent Blossom Music Festival. Ryan drove the hour to pick us up on the side of the road and drove us back down to Kent State. Once there, we showered, ate Taco Bell, and were about to walk over to the sight of the Kent State tragedy when the skies opened up and it began to pour. We opted to get our heads shaved instead. Following all of this fun we fell asleep. P.S. Thanks a lot, Steve!

(Photo: Ryan and David)