We woke up around 7:30 after a fantastic nights rest and got to make our oatmeal in a microwave and wash our bowls in the sink. We were on the road by 8:30 and were very pleasantly surprised to find that the wind was blowing in our favor. In comparison to the other day where it took us almost 5 hours to ride 29 miles, we were flying down the road today! After about 40 miles, which only took us about 2 and a half hours, we stopped at a picnic table in Thompson to make some pb and jelly sandwiches for lunch. The wind was with us for almost the entire day. We were able to ride about 65 miles in 5 hours, which was quite a drastic change from the 29 miles we struggled to get a couple days ago. It was really nice to know that every single day there won't be a strong headwind. All I could think the other day was "if I can just get to that patch of trees/barn up there, it will be easier for just a little bit." But today, all I could think was how amazing it was to have the wind pushing us along. It was sunny for the first 70 miles of the day and the temperature ranged from in the mid 50s to a high of around 69. The terrain was very flat today, although there were some spots that had gentle rolling hills. While we rode by a lot of hog/ chicken farms yesterday, today all we saw were grain silo's/mills where semi's were being loaded. The last 18 miles of the ride were a little tougher since we were getting tired and the wind changed to more of a side wind. We finally made it to Estherville around 4:30 where we initially stopped at McDonald's to use the internet again... thank goodness for free wi-fi at McDonald's! We found out that there was a Chinese buffet just down the road, so we decided to use our "Minnesota" lunch/dinner out today (we decided to eat out once for each state). We were so hungry and the food was SO good! It definitely hit the spot after riding so many miles today. After dinner we rode down the road to one of the city parks to set up camp. The park is right on the edge of the west branch of the Des Moines river. We had a very relaxing evening since we made camp so early. Thank goodness for days like today. We rode a total of 92.85 miles today.
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Since we didn't make it to our planned destination because of the wind last night, we were running pretty low on water. I woke up in the middle of the night really thirsty, but we didn't have any water left in our main bottles. Luckily we had our emergency water bottles in Joe's bags that we could use on our ride to the next town. We planned on waking up early this morning because the wind was supposed to be less in the morning and pick up again towards the afternoon, but when the alarm went off at 5:30 it was really really cold and windy so we went back to sleep. It is always so hard to get out of our nice warm sleeping bag into the cold windy outdoors. We finally got up around 7:30 and ate the yummy zucchini bread that Jackey made for breakfast. Once we were mostly packed, we had to take the tent down quick for fear that it would blow away. The wind was still a head wind, but wasn't quite as strong as yesterday. It took us about 4 hours to get to Osage (about 30 miles away), which is where we planned on getting yesterday before we knew how windy it was. Once we got there we did a little grocery shopping since we were all out of oateal and running a little low on mac and cheese. The little grocery store we went to had really good prices, so we decided to have cereal and milk for lunch along with some grapes and strawberries. We ate lunch on the picnic tables behind a drive in and then went to the gas station to fill up all of our water bottles. Although it was very sunny outside, the wind was very cold so we wore our pants and coats all day (I even had to wear my face mask). To our surprise, the wind died down a little bit this afternoon, even though it was supposed to do the opposite. The next 20 miles went pretty quickly. Right before we came into the town of Manly, a lady pulled over and inquired about our travels. She had just dropped her kids off at youth group and ended up going back to the church for us to check with the Pastor to see if we could camp at the church. When we arrived at the church, the Pastor Don gave us two options: camp there, or go to the parsonage and sleep on a bed, get a shower, and even watch tv! So, we each got to take a nice shower and even watch America's Funnies Home Videos! What a relaxing evening, definitely not what we were expecting, but it was fantastic after our challenging day yesterday! We rode 47.76 miles today.
We woke up to the smell of breakfast cooking. Ward and Jackey made some yummy pancakes, bacon, and zucchini bread! I decided that I would try to upload some more pictures, since I am very behind, so we took our time getting ready this morning. We were on the road around quarter to 11. In contrast to yesterday, all we needed was our shorts and jersey, it was a warm sunny day. After about 2 or 3 miles we realized how windy it was. The wind was so strong that we were being blown all over the road; it even blew me off the road onto the dirt shoulder a couple times. It was aweful, we could hardly keep our bikes straight, it was a good thing the road was a low traffic country road! There was even a time we were going downhill and we could only go 6mph. We reached the little town of Ridgeway after about 13 miles. I was already exhausted. We stopped at the local bar to fill up our waterbottles and decided we had better eat some lunch while we had a place where the wind would be blocked a little. We stat on the steps of a church and split the venison sausage that Jackey and Ward gave us; it hit the spot. I called Grandma and found out the bad news that the wind was supposed to continue for a couple days. Reluctantly, we got back on our bikes and continued peddling. This time, the wind was straight at us, which was better than being blown all over the road I guess. We were hardly making any progress. We were on our lowest gears and were still barely able to keep peddling and keep the bikes straight. Our average speed dropped significantly to around 5 or 6 miles per hour. There were times we could only go as fast as 3 or 4, even when it was flat. We took a couple breaks just to give ourselves a break from the wind, but we were still exhausted. We ended up riding only 28.37 miles today, it took us 4hours and 45 minutes!! I was more tired today than I was yesterday after riding 73 miles. We made camp between some silos on the side of the road. I cooked up some Ramen for dinner and caught up on my blogs. We hit the sack around 9, praying that tomorrow wouldn't be this windy. If only this wind would have been at our backs, we would have easily been able to do 90 miles today.
It was about 2 in the morning when we woke up and decided that we would move our tent and bikes under the overhang attached to the building next to the church. The weather had changed and it sounded like there was a storm coming. Its always nice to be dry when it rains, and since our tent was set up next to the wall of the church and right next to the bottom of a hill, we would woke up in a puddle. Although our tent keeps us dry when it rains for the most part, some moisture does get in through the floor and always makes things a little wet. It was a very good thing that we moved when we did, because later in the night it poured. Joe's alarm went off around 6, which was when we planned to get up, but he said it was way too cold to get up so he didn't wake me up and just went back to sleep. An hour and a half later, Joey woke me up and I was shocked at how cold it was. This was the coldest morning we had seen on the trip thus far. We got dressed as fast as we could and then I worked on making oatmeal while Joey packed up the tent. Thank goodness for our stove and the ability to make something hot for breakfast. Even though we forgot to pack our glasses, I still decided to make some hot chocolate in our bowls after our oatmeal. We were on the road around 8:20, all budled up (I had my cycling pants on, my sweatpants over them, my booties over my shoes, a turtleneck, and both of my cycling coats!). The road continued to have pretty steep hills early on in the day....boy was it cold going downhill! As we were riding there were a couple different scenic overlooks where we had the opportunity to see the Mississippi again. After about 13 miles of riding, we came to a town where we stopped for a quick break. There, we saw a sign that said it was 36 degrees!! We knew it was cold, but I guess we didn't realize it was that cold. It went from being in the upper 70s for a good portion of the week, to this, YIKES! For a short time today it started to sprinkle, which made the ride for a while extra cold, luckily it was a short lived rain. We stopped for lunch in Menona after 40 miles. Although we were planning on having Subway to use one of our gift cards (because we definitely would have froze if we tried to cook something), we ended up getting a 4 piece chicken meal with mashed potatoes and baked beans to split because the Subway was attached to a grocery store. Lunch hit the spot and warmed us right up. We really didn't want to go back outside after, but once we put on our face masks and started riding, the wind was right on our tail pushing us along. The hills became less steep and further in between. Although I figured that I would need to take off my extra pair of sweatpants because I would get too warm, I never needed to because it never really warmed up today. We ended up making it to our warm showers host an hour earlier that we thought we would. We were SO excited that Jacky and Ward could host us. They completed a three year bicycle tour around the world, riding through 42 countries and 6 continents! We enjoyed some cheese and crackers while discussing our trip and hearing all about their amazing adventures. All of the tours we've done have been a little more in our comfort zone than a lot of the countries they rode through. It was absolutely incredible to hear some of their stories. Jacky and Ward made some delicious chicken stir fry for dinner along with ice cream for dessert! What a great day, aside from it being 36 degrees out. We rode 72.38 miles today.
Since we stayed up pretty late watching our movie at the hotel and digesting our all you can eat dinner, we slept in a little this morning. As silly as it sounds, it was nice getting to watch a little bit of television this morning. Unfortunately the hotel didn't have a continental breakfast, so I just had a little oatmeal to tide me over. Once we were all packed up, we headed over to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium around 10:30. We found a good spot to lock our bikes up where no one would bother them. The museum was great; there were so many interactive exhibits! We even got to see two 3D movies, one on dinosaurs and one on ocean life, which were awesome too! After the movies, we decided that we were really hungry and since we didn't get to go out to eat in WI, we figured we could go out to eat one more time. We thought about going to the casino again for all you can eat, but the line was really long, so we decided against it. Instead, we went to the Ice Harbor Restaurant, which was also right next to the Museums. This was a floating restaurant that overlooked Port Dubuque. For some reason, whenever we go out for lunch the same thing ALWAYS sounds good: a cheeseburger and fries. We both had a "Paddlewheeler" which was topped with mushrooms, sauted onions, and swiss cheese on grilled marble rye bread. It sure was delicious!! After our bellies were full, we went back to the museum. Amongst all of the exhibits that featured artifacts and history information, there were two aquariums, one that featured a huge octopus and the other that featured a couple alligators and otters. There was also a huge dredge ship that we could walk through and see. Part of the museum also focused on steamboats and their history. We were so lucky yet again to have such beautiful weather. Although we could spend 2 full days at the museums and acquariums because there was so much to see, we decided we needed to get riding again so we could stay on schedule. We left the museums around 3:30 and rode north out of the city. We had a slight head wind, but the road we were riding was very hilly. There was one point where I would be going downhill at 35 mph and then 30 seconds later be going 3mph up the other side. The hills were pretty steep, but nothing that we haven't done before. We rode until a little after 6 when we came to a little town called North Buena Vista. There was a small bar in town called Hanks that had a picnic table outside. I went in and asked if we could sit there to make our dinner; they didn't mind at all. So, mac and cheese it was for dinner again. When we needed to clean up, the bartender was nice enough to offer the use of his sink, that had dish soap and everything, boy was that nice!! After dinner we rode back to the church we had passed on the way in. There was a large gathering of people in the building next to the church; it looked like an auction or something, so we quickly got behind the church and set up our tent as quietly as we could. After about a half hour or so, everyone started to leave the gathering next door and it got quiet. We went to bed pretty early with plans to wake up early in the morning so that we could make it to our warm showers host earlier in the day and since we had a lot of miles to do to get there.
When we woke up this morning we made some oatmeal and hot chocolate in the microwave of our room at the hotel/warm showers hosts. After we were all packed up, and had played for a few minutes with Buttons (the kitty), we were ready to hit the road. It was a little chillier this morning than it has been, but was still very comfortable riding weather. Our once very flat ride through Illinois has gradually become hillier during yesterday and today. We had a little bit of a head wind today as we were heading north towards the Wisconsin border. After riding for only about 20 miles, we decided to stop for lunch. We sat at the picnic tables outside of Subway and made some Spaghettio's to split. After lunch we rode for about 10 miles before deciding to stop at the local IGA store in Warren, the northernost town in IL, to get some OJ to split. Shortly after, when we reached the Wisconsin border, we took our IL state picture since we missed it on the way in, as well as the WI state picture. The weather was cloudy all day, except for about a half hour around the time that we crossed the border into WI, when there were blue skies and sunshine. Once we began to ride in WI we headed straight west, which helped us to go a little faster since we didn't have as much of a headwind. The hills continued to get steeper and more repetitious. Although we originally planned on going a little more north in WI, we decided to head west towards Dubuque to see the Mississippi river museum. After riding through a couple tiny towns we were within ten miles of the Mississippi River! We crossed the river into Iowa on a pretty busy road, so we didn't get to take a picture by the Iowa sign, but we will get it on the way out of the state. After riding around the city for a little bit, we decided we had better take a hotel. The Holiday Inn was sold out, but we found a cheap hotel that we throught might work. However, we soon found out that the hotel would not let us take our bikes up to our room, but they would instead be locked up in a hallway where everyone could walk by. We were almost certain that they wouldn't be there in the morning, or at least things would be missing if we left them their overnight. There was no security at all, so we decided that we would look elsewhere for a hotel. Eventually we found a really nice hotel that still had a few rooms open. The hotel staff was fantastic. They originally told us we would have to put our bikes in a locked storage place that only the desk attendents would have access to, but then one of the ladies who were in charge said that since our circumstance was a little different, they would allow us to take our bikes to the room. This was very helpful because then we didn't have to unpack our whole bikes and bring everything upstairs separately. Since yesterday, we had been wanting to go to an all you can eat buffet, so we walked to the casino that was about a half a mile away and we stuffed ourselves to the brim. Everything was delicous! We walked back to the hotel and then watched a movie on the big flat screen in the room. What a relaxing evening! Tomorrow morning we will visit the Mississippi river museum before heading out of town. We rode 73.20 miles today.
We went to bed really early last night, but were woken up during the night because it was pouring rain. That lasted for a good portion of the night, luckily our tent is good at keeping us dry! We got a pretty late start this morning, which was fine because today was our planned rest day. After we got the camp all packed up, we rode across the street to the grocery store to buy some cereal and milk. By about 10:30 we were on the road riding towards Mt. Carroll. We rode down 52 for almost the entire ride, which was very enjoyable. There was a huge shoulder all the way from Dixon to Polo, and there was hardly any traffic the entire way. When we got closer to Mt. Carroll, the traffic picked up slightly, but almost everyone gave us plenty of room. It stayed in the upper 60s today, which was perfect riding weather. Although it was cloudy again today, we were lucky not to see any rain! We only rode for 3 and a half hours today before reaching the Warm Showers host we would stay with. Our hosts, Larry and Laura own an old historic hotel, and have a boutique on the lower level with all sorts of adorable things. Joey and I had our own hotel room with a shower, microwave, and comfy bed. Our room was so homey and beautiful; they even have a cat, Buttons, who is super friendly, which made my day! After we showered, we walked around the villiage and stopped at the library to use the computers for a few minutes. When we returned, we enjoyed coctails on the front patio with our hosts. Laura and a few of her friends were having a purse party in the botique later that evening which they invited me to attend. It was a lot of fun spending a little time with just ladies! We drank some wine, admired all the purses and bags, and enjoyed some very tasty snacks. Since Joe and I hadn't really eaten lunch, we decided to go out to eat. Larry suggested going down to the end of the block to a little restaurant called Charlie's for "some of the best burgers around." We each had a burger and split some fries; joe had his usual bacon cheeseburger and I tried something new: a pizza burger! (it was delicious!!!) After dinner we headed back to the hotel and talked with family for a few before hitting the sack. We rode only 37.86 miles today, since it was our rest day.
We woke up early after a comfy nights rest and enjoyed some fruit salad, hot cocoa and cinnamon raisin bagels for breakfast. After talking with Cliff for a while, we got ready to go in our nice clean cycling clothes and packed our bags. Cliff decided he would ride with us for a little while to get us off in the right direction. Boy was it nice to have someone else to talk to while we rode! We spent the morning riding down country roads that had virtually no traffic.He rode with us all the way to Paw Paw, which was about 25 miles from Somonauk. We said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways. Hopefully Cliff and Sue will be able to meet us somewhere on our tour to ride with us so we can see them again. For a good portion of the day it was overcast, and it looked like there was rain heading our way. We rode for about 17 more miles before stopping for lunch in Amboy. I was getting cramps, so we got a half gallon of ice cream to split (because that always seems to help that kind of thing!). Before leaving town we stopped at Subway for a while to look at the map and get out of the sprinkles for a few minutes. Luckily the rain didn't last very long, so we hit the road again heading for Dixon. With the wind at our backs, we made it there relatively quickly. Upon arriving, we learned that Dixon was the hometown of President Ronald Regan! We found another McDonald's where we used the internet for a few minutes before proceeding to go to Subway to use one of the gift cards Grammy gave us. After having a yummy sub for dinner, we headed out of town (we thought about camping in one of the parks in town, but it was a very busy area, so we decided against it). When we reached the edge of town, we found a Masonic Lodge that we decided to set up camp behind. Since we took a little bit of a lighter day today, we made camp early, around 5:30. Once we had the tent all set up, I began to catch up on my blogs, since I hadn't written yesterday's yet. We had a very relaxing evening and plan to take a very light day tomorrow as sort of a rest day to give our bodies a break. We lucked out again with weather, so hopefully it won't rain on us tomorrow as we will head towards Mt. Carroll to another Warm Showers host. We have grow to really love staying with Warm Showers hosts; it is always so nice to meet new people who share similar interests and to hear their stories, that is one of my favorite parts of our bicycle touring adventures! We went 58.95 miles today.
We woke up pretty early this morning and went through our morning routine. Before leaving Peotone, we stopped at McDonald's to fill up on water again. We rode on a lot of country roads during the day; one of which ended up having a lot of semi-truck traffic on it. There was not much of a shoulder, and some of the trucks didn't give us any room. I was shaking for most of the time we were on that road from being thrown around by the wind and the suction from the semi's. We took the first right possible to get off of that road. After riding for about 20 miles, we rode through a little town called Manhattan. They even had a little area that they called "Time Square" which was neat. Shortly after that we rode into the city of Joliet, where we planned to go out for lunch. We rode around the city for a little bit trying to find a good place to eat. There was a little restaurant that served primarily chicken and fish, and homemade buttermilk biscuits, that we decided to go to. The food was melt in your mouth good! We continued on for a little while and stopped at McDonald's to use the internet to check for Warm Showers before we completely left the city. To our surprise, there was a host that was somewhat close and in the direction we were heading. We were not all that sure that we would be able to make it there, but we figured we would give it a try. The weather today was hotter that it was yesterday, and it was about 84 degrees then. I saw a sign that said it was 87 degrees. The sun was very warm and it was pretty windy, which made the ride towards our hosts house tough. However, once we finally turned North to head towards Somonauk, the wind was at our backs and it was smooth sailing from there. We rode into Newark, IL which was neat because there is a Newark close to Joey's hometown. The girl at the gas station gave us excellent directions on the best way to get where we were going, and even gave us a little map which she highlighted the route we could take. She was very helpful. As we continued down the road, we rode through Sandwhich, which was the hometown of our last Warm Showers host. Three miles later, we arrived in Somonauk. We reached our destination around 7pm. After nice hot showers, we enjoyed dinner out with our hosts. Cliff and Sue took us to a local pizza shop, since we hadn't had pizza in such a long time. The pizza was delicious! For the entire evening we enjoyed conversations about trips we had done, ones they had been on and even discussed the possibility of them meeting us somewhere on our trip to ride with us for a week or so. That would be SO fun!! Before bed, we each had a glass of OJ to replenish our system a little, and a nice big bowl of mint ice cream! We were so glad that we made it to a Warm Showers today, especially since it looked like it was really far away on the map. We rode 71.09 miles today.
We woke up around our same time, (which was really an hour earlier because of the time change) made some oatmeal, and hit the road. The weather was beautiful this morning. We rode for about 25 miles before deciding to stop for lunch. There was a Save A Lot in Kout where we picked up spaghetti and sauce for lunch, and a couple snacks. Little did we know, but we should have continued to ride a little farther before stopping for lunch. When we got back on the road from lunch, it was VERY windy. The wind was blowing from the south so we were being pushed all over the shoulder, which wasn't much of a shoulder. Nonetheless, we still got our miles in. Although I have put on sunscreen everyday, and have re-applied it a couple times almost every day, my legs continue to burn. Halfway through the day I noticed that the left side of my left leg that is the most burnt started to blister a little. This makes me a little nervous since it is only Day 10 and I don't think my sunburn ever blistered on the last tour. Since yesterday, we had been riding on very flat ground; but once we came within 7 miles of the Illinois border, the ground started to roll a little. When we reached the last town before the border, we stopped at McDonald's for the internet again. We split one of the any size for a dollar sodas and I had a dollar menu vanilla ice cream cone. Today was kind of a disappointment in the fact that when we rode into Illinois there was no sign to take a picture by. We were also planning on re-taking our Indiana sign picture. When I loaded the pictures onto our tablet I realized that I look like I'm walking in the Indiana and Michigan sign pics, I misjudged how long the self timer took after the beep. Oh well, those are the joys of using a different camera I guess and like Joey says, missing signs and having a bad picture or two is "all part of the experience." We should be able to take an Illinois state sign picture on the way out, so I am not too worried. We made camp in a partially wooded area across from the fair grouds in Peotone, IL. After making some mac and cheese, we cleaned up and went to bed. Our miles totaled 73.24 today.
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