Hey Martin! Your bike in Wisconsin! Breakfast at the Coffee Connection.
Papa passed out on the side of the road. It's been a long day.
The War Memorial in Long Prairie.
Ah yes, food food food. We spent some serious time here.
Papa hard at work.
Maya, passed out on the lawn in front of the Dippy Diner. Stop she did.Biking down the road on top of the world. This is when the weather cleared up. The sky has never been so huge.Hanging out and having some drinks at the gas station. Classy, we know. Another 16 miles to our destination: Battle Lake!Sunset last night on our way to the state park outside of Battle Lake. We had steaks at Stub's. A weird inside gazebo restaurant with no windows? But tastey!
Roland in front of the Diner where we ate breakfast this morning after all the rain!!! We are trying to get warm again, OKeey? Nice legs, man!

TODAY WE RODE A CENTURY! (That was on July 7, actually) That's One Hundred Miles. Yes, Sir. Wasn't sure if we would ever do it, but it did. Just like that. We started from out campsite in Somerset. Papa with Martin's bicycle in Wisconsin. Stopped at the Coffee Connection for Breakfast. Crazy hills and rivers. It rained some. We had lunch at a Swedish "Kafe" in Harris, MN. It was kind of seedy, but had lots of nice swedish artsy stuff on the walls that looked like antiques.Continued biking to Dalbo, which we weren't sure if we would make it to in the first place (Papa, don't be a nay-sayer! WE DID IT) Dalbo - Population 80- the bar was closed: "CURSES!!!" So we just ate snacks. 17 miles left to Milaca. As we got back on our bikes we could see a solid wall of slate gray clouds heading our way. It was only a matter or time till the downpour. We also met a former Homicide Detective. Interesting.

We met other adventure cyclists when we got to the Super 8 in Milaca. We ate at the "Restraunt" (I guess that is what it is called?) and had dessert at the Dairy Queen (those blizzards are amazing!)
Been reading Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer out loud, finished it yesterday.

July 8th was probably one of our most taxing days. You would think it would be the century, but the day after the 100miles, we rode head on into the wind for 75 miles. It was awful. Psychologically and physically, totally exhausting. We had pizza for lunch, beers. Swansville was 13 miles away from Long Prairie (our goal for the day). We had to refuel there, so we hit up the local bar, ate free popcorn and talked to some locals. We finally made it to our campsite around 8 pm, showered and read in the tent before passing out. The only bad thing about the campsite was that it smelled kind of bad, there is a waste processing plant not too far away and the wind blows the smell right through town. Gross.

Quote from Papa: "It is full of meaning. It could mean anything!" In reference to the Bible.

Yesterday, July 9, we only had some head on winds. Not nearly as bad as the day before. Roland had a long business call so Maya and I hung out at the Dipper Family Diner for hours. We ate Chicken Fajita wraps and soft serve Ice Cream. It was a good rest and time to catch up on journals, etc. No library in town, so once again the blog was neglected.

Wish I had more time and energy to write something beautiful, funny, or at least coherent. We had a long day yesterday...after eating a big meal and drinking several beers (pre-party for the real 1/2 way across the country party, we enjoyed several drinks to celebrate crossing the 2,000 mile mark!) That's right, ladies and gentlemen, Maya and I have ridden over 2,000 miles on our bicycles. So anyway, after this big meal and a whole bunch of drinks we still had to find a campsite. Which we did. It was already 9.30 and getting pretty dark. Showered as fast as we could and leaped into our tents to escape the mosquitoes. It started to rain sometime in the night and that woke us up. Then the alarm went off a little before 5 AM and it was raining still. So I didn't get up. We slept until 6.30, which turned out to be a good thing because there was a 1/2 hour break in the rain. We packed up our things and cycled away. Gray skies as far as the eye could see. Rain rain rain. More rain. Thunder. Lightening Everywhere. I was surprised how much lightening there was, it was all over the sky. The most consistent thunder storms we have had yet. Not too much wind though = excellent.
At one point, the lightening struck right next to us, reflecting in the puddle in front of me, the thunder cracked immediately afterwards. This scared the daylights out of Maya and me and we screamed out loud! Of course, embarrassed, I laughed so hard I almost peed. I am scared of getting hit by lightening, and that was a little too close for comfort.

We pedaled into Pelican Rapids and headed straight to a diner. Scarfing down warm pancakes and coffee, we thawed ourselves out. They have a wonderful library here and I can see that the sun has finally come out. I've been able to dry my tent and some of my clothes. I guess we'll see how far we make it today. My legs feel like spaghetti after riding a gazillion miles everyday (maya and I are getting pretty tough, showing Roland what we are made of).

Also, Maya and I will now be accepting donations for the making of our graphic novel: The Bullets! All about our bicycling adventure. We plan to publish.

Your Bullet Hero,
Lara

OOOkAAAy

It's been a while so this is going to be tough, but using my journal as a crutch, I can hopefully recount the events of last week.
The most impressionable place we stopped after Dyersville was Elkader, this awesome little town with historic ties to Algeria. We ate at an amazing Algerian restaurant called Schera's, and chatted with the owner, who is super nice =). Highly recommend.
On the night of June 3rd we camped up on Pike's Peak and in the morning enjoyed the view of upper Mississippi.

We rode out through Harper's Ferry and into Lansing.
LANSING HO!

It is really stunning. Who knew there was anything so beautiful in Iowa?

Then we passed the state line into Minnesota.

Minnesoootaaa. Ooookaaay?

That night we camped outside of Brownsville at a place that was technically full, but the guy we sat next to in the local bar knew that host of the site and called him up for us and asked him to give us a little patch of grass somewhere. It was great! We were right on the banks of the swollen Mississippi and had a big campfire and our first swim in the river.

On July Fourth we road into Winona. We rode along a ridge with amazing views along flat, curving roads with amazing views of the valley's below. That afternoon we had our first sampling of frozen custard! yes!
Unfortunately we didn't end up anywhere very festive that evening. We camped at this wierd and mosquito-infested state park, John A. Latsch statepark (don't go there) and we were really beat. We roasted sausages over the campfire and grilled asparagus. Atleast the food was good.

We bolted out of there first thing in the morning to a glowing sunrise and churned out 15 miles in a flash. We flew through Kellog/Wabasha and Frontenac.

On our way to Lake City we found and hailed our third Mascott: Stone-Age Squirrle!!

In Lake City(The birthplace of waterskiing - FYI), just our luck again, the library was closed, but we met this very cool guy, Ron (awesome 'stash) who was selling his paintings at the local market and he let us use his computer to check our emails. He also happened to write for a local paper and did an article on our travels =) Sweet, media coverage.
We left the picturesque lake views for Red Wing,(WI-brief crossover) where we stopped at a bike shop before dinner and I fixed another broken spoke. We left Stone-Age Squirrle there because he smelled a bit funny. Then we did laundry at our campsite and hid out in our tent from the hoards of Mosquitos.

On the 6th we got in 40 miles pretty early in the day, which was really lucky because temperatures were very soon in the high 90's. We hung out in Stillwater for quite some time (Very cute place with a gazillion antique stores) and then biked in the sweltering heat almost all the way to Somerset and camped at Float-rite Campsite. The huge grounds were almost empty and the swim in the wide, cool river was like heaven! Lots of dragon flies. Dragon Bike Love

We also saw a fox that day - a big one, run across the street right in front of us! And we saw turtles in a creek and these little fauns -->

That was a good animal day. The best yet, I would say.

We had some beers and couscous with spinach

sauce for dinner and had good conversations about

Into The Wild. Lots more has happened since then, but I'll leave the rest to Lara.

Kuesse,
Maya

All rise for the honorable Dr. Roland Buelow!

Papa joined us on Saturday (the 28th). Here he is, in all his glory, after initiation into our gang. (Is he cool? or is he cool?)









WHAT A DISH
In the window of time before his glorious arrival and our stop in Rock Falls, we didn't get far. By that I mean we didn't get anywhere at all. Curtis and Veronica Disher were our awesome and generous hosts there and Nathan (Curt's brother - Hi Nate! we miss you already) was our obliging tour guide and chauffeur. Due to my broken spoke we spent the day on Saturday trying to fix my bike instead of biking to Moline, IL. And ya know what, we're so glad we did =) In Rock Falls we went to the farmers market and met many more of the Disher's and bought an amazing coffee cake and got to hang out and drink free chai tea. We went to the local bike shop, were allowed free reign over the work station and then (when we were unsuccessful at servicing my freewheel) Nathan drove us to Dixon and we went to their bike shop and were again allowed use of their tools and stands, etc! These people are seriously awesome.
We also saw some live Jazz and toured the murals of Sterling (across the Rock Island River from Rock Falls).
After a full Rock Falls appreciation day, papa arrived and whisked us off to Moline where we continued our journey.
In Moline we visited the John Deere Pavilion (BIG)

and then we crossed the Centennial Bridge and headed out to Muscatine.
Unfortunately, due to flooding the camp site we were going to stay at was closed so we had to bike 10 miles, backtracking, to the Wildcat Den campsite.


Nathan met up with us there to experience a day of bike touring =) Props.


Monday we had a serious bike posse (4 people) and rode 30 miles before 10 am! (sorry for shaking the tent at 4:30 am, Lara - I promise to double check the alarm next time). We made it all the way to Lowden by 1pm and then we had a sprawl session on the porch of the Lincoln Hotel (a B&B really - that was empty except for us, so we felt like we had a house in town, pretty sweet). To the right you can see Lara and Papa enjoying the porch swing and Lara gloating because she beat me to it.
As much as we loved the downtime in little Lowden, we cut out really early the next morning and made great time again (Nate, hope you got back to your car ok!) We are now in Dyersville, Iowa. Can't wait for dinner. Tomorrow it's back to camping - good, I'm starting to miss the dirt and it's only been two days inside!




Oh yes, and the event of the day was that we ran into this guy on his recumbent who was also touring, only to discover that it was crazyguyonabike!! How cool! I mean, what are the chances =) We love you man, big shout out.

Much love to you all!
Maya


P.S. Hey Martin! Here is your bike in Iowa!

P.S.

Please click on some of these photos to do them some justice. A few have great colors and show the angry storm. Or someone's big funny face, I won't mention names.

The Beautiful People in Illinois

Here are some of the
beautiful views of Illinois.
I think.
It might be somewhere else. But it must be...Anyway
There's a lot of corn and dramatic clouds.





I think that the photo of me infront of the Chicago skyline accurately depicts that I am both relieved, happy, grateful, annoyed, frustrated, and excited to be in Chicago. It was a real difficult endeavor to get into the city. The routes proposed by others and the way that we enevitably ended up going was all awful highways with no shoulder and evil drivers. I feared for my life. Once in Monee, IL. Maya and I took a break (= went to a dive bar for a beer). We debated our options for getting to the city and opted for a brief train ride from University Park to Downtown. Yay!











Where's Waldo in the bean?








Over here Over here we have the McDonalds Cycling Center. Pretty Cool. Never thought I would say "Good Job McDonalds". But here it is, because I support bicycle advocacy. You can rent, repair, and shower. (It's on Randolph Street-What's Up Randolph!??! Saw you all over the city. There was a Wallace Street too, ya know).

Here is Maya with a forced preggers belly. We had just consumed a delicious salad and split a pepperoni pizza at Gino's East Famous Chicago Pizza. Deep Dish. Did I say Delicious!?




Our second night staying with Adam Heenan, he took us to go see blue grass music. It was awesome awesome awesome! We went to the Hideout Bar. I even got to meet someone from Western Washington University who is also transferring there in the Fall: Tara. Super nice.

We made some friends at this event. We started talking to Aaron (blue family reunion shirt!). Lots of good conversation and he introduced us to Joel, one of the members of the band (they're cousins) Joel plays a mean steel guitar.

Aaron bought us the bands CD! Thanks Aaron, you are awesome, we are very happy to have met you. Hope you are checking out our blog and that you stay in touch about moving around the country and stuff.
We all had a real good time and Maya and I were so happy to get to listen to some good live music. Finally!

There is still a lot to be said. Adam Heenan is as much an amazing Couchsurfing host as he is simply an exceptional human being. Chicago could be renamed AdamsTown. We really enjoyed his company and are forever indebted to him for taking us in on such short notice, PLUS hooking us up with such phenomenal company across the state of Illinois!! Big shout outs to Cisel and Ellen (De Kalb, IL) and Curt, Veronica, Nathan and the whole Fam in Rock Falls, IL. Super great people who inspire me to share the community love.

Maya and I are currently in Rock Falls. We are two days outside of Chicago and meeting up with Papa, Roland Buelow. He will be driving out to meet us this evening! WooHoo!! Get your engines ready (bicycle engine legs), the bicycle adventure continues.

Signing Off,
Lara

The 1000 Continued...

I will try and start at the beginning. All this traveling and meeting people...the rest days have been surprising unhelpful in getting us caught up on the blog or our journals. Maya and I stayed on someones lawn and passed out at 8pm. We woke up early (before 5) to some thunder. But as you can see the sunrise was lovely and the weather was perfect for biking. This is the morning of our 1000 mile marker.
We stopped to celebrate this great day in Buffalo. That's Buffalo, Indiana. It so happened that this day was Buffalo's community day. There was a lot of food being made like Buffalo Burgers and Biscuits and gravy. The people attending the event were amazing. We quickly got to know the volunteer firefighters of the area who were interested in our trip and eager to feed us and tell us stories of their own. Thanks Walt! And all the other firemen who were so helpful and generous! We appreciate it.
A storm was quickly approaching so Maya and I got to steer our bikes into the fire house and stay dry. We ate lots of biscuits with gravy and watched the storm rage outside. It even began to hail briefly.
Maya and I were not scared. We made ourselves comfortable and toured the firehouse. There were lots of interesting things to look at and play with.
This is me running to the fire truck. Emergency!!!! BIERNOD!!!!

Another storm was on the way. Maya and I contemplated staying in Buffalo for a while. Walt invited us to stick around for beers and more 1000 mile celebrating. We thought long and hard and decided that we needed to continue our journey. We got back on our bikes and drove right into the belly of the beast! We asked ourselves "Are we stupid?"
But we biked out. The storm was right on schedule. The wind howled and the rain poured down with a vengeance. I was almost blown off of my bike when it really picked up, so we stopped in someones yard and stood behind the trees. I was momentarily afraid of being struck by lightening when we biked across the flat plains (the only thing more than 2 feet of the ground and the bikes are steel, great).

Maya and I arrived in Brook, Indiana unharmed. We had pushed on and put in great mileage. Feeling accomplished and exhausted, we parked our bikes in an alley and headed into the only bar in town. After changing in the bathroom, we downed Corona's and made friends with the bar tender and the few locals seated at the counter. Warney was sitting to our left and told us about his life growing up in the area. He offered us a place to stay and we readily accepted. We also made friends with Chris, Nick, and Pop. They had driven into Brook from somewhere farther south for a Fight. The Community Center was hosting a boxing match and all the parking spots in Brook were full. We examined the postcard advertising the event at the bar. Intrigued, we agreed to take a peek once we had set up camp at Warney's house. Chris, Nick, Pop- thanks for the beers and the company! Hope you guys had a good time at the fight. We did show up at 9 'o clock, but never found you. The security gaurd told us that we couldn't stand by the door and we went away. However, not before we got this shot. Hard core fight club!

Luckily, Warney's house was just around the corner. We went home to him and Fritz (the dog). We slept well on the carpeted floor and enjoyed a nice breakfast in the morning. Warney, it was wonderful meeting you and we appreciate your hospitality. It was great meeting you!! Say hello to Fritz for us.

Back on the road, Maya and I meandered towards Illinois. We had to go on some busy roads here that were awfully annoying.
Tractors on top of Cilo's? That's like the cow in the belltower. How did they do that?

This still needs some editing, but to be continued...

Lara