Traveling to Hyde Park on the lakeside bike super-highway

Chicago! (the story of Monday)

We made it to Chicago yesterday! We had an interesting time getting here, as always.

In Muscatine, Iowa on Monday morning, we heard there were canal paths into Chicago that might work for us, so we spontaneously departed from the Northern Tier route and headed northeast toward Colona, Illinois to pick up the Hennepin Canal Trail. 25 miles into the trip, Sarah discovered a broken spoke. While she was duck taping it, Cate and I were bungeeing her panniers to our bikes. Two cyclists suddenly appeared. One of them, Tom, offered to take us to his bike shop in Rock Island, so we followed. He left us at a grocery store and went to get his truck. He came back and took Sarah to the bike shop.

Meanwhile Cate and I headed to the library where we met Larry. We were pretty despondent at that point. We had heard that the canal path might not be doable for our bikes, and we didn't know how we were going to get there or how Sarah's bike issue would work out. Larry rescued us by calling Dean Mathias, "Mathias Bareback," Illinois's famous seatless bike rider. He came over to the library, put us in touch with someone who assured us the paths would be rideable even if they weren't paved, and offered to ride with us to Geneseo, a town along the canal path with a campground. We were saved! Sarah's bike was fixed and cleaned by the kind mechanics of Bike n' Hike and Tom dropped her back at the library. Chaos had forgotten her helmet at the shop, but Tom was nice enough to go get it and meet us in a town further along. Then we were off with Dean! It was so fun to talk to him and watch him ride without a seat (sort of like run-biking) and to have some new energy on the road.

When we arrived in Geneseo, we went to a restaurant, where the Albanian owner from Kosovo sat down with us and talked with us and ended up giving us a free huge dinner! Also, Deb, Dean's wife arrived and so we had a big fun group. Dean and Deb took us to the campsite and waited until we got settled and then we had to say goodbye. It was an amazing day of meeting people and getting so much help just when we needed it. We were so fortunate.

The next days along the canal paths and on the roads toward Chicago were pretty challenging, and we did not have the best night in a state park Tuesday night, but I will let another Panda tell that story.

Right now, we are just so happy to be in Chicago with Ta, Steve and Sarah! Another cyclist we met, Hilary, was in an accident yesterday, and she is pretty beat up. She is on a train into Chicago now to get a new fork and she will be staying with us in Hyde Park tonight and we will all leave the city together tomorrow morning. I regret putting up the whiney post I made last time because things can always be worse, and we have been very lucky so far not to have any big crashes. As I said when we were under attack by raccoons and Sarah asked that we all think of something good to say, "Even this is better than real life." We are having the best time.

- Liz

The Story of Davy, the Rockin' Raccoon

Imagine a raccoon that always says please and thank you, that always asks for food before taking, that never snarls or oinks by your ear in the night. This raccoon demands only the food we don't want (yes we still have some tuna), he never rips opens anyone's pannier, and above all, he loves to be bungeed to our bike.

This raccoon's name is Davy. We have never met Davy.

The story of Davy is as follows: Davy was lonely and wanted a girlfriend, when he ran into three nice young denny girls who bungeed him onto one of their bikes and took him to where he found a nice young raccoon named Margaret. Davy and Margaret lived happily ever after with Davy's mother Petunia and their nice raccoon babies, who Davy and Margaret like to bungee together. Davy and Margaret like to bungee everything together, in memory of that wonderful time Davy spent on the back of one of the denny girls' bikes.

The story of Davy, Margaret, Petunia, and their bungeed-babies came about while we waged war with some raccoons in the night. These mean raccoon bullies ripped open Liz's food pannier, wriggled their way into Cate's, and finally came searching for food in our tent. These raccoons could not be scared away by anything we did, including throwing things at them and spraying bug spray at them. All we could comfort ourselves with was the story of Davy.

Our friends from the Rock Island Bike Club

Thanks to Tom (who found us on the road), Dean (the one without a bike seat) and Larry (who found us in the library and is taking the picture). Our very helpful support team for the day off route from Muscatine to Geneseo.
On a bike path with Dean leading the way. As you can see, it is as if he is running and cycling simultaneously.
Our post-ride meal was awesome. Thanks for the free delicious food and conversation, Nurije!

Come on feel the Illinoise!

Wow we're in Illinois. Some bicyclists (in the Subaru) stopped to offer us directions and took our picture.
Thanks to Charlie from Harper's Bike Shop for escorting us out of town!

Muscatine, Iowa

We look super strong
Thanks to Ron and Nancy for the hospitality!
Notice the awesome new handlebar tape

Iowa smells worse than New Jersey

It is true! I cannot believe I took all this cruelty to New Jersey my whole life! Not only does it smell like a mixture of diapers and dog food in Iowa, they have lots of traffic! Enough Iowa bashing, it is just that we have had a pretty tough time here so far.

Yesterday our pedal pumpers (our legs) were too tired to go on, so we were stopped short in Marquette, along the Mississippi. We ended up at a state park nearby for the night, where we had a relaxing evening and an excellent dinner (special salad, potatoes a la Wanda, and tortillas with apples, cinammon and nutella for dessert). Then we were up for two hours in the middle of the night for the second night in a row with severe thunderstorms. Big A is awesome though, so we did not get wet. Our bikes, however, were not so fortunate.

Today things were finally starting to shape up, and we thought we could get back on schedule when Sarah "Chaos" Panda realized she was sans front right pannier. After 15 miles of searching for it, she was not able to find it. So, not only are we totally miffed by where the pannier could have gone and how she could have not noticed its abandoning ship while we were riding, but Sarah has lost a lot of gear and an ipod. Not just any ipod, this was a real fighter, 3rd generation vintage ipod. She is also completely without underwear. Oo-la-la.

Some injuries are also starting to take their toll. We all seem to have developed some tendonitis in our knees. Sarah and I have lost feeling and strength in our hands and lower arms. It's kind of bad... but hey, no one said riding our bikes across the country was going to be easy, or painless. Right now we are just looking forward to some serious r & r with family in Chicago and Indiana. Listen to what Melissa Chester Key wrote us in an email- "If the weather is nice, we could also head to Central Park... [it] has a nice pool, lazy river, some water slides, and plenty of lounge chairs." Can you imagine ANYTHING that could sound better than that to tired cyclists? The only down side is exposing our tan lines to the public.

We would also like to congratulate our father on completing the ride up Mount Washington this morning. He completed the course in 1 hour 41 minutes, his best time!!! What a good cycling role model. Also, happy 25th anniversary to our parents!

- Liz and the Pandas

Entering Iowa (slowly)

Today we arrived in Iowa! Since our last post we went off route (slightly scary) to visit Katherine Koleski's home in Rochester. We were way too busy to write a blog post from K2's (because we spent most of the day lounging in the pool). In order to get back on the route we traveled 107.5 miles in one day! We chose to go a little out of the way to go on THE BEST BIKE PATH EVER. It was 40 miles of net downhill flatness in canopy trees by the Root River. Thanks for the route advice from the cyclery in Rochester!

Unfortunately, after our triumphant century yesterday, we struggled today. Lots of hills. We're also not as psyched about Iowa so far based mostly on the south wind that we are biking against. Although we went to the Effigy Burial Mounds, a national park, which contain mounds in different shapes from a pre-tribal civilization.

Bartholemew, my bike, identified more as a woman and is now Wanda. She loves jewelry and ribbons. Wayne, Wanda and Joaquim are the current names of our bikes.

The Koleskis and the BEST BIKE PATH ever

Walking feels nice sometimes too

Today, the Pandas toured Minneapolis! It was very exciting. First we went to the Walker Arts Center to see an exhibit by Richard Price. It was excellent, though I was very thankful for my handy-dandy art-history-grad-student sister to explain just what "appropriation" meant ("So he was literally just...taking pictures...of someone else's pictures?" "Yes, that's it exactly"). We also spent a fair amount of time trying to converse with a "Dolphin Oracle." It went something like this:

US: hi
(extended pause)
DOLPHIN ORACLE: tell me more about your mystery
(after some thought)
US: what is beauty?
(extended pause)
DOLPHIN ORACLE: you are beautiful

Then we gave up.

We were extremely thankful that the hostel we are staying in, (a beautiful old mansion that is now converted to an international hostel) was near to the Walker Arts Center, because unfortunately the Pandas' pedal-pumpers were too tired to push properly today. (In case you are wondering, Liz thought of this "tongue twister" on the road. And we are huge dorks and appreciate things like making up tongue twisters while riding. As well as finding huge panda statues.)

From the Walker Arts Center, Cate and I suggested we would like to go shopping, so Liz google-mapped the nearest Urban Outfitters to us on her blackberry, and as it turns out, this was exactly the right thing to do. It brought us to the happening neighborhood of Hennepin, where we shopped a little (it's not exactly easy to go shopping when you know you have to carry everything you want to buy with you on your bike, but our stained athletic clothing no longer felt appropriate today somehow), then we went to see War, Inc. at the local Indie film theater, and then we had dinner and walked back to the hostel. It was a very all-around relaxing rest day, definitely well-needed, (and hopefully well-deserved).

This is my first blog post where I haven't spent most of it talking about animals, so I will say that we are happy about a certain lack of animals. Actually, the lack of a certain animal: that pesky beast known as the mosquito. It was a very well-appreciated luxury!

Back on the road again tomorrow! Hopefully our pedal-pushers will be ready to pump by then.

-Sarah

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

From inside the museum. Below: From on top of the museum.

In case this photo is unclear, Cate was wholeheartedly pointing at a cloud while I cheerfully pretended to be punching her.

Playing on the roof with Claes's Mickey! (We then got yelled at for 1) touching the artwork and 2) taking an illegal photograph of us touching the artwork.)

PANDAS!!!!

The best thing EVER happened in St. Paul. We were riding along, completely exhausted from 70 miles of hills, headwinds, and human obstacles on a bike path, when suddenly we spotted our mascot, the panda, standing in someone's yard! It totally inspired us to finish out the next 10 miles through urban obstacles to Minneapolis. And yes, we did set up for a picture in someone's yard, and then yes, we did go "use" the bushes across the street.

Entering Stillwater, Minnesota

No Minnesota sign, but at least there was a cool bridge!

Wisconsin (briefly)!

Wisconsin is hard! We had rolling hills and a tough headwind from Osceola, Wisconsin, south along the St. Croix river, to Stillwater, Minnesota. Unfortunately, even though we have now crossed into Minnesota twice, we have yet to get a sign!

Sparklers on 4th of July!

It may look like we had a lot of fun on July 4th, but actually we fell asleep before the fireworks.

4th of July Bike Decorations

We decorated our bikes for Independence Day! We knew that all cars who bothered us with our bikes decorated so patriotically must be terrorists.

The Pandas are continuing their journey through Minnesota, mostly by following the Mississippi East and South. Last night we camped at a State Park, where we actually went swimming in the Mississippi! Apparently up here is the only place where swimming in the Mississippi is a pleasant activity, as it gets very muddy down South.

The last couple days have been very pleasant rides through mostly wooded areas on mostly back roads. Yesterday, we found a breakfast place, Chippewa Paws, which saved us from our never-ceasing hunger, and served us 6 plates of food for breakfast. It was amazing!

Camping has become a little more stressful recently as it is a constant battle against the mosquitos. We ran out of DEET last night: it was a huge mistake. Thankfully we were saved by a friendly fisherman who gave us his bug spray.

An interesting change from the dogs that generally chase us for long distances is the dog that we chased for nearly a mile the other day! It burst out from the long grasses on the side of the road in front of us, and, upon seeing us, took off down the road. Every so often, the dog would tire, slow down, glance back at us, and take off again. Finally, growing tired of this, we chased the dog down until it noticed it couldn't outrun us anymore, at which point it stopped, turned around, and ran back the other direction! It was a strange creature.

We seem to be escorted wherever we go by a pack of flies, who seem to enjoy the eddy we make in the wind, much like dolphins will follow a boat for long distances, and the turtles in Finding Nemo follow the ocean currents. Except that these flies are annoying. While it is nice that they don't seem to have any desire to eat us, they do have the tendency to fly into our helmets and mouths, which is something neither dolphins nor turtles are prone to do. This is one of the good things about dolphins and turtles.

The Pandas are looking forward to decorating their bikes for July 4th, and to arriving in Minneapolis in three days!

We found him! (And his Rock 'em, Sock 'em Robots)

We noticed Timmy's bike when we were at the headwaters of the Mississippi, but we couldn't find the owner, so we left a note with our phone number. Well, he called us, and came to our campground! Apparently the Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots were a gift, and they've come with him the whole way from New Orleans to the Minneseota, following the Mississippi the whole way.

Lake Itasca State Park

Cate and Liz in the headwaters of the Mississippi. Check out the very attractive tan lines.

At the headwaters...

Our new favorite sign! This sign actually means steep downhill plus sharp curves plus extreme pot-holes: hold on for your life!

No Horse is Too Small

Throughout eastern Montana and North Dakota, we stayed in city parks (The "city" could be as small as 200 people) that were always immaculate and filled with fun toys, like this one.