Take Me to the River

Woke up this morning with a sour stomach - rolled slow and felt a little better by end of day. Admittedly, my legs were fantasizing about two days off in Minneapolis!

We stopped for a bit in a cute town called Marquette...and then headed away from the river.  Leaving the river meant leaving flat and little rollers.  Two brutal grinders kept me company on the way to Lansing....I was looking forward to an afternoon back along the Mississippi!

As we travelled along the river, the terrain was clearly different than The flat cornfields of Indiana and Illinois.  Also, we got word that lots of flooding had been happening due to lots of rain for the towns that lined the river.  Occasionally, there were giant sink holes in the pavement along the highway and lots of trees and docks under water.  Although I did not know it at the time, this weather would cause some changes in planned stops over the next week.

I rolled into Lansing and had a treat before continuing to Minnesota - good bye Iowa - you were so much cooler that I thought you would be - wish I could have spent lots more time exploring your cute towns!

If You Bike It, They Will Come

Whenever we are getting ready in the morning or when we are stopped at a rest stop, someone hooks up their smart phone to the trailer speakers to play music.  On this particular morning, the Eagles were playing.  One of the college kids conrnented that they were one hit wonders...Jen and I took turns explaining that they were good and also rattling off song titles. Finally, Mike secured the quote of the day with 'This is the music that dad bands play at BBQs'...and I felt OLD.  It would not be the last time that I felt old that day...

We all rode to breakfast which was provided by a local church - egg, potato and meat casserole with coffee, toast, oatmeal perfect!

As we discussed the days stops - there was an option to stop at the Field of Dreams movie set. Pretty much, nobody under 27 (most of the riders) had seen the movie and Mason was not sure who Kevin Costner was...yup, definitely felt old!!

Later that day, I would take the path and visit the site - I was joined by Duncan, Bethany and Eric.  We took our pictures emerging from the corn fields...and made Eric and Bethany reenact the pivotal scene in the movie that they had not seen - but they vowed to.  The corn was a bit shorter due to time of year...but you get the idea!

That night, Bethany continued the laundry karma train and did laundry for many of us. I took a shower and as I walked back to church, Eric and his mom picked me up in their car and we went to dinner. I slept well that night - hooray for showers, clean laundry and a full belly!

Misc Photos and Crossing the Mississippi

Pool Party

6.20 - Odell, IL - 62

More cornfields...and a really cool windmill farm framed our day.

After a relatively short ride of 62 miles, we were treated to a city park which featured a pool!!!!  We watched the guys dive off the board while cooling off - Connor and Ron were both insanely good and outclassed the field with their high speed somersaults and perfect entires into the pool.

Richard's family came down from Chicago with three of the cutest kids ever...and the guys got creative with their hammock configurations.

We all went to dinner that night and after dinner, the bartender treated us to shots...Dirty Girl Scouts are half peppermint schnapps and half baileys - yum-my!!!  That reminds me, we have been so lucky with free stuff from people we met along the way.  People have donated ice cold red bull, countless bags of ice and also snacks.  A huge score was made by Caroline back in Cleveland.  She ran a 5K while we were there and scored 3 gigantic boxes of bananas - we ate them for days...banana and peanut butter, banana and Nutella (a personal favorite), banana gumbo...