More pictures

Long roads
Beautiful morning skies at Fletcher Lake

These ducks provided a lot of entertainment by walking across the street and blocking traffic
Missouri River
Donna inspired pose in Wyoming
Suhali wearing a crazy happy birthday hat outside of San Fran
sunset at Lake Erie
Volley ball at Lake Erie
Terry and Patti at Fletcher Lake
Mississippi River at Muscatine (possibly the worst city ever)
They have a Radish magazine. yeah, we were that midwest







Salt Lake
Salt Flats
San Fran
Action shots
more..
Sunflower field
Nick's kitchen in Huntington, we got in the news paper.


Jim drove 2,000 miles and is tired

some changes

hey, we've traveled about 700 miles so far and made it to the Mississippi river at Muscatine Iowa. as you may know from watching the weather, the north american jet stream keeps winds and weather moving west to east across the USA. we have underestimated this force and thought that the winds wouldn't be that bad. we were very wrong (nick, you were right). the head wind has slowed our progress to an average of 12mph. we talked to a lot of bikers traveling west to east and they average more than 16mph. traveling at 16 mph as opposed to 12mph equates to 83 less hours in the saddle over 4000 miles. therefore....

we have decided to take the train from davenport iowa to san fran Ca. and ride the trail from west to east. we will be traveling the same amount of distance, but we hope that we will have more time in each city to meet with people and explore. and we may even be able to return a bit earlier. this move will hopefully make our trip more enjoyable and efficient.

Indiana!!!!!

hey, we just got out of ohio and not a minute too soon. the roads were getting really horrible the more west we got, at one point there were these low frequency bumps, every 2-3 seconds for 2 lumbar spine destroying hours. but now we're in monroeville indiana at a bike only site for FREE. we've been having a cool time and met a lot of great people.

a storm slowed us down, it hit about 1 hours after the last blog, so we had to suit up in our rain gear, here we are looking soggy. then there was a bridge that was out, the detour was miles around, only to find that it was not being worked on because of the storm and the foot path was wide open, so we could have walked across. here's a picture from the closed bridge, and the storm is moving out.

as the day wore on and the miles drifted under us, we were approaching a camp site. i stopped to look at the map at the entrance of Beulah Beach, a Christian camp site. Joel stopped his car and asked if i needed help, when i told him we needed a camp site, he offered to let us stay with them. instead of charging us, they donated the site charge to invisible childern. we set up camp and went swimming in lake erie. they also provided us with a fanstastic dinner, home cooked by the man known as Chef. later in the evening, before their concert, we were allowed to introduce ourselves and our cause to about 100-200 15-18 year olds. all three of us got on stage and told them about our trip and about the child soldiers in unganda and also about invisible children. they were very receptive and kind. we also got a beautiful heartfelt prayer over us and out journey and our cause. after that it was time to enjoy the sunset and play some volley ball.

Joel is on the left and David is on the right. we were very happy to be there and sad to leave. Joel, if you can get one, we saw people taking pcitures, could you email a picture of us on stage. thanks.

happy trails Joel. and good luck on you 1, 10, 50 year plan david.

the following day we got as far a fremont OH, when suhali's knee was hurting really bad. i had stopped and was talking to Donna about biking and life, when suhali caught up in a lot of pain. Donna at first offered to drive her to our next camp site 15 miles a way, but then offered to let us stay at her house. we agreed to the latter and had a great time. Donna and her two dogs Wanda and Charlie were lovely guests. we got chinese food, walked in a park that was Pres. Rutherford B Hayes' estate, then saw part a coutry music show that was in another park. later we ate icecream on her front porch and talked. we met some of her neighbors, who were equally as nice and had a beer. we ended to night with a cup of tea and watched "a river runs through it." the movie was amazing and made us want to get to montana as soon as possible. she put us up in a king size bed (i didnt know they were so huge). after sleeping in that bed, we didnt want to leave and were ready to become surrogate children of Donna's. but we drug ourselves out and on the road. the time we spent at Donna's will not soon be forgotten, thank you so much.

the girls looking presidential...

wanda and charie

we then stayed a night at a camp site before making it to Defiance OH!

this is us being defiant in Defiance...i guess (we were really tired after 70 miles of biking).

so now we're in monroeville indiana staying at a bike only camp place, here's a picture just over the indiana state line.

abby lost a sandel and is currently taping paper towels to her feet. we're going to bed soon.

we miss you all.

Jim you can't know how far is enough until you've gone too far

Trip beginnings

Hello everyone!

our riding began on the dreary morning of july 9th from erie PA. the day cleared up and we managed 37 miles. on of the coolest stops was this abandoned garage/diner. the diner had moss growing on the floor and looked like a meadow invading the tile. the upstairs must have been a house but had been vacant for some time, but had a great assortment of items not worth taking.

i can't figure out how to rotate the image with this computer. (rotate head counter clockwise for proper viewing)

we were detoured off of our path by this, a building fell down. don't ask me how, the only explaination we came up with "it's ohio." but that seems insufficient. we stayed the night at a campsite and met this great old-timer names Kenny. he drove us to a spring so we could fill up on great tasting water, he didn't lie, the following day we gorged on the fresh water.

while we were sleeping a spider built a web on my bike, i felt bad destroying all of his hard work, but i have a feeling he'd be confused if i transported him to cleveland.

we stopped in a small town called paynesville (or something like that). we figured it was supposed to be "pain's ville" cause there was a huge hill entering the city limits. however, at the peak of the hill a farmers market was underway. we met some cool people a bought a homemade cherry pie. we couldn't find ice cream... i guess small towns don't have ice cream... "it's ohio." but we devoured the whole pie in the park before biking for 20 more miles on a fantastic sugar high. here's us in the park.

paynesville was pretty adorable. the next day we made our way into and quickly out of cleveland. this is a picture of our approach with lake erie on the right. lake erie is big, we've been passing it for 4 days.
i guess that's all for now, we are going to have lunch in avon lake, OH. then push on west to a campsite.
thanks for checking up on us.
we miss you all.

jim even at our swiftest speed, we couldn't break from the concrete.