LA to Boston in 49 days

Tuesday June 11,  2019.     Springfield, IL to Champaign, IL.                            89 miles Ascent/Descent=  1,428 feet/1,245 feet.                                   Cumulative= 2,391 miles                                                                                                   (Including rest day miles) The bike from Springfiedl to Champaign was pretty much what I think of Illinois south of the Chicago area, flat with a lot of corn.  There are still fields that are not even plowed yet due to flood residual, but more and more fields are planted, many ...

Saturday June 15, 2019.      Indianapolis, IN to Richmond, IN.                      73 miles Ascent/Descent = 1,714/1,265.                                            Cumulative = 2,601 miles It rained throughout the night and continued to rain lightly as we departed.  The forecast was for a high probability of rain with scattered thunderstorms throughout the day, so it is difficult to get fired up to hop on a bike and get out in the weather, but it is part of the adventure.  What wind there is, is generally at our backs, or close enough that it is some help, and although the rain is fairly persistent, it is light. That is until we are within about 5-10 miles from our stop for the night, when the rain became heavy enough that you got wet no matter what you were wearing.  The hills seemed to in...

Friday June 14, 2019.        Crawfordsville, IN to Indainapolis, IN.            56 miles Ascent/Descent = 789/1,082.                                            Cumulative= 2,528 miles We had a fairly short ride today getting us into Indiannapolis by noon.  It was a very enjoyable ride except for a 2-3 mile stretch of some of the worst road conditions we've encountered along with no bike able shoulder and more traffic as we approached the city from the south.  The payoff was getting on the White River Bike Trail which took us literally right downtown.  Indy has a very extensive system of bike trails and many well marked and driver-respected bike lanes. As we emerged from the tree lined portion of the trail we had an immediate panoramic view of the downtown area including the Captiol Building and Lucas Oil Stadium...

Thursday June 13, 2019.      Champaign, IL to Crawfordsville, IL.                81 miles Ascent/Descent= 1,909/1,936.                                              Cumulative= 2,472 miles We did get to see some of the University of Illinois as we left the Champaign Urbana area, but it was a little hard to feel the college atmosphere at 7:30 AM on a summer day. .I only saw a few people on campus and they looked more like employees than students. I'm not sure if they are even in session Anyway, a big school with some big buildings. The weather was again on the cool side with very little chance of rain, and a big wind which was closer to a tailwind than a crosswind.  With a relatively flat course, we moved right along, and I averaged about 17.5 mph reflecting help from the wind.  Not much of particular note...

Monday June 10,2019.          Quincy, IL to Springfield, IL.        108 miles Ascent/Descent= 2,726/2838 feet.                      Cumulative= 2,299 miles It's amazing how your perspective changes about what is a long ride and what is not.  80 mile rides are average, but actually seem like a shorter ride due to days like today when we were slotted for a 106 mile ride, and were told  at breakfast that the route had to be changed due to another road closure, so that we would now be biking 108 miles.  Most amazing is that 80 or 110 miles day after day does not seem impossible or even unreasonable, it's just, "OK, let's get out there and ge it done." We were again fortunate with weather as it was a cooler, less humid day, but the wind was significant and a bit of a wild card. Wind speeds of around 20 mph with gusts above 30 mph were predicted, and I suspect that some of t...

Sunday June 9, 2019.             Kirksville, MO to Quincy, IL.                      76 miles Ascent= 1,971 feet.  Descent= 2,165 feet                                      Cumulative= 2,091 miles Breakfast ended up being served an hour later than everyone anticipated but we still left within 15 minutes of our usual departure time to immediately encounter more of the same type of hills we had been seeing for the past 2 days.  But these rollers gradually mellowed out and mostly disappeared within the  first 30 or so miles and we enjoyed a relatively flat ride as we approached the flooding mighty Mississippi River. The flooding caused the most minor of detours for us.  There are separate bridges for both eastbound and a westbound traffic into and out of Quincy, and our eastbound bridge was...

Saturday June 8, 2019.         Chillicothe, MO to Kirksville, MO.                75 miles Ascent/Descent= Approx. 4,500 feet/4,300 feet.               Cumulative= 2,015 miles I sat with Rick Wardell, Pharmacist and CrossRoads Cycling Adventures Master Bike Mechanic, at breakfast this morning.  Rick is a remarkable fellow and the nicest guy you would ever want to meet, and he has been on this tour annually for almost 25 years, riding his bike cross country many times.  He was not going to be able to ride today, but he called this his favorite day of the tour.  He has counted the number of hills between Chillicothe and Kirksville multiple times, initially coming up with slightly different totals, but then counted 148 hills on 4 consecutive years, and this is now the official total. Needless to say Rick likes climbing hills and especially these particular hills.  He expla...