Bourbonais, IL - Rochester, MN

June 13th
After leaving Olivet we set out on to an adventure of circumnavigation of the city of Chicago. Not too much to report other than a long stretch of gravel roads, some busy "suburbs" like Joliet and Aurora with populations of 200,000, and fear of death instilled in us by a local who told us that there had been 3 shootings recently in the neighborhood.

Luckily we were staying in Batavia which is an affluent community north of Aurora with our warmshowers hosts Mike and Dorey. Mike is a fellow tourist who has worked as a paramedic for over 20 years and on his off days he runs his own business as a mobile bicycle mechanic (the bike medic). Talk about the perfect guy to take on the road with you. Dorey has a sense of sarcasm that made me feel at home and she was refreshing in probing into our personal lives, asking if any of us were in love. This of course was the perfect opportunity for Carson and I to make a joke of the absence of a love life for Jared and Travis.

June 14th
In the morning Mike helped fix Travis and Jared's spokes and fixed us an egg and pancake breakfast with real maple syrup which has a way sweeter taste than most store bought stuff and was really something we came to like. After taking pictures with our hosts we set out for the Rockford area in northern Illinois.

It was a tough ride with rolling hills and serious headwind/crosswind that almost knocked me over a few times but we kept at it and slowly and steadily made our way through the miles. For the sake of brevity I will mention the lone real highlight of the ride that day. As we headed up a hill I stopped part of the way up and looked back down onto a field that was the most beautiful thing I had seen all day. The wind was sweeping through the lush green space and poetically dancing in waves. After all the days of riding through these farms I cannot help but wonder how there are children who go to bed hungry, but the reality is that they do. I encourage you to check out www.urbanlighthouse.org which is the organization I would normally be working with in the summer and whom I am riding for. They find a way to feed thousands of underprivileged children each week and are faithful stewards of the money they are entrusted with. There is a link at the end of each post I write where you can donate if you feel led to do so, but I really encourage you to contact them and find out when you can donate a few hours on a Saturday to help on Heaventrain. Anyway, I'll get down from my soapbox, but humor me and check them out.

So after a few more rollers (series of hills) we reached the lovely farm home of Earl and Arlene, fellow cycling enthusiasts and perhaps the most eclectic conversationalists we've met. We sat down over a home cooked meal and chatted for hours with these folks about just about anything you could think of. We shared our cycling stories, but it was also nice to talk about other things, to be grounded to reality for awhile. Arlene said we were rock stars but honestly they were the ones I looked up to. They work hard every day on their farm, cycle, and travel the world to visit their daughters. These are rock stars if I've ever seen one.

June 15
After sitting down for breakfast with the Williams family we headed out for Madison, WI and some good cheese. Of course Jared took care of the customary leaving of the cell phone charger as it was becoming a habit for one of us to do so each day. More hills waited for us as we reached Wisconsin where we were saddened to not find cheese stands waiting for us.

We rode through the pouring rain and over time I became separated from the group. When I got to Oregon, WI the road I was on became a highway that prohibited cycling so I frantically called my parents to have them look up directions online and read them to me over the phone. About a half hour later Travis came riding by and said, "well, those miles aren't going to ride themselves." We finished the last 20 miles into Madison where we stayed with my high school friend and a person I respect a lot, Liz.

Because Carson and Jared got lost they decided to meet us at Buffalo Wild Wings and Liz agreed to join us and drive us "down the street," which really turned out to be several miles through hills. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't getting a great deal of satisfaction out of knowing they would have to ride up each of them.

When we got back from dinner Liz and I went through our senior year book discussing what people were up to and it was nice to be reminded of a much simpler time even if the present is quite satisfying. Then my brother called from Custer, SD where we'll be visiting soon to chat which was a nice surprise. A shower and some conversation later and I was off to sleep.

June 16
Liz had to get up and out for work early because she's an old lady with a real job and everything so we took our time crawling up to our feet in the morning before heading out into some more hills/mountains of Wisconsin toward Richland Ctr where our warmshower hosts, John and Sue awaited us at the top of a massive hill that was much like they were in PA, but they didn't tell us, hoping we would enjoy the surprise.

During the day we actually hit a flat stretch on highway 14 that went most of the day. We stopped at a bike shop called Uphill Grind where they have a coffee shop incorporated into it. After getting Jared's bike fixed and having some fantastic coffee we headed out for a few more miles before hitting the bar and grill of dreams. Rookies, is a bar and grill designed perfectly. It has floor to ceiling memorabilia, a bathroom entirely done in real baseball cards, and to top it off, a wiffle ball stadium where patrons play. They also serve a mean burger, 1/2 pound of beef with a gob of Wisconsin cheese all served on a soft pretzel bun. What's not to love? I never wanted to leave, but I had to because I wanted ice cream.

Later in the day we stopped in to Culver's for some buttery ice cream goodness. It was just enough to power us up the huge grade hill we needed to climb to get to our hosts farm house at the highest point in the county. But John and Sue made it worth our while with grilled steaks and salad and hours of good conversation. We went to sleep easily that night and woke up thinking it would be all downhill from there after so much climbing...

June 17
It was not all downhill. In fact there were more uphills than down from what I remember but we eventually made it to La Crosse for dinner.

It came after a day of steady grade hills for almost the entire time, a lot of sweat, and escalating tempers over a Chinese buffet lunch. Chinese food always brings out the beast in me!

Being more emotional than 14 year old girls, we rode into the second half of the day, but to let myself cool down I decided to lay back a bit and split from the group for the rest of the ride that day. I knew they were going to stop at a town park up the hill but I kept riding until I reached the next one. It had a covered pavilion, water, and an outlet where I could charge my phone while talking to mom and the girlfriend, just the ticket.

Later in the day I reached a mercantile shop which apparently means a store that sells things that are past their expiration date for super cheap. I bought protein bars for $.75 and Kool-Aid Jammers for $.25. I would say this may have been the best purchase since the invention of currency.

Then a few more huge hills and a long sweeping downhill that could have killed me if I so much as hit a twig just enough to throw off my balance and before I knew it I found the guys with our host Ed who rode his upright recumbent touring bike down to meet us. Had I known they were waiting I would have pushed harder, so I felt a bit guilty holding up the group.

Luckily Ed took away all that guilt by offering bratwurst which cleared my head completely. After a day like this particular day I was ready for bed pretty early.

June 18
Not much to say about this day other than we crossed the Mississippi River rather unceremoniously (it wasn't impressive up this far north), took pictures at the Minnesota sign, and then climbed some hills before riding on a gorgeous bicycle trail under tree cover, surrounded by the bluffs. It was a really scenic day of riding when I wasn't thinking about how many gnats I had consumed (unintentionally most of the time).

And then we reached Rochester, a small city that feels big. It's as though they took a piece of a large U.S. city and cut it out and placed it in Minnesota. Still as quaint a city as it was we hate riding in cities and this was no exception as we were yelled at and honked at for riding in the rain and dark.

But eventually we reached Carson's aunt's home which was equipped with all we needed: food, beds, television, a hot tub, and great hosts. After a good soak and dinner we passed out and were excited for a rest day the next morning.

...I've been on for quite a while so I'm hopping off now to be social and/or sleep. I'll slowly work to get caught up through email posting on my Blackberry when I can so expect it to take about a week before it's caught up. Thanks for reading and I hope you're enjoying the journey with us.