Category: DC to California 2010

Another late start. I checked out of my motel at 11 and after a meal at subway, got on the road in earnest at noon. The headwinds persisted and slowed my progress.

Today was just a day of state highways. I was planning on taking route 15 west all the way but eventually veered north in search of closer food. Coming through a town, I found no restaurants open in the city, but a couple by the interstate a couple miles outside town. That’s often how it is, I’ll ride through a town with a boarded up main street only to arrive at a heavily populated series of sprawling strip malls outside the city. Kind of sad.

I tried to eat at a restaurant but after waiting for a few minutes and not getting any service, l relented and went to the place next door – subway for the second time of the trip and the second time of the day. I don’t mind subway, it’s just that I need to eat a lot of calories and so anything that advertises low calories is generally just a waste of money for me. I often find myself reading the nutrition information on packages just to choose the *highest* caloric food.

Outside the subway, a couple had pulled into the parking lot with two cars packed full of stuff and bikes hitched to the back. They were coming from Colorado and mentioned taking their bikes to Europe. It doesn’t make much sense for them to be driving their stuff from Colorado if they are moving to Europe so I must have been missing part of the story. Anyways, they wanted a photo of me so I smiled for the camera before heading off. It was now almost 5 and I had only covered 40 miles.

I hit my zone for today after this second meal. The wind had mostly subsided, fewer cars were on the road, and the sun was sinking in the sky. Besides the terrible headwinds of earlier, it was another day of perfect weather. The forecast shows three days of thunderstorms next week so I’ll have to cherish the good riding while it’s here.

I arrived in the city of Belleville, IL -about 10 miles from St. Louis – as dark was setting in and got a seedy motel room. All the campsites are taken this weekend due to the holiday, and it took me 5 calls to find a place to stay. Not cool. Being in a largish city, I had to eat ethnic food so I found a Thai restaurant. The ride home from my meal was absolutely frigid, looks like I might need my cold weather clothes before too long.

I still need to work on taking more interesting photos.

Today’s mileage: 71 miles
Total: 1415 miles

Daniel, my host for the night, had a morning flight so I had some incentive to get on the road early. We said our goodbyes at 7:30 and after a long breakfast spent planning my day I headed west.

It was pretty chilly this morning, so I donned my rain jacket for a second time. However, biking quickly warmed me up and the jacket was off before I got out of Evansville. The headwinds of yesterday persisted and slowed my progress.

Maybe 15 miles out of town, I ran into an older couple touring on a tandem bicycle. They were headed to a town on the edge of Indiana for a family reunion but I didn’t catch where they had started. Their pace was much slower than mine so I wished them luck and took off after talking to them for a couple minutes.

My last miles in Indiana were relaxing despite the constant onslaught of wind. Perhaps it was the weather which was warm enough to be comfortable but cool enough to keep me from sweating, or maybe it was what I was listening to – Ulrich Schnauss makes some pretty calming music. Whatever it was, getting out of the mindset of looking at every house for dogs that will chase me, looking at every fallen branch and shredded tire for a snake to jump out at me certainly improves the riding experience.

I got to thinking about what I want to do when I finish my trip. Not day-to-day things like a job or school but rather what sort of goals I should have. Before I left on my trip, I was following the blog of Mason McCord who was biking across the country. After getting fed up with his life, he made a list of life goals like running a marathon, climbing everest, visiting the poles, etc. All of them sounded like awesome things to do, but realistically you have to pick and choose what you will do in a lifetime. So that’s what I thought about today. I don’t have any answers, just ideas that I will wait to develop further.

These past few days I’ve been getting more emails from YouTube saying people have been commenting on and subscribing to my videos. Turns out I was (once again) featured on a major Warcraft blog even though it’s been 2 years since I released a video. Reading over the comments, it’s fun to see people try and analyze your work. Some of them get the gist of the message I’m trying to get across, and some are just affected by the ambiance. I think my methods of storytelling are pretty well thought out but perhaps they are too subtle if no one is getting what I’m saying. I think I need to make another video, just need to decide on what it will be.

Anyways, I continued on into Illinois. Battling headwinds, I rode and rode, stopping on average once an hour to rest. I made it to the town of Mt. Vernon, Illinois (not to be confused with Mt. Vernon Ohio where I stayed a week or two ago) and got a cheap motel room.

Today’s mileage: 95 miles
Total: 1344 miles

I awoke at dawn, packed up camp, and was on the road shortly after 7. The first 20 miles of the day were on the highway with the wide shoulder and the “share the road” sign. It was rolling hills the entire way, but the grades weren’t steep so it never was a problem.

Eating breakfast in Tell City, I planned my route fir the day. I was heading to Evansville, Indiana where a friend of my friend Ben Wetzel had offered to let me stay for the night. The forecast said there would be thunderstorms so I was going to try and make good time.

Heading west, I faced constant headwinds and rolling hills. I kept on seeing dark clouds on the horizon but the rain never came. Only 2 dog encounters today and i just outran them both. At one point I received a phone call, and after explaining my situation I did a security clearance interview over the phone from the side of a highway.

I arrived in Evansville mid afternoon and went to a video game center where I could play internets for a little bit before meeting up with my host for the evening.

I met up with my host, Daniel Schaeffer for dinner. I had heard he was a cyclist too, but apparently he also does hardcore rock climbing, ice climbing, backpacking, and more. Pretty cool. When I return from my trip I think I am going to try my hand at rock climbing, I got inspired after seeing a photograph of half dome in Yosemite.

After a lot of good conversation, pizza, and beer I called it a night and passed out quickly.

Today’s mileage: 70 miles.
Total: 1249 miles.

After eating breakfast and planning my route, I checked out of my b&b and got on the road around 10:30. I made my way out of Louisville back into Indiana towards what will be the hilliest day of my trip until I hit the Rockies.

My directions were kind of confusing from the get-go as I found myself on a freeway attached to an interstate. There weren’t any signs prohibiting bicycles so I proceeded for a couple miles until i veered off to head west. After 10 miles of flat roads, the hills began. After the first long climb, I followed the “ridge road” so it was somewhat flatter.

I eventually stopped for a late lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Their burrito was more like an enchilada and came coated with cheese. Maybe I just need to start asking if my dishes will have cheese on them. Oh well, I scraped the cheese to the side and went on.

After lunch the hills returned in full force as I headed down a country road towards a state forest. Once I reached the forest I was informed that the roads I was planning on taking had long since been closed and I would have to go 5 miles out of my way to go around the forest. At least I had a tail wind when I turned around.

I connected to rt. 62, a 2 lane state highway with no shoulder. This road took me straight through the hills and into Hoosier National Forest. At least there wasn’t a lot of traffic.

Every time I saw a steep hill down, I dreaded it since I knew it was followed by a long climb back up another hill. After a long time on this road I came across a gas station and got some trail mix for dinner and headed south. This new road had a huge shoulder and a “share the road” sign. Awesome. I came across a campground almost immediately and called it a night.

No dog problems today, amazingly.

Today’s mileage: 64 miles.
Total: 1179 miles

Staying in Louisville and resting for a couple days before going to see Explosions in the Sky on Tuesday. I’ll be hitting the road again Wednesday morning.

My bike computer decided to randomly reset it’s odometer which is kind of a downer.