Travis Bikes America

Quick.  Which state has more ski resorts: Michigan or Colorado?

Today was a grind-it-out kind of day. Yesterday, we were all motivated by the challenge of a 113-mile ride.  Today, on the other hand, was an average day at best.  Our legs were tired from yesterday and there was nothing special about today’s ride to give us a boost. The wind didn’t help us today.  Nor were there any spiffy attractions — like a Corn Palace or Canada — to spice up our day.  We saw more corn, more soybeans, and more perfectly coiffed lawns — just like yesterday.  We all just wanted to git ‘er done.

On the other hand, we did see a wide variety of perfectly lovely wildflowers today.  We saw honeysuckle, forget-me-nots, Jacob’s ladder, Indian paintbrush, Michigan lilies, purple loosestrife, periwinkle, Queen Ann’s lace, primrose, and hollyhocks.  It was quite a show.

So, can we talk about money for a moment?  My goal is to raise $10 a mile on this trip, or $36,670.  You’ve been quite generous and I’ve now raised over $29,000.  (The MS web site says $25,000 but you’ve contributed some $4,000 in checks that don’t get counted on the web site).  So, I have $8,000 to go and a little less than two weeks.  The publicity we’ve generated has certainly helped but I need to reach a wider audience.  So, let me ask you a favor.  Would each of you forward a link to this web site (travisbikesamerica.com) to anyone you know who is affected by MS?  That will widen the circle and help me get over the hump.  Thanks for your help.

Michigan has 39 ski resorts.  Colorado has 25.  Yikes!

Day’s distance: 74.4 miles (119.7 km)
Average speed: 15.4 mph (24.8 kph)
Day’s climb: 625 feet (190.5 meters)
Total distance: 2,858.3 miles (4,599.9 km)

We completed the last century (>100 miles in one day) of our tour today in ideal conditions.  We left at dawn when it was still quite cool and rode quickly along a flat course flanked by lakes at every turn.  We saw plenty of low-lying fog early in the morning but it dissipated quickly once the sun was up.  For most of the day, the temperature hovered in the mid-70s and the humidity never really got serious.  Plus, we’re riding in trees now so we get a lot more shade.  The big deal, however, is that we had a tailwind most of the way.  We all agreed at the end of the ride that this was one of the easiest centuries we’ve ever ridden.

Michigan should be called the Land of Lovely Lawns.  Every lawn is neat and trim and well manicured.  It’s like riding along a never ending golf course.  They must spend a ton of money on lawn mowers here.  We’re now in Mt. Pleasant which is a sweet little college town (home of Central Michigan University) and also part of the Chippewa Indian reservation.  So the west side of town looks like a nice college town while the east side looks like Las Vegas — with a huge casino/resort dominating everything else.  It must be an interesting place to live.

Meanwhile, the PR campaign continues.  I don’t have any interviews scheduled (yet) in Michigan but we got some very good coverage in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  In Mankato, Minnesota, the ride was front page news.  You can read the article here: http://bit.ly/rn9vDe.    In La Crosse, Wisconsin, the local affiliate of ABC news gave us a nice spot on the morning news.  You can see it here: http://bit.ly/ojtTsM

Now it’s time to introduce three riders from Europe.  Jan (pronounced yahn) and Andries

Jan Cheese, Connie, Andries

(pronounced andries) are brothers from Holland who are doing the entire coast-to-coast ride.  Since they’re both very strong riders, we’ve nicknamed them the Flying Dutchmen. In Sioux Falls, they were joined by Jan’s girl friend, Connie. She too is a strong rider so we now call them the Flying Dutchpersons. Actually, that’s a bit awkward so we’ve simplified things and started referring to Jan as Jan Cheese. This is actually a nickname that goes back to the 17th century when the Dutch and the English were struggling for supremacy in New Amsterdam (later called New York).  They didn’t like each other so they came up with somewhat derogatory nicknames for each other.  The Dutch called the English roastbeefs based on their dietary preferences. The English did the same for the Dutch, calling them collectively, Jan Cheese.  The nickname is still with us today but the pronunciation has changed.  We now pronounce it yankees.

We’ve passed several milestones in the past few days:

• We’re now in our seventh state. Only Ontario, New York, Vermont, & New Hampshire are left.
• We’re in our fourth time zone.
• We have less than 1,000 miles to go.

Day’s distance: 113.9 miles (183.3 km)
Average speed: 16.5 mph (26.6 kph)
Day’s climb: 2,410 feet (734.6 meters)
Total distance: 2,783.9 miles (4,480.3 km)

I’m on the S.S. Badger cruising across Lake Michigan as I write this.  The Badger is a 410-foot ferry built in 1952 to carry railway cars across Lake Michigan.  It’s now been converted for cars, trucks, motorcycles and, of course, bicycles.  It’s a beautiful day for a cruise — glassy smooth water and a cloudless sky.  A few years ago, on this very same cross-country bike ride, two riders got married in Manitowoc and then spent their honeymoon in a stateroom on the S.S. Badger.  It’s only a four-hour crossing so I wouldn’t call that much of a honeymoon.

Today is officially a rest day even though we’re moving from one place to another.  This

Can we see impure Michigan?

morning, Suellen and I slept late.  Then we rousted out Dave & Fran (Suellen’s brother and his wife), found the Locomotive and Columbus Dan and all drove north to the town of Two Rivers where we met Lou and Betty Benedetto for breakfast.  The cafe had floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on Lake Michigan.  It’s beautiful, though I must say, it’s rather flat for a Colorado boy. After breakfast, Loco, Columbus Dan, and I biked over to the ferry.  Dave & Fran drove back to Chicago and Suellen drove back to Milwaukee to fly home to Denver this afternoon.

I won’t see Suellen again until New Hampshire… but that’s not so far away.  Our ride ends two weeks from today.  It’s hard to believe that it’s going so fast and I think all of us riders are sorry that it’s coming to an end.  Still, it’s going to be awfully nice to relax and enjoy our backyard again.

Sleeping Loco

Tomorrow is a 113-mile day from Ludington to Mount Pleasant.  In fact, it’s the last century on our ride.  After tomorrow, the longest ride remaining is a “mere” 93 miles. By the time we finish this tour, we’ll finally be in good enough shape to do a trans-continental ride.  Maybe I should just ride back to Colorado.

Day’s distance: 7.4 miles (11.9 km)
Total distance: 2,677.4 miles (4,308.8 km)

A very pretty day riding and rolling through an Amish region of farmlands and small towns in lower Wisconsin.  We rode through Bangor and Norwalk before arriving at Sparta.  (Lovely Lucy was immediately looking for warriors).  Sparta is one end of the well known and very pretty Sparta-Elroy bike trail.  The trail is 32 miles long and is reclaimed from the abandoned Chicago & Northwestern Railroad bed — meaning that it’s straight and close to level.  The trail is hard-packed dirt rather than asphalt which makes for good riding though a bit slower than normal.  We rode through long “green tunnels” and crossed a number of small rivers, including the world famous Kickapoo.  (The Locomotive decided he didn’t need a respite on a quiet, shady path so he went off-route to stay on roads.  This is why we sometimes call him Loco).

The best thing about the trail, however, was the three old railroad tunnels.  These were carved out of solid rock in the 1870’s; each one took about 18 months to build.  The longest one is ¾ of a mile; the others are roughly ¼ mile.  They’re all incredibly dark so you need a good flashlight to navigate through them.  In the long one, you literally can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel until you’re more than halfway through.  Of course, shadows bounce around oddly and voices echo eerily — so we all made silly noises and dancing shadows.

Sparta bills itself as the capital of American bicycling and they have a collection of old big wheel bikes — many of them still rideable.  All of which leads me to introduce Dublin

Spot the Irishman

Damian who attempted to ride a statue.  Three words for Damian: charming Irish bloke. Damian has clearly kissed the Blarney stone and can quickly strike up a conversation with anyone.  At the Corn Palace, he absolutely charmed a group of little old midwestern ladies.  They thought he was from Dublin, Ohio but he quickly corrected them.  Damian has been a physical education instructor for some years now. Some of his former students are now famous footballers in Ireland and beyond.  Damian is raising money for Alzheimer’s and he’s asked his famous former students to endorse — it’s a brilliant strategy and I wish I had thought of it.  (But I don’t know anybody famous).  You can learn more on Damian’s web site: www.damiandempster.com.

Day’s distance: 91.4 miles (147.1 km)
Average speed: 14.3 mph (23.0 kph)
Day’s climb: 1,600 feet (487.7 meters)
Total distance: 2,527.7 miles (4,067.9 km)

First there is a forest, then there is no forest, then there is.

By general consensus, today was one of the best days on the ride so far.  The temperature dropped by 15 degrees, the humidity abated, and we had good roads and some beautiful scenery.  Most of all, we had trees.  We haven’t seen trees since the Black Hills in South Dakota.  We’ve ridden for days with expansive vistas and wide horizons.  While an open landscape is beautiful in many ways, you get no protection from the wind or sun.  Today, we seemed to cross an invisible line and were back in tree territory.  We could ride, and snack, and even snooze in the shade.  Being back in wooded areas made everything else more enjoyable.

For the past several days — maybe even weeks — we’ve been riding to avoid the heat.  We start very early and take short breaks.  The idea is to ride quickly and get off the road before the afternoon heat arrives.  That’s a good strategy to avoid heat stroke but it leaves little time to see the sites or palaver with the locals.  Today, we relaxed, slowed down and enjoyed ourselves and our surroundings.  We stopped in the delightful little town of Houston, Minnesota for chocolate malts and sandwiches.  (Don’t miss Barista’s Coffee Bar if you go there).  We took longer breaks.  We chatted more — with each other and with locals.  We rode at a slower pace and enjoyed our time in the saddle.

For the second day in a row, I rode with friends and former colleagues.  Yesterday, it was

Lisa, TW, Jen

Jim and Mary Anderson.  Today, it was Lisa Olson and Jennifer Arends, former colleagues at Lawson.  Lisa rode with me and Jennifer organized a superb SAG wagon in her SUV. She had ice, cold drinks, power bars, cookies, and cold, cold watermelon — making her the most popular person of the day.  At the same time, it’s nice to ride with someone like Lisa — she’s sweet, smart, and articulate and we just chatted the hours away.

Minnesota or Sweden?

This is Lutheran country and it seems very much like Sweden or Norway.  We passed one Lutheran church (or graveyard) after another.  They were all neatly tended and spic and span.  The grave stones had Scandinavian names like Halvorson, Anderson, Jansson, and Olson.  I saw a few Norwegian flags by gravestones.  We saw small white farm houses and large red barns.  Several times, I felt like I was transported back to Scandinavia.  It was all very pleasant but I kept a sharp eye out for Lisbeth Salander.

We were also treated to a bike path today.  During most of the tour, we’ve ridden on roads and need to be careful of traffic.  Today, we got a 12 mile stretch of bike path between Rushford and Houston.  It’s a thickly wooded area and, in many places, the trees arched over the path and we were literally riding in a green tunnel.  The path follows the Root River, a pretty little river that’s also full to overflowing.  There’s a legend that the boll weevil originated on the banks of the Root.  The legend is probably not true but locals still refer to the river as the Root of All Weevils.

Speaking of rivers, we’ve just crossed the Mississippi.  The call signs for radio and TV stations now start with a W rather than a K.  I guess we’re “back East” now.

Day’s distance: 88.5 miles (142.4 km)
Average speed: 14.7 mph (23.6 kph)
Day’s climb: 3,200 feet (975.4 meters)
Total distance: 2,436.3 miles (3,920.8 km)