Go!

I mean, STOP! Ok, now go!  Kind of.

Annie did a great job summarizing the past few days.  We've already had numerous learning experiences and are well on our way to transitioning from amateur cyclists to pros.  Something I've really taken to heart:  Train. Train. Train.  It turns out Annie is a much stronger cyclist than I am, and "flat" places aren't actually flat at all.  As it stands, ugh, my body hurts.  A wasp stung me on the first day; I fell on the second; and I hit some of the steepest hills of my life on the third.  Even so, I'm having the time of my life.  We've met so many kind strangers and learned to push ourselves beyond what we thought was possible.  Yesterday I was ready to give up.  I was sitting on the side of the road, no water, halfway up the steepest hill EVER after miles of steep hills.  I was really discouraged after learning I'd gotten off my route, which added a few miles to my day. I was in a negative place.  But after some kind encouragement from David, I walked up the second half of the hill and a green "Welcome to Madison" sign greeted me.  I was so elated that I had no trouble cycling the last few miles to Sam's house.  And it was mostly downhill.  

Annie is remembering to take pictures more often than I, but here's what I've been able to document:

Getting ready and installing our panniers.

Packed and ready (?) to go.

Drenched in a thunderstorm.  So damp.

That's right: we camped there.

Annie and Dolly had a brief romance.

Country architecture.

We're both still learning how to access our paniers while still straddling the bike.  It's harder than it looks!

So suave.

Sometimes it's so pretty we just have to stop to admire.

See the hills?

This path is flat, the day was wind-free, and the scenery is breathtaking.  If only it was paved....

DAY1 DAY2 DAY3....where does the time go?

First stop at a bike shop: Higher Gear in Highland Park

Stung by wasp midride, poor baby.

Kept going like a champ only minutes later.

First night, soaking wet in our speedily set up stealth campsite.

First fall. It's hard to balance with 30+ pounds of weight on your bike.

FIRST STATE LINE CROSSING. We were very excited.

First Flat. Yes, that also happened to Jessi.

Jessi couldn't handle it. But no worries, I took over.

SOOOO HAPPPY.

I DID IT...and it was not easy.

The best things in life are free....such as the satisfaction of changing a tire for the first time. Ah, it's the little things in life, isn't it?

At Country Rose Bakery and Café in Union Grove, WI. with THE Country Rose, herself on the left and on the right LouAnnie, one of the sweetest, most generous ladies I have ever met.

Our fantastic Day 2 hosts, Pat and MaryJo.

Jessi and I in our sweet little room at Pat and MaryJo's.

The height of luxury after our first wet, cold, night.

We still love each other!  

Just one of the MANY MANY MANY beautiful views on the bike trail,  Day 3.

The one and only SAM ADAMS took us in on day 3.

Day one. We haven't even started yet. What can go wrong? Well, a lot. What went wrong for us, you ask? Well, let me paint you a picture. Let's get a really early start.....HAHA. nope. Let's have everything packed and ready the night before.....uh uh, not us. Have our bikes properly tuned up and ready to roll....hell no. Know where we're going....not these girls! Needless to say, after a hectic morning of packing, cleaning, searching for a ghost key, and hanging out in the Bike Lane so Jessi could get her brake fixed, we finally set out at about noon only to get lost about a million times in freaking Chicago. I can't make a dramatic enough statement to describe how much I hate the way Google Maps does bike directions. So I'll just say that I REALY F%CK!NG (sorry, Mommy...but it's the only word strong enough to convey this emotion) despise it! They're so illogical and impossible to follow. Anyways, we finally made it out of the city and onto the North Branch Trail, which was paved and beautiful. We stopped at Higher Gear, a cute little bike shop in Highland park, just off the trail to supplement our gear, since we had already figured out several inconveniences in our little riding setup. The proprietors of Higher Gear were insanely kind to us, and we left the bike shop in high spirits. Shortly after, we hooked up with the Green Bay Trail...not quite as scenic and definitely not as paved as the North Branch Trail. Also, what's that? Ominous gray skies, rolling thunder in the distance (in the direction we're heading, of course) and strong headwinds? Oh, good. Needless to say, we did not make it to our planned destination. The downpour started at about 8:30, and we finally gave up when we started seeing lightening illuminate the sky above our heads at around 9 or 9:30. We definitely want to live, at least to finish out this trip, if not longer! So we pulled off the trail and set up our tent near some trees. I don't want to sound braggy here, but we were so efficient. We moved like a well oiled machine and had the tent set up and all of our gear inside within 15 minutes. We then attempted to dry off...hahahahahaha. Not in the cards for us. So we just stripped off our wet clothes, laid down on our damp sleeping bags, and fell asleep to the pounding rain and the rolling thunder, waking up briefly every once and awhile if the lightning flashed especially bright or the thunder clashed particularly vehemently.

Biking is SO easy, a little kid can do it. Biking into the wind is harder. Biking with 30 pounds on your bike is even harder. Biking uphill, with weight, into the wind is impossible. Yet SOMEHOW, we did it for EIGHTY MILES. That's right.....Day two was, I sweartogod, ALL UPHILL, with intense headwinds and light rains. We were on our bikes for more than 13 hours (with a couple of generous rest breaks thrown in.) We biked well over 80 miles. Here is my abridged version of Day 2: Woke up soggy and sore, but excited nonetheless. Packed up our tent and gear. Got back on the fantastic *ahem* gravel trail. Made it to the Wisconsin border (YAYY). My rear tire had a low pressure at this point, which made it quite uncomfortable and difficult to ride. UNFORTUNATELY, we did not have the adaptor to our air pump, so we couldn't fix it. This led us to take a 3 mile detour, only to find that the place we were seeking (a Target, I believe) did not exist. We managed to find a bike shop 4 miles away. They pumped up our tires, and we bought our adaptor there. Shortly thereafter, Jessi got our first flat. (Luckily, we had just purchased our trusty adaptor, or we would have been screwed!) I had never officially changed an innertube before, but thanks to the fantastic tutoring session I had with Mike Knish only days before, I was confident. It turned out to take a leetle more muscle than I had anticipated, but I DID IT.  Jessi was stung by a wasp at some point. We also made the decision, for better or worse, to bike on the highway because gravel is hard to pedal through, but soggy gravel is absolutely miserable. So we biked on the less gravelly, but MUCH more hilly highway....into the wind.  Call me a masochist, but I freaking LOVED it. Pedaling uphill was a struggle, but it was also like a game....all you have to do is reach the top, and you win. And the reward is SO worth it: Crest that hill and see the downward slope and go ohsofast back down that you make it halfway up the next hill before you even know you're on an incline. We did this for hours and hours and hours and hours. Finally, at about 10 P.M., we arrived at Pat and MaryJo's. We could not have asked for better hosts after the LONGEST day of our lives! They had a massage-shower. You can't imagine how heavenly that felt. And we got to sleep in a bed...so cozy.

Day 3 commenced with a late start....we could hardly bear to leave the Haven of MaryJo and Pat. We had a great morning eating breakfast, sharing stories, exploring their gorgeous property, and playing with the best Coon Hound I have yet to meet since Old Dan and Little Ann, Dolly. We set off for  Madison around noon. We biked from MaryJo and Pat's to a lovely paved trail and had a lovely ride. We hooked up with the Glacial Drumlin State Trail at Wales and took it to the end: 43 miles. It was a BEAUTIFUL ride. Unfortunately, the entire trail was gravel, which we have quickly discovered is our least favorite riding surface. From the end of the trail in cottage grove it was a pleasant (although quite hilly, compared to any ride I have ever taken in Chicago!) journey. In Madison, we met up with the fantastically brilliant Samuel Adams, who took us to dinner at a DELICIOUS restaurant, fittingly called the "Weary Traveller" where we both ate one of the best meals of our lives. Not that you're interested in mundane details, such as my eating habits....but this food merits a short description. I literally just copied this from the menu: Grilled Walleye Sandwich- fresh walleye filét with roasted Poblano tartar sauce on a housemade bun, with lettuce and tomato. Served with mixed greens, Yukon God potatoes and a pickle spear. Also, we had a Spotted Cow, which according to Sam, is THE beer of Wisconsin. It was quite tasty. We ended the day with....a great night's sleep! Can't get much better than that when you're on the road.

We road this trail almost from it's origin, for 46 miles. It was gorgeous, but gravel....Yuck. Call me city girl, but I love a paved trail!

(Posted by Annie)

Set....

Well, we leave tomorrow morning.  We're almost set.  Everything we think we'll need has been purchased.  We're working on seeing how much of that will be feasible to take with us since space is limited in our panniers. (Note:  my panniers did NOT arrive in time, so I ended up buying some here in Chicago.  I'll have to return the others.  Boo.)

I had originally planned on going to my hometown to see my family tonight, but time just didn't allow for that.  I'm bummed about that.

Ready...

Let's talk about normal life things today, and let's go through them in pictorial form.

Biloxi has been sleeping with her tongue out lately.

I hit my head on David's car when we were in Montgomery for my final LARE test.  Still haven't heard the results back on that. 

My momma and her friend came to visit in June.  We spent two days on the barrier islands, which are super beautiful.

David likes to fish on the barrier islands.

Hey, David, what'd you catch?

Answer:  Three specked trout and a Spanish mackerel. 

Are you proud of yourself?

Ah!  They're slippery!

Yes, very proud.

All ready to go in the oven and later into our bellies.

 ***Disclaimer:  The fishing photographs are actually from two separate fishing excursions to the barrier islands.  We've been spending a lot of time out there.

Almost There.....

Ok, progress has been made.  I have a flight booked to get me back to Chicago.  I was originally thinking about taking the train, but  the costs of the two were comprable and it would take roughly ten times longer to reach Chi-town by train.  If I wasn't so eager to hit the road I'd have been stoked for the train ride, but I'd rather get to the bike ride sooner.

I've also ordered my panniers.  There's a problem though:  They probably won't arrive until Monday, which is the day I fly to Chicago.  SO *hopefully* they arrive before I have to leave my house to catch my flight.  If not, I guess I'll have to improvise.

Otherwise, I think I'm set.  I could still use some bike shorts, but they're so darned expensive I think I'll wait to get them later in life.  I'll just have to toughen up my bum.  If that fails, maybe I'll break down and buy some shorts on the road.

And of course, we each have our touring bikes:

Annie's Bike

Jessi's Bike

Still Not Ready!

Ahh!  We leave in just days and I'm still not ready to go!  I don't even have my train ticket yet!  So much to do!

I've been reading many books, blogs, and articles about bicycle tourists over the past year, and nearly all of them mention not practicing riding their bikes fully loaded before setting out on their trips.  I had been thinking that was a silly mistake that I wouldn't dream of making, but I was sooooo wrong.  There's no way I'll be taking a test trip-- I still don't have my panniers!  I thought it'd be just the little things that would be last-minute, but indecisiveness and a tight budget have caused me to delay ordering my saddle bags.  So, no.  No test trip.  I'm officially like most other cyclists.  Go me?

2 Weeks to Go

It's July 1-- which means Annie and I will leave Chicago on our bicycles in exactly 15 days.  Today marks the beginning of the "Annie and Jessi bicycle across the country" blog posts.  We will strive to update daily, at least with pictures.

There's still so much to do!  I still have two more weeks of work to wrap up.  Annie and I still have several more items of gear to obtain.  Plus there's general life happenings to document.  So, for the next two weeks you'll get to read about all the prep work that goes into a month-long bike tour.

I bought our maps today.  We still have to figure out what route we'll take to Minneapolis, but we'll be covered for the route after that.  We're heading towards Seattle, so after Minneapolis we'll cross Minnesota into Fargo, then across North Dakota and Montana into Glacier National Park.  From there we might cross into Canada for a bit to check out some of Alberta, then head west again across Idaho and Washington.  Depending on how we're doing on time, we'll spend a few days in the North Cascades National Park before heading down Puget Sound into Seattle.  From there it'd be great to spend some time exploring Mt. Rainier National Park and Olympic National Park.  And who knows?  We might consider extending our trip a bit longer to make it down to Portland, Oregon.

I write that now to compare our planned route to our actual route.  This is our first bike tour, so we're not quite sure what to expect.  We value the journey more than the destination, so we've already embraced the possibility that we won't make it to Seattle within our time frame.  That would be just fine as long as we give it a go and have a glorious time while trying.

Now, onto our packing list.  We're aiming to pack LIGHT.  Neither of us is interested in hauling unnecessary items up mountains.  So, here's our bare-minimum packing list for the two of us:

• 1 two-person tent
• 2 sleeping bags
• 2 bikes
• racks and rear panniers for each bike
• 2 gallons of water-carrying capacity
• maps
• 2 helmets, lights, and other safety items
• a day's worth of food for two people
• change of clothes
• rain gear
• spare tubes and spokes
• bike repair tools
• toiletries 

It will probably expand, but that's where it's at for now.