A post from our sweep journal

Day 27- Marshalltown, IA

Mt. Vernon to Marshalltown- 93 miles

There are hills in Iowa. Did you know that? Nothing compared to Connecticut, but hills nonetheless. Saskia and Alie (your narrators for this journal entry) were sweep on this long drawn out day. Our goal was to make as many stops as possible and go as slow as possible, yet still make it in at a reasonable time.

First stop, Czech Village in Cedar Rapids. We followed the sound of hokey music to an adorable bakery called The Bohemian. After picking out or Kolaches (Czech pastries) we spoke to the waitress about the floods from last summer. She pointed to the light fixtures on the wall to show how high the water had been. The floods hit the area pretty hard, causing few businesses to come back to the area. They used the flood as an excuse to essentially “makeover” their business and change it from an antique shop to a restaurant.

Back on the road, we decided the pass the time by singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall. At beer 78, we hit not just gravel roads, but hilly gravel roads. Now, we couldn’t stop singing the song since we were in the middle, so we kept going; despite being out of breath and tired. When we finally pulled off the gravel road for a shade tree (Southern word of the day) and a snack, thinking we were alone in the middle of cornfields, we heard a deep rumble. One hundred and fifty motorcycles zoomed by taking about 5 minutes from beginning to end. We were happy to watch and wave as the motorcyclists passed, relieved were off the road at the time.

When we stopped for lunch around mile 39, we met up with Raj, Chris and Susanna. Sadly, every place that is an ideal lunch spot (shade trees and cool) is also a favorite spot for flies. Several flies met an unfortunate end by getting stuck to the honey or trapped in a cooler.

Some miles later, we saw chalking that read “3 B&Bers – DOORS!” Slightly confused, we eventually figured out the riders had been excited about the fake swinging saloon doors of the Elberon General Store. Scanning all two blocks of Elberon (population 200) and seeing no bikes, we assumed the enthusiastic riders had forgotten to chalk that they had moved on. We were ready for a break, however, and escaped to the air-conditioned “general store,” which turned out to be a bar and diner. Enjoying the atmosphere of a small town bar with a group of men having a few cold beers on a hot Saturday afternoon, we decided to stay and order our favorite drink – a mint chocolate chip milkshake (we aren’t allowed to drink when biking). We were shocked when a group of four B&Bers wandered into the diner. Natalie, Maggie, Jonathan, and Beth had stopped to explore the town earlier, and had accidentally fallen asleep in the local park for an hour. After filling our Camelbaks, we set out on the road once again.

At this point the hills really started to hit us. And though we were going through the same stuff we had seen for the past week (corn), it was a nice change in scenery with the rolling hills and winding roads. We powered through the last 30 miles with a brief detour at a winery (to use the bathroom, of course) and arrived at the church just in time to miss showers. BUT fortunately, the pastor’s wife invited us to her house to use the shower. Another hose shower avoided.

Successful day.

-Saskia & Alie, sweepers extraordinaire

A Hollywood dream come true

Day 26- Mt. Vernon, IA 81 miles (but not quite)

Due to an intense thunderstorm, we got to play “Twister” and chase the storm in our van. In fact, we got to chase the storm all the way into an adorable town called Mt. Vernon where it promptly stopped and the sun came out just in time for their heritage festival.

Chong and Trevor surrendering to the van when we came to rescue them from the lightning storm.

Indulging in a DEEP FRIED Snickers. Amazing.

Line dancing at the Mt. Vernon Heritage Festival.

A bruised tail bone leads to a donut for your bike seat

Day 25- Clinton, IA 90 miles

My first spill of the trip. I was going about 18mph down a newly slick paved road, my bike went one way, and I went the other. Next thing I know, I was holding my butt crying in pain. Falling on your behind at that speed can definitely do some damage. For the next couple days, I walked around with an ice pack in my chamois, surprisingly not that many people noticed, and one person even thought I was carry a book back there. Ahhh, the wonderful world of Bike & Build.

Other than the crash, it was a lovely day.

A cute dog that we met along a farm road. He ran behind for about a mile.

ILLINOIS = corn fields (wide stance)

The "A" Team wins the scavenger hunt (unofficially)

Day 24- Peru, IL

Due to a short day of 40 some miles, we split up into 8 teams of five and set out on a scavenger hunt. With a list of about 50 things, we had to document what our team did through photos and videos. Here are just a few of the many photos:

1) Giving a stranger a bike grease tattoo

2) Switch bikes with a motorcyclist

3) Take a group photo in a small space

4) "Crash a BBQ

Chicaaaaago

Day 23- FIRST DAY OFF

Without much hesitation, a group of 20 of us set off to Chicago. The hardcore ones got onto the 8am train, while the “I need sleep to survive” crowd hopped on the 10am train. Being hardcore, I woke up at 6am, because we thought the train left at 7am. With an hour to putts around the lovely town of Pontiac, we found a breakfast place not far from the train station that had a fantastic deal. It was called the “1,2,3 special” 1 egg, 2 pieces of bacon, and 3 pancakes for $1.23, how much better can it get? We boarded the train with full stomachs and little energy, aka the perfect opportunity to get some sleep in. Stepping off the train, the first thing was saw was the Sears Tower.

Massive, and too expensive to go up, we admired it’s height and set off. BUT before we saw the sears tower, we saw this beauty.

Walking along the harbor of Lake Michigan, some people asked about the whale watching…

We had a lovely Mediterranean lunch, a stroll through the public library, and a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago (we are so sophisticated).

Days 19-22 boarders, centuries and corn

Day 19- Dayton to Hartford City, Indiana! A new state!

My and many others first century ride happened riding between these two lovely states. The cue sheet said 97 miles, but as we known, always +/- 10 miles and don’t forget about wrong turns! A 12 mile detour and cue sheet leeway took us on a 118 mile journey. Rolling in at 8:30 pm, we had our first hose shower and a much needed dinner. Attitudes were positive the whole day.

Day 20- West Layfette, century #2

Happy birthday Kristie! Yet another century, and in the rain too! After arriving at the church with 99.2 miles... we circled the parking lot to make it one hundo.

Day 21- Gilman, IL 73 miles (an "easy" day)

Welcome to Illinois! Due to taking desolate back roads, there was no sign, so we did the next best thing.

Day 22- Pontiac

An adorable town with a cheap bars and high end thrift stores. Despite its cuteness, a majority of us decided to achieve a bigger adventure.

"Juom-b-a"

Day 15- Akron to Gambier 65 miles

Ohio = headwinds

The first half of the ride was fairly flat, but the headwinds made up for that. Nonetheless, Raj and I still kept up a 14-15 mph pace and made it to the lunch site. Though the Ohioan hasty drivers did make it hard with getting cut off on right turns and Raj getting flipped off for being in the shoulder. Who knows. Up until that point, I was doing all right, and then I did a terrible thing by spending probably an hour and a half at lunch. I have found that when I’m at lunch any longer than half and hour, I get lazy and tired.

Hoping back on my bike, I fell back, far back. Let’s just say I rode with sweep for the rest of the day over the rolling hills (I was under the impression Ohio was flat, that is not the case.) Some highs from the second half of the trip were that at one point I broke the speed limit (second time this trip) and we rode a lovely bike path the last 8 miles of the trip singing musicals at the top of our lungs the whole way.

Coming into the town of Gambier I was very surprised at the adorableness factor it had. We stayed at Kenyon College in the dorms (yes, we slept in beds. Pure luxury.) We found a precious bar right on campus that had a dollar Pabst special. After drinking a couple brews and having the most amazing mushroom burger of my life (better than any meat burger I have ever had) we crashed back in our beds preparing ourselves for a feast in the morning.

Day 16- Gambier to Columbus 72 miles

Half-way through in order to avoid a lunch of strictly peanut butter and bread, a big group of us stopped at a little restaurant where we met some of the friendliest people. Parked out front on the patio with multiple tables pulled together, all the passer-byers had to ask what we were doing. A delicious meal and a couple conversations later, we wound up with $80 of pure donation magic.

The day started out well with a breakfast at Hogwarts (aka Kenyon College’s dinning hall). With possibly a little too much food in my stomach, we set out to Columbus, OH.

Coming into Columbus along a city bike route was by far the best part of the day. We even saw two deer in the middle of the city!

We took a quick detour a couple miles from the church to the Ohio State football field.

BUT the real surprise of the day we our sleeping quarters. Instead of the usual gym floor or Sunday school room (though those are deeply appreciated) we had something slightly different.

We stayed at the Athletic Club of Columbus (thanks to Natalie and her amazing donation magic).

And if you think that was the cherry on our sundae, we ended the night with a real sundae at a place called Jeni’s. With crazy flavors ranging from goats milk to cayenne pepper, this was the best ice cream I have ever had. Bold statement, but true.

Day 17- Columbus to Dayton 80 miles

Bike paths galore. The whole 80 miles were practically bike paths. In Ohio, they do this really interesting thing that more cities should catch onto. They turned all their old railways lines into bike paths. Newly paved with no more than a 3% grade, this was a nice break from the gravel roads and uncooperative drivers.

We stayed at Sinclair Community College where we received some of the best hospitality yet.

Day 18- Build day

We had a long build day where we did anything from drywall to laying the gravel for a driveway. Dodgy weather gave way for a more mopey day, but productive nonetheless.

Showing off their fantastic hospitality, after building, we were taken to the Wright Brothers

Aviation Center. We saw some of the original Wright Brother’s bikes as well as their first planes! Our tour guide was dressed in the period attire accompanied with a big-wheeled bicycle.

We ended the night with a donation magic trip to Trader Joes. Very successful.