Many of you have probably already realized this, but it occurred to me earlier this week that there is an underlying benefit to meeting the amazing people and seeing the incredible sights that I have this summer: it has been a great learning experience for me!

That theme of learning continued as I crossed Iowa last week and entered Illinois.  I learned a number of interesting things in Iowa. First, I learned that highways in Iowa (except I-35 & I-80) don’t have paved shoulders…not even a few inches on the right side of the white line, regardless of how heavily traveled they are!  This fact led to a second discovery: the people of Iowa are overwhelmingly concerned for the safety of cyclists; so much so, that rather than drive near you (and in the same lane) or yield behind you to wait for oncoming traffic to pass, an alarming percentage of motorists choose instead to merge completely into the opposing lane to pass you with no apparent concern for their own safety or the safety of the people in oncoming vehicles!  Don’t get me wrong, I truly apreciated their incredible courtesy, but after 3 days of witnessing countless “near-misses” my nerves were shot and I made a decision that led to the biggest learning of my time in Iowa.

In order to have the luxury of a paved shoulder I chose to get onto I-35 at Ames and take it to I-80 in Des Moines and to head toward Davenport from there (all of which I did).  I don’t particularly enjoy riding on the freeway (it’s noisy, not very scenic, and relatively dangerous) but under the circumstances I felt like it was the safest option. I’d been about 50 miles when I stopped to eat; as I was riding up the on-ramp to get back on I-80 I encountered a hitchhiker who flagged me down (I was thinking the guy must be crazy if he thought I was going to pick him up!) who told me that as the Highway Patrol was removing him from the freeway (it’s illegal to hitch on a controlled access roadway in IA) they asked him if he’d seen a guy riding his bike on I-80. He said that although he’d seen me a couple of hours earlier, he told the officers that he “had no idea what they were talking about”.  It was good that my fellow “criminal traveller” had warned me that John Law was looking for me; it allowed me about 40 minutes to prepare for what I expected to be a frustrating conversation (and hopefully to get myself in a frame of mind that would keep me from being arrested!).

Eventually, a patrol car pulled up beside me and told me to “pull over and get off the bike”  I complied and waited as the young patrolman came back to meet me. “What’re you doing” he asked; “I’m crossing the US by bicycle to raise money to fund research to cure Rett Syndrome, what are you doing” I said in my most professional tone…He must’ve expected me to be some kind of a nut because he seemed caught off guard by the fact that I could speak in complete sentences. So surprised in fact, that he stammered “uhhh, just hanging out” in response to my question of what he was doing. Before I could stop myself, I asked the obvious question “is there something I can do to help you?”…This was followed by some more stammering through which I learned that “people” were worried about me and where I was going. When I asked if those were the same people who had been swerving over the white line to get near me and honk, the officer was again surprised and said “there are some real idiots out here aren’t there?”.  He went on to say that I wouldn’t be able to continue riding on I-80; I asked if it was illegal to do it (I knew that it wasn’t).  The officer confirmed that it wasn’t illegal.  This fact was a little confusing to me; and after a rather circular conversation I concluded that one of us didn’t know the meaning of the word illegal (in hindsight it must’ve been me because I ended up back on a road with no shoulder, watching the concerned citizens of Iowa play chicken with one another while they worked to pass me).  Ultimately, I learned that the reason I couldn’t ride on I-80 was because the highway patrol said so, which made me laugh out loud (unfortunately).  I was reminded of Eric Cartman (it’s ok, admit it, you’ve watched South Park) shouting “respect my authoritaaa!”.

My departure from I-80 led to a much less humorous discovery. I had the opportunity to ride through some of the flood ravaged communities of eastern Iowa. It was truly shocking to see the number of businesses homes, bridges and roads that were damaged.  At one point I made a 20 mile detour due to the fact that a large section of HWY 6 had been completly washed away.  It’s difficult to imagine the loss you would feel if your life was washed away by the floodwaters of the Mississippi River and its tributaries.

After all of this “learning” I arrived in Davenport to visit my great aunt and uncle (not before being lost…not my fault this time either; someone gave me the wrong house number, right Dad?) and I was reminded that my uncle is a fantastic story teller, so I spent the next day and a half “learning” all sorts of interesting things; some of them may even have been true!  At one point, my aunt looked at me and said “by the time you leave here your head will be so full you’ll have to ride 4000 more miles to recover!”.  I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed seeing them (and eating great home cooking highlighted by heavy doses of homegrown vegetables).

Yesterday, I was able to do something I’ve been looking forward to for several months…I crossed over the Mississippi River and rode 100 miles along The Great River Road to beautiful, hilly Galena, IL (hometown of U.S. Grant) to meet the Oldenbergs.  Tami Oldenberg is Robert Smith’s cousin and from the outset of my trip, she and her husband John have been incredibly supportive and I was excited to finally get to meet them in person. Due to a late arrival on my part, we didn’t get to spend as much time together as I would’ve liked (the good news is I’ll be back to see them again in 10 days) before they hauled me off to the airport early this morning.

Today, I’m flying to Denver, where I’ll spend the next week resting and visiting friends while I prepare to race the Leadville 100 (a 100 mile mountain bike race) Saturday. I’m excited about the opportunity to catch up with friends and family and I’m looking forward to Leadville.

With any luck, on my next update I’ll be able to report that Leadville was a success (which will mean I finished) and that I got to race on the bike that I had custom built for it (at this point, that appears doubtful).

If you want to hit homeruns, you’ve got to swing big!

Scott

Five days and about 500 miles have passed since I updated last as I was leaving the Black Hills. In that time I’ve marched across South Dakota and part way across Iowa.

On my last day in the Black Hills, I stayed with Marc, Laura and Connor Reed. They weren’t people that I knew prior to knocking on their door Monday night (they were friends of friends of people I met earlier in the trip). Despite the fact that they didn’t know me from Adam, they were amazing. In addition to giving me a soft, dry place to sleep, they also fed me a steak dinner. Marc served in the military in Afghanistan and said that the hospitality they showed me was their way of paying back the generosity he and his family received while he was overseas… funny, I feel like it should be us, civilians, repaying him, not the other way around!

After leaving the Reed’s I rode about 90 miles to the edge of the Badlands where I camped at a place advertising “all u can eat made from scratch pancakes”…sounded like my kind of place. The next morning I learned that the record was 10 pancakes; I only managed to eat 5 so I guess I should’ve ridden farther the day before!

The next morning, I rode through Badlands National Park. No other name would work; they truly are bad lands, so otherworldly that they are beautiful in a very harsh sort of way. The day in the Badlands was also the first day I had any physical problems on the trip, it may have been caused by the giant ball of pancakes in my stomach, but my lower back was incredibly sore. As a result, I opted for the flatter, more populated route of I-90 across South Dakota.

Although it wasn’t overly scenic, riding I-90 turned out to be the right choice, for the next 300 miles I rode into a headwind and the passing traffic (I-90 isn’t too heavily traveled compared to most other freeways) helped to knock it down a little bit. Of the nearly 300 miles I spent on the interstate, almost 200 of them were in some form of road construction zone. About halfway through the 200 miles, I had to laugh when there was a road sign stating “road work next 43 miles”, I’ll never know what prompted the SD Dept of Transportation to pick that point to warn you that virtually the entire freeway was under construction!

On the 3rd day of riding I-90, I passed through a town called Mitchell at about the 60 mile mark of that day’s ride. Partly due to the fact that I’d been seeing signs for it for 2 days, and partly because my Dad told me I’d be stupid not to, I broke down and road into the town to see something called the “Corn Palace”. Surprisingly, the Corn Palace is exactly what it sounds like… a palace built primarily out of corn! Seeing it wasn’t the highlight of my day though; that came about an hour later when my back suddenly loosened up (further proof that a good solution to any problem is to keep pedaling through it). Not only did my back feel better but my legs felt great so I kept riding until dark when I reached Sioux Falls (125 miles for the new longest day of the trip).

As most everyone knows, the Midwest has had one of the wettest summers in history; and along the interstate in South Dakota that caused a disturbing phenomenon… hundreds of turtles and thousands of frogs have committed suicide by trying to cross the 4 lane divided highway. It was like riding an obstacle course trying to miss all of the shell fragments (l learned the hard way that they are sharp enough to cause multiple flat tires)!

Leaving Sioux Falls, I was lost for about 20 miles (in case you’ve forgotten I’m directionally challenged), but this time it wasn’t technically my fault (I like it when that happens); the highway I was looking for was called something else in the city and the map I was using didn’t mention that. In this case it turned out for the best as I ended up on a road that took me a long way into Iowa without much traffic to contend with.

You don’t need a sign on the side of the road to know when you enter Iowa from South Dakota… one second you’re riding along on the prairie and the next you’re surrounded by a sea of 8ft tall corn as far as you can see in every direction! As a young kid, I lived in Nebraska, so I wasn’t surprised by this; but if you’ve never been to this part of the country you’d be surprised by how beautiful the gently rolling, corn covered hills are. Every 20 miles or so is a small town with a grid of streets lined by houses with perfectly cut lawns surrounding a main street. The people are friendly (everyone waves) and helpful and riding through this part of the country gives you a sort of peaceful, quiet satisfaction that I’ve been enjoying for the last couple of days.

It’s still incredibly wet in Iowa and while I’ve been riding I’ve been caught in several downpours which have been nice because the rain is warm enough to be comfortable. Any other time, someone (maybe your Mom) would be telling you to come in out of the rain… in this case there’s nowhere for me to go so I just get to keep riding in the rain! It’s great fun, it makes you feel like a kid again! I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as I rode along trying to see out of rain-streaked glasses this afternoon.

Due to some extra long days, I’ve gotten a little bit ahead of schedule (I need to be in Dubuque to catch a plane to go race Leadville) and as a result I’m in the process of taking a really cool detour to Davenport Iowa where I’ll visit my great aunt and uncle (whom I haven’t seen in 10 years) before heading up to Debuque on Friday. I’m really looking forward to seeing them!

Like the line from the movie, this isn’t Heaven, it’s Iowa, but it’s pretty darn good (since I’m getting to ride my bike everyday, most places are pretty great now that I think of it)!

Ride it till it’s rode out!

Scott

I’ve spent the last 4 days exploring the Black Hills with Kelly. In the last update that I posted, I alluded to the fact that the Black Hills were larger and more magnificent than I had expected. Since that update, that sense of pleasant surprise has only grown.

As she made plans to join me for the weekend, Kelly had researched bike rides that she wanted to do and she’d made arrangements to rent a bike from Rabbit Cycles in Hill City. I heard her say those things, but I was not prepared for what she actually meant. When we got to the bike shop I discovered that she had managed to get the owner to rent her his personal, Dura Ace equipped carbon fiber road bike (not a beach cruiser intended for some short tourist rides).  I guess everybody likes to help a beautiful girl, because I’m pretty sure than I couldn’t call a bike shop and convince a complete stranger to rent me their personal ride for any amount of money.

That was just the start of more impressive things to come. Kelly had selected 3 rides that had us covering 140 miles with 14,000 feet of climbing!  I honestly didn’t think she was serious, but about 1000′ into the first climb she rode by me (and my trailer) and proceeded to peel me right off her wheel!  When I finally caught up with her at Sylvan Lake (luckily for me she’d stopped to enjoy the remarkable beauty of the lake), I started negotiating for a change in plans that would allow me to do at least some of the riding she’d planned without pulling the trailer!  We figured out how to set it up so we could do about 1/2 of the rides without the trailer (I just needed to step up the effort for the other 1/2)!  Over the course of the next 3 days we rode Needles Highway which is littered with tunnels, switchbacks, and incredible granite formations; the wildlife loop in Custer State Park (where we saw antelope and wild burros but unfortunately no buffalo); and the crown jewel of the area Iron Mountain Road.

Iron Mountain Road consisted of a great switchbacking climb which provided an outstanding view of Mount Rushmore at its summit. The most amazing part of the ride, however, was the descent…I love descending switchbacks on the road, but this road has something even better…corkscrews where the road switches 120 degrees all the way back under itself!  I’ve never had so much fun on pavement in my life. On top of the great road, virtually everytime you switched direction you had a picture perfect view of Rushmore (several times the view was framed by a tunnel through the mountainside!)!

After the fun ride down Iron Mountain, we climbed up the 2 mile, 10% grade to the entrance to Mount Rushmore (on this climb, Kelly again proved that the trailer and I were no match for her).  If you’ve never been to Rushmore, there are two things that strike you about it.  The first is the sheer size of the carving, it truly is a mountain-sized work of art. The second thing is the vision and ambition that must have been required to not only conceive of a project so large, but also to complete it so successfully!

Finally, this morning we went to Crazy Horse. I have been looking forward to visiting this site since before my trip began. Part of my interest in Crazy Horse is due to the legend of the man, the fearless warrior, who was Crazy Horse and another part of the attraction was that my Dad had visited the rocky sculpture as a boy and I’m amazed by the fact that seemingly very little progress toward completion has been made in the 53 years between his visit and mine. Shockingly, Crazy Horse, when/if completed will be even larger than Mt Rushmore!  Unknowingly, our visit coincided with some blasting work so we were lucky enough to get to see some of the creation of the monument (you can see the dust from an explosion that removed 300 tons of granite from the base of the sculpture as it floats in front of the monument in the picture here in this update).

As I write this, I’m waiting to go meet a cousin of a friend of a friend of mine (hard to believe that someone that distantly related would allow a complete stranger to stay in their house, isn’t it?) who has been kind enough to allow me to stay with him tonight before I start my trek across the Badlands and on to Iowa and Illinois. It was great to be able to spend the weekend with Kelly, in fact, I’m sure it will be a bit of an adjustment to get used to riding by myself and seeing all of these amazing things by myself (or with brand new friends who were strangers only moments before).

I’ve now ridden 3000 miles and passed the 1/2 point of my journey. So far, my trip has been marked by incredible timing (if almost always arrived at my destinations at just the right time and in great conditions); great people (I’ve constantly been amazed by the generosity and spirit of both friends and total strangers); and great scenery (this has been the most eye opening geology/geography/history lesson I could have ever received).

I want to thank all of you who are following my progress and supporting me with your encouraging words and thoughts and I especially want to thank all of you who have chosen to lend your support to Mikyla-Cure!  I have the tendency to always think that the best is yet to come…I’m not sure that can be possible in this case, but I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to the adventure of finding out!

I’m looking forward to seeing you again (or meeting you for the first time) soon!

Ride fast and take chances!

Scott