Day 36: All American Rose Garden (2,000 roses)

Gil's cliff notes will be added tonight or tomorrow by Jean. [Added late Sunday night, technically 6/18.] For now, the group left this morning a little after 7 am for their 80 or 83 mile ride to Richmond, IN. The temperature was a cool 65/70 F in the morning, but by the time they arrived in Richmond it was in the low 90's. [Ick. -Jean] The first 20 miles were over rolling hills, and then it flattened out for the next 20 miles. At the SAG stop around mile 40 they were met by some members of a cycling club....one of whose members knew someone riding with the CrossRoads group. The cycling club members brought some donuts to add to their SAG stop food, which I'm sure were greatly enjoyed. The last 40 miles were again over rolling hills and along corn fields and pasture land. They passed through several small towns, and at mile 70 they chanced upon another wonderful Dairy Queen. [If they had Dairy Queens in our area, I'd have a great idea for Dad's Christmas gift this year - gift cards! Unless he may actually get DQed out by the end of the tour. -Jean] Gil enjoyed a burger, coke and ice cream and then interviewed a young family enjoying an outdoor meal. [The family pictured to the right -Jean]

At about 1:30 they arrived at the Best Western in Richmond. The winds today were either neutral or a tail wind, so Gil's average speed for the day was 15 mph. They had dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. [A favorite of Dad's! -Jean] People are still having problems with their "posteriors"...Gil said his wasn't any worse today. (I know there must be a few people who are really anxious to hear this little detail.)

The next two days will be hilly with miles of 103 and 98. Sounds like fun, doesn't it???

Gil's Cliff Notes [posted late Sunday night, technically 6/18; you can tell he's afraid of today's getting eaten again by webmail!]
83 mile ride over flat and rolling hills. Cool at start with temp rapidly rising. Pretty warm by time reached hotel at 1:30 PM. Yes, as you can see we made good time. Rode with Tony, my main riding buddy. Wind zero to small tail wind. Saw more corn and pasture. Some trees too and rode through a couple of small towns. A fun ride and nice to be at hotel a bit earlier than usual. Butt did okay today.

Day 35: Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Velodrome

Pictures and comments added by Jean late Sunday night [technically 6/18].

It was a 62 mile ride from Crawfordsville to Indianapolis (or 67 miles, depending on whether one goes by the Crossroads itinerary or Gil etc's calculation). They started out at 8:05 and rode on numerous small country roads. It was a day for careful watching of the cue sheet, since there were 40 difficult turns.........only one wrong turn by Gil's group, which added a mile to their trip. [Dad, what were the average number of wrong turns? -Jean] The temperature was in the mid-90's with neutral winds. About 40 miles into the ride there was a SAG stop in the driveway of a dairy farm owned by Donna and Bob. [see picture to the right; Gil's email labels them as Bob and Ginny, which...may be correct, or may be him thinking of Jane's siblings -Jean] They have 130 dairy cows which are milked twice a day. They were asked if they used BAG BALM on the cows' udders to clean and medicate them. The riders informed the farmers that they also are familiar with the "balm" for their sore butts.....which got a laugh from the farmers. [Charming. -Jean]

Some of the riders took a side trip to the Velodrome (a bike race track with curved sides), but the rest of them decided that the additional 3 miles to their day wasn't needed. Gil arrived at the motel around 1:45, and after cleaning up sat in the shade at the pool and visited with other riders. Had a problem sending his "cliff notes" and pictures tonight.....I think one picture made it to Jean's laptop. [Jean has since compiled five pictures, some sent the next day, from her inbox, Gil's inbox, and Gil's sent files. Because an extra "l" in one's last name means some other gmail user is getting random pictures from Gil, which doesn't help Jean much. Cliff notes seem to have been lost; the error message indicated he was logged out due to idleness while composing them. -Jean, who is tired of talking about herself in the third person]

Tomorrow's ride is about 80 miles with the possibility of a TAILWIND (yippee!!!) followed by four additional days with rides even longer. The CrossRoads people said that the current group of riders were unusually well prepared and there is less use of the CrossRoads vehicles by the riders than previous groups. Good training, guys and gals!!!

The picture to the left is a tad blurry, but of some "cool office buildings near the hotel in Indianapolis." -Jean

Day 34: 8th State Line Crossing, Old Jail Museum

Gil's Cliff Notes: (sent 6/14, 8:16 pm)
Today was helmet decoration day. I added some "enhancements" to my helmet - namely a tail [Enlarge/click on picture above to view; he is now bald with a ponytail. -Jean]. Not a real tail. Most riders participated in this event and some were very creative. My favorite was Jim's. He'd fastened his old bike seat on top of his helmet. Pretty cool. We made it into Indiana and a new time zone. Ride was somewhat boring and the temperature rose into the mid 90's. The wind still isn't blowing the way it is supposed to but at least today it wasn't as bad as yesterday. The aero-bars worked very well. Clearly increased speed about a mile an hour, hands didn't tingle, fairly comfortable position to ride in, didn't have any soreness in arms, didn't take any Aleve and most importantly, I look like a real bike rider. Had lunch at a nice little restaurant at mile 58 in a little town after Covington. A great little all American place. Interviewed a couple tables of local folk. What fun. Arrived at Holiday Inn at 2:45 PM. On way to room across courtyard passed by pool and other riders and decided since I'd sent swimsuit home to just immediately jump in. [He really did send the swimsuit home. With the gun, I believe. I guess they were just taking up too much room and weight in his luggage. Nylon (?) shorts are heavy! -Jean] It just looked so good. After emptying my jersey pockets I did. Eliminated the need to shower and wash clothes. This could become standard operating procedure. Sat in chair by pool to dry off. Butt still tender but better today. Tomorrow's ride is only 67 miles, but it is supposed to be hot.

Jean's just happy that he jumped in fully clothed instead of getting around the swimsuit issue some other way. Since he called late tonight - we were out and he's no longer behind us time-wise, which helps us but not him - he said not to take any notes and just to use his emailed cliff notes.

Day 33: Fourth Rest Day, University of Illinois, CR Helmet Decorating Day

Today was a rest day. Gil and Tony spent the morning at Dale and Linda's home in Bloomington and returned to the Drury Inn around 3 in the afternoon. Cleaned bikes and Gil tried out the Aero-Bars added to his handlebars and is glad he purchased them. He's wondering how many riders will decorate their helmets for the competition. I mentioned that he already had his decorated, since he added the feathers days ago. I was informed that he has "enhanced" the look of his helmet after visiting a craft shop. We should see some pictures of the helmet decorations tomorrow, if we're lucky.

Day 32: Home of Speed Skater Bonnie Blair; One Month Trip Anniversary

Gil will post or send his cliff notes tomorrow morning. Until then, you have my notes from our conversation this evening. The group left Springfield, IL for an 87 mile ride to Champaign, IL. Things were basically OK until the first SAG stop at 45 miles into the ride. Then the wind became a very strong headwind and they CRAWLED at 8 mph for the rest of the day. Gil arrived at the hotel around 5, after a stop at a bike shop to have aero-bars attached to his handlebars. If I remember correctly, aero-bars extend in front of the handlebars and the rider becomes more aerodynamic....you riders know what I mean, right??? The rest of you can ask your friendly neighborhood rider.

Gil and Tony went to spend the night and tomorrow's rest day with Dale and Linda in Bloomington, IL. They are enjoying the good company, being in a HOME again, and access to a computer and a washer/dryer. They had a good dinner at an Italian restaurant.

Adeel - email Gil please...he asked us for your email address and we can't find it anywhere to send to him. THANKS. [Dad - if there's somewhere other than your outlook or brown address book to look, please let us know! -Jean]

[Jean's comments (1 am): Wow, Dad's been gone for a month? Gil's cliff-notes arrived before Mom had finished the first paragraph of this post; due to having a houseguest, my tv/tivo are in the computer room. She found fourth-season Friends very entertaining! (Who wouldn't?) Since neither of us can lift heavy objects anymore, it seems the tv will stay with the computer - surely improving her productivity - and I'll stay on the floor since the room has no couch. But we didn't feel very productive when Dad called my cell phone at almost 11 pm (for him) to have me check my email! (He stayed up late!)

He also sent us the following link (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gsLxotvK6Jk ) to youtube - it's a three-minute slideshow/music video that one of the riders (Tom) created and uploaded. I don't think I saw Dad, but I did see lots of things Dad's taken pictures with! Good to know that "riding" that big gray bunny (photo album 3?) wasn't just him! Dad did say that tomorrow would be a "much needed" rest day.]

Gil's Cliff Notes (11:45 pm)
Cumulative effects of the last week caught up with me today. A sunny but bad somewhat windy day. 87 mile ride. Wind directly in our face. Not to bad until after first SAG at 45 miles. Then wind increased. Our pace dropped from the 13 to 14 range to 8 to 10 miles an hour. Not good with 43 miles left to go. ETA suddenly slipped from 2:30 pm to sometime after 4 PM. Especially hard ride after this last week which saw the tour cover over 600 miles, with hills, rain and yesterday's ride of 107 miles. My butt is pretty sore. My legs are pretty sore, but proud I was able to complete today's ride. I felt as tired as I've felt the entire tour at the end of ride. Very thankful to have a rest day tomorrow. After the ride went to bike store to have aero-bars installed. This should help particularly with riding into the wind. These bars enable you to rest your elbows on the handlebar and position your hands in front of the bar. It gives you another position to ride in and most riders find it a restful position as well as one that is much more aerodynamic.

After ride Tony and I drove over to Bloomington to Dale and Linda's house. Ate at a nice Italian restaurant and played some of ride video on Dale's high definition TV. Great time! Thursday's ride will be only 57 miles and hopefully the wind will blow in the direction it is supposed to - west to east.

Day 31: 5th Century, Abraham Lincoln's Boyhood Home

Gil's Cliff Notes (sent Mon. 8:50 pm):
Long day. 108 miles. Stopped at every SAG stop and every country store (with Dale). [see picture of Dale below -Jean] Off from hotel at 7:08 am. Gentle headwind. Crisp temperature. Fairly major hills first 30 miles then flattened out - especially after crossing Illinois River at mile 49. Had a good time but due to headwind and cross wind it was slower than would have liked given its distance. Felt pretty beat up at 57 miles where we stopped at a small country store at noon. Shoulder hurt. Ate a breakfast burrito and some ice cream and a huge coke and took 2 Advil. When left store felt much better. Down the road we went. Mostly small country roads with little traffic. Country very beautiful. Great expansive blue sky and green fields. Lots of corn. Good looking corn. What a country! By 3:00 pm and 85 miles into it had seen enough of pretty countryside. Arrived Springfield hotel 5:18 pm. Showered and off to Maverick Steakhouse where group had supper. I had a massive amount of food. Really outdid myself. Steak, Chicken, 2 salad bars, ice cream, baked potato - you get the picture.

Well, Gil sent a pretty comprehensive cliff note for today's ride. I'll see if I can add anything from our conversation which wasn't already covered in his paragraph above. He mentioned that several of the hills in the morning were 1/2 to 1 mile in length......that's a lot of uphill pedaling. Gil and Dale rode together all day and took videos. Beautiful country, could see from horizon to horizon, just like further west, but the fields and countryside were all green, with beautiful cornfields. They passed through small towns about every 10 miles. The towns are closer together than those further west, and that helps the riders. They rode through Jacksonville, IL (pop: 10,000) and stopped at the Dairy Queen. Apparently someone from the town newspaper saw a group of cyclists and sent a photographer to check out what was going on. Dale and Gil's pictures were taken and a short article was in the Jacksonville Journal-Courier newspaper this evening. [NOTE: Jean will post the article in a new post below this summary.] A lady who was in the Dairy Queen overheard them and when they left, she asked to take their picture. (Turn-abouts fair play......the tour photographers are being photographed themselves.)

Gil said his knees and shoulders are fairly sore after today's ride, but Dale did great. Tomorrow's ride will be 87 miles to Champaign, IL and their fourth rest day. Here's hoping that the terrain will be flatter. Gil plans to spend the rest day visiting Dale and Linda Arbour's home in Bloomington. There are 15 riding days left on the tour. The countryside is so nice, as are the people they have met. The people along the route are interested in the tour and seem to enjoy talking to the cyclists.

Journal-Courier Article - Kings of the Road Stop for Queen: Cross-Country Cyclists Stop in Jacksonville

The following article can be viewed here, but there was so much javascript in various ads that it crashed Mom's web browser. (Mine did ok, since I have all javascript blocked unless I specifically say otherwise, but saving it was a similar disaster.) Feel free to view the original, but it may make your system buggy until you restart. And I've reproduced the whole thing below, so....why? (Though I have removed last names from the article, since I think we've fairly consistently done so in the blog so far.)

Also: MANY thanks to Mom for taking this thing over temporarily, so I don't continue to tug at my stitches by using my fingers and thumb any more than necessary. A picture of my lovely wrap is included to justify my lack of blogging lately. (Hey, for all you know it's all a ruse because I felt like getting more sleep each night!)

Kings of the road stop for Queen: Cross-country cyclists stop in Jacksonville

BY STEVE WARMOWSKI

Dale, of Bloomington, and Gil, of Fairfax, Va., join Jim, of West Chester, Penn., (not pictured) in a rest stop at the Dairy Queen in Jacksonville Monday afternoon. They were part of a group of 40 bicyclists on a 7-week trek from Los Angeles to Boston. The group went 107 miles from Quincy to Springfield Monday, and [Gil] said the route proved false the notion that Illinois is flat. He joked that his nickname was "Chief Four Feathers" for the items he's picked up along the way and stuck into his helmet. They also call him "Roadkill Gil" because he almost added a nice raccoon tail for his collection, but abandoned the idea because the 'coon was a little far gone.

[Jim] said he and a group of friends biked cross-country when he was 18. Now 51, he's making the same trip with his wife, Carol, but in the opposite direction. A fond memory of his first trip was having newspapers do stories on his travels. Last time he had to get papers mailed to him. This time, he can get the fact that he drank four lemonades in Jacksonville from the Internet.

Day 30: 2,000 miles! 7th State Line Crossing, Mississippi River, Historic Mansions, Walking Tours

Pictures added by Jean at...3 am. Ugh. (Resume/cover letter/Bailey won out. As anyone who knows me knows that kitties always will!)

Gil's cliff notes (Sent Sun 7:33 pm):
Weather was threatening from the start. Overcast with black clouds. 5 miles out saw a bank of clouds on our right that were interesting (see picture [but probably not pictured here - Jean]). Wavy, swirly clouds. Looked like we might outflank them. Not the case. Soon were in a heavy downpour and soaked. Water in shoes. I did have my rain jacket and it kept me warm. Saw a group of riders taking shelter at a little country store but decided to press on. Dale now some distance ahead of Tony and I. We rode for about a half hour in some bad rain. When a car or truck went by we were enveloped in mist and water. Fortunately we were on a country road with no 18 wheelers. Road was also freshly paved and smooth which made going easier. The wind however wasn't with us and we were only averaging 13 miles an hour. Then it stopped. An hour into ride we saw Cross Roads support along the road and they had a sign reading 2000 miles. Yippee!. Lifted our spirits and we took pictures. Afterwards got caught in another downpour. Pressed on and at mile 54 stopped at small store and had some fried chicken and coffee and ice cream. Good!! Made Mississippi River around 1:30 PM. An emotional moment. More pictures. Then once across the bridge took pictures at IL state line. [see Gil to the right, in the center of the picture - Jean]

Quincy is a pretty city with nice mansions along Central Ave., where our hotel is located.

Dale handled video and beat everyone to the bridge. Did a great job of taping and rode very strong.

Ate Supper at Kelly's, an Irish place. Nice ribs and salad bar. Ice cream was good too.

A lot of what Gil sent above is in the material he told us about during our phone conversation, so my input will be even less than usual. Their ride from Kirksville, MO to Quincy, IL was 74 miles (a lot of which was in several heavy downpours....such fun). However, he said it was a "pretty good ride," so I guess in comparison to some of their days it would have been "pretty good," but riding all day in the rain doesn't sound "pretty good" to me. They were happy to see the "2,000 mile" sign. During one of the downpours a small group of cyclists took refuge for awhile under the Knox City Post Office awning [see second picture of post - Jean]. The high-point of today's ride was crossing the Mississippi River and entering their 7th State of the tour. Dale was manning the video camera today and was ahead of most of the riders, so he managed to get pictures of many of the riders crossing the Mississippi River. A number of riders rode the SAG wagons today, some due to the past 2 days of hard rides and some due to the rain. Tomorrow will be a harder ride...107 miles to Springfield, IL.

Pictures Added For Past Few Days

*pecking away at keys, which takes forever* Evening rituals around here are becoming real fun - Sandy's smart and goes to bed, and Mom and I get to entice kitty to eat, swallow various drugs, and then keep a needle in him for several minutes. Then there's the blog! (Thanks to Mom for covering this thing, since pecking this out kind of hurts. Yet I keep typing...) And pictures! (We place healing the kitty's kidneys slightly above the blog at the moment, because we'd like Gil to return to just as many of his pets as he left. And frankly we're kind of fond of him.) And now Mom gets to hold the blow dryer so I can dry my hair! It's such fun around here!

I finally did a more substantive check of my email for the past few days and downloaded the pictures Dad's been sending. Pictures have been added to the following posts:

• Day 26
• Day 26: Addendum
• Day 27
• Day 28
• Day 29 (it looks real easy to get carsick in MO...)
  

Or I should have listed them in reverse order, since they appear in descending order on the blog. Whatever. You're all intelligent and can figure it out! There will be a new itinerary...someday.

Day 29: Thousand Hills State Park, 148 "Roller Coaster" Hills, Picnic Lunch

Gil's cliff notes for Day 27 were added this evening.

Additional cliff notes/story from Gil for Day 25 added at the end of that day's post.

Pictures added to this post by Jean at 2:15 am.

Gil's cliff notes for Day 29 (written 6:45 pm Saturday)
Beautiful day of riding. The 148 hills that were passed off as "roller coaster hill" at road rap were misrepresented. Unlike a roller coaster where you could coast to the top of the next hill, you had to pedal your little heart out, sweat some blood, and stand on the pedals while in your lowest gear. These hills started at mile 25 and went on relentlessly until we reached the hotel. My legs - calves and knees are sore - I wonder why. Total cumulative climbing today was 4800 ft. according to a couple of cyclists' Garmin's (satellite GPS device). [See Dale to the right. -Jean]

MO is a beautiful state. The roads are not the best but the people are very nice. I've included a couple of pics of the hills [to be added later....too late at night for me to be learning 'photo insertion' -Jane]. Note the riders on the hills as they give some scale to these hills. Arrived hotel around 2 PM. Dale did great riding. He carried video camera today and will carry and tape while on tour.

During our phone conversation this evening, Gil told me it was great having Dale on the ride today.....he did very well and did the video taping for the day. The ride started out with the bikers riding through rolling countryside for the first 25 miles. Then they reached the hills-----continuous hills, NO FLAT areas------for 50 relentless miles. (Darn, doesn't that sound like lots of fun?) By the time they reached the first SAG stop at 50 miles, they were all tired of HILLS.

Beautiful day, beautiful countryside....with cattle and horses and rolling terrain. It was a tremendous workout, but they all made it. Very friendly people, reminds Gil of Mayberry, RFD (The Andy Griffith Show on TV for you younger readers). Tomorrow's ride should be a little gentler, with less hills.....Gil hopes so because the day after tomorrow is a 107 mile ride to Champaign, IL.

Pictures

I'll try to get some back-pictures up tomorrow - I've been busy being knocked out on vicodin or out having a life, and Mom and I were gone running errands for 12 (her) and 10 (me) hours today. Blame the weddings I'm attending/in the next two weekends. Or the bandage wrap immobilizing my left hand, making pill-bottle opening and any task requiring an opposable thumb super-fun. Still pecking away at keys and pulling at the same stitch repeatedly (which doesn't hurt at all), so I'm making no promises on the next DVD's photo album. And we have a house-guest and the cat's still getting 3 meds 2x/day plus sub-q fluids, which he just loves. So. That and my own job applications and stitches may take priority for a few more days. But I will sort and post pictures Dad's emailed from the past few days.

Day 28: Special SAG stop at Maysville Historical Society - Home of Long Distance Cycling, Dinner picnic

Another hilly day was in the cards for our riders today. They left St. Josephs, MO at 7:10 am under clear skies with a crisp temperature and some wind. The wind was pretty neutral today (I bet they were all thankful for that !). Very hilly country. They rode 30 miles to Maysville, and the first arrivals waited outside of town for the entire group to meet up. They were all wearing their team shirts and rode into town in formation. Each year the ladies of the Historical Society provide pastries and food for the cyclists. Some kids were allowed to leave classes and come down the hill to have journals signed. They were in Maysville until approx. 10 am, and definitely enjoyed the time spent there.

The route today consisted of 86 miles of unrelenting hills.....a good workout, I hear. Gil said he "did well.".The weather was beautiful and Missouri is very pretty...reminds him some of Virginia.

They saw some buffalo and Gil made some noises and three came to the side of the road, giving him an opportunity for some good video shots. Gil's nickname of "Chief Gil" (due to the feathers he has glued to his helmet) changed today.....going downhill quickly, I'm sad to say. The story goes that he "obtained" a raccoon tail, thinking it would look cool trailing behind him if attached to his helmet. The tail was put in a Ziplock bag (fortunately, since it was also maggot-infested). He tried to clean it up at the hotel, but it fell apart under the hose. (Thank you, God.) For the moment his nickname is "Roadkill Gil". I truly hope that doesn't last too long, it doesn't bring a very nice picture to mind, does it?

In Chillicothe, Gil's friend Dale Arbour joined the group for the next 4 days of the tour. Dale's wife drove him there over some of the route they will be riding tomorrow, and I hear there were some comments like "Oh no, this hill is gonna kill me" and "what was I thinking?" Apparently someone on a previous ride counted the hills they'll encounter tomorrow.....148 hills. Hope they have fun and I'm REALLY glad I'm not there.

Some of the riders met this evening to watch the last 3 days' taping on the video.

Day 27: 6th State Line Crossing, Pony Express Museum, Lewis and Clark Trail

Gil's Cliff Notes (written 5 pm Thurs; added 11:20 pm Sat)
Underway shortly after 7 AM. Fully fueled with hotcakes, eggs, cereal, bacon and sausage, Coffee too and yes, some orange juice. Sky heavily overcast with wind. But, unlike yesterday wind was at our back and not nearly as hard. Made excellent time right from the start and raced through the rolling country side at 18 to 24 miles an hour for sustained periods. Reached first SAG stop at 32 mile mark around 9 AM. Ate, drank gator and water, bought a banana at the store that was there and took off. Reached MO river and Dairy Queen at 60 mile point around 10:45 am and joined other cyclist for coke and ice cream (to keep fueled). Then across the river (a narrow old one) into MO (I can't spell it) and pictures at state sign. No fooling around. Dark clouds and thunderstorm can be seen. Raced with the wind the remaining 26 miles into St. Josephs and reached Drury Inn before 1 PM. A very nice hotel. Happy camper. After showering went immediately to nice barbecue restaurant near hotel to get some chicken and beans and salad. What a difference between yesterday and today!!

Jean's carpel tunnel surgery went fine today, but it looks like I'll be writing the blog for a few days. Hopefully she'll be able to continue adding the photos or willing to "talk me thru the process" AGAIN.

Today's 85 mile ride proved to be "easy" (Gil's description not mine).....a tail wind pushed them to a 1:00 arrival time. Everyone was glad it wasn't a repeat of yesterday's ride. At mile 52 they crossed the river into Missouri and found another Dairy Queen. After an ice cream and coke were consumed, the tour followed the river valley to St. Josephs. There was a BBQ place next door and Gil enjoyed some chicken BBQ.

Tomorrow it's on to Chillicothe where they meet up with a good riding buddy of Gil's--Dale. Dale lives in Bloomington, IL and is joining the tour for 4 days......until they reach Champaign, IL, the next REST day.

I realize this is shorter than most of the entries, but I've entered everything he mentioned to me this evening....REALLY !!!

Day 26: Addendum

Jean couldn't read my chicken-scratch? How strange. Gil did mention to me that they shut down part of the interstate to large trucks for part of the day. He informed me that Kansas is NOT flat.....there is about 2,500' elevation at the Flint Hill area, and for some reason he didn't like going only 4 mph at some places due to the WIND. Rick, one of the mechanics, said it was the worst crosswind he's seen on the tour. Gil now has a temporary "stylized cyclist" tattoo on his calf, much less hair and bird feathers attached to his bike helmet. [See picture on left. -Jean] Does anyone think he's been on tour too long?

The wind was really howling on occasion, and once it picked up Gil's whistle on the string around his neck, blew it to his side and actually blew his whistle. The wind was really something. He took some pictures of cows with their butts into the wind while others were facing the wind and the grass was blowing like "you know what," [see picture below. -Jean] and they were all glad to get to Topeka.

The van stopped in an "itty bitty" little town called Bogart (between the 75 mile SAG stop and Topeka), and Gil talked to and videotaped some old timers at the general store. He's found that the video camera is a great social tool for meeting and talking to local people - "hey, I'm riding across the country and like to interview people. Would you mind talking to me about your town?" The people in Kansas are extremely friendly....even hotels are more accommodating. All the biking books report that the people in Kansas are the friendliest, and so far on the tour that has proven to be true.....not that other people haven't been, but folks in Kansas really stand out in that department.

Day 26: Half-Way Point: 1,702 Miles! 4th Century, Capitol of Kansas

Gil at a SAG stop (White City, Kansas - "very small town") to the right.

Alrighty. Well I have to leave in 5 1/2 hours to have carpal tunnel surgery (didn't talk to Dad until I was about to go out for the evening, then when I got home I was busy sub-qing the kitty, eating while I still could, and showering) and while I have a bunch of notes from my conversation with Dad, I can't really read Mom's from talking to him later. So maybe I'll peck this out with one hand tomorrow (or over the weekend) or maybe she'll write it up. Suffice it to say:

Everybody agreed that today was a very ugly day. Gusts of up to 53 mph, some of which pushed Dad and Tony right across the road. Fortunately they were in a very rural area without much traffic; could have been quite bad. Many of them repeatedly unclipped their shoes from the bike pedals because they feared they were losing control of the situation. Dad rode 75 miles and then decided at the SAG stop that it was just too dangerous to justify finishing out the last 30 miles; he and Tony took the van the rest of the way to Topeka. "Safety is the number one priority on this trip, fun is number two. We weren't doing too well in either department today." A little more than half the group took the van at some point today, and some of the strongest riders who rode through admitted at the hotel that yes, it was dangerous and they probably shouldn't have ridden. One of the women walked her bike for half a mile after the SAG stop Dad and Tony called it quits at due to the danger imposed by the wind. A couple of times the wind shifted and they went from 8 mph to 30+ mph as the wind suddenly became a tailwind; unfortunately that only lasted for a mile or so, resulting in four miles of easy going before they were fighting for control again.

The one upside is that he thinks he captured the wind pretty well with the video camera. He's disappointed that he didn't do the entire 105 miles, but with the danger and an 85 mile ride tomorrow it was "clearly the thing to do." Unfortunately strong winds are predicted again for tomorrow, but they should be in a more favorable direction.

I MAY peck more details out tomorrow (while coming off of twilight IV meds and on vicodin; could be fun reading!), may not do so until the weekend. Expect tomorrow's post (at least) to be from Jane, since I indicated to Dad that she was the one to give notes to. She's much happier about taking over blog duties than she is about possibly having to sub-q the kitty's fluids (a drip from an IV bag, not an injection). Dad's DVDs of pictures (and stills from the video camera from Kansas) arrived today, but not real sure when uploading those will happen either. Maybe over the weekend?

Day 25: Third Rest Day in Abilene

We're officially on the second (and final!) page of the itinerary! (And I've finally learned to spell "itinerary" correctly on the first try!)

Gil's Cliff Notes [written 6 am Wed; added 1 pm Wed]
Great day off. Hiked into town. Mailed stuff home. Visited Eisenhower Museum. Nice. Toured his small house. Amazing he and 6 brothers could live in it. Went to antique stores. Bought a nice glass bottle for $7.00. Then ran into other cyclist and we took car over to a country restaurant. Good. Real good. Dropped off at hotel after eating and got a hair cut. [Jean: IT'S NOT A HAIRCUT.] Roommate videotaped it. Local reporter for newspaper arrived as I was finishing hair cut. A group of us filled her in on what the tour was about. Then off to dinner at Kerby House, an old Victorian place with high ceilings. Pretty neat. Dinner excellent.

News of the day: Dad shipped his gun "and some other stuff" home via UPS. We got a package (via FedEx) today of some spare clothes he's done lugging around. Now expect to see Gil in even MORE repetitive outfits in photos!

Visited the Eisenhower Museum and took pictures (one is at the bottom of this post) . Wandered out and about in Abilene and did some antiquing, then ran into a CrossRoads group with a rented car and headed out to a farm-house restaurant with them for lunch. (Where the picture to the left was taken.) Then he went back to the hotel and "goofed off" and did some email. He sent home some pictures. So I opened my email, all unsuspecting, and there's a thumbnail picture of Gil. With no hair.

He also visited the "Kerby house," circa 1883. A banker (named Kirby?) used to own the house, and it's now being used as a restaurant. They had "a very nice supper there." Then I talked to him around 8 (local time), at which point he thought he would probably go to bed early since tomorrow's a long day.

Oh, what? You want to hear more about why Gil has no hair? Yeah, he evidently shaved his head. He claims that he didn't shave it; "I got a haircut!" Meanwhile there's about a millimeter of fuzz left; closest setting on the razor. He shaved his head. One of the program coordinators was trying to convince riders to shave their heads to write "CrossRoads" in their hair (either shaved or with dye, it sounds like), and Gil decided to "be supportive" and at least get the haircut. Meanwhile I think that he should include some warning or explanation with such photos, rather than having me all innocently go to download the day's pictures to upload here and seeing my dad, bald. He's never been bald before. At least not in the last 24.5 years. Or ever, Mom says. It's been long before, but not nonexistent. Other riders are telling him that "he looks 30 years younger!" He said they may be humoring him. He thinks he'll ride with the little hat (used on desert days to keep the water they squirted through their helmets close to the head) on under his helmet rather than slathering his head with sunscreen to protect the parts exposed by the helmet's slits. Anyway, the point is that he's kind of off being a frat boy, but without the women and booze (which we appreciate!). He is, in his words, "having fun!" Which we're also happy to hear. (Though I think he was having plenty of fun while still having hair, which shouldn't be underestimated.) Hey, his kitten has shaved "arms" for all his IVs over the weekend - maybe it was a show of solidarity with Bailey! Thinking he'll maaaaaaybe have half an inch of hair when we see him in Boston? How fast does hair grow?

Tomorrow will be a hard day. It's a 105 mile ride to Topeka, and it's forecasted to be very windy. Like, 20-40 mph winds windy, with gusts up to 50 mph. They're hoping the winds will be in the right direction (heading east, giving them an incredibly strong tailwind); it looks like they may be. (Otherwise it's going to be a really crappy day.) Strong winds sound inevitable tomorrow, so cross your fingers for a favorable direction!

Pictures: Gil in Abilene just above (or to the left, depending on your screen size), Eisenhower museum below.

More From Gil (written Sat, June 9; added same day)
In Abilene, KS I visited an antique shop and spotted this old car rear view mirror. Just what I needed. Only $4.50! I take it to the counter where the owner and his wife are. They say and a surprised manner, "You're buying the rear view mirror!" I say, "Yes Indeed, I'm getting the REAR VIEW mirror. They say, "Are you going to put it on your handle bar?" I say, "No, I'm getting it as a REAR VIEW mirror - literally." They don't quite get it so I say, "After sitting on the bike seat for seven hours a day things happen to your butt but you don't know quite what. You need additional information about what has happened to make good decisions - so I got a REAR VIEW mirror." They laughed.

Day 24: Eisenhower Library, Museum and Boyhood Home; Greyhound Racing Hall of Fame

Gil's Cliff Notes
Departed 8:10 am, an hour later than usual due to the shorter distance. Hey, it may have been shorter ride than usual but at mile 22 we made a left turn onto Rt. 15 N and the wind blew directly into our faces. Next 40 miles crawled along over rolling terrain at 10 miles an hour gaining 1100 ft. of elevation. Hard work. I hate the wind when it is in my face. Would much rather do hills. It was hard for everyone and when I arrived at Holiday Express Inn in Abilene I felt beat up. Knees a tad sore and butt a tad sore and general whooped. Fortunately, a Dairy Queen was right next to the hotel and a group of us made a bee-line for it. A giant coke (Classic [ie not Diet]) a giant burger and an ice cream sundae help me recover!!!

Today our riders headed from McPherson to Abilene, KS - a 62 mile ride. As you may have read above, they got some extra sleep since it was a "short" ride. But everyone agreed that today was "not the easy day it was billed to be." It makes everybody a bit weary of their next ride - after their rest day tomorrow (yay!) they have a 105 mile ride to Topeka. They're all hoping that they won't be up against the wind again for that ride, since with that distance it would make for a really hard day. They'll turn due-east to get to Topeka, so apparently "the chances of the wind coming and blowing to the west will be pretty small." They may have some crosswinds out of the north or south, but chances are actually pretty good that they'll get lucky with a tailwind.

The first 20ish miles today were quick and easy going, then they turned into the wind. Their average speed for the last 40 miles was 10 mph - some periods were as slow as 7 mph. The hills today were odd for him - he would ride uphill and naturally expect to see a view at the top, but there would just be a very small downhill stretch and then they'd be going uphill again. No view. It was disconcerting.

At this point in the ride (in terms of conditioning and geography?), they've ranked the factors that make a day's ride a breeze or very difficult in order of importance (from the most important to the least):
1. wind direction (tailwind, crosswind, or headwind)
2. the road surface
3. how much climbing
4. the day's mileage
Everybody is in agreement that this is the order of importance in terms of how difficult each day will be.

Dad's still enjoying himself immensely - "some days are good, some days are tough." But a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. (Unless one has the time and money and desire for pain to get sucked into doing a variety of cross-country routes...) They'll reach the official halfway point on their next ride (day after tomorrow) - 1,702 miles! (Damn.) He thinks there will be an line on the road, and they will have a sign for it which he'll hopefully pose with. And we're now done with the first half of days to be blogged! You're halfway there too! (Isn't it nice that we could all participate in this while sitting down?) Still really liking Kansas - "pretty scenery and really nice people." (That's Dad in a wheat field today.)

He says that Abilene looks like it's a pretty neat town. Looking forward to seeing a bit of it tomorrow and RESTING. He's also going to mail the gun home tomorrow! Woohoo. We'll now own two (I think) guns, both old or weird enough to not require registration.

The Pile Drivers have split up a little in terms of riding as a group. One of their members had to leave the tour to await surgery. (His back and neck issues were apparently pre-existing, not due to the tour, and he knew it was a gamble to try the tour before having surgery. But like Dad was before his back surgery, he was concerned about his ability to do the tour afterwards in terms of recovery speed and conditioning.) A real shame he had to go - a hard decision, but you can't really go wrong when you try to avoid doing permanent damage to your body. The remaining members have kind of naturally had to split apart some as they've adapted and gotten stronger; their riding speeds now vary more than they did early on. Dad's still riding with Tony fairly regularly (the gentleman with a mustache in a variety of pictures here), and everyone on the tour still sees everyone else regularly in terms of SAG stops, dinner outings, Road RAP, and their infrequent leisure time.

There's a "santa-red" van parked outside their motel - it has lots of antennae and the words "STORM CHASER" painted on the back. They're wondering if the storm chasers know something that they don't about Abilene today. He'll try to get a picture in the morning if it's still there. (Hey, they have a day off; maybe some riders can tag along with storm chasers after all!)

Gil's obviously still missed at home - especially tonight when we (I, but with support!) had to give the kitty a sub-cutaneous fluid drip. Fun was had by all. One day down, nine to go! (If anyone's interested, his bladder control is much better (ie problem free!) when I spread his narcotic and muscle relaxer out a bit more.) But it would have been nice to pass the job involving the 2" needle off to Dad tonight!

Day 23: 1,500 Miles!

Day 23 already? Is it intimidating to anyone else that we're still just BARELY under the halfway point in terms of days I'm blogging?

Gil's cliff notes of yesterday added to that post Sunday afternoon.

So tonight I've given a very sick kitty three meds (small pill, large pill, liquid narcotic), gotten him to eat some, then cleaned out the (fabric) chair he accidentally relieved himself on. (Totally not his fault; it was 45 minutes after he got a muscle relaxer for the urinary tract. Good to know about that particular side effect.) When I went to throw out the roll and a half of paper towels I used to soak it through three times, a big juicy hopping bug came in from the shop and I had to kill it. Cleaning the chair caused less anxiety, though it was considerably more time consuming and harder on the wrists. And I remembered this thing at 12:30 am. So I'm totally in the mood to blog! (Repeat to self: earning rent, being useful, earning rent...)

Alrighty. Today they headed from Great Bend to McPherson, KS - 63 miles. "A short ride today," he said. Whatever. He reports that Kansas is "extensively green" and is full of wheat, grass, and "whatever else they have - maybe corn?" They've had too much rain in Kansas, and it's just beautiful. (When there aren't tornadoes and the like, I assume.) There's some ponding in the fields and streams are overflowing from the excess precipitation. (Speaking of excess precipitation, I've gotten up three times so far to check on the kitty trying desperately to rid himself of a few days' worth of constant IV fluids. I know you needed the status update.)

Dad said it was a very pleasant day and ride; for the most part they rolled along at a pretty good clip. He's really enjoying the country out there ("marvelous country"), particularly the mid-size towns (defined as "bigger than Akron [CO, I'm pretty sure], more the size of Yuma [AZ]." He enjoys the feel of the towns, with "very nice courthouses," old buildings, and old named streets. "Really kinda cool." Plus, there are nice parks, which is kind of a generic compliment but still quite pleasant!

Examples of these mid-sized towns he enjoys: they had a SAG stop in a town called Lions - "most pleasant town, just beautiful." McPherson's "kinda that way too, a very nice town." A (the?) courthouse in Lions is pictured here.

They got into McPherson by 1/1:15 - good time! Their motel rooms weren't ready yet, so they killed an hour at a Sonic Drive Thru "like back in the 50's." They settled in outside on an island in the lot and placed their orders at a central machine. You apparently push buttons to order your food; at the drive thru, you place your order that way out where your car is and then they bring your order out to your car. They put away huge burgers, fries, sundaes - "it was REAL good." The video camera was out and about during the meal. He otherwise didn't get too much on video today; "pretty much the same scenery as yesterday."

They did laundry yesterday, so he didn't have to do that this evening, he can wait till tomorrow. If you're curious about how they do laundry: When I spoke to him yesterday, he mentioned that they had just left a laundromat. I didn't question it, but thought to myself, "wow, his clothes are finally getting REALLY, ACTUALLY clean!" Silly daughter. They (I'm assuming Dad's not alone here, because you can hardly find and pay for a laundromat every 2-3 days) still did their laundry in the sink (hotel handsoap? shampoo?), but they got tired of waiting for it to dry. Apparently I was right and the Kansas weather didn't lend itself to hanging it outside the hotel. Or it was a classier joint and it would have been frowned upon. So they just went and DRIED their clothes at the laundromat. Bonus: a sub shop was right next door, so they could eat.

TWO more DVDs on the way; one of more recent pictures through Great Bend, one of stills from the video camera of the storms and storm clouds in Kansas, which the video camera captured much better than the regular camera.

Day 22: Santa Fe Trail's Historic Pawnee Rock, Offerle Cafe Cinnamon Rolls

The riders left Dodge City at 7:20 am....temperature was 60 degrees in the morning and the wind was behind them, so for the first 20 miles they were flying along at 18 mph. Then there was a shift in direction and the wind was either in their faces or from the side and slowed them down considerably. Very pretty scenery---lots of wheat fields, blue skies and white clouds. They stopped at a crossroads where there was a farm museum with an old Steam Engine and a sign indicating "San Francisco -- 1500+ miles in one direction and New York -- 1500+ miles in the opposite direction". The wind changed and was again at their backs for the last 20 miles, and they made very good time and Gil's group arrived in Great Bend, KS at 2:20. Today's ride was "relatively" easy with a total of 89 miles. This included a few extra miles to see Pawnee Rock, which is a rock outcropping from where they could see the Santa Fe Trail. Early settlers viewed this rock formation as the midpoint in their crossing of the continent.

Gil took some nice video segments and a few pictures today. No hotel computer tonight, but he hopes to send a few pictures from a borrowed laptop. That will require Jean's input once the pictures arrive.....I have had the process of adding pictures to the blog "explained" to me, but probably won't attempt doing it myself unless I "have to" and she's sitting next to me. Upon their arrival the riders showered, did laundry, visited a sub shop, participated in the road rap for tomorrow's ride and ate again. I'm told the Best Western has a great all-you-can eat buffet. Gil told me that the ride is a lot of work with not much spare time, but the people and the scenery make all the work worthwhile.

Gil's Recap [emailed Sun am; posted Sun afternoon]
Got the heck out of Dodge 7:20 am under clear skies. 60 degrees. Perfect for riding. Rode with the wind. Yeah! Rode with about 6 other faster riders at 20+ miles an hour, flags waving for first half hour, then let them forge ahead. About 30 miles into ride wind shifted and speed slowed. Visited Pawnee Rock, a rock out cropping where those brave souls going west would mark their progress. A great view but added extra miles to today's ride. Last 20 miles into Great Bends the wind and our direction were together and we again rolled at high speeds the last hour. Made hotel just after 2 PM. 89 miles! We are really making speed across this country. It is beautiful from a bike.

[Jean's impression upon editing this in: I bet this country might be almost as beautiful from a car. Without all that sweat in your eyes obstructing the view. But that's just me.]

Tomorrow's ride is 63 miles and should be "easy" (this is Gil's description and in comparison to some of the other days which were over 100 miles or over mountains). I wouldn't call traveling 63 miles "easy" in anything slower than a car with air conditioning, which is why I stayed home for this adventure. Tomorrow they pass the 1500 mile point on their ride, and it will be the first of 2 "easy" days in a row. They will be able to leave an hour later tomorrow morning. Then on Tuesday, in Abilene, they have their third "well-earned" rest day.

Gil's Cliff Notes Added

To yesterday/day 21's post (about halfway down).