Author: neil

Even with five days of hospitality and no bike riding, we still avoided figuring out our next steps until just yesterday. Our original idea when heading toward Chicago had been to cross back and forth over the Mississippi River to “collect” as many states as possible. But a closer study of the maps showed (and…

The south wind hadn’t quite cranked up to its predicted 40mph gusts, but it was unusually breezy for early morning, and the massive amount of air it had already dragged up from the Gulf bubbled the temperature above 72°F by 8am! We were sad to leave one of the best AirBNBs we’ve ever stayed in,…

Rett was surprised by a man in the women’s restroom when we went over for our morning relief. When he emerged, his water bottle identified him as the other bike tourer who had arrived in camp last night (yet we hadn’t seen). Since the men’s toilet remained full to the brim with a malignant brown…

The National Weather Service warned of “hen egg”-sized hail, amongst other severe weather chances (tornadoes, 70mph winds) for early this morning. I heard plenty of thunder in my pre-wakeful state, and some flashes were bright enough to make it through both the curtains and my eyelids, but I never felt the motel start to shake.…

We left the rainfly off the tent for our second camping night in a row, and suffered no ill-effects. Amazing! Though despite the 62-degree temperature and everything being dry, it still somehow took us nearly three hours to go from alarm to rolling. Traffic was still busy on the causeway road that took us back…