Alright, so this is probably quite overdue and it really should come with some pictures, but I'm going to have to come up with a way to upload photos from my camera at libraries and what not.
Martin and I are in Winona, Mn. We've traveled ~630 miles. And we're feeling strong!
It seemed like every day for the first two weeks it was "What new is going to be hurting today". It starts with your butt, obviously. Sitting in the saddle two days in a row just never feels good. For me, next came the left knee, I've been wearing a brace ever since day 4. The heels, back, arms. But slowly, your body turns itself into this cycling machine. And the pain just goes away. It seems like our average speed is increasing, powering up hills is getting easier (by the way, Wisconsin is NOT flat, but I did get up to 43.8 mph on a downhill!). And what seemed like a daunting ride a week ago as we pulled into chicago, seems totally plausible now.
I've had all kinds of great people to ride with. Adam and Gillian helped us along that frantic first day. Jordan made sure we made decent time all the way to Chicago (She can ride, martin and especially me were always struggling to keep even a visual contact with her as she flew down the road). And Martin has been my stalwart companion, making sure we find the place to get ourselves some beer at the end of a long day's ride.
What has impressed me most about the ride so far has been the love from people all over (except Indiana, Gary was miserable). Wisconsin was great for that, we got fist pumps from construction workers, Mathew that works at Trek from Lake Mills gave us a sixer outside the grocery store after we chatted with him about our ride, we got a discount at a B+B when thunderstorms were threatening golf ball-sized hail, and we've had people come out of their houses to meet us on the side of the road to chat when they saw us coming. We've only been in Minnesota a day, but so far we've got a guy whom we met outside the library looking for a place for us to crash tonight. All in all, people are great.
Also, we played disc golf on an island in the middle of the mississippi yesterday.
It's been good so far, and I expect it to keep on going that way. I'll try to get some pictures up soonish. I know that's more interesting than this stuff.
-J
