flats of ohio

so i realize i have not posted for about a week...lots of rain/weather delaying and exhibition of patience on my part...decisions like, is it going to storm and how bad and am i going to need shelter? beyond the simple question of is it going to rain. computer access has been a bit limited which does not make blogging easy. so where am i???? i stayed a bit further north than i thought i would in bowling green, ohio, mainly because of flooding near findlay. i have seen a lot of water where it should not be...........maybe better put where we do not want it(the water) to be. yesterday was the first sunny day in over a week, pure unadultered joy to be on the bike riding through the fields of corn. really simple landscape...flat with wide open skies. spin some, stop for water, spin some more, stop for ice cream, spin some more, was that an eagle flying over me? spin some more, car passing me, spin along a swollen river,...all the waters are muddy with the earth that they are washing away. and bowling green is a nice suprise, not been here since the 80's and it has a good feel to it...midwestern college town, all the kids are back in school this week, lots of energy/activity without the big city feel. was hoping to ride along the lake for a while, but choosing to stay a bit south of cleveland and circle around the eastern suburbs...i will be done tuesday afternoon sometime, final landing spot will be mentor headlands so i can dip my wheel in the lake.

missisiisiippisipi queen

crossing the big river, wide river, slow moving river...they were doing construction on the bridge (i wonder if this is common at this time for all bridges in the states....hmmm) and i got one of the guys to take my picture with the bike. illinios...it looks like Iowa! ugh.
i was sitting on the dock of the river, just letting time slip away...talking on the phone i noticed these big white birds landing and taking off ever so gracefully. and then the catfish started jumping, and the doby brothers song "oh black water" keep on rolling, misissippi queen gonna... came into my head and stayed for 1/2 hour.
corn, over my head (when the road started to be fenced in by the corn, "i'm over my head" by fleetwood mac came into my head and stayed for about 5 miles.)

so as i was riding in the drizzle i got to thinking about what it feels like to be a bike on the road traveling. i realized, as long as i have a 24" shoulder on the road, i think i could ride forever. anything less brings a noticable level of stress. i can tell where cars are by the sound of their tires on the road(the doppler effect...same as what they use to track thunderstorms/rain....been watching too much weather channnel) if they have a bad tire, how big and how fast they are going compared to other vehicles. so when a truck is approaching, it is not a hold on for dear life moment, more of a relax and ride the wave that is about to come, do not want to fight the draft of the truck...just ride it. today i just happened to look at my computer when a truck was approaching from behind on a flat stretch..16 mph at the time, then he went by and i looked down and saw 20 mph and coasted for a moment. a 22%+ increase in my speed just by the passing truck. that is why you have to relax into it....

humidity

it is so hot and humid, my camera started to fog up a bit...happy to see some flatness in Iowa, lasted about 5 MILES. awfully beautiful state...hard to take photos with overcast skies. the fields were all different in color responding to the species of plant, maturation level, water availability and such. but green.
NORTH SOUTH
FLAT ROAD
HAPPY BIKER ON A SUNDAY MORNING...

homestretch...or so it feels

finally reached the missisippi river, and it feels pretty good (i am very happy that i have less than 600 miles to go! yeah). the lay of the land is changing a bit, less hilly and more long rollers...a bit more suitable for riding a bike and pulling a trailer. the last three days have been my hardest/consecutive rides...mileage of 70, 82, then a 97 mile day have left me a bit tired, my legs empty. not big days, but all three were hilly with some headwinds thrown in and a couple of thunderstorms...and began to wonder if i was going to be able to make on time to cleveland. a conversation with my friend alison helped me along and encouraged me to push through (plus a rather large portion of lasagna and some gel shots, no formal doping though).

feeling much better today as i cross the big river...kind of a mental breakthrough. so i am in illinios and looking for the flatest route i can find...stories, do i have some stories (darcy, thank you for the hotel directions...you forgot to mention that they would try to fleece me because of the Iowa state fair, i knew better though and held out) but the stories need photos to help tell them and i am unable to download at this time. it is hot and very humid, i finish the day soaking wet from my own sweat, enough sweat to ring my clothes out...amazing how cathartic it can be.

i have reached the point where i talk/sing to myself on the bike...sometimes i have very frank conversations with the guys who designed the road i am riding, other times i am chanting to myself to get my butt up a hill. and then a song will blow through my mind (i think that is a function of the wind, stirring up my mind and blowing things around like fields beside me) and i will burst out with a line. cars, if they are around will look at me....mostly i just startle the cows.

random thoughts...just saw an article in a local newspaper (the muscatine times or herald or something) that stated local townes are able to halt train whistles....people are getting tired of hearing the train whistle when it goes through town. maybe it is being that i am further east and it is more populated here, but i loved the train whistling out west in wyoming and nebraska where my route was parallel with the tracks...lonesome and drawn out like the landscape, yet the sound felt like it was winding with the landscape and riding the wind...i could almost see it as well as hear the whistle blow. strong as it pushed through the air, it has encouraged me more the once on my journey.

a short day is on tap...maybe 50 miles or so, will see how the legs feel which is pretty empty at the moment. what was the contemplation someone posed to me, either bravery or stupidity...maybe a little of both mixed in. funny, at this time i feel more comfortable on the bike than on solid land...

Iowa...finally

CARVED FIELDS...Iowa PATH...future
Iowa state line over the missouri river....a toll bridge on a back road, with a booth collecting 50 cents per car. after i crossed it, some people informed me that this is the worst bridge in Iowa and Nebraska. all the reports come out after the bridge collapse in minnesota...
nebraska morning
looking back at council bluffs, Iowa. nice path.

this is an hour before sunset with a bit of humidity. in real life, the sun was an orange red fireball...i was on this road after asking a parked state trooper what the best route was to the next town, and of course he was a bicyclist/beer drinker who had just done RAGBRAI (ride across Iowa). so he told me the shortest way, but the thing about it, an hour down the road he pulled up next to me to check and make sure i was on the right route! now that is midwestern hospitality.

interesting thing about a trip like this...reminds one why they moved to colorado. and that one would be me. two major reasons, no bugs and lack of humidity. i know i am riding a bike and talking about the landscape, how it is changing throughout the day and as i move further east. but i find myself wondering, as i sit on my bike for hours, what kind of bug is biting me on my back that i cannot reach and swerve all over the road trying to swat it off my body. i know, i should probably just pull over and get the thing out of my jersey, but then all the bug reinforcements would move in (i honestly believe it is a planned maneuver) and my body would be covered with all sorts of insects...and sometimes i do not know if it is actually a bug or just the sweat dripping down the ravines on my body, acting like the water in the landscape and always moving to the lowest elevation possible.

which brings me to the Iowa (does not look right if it is not capitilized) landscape. hilly with no flats. no kidding...at one point i was counting the hills on this stretch of road, i gave up after 10, what you need to know is that these are 7%-9% grade hills anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 mile long with a creek at the bottom (remember what i was saying about the sweat dripping off my body, just different scale). a polite way to describe the landscape if i was driving in a car, rolling farmlands lush and green with the august harvest at hand...

on a bike is another story.

now tom and dean and blaine and zach, do not think that i will not be writing about you guys...just letting my stay in council bluffs settle in a bit.....

hmmmm

so it is really hot and humid and my patience is being tested...i get up at 5:00 am and ride till about noon...depending on where i am at so i can find an air conditioned restaurant or library or something. then hang out till about 6:00 pm or so and try to put some mileage in before it gets too dark. towns are closer together, more people...more importantly, more cars...lots more cars.
so i am picking and choosing my route...a little different approach than the past week where the miles were just simply laid out in front of me and my concern was water/lightning/food/jack daniels...the heat is wearing on me to say the least.
50 miles yesterday to york, ne...small farming town that is slowly closing down.
this morning was 65 miles to lincoln, ne, the capitol. cars, and more cars along with the heat of the city. want to be in iowa to sleep tonight...we will see.
i am less than 1000 miles from cleveland now and hoping to be there two weeks from today, that would make it the 28th i think...my margin of error is getting smaller by the degree.

HEADWIND(S)

as i was on the side of the road, contemplating why it felt like i was not covering any ground on sunday, i noticed this flag beside me...being blown by the wind that was in my face.

carhenge

sunrise at carhenge, the american answer to englands' stonehenge...i am happy to say i rode my bike to see this monument to the car. funny when you think that the car is about the size of the blocks of rocks used to build the inspirational origin of this place...
was thinking, maybe carbondale could build bikehenge, kind of in the same spirit as the artbike auction happening at the end of august...just a thought, maybe too much time spent alone on the road.
CARHENGE SUNRISING
FUTURE IN THE SAND HILLS
PAST W/ SOME CLOUDS CHASING ME

storm nebraska

this would be hyanis, nebraska...centrally located in the sand hills. lots of space in the sky for some really big clouds. sunset and the lighting (lightning was in a wall of the cloud to the south, this is looking west and northeast) from the setting sun shifted in color and intesity...the air was still, only enhancing the vibrancy of the hues. surreal landscape/skyscapes...the cloud canopy shrunk the scale of the landscape, the open loneliness dropped away...security??? this one cloud touched the horizon from the southwest, south, east to the northeast, almost like a lean to/shelter on three sides of the landscape. it was so humongous that it dampened the sense of movement and seemed to just hang there.
looking NORTHWEST WEST
EAST
NORTHEAST

sweating it out in nebraska

dateline: broken bow, nebraska
it is humid at 8:00 in the morning...looks alot like ohio/midwest already because of it. slow moving day, i did some big mileage yesterday trying to make up for prior weather hampering. nebraska is big and rolling, very beautiful and gentle. the people have been great, stopping and offering water in the heat of the day. sparsely populated and quite often the towns i go through are totally shut down...so i had to carry extra water and food, some unplanned weight. but the views extend on forever it seems, sandy dunes covered in grass...with the wind slipping by. no ipod, just the sounds of the wind in the grass and i cannot figure out the insect, but they make alot of noise. maybe a car every 20 minutes or so, and all the trains blow their horns when they see me (more trains than cars).
mileage log as follows:
72 miles torrington, wy to alliance nebraska...construction forced me to hitch a ride for 10 miles or so, rocks were being kicked up and the surface was unstable. so i hitched a ride with a couple to finish the day off. hot and rolling in the 100's...
75 miles to hyanis, ne...long stretched out rolling hills. i think i saw canada when i looked to the north. but the lightning was incredible...9:00 am in the morning and it was coming straight down out of this lonely cloud. i was the tallest object as far as i could see, so i hung out in a small post office and talked with jody the post master for a while. that 75 miles took ten hours because of isolated storms and headwinds...riding and waiting. in hyanis i took cover in a hotel room while this massive storm rolled by to the south of us, never seen clouds or lightning like it. again realizing that it is the scale of things here, bigger.
135 miles to broken bow, a very beautiful small town in the center of nebraska...hot and humid and lots of motorcyclists coming home from sturgis, which makes for interesting conversation at all my stops. it is starting to get more populated, which is a good thing. at one point yesterday i had to go 41 miles without water/food/stop and probably saw a car on average every half hour...but the rhythm of the rolling hills is serene and almost hypnotic on the bike. maybe it is just finally getting into the rhythm of being on the bike, which is becoming more comfortable than being off the bike...
so the landscape is changing, slowly at the pace of the bike... more palatable than the pace my life has been going the past couple of years. has been good clearing the mind...just being on the bike. i kind of giggle when i remember the last time i went on a trip like this to france, and came back and moved two weeks later (to carbondale) ...find myself wondering what change this trip will bring to my life....hmmm. time to start rolling. b

quick note

quite common to talk freely of ones bodily functions while on a long bike ride....needing to stay aware of changes and make immediate and appropriate adjustments in diet, sleep and supplementing. b

turning east

thought i would start this off with an email reply of mine from this morning, responding to the following FAQ:
"seen any jackalopes?"

nooo. but i did see this bear/road kill just outside of burns, colorado. sad to say the least.

"where are you"

i am in torrington, wyoming...getting ready to make the big turn east and start crossing nebraska. been doing really well, think i might take today off as my body has started to refuse food. literally.
this morning, 25 miles to torrington...95 degrees already at 9:30 AM. i am heading to the holiday inn, a pool and rest. my stomach needs to calm down. considering doing more jack and giving up on the supplements. if i eat another peanut butter and goo sandwich i will puke on the spot.

looking behind...

looking ahead...

"hiyo, howz it rollin?"

mileage has gone like this:

95 miles to gore pass

70 miles then to walden (rained out and hung out with some motorcyclists heading up to sturgis..involved some jack daniels and such)

this is just north of the colorado state line in wyoming...a cyclists favorite signage, signalling a long down hill, 5 miles to be exact. i am out of the rockies and unto the plains.

95 miles to the laramie mts and camping alone in the middle of bumfuck wyoming...scared shitless, oh no wait, that was the diarahee (sp) setting in...lightning and no water.

last rays of the day on laramie mts. no one told me the laramie mts. would have so much climbing/sand/rock involved.

bike surfing in the morning light/sand.

realized the scale of the landscape is that of clouds and trains and tractors and fences. morning descending outside of laramie.

TRACTOR LINES

FENCE(s)
RAILS and BALES learning about scale of living.

103 miles to hawks springs steakhouse, more sturgis people, lots of conversation with the locals something about the recent fair and a guys pig...go figure. limited self to 1 jack daniels and some bud light. slept out behind the back of the motorcycle bar. feeling great, flying like the wind.

just rolling on

flat lining

out of the mountains and into the flatness of wyoming...i can see one more ridge/pass, and then nothing but nebraska. for a while. no photos at this time, no download ability and the weather has not been exactly photo opportunic, though i have to say that is a positive thing when it comes to riding. cooler days and some cloud cover, sky opened up a bit outside of walden, co and a torrential downpour forced me to camp out in an inn with a bunch of motorcyclists on their way to sturgis. jack daniels was involved in the conversations that evening, to know ones suprise...did not realize that in between dotsero and walden there are no stores and no restaurants, though i did find water at campgrounds, which is good. spent saturday night on top of gore pass sleeping under the stars and a very big pine tree. i did find myself laughing at myself when i realized why i was climbing a pass that i never noticed on my route...i use topo maps with 300' contour lines to pick my route out of colorado. i am used to working with site maps for residential sites, topos are normally 2' or 5'...needless to say, my scale was a little askew, and i found myself climbing this 2.5 mile long pass where i thought it was going to be river grade uphill. oh well, a couple of guys offered to give me a ride to the top, i declined.
so i feel strong and well on my way with the mountains behind me...a little ahead of schedule, probably still a bit of that getting started high energy thing going on, which is not bad to say the least...

more art

so a big change for me this past year was to finally get a studio out of my house/living arrangements...i am in a old chain saw repair shop with about 8 other artitsts of different mediums. we all have our own studio and are collectively known as the SAW shop artists. last week we brought a model in to do some figure drawing...the first image is by stanley bell, i liked how the figure moves across the page, so i gave him first post.

the rest are my drawings of the figure, relaxing to work with the figure...leave the landscapes behind. better yet, a bunch of artists getting together to draw is a good thing.

almost there....

so i am kind of anxious, in a good sort of way...just want to start riding my bike, now. took my last ride this morning over prince creek, mt. sopris is sitting beside me once i get high enough on the saddle, reflecting the sunrise on me as i am sweating because it is so humid...more preparation for those hazzy midwest sunrises i will be seeing in a couple of weeks. that bike is my travel partner for the next three weeks, the trailer will be semi-full of things i think i will need. want. need. both.
one of the things about packing for this trip, you start to remember the difference between want and need...and put it to the test in real life, without harm. i know i will be at the post office in laramie, wyoming next week, sending a package of things i "thought i needed", but had realized that i had only wanted them. okay, stop.
took the photo this evening, just out of the shower trying to cool off from the heat of the day...note to self, hair cut before i leave, soon. the necklace is from my friends alison and stephen, they
wanted to make sure i was well dressed during my ride...my only concern, is it edible in extreme circumstances?
no more riding before saturday morning...