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PEDAL ACROSS AMERICA
Some Pictures

SECTION THREE
LA to Boston
Mid Kansas

Day 22, 4 Jun 2006

Great Bend KS to McPherson KS
64.35 miles (3 hrs 31 min) 940 feet of ascending
Started out as a nice day and then some damm fool had to turn it into a race. Nothing we could do but leave them in the gutter whimpering for their mothers. The old boys (62 and 64) averaged 21 mph for the first 31 miles. We really put the hurt on them on a gradual 2 mile long hill which we went over at the same speed. I figured if I was really hurting they would be also. After that we slowed considerably and came on in to this delightful town with the most beautiful courthouse I have ever seen in a Midwestern town. We didn’t take many pictures as things are pretty much the same in the country side. I did remember another name for Kansas ( the sun flower state) but I still think the half way state is the best. One more easy day and then a rest day. Yeaaa!!!! Nine days since the last one.

Day 23, 5 Jun 2006

McPherson KS to Abilene KS
62.77 miles (3 hrs and 32. min) 861 feet of ascending
Pretty day with plenty of wind and very shallow long rollers. 22 mile right quartering head wind followed by a left turn. Whoopee!!! Straight north for 40 miles into Abilene. Not so fast. Wind turned to the northwest for the last 12 miles and turned it into a mild slog. That’s ok. Rest day coming up.
The riders have now for the most part broken up into small groups of 1 to 3 riders based on style and speed. At times, style does not go with speed. One of the strongest riders is also one of the most erratic and irritating. He wants to ride with two of us, but we have had to get really brutal to get him to be quiet and stay in the back. His humor is that of a 17 y/o and usually very inappropriate especially around women. He simply cannot pull because he dodges around small inconsequential things but will hit large holes without a warning. We are slowly training him as there is nowhere to ditch him. He is an advanced chip researcher for Intel. Wouldn’t you know it.
Abilene is the first real example of a complete Midwestern farm town we have seen. Great old Victorian houses along wide large tree lined streets. Very nice.

Day 24, 6 Jun 2006

Rest day Abilene KS
Eisenhower center was very impressive. I’ll let the pictures do the talking except to say the Museum and Library not shown were huge and really something.

SECTION FOUR
LA to Boston
Illinois

Day 30 12 Jun 2006

Quincy Il to Springfield Il
108.12 miles (6 hrs 34 in) 2135 feet total ascending
Our entry into Illinois at the end of the previous day’s ride was esquisite. We came across the Mississippi and within 2 miles were on the most beautiful street I have seen on the tour (see pic) The old refurbished houses were unbelievable, the trees spectacular and the temperature perfect.
The day started cool with me rushing to sign out because Gil had to have porkchops for breakfast and we all had to wait for them. He took a lot of guff, but it didn’t bother him much. When it comes to food he gets what he wants, when he wants it.
The terrain was rolling at first then flattened out somewhat with the usual quartering headwind of about 10 knots. It was really quite a good ride.
I feel like it takes about 85-90 miles before I begin to get the overall pins and needles aches and pains. Also takes about 15 miles for the legs to wake up. The middle is very nice. I get lots of meditating (on life etc) done as the miles tic by. Sometime 20 miles will go by and I don’t really remember doing them. The guy I usually ride with will sometimes ask me if I am awake or just pedaling. It’s getting to be just like walking.
It was great fun viewing the loading of the barges on the Illinois river (pic) and watching the corn fields roll by. No there won’t be a picture of any fields.

Day 31 13 Jun 2006

Springfield Il to Champaign Il
87.35 miles (5 hrs 13 min) 785 feet total ascending really flat
We have recommend to the management that they change the name of the company to Headwinds Cycle Touring with the motto of “Que sheets changed daily to guarantee headwinds.” Everyone is tired. We really need this rest day coming up tomorrow. Lots of bickering etc.

Drum Rollllll……!!!!

The Hotel Guest Laundry Saga
Or
How the Advanced Chip Researcher from Intel battled the Investment Banker for the Washing Machine

To make it short: he called in the Retired Marine Sargent who threw them both out.

I do my daily laundry in the bathtub and the rest day laundry at 7 AM just to avoid the above. It’s like herding cats.
No pics today. I like watching the endless farms roll by, but they don’t photo well.

SECTION FIVE
LA to Boston
Indiana

Day 34 15 Jun 2006

Champaign Il to Crawfordsville In
80.86 miles (4 hrs 35 min) 765 feet total ascending
Nice cool day to start with very little wind. Had a mild cross wind today, and lots of fun. This was helmet decorating day. I had patriotic streamers on my. My favorite was tinkerbell (see pic) The tour director rode about 17 miles with us and that was fun. She is 5ft 4 inches tall and a very good rider, who doesn’t get to ride much anymore. Then It was a very good pace line with Ric, Jim, Jed, Tracy(the director) and myself. After she dropped out to work we rode most of the rest of the way with Ric He is the chief mechanic from Wichita Falls Texas and an excellent rider particularly on the flats. We each rode 1 mile pulls and it was really fun.

Day 35 16 Jun 2006

Crawfordsville In to Indianapolis In
70.97 miles (4hr 31 min) 1117 feet total ascending
Tried to make this a recovery day as much as possible but there were so many stops, starts etc that it was hard. Getting much busier back here. Towns closer together and roads smaller it seems. Really have to pay attention. The farm equipment is huge back here. Sometimes some of them look like praying mantises coming down the road. Hard to get a good picture of the really big ones (pic) That was a relatively small one. Well! One interesting this today is that we got to go to the velodrome in Indianapolis. I thought it would be wood and indoors, but as you can see it was concrete and outdoors. It was fun, but I was amazed how tiring doing 4-5 laps was. (pics) Great interval training.

Day 36 17 Jun 2006

Indianapolis In to Richmond In
84.01 miles (4 hrs 51 min) 1455 feet total ascending
Nice day, cool going out. 35 traffic lights getting out of town. Farm after farm, construction frequent and people very nice. Saw our first horse and buggy at the hardware store. There was a hitching rail in the middle of a giant parking lot and there it was. (pic) No that it is a working buckboard and not the usual. A Few hills towards the end of the ride. Some of the church signs and sayings are quite interesting, and sometimes puzzling. e.g.

Pure Air Baptist Church

Seven Dollar Catholic Church

Chicago Corner Church (This was a magnificent church)

Signs:
Exercise - take a walk with Jesus

Come on in for a faithlift

Will talk to you from Ohio. Namaste!!!

SECTION SIX

LA to Boston

Western New York

Day 42 23 Jun 2006

Erie Pa to Hamburg NY

80.21 miles ( 4 hrs and 4 min) 1470 feet total ascending

Day was cloudy and mild. Slight quartering tail wind of 5 knots. Beautiful ride up the east coast of Lake Erie. Rolling terrain with vineyards on the right and the lake on the left. After 19 miles we were in NY. We had Texas day and all 5 Texans wore some sort of Texas jersey (see pic) All the better to invade New York. New York had a better sign and better roads than Ohio so far. We will see.

After 38 miles we had a 4 man pace line and really clicked off the miles. Averaged 19.7 mph for the whole ride and when you consider stop signs, lights etc that is really good. Have made friends with some great people and good riders. Jim H. from Virginia has turned out to be a fine man and probably the strongest rider among the guests. We hope to do a ride in the east next year near my daughter’s new house in Spartanburg SC. Tomorrow we turn east and race across the state.

Day 43 24 Jun 2006

Hamburg NY to Canandaigua NY

95.21 miles (5 hrs and 34 min) 3570 feet total ascending

An incredible day. Nice weather and good roads. Slight cross winds. Had a lot of large hills, but they were not too steep. They were formed by the glaciers gouging out the valleys so the hills were long with about a 3-5% grade followed by a long downhill of the same caliber.

The ridges are called drumlins and are made of rock that is harder and the valley rock. The finger lakes were formed in these valleys when the glaciers melted fast and the moraines (debris) left at the bottom of the glacier formed a dam for the water.

We took it easy today if that is possible in 95 miles and lots of hills. Stopped more than usual and in all had a great time.

Day 44 25 Jun 2006

Canandaigua NY to Syracuse NY

79.11 miles (4 hrs 54 in) 2870 feet total ascending

Tired today. Head wind again and I really wasn’t enthusiastic about it. But you slog it out. Some good things. Waterloo, the home of memorial day (1866) was a nice town. Went through the home town ( with a nine mile detour) of my riding mate. Eight of us went to the assisted living home. The residents loved it and asked a lot of questions. Had ice cream and cookies with them. It was heart warming and Jim S noted that they will have something to talk about for days at their evening meal together.

Traversed the major finger lakes region today. They are beautiful and full of tourists. Went across the north end of 4 lakes. Then into some big hills coming into Syracuse My brother lives in Liverpool ( a suburb of Syracuse) and I had a very good dinner and nice time visiting with him. Enough of Western NY. I am ready for Boston.

SECTION SIX

LA to Boston

Eastern New York

Day 44 26 Jun 2006

Syracuse NY to Little Falls NY

78.37 miles (5 hrs 1 min) 1378 feet total ascending

We got the full monty. Rain, head wind, and lots of traffic. In spite of this it was a faily good ride. The country side is beautiful. The drivers were quite patient.

A word about construction. Rarely have we encountered total road closure. Most often the Tour Director (Tracy) talks the construction crews into letting us walk our bikes through as the detours can sometime take miles. Hence the pic on the last section called (it’s not all riding) Had to walk down in the river bed around the construction of a new bridge.

The best part of the day was getting to see my neice and her family in Little Falls. Her husband is a dentist there and she teaches school They have a three great boys and make a wonderful family. (I’m not saying that just because I got a great home cooked meal, help with my sewing etc. (see pic) They have a great Victorian house there that they have renovated. It was really nice.

Day 45 27 Jun 2006

Little Falls NY to Albany NY

70.35 miles (4 hrs 26 in) 1845 feet total ascending

Started in a steady rain which became a downpour. Wind ok at the beginning. Fairly flat along the Mohawk valley. At about 35 miles the rain stopped. At 40 miles the headwind started and became steadily worse. Going through Schenectady the lights, traffic and headwind became a real drag. But we are used to anything by now. Arrived with sunshine and that was great.

SECTION SIX

LA to Boston

New England

Day 47 28 Jun 2006

Albany NY to Brattleboro VT

79.15 miles (5 hrs and 41 min) 6210 feet total ascending

WRONG! I thought the full monty was yesterday. Not so. Today was added the climbing of 6200 feet. Had steady to heavy rain the whole ride, narrow Vermont roads, and a moderate headwind. Really tough

Started on the wrong foot with my first fall in 25 months of riding. Came out of the hotel, went down to the Hudson river and over the bridge. After the bridge we had to go down into a tunnel under a road almost immediately. I saw a clear path with no holes in the pavement towards the middle of the tunnel. ( it was one way with three lanes). Down in the bottom I accelerated to quickly come up only the cement was coated with oil and went town immediately. I was going about 23 mph and really slide a long ways. No real injury to me or the bike, but it was a real scramble to get out of the way.

Then the climbs began. I rode this alone, much as I had previous mountainous stages. Crossed into Vermont and really climbed. (pic) Had one that was 7.5 miles long up to a ski resort (Hogback Mountain) The real problem was descending with it raining hard, traffic (particularly the trucks), and slick roads. When a truck would pass you would be in a cloud for a bout 15 seconds during which time you couldn’t see anything on the road.

On one descent I had the brakes on the whole time but it was raining so hard they wouldn’t catch much (water on the rim) and I had a tough time controlling the speed and in fact I couldn’t. Luckily it leveled out and I got slowed. This was the second toughest day on the road for me. You can always tell when it’s tough by the lack of pictures. Only one pic on this day.

Day 48 29 Jun 2006

Brattleboro VT to Lexington MA

91.24 miles (5 hrs 37 min) 2340 feet total ascending

The day dawned cloudy and misty. Some early fog and then a gradual lifting. Muggy but all in all a great day after what we had been through over the last three days. I got to ride with Ric and Jeff the two staff men. (Pic) I am getting stronger. I was able to keep up without too much trouble. I think seeing the light at the end of the tunnel helped. I have actually ridden my little falcon bike across this great nation.

In Vermont and New Hampshire the roads were narrow and somewhat twisty but were fairly good. Had our last SAG with Margaret the angel of SAGs. (pic) The Mass roads were good, but as we approached the Boston area became jammed with traffic. Lexington seems to be in downtown Boston from the traffic point of view. Rolling into the Lexington Sheraton was a great relief. Only 20 miles to the beach.

THE FINISH

LA to Boston

May-Jun 2006

Day 49 30 Jun 2006

Lexington MA to Boston Beach MA

20.56 miles (1 hr 34 min)

Very interesting method of getting us to the beach. We did the usual morning routing of signing out and riding independently to the 16 mile point. The last 4 miles was a procession with one sag van in the front and the other in the back like an escort. (pic) It worked great. On arrival at the beach we had the wheel dipping ceremonies for each rider. (putting the front week in the ocean). Then group and individual pictures. (pics) The bikes were loaded in the vans and the mechanics truck and we drove back to the Lexington Sheraton for the evening banquet. On the beach one fellow had his children and grandchildren visit. They all had on “Team Bogle” T shirts. It was really cute. Others had various family members visiting, and Sandy being there really made it special.

THE FACTS:

I rode 3,474.44 miles over 43 days of riding across the USA

I averaged around 5 hrs a day actually in the saddle ascending over 90,000 feet during the ride.

I ate approximately 175 paydays and the same number of other energy bars, as well as 200-300 gel packs

THE REALITY

Inexplicable

Priceless