good stuff

We stopped at a roadside church to worship and sing praises. it was a neat little place along the highway of Iowa.

Bad luck day of braking 4 spokes in one sitting. Good thing I know what I'm doing and I repaired them.

I've never had cheese curds but we bought them from an Amish lady and they were so dang good. They came in variety of flavors. They squeak when you eat them.

This was a classic shot of the riding into the sun. Kinda like the ghost riders in the sky.


After a long day's work it's nice to kick back in the jaccuzi. "One's in danger of getting bubbles up one's woops-a-daisy."

Mom and I in front of the Winter Quarters Temple in Ohama, Nebraska. I didn't know there was one till we went around the corner and saw it.

Here's Erin all happy and giddy to start her trek through the plains of corn.

Poor Mom had to leave us all. Now I have to start cooking and washing the dishes again and not be lazy.

Now I will turn the time over to Mom so that she can say a few last words about the trip. Your time Mom. Make me proud.

"I have alot to say about this past two weeks but I have to get to the airport. What a great thing this bike trip has been for six-weeks. As we've ridden the long Illinois and Iowa backroads I have heard about the previous four weeks before it was my turn. Kimball is an excellent navigator and map reader and direction finder and his confidence is inspiring. We have seen amazing sights and wonders in this part of the country. For over half the route we followed, and saw, the routes that theMormon Pioneer's took on their trek West and the things we saw in Nauvoo and Carthage and Winter Quarters were very faith promoting and moving. I loved it all and the country is beautiful beyond description and I know I'm too wordy but it was a great experience so good luck to Kimball and company for the next several weeks, and thanks to you interested readers for keeping up his morale. Susan (Kimball's mom)"

Ok and that's a wrap. I wanted to mix things up and start to have comments from the riders. Jeremy was the first one the other week we'll continue like that in an orderly fashion. "Work will go on and you will pay your bills."(no one can figure out which movie that's from).

Half-way there, I think.

Here we are eating lunch at a bridge-covered wagon. The sun finally came out now that the Hurricane finally disappeared. Now I was wondering who would win in a matchup, the Hurricane vs. Ditka. ok Ditka that was easy, but hold on the name of the hurricane is Hurricane Ditka. Makes you think huh?

Guess why I took this picture? or I mean guess what's in the dang picture that I took of. whoever gets it first wins. I figgure I have to start doing guessing games for someONE to leave a dang comment on my posts. I won't have anymore of that.

I didn't know that there were any Amish, but a horse-drawn wagon came flying down the hill and it's a neat sight and all. The guy with the thick beard and top-hat with a plain dressed wife. Then on the back of his black wagon is a bright flourescent triangle reflector. That's when the music stops and you get a reality check and you realize you buy what you pay for.

This was a cool ol' family. The familia Reittinger. They invited us for dinner after church and we chuckled and exchanged stories. They also gave me a lot of tips on life and they told me abou the facts of life, you see.

Animal Antics

This Raccon had a hard day and decided to take a rest.

Now I don't know who keeps killing the deer and laying them on the side of the road, we haven't seen anyone do it yet. If you look closely you can see it breathing.

Clauds will get excited for this one. We traversed along and we saw about 4-5 camels and 1 dorky llama. It was neat. for a mintue I thought I was in Africa, as the famous song goes" Beep blessed the rains down in Africa!" that was mine and Josh's theme song that week he was with me.

If you look closely you can see that the house is built into the hill. We knocked on the door and Bilbo Baggins came out. He was resting from his latest vacation and said mine tops all the ones that he did. We had a good chuckle and talked about old times.

Carthage and Nauvoo Illinois

While being in Nauvoo we met up with Ted and Lynn Cluff. They are missionaries in the area, and they showed us around and treated us real well. and they gave us treats.
This is the Temple in Nauvoo after it got re-dedicated in 2000.

This was a blacksmith in his blackshop in Nauvoo. He was making a horse shoe.

this was a classic shot of an old cabin in Nauvoo. Basically, they preserved part of the town to show us how it was was for the early Saints in the 1840's IE: the lifestyle, work, play. It was all neat. Taylor woulda enjoyed it.

Here we are in front of the Carthage Jail. These places were interesting to see and learn more about what happened to the early Saints and LDS members.

Here's the Mississippi river. It's pretty big.



Finally made it to Iowa in the pouring rain. It's been raining on us almost every day this week, dang Hurricane Ike. Who woulda thought it could make it's way up here? I guess "it makes its own beep road!" So in answer to Amy's question yes we did get a few motels.

One month gone.

This is a classic shot of Mom riding through Illinois on a freshly-paved road. that makes biking a lot better.

We found a neat canal equipped with locks and waterfalls. I was taking a rest.

We met this guy in the pouring rain on Monday in Yorkville IL. He has a hotdog shop that makes the best dang hotdogs. His name is Ugly.

This was a delicious Ham Sandwich. the sign said "Worlds Largest Ham Sandwich." So we gave it a try and the lady put 30 slices of ham. it was all good.


Here I am changing a flat tire. nothing new. I'm getting better at it.

This week went by even faster dang it.

Jeremy giving a wave to the camera. upon asking how he felt about the trip he said" I loved it and never had so much fun and hard work, Kimball is really cool and he is John Henry. I'm just afraid to show up at work on Monday because I will have to answer to Mitch now, because I got demoted after missing 3 weeks of real actual work."

Here's Mom, my next riding companion, as she gets off the elevator in our rich luxury suites hotel. Jeremy and I managed to flirt with a girl for 15 minutes and she dropped the price from $109 a night to $73. We made a good bargain. These are tecnicas one learns as he goes throught-out life.

I found a really cool street named after someone who's really cool too. that was a coin-dence.

After church a few members let us see inside their rich ol' apartment on the 48th floor. It was very tall and you could get a good view of the dinghy around. I happened to ask how much does an apartment like that rent for a month and he replied 4,400 gold. Looks like I'm never living in Chicago. Maybe for a honeymoon, "if you know what I mean."

This was a neat sight for tourists.. along with the background of tall buildings.

While being in Chicago, we did a rondevoo with Uncle Paul and Aunt Nancy. They brought along Jodi. She just graduated from the Navy Bootcamp and she loved it and was sad to leave. This was a photograph taken at the big ol' silver jellybellie (see above)

*Note that images are longer and skinnier than appear.

Treats

Ooooh what have we here. In response to the thousands of e-mails I get daily, asking what is that we do to ride 100+miles a day and ride through Gary IN without being shot "dead or alive"(FYI that's Jeremy's favorite song on Rock Band.) I have decided to let the readers indulge on our healthy, safe, quick, nutricious, organic, original, flax-seed,herbal, eating habits.

Shall we?OK Well then we wake up to a nice Breakfast of donuts and fresh-baked goods in your local bakery. That last us well into noon and after-noon.

We stop for a break and get us none other than all natural, safe-tested, non abeepting Energy drinks. Colors, flavors, and prices vary on participating at your local gas stations.

And to end the day we blow the monthly budget at Eddie's Grill and buy a medium-rare 32 OZ. Steak with onion rings and Sleepy mushrooms. Complete with rinkadink red potatoes, salad, some appetizer and cold drinks. Anyone else wanted to follow our routine can and will see immediat results.

Jeremy enjoys the sights of Chicago at the Michigan Sea.

"For all of you who don't habla espanol, el nino is spanish for....the nino" This right here is spanish for Bakery. Found inside are hundreds of goodies and treats to make one's sweet tooth think it died and went to a delicious Mexican bakery. Good thing Jeremy was with me or he wouldn't have understood or known what to do. Yep those 2 years in Paraguay are paying off as we speak.

After hours of searching we failed miserably of finding the Illinois sign, so we had to make do with a train wall all tatooed up. But you know what they say, Beggers can't be choosers.

Someday, when this is all over I will take off my bicycle helmet and put on a new one. "This is my sanctuary right here. This is what makes things right. Struggle. Victory and Defeat."

Gary, Indiana. Rated R for violence

Well this is it children. I dunno how to put this, I guess just be brief and to the point. I'm doing this from the phone so I don't have much time. Tomarrow we ride. We ride through Gary, IN. They say it's the murder capitol of the world. The locals say it's scary, they say they wouldn't go through it. Don't wear blue or red for fear of the crypts and bloods. Don't go through after noon, for that's when they wake. Never take side roads. Go straight. Fast. What does that mean for us? Don't know. Am I scared? Dead scared. I'm weaponless now. all I have is mace. Will it last? Hope so. We leave at dawn. follow west on the 20. Don't stop for nothing. If we get a flat we ditch the bikes and never look back. We run and pray we make it out alive. If we do, the reward is chicago. If we don't it is the end of our life in mortallity. Why would anyone do this? Glory maybe, who knows? What do we do? We ride. We ride and do not stop. Run fast. Jump high. NO FEAR!

good times, great oldies, cool 94.5 valley weather!

Here we are in Michigan. We realized that Chicago is not as far as we thought, so we did some sight-seeing.

I got my first dang flat. We we're about a mile from our campsite at 8:00PM. a big ol' nail punctured the tire, tube, and rim tape. It was all frosted shredded wheat. FYI we did 109 miles this day. AFTER doing reserch at the county like cool Mitch and getting flat, and getting other kip bike fixed, and eating at 2 restaurantes. And I'm cool too.

Try to find "Where's Waldo?" and by where's waldo, I mean "Where's Kimball?" This will be a neat activity for the children, should be easy since I'm in my clown Stock Supermercados Paraguay shirt.

Another state off the list, and we keep
cruising right along towards our destination of Chicago. I thought that Lincoln's boyhood home was Coolidge. Maybe they made a mistake. Say wups!

We found a neat 50's AKA Ferrari cafe in the town of Bryon. This was one of the friends we met along the way. She's kinda cute huh? Well I've seen better, one in particular. Makes you think huh? ok then turn the page.

Now the fun really ends.

We camped out behind a church and a lot of kids came to visit. Scott was enjoying the treats we gave him. And I love eating Mountain House. Right here(above) is a classic photo of my speed-o-metre. Jeremy's first real day of acual riding we shattered all records like Micheal Phelps/Scott, and rode 100 miles in less than 7 hours. Jeremy's head is all big now.

This was a neat shot in the morning in Ohio. The fog created a nice ambiant. The roads are very straight and flat and in that we can cruise with an average speed of 15 mph.

Hey comes jeremy all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready for a week of beep of 500+ miles in 5 days.

Josh's last day on the trip, he had tears in his eyes as he exited the airport onto the airplane. He said this was prolly his favorite vacation and he's excited to do it again.

Josh and I had bike prollems with the kip bikes late saturday night. I hate these bikes. A couple of broken spokes and a broken chain we had to repair. we were medio successful. Josh also made a prophecy that one or both of these kip bikes won't live to see the Pacific Ocean. I'll cross my fingers.