Last day. Airport to home

This will be my last blog, at least until I decide to do another crazy, lame brain  adventure.  If a had it to do all over again what would I do differently.
First of all I would have gotten clipless bike earlier and I would have trained harder.
Secondly I would bike the first three weeks and the last two weeks and skip the middle four weeks. I think that would be a very nice bike trip.
I do think the trip was done incredibly well. It was really well supported with staff,  vehicles, and great food.  More sleep, less community time would have been nice, but I do see the need. If I were asked I would make some suggestions on how to improve some things, but so far no one has asked.

But the biggest thing I am grateful for is what we had no control over  -  the weather.
We had three or four hot windless days, probably week three, but other than that the weather as been incredibly wonderful for biking.  Even though I am not superstitious I did not want to mention  how wonderful the weather has been. Even riding into DC is was unseasonable cool.  For that I am extremely grateful.

On the plane. Need to turn off phone .

Hope to see you all soon

Day sixty-One. Fairfax, Virginia to Washington, D. C.

Yes, we made it. And yes we are all feeling pretty amazing. We have celebratory dinner tonight. My brother and Marcy, his significant other will be there. I will go back with them to their house with  all my stuff. Tomorrow I will repackage my stuff. I will leave my tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, bike and bike panniers,  plus other misc stuff . Tomorrow I will fly home and be home sometime tomorrow. 

Corinne and Eytan, plus my two nieces, Erica and Leslie, will be in Hull to welcome me home.  I'll see Jill Saturday morning. I can't wait.

Day sixty Williamsport, MD to Fairfax, Virginia

Our last full day of riding. I don't think it's really sunk in yet. Tomorrow is really just for show. We  start our ride at 10:30 instead of 6:30. We ride for a total of 23 miles which at this point is a pretty nothing day.
Kim and I decided it was going to be a good day, maybe even a fun day and it was. At Harper's Ferry we stopped for brunch. We found a great place - an Inn that served breakfast all day. We sat outside at a table that overlooked most of the town and felt like we were on vacation. From there we biked about 20 miles to a paved bike path, but on the que sheet it sounded like we would have to do a 7 mile climb, which turned out to be a very pleasant 7 miles of rolling hills.
We are now in the synagogue and just finished dinner prepared by them. I am ready to go to sleep, but of course need to have our community meeting. I know there was something that I thought might be interesting to write about, but my brain has pretty much shut down. I'm too tired to feel the excitement of finishing.
Tomorrow.
I'll definitely be excited tomorrow.

Day fifty-nine. Cumberland, MD to Williamsport, MD

This was definitely not a boring day, esp for me. Somehow I totally lost my brakes, both the front and rear and we were going down a very steep hill when I realized this. Also at the bottom of the hill was a four lane highway with many of our riders waiting to cross the road.  Checking my odometer later I was going 33 miles/ hour. As I am yelling I have no brakes I need to decide in a split second if the car coming towards us is far enough away. I decide to go across the first two lanes and quickly check the traffic coming the other way. Luckily there are no cars that are close and so I go across the next two lanes, turning left into the shoulder. My biggest fright was hearing Danielle scream as I rode past her as she was waiting to cross the first two lanes. There were about half the riders looking on, and pretty much what heard from them was that first of all it was very scary, and second they were impressed. Y my turning into the shoulder of the highway. It seemed like some of the thought I was going to crash into the side railing across the highway. Interesting I had not doubt about me making the turn. My only concern was not getting hit by oncoming traffic. About 1/4 up the highway I coasted to a hault. David, one of the riders, who it really good with bikes fixed the problem. Somehow my front brake had gotten jolted out of place, and I'm not really sure what happened to my back brake, but it had been getting less and less effective for the last few days, but it wasn't really a problem until today.
It took awhile for David to feel satisfied with my back brake so all the other riders went on. Than the problem was riding with David. Kim and I are the slowest riders. David is among the fastest. On my own I would rider faster, but I enjoy riding with Kim and certainly the time goes quicker with a partner. So now riding with David I pushed myself to go faster than I normally would if I was riding by myself, but I could only keep that up for a limited time. We must have been riding at a pretty good pace because we caught up to Kim before we got on the trail.
The trail was very gravelly and since it had rained, very full of puddles, but it was also beautiful. Kim and I didn't mind going slowly and enjoying the scenery.  Although  ten miles on the trail was enough  for us. We sagged from the first rest stop until the second one and than we got to ride on a very nice paved path. Our last 12 miles was why I was a bit nervous about this week. It was constant up and down and than some more up.  It was hard to believe that Hazon routed us over hill and dale instead of the trail, but Garth said last year the group complained so much about the unpaved part of the trail that they routed us on the rode instead. I think Kim and I would have been much happier on the gravel trail.
I'm still very confused about the ft/mile thing each day, but I will just ignore it. Yesterday was easy, today was tough, even though the ft/mile was higher yesterday than today.
Dinner in ten minutes, than community meeting. Tomorrow is our last full day. I guess I'll make it.

Day fifty-eight. Ohiopyle, PA to Cumberland, Maryland

Today was a very delightful day. We were on the trail between Pittsburg and DC the whole day. It's a beautiful trail and for the most part in shade. I barely even noticed the heat today. We rode about 50 miles on a slight uphill until the continental divide and than rode 25 miles downhill.  The only thing that would have made it a really great day is if the path had been paved, but all in all a very nice riding day. Also the congregation in Cumberland made dinner for us, which we all eat with relish or gusto, in other words we all ate a lot. We are now getting ready for bed.
We had our route briefing for tomorrow. We are still on the trail, but a very old part and it sounds like everyone was less than happy with the trail. I guess it's OK for a mountain bike, but not a rode bike. I might take the rode for the first 15 miles, than take the trail until the first rest stop and decide than if I want to continue another 30 miles on a rutted path. Supposedly you are not suppose to ride on it if it's raining and they are predicting a 50% chance of rain.
It's 8:30 now and as usual for this time of night I am tired.  It's hard to believe we only have three days left. And it's even harder to believe that I have actually ridden across most of this country.
I'll be home soon. Yay

Day fifty-seven. Pittsburg to Ohiopyle

Sunday evening. This is our last time camping. Very pleased about that. The ride today was much better than expected. I guess it was only the last four miles that really made the ride tough, but Kim and I , plus a few other people took the hiking trail to the campsite which cut out the hilly part of the ride. We had to walk our bikes up about 1/2 a mile, but that wasn't so bad. The rest of the day was on the trail so it was pretty flat. When we left Pittsburgh it was this wonderful paved trail, but that only lasted the first  fifteen miles or so and after that we were on packed trail. At least no sand traps like on Friday and it was very nicely shaded. So no complaints. Today we did 72 miles, tomorrow is 77, Tuesday and Wednesday are both 80 mile days and than our last day on Thur is only 23 miles.  And than we are done.
I am ready to be done, but if the rest of the week is similar to today it will be a really nice week to close out the trip.
Work crews change on Sunday, and got decided on yesterday. Kim decided to shake things up a bit and switch over to breakfast crew, which is nice for me because I can depend on her to really help. Also two of the teenagers are on breakfast this week, which will be a nice.
Young Ilan just made a camp fire and even though no one else seems to have noticed it, I'm enjoying it.  I think I'll sit here until it gets dark enough for me to go to sleep.

Day fifty-six. Shabbat Pittsburgh

Kim and I took the bus to downtown Pittsburgh, to see the city and to have breakfast/brunch. The place we choose via her phone was only open for working people - Monday thru Friday so we asked around and found out that our choice was a national chain like Dunkin donuts, bagels, or eating at a hotel restaurant. We choose the hotel and had a very nice relaxing breakfast with really good coffee, which came to the table in an insulated carafe, so I could have hot coffee the whole time. A concern of mine when eating out.
And this place has really nice bathrooms. Nice smelling soap. Little individual cloth hand towels that you put into a little basket when your done. And tomorrow I'll be happy to find a outhouse.
 I am now sitting in their hotel lobby airing my dirty laundry, I mean carrying  my dirty laundry. The biggest problem with staying at an orthodox home is you can't do laundry on Shabbat and since we had no time to do it yesterday before Shabbat we  carried our laundry with us downtown and will do it at the  laundromat  on our way back. Definitely not my idea and Kim even offered to carry mine as well. Life on the road. From the Fairmont hotel to the laundromat. I bet no one else here is planning a trip to the laundromat. But at least they'll probably have free Internet  as opposed to here where you have to be a guest or pay for it.

I just looked at the riding schedule for our last week and we are back to doing a lot of climbing. An average of 49 ft/mile, which to the non rider or anyone else who has never thought about this way of looking at a ride, it's hilly.  At least it won't be corn and soy bean fields.

So I have  given much thought, at least much thought for me, to why I signed up to take nine weeks out of my life to bike across the country.  Here it is.
A seed had been planted in my mind about 18 years ago when I heard about a mother/daughter bike ride across the country.
I got an e-mail two years ago from Andy Fischer announcing Hazon was doing a X USA ride.
The seed sprouted.
I liked biking
I have never really challenged myself.
Sounded like a good idea at the time.
End of story.

Would I do it again - no
Would I have done it in the first place if I knew what it would be like - probably not.
Will I be very happy and proud of myself for doing it - YES

And once again thank you for all the encouraging notes you sent to Jill to give along to me. I finished reading them this afternoon.  I will take you words of encouragement along with me on my last week of biking.
Not my last week ever, but probably my last week for a while.

Day fifty-five. Steubenville, Ohio to Pittsburgh, PA via W. Virginia

Yes, we were in three states today. Most probably only in West Virginia for an hour or two, but was the hardest hour or two of the day. We climbed over 500 feet over less than a 4 mile stretch. But actually that wasn't even the worse part of the day. After that we were on a bike path for 38 miles which was suppose to be hard packed dirt, but turned out to be mostly hard packed dirt with enough areas of loose sand to cause everyone to be on constant alert for a sandy patch. Everyone, but Hannah, agreed to was pretty terrible. She has far tires so it may have been easier for her. Howard,who rode the ride last year said that it was fine last year and thinks that super storm Sandy was the cause. At one point there was a sign saying "Caution - loose gravel. Sorry for any inconvenience". It took Kim and I forever to bike the trail. Also it started to pour half way through, so by the time we got to the synagogue we were tired, sweaty and dirty. We are staying with host families for Shabbat and were told they would pick us up at 4:00. Also our bags were in the back of the synagogue and our hosts were picking us up in front and it's a big building. Mine wasn't so bad, but Kim has a very heavy duffle bag which she lagged to the front of the building. And we waited for our ride to pick us up. At 4:20 a car pulls up for Kim and I plus 6 other riders and all their luggage. Good thing Kim and I are outside waiting with our luggage in the front. This person is there to drop us off at our host family so we have him take us first and come back for the others. Than we get to our host house, bring our bags up 7 steps, ring the door bell and there is no answer. This is not good. Luckily our driver is still there and says he will call on the phone. No answer. I ask him to check the address. He can't find the paper with the address. Wait, it's in his pocket. We are at the wrong house. Only one house over. And yes they are home. Back down 7 steps, back up 7 steps. I am now showered, but still need to get dressed. We are having dinner at the conservative synagogue at 5:30. Whoever decided the time for dinner was not thinking about the riders. And we are staying with an Orthodox family. Not sure how we got them, but we probably will not be seeing too much of them. Usually they put the more religious riders with the religious hosts. Oh well. At least Kim and I are together. Time to walk to synagogue. This is our last Shabbat weekend. Maybe more on thoughts about that tomorrow.

Day fifty-four Cochocton to Steubenville

Yes, we are staying in Steubenville , Ohio and we are even staying in the infamous high school. It's a nice looking school. A lot of natural light, round tables in the cafeteria, nice showers in the girls locker room. Staying inside is so much better than camping. No putting up tents, no Mosquitos, much better showers. Yes we are all in one big room, but I guess that doesn't seem to bother me. I had planned to write about eating and finding places to pee while on this ride but right now I'm feeling the same way about writing as I do about biking. I'm going to chalk it up to bad karma from being in this high school. Pittsburg tomorrow and our last Shabbat.

Day fifty-three. Columbus to Coch

There was a lot of drama today, but all is well now. It's so interesting how everyone has a different take on things. Garth rode today, which shouldn't have made much difference, but for whatever reason he seemed to come down hard on the young riders. He got really mad at one of them for riding too far out in the road on a fairly busy street, and restricted all three of them to riding with an "adult" I'm not really sure what that means, but it must be pretty annoying for them. They are all really good bikers and seniors in high school. I'm really enjoying having them on the ride. I do think Garth overreacted, but he's in charge. Than later in the day Eli was driving the van and two of the riders asked him if the could draft off the van. I had no idea what that meant, but apparently it meant driving the van about 30 miles an hour and having them bike behind it so they are kind of pulled with the van. Not the best idea, but they were all between the ages of 19 and 21 so to them it didn't see so bad. When Garth found out he saw red. It took him a while before he was calm enough to even talk to them. I think everyone got a warning to never do it again. Now we are all back at camp. This is a pretty nice camp. Lots of trees, bathrooms close by. Dinner crew busy making dinner, young Ilan looking for firewood to make a fire. I'm sitting off by myself sipping my wine, writing this blog. Having wine is always a bit tricky. We can buy our own wine or beer, but than what about if others want some. And if you give some to one what about ten others who might want some. So I have decided it is just much simpler to buy my own wine making sure it has a screw top, put it some where on the truck or van out of view. Otherwise it just gets too complicated. Life is tough on the ride. I glass of wine after a long ride always make things a bit easier. I think dinner is at 7:00 tonight and than we will have our usual community meeting. Hopefully it will be short and we can all go to bed early, but I have a feeling we will be rehashing all the events of the day. Time to refill my water bottle with another glass of wine. Only one more week and a day until D.C. Hoping for clouds and cool weather. And yes I know it's August and we are heading for D.C. I can still hope.

Day fifty-two. Springfield to Columbus, Ohio

Thinking about why I decided to do this bike ride I realized that I still may not fully know the answer, but I did come up.with some things I've learned because I've been doing this ride.
Here they are in no particular order of importance.

1. I can now tell you the geographical order of the northern states and their approximate size in comparison to each other. No small feat for someone that has lived on the east coast her whole life.

2. Truck drivers are very considerate of bike riders.

3. Washington state, northern Idaho and most of Montana are very beautiful, actually breathtaking in many parts, western North Dakota, northern South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio not so much.

4. I am very fortunate to be living in New England.

5. There is something wrong with using this much land for growing corn and soybeans.

6. Railroad tracks at a almost parallel line with the road are really dangerous for bike riders and even experienced riders can get caught in the tracks and fall.

7. Always stop at a bathroom when it is available because you never know when the next one will turn up. ( I knew this one, but I did pass this advice on to others).

8. A dirty bathroom is still better than peeing in the field.

9. That many people are not bothered by riding next to someone with a squeaky bike (even though it would drive me crazy).

10. How to keep kashrut.

11. How to kosher a stove, a stainless steel sink, and a microwave.

12. That when you adopt a highway you are obligated to keep that portion limiter free.

13. Minneapolis and St Paul are great biking cities. Columbus, Ohio is not.

14. Spokane, WA is very hilly.

15. There are numerous  ways to turn on a shower.

16. I am able to make good coffee in many various types of coffee makers.

I am sure that I will be able to think of many more interesting things that I have learned on this trip, but right now it is again time for bed. We are sleeping at a host family and I want to make the most of sleeping in a bed.

Day fifty-one. Richmond, IN to Springfield, Ohio

Today was another uneventful day - great when your biking  X country, not so good when your writing a daily blog.  I must say Ohio was a lot more interesting than Indiana so even biking 84 miles wasn't too bad. It was a 77 mile day but Kim and I deep in conversation missed the turn on the que sheet and wound up biking 7 extra miles.
Camping tonight - tent is up. Dinner is ready

Thinking today about what I would write about and two things came up.
First was how we have mostly coupled up while biking and secondly why did I do this ride.
I'll do the first one and leave the second one for another day.  Maybe I'll figure it out with a little more time.

At this point most people have a steady riding partner. I ride with Kim.  If we sag we usually sag together. Today I was less tired and was there to encourage her to go the distance. Sometimes she's stronger and does the same for me. And sometimes we both feel like taking a few miles off and sag for a portion or .
David and Gilad always ride together. I think they are trying to solve Talmudic problems, but they have a good time together and they also stop at playgrounds on the way and play.
Freddie and Terry always ride together and usually stop along the way. Terry likes to meet the locals and also I think he'd rather go out to eat.
The teenagers ride as a group and I have no idea what they talk about and I probably would rather not know.
If Danielle is off Arye will ride with Danielle. Otherwise I think he probably rides by himself.
Dena and Ilan usually ride together and love to stop food a real breakfast like eggs or if it's later in the day they'll stop at a bakery. But if Eli is riding that usually means that Dena will be riding with Eli, which than leaves Ilan without a riding partner. I think he has ridden with Dena and Eli, but I also know there have been times he has had to find his own way. Maybe only once or twice.
Today Hannah rode with Dena because Dena was sweep and Hannah offered to keep her company. Yesterday Hannah rode with me and Kim. Everyone once in a while Arye has riden part way with Hannah and she has ridden with Dena and Ilan. And she has also ridden with Kim when Kim was sweep.
So as I write this I'm thinking that Hannah gets to know everyone in the group, but the pairs get to know each other better. I guess it's a toss up.
As I write this it has starting raining. Glad I am all ready for bed and now I am just waiting for everyone to stop talking so I can go to sleep.
One last thing I just thought about. Adrienne has been off for the last week. Before she left, she and David were becoming a couple. She is coming back tonight . Actually David is picking her up at the airport.
So now we have three of the four staff paired up with three of the riders. It 's probably only interesting to us, but I had nothing better to write about.

Day Fifty (wow) Indianapolis to Richmond

Our second to last Sunday.  The countdown has began.  Ten riding days left. Today was a totally uneventful day.  We left Indianapolis this morning, rode 22 miles on a very nice bike path,  after that rode mostly on country roads and rode the last 23 miles on a nice smooth mostly shaded bike path into Richmond. We're staying at a Catholic High School which is much better than a synagogue because it has showers. And it has a walk in refrigerator and a walk in freezer, which means no emptying the coolers or filling the coolers in the morning. The whole cooler just gets wheeled into the Refrig or freezer. I am very relaxed. ( A little glass of wine doesn't hurt).
Word is there is no hot water for showers. Even that is not getting me upset.

Richmond, IN is where Earlham is, which is where Corinne went to college.  It feels nice that we are staying here.

Time for a short nap before dinner. All is well.

Day forty-nine. Shabbat Indianapolis at the JCC

Full disclosure: after our wonderful lunch yesterday Kim and I stopped in at "the Best Chocolate Store" to top off the lunch with a little dessert. I failed to mention it yesterday because, even though I did buy two pieces of chocolate, one chocolate truffle and one chocolate covered nuts, I only really love plain milk chocolate, which they did not have.  But Kim placed a picture of the store with a captions leading people to my blog. Social media can certainly get complicated.
Last night I never fell asleep during services or before dinner. I actually enjoyed services, but not at a participant. It was just the Hazon group and they formed a circle in the middle of a large room.  I was in the room but towards the back lying down, relaxing and as an observer. It was nice.

Today has been very pleasant. Woke up around 9:00, had a leisurely cup of coffee, a simple pleasure that I love and usually do not have time to enjoy.  Left here around 11:00 with Kim, Terry and Freddie to do laundry and go out to lunch. We found a great Mexican restaurant near the laundromat and I ordered huevoes ranchero which is one of my favorite brunch meals and it was delicious. Terry treated both Kim and I which was very nice as well.
We got back to the JCC and I decided to check out the water area which I had been hearing so much about. It was quite amazing. This is the fanciest outdoor water area I have ever seen for a JCC. First of all it's huge. Second it has at least a dozen 18 ft expanse umbrellas (one of which I am siting under now). It also has a huge water slide, a lazy river, a large outdoor pool and a very large area for kids with waterfalls and other things spraying all over the place. And the water temperature is like bath water. And it wasn't crowded. No wait for the water slide. Not sure how many times I went down, but  it was definitely fun.
Came back to Mr. Cohen's room and planned to just rest a bit, but fell asleep for 2 hours. I hear people getting ready for dinner.  Time to go. I may be able to stay up until after Havdalah tonight. This could be a first.

Day forty-eight Lafayette to Indianapolis

Kim and I decided yesterday while we were riding past our 100th cornfield and maybe our 150th soybean field that Indiana was very similar to northern South Dakota except for the ratio of corn fields to soybean fields and that we would skip the up close and personal part of the trip and get to Indianapolis by a four wheel vehicle instead of our usual two wheels. Which means we still need to get up at 4:45, back up our stuff, eat breakfast at some ungodly hour, pack up the coolers, rush around to make sure everything is getting packed up, circle up, and than wait. The wait is for Garth, who is driving the truck today, to do his morning prayers. So Kim and I took a walk around the neighborhood and now we're back waiting to leave. Leaving in five minutes. Will write more later.

Later
Kim and I had a lovely day. Not sure when we got to the JCC in Indianapolis,  but probably around
9:00. We got enough information to get us to the Nature Park near by. It was the first time in a while that I got on my bike and said "it feels good to be biking". From the Nature Park we found out how to get to the bike path that would bring us downtown. On the way Kim got a hair cut and I checked out the smoke shop next door. The bike path was nicely shaded and lead right to downtown Indianapolis. We decided on a busy bistro place for lunch and we were not disappointed. It was as if we were on vacation. I decided that this meal deserved a glass of wine and we also split an order of fried sweet potatoes that really were the best fried sweet potatoes I've ever had. I could go back tomorrow. We biked bike to the JCC and clocked in 26 miles for the day.  I think this was a wonderful way to spend the day.  We're thinking maybe we should do this again.
Kim and I have scoped out our sleeping area. We though we were going to have to sleep in a big room all together, but no we have the choose of eight classrooms or the library. We have Mr. Cohen's classroom. I think others will find their own private place. We are not really wanting to share our space . Not exactly one big happy family.

Time for community meeting. After that Friday services and after services dinner which means dinner at 9:30. Way too late, but we did have very good snack time at 6:00  -  last night's spinach feta pie and hummus with veggies. So I may go to sleep before dinner.  Or maybe during services.

Day forty-seven. Lake Village to Lafayette

Tonight we're sleeping in a synagogue and the congregation provided a really nice dinner. All home made and very good. The only problem with having the congregation make dinner is that we need to wait until everyone is done and than we need to speak about the trip. Sometimes everyone says something, but that always takes too long so luckily tonight only Dena is speaking. I should be socializing at the moment, but I'm doing this blog instead.
OK I put the phone away until after dinner. Dessert was homemade blueberry cobbler with fresh whipped cream, plus vanilla and chocolate ice cream I am very full, but after biking 80 miles today at least I don't have to worry about what I'm eating. I don't think I'm losing any weight, but yes I am very fit. And yes I am very tan.
Now we have to gather for our community meeting. Not sure if there really is anything new to discuss but they really like everyone to be present.
I got out of community meeting ( which is really pretty amazing) but it was because I was very busy cleaning out the rest area coolers which were pretty disgusting and needed a good amount of time to organize and clean out.  So at least we'll at least start the day with clean coolers.
Time for bed.

Day forty-six. Chicago to Lake Village, IN

Crossed into a other state today. We are on a roll. Still the same time zone. Probably tomorrow we'll lose another hour and be on Eastern time. Only 62 miles today and really flat so we all got in by 2:00. Too bad the camp ground we're staying at has nothing but a place to set up our tents and a place to shower. This would have been a good time to stay at a nicer campground. Some of them have pools,  it no such luck at this one.
I had bought a couple bottles of wine maybe two weeks ago and decided today was a good day to open one. As I was looking for the wine in the truck I found four cantaloupe that were ripe and needed to be cut up. So I set up a table, found the meat knife a d meat cutter board and cut up the four cantaloupe. I also found my wine. It didn't take long for the cantaloupe to be finished. With 18 hu ver people anything that gets put out goes pretty quickly.
Dinner crew is now busy making dinner. They do a really good job. I am enjoying my cot in my tent. Kim's partner, Vicky ride with us for ten days and flew home yesterday. Kim asked if I wanted to use  the fold up cot until the end of the trip. Yes, of course. I used it for the first time last night and slept very well. I think I could take a nap right now.

The que sheets are getting a bit more complicated esp right out of urban areas. The past few days the que sheets were not quite accurate, but fortunately people  were able to figure it out and get us on the path. I've been biking with Kim and with GPS we seem to be able to figure it out even without the group.

A couple of new people have joined our group - Howard who did the ride last year and Judy, who is riding for about a week. I enjoy having the three teens with us. The add some nice energy. Ilan made a wonderful fire which is still burning strong.

Everyone is very busy at the moment. The clean up team is cleaning up, others are covering up the bikes because it is suppose to rain tonight, which reminds me to find my stakes and put the in.

And now I will just enjoy the fire.

Day forty-five Chicago

Went to sleep at 9:00; slept until 8:15. In a comfortable bed on a Monday night. This may not seem like a big deal to most people reading this blog, but it is. And I still felt like taking a nap this afternoon.
Jill and I took a leisurely walk to a book store this morning so I could buy "The Enneagram Made Easy". I thought it would be fun for each of the riders ( if they wanted to) figure out what number on the Enneagram  personality type they are. Kim is also familiar with Enneagrams and so we try to figure out who is what number.  We'll see if anyone will actually do it.
After our walk we went to breakfast, ate outside, got the usual breakfast food, but so pleasant being with Jill. She had a 3:00 flight to we went downtown together and from there she took the subway to the airport, while I did a little exploring in Chicago. I found the Cultural Center building which use to be the library and explored that. I realize that I like buildings more than museums, or at least that's how I felt today. They also had a very cool exhibit on Happiness.
I'm back at Bonnie's place waiting for the Hazon group to get bacuk from the organic farm they were visiting today. I called Danielle to find out when they'd be back and she said that they had just left the farm and it would take about 1 1/2 hours to drive back. I am sooo glad that I opted out of going.  Three hours of driving to visit another organic farm!!!!
  I need to wait until they get back because the synagogue is locked, but I'm very comfortable here. Some of the group is going to a Cubs game tonight, but others will be back, getting to bed early, ready to start another day of riding.
We are definitely in the home stretch now.  Only two weeks and two days left. Not sure about the others, but I am counting the days. Nine weeks of biking is a long time.

Day forty-four Glencoe to Chicago

We (the group) are staying at Kam  Isaiah Israel in Hyde Park, right across the street from Obama's house. There are two security guards 24/7 when no one is there. We were suppose to walk around to the back of the building to get in, but they let us through near the front "just this one time". Jill and I aren't even staying there, but needed to pick up some clothes. We are staying with Jill's friend Bonnie, who is house sitting for a house in Hyde Park. And I have a real bed.
It's great to be with Jill. She met me on the Lake Side Bike Trail around noon, walked my bike to Bonnie's place, walked to the synagogue for my stuff and by that time we were both hungry. We found a great restaurant  where we spent the next two hours eating and catching up.
I am now showered and relaxing on my bed. A bed in the middle of the week.
I think this evening we'll pick up some food and a bottle of wine and have a relaxing dinner in, but we'll definitely go out for breakfast tomorrow morning. I love breakfast out.
Last night we slept in this very fancy smancy synagogue in Glencoe, IL. We still had to sleep on the floor and make our own coffee in the morning,  and be driven five miles away to take showers, but they did provide dinner.
I didn't realize, but Garth told us in the morning that the police came last night around midnight because they saw a van they didn't recognize parked in the back.  Glencoe is a very ritzy area - but it was very nice to bike around.
This morning's ride was wonderful. Mostly along Lake Michigan. And the weather has been made to order. And yet, I'm very glad to have a day off from riding tomorrow.
Rest time is over. Going downstairs to be with Jill and Bonnie.

Day forty-three

Sunday is always a long day and today was no exception. We did 82 miles but it was relatively flat and very cool which makes it nice for biking, esp. for me. We got in around 6:00, needed to be driven to showers which were 5 miles away, came back to the synagogue where we are sleeping, ate dinner, spent time after dinner in meetings, emptied the coolers into the refrigerator and now I am ready to go to sleep.
We have a really easy day tomorrow, just 32 miles and than we have off  on Tuesday. Jill is meeting me tomorrow around noon and we'll spend Monday noon until Tuesday noon together. I'm very excited to see her.
That's it for today. Too tired to write anymore.

Day forty-two Shabbat Milwaukee

A completely relaxing day. I got up at 11:15 and felt very well rested. The house was empty except for their two shnoodle dogs. Coffee was made and waiting for me.  I spent the next hour or so checking e-mails, even responding to a few. Beth came home around 1:00 and we chatted a bit, faced time with Eytan who showed me how he likes to roll the marbles down the marble thing ( which we've had since our kids were his age) and went across the street to visit with Suzy and Butch Conen.
What a small world.
Came back to host family and went downstairs to reorganize my stuff. It had gotten rearranged last weekend when I needed to take everything out of one of my panniers to put clothes into it for the weekend in St. Paul since I could easily attach it to my bike. It's usually packed with stuff I might need or will never need but mistakenly took and it just gets left on the truck.
Soon we'll leave to have dinner with the Hazon group. I think it's at the synagogue but it might be at a pond. Adrienne will know, but at the moment she's asleep.
For a change I didn't have much to eat. Actually it was a very nice change. Looking forward to dinner.

Day forty-one. Mukwonago to Milwaukee

Breakfast thank god was not with those adorable little campers because we need to eat at 5:30 to be out and ready to leave by 6:30. I make better coffee, but it was OK. Our ride today was great. Friday is always a fairly short day and this one was only 44 miles of nice rolling hills for the first half and mostly flat the rest of the way. Plus it was overcast most of the day. At mile 35 we stopped for a tour of Growing Power, a place were they farm fish and use the high nitrogen fish water to grow vegetables
It's a very cool concept.
It started pouring almost as soon as our tour began, and continued to rain at the end of the tour, so with only six miles to go I saw no reason to get soaked, esp since we would need to sit in wet clothing until our hosts picked us up around 4:00 and we would get to the synagogue by 1:00; so I put my bike on the can for the last six miles. I must say though that I felt really strong even going up his today. I think my calf muscles are finally getting the hang of using clips. I know we just finished our sixth week of biking, and I've been using the clips,  but it's taken me a while to fully develop my calf muscles to be able to use them affectively.  So I think today was that day. It's kind of too bad it took so long because the next two weeks will be mostly flat, but our last week will be back to climbing.
Tonight and tomorrow night we are staying with host families. I lucked out with a great family plus great arrangement. We ( Adrienne and I) have the whole finished basement, with our own bathroom, use of the washer/dryer, T V, and I have a very comfortable bed which I already used to take a nap.

So I was talking to Beth, our hostess, and mentioned that I knew one family in Milwaukee, whose brother lives next door to us in Hull - Butch and Suzy Conen. So Beth says "they live directly across the street".  We'll go say hello tomorrow.

I think I'll watch a little TV and hopefully sleep late tomorrow morning. On second thought I think I'll just go to sleep and hopefully sleep late tomorrow morning.


 G

Day forty Madison to Mukwonago

Tonight we get to stay at Bnei Brith Beber Camp. The nice part is that they are preparing dinner and breakfast for us, but we still sleep on the floor. Also the room we are sleeping in is going to be used tonight for the camp talent show so not only can we not go to sleep until after it's over, but we can't even set up our sleeping area. It will be a late night.

How wrong I was about dinner. We ate with 4000  noisy campers. Well maybe it was only 400 but it seemed like 4000. It was the most unrelaxing dinner  we've had so far. Can't wait til breakfast.

Also the showers were far from the entrance plus it was up 20 stairs and than down 72 steps. At least I found a way around most of the steps.

I did find a couch outside the dinner area. I wonder if I can sleep here. Maybe I should just lie down on it and see if anyone says anything.

Biking went well. I was the sweep today and I biked with Kim. We learned that we both like the TV show "the Big Bang Theory" and also she's pretty into Enneagrams. We also talked about a lot of other things since it takes awhile to bike 70 miles, but those were the highlights.

I wish I could go to bed right now.

Day thirty-nine. Reedsburg to Madison

A bit different scene today. Sitting outside at the Expresso Royale enjoying a  Cappochino in Madison, Wisconson in the heart of the University. We showered at the Hillel, but we'll cook at the Beth Israel Center, than bike over to the Capitol for a potluck dinner with the congregation and a concert. One of our staff use to work in Madison so she is very excited about being able to have us go to the concert.
I think I'll go back now. I could get in a short nap.
Now I am at the Capital Square. There are many, many people here. Kind of like a crowded Espanade  concert. So I did manage to take a short rest which was very nice. It's a really beautiful evening. No bugs so far.
Bike at the synagogue lying on my self inflating mattress. It's q cool enough to use my open sleeping bag for a cover. I usually only use a sheet. Alarm set for 4:45.
Plenty of rolling hills today, but all in all a good day. A great day as far as the weather. Hope it stays this way for a while.

Day thirty-eight. LaCross to Reedsburg

Sitting at a laundromat waiting to put my laundry in the dryer. This is the first time in five weeks that I've been to a laundromat. Usually I just wash out my biking clothes in the sink, or a couple times others did mine along with theirs. So now the clothes are in the dryer. Amazingly the laundromat is right next door to a liquor store, so I couldn't resist buying a bottle of wine. So we also got all the leftovers from last night's dinner which included very delicious brownies, which I plan to have this evening for dessert. They put them out at rest stop, but I put one away for later. Wine and a brownie - doesn't get much better than that. 

Biking today was good. We were on a bike trail the whole day, which was not paved , but well maintained. But the really great part was that in every town we went through it had wonderful facilities - nice clean bathrooms and shaded picnic areas.  We seem to be in real civilization.

We are camping out tonight, so I hope it's not too buggy. 

Time to check if the laundry is dry. 

Day thirty-seven. Pepin to LaCross

Another day on the road. Well half of the ride was on the road, the other half was on a trail. It was a very pleasant trail with shade at least 1/3 of the time but it was hard packed dirt which wasn't bad to ride on but it is a much slower surface so it did take us longer to get in. Tonight we are staying at the LaCross synagogue and were transported to shower at the U of Minnesota in LaCross by membersof the  congregation. The congregation is also very busy in the kitchen cooking dinner for us. The have tables set with tablecloths and flowers. It all looks very welcoming. They are also providing breakfast for us tomorrow  morning, which lets me sleep a half hour later. They are very excited about our coming which is really nice.  
Got to go and be socialable.  Some of the congregation actually wants to here about our ride.
 

Day thirty-six St. Paul to Pepin, Wisconsin

We are actually in Stockholm, WI, but we are suppose to be in Pepin, WI and if anyone is actually following the schedule I didn't want to confuse them. That being said I have NO idea why we changed are plans or who OK'd this very stupid decision. We are at someone's organic strawberry farm that has no running water, no showers, one outhouse, and it was 10 miles put of the way mostly uphill. By the time we had gone 5 miles out of our way at the end of a 72 mile day that had a lot of up hills, some very long and other short but steep, I had had enough; so when we rode by a winery that had an open sign we stopped. At least we could use the bathroom and I could take a sponge bath in the bathroom using wet paper towels. I also refused to go any further, so Eli picked us up. I had been riding with Kim and her partner Vicky. We all were very happy to pile into the truck with our bikes. I missed out at the wine tasting because the truck came too soon, but I wasn't going to loose my ride, even for a wine tasting.
So I still need to set up my tent, which I should do now. Not sure when we'll be able to shower.

Dinner last evening was really nice. My meal was delicious and when I told our waitress that I was biking cross country she said that dessert was on the house. So I ordered the chocolate mouse which was outstanding.

No it's really time to set up my tent - the bugs are getting hungry.

Day thirty-five. St. Paul Crowne Plaza Hotel

I'm feeling very luxuriated. Butch and I w spent a wonderful day exploring St. Paul. Our hotel room overlooks the Mississippi River and is in the heart of downtown.  We got up late and walked to the Farmer's Market in Lowertown part of St. Paul. It was very impressive as we sampled our way around the city block area of mostly vegetable stands intermixed with cheeses, breads, flavored dips, various flavored hummus, jelly and jam, honey, and maple syrup. They also had great coffee, cooked corn on the cob and fresh spring rolls that we purchased. A very interesting breakfast. Besides great looking food they had beautiful bouquets of fresh flowers which many people were buying.
From there we walked across the bridge to an area called Rivertown, which is a restored area of tree-lined parks, large areas of open green space. We than crossed back over to the downtown side of the river and walked to Mickey's Diner for a real breakfast (even though it was lunch time). Not exactly a  vegetarian menu I was happy to try it as a St. Paul landmark. And serving breakfast all day is a real plus.
From there we went to the Museum of Science and saw an Omni film on the Mayans and than went through their special exhibit on the Mayans. Got back to the hotel for a rest at 4:00, but before that got to do FaceTime with Eytan.
Now it's time to pack up before going out for dinner.  I'll be going to sleep shortly after dinner. The plan is to get up by 5:00, to leave here by 5:30 and bike to join Hazon at their starting point at Beth Jacobs Synagogue in the suburbs.

Day thirty-four. Minneapolis to St. Paul

Nice day. We slept late - 6:00. Had a local biker meet us to take us through the Twin Cities. Minneapolis has been voted number one city, ousting Portland, Oregon, for biking. It was pretty amazing biking around. So many beautiful bike trails. They even have a bridge the looks similar to the Zakam Bridge that they recently built just for bikers. They even light it up with blue lights at night. It's very impressive. I stayed with the group for most of the morning and than left them to bike into downtown St. Paul to meet Butch at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on the riverfront.  I'm sure not many people bike into the Crowne Plaza. I got there around 12:30, took a nice shower and went on foot to explore St. Paul.  It didn't take too long to decide to come back to the hotel and take a afternoon nap. Nice luxury.

Last night we slept at the Minneapolis JCC. We also increased our numbers by 7.  Three male high schooler from D.C. area and a 29 year old male who will act as their chaperon. Mercedes, who is the 15 year old granddaughter of Terry and Freddie. Her mother also came, but I think is not planning on staying, and also Vicky, who is Kim's partner. I've meet everyone but Vicky who I'll meet Sunday morning, when I rejoin the group.  Very early Sunday morning, but I won't think about that now.

Plans for this evening are to go out to dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant.

It was still fairly hot today, but sounds like the heat wave here will break tomorrow and biking next week will hopefully be much more comfortable. Let's hope.

Day thirty-three Hutchinson to Minneapolis

The best of days the worst of days. I think I may have something like that before. Anyway today felt just like that. We had a day rider with us from Minneapolis, Jim, which was wonderful because he knew the area and the best route. Hazon was going to have us take a unpaved bike trail, he recommended we take the road for the first 20 miles, and than take a beautifully paved rail to trail bike path which was also at least half the time in the shade. It was almost 30 miles of riding pleasure. Totally smooth asphalt, tree shaded, light breeze. Who could ask for more. At the end of the bike trail we come to a pleasant little town and have ice cream at Ben and Jerry's.
From here it's only about 12 miles to our destination - the JCC in Minneapolis also mostly on a bike trail. The trail is hard packed dirt with many little stones. Hopefully it's not going to be like this the whole way. About two miles into the path I hear a pop and realize I have a flat in my front tire. I do not have a spare tube with me, mainly because I know if I get a flat I'll call Eli and he would have to come anyway to help and he could bring the needed tube. So luckily Jim had an extra tube that fit my tire and also Jim fixes the flat. But by now everyone was ahead and Jim wanted to try to catch up with them to show them the way.  It probably was packed dirt for another mile and Jim got a pretty good lead on the dirt. But it finally turned to asphalt and so I tried to catch up, which I did, but it was not easy. Also it was a very hot day and now the trail was mostly in the sun.  It was a very confusing route so it was important to stay together. At some point my front brake began rubbing against my front tire and I probably rode that way for a couple of miles. Finally I asked Danielle to stop and help me, which she did, but I think by this time I was pretty exhausted. I rode for another 5 miles but than as I turned a corner it felt like I have no brakes and at that point I decided to call it a day. We were only two miles from our destination but there was no way I was going to be riding.  Kim stayed with me and we waited for the van to pick us up. We bad been waiting for a reasonable time when a very nice person stopped and asked if he could help. He had a bike rack on the back of his car, so we of course said yes. He brought us to the JCC which was so nice. Actually it took us a while to find it because Garman was being less than co-operative. We finally got in around 4:00. I barely could keep my eyes open during dinner. I am now the only one in this very pleasant room. Not sure where everyone else will sleep tonight, but I know as soon as I finish this it's lights out for me.

Day thirty-two Montevideo to Hutchinson

Sitting in the Hutchinson Middle School library where we will be spending the night. Hutchinson is actually a good size city of about 15,000 as compared with many very small towns that we ride through with population of 141 or 457. One town posted a population of 6. They have one family living there.  So this is a very nice school and we get to sleep in a carpeted floor. Actually they also have hard couches in the library, so I might claim one of them.
Good idea - done
Yesterday (or the day before) I got an e-mail from Serene ( she lives in Newton and did the Hazon ride last year) asking if I was having fun. So I thought about that today. Well, there have been moments of fun. Biking downhill for many miles is fun, but that only occurred after many miles of uphill. The water slide in Bowman, N.D. was fun. Meeting and spending time with Elizebeth was fun and going to the Dairy Queen with Dena, Eli, and Élan was fun. I'm sure there were other fun moments, but when I think  about the past 4 1/2 weeks fun is not what comes up.  Challenging, rewarding, learning much from interesting people, making new friends, appreciating a bed when we get to sleep in one, appreciating a cool breeze and a good shower.
Even though we are half way through our trip and a little more than have way through our mileage I'm still somewhat amazed at myself for doing this. I know I can bike 100 miles in a day and bike 70 miles the following day. I know that I am getting stronger every day and that it certainly looks like I will make it through the ride until D.C. , even though I may sag on some very hot days.  I think I will look back at this trip and I don't think I will say it was a fun time, but I do think I will be proud of myself for taking it on and hopefully finishing it.

Day thirty-one Hotel in Montevideo

Just finished complimentary breakfast.  Even had the waffles and a poppy seed muffin. The best part was just being able to seat and slowly drink my coffee and than enjoy a second cup afterward.  Freddy and I are up, but the four others who we shared the room with are still asleep. I think they will probably sleep until noon. Catching up on sleep in big.
Not sure what I'll do the rest of the day. There's a pool and hot tub here. The pool is heated to 84 degrees. Town is about 2 miles away. I may take a walk later and treat myself to dinner. Not sure if I get together with the rest of the group who stayed at the camp grounds. It was unclear exactly what was happening today or maybe I just didn't pay attention.

Time - 1:30
I am now sitting in a Mexican restaurant. I just ordered a margarita and canaries a la diabla. The restaurant has no windows and so it feels like it could be evening. From here I'll walk to the hotel and  join the group in listening to "the little war on the prairie" which is an American Experience production. It's about how the people in Minnesota  slaughtered the Dakota Native Americans here. Today being Tish a Bahav we are suppose to be sad so we are only seeing sad things. We all voted on a movie to see today and Sophie's Choice won, but Netflix doesn't have it, so I think we are going to see Forks over  Knives. Not sure how sad Forks over Knives is but it at least has to do about food and not eating meat.
Back on the bike tomorrow. Hoping for clouds and a tailwind.

Day thirty Watertown, S.D. to Montevideo, Minnesota

Today as I rode 72 miles and passed from South Dakota to Minnesota I thought about what I will remember about South Dakota.
Cornfield
Soy bean fields
No trees by the side of the road. OK there was one tree about 1/2 miles from the MN border that provided shade from the road. Really one tree the whole time we were riding across the state. And I was on the lookout for them. I would see a bunch of trees in the distance and think maybe they'll be close enough to the edge to provide a little shade. But once I got near enough i realized that they were  set far from the edge of the road.
White pelicans
Corn fields
Aberdeen

So far Minnesota looks a lot like South Dakota. Corn field, soybean fields and more corn fields. We haven't seen any of the ten thousand lakes yet, but hopefully we will pretty soon.

Tonight I am sleeping in a bed. Six of us decided to rent a hotel room for two nights instead of camping out.  Tomorrow is a Jewish fasting day in memory of the destruction of the first and second temples in Jerusalem, so we are not riding tomorrow. Most of the group will be fasting and participating in services. I really did not want to spend all day tomorrow in the heat and being bothered by bugs. So we have a room with two queen size beds. Terry and Freddie with share one. I'll share the other bed with Dena and Élan and Eli will sleep on the floor. We could change that for tomorrow night.  So we have an air conditioned room, indoor swimming pool and comfortable beds.
A real vacation day for me.

Day twenty-nine. Aberdeen to Watertown, S.D.

We just came in from a picture taking event. We all completed the century ride today.  It felt good to have completed it, but there have been harder days. The weather definitely played a huge part in me being able to do the ride. Almost perfect weather except for the rain around mile 65. But the biggest factor was that the sun never came out. Not that it was a breeze. Up until mile 65 it was a pretty easy ride. Than for about 5 - 10 miles it poured, but once your wet it really doesn't matter that much. The hardest thing about the rain is it's hard to see with glasses. Than from mile 70 to mile 80 the road was under construction to for ten miles the road was very rough and really not pleasant to ride on. And the last 20 miles the wind had picked up and we had a consistent headwind, but we all made it and completed the ride. It really was nice.

I've been reading your wonderful encouraging notes to me. I usually take them out on Sunday evening, after I'm all packed up and getting ready to go to bed. It is so nice to connect with so many friends and family. Thank you for your encouragement and well wishes.

We enter Minnesota tomorrow. We are now half way through in miles.  This is very hard for me to believe. Also I'm feeling that this is pretty amazing. Hope it stays cloudy.

Day twenty-eight Shabbat in Aberdeen

Looks like it's clouding up which I like. Might go see Storyland (voted the 2 best family fun park in the USA I don't know by who) or the Prairie Museum or maybe even both. I had a very relaxing morning while most of the others were at services. Aberdeen only has about ten Jewish families. It one couple keeps the synagogue going.  I did go to services last night (although I slept through most of  it) because dinner was being provided by the congregation and also a couple who own an organic wheat farm here were going to be our guest speakers.

The Dacotah Prairie Museum won out and I was very glad that I went. It not only told the story of how South Dakota get settled but also the story of the various native Americans that were in this area. Also they had two local artists exhibiting their art. I was sorry others did not join me.
On the way back I did ride by Storyland but didn't go in. I'm sure if I had some children with me it would have been a fun place to visit.

I think we have one more full day in South Dakota and than we enter MN on Monday. Really it's none too soon . There may be other parts of S.D. That are nice but the northern part that we biked through is miles and miles of green which is nice for a little while but ad in the wind and it's time to leave. There are literally no trees close to the road. Any trees that are here have been planted and they are on people's property which makes it hard to stop for a drink or whatever in the shade. Actually it makes it impossible. This is prairie country.

The staff that did it last year did say the first three weeks are the prettiest and it's all downhill from here. Well I hoping it gets a little better as we ride east.
Bambi asked me to talk about my impression of the "big sky" out here.  I'm not the person to do it because living in Hull, seeing the sunsets on the bay and the rainbows and sunrises on the ocean I am spoiled by the beauty I have right at home.  I must say Montana was beautiful and majestic and I'll let you know when I get that feeling again. But I do enjoy meeting various people along they way.  That has been very interesting.

The day really does go by quickly. Just time to call home before dinner.
Still not sure what to do about tomorrow.

Day twenty-seven Ipswitch to Aberdeen

Only 1:30 Friday afternoon and already showered and settled in. It's so nice. We are staying at the Presentation college suites. One could almost call it luxurious. We each have our own rooms with a bathroom next door that you share with one other person. The dorm is nicely air conditioned with very nice kitchens. A group of us stopped for lunch at the Red Rooster before coming to the college, which was in downtown Aberdeen. Aberdeen looks like really nice place to live if you had to live in South Dakota, esp when you compare it to Lemmon, Mobridge or Ipswitch. It even has a natural Food Co-op. I'll probably explore a bit more tomorrow. Garth suggested we all take a nap Sat afternoon because Sunday is a century ride, but I'll have to wait and see how the winds are blowing before deciding on my course of action. I now know what Serene was talking about when she talked about the cross winds in South Dakota. Today was only 30 miles but it is really windy here.  Today the winds were even stronger than yesterday, but luckily we had no headwinds today, but still side winds blowing at 15 - 20 miles/hour with gusts of 25 still makes it hard to bike. So if the wind is coming from the west and literally pushing us along fine. Otherwise I'll have to see.
Last night we had another couple sleep at the church that we were staying at and the were also biking, but changed there travel plans to go a different way when the heard the wind direction. You do not want to be going straight into that wind.
Last night's meeting went well. I was in charge if it, but I did not make the agenda accept for reorganization of task teams.  The first thing on the agenda is always opening circle. It usually is some non controversial question like what is your first Jewish memory. So I started by asking what the group is doing well and what the group could improve upon. And each of us got to answer. Than we discussed tasks and who should do what. Up until now we've been rotating but Kim and I did used a better way and so I had Kim present it. So now the faster riders who also want to make dinner are on the dinner crew, the people who want to do clean up are on the clean up crew and so on. I'm on the breakfast crew because I don't mi d getting up early, I make good coffee and I'm very good at  packing up the coolers. I could have also been on clean-up
I'm back. I took a few hour break to empty the big cooler, to help with clean-up, to dry out my tent from two nights ago, to have some wine and to talk to Jill.
Must almost be time for our meeting which I know is scheduled for 5:00 but I'm not sure what it's about.
Sleeping in a bed tonight and tomorrow night. So nice

Day twenty-six Mobridge to Ipswich

Today was 78 miles with a strong southerly wind, which meant we were biking into a headwind for about 10 miles and the rest of the time having a strong cross wind. The morning went fine because it was a cool breeze which for me was a pleasant change. The afternoon was harder because by that time the breeze was more like a warm wind. A nice highlight of the day was stopping in a bakery in Rosco, with a population of  707.  We came in to be greeted by Dennis the owner who offered us a cold wet towel and bottled water. We lingered there for over an hour each of us ordering some sort of pastry.  He was originally from Portland, OR and did not have anything good to say about Rosco, S.D. He moved there because his parents retired there. It was not what one expected to find in a town of 700.
I did manage to complete today's ride, but needed a nap when we fun ally got in. We are about to have dinner and after dinner I am running the meeting. It should be interesting. I'm hoping that we can change the way our jobs are assigned.
Tomorrow is only 30 miles which will be very nice. It would be even better if it was cloudy or cool but I have a feeling that is asking for too much.

Day twenty five. Lemmon to Mobridge

Another day in South Dakota. I thought it would be flat because we were told that the Dakotas are flat. Not true. It was a fairly rolling hills day, not bad but not what I expected. I biked most of it but by 3:00 it was definitely too hot for me to continue. Others do not seem to even notice the heat. At rest stops to am known as the Shade Queen. Sometimes I get to the rest stop and the coolers are not even in the shade. I'm not sure what people actually notice.
I did manage to bring iced coffee for the rest stops. This was very exciting. On Saturday when we stayed at the church we made iced coffee which I froze in an empty mayo jar. So now I pack the frozen iced coffee in the day cooler and there is enough defrosted for me to have a cup at around noon.  It's been quite nice.
Also we have a new member who joined us last night. His name is Gilad and he's 30 years old. He seems to fit into the group very well.
I'm not sure what to do about this heat. We lost another hour today so tomorrow morning when we get up at 4:30 it will feel like 3:30, so since I'm on breakfast duty I should get the coffee ready.
Tomorrow I'm in charge of the group meeting and my agenda is to reorganize how things are done.
Kim, who is very calm will be my co chair.

Day twenty-four Bowman, N.D to Lemmon, S. D.

I am sitting in the community center in Lemmon, South Dakota. I forgot to mention yesterday that we left Montana and that Bowman was in North Dakata, we we were only in North Dakata for one day. I was a out to say there really isn't much difference between North and south Dakata, but that is not true. North Dakota had mostly some areas with nicely paved large breakdown areas, but so far in South Dakota there is no shoulder at all and the road is not that wide. Luckily there is not much traffic, but what traffic there is is mostly these huge trucks. We are now on the same road, Highway 12 for a very long time. I think all the way through South Dakota.
Today was the easiest day so far or at least one of the easiest. It was 67 miles but we had a tailwind the whole way and it was also mostly cloudy. It did shower off and on in the morning but that did not do much to interfere with the ride. I rode with Kim for most of the day, from the first rest stop at mile 24 until we got to Lemmon. We stopped around mile 42 for breakfast at a local diner. The food was just OK but it was a nice change.
The dinner crew is busy preparing dinner. I'm thinking I might go across the street for happy hour at the local bar. I guess it depends if anyone else wants to go.
Tomorrow is 97 miles, but also supposedly a headwind. I'll have to remember to take something along to do in case I want to take the van at mile 50 or 60. I guess it all depends on how strong the wind is.
Right now I have to find a new place to set up my air mattress. I am near some sort of refrigeration unit that goes on every so often which is driving me crazy. I'm sure most people wouldn't even notice it.
I love getti g everyone's e-mail. If you are adding a comment to my blog sadly I am not getting them.
But I love knowing that people are following me on my travels.

Day twenty- three Plevna to Bowman

This was a really good day.  We left on time this morning. The wind was only about 5 miles/hour so it actually felt good. The route was mostly rolling hills. And it stayed cloudy most of the day. We got to our destination by about 2:00 in the afternoon , which is at the only jewish family's house who lives in Bowman. There is a community pool three blocks away where we all swam and showered. I even swam because there was a great water slide there. Than we came back to our host's house to start cooking dinner. I am on breakfast crew so I can just sit and relax in the shade with a wonderful breeze blowing. Hannah and Freddie along with Garth are making black bean burgers and red cabbage cole slaw. So today was a really wonderful day. Sitting here actually feels like I am on vacation. Not how I usually feel after a day of biking.
I was thinking about all the different road situations we encounter on this trip. So my favorite type of road is one with a smooth wide breakdown lane or a frontage road which is a road that parells the highway but has very little traffic. Next is one with a wide breakdown lane with a rumble path ( that's  to wake up cars if the they go over it). Next is a road with no breakdown lane and everyone just knows they have to move over so as not to hit us. My least favorite is a medium breakdown lane with a rumble strip because you still have to ride on the road, but it looks like we should be riding in the breakdown lane but reay can't.
Tomorrow they are predicting a strong tail wind. Yay

Day twenty-two. Miles City to Plevna

Today was the first time we had a strong head wind for the whole ride and it was not fun. I rode the first 40 miles and pretty much just wanted to sleep from lunch stop on.  Not sure why I'm still feeling so tired. I got into the van and never left until we got to the community center here in Plevna. We had dinner with the person in charge of the community center. The town has a population of 150 people, but you wouldn't know it from where we're staying. It's this great air conditioned building with a great kitchen, a weight room, and showers.
We checked the weather for tomorrow and they are still predicting a head wind but only 5 - 10 miles/hour instead of 15- 20 with higher gusts. I'm hoping at some point the wind direction decides to change and co operates and becomes a tail wind.
The good thing is that we made iced coffee over the weekend and they will have it in the cooler for lunch stop. I put it in the freezer so if it's warm by the time I have it it should be just right.
Time to go get the coffee ready for tomorrow morning. Than we can just turn it on. The mornings are always very busy and we are always running on the late side.

Day twenty-one. Shabbat in Miles City

Today is Shabbat. A day of rest. I just got back from a walk into downtown Miles City with Dena Kim for ice cream it was a huge scoop of chocolate with huge chocolate chunks. It was very good but I'm stuffed. They do not do small Ice cream scoops here. One scoop is really like three.  But I ate the whole thing anyway. Everyone was napping when we got back.
I slept til 8:00 this morning and took a walk with Ilan at 9:00 to the Farmer's Market. It was OK , but on the way back I stopped at the library to look at the local paper to see where the yard sales where. They were pretty spread out so I choose one to walk to.  Along the way I passed an historical section
Of town which was interesting. The yard sale was just OK. By the time I got back it was lunch time. I got to talk to Corinne , Butch, Jill and FaceTime with Eytan which is always fun even though he really does 't talk on the phone.
Now I remember how I was going to start this blog - we are 1/3 done with our ride and we are still in Montana. It's a very big state.
Also there is one person who I did not describe last week who was very special to the whole group. She only rode with us for one week - from Seattle to Spokane but she made an impression that was lasting. She is rabbi Elizabeth. It would have been wonderful if she could have ridden the whole way but I am very happy that at least we got to ride the one week together.
Our group seems to have settled into a routine, with each of us playing our role. It will be interesting to see if there are any changes as new people enter in which will happen soon.

Day twenty Forsyth to Miles City

It's Friday. Yah. Friday is always a shorter biking day because we have to get in early so we can start getting ready for Shabbat. Two meals have to be cooked. One for tonight and one for tomorrow, so today we only rode 46 miles and it was cloudy at least half  the time. It was pretty hilly - a lot of long ruling hills, but we all made it in by 1:00. We're staying at the Parrish house of the Catholic Church. Air conditioned, great kitchen, good showers. Those are the key things. Electric coffee pot is also a very nice feature. We make coffee on the stove with these old fashioned stove top coffee makers and it's really hard to make a good cup of coffee. It's either too weak or tastes burnt. I just put up a pot for ice coffee.
Last night's fire work's were a show . Not sure which was more of a show - the town's fire works or the people watching them. Forsyth has 2000 people so it is definitely small town America. Also fireworks are legal in Montana so there were fireworks going off in all directions. Also it looked like the age of some setting them off was 8. Also many kids sotting on the top of their cars. The actual official fireworks were just OK.
Our dinner last night was wonderful. The potato salad went over great and Dena did an excellent job
Bar-b-queuing chicken. Also grilling corn. And Garth made cole slaw and bought beer. Plus we also had hot dogs and veggie dogs but since the chicken was from a humanely raised organic farm I had the chicken.
I just got up from a two hour nap. I knew I was tired so I'm not surprised I slept the whole afternoon. We've been going to bed around 10:00 and getting up at 5:00, but I'm more likely to get 8:00 of sleep when I'm home.
A whole day to do nothing tomorrow .

Day nineteen Hardin to Forsyth

Happy July 4th. I know you don't get this until tomorrow which will be July 5, as I write this it is July 4th and I decided to take the day off from riding. It was an 80 mile day and I probably would have done 50 before it got too hot for me to bike and than I would get into the van and have to wait at the rest stops until all the bikers finished the third rest stop which takes a lot more patience than I wanted to show today, so I decided not to bike and take the truck with Garth and come right to the school where we a spending the night and help Garth with unpacking the truck and making potato salad for tonight's bar-b-que. the potatoes are cooked and cooling.
I was a little concerned this morning while we drove here because the sky was pretty cloudy, and it would have been a shame to waste a day of not riding if it was cloudy, but sure enough the sun is out and hot as usual.
Hoping there's good fireworks in Forsyth. I'll let you know.

Day eighteen Billings to Hardin

Last evening was very pleasant. We had dinner with the Billing's Jewish community and learned a bit of what it is like to be Jewish in Montana. The radius of the congregation is about a 3 hour drive Billings, although the rabbi did say that one family comes for the. High Holidays who lives 6 hours away and stays with relatives. They were very nice and we had wonderful food.
This morning we were treated to crepes for breakfast because Ilan and Danielle made the batter last night and got up early to cook them. I had mine with yogurt and marmalade which was delicious. I am eating breakfast before we ride and I am still hunger at whenever the first rest stop is which is usually about 20 miles into the ride.
We only had 55 miles today and the hardest hill was pretty early in the ride. Also there was this wonderful cloud covering, so I was feeling like this was going to be a nearly perfect day.  So around mile 20 I was planning what I would say about today's ride and how this was turning into the best ride yet when I started being attacked by giant green flies. I had brought my own insect repellant with me so I stopped to look for it in my pannier. Not there. I remember cleaning out my pannier at Carroll College and kind of remember taking it out because I didn't need it during the day and they had bug spray on the van if we were camping. Not to worry, only 2 more miles to the rest stop. Got to the rest stop but the van was gone to help Arye who had his fourth flat tire in three days. Complaining about the butting flies .but waiting patiently for the van to
Come back. There is no bug spray on the van. I am not happy. I spend the next fifteen miles being very annoyed by biting flies. I finally figure out that I can wear my long sleeve sheet and not be bothered. I am much happier.
I make it into Hardin around 12:30 and stop at a coffee shop for ice coffee. It is perfect. Others stop in and we sit around for an hour. We bike the 2 miles to our KOA camp in the heat but there is a nice cool breeze in the shade. Some people are going to the general Custer monument. I think they are crazy to spend more time in the sun. I spend a very pleasant leisurely afternoon here. My first in a long time.

Day seventeen Big Timber to Billings

I am not liking the heat. It was already too hot at 9:30 this morning. Luckily we had a fairly easy day bike wise. Nothing very challenging except for the heat. It is so draining, I did bike the whole 75 miles. It helped that I biked with Dena today. Her usual partner, Ilan, fell on the gravel coming into the camp site yesterday and even though he still biked he stayed with Kim and Hannah, who was sweep today. I may not have continued if I wasn't with Dena. It was like riding in a sauna. I was so happy when we got to our destination, which is a synagogue. And it was wonderfully air conditioned.  The synagogue does not have showers so we took the van to a local bike store that has three showers in the store, which they let us use. The Billing's Jewish community is joining us for a pot luck dinner. I think it's always a surprise how much we eat.
I always think of so much I want to write about while I'm biking, but now that I'm actually writing my mind is a blank.
I do want to thank everyone who remembered my birthday. I will certainly remember this one.
Time for dinner. And than it will be time for bed. I've had no trouble sleeping.

Day sixteen Bozeman - Big Timber

Another hot day in Montana. I really thought this was going to be a great biking day. The first 15 miles were mostly uphill, but after that it looked like either downhill or minor up hills mixed in. I even managed to do the first fifteen miles of mostly uphill with some effort,but I could do it. So I was
unpleasantly surprised when the remainder of the day turned out to be rather difficult, mainly because
of the wind , which according to most people the prevailing wind is west to east. Well not today. There was a rather strong head wind which is similar to biking uphill. Than combined with the heat it was enough for me to bike until the 3rd rest stop and take the van back. It's almost 6:00 now and it's still unbearably hot. I am sitting in the shade,yet still I can early move. I was so glad to get to camp.
We will be celebrating my birthday with wine and salmon dinner and chocolate chip cookies. It's our first time having fish and I love salmon.
Well I should go put up my tent before dinner. I think I have just enough energy for that.

Day fifteen - Helena to Bozman

I am waiting at the last rest stop for the last rider. I choose to get in the van along with two other riders at mile 75, mainly because the last 25 miles were uphill and it is very hot. at the moment I am sitting in the shade on the grass. I am hoping he will come in soon.  We was sweep for the day so needed to stay behind with the slower riders, but than the slower riders took a ride with the van so he had to ride by himself.
Everyday one person is the "sweep" which is the person who rides in the back to make sure everyone is OK. My turn was on Friday. For the most part I ride by myself,which really suits me. I don't like to talk while I bike and I really like to just look around at the magnificent scenery. Also I like to bike at my own speed, instead of trying to keep up with someone else. So in order of speed it is Arye, than Dena and Ilan , Terry( but he usually bikes slower to bike with his wife Freddie ), after that it's usually Hannah, but not always, than Freddie or me and lastly is Kim . I think we are all getting stronger, but I think I am effected by the heat more than others.
Today I missed the turn at mile 65. I wasn't even looking for it, but realized I had missed it after I stopped for ice coffee at Wheat Montana Deli and Bakery and looked at my que sheet and realized I had missed the turn. I was biking back when the van drove by looking for Hannah. It was a good time to just get in.
Yesterday I left off abruptly with Arye. The reason being was that I had written a huge amount and than first I had trouble finding it and than once I found it I couldn't add to it so I figured the best thing was just to publish it and continue today.
Kim is in her 50's.  She's been the weakest rider, but she is getting stronger every day. She's incredibly nice and really gets group dynamics. She gets along with everyone and has a very pleasing presence.
Terry and Freddie are a married couple. Freddie is the wife and Terry the husband. She is 66 making her the oldest member of our present group and Terry is 65. They pretty much hang out with each other. Terry is pretty reactive and Freddie is the peacemaker.
The is one more very important person who rode this us just for the first week, but I'll write about her  
In a future blog. It's time for dinner

Day fourteen Shabbat

A day of rest. I have a new appreciation of Shabbat. Sleep late. Have my coffee sitting down. Eat breakfast at 10:00. Go for a walk. Maybe take a nap in the afternoon.
I have found a wonderful little spot on the college campus with 4 comfortable outdoor chairs in the shade where I am sitting and writing this. The only distraction are some very noisy birds. It's a very pretty spot with many trees, grass and a small garden area.
I've only seen a few of the group this morning at breakfast. I think the rest of them partied last night and are sleeping in.
Thought this might be a good time to introduce the group in a little more depth. Maybe even through in a picture if I can remember how. Kim showed me, but that was a few days ago.
Staff - Garth, Adrienne, Danielle and Eli
Garth is in charge. I am terrible at guessing ages but I'll say he's in his early thirties. He's a rabbinic student, lives in Brooklyn Heights and is orthodox. There certainly are a lot of rules to follow. He has a tough job making sure everything gets done, but I think he handles it well.
Adrienne is also early thirties ( I think). She's very sweet, conservative Jewish, helps at the rest stops, does some shopping, doesn't usually get involved with the group except at meetings, although I have spent a little time with her.
Danielle is in charge of the truck, getting it packed up every morning. She's maybe in her mid to late twenties is very likable yet strong and gets things done. She's between jobs and took this on for the summer. She's a strong rider, but yesterday when she got a chance to ride she stayed behind to chat with the slower riders. The staff only get a chance to ride once/ week and on Shabbat.
Eli is 19 - the youngest of both staff and riders. He more connects with the riders than the staff so I probably know him the best. He is a sophomore at Northeaston in Boston. He is a whiz bike mechanic and bike racer. Yesterday as Kim and I was slowly progressing up the hill to the top of the Continental Divide he asked if we wanted a push up. Since I had no idea what that meant I asked him how he could do that and he proceeded to push me up the hill by riding next to me with his right hand on my back literally pushing me up the hill while I biked.  I was sorry later as I very slowly biked up the steeper part of the mountain, that I hadn't taken him up on it.

There are only eight of us doing the whole country - from youngest to oldest- Ilan, Dena, Hannah, Arye,  Kim, Terry, me, and Freddie.

And there are section riders.
Mike and Dov road with us from Seattle to here in Helena and will be leaving tomorrow morning. Mike back to Dallas and Dov back to New haven, CT
Mike is Arye's father. To me he is a strange mix of Orthodox Jew and aggressive businessman. He owns his own business and does a lot of business calls during the ride. He and I are congenial but not buddies he spends most of his free time with his son or on the phone.
Dov on the other hand is everyone's favorite. He's 74, orthodox, married to Nechama, who is along on the ride but is not riding. Dov is very kind, with a quick wit. I think we will all miss his presence.
Nechama is along because Dov wouldn't go on the ride without her.
Nechama helps at the rest stops and lunch by putting out food and making tuna salad for lunch. She's also on my crew which consists of me, her and Arye. The first week when we did dinner together, no matter what anyone was making she always had something to say about it which definitely got on my nerves but I've grown use to her and maybe because she's Israeli, or maybe because this last week has been breakfast duty and there really isn't much to say about breakfast she seems fine.

I'll probably have more to say about the 7 doing the whole ride but I'll give a quick run down since we don't have dinner until 7:00 and it's only 3:00 and I have no intention to walk to town in the heat.
(I wrote some this morning and some this afternoon)
Ilan is an adorable 20 year old who gets along with everyone. He usually rides with Dena and he loves to stop at bakeries, ice cream places and go out to dinner.
Dena is 21 and has coupled up with Eli. She is a strong rider, very sweet, kind of reminds me of Jaime Katzman.
Hannah I think is also 21, but I'm not sure. She goes to Oberlin and is observant. She does't hang out with Dena, Ilan and Eli although I think she would like to. She's a bit more reserved and so I think she has a harder time fitting in.
Arye just graduated from the U of Maryland and knew Dena from school, but the two of them barely talk. Actually Arye barely talks to anyone. He's very competitive and always rides by himself, unless we wants to ride with his father, which he sometimes did at the beginning of the day. Arye and Danielle have also coupled up.  Even though I am on the same work crew as Arye we barely talk. 95% of the time he is wearing ear phones. Also if I wasn't writing this as a blog I'd say he was a bit arrogant, but since I am writing this as a blog I won't say that.
I think some of us are hoping that once his father leaves he'll be more in the community.

Day thirteen

We are in Helena, MT and staying at Carroll College dormitory. The accommodations are wonderful. We each have our own room and the use of a nice lounge area with a kitchen. I'm looking forward to a day off tomorrow.
Today should have been a reasonably easy day since it was only 55 miles, the first part being mostly uphill until we got over the Continental Divide and from mile 20 until mile 55 it was either downhill or rolling hills. But the heat got in the way. Someone's thermometer on his bike registered 101. Not sure if it was really that hot but it was very uncomfortable. When I finally got back here I was relieved to find that everyone else thought it was very uncomfortable for biking. I was going to be very unhappy if e dry one else thought biking in this heat was pleasant. It was the first really hot biking day we've bad so far. I will use Polly's suggestion from now on to wear a wet shirt and bring a second wet shirt along to change into when the first one dries. I wish I had done that today.
Kim is cooking in the kitchen. She had help earlier but I think the all left to shower. Not sure what she's cooking but it smells really good. They also made the meal for Shabbat and have it in a slow cooker for tomorrow.
Almost time for our community meeting. I should grab something to eat- I'm really hunger and we don't eat until after services which could be hours from now.

Day twelve

Thursday evening in Lincoln, Montana. We are staying in the Lincoln High School which is right ext door to a burger and shake place.  We just finished a wonderful dinner of burritos and now I am at the
ice cream place next door so I can write this blog. As it happens Verizon was using the AT&T towers and their contract ran out onMonday so thee has been no Verizon service here since Monday except right on Main Street. So I figured it was worth coming here a d having some chocolate ice cream  so I could write today's blog.
Today's ride  was from Missoula to  Lincoln a total of  81 miles which was shortened to 65 miles because  of road construction in Lincoln and they wouldn't let us ride through the construction. It was fine with me  because it was getting to be uncomfortably hot. It actually was a beautiful ride. It's very hard to capture the vistas on camera, but Montana is a beautiful state. We pass over the continental divide tomorrow.
Last night our meeting lasted a out two hours and everyone got to air there differences. It was good to hear and also to realize how miscommunication there was with just about everyone. It didn't solve all the problems but it did help. I still want to talk to Terry separately but he wasn't ready to do that last night.
It's finally get hot here. Up until now it's been mostly cool and rainy. Today was in the 80's, but I think tomorrow will be in the 90's. Just 55 miles tomorrow. Friday is usually a easy day so we can be back early to get ready for Shabbat.
The biking is going well - just a few aches and pains. I mostly hang out with the "kids". They're very sweet. I mostly bike by myself,  by choice. I like going at my own pace and I prefer not talking while biking. I think we' ve all gotten a bit stronger biking.
Got to go. They are closing the ice cream place.

Day eleven

We're in Missoula, MT.  and we have a day off from riding. This morning we volunteered at a community bike place called Free Cycle (kind of like Bikes not Bombs). Than we had a tour of an organic farm, went to Adventure Cycling to visit them and get our picture taken and we all got a free six months subscription to their magazine.
Now I'm back at the synagogue where we spent last night and we will spend tonight. We sleep on the floor but at least we did 't have to set up our tents in the pouring rain. And Garth one of the staff, made eggs for us this morning for breakfast.
I'm going out to dinner tonight with Dena and Ilan and whoever else wants to come, but we have to be back for community meeting at 6:30. I think it will be a long one.
So this is what happened
On Monday afternoon a very friendly big dog decided to follow us as we began riding up this terrible rocky unpaved path. When we got to the top we had a rest stop which happened to across from a restaurant and bike rental shop. We went in to use the bathroom and also to find out if she knew what we should do about the dog. The person there said that she thought she knew the owner of the dog and would call them.
The rest of the day was downhill, but it was going to be on this rocky dirt path and I decided I was not going to ride. The other choice was riding on route 90 which is the same as our route 90  except that the speed limit here in Montana is 75. Most people decided to take route 90 after being on the dirt path for a while. If I had known that I probably would have biked down.
Anyway I was in the van a d we learned much later that the dog had continues to follow the riders and when they went on the highway the dog would sometimes go into the road, so two people, Dena and Terry walked with the dog and their bikes to a place where they could make phone calls about a mile away from where they were. They found out that there we no shelters so they called Eli, a staff member to come pick up the dog. I went with Eli in the van.  By this time it was around 5:00. We brought the dog back to camp and Freddy, a woman married to Terry, decided to go up to the office to see if they knew of a place for the dog. I told her I didn't think that was a good idea and as it turned out it wasn't. The woman who owns the camp said if we didn't get rid of the dog she would come and shot it and Freddy believed she would.
So I thought the best idea was to bring the dog back to the bike rental place, tie him up with food and water and when they opened in the morning they would find the dog. I did not know that Terry, who lives in Idaho, thought that if we tied him up he would be killed by a pack of wolves. Terry wanted us to find a home for him in the town we were in. But I did not know about Terry's concern about the wolves. So while Terry and Dena were biking back Eli and I drove back about 40 miles and left the dog tied up. That's why I did not get in two nights ago until 11:00.
A number of people knew what Eli and I did with the dog, but apparently Terry was not one of them. So  
Yesterday morning while I was putting something away on the truck Terry came over and asked "what happened with the dog. "I thought he was just wanting to chit chat about the dog, so I said something like wait a second or I'll be with you in a minute. Well, by the time I realized that Terry was really getting upset it was too late. He had totally lost it and was screaming What happened to the dog. By this time Eli came over and told him what we had done and then he became uncontrollable saying the dog would have been better off shot than torn apart by wolves and this went on for at least ten minutes. This was as 6:30 am and the bike rental shop didn't open til 8:00. It was really awful. The good news is that the dog is fine and was brought to a shelter, but we still haven't had a meeting because last night we were hosted by the Jewish community of Missoula and so we are going to have to talk about it tonight.
Anyway, never a dull moment
Back on the bike tomorrow

Day ten

I biked 92 miles today, the last 15 miles in moderate to heavy rain. We just finished dinner and luckily have a inside location to sleep.  There are many conversations going on, but right now I am  too tired to participate in any of them. I can't wait until lights out so I can go to sleep.
We had a very emotional interaction this morning and not in a good way. I'll have time tomorrow to write about both today and yesterday. I'm very pleased with myself for completing today's ride,  but I am ready to crash right now

Day nine

Today was a bit of an unusual day. It started off on a wonderful bike path and we rode  for about 22 miles. For the first 16 I rode with Dena and Ilan. They usually ride ahead of me, but they were both tired this morning so they rode much slower.  Our first rest stop was in a small town of Wallace where the three of us stopped for breakfast at a local breakfast place.  From there we checked out the bakery and I  bought a brownie for dessert for tonight.  Back on the bike path for 8 more miles, than a few more miles on the road. And than we picked up an unpaved trail for the next 10 miles.
I wrote the above this afternoon, but now it is 11:00 and I just got bAck to camp. I need to get up at 5:30 to make coffee so I will need to finish my day either tomorrow or most probably Wed.  We have a very long riding day tomorrow and than a service day on Wed which is like a day off. Today was a very crazy day.
 It i must say I just eat the brownie from the bakery in Wallace and it was so.good.

Day eight

Sunday evening - 9:00  Sitting outside at a pretty poor excuse for a campground. At least I took a hot shower. Many only got cold water.
It was a long day, but not bad. The first part of the day was up and down hills until we got to miles 39. At that point we got on a bike trial and the riding was flat for the next 45 miles.  The most exciting part of the day was stopping for ice cream in Harrington. Our server asked if I wanted a single scoop or a kiddie cone so I said a single scoop which meant 4 - 5 scoops. It was huge, but I shared it with Dena and Ilan. Actually I managed to eat most of it but I did give them a couple  of bits each.  It was chocolate peanut  and very delicious.
Last night we had dinner at the synagogue, just our group. We also had two bottles of wine for the group of 16. So Eli and I shared one bottle and the rest of the group shared the other bottle. Somehow it just worked out that way. We did a Torah portion as well and Eli and I were partners to discuss some questions. It was a good thing that Eli is really good at that, so I really didn't need to give it too much thought.
I had a lot more things I could have written about but it will have to wait for another day. I am off dinner duty and now have breakfast and lunch duty which means I need to get up early to make coffee, so I am going to sleep.
Only  75 miles tomorrow. But it looks like a  very tough ride. All uphill for the first 35.

Day seven

Shabbat. Rest day. I think I can really say, probably for the first time, I love Shabbat.  Everyone else is off to Shabbat morning services and I am free to do whatever. This morning I took a walk around the neighborhood and found a yard sale. I bought a cute book for Etyan that has wheels and can also be a truck. It's fairly chilly here in Spokane today so I am sitting inside whe I write.
So to answer a few questions that my regular readers have asked. I really love hearing from you and yes I do read your e- mails to me even though I do not respond.  Please keep them coming. I was on dinner duty the first week which meant I would ride, shower and start working right away. Than we would eat, have our nightly meeting and have free time after 8:00 at which time I would blog and them read through my e-mail and crash for the. iChat. So even though I haven't responded do know that I am reading them and really enjoy getting them
The food and support have been fantastic. Breakfast is cold cereal or quick cooking oatmeal with milk or yoghurt, fruit , and peanut butter and great bread, if they remember to put it out. Lunch is on the road and is usually a choice of tuna, cheese, peanut butter and jelly with really good bread plus snack foods and fruit. I'm going to add fig newtons to the list. We also have one or two rest stops with the same food except no tuna.
Dinner has been incredibly good so far. There is always a vegetarian option if we have meat and also gluten free, plus everything has to be Strickly kosher. More on that another time.
We always have a salad, and lots of veggies. We've had a tofu stir fry, beef barley soup and barley mushroom lentil soup for the non meat eaters, chicken with dried fruit over rice, and other memorable meals that I can't remember at the moment, but they we all really good.
Last night was a pot luck put on by both the reform and conservative congregations. It was impossible to try everything but I made a very good effort. I also made sure to grab a very fudgy brownie as I went through the line because I could tell that they would be gone if I waited until I was finished eating dinner. No wine and no chocolate is my normal now. But I must say that brownie was very good.
It is now close to 1:00 and my host family will be returning soon. We start tomorrow at 7:00 riding out of Spokane to Pinehurst , ID distance of 89 miles

Day six

I am writing from the luxury of a bed. It is amazing how good it feels. We are the guests of the Jewish community of Spokane and we are all being housed with varioUs families. My host has myself and Kim.  Tonight we will go back to the synagogue for a pot luck dinner prepared by the Jewish . What luxury - a bed and no cooking.
Even though it did rain a bit from Harrington to Spokane it was a really nice ride. Many hills,  but all doable. Well except the one in Spokane which reminded be of Allerton Hill in Hull.  I road mostly by myself, except for a small stretch with Elizabeth, who sadly is only biking for the one week. She lives in Spokane and has 4 kids it was a big deal for her to be as to get away for the week.
Getting through Spokane was a bit tricky with lots of turns, but very pretty. One turn was not on our que sheet which was quite annoying, but using google maps is very helpful. I wound up using it a lot today. Spokane is nicely set up for bikers, although it was very hilly to get to our destination .  I will go out now and talk to my host family.
 I will do some exploring of Spokane by foot tomorrow.

Day five

I was feeling pretty bad about not completing the ride today and than I spoke to Butch and now I am feeling really bad. I should have called Jill or Corinne.
The day started off cold and raining and basically got colder and rainier. The first rest stop was at mile 20 and both the truck and the van were there. My biggest mistake was to get into the van to warm up and the second one to was listen to everyone else say they had had enough of this and were Taking the van. As it turned out, out of 12 of  us riding 5 biked to completion. I was not one of them.  I'm feeling a bit sad that I didn't try harder to ride, but I'm sure I will have many other opportunities to challenge myself.