Back in high-school, a teacher asked me to create a list of goals. He suggested that I write down a list of ideas which seemed extreme but exciting. He suggested that a persons goals need to be in writing or else they will be forgotten. I made this list, and forgot about it. After college I moved back to New Lisbon and found the list. On the list....."Ride your bike across the country...". Laura thought I was nuts, like always. We both began biking more together and eventually the idea of touring grew on her. We began discussing taking such a trip together "some day".

The school year has ended leaving us two weeks to get ready. The excitement and nerves are starting to kick in! I hope our group has fun and meets many new exciting people along the way.

To begin, our goal is New Orleans (touching the Gulf of Mexico) as an initial destination. We are planning to use this site to keep family and friends updated on our progress. Check in every few days for pictures, comments, and update on our trip. I look forward to seeing everyone again in August and sharing our fun!

We plan to follow a combination of the Mississippi River Trail and the Adventure Cycling Association Great Rivers Route.

We plan to ride 1500-2000 miles starting June 20th, 2009. Our destination is projected to be New Orleans, but our goal is simply to have an adventure.........the journey is our true destination.

Our route is not the straight road, it is not the highway. We are taking the backroads and seeing the country at 15mph.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible. Please create an account and leave us some messages!

Check back often for updates.

This will outline most of our daily blog posts.

In late 2008, we rode from New Lisbon in central Wisconsin, to Lake Superior and back. This 500 mile trip accounts for the northern part of our bisection of the country. The larger southern trip will be in 2009.

We faced hot and cold weather, wet and dry. We rode many miles of gravel, and met a lot of great people. The nicest people we met were in Pittsville WI where we were given lunch. Please help us repay the favor by supporting Baums Mercantile.

We learned things like...
Where the hell is Pittsville? (the town motto)
Are teenagers impressed by hydrology?

Today we were faced with a rough decision. Gravel roads, or traffic. The decision was to give the gravel road a shot, and see how it went. Well, it started out nice and hard packed.

See, this is how gravel roads trick you. As soon as we were committed, the road turned sour. We hit a freshly grated section that was about 3-4 miles long.

We surprised the owners of Baums Mercantile in Pittsville by fulfilling the promise we made on day 1 of our trip. We stopped by to visit. He thanked us and had his wife pack us each a nice meal. We sat in a yard nearby and enjoyed the best meals of the trip. After eating, we returned to do some shopping and donated some money towards a charity that the Baums were supporting via donation jars in the store. These were the nicest people you could ever meet, and I encourage you all to stop and say hi.

I have not had very many huge disappointments in my life. The list is short; the Packers loss in Superbowl XXXII, having my first bicycle stolen in 7th grade, and finding out that we arrived in a town called Colby Wisconsin and yet couldn't buy any cheese. Devastating.

We had to settle with some health food from the Plan-It Earth General Store. As it turns out, the snacks were great. We each had a different type of fruit chew or some form of mangled fruit. The owner was really nice, and the store was quite welcoming. If you pass through, stop and ask for some snacks.

The weather was beautiful today, and riding was perfect. Lets suppress the memory of that huge gravel hill... and let our therapist worry about it.

After the torturous gravel hill we were able to find side roads that were nicely paved and without heavy traffic. Lets give credit to the guy with the maps....

Everyone made great time on the smooth rolling hills today.

Chuck rides ahead. The road had a nice shoulder, and was fairly quiet in the early morning hours.

The log trucks must have slept in, but they did eventually arrive.

Our route passed some amazing road cuts. The igneous rocks of this area are a stark contrast to the sandstones in Central Wisconsin. As it turns out, road cuts do not impress Taters. What does it take to impress a teenager?