Each posting takes me an hour or more, and costs me sleep. Please check the old posts for when I finally get around to adding pictures. Also, don't expect too many posts from the girls. They take their sleep when they can get it.
Let me know if our mileage log gets off. I am doing this in my head as I drift asleep.
Today was our rest day. I pushed the team hard yesterday and promised them a rest day today. We wanted to see some sites in Nauvoo, and maybe ride 12-15 miles to the next town for the night.
Our hotel last night proved to be one of the more pricey ones, the Nauvoo Motel, at almost $90 per room. Katie was pleased to find that our room was all setup for her when we arrived, with a complementary cot and everything. She was a bit discouraged to discover that we didn't have a bathroom however. The still-open main entry door covered up the bathroom door nicely, but we let her rant for a bit.
We slept in until 7 or 8 and casually had breakfast and Grandpas accross the street. For a bit over $5 we enjoyed a great breakfast buffet, with custom prepared pancakes and french toast. They topped off our OJ until we could hardly walk.
In town we toured a few buildings including a historic home and a blacksmith shop. The people of Nauvoo were very friendly and open about their faith and it's history, and very easy to enjoy listening to. None of these tours cost anything, and are very interesting. The blacksmith even made a horseshoe and gave it to a nearby child.
The MRT route (yeah, we jumped back on that, we don't learn) has some interesting historical stops. This is the underside of a neat old bridge with a waterfall and such under it.
After touring Nauvoo, we decided to head to Hamilton. It was only a few miles, but the tail wind was awesome! In Hamilton, the vote was taken. 3 people wanted to continue, and 2 maybes. The 2 maybes then decided they were up to it. We decided to shoot for quincy, another 50 miles. What a rest day! Nobody could pass up this tailwind.....even though it was already after 3pm!
The road was right by the river!
With the road so close to the water, we were concerned about flooding! The signs warned of other things though.....
At one point, we were heading right at the river, going down fast. We sent roger first, because he was more than willing to go crashing into the water.
Everyone clipped along at 15-18mph, with little effort. The wind held up all day. Laura and Katie were really tired, but the tailwind got them through.
Roger and Katie exchanged jokes, to help her forget how tired her legs were. She made sure to remind her frequently how fast we were riding on our rest day.
We were almost to Quincy, pushed by that tailwind, when we saw this sign. Stopping for a photo was mandatory, even if our bikes wanted to roll forward in the wind.
The wind seemed to pick up, but switched to be mostly from our side. Chucks googley eyed fish sure liked it. It was dead sideways, even though we were going 18mph. Nice job on the flag Amanda!
In quincy, we followed the route, looking for our hotel which was labeled as "on route" in our guidebook. It wasn't. 3 miles of backtracking was needed through town and all uphill to find the place. Oh well. At least we got to ride uber-close to some trains that were moving around. Cool stuff!
The hotel staff was nice enough to let us store our bikes in our room. Recumbents do not store easily, so we put Chuck in charge of this....since he is really good at that traffic jamb game where you slide the blocks around towards an opening.
Okay, that was a room that they were not able to rent, they let us store our bikes in it.
We had a late dinner next door at a really cool Perkins clone. They had refills on lemonaide, and eventually started bringing it by the pitcher. I left barely able to walk. Dumb. Katie is now banned from ordering anything with gravey.......she just makes a mess. Chuck sucked the filling out of his crepes. Roger has been eating a lot of salads (strange). Laura is now eating breakfasts as often as possible. Strange bunch. We were very jovial however, and laughed so hard at dinner that we all felt sick.
Katie did some laundry in the sink tonight. Her clothes bag had apparantly gone sour. She messed up and tossed a pair of wet socks in it. Whoops. Well, she washed some stuff tonight. Hopefully it tries well tonight or she will have the same problem tomorrow.
Anyway, Katie and Laura are fast asleep, and I should be too.
Longest rest day ever...........
60 miles (455 total)
Google Earth File
Comments
Creature sightings??
This past winter I read a book about an endurance athlete who ran 50 marathons in 50 days, one in each state. While running on a trail in Alaska, a buddy of his found a gnawed off moose leg and chased him down the trail with it. Talk about having unplanned speed work. I hope you don't see any ganwed off parts.
While riding the past two weeks I have seen cranes, deer and a fox. What have you seen?
Love,
Maria
wildlife
we have seen a LOT of deer.....even chased a few.
lots of cranes, and vultures (usually circling us).
i wish i was better at identifying birds from sounds, there have been a few that i have never heard before.
Great pic..................
Katie, you grossed yourself out!!! No No, gross out Chris. Much funnier.
I'm glad to see you were keeping Roger company. You are so sweet.
I'm so proud of you.
Love, Dee
Mileage count......
Chris, I get 454, not 455, but are you sure you haven't done 456? Just messing with your head a bit. Really, 454.
You know, you are right, that is fun to do. That explains why you like to mess with my head.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........pay back..........SWEET!
Great pics. Love the sign with Roger. His tan is way too dark though. Tell him "more sun screen!"
Hope you all had a good day again today.
Love, Dee
Chris's Math and a five finger wave
Your brain caculations brought me to the following funny story - enjoy and keep waving with your whole hand. Maria
He writes:
I was riding to work yesterday when I observed a female driver, who cut right in front of a pickup truck, causing the driver to drive onto the shoulder to avoid hitting her.
This evidently angered the driver enough that he hung his arm out his window and gave the woman the finger.
'Man, that guy is stupid,' I thought to myself. I ALWAYS smile nicely and wave in a sheepish manner whenever a female does anything to me in traffic, and here's why:
I drive 48 miles each way every day to work.
That's 96 miles each day.
Of these, 16 miles each way is bumper-to bumper
Most of the bumper-to-bumper is on an 8 lane highway.
There are 7 cars every 40 feet for 32 miles.
That works out to 982 cars every mile, or 31,424 cars.
Even though the rest of the 32 miles is not bumper-to-bumper, I figure I pass at least another 4000 cars.
That brings the number to something like 36,000 cars that I pass every day.
Statistically, females drive half of these.
That's 18,000 women drivers!
In any given group of females, 1 in 28 has PMS.
That's 642.
According to Cosmopolitan, 70% describe their love life as dissatisfying or unrewarding.
That's 449.
According to the National Institute of Health, 22% of all females have seriously considered suicide or homicide.
That's 98.
And 34% describe men as their biggest problem.
That's 33.
According to the National Rifle Association, 5% of all females carry weapons and this number is increasing.
That means that EVERY SINGLE DAY, I drive past at least one female that has a lousy love life, thinks men are her biggest problem, has seriously considered suicide or homicide, has PMS, and is armed.
Give her the finger?
I don't think so
Jokes
You guys probably know that I met Glenn while cycling. We trained for a century ride together and in the process signed up for a 50 mile ride along our lakefornt. I was a newbie in every sense of the word and had no clue on how these long rides worked. I suspected we would be stopping a lot and chatting so I brought along some funny jokes. The other party that we were with and Glenn could not understand what I was doing when I pulled out this piece of paper and started telling jokes. To this day I get teased about whipping out the joke papers, however, I think jokes are completely appropriate and was glat to hear that they made the time go by for the girls. Therefor, I have sent you a few more to keep the legs turning.
Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Norma Lee.
Norma Lee who?
Normalee I don't go around knocking on doors, but do you want to buy a set of encyclopedias
Knock Knock!
Doris.
Doris, who?
Doris locked, that's why I had to knock!
Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Aardvark.
Aardvark who?
Aardvark a million miles for one of your smiles.
Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Tennis.
Tennis who?
Tennis-see!
Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Madam!
Madam who?
Madam foot is caught in the door!
Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Old lady.
Old lady, who?
I didn't know you could yodel!
And finally, me sediments as stated below
Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Olive.
Olive who ?
Olive you!
Have a great day, Love, Maria
jokes
hey those were some pretty funny jokes. i really laughed at the madam joke. i scared my son, he didn't expect me to laugh that loud....lol
picture of bridge w/waterfall
I absolutely love the picture of the bridge w/the waterfall
I love waterfalls. We went on a 4 hour hike in Pennsylvania and saw 22 waterfalls - it was awsome
Good Looking Group
Pedal on you good looking group, Pedal on