Browsing Archive: April, 2011
Posted by the girls on Saturday, April 30, 2011,
We left the church in Shawneetown and headed west on IL-13 toward Harrisburg. We were shocked by the sights along the way: flooded farm fields, houses underwater, closed roads, and other signs of disaster. We were so lucky that none of our roads were flooded. We made it safely to Harrisburg (about 20 miles) and crossed the 1,000 mile marker of our trip thus far. We stopped for awhile at Wal-Mart to pick up some supplies and kill some time. We knew we would be staying with our first WarmShower...
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Posted by the girls on Saturday, April 30, 2011,
Today was finally dry enough to get biking again. Instead of the usual route to Cave-In-Rock, we re-routed to cross the Ohio River by Shawneetown. We were sad to leave Violet, Bob, and Trace, but said our reluctant goodbyes. It felt good to be on the bikes again...afterall, that's what this trip is all about. Sometimes we feel a bit guilty taking a day off, especially when it's due to weather and we just had a day off, but we tried to make the most of it!After about 15 miles, we began to noti...
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Posted by the girls on Wednesday, April 27, 2011,
We checked the weather as soon as we woke this morning and the hourly forecast showed that there was 100% chance of rain every hour of the day. We decided the sensible option would be to stay in Sebree for another night, so that we would be indoors if another storm or tornado comes. We were disappointed as we wanted to get back on the road to make up for lost time. But the church is a great place to stay, and Bob and Violet are extremely hospitable.
By mid-morning it was fine out, so we walk...
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Posted by the girls on Wednesday, April 27, 2011,
Happy American Birthday Michelle!
We got up, knew it would be another rainy day, but decided we would try to make a little ground before the rain came. We had heard there was a church in Sebree, KY, only 25 miles away, that lots of cyclists stay at. We also heard that the church provides dinner, showers, and a place to sleep. It only took us a couple of hours despite the strong winds to make into the little town of Sebree. We were greeted by Violet and her 2-year-old grandson, Trace. They too...
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Posted by the girls on Tuesday, April 26, 2011,
We woke at the Utica Fire Station hoping to continue on to Sebree, KY. Unfortunately, the weather did not allow us to do so. It was rainy most of the day with some severe thunderstorms. There also were a lot of flash flood warnings for throughout the state of Kentucky. We didn't want to risk riding in the rain (and not have any towns in between to stop at). A man came to the fire station to fix the television. He greeted us warmly and told us to stay as long as we wanted. Knowing that we were...
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Posted by the girls on Tuesday, April 26, 2011,
We woke up to a special Easter breakfast prepared by Jim. We were able to try Sorghum (a lot of which is made near Lietchfield). It was molasses-like; we mixed it with butter and spread it on some toast. Before going to church, Jim said a prayer for us and sent us on our way.
We hoped to bike to Utica, KY (about 60 miles), but weren't sure if we'd make it with the hilly terrain and scattered t-storms.
We acquired a 4th member around mile 15: a huge black dog. At first, we yelled and threatened...
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Posted by the girls on Tuesday, April 26, 2011,
We weren't sure if we'd be able to bike today since the weather forecast included scattered showers all day. We decided to shorten our ride for the day and just attempt to make it to Lietchfield, only 40 miles away, instead of Falls of Rough which would have been about 60 miles. It was raining in the early morning so we took our time getting ready. As we were almost packed up, Mark Davis showed up at our site again, this time with a fellow cyclist, Steven, and a print out of the maps we neede...
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Posted by the girls on Friday, April 22, 2011,
It rained all night, but we managed to keep most of our stuff dry. We were thankful that it was just heavy rain and not anything severe (no lightning/tornadoes/hail). When it finally let up a bit, we boiled some water under the roof of the bathroom complex and ate our daily oatmeal breakfast.
We then headed over to the Mammoth Cave Hotel lobby to take advantage of the free wi-fi and book our cave tour tickets. We lucked out and got free tickets for a self-guided tour. They are having some kin... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Friday, April 22, 2011,
We all had a wonderful sleep at Wanda's house and we came out of our rooms to see a table full of fresh fruit. We were eating breakfast and Wanda gave us another gift. Not only did she offer us dinner, showers, a place to sleep, and breakfast, but she also gave us a devotional book with a very sweet note and $100 to go towards our trip. We all just sat and gawked; what more could she do for us? We packed up our things and headed back to the church to pack our tents up and get our bikes set. W...
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Posted by the girls on Friday, April 22, 2011,
According to our itinerary, we were going to take two days off in Nashville. We thought it would be fun to spend one day in Nashville and one day in Memphis (rent a car or take a bus). However, as usual, our plans changed. We heard some negative reviews about Graceland (our main purpose for wanting to go to Memphis) and the weather was brewing up some nasty storms. In order to try and stay on schedule, we decided to bike today instead of going to Memphis. We had hoped to get to Bowling Green ...
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Posted by the girls on Wednesday, April 20, 2011,
For our day off in Nashville, we had to get Michelle a new wheel. After 4 broken spokes in a very short period of time, she was recommended to get a new rim. Her current rim was cheap and not able to withstand all of the extra weight on her bike. We tried every bike shop in Huntsville, but nobody had anything in stock. So we went ahead and ordered a good touring wheel from a bike shop in Nashville. This way the wheel would be at the shop when we arrived. We just had to drop off Michelle's bik...
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Posted by the girls on Wednesday, April 20, 2011,
We all agree that Tennessee is our favorite state so far. The most appealing thing about Tennessee is the terrain. Not only are the green hills and vales easy on the eyes, but they are also fun to go up and down. Flat roads may seem attractive at first, but they get really boring; every mile feels like 5 or 10. The rolling hills of Tennessee make the miles go by quickly. We usually get enough momentum from the previous downhill to make it at least half-way up the next uphill.
The rolling hill...
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Posted by the girls on Wednesday, April 20, 2011,
After eating John's famous oatmeal (old-fashioned oats with butter, honey, and wheat germ) we were fueled up and ready to go! We had to bike about 38 miles to get to Henry Horton State Park. We made it there with relatively few issues. Rebekah had her first flat tire of the trip. When she took her back wheel off, right away we all noticed a big ol' rusty nail still stuck through the tire and the tube. Hopefully, the tire will still hold up with that puncture because it was brand new at the be...
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Posted by the girls on Wednesday, April 20, 2011,
After the storms passed, a cold front came through the Huntsville area. We decided to get an early start because the winds were supposed to increase throughout the day. We left our hotel by 8am and headed toward Fayetteville, Tennessee. The air felt bitterly cold. This is relatively speaking though. We are used to 80s and 90s and today it was in the high 40s/low 50s for our ride. Leaving Huntsville was pleasant; we went through some nice neighborhoods and stopped at a bike shop to bike up a c...
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Posted by the girls on Friday, April 15, 2011,
So we are cooped up in a hotel room right now in Huntsville, AL. Since we biked two day's worth of miles yesterday, we took today off since the weather is not biker-friendly. The rain has been coming down all day with lightning and thunder on and off. We took a little walk to Wal-Mart and the Dollar Tree to get a few supplies, including ingredients for lunch. We decided to make tortellini. When we got back to the hotel, we started cooking inside with our little stove. Soon we had an 18 inch h...
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Posted by the girls on Friday, April 15, 2011,
Originally our plan was to bike about 40 miles from Noccalula Falls Campground to Georgia RV Park just north of Guntersville, AL. We wanted a little bit shorter of a day because we knew that the terrain would be hillier than we were used to.
After about 24 miles, Rebekah noticed that Michelle's rear tire looked wobbly. Michelle said she had heard something snap. And, sure enough, she had a broken spoke. Last time this happened, Emily was able to replace the spoke. This time though it proved ... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Wednesday, April 13, 2011,
Last night was really cold, but it warmed up quickly and with the new time change we were riding by 9:30am (pretty early for us)! Our original route did not include Alabama, but we changed it a couple days ago to bypass as much of the Appalachians as possible. We rode from our camp site on the Chief Ladiga Trail into Gadsden, Ga. We stayed at the Noccalula Falls Campground just north of the city giving us a daily total of 37 miles. It was a pretty easy ride up until a couple of miles before o...
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Posted by the girls on Wednesday, April 13, 2011,
As mentioned in the previous post, the Silver Comet Trail begins in Smyrna, GA. How convenient that Rebekah's aunt's house is also in Smyrna! We just had to bike 3 miles to meet up with the trail. Originally, we thought that we would bike to Rockmart, GA (about 39 miles). After spending the night there, we had planned to veer north and head to Tennessee via the Chattanooga area. However, after looking at some topographical maps, we opted to skip that route and head west through Alabama. This ...
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Posted by the girls on Wednesday, April 13, 2011,
We took one more day off in Atlanta because we had a few random things to accomplish. First, Rebekah woke up early to bike to the Public Office in Marietta. She was able to get fingerprinted there which she needs for her Minnesota teaching license application. We all cleaned our bikes after that and were disgusted by the amount of black crud that had built up everywhere (in just one week)! After the cleaning, we took our bikes to the Silver Comet Depot, a bike shop right on the Silver Comet T...
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Posted by the girls on Monday, April 11, 2011,
Reaching Atlanta was a big marker for us. It meant we had been going for a week now, and that if we could make it to here, we could do the whole thing. So, to reward our hard work, we spent a day at Six Flags, an amusement known for it's roller coasters. We did pretty much all of the big roller coasters. Our favorites were the Superman, where you are riding face down, just like superman, and the Goliath that was over 20 stories high. Though there aren't roller coasters like these in New Zeala...
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Posted by the girls on Sunday, April 10, 2011,
This morning we were served an amazing breakfast by Nancy. It was more-than-pleasant to be awaken by the aromas of homemade biscuits, grits, apple juice, and cantaloupe. Once again, we ate our fill and had a nice chat with Nancy. She is one of the proudest grandma's we've ever met. She packed up some leftover brownies for each of us, said our prayer for our safety, and sent us on our way to Atlanta.
Thank you so very much to Will & Nancy for all of their hospitality. Our stay was the epitome o... Continue reading ...
Posted by the girls on Sunday, April 10, 2011,
In the morning, we tried to get an early start, but had several delays. First, we found that Michelle had a broken spoke. This was a new problem for us. Luckily, Michelle had 2 extra spokes so we were able to attempt a repair. Emily turned out to be an awesome mechanic. She took out the old spoke and put the new one in like it was no big deal. While this repair was going on, we were distracted by another issue. One of the semi-permanent RVers had heard arguing and glass shattering the night b...
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Posted by the girls on Sunday, April 10, 2011,
Since we had such good mileage the day before, we only had about 18 miles to do before our next campground. So after our restful sleep and leftover Chinese for breakfast, we headed to Twin Oaks RV Park, just southwest of Perry, GA. It was a hilly ride but we pulled into the campsite at noon. Twin Oaks was one of the nicest places we have stayed, with a lounge and board games, big TV and a hot tub that we put to good use. We spent the rest of the day sunbathing, reading and eating ice cream. T...
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Posted by the girls on Sunday, April 10, 2011,
We enjoyed our night stay at General Coffee, though a bit cold after the storm. We started the day off thinking the ride would be about 50 miles to Abbeville. The day went along rather uneventfully. Despite our original figures of 50 miles, it was more like 60 when we pulled into Abbeville, GA at 4:30pm. The town seemed pretty small and the we didn't have anywhere planned for our night's stay. There were no hotels or camp grounds in sight, or even a supermarket, so we stopped into the Library...
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Posted by the girls on Thursday, April 7, 2011,
After our late start, we weren't able to get on the road until 10:30am. Michelle had another little spill early on which resulted in a bloody leg, but luckily, nothing more....oh, a bloody sock, too! We cleaned her up and stopped at Dollar General to stock up on some edible goodies. Then it was back on the road and into the wind. It was sooooo windy (supposedly ?? mph). May not sound bad, but with 40+ extra lbs of weight and already tired legs, it was tough. We pushed through and finally reac...
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Posted by the girls on Thursday, April 7, 2011,
We got up fairly early, boiled some water for our oatmeal, and packed up our tents. We found Sassy, but she didn't want our grapes. So we left St. Mary's River Fish Camp and headed to Laura S. Walker State Park in Georgia. We arrived after 37-uneventful-miles. The campground was situatued next to a little lake, but no swimming was allowed
(alligators). The ranger on duty warned us that some nasty storms were headed our way. The storms arrived at 5am and scared us into the concrete bathroom fa...
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Posted by the girls on Thursday, April 7, 2011,
Word of the day: FLAT.
Today is Sunday, April 3, the first day of our bike trip! We woke up to discover that Emily had a flat front tire. It was nice to be able to take our time and repair it before actually heading out on the road. After leaving Paul & Mary Ann's beautiful house, we first headed to the beach at Peter's Point. I think it is necessary to start every trans-America trip in the ocean (if your goal is to go coast to coast). With this idea in mind, we slowly trudged over the boardw...
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Posted by the girls on Thursday, April 7, 2011,
On Saturday, we arrived in Jacksonville and stayed at a relative's house near Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island. We are so grateful to have stayed in the most AMAZING house ever. Please check out our Picasa albums to see photos of this Indonesian-inspired abode. After exploring the island a bit, we met Sally, a fellow biker. She and her brother will be doing a trans-America trip starting a couple of weeks after us. It was great to hear about Sally's prior bike touring experiences. She had lot...
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Posted by the girls on Thursday, April 7, 2011,
Friday was our last night in Tallahassee, so we decided to have a little going away party. Lots of Emily's family was in attendance as well as a few other friends. After socializing, we ate a delicious dinner of BBQ (hot dogs, hamburgers, Smart Dogs), creamy mushroom rissotto, broccoli salad, and deviled eggs. Michelle tried to convince everyone to try her favorite snack: toast with butter and vegemite. Many were willing to try, but few actually enjoyed the experience. Her dessert, however, h...
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