George, Chris, and Kiki
Chris, George, Kiki, Torey
Arrived to Stacy's in Mechanicsville, VA
Leaving to start our second day of the ride.
Cooling off by a stream in VA
Jumping the stream
Chris fixing his first flat tire, hopefully his only flat tire.
Chris putting his wheel back on.
Inside the bike house at the Cookie Lady's
Inside the bike house again
The Cookie Lady's Bike House
Bike House again
Polaroid! Chris, George, and me
Kiki, The Cookie Lady (June Curry), and George
The Cookie Lady!
Camping in Love, VA in someone's back yard!
Camping in Love, VA
Camping in Buchanan, VA - behind a firehouse building. It stormed that night!
My loaded down bike with solar panel hanging off the front.
Chris' tarp shower that he created at Newbern, VA
My dirty gloves after fixing George's broken chain.
Just arrived to Kentucky - June 4th
Chris and George racing the train.
Mack - a fellow east-west rider.
Horses in Love, VA - just for mom.
Chris and me on the Blueridge Parkway about to exit down into Vesuvius, VA
George of the jungle hanging from a tree on the side of the road
Yummy food at the homeplace.
The Homeplace in Catawba, VA
We arrived to Kentucky!
My sleeping place inside a gymnasium in Lookout, KY
Big storm heading our way!
George playing on the haybail...
After biking in the storm, we arrived to this little mom and pop pizza place - we ordered 2 large 14“ pizzas and 12 breadsticks! We were hungry and wet!
Drying out the tents and stuff in Fordsville at a pavilion.
Lots of stuff to dry out.
The rundown park where we stayed and had hot showers. Was rather nice!
Our sag vehicle, right?
Camped out in Dixon, KY - the guys were at their own pavilion - I had teens come later that night and play loud music till midnight or later. It was a blast (not!)
Getting stuff ready to cook - oatmeal with apple sauce = amazing!
Drying out the tent fly and some clothes in the morning.
George's second broken chain!
Working on trying to repair George's chain - didn't have the powerlink that would actually work. Hitched a ride to Princeton, KY and then to Paducah, KY to a bike shop. Same car gave us a ride the entire way (60-70 miles)!
Chris riding in the back of the pick-up on the way to Princeton, KY.
Crossing over into Illinois from Paducah, KY after getting George's chain fixed at Bike World.
Riding in the back and enjoying it - look at the bridge. It's grated and very narrow - so they drove us across instead of having us bike across. Very nice people!
Entering Illinois in the back of a pick-up - we faked the pictures of us at the sign as we left Illinois.
The sign for Superman!
Celebrating 1,000 miles (but we were a bit over at this point) with ice cream from Sonic!
More ice cream from Sonic!
Chris is Superman!
I am Superman!
Chris and Superman.
George and Superman.
Corn fields in Illinois on the way to Vienna to camp at Kerri and Tracy's
Self-portrait of me biking alongside the cornfields...
Pacing at 17-18mph on the way to Vienna, IL
Kerri and Tracy's awesome property with a pond, diving board, friendly dogs. Very cool people and place!
More pics of the pond.
Chris shooting George with the super soaker.
George shooting back.
George and Chris hanging on the diving board. Look how white George is...haha.
Camped out in Kerri and Tracy's back yard!
Kerri and Tracy's A-frame house.
Kerri, Chris, and George
George winning another guy on the trip - Clyde this time.
George and Chris goofing around.
Watch out for the slow traffic. Amish country in Illinois.
Where we stayed in Carbondale, IL at Rachel's house - very cool that she took us in and didn't even know us!
More fields and biking.
And farms.
Chester, IL - popeye's hometown.
Here's Illinois - but we're actually about to leave and cross the Mississippi.
Self-explanatory.
Popeye
Welcome to Illinois - as we're leaving we took this photo:)
The Mississippi River
Crossing the good ole Mississippi River into Missouri
The other side looking at the Mississippi River
A little video of George and Chris crossing the Mississippi River
Welcome to Missouri - George
Chris
and Me
What's the “show-me” state?
The mandatory group shot of us entered Missouri
George camped on top of the shelter - he was afraid of snakes and bugs. What a wimp!
Our cold showers at Kyle's campground.
And the toilet.
Kyle's campground in Missouri somwhere.
Pumping water from the Current River enroute to Eminence, MO
Still pumping water - it's quite a task when you have to do 5-6 bottles.
Camping in Eminence, MO at Arrowhead Campground!
The sweat just beaded up on my face, arms, body and I left at 7am that morning. This was at 7:58am - after climbing some really steep hills on the way to Summersville.
Riding in the Ozarks.
Self-portrait in the Ozarks.
Can you see “Gelbvieh” - German:) for The Yellow Cow!
Lots of lilies alongside roads out here - all orange and wild, it appears.
A farm in Missouri on the way to Houston, MO.
George's buddies.
George's photo of the sunset in Dixon, KY
Chris and the smiley-face water tower (I think it was).
Nice sign.
Biking on...
Chris doesn't look very happy. I don't remember where we were for this picture.
Popeye.
Olive.
After crossing the Mississippi into Missouri - we got ice cream there:)
Helping with the water pumping process at the Current River.
Friendly dogs on our way to Golden City, MO before crossing into Kansas.
The church in St. Mary where we stayed.
Funny sign they had posted at the church.
Another funny sign.
Biking on the shoulder - a fairly common thing on busy roads like this.
Courthouse in Hardville, MO where we camped out - in the lawn out front.
My loaded bike in the morning sun - catching some rays on the solar panel:)
$2.37 for gas just outside of Springfield, MO.
Funny how they use letters for road names - apparently county roads use letters, I think.
Countryside in Missouri - off route 160 from Springfield to Ash Grove.
Round barn
Michael spinning the wheel to make rope in this gas station in Ash Grove, MO.
The final product - a piece of rope.
Camping at Ash Grove's city park.
Dinner - stirfry and a half gallon of OJ!
Yummy - stirfry for dinner. Ate an entire package myself:)
Breakfast of Champions - oatmeal with bananas - soon to have chocolate covered raisins added!
A hot air balloon passed by in the morning before we left.
Irrigation system.
Flat land - riding into Golden City, MO for lunch before leaving for the last 35 miles to Kansas.
Cooky's Cafe - known for all the homemade pies. They were yummy!
Strawberry Pie
Coconut Cream Pie!:)
Welcome to Kansas!
