Hi all,
Just a quick note to let you all know that we made it to Lafayette on Wednesday
as scheduled. The last couple days the wind was very helpful and the route very
flat. The high temps make biking in the middle of the day quite uncomfortable
so we had been starting a little earlier in the mornings and getting out of the
sun for an hour or so at mid day.
We had a couple flats on the trailer tire but each was easily fixed and
only resulted in a few minutes delay.
We had a little scare on Monday morning when I noticed a bright red
streak in Pats left eye. By Tuesday morning the brightness dulled but the
redness spread looking more like the classic "blood shot" eye. We
called ahead and had Pat's brother in law set up an appointment for Pat on
Wednesday when we arrived in Lafayette. Apparently Pat had a conjunctive
hemorrhage in the white portion of her left eye. After having it checked out,
it appears all is OK and we will continue on our trip on Sunday as
planned.
Spirits are still high. Appears the weather is cooling a little and we
will have several days to rest before continuing on our trip. When we leave on
Sunday, Sandy, Pat's sister in law will be joining us for the Lafayette to
Watertown WI portion of the trip. We will be traveling to Chicago and are
looking forward to checking out the numerous converted railroad right of ways
that are now paved bike trails that will lead us up into Chicago where we will
be traveling on the city bike trails along lake Michigan up to Milwaukee where
we will turn west and head to Watertown on some Wisconsin bike trails (Maple
Leaf Trail, New Berlin Trail, Glacial Drumlin Trail).
More to follow later. ..... John and Pat
Hi all,
Just a very
quick update as we have a short access time to the internet.
We are in Watertown and will be leaving this morning as scheduled on our last
leg of the trip home. We have gone about 1150 miles to date.
The ride
from Lafayette, IN to Watertown, WI through Chicago and Milwaukee was excellent. Much of the ride was along Lake
Michigan and most of the route was on bike paths, more to follow on that
later when we have more time.
Our day lay
over in Chicago was SUPER! We visited Grant Park, Millennium
Park, the Aquarium, the Planetarium and the Hancock Bld. We
stayed two nights in the Chicago Hostel right
downtown in the loop. Much more to follow later.
......John and Pat
Hi all,
Just a quick note to let you all know we made it home safely. As
you can imagine, there were a lot of things waiting for us to take care of at
home after being gone for a month. In a couple days after the dust
settles, I will send out some more information on the Lafayette to Watertown and
Watertown to Minneapolis portions of the trip. More to follow later.
..... John and Pat
2007 Bike Trip
Final Update
Hi all,
First of all, thanks to everyone who wrote to see if we were
okay as a result of the I-35 W bridge collapse. We are all fine.
Thankfully, none of our family or extended family was involved in that
situation. As most of you have seen in
the media, it could have been much worse than it was. Our hearts and prayers go out to those involved and the families
of the dead and missing.
Where has the time gone?
It is already closing in on two weeks since we have been back and it
seems just like yesterday that we got home.
As promised, I wanted to provide
more info about the second and third phases of the trip that I did not
have time to send earlier. The info
about the Minneapolis to Lafayette portion of the trip was in Update #3. Details of the other two portions of the
trip are below:
First off we had a wonderful time in Lafayette visiting
Pat’s sister Mary Jo and her husband Michael.
We got to lounge around, eat and drink lots and get waited on like we
were in a 5 star hotel. Great food and
great company, not your traditional in-law stereotype!!! Pat also spent a lot of time in their hot
tub. Pat’s brother Greg and his wife
Sandy from Watertown joined us on the weekend and we all went out for dinner
and had a super time. Sandy joined Pat
and me for the bicycle trip from Lafayette to Watertown.
The trip from Lafayette to Watertown was perhaps the best
300 mile section of bicycle trip I have ever been on. First of all, we were “moteling it” every night in this section
so flush toilets, shower, dry place to sleep, air conditioning, etc were the
norm (we could get very spoiled). Secondly, everything worked out absolutely
perfect. It is uncanny how things just
came together. For example: the first
day (Sunday 7/15) we had to stay at a motel at one of the interchanges of I-65
near Rensselaer, IN. We were concerned
about finding a place to eat that evening and there was a great restaurant
right next door. The second day (Monday
7/16) the sky clouded up in the afternoon and it just started to sprinkle as we
biked into our motel in an industrial park in Merrillville, IN. Again when it came time for dinner, there
was a Hooters and an Outback Steak House a block away. You guessed it, I got out voted and we ate
at the Outback. The next morning
(Tuesday 7/17) we were heading for the Erie Lackawanna Bike Trail. The trail is paved and runs along an old
abandon railroad right of way heading to the Northwest up to Chicago. The traffic outside the industrial park in
that area in Merrillville along the highways was very intense. But again, as we left the industrial park,
there was a paved bike path for about 3.25 miles of the 3.5 miles to the
trailhead. Once on the trail, it was
easy going and we made good time until we had to exit the trail because there
was section that was not completed and we had to travel on city streets around
that section. As we exited the trail
the weather turned bad and it started to sprinkle. As fate would have it, our city street detour took us past a park
with a pavilion and open bathrooms where we sat out the storm until the worst
had passed. Once again we took off and
rejoined the trail and continued to the Northwest toward Chicago. We left that trail and passed through the
city streets on our way to the Burnham Greenway Trail (another paved old
railroad right of way). It was lunch
time as we passed through a county park with picnic tables and bathrooms so we
decided to have our peanut butter, jelly, bagels and smoked salmon packets
there. The Burnham Greenway Trail took
us up to South 101st St and Indianapolis Blvd where we crossed under
the Chicago Skyway (I-90). We biked through Calumet Park and took Hwy 41 to
cross the Calumet River. We followed
the well marked Bike Route signs along Hwy 41 to South 83rd St where
we picked up the paved Chicago Lake Shore Bike Trail. This trail runs along Lake Michigan all the way up to 5700 St
North. We got off at Grant Park right
downtown at the Loop as we were staying in the Chicago Hostel at the corner of
Wabash and Congress Streets. We checked into the Hostel and they had messed up
our reservation. There are two general
types of rooms at the hostel. The first
type are like college dorm type rooms that sleep from 6 to 20 people in bunk
beds. There is a wing for men and a
wing for women. Common bathrooms and showers for men and women are
located on each wing. The other type
of rooms are called “family rooms”.
These range from 4 to 6 people in bunk beds which can be occupied by
family members. This later type of room
is the type that I reserved for Pat, Sandy and me. When we checked in, they asked if it was okay to put us in a
handicapped family room because that was all they had and I said fine. When we got to the room and much to our
surprise, we had our own private shower and bathroom in our family room. That evening a four block walk got us to a
great restaurant. After a couple drinks
and a big meal we waddled back to the hostel for a good nights rest as we had a
big day of sight seeing planned for the next day.
The next day (Wednesday 7/18) we had our free breakfast at
the hostel and headed to a nearby camera shop a couple blocks away that we had
checked out the night before as Sandy wanted to get a new camera. We picked up the camera and went back to the
hostel to get ready for a day of sightseeing.
We headed off walking to the Aquarium as the free trolleys did not start
running until 10 am. We spent the
morning in the Aquarium, had lunch there and then walked down to the
planetarium and spent the afternoon there taking in two of their shows and
looking at all of the exhibits. As we
left the Planetarium, luck was with us again as there was a trolley ready to
pull out that was headed in the direction we wanted to go. We were on our way to the observation deck
of the John Hancock Building. We had
all been up in the Sears Towers before so we thought we would check out the
Hancock Building since it was one of the tickets we had in the “Chicago Sites
Ticket Booklets” we bought. We made a
transfer to get on the route that would take us to the Hancock Building. The trolley was slow going as it was rush
hour. When we got to our stop, we had
45 minutes to get to the tower and get back to the stop as that was when the
last trolley pickup for the day was. If
we missed the trolley we would have about a two mile walk or cab ride to get back. Again, things worked out fine and we spent
about 20 minutes on the observation deck and made it back in time to catch the
last trolley back to the Loop.
When we got back to the Loop, we stopped for dinner and
decided to visit Millennium Park to walk off dinner. They have some stainless steel sculptures that are difficult to
describe. We took lots of pictures and
I will post them on our website in the next couple weeks. Suffice to say, it was very impressive. We also walked over to Grant Park past the
area where they hold their open air movies on a big screen. A big crowd was gathering for a showing of
Young Frankenstein. We sat and watched
the Buckingham Fountain cycle through its light and spray patterns and headed
back to the hostel to get ready to leave in the morning to continue our bike
trip.
The next day (Thursday 7/19) we got our bikes out of the
secure area that the hostel had to store our bikes and loaded them up with our
panniers and headed toward Kenosha, WI our next stop. Once again, when we needed a potty stop, one appeared. When it was time for lunch, an opportunity
presented itself. We were biking on
predominately crushed rock trails of abandon railroad right of ways. From time to time we may need to travel on
some city streets to get to the next trail.
When we reached Kenosha, things continued to fall into place. The motel was right on the route we were
traveling, there were several restaurants across the street.
I got everyone up early (Friday 7/20) as our next stop was
in West Allis and we were going to visit Terry and Kristie that evening who
currently live in Germantown but lived across the street from us in New Hope,
MN several years ago. There was a car
rental place two blocks from our Motel in West Allis but they were only open
until 5pm. I wanted to get to our motel
in plenty of time to pick up the car, get our gear stowed and get cleaned up so
we could drive to Germantown before it got too late in the afternoon. Terry and Kristie were preparing a steak and
pasta dinner for us and we did not want to be late. Again, all the events of the day fell into place and we were at
Terry and Kristies by about 5 PM. This
was the first time that we got to see their Country Estate in Germantown. They have a large beautiful home and
pastures for their 7 lamas, 3 horses, two dogs, two cats and 2 rabbits. Their two girls are now in their early teens
and are active in sports and community activities. The last time we saw the girls they were about half that
age. We had a great dinner and a
wonderful time catching up.
We slept in a little later than normal in the morning
(Saturday 7/21) as the car rental place did not open until 8 am and I had to
return the rental car before we departed for our last stop in this section,
Watertown. Sandy had called Greg on
Friday evening when we got back from Terry and Kristies and made arrangements
for him to meet us on the trail. Our
route today would be mainly on biking trails.
We would travel a few blocks from our motel on city streets in West
Allis and get on the 8 mile New Berlin Bike trail that heads due west to
Waukesha, WI. There we would travel
about 3 miles through Waukesha and get on the Glacial Drumlin Trail that
continues West. The plan was Greg would
drive to the Glacial Drumlin Trail south of Watertown and bike East to meet us
for lunch. As was the case for this
entire section, everything went according to plan. We met Greg on the trail had lunch and biked back to where he was
parked. Greg took the panniers in the
car and Sandy, Pat and I biked the remaining 10 miles to Greg and Sandy’s place
a little southwest of Watertown.
Interestingly enough, we had no mechanical problems or flat
tires on this section of the trip. Our
timing worked out perfectly and we had a super time biking with Sandy and
having the opportunity to spend some quality time getting to know her better.
We left Watertown on Monday (7/23) after visiting with Pat’s
family for a couple days and repacking our equipment. Since we “moteled” the last section of the trip, we sent all of
our camping equipment home with Greg from Lafayette. We now had to repack all that equipment along with most of the
breakfast and lunch food we would need for the remainder of the trip. BOB (Back Of Bike) trailer I pull behind my
bike was once again up to about 70 pounds and I was feeling it the first day
out. We left Watertown and proceeded to
the Northwest headed for the Pride Of America Campground near Portage, WI. We
stayed there in about 2000 when we biked from Minneapolis to Watertown with
Pat’s bother Dan. There was nothing
great about the place but we were sure surprised when we paid $34.00 to pitch
our 5X7 foot tent for one night. To add
injury to insult, we had to pay $.50 each to take a 6 minute shower.
On Tuesday (7/24) we biked from the Pride of America
campground East of Portage, WI to Reedsburg, WI where we picked up the “400
Bike Trail”, a crushed limestone abandon railroad right of way that runs about 22
miles from Reedsburg to Elroy, WI. We
continued on to Elroy and camped in a city park in Elroy that evening.
The next day (Wednesday 7/25) we left Elroy via the Sparta
Elroy Bike Trail heading for Sparta.
This trail is about 32 miles and is again a crushed limestone trail on
an abandon railroad right of way. The
unique thing about this trail is that there are 3 tunnels along its route. The longest being 3/4th mile in
length. Lights are a necessity which we
had been carrying for the entire trip since we knew we would need them for this
section. Once we arrived in Sparta, we
picked up the LaCrosse River Trail that runs about 21.5 miles to the
Westsouthwest to Medary, WI which is Northeast of LaCrosse, WI. We stopped about 4 miles East of Medary at Veterans
Memorial Campground for the night.
The next day (Thursday 7/26) we continued on the LaCrosse
River Trail to Medary where we picked up the Great River Trail. The Great River State Trail is about about
24 miles of crushed limestone that runs Northwest of Medary along the East side
of the Mississippi River to Marshland WI.
At Marshland, we picked up the Great River Road Trail and headed North
which is basically WI Hwy 35. We
continued on Hwy 35 until Alma, WI and camped in a city park a mile or so North
of Alma. That night was probably the
worst night of our trip. We got into
camp and set up the tent, a protective tarp and started cooking dinner when we
had to deal with horizontal rain for about an hour. It must have rained about 2 inches before it was all over. We managed to keep our equipment in the tent
dry.
The next day (Friday, 7/27) would have to rate as perhaps
the worst day of the trip. After
packing up our wet tent and tarps, we headed out. We went about 50 feet and Pat’s chain came off for no apparent
reason. Next, she forgot to fasten her
rack pack and that fell off. We got
that straightened out and started up the hill out of the campground and the cable
to my rear derailleur broke.
Fortunately, I carry a spare so we spent the next half hour or so
changing the cable and retuning the rear derailleur shifting. We got about 200 yards from the campsite and
the batteries in the GPS died and needed to be changed. We went about another quarter of mile and my
radio (walkie-talkie) popped off my camelback harness and landed in the road
(only minor damage). We stopped about
noon to call ahead to the campsites we were planning on staying at that evening
and ALL were booked. We called 5
different places that were all along our route and none of them would let us
even camp in a vacant corner somewhere of their campground for one night. After calling several motels in Red Wing
Minnesota, we found a place to stay and wound up crossing the Mississippi River
into Minnesota earlier than we had planned to have a place to stay for the
night. Eventually we got to our Motel
in Red Wing and settled in. There was a
restaurant about a half mile away and we decided to bike there have dinner and
retire early that evening.
On Saturday (7/28) we headed for St Paul. Since we did not plan on taking this route
we had no detailed maps of this area but did have a Minnesota Highway map. We were familiar with biking on Highway 61
and decided we would take that route as long as the shoulder was good and if it
turned bad before we got to Highway 316, we would just wing it on the county
roads and use locals for route suggestions.
As it turned out, this route was great.
The only downside was that we had to climb out of the Mississippi River
valley twice and the Cannon River valley once.
Other than that, no problems we were on our way to St Paul. We had previously arranged with our daughter
Tracey that lives St Paul to have our van at her house and we would stop by
there, see the grand kids and then load up our stuff and drive back to New
Hope. This was all part of a master
plan since our middle daughter Natalie had flown in from San Mateo, CA on
Friday for the weekend to assist Tracey with a major painting project of the
downstairs of her house in St Paul. By
making transportation available for the parents to get home Saturday night,
they could then be back Sunday morning with their painting stuff to assist with
the project. Sly kids. Their plan worked, we were back there
painting on Sunday……
This trip was unique in that there were times when it was
very interesting and there were times when it was not so interesting. There were three distinct phases to this
trip. The Minneapolis to Lafayette
Phase, the Lafayette to Watertown Phase and the Watertown to St Paul
Phase. Each has its own
personality. In the first Phase, the
many small towns that we passed through and the places where we camped were
very interesting but it seemed like we spent hour after hour of biking along
corn fields that made for excellent potty spots but restricted any visibility
to the country side. I believe we
experienced what some previous bicyclist have characterized as corn field
tunnel vision. In some places traveling
through central Illinois, you literally had to stop at the intersection of two
roads when you were in an area where all sides of the road were planted in corn
and creep up looking to the left and right for cross traffic as the fields are
planted so close to the roads you can not see on coming traffic on the cross
road unless you peer around the corn plants.
The Lafayette to Watertown portion of the trip was by far
Pat and my favorite. First and foremost
we greatly enjoyed Sandy’s company. She
was always upbeat and seemed to be truly having a great time. We are so pleased that she could join us on
that portion of the trip and look forward to the possibility that she can join
us on other trips. I had spent a great
deal of time researching the routes through Chicago and received a great deal
of help from fellow bicyclists in the area.
I was truly impressed by how Chicago is trying to become known as a
“bicycle friendly city”. The bike maps
they have and the route markings in the city were very good and the number of
bike lanes and routes they have down town is very impressive. Millennium park is also a place everyone
(bikers and none bikers) should visit at least once if you have not done so
yet. In addition to the beautiful
sculptures, gardens, reflection ponds and amphitheater, the park provides up to
300 indoor secure parking places for bicyclist. They also have locker and shower facilities for bicycle
commuters. The bicycle trails and paths
in and around Chicago and especially along Lake Michigan are excellent.
The Watertown to St Paul Phase of the trip was very
comfortable. It is always fun to get
back out on the bike trails one is familiar with. We have been on the Sparta-Elroy for example many times and introduced
our children to the trail when they were young. In a few years we hope to share that same experience with our
grandchildren. The Great River Road was
a new experience for us and we enjoyed it very much.
In retrospect, this trip did not have the glamour of some of
our other trips. This was after all, a
trip through the Heartland of the USA and it needs to be recognized as
such. We saw the small towns and the
large cities. We had great views along
the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan.
We saw lots of corn and soybeans!
We continue to be impressed by the friendliness of the people we meet on
our trips. We had complete strangers
coming up to us while we were camped in a small town park offering the use of
their porch if the weather turned bad during the night. Even in Chicago, when we pulled over to the
curb to check the map, a motorist (who must have been a biker) recognized that
we were through bikers and needed some help, rolled down his window and shouted
out “ keep going, two blocks ahead and take a left” as he passed by. Sure enough, those were the correct directions
to get to the bike route. All in all,
it was great trip!
As is typical, I want to share some statistics about the
trip:
Duration:
32 Days (June 27 through July 28, 2007)
Biking
Days:
27
Total
Miles:
1330
Non Camping
Nights:
10 (Motel, Friends or Family)
Longest Biking
Day:
62.0 Miles (July 26th)
Longest Biking
Time:
6 Hr and 31 Min (Jul 2nd)
Shortest Biking Day:
33 Miles (Jul 11th)
Shortest Biking
Time:
3 Hr and 19 Min (Jul 11th)
Highest Daily
Ave:
10.8 MPH (Jul 9, 10 and 21st)
Lowest Daily
Ave:
7.3 MPH (Jul 2nd)
Flat
Tires:
Pat 1, John 2, Trailer 2
Broken
Spokes:
None
Crashes:
None
When I get the pictures on the website, I will let you
know. ....John