Week 2

Hi everybody!

Molly here. We are into our second week. It has been lots of fun and lots of hard work. Here's the quick rundown of the last few days:

Day 7: After a nice day off, we hit the road again and bicycled a very hilly 61 miles. It was a cool but sunny day. We had a few run-ins with mean dogs, which at first was scary, but they just bark and chase us until we are away from their property. I guess they get us to pick up the pace a bit :). A nice old man offered to give us a ride over some of the big hills, but reluctantly we refused the kind offer and told him that we needed the training if we planned on making it over the Rockies. We had peanut butter sandwiches for lunch in the lawn of a church. One of my favorite things about bicycling through these rural back roads are the tiny towns. Some are charming and some are a little sad, but no two are the same. Here are a couple examples:

My favorite town so far, called Weston

One Room Library

No camping around this night, so we got another cheap motel. Dinner was microwave gas station food. Surprisingly delicious!

Day 8: Great day. Started hilly, but the last 10 miles followed railroad tracks and the wind was at our backs. We felt great. Camped at Lewis and Clark State Park. Got to camp early thanks to the tail wind and got to relax a bit, enjoy the wind in the trees, and made some beans and rice for din din.

Right before our rice and beans

Day 9: Today was really challenging. Started great. A little morning drizzle, but it cleared up within an hour. Finally got through Missouri (re-named Misery by us because of all the hills). Kansas took our heart as it appeared to be sunnier, less hilly, and the people (and dogs) seem more pleasant. But after lunch the sun was overtaken by some gnarly storm clouds.

The wind picked up and we had to really push hard to find shelter, which we did at a Gypsum warehouse. I was not a happy camper as the weather was putting an unexpected damper on our otherwise lovely day. After it blew over, we made another 15 or so miles until a hard wind forced us to walk our bikes for a mile or so uphill. I thought we would never make it to town after a long day of bad weather, but alas, we did. We ate fried chicken at a grocery store (classy) and camped at a park right outside of Falls City. I was happy this day was over!

Day 10: After a rough day yesterday, today was pretty darn good. The wind was at our backs again and it gently pushed us up and down the beautiful rolling hills of Nebraska (new state!). It was fun! After a downhill, we barely had to pedal at all to get up the uphill.

Easy riding!

The second half of the day we biked along Steamboat Trace Bike Path, which was pretty run down. A big tree had fallen over the path and we had to haul our loaded bikes over it.

The day ended on an uphill gravel road and we camped at an R.V. Park in Nebraska City. We got to camp pretty early (4:30ish) so we walked 2 miles to town and had some yummy BBQ food.

Day 11: Got an early start, but a nasty head wind really took it out of us. Even though it was flat, it felt like we were riding uphill all day. We stopped after 47 miles to have lunch (BBQ again! Lucky us!).

We decided that we would end the day here in Council Bluffs, Iowa and get some rest (achy knees, dehydration, and a case of the f-its). This hotel is much nicer than the last one. Business Center! Pool! Free breakfast with waffles!

Before I sign off, here are answers to a couple questions that were posted to us earlier:

1) What other training did we do besides the 150 mile overnight ride?

Not too much really. We did several rides over the past few months around 30-50 miles, and just tried to stay in good "gym" shape. We wish we would have done a bit more training, but I don't think anything could have prepared our bodies for biking all day, every day, for so many days in a row. But now almost 2 weeks in our bodies are feeling noticeably stronger.

2) How much weight are you carrying?

Nick is probably carrying about 55 pounds  and I am probably carrying about 40 pounds. That's a lot to haul up and down hills, and we have already started mailing things home that we don't REALLY need. :)

Make sure to check out the Week 1 entry again as we uploaded some photos to go along with the narrative.

That's all for now! We hope all is well with all of you! Signing off until next time...