End to the summer vacation....aka Chicago...

Well today was the day we packed up our things and said goodbye to Chicago. The morning was pretty stressful as we might have gotten up a bit too late. We were staying in downtown Chicago with my (Kelly) parents so we had to get the train back to Ben's house to get our bikes and the rest of our gear. If we would have gotten up a bit earlier we could have got an earlier train and not had to rushed so much... Because, once we got to Ben's we had 25 min to pack our things and bike 3 miles back to the train station. The reason we had to get back to the train station is becuase we were taking the train out of the cities instead of having to hit so much traffic and not so nice roads. Luckily we made it to the train station with 1 min to waste. Sadly, it was a quick goodbye to my parents. Once on the train we had a nice ride back to the city where we then had to go 4 blocks to the other train station and get on another train to Clear Lake. Once we got off in Clear Lake we rode about 15-20 miles to our camp site in Woodstock, Illinois. The ride was not a pretty one. It was dark as night and the wind was blowing very hard, hard enough to blow me off the road a few times. Then the temps dropped and the rain came in heavy sheets with some hail, which I must say hurt the arms a bit. But we toughed it out and arrived at our campsite. Once we settled in, we headed into the historic downtown of Woodstock, which I might add was very charming. There we ate some grub and headed to the library to look up our route and lodging options for the next day or so. We found out there was not too much on our way and remembered relatives my dad talked about lived in Janesville, Wisconsin. So that was the day and it was time to call it quits! Thanks everyone for reading! If you know of any place we can stay between Janesville and Woodbury off of hwy 14 and hwy 61 let us know, it would be a great help!!!

Kelly's Birthday Weekend!

Well, what I (Kelly) would like to call her summer break in Chicago has come to an end.. It has been a great few days here in Chicago! Not only did my parents come down to celebrate my 23rd birthday but I got to see Ben and spend time with him after it has been so long! So this weekend we got to do some sight seeing, and go see penguins at the aquarium, remember old times and eat some good old Chicago Deep dish pizza! I am worn out after a long day! Even Chance who likes to go go go can admit he had a great "vacation" and is glad we stopped! Tomorrow morning we will be heading out yet again on our bikes and headed to the Twin Cities and hopefully be there within a week or so! So again, pray for good weather and safe travels! Again, thank you mom and dad for everything and coming down to visit and thank you Ben for allowing us to stay at your place and for being our tour guide! Click on the link that says pictures and you can see a selection of our pictures from New York to Chicago! Hope everyone is doing well and thank you for the birthday wishes!!

CHICAGO!!!

Well we made it to Chicago after a very long 97 mile day! We got up from our campsite and let me tell you, the night before I was all set to hit Chicago and go the extra milage. However, when I woke up I was not feeling like I could make it. However, once lunch came around my knee was feeling well and Chance was like it is actually only 15 miles in the other direction if we bypass our camp ground and hit Chicago. So, we decided to go all the way! We got near the end of Indiana which only took us 1.5 days to get through and we started to hit the farthest ring of suburbs to Chicago. So we just kept biking without stopping because they are not the best of neighborhoods to ride through. By that point our bodies were dead up our minds were thinking about a comfortable place to stay and watching TV and doing nothing else. So the weather stayed nice and we made it to Harvey where it would take us into Chicago. We then get into Chicago and to another area to get to Ben's house in Warrenville. We then made it to Bens house around 10pm and called 3 pizza places until we were able to find one that would deliver! Eventually we did and were so happy to eat after not eating since 12:30 or so in the afternoon! It was nice to take a shower and fall asleep watching tv! To me the TV was like a new invention and for some crazy reason I was so happy! We actually stayed up unitl midnight holy cow! We usually go to bed by 9 pm at the latest! For those of you that are unaware, we are staying in Chicago for a few days to visit with my friend Ben who has been so kind to allow us to stay at his condo! Also, my family came down from the twin cities to celebrate my birthday with me! So today in Chicago we went to Navy Pier and went on a architectual boat tour of the city, then we went to eat and walked back to the hotel then went to 711 to get yummy ice cream! Thanks again for all of you who support us and read! One last day in Chicago tomorrow for my 23rd birthday and then it is off on the bikes again! Have a nice weekend!

And I found 20 dollars!!!

Today started off wonderful with Carolyn making us eggs toast and some delicious fruit for breakfast! It was so nice of them to let us stay with them and be able to stay in a bed was wonderful! The morning started off in the 50's so a little cold on the hands and such. We were riding pretty good and at about 30 miles it started to down pour. At that point we stayed in a gas station and tried to entertain ourselves with a 25 cent pull tab. That fun was short lived. Once it stopped raining we headed out again only for it to start raining again after 3 blocks. So this time we stopped off at the Eagles club in Kendellville Indiana for an early lunch. The day was pretty lack luster until we stopped off at a gas station to use the bathroom while pulling into the parking lot we spotted $20 stuck to the ground!!!! from then on things went pretty well, we kept up a good pace and stopped for ice cream in
Nappanee Indiana! There Chance
Thought the Amish people were the most interesting thing! One nice Amish man on a bike hrlped us to locate a close camp ground! We then were nearing our end of the day and stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner. Luckily we came across Pla-mor campground which is an awesome camp ground with so much to do! Again more nice people and they set us up with a nice camp site free of charge! Than you Rod for your help! We are now winding down and getting ready to end day 16! After 75 miles today and 780 total miles our bodies need a lot of sleep! May tomorrow bring us good weather, company and most of all safe travels! Thank you everyone for reading!

Not so friendly morning..

Today we woke up with clear skies and expected to have another nice day. That was not the case. We started riding into the darkest part of the area and I saw two strikes of lightening. Chance however did not see the lightening and though we should continue. I said I was not ready to die in Ohio so I insisted we get off about 10 miles down the road where there was a truck stop. So as we were exiting a huge streak of lightening crossed the sky right in front of us and so Chance was finally ok with stopping. At the Pilot gas station we sat for a good 2 hours or more as it down poured and gave a nice lightening show. After it started clearing up a truck driver told us we would have about 3 hours or clearance before the next set of storms came about. So we got our butts in gear and started peddling. We got about 20 miles in and my knee did the same thing as yesterday and did not want to work. So I decided I was not ready to quit for the day and took it slow. The wind again stared to pick up and it was drizzling on and off during the remainder of the ride. We then got to a town called Edgerton where we stopped to have lunch. At that point we had rode 45 + miles and were trying to decide if we should go more or stay put. We then called my dad and did some research on camp sites and then hit up the library to see if there were any campsites close by. We ended up finding out the next closest camp sites were 30 miles away and we were not ready for that. So the lady at the library made a call and found us a place to stay! We are now staying with Carolyn and Vern in their home! Their son had done a long distance bike ride from Ohio to Florida so they help take in bikers when needed! We had good conversation and some pizza and Carolyn made a delicious salad and yummy bread pudding! We could not have asked for a better place to stay. And after a day of things not going our way this is one thing we can say was a positive for the day! Thank you so much Carolyn and Vern for allowing us to stay in your home with you! For those of you that read this blog, remember all the nice people that have helped us out and in if any crazy bikers like ourselves ever come across your door step remember kindness pays off!! There are thunderstorms in the forecast, but we hope they will pass by the time we need to leave tomorrow! Keep us in your thoughts and do some crazy sun dance in your front yard! Thanks so much for the emails we have been getting, we love to hear from others! Thank you for following and donating and we look forward to hearing from you! We estimate we will be in Minnesota within 2 weeks!

Ohio... Did we move at all?

Today was the first day that Chance was tired and I was not! Hooray! That may sound crazy but I always am the bum in the morning so I was happy it was him once! Todays riding stared off quite chilly and due to the weather and the flatter terrain we were able to get in quite a few miles early on! We got to a point where we were at a very fast pace and I was going to get a drink of my water and dropped the bottle, so I stopped to grab it, as I got back on my bike and ready to ride my knee hurt so badly that I thought it was dead... I could not see Chance and I knew if I stopped I would end up being miles behind him. I started biking with just my right leg and probably did that for about 3 miles until Chance realized I was not behind him. Once we caught up to each other we stopped and took a break hoping my knee would work again. After about 30 mins I was ready to go. From then I was the leader incase I had to stop so he would know to stop as well. We stopped at Subway for lunch and a little break! It was then time to get back on the saddle and head into the wind that had picked up. Caution: this part in kinda sick so skip ahead if you are not ready:) I was biking along and an RV came crusing by and ran over an animal, it made a thud noise and blew out many chunks of the animal right besides me and in front of me. It was nasty and I thought I was going to throw up:P We got to about 60 miles and we were soooooo hungry and finally at 70 miles we were able to find a small bar called Heftys to eat! The nice man Art got us a free camp site from Ned and Joyce! So after eating up our food we headed over to the campsite, set up our home, washed up and hit the sack. All-in-all we road 73 miles today! Continue to pray for good weather!

Cedar Point!!! Day of fun!

Well today was the big day!! It was time for some fun and something that I(Kelly) have been looking forward to for a long time! I could not sleep, the one day that I didn't have to get up early and I was up before I usually am! Chance laughed at me because I kept asking him when it was time to go. The camp ground we were staying at had an all you can eat pancake breakfast for $3.99 per person, it was delicious! We then called Mr. Taxi to get a ride to Cedar Point which was about 7 miles away, but they do not allow bicylces or pedestrians across the bridge. Luckily the night before we were at the gas station and found Pepsi cans that had $7 off a ticket so of course we bought two cans. Once we got to the park we headed to the first coaster called the Raptor, the type or ride where your feet dangle down! Over all the roller coasters were awesome despite the hour plus wait in line. The best roller coaster was the Maverick, it blew us away! The fastest coaster we went on was called Top Thrill Dragster and it went from 0-120 mph in 3.8 seconds. It was a crazy ride, you could not even breath for the whole 17 seconds that you were on the ride. It was fun to see Chance have so much fun because I was worried he would not get the thrill out of it that I did and he definentaly did! After being there for 6 hours it was time to call it quits. Chance said "I am more tired from Cedar Point then I am after a day of riding!" We called up Mr. Taxi headed back to the camp ground and went to Subway to get dinner. Then we both crashed early! Again, thank you all for your support and following!