Crookston, MN

Hello! well, I've passed the half-way point , both in time and distance. my odometer passed 2000 this morning. It was a long day, but perfectly flat, and blissfully windless, so I was cruising. It was so nice. We're on Highway 2 now, and will be... for ever. All through ND and MT As long as the wind isn't tooo punishing, it will be really nice.

the ride since my last post has been lovely. the bike path from St Paul to Duluth was AMAZING!!!!!! it was so beautiful, and it was so nice to never have to think about traffic or directions. Plus, my bike was riding better than it has since the beginning of the trip. I finally cleaned it out well, and In St. Paul, I got a new chain from the aptly named Bicycle Chain. Thank you guys soo much! it feels great, and all the squeaks and shifting problems have disappeared. YAY!

In Duluth we had a ton of fun working with the Land Trust, a great organization doing some really great work. they had a ton of things for us to do, including NOT DIRT! yay. I got to paint trim all day, which I loved. It was nice to work inside houses that were so close to completion. Plus the neighborhood they were developing was really interesting, with the mixture of normal market and Land Trust houses.

Also my phone finally arrived in Duluth after being found in a field along our rout in Wisconsin. Thanks! Also thanks to Tony, Grandpa and Mom for a massive pile of food that arrived there too. very very yummy.

ok, running to a presentation now, hopefully more later. Wish me luck for tomorrow!: 116 miles against the wind. oh, joy. North Dakota, here we come!

St Paul

Hello everyone. I've made it to St Paul, MN.  In one piece.  We just left Wisconsin, which was AMAZING. Such a beautiful state. I love it. Madison especially was nice. It reminded me a lot of Boulder, and had great bike paths.  leaving Madison was also an adventure. We had to get to gays Mills, WI after that, which was a saga. I don't have time to do it justice, so check out someone else's blog to get the details. Suffice to say I  DIDN"T get lost at all, and it still took me 12 hours.  My butt may never forgive me. 

I'm treating it well, tonight, though which might help make amends. We get to stay with  host families! in a real bed!!  YAY! They are super nice, and fill me with yummy things.  we get to be on a nice big bike path for the next two days, too, all the way to Duluth, which should also be wonderful .  

'ny way, I should go collapse in that bed so kindly offered.  Sorry I haven't posted any pictures, yet. I'll find a way eventually. maybe. 

sweet dreams!

Chicago!

Hello everyone, I'm still alive. I know that from my blog record, it doesn't seem that way, sorry. So tonight we are in Grays Lake, Illinois. We left Chicago late this morning, after perhaps the first full nights sleep of this trip. Chicago was AMAZING!! We got an entire day off ther which was wonderful  after our longest day yet.  115 miles from Edwardsburg, MI.  ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN!!!!  I can hardly believe it. Can you?  It was a gorgeous ride, full off things to.... ride by....  At one point, going through Gary Indiana ( que the Music Man)  a fighter jet passed 50 feet over my head. An air show was in progress, and he passed low over out rout just as i was trundling along.  It was so loud.  we finally got to Chicago at about mile 90, and still had  25 to go to get to out overnight location. We got to ride on a bike path right next to the lake for almost all of that, and there were tons of people out to spend the sunny afternoon at the beach.  It was kind of weird to be riding through so many people and such traffic. I was exhausted that night. I tried to explore down town, but I was so tired I kept falling asleep on the L train.  I collapsed onto my thermarest without even getting into PJs. 

Sunday was a whole different story.  We got the entire day completely to ourselves. We were originally scheduled to have a build day at Chicago, but that fell through, so we just got to enjoy ourselves.  And did I ever have fun.  I will post more on that later. Suffice to say, Mom, Dad, look for a postcard. 

Anyway, presentation time, gotta go. Love to all, and thanks again for making this possible. Its a complete BLAST!

New York

Hello everyone. Hi Gramps! happy July. We've made it to Rochester NY, and i just finished my forth day of building. We were in a lovely neighborhood called "Flower city" possibly, where they hope to build 10 houses this year! apparently, Rochester habitat for Humanity is able to do all their own skilled installation because they have so many volunteers, and thus can even pay their three site managers! this is really cool, and lets them be soo much more efficient. We were mostly hacking away at weeds today to clear a plot for the next house, which was actually really fun, but hot work.

We are all incredibly tired from yesterday's ride. It was a great rout ( thanks Isaiah!) but it was 88.6 miles!!!! I biked from 8 am to 5 pm, straight (except for lunch)!! Once again, if you had said to me a month ago I would be going that far and not completely collapsing, I would have said " no way", but it wasn't too bad. (stairs are still kind of difficult today, though). Everything hurts, but I can feel myself getting stronger, finally. After getting up Bethel Mt, and going over the Adirondacks, in the pouring rain, this side of new York has been so pleasant.

We are now over 550 miles into our trip, I think. I can hardly believe it. 550+ miles!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAH!

ok, dinner in 5 minutes, and you can guess how much I'm looking forward to food after today.