Howdy from Nebraska

Since our last update we've made it further into Nebraska.  We are now in the sand hills.  With a tail wind we have been able to fly from town to town at a blazing 17 miles an hour.  This has allowed us a little time to explore.  We have found that many a town in this state happen to have city campgrounds.  What a relief to roll into town and find a 5 dollar camp site with showers.  Our last stop in Neligh was quite nice.  We got in early enough to stroll around town a bit and explore the old mill, the river, and a quaint little downtown.  We have also visited Nebraska's irish capital O'neil.  Turns out that town wasn't very exciting but it did have the worlds largest shamrock in its main intersection.  Last night we stayed in Atkinson.  Atkinson it turns out just bought the state recreation area outside of town where we camped.  Turns out the state of Nebraska is broke like everybody else.  After finding our campsite we went to the local pool and cooled off.  It quite the relief to get into the water, go down the water slide, and shower. Besides that it has been pretty standard out here lots of cows and grass and endless land in a word pretty.  On another note heading west I'm beginning to notice the land drying out a good bit.  We are now in ground water pumping territory.  That means we don't have to worry about dew on the tent anymore and our things actually dry!  How great is that. Now we are on our way to the Niabrara river.  Just a couple more days in nebraska and we'll be in South Dakota. Thats all for now.

Well howdy folks, we are back on the road after a hiccup, but now we are living the good life!



We left Leavenworth on a gusty day into a headwind but with a smaller milage goal it wasn't so bad. We made it to Hiawatha that night and slept near a lake. Since it was Casey's birthday we went into town that night and ate some mediocre food at the towns best restaurant..... Hiawatha's no foodie haven. We were on our way to Nebraska the next day, but not before a stop at McDonalds for some coffee and the local senior citizen crowd's barrage of questions, which is generally the highlight of my day. We stopped in Nemaha for lunch, a tiny, but very friendly little town where a man informed us, "it isn't the end of the world, but you can see it from here." that night we made it to Tecumseh Nebraska. Home of ? We slept through some thunder and lightning behind a baseball field, awoke, looked for the library, met the mayor, found the library, and headed off to Omaha. About twenty miles from town we hit Syracuse and finally cell phone reception. With a helpful tailwind we rode 45 miles in about 2.5 hours. We cruised along just as well for the next ten until we hit the city.... SCARY. We rode on a sidewalk til it ended then finally found a back road the last five miles. Aunty Jeanne greeted us with Popsicles, boy does she know the way to my heart. We hung out with Sammie the dog on the porch, got cleaned up and had a delicious dinner. It was nice to see Jeanne and we watched a special on tornadoes which turned out to be fitting for the next day. Aunty Jeanne made us some tasty coffee cake and packed us some sandwiches for lunch...mmmm. We were off later that afternoon and pulled into Fremont around five thirty. We ate dinner and watched the locals play soccer. Then we were properly greeted by dark skies and a tornado siren, we made a run for WalMart where they had us join everyone in the back. Luckily there was no twister, just a nasty electrical storm. Wally world isn't a bad place to wait one out. We bought some cake and explored the aisles. Slept in the city park and woke up just before summer camp began. We received some strange looks fromeveryone as we cooked breakfast in our fire on the table stove, but all was well. We found a brownie specialty store and some coffee, of course, never without the senior breakfast club and questions. :) Tonight we grabbed a beer at the only watering hole in Pilger nebraska, a town of 300-something. We were lucky enlugh to enjoy the drunken gossip of the farmers, quite the easedropping experience. Tata for now. We are busy enjoying the aroma of stockyard USA.



Strange clouds post crazy storm in Fremont.

Corn Belt Blues

Well its been a few days since we got to Illinois.  It has been windy windy windy.  As well we've come to the land of flat and corn.  Small towns became the norm.  We rolled into many a place with 200 people or less.  Needless to say all these places only had a grain tower and a bar.  So its been getting me down.  So how do you kick a case of the I want to quit so bad because of this stupid wind and never ending corn blues... skip it.  I, Casey, had a couple of days of seriously wanting to just go home sit on a couch and eat donuts all summer.  These thoughts would generally come at the end of a hundred mile day in corn country with never ending westerlies.  So Rae and I discussed it about 20 miles from Springfield, IL.  We decided to just rent a car, get to Leavenworth, KS and spend 4 days on our butts.  So we camped in a city campground outside of Sprinfield and slept through some good old fashioned midwest thunderstorms.  Waking in the morning we road to the airport and dissassembled and stuffed our tandem in a compact car.  We then spent 4-5 hours in car doing what felt like flying across the country side.  Being on a bike and not driving for 4 weeks made a car seem like a spaceship.

So we've now skipped Missouri and half of Illinois. I am bummed to miss riding over the Mississippi river but my spirits have already been buoyed.  We are spending some quality lazy time in kansas.  So where do we go from here?  Well we are now back on schedule (after a little cheating cheating pumpkin eating but its better than just giving up all together).  We will head out from here this thursday on our way to nebraska.  I know what your thinking at this point nebraska means more corn.  Well yes you are correct but since we are now on schedule we can stop riding 100 miles days.  We can instead ride 60 a day and still get to Oregon on time.  This will be manageable.  If we ride 70 a day or two then more rest days.  So the word is we are still going to be having fun and bike touring all summer we just needed a break half way through to get us across.

Well folks we are out of Pennsylvania...and out of Ohio. This post will mostly be a retrospective of the great state of Pennsylvania: home to the Amish, Appalacian hicks, the Poconos, and the most adorable and nicest folks. We left the Wilkes-barre/Scranton area in hopes of hauling ass out of that state..... Over a week later.... After being broken down with the best possible folks in Huntingdon we were actually on our way, but not without more ridiculousness. We found the best bike shop ever, a real gem, which had been open since the seventies. This shop had a great selection of modern merchandise but also had stock from their earlier years. Casey got a fantastic retro hat and I a Sesame St handlebar bag with the full cast on a bike for five. Eventually we did make it out and into Ohio.

Ohio: we cruised into Youngstown which was incredibly ghetto from our point of entry. No businesses for about three miles in and definitely not a place to whip out the handy dandy iPhone, even for directions out. Just in time we hit downtown which had been gentrified and went into a coffee shop for liquid energy so we could push into the night a bit to a state park. A man outside commented on the bike and then said to us, "I think you'll like it here. About twenty minutes after leaving we heard and saw a huge rainstorm. We waited in a McDonalds and watched it dump on poor Monty, the bikes name. We finally rode into the campground a little after midnight as tired as can be. We awoke early the next day to avoid paying the camping fee and were off to find a laundramat. That night we were cooking dinner in a gazebo and were offered hospitality but stupidly turned it down in hopes we would ride further that evening, but alas, it was cold, we were tired and sketchily camped on the outside of rifle range. We awoke to find out we were in Amish country! What a score!

The Amish: Picture a homely lady in old dress and in a bonnet with big ole butter churning arms.... Her husband with long beard who makes furniture and their children. Oh and the horse and buggy. WRONG! Well partially false. Like the rest of America they love their doritos and minute maid, the only difference is they do it with style. They can't drive right? No they can't, but they can ride in your car. We watched several of them get into a truck with a regular man to go do construction work. Imagine an electrician who supposedly is not allowed to use this modern convenience. Weird. However I still enjoyed them and definitely their baked goods, they make a mean muffin in that electric oven!





Ohio part II: Ohio is the most sterotypical picture of America. This state can be summed up so easily: farms with big beautiful picturesque barns, and the most well groomed suburbs you could imagine. Perfect little houses with American flags, well trimmed yards, and terrible lawn decorations. Despite it's plain-ness, I really liked it. It truly is "small town USA". We were a site to see to these farmers and townspeople. Everywhere we went people slowed down in their cars and gave us a good stare down and most were very friendly and would wave and shout something nice to us. Upon telling one man what our plans were he said to us, "I ain't ever heard nothin like that before." Besides blowing the minds of these people we also blew through the state thank you to roads like pancake st. We also had some help from a few bored farm dogs. We were just the right speed for chasing!

So happy for Ohio

Well I never thought I'd say it but... I'm stoked to be in Ohio. After spending over a week in PA it was time. Good bye PA we had some good times but really we both knew this day was coming. Additionally we needed a break from the hills and Ohio offers just that.


We have also been hitting some rain and we have to hide from this in Youngstown OH.

Location:Industrial Rd,Youngstown,United States

Broke down in Huntingdon

Well we were making good time and hoping to be in Ohio by tomorrow, but bike touring has a way of changing the most well layed plans.  We came into Huntingdon, PA from a cute little campground in McVeytown to get a cup of coffee and wound up doing some laundry.  After our americanos  and lunch break we headed to a bike shop picked up some chain lube and white gas, hit a grocery store and we thought we were on our way out of town ready to do another 40 miles to where we would camp.  As we pulled out of the parking lot the bike would not pedal like the chain had fallen off.  Turns out our 18 year old edco freehub had decieded to give out.  We walked the bike the couple of blocks back to the bike shop and asked what they could do.  As it turns out edco hubs don't really exist anymore so finding parts is not just hard its pretty much impossible.  To make matters worse we are running a drum brake which is now antiquated technology and a 160mm rear hub spacing which is specific to Santana tandems.  Evan, the shop mechanic, feverishly looked for parts for a freehub for our bike, but alas after making a call to Santana it turns out the parts have been gobbled up long long ago.  So our only option is a new Shimano hub lace up.  Then we were stuck in Huntingdon with no bike for a few days.  We asked around the shop where we could camp for free and a few people threw out ideas and then one of the guys at the shop, Jake, offered us his futon in his apartment upstairs.  This was amazing.  We are staying in town, above the bike shop.  We went upstairs to the apartment and changed our clothes, Apt #6, Rae's favorite number.  After changing, we met Jake's girlfriend, Erica, who has a cat blog.  She was just popping in to the apartment between one of her three jobs.  We went downstairs and then met Quinn, Jake and Erica's good friend who was in town for a little while.  They offered us a dinner of scallion pancakes and told us they could meet them at the restaurant/bar a few doors down from the shop, where they would be hanging out for a little while.  In the mean time we got Rae a T-shirt, she lost hers, and explored the town a little bit.  After that we went to Boxer's and got some beer and french fries.  Then we went up to the apartment to get some scallion pancakes, Delicious! Especially the dipping sauce.  When the food was ready some more friends arrived.  We met James, a friend who did wood work and Brook who were both locals to the area. After dinner the apartment was hot and stuffy, so we went swimming out in a branch of the local river, the Juniata. The name of the college in town where Erica, Jake and Quinn went to school.  It was a walk to get our there.  We walked across Huntingdon and then followed the railroad tracks out into the night.  There was a large cable swing that put you high above the water.  We hung out in the moon lite, swam and enjoyed a small fire.  We made it back home around 2 AM and got onto the futon for bed. 
Now we are in town waiting for our part and drinking coffee.  We should be on the road again tomorrow afternoon.  Our hub is being overnighted from Santana and Evan will build it up tomorrow.  For now we are just enjoying our forced break.

-Casey

Rae's comment on Caseys blog:

What LUCK! ...to get stuck in this town. It really was lucky, Rothrock is probably the best bike shop in the area and Huntingdon is a very cute and quaint little town. The people are a plus as well. The folks at the bike have been more than wonderful and accomodating. Erica and Jake graciously put us up for the few days and have been fantastic hosts on a whim despite their busy schedules. After talking to the two we have much in common: they will be in the San Francisco area at the same time as us later this summer seeing some of Jake's family, and also will be moving to New York afterwards, albeit they will be headed to Brooklyn for Erica to go to grad school in photography. Also we get to use nice computers free in a lovely atmosphere.... the coffee shop! What a pleasant stay it has been! The bike couldn't have broken at a better time. Also couldn't have broken closer to a bike shop!

Amish country

Well we've finally arrived in Amish country. This is the only grocery store I've seen with horse parking.

Location:Railroad St,Burnham,United States

Dinner spot and rae's roadkill list

This is where we ate dinner last night in PA


Rae here, Since I cant see over Casey I spend a lot of time looking at the side of the road....
Rae's roadkill list:
•six deer
•raccoon
•rabbit
•squirrel
•mice
•turtles
•porquepine
•bluejay
•groundhog
•birds

Location:N Market St,Selinsgrove,United States

Hudson river

Casey and the bike on the bridge over the Hudson.

Days Inn and the Acquaviva's

After a nice rest day, we only rode thirty miles that day, and stayed in the woods off a trail behind the city hall of Madbury, NH. It was the cutest tiny town that had a doublewide as the library snd there were several old dudes on road bikes through the area. We had breakfast at a picnic table in a town baseball field and then pushed out a ninety mile day. Towards the end of that day we went through a huge sketchy rustbelt city which I wanted nothing to do with so we skidaddled on out of there as far as we could to find a pleasant place to eat dinner. Turns out the park I eyed on the map looking for a picnic table was just a very large stand of woods and we were exhausted so we pushed the bike in just til we were hidden from the highway and scarfed down some trail mix and bagels in the tent to hide from the mosquitos. We slept there and ate oatmeal out of the package to avoid the bugs yet again and then rode on until we got to Amherst. We pushed up some lonnnnnng hills and then coasted about eight miles down at scary speeds until we hit Amherst. Sine we had ridden forty miles pre lunch we figured we deserved an afterlunch pastry at the black sheep coffee house. Amherst was a beautiful town and sight for sore eyes after Fitchberg. We took off our cleats and walked around in sandals for a bit...ahhh. Ready to go we headed out of town but not before stopping at a gear shop for a pactowel so we could finally dry off after showers. Next we took an awesome rolly neighborhood road til we hit the the Hamptons. North Hampton had a cutesy but never ending downtown. We stopped in Southhampton in a park to cook some soup then we were off to find a campsite. Easier said then done cause we shortly reached the sprawl of Springfield Mass. and ended up riding about twenty more miles than planned to escape it and camp illegally in Granville Gorge. We got out quick the next morning to avoid getting into trouble and had breakfast at a DunkinDonuts to make some calls to get the bike fixed. A place down the street in Southwick fixed it for free and gave us the tool we needed free as well and told us he hoped we'd find lots of kindness down the road. While we were in New England Bicycles a couple with another Santana tandem. Diane and her husband were very friendly and gave us some good advice. After stopping for a donut at a suggested bakery we pushed on into some very steep hills in Connecticut. We camped in a state park that night by a lake and actually breakfasted outside a a picnic table that evening. The next day we crossed into NY and crossed the Hudson as well. We dined in a city park for dinner and camped in a State forest that night. The next day was rough we climbed non stop after hitting PA and into the poconos. We had had a terrible headwind all day to boot so gave up early and tucked into some woods for camp. Earlier that day we found a european deli where I bought spaetzle and gravy mix which we had for dinner that night...mmm. It got cold that evening and the next day wasn't much better, uphill and windy. We took it ten miles at a time and eventually made it to our second warmshowers stop. Tony and Mary Alice were the sweetest couple. They cooked us a delicious dinner and fed us dessert too. They told us about how wonderful the bed and breakfasts in San Francisco were but I bet they didn't compare to their hospitality. We slept in comfy bed that night and Mary Alice cooked us eggs from their hens in the morning. For dinner we had some asparagus from their garden as well...very tasty. They were looking after some adorable little kittens which we had the chance to hold and two exuberant lab mixes. For our rest day today we rode about twenty five miles to a hotel to rest up before the Appalacians. Once we get through those we will push on nonstop to my parents house.