8/18/2007

After our great visit to KC, we got back to the main task of biking over the Mississippi. After getting to log the last few miles in Iowa, we finally got the feeling of crossing to the right side of the Mississippi (sorry to those from the Left coast, but for me, it truly is the right side). It was great to see Bob, one of our team members from Ragbrai along the way towards crossing the East coast side of things, getting a great meal along the way, not to mention seeing a great lasting impression of the West before crossing with a great Italian meal. It almost makes you forget the month and a half where Mexican was our only option. And how that made it near impossible to eat what had been my favorite ethnic food. But I’ll put that behind me and remember the positives, always the best way to deal with things, repressing bad memories, at least for us Irish(-Americans)

It was nice to cross though, especially as I got the pleasure of biking it with Dad. It was surprisingly hilly biking along the Mississippi going South, but I think that would be a good ride since the whole cross country thing will have already been done by a Roche. My only issue would have to be the expansion joints, which finnaly made me finish for the day before my legs were dead. After all, it seems that my wrists were not meant to be used as shock absorbers, surprisingly enough. Pounding them every five to ten feet didn’t seem to agree with the wrists or the elbows, which could surprise most, but for a kid who has grown from the age 11 with bad joints, it only makes me loath the expansion joints, and ponder what could work better. We have decent sized potholes in New Engalnd, but for the most part, I would take that over the bumps across the road, and we’re talking in cars or on a bike in both cases. They really do wear on you, I should get some UMass engineers on the problem. I guess we’ll have to put them on it when we get back to MA.

One of the upsides to this progress we are making is the time we are putting into each state we are beginning to cross into. It seems that barring unforeseen weather, we could be crossing Illinois in 3 biking days. Considering the dip south, and making the entire way east, we could start cruising to the finish. With only the easterly direction to be made in Indiana, we could even be cruising the entire state of Indiana in two days. We could be reasonably be reaching the coast of Maine by the third weekend of September, which is a very exciting prospect. Aside from being that much closer to having to get a real world job, that is.