Nebraska to Iowa - Week 5, Part 2!

We left off on Wednesday Evening after the Skit-night at Peloton. To continue with the story, we started off Thursday morning with a breakfast from the church that served us ice-cream and pie the night before. I'm not quite sure that I'll ever understand having biscuits and gravy for breakfast, but other folks seemed to really enjoy it... mostly the Americans.

The ride was, as usual, broke up by SAG stops and our daily hour break for coffee/second breakfast. On this day the only option we found was bar in the small town of Grand River, IA. They were very welcoming and laid back. This became evident when some local kids came to hang out in the bar. They had been riding their bikes around and were eager to figure out what we were up to. One boy, named Bo (a common name around those parts apparently) came in with his father for lunch. He was so adorable. We had a good chat before I left and I gave him a Sea to Sea bracelet so he matched the other kids who came in earlier. He was very excited and gave his "tough guy" look for the picture.

 

While talking with Bo's father about our trip, he mentioned the level of poverty in their own town. This was interesting to think over as we passed through the rest of the area and saw some beautiful houses which clearly indicated a certain level of wealth.

 

 

 

It made me think of the ways in which we live in our own cities and areas - very comfortable to live in large houses while those no more than 15 minutes from us are living in poverty. It's wonderful to be on this trip to end poverty by biking across the continent and raising funds/awareness, but what are we doing in our own towns and cities to help those in need? It's given me something to think about.

 

Toward the end of the day, Matt and I rode on together and reached our destination - Chariton, IA just in time to catch some cyclists hanging out at a local Mexican restaurant. After a rehydration layover with some great chips and salsa, we decided to head into camp to set up our tents. However, not a minute after leaving we ran into Jerry and Jake, two cyclists who are very certain to always "rehydrate" after every ride. Standing outside of the Casey General Store/Gas Bar they flagged us down and told us that the store manager was giving a free slice of pizza to all Sea to Sea riders who stopped by! This was an offer we couldn't refuse :)

 

Later that evening a few of us went back to the Mexican restaurant to hang out for a while and chat. Although the restaurant closed at 9pm and we showed up at 8:45pm, they stayed open just for us! We had a great time listening to George's stories of growing up, love, and life. He always has an entertaining tale to tell and keeps us laughing. We just love him!

 

Just like every other day on Sea to Sea, the land we slept on was blessed with rain. However, it was blessed for the entire night. We woke up to very soggy tents and quickly packed up to get on the road. Although it was supposed to be a very short day - only 51 miles - we left early. Laura had to be in Iowa City that afternoon for a drug test for her new job, as well as to look at apartments, so she was going to get a ride in from one of the Sea to Sea volunteers on the condition that she mark the route for the following day. Although leaving that early in the morning is quite foreign to us, we were out by 7am!

 

We were happily surprised when we were stopped by Al - tour organizer - partway through the route for a photo! We had officially reached the halfway mark in distance for the tour (accounting for the missed days in Arizona due to the heat). It was a big moment so we stopped to get our photos taken, one wheel on each side of the tour.

 

Al did a great job getting everyone's photo done :)

 

Later in the short day we were treated to a stop at the Celebration Church in Knoxville, IA. It was very odd to not be some of the last to arrive at a stop, but very pleasant because the church was serving pie and cookies and we got there before most people and therefore had an amazing selection to choose from :)

As we came into Pella, IA we went past this dam. It was pretty cool looking so we stopped to take some pictures.

 

 

For the evening we were to stay at Central College in Pella, IA. Central College is one of the corporate sponsors of the tour and gave us a great welcome. As we came into the registration area, this massive card was there the greet us! Cyclists later signed the card and I marked Regina on the map and put my name beside it. Don't worry Saskatchewan, we are on the map!

 

We had arrived at 11am to the destination for the day, which was a great feeling. Laura, Sara, and Zach left pretty quickly for Iowa City to get Laura to her appointment and mark the route for the next day, but I stayed behind. A friend from my Au Sable days in Seattle, WA lived just outside of Pella and we had arranged to meet for the day! Lydia was coming around noon, so it gave me plenty of time to settle into my dorm room for the night, set up and dry out my tent, as well as shower. The facilities at the college were amazing. It felt like the biggest blessing to have a quiet bed to sleep in with AC and private washrooms.

 

When Lydia arrived she surprised me with some gifts! Pella is a very Dutch CRC community and so she picked me up a treat from one of the bakeries in town. It tasted amazing. I didn't realize how much I missed baking whose main ingredients were butter and sugar :P. She also got me some lip chap - a very important item to have, and one that she knows I constantly lose track of :)

 

Lydia treated me to lunch at a local coffee shop (food was amazing!) and then toured me around the town. She had attended school there so she had lots of information to share. We later got a drink at Applebee's and then, when the afternoon was coming to a close, said goodbye. It was so great to see her, even if the time together was short. Hopefully another 2 years doesn't go by again before we see one another!

 

With the time left in the afternoon I was able to do laundry (FOR FREE!) at the college, blog, and relax for the afternoon. Central College also provided us with dinner, which was an amazing variety of foods from their dining hall. Supper was closely followed by a Celebration service and peloton.

Some people must have been tired from the week, or less than interested in the Peloton meeting... either way, sleep came easily in their camping chair :)

 

We all knew that Saturday would likely be a long day. 100 miles were on the schedule for our last day of week 5. However, knowing this made getting out of the comfortable bed all the more difficult... and who would have ever thought a dorm bed would be called comfortable? This is what 5 weeks of camping will do to a person....

 

Anyways, breakfast was not served this morning at camp because 18 miles down the road a church was putting on breakfast for us! Pancakes, hardboiled eggs, bacon, fruit and juice were on the menu and they tasted amazing.

 

 

One of the cooks, Alice, was there with her family. Her daughter and grand-daughters had made monster cookies to share with all of the cyclists, so we took ours for the road :) They tasted amazing!

 Plus, the matching t-shirts the kids were wearing were adorable. Cute craft idea to do with the kids!

 

As I mentioned before, my riding buddies had marked the route for the day on their way to Iowa City, and I was pleasantly surprised to find this as I turned a corner! It made my day :)

 

Whoever said Iowa was flat lied. Lets get that straight now. The hills are pretty endless. However, the day didn't seem difficult, which was a blessing. The hills were manageable and although we climbed over 4000ft that day, we didn't feel worn down. Rather, we felt that it was the easiest 100 miles we had ever done! Especially because the last SAG stop had the surprise of homemade Boterkoek (compliments of Carrie Kooy) waiting for us. It tasted amazing! I think we are getting a bit spoiled :P

 

For the weekend we are staying in the city park, right next to a swimming pool/rec center. It has a beautiful pond in the middle which is inhabited by many ducks. They are all so cute and like to follow you around, hoping for some food :)

 

 

Since Saturday night was going to be leftovers, Sara, Zach and I decided to go out for dinner to celebrate the end of week 5, the halfway point in the trip, another 100 miles down, and also to avoid eating broccoli salad and spaghetti again :P

 

We head down town, completely unaware of where everything was, and found an Outback Steakhouse. Dinner was great, but didn't live up to our previous ideas of American sized portions, so we decided to grab dessert at the next-door Coldstone Creamery. The ice-cream was delicious :D

 

 

When we returned to camp all of the other young folk had gone out for drinks and dancing, and since we were feeling old and tired we watched a movie in the tents. It was a great way to end the weekend and relax.

 

Today, Sunday, will be another day to relax. Church will be held in the evening so we all were happy with the opportunity to sleep in a bit and spend the morning blogging, cleaning bikes, or doing whatever we felt like! Speaking of which, I should clean my bike!

 

I hope you are all doing well and that life is adventurous and fulfilling. Continue to pray for us on the road as we finish out these last few weeks. Pray for safety, fun, and raised awareness for poverty relief! Hopefully you'll hear from me again in the next few days :)

 

Blessings!

 

 

 

 



Nebraska to Iowa - Week 5, part 1

The last time I wrote we had stopped in Firth, NE at a bible camp. That evening we had smores at a campfire, which we all loved. The kids did their best to fill "smore orders" with their "golden brown" marshmallows, but they were burnt 95% of the time. Can't really blame them much, it's an art to get them that way. Even Laura had trouble.

 

 

As I've mentioned before, we seem to carry the rain with us. Well, this day was no exception. Tuesday morning I woke up to people scurrying around the hall we were sleeping in at 6am. Given that I'm a late riser and breakfast wasn't until 7am, I was slightly annoyed at the amount of noise and lights going on at this time of the day. Grudgingly I got up only to find that a large storm front was moving through and everyone was frantically racing to bring in bikes and take down tents for the people who slept outside. Needless to say my annoyance was short lived, and I quickly went out to get my bike and bring it indoors before it started to rain.

Breakfast was inside that morning and our start time was delayed until 8am (which wasn't much of a delay for us...) so we could wait for the storm to pass.

Luckily it wasn't a lot of rain, and we made it through the day just fine.



The day was uneventful as we traveled to Waubonsie State Park in Iowa. However, we had crossed into another State, and travelled over the Missouri river to get there!

After stopping at Wendy's for a 99cent frosty and talking to some folks about the tour (the manager gave a cyclist $100!) we head into camp. After biking for 112km, you would think we wouldn't want any more physical activity, but you'd be wrong. On this day at least! After setting up our tents we head out on a hike to the Sunset overlook. The views were beautiful and the hike felt great. It was definitely a Booy hike because we took the wrong trail back and ended up trekking through the woods until the path led to a road, which we followed back to our campsite :)

While lost in the woods we stumbled upon this hobbit home. Eric was too tall to live in it so we continued on out of the shire.

 

 

At camp we also found these great Katydids! The leaf patterns on their wings were so amazing. The biologist in me was really happy with this day :D

 

 

The next morning was beautiful as we set out of the State Park. However, the views of rolling hills eventually turn from aw and beauty to, "oh no... we have to climb that one too".

 

 

Despite the hills, we had a great day. We definitely took our time that day, stopping at a restaurant for an hour...

 

 

And then playing at a park at the end of the day...

 

The semi made of wood was cool, the jail cell was a bit un-nerving, and then the time capsule made me wonder who made this park, and if the person who made the time capsule got paid... Anyone else think that something looks wrong with that photo?

 

 

We arrived in camp the latest yet, at 5:15pm, but we didn't mind. There was plenty of time to set up our tents and change before supper began! Plus, the dessert was amazing. A local church was putting on a fundraiser and was offering us homemade pie and ice-cream with a free-will offering. It was amazing, and the ice-cream maker was really cool too.

 

The church ladies served us ice cream and pie, which we gladly ate

 

 

The men made the ice-cream.

 

 

 

 

That evening was topped off with a "skit-night" at Peloton, where small groups put together skits which mostly consisted of making fun of aspects of the tour. We all got a good laugh out of it, and the fun would continue on into Thursday evening because so many groups wanted to participate. It was really nice to have an activity for all of us to do together once we got to Camp, rather than sit around or just interact with our own little group. That was definitely the best peloton yet.

 

 

Well, the blog has become lengthy, so I'll stop here for now. I'll write tomorrow about the fun we had Thursday - Saturday, and hopefully you all stay tuned to hear the rest of the story!



 

 

A weekend in Nebraska...

Another weekend down! Here is a recap from Saturday through Monday :) The day began with some insect fun! For all of my biology friends, you understand my excitement about this, especially those of you who suffered through Invertebrate Zoology with me. We found several shed exoskeletons from Cicadas that inhabited the area. I couldn't help but pick a few up to take a picture, and spend some time observing the living insects too.





After a 100 mile day into Red Cloud, NE we were all reaalllyy tired, and I definitely felt it on Saturday when we began out 77 mile ride into Fairbury, NE. The day, however, became longer than anticipated when we stopped over at Grandpa's Crossing - a diner - to get a cup of coffee and have a break. Not 10 minutes after we arrived a large thunderstorm came pouring down and kept us indoors for over 2 hours. As time went on several other cyclists caught up to the same point and sought shelter also.






With some pizza, drinks, and good company, time went by quickly. However, after 2 hours we were all ready to get back on the road and head into camp. It had been a long week and a long day, especially after the late start we usually get. The rain finally started to slow, and the lightning subsided so we got back on the road and finally made it back into camp at 4:30 pm - a very long day.

The weekend was spent in Fairbury, Nebraska, a small town that may not have any cellphone reception, but has an abundance of trains. We stayed in the city park which was bordered by the train tracks, which carried over 75 trains through each day, from 6 am to about 3am each day! In the photo below you can see the fountain in the park, as well as some model trains they have on display in the background :)



Fairbury was an amazing town! We spent Saturday evening entertaining ourselves as the local "Pla Mor Lanes" bowling alley. Over 20 cyclists went a did some bowling and had a few beers. It was a great way to not only give to a small town business, but also get to know other cyclists better that you don't always ride with. Despite my lack of bowling skills, I did win the first game in my lane!.... this didn't last long.

Sunday was also amazing. We joined a Presbyterian church in Fairbury who gave us a huge welcome. They had been anticipating our arrival and were more than prepared!








We took up a good portion of their church.... It was a sea of Green



At each church we get a cyclist or two to speak to the congregation about our cause as well as provide some stories from the tour, and this week "Boot-strap Jane" (nicknamed such by me for the boot she wears for her injured ankle) spoke.




Afterwards we were surprised with the most amazing feast we've seen yet on this trip. We had been informed that we would be provided lunch, but this was more than any of us could imagine. The ladies at the church said they had been cooking all week. We believe them.



They also had a spread of the same size just for desserts...



The food was so amazing and there was SO MUCH of it! We were all stuffed and the congregation continued to invite us up for seconds, thirds, fourths, and fifths! There was an abundance of leftover food, some of which they sent us home with. This welcome was greater than any of us could have anticipated. We were so blessed by their generosity!

After church I decided to take the afternoon to relax. I was feeling really tired from the week so several of us went swimming at the pool for a few hours where I quickly gained a new friend named Erika, a 10 year old who just loved hanging around us, as well as using me as her personal floatation device. She was very cute. Later that evening, as we ate dinner, several cyclists noticed her hanging around the outskirts of our camp grounds. We found out that she had only eaten breakfast that day and wouldn't be eating dinner unless she made it herself. Her mother worked all day and she essentially looked after herself. So, dinner was provided to her and she spent the evening with the cyclists :) A few girls bought her a Sea to Sea t-shirt and gave her a wristband to take home with her. It was really nice to see those in need directly and immediately benefiting from our tour and group. I wish I got a picture of her, but unfortunately not.

Today, Monday, was a 50 mile day, an amazing break following those long days. We stopped over in Beatrice, NE for a break at a local Bakery that had just reopened today. They had amazing cinnamon buns for only 80 cents! Nearly every cyclist stopped in to enjoy the food.






And while we were there, we found out that we were in the local paper! It explained all of the friendly honks and hello's we got that morning as we got ready.





We continued on to our destination, Firth, NE where we are staying at the Oasis Bible Camp. This is an amazing stop because we have individual showers and AC :D One of the camp workers was kind enough to drive us the 3 miles to Firth so we could use the Wi-Fi and blog!

Tomorrow we will be heading to Shenadoah, NE, about 70 miles. Pray for the cyclists as we head out again! Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to blog again! Stay tuned!