andy reagan only the interesting stuff

Effingham, IL

Today, I for the first time left the Eastern Time Zone! We crossed the border into the flat, windy, farms of Illinois and after biking to the post office and to showers, I logged 73 miles on the day! This morning, we all (yes, all 31 of us) put on make-up, eye shadow really, in an attempt to look as good as Christina too haha. Most of us looked pretty scary lol.

We tried haha

Glamor shots

Scary

Very scary Emily haha

I smiled lol

Ahh Emma

And Jesse continued to amaze us haha

Aileen

Bike and Build owns the barfights haha

A new time zone!!!

Another state border for all of us!

We didn't have internet at our host, although I bought an ethernet cable in hopes that the wall port would work haha. So apologies that this is going up late I guess.

Last night I didn't really get a chance to finish the blog either, but came back and started reading the book that I had brought with me on the trip: "It's Not About the Bike" by Lance Armstrong. Tonight, I finished it! That's how I read books, because I really enjoy reading and so once I get started I don't want to put it down. Also helps that I had four hours today to lay under a tree when it was beautiful out and read, which was real nice.

Today's riding was good, it was windy but it really wasn't that bad at all. For the first time, we could see the flatness of the land extending through farms for miles. Some of the silos and elevators made tractor trailers look small haha.

Huge silos

Flatness!

Off into the distance

I got to ride hard in the aerobars, and after lunch I had waited too long and ended up riding by myself for the first time without quickly catching someone or being caught. It really wasn't that fun at all, the plains were nothing to look at all, and I had a hard time keeping my eyes open really haha. So, I decided to do some intervals to keep myself interested, and in doing a 1 on, 1 off, 2 on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 1 off, 1 on pyramid at 23mph into the headwind, I actually caught up with some friends

There was this sweet map of US-40 crossing the country outside of the church in Terre Haute

Jesse looked rediculous riding into lunch haha, I though he was trying to take flight. He was actually trying to cut more wind for people behind him, so he put a stick in his jacket haha

There were only like 15 miles left then, and I tried to set a pace at which I could pull them without making them work too hard, and we cruised all the way into town at 15-16mph, and attempted to talk through the wind riding single file, but mostly unsuccessfully trying to talk haha.

Found some kittens on the way there, possibly the most exciting sight haha

Our hosts a Sacred Heart (our first Catholic host church) were totally awesome and had more snacks than I knew what to do with, and drinks already laid out for us! It was sweet. I hopped back on the bike before changing and went to the post office, taking Kristen's thing to mail too. I whipped through town which is a lot of fun really, cruisin through the turns and timing the lights and drafting and such, I was feeling good. Got to talking to the post office mail guy, and turns out that he was into cycling and we talked about our trip and he was telling me all about RAAM which has a checkpoint in Effingham! It was really cool, and when it came time to pay, he said he's got it. I asked him if he was sure, and he was, and I'm continuely amazed by the generosity of the people we meet and the hosts who feed and house us.

A stretch break along the way

On the way back I stopped by a computer store I saw on the way there, and picked up an ethernet cable with the hope that the port would work, and that I could probably use it later on the trip but no beans. When I got back to the church, most had gone to shower and they were running a last shuttle but didn't have room for one of us. I grabbed my shower stuff and hopped back on the bike and beat them there and back haha, and even got a little lost and got a tour of the HS here haha. Showers were cold, but I was hot from riding around town and riding there, so it actually felt good once I overcame the shock of the cold water.

Tonight we had an excellent dinner, and gave a presentation to our host, hung out (threw some disc and footballs) with the youth group here and then did our affordable housing presentations, which were good. I typed this guy up on notepad and hopefully it'll be going up early tomorrow! I would hope to stop in a coffee shop on the way or something, but can't really carry the laptop with me haha. Oh, I got an idea...put it on a flash drive...and maybe find a library! Anyway that's all for tonight, I'm hoping to talk to Lauren soon and then hit the hay.