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.

Terre Haute, Indiana

Today we tallied over 1,000 miles on our journey across the country thus far! The 60 mile ride to Terre Haute, out of Bloomington, was awesome and flew right by.  We put in all 60 miles, lunch included, before noon! The countryside noticeably flattened he further we went, and I could start to see the cornfields extend for maybe half a mile, almost to the plains for sure.

The morning started out with a little scare, when I went to retrieve my bibs and jersey that I had hung up on some hangers I found to discover that the room they were in had been locked! After a few phone calls though, we had someone at the church to let me in there by 6:30 (an hour after I woke up) and so it was all good.  For breakfast I had 6 bowls of cheerios because we were trying to make space in the coolers and of course I had to help out as much as I could lol.

About 10 miles in we stopped to take a stretch break, and I got in an excellent stretch, one of the best I've had haha.  I can almost lay my hands flat in front of my toes! At lunch, I had a delicious lunch too and yeah the rest of the ride was smooth sailin.

But it's almost 11 and so we have to be back to the church, so I'll finish tomorrow!

To Bloomington, Indiana!

Today we got to sleep in until 6:30 which was great...and I was on the couch which was awesome too, laid in bed for an extra 15 minutes as well haha love that feeling that you're tired and want to sleep while laying down. Anyway, the ride today was only 41 miles which everyone was very excited for, and there was an awesome town on the way (Nashville), and Bloomington (home of Indiana University) is really really cool.

We started out slow, and I pulled into the wind for awhile which was good because I can pedal hard and get to help out other people! There were still some inclines along the way, but no real big ones and we made great time. About halfway on our ride we got to Nashville, and we stopped at a super cool coffee shop and got some fudge!

Kristen, Jen, and Caroline last night sleeping

Jen (other Jen) last night haha

And then today:

Stretch break!

Coffee shop in Nashville, sorry that a lot of these aren't going to be rotated

Heather with her cherry bomb

Dave's Oregon Chai Tea was awesommme

Yay coffee! Rockin the backwards helmet, so stylish

The coffee shop owner was the coolest, and he wanted our picture for his shop!

Then we hopped on over to the fudge store where the "fudge never melts"! I'm 99.9% sure it would in my back jersey pocket haha

Yeahh homemade fudge!

They had 50 flavors of popcorn at that place

Nashville was such a super cool town, soo many little shops it would be easy to spend a day there for sure.  Riding out of Nashville was nice too

I tried to take some pictures of the group biking behind me, it was really hard

And Will was rockin out, providing some good music for us singing. It made me less dissappointed that we can't hook up speakers, because it was better for sure haha!

The roads we were biking on were sweet

Lunch was about 30 miles in, at the top of a small hill that Dave and I sprinted up being chased by a dog haha.  I got to eat the leftover enchiladas from the night before which were awesome!!

Lunch!

The roads before lunch, pretty country!!

Rolling into Bloomington we rode by the university and I saw fountains on campus, so of course we had to get in them!

The water was ICE cold but it felt soo good

IU!! I look like a giant haha, look at Paradis on the right too lol

After a little, we were all freezing even though it was hot out because of the slight wind and the icy water...so Will had the brilliant idea to lay on the hot sidewalk! It felt sooo good haha

I did some modeling on the art thing haha

We got into the host which is a HUGE church right in the downtown, and I got to shower again right away, score!

Dinner was about a mile away from downtown where we're staying, at a cool park

It was provided by Jim and Sandy, parents of a girl who did a B&B trip last year. They grilled out burgers and footlong hotdogs and just so much other great food. A lot of the food was donated, and Jim being a salesman and knowing someone from the local brewery told them about us and got them to give us all free drinks (except for us youngin's though....)

After dinner, I realllly wanted to go find the Little 500 track so I headed out on my bike to explore because that's always fun.  Bloomington is one of the nicest college towns we've been in, I enjoyed it a lot, and the campus was gorgeous as well.

Beautiful campus

Look at all of the bike racks! Definitely a super cycling friendly city

Just look at this campus. I think I also really liked being by myself for once, and exploring on bike is just super fun. I needed the solitude I think

I ran into a teacher at the university, and asked how to get to the track and ended up talking to her about cycling, (she was on a bike and commutes on one) and what I am doing and it was cool.  I had to ask another guy before I found it haha.  I was amazed by the castle-sized frats here, they are rediculous!

HUGE! Notice the little 5 painting on the tree haha

I would totally join one of these frats, it's gotta be crazy expensive though

All the sidewalks in front of the houses had some awesome paintjobs about their little 5 teams, so cool

After throwing my bike over this fence, and climbing it, I made it to the track!

The track was really neat. It was finely ground cinder, so almost like riding in an inch of sand! I couldn't imagine trying to go fast around these bends, no chance on a road bike at all

And then I came back and we walked over the brewery for free beer (free water for me haha) and it was pretty cool.

Cool brewery for sure

And that was the day!! A really long day for such a short ride, but after my campus cruising I logged over 50 miles.  Tomorrow I should break 1000! I'll end with my favorite picture of the way, the view from my handlebars:

And we're almost to the next time zone!!!