reflections from the road

All Done, Happy or Sad?

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:12:34 -0500

We have now successfully reached Washington D.C and delivered our petition to Senator Amy Kloubuchar. We rolled into D.C on Friday at Two o’ clock after finding an air conditioned restaurant, it was very hot outside,. After lunch Mom Gene and I went to the monuments it was very very hot and humid. Storm and Erik went to cool down at Storm’s grandma’s house and Dad, Corriell and Christopher came to the monuments as well. We stayed at the monuments until we thought we were going to die of heat.

Saturday we went to the spy museum... wow.... NEVER go to the spy museum on Saturday the museum itself was VERY cool but they were packing in as many people as possible about 100 in every room!!!!! That night and the next morning for brunch and sunday dinner we met with our parents friends from when they lived in D.C we had a lot of fun they were all very nice.

On Monday we got up bright and early to go to the capital. We arrived and soon Sen.Kloubuchar arrived. She was very very nice and supported my idea very much. Later we got a staff led tour of the capital very fun later me and my mom went to a press conferance at which Sen. Kloubuchar was speaking.

So the petition is successfully delivered and now we are heading home I’m happy to go home but also sad that it’s over. Oh well mission accomplished.

Now a word from mom...Monday was a triumph. Senator Klobuchar welcomed Liza and her petition with great kindness and interest. She and Liza swapped cycling stories. The Senator and her father, newspaperman Jim Klobuchar took two long cycling journeys together -- one from New Haven, Connecticut to Michigan and one from Wyoming to Minneapolis -- when the Senator was a college kid. We posed for pictures and the Nickolodeon camera crew and Senate photographers attracted a bit of tourist attention. After our meeting out on the terrace we had a fine tour of the Capital building led by Greg, a Klobuchar staffer.

Soon Greg’s phone rang and we hurried off to a press room. Liza and I had been invited to a press conference with Senator Klobuchar, Senator Dorgan (ND) and others about a bill being introduced to curb speculation in the oil markets. It was an awesome experience to see the Senators in action and the press firing questions and film crews capturing the story.

We continued on our day with an interview with Nick and some shooting of footage around the capital to be used in the upcoming Nick News show, “What I Did Over my Summer Vacation,”

We piled in the truck for the ride home and Liza was amazed to be in some of our favorite cycling spots --West Newton, McKeesport and Beaver Falls in a handful of hours. We’ll be home tonight in time for a quick bike ride around town. Being off the bikes for a few days has been hard for both of us and Liza feels the need to pound out a few miles. We have had an amazing journey. Liza is planning another cycling adventure and I am planning on catching up with my pals back home.

Counting Down from 100

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:52:41 -0500

We have hit the C&O Canal tow path. At times the C&O Canal tow path has hit us. The condition of the trail is steadily improving as we approach Washington, but at its beginning in Cumberland, Maryland the tow path was as they say “rustic.” After staying in Paw Paw, West Virginia where we had no cell service or internet access we continued south into Williamsport, Maryland for our last rest day.

In Williamsport we were joined by Liza’s good friend Storm and her dad Erik. They will ride with us the last 100 miles to D.C. Storm took a crash course in road biking with Gene then spent time on the trainer. But when we told her we were riding 64 miles the first day and 36 the next, she said, “no problem.” She was right. She breezed through the day with style. We finished the 64 miles at Whites Ferry and rolled the bikes onto the ferry for the short trip across the Potomac. We are in Leesburg, Virginia planning our arrival in D.C. tomorrow (Friday the 18th).

Meeting Senator Klobuchar
Senator Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota has graciously accepted our invitation to meet with her on Monday the 21st. She has even arranged a tour of the Capital for Liza. Liza will present her petition with its signatures and comments at that time. We are very grateful to Senator Klobuchar and her staff for setting this up and appreciate her taking the time out of her busy days at the close of the legislative session to meet.

Between Friday’s arrival in Washington and Monday’s meeting with Senator Klobuchar, we will be touring the town and catching up with some old and dear friends.

Thanks again for following along on our journey. Last 35 into Georgetown awaits.

Allegheny Time

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:36:19 -0500

We’ve been in Pennsylvania for four days now and have enjoyed every twist, turn and trail. We started north of Pittsburgh and cycled through picturesque valleys and had some really fun climbs, and our fastest downhills yet, clocking our top speed at 32.5 MPH. We could have gone faster, but we were using our brakes because the roads were curvy and many were absent of shoulders. For Minnesota flatlanders and novice riders, this was full-on fun! I can’t imagine what descending from the Rockies must be like, but maybe that’s another trip.

Liza’s coach Gene Lew flew out on Saturday and will ride with us into D.C. We proceeded down the Allegheny Trail, a rails to trails project, which was as close to perfect as anything imaginable -- rolling soft old mountains, train tunnels -- one 3,000 ft long -- valleys dotted with farmhouses and little cycling havens at every renovated train depot along the way. Our favorite wayside was Ohiopyle, which sits in a state park with the Youghiogheny River running through it. Around the depot was a cluster of coffee shops, cafes, ice cream shops and bike and kayak shops. It was a Sunday filled with friendly pedalers and paddlers enjoying the summer afternoon. Yesterday we hit Cumberland, Maryland and continued south on the C&O Canal tow path.

We are closing in on our destination. D.C. is 156 miles away. We will arrive on Friday the 18th, petition in hand with its 1,250 signatures. Gene thinks Liza may be riding a little slower in the waning days of her journey, trying to make it last. There’s a lot to be said for savoring the moment. That’s maybe the best gift of cycling, the killer calves don’t hurt either.

More on our D.C. plans in the next blog. Thanks for reading along!

God Bless America, but Please Smote the Cyclists

Wed, 9 Jul 2008 18:18:38 -0500

Well, Ohio sounded so promising when we crossed from Indiana a few days ago. But, after one day of peaceful cycling from Paulding to Bowling Green we began to see signs of trouble. As soon as we entered Cuyahoga County, the paved bike land ended. And in no time we had hit the worst cycling roads in our 950+ miles. Lake Erie on our left shimmered, the houses and gardens were beautiful, even the polo ponies had fine fields, but the cycling was crap. The roads were pitted, patched, and crumbling. The drivers were the worst we’ve seen yet. People honked, cut in front of us and blew past us without giving an inch. But everywhere there were proud Americans flying their flags. My favorite was the guy wearing the stars and stripes bandana on his head, cutting his grass on the riding lawn mower, chomping a huge stogie. Proud to call him my countryman.

Vicious Farm Kid Wearing No Pants Attacks Cyclists
In one of the stranger episodes today a farm kid wearing a big white T shirt and no pants (maybe he had short shorts on) came running across his lawn at us. Turns out he was just hauling ass to get to his freezer for another pudding pop or something. We had a good laugh at his expense anyway.

Support Vehicle Almost Flips
Even the support vehicle had its trouble in Ohio. At one point Jeff pulled off the road (again no shoulders) halfway into a ditch. After giving us our turn directions, he put the car in reverse and ended up pitched precariously on three wheels. He threw it into four-wheel drive and made it out. Note to automakers, make my Electric Vehicle with all-wheel drive.

I don’t mean to be hard on the Buckeye state, I’m sure it has is finer points. My father was born there and he is above average in many ways. But we had been warned about Ohio. Gene, Liza’s bike coach, said Ohio would be a tough state. Gene is virtually right about everything. I keep telling him he needs to write a book. We are having webbed bracelets printed with WWGD -- What Would Gene Do.

So Gene Bless you, and Gene Bless America!

Most of the drivers cutting us off and cursing us all A quiet Ohio moment outside Chagrin Falls
day drove GM products hmmmm, where is the love?

Water Park!!!!!!

Mon, 7 Jul 2008 18:39:31 -0500

Today was a rest day. We spent it at Monsoon Lagoon a water park and family fun center in Sandusky, Ohio near Lake Erie. It was Christopher’s idea. This whole trip he’s been collecting brochures from tourist “attractions” and finally we took him to one. He went down his first waterslide and thought it was awesome, I thought it was the slowest water slide in the world...

Now this whole trip we haven’t had too many problems, just some rain, two flats, a derailer problem, headwinds, VFD’s and bugs. Now bugs might not seem like a problem and they aren’t to most people except for me.

Amy Liza
Bugs hitting helmet 1 or 2 Bugs hitting helmet 4 or 5
Bugs hitting face 1 or Bugs hitting face 10 to 15
Bugs hitting glasses none Bugs hitting glasses 1 to 2
Bugs hitting legs and arms 10 to 15 Bugs hitting legs and arms MILLIONS
Bugs swallowed 1 Bugs swallowed 10 to 20! I even
swallowed one at the water park on the
stairs waiting to go down the water
slide. I mean, seriously, who swallows
a bug when they’re not even moving?

Maybe I swallow more bugs because I talk more. Anyway thanks for reading and now I am for sure going to make it to D.C. because we only have NINE MORE DAYS OF RIDING THATS ALL!!!!!! So PLEASE if you haven’t already signed my petition, you can find a link on the welcome page. And please send it to EVERYONE you know and tell them to sign it. We have 955 signatures, but we need more. We are hoping to present it personally to our elected officials in D.C. We will update the plans as we get closer.

Thanks again!!!
~Liza

p.s. The link to our T-shirt vendor has been fixed, you can find the link on the welcome page and order a shirt of your own!

Clampetts’ oil rig & wind energy planted on the County Landfill

Amusements

Sat, 5 Jul 2008 19:53:54 -0500

We pedal for most of the day, spending five to seven hours on the road. We stop now and then in shady spots to stretch, catch our breath and eat powerbars, but the terrain can become somewhat boring. To pass the time with wheat fields on the left and corn or soybeans on the right, we make up games and songs.

One game is a variation of Rock, Paper, Scissors. We passed a construction sight where there was an orange flag with a picture of a stick man holding a flag. So the first element was “flag”. The next sign was a shovel so we added “shovel”. Then we figured it out. Shovel beats flag in hand-to-hand combat, but what could beat shovel and be stopped by flag? The answer was parked beside the road -- bulldozer. So we played Flag, Shovel, Bulldozer for a few miles. Then we say a pop-up camper. Liza suggested Pop-up camper, Boulder, Flood (it made sense at the time) so we played that to pass the time. We began another round with dragon-fly, bike helmet, but before we could find the one thing that dragonflies can actually beat, we lost interest.

We also make up words to pass the time. The front rider points out obstacles to the person in back such as hole, gravel, stuff. I passed some gravel plus a junky patch of road (Gravel + Junk) and called out “Grunk!”

Another way to pass the time is to make up songs. I’ve been working on the cyclists version of Neil Diamonds “Love on the Rocks” called “Down on the Drops”, but haven’t really fleshed that one out yet. But the one we sang yesterday as we passed from Monroeville, Indiana into Ohio was “Grunky road, take me home to the place I belong, in Ohio, soaking in a hot tub, take me home Grunky road...

Liza will write on Monday (our rest day) about our trip through Indiana and Ohio, where we encountered friendly horses and goats and shared the bike lane with some friendly Amish folks in their buggies.

Thanks for reading!

Michigan

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:59:23 -0500

Well, we arrived by USS Badger to Ludington, Michigan on Friday evening and hit the road again on Saturday riding through western Michigan’s corn and apples. We have ridden three days and covered 178 miles. Today we rode our first 70 miler. By the end we were tired (me more than Liza) and had tired of the smell of road kill, farm animals, and car exhaust.

Michigan is kind of different. I think when Jed Clampett left Beverly Hills he farmed in Michigan, then struck oil again. We say two operational oil rigs on the back forty.

We have met friendly cyclists, curious passers by and very friendly inn-keepers, who have enjoyed hearing Liza’s story. If you’re ever cycling through these parts you can ride a short half mile from the ferry in Ludington to the Four Seasons. They have beautifully landscaped gardens complete with a Koi pond, comfortable rooms and an excellent hot breakfast, which provided fuel for our first day of riding.

We have met only two VFDs. The first a “min pin”, miniature pincer barked behind us for a good half mile before giving up. The other, a slobbery bull-mastif-like character, charged out of his driveway and got us on a steep up-hill. I screamed and took off and heard him connect with my back spokes. He could have taken a chunk out of my calf. I cursed him with a painful death and we huffed and puffed on up the hill. Sorry dog lovers, but if he does find himself under the wheel of a semi, the dude had it comin’.

Warm wishes from Michigan Arriving at the ferry

Trapped in Wisconsin

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:28:56 -0500

Despite riding almost daily for more than a week we cannot seem to get out of this state. Wisconsin is beautiful with nicely-paved roads that wind through beautiful countryside including farmland and timber towns. We have met some very nice people. A group of riders from Canada who were here to participate in a ride along the Wisconsin River were very enthusiastic when they heard Liza’s story. They signed her petition, then gave each of us Canadian flag pins and wished us “wind at your backs, eh?”

Today we rode from Mattoon to Freedom (68 miles). We rode the oddly named “Mountain Bay Recreational Trail” (sounds like they stole the name from somewhere on the west coast) that runs between Bowler and Shawano. If you’re ever in Shawano, there is a great bike shop -- Joe BikeLer’s -- right on the trail. He turned an old train depot into a full service bike shop and coffee stop. While there we ran into the Bagleys from Missouri riding the TransAmerica Trail from Washington state to Maine. I had met them last week in Hayward, Wisconsin at Blue Moon -- another great bike shop. Like I said the people have been great, but beware of the VFDs -- Vicious Farm Dogs. Today one charged, and despite her heavy legs, Liza accelerated from 11.3 MPH to 19.5 MPH in about two seconds. I just screamed at it, but it was undaunted. We finally outran it.

And yet, despite all this fun, we still long to leave the state. We have one day to ride to Manitowoc where we will catch the ferry across Lake Michigan. Then we will feel like we are making progress. To all our friends back home, “Wind at your backs, eh?”

First Week Update

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:42:48 -0500

We’ve been on the road seven days, riding six of them. The first three days were gorgeous there was some headwind and big hills and I fell once but nothing too bad. We had a very relaxing rest day in Hayward, Wisconsin at my grandparents’ house. We hit the road Friday and stopped at Clam Lake for a delicious spaghetti lunch at our John and Debbie Thompson’s (our neighbors in Minneapolis) cabin. After lunch we started riding but were soon caught in an afternoon thunderstorm. We stopped and took cover in the woods but were soon attacked by vicious mosquitos. We started riding again and went up and down hills as the rain came down harder. Finally we crested a hill and saw GREGG’S BAR. YES!!!!!!! We stopped at the bar and had root beer and cheese curds. Mom had a Leinenkugels which she claims is an excellent source of carbs.

The next day started out beautiful but after lunch (again!) down came the rain we hopped in the car and waited it out then we started up again and made it to Boulder Junction where our hotel for the night had a hot tub!!!!! That night we had delicious ice cream and saw a four deer outside our window.

The next day (Sunday) didn’t start out beautiful -- it was cloudy and cold. Before lunch it started raining on a busy newly-paved highway, so we jumped in the car and attempted to wait it out. We waited a while then got back on the road, it was drizzling. Ten to fifteen miles later when we were in the middle of nowhere or the Nicollet National forest, it started raining again. And again and again. Over and over and over. We got in and out of the car three times but finally got to Crandon, Wisconsin where we are staying the night.

Now I’m sitting in the Main Street Motel icing my knee and blogging. Dad is cooking pasta and Christopher is riding around the rain soaked parking lot when he is not jumping on the bed. All is well. In all we have traveled 312 miles in six days of riding.
Thanks you all for reading!
~Liza

Day One -- Headwind, rollers and manure

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:20:23 -0500

Hello, it has been an adventurous couple of days. We had a lovely send-off from the Minnesota State Capital in St. Paul. We rode to a nice wooded trail with our bike coach Gene Lew and friend and sponsor Peter Leugers. They rode with us for the first leg until we met our support vehicle on the road. Liza’s friend Storm Nylen, her sister Piper and mom Paula are supporting us the first three days until Jeff and Christopher can meet us.

We headed northwest toward Wisconsin and suffered through eleven miles of stiff headwinds. We had some nice climbs around the St. Croix River and finally crossed into Wisconsin. Rural Wisconsin is beautiful, but right now its manure-spreading time. Wow, up close and personal with manure is something we didn’t expect. We logged 57.7 miles and were spent, but still riding the good wishes that sent us off from the capital.

Day two was beautiful, low 70s, gentle breeze, new pavement and easy rollers. We passed through farm country and into hardwood forests. We are now in lake country after riding 67 miles. We are tired but excited to learn that Liza’s cause has been picked up by the local chapter of the Sierra Club as well as Plug In America -- the organization whose mission is to bring back the electric car. It feels great to have the support and good wishes from both of these groups. We continue to collect signatures on the petition, and are looking forward to a shorter ride tomorrow and a day of rest in Hayward, Wisconsin.