Fast Times in the Mid-West!

Happy Wednes (HUMP) day Everyone!


We have been slacking on blogging lately. When this happens it usually means we are consumed by the awesome power of the present moment. The last time we checked in was Oberlin, Ohio. We are currently in Chariton, Iowa. We finished traveling the length of Ohio, then rode through the harsh winds of Indiana, followed by more invisible mountains (head winds) in Illinios, and now are rolling over the many hills of Iowa. We are expected to arrive in Lincoln, Nebraska by this coming Sunday August 1, 2010.

Where to begin with the adventures we have encountered along the way?

After Oberlin at 6pm we rode with our new friends Jessica and Cara to the end of the bike trail leaving the city. Then we cycled a few more miles to Norwalk. I (Tina) went into Stain Paul's Cathedral to see if anyone might let us spend the night in the church. While I wandered the empty halls, the rest of the crew chatting with the dominos pizza delivery guy Brian. The crew were gifted free dinner in exchange with some stories about our travels. One of the preist at the church showed up after listening to my voicemail as soon as we decided to just sleep in the church anyway. Father Eric was awesome! He hooked us up with a huge breakfast in the morning.

We were chased down for the first time near Findley, Ohio. I met a woman (Janet) at a red light. I wished her a "Happy Monday" and gave her our website. A few miles later she’s in a truck with print outs of all our blogs sitting passenger to Steve. The couple found the rest of the crew about a mile a head of me. Then they requested we let them buy us dinner and find us somewhere to sleep. We had an amazing meal at the Dragon something. They also hooked us up with breakfast in the morning.

Fort Wayne, Indiana was our next planned stop. We stayed with Jain & David who are starting a co-housing project. They also have a beautiful garden. Jain's sister runs the 35 year old food co-op in town. We made a video about it!

I was chased down for the second time just before Silver Lake, Indiana. Ted has cycled across country before and wanted to put us up for the night out of respect for all the people that helped him on his travels. When he called his wife to ask if we could come for supper, she recalled seeing us in South Whitney and wanted to ask us to stay too. Charlie and Kevin were a head of Will, Amanda, and I by close to 10 miles. The boys camped while the three of us stayed the night in Ted's basement. We had a delicious dinner and desert filled with marvelous tales of the road.

Ted dropped Will and Amanda off in Rochester to meet up with Kevin and Charlie. I rode the rest of the way with Ted to his first farm stop of the day in Kewanna. I got to our destination first (for once) of Rensselaer. I was able to buy one cup of Highlander Mist from Kim at her coffee & home decor shop then got about 5 cups for free. I meet the rest of the crew at the Hot Dog Cafe. We were able to do some chores around the restaurant in exchange for some dinner. We also got hooked up with a lovely couple to stay with for the night. Alan and Rosemary still check in with us. They have become our new grandparents.

After that we booked it over to Stelle, Illinios. Stelle is home to Mid-West Permaculture. The town is an intentional community run mostly on renewable energy sources, has a community garden & orchard, and is a wonderful place to spend a few days. Becky Wilson who runs Mid-West Permaculture with her husband Bill hosted us for our stay.

We had three great nights staying in town pavilions in Wenona, Toulon, and Joy . While in Wenona we spent some of the money we made collecting & cutting rotten apples for chicken feed to buy pizza and fried food. While we were chowing down. People at the bar like the lovely Peggy brought us 3 rounds of drinks. The Boardwalk Bar gives out coins for free drinks. It was an awesome night. We also met the Mayor who gave us a box of granola bars & showers.

Then we arrived in Fairfeild, Iowa after our longest day yet of about 90 miles! We spent the next 5 nights in at the Abundance Eco-Village! Kevin and I also slept out at the permaculture our new friend Avi care takes a few nights. While in town we met so many people living the way we strive to live, off the grid with strong community ties. Julie came out on a bus to chill with us for the weekend. It was awesome to see Julie again. She decided she will complete our Non-Profit paperwork for us back in Pittsburgh. Then she might grab her bicycle, take it a train and ride with us for the rest of our trip. We discovered a 10 bedroom house with 2 acres of land next to Avi's permaculture! We really want to become an official 501 C3 non-profit so we can apply for grants and have tax-deductible donations made to us for our new co-housing & permaculture project in Fairfeild, Iowa. We also picked up a new member for our trip, Chris Romain! We were also interviewed by the only solar powered radio stations in the Mid-West. KRUU radio a completely community based radio station. Did I mention they have a permaculture outside the station too? Anyway they rock, look out for the interview on our website.

On Monday we left Fairfeild. Chris decided to just ride with us for the day and maybe camp out. During the ride he was not only convinced to camp out with us, but to join us on our ride. Yesterday, Charlie and Chris were picked up by our friend Pete to be driven back to Fairfeild in order to get Chris' bike road ready. Chris and Charlie just showed up to town after being dropped off by our friend Hap. We met Sonya at the Pipers candy shop which has shipped to ALL SEVEN CONTINENTS! She has graciously offered to put us up for the night at her house.

This is not a full account of our adventure. The library gives us shorten time spans for blogging communication. We will try to update more often and throughly. Until then, follow our twitter for daily updates! As always keep in touch with the website for new videos and picutres! We should have loads of new pictures updated today!

peace & love,

Tina on the behalf of all the REcyclists!