Oh, the Ozarks...

The state of Missouri really doesn't get the credit it deserves. In our two days (and 146 miles) in the Show Me State, I'm pleasantly suprised by Missouri's east-central landscape. Almost immediately after crossing the Mississippi River (which, in its own right was symbolically and visually awesome) the terrain becomes very hilly, with curving, wild flower bordered roads. Golden wheat fields give way to tree filled ranch properties and vineyards.

The cycling is reminiscent of Pennsylvania's hills, but much, much more visually pleasing. Today's travels, from Ironton, MO to Eminence, however, showed us that the Ozark Mountain Range isn't necessarily ideal for liesurely cycling and photo snapping- in fact, we've faced the toughest climbs and grades of our entire trip in this region. Even at a low 70 miles, today's ride was rough on just about everybody but the beauty of the area more than makes up for the leg pain.

It's been exciting to meet other cycle tourers- today we met 2 solo riders who were both travelling East on the Trans-Am trail. While 2+ months of solo bicycle travel may seem lonely, I was definitely reminded of the freedom, flexibility solo touring affords. However, being a part of such a profound and amazing team has its own benefits, and the chance to grow friendships while enjoying pizza and a beer with teammates after a ride is certainly nice.

A Sunny Day in Indiana...

Over the past few days the weather has been very good to us- with tailwinds of over 20mph, we had a chance to look around, take some pictures, and mess with livestock at every possible opportunity.

I should explain, however, that not everyone in our group gets a kick out of feeding grass to cows. Our group is similar to a mullet- business in the front and party in the back. Mark and Jon generally lead the all business group- they generally ride much faster and reach our destination hours before everyone else. Nick, a human jukebox, leads the rear flank widely referred to as the caboose. The real goal of riders in the caboose, Im pretty sure, is to visit every ice cream shop from NY to San Diego, and spend as much time as possible taking goofy pictures, singing 80s pop songs and spooking cows.

I find myself in the caboose pretty often- arriving into town early is nice, but staring at someone's back in a paceline and breathing hard for 80 miles isn't the most fun everyday. There's a lot to see along the way, so why not take some time to smell the flowers? (and cows)

Hello Ohio!

After the first week, I think everyone on our team is welcoming Ohio's flat land. The scenery is still great, however, and we saw some incredible views of lake Erie today.

Its amazing to think that only 30 years ago the lake was so polluted that, as the saying goes, nearly anything in it would float and spontaneous fires were known to arise due to the toxic and flammable chemicals which resided in the lake. The incredible Clean Water Act, however, began the massive cleanup and filtration of Lake Erie which has restored the lake's water quality, at least to my swimming standards (as shown below.)

I'm consistently amazed with the daily improvements on our team. Riders are getting faster and faster, our morning routine, which involves decamping, route briefing, preparing, eating and cleaning breakfast and packing the chase car has gone from a 2+ hour process to just over one hour. Everyone's communication on the road has improved significantly also, and we're pacelining like pros. All this in the first week? Yea, we're that good.

S'mores in Edinboro, PA