I am Officially WEST of the Mississippi River!

The morning after our day off in Pontiac I was cranky. We woke up at 5am, I did not get enough coffee at breakfast, and my bum was feeling so nice after the day off my bike was not looking too good to me. The great thing about this trip though is that I had not other option than to get on my bicycle and head to Peru, IL. So that is exactly what I did.

I rode about 10 miles and found a gas station along the road we were on. I stopped, got a cup of coffee, and sat outside where I talked to some curious locals about our trip. The coffee was awesome and did the trick of immediately breaking me out of my grouchy mood (I think that means I'm also officially a caffeine feind, but whatever). The day was perfect, the wind not so bad, and there was only 50 miles until our destination.

The ride was a beautiful one, and it left me wondering why I didn't want to get on my bike that morning. Once we arrived at the host site we all put on our bathing suits for a pool party being thrown for us at a Bike and Build Alum's gf's grandparent's house (try to follow that one). The house was perfect, the weather was perfect, the food was delicious, and the company was as always fantastic. We all ate, swam, read, chatted, and lounged by the pool until dinner time when we went back to the church and enjoyed a pasta dinner. It really felt like at the end of the day that we hadn't even ridden earlier that morning it was so relaxing.

This morning we woke up once again at 5am (what we think is going to be the new wake up time to try and beat this brutal midwest wind) and set off for Clinton, Iowa. I was in a much better mood this morning due to the best breakfast we have had so far on the trip made for us by the cutest old church ladies I've ever seen in my life complete with three cups of coffee and I was ready to roll. The mileage was 81 miles with lunch around mile 45. I cruise to lunch with barely any trouble, had a great lunch full of wonderful leftovers and donated veggies from the Pontiac supermarket, and started pedaling once again for Iowa and rumors that we were going to be crossing over the Mississippi River.

After a windy and semi-dangerous 35 mile ride on a road under construction with no shoulder and 18 wheeler trucks whizzing past at uncomfortable speeds and closeness, the rumors turned out to be true (for once on B&B haha jk)! We did in fact get into Iowa, and then immediately biked over the monstrous Mississippi River, which I was thinking about it today and I believe today was the first time in my life I have ever actually seen the Mississippi River in person. It was so cool though! It looked exactly how they describe it in like the adventures of Huck Finn lol.

We are staying at the local YMCA in Clinton (on the Mississippi according to the town sign). The "teen club" here made us dinner and then challenged us to what we thought was a friendly game of dodgeball. Little did we know they were hustlers haha. They in fact are not just a teen club that does nice community service activities, but in fact they are also a competetive dodgeball team. After watching them warmup a bit I was scared and did not really want to play, but decided I needed to get over my fears and do it for Bike & Build! So we all got out there and got out butts kicked pretty good by a bunch of high school kids. I have never been so scared of high school kids in my life by the way... they throw those balls hard haha.

Tomorrow we were suppose to be going to Cedar Rapids, Iowa but the town was severly affected by the floods and our route hs been changed instead to another city. I am not sure where exactly we are going, but the rumor mill is saying that it will be about 80 miles away. Tomorrow's route meeting will tell all. The internet has been rather spotty by the way so that is the reason for no posts for the pretty long period of time. I am trying to post as much as possible and will continue to try my best!

Oh, if you guys are bored and want to laugh a lot, check out a blog of a Bike and Build route leader on the Boston to Santa Barbara route name Jose. We have officially incorporated into our morning route meetings a "Jose quote of the day" which displays just how ridiculous this guy is.

I have attahed the link to his blog below for your convenience... happy reading lol.

http://www.bikefleet.blogspot.com/