Across the Mississippi

Today was a war of attrition. When it was all said and done, we had 7 riders take a total of 9 spills, quite an astounding total. Nothing too major, however, as most suffered only minor scraps to skin and bruised egos. The 90 miles from Peru, IL to Clinton, IA was a long but eventful ride, capped off with us crossing the Mighty Mississippi this afternoon right before getting into Clinton. Very exciting, of course. We are now into our 8th state and we should be crossing the halfway mark in mileage within the next week. There has been some early whispers in conversation of how quickly this summer has moved, and some people are beginning to fret the final days coming into Seattle because of how much fun we are having. I guess it's a good sign when nobody wants the summer to end.

Highlight of the day: Beth dared Danny and Natalie to ride their bikes headfirst into a cornfield. She wisely filmed the scene, and we now have on tape an event that will probably go down as one of the funniest of our trip. Natalie's bike caught mud two or three cornrows in and all we saw amidst the 4-5 high cornstalks was her head go down and her backwheel flip up. Highest of high comedy. She was covered in mud the rest of the day. I imagine the video will find its way to YouTube.

The previous couple of days were a lot of fun. My grandparents drove 6 hours on Tuesday to see me in Pontiac, IL, and we had a great time. We ate at a solid Italian restaurant and crossed the street for ice cream (how else to end a meal?) that night. I got to hear some good stories about my mom and her family that I hadn't heard before. That age group truly is the "Greatest Generation." They stayed in town that night and saw us off the next morning, meeting us on the road. They waved at every rider as they passed, prompting a lot of my teammates to comment about the "random nice old couple on the side of the ride." Only later did they find out they were my grandparents. Very cool. It was great to see them and I'm really happy they came down.

It rained in the afternoon, as the sorcerer Natalie again conjured up a tempest to intimate her displeasure with driving the van. We've figured out that every time Natalie is driving the van (one of the four leaders has to drive it every day), it rains. She drove in Roscoe, West Lafayette, Tallmadge, and now Peru. Uncanny. In her words: "When I'm not happy, noboby's happy." However, we thwarted her efforts to spoil our day and still enjoyed our 62 mile ride into Peru. We caught some fantastic tailwinds that enabled us to motor into town after only about 5 hours on the road; at one point I clocked four miles in 9 minutes, 53 seconds. Loads of fun. We stayed in a gym at a parocial middle school and 8 of us ran a little full-court basketball for an hour, followed by a round of free throws (with a little volleyball for Chong sprinkled in). Any day with basketball is a good day. The school then set up a blow-up projector and screened Remember the Titans that evening, sandwiched between a marvelous dinner and a great breakfast. All in all, Peru was a great host (for cooking and friendliness).

I finally succeeded in obtaining a book I've been looking for since mid-June as well. Richard Wolffe of Newsweek just published the first reputable review of Obama's campaign (titled Renegade), so I sprinted over to a bookstore in Peru while the rest of the gang stopped at a bike shop. So far the book is fantastic, so that has kept me entertained over the last two evenings as well.

Anyway, we've got some long days ahead of us. Hope all is well with you!