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Finally made it into Colorado, hooray!  Not terribly colorful right now as you can see.  Actually pretty unpleasant.  About 10 miles after that picture was taken it began to rain and should continue to do so all day.  Add in the fact that the high today is in the mid 50s and it makes for a rather miserable outing.  There was a bit of a tailwind so I did make good time to Yuma, doing 71 miles in the aforementioned 4 hours.  And this is the first day like this since those first two days of non-stop rain.  Its actually not the ride I have a problem with, its when you finish riding and start getting cold with no good way to warm up, have to setup your tent in the rain, etc.  Fortunately I’ll have family to stay with shortly, probably by Friday.

Before it got really gross out I was listening to another Radiolab podcast about time.  One of the things they talked about was how taking something very familiar like Beethoven’s Ninth(or Justin Beiber) and stretching it out to take 24 hours completely changes how it sounds and feels.  I realised that’s very similar to what I’m doing.  If you drove a car, even if it went the same exact route, it would feel very different.  An hour in the car is the same as a day on the bike for me.  And just like stretching music can cause you to notice things you wouldn’t normally, so to does traveling by bicycle.  Such as long gradual hills which you ignore in a car or the changes in insect life.  I would actually like to drive across the country to see what my trip would look like in fast forward.

Just an example of the stuff you come up with with lots of time to think.

Not much to report, apart from finding the site of the first modern hot air balloon flight!  I’m currently in McCook, NE, about a day and a half ride from the Colorado state line.  Denver is 270 miles southwest and about half a mile up, as I’m at approximately 2,500ft.  I should be there by the end of the week.

Still taking it easy.  One of the reason’s I was hesitant to go slow in the beginning was because when staying at campgrounds for $20-$25 a night it quickly gets expensive.  As I get further west I’m finding that many towns allow you to camp in the town park for free.  They have bathrooms, water, and most importantly they usually have electricity.  Electricity is my third most important limited resource after food and water.

Assuming nothing interesting happens in the next couple days I will I unveil my song parody parody.  Its pretty awesome if you ask me.

I’ve been on the road for one month as of today!  I celebrated by going out to eat at the Down Home Café in Franklin.  It was recommended by David in Lincoln because the owner is a fellow cyclist.  More great food.  Its amazing how freshness can make food taste so much better.  Afterwards I went to see Cowboys and Aliens.  Not something I would go to at home, but for $4.75 including popcorn and soda it was worth it.

About halfway through Nebraska and less than 500 miles to Denver.  Thanks to everyone for their support, both readers and those who I’ve met along the way.  My present to you is the above picture.  Hope you’re all having a great weekend.

And Nebraska isn’t flat.  Just wanted to dispelled some common misconceptions.  Most of Nebraska that people see is along I-80, which is rather flat due to the Platte river.  A perfect place to put a highway, but certainly not representative of the entire state as my sore legs can attest to.  The hills aren’t as steep as Iowa though, so I’m not complaining.

I’m especially not complaining about Ben and Randy, my hosts for the night.  Randy cooked an awesome dinner, including fresh baked bread.  Ben renewed my interest in skydiving, which I know some of you reading this are also interested in.  When I get back lets do that. They also showed me around Blue Hill, which for a town with a little over 700 people has a suprisingly large downtown.  Overall we had some great conversations and a really good time.

Last couple days have been a little long, 88 and 75 miles, so tomorrow I’m only going to do about 45.  I’m going to pass through Red Cloud, home of Willa Cather, and my cousin’s namesake.  Since I will be seeing her when I get to California it seemed fitting.

*Before the linguists in the audience start leaving smartass comments, yes, I understand everyone has an accent of sorts, but a number of people have been suprised about my lack of a New Jersey accent.  I explain that there isn’t one unified accent, and no one from there says Joisey.

[Edit: Corrected Blue Hill’s population.]

I’m in Nebraska! Entering a new state is always exciting, especially when the states are as wide as they are out here.  My detours ended in Iowa, and it has been clear sailing so far in Nebraska.  First of all they have nice big and more importantly paved shoulders on the highways here, something in short supply in Iowa.  I’ve had a very warm welcome as well.  On Tuesday night I stayed with Bruce and Joan who couldn’t have been nicer.  Bruce even drove down the road to find me and make sure everything was ok.  I ate way more food than was necessary and they showed me around town.  I learned more about Lewis and Clark’s expedition plus the birth of Arbor Day, started in Nebraska City.  A short 50 mile ride brought me to the state capitol of Lincoln. There I met David and Martha who have also been great.  We talked a lot about biking and touring and David helped me plan out my route for Thursday.  That’s about it, less to write about when things go well other than to reiterate how generous the warmshowers.org members have been so far.  Thanks to any of you that read this!

The reason there was no post yesterday was because my day was shortened quite a bit when I realized I would need to make a 50+ mile detour.  The Missouri River has seen major flooding, and the road I was planning on taking into Nebraska isn’t currently an option.  So yesterday’s planned 60 mile ride turned into 80, and today’s originally easy 50 miles is looking to be closer to 90.  Though not all of that is the fault of the river.

The detour did give me a chance to see more of the Wabash Trace Nature Trail, a 64 mile trail that runs from Council Bluffs to Blanchard.  One of the reasons I like these trails is it gives me a chance to use my headphones and listen to music or podcasts.  While crossing over a bridge I very faintly heard a whump.  I stopped, turned around, and noticed my notebook had fallen out of its bag on my bike.  Turns out when I took out my tablet I had forgotten to close the pocket I keep it in.  The same pocket that holds my wallet.  Oops.  Sure enough my wallet was missing, lost somewhere along the last 15 miles of trail.  The best part?  I was listening to Radiolab’s podcast entitled Lost and Found. 

I dumped my bags on the side of the trail (no need to slow myself down anymore) and started heading back the way I came.  I was scanning the ground, looking for a black square of leather along a not terribly well maintained but very shady trail.  Figuring that it most likely came out earlier along the trail, I started out going pretty fast doing only a cursory search.  Meanwhile I was thinking out what to do if I couldn’t find it.  ‘Well, wasn’t too much money, and I can cancel the cards, but I will need some cash, and damn, I can’t get on an airplane without ID, wait I can have my passport sent to me…’ etc.

However I only had to go back 3 miles before I found it sitting there, on another bridge, waiting for me.  Something about the wooden slats on the bridges liked to shake stuff out of my bag.  So that was detour number 2, about 6 miles out of the way.  Much relieved I continued on my way, only to blow right by Route 34, the road that I would take to cross the river.  I still don’t know how I missed it, though I suspect the trail went over the highway.  So I headed back to 34 using local roads, adding another 10-15 miles to my trip.  Detour number 3. 

And now here I am in Glenwood, IA, about to cross the Missouri River.  Hopefully I’ve seen all the detours I’m going to for today, and will finally make it through Iowa into Nebraska.  I’ve been warned by many Iowans how flat and boring it is.  Well no offense to the people of Iowa, but most of Iowa was pretty boring too.  By that I mean its pretty, but also boring, plus some really arduous hills.  So flat and boring actually sounds pretty exciting!

Short post today.  Internet is harder to come by in southern Iowa.  I haven’t seen a McDonald’s for days and have had to steal wifi for the last two.  Thank you default router settings.  This going less miles seems to be good so far and my route for the next couple days is broken into 50-60 mile chunks.  Despite that a quote from Bruce Weber, reporter for the NY Times and currently doing a west to east cross-country tour, rang very true with me.

A word or two about perseverance, which is an essential — maybe the essential — carry-on for a cross-country cyclist. If I didn’t have it, it would be worth trading my rain gear for it, and I say this having ridden much of the past two days in the rain. The truth is that just about anyone can make a trip like this — you don’t have to be in great shape or own a top-flight bike — as long as you’re willing to keep pedaling. If you can’t muster the desire to keep your legs going day after day, your physical condition won’t matter, and whatever you pack in your saddlebags won’t either.

Even doing 50 miles a day it’s still hard getting up every morning knowing I’ll have to be back on my bike in an hour or two, dealing with wind, or hills, or boredom, or whatever else the road will throw at me.  But you keep going as Mr. Weber explains more eloquently than I can. Why? I don’t really have a good answer, but I’m working on it, mile by mile.

Check out more of Bruce Weber’s entries at http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/w/bruce_weber/index.html

I think I need to stop going so fast.  Another tough day.  I know it was because of the heat, hills, and fact that I did so many miles Thursday (not all planned,) but still discouraging. So instead of doing the 80 or so miles I was going to do I did 50 and stopped at the Honey Creek State Park on the shore of Lake Rathbun.  As you can see I’m relaxing and taking a break. Actually I’m posing but I relaxed shortly afterwards.  I think I’m trying to finish to quickly, bike more, over do it, and have a tough time that makes me want to finish faster.  It a viciously cycle.  So I’m going to experiment with some 50-70 miles days and see how that goes.

I was once again saved by the kindness of strangers.  After I wrote the above I met Tracey and Gia.  They were in the next campsite over and invited me over for dinner.  I spent the rest of the day with them and their friends Short and Debbie.  I played ladder ball, drank a lot of beer, and had a good time.  Dinner was grilled chicken, baked potatoes, and three different kinds of salad: pea, corn, and taco.  I wasn’t feeling too great the following morning (a LOT of beer,) but Short made it better by cooking up breakfast.  They made me finish what’s was left, and I was happy to oblige.  I didn’t leave the park till around 1, partly because of the company and partly because it looked like rain and I was hoping it would pass by.  Of course it didn’t start till I was on the road for about 5 minutes and continued off and on the rest of the day. Ce la vie.

Rough day today.  Everytime I have a good like yesterday I get a day like today where its a slog the entire day.  The first problem was Heat.  Not sure if you can see in the picture but that sign says 97°.  And that was at 7pm.  Normally the heat doesn’t bother me too much but today it made its presence known.  If anything just because I had to refill my water about 4 times.  I drank about 12 liters of water today.

The second problem was Hills.  Southern Iowa is much hillier than I expected.  Its not PA, these are rolling hills.  Whatever that means, I certainly don’t do much rolling on them.

Next up is wHind.  Damn you wind!  You might think it would help counter the heat, but you’d be wrong.

The final problem was wHere the hell am I.  While making it to my final destination I got crazy lost.  First Google Maps tried to take me down a gravel road for about 10 miles.  Then my GPS died.  I finally found an open wireless connection and got everything sorted out, but it got very frustrating after riding 120 miles.

I realize those last two H’s are a stretch but I’m tired, so deal. See above mileage.

There is however a happy ending.  When I finally did make it to my destination I was greeted by a tent already set up, a glass of lemonade, a shower, and a huge plate of delicious pasta.  The reason for this were my hosts Todd and Dana of Ottumwa, IA.  I met Todd on previously mentioned warmshowers.org and he agreed to let me stay tonight.  Little did I know all that would await me.  It was the best way to end a tough day, so a big thank you to Todd and Dana!

[Note: The picture was taken by Colton of Parkwood, IA.  Population 223.  He was about 10 and we had quite the discussion about bicycling.  He asked if I knew his friend McKenzie from New Jersey.  I told him I didn’t, especially when he identified the town she was from as ‘New Jersey.’]

Gibbs is back on a bike!  My aunt dropped me off this morning at Savanna, IL and I spent the day riding along the mighty Missippi River which has a great bike trail (with a slight detour, they don’t always make the signs easy to follow.)  I’m currently in Rock Island about to cross the river into Iowa and make my way to Wildcat Den State Park.  From there I head west across Iowa, hopefully meeting some interesting people along the way.

It feels good to be back on the road, though it was pretty nice being able to lounge about for a couple days.  Well I’ll get another break in a couple weeks.  For now, its CO or bust.