UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE!!!!

When last we left our heroes they were in Maquoketa Iowa. Ok, heroes may be a bit much but it does allow for a neat intro. We woke in Maquoketa to yet another hot and humid morning. We greatly enjoyed the air conditioning the night before and hoped that the weather reports were true that the humidity was supposed to drop in the not so distant future. We started working our way east and as we got closer to the Mississippi River we began to notice some of the flood damage that the area received. Everybody we talked to in the area told us that there is a lot more damage further south but that we would be ok to cross over into Savanna IL. Because of the flooding the normal flow of barges up and down the river had been halted for a little while. At points along our route we would see twenty to thirty barges lined up along the banks of the river waiting to be moved to points south. Our first night in Illinois was in the town of Oregon. Oregon is 82 miles east of Maquoketa. We stayed at the White Pines State Park and experienced a bit of rain during the night. Thankfully our tent covers did their job in keeping us nice and dry. From Oregon we headed 54 miles east to the town of Saint Charles. St. Charles is located just west of Chicago. From there we used our van Jane to get us to Northbrook where we spent the next two nights with the Zorn family. Carrie knew the Zorns because she went to graduate school with Papa and Mama Zorn's daughter Shanon. We had a wonderful stay and enjoyed the fact we had a roof over our heads when it rained the evening we arrived and most of the next day. Our second day in the Chicago area we had a photographer from the Northbrook times come in the morning and photograph all of us for an article about what we are doing. Early in the afternoon we went to have an interview at the Chicago Philippine Channel 48 tv station. We were all interviewed by Veronica Leighton. We were told that they have a viewing audience of 8 million people. Not to shabby for a tv station if you ask me.
When the time came for us to head out of Chicago we were advised to do our best to stay out of the city when we were on our bikes. Taking the advise we headed south to the town of Emington, which is located due south of St. Charles, and continued our trek east. We crossed in to Indiana on Sunday the 20th and spent the night in the town of Morocco. The next morning we met with Sandra a reporter for the Lowell Tribune and had a wonderful interview complete with pictures and breakfast. I must take the time to note that Sandra was not only kind enough to come down to see and interview us but she also bought us all breakfast. Thank you Sandra!! After the interview the weather was really poor and we didn't get going until late in the evening. We found ourselves in the town of Lagro IN that night and stayed at the Salamonie River State Park. We had some neighbors who were less than quiet but as time when on sleep got the best of them.
Tuesday the 22nd we crossed over the Ohio border and spent our first night in the town Payne. The pastor of one of the local churches graciously allowed us to stay on their property and even kept the church open for us so that we could use the bathroom and get out of the rain if we needed to. While it didn't rain that night we were visited by at least 8 fright trains. But, by this time all of us are for the most part able to fall right back to sleep when a train passes by. On Wednesday the 23rd we headed 74 miles to the town of Bowling Green. The weather was wonderful, it was nice to have a cool breeze and lots of shade. From Bowling Green we headed to Autumns house near Flushing MI. The group of us will be spending the next few days in MI. Jenny and I (Jonathan) are in a wedding on the 2nd of August. We are ahead of schedule but are not complaining that we can have a little bit of rest. We all are going to make sure we keep on our bikes each day so that when we get back into the swing of things we are not back to square one with conditioning.
There will be pictures posted very soon. Thank you all so much for your support. Keep spreading the word. We may have some more media opportunities in Pittsburgh. We will keep you posted.

You really ought to give Iowa a try... in December

Hello from Maquoketa, Iowa!
This is our third night in the lovely state of Iowa where tiger lillies grow abundantly on the roadside, red wing blackbirds scream persistently at harmless cyclists, hills appear out of nowhere, and the smell of manure follows you wherever you go. Iowa is hotter than.... many hot places. Although the endless corn fields are beautiful, we've found it hard to see though the sweat dripping into our eyes. The humidity and high temperatures have kept us stuck to the tops of our sleeping bags at night and puffy eyed when we crawl out of our tents in the morning. The sunsets and sunrises are stunning though, and we can't seem to get pictures that do them justice. Sunday night we stayed in New Albin, right on the Minnesota- Iowa border. From there it was 82 miles to Elkport--- a town that reports a population of 88, but we couldn't figure out were they hid the other 85 of them. Today was the first time we attempted the early morning ride, getting up at 5:30 to escape some of the afternoon heat. The Pizza Factory in Farley, IA as well as not one but TWO public libraries hosted our smelly selves from 10 until about 3. Oh for the love of air conditioning! After a total of 92 miles, we are ever so thankful to be enjoying the air conditioning at the Super 8 Motel and looking forward to a wonderful night's sleep.

Tomorrow (July 17th) is the annual Steps For Stanley luncheon at the Outback Steakhouse in Harrisburg, PA. We wish we could be there to thank all the attendees in person but are excited that it has gotten bigger and better each year and tomorrow should be no different. Thank you all so much for your support, thoughts, and prayers!

Land-o-Lakes...

Greetings from St. Paul, Minnesota! We hope this blog finds everyone well, let us start by continuing to thank you all for following our progress and for your support on our journey, we would not be able to do what we are doing without you all! Since last we wrote we reluctantly left our dear friends in Fargo, ND and have crossed yet another state line into Minnesota. The weather has been a bit of a challenge this past week. We encountered some of our first thunderstorms of the season believe it or not on Tuesday in Eagle Lake, MN. Fortunately we were able to visit with Dani's Grandma and were spoiled once again with more food than any one human could  consume, warm beds, and plenty of fun filled water sports. For those who do not know Eagle Lake apparently is one of only two lakes in the world which have fresh water coral in them, the other being somewhere in Australia. The water needless to say was crystal clear and has a visibility of its sandy floors of up to 23 feet. Positively gorgeous. So needless to say it was not difficult for our arms to be twisted and for us to spend the day near the lake. This week we crossed the 2000 mile marker and are well on our way towards reaching the Atlantic on our scheduled date of August 23rd. Friday and Saturday brought some pretty nasty thunderstorms through the area but again we were blessed and were able to stay with Carrie's family in Oakdale, MN and fiddled around the mall of America on Saturday. The remainder of our time in Minnesota looks promising with cooler temperatures, and less humidity and rain. Our next scheduled day off will be in Chicago, (Northbrook style) IL at the Zorn household on July 18th. We have about 550 or so miles to cover in the next 7 days but we are all eager to get back on the biking schedule... weather permitting. Thanks to all who sent packages this last round, we should be picking them up in the very near future at the post office in Wabasha. We promise to post at least one more drop for those who are interested. Please continue to spread the word to all of your family and friends, we are all out here having a great time but we are doing it for the cause and for those who are unable to do so! Until next time....

Quick Mail Drop Update

We should be at the location of our next mail drop in Wabasha, Minnesota by Thursday or Friday. The address is a few posts down. Thanks again for all your care and support!

Fargo for the Fourth!

Happy Fourth of July!... yesterday. We have taken not one but two days to rest here in lovely Fargo, North Dakota in celebration of Independence day.  We're staying with Jen's friends Dani and Greg who have been incredibly generous and so much fun to spend time with.  We arrived here on the evening of the third to a dinner of home made chicken tacos and showers and comfy places to sleep all around. On the fourth we spent a lazy morning eating doughnuts and drinking coffee, then went to a movie and celebrated our nation's independence with Italian food and a fire works to follow.  Today was errand running, mid-day ice cream eating, lazing around the house, and feasting at The Pizza Ranch.  We also all (yes, all 6 of us) went for a run!  Although Jen hasn't even seen Dani in 6 years, we all feel like old friends.  It has truly been such a great time. But we'll be back on the road tomorrow, on our way to the Atlantic. 

Since our last update we have been speeding through North Dakota at a pace that is surprising, even to us.  Last week we did our second and third century (100 mile) days back to back.  The terrain is much flatter and easier to travel, especially when you have a van full of food waiting for you halfway through the day.  Since Parshall where Autumn last updated, we've stayed in the (very) small towns of Towner, Warwick, and Hope.  While in Towner, we met the father-son team of Peter and Jim who are cycling from Seattle to Minnesota, then Jim will continue on to New Hampshire.  They joined us for spaghetti and then cooked us some amazing oatmeal the next morning.  Whenever we do something we feel especially proud of (such as riding 100 miles in a day), really wonderful people like Peter and Jim come along and humble us with their tales of ABSOLUTELY no rest days since Seattle and 100+ days more often than not.  They have our utmost respect and well wishes.  There were so many mosquitos in Warwick that we opted to spend the evening eating pizza in the bar/ restaurant/ liquor store where we met some friendly locals, one of whom handed us fifty dollars for the Steps for Stanley fund as he walked out.  ...So great to encounter such generosity and enthusiasm for the cause in unexpected ways.  Hope was a friendly little town where we were allowed to use the bathrooms and showers at the local pool after it had closed for the night.  They were freeeeeeezing cold, but it was still a treat.

North Dakota was stunningly beautiful (and VERY windy) in the west, flat and uneventful in the middle, and has ended with the biggest city we have seen thus far in our travels.  It has salt marshes (who knew!?!?) as well as the geographical center of North America (that would be Rugby).  Looking back, we crossed the entire state in five days, yikes! Tomorrow we will cross the Red River into Moorhead, Minnesota.  

Thanks for the continued interest and support!