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.