Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

Started raining during the night. Glad we did most of our prep yesterday as it’s rained most of the morning.

Big breakfast as we have more food than time.

I finish writing the bicycle lessons posts for Adventure-Some and draft an email for the list.

Ashley does a load of laundry in the bucket washer and packs her clothes. I pull mine out and pack them. Other than a last few things that we’ll use tonight and a couple of items from the store we are ready to go.

Ashley proofs my blog posts and ok’s the email. Content is ready for all of next week.

I tie a 4-strand braid to attach to my duffel bag. Hopefully it will stand out and not be too hard to spot in the semi along the road next week. Ashley’s is hunter orange. That should help us spot it.

More sausages for lunch, and leftover soup. Freezer is empty with the ribeye thawed for tonight.

I still need to oil the bikes. Maybe it will stay sunny long enough to get that done after supper.

Supper is the ribeye, grilled beets, salad, and mashed potatoes. So much food, and all of it is delicious!

After supper we pack up things outside and prep for tomorrow’s departure. Planning on hitting the road by 11. Then reading and writing before heading to bed.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

Good day for a productive, lazy morning. After breakfast we write out our packing lists and research the ride. Reading through the pre-ride inspection trip from last month we take notes about what we want to be sure and visit and see along the way.

Excited about the trip and feeling more confident, we pull backpacking gear from the basement and pack our bags full of food and gear. Backpacking experience makes this a quick task – the challenging part is debating how much food we should take. From the sound of it, most people don’t carry much, if any – and there will be far more available along the way than we could possibly need. Still, we are taking more than enough to keep us going and whatever we don’t eat we will save for future trips.

Working through our food, we put together a crockpot full of soup fixings and let it simmer on the picnic table.

We stroll through the campground, checking out one of the trails.

I cut my hair and Ashley and I head to the pool. I rinse off in the showers and jump in, the only one there. Ashley sits and reads while I splash around.

More than enough soup for supper. Delicious!

I work on a series of blog posts for next week – lessons learned while bike riding – training for the RAGBRAI. These sum up a lot of what we think about while pedaling. Ashley read while I wrote.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

Not quite eager to start pedaling for the day, we have a leisurely breakfast and lazy morning before jumping on the bikes for a short jaunt.

  
It was hot and humid with some headwinds but we enjoyd our ride. Along the way we spotted a graffiti barn and a silo with a tree growing inside. Always wondered where trees are stored when not in use. 🙂

After eating lunch – sausage and taters (we’re working on operation clean-out-the-fridge-and-freezer) we hop on the motorcycle and scout out a grocery store to pick up some supplies for RAGBRAI.

Took a wrong turn due to road construction and ended up going on a big loop before finding the main road. Visited Aldi’s and WalMart before heading home – too hot to explore the quad cities in motorcycle gear.

We put stuffed meatloaf in the oven and go for a swim to cool down. Back in shorts it’s fairly nice outside so we eat at the picnic table. Doing our best to get reacclimated to the heat and humidity before next week. Also doing our best to eat all perishable food so that it doesn’t go to waste when we turn off the fridge and freezer while we are gone.

  
I crochet and Ashley reads before bed time.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

Busy day, even if we didn’t do a lot. Still have to arrange transporation from the last stop on the RAGBRAI (Davenport, IA – where our wheel estate will be waiting for us) to the first (Sioux City, IA) with our bags and our bikes.

Spent all morning researching options. Charters are $300 for the two of us. Renting a car or UHaul is comperable or more. Catching a ride with others doesn’t seem to be working out.

For almost the same cost we could pay for family to come up and give us a lift – which gives us the chance to visit with them for a bit as well. Unfortunately, try as we might, no one happens to be available.

Mid afternoon we head to the pool for a respite from research. Water feels great and only two other people are there. One is an employee, a college student from Spain interning here for the summer. We chat for a bit before he heads back to work.

Back to research, I look at our long-term parking options for the week and reach out to confirm that they can accomodate us. They can, but we can’t get the early-bird price. I check that charters still have open spots for a ride (supposed to be scheduled by July 1) and book some seats.

Business done for the day, I head to bed to resume movie watching. I begin crocheting an afgan for the window seat.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

We have coffee and breakfast then wrap up packing. Joni gave us some beautiful Snap Dragons from her flower bed to brighten up our home – they’re gorgeous and look great whether framed by our curtains or a nice view of greenery out the window!

All together we hook up the trailer and say our farewells. It’s definitely bittersweet. We had an amazing visit but are glad to be back in our home. We definitely broke the fish and houseguest rule – stayed well over 3 days – but we still have a return invitation and they were sad to see us go.

We hit the road again, aiming for a campground in Illinois that is close to Davenport, Iowa. We cross into Iowa and comment on the hills – hopefully they aren’t like this for the bike ride!

Ashley takes over driving and gets us across the Mississippi River (narrower than I picture it, compared to crossing into Missouri) and back into Illinois. She brings us on into the Hillcrest Event Center where we pay for 2 nights.

Takes us a few tries to find a spot and we’re melting in the heat/humidity before we’re through. It was so nice and cool when we left this morning! And we’re supposed to bicycle another 50 miles today. Blech!

We’re glad to have electricity for the A/C and it’s our first time to use the sewer hook-up instead of just dumping our tanks. It will be nice not to have to pay attention to water usage for a few days in our wheel estate.

After getting settled and cooled down we decide that it’s a good afternoon/evening for movie watching so we settle in to do that, taking breaks for super and popcorn. Ashley knits for a bit.

Made a salad for supper. We didn’t used to like salads but have really come to enjoy them (though Ashley still likes them more than I do). Especially with some sort of protein mixed in they seem to satisfy fairly well and can be quite delicious. Just not with iceburg lettuce.

Finally we pause the movie and head to bed.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

Big ride today, 75 miles. Alarm’s set for 5 and we head out about 6. Apparently it takes us about 10 or so miles to get warmed up and into the pedaling groove. First break at 22 miles.

Lots of pedaling. Stopped at Trader’s Coffee in Delafield for lunch – sandwiches and coffee and a lemon scone for me. Still delicious food and we felt much better afterward. Another loop on the Lake Country Recreation Trail – I wonder how many miles we’ve put in on this trail in the last 10 days. More than 100, I’m sure.

We wrapped up with a loop through a subdivision near the house and guestimated perfectly. 75.10 miles on the odometer when we stopped. Almost exactly!

We both agree that we could have ridden more, though more food would be needed. So we plan on doing a century ride a couple of weeks after the RAGBRAI. We’re in shape for it and it’s one of Ashley’s New Year goals.

I dove into the lake for a cool down swim while Ashley grabbed a shower. Before getting out I hang on the pier, watching a dozen or so little fish float around just inches away from me. Very cool to watch!

Jumped in the shower and then phoned home to see if Mom and Gary were coming up to visit and shuttle us into Iowa, plus providing some tech support. Alas, no luck!

We all head to Roasti’s for pizza. Delicious! And very much appreciated after the day’s ride. We stop at Ben Franklin’s and I grab another pack of yarn skiens for the road. Hopefully we will have enough to make an afgan for the window seat, plus a couple of other smaller projects.

On the way back to the cottage we pick up the RV and shuttle it back, then load almost everything for tomorrow’s departure.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

I woke earlier than I wanted to. So I made coffee and caught up on journaling and digitizing posts. Jim got some work done and then headed out for a day of golfing with his brother. Once Ashley and Joni were both up I hopped on the bicycle and pedaled down to the grocery store for onions and ice for pickling.

Back at home I helped slice up cucumbers and then got out of the way, eventually heading to bed for a nap.

Ashley and Joni made bread and butter pickles (I wonder why they are called that, as they contain neither of those things. Need to look it up some time) and pickled beets. Ashley’s wanted to learn to can for some time now and was excited for the chance. (Me too, but there wasn’t room for me to help in the kitchen and I was more than ready for a nap. I can help and learn from Ashley at a later time.)

Canning completed we read for a bit out on the pier.

I put together supper – fried eggs, spinach pancakes, sauteed squash with carrot gratings, and roasted beets.

My list of foods that I won’t eat was never very long but sweet potatoes and beets have been removed. Apparently I just don’t like store-bought canned beets because fresh roasted and home-maded pickled canned are good.

More reading before bed.

Journal entries are just that – the digital copy of my hand-written entries in my journal. If you aren’t interested in the daily details of our adventure, feel free to skip on to the next “regular” post.

Early start this morning – we got up at 5 to join Jim at the Y. We hit up some weights for a bit before heading to the pool. Unfortunately, no lanes were open so we just soaked in the hot tub before grabbing showers.

Out of milk, so I ran to the grocery store to pick up some. Sounds simple enough but still takes me a moment to get my bearings for the area.

  
Back home we assembled a crockpot full of beans and rice for tonight’s supper before frying some eggs for breakfast.

The sun is out, a nice calm day so we’re sitting out on the pier and reading. The water is so flat and clear that we can see everything. Fun watching the fish swimming around.

  
After scrounging for left-overs for lunch Joni, Ashley and I hop in the car to go check out her favorite farmer’s market. Jim is golfing tomorrow so the gals plan on canning and need supplies. We head in to the West Allis market. It is a beautiful setting, though it’s a bit early in the season so not quite bustling. We pick up beets and cucumbers for canning plus greens for tonight’s salad. On the way out we grab an apple cider donut each and sit to enjoy them. Delicious!

  
We meander through town and head to a Trader Joe’s where we grab some more groceries. I enjoy their coffee and pick up a can of beans to bolster my supply of Folgers.

  
Back home I make some phone calls to family while Joni and Ashley finish prepping supper. Mom and Gary are tenatively interested in coming up to visit us before the RAGBRAI. They have to see if the scheduling will work out. Would be great to visit with them, so I hope they decide to!

Supper of salad with red beans and rice was fabulous! After eating Jim and I head over to the Kiltie drive-in and pick up a quart of custard to accompany the rhubarb crisp that Joni made. Oh, was that tasty! I believe that we all pretty well ate ourselves miserable!

Afterward we watched the movie “Chef” which only Ashley had previously seen, while I crocheted a coffee coozie. We really enjoyed the movie. Good thing we weren’t hungry while watching it!