The SPOKEn Quest(66 mi. 1,092 total)

Song of the Day: Jungle Love – Steve Miller Band

We left the state park and our dog friend and rode through Johnsonville in the early morning. We were looking to eat an early lunch in Fairfield and hopefully find a place to fix my spoke. After a good amount of riding we made it to Fairfield and found a Mickey D’s for lunch. We asked there if they knew of any bike shops in town, and they directed us pretty poorly to an appliance store that did bike work on the side. After riding up and down town and asking a few other people about it, we found the place. No one was there, but there was a sign with a number to call, so I called and they owner told me he couldn’t do any spoke work, he could only change seat, and fix flats, just the basics. He could basically do everything I knew how to do. But he directed us to and old man on the outskirts of town.

We showed up at his house, and he was on the back porch snapping peas. He told us he hadn’t been doing bike work regularly for a long time. he opened his garage to reveal every bike part imagineable. I helped as he worked on my tire. He got it entirely taken apart, but couldn’t get the gear set off. After a bit of working he exclaimed, “The best I can do, is to put you back together.” But in the process he assured me riding on it wouldn’t damage it too much.

We rode on from Fairfield for the afternoon. We went through some very small towns and stopped at a local diner for food. The waitress told us of a resivoir in the next town that we could probbaly camp at for the night. So thats what we did. When we arrived, there were lots of fishermen about and the place was full, but as the sun went down the people cleared and we had a good night under a pavilion.

^The Resivoir Pavilion^

1,000 Reasons to Keep Riding(86mi. 1,026 total)

Song of the Day: Midnight Rider – Allman Brothers Band

We said goodbye to Donny and Amy in Oconee early and headed south. The day went real well. Along with the afternoon came our one thousandth mile of the trip. It was a pretty cool milestone to reach.

^1,000 miles^

Just after this, we saw a large storm coming behind us. We rode fast and hard to try to outrun it as long as possible. Once it caught us we knew we would have to pull over. we pulled into the first farm house we saw, but no one was home. We thought they wouldn’t mind if we waited out the storm in their shed, so thats what we did.

^The Approaching Storm^

^Waiting in the Shed^

After the storm blew over we were on our way once again. We ended the day after 86 miles in a state park near Johnsonville. A nice dog followed us into the park and ended up staying around our campsite all night.

^the dog^

Ride Until Dusk (67 miles, 940 total)

Song of the day: Boy Named Sue – Johnny Cash

After saying goodbye to the Kinzers, we got back on the road.

^At the Kinzer household^

We stopped at a wayside to have some lunch and spent most of the day on small farming roads. While stopped at one gas station along the way, the clerk asked Whompy of he was a professional. Despite his muscular body and amazing display of stamina, he had to reveal his amature status.

We stopped for dinner, but there was no amping available. We decided to ride on and attempt to find a place somewhere along the way. We rode without luck. The sun slowly began to slip beyond the horizon and we were running out of light. We finally came to the small town of Oconee. We saw some people in their backyard and stopped to ask if they knew of a place that we could set up a tent anywhere close by. They were so nice, and let us camp in their backyard.

After setting up camp they invited us in. They gave us some leftover food and we found out the Donny was the coach of the 8th grade state champion basketball team. Donny also brought out his guitar and we stayed up late taking turns playing tunes. We were even treated to Donny’s original song. It was great the chorus went:   “Thats the way it is when the long weeks done, two whole days of family and fun. Sit on a log, throw another in the fire, kick on back act like your retired. Suns going down listen to the sounds, we’re just living in our country playground.”

This song spoke exactly the the experience that we had with Donny and Amy. They are family folks, and made our trip that much more bright.

^Donny and Amy^

More Posts Coming Later

Hello All,

We are in Columbia TN. I haven’t had much time to write more posts. I don’t know when I will get the chance, but I will do as much as I can along the way and then finish it all at the end. Thanks for reading and keep checking back, you never know when there might be something new.

Thanks,

Gavin

Its My Party and I’ll Take a Break if I Want To! (23mi 873 total)

We left Steve and Doris’ and they were leaving on their Harley for a trip to Ohio. we had a short 23 mile ride to Whompy’s parents’ house where we were going to take a day off. It has been great to relax and just sit a bit. Whompy’s mom even had a cake for us with a couple of bike’s on top!

^Us and the bike cake^

^the bike cake^

And by chance, our day off is also my birthday so it has been nice to relax on my birthday. Its back on the road tomorrow for the second half of the journey. Thanks for reading, and I’ll try to keep the updates coming.

Remember that in attempting this ride, we are trying to raise some support for Wisconsin Christian Youth Camp. It is a place that contributed to my life in big ways and I want to make sure that youth have that opportunity for a long time. We have started to get a few donations and any donation will greatly help. The Village Church in Rosholt is collecting donations to make one large donation when the trip concludes.

Checks made out to The Village Church can be sent to The Village Church, Po Box 273, Rosholt WI, 54473 or you can donate through paypal at www.rosholtvillagechurch.com

Thank You for your help!

The Kilbourne Shindig (63mi 850 total)

Song of the day: Man of Constant Sorrow – Soggy Bottom Boys

It rained all night in London Mills so we were thankful for the roof over our heads in the park. Directly across the street was the town hall, and Whompy went to see if it was open so we could get some information on the weather. He was gone for a bit and when he came back I inquired about the information he gathered. He told me that it wasn’t open, but there were keys in the lock and the door was open. Someone had left the keys so he had gone in to use the bathroom. Since we didn’t have a bathroom to use and it was quite early, I did the same.

^the keys in the door at city hall^

We waited out a small storm, and then hit the road. The day went by fast and soon enough we were in Kilbourne, our destination for the night. We talked to some locals that said there was a park, but nothing else. we headed down to the park to see what it was like. There were a couple pavilions and it was located right behind the community center. There were lots of cars around, and a couple standing by their Harley said hey, so we went to talk to them. We told them what we were up to and they suggested staying in one of the pavilions for the night. They said that there was a community potluck going on inside so we should go in and get some food. We walked in and all eyes were on us. “Who were these funky looking(and smelling) dudes in skin tight attire?” They gave us some food and told us that they would get ahold of the local cop to ask about staying in the pavilion for the night.

There was a band playing, they played everything including Boot, Scoot, ‘n Boggie, Man of Constant Sorrow, and Have I told you Lately that I Love You? we enjoyed out potluck leftovers and sat in the back corner. Soon enough, they came over and told us that it wasn’t going to work for us to stay there, so we didn’t know what we were going to do.

^The band at the shindig^

^The band again^

Towards the end of the evening,  the harmonica player got on the microphone and announced to all why we were there and what we were doing on our trip. They gave us a long round of applause and many questions followed. At this point the original Harley lady stood up and asked if anyone had a truck to take us the 20 miles so we could stay at their house, the harmonica player volunteered and we were no longer homeless for the night.

We continued on to Steve and Doris’ home where we stayed the night. We were thankful for their friendliness and hospitality.

^Steve and Doris our hosts^

The potluck was probably one of my favorite moments on the trip so far.

Bad Moon Rising (67mi 787 total)

Song of the day: Even Flow – Pearl Jam

We left Orion heading straight into the wind. Pretty much the entire day was spent riding through corn fields. We rode nearly 39 miles before stopping for lunch and man were we hungry.

At one point while riding through the outskirts of town we saw about 5 kids jumping n a trampoline. they were probably no older than 8 or so and they seemed to be having a good time. As we passed by, on of the boys pants started to fall down, but he didn’t seem to care, he just kept on jumping mooning the whole world as they passed by. I knew we would see some crazy stuff, but I didn’t imagine that we would get mooned by an eight year old on this trip.

We rolled into London Mills in the early evening and were promptly met by 12 year old Robert. He was fascinated by us, and hung out with us all evening long. He asked lots of questions and told us all about his town of 400 people. He was a good kid, but we finally had to shake him by going to get some tacos for dinner.

We camped in the city park with permission from mayor, and were only disturbed by some local crazies lighting of some dynamite in the river behind the pavilion we were staying in. London Mills was a good place to visit.

^our spot in the band shell^

^another view^

Orion’s Belt (44mi 720 total)

Song of the day: Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World – Neil Young

After stopping by the bike shop on the way out of town, we pushed off into Illinois. It was a short day of riding, but pretty eventful.

^us with Megan and Eric(the master chef)^

^State #4 Illinois^

We came to a closed road once again. We thought that we would be able to sneak through unnoticed because it was late in the evening. As we were walking our bikes through, we saw some workers putting down tar up ahead. We thought we would explain our situation to them when we got closer, but as we came near them they completely ignored us acting as though they didn’t even want to know that we were there. We were home free.

^Road closed once again^

Once we came to the town of Orion, we were hoping to sleep at the city park. We asked at the grocery store if that was common, and they said that they had never seen anyone do it. We asked if they had a telephone book so we could call the police department, they saved us the trouble and called themselves and before we knew it, a police officer was on his way to meet us.

Meanwhile, some local hooligan kids were busy buying soda. They bought 2 twelve packs and put them on their round sled which was tied by a 10 foot rope to their bike and were on their way home. We didn’t think they would make it without shaking up the soda.

By this time, the cop pulled up and asked us what we were up to. We explained the situation, but he didn’t let us stay at the park. We had to ride our bikes another 3 miles out of town the wrong way to a golf course/RV park to stay there for the night. Not what we had hoped for, but it was alright.

Once

King of the Hill (86mi. 676 total)

Song of the day: Round Here – Counting Crows

We left Peosta saying goodbye to Jon and his family. The morning was spent wandering around the countryside due to the fact that we didn’t have the proper maps for this area. This was a little frustrating because it took us over unnecessary hills and we had a long day planned. Even so, we were soon back on track headed towards Muscatine.

^Jon and his family^

The day seemed long and the towns we went through were mostly deserted. Seeing that it was a Sunday, we couldn’t find a decent meal until long after lunch time, but our food woes would soon be forgotten.

As the day wore on, the hills subsided and we had finally become the kings of the Iowa hills. We pushed on towards Muscatine and covered 86 miles in all, out longest day to this point. At the end of the day we were rewarded with some amazing fillets from our hosts Megan and Eric for the night. As Whompy would say, “Its amazing how a good meal at the end of a day can make the whole day seem easier.”

^We even found my mailbox!^

Crazy Iowans (55mi. 587 total)

Song of the day: Killer Queen – Queen

We left our sleeping spot in the bath house and hit the road. The day was pretty much uneventful except for one encounter at lunch. We stopped in Colesburg for lunch and the only place that was open was the local tavern. We ordered some burgers and sat in a booth. At the same time that we were there 4 or 5 loud guys sat at the bar. After much hooting and hollering they became interested in us. We carried on a conversation with them and we thought they were nuts. They thought we were crazy as well. They were on their weekly trip around the countryside stopping at every bar possible. As we left, they drove by and yelled at us all the way down the street.

We tried to take this bike trail, but had to join back with the road because the bike trail was closed due to the recent flooding. We reached our destination and are staying with Whompy’s friend Jon.

^Whompy on the trail^

^Trail closed, back to the road^