Janesville, WI

So biking across the country is something crazy right? But I decided that, you know, pedal across a continent wasn't crazy enough for me. Yesterday at our day off in Chicago a group of 11 of us decided we wanted to go skydiving. Yes that's right. I jumped out of a plane at 13,000 feet, free fell for a minute until I reached 5500 feet and pulled a rip cord to save my life. Don't worry I was attached to an expert who made sure everything went right. It was an amazing experience definitely a highlight. Email me if you want to hear more about it.

The rest of the day was spent napping in the church and then Arianna and I went to downtown and walked around, had great (and cheap) Thai food at Star of Siam on E Illinois (for those interested in good Thai food in Chicago). We also looked at the Tribune building with a bunch of rocks from places around the world embedded in the side. I must say Chicago was a great place to have a day off, especially since we had a 115 mile day getting into town. For my first century (over 100 miles in one day) it wasn't that bad, I actually felt really good afterwards. The last 20 or so miles were on the Chicago lakefront bike path, which was what I would optimistically call a warzone. There were tons and tons of walkers, runners, scooterers, long boarders, and cyclists, tons of cyclists. There were even triathletes trying to train in their aerobars (recipe for disaster). The views of the Lake were amazing and the beaches looked awesome, we even saw an AVP beach volleyball tournament going on with huge stands and huger crowds. At some point on the path we met a cyclist from Williams, turns out he knew a few of the same Ephs from Anchorage that I did. He also was a racer so I was able to update him on the goings on of the ECCC (Easter Collegiate Cycling Conference) championships. We were going around 18-20 mph through the people traffic, side by side, without too many close calls (don't worry I dropped back if it was bad) - we are definitely racers, we didn't feel uncomfortable riding inches from each other and other people at high speeds.

So the next day into Grayslake, IL was really short (40ish miles) so we spent a lot of time playing basketball in their gym and hanging out. At our presentation I met a wonderful couple that had just gone on a smaller cruise to Alaska. I was able to reminisce about home and tell them all the good spots to see that they missed. I had a nice night on a couch to get ready for another relatively easy day (70 miles, except for the headwind...) into Janesville, crossing the state line into Wisconsin. Again we traveled on country roads across the state line so there wasn't a sign, just like into Indiana and I missed the sign into Illinois because it was painted on a wall, not an actual sign.

Overall it has been a wonderful trip, I am getting awesome tan lines, improving my bike mechanic skills, and meeting tons of people wondering why there are 30 people dressed the same riding their bikes around their small town.

that's all for today, I'll go back to the church and sleep some maybe...

It would not be at all strange if history came to the conclusion that the perfection of the bicycle was the greatest incident of the nineteenth century.
-- Author Unknown