Wednesday, June 15th, 2011 (Day 1)
It felt like we had just fallen asleep when the alarm woke us up. Four hours of sleep, and we still didn't have everything we needed. The night before was spent making finishing touches to our velos. We were configuring the computers, attaching bags, and deciding how many rolls of duct tape to bring along.
My mom took Adam and I out for breakfast and we got a ton of pancakes which made both of us feel a little sick afterwards. When we got home my sis brought us into town to get a map and a post card for Adam's grandma from Chicago, which took us forever to find since we weren't actually IN Chicago. Oh yeah and the map we bought, you're probably wondering why we didn't already have one of those. Because of the little fiberglass fairing issue, we didn't have enough time to plan ANY of the route. Yeah, we're leaving with almost no idea of how to get there, other than heading west...
We got back to the house and all my immediate family was there to see us off. Wishing us luck, checking out the velomobiles, taking pictures, giving hugs and saying goodbyes made me really realize what a huge undertaking this was, and for a moment it started to scare me.
My mom took Adam and I out for breakfast and we got a ton of pancakes which made both of us feel a little sick afterwards. When we got home my sis brought us into town to get a map and a post card for Adam's grandma from Chicago, which took us forever to find since we weren't actually IN Chicago. Oh yeah and the map we bought, you're probably wondering why we didn't already have one of those. Because of the little fiberglass fairing issue, we didn't have enough time to plan ANY of the route. Yeah, we're leaving with almost no idea of how to get there, other than heading west...
We got back to the house and all my immediate family was there to see us off. Wishing us luck, checking out the velomobiles, taking pictures, giving hugs and saying goodbyes made me really realize what a huge undertaking this was, and for a moment it started to scare me.
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Above, Adam is in the lime green jacket, I'm in black. My sister Paige is in the grey and blue striped shirt which she totally stole from me! She snapped the pic below as I was pulling out of the driveway, not sure why my flag was down. Top left picture is with my dad and stepmom, Christine.
Since I didn't really have much time to test my cycling computer the night before, I thought something was wrong when my speedometer read 19mph as I approached the stop sign at the end of our block. I radio'd Adam on the walkie-talkie telling him my computer wasn't set up right. Once he pulled up beside me I yelled through my windscreen, "There's no way I was doing 19 just now, I was hardly even pedaling!" "Trust me, you were." he said. I can get used to this.
On we went, me leading the way, to the trail head which I thought would bring us on to the Hennepin Canal Trail.
Being in the U.S.A., NO ONE knows what the hell a velomobile is. The whole way to the trail was filled with strange looks from motorists/pictures taken from cell phones.
We came to the top of a big hill and I coasted down it. I hit about 35 and went through the intersection at the bottom. I heard my radio ring and then heard Adam's voice come through. The walkie talkie's were $20, so you can guess how great the voice quality was. 70% white noise, 30% distorted voice.
I assumed something had gone wrong and I told him I would pull into the parking lot. He followed in and told me his front end fairing mount snapped. We were less than 5 miles from my house. Our confidence in the velomobiles plummitted.
While I waited for Adam to try and fix the damage the sun started coming out. It had been raining all morning so this was more than welcome. I turned my speakers on and got my music going. Adam managed to fix his fairing mount with bungee chords and some duct tape, and we were off again.
The rain the night before left the paved trail damp, and with debris scattered all over. It became apparent right away that our velomobiles were pretty damn low to the ground since we were collecting half the forest inside our shells from the wheel wells.
I couldn't believe how fast the velos were. Going through the forest was a blast, the turns really put our machines to the test. Adam nearly flipped over around one turn that he went into just a bit fast.
We followed the trail for awhile then looked at the map. We realized that the trail we were on was way south of where we wanted to go. It started raining a lot, we got under an overpass and gave our friend Mike aka "The Bike Medic" a call to see if he could give us any help.
Luckily, he guided us down the path until we made it to a huge overpass that we went over, leading to a gravel trail.
Time to stop for a snack. Adam had some dried salami and I had some trail mix. We made the two into some salami and trail mix mini tacos. Delicious. It was raining outside but we didn't care. We sat on the side of a creek and ate in the rain.
It started raining heavily again so we left. The crushed gravel was like thick mud. As we rode, the gravel was flung onto the insides of our fairings and was constantly adding weight.
Not only that, but rain was coming in through the wind screen opening and getting us, and our electronics, soaked. Awesome!! :D We came to a bridge where the rain had eroded away a ton of gravel in front of it. I rode up to it thinking I may be able to clear it, but no. I wedged myself onto the transition and had to get out and lift up the whole velomobile up and over it. Adam did the same. We kept on, holding a speed of about 8 mph. Pathetic.
Then of course, it started hailing. Maybe the size of a baby pea, but still, hail. And pouring rain, we couldn't see anything. We were panicking; our electronics were getting absolutely soaked. We disconnected everything and hoped for the best. The gravel path finally ended and we saw some sort of bus facility that had a security building with a man in charge of a chain link gate. We rode toward this building hoping to dry off inside. The man inside closed the gate and waved his finger at us through the window. Prick.
We sat in the rain for another 5 minutes before the rain let off and we headed back across the road and back to the trail. The next segment of trail was completely flooded. We didn't know what to do, so we went on the normal road and stopped at the first store we saw which was some sort of stationary and art supply store.
They were nice enough to give us some plastic bags to protect all of our electronics for future storms. We used these every day for the rest of the trip. The guy there also was nice enough to bring up google maps for us which is when we decided we would just take US Route 6 since it was so much simpler and so easy to follow.
On we went, me leading the way, to the trail head which I thought would bring us on to the Hennepin Canal Trail.
Being in the U.S.A., NO ONE knows what the hell a velomobile is. The whole way to the trail was filled with strange looks from motorists/pictures taken from cell phones.
We came to the top of a big hill and I coasted down it. I hit about 35 and went through the intersection at the bottom. I heard my radio ring and then heard Adam's voice come through. The walkie talkie's were $20, so you can guess how great the voice quality was. 70% white noise, 30% distorted voice.
I assumed something had gone wrong and I told him I would pull into the parking lot. He followed in and told me his front end fairing mount snapped. We were less than 5 miles from my house. Our confidence in the velomobiles plummitted.
While I waited for Adam to try and fix the damage the sun started coming out. It had been raining all morning so this was more than welcome. I turned my speakers on and got my music going. Adam managed to fix his fairing mount with bungee chords and some duct tape, and we were off again.
The rain the night before left the paved trail damp, and with debris scattered all over. It became apparent right away that our velomobiles were pretty damn low to the ground since we were collecting half the forest inside our shells from the wheel wells.
I couldn't believe how fast the velos were. Going through the forest was a blast, the turns really put our machines to the test. Adam nearly flipped over around one turn that he went into just a bit fast.
We followed the trail for awhile then looked at the map. We realized that the trail we were on was way south of where we wanted to go. It started raining a lot, we got under an overpass and gave our friend Mike aka "The Bike Medic" a call to see if he could give us any help.
Luckily, he guided us down the path until we made it to a huge overpass that we went over, leading to a gravel trail.
Time to stop for a snack. Adam had some dried salami and I had some trail mix. We made the two into some salami and trail mix mini tacos. Delicious. It was raining outside but we didn't care. We sat on the side of a creek and ate in the rain.
It started raining heavily again so we left. The crushed gravel was like thick mud. As we rode, the gravel was flung onto the insides of our fairings and was constantly adding weight.
Not only that, but rain was coming in through the wind screen opening and getting us, and our electronics, soaked. Awesome!! :D We came to a bridge where the rain had eroded away a ton of gravel in front of it. I rode up to it thinking I may be able to clear it, but no. I wedged myself onto the transition and had to get out and lift up the whole velomobile up and over it. Adam did the same. We kept on, holding a speed of about 8 mph. Pathetic.
Then of course, it started hailing. Maybe the size of a baby pea, but still, hail. And pouring rain, we couldn't see anything. We were panicking; our electronics were getting absolutely soaked. We disconnected everything and hoped for the best. The gravel path finally ended and we saw some sort of bus facility that had a security building with a man in charge of a chain link gate. We rode toward this building hoping to dry off inside. The man inside closed the gate and waved his finger at us through the window. Prick.
We sat in the rain for another 5 minutes before the rain let off and we headed back across the road and back to the trail. The next segment of trail was completely flooded. We didn't know what to do, so we went on the normal road and stopped at the first store we saw which was some sort of stationary and art supply store.
They were nice enough to give us some plastic bags to protect all of our electronics for future storms. We used these every day for the rest of the trip. The guy there also was nice enough to bring up google maps for us which is when we decided we would just take US Route 6 since it was so much simpler and so easy to follow.
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They gave us directions to the 6 and it took us forever to find it. We got lost about 3 times before making it to it.
Once we finally made it on the highway, all went well. We rode for another 30 miles since the trail end and made it to Morris, IL.
We saw an Alde off the highway and parked our velos in front of it. While we were picking out food for the night, I noticed a woman trying to get a picture of the velos through the front window of the store.
I walked up to her and asked her if she liked them and we started talking. After some phone calls she found us a place to stay for the night, a really nice man (I feel awful - I cannot remember his name) offered his front yard for us to set up camp.
They washed our clothes, allowed us showers, and offered us dinner which we had to refuse. It was so nice to go to sleep feeling refreshed.
It was a crappy start. Five days behind schedule, at least 4 hours later than we wanted to leave, we were lost for most of the day, and we only covered 55 miles. Still, our thought was: at least it's a start.
Miles covered today: 55
Miles covered total: 55
Overnight Town: Morris, IL
Once we finally made it on the highway, all went well. We rode for another 30 miles since the trail end and made it to Morris, IL.
We saw an Alde off the highway and parked our velos in front of it. While we were picking out food for the night, I noticed a woman trying to get a picture of the velos through the front window of the store.
I walked up to her and asked her if she liked them and we started talking. After some phone calls she found us a place to stay for the night, a really nice man (I feel awful - I cannot remember his name) offered his front yard for us to set up camp.
They washed our clothes, allowed us showers, and offered us dinner which we had to refuse. It was so nice to go to sleep feeling refreshed.
It was a crappy start. Five days behind schedule, at least 4 hours later than we wanted to leave, we were lost for most of the day, and we only covered 55 miles. Still, our thought was: at least it's a start.
Miles covered today: 55
Miles covered total: 55
Overnight Town: Morris, IL
