100 More Miles (October 18th - October 24th)

When I last posted, I had started to see my mileage surplus dwindle a bit. I was down to 9.5 miles ahead of pace. This was the first time it had gone down to the single digits since June 4th. Anytime that I get down to single digits, I come into danger of falling behind pace with just one day that I don't ride. However, this past week was a week of redemption. Over the last seven days, I've ridden 99.6 miles. This allowed me to add another 30 miles or so to my cushion. As a reminder, my wife is due with our first child on December 2nd, so the surplus is becoming more and more important, because December might be a tough month to get out on my bike in real life.

In the imaginary world, I am now in Stevensville, MT. Stevensville was founded in the early 1800s by Jesuit missionaries. It was originally known as St. Mary's before the names was changed in the 1860s (the name change was authorized by President Abraham Lincoln himself). Huey Lewis may or may not own a home there. The imaginary ride has been mostly downhill for the last week or so, with a couple of big inclines as well. It's nice to be on the west side of the Rockies.

Real life: The highlight of this week's actual riding was Saturday, October 24th. After riding downto Cleo's Bar to meet friends to watch the Arsenal match, we then participated in the Half Acre Beer Co. Anniversary Hunt. Basically, this means that we rode around Chicago solving riddles in order to win a mystery prize. Our team did win The Hunt and a free case of beer as the prize, but the real prize went to all those who participated. We got to go to a secret party at their unfinished and unopened new brewery with free beer, food, and shuffleboard. It was a really great time and just a really cool event in general. Mileage update: 2,997.5 total miles, 39.4 miles ahead of target pace. 637.9 miles to go!

Big Sky Country (September 9th - October 17th)

In the 38 days, I've ridden about 260 miles. I haven't quite been keeping the pace that I'll need in order to get all the way across the country by the end of the year. My ride now places me in Wisdom, MT.

My ride has taken me from Yellowstone to Wisdom, MT in the last 38 days

Wisdom is named after the Wisdom River, which is much less exciting than I hoped that name origin would be. It is home to 98 whole people. With my visit, it almost broke 100!

Real life: 2,897.9 miles ridden. 9.5 miles ahead of target pace. 737.5 miles to go!

Yellowstone, A Haiku (August 31st - September 8th)

Another nine days
The middle of Yellowstone
Imaginary

I'm where that little gray dot is in the middle of Yellowstone

Real life: 2,634.3 miles ridden. 134.3 miles ahead of target pace. 1,001.1 miles to go!

Everything is Bigger in Wyoming (July 24th - August 30th)

It's been over a month since my last post, so I guess I've hit a bit of a slump. I spent the rest of July making my way through the western end of South Dakota. I spent three nights in Fairburn (population 85), and one night in Hermosa (population 398). Then I rode into Keystone (population 337), which was the longtime home of Carrie Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie. Keystone was also a location from the movie North, starring Elijah Wood. I've never seen North, but it is the topic of one of my favorite Roger Ebert reviews:

I then spent three nights in Custer, which is supposedly home to the widest Main Street in the country. Apparently, its width was to allow a team of oxen pulling a wagon to turn completely around. Efficiency!

So wide!

I spent one night in Edgemont before crossing into Wyoming. I quickly learned that Wyoming was a lot different than any other state that I had passed through. Despite the fact that I consistently rode about 10 miles per day, I typically spent at least four straight nights in most of the towns or cities of Wyoming. I even had seven sleeps in a town called Ten Sleeps! As of August 30th, I am now in Basin, WY. I should be in Yellowstone National Park in about a week!

Making progress!

Real life: Since I last checked in, I've basically stayed exactly on my 10 mile per day pace. I have now ridden 2,530.5 miles, which is 120.2 miles ahead of my target pace. I took a three day break from riding in August, which is my longest rideless streak since early March.

South Dakota Nights (July 5th - July 23rd)

I spent nine more nights in Nebraska before crossing into South Dakota, home of the Geographic Center of the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii). I spent six nights in Martin, SD, despite the fact that I rode over 27 miles during that time. You would think that this means that Martin is a happening town with a lot to do. You would be wrong, but I did enjoy the HorseShoe Bar.

Real life: The good news is that despite taking a couple of days off from riding (mostly due to illness), I've still continued to build my mileage surplus. There were a couple of highlights during this stretch that had very little to do with riding a bike. Last week my wife and I found out that we are having a boy, which is super exciting. Then last weekend we celebrated my wife's 32nd birthday, which was a lot of fun despite a thunderstorm attempting to thwart our plans. I also got to witness this great Chicago sunset with thunderstorms across Lake Michigan.

https://instagram.com/p/5Qk7DmghcI/

Total annual mileage: 2151.2 miles (119.4 miles ahead of target pace).

Home of Frank Leahy (June 27th - July 4th)

There's not a lot to write about in the middle of Nebraska. I've mostly been passing through towns with a few hundred residents (some less than one hundred), so please forgive me if I don't walk you through the details of each day. However, on July 1st, as I moved into the second half of the calendar, I spent the night in O'Neill, NE.

O'Neill has almost 4,000 residents, so it's a big city for this part of Nebraska. It's also the hometown of Frank Leahy, who was a famous football coach for Boston College and Notre Dame in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. He ended up spending most of his years at Notre Dame, which was also his alma mater. However, the two years at BC are of most interest to me. In 1940, he led Boston College to an 11-0 record, a Sugar Bowl victory, and a "National Championship". This is the only "National Championship" in BC football history. I use quotation marks because BC is one of four teams to claim that they won the National Championship that year. The others were Minnesota, Tennessee, and Stanford (BC ended up 5th in the AP Poll). After that season, Leahy left to coach Notre Dame. He had a contract with BC and they didn't make it easy for him to get put of it, but eventually he did. He went on to coach Notre Dame for 11 seasons, leading them to four less disputed National Championships.

After a 20.2 mile ride on our nation's birthday, I spent the night in Newport, NE. For a town on 97 people, the fireworks display was pretty impressive. I think every resident was lighting some off on their property.

Newport, NE

Real life: Now that I've built up a bit of a surplus of miles, I've started to become a bit more lax on some days. I've taken a day off from riding here and there, or only rode a few miles on some others. However, I've made up the miles on some days with longer rides. I also just won a GoPro in a contest at work, so readers can expect some GoPro videos on here in the near future. One highlight of the last week was 4th of July fireworks on a rooftop in Chicago while watching my buddy's band, Sheep Numbers playing live. Total annual mileage: 1933.2 miles (90.6 miles ahead of target pace)

Past the Halfway Point (June 16th - June 26th)

The ride through Nebraska continues, and on June 24th I passed the halfway point of my ride and ended up in the city of Norfolk, NE. Norfolk is a decent-sized city for Nebraska, so it was a nice place to celebrate. Based on the name alone, I had to have dinner at the Black Cow Fat Pig Pub and Steak. Here's what halfway looks like:

Norfolk, NE - the middle

I got some good riding in over those next couple of days and ended up in Neligh, NE on the 26th. Neligh is not a big town, but it does have some interesting history. In particular, there is the story of the grave of White Buffalo Girl. You can check that out in this video:

Real Life: This stretch of real life riding included Bike to Work Week (or more formally the Bike Commuter Challenge). It is a week-long challenge that is organized by Active Transportation Alliance, which encourages people to ride their bikes to work. Every year it helps more and more people discover that cycling is a great way to get around. During this challenge in 2012, I got on a bike for the very first time in Chicago. Total annual mileage: 1857.1 miles (94.2 miles ahead of target pace)