Across the big lake...

On Sunday moring July 16, we awoke from a deep, sweaty slumber (the heat index was 110 today) at 4 am and hurried our little toned behinds down to the Milwaukee ferry. We arrived promptly at 5, a whopping 15 minutes early, and loaded the Lake Express along with our bikes, Archimedes, Chester, and Thelma. While we were waiting for the boat to leave we were treated to a beautiful sunrise over Lake Michigan, a nice benefit of getting up uber early. The boat left at 6 am and all we had to do was sit back and relax as the boat effortlessly glided over the water at 40 mph. It was amazing that a boat so big could go so fast with such ease--a feat of modern engineering I tell you. 2 1/2 hours later we arrived in Muskegon, Michigan thus entering into Eastern Standard Time, our last time losing an hour.

This parlays into yet another story about the kindnesses of strangers: With bikes trips one can never plan too far in advance because there are so many unknowns. So, we didn't try to make reservations for the ferry until the day before when we were positive of when we'd arrive. Well, the only ferry available was the 6 am (meaning arrive at the ferry dock at 5:15). This means, since it leaves from Milwaukee-a large city, we have to stay in a hotel close to the ferry the night before. So here we are, in Milwaukee, trying find an affordable, close hotel, and we are having NO luck. Then, a couple of people who had been suggesting hotels in the area just offered that we stay at their house just a few blocks from the ferry!!! How great is that?

The reason we are taking the ferry across the lake instead of going all the way around the south side of Lake Michigan is that we decided it would be way cooler to spend some time with Liz's family, Kelly's family, and get to know Wisconsin in a bit more intimate way. We were able to ride down to Iowa to visit Ross (Kelly's brother), pickup Mike (Liz's uncle) for a five day ride, then visit Edie and family (Kelly's cousins) in Madison, and finally visit Grandma and Grandpa White in White Water, WI. What a good idea it was. For sure.

Here is a quick recap of the past two (!!!) months of riding:

On May 14th we dipped our rear wheels in the Pacific Ocean, just outside of Anacortes, WA. We then pedaled all the way along the highline of our glorious country until we hit the North Shore of Lake Superior--that was when we last blogged. From there the bikes headed down to the Twin Cities where we scattered a bit to spend time with family and friends. We then entered a bit of a bike hiatus. For six days we didn't touch, ride, look at, or admire our beautiful light green bicycles. Nope, we just left them there in garages to collect dust. On the 31st of June, Mark, Kelly and Elizabeth headed down to Chicago, thanks to Mark's mom's car, for the wedding of Carl Holquist and Liz Ball (!), both Oles from the same class. It was a blast and a great break from the vacation. Lord knows everyone needs vacations from vacations. While those three were having a wonderful time in Chicago, Caleb was enjoying himself with his family is Owatonna, Brownsdale, and Fairbault, Minnesota. When it was all done, Caleb, Elizabeth, and Kelly mounted our trusty steeds and met up together to tackle the second half of the trip. We sadly said good-bye to Mark, as he departed us for some different adventures.

This past week we rode to Iowa City to visit Kelly's brother, Ross, and boy was it great. We got to go sailing, enjoy Indian food, see a horrible movie by Adam Sandler, and meet Roggie (Kelly and Ross's third cousin) and his lovely new wife Annie and their amazingly cute (but very blind(but still good at playing fetch)) dog Cora. After our Iowa City adventures we biked 75 miles northeast to Maquoketa Caves State Park where Ross joined us for the evening. There we had all sorts of fun exploring a number of their caves. And, the trail linking all of these caves was absolutely gorgeous. Take for instance the picture of one of the largest natural bridges in all of the Midwest. Who knew that such a jewel existed in Iowa?

When Ross had had enough of us and decided we needed to move on, we met up with Mike Mayo, Liz's number-one uncle. The guy put up with our countless antics and gladly rode along for five days -- crossing the entire state of Wisconsin. He is definitely on our "good guy" list and will hopefully remain there for quite some time. He bought us pizza and beer, played cards with us, and cracked a few jokes.

While crossing Wisconsin we stopped in to Visit Edie Oberly (Kelly's awesome cousin) at her cabin and then met the rest of the family in Madison. In Madison Kelly got to meet his namesake, Kelly Clifton. And Caleb and Elizabeth got to listen to even more talk of how Montana is the center of the universe. Turns out that "God begat Montana, and Montana begat everything that is and has ever known to be 'dank.'" "Dank" is Kelly jargon for good. (?) Yup.

On the way to Whitewater, we stopped by the Trek Headquaters, where our bikes came from. They (the bikes) were happy to visit their family too! We especially enjoyed the "Lance Wall," a wall (obviously) with 7 stations comemorating each of Lance Armstrong's Tour de France victories. Each station had about 10 photos, his yellow leader jersey signed, and a bike he use in that year's tour. The photo above is of the seventh station for his win at last year's tour. Is that not a sexy bike? In Whitewater, Grandpa White treated us to a dinner in the country club- showing us off and sharing stories of his own adventures. The visit was way too short, but very good to see Grandma, Grandpa, and Patty (Elizabeth's aunt and Mike's wife).

Hopefully this clarifies what we have been up to for the past few weeks.

Caleb, Kelly, and Elizabeth