(2/6) and 1 park in town. I check out the park & see i an camp n the shed since its supposed to rain tonight and so i eat again. I then start making ny tent

(1/6) Then i rolled into wood lake (pop 75) and went into their cafe. It was 730 pm and the locals told me theres no town till valentine (still 25 mil away)

Wondering what my supper is tonight? It consisted of an ice cream sandwich, baked beans w/raisins &stuffing.

Had VERY late start, but nice cadence, flat ground, & low wind meant i go to Bassot NE. Locals said camp anywhere n fair.So i choose covered picinic table area

No worries about the ride now, I fixed the spoke. It should work till i get to Valentine.

Day 6

Well I am now current on my days...(I need to figure out how to get my mobile blogging to work). I went to the place the hotel ladies suggested for bike repairs; however, they have no bike spokes. They suggested an older, retired town cop who does bicycle repairs and lives here in town. I went to his apartment (located in a retirement community) and knocked, but no avail. He has hard hearing, or so someone told me, and so I knocked again. Nothing. Then I went to the 'office' and saw an older lady there in the main area. I explained who I was and who I was looking for. She informed me she has no clue where C.D. Hayes might be because she lives way on the otherside of the retirement center. She was not the office worker, that became quite apparent to me, and had no clue where the worker was, but hey there was going to be a potluck at noon! I thanked her and returned to C.D. Hayes' apartment and knocked harder and longer. Then I saw someone bustling around in the apartment across from his and figured she was going to talk to me. She asked if I was looking for C.D. Hayes, and I said yes, and she informed me that he is gone for today and won't be back until LATE tonight (who knows what 'late' is for this women). Laughing in my head I decide to head to the public library (I got directions earlier) and am here in the library now. It is 75 miles to the next big city (of about 3,000) and I have to decide what to do. I should of brought two extra spokes (I planned on doing it but forgot), but now I am dependent on this old man who repairs bikes, but who knows if he actually has spokes. If I continue to bike I would probably be fine but a friend of mine tells me if I broke another spoke I would need to immediately repair it. Also, if I continue to bike with it there's a chance of untruing the other spokes and/or messing up the tire frame completely. I do not want to be biking to another town and have another spoke break in the country. That would require me to be dependent on cars to hitch a ride to the next town. For now I am going to stay in O'Neil and wait for this old man to return. However, I am going to be calling around to the next big town to see if they have a bike mechanic. Cheers!

Day 5

After Neligh I was on a high, despite the little sleep, I was excited for the flat highway and easy (or so I thought) ride. People told me it is mostly flat from here on out (they were wrong). I again didn't know how long I would go, but after 2 miles of a head wind of 16 mph (sometimes more) I decided 18 miles soudned just fine. I stopped in a small town 8 miles in and ate some pizza and heard local town gossip. I also think I saw Kate Bierman's brother in that town at that gas station. The next town had a motel and I thought I might stop there that night so I could watch the season finale of GLEE. I decided, though, if I was going to treat myself to a hotel than I needed to have a harder day and knew I had to make it to O'Neil. Well I made it a hard day by doing that. It was only about 38 miles but it was basically a CONSTANT uphill with a never forgiving headwind. I stopped often and then 17 miles out of O'Neil I saw I had a broken spoke (you probably know this, but the spoke is the thing that holds the heel together, essentially). I duck taped it to another one and decided I had to get to O'Neil and hopefully they had a bike mechanic or someone to help me. I got to O'Neil, and was very tired, and booked a room at a nice, but small, motel. Watched the season finale of Glee, it was pretty good I thought, and got a nice 10 hours of sleep! :)

(After Madison) Day 4

I never really know or plan how far I am going to go (at least not until I am officially on my topographic map which starts at Oneil) so I just set a goal and try to get there. After Madison I thought Maybe i would stop at Norfolk (about 14 miles) and stay the night there, but after a quick one hour I was already at Norfolk. I ate at Village Inn and had a quite large hamburger. The ladies who worked there told me that the hwy was pretty flat. So I then called my friend Kate Bierman (whose family resides in Battle Creek) and asked if I could spend the night at her house (there was a storm expected that night). However, I had an EAST wind (aka a tail wind) and I was flying down this flat highway. I decided to keep going and did about 52 miles that day ending up in Neligh, NE. This is a cute town consisting of about 1,200 people and the grocery store was open till 9 p.m.! I stayed the night in the park (we had a flash flood watch going into effect that night) and met the RVers next to me. They were just out and about looking up their ancestry and going home the next day. I had inquirted about the drive-in movie theatre in town and decided I would go see Shrek 3 (the newest one) that night. I bicycled on over and made the money taker laugh because I drove up in a bike. I watched the movie (it wasn't the best but was cute) and then saw it was lightining so I quickly got back to my campground. I had about 4 hrs of sleep that night because it stormed (at 2 am I decided to go to the bathroom and watch the storm since I wasn't able to sleep). I didn't get flooded and my tent held up...overall, long night but successful day!

Day 3

Here is my post from day 3:
I stopped today in Madison which is about 27 miles north of Columbus. I decided to stop here bc theres nothing between here and Norfolk and since its Sunday I didn't want to risk anything. Im staying at their RV campground right next to a road which is where many people stare at me. I just look back at them. Also here in town I saw a larger cop trying to catch a run away chicken, which was pretty amusing. Head wind was still here today, but I never expect it to go away since I am basically going west constantly. The heat up here is better because there is not so much humidity. It looks like its going to rain tonight, but hopefully it doesn't storm. The RV'ers and I just cchatted it up and if the weather is too extreme I can knock on their door. Cheers.

Day 2

So I ahd been sending updates to my blog (with a picture) from my phone, but it is now obvious that I can not figure out how to successfully do this. So here is the first message I sent on my second day (I can't retrif the mssage I sent the first day for some reason).

So I made it to Columbus today but really by accident. The first 14 miles took me almost 3 hrs bc I went on a bicycle path that was SUPER muddy and branches were all over the trail. Also I learned that people like to honk @ me for some reason, and locals don’t really know how far the exact distance to the next town is. For example, from one town to Columbus was supposedly 17 miles but it was actually closer to 25 and there was a head wind the entire time. Did you know that Nebraska has strong winds? Because I didn’t know I would get into Columbus so late I decided to rent a hotel room because I had no energy to find a campground or set up camp. At one town the gas attendants were super caring (though a bit weird) and tried to give me, yes give, a cooler, peanuts or anything else I wanted though I politely declined. 7 miles out of Coulmbus I went to a gas station/steak and that was very awk as I was just in my bicycle shorts & shirt…I got many looks. Well I am unsure where im going tomorrow so ttyl.

3 Days and 3 Magazines read.

Well I have 3 days left till departure and I have decided (Thanks to my dad's savy road knowledge) to alter my route. Now instead of stopping at my dad's house, in York, I am going up to Valperso and then taking a short bicycle trail to a different town. This route will save me an extra 10 miles or so. Additionally, I was at Barnes and Noble today and read three different bicycle magazines, which all gave some good advice. I should eat bananas and raisins, said one bicyclists, often. Also, the authors gave some great advice for the gear I need to bring. I decided after much thought that I will not bring my computer or get internet access through some new devices most cellphone carriers have. I thought about bringing my computer so I could update this blog and do some other important items for school, but have decided against it. All of this means, I will not update this blog as much as I had hoped, but I will save 4 pounds from not carrying things such as my computer. I have decided tomorrow morning I am going to try and route my way out of Lincoln (As getting out of the city is often the hardest part for me) and then take my bike in for a final tune up. It looks like I will have good weather for Friday and Saturday which is exciting!

A constant and relevant worry: Water

I have been biking quite often now; however, yesterday was one day that was unlike the past. I bicycled about 14 miles and then ran out of water in my Camelbak (It holds about 2 liters). Luckily, at that point I had bicycled into Eagle, NE and bought some water from Casey's; however, this was not enough. That day I bicycled a total of 35 miles and used the MOPACs water fountains quite extensively and I have a new worry (Though many have warned and asked me about this). This worry is that I need to really plan out my water supply. I have my Camelbak and two 20 oz. water bottles, but I think that will only last me about 20 miles or so, which then means I will have to stop more often than thought. Moral of this story: Jacob will be watching his water supply constantly!

6 Days till departure!

The semester is over!

Well I just slept 13 hours and you know what that means? It means I am officially done with my first senior year of college (Yep one more year left). It was probably one of my most intense semester in college due to the upper-level Political Science courses I was taking.

I should be in perfect shape for this bicycle trip, right? The answer is no I am not. The last three weeks I have not been able to put any significant amount of miles on my bike (only commuter miles were put on probably averaging 6 miles ad day). The next few weeks, however, I plan on bicycling a significant amount of miles everyday. Obviously, that won't prepare me as much as I need, but then I will train while on my trip. You may think this is crazy, but think of this football analogy (though I despise football). Before you start playing football you lift weights, and run, but nothing quite prepares you for the two-a-days or the actual game. Thus, when you finally start playing the 'game' (or for me my tour) you start to get into more shape.

At least, I have read that is what you can do with bicycling on a longer tour. I am also trying to figure out my situation on coming home because if I do not make it to Portland, which is a possibility, I have to figure out how to make it back to NE by July 30 for a friend of mine's wedding. Plan A for that situation, right now, is to rent a car and drive back. I will investigate this more later.

Will be without his bike until Wedm but then will have a new bike fork w/no shock! Basically i will get more power transferred to my bike w/no shock :).

Map of 2nd leg of journey

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You have questions and I have answers

Perhaps it is now a good time to answer some questions that people have been asking me.

Are you really bicycling ALL the way to Oregon?
Yes.

Who is going with you on your bicycling trip?
Nobody.

WHAT? No one is going with you? Why not? Isn't that dangerous?

No one is going with me because: (1) does anyone have a month and a half of nothing to do that would allow them to go on the trip, (2) has anyone saved up enough money to go on this trip, (3) does anyone love the bicycle enough to go on this approximate 1,700 mile trip with me? I do not think it is that dangerous because I will literally be in a town every night and will always have a charged cellphone on me.

How long is this trip going to last and how many miles are you going to do a day?
I am planning on this trip taking me approximately a month and a half (From June 4th to about July 20th) and will bicycle anywhere from 35 to 50 miles a day.

How are you going to get back to NE?
I am going to take a train.

Man, you are crazy!
Thanks, I guess.

So I just bought two necessary items: a nice helmet and a small bag for my wallet/other stuff that fastens under my seat. Two steps closer to my tour!!!

Map of 1st leg of journey

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First short tour

I decided to take a bicycling class this semester through the Outdoor Education Department at UNL and am quite happy I did. It was only a one credit hour; however, I feel more confident after the class. Admittedly, I knew more than what I thought but I believe that is because I researched self-contained touring quite a bit. Still, I learned useful information and the instructors were great. The main instructor provided me with good information about touring to OR and what I would or would not need. Specifically, he showed me, though indirectly, that I had most everything I needed to go on my tour.

Part of the requirements for this class was to go on a, approximately, 46 mile round trip tour. I knew this would not be impossible for me because I often do 18 to 22 miles in a day about 2 to 3 times a week; however, I knew doing it back-to-back days would be difficult and I was right. Things I learned during this trip were: (i) I think I will like touring alone and not worrying about other people's gear (ii) I am glad I choose a bicycle trailer instead of panniers because panniers I find are annoying and hard to get on and off the rack, (iii) I want to avoid gravel and city riding as much as possible and (iii) waking up in the morning will be hard and then getting back on the saddle will be even harder!!!

I also learned, though, that waking up to a woodpecker can be enjoyable, seeing the sun set and sunrise without any obstructions is great and eating home cooked food, from a fire, after a long bicycle ride is a great sensation! Our tour and class was unfortunately short but very informative. Also, I think most of all the main instructor's positiveness and encouragement to bicycle more (and specifically to do the tour to OR) gave me more courage and confidence with regard to bicycling.

The next two months goes as follows:
Now till May 1:
Work on school (getting very little sleep)
Try to continue to bicycle around 50 miles a week
Work out at the rec. center when possible
Write Man Papers
Buy more bicycling gear

May 1 to May 7:
Start of 3-month vacation from Raising Canes (I am extremely grateful they will allow me to do this! Additionally, the owner and managers always seem genuinely interested in my endeavor)
Work really hard to finish the semester strong!

May 7 to June 1:
Put in tons of hours in my independent research so I can drain my funds in that account
Enroll in a summer course and buy gear
Bicycle around 25 miles a day except on weekends

June 1:
Move into new apartment

June 2,3,4..?
One of these days I will have a leaving party...I am thinking about having a bottle of champagne to break on my bike similar to someone breaking a bottle on a ship for its virgin sail. The breaking of the bottle to signify my virgin self contained tour. Also, I kind of want to leave on a significant date, whether it be historical or personal but can not think of one...will ponder on this more.

Re-emerging Dream?

Well I stopped blogging after the phone call. The phone call confirmed what I really did not want to happen, which was I would not be able to make the trip to Portland on my bicycle. Then, I thought, I would just take my 1966 Volkswagen Beetle to Portland and find a job there. However, my brakes needed work and my mechanic was having trouble with them. Eventually, I decided I needed to end my idea of going to Portland and start looking for a job. I didn't have a lease or any job leads so I decided to see if I could work at the camp I worked at in 2006. Luckily, my old boss took me on and it was a blast working there! Today, 7/30/2009, I just received news that I can go on a cross country bicycle tour. :) I am extremely excited and am already rethinking me trip. I now know what I need to prepare, how much money I should have saved and other important details. I am unsure when I will do a long bicycle tour but I am very helpful now! Until a later date.