Madison to Cincinnati photographia

Indiana Scenery

The dudes in their RideForDIPG digs. Aaron, Rob, Tom, and Joe.


Ok I will not jam in quarters?

We found a bike trail near Lawerenceburg (I thnk that was the town) near the Indiana/Ohio border. It got us about 3 or 4 miles through the worst of town and off the terrible Highway 50.

It did kind of look like a cattle shoot at times though...

'Sup Ohio River

I am a sexy man.

Ohio!

Aaron is very dedicated in his photo taking.

Morgan joined us to ride into Cincinatti! 

Look, Morgan!

Left to right, Rob, Tom, Aaron, Joe (I think, I can't see the two in the back on my phone screen).

They got a sweet van.

It gave us a sweet escort.


Cincinatti! with our cyclist escort.

Rob gave everyone on the Ped bridge a high-five.

Madison, IN to Cincinnati, OH

Wow, bike touring is magical, and I'm certainly with a magical group.  So much has happened since yesterday morning. Currently I'm sitting in next to a pool on a rest day in Cincinnati, trying to figure out how to concisely write all the things that we did yesterday.  A HUGE party was thrown in our honor, with a great band, free beer, free food, and town tours  But first...

First, the numbers: Yesterday we road 82.45 miles to Cincinnati, OH and Newport, KY (same town on different sides of the Ohio River).  We did 6 hours on bike, and rode from about 8am to 5:30 pm.

Normally I'd never ride into a town like Cincinnati on a bike tour because I'd have no place to stay, and the riding tends to suck when you get near big cities. However, this is a charity ride for The Cure Starts Now (RideForDIPG.com) and there is huge The Cure Starts Now chapter in Cincinnati that we were visiting.

The plan was to ride with Rob, Tom, Morgan, Aaron, and Joe on two fairly busy roads (no other options, screw you big cities), passing through towns like Versailles (pronounced Ver-Sails locally), and then meet Morgan about 15 miles out to ride in with him.  If you remember, Morgan has an achilles injury so he's not loaded, but rather driving along and doing smaller rides.  After some riding on some fairly busy and at times terrible roads (Highway 50 sucks) we waited for Morgan for an hour in a nice park, and then rode in with him, meeting a local cyclist about 10 miles out who rode us in to town on better roads.  Cincinnati is still a tough town to bike in though, because I've seen very very little biking infrastructure.

We arrived at a pub to a huge party being thrown in on honor to raise money for The Cure Starts Now.  It was a bit awkward for me since I've only been on the ride for 2 days vs their 60+ days, but I enjoyed the free drinks and food anyway and partied hard with the band (Two Steve's, super fun!) Rob taught me Merry and Pippins dance from the Fellowship of the Rings movie. Kick-ass! I'm bringing it back to the Eug!

After hours of that we were all whisked away in a huge van to a big house in the suburbs, where the party continued with more drinks and a great backyard pool. How the hell did I get here?

Today we awoke to a great breakfast, then visited the hospital and spoke with some of the head DIPG researchers (I got to get nerdy and talk microbiology), then went out to a great lunch and now we are back at the house.

Tomorrow we ride 50 miles to Joe's family's lake-ish cabin in the woods where we'll take two more rest days.  I sure joined at the right time!

These guys are a lot of fun.  Rob and Tom from Tasmania are hilarious, and we're already talking about riding across Australia in 2019, possibly to raise more money for DIPG research.  Joe, Aaron, and Morgan are great company as well, and I'm really lucky that they've all been so welcoming to me.  This is such a great time!  The Cure Starts Now people have all been awesome as well, and it's likely we'll be in touch with some of them into the long future.

Also, we just got three free tickets to a Red's game, so it's baseball tonight!  Adventure!!!

ILYQ

Just rode into Cincinnati for a The Cure Starts Now benefit! #ridefordipg #biketour #thecurestartsnow

French Lick to Madison, IN Photo Post!!

From left to right, Rob and Tom (form Tasmania) and Joe and Aaron (from Nebraska).

Rain Selfie outside the Mennonite Meat Shop

Our place to stay in the Baptist Church

Ditto

Madison is a historical river town on the Ohio River (I think). Anyway, sign.



Some Madison shots.

Rob drank a bucket of ice cream shake.  Morgan won't let them shave their beards

Bike Tour 2016, French Lick to Madison, IN

Well hello again followers! It's time to blog another trip.  As I wrote in the intro awhile ago, I've just finished 5 days of RAGBRAI (a late start because of Sirk and Ray's wedding, but I still was able to get in 294 miles, 5 shows, and $700 for the Team RoadShow by busking), and yesterday Iris and I drove 300 miles or so southern Indiana so I can join the Ride for DIPG crew (www.ridefordipg.org) put together by Morgan, who I rode halfway across country with in 2003 when he was 15.  We'll ride through Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia until we get the ocean and Virginia Beach on August 18th. From there I may keep riding alone, not sure.

Last night I joined Joe, Morgan, and Aaron (part of the original crew) and Montana additions from Tasmania Rob and Tom to ride to Virginia Beach.  They are all super fun people and it's very interesting to be riding with a large group of guys again.  It's much more like my 7-guy 2003 trip than my 1 guy, 3-girl 2007 trip and my solo 2014 and 2015 trips. Of course it's nothing like RAGBRAI.

Today we did 75.44 miles, leaving at 8 and arriving at 4pm, with 4:53 on bike time. Southern Indiana is hilly (looks a lot like Michigan), and very humid. We had an intense storm roll in during the morning part, and after awhile of riding in the rain (75 degrees though) we took a break at a Mennonite meat shop around mile 20. After the storm passed the rest of the riding was hilly but not to bad, and mostly dry.

Morgan has an injury so he's driving along with the crew to help raise money for DIPG.  He's got a bum achilles (it effed up in Colorado), so he's driving  to the end town and securing us a place to stay, then going out on unloaded training rides to heal up. Hopefully he'll be able to finish the ride fully loaded again.

The nice thing about this is that the we are getting churches to stay in almost every night, and that's posh camping. I don't have to roll into town and find a place to crash for free - which is fun - but also a pain in the ass. This makes this a weird mix between a supported and self-supported ride, but I like it. It's a nice change of bike touring pace for me.

Rob and Tom started in San Francisco, and when we finish in 18 days will have been on the road for 99 days and a bit over 5k miles. Morgan, Aaron, and Joe will have about 4,500 miles and maybe 70-80 days (I'm not sure).  I'll have about 20 days (25 if you count RAGBRAI) and some # of miles. Counting RAGBRAI I'm at mile 360-ish now. I'm not sure where I'll end up, but, I hope to get at least 1,000.

Anyways, the guys are a ton of fun and have great, fun attitudes.  We went out to eat tonight and then had ice cream and at really fun parlour where we cracked jokes with the owner and his son. Tonight we sleep out of the rain in Baptist church.

As Sirk and Ray would say #winning!

ILYQ

On the road again, joining the #ridefordipg crew in rainy Southern Indiana for a #biketour to Virginia Beach!

Last day of #ragbrai. #teamroadshow wins the #biketour by being last!