St. Catharines and Niagara Falls

Posted by: Arin

There's not too much to say about St. Catharines other than my friend Donnie is a great host. We showed up sopping wet at his doorstep to an amazing dinner he made for us (Indian lentil curry with rice an naan). I hadn't seen him for a while so it was great to hang out and talk.

The next morning he made us pancakes and we ended up hanging out until around 3pm. I already miss him. We knew we didn't have too much of a ride ahead of us and in 15-20 miles we had made it to Niagara Falls! The falls were amazing, the town around them not so much.

After waiting in line for customs, we had a quick chat with the officer and were off through more rain to Buffalo.

Toronto

Posted by: Arin

One thing that made Toronto was having amazing hosts. My aunt and uncle were incredible to us, from feeding us amazing food to giving us hot tips on where to go and check out. Too many things happened while we were there, so I'll just post some photos and caption them underneath.

Most of our time was spent skating around the city. Skateboards are really an amazing way of transportation in an urban environment, and provide a fun thing to do any chance you can spot a nice curb or a cool spot. Even Spiderman likes to longboard!

Toronto was one of the few times we got to strip all the stuff off of our bikes and cruise around. On this day, we rode all the way out to the beach, then north to a skatepark a little out of town. 

This was the only show we went to on the whole trip. It was a punk show that my cousin told us about. Some pretty cool bands played and we were able to walk there from my aunt and uncle's place. While out getting some water, we saw a car on fire!

Here's a crazy one. My uncle runs this school out of a rec center. The whole school is based on skateboarding and is amazing, but that's not the point here. Every year, the rec center fills the pool with fresh water and a bunch of fish and lets inner city kids come in and try fishing. It's kind of bizarre but they filet the fish for the kids and let them take food home to their family. Kind of a cool idea, albeit a little cruel to the fish. I'm sure it's not much worse than the farm they came from though.

My aunt and uncle recently got a little cottage on an island, and having a chance to go out there was definitely a highlight. We got to swim, kayak, canoe, and drink beers all day! What more could you ask for?

We had a blast spending a whole week in Toronto, and I can't wait for my next time back. Here's a few more pics from the week.

We did it!

Posted by: Arin

If you've been following the Instagram, you'll have already seen that we made it into NYC yesterday afternoon.

This has been the trip of a lifetime and I want to thank each and every one of you for doing anything to support us, even if it's just looking at our pictures. I know this last month I've been lagging on writing anything but stay posted and you'll be in for some more content. 

I've decided that you guys have heard enough full reports, so this blog will become an outlet for smaller stories, as well as pictures and maybe other creative outlets I want to use. Thank you guys again! Now go out and do something amazing for yourself.

London

Posted by: Arin

London was interesting because of the group of people we get ourselves involved with, specifically park dwellers. 

With darkness coming in and mosquitos galore, we decided to turn to warm showers for a second time. Unfortunately, the only guy who even answered his phone was in Iceland so that plan was out the window. Fortunately we met a guy on a bike in the park. He was a super high energy, 22-year-old dude who was super down to let us crash at his place. We hung out in the park with him and some of his friends before adjourning back to his place and (at his insistence) watching Man of Steel. 

The next day we decided to stay and check out London because it was raining. We ended up back at the park numerous times. Our host had a bunch of friends always hanging out there and he only lived two blocks away so that made a lot of sense. One of the guys we met there was gnarly! He's a big hitchhiker and has traveled that way all the way across Canada, as well as walked all the way to Toronto. It's always cool meeting fellow travelers, and it's funny hearing a guy like that say he couldn't do what we do. I don't know if I could do what he does...

Days 58-59: Ann Arbor to Fenton to Sombra (Canada!)

Posted by: Arin

After getting ready in the morning, we headed to a little hole in the wall diner with one of the people from the house. It was rad, they had this thing called hippy hash that was full of feta cheese, vegetables, and tempeh. It was ideal for a vegetarian like me.

Our initial plan was to head into Detroit and take the bridge over to Canada into Windsor, but after we did some research we found that there is no way into Canada on a bike from Detroit. You can't ride over the bridge, you can't take the bus with your bike, and you can't take the ferry over either. We decided to head north to Flint and then east to Port Huron. We knew the blue water bridge was there and we wouldn't be able to ride over it, but we saw that the blue water ferry does take bikes. 

Starting to ride north was not great. The road that we thought we could take north turned out to be a major highway with no bikes allowed, so we improvised a route on the fly using our phone maps. It was hilly! Up and down and up and down. Some of the hills were close to a 20% grade, I even used my smallest 34/36 gear. After a while we pulled into a town called Fenton to get some groceries and eat dinner. We ended up making some sandwiches outside the grocery store and headed up the road. 

I spotted a credit union and decided to get some cash out. It was starting to get dark and there was a church across the street that had a good place to camp out back. We still had a little bit of time so we headed back to an ice cream place we had seen a little earlier to get some ice cream and play mini golf. I got two hole in ones and got two free mini golf passes out of it! We would have preferred a refund, but it was nice to give them away to some random people. 

*side story* I left my ATM card in the ATM and was left moneyless aside from the cash I had gotten out! The bank opened at 9am so I was determined to go in and try to get it back the next day.

The next morning we went into the bank. I explained what had happened and the situation and they showed me my card. The only thing was that they couldn't give it to me until they talked to my bank, which didn't open for another 2.5 hours. I should have saved those mini golf passes... We ended up wasting some time at a little restaurant drinking water and coffee and went back to the bank at noon. I got my card back! How crazy is that? I was stoked.

After we left the bank, I decided to look exactly where the ferry was so we could plan the best route. It turns out the blue water ferry isn't next to the blue water bridge. You know what? It was in Marine City, which is actually closer to Ann Arbor than it is to Fenton. We had spent an entire day and a half getting further away from where we needed to be. We then proceeded to ride 80-85 miles between 1 and 7pm, making it all the way to Marine City.

The ferry was easy to find and we ended up only paying one dollar for both of us to get over because the guy gave us too much change (nice). We were finally in Canada!

We didn't really know what to do or where to go once we got into the country, so we started heading north. After maybe 3-4 miles we came upon a campsite. We were tired and willing to pay a reasonable amount of money to camp there for the night. The only thing was, the campsite cost an unreasonable amount of money. It was 30+ dollars for two people on bikes. As we were leaving we started talking to some people camping there in rv's. They were super nice and let us camp on their site for the night! After we made some dinner we passed out hard.

Days 55-57: Edwardsburg to Ann Arbor

Posted by: Arin

Waking up in the graveyard, we were both covered in mosquito bites. That day off had been good to us, but the bugs hadn't been so much. We could tell right off the bat that the sun wasn't burning down as hard as it had been the day prior. In fact, rain was in the forecast.

We hadn't left our spot the whole day before, and being in the middle of farmland we were running pretty low on food. Maybe 12-15 miles in we spotted a sign for a little lakeside community that had a diner called George's Cafe. We stopped in for some breakfast and delicious cinnamon rolls. A few miles after getting back on the road, we ran into a couple other guys on a tour from Cleveland to Lake Michigan. They had big backpacks on and we stopped to chat for a while. I think their names were Eric and Kennedy. All the while the weather crept in from behind us. Those guys were heading right into the storm. We parted ways and soon after started feeling some rain.

You know you've been touring for a while when you would rather be in the rain than the sun. However, the rain we had was sporadic and the sun kept poking out. There wasn't even a point to wearing sunscreen and I could feel my skin heating up every time the sun came out. Our main stop for the day was in Sturges, the location of the biggest Harley meetup in the country. It was funny that there was a huge bike lane through the town. By the time we got out of there, the shoulder was back to a foot wide.

As it started to get darker, the rain had let up but we still didn't want to camp where we might get rained on. We stopped at a park in Quincy to sleep under a picnic awning. It was wide out in the open but there was nothing else around and some ladies at a donut shop earlier had told us we could probably sleep there. 

What followed was my most miserable night of the trip. We didn't want to set up the tent to not arise suspicion, but there were Mosquitos galore. I tried to sleep under a tarp to protect myself but it was so hot that I was sweating like crazy. I couldn't stay under there so I kept opening it up and closing it so that I could get some air. That way I got the best of both worlds but also the worst. I woke up sweaty with mosquito bites and only maybe four hours of sleep.

We got out of there early, more for my mental health than anything else. The rain had cleared up and we were able to get some good miles in. Our goal was Ann Arbor and we were on track for it until we decided to go swim in a lake. We stopped to get a six pack and took a little detour into Walter Hayes state park. The lake was nice and we swam and chilled for a while before heading out. 

It was starting to get dark but spirits were high. We were still going to make it to Ann Arbor. 

We didn't, but it was ok. We stopped in Saline and made camp in the corner of a park by some baseball fields. We got woken up by guys rolling up to the area with lawn mowers who didn't really care we were there. We got packed up and headed to a little cafe to get pastries and coffee. It was supposed to rain but it looked like things were going to be chill. The cafe was nice and had a cool basement.

It started to drizzle as we left the cafe, and that drizzle soon turned into real rain. Fortunately we were less than ten miles from Ann Arbor. Once we got into town we went straight for a laundromat. Almost all of our clothes were dirty by then. It continued to pour outside, but we were warm and dry in the building.

While we were there I looked up the closest REI. It was three miles back, we had even passed it on the way into town. It was ok though, we rode over there and I was finally able to replace my faulty solar panel. It was still raining pretty hard so we did something we hadn't done for the whole trip: we used warm showers. After skimming through several possible hosts, we decided to call one of them. Someone named Blair answered and he said it was cool if we came over, so we rode across town to the house he lives in.

We didn't expect this, but the house ended up being a sober, vegan, activist, anarcho-punk house (that's the best way I can put it). They were planning a protest against the MRA (men's rights activists) meeting that was going to happen in Detroit soon. I could totally get behind that. We ended up hanging out with them the whole day, going to a thrift store, getting vegetarian Mexican food, and even dumpster diving at a few grocery stores before retiring to bed. It was funny that using warm showers actually yielded us one of the grimier places we've slept, but it was a fun day.

Days 53-54: Michigan City to Edwardsburg

Posted by: Arin

For some reason my posts were showing up out of order and in an attempt to reorganize I deleted this post. Here's the gist of it:

We rode through a lot of country, and couldn't find anywhere to sleep. I spotted a graveyard on the map and after investigating we found the perfect hidden alcove down a hill from the graves. We found out the solar panel had stopped working so we had no electronics.

The next day the sun was intense and the humidity forced a sweat with even the slightest movement. We decided to take the day off and relax in the graveyard. Aside from each other, there was no human interaction all day. The day was spent drawing, playing hackey sack, and napping.

Days 51-52: Brookfield to Michigan City

Posted by: Arin

More journal, more exquisite corpses.

Days 48-50: Brookfield and Chicago

So my phone died for a day before I got to write these posts. Here they are in my journal, plus some exquisite corpse drawings Brad and I have been doing.

Day 47: Naperville to Brookfield

Posted by: Arin

We woke up at 6:30 in the morning after only four and a half hours of sleep. There were people going into the building so we got out of there quick and no one noticed us. We didn't really have anything to make for breakfast so we did a quick search to see what was around. Our only options close by were McDonald's and Cracker Barrel, and since I had never been to a Cracker Barrel we chose the latter. Apparently it's like a country style Denny's with a gift shop. We had some breakfast there, charged our phones, and then I called my second cousin Nancy who I knew lived near Chicago. She and her family were going out of town for the day, but she said we could go sleep at her house anyways. Awesome!

We continued our ride down the Prarie Path, going through several towns and almost getting lost a couple times. That path has so many little side paths. We took one stop to help a lady who was running with her bike. She had a flat tire and no tools and was going to run all the way home with her daughter who was on a bike, but we decided to patch it for her so she could ride the rest of the way. We couldn'tu take the wheel off because it was bolt on, but we were able to find the hole and patch it anyways. She was a nice lady, I think her name was Janet. 

We rode on and made it to Nancy's house, where the first order of business was to take showers (as it always is when we get to stay with someone). We were dying of hunger and decided to skate to a Mexican restaurant nearby. Everything on street was closed though because of Memorial Day. We had to skate another mile or so to downtown La Grange, where we got some awesome empanadas. 

On the way back to the house, we noticed an awesome mini ramp thing in a park that was under construction. A part of the fence was only connected by a small amount of wire so we opened it up and went in. The mini ramp was crazy. It had almost no platform on the top and the bottom was unfinished concrete so it was razor sharp. We skated it anyways.

We skated back to Nancy's and played guitar for a while before going to bed... In an actual bed! Illinois isn't all bad.

Day 46: Lee County to Naperville

Posted by: Arin

I woke up having to pee so bad, so I got out of the tent in my underwear and a t shirt. I walked a couple of steps and was about to pee when I looked over my shoulder and saw a cop sitting there parked in the rest stop. I decided to get back in the tent, put on more clothes, and peed behind a tree. The cop never came out and talked to us, but was in and out of the spot all morning. He must have heard about us from the day before. I was actually kind of happy to have him there because it made sure that no one else would mess with us in our exposed campsite.

We got back on the road a little before 11 with 46 miles ahead of us to Aurora. We were kind of pumped to go there because that's the setting of Wayne's World. Road conditions were pretty terrible, but for some reason I was in a great mood all day. With only two stops (one for snacks and one for ice cream), we made it to Aurora by 2pm. We would have plenty of time to find a good place to sleep.

First order of business was to go get a pizza, which we ate in a sketchy park before riding across town to the local skatepark. It was in the middle of Phillips Park, a huge park with a zoo and a water park in it, so it took us a little whole to find the skatepark. We pulled up, started skating, and talked to some of the locals. One dude was stoked and said we could come with him to camp in his friend's backyard (something they're doing for Memorial Day weekend). His phone was dead so he couldn't call to make sure it was ok, but he assured us it was going to be fine. We stayed there at the skatepark with him until it started getting dark, then he led us in his car to where he lives.

We got there and hung out in the garage for a while. We couldn't go into the house because it's owned by his girlfriend's parents and apparently they're weird about strangers. While we waited for his phone to charge, he brought in some bread, turkey, fruit, and carrots so we got to eat a little bit. Finally he called his friend and you know what? It totally wasn't ok for us to come over. In his friend's words: "Charles Manson probably rode bikes, I don't know these guys." 

Why does everyone we've met in Illinois suck?

At least this one guy was trying to help us, but he ended up totally screwing us over. It was past 10pm and we had nowhere to sleep. He also told us that cops would probably mess with us anywhere we tried to sleep in the area. He had to leave to go to his friend's house, so we left too. All of our water containers were empty, so we headed to the gas station down the road to get some snacks and fill our water. While we were there, our friend stopped by to get some gas and beer before leaving us sitting in front of the station.

We sat outside eating our snacks and trying to figure out what we were going to do. We were either going to start riding the bike path towards Chicago or try to camp somewhere close by. As we sat there thinking, a man coming out of the convenience store stopped to tell us the lady in the store was calling the cops on us and that we should get out of there. Apparently everyone here hates cyclists. We just went for the Fox river trail, right across the street. It connected to the Illinois Prarie Path, a carless bike path leading almost all the way to Chicago. It was almost midnight at this point.

We rode into the night at a slow pace, not finding anywhere to sleep. This path had no cars, but led past lots of people's back yards. At this point we were afraid of everyone calling the cops on us, so we just kept riding.

Around 1:30am the path went out onto a big road. A small wall on the side dropped off quite a bit on the other side and had some decent tree coverage, so we decided to sleep there. It was on the side of a cable and internet provider company. We figured that no one would be working the next day, but we still slept away from any windows, tucked up against the wall next to the sidewalk.

Day 45: Clinton into Illinois farmland

Posted by: Arin

Because our spot was a little sketchy, we woke up and got packed up early (for our standards at least). We were really feeling like drinking some coffee so we headed to a cafe about a half mile away. While we were there, we were able to charge our phones too. We actually hung out for a while to make sure they were fully charged.

The bridge over the Mississippi River was right down the street, and it was awesome to ride over. The river is so huge you can almost feel its power. This was only a small section:

Once we were over the bridge we had officially made it to Illinois. We didn't really know what to expect and only made it a few miles in before Brad got a flat. It turned out to be a manufacturer's error on the tube that Brad bought from the shop where I bought my faulty patches. I guess that's what we get for going to a Trek store. We popped in a new tube and were on our way.

We rode at a decent pace for another 15 miles or so before we got hungry, so we took a little break under an overpass to make some peanut butter, raisin, and apple wraps. Highway 30 actually ended for a short period of time so we were stopped on the side of the interstate. After we got rolling agin was when we really started hauling ass. Soon into it we were able to get back on the 30. Now let me tell you something about highway 30 in Illinois - the shoulder is a foot and a half wide, so it's pretty sketchy. Luckily there wasn't much traffic and the cars gave us room. After a while we noticed we hadn't passed a town in a while and our water supply was diminishing. Soon though, we came upon a little diner on the side of the road.

We set our bikes outside the window and went in. The hostess told us there wasn't a town for over 20 miles and we had already ridden 50ish, plus it was already 5:30pm so we decided to eat dinner there. I had been craving breakfast food so I got an omelette with hash browns and toast, followed by some peach pie with ice cream. It was amazing, and I'm not just saying that because I haven't had hash browns in months. While we were there, we talked to a lot of people who were curious about what we were doing. They all knew each other so it was funny to be the lone outsiders. When we were done eating, our waitress said we were all paid for. We never did find out who paid, but if it's the people who got our business card, thank you! What an amazing act of generosity.

We set off optimistically from the restaurant hoping to find a good place to sleep soon. It was already 7:30. The miles kept ticking away as sun went lower and lower, with no sign of a good spot. The wind was strong too, straight in our faces slowing our pace to a crawl. Finally I was over it and told Brad I was going to ask the next house if we could sleep in the driveway.

One lone house came up maybe a quarter mile later. We rode into the driveway and knocked on the door. A man answered. "Hi," I said. "I know this is a random question, but is there any way you would let us camp in your driveway?" He replied "Fuck no, get the hell off my property. I'm going to have you arrested. Now that's a random answer."

Ok. We got the hell out of there. No wonder that guy has no neighbors. He was the first genuinely mean person we had met on the whole trip. We were still riding into the wind, and it was getting dark fast when a cop pulled us over. He asked us if we had headlights. I said we did, but we hadn't turned them on yet to save battery. It wasn't totally dark out yet. Luckily I had already put my lights on and the rear was blinking. He was ok with that, but said he still had to give us a warning. He took our ID cards. "You guys rode here from California? You riding across the country?" He got it spot on. Then he asked us if we had asked a guy if we could camp in his driveway. I guess the guy had called saying he was scared when we came up and thought we were looking into his windows so we could steal stuff. The cop know we weren't causing any trouble so he sent us off down the road, without an official warning but with info of a rest stop a couple miles down and permission to camp there. So here we are, cozy in our tent. 

Day 44: Cedar River to Clinton

Posted by: Arin

I knew we weren't in for good things as soon as we got up to the bridge we were sleeping near. It had no shoulder and not a very tall wall. We even had to wait a bit just to have enough room in the traffic to get over it. Once we got over the bridge it wasn't any better. There was literally no shoulder so we were forced to ride in the loose gravel on the side of the road. Any cyclist who has ridden on gravel will agree that it uses much more energy to go the same speed you would on the road. Our first 20 miles of the day were spent mostly off the side of the road, toiling.

We made it to a town and I was not feeling so great about riding. We pulled down a side road to the city park to take a break and eat. While we were there, we had a couple good interactions with people on bikes. One was a lady who had a big dog carrier with a seatbelt on the back of her bike for carrying around a little dog. She was riding to her job but stopped to chat for a while. The other person was an old man. He stopped at the park to drink water out of the spigot, and stuck around to talk with us a while. He actually talked our ears off. It was his 88th birthday, and he was just out riding his bike like he always does. A very funny old man, he had crazy energy and was convinced the only way he's ever going to get enough money from the government for Medicare is by robbing a bank and going to jail. That way he can have free housing, free food, and free clothing. He was also a World War II veteran. I was happy to have talked to him.

The first lady we talked to told us about an ice cream parlor in town so we had to go. We got there and it looked closed, but some drunk people from the bar next door told us that it's connected to the bar. One guy even bought our ice cream! We stood around for a while talking to old drunk people about what we were doing for a while. They were in disbelief. We told them we were going to try to make it to the Mississippi by the end of the day and they said we wouldn't make it. It was already 4pm and we had 50 more miles and bellies full of ice cream.

We made it there by 7. We were hauling ass on those touring bikes and the shoulder got huge. Our first order of business was to get supplies for dinner and fill our water. The second was to get to the Mississippi River bank. We got to a picnic table and cooked dinner on the side of the river before riding to a spot we deemed safe enough and setting up camp for the night.

Day 43: Toledo to Cedar River

Posted by: Arin

After a night of rain, we woke up dry and in good spirits. The ground had dried and the sky was clear. Since we hadn't set up our tent the night before, the morning went fairly smoothly. We still had plenty of water and went straight for the highway.

This was a day of ups and downs, literally. It felt like none of the road was flat. Other than a couple quick snack breaks we powered through the day and arrived in Cedar Rapids with a good 50 miles under our belts. For the second day in a row, the first grocery store we saw was a Fareway. After grabbing some food we made a stop at the laundromat.

Most of the laundry we've been doing has been at whomever's house we can find to stay at, but I do like stopping at laundromats. It's a nice chunk of time during the day where you just don't think about riding at all, plus I get a chance to catch up on writing this blog and eating some snacks. After a couple hours we were out of there and back on the road. We wanted to make the junction where Cedar River meets highway 30, another 8-10 miles down the road. We got there and found a perfect spot right by the river.

Despite my best efforts to cover up completely, I got eaten up by mosquitos. I had three or four really itchy bites. We cooked our dinner and got right in the tent to avoid more bug bites, and it was so nice out that we didn't even have to use the fly. 

Day 42: Nevada to Toledo

Posted by: Arin

After a long sleep, we ate breakfast and packed up our stuff. We really needed to get riding again. The last time we rode 50 or more miles was a week ago! Sure, we've been taking days off and stopping in cool places, but it was time to end the slump. 

...of course we started riding at noon. It was ok though, we were determined. With just one stop in the middle of the day to fill up our water bottles and get a snack, we made it 50 miles to Toledo. Knowing there weren't many towns for quite some time, we stopped at a Fareway grocery store in town to get some dinner. It was my first time at a Fareway and it's pretty weird. They have this thing where they bring your cart out to your car and load all your groceries for you. At least their prices are good. 

By the time we were done shopping, it was already 5-6. We had heard a few of the locals saying it was going to rain and it did look like it, so we were on the lookout for some shelter. First we had to go fill up all our water at a gas station (and buy a pint of whiskey). As we left the station, some guy asked us where we were going to sleep. When we said we were camping, he told us about a park up the road with a covered stage or something. Grateful for the info, we headed up the road and came to the park. There was the perfect spot! A covered picnic area with 3-4 foot high brick walls around it. We had cover from police and the sky! In preparation for the storm, we drank our little bottle of whiskey.

Around 8:00 it started to rain. By 9:00 it was pouring. The wind picked up too, sweeping sheets of water into our covered area and soaking the entire place.

There was lightning going on every five seconds too. We spent a bunch of time capturing lightning flashes on our iPhones. Keep in mind it was pitch dark out otherwise.

Huddled in the corner, we made our dinner. It was going to be a long night. Luckily the rain and wind eased up around 11:00 and there were two dry spots: on top of tables. Brad and I each got a tarp from the tent to use as a blanket (it wasn't too cold out) and set up our sleeping pads on the tables. We didn't want to get our sleeping bags wet. Somehow we were able to get a good night's sleep.

Days 38-41: Grand Junction to Ames to Nevada, but mostly just Ames

Posted by: Arin

We woke up at our little spot on the side of the road to the sound of trains. We've become strangely attached to the sound, as almost all of our sleeping spots end up being right next to train tracks. It feels familiar, almost safe now. While getting ready for the day we even spotted a couple tags by Collosus of Roads, one of the most famous train artists of all time. We've seen his stuff four times now on this trip, and we're still on the lookout for the elusive Bozo Texino.

Anyways, we were only about the 35 miles from Ames and the only wind was a mellow crosswind. That meant we were able to fly through the ride in about two hours. We arrived in Ames and went straight to the skatepark. As we were arriving, however, a man on a bike rolled up and started talking to us. One thing that everyone who sees us in Iowa talks to us about is RAGBRAI, an annual organized ride all the way across the state. This guys was no exception; he went on and on about it, telling us we should have planned our trip to coincide with the ride. Of course we couldn't have done that because we just heard about it a few days ago, but it does seem like a cool event. Everyone seems to know about it.

We went across the street to change out of our biking clothes so we could skate and rolled back over to the skatepark. One of the locals was super surprised when he saw us pull our skateboards out the bags they were in. We skated for a good few hours before getting too hungry to continue. By that time we had met quite a few of the local skaters, and they all ripped! 

We left to go get some Thai food (disappointing) and then donuts. The only donut shop we could find was a dunkin' donuts. I had never been to one before, so we decided to give it a try. That was a bad idea too. It was pretty much a fast food restaurant that happens to sell crappy donuts, and the guy working there didn't even like donuts. We then headed to the grocery store to get some food for the next day. 

It was already fully dark out by the time we were done, and we headed back towards the skatepark. Throughout the day we had kind of been probing for a place to stay, but all we had gotten was some info on a place to camp in the woods by the skatepark. However, when we got back to the skatepark one of the guys from earlier was there and offered for us to stay at his place. What a rad dude. He was going to a little get together and invited us so we hurried over to his house.

Ames is a huge college town with over 70,000 students, but the school year ended a week ago so almost no one was there. Josh (our host) ended up taking us over to some of his friends' place where they were doing typical college things like beer bongs and beer pong. We saw one dude take something like 15 beer bongs! After getting a little too drunk and staying up a little too late, we walked back to Josh's and passed out. Here's a little snippet of the night:

The next day we decided to stay in Ames a little longer to check it out, and where else could we start the day but the skatepark. Let me tell you though that the Ames skatepark is amazing. Josh drove us over there and we spent a good few hours skating all the stuff there. Of course we got hungry again, so josh took us over to one of his favorite Chinese food spots in town. The place was called Joy's Mongolian Grill and it was delicious, highlighted by unlimited rice (steamed and fried) and soup. We then went back to the park, where Brad and I were barely able to move but somehow Josh was ripping right away. We spent most of the day at the park, and even got to climb another tall tree! Here's a sweet picture of Josh boosting a clean ollie over a rail and Brad at the top of a tree:

That night we went to another party. I felt pretty out of place, with kids everywhere. The host was super drunk already when we got there, and he was pretty agro too. Brad and I mostly just hung out with a guy named Bryan from the skatepark out by the bonfire. He actually ended up driving us back to Josh's later.

The next day it was tough for us to get going. The four of us ended up going out to another Chinese food restaurant that also had unlimited rice and soup. I guess Ames in known for having good Chinese food. We went back to Josh's and took our time getting ready. After finally leaving around 2pm, we headed back to the grocery store to grab a couple more things and then to the skatepark to say bye to everyone. While we were there, some girl and her mom came up and started taking pictures. The girl was in a princess dress and it was really bizarre.

We didn't even leave Ames until after 4. We started riding, but neither of us felt too good. We rode past Nevada, the closest town, and three miles later we were already ready to camp. We even managed to find the perfect spot right alongside the river. Unfortunately I tweaked my back trying to lift my bike over the barrier at the top and was in pain for the rest of the night. We set up our camp and just chilled out before going to bed to the sound of trains (of course).

The next day I woke up and my back was still hurting. Because of that, and because our spot was so good, we decided to stay another day. That day was mostly spent lazing about and exploring the river around us. We saw some pretty neat stuff.

As the day neared its end, we realized we didn't have any food to make dinner so we stripped all the stuff off of our bikes, loaded it all in the tent, and rode back to Nevada where we had some prime Mexican food. It's crazy how we've been able to find such good Mexican food in the Midwest. I guess yelp really works. We filled all of our water up at a gas station and rode back to our camp. Luckily everything was still there! We would finally get some good riding in the next day, but after putting all the panniers and skateboards back on our bikes, it was time for sleep.