I updated the blog from the other day. The gentleman we meet was Pickle Bob and not Cucumber Bob. He was a local pickle farmer and loved to talk about how corn and pickles are harvested.

Sorry I didn't blog last night, I was at Cedar Point all day with several scouts on the rollercoasters. We had a great time!! We setup rides back and forth from camp to Cedar Point so the scouts had 3-4 times to go back and forth. Several scouts stayed all day.

Send more cookies!!! Mr. Shultz, Mr. Hegg (and daughter and friend), and the Herrera family joined us for the day at the park. Mr. Shultz brought Bannana Bread and Homemade cookies. Thanks Mary!!! The cookies are gone and the bannana bread will be gone this morning for breakfast.

The top three rides were Dragster, Millenium, and Maverick. Mean Streak was a great ride to combine your internal organs. It crews you up and spits you out like a bad piece of gum.

Several people throught the light show at the end of the day was lame, but all in all it was a great day off from riding. This morning we let the scouts sleep in again. They are now up packing. There really isn't much to do in Lakewood, so we wanted them to sleep in.

Some quotes about the last couple of days...

Alex Sparacio "Keep on rocking me baby!!"

Blake Heslop "Awesome!!"

Brian Alder "Top Five to everyone on the Top Thrill Dragster Line. Got two numbers."

The end of the day is always rewarding!!!

After a long ride... From left to right: Andrew Guevara, Mark Kennedy, Aaron Volk, Nick Crown. Deb Vensel is in front on right.

Jacob Haas cleaning his bike after a ride. All the scouts are required to clean their bikes after each ride. Jacob is the reason we are raising funds for Juvenile Diabetes. He has Type 1 Diabetes and is doing great on the trip.

Josh Kilmer arriving at our final destination for the day. Griffith Lutheran Church and Troop 264 went all out to help us when we arrived.

Changing another flat tire. From left to right: Mark Kennedy, Ron Volk, Dev Vensel (only female rider), Aaron Volk.

Here are a couple of newspaper articles that I am aware of. We have people sending us articles as well.

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/article_0b962cf1-cbda-55ba-b8c8-2552cf785394.html

http://www.bryantimes.com/articles/2009/07/29/news/doc4a7063505d7d9946679660.img

There are two blogs today, please read the one with the quotes as well. Now for the day's events. Last night after we arrived, the staff cooked us dinner which was terrific!! The Eric Shores Council was wonderful. We slept in their pole barn and slept in 1.5 hours. They cooked dinner then the group walked down to an ice cream store. The walk was about a half mile and was wonderful!! We came back and crashed.

This morning we were up and ready in no time. The cub scouts were arriving for day camp at 8:00am, so the scouts had an incentive to leave as soon they could. The ride was nice and leasurely. It was 42 miles. We meet Pickle Bob. Pickle Bob is a local farmer about half way along the trip who loved to talk about farming. All three crews stopped long enough to learn how cucumber and corn was harvested and what field corn tastes like. Ron ate almost the full ear of corn.

Once we arrived at KOA, we cleaned the bikes, setup camp and then went to the local beach. We played volleyball and keep away with the nerf football in Lake Erie. We are now waiting for dinner back at camp. Barbeque Chicken and spagetti with a salad.

Everyone had a great laugh last night. Blake learned where he should not put IcyHot. He was in pain until he made it into the shower to wash off.

Tomorrow is the day at Cedar Point. Mr. and Mrs. Herrera arrived a couple hours ago. They will join us at Cedar Point.

I have two posts today. Last night I collected quotes from most of the scouts and adult leaders, but I didn't have time to upload them to the blog. They are below:

Alex Sparacio “I’m just happy to be with my dad. Once in a life time experience. The most challenging was the flatness of Indiana. The most enjoyable was just hanging out after riding.”

Blake Heslop “Long Ride. Gold Bond helps and pray for no rain.”

Michael Glass “Gel seats help. Hi to everyone!!”

Dan Herrera “Ohio is definitely not…hilly. In fact it is very flat. I officially love Ohio, but not as much as Illinois. Mr. Kilmer is not very popular among other scouts right now. But he is redeeming himself by choosing a route through the flat farmland of Ohio. The people around here have an obsession with putting fake animals in their front yard, and none of us get it. Worst of all, they always have a fence holding real animals next to the house. It makes no since…AT ALL! Just incase you wanted to know. I want to say hello to my family and friends back in Geneva, and I can’t wait to see you guys.”

Mark Shultz “This place is podonk. Hi mama!!”

Jacob Kish “Indiana is flat. Yeah, right, sure!!”

Jacob Haas “Indiana is flat. Yeah, right, sure!! Hey, Andrew (and Hi to you know who).”

Aaron Volk “Thank you to the Troop 1222 hosts for telling us there are no hills in Ohio. He doesn’t lie.”

Josh Kilmer “We passed a house giving out free kittens.”

Andy Hegg “Dogs like to chase me.”

Andrew Guevara “Everything is going great except for the ride. It is great to stop at camp and relax after a long sweaty day. It is also great to take a shower; I have to thank Mr. Kilmer for bringing the portable shower. Hi to my family and friends.”

Nick Crown “This is a great life-time experience. It is fun.”

Brian Alder “No comment”

Mark Kennedy “No comment”

Mrs. Crown “Hey B. really miss you!! Bean Wednesday lives on.”

Mr. Volk “No comment”

Mr. Alder “Great experience for the boys!! It is great we could give them the opportunity to do this and we are too old to be doing this.”

Mrs. Haas “It is amazing how professional the troop rides following each other.”

Mr. Guevara “Hello to my friends and family and especially those who have supported me on this trip. Greetings from Joe and Andrew.”

Mr. Sparacio “The most rewarding part of the trip is the way the crew is unified, the way they are developing their navigation skills, and the way they are building as a team. Today, they proved themselves by riding the longest bike ride with the shortest miles (only crew not to miss a turn).”

Mr. Kilmer “This has turned out to be a wonderful trip. All the troops (264 in Griffith, 102 in Ligonier, and 1222 in Bryan) have been terrific. The American Legion in Fish Lake was also willing to help us in any way. Everyone has been terrific!! After a couple of days, the safety of the boys has improved greatly. All of the scouts are communicating and working together. This is an opportunity in a life-time to take such a large bike trip across 5 states. When this was first proposed, several scouts and adults thought we were crazy. The trip will give the boys a great self confidence boost!! They are completing something at first they never thought they could.”

Today's ride was long!! We are now in Gibsonburg, Ohio after riding 85 miles (depending on whose bike computer you ask). Two of the crews missed a turn and rode as extra 2 miles (it's great exercise:).

Troop 1222 in Ligonier was great last night!! Everyone really enjoyed the pond to go swimming after a 60 mile ride. Thanks Troop 1222!!!

Eveyone made it to bed early last night (9:00pm) and we woke up a 5am. The scouts were actually ready early. We had fog so we had to wait until the fog lifted before we could start our ride. We left at 6:40am. Today's ride was nice and flat which allowed us to make the 80 to 85 miles without any issues. All 3 crews arrived within 20 minutes of each other at the scout reservation. We made it around 1:30.

Our midway point was at Bethany Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Ohio. The pastor there came out to greet us and was great!! Thanks for using your picnic tables, bathrooms, water and swings!! Bethany Baptist was nice enough to donate to ADA and led us in prayer for a safe journey before we left.

The camp is being used for a Cub Scout day camp until 4:00pm and then the camp is all ours. We have taken over a pole barn so the scouts could avoid setting up tents. All the scouts worked on their bikes when we first arrived (cleaning and making sure everything is working). A thunderstorm rolled in, so we quickly put the bikes under a tarp and took cover.

Once the storm cleared, everyone played volleyball and now are lined up to take showers. The camp is cooking dinner for us. We also need to review tomorrow's route tonight so all the navigators know where to go.

Tomorrow is a short ride of 42 miles to Cedar Point. Therefore, we will sleep in 1.5 hours (until 6:30am EST). Tomorrow's activities include a swimming pool, softball rematch, and hot showers.

I have quotes from most of the scouts that I will post tomorrow as soon as I can.

Fish Lake, IN

This post will have to be quick. I am in the laundry mat and they are almost done. The ride today was difficult. We had more hills and the fourth day was wearing on everyone. Tomorrow is the long ride (75 miles). We had some rain during the ride but everyone rode through it without much issue.

Troop 1222 is another great location. We are staying at the Committee Chair's house. He has a pond in the back yard with rafts, pier, sand beach, .... All the boys are currently back at the house swimming and horse playing.

We had to bikes we needed to get fixed and laundry to do. Tonight was laundry day. Both bikes are now fixed and the laundry is almost done. The local newspaper is coming out to interview the scouts later this evening.

The boys have grouped together and voted on buying KFC for dinner tonight. Since all the crews want KFC, we have given in and are ordering several buckets. Troop 1222 Scoutmaster and scouts will be over later tonight to play games. Unfortunately, it looks like some storms are coming in, so we may be stuck in the pole barn. We'll see how the night plays out.

This morning was difficult waking up. We changed time zones, so this morning we woke everyone up at 5am EST (4am CST) to start the bike ride. We left around 6:50 and make it in between 12:20 and 2:00. We also crossed the border into Ohio today.

Since the scouts can't read this until they return, I'll tell all of you a secret that you have to keep to yourself. Ohio isn't any flater than Indiana. We will have hills here too.

Ceci, your mother says HI and Love you!!

I think I figured out pictures, so we'll see if it works.

We are alive and well. I am sitting here in Ligonier, Indiana just outside the kitchen in the cabin. The kitchen is the only place that has a power outlet. We just ate dinner, so Dan Herrera and Josh Kilmer are cleaning dishes and singing songs.

Last night was interesting; we didn’t sleep very well at all. The location was great overlooking the lake, so Ron Volk got the idea that instead of sleeping in tents, we could just sleep in the pavilion with our sleeping bags. Well, this sounded interesting so several of us decided to join him. The first attack came quickly. The mosquitoes came wave after wave. They were relentless. After a couple hours, the rain storm that blew into the shelter sideways didn’t help us get any sleep. At this point I decided to go into the lodge. The American Legion was nice enough to open the lodge for us so the scouts could sleep inside. The hall they slept in smelled like smoke and the fans were loud. After I laid down in the hall, I realized that the hall wasn’t much better than the mosquitoes.

The next morning, I found out the police stopped by around 2am and woke up everyone sleeping in the pavilion since he didn’t know why they were there. After Ron sent the police officer off, they were able to get some sleep. I think there are several of us ready to go to bed early today.

We made it on the road by 6:30am this morning. The trip was great. We saw some Bactrian Camels. A couple of the crews stopped to see them. We also saw Amish and Mennonites. All the crews passed by at least one Amish Buggy. Josh Kilmer’s grandparents came up from Plymouth Indiana to take pictures and wave us on as we rode by. The boys want me to mention that all the crews were chased by dogs today. They didn’t come near the bikes. The dogs did either cheer us on (in their own way), or wanted us away from their territory.

We had one incident today. Brian Alder joined the skinned knee club. He ran into the back of Andy Hegg’s bike and wiped out. He skinned his knee and elbow. We cleaned him up and he went on riding without any issues. Everyone is doing great, Mrs. Vensel is back to normal. All the other boys are doing great.

One of the roads, route 38 was a terrible road to ride on. It had a lot of traffic. Everyone did great riding in a single file and staying on the side of the road. The mothers in the chase vehicle said all the mothers would be very impressed with how the children were riding.

Ron stopped at someone’s house to ask for directions. They tried to send him in the wrong direction. Ron figured it out and took their crew in the right direction.

We arrived between 12:45 and 1:30 this afternoon. Troop 102 from Ligonier has been great. They arrived this morning to greet us. 5 of their scouts are riding with us tomorrow. They gave us Ligonier shirts. We are staying at a cabin they own near the Elkhart River. Ligonier is known for their Marshmallow Festival they hold every year over Labor Day weekend. The ladies were able to go to the scoutmaster’s house for hot showers. The boys and men used the portable camp shower.
The portable shower works great, but it is cold!! The nozzle for the hose yesterday was too strong, so we bought a new one that works great. We also were able to get free ice from the local American Legion again. And I found out the troop has contacted the local newspaper making this the 4th newspaper we will be in.

We ran 4 bikes up to the local bike shop to fix various items. Mike Glass's brake was rubbing, Jacob Haas's gear shifter, Chris Alder's 1st gear, and Ron Volk's wheel bearings. All the bikes were fixed and we are ready to ride again tomorrow.

We hit some more hills today (not as many as yesterday), but in a flat state like Indiana any hill is really unexpected. As we were going up one of the larger hills, Mark Shultz told me I was in trouble. Since I put together the route, I will take all the blame for every hill, busy road, gravel road, and construction that we run into.

Since Dan and Josh are both here, they have requested to add a quote to the blog today.

Quote from Dan Herrera, “Indiana is definitely not flat. Do not take people’s word for it when a state is flat, that is something you must find out on your own. We found that out today and yesterday when Mr. Kilmer lied to us and told us that Indiana was flat. In the rare occasion when you come across a flat road it is gravel and hard to ride on. You should definitely appreciate your car because it definitely doesn’t involve any physical labor. I personally cannot wait to be able to sit in a passenger seat of a car again. I realize this is day 3 of a long trip. Just kidding, I am really enjoying this trip and would like to say hello to my family and friends. Yours truly Dan Herrera.”

Quote from Josh Kilmer, “Indiana is not flat. Do not take Brian Kilmer’s word for it…..Yours truly Josh Kilmer”.

Another day down and lots more to go. Everyone did great today, no one was hurt. Mrs. Vensel is feeling much better. Let's start with one item I forgot about yesterday. Troop 264 had two reports show up from the local papers. They had a great write-up in this mornings paper about us. The other paper write-up will be in a couple of days.

This morning the town of Griffith gave us another police escort out of town. You could read this good or bad:) We had 3 of the members of Troop 264 ride with us today. One rode with Ron and Deb's crew and the other two rode with Chris and Ro's crew. We rode a total of 57 miles today and averaged about 15 miles an hour.

The first half of the trip was hilly. Very hilly. We kept going up and down and my name was used in vein many times. Mrs. Vensel had a few choice words for me. We took a break in Westville and then continued onto Fish Lake, IN. The groups arrived into Fish Lake between 11:30 and 1:30. The groups are pretty good groups, we were evenly spaced about 1 hour a part.

We passed a Nike Missile silo location from the cold war. One group saw several fighter jets. Once we arrived at Fish Lake, the scouts checked on their bikes (whipped them down and made sure nothing was broken). Unfortunately, one scout had a broken gear changer, so he is borrowing the spare bike from the trailer so his can get fixed tomorrow.

The adults challenged the scouts to a 16" softball game this afternoon. The adults won 13-12. I don't want to hear any more comments about old men and AARP cards. We had 5 adults against 10 high school age boys. We did great!! The first home run Ron Volk hit was painful. He made us actually run several bases!! I was surprised we were able to play after the bike riding, but I can tell we are all ready for bed early tonight. We have another 59 mile day tomorrow.

The scouts are doing great!! They are currently cooking us dinner which I will eat when I finish this blog and then we will settle down with some cards and bed.

The site we are staying at is terrific, we are out at the point of land in the lake. Several of us were brave enough to go swimming in the lake. We also setup the portable shower and most everyone was able to take showers. The water was cold, but refreshing.

One of these days I will get the opportunity to post some pictures. Currently I am using Jake Kish's friend Ron's computer to quickly create this post.