June 9 - Buffalo, IN to Watseka, IL (70 miles)

 After only 3 days of riding in Indiana, we knocked out another state today - later, Indiana!

I'm trying to think of the unique things that happened, and the only thing I can really comment on is that we actually had a tail wind!  Much of the time we were just gliding at about 17mph and finished the day riding 70 miles averaging 13.8mph.  We've decided that if we have similar conditions tomorrow, we will stretch out possibly a 90 mile day (we will see....)

Also, I just realized today that the videos don't seem to show up in the blog on iPhone unless you choose 'view web version' rather than 'mobile version' when viewing the blog.... kinda wish I would have chosen wordpress.com when I started this!

States Completed:

Maine

New Hampshire

Vermont

New York

Pennsylvania 

Ohio

Indiana - CHECK!!

June 8 - Huntington, IN to Buffalo, IN (79 miles)

 We were expecting rain all day today, however we only encountered a short stint of heavy rain followed by drizzle for a bit and then a partly cloudy but humid day.  

We both felt pretty strong today and are trying to top of the next two days with healthy efforts so that we can take a rest day.  We need to average 55 miles/day, which is challenging, but very doable.  The problem is that we have to meet the average INCLUDING days off.  So if we want a day off every 6th day, we actually need to ride ~66 miles for 5 days to earn the day off.  Today, we pedaled 79 miles and over the past 5 days, we've got:

58 June 4

62 June 5

72 June 6

61 June 7

79 June 8

That is a total of 332 miles over 5 days, or 55.33 miles per day over 6 days - so, we've already earned a day off.  Whatever effort we put in over 55 miles per day in the next 2 days is just bonus and adding towards the next day off!  Looking at the maps, I'm really looking forward to taking a day off in Le Crosse, WI in a few weeks because they have a bunch of craft breweries and bike shops.  

June 7 - Paulding, OH to Huntington, IN (61 miles)

 Our day started at 4am with coffee brewed in our Inn room along with protein bars - just enough to give us the fuel to pedal 22 miles to Monroeville, where we enjoyed a 'real' breakfast.  Our idea to beat both the heat and the wind paid off.  We did have a bit of rain, but more than anything, if felt good - kept us cool.

We completed 61 miles (finished Section 9 of the Northern Tier Route, as well as passed thru Ohio) before noon which made us feel like we could have extra time to relax today.  The next several day poses challenges for us to find both food and places to sleep because the route is taking us to some pretty remote places in Indiana, where there just isn't a whole lot of services available.

But we've gained quite a bit of confidence that we can plan for it and be fine...

States Completed:

Maine

New Hampshire

Vermont

New York

Pennsylvania 

Ohio. - CHECK

Oh... and see if you can identify what is in Jake's hand in the bottom pic