Blue Skies

Day 36: Fremont to Sioux City / Sergeant Bluff, Iowa

Monday wasn’t the greatest day ever. It started out alright; I woke up relatively refreshed from sleeping in the Lutheran church overnight. People’s alarms had started going off some time after 5 AM, which I promptly ignored until mine went off some time later. On stepping outside I found that the temperature had cooled off a little, although it was still quite humid.

We missed one of the turns along the way, which worked out fine since we were planning to go to Decatur where there was a bridge across the river to Iowa and the wrong turn took us along faster roads. Later on a number of cyclists also didn’t turn where they were supposed to, but they don’t get quite the same advantage. A ways down the route we got a call from the first SAG stop since there was a cyclist who was having trouble. We headed back and picked up the cyclist and brought them across the bridge into Iowa and a ways further into the route.

Continue reading Day 36: Fremont to Sioux City / Sergeant Bluff, Iowa…

Catching up…

So in a week we had the satellite system that provides our internet fail, my sister got into an accident with a vehicle (she’s ok), and my family came to visit on the weekend. That means its about time to catch up, so here we go…

Smits on bikes

As some of you may be aware, my parents are currently busy in China, teaching at a school there. They’ve apparently decided to utilize a very popular mode of transportation in China, the bicycle.

A few days ago, we got this picture of them with there new Giant bikes :

Lucky for them, they got them at local prices too!

I guess our family has had a fairly strong history with the bicycle, from flying down the streets assisted by training wheels, to cycling circles in the drive when bored while living on the farm, to a trip my father and I made in the Netherlands, cycling around the country when I was fourteen or so.

Another interesting thing about bikes in my history… as a kid, I just couldn’t seem to get the hang of the things. I got to look jealously on as my siblings rode around, but I couldn’t get the whole balance thing down. Then one evening I got really fed up with not being able to do the same, and I tried it again. I ended up falling off the silly thing, but got up, got back on, and I’ve never had a problem since! I’ve even adapted to using clips within one trip, and without the dreaded falling over!