"You cheat Indiana, NO more cards"-Kid

Greetings Ya'll,

Breakfast at 6 am. in a motel? Yes, please. Yesterday morning we did some intense morning calorie counting as we ate as much continental breakfast as we could before we set off on our road to Cloverdale Indiana.
   We had 10 miles to go before we reached the Illinois-Indiana border and the border city of Terre-Haute. Once in T.H. we rode along with Dave (which may be wrong...) who told us about how he wanted to bike across the country back in the 70's. He also told us about a race that goes across Indiana that he did a few years back and finished in the top 500! It is always a pleasure to have another rider share the road with us. To exchange thoughts and ideas, if only for a couple of city blocks, it is always an experience worth having.
   On our latter part of the day, Indiana actually surprised us with some hills that mocked Missouri... No fear as we crushed up and down them, through the highways rolling turns and tree overhanging roads. With a threat of severe thunderstorms, we rolled on up into Cloverdale at just the right time. The right time to be out of the 1 minute rainfall they received while we were there... I believe we are the anti-raincyclists.... so sorry about the drought...
   However that did not stop us trying to find a place to stay to try and be out of the storm that was still coming. We checked around churches and none were open. So then we stopped at Casey's gas station and the attendant told us to check out the Christian Women's Ministries... 3 guys going into a women's ministries place just doesn't seem all that right, NO FEAR, and then we were off to see if we could sleep in their basement!
   We rolled up into the ministry and met someone outside. We told her our story and she let us come in and see if they could help us find a place to stay. It was their bible study night, so women just kept on coming and eventually, we had 7-8 people trying to help us find a place to stay. Sometimes we were talking and then we couldn't even get a word in edgewise because someone had found a lead on a place to stay. It was a gracious burst of energy from a group of people trying their best to help some tired travelers about to get hit by a thunderstorm...
   If you ever catch a lead on anything, or feel a pull toward a place that you are uncertain about, hands down, go big! We ended up getting a place to stay thanks to a friend of Miss Patt, a lady at the women's ministries.

 Terre Haute

 Terre Haute building

Our new found friends at the Women's Ministries

   Pat called her friend Gina and Gina was gracious enough to think about letting us stay at her home. But due to this continuous drought their well was a little low so she was not sure if she had enough water to have us shower and such. So instead she went and got us a room at the days inn motel. Thank you so much Gina!! That was more than gracious and we would have been fine with a floor to sleep on without any showers. But she did get us a place to sleep and then came back later to pick us up and take us to her house for a delicious home cooked meal. We had dinner with Gina, her daughter Jana, her son in law Dave, her friend Pat, the same one that called her, and her three grand kids. We had lasagna, apple salad, steamed vegetables and salad and PIE!! It was so good that we ate over 5 pounds of it. This was quantified by weighing ourselves before and after.

   This morning we had some more continental breakfast... More calorie counting, trying our best to shove our faces with as much food as possible... We are trying to figure out how much calories we burn while biking and we figure anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 on mountainous days. So we need those calories (ON A SIDE NOTE ITS RAINING!!!!!!!).
   On our ride we stopped at Gina's daughters house, Jana and Dave. We then met Jana's sister, so we basically met the whole family besides the son who is in Iraq I think. Jana gave us some ice cold, refreshing water and we chatted for a bit, but it wasn't long before we were on the road to our destination!
   Today we stopped at a couples house whom we met in St. Louis at the J.A. conference! Bess and Matthew were kind enough to feed us and give us a place to stay. They have a 4 yr. old daughter who has J.A. and it is great to be able to talk to a family that is basically new to the world of arthritis. It's been great to give them information and share stories. I am glad we got this chance to stay with them!
   It marks the beginning of staying with other J.A. conference people along the way! This adventure is turning out to be better than I've ever imagined! The people are our fuel, the our bikes are our work benches, our smiles are our trademarks, our cause is what sews seeds and inspires us both to continue and tell the stories. Thanks so much to everyone! Please keep the comments coming! Tell us who you are, where you met us, what you like and dislike! We love feedback! Thanks again, and be sure to tell ole Nick W. what to do, which is DONATE TO THE ARTHRITIS FOUNDATION!

DONATE BELOW!

http://jointsinmotion2012.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1002344&lis=1&kntae1002344=876F878C1BD444C2B884B1E3A959BFC1&supId=355267381