Indiana is beautiful…and hilly! I wasn’t ready for this. I figured it would be pretty flat like the past couple weeks…boy was I wrong. The uphills aren’t long, but they are a bit steep and constant, you go up, and then you go down, and you go up….like a roller coaster but more painful.

Alex and I enjoyed the beautiful countryside as we slowly chugged up the ‘mountains.’ We even went through a ‘ski’ town called Paoli. Yes, they actually have skiing in southern Indiana, but I’ve heard that it’s usually just icy hillsides.

Just before getting into Louisville I got a call from Allen, a cool guy who found out about my ride via Team Wonderbike. He got his family together (Patti and Maggie) and we all rode over the Ohio river together. It was beautiful, the sun was low on the horizon casting an orange light over the city. And since I had a good ensemble cast with me, we had a nice big happy dance on the Banks of the Ohio. And Allen saved the day when he pulled out a few cans of Fat Tire beer! You can buy New Belgium in Indiana but not in Kentucky. It was a great way to end the day.

From there Alex and I rode to Barbara (Aunt Bo) and Tab’s place. They are family of my good friend Mary. Anyway, we were treated to an amazing Vietnamese dinner and afterward Tab made us her special vanilla/peanut butter and honey ice cream concoction. Heaven!

Here’s all the fun on the little screen

Today was  a great day.  My buddy Alex came down from Champagne Illinois (driven down by his awesome lady Kyra) to ride with me.

It was another one of those dreamy days, mostly downhill and lots of tailwind, ahhhh.  We even found a great Mexican restuarant in lawrenceville illinios, this is a rarity in the Midwest.  It felt great to get some beans in the system, it had been awhile and my body was getting cranky.

We crossed into Indiana in a beautiful little town called Vincennes and did one of the best Happy Dances to date (video coming tomorrow).  At 5pm, at 98 miles into the ride we found an amazing farmers market with fresh peaches.  And let me tell you, this was the best peach of my life.  It’s so fun sharing this experience with friends, I think Alex is equally as happy, but we’ll see how sore he is in the morning

I’ll miss St Louis! And it’s all because of Jason and his amazing family. Jason found out about my ride through Team Wonderbike and immediately offered up his house and a nice bed (the bed was actually his daughter’s princess bed).
I was in heaven, Rachel his wife cooked amazing meals, Jason and I sat on the porch drinking Fat Tire and the kids and I had a great time running around the City Museum-The most amazing playground I’ve ever seen-it’s a total child’s dream–and a Duzer’s dream too.
Today, Jason was good enough to take the morning off and ride with me out of town, I can’t tell you how much safer it is to have an escort in a big city. After a 15 mile jaunt on the ‘safe’ roads, we got to the Mississippi and said our goodbyes, I’m sure I’ll see him again! Cheers buddy!
At the bridge I met Ryan, another bike loving cool guy who I met at the New Belgium beer party on Thursday. He was good enough to take me through the mean streets of East St Louis. East St. Louis looks likes bombed out Beirut, I’ve never seen such a run down city in the U.S. It’s full of casinos, strip clubs and crumbling houses, crazy.
The rest of the ride was great, felt kind of like Kansas, flat, farms and hot. And currently I’m awaiting the arrival of my good friend Alex who will be joined me for the next two days, hooray!

Here’s a video that is sure to make you smile!

Check out my love story with Katy in today’s DAILYCAMERA

I hate breakups, this one wasn’t easy, I’ll never forget you KATY!!

I said a sad farewell to Katy today, she’s been good to me but it’s time to move on, It’s not her, it’s me…

Had a couple really fun ride-alongs today, Jason and Scott met me about 50 miles out of town. I had been in touch with Jason the past week and he promised me good veggie food and a bed, yes please! He gave up his car years ago and has committed himself to a car-free life! His kids even met us on their bikes as we got closer to town.

We and immediately got into case of Fat Tire after arriving at his house. His three year old son calls them “Bicycle Beers.” Very clever. As we drank beer, I put his daughter to work washing my bike, it was super dirty after a week on Katy.

Tonight I’m off to a little Bar event downtown, free New Belgium anyone? Come on down to St. Louie!

Last night I met up with a handful of local bike enthusiasts in Columbia. We drank New Belgium brews ($100 bar tab, nice!) and had ourselves a cozy little evening.  As I headed home to Steve’s house (my host) who is way cool by the way, it started to pour, no bueno. I looked on the radar when I got back and it said “90% chance of rain for Tuesday” Boooo!

Darn that weather forecast! It was right on, luckily though it didn’t pour, just a nice gentle drizzle. The unfortunate part is that the Katy trail is gravel, so mix in a little water and you’ve got mud, and riding in soft mud makes pedaling a lot harder. Oh well, it was nice and cool (70) which is a great riding temperature. The scenery was beautiful too, the tree lined trails were shrouded in a misty fog, like a scene out of the movie Braveheart.

Now I’m camped out in a city park in Hermann, about 70 miles from St. Louis. If you ever come to Herman, don’t get Mexican food, they don’t know what Mexican food is. But luckily they do make good pie, I stopped by “Time for Pie” and had a great chunk of Strawberry Rhubarb with a side of Vanilla ice cream, I even got a hot chocolate!

And yes, I will be sleeping on another picnic table tonight, It’s another extra long one so I won’t need to curl up to fit on top.

And here’s a video of my first two days on the KATY trail.

Hi there and happy Monday!  Today marks one month since I started this amazing adventure in Oceanside.  Time sure does fly when you’re screaming across the U.S. at 12mph

Today was a nice short day, my shortest day in fact since the very first day of the ride, 30 miles. I’m in Columbia to meet with bike folks and to have a little New Belgium Partay, yeehaa! I haven’t had a rest day in two weeks so I’m a happy boy.

I said goodbye to Mark the Crazy Viking today, what a cool guy he is. I’m very impressed and honored that he took off a weekend of work to come out and ride with me (from Kansas no less). We celebrated our two day adventure with a couple beers at a local brewpub in Columbia and then his nice wife showed up to drive his sore body home.

Now I’m staying with Steve, another bike loving/athlete/commuter dude. He just took me on a tour of the campus, very nice place, almost as pretty as CU.

Videos coming soon, I promise….Happy Sunday!

I’m in love with Katy. She may be flat, and a little dusty, but she protects me from the big bad cars and trucks. I think we have a good future together.
I’m riding the Katy trail now for the next 200 miles, all the way to St Louie. It’s a converted railroad and goes through all sorts of neat little communities along the Missouri river. This is the ultimate bike path, it’s safe, easy and full of services.
I have another ride along partner too. Mark, the ‘Crazy Viking’ as he calls himself, came to Clinton last night from Lawrence Kansas. He heard about me from the New Belgium site and decided that he wanted to have a little weekend adventure with Duzer. He’s one tough dude, did I mention that he’s 60 years young? I can only hope that I’ll be in as good a shape as him when I get to that age.

We’re camped out now in Franklin, a TINY community with HUGE mosquitoes. My stomach is full of bean and ice cream, heaven! Good night

Check out the article in today’s DailyCamera

Missouri is beautiful! It’s been raining like crazy and now the Ozarks are bright green and bursting with flowers. And the best part, it was only 82 degrees today! Pure riding heaven.

So my goal was to get to Clinton today, 100 miles from Fort Scott Kansas. I knew it would be a tough goal, especially since I’d be leaving the flatlands of Kansas and hitting the hills of the Ozarks. The first 60 miles were pretty smooth as I had a mild crosswind, no big deal. But then I took a left turn north and that crosswind became a direct headwind, bummer. It was a very long 40 miles. My head was down most of the time as I pedaled, which gave me a good view of the dead Armadillos, and there are lots of them. Dead box turtles too, such as sad scene along highway 13

I finally made it to Clinton at 6:30, much later than my usual stopping point. All I could think about was food so I headed to the historic downtown. As I limped slowly around the square, looking for a nice restaurant I met Art. Art turned out to be my angel for the day. He pointed me to a great little local pasta joint and then invited me to stay at his house in the country.

I’m writing this as we all (his family and kids) sit around a big bonfire. It’s very cozy. I’m loving the Midwest!