Little Miss Muffett

I'm in Prescott, Wisconsin. I know some of you might be saying, but this
morning you emailed us from Minnesota - that's going backwards. The
Adventure Cycling Organization Maps took us this way, I don't really ask
questions, as I am not the navigator. Maybe that's why they call themselves
"Adventure" cycling, I don't know.

So, we left Chicago and went north. Through Northwestern and a bunch of
really posh neighborhoods. We met a couple around our age in a bike shop
who had done a lot of bike touring and invited us to stay at their house for
dinner and overnight. We said, "sure!" as they seemed quite interesting.
I asked if we could at least cook dinner, and if there was anything that
they didn't eat. Avi responded, "we're pretty much vegans (no meat, no
eggs, no dairy products) and we have lots of food at home so we'll cook."
As all of my ground beef and velveeta recipes quickly vanished in my mental
cookbook, and the realization that even kraftfoods.com (shameless promo)
couldn't help me with this dinner I quickly acquiesced. We biked the hour
to their house with Avi and he told us his story - he was dealing drugs in
Seattle when a group of people confronted him on morals and values. This
caused him to take off and ride his bike around the country for 4 years
studying religions. His style of touring differed slightly from ours - he
did a lot of commando camping - even telling us of places to camp in San
Francisco and Philly, and made the comment that "if you can't lift your bike
over a barbed wire fence, it's too heavy". Yeah, I can barely lift my
loaded bike over the curb. Anyway, he was in Iowa, spied Rachel across a
crowded street, approached her and after 7 hours of talking they fell in
love, she agreed to drop out of college and he decided to give up his life
of solitude. Two weeks later they met up again at the airport, flew to
Europe and biked around Spain and Africa for 6 months. They've been
together now for 2 years.

Over dinner they asked us where we worked and by the look on their faces as
I said Kraft, you could see them reach under the table and stamp in big red
letters on my forehead - ESTABLISHMENT. Fortunately for Melissa they never
got around to ask her about her job for I'm sure her drug sales rep job at a
company who makes genetically engineered corn wouldn't be kosher with their
year spent working at organic farms. It became apparent as the night went
on and they told us stories about arriving in hawaii with $16 in their
pockets and we made comments like "boy that neighborhood bbq sure smells
good" that we weren't just part of the establishment, no we were certainly
the spawn of satan in their eyes. Even though we weren't exactly kindred
spirits, they were certainly inspiring and educating.

The next night we were at a campground and my favorite comment was by the
woman who worked the gate - we'll call her Marge. So Marge found out that I
grew up in Pittsburgh and said that she grew up in Uniontown. My faced
showed acknowledgement of the town as she continued with her tale. "yes, I
lived near a place called Lovers' Leap", Marge said with bright eyes and a
smile from ear to ear. "That's where people would go up and jump off and
die", Marge finished without changing the expression on her face. Melissa
and I just stood there stunned as I think one of us muttered, "Well, gee
thanks Marge for that warm fuzzy thought," and slowly backed up to our bikes
without breaking her gaze.

We entered Wisconsin and rode on bike trails most of the way. We actually
rode on the first rail to trail that opened in 1967. Wisconsin is beautiful
- hilly, but really nice. We spent one night in New Glarus, also known as
little Switzerland. We had to eat at a fast food restaurant called Culver's
since they had an homage to Homer simpson on the sign out front with "mmm,
bacon" in big black letters. Inside I made melissa ask the kid behind the
counter what Dairyland (circle R) cheese curds were, and he cocked his head
a little off center, paused and deadpanned, "fried cheese." Of course we
ordered up some cheese curds - they were quite tasty. The next day a guy at
a cheese shop told us that cheese curds squeak if you eat them at room
temperature. So I bought a bag at a grocery store. I asked a woman in line
what cheese curds were, and she responded with, "you obviously aren't from
Wisconsin." We spent the rest of the afternoon eating and saying, "shhh,
did you hear that? did you hear anything???" Just when we thought that
cheese curds squeaking might be akin to snipe hunting, we asked at another
store and the women assured us that they do, but only fresh ones. They
happened to have a bag open, and allowed us to sample theirs, and yes they
do, fresh cheese curds squeak when you eat them. Hope that helps you in
trivia pursuit some day.

We've been biking along the mississippi River for the past few days. The
first glance I got of it really struck me. Last night we even went swimming
in it - we were laughing at feeling very much like Tom and Huck.

Hope everyone is doing well. Thanks again for the emails, it's a big thrill
to read what is going on in your lives and it makes me really look forward
to our visits to the library.

cheers,
leigh

You are cordially invited...

Hello,
I'm in Red Wing, Minnesota.

As you can see, we decided to take the northern route across instead of the
middle route. This means that our final destination will be in Anacortes,
Washington. Also, we've finally accepted the fact that since Melissa has to
be back on the east coast by August 21st there is no way in hell that she
will be able to make it to the west coast. So, this is an open invite to
anyone who is interested in making the rest of this journey with me, or part
of it - hey, even a weekend would be great. You might get this email
forwarded to you and think, well she doesn't mean me. And actually, I do
mean anyone is invited, even if I don't know you...well, unless you're a big
jerk. The trip can't be too hard if I biked here from Maine. If you have
any questions or are interested, please email me at leigh_nagy@hotmail.com.
cheers,
leigh

Cleveland rocks, Cleveland rocks, Cleveland rocks...OHIO!

Hello,
I'm in Lorraine, Ohio just past Cleveland. We're on our way to Melissa's
Grandparents' house.

First, let me explain something about my emails. I have had the same
experience at 6 different libraries across the northeast. We usually get to
the library and the librarian explains to us that we can go online, but due
to their rules we cannot use email. (one woman actually blamed it on Bill
Gates - "Bill Gates gave us these computers, but told us that our patrons
couldn't use email with them." I'm thinking, Bill Gates OWNS Hotmail, I
don't think he'll have a problem with me logging on.) So, after the
librarians warn us about their strict no email policies, we nod our heads,
walk over to the computers and promptly log into hotmail to check our email.
Then about 45 minutes later we have this conversation:
Librarian - "Miss, we are closing in 5 minutes, so you'll have to shut
down."
Me - "Ok, I'm almost done."
Librarian 5 minutes later - "I'm sorry Miss, but we're closing so you'll
have to log out."
Me - "ok, i'm just signing my name to the end of the email."
Slightly agitated librarian - "It's really time to go, I'm going to have to
ask you to leave."
Me - "ok, see i'm just clicking off who i want to send it to, i'm almost
finished i promise."
Angry librarian - "i'm going to have to come over there and press the power
button!"
Frantic Me - "ok look, see these are the last names to click, there i'm
clicking them, see now i'm pressing send, now i just have to see the
confirmation, there we go! ok! look i'm done! thank you so much have a
great day you made my night i haven't seen a computer in a week and you are
so wonderful thank you thank you." as I run out the door.

I hope that explains why there is never time to spell check, check for
proper grammer, even proper content, or proper tenses. I usually just pound
the keys for 30-45 minutes and then hit send as i'm running out the door
narrowly escaping the angry mob chasing me out of town.

Anyway. On Saturday, we had a lovely dinner with Melissa's parents who
drove up to Niagara Falls and an even better night's sleep in a hotel room
with an amazing view of the Falls. On Sunday, we went out and did the Maid
of the Mist boat tour and walked around the falls. Let me tell you, I was
really impressed by the Falls. As Melissa's father pointed out, "The word
awesome really should be reserved for spectacles like these." We biked out
of Niagara on the Niagara Highway bike path - about 16 miles of gorgeous
views over the Niagara river and really cool houses on our right. If anyone
is thinking about doing a week bike tour I would highly recommend combining
the erie canal bikeway with the niagara river bikeway and making a vacation
out of it. What amazing scenery and great trails to ride on.

That night we biked into Buffalo. We hit main street about 6:30 and saw
that it was some sort of festival. It turned out to be the Taste of Buffalo
that happens once a year. Yippee! what luck! as we made our way through
the crowds with our loaded bikes, people kept stopping us to talk to us. we
probably could have just stopped, set up a booth and made some money off the
whole thing. We collected so many business cards from people, saying "if
you need anything while in buffalo, give me a call". We got to our hostel
and decided that we would go take a shower before going out to sample all of
the local cuisine. We walked out of the hostel about 5 til 8 and we found a
ghost town. All of the booths were completely taken down. This was
devastating for two reasons - 1. b/c we were starving and all of the
restaurants in the area were closed and 2. b/c this disproved our theory
that we were the luckiest people on earth. As we sulked along main street
we finally came upon one booth that was still cleaning up. Melissa went up
to them and pitifully asked if there was any food that we could buy off of
them. They said that they were only allowed to accept tickets for it, but
after hearing our story, gave us pork sandwiches. Then the guy came back
and handed us 5 pounds of a chunk of beef brisket and a bag of rolls. We
went over to a bench and without a knife or napkins made ourselves a few
sandwiches. Appropriately, a homeless woman sat down near us and we gave
the remaining 4 pounds of brisket and rolls to her, Melissa explaining,
"earlier we were hungry and someone gave us a bunch of food, and thought you
might like this."

We met a few interesting characters at the hostel including 3 students from
the Czech Republic who came over on a 3 month visa and chose to spend their
3 months in Buffalo. It was a nice town, but I couldn't help asking over
and over again, "Why Buffalo?".

The next morning we biked out of buffalo and along the way stopped in at
Tony's bike shop in a little town. We ended up talking to the owner (Tony)
who had a thick Italian accent and had operated this store for the past 40
years. At the end he gave us his card telling us, "so when you get to the
West coast you show them all about Tony." (please read that last line with
a thick Italian accent). I nearly gave him a hug as we left.

At our campground that evening we spent a long time talking to Brandy and
Jason who were driving up to Canada to watch as 5,000 whales invaded the
something or other - they kind of lost me with their description of a
temporary virtual ecosystem, blah, blah, blah. But what i did find
fascinating was that they served 2 years in the Peace corps in Papau New
Guinea. One thing that we took away from them is that they keep a book of
the people they meet and write in their answers to the following question,
"what is the best place that you've ever visited." We got their answer - a
beach in Papau New Guinea that now goes on my list (unfortunately as you
travel, i've found that the desire to travel more grows exponentially).

On Tuesday night we slept on the beach (literally on the sand, 20 feet from
the water) of Lake Erie, in Erie Pennsylvania on Presque Isle. I was very
excited because as we rolled into our camp spot we were greeted by a hearty,
"Where did yunz start from today? We passed yunz on the road." I quickly
noticed the many Steelers bumper stickers on the campers and cars around me
and quickly felt at home. It turned out that our neighbors were from Amity
which is near where I grew up and actually is the town where Miranda grew up
(for those of you who know her). Miranda is the daughter of Mr. Nickles, my
high school english teacher (for those of you who know him) and went to
college with me. After setting up our tent we went for a swim in Lake Erie
as the sun was setting - yes, we know our life is good.

We biked into Geneva on the Lake on Wednesday and Melissa's Dad drove out,
picked us up and took us back to his house on Conneaut Lake. Melissa's
parents were amazing hosts - there we relaxed, did laundry, watched movies,
went to Walmart, ate good food, rode jet skis, and really just had fun.

On Friday we biked to Melissa's brother's apartment in Cleveland Heights and
dropped off our bikes and stuff. Then, my Uncle Chuck (for those of you
baseball fans out there, not that Charles Nagy from Cleveland) drove in and
picked us up and took us back to his house in New Ridgeville. (Are you
beginning to sense that Melissa and I have a few relatives in the Cleveland
area?) They brought my cousin Denise's son Khory with them to pick us up.
The best quote of the night was when I asked Khory if he would like to see
my bike. He quickly replied, "No." Yeah, my ego of I am so cool since i'm
biking cross country was crushed in 10 seconds by a 5 year old. We had a
great homemade dinner and enjoyed taking the tour of their new house.
Especially seeing their sprinkler. Their sprinkler actually rolls around
the yard on the hose that they set up as a track. Have you seen these? So
cool. Later my cousin Chuck (again, not that baseball playing Chuck Nagy
from Cleveland) came over and it was great catching up with
him...considering the last time I saw him was probably 6 years ago. More
Nagy's showed up the next morning when my cousin Denise came over to pick
Khory up. It was Khory's first time spending the night away from his
parents and he did quite well, even after his Uncle Chuck (not his
Grandfather, but my cousin Chuck...are you confused yet?) warned him of
bears in the basement and assured him that he would get him.

Saturday we spent with Melissa's brother and his friend Mitch by going out
in Cleveland and playing lots of games - volleyball, air hockey, various
video games that i was terrible at... Then we topped off our wonderful stay
in the land of Cleves by heading out on early Sunday morning to the
amusement park of amusement parks - Cedar Point. I mean it's no Kennywood
or anything, but it's really a fun park. One word of advice - if you like
to ride in the front car of roller coasters, ride the Millenium Force (the
fastest, tallest, steepest coaster in the world!...please read that line in
the same voice as the guy who does the Monster truck rally commercials)
during the day. You see Cedar Point is built right on the lake, and when
you go 93 mph at dusk in the front car you act as a human windshield for the
rest of the cars. We came down the first hill and felt tons of tiny pin
pricks on our skin. Once the ride was over we looked down and i probably
had at least 50 dead bugs all over my upper body. Added adventure.

Ok, well the librarian is walking my way and I'm pretty sure I know how the
next five minutes are going to play out, so I'll sign off now.
Hope everyone is doing well.
cheers,
leigh

gone global

Hello,
I'm in Canada. Yeah, the trip's turned global (hey, it is a big deal,
especially since i've never been to Canada).

I met up with Melissa on monday and we drove up to Syracuse listening to
three great road trip cd's (Guns and Rose's Appetite for Destruction,
Madonna's the Immaculate Collection, and Peter, Paul and Mary's greatest
hits).

We've started to run into other bikers. On Wednesday we stopped and had ice
cream with a couple who was biking for 2 weeks in upstate NY. They were
pretty interesting (the husband is Harvard's tennis and squash coach), but
the most remarkable thing about Bonnie, was that she was completely decked
out for a woman who was riding 40 miles a day. I'm talking eyeshadow,
lipstick, dangly earrings. Then, she whipped out her Chanel sunblock and
applied it to her face. I mean, who wears Chanel sunblock. I suppose the
answer is Bonnie.

On Wednesday we stayed in Palmyra New york at a bed and breakfast (there
were no campgrounds and luckily this one was pretty cheap). We were kind of
debating where to stay and fluctuating about continuing on to the next town
since there allegedly were fireworks there, when Barbara (from the b&b) said
that her and her husband were going to watch some and they would take us
along. So we piled in the back of their car and listened to the history of
Palmyra - Palmyra has about 85% of the country's cobblestone houses because
after the Erie canal was built, the people who worked on it were looking for
more work and found that they could build houses with the stones from the
lake...or something like that. We got to see some great fireworks (with a
full moon) over Canidaigua lake (i think i butchered the spelling on that
one).

Thursday and Friday we biked along the Erie Canal - it actually is a trail
so we were off of the roads - yay! I had never seen the canal before and it
was so fascinating - we stopped to read all of the placards and watched a
boat go through the locks (yeah, we're big dorks). People were extremely
friendly around Rochester. We were talking to one guy who was on his bike
and suddenly he turned to me and asked, "Are you Christian girls?" I froze
as I had immediate flashbacks to all of the times people in college would
come up to me and try to get me to attend their Sunday potluck dinners with
the Christian College Students club or whatever they were. I think my
response to him was a stuttering, "sort of. i guess i'm methodist - ish" as
my eyes flashed to melissa with a give me the sign and we'll make a break
for it look. He replied with, "well, i'm getting a really strong feeling
from the Heavenly father to pray over you girls right now. would you mind?"
i think melissa replied no, because within seconds my head was bowed and
he was asking for us to be watched over in our travels. Afterward, when we
were walking away, Melissa said, "wow that was really nice." In my i'm
still too close to the east coast voice i responded with "yeah, in a really
weird kind of way. The last time i had someone pray over me and touch my
shoulder - i was about 6 months old and getting baptised."

On Thursday night we slept along the Erie Canal (for free!) and they had
beautiful clean showers right there. We camped next to another biker,
Chris, who started in Seattle a week before we did. For the engineers who
are trying to do the mileage. Yes, he started in Seattle a week before we
started in Maine and we met in upstate New York. He's averaging about 100
miles per day...we're not. He was a really interesting guy - last summer he
kayaked from seattle to alaska for 2 months and he was telling us how he
also scuba dives in the cayman islands and sails for the rest of the year.
At one point I asked him what his day job was to support his habits and all
he said was, "I don't have one. I used to work in the tech industry but i
stopped that two years ago after i saved some money." Makes you wonder -
seattle... tech industry ...now has enough money to just travel, hmmm. The
next morning before he left, melissa asked him if she could take a picture
of me and chris and then i had to take a picture of chris and melissa and
then he figured he might as well get one too and then the park ranger asked
if we wanted him to take a picture of all three of us together to which
Chris finally blurts out, ok, now i see why you guys only do 50 miles a day.

I have to include this next story because I promised Buster I would include
him in my email. We were riding along the canal on Friday. By the way, do
you know that you can travel by boat from New Orleans to New York completely
by rivers and lakes? We're thinking 2002, 2003? Anyone interested? Anyone
know anything about boating? Back to Buster. We're riding along and this
dog comes bounding up to the trail. We stop because dogs are the enemies on
this trip. But this dog (spaniel of some sort, beautiful) was all about
making friends. So we just start riding again. And he starts jogging along
with us. It's at this point that we started making up what he was probably
thinking. He's thinking, "oh boy, we're going for a jog? great, let's go!"
We keep biking and he keeps going with us. Melissa remarks, "he'll
probably turn around soon." Buster's thinking, "you're going to Buffalo?
I've always wanted to GO to Buffalo!" We comment that he is pretty clean
and really well groomed and dogs like that don't usually get let out to run
around canals." Buster's thinking, "Damn straight!" So melissa called the
number on his dog tag and starts talking to a 5 year old. I hear from
Melissa, "is your mommy or daddy home? No? do you have a dog named buster?
Is he allowed out of the house? No? Can you come up to the trail and pick
him up? Well, honey i don't know where you live so i can't bring him home.
Your sister will meet us? ok." Meanwhile buster finally realized that
there was a big canal with lots of water next to us and goes for a bit of a
swim. Buster's thinking, "oh boy, i'm swimming, we're going to Buffalo,
this is the best day ever!" The story ends with us taking Buster back home,
the 5 year old meets us on the street and Buster is currently the envy of
all the other housebound dogs in the neighborhood.

That last story is funnier if you hear it in person. ok, it was only funny
to Melissa and me, sorry.

We stayed for free again by the canal on Friday night (we love the canal!)
in Lockport, NY. Today we rode to Niagara Falls. That's where we crossed
into canada. That was a scene. The pedestrian walkway over the bridge was
being worked on so the construction workers told us to walk our bikes on the
other side of the guard rail (in other words in the lane where the cars are
driving towards us) and walk them over the bridge. They thought it wouldn't
be a problem since i was wearing bright colors. Imagine playing a kicked up
version of chicken on a 2 lane bridge rolling about 75 pounds of gear next
to me in competition with an oncoming very immobile mobile home which is
driving about 40 mph. It was a thrill, that's for sure.

We met up with Melissa's parents once we got into Niagara and just got back
from lunch with them. Later we'll go out to the Falls (which i've never
seen).

Hope everyone is doing well.
cheers,
leigh

There's no place like home

Hello,
I'm in New York City. I can hear the collective, "What?!" now, so I'll
explain. My friend Jessa, who I played rugby with in New York, got married
on Saturday. A few months ago when I told Jessa that I would be biking
across the US this summer she said, "That's great, but I'm getting married
on June 30th, and if you miss my wedding I'll kick your ass." And,
well...she could. So, Melissa and I caught a bus down from Fulton to
Syracuse (we left our bikes at a bike shop in Fulton). We rented a car -
strike that. We tried to rent a car at the Syracuse airport, but for some
reason all of the rental agencies were sold out except Enterprise and all
they had left was a soft top SUV. Even though we paid much more money than
originally anticipated, we definitely had fun cruising down 84, with the top
down, singing all the wrong words at the top of our lungs to various songs
from the 1980's.

On Wednesday and Thursday Melissa and I were planning out what kind of food
we would have when we got back home (we spend a lot of time alone on our
bikes, and sorting through favorite foods is a pretty good way to pass the
time). It was a close contest, but in the end my number one choice was
honey walnut and avocado rolls and sushi, so on Friday afternoon I met my
friend Amy downtown at Hunan Pan to indulge myself. I also got to see
pictures from Amy and my roommate Betty's trip to China which Betty extended
to other Southeast Asian countries and should be returning home any day now.
I was going to meet up with my friend Sarah for dinner, but around 6:30 she
was still at work (this was a bit of a shock since she has half day fridays
during the summer and everyone else was gone at her office... it's amazing
how much I don't miss working.) However the nice part was that advertising
agencies usually keep beer in the fridge, so we had a couple drinks while
catching up in her office instead of a crowded bar. Oh, and they had tubs
of chinese food left over from a meeting - so dinner was on McCann. My
travelling "free food/ground score" mentality is a little frightening.
Later, I met up with my friend Matt and helped him move - ok, i really
didn't help him move but I was there while he was moving and would like to
think that it counts for something.

Saturday morning a bunch of us caught the LIRR out to Long Island for the
wedding. Now some of you might be asking (I know b/c some of you have asked
me) how did you carry your dress and shoes with you on your bike. It was on
a hanger that was attached to my rear rack - flowing behind me in the wind
like streamers on handlebars. No, I gave it to my friend Jane to hold
before I left the city. I was very worried that I wouldn't fit into the
dress, because contrary to popular belief, I haven't lost weight on this
trip. I don't think people realize how much and how often we eat. It's
tough to lose weight when you're eating 10,000 calories a day and half of
them are from ice cream. But, I actually did fit in the dress. And to aid
you even further in your visual of me, I cut my hair to my shoulders before
the start of the bike trip. My favorite quote about my hair came on friday
when a friend said, "wow, you chopped your hair. It looks nice, I like
it...you know I'm lying, right?" So when you combine that with my snazzy
biker tan (white hands with one tan spot where the hole in my glove is -
nicknamed the liver spot - as well as blaring white shoulders and thighs
from my short sleeved jersey and shorts) plus the 15 or so black fly bites
on my neck and face...yeah, i looked hot.

The ceremony was fabulously short, Jessa looked absoutely beautiful and then
we all went over to the reception and had a great time. You know it's a
rugby wedding (her husband also plays for the New York men's team) when you
walk in and pick up your Leigh Nagy seating assignment card, flip it over
and it reads - "Bar". All of the rugby friends were seated at the huge bar.
I guess they figured that there was no need to pay for a table when they'd
all be there anyway. Also, for the bouquet and garter toss there were two
lines for a lineout with full lifting. This is hard to explain for people
who have never seen it, but try to picture two women in dresses and heels
lifting another woman in a dress and heels by the hips and holding her up
there until the bouquet is caught. Now multiply this a few times and you
can envision the scene.

Yesterday I got to do my favorite new york thing which is walk around and go
to movies. So right now I'm just really happy that I got to come back and
eat good food, catch up with good people and just soak up the energy that
emanates from New York.

I am now going to go meet Melissa down by the Holland Tunnel (she went down
to Philly and Rehobeth for the weekend) and we'll then drive back up to
Syracuse.

A big thank you to Jane Kim and her roommates for allowing me to take over
their apartment for the weekend. I've never seen anyone with so much
entertainment stuff - big screen tv, TIVO, dvd player, PS2, DSL lines to the
computers, etc. Too bad I couldn't use it. I turned the TV on once, there
was all snow, I looked at the 4 remote controls in front of me, panicked and
walked over and quickly turned the tv off before I ruined any settings.

cheers,
leigh