Hey everyone!

It's been a while since our last long update when we crossed into Ohio. We're pleased to report that we've been in two states since then - across Indiana and now we're in Illinois. That marks 7 out of the total 13 states we'll cross, which feels pretty great!

Speaking of feeling great - or not - we've taken the last few days off while Jade recovers from Bronchitis.  Despite feeling a bit under the weather, we did take a little trip to Chicago (Evan's first visit, Jade's second) where we saw a hilarious show at The Second City and caught up with Evan's college buddy (and backer) Sam. We even had a chance to tour the Chicago Board of Trade and see the activity on the trading floor at closing bell - pretty intense stuff!

Did you know that winter is coming? That is what we keep hearing!  Not to worry - we've stocked up on cold weather gear: hats, gloves, coats, under armor, etc, so we'll be nice and toasty.  So far, our coldest night has been around 40 degrees, and we were very warm in our sleeping bags. Tomorrow's high is around 60 degrees, which sounds like perfect walking weather to us!

We have 2 1/2 more states of corn and soybeans to look forward to (the rest of Illinois, then Iowa and Nebraska) then we'll be in Wyoming, where we'll have to say goodbye to flat terrain and hello to some serious inclines, but by that time, we'll probably be ready for a change of scenery!

A very special thanks to Evan's relatives in Morris, Illinois, who hosted us and showed us the local sights while Jade recuperated. We were even featured on the front page of their local paper (check it out here: http://bit.ly/p6frBi). Jade's feeling better so we were back on the road today and things are great! We're looking forward to crossing the Mississippi River in a couple of days!

If you have any advice for us, or know anyone in our upcoming states, or just miss us and want to say hi, drop us a line at adventure.access.trail@gmail.com.

Here's us at the Indiana and Illinois borders!

Cheers,

Jade and Evan

Hi Everyone!

We took a short hiatus to rest up and see our families, but we are back on the road as of August 16 and we’re now almost halfway across Ohio.  When we walked through where we both grew up, we had some “guest walkers” join us: Evan’s dad walked with us for a mile and a half, Jade’s mom rolled with us for a couple miles, and Jade’s aunt Jill joined us for an entire day - 23 miles!  We even had some local news coverage while we were home.  Check out the newspaper article attached below!  We felt a little bit famous as we traveled through Northwest Pennsylvania and Northeast Ohio, because people who had seen the news coverage would stop us on the road and want to chat with us!

As we mentioned in the last update - we switched from backpacks to a cart, which has made things much easier.  The cart is awesome on flat stretches, and not too bad on hills either, plus we can take turns pushing, which gives the other person a break.  Having the cart also makes us much more visible to cars passing by, and one nice family we met near Middlefield, Ohio (home of the 4th largest Amish settlement, by the way) even gave us an orange flag that we have attached to our cart for added visibility.  

As we approach the Toledo area, that means that we are almost 1/4 of the way across the US!!  Can you believe it!?  We’re also starting to think about gear for cooler weather, but for now it's still in the 80s so we're definitely looking forward to some crisp fall air.  We’re also looking forward to walking through states in the US that we’ve never been to - Evan has never been between Ohio and California and Jade has never been between Chicago and California.  Between here and Chicago we have friends and family members along the way who we are very excited to see!  Maybe we will be able to convince them to walk with us for a day too!

We’ve uploaded lots of new pictures to our Flickr account, which you can check out here.  We had a bit of a backlog of photos to upload, so they’re not all in order but they should give you an idea of what we have been up to!

Here’s a picture of us crossing into Ohio!

Cheers,
Jade & Evan

We crossed the Delaware River the other night, which meant we had made it to Pennsylvania!  Since we both grew up in PA, we were very excited to be in our home state!  Crossing the PA state line also meant we had made it to the first state that does not touch the ocean, so we're making progress! 

Then the heat wave hit, and as crazy as we are, we knew there was no way for us to walk in that heat, so we have taken a few rest days to beat the heat and we'll be back on the road tomorrow. 

For the next couple of weeks, we'll be in PA and looking forward to a sharp decline in the amount of hills and bears that we encounter once we're across the state and entering Ohio.  Just kidding, we haven't met any bears yet!  When you're camping though, we've found a couple things that sound like bears, but are not.  Here are some videos we found on youtube that exemplify our (hopefully not growing) list of those things.

-Growling raccoon (One of these angry dudes was *right* outside of our tent!)

-Snorting deer (Yes it doesn't sound that dramatic, but 9 hours of that outside your tent is pretty freaky)

We're having tons of fun but the walking is hard, especially when it is so hot out and there are so many hills!  We've been able to do over 20 miles in a day but it basically takes from sunrise to sunset.  We will be able to increase our pace after we are out of such hilly terrain and the weather starts to cool off a bit.  But for now, we're toughing it out and trying to get in at least 15 miles per day.  

We'll keep you updated on our travels across Pennsylvania.  Two places you should check out for more frequent updates are our Twitter and Flickr feeds.  We try to update those at least once per day while we're walking.  

We don't always have cell service or a full battery, but we love hearing from all of you.  The texts, phone calls, and emails have helped keep us sane through the raccoon and deer encounters, rain storms, heat waves, and hills.  Please keep in touch!

Cheers,

Jade & Evan

PS: Here's a picture of us on the bridge crossing the Delaware and entering PA!