August 6, 2025 Update 🚴‍♂️
Have you ever wondered where the @quaker main factory is?!?! Me neither! But thanks to Nick and his cross country bike ride down the Mississippi River, we now know it’s in Cedar Rapids, IA! Since we’re on a trivia kick— did you know that facility is the LARGEST milling facility in the WORLD!! They process more than 2 million pounds of oats DAILY! 🤯🥣 #themoreyouknow
If you haven’t figured it out by now— Nick passed through Cedar Rapids, IA yesterday!
He was thrilled to pick up the @greatamericanrailtrail and be on it for approximately 40 miles! The path was smooth, beautiful scenery, no semi trucks, and no breathing in exhaust. Nick was so impressed he stopped to FaceTime us so we could see how beautiful the trail was. It was a very welcome change from the gravel and dirt roads he’s been on most of the week.
We said our goodbyes and about 5 miles later, he said goodbye to the trail too. The gravel and dirt welcomed him back with open arms and continued on for as far as the eye could see.
He pedaled through the gravel roads and managed another day of “poor” air quality and rolled into Muscatine, IA where he spent the night.
He’s still enjoying the ride, has met lots of interesting and wonderful people, and is finally getting some better scenery.
Nick is excited to be part of @rotaryinternational quest to #endpolionow and to be “taking action” to make a difference!
If riding a bike 1,600+ miles isn’t your thing, but you’d still like to support Nick and take action in your own way to help eradicate polio please visit https://raise.rotary.org/NickHall/challenge
What reason would anyone want to ride their bike across the country (especially more than once)!?!? 🙋🏽‍♂️🙋🏼‍♀️🤷🏻‍♂️
That’s the main question Nick often gets asked. Maybe hearing him explain it himself will help you understand.
🚴‍♂️ Follow for updates on his adventure down the Mississippi River while he takes action to help the @rotaryinternational quest to eradicate polio!
📍Post your questions below and we’ll get Nick to answer them along the way!
📢 If you’d like to #takeaction and be part of Nick’s team to #endpolionow visit
https://raise.rotary.org/NickHall/challenge?

🚴‍♂️ August 2nd Ride Recap 🚴‍♂️
Nick started the morning well rested and feeling “great” after his bike and body recharge 🛏️🔌
He fought a headache most of the day and was relieved when he concluded it was most likely due to the extremely poor air quality and not at all to do with his age and means of transportation.
More beautiful scenery, history, and extremely kind people—more about that later!
Nick logged 90.4 more miles towards the @rotaryinternational campaign to #endpolionow
He got fancy and found a @wyndhamhotels It was a few extra miles off his route—between the salad bar he found at a local restaurant for supper and the hotel breakfast that was ready bright and early, it was worth every pedal stroke!

Wednesday 7/30/2025 - Travel Day update from "Nick's daughter Rachele: 🚴‍♂️💨 At 3AM sharp, Nick hit the road from Temple Terrace, FL — destination: Bemidji, MN — where he was welcomed with open arms by fellow Rotarians (that also happen to be from Tampa)! SCOTT DUDLEY you rock!
After a long day of travel (and months of prep condensed into just two whirlwind weeks), Nick and his bike are officially ready to kick off his next big adventure — cycling the length of the mighty Mississippi River to raise awareness and support for Rotary International’s PolioPlus campaign. 🌍💪#ENDPOLIONOW
From the Florida sunrise to the Mississippi headwaters and dinner with friends — today was just the beginning of something incredible. Stay tuned as the journey unfolds!

The decision to undertake this ride was made on July 9th. I fly to the start on July 30th and head south on the 31st. The bike was shipped today (July 18th), so training will have to be on my backup bike. It's not ideal, but at least I won't have to deal with mountain ranges and thousands of feet of climbing; instead, I'll be dealing with hills measured in hundreds of feet, although some will likely have steep grades.

Training on a backup bike isn't ideal, but the terrain will be much more forgiving than true mountain climbing, which occurred during portions of all the previous rides. Those hills with steep grades will also provide good preparation for punishing headwinds.