Sunday, July 27, 2008

NEWPORT OREGON: the final frontier for the summer of 2008

Well team, we made it to the finish line. I apologize for the lack of posts through oregon, the internet wasn't that great in the towns we went through and we realized that after dropping the trailers we'd be getting in about a week earlier than expected so i took this opportunity to get an early flight home and surprise the boy, which worked out nicely. Getting into oregon felt like coming home, the air was amazing and cooler. Our first night we slept in vale oregon then pedaled through gradual hills desert and old lava fields into burns oregon. Oregon has forests that surpass those in fairytales and my imagination. The trees are so big and healthy and there's just so much green, it was heavenly. One of the best/worst rides we did that i definitely want to go back to do again was a 98 mile stretch from the town of bend oregon to the town of sweet home, or. For the first few miles its realitively flat on a nice road and you pass llama farms and forest and then you get to pedal your way over two passes at about 5,000 feet, passing the pct intbetween them. Passing the sign for the pacific crest trail was sort of a surreal moment for me. I developed an idea for the ultimate biathlon race/endeavor, you start on the appalachian trail and hike north, then you hop on a bike and ride the northern tier biking route from maine to the pct where you begin to hike southbound till you hit southern california where you hop on a bike again and cruise back over the AT, just a thought. anyways, the last 25 miles of the 95 mile stretch are completely down hill, and you hit a river bed that you continue to follow for another 15 mile or so, you end in sweet home where there is both a dairy queen and a DQ, not much else you could ask for.
Our last day into newport ironically ended up being our worst day, mechanically speaking of riding. My seat had somehow become unleveled or something and was causing immense pain just to sit on, none of our maps matched up with the mileage we were seeing on signs and garland took a spill and nearly tore one of the spokes clear out of his rim, but the night is always darkest just before the dawn. We cruised down the mountains of the coastal range for what felt like forever, at every turn i was hoping to see the ocean.
At 6:40 pm i stopped to get some sugar in my system and as we had given up on the maps i checked my trusty gps and it told us that we were 5.4 miles to newport, this gave us newfound hope that we knew we had to take with a grain of salt, as has been the golden rule for this whole trip, we got back on the bike and finally saw the ocean. I got chills at the first sight of it. We started screaming as we rolled into newport and closer to the shore line, amazed that we had finally made it. We passed the entry to coastal route 101 where route 20 ends/begins and flew past it to get to the beach. We christened our bikes in the water and sat in awe for a little bit/
I think part of what draws me to trips like this is that, apart from the physical challenge, they simplify life completely and allow you see what is really important, but for me at least, they also allow me to experience the simple joys that life has to offer on such a human level. Having a bed and shower become amazing. Eating fresh fruit and vegetables becomes orgasmic. The worst day on the bike is still better than a good day at the office. This was an incredible way to see the country and we met people who literally brought tears to my eyes with their selflessness and trust in us.
here are some facts and stats of the trip:
number of gatorade/electrolyte enhanced drinks it takes for two people to bike cross country:
240 bottles which comes to 7,680 ounces of gatorade.

number of dairy queen blizzards:
12 - this still wasn't enough

number of porsche cayennes that nearly took me out:
4

number of calories burned based on a 150 pound man which inbetween both of our weights:
378,000

calories burned per day:
6,000-8,000

number of flats:
3

we saw more obama stickers than any other candidate
more for hillary in nebraska than any other state
ron paul was very popular in central new york and some desolate farm lands out west
one mitt romney stickker found on a jeep wrangler with a colorado plate

cheapest gas
3.75 in oregon


longest day:
130 miles burns-bend oregon
shortest day:
48 miles somewhere in new york.

tubes of chamois butter:
2.5

Sunday, July 20, 2008

IDAHO- featuring nobody puts baby in the corner and keep on peddlin' till you can't peddle no mo'!

The quasi cool thing about idaho is that its flat you get to go through old lava fields, its wide open spaces and small charming towns, however when its 100 degrees out and there's no coverage you get a little cooked. Today was our first day with out the trailers and it was amazing, my knee felt peachy keen.the first part of the day felt like a 22 mile time trial, there's a stretch in idaho where it joins with I-84 and cyclists are allowed on however there was a 22 mile section where road work was being down so we barely had an shoulder and it seemed like everyone and their mom was out for a ride. We were dodging glass, gnarly road kill and some genius who had dropped a box of tons of screws. Riding with your nerves jacked like that isn't that much fun, after lunch things turned around and we are camped in a really cute little farm town near the oregon border. We downed some delicious sangys for dinner then walked to the local DQ to fuel up for our big mile days coming up. The time after we get into a town and before bed is my favorite, I had the same sensation on the AT where you stroll around some small town with a feeling of happiness in knowing that for this one night, the town is your home and tomorrow you'll be on the road again. Tomorrow I will lock lips with and shake my booty at oregon. The light at the end of the tunnel.
Song of the day:
Midnight rider- allman brothers.
Quote of the day:
'I gave all of my fat clothes to my fat friends'
'Hey! I like this izod t-shirt'

Friday, July 18, 2008

idaho falls

The cool thing about route 20 in idaho is that it goes through the valley in between two mountain ranges which means you can go flat and fast. Unfortunately my left knee has been getting progressively more painful over the past few days. I took some pain killers for a few days knowing that I didn't want to finish this trip taking 12 ibuprofen a day just so I can finish, I did that on the AT and paid the price with some surgery a few months after. As I rode through the pain I began scheming 'the idaho plan', goat and I are going to ship our obese children, felix and little boo that constitute our trailers home and go with literally the bare essentials. Hopefully dropping the weight will help. Those of you that know me well, know that I am very stubborn and get maybe just slightly angry when I can't exert or be kinetic in the way that I please. Doing stuff like this is sort of how I metabolize life and transcend its curveballs and such. So we're taking a zero in idaho falls where I will ice my knee and drink water like its my job and hopefully I'll be able to finish this beast healthy and in one piece. I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't pay money for a nice little cortizone shot right now, but I am 23 and I've learned that I love and need my knees if I want to stay afloat.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Dear Yellowstone: I think 'bout you in the summertime.....

Well folks, team presta-schrader/schrader-presta made it through yellowstone alive and kicking. We camped at an rv park in buffalo bill national forest outside the park and enjoyed a hot tub dip, shower and a little wild west breakfast where the other patrons on the ranch were legit cowboys. We then began the moderate 10 mile climb to the east entrance where we stopped for a lunch break, to fuel up for the brutal 8 mile climb up to the continental divide at over 8,000 feet. I was so greatful to be able to see the park by bike because I knew we were catching details that you get never get from an rv or car. It made me think a lot about john muir and his treks of simple bliss into awesome wilderness. We played in some snow fields at the top of the pass and then coasted down to yellowstone lake at 7,000 feet. It was stunning, we camped at bay bridge and the sign might as well have said ' rv's welcome, CYCLISTS ENTRANCE IN BACK' we got a total shaft on our camping spot, you'd think they'd let those who cycled or hiked and actually worked their butts off to get this point a spot near the entrance as oppsposed to the gazillion rv's but that's not the case, so we had to climb two hills to get to a mosquito infested spot where we slept next a church group whom we were sure would increase our chances of a bear attack as they had food strewn all over the site.We woke up and quickly busted out of the campsite. The cool thing about climbing into yellowstone is that you get to fly out of there going downhill. We stopped for lunch at old faithful and it was sort of a culture shock, it was more conjested with tourists than any other big city we've gone through. After getting odd looks as we ate our lunch because we look dirty and smell funny we decided we had to bust out the park as fast as our legs were willing to go.we covered 70 miles in record time and rewarded ourselves with pizza and chocolate milk in west yellowstone montana. We are currently in idaho enjoying some of the flat plains.
Here are some quotable from the past few days:
'When I grow up I'm gonna go in a hot tub'- a little boy watching goat and I in the hot tub.

Goat: does the next town have any churches?
Local gas station worker: well there's an elementary school with a fence. They had to build the fence because mountain lions would stalk the children'
'Goat: how do you say bear in french?'
Me: ourson, see they're cool because they actually use part of the scientific genus name instead of some word like bear. Its winnie the bear.
Goat: what do we call him?
Me: winnie the pooh, we call him winnie the pooh.
Goat; what the hell is a pooh, who came up with that? Why do we call him that?
This was both us delirious in our tents hiding from bears and mosquitos and extreme christian campers.
Songs: 50 ways... By my steadfast buddy of wisdom and rythms to live by, paulie simon

Holyman by blindmelon

And every song written by elton john, ever

Sunday, July 13, 2008

wyoming- let me tell you something 'bout yourself you don't know

We get it, you're big and desolate and you have more cattle than people. Put it away.
We rolled out of caspar today into the empty but stunning abyss that is 93% of this giant state. I don't know what my deal was today, whether its because we pushed hard the past two days or my body is starting to break down a bit, but I was not feeling it at all. We usually take a break every 90 minutes or so but today the heat just cooked us and every 50 minutes or so we had to get off the bikes and just sit. It just felt like I was pedaling forever and not getting anywhere. We passed the 'town' of powder river with a population of 10 and another gem called Moneta which boasts a wholesome 5 people. Our day was looking pretty bleak as it became apparent that the water sources we were depending on did not have water. We finally caved and stuck our trusty thumbs. The first truck pulled over and we threw our bikes in and introduced ourselves to brian, who was born and raised in lovell wyoming and had a lot of cool stories about the state. We bought him a six pack in exchange for the ride and cruised along through mountains and canyons. I saw a wild horse roll around the ground like a playful cat with his three horse buddies looking at him like 'what are you doing, we don't really play like that'.tomorrow we'll head into yellowstone.
Song of the day:
Tuesday's gone with the wind
After this we've got three more states. Giddy- up

wyoming- let me tell you something 'bout yourself you don't know

We get it, you're big and desolate and you have more cattle than people. Put it away.
We rolled out of caspar today into the empty but stunning abyss that is 93% of this giant state. I don't know what my deal was today, whether its because we pushed hard the past two days or my body is starting to break down a bit, but I was not feeling it at all. We usually take a break every 90 minutes or so but today the heat just cooked us and every 50 minutes or so we had to get off the bikes and just sit. It just felt like I was pedaling forever and not getting anywhere. We passed the 'town' of powder river with a population of 10 and another gem called Moneta which boasts a wholesome 5 people. Our day was looking pretty bleak as it became apparent that the water sources we were depending on did not have water. We finally caved and stuck our trusty thumbs. The first truck pulled over and we threw our bikes in and introduced ourselves to brian, who was born and raised in lovell wyoming and had a lot of cool stories about the state. We bought him a six pack in exchange for the ride and cruised along through mountains and canyons. I saw a wild horse roll around the ground like a playful cat with his three horse buddies looking at him like 'what are you doing, we don't really play like that'.tomorrow we'll head into yellowstone.
Song of the day:
Tuesday's gone with the wind
After this we've got three more states. Giddy- up

Saturday, July 12, 2008

wyoming! a little left leg left leg right leg right leg

We are now two days in wyoming camped out in caspar. Yesterday we pulled 70 miles and it was the hardest day we've had so far. Wyoming itself isn't that difficult, there's nice gradual uphills and even though everything looks and feels fairly flat, we keep passing towns that are above 4,000 feet. Mount katahdin is over 5,000 feet, so its cool to put that in perspective, however yesterday we had a crazy relentless headwind that even when we were going down a big hill, we still had to pedal hard just to get 10 mph, we usually go upwards of 28 mph downhill. We were absolutely cooked at the end of the day and found a nice little park with a pavillion and a bathroom as a bonus in glendo wyoming. This morning as I was riding the song jack and diane came on and just the lyrics jack was gonna be a football star were played, I looked down and saw a football on the side of the road. Out of the whole state of wyoming and out of all the songs that I could have been played, those moments somehow were in syncopation with each other. I love stuff like that. Apart from the dead animal carcasses and soda bottles fill with piss, wyoming is awesome to ride through. All of my muscles hurt, I'm shedding salt and my pee is a nice healthy nuclear neon yellow, but loving every minute of it. This why we came out here. Heading into yellowstone in a about two days.
Song of the day;
Into the great wide open- tom petty.
Quote of the day;
So you wanna take a break in like 10 miles and cry for a bit?
Me to goat as we left our lunch spot and headed out into the wind

Thursday, July 10, 2008

nebraska helped me name my little hernia

Well we made it into and almost through nebraska, its flat and beautiful with absolutely nothing for as far as the eye can see, we've been passing towns with populations of less than 100 and towns that don't exsist anymore. I've never been to nebraska or seen anything like it but its awesome for big miles.had a little bit of heat exhaustion scare or something earlier today. I was feeling totally fine and then pulled over to a subway and sort of came in and out of consciousness for a bit goat and I then decided to make it an early day since the next town is 47 miles from here with literally nothing in between. We keep passing historical markers for the oregon trail and its so cool to think about what it must have been like to come west on wagon never knowing if you were going to see a town or place for food. We talked about how many people need to be rescued because they venture out into the wilderness unprepared or worse yet they assume that someone will come and save them, back then you had to be prepared to endure whatever where and whenever.we've got three more states to go and few more days until we head into yellowstone and the mountains.
Song of the day: hurt so good- john mellencamp
Quote of the day: do you know what you're naming your hernia?
Mmmmm. OGALLALA! Its name is ogallala.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Some pictures up to this point








I'm sure there's a better way to do this, like make an album or something, but I can't seem to figure that out right now:

CLEVELAND ROCKS................. sort of



well team, here's how the last few days went down. We woke up to pouring rain on thursday and lazily put our gear together and got breakfast, this should have been my first red flag, I'm usually quick and efficient in the morning, anxcious to start the days miles and get a move one, although waking up in a bed always makes this slightly difficult. We watched the weather channel as we packed to see a large green storm across the screen that we knew we'd be riding in all day. Second red flag, I decided to call my mom, just to check in and see how she was and what her game plan was for meeting us around the 4th. When I was little, whenever my mom stayed home from work, I would inevitably suddenly feel sort of sick myself and end up in the school nurses office, only to go back home shortly where I knew my mom was. Part of this was because I just wanted to be with my mom, which I didn't get to a whole lot when I was younger and part of it was because I knew she was home and I had an out. After getting off the phone with her and deciding that I should suck it up and stop being a baby about riding in the rain, Garland and I looked at each first settled on waiting till it stopped pouring, both sort of knowing that maybe we should just take a zero day ( a day off, called a zero because you bike zero miles) but neither of us wanting to give in to it first. Third red flag, we both gave in our situation, decided to go get back in bed, and officially take our first zero. We went and saw Hancock and then proceeded to sneak into Wall. E, which was very charming and cute. We ate and slept and then ate some more. It poured all day. We figured it was either ride only like 40 miles through cleveland traffic and be cold and upset, or chill out and be able to wake up fresh and probably cover twice the distance the next day. We woke up on the 4th and hit the road around 7, we coasted along the lake erie coast cruising at like 15 mph the whole way, the eastern suburbs of cleveland were very green and pretty. I then proceeded to get the worst possible flat a biker can get. I heard a large POP and pulled over to hear all the air gushing out of my tire. We joked about how if this had happened the day before in the rain, I would have been livid. We continued to ride along and went right through the projects and slums of east cleveland along the way, enduring some friendly cat calls and looks that said, what are these crazy white kids doing here?
Thanks to the holiday there wasn't a whole lot of traffic and I don't think we would have made it through alive on any other day. We fell in line with a cycling group out for the 4th and rode with them for a little bit till we saw the route 20 turn off, we turned a corner and quickly realized that we were going onto an on ramp where 20, 6 and 2 become a fun little stretch of super highway. Knowing that this was completely illegal, we pedaled our little hearts out, waiting to hear the sirens to pull us over, once again, if it had not been the 4th, we never would have made it. Happy to be outside of cleveland we coasted through the flat roads of central ohio.
Quote of the day:
'maybe you're being a baby because you know you have an out'- my mom
'I'm tired of my thighs rubbin' together!' a large black man wanting to lose weight

song of the day:
A little 'lawless and lulu' by buckcherry:
And now the dreams are near and the conscience clearing
Crazy about your love
Another change of direction and the motivation
King and queen of the nighttime world

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

we like state lines

I am currently lying bathed and fed on a motel 8 bed with ac cooling my sunburned legs and this might be close to heaven. We rode into ohio today and cruised through ashtabula, which I'd always heard in that bob dylan song (you're gonna make me lonesome...) And now I know where it is and that they have a nice bike shop.prior to doing this trip I never really cared for ohio, mostly because it was the longest most boring state I would have to haul through on drives home to chicago, I now appreciate it a bit more because its crazy flat, but so far its also full of the worst drivers we've had this trip. As the day got crazy hot we took a nice afternoon break for some sweet tea and sat in the shade and watched a beetle get frustrated in the grass. We are 11 days into the trip and I think we're finally 'trail tough' so to speak, our bodies are used to the abuse the bikes provide, we can pull bigger miles and our appetites continue to soar with this calorie burning festival.word.
Song of the day:
A mix of ziggy plays guitar and holyman by blind melon.
Quote of the day:
you must do a lot of waiting around in the morning- the pastor dan to me as we sat around for while waiting for goat. Mornings are tough for him.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

team prest/schrader schrader/presta crosses another state line (finally)

Today we had some of the best weather I've seen so far this trip. We cruised past some more new york vineyards and made our way across the PA state line around lunch time, we stopped at mcdonalds for the only thing we ever stop at mcdonalds for apart from bathrooms. Sweet tea. Everything else is crap but this summer 1$ for 32 oz. Of cold glucose flowing liquid is the best deal a cyclist can handle on a hot day. I treated myself to a brief listen on my ipod and took in the into the wild soundtrack by eddy vedder, it made me think a lot about this trip, the boy, and the love/hate relationship I have with this country. Every town we go through everyone is trying to sell their suv, the cheapest gas we saw was for 3.99 in western mass, and every town has at least 2-4 cvs, rite-aide or walgreens on opposing corners. Plus walmarts and targets full of other crap we don't need. On one level everything looks the same, and from an outsiders perspective we have to look like complete idiots. I mean, I understand there are certain rules for fair competition on the market (although between you and me, in my heart of liberal passionate hearts I think that said rules exist because we say they do and thus we abide by them... but anyways), do we really need to clutter our land and streets with the same stuff? Do I sound like a typical skeptical angsty 20 something thinking I'm unique with these thoughts and cool because I can 'damn the man'? Absolutely.
Is my experience still valid because it is mine and mine alone? Sure.
Today I was almost taken out by a gentleman in a porsche cayenne. Let's stop and think about this for a second. I can respect a porsche for its fine craftsmanship as a fast machine. But a porshce suv. nobody needs a porsche suv. This is why we are jerks. No one is going to off roading in their porsche suv. The common man does not need a hummer h2. that is in fact the last thing we should be satiated with. Anyways... We rode into erie pa and a pastor by the name of dan offered us his home for the evening, we got shower, eat an amazing sandwich and dan took us out to see an amazing sunset over lake erie. It is gestures and generiousity like dan's that make me love this country and fuel a hope inside me, its the gems in their porshe cayennes and corporate homogeny that clogs our landscape and breeds future generations of idiots that challenges me. Some things you fight till the death.

Monday, June 30, 2008

new york is big

We managed to make it through the night in our stealth spot without getting hasseled. A woman in the church opened the window to the corridor we slept in and the first she asks is ' do you guys need any money?'. Today was the first day I was able to hold a mean 15Mph cadence for like 80% of the day. We played a little muscle recruitment game where you trick your fast twitching muscles into they aren't fatigued by tweaking the gears and cadence.I read an article that said that if a 150 lbs man bikes 15 mph for 90 minutes he can refuel with a large oreo blizzard from dairy queen. This awesome information prompted us to stop for lunch at the first dq we saw. Our appetites are definitely soaring as we trek through.at one point when I was going down hill a bee flew into me, hit the center of my collar bone, died on impact because I was going so fast and fell into my sports bra. Good times.we are clean fed and about to pass out.
Song of the day: 'before we crazy, before we explode, there' somethin' bout me baby you ought to know. I get off on 57 chevy's, I get off on screamin' guitars, I've got a rock'n'roll heart. - mr. Eric Clapton, if you haven't heard this song its amazing.
Quote of the day:
You mean to tell me you've pumping yourself with some type of rocketfuel crack every morning to get yourself going while I suffer to wake myself up naturally!? WTF! Me to goat as he drank his pink morning drink

Sunday, June 29, 2008

avon, ny i ran the race, i kept the faith

This morning I woke up well rested on a wrestling mat of the gym we slept in, we met the pastor at 6am for some breakfast and he told us about the town and we discussed the virtues of youth and how we are able to do this now. We stayed for his sermon and then hit the road which was so kind to us today. We were able to consistently average like 12-15 miles the whole day, much better than the agonizing 5 mph we were pulling in the beastly hills yesterday. We stopped at a walmart to resupply some dinners, cookies and gatorade. We passed like 5 walmarts today, which is good because I was afraid america didn't have enough, we cruised past some of the wine country and fingerlakes. After taking our afternoon break for a lemonade slushie we continued pedaling until a crazy storm unleashed its fury on us. We pulled over to a gas station and passed some time talking with a couple motorcyclists.as the rain died off a bit we decided to hit the road again, my adrenaline started kicking in and I went from being scared of lightening to singing bill withers at the top of my lungs while goat and I muscled our way up the last hills getting drenched by every car that passed. We stopped at a memorial for a cyclist who had been killed, they had painted a bike white and put his jersey up with a sign reminding people to be cautious and share the road, goat and I looked at eachother and got chills as cars sped past us. We are currently stealth camped in avon, ny under the cement overhang of a church. We are full of rice, contemplating chocolate protein powder and question whether biking cross country or hiking the AT is more demanding on your body.
Tomorrow we hit up lake erie.
Song of the day: if there's a driver on the road then let him have my load 'cause tonight I'll be staying here with you- bobby d
Quote of the day;I ran the race, I kept the faith.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

3 flats in 18 hours and beastly climbs

Well today started out strong, we patched up our tires, had some delicious donuts and I was able to rock out to the local motown station that central new york has to offer.we checked the weather to find lightning bolts across the screen for the rest of the week and the weatherman actually said 'bombs away to new york' when describing the weather coming through. We made our way through the infamous pompey hills and this was honestly some of the hardest climbing I've ever experienced. You had to dig deep to make it up these hills. I'm usually able to play mental games and tell myself that I can do it because there's no way it can be harder than some of the toughest AT climbs. Today it was harder, I had to convince myself that every hard workout, all the months of training and pushing and sweat led me to this moment. Today we climbed to test our worth. I questioned several times whether or not I had it in me. On my way to the top as I teetered between feeling like I could prevail and feeling like I just maybe wanted my mom and a bath , a car drove past with one of those 'this car climbed mt. Washington', those stickers have always sort of pissed me off because they should say,' this lazy jerk forced his metal box up an amazing part of nature while his exhaust caused havoc on an already faltering eco-system and the whole time the kids are wondering where the next fast food joint is', maybe I'm bitter, but neither here nor there. Maybe I'll propose that they make one that says this cars owner used his heart and soul to climb mt. Washington. We made it to the finger lakes and the beautiful town of auburn where they just so happen to have a wegmans which is like crack to a hungry cyclist. We got giant sangys and are sleeping inside one of the local churches, the pastor is letting us use his shower and offered us some hot coffee in the morning. Not a whole lot more we could ask for.
Song of the day: stairway to heaven
Quote of the day:
Me: do you ever scared when we go down hill?
Goat: every single time, I pray for my life.

Friday, June 27, 2008

day 5 new york is still hilly, people are awesome

Slept alright in the pavillion last night except that I had afew anxiety dreams about town drunks coming and harrassing us and a dream where I was hanging out with my friends but I knew that I really had to get my bike tuned and I couldn't find the number to any of my favorite bike shops. I woke up and planned on riding a bike shop about 11 miles in the next town over, two miles from said shop I of course got a flat, I contemplated just walking to the shop but figured I'm going to have to do this at some point on my own anyways, in the process of changing the tire I found out I had the wrong size tube, a woman pulled over and offered to drive me to the shop, I piled into her back seat with my trailor and all and we made our way to the shop run by a guy named paul. He quickly got to work and fixed my gears. I asked if he had a rest room and to which he said we do but its really dirty, before I could say that I haven't showered in afew days and am happy just to not have to squat in the woods,he took me outside and gave me the keys to his car and told me to drive to the quick mart. I was beside myself. A person I had met only 5 minutes ago gave me the keys to his car. we're so ingrained and taught not to trust people and to always be skeptical and I've always been more inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt (this adds a layer to a personal conundrum I have with whether we either inherently good or capable of pure good but that's adifferent talk for another time) this guys gesture rekindled my faith in humanity. The rest of the day consisted of some more relentless climbs and a lot of sun.I found two ticks on me and managed to get another right at the end of the day. We are currently camped in a really nice little town called casenovia.its the kind of safe bubble town where kids get bmw's and jeeps on their 16th birthdays and are sent to private schools to secure their spots at ivys, which isn't at all a bad thing, but its not the kind of place that wants dirty cyclists camping out on public property, we tried a bunch churches to no avail and finally found a place on the outside of town.
Quote of the day: mmmmm chamois butt
Song of the day: yoshimi battles the pink robots- flaming lips

Thursday, June 26, 2008

day 4 new york has mad hills and orange salamanders.

Tonight we are camping under the local farmers market pavillion of a charming little town called richfield springs. When I asked some locals where the local police station to ask if we could camp, I was told that there is no local police station so I could ask the mayor or a man by the namr of john who is one of the trustees for this town. John was thankfully all for it. The first 30 miles of our day were in a semi chilly rain up and down relentless hills. In MA my philosophy with gears was to always leave myself an out, see how long I could push in like the 1/3 range and crank it out, new york has forced me to abandon this plan. These hills require the highest gear unless you want to blow out your knees or quads. We stopped for lunch at a local deli and refueled on some amazing grilled cheese. When you're biking cross country it important to sample each counties flavor. A woman was selling homemade fig newton type things and they were so good. We passed a lot of sheep and farms, a walmart distribution centers and a bunch of mobile home dealers. Mobile home dealing seems like such a strange business, its gotta be a ridiculous operation.treking up these hills has made me appreciate (sort of) the amount of energy it takes for trucks to carry mobile homes across the country. Anyways. I saw a mom and two baby deer run right in front of me and sign at a barn selling good luck summer kittens for 10$, it was very difficult for me to not go and look at the kittens and recruit a cuddly route 20 crusing sidekick, but that would have been a bad idea.we should out of the hills and into relatively flatter land as we head towards the lake.
Quote of the day: you guys are biking to oregon and the next 150 miles are going to be the hardest- the local deli guy

Think about your hardest climb on the AT and know that this isn't as bad as that YOU CAN DO IT! GRILLED CHEESE CAN HELP- me to goat as we crawled up a beast

Song of the day: it ain't no use to sit and wonder why babe, given you don't know by now... I gave her my heart but she wanted my soul, don't think twice its all right- bobby d

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

day 3- our first state crossing

So we woke up at the birdcage said farewell to all the thruhikers and made our way west we climbed up mount lebanon (it took us each one donut to successfully make this climb) and we sped down hill into new york. I knew I was truly in new york when I saw a stewarts convenience store. I was first introduced to the magical delicious that is stewarts by my all time favorite trail angel paddy-o. Stewarts makes all sorts of incredibly good juices, milks and cookies. Anything that you could possibly want when you are beating the crap out of your body on a daily basis, stewarts has. We rode into albany and somehow missed the pedestrian/cyclists path and biked illegally on the bypass into the city, I was chased by my first dog and almost took out a guy in a motorized wheel chair. The sun was definitely beating down on us and we already have some nice awkward tans. I decided I don't really like biking through big cities. As we made our way up a ridiculous hill looking for a place to camp we rolled right into a giant church with a very promising pavillion where I am currently sitting getting to feast on a lipton noodle packet and some protein powder. The pastor is this young guy and the youth band camp is currently rocking out providing a nice ambiance to our meal.
Song of the day: david bowie- space odditity and the horns in the bridge to the black crowes welcome to the good times.
Quote of the day: you're such an american asshole, who asks someone from england if they're familiar to rowan atkinson.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

day 2: lateral release of the junk

Today started out with like 40 miles of crazy beautiful rolling hills. Our first pit stop was at small bakery that could have been on a food network special of america's best kept secrets. We passed through all these small charming towns that made me think about how there is much that america is made of, I know so many people who can't handle the thought of not being in a big city, or prefer nyc over boston because its always awake and hustling, but when you break it down, america is huge and there's so much unique aspects in every town. We passed a funeral home called beer and story, which seemed oddly appropriate for a funeral home because sometimes when you lose someone you get together to drink beer and tell stories. The last 20 miles of the day were a relentess uphill in our granniest of granny gears. Chafing is definitely making an appearance and my fancy lady parts are not at all feeling fancy anymore. On each uphill goat and I question our ability to have kids after this ride. Tonight we are sleeping an AT hostel called the birdcage and it was awesome to swap stories with thruhikers. A van full of us went to old country buffet for dinner and we all ate so so much. Ocb is now called ocd in my book b/c there is so much going on there. We clocked in about 85 miles today and got as fast as 30 mph on this one down hill, which when you have a 65 lbs trailor on your butt can be a little crazy.
Song of the day: she woke me up with a bang bang turning over cross eyed had a hunch that world was a big lie,went over to the wayside looking for a high tide... - dispatch
Quote of the day: MY GOD IT FEELS SO GOOD, IT FEELS SO GOOD WHEN YOU SIT BACK DOWN

Monday, June 23, 2008

day 1 .... 65 miles in the rain

So we got on the road around 7 and the first 15 minutes of the ride consisted of me cursing the trailor and its ability to make moving and falling over incredibly awkward and frustrating. We had rolling hills through wayland and waltham, it started raining on the way through waltham and route 20 essentially became a river, to the point that I questioned at what point your bike stops working when its submerged in water. We had lunch in front of a giant mall and were approached by aguy who has done 4 xcountry rides and was fond of saying, 'that can kill you by the way', he gave us some good pointers and then got a little awkward as it became apparent that he was going to tell us about every single storm he went through. As we were coming towards the park we planned to camp in, I stopped to check the map and we saw that we were right across the street from a giant church, not wanting to spend money on a wet campsite, we figured we had nothing to lose asking if we could camp there. We talked to this guy Tim, who called his supervisor to see what our options were. He then told us that for liabililty reasons, we couldn't really camp there, but they weren't going to call the police or chase us off, if we caught his drift, which we did. We sat and talked with him for a bit and then out of nowhere he said that the church would be happy to put us up in a motel, but we had to be in separate rooms since we aren,t married. I was speechless. We rode 4 miles down the road in torrenrial downpour with SUVs covering us from the head down in water as they sped past. I don't think I'll ever be so grateful to the welcoming red sign of an econo lodge as I was tonight. I've heard stories of people getting free rooms and stuff but never ever thought it would happen to me, and on the 1st day of this trip no less. Crazy. Also e.l fudge cookies might be my favorite riding fuel
Song of the day; elias by dispatch
Quote of the day: jesus saves, baby!

Friday, June 20, 2008

Team Presta/Shrader - Shrader/Presta

So, funny thing about leaving on the 19th.... its hard to do when your cycling buddy does not have a bike because the gems that work at the Amtrak in D.C refused to take it, despite the fact that the amtrak website states that it does in fact allow bicycles and that they will even package them for you. I currently have a few bones to pick with Amtrak, not to mention the fact that it was a 3am train, its not like it was rush hour and the train was packed. Big bummer. We are now waiting for the kind people of fed-ex to safely deliver the beloved Trek 2200 to the Boston REI. Patience is a virtue.
But its probably just as well because now we will be leaving on the first official day of summer which is also the longest day of the year and is know to AT hikers as 'naked hiking day'. Our first day will put us in at about 65 miles to the national park located in sturbridge.
We found out that one our favorite AT hostels, called the Birdcage, is located just off of route 20 in pittsfield, which also just happens to be 85 miles from Sturbridge, when you know that you will be sleeping in a real bed with the possibility of a shower, the day takes on a new awesome and positive ambiance.
Also, in the AT culture there is something known as 'slackpacking', this is when someone either a hostel owner or friend or whoever offers to hold a bunch of your gear so that you can cover your days miles with just the bare essentials, this is an awesome break for thruhikers because you can usually cover much bigger days and you literally just have snacks and water for the day. That concept being introduced, we invented and became very excited about the concept of 'slack biking', this came about when we started recieving calls from friends telling us about their friends who lives in towns we will be passing through.
So, waiting for the bike, very ready and excited to pedal my heart out of here, to partake on one more epic adventure before I have to come kicking and screaming into a steady job and the 'real world'. I was flipping through an old journal and found two quotes that I wrote down years ago, that are oddly appropriate for this trip, so I'm going to be cheese ball and leave you with them, hopefully the next entry will be from the road:

'every school child in America is taught to identify with those enterprising men who, for better or often for worse , plunged their various flags into this land so many centuries ago...And even though we've heard phrases like 'last frontier' and 'final frontier' and 'last best place' for ages, we all still carry some frontier within us. That's the reason that no matter what direction I, and the other people like me, are traveling in our city-hopping lives, we're always headed west'
-Uneasy Rider

'I often come across some variation of the phrase "I went there to find myself', and I always suspect that the opposite was the case. Wilderness shows us by its very essence precisely what we are not and we go into it to escape precisely what we are: social creatures bound to grand systems that we must engage with or be ruined by'
-When We Were Kings

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Route 20, Boston MA to Newport OR- 3,365 miles of awesome

Well team, on wednesday I am hitting the road and taking off on a trip I have been anticipating for quite some time now. I have pretty much all my gear in order. All I can hope for is decent weather, no huge mechanical issues with my bike, and that I won't get run off the road by some aggressive trucker as I muscle through the corn fields of Ohio. I would like to take this time to give a huge thanks to everyone who has supported me and helped me out with all of the tiny meticulous details that I required in gearing up for this trip. And a special thanks to one Geoffrey Carlson, who's dedication to detail and incredibly generous disposition to help a complete stranger essentially made this trip safe and possible for me. Geoffrey, if I ever write a book on this, you will get half of the profits.
The route:
Ever since I got back from hiking the appalachian trail in 2005, the idea of biking cross country consumed me. I loved the idea of seeing the country east to west, moving quickly and not having to carry all my necessary supplies on my back. I also fell in love with the physical challenge of it all. I considered a bunch of different routes until a friend suggested route 20, I learned that it is the oldest east-west highway, it starts within one mile of the pacific and ends within one mile of the atlantic, the idea of taking one road the whole way was very appealing. And the fact that it conveniently happens to start in boston a few miles from where I live pretty much sealed the deal for me.

I will be riding a Novara Safari ( or the safairy) , which is a little heavy and maybe the equivalent of trekking in a toyota 4 runner as opposed to a fast and efficient honda civic, however, it's rugged, comfortable and I know that I can load it up and give it a good beating and it will still ride smoothly. It is one of my most favorite toys.
I went with a bob yak trailor which is called little boo, I decided I liked the idea of having everything behind me instead of right on me with panniers. My tent is a big agnes seedhouse sl1, sometimes referred to as aggie.

As for training, whenever preparing myself for something of this magnitude, I spend a whole lot of time on endurance and recovery, and getting my body to a point where i can push hard till near exhaustion a few times a day and then be able to wake up the next day to do it all over again. You don't really have to be a great athlete to do anything like this, its really all about you tolerate/trandscend pain and discomfort and what you can push yourself through. However, I am a complete sucker for endurance athleticism, testing human potential and pushing my physical limits. That being said I will leave you with a quote from Dean Karnazes, I was reading articles about him in runners world before he made it big and signed with north face and all that good stuff. But his drive and words speak volumes to me and capture quite well the passion I feel about life:

The human body has limitations, the human spirit is boundless. Your mind is your most important muscle, Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!! What a ride!

It is approximately 3,365 miles from boston to newport, oregon, if I want to get there in 35 days I need to average 96.4 miles a day. We'll see what goes down.

I am incredibly lucky and fortunate to be at point in my when i have the means, health and support to be able to attempt this endeavor. To my friends and family, thank you again.