Mile Markers

At long last... Portland!!

2008-08-28T22:51:00.001-07:00

After: 5,000 miles, 83 days, 15 states (and 1 Canadian province), 700 granola bars, 560 bananas, 450 nectarines, untold meals of rice and beans, veggie wraps, sandwiches, tuna wraps and random other things, 500 oatmeal packets, 205 pb&j, 30-40 McDonalds apple pies, too many ice cream cones to count, 3 months of facial hair growth (for me and bruce at least, though Evie didnt shave her face either I guess) a vast range of conversations with an incredibly diverse sea of faces, and many, many memories which we will carry with us the rest of our lives, we have finally arrived in Portland, Oregon.

What a journey! Today I was looking through old pictures on my camera and a couple things came to my mind. First of all I couldn't believe how long we had been on this trip, it seems like ages ago that we were in New York, or even Yellowstone. It even feels like ages ago that we've actually consistently rode 70 miles a day (the last 2 weeks or so we've been taking it pretty easy). But it also hit me that the trip I had been looking forward to and anticipating for over a year and a half is now over. When I think about this trip I don't think of it as a difficult physical task, really after the first month or so of getting in shape it really wasn't too bad and I really think almost anyone could physically do it. But more so I think of it as a great privilege to be able to have the time and be in the position to be able to go on an adventure like this. It really was an amazing summer, one that I'm sure I will always look back on as one of the best things I ever did.

Bicycle touring has definitely gotten into my blood and hopefully this won't be the last tour I do. Though I'm sure that it will be awhile before I come close to doing one of this magnitude again. And hopefully biking will always be a heavy part of my life. It's a great way to stay in shape, and another plus for me is that its practical. It gets you somewhere. Running for the sake of running always seemed pointless to me, but biking as a form of transportation makes sense to me - especially with the cost of gas. Thats one thing about Portland. Everyone here bikes. There's bike lanes everywhere, and even where there aren't bike lanes everyone gives you plenty of space and you don't feel threatened even when biking in the city. This pic was taken our first night in the city. This is about 12 bikers stopped at a traffic light.

We got to Portland Monday night and were planning on only spending Monday night in a hotel and then head out to a campground about 30 miles outside of town and just take the train in everyday. But we found a fairly nice and decently priced hotel and just decided to avoid the hassle and stay within the city. Since we've been here we've spent a lot of time just walking around the city and enjoying the things it has to offer. Last night we went to an outdoor symphony down by the waterfront, which was really enjoyable. The first night we were riding into the city with our bikes fully loaded and a lady with a bike on top of her car pulled up beside us at an intersection and asked us about our trip. She was really excited about our trip and gave us her number and asked us to give her a call if we wanted to do something while we were in the area. So Wednesday night we went out to dinner with her and her husband and Saturday night we'll be staying with them at their house. They were a really great couple and gave us a lot of ideas about stuff to do in the city. Sunday we'll be leaving the city and spend the next couple days, until we leave on Tuesday, with some of our relatives in Salem.

Portland has been great and has been a fitting end for our trip seeings as how it is known as the biker friendly city. And more importantly, its the end!

Got Some Pics up

2008-08-20T17:01:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know we finally got some pictures up in our photo album. There should be some new ones in the Montana album as well as Evie's pics as well as the new Washington album. We've had a rainy, dreary couple of days in Washington - typical weather for this area I guess - and decided to stay in a hotel tonight to dry things out, including ourselves. Should be in Portland by monday, or maybe Tuesday if the weather stays nasty like this and we have more short days. We've all seem to hit lazy mode. This morning after only 10 miles we stopped to grab some granola bars and Bruce voiced what we were all feeling when he said "I don't feel like biking today." Now that we've hit the coast and had a couple of 30 mile days it seems we've all lost motivation. But the end is in sight, and I think once we get a little closer the excitement of reaching our destination will pick our spirits up. Right now the dreary weather has just brought us down a bit it seems. Anyway, hopefully next time you hear from us it'll be from Portland!

Coast to Coast!

2008-08-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

We've hit the Pacific!! But... still another 400 miles to Portland. Yesterday, about mid-way through the day we decided that it would be foolish to stop just 15 miles short of the coast and get there mid-morning on Saturday. So we - much to Evies dismay I think - decided to go the extra 15-20 miles and hit the coast after a long day of riding. Well, not really too long, after all was said and done (including riding around town looking for food) we had 105 miles in on Friday. But we have reached one of our goals. We've rode from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It took us 72 days and roughly 4500 miles to do it.

So now its vacation mode, sort of. Our goal is to hit Portland by the 25th (our train leaves Sept 2nd) so that gives us 10 days to go about 400-450 miles. So if you consider about 50 miles of biking a day a vacation then thats what we have in front of us. I, Shawn, for one am looking forward to staying up later at nights and being able to sleep in a little longer, at least til 6:30-7. I'm sure that we'll have a couple days where we'll do 70-80 miles, especially if there really isn't anything special to see along our route. And then, on days like today, we'll only ride about 20 miles. Our agenda for today has been: sleep in til 7:30, ride into the town - Anacortes - hit the doughnut shop, do laundry (we've gone from washing our clothes in the sink to this option as of late), go to the library, take the ferry from Anacortes over to the San Juan islands and spend the rest of the day relaxing and taking in the sites over there. Yeah, it's a rough life.

As for the last couple of days. We were slightly disappointed with our first several days in Washington. It looked much more like Wyoming then we were expecting. Brown and barren as opposed to the green that we were expecting. We had 4 mountain passes to do in the state, the Cascade Mountains. We did two in one day, then decided to slow down a bit and just tackle one a day. The last pass, Washington Pass, was by far my favorite of the whole trip. Maybe it was because I knew it was our last but I enjoyed it, even the climb up it. Once we get to a library that actually lets us put pictures on I'll show the views from the top of that mountain, it was gorgeous. And from the peak down the scenery was the best we've had the whole trip. Snow-capped mountains overshadowing vivid blue lakes surrounded by evergreens. Roads that cut through almost jungle like environments. And tons of cyclists everywhere, which is always encouraging. The last 3 days have been amazing. And from what everyone tells us, the best is yet to come. So while we're all ready to be done with: the daily biking, taking down and putting up the tent, rolling up the sleeping bags and packing up camp, hoping that the campground that we hit that night will actually have a shower, etc. I think we're all excited about what lies ahead of us.

Well its off to enjoy the San Juan Islands! Til next time...

up north

2008-08-06T11:09:00.000-07:00

We are currently in Eureka, Montana and have been thoroughly enjoying this state. Last night we were once again spoiled w/ food, beds/couches, and the warm indoors for the night as we stayed w/ friends of Kaylene's. We were also pleasently surprised to find a friend from rosedale, Eli, living close by this area w/ his wife and were able to see them as well.

This morning we realized that we are only about 1000 miles to our destination, Portland, and that is exiting for us as well. A few days ago we ran into girl from Portland who was going east. She was so thrilled that we were going to be in portland as that is her favorite place ever and she offered us to stay at her house. Speaking for all of us, I would say that it is fun to run into other bikers and talk w/ them for a while. We have met up w/ husband/wife combos, father/son, a group of boys just out of college, and single riders out touring. It has also been surprising to me to see how many people we run into that have done tours or hope to some day.

Another highlight of our trip lately was our trip into glacier national park as we rented a car for the day. it would be great to put up the pictures from that trip, but we cannot due so at this time due to technical difficulties. hopefully they will be coming soon. but we were able to get some off bike excercise in as we did some great hikes and the scenery was beautiful! Anyway, we need to get on our way again, but hopefully we will be able to share more of our latest journey soon.

A Typical Day in the Mid-West

2008-08-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

Although this timeline does not exemplify every day, this was our strategy for conquering the midwest:

4:00 - My alarm goes off and I begin rolling up my sleeping bag (and conveniently bump both Evie and Shawn in the process)

4:30 - Breakfast, consisting of two packets of instant oatmeal, a handful of granola, and several spoonfuls of raisins.

5:00 - The last of our items are packed up and we head out for the day. Most of the time there was a bit of light but several times we had to put on headlamps and lights in order to be visible. Don't worry, there was hardly anyone else on the road at that time of morning.

5:30 - Sunrise. Evie stops to take a couple pictures. This was our favorite time to ride - no wind and beautiful golden scenery.

7:45 - Pee break. And Shawn's coffee break. Hopefully we have 30-35 miles in by this time.

9:00 - Our goal was to have 40 miles in my nine. It was always a treat to have such a large portion of the day out of the way before the winds picked up and it got hot.

11:45 - Started looking for a shady place to enjoy our PB&J sandwiches. We learned early on that begals make a much more substantial base to the sandwich then bread does. Sometimes we would mix it up and replace the jelly with honey. Either way, we have yet to tire of this simple lunch. Hopefully we have 60-70 miles in by this point.

12:15 - Quick nap.

1:00 - We reluctanty trudge onward.

2:00 - Ice cream search begins. You would not believe the amount of ice cream we have consumed on this trip.

3:00 - We regret the ice cream and we start looking for a campground. We always enjoy pulling into camp by 3 or 4 but that is not always the case. Hopefully we have 80-90 miles in by that point.

5:00 - Set up camp. Showers

6:00 - Supper. Beans and rice, enchalatas, veggie wraps, tuna salad sandwiches, etc. Anything simple.

7:00 - Shawn calls Kaylene. Evie and I put things away for the night.

7:30 - Shawn journals. Evie and I crawl in bed and read.

8:30 - Sleep.

Ups and Downs

2008-07-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

Posting hasn't been as easy as we thought it would be. Finding places where we have intenet access has proven to be difficult now that we're out west and things are a little more spread out. Things have been good though for us. We had a couple down days, but mostly positive days. We've discovered that we're alot farther ahead of schedule then we thought we were. We're planning on taking the train home from Portland and in order to do that we had to order our tickets well in advance. So we purchased them several weeks ago for a departure date of Sept 2 hoping that would be a good date. We just calculated our remaining miles and it looks like we only need to average about 50 miles a day from here on out in order to get to Portland by Aug 30 which is what when we were hoping to get there. So thats cheered us all up. We were hoping to push hard at the beginning/middle of our trip so that we could relax and enjoy the last couple weeks, particularly when we're riding down the coast. And it looks like that shouldn't be a problem.

Our last week has had some beautiful scenery. We spent 2 days riding through Yellowstone National Park which was a great experience. The traffic in the park was a little nerve racking at times but everyone was going slow so it didn't prove to be too much of a problem. We didn't see any bears, which was kinda good but also disappointing, but we did see alot of bison. We rode with 50 feet of at least 7 of them. One was walking right down the road towards us, but fortunately there was a bunch of cars lined up watching it and we hid behind one of them as it passed us. We had to choose between going around the northern or southern side of Yellowstone, so we avoided Old Faithful and went North. The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and the Upper and Lower Falls were both worth the ride. They were gorgeous.

After leaving Yellowstone we hopped back on Adventure Cycling maps, which we hadnt used since Niagra Falls. In the last 2 days of riding on the trail we've 17 other bike tourers. We'll always stop and talk to them, its always interesting to hear their stories and see how their tour is going. We're discovering that everyone tours differently, some do long days, some short. Some stay in hotels while others just pitch a tent in the woods along the side of the road. So its been interesting to talk to them. We've also talked to alot of other people as well. Alot of tourists at Yellowstone came up to us and asked us about our trip, other campers will strike up a conversation with us at the camp. We've all really enjoyed the different types of people that we've gotten to meet, it's definitely a highlight of our trip.

Speaking of people we've enjoyed meeting, I think a highlight of the trip for all of us was Rapid City, SD. Thats where we met the Gareys. We had decided to spend the morning biking to Rapid City (about 80 miles away) and then use the city for internet and purchase a couple things we needed. Once we were done with that we were gonna continue on our trip for about 15 miles or so. While Bruce and Evie were at a camping store Mrs. Garey and her children came up to them and asked if we would like to stay with them. So we eagerly agreed. It turned out to be a great evening. We learned so much through their hospitality and our conversations with them and had a great time. We expected great scenery but we never expected the kindness and generousity we've experienced on this trip.

My time is up so i gotta go. Enjoy the pics and thanks for the comments

One Long Day

2008-07-17T12:02:00.000-07:00

At the start of this trip if you would have asked me which states I was looking forward to the most, South Dakota would have been close to the bottom of the list. I imagined barren wastelands and lots of headwinds. South Dakota has been fairly empty, we'll drive for miles between towns with no signs of houses anywhere, however it has been absolutely gorgeous and by far my favorite state so far in our trip. We've been getting on our bikes just before sunrise every morning, usually around 5 am, and have seen some beautiful sunrises. For me, those mornings have been my favorite part of the trip. It's been funny to see how different life is out here though. We'll see a "town" coming up on our map and as we approach the sign welcoming us to it the population will only be 60 or 70. We took a break at one of these "towns" population 67 and turned down "Main Street" which was a dirt road. Felt kinda strange. Though it seems to be a peaceful way of life. Everyone here is really friendly and helpful.

South Dakota has also brought other suprises. We knew going into this trip that we wanted to top 100 miles at least once in this trip, and try to beat Sheldon and Sheilas record of 112 miles in a day. However, I was not expecting a day like Monday. We woke up early and got on the bikes knowing that in front of us was a whole lot of nothing. Alot of beautiful scenery, but other then that not many towns, and certainly not many campgrounds. We hit 90 miles by 3 and were in a little town, White River, that had a campground but seemed a bit sketchy. So we made the decision to keep going and see how far we could get. At 114 miles we hit another "town" that had a city park, but looked even less promising. So we made the decision to head for Interior, SD right at the entrance to The Badlands. All that was between us and Interior was an Indian Reservation so we knew it would be all or nothing. Around 9:30, as it started to get dark, we realized that what we were attempting was probably our stupidest idea on the trip so far. The night before me and Bruce had talked about riding that far and at that point is was "the macho thing to do." "Can you believe what people's reaction would be if we said we rode 160 miles in one day?!" However, those thoughts of inflated chests where long gone. Around 11 our legs were starting to give out on us and mentally we were all about to tank. We didnt know what to do because we were still 25 miles away. Bruce wanted to just throw a tent in a field along the road but me and Evie weren't keen on that idea. So we kept pushing. We could only go about 20 minutes before one of us would need to stop to eat or rest their legs so it was an extremely long and agonizing process.

Finally we saw the sign were we turned north to head up to town, still another 14 miles away. Their had been a slight south wind most of the night and as we were coming up to our turn Bruce said "now if only that wind would pick up to about 30 mph." And as almost as soon as the words came out of his mouth the wind suddenly started to get stronger. Not 30 mph stronger but a noticeable change. And as we turned to head north and felt the wind to our backs we all suddenly got a new wave of energy. It was amazing the change in our perspective. And speed for that matter. Whereas before we were struggling to go 7-10 mph we were suddenly easily going 15. And then we headed downhill. Downhill for a long time. Between the wind and the terrain I was able to coast at +30 mph for over 2 miles. It was amazing. I remember coasting up beside Bruce and just laughing. Laughing as opposed to 30 minutes ago about to break down emotionally. It was amazing. We ended up pulling into our camp around 1 am central time, which was the time zone we left in, but only midnight in the current mountain time zone. So we were on the bikes from 5 am til 1 am. Never again!

And to bring a laugh to the end of our night, as we pulled up at what we thought would be our camp (ended up being a couple miles short yet) I found Evie laughing. Apparently as she was zooming along in the dark (though we did have headlamps and tail lights) a bird flew right into her and smacked her in the face. Poor Evie. Had to tag along with our macho male egos driving us into insanity and then gets smacked in the face by a bird. No harm to her face though, she seemed to be fine.

I'm happy to be able to say that we did 167 mile in one day now in retrospect, but never again will I attempt that. I have a feeling I might have to keep reminding Bruce how miserable we were in order to keep him from wanting to try something like that again.

Goodbye Iowa

2008-07-10T20:26:00.001-07:00

Tonight we're right at the Iowa border, so tomorrow morning we will be through another state. Today we were talking about the pros and cons of Iowa. I apologize for all those Iowans out there reading this, but I must admit Iowa was not one of my favorite states. Maybe it's because it wasn't what I was expecting, or maybe it's just because it came at the end of a string of long days, but for whatever reason, Iowa was a difficult state for me.

Iowa was our 3rd state in a row that seemed to be nothing but cornfields. The only difference was that Iowas cornfields are on rolling hills. Which, unfortunately means that our roads were quite rolly. Especially, today. It was also extremely hot and humid the couple days we were here as well. We've also been struggling to find decent roads to ride on since we've been off of the Adventure Cycling maps and it seemed like we picked a lot of trucking roads without much of a shoulder. And perhaps the worst part was the smell. Seemed like there was the constant smell of manure and pigs, it was especially pleasant when a truck full of hogs would ride by and make the smell even stronger.

However, there was definitely many pro's for Iowa. The scenery was beautiful, even though the rolling hills meant more work on the bike it was beautiful to look at. The people in Iowa were extremely friendly, it seemed like at every gas station we would get into a conversation with someone. This morning we were waiting out a storm in a gas station and a gentleman came up and talked to us for about a half hour. Iowa is also a big biking state. They have a cross state ride every year called the RAGBRAI which involves around 11,000 riders so they were fairly bike friendly and it seemed like we were asked about 50 times a day if we were preparing for that. We also made use of a couple of nice bike trails in Iowa, those were always a nice change of pace away from the busy traffic. State Parks in Iowa were also really nice. So all in all, Iowa wasn't too bad, it was just a hard state to bike in.

Our next state is South Dakota. Even though I have a feeling that much of South Dakota will be fairly desolate and perhaps windy I'm excited about it. For some reason South Dakota sounds like we've finally hit the west. I'm also excited about biking through the Badlands and the Black Hills. We'll be at those within a week or so.

Make sure to check out our new pictures, we finally found a place where we can upload some more. Sorry that they're not really in chronological order but they're from 3 different cameras so its the best we can do.

There is another sad thing about Iowa. We'll be losing Karla. Tomorrow we'll head off from Sioux City with only 3. She has to go back to Canada in order to get back to work. We've known for awhile she would be leaving us, but sadly that day has now come. It's been great having her along, she was our bike mechanic/cook/defender against racoons/voice of reason. Plus it was just great getting to know her and have her along for the ride.

Well thats all for now. They tell me this computer will be shutting off in a couple minutes so I better go. Til next time....

rolling hills and wind....

2008-07-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

Hi from Iowa! We have now made it to the larger/longer states. The flats of Indiana and Illinois were wonderful, but the wind was quite mocking. We have been spoiled the last few days to have a tail wind, so tomorrow we will once again see what we are made of. On the other hand, i second the gratefulness we have felt for all those who have given us a place to stay along the way! We are truly blessed. We were even able to experience some of the Hopedale,IL fourth of July festivities on our day off as we stayed at the Nachtigalls. They graciously left us stay at their house the second night while they went camping. And, of course, it was good to hang out w/ Liz. As we made our way to Iowa, we had some detours due to underwater roads and bike issues (yes, my bike), which left us in burlington, IA last night. The bike shop there was great and even let us camp out behind/take showers there. so that is why our trail is so jagged coming into Iowa. Iowa has also proved to have more rolling hills which, along with the tailwind, aide our rising speeds. I don't have a cyclometer on my bike for fear it would drive me crazy, but it is always fun to coast up to bruce and shawn and see us going 28 mph down a hill. Tonight we made our way to Iowa City thanks to Ramona, Brylee, and Kurt where we were able to experience some good jazz at the ped mall.

Wind!

2008-07-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

Last week the only thing we really wanted was to see the last hill. This week? Every night we check the weather to see what the winds will be the next day.

Last Thursday we left Dover, Ohio with some really ambitious goals. We wanted to be in Plain City, Ohio, by Friday evening; Indainapolis, Indiana, Sunday night; Arthur, Illinois, Tuesday night, and Hopedale, Illinois, Wednesday night. All this so that we could catch Liz in Hopedale before she left on her weekend camping trip. Actually, that's not true. The distances between destinations just so worked out so that we would either have a lot of short days, or several really long days. We opted for the later.

On Thursday morning we left Dover, Ohio and began our trek across Holmes County. The scenery was absolutey beautiful, but the rolling hills got the better of us. That day we covered 70 painful miles. The next day the hills began to disappear, but were quckly replaced by relentless wind. We thought the day was going to be a breeze, but the 57.5 miles to Plain City were much more than we had anticipated. It only got worse from there. Early Saturday morning we set off from Plain City, Ohio, with the intentions of covering 96 miles into a 15-20 mph headwind. I think that was the hardest day so far. Needless to say, the wind continued out of the west for the next four days. Fortunately we were able to keep with our original goals and hit all our detinations on time. The breakdown of miles are as follows: 79, 66.3, 75.8, 87.7. Concidering that we had strong winds out of the west, I think we did just fine, although today we are all really, really tired. Although we don't intend to keep up this pace all the way across the country, it is good to know we can do it.

So how have we managed to deal with the wind? I have a picture that I want to post but I am afraid our connection is a bit too slow today. We have quickly discovered the art of drafting. It is amazing the amount of energy that can be conserved by following in the wash of the lead biker. At times when the wind is not exactly head on, you may find us biking on the diagonal in order to maximize our efficiency. At one piont when I was in the back I couldn't help but think that our pattern looked a bit like geese in formation. We have worked out a plan so that every 5 miles, the person in the back passes everyone and takes the lead for the next five miles. Each of us have our own pace, but it allows everyone to get a break from the wind. I may take this picture and submit it to the people who make the motivational posters - "teamwork." :-)

Looking ahead... This morning we woke up to discover that the road that we were intending to use to cross the Mississippi River into Iowa is under 4 feet of water. If you couldn't have guessed already, detours are quite disheartening to us bikers. There is nothing quite as disturbing as to hear that a bridge is out. That normally means and additional 5-20 miles of additional riding. So, we will have to find another route...

All Hail the Brooks, Several Long Days and Great Hospitality

2008-07-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

This post is for all of those who felt me and Bruce's saddles and thought that we must be nuts for using something that felt "hard as a rock." I can't explain to you why the Brooks saddles are so amazing, all I can say is that after 2000 total miles (that includes pre-trip riding) the Brooks is becoming more and more comfortable with every day. Now it didnt take this long to get comfortable, but it seems to be getting even better here lately. No saddle is going to feel like you're sitting in a lazy boy, so at the end of the day I'm still tired of sitting on the seat, but I haven't had nearly as much discomfort as most people complain about. And we don't use shorts with any kind of padding in them either. So for all of you who thought we were crazy for bragging up the Brooks, I can only say "I told you so." Brooks are an older brand of leather saddles that are made in England. Thanks to all those on bikeforums.org who wouldnt stop talking about how amazing their Brooks were, I was a skeptic at first but now I'm just as sold on them if you're planning on doing any kind of long distance riding. My bikes will never have anything different on them. Plus, they just look classy.

The last several weeks have been filled with some long days. We finally seem to be hitting our stride. We usually have close to 50 miles in by noon and then struggle to get another 20-40 miles in the afternoon. It's always hard to get back on the bike after a nice long lunch break. We're now able to go 15-20 miles between any kinds of stops and have been able to stay together much better as a group. We still feel fairly tired at the end of the day but are usually refreshed by the morning.

The one thing that has been absolutely amazing about the last couple weeks has been the hospitality we've received. We've been so fortunate to have friends and relatives who have opened up their homes for us, fed us, let us wash our clothes and have really made us feel quite at home. Its been a nice change from the daily camping that we had at the beginning of our trip. Each time we stop I've just been blown away by the kindness we've received so to all those out there who have shared their homes with us we are extremely grateful. We have one more stop with familiar faces in Kalona, Iowa and then we'll be off on our own again.

We're just past 1600 total miles for our trip and back on pace to be done by the end of August. Bike problems have become fewer, legs have become stronger and our pace has become slightly quicker. I personally am starting to enjoy the actual cycling more and more. At the beginning of the trip I was enjoying the other aspects of the tour much more and the cycling was just merely a way to tour the country. I still would be one that cycles to tour as opposed to the avid cyclist who sees touring as a way to spend hours cycling but I'm enjoying my time (which is alot) on the bike alot more. Hopefully that continues.

Vidoes From Our Trip so Far

2008-06-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

This is a video from early on in our trip, somewhere in Maine I think. You'll notice that I call this a "pass", wow did I have a lot to learn.

This is a more recent video from near Mount Vernon, Ohio. After a long day of hills in Holmes County we found a nice, flat trail. It had been an old railroad that they turned into a really nice bike trail.

This is a random video from our tent. Poor Evie is stuck with us two guys. The duct tape on Bruce's mouth is there because he is determined to correct his snoring problem. I told him early on in the trip that he snored and he was devestated, so this was what he came up with.

Momma Always Said Never Talk to Strangers!

2008-06-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

One of the best parts of the trip for myself, and I think for the others as well, has been the interactions with people we meet on our trip. So often people will see all our bikes lined up in front of a grocery store, gas station or stopped along the road and strike up a conversation with us asking us all about the trip. Just today we were pulled over on the side of the road because my front tire had a rub and a man pulled over and asked us if we needed any help. We soon found out that he had done the exact same trip - Portland to Portland - only in reverse. So that was interesting. There's been numerous times were cyclists will come up and talk to us and its always interesting to hear stories from their past tours. One thing that I always enjoy is watching people watch us. Usually when we go to the grocery store one or two of us will sit outside and "guard" the bikes while the rest shop. Its always funny to watch people try to avoid staring and appear rude but try to figure out why in the world those bikes have all that junk on them.
One thing we learned really quickly though is to be careful who we talk to at gas stations. There seems to be a wierd phenomenom with us at gas stations/convenience stores. We'll be sitting there taking a break, waiting for someone to get finished using the rest room, etc. and out of nowhere someone will come up and bombard us with bad news. Almost every day this happens.

Some of our favorite comments have been:

-Government warning, its supposed to be 103 with humidity and they're telling everyone to stay inside and avoid the heat. People are dying out there!
- Nice little old lady: Did ya get wet?
us: No we managed to avoid it
Lady: Well its only going to get worse
- Theres nothing but hills from here to there (thats a pretty common one)
- You're asking to get killed going that way.
-Theres a major storm coming. Head for cover
- You should be doing 200 miles a day and 50 miles by 9.
- You're never going to get there going that slow.
- The winds are going to kill you in the mid-west

I'm sure people have good intentions, but it seems like we rarely get any encouraging comments, only depressing, negative comments. Although at times its actually kinda nice because we're expecting some major mountain or a torrential downpour and its not nearly as bad as we were expecting. However, there have definitely been times where the hills have lived up to the warning. Especially in Holmes County. Thats where we spend our day yesterday, and it was a long yesterday.

At this point we're just over 1200 miles and we've managed to pick up our pace and have had mostly 70-80 mile days. We should be able to make up some time in the next couple weeks, as long as the wind stays at a minimum. We're in Plain City tonight and from here are heading to Indianapolis, Indiana then on to Arthur, Illinois. For the next week or so we'll be staying with people every couple of days so we're enjoying avoiding the tent still.

eating our way to portland

2008-06-25T18:05:00.001-07:00

we set off from oil city on monday morning at 0700 sharp.....or after we bid our farewell....so like closer to 0800. judging from the uphill into oil city, we were hoping for some nice riding out and were not disappointed. we didn't hit the hills until at least 10 miles out and by now we are so in shape, it barely phases us:) the trip went well w/ very few dilemmas and we made it to the youngstown area w/ only 1 warning to wait out a storm. we found a bike shop there and once again fixed my spoke. then we hit the rain for the last 10 miles of the trip, arriving in columbia at shawn's great aunt and uncle's house. of course we got a great supper and breakfast there as well as nice accomadations for sleep. Thank you Wilbur and Dorothy Yoder!

tuesday morning we made our way southwest towards dover ohio to the house of Earl and Dorothy Yoder. the day was lazy and uneventful. we were met upon arrival in dover by the one and only sheila yoder, who joined us for our last few miles. we arrived at the house just in time to unload the bikes and take them into the shop for a tune up. that night we had a meal prepared by my relatives and it was a party! my brother jason and his girlfriend, lydia were even able to be around for food, fellowship and sleep.

today consisted of sleeping in (i was up at 0800), lunch at grandma's, coffee, and ice cream. some habits are hard to break. this evening sheila suggested we go see get smart, being as her other cousin's husband (who was born and raised in holmes co.) has a supporting role in the movie. we were able to pick up our bikes at the shop tonight. my bike has a new wheel - halelujah!

time to pack and prepare to continue on. i believe it will be a campsite near mt. vernon tomorrow night, then to plain city where we get a roof over our heads once again.

I Think We're Getting Spoiled

2008-06-22T16:19:00.000-07:00

Well it's been awhile since we've updated and alot has happened since. We;re apporaching the 1,000 mile mark and are finally starting to feel like we're picking up the pace. A couple of days ago Bruce and myself were really getting discouraged because it felt like we were never going to make it to Portland anywhere close to the beginning of September. We figured at the beginning of the trip that we needed to average 60 miles a day including our days off. At this point we're probably close to 50 but the past couple of days we've hit 75 to 80 miles a day and its looking like we'll need to do that for the next week in order to hit the destinations we have lined up. The terrain has also started to level out so thats helped out quite a bit. Once we get through the next 30 miles of Pennsylvania it should really level out for awhile.

And the nice part has been our accomodations over the past week or so:

In Sodus Point we had just set up our tents when the campground owner came up and told us she was going to move us into a cabin because there was a tornado coming. The storm ended up not being too bad but we still got the cabin. It was right on Lake Ontario and had a great view from our back porch.

The next night was not quite as nice. We had just started on the Erie Canalway Trail and there were no campgrounds along the 90 mile trail. We were told at a local bike shop that we could camp out at a lock where the University of Rochester had there rowing facilities. So we found a field right along the canal away from the road and set up camp. It was a really rainy and dreary day and we were all cold, wet and pretty miserable. It was probably the most depressing day of our trip so far, and of course it had to be my bithday. But they bought me a brownie cake so that made everything better.

The next night we stayed at an amish family's house. This picture doesnt really show much, but we all had nice beds which sure beat our tents. Plus we had some great cooking and good conversations. They were really into biking and had done some touring themselves so they were really interested in our trip.

The next day we biked through Niagra Falls. It was a little hectic with all the tourist traffic but most of the time we had a really nice recreational bike path to ride on. We continued riding after Niagra and thought that we were going to be staying at a campground in Fort Erie. But when we pulled up to the campground we found out that it had been shut down. The next camground was at least 20 miles away and it was already close to 6 and we were close to 70 miles at that point. So we decided to stay in a hotel. We were kinda disappointed because it wasnt raining and we weren't feeling like we needed the luxury of a campground that night, but we really had no other options. So we stayed at a Howard Johnsons, ate dinner at Wendys and hit Tim Hortons first thing in the morning for breakfast.

Our next night was in Jamestown, NY. A friend of my (shawn) fiances family had a cabin there and generously opened up his place to us. He even cooked up some incredible steaks for us. This was the first night that we actually sat around a campfire. Usually we're in bed by 8 so theres no point in starting one. But Rod's (the owner of the cabin) sons started one for us and we got to sit there by the lake and relax to end our evening.

And then came my favorite stop of the whole trip. Saturday night we pulled into Oil City, PA and stayed at my fiances families, the Myers, house for Saturday and Sunday night. My family, minus my sister Sonya came up Sunday to spend the day with us. We had quite the party. My parents brought shrimp and scallops with them and we had venison steak and chicken on the grill. It's going to be hard to go back to camp food after these past couple days.

The next week or so is going to be alot of the same. Every day or two for the next couple weeks, through Iowa, we have friends or relatives that we will be staying with. Its going to be a nice couple of weeks. It'll be at least a week before we have to set up our tent again.

I'll leave you with this picture, as you can tell we had a fun time in Oil City.

another storm

2008-06-16T11:16:00.000-07:00

We are currently in Fair Haven, NY waiting out another storm i suppose. The weather up here is weird. But at least we have escaped the bugs for the most part! Thank you all for your comments-its good to hear from you! Yesterday was our day off, we spent it at a campsite off the shore of Lake Ontario. Bruce and Shawn would not get on the bike at all and even walked twice to the ice cream place a mile away from our campsite. Karla and I on the other hand were loving biking w/out our load so we went into town 5 miles away and I was able to go to church:) Last night we had our first theft as two little racoons got our apples, bananas, and bread from our bear bag! But at least they didn't get our cereal and milk for breakfast.

The hills of New York are quite more enjoyable for me than the mountains were, and I am beginning to enjoy my time on the bike more. Drafting Bruce and Shawn helps:) Today we were just a flying and realized we had missed our turn 5 miles back so we had to backtrack. Even so w/ all of that we have rode 50 miles today and are planning on another 2o. Well we better go while the sun is out and there is no more thunder!

Amazing Race

2008-06-14T08:26:00.000-07:00

I probably should have read Shawn's post before I started writing this, but oh well. I have limited time on here.

The last couple days have had many ups and downs, both literally and metaphorically. The mountains have turned to hills and the headwinds are picking up. It seems that everyday one of us has a bad day. We just can't seem to break it, so we decided to take a break today after 8 straight days and 500 total miles of bikings. We are currently in Pulaski, NY, and plan on spending our day off in a park on a beach on Lake Ontario. Should be a good time of rest and relaxation. This also gives us a chance to give our clothes the proper wash they have been needing. Every night we wash our dirty clothes in either a creek or a basin and then let them dangle off our bikes the next day. Somehow, they never seem to quite get fully clean.

As far as the break downs are concerned, Evie had her first one on Thursday. Unfortunately, Karla and I were several miles ahead when she broke a spoke, but Shawn was there to help her. Actually he just came and fetched Karla, our bike doctor. She performed a temporary repair that got us to the next bike shop later that day for maintenance. Other than that, the maintenance has been minor but frequent. We have had to replace two tubes, tweak everyone's gears, and replace one crushed bike odometer (mine fell off yesterday and some RV dude ran over it at a KOA).

As far as our average distances and speeds, we have been getting anywhere from 40-70 miles per day, depending on our spirits, the number of hill/passes to climb, and maintenance delays. Shawn has been recording our average speeds and says that right now we average about 10 mph. I think we are actually picking it up now that the terrain is flattening out. Next will be the wind...

One interesting memory. I believe it was Tuesday, not sure, but it was the day we had to wait out a "tornado" at the library in Middlebury. Fortunately the storm totally avoided us, leaving us with a bit of wind and a few raindrops. At about 3:50 we got the bright idea to make an attempt at catching the ferry about 20 miles away. Initially we thought we had until 6:00, but later when we called to verity, we discoverd that the last time across the lake was at 5:30. I don't think we ever pushed so hard as we did then! We ended up sending Karla on ahead to stop the ferry and tell then that we are coming. The last five miles were grueling! There was 20 minutes to go and the crest of every hill produced yet another one to tackle. Fortuanate for us, the ferry delayed the trip by a few minutes in order to get us all across. Later Shawn said that the whole event felt like the television show, "The Amazing Race."

Black Flies!

2008-06-14T07:49:00.001-07:00

It seems that we have hit the Adirondacs at a terrible time. The heart of black fly season. I first started getting bit up climbing up Kancamagus Pass. It was all I could do to control my bike as I was climbing at about 4 miles an hour for 5 hours, so to attempt to swat at these little creatures at the same time was impossible. When I got to the top it looked like someone had taken a pellet gun and shut the back of my legs and arms over and over again. I had blood spots all over. And the next couple of days they have only gotten worse. They seem to be immune to any type of bug spray so all we can do is keep swatting. I was sitting outside a bike shop the other day waiting for Bruce and Evie's bike to be finished worked on and counted 90 different bites on just my legs. Fortunately, at least for me, they don't itch too bad. Unfortunately, Evie seems to be having some kind of reaction to them. Her hands and face have swollen quite a bit, especially in the morning. Bruce's bites are swollen as well. Karla seems to have gotten bit quite a bit on her face but she hasn't reacted to them at this point either. So that's just been another fun aspect to the trip.

We have decided that our bodies need a day off. So this morning we biked about 25 miles to Lake Ontario and will be camping out here the next 2 days. It will be nice to have a chance to simply relax, do some reading and enjoy the area. The trip also seems to be wearing on us mentally as well (the bug bites don't help that either I guess) so hopefully a day off will help with that as well. Our next week or so look pretty nice, a couple days til we get to some relatives of Bruce and Evie's, another day and we'll be at Niagara Falls and then its 2 days down to my fiance, Kaylenes family. And I think we also are staying at a Mennonite-your-way place somewhere in there. So we're all looking forward to that.

I'll let Bruce and Evie post on some of the other aspects of the trip. Thanks for all the comments!

The Past Few Days From my Saddle

2008-06-10T08:58:00.001-07:00

Well as you can tell from the picture, the last couple of days have been quite a bit of climbing. What you're looking at there is the elevation of one our hardest days. We went from Conway (which is just off the right side of the map) up and over Kancamagus Pass and stopped for the night just on the other side of that second climb. The second climb turned out to be even more of a doosy, probably a 10% grade just not quite as long. Kancamagus Pass was just 4-5 hours of steady climbing. But we had a great ride down, and a great view from the top

We were all glad to see our campground that night. Unfortunately there were no showers, but we found a creek nearby that worked as an extremely cold bath. The next 2 days were still alot of climbing, but nothing so drastic. Last night we roughed it and spent the night in a makeshift campsite alongside a river in Texas Falls National Park. We all took baths in the stream and washed our clothes in it. And it was pretty relaxing to fall asleep with the sound of rushing water right outside our tent - though it definitely made you have to use the bathroom first thing in the morning.

Right now we're sitting in a library in Middlebury, VT waiting out a tornado that is supposedly coming our way. We actually had a lady offer to let us sleep on her back porch tonight, which we'll probably do once the storm clears up. Hopefully this tornado will cool things down because its been extremely hot out. I've been suprised because I figured the new england states would stay fairly cool in June, but that has definitely not been the case.

So far the trip has proved to be quite a challenge, at least for me. I find myself mentally and physically exhausted at the end of every day. Though I find that my legs are getting used to the daily grind and usually feel fine by the time we get up in the morning. The camping out has been great. Karla's cooking skills have proven to be an extremely valuable asset, it hardly feels like we're roughing it with some of the meals she's been preparing. And all on a little MSR stove. Tomorrow (or later today) we should hit New York. Entering a new state is always exciting and from the looks of the map it looks like we should be riding in some really nice areas in New York. Thanks for all your encouragement and comments. Keep leaving them they're always nice to read.

bread loaf conquest!

2008-06-10T08:28:00.000-07:00

Hi all, this morning we awoke to the sound of water rushing down the stream right by our tents. I think it has been the best night yet. Each day we face a different challenge between the weather and the incline. Yesterday was heat and wind...apparently they were warning ppl to stay out of the heat. It was supposed to get up to 103-107 w/ the humidity. Needless to say we drank more water, and i can't tell you how refreshing a bath in the stream was! We are blessed w/ a great cook in Karla as each night we have a good meal to top our PB&J for lunch. Our first night we ran into a friendly chap who gave us some of his quinoa that he had gotten in hawaii, so we had that last night w/ beans and corn, oreo's for dessert:). Another upside(literally) is that I have not fallen since the second day, though my knee is slowly healing. We have biked up a few mountain passes that have proven to be quite tough, but oh, the joy of biking down them! Shawn hit 42.86 this morning heading down bread loaf (what we call the pass). I'm pretty sure that every single day ppl warn us about the extreme thunderstorms heading our way, but we have only had to face rain and some wind so far. Well, next time you see an update, hopefully it will be written in New York.

Stuck in Conway

2008-06-06T11:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry, no new pics today. We're updating at a coffee shop in Conway, NH and I didn't think to bring my camera cable with us. Yesterday was a pretty tough day, terrain-wise, but fairly successful. We biked 60 miles, from Turner, ME to Conway, NH, and over several steep climbs. We had our first semi-mountain pass and handled it fairly well. However, we had a little more difficulty with a couple of the shorter climbs later on in the day (you'll understand once we are able to put pics up). Whoever designed some of these roads definitely did not have cyclists in mind. There was one point when we topped one peak only to discover another that disappeared seemingly into the clouds, at a rather steep climb. But, we made it. Its amazing how difficult it is to control a bike when you're only going about 4-5 miles an hour-unfortunately there were a couple times that some of us weren't able to keep from tipping, so far Karla's the only one to not fall. The good news is Evie has reduced her MPF (miles per fall) to about 25 miles now. But the reward of topping those peaks and coasting for miles is incredible. I think me and Bruce both topped out at around 40! We still have to go a little faster to top Sheldons top speed but we'll get there.
For me the hardest part has been keeping myself energized by eating enough. Apparently I require more then the rest of the gang because I seem to be out of juice a lot sooner. Not only do the mountians wear on you physically but mentally as well. I found myself really unmotivated after a full day of riding.
We're actually taking the day off today because most of our gears have been having difficulty. So we've been walking around the town of Conway and enjoying the day. It was also really nasty out and rainy so we decided to wait til tomorrow hoping that it would clear up. We're sleeping at the foot of our first really big mountain, so tomorrow could be a rough one. Welp, thats all for now, we'll post again if we survive these next couple days of mountains.

Day 1

2008-06-04T16:38:00.000-07:00

So am I discouraged? Naw, disappointed is better word. Although we did okay for our first day, I was disappointed about my performance. Here I thought I was in shape, but today told me something different. I have a long way to go.

Last night we came up with a change of plans. We were supposed to pick Karla up at 7:30 at the Portland airport and then drive another 2 1/2 hours to Bar Harbor, but due to the high price of fuel and the making of a late night, we dicided to start our trip from Portland, Maine. On the upside we cut out 2 days of biking, but on the downside, we aren't going to get a chance to get in shape before the mountains.

Unfortunately, Portland, Maine has some terrible beaches! We had to resort to a bay, which was disappointing. The water was so nasty that we didn't even get to dip our tires in the Atlantic. Close enough though...

The weather today was down right miserable: 50-60 degrees in light rain and mist. Might as well break us in the hard way. We started at 8:30 and rode 44 miles. I was hoping for 50 but because we (I) were just a bit too weak. Our biggest problem was food. Idealy we would like to bike for several hours in the morning and then stop for a couple hour food break and rest. Today we had no bread to go with our PB&J, and the weather was just too nasty to stop along the side of the road. I think we could have done much better with a little more leg fuel.

So tonight we stopped at a neat little hostile/campsite/dairy farm/organic store/knitting store///... Fortunately it gave us a chance to get out of the rain, make a good meal and use a little internet. Time for some sleep.

Shawns Pre-Trip Thoughts.

2008-05-29T10:55:00.001-07:00

"What in the world am I thinking!" Yeah that thought has definitely been going through my head a couple times throughout the past couple weeks of fully loaded riding. My legs scream at me already when I get into a stiff head wind, and that's in flat Delaware. How am I going to survive the Rockies?

But then I start to think about 3 months of no schedule, no tired days due to lack of sleep, no running from one event to another, no worry over the rise in gas prices. 3 months of being outdoors. 3 months of reading and thinking. 3 months of conquering that mountain pass that I had thought was impossible that morning. Hours of just me, my thoughts, my bike and beautiful scenery. Hours of discussions with my friends. Hundreds of conversations with strangers. Countless obstacles overcame, and countless memories made.

Will it be a rough summer? At times no doubt. I imagine there will be nights when I simply want to quit and go home. After 3 days of steady rain; days where everything possible that could go wrong, does, I'll wonder why I decided to attempt to this. But there is no doubt that I will look back on this summer as one of the greatest ever. I'm not typically the most adventerous person, so I'm looking forward to pushing myself to places and situations that I normally wouldn't feel comfortable in. I'm looking forward to becoming more comfortable striking up conversations with people that I've never met before. I'm looking forward to being stretched both physically and emotionally.

It's going to be a great summer!