Tour De Four

Bobby Longenecker Signing Off

2009-07-22T12:58:00.000-07:00

Biking across the country has always been a dream of mine; something I knew I wanted to do as a challenge and an experience. I wanted to see America for what it truly is, to meet people of different backgrounds, and see this beautiful country. As many of you know, last summer we were set to undertake this adventure, but a few obstacles came in the way and we were forced to push the trip back a year till this summer; it was worth the wait.
From the snow-peaked rocky mountains to the flat wheat fields of the Midwest to the small fishing towns in Maine we truly saw the country in its many forms and shapes. But beyond the beauty, beyond the landscape were the wonderful people we met. Anybody reading this has probably been following the blog closely and has a grasp that we relied on the people of the small towns we came to as we got rid of our tent. But through our perseverance in taking rejections, and gracious people opening up their doors to us we got a house to sleep in almost every night. Although sitting on a bike for six hours a day is a blast, the true enjoyment of the day began as we got into someone’s house and started getting to know them. It was amazing to see the transition of many of our hosts and conversations as the evening wore on as they began to see us as harmless. These hosts were truly gifts from God, providing us with the physical needs of food and lodging while also a mental break and motivation to keep going.
Undergoing an 8-week trip with the same people everyday is always going to be challenging, especially when you eat, sleep and do the same thing everyday. That being said, although we had our disagreements at times, there are no two other guys I would have rather done this trip with:
Seth- You have been a friend for so many years, but only after this trip do I feel that we have truly become open and honest with each other. You were the beast of this trip hauling up the mountains and leaving Dietrich and I in the dust on those climbs. I truly enjoyed your free spirit and your ability to lighten the mood in some of the harder times.
Dietrich- We have been planning this for almost two years now and it is finally complete. I know biking was merely a means to the end of meeting people and seeing America for you, and I thank you for pushing that mindset into my head. Dietrich, we are opposites in many ways and that brings upon small clashes over little things. But I truly thank you for helping me to slow down and “smell the roses” and listen to people, not just bike from place to place.
This was truly a life changing experience for us and I truly believe it has made us all better men… whats next?

Dietrich Linde Signing Off

2009-07-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

I had some people tell me before I left, “This isn’t going to be a trip about biking. That bike, well that’s just a simple form of transportation for a great adventure.” They couldn’t have been more right, and because of that I’ll need to give some people some credit.
“The Locals:” This trip could not have worked out better. We began the trip seeing some of the most incredible sights possibly throughout those first 3 weeks. It was unbelievable. We met some great people out there and they gave us a nice taste of the west. We then departed for Kansas, and the Midwest, the place everyone told us to skip over. All people did was complain about how hellish it was going to be, seeing nothing but corn and wheat fields. But it was out there where we got to see the real, hardworking, good ole’ small town American’s. Not only did we meet all great people, but we didn’t meet any remotely “bad” people either. The worst we got was the one guy that said “you’re in the belly of hell.” These people were great and they absolutely just walked us from one state line to the next. They fed us, talked with us, taught us, showered us, and even mothered us as well when we needed it most. They would do essentially anything for us, and its great knowing that I could go back and stop in at any of the houses, and immediately be welcomed in with a place to stay. And against all the warnings of the East coast being a tough place to find help, time and time again we were welcomed into homes with such wonderful people. I think it’s best to say that we can learn a lot from these people, and I can only hope that those that read this would do the same. Some of the most frustrating times were when people we knew personally would tell us “wow, I would never allow three strangers like that in.” So, for the sake of the people we encountered, I say within reason to help those that need it: pick up the hitchhiker, open your home, and “feed the hungry.”
Now for those guys that I enjoyed waking up next to every single dang day of the trip… I remember thinking three days in, wow arguing like this blows; it can only get worse from here. Well that didn’t happen at all. Those bigger arguments like what route to take, or “Seth why don’t you have spare spokes” just fizzled into a few little petty things which would come up every now and then. We argued about dumb things like, “Bobby just sit, all we want to do is just sit. Sit Bobby” So for the fact that we spent 24 hours a day together, ate, slept, talked, saw, and heard all the same things, and had the great “joy” of seeing each other’s greatest high’s and greatest lows, I do believe we got along incredibly well. We became so dependent on each other and did not even know it. Its tough telling people things about the trip without those guys there backing me up and taking a line. And it’s not when we felt on top of the world at Moncharch Pass or riding through home that did it for me. It was those times when it was just us, the times only we know that I really knew to love these guys. Times like the 40 McDonalds lunches, or eating PB&J crammed behind a fence being deafened by the wind in the “belly of hell” when we didn’t say a word or that great 9 hour ride through the desert in the middle of the night. I’ve learned a lot about these guys, and got to really know who they are. They’re great, great guys, and I could not have asked for much greater, and for that I’ll try my best to find you some great, great girls as well. I learned a lot about them, but I learned a lot more from them, I can only hope I did might have done the same. Thanks again guys, we really did it. Maybe I’ll l cry a little now…
Finally I want to give credit to the one that changed this bike trip, and gave us something we never could have imagined on our own. It sure would have been different without Him, and singing the song “livin’ on a prayer” as I pedaled through the desert could not have been more relevant. Hope, prayer, and a “little” touch of ignorance is what completed this trip for me. I lived off that stuff. It’s something I can’t really describe. It was when the timing, the thoughts, and the emotion all came together so perfectly that God really shown through undoubtedly. I honestly have countless stories of when I really, truly, without a doubt saw Him. Weather, safety, people, routes, and timing are just a few things to where we were so graciously blessed. We were blessed by the people, and I can only hope they can say the same for us. This trip, through all its frustration definitely put your faith on the line… and then just like that through a little bit of patience everything would change and all you could say was “Wow, why doubt?” If you could walk through my shoes just one day or even one hour on this trip, you would see and you would believe, and all those we stayed with I’m sure can attest to that as well. For once in my life I have felt something that is truly indescribable, and I can only say one thing about that: your prayers were felt, they were felt. Thanks again.

Seth Charles Signing Off

2009-07-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

Well its been a few days since the trip ended and I've had some time to think about all that has happened in my life over the past 8 weeks. It sure has been quite the journey. I keep thinking of things that occurred on the bike trip that are so applicable to life and the christian walk. This trip was something that was so full of experiences, I think I'll be able to draw from them and learn new things all the time but there are a few things that made impressions on me.

The first thing that hit me was the power of a conversation. It may seem kind of idealistic but there were so many times on this trip where we just started talking to someone and before we knew it, they were offering us their beds to sleep in, their shower to wash off in, and their food to eat. I think that in our everyday busy lives we lose sight of the fact that the people passing us around every corner are in fact human beings with feelings, hopes, fears, and dreams. Sure this sounds cliche, but It amazed me that out of all the very different people we came in touch with, all of them were genuinely concerned for our well-being and safety. The people really wanted to hear our stories and get to know us as we got to know them. So, if there is an opportunity to strike up a conversation with someone, take it, even if its for a few minutes. Let people out there know that your a person who cares and we all don't have to live in our own bubbles.

The second thing that I noticed was the power of perseverance. So many people along the way would ask, "Where you guys going?"

We would respond, "Maine!"

That was usually followed by, "Holy (fill in your favorite four-letter word)!"

Everyone was blown away by the fact that we were biking from San Diego, California to Lubec, Maine. Seriously, who does that just for kicks? But looking back on the experience, the only way to accomplish something that big is by putting on goggles that let you see only the day in front of you.

So many times on the bike I would think "Holy crap, how am I ever gonna do this?"

Than, another side of me would say, "just make it through today Seth, just make it through today."

Yes we are called to be wise and plan ahead for certain things, but I think in our Christian walks, we should be looking at the day in front of us. What can I do to further God's kingdom today? How can I help someone today? All the sudden the task seems more at hand. And than when you look back on your life down the road a few months you realize, "Wow look what God has done through me, I never thought that was possible!"

Finally, I realized the value of good friends. When I finished the trip and was driving home, I thought that there was no one else that I could have thought of to do this trip alongside me. I want to thank Dietrich and Bobby so much for giving me the opportunity to join them on this trip. It truly was the experience of a lifetime.

Dietrich, thank you for being so easy going and always bringing energy to some of those lifeless days. You were always there to lighten the mood and make the trip fun on the tough days. Thank you also for being brutally honest at times. You taught me a lot about myself and called me out on things in my life that need changing. I'm grateful for that.

Bobby, thank you for your power to motivate us and your foresight on many things. You made the trip actually happen and without you, we never would have made it to Maine. Thank you, for your willingness to help out when I was tired and to pull the BOB as long as you could to give others the break they needed. Your quiet determination and optimism is what got us across the country. Also, your ideas to vary our diet and eat chinese food was always a big treat and a huge refreshment. So thank you guys. We have made a bond that is stronger than we realize. Two months we shared, that only we will fully know. A friend by your side to pick you up when you fall is worth more than anything else.

I want to say one last thank you to everyone at home who kept us in their prayers. They were felt and we couldn't have made it without them. Thank you Mom and Dad for allowing me to experience this trip at the expense of a few extra gray hairs. And thank you to all of those reading who encouraged, fed, housed, or helped us in some way along the trip. You were the ones who made it the experience of a lifetime.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith."

Hebrews 12:1

"Three young men who left on a journey and returned very much men" T.S.

2009-07-19T15:39:00.000-07:00

07/17/09 ~ Well this was the day. It came upon us to quickly and yet it felt like years since we set out from San Diego. So many places we've seen, so many people we've met, so many things we've learned, about ourselves and others. We couldn't have asked for a better experience in our beautiful country, and it truly is a beautiful country with incredible people.

We gathered our things at Ben's and headed out for our last ride. It was foggy and we agreed that we liked it because it embodied every image we have of New England before the trip. This day was a day of lasts. We ate our last breakfast together which consisted of honeybuns at the last gas station that we would stop at. For our last lunch, we hit the last McDonalds and had our last McDonalds dollar menu items. It was a weird feeling today.

About halfway through our ride, Will Charles and Karl Linde met us to take the last of our stuff so we could ride completely unweighted for the last section of our trip. It was great to see them and we felt like we had been given wings when we emptied our racks and set out for Lubec.

We journeyed onward and soon made our last turn onto our last road that we would ride on. The traffic was minimal and we rode side by side enjoying the last few moments that we had with just us. Soon was saw the beautiful town sign for Lubec and stopped for pictures.

We continued on and flew through the small fishing town that is the most easternmost town in the US. As we came down to the Canadian border, it was a cool moment because we came down the hill and through the fog saw all our parents and family cheering us on. They had gathered right at the border with a banner strung high that we rode under in sheer joy as we had finished the journey.

It was all smiles as we took pictures at the border and hugged family. Even some tears were shed in the realization of what we had accomplished. After some photos, we rode down to the pier and touched the marker on the rocks marking Canada. Than, we rode down to the water and Dietrich led the charge into the frigid cold water. There we hugged, and on the count of three all dipped under bathing in the cold Atlantic water that we had road all summer to feel.

From there, we returned to the hotel and were presented with medals courtesy of Seth's Grandparents. Afterwards we showered and spent the rest of the day touring Lubec and sharing stories about the trip.

I don't think the three of us will ever realize quite how much this journey has changed us. It has challenged us physically, challenged us in how we relate to others, and challenged us in our relationship with God. The trip taught us that life truly is a long journey where you need to continue to press onward towards the goal. People were placed along the way to provide for your needs when we felt weak and tired; to provide words of encouragement when we felt like we couldn't pedal another pedal. We thank everyone who has helped us, fed us, provided shelter for us, encouraged us, and prayed for us and we acknowledge that you weren't placed to help us by chance but that God was guiding every part of our trip. So with all that said, let everyone who reads this know that America is a beautiful country. The landscapes of this country are incredible but more important is the kindness and generosity of its citizens. There are many genuine caring people in this country. Take time to meet them and share with others.

Note- this is not the closing post, as we mentioned before, we will each add our own conclusion, they should be up in about a day or two.

Blueberry Capital of the World

2009-07-19T15:34:00.000-07:00

07/16/09 ~ Got up at around 7 and hit the road, bound for Cherryfield, the last place we would stay, and last real day on the bike trip before our final destination of Lubec. In Cherryfield, a town 50 miles away, we had another internet hook up through couchsurfing, who was a great guy named Ben, the local blueberry farmer. We set forth towards his place, stopping by at a grocery store to eat a dozen donuts for breakfast. We arrived there at about 11:00 in the morning, and Ben was nowhere to be found. We walked ourselves inside, and started looking around his house to see if anyone was home there. Suddenly, two young girls about 20 years old came out of the one of the rooms, sort of confused as to who we were. We introduced ourselves, and said we were some couchsurfers, and soon discovered that these two girls were some other couchsurfers as well. Instant connections are always great. Apparently they’ve just been driving all around the country for the past 8 weeks in their car camping out. They then found Ben, and had been staying there at his place for the past week just because they simply “loved it so much here.” We ended up hanging out and talking with them for the afternoon until Ben came home later on. It was great talking to them and sharing some great stories from both our trips, and we finally got to actually hang out with some girls for once as well, that never happens! And I don’t even think we were that socially awkward about it either, a sure double bonus, and a great last day.
The two girls and us then ended up cooking up a big meal that night of Beef Stroganoff and Spaghetti. We then concluded the night hearing some pretty crazy stories from the man himself, Ben.and playing a little bit of chess as well. Ben sure was quite the Chess master, although we cannot fail to mention Seth did beat him on the first try… but the Ben beat him the second game. We could not have asked for better last day on the bike trip with such great and interesting people. Tomorrow we head for Lubec, the easternmost point of the United States, and Canadian border.

A Last Minute Save

2009-07-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

07/15/09 ~ There are few greater things to wake up to then looking straight out at the ocean 30 feet out which was as smooth as glass with the sun reflecting off of it. It was great, and then Jean came into our cottage telling us she had our breakfast all ready for us, a beautiful start to a great day. We devoured her great scrambled eggs, bacon, and English muffins and set out on the road headed for Bar Harbor, and Acadia National Park. We rode 30 miles up to the town of Ellsworth, where we enjoyed a great lunch of New England clam chowder, “voted the best around,” of which Bobby was craving to eat for the past week, so we quite well satisfied his cravings.

After that we rode on 2 miles to where Route 3, the road which takes you the 20 miles into Acadia, departs from Route 1 and decided we should hitchhike. We wanted to hitchhike for one, just because it’s always quite interesting, and for two, because Acadia is 20 miles out our way, and we do not, do not, do any extra mileage. We thumbed it for a while, and naturally the smallest possible car, full of junk decides to pick us up. This guy was convinced we could get all 3 bikes, and his junk, and 4 guys crammed back into his tiny little sedan. So we did, it consisted of strapping Seth’s bike straight on the roof, Dietrich’s bike in the trunk with this guy’s junk strapped on top of it, and Bobby’s bike thrown in the back seat on top of Seth and Bobby. He then drove us the next 20 miles straight into Bar Harbor, where Acadia Park is at as well.

We spent that afternoon touring some of the park, and hiking the trails as well. The trails were absolutely beautiful, as you could climb way up on top of a rock, overlooking the island and ocean as well. It was some of the best views we’ve seen this trip. We then went back to Bar Harbor, where another internet hook up through couchsurfing, was cooking us up some great spaghetti and meatballs. While eating we found out the place we thought we would be staying at actually didn’t have room for us, so we began looking elsewhere for a place to stay. We luckily, at the last minute, were put up by another couchsurfer in the area, Lynn Slocom, who lived 8 miles out of town. She graciously picked us up, drove us back to her place, and gave us some great beds to sleep on. We slept great that night, and were so thankful Lynn was able to pull through at the last possible minute.

Blessed in Belfast

2009-07-19T10:14:00.000-07:00

7/14/09 ~ For the first time on the trip, after a great night around a campfire, we decided to sleep in. We did not set an alarm clock and slept on the couches in Christie's house until we naturally woke up. This was fitting to the spirit of the trip as we were in the relaxed mode now, knowing we were close to finishing and just trying to enjoy every moment of the final few days. We finally woke up around 9:30, said our goodbyes to our great host and pounded down a dozen donuts at Dunkin Donuts.

After breakfast we did the shortest ride of our trip, a 30 mile trek along the Maine coastline to our planned out destination of Belfast where we had a cottage waiting for us. In a similar to Kansas-esque fashion of hosts calling ahead to the next town to host us for the evening, Mark and Kathy in Placerville, Colorado called ahead to Kathy's mother Jean in Belfast, Maine and told us we would be coming through. I still cannot get over the fact that us randomly knocking on a door in Colorado led us to a cottage in Belfast, Maine, but nonetheless we rolled into the quaint little fishing town with a home already lined up.

Upon pedaling into town, Charlie (Kathy's brother in law) called us up and told us to come to his café the "BayWrap" for lunch and we enjoyed a free meal of wraps. If you are ever in the Augusta or Belfast areas, I would definitely recommend a stop at the "BayWrap". After visiting with Charlie, he gave us directions to his mother in law Jean's cottage and we headed over there. Jean an energetic woman whom enjoys bike touring herself showed us to our own oceanfront cottage. We spent the afternoon relaxing on the porch swing, overlooking the vast expanse of the ocean.

That evening Jean prepared a big spaghetti dinner, and we enjoyed an evening listening to Jean's stories of her canoeing down the Colorado River and bike tours and listening to Charlie and his wife Liz talk about their six month honeymoon in which they spent a month hiking in the Himalayas. It is truly amazing to hear the crazy things that people we have stayed with have done and learned from their adventures. They not only encouraged us and our adventure in many ways but they put ideas in my head of future endeavors. Before we knew it, it was time for bed and we all retired to our own rooms and beds feeling truly blessed for all that we have been given.

A few quick notes

2009-07-16T14:07:00.001-07:00

The trip is coming to an end here soon, and we can feel it coming fast, although I don't think we quite realize just how soon, and how weird its going to be. That said, we just thought we'd let you know that we are going to finish tomorow, Friday July 17th in Lubec, Me as planned. Currently we are about 60 miles away from being done, its nuts.
We're going to keep putting up pictures as well, as we realized we're a little behind. Make sure you check the previous posts to see if pictures have been added when we update. We will continue to put up the final few posts, and then leave some of our own final remarks etc.
The plan right now is to be done by around 1:00 tomorrow, check out Lubec, go into Canada, and then see the sunrise on the eastern most point of the US Saturday morning just before heading on home.

A True Taste of New England

2009-07-16T13:31:00.000-07:00

7/13~ We woke up that morning in the great state of Maine to Linda cooking us a great breakfast of French toast, a first for this trip. It was a great breakfast and set us on our way towards Rockland, ME, 70 miles away.
We rolled out all excited to be seeing the ocean for the first time all trip which we thought would happen within the first 10 miles. However, to our disapointment, we stayed a few miles inland most of the way, fought nasty traffic, and did not actually see the ocean until our final destination. It was a little disapointing as Bobby had even said earlier, "Guys, its gonna be great, there's gonna be lighthouses around every corner." That wasn't quite the case, but it all worked out, and we got to see a lighthouse and the ocean just as we finished for the day there in Rockland.
Because of yet another tailwind, which caused us to average about 20 mph, we ended up arriving about 2:00 which was great. Dietrich called up one of his connections he got through the internet (couchsurfing.com) named Christie andwith just our luck, she didn't have to work today which was great for us. We headed on over to her house and got all set up and met some of her friends .
As it turns out, the people in her house, and her friends, work at this local restaurant which is closed on Monday's and Tuesdays, so all of them had off work as well. Yet again our timing worked out perfect.
They then took us down to show us the lighthouse and took us fishing as well. It was absolutely beautiful being out on the breakwater, with great people, a great sunset, calm waters, and just sitting there fishing away relaxing for the afternoon. It truly felt like New England. The night then just got better from there.
As I mentioned before, all the people we were with worked at the local restaurant as chef's. Now this wasn't just the normal old restaurant, this was the top of the line, best restaurant anywhere around as we found out. We're talking 60 bucks a plate, and the lady that owned it is actually one of the top 10 chef's in the world. She's been all over, in magazines, the Today show, etc. etc. etc. It was nuts. So since we were hanging out with a bunch of chef's, and none of us had ever had lobster before, they decided to cook up quite the great meal.
We had a great bonfire outside where we ate all the incredible food of: Curry Chicken, banging potatoes, 2 great racks of Barbecue Ribs with Ben's special sauce, and even had Lobster. We had enough protein to last the whole week, and it was incredible as well. The blessings were great that night as we got to hang out with some true "Mainer's" and eat some great incredible food. A final true taste of New England.

"Were Going to Lubec"

2009-07-14T12:51:00.001-07:00

7/12/09 We slept in until 7:30 in our own apartment and our own beds thanks to the Shillaber's, and walked over to their house for a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs, pancakes, and Maple Syrup Annie had produced with her high school. As today was only going to be a 80 mile day, and we already had a place lined up to stay for the night, we went to church with the Shillabers. The church was everything we imagined a New England church would be; situated right in the middle of town in an old white building and a bell tower (the bell was formed by Paul Revere). After church, we knew we had to keep moving and said our goodbyes to our wonderful hosts. The ride went smoothly that afternoon cruising unweighted through the New Hampshire hills, but slowly the terrain got flatter and we crossed into our final state "Maine". Now when people ask us where we are going we can't say Maine anymore, we have to get used to saying Lubec. We rode with a tailwind the final miles to Cumberland Center, Maine to our hosts for the night John and Linda Jensenius. The Jensenius' are family friends of the Linde's, and with three kids out of the house we all had our own rooms again. Linda cooked us a big meal of lasagna and brownie and ice cream, and we spent the evening relaxing and sharing stories of the trip with her while John a meteorologist worked the night shift while we slept. The Jensenius were great hosts and truly made us feel at home during our first night in Maine.... man it feels good to say that.

Deerfield New Hampshire, A Diamond in the Rough

2009-07-14T12:35:00.000-07:00

7/11/09 ~ After a great pancake breakfast courtesy of Bobby and his incredible cooking talent, we said goodbye to Adrienne, Will, and Elizabeth and pedaled forthward from Peterborough. The ride instantly climbed up over the mountains and none of us enjoyed it to much because we weren't adequately warmed up. We did however get to enjoy a nice long descent and from there it was fairly flat going into Manchester.
The riding in Manchester was alittle nuts. No one in the town seemed to know how to get to the road we were looking for. So, as we do best, we improvised and rode off of feel using our internal compasses to guide us to the road we needed. Sure enough, we found it and headed out into the beautiful New Hampshire countryside.
Our destination was the quaint small town of Deerfield, NH where Seth had a friend from Wheaton who was willing to put us up for the night. Because the ride was so short, we actually got to Seth's friends house around lunch time. There we met Annie Shillaber and Mrs. Shillaber who both proceeded to provide a delicous lunch for us. We enjoyed sandwiches and great conversation out on their deck in the beautiful New Hampshire weather.
After Lunch, Annie took us to pleasant lake where they had some friends who lived lakeside and were willing to let us swim and kayak there. It was great to splash and paddle around the lake enjoying the beautiful day and keeping our distance from those darn bikes. We were even taken out on a boat ride and went tubing on the lake. It sure was madness trying to stay on top of that tube through the choppy wakes and we had a blast.
Later that evening, we had an incredible meal of hamburgers and hotdogs provided by Mr. and Mrs. Shillaber. We are completely spoiled on this trip and the food was incredible. Afterwards, we played a rousing came of Apples to Apples which Annie managed to win in a tie breaking round. We hit the hay exhausted after a full day of fun.
We would just like to say a huge thankyou to the Shillabers for all the hospitality they have shown us. The food and comfortable beds was more than we could have asked for and being able to relax and spend the day with you guys was a huge treat. Thanks once again.

Small Town New England at its Finest

2009-07-13T16:58:00.000-07:00

7/10/09 We woke up that morning, in Holyoke MA, but yet in seperate places. Dietrich was quite confused this morning, as for the first time on the whole entire trip he did not wake up to Bobby's "wonderful" rise and shine. Even after that, he had to eat breakfast without them as well, yet another first time for the trip. The three of us being apart for such a period of time sure shook things up, however, we moved on and ate our wonderfully made breakfast's from our hosts: Some incredible Scrambled eggs for Dietrich, and quite beautiful blueberry pancakes for Seth and Bobby. After that Margaret, Bobby and Seth's host, kindly drove and picked Dietrich up and took him back to her place.
We then began sorting through our stuff to repack just our bikes. Boy was it great doing that and leaving the BOB's behind, there have been few greater feelings then getting rid of those dang things. So we grabbed our one pair for on the bike clothes, one pair for off the bike, some tubes, the sleeping bag, pump, and set forth towards Peterborough, New Hampshire. The ride thereafter from Holyoke was quite stunningly beautiful. It was rolling hills, through just endless amounts of woods that were quite desolate, the sites were great though. We rode 50 miles to the town of Baldwinville where we ate some pizza, and headed forth 8 miles towards New Hampshire. Finally we got a state sign in New England, thank you New Hampshire. Soon thereafter we arrived in the beautiful town of Peterborough, a true New England town. Its actually so great that it was rated in America's top 10 greatest small towns.
We arrived about 3:00, rested in a park and then set forth to try to find a place to stay. We tried two churches before finding the great man himself, Reverened Adrian Robins-Cole. We found him at the local Episcopalian church, where he immediatley welcomed us in, no questions asked. He set us up in great room with couches and lots of floor space.
We then set forth to explore the town, we tried the library, and then went to the park to relax where we enjoyed some live music as we napped by the riverside and seth took a bath.
We left there, grabbed a great meal at the local italian eatery, and spent the next few hours watching the Tour De France in the restaurant.
We then headed back our homestead for the night, where Adrian's two kids Elizabeth (7) and William (11), and their baby-sitter took care of us by giving us showers, incredible entertainment, and even let us use the internet as well.
They were great hosts and we were so thankful that we could find them, in the great town of Peterborough, NH. Thanks again Robins-Cole family.

Massachusetts - New England Does Have Hospitable People

2009-07-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

7/9/09 ~ The evening of fun and board games kept us up past our normal bedtime which was fine; it gave us a good excuse to sleep in and enjoy the nice beds provided by Hanles. Mrs. Hanle provided a scrumptious breakfast for us and we relaxed that morning. After awhile, we said our goodbyes and Donny drove us back up to Gaylordsville where our bikes were stashed.
Again keeping with the theme of the trip, we got back on the bikes and got moving. The ride that morning was absolutely beautiful through rural Connecticut. We rode in this valley alongside a river and even saw an old covered bridge.
After Kent, the riding got really hilly and we were dieing trying to pull the BOBs over the big hills. We breaked for lunch in Torrington. A defining moment happened at this meal. We're sitting in McDonalds thinking about how tough it is pulling the BOBs over the rolling hills. Bobby goes ahead and poses the question as to whether we even need the BOBs anymore. We get to thinking and really we realized that we don't. Alls we actually use are our clothes, some tubes, spokes, and our sleeping bags. That stuff can easily fit on our racks. We decided to leave the BOBs at the persons house we stay at that night and go unweighted the rest of the way to Maine.
We rode on with new energy knowing it was our last ride with the BOBs. The afternoon saw us passing the state line into Massachusetts. In Holyoke, we had found a nice woman named Maraget through the internet who was willing to put us up for the night. Dietrich had also been offered a place to stay by another couple named Britta and John. We decided to split up for the night and Dietrich went to stay with them.
We encountered incredible hospitality from Margaret, Britta, and John. We would just like to say a big thankyou to them for feeding us and giving us a place to lay our heads. We couldn't have asked for anything more and we were so happy to share our journey with you.

Finally New England

2009-07-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

7/8/09 ~We rolled on out of our beautiful mountain home and trucked down through some beautiful country mountainside. We were excited to yet again be hitting another state border today, this time rolling into Connecticut, officially in New England. We rode some 50 miles to the closet Burger King, which we found in the great town of Poughkeepsie New York. We ate great as always, and rolled forth towards the mighty Hudson River.
After leaving the river, we began climbing some ridiculous hillls, that we did not expect to be there. The remaining 20 miles were some of the toughest we saw as we saw a few 14% grades, however soon enough we made it to the border of Connecitcut, although you had to turn around to realize it as, yet again, we did not get a state sign! We missed New York's coming in, but got it going out as we entered this new state.
We rode a final 2 miles to the great town of Gaylordsville, CN where we found Dietrich's friend Donny Hanle, from Virginia Tech, waiting in his van for us.
Donny lived just 30 minutes from the town, so he decided to come pick us up and take us back to his place so we'd have a nice place to stay, he's a good guy. We chucked our bikes in a nice couples yard and made our way back to his town of Sunbury, CN.
Immediatlely Donny decided it would be a great idea to show us around Sunburry, and a grand tour it was. We actually saw the only 2 story K-Mart in America. After the tour, we made our way back to his place and enjoyed an incredible dinner of Pepporoni lasagna, salad, and some great garlic bread.
After that we found out Donny's church was putting on a special event where a famous exotic animal guy from North Carolina was putting on a show. We enjoyed a great time of watching some crazy monkey, a hissing cockroach, and even a 7 ft aligator. It was pretty intense, yet again some great timing.
Finally, we rolled back to the Hanle's, devoured some ice cream, and began a great night of board games. We played the all and wonderful "Train Game" and concluded the evening with a great game of "Cranium" where Donny's friends destroyed us. I do believe the bikes have made us dumber as Dietrich came in last, and bobby and seth in a close 2nd to last.
It was a wonderful night, having some good quality time, with some incredible people, and so we just want to give a great thank you to the Hanle's, Goof and Cody (Donny's two friends).

Goodbye Pennsylvania

2009-07-09T17:41:00.000-07:00

7/7/09 ~ We left Sean's without the pleasure of saying goodbye. He didn't come home from band practise which had occurred that previous night so if your reading this Sean we just want to say a big thankyou for all the hospitality you showed us. Your floor was a particularly comfortable floor to sleep on.
This morning's ride was particularly peaceful as we rode through the beautiful hills of eastern Pennsylvania. Otherwise the ride was particularly uneventful and we found ourselves in Stroudsburg for lunch. We stopped at the local Mickey D's and had the usual. After lunch, the clouds looked particularly ominous and we decided to wait and see what happened. Sure enough, it dumped rain for 20 minutes and we stayed inside keeping ourselves dry. Soon the sun was out and we were on our way.
We rode through a particularly busy section of 209 right before the Delaware Water Gap and there we had an incident. As we were riding down the shoulder, a car coming the other direction was waiting to turn across traffic into a local mall. Sure enough, it saw us and cut us off right at the last second. It was so abrupt that Seth crashed into Dietrich and spilled to the rode, disheveled but not hurt. Dietrich sped off after the car and confronted the lady in the mall. Boy was it a confrontation. The lady was confident that she did nothing wrong and was livid that we were calling her out on her poor driving. We told her she was in the wrong and asked for an apology which she grudgingly gave us. We left her with the words that we had ridden from San Diego California and had not seen worse driving. I could tell she was surprised as we rode off.
Riding along the Delaware river was absolutely beautiful. The river was like a mirror in some places and the rode was peaceful. We had intentions of riding through New Jersey but when we crossed the river, the foul smell of the state drove us back across the bridge and towards New York.
In Port Jervis, we stopped at the local McDonalds to figure out where we were going to stay. After calling some churches and even random people in the phone book, we got ahold of the Paulys who were old friends of the Lindes. They said they lived right outside Port Jervis and just like that we had a place to stay.
Greg and Teresa Pauly were both extremely welcoming to us and they both cooked an incredible meal of steak, chicken, salmon, rice, broccoli, and assorted vegetables. It was more than we could have asked for and was absolutely delicous. We are blessed. Afterwards, we got to watch alittle of the Tour de France and see some fellow bike riders riding only slightly faster than us.
Later, Greg and Teresa took us to another house up the mountain where they had arranged for us to stay that night. It was empty and they were house sitting for the owners. It was fabulous. We got showered and got to sleep in very comfortable beds. We would like to thank the Paulys for how kind and hospitable they were. We have fond memories of the beautiful state of New York.

On The Road Again

2009-07-08T13:33:00.000-07:00

7/6/09 ~ After a relaxing weekend at our own homes for the fourth of july, we reunited Sunday night at Bobby's house and slept there before trekking out for the third chapter of our journey. We woke up Monday morning to a breakfast of waffles thanks to Bobby's mom, said our goodbyes and began chapter three. The morning was beautiful, and it felt great to be back on the bikes again, back to our roaming lifestyle. As we rode north, WGAL newstation intersected us in Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area (Project 70) and ended up taping and interviewing us. We have yet to see the newscast, but were told it was on the 12:00 news and the 6:00 news later that night. If possible we will try to put the newscast on the blog. Soon after, we crossed out of Lancaster county and rode the rolling hills of Eastern Pennsylvania into Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. Soon after arriving in this tourist town nestled in the Lehigh Valley by the Lehigh River; we went to a bike shop to network and look for place to stay. The woman working at the bike shop immediately directed us to one of their drivers Sean Mccarty, and without hesitation he obliged. He was working at the time, so we spent the afternoon napping in the park. After work Sean drove us up to his place in Summit Hill and we spent the evening listening to Sean's stories doing adventure camps with juvenile delinquents, Seth jamming with him playing the mandolin, and learning about his various hobbies and jobs (tieing flies for flyfishing, volkswagon restoration, massage therapy). Sean was the man and was very hospitable, this was a great start to the third chapter of our journey.

Dear, Bobby, Dietrich and Seth

2009-07-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure and honor of riding with you from Somerset Pa to Lititz Pa and I wanted to take some time to thank you all, and share some memories I had from the trip. It was a trip I wont soon forget. Watching you guys muscles up hills as a pack and conquer mountains like they were molehills left me impressed with how strong, cut, jacked and manly you all were. There is no doubt about it you guys have come a long way since San Diego in more ways than just physically.
I would like to share ten things I learned and experienced while riding with you studs.

1. Business Bobby is a great nickname but bobby is more than just business.

2. You gotta stay on the bike.

3. Rejection, humiliation and door slams don't phase you.

4. Ride as a team, share the bobs, break the wind, and wait at the top of the hill for the last guy.

5. 3 items from the dollar menu is all you need when you stop for lunch.

6. One small $1.00 cup from McDonalds full of soda allows four thirsty, dehydrated bikers to drink their full and then some more.

7. Bike tan lines look good.

8. A concrete sidewalk and a camelbak make a prime bed for a nap.

9. When you get off the bike, forget about the bike, dont think about the bike, and dont look at the bike.

10. Enjoy the ride, dont hustle to finish early but just enjoy sitting on the saddle, watching the scenery, smelling the smells, feeling the weather, and breaking the wind for the guy behind you.

It truly was an honor to ride with you guys and I hope I didnt slow you down too much.
But keep on pedaling and I will see you all in Maine.

Sincerely,
Cooper Linde
(part of the tour de four from June 1 - June 5 2009)

All The Sudden, San Diego Doesn't Seem So Far Away

2009-07-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

7/3/09 ~ Today was the day, the closing of chapter 2 of our grand journey. We were coming home. All of our experiences up to this point suddenly came back to life as we looked back on that has happened to us. It will definately take a lifetime to process everything thats happened.

We woke up at Frank's place and had an incredible breakfast of coffee and hot cakes with King's Maple Syrup. The great thing about King's Maple Syrup is that it is so thick that it doesn't soak into your hot cakes, so they don't get soggy. It was great being able to eat and relax knowing that today's ride was gonna be easy and a blast.

We rendezvoused with our parents, Weston Shertzer, and Brian Link at Cross Keys and geared up for the ride. Joining us was Brian Link, Bill Longenecker, Will Charles, and Weston Shertzer. So we hard quite a crew of riders leaving Cross Keys for the ride today. It was truly exhilarating to ride with so many other people and we cruised through the morning.

Lunch was spent at the Linde's house. It was a great homecoming for Dietrich and it felt weird to think that we were only 40 some days from San Diego. The world felt huge and small all at once. Lunch was great and we had good conversation before saddling back up and heading out for Bobby's house in Lititz.

The ride out of York to Lancaster was beautiful. We took back roads and really got to enjoy the countryside and fields. Crossing the Susquehanna river was a big mile marker and hitting Lancaster soil really felt good.

We climbed up from Columbia to Prospect and than rode back roads the whole way to Bobby's house. The last few miles were slightly downhill and we just hammered them knowing how big of an accomplishment it was to bike from San Diego home to Pennsylvania. It truly was magical; like a dream come true.

That evening was spent celebrating with family and friends at the Longeneckers. We had delicious food and got to enjoy the wonderful July evening. We would like to thank all those who rode with us from Gettysburg, it was great to have new energy and you really made the ride fun. We would also like to thank Betsy Longenecker for all the preparing she did for the picnic that night, the food was great. Thankyou also to all those who came out to the picnic to see us, it was great to relax and catch up with all of you guys. The night was truly magical and it was quite a way to close chapter 2 of our trip. Now all thats left is the final installment - New England. We're excited to begin the journey to Maine on Monday.

Almost Home

2009-07-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

7/2/09 ~ Since we only had a 50 mile ride to Gettysburg, we spent the morning sleeping. It was great. We got on the rode around 9 after a great breakfast of Captain Crunch. We fought and tooth and nail with Cooper but he insisted on pulling the BOB today, so we gave him the extra BOB axle and hooked him up.

Out of McConnellsburg was a big climb up to the top of Tuscarora pass. It was a brutal climb. At the top it felt like we were in a dream because we were completely surrounded by fog. The most surreal experience was when we started to descend, we came down out of this cloud and got to overlook the whole valley. It was one of the most incredible experiences on our trip. We descended down into the farm country of Pennsylvania that reminded us so much of home.

We took lunch in Chambersburg and than continued the ride towards Gettysburg. We just gotta stay on the bike. Out of Chambersburg, there was one last climb through Caledonia State Park but it wasn't to bad. Than before we knew it, we were descending into Gettysburg.

In Gettysburg we made a quick loop around the battlefield and than rode through town and grabbed subs at Sheetz. We also grabbed a nice nap outside the gas station. I found particular entertainment on watching the expressions on people's faces of seeing four guys all sacked out on the cement with four bikes parked in various places. After the nap, Seth contacted his Uncle Frank who lived pretty close to Gettysburg. The plan was to park our stuff at his cousin's house and he would come and pick us up and take us to his house.

Things worked out smoothly and we got to Frank's farm. There we got a drink of cold iced tea and than drove over to Dora Kawate's house to swim. Dora is Frank's sister and we got to clean off in their pool. It was a great afternoon and we're thankful for all the hospitality we were shown. Seth also got to talk with Masako Kawate who attends Wheaton College with him and Isaac Kawate a friend who often went camping with him.

That evening, Mrs. Myers provided a delicious meal of ham, green beans, and potatoes. We ate til we were stuffed and than relaxed outside enjoying the nice summer evening. Later on, Seth's grandparents, Uncle Duane, Aunt Joan, and Uncle Darren stopped in for dessert and to here about the trip. The apple pie and ice cream was great and it was refreshing to spend the evening with relatives. We shared stories and than crashed into bed excited for the next day and the promise of returning home.

An Unsuspecting Climb

2009-07-04T11:43:00.000-07:00

7/1/09 ~ After a great nights sleep at the Finks and an awesome pancake breakfast courtesy of Keith, we grabbed our bikes and were on our way with the addition of Cooper. Dietrich had just received a new rim and he was confident that he could pull the BOB without any spoke problems. We headed out across the beautiful appalachian landscape of western Pennsylvania.

It was so beautiful that day and we felt new energy as we got closer to home. Cooper also provided much entertainment for us and we were glad to have someone new with us to spice things up. We rode through some mountains and than along a valley into the town of Bedford. There we grabbed lunch at the local Burger King.

After lunch, we pedaled onwards looking forward to some big climbs that afternoon. We had to cross the infamous Sideling Hill before we dropped into McConnellsburg . . . or so we thought. We climbed up Sideling after a drink break in Breezewood. Because we took a break in Breezewood, the climb didn't seem so terrible because Breezewood is probably a third up the climb. We got to the top and thought we were made. Just a long descent into McConnellsburg.

Descending into the valley, we new that we had missed something when we didn't hit the town in the valley. Than we slowly began to climb. Where the heck had this climb come from. We had forgotten about this second climb. We settled in for the climb that never seemed to end. To top of the experience, it started dumping buckets of rain on us. We were absolutely soaked as we put putted up the mountain.

Right as we finally reached the top, the rain stopped. Completely soaked, we descended into McConnellsburg. We hit the closest McDonalds to use the air dryers in the bathrooms to dry our clothes. It turned out to be a tougher ride but we were done.

Dietrich and Bobby went about looking for a place to stay. They had instant success and met a pastor who gave us the church's youth building to stay in. It had couches, a shower, and a TV. We crashed into that place and might have made it a little smelly but it was great. We rented a movie from red box, ordered a pizza, and relaxed that night as we watched the romantic comedy "Dan In Real Life". It was such a happy movie and we all went to bed thinking about if we would meet that special someone on the road tomorrow... or maybe the next day.... or the next. Ahh forget it, this is a dudes trip.

Familiar Places Familiar Faces

2009-07-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

6/30/09 ~ After a great nights sleep in John and Pam's basement, we grabbed a breakfast of muffins and headed onwards to Somerset. Man the names of towns are starting to sound familiar.

We knew it was going to be hard riding today and it sure was. More of Western Pennsylvania's steep hills all day. We rode all morning and crossed the Monongahela river and soon afterwards the Youghiogheny river. It was beautiful riding and we stayed on the saddle for most of the morning.

We grabbed lunch in the town of Donegal which was right next to the PA turnpike. Roads and towns were now familiar to us and the excitement of nearing home was setting in. After a few big Appalachian climbs, we rolled into the town of Somerset. There, we grabbed Turkey Hill Iced Tea and went to the local library to work on the blog and check our route for the next few days.

Seth's good buddy from Wheaton, Cameron Foose, lived in Laurel Mountain which was about a 30 minute drive away. His family used to attend church in Somerset and Cameron contacted the pastor from that church. Their names were Keith and Patti Fink and they were gracious enough to give us a place to stay that night. We rolled on down to their house and chatted for awhile and got showers. Than Cameron rolled into town and took us out to a chinese buffet. The food was great and we had an awesome time talking and joking around with Cameron. Thanks Cameron for the great night of food and conversation, it was extremely refreshing.

After supper, we went back to the Finks and Bobby's day was made. Patti Fink was an accomplished tennis player and so they went down to the courts to play together. We relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful evening in Somerset.

Later that night, Mr. Linde, Caroline, and Cooper rolled into town. Cooper was planning to ride with us from Somerset back to Lancaster. We met up with them and got all our gear ready for the next day. It was great to have Cooper along. He was bringing us new energy for the final push home. We crashed into beds that night and slept like babys.

Pennsylvania

2009-07-04T06:50:00.000-07:00

6/29/09 ~ This morning, we woke up and Russ the youth pastor of the methodist church we slept in was there making us wonderful oatmeal pancakes. We ate till we were full and thanked him so much for all the help he was. We threw everything in the BOBs and headed out for the most beautiful state of all - Pennsylvania!

We rode that morning through Ohio and it was beautiful. There was green rolling hills and forest all around us. Some of the ride went along a beautiful lake placed in the hills of Ohio. It was a great ride. Before long we were in Cadiz and we took a quick break there to refuel.

From Cadiz we rode on a divided highway the whole way to Steubenville which is right on the Ohio river. As we rode into Steubenville, the ride became complete madness. We were flying down a hill towards the river and cars are flying past us and we're trying to make lane changes on a four lane highway. We were nailing all these huge potholes and one time Bobby's BOB hit a hole and jackknifed sideways. It looked for sure like he was going down but he kept moving.

We survived the highway riding and got into Steubenville. After some time spent asking where stuff was, we found a McDonalds and had lunch. We could look across the Ohio River to the panhandle of West Virginia and we knew that right beyond that was Pennsylvania.

Moving on we crossed the Ohio river and rode south for awhile along the river. In Wellsburg, we turned east and hit some of the steepest hills we ever saw the entire trip. It was absolutely the hardest riding of the trip in western Pennsylvania. We would ride straight down a hill pedaling as hard as we could so that we could keep our momentum to shoot straight up the next one. It was madness.

In Buffalo Pennsylvania, we stopped at a guys house to ask for something to drink. We met Bob Lievengood and his two friends who were sitting in the garage at 2:00 on a monday drinking Beer. He gave us soda and ice cream and tried really hard to get us to stay at his house. We were hoping to get to Washington so we turned him down and kept moving despite his constant comments that us three skinny white boys would for sure be shot in Washington.

We rolled into town and got chinese for supper. Dietrich was great and managed to find us a place to stay with a local pastor, John, and his wife, Pam. Pam took us back to her house and we relaxed and spent the night talking with her and telling her about our trip. They were very hospitable and we are so thankful for their help.

Ohio - Best State Yet?

2009-07-03T19:26:00.000-07:00

6/28/09 ~ After a great nights sleep, we thanked Francie for her hospitality, grabbed some breakfast at the local Tim Hortons and rolled onwards through Ohio. We planned to attend to church today and decided to get alittle riding in before we found someplace to worship. So, we got some good miles in and rode through the Ohio countryside. It was starting to get hilly and we knew we were leaving the flatness of the midwest behind.

We stopped in the small town of Martinsburg and found a local church to attend. The worship was great and the sermon delivered was uplifting. It was nice to get into church and refocus. There we met a really nice woman who ended up asking us to join her and her husband for lunch at the local diner. We gladly accepted and had a great lunch of burgers and ice cream. Afterwards, we were surprised with a barbershop quartet of four woman who performed and incredible a capella rendition of "On the Road Again". It sure was hard to do that after the hospitality we were shown.

Moving onwards, we hit major hills and ran into problems when Dietrich broke a spoke. He quickly hitchhiked forward to Coshocton where Bobby and Seth joined him. There Bobby and Seth watched the US soccer game while Dietrich searched high and low for a way to fix his spook. When all hope was lost, he randomly met a couple in an empty parking lot who miraculously had all the tools he needed to fix his rim. Talk about a miracle and answer to prayer. We moved onwards to our destination of Newcomerstown.

In Newcomerstown, we got connected with a local Methodist church who were kind enough to let us sleep in a little section of their church. We were glad to have a place to stay and got supper at the local pizza diner where we met the mayor of the town. We talked with him and his wife and they were kind enough to pay for our dinner. Boy are we so blessed! Seth even enjoyed music of the jukebox. To top the night off we rode downtown and got ice cream at the local shop. We live the high life on this trip and are so blessed. It was a great day.

Overcoming A Few Obstacles...

2009-06-30T12:37:00.000-07:00

6/27/09 ~ After a good night sleep on the comfortable couches and Craig and Lynda’s, we woke up to “smiley face” chocolate chip pancakes made by Lynda. We enjoyed breakfast with Craig and Lynda, but knew we had to keep moving , so we said our goodbyes and pedaled onward into Ohio. We rode 40 miles with a nice tailwind into Urbana, and decided to stop at a McDonald’s for soda and some carbs. Dietrich having broken a spoke yesterday was wary of the tensions of the spokes in his rim, and decided to get his rim tuned at the local bike shop. The bike mechanic, while truing the wheel ended up breaking a spoke, and did not have any in stock. The bike shop mechanic felt responsible and thus got his fiancée to drive Dietrich to Springfield, OH to get his wheel fixed. We decided that Seth and I would ride onward to the set destination of Sunbury, OH and begin looking for a house and Dietrich would follow up behind us after he got his wheel fixed. Seth and Bobby made it to Sunbury and after only one attempt, Francie opened up her basement to us. Because it was only three o’clock and we already had a place to stay for the night, Seth and Bobby went down to the local campground and swam in the pool. After swimming, we returned to Francie’s house and Dietrich arrived shortly after. We got showered up and relaxed, and Francie and her Polish friend Mark cooked us a filling dinner of steak, mashed potatoes, pasta salad and topped it off with rainbow sherbet. After dinner we watched the movie “Cars” and enjoyed the warmth and comfort of the couches while it rained during the night. Thank you Francie for opening up your doors to us and treating us so well……. This is two nights in a row now that Ohio has opened up its doors to us…..

Some Fellow Bikers

2009-06-30T12:09:00.000-07:00

6/26/09~ Woke up that morning, in Tipton Indiana, only to find David cooking us up a great breakfast of fried eggs, and all the cereal we could want, it was beautiful, and he's quite the chef at making great eggs. We waved goodbye to our incredible hosts, and rode on out, bound for Ohio, and excited to be entering our last and final state before the Great and Wonderous, Pennsylvannia. We again had great weather, with a slight tailwind, and averaged 20 mph for the next 70 miles which put us in Union City, on the border of Ohio, where we would eat lunch. Just as we were pulling into the subway there however, Dietrich, yet again, broke another spoke sending his rim way out of true, and unrideable. Luckily however it could not have come at a better place, right next to a Napa Auto parts store. Since there was no bike shop, Dietrich needed to fix it himself, and so the great guys at the Napa let him use their shop. He threw the rim in the vice, and quickly fixed his rim back up and ridealbe, while Bobby and Seth enjoyed a great lunch of Subs, and napping.
After lunch, we hit the road again, entering the nice state of Ohio, riding a final 20 miles into the small town of Covington. We entered the town at about 2:30, and began the usual, knocking on doors. We always seem to be catching people when they're "just leaving town" however, soon enough we found our guy, Craig Cota. He was a great big, Harley-Davidson rider, with tatooes, shaved head, gotee and all, slightly intimidating at first. Bobby, stuttered through his words, checking to see if maybe this guy would let us stay at his place. Being the great man himself, he walked us right over and put us in his air conditioned garage. We dropped our stuff off and rode into town to get "the best ice cream" at the local shop, as he claims. We hung out for about 3 hours just trying to meet the locals, and just maybe talk to a girl for once, it didn't work out as planned however so we just relaxed and rolled on back to Craigs place.
We hit up his pool, and began chatting with him, and soon found out he was the man with the knowledge. He began telling us all sorts of different things, about things we could imgagine, and some we even couldn't, it was great. Soon thereafter he told us, to our great surprise, that as soon as his wife, Linda, got home, she could cook us up a huge meal, and thats exactly what she did. We had all the burgers, hot dogs, potatoes, and beans and rice we could possibly want. Yet again, it seems we are spoiled. To top it all off, she made us a great dessert of brownies and ice cream sundaes, with cherry and all, they were so great. Craig also continued to feed us all sorts of great little tid bits of information, and cute stories of his past, and told us all what this bike trip could possibly mean, he even ended it all with a great showing of magic tricks. He definitlely got us excited again to be biking across country, and got our minds on track again. To conclude, a great evening, Linda told us ghost stories of the haunted house they lived in before, a great way to end and incredible night.
It seems as though we always find the best people, in these little towns. We were still 600 miles from home, a good distance away, and the days can seem to get long now, seeing as we have a whole new state to cross... again. Just when it seems like the struggles are toughest, we find great people like the Cota's, and all the other's we've met, we are yet again blown away each day by those we find just by pedalling a distance.
Your prayers are felt, and thats all we can really say about that.

Blessings from David and Joanne

2009-06-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

6/25/09 ~ We decided to sleep in at Tyler and Greg's, so we woke up at a ridiculously late hour of 9:30. Greg and Tyler said we should go out for breakfast to their dad's IHOP, so we went their and had awesome breakfasts for free! It was a relaxing breakfast since we were only doing a half day. We eventually got on the rode back up to Attica and our bikes.

In Attica, we thanked Tyler and Greg for an awesome night and got back on the bikes heading for Tipton Indiana. The riding was quick thanks for a nice tailwind and flat terrain. We rolled into Tipton and began looking for a place to stay. We had trouble for awhile but our prayers were answered when David and Joanne showed up on their sporty moped. We began talking to them and they graciously offered their house to us. David was a retired principle of the local elementary school. It was great to sit back and shoot the breeze with him for awhile.

Joanne made the most incredible meal of biscuits and gravy, mashed potatoes, snap peas, macaroni and cheese, and for dessert icecream and cake. It was so good and we couldn't have been more thankful for how much they blessed us that evening. Joanne had also written a whole book full of Christian poems and song lyrics. She gave us each and signed copy and we have been able to enjoy her poems along our trip. We crashed into bed with full stomachs. Boy we are so spoiled on this trip. We want to send out a big thankyou to David and Joanne for how hospitable they were to us. It was truly a blessing from God.

Fun With The Womacks

2009-06-29T18:08:00.000-07:00

6/24/09 ~ After a scrumptious breakfast of eggs and cereal provided by Larry, we said our goodbyes and pedaled onwards. Today we were anticipating a new state - Indiana. We rode a good stretch through the morning and really moved quickly thanks to flat terrain and a tailwind. We stopped for food at the Burger King and Rantoul. A nice worker there named James heard about our summer-long adventure and offered us all the free food we wanted. We were blown away by how casually generous he was.

Moving on, we got real close to the border and wanted to stop for a drink in Alvin. We found out there was nothing in Alvin but a nice lady invited us to her hairdressers house. There, we were given free iced tea and we chatted for awhile we these two ladies as the haircut took place. They were also very kind and left us leaving Illinois with good memories.

We rolled into Indiana and stopped in a small town called Attica. Here we planned to catch a ride with Seth's friend Tyler Womack from Wheaton back to his house in Terre Haute. We connected with Tyler, left our bikes at a pastor's house, and headed for Terre Haute. It was great to finally ride in a car again. In Terre Haute, we got to hang out with Tyler and his twin Greg who both attend Wheaton College with Seth. They were great and it was a relaxing night. We grabbed supper at a local Mexican restaurant and than went bowling for the night. After bowling, we headed back to the Womack's to watch a suspensful movie called "The Game". We crashed into beds after an awesome evening that felt like a normal summer evening in light of all the experiences we've had on this trip. Special thanks goes out to Tyler and Greg for being so awesome and hanging out with us and making us laugh - It was so relaxing.

Learning to Trust

2009-06-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

6/23/09 ~ Today we were headed to Heyworth. We were rested up and got on the road really early. It was another morning of riding and we made great time. We breaked in Havanna and grabbed some honeybuns and soda. Pressing onward we continued making great time across the flat planes of Illinois. We broke for lunch in San Jose at a small bar of all places. Dietrich originally just went inside to inquire about the condition of the road ahead because there was a detour. We went inside and the place as expected was completely dead. The lady inside was really nice to us and gave us all the free soda we wanted. So we sat there at the bar and had soda and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

After the break, we continued east with more monotonous riding. After a few hours we arrived in Heyworth. Since we arrived so early, we took a break before beginning our search for a house. We had the hardest time finding a place to stay. The local pastors even couldn't really help us out at all. We were beginning to give up hope when Seth met a man named Larry who was riding his bike around the development. They talked for a bit and Larry seemed a bit hesitant. Seth asked him just to think about it for awhile and the parted. Later, Larry found Bobby and Dietrich and said that we could stay at his place. It was a real answer to prayer.

Larry took us to his place and cooked us an incredible meal of spaghetti. We than had cake and ice cream for dessert. We talked with Larry after supper and he mentioned that he was preaching the sermon at his church that Sunday because the pastor was gone. He said his sermon was on the verse where Jesus says to "Let the little children come to me". He talked about the qualities of little children that Jesus finds valuable. One of the first qualities was trust. Larry found that God was really working in his life that night to give us trust. We in turn also had to trust Larry. It was great to see God working through our new friendship and we all came away from the evening with a new insight into the characteristic of Trust. We were truly blessed to have met Larry and we definately could see God through him and how God can provide for us.

The Mighty Mississippi

2009-06-25T17:50:00.000-07:00

6/22/09 ~ After a great nights sleep in the Maloney's basement, we woke up and Brenda provided a great breakfast for us. With full stomachs, we packed the BOBs, said goodbye to Brenda and headed east for the Mississippi and Illinois. Along the way, we actually got to see Jay on the side of the road. We rode onwards and with the exception of some wet roads, we avoided rain and hit the might Mississippi.

Crossing that river was quite a milestone as we really began to feel like we were back in the east. We broke for lunch on the other side of the river in Quincy and did some bike repairs and cleanup. Than we got back on the saddle and continued riding onwards to our final destination of Rushville Illinois.

It was sweltering hot and about 5 miles outside of Rushville we noticed a pristine lake with a water trampoline and a blob right next to a local church. We stopped in and found out that it was a church run summer camp and they were having summer camp there that week. There were kids from Alabama, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. They were happy to let us swim in the lake and they also provided a delicious supper. As usual, we turned a lot of heads with our goofy biking spandex and ridiculous tan lines.

After that we rolled down to Rushville to find a place to stay. We had a horrible time finding a place but were finally blessed with meeting Pastor Steve of the local free methodist church. He told us the local churches had a fund that was to provide for people who were stranded and needed shelter. So, he called the local campground which also had air-conditioned rooms and we got to stay in one of those rooms that night. It was great to relax in the AC before hitting the sack. It was a long hot day and a cool room with a soft bed was just the thing we needed.

With the Maloneys in Missouri....

2009-06-23T19:07:00.000-07:00

6/21/09 ~ After a good night sleep in beds compliments of Jim and Cindy we woke up to rain. We decided to stay in bed and wait out the rain. We slept in until 7:30 and the rain cleared up and we decided it was alright to ride. We said our goodbyes and made our way across the rolling Missouri Hills in the 95 degree heat. After about 45 miles; 10 miles outside of our lunchstop in Macon, Bobby's tire exploded and a golf ball size rut jutted out of his tire. He knew the drill and immediately threw up his thumb for a ride while Dietrich and Seth rode the final 10 miles into Macon. Bobby quickly got a ride from a couple, and set up camp outside the Wal Mart in Macon, and Dietrich and Seth shortly arrived. Bobby replaced his tire and after a lunch break we were ready to trek the final 50 miles to Monroe City. The ride went smoothly and after arriving in Monroe City we got straight to business and began knocking on doors. After our second try; the Maloney's Jay, Brenda and their son Shawn opened up their doors to us. We enjoyed a nice shower and dinner with the family hearing about Shawn's football days. We spent the evening relaxing, eating ice cream and sharing stories. It was truly great spending the evening with the Maloneys and watching them open up as the evening progressed. We would just like to say a special thankyou to them for how much they helped us. The hospitality we have been shown across the Midwest has been truly amazing!

Pics will be put on soon....

Hello Missouri!

2009-06-21T18:09:00.000-07:00

6-19-09 ~ In splendid fashion, Bob came through with an awesome breakfast this morning. We feasted on eggs, breakfast potatoes, sausage, and bacon. After checking the weather, we packed up waved goodbye to Bob and waved hello to Missouri. The riding was pretty uneventful throughout the day. We breaked for lunch in Cameron and than pressed on because we knew there was a chance of showers later in the afternoon. Fifteen miles out of Chillicothe things started to go wrong. Dietrich had a flat and we stopped as the thunder and lightning was hitting around us. He worked quickly and just as he put the wheel back on the tube blew again. He changed it out again and we kept riding knowing that rain was around the corner. Five miles out of town it started to ride hard. Seth found a second wind and led the charge into town feeling like he was in the tour de France. One mile outside of town Dietrich blew another flat. The rain was dumping and instead of wasting another tube, we decided to let Dietrich get a ride into town and Seth and Bobby charged into town finding shelter at the local McDonalds. Dietrich showed up soon after and we all went inside to dry our clothes on the air blowers in the bathroom. After supper, we rode into the suburbs looking for a place to stay. The first house we checked turned out to be a success with Jim and Cindy offering their bathroom and three beds. We couldn't have asked for more. They truly blessed us with shelter from the rain and Cindy even offered us icecream and brownies later. Jim turned out to be a fellow bike tourist also. The only difference was he had a motor on his. He had toured all over the US on his motorcyle including riding up to the Alaska and the artic circle. It was fun to here different stories from him. We were truly blessed by this couple and crashed into bed with stomachs full of icecream and brownies.

Last Night in Kansas

2009-06-21T16:56:00.000-07:00

6-18-09 ~ We decided to make today an easy ride, so we slept in til 9. After having a great breakfast of pancakes provided by Jason, we slowly got our stuffed packed up and got ready to leave Topeka. Jason owned a nice road bike and so we asked if he wanted to ride a few miles with us today and he was up for it. He took off work for alittle and we met him a few miles up the road and he joined the crew. It was fun to have another person along with us. The riding was nice and we had a real strong tailwind. We made it to Atchison and were pretty soon pigging out at the local Chinese buffet. We had met a young guy named Justin earlier and little did we know that while we were eating he had found a guy who was willing to put us up for the night. He introduced himself as "Bob Berg, like iceberg without the ice cause I'm not cold". We knew we would like him instantly and after we were done eating we rolled over to his apartment. He was incredibly generous and we had chips and salsa and Long Johns Silver while we talked. Afterwards, we rode our bikes down to the banks of the Missouri river and relaxed their as the sun set. Later, we relaxed and watched "Yes Man" before going to bed. Bob was great and promised to cook breakfast for us in the morning. He was a proffessional chef and we were excited to taste some of his cooking. We all slept in the same room including Junkyard his dog. It was a great bonding experience with relaxing pillow talk.

Topeka!

2009-06-21T16:12:00.000-07:00

6-18-09 ~ After a great nights sleep in Tara's apartment and a delicious breakfast of biscuits and gravy, we packed our stuff and started the trek to Topeka. The ride was flat and relatively uneventful. On the way, we did pass numerous bikers all wearing the same outfits and riding the same bikes. We finally stopped to talk to one of the girls and found out that this group was biking from Virginia Beach to Oregon for Habitat for Humanity. They would ride for 6 days and than build on the 7th day. It was really cool to meet a whole group of people doing the same thing as us right in the middle of the nation. The rest of the ride went smoothly and navigating the city traffic in Topeka was not much of a problem. At Bobby's cousins, we unpacked our stuff and showered. We than grabbed lunch at Bobo's a local burger joint that brews their own Root Beer. It was delicious and we spent most of the day relaxing. Carol, Bobby's cousin, got home from classes. She is studying to become a lawyer. We ate an awesome meal of meatballs and mashed potatos before Jason, Carol's husband, got home. Jason works for a non-profit organization that helps local farmers in Kansas. After dinner, we all rode bikes to the local ice cream shop and relaxed and talked in the warm summer evening. Back at there place, we crashed into the bed they provided for us with full stomachs, grateful for how God provides for us throughout this trip.

"Lifes a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get"

2009-06-18T13:24:00.000-07:00

6-17-09 ~ We woke up after a great night sleep, again to Bobby's alarm. It was a beautiful morning but it was one where you could tell it was gonna be blazing hot that day. We were the first in the Osborne grocery store and inhaled a breakfast of apple juice and honey buns. Down the rode not more than ten miles Dietrich broke a spoke on his rear wheel on the cassette side. Of course the one tool we don't have is the tool to remove the cassette. We quickly decided to have Dietrich hitch hike up to the next big town of Beloit while Bobby and Seth rode. Seth and Bobby had an absolutely miserable time getting to Beloit as there was a brutal headwind. The miles seemed to drag on compared to the riding yesterday.
On Dietrich's end, he became great buddies with the Kansan boys in blue. The cops were great and got Dietrich to Beloit. When Seth and Bobby got to Beloit, they found Dietrich joking and carrying on with the local cops. It turns out that there is about one cop on duty per county and they had radioed all around and could transport Dietrich from county line to county line in relay fashion. The only problem was that the cop in Clay county, the county east was busy and would be unable to participate. Again Eric the cop came through and found Dietrich a ride to the town of Manhattan where Kansas State University was located. The final decision of the team was this: Dietrich would go to Manhattan while Bobby and Seth would ride onward to Clay Center which was 40 miles short of Manhattan. Dietrich, depending on when he got his bike fixed, would either spend the night in Manhattan or hitch hike back to Clay Center to rejoin Bobby and Seth.
Dietrich's ride wasn't coming for a few hours, so Bobby and Seth left. Their ride couldn't have been more miserable. A ridiculous headwind the entire way, sweltering heat, and nothing but fields. Seth spent most of the ride staring straight down not even wanting to look up to see how far he had to ride.
Despite the terrible conditions, Bobby and Seth championed forward and were within 10 miles of Clay Center when Dietrich pulled up in a luxorious truck. They stopped to talk. It turns out that the reason that the Clay county cop was unable to participate in the relay that morning was because an attempted murder had occurred with a cop killing the attacker. We were told about how dramatic this was for the small Kansan town that hasn't seen a crime like this in decades. Cops were everywhere and us as outsiders were unlikely to find any hospitality in the town. Taking things as they came, Bobby and Seth decided to join Dietrich and ride the rest of the way to Manhattan.
In Manhattan, we got Dietrich's bike fixed and had a supper of Chipotle burritos. Bob Conway, the man who we stayed with in Osborne, had managed to get ahold of his daughters who go to K-State. They were glad to put us up in their apartment. We rode down there and met Tara, Traci, and Tessa. We ended up staying in Tara's apartment because she had the most room. She was great and let us shower and relax. We also met Tara's boyfriend Tanner who had grown up on a huge farm west of Manhattan. It was awesome to hang out with people our age and that night we had a rousing game of Rummy. We played cards to the late hour of 10:30. Seth managed to pull out a W in Rummy. We had a blast hanging out with the Conway family and Co. We crashed onto the couches after a long day ready for sleep.

We would really like to thank the Conway family for all the ways that they blessed us in the past 2 days. Everything they did for us was above and beyond anything we could have expected. The people of Kansas truly practise the virtues of kindess and generosity that every American should have.

The Long One, 120 miles

2009-06-18T12:32:00.000-07:00

6-16-09 ~ We woke up that morning, to Bobby's usual "Rise and Shine!" at 6 AM sharp. It was tough getting out of those comfortable beds, but we knew we had a long ride ahead of us. I also think it being our first night in the Central time zone caused a sort of "jetlag" as well.
We got ready, and found for ourselves a great breakfast of incredible Quiche, made with Alex's famous "meatballs" as well, it was a beautiful breakfast to start us off on our 120 mile ride that day. We were slightly nervous, as anything, such as a slight headwind or rain could ruin our expectations to make it to the town of Osborne.
We ate our breakfast with the family, and began rolling down Highway 24 around 7:30, it was tough leaving our great hosts, the Dumler family, but we must push east.
3 hours, and 60 miles later, we found ourselves sitting in the town of Hill City. We were excited we were already there, and because we were making such great time, average 21 mph, we decided to make just a quick and hit the road again while the winds were right. The next 30 miles went just as beautifully as the prior miles, and we found ourselves 90 miles in, by 12:00, just in time for lunch. We were again so thankful and excited that the ride was going as smooth as it was, and were so glad that we finally, had that slight tailwind we've been waiting for. We ate the lunch of Ham sandwhiches and that Mrs. Dumler so graciously made for us, and we continued East yet again, hoping to make it to Osborne, by 3:00.
Yet again, the remaining 30 miles went just as before, averaging 21 mph and we made it to our final destination by 3:00. We could not have asked for a greater ride, thank God indeed.
We rolled in and immediatley found our next connect, which Mr. Dumler found for us, a fellow co-worker of his, Bob Conway. That was great, rolling into a town after 120 miles in 90 degree heat, and already having a house to stay in.
Mr. Conway welcomed us and showed us where we would stay that night, he also told us he'd be cooking us dinner as well. Wow, we just could not ask for anymore from Kansans. We relaxed that afternoon, and ate a great meal of hamburgers, potatoe salad, macaroni salad and chips. To end the whole evening, we yet again watched a movie and hit the sack.
This state may be wide, long, hot, humid and flat, but its a great state with great people. Bob also told us, if we could make it to the town of Manhattan the next day, he would have us a place to stay there too.

Treated Like Kings

2009-06-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

6/15/09 ~ After a good night sleep under the shelter of the Sharon Springs United Methodist Church, we woke up to Kathy Walker and a hearty breakfast of eggs, toast and biscuits. After much deliberation, Dietrich decided it would be best to take the day off, due to his ailing knee, so Dietrich hitchhiked the short 54 mile stretch from Sharon Springs to Oakley. Seth and Bobby did the easy ride and both agree that Dietrich did not miss much.... it was all flat fields as far as the eye could see. They made great time averaging over 21 mph (a new record for the trip) and actually beat Dietrich there. Kathy went out of her way again, and arranged for a house for us to stay at in Oakley, so upon arriving we got a hold of Alex, and went to his house. We got cleaned up, and his daughter Emily drove us to the library to update the blog, we saw the Fick Fossil Museum and the Buffalo Bill Statue. After climbing on the statue for awhile, we returned back to Alex's house to a spaghetti meal and cheesecake prepared by him and his wife Mary. The family really went out of their way to make sure we were comfortable, we are truly blown away by the hospitality we were shown. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing, watching a movie, and an early bedtime as we knew we had a 120 mile ride the next day.

Blessings from fellow Christians

2009-06-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

6/14/09 ~ Waking up to a foggy morning, we got our stuff together and headed out. It was so foggy moisture was condensing on our arm hairs as we road. We rode 25 miles to Cheyenne Wells and breaked in a gas station. After doing some route planning, we decided to take an easy day today. This opened up some time and we rode down the street to a local church and headed in for the service.

The people there were incredible friendly to us and talked with us about our experiences. They felt led to pray for us during the service and were an incredible amount of encouragement to us. After the service, we spoke to the Pastor who proceeded to tell us that not only were we being blessed by the people but we were an encouragement to him as well. This had an impact on us as we realized that we weren't just taking from the people we met but that we had a positive influence on them. Another thing that stood out was that the pastor left us with the words, "well if I don't see you before, I'll see you in Heaven." It was great to realize that all the Christians we have met along the way, we will one day see again and be able to thank them once again.

A couple we met at the church offered to take us to the local diner. We had all you can eat home cooking and got to know Scott and Joyce. Scott was the farmer of a small plot of land of 860 acres. He also was a crop duster. This was incredible and he told us all about how he flies planes over fields spraying the crops as he goes. We even dropped into his house and he showed us his two planes and many other toys in his Hanger.

We rode on two Kansas and Sharon Springs where we met some awesome people at the local Methodist Church. They offered to let us sleep in the church and Kathy even prepared a whole meal for us. The people that we have met have been such an incredible blessing to us it can't be described.

The belly of Hell?

2009-06-15T13:33:00.000-07:00

6/13/09 ~ After waking up and gourging on a delicious breakfast of French Toast, we decided that it was the hardest thing to leave Frey family. They were the closest thing we got to a family and pedaling away from them and Dan was very hard. We rode out of Colorado Springs and hit the plains dead on. Mile after mile of nothing went by. Breaking for lunch in Punkin Center, we huddled behind someones fence to escape the horrendous crosswind. After another 3 hours and 105 miles under our belt we hit the town where we planned to stay - Aroya. It was nothing. A settler town that had dried up and there was nothing there. Seth was on the verge of tears. There was nothing, and we quickly realized that we had to do some quick decision making because severe whether was rolling in (later we found out there was a tornado warning). Out came our thumbs and within 15 minutes a naval officer who worked for the NSA picked us up. He was great and got us 17 miles down the road to Kit Carson which was a small enough town that if you sneezed you might miss it.

We got on our bikes and went looking around town for anyplace to get food and Soda. Again absolutely nothing. We were desparate enough to check the liquor store. There a man was kind enough to enlighten us that we were in the middle of nowhere, there was nothing here. He told us repeatedly that we were in the belly of Hell. After that encouraging tidbit. We rode across the street to find an incredibly kind couple who ended up inviting us to a church meal of all you can eat buffalo barbecue, potatoes, and baked beans. As we ate Bob proceeded to tell us about the concert being put on afterwards by the "Cowboys for Jesus". The concert was great with some of the best fiddle playing I've ever seen. After talking with a few people, we made camp in the local pavillion and slept like babies, thankful for the shelter as it dumped rain that night. in the belly of Hell? Definately not.

Colorado Springs (Chapter 1 of bike trip)

2009-06-12T18:16:00.000-07:00

6-11-09 ~ Today's ride was shorter and consisted of 60 miles of terrible weather and bad roads. After working out a few problems with flat tires, we narrowly missed a torrential thunderstorm by arriving at the Colorado Cyclist bike shop 15 minutes before the rain began to pour. Even the shop employees were surprised by the amount of water that the storm dumped in about 10 minutes. Our next stop was our hosts Che and Carolines' house on the north side of the sprawling city. We saw the local attraction "The Garden of the Gods," which consists of huge rocks jutting out of the mountain side. While climbing there, we met some highschool graduates who have been traveling in a converted school bus from New Orleans. We had delicious pizza for dinner and met all of the 5 children in the house.

6-12-09 ~ During our day off before continuing to the plains of Colorado and the ensuing midwest, we played games with the neighborhood children, saw deer casually walking through the neighborhood, visited Focus on the Family and Colorado's Olympic training center (where Michael Phelps trained 2 days ago). We also watched a local short track mountain bike race, which featured aggressive male and female atheletes from both semi and professional levels.

Dan Lehman Signing Off ~ "While I have experienced many great things on this trip, including the sights we have seen as well as the amazing people we have met, I have found that my goals for this trip conflict with the team's and that my athletic ability does not meet the team's expectations. I have decided to depart from Colorado Springs tomorrow with no hard feelings and return to Lancaster for the summer."

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The Royal Gorge and Canon City

2009-06-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

6/10/09 ~ We slept in and enjoyed the morning in Salida. Bobby made pancakes and we relaxed knowing it was an easy ride to Canon city. Leaving around 11:00, we made our way down through Big Horn Sheep Canyon. It was a beautiful ride along the Arkansas river. We stopped for lunch and had PB and J.

Riding onwards, we soon saw ominous clouds and lightning ahead. We breaked for awhile hoping it would pass and were glad we did because further on, the roads were soaked. The ride was smooth and uneventful riding into Canon city. We grabbed supper and than proceeded to find lodging for the night. We tried several houses without much luck but we were blessed with meeting a Baptist pastor who agreed to let us stay in their church after their Wednesday night service. The service was great with the sermon being on Satan's failed attempts to disrupt the early church.

After the sermon, we made camp in the back. The church had a shower and kitchen area which was great. After cleaning up, we sat around and talked for a bit before hitting the sack. We were grateful to be inside because of the threat of storms. It was truly a blessings from God.

The Pinnacle of the West

2009-06-12T09:43:00.000-07:00

6-9-09 ~ Today was the day we had been preparing for since California. Dan and Dietrich bared the burden of delivering the bob trailers to the base of the big climb. Than Bobby and Seth would pull the BOBs up the pass. We rode through the beautiful Curecanti National Recreation area which consisted of rocky hills and still pools of water. The ominous Monarch Pass was the route we planned to take over the Rocky Mountain range because even though it peaks at over 11,000 feat, it is considerably mild compared to other passes. It was ominous in the sense that we were told that it was a 17 mile ascent and that it was very steep in places. Our experience with mountains both in Nevada and Utah payed off when the pass turned out to actually be a mere 7.5 miles and the grade no worse than probably 7%. The main challenge turned out to be coping with thinner air and ridiculously cold temperatures at the summit. As we approached the top, we entered a cloud of snow where the moisture meets the cold mountain top. Cresting the summit at 11,312 feet, we took a break at a lodge before beginning a rewarding 20 mile descent down the other side into the town of Salida. Our first successful use of the internet to find a host via couchsurfer.com turned out to be extremely rewarding when "Uncle Bubba" offered us his entire vacation home even though he was out of town. His nephew Matt opened the house for us, where we enjoyed doing laundry, eating pancakes, seeing a breathtaking sunset on the rockies, and watching a movie before sleeping in our own beds for the first time.

stats: 88 miles , 1 flat , 1 broken spoke, first precipitation (snow)

First McDonalds in 10 days!

2009-06-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

6-8-09 ~ Waking up to frost is never fun in June! It was so cold that the dew on our tent had frozen. We had to keep moving so we strapped it to the outside of the BOB hoping it would dry. Kathy treated us all to Coffee and after a breakfast of bagels and peanut butter, we rode into the freezing cold. The map told us we were to go over a pass but we hardly noticed that we were climbing because the grade was so shallow. We finally came over the summit and had the most incredible descent into Ridgeway with the San Miguel range to our left. It was so beautiful.

We stopped in Ridgeway and than continued descending to Montrose where we McDonalds, something we hadn't seen since the western side of Utah. McDoubles and Soda never tasted so good. Walmart also gave us some sweet deals on food that we would keep for that evening. We climbed out of Montrose and descended into Cimarron. Than we climbed out of Cimarron and descended into Sapinero. Those were some miserable miles because we would climb and get all sweaty only to begin descending where we would get freezing cold.

In Sapinero, we stopped at a campground that overlooked the Blue Mesa Lake. It was beautiful. We feasted on Ravioli and Ramen Noodles. Miraculously, there was internet connection and a shower in the shady looking Cabin that was the office. We worked on the blog for a little bit and than hit the sack, nervous for the next day which entailed Monarch Pass and crossing the continental divide.

Stats - 88 miles

Telluride

2009-06-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

6/7/09 ~ After a long nights sleep under the pavilion, we woke up to near freezing temperatures. It was so cold that I had no intention of getting out of my sleeping bag. That was quickly changed as Bobby got the team up and going. Breakfast consisted of Donuts at the local Sinclair and than we were off. The ride was beautiful and the scenery for the first time reminded us of beautiful Lancaster. There were green fields with rich, freshly tilled soil. Than we descended into disappointment valley and sure was it disappointing. The road was terrible and it stretched out across this desolate valley for miles. We chugged along and soon climbed back up onto the high plains where we saw for the first time, the Rockies in all their splendor. They were both beautiful and intimidating as we knew we had to navigate our way over those monolithic structures.

We breaked in a small town called Norwood and ate at a local grocery store. Three of us enjoyed a nice nap right in the parking lot. We had rode 75 miles by 12:00 that day and the hardest part of the day was over, so we relaxed.

After Lunch, we rode down an incredible hill into a canyon and rode along the San Miguel river up to Placerville. There, we met an awesome couple named Mark and Kathy who quickly opened their home to us. We were also only 17 miles from the ski town of Telluride and because we weren't going to ride that way, Kathy offered to take us up there for the evening. We rode to Telluride and were in complete awe of the quaint town completely nestled in the grande San Miguel mountains. We rode the ski life half way up the mountain for free and enjoyed looking at the mountains.

After a quick supper at the local grocery store, we proceeded to hitchhike down the road to Placerville. We were picked up by a nice woman named Amy who was a custom artist. She does incredible work for wealthy people who live in Telluride. She took us to her house and showed us some of her work before dropping us off at Mark and Kathys.

That night, we enjoyed the warm hot tub and showers. We also met up with four of bobby's friends from Penn State who were driving across the country. They happened to be in the same area and Mark and Kathy were fine with all of us pitching tents in their yard. We all enjoyed hot dogs around the fire and than we crashed into the tent. It had been a really full day.

Last Hoorah in Utah and Hello Colorful Colorado

2009-06-11T21:32:00.000-07:00

6/5-6/09 ~ So we woke up at Natural Bridges after a horrible nights sleep. Even though we're pretty thin guys sleeping four in a three man tent is a tight squeeze. We got packed up real quick and started our mad dash for Blanding and the promise of a house in George and Ruth Stoltzfus. We had a slight climb followed by an incredible downhill deep into a canyon. Then followed some horribly steep climbs up a canyon and down the other side. It was only 40 some miles into Blanding but our legs were shot. After a quick lunch, we rode the last 10 miles to George and Ruth's. They lived right off the road and also off the grid producing their own electricity from solar panels. They were extremely hospitable and that night we had our first home cooked meal in days. Afterwards, George took us to the top of the mountain near their house and we had an incredibly surreal view into the Canyonlands National Park. The sun was setting and the canyons were draped in mist. We saw many Mule Deer up in the mountains and even saw two Elk with their two calves.

We slept like rocks and woke up to an awesome breakfast prepared by Ruth. The morning was spent doing laundry. The washer was broke so we had to rinse the laundry by hand and hang it out to dry. After a glorious lunch from Ruth, we packed the bobs and headed our for Dove Creek Colorado which was about 40 miles away. The ride was pleasant and the landscape quickly turned from brown desert to Green fields. In Dove Creek, we ate at a gas station and also managed to bum a lot of free food. We than headed over to the local park where we made camp in the pavilion. The night was beautiful and peaceful. The only disturbances came from a cat which Bobby thought was some kids coming to mess with us, and a red fox which Seth mistook for a Coyote. Besides that we slept warmly inside our mummy bags and we realized quickly that Colorado was to be a surprisingly chilly state.

The First Century

2009-06-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

6/4/09 ~ We woke up in the community center, ate our wonderful dozen of donuts and headed out on the road, praying for anything but a head wind and some water on the way anywhere out there. All we knew is we wouldn't hit anything major for the next 120 miles, our last desert crossing we hope. We realized right away this was going to be a long hard day, as we were planning on doing 90 miles, which would just put us sleeping on the desert floor that night. The first 50 miles went quite smooth, as we headed out through nothingness watching the same mountain by our side for the first 2 hours. We then began our decent towards the Colorado river, our first sign of water for what seemed like days. It was a great descent and beautiful scenery dropping down into the huge lake where the colorado and "Dirty Devil" river met. We then climbed up out of the basin, and found a small town of "Hite." Unfortunately, that town was a mile off the road, and wasn't anything but a small, almost out of business, gas station. We threw the BOB's off the side of the road at the intersection and rode on into "town" to yet again eat a hearty lunch of Peanut-butter and Jelly, and coke.

Heading out of there around 1 was quite brutal as we began yet again climbing, and the heat of the day was just beginning, it was somewhere around 90 degrees and higher at that point. At this point in the trip is where for some, the first insanity moment almost crept in. We made our next climb, rounded a corner, and hit a nasty headwind. Not only that, but the road we were riding on was the worst yet, and we could not seem to get above 7 mph, on a slightly down hill stretch, cranking away as hard as we could. Suddenly miles seem like hours, hills seem like mountains, and the heat sucked every last ounce of water out of you. To top it all of we knew we still had 40 miles to do that day, and did not exactly know when we might find more water. We pedaled, and struggled, and fought with nature for the next 3 hours to try and make it to "Fry's Canyon" a town 23 miles away from Hite. We finally arrived in the town to find nothing but an old abandoned motel with no trespassing signs everywhere, one of the more frustrating signs on the whole trip. Seth, determined to find water went charging through the front doors of the motel, that were surprisingly unlocked. It was quite erie, walking into this deserted place in the middle of nowhere, trying to find any source of water. Seth came out with no water and only knowledge of one small soda can of unopened Mountain Dew. Surprisingly, however, a man came to our rescue, he was out working on the plumbing in the back, we don't know why, and found us some unopened bottles of water covered in dirt in the shed out back, we used that water for cooking then. Finally, we ate our finest of sorts for early dinner: Ramen noodles, shrimp and beef style. We ate, napped, and at 5 pm headed out yet again for more pedaling, hoping to make it to some source of water 25 miles down the road. Again, we hit the same headwind, the same awfully slow road, and continued pedaling at 7 mph. After 2 1/2 hours more we made it to Natural Bridges National Monument, which we were surprised to make it too. We pedaled in that night with the sun setting over the desert looking for a place to stay. The long entrance to that park was what actually gave us our first 100 mile day, which we we hit dead on rolling into the campground.

The Campground was full and closed by that time, however we were able to find a nice young couple that let us share sites with them. They actually found us, and the husband we met was actually an avid cycle tourer as well. They were great, we shared tools, stories, and little tidbits of knowledge that night and ate a great meal of Chili and Rice. It could not have been a better way to end that day, on that road that nearly led us to our first taste of insanity, for some of us that is.

All that said, we must agree that the scenery was beautiful that day, it may have gotten mildly boring at times, but all in all it was a beautiful ride and we can't complain about that. We were also blessed with water, at times when it seemed nearly hopeless. Its good to finally be done with the desert.

Work Before Play

2009-06-08T18:59:00.000-07:00

6-3-09 ~ After a good night sleep in beds courtesy of Josh and Jill, we woke up at 6:00 A.M. and made ourselves egg sandwiches. The night before, Josh had properly forewarned us of the challenge of the ride we would have today as we had to climb Boulder Mountain, a 3,100 foot climb from 6,500 ft to 9,600 ft in a 17 mile climb. We said our goodbyes to Josh and Jill and slowly trekked up the mountain. After 3 hours we summited the mountain, rode down the valley into Torrey. We stopped at a local gas station, made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and relaxed before the rest of the ride. We then dropped out of Torrey, to the supposedly "all down hill" rode to Hanksville. That statement was for the most part true as we dropped into Capitol Reef National Park and followed the Fremont River for 47 miles to Hanksville. Utah has not failed to provide us with many different landscapes, and during this 47 mile stretch we saw beautiful red rock canyons, green fields, a flowing river, and weird grey mounds. About ten miles outside of Hanksville, moped after moped began to pass us. We eventually caught up to them at a turnoff and a group of fathers and sons told us they were touring the southeastern desert on Mopeds. We then trekked on and arrived in Hanksville. We went to the local grocery store, got a two liter, and crashed on the sidewalk. We searched the town for a house to stay in, but failed. We ended up setting up camp on the porch of the local community center and went to bed early prepping for our next two days through the desert.
photos are taking a while to upload due to a slow internet connection; they will be posted later

Kindred Spirits

2009-06-08T18:43:00.000-07:00

06/02/09 - Today we woke up in the hotel in Ruby's Inn that Nick and awesomely provided for us again. We got all our stuff together and stepped outside only to realize that it wasn't more than 40 degrees outside. We threw on every piece of clothing we had and got on our bikes and headed out into the Utah wilderness. We had a great ride in the morning with some beautiful scenery. After a short but very steep climb, we had an incredible 20 mile long descent into the small town of Escalante. The scenery was beautiful and when we got to Escalante we hit the first grocery store and feasted on cold cut sandwiches, fruit, chips, and soda. After a quick nap, we rode onwards. We hit another incredible scenery change where the land changed from open praire to rocky canyons. We had a beautiful but brutal climb up calf creek and onto the "hogs back" highway which ran along a ridge. We than descended into the small town of Boulder, Utah (not to be confused with Boulder, Colorado). We did some networking in town and discovered from Doran that there was a young "hippie" who would be willing to put us up. We rode to the house and met Josh and Jill who lived on a subsistent farm and were hoping to go "off the grid" in the near future. It turned out that Josh had quit his job as an engineer and was looking for a peaceful life in Boulder farming. He rode his bike there on almost the same route that we came and settled down with Jill. We helped in the fields that afternoon tilling 34 rows and digging deep rows for potatos. After the work, Jill cooked an incredible meal of hamburger tortillas with incredible accessories added in. We enjoyed stimulating conversation around the campfire with Josh. It was cool to here him describing all the pains of bike touring that we were experiencing. After the campfire, we crashed into the beds that they had so graciously provided for us.

73 Miles.

Utah- Beautiful Landscapes, Incredible People

2009-06-01T18:58:00.000-07:00

5/31/09 - 6/01/09

We left Zion nervous about the road ahead, all anyone said the day before was how awful the ride was gonna be considering it was all up hill, even the locals agreed to this. However, J.R. set us up with a great breakfast of branflakes and incredible raspberries and we headed out ready for the ride ahead. He was a great man, with great hopsitality and meeting him definitely boosted our morale. Before even begining the ride however we got a flat with the BOB trailer. We argued and bickered over whether to buy a puncture resistant tube for it considering we've had so many in so few days, and finally dicatorship over the wallet took over and we bought one at local bike shop there. Finally, we rolled on. Climbing through the switchbacks out of Zion was arguably one of the most beautiful rides out thus far, even though the switchbacks were quite brutal. The next 30 miles turned out to be quite tough. We all thought we might actually die climbing one those blame mountains, it wasn't so much as the grade that killed us, just the constant up hill and the fact that we had no food in our systems. Its quite frustrating when you think a town is only five miles away, yet it turns out to be 10 and all up hill.
At the gas station there we loaded up on food, a diet slightly different today, consisting of smashed hot dog rolls with peanut butter and jelly, and corndogs that someone bought us while in the gas station there. Great people we meet out here, great people. We were then also told by the lone local sherriff there that the ride should be mildly flat from here on out, it also helped to learn that we were at about 8,000 feet, and knew Bryce could not be much higher than that.
We rolled out of that gas station, caught a slight down hill and hauled for the next 20 miles averaging around 23 mph, distincly up from the average of 11 mph earlier that morning. We finally climbed slightly into Bryce for the next few miles and rolled into the great town of Ruby's Inn.

It seemed lucky considering as we rolled in it began to hail, the first precipitation we've gotten all ride was hail, it was nuts. We then began looking for our man "Nick," a man who we knew little about except that first name. We were given that name by previous bike tourers that came through this town 2 years prior and stayed with him. So there we were, with no last names, and not even a for sure place of where he lived and began scouring the town for this man "Nick."We had no last names, no nothing, but just began asking around for a man named Nick. We found ourselves the last name of this man, then some relatives of the man, and finally his actual house, where we found him. We found out he was manager of the local hotel and he decided to get us a room for the night. The room and hotel were stunningly beaufiul, by far the nicest place I've ever been. We were astonished by his hospitiality. To blow us away even more, he gave us a small piece of paper with his writing on it that said how we could get a discount of 55% off in the local restaurant. We of course devoured the "Cowboy Buffet" there we and we sat there, in all our glory, destroying the most incredible food I've eaten. We actually had real vegetables for the first time on the trip. To top it all off, we all piled in the hottub there as well.

Following all that and a great nights sleep, we devoured the "Cowboy Lunch" yet again and again received the 55% discount. We just could not believe it. We then left and headed to see the actual park of Bryce Canyon. Its a beautiful park, unlike anything we've ever seen before. Its indescribable, the pictures should represent somewhat of what we saw today. It was the most unique place thus far.
We headed out of the park again and back to the town of Ruby's Inn, ate a dinner consisting of Hamburgers and donuts and then headed back to Nicks house. Yet again, he pulled through and put us up in a hotel room, again. That guy is great. Now here we sit, in our hotel room, again, relaxing watching TV, chatting on the phone, and drinking coffee for the first time in weeks, thank you Nick. Tomorrow we roll forward for the small town of Boulder.
0 flats
81 miles
4000 ft. climb
avg. 13.5 mph

Disclaimer - Blog posts might be infrequent for the next week. Mike Simpson is the man!

Zion National Park and Angel's Landing

2009-05-31T21:06:00.001-07:00

5/30/09

Last evening, an incredible man named Roger felt prompted out of the generosity of his heart to purchase a hotel room for us at America's Best Value Inn. So this morning, we woke up in a hotel room full of bike's and BOB trailers, and gourged on the continental breakfast that the hotel provided. After a great breakfast, we left St. George and made our way to Springdale which is the town right outside of Zion. We saw some incredible sights along the way which included red-colored rocks and incredible Mesas that jutted upwards into the sky. When we arrived in Springdale, we met J. R. Madsen who had hosted Cooper, Michael, and Jon two years earlier. His hospitality was incredible and he treated us to a delicious lunch at his daughter's coffee shop, the Mean Bean. Afterwards, we caught a ride into Zion National Park where we hiked Angel's landing. The hike was wild with the end being a narrow strip with sheer cliffs on each side that dropped thousands of feet into the canyon below. We enjoyed our time on top of the canyon and than headed back into Springdale where we cooked our own supper of Hot Dogs, Fruit, Chips, and Coke. We than crashed into Madsen's living room completely exhaused after a long day.

0 Flats! 41 Miles, Average of 12 MPH, 85 Degrees

McDonalds is our friend

2009-05-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

5/29/09 ~ As per our daily protocol, our first order of business upon entering the town of St George was to search for a McDonalds. Not only to they provide us with immidiate energy and a delicious meal, but also a place to meet locals to start networking a place to stay, or in our case today, someone who might drive us to the Grand Canyon. This was the best McDonalds yet; we were treated kindly, met nice people, and even scored 4 free big macs. Besides the Grand Canyon, we are also hoping to see Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. Our journey was mainly uphill, but since we started at 6 am, we were able to arrive at 1 pm, which is extremely early for us. We left Nevada, traveled briefly through Arizona, and ended in Utah, and entered the mountain time zone as well. There was precipitation, but out here it basically evaporates before reaching the ground. The best part for everyone was enjoying the scenery. We were amazed and surprised how beautiful Utah is. The mountains are still immense, the dirt is red, there are finally green trees besides scrub, cacti, and joshua trees. The pictures do more justice than words, although they in no way duplicate the expanse of scenery out here which we enjoy everyday. Also, if you didn't know, you can view all the pictures larger if you click on them.

2 flats with no tubes left, 46 miles, 11 mph average, 90 degrees, 15 mile climb to 4,500 elevation

100 degrees in the shade

2009-05-29T14:11:00.000-07:00

5/28/09 ~ Clocking 80 miles in the dry desert heat, we left Las Vegas behind and rode through the sweltering heat to Mesquite, a small farm and casino town which was truly an oasis in the desert. Our main problem was traveling on highway 15, which is littered with shredded tractor-trailer tires. These tires are held together by a fine wire mesh which scatters all over the shoulder when the tire explode. These metal splinters caused 10 flats, and were hard to detect because they are extremely small and thus cause the tire to deflate very slowly. Our first attempt to find a host via knocking on doors was successful due to Bobby's pure charm. Valerie, a retired school teacher allowed us to shower at her house and camp out in her back yard.

1. Mike, who helped us with so many things in Vegas, also treated us to an IHOP breakfast before leaving the city, and rode with us part of the way. 2. Vegas in the background
3. Our mid-day break spot 4. thankfully no humidity 5. Nevada mountains
6. the cursed highway 15 7. the lushness of Mesquite

Wallowing in Vegas

2009-05-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

5-26-09 ~ The ride that Dietrich and Bobby got in the morning left them about 10 miles outside of Vegas at the Fiesta Hotel. Dan and Seth were picked up by Mike Simpson, a Vegas taxi driver, returning from Phoenix Arizona, who picked up the other two along the way, treated us all to lunch, and gave us a tour of the strip and the city, and later dropped us off at Eric Lefever's house, a connection through Seth. Dan and Seth had the privilege of driving over the Hoover Dam along 95 heading North. We all headed into the city at night to see the strip, which is comparable to Times Square, except times 100. We watched the light show at the Bellagio, the "volcano" at the Mirage, the canals inside the Venetian. We were impressed by the scale and grandeur of the city, but ended up returning on a bus a few hours later due to tiredeness. We were all grateful for the day off after a week of intense riding, and will continue early next morning and are hoping that Mike Simpson will join us for part of it.

1. Bellagio at night 2. Vegas performer 3. Little New York 4. Mandalay Bay Casino
5. Eating at Panda Express with Mike 6. untitled 7. dusk in Arizona 8. Harry's current project
9. Dan, Harry, Dinker, & Leo 10. Morning in Arizona 11. canyon ridge
12. Waking up on Highway 95

A series of unfortunate events

2009-05-27T14:39:00.000-07:00

5-24 ~ We woke up around noon at the Essex gas station a little disoriented and with interstate travelers glancing at us warily. We cooked our first meal with the propane stove which consisted of beans and rice. If everything had gone according to plan, we would have headed out around 7 pm to ride through the night again. Instead, a spoke broke on Seth's bike while he repaired a tube, and after calling a few bike shops, decided that it would be wisest not to ride on it as the wheel would become more untrue over time. It was determined that Dan would hitch with Seth to Las Vegas where the wheel would be fixed and the group would reunite in two days time. After five minutes on the entrance ramp, they were picked up by Harry, a retired pipe welder traveling alone with his dauchsund "Dinker." About an hour later they arrived in Kingman Arizona, a town more or less off the grid in an immense valley between soaring canyon mountains. Meanwhile, Bobby experienced a flat tire a mile away from the gas station and blew two more trying to repair it. As it was now evident that his tires required bigger tubes than the other three, and the pair, with no options left, was forced to also hitch towards 95. While Dan and Seth enjoyed showers and a bed in Arizona, Bobby and Dietrich camped at the intersection of 40 and 95, and apparently heard the rattling of snakes during the night.

1. cleaned out 2. lunch 3. eating 4. cooking 5&6. camping in Najas GAS station in Essex

2009-05-27T14:37:00.000-07:00

5-23-09 ~ Today's ride was easier, being as it was only 30 miles from Yucca Valley to 29 Palms and our next connection Mike Mark was friendly and let us take over his living room for the afternoon in order to prepare for our planned night ride. We tried to sleep in the sweltering heat, and managed to get a few hours before a massive spaghetti dinner. We were impressed by a huge bown cloud looming over the mountains that stretched on for miles and was apparently the smoke from brush fires. Mike's family waved goodbye to the team at the end of his driveway, and we headed out into the dark. Traveling on Amboy Road for 51 miles, we were passed by no more than five cars. Other than the lights on our bikes, there was nothing but darkness silence. Our pitstop on Route 66 at Roy's service station provided us with a much needed break and cold sodas. Over the following 41 miles, we fought sleep through conversation and the numbness of bike shoes. The milky way was very clear and we saw many shooting stars as well. Finally arriving in Essex (consisting of a gas station, not a real town) at the break of day at 4:30, we ate what we could before completely crashing in the parking lot. stats: 12 hours of biking, 120 miles, 2 flat tires, 2 bloody noses ~ Dietrich
breakfast: 3 honey buns, fig newtons, 2 hotdogs
Photos:
1. bloody nose 2. Bobby grillmaster 3&4. Amboy pitstop in the middle of the night
5. Mike Mark's house in 29 Palms 6. Yucca Valley 7.Mike Inglish 8. Blue, Mike's dog

shady people who turned out to be really nice people

2009-05-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

5-22-09 ~ Today was without a doubt our toughest yet. With two major climbs over a 10 hour, 60 mile ride, in addition to 90 degree heat and a 10 mile stretch in a valley pass where 30 mph winds hit us directly on our left side, we were completely exhausted when we finally arrived in Morengo Valley. We became very apprehensive about a 15 mile switchback descent when a local trucker told us of the eminent dangers and the many body bags that he had seen down the windy stretch. With caution, we slowly meandered our way down the mountain, seeing many beautiful overlooks into scenic Palm Springs. Immediately upon entering the small town of Morongo Valley, a local named Nathan approached us in a friendly curiosity. He directed us to the a local park to sleep for the night and a restaurant called the Happy Cooker, where we feasted on double cheeseburgers, fries, and iced tea; this was our third night in a row eating burgers fries (for the sodium and protein). Our waitress took interest in our quest and donated 4 milkshakes to our cause; much needed calories for our cheap wallets. We then trekked over to the local park, where to our surprise Nathan was waiting for us, and eventually connected us with his biker friend Mike in Yucca Valley.
4 flat tires ~ Bobby
205 Total miles
Lunch: Granola Bars, Oatmeal Creme Pies, Bagels, and Peanut Butter

2009-05-23T22:05:00.000-07:00

5-22-09 ~ Today was a difficult ride as it was the first with our bob trailers, weighing each about fifty pounds. We covered another 70 miles, which were not too challenging until we hit the mountain that took us to the town of Anza, where we camped at a local mormon church. Again, we found the locals to be very helpful, friendly, and interested in our trip. The mountain trek was five and a half miles of constant uphill with no breaks. We were warned by Barret to be very careful tomorrow as we head downhill tomorrow to Desert Palms.
Here are the stats:
1 flat tire ~ Bobby
5 road kill ~ 1 cyote, 2 hairs, 2 snakes
70 miles
142 total miles
3,700 feet of incline
high of 85 degrees
lunch: peanut butter, pepsi, cookies, creme pies, and bagels ~ the point being to load up on carbs, sodium, and sugar

1. mountain climb 2. vista 3. ~ 4. seth collapses in exhaustion 5. another vista
6. deathly switchbacks 7. ready for our descent 8. beautiful flowers in Rainbow
9. yet another vista 10. taking a break from the wind 11. California landscape
12. Happy Cooker

Safely in San Diego

2009-05-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

5/20/09 ~ Arriving at LAX after a six hour flight from Baltimore, we took a short flight to San Diego and were picked up by Seth's aunt Dorcas, and drove to her house in San Marcos. We were amazed by the hilly terrain and the immediate hospitality shown by her neighbors. We spent the afternoon unpacking and building our bikes. After a spaghetti dinner, we visited a local bike shop to pick up spare parts such as spokes and tires. The bike workers seemed very amused that we were biking across the US with no previous experience and little knowledge as to our route. As we tried to plan our trek for the next day, we learned from a local that if we go through Joshua Tree as planned, we will face "enough wind to shake a Jeep, a constant uphill, and temperatures exeeding 100 degrees." We are looking forward to that.

5/21/09 ~ This morning we woke up at 5:30 to beat the rush hour traffic, and sped down the six lane Highway 5 to reach Imperial beach, the "launch pad" of our journey. To our surprise, the morning was completely overcast and chilly, which is typical along the coast here. Finding our way to the point where the pacific ocean meets the US-Mexico border, we dipped our wheels in the surf to christen our journey. After the border patrol rudely refused to take our picture, we met local cyclist Omar, who offered to guide us Northward through the first leg to San Diego. One of the few things we learned about him was that he is a back-up celloist in the city's orchestra. The highlight there was Balboa Park, which is filled with cacti, eucaliptus, and all kinds of desert foliage. What should have been a short, semi-easy trek to the UCSD campus turned into a wild goose chase with our first major hills as well as familiarizing ourselves with California's traffic patterns. Although this state's locals are courteous to bikers and generally friendly, they are completely unreliable when it comes to directions. Along the way, the owner of Mission Bike shop tuned all our bikes free of a service charge. After we corrected our route, we took 101 along the coast before heading east back to Dorcas' house. In order to correct the 8 hour absence of food since we began, we found a produce market and ate just bagels and peanut butter for lunch. Eager to experience the famous In-And-Out burger joint, we had dinner out and were not dissapointed with our four orders of "double-double burgers and animalized fries." To conclude our evening we went to Carlsbad beach to see our first and only sunset on the ocean.
You have heard what they say about the Pacific ocean; that it has no memory...however, we have found that what we have experienced here will be unforgettable.