Confluence, PA to Bedford, PA

I couldn't sleep last night. We were camped near a pond full of bullfrogs that made noise all through the night. I would've preferred a train...

Today's ride had some glorious downhill!  You just had to do a lot of not-so-glorious climbing to get to it. A ski lift would have been nice...

The ride was really nice though. I opted to go over Mt. Davis, the highest point in PA. 

After lunch I stopped by the Flight 93 Memorial...  I can't find the words to describe how being there made me feel...

There is a wall there with the names of the crew and passengers of Flight 93 at the memorial. One woman had 'and unborn child' carved next to her name as well...   I imagined the grief that her husband must have felt...  It's so sad...

Tomorrow we ride to Gettysburg. It's the last physically demanding day of the ride. There is light at the end of the tunnel!

I miss my family quite a bit, and although I'm having a blast on this ride, I can't wait for it to be over so I can join them again in California. 

Fun!

Onward to Ohio!

The day started out with this beautiful sunrise. 

We left Indiana, which made me sad as seen below. 

It was a scorching day with a high in the low 80s. That coupled with the persistent tailwind, moderate humidity, and today being a low-mileage day left me tuckered, so I decided to hydrate in such a fashion which made me wear most of my water. 

The situation quickly deteriorated into a water fight. 

Which rider has the safety mindset?

I know you guessed Martha, but it's me. I checked my mirror before this. 

When we got to camp I wrapped Kendall's bars. That was my first time ever wrapping handlebars in my life. 

Tomorrow we're off to Sandusky. Cedar Point here I come!

Kendallville, IN

I've told the other riders that Indiana was the best state in the union, and the citizens have proved it. Hoosier hospitality is alive and well in Northern Indiana, and we all appreciate it. Billings, MT can take a few notes from... scratch that, they can take copious notes on how to behave from Hoosiers!

The ride into Kendallville was pretty uneventful. Fellow rider John Grotto put it best when he said, "There are four types of terrain in Indiana: corn on both sides, corn on the left with soy on the right, soy on the left with corn on the right, and soy on both sides."  This reminded me of when I was a child and I saw an advertisement for Indiana Beach on TV that said There's more than corn in Indiana.  Yes, there's also soy...  

Tomorrow we enter Ohio!  

Into the Motherland!

So today we rode into Indiana, the best state in the union, and birthplace of none other than: ME. The state responsible for the invention of testosterone, the beard, chainsaws, and red meat. Indiana doesn't allow anyone to cross her borders without first passing a trial of strength, so this morning we were met with a 10-15 mph headwind while making the gradual climb to the border. Indiana, being the fiscally responsible state it is, doesn't waste money on lavish things like border signs or roads, so sorry, but there will be no photo of the border crossing.

Even without the sign, all the riders knew exactly when they had entered Indiana. Having passed the trial and proven themselves worthy to enter the warm embrace of Indiana, she called off the winds and we enjoyed the last few miles of rolling hills into Valparaiso University.

My mother and brother came up to visit. My mom hasn't quit smoking yet... She broke her promise... I'm a bit sad about that. If you're reading this, mother, you should feel bad...

We went to eat at La Cabana and I had two dinners: a taco salad, and a texas burrito. After that we went walking around Wal-Mart to let the food settle and I hit up a Steak-n-Shake for a strawberry shake. My family had to leave because they have to work tomorrow, so I went back to the dorm and had dinner with the other riders. We started sharing silly YouTube videos. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure:

Do You Even Lift?
Handstand Boxing!

More frequent updates...

So, I got the blogger app, so I don't need to wait until rest days to update, so I think I can manage daily updates from here out. 

On another note, the weather is calling for some rain, but it looks like our campsite is going to pass through a keyhole in the system. Man, we have such a lucky group. Did I just jinx us?!  Hmmmm

Garden Prairie to Coal City

106 miles of corn. A pretty uneventful ride until about 10 miles out where a guy ran a red light and almost killed me and Kendall. 

When Kendall and I were rolling into the camp grounds we hear a lot of popping that sounded like fireworks. We looked over just in time to see a tree branch fall onto a camper (trailer not person). I rode over to make sure no one was injured. It was crazy!

I missed the 5 hour century by 11 minutes...

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/345454038

Welcome to Illinois!

Today we crossed into Illinois. The weather forecast called for some pretty vicious headwinds, but as usual we lucked out and had a kicking tailwind. At one point I was going 28mph at just 130bpm!  Ridiculous!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/344973819

It's hard to believe we had over 3,000ft of climbing today.  Man, what a great ride today. 

Leaving Montana, passing through Wyoming, and landing in South Dakota

The ride out of Billings was wonderful.  It's pretty much unanimous that all the riders disliked Billings, so we were all happy to leave that place.  Citizens of Montana: Billings is ruining your reputation!

Overall, Montana was a beautiful state and the people were friendly and helpful with Billings being the only exception.

Anyhow, back to leaving Billings.  The cue sheet in the morning said we had a 1,200 foot climb out of town which wound up being around 2,100.  I think someone transposed those digits?  Even with the climbing it was still a relatively easy day.  The ride was just under 53 miles, so it was more or less an extra rest day.



Day 16 took us from Hardin, Montana to Sheridan, Wyoming.  Shortly after leaving camp we crossed the 1,000 mile mark.

Montana was a huge state, and it was nice to finally leave it.  We were in Montana for more than a week and we didn't even traverse its entire width, as we swung down to the south to enter Wyoming.

Here are the stats from day 16:


 Day 17...  In my opinion, this was the worst day of the trip so far.  The morning started out with a 2,000 ft climb out of camp, which was followed by an equal descent to lunch (mile 43).  Up to lunch the ride was fine, but after lunch it was just torturous.  The last 70 miles was a series of ascents and descents, with more ascending than descending.

The problem was that the road was playing mind games with the riders.  I lost track of how many times I saw a peak through a mountain pass and thought, "Surely, that must be the top!", only to get to the peak and see the road descend momentarily before taking a turn up through yet another pass higher than the one before.  This made descending torture as you simply had to climb every bit as much as you went down, plus some, time and time again.  I got gassed out after 95 or so miles and slowly spun my way into Gillette with my tail between my legs, thinking:

   This is the Big Ride, not the Little Ride.
                                    -Charlton Durant


Day 18:  Gillette to Newcastle

This was a great day of riding.  It's always a good day when you go down more than you go up, and that's just what happened on this day.  We even had favorable winds until the last 20 or so miles.  While on the ride we passed the small town of Upton.  Many of you may not know this, I know I didn't, but Upton is "The Best Town on Earth."

While reaching for my phone to take a photo of the Upton water tower, I accidentally took what I believe to be the best photo ever.  See below.

Day 19:  My favorite ride of the trip so far.  It took us from Newcastle, WY to Rapid City, SD.  Another state done!

It might be hard to tell, but someone drew mustaches on all the faces on the sign...  even Teddy Roosevelt, and he already had a mustache...

The ride was awesome.  We started out with about 1500' of climbing over a 25 or so mile stretch through the Black Hills National Forest up to Custer State Park.  Shortly after entering the park, all the hard work from the morning was rewarded with some glorious downhill action...  about 17 or so miles.  The road descended through Custer State park with some sweeping corners.  The speed limit through the park is 35 MPH and the cyclists I was with broke that law on more than one occasion.  Since we were going the same speed as traffic through the park, we took the lane and when we all got to the bottom of the hill we stopped to flip over our cue sheets to see where our next turn would be and we were all smiling ear to ear.


Now, I'm going to pass out.  It's been a long week, and I need to get some rest.  I didn't get hardly any sleep last night in Newcastle because they were lighting off fireworks until about 2am.

I broke the interweb?

So, I've been sitting here trying to get this blog updated, but the Garmin website to post the GPS tracks of each day isn't working, and the blogger page isn't letting me upload photos, so this will be a pretty lame update as it will lack visuals.

The rides in montana have been progressively worse as we neared billings.  The drivers have been getting more hostile, and just about every rider has made some complaint about how rude these people are.  They're just fine in restaurants and around town, but on the roads they turn into huge jerks.  Yesterday I got flipped the bird by what looked to be a 50 year old woman, and today I got told to, "Get off the road, faggot!"

Needless to say, I doubt I will be retiring in Montana...  The thing I'm looking forward to most in Montana is seeing the welcome sign in my mirror.

The real concern is that I hear people get more and more rude and aggressive as we go East, so if we're only in Montana and people are already this bad, what lies ahead?

We have a pretty tough week ahead of us over the next 5 days.  We'll cover more than 400 miles, and knock down the longest day of the ride (112 miles), so once that's done, it's all down hill from there, right?

Next time I update this, I will more than likely be in South Dakota, so see you all in about 5 days!

June 25th - Rest day in Missoula, MT

First, I'll put up the GPS tracks from the ride into Idaho.  That was a good day of riding and it was nice to finally cross a state line.

On June 23rd we left Sandpoint, ID and made our way across our second state line in as many days.  The ride into Montana was pretty nice.

The Pend Oreille Lake portion was especially beautiful.  We were told it was moose country and to be especially watchful for wildlife, but I didn't see anything other than a few deer.

Thompson Falls: Home of Western Hospitality.

On June 24th we made our way from Thompson Falls to Missoula.  It was 102 miles, and for a few of our riders it was their first century ride ever, so congratulations to them!  (Nelle Glasser, Kendall Smith, and Melanie Zahn)


The weather was pretty bad again.  I think it started raining about 3 minutes into the ride and persisted for most of the morning.  The rain stopped around lunch time (mile 40) and I dropped off my rain gear at the 60 mile stop as the skies were clearing.  That was almost a horrible mistake because it started raining in Missoula no more than 5 minutes after I finished the day's ride.

Next time I will play it safe and just tuck my rain jacket away in my jersey.

My legs feel fine, but lately I've been having some pretty bad neck cramps...  I've never been to a masseuse, but I am going to get a neck massage later on today.  Hopefully that helps with the neck cramps.

There are quite a few beautiful views in this part of the country.  This was the view from lunch.  I need to talk to Charlton about picking a better spot.  This view made it hard to leave the lunch stop.

Speaking of Charlton, I would like to thank him, Lynn, and Tom for all the great support.  They're doing a great job and without them we wouldn't be successful on this ride.




Tomorrow we ride 99 miles to Avon, MT, and it's 4 days until our next rest day.  I will probably only be able to update this blog on rest days, so check back here in a few days.

June 22nd - Crossing into Idaho!

It has been too long since I made an update to remember everything, so in the future I will try to keep better notes so that when I have an internet connection I can post everything...  

Today we crossed the state line into Idaho.  One state down, and just 11 to go before we roll into Washington, D.C.  Before starting this ride, I wasn't sure if I had trained and prepared enough, but after the first week, those doubts are gone.  I will make it to D.C.

A fraternity buddy of fellow Big Rider Jeff Sloan picked us up during our stay in Spokane and took us on a tour of the downtown area.  I got some pretty sweet photos of the Spokane River, but I will only add this one, mostly because I want to get to sleep.  All this riding is making me tired...

While in downtown Spokane, we ate at the Steam Plant.  The food was awesome!  If you're ever in the Spokane area, I highly recommend it.

A day around Seattle...

I didn't have internet access yesterday, so I wasn't able to post an update.  Yesterday I arrived in Seattle, and dropped off my truck with Susan Gaylor.  Here's a photo of me and her.  If she steals my truck, I at least have a photo.  She's super generous, and gave me a ride back into Seattle and even took me on a small tour to see the Seattle Troll (picture below)

 This morning, I decided to go for a ride.  I'm not really familiar with the area, so I am not entirely sure where I went, but while along a bike path I saw this statue and decided to snap a photo.  There are a lot of bike paths here, and you see people jogging and cycling all over the place.  This is the kind of place I could retire to.

 Here is a close up photo of the plaque below the statue.  Sorry it's tilted, but I am too lazy to delete the photo, rotate it and repost.  You can either turn your head or hold alt + shift and use the arrow keys to turn your display.

 Here is the Seattle Troll.  I had to wait around for a while to be able to snap a photo without a bunch of tourists in the view.  It seems like a visit to the troll is a must if you're visiting Seattle.

Like I said before, you see people cycling all over the place here. I appreciate a city that appreciates cycling.  Over the Freemont Bridge, there is even a meter that counts how many cyclists cross the bridge each day, and it keeps a running total for the year.  This shot is from early in the morning, so the number is low.  When I was coming back from dinner last night the number was nearly 3,000.












In a bit, all the riders should be here for the orientation, so I am getting really anxious to start this adventure now.  Tomorrow, WE RIDE!

Driving to Seattle, Part 1

Mt. Shasta

I intended on getting on the road at 4:00am today, but I wasn't able to sleep last night, so I ended up leaving the house at around midnight.

Now, more than 900 miles later it's 9:30pm and I am exhausted.  I have stopped at a Motel 6 in Grants Pass, OR for the night, and I am pretty certain I will be able to sleep this time.  I am ONLY 400 or so miles from Seattle, so tomorrow will be an easy day of driving.

Oregon is a beautiful state so far.  So much so, that it's hard for me to drive here because I want to stare at all the scenery.  I saw a river today!  It might not seem like a big deal to some people, but we don't have any in the desert...

I was only in Oregon for 30 minutes before I apparently broke the law.  I had no idea you're not allowed to pump your own gas in Oregon, so I pulled up to the station and started pumping my own fuel as I always do.      The attendant ran out and took over the pumping, quite aggressively I might add, and informed me of the law.  Once she figured out I wasn't from around here, she was really nice.  Actually, people in Oregon seem to be nice all around.  They certainly drive better than Californians, too.

Well, I am off to bed...  I have to get some rest.  I will try to get more photos tomorrow.

All packed up and ready to go!

So today was my last day at work.  I will be driving up to Seattle tomorrow.  I think I will be leaving the house at about 4:00 am.

The truck is all packed up and ready to go.  All I am waiting on now is to have one last dinner with Milena and the kids before I get on the road.  I am going to miss the family, but at the same moment I am really looking forward to taking part in this ride.

I want to thank all my friends and family that made this possible.  Without your generous contributions I never would have raised enough money to take part in this ride.