tour life // aaron and les tour the U.S.

At it again...

2009-07-01T09:30:00.001-07:00

www.tour-life.blogspot.com

We ARE IN NEW YORK!?

2008-07-22T14:32:00.001-07:00

And of course: DAY 40!!!

(New Brunswick, NJ to New York, NY)

How long ought it take to ride 25 miles? Probably close to two hours. So if we left our host's house around 9:30am, got a slow breakfast from the store and then booked it to New York, then we would have made it there no later than, say, 12:30pm, right?

Well, that's what we hoped for anyway. But as Mick Jagger says, "You can't always get what you want," and Les and I found, crossing a mere bridge from Jersey into New York was one of our more substantial hang-ups of the whole trip!

AHHH!!! The excitement was built--the adrenaline flowing like the mississippi river, minds racing like unknown passerbyers gawking from their cars thinking, "why in the WORLD would you ever want to do that!?" And there we were, stuck at a Shell station, only minutes from the Big Apple.

It felt literally like "this" close!

And then, FINALLY, it happened. Somebody offered us a ride across the bridge! After waiting, asking truck after truck, and riding around to explore other options to try to cross, our hero, Mr. Hardy (a firefighter who was present at ground zero just after 9-11-01) had us throw our bikes in the back and off we went!

Almost there! Les cannot believe it!

Riding up Staten Island...there's the Atlantic!

We took the ferry across into Manhattan, but while waiting we were corralled here...

It was a very hazy day, but THIS IS MANHATTAN!!! (aka--New York!)

One of our favorite things was finding cafes. So just after getting in we found this place and "chilled" for a couple hours. This was also where Les bought a HEAVY-DUTY New York-proof bike lock. It was massive!

We had to get to upper-Manhattan (103rd block) to get to our hostel for the night and it only took us 20 blocks, or so, to figure out how New Yorkers ride their bikes. None of them stop at stop lights. Basically, if there aren't cars or pedestrians, you keep riding! It was QUITE an adventure!

The city that never sleeps...ever!

After spending a couple days getting to know the city and seeing a few of the various sites, we decided to hop a subway and head out toward Brooklyn (about as far east as we went during this whole trip!) to stay with Rich and Nicki, a couple we found on warmshowers.org.

A picture in front of their awesome Brooklyn abode.

As seems to be the custom of EVERYBODY we met, Rich and Nicki treated us like family. We were met with warm handshakes, smiles, and conversation, and before we knew it we were inside talking about literature, maps, cycling, and school over some incredibly tasty pasta (thanks Nicki!).

Soon we'd dozed off and then morning came. Rich and Nicki had to head out to work, but not before treating us to some REALLY good coffee! Rich had a funny story about the guy who they get their coffee from, but suffice it to say, this coffee was goooood! Rich then led us almost all the way back to the Brooklyn bridge (a two-story bridge that has a bike lane on top and a car lane on the bottom!) where we'd be able to get back to Manhattan.

Here Rich is giving Aaron directions on how to get to the bridge.

Brooklyn bridge baby!!! It was so fun to see all of the cyclists!

Upon arriving in Manhattan we met up with our buddy Paul (see 4 or 5 posts back...) who'd be hanging out with us for the next three days, which was cool.

One of the highlights of the trip was eating New York style pizza! This place is *allegedly* the first pizza place in America. They cook in old, stone, coal ovens (which is illegal now, but because this place is like a national monument, and because their pizza is amazing, the food people look the other way).

What would a trip to little Italy be without some Italian dessert and Espresso?

Haha, i just had to include this picture. Just read what it says. I CANNOT BELIEVE there are posters like this, and none of us could tell if it was serious or not. Like, does anybody actually call that hotline number down toward the bottom?

So much fun was had in the Big Apple. So much that Les and I nearly forgot to do our Atlantic tire dip! By the fourth day we finally found our way back to Coney Island in Brooklyn and made it official...WE MADE IT TO NEW YORK!

Les dips with precision.

Aaron dips too.

One of the things Les and I couldn't stop saying upon arriving in Mahattan was, "I still can't believe we rode our bikes across the country!"

I think this next section is applicable and justified in adding. It is a mini "reflections" section. Read on, please!

Not to sound cliche or cheesy in anyway, but after being home and getting to talk to many friends, family and loved ones, we get the statement, "man, I would never be able to do that! That is incredible!" But really, as we can attest, we were in absolutely no shape to ride our bikes across the US 5 months before we left. When we would meet people on the trip who would say this to us we began just saying, "oh you can, you'd be surprised what you can accomplish."

It doesn't have to be a bike ride, a swim-a-thon, a forrest gump run, etc. Really, it could be something like seeking out a new job, or investing more into the youth, or being more involved in church, or recycling more. It doesn't need to be a ridiculous (and delirious!) bike ride across the country! The truth is this: we all have dreams. By this I mean that we all have things in life that we wish we could do/we want to see happen, but we don't do them because road-blocks (big and small) stand in our way. We get invigorated to get out there and change the world but then are smacked in the face with reality. For me (aaron) it was being able to come up with enough money to even think about taking this bike ride. For both Les and I it was battling, day in and day out, the constant torment that reality brings on the open road.

But are you really going to let something so small keep you from doing what you know you want to do?

Don't trick yourself into thinking you can't do something because you are "too busy," "too tired," or "too young or old." Ghandi says, "Be the change you want to see in this world." Even if its something small like recycling more or being more involved in your children's lives, you must know that you CAN do it.

Be the change. Do something out-of-the-box. Take a bike ride. Sew a quilt. Write a book. Whatever it is, don't be fooled into thinking that you cannot do what you've always dreamed of doing.

One More Dawn, One More Day

2008-07-22T13:58:00.000-07:00

Day 39 - Wilmington, DE to New Brunswick, NJ - 96 Miles

Well, ladies and gentlemen, grandma's and friends of grandma's, today was our FINAL full day of riding...which we all know means that tomorrow is our LAST DAY!

The excitement has already built and is brimming and flowing out of me and les. We really cannot believe we have ridden our bikes this far! Wow.

Anyway, we have a days worth of stories/events to tell, so on we go!

We woke at a reasonable 7:15ish and came into the kitchen of our host, Tom, to find him fixing up a tasty breakfast. Eggs, turkey-sausage, toast, and oatmeal with cooked cinnamon apples. Topped off with an excellent cup of coffee and Les and I were left thinking about how this breakfast was easily one of the best we've had so far!

Tom and his fiancee, Diane--Wilmington, DE

We pushed off and headed north toward Philly (Philadelphia). All was well for the first 20 miles, and our muscles eventually woke up with the constant up and down, pulling and pushing.

Les is furious. But why? The sign in the background reads: "Share the road with motorcycles." Uhhh hello! What about Bicycles?

The city of Brotherly love.

And then it happened...again!

It was an inch-long screw...beautiful...but I guess we've been due for another puncture cuz it's been a while!

Philly was only a few more miles and before we knew it we were cruising through south philly with its interesting track homes, and into downtown with its museums, statues, and of course, ROCKY STEPS!

Southern Philly housing

Les on the Famous Rocky Steps

Be sure to turn up your volume!

We just had to get a cheesesteak, because no trip through Philly would be complete without one. We endulged in honor of our buddy Tyler Madsen (a cheesesteak fanatic!) and felt quite content afterward. From Philly our ride was anything but over--we still had a daunting 65 miles to go! But today's milage was the last thing on our minds, we had more important things to think about, like, obviously, GETTING TO NEW YORK tomorrow!

Cheese steaks!

This one's for you Tyler Hans W. Madsen

We pushed and pushed and pushed, and finally, after what seemed like ages, we rolled into New Brunswick, N.J. tired, hungry, and all the more closer to our goal.

New Brunswick...then New York!

Dinner was Pizza again, obviously!

Oooh that pain!

2008-07-21T16:54:00.002-07:00

Civilian Cyclists and the Airman

Day 38 - Odenton, MD to Wilmington, DE - 82 Miles

"Paul? When will we ever see you again?"

"Guys, I'm going to be with you in New York."

"Oh. Right."

Leaving Paul was much easier when we realized a reunion would soon take place during our week of celebration and success at the Big Apple.

Riding 82 miles, however, was never more difficult. The inspiration was flowing - after all, we only had 2 and 1/2 days of riding - but our muscles seemed to believe that no more riding was going to be required of them this summer. Sorry glutes, we're not in New York just yet.

Haha. Seriously, I want to be in this club!

Looks like a nice, innocent, ride-able bridge...

Wrong!

Riding through Baltimore to Wilmington, Delaware was strangely familiar. The roads started to resemble those back in California. The onslaught of advertising returned in full force, the 'my way or the highway' drivers are just as generous with the roads, and the weather settled at a sweat-greedy 95 degrees.

But we pushed on, and before we knew it we were done. We had a contact, Tom Gears, a local high-school shop teacher and bicycle enthusiast, just like ourselves! He lived in Wilmington, and from the moment that we pulled up in front of his place we received incredible hospitality, conversation, sleep arrangements, food, etc.! Tom and his finance Diane were quite the hosts and, seriously, thank you both!

Les in Delaware...Aaron still in Maryland

Tom and Diane informed us from the beginning that their friends would be stopping by to go swimming (their's is the coveted pool out of the circle of friends), so we got to meet them, which was really fun, and we got to talk cycling, education, and life around some great apple pie and ice cream (seriously, Don, good call on the peanut butter ice cream!).

Tom was very excited to show us his incredible model train set. He LOVES trains! His is one of a hundred different homes in Wilmington with model trains that people can bring their kids to come and see. Of course, Tom's was probably far more awesome than anyone else's...

"It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood..."

Tom even had a full-sized locomotive in his backyard!

(ok fine, not really...)

ooooh...pooooool!

Don't ask how Aaron and Les both fit on this comfy couch.

After a decent day's ride we were quite ready for bed. Aaron snaked the couch in the basement (seen here) and Les enjoyed the upstairs one.

Just two more days!

Restin' with the best...day two!

2008-07-21T16:54:00.001-07:00

Here's to Leisure.

Day 37: Rest Day #2 - Annapolis, MD

Today, Paul drove us to Annapolis, Maryland after church, where we did absolutely nothing.

I don't know about you, but I am voting for the Green party.

1696! This is the oldest school in the universe.

Then, we went back to Paul's, experienced an incredibly powerful thunderstorm, out of nowhere, watched the end of Ghost Busters and ate cookies.

Seriously, we did nothing today. It was awesome.

walking 6 miles is harder than riding 100!

2008-07-21T04:32:00.000-07:00

Day 36: Resting in D.C. & Baltimore

Well, resting is a bit of an understatement! After waking up late at Paul's aunt's house (and having an excellent breakfast!) we pulled our stuff together and made for the Capitol. The drive was great (no traffic!), and there was simply SOOO much to see. We walked a lot (probably close to 7 miles) and got to see most of what we wanted to. After our great adventures of seeing the sites and waving the invisible American flags we held in our hands as we read the historical markers and signs, we went to "Ben's Chili Bowl" (explanation below), for lunch...read on!

Les holds the Washington monument up with one hand...that's what cycling across the country enables one to do!

I stand gawking in front of Lincoln...and..umm, this is also what cycling enables you to do?

So after a loooong walk (which, really, because we haven't quite exercised some of the muscles one does when walking or running, seemed harder than doing a long ride! I'll bet the semi-foot blisters and sore feet afterward helped out in that though) we went to Ben's Chili Bowl. As you can see from the picture below, this doesn't seem like anything too out of the ordinary, right? Well, this is actually one of Bill Cosby's favorite places to eat and there is a sign inside (see picture below) that states that the only person who eats free at Ben's is Bill Cosby. There were pictures of him everywhere inside and we, obviously, hoped he would walk in and get angry at us and tell us to move out of his seat or something! Didn't happen though...

Ben's Chili Bowl

We were tired from walking, but the chili was good!

I love this sign.

After a late lunch we slowly made our way up to Paul's place in Odenton to drop off our stuff, meet his roomates, and see his AMAZING pool house (ask us more about this later!). Then we set out for Baltimore where we'd be going to an Orioles game at Camden Yards.

Oh yeah!

Seeing a game while on a bicycle trip was highly unexpected, but it was really cool, AND, the Orioles won in the tenth inning because of Luke Scott's walk-off solo homerun! It was exciting. Also, three of Paul's military buddies (Brad, Giovanni, and Pedro) joined us for the game and it was cool to get to hear their stories and hang out with them too.

It was a long day and we did a ton of different, non-cycling type things, which was refreshing and a little odd too (because we're so used to the eat-sleep-ride mentality), but it was great fun!

just...keep...pushing...almost...a...rest...day!

2008-07-21T04:25:00.000-07:00

The sunset in D.C.

Day 35: Charlottesville to Fredericksburg, VA

(then to Odenton via Senior Airman Switz)

The previous four days held their banner high and mighty, waving and daunting: "WE ARE THE APPALACHIANS HILLS, AND WE ARE MANY!" But the fight was fought and after the dust had settled, Aaron and Les (tour the US!) took home the victory cake (which was in the shape of Senior Airman Paul Switz), but not before one last day of beautiful, but tiresome, Virginia country-side riding.

Just put one foot in front of the other...up, and down, up and down... By now our thoughts were one in the same. This all-t0-familiar process was, well, all too familiar, especially for our hill-ridden legs that had seen four long days of hill-battle. Needless to say we were ready for our rest day! After we broke out of the Charlottesville rolling-hill country, we made East for Fredericksburg, VA.

"Civil War Trails"

kinda cool to think that our route used to be old marching grounds.

This was in "Wilderness Battlefield"

Here, Les re-enacts his own end to the Civil War--"This is the end, General Lee!"

We rode right through "Orange County" VA, and this particular city was Orange, as you can see. Just thought that was neat/funny.

We pulled into Fredericksburg and called Paul and found that he was already on his way down to pick us up! So we read, played Sudoku, and the like. (For all who do not know Paul, he grew up at EV Free Fullerton with us and went to Jr. high and high school with Aaron, and continues to be a really good friend of both of us. Currently he is stationed in Odenton, MD in the service of the United States Airforce) And then he arrived...

A warm embrace.

...and another!

SRA Switz's GPS.

Paul drove us up the road to his aunt's house just south of D.C. where we were able to catch a shower and drop our bags off (we'd stay there tonight and then head up toward Odenton/Baltimore to stay at Paul's place for our rest days).

We browsed a food magazine that held hundreds of the best places to eat in the D.C. area and for some reason we ended up with Ethiopian food! Honestly, it was much better than we thought (despite our curious looks).

It is basically a really think, sticky pancake with an assortment of foods to be picked up with the pancake.

This bite was really good!

After we stuffed ourselves we cruised back to Paul's aunts for dessert and a little TV, but before we knew it we were "out" like the lights.

Last hill ever in (the) life (of this trip)!

2008-07-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

It epitome of our final week of riding...all about 'nap time.'

Day 34: Craigsville to Charlottesville, VA

Exploring the cellar.

After our disappointing exploration of the surrounding non-catacombs, we scarfed down some of the best pancakes ever created from a camping stove. It was all thanks to a $1 can of non-stick mystery chemical.

Pancakes! A complete success.

This stuff is magic.

Fully fed, we thought we were ready to attack the road. Instead, the road attacked us, and our muscles screamed. Today was our forth day in the Appalachians, which possess powers not of height, like the Rocky Mountain Range, but of never-ending climbs and falls. In all, we probably climbed as many vertical miles as we did during our time in Colorado. But of course, we are happy to do it, because life has ups and downs. And that's what this trip has been: training for life.

Trying to pick flowers for someone special. Maybe 1-800-Flowers will be easier.

Watering the van.

For a break, we stopped in a cute European-looking town and then proceeded to our final mountain pass, which developed into more climbs and falls until Charlottesville showed up.

Denmark. Or maybe Staunton, VA

A final mountain pass.

Destination 34.

Charlottesville, Virginia is a town to write home about...so, here goes. Oh my! What a place. Rich in American history, with a hip downtown art and culture, and probably most significantly, it is bike friendly. We showed up at our host's house (which he had just finished building himself!) and had a documentary screening about architecture in town recommended to us. We grabbed some pizza, learned about the building of the 2008 Olympics' stadium in China, called the Bird's Nest, and explored the downtown walk way.

University of Virginia. Founded by Tom Jefferson.

Tasty Pizza. Hip Town.

No kidding, Jeff even had an indoor 3-story rock climbing wall.

Tomorrow we ride until 3, then wait for Paul Daniel Switz to rescue us from riding and will spend two full rest days living it up in Washington D.C. and Baltimore. Then on Monday, we begin our northern bound 2 and 1/2 day trip to New York City. The Atlantic is so close, we can taste it.

Warm Springs. No Warm Shower.

2008-07-16T17:32:00.000-07:00

Day 33 - Marlinton, WV to Craigsville, VA - 60 Miles

It is always fun to cross another state line. There is just something about it that makes the ride that much more exciting. Fortunately for us we have been riding through Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, W. Virginia, and Regular Virginia, and really haven't experienced a dull moment. The trees blanket the roads with looming shadow, the brisk country temperatures contain our energy, the birds sing softly in the deeps of the forests, and there just aren't as many cars to worry about!

Just thought this was cool.

Just in case you were wondering:

The George Washington and Jefferson National Forests are U.S. National Forests that combine to form one of the largest areas of public land in the Eastern United States. They cover 1.8 million acres (7,300 km²) of land in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. The forest extends along the entire length of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Alleghany Mountains to the North Carolina border. Just over one third of the forest is actively used for timber harvesting, with the bulk of that used for furniture manufacturing and pulp for paper products. Approximately one million acres (4,000 km²) of the forest are remote and undeveloped and 89,862 acres (363.66 km²) have been designated as wilderness areas, which eliminates future development. (www.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_National_Forest)

Marlinton, WV, is about 10-15 miles from the Virginia border, so it wasn't long before Les and I looked up and remarked with triumph, "another state down!" Breakfast was warm oatmeal with honey and bananas (we're getting really good and making ends-meet, if I can say so myself!), and it was just enough to energize us through the first leg of today's ride.

A good friend of ours told us that pictures are ALWAYS better when there is a person in them. (Thus, we are going to try to do more of this--thanks Tommy Kirven!)

It was a good climb!

After finishing the climb of the day (this one: Warm Springs pass) we took some pictures, made some lunch, rested briefly, and were off and careening down the other side of the mountain--a much enjoyed and rewarding experience for us here on aaronandlestourtheus.blogspot.com...

Here I am pointing at the sky...good one Aaron!

It would still be another 25 miles, or so, until Craigsville would come around, but we didn't fret because our Ginormous (recall Day 30 for the definition of this word...) mountain pass was behind us and everything seems to be downhill after climbing a mountain!

Just an ordinary town-entrance sign, right? Wrong! If you look closely it says, "Craigsville corporate limits." You might be saying, "so what?" Well, the majority of town-entrance signs say, "unincorporated," meaning there really isn't much more than houses, hay-bales, and ecstatic dogs. Anyway, we were excited to be staying in a town that was corporate because this would at least mean that we could find a place to eat.

And we did! (see next picture...)

Yep. Its bad for us, we know, but we don't really care (see les' ice-cream cone?)

I got an ice-cream too!

We milled about for a bit and finally settled down for the night at a local churchyard. The pastor was really nice and even offered us a great bathing location: back down the same road we came about 3 miles in the river. "Eh, no thanks Reverend, we're tired and we'll just clean up in the grocery store bathroom," we both thought!

National Forest. National Mountain Climbing.

2008-07-16T13:17:00.000-07:00

National Forests are the best

Day 32 - Summersville, WV to Marlinton, WV - 62 Miles

As noted in yesterday's post, we expected some dew to be with us during the night. It was. It even decided to stick around until morning. Problem for Aaron and Les: we do not want mildew to develop on our sleeping bags, tent and tarps. So, we had a little sun & air drying experience, which set back our departure time until 9:30.

Yard Sale? No. Drying out our belongings.

Scaling the mast to alert other ships of pirates...or hanging up the tent.

Following the dry session, Walmart and the Dollar Tree gladly accepted our currency in exchange for road treats and sunscreen. Before we knew it, we were on our way to a forest of national proportions.

Into the mountains

This made us want to swim so bad

Refreshing ride

About half way through our ride (both in distance and hours), we pulled in to a rest stop that had a picnic table, outhouses and a well. We made use of at least two of those. After lunch, we got really tired and decided to lay out on the picnic tables for a nap. At one point, we looked up to see an elderly man taking a picture of us. "Why is that guy taking a picture of us?" we deliberated. "Maybe he's going to turn us in to the forest ranger for sleeping on the tables." Then we realized, how often does a man see two crazy young guys sleeping like sarcophagi next to bicycles with huge loads on the back? Only once. So what does he do? He takes a picture. So what did we do? We hit him over the head with our cooking pot and stole his camera. Just kidding. Instead, we stole his great idea and staged this shot.

Taking a nap at the rest stop

When Aaron makes sandwiches, he means business

We woke up from our nap, sleepily climbed atop our steeds, and pressed on. Then, it happened. The road started to construct itself in a vertical fashion and we began scaling the most intimidating climb since the Rockies. The video below should concisely chronicle the experience.

Can you feel the cool air?

Marlinton welcomed us with open arms, gave us a place to use the internet and get some coffee, and tip us off to a park in town that has free camping available.

Love the hippy coffee joints

Sleeping on concrete to avoid the dew

Today's ride was surprisingly difficult, but sprinkled with fun little memories nonetheless. Tomorrow, we ride to Craigsville, Virginia. Another state line, another incline.

Summers (ville) Touring

2008-07-15T14:30:00.001-07:00

Love this road.

Day 31 - Charleston, WV to Summersville, WV - 62 Miles

Full of rest and a hearty breakfast, we flew down the steepest hill east of the Mississippi, which Jerry and Jan live atop, and crossed over into downtown Charleston for one last look.

Leaving our hosts, Jerry & Jan, after a delicious breakfast.

State capitols. Gotta love them.

Rolling along beautiful rolling hills, with a river beside us, we came upon a curvy mountain road that had curious and gorgeous surroundings.

Ancient West Virginia ruins have been covered in ivy for hundreds of years.

This, however, is a picture of a clump of trees, covered in ivy.

A tree canopy protected us from the sun for most of our ride

Ivy, Ivy, Ivy.

Why does Aaron wield his weapon? The following video will disclose all...

*no animals we injured or intended to be injured during the making of this video*

Who is loving this ride? "I am!"

Caution: Fallen Tree. Fallen Tree?! Good thing that tree canopy was protecting us.

So, we rode and rode. Got a little tired, ate some food, got a little hungry, rested a bit, got a little delusional, rode our bikes some more. Eventually, we ended up at Summersville. We slammed down some fast food and biked up the street to find wifi. That is when we stumbled upon a McDonald's that had more American Flags than Washington D.C. (Or so we think. We'll be in the District of Columbia this Friday with our dear friend Paul Switz. Really, hanging out with Paul this weekend is the primary thing we are looking forward to, besides New York.)

Guess where we are. Not the White House, McDonald's. No kidding. It was wildly patriotic.

Aaron listened to music and sharpened his mind, because they were playing country music.

After a substantial rest, we biked back to a church and laid out our sleeping bags, with every intent of sleeping under the stars. After a few minutes, however, we noticed that the humidity was rising and our sleeping bags were beginning to get quite damp with condensation. It was time to put up the tent. Orion will have to wait for another night.

Just before bed, two guys drove up in a red car and then drove away. We thought it a little suspicious, but we decided our cooking pot would make a good 'whack-em-over-the-head' tool, if it came to that. It did not. The pair returned, looking rather inquisitive and asked, "Are you guys missionaries?" We just looked at each other for a moment and said, "of sorts," referring to the universal commission that all followers are Christ are called to take forth into the world. They accepted our explanation and offered us a creme soda (we accepted, but later lost it -- bummer). We fell asleep, got a little condensation throughout the night, and enjoyed a great conversation about being relevant and effective as a lover and minister to mankind.

Our tent fit snugly in that grassy corner. Best of all - no sprinklers.

Restin' Charleston style...

2008-07-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

Day 30: Rest day in Charleston, WV

Church didn't begin until 11am... "Excellent!"

Obviously this meant we could gather up at least one good, full, night of sleep. And fortunately for Les and I, this happened. We rose around 9:45 for a GINORMOUS (giantly enormous) breakfast and a good cup of coffee.

It rained for the better part of Saturday night, and then most of Sunday, so we were fortunate to have found a place to stay both of these days, or else this might have been a cold, wet, annoyed post about how we can't wait to leave West Virginia!

At 11 we went to church. Around 12:40 we were back at the Gilbert's for lunch and relaxation. I know we have written about this before, but on our rest days it is incredibly odd how hungry we get. I mean, I know we are resting and recuperating and everything, but every two hours I was ready for another GINORMOUS meal! After lunch we read, conversed with Jerry and Jan and Alice (their granddaughter who has an incredibly vivid imagination!), played sudoku, rested more. Jerry then took us to Kroger so we'd have rations for tomorrow's ride and then he dropped us off at Taylor Books again so we could hang in downtown for a bit before the day was over (plus I am finding that this trip is almost just as much about finding cool places to get coffee as it is about riding! and we felt we could have gotten a little more of the "vibe" from Taylor's if we went again). But Taylor's was closed, which was not surprising even though it was only 3:30pm because apparently downtown Charleston just ain't the place to hang out.

We found an ice cream place across the street and hung out there, occasionally trading off watching the stuff while the other took a walk around for a bit. It was a good, relaxing rest day.

Then came dinner! How does Salmon, sauteed peppers and onions, and fruit salad sound? It sounded incredible to me, and it tasted even better than it sounded! Thanks Jerry and Jan!

The Gilberts have toured in New Zealand and other places together, so it was cool to hear their stories and to talk about other things also.

The night started to wind down and as heavy eyelids started in on their half of the day's shift, book reading would be over and sleep time would be happening shortly. But not before cake and Ice cream! Jan made chocolate cake with icing, and we had cookies and cream alongside it. Lets just say, the heavy eyelids were put on hold for another hour as the sugar raced through our bodies and allowed for more Sudoku puzzles and conversations.

A great day off with a great family, in a great, quiet, state capital. We couldn't have asked for it to be any more relaxing. Thanks Jerry and Jan!

Doing the Charleston!

2008-07-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

Day 29: Grayson, KY to Charleston, WV

Us and our new buddy Daniel Bell, a voice prof at Kentucky Christian University

After a great breakfast, and a good night's sleep, we were on the 60 East again headed for Charleston. We stayed with Daniel Bell, a voice instructor at the Christian university in Grayson, and we had a great time. It's really cool how we can go onto couchsurfing.com, type in a city, and then get hooked up with really neat people like Daniel. He has an enormous goldfish (apparently, if they are kept in good surroundings, they can live 30 years!), loves opera and showed us some of his favorite pieces, and all in all, has a really cool place on campus. Daniel, if you're following us, thanks again for everything! You really blessed two weary (and frustrated with exploded tires!) cyclists out!

Loved the color of these bridges. This is going from Kentucky into Ohio.

We were sort of forced to go this route, so as to stay off the major interstates, but it was cool to be able to say we went through Ohio (be it only for 10 miles or so) too!

About an hour later we were in West Virginia!

After the first 45 miles we were, well, tired. I can't say it was because we had headwind, or even because of hills, but it was probably due to having ridden for 6 straight days without an adequate rest day. We stopped at a local Krogger (the Midwest/East Coast version of Ralphs) and had lunch and kinda just sat there letting food digest and allowing our muscles to rest.

Another video just for fun...

I have always heard that the second half of the day a person's body has an easier time working out as opposed to during the morning. Your muscles are all woken up and your blood is flowing, plus you usually have had at least two meals so your energy is up. At any rate, Les and I had an AMAZING 40 mile ride from our resting point into Charleston. We did it in about 2.5 hours and by the time we were done we sort of looked at each other and wondered if we hadn't skipped a road or found a secret short cut. I really don't think we've ever done that many miles that quickly, but I bet a big lunch, rest, and the desire to get to Charleston (our rest-day city) all helped.

What reads "Charleston" to everyday drivers and bystanders is interpreted, "rest day" to us.

A shot of downtown and a bridge.

While the second half of the ride was really quick, we also were sweating like maniacs, so I had to post a picture of it!

We rolled into downtown Charleston and noticed something quite peculiar right off the bat: there were barely any people. What made this so strange was that it was a Saturday night, and there weren't more than 20 people who passed by in 30 minutes. Strange. We found a local coffee house (of course) called "Taylor Books" (it had a coffee shop next door) and jumped online to find out if we had a place to stay and where we could eat. The answer to our first question was an affirmative, a man named Jerry would be riding his bike down into downtown at 7:30 to meet us and take us back to his place (and we'd get to stay with he and his wife for two nights!). The second was more broad, but we chose a pizza place only 3 shops down.

We devoured a large pizza in ten minutes. Sooo good!

Post-ride garb and hang-out attire.

Jerry rolled up and we talked for a couple minutes and before we knew it we were on our way to his place (he has two ridiculously steep hills right before his home that we weren't expecting...I was THIS close to having to walk!)

The Gilberts (Jerry and Jan) were more than happy to take us in, give us a shower, take us to their church on Sunday, take us shopping, make us food, etc. IT WAS AMAZING! But more on that in our next post about our day off...

When you CAN'T ride your bike, ask someone to drive you!

2008-07-11T17:08:00.000-07:00

Day 28: Winchester to Grayson, KY

We got off to a great start, let me just say that from the get-go. Our accommodations helped out with that, however. We found a country house just past Winchester and politely asked if they would be so kind as to let us set up our tent in their yard. They didn't say much, showed us to a corner of their yard and we didn't really speak to them ever again. They kept to themselves and didn't seem the least bit interested or impressed about our journey.

Eh, you can't win them all. But we weren't broken up about it or anything. It was quite kind of them to even allow us to stay (seeing as how the 5 people previous kind of looked at us nervously and pointed us to a city park 4 miles back in the other direction!).

This is where we set up the tent.

Breakfast was next. This usually consists of oats and granola in water with sliced fruit and/or raisins on top. We like to have some yogurt (or dairy, really) in our diets too so we found the nearest grocery store and purchased some, as well as some granola bars, bread, etc.

Les to Aaron: "Ok, look excited about yogurt!"

Aaron looks up and does this pose. BY THE WAY! Check out how much peaches are in that advertisement! We have never seen peaches below $1.69/lb.! Booyah!

Then we got riding. Same old story, same old beautiful Kentucky country.

Coon-skin hats anybody??

In case you are interested:

Daniel Boone (November 2 [O.S. October 22] 1734 – September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and hunter whose frontier exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the U.S. state of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of the Thirteen Colonies. Despite resistance from American Indians, for whom Kentucky was a traditional hunting ground, in 1775 Boone blazed the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky. There he founded Boonesborough, one of the first English-speaking settlements beyond the Appalachian Mountains. Before the end of the 18th century, more than 200,000 people entered Kentucky by following the route marked by Boone. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Boone )

And here is where today's ride gets interesting. We were making great time, as I said earlier, because we were up with the sun and half-way through our first ride of the days (35-40 miles) by noon. That is making great time for us because we usually get a later start, slug up the road and break (if we get one at all!) at about 2pm. So we rolled up to the "Fuzzy Duck" coffee shop. Cute, quaint, and run by a bunch of friendly ladies. It was a nice place and they had wifi (where we posted Day 27 from), so we grabbed coffee (aaron) and a blended beverage (les) and made sandwiches and settled in.

An outside shot.

Behold! Peanut Butter and Jelly AND peaches sandwiches!

Our break went great and we felt well rested and ready to attack our second ride and pull into Grayson by about 6pm...until... (watch the video!)

If you could not watch the video, what happened was Aaron got a routine flat tire. No big deal, these happen all of the time. He quickly patched it and rolled over to a gas station to add some more pressure. But never trust a fuzzy duck!

The 75 cent air machine filled Aaron's tires to their capacity (or so he thought) and we rolled out...until...

POP!!!!!!

Something felt funny about my back tire, and I knew this feeling from my old bike when the tube gets filled with far too much pressure and starts to pop out of the side of the tire. It doesn't take long before you simply have to sit back and watch the fireworks (the tire exploding). I knew it when I felt it, got off, stood back and went deaf.

"uugghh..." I thought. Les threw me our last spare tube and I switched it out. 5 minutes later my back tire was ready to go and then, from out of nowhere, my front tire exploded!

The culprit?? The fuzzy duck, probably, or a faulty gauge on the air machine I used at the gas station. My tires are supposed to go up to 85 psi, and I usually sit them around 70, just to avoid ever blowing them up, and apparently I had them way over their maximum.

All Aaron's stuff scattered, a couple blown tires, and Les' idea (see his thumb) when we realized we didn't have any more spare tubes!

The closest bike shop in this town was more than 10 miles away, and back in the other direction! When hitchhiking temporarily didn't work, we had no other choice than to send Les back for tubes. (sorry les!).

By the time he left it was 3pm, and it would take him about two hours to ride to the shop, buy tubes and then come back. Then Aaron would have to set up his tires and pack up, which would set us up to leave, AGAIN, by about 5:15ish...which would have put us in Grayson at about 8:15-8:30. Arriving this late was certainly not ideal (mainly because we had a host, Daniel, a voice teacher at Kentucky Christian University, waiting for us and we didn't want to be rude).

So Les rode back and I, Aaron, prayed and was to ask folks if they were heading East (toward Grayson). Before I knew it a man pulled up in front of my stuff, looked me in the eye and gave me a head nod and went inside the convenience store. I didn't think much of this, other than that I was planning on asking him if "east" was his direction when he came out. When he did come he said, "Well boy, today ain't your day now is it?"

"No, haha, sure isn't..."

We chatted for a bit and before I knew it he offered to drive us to Grayson because he was headed for Charleston (same direction)! He was a nice fellow and was more than happy to help out because, in his words, "plenty of people have helped me out in my day, so I just try to give back whenever I can." We've seen a lot of this "pay it forward" mentality out on the road, and it's always nice when it surprises you with a ride or a meal, or a nice place to sleep for the night!

When you can't ride your bike (no tubes!), ask someone to drive you!

Kentucky: soooo much more than fried chicken!

2008-07-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

Day 27 - Middletown to Winchester, KY - 82 Miles

For all of you who are wondering, the past four or five days have been incredibly wonderful. Constantly we find ourselves exclaiming, "THIS IS WHY WE CAME!" Don't get us wrong though, for this is a victorious exclamation we've been saying since day 3 (sorry CA & AZ deserts) over and over again when we feel we're being blessed with rested legs, the kindness of strangers, unreal serenity, etc. Lately the electric blue skies, southern style mansions, brisk morning air, rolling hills jammed with breathtaking pastures, and kind people have been more than refreshing for us, and USUALLY before we know it the day has come to an end and we have found somewhere to lay our heads for the night. I can't remember the last time we've had a ride that we almost regretfully felt like we "just had to push through." Those rides are rare lately, and for this we're quite happy!

After leaving Mike and Cindy's in Middletown, a much needed and most excellent lodging for us, we cruised out on the 60 for another mansion-filled, pasture-brimming ride.

One of the pictures we got of the interestingly older homes...

Another one. This kind of home was more typical to see each time we'd enter a city. Most bigger cities were flooded with enormous mansions on the outskirts of the city line.

We made a quick breeze through Frankfort, KY (the state's capitol), and had a conversation with a gas station attendant who loved our story and said, "well, uhh, you guys want fountain drink? Yes, fountain drink. It's free...the least we can do!" We're not too hot on soda but who could resist the kindness of this man? Not us. Luckily they had a pretty good slushy machine right next to the sodas and les and I topped off our water bottles with some mango/strawberry goodness.

A poor picture (while riding down a huge hill) of the Capitol building in Frankfort.

We decided to make a stop in Lexington, KY for a rest break. We both agreed that this was a cool town. Much like a bigger Prescott, AZ, Lexington was your typical college town (University of Kentucky is here), except with a sizable downtown area and plenty of shopping areas. There were tons of cyclists and plenty of young people (which is usually what makes something a college town, in our minds anyway!)

Diggin' the architecture.

...still diggin' it! The old apartment building skyscrapers reminded us of Los Angeles.

After a nice 2+ hour break of reading, Sudoku, internet, and coffee we dragged ourselves back to our bikes and with a good 16-18 miles still left before we could call it a night, we thought real intently about what we'd have for dinner...

Just kidding, we heard there was a Little Caesar's in Winchester and obviously that sounded quite appetizing (plus who can beat a $5 pizza? who cares if its not "top 'o the line"...we're on a budget and its pizza!). Alas, we never found it, mainly because we found that it was about 4 miles in the other direction once we got to Winchester, so we settled for a different fast food establishment instead...

Yes, this is a castle just outside of Lexington. Probably circa 1990, because it looked quite new, but still, THERE WAS A CASTLE!!!

The Derby. The Colonel. The Boa Constrictors?

2008-07-09T13:05:00.005-07:00

The light, refreshing rain followed us through the day

Day 26 - Birdseye, IN to Middletown, KY - 80 Miles

We had a great ride today. The country side is so beautiful and the weather was absolutely cycle-rific. Along the way, we spotted a cave in the side of a rock mountain and simply had to stop.

From within the Cave of Wonders

A little cave tour anybody?

The cave had rock-climbing and everything

We pressed on, anxious to get to Louisville, KY (pronounced "Lou-a-vil"), so we could use the internet for the first time in 5 days.

Aaron got tired, so les had to pull him up the hill in this bag.

Crossing the Ohio River into Kentucky.

After an extreme ride on the interstate for 9 miles, we were informed by a local that, "You're in Lou-a-vil. How delightful. They even had pleasant bike manners.

A cyclist's favorite sign

We left the downtown, which was quite pretty in parts, and headed for the suburbs to find a place to camp.

It's the Big Boy, alright.

Pulling into the first neighborhood after the local Kroger (the east coast's Ralph's grocery store), a motorcyclist rode up and asked if we needed some help. As it turns out, we did. And Mike, was able to help us. He even offered us his backyard where we could put up the tent. Quite thankful and hungry, we made ourselves some turkey sandwiches on the back patio. When his wife, Cindy, showed up, they both invited us to stay in Mike's study instead. This way, we could avoid being eaten by the neighbor's boa constrictor that had apparently escaped. Sounded like a plan to us. As we went downstairs to put our beds together, we found a plate of cookies and towels for a warm shower. Thank you, Mike and Cindy.

Delicious Cookies. Gone in seconds.

Our friendly hosts, Mike & Cindy

At any rate, after cookies and a good long conversation about living as a Christian in a world of people scared to death of death, we finally set out for bed and crashed by midnight. A bit later than usual, but worth every moment. Waking up tomorrow will be painful.

...and this is why we ride!

2008-07-09T13:05:00.003-07:00

Indiana, our eighth state line. Also, Lincoln's boyhood home.

Day 25 - Albion, IL to Birdseye, IN - 80 Miles

Except for the coal trucks, and two lane-high way with its teeny shoulder, the ride was an absolutely beautiful one. Today we crossed the Illinois state line into Indiana today and smiled at the fact that we were one state closer to our destination.

Crossing the bridge

This is in Princeton, Indiana. For about 2 seconds we both thought we had come across Princeton, Princeton. As in, the school. We had not.

Rolling hills. Overcast sky. Cyclist heaven.

Need to find a place for those beans...perfect

We took a longer break in Huntinburg, which has absolutely no wi-fi, despite 9 fast food joints, 2 grocery stores, a public library (that was closed!), and 3 or 4 gas stations. We thought surely in a town this large (and truly, by mid-west standards, this is a larger town), we could find some internet access to finally update our faithful following…but alas.

The rolling hills and desperately longed for tail wind made today an absolutely perfect day. As we pulled in to Birdseye, IN, we found a Baptist church that was giving out canned food. We asked if they might know anyone who could put us up for the night, since it was expected to thunderstorm. Jack and Diane (no kidding) Cook happily agreed to let us sleep in their spare trailer. That is, until we discovered fleas that their past tenants had left behind. When we alerted our hosts to this predicament, their furnished some nice sleeping pads in Jack's shop.

Our flea-free accommodations

Les and Aaron, with Jack and Diane

Thunder rolled. Lightning striked. We ate jumbalaya and slept deeply.

Illinois, it was my best friend!

2008-07-09T13:05:00.001-07:00

Day 24 - Okawville to Albion, IL - 82 Miles

Can I just say, right off, that being in Illinois and getting to see trees, feel a breeze, and ride in the afternoon with ease (sorry, had to go for three...) was a treat. Seriously, the above picture truly says it all. For all who know of Sufjan Stevens, this probably was not the area he was talking about when writing his "Illinois" album, however, its in the state, and we were thinking and singing his songs all the way through. It was far more humid here in this state than in any other we've experienced, but it was a great change. There were trees everywhere--this was very cool!

Soon we'd reached our hoped for 80 miles (we're able to shave down our milage goal to 80 now that we've caught up. It'll allow for more time to read, think, and meet people!) and as we rolled into Albion there were no parks in sight. So we knocked on the doors of 5 houses until we came upon the house of the Wallace’s. We asked if they had a place for us to camp for the night. Don Wallace looked us straight in the face and said, “Boys, I have the best place you’ve ever camped!”

And, he did.

A shot of the Wallace lake.

A video at the Wallaces.

Our camp area.

Les readies the paddle boat for a run around...

The Wallace clan (Aaron & Les = not Wallaces)

On top of an incredible place to sleep, we ate too. And boy did we eat! As soon as we finished cooking up our spaghetti for dinner Mr. Wallace rolled up on his quad (they have trails all around their land to ride their quads on!) and said, "alright boys, change of plans. We're having spaghetti and grilled chicken. You can hop on the quad now or just come on back to the house and we'll meet ya there and all eat together."

Our jaws must have dropped to our toes. I looked at our pathetic pan of camp-spaghetti mush and jokingly asked, "is it a potluck?"

We brought the spaghetti, but in addition they had fresh pasta with homemade beef sauce, boiled potatoes, grilled chicken with Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce, garlic bread, and bread and banana pudding.

"!!!" Was all we could think. What an awesome blessing after such a sour curve ball in Wichita, post Mr. Stroud's blessing.

Off to the lake, once again, where we quickly set up the tent, covered our gear and went to bed. Our stomachs were full and our minds were at ease. This was an exciting day.

The Wheels on the bus go round and round (and cost A LOT of money!)

2008-07-09T13:04:00.002-07:00

Day 23 - Wichita, KS to St. Louis, MO - 445 Miles, Bus

St. Louis, MO to Okawville, IL - 45 Miles, Bikes

Just in case you are a cycling tourist purist, do not read the following post:

Somewhere in Kansas, we decided that we were going to take a bus, to ease the remaining mileage of our trip, so that we can actually enjoy our rides and time meeting people and exploring places. It worked.

This morning at 2 AM, we awoke at a bus terminal in Wichita, KS, which we had fallen asleep in front of the night before around midnight. We bought our tickets, loaded the bus, and found peace.

We slept in small spurts during the 8 hour bus ride.

We had to buy a box in Kansas City for our bikes. $15 bucks a piece, for cardboard you couldn't even sleep in, if you were homeless, which we are. grumble, grumble.

bus. bus. bus. in Louisville, MO

crossing from Missouri to Illinois

Carl's Jr. & the Green Burrito has an evil twin on the east coast.

Okawville, IL. Every small town has multiple flags every few feet.

The best part of the day was the road that took us to Okawville, Illinois, which became our camping spot for the evening. This state has great, green, and narrow highways that wind between rivers and forests.

We like Illinois. It’s Pretty.

Restin' in Wichita--or trying at least...

2008-07-09T13:04:00.001-07:00

Day 22--Wichita, Day off

"The Day of Unrest"

Despite getting immaculate accomodations from the very generous Gil Stroud (Aaron Hopson's Grandfather), we spent last Saturday (7/5) in utter restlessness.

Not to worry, however, we are feeling great now, but Wichita bit us in the butt, not only with a really high priced Greyhound bus ride (see day 23), but with sickness and sleeplessness. For les it was the former, for Aaron, the latter. In absolutely no way did any of this have to do with Wichita itself, or the people we met there. Our bodies were just tired.

A section of Downtown Wichita, KS

As is our custom, we searched for a local coffee house and attempted to make it our home for the afternoon. This one, "The Vagabond" was more of a bar than anything, which was fine, but soon we grew tired of the noise and cigarette smoke being blown around (just wasn't the ideal relaxing place, but the coffee there was still good!)

So here's the deal: At this point, we were a bit behind on our journey. That's alright, and we actually figured there would be a point that we had to hop a bus, slow-moving train, flatbed truck, etc., so we weren't too broken up about it. But, as we sat in our hotel room on Saturday morning (thanks again Mr. Stroud!), looking up different ways we could catch ourselves up (Amtrak, Greyhound, Jet blue, Uhaul, Enterprise, Budget, were a handful of the options we considered) we discovered that traveling, even a mere 400 miles would not be cheap.

So of course, we decided to try to take matters into our own hands (and by that we certainly said a prayer, but I simply mean that we wanted to try "our" way out before our wallets would have to pay the literal "price"). We tried to hitchhike. It'd would have saved us a BIG chunk of money, and we probably would have met a really nice family, or trucker, or lonely traveler (we're optimists, if you haven't noticed!).

Les' excitement about being sick and attempting to hitchhike our way out of the state

Les had been doing a lot of reading out of "On the Road," by Jack Kerouac, and there were many things he wanted to try out as a result of reading the book. So we set out down the highway and waited at an on-ramp for a while. Then we tried a gas station, and then another on-ramp. After about three hours we shrugged our shoulders and headed about 10 miles back into Wichita and plopped down at the Greyhound station, wallets out and ready to be violated.

The Journey is the Reward (a DEFINITE theme we're learning on our trip)

We attempted sleep outside the Greyhound station, as our bus wouldn't be leaving until 3am Sunday morning, and after tossing and turning for a few hours, the time came to pay up, board the bus, and get out of Kansas.

And that we did.

The sky is bluest in St. Louis

2008-07-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

We are quite glad to be out of Kansas. We plan on updating this particular post later, but just know that we fought the battle and made it through Missouri. Check back in a day or so for a real post as we are going to cruise down the road into Illinois and fall asleep under a tree somewhere for the night!

Until then...

"Im gon'a Wichita...far from this opera foreva' more!" -Jack White

2008-07-04T12:08:00.001-07:00

Day 21 - Abbeyville, KS to Wichita, KS - 55 Miles

We had to stop to mess around in a corn patch!

Hide and Corn!

"AL...MOST...THERE...the faster we get to Wichita, the faster we get to stop riding for a day..." The thought raced through our minds as we mindless and wearily made our way down the 96 to the biggest city we'd seen since Colorado Springs. Our legs were tired, but nothing could ease the excitement of being finished for another week and the knowledge of getting to give out *behinds* a much needed rest!

It is our plan to stay in Wichita through Saturday, without any thought of riding our bikes, of course, and to start out again on Sunday. Rest days truly are the best days!

Not close enough... This is a shot of Les giving a thumbs up to a sign with a horse and carriage. In Wichita, among other places, there is a heavy Mennonite community and many of them still use this type of transportation.

Here is one of the best parts of getting to Wichita: Aaron Hopson's grandfather lives here and he was more than ready to put us up in a Best Western for the night AND take us out to dinner! Oh the thought of a soothing shower, a REAL bed, and a meal sounded so great!

Yes!

Les, Mr. Gil Stroud, Aaron. Thanks again Mr. Stroud!

Our plans: to not think about riding for a day or so. That's all. Well, we have to plan out our next week's course (i.e. are we going to catch ourselves up to speed? If so, how? Where do we need to stop each night? Are there any couchsurfing.com's or warmshowers.org's in Kentucky? Have they even heard of the internet in Kentucky?).

We both thoroughly enjoy our days off because they give us a much needed opportunity to not only rest, but to process. Many times we go through life without taking any time at all just to think about what happened to us. For Les and I it was a great deal of learning about what life throws our direction. In a very literal sense, it was the wind for an entire week. But honestly, is that not simply an analogy for life? Life can be frustrating, but it is entirely about how one fashion's his or herself to react to the "headwinds" in life. Les and I sang songs, told jokes, talked about life, etc., and simply co-decided that in the midst of life's trials, "these too shall pass." They always do, and they always make one stronger in the end.

The Worst Day and Best Lesson

2008-07-04T12:07:00.002-07:00

Les dries all of his clothes, as he rides.

Talk about airing your clean laundry.

No, we were not just being patriotic. We were checking the wind, which was NOT behind us.

Day 20 - Rush Center, KS to Abbeyville, KS - 96 Miles

This blog was never intended to be a place for griping or complaining, but as a venue to pass on an amusing and mildly embellished account of our trip’s events. That being said, today was agonizing. There were very few enjoyable things about it. Because there are so few, perhaps we will start by outlining those ‘happier’ things, to distract us from the agony of the body fatigue, the muscle soreness, the mental exhaustion, the wind resistance, the mosquito bites and never ending road.

One of the great mysteries of our day occurred first thing this morning: our bread went missing. After a windy night, one that knocked down our bikes and shivered-me-timbers, we awoke to find that one loaf of bread was missing. The suspects: a cyclist that passed us 4 hours earlier, a conspiring conglomerate of fireflies and ants, and a stray dog that chased us the moment we came into the town. No debris or evidence of a struggle was left behind for investigation.

Where da bread go!?

Speaking of dogs, we had our share of canine escorts that kindly guarded us from the traffic, as they flashed their killer teeth and noisily growled at everything on wheels. To be honest, at one point, it seemed the dogs were actually chasing us, and might have taken a little nibble from the old shins, given the opportunity. But we could never accuse these sweet little beasts of such a fowl misdeed. Dogs are cyclists’ best friends.

The most exhilarating moment of our day was when an oncoming semi-truck came barreling passed us and practically knocked us back to Colorado with its powerful wind canon. The first time the trailing current hit us just right, it felt like we had a tidal wave of air exploding all over our bodies and bikes. Thankfully, we both stayed on our saddles, and kept our tires in adequate contact with the pavement. It was near terrifying. After a few of these experiences, however, we started looking forward to the rush that came after almost being flung into a field of corn stalks beside us. It was like playing ‘crack the whip,’ or ‘hold-on-to-my-arms-and-spin-me-as-fast-as-you-can,’ as we gleefully exclaimed, ‘Again!’ with each potential air missile. We truly felt like kids again – kids wearing manly spandex, while riding a few pieces of welded-steel, across an entire grown up country. Ah, who am I kidding, we almost wet our diapers.

A happy reaction to a quaint little town--a much needed break from booming and noisy highways.

Don't knock it till you try it ALERT #2: "Aaron and Les Veggie Mush" with toast. Cooked brown rice, creamed corn, sweet peas, half can of diced carrots, salt, pepper. Notice the "toast" cooking on top of the steam-catching top pan!

After stopping for a rest in Stafford, sufficiently hungry for some rice and veggies, we continued down the road to Abbyville, stopping at a nice looking home, where we asked for a place to camp for the night. They enthusiastically said, "well, there's a park down the street..." So we shrugged our shoulders and made our way back down the road a half mile to the mark. Upon getting there Les tried to put up our tent, but a sweet, innocent, baby puppy came by, tail wagging, tongue hanging out, etc., and just WOULD NOT STOP walking all over the tent! It wouldn't have been a big deal if he didn't have the potential to tear through the lightweight nylon tent walls with his untrimmed claws/nails. As Aaron chuckled and tried to shoe the pup away, a girl rode up with a laundry list of curiously harmless, Kansas-girl questions. Her name was Montana, and she had a brother named Remington, and a little sister named Reno. Eventually she told us there was a guy walking around the town that night spraying insecticides to kill the billions of mosquitos (we were already drenched in repellant), and that we could stay in "Grandpa's" RV if we wanted.

"Sure!" was our reaction, and she rode off to ask Momma if it was ok, and it was. It was a nice change to have shelter, a microwave, and 2.8 channels to watch that night!

Ok pup, seriously, GO HOME NOW! You're not cute anymore!

A nice surprise

Home-sweet-sofa & recliner!

Tomorrow, we make the 50-mile cool-down ride to Wichita, where we will celebrate the independence of the United States and likely take a rest-day on Saturday. This week has been a basic-needs week (eat, sleep & ride), and we are anxious about re-evaluating our trip to create a more fruitful, rewarding and enjoyable experience, for the remaining 20 days.

A pretty dang average day...

2008-07-04T12:07:00.001-07:00

Day 19 - Scott City, KS to Rush Center, KS - 88 Miles

The wind continued to blow, and ever always in our faces. Friends, this can be quite discouraging. It usually throws off one's time schedule, ability to sleep, and sucks one clean of energy. But that's alright. That's life, right? Life has head winds, hill climbs, flat tires, angry truckers, etc. But never forget that life also has tail winds, descents, caring and hospitable people, and lady bugs that perch upon your bike for miles and share silent conversations.

We rode right through Ness City and they may or may not have had a public pool but we were a bit strapped for time and wanted, mostly, to just get to Rush Center for a good place to settle for the night.

Historical Rant: George Washington Carver, remember him? Flip the mental textbook back to 11th grade US history class. Just west of Ness City, KS, Carver, 22, bought a piece of land and constructed a sod house. A brilliant inventor, out of sweet potatoes and peanuts alone, Carver made soap, paint, wallboard, milk substitute, medicine, cosmetics, and more than 500 other things! Eventually he grew bored and decided to go to Iowa to pursue a masters degree in agriculture. By the age of 32 he moved to Alabama and spent the next 40 years teaching and researching.

Headwinds take it out of ya. Taking a much needed break after battling the headwinds. This is actually a tree right next to the GW Carver sign. I wonder if Carver sat under this tree at some point in his young life...

hay, hay, HAY!

This lady bug tagged along for about five miles! Amidst the wind, bumps, and screaming semis it stood the test and traveled far, far away. I suppose this is the equivalent of les and I jumping a slow moving train...which...umm...we *don't* plan on doing. :) But really, it was a pleasant surprise to have another friend along for the ride to take our minds off the wind.

Evidently, this is the place to stay in Bazine, KS. Alas, we still had 40 more miles to travel. Our friends, Scott and Jenny Shine, from Montrose (See day 12) rode through this town and stayed at Elaine's Bicyclist bed and breakfast. As Jenny told us, Elaine caught wind of her town being on the Trans-America route and made a wise business move, and apparently this place is ONLY for cyclists. Cool, huh?

Interesting, eh?

This is a horrible shot, but that's les passing the sign for "Rush Center," our eventual stop for the night.

Again, Kansas is quite pleased to allow any and everyone to sleep out in their city parks, so we found one (the only one, probably, in the little town of Rush Center. It wasn't an unusual sight for us to see one gas station, five houses, a bar, and a park as we rode into this four way intersection of a town. It was quite quaint, but harmless for weary travelers. We had no problems setting up camp, bathing, eating, and sleeping on this night.

The Fireflies here were AMAZING! There's just something we miss in being California boys. Vibrant fireflies, open pastures, running streams of natural water--you just can't beat it.

Don't knock it till you try it ALERT: Here Aaron is eating an "Aaron and Les tour the US" Jambalaya favorite: cooked brown rice, diced apples, baked beans, and honey. Hey! I said don't knock it till you try it! It was actually pretty good!

Kansas and the prevailing south wind

2008-07-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

Day 18 - Eads, Co to Scott City, KS - 104 Miles

Like rebels, we crossed the border today...the Colorado/Kansas border that is. That's right, this required evading a great deal of nickel-sized flies, rolling past an invisible line, and looking out to make sure the not-as-excited truckers didn't hit us. Excitement ensued. At any rate, this was an important ride for us because it is now our second longest and we crossed into another state (this will become less of a deal once we get into the smaller states, but for right now, because it takes a solid week to cross a state, it is always something to look forward to).

Our morning began with rain in good old Eads, CO. Or at least we thought it was rain. The courthouse lawn (which apparently, "many cyclists sleep on," said some nearby kid) was the greenest thing we had seen since the trees in the Rockie mountains, so already we were suspicious. At about 6:30 am, on the dot, the rain came down. But oddly enough, it was hitting our tent from the side. Weird, right? I peered through a tiny hole at the top of our tent and could see plenty of sunlight. "hmm, that's weird," I thought to myself, "usually rain comes streaming down from clouds." Then, suddenly, the rain ceased and a man walked by chuckling to himself. This I had to investigate. I got up and looked outside only to find that there were definitely no clouds, definitely no glistening streets, and definitely nothing other than our area wet because of a sprinkler! I must say, we sort of expected this to happen and we were too tired to look more thoroughly for sprinkler heads the night before, so we kind of deserved it, I guess. But like good stealth campers we had a tarp covering our bikes and a tarp covering our tent so nothing important got wet.

The Eads campsite. Tent in the background, tarps and bikes, and les on the computer.

We set out, after a decent breakfast and stock up at the local convenience store. It would be a long, flat, Colorado to Kansas ride, but again, it would be exciting to cross into a new part of the country we've never seen.

I know, my excitement for life just gives away how stupendous this ride was...

After a little consoling Les was able to cope with the idea of leaving beautiful, mountainous Colorado. But really, he just ate a fly and the camera caught him off guard...just kidding!

I am being a little more overly exuberant than is needed, just to set the tone for the rest of the ride through the state.

Here is a tip for all you who travel through Kansas and are getting hot and sweaty and tired: in most big cities there can be found a public pool. It was 40 miles to the border and then another 15 into Tribune, KS where, supposedly, we'd find a pool to cool off in. We started talking about the Sandlot and how we would be swimming around in the pool and some daring young kid would yell out, "I can't take this anymore!" He'd then quickly make his way to the diving board and plunge to his "death," at which point the lifeguard-beauty of Tribune city would dive and save the little boys "life." And then the music would cut to "THIS MAGIC MOMENT..." and you all know the story from there.

Unfortunately, this didn't happen, but we did get to swim around and cool off for a bit, so that was nice.

Does anyone else think this looks like a giant golf tee?

Oh yeah!

This was quite the sight to see.

And come on, this is so a dinosaur in the sky...don't even try to deny it!

We cruised into Scott City, KS and found a place to buy groceries. Also, if you're ever traveling through Kansas and don't have/want to spend the cash on a motel or something, it is totally legal to camp in any park, so that is exactly what we did. Also, apparently July 1st is the new July 4th because as we sat in the park making dinner, talking, reading, etc., fireworks/firecrackers were going off like...well, fireworks, and without ceasing. They went on for at least three hours, no joke. But we finally made it to bed...even with the Mountain time to Central time zone hour loss.

A leisurely cruise into town.

EEEEEads.

2008-07-01T20:14:00.000-07:00

Carbon copy this image 12 billion times,

cycle for a few hours,

and you've got yourself Kansas.

Day 17 - Boone to Eads, CO - 90 Miles

Our day began along highway 96, as we enjoyed some cold oatmeal (we didn't feel like heating up the stove), packed up and pushed off. Our first rest came in Orley Springs, CO, when our stretching session was interrupted by five local tough guys. Riding in on their bikes, these little fellas told us everything we needed to know about Orley: (1) a rat ran under my grandma's house today, (2) "i can sing a song about superman," and (3) don't drink the tap water...it'll make you throw up. That's about all we needed to hear, as we headed East, trying not to drink from our water bottles until the next city.

The meanest biker gang in Orley Springs, CO

They do some strange things in Kansas...like park on the front lawn.

For lunch we stopped in Haswell, CO. We cannot verify that anyone actually lived there, but we did find a park and one convenience store. In fact, it was the best convenience store in town - won business of the year. We thought this to be a little slighted, since it was the only business in town. Anyway, we bought a cold gatorade and hit up the park, where we took a breezy nap, ate some lunch and played on the playground.

Slurping down a can of corn for lunch.

This strange building has a sign that says,

"Not responsible in case of accidents"

We began to understand what accidents may ensue here...

Les decided to ditch the bike and just ride a whale to New York

A gas station store served as our dinner stop, where we indulged in pizza we promised ourselves. It took mere minutes to devour the 12" frozen tombstone, but it was delicious. We rolled over to the city park, washed off in some sprinklers that were running, set up the tent and went to bed. We slept great, except for when powerful and sporadic thunder storms drenched our tent. This continued from dark until midnight, until a nice maintenance man came and turned off the sprinklers/storm for us. What a nice man.

Our home for the night.

On the road again...

2008-06-30T20:42:00.001-07:00

Aaron, Mrs. Irene Lambert, Les, and Mr. Russ Lambert

Day 16: Colorado Springs to Boone, CO

It is truly amazing to have had the opportunity to meet the people we have on this trip. In Colorado we were able to stay with at least five different families (or at least houses), and all treated us with exceptional generosity. Just like the Henke's (John and Judy), Mr. Russ Lambert and his wife Irene made us feel like we were their sons. Truly, words cannot express just how generous and loving they were to us in providing us a place to stay, a shower, INCREDIBLE pancakes and coffee, a place to go to church, and even lunch for the road. Sincerely, THANK YOU to the Henke's and the Lambert's for their incredible love and hospitality. You have made a couple weary travelers feel very loved!

After church and another opportunity for a short rest, we were off to the roads again, refreshed and ready for another week of riding. The Lambert's fixed us some sandwiches, crackers and trail mix to go, so we were good for majority of our Sunday ride. Our plan was to go down to Pueblo, CO and relax for a bit, then hit a Safeway (these stores have become our best friends), and then cruise another 15-20 miles to Boone, CO (which we found to literally be the "boonies" and this is probably where the expression came from!).

Les stops to smell the roses, just as Mr. Lambert told us to do!

But of course, no tour would be complete without a flat tire along the way. These things happen and we have found that the best thing to do, especially when you have head wind and are already annoyed with your ride, is to laugh it off. Les and I joked about a number of different things and before we knew it we were on the road again. The culprit this time: a shard of wire. If you have ever ridden on an interstate or have done any kind of long distance cycling, then you may have discovered a little wire that made it through your tire and through your tube. They are quite strange to find, because why in the world would their be little wires in the road? Well, these actually come from shredded semi-truck tires which carry little pieces of wire to ensure their sturdiness. Ironically, however, many tire shreds can be found all over the place and many times they target the poor scrawny tires of cyclists.

The ultimate "ahh man!" moment

I laughed later, I promise!

Geared up to rob a train...i guess

After a nice rest in Pueblo we headed up the road. We took our time and weren't in any hurry (hence the photo above--we just had to do it since so far in this blog I have been called a train-robber).

A little more stealth camping

Not to our surprise, there was nothing in Boone. That is an overstatement--there were two houses and a murky river running through it. Needless to say, les and I found a place just past town to set up our tent. It was right behind a tree but well covered from any cars, not, however, from the view of the 5 trains that passed us that night. Man, it was like they were blowing their horns through this ghost town just because they saw a tent set up nearby. Maybe it is in the conductor handbook to blow your horn when your see a couple campers, but truly, it was ridiculous. If they knew we looked like terrifying train robbers, equipped with 44mm banana-guns, they would probably think otherwise. But that's what we get for camping right next to the tracks I guess (though in this 4+ populated town we didn't have very many other options). Also, the wind was fierce, so setting up our tent proved to be a challenge, but you know, it was actually kind of fun. We staked our homemade home down in the midst of powerful wind and pulled off having dinner inside too! All was well.

Here's the wind pushing on the top of our tent. Also, note the ridiculously great amount of room we have! (kidding, obviously)

Hope to post again tomorrow about today's ride into Eads, but bear with us. We were lucky to find a library in Eads that is streaming wifi from its concrete walls and into the surrounding neighborhoods. Maybe in Kansas we won't be quite as lucky {*blessed* les edit}.

Until then!

So why the heck was that bike worth $72,ooo ??? The answer may not surprise you, but it may possess a certain kind of intrigue that might make you want to change the world...too. The cycling shop owner in Colorado Springs, CO commuted everywhere around town for 25 years (eventually it would be a commute to the cycling shop). His bike, an old, 70's schwinn, was nothing to shoot sticks over, but over a quarter of a century he saved $72,ooo by NOT buying gas. Not only that, but he saved hundreds of pounds of carbon monoxide from entering the city's atmosphere. It only took one man to accomplish all this. What can you do???

Rest Days are the Best Days (when you're tired that is!)

2008-06-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

Day 15 - Rest Day - Colorado Springs, CO

8am, uhh, no...

9am, ha...keep trying...

ok, fine, at 10:15 am we rose to pancakes and OJ. Mr. and Mrs. Henke (John and Judy) spoiled us for sure, but we loved every moment of it!

(left to right): John & Judy Henke, les, aaron

After breakfast and planning out next week's destinations (as we had to modify our original plan because of our trip up to Colorado Springs), we tossed our bikes, bags, and bodies into John's truck and he drove us around town a bit. First we stopped at his good friend, Russ' house (both toured from San Diego to CO Springs on bikes) to meet him and share stories. It was great to be in both of their company just hanging out. Les and I learned a great deal and had fun just hanging out with our new friends.

Next John took us down to his favorite bike shop so we could reload on some amo (namely inner tubes). While I am on the subject, there was a bike hanging up in the bike shop that looked to be at least 25 years old with a sign that read: "ask why this bike is worth $72,000." Obviously us three all had to know, so we asked, but what do you think? It wasn't anything special, really, but I am curious to hear what your guesses, for they are as good as ours were...we'll give the answer next post. p.s.--John, no telling!

John was happy to treat Les and I to some great food at Poor Richards. Turns out this place is an Indie cafe/diner, a cinema turned children's toy store, a pub/coffee shop, and a used and new book store. It was really really fun to see. I certainly with there were more of these in Southern California.

A shot of the Pub/Coffee shop and the bookstore

Next John was more than happy to drop us off at "the garden of the gods"--a natural reserve/hiking area with some cool scenic look outs. We messed around there for a bit and then found our way back to Old Downtown CO Springs at a coffee shop called "Agia Sophia." This place, by far, has been the coolest coffee house I have been in all trip. It could be a Christian-owed place, however that wasn't explicitly stated, but all around the shop were books on prayer and Christian Spirituality. The coffee was a bit overpriced but the atmosphere was simply incredible. They had very ambient, low-key music playing, a cafe downstairs equipped with ancient looking furniture, and a bookstore upstairs with plenty of rooms to relax/read it. Very cool. (by the way, I almost feel like this trip is partly about finding the best coffee house...so far we've visited at least 4 really cool ones within Colorado alone).

Espresso & Books. I love it!

Typing away, enjoying my day off.

A shot of the entrance/coffee bar area

Our friend Jaci just moved out to CO springs to go to a nursing school, so we were sure to meet up with her and talk. It's kinda cool that we can just ride our bikes for 14 days and end up at a place where we know somebody!

Les standing in front of a statue of Spencer Penrose, a man who struck it rich on gold in the hills of CO Springs (check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Penrose if you want to know more...)

Check out the size of this cup that Les was given water in! It's easily 24 oz!

Our evening ended by being dropped off at Russ' place again (we'd be staying the night at his place and going to church with him in the morning). All in all this was a rest day that was well worth the extra miles and Les and I are quite glad we did it.

Working for our Rest Day

2008-06-27T20:20:00.000-07:00

The Arkansas River (yeah, I know...)

Day 14 - Salida to Colorado Springs, CO - 100

It seems that the TransAmerica caught wind of the generous accommodations we've been receiving from the kind host families we have met along the way. In retaliation, today's ride seemed to say, "So you thought this was going to be easy, huh? Let's see what you guys are really made of." "Well, Mr. Trip Across America, you saw what we were made of today, when we conquered the 100 miles of sheer humiliation to our rest day destination of Colorado Springs. You can take your headwinds and scorching sun and unexpected inclines and just consider them defeated." For those folks back at home, don't let the TransAm hear this, but we will be spending the better part of Saturday and Sunday morning recovering from the broken state today's ride left us in.

Waking up comfortably at Zack & Robin's, we casually made some oatmeal, with yogurt and bananas, and jumped on the road. The curvy, beautiful canyon did not have a large shoulder, but we were both careful to alert one another of passing cars and occasional wildebeest (just kidding. No wildebeest today.) It was not long before we found ourselves at a rest stop, and then unexpectedly careening down a huge decline into our mid-day stop of Canon City. "Uh-oh," was the simultaneous exclamation, because we both well know that you have to earn your descents with an equally punishing incline. We pushed the thought out of our minds, in order to enjoy our lunch break, and found a cool coffee shop where we devoured p.b. & banana sandwiches, cheese and grapes.

left to right: Ethan (the future touring cyclist), Zack, Robin, Aaron, and Les

A fun descent into Canon City (pronounced "Canyon City"--the middle "n" has a spanish tilde adding the "y" sound)

After contacting our host in Colorado Springs, settling the arrangements for the night, we pressed on, fearing the next few miles, as we pulled ourselves out of the canyon we got ourselves into. But first, we stopped at a DollarTree and picked up some essential road-food treats: honey (to sweeten up the peanut-butter), trail mix (to replenish our emergency food), and fig newtons (weighing in at a whopping 70 calories per cookie - we burn about 500 calories per hour; 8 fig newtons ought to do the trick), and pound cake (just for kicks!). Then the punishing TransAm wielded its power over nature and opened up the cloud cover just in time for a 2-inch nail to lodge itself snugly in the back tire of Randy (the touring bike les rides). We spent 30 minutes patching the thing, only to have the tube reject the glueless super-patch, when the air pressure reached its typical psi. So, off with the tire and on with the patch-less spare tube. Finally, we were on the road again.

$1 pound cake--(its 1,000 calories as a whole!)

les examines the problem

See the culprit? A NAIL!

At that time, John, our host for the night, called and asked when we might be expected in the area, as his wife was preparing taco salad. "Taco salad!" I don't think Aaron and I have ever cycled with such heart before (or, rather, riding with our appetite). John, a touring cyclist himself, also mentioned that he wanted to ride out and meet us, to 'bring us on home,' if you will. How cool! He told us to call him when we pass the bug museum, which will be 'after the second hill.' The bug museum seemed amusing; the hills did not. And in fact, they were not. We rode for quite some time, climbing multiple hills, while I (Les), felt extremely guilty for misunderstanding John's description of the exponentiating 'two hills,' and promising Aaron that, "It's just over this next one, I bet you."

Miles later, we are flying down a much needed backside of a hill, when we spot a cyclist coming up the other way. We offer the usual wave and shout out, when the guy throws up his arm and calls out, "Les?!" John had found us, which was good news. The sad news, we still had 15 more miles to go...and a few more hills. Ughh. The best news, John is not a small man, which means that he leaves quite a draft trail behind him. Did we take advantage of that? Yes. John kept mentioning that we were pushing him so hard with our quick cycling. Really, I don't think he realized how much edge he was taking off of this evil headwind that was out to attack poor little Aaron and les, who were just trying to get to their rest day destination.

John leads our weary bodies home. Les is doing the smart thing by drafting, while Aaron was too excited about the fact that there was someone else to block the wind!

A little under an hour later, with another century under our belt, we unloaded the gear from our bikes and loaded our stomachs with the tastiest taco salad this side of the Rockies. After some cross-country tour-talk, a bowl of ice cream and a few cookies, we headed off to bed and didn't really plan on waking up until Sunday. We earned tomorrow's rest day, and have the pain to prove it.

A classic shot

THE Climb of our Trip.

2008-06-26T15:33:00.000-07:00

we added a video to this post! Find it!

Gunnison, Colorado night sky

Day 13 - Gunnison to Salida, CO - 67 Miles

What's the fastest way to get from one point to another?

The answer: a straight line! But what happens when your straight line from Gunnison to Salida goes over the continental divide and climbs over 3,500 feet? Well, nobody panic, les and I figured out that it is IN FACT possible to pedal one's bike up and over (and to have a little fun doing it too!).

Our day began around 7am at Joe and Tim's place in Gunnison. Tim confessed, "yeah, we're kinda weird around here, we go to bed really late and wake up really early!" It was good for les and I to get up and be out the door by 7:30 because, admittedly, we've been pretty bad about getting on an early riding schedule. Joe, our friend we met through couch surfers, goes to Western State College in Gunnison AND works at a coffee shop. He, Tim, Les and I rode a few blocks down to "Mocha's" and enjoyed a delicious protein smoothie and some bagels. Thanks again, Joe!

Joe & Tim, two of our hosts. Great fellas.

"Are we getting stronger? Or were Joe's protein smoothies just packed with some kind of rediculous energy?" I wondered this as les and I careened out of Gunnison and into the town of "Sargents" (a 30 mile ride we did in less than two hours). We made incredible time and Sargents just happened to be the town at the very base of the Monarch hill, so after eating, stretching, sun-tan-lotioning, etc., we were able to jump right into the hill.

Lunch. Peanut-butter, bagels and brocolli. (Only Aaron and les!)

And then came the climb! But really, it wasn't quite as bad as we thought. Have you ever thought about something for months on end and in a way mentally prepared yourself for it only to find that when it actually came it wasn't near as bad as you thought? Well, good, because that is precisely what Les and I have been doing. Countless rides in the Southern California area didn't go without les or Aaron screaming out "Rockies, here we come!" And now, today, as we fought the inner battle within ourselves, and took on the hill at the same time, our final real mountain climb (and I say "real" because the Rockies are as "real" as they come) is finished. 10 miles of a mountain never felt so easy...weird!

Parts 1, 2, & 3 of the hill climb!

Loving the climb.

Also loving the climb.

How cool. (Microsoft Windows background anyone?)

Aaron enjoying, and sending out sweet vibes during our one break.

Victory over ourselves... "it is not the mountain we conquer."

(quote adapted from Ed Hillary, the first to climb Mt. Everest)

We made it!

Probably the only snow we'll see on the trip. Les had to take advantage of this.

Rocky Mountains. Need we say more?

For all who are keeping up with our tentative course schedule we must ask you to remember that it is tentative. As has been stated before, our philosophy is that we're on an adventure that will eventually drop us off in New York, i.e. its not about the destination but about the journey. With that said, we have made the decision to cut up North a bit and go to Colorado Springs for our rest day. This entails a 100 mile ride (approx.) tomorrow and then all of Saturday off in "the Springs" as some have called it. We're looking forward to a nice adventurous break in an area all too incredible to pass up.

that's all for now...

wheelin' through the Rockies, part 3

2008-06-25T17:08:00.000-07:00

Day 12: Montrose to Gunnison

Les and I decided that Gunnison must be filled with lots of guns and lots of sons (probably in the olden days it was called "guns 'n sons" and was later shortened so as to ensure a healthy economy!). If so then soon, either due to an over population of males, or an over population of vagrant guns sleeping in gutters and on bus benches, this city will be nothing more than a bunch of abandon buildings with a river running through it. Fortunately for tourists like les and I, there appears to be females and, by the looks of things, no half asleep homeless guns waking up cranky and disturbing the public.

ok ok, bad joke!

The abode of the generous Shine's. Thanks again guys!

Anyway, our day began with Les and I sleeping a bit longer than we planned, but can you blame us? We have the Rockies to climb! We ate breakfast, hit the store, broke apart les' old helmet (see video below), then hit the road.

The helmet is dead... affirmative, we poked it, it was dead.

White helmet = dead, pic 1

White helmet = dead, pic 2

Oh yeah, the ride! The day started out with a steady incline and WIND!!! But whoever said wind and hills were bad things? Not us! We laughed at it (and to all you who commented on our last post that it seems like we're going a little insane, you're probably right...) and begged it to be steeper and hit us harder! It didn't though, and we figured it was scared! The Rockies are ours! (by the way, we really only have one more day of riding in these magnificent, picturesque mountains until we begin to descend into eastern Colorado and then bleak, flat Kansas! :( (that's a sad face, by the way) )

A shot of the hillside as we climbed our second hill of two today

Les loves to sing, chant, and state influential sayings when the riding gets a bit tougher (see the video below--again, yes, we might be going a little crazy!)

Les sings and stuff!

We met three other tourists while riding today. All three of them happened to have the same bike as me (Aaron). Here is a picture of three (of four) tired Surly's.

As we continued down the 50 we noticed that our water supply was running quite low, so we pulled off the road to fill up. The place we found (or rather didn't find) water was called Sapinero. Armed with an abandoned school house, and abandoned gas station, and some kind of abandoned general store, this city was not looking very promising in terms of satisfying our water needs. We went around back and looked for a spicket, pail, trough (most likely given how old this place looked), faucet, or ANYTHING that produced water. But we didn't find anything. So we did what any thirsty person would do: we walked up a dirt path leading to a mobile home park just above. While there were plenty of mobile homes (seeming to indicate plenty of life) there was nobody to be found. After looking around for a few moments we just turned on a hose and, like the train-robbers we are, filled up. Job complete.

Aaron looking a little less than terrifying while "borrowing" water

Gunnison, so far, seems to be a pretty cool place. We are staying with a guy named Joe who we found on couch surfers.com. From looking at his profile on the website he seems to be a pretty cool guy, so we are looking forward to hanging out with he and his roommates tonight.

Longest hill ride of the trip tomorrow, but the pictures we'll take from it will make up for everything! Until then...

Rockies...pssh, ain't no thing!

2008-06-25T06:45:00.000-07:00

Just about to ride after resting well at the Gaylord family house in Telluride

Day 11 - Telluride to Montrose, CO

If I believed in being jynxed, then I think the title of today's blog would come back to bite us!

While day two of the Rockies consisted of one enormous downhill, a decent uphill, and another relatively downhill stretch (thus translating to the novice rider that the Rockies surely "ain't no thing" (or "thang," whichever you prefer)), the next two days (at least) of our tour will see plenty of uphill riding.

We literally passed 2,000 riders heading the other direction for the annual Bicycle Tour of Colorado (BTC). Here are a bunch of bikes laid out at Dallas Divide Summit.

Oh friends, we keep saying things like, "the Rockies are why we are here!" They are incredible, like apple french toast (aaron), or Hamlet (les). To be honest, we hardly notice the climbs we make because the mountains surrounding us are so beautiful.

Incredible mountains. Incredible cyclist. Haha.

Probably the only bummer is that we still haven't managed to get on a consistent sleeping schedule so we're usually out on the road a little later than is preferred, and so far we've seen rain by early afternoon both days. Luckily *Thankfully,* {les. edit} we've found little cafes to wait in, and the rain really hasn't been that bad. It usually comes and goes as fast as the days of our trip feel to us (really fast!).

Aaron's looking to rob a train again.

From Ridgeway to Montrose it is a slowly declining 25 miles, so we weren't too bummed to have found that it literally only took us an hour to get to Montrose. When the conditions are just right, riding is perfect (tail wind, gradual downhill, plenty of rest, etc.).

An excellent downhill awaited us after our only climb of the day

We were fortunate enough to receive another place to stay for the evening while in Montrose. The last four nights we've had showers, incredible right? Yes it is. Scott and Jenny Shine, fellow athletes and US tourists (they totally rode 5,000 miles around the country on a tandem (a two-person bicycle!)), and they were more than happy to let us shower, come to a Bible study with them, eat, sleep, etc. Thank you both so very much!

You MUST watch this video!

Farewell for now!

Time to face the Rockies!

2008-06-23T20:43:00.000-07:00

Day 10 - Dolores to Telluride, Colorado

65 Miles (mostly climbing)

Careful to redeem every last dollar we paid to stay at the Dolores River Campground, we spent the morning taking long showers and making warm oatmeal, while using the internet and buying a spatula for future pancake attempts. It was a morning well utilized, especially after the unexpected thunder and lighting that jolted us our of R.E.M. at 2 in the morning. When we started hearing the drip-drop-drip of the June-Monsoon showers, we both burst out of the tent and speedily covered the bikes and the tent with our extra tarps.

Our tent the next morning: dry.

We covered the bikes for good measure. (Can you find les?)

On the road, we saw some fantastic sights. What luscious green hills and ranches! The air was so clean and crisp. The prevailing sounds were natural water rushing, real-live birds chirping and 100% beef cows grazing. Colorado, in short, is beautiful.

We road along a river all day. Awesome.

This would make a good support vehicle. *cough - tyler madsen - cough*

We stopped in Rico for lunch, read a bit - Jack Kerouac's On the Road was quite fitting - and pushed off to Telluride. Of course, then the rain started falling. Wait, rain? Yes. Not two days ago, we were complaining about the dryness of the desert and 100+ temps; and now, it is raining? Yes. Colorado is wonderful. We were prepared for rain, so it wasn't that bad, once you realize you're going to get a little wet, then you just pretend you're suppose to be in the rain.

Waterproof? Close enough.

If it's not PB, it's baked beans. Must. Eat. More. Food.

Aaron said he was cold. I think he wanted to rob a train.

Not much else happened. We climbed and climbed. Thought about the struggles in life and parallels to cycling. We climbed.

Looking back from the summit of today's climb.

Then we got to Telluride and ate.

We consumed an entire bag of frozen burritos in one sitting. Never to be repeated.

When we started to look around for a campground to set up the tent, we met a delightful family - Romona & Kent, daughter, Soleil and cat, Rio - who let us stay in their spare apartment. They offered us a shower, laundry and warm beds. What a pleasant gift. Thank you, guys.

Tomorrow, we head to Montrose, CO, 65 Miles of easy, downhill, Rocky Mountain cycling.

A leisurely day--a much needed break!

2008-06-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

Cortez, Colorado

Ok, don't ever let anybody tell you that resting is lame, because it is not. That person obviously hasn't done anything physically exerting!

Days and days of riding start to take a toll on a person, and since les and I are persons we paid the large toll and got a motel room the moment we dropped into Cortez on Saturday night. It was needed, well worth it, and very very nice to get a shower (we hadn't bathed in 4 days, or so, and when you're riding all day and constantly re-applying sunscreen over salty limbs and necks, well, a shower is like Christmas).

We slept until a reasonable hour. We called a couple churches (oh right, Sunday happened to be our day off) to find out when their services were, packed up, checked out, ate discounted bread rolls with yogurt from the grocery store, and rolled down the street to a local church.

Afterward les and I decided we would just relax. We made ham and avocado sandwiches (DON'T JUDGE! they were actually pretty good!), and then parted ways for an hour or so. Les went out to find a bike shop, thrift store, and a wal-mart, and I went to a local internet cafe.

After an hour or so les arrived and we stashed our bikes outside this garden/indie cafe/chill zone/gift shop

The Let It Grow internet cafe has to be one of the coolest places I have ever been. One of its most interesting aspects is its enormous garden. There was seating both inside the store and outside among the various plants.

les and I are dreamers, and we now want to own a cafe just like this place...I know, I know, one thing at a time!

Oh, and here is a little word of advice, which I, Aaron, learned the hard way: don't drink 3 to 4 cups of coffee after a week of physically exerting yourself more than your body is used to, and after having not drank coffee in at least two weeks. While I justified my refills by the fact that I was there for about 4 hours (a cup an hour, that's ok...right???), after the last I felt like I was going to...umm...float away? Yeah, it was a weird sensation. I was out of it for sure. I am sure the combination of my tired muscles and all the raging caffein led to a battle within me larger than Gettysburg.

But suffice it all to say that both les and I had a wonderful day off. My idea of a good day is getting to do precisely what we did: sleep in a little, eat food, chillax in a cafe reading books and writing nonsensicalities on my computer, and then sleeping again.

Here is the church we went to. It was called Lifeway Baptist. Not our forte, but it was great anyway.

End of the day...

...

ok fine, we got a little antsy so we rode up the road another 10 or 11 miles to Delores where we found a decent (but way overpriced) campground to crash at. The owner was a giant, literally. We rode past the front office (it was after hours) and decided to just pay the fee in the morning. But from the deep dark shadows came an older gentleman that seemed to get taller as he got closer and closer. He was really kind, matter of fact, and drove to our actual site in a golf cart (we followed him on our bikes getting dirt in our eyes and coughing...but he was a nice guy and gave us a spot that was directly in front of Dolores River). We woke to the sound of birds and rushing water, very nice!

In and Out of Utah in only 1 Day

2008-06-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

Day 8 - Utah Border to Colorado Border - 105 Miles

Aaron cooks up some 'camp-worthy' pancakes

We woke up late on Saturday on our mildly-comfortable outdoor camp-site, under the billion or so stars that we fell asleep with overhead. Without skipping a beat, Aaron was at the stove, cooking up some pancakes...or what we have affectionately decided to call "pancake-glop." Without oil or butter, the bisquik-water mixture stuck to the pan a little more than was desirable.

les is standing on the road where Forest stops running, in the movie, Forest Gump

After we got on the road, with a slight climb through beautiful Monument Valley (see above picture, or google: monument valley), we took a sharp and thrilling descent (probably 45+ mph) to a store in Mexican Hat. Pulling up to a gas station convience store for a mid-morning snack, we saw two touring bikes, fully loaded, like ours. "No way! I wonder who they are and where they are going." These were the first self-supported touring cyclists we've actually been able to stop and chat with. Suddenly, out of the store come two men in their late sixties who were on holiday from Holland. For some reason, they decided riding around in Arizona and Utah for the summer sounded like a good idea. How absurd! Only insane people do such things.

This is Hat Rock, for which Mexican Hat is named...I don't know why...

At any rate, to forget about the heat, Aaron and I started making jokes about the two Dutch fellows we had just met. Things like, what if these guys don't even have to pedal, they just use their Holland powers to get up these laughable American hills. Every once and a while, we looked back and half-way expected to see them gaining on us, with their old bikes, flat pedals (no cleats, like ours), and upright handlebars. "Aaron, they're gaining on us. Go!" was usually all it took to motivate us up one more hill.

Our first glimpse of clouds since the paradise of Peeple's Valley

From the Hat, we rode to Bluff, took lunch, wrote some letters/thoughts, read and ate. When we returned to the road, things started to cool down a little, and we even began to see clouds overhead. As the sun was on its way down, we realized we could make it to the Colorado Border, if we really pushed it. So we did, 105 miles - our longest mileage yet on the tour. Oh, and we almost ran out of food and water and a truck that had driven past us 5 hours earlier recognized us, stopped to say, "Hello," and re-fueled our systems. But we were only 10 miles from a town anyway, so we were going to be okay...really.

les made it.

Aaron made it, too.

Happy to be in Colorado, for our rest day tomorrow.

To Utah!

2008-06-22T18:09:00.000-07:00

Day 7: Tonalea, AZ to

Monument Valley, Utah

wind. wind. wind!

If ever there was a ride that dared to be dynamic, this was the ride! What started as us waking up on the side of the road in Tonalea, AZ, ended in one of the most memorable rides of our lives. Our sleep was less than memorable, however, but we were tired, and when you begin to doze by the end of a ride, no matter where you are, including the side of the road, anywhere works just fine. We carb'd up at the ONLY service station we could find (none other than a "trading post" (go figure) that was actually a market quite similar to a circle K), and then pushed our way out of Tonalea...

and then there was wind...lots and lots of wind!

It took us around 3 hours to go 30 miles, which, if you are keeping track, is only a pace of 10mph. That's not really a bad pace, but it was quite annoying, especially after a less-than-par sleep. We took a break every 10 miles or so, which is our custom, and the above picture of les drinking peanut butter was one of our snack options when we were gathering calories again. Yes, it comes down to drinking peanut butter. It's actually not as bad as it sounds, haha.

By our third stop we were about 35 miles outside of Tonalea and we started to see other cyclists. They were headed the other direction, which meant they were in for a slightly declining, tail-wind-filled ride, which is nice...for them. We stopped and talked to them and they were all very kind and inquisitive about our trip. They were doing an annual cancer awareness ride that begins in Austin, TX and goes all the way up to Anchorage. It was neat to hear their stories and to relate with them. If you are interested here is their site: www.texas4000.org check it out!

We think this was a house on top of a concrete bomb shelter with a giant slide

Our next 15 miles was more of a descent than anything else, and while the wind was still in our faces things were definitely looking up for us. We reached Kayenta, AZ and fueled up again at a fast-food establishment that had a TON of German motorcyclists. They looked at us as crazily as we looked at them, if you want to know the truth. Anyway, after eating we headed down to a gas station that had a little dining area and rested for another 3 hours. It was here that we would not have minded a ride from somebody. Again, this trip isn't about riding our bikes, it is about adventure and seeing the world, namely the US, so, as many people passed through and talked to us we dropped hints that the heat (98-99 degrees) was killer and stuff, but we didn't try to give them any sob stories. If they offered, we'd take it, end of story...

...except for how I, Aaron, made a sign and posted it on our bikes that said, "Mexican Hat?" (one of our stops), and below it read, "...or the Colorado State line, we're not picky!" We got some good laughs and everything, but no offers. But here's what I love: our next 20-21 mile evening ride from Kayenta to the Arizona/Utah state line was probably the most scenic and memorable ride we have had thus far. As I said before, the dynamics between the morning hilly, windy, and hot ride to the cool, relatively level, and ridiculously scenic Monument Valley ride was extraordinary! In retrospect, we were quite happy that nobody offered to take us anywhere.

Looking ahead to Utah

Looking behind to Arizona

We cruised past the state line, took some pictures, and yelled at the top of our lungs: WE ARE SO HAPPY WE'RE OUT OF ARIZONA!

It's not that we hated Arizona, but it just got extremely boring, and hot, but friends let us tell you: Arizona taught us things we could never have learned in Colorado, Kansas or wherever else. As Les and I have talked about the 4 or so days we spent riding through Arizona we talked about how it has been good that such a physical challenge stared us straight in the eye on the front end of our trip. It tried to break us, really, and there were many times where we would have loved to just hop a train up to Colorado to burn away our misery, but we didn't. We pushed...and pushed...and pushed.

Upon crossing the state line we went left about 2 miles and found what was more of a tourist stop than a city called "Gouldings." Tons of Europeans were here, and it was kind of weird because it was in the middle of nowhere. At any rate we found a church and rolled out our sleeping bags in the back. The stars were incredible in the dark Utah night sky. We were sleeping directly below Butes that stood hundreds of feet tall, and the temperature was just warm enough that we didn't need to bother to set up the tent.

The juxtaposition between part one and part two were incredible, the Utah sky shimmered fantastically, and we drifted off to sleep without a bother from any church parishoners whatsoever!

Fun Times on the Navajo Nation

2008-06-19T18:31:00.002-07:00

Day 6: Flagstaff to Tonalea, AZ

We'd love to extend another special thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Blue who showered us with incredible hospitality in allowing us to stay at their house just outside of Flagstaff. Because we know you two will probably be following up on our blog, at least for a little while, we wanted to thank you publicly and let you know that you made a huge difference in two weary, but optimistically excited travelers!

Les, our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Blue, and Aaron

Our day began just north of Flagstaff around Sunset Crater National Monument. We took the road up for approximately one mile and then enjoyed a sweet 6-7 mile descent into the antelope valley down below.

A sweet descent into the valley

We stopped and stretched at the first "trading post" (in Navajo Nation everything is called a trading post...even gas stations!). Les and I were feeling really good. We were energized, clean!, and well-fed, and I think we both knew we had a good ride ahead of us through Tuba City and into Tonalea.

One of 4,000,000 trading posts

About halfway to Tuba City there is a small town called "Cameron" (and if Cameron Staff is reading this, THIS ONE'S FOR YOU!), so les and I decided we'd stop off and rest and re-load our systems. In route to looking for a place to lay down we thought it was funny that we could knock out both "no" rules in one shot... though we spared them our riding around on the grass!

Breaking the law...kinda

This is what we call Stealth Napping

After we rested we filmed a couple videos (we're trying to get videos on here but blogger is giving us a really hard time doing so, but give us time and we'll have some for you!) and then hit the road. It was 26 miles to Tuba City, and another 20 to Tonalea.

We thought the layers on this mountain were really interesting.

This is a typical Arizona desert "hill."

They call the area les and I are about to ride through the "painted deserts" and certainly they are extremely colorful and picturesque. After refueling at a local, cheap fast food establishment, as well as resting, using their free wifi, and drinking a ton of their free refill powerade, les and I are about to set out for our last leg of the day, Tonalea. We figured their wouldn't be wifi there so we're doing all of our posting here.

We appreciate your prayers, because we need them!

Videos are coming soon, we promise!

Making our way...bit by bit.

2008-06-18T22:29:00.000-07:00

Day 5 - Prescott to Flagstaff, AZ

Happenings

After packing up the tent this morning, we ate cinnamon roles that tasted like biscuits and headed toward Flagstaff, 91 miles away. The 91 miles were littered with heavy climbing and intense heat. We're beginning to notice a pattern and we are not particularly amused.

Packing up the Stealth Tent

After two big inclines and one terrific decline just after a perfect little town called Jerome, AZ (google it) with the most breath-taking view, we arrived at a Safeway in Sedona, 60 miles away from Flagstaff.

Caution: Horse and Buggy...so quaint.

The spectacular view from Jerome

It was there that we ate some humble pie, along with our bananas and corn, and realized that with respect to today's ride, we bit off more than we could chew and were discouraged. Then

Aaron prayed for provision. Then an extremely generous couple - complete strangers until tonight - telephoned from Flagstaff (in response to a warmshowers.org request, we posted just this morning, as a long shot). They offered to come pick us up, 30 miles away and drive us back to their home (which is beautiful, even though it was being remodeled. *that was for you, Ann*). We accepted and got a warm shower and delicious Mexican food. Our hats off to Brian on the restaurant selection.

Realizations

This trip never was about the bike ride. This trip was and is about the adventure and the journey. We are seeing these 40 days as a retreat and a mission to get from coast to coast. Our bicycles are merely the vehicles we have chosen to accomplish that end. Therefore, we have no regrets about not hitting 100 miles each day, as planned. We are getting across the country, by golly, and if our mileage fall short of our deadlines, we will feel no remorse in taking a bus the rest of the way. *That was very therapeutic. Thank you.*

Loher Nicke, a German tourist, barely understandable, but funny.

Plans

Tomorrow, we head out again into the unknown. Well, okay, we know it's Arizona. We know it's Indian reservation territory. We know it is going to be hot. We known we are going to drink a lot of water and be incredibly safe and prepared. But we do not know when the next time we will see a human being will be, let alone a Starbucks. Yes, that's right, we are venturing into the land beyond corporate America. Among other things, that likely means we will not be able to update the blog for a few days. Hang on though, for we will return, with a full catalog of these next few mysterious days in the middle of nowhere.

The Perfect Day

2008-06-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

Day 4 - Wickenburg to Prescott, AZ - 60 Miles

Throughout our ride, it seemed as though the day we were experiencing was absolutely perfect. Getting on the road at a comfortable 9 AM, we felt rested and prepared. The first leg out of Wickenburg to Congress was hot & hilly, but we figured out how to cool ourselves pretty well and eventually paused at the only gas station of this small hick town for a stretch break. Knowing we would need to replenish our electrolytes, we set about to purchase the largest, but most cost effective bottle of Gatorade available. The result was a 64 oz. cup of the ice cold Lemon Lime sports drink from the soda fountain station. We drank most of it, ate some peaches, which are fairly inexpensive in June, and turned to the most challening leg of our ride.

Fuel-up

The 9 mile climb to Yarnel was painful, until we settled into a relaxed, almost effortless, unconcious stride. Yarnel was cute, fun, amazingly cooler, with a strong tailwind and downhill grade.

Lunch was quite frugal and filling - baked bean & potato bread sandwiches. Then came Peeple's Valley, which was cycling paradise. The panarama view alone was completely worth the climb. The town had large ranches, horses and deciduous trees. It was an enigma in Arizona.

The entire panorama shared this scene.

We found huge leafy trees near the road, stopped for a break and rested for an hour and a half. The wind blew hard, we saw a snake, read East of Eden and napped. It was remarkable. We laughed hard and frequently.

Shady and Comfortable

As the second half of our trip began, we came out of the Valley and unwittingly started up a shallow, but agonizingly long uphill grade to Wilhoit. The "Country Corner Grocer" was the only place that looked like it could provide us with rehydration. It did, but it also gave us hearty laughter, a breezy shaded porch, a thought provoking people-watching perch and free ice. Everyone that entered the store walked out with a case of beer. It was the staple of Wilhoit.

Small Town, indeed.

Finally, we were left with the 15 mile, switch-backed climb to Prescott (which apparently is pronounced "Priskit," not "Press-scott"). The climb was arduous, but was somehow more manageable than the earlier incline to Yarnell. After a few hours, the cactus and sage brush yeilded to pine trees, sprinkled with civilization, and we found ourselves in "Everybody's Hometown," Prescott, Arizona. And this place really was (except for one man that complained about getting kicked out of the city when I read the town motto aloud to Aaron, out of sheer excitement for actually arriving in this beautiful, quaint town).

The rear view of our entire climb.

Just before settling down for dinner, a fellow cyclist pulled up along side of us and asked us for our story. The 30 second sound bite, which Aaron and I have now fully mastered, was all he needed to hear. The man, in this early 30's, who we'll call Harry (because we forgot his name...and he was pretty hairy) spent the next half hour showing us around the city and introducing us to his cycling friends. One of whom, Mark, is heading to Virginia by bicycle on Thursday.

Then we came to a park that surrounds the main courthouse (a beautiful building) and made our first dinner using the stove. It was delucious and filling - vegetable, and ham pasta alfredo.

Our first 'stove cooked' dinner

The park boasted a live swing band and a dance floor, which I took advantage of as soon as I had eaten enough. As night progressed, we found a discreet spot to set up the tent, just out side of the city park, covered and locked our bikes and drifted uncomfortably off to bed. We wouldn't change a thing.

Indio to Blythe...the kind of ride you wish you'd never chosen to take!

2008-06-17T21:43:00.000-07:00

Day 3 – Indio to the last rest stop before Blythe, CA – 80 Miles

The Trip
Our dad’s were right…the desert is hot. In fact, the desert is too hot. Realizing that it we left at 3:30 am and immediately began climbing to Chiruco Summit, which took about three hours.

Tire Snakes
Lots of heat. Lots of nothing. To entertain ourselves, or possibly because we were becoming delusional thanks to the heat, we started naming the debris in the road after various animals.

At one point, Aaron make the comment, “I feel like we’ve been riding past that forever.” While he was referring to a particular mountain range, it was clear that the observation could have been made for any number of things in the desert. Again, nothing is in the desert, except a few walrus-shaped tire treads.

Our Hero – Today we met, were saved and wildly blessed by Freddy of Phoenix, AZ. We never got a picture of Freddy, but perhaps that was fitting. The last thing Freddy said to us was, “If you don’t remember me, that’s okay. But if you don’t remember Christ, you’ll wish you had.” I think we will both remember Freddy for some time, but we will heed to his admonishment as though our lives depend on it – they do.

The Amenities
We got hooked up in Wickenburg at this sweet Karate Dojo. (Special thanks to Buck & Drake).

Just before the sun rose in the hills just past Indio, Monday morning.

This is Desert Center, CA. Water was 70 cents a cup because "apparently" they have to fly their water in rather than having it come through a pipe. Here's les indulging in his over-priced magical water.

#1 9:07am

#2 9:20am

#3 9:22am

yes, that was three flat tires in about 15 minutes!

Here is us going into "survival mode." We created a bike-tent at a rest stop 20 miles from Blythe to attempt to avoid the blistering 112+ temperatures.

We stayed the night in a Karate Dojo in Wickenburg, AZ!

how cool is that?!

ps--Scott Atkins and Jessica Howen take the prize in answering the question correctly from our last blog. Way to be witty, guys!

A Taste of Desert Heat

2008-06-15T18:10:00.000-07:00

Day 2 -Redlands to Indio

A picturesque desert sunrise quickly burned off at six-thirty a.m., giving way to scorching temperatures reaching 100 degrees by 9:30am! We were fortunate, however, to have been on the road by no later than 6am, and we were fortunate to have a tail-winds for a solid 20 miles leading us into palm springs. At one poing les threw out his hands and stood up on his bike and didn't have to pedal at all. Mr. Stinson, who was our tour-car driver for the day, said we were flying along at 30mph at least! Those kinds of speeds usually don't occur unless one is careening down a hill. It was an excellent ride to say the least, and when all was said and done we were checked into a motel by 12:30pm in Indio.

The idea was to beat the heat, and while we felt it by about 9:30, we were still able to push through while still feeling strong and plenty hydrated.

Mr. Stinson is in front of us here in the distance. He led us through the tricky Redlands hills and out into Beaumont and Banning.

A bitter-sweet sunrise: beautiful, yet blazing!

Bananas make excellent snacks!

And here is what happens when roads end...you find another way!

Ha.

This is basically our dinner: peanut butter and bread, avocado and bread, a banana each, a nectarine each, and a cup of semi-frozen veggies...and since we're writing this while we eat we'll probably eat more!

The plan for tomorrow looks like this: rising at 2:30am, riding to desert center (hopefully we'll be there by 6:30-7am), then cruising out to Blythe. We have decided that altering our sleeping schedule is a must in these kinds of temperatures. We might be able to stand riding 3 hours in the heat from about 8 am to noon, but definitely not for the whole day.

Yep, that's all for now...

And we're off!

2008-06-14T22:39:00.000-07:00

Well, the send-off was a complete success! Les and I both want to extend a huge thanks to all who came out and supported us. After we left we were thinking about all of you and were feeling so blessed to know that so many people actually care about us and this ridiculous endeavor! Really, THANK YOU!!!

Here is a bunch of us walking down to the tire-dip ceremony...

Here it is: the Pacific Coast Tire-Dip

Thanking God for life.

A group shot of all in attendance

...and we made it!

ok not really, but this is in Redlands (our first stop) and we thought it was cool to see a "New York" sign so soon.

Tomorrow (6/15) les and I are going to arrive in Indio, which, if you are staying up on your homework, is only 65 miles. The decision had to be made over whether we would do 65 miles, or 113 all the way to "desert Center." For a few reasons we chose the former: a) it's the desert, which means it's hot, obviously; b) another shorter ride on the front-end of the trip would probably do us some good in the long run; c) this expedition is not about how fast/far we go at all. les and I decided a long time ago that this trip is about adventure, and if we fall behind we can always catch ourselves up. We shall remain as faithful to the bicycle as we possibly can, but we think it is wise to take day 2 easy also.

Anyway, Redlands was wonderful. Alli's parents were incredibly kind in offering us a place to sleep and a nice, delicious, home-cooked meal, which made day-1 all that much more peaceful and pleasant.

something to think about: what is the only speed faster than light-speed?

Big Bear, my friends.

2008-06-10T19:22:00.000-07:00

You can't beat altitude training in Big Bear, CA. It is the best Southern CA has to offer, and les and I certainly felt it today!

Business/Adventure Cards

It is our goal to hand these out to any and everyone we meet along the road.

But before we rode, we camped.

But, apparently you can't just camp ANYWHERE...and if you are interested, les and I have a funny story to tell you. Email us at tourtheus@gmail.com and we'll tell it to you!

les sporting the head lamp--an essential in pitching a tent at night time.

We rolled into this campground pretty late, and we pitched our tent, rolled out our bags, etc. just to get a feel for what sporadic camping will be like on our tour...

Yep, now I have the head lamp. Go me. Woo.

The tent itself is a 2-man, and its 3.5 pounds and set up-able in about 5 minutes, so that's a definite plus. This is me enjoying the luxurious life...yeeuh.

Breakfast

Take note kids, this has a whopping 710 calories! Pure, greasy, energy!

We actually had oatmeal and an assortment of other things, but a couple muffins snuck their way into our daily diets. The truth is that when you need energy calories are "calories," and many cyclists have been known for popping M&M's and/or other high fat/sugar items.

Semi's love us.

It is an inevitability that fat, ugly semi-trucks drive around in beautiful Big Bear--a place where only bicycles, sunlight, and snow ought to exist.

Yep.

McDonalds put it best: i'm lovin' it.

8,o00 ft. marker.

After a short cruise around the lake, and then some, we decided to head out to Barton flats, which ended up being a 2,000 ft. climb in the beginning, a rapid 1,500 drop, and then us turning around and riding back up! I remember yelling really loudly when that downhill wouldn't stop going down hill. Again, email us if you want to know the exact word I yelled...

2.1 seconds to lose everything off the back of my bike

When we finished I lost no time in taking apart my stuff so that we could get home...we were tiiiired!

the end.

111.5--the longest we've done yet!

2008-06-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

If you are curious, click here to see a map of our route (it contains rest stops and everything!)

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=114222456818550103808.00044ea3eec3f697e46a9&z=9

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Bright and early--7am...

wait, no, 7:30

...eh...ok, fine, at about 7:38 Les and I pushed off from Bastanchury and Euclid in Fullerton on an adventure toward the beach, friends, Marine-bros in Oceanside/Pendalton, and finally back toward home.

The idea was to ride a "century" (that's bike-lingo for a 100-mile ride). We decided we'd head west first, in order to pick up a few extra miles, so we cruised through our first 30 minutes and arrived at the Coyote Creek river trail (this trail ends up running alongside the 605, and is called by some "the 605 trail"). After a good hour and a half we stopped in Seal Beach to reload on calories.

After we pushed off from Seal Beach we headed down PCH for another 35+ miles. This road, as many of you have driven or ridden before, is wide at times, and narrow at others, and its flat as a board often, but rolling with hills for a great deal of time also.

As Les and I headed through Newport, Laguna, and Dana Point, it was inevitable that we'd come to Capistrano and later San Clemente, and it was here that we met "Bob." I wanted to call him "Bob Bodighera" because as les and I followed him for easily 20 miles, most of what I saw was his fit black jersey that read "Bodighera" on the back. This is probably a cycling brand, and hardly the point of mentioning Bob, but forever I will remember him as "Bob Bodighera." At first he didn't speak at all. He was a man of at least 60, and had a bike of at most 6 pounds. He hammered and hammered, and as I queried with les later, he rode in such a way that we had always read/heard/seen was not smart--he hardly changed gears, and if he did he was always in the high rung of his front derailer (the biggest one of the three circles that the pedals circulate around). Needless to say, this man rode how he felt.

After about 10 miles of riding, he and les got to talking (and by that I mean three or four sentences were traded between the two of them), and one question I overheard was, "where you guys headed?"

"well, we're going to hit a century today...fullerton to San Onofre, and the like..." les replied.

"What about you?" les asked.

"Me...I'm just out."

Silence. This was precisely the kind of response you'd want to hear Bob Bodighera calmly, organically, and easily say.

He and les further spoke a handful of sentences and Bob managed to tell an incredibly inspiring story in less than 30 words (probably). He spoke of "John" a local bike-shop owner who had led Bible studies, fixed bikes for kids for free, and simply loved cycling. John died of a heart attack at the age of 51 while blazing the path of a familiar route going 35 mph. He collapsed, never to ride again.

But as les profoundly noted: He lived to set men free. And for him, to die was gain.

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After meeting up with some friends at San Onofre State Beach, where les and I relaxed for a few hours, enjoying good food and conversation, we set out South for another 3 hours.

Here's the crazy part: we totally didn't anticipate getting to ride on the 5 freeway!

Yes, that's what I said.

We decided it was best to exit where the signs on the freeway said to exit, even if we could have snuck past the off-ramp quickly...

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Oceanside should be called Marinebro-town, just a thought...

At about half-way through Carlsbad we decided to turn around and head back to San Onofre where our good friend Jared would drive us home.

The goal was a century, and after all was said and done, les and I managed to put in approx. 111.5 miles. Not too shabby I'd say!

les and I thank you for reading!

Redlands 50

2008-03-26T10:40:00.000-07:00

at it again!

it has been some time since our last serious ride. that winter season is a cycling killer. how do those colorado riders do it?

this ride took us through brea canyon, up diamond bar blvd, above the 60 and 10 freeways to route 66 (foothill blvd). at that point, we split off; aaron returning home and les heading east until he reached redlands.

highlight of the trip:
les' seat post clamp bursting, causing the seat to drop five inches about 20 miles into the ride. after a run around in chino, we finally landed at a home depot and bought an semi-adequate replacement part.

second highlight:
delicious homemade powerbars that kept us nourished. oh, we're gonna love these this summer.

third highlight:
a warm welcome - finish line, blue ribbon and cold shower. thanks to our redland's friend.

it was so good to get back on the road. this trip to new york is going to be difficult. but it is going to be well worth the effort.

The Baldy 80

2007-10-29T14:11:00.000-07:00

"i'm so freaking glad we're here.

...

i'm so freaking glad we're here.

...

i'm so freaking glad we're here."

that brief prayer seemed to be the only noise that pierced through the mountain night. after riding up hill for an hour and forty minutes, over a distance that would normally take 30, those six words were really all that could be said.

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the baldy 80, it shall be forever called, as aaron and les pumped their glutes, hams and quads up a seven mile incline at the tail end of their first overnight-night ride that began at 10 pm on thursday, october 25th.

starting off at the green home, carl (green) flashed some photos, prayed for our well being and shipped us off with our gear loaded on our steeds.

as with most rides, the first 5 miles were annoying, as our muscles warmed up and whined at us for not getting a good stretch. so we stopped and satisfied our needs and pressed on.

20 miles later, we stopped for our official break-before-the-climb, took a few cool night pictures and determined that worst case scenario, we would stop a total of four times during the hill, in increments of 15 minutes each.

well, climbing the hill was worst case scenario. or possibly three notches beneath the worst case. it was downright exhausting, traveling an average of 4 miles an hour.

it was an exhaustion that we likened to having to stay awake for a long period of time. the intensity of the climb remained consistent...but it simply did not end. we pushed our muscles to temporary failure, again and again (like in weight lifting). when we stopped, we were hardly out of breath, but our legs would just not produce any more revolutions.

many a time, as we passed turn out after turn out, the thought came across our mind...let's just sleep here for the night...no one will ever know...we can just get to the village in the morning. but we knew we could not verbalize such an intense desire, because the other climber would have taken him up on such an offer.

no. we had to make it all the way. if we broke this commitment to ourselves, how would we ever expect to get to new york in july?

then, there was a sign: mt. baldy village church, with a life changing subtitle "you are always welcome." 1/2 mile away. can you say, "praise Jesus" for establishing the church!

it did not matter to us what the nice parish people intended by their evangelical signage. we were going to hold them to the letter of their advertisement and sleep at their building.

1/2 mile! we could not believe it. this climb, aaron and les agreed, had been one of the hardest mental exercises we had experienced and succeeded in.

so, a half mile later, after much rejoicing, prayer and photos, we laid out our tarp, mats and sleeping bag (thank you tommy kirven), ate a bunch of pb&j sandwiches to replace what had been depleted beyond understanding, read some 1 john in greek, and thanked God for being so marvelous.

...

i'm so freaking glad we're here.

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the next day, we woke up, met bob, who graciously allowed us to use the church's restroom, packed up and began our descent.

the 20 mile stretch of closed off mountain road was absolutely remarkable. high downhill speeds, annoying inclines, banked curves...the climb had been worth it.

we stopped at a jack in the box to carb up and met a delightful former cyclist who was 85 years old and as lively as could be, telling us of his days a-top the steel steed.

to get home, we travelled down azusa blvd, accidentally climbed a hill that did not cross over to the other side, and climbed up fullerton rd, which left us at the top of harbor, for a final, thrilling descent.

--------

we learned much through this trip and are becoming more acclimated to our training.

the threat of the 'rockies' is even more prevalent, but will be no match to those that conquered mount baldy.

orange circle...

2007-10-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

when time is limited, you tend to get creative...or sleep.

aaron and les chose the former on saturday, october 6th.

since aaron had to work at 10.30, we decided to meet at 7 a.m. to ride 40 miles to the orange circle and back again.

we did so.

and now, introducing, our first cycling-duo blog picture:

and now for our second:

The Great Figure Eight!

2007-10-12T00:43:00.000-07:00

Wind, rain, the lack of bike lanes, and of course, HILLS!!!!!

"Rockies!!!" Every time the summit of a hill would near, les or I would belt this to remind ourselves what we're working for. The word has become our motivator in that every time we battle a hill and think of how hard it may be, it is only making us stronger for the great Rockies of Colorado.

The "Great Figure Eight" begins with the hill on Harbor that goes over toward Rowland Heights. Les and I made a left on Colima and cruised our way up over the Colima hill that took us into Whittier. From there we took a right onto Whittier Blvd. We then headed up through uptown Whittier for a quick water stop and then took a right on the hilly Turnbull Canyon Road. This was a two-lane back road with plenty of hills and turns, but as soon as we reached the top we were blessed with an amazing ride down the other side. We ended up catching up to a work truck, who eventually let us pass, but the majority of it was les and I taking turns and dangerously awesome speeds! It's preceding incline was well worth it! We then took a left onto Colima again but made the next right onto Hacienda Rd, our next hill battle. After conquering this giant we were shot out onto Whittier blvd again where we took a left. As les and I rode and mused about our recent "figure 8" victory the thought of any more hill riding was almost completely out of the question. But then Les dropped the bomb on me.

"I think I'll just go up the Idaho hill because it's more direct to my house." I hesitated. Then I said, "Alright, I'll go too!" We'd done at least 5 hard hills already, what would one more be? We fought the steep Idaho humongo and then parted ways at the top.

All in all we were left feeling very motivated. This was an important ride for us, because if we could battle the great hills of North OC for a few hours and ride away feeling good while still this far out from our trip, then surely the Rockies will be a pushover...right???!!!

Well, we'll see about that anyway. It was a great mental-toughness ride to say the least.

Thanks for reading!

journey vs. destination, issue 1

2007-09-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

friday, september 7th, aaron and les braved a 55 mile ride through carbon canyon, chino hills, norco and corona. the further we rode, the uglier the scenery, conditions and sense of direction.

highlights include:

- cycling uphill through carbon canyon, yelling, "here we come, rockies!" (referring to the mountains on colorado, that we will be passing over the 3rd or 4th week in june.)

- flying at 35 miles an hour down the other side of the canyon ascent, for about 10 minutes.

- repairing aaron's tire which was tremendously bent out of shape because of a damaged spoke, due to his water bottle *somehow* getting jammed inside his tire, while riding, and dislodged like a bullet, after a few revolutions between the spokes.

- getting chased by 3 tiny dogs at 20 miles an hour for 3 or 4 minutes...they were going to kill us.

- getting wildly lost and then finding our way with the help of a stay-at-home-bro with gps on his phone.

- getting picked up by jared mandel, because it was way too hot and we were way too tired. thank you jared!

the conclusion: from this point forward, we will ride until we are satisfied with our mileage or our saddle time, whichever comes first!

Fly & Die: the art of eventually being a good athlete.

2007-09-09T17:00:00.003-07:00

"Fly and Die, James. FLY AND DIE!"

We battled the wind for the entire ride. Both James and I pushed, and pushed, and pushed against the roaring wind heading the opposite direction of us.

On August 26th, Les and I rode our bikes from EV Free fullerton to Bolsa Chica State Beach, the meeting place of the college group for the evening. Easy enough, right? He and I both expected the cooler weather and the thought of meeting up with friends at the beach would practically sail us all the way to the beach. All was well until we got on the Santa Ana River trail.

The definition of "wind" is the perceptible natural movement of the air, especially in the form of a current of air blowing from a particular direction. In this case, as I mentioned earlier, that current of air was blowing at us, rather than with us.

The idea of "fly and die" is that you go ride after ride (or run after run, your choice) pushing yourself harder and harder, for longer and longer, until you can complete rides or runs with the "top guys." I had a cross country coach who swore by this philosophy for the younger guys on the team. He believed that if you didn't run with the wind, you'd always be in the dust. So, I started screaming this to Les as we both battled the wind on our way to the beach. Clearly this was the most memorable part of this ride, with the only exception being that I told Les that the wind would not be as fierce when we got to PCH (wrong).

All in all, this was 35.47 miles, and, because of the horrendous wind, took us 2 hours and 25 minutes.