The Bicycle Diaries

Done!!!

2008-07-24T12:28:00.000-07:00

We made it. We finished up on Saturday afternoon, 7/19, at Yorktown, VA. I've been chillin in Baltimore since then and have been a little too relaxed to finish the updates. It was amazing and surreal to be swimming in the water. Realizing that we didn't have to put on our bike shorts again was pretty amazing too.

I was a little worried that Yorktown wouldn't be the ocean since it was located a little bit inside the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay but the water was salty and it sure looked ocean-like.

The hard part about finishing early was trying to surprise my mom. Her birthday was on the 22nd of July so I was going to be home before then but I wanted to surprise her. I called her the night before we finished and told her that we were in Charlottesville, VA and that we'd finish on Monday or Tuesday. Then I enlisted the help of my Aunt Betty. She was able to get my mom thinking that the two of them were going out to dinner on Sunday night around 7pm. My dad picked my up and we showed up at 6:45 and completely surprised her. It was awesome. She had no idea.

The last couple of days were pretty nice. We stopped in Charlottesville, VA and ate at Little John's Deli. I had been talking about the Five Easy Pieces, my favorite sandwich, since somewhere in Western Oregon. The consensus was that the sandwich warranted the hype. For those of you unfamiliar with the Five Easy, it is a sandwich on pumpernickel with ham, turkey, munster, bacon, cole slaw and herb mayo that's grilled and then served with chips and a pickle. Charlottesville is also the home of the University of Virginia, my alma matter. It was great to be home. I almost crossed paths with Dean but we missed each other by a day or so.

West Virginia was tough because there were almost no flat stretches of road in the entire state. It was all either up or down. But the hills that were there weren't too bad. The longest was a 2.5 mile section of 9% grade but even that wasn't too bad. There were a lot of big trucks to contend with including 120,000 lb coal trucks and a bunch of dump trucks. Most of the drivers were nice though.

We did have one stretch of double miles because we missed a turn and had to back track. It turned out that a street sign was missing so we ended up going about 5 miles in the wrong direction. We figured it out because the road kept getting smaller and smaller until it ended at a river.

I'd like to thank everyone for reading and for following our trip. Good luck to you!

Thanks,

Chris

Yes Virginia, Rednecks are Real

2008-07-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been pretty interesting. We made great time across the flat lands, knocking off 1200 miles in 12 days. We've crossed through Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and now we're in West Virginia.

We've also met some really nice folks. The mayor of Waverly, KS and his wife allowed us to camp in the city park when they heard we were stuck in the rain. A nice, elderly couple in Madison bought us a round of ice creams at the county fair. There was the single mom taking her kids camping for the first time.

Then there were the goons. We met two families who made me think everyone on the Jerry Springer Show is real. The first family sped passed us on a backroad in Illinois. All three passengers hurled obscenities at us as they told us to get off the road. Fortunately, we were haulin' butt and they stopped for gas a couple miles up. I cruised by the car to size up the group and I did a double take when I saw the driver was a 50 year old mom. We had some choice words with the son inside the station conveinece store. As he came out, the mom drove over to get him. She got out of the car and the son told her to "get the F&*% back in the car." As she started to drive away the mom says to us "y'all look sexy in your tight shorts .... you f*gg0ts!!!" What a role model...

Andy hollers back that we, at least, have an 8th grade education. To which the son leans out of the window and yells "it's called a diploma, b#&ch. I GOT ONE!!!!" Then they sped off towards the east.

Later that same day, I was almost taken out by the new scourge of the road...the soccer mom in a minivan. I guess little Johnny was late for practice so this woman passes me in a one lane construction zone with about 6 inches between her side window and my shoulder. It scared the crap out of me.

The next night we met some of the awesomest rednecks ever. We camped in the state park in Madison, IN on a friday night. We picked out a nice quiet site with some shade, set up the tent and went to the pool. Upon our return, there were three giant pickup trucks, a trailer, 10 folding chairs, 5 ice chests, a generator and about 7 people and a baby. The only thing they didn't bring was the roof and the kitchen sink. The mom of the little kid proceeded to get piss drunk and try to start fights with the other family members.

We left to go to the fair and demolition derby and returned about 1030 pm. At that point, they had a bunch of lights on, loud music playing and the mom was hammered out of her mind. And then there were the kids - maybe 6 of them. They were chopping wood with a hammer and chisel at 1130pm. Everyone was talking with outside voices. And to top it off, they set up one of their six tents up 3 ft from our tent. We ended up moving to a vacant site so we could get a little sleep.

In the morning, we got up at 5am and started packing. I looked over and asked Andy if the blob next to their fire was a pile of wood or a person. It turned out to be the mom, still drunk, passed out in the fetal position next to the fire in her confederate flag bathing suit top and jean shorts. Somehow she wakes up and starts shouting at the top of her lungs that "it's F%&king morning, the birds are chirping! It's time to get up!" Then she yelled about how the nice single mom I mentioned above asked her to be quiet and how that was BS because they paid to use the campsite too. The woman, her husband, and their couple kids packed up all of their crap and left when we did so they could go somewhere they could make more noise.

It was pretty awesome though that we stumbled onto a fair. That night we saw a demolition derby. The next night we found a tractor pull by accident too. Both were absolutely amazing.

Oh, I almost forgot about the Skor bars. So we eat a lot of candy bars on the go. One of the favorites is the Skor Bar by Hershey. Maybe you're familiar...toffee covered in chocolate. One morning we were having a discussion about how to make the greatest candy bar ever and the ultimate Skor bar came up. It would consist of two regular Skor bars with the bottom chocolate removed and then stuck together. Our major complaint was the lack of enough toffee.

Much to our surprise, we rode by the Hershey's factory where they make the Skor Bar. Unfortunately they did not give tours. But they do sell bulk candy. We saw it as a blessing from God so we bought a 20 pound box of unwrapped Skor Bars for $25 and set about creating the greatest candy bar ever made. Andy only made it 40 miles with the whole box on the back before we had to split it up into Ziplocks. The next night we lost a couple of bags to some hungry racoons. But we still have a couple pounds left.

This is a video of the tractor pull. Turn up your speakers and you can hear the track announcer call it. Also notice the diesel exhaust plume. It was badass!

This is from the demolition derby.

Here's a shot my bike with the new, sexy wheelset.

2008-07-07T14:37:00.001-07:00

Hi everybody! I'm in Hannibal, MO this afternoon. We're cruising at about 100 miles a day in the flats. We left Longmont, CO 8 days ago and we're already to the Mighty Mississippi. There are no pictures to update because the Hannibal Public Library is retarded. They've locked all of their USB ports and they also photocopied my license just to use a computer.

I had my first real equipment failure of the trip. We were 15 miles out of St. Joseph, MO when my rear hub siezed up. I got incredibly lucky because we stayed the previous with the nicest guy that we've met so far. Shawn runs a the only real bike shop in St. Joseph which is the only real bike shop in about a 200 mile radius from the town. We stopped in to have some work done on Saturday and he offered to let us camp in his backyard. It was great. We helped him move a little furniture and he treated us to an amazing cookout. I think I had two burgers, two brats, a hotdog and a rootbeer float.

The next morning we were able to track down his cell phone number and he just happened to be in town. We told him what was up and he said he'd drive out to try to repack the hub. It turned out the insides of the hub were totally trashed so I was screwed. He drove me back to the shop to check out my options. I ended up getting a pair of Mavic Ksyrium Elites as they were the only ones he had that looked like they could hold the wieght of me and all my gear. The wheels, a new tire, tax and gas money set me back $670. It was a dagger but Shawn was really appreciative of the business and my options were limited. After the fix, Shawn drove me back out to meet Andy and Jake. I only missed out on 20 miles so it wasn't too bad.

Alright...til next time...

Part Man...Part Kato...All Mankato!

2008-07-03T15:41:00.000-07:00

Hello from Mankato,KS. We're cruising right along. Our stop in Longmont, CO was awesome. We're four days out and just over 400 miles. I think we're going to go for 1000 miles in 10 days. We should be able to get it as long as the winds cooperate.

As for the pics, we got Andy taking a hobo shower in the park. It was quite refreshing. There's us entering the Nebraska, Kansas, and the Central Time Zone. We spelled out a K for Kansas in one of the pictures but it's not quite ready for prime time. The landscapes are from Eastern Colorado. And lastly, a sweet pic of me and my girlfriend, Julie, at Jake's mom's house. She came out to meet us and visit her brother in Boulder. It was awesome to see her! She was great motivation for me to make it over Trail Ridge Rd.

Ok everyone, have a great 4th of July and be safe! I think we're going to be in Seneca, KS. I'm hoping for a rodeo and food on a stick but we'll see what we get.

See ya later.

Halfway...at least in spirit...

2008-06-28T21:47:00.000-07:00

Well...we made it to Jake's house in Longmont, CO. It took a push of 600 miles in 6 days, including crossing a 9600 ft pass and the country's highest continuous road, Trail Ridge Road, at 12183 ft. There were the 40 mph cross winds in Wyoming, to which one gas station clerk said, "wind...this is a breeze. We don't call it wind until it hits 60." And the deserts...oh the deserts. Apparently Wyoming has a lot of desert and we always ended up crossing these remote stretches at the end of the day. We did one 30 mile desert crossing starting at 4pm. I think I had heat stroke at the start because I wasn't really sweating too much. Then there was the rattle snake on the side of the road. I was going uphill at about 5 mph and I hear a rattle and look down. There was a 2-3 ft rattlesnake. I didn't see the head but the rattle was about two inches long. It was pretty crazy. That was my hardest day so far.

We made it through Yellowstone too, which was awesome. Definitely one of the most amazing and unusual places I've ever seen. Andy and I took a bus tour around Ring of Fire. It was great except for the two and a half hour bison jam. We were stuck on the bus the whole time. We did luck out on the animal sightings though. We saw bison, elk, a coyote, and a grizzly bear with her cub.

Yesterday, crossing trail ridge road was nuts. We started out at 7am and I think it was in the 20s. There were a bunch of elk at our campsite. This one young buck, about an 8 pointer (4 on each side) was about ten feet from us. He was pretty curious but we were getting a little nervous. Then, when we got near the summit, a bunch of goons passed us on road bikes with no gear. One of them asked me if I wanted anymore weight. I would've pushed him off the mountain if the air wasn't so thin. Then, at the summit, the winds kicked in. They were a solid 40 mph. Headwinds, tailwinds, crosswinds. They were all there because the road kept winding around the mountain. It was super sketchy. I had to look at a spot on the road 10 feet in front of me because I felt like I was going to get blown off the mountain.

Lastly, Jake's crazy. We tried to go tubing on the Pooter River today and it was so high that everything was glass three and higher. We stopped this one spot to check it out and a raft full of people with life jackets and helmets flipped and dumped in the water. It was nuts. Jake climbed this rock and dove, head first, into the river 30 feet below. There was no way in hell that I was going. Check out the picture for proof.

Oh, I almost forgot. We got to our first Yellowstone camp site at around 1pm. After setting up we decided to hitchhike up to Canyon Village to check things out. It took us a little bit but we got a ride in the bed of a pickup truck. Really safe, yes. But the way home was priceless. This van finally stops and the mom asks us if we're going to the Madison Junction on the way to West Yellowstone. We say yes and hop in. Inside was the awesomest family ever. There were two kids, a boy of maybe 6 and a girl of 9 or 10, who wouldn't stop hitting each other. Then there was the cousin who had atleast 10 piercings in his face. He looked real angsty. The mom and dad were hilarious and very hospitable. No one had their seatbelts on. Mom offered us a can of beer to split. We declined saying the ride was enough. So the dad drank the beer while he drove. It was one of the most interesting glimpses into the "typical american family" I've ever had.

That's all for now. I think we'll have better internet access coming up. Wish us luck with the winds in Kansas. I'm hoping for tailwinds the whole way.

It's been a little while

2008-06-18T11:39:00.000-07:00

Internet access is few and far between up here in Idaho and Montana. It's been an interesting couple of days. We've crossed Lolo pass, Whitebird pass, and Chief Joseph pass...all of which were hard but not impossible.

I'm in Dillon, Montana right now at a library. We had a rest day in Baker City where we met
Gary and Lucas - they're in the dinner picture, Gary is the older guy - again. We couldn't believe they caught us but they're beasts.

Some of the towns that we're passing thorugh in Montana are tiny. Wisdom has 50 people. Jackson, where we spent last night has 38. It's pretty amazing that they survive. Many of these towns are places where Lewis and Clark stopped on their trips west and then back east.

The hospitality has been great. The one picture is of us camping on the front porch of a store because it was 45 degF and rainy at the end of a 90 mile day. Normally it's sunny and 100 degF there. The shopkeeper was going to let us use her truck to run errands but we thought that was over the top.

We took Monday off in Salmon, ID to go whitewater rafting. It was awesome. Andy's brother, Matt, is a guide on the Salmon. I had a bit of a rought time as I almost got swept away. I jumped from a rock into the current but missed the eddy just after the rock and started heading for the next rapid set. I couldn't swim out of the current and I started flailing until Nate showed up with his kayak and pulled me to shore. I stayed in the boat after that.

Ok. Gotta run. I'm 1259 miles from Seattle as of this morning. We should make West Yellowstone, MT late tomorrow or early Friday. Then we're spending a day in the park as tourists. After that it's onto Boulder via Trail Ridge Road, the highest road in the USA.

Chris.

Rest Day in Baker CIty

2008-06-09T14:06:00.000-07:00

Whew...today is a much needed rest day. We've gone over 550 miles since picking up Andy in Astoria and over 700 since starting in Seattle. The last couple of days have been tough too. I already wrote about Santiam Pass. We did 50 the day after that. Then we had our first 100 mile day. It included two mountain passes. Yesterday was 63 miles with three mountain passes, all over 5000 ft. The weather has been good to us. Lots of sun and blue skies and favorable tailwinds. All of the uphill has come with lots of awesome downhill too. My top speed is 43.1 mph. Jake bested my by a half mph @ 43.6.

The eastern half of Oregon is amazing country. It's considered a "high desert" and resembles a lot of what I thought rural Utah would look like. Rolling through these landscapes has been amazing. Every time we crest a mountain range there is something new on the other side. I actually saw my first real cowboys in Dayville, OR. Never would've thought it either, but they climbed out of their F-350 and had big 'ol hats, bandanas around their necks. and spurs on their boots.

I think I've really settled into the trip. I have no idea what day of the week it is. I'm not really sure of the date either. The weather forecast for tomorrow isn't really relevant since we're still going to have to ride through it. Basically...it feels great to just have to focus on pedaling. I'm attaching a bunch of random photos from the past couple of days since our internet access has been sparse. Jake's computer is busted. I guess macs don't handle bumps and rain too well. Other than that, we're just rolling on. We should hit Idaho tomorrow and be in Montana a few days after that. Missoula, MT is about 400 miles from here.

Yesterday was epic.

2008-06-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

88 miles.

7 hours ride time.

4817 ft Santiam Pass @ mile 69.

Rain from the start of the ride to the top of the pass.

48 degF @ start.

38 degF @ summit.

It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. 6 miles of 6%+ grade to climb the pass. I met Jake at the bottom just before the push. Andy went ahead of us because he was cold. He's 160 lbs to our 200. He made it about 500 ft from the top and had to stop and duck into a state highway gravel storage shelter because he was getting extremely hypothermic. He had to strip down and change clothes. Probably spent 45 minutes trying to warm up before he came down.

It was great to be done. We ended up staying in this wonderful Best Western Ponderosa Lodge in Sister's OR. It looks like it's made of giant pine trees. The guy gave us the king suite because there's a tile floor section for our bikes. But it had a fantastic shower, in room jacuzzi, and there was a huge outdoor hot tub. Felt like we earned it.

This is a picture of Robert. We camped in his front yard the night before last. It was cool. He had some stories about New Orleans and was happy to have us.

Alright, time to move on.

Chris

Go Ducks!

2008-06-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from the first day's ride with Andy. We stopped in Seaside, OR to get out feet wet in the Pacific. The big rock in the background is Haystack Rock. You may recognize it from the end scene of The Goonies, when One Eye'd Willy's pirate ship breaks free. And yes, those are Baby Ruth's we're holding.

I want to thank the Ducks of the U of O because I'm writing this from a free library computer. Jake's laptop is a little water logged. The theme of the past few days has been rain, and a lot of it. It rained at the end of Monday for about an hour and a half. The upside is that we ended in Tillamook and were able to get an hour in the Tillamook Cheese plant visitor center. I had a bunch of free cheese samples and a grilled cheese with bacon and tomato. It was delicious and the coffee was hot. It's been about 50-55 degF when it rains so it's tough to stay warm when you stop. As for the Factory floor, the big blocks of cheese in the lower right contain 8 of the 1 lb blocks before they're cut.

Tuesday was pretty miserable. Zack was timely with his inspirational text message quotes because it rained for the first 50 miles yesterday. That was a new experience. For all of the New Orleans kids reading, it was exactly like the first weekend of Jazz Fest this year. And for everyone else, just imagine the wettest you've ever been and double it. It actually wasn't all bad because it made for some fast miles. The dry motel room at the end of the day was calling my name. Jake and I made a deal with Andy that we won't camp in the rain. I caught him enjoying it.

We made it to Eugene, OR today after a good 60 mile push this morning. We actually left town at 8:40am and made here by about 1:00pm. We were going to stay here for the night but we have a 5000 ft climb tomorrow over 50 miles that we want to put a dent in this afternoon. We're gonna chill here for another little bit and then push on. There's talk of snow up in the pass but we'll deal with that when we get there. I can't wait for full time sun.

Also, we met a guy today riding solo. His name was Gary and he's a school teacher in OR. I think he was late 50s early 60s but he was chugging along. He's using his regular road bike and towing a trailer. We rode with him for a while but our pace was a little fast so he dropped off. It turned out that he was a better map reader since we missed the main turn into town. We made it eventually.

Ok, that's all for now. Thanks for reading and I hope to make these a little more frequently.

Chris.

It's not a tumor!

2008-06-01T19:31:00.000-07:00

So they shoot a lot of movies here in Astoria. I'm sure everyone knows about the Goonies. Here's Jake doing the Truffle Shuffle in front of the Goonies house. What I didn't know is that Kindergarten Cop was shot here too. Here's a little rendition of our favorite scene from that one.

We didn't have much of a rest day since we walked about 10 miles all around town. We stayed on 1st St. There was a farmer's market on 12th St. The Goonies house was on 37th. Then there were the seals on the wharf. And we saw Iron Man, which rocked.

Now were' waiting for Andy who should be here soon. Tomorrow, it's off to Tillamook, home of the cheese.

Made it to Astoria, OR

2008-05-31T16:11:00.000-07:00

Ok. We made it to Oregon and we saw the Pacific today. We had to ride across a 4 mile bridge but we're here. It wasn't too bad and all the cars gave us decent space. It was only 45 miles or so today. Yesterday was a killer though. We did 69 miles and it was rough. The last 10 miles had three huge hills. It was a tough pull into Raymond, WA.

Raymond was a weird town. It was basically a ghost town but there were all of these rusted iron sculptures of townsfolks all around. It was the kind of thing from a horror movie where they all come alive after dark. We ended up cruising to South Bend since there was no motel in Raymond.

My karma is restored

2008-05-29T22:27:00.000-07:00

The world has been righted. I got my bike from FedEx. I got a replacement camera. I got my bike together and we made the 3:00pm ferry to Bremberton. We did about 38 miles, making it down to Shelton, Wa. We're going to do about 60 miles tomorrow to Raymond, and then 50+ to Astoria.

We averaged about 14.7 mph with the hills which was awesome. I did have a thought that Kansas might not be so bad when I was on the first hill. The shoulders were great in some places and super sketchy in other. We had to ride on the side of a small highway for a couple miles and then it chilled out. There was only one super shady section where the should was about two feet wide.

We met some characters already. Jake and I have a good vibe about the people we're going to meet along the way. We met Kermit this morning at the ferry terminal. He was pedaling a rickshaw and was interested in our bike. There was a Jesus freak in shady van at the Safeway in Shelton and the motel clerk was very chatty. Should be a good time.

Alright, time for bed.

If I didn't have bad luck, I'd have no luck at all...

2008-05-28T23:58:00.000-07:00

I'm in Seattle now.

It's a little late so I'm gonna rush through this but today was unlucky. My bike's not here yet. It's stuck in Kent about 30 minutes away. There was a snafu with the shipping agent. Then Kainoa dropped my brand new camera. Luckily I got the accidental damage protection plan from Best Buy. Lastly, we met Jake and a friend for beers. On the way, his friend's car got stuck in reverse and was undrivable.

Hopefully today will be better.

Heading to Seattle

2008-05-28T05:43:00.001-07:00

Well, today's the day I head to Seattle. I got up this morning and would've surely missed my flight had I not actually looked for it online. I really thought it was with US Air but it turned out to be Southwest. Catastrophe averted. That would've been embarrassing.

The plan is to head to Seattle, where Kainoa will graciously pick me up and set me up at his place tonight. Maybe a baseball game tonight with Jake. He was talking Mariners-RedSox. Then I'm putting the bike together so Jake and I can meet up Thursday morning to take the ferry to Bremberton. Then it's off to Astoria to wait for Andy. We should be there by Saturday and Andy should get there Sunday.

I went out with my cousins in Baltimore last night. Brian, Sean, Jason, Zack, and Zeke. It was a blast. Went to the Oriole's game and Captain Larry's. The game was tied at 8-8 when we left at the rain delay. They resumed after an hour and the Orioles pulled it out 10-9. It was ridiculous because the guy was 30 ft short of a game winning grand slam. Here's a pic of us at the game. Maybe if I had asked a nicer guy the picture would've turned out a little better.

And yes, I got a pre-ride haircut.