Give a Bike 50 State Tour

Nobody Said It'd Be Easy... Nobody Said It Would Be This Hard

2012-02-10T07:53:00.000-08:00

We're baaaccckkkkk!!!!

So we couldn't just end it without giving our 50 State Tour a proper goodbye post, but we were having a really hard time coming to terms with being done. It's been two months and we still can't say goodbye.

We get out on the bikes as much as we can, but a two mile ride to my mom's just isn't the same. Every once in a while, I'll be laying in bed and I hear the all too familiar Coldplay song from our Give a Bike video coming from the speakers of Adam's computer. It still puts a smile on both of our faces.

Most of you told us it'd be hard to come back to 'real life' and there was never a minute that we doubted you... but we weren't ready for just how challenging it really would be.

When preparing for a journey, you prepare yourself for ups and downs. For everyday challenges. For knowing that in the end, it would all be worth it. But you don't prepare yourself to go back to life as you once knew it. You might think that your new life may resemble your old life, but there is a big void missing.

So instead of settling back in and coming to terms with the fact that our incredible year is over, we're trying to enjoy a bit of a break, save up some money, and figure out what else is in store for us. In the meantime, we've been focusing on all the good that comes out of being home, though I'll admit it's an odd mix of longing for the adventure of the open road along with enjoying the comforts of being static.

Some of our happy times:

Getting to see our nephew Remy grow up. He's just starting to take his first steps.

Riding a bicycle without carrying our home in the panniers.

Not having to eat the entire stick of Kielbasa all at once... refrigerators are genius!

Sleeping on a mattress every night. No box spring or frame yet... let's not rush into things here.

Adam and I have been setting aside time to plan what's next. The questions we've been struggling with are: Do we somehow continue with Give a Bike? Do we start a new adventure? Do we go back to old jobs? Or do we use the skills we've learned along the way to work towards a new career? You know, one of those things that might make us money so we don't have to ask you for it again.

After spending some time, still uncertain of where we would go from here, we received word of a position for the Bikes Belong Coalition and their peopleforbikes.org initiative. We were intrigued. Reading further, we noticed the job is actually for a team of two. Alright! It involves traveling the country. Even better! And we'd be motivating more people to get out and ride more often! Can't get much better than that!

Hiking on Kauai

So we've put in our application and are crossing our fingers, but this job opening has already given us so much. It's given us hope. We were lost, unsure of where to go or how we might be able to combine our passions and our talents in a career. But this job opening is proof that there are jobs out there that fit us.

With this new found hope, we're able to more easily see that the Give a Bike: 50 State Tour is not over. It was just our beginning.

Kauai's Kalalau Trail

Thanksgiving Dinner with Pam, Pete, and Dave.

Making a Palm leaf bowl

Hanalei

Snorkeling with turtles

Our muddy hike on top of Kauai

Tahiti Nui (I guess there was a scene from The Descendants in this bar)

Above Hanama Bay with Zach

And no other but.... Dog The Bounty Hunter, himself!

Give a Bike Vs. The Volcano

2011-11-25T10:16:00.000-08:00

Hawaii!! State #50! Thanks to The Best Wedding Coordinator ever: Michele Neff for sponsoring Hawaii.

After we left cold, cold Anchorage, we had a few days in Oahu without our bikes before we flew to The Big Island to complete our goal of touring through each of the 50 States.

Waikiki was Hawaii in a nutshell. Beautiful beaches, lots of palm tress, and restaurants on the ocean.

In Waikiki, we were lucky enough to stay with family friend's, Linda and Tony, who took us to a few special spots along the coast.

A day traveling around the island with Zach and Meg let us get a taste for what we'll have to come back for someday.

Within a few days, we were leaving Oahu and on our way to The Big Island. APEC was in full force during our time in Waikiki, our bikes were waiting for us on The Big Island, and besides, we figured we'd just be getting more of beautiful Hawaii there, too.... or so we thought.

In stark contrast to Oahu, The Big Island was more or less a movie, built up too much. We're in Hawaii! We're supposed to be biking in between palm trees and white sand beaches, stopping around every corner with a picturesque view point, having a man in an Aloha shirt bring us a Mai Thai, all the while listening to Israel Kamakawiwoʻole's version of Over the Rainbow in the background.

What The Big Island had in store for us was quite different from the ideal Hawaiian vacation, though.

Building our bikes back up when we picked them up at Bike Works in Kona.

Aren't we supposed to see Palm Trees lining every street?

Close. We did see some Palm trees, although we later found that many of them were actually imported to the island.

Instead, The Big Island is actually one of the most diverse terrains on the planet. Hilo, on the east side, is the wettest city in the USA, while the resorts on the west side get close to no rain. And you get a little of everything else in between.

We got to ride through what looked like open plains...

We took detours through the rain forest...

But mostly, we rode through miles and miles of volcanic rock from lava spills many many years ago. Nothing grows on this volcanic rock . No palm trees there.

How about white sandy beaches?

I believe there are a few of these on The Big Island. We visited one or two. One of them aptly named, White Sand Beach. I guess that's because the majority of the beaches are volcanic rocks or black sand. What a clever way to distinguish between the different beach terrain.

All of the volcanic rocks make for some amazing snorkeling, though.

We will most certainly have a Mai Thai while cruising through Hawaii.

Unfortunately, the $3.25 can of Sprite we bought deterred us from even looking at the drink menu.

Hawaii is expensive. We kept to our oatmeal breakfast, tuna wrap lunch, and pasta dinners for our time on the island. We were also lucky enough to find some fantastic friends who helped us along the way.

Hawaiian music?

We did hear Over The Rainbow coming from almost every car that passed throughout the island, but we found true Hawaiian music everywhere we went. Just listen.....

In conclusion, while The Big Island may not be only palm trees and white sand beaches, it felt like we re-visited every part of the main land in just one week. You can get it all here!

Off to Kauai for some real rest and relaxation.... do you believe us?

Give a Bike Without Bikes

2011-11-13T11:21:00.000-08:00

A Week Without Bikes

So I admit, there may have been a few days this year that I couldn't wait to be rid of our bikes. To be able to explore a place in a car. To not have to get on the bikes every day and ride 65 more miles. I may have even thought that sending our bikes to Hawaii would have given us a sort of freedom.

Turns out, without our bikes, we felt a little lost.

But.... we figured out how to have fun without them.

The few days without our bikes while on the ferry were a good choice for us to get up to Juneau. We were forced to relax and enjoy the sights through the Inner Passage. It was the first time on the trip that we were without cell service and wifi for a few days straight. Weird.

Ferry Friends John & Jenny!

We spent four incredible days in Juneau and lucky us, we had our bikes for the first two. Fresh off the ferry, we made sure to get our Alaska picture! Can you guess what day we made it to Juneau?'

The last two days with our bikes needed to be special. So... we rode nowhere. Ok, as the Alaskans say, we rode "Out the Road." It's literally a road that goes.... well.... nowhere.

Lucky for us, on this road to Nowhere, there was a cute little cabin with a wood stove to warm our bodies from the cold, rainy, Alaskan weather.

Maybe the wind and rain didn't deter us from getting there, but it dampened our spirits on the return ride into Juneau. We got only 15 miles before an offer for a ride into town sounded too good to pass up. The offer came from Arnie, one of our ferry friends, and ended up turning into a day of searching high and low for bike boxes to ship our bikes to Hawaii. Numerous times we smiled secretly, happy to be in a warm car instead of out in the cold, rainy, blustery day... We totally had an excuse! I mean, planes were even getting rerouted from all the wind.

With the bike boxes in hand, we set to work. Boxing a bike is not easy. Don't let anyone tell you differently. Sure, deflating the tires, taking the handle bars off, removing the pedals and saddle are not difficult tasks, but the zip tying, the taping, and the padding is where your time gets sucked into. All in all, it took us five hours to pack both bikes. We were surprised at how heavy the boxes were when we went to ship them... I guess a pound of tape didn't help keep the weight down.

Saying goodbye to the bikes was bittersweet. Knowing the next two days in Juneau were going to be beautifully sunny and crisp, we knew we wanted to keep riding, but the task of getting our bikes to Hawaii was such an ordeal, that it was nice to have it done with.

So what did we do on those fine days in Juneau without our bikes?

Borrowed bikes, of course! Mountain biking with Craig on the snowy trails was one of my favorite rides all year!

But, when we couldn't be on a bike, we still walked everywhere we could.

And when we couldn't walk..... Our friends Sergei and April found us other means of transportation.

Juneau has a never-ending supply of fun, and we were sad to say goodbye. But with Sergei cooking up a yummy Salmon meal, we at least felt like our time in Juneau was complete.

Next stop: Anchorage!

Why oh why did we stop in Anchorage when we could have just kept flying straight to Hawaii? Oh, it's like jumping in the snow before you get in the hot tub (which we, of course, had to try here). It was a winter wonderland with everyday adding more and more snow.

Without our bikes, we actually drove a car down to Seward, AK, about 120 miles from Anchorage. Scary thought, huh? After months on a bike, I found myself braking as soon as we hit 40mph.

As if we weren't already missing our bikes, on our way back to Anchorage, we got stuck behind a big accident, leaving us in the car for close to 2 hours, waiting for them to clear the road. We couldn't help but think, If we only had our bikes, we could scoot by the accident and be on our way. Of course, we had to take into consideration that it would have taken us two days of riding to get to Seward when in the car, it took only a few hours. But when we went to fill up the gas tank, I didn't care how long it took us to get to Seward, nothing was worth $40 of gas.

One of the signs on the side of the highway.

Making it back to Anchorage and our lovely hosts', Jesse and Allison, house gave us some much needed down time. These guys were hooked up with all the necessities to make living in Anchorage an awesome experience. They commuted to work by bike or cross country skiing, depending upon the weather. They had the hot tub to enjoy the cold outdoors without freezing their buns off. They had a wood stove to keep the house toasty.

Enjoying one of the yummy breakfasts we had with Jesse and Allison.

After only a few days in Anchorage we found ourselves flying high....

.... super excited and way too overdressed for what was to come....

WINNERS OF 11-11-11 RAFFLE:

One Year supply of FRS Healthy Nutrition:
-Ashley Russell

SRAM-ZIPP Prize Package
-Nancy Janeki

Marlene Rye Original Painting
-Remi Paradis

Adam L. Coppola Fine Art Canvas
-Bobby Chacon

ImmageAMMO (25) Redemption Codes
-Noreen O'Hagan
-Eileen Coppola
-Kiersten Robinson
-Doug D'Auria
-Warren Mosley
-Steve and Jodi
-Christopher Coppola
-Michael Orlando
-Laura Parisi
-Jimmy Blank
-Griffin Coppola
-Hannah Song
-Jim Paradis
-Susan Castellano-Civitelli
-JP
-Tracy Family
-Annie
-Werner Schirmer
-Peter Caron
-Patrick Heenan
-Leah Kelter
-Paul R. Coppola
-Stacey Rittmueller
-Mary Shea
-Emily Davis

Please email us your address to giveabike@gmail.com

Thanks for participating in the 11-11-11 Challenge!!!

What's in an Ending?

2011-11-05T09:45:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that a good story should have a good ending.

Well, the end of our bike-only portion of our journey was fairly anti-climactic. Sorry about that. After almost 10 months and 12,000 miles, we rode into Washington state on Oct 17th. We made it. We did bike through all of those states carrying all of our own gear. Did we see any fireworks? Nope. A hearty crowd of Give a Bike Followers? Nope. Some confetti thrown in the streets? Nada. We did string some toilet paper across the Welcome to Washington sigh and run through it, though. As the excitement of crossing into the last of the lower 48 states dwindled down, we wondered... Was that supposed to be the end?

It didn't feel like it. We still had 150 miles to go to Seattle for our final presentations. There was a fleeting moment that we contemplated hitching a ride the last 150 miles. We pushed that thought aside immediately, though, and pedaled on through more cloudy, cold days, staying with old friends and new, until we made it to Seattle in time for our presentations.

The crew at Thurston County Fire Station who let us spend the night inside AND made us Root Beer floats!!

On the morning of Oct 22, Mike and Jane Prime, the winner of a Coppola Photography canvas from our tour, rode with us to the edge of Seattle before we continued on to where Papa Coppola was waiting at a beautiful B&B, The Shafer Baillie Mansion.

The mansion was a perfect place to spend time with Papa Coppola and relax after our 48 state journey. Now that we made it to Seattle, wasn't that supposed to be the end of our journey?

With two presentations to go, it still didn't feel like we were done. We convinced Papa Coppola to rent a bike and ride with us the 12 miles from the Bainbridge Island Ferry to the presentation at Eleven Winery in Poulsbo. After 12,000 miles you'd think we'd be in shape enough to keep up with our dad who sported a hybrid bike, but he just keep flying by us on those hills. I think a little of our pride was restored when we had to huff it up those Seattle hills all the way back to the top of Capitol Hill but Papa C just got a ride.

On October 25th, after saying goodbye to Papa Coppola, we prepared for our final presentation at Gregg's Cycles. This was a special presentation indeed as we felt like our whole journey was wrapped up nicely through meeting friends and family of those we had previously met along the way. And at the end of the presentation, lucky me, I was surprised with not one, but three b-day cakes!

Finally got to meet the last two World Bicycle Relief staff who have been helping us out all along the way, Rebecca and Mike.

So, at 8:00PM on October 25th, with cake-filled bellies, we finished our final presentation.

Surely this had to be the end. We had ridden through the lower 48 states, had given presentations throughout the journey, and completed our last one in Seattle. But something was still off.... This was still only 48 states.

The next morning we got up, not sure how to think about needing to ride 100 more miles to Bellingham to catch our ferry to Alaska. And what a day it was! Let's just say that bicycle travel isn't too fast, but when you ride 65 miles and you're only 45 miles closer to your destination, it feels a lot slower. What got us through, though, wasn't the steep Seattle hills, the harsh Seattle breeze, or the cold Seattle rain. Nope, it was Rick's invitation to stay at his home. A Warm Showers host, Rick had a trailer set up for us to spend the night and cooked us dinner and a yummy pancake breakfast the next morning.

He also had one of the coolest dogs ever (you can see Bindi in the back of the photo), and we got some much needed doggy time! (Don't worry Juneau--- you're still our baby).

Our puppy dog, Juneau, waiting patiently for our return.

So the real last day of the bike-only portion of the tour was a beautifully crisp, sunny day. Figures it would be beautiful, making it that much harder to succumb to the idea of not riding our bikes daily anymore. We stuck to the back roads along the shore and rode through the fall-colored leaves as the wind carried them from tree to ground. We finished with a bittersweet feeling. Were we really putting the bikes down for a while? The next day, they would be set aside. We wouldn't need them to get to Alaska. That was a sad thought.

Equally as sad, is the thought of having to cut down on our fantastic meals.... No more breakfasts like this if we're not riding 65 miles a day anymore.

We made it to Linda and Kurt's home that night, but little did we know that we were headed into a Halloween fest! When Linda greeted us by the door, Adam wasn't sure if her Pippy Longstocking look was a costume or not. We spent the night with a bunch of adults dressed up as Tellatubbies, Disco Queens, and Jokers. I don't know if I'd even recognize any of them if we ever passed them on a street again.

On the day of our ferry, Linda and Kurt's 7-year-old son, Kirby, joined us for the rainy, windy ride to our final final destination in Washington.

We boarded the ferry, locked Jenny and Ontwa(our bikes) together on the lower deck, then made our way to the top deck to claim our two lounge chairs that would be our home for the next three nights.

As an English major, I know that a good story should have a good, solid ending. Unfortunately, our story does not end this way. In all honesty, I'm still not sure if it has ended or not. We are, after all, going to all 50 states. I never was one for a quick and easy ending, I guess.

Whether or not this was the end, it cannot be complete without a few moments to reflect on the journey. We got our time to daydream about the past year by literally running into old friends we've met along the way.

Camping out with The Food Cyclists in Castle Rock, WA gave us a chance to think back to New York City when we met the excited couple, preparing to embark on their own bike tour, who reminded us a lot of ourselves right before we started our journey.

Jon driving out to meet us and make breakfast for us one morning let us reminisce about the beauty of Jackson, WY and it's people.

Lunch with The Pedal Powered Family brought back memories of Marshmallow-stealing Racoons.

Meeting Chelsea at our Gregg's Cycles presentation stirred up thoughts of Viola, WI where we randomly met and stayed with her mom, Helen and step-dad, Grant.

And celebrating my birthday with Bobby and Jessy, who flew out from Arizona to see our last presentation, allowed us to reminisce on the beginning of our journey, feeling so naive about what lay ahead.

So... the end? Not just yet... we've still got some adventure left in us...

(Those of you following along on Facebook know we've made it to Alaska... the blog hasn't yet made it that far... it's trailing behind.)

Avoiding the Finish Line

2011-10-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

Wait a second... Aren't we supposed to be riding towards our last of the Lower 48 States? I guess we've gotten a little sidetracked. Oregon is a dream and we've so been enjoying our time here... But I think the real reason we've been lolly-gagging is simply that.... we don't want this to end. Here are a few reasons why:

The People!

We still manage to camp out every once in a while and lucky us, we met Suzanne and Mike who are just beginning a 7 month multi-continent bike tour! We are a little jealous of this... but it was great to see their excitement!

On a side note, you'll see us roasting our shoes by the fire. The drizzly days here have soaked us through and we needed to dry our shoes. Unfortunately, they got a little too close to the fire. Mine are a little crispy and Adam spent one day riding with his warped shoes before throwing them in the trash and splurging on another pair. We're always learning!

All we have of Sarah is a lousy iPhone picture, but she's an old friend from home who has moved out here and has the cutest little Fair Trade shop in Manzanita called, Moxie. We got to stop by and see her shop, catch up on life in the past 15 years, and buy a couple little trinkets. While there, we fell in love with the area... this cannot be our last visit here!

Sadly, we left Sarah all too soon but not before she gave us a present of some of the yummiest muffins ever!! As we rode towards Cannon Beach that night, we got a text from Sarah saying she had a surprise for us in Cannon Beach.

That surprise was a hotel room right on the water!! The room, the view, and the people at Stephanie Inn in Cannon Beach made this one of the coziest nights of our trip! Thank you, Sarah!!!!

The Places!

As a photographer, Adam has wanted to visit Cannon Beach for years and you can see why below.

We rolled into Stephanie Inn as the sun started to glow. I practically yelled at Adam to grab his camera and get out on the beach to take pics! This was why we were here!!! He left me with all the bags and grabbed some sweet shots!

As Adam was photographing, he managed to catch these two cyclists riding on the beach.

I'm sure you can guess what happened next!

But riding on the beach wasn't the only place around Cannon Beach that we rode. Yesterday, we took a ride up, and up, and up to Ecola State Park! Another treasure!

And last night, we made it to Fort Stevens on the OR/WA boarder... we're almost there! Here's Adam posing with a ship wreck!

The Bikes!

And last but not least..... our bikes! Jenny and Ontwa have been our trusty companions for 280 days. We've pushed them beyond even what they thought they were capable of. We're ridden them through weather bad enough to turn a car around. We've hauled them into places a bike is not meant to go. But not once did they complain. Maybe a little squeak from time to time, but they have been incredible. They've been to more places than many people we know. They've been the stars in our photo shoots and they'll always be able to look back on the good times.

But once we get to Seattle... What is the fate of Jenny and Ontwa as we travel to Alaska and Hawaii? We're still not so sure. Will they make it to the last of the 50 states with us? We'll keep you posted!

Today, we complete one of our goals. The most physically demanding goal. Riding through all 48 states, self-supported! For the whole trip, we've been telling people we meet, that we are attempting to ride all of the lower 48 states. We never quite felt comfortable saying we were definitely going to do this. It's quite a big task. I guess we can finally start saying that we will ride them all! Just a few miles to go....

An Anniversary on Two Wheels

2011-10-13T09:35:00.000-07:00

Whew! The time is just flying by. I hope we are taking enough time to enjoy these last few weeks on the road... secretly, I think we're enjoying it a little too much!!!

To keep you in the loop, we wanted to share what's up with Give a Bike:

1. As the miles to Seattle keep shrinking, our fundraising donations keep growing! We've got only 3 more states and have over $22,500 raised for our charities.
2. Check out our last challenge of the year: 11/11/11 Challenge!
3. Two final events in the lower 48!! One of them just happens to be on my birthday!
4. Our timeline: We'll be riding into Seattle right around Oct 20th and we'll be there for about a week before we head on up to Bellingham to catch a ferry to Juneau, AK. We'll get to hang in Juneau and Anchorage for a few days before we take the flight to state #50! We waited as long as we could for them to build the bridge so we could ride there, but alas, it has not been built and a plane is our only option to Hawaii.

Some of you have asked, and yes, we did manage to find our groove again, even in the dark, gloomy days that plague the Northwest Coast. After we left The Peace Artist, we were put at ease and have been back in the mode of bike tourist, complete with riding through the rain, and camping with raccoons!

That is, until October 9th! Our anniversary! We had to do something special. Months ago Adam exclaimed that for our anniversary, he wanted to stay in a Yurt. Lucky us, we just happened to find a campground with a Yurt available and booked it for two nights.

We grabbed some shrimp, some yummy bisque, and made a fancy pasta dish for our anniversary meal. Of course, to top it all off we had some Coppola wine and a deck of cards. Can it get any better than that?

Usually our days off include some sort of work needing to be done. But we took the next day literally off! We had no wifi and very limited cell service so we were almost forced to just relax. How nice! It was a true day off.

Yesterday, we said a sad goodbye to our Yurt and were off again, hoping to make it to a state park campground just south of Newport, OR. But to our surprise, we had an email from Rogue Brewery. You may remember Julie, from Pubquest, who we met at the very start of our tour at Blind Lady Ale House in San Diego, she has been following us ever since and helping to get us hooked up with local craft breweries. This is the website to visit if you enjoy a good local beer while traveling!

Pubquest hooked us up with Stacy at Rogue who offered us a free room at the Bed and Beer above the restaurant. What?!? And the anniversary celebrations continue!! We were totally blown away and couldn't wait to get there. We pushed through our last 20 miles in less than an hour and 1/2... we were that excited! That night we enjoyed a burger and a Rogue beer downstairs before we walked around Bay Market in Newport, OR.

Halfway through our dinner and beer, we noticed an enormous amount of people in the bar wearing Hawaiian shirts. They didn't seem to know each other, but rather walked in, in individual groups. We thought...this must be a good sign of our future! But instead, we were told that it's Wear a Hawaiian Shirt and Get Free Beer Tuesday! Well, we had no Hawaiian shirts but Adam had a clean pair of Hawaiian boxers upstairs that he quickly ran to get and wear as a shirt. The things a touring cyclist will do for a yummy beer at the end of a soggy day!

The next morning we were invited to take a tour of the Rogue Brewery with the Brewmaster himself, John Maier..... let me try to explain this brewery in terms of a bike shop (ahhh... our whole lives revolve around bikes now). Sometimes, you walk into a bike shop and you feel small. Everything is too clean, too expensive, and too new. But then, there are the bike shops that you walk into and are immediately put at ease. It's more or less a garage-type feel, people willing to let you borrow tools in exchange for some good conversation. Things are used... the way they're supposed to be. Rogue was the garage-style bike shop of breweries. It was exactly what you'd expect from a brewery called Rogue! And John made us feel right at home.

We left the brewery fairly late in the day, and were looking forward to a short day to Devil's Lake Campground in Lincoln Bay. But at the top of our only hill of the day awaited yet another surprise for us. Dave was out taking his Bike Friday for a ride and we stopped to ask him about his folding bike... good for taking on trains and planes...hmmmmm. Within a few minutes, he offered us a place to spend the night and we followed him another 10 miles north for a grand total of 20 miles. Riding with Dave was not only great conversation, but he showed us a few beautiful lookout spots!

After we settled in, Dave invited us out to his favorite seafood restaurant! We are really living it up!

All of this sleeping indoors craziness is really having a positive effect on me. I told Adam I'm not sure if I'll be able to camp again! Getting too spoiled! But with only a week before Seattle, I think a little spoiling is OK.

Roller Coaster Time

2011-10-07T12:18:00.000-07:00

Just over 600 miles to go. Seattle has always been so very far away and for nine months we've been striving to get there. Now, it lies 625 miles away. Just about two weeks of riding. Only 5% of our trip left. And I'm scared.

To be fair, scared is just one of the many different feelings we've had these past few days. Until now, we always had other destinations. At first it was Phoenix, AZ. After that, Albuquerque, NM. Then Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Little Rock... And so on and so forth until our latest stop, Eureka, CA. But Seattle is really it. sure, we're going to ride in Alaska and Hawaii, but we get to take other means of transportation to get there. Seattle is the end of waking up, riding 65 miles, finding a spot to camp, falling asleep, then doing it all over again. Scary.

As we rode away from my Mom and Scott the other day, tears staining my cheeks, 625 miles seems very far away. Saying goodbye to family has always been hardest part of this trip and it proved once again to weigh heavily on us. What were we doing? In just a few hours, my Mom would back home in the comfort of her own house. We were riding through the cold California rain towards an unknown.

That was a difficult day. 101 was not an easy road. Sections of no shoulder kept us constantly looking back in our rearview mirrors. Sharp twists and turns kept us uneasy as we did everything we could to be seen. The constant rain didn't help our spirits as we rode further and further away from my Mom. What were we doing?

A campsite was just not happening that night. Maybe we were a little too spoiled from staying at The Carter House for three nights in a row, maybe we just needed a pick-me-up. Whatever it was, a dry, warm room kept us sane and we slept peacefully.

The next morning greeted us with more rain. Harder rain. Instead of riding towards Crescent City, we rode to the cafe next door and waited out what we thought would be the worst of it. Here, we met a few folks interested in our story and they smiled in amazement as we retold the same story we've been telling for months. The rain ceased a bit, and we left the Palm Cafe with our spirits lifting a little higher.

Just ten miles up the road and we found ourselves in a fantasy land of beauty. Prairie Creek State Park was a wonderland for Adam and his camera. Instead of spending an hour there, we wished we had a week.

But the clear skies didn't last long and within a few minutes of photographing the sun shooting through the foggy mist, we were caught in a downpour with nowhere to hide. What were we doing?

We looked at each other, not sure how to take this. Amazingly, we smiled at each other. The rain came down a little harder. We smiled more. Our tires found their way through the small flood in the road and we laughed. And that was that. The rain stopped, the clouds parted, and the sun came out in time for us to enjoy lunch on the steps of a small church with a few friends.

Feeling much better, we continued on towards Crescent City, climbed a 1,200 foot hill (yes, there are still hills to climb on the coast), then froze as we flew down the 1,200 feet on the other side, right into Crescent City, and into Gerry's home. He invited us in just before another rainstorm came through and we dried ourselves and our things that night.

Fall set in the next day and we found our groove again in the crisp salty air. Pacific Coast is the perfect setting to keep our spirits lifted during these next few weeks.

Moment of Zen:
Last night we met The Peace Artist as we were climbing the last hill before Gold Beach. He was pushing a Chariot baby stroller and our first thought was, "Who would be walking their child on a road like this?" Turns out, Peace, as he introduced himself, was running 10,000 for Peace, Love, and Art. He gave away all of his worldly belongings.... gave away... and he is running around the U.S. for peace. Sounds a little crazy, I know, but he is a normal guy! As we were talking on the side of the road, a truck flew by us, a little too close for comfort. We debated giving him a one fingered salute, but Peace shot him a smile and a peace sign instead.

I guess we always have more to learn.

The Weaving of the Worlds

2011-10-05T10:54:00.000-07:00

We have two lives. Reality this year is getting on a bike and riding 65 miles to the next town. It's sleeping in a tent and swatting bugs away as we eat. It's giving presentations to 292 excitable students. It's raising over $21,000 for our charities so far. Our imaginary life is being at home with friends and family. It's living in a house and sharing meals in a kitchen. Lately, we've experienced an interesting weaving of the worlds.

Weave In
Spooner Pass was a beast! But after we crested that summit, riding into Lake Tahoe with the sun setting across the lake was serene. We watched a beautiful sunset, then continued down around the lake looking for a campsite. This is when it sunk in that, as beautiful as the sunset was, it was a sunset. The sun was gone and the dark was creeping in. We turned on our lights and pushed through.

Weave Out
Turns out, there's no camp sites along the North East side of Tahoe, so we tried our luck in Incline Village. No such luck. The light of day was completely gone and just when we were about to give up and turn down a dark road towards a $150 room, Larry and Candy pulled over to tell us not to bike that road in the dark and invited us to their home instead.

Weave In
We spent the next few days riding to our destination of Chico. Two nights in the Sierra Nevadas, sweating in the heat of the day, bathing in the chilly river at night. Our first night's dinner was ruined by the uninvited bees swarming as we cooked some meat. Our second night, another uninvited guest came along and took Adam's bike shorts, hanging to dry in the tree. We told the kids in Chico that if they see a bear wearing a pair of bike shorts to let us know.

Weave Out
Chico weaved the beginning of our trip with the end. We met Rich on January 15th, day 6 of our journey, in Blythe, CA at the Blue Grass Festival. We gave him our card, he looked us up, followed our journey, sent some yummy Turkey Jerky along the way, and invited us to meet him, his brother and sister-in-law Gil and Jo, in Chico. Instead of sharing our dinners with uninvited guests, we got to share our meals with a family in a home filled with laughter.

Weave In
Even as we took a couple days rest, we were still working hard and had two presentations: our first, to almost 300 students at Shasta Elementary School. They were an excitable crowd and we ran out of time before we could answer all of their questions. As we ended our presentation, the principal took the microphone and challenged his students to each bring in .50 cents and they could raise enough money to buy a bicycle. A bicycle for World Bicycle Relief is $134. We just found out these kids raised even more than that! The 4th, 5th, and 6th graders raised a total of $160: inching closer and closer to our goal of $25,000!

Weave Out
When in Chico, a must-do, besides seeing the World's Largest Working Wooden Yo-Yo, is visiting the Sierra Nevada Brewery. Loved our yummy meal followed by a brewery tour!

Weave In
After our time in Chico, feeling mighty spoiled, our next destination was Eureka, CA where we were going to meet my Mom and Scott. In order to get there, though, we had one of the craziest, steepest, skinniest, most beautiful, scariest roads of our trip. Route 36 started off a treat. The first day, traveling up and up and up over the final mountain range to the coast, the Coastal Range, was a beautiful, hot, carless day. But this quickly changed. After camping alone in the dark, except for the four pairs of eyes that glowed in the reflection of our headlamps as we ate, we started our second day in good spirits and climbed the last big summit in the first ten miles of the day. It was all downhill from there... Literally.

As we continued on, the road got skinnier and skinnier but the traffic only increased. We soon found ourselves immersed in a Redwood forest, unable to enjoy it's beauty to it's fullest because of the constant logging trucks flying by. Logging trucks, I believe, are Cyclist Enemy #1. They slow down for no one, knowing the paycheck depends upon the amount of trips they make.

Weave Out
One more night, a short 20 mile day, and we were in Eureka awaiting the arrival of Mama and Scott. As soon as we saw them, it was like we were swept away from California, from the bikes, from our tour, and taken back to Madison, CT. We spent an incredible few nights at The Carter House Inn, courtesy of Mark Carter, himself. The bed and breakfast was a Diamond in the.... well, it wasn't in the Rough, but it was a Diamond, that's for sure.

We found some Redwood forests, the beautiful Pacific Coast, walked the town, and even enjoyed a home cooked meal by Scott.

Weaving it all together!
We shared some amazing meals together in Eureka, dining in places we'd usually never dream of walking into, but even though we were living the high life, we were all taken back to the outdoors when Adam found an inch worm squirming around on his plate(we're not going to tell you the restaurant name). Ahhh... I guess Mother Nature wanted my mom to experience a little of our reality.

All too quickly our time with Mama and Scott ended. We had mixed emotions as we climbed back onto our trusty steeds, Jenny and Ontwa, and rode away from Eureka and towards the end of our tour.

The emotions will be running high these next few weeks as we finish the bike-only portion of our Give a Bike: 50 State Tour.

Check out the awesome news story on NBC Eureka!!!

Loneliest Road in America

2011-09-24T16:17:00.000-07:00

Route 50: The Loneliest Road in America

So what might you expect from the Loneliest Road in America? Not much. I guess the only thing you would expect from the road was that it'd be pretty lonely. Well, without sounding too disappointed, we were disappointed with this so-called "Loneliness." There were so many cars on the road, we could barely even ride side-by-side to chat away the distances between towns.

Loneliest Road in America? We think not. How about, "Busiest Road in America?"

Well, I guess it's not I-95 in New Haven, CT over the Q Bridge on a Monday morning at 8:30, but it has it's fair share of traffic. At least I understand the traffic on 95 everyone is going to work. But where are these people going? Work probably isn't in the next town 75 miles away with only 300 people living in it. So where are they driving to? When we find out the answer to that, we'll let you know.

Loneliest Road? More like, "Thirstiest Road in America"

Our first test on this road was a span of 85 miles from Milford, UT to Baker, NV. The 85 miles included three big passes to climb up and over without a single town in between and took us over 11 hours from start to finish. Half way through the day, after we had sadly found out the water we were told was supposed to be there was not, we were thirsty. Our first savior was a man with a dirt bike in the back of his truck. He reached in the bed of his truck for his cooler and pulled out a Capri Sun and two mini-cans of soda. Pssshhhh....Gulp...gulp...gulp...ahhhhhh.

Savior #2 was actually three guys in 4 x 4's. They stopped on the side of the road and offered us a choice of ice cold water, soda, or beer. We all took the water.

And savior #3 was Doug, the father of another touring cyclist we met the day before. He rode 30 miles from Baker to find us and give us each a cold water, a Gatorade, and a cookie. We were good to go and made it to Baker with liquid to spare!

Loneliest Road? How about, "Hilliest Road in America"

On Monday, we climbed our 12th summit on Route 50. After 300 miles on this road, here's what we discovered. It goes up for 20 miles, then back down. You never really know when it flattens out except that you get frustrated because it's slow going 20 miles into the wind only to go up for 20 more miles, then back down all too quickly.

Loneliest? Let's try "Hottest, Driest, Sunniest Road in America."

Thankfully, we timed our tip through Nevada right, and instead of 115 degree days, we only felt it in 90's, with one small temperature drop into the 50's during the thunderstorm of the century! It did happen to be on a day where there really was an open cafe half way to the next town. We walked in, the waitress snagged our wet clothes to throw them in the dryer and we enjoyed hot cocoa and Hot Pockets with two other touring cyclists while warming up next to the wood stove.

We added Jesse and Royal to our riding group to finish the ride into Ely where we made it right before the second storm came rubbing through.

"Most McDonalds Deprived Road in America"

Definitely not complaining about this one. There were, however, too many stores like this.

"Most Unforgiving Road in America"

Just when we thought we were done with Route 50, we were discouraged to find that it was our path to Lake Tahoe. Ok. 10 more miles. How bad could that really be? You might think that after 465 miles on this road we would have known it better. Known it to never cease. Know that each time it gave us a small reprieve from climbing, it was only to rest our legs enough to battle the next hill. Known that it would be unforgiving as always.

The last 10 miles of Route 50 may have been the toughest yet. Having said our goodbyes to Mike in Carson City, we fought our last battle with Route 50 up and up and up and up Spooner Pass. It may only have been 10 miles, but it was a harsh 2,300 feet of elevation gain and brought us up over 7,000ft once again. We reached the top with red faces, cramped hands, and shaky legs.... But we were victorious.

As the hill descended into Lake Tahoe, Route 50 went south and we didn't even give it a passing glance as we turned north.

So I guess we don't really know what to call this road. When in Fallon, a waitress at the coffee shop called it, "The Deadliest Highway in America." At least that wasn't it.

We Believe in Miracles

2011-09-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

This week has proven to be one of the most inspiring of the trip and we've experienced miracle after miracle as we've ridden through Utah, one of the most beautiful, yet also most intense states. Green River was our first stop after Moab and it was here that we met Richard. Little did Richard know that he was soon to be a savior of our trip. I noticed the morning after we rode out of Green River that I had left a pair of bike shorts hanging in a tree at our campsite in Green River State Park. Richard answered the phone and the first thing he asked was, "We were all wondering how'd you manage to ride out of here without your shorts?" Haha... of course I had another pair. Anyway, Richard agreed to take the shorts, in his free time, to the post office and use his own money to send them to the post office in Zion. Of course I sent him the money in an envelope that day to pay him back, but there is no way to pay him back for his generosity.

One of the biggest miracles we've encountered here is the miracle of Utah! It is unexplainable in words how strangely beautiful the desert can be. Cliffs, slot canyons, rivers, Hoo-Doos, and oceans of rock create a masterpiece impossible to re-create.

The harsh landscape was not only candy for our eyes, but a workout for our legs. After our hardest climb of the entire trip, a 20 mile climb up 3,000 feet in elevation with grades as steep as 10 and 11%, we camped in Calf Creek Campground. The six mile hike that afternoon through the canyon to a waterfall was the only way to end the day.

Along the way, we've had the good fortune of meeting a lively group of bike tourists on the same path as us.

Being on the road for eight months with only the two of us has made us comfortable with each other. We know how long it takes for each other to wake up and get on the road. Adam has dealt with my insanely small bladder and looks for bushes on the side of the road for me to hide behind every half hour or so. And I am (mostly) happy to stop or ride back and forth for Adam to snap pictures around every corner. I was nervous at the proposal to ride for a few days with others. I wasn't sure how this would upset our routine and so I was hesitant.

Of course, all of my worries ended in silliness and we enjoyed day after day of biking, hiking, and camping with our new family of cyclists. The meeting of the cyclists proved to be a miracle in disguise and we've found renewed excitement for bike touring... enough to push us through these last months.

Katie and Cheney, married almost a year and 1/2, have been traveling the world since they got married. This bike tour from Jackson, MI to Los Angelas, CA is simply the end of their 18-month journey together. They've traveled through Southeast Asia, experienced Vipassina Meditation (11 days of silence) in India, basked in the sun on the beaches of Zanzibar, and are now biking home. How can we not be excited to finish our journey after hearing all of what these two have accomplished this year?

We tried a little Meditation of ourselves while visiting Lyman, one of our Warm Showers hosts in Torrey, UT. Not quite 11 days of silence but the picture is impressive, I think!

Mike has become our new biking buddy through The Loneliest Road in America. Route 50 in Nevada has spans of over 80 miles with absolutely nothing. On our map, it describes Nevada as having no shade except for 3 trees East of Fallon. At least we've got Mike. Mike's goal for riding this year is to build his faith in God and "show people that God is real and there is still love out there in this crazy world." We are loving his company and the goodness he has brought to us while riding with him.

Glen was our camp "Dad." What would we all have done without him? He invited us to share his campsite when all the rest were full, bought us all power bars to scarf down at the top of a 6 mile hike in Zion called Angel's Landing, supplied us with Gorilla Tape when squirrels chewed through our food panniers, and was always ready with a joke.

Sadly, on Tuesday, Adam, Mike and I left our camping cyclist community in Zion but since then, we've been finding miracle upon miracle. After making it into the Wal-Mart only minutes before the rain pounded Cedar City, we finally settled into a Starbucks to wait out the storm where we met Bob and Nancy. We shared some great conversation with them, and they invited us to delight in some of the best apple and blueberry danishes we've ever experienced.

We debated our camping options that night. Stealth camping along a river bed only a mile or two out of town for free, or fork over the $30 to stay in the local KOA. Since we hadn't had a shower in four nights, the KOA won, but as we navigated the back roads of Cedar City, we passed a church picnic and were invited to share the meal with them. Scalloped Potatoes and Ham, burgers, salad, and ice cream for dessert was our dinner that night. We were inundated with conversations and enjoyed dinner with what seemed like 50 or so others. Before we could leave, we were offered two bags of leftovers, and a place to camp, shower, and do laundry... all necessities after spending a few nights in a National Park. Enoch was our host and we camped under his peach tree, met his family in the morning, and converted him to become a Warm Showers host.

All of the food we got from the church gave us more than enough energy to ride 60 miles to Milford, UT, and finish our day carrying our bikes over the train tracks (I made a mistake in directions and we chose this route instead of riding a whole 1/4 mile back).

We've made it to Nevada now... but that's for another post! 46 states down! And on we go....

And We Would Bike 5,000 Miles, And We Would Bike 5,000 More!

2011-09-03T20:42:00.000-07:00

That's right! As of August 31, Adam and I crossed into Utah and have officially biked over 10,000 miles this year, touring 45 states and crossing the continental divide only 9 times (whew- glad to be done with that).

Throughout this tour, there have been times when we stopped to smell the roses, and there have been times that we really pushed ourselves. Well, for the past few weeks we had been taking it easy, enjoying the sights and visiting with so many people. After we left Boulder, sad to say goodbye to Papa P, we were ready for a good push to get back into the swing of things and within a few days we found ourselves heading downhill into Utah.

Linda Guerette, who found us a few months ago on Facebook, also found us the other day on US 6 coming out of Vail, CO. Instead of continuing uphill, she turned around to ride with us for a few miles.

Well, a few turned into many, and we soon found ourselves in a Canyon 10 miles from Glenwood Springs with a closed bike path and an interstate illegal for bikes. Our only option? A shuttle. I guess we could have hopped in one of the rafts heading downstream, but I don't know if the bikes would have made it. It was here that Linda turned around to climb the hill we'd been enjoying all day and we strapped our bikes to the back of a van for a whopping two mile ride around the eroded bike path.

Safe on the other side, we continued a car free ride all the way into Glenwood Springs ending the day at 59 miles.

But this wasn't the killer day. Our ride from Glenwood Springs to Grand Junction was close to 95 miles but somehow, we've figured out a way to make these days enjoyable. We found ourselves tasting wine at a Winery (I swear we thought the sign outside said "peaches").

A little further down the road we really did find peaches and got to snack on them, fueling us the last 15 miles of the trip.

Our destination that night was with Eileen and Jim, Warm Showers hosts who took us in, gave us a warm shower, a hot dinner, a scrumptious breakfast, and an incredible sneak-peak of the scenery we were about to enjoy in Utah.

We're back to a land where towns are few and far between, where a shade tree is a God send, and where we need to make ourselves get up and on the road before the sun and it's heat. But we're also in the land of crazy natural wonders. Where rocks jet out of the ground hundreds of feet above you. Where canyons fall hundreds of feet below. Where the rocks glow red as the sun rises and sets.

Our introduction to the Utah scenery looked mostly like this:

But soon enough, we were riding through a canyon on our way to Moab.

This day was one of the hottest on our trip, and we were stuck riding smack in the middle of the heat. Not to worry, the muddy Colorado river was our savior and a dip in the water cooled us off enough to ride another 15 miles to one of our favorite camping spots of the trip.

Only problem? No drinking water. We had to grab some muddy water from the Colorado River. Filter process? Pour water through Christy's sock (clean) and into water bottle to seperate particles. Use SteriPen to zap all the bacteria.

...Adam still thought the water tasted like my feet.

The next day into Moab surprised us with even brighter colors and higher cliffs than the day before. We hadn't even entered a National Park and already we were in awe.

We made it to Moab before the sun got too hot, found a cafe to relax in... (we love it when yesterday's pastries go on sale for 1/2 price), and when deciding where we would spend the night, we were donated a room by the Ramada Inn Moab! How awesome are they! They even had a separate locked room to store our bikes!

To celebrate our 10,000 mile marker... We rented a car to see the national parks instead of riding through. We left our bikes in the bike room and spent the day covering 145 miles in Canyonlands NP, Dead Horse State Park, and Arches NP. The pictures will do more justice than any words could.

That night, we got a total of 3 hours of sleep (thanks to the wind and intermittent rain) before we woke up early and biked out of Moab.

Some fun with the camera:

Story of a Day... Our Colorado Adventure

2011-08-31T16:46:00.000-07:00

It all started with the day before.

In Georgetown, we made the decision to call the weather channel's bluff and attempt Loveland Pass, an 11,990 foot ascent. Georgetown is at 8,500 feet so we had quite a climb in front of us. Four miles uphill later, we thought better of our decision while watching the dark clouds roll in. We lowered our heads and rolled back into Georgetown, retreating to the cheapest lodging in town.

We woke up early in a comfy bed, grabbed the healthiest choices at the continental breakfast, and headed out on the crisp morning to conquer the pass. The morning was beautiful, the roads were quiet, and we soon found ourselves on a bike path riding through the Colorado forest.

The only sound we heard was the sound of sirens off in the distance. We soon found out why.

We came out of the path and were greeted by the smell of oil and a hazardous waste truck flying by. Eric, another cyclist hoping to climb Loveland Pass, stopped as he passed us. He told us they wouldn't let us through, that there was a flipped Tanker on the road spilling oil into the nearby river.

Adam and I, with our panniers and gear, thought they would see that we were on more than just a leisurely ride and let us through, but after Adam was told, "No... due to the explosion hazard," by the officer with a cigarette in his hand, we were stuck. Our options were to wait until 3:00 when the area would be cleared, or take the highway through the tunnel, which was not only illegal, but dangerous.

As we rode away, we saw Eric! Eric had a plan. The tanker flipped on a U-shaped turn so there was only a small hike through the woods between one side of the road and the other. Eric had scoped it out and found a possible route to take our bikes down, over the oil-infested river, and back up to the other side of the road. It was steep. It was thoroughly wooded. It was an adventure!

So with Eric's help, we managed to push, pull, carry, and scramble our bikes all the way to the other side. Take that law enforcement officers!... Not really, they were just doing their job.

Safe on the other side of the tanker, we began the last of the climb and enjoyed a car-free road for the rest of the morning. Up the hill, then ddddoooooowwwwwwwnnnnnn the hill.

Much to our surprise, when we got to the bottom, we turned onto Swan Mountain Road to see people lined up on both sides of the road with beach chairs, coolers, noise makers. We thought, how great to have such a welcoming to Keystone, CO. That was until we saw all of the chalk writing on the street!

"Go Levi!"
"We love Basso!"

Since there was no Adam or Christy in the chalk, instead of riding through, we stopped along the road, took out our lunch, and waited for the Pro Cycling Challenge to ride by. We didn't have to wait long.

After the excitement, we started the same climb the riders were attempting. No cars, but there were hoards of people. And this time they really did cheer for us along the way. We were spotted by one of our FB followers, Linda, who took a pic, and Adam was even given a push up the last of the hill.

Photo courtesy of Linda Guerette

Down again to the bike path that lead us through the town of Frisco where another cyclist invited us to a warm shower and cold beer. It hurt when we had to say no, but we needed more than 40 miles that day, especially since we had been such slackers lately.

We did manage to find a good replacement for a cold beer... fresh raspberries growing right on the trail! Bastian rode with us for a bit then shared the secret of the raspberries with us. This may have been even better than a beer.

On we went through Frisco, following the bike path all the way through Copper Village where we made the decision to climb yet another mountain. Vail pass was 10,660 feet up the bike path and with lightening in the distance, our tired legs managed to push up to the top!

As we started to descend, Adam couldn't help himself but to get off his bike and hike up the side of a mountain to an Aspen Grove to take pictures in the fading light.... as if he wasn't tired enough.

Just a bit further down the road we found Gore Campground, and after over 6,000 feet of elevation gain and 59 car-free miles, we were lulled to sleep by the river.

Colorful Colorado

2011-08-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

It continues to amaze me that with almost 10,000 miles under our belts, I am still constantly impressed by the people and the places we visit. Colorado has proven to be one of the most challenging, yet most rewarding states we have biked through. While we can't exactly pinpoint the reason this state rocks, maybe we can shed some light on the issue.

Maybe the reason is because of the incredible places we get to camp.

Granted... this is in Wyoming, but it's pretty cool, huh? This picture I can actually take full credit for.


Adam's picture of the same campsite.... no wonder he is the photographer.

Beautiful sunrise after a rainy night on Peak to Peak Highway

It could be the people we've met...

Mark, from Granby who let us spend the night in his Biker Room downstairs all the while trying to convince us to change to recumbents...they were pretty cool...maybe next time.

Adam met us about ten miles before we took this shot when we were completely frustrated with the drivers on the road. He reminded us how good people really are when he invited us to lunch down the street.

Totally random encounter here of a bride and groom that Adam photographed last year, Kate and Christiaan. They had to pull over when they saw us ride by.

It could be because of the incredible views we get to see from the tops of the mountains we climb...

Riding into Colorado

Peak to Peak Highway

...only the beginning of Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park

Don't worry... I'm not growing another head. It's a video camera.

Highest elevation we'll climb on this trip!

Maybe it has to do with the fact that we were lucky enough to have my dad come to visit.

Hiking in Eldorado State Park on a day off with Papa P. He even brought my hiking boots!

Amazing textures everywhere we looked.

Can you see the animal in here that we encountered on that very same hike? Scariest animal experience of the trip! When Adam and I heard it rattle, we ran ahead, pushing my dad to the side, to get away as fast as we could.


Could it be a bear? A mountain lion? Hmmmmm....

We drove up Trail Ridge Road with my dad a few days after we biked the whole thing. This time we had energy to hike a little. Can you see anything wrong with this picture??

Again... saving myself all the while putting my dad in more danger. Sheesh... what a daughter I am.

More sights from Trail Ridge Road.

Our extra treat was getting to see my dad play at The Laughing Goat in Boulder.

Maybe it's because of the totally amazing bike paths that we've been able to take all over Colorado!

Maybe it's because we FINALLY got to meet our amazing World Bicycle Relief contact, Katie!

Katie is the very serious one here. Can you see why we love her so much? She's been the backbone of our tour this year!

Or it could be because we got to hook up with The Food Cyclists!!!

I was a little worried cooking for The Food Cyclists so what better than spaghetti, Keilbasa, beans, and cheeeeese!

Or maybe it has to do with the kick-a$$ bike shop that hooked us up big time with some great bike work.

The guys from Giant Cycling World Denver.

Whatever it is, Colorado has been so so good to us.

...and on we go...

Dude Ranches and Tumbleweeds

2011-08-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

Day one: Jackson

We've been adopted... Again! We love having so many wonderful people that we'll get to visit again all over the country. Jon and Libby made us feel so welcome during our time in Jackson. Jon has been a World Bicycle Relief supporter for a few years now, and even owns one of the bikes they send out to developing countries. It was Jon who set up our event at Fitzgerald's Bicycles in Jackson. Not only did he help set it up, but he invited us into his home for a night.

Along with our time with Jon and Libby, we got to meet some new friends. Joe and Kelly hooked us up with a place to stay at the Teton Science School! A free room all to ourselves with showers and laundry! whoo hoo!

Lincoln and Courtney met us at our presentation at Fitzgerald's and offered to take us out to dinner in Jackson that night with a few friends.

Day Two: Grand Tetons

Back in the Tetons! Our ride this day was humbling. We rode from the Friends of Pathways event in Jackson, back up the bike trail through the Tetons to Jenny Lake. The pathway in the Tetons is dedicated to the family of 13 year old Gabriella who died in a bike accident in the Tetons 12 years ago. Friends of Pathways is the organization that is helping to connect that pathway to the Jackson bike path. At the entrance of the Tetons, we caught up with Gabriella's mother, a Friends of Pathways founder, and another big supporter, Connie. We rode the pathway with these three and stopped with them at the sign dedicated to Gabriella. I'm still amazed at how much good can come out of something so tragic. It was nice to see, along with us enjoying the path that day, many others riding the path safely.

Being back in the Tetons brought back a memory of this conversation between a son and his dad when we were hiking up to Inspiration Point.

Son to Dad: I'm more of an inside, sea-level type person.
Dad: What do you mean?
Son: I'm not really into this outside, above sea-level stuff.

....we hope this conversation never comes up with our children. haha.

Here's our camp friends in our campsite behind the recycle bin.

Even though we camped behind the recycle bin that night, we were just a short walk away from this.

Day three: CM Ranch

An odd day of many changes. After leaving our final Teton campsite, we rode up and over Togwotee pass. With the Tetons out of site, the whole country seemed to change and we found ourselves again riding in a remote, barren land without a tree to shade us. That night we spent in a beautiful cabin at a dude ranch in Dubois, courtesy of Connie. Molly and Hunter, the CM Ranch managers, welcomed us right in and even invited us to partake in dinner and breakfast. Tough choice... pulled pork or hotdogs and pasta?? Oh, the life of a touring cyclist!

Day four: Lander

It really is a small world. We originally met Dave, a fellow touring cyclist on that foggy, foggy morning in Virginia on Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park back in April. We've been keeping tabs on each other and noticed we'd be in Lander on the same day and we camped together that night. Check out Dave's videos from the road!

Motorcycle dude outside campground: I'm a step above you guys. I don't do that whole peddling thing on my bike. See this? (points to big belly) I've been working on this for 53 years. What a shame it'd be to waste all that hard work.

Day Five: Jeffrey City

40 miles into the day and we were beat. Lunch was only able to slightly rejuvenate us, and we were back into the hot, cloudless day. At one point we thought we may have had a slight tail wind and were debating it when all of a sudden the wind picked up from the north and blew us and a tumbleweed across the shoulder. It scared me enough to slow my bike down before a second later, the wind came whipping from the south. The tumbleweed flew by us again and we were forced to stop riding. But the second we got off our bikes, that same wind came from right behind us and we couldn't pass up the chance for a tail wind. For 20 more miles that wind blew us right into Jeffrey City.

Conversation with waitress in Jeffrey City:

Adam: How many people live in Jeffrey City?

Christiana: Well, that depends on who wins the debate whether or not dogs count as citizens.

Adam: What about the population without dogs?

Christiana: Well, there's 47 full-time residents that live here. But we've got Meagan and her two little ones for the summer which brings us to an even 50!

Here's our home for the night. The little First Baptist Church. Not too hard to find.

Day Six: Rawlins

Getting to Rawlins was a tough day full of cross winds. That mountain may look close, but the hour long, ten mile ride towards it was actually harder than the hill itself.

While touring, you never know what's going to happen. We met up with Pedal Powered Family in Wisconsin a few months ago and had a fun night of camping and tracking down Marshmallow-eating raccoons! This week, we had the opportunity to meet up with them again, only under slightly different circumstances. They are on a semi-hiatus from bike touring while dealing with an injury. It is scary how easily your health can affect your ability to tour by bike.

Even with an injury, though, these guys were still in high spirits and we enjoyed a visit of too many snacks(of course the marshmallows were included), and one the best camping breakfast of the trip: French toast smothered in apples and maple syrup. Not only that, we got to play some good, old-fashioned games of chase the kids around and tickle them, and let's see who can get dizziest when spinning the kids. Good stuff.

Day seven: Saratoga

A $3.75 single scoop of ice cream is just not in our budget but boy was it gooooood! We beat the system and got a double scoop- one for me and one for Adam for $4.50 altogether. Sneaky, sneaky. It was some of the yummiest ice cream we've had.

We may just have to grab one more ice cream treat before we head on out today.

Moose on the Loose... Bear Givin' a Scare

2011-08-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

Wow! Has it really been over two weeks since we've posted a new blog update? We were just having too much fun in Bozeman, Yellowstone, and the Tetons... So sorry!

Since so much has happened in the last few weeks, we've decided that this blog will be told mostly through Adam's photographs.

Bozeman

Our first stop on the tour where we really had the chance to explore a town. Our first hosts were Shelby and Tristy who shared with us some good Montana living! We took a drive through some of the country near Bozeman on our way to one of their friend's birthday parties.

At the party, we learned some really invaluable Montana skills. How to arrange your house with all of the mounts from animals you've shot and how to open a beer bottle with a chainsaw.

In between all of the lessons, we did manage to eat some of the meat from that moose right there, and sing happy birthday hunter. Here's the crew.

Our second host in Bozeman was someone we had actually met on our first day in town. Lawrence was full of energy and, by the end of the conversation, invited us into his home. Turns out, we didn't have to move our stuff far. Lawrence literally lived right behind Shelby and Tristy.

One of the activities Adam has been talking about for months is fly fishing. So after his heart was broken when we found out a fly fishing excursion would cost us close to $650 for a day, we had a surprise post from Lawrence on our Facebook wall inviting us out for a day of fly fishing. It was Adam's dream come true.

A day of fly fishing will create a pretty solid bond, but nothing solidified that bond more than when we put all of our trust in Lawrence and walked up this dam. This picture was taken at about the point I started freaking out after Lawrence had just sprinted up past us like a kid!

After our time with Lawrence, he posted this picture of him with his new nameless puppy and asked us for name suggestions. We offered up the name Juno, after our dog Juneau and he took it! Too bad we never got to meet Juno.

The reason we spent so much time in Bozeman wasn't really for the fly fishing, the Harry Potter viewing, or the REI garage sale. It was for our REI presentation which turned out to be a huge success. Not only did we have 25 people show up, we also had an NBC news station interview us! Thank you Theresa for making this happen!!

Our time in Bozeman was complete after a great night of grilling at Ryan's (a friend of Lawrence's who taught us how to change a bottom bracket) with Shelby, Tristy, Lawrence and a few other friends we met along the way!

Beyond Bozeman

We have some great news to report! We made it to the mountains!!

We thought our four day rest in Bozeman ruined our biking legs since it took us three days to get to Yellowstone instead of our projected two, but then we realized we had been climbing 4,000 feet over that time and stopped feeling so bad.

We found some amazing camping spots in between Bozeman and Yellowstone and passed through Idaho on our way.

Adam convinced me to get up early those mornings so that he could grab some sunrise riding pictures.

Since we didn't ruin our legs from the long rest, we decided to try and ruin them by hiking in Keens and our biking shoes. Our first afternoon in Yellowstone we did our hardest hike 3 miles straight up. Calves were killing by the time we made it back down but the view was worth it!

After taking all of the necessary precautions to avoid grizzlies from climbing into our tent with us at night, we fell sound asleep and actually slept in late.. 8:30 or so. Our legs were crying, so we decided to leave the bikes at the campsite and explore some of the park by getting rides from place to place. Most of the time we were fortunate enough to get a ride pretty quickly, but every once in a while we had to show a little leg.

Our so-called relaxing day ended up being far from that. We hiked another 5 miles or so including 328 stairs down to the bottom of a waterfall and back up. We traveled a total of 102 miles by car, ended up taking a total of 8 rides, saw three waterfalls, over 50 Elk, hundreds of Buffalo and no bears. I'm exhausted just writing it all down!

We didn't even get back to our site until after 10:00, made a quick pasta dinner, and crashed hard again.

In the morning, we were up and out, ready to explore the geysers before the crowds came in but our photography detours had us showing up at Old Faithful right alongside the thousands of others. I think the size of the crowd was more impressive than Old Faithful herself.

From Old Faithful, we rode 17 more miles over the Continental Divide twice to camp. We shared a site with a French couple. One more day and still no grizzlies. The camp ranger said there were two grizzlies in the area but we never saw them.

On our last day in the park, we again decided to take it easy and hitched to a six mile, 2,000 foot hike. Sure... Real easy. Turns out we didn't even make it all the way up to the snow-capped top. About 3/4 of the way up the rain started to fall and we high-tailed it out of there. We grabbed a ride up one of the most beautiful roads in the park, Hayden Valley. It was here that we finally spotted the grizzly. Of course, you couldn't see it with your naked eye...no....you had to steal a glance through one of the nice gentleman's telescopes the size of my leg and even with that the mama bear was a spec. I guess I'd rather see a grizzly that far away instead of right next to me. Adam tried grabbing a pic through the telescope but to no avail... you'll just have to take our word for it!

Our favorite part of Yellowstone wasn't Old Faithful, it wasn't the hundreds of other geysers, it wasn't the buffalo or the elk or even the bear. No. Adam and I agree our favorite part of Yellowstone was this family. Our time with them was short, and there were so many of them that we only remembered a few of their names, but it was our most memorable ride we took. They pulled over their big RV and we jumped in to join their family for all of ten minutes before we reached our destination. Have you ever seen Home Alone? It was like the first scene with the craziness of a family before Christmas vacation. There was so much energy in the RV that Adam and I could barely keep up. Adam was listening to a story from Blanche, the youngest girl, while the mom, Valerie, asked him questions about our ride all while I was trying to answer the questions of the three oldest siblings simultaneously while the dad pulled over to look at the map and try to figure out where we were. It was madness! It was fantastic!

So our riding through the parks has been slow going to say the least and we've been stopping around every corner for another photo. While Yellowstone was nice, the Grand Tetons were amazing and though the park was about 1/4 of the size, we could have spent triple the time there.

We spent a total of three nights in the Tetons with the mountains looming over us!

Our camping experience was complete with a shower in the cold lakes! Saved us $2 a piece to bathe in the lake as opposed to the pay showers!

...so Adam may have taken a few more showers than me, but it did give me some good time to learn a little photography.

Me: It's too dark.

Adam: Press the button half way then spin the dial to the right to stop up.

Me: Huh?.... Oh, ok. It's still too dark.

Adam: Well stop up again.

Me: Oh... ok! It looks better! Why is it so close to you?

Adam: Because you're zoomed in. Zoom out.

Me: Ooooohhhh. Got it. (I guess I can't really take any credit for the photos, but I did technically press the button)

While in the Tetons, we did things like take hikes,

see 3 bull moose,

lift really large rocks,

enjoy the free left-over, warm beer in one of the food containers with the rest of the hiker/bikers at the campsite,

and learn all about why you shouldn't attempt climbing a 13,770 ft mountain in a lightening storm.

You can see where the lightening burnt holes and scortched all the equipment.

On our last night camping in the Tetons, Adam scoped out a place for some sunrise pictures for the next morning, even though it meant riding his bike in the early hours before the sun rose. Here's the picture he got at night:

Just as the sun was setting that night, Nathaniel (another cycling tourist/photographer we met in South Dakota) came riding into the campsite. Adam was excited to have a photographer to wake up early with him the next morning and take sunrise pictures. Here are the pictures he got that morning in the same spot as the night before:

Slow going was how I would describe our last days ride out of the Tetons. We stopped at every bend in the road for another picture. Enjoy!!

We're in Jackson now, but that's a story for the next blog! We won't make you wait as long this time... promise!

A song for you...

Hikin' in the Tetons
by Adam Coppola

If you're hikin' in the Tetons
Betta put on yo crampons

Cuz there's a moose on the loose
a bear givin' a scare

Racoon under the moon
Coyote in the remote

Oh Mountains, Where Art Thou?

2011-07-20T18:22:00.000-07:00

So for over two weeks now, this has been our view.

Beautiful? Absolutely! But draining. It's no fun being able to see 15 miles ahead of you, just the get there and be surrounded by the same scenery. We did have a pretty amazing day into Miles City, Montana, but besides that, we've been on flat ground.

The heat gets to you by 9:00, so an early start is necessary. It's a good thing we like riding in the cool morning hours. One thing we used to love was stopping every 15 miles or so for a break. Getting off the bikes and into AC or sitting on a picnic table in the shade was a great way to relax before hopping on the bikes again. Only problem out here is there are really no places for that. The towns are so far apart that we're only passing one or two a day and they usually don't have any accommodations. Sometimes the town's population doesn't even reach 100. No gas stations or convenience stores there.

The saving grace the past few weeks has been the history we've been learning and the people we've met.

This is me helping Clark as he navigates his way through the Lewis & Clark Trail. He was pretty lucky to have so many paved roads and wi-fi access spots along the way. I wonder if he updated his Facebook daily, too?

Clark's signature in Pompey's Pillar from 1806. Pretty cool.

In Miles City, we were introduced to Jen who had also hosted Bike49, a group of touring cyclists who biked the 49 states to spread awareness for sustainability. Jen invited us to stay in her home for a day or two and we chose to take the day to recoup from all of our early morning riding. Jen was a plethora of information and taught us all about the area. She even brought us to a bar that had a bullet hole in the glass from the wild west days.

She let us use her home to get some work done while she went to work the next day. We stayed in, focused on our computers all day except for the hour we got out to grab some ice cream. It was at the ice cream shop that we met Jesse. He was making Goulash for lunch the next day and he gave us a heaping sample. Yummy! We shared our story with him and he was so interested, that he decided he'd ride us out of town the next day.

So we exchanged numbers and headed back to Jen's for a great dinner of Antelope steak (from one of their hunting trips) and sugar snap peas and cucumbers from the garden. Talk about local food!

The time in Miles City was relaxing, but we were on the road bright and early the next morning with Jesse by our side. He had stayed up until 2:30 the night before, getting his bike ready for our 6:00 ride! What a trooper!

The ten miles he rode with us seemed to fly by and we had made a good friend by the end of it. He had to turn back to get to work in time, but this wasn't the last we'd see of him.

Turns out he had a soccer competition in Billings a few days later when we were passing through, so even though we missed the soccer games, Adam did head out with him to see Horrible Bosses while I slept peacefully in our grungy motel room.

In between Miles City and Billings, we had the opportunity to meet plenty of other people. We felt homeless in Forsythe when we finished our 65 miles by 11:30. Our plan of hanging out in the air conditioned library all day before heading to the campground was thwarted when we found out the flooding had shut down the library and the campground was underwater. Without a place to go, we wandered aimlessly around, finally parking ourselves under a tree near the courthouse to enjoy lunch and a nap.

Under this tree we met Dave from Nutcase. No, no, no. Dave isn't a nutcase himself, he works for the helmet company, Nutcase. They are based out of Portland and we will try to link up when we get there in October. Looking back on this encounter, I can't believe how random it was that we would meet Dave in the little town of Forsyth, MT, who lives and works in Oregon. Must have been fate.

With a huge hail storm coming in that night, we forked over the $30 for a little motel room in town and I cooked dinner while Adam grabbed some shots of the incoming storm.

The next morning was clear, and we rode early again to Custer, MT. Custer was just big enough to have a gas station, but no grocery store. We pulled into the gas station asking about camping at the park when we were informed about the wedding happening there later on that day. The clerk assumed it would still be fine if we camped there and she was right. The bride, Loree, even invited us to the wedding and Adam became their wedding photographer! I wrote all about the wedding in this week's Madison Patch article.

With a wedding to add to the list of interesting events we've experienced, we retreated to our tent as the band continued to play through the night and got some good sleep before heading out early again the next morning towards Billings.

This was the day that broke us. Hot sun, flat ground, headwind, no shoulders, and building traffic. When we finally made it to Billings, we needed some AC and a place to rest. It hasn't been easy finding places to nap. We got yelled at the last time we napped in a library so a motel room was needed. Once we were indoors, it was hard to convince us to head out again, and after a Warm Showers host called us back and invited us over for the next night, we decided to sleep in and take another day off getting work done at Starbucks before heading over to Woody & MJ's.

Woody and MJ had just gotten in from a trip to Glacier, but they already had a room waiting for us in their cool basement, a snack of apples and cheese, and dinner in the oven. They were travelers. They loved adventure and we shared stories of our travels as we sat on their deck and listened to bugs dying in the bug-zapper. We told Woody and MJ of our need to see mountains soon and they both smiled. "You'll see 'em tomorrow," Woody assured us and we went to bed excited for the next day.

After an early morning breakfast that MJ made for us, we were on our way to Columbus, hoping to beat the 100 degree heat. Woody was right. Only a few miles into the day and we could see the snowy peaks of mountains in the distance. What a sight!! It was breathtakingly beautiful and scary at the same time, knowing we'd be climbing those mountains soon. But for now, we were happy to be on flat ground, heading towards the mountains.

It took us two days to get to Big Timber where we spent the day at the library, like we do often to run away from the heat. With all this time in a library, we've been able to come up with a fun contest to raffle off one of Adam's Photos. Our challenge this week is to post a picture on our Give a Bike Facebook page of yourself on a bicycle (you can see the directions here). Here's what Adam's family posted from the family vacation we're missing!

Once we spent enough time in the library, we were headed out to find a camp spot when we met D'Jeane who invited us into her home for the night. D'Jeane was interning in Big Timber for the summer for the USDA and thrilled to have met us. I guess the 20-30 year-old population in Big Timber is pretty limited. She called the one 21 year guy she had met in town, invited him over, and the 4 of us shared a yummy dinner of burgers from her parent's ranch, rice, and corn.

check out the Temperature!

We did take a walk down to the Fairgrounds to try and get pics of the mountains but we couldn't find them. Instead, we found some pretty horses and some interesting clouds.

We all woke up early, D'Jeane headed to the pool to get her morning triathlon training in and Adam and I over Bozeman pass to Bozeman. Little did we know that the wind would keep us from our final destination. The 35 miles to Livingston took us double the time we had intended and we were so exhausted from battling the wind that we decided it would be best to stop here for the night. We've eluded the mountains for one more day, but tomorrow we head over Bozeman pass and into the start of some crazy climbs.

Wish us luck!!

When Life Gives you Lemmon... Lemmon, South Dakota That Is

2011-07-12T15:44:00.001-07:00

You ever notice how sometimes things don't quite work out the way you plan? Like, that darn car tax bill that takes all of your spending money for the month of July. Or, the woman checking you out at the grocery store takes a million years and makes you late. Or, the campsite you were going to camp in was underwater. No? Did I lose you there? Well, the point is, that sometimes, life might give you a lemon, but you still have to make the best of it all, right?

Lemon #1 was just outside of Chamberlain, SD. We rode into Fort Thomson hoping for a free campground, but found out it was actually underwater. The heavy spring rains accompanied by the fast snow melt in the mountains have made for some fairly high levels of water in the Missouri River. After a conversation with a young woman who warned us about snakes, we chose to feel safe in the motel that night. We may have been a little bummed about spending the money, but the sign on the door made it all worth it.

The next morning, we got out early and rode 15 miles when we passed the one and only pit stop until Pierre, filled up on water, then used the wind to help us with the last 47 miles. We had basically come to terms with the fact that we'd have headwinds for the next 4 months, but we've been lucky with a few days of the wind helping push us and we are appreciating every moment!

Lemon #2 again happened to be a free campsite underwater. We were not about to spend the money on another night in a hotel, but we weren't sure what to do. Along with the park being closed, there were houses with red X's indicating the family had evacuated, and all the businesses in town had sandbags around the foundation hoping to keep the water out. It looked like a war zone.

Mary found us wandering around looking for a place in the shade for lunch, and she invited us into her office. She and the rest of the staff racked their brains to help us find a place to camp, and they found a couple 13 miles outside of town who were willing to take us in for the night. It ended up being another night inside as Sharon and Dan showed us to the back of their garage, complete with a kitchen and shower.

It's been tough to get good sleep at night because the sun doesn't go down until 10:00 and we've been loving the cool early morning riding and getting up at 4 or 5. Even with the late night, we managed to get ourselves up early again the next day and started what happened to be one of our longest days of riding since CT.

The first 30 miles was cake. The next 20 were manageable. But the last 36 were brutal. Thank goodness for Wayne and our air conditioned lunch inside his store. When we saw his store, the only store on the road for 20 miles, we went to ask if we could find a spot in the shade for lunch but he invited us right on in. We enjoyed our tuna wraps as Wayne ate a Spam and mustard sandwich and shared stories of Buffalo and Rattlesnakes... neither of which I'd be too excited to see while on a bike.

Little did we know that when we left this little haven, we were in for a rough afternoon. Lemon #3. The wind shifted so we were pushing against it, the sun was hot, beating down on us. We felt drained and ready for a nap but there was nowhere in sight. And about half way through, Adam looked at me and I knew something was wrong. Having stomach problems while on a bike in the middle of nowhere was interesting, to say the least.

The first time we had to stop, we managed to find a tree for him to hide behind to do his business. The second time there was nothing but a hay field. Oh well, you use what you've got, right? The huge bales of hay were enough of a shield to cover him for the duration. We did, however, completely run out of anything useable as a wipe after this episode but still had about 10 miles until the next town. Miraculously, Adam was healed after this second stop and by the time we passed the ice cream shop in town, he was ready to indulge in the treat with me.

No more lemons that day. There was free camping in a park that was not underwater! Instead of the park being submerged in water, there was a pool where we were able to get a free dip along with a shower. The price? Everyone seeing my remarkable tan lines and Adam's white butt as his shorts fell down to his ankles after diving in. Pretty embarrassing.

Our only other obstacle for the day was having a stove with no fuel(couldn't find a place in South Dakota that sold the correct fuel for our stove). Luckily, we had stayed with Paul months earlier who showed us how to make a stove out of soda cans that uses an antifreeze found at any gas station. Adam went to work and in a few minutes we had a working stove to cook dinner.

The nice part of waking up early is the sunrise pictures that Adam can get.

We had our sights set on McLaughlin for the next night. I asked a grocery store clerk if it was a decent town and she looked at me and said, "you see Dan over there? He's 280 pounds and he wouldn't camp in McLaughlin." After having 3 people in a matter of 3 minutes tell us to steer clear of that town, we thought we'd better head one town further, 30 more miles away.

In all honesty, though, McLaughlin seemed like a nice town as we passed through, made friendly conversation with a few locals, ate lunch, and met Nathaniel, a solo bike tourist. Because we had an amazing tail wind that day we all decided to head the extra 30 miles to McIntosh and make it an 80 mile day.

We spent that night and the next day with Nathaniel before he turned south. It's always nice sharing the road with another traveler. Nathaniel was on his 2nd bike tour, living off of Ramen Noodles and rice. He said the less he spent on food the longer he could tour. I guess that made sense except I didn't want him totally wasting away so we had to treat him a little and shared some jerky, strawberries, Cheez-It's and a candy bar.

The next day was the biggest Lemmon. Lemmon, South Dakota. Even though there were only 1,200 people living there, it still was the biggest town around and there just so happened to be a big festival that weekend. No lemons for us in Lemmon, that's for sure. We missed the parade and the mud volleyball, but made it in time for lunch in the park and the big rodeo at the end of the day. Nathaniel continued on that day but we decided to enjoy what we happened to stumble upon.

We got an offer from Steve and Susan to camp in their yard for the night, and they gave us a ride to our first rodeo. Adam and I weren't even really sure what to expect but we got it all! Bareback Riding, Bull Riding, Barrel Racing, Steer Wrestling, and more. Within our first few minutes we were already seeing people flying off horses. It was a night to remember. Lemmon, South Dakota.

After Steve gave Adam a present of Jerky made from one of his kills, we were on our way to North Dakota where we spent only one night. Bowman was a small town, but had some great ice cream! We met a few locals who pointed us to some free camping.

The last lemon we've encountered was a big one. 3 miles of road construction. The road was completely torn out and was dirt and gumbo (apparently stuff that sticks to your tires and cakes all up) and the ornery sign lady wouldn't let us through on our bikes. There was no option for a detour so for the first time in 8,100 miles, we had to take a ride forward. We didn't like it (ok, maybe we did just a little), but it was the only option.

After the 3 mile ride in a pick-up truck, we were back on our bikes riding the wind to Plevna, Montana where we spent a quiet night at the city park.

Finally, after weeks of straight roads that seemed to go on forever, we hit some hills today and did a little climbing. It was so good to see hills and trees that the climb didn't even feel so bad. We finished the day with a nice downhill into Miles City where we're hoping for an invite inside and a warm shower. We'll see what happens. Whatever does, though, I'm sure we'll find a way to enjoy it.

Dam Pictures

2011-07-05T10:41:00.001-07:00

We have been hearing about the Missouri River flooding for a while now, and knew our route would be bringing us right on up the Missouri for a few hundred miles through South Dakota and into North Dakota. In light of the situation, some people may have changed their course. We just assumed we'd figure it out when we got there and kept our route straight for the Missouri. But before we got to the river, we had a few more dry, hot days in the flats.

Blue Earth took very good care of us. From the numerous conversations with everyone we met, to the 2 interviews, and the invite to take us out for breakfast the next morning, we felt totally at home. This town's got my vote for friendliest town.

We had been told of free camping in the town park (I like this free stuff) and so we found our way there, set up camp, and started dinner.

Adam was in the shower and I was stirring the pasta and swatting the mosquitos when Dave found me. He was a teacher in town, on summer break, and had done a cross country tour a few years back. One of the women we had met earlier in the day tipped Dave off that we were in the campground, and he rode right on out to greet us and invited us out for breakfast the next morning.

Sure enough, the next morning at 7:50, Dave rode up to our site and took us to a restaurant for breakfast. Little did we know that only a few hundred yards from our little camp site was the huge Jolly Green Giant. We had to stop for a quick shot before continuing on to breakfast with Dave and his friend, Joe.

We swapped stories of the road over a big breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon (I think we all ordered the exact same thing). Towards the end of breakfast, Norm from the local radio station, came to give us our second interview. Not sure if it's been aired yet, but we'll keep you posted.

Our first interview was at the library the day before with Chuck from the Faribault County Register. A few of the details are a little off, but it's a good piece. Big Correction: We STORED our wedding gifts, not SOLD our wedding gifts as he mentions in the piece. (We did get $40 for Grandma's knitted quilt).... (haha, just kidding).

After all of the meetin' and greetin' in Blue Earth, it was time for us to head off. Dave gave us a push out of town and we were again on our own, battling the winds. The blue skies and cool clouds made for some more amazing photographs as we rode south towards Iowa.

The day was long, and we're finding it's tough to get healthy food on the road now. The combination of pancakes and bacon at breakfast, with two oversized, cheese-stuffed, hot dogs at lunch, and a late afternoon snack of tacos didn't help me feel any better. But we were fortunate enough to have great neighbors at our campsite that night who invited us over to their picnic table for some ziti, salad, carrots, and wine. The cookies that John and Elizabeth offered for dessert were the perfect way to end a great meal.

This was our introduction to Spirit Lake. The popular tourist destination for Iowaonians (I made up that word and am laughing now as I'm thinking of you trying to pronounce it). We had been told it would be a great place to see, but the more we visit these touristy-type places, the more we realize these things are just not well-suited for bicycle travel. I'm sure Spirit Lake really is nice, but without knowing anything about it and showing up on a bike, it was tough to navigate. So we're sticking to Small Town America! And that's exactly what we did for the next few nights.

It was another scorching day with towns spread out 20 or so miles apart from one another. We made it to Ashton where there was no grocery store, but there was a pub, so we had no choice but to order pub food again. Their special that night? Tacos. Ugh... My stomach couldn't handle any more of that so I went with a club sandwich to tide us over until we made it to George.

George turned out to be another one of our favorite stops. They had a community swimming pool that a boy on a bike was all too excited to show us the way to. Adam fit right in with all the 10-year-olds waiting in line to make the biggest splash off the diving board. They even gave him an A+ for his superb jackknife. The people at the pool were so warm to us visitors and we even got invited to stay in Jen and Jerry's camper that night, Larry Stripey (the camper was named by their son who was 4 at the time). It was a treat to stay in AC, away from mosquitos, and in a real bed after the hot hot day.

Looking at the weather, we knew the next day was going to be even hotter so we decided to get up super early and get our riding in before the heat. By 10:30, we made it 40 miles to Canton, SD where we hung out for the day inside the air conditioned library. At 7, it was still too hot to ride, so we heard about a campsite in town, went to the grocery store to grab dinner, and got back on our bikes headed towards the camp when we ran into Bubba. He must have seen how badly we needed a drink, and because he was a bouncer at the local bar, FB Mac's, he gave us two free tokens for a beer there.

We stopped by for a drink on the way to the campground. A cold beer felt great after riding around town in the heat and the people in the bar were fascinated as to how we managed to bike ride into their town!

That night, it never seemed to cool down and we got a restless night's sleep before our alarm clock woke us up at 4:00. Our goal? Get to Yankton, 68 miles away, before it got too hot. Well, by 8:30 it felt too hot, but we pushed on anyway. Stopping to get indoors or fill up our water every chance we got. We made it to Yankton by 12:15, found a campground with a pool and an air-conditioned laundry room with a table and two chairs to get some computer work done.

Yankton is right on the Missouri River and it was where we were going to cross into Nebraska before we had heard about all of the flooding. Heading towards Yankton, we weren't sure if we were going to be able to get to Nebraska anymore. Now, let me take you back just a few months to our trip planning. In my mom's basement, we had a big map of the United States hanging on the wall. We used this as our route planner, and would stick thumbtacks in cities in each state with a string going from San Diego, through all the states, and finally to Hawaii. When my brother, Dave, was home for our wedding, he pulled out one of the thumbtacks as a joke, thinking it would be funny if we made it to Seattle only find we had forgotten to hit one state. Hahaha. Very funny, indeed. What state did he just happen to pull the tack out of? That would, of course, be Nebraska. Fast forward 8 months and here we were, not knowing if we'd be able to cross the Missouri to get to Nebraska. Fitting.

Lucky for us, the bridge from Yankton to Nebraska was open, and later that day, when the heat finally broke, we rode across the bridge, into Nebraska, and back. Our plan was to ride through Nebraska for a hundred or so miles and then cross back into South Dakota, but the bridge really was out at the next major crossing so unfortunately, that was all we'd bike in Nebraska. I feel only slightly bad about this.

As it turns out we could have ridden a good 20 miles in Nebraska and come back into SD over the Gavin's Point Dam. Not knowing there was a crossing at the Dam, we took the bike path in South Dakota and rode along the river as the fog rolled in.

When we got near the dam, we decided to detour just a bit to see it. Usually, the Dam is quiet as the water flows through the power plant just next door. But because of the late snows in Montana, the quick thawing out of the snow, and the crazy spring rains, they had to open the Dam for the first time ever. The amount of water flowing through was dizzying! Someone told us this type of flood only happens once every 500 years. I'm sure with all the flooding many people are displaced, and seeing the water surging through the Dam gives you a big appreciation for the power of water.

After taking some Dam pictures, we were off again, hoping for a good 70 or 80 mile day, but our hopes were shot down when Adam's shifting cable snapped 40 miles down the road, just two miles outside of Springfield, SD, right after we passed this sign:

We tried everything. Called the auto shop, hoping they'd have a cable that could work. Stopped by the hardware store to pick up some possibilities for a MacGyver-type-fix. All to no avail. When we kept striking out, Beth, at the hardware store called up John McNeill, an avid cyclist in town. He rode down to see us, and when he realized it was a cable that we needed, he offered to help us replace it with a cable he had at his house.

Adam was seriously lucky.

Adam says if it weren't for John, it would be a long three day break in Springfield before we could hitch a ride back to the bike shop in Yankton when they opened up again after the three day Holiday weekend. I say, it would have been a long 300 mile ride for Adam having only one gear until the next city with a bike shop.

We put in the new cable but were enticed to stay in Springfield, camp in John and Susan's backyard(after finding out the campground was closed), and join them that night as their country band played in a nearby concert hall.

As John and Susan set up, Adam and I went across the street to grab some grub. Wild Bill's was the name of the only restaurant in town, and while I ordered a burger, Adam couldn't resist the Tipsy Chicken special. It was literally half a chicken on his plate with a sweet whisky dipping sauce. When the waitress brought it out, she told us not to worry, they had to-go containers. I think Adam took that as a challenge. Half way through, he ditched the fork and knife and gnawed every last inch of meat off that chicken.

It took him so long to finish the chicken, that we skirted into the concert hall just as the first song started. It was a jam-type concert with John and Susan, The Musical Farmer, another duo, Nick and Owen, and a local banjo player. They each played back-up for the others as they shared their songs. My personal favorite? The McNeill's. Maybe I was biased because they had been so good to us, but their music was fun and I was amazed that John could play the guitar, harmonica, drums, and sing all at the same time- ok, I guess he wasn't singing and playing the harmonica at the exact same time, but you know what I mean.

The next morning, as we got ready to head out, we had our sights set on the little town of Bonesteel, SD, 75 miles away, so we wanted to head out early. I think this was a record for us, getting off so early so many days in a row. We got in some good miles in the morning and were at yet another Dam by lunch time where we enjoyed a lunch in the shade with some great Dam views and learned a lot about the Dam history in the Dam visitor's center. Adam squeezed in a little nap(as only a Coppola boy can do) before we took some more Dam pictures.

For as much water as there was at the Dam, the next 40 miles to Bonesteel were bone dry. Thank goodness for a strong tailwind for the last 10 miles north that day. We flew up to Bonesteel, stopped for a quick water and snack break, and decided to use the tailwind for another 20 miles north to Burke. Since we were riding as the sun was setting, Adam couldn't resist some good photos.

We found a campsite in the town park. As we were settling down to sleep, a man and his kids came to the park to set off some fireworks. I was amazed that he was actually letting his kids light the fireworks themselves!!! I peeked out the tent at a few, then settled in to sleep when I heard one of the kids say, after a particularly loud firecracker, "Oh no! Look at the sparks!" To which the father replied, "Don't worry, they'll go out," followed immediately by a thud next to the tent. The next morning, Adam found the firecracker laying just outside my side of the tent.

We were up early again and shared a good conversation with Zach, who showed up late that night to the campsite. He had just graduated high school and was excited to start college in Montana as an Environmental Science major. He was in town that weekend for a family reunion and brought his new hammock tent to try out instead of staying on the floor in the hotel room.

We parted ways that morning, Zach heading to his grandma's house for a breakfast of bacon and eggs and us onto Chamberlain, South Dakota. The biggest town around(over 2,000 people) which was sure to have fireworks that evening. The first twenty miles were perfect. The fog made for a cool morning and the tail wind from the night before only got stronger. We stopped for a quick break along the river before the sun came out and started heating things up.

For 40 miles we rode in the burning sun without a break. There wasn't even a place to break if we had wanted to! We had just enough water to make it to the next town of Pukwana where there was a post office. We did manage to find an awning with chairs underneath to eat a tuna wrap, and ran into the firehouse to fill up water when a fireman drove by. Thoroughly refreshed, we felt confident to make the last ten miles in over 90 degree weather.

Chamberlain had exactly what we needed. A place to take a nap, a restaurant for dinner, and a great fireworks show over the Missouri river. The firework show was only that much better from the streaks of lightning in the distance. Excellent Fourth of July? Check!

Making Connections

2011-06-27T17:01:00.001-07:00

It's a neat feeling to meet people along the way on the street, through our Facebook, or one of our charities, but along with meeting random strangers, now we've started to make connections with people through these connections. Its like a connection to the Nth power.

Staying in Madison, WI with Mark was one of these connections. We had met Judy in Cleveland. Judy is the sister of Lisa, who we met only through email. She is the sister of Mike Kollins, the World Bicycle Relief C.O.O, who we have never met before but found out about through our WBR connection, Katie- who, as you can probably guess, we have never met. I'm pretty sure this is a connection to the fourth power once removed.

Anyway, Mark is an old college friend of Judy's and she wrote to him hoping he'd be able to help us on our travels through Madison, WI and one week later, here we are! Mark is a triathlete who cooked us a healthy pasta and veggie dinner with a great salad and some corn alongside. Energy food! He invited his friends, CJ and Steve, over and we all enjoyed the food and company, and watched history as a young Irish guy won a golf tournament.

Our stay in Madison was short, but sweet. The next morning, we headed out early, cautious of the dark clouds. But we had plans to meet up with a bicycle touring family who wrote to us on Facebook saying they'd be in Madison at the same time as us. Reuben, Heidi, Eden, and Harper are the Pedal Powered Family. They are taking a year off and riding through North and South America with their two and four year old kids. Their set up is amazing and we were lucky to get to spend the time with them.

We loved their style. Every playground we passed was a definite stop for the kids to play and get out some energy. When watching Reuben and Heidi, we were amazed at their patience and energy. When we stop pedaling, we enjoy some relaxation time. When they stopped pedaling, they still needed the energy for their kids and they had it.

Eden's favorite part of the tour so far was the camping, she told us. I never saw a frown on her face. She seemed to have adapted quickly and enjoyed every aspect of traveling by bike. She took pride in giving her little brother a sticker to make him smile while on the back of their dad's bike. Of course, no one was smiling when the raccoon climbed onto our picnic table and grabbed the whole bag of marshmallows. Thank goodness for the kindness of a camp neighbor who gave us a few marshmallows to roast over the fire. The night was saved.

Their routine in the morning was already perfectly executed, even though they were just a month into their trip. They had it all down pat and were packed and ready to go before Adam and I. That morning, we got to fly down the beast of a hill we had climbed the night before into the campground. It was a great rush to start the day, but only minutes later, my tube burst for the second time in just a few days and actually shredded my tire. Adam and I were at a loss without a spare tire or a spare tube on us after replacing Adam's tube the day before with our spare when his tube burst. I can assure you, bursting tubes is not fun and could be really dangerous. Thankfully, they all happened while moving fairly slowly. Just two minutes earlier, and the bursting tire story would have ended much differently.

So with that, we said our goodbyes to the Pedal Powered Family (just for now... We'll meet up again for sure). Adam even left me to ride to the ranger station to see about getting me a ride there instead of having me push it the three miles. I was all alone, pushing my broken bike through the park. It wasn't the heat that got to me, it was the bugs. I wasn't moving fast enough to get away from them and my bug repellent, named Adam, wasn't there so they were having a field day with me. Soon enough, a park ranger came by and offered me a ride to the office. I didn't feel guilty about taking the ride since I was the one who traveled this road the night before, heading to the office from the campground to pay for our site.

We were a little worried this might be a bit of a setback and were brainstorming how to get a ride back to Madison to the closest bike shop when a park ranger gave us a piece of paper with a name and number on it. Michael was the Vacation-Saver, as he liked to call himself. His "shop" was only five miles from the park, but when we called him, he insisted on coming up and meeting us there. He just so happened to have the right size tubes and tire to get us by until we were able to buy a whole new set of tires in the next big town, La Crosse, 80 miles away. We couldn't trust those Amazon bought tires anymore, not after three blowouts in three days.

Instead of backtracking 50 miles and losing a day, we were on the road again in an hour. Thank goodness for Michael. Even with the late start and the braking downhills due to lack of trust in our tires, we managed a good 65 miles to a cute little town named Viola. The whole day was full of beautiful riding and Viola was no different. It was one of those towns that you just feel good as soon as you enter. Nestled in a valley, surrounded by mountains, you just knew there were bound to be good people.

Even though we're making all of these connections through Facebook or e-mail, we're still finding good people everywhere we go. Grant was the first person we met in Viola and we didn't have to search any further to find kindness. He invited us into his home, heated up a great dinner complete with lettuce and radishes from the garden, and the next morning while we were waiting for the rain to pass, he drove us around and gave us a tour of the town and surrounding mountains. Grant and his wife, Helen, both worked for Organic Valley and I have never seen anybody so passionate about a job as Grant. While there, they fed us Organic Valley milk, chocolate milk, and cheese and even stuck a pack of cheese in our packs before we left. Mmmmm.

After our tour of the town, Adam and I hopped on our bikes and rode away towards La Crosse to get new tires.

Along the way, we received a call from News Channel 8. He sent out a crew to interview us on the road and we made the 6:00 news that night!! Our host from the night before, Grant, had apparently called them up and told them about us. Told you he was a good guy!

We made it to La Crosse, fairly exhausted from the hilly ride and found the bike shop where we had ordered new tires. Smith's Bike Shop was hopping, but we didn't want to leave without someone looking at our tires and wheels to make sure they were OK and hopefully wouldn't blow up on us again. We were pushing the limit when Scot was finally able to look at our bikes with only ten minutes left before the shop closed. He watched us fumble as we clumsily changed our tires, breaking another tube in the process. He must have thought we were pretty hopeless and took pity on us because after ringing us out and giving us a sweet deal on the tires, he invited us to his home for the night.

Scot took pride in his home and gave us the grand tour before sitting down for pasta and sauce for dinner. Scot was more of a racing cyclist but his wife, Carrie, had done some touring the past and we swapped stories about the difference between bike touring pre-iPhone and post-iPhone.

After dinner and a Klondike dessert, Scot's eyes lit up as he invited us into his basement. He could hardly contain his excitement about showing us his bicycle collection. Scot and Carrie were a 1 car, 54 bike family, as he put it. And in his basement, he had many of these bikes hanging. At one time he had planned on opening a bicycle museum and had a huge collection of bikes, bike components, and bike magazines. Now, though, he was more focused on creating his own bike brand, Thistle. We got a lesson in Campagnolo bike components and a little history of bikes before we headed to bed for the night.

The next morning was raining again, but we all got on our bikes anyway. Scot rode to work and we rode on up the Mississippi River towards Minnesota. Only five miles down the road and we ran into another touring couple with a fun story. They had been planning a bike trip through Wisconsin for months and were a week and 1/2 into it when we met them. At the beginning of their trip, Nick proposed to Amanda and so they were enjoying their first few days as an engaged couple on bikes. Their story brought us back and we started feeling all gushy about our engagement and wedding.

We were feeling these good vibes during lunch and Adam snuck away to pay for their food but we were too late! Nick had already given his credit card to the cashier. Sneaky, sneaky.

After lunch, we rode a few more miles with Amanda and Nick before we parted ways. They were continuing north and we were headed across the Mississippi into state #36. We stopped in Winona that night at the campground and were looking forward to a relaxing night together. Well, even in a campground you can't get away from the kindness of strangers and we were visited by numerous people and even had our picture taken with two teenage girls who claimed we were their idols! We did manage to have a peaceful night together and were even invited to Lavern and Carol's for breakfast the next morning.

Yet another fun connection was Todd and his family. Todd wasn't connected with World Bicycle Relief. He wasn't a friend of a friend of a friend. Todd was an alumni of Providence College, Adam's Alma Mater. Our story had been published in the Providence College alumni newsletter and Todd happened to see it, look us up, and noticed we were riding through his town. Todd wrote us a few weeks ago to see if he could help set something up in Rochester, MN for us on our way through.

A presentation fell through due to timing on our part, but we did manage to spend a great evening with Todd, his wife, Christine, their little boy, Jack, and their friends Brian, Amanda and their son, Finn. The colorful veggie-filled dishes were a perfect summertime barbecue, paired with some grilled salmon. Can't really get better than that except for Todd's Mojitos he made for us at the end of the night.

The next morning, Todd gave us a tour of Rochester and even showed us the hotel in town where he had arranged for a room for us for the night. We said our goodbyes later that morning, but couldn't thank him enough for his generosity. On top of all of this, they gave us two containers of blueberries which were consumed within hours. Mmmm.

We had a relaxing day in Rochester, hiding out in our hotel room, ordering from a pizza place, napping, and writing at the Starbucks in the lobby, all the while letting the rain fall outside. So we didn't actually get to see much of the city, but a good day off was even better.

We left the next morning with bellies full of blueberry oatmeal, with rejuvenated spirits, and with a tail wind!

82 miles down the road and we were feeling the distance. It was our longest day on the road since we left CT and it felt so good. We asked a family in Minnesota Lake for ideas for a campground in the area and they offered the backyard of their church, unlocked the church doors so we could use the bathrooms, and invited us over for dinner. Marilyn and Eldo had made a tenderloin and served it with corn from the neighbor, lettuce and strawberries from their garden, and baked beans. Mmmm. Much better than the Pasta Sides dinner we would have made.

That night, as we laid down to sleep, we started to see the lightning and hear the thunder. The weather said the wind would be pretty heavy, too so it didn't take us long to grab our sleeping bags and set up inside the church instead. We went out the next morning and noticed the wind was so strong there were tree branches scattered around our tent, the tent poles actually inverted, causing our tent to look lopsided, and it knocked over Adam's bike. Glad we chose to get a good nights sleep indoors.

Our final connection of the week was Don. Don is Katie's dad (Katie, our WBR contact who we still haven't met but will in Colorado). He had been emailing us for weeks about riding with us and though we didn't go through his town, he drove out this morning and met us at the church.

Little did Don know that this day would be one of our windiest. We battled the wind for 3 hours and rode only 20 miles, but having the company on the ride made it all better. Unfortunately, Don had to turn back after lunch to get back to his car. He left us to battle the wind alone, but I guess he had his own battles. He texted us that he had been chased by "an ugly, mean-looking, black dog and a not-so-mean-looking black and white chicken." Fortunately, that didn't seem to dampen his spirits from the day.

So, only 40 miles on the day but with two interviews, some grocery shopping, and a blog, we're happy campers tonight. Literally!!

Americana Overload

2011-06-19T06:46:00.001-07:00

Americana Overload for sure! We have experienced some good old American fun this past week and it all started with the Tractor Pull.

A pork burger and two chili cheese dogs do not sit well when trying to bike 65 miles per day. We have been doing a great job with food, even incorporating shrimp pasta dinners instead of a Mac and cheese every night. But the Tractor Pull sign was just calling our names and we couldn't resist some good Indiana fun and food.

It was an odd mix of country folk in their tractors and Amish families with their horse and buggies. I think our coming to the festival was one of the highlights of the day and we even got our picture taken by one of the women who organizes the event. But the highlight for us was the event itself. I had never even heard of a tractor pull, though judging by the name I was able to figure it out. It was exactly what you'd expect. A bunch of dudes standing by their tractors, ready to be the one to pull the weight the farthest.

We were so psyched that we got the opportunity to experience a little local fun on our trip. So many times we pass a sign that reads, "Chicken BBQ, July 2" or "Strawberry Festival, August 5." Nothing seems to be happening on the day we actually ride by, but June 11 was different. Not only did we get the Tractor Pull, but we also found a fresh strawberry stand. We pulled in not a minute too soon and were able to buy a quart of strawberries from William before his neighbor Sally pulled in and bought the rest of case. William was Amish and we spent a few minutes talking with him and his kids, Andy and Ruthann, before we continued on. It was here that we took our first book order! He told us to write down his address so we can send him a book when we finished our tour. We thanked him for the strawberries and rode back to into Michigan hoping to find a place to rest our heads. Not even five miles down the road, we found a veteran-owned motel where the owner let us camp out in the back for free.

I have to take a minute here and point out Adam's amazing photography- especially of our Eastern Mountain Sports tent. We all know what an amazing photographer he is, but it's nice having someone else recognize his talent. Eastern Mountain Sports, one of our favorite outdoor gear companies, blogged about us the other day which is very cool, but even better is that they gave major props to Adam's photography! Such great encouragement as Adam strives to be a commercial photographer with these types of products.

The next day was a funny mix. We were chased by dogs in farm country at the beginning of the day, and riding next to beaches by dinner.

At lunch, we were lucky enough to not only find a festival and parade in Three Oaks, Michigan, but it just so happened to be The World's Biggest Flag Day Parade. How could we miss that? We grabbed lunch at the gas station and settled down to watch the parade. I was amazed at all of the floats and vehicles and dances and music, but what caught my eye the most was the constant floats with beauty queens. There must have been a dozen of these floats. The guy next to us told us, "You name any flower and we've got a beauty contest for it. Daffodils, Cherry Blossoms, even Asparagus! She looks great in green!"

So apparently, out here you can be at a Tractor Pull one day, then the next day be spending the evening on Lake Michigan in a house with this view out your window.

We met Alan and his dog, Oscar, while riding down Lake Shore Drive along Lake Michigan. Alan generously invited us to spend the night at his lake-front house. How could we say no? Alan and his wife, Kathy, treated us to a great dinner and we provided the apple pie and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

The next day led us through the dunes, onto paved bike paths, to a little public library where they had free tea and wafers, and finally to Bob's house.

Bob seemed like your average Joe, but with the amount of places he volunteers, he was more a super man. He told us about a few organizations in Chicago, including the one he volunteered at called Working Bikes, that recycled old bikes and gave them to all sorts of community projects for people in need. We loved learning of all of the different projects Working Bikes helped with like bikes for Katrina Victims, bikes for those in developing countries, and bikes for local people in need.

When we left the next day, Bob joined us for a few miles on his way to the soup kitchen he volunteered at in Hammond, IN. After that, it was on to Chicago with some amazing bike trails into the city.

More Americana was found in Chicago when we got to see a Cubs game. Not only did we get to see the baseball game, but we were given the best seats we'll ever have for any baseball game ever. Since we had been given four tickets to the game, we took our Chicago hosts, Leah and Lincoln. Hot dogs and beer and baseball. Can't get any more Americana than that.

Chicago didn't stop with just a baseball game, though. We spent our first day riding up along the lake to Millennium Park where we found The Bean. I think there are finally more pictures of something else besides me! Adam couldn't get enough of The Bean and you can see why. What fun!

On our second trip back to The Bean that day, we found the Twix cart gearing up to give away free Twix bars. We hit them up for as much as they were willing to give us and scarfed them down immediately. Mmmmmmm.. I could totally go for a Twix right now.

To counter the Twix feast and hot dogs and beer, we got to do a 25 mile ride with a Woman's Group from Higher Gear Bike Shop in Wilmette, IL, just north of Chicago. We loved it! These women booked it and it felt good to really fly for a bit without 50 pounds of gear on our bikes. We have Sylvie to thank for inviting us to the ride and for the awesome Cubs tickets!!

One of our favorite experiences of the trip so far was when we met some of the wounded veterans who were trying out hand cycles at Walter Reed hospital in D.C. Unfortunately, since the bikes we're getting for World Bicycle Relief are going to a different country, we won't necessarily meet any of the recipients along our 50 state tour, but the next best thing was to meet the people who made it all happen.

The headquarters for World Bicycle Relief is in Chicago, so we finally got to put faces with the names of people we've been working with over email for so many months. We knew it already, but the people of WBR are awesome! They are devoted, hard working, passionate people and love their jobs. We got to give a presentation to some of the WBR crew and enjoyed a mini WBR presentation as well as a little tour of the SRAM headquarters who founded World Bicycle Relief. We even got to ride one of the WBR bikes. Talk about a sturdy bike, those things weighed almost as much as our bikes fully loaded! The visit was a huge inspiration for us as we continue our tour. I just wrote my latest Patch article about WBR and you can read that here!

We were feeling good after the many meetings and greetings we had this past week, but we didn't want our bikes to feel left out. Higher Gear hooked us up with a tune-up, then we had some presents for our bikes waiting for us at our friend Leigh's place outside of Chicago.

It isn't as bad as it looks. We bought four new tires from Amazon and they packaged each tire individually in one of those huge boxes. Very unnecessary but it made us laugh when we got to Leigh's and had all of these boxes waiting for us. We also had some nice new black leather saddles courtesy of Selle-Anatomica to replace the two brown leather saddles we had in the beginning of the trip. That was more a present for our bums rather than our bikes. It looked like we would have a little bit of bike maintenance to do at Leigh's.

First thing was first, though. Some Chicago-style Deep Dish Pizza. We went out with Leigh and her husband Scott and met up with another friend from high school, Shaun and his wife, Gina. It's always a comforting feeling when we get to see old friends, especially when we are constantly meeting new people everywhere we go. Some good reminiscing and a lot of Deep Dish Pizza hit the spot and after a package-opening session back at Leigh's we fell fast asleep.

Our bikes had new life in them with all the maintenance, but as any cyclist knows(does this now qualify us as cyclists?), it does take a little finageling to get the seat to fit you just right. We're still working on that, but the saddles are coming along and our butts are slowly adjusting.

We spent the day on some amazing Illinois bike trails, gearing up for Wisconsin. Everyone has been telling us that Wisconsin has great roads for biking and they were so right! Besides the fact that this was the first time we really felt like someone was close to hitting us (they were making a left hand turn onto the road we were on, didn't see us, and almost plowed right into Adam), we've been happy with the roads and in awe of the landscape. Plus, we've been getting some tail winds for the first time in a long time.

We did have a couple of set backs on our way to Wisconsin that day, though. It started with Julie and Mark who were riding their bikes to a wedding. Unfortunately, Mark got a flat and they had nothing to fix it. But lucky them, they ran into us with our never-ending supply of patches! We quickly helped them on their way, and then got on our way. About five minutes down the road, though, it was my turn. I guess I must have pinched the tube when putting on the new tires that morning because all of a sudden we heard a loud BANG! and my tire was flat flat flat. Ten minutes later and a new tube on my bike and we were on our way. Flat # 37.

We finished our ride to Lake Geneva to stay with Nancy and Craig, family of our World Bicycle Relief crew, who took us in for the night. They loaded us up with veggies before they brought us to a great place for dinner and then another yummy spot for breakfast the next morning. The lake house they had was so serene, we really weren't sure if we we're going to leave. Apparently the birds were chirping loud enough at 4:30 in the morning to wake up Nancy and Craig, but Adam and I slept right on through it.

Our final stop on our Americana Overload tour was a little Wisconsin cheese shop in Delevan. The owner of Brick Street Market, Laura Welch, invited us to sit down and get some work done while we enjoyed all the different cheeses. We had cheddar cheese, gouda cheese with mustard seeds, and cheese soaked in a local beer. All the while we caught up on some much needed work that had been put on the back burner during the past crazy week.

When we left the shop at 4:30 the afternoon, our plan was to head northeast, but the eastern wind made us think otherwise, and we used the wind to our full advantage and headed due west. Janesville is home tonight and we're heading to Madison tomorrow. So weird to say Madison and not mean home. Ahhh, home will come soon enough, I'm sure.

A very happy father's day to all of those father's out there but especially Papa P, Papa C, and the brand new Papa Kimuli.