It's been over for a while but here's the end

So it's over.  And here's how it ended.  We watched Kenny ride away after Bend, OR with a tear in our hearts, not in our eyes because we don't cry and then continued to the Oregon coast. Upon arriving we immediately bought razors to shave mustaches and inquired where the nearest movie theater was.  It wasn't showing the Other Guys after 5pm so we sadly shaved our faces at an Oregon state park where we encountered giant slugs.

 

The next day we began our ride in a heavy mist - not rain but a heavy mist.  We were confused and bummed because we weren't actually riding along the coast.  After twenty miles or so  we stopped at a library and dried our socks; happily spending two and half hours on youtube/facebook. 

101 might have been the hardest section of the entire trip.  It had massive hills, no shoulder, it was cold and there was usually a head wind.  It would have been a nice car ride.   In fact we actually tried to talk a guy into dropping the $500 price tag of his s10 durango to $350 but he wasn't having it. 101 did provide the occasional vista which made it worth while.

Our first night in CA we spent in Eureka.  It was one of the only times we actually felt unsafe. The town was dirty and gave off sour vibrations.  We slept on a frisbee golf field littered with beer cans behind  the town park.   Once settled in, we heard voices coming towards our tent.  Crazy homeless people? Angry youth?   We heard something land by  our tent - a frisbee.  It was a group of drunk guys playing night golf. 

California coast upside down.

 I heard one of them threaten to burn our tent down so I poked my head out and apologized for being on the field.  They said it was fine and unknowingly acted as our body guards for the remainder of their game.

For the duration of 101 we road long days and slept either on the side of the road or town parks.  It was our longest stretch without a shower and by the last couple hundred miles our bike were falling apart.  The spokes in Jim's rear tire were literally pulling out of the rim and mine had developed a nasty wobble as well.  I had to unattach the rear break  to stop it from rubbing.  It was funny though because it took us a while to realize why we were so tired.  Only 40 miles out of San Fran, Jim's rim had had enough and refused to spin.  We called it quits and hitch-hiked to Fairfax where we took a bus into the city.  

We spent a week in San Fran at a UVM friend's, Alicia, apartment.  They made fun of our smell and facial hair and fed us eggs sandwiches.  We went out on the town, walked around the parks,  saw castro street and haight ashbury but ultimately hung around and watched movies.  It was the perfect finish to two months of nonstop moving.  Funny thing about our smell though...apperently we actually did smell.  And the Amtrak people agreed...    

Jim and I ordered our tickets the day before leaving, we left early that morning, navigated all the buses correctly - a big deal for us never having used public transportation in a city before.  We broke down and packed up the bikes just in time and were about to get on the train when we heard someway say "You two can't get on my train."  It was the conducter and apperantly he smelt us "all the way down the platform." And apparently deroterant "could never cover up the smell."  He told us the train had circle air and our smell would be spread throughout the entirety of the train, ruining the trip for hundreds of people.  We argued but finally realized he was serious.  The guy at the booth when we refunded our tickets said he'ld never seen anything like it seventeen years.  We took a train to the SF Airport and bought plane tickets.  We passed the smell test, although I was randomly selected for a pat down, and boarded.  In 6 hours we did what took us 2 months.

Thanks to everyone who helped us out on the way or just seemed interested in talking to us.  It was meeting great people on the way that made the trip so fulfilling.  The lesson learned is that  there are nice people every were you go (except northern california).   Thanks to Ben, Anthony and Alicia for putting up with us for extended periods of time.  Thanks also to everyone who wrote on the blog, it was nice to know we weren't completely alone.

Photos

Here are a bunch of photos that I scanned in. Luckily I got this camera working right when Sam's crapped out.

Clicky Here

Introducing new characters in the last chapter

After yellowstone, we had a long windy, dusty, ride out to Boise, where we stayed with the O'melia for the afternoon/night. They took us to the pool, fed us delicious food, and entertained all of our bouncing needs on the trampoline. Thanks, guys! We had an awesome time with you!




Following our stay in Boise, it took us three days to cross the sage desert to get into bend, Oregon. We stopped in with my dear old friend, anthony, and convinced him to let us stay for two days. My life long pal, Tom, has been working, or has been pretending to be working, in the likes of bend- so there were plenty of friends to go around. But, wait! It gets better! Two more friends from home, Eric and Dan, were coincidentally visiting Tom the same time we rolled into town. On our first day off, I went hiking with Tom, eric, and dan, while Anthony tested the buoyancy of Jim and Sam in the river.



Walking around the frozen caldera of the south sister volcano:






On our second day off, we learned not to start fires in the lava caves...

So, this is where the story gets sad- grab some tissues. Yesterday I parted ways with Jim and sam to head up to Portland. It has certainly been one hell of an experience, I'm not sure how I will top this one... The nostalgia already causing some grief!

I'm now in Portland, completely finished with my journey, while Sam and Jim are off to conquer route 101 to San Fransisco. I met up with Tom and eric again here in portland and they were kind enough to give me beer, sushi and their car. Yes, that's right, I can move faster than 45 mph now. I've decided that I'm going to rent a surf board and head out to the beach tomorrow. If I leave early enough, I'm going to try to catch up with Sam and Jim so i can yell obscenities at them, you know, because I just have to fit in the rest of the cars/society now.

I'll upload a ton of photos when i fly home next week. But, don't worry, the blog isn't dead. You just have to wait until Sam and Jim find a computer.




The End (sort of)

Location:SW Carson St,Portland,United States

Epic adventures

We began our epic adventure into the Bighorn mountains in a town called buffalo, Wyoming. In the morning, we rode 27 miles up 5,500 ft to the pass which was 9,666 ft high. The climb was grueling, but it was all made up for by this sign:


The downhill was absolutely exhilarating. It led into a giant canyon, where we found ourselves barreling down at 35mph for a good half hour. We're still trying to find someone to bring us back up to the top...

After the Bighorns, we slept in a wonderful little town called, Ten Sleep, which took a full stride to keep the 'western' feel with modern day log cabin buildings. Ten sleep was gateway to the high desert, which we all found to be absolutely stunning. We started the next day off with an accidental dirt road detour, which turned out to have some of the coolest colorings and features we've seen.



After two days in the desert, we made our way into the foothills of Yellowstone, where, as you can tell, I was thrilled to speak with the local weird-bearded weirdos:



We made our way into yellowstone, but we don't have any pictures because the camera was dead and we didn't take the time to get lee's pictures, but we will eventually. Yellowstone is a hell of a place. The first night we got in pretty late and froze our butts off in the cold freezing night. The second day, we did a small ride and saw some volcanic activity. We later went for at sunset hike and fought off some bears on the way down. We're bringing back some beautiful bear skin rugs for the family. the third and final day we went for a long ride around the park and relaxed in a hot spring for a long while. We couldn't really get comfortable in the hot spring though, our skin kept boiling for some odd reason? Fortunately, no animals gave us a hard time or stole our wallets, and was ironically the two legged creatures that gave us the hardest time... Adios, Lee, it was fun!





We surfed another couch in rexburg, Idaho last night. Those folks were wonderful! A big hanks to Ford and all his great roomies. We survived 45mph headwinds and a dust/ash storm today and now we safely lay in field under the stars, goodnight.

Location:Mud lake, Idaho

The Stardust Motel

After climbing a 22 mile hill, we slept at mt rushmore all day. We saw the wild side of mt rushmore movie twice so we could sleep through it the second time.










Afterwards we crashed at a KOA campsite where we met Chris and tory, who graciously let us hang out with them and sleep on their site. The next day on our way out of the black hills, we went faux spelunking through jewel cave. Luckily, it was 49 degrees in the cave and guided by a robot lady so we were cool and didn't have to think.



















Last night we entered Wyoming and joined a biker gang at the bar. They gave us back rubs, booze, food and good times.









While at the bar, we met up with a fellow cross country traveler. This is lee:









Lee is from NYC and he is headed to Portland, OR. After his family died in a fire caused by his meth lab, he quit his job as a bingo hall announcer and set off for the west. He'll probably ride with us for the next few days. He has a ukulele so we're going to try to keep him with us for as long as possible. Hopefully by Friday we'll be in yellowstone.

Location:S Douglas Hwy,Gillette,United States

Badlands

Sorry for the delay- the Internet is hard to find in towns with a population of less than 80... For the past few days we have been cruising the flats of south Dakota, from one beautiful barren field to another. We have been told over and over to watch out for the Indians, but it turns out people are just racist. We wound up riding through two reservations and everyone was quite interested in our trip. The only negative side to these reservations is that drinking and driving is perfectly legal, probably along with murder too. So, as long as we were off the roads by nightfall, these places we no harm. Yesterday, we rode 130 miles and only passed through three towns.




We made it to south Dakota on, uh, Monday?



Beautiful nothingness




We crossed the missouri river and the river hills



Drinking beer at the local watering hole in the middle of nowhere



Yellow roses, says Sam



Purdy




We rode into the badlands with 70,000 hells angels wannabes



Up the hill to the park




Rock monster




Sunny moon




Sam doesn't like to climb big things




Sporting sam's cure for nose cancer, even if it makes us look awesome




Sam, chatting it up with the locals. Always making new friends.

Tomorrow is our one month anniversary, so Jim is taking us to see mount rushmore. Time to clean Sam, adios!

Location:Cleveland St,Rapid City,United States

The weirdest day yet

First off, thanks Ben! And, Chloe, I hope your boo boo heals nicely.

After Chicago hit the roads with a vengeance. From Chicago we rode 85 miles to rockford, il and did our first couch surf with the williams family. They we're wonderful! We saw inception (sam for the second time) with Lauren and we still discussing the end...

From Rockford we rode 120 miles to Dubuque, Iowa. Why does Illinois have killer hills?!?! This ride was brutul, but we were rewarded with a sweet ninja movie at the nagle home. The nagle family was the second couch wave we rode, and we seriously recommend couchsurfing.org to every traveler.




Today was the strangest day ever. It took us 6 hours to ride 15 miles. Why you ask? Well, we took a dirt bike path which blew two of my tires and broke jim's rack. But! We found a 1 week old kitten on the side of trail, Ed him some food and packed him in jim's handlebar bag.



Then, on our way to town, sam got stung in the face by a bee. He popped 4 benadryl and wanted to pass out. We fed the kitty his body weight in food and dropped him off at the vet. We continued on our 95 mile adventure through the thankfully flat roads of Iowa to cedar falls. Luckily for us, everyone loved us because of the ride across Iowa- ragbrai. We weren't referred to lance Armstrong anymore, but now were confused as a ragbrai rider. Although, this event made everyone in the area aware of what you can do on a bike, so everyone was super friendly. To top it all off, we finally ended our ride in cedar falls excited to get to laura's house. She gave us the wrong address, so we obviously went to the wrong house. At this house, we saw a girl outside and asked if she was laura. She said no, but she said she knew where Laura lived. This seemed fine to me because I know Laura said she was in the process of moving. We followed this girl and her father to laura's house somewhere off in the woods. Sam knocked on the door and a 15 year old girl answered and he asked if she was Laura. It turns out she was named Laura, but not the laura we were looking for... She had a look on her face as if we were about to kill her.

Location:Pleasant Dr,Cedar Falls,United States

Chicago

Today is our last day in chicago, resting has been peaceful. We finally got a camera connection kit, so here is a glimpse:

Bike Photos

Location:N Winnebago Ave,Chicago,United States

Ticks don't exist

We've made into south bend, Indiana- almost into another time zone. We noticed that it gets dark around 10 pm here in the heartland of America, but the sun will set at correct time tomorrow once we go back in time.

The corn in Ohio is freakishly tall due to all that gene altering mumbo jumbo. The corn in Pennsylvania was knee high, whereas the Ohio corn was full grown- hooray for monsanto and the likes of it. Luckily in Indiana the corn is the correct height. Although, indiana is quite hilly unlike its eastern counterpart, Ohio, but the hills at least get rid of the wind...








Things have been going well and as expected, we're being treated as celebrities. People are very friendly towards bikers, so go get some spandex and cash in. You can get free food, a warm shower, a place to sleep and yes, even money. We are truly surprised and very grateful for everyones' kindness, I'm not sure we could have done this without the kindness of strangers. We put a smile on faces wherever we go!

Last night we asked a man named mark where a grocery store was and we ended up sleeping at his campsite at buck lake ranch in Angola, Indiana. The Buck lake ranch stage has seen some famous acts from elvis to duke Ellington, so it was a hidden gem amongst the vast fields of corn.

Sam had a run in with 5 ticks and a patch of poison ivy, but we're all feeling just fine. And again, I am sorry for the lack of pictures, but it is really really really hard to transfer pics.

Location:N Iowa St,South Bend,United States

Stinkstank

We made an 80 mile trek to Cleveland thursday and made our way into a luxurious apartment, fully rigged with musical joys and soft cuddly animals.
Thank you to Jacqui, fat fisher, peppy and Missy for letting us stay in their home and eat their food!




Later, Jim got us drunk at the bar and refused to let us go near the guy with the blow up doll. Cleveland is a bit, how do you say- quirky? By a happy chance, we found some cool people from florida walking the mean streets of Cleveland who were more than happy to hang out with three stinkers. Glad to hang out with Missy and Ben, our fellow pbr (not pabst) drinkers.



The next day Jim cured our hangovers with his magical breakfast singing and a cup full of wrung out sweat from sam's sox. We went to the rock and roll hall of fame, again thank you jacqui! We got rocked, hard.




After a well rested day off, we were back on the bikes today for a 70 mile adventure to sit in a stinky hot tent in the middle of Ohio. Made some new biking fiends and we'll post some pictures of that soon. It is really difficult to post pictures since I have to email them from my phone to my iPad and it takes about 24 hours to do it sometimes.... We're trying though! For now, we sleep with bugs.

Location:Castalia,United States

Day 7 & 8

Our stay with the O'Connor family was top notch. Mary invited us into her home to her husband, jim's, surprise. Luckily we saw right through jim's doom and gloom right to his jolly, generous and good natured core. Mary's cooking was delicious and her hospitality was most generous. Her son, Sam, Is into biking, so he led us on a ride from port allegany to kane, pa. Unfortunately, it started to rain so we got a motel room for the night and Jim and Mary took Sam home. Our motel room was outfitted with 400 wolves and we giggled ourselves to sleep. We were most fortunate to eat all three meals with the o'connor family. We'll call you when our girlfriends get a dog.





Today we had a nice ride from Kane to meadville. It was long, but we're feeling strong, so we were able to push through. The alleganys were beautiful and thankfully a lot flatter than expected. We saw a lot of road kill ranging from rabbit to woodchuck to deer- it makes Sam hungry.

Currently, we have our own house and each have our own room, thanks to our new friend Joe. He lives down the street and is fixing this up to move into, so we literally have the whole house to ourselves. Its a spacious three bedroom home that came equipped with three pints of beer. Hopefully you get your 5 person bike to take your family across the world.




Shouldn't that be a question?

Day 5 & 6

Yesterday we tried to take it easy by doing a short day, but it turned out to be incredibly hard. We rode from athens to Mansfield, pa where we tried to shower at the university's gym, but it was locked. Luckily we met the Haflett family who kindly let us pitch a tent in their backyard, use their shower and made us a wonderful breakfast- Thank you very much!

Jim hit 70.7 mph







Haflett yard with Deakin








Right now we're in port allegany, pa in the O'conner's home. We are loving the kindness of strangers! We got to take a shower again and will have a roof over our head tonight. We've been eating a ton and miraculously feel great, with the minor exception of our butts. Oh yeah, Jim broke two more spokes today.....

Day 5: 55 miles
Day 6: 75 miles

Location:Pine St,Port Allegany,United States