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