Author: Whitney

Well, it’s already been over a year since we finished our bike trip (!!!) and almost that long since my last post (!!!) but re-reading the last one, especially the end, still brings me to tears.  Those feelings haven’t gone away but I’ve learned to accept them & still find things that bring me joy & a sense of purpose. Jumping back in where I left off (still in Missouri), here we go…

Day 75 (mid July): Up by 5:30am, oatmeal for breakfast, charged our devices, & chatted with 2 park maintenance crew members – Bruce & Drew.  Bruce was a cool guy.  He was retired from steel, working part time for the parks, and getting his knees replaced tomorrow.  He was a funny character – kept shaking his head & telling us how crazy we were for what we were doing 🙂  Before heading out of town we swung by a gas station for ice & water.  The cashier was sweet & curious; she had so many questions about our trip.

Our ride today was hot, sticky, full of trees, pecan groves, tons of little buttercup yellow/light green butterflies, pretty purple-flowered weeds, & ditch clams.  Ditch clams? Yes, ditch clams…or at least that’s how we’ve referred to them since we saw them.  Read more about them in my reflections below.  Much of our route today was through Lewis & Clark territory as well as the Trail of Death (different than Trail of Tears).  Every time we saw signs commemorating the Trail of Death we hoped it wasn’t an omen for us as we planned to ride 90 miles on a very hot & humid day (gulp). We took a break early, out on a quiet country road, to hang out with some farm goats chilling in a nice shaded area.  They naturally looked silly with their huge goatees but their behavior was also pretty entertaining.   Watching them, laughing at their quirky mischief, was a unique & welcomed resting stop of many for the day.

Back on the road for a while before pulling over in Carrollton at Burger Bar & More for lunch.  Meh.  My snacks would’ve been better.  Biking after lunch, in today’s midday heat & humidity, was a little brutal & necessitated stopping at a stranger’s house to cool off with their hose.  We tried asking for permission but they weren’t home so we went for it anyway.  We figured between getting caught while cooling off or getting too hot we’d take our chances.  Plus, I imagine they might’ve been understanding of our situation …. hopefully.  Either way, it felt great & recharged our energy for the next 7 miles before resting in the shade of a seemingly abandoned yard in the tiny town of DeWitt.  While sitting here, a cop stopped to ask if we were OK and suggested a big tree we could rest under another 3 miles up the road.  We had already planned to take a bigger break in another 7 miles but appreciated his tip nonetheless.

As planned, the next stop was the small town of Brunswick – home to the World’s Largest Pecan!  Unfortunately, it was a letdown for me – just a giant painted wooden structure (like the watermelon from Green River); not a real pecan.  We stopped at an old bar for a beer, where smoking was allowed inside and they only sold Bud & Bud Light…  The place was pretty empty aside from 3 old men who we chatted with for a bit.  They were nice, asked about our trip, offered to let us hose off at one of their houses down the road. Apparently the bar had installed a fancy new smoke-zapping machine that hung from the ceiling like an AC unit but it didn’t seem to do much of anything in my non-smoking opinion so we slammed our beers & left. On the way out of town we picked up a few snacks at the grocery store & a pizza at a small shop.  Again, this place was SO SMOKY but at least the pizza was pretty good.  Quick stop at the gas station for the bathroom, water refill, and iced coffee.  We were feeling fairly sluggish, still intended to get 40 more miles in, & my throbbing thumb was really pounding, so I just needed a little pick-me-up.

Another 11 miles before resting at a gas station in Keytesville where we filled up on water, I sipped on unsweetened iced tea, Ben had a Coke, & we chatted with a nice local lady, Carol Ann, for a while.  She was another interesting character, had lots to say, knew a lot about the area, and was pleasant to talk to.  Back on the road, through beautiful pecan country, dusk slowly approaching. Other than getting chased by a vicious dog along the highway while also getting passed by a truck that wouldn’t move over (a very small window for error on our end in terms of swerving away from danger), it was a lovely ride into the evening, especially after the sun went down – finally a break from the heat!  Aaaaahhhh, much better 🙂  We rode well into the evening (after 9pm), making it our longest ride yet at 92 miles, & arriving to the hotel we’d booked earlier only to find they’d been closed for a few days (thanks Priceline).  Luckily, there was another hotel half a mile back that was available.  Gear dump, indoor pool swimming, free (& warm!) hotel chocolate chip cookies, watched a little Princess Bride, snacked for dinner, shower, passed out.

Long days on the road in the middle of nowhere creates a perfect storm for reflection time, so buckle up – I’ve got a few!!!

Reflections

1. Biking along a busy-ish stretch of highway we noticed hundreds of clams on both sides of the road in dried-up ditches.  Big ones, for long stretches, in the ditch…WTF are ditch clams?  They seemed very out of place between a highway & corn fields, with no body of water in sight.  We asked a local about them later who said it’s from when the Missouri River floods.  I guess that makes sense but they just blew our mind.  We still talk about them whenever we see something clam-sized in a ditch or if the topic of clams or ditches comes up (as it does on the daily…?) – & both interject with “DITCH CLAMS!” before laughing ensues.

2. Burger bar + small Midwest town = deep-fried sides for this vegetarian’s lunch 🙁  It’s either that or the children’s menu (aka grilled cheese or pb&j….)

3. The first half of Day 75, the shoulder sucked some majorinsert preferred expletive.  The entire thing was a rumble strip so we had to ride in the road…a busy country road at that 🙁 After DeWitt, it got much better thankfully.

4. The cop’s advice for the tree 3 miles up the road was interesting to me for a couple reasons.  First, it came off more in the vein of “you can’t sit here” so we left when he did but it also made me curious if bikers and non-bikers have different definitions of acceptable resting spots on a blazing hot day worthy of heat exhaustion.  His tip was thoughtful but also confusing to us as there were MANY opportunities for shade between where we saw him and the big tree he was talking about.  For us, at least on such a hot day, literally anywhere that produces shade will do (a tall pile of logs, a big road sign, any building or structure, overpass, etc) where other non-bikers we’ve met seem to think you can only rest at an established/public area.  It was food for thought.  I’m sure I wouldn’t have thought anything of it back home but since we were in the middle of nowhere with hours of thinking time in the saddle, it rolled around in my brain for a bit.

5. Being the MN-nice/midwesterner that I am it felt rude to move to a different table to get away from the smoke so it was just easier to slam our beer & go.  It sounds stupid when I type it out; it wouldn’t have been a big deal.  If we didn’t like the smoke, we should’ve just moved – pretty simple – but in the moment I didn’t want to offend them.  Ugh, dumb 🙁

6. In Missouri, or at least where we were biking, we didn’t notice as many friendly waving-drivers as Kansas.  They all seemed to keep to themselves, which is fine, but in Kansas it felt like most people waved & it kind of perked up our spirits when they did 🙂

7. I purposely chose to not wear bike gloves in order to avoid the Mickey Mouse-like white hands tan line and because I found it gross to have sopping sweat-soaked gloves stuck to my hands all day.  With nowhere else to go all that sweat has been soaking into my handlebars and it’s really done a number on the bar tape 🙁 Until Missouri it was just a little weathered, but in the thick of this humidity it really started to fall apart.

8. Despite the corn harvest, there were still a few stragglers in every field that were a little creepy.  It was like someone was just standing out in the field stalking me; staring at me as I rode by.  No, that wasn’t meant to be punny but it really came together at the end there like a joke, but that wasn’t my intention.  They really were creepy.

9. Speaking of creepy… To combat saddle sores we are constantly applying Chamois Butt’r (anti-chafing cream), or as we refer to it – “butt butter”, and don’t always have access to privacy (or frankly care about it anymore given the frequency with which we have to reapply) so we’ve become those weirdos on the side of the road or hiding near a corner of a building digging in our pants doing who knows what.  Well we know what, but any passersby would just see someone trying to hide or turn away while digging in the crotch of their pants…I’m pretty sure I’d think we were creepy too but we just don’t have access or time to always find a bathroom & the cream is pretty helpful so we wouldn’t want to go without it. We’ve just accepted we might be disturbing some people and actually find it quite hilarious.

10. The 2 tank tops I ride in are now very discolored from wiping my face & arms off every few minutes.  Apparently the mixture of sweat & sunscreen makes for a mild bleaching agent. Who knew?

11. Thank you, clouds!!! On super hot & humid days they really do make a big difference.  As soon as the cloud covers up the sun there’s an immediate relief that washes over – both mentally & physically.

12. Casey’s & Sinclair are the 2 major gas stations in the area for now & they’re everywhere.  Casey’s doesn’t have water at the soda station but a bathroom sink works fine too.  Some gas stations we ran into were closed by 7pm on a weekday night. What? Do people not drive around on a weeknight? What if they ran out of gas? I’m sure they’re used to it but we found it odd. We’re so used to them being open late.

13. These long, hot days in the middle of nowhere are finally getting to us & things are getting weird/we’re getting silly.  We’ll just start saying random goofy things out of nowhere & start laughing uncontrollably at nothing.  I even caught Ben singing a song to his Shot Bloks 🙂

14. Near the eastern side of Kansas & halfway through Missouri I had seen these pretty orange flowers I kept meaning to take a picture of.  I’d always think “I’ll get the next ones” but eventually they faded away & we never saw them again.  I missed my opportunity & was disappointed I’d waited so long.  It was a good reminder of my reason for taking this trip: do things while you can, the next opportunity isn’t a guarantee.

15. There was a small stretch of Highway 24 between Clifton Hill & Hunstville that was lined with pecan groves that was really beautiful.  I could’ve ridden through that landscape all day.  The huge trees were peaceful & calming to me. I’m not sure if it’s because I saw them as shade opportunities & found that relieving or if it was just for their raw beauty.  Either way, it was lovely enough to still remember over a year later.

16. I couldn’t help but think of the movie Signs as we rode past so many corn fields, half expecting to look back & see aliens chasing us. That’ll make you bike a little faster!

17. We’ve met several groups of bikers traveling east to west & after thinking about it all day I determined that can’t be the best way to do it if you have a choice. In general, the wind won’t be in your favor.  If you’re a late riser (like us) the sun will largely be blinding you & the drivers going in your same direction after it passes high noon, meaning you AND the drivers can’t see as well…double trouble.

18. While this trip was 99.9% AMAZING, here are some of the non-glamorous parts about it: a) more acne from constant sweating & all that sunscreen; b) slightly tender crotch; c) aforementioned creepy crotch digging; d) very potent body odor, especially the nether regions (like after a really sweaty workout but 5 times worse – don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about!  OK, maybe you don’t & I’m a weirdo. I can live with it.  Enough about crotches already!); e) being sticky & wet with sweat & sunscreen all day – rocking a general nasty grime all day; f) gnarly tan lines (although, to be honest, they were kind of a point of pride & constant physical reminder of our trip (during & after) that served as a good conversation starter – “WOAH, look at those tan lines! Where’d you get those from?”).

19. Today was broken up very nicely with a small town every 7 miles; natural stopping points to hide from the sun for 5 minutes.

20. Ever been driving and needed to pass a biker on the road but there’s no room with oncoming traffic? Here’s a hot tip: either wait a minute or at least slow down!  Many people would pass us when there wasn’t room for either of us to move over & instead of slowing down they’d just fly right by us, inches from total annihilation – very unnerving for us 🙁 At minimum slow down, it makes a big difference.

21. Not sure if it was just too stark of a difference but having ice cold water on such a hot day actually gave me a headache.  It was TOO cold!  I usually relished the chill but, at least for me, it was too much of a contrast & made my head hurt.

22. In Missouri we noticed a lot more brick houses than we’d seen anywhere else on our trip.  Other than assuming it’s what was available, is this intentional so their houses are sturdier for tornadoes?

23. Something we learned to keep in mind when staying at a hotel or motel was requesting a ground floor room.  We were sometimes given our room key only to have to return it a few minutes later in exchange for a ground level room.  We always rolled our bikes into the room with us, even if it was a tight squeeze.  For the summer, those things were our life so it wasn’t worth the risk leaving it outside if we didn’t have to.  Anything that required an elevator or stairs was a bit of a hassle (not impossible, but easier if there was a ground room available).

24. Swimming in a public pool after being sweaty & gross all day requires a quick rinse in the shower before jumping in.  Despite the chlorine, they don’t need our sweat, salt, sunscreen, & swamp-ass nastying up the pool!  Totally understandable.  Unfortunately, the pre-rinse defeats the satisfaction of the initial plunge.  Normally we go straight from being hot/sticky/sweaty to being fully submerged in tons of water where all our physical troubles are immediately washed away.  When we have to rinse first, yeah we’re cleaner, but there’s something about a full-body submersion to really take all your cares away that you just don’t get with a quick rinse in the shower.

Good grief, that was only one-day’s worth but it seems long enough so I’ll stop there for now.  It wasn’t a particularly spoketacular post, mostly reflections, but at least it’s another drop in the bucket.  Until next time!

Well, it’s been far too long since my last post but I’m determined to see this through to the end. Even if no one else is still reading, I want to finish it for myself. Since returning home my time has mostly been spent making soap & I’ve loved every minute of it but unfortunately, that has kept me from blogging. We’re currently in New Orleans (not part of the bike trip, we flew here) where I can’t make soap, so now I have a few days of free time to catch up! Here goes…

DAY 71: Karry made us breakfast – oatmeal, eggs, toast, coffee. Thank you! We chatted a bit, snapped some pictures, then off to work for her. We finished packing, did the dishes, then hit the road for KC-MO to meet up with Ben’s brother, his girlfriend & another friend (John, Serena, Andy) at an Air B&B we’d be sharing with them. Somewhere along the way we crossed into a new state – #6!

Today was very hot & humid so we showed up soaking wet from only a one hour ride. It was a frustrating ride to say the least, but not due to heat & humidity. No surprise, Ben & Garmin disagreed on the route. I was sick of fighting with them & we are both very stubborn so we parted ways the last few miles. He took his route, I took Garmin’s. I wanted to prove it was better & faster to just follow Garmin since you don’t have to stop all the time to see where you’re going on Google Maps or memorize every turn. If you just listen to Garmin, it’ll get you where you need to go & it’s more efficient – you just listen & ride. Ben wanted to make up his own route since he felt the roads we were taking were too busy. I argued it’s Kansas City, they’re all going to be busy, but in the end I didn’t want to force him to do something that made him feel unsafe. I felt perfectly safe which is why we each took our preferred route. I did arrive before him (vindication!) but was mostly happy because we both got what we wanted. No harm no foul.

After a quick rinse we all exchanged hugs – no one wants a dripping wet sweaty one! Aaaahhh, so nice to see friends & family 🙂 We caught up a bit, then hit the town for some afternoon fun: Boulevard Brewery tour, Arthur Bryant’s BBQ, drooled over gorgeous houses on Janssen Place, swimming at a community pool, WWI Memorial on the hill for a great view of the city, ice cream, then a little relaxing back at the Air B&B. After cleaning up, we took Uber back into town for the evening. Per our brewery guide’s recommendation we had dinner at Ponak’s (good choice), ventured over to the Green Lady Lounge for drinks & music, rode the free streetcar a few stops just for fun, then back home to crash for the night. Despite the rough start, it was a great day.

Day 72: Sweet bread, muesli, fruit & coffee for breakfast, packed up, took a quick drive through the plaza area on W 47th to see the fancy expensive shops we’d never go to, then said our goodbyes. John, Serena & Andy had a music festival in Iowa for the weekend but made time to come see us for a day & we’re so glad they did. It was so nice to see them even if only briefly.

After they left we biked over to Whole Foods for snacks, then on to our next Warm Showers in Kansas City – Tom & Julie. They were absolutely wonderful! One of our favorite stops on the whole trip 🙂 They were so welcoming, helpful, generous, easy & fun to talk to. When we first arrived we just hung out & talked for a long time about anything & everything. I didn’t want to stop – we could’ve talked for hours! Ben & Julie are both realtors so they had plenty to talk about there. Tom showed us around the house, sharing their remodel experiences which was fun for us as we’ve had our share of remodeling & could talk about it for hours. They also had two cute labradoodles – Hank & Maybelle. They were both so sweet. Hank was very cuddly & curious. Maybelle was a little more timid but she warmed up quickly. Her eyes were so adorable they could just melt you into a puddle. I loved them both immediately.

While we showered & got settled in, Julie made an awesome dinner: red lentil patties on a bed of greens tossed with balsamic vinegar, served with tomato, avocado, goat cheese & homemade hummus. We also had brownies for dessert, but not just regular brownies -healthy & amazing brownies made with sweet potato & just the right amount of sweetness (not too sweet like usual). Seriously, it was all sooooo good. I’m legitimately drooling thinking about it all again right now. We talked for a long time during dinner about food & clean eating – how important it is & how it affects your body.  Julie made a major lifestyle change this spring after a breast cancer diagnosis & it changed her life. It was so interesting talking about it all & really made me want to be better about my eating habits after this trip.

Again, we could’ve talked all night but Tom & Julie offered to show us around town on a different set of 2 wheels…SCOOTERS! They own 6 really awesome scooters so the 4 of us took a tour of the city at night & it was SO MUCH FUN! We got to see lots of gorgeous old houses, hip Old Westport, the plaza area again, & WWI Memorial view by night (very enchanting all lit up). There had apparently been a ceremony up there earlier in the evening for a relighting of the Western Auto sign. It was a very unique & distinct marker of the Kansas City night skyline that hadn’t been lit for 18 years & it was pretty cool to see. There were lots of people up there checking it out. A little more zipping around town to see pretty houses, then back to their place for the night. They live in a great location – perfect for sightseeing. A little reading then off to bed. Another great day 🙂

Day 73: Julie made us tasty healthy pancakes & smoothies (yum) & Tom made fantastic lattes. It was a great breakfast & very generous of them. We took the dogs for a quick walk before meeting up with another group of our friends who drove down from MN (Mariah, Bethany & David) . They had driven down the night before but didn’t arrive until 3am so after catching up on sleep they picked us up at Tom & Julie’s.

We spent the day exploring the city again: WWI Memorial view (never gets old!), Union Station (train depot), rode the free streetcar to City Market for lunch & wandered around the booths a bit, then took some fun pictures outside the public library parking ramp painted to like giant books (turned out really neat). As a storm rolled in we planned to do the Boulevard Brewery tour but they were closed unexpectedly for plumbing issues so we went back to the hotel where we met up with two of our other friends (Erik & Julie), who left early this morning from MN. We hung out for a while, swimming, soaking in the hot tub, relaxing & catching up. It was really nice.

Back to Tom & Julie’s to change & throw a load of laundry in the washer, then off to the Old Westport neighborhood for drinks at Harry’s & dinner at Beer Kitchen (per Tom’s recommendation).  He didn’t disappoint – they had great food & a huge drink selection. We walked around the area for a bit after but were all so sleepy from a long day that we turned in for the night (us back to Tom & Julie’s, first group of 3 in their hotel room, the other 2 at an Air B&B). Another fun day with friends 🙂

Day 74: Tom whipped up his great lattes while Julie generously made us breakfast again. We had toast, omelettes & smoothies. As usual, it was all so good. Healthy & tasty – can’t beat that! After breakfast we packed up, got some pictures, exchanged some really nice hugs & said our goodbyes. We were sad to leave Tom & Julie. They were so great, I would’ve loved to hang out more! Thank you so much for a wonderful stay – one of the best.

We only went a block away to meet up with everyone to watch the final World Cup game at Brookside Barrio. It was a relaxing time hanging out, watching the game & catching up. Nice & chill. Bethany & I ended up talking with a nice woman there about her bike touring days through Central America. It sounded so much harder than ours! Just the logistics alone, not even the physical aspect: language, lodging, water, maps. It sounded amazing, but also hard & made me appreciate how relatively easy our trip has been. The game was over by 1pm, at which point we got ready to hit the road again & said more goodbyes to our MN friends. Thanks for visiting! It gave us an extra boost for the next chapter.

After they left we picked up some electrolyte chews at The Vitamin Shoppe, food at Cosentino’s Market across the street, & were on the road by 1:30pm. Our ride out was through a rougher part of town, that left me feeling sad. Today was hot, but not as bad as the last few days. The afternoon consisted of riding through old towns seemingly abandoned by business but not people & of course, more disagreements about our route. What’s new? Ben wanted shorter & flatter. I wanted longer, hillier, prettier & safer (which I thought Ben would’ve appreciated) but he wanted the direct route (aka busy road). We settled on a mix & it worked out well.

A nice guy pulled over to ask if we were OK while we took a break on the side of the road. We’d hit up two gas stations for water refills along the way so were were good but that was sweet of him 🙂 We also met a nice couple at one of the gas stations, in Orrick, out exploring on their motorcycles. They were fun to talk to. We made it to Richmond, MO just after sundown, took a sink-bath in a park bathroom, rinsed & hung up our clothes, then biked into town for dinner at Sonic, despite my disapproval for fast-food. Ben’s reasoning being: no motel = we eat out; motel = cooking. Eh, whatever – I was too hot & tired to convince him otherwise. Our waiter was really sweet. She asked about our trip & just couldn’t believe it. She thought it was the coolest thing she’d ever heard in her life! She’s young, I’m sure she’ll hear about cooler things as she gets older.

After dinner, we rolled back to the park, pitched our tent on a baseball field & called it a night. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a restful night…for me at least. A throbbing thumb + stealth camping + people hanging out around the park all night + coyotes = no sleep for me 🙁 Luckily, we didn’t encounter any sprinklers so we had that going for us! We’re learning!

Reflections

1. John & Andy didn’t believe the loud electric sound we heard everywhere was from cicadas. They were sure it was either part of the streetcar, a malfunctioning light or power line, absolutely not a bug…but it was! They’re so loud & impressive!

2. The scooters were so much fun I am seriously going to buy two in the near future!!!

3. We’ve met several people, when asked where we’re from & we respond MN, who say they just knew it from our accents. Darn As and Os 😉 Dead giveaway.

4. I didn’t know until after the fact but Day 74 was National Ice Cream Day & I just so happened to eat ice cream 3 times that day! My brain didn’t know it but my body sure did 🙂

5. There doesn’t seem to be any clean natural bodies of water in this region. Everything is so murky & dirty you would never consider swimming in it. It’s a little disheartening to see lakes & rivers on the map, thinking you will have opportunities to cool off, but when you finally pass by them you’re disappointed to see how gross they are 🙁 What a letdown.

6. Riding through Missouri (& a lot of the Midwest, especially at dusk), there were so many big, fat bugs that loved to fly directly at your eyeballs! I was almost blinded by one & had to put sunglasses back on after sunset, to shield myself from the Kamikaze jerks!

7. Ordering at Sonic, as a biker or pedestrian, is frustrating. It’s typically just a drive-up joint so there’s nowhere to go “inside”. If you arrive sans vehicle, you order from an intercom that’s hard to hear & be heard from. You both end up shouting & repeating yourselves numerous times. The frustrating part was the fact that the person you’re trying to communicate with is 10ft away, inside the building, behind a glass wall so you can see each other the whole time…you could practically reach out & touch them they’re that close. Sometimes technology is great, but sometimes it makes simple tasks unnecessarily complicated. Given my already established disdain for technology & it’s ability to ruin human interaction, I was pretty annoyed & really wanted to shout “I JUST WANT TO TALK TO A HUMAN BEING IN PERSON!”…but I didn’t.

8. Ben discovered a hive-like rash on his thighs that we assumed is from the silicone band inside the bike shorts that keeps it from riding up your leg as you move. I’ve also had it on my legs most of the trip but mine is usually a lot more mild. His looked a little painful 🙁

9. (Channel your inner Ariel from The Little Mermaid): How many gas stations can one small town hold?….apparently 4. Maybe we missed the busy part of this town that required so many, but from what I could tell it was a pretty empty place, & yet they still had 4 gas stations. Interesting. I’m not sure how they all survive…

10. To our surprise, in the midst of the desolate landscape beyond Kansas City, we rode past several huge distribution centers: Guitar Center, FedEx, Grainger, & many more. It seemed like such a juxtaposition to have so many monstrous complexes in an otherwise bleak landscape. I imagine that area might like it for job security but visually it was a little jarring & unexpected.

Wow, I started this post a little over 2 months ago!  Yowza, that’s bad. Hopefully the next post won’t take that long. It’s officially 2019 & now, this amazing trip we took, happened last year. For some reason, saying those words, “last year”, makes me all weepy. Before we left, during our ride, & slightly after we got back, the trip was something that was actively happening. It was tangible & something to hold on to, but now it’s slipping through my fingers & I’m afraid to let it go. I’m afraid I’ll never do anything again that made me feel the way I did on the trip & somehow my life will become insignificant. Maybe that’s part of the reason I’ve been putting off finishing the blog – well, that & soap.  I made a lot of soap this fall to get ready for craft fairs so I got derailleured & was legitimately busy but I’ve been dreading finishing the blog because I don’t want it to be over. Once this blog is finished, there’s nothing left to do with the trip & it really is over. I’m more than just a bike trip…I know that. I just liked who I was & what I was doing on the trip & need to find ways to incorporate more of that into my everyday life. Well, I think that’s enough therapy for now. Until next time!

Whitney

Day 68: Up early, I made oatmeal & coffee, Ben packed up the tent, quick dishes, then on the road before 7:30 – hot diggity! On our way out of town we swung by the gas station to use the bathroom. Slightly cooler today, rolling hills, rough & bumpy road to start but it got better once we were on a bigger road outside of Clay Center. The shoulder on Hwy 24, however, was actually not so great. It was a nice new road that looked like it had plenty of space but the rumble strip went smack through the middle. You either had 6 inches between the rumble strip & traffic or the rumble strip & gravel… a lose-lose 🙁

We made it to Manhattan, KS, & grabbed lunch at Rock A Belly Deli – great food. From there we rolled down the street a few blocks to chill in the city park for a while until our Warm Showers host, Carol, was home from work, then we met her at the house. She was really sweet, super smart, very kind, generous, easy going. We talked for a while, she showed us around the house, then she went back to work. Quick shower, laundry, then a nap.

When Carol returned from work at the end of the day, we joined her & her boyfriend, Jared, for a friend’s art gallery opening out in the country at a beautiful barn (Prairiewood Retreat Center – Blue Sage Barn). This place was gorgeous! I was practically drooling. It was fun to see her friend’s art & hear her story. We didn’t stay too long since Carol had band practice in the park 🙂 While she did that, Jared generously offered & drove us to the grocery store for a few things. He’s a really nice guy. Back to the house, Ben & I made dinner, Carol joined us after practice & we hung out all night chatting & working on a puzzle. I love puzzles! It was fun to do one again; it’s been so long. It was a really lovely evening with her. I felt like we were old friends & could’ve hung out talking all night 🙂 A little reading, then off to bed.

Day 69: Veggie egg scrambler with cheese, toast, oatmeal & coffee for breakfast. A nice relaxing morning. We all ate together, then packed up & left when Carol went to work. We said our goodbyes, then off we went. It was so great meeting her. Very hot today (102), nice & sticky, dripping wet!

We rode about 20 miles before stopping in Wamego (the self-appointed center for the Wizard Of Oz), where we met some really friendly people at a bakery – Friendship House (how fitting). The staff were very generous in filling our bottles with ice & water, but we also met a group of really nice women there. They had so many questions for us so we chatted for a while. One of them even went over to the community pool across the street to inquire about their hours for open swim for us. I think she was even going to get us in for free (?) but it was over an hour away & we wanted to get more miles under our butts before taking our big break for the day. That was so sweet of her though!

Another 15 miles down the road, we stopped in St.Mary’s for lunch under a picnic shelter, swimming at the community pool, & ice cream from Sugar Creek Country Store (nice place). The rest of the afternoon we stopped in each little town we passed through for a 10 minute reprieve from the heat, usually every half hour. We stopped in Rossville at a gas station & chatted with Shawn, the clerk (young kid, pretty funny). Next was Silverlake – sweet corn from a church youth group & another gas station. While we ate our raw sweet corn (it’s like fruit!) on the curb at the gas station we met a nice woman who’d recently been to Dubuque, IA & Milwaukee, WI – places I grew up near, have been to & have family in – so we had plenty to talk about & relate to. We chatted for a while, then hit the road for our final destination: Topeka!

We made it to town, dripping in sweat, not the least bit interested in camping so we checked into another hotel. First priority of the night: SWIMMING! They had a really funky pool with fountains coming out of the wall like mini waterfalls & even a hot tub. Sweet! This was all indoor, so the hot tub was actually nice. Had it been outside…yeah, no thanks! Quick shower, dinner at the hotel restaurant (good food), movie, then passed out.

Day 70: Hotel breakfast (nice one, too!), swung by the capitol & on the road by 8:30am. Rough start: hilly (12-15% grade) & on gravel! SO HOT & humid again today. We were already dripping with sweat within the first 10 minutes of riding. According to Ben, at that point in our journey, it’s the sweatiest he’s ever been in his life. I’ve definitely been that sweaty before but it had been quite a while.

After 20 miles, we stopped to break in Lecompton, at Aunt Netters Cafe, for water, to cool off, & for 2nd breakfast! Back on the road another 14 miles to Lawrence. Pit stop at McDonald’s for fries, ice cream, ice & water, then downtown to Free State Brewery where we met up with a guy, Clint, from the Kansas bike nonprofit we’re raising money for (Topeka Community Cycle Project).

He & his son, Everett (nickname Monkey), met us there for lunch. They were so cool. Good people, fun & easy to talk to, smart, energetic, interesting lives, & really involved in biking. We hung out all afternoon chatting about biking, life, & the town of Lawrence. The brewery had great food & drinks. I got a huge beet salad that was SO GOOD. My sour beer was great as well. We all shared some goat cheese dip – wowza, super tasty. After lunch we all rode over to his place to check out all the bikes he has & cool projects he’s worked on. He’s so passionate about bikes, I loved it! We were only passing through town so we quick cooled off with Clint’s garden hose outside, biked over to the river for a nice group photo, then parted ways. I’m so glad we got to meet him.

It was really hot today, one of the hottest we experienced on the trip, so we took a ton of breaks to prevent overheating. Besides just stopping on the side of the road for a breather, we’d also stop for more ice, water & a place with AC to hide out for 10 minutes whenever we could. After Lawrence we found respite in Eudora & Desoto before eventually making it to our destination for the night.

There were a few big hills on the way, on top of the heat, so we didn’t make it to town until after 8pm.  Home for the night: Warm Showers host Karry, Mike & cat Adona, in Lenexa. Still within the Kansas border, Lenexa is 15 miles shy of Kansas City (the one in Missouri -KCMO, not to be confused with KCK…as locals refer to it). Karry was so awesome. She’s such a sweetheart. Very kind, generous, funny, down to earth, thoughtful, & jazzed about biking. She made lots of food for us & it was everything thing I’d been craving lately: cold summer salads (one was chickpea with tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, olives & Greek dressing; the other, quinoa with veggies!), eggplant, walnut-stuffed olives, canteloupe, burgers & dogs, & other stuff I’m forgetting. It was great – classic cookout food I’ve missed on this trip.

We hung out talking for a while as we ate, swapping stories & learning all about each other. They had lived in St.Paul at one point in their lives – where we live! – so that was fun to relate to 🙂 For dessert we had peanut butter ice cream bars….mmmmm 🙂 Karry showed us around, we showered, did laundry, then turned in for the night. She had a little gift bag for us in our room! Isn’t’ that the sweetest thing? It was full of all sorts of goodies: bike lights, Stinger honeycomb waffles, maps, puzzles, & so much more. It was so cool. She’s awesome 🙂 A little reading before passing out.

Reflections

1. The landscape heading out of Clay Center felt & looked like Wisconsin (where I grew up). We even saw WI plates as I had that revelation so I had to remind myself we were indeed still in Kansas 🙂

2. While taking a break along the side of the road next to a corn field, a military man on a motorcycle stopped to ask us about our trip. He was pretty funny. Random run-ins like this make this trip so much better – you never have a shortage of interesting people to talk to 🙂

3. Ben & I have very different downhill biking styles. Bombing a mountain aside, I love to book it & go fast until there’s no resistance left to pedal, while Ben likes to coast & not pedal if he doesn’t have to. We’ve learned to make way for each other depending on the road condition & how we know each other prefers to handle it.

4. I’d say halfway through Kansas, but especially as we left Manhattan, we noticed a lot of stone barns & buildings. They were really cool. Very old & dripping with charm 🙂

5. After Wamego, we passed through the town of Belvue that smelled the way Big Red gum does when it’s lost all its flavor…hmmm, not so great 🙁

6. Riding into Topeka, I experienced that same sense of overwhelming shock that comes from being in the middle of nowhere – wide open spaces, full of peace & quiet – to being thrown too quickly into a big, busy city, bombarded by too much noise, activity, & people…similar to my feelings coming out of Yosemite. It made me wonder: do I experience that shock because I grew up in a small town & prefer/am used to the quiet, wide open spaces or do most people experience that after visiting a remote place & returning to a busy, bustling, noisy life? And……..now I have Dixie Chicks “Wide Open Spaces” song stuck in my head 🙂

7. Something about extreme heat, humidity & riding all day makes me a lazy bum. Motels, eating out, movies…I didn’t want to do any more work after reaching our destination – I was toast!

8. The big gas station through Kansas was called Short Stop, with a baseball player as the mascot. I always find it interesting what the regional grocery stores, gas stations & restaurants are.

9. My feet were so sweaty on Day 70 they were shriveled! SHRIVELED! That’s never happened to me before. It was such a weird feeling.

10. In addition to the usual corn & wheat fields, we’ve been seeing a lot of soy fields the last few days as well.

11. I mentioned in the last post about the majority of Kansas drivers giving a friendly wave as they passed us & it got me thinking…I wish people in big cities did this, HOWEVER, if they did they’d constantly be waving due to dense populations, essentially resulting in their hand being raised at a 45 degree angle more or less indefinitely. Try that with me now. If you hold your hand at that angle for longer than  3 seconds…it feels a bit Heil Hitler-ish..soooooo, maybe that’s not such a great idea after all. Pretty much the opposite of what the friendly hello is going for :0

Well, we’ve officially been home now for almost two weeks & I’m still getting used to a new routine. Not gonna lie, it was pretty rough the first few days being home, but I was warned by other bikers that would happen so I wasn’t surprised. I could write an entire post on my post-trip feelings (& maybe I will), but to sum it up I just felt (still sort of feel) lost. While I’m proud of our accomplishment I feel like I have no purpose anymore 🙁 I know that’s not true but it certainly feels like that. I just need to find a new purpose…or plan a new trip 😉 Hanging out with friends, family, our cats, making soap, teaching Zumba, cooking, & working out has helped make it a little easier. Speaking of trying to stem post-trip depression, I’ve got a few batches of fall & winter-inspired soaps calling my name 🙂 Until next time!

Whitney

 

Day 65: Motel breakfast. Took an hour & a half on the phone & a delay to our morning but I FINALLY took care of paying our health insurance, just in time too – the 15 day grace period ended that day. Classic Whitney, squeaking in right at the last second. Not on the road until 11am again, ugh 🙁 Destination for the day: Cawker City, home to the largest ball of twine! Exciting 😉 HELLO HUMIDITY!!! All day there were thunderstorms to the north that we just barely dodged. They looked pretty cool from a distance – so dark, enormous & powerful. We also saw some longhorn cattle. Holy cow, those horns are massive! We stopped in Gaylord for a break from the heat (mid 90s & so sticky!). It was a ghost town. The main street looked like an old western movie where a shootout could’ve happened. A little girl on a bike showed us a community center that we cold hide out in, away from the sun. Nobody was in there, it was just always open & it was a sweet spot to rest. They had AC, a bathroom, water for us to refill, a kitchen, piano, lots of space to sprawl. Ben read & napped, I blogged. This seemingly abandoned town had dual flush toilets! Go middle-of-nowhere Kansas!

Back on the road for a while after a decent rest, we stopped to explore another abandoned house. It’s always fascinating to see these old buildings, still full of a life once lived there. It’s also sad too, to see that life deteriorated by dust, urine & feces. I always try to picture the people that lived here, the meals they shared, the books they may have read or the conversations they had. If only the walls could talk, what would they say?

We finally made it to Cawker City & the ball of twine. Hmmm, it wasn’t what I was picturing for some reason. I thought it would be further out in the country, not in town, & it was covered with a roof (which makes sense to protect it from the elements) but it somehow made it seem smaller? Whatever, it was cool enough. We had planned to stay in Cawker City but decided last minute to put in another 20 miles & push it to Beloit, past sunset, to a motel. It was really pretty biking with the sunset behind us; a very vibrant sky, beautifully contrasted against the dark storm clouds to the north. We made it to Beloit, showered, biked to Sonic for dinner, then back to the room for a movie & bed.

Day 66: Slept in, no biking today – a planned day off. Motel breakfast, read, blogged, laundry, TV, Ben wiped down & lubed our chains. In the afternoon we ran some errands: Shopko for a Queen-size bed sheet to replace our sleeping bags (it’s SO HOT now, we don’t need them) & groceries next door. Back to the motel, I patched the hole in my sleeping pad – yay! – while Ben made dinner. I blogged more, then we walked across the street to share a margarita, chips & salsa while we played cards. Back to the room for a movie, reading & bed. A nice catch-up day.

Day 67: We tried to wake up early, but no dice. During our motel breakfast we got sucked into watching the news about the boys soccer team trapped in the Thailand cave & their ongoing rescue. So scary! Packed & on the road by 9:30am. We didn’t get too far before stopping to explore yet another abandoned house 🙂 It was 100 degrees today…quite hot & uncomfortable with the humidity. It’s actually better when biking, there’s at least a slight breeze. It was so hot the asphalt was melting! When we stopped for a break & put our kickstands out, they would make holes where they touched the ground & eventually fall over. We finally saw a wind farm on today’s route – wahoo! Use what you’ve got, Kansas! Shake what your Momma gave ya! We took a break under an overpass – finally, shade again! I’ve missed our breaks under the overpasses through the desert.

We rolled into Clay Center (our destination for the day) & saw a sprinkler in someone’s yard grazing the edge of the road so we hopped off the bikes to run through & soak up the cold water. Aaahhh, so nice. As we did this, the owner came out to chat with us, Bill Calloway. He was really nice. They had a pool in their yard so he told us to go for a dip. On a day like that, you don’t have to tell me twice, so in we went & it felt great. His wife came out shortly after with giant cups of iced tea – the kind of cups you’d get at a stadium or beachy tourist area with the foot-long accordion straws – & it hit the spot. That was so thoughtful & generous. We chatted a bit & he gave us a recommendation for a stealthy place to pitch a tent for the night – the park adjacent to the power plant he used to work at before retiring.

Back on the road for only a few minutes before we needed to stop. We both weren’t feeling well – uh oh, maybe heat related or not enough food? – so we popped into Subway for food & to cool down. When it’s hot like this we usually don’t bike between 1-3pm but since our mileage was so short today we decided to push through & get there sooner. Maybe that wasn’t the best choice & we probably won’t do that again, or very often, if we can help it. Some nice folks at Subway asked about our journey & wished us good luck as we left 🙂

From there we biked over to the community pool. They had two diving boards (high & low), a lazy river, two slides (winding & black hole drop off), & a big pool. Needless to say, we had a fun time. After swimming, we relaxed by the pool, in the shade, & had some ice cream 🙂 Once we were sufficiently rested we swung by a gas station for milk & beer, then finally to the park for the night. First we played cards, Yahtzee, read & journaled. When it was time, Ben made dinner (alfredo & broccoli rice packet with leftover zucchini & tomato from last night’s meal – pretty tasty) while I blogged. As I was doing dishes, a park employee came by on his way to close the gates & asked what our plans were for the night. We told him Bill Calloway recommended we camp there & the guy (having worked with Bill) immediately lit up & said “Yeah, of course! No problem! Do you need me to open the bathrooms for you?”. Awww, that was nice of him to offer 🙂 Wahoo, stealth camping with no worries of getting caught! Not so stealthy then, more strategically free. Ben set up the tent while I caught up with my mom over the phone, a little reading, then straight to bed…or at least an attempt to 🙁

Reflections

1. I’m getting soft about motels. I miss the sense of “normal” that can come with a home & right now a motel is the closest we get to that feeling (a bed, bathroom, sink to do dishes in, our own space with no one else to share it with). In the beginning I said NO MOTELS but now when Ben suggests it (I still won’t be the one to suggest it), I’m not hard to convince 🙂

2. I had “Bye Bye, Miss American Pie” stuck in my head all morning as we left Beloit. We passed a radio tower covered in huge drum-like objects (as big as a car), joked about climbing the tower & banging on the drums, then inevitably getting kicked off for trespassing, at which point the music would die…hence the song lyrics stuck on a loop in my brain (“the day…the muuuusic died”).

3. A random local guy driving by, stopped at a stop sign where we were breaking, rolled his window down & said “you guys are crazy!”, then laughed as he drove off. Silly dude 🙂

4. I really miss making soap.

5. I really hate auto-flush toilets. They’re SO WASTEFUL! If you move an inch while using the toilet, before you’ve finished – flush. Once you stand up – flush again. When you finally leave the stall – one more flush. I just went in to change into my swimsuit & it flushed 3 times. UGH!!! Plus, it’s clean enough to drink so that’s a whole other issue 🙁

6. I haven’t worn my swimsuit much on this trip so I haven’t had many opportunities to show off my goofy tan lines but when I do….watch out! Those things will blind you! They’re pretty impressive 🙂

7. The park in Clay Center was next to a zoo…I hate zoos. Caged animals make me sad. We heard one peacock calling all night, until early morning. It sounded like a sad cat. They weren’t happy-sounding noises, that was for sure 🙁 I had a hard time sleeping that night. Maybe I’m projecting but maybe it’s also a possibility that they don’t like being holed up in a pen.

8. The day we rode to Clay Center the mosquitoes weren’t bad but (excuse my French) holy fuck the gnats were incredibly aggressive & annoying.

9. It’s so noticeable sometimes when counties change – the road condition is so different. Often times, when you pass the county sign you’ll see a line on the road where one county did more recent work to the roads & is drastically different/better than the next county. An interesting observation I didn’t see coming & never would’ve noticed in a car.

10. Cicadas are impressively loud! I don’t remember them back home, but maybe we have them & I just never noticed. They sound electric – like a saw or power lines. It’s almost unbelievable that an insect could be that loud!

Currently enjoying a glass of wine on a beautiful sunny day, beneath an umbrella, perfect weather & an awesome view from the deck at our B&B in Maine…doesn’t get much better than this 🙂 It’s our last day here so I’m really trying to soak it all up. Three more days before it’s back to reality! While I’m sad for this journey to be over I am pretty pumped up to see friends & family again 🙂 Until next time!

Whitney

Made it to Maine, bikes dipped in the ocean 5 days ago, Acadia National Park explored, & currently spending the next 3 days on the coast at a peaceful B&B while I try to catch up on this blog…but more on that later! Where were we? Oh, yeah…just left Colorado. Some days I was better than others in terms of documenting our trip so a few of these entries will be more reflections & observations than a play by play… but I digress.  Back to Kansas!

Day 63 – 4th of July: Up early, veggie egg scrambler, fruit, orange juice & coffee, then on the road. We were slightly delayed in our departure by an itty-bitty-teeny-tiny bunny. It was SO LITTLE, we just had to soak up it’s cuteness for a few minutes 🙂 Mid 90s today, rolling hills, another chorus of crickets, tiny shoulder to ride on but considerate drivers. Speed limit was 65mph for a two-lane highway, which normally feels a bit hairy (too fast with little room to move over) but everyone gave us ample space when they passed (almost TOO much sometimes!). We stopped in Atwood for lunch at a little cafe, planned to swim in the lake but it was nasty, so off to the community pool!

After swimming, we rode for a while until Ben stopped to snap a picture of a combine harvesting wheat. As the farmer rounded the corner where Ben was standing, he opened the door & asked if we wanted a ride to see what it was all about! Heck yeah! I love that spontaneous stuff. It was AWESOME! The farmer’s name was Roger, his family was from Sweden, & he’d been farming for 83 years! He took us around the entire field, us asking questions the whole time about how the combine works, what happens to the wheat once he’s done with it, & so much more. He was so happy to answer our questions & show us around. We asked him other things too, not just about harvesting, like how farming has changed & what he misses most about his younger years of working. What’s changed is the internet & technology. A lot of the combines are now run by computers & when farmers have down time everyone is on the internet instead of talking to each other. He misses when they used to have more free time. When he was younger they used to be able to play softball when they were done with their chores but now it’s work all day to make the most pay 🙁 We made it back to our bikes, shook hands (even though I wanted to hug him!) and parted ways. Even though we only spent 15 minutes together, I’ll never forget it. It was so fascinating! I couldn’t stop smiling for hours after that. What a neat experience. Thanks for opening the door for us, Roger, & letting us see inside your world for a bit!

We made it to our final destination for the day (Oberlin), checked into a motel, showered, did laundry, got pizza for dinner, & wandered over to the fair grounds for a firework show (a pretty decent one too!). Back to the motel & passed out. We were pretty exhausted today.

Day 64: We just couldn’t get out of bed this morning so we decided to sleep in. A quick breakfast bar, apple & coffee in the motel room then we biked downhill into town to the grocery store for a better breakfast: yogurt & granola, as well as granola with half n’ half (like cereal, not bad). Back uphill to the gas station for cliff bars & Subway for ice. The same waitress from the pizza place was working there too so we all had a chuckle when we recognized each other 🙂 All 3 of us: “you again?”. We weren’t on the road, heading out of town, until 11:15! Wowza, even for us, that’s a little late 😉

Today was rolling hills again & overcast. Yay, only upper 70s to low 80s! We saw a big snake slither into the weeds & lots of white moths along the route. I took a spill on the bike but luckily it was when I was stopping & I fell into the weeds…nice & cushy. We stopped for lunch in Norton: appetizers at Sonic & a real meal at Las Canteras. At Sonic we got mozzarella sticks to go with our pickle juice slushie! Unfortunately, the slushie was disappointing. It was too sweet; I wanted more salty & sour. We also witnessed a quarrel among staff which led to an employee quitting & storming out. Uh oh. Two guys at the table next to us were asking about our trip & we asked them for a lunch recommendation: Las Canteras down the hill, so off we went! Great food & a really sweet decorative toilet. Seriously, it was beautiful!

Back on the road, I was a bit sluggish (my butt was pretty sore today) but we eventually made it to Phillipsburg & checked into another motel (!). I filled the tub to find the leak in my sleeping pad (found it!) and also took an actual bath, finally able to use the salts my mom sent us back in Utah (aaahhh, so nice). Ben made dinner, I did laundry, then we just relaxed for the night & watched a movie before calling it a day.

Reflections

1. Two days in a row, Ben was able to get farmers in their tractors to honk for us as we passed by giving them the semi one-arm pull-down signal. The horns were actually pretty quiet – more of a beep than a honk. They smiled, we giggled like little kids – it was great 🙂

2. Eastern Colorado & most of Kansas, being flat & full of wheat or corn fields, get a fair amount of wind, yet there were no wind farms to be seen. I’m curious about their absence in such a resource abundant environment. It would be a perfect place to utilize it. Hmmm…

3. We saw what looked like a huge cloud of smoke but as we moved closer it started to move like it had a mind of its own! What was happening? Turns out it was a giant swarm of tiny birds – thousands of them – that flew so close together they were more of a blob than a flock. It was cool!

4. If you’re ever biking through Kansas, through corn & wheat field country, & in need of water, just look for trees. Trees? Yes, trees. The view for miles in any direction is one solid crop, with little else disturbing the horizon, so when there are trees they stand out. At least through this area, where there were trees there was almost always a house beneath it’s shade…so if you ever need water, look for a tree, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find a house, & hopefully water – your best option besides flagging down a driver.

5. Preparing to leave every morning on this bike trip reminds me of a comedy bit by Michael McIntyre – People with no kids don’t know (YouTube it – it’s worth a laugh or two). He jokes about leaving the house before you have kids and after. Before kids (or in my case, this trip), it was so quick & easy to leave in the morning. “Shall we leave the house?”, “Yes.”, & then you walk out the door. NOW…it’s a process with so many steps & takes forever. “Where are your shoes? Put your shoes on! Where is your vest? I don’t want to wear my vest!” We have to cook, eat, do dishes, carry out a number of hygiene tasks, roll up our sleeping bags, pads, pillows & tent, change into bike clothes, fill up our water bottles, make Nuun water (like Gatorade), put on sunscreen, put on our vests, maybe pump up the tires or degrease & lube the chains, plug in the destination on the Garmin & compare it to Google Maps, turn on our lights, & go to the bathroom one last time. Not as quick & easy as before; an hour would be “quick” for us now 🙂 Not complaining, just reflecting. I’m happy to do all those tasks if it means we get to do this trip.

6. The majority of the drivers we encountered in Kansas gave us the single-finger wave as they passed…no, not the middle finger, just the index finger as a slow, casual wave of hello. It was so nice 🙂

7. It was wheat harvesting season as we rolled through Kansas & as a result saw SO…MANY…tractors, trailers & trucks. More often than not we saw trailers towing tractors – it was a quicker way to get the tractor to the next field. It was quite the operation. I called it the Combine Cavalry 🙂 Pretty impressive.

8. I’ve been fighting with my kickstand this whole trip (cut it too short) which leads to some pretty comical moments of me repositioning my bike for 2 minutes until I find the perfect spot. Ben sits & laughs at me while I act like it’s no big deal to pick up & move my heavy loaded bike 10 times & turn the front wheel a certain way, trying to find that perfect balance that will likely be disturbed by someone sneezing in the next town over…but that’s normal, right? 😉 Oh, the things we choose to get used to.

9. Maybe I already said this in another post so I apologize if I’m repeating myself, but something we noticed on this trip (even as of Kansas, & especially having made it all the way to Maine now) is the majority of motels we stayed at were run by Indian immigrants & their family. The more motels we stayed at the more we were curious to know if it was a coincidence or happened that way for some reason we were unaware of. I did a quick Google search to see if others had noticed this & came across an interesting NPR article that explains it all! If you’re also curious, check it out: Here To Stay.

10. Gretchen & Larry, our Warm Showers hosts from Fruita, CO, had talked about the phenomenon as a biker when there is no traffic for miles but when there finally is, it almost always seems to be one car in each direction & they just happen to pass each other at the exact same time they’re passing you, creating a tight squeeze & temporary “hold-on-for-dear-life-don’t-move-an-inch” kind of vibe. They didn’t have a name for it & figured other bikers must have experienced this so surely there would be a name for it but never found one. Well, with all the time we had in the middle of nowhere & hours to think about the stupidest things, I came up with: traffic triple threat. You go from having to worry about nothing to 1) a car behind you, 2) another car in front of you, and finally 3) if both of these vehicles are capable of not hitting each other & you…which was questionable at times but we survived!

11. Speaking of riding in the middle of nowhere with hours to ponder our existence, we would think such silly things that either didn’t make sense & would have us laughing at our weirdness or would make us feel like we had an amazing revelation…but mostly the weird stuff 🙂 For example, we had many conversations with cows as we passed (yes, we talked to cows…you can’t possibly be surprised) that started with us mooing at them, which caused them to stop what they were doing (all of them, even a herd of 50 or more) and watch us intently. They were captivated, or as we punnily coined it, calftivated.  This led to a discussion about their life cycle…and inevitably more puns. Our chats that held them calftivated we called cownversations, some of the males would have been calfstrated, and at the end of their lives all of them would eventually be decalfitated. I told you it was weird…

12. Speaking of cows, we saw two black moms with white calves. I’ve never seen that before; I was intrigued. Either I didn’t know that was possible or it’s not & they just adopted them. Again, with the weird thoughts… 🙂

13. Heading into Atwood, we heard a loud bird cry that reminded me of Marahute, the golden eagle, from Rescuers Down Under. It was such a powerful & striking sound…& now I want to watch that movie. “Pea soup!”

14. Sunscreen for babies & kids is marketed as “tear free” or “sting free” but the same doesn’t apply for adult sunscreen. Who decided, & at what age does it change, that adults can handle the tears & the stinging? I’d prefer the tear & sting free stuff please!

15. While at the pool in Atwood, & packing up to leave, this little kid (maybe 6?) saw our loaded bikes & stopped to ask where we were going. We explained California to Maine (blank stare), one side of the country to the other (blank stare), ocean to ocean (blank stare), at which point he finally shrugged his shoulders, said “huh” very nonchalantly, and walked away. I don’t know why but Ben & I thought this was hilarious & couldn’t stop laughing. Most adults are surprised, impressed & want to hear all about our trip & then this kid comes along and was all “hmmm, whatever, I gotta swim!”. Brutal honesty, gotta love it 🙂

16. Constantly dripping with sweat & riding through heavily insect-laden areas I discovered my body was moonlighting as a gnat cemetery. I was constantly covered in the little buggers! Any time we stopped I’d have to wipe off dozens of them. All these critters were just flying around, doing their bug thing, and little did any of us know that my body was going to be their final resting place where they all came to die. I felt like a human windshield.

17. One of Ben’s reflections: there were these weird piles of poop on the shoulder, every mile or so, that he couldn’t understand. They were big too & seemed to be strategically placed. It was amazing how it was always dead-center in the middle of the shoulder, never in the road. Assuming there’s no human serial pooper in Kansas, it had to be from an animal, but which one? It couldn’t have been a dog out for a walk with the owner. It was the middle of nowhere – there were no houses or dogs & when there were the dogs probably didn’t go for walks…they ran free. A wild animal can poop anywhere, especially in the fields where they live…why would they come out to the road & poop on the shoulder? Was it the same animal every time, for miles & miles? Or was it some unspoken rule among raccoons or coyotes, that they’re supposed to do their business on the shoulder & nowhere else? It remains a mystery & puzzle we never solved…at least not yet 🙂

18. Speaking of poop…sometimes things happen when you’re far from a bathroom so there may or may not be some random turds on the edges of cornfields or under an overpass…

19. This trip has turned me into a sleazy objectifier…of roads. “Check out the shoulders on this one!”, “Oh yeah, I could ride that all day”, “Oooohhh, it’s so smooth!”.

If anyone is still reading this I think that’s enough weird stuff for this post. I’ll save more for the next one 😉 I love this deck at the B&B with a perfect ocean view, but I’m starting to get gnawed on by a few mosquitoes so it’s time to move back inside for the night. Once I’ve had dinner & maybe watch a movie I’ll be in the right frame of mind again for more blogging. Until next time!

Whitney

Ben’s dad & brother, Ralph & Tom, are flying out to join us in Maine today! Only a matter of hours til they’re here so back to Colorado!

Day 61: Oatmeal & coffee, packed up by 8am, stopped by the grocery store in town, then back on the road. A lot of nothing today, rolling hills, good shoulder for the first half of the day, tons of wheat, pretty hot – 100 degrees! There weren’t many places to fill up water so we stopped at a woman’s house in the town of Last Chance (haha, how fitting) & she gladly let us use her hose. We rested here for a snack, hid from the sun for a bit, then rode another 20 miles to Anton. This place had a small grocery store, Supers, with a shaded picnic area. We got a few things from the store then chilled for a couple hours at the picnic table to avoid the heat. We played cards, read, napped (or tried to), & chatted with a farmer who stopped in for a bite.

After our break in Anton we rode the remaining 22 miles to Cope – our planned end point for the day, however, it wasn’t what we were expecting. Google lied! We thought there’d be a grocery store & a few other businesses here but there was nothing. It was a pretty run down, forgotten town. All businesses were no longer open. Some people still lived there but it looked fairly abandoned. Luckily, there was an overgrown park with a picnic shelter to pitch our tent under (rain looked promising), pit toilets, & a water pump. I wasn’t too worried about setting up camp in such a visible area as it seemed there weren’t enough people around to care if we were there. There was a telephone pole in the park with outlets that, after playing around with switches, I was able to get working. Wahoo, we could charge stuff too! This dud of a town was still providing everything we needed. Sweet! Unfortunately, we hadn’t planned our fuel very well & ran out of gas within seconds of turning the stove on. Whoops! No hot meal tonight or in the morning but we still had plenty of food to eat. We had snacks for dinner (crackers, nuts, bars, beef jerky for Ben, bagels) & prepped overnight oats for breakfast.

In a race against the setting sun & impending storm, we quickly did dishes, laundry, & bathed. Bathing was interesting but still satisfying enough – combination of crouching under the water pump & also utilizing the pit toilet ‘room’ to clean up. After being drenched in sweat all day, any form of bathing felt much better. We were in the tent early as the storm came. It was really pretty to watch it approach. The sky was full of bright pinks, purples & blues. It was so windy but other than that the shelter kept us pretty dry. After a little reading, we were asleep by 9:30pm.

Day 62: Up early, finished charging things while we ate & packed up (had to stop last night due to rain). Beautiful sunrise this morning. Before we left we took a spin on the rickety merry-go-round. That was fun…but we also felt a little nauseous afterwards! On the road by 8am. My legs were feeling tired today. Ben felt great – I couldn’t keep up with him! After riding for a while we stopped at Carpenter’s Mini Mall convenience store, next to The Grainery restaurant (the only two buildings for miles in the middle of nowhere). We rolled in around 10:40am, the restaurant didn’t open til 11am, so we just hung out at the convenience store picnic table & chatted with one of the employees, Janice, for a bit. She was so nice & welcoming…very different than the store in Anton yesterday. Janice wants to do her own bike trip someday in Argentina so she had lots of questions for us. Once The Grainery opened we walked next door for lunch & hung out for a while to avoid the heat (in the 90s today). I blogged, Ben read.

After lunch, we only made it 7 miles before pulling over to explore an abandoned farmhouse. This was pretty cool! Unfortunately, while we were exploring, my bike tipped over & I lost all the water from one of my bottles & my shifter got a little jacked-up. Luckily, I still had two other bottles of water & my shifter just needed some heavy cranking to get back in place. Another 9 miles after the farm, we finally crossed into Kansas (state #6!), then another 14 miles to our final destination: St.Francis.

Fred connected us with a buddy of his, Colin, who lives here (just moved in a week prior) so we pulled up to the house & as we were unloading met another cross-country biker staying in town for the night, Bill. He’s heading in the opposite direction as us but it was fun to swap stories of our experiences & the things we’ve learned so far. We met Colin (one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met) & his roommates/coworkers. They’re all here, in the middle-of-nowhere-Kansas, for this technology Colin created that can detect pests on crops & involves 3D printers – cool! He showed us around the house then we walked down the block to get groceries…& lots of ’em! We were apparently pretty hungry & shopping at a time like that is dangerous! We walked in for dinner fixings (salad & pasta) & breakfast (eggs, veggies & cheese), but also walked away with chocolate milk, cottage cheese, pickles & ice cream (seems like a pregnant woman’s shopping list, but I assure you – especially you, Mom! – that it was not; just 2 hungry bikers). Back to the house we devoured the jar of pickles, juice & all….mmm, salty & delicious!

There was a big, new community pool basically in their backyard so we wandered over to take a dip. Open swim was closed but for $1 we could swim laps – deal! I just needed to be in water so my laps were more frolick than swim but nobody cared. Aaahhh, it felt great. Just what I needed on such a hot day. Quick shower, dinner, laundry, charging, reading, & finally bed. Despite not having a ton of extra space for visitors, Colin & his crew were still willing to make room for us & we were so thankful they did. Sleeping on the floor in a house with AC beats sleeping outside on a hot, sticky night.

Reflections

1. As soon as we left Aurora we entered endless fields of wheat, as far as you could see – wheat, wheat, wheat,wheat, wheat. It was like an ocean of gold – really pretty.

2. The staff at the Supers in Anton were very unwelcoming towards us. I don’t know if it was a ‘you’re not from around here’ sort of thing or something else but they seemed annoyed with our presence & any questions we had. Oh well, not everyone is going to like you & they’re entitled to their attitudes.

3. With such long stretches of the same, single color view with no end in sight for 15 miles in any direction, I weirdly felt claustrophobic. That sounds strange since I was outside, in a wide-open space, with nothing around me but it felt sort of Truman Show-esque, like I was trapped in a small world.

4. Holy cannoli, now that we’re on the east side of the Rockies the flies & mosquitoes are so bad, especially on our ride from Byers to Cope. Any time we stopped they would annoy the living daylights out of us. It was impossible to nap outside with the constant swatting you had to do. Breaks while riding were short to minimize the annoyance by those aggressive pests! Haven’t missed those little buggers 🙁

5. A week off in Denver was great, but also made us a little soft. Riding so many miles again, in the heat, left us feeling zapped in no time.

6. The sunrise in Cope looked like a neon grapefruit – very vibrant pink & orange. It was so cool & mesmerizing! Pictures wouldn’t do it justice.

7. Being in the middle of nowhere, you’re able to notice more since it’s quieter. I didn’t know crickets chirped all day & I love their sound. The call of a mourning dove (which I just learned isn’t morning dove…), not so much. They sound sad, depressed, bored…which now makes sense that they’re called mourning doves. Wow.

8. Janice wanted to do a big bike trip despite not currently being an avid biker. That’s what I’m talking about! We weren’t either but we figured it out. Don’t let inexperience hold you back from trying something big. You’ll miss out on a lot of great opportunities if you wait til you’re an expert at something.

9. There were moments of riding through the land of wheat, where it was mostly flat with just enough incline to not be able to see further than a few miles. There was nothing on the horizon but the tops of wheat fields against blue sky – it looked bizarrely like the edge of the world that we would inevitably fall off if we kept going – except the edge of the world always stayed just a few miles ahead of us 😉

10. Crossing into Kansas was a little funny because since we left Denver it already felt like we were in Kansas with all the wheat fields. Eastern Colorado is completely different than the western side & is indistinguishable from western Kansas. When we crossed the border I found myself thinking “wait, I thought we’d been in Kansas for 3 days now!”. Haha, nope!

62 days down, 70 to go – hot diggity, I’ve got some catching up to do! My eyes need a break from my phone screen first so I’m going to clip out for a bit before jumping back in the saddle. Until next time!

Whitney

Just got back from breakfast with a lovely couple who live Maine & currently chillin’ at Lake St.George…but more on that later. Back to Denver!

*Our stay in Denver was mostly about spending time with family & catching up on the blog so there wasn’t a ton of sightseeing, just hanging out, & I loved it! There was a lot of much-needed downtime & therefore not as much to write about like normal but what follows is how we spent our time.

Day 54: Naturally, we slept in, then had oatmeal & coffee for breakfast, followed by a lot of reading & blogging. In the afternoon I went for a run with Sam & was immediately aware of A) how out-of-shape my running game has gotten, & B) how powerful elevation is again. Despite that, it still felt great to run. I’ve missed it a lot. After a shower we all walked downtown for dinner at Thai Monkey Club. Really delicious food here. On our walk back, a homeless guy asked for my leftovers so I happily handed it over. I hope he enjoyed it; I certainly did! We stopped at the 1up bar for a drink & arcade games. That was fun 🙂 Back to the apartment, a little chit-chat, then off to bed.

Day 55: For the morning, we slept in, had a veggie egg scrambler & coffee for breakfast, read, & blogged. In the afternoon, we took our bikes to a shop for a quick tuneup, I went for another run, which ended at a bar/restaurant where I met Ben for a drink & tasty nachos. Once Sam was back we picked up a few groceries, hopped on the bus & went to Fred’s house for dinner (Sam’s brother, who also lives in Denver). This was such a nice night: time with family (an awesome family!), great food (Greek salad, grilled burgers & dogs, watermelon, & fresh chocolate chip cookies!), & a beautiful night on the back patio. Fred’s girlfriend (now fiancè!), Kayla, joined us later. She’s so sweet. We hung out for a long time, catching up, then Fred dropped us all off. Great day.

Day 56: Slept in, veggie egg scrambler & coffee again, Ben toured the capitol while I did more blogging, then I met Sam for a mani-pedi. That was fun! I never get those because I usually do it myself but it was nice to be pampered a little. On the way back we picked up more groceries & made alfredo for dinner. More blogging & just chillin’ for the night.

Day 57: After sleeping in, Ben & I wandered down a few blocks to Jelly Cafe for breakfast. Good food here, fun atmosphere. On the way back, we stopped in a used bookstore, Kilgore Books. We had both finished our current books & needed a new story to dive into. Per an employee’s recommendation, I went with City Of Thieves by David Benioff (co-creator of Game of Thrones), & Ben picked out a compilation of short suspense stories. Back to the apartment for blogging all day, a break for a movie at the downtown United Artists theater (Jurrasic World-entertaining enough), then back “home” for more blogging before bed.

Day 58: I went for a morning run & Ben had a veggie scrambler & coffee ready when I got back 🙂 After a few days off & at school, Sam was back on the night shift at the University of Colorado Hospital, & therefore needed to nap during the day so we tried to lay low all day. I blogged for a bit, then we walked downtown & explored for a while. We took a tour & had lunch at Wynkoop Brewery. The tour guide was pretty funny. They had good food & beer. Back to the apartment when we knew Sam would be awake before work. I made a quinoa stir fry dinner for all of us. It felt so good to cook again…in a kitchen, not over a camp stove. After Sam left for work, Ben tuned her bike & we set up the TV she’s been meaning to get around to but hasn’t had the time for. With that up & running we rented the movie The 15:17 to Paris (a true story). The acting isn’t the best but the actors are the real-life individuals that the movie is about, which is pretty neat. A little more blogging & reading, then off to bed.

Day 59: Ben & I walked a few blocks to Spices for breakfast. Good food, nice patio. After that we took a tour of Molly Brown’s house (the ‘unsinkable’ Molly from The Titanic). That was pretty interesting. She was quite a woman. Once Sam was off to work we degreased & cleaned our bikes. Aaah, nice & fresh. I squeezed in one last ran in the park, then we walked a few blocks to Liks for ice cream. Yum! Back to the apartment for blogging & movie binging. In honor of Molly Brown we just had to watch Titanic, & for nostalgia’s sake we also watched Sweet Home Alabama. As it was our last night in Denver we organized our gear again – ready to hit the road.

Day 60: No time for sleeping in today. We were up when Sam got home from work to say our goodbyes before she crashed into bed. We made eggs & coffee, packed up & were gone by 8:30am. Just a 20 mile ride for the morning to Kayla’s horse ranch in Aurora, past the movie theater where the 2012 shooting happened during The Dark Knight Rises. Kayla trains & shows horses for a living so Fred met us there & we all went for a ride. It was so much fun! I was a little nervous at times but everything went well & it was a blast. We did a little crash-course in the barn, learning how to communicate with the horses & how to get in a rythym with their gait to make it feel smoother & less bouncy. Once we got the hang of things we took them out for a ride in the field. My horse was a little antsy so Fred & I switched halfway through. It was a beautiful day to be outside, try something fun I haven’t done in a long time, & be with family. It was an exciting experience, I learned a lot, & Kayla was a great teacher.

After riding, we went to Chipotle for lunch (thanks, Fred!), then back on the road we went. We saw more prairie dogs, had a pretty narrow shoulder to ride on, & got yelled at by a guy in a truck. Quick stop at Subway for water, a cookie, & scouting out potential spots for stealth camping in the city we’d end up in (Byers), using Google satellite. We went with some land behind a church & rode the remaining miles into town, arriving well before sunset.

Not even 5 minutes after we rolled into the church parking lot & were poking around the building looking for outlets, a truck pulled up. At first we thought surveillance cameras had tipped someone off, but turns out it was just the maintenance man, Frank. We explained our trip & that we were just looking for a safe place to pitch our tent so he called the pastor who said we could definitely stay behind the church. Thanks! There was even a faucet back there too! We chatted with Frank for a while. Really nice guy. He’s really active so it was neat hearing about all the different ways he stays in shape. Around to the back, we pitched our tent, had Chipotle leftovers for dinner, washed dishes, cleaned ourselves up a bit, did laundry, read, & fell asleep in no time. Busy day = early to bed.

Reflections

1. I was pleasantly surprised by a sign on the table at Jelly Cafe: “Straws by request only”. Yay, finally! It always bothers me when a drink automatically comes with a straw, already unwrapped, & placed in the glass. You never even have a chance to decline & save the waste. If you really want one, just ask. So simple.

2. I have such a hard time picking a book out in a bookstore unless I have a personal recommendation of what to get. How do you not literally judge a book by its cover? If I don’t know what I’m looking for I’m automatically drawn to “pretty”, colorful book covers, & am probably missing out on a lot of great books just because they have a boring cover. I always ask an employee for a recommendation & can’t tell if they love or hate the task. Luckily, in Denver, he seemed delighted.

3. Horses are so big, I feel like they could crush me in a heartbeat. I’m too timid with animals to “show them who’s boss”. I didn’t have it in me to control my horse the way it should’ve been. I was afraid of hurting it. Fred’s horse was a little tamer, but I’m pretty sure any horse I rode would’ve been able to have it’s way with me. I’m a little soft when it comes to controlling animals. If they want to veer off course to check something out or go faster than I’m supposed to let them…who am I (a little human on the back of a giant, majestic beast) to tell them otherwise? 🙂 I know why I’m supposed to control them but my feminist, independent, free-spirit part of my brain says “run wild, don’t let me tell you what to do!”. The moral of this story is I’d be a horrible horse trainer, but Kayla is awesome. She’s sweet, smart, confident & kind & the horses are in good hands with her. That’s all I care about.

Even though our journey is ending soon I’m going to see this blog through to the end. I hate unfinished business & it won’t be that hard since I journaled the entire trip – this hasn’t all been from memory. Plus, it’s fun to look back already & relive earlier parts of the trip. Well, we splurged on a motel tonight on account of rain & Hunger Games just came on. I wheelie want to watch it so I’m signing off for now. Until next time!

Whitney

Still in Augusta, fully caffeinated & ready to roll!

Day 52: A good night of sleep in a super comfy bed had us ready to take on the day. Eddie & Sharon fed us again with a tasty breakfast of cheesy eggs, toast, oatmeal, fruit & coffee. We enjoyed our meal out on the deck with a spectacular view & swapped stories for a while. I could’ve sat & talked to them all day but we had another pass to climb: Loveland – the highest point we would climb & anticipated hardest ride of our whole trip. We were a bit nervous but Eddie reassured us we’d be fine. He’d ridden it many times & gave us tips on what to expect. He was currently training for the Triple Bypass – a one day ride over 3 tough passes in the Rockies (Squaw, Loveland & Vail). Talk about intense! After breakfast, we packed, said our goodbyes, & hit the road. As is true of many people we’ve met on this trip, I hope our paths cross again someday. They were pretty special.

It was a beautiful day, with perfect weather – great for a challenging ride. Before the climb we stopped in Dillon, at REI, for a new neon vest & more electrolyte bites. A few miles further, along a pretty lake & river, then up we went for 8-ish miles & 2,500 ft – topping out at almost 12,000ft of elevation.

We stopped to take several breaks, met many other bikers out for a stroll (again, not touring, just training or leisure), & slowly climbed our way to the top. It was kind of funny once we reached the top & joined many other bikers we hadn’t met on our side of the mountain yet. They were all relieved & proud of their climb (as they should be!)…until they saw us with all our gear & were then unimpressed with their accomplishment. Nonsense! Gear or no gear, that’s not an easy climb & anyone who completes it should be proud! Regardless, it was fun chatting with the other bikers & taking in the amazing panoramic view. Absolutely stunning. Someone who lived in the area & had been to the top of Loveland Pass many times said it’s almost never that nice up there. It’s usually windy & stormy. Hooray, we got lucky! Thank you, weather, for an unusually beautiful day.

After sufficiently taking it all in we bombed it to the bottom on the other side & enjoyed a really peaceful, windy, gorgeous ride through the woods, on a bike path, most of the way to Idaho Springs – our stop for the day. I could ride that path every day! It’s definitely near the top of my list for nicest rides on this trip! In Idaho Springs, we checked into a motel, soaked in a nasty hot tub, showered, did laundry, made dinner, watched TV, blogged & called it a day.

Day 53: Breakfast today was cereal with banana, OJ & weak-ass motel coffee (it looked like tea), but enjoyed on a nice little porch outside our room. We had one more climb through the Rockies (& the last one for a while), but much shorter & broken up. We were in a race against the clock to make it to Denver for a 1pm Rockies game so no dilly-dallying. Packed & on the road, dark & ominous clouds all morning, but a sweet downhill all the way to town once we reached the top. We had to stop our descent to put on long sleeves & pants – it was cold! What a rare feeling we’d experienced lately.

We made it into town just in time before the darkness overhead unleashed a healthy downpour of rain & hail. We ducked under a business awning for 15 minutes until it passed, then biked the remaining few miles to my cousin, Samantha’s, apartment where we’d be staying for a week. She was at work & we were in a hurry so we quick showered, dumped our gear, then noticed there was a rain delay for the game so we cooled our jets & biked downtown for lunch near the stadium, at View House Ballpark. The food was good, but service left us feeling slightly forgotten & the “welcome” by the host rubbed me the wrong way (see reflection below). We scarfed down our food & headed to the game.

Weather improved throughout the game & turned into a beautiful night. We had a nice time, enjoyed good views, & just relaxed. That stadium has a unique row of purple seats that makes it’s way around the entire park, marking the elevation for which Denver is nicknamed: the mile-high city. Pretty neat.

After the game we met up with a friend of mine, Gala, who now lives in the Denver area. She picked a sweet vegetarian place – Sputnik. I love having so many options to choose from! It’s exciting…but also takes me forever to order 🙂 I went with a falafel & ooohhh, it was so good! Mmmm… I was tempted to order a 2nd one but found the willpower to refrain. Samantha also met us there after work. It was so nice to see friends & family. We sat around catching up for a while, then Gala dropped Samantha off while we biked back to her place.

The 3 of us sat up talking for a while before Ben crashed, but Sam & I stayed up fairly late catching up. It was so good to see her. She’s like a sister to me. When we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer we gave in & passed out. Aaahhh, another great day.

Reflections

1. Having made it to the top of Loveland Pass, Ben & I both reflected that it wasn’t as hard as we were expecting. The grade was not as steep as we’d been picturing (only 6-9% average). It was long but doable. In hindsight now, nearing the end of our trip in Maine, it was definitely not our hardest ride…but more on that later.

2. It’s crazy how it can take 2 hours to climb to the top of a mountain & only 5 minutes to bomb to the bottom. Wowza!

3. When we rolled up to View House Ballpark, clad in neon rain jackets, the host standing outside said, full of attitude & judgement, “you’re not from here are you?”. Why, because we were wearing neon? Oh, I’m sorry (*not sorry!), do you think it’s “dorky”? Well, I’d rather be seen & safe than “cool” & car-bait. Ben didn’t think anything of it, which is fine, but it definitely bothered me.

4. I didn’t know until later that Ben had already been to the Denver stadium so I was a little peeved that we hauled ass through the Rockies & missed plenty of opportunities for other experiences for a stadium he’d already seen. I was OK with it when I thought it was a new one he could check off his list but foregoing new experiences through the mountains for a stadium that already been visited…not a fun revelation for either of us 🙁

2 posts in 1 day? Wahoo! The sun is setting here in Augusta & me & my hubby have to go set up our stealth camp for the night. Cemetery or baseball field? We haven’t decided yet 🙂 Until next time!

Whitney

Primm,NV – 50

Las Vegas – 45

Downtown Vegas – 10

North Vegas – 13

Bunkerville, NV – 77

St.George, UT – 47

Zion National Park – 42

Hatch, UT – 61

Bryce National Park – 25

Escalante, UT – 50

Boulder, UT – 35

Fruita, UT – 40

Hanksville, UT – 38

Green River, UT – 58

Moab, UT – 49

Cisco, UT – 47

Fruita, CO – 45

Paonia, CO – 81

Glenwood Springs, CO – 69

Vail, CO – 62

Frisco, CO – 32

Currently chillin’ in Augusta, Maine, with only 6 more days til we reach the coast & dip our bikes in the ocean! Aaaahhh!!! But first…back to the Rockies.

Day 51: Up early after a poor night of sleep. On top of the sprinkler business, a few delivery trucks came around 1am & 4:30am. They were very loud & stayed for quite a while, making it very difficult to catch some shut-eye. Being up early, I chose productivity as a solution to sleepiness so I rolled our bikes back by us (previously hidden behind the buildings), tidied up & packed what I could while Ben slept, but finally woke him up around 6am. We packed up the tent & rolled over to McDonald’s for charging, breakfast, planning, blogging & to clean up a little.

Finally on the road by 9am, the day started out a little rainy & cold but turned into a beautiful, sunny day. Today’s destination: Frisco,CO, via Vail Pass. There were some pretty steep moments & the climb lasted 9 or so miles but slowly & surely we made our way to the top. They turned an old frontage road into a giant bike lane so there was no vehicle traffic – awesome. The views were amazing, as to be expected. We saw so many other bikers on the route which gave us extra encouragement every time we passed & would get a hoot or holler of encouragement. There were no other tourers, just training & leisure riders on very light bikes with no extra gear…ya know, what normal semi-sane people do 😉 We stopped to talk to several of them, especially at the top where there’s a rest stop.

After a bit of a break we bombed it all the way to Frisco: 12 miles of sweet, traffic-free, scenic bliss. Aaaah, it was wonderful. When we rolled into town we asked a local for restaurant recommendations & took her up on 5th Ave Grille. While eating on the patio, the couple at the table next to us were very curious about our trip so we talked for a few minutes, swapping stories, a nice bit of chit-chat & eventually went back to our meals. Mid meal a different couple walking by stopped to let us know Ben’s taillight was still on. Surpise, surprise – he always forgets to shut it off. I even have a song for him reminding him to shut it off 🙂 We talked with them a little, then off they went. They were really cool, Eddie & Sharon. The table next to us had finished, said goodbye & parted ways. Immediately after they left, the waitress informed us they’d paid for our lunch. What? Wow, we were speechless. How thoughtful! I couldn’t believe it. What a nice gesture.

As we were packing up to leave, Eddie & Sharon came back & asked what our plans were for the night: camping. They told us about a campground up the road, which didn’t have showers, so they offered us a free shower at their place in town. Wow, very generous! We couldn’t pass it up. We met them at their place expecting to be in & out in 30 minutes but as soon as we arrived they had an even better offer for us to consider: shower, laundry, dinner, pool, hot tub, private room & bath for the night. Again, what? I was blown away. We were complete strangers but they treated us like family. Of course we said yes! They showed us around (wow, really nice, cool space) then let us get settled in. As we went into the garage to retrieve our bags off the bikes I started crying. I was so overwhelmed (in a good way) with such selfless generosity towards complete strangers that I was literally overflowing with emotions – happiness, gratitude & awe. I kept shaking my head in disbelief at the situation.

Up to our room, shower, laundry, then dinner. We had pasta, salad, bread & wine & sat around talking for a long time. They are so cool, I want to be them! Such interesting lives, VERY active, down to earth, generous, sweet, easy to talk to, healthy, smart, hard working…I could go on. Eddie told a really moving story about a family road trip of theirs (they have 2 daughters, in their 20s now) that was inspired by the animated film, Cars. Eddie was a bit of a workaholic & realized he needed to slow down & spend more time with his family – like in the movie – hence the road trip. On the first day, the RV broke down & they had to get hauled by a tow truck – like in the movie – to a small town, in the middle of nowhere, & not part of their plans – like in the movie. The guy that hauled them…became a tow-truck driver…because of the movie Cars! WHAT?? These 2 guys, strangers, met because they both realized the importance of slowing down, being flexible & appreciating the present all because of the same movie. That story could be its own movie! I think that’s so awesome, it gave me chills & once again…I found myself teary-eyed. Goodness, I’m just full of all the feels today!

Sharon told us about some of the intense races & physical feats her & Eddie have done & I aspire to be like that. It sounds like so much fun – a lot of work but a great sense of accomplishment. Eddie is more of a biker now & Sharon more into hiking. She was currently getting ready to hike the Camino de Santiago trail in Spain…the one we’d just heard about from the hotel owner in Glenwood Springs! It sounded amazing & I found myself wanting to tag along 🙂

After dinner, Ben & I went for a dip in the pool, soaked in the hot tub, watched a little TV in our room & hit the hay. What a day! Such a turn of events! Waking up damp & tired from sprinklers & delivery trucks to having lunch paid for by strangers, being welcomed into a another stranger’s home, & being treated like family by amazing people – a pleasant turn of events, to say the least. It’s reassuring to know there are still good people out there – it’s easy to lose sight of that these days. Today was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. I fell asleep with a happy heart & a smile on my face.

Reflections

1. Colorado is a very proud state. Nowhere else in the country have I ever seen so many state flags: houses, clothing, dishes, hats…anywhere & everywhere.

2. The green mountains look like they’re covered in a thick, fluffy, fleece blanket – so cozy & warm.

3. Elevation is a powerful force. Despite all this biking, we felt out of shape & breath very quickly. Talking while riding was harder than usual & taking a single sip of water would leave us gasping when we were done…apparently a 3 second break was too much 🙂

4. As a way to stay hydrated we take every opportunity to refill our water bottles even if were not running low. We call it the slam & fill…pretty self explanatory 😉

5. It’s been almost 3 months since we were in Frisco & Sharon is now currently hiking the Camino de Santiago trail & it is so much fun following her journey! Way to go, Sharon!

We’re taking a day off in Augusta today so hopefully there’ll be another entry by tonight, but the cafe we’re at is about to close so I’ll have to stick a fork in it for now. Until next time!

Whitney