The right pond

On Sunday, 4 November 2007 after 13 weeks of eastward movement we finally saw the Atlantic Ocean in Nags Head, NC. It was incredible. We rode a total of 4518 miles in 385 hours, at an average of 11.74 mph. That's 16.4 days of steady riding. We were gone 91 days, of which we rode 77, rested 10, and took 4 sick days. We have been asked by several people what we do all day. As it turns out we spend about 20% of our time riding, 20% finding food, 20% eating food, 35% sleeping, and 5% random down time. This was an outstanding trip and an amazing way to travel. If you ever get the chance to take such a trip do it, eat peanut m&ms, drink lots of chocolate milk, and prepare for great trip.

Off the maps and into North Carolina.

After leaving Dr. Thad's, we had some of the coldest nights of the trip. We woke up one morning with a thin coat of ice covering the inside of the rain-fly. After Roanoke, VA we left the safety of our maps behind and picked out own route.

The first major day off route started with a cold, but wicked fast descent off the Blue Ridge Parkway. I saw my fastest average of the entire trip, 31.5mph for the first three miles of the day. As you can imagine it quickly dropped.

Riding off route was partly more stressful, partly less stressful, and all around, kind of exciting. We picked our route by following as many of the thin, light gray lines on our Rand-McNally map as we could. We had heard of a North Carolina bike route that stayed near highway 158 and decided to head that way to find it. We found parts of it, but mostly used computer printouts to find smaller roads parallel to 158. The stressful part was finding food and water. With the Adventure Cycling maps we knew how far it was from own to town and where all the food stops were. Without them we just guessed and carried a little more water. The easy part was we never really had a set destination for the day. We pretty much road until it got dark and found a place to sleep; including an abandoned school, land that will soon see a rash of cookie-cutter homes, and what was probably a hunting club's deer killing/beer drinking land. It all worked out.

Off route people were even more amazed by our trip than those we ran into on the TransAm route. We were asked throughout North Carolina where we were headed and would get a lot of, "Wow, that's like 200 miles away!" Then we'd tell them where we started and left them speechless. I'm looking forward to planning my own routes in the future.

This state borders the Atlantic

Juliette and I finally made it to Virginia after two weeks in Kentucky. While this isn't the state we'll finish in, it does border water and makes us feel like we might actually finish this trip. I was estimating 10-12 weeks. Today is the last day of week 12 and we have at least a week left. We're looking into alternate routes to shave some time. We also hit the 4000 miles mark in Council, VA (good luck finding it on a map), which means we should only have 200 left in our 4200 miles trip. HA! It'll be closer to 4600-4800.

Fall is officially here. Today was pretty cold all day and we're seeing a lot of trees without leaves. There's even a freeze warning tonight, the first of the year, but luckily we're being hosted by Dr. Thad. He's a bit of a cyclist himself and he, along with his wife Sara and son, host TranAm cyclists. Sara made us breakfast for dinner, we're doing laundry now, and a hot shower awaits us before we sleep in a real bed. It's wonderful. We first heard about Thad from the Eco Patriots (google them), this group we met in Farmington, and then again from a bike journal in Kentucky. There's a lot of word of mouth lodging on this route that's not on the maps. It's really pretty cool.

The last few days have been back breaking. We had the toughest climb of the trip a couple days ago on RT 611 in Kentucky. My back thinks it was an 8-10% grade for almost 2 miles, but it could be wrong. I stood for over a mile going 3-4mph. It hurt, but was find of fun at the same time. We've had a few of these Rockies meets Ozarks type climbs and all of them reward us with a rad descent. For those of you in Eugene, think a Briggs or McBeth style descent, but 2-5 miles long... pretty sweet.

According to Thad we only have a day left in the hills before things flatten out. We'll probably take one more rest day after tomorrow and then make our way to Nags Head. After 12 weeks it's hard to believe we're almost done.

Ale-8-one, pronounced "A late one"

Ale-8-one is a Kentucky made soda that's just delicious. It's a ginger ale with a little fruit flavor added. It's not too sweet, has no caffeine, and always hits the spot.

I mention this wonderful soda because it could be the highlight of Kentucky. At first it seemed Kentucky had the wind of Kans-Ass, the humidity of Misery, and the hills of Ill-Annoyed. Now with the weather cooling and a whole lot of rain, including one tornado warning, it's just the wind and hills, no more reminder of Misery.

The tornado warning at Rough River Dam State Park had us a little nervous. A tent didn't seem to be the best shelter from that kind of storm. When we set up camp we knew some storms were rolling in. The woman at the gate even told us that the laundry room in the bath building was a storm shelter and if things got really bad we could head to the near by lodge. We set up camp, made dinner, and went to bed. We hear the storm roll in so we zip the rain fly up nice and tight and I doze off to sleep. Juliette wakes me up asking, "What's that?" "Sounds like an air raid siren," I answered. Then we hear something over a loud speaker, but can only make out the word 'tornado'. We got a little nervous, put everything that was not too important in the tent, and took everything that was important to the laundry building. We stayed there a while then got a ride to the lodge. After things calmed down we got a ride back to the camp ground. At this point it was about 11pm (way past our bedtime) and still raining pretty hard, so we just stayed in the laundry room on the dirty concrete floor. Neither of us slept too well.

The next day we headed to Lincoln's Birth Place State Park. It seems that things are harder to find here in Kentucky. This goes for hotels, camping, restaurants, service stations, and even our own stuff. We tried to find this Nancy Lincoln Log Cabin Inn near the park. We rode up and down the highway and even called to ask for directions. "You went to far, come on back north and take a right after the green dumpster, go through the gate, and come to the house", we were told. We never found said green dumpster and finally snuck under a gate to set up our tent in a day use picnic area. It was free and had a bathroom, but we (at least me) slept really bad because of nasty friend chicken at Lincoln's Jamboree.

Speaking of Lincoln's Jamboree.... that place was comically bad. We saw they closed for dinner at 7pm, right about when we got there. We went in and asked if they were still serving and the young woman told us, "Yeah, just grab a tray." We got some fried chicken, two veggies, a slice of pie, and a soda all for $5. It was a rip off. The food was so bad and it gave me the worst heartburn I've ever had. We then asked the little old lady behind the counter if she could fill some water bottles. She said impatiently, "Well I don't even know what we'd charge for that, let me ask". She went to the kitchen to ask another little old lady how much it'd cost to fill the bottles. Old Lady One waved me over to show Old Lady Two the bottles. "Oh, I don't know... 25 cents". I chuckled a little in disbelief. We went back to the drink fountain and Old Lady One said even more impatiently, "Can you take the lids off, we're all just trying to get home." She filled them and charged us a quarter for each bottle. A rip off for water yes, but more than worth it for the entertainment value of the whole interaction.

We finally found a cool town in Kentucky, Berea. This wonderful little town is home to Berea College, a college for the folks of the near by mountains. It was one of the first inter-racial schools in the area. We found a real coffee shop and got the first real cup of coffee in a week. I needed it.

On the bright side of things, the leaves are changing, providing us with some of the most beautiful views of the trip. The hills here are a little gentler than we've seen in a while and the motorists are very polite. Overall it's a pretty cool state to ride through, it's taking us forever to get through it. The three sick days mentioned in the last blog entry turned into four because of a wicked case of the trots (it hasn't gone away, just look at all the "trotting along" comments in Juliette's blog) that's still hindering us a little. The weather isn't helping either. It rained all yesterday, all last night, and all this morning. Everything is wet and I lost my warm hat with the good brim. Despite all that, the days we do ride, we ride pretty far.

12 miles and 3 days into Kentucky

Our plan to clear the rest of Illinois (Ill-annoyed) in a day didn't happen. Thursday we got on our bikes after a nice rest day in Carbondale and had very little energy. Juliette was worried she was getting sick because her throat was sore. We spent over 6 hours pedaling that day and only made it 68 miles to Golconda State Park.

After a freaked out night of sleep (not on my part, but I still lost some sleep over it, ask Juliette for the details) we set out Friday for a big day to Kentucky. We rode even slower and took really long breaks throughout the whole day. We got to the end of the road in Illinois and got some pie and coffee before taking the ferry over the Ohio River into Kentucky. In Kentucky we only made it 12 miles to Marion. We found a nice little B&B that offered biker discounts and kept us out of the city park on a Friday night. We've found that local teens in these smaller towns can get really bored on the weekends, so we try to stay out of the city parks.

The next morning Juliette's throat was really bothering her; she could barely eat breakfast. We suspected strep throat and figured a doctor visit was in order. We asked the kind folks and the B&B if they had any suggestions about finding a doctor on a Saturday. He said the main doctor in town had a daughter getting married that day and that the other two doctors in town were likely attending. What are the odds? We debated an ER visit and finally called a pharmacist in town for some advice. He told us of a doctor in town who was open until noon on Saturdays, but that it being 11:20, we needed to hurry. Less than an hour later we had a diagnosis for strep and a prescription to make it better. Gotta love small town doctors!

We stayed another night and took another sick day in Marion. My folks offered to treat us for a third night just to be safe, so we spent Sunday night here too. This morning at breakfast Mrs. Meyers (co-proprietor of Meyer's Bed and Breakfast) asked me, "Is you wife feeling any better today?" Yikes, I thought, "She's my friend and she's feeling much better." About an hour after breakfast Mr. Meyer's (kind soul and the other half of Meyer's B&B) came by to check up on Juliette. He offered us a fourth night on the house just to be safe.

That leaves us here, on Monday, still in Marion, KY at the library. The dude next to me has the most awesomely bad hair I have seen in a long time. He's an older, tanned gentleman with bleach blond hair. His sides are totally shaved, the top flat and nicely spiked with, you guessed it... a long flowing mullet well past his shoulders. It's pretty sweet. Some how in all this I've managed to dodge strep throat myself. It could be because I've had it a good 3-4 times in my life and just built up an immunity, or dumb luck. Either way I'm psyched.

Is it "Miz-or-ee" or "Miz-er-a"?

With 80-90 degree highs, the steepest hills in on the route, and the least friendly motorists we've encountered, turns out it's actually pronunced "Misery". Misssouri has been called a self propelled rollercoaster and it's painfully true. In a quarter mile we would go from our low gears to high gears and back, or 40mph to 3, back to 40. It'd probably be fun with nice weather and a lighter bike.

The hills were pretty exciting at first because we had just spent a week in flat Kansas. After grunting up 15% grades for a week we missed flat ground and friendly people. I was expecting Kansas to be my least favorite place on the route, but in hindsight the wind wasn't that bad and the people were so nice it made the state pretty enjoyable.

We were both pretty excited our last day in Missouri. We just wanted to leave the state, but also to cross the Mississippi River. We were expecting a great milestone, but instead we just feared for our life. The bridge was narrow and the traffic was heavy. We held up a nice line of cars as we climbed slowly (slow, but as fast as we could go) over the bridge. That part was kind of fun.

We won't be in Illinois for too long. We're taking a rest day in Carbondale today and we hope to clear the rest of the state tomorrow. Kentucky will be the next state and we hear there's a lot of dogs. They do make some tasty burbon there, so it shouldn't be too bad.

Getting blown in Kansas

The wind here is about what I expected. One day it was 30 mph with major gusts and it took us 6 hours to go 60 miles, the very next day we covered 105 miles in the same time with a light, but nice tailwind. The land and views here are vast. It's horizon lines all around. Seeing so far makes you feel small, but being around a lot of nothing makes you feel like a big deal. It's a little weird.

The people here are really nice. Even the folks who give an unfriendly honk as they pass still give us half a lane. Most people that pass give the whole lane and everyone, I mean everyone, waves. We were let through a construction site today that would have meant a 10+ mile detour, but the workers were nice enough to let us by. Part of the road had been washed out, so we had to cross over a big sink hole on two narrow boards. As we unloaded and carried the bikes across a worker came over and told us about his bike trip across Kansas this year and that he hoped to do the TransAm route now that he's retired. We've met a lot of people on this trip who talk about touring experience that you wouldn't even figure rode a bike. They're always the most excited and the most fun to talk to.

We've finally gotten to the point in our tour that where we've been is a bigger deal than where we're going. Through Colorado the reaction was always, "You're riding where?" Now that we're more than half way we get a lot more, "You started where?" Either way most people are just amazed. When I think about living on a bike for 7 weeks and covering 2500 miles I'm kind of amazed. Touring is great!

Montana good, Wyoming bad, finally to Colorado

It's been a while since the last blog entry. With the days getting shorter and us traveling through some pretty remote land, we haven't had much internet time.

Montana was great. We had some hot days and some strong winds, but overall it's a sweet state. Some of the highlights were the big sky, Jackson, an 8 mile climb up a 6% grade, and a top speed of just over 50 mph on a loaded touring bike. Jackson was a lot of fun. It's this little town with a population of 38. There's this little lodge, bar/restaurant, and hotel all in one. We had a few drinks, took a nice soak, and stayed in our second hotel room of the trip (wasn't much more money and included a shower and a soak). We talked to the bartender about people we had met that suggested the place. He remembered Audrey, the girl we met way back in Dayville, OR and told us about this Swiss couple who ordered a funny drink of Sprite and beer. We later met this couple in Yellowstone.

In Montana I developed a way to determine wind direction and speed fairly accurately. It involves when you see roadkill verses when you smell it. If it hangs with you a while, it's a tailwind. If you smell it before you see it, it's a headwind. Working with that you just look to see what side of the street it's on to get the angle right. It works well and as Juliette pointed out, it can also work with farts.

Wyoming wasn't nearly as nice to us as Montana. The highlights there were Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, Nic and Allison's hospitality, and leaving Wyoming. We were met with cold rains, thunderstorms on 9,000+ foot passes, snow, 90+ degree days, stong winds, and nights so cold the condesation on our tents froze. Yellowstone was pretty cool, except for the crowds. The last time I was there I was 10, so it was nice to compare the park to my memory, especially Old Faithful, or so I hoped. Unfortunately, we missed Old Faithful. It was raining so we took a lunch break under cover. We knew we had about an hour until the next show, so we took our time. We made it back to see a little drizzle as it wound down... oops. Overall I think the park was cooler this time. After spending about 6-7 days there we realized we wanted to get to Colorado ASAP. We covered 270 miles in 4 days. It hurt, but felt good all at the same time.

Colorado has been a little nicer. We've still had some wind and some thunderstorms, but it's been a lot warmer. Yesterday we made it to Silverthorne, CO, just after we broke the 2000 mile mark on the trip, where my sister, Meghan, and her boyfriend, Mike, picked us up for a side trip to Denver. They're putting us up for a couple nights before we head over the biggest pass on the whole trip, Hoosier Pass at 11,500 feet.

The trip is still going really well. We seem to have a pretty good rhythm and the days run a little smoother. We're defintely getting stronger and more comfortable on the bikes. A 6 hour day isn't as daunting as it used to be. We're about halfway there in miles and a little farther than that in time. The mountains of the West are almost behind us, soon we'll be hitting the Plains and hopefully getting some winds in our favor.

1000 miles into Big Sky Country

Juliette and I ended our third week on a quick decent into Montana from Lolo Pass. We made it to Missoula the next day and took an over due rest day. We hit 1000 mile on our trip at a Dairy Queen in Lolo, Montana. We rewarded ourselves with the best tasting blizzard I have ever had.

Idaho is a beautiful state. The traffic on highway 95 was fast and close and we could smell roadkill every 10 miles. Things got much nicer on state route 12 was much nicer. We were expecting the worst there, but it ended up being one of the nicest roads so far. It followed the Lochsa River for miles and just snaked through the canyon. We camped on Wier Creek and took a dip in the hot springs. The hottest pool can reach 114 in the summer and was just what we needed to relax after a few days of climbing. We also found a nice spot along the Lochsa to swim/bathe/laundry (if you go in with your clothes on it's an all in one).

Missoula is a pretty nice little town. I think I see more bikes locked up around town here than in Eugene. We were greeted here with outstanding hospitality from Amalia. She put us up for the last two nights and showed us around town a little. Thank you so much!

So far the only real negative is the sunburn on my ears. I'm using SPF 50 and reapplying every couple of hours, but I still have blisters. I haven't had a sunburn this bad in years. According to my parents I never had freckles on my ears until the first time they blistered when I was about four. I've started tucking them under my hat. I feel like an idiot, but it seems to work.

You all should check out Juliette's blog too: jbealebiketour2007.blogspot.com

Logging trucks and the smell of death.

That's been the big experience in Idaho so far. The logging trucks move fast and give very little room. They're as bad as they are in Oregon. The roadkill is also as bad as it is in Oregon, but seems to smell worse here. What is it with the states not picking up their dead animals?

Idaho is still a beautiful state. The ride along the Salmon River was amazing. Yesterday we hit the worst wind so far riding into Riggins. It was 60 miles straight into a 20+ mph wind. It took us 5.5 hours.

Today the ride into Grangeville was much nicer. We rode on the old highway, which is so small it doesn't even have lines painted on it. It also had no traffic to speak of, nice steady grade with switchbacks I've only seen on Tour de France coverage (minus the millions of screaming fans), and a great decent into town.

Some other random thoughts... I finally got my load balanced enough to ride no hands, I can bunny hope an 80+ pound loaded touring bike, chamios butt'r has reached a near godly status, and this is the ultimate way to travel.

Good bye Oregon, hello Idaho!

So after two solid weeks in Oregon we finally crossed the Snake River and made it to Idaho on Sunday evening. We left Oregon how I always remember it, in the rain. We got dumped on for over an hour and later found it was a half inch of rain. My jacket sucks and I got soaked. Luckily it wasn't cold, the day cleared before sunset, and I dried out before dark. The smartwool shirts were warm even when wet.

Yesterday we took a rest day in Hells Canyon near the Brownlee Dam, before heading to Council, ID this morning. After two weeks of riding I think our bodies have settled into the day after day pace. The aches and pains are pretty much gone and I'm finally getting used to night after night on a thermarest. We stayed at our first hotel in Halfway, OR to get out of the smoke from a fire miles away and I tossed and turned all night on the bed!

The hospitality is still wonderful. We've had no problem getting directions, camping, or resturant advice. Juliette and I were huddled under a ramada at a park in Halfway to get out of the rain and eat some lunch. A woman driving by saw us there and invited us to use her guest trailer as long as we needed if we, "Don't smoke, drink, do drugs, or watch dirty movies." It was a nice gesture, but we didn't take her up on it because we wanted to finally get out of Oregon.

We've been seeing Jeremy, another coast to coast rider, every couple of days. It's kind of fun to guess where we'll see him next. Every now and then we'll stop in to some small store or cafe and they'll tell us, "that other biker was just through here." I wonder which of us will get to the Atlantic first.

Oh, the hospitality

We started our second week yesterday and all is well. We stayed just west of Ochoco Pass in the national forest and made our way to Dayville, OR. We stopped in Mitchell for breakfast and an afternoon break in the park to beat the heat before making it on to Dayville. In the park two older women offered us fresh fruit. This got us thinking that the "empty nesters" might be a good source of hospitality.

Things got even better in Dayville. The ride in was hot and windy. We stopped at the general store for a beer on our way into town. As we walked in the man behind the counter said, "Hey, I saw you two in Prineville the other day." He rung us up and told us about the church hostel on the hill. We went to the park to drink the beers and a couple out for a walk suggested the church too, so we checked it out. Hot showers, laundry, internet, and a kitchen, oh my!

We met another tourer, Audrey, here last night. She started in Virgina in May with a couple of other women and they parted ways in Missouri. She's been riding alone ever since and was still really excited to ride. She plans to roll through Eugene for the Saturday Market this weekend.

Just when we thought we were the only people heading east we met Jeremy today. He started in Astoria a week and a half ago. He'll stay at the hostel tonight, but we'll head out this afternoon. I'm sure we'll see him off an on for a little while.

So far we've ridden about 430 miles and spent 37 hours on the bike. Our appetites are huge (especially Juliette's, she's finishing her food and whatever I can't eat), but we're adjusting well. The aches and pains aren't too bad, and we're still enjoying everyday!

300 miles and 25 hours

Juliette and I made it into Sisters, OR yesterday, which put our first major mountain range, the Cascades, behind us. So far it's been slow and steady as we ease into our long days on the bike.

Day 1, Eugene to Florence, was rather ambitious. It was 80+ miles and took nearly 7 hours. We planned to follow it with a rest day, but decided to head back instead. It took us two days to get back to Eugene, which proved to be helpful in figuring out our gear. Day 2 was about 50 miles to Triangle Lake, followed by 40 miles (errands included) on Day 3 to Eugene.

When we got to Eugene on Day 3 we switched up some gear and were met with incredible hospitality from Kellen. He put us up for the night, made us breakfast in the morning, and sent us off with two days worth of snacks. It was a good way to leave Eugene. Thank you very much, Kellen.

Leaving Eugene and heading east on Day 4 was wonderful, it felt like the trip was actually starting. We made it 63 miles to the Delta Campground near McKenzie Bridge, OR off highway 126. Day 5 was another 60+ miles over Santiam Pass and into Sisters. Climbing my 80+ pound loaded bike over the pass wasn't as bad as I expected. Climbing isn't fast, but ground gets covered. The difference between the east and west Cascades is drastic. It's so much dryer here and feels much more like home.

Overall we spent 120 miles on 126 in two days. The traffic was heavy, but not terrible. We had hoped to clear the Cascades on historic 242 from McKenzie Bridge to Sisters, but the road is still closed for construction.

So far some of the highlights have been the picnic lunch stops and camping. On highway 126 near Vida we ate lunch in a hazelnut orchard and saw a fox run through. Yesterday we soaked a bit in the Deer Creek hot springs as we ate, which were more warm than hot, but still felt wonderful.

That leaves us on Day 6 here in Sisters taking a much needed rest day. I got a new seat in Eugene and the break in period was a little uncomfortable, but is done. Juliette got a little pain above her heel after the first day, but after a little icing, taping, and some fit adjustments, everything seems fine. Spirits, appetite, and general hygiene are still high.

Tomorrow is Day 7 and we hope to go about 80 miles to Mitchell, OR. The days will be warmer and we'll really have to watch for sunburns (my ears and neck already got it) and water. I've never been through eastern Oregon, so I'm pretty excited.

Leave for the Coast Monday

Pat will be starting out on his grand adventure by biking from Eugene to the coast Monday, August 6th.