Ok.. So yesterday presented us with by far our best story yet! We biked through Walla Walla county in Washington, which has tons and tons of wineries and vineyards and stuff.. All the country we were biking through was rolling green hills (looked just like the windows xp background picture), it was beautiful..!
We were getting close to our campground when we saw a small brewery in the town of Waitsburg, so we decided to stop in for a beer.. and this is where the story begins..
While we were chilling at the brewery, a guy at the bar offered to buy us a round of beers.. He said that he wanted to live vicariously through our trip. So we asked him to join us and we all got to talking.. His name is Todd, and he does something or another with farm irrigation systems (something about using radio-waves to detect moisture).. As we kept talking with him, his wife and best friend showed up and joined us also. His wife's name is Ree and his buddie's name is Eric. So we all kept hanging out and Todd bought us all a round of beers and Eric bought us some pizzas! They were great..!
After awhile we found out that Ree is actually the county prosecuting attorney and Eric is a famous wine-maker in the area!
(here is Eric's winery website: http://www.dunhamcellars.com//index.cfm )
After awhile we realized it was dark, so Eric offered to throw our bikes in his truck and drive us the last 3 miles to our campgound. When we got to the campground though, he pulled over, and just asked, "do you guys trust me?".. He is a pretty funny guy, so we didn't know quite whether he was joking or not.. but he was not.. so when we nodded, he took off...
Soon enough we got to a sweet farmhouse, where we were immediately met by Joan, who runs a cheese fromogerie with her husband, pierre-louis..
Check out the site for this place, it is amazing:
http://www.monteilletcheese.com/
Joan, as we quickly found out, is just about the nicest lady on the planet.. She welcomed us to her home and said we could sleep in her sauna for the night. She said that she was going to have to leave real early this morning to head to the farmers market, but that she would leave her doors open so we could make breakfast and take showers and do whatever we needed!
So we spent all morning eating bacon and eggs, wandering around through the goat/chicken/duck/sheep pastures with her huge great Pyrenees dogs, and talking to the people that make the cheese there at the place. We even found out that there were some people from a magazine staying in the guest house because they were doing a big story on the place for an Wine Adventures story they were doing..
We are so thankful for the whole experience..! Todd told us that he is going to try to find a place somewhere along our route so that he can catch up with us and buy us another beer.. so that would be sweet (Todd, if you are reading this.. we're waiting).. we are all hoping to stay in contact with them for sure!
The actual bike ride today seemed pretty boring compared with our other stories.. although we did bomb down a huge mountain this afternoon! We were going downhill for 30 minutes, and got up to 50 mph (which is a new record for the trip so far)..!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Wind is my new best friend..
Today was awesome! we woke up cold and sore (this preceded the awesomeness of the day). Just a few miles into our ride we came into a small town with a mcdonalds, so of course we stopped. In case you're curious, I got 4 breakfast burritos (2 for then, 1 for mid-morning snack, 1 for whenever-which ended up being dinnertime)..
After mcdonalds we had a pretty decent climb that took us out of the city. It was about two miles long but not too steep. Halfway up the hill we apparently crossed into Washington, however Ben and I were in front and were so focused on not being run over by a semi, that we missed the sign and thus our opportunity to get our picture taken next to the Welcome to Washington sign.. This was depressing, at first.. But then we realized that we are going to have to cross the border again soon, so we have been granted another opportunity.
Upon reaching the top of the hill, we entered a stage of todays ride that i have been referring to (just in my head) as "the mostest awesomenest sweetest ride EVVVEEER! (note: i dont always shout the word EVER when i say it in my head.. i just put it in all caps to make a point.. i learned that in school).
This section of the ride consisted of a flat-ish road, and a 20 mph tailwind!! We were haulin..! Just for an example.. yesterday we biked about 8-12 mph on the flat ground, today we were biking about 23-24 mph up the hills! On some of the downhills I felt like we were plummeting on a rollercoaster... I even thought a few times about throwing my hands up in the air and letting out a whoop... but i didn't want to crash... I pictured it happening like this: me throwing my hands up, then immediately entering that wobbly uncertain stage where i would try to get my hands back on the handlebards as quickly as possible, then fail, and veer off the road and into the ditch..
Thankfully I overcame my desire to complete the rollercoaster sensation and here i am sitting pain-free in camp..! We ended up doing about 90 miles today (88 to be exact).. I think we are going to do 65ish tommorrow..
We were warned that there is an impressive sprinkler system where we put our tents up tonight.. We think we're prepared for them.. but we are mentally prepared for any sudden realization that we did not cover all bases.. This could provide some entertaining reading material for you in the near future..
I'll keep you posted..
p.s.. We put a bunch of pictures on an online photo album.. there is a link underneath the PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES! thing at the top right..
After mcdonalds we had a pretty decent climb that took us out of the city. It was about two miles long but not too steep. Halfway up the hill we apparently crossed into Washington, however Ben and I were in front and were so focused on not being run over by a semi, that we missed the sign and thus our opportunity to get our picture taken next to the Welcome to Washington sign.. This was depressing, at first.. But then we realized that we are going to have to cross the border again soon, so we have been granted another opportunity.
Upon reaching the top of the hill, we entered a stage of todays ride that i have been referring to (just in my head) as "the mostest awesomenest sweetest ride EVVVEEER! (note: i dont always shout the word EVER when i say it in my head.. i just put it in all caps to make a point.. i learned that in school).
This section of the ride consisted of a flat-ish road, and a 20 mph tailwind!! We were haulin..! Just for an example.. yesterday we biked about 8-12 mph on the flat ground, today we were biking about 23-24 mph up the hills! On some of the downhills I felt like we were plummeting on a rollercoaster... I even thought a few times about throwing my hands up in the air and letting out a whoop... but i didn't want to crash... I pictured it happening like this: me throwing my hands up, then immediately entering that wobbly uncertain stage where i would try to get my hands back on the handlebards as quickly as possible, then fail, and veer off the road and into the ditch..
Thankfully I overcame my desire to complete the rollercoaster sensation and here i am sitting pain-free in camp..! We ended up doing about 90 miles today (88 to be exact).. I think we are going to do 65ish tommorrow..
We were warned that there is an impressive sprinkler system where we put our tents up tonight.. We think we're prepared for them.. but we are mentally prepared for any sudden realization that we did not cover all bases.. This could provide some entertaining reading material for you in the near future..
I'll keep you posted..
p.s.. We put a bunch of pictures on an online photo album.. there is a link underneath the PICTURES! PICTURES! PICTURES! thing at the top right..
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
well... i guess this is what we should have expected..
so as it turns out, it rains just as much as everyone says it does in oregon. Yesterday we biked from portland to cascade locks, it was only about 45 miles. But they were some terrible 45 miles. It rained on us all afternoon. If you want a quick way to get depressed, bike for 4 hours in the rain!
Initially i was all pumped for the rain. I wanted to try out my new rain gear (shoe covers, rain coat, waterproof bags, etc..). But then my rain coat became soaked with my own sweat, i crashed once which put a whole in my shoe covers, and i was left miserable.. with a wet jacket (but only from the inside), and soaked shoes..
oh. the crash.. the edge of the road decided to cut in a little without telling me, causing my front tire to slip right off the edge and laying me on my side.. all in all, no harm done. I have a scrape on my elbow and a pretty good strawberry on my hip, but the other guy's positive attitudes nursed me back to good spirits..
Last night was the worst because we had to try to setup camp and get all our stuff organized in the rain.. we made it happen alright, but had to deal with all wet stuff when we woke up this morning (which is just as terrible as one might imagine)..
But once we got going this morning we all felt pretty good! We biked from a little east of Cascade Locks to a little west of Biggs today. It went really well. We had a couple decent climbs; one that was about 2 miles and pretty steep, and then one that was about 8 miles and not so steep.. The only big mishap was when ben and i got seperated from the rest of the guys..
we were a little ahead so we pulled off at a scenic overlook to wait for them.. little did we know, they actually weren't far behind us.. So as we're high-fiving and taking pictures of ourselves, the other guys bike right by us (they didn't know we had pulled off). We, assuming they are still behind us, wait by the road for another 10 minutes until we realize that there is no possibly way that they could be that far back.. So we bomb down the hill, give eric a call, and realize that they are about 10 miles ahead of us (which is alot on a bike).. Needless to say, we felt like idiots..
We are at camp now.. its not raining, which is awesome.. We just ate dinty moore soup for dinner, with a appetizer of southwest airline peanuts and pretzels (which have been perfect by the way Jane and Susan)! Hopefully I should be able to post more soon..!
Hope everyone is having a good week! Any prayer for us would be greatly appreciated!
p.s. power bars are awesome!
p.s.s we have been taking some videos, in hopes that we can upload them.. but we haven't been able to get a strong enough signal to upload them.. hopefully we can get some up here.. they are pretty entertaining!
Initially i was all pumped for the rain. I wanted to try out my new rain gear (shoe covers, rain coat, waterproof bags, etc..). But then my rain coat became soaked with my own sweat, i crashed once which put a whole in my shoe covers, and i was left miserable.. with a wet jacket (but only from the inside), and soaked shoes..
oh. the crash.. the edge of the road decided to cut in a little without telling me, causing my front tire to slip right off the edge and laying me on my side.. all in all, no harm done. I have a scrape on my elbow and a pretty good strawberry on my hip, but the other guy's positive attitudes nursed me back to good spirits..
Last night was the worst because we had to try to setup camp and get all our stuff organized in the rain.. we made it happen alright, but had to deal with all wet stuff when we woke up this morning (which is just as terrible as one might imagine)..
But once we got going this morning we all felt pretty good! We biked from a little east of Cascade Locks to a little west of Biggs today. It went really well. We had a couple decent climbs; one that was about 2 miles and pretty steep, and then one that was about 8 miles and not so steep.. The only big mishap was when ben and i got seperated from the rest of the guys..
we were a little ahead so we pulled off at a scenic overlook to wait for them.. little did we know, they actually weren't far behind us.. So as we're high-fiving and taking pictures of ourselves, the other guys bike right by us (they didn't know we had pulled off). We, assuming they are still behind us, wait by the road for another 10 minutes until we realize that there is no possibly way that they could be that far back.. So we bomb down the hill, give eric a call, and realize that they are about 10 miles ahead of us (which is alot on a bike).. Needless to say, we felt like idiots..
We are at camp now.. its not raining, which is awesome.. We just ate dinty moore soup for dinner, with a appetizer of southwest airline peanuts and pretzels (which have been perfect by the way Jane and Susan)! Hopefully I should be able to post more soon..!
Hope everyone is having a good week! Any prayer for us would be greatly appreciated!
p.s. power bars are awesome!
p.s.s we have been taking some videos, in hopes that we can upload them.. but we haven't been able to get a strong enough signal to upload them.. hopefully we can get some up here.. they are pretty entertaining!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
the Adventure has begun!
So the trip started out with perhaps the coolest plane ride i have ever taken! We had a layover in Denver, but we just stayed on the plane. So while we were waiting, we got to talking with the flight attendant ladies (Susan and Jane) and started joking with them about singing one of their "southwest airlines" songs.. they said they wouldnt sing one, but we could! So we went back there and sang a song to the tune of You are my sunshine. They played it over the loudspeaker while everyone boarded! it was sweet.
After the song, they asked us what we were going to do.. and when we told them, they gave us a big bag full of peanuts and pretzels! it was awesome.. So when we landed we took pictures with them and then went to get our bikes!
The whole bike assembly process went surprisingly smooth. None of us had any problems and we were on the train to downtown portland in no time..
Once we got downtown, we went by REI and a local bike shop to get some last minute gear.. then decided to head to the house that we were staying at (Eric's cousin's house, the Reimers). This turned out to be our first main adventure.
After we had been biking for about 20 minutes, we asked a guy where we were and found out that we had been biking in the complete wrong direction. Then we realized that we were about 15 miles from the house. So we took off.
When we had about 9 miles left, it started to rain.
When we had about 7 miles left, it started to rain hard.
So we just kept biking down the little highway, getting drenched, and trying to avoid getting the spray from the other's tires in our mouths. Sweet.
When we saw the road that we needed to turn on, we were pumped because we thought we were there. However, as it turns out, they happen to live on top of the most ridiculous hill i have ever tried to climb on a bike (scott's gps said the grade was 15-25%). So we made it about 5 feet up it, then had to walk. It was so slick and steep though, that we had to take our shoes off to walk up it.
But we made it here.. They fed us a ton of awesome food.. let us throw our clothes in the wash.. and now we're ready to roll again..!
I think we are gonna try to do 60-70ish miles today. I'll let you know how it goes!
After the song, they asked us what we were going to do.. and when we told them, they gave us a big bag full of peanuts and pretzels! it was awesome.. So when we landed we took pictures with them and then went to get our bikes!
The whole bike assembly process went surprisingly smooth. None of us had any problems and we were on the train to downtown portland in no time..
Once we got downtown, we went by REI and a local bike shop to get some last minute gear.. then decided to head to the house that we were staying at (Eric's cousin's house, the Reimers). This turned out to be our first main adventure.
After we had been biking for about 20 minutes, we asked a guy where we were and found out that we had been biking in the complete wrong direction. Then we realized that we were about 15 miles from the house. So we took off.
When we had about 9 miles left, it started to rain.
When we had about 7 miles left, it started to rain hard.
So we just kept biking down the little highway, getting drenched, and trying to avoid getting the spray from the other's tires in our mouths. Sweet.
When we saw the road that we needed to turn on, we were pumped because we thought we were there. However, as it turns out, they happen to live on top of the most ridiculous hill i have ever tried to climb on a bike (scott's gps said the grade was 15-25%). So we made it about 5 feet up it, then had to walk. It was so slick and steep though, that we had to take our shoes off to walk up it.
But we made it here.. They fed us a ton of awesome food.. let us throw our clothes in the wash.. and now we're ready to roll again..!
I think we are gonna try to do 60-70ish miles today. I'll let you know how it goes!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Course Maps
hello again.
Here is a group of maps that chart of our course across the country. Check 'em out..!
(i realize the link is ridiculously long.. but if you just copy and paste it into the address bar then it will work)
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=1281cec88b008b45&mt=application%2Fpdf&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com%2Fmail%2F%3Fui%3D2%26ik%3Dd241091d4d%26view%3Datt%26th%3D1281cec88b008b45%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dattd%26realattid%3Df_g8966qg50%26zw&sig=AHIEtbR-5RnzKVtn7_gAr0Hww4P0Gk1tgw&pli=1
Here is a group of maps that chart of our course across the country. Check 'em out..!
(i realize the link is ridiculously long.. but if you just copy and paste it into the address bar then it will work)
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=1281cec88b008b45&mt=application%2Fpdf&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com%2Fmail%2F%3Fui%3D2%26ik%3Dd241091d4d%26view%3Datt%26th%3D1281cec88b008b45%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dattd%26realattid%3Df_g8966qg50%26zw&sig=AHIEtbR-5RnzKVtn7_gAr0Hww4P0Gk1tgw&pli=1
Bike Across America
sooo.. here i am.. sitting in my parents living room with my bike packed in a big box and everything i am going to have for the next 50 days packed into two little bags.
if you are reading this then i am assuming you know that i am biking across the country. I am going with 4 other guys so i am sure you will hear about them some if you continue to read this..
anyways.. here is the plan: Our plane leaves KC at 7:30 tomorrow morning and will take us to portland. Once we get to portland we will have to assemble our bikes in the airport (which should be interesting), then we are going to one of the guys' relative's house there in portland to stay the night. We will have to find a bike shop in portland also because we still have a couple things we need to buy.
When we leave portland the next day we will head for Walla Walla, Washington and then continue across until we get to the great lakes. Once we hit the great lakes we will dip beneath them and go through chicago, then we will rise back up and finish in Boston. Right now we are planning to be finished right around the 1st of July.
I am going to try to update this blog pretty regularly so if you ever find yourself in a state of boredom, you know what you can check.
if you are reading this then i am assuming you know that i am biking across the country. I am going with 4 other guys so i am sure you will hear about them some if you continue to read this..
anyways.. here is the plan: Our plane leaves KC at 7:30 tomorrow morning and will take us to portland. Once we get to portland we will have to assemble our bikes in the airport (which should be interesting), then we are going to one of the guys' relative's house there in portland to stay the night. We will have to find a bike shop in portland also because we still have a couple things we need to buy.
When we leave portland the next day we will head for Walla Walla, Washington and then continue across until we get to the great lakes. Once we hit the great lakes we will dip beneath them and go through chicago, then we will rise back up and finish in Boston. Right now we are planning to be finished right around the 1st of July.
I am going to try to update this blog pretty regularly so if you ever find yourself in a state of boredom, you know what you can check.
Friday, January 9, 2009
oh ya, i'm home..
i was recently reminded that i have never posted to let everyone know that i am officially home... soooo...
hey everyone, i'm home!
i got back on christmas eve.. my flights back went fairly smoothly i guess.. well actually not, but i made it back..
i miss life in prague already! mainly i miss the people that i met over there.. i hope to see them again soon!
hey everyone, i'm home!
i got back on christmas eve.. my flights back went fairly smoothly i guess.. well actually not, but i made it back..
i miss life in prague already! mainly i miss the people that i met over there.. i hope to see them again soon!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
