Couer D' Alene, ID
Total Distance: 51.83 miles
Ride Time: 3 hours 22 min
Avg. Speed: 15.4 mph
Max Speed: 41 mph
Bike: Today was another short day. We actually slept in a little late today which was nice. Sara and Seema decided to be sweet so I rode with the tandem, Mark and Alyssa. It was awesome, we went about 22 mph average for the first 10 or so miles. We were on the bike path so it was pretty easy. Around mile 12 we ran into a gondola and we decided to check it out. Eytan had thought of the same thing and had already talked to the guy about group rates. It was $8 each down from $13 so I waited for Sara and we went up with a bunch of other people. It was well worth it just for the views. It was also fun going up a huge mountain with out any effort. Alyssa and Mark had decided not to go so they continued on and afterward I rode alone. Not far down the bike path I actually caught up with them again because they had stopped to enjoy a wonderful scenic river view. We continued on and once we hit the highway my back tire blew and I had to throw on another one. The "4th of July Pass" wasn't hard and the next thing we knew we were at the church. We all quickly decided to go cliff jumping and swimming at the lake and we headed out. After a long and hot hike though the woods we came to an awesome rock about 36 feet high, I measured it. It was sweet because the only way to get up it was to rock climb up the back. I jumped first with Lauren's waterproof camera to take pictures. When Lauren finally climbed up to the top it took her about an hour or more to jump! It was pretty funny. The lake and area are just amazing to look at and I'll try to put some pictures up that try to capture the view. Tomorrow we are getting up early, 5 am, and riding 42 miles to Spokane because tomorrow is also a build day. So we want to get there before 9 am to build. The day will also bring out final and last state boarder crossing!!! Washington here we come!!
Build: Build day tomorrow!!! Sweet!
Ride on!
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Wallace, ID
Total Distance: 61.67 Miles
Ride Time: 3 hours 49 min
Avg. Speed: 16.1 mph
Max Speed: 45 mph
Bike: Today was a pretty awesome day! It started with an awesome pancake breakfast and by the time it was over it had warmed up a little, making it nice to ride. We jumped right on I-90 and headed toward Wallace. Most of the morning it was all down hill and along the way we kept seeing signs for 10,000 Silver $ truck stop. Thats actually what it was called and when we finally arrived at the exit we were curious enough to stop in. It ends up that way back when they used to still use silver dollars the owner of the bar stuck one into the bar. Everyone there that night did the same and soon it caught on. Now they have 44,000 silver dollars up on the wall and on the top of the bar. I got sucked into the tourist trap scheme and decided to put a silver dollar up for Sara and I, numbers 45,872 and 45,873. Our names will get engraved below them and will be on the wall for eternity. They said we can come back anytime and they will look up on the computer our coin and point to it with a laser pointer, sweet!!
We stopped for a quick lunch and were then off to Wallace. We had one pass which was pretty long and had about 6% grades, nothing we haven't seen before. At the top we crossed our final time zone as we crossed back into Idaho. It's crazy how telling people we are riding to Seattle no longer gets a rise out of them. We have to mention we started in Providence to get a reaction. The down hill was fast and beautiful, views like I haven't seen yet! Eventually we hooked up with a bike path that parallels the highway. It was amazing it is literally in between two huge mountain slopes both directly on either side.
Wallace is an amazing town, stuck in the middle of the mountains it's a very old mining town. After showers I went to a vintage arcade showroom and played old 5 cent slots. It was fun and I actually made three dollars in nickels. One of the dollars went to get popcorn out of an old popcorn machine that made it right there on the spot. After it was done my curiosity got ahold of me and I touched a thing sticking out the side to see what it did and it burnt my fingers really bad, that will be fun for the next few days. There are still two very functioning silver mines left. They have a cool tour that about 15 of us went on around 4 pm. It is a tour of Wallace and an old abandoned silver mine. It was pretty amazing, the tour guide was a miner for 28 years so he knew what he was talking about. Inside the mine it was 50ºF which was a nice relief from the 90º outside. They even had three of the many huge machines used for mining up and working. We had to plug our ears when they demonstrated each one. Toward the end they had a huge hole with a ladder going down that was an old shaft but it was filled with water. It went down about 600 feet and then to both sides about 1000 feet. I guess the water is so clean and pure that the EPA won't let them put it into the creek because it's too clean and it will kill the fish. Crazy! The tour was definitely worth the $4.50.
I guess thats enough for tonight, tomorrow should be another super easy day of only 50 miles!! Can't wait.
Build: We did a alternative presentation today because most of the people here saw it last year. So we just all told stories from the road that everyone really seemed to enjoy.
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Superior, MT
Total Distance: 62.9 miles
Ride Time: 3 hours 57 min
Avg. Speed: 15.9 mph
Max Speed: 39.0 mph
Bike: I had a day off yesterday and yet I still awoke this morning tired. I guess it never ends. Still I love every minute of it. It's crazy we only have 10 days left, I feel like it wasn't long ago that we were riding into Providence and my family was waving to me from the side of the road. I thought I knew everything, I thought I was pretty confident on my bike. Boy was I wrong. There is nothing like 3,000 miles to make you super comfortable on a bike and on the road. Today was pretty short, we had to improvise directions but we made it. There was the fast way, Interstate 90, or the hilly way, back roads. My group took a little of both. We also happen to hit the record number of flat tires today. Seema-2 Sara-1 Quinnen-2 It was pretty crazy. Because of that though we got in last. It's a beautiful town, similar to all the Montana towns so far. It's right along a river and surrounded by mountains. We are staying at the local high school and because of that everyone has access to the computer lab, which is really, really nice. Dinner at a church tonight, I can't wait!! Another mail drop today, thanks everyone it brightens everyones day so much, thanks!
Build: Presentation tonight, can't wait, I hope a lot of people show up for it.
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Missoula, MT
Total Distance: 81.89 mph
Ride Time: 4 hours and 13 min
Avg. Speed: 19.62 mph
Max Speed: 43 mph
Bike: 7/25/05- Today was a great day for riding. Despite the morning chill that I tried to ignore all morning, it was fun. The day quickly warmed up and the next thing we knew we were already done with 40 miles. We stopped at a gas station for snacks and a break, then headed off to lunch. Lunch was interesting because we were right in the entrance to a fire camp. A huge camp they set up to fight a forest fire. I guess it was pretty well contained when we got there. It was started by lighting which most are we found out. Then it was off to Missoula and after some riding around we found the church and were able to relax. We went to a local bar for dinner and walked around the town a bit before it got dark. Around 10:30 pm, while I was in the van going to pick some people up from town an earth quake hit in a nearby town. It was about a 5.6 and some of the bike and builders that were at the church very distinctly felt it. They were confused and wondered why the ground had moved. Pretty cool, I wish I had not been in a car so I could have felt it.
Day off: 7/26/05- We slept as late as we could which was only about 8 or 9 am. Around 10:30 am a bunch of us decided to go tubing down the blackfoot river, it was pretty cool this morning so I decided not to go. I did volunteer to drive though. We went to the army surplus store, where I got a sweet ninja star, and everyone else rented inner tubes for $4. I drove them upriver and dropped them off at a fishing turnaround. While they were gone Sara, Lauren and others wandered around town and explored. I bought my third and hopefully final bike computer so my stats should be more consistent. I also hope to break 65 mph in the cascades, we'll see. It's a pretty nice town with quite a bit to see. On the way to pick up the tubers there was a tiny forest fire and a helicopter was scooping water out of the river with a bucket and dropping it on the fire. I pulled over to watch it a few times, it was pretty neat. After I got back I passed out and woke up around 8 to have a little dinner and write my blogs. Tomorrow, we ride again!
Ride on!
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Lincoln, MT
Total Distance: 59.01 miles
Ride Time: 4 hours 2 min
Avg. Speed: 14.75 mph
Max Speed: 44 mph
Bike: Today was really short. It went pretty fast even though we had a pretty serous mountain pass in the morning. It has some very beautiful views though so it helped. I ended up ridding with Stewart and Seema, and Sara not far ahead. Lunch was nicely at the top of the pass and after lunch it was all down hill. There is not a more amazing feeling then pushing your hardest up a hill at 7 mph and then flying down the other side at 40 mph. The road was really curvy and with the added speed it was just awesome! We arrived in Lincoln and our first stop was a really good malt place that also happen to have exceptional corn dogs! We heard about a world famous jerky spot and rode our bikes the extra 2 miles to get to it. They had free jerky sampling, including buffalo. The owner liked us so much he told the clerks to give us 20% off everything. Nice place, and amazing jerky. The lady that was at the church was super nice and when I have time I'll tell you about some of her amazing stories. She actually gave the unabommer a ride once and awhile into town to shop. He lived in Lincoln out in the woods, pretty freaky. For dinner my group and I made a massive amount of macaroni and cheese. Not the box stuff but home made, it was really good and we had enough left over for lunch the next day. Pretty sweet!
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Helena, MT
Total Distance: 103 miles
Ride Time: 7 hours
Bike: Today was a pretty long day. Luckily it was mostly downhill all day and pretty much flat. We had a pretty big pace-line going and eventually we all split up. The bad part is that the second half of the day was pretty hard because of the wind. It wasn't as bad as the day I proposed, but it was pretty close. Quinnen and Shay caught up with Sara and I and we all pace-lined into town. It was pretty frustrating. It was Shays birthday so we went out to a restaurant for dinner. The church we stayed at made us a marvelous breakfast the next morning with pancakes and sausages.
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Bozeman, MT
Total Distance: 87.46 miles
Ride Time: 4 hours 33 min
Avg. Speed: 19.43 mph
Max Speed: 45.2 mph
Bike: Today was awesome! It was practically downhill the whole entire way. Not only was it downhill it was a beautiful ride. We started by getting up a tad early because it always takes us a little longer to pack up when camping. Luckily, during the night no bears came to visit, despite an awesome bear box on site that had some impressive claw marks in it. It was cloudy all day and even a tad cold but that didn't come close to taking away from all the magnificent downhill. I was planning on filling up my water in the first down but it ended up being 36 miles away. It was Big Sky and it turned out I hadn't even needed the water because we got there so fast. After a quick break we headed out again, only to come upon lunch about 5 miles out of Big Sky. A quick lunch and we were off again, for the rest of the day we hauled fairly fast, a little over 30 mph. Soon enough we took a right at a short cut and were were climbing a slight hill. Off to our right there was a huge field with oversized bails of hay. A sweet machine was driving into them with huge tongs and then flipping them over onto the back. After two bails it would then stand them up and push them to the back of the trailer. It was fairly impressive mainly because the farmer was proceeding to do all this at quite a fast pace. As gazed at it in amazement I was also climbing up a slight hill at around 5 miles an hour. I turn back from the field and there is Lauren's back tire. My front tire connects with hers and we both fall down hard. We lay in the road laughing for a bit and then move off the to the side. A small gash in my ankle, a little road rash, and a tiny cut on my hand were the only bodily damage. My front tire is now out of true but it will be a quick fix. We are staying at a really nice branch of Montana State University. All I know is that I saw corn on the cob in the kitchen and I'm hoping it's for us!! After two nights of cooking for ourselves I'm looking forward to something else.
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West Yellowstone, MT
Total Distance: 73.72 Miles
Ride Time: 5 hour 20 min
Avg. Speed: 13.98 mph
Max Speed: 36.3 mph
Bike: This morning was cold again! I suspected it would be and put the rain fly on for warmth and to protect from dew. We decided to take an alternative route because it went by some really nice waterfalls and though a national forest. We started the day all a little testy for no specific reason. After stopping for coffee to take the chill out of our bones we headed out. We split up to avoid tension and Seema, Sara, and I rode together. It was one of the most beautiful rides we've had yet. We had a pretty nice climb, but the views were more then worth it. It was absolutely peaceful and the road was practically car-less. We made our way up to lower Mesa falls and the views where astounding, but nothing compared to upper Mesa falls. They had boardwalk all along the falls and we even had to climb out of the canyon for a mile, well worth it. I took some semi good pictures I'll post as soon as I can. After that Sara and I had a pretty good time joking around on the empty road. It definitely involved spitting lots of our water all over the place and trying to outrun horse flies. I was slow because I was bit twice. The day was long and we finally finished by pulling into a really nice campground and swimming in the near by river. Good enough for a days shower.
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Ashton, ID
Total Distance: 75 miles
Ride Time: N/A
Avg. Speed: N/A
Max Speed: N/A
Bike: Dinner last night went really well. Everyone had a really good time and we even had the good chance of having the tour on TV during dinner, perfect for Bike and Build. Mark even made an amazing toast to Sara and I. It was one of the best spur of the moment speeches I've ever heard. Amanda P even started crying!! Thanks again Mark! I also want to thank my parents on behalf of everyone for dinner, everyone personally thanked me and wished Sara and I luck in life. Thanks mom and dad!!
Today was amazing. After a relaxing two days in Jackson, WY we headed up the Teton pass. It started at around 6,000 feet and went up to about 8,000 feet. I would say it was a little bit harder then South pass, but much shorter. It took us about an hour to climb the whole hill. The views were amazing!! I'll try to put some pictures up later. At the top we all prepared to hit top speeds. Lauren actually hit 54.7 mph!! I am not sure what I hit because my computer stopped working on the downhill of course and the highest clocking I got was around 44. The rest of the day went pretty fast, a little construction hold up and we were there! We are camping tonight and it will be nice to get some fresh air.
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Jackson, WY
Total Distance: 78.43 miles
Ride Time: 4 hours 56 min
Avg. Speed: 16.12 mph
Max Speed: 42.1 mph
Bike 7/18/05: We woke up early so we could get to Jackson early and hang out. It was actually only 35º F this morning. So we bundled up as much as possible. Leg and arm warmers and rain jackets was about all we could do. By the time we left it had warmed up to a freezing 46º F. The only benefit I found was that we went as fast as we could to stay warm. As you can tell by my average speed we spent the whole morning as close to 20 mph as we could. The slight incline during the morning made the second half of the day that much more rewarding. As you can see from the pictures the scenery was beautiful. Around 30 miles we entered Grand Teton state park and it was all downhill from there, literally. I kept thinking it can't be possible to still be going down hill but it was all the way to Jackson. We followed a beautiful river the whole way though the park. I can't really describe the views or the beauty, but it was amazing. We arrived in Jackson with plenty of time to go explore. I was disappointed to find that Jackson is actually just a huge tourist trap. Very expensive stores, even a huge Gap. I feel like I'm not in Wyoming anymore. The people don't seem to be friendly small towners, but people visiting their second houses for the summer. I would probably be happier and have a different opinion if I was outside the town area and camping. Still doesn't beat Zion Park. We all decided to lay low and we went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was very well done and a typical Tim Burton movie. Depp did a really good job of playing Willy Wonka and the movie was not a direct copy of the original one. Day off tomorrow!!
Day off 7/19/05: Today I'm pretty much just going to lay low. Rest up and catch up on things. Write post cards, blogs and sleep. I'll probably also walk around a little to enjoy the beautiful scenery. Exactly what I want in a day off!! Tonight will be fun because to celebrate Sara's and my engagement we are going out to dinner which is a rare treat!! Thanks guys!
Ride on!
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Pinedale, WY
Total Distance: 62.02 miles
Ride Time: 5 hours
Avg. Speed: 12.31 mph
Max Speed: 30 mph
Bike: Today was a pretty short day and we took it fairly easy. It was just one of those days where you just ride and think. Sara, Lauren, and I decided to be sweeps so we went pretty slowly. We tried to stay as close to the last person as we could so we would get in as early as possible. We were still pretty tired from yesterday. It was a nice ride, not too hard, with the mountains always in the background. We finally got to Pinedale and we didn't really get to hang out because it was Sunday and everything was closed. The church made us an amazing pasta dinner and even made a bunch of pumpkin pies for desert, not as good as yours mom. We went to bed fairly early as we were all excited to get to Jackson the next day.
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Farson, WY (Proposal)
Total Distance: 84.63 miles
Ride Time:8 hours 11 min !!!!
Avg. Speed: 9.96 mph !!!
Max Speed: 36 mph
Bike: Today was one of the worst and best days of my life, as you can see by the stats. It started like any other normal day, we left, and about 5 miles out we got some coffee. Lauren got an upsetting call at the gas station letting her know her first horse ever was dying, so she was in pretty sad shape from the beginning. We left and headed up the South Pass. It's scary and hard, we climbed about 3,000 feet. It was amazingly beautiful, but hard and long, about 40 of the 80 miles. Check the pictures on the left to see some views, gallery 3. We pushed and made it to the top with out too much pain. What came next was the hard part. The next 80 miles was plains and with it came wind. The worst wind I've ever felt, it was hard just to stand in it. It came from the right and front of us, causing us to hit a max of only 9 mph on flat ground. During a rest break at one point my helmet actually slid across the pavement. If I were to guess I'd say it was about 15-20 mph winds probably more. There were points when we all had to lean to the right to stop our selves from blowing over. I have never ever, ever, had to push my self so hard and get so little accomplished. It was physically, and most of all mentally challenging to the worst extreme. We crawled along and realized it was going to be a much longer day then an 80 or even 120 mile day should be. Lauren at one point in a fit of desperate frustration said, "I feel like it would just be easier to turn around and ride back to Providence!!" It's something that I will never be able to describe and no one will ever understand.
Finally, we came to the continental divide. The line that geographically divides the country in half. If water is poured on it, it's said that half goes to the Atlantic ocean and half to the Pacific. It was just on it's own in the middle of no where with beautiful mountain views in the background. We took pictures and most of the group decided to trudge on. For some reason I felt like I wanted to stay longer. Lauren, Sara and I did just that. I also realized this was the perfect time to let Sara DeCotis know I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life. I sat down on the side of the road facing the mountains, Sara sat down next to me, Lauren followed. I asked Sara to take off her glove so we could hold hands. Then I asked Lauren to take a picture of Sara and I. She was reluctant to stand to take the picture but I finally convinced her to. I leaned over and whispered in Sara's ear, "Will you marry me?" as I slipped the ring on her finger. Her jaw dropped immediately and she asked if I was joking. I said no, and she said yes! The rest of the day was just as hard, but Sara and I were in much better moods and it made the last 30 miles that much easier. It was an amazingly hard and an amazingly wonderful day. I can't wait to take the next step in life with Sara and be able to share all that comes down the road of life.
I have been planning this out for awhile, her parents knew as well as mine. Both were happy and excited about the proposal. I had the ring custom made by a guy in Bethel Maine. He actually goes out into the mountains of Maine and mines his own stones. He then cuts, polishes, and mounts them. During our last family ski trip to Bethel I went to the shop and picked out a beautiful aqua marine, her birthstone. We both had mentioned we thought it was silly to spend a massive amount of money on a ring. I picked a band that was very durable and can be worn all the time with out her having to worry about the stone falling out.
Please check gallery 3 for the pictures from the proposal. The link is on the left.
Ride on!
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Lander, WY
Total Distance: 41.54 miles
Ride Time: 3 hour 3 min
Avg. Speed: 13.94 mph
Max Speed: 38.6 mph
Bike: We were able to sleep in late because 40 miles is a joke. I didn't get up until 8 am. We were on the road by 10 am. Sara, Lauren, and I decided to go to the library to post our blogs and check E-mail. We stayed for two hours and still caught up to the sweeps not far out of town. The heat really turned up quick though and soon it was 104º Hudson was half way and there was rumor that the steak place had big steaks. I was and am looking for a 64 oz. to see if I can handle the whole thing. The largest I've found, online, is a 72oz in Texas and if you eat the whole thing you get it free. Anyway, the place was closed so we moved on. We arrived in Lander and went to one of the local schools field houses. It was amazing!! It's in a huge valley with a river and all. Check the pictures for some shots from there. There were signs up all over the place about rattle snakes, so Stewart and I decided to go find one. We walked all around the tall grass, were the signs said not to walk, and didn't find a single snake, let alone a rattle snake. Pretty disappointing! We went up to some bluffs, figuring they would be around the rocks, nope! What we did find was a fast moving irrigation canal. After dinner I decided it would be a good idea to build an inner tube out of bike tubes to float down the canal. I took 4 tubes and tied them together and had a pretty nice little float. At this point everyone was dividing up my stuff, thinking I was going to die. Lauren and I went up and I did the weak section and then she did the white water part. Pretty funny, we had to have someone down the canal to catch her, she has some nice bruises on her butt now. We spent the rest of the evening on the bluffs watching the sun set, very beautiful.
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Proposal
Yesterday, around 3:36 pm, I asked Sara Elizabeth DeCotis to marry me. She said yes, more info coming soon!
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UPDATE
I just posted a few entries so I am pretty much up to date. Sara's computer is up and working again, pretty amazing. Still no internet anywhere, I'm in a library right now. So I'll try to post as often as possible. Also make sure you check out Sara's blog also.
http://bikeandbuild2.blogspot.com/ She's says things a lot differently then I do and it's nice to get two views of the same day. Peace.
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Riverton, WY
Total Distance: 115.49 miles
Ride Time: 6 hours 31 min
Avg. Speed: 17.82 mph
Max Speed: 33.3 mph
Bike: Today was epic, 116 mile day in 103º weather. A bunch of people decided to make it a race and much betting went on the night before. We awoke early, 4 am, to prepare for the long day. We packed, cleaned and were out early, 5:30 am. It's an amazing sight riding out that early as the sun is barely peeking over the horizon. The air is cool, the wind is down, and the riding is fast. All that made this morning wonderful and quick. We didn't even realize we had gone 38 miles when we came across the first town. The day was accomplished by setting small goals though out the day. A gas station in Powder River, lunch at 65 miles, and a place that has world famous malts at 98 miles. The malts were amazing by the way. Soon we were at our destination and it was only 1:30 pm. We missed most of the heat and I made it the whole way with only a flat tire, punctured by a staple. The camp site is nice and tomorrow we have an amazing 30 miles to go. The rockies are looming in the foreground and I suspect will pose quite a challenge when the time comes.
PS-Thanks for the awesome mail drops!! Lin and Dad, Sara and I both loved your letters. Jackie we spent the whole night playing with glow sticks and bubbles!! Thanks!
Ride on!
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Casper, WY
Total Distance: 55.62 miles
Ride Time: 3 hours 14 min
Avg. Speed: 17.48 mph
Max Speed: 35.7 mph
Bike: July, 12th- I don't remember the whole ride but I do remember being on Rt. 25 for awhile which was construction. About half way down 25 there was a construction women ushering us off to the side of the road. Okay before I tell you the rest of the story I need to tell you that I decided, as did a lot of other people, that we would never ride in any motor vehicle during any part of this trip. So far I've ridden my bike from point A to point B everyday. Even if I get lost, my bike brakes or night falls, I will get to the destination even if I walk. Anyway, so this women tells us to get off the road and that we can't ride on 25 because there isn't enough room. We ask her if we can walk along the side of the road. No, she says. How about we ride on the construction part of the road? No, I need to put you all in the back of the pickup and bring you to the end of the construction zone, 5 miles away. At this point we are getting nervous because their are no options. We ask again if we can ride on the construction side, No! you'll each get a $500 fine. All of the sudden Rich takes off down the road, so Eytan and I take off down the construction road. Of course at this point everyone with us follows. I admit that the decision was very selfish and I wasn't thinking of Bike and Build and how we came across as a team. It was selfish because I felt trapped and out of options. I couldn't get vanned, or put in a car. It ended up that the lady called the police after we left and told them to give us all $500 tickets. The police didn't agree with her and said just to let us ride. Never the less, it was the fastest 5 miles of my life. We all got off the exit, excited and scared. But we didn't ride in a truck and thats all that mattered at the time.
The second part to this story is called the naked mile. It's tradition if you ride across country on a bike that you have to ride at least one mile naked. So a little of the exit on a very desolate road with only jackrabbits onlooking we did it. We pulled over stripped down and road 1 mile with nothing but shoes and out backpacks. A few cars got quite a show. An older women even drove by slowly laughing as we scrambled to put our clothes back on. It ended up being a fairly good day, with many lessons learned. Long day in two days!
Build: July 13th- We were able to sleep in a little and even watch some TV before going to the work site. They weren't ready for 30 volunteers so when they told us to put sod down on a habitat house lawn, we were done in less then an hour. After that we headed a few blocks up to work on a second habitat house. There we made a retaining wall and did a lot of trimming and spackling inside the house. It was nice giving our upper bodies a workout for a change, even if it was hard.
Ride on!
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Douglas, WY
Total Distance: 59.5 miles
Ride Time: 3 hours 20 min
Avg. Speed: 16.71 mph
Max Speed: 38.1 mph
Bike: Another short day today and I wanted to get to the town early so I could write my blog and do some bike maintenance. The library wasn’t far so Rich and I rode to it and I was able to post a few entries. After that I changed my chain, break pads, and handle bar tape. I have a pretty sweet ride now! Everyone pretty much lounged around until dinner. Dinner was at the pastor’s ranch from Lusk. It was amazing. They have 17,000 acres with 250 cattle, sheep, and horses. They have another 20,000 that they lease to another family. The ranch has been in the family since the home stead act, which is pretty amazing. One of the pastor’s daughters let us each ride her horse. Lauren went first because she rides all the time and has her own horse. I told her we were going to race but she didn’t go fast because she wasn’t sure if the lady wanted her to. Then I got on and took off, I kind of remembered how to ride from when I took lessons. I at least knew how to make it go fast. It was funny at least. I think I was barely at a trot. Later after everyone had a turn Lauren rode again but much faster, so I guess she won. Dinner was soft tacos and chocolate chip cookies, which were amazing. The pastor came home and between him and his daughter I was able to answer all the questions I’ve had while riding though the west. I’ll just list them below so it’s easier for me J
-They are only allowed a certain amount of water, which is regulated though water rights depending on who was their first.
-The cattle are raised until they are about 1 year old. They are then sold to a feed lot who feeds them grain before they are slaughtered. They sell for a little over $1 a pound and they are usually about 600 lbs.
-Almost all the farmers in the US use hybrid plants now a days.
-The huge irrigation systems that go around in circles actually move with little electric motors in each of the wheels.
-The problems with the cattle and sheep are: coyotes, wolves, mt. lions, and eagles. The eagles actually eat the baby cattle and sheep.
It was interesting to hear how against the wolves and mt. lions he was because I personally think they should be able to live where they want. But after talking I realized that it’s really hard to be a farmer and the federal government protects the mt. lions and wolves but doesn’t have any system to repay the farmer for lost livestock. I know that if someone that owned a store had someone come in and steal something worth $600 every night, they would do something about it, like an alarm system. But farmers can’t because it’s illegal to shoot the animals. It was very interesting to say the least. They are allowed to shoot coyotes though and the issue with that is that a lot of states are trying to outlaw guns. This is one of the only ways for the farmers to protect what they have. His point was that criminals are going to get guns no matter how outlawed they are and he being a law abiding citizen won’t be able to protect his livelihood. It just opened my eyes to what type of people are fighting for what and why they fight for it. What do you guys think?
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Chadron, NE
Total Distance: 48.37 miles
Ride Time: 2 hours 50 min
Avg. Speed: 17.24 mph
Max Speed: 35.1 mph
Bike: It was a really short day today so we were done pretty early. Chadron was having it's huge fur trading festival. They had a bunch of really cool stuff going on including a parade right when we got there. For lunch I had a buffalo burger, chips, potato salad, macaroni salad, and a drink all for $4. The church we were staying at was having a home made ice cream special and it was great ice cream. It reminded me when I used to make ice cream with my grandfather by using the old fashioned one that had a hand crank. Good times. Around noon they had a buffalo chip throwing contest and I think a few bike and builders partook. Unfortunately, on my way back to the church with Sara's laptop a lady turned around an bumped into me spilling water onto the computer. I'm pretty sure it will end up being okay after a few days drying out. I'll let you know. Until then posts might be slow and out of date, sorry. A bunch of bike and builders who haven't seen Mt. Rushmore went to see it in the van while the rest of us enjoyed the festival. Austins dad was nice enough to bring us out to eat at a really good Mexican place. After dinner we all walked down to the rodeo. It was pretty awesome to watch, Sara and Quinnen now want a cowboy for a boyfriend! They had all the stuff you see on ESPN 2, bronco riding, calf roping, barrel racing, and even bull ridding. I'll put up pictures as soon as the computer is working again.
Ride on!
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Gordon, NE
Total Distance: 95.95 miles
Ride Time: 6 hours 45 min
Avg. Speed: 14.34 mph
Max Speed: 37.7 mph
Bike: We woke up early around 5:30 am because we wanted to hit the road and try to avoid as much of the heat as we could. It wasn't a hugely eventful day, we had a beautiful scenery all day of the sand hills. Sara wasn't feeling up to par all morning so we took it pretty slow. It probably got up above 100 degrees so we were drinking tons of water. We actually went though a town with a population of only 13 people. We went swimming in the pool took showers and headed to bed. Tomorrow will be a short day which will be awesome!
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Valentine, NE
Total Distance: 87.69 miles
Ride Time: 4 hrs 29 min
Avg. Speed: 16 mph
Max Speed: 38.7 mph
Bike: Today was the first day that Alyssa was able to ride again. She rode with her tandem with mark. It was pretty amazing to see them riding and the smile on her face. Thanks to everyone that donated money. The first half of today was all corn!! Lucky for my attention span the second half was sand hills and ended up being very beautiful. The whole morning the group or riders I was riding with talked about how hard the trip is unmentionable. It's a trip where everything is out in the open and everything is exposed. Everyone in the group instantly knows how your feeling, there is nothing you can hide. It's tough sometimes but in the end it just brings us all closer.
We stopped for lunch in a ghost town, I'll put pictures up later. It looked like it was straight out of a black and white western movie. We finally arrived in Valentine which is a really nice town. There was an awesome western store with everything from lasso's to cowboy hats and even saddles. For dinner Lauren's dad was very generous and had us all go to the Peppermill stakes for dinner. Boy did I eat. I asked the waitress what I should get and she told me all about the different steaks. Then Nate and I looked at each other and ordered the 32 oz. T-Bone steak. For appetizer we had rocky mt. Oysters which weren't as bad as I would have guessed. I had a salad, rolls, and finally my steak. It was amazing, both Nate and I easily finished it without even batting an eye. We were joking about how small it was, after the waitress had guaranteed we would have leftovers for breakfast and lunch. The dessert tray came out and as a joke I asked if they had steak pie. The waitress said no but they did have a 1 lb slice of carrot cake in the back. Again Nate and I just looked at each other and each ordered one, promising to finish it. All I'm going to say is I felt a tad sick after and it's all because of the 1lb carrot cake slice. Great dinner though.
Bike: nope just trying to get caught up, sorry.
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Stuart, NE
Total Distance: 79.39 miles
Ride Time: 4 hrs 42 min
Avg. Speed: 16.8 mph
Max Speed: 34.4 mph
Bike: Today was a really awesome day. It started when we woke up early to go bowling at 6:30 am!! Quinnen was talking to some local lady and she suggested that we could go to this bowling ally for bowling and breakfast. What a great idea, we all bowled one game and had really hot breakfasts. I rented shoes, bowled a game, had 2 scrambled eggs, hash browns, coffee, and a sweet roll for a enormous total of $7. It was a real lot of fun and we were still able to hit the road around 8 am. We do pretty well when we're motivated. Seema and I decided to be sweep which ended up being a lot of fun, its a great way to get to know people better. As sweeps also do, we stopped often to relax. Our first stop was at the Nebraska zoo, normally $5 but after the bike and build story it was up to us to donate willingly. Aside from the bangle tiger, cougar and puma, the most interesting part was the chimps. They are so human like. Two of them are actually stars, one from the Sinfeld episode where the chimp kept spitting on Kramer. The second chimp is from the First in Flight movie about the US sending a chimp into space. So the Sinfeld chimp spit water all over Seema and the other monkey apparently knows how to open the container with the monkey biscuits. The rest of the day went really fast because Seema and I just talked the whole way.
Alyssa update: She has her bike!! And it seems like it will work out well. The real test will be Mark (her boyfriend), and her relationship. I rode on the back with Mark and it was really scary. I'll let you know how tomorrow goes.
Build: We talked about how we can make our presentations better and create more awareness about the poverty housing issue. What we decided was to bring pamphlets with us to hand out to people we see when they ask us what we are doing and where they can find out more.
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Plainview, NE
Total Distance: 84.10 miles
Ride Time: 5 hrs 13 min
Avg. Speed: 16.44 mph
Max Speed: 37.0 mph
Bike: Today was a pretty good day, it started out hilly in the morning when we were well rested and the day ended flat when we were all tired. We went though Sioux City about 5 miles into the journey and crossed the Missouri river into Nebraska. Sioux city actually has a Nebraska, South Dakota, and Iowa part. About 10 miles into it Lauren got a flat so our group fell to the back of the pack but we caught up quickly. Lunch was at 48 miles and in a little town, which was nice. After lunch we kind of spilt up a little, Lauren and Quinnen road ahead and Sara, Seema, Stewart and I stayed together. Sara had to stop to pee, crazy huh?, and we saw an abandon house out in the middle of the corn field. It didn't even had a driveway or path to it, so we made our own. It was a cool looking house, pictures later, but the whole thing was covered in hay. I always end up singing songs as I ride and after seeing a bunch of cows stampede I thought of all the songs my Nana used to sing to her grandkids before bed. One of them was a cowboys lullaby which talks about cows stampeding. So everyone I was riding with got a taste of those songs, thanks Nana. We arrived in Plainview around 3 and had time to relax. We walked down to a really cool saloon. Funny thing is it's called the Johnson Hotel and around 1902 it was sold to a Mr. Bill Johnson. Today it's now owned by a guy named Todd, who I met, the whole story was pretty funny. We all ended up there to watch the Tour and have some appetizers before dinner. I actually tried chicken gizzards which I wouldn't recommend to anyone. Showers were at the local pool and the life guard was nice enough to let us each take one turn down the water slide. I wonder when I'll be old enough that I won't want to do that anymore.
Build: Don't have a fact, just throwing up the post, sorry.
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Still no net. Short day
Still no net. Short day tomorrow so ill have time to go to the library to post. Sorry not in huge towns.
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Sioux City, IA
Total Distance: 96.6 miles
Ride Time: 6 hours 14 min
Avg. Speed: 15.7 mph
Max Speed: 38.5 mph
Bike: Happy 4th of July, hope everyone is having fun that the parties!! Today, at first wasn't as hard as expected. We awoke at 4 am, the sun wasn't up yet but we could see a lightning storm in the distance. We were out of the church by 6 so we could ride before the traffic and heat got bad. Luckily neither go too bad. Pre lunch we all had a really good time and were flying along, averaging almost 17 mph. We were all riding along singing any songs that came to our heads. It was really hilly but we would just fly down the hills and slowly climb up the next one, over and over again. After lunch it was hotter and we were all pretty beat, so the end of the day really dragged on and everyone was getting pretty irritated and snappy. Showers and dinner helped with that though. We all wanted to see fireworks tonight but from the looks of it everyone is heading to bed right about now, 6:30 pm.
This trip is hard, my legs are always sore. I thought that maybe after a few weeks they would not be but they continue to be very sore and I think they will be until the trip is over. I'm also always tired, I push my self so hard during the day that no amount of sleep in between rides will fix that. Aside from all that I'm having an amazing time and I can already tell this will be one of the most memorable and wonderful summers I've ever had.
Build: Some 2 billion people worldwide live in poverty housing!
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Carroll, IA
Total Distance: 85.6 mph
Ride Time: 5 hours 59 min
Avg. Speed: 14.5 mph
Max Speed: 43 mph
Bike: Today started with me running over the the post office to mail some things and everyone thinking I was leaving for the day. When I got back everyone was already gone. I caught up with Lauren and the first part of the day we had a nice little tail wind and we could really fly. To our left was a huge thunderstorm, very dark skies. I check the directions and sure enough our next turn was a left. We headed straight into the beast. Pictures later. It ended up not being so bad, just rained a little. After lunch, Seema road with Lauren and I and she even had two small speakers that were blasting the Beatles, helped me deal with all the corn. The rest of the day was so, so until we were almost to Carroll, about 7 miles away, and the van came to tell us about a huge storm that would be there in 20 minutes with 45 mph hour winds. So we hauled to the city and there ended up being no storm so we were a little more tired then necessary. Tomorrow is most likely going to be our hardest day on the trip. It will most likely end up being 120 miles and aside from that it will be very hilly which will make it much harder and longer time wise. Wish me luck, hopefully I make it with out too much aguish.
Build: The church we are staying at is right down the road from three habitat houses. It's really cool to be able to see them. They also have some boards that we are all signing, which will end up in a habitat house in the area.
Ride on!
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Ames, IA
Bike: Not a chance!
Build: We got up really early today to go build with the Ames Habitat. They originally didn't have that much for us to do but then the wind blew over the walls they had up so we were able to rebuild them and put them back up. It was pretty amazing, one of the guys that was working there works for McCarthy group and lived in Ithaca for two years. He was working on the nano technology building at Cornell University. It was fun talking about the area with him while we were building. Because they could only use about 15 people at a time, we went in two shifts. Everyone came at lunch then the first group left as the second group took over. I got back and just passed out, caught up on lost sleep from the past week. Around 5 pm everyone went to a local micro brew and we are watching the Tour De France. It's pretty awesome to finally be able to watch biking and know a little bit about whats going on, much more interesting. Tomorrow I think we have a long day maybe 100 miles or more, we'll see.
Here are some new pictures I put online, you can click the different titles on the top of the page so see the old picturesRide on!
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Ames, IA
Total Distance: 41.35 miles
Ride Time: 2 hours 57 min
Avg. Speed: 14. 2 mph
Max Speed: 37 mph
Bike: Today was a short day and boy was it beautiful. The wind had calmed down from yesterday and it was even cooler out. Clear blue sky with a few fluffy white clouds which were a beautiful contrast with the bright green fields. We all were in a great mood the whole day because we knew we had such a short day. After about half way I came to a town called Nevada. I rode down main street to check it out and decided to stop and get a burrito at a sweet mexican restaurant. For $5.23 I had a basket of chips, salsa, chicken/beef burrito, beans and rice. Great deal! I arrived in Ames around 11 am and had plenty of time to relax and enjoy the town. The church bought 100 lbs of ribs and they were by far the best ribs I've ever eaten. I had about 15 ribs and might have pulled into the lead for the fat kid contest the guys are having. To make sure I held the top spot for the night I finished off the meal with vanilla ice cream topped with BBQ rib sauce. What a meal!! Tonight we are taking it easy with blog updates and post card writing. Pictures will be up tomorrow, I found a cafe with free wireless, so be prepared there should be some good ones.
Build: Everyone is really excited about tomorrows build hopefully we will be doing some framing!!
Ride on!
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Marshalltown, IA
Total Distance: 70.2 Miles
Ride Time: 5 hours 36 min
Avg. Speed: 12.9 mph (more on that later)
Max Speed: 27 mph
Bike: I decided to take Rt. 30 again with Sara, Quinnen and Shay. We knew it would be much shorter and probably easier. Well it was defiantely distance shorter but it took us all day to go 70 miles when we should have been able to do it in 3 to 4 hours. It took so long because the whole time there was a very strong, probably 20 mph, head wind. Now you wouldn't think it was bad if you were driving or even walking but a headwind is killer if your on a bike. Despite the wind the route was beautiful and we even found more rolling hills in Iowa. We finally arived in Marshaltown at around 4 pm and because we were on our own route we stopped at McDonalds for a pre dinner. Coming into the church was very exciting and we even had some time/engery to stop at a bike shop to pick up a few things. We then went down to the YMCA to ask about showers. Based on where I live I would assume that Y's are on a downward slope and slowly going under. But so far every one I've seen is amazing. Marshalltown's is nothing short of amazing, a huge pool with a water-park inside, it was a kids dream. Over all it was a fairly hard day because of the wind. The church was nice and had dinner all ready for us. After dinner a bunch of us went to the local bar for a relaxing drink. Good day.
Thanks for all the mail drops, they create so much happiness and joy. It's definitely a highlight of the week for most people.
Build: In two days we will have a build day in Ames, IA, sweet!
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