Day 32: I didn’t set an alarm but I woke up around 6:35. I laid in my tent for a few minutes as it was kinda chilly. I got up and only Brent was awake. Everyone else’s bikes were still in the shop so they were going to get a late start. I had no reason to wait around. I packed up my gear and for the first time in a while a strapped it to the back of my bike. Just biking out of the campground was a struggle. Everything felt horribly off balance. I climbed the first little hill and already I was frustrated with my pace. I wasn’t used to all this weight. It felt like I was dragging a couple of bowling balls behind me. I texted my sister Courtney to call me if she had a chance. I didn’t have to wait long and I chatted with her to pass the time. The wind picked up so I was having a hard time hearing so I said goodbye and trudged on alone. There was a small climb up to Wetmore Co. I called my mom to see how she was doing. After getting to Wetmore it was an 11 miles drop into Florance. It was such a relief although I still felt slow. I would just have to be patient. Four and a half hours later I made it to Canon City. It was the longest 30 miles of my life. I headed to the post office where I mailed a bunch of stuff home. While I was there I met a couple who was walking from the east coast to the west coast. They left from Slaughter Beach in Delaware on April 31. I told them I was from Delaware! Continue reading Day 32: Intro to the Rockies  →

Day 31:
Last night I had set my tent up under the pavilion. It seemed a sweet deal as there were fans which sent a nice breeze through my tent. I feel asleep quickly as I was exhausted after biking 134 miles that day. Around 4:00 I woke up to the walls of my tent flapping. A strong wind was blowing. Since I was on concrete I didn’t stake my tent so I was slowly being dragged across the floor. I wasn’t about to move to the grass so I got up and dragged my tent around to the other side of the building. That way the building was blocking most of the wind. It immediately got quite and I settled in to go back to sleep for another hour. Not even 2 minutes pass and Ellen also drags her tent around the side of the building to get out of the wind. I ask her if everything is okay and the wind blew her around so much her tent poles snapped. I had plenty of room in my tent so I told her to leave hers alone and get some sleep while you can. It was a good thing too that we shared a tent because it got really cold. Continue reading Day 31-32 →

Day 30: 
I woke up at 5:20 to the smell of bug spray. I sat up to find Ellen spraying bug spray everywhere. Also apparently a thunderstorm had rolled through. I set my tent under the pavilion so I didn’t hear or get wet despite leaving my rainfly off. Brent set his tent up in the grass and hardly got any sleep. I received many more bug bites when trying to pack up my stuff. You would think the corpses of their brethren on my arms and legs would deter them from attacking me. I cannot wait to get to Colorado where there are no mosquitos and less humidity. We had a tail wind in the morning and we went 63 miles taking a break after 30. From there on every town was about 20 miles apart. Two towns later (around 1:30) we stopped for lunch. It didn’t even feel like we went 100 miles. The tailwind was doing wonders for our mileage. Everyone was also in good spirits in the morning which helped. At 8 miles to the next town the road was starting to get to me. We had spent the last 100 miles on the same road without turning and I was getting rather antsy. I called my mom to pass the time and the next 30 minutes flew by. At the diner we had lunch with a father and daughter team who are also heading west. They aren’t going as fast as us so we probably won’t ride with them very far. We also saw a lot of people headed east. I think the count was 12 people. I felt bad for them as they were fighting a headwind. Continue reading Day 30: 134 miles  →

Day 28:
I heard Ellen’s alarm go off at 6 but we couldn’t hear anyone else getting ready so we kept hitting snooze. Around 6:50 we figured something was up so we ventured out to the kitchen. Turns out everyone was almost ready. Luckily we didn’t have to do much to get ready and by 7:10 we were out the door. Aunt Henrietta was tearful when we said goodbye and she said to come back soon. It was a really special treat to stay with her. 

We stopped at a gas station for a quick breakfast. I ate a blueberry muffin and a awake granola bar. We planned to go only 75 miles and stop at the Salt City Splash Aquatic Park. The first 12 miles were more of the rolling hills and there was a slight sidewind but nothing too bad. I didn’t realize how hard it was blowing until we turned North. At least it wasn’t hot. Continue reading Day 28-29: wind  →

Day 25:My alarm went off at 6 but I didn’t hear anyone else up so I went back to sleep. At 6:20 I started hearing booms and I thought it was passing trucks but turned out to be thunder. It then started to rain however it didn’t last more than a couple minutes. I then started hearing clicking sounds and it took me a few minutes to realize it was the sound of someone’s shoe clips. I looked up to see Brent take off. I had slept too long and it looked liked everyone was ready to go. I hadn’t done anything to start getting ready so I told everyone I would either meet them at gas station across the street or catch them on the road. It didn’t take me as long as I thought to pack up and I headed over to the gas station. Everyone was still eating breakfast so I grabbed a blueberry muffin. We headed out of town. It wasn’t quite flat yet but it didn’t compare to the hills we just did. On the horizon to the right was thick black clouds. The wind was blowing south so we knew the storm wasn’t coming at us but it was scary to see lightning on the horizon. All of a sudden the wind picked up and dark clouds started forming above us. Down the road we could see a blue sky. We looked at each other but anything we said was lost in the wind. It didn’t matter as the meaning was clear: GO! There was no thought just speed as we raced to out bike the storm. Nothing mattered but not getting caught in the middle of it. Never have I been so motivated and just as fat droplets started coming down we burst into the sunlight. It was drizzling a bit but for the most part the storm was behind us. 30 miles later we hit the welcome to Kansas sign. We whooped and cheered that we had reached another state. Continue reading Day 25-27 →

Today we want to get out of Missouri. However it’s about 96 miles to Pittsburg Ks. We can do it though. The elevation profile showed the last 34 miles to be mostly flatish. Once we hit Golden City it would be easy going. 
We stayed last night at Fair Groove Mo city park which had a large pavilion to set our tents under. I woke up around 5:30 to a nice breeze going through my tent. And it was headed west. A tailwind! I got up only to discover it was the fans blowing in the pavilion. Continue reading Day 24: it’s not an adventure if you’re not miserable →

I’ve mentioned that I’m biking through the Ozarks recently. A bunch of people have asked me what the Ozarks are. This post is going to dive into what the mysterious Ozarks are. 
Are the Ozarks really mountains? They currently are not as large or dramatic as the Appalachians or Rockies. The Ozarks are not mountains in the typical sense. The mountains in the west are either folded upward or uplifted along faults. Since Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, and Oklahoma are relatively flat, compared to southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, the Ozarks represent a localized area of higher topographic relief. The Ozarks are really a plateau that has been uplifted and then dissected by streams eroding and down cutting through the uplifted area. Continue reading Just what are the Ozarks? →

Today I was woken up by the song Toto by Africa. Was is 6am already? I guess of all things to be woken up to that song is a good one. We packed up and rolled out by 7:10. The first couple miles were kinda creepy as the fog hadn’t completely lifted. Thankfully the shoulder was wide enough that we weren’t in danger from passing cars. Soon the fog lifted. After a few miles we were out of town and back into farmland. The sky was a light blue and the clouds looked surreal. It made me sad to think how little people will get to experience the wonderful diversity of the United States. I kept thinking of my plans after I was done this trip. I had to kept reminding myself to focus on biking and enjoy the ride. I would worry about that later. I soon hit a transcendence state and everything else disappeared. Rolling hills of green fields flew by. Both sides of the roads were flanked by thousands of wildflowers. Most abundant was Queen Anne’s Lace (which reminded of West Virginia), black eyed Susan’s, daisies, blue vervain, violets, and day-lilies. It was so beautiful and for some reason it made me want to scream. Unfortunately a slight wind picked up. It wasn’t a problem to bike in and in fact it felt good. The only problem was it kick up the hundreds of beetles and bees that were buzzing on the wildflowers. I kept getting hit by bugs. The beetles landed on me and stuck to my shirt and sun reflectors. I didn’t care as long as they didn’t fly down my shirt or craw in my helmet. Continue reading Day 23: happiness through misery  →

I stayed up entirely too late. Since we crammed all our bikes in the room it was a little tight. During the night we were woken up to a massive thunderstorm. The lightning flashed through the blinds and if I didn’t have to ride 80 miles the next day I would have gone outside to watch the storm. I wasn’t awake long and soon fell back asleep. 7:00 came all too soon. I feel like every morning all my motivation disappears but as soon as I force myself up I’m ready to go. It’s weird how fast 20 minutes can change my mood. Mark and Jolee were going to meet us at the coffee house so we headed over there. I’m further exploring coffee so I got another caramel mocha and a chocolate scone. The scone was delicious! I didn’t care for the mocha so much (it was mostly cream and really expensive). I think I preferred McDonald’s version. We are near Alley Springs national park and a ranger stopped by the coffee house. Since we are all wearing our American flag shirts he asked what it was for. We chatted for a bit and he asked to take our picture. He said he would try and put it up on the national park service website! How cool is that?! I chatted with him about how to work in a national park but he gave me the same advice everyone else does: apply to everything on USA jobs. As soon as Mark and Jolee showed up a steady rain began. It looks like I’m going to get drenched again today. I guess it’s better than being hot. Oh and I forgot to mention that I discovered the truth about Rule number 10 yesterday. Even though I didn’t have my panniers the Ozark hills were still difficult. I just went faster. Everytime I think I’ve gotten to the top I can see the hills go on for miles ahead. Sometimes it looks like one massive hill however when I think I’m halfway up it drops me down. The massive hill is a series of ups and downs. Unlike the Appalachians which hit you with one blow, the Ozarks sneakily hit you over and over again. You don’t even realize it until you’re climbing your 99th hill and all you can see is more steep slopes ahead. They beat you down until nothing’s left. Continue reading Day 22: A New Kind of Torture →

Today I got up at 6:20. I went to the bathroom and changed into my riding clothes. The weather called for rain. I think if I was by myself I would have taken another day off. The hostel was a really nice place to recuperate and rest up. It felt amazing to sleep in a real bed for two days. Today we had to do a big push to make up for taking yesterday off. We planned for 86 miles and if we felt good another 20 to get to Summerville. Then I remembered that Marks wife was going to meet us at the end of the day. She offered to carry our panniers in the camper. For the last couple of days I toyed with the idea that this was cheating and I should carry my bags the whole way. However one glance at the elevation profile and I immediately changed my mind. The Ozarks were in full swing and it really did look like a roller coaster ride. I reluctantly put my panniers with everyone else’s: in the camper. We rode about 3 miles and the stopped at yet another McDonald’s. I had cracked and order a breakfast sandwich. I downloaded the McDonald’s app and since I ordered a sandwich I got a free McCafe. I’ve never had one before so I got a caramel mocha. I couldn’t taste any coffee in it but I thought it was pretty good. Good enough that I would probably order it again. After 5 minutes of finishing it my heart started beating faster than normal. Boy was I wired! It probably didn’t help that before we left I also ate an awake granola bar which has enough caffeine equivalent to 1/2 cup of coffee. I couldn’t sit down and began to pace around McDonald’s. Continue reading Day 21: Cheater →