Day 36: 
Woke up at 7:15. Standard routine. Broke down camp and was in the road by 8:15. 

22 miles in we hit the Wyoming welcome sign. 

 On the way out of walden I was attacked by hundreds of mosquitos. I don’t really mind them so much at camp but when they’re bitting me while I’m riding I minded. There was nothing to do but try and ride in the middle of the road away from the grass. I put on my rain jacket to keep them off my arms. Continue reading Day 36 →

Day 35

We are now officially on our own. Evan’s family left yesterday so we have all our stuff back again. I can’t believe my good fortune in terms of having people carry my gear. Today we have to climb the last pass of the Rockies. It was a gradual climb but a climb nonetheless. The last two miles were going to be steep. I started out the day with no service but as soon as I cleared town I had 5 bars again. I called my mom to say hello. After I hung up the terrain starting to incline. I turned on some Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban audio book. Harry’s problems seemed greater than my own haha. The scenery was just as beautiful as ever. There were a bunch of older cyclist coming the opposite was. Continue reading Day 35 →

Day 34 I woke up really having to pee. This always happens when there’s no bathroom around. Evan’s dad was already up and before I could say anything he said there was a bathroom about 1/4 mile down the road on the bike path. Perfect! 
After getting back everyone was still sleeping (except Brent who had already left). It was kinda chilly so I packed up quietly and headed out. Brent texted the group and said if you follow the bike path you’ll hit the town Sliverthorne. He was at a McDonald’s where we all met up for the beginning of the day. I have the McDonald’s app and got a free breakfast sandwich. I also figured out the coffee drink I like is a frappe. I ordered an iced something the first time so I ended up drinking two coffees. I was so wired I didn’t wait for anyone and headed out. We were still on our descent and following the blue River. The air was cool and crisp and the Rockies fall in the background. All my pictures don’t do them any justice. The vastness of the west amazes me everytime. I put my GoPro on my helmet and videoed the ride for a while. Unfortunately having the camera on my helmet makes it too heavy and causes it to slip forward. I know I’ve said it before but today was hands down the best day of riding. The weather was perfect. Traffic wasn’t too bad. There was an excellent bike path. The scenery was incredible. It felt like the day was over in no time. With 5 miles left the road took us through this huge canyon. It was any geologist dream to be able to ride through here. I was probably grinning the whole time. Continue reading Day 34 →

Day 33:  

I drank so much water at dinner I wasn’t surprised when I woke up and had to pee really badly. It was really cold so I dreaded leaving my warm bed. I might as well get it over with so I hurried outside across the road to the outhouse. I was glad I remember where it was as the yard was filled with tons of antiques (and junk). When I was walking back to my cabin I looked up and was amazed at all the stars. I’ve done my fair share of camping under the stars (you can probably read about my snappiness for stars on one of my posts) and I have to say the sky ranked in the top 3 of all skies. I ended up sitting on a chair outside my cabin for 20 minutes or so just admiring them. Continue reading Day 33 →

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 →