Day 5 continued:

I ended my entry a little earlier than I wanted to yesterday. It takes at least an hour to write out a post and another if I want to add pictures and another half hour if I want the pictures to have captions.

Yesterday we woke up at 6:45 however we didn’t leave the shelter until 9:30. We then rode into town to meet up with Evan at a coffee shop. Mark wanted to grab some snacks at a store so we stopped at a (I think it was a Kroger’s) store. As we were checking out the sky opened up and a downpour began. We decided to get to know one another in the store entryway and wait out the rain. I learned that Evan is from Hawaii but is about to enter his Junior year at Harvard. He also plays the violin!

Continue reading Day 5 continued, Day 7, Day 8  →

I don’t know how much I can keep up my blog. I don’t get much downtime at the end of the day. And if I do I’m so tired or hungry I just eat or go to sleep. There were a couple times in the last couple days that were really tough. The terrain has turned mean and sometimes for hours it’s hill after hill. The worse ones are the ones with bends you can’t see around. When I get to the turn after climbing straight up I hope that it goes down or flat. But nope it goes up and up. My parents keep asking how I feel. It’s hard to explain. Physically I feel better than I thought I would. My shoulders were sore for the second and third day but yesterday and today they’re great. My butt doesn’t hurt as long as I can stand on my bike every 25 minutes or so. What hurts is my brain. Everyone who told me that biking across the country is 10% physical and 90% mental (Mentally insane haha). But yeah they are 100% right. I’m developed an attitude that there is nothing else to do but climb this hill so I might as well keep going. It has to end eventually. Going down can be just as worse. Sometimes it gets really steep and since my 2 companies are riding tandem (2 seater bike) they can go way faster than me. Who are my companions you ask? Well it’s a father and daughter pair: Mark and Jolee. I feel so out of shape compared to them since Mark is 46 and Jolee is only 13! I can’t believe that. I don’t remember what I was interested in at 13 but I can’t bet you I would have never thought about biking across the country. We picked up another rider today: Evan. He’s from Hawaii and is entering his junior year at Harvard. A couple places we have stopped at have guest books for us to sign so the shop keepers and see how many people go through the town. It seems like there is a couple of people just ahead of us. It’s really neat to meet people.

Continue reading Day 2 to Day 5 →