Location: Troy, New York

After a month of not writing, this is finally the O2G guys last update. We hope you enjoyed following along during our adventure and that you were able to share in it. Thank you to all those who have been following this journey and keeping us in their thoughts and prayers.

Fun Facts:

Number of states we rode through: 12

Number of broken spokes: 25 (11 being Dave’s and 9 being Kevin’s)

Number of flat tires: 20 (12 of which being Aaron’s)

Number of postcards sent: 130 (Dave sent at least half of those)

Total mileage: 3512

Number of times our front tires went around (each): 2,617,887

Number of calories taken in per day per person: 4,500

Total calories consumed over the trip: 900,000

Total btu’s produced: 3.6 million

Producing 878 Watts on average for the duration of the trip

This is enough energy to light 11 75-watt light bulbs 24 hours a day for 50 days straight

Days that gastrointestinal humor was still funny: 50

Continuous states on just one front chain ring: 1, Kansas (Aaron)

Continuous states without using the granny ring: 5 (Dave…bad front derailer)

Continuous states without Todd shaving: 8

Longest duration without a shower: 216 hours

Ounces of chocolate milk consumed: 768

Number of newspapers published in: 5 (3 are unconfirmed but probable)

Thank Yous

We would like to thank all of the following people for making all of these above stats possible:

First of all, to our parents: Brad and Linda Garnett, Jerry and Mary Brown, Ramsey and Bonnie Johnson, Jim and Barbie Murphy, without whom we would never have even learned how to cross the street or ride a bike, we are eternally thankful for your love and support throughout all the stages of this voyage. You were always there to encourage us on, listen to our complaints, take care of our needs, and welcome us home. You are the best.

Next, to all of you who took us in, gave us food, lodging, and your awesome company, your hospitality was incredible. Flat out, we smelled bad, we looked funny, and we probably sounded funny–but you still introduced us to your families and your showers. We are indebted to you and if you are ever nearby to any of us we will consider it an insult if you do not let us return your kindness. To the Drechslar family in Oregon, your pizzas are now renowned throughout the U.S. along with your hospitality. To the Obendorf family, who gave us memories to encourage us up and over many hills. To Big Tex and Glen-Dawg, who were on a journey of their own and shared their adventure with us. To Delores and Mike Crow, who took us in on a days notice and gave us rest and great conversation. To Nicole in Jackson for taking a chance and letting four total strangers stay in her home. To Dave Bell, for finding us on the street and giving us shelter and great Pinedale stories along with sharing his dreams with us. To Rhonda and Casey Farrell and Kimberly and Tanni, who took us in as their own kids and fed us the best Indian food west of the Mississippi. To Brenda Harms and her family for introducing us to deep-fried turkey and for staying up with us to all of hours of the morning just for fun. To John Blea and his family and friends for trusting us to his home away from home and extending hospitality only found in the heartland. To Dan Buckner, Ashley Smith, and Sara Beck, who let us crash (in more than one way) at their place in Nashville for two days while we rested, ate gargantuan amounts of food, and were toted all around by the awesome Ashley. To Jack and Valerie McCauley for giving us a terrific evening in their new Tennessee home and treating us like kings. To the Noel and the Wilhoit Family and Nicole for showing us the Dayton scene and giving us great food and fantastic conversation, not to mention the use of Dave’s cumfy-couch.

Lastly, we would like to give some shout outs to all of the people who added to our trip in a variety of ways. We would like to thank the local gas station attendants across the country for their ability to always smile at us and let us sleep in their places of business for hours at a time while occasionally giving us refreshing beverages and/or food. Thanks to Josh Brace for hanging out with us at the Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon. To Uncle Jim, who gave us something to talk about from Wyoming to Georgia, thank you. Thanks to Chatty Amy for her highly outgoing and jovial personality that kept us laughing in remembrance for days. A most esteemed thank you to the Anstey’s from Colorado Springs, who in our need for quarters, hooked us up with not only that but also a full barbecue including cocktails, brownie-sundaes, and fantastic conversation. To the Coke guy who gave us free bottle caps to use extravagantly from Georgia to the coast–you’re so money and you don’t even know it. Thanks to Ralph from Bird City, who must’ve been a comedian at one point in his life, for regaling us with your tales of pogo-sticking across Kansas and other odd stories. To the two Jenny’s in Gerald, thank you for filling us up with country lovin’ and a lot of good cooking and conversation. To the McDonald’s owner in Missouri who was our mom away from home for a day, we sincerely thank you for your hospitality. Also, to the McDonald’s staff all across the country for your continually good service, smiles, free refills, and $.99 McSpicy chicken sandwiches…Ronald would be proud. Thank you to the concerned driver in Chattahoochee National Forest who was an answer to prayer but will never know it. Thanks to the Kansas and Missouri city parks for keeping your pools so easily accessible and refreshing on those hot summer nights. Thanks to Rob Kuseski and Chris Malloy for inspiring us to ride like the wind on Trail Ridge. And thank you to all the bike shops who serviced our needs across the country, especially Sunnyside Sports in Bend, Oregon; Bike Pedlar Cycling in Nashville, Tennessee; and Scott’s Bicycle Centre, which has more personality than any shop in the U.S., located in Cleveland, Tennessee. Also, thank you to Kristin Davidson for hanging out with and driving around with smelly men all the way from Washington D.C. to Ellicott City, Maryland.

To each and every one of you reading this, thank you for your support, encouragement, and prayers that were all well appreciated. We hope that you enjoyed this adventure as much as we did. We also hope that you are encouraged by the fact that even four ordinary dudes such as us are able to accomplish something of this magnitude soley because we tried and you helped. You too, then, can accomplish awesome things with a little trying and a lot of support. Until a next adventure…

Kevin Blodgett, Aaron Brown, Dave Johnson, and Todd Murphy

Location:Ellicott City, Maryland @ The Johnson Household
Total Miles to Date: 3512
Average speed: 15.0 mph

Dave gives double peace signs while riding on a Tennessee road.

In a few days this update will be followed by a special update including our reflections on the trip and a myriad of absolutely necessary thank-you’s that we must give out to the huge amount of people who made this trip possible and who touched our lives in awesome ways as we rode through.

After a fantastic time at the Wilhoit household, we band of newly refreshed travelers hit the road again pushing toward the Atlantic Ocean. From Dayton we through the town of Cleveland, TN where I purchased a new tire from an Irishman’s bike shop and we all got interviewed by the local paper as we ate some lunch at McDonalds. As we were leaving Dayton I sprung a very anticlimactic leak in my tube and then later realized that it occurred due to the fact that my front tire was literally tearing away from the rim after about 4000 miles worth of usage. We through some duct tape on it though and it held all the way to Cleveland.

A deluge let lose shortly before we pulled into this McDonald's. McDonald's played a gracious, yet unknowing, host many times for us across the country.

After waiting out the heavier parts of a rainstorm that was passing through, we got a late start heading down to our proposed destination at a Georgia State Park in the Chattahoochee National Forest. We made it into Georgia and the hung a left to climb up into our sleeping spot for the evening. It got dark much faster than we had anticipated…or rather the road was much steeper than we had anticipated and with a thick fog vision was limited to about 100 yards. Nightfall came as we were averaging 7 mph uphill and having no clue how much further the state park campground was. A nice gentleman passed us on the road and ended up turning around to inform us that we couldn’t be seen at all and that the park was closing in an hour. Great. Being an incredible answer to prayer, he drove up to the campground and let them know that we were on the way and not close. Then, he drove back and escorted us the remaining 2.1 miles up the hill and to a campsite with his bright lights shining on our backs and hazards flashing for any traffic coming from the rear. Oddly enough, he asked for no thanks and we didn’t even get his name.

The Chattahoochee Forest Summit was surprisingly high, especially considering that our ride was *supposed* to be all downhill from the Rocky Mountains.

In the morning, we took some great free showers and I even got to take a dip in the nearby lake. As it turned out the women’s showers were much warmer than the men’s so, with the campground being nearly empty, we took our chances in the women’s bathroom and scored some awesome hot water.

We then moved on to the town of Gainesville, Georgia. Northern Georgia is pretty humid and warm in August and the terrain is hilly as you make your way from north to south and west to east. The riding was beautifully lined by all kinds of foliage and new varieties of road-kill that we hadn’t seen yet. Gainesville (pronounced Gainesvul) is located on over 100 campsites spread out through Lake Lanier. We didn’t find any of those sites. Instead, as the sun set we found ourselves in the parking lot of Lake Lanier Christian Church. The lot was nice and other than a bout with a local group of fire ants that found my legs and Todd’s food bag, we came out okay. From there we moved on to Athens for lunch the following day and then to a small town called Lexington for dinner and lodging. We had planned to push on a little farther however Todd was lucky enough to incur his first broken spoke of the trip (we were all so proud) and then Kevin followed up a few miles later with his own broken spoke. Lexington is a county seat that is now nearly abandoned except for the enormous old plantation houses and a few government administration offices. We got directions to the nearest park in town–the only park actually–and set up camp for the night in Shaking Rock Park, which is a cool set of large standing rocks in the Georgia backwoods. Coupled with the daily Georgia fog, high heat, odd animal noises, and rock carvings by our tents it was a scene right out of “The Blair Witch Project.” We didn’t sleep much that night.

After Lexington we cruised through Thomson for lunch where a Coca-Cola vendor hooked us up with about 30 winning bottle tops for free coke products at any participating gas station in the country. It really made me feel like all of my hard work of drinking Coke over the years had finally paid off. So, from then on we stopped frequently and re-hydrated with refreshing Powerades, Lemonades, and Cokes. That day we ended up riding a full century (that’s 100 miles) to the town of Waynesboro, GA. Waynesboro is a hoppin’ little town with a pretty cool town atmosphere. The people we met were all really nice and all thought that we were pretty insane. We filled up on Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizza and then headed over to the highly visible town park. After asking a few neighbors for other options, we settled down in the shadows of a gazebo in the middle of the park. A few hours after bedtime I awoke to find a slimy, worm-like thing in my hair that I promptly tossed across the grass. Having suspicions of other insects and slugs being nearby, I turned on my headlamp only to locate two more slugs in my shoe along with a sizable cockroach and several slime trails from other slugs. I moved onto the playground sand for the rest of the evening. Luckily, the guys didn’t wake up and so didn’t see the plethora of fauna with which we were sleeping.

The next day we rode through beautifully flat southeastern Georgia. With average speeds of about 16 mph and a short cut that wasn’t marked on any of our maps, we ended up in a small town called Tillman, South Carolina at about 7:00 p.m. Dave’s dad was planning on meeting us somewhere that evening because, being the nearest relative and a big stud, he was driving down from Maryland to give us a ride back up to their home in Ellicott City. As we sat around discussing what we should do for the evening to get out of the heat and knats Dave put a call in to his folks. It turned out that Ramsey, Dave’s dad, had gotten a hotel room in the next town south, only 13 miles away. We saddled up and rode as fast as we could to beat the setting sun into Hardeeville to meet Ramsey and find some air-conditioning. We got to the hotel about a half our after sunset and over 100 miles on the trip for the day! Ramsey hooked us up with a hotel room and we feasted on the food Bonnie, Dave’s mom, had prepared for our trip home the next day. Needless to say, we were pumped to see Ramsey and to be a mere 30 miles away from our final destination in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

The next morning we awoke early and got ready for our last day of riding this trip. It was a weird feeling to fathom that it was the last day of a 3512 mile journey. So, with Ramsey taking pictures and directing us at occasional turns, we made a 30-mile non-stop ride to the coast. We were greeted in the beach parking lot by a sign made by the Johnson family and sported by Ramsey with camera in hand. We made our way down a long boardwalk that took us right to the white sandy beach. The Atlantic was a beautiful sight as we cruised down to it and touched our front tires into the water. Confused onlookers smiled reticently and wondered what the heck we were so excited about. After a few pictures we stripped down to shorts and busted into the 84 degree Atlantic water to do some mini-whompin’ on the small breakers. This was a great trip.

Gratefully ecstatic,

The Oregon2Georgia–now South Carolina–Crew

Location: Dayton, Tennessee @ the Wilhoit home
Total Miles to Date: 3100
Average speed: 14.5 mph

Another update written by Todd:

It’s been 10 days since our last update in Kansas, and we’re now in Dayton, TN, staying with a friend of Aaron’s, the Wilhoit family.

After leaving Lawrence, KS, we rode another 25 miles or so into Ottowa, logging another 100+ mile day. We found the city park where we watched a softball game, took a swim, and settled in for the night. The police stopped by at about 1:30, but took pity and let us stay. One officer stopped back by at just before 7:00am to ‘encourage’ us to leave before anyone saw our tents and word got back to his boss that he let us sleep there. That morning we crossed the state line into Missouri, which was a nice mental landmark. We stopped at a McDonalds for lunch in Harrisonville, where the owner decided to be our mom for the day and provided us with free food, free ice cream, and let us stay all afternoon to avoid the heat.

The schedule in Missouri was the same as the one we started in Kansas: ride in the morning, hide from the heat and humidity in the afternoon, and ride again in the evening. We all agree that Missouri was the low point of the trip for us. Even though we took Hwy 50 across the state before dropping south in an attempt to avoid some of the nasty hills it was still very hilly, and it was very physically and mentally draining. Very few roads had shoulders, and the drivers were rude, even to the point that Kevin got hit by some change thrown from a car near Jackson. In all fairness, though, our impression of the state probably has as much to do with the fact that we were crossing it at the end of a 12-day stretch coming out of Loveland with no showers and no days off. I think we were all getting tired. We did spend one great evening in Gerald, where we met the two nicest ladies in town at the Conoco, hit a local bar, and spent the night on the grass behind the police station. In Gerald we most likely made the local newspaper for the second time, the first one being back in Glasco, Kansas. It feels good to be famous!

On August 7th we crossed the Mississippi river into Illinois, rode a few miles, and then crossed over into Kentucky before stopping for lunch and cruising on into Mayfield for the night. The next day was great riding through beautiful western Kentucky and the Land Between the Lakes into Tennessee. It was also a landmark for Kevin and Dave, who rode just over 150 miles to make it to Nashville that night so that Dave could cross paths with some friends from Maryland before they left Nashville for the weekend. Aaron and I made it to Clarksville for the night, where after getting kicked out of a park we ended up spending the night at the Salvation Army and riding into Nashville on Thursday morning.

In Nashville we stayed at Dan Buckner, Sara Beck, and Ashley Smith’s house (Dan and Sara are friends of Dave, Ashley is our new favorite person). We basically spent the entire time eating and watching movies during our day off on Friday, which was fantastic. Thursday evening we had a scary moment when, on the way back from a trip to the grocery store, I got hit by a truck in an intersection. Thankfully, I was not seriously injured and only my rear wheel and rear rack needed to be replaced, which we were able to do on Friday. I am thankful for all the people who have been praying for our safety, and I think God answered all of those on Thursday.

Saturday we rode to Sparta, TN, crossing over the 3000 mile mark, to where Jack and Valerie McCauley, friends of the Murphys, graciously hosted us in their beautiful home and fed us like kings. Today we rode a relatively short day to Dayton, through some beautiful Tennessee hills and and old-tyme Tennessee rainstorm to get to the Wilhoits, where they served us a fantastic meal and gave us the unabridged tour of Dayton.

Everything is going quite well at this point, and we really are having a great time on the last leg of the trip. We continue to break spokes like it’s the new fad in town, but even that has become something of a joke. We expect to finish a day or two ahead of schedule (whoohoo!), because from here we estimate it to be about 400 miles to the coast. We’re thinking of making our final destination Hilton Head, SC, where we expect the beaches to be nicer than in Savannah.

Location: Lawrence, Kansas @ U of K Library
Total Miles to Date: 2190
Average speed: 15.5 mph

Riding through the midwest in summer means having to wait out the ocassional tornado in local car washes.

This is the first update written by Todd, but if you have any complaints or comments, we’re still holding Aaron responsible.

Today we’re in Lawrence, Kansas, using the computers at the KU library approximately 90 miles from where we were yesterday using the computers at the KSU library. Today we have a little more time, and I’ll try to give a complete rundown of everything we’ve done since we left Loveland last Wednesday.

Our first day out of Loveland was a straight 76-miler into Fort Morgan, where we stayed with Brenda Harms and her family. They served up mass quantities of deep-fat fried turkey (a Harms family special), fruit salad, beer, and basically treated us like kings.

On Thursday it was back on the road, into the Colorado plains and, unfortunately, into a headwind as well. We spent much of the afternoon holed up in Akron playing dominoes and waiting out a thunderstorm, and then pushed on into Yuma. We got hit by some rain and (after ironically stopping in a car wash to stay dry while Kevin fixed a spoke) decided to stop at a pizza place for dinner. We chatted with the owner about where to stay and she eventually called the police station to ask if we could stay in front of the library. As it turned out, though, the officer she spoke with said, “Send them on down to the station, they can sleep in the courtroom tonight.” The courtroom treated us very well, with a microwave for the instant oatmeal, a cable TV, and a real sense of security too.

From there it was on into Kansas, where we have settled into a bit of a routine: we get up and hit the road at about 8:00, ride until about 12:00-1:00, hide from the oppressive heat and humidity in some air-conditioning until about 5:00-5:30, and then ride a few more miles until we find a small town with a park. We cook dinner in the park, wait until dark, and then make an over-the-fence trip to the local swimming pool to cool off before going to bed. Our first night in Kansas was in Bird City, where we met John Blea in Big Ed’s, the local steakhouse. John invited us to use his showers and camp in his yard that night, which we did, but only after heading over to Bird City’s Annual Antique Steam Engine Tractor Pull, where we saw some of the biggest, coolest old tractors I have ever seen belching smoke into the Kansas sky and pulling a bunch of people on a sled. Awesome.

The next night was in Norton, where we struck Kansas-style gold once again in the form of dirt-track stock-car racing at the county fair. Being especially loud and not especially safe are all the things that make this one of America’s favorite pastimes. Unfortunately they are also the things that descibe the park we slept in that night, thanks to the people driving around in their especially loud, not especially safe pickup trucks.

Sunday was hot and hilly. Sunday night was in Osborne, where we hit our first town pool and slept like logs in the quiet park. Monday was hot and hilly, but with a bright spot in the middle: we saw the world’s largest ball of twine in Cawker City!! At over 6.9 million feet of twine, it was a true sight to behold, and after having ridden so far to see it, it was a proud moment for all of us. Monday night was in Clay Center, where we hit our second pool and slept in the city park.

Yesterday we rode into Manhattan and spent the afternoon doing laundry and running various errands. Dave and I shipped our sleeping bags to Maryland because there’s just something ridiculous about carrying a sleeping bag rated for 20 degree temperatures when the reason we can’t fall asleep every night is because of the sweat dripping off of our faces. To replace the bags we bought a sheet set at Sears. Last night we slept in Wamego’s very nice city park and made use of their swimming pool, which was also very nice.

In general, we’re right on schedule and everything continues to go better than we could possibly have hoped for. Everyone is healthy and our equipment is holding up well. We’re expecting to cross over into Missouri tomorrow and continue heading southeast towards Nashville. Georgia or bust, baby!

KB, DJ, AB, TM

Location: Manhattan, Kansas @ K-State Library
Total Miles to Date: 2100
Average speed: 13.0 mph

Kansas has some beautiful biking country with lush hillsides of grains, corn, and sunflowers.

Hey everyone, this is going to be very short and sweet with more to follow at the next most convenient time. Currently, we are a little pressed for time and needing to get in a few more miles today but I wanted to at least let everyone know that we’re still doing good.

I would, while I have the chance, like to dispell the myth that Kansas is flat–this is simply untrue and we will not allow this bold-faced lie to persist any longer.

It seems that all of the people in Kansas voted many years ago to do away with flatness on account of a bad reputation and therefore built many, many hills for its constituancy to enjoy. Also, people don’t talk about not riding through Kansas because it’s long and boring…they talk about it because it has a daily heat index of 103 degrees and sustained 20 mile an hour winds blowing northwest–which is bad if you’re headed southeast.

Other than that, we’re doing great and we’ll be into MO within a few days. The last four days we’ve averaged just over 90 miles a day and we hope to keep this up for a little while thinking that Dave, Kevin, and Todd may want to get back to school before it starts.

Windblown in Kansas,

The guys

Location: Loveland, Colorado @ The Brown and Murphy Households
Total Miles to Date: 1525
Average speed: 15.5 mph

Kevin and Aaron pose in front of the beautiful Lake Grandby in Colorado.

After leaving the beautiful town of Granby, Colorado, we headed out for an intentionally short day knowing that a big hill was in front of us. We entered Rocky Mountain National Park–debatably one of the most astounding places on Earth–and were immediately surrounded by forest and wildlife. Passing by elk and deer, we came to our campsite at the Timber Creek campground, which sits at the base of Trail Ridge Road at about 9,000 feet above sea level. The total for the day was a meager 25 miles and we were camped by noon. Basically, we sat around camp eating and sleeping in preparation for the next day. For those of you who don’t know, Trail Ridge is the highest continuous highway in the United States peaking out at just over 12,000 feet. We considered this part of our ride to be the crux of the trip and we wanted all the rest that we could get.

Shortly after 6:00 p.m. Chris Malloy, a friend from RPI who is working in the Denver area, joined us at camp after hitch hiking from Loveland with his bike, a sleeping bag, and a very small ration of food. In only two rides he made it the entire way into Estes Park and over the Rockies into our camp. Chris joined up with us to ride up and down the hill the next day. Even though he wasn’t carrying 60 lbs. like the rest of us, we still think he’s a pretty tough kid for doing Trail Ridge with only two front chain rings (that means no granny gear). We chilled with Chris the rest of the evening and hit the sack promptly after the skies opened up and let a little bit of rain on us.

We awoke early to the coldest morning of our trip. We were all pumped because we had a huge ride ahead of us and we all finally got to use the cold weather clothes that we had toted 1400 miles with us for this exact occasion. In a hurry to meet another friend at the top of the mountain by noon, we dried out and packed up. We left camp by 9:00 a.m. and were at the visitor center–400 feet below the peak–just after 10:30 a.m. The ride was less steep than Rabbit Ears Pass and it was a lot of fun as we cruised through the woods and lakes of the park while gazing at amazing creatures not usually seen by pedestrians. By the way, it is really cool to ride above tree line. We then met Rob Kuseski at the visitor center and the now six of us set out for the summit. Upon reaching the summit we did our ritual set of 30 push-ups that we do at the top of all passes. There was a lot of high-fiving and shouting about how we were the greatest men ever–or at least at that moment.

The next 50 miles into Loveland were a blur that took place at about 30 mph to 48 mph (our new speed max by the way). We made it in Estes Park fast. Rob sprung for Pizza at Bob and Toni’s Pizza and then we shot down into Loveland. We were very eager to get home and made the last leg up to the Brown household very quickly. The house was adorned with a fifteen foot “Welcome Home” sign and balloons. Inside was a veritable feast of fruits, chips, and drinks followed by a main course of crab stuffed chicken breasts. Yeah. We ate until we couldn’t any more and then got some solid sleep on beds.

Since Sunday night we have been lounging around Loveland and doing a lot of bike maintenance. We now have new chains, new tires, extra spokes, and clean clothes! Showers, air conditioning, running water, family, food, and anything clean are all on the good list. If nothing else, we are definitely easier people to please than when we left. On Monday night the Murphy’s threw a little shin-dig to celebrate Todd’s birthday and our arrival. Lots of friends came, lots of food was eaten, and much conversation was had by all. Afterwards we even got to play a few games of Death Ball at Rob Kuseski’s house (you’ll have to ask us in person for an explanation of the game but basically it’s handball on steroids with a much higher potential for injury). Today has been all about bike fixing. Tomorrow we head off for Ft. Morgan to stay with a friend from RPI who is touting a deep fried turkey…I’ve never had one but I hear that they’re good. From there we move on to Kansas where we’re hoping for a tail wind and good weather.

Our prayer requests are thanks for all of the awesome hospitality and attitudes of people we’ve met along the way, thanks for safety so far, prayer for general safety in the future, prayer for physical stamina in our legs and hands, prayer for our continued growth together as friends, and prayer for good weather. Other than that, we hope that everyone reading this is enjoying the adventure vicariously and having a great summer yourself.

Peace out from the hometown,

The guys

Location: Granby, Colorado @ The Farrell Househould
Total Miles to Date: 1400
Average speed: 12 mph

At our found-in-the-darkness-stumbling-up-the-hill-this-will-do campsite just outside of Jackson Hole, WY we awoke to the pitter patter of feet outside the tent. And then a bunch of feet. Turns out we had camped on a race route.

The last week has most certainly added to our adventure. We set out of Jackson pretty well rested and clean–we even did laundry at the local laundra mat! We met an interesting man who calls himself Uncle Jim while doing our wash who talked about hooking us up with some shirts at a stop in Bondurant, which is about 30 miles out of Jackson. With a downhill and the possibility of free stuff, the ride to Bondurant was fast and fun. Upon lunching at the Elkhorn Lodge in Bondurant it turned out that the folks there knew Uncle Jim but they didn’t have any free shirts for us. We do have Jim’s “address” at a bar in Jackson and we’re thinking of sending him a Troy, NY shirt just for fun.

Shortly after lunch we rode out of the Wyoming Rocky Mountains and into the plains. It was a beautiful ride up and over a small pass that took us down into the town of Pinedale. As we rode into town we passed a gentleman riding the other way who shouted out “Welcome to Pinedale!” from his bike. We continued into town and stopped at the local Microbrewery, which had a ton of people out in front cooking up burgers and burritos and yelling at us to come on over. We became informed that Pinedale is the county seat and that they were celebrating “Rendezvous Days,” an annual event that includes cookouts and rodeos. We sat by the brewery and cooked up our Ramen Noodles for dinner since the burgers were about $5 and we’re about not spending much money. The fella who greeted us on the way into town happened to ride up as we were finishing dinner. His name was Dave Bell and he had moved to Pinedale several years before after living in the Denver area for some years. Dave ended up offering us a shower (we must’ve smelled or something, I can’t imagine why) and a place to stay at his house for the night. So, with a great offer and a beautiful place to stay, we headed out to check out the rodeo.

The rodeo was old school, small town fun. The grounds were totally packed with people in their trucks with cowboy hats and boots. Everyone was backed up to the area to watch the riders from the beds of their vehicles since seating wasn’t enough to accommodate the entire crowd. After the P.A. man kept on announcing open spots for audience members to participate in “Bull Poker” Dave and Kevin questioned the locals as to what it was. It turns out that it is really simple: sit at a table with four people and the last one to leave the table wins $200. The catch is that a bull is let out of the shoots and taunted toward the table until only one player is left. Dave and Kevin mustered up the guts to do it and the locals were pumped to watch them. As they walked to the announcers booth to sign up they started to feel a little awkward because everyone kept asking, with big smiles and bright eyes, if they were going to do Bull Poker. They made their way to the top of the booth just on the other side of the door from signing up when they were questioned by a little boy. As soon as he heard that Dave and Kevin were “Thinking about doing bull poker” his eyes lit up and he said “Wow. Tonight you get to go against good ol’ A.W.” A.W. was the bull in the pin just below the booth. One look at gargantuan A.W. pawing at the ground and Dave and Kevin gave each other a weary look in the eyes. Dave then asked the boy if anyone had ever died at bull poker to which the child responded enthusiastically, “Oh yeah! But not in Pinedale!” After some more conversation with the young tike it turns out that one of the contestants from the evening before had ended up with a broken bone and another with something dislocated. Dave and Kevin promptly went down the stairs without registering. After a few minutes of pep talks they eventually made their way back to the booth to register only to find out that the spots had been filled. In any case, they at least had the guts to go over there, walk up the stairs, and give A.W. a good look–they get my respect.

Dave, Todd, Aaron, and Dave Bell (left to right) overlooking Pinedale

After some good bull riding and a power outage due to a lightening storm, we headed back to Dave Bell’s home and spent the evening hanging out with him and his daughter. We slept great and woke up to see a good rain storm outside. Dave Bell is a stud and definitely A few hours of Dave’s hospitality later and the storm had cleared to blue skies and we headed out with a goal of Rock Springs in mind, approximately 99 miles from Pinedale. The Wyoming north-blowing wind had other plans for us however. About 60 miles into the ride we decided to call it quits for the day at a great little ice cream shop in Farson. We ended up spying an old square building that was clean and apparently not being used for anything. That along with an open, unlocked door looked like an invitation to stay to us. We holed up in the little building to get out of the nasty 30 mph hours that we had been fighting since noon. We played some hearts and hit the sack, exhausted from cranking all day for only a 10 mph payoff against the gusts.

The wind blows constantly in Wyoming...and usually in the wrong direction, whichever way you are headed. It's pretty though.

The information center mentioned that if we got started early we should be able to avoid the wind. This information has set the tone for the rest of our trip so far. We have now moved to 8:30 a.m. starts instead of 9:30 or 10:00. In the morning we got going early and headed out toward Rock Springs. Once again, only at an average speed of 6 mph this time, we made our way into town. We made it by about 12:00 and caught some lunch and a nice nap at a sweet little park in town. If you’re ever in Rock Springs I highly recommend the city park with the zip line and swimming pool. I iced my knees, Murphy and Johnson played on the zip line, and Blodgett took a nap. Feeling rested, we set out for WY430 to take us into Colorado. The county we were in was called Sweetwater, but really there wasn’t any water around. The area is a beautiful high desert complete with huge, open skies and wild horses. We camped out under the stars after some more head winds and picked a route for the next day through two towns listed on our maps but not referenced anywhere in the indexes.

The next day we cruised south through the rest of Wyoming and were pumped when we crossed the Colorado border. We took about 30 miles of dirt road and ended up in the first of our two proposed towns to get water, which we did not have. Hiawatha Camp is a small oil town that housed the majority of vehicles that we had seen in the last two days. WY430 is a long, well-paved road that is only traveled by the people who built it, oil workers, and kids on bikes riding across Wyoming. Hiawatha turned out to be an oil camp with an apparent population of zero. We found an office with a water cooler and emptied it into our bottles, which ended up hurting us the next day with what we called the “Bad Hiawatha Water” issue. We moved on down the dirt road to the next town Powder Wash. Powder Wash used to be a town of 250 established by the same oil company as Hiawatha but they have since donwgraded to only 4 people…we doubled the population when we rolled up the driveway. We scored some good bottled water from a couple of real characters in town and headed out to the Little Snake River to camp for the evening. One side-note of mention is that we had speeds of over 40 mph on the dirt roads with a nice tail wind that we finally got out of Hiawatha.

The next day’s ride was a good cruise into Craig and we were happy to be a part of real civilization again. We ate some quality $.99 food at McDonald’s and hung out with the local bicycle gang of 12-year-olds who followed us around the rest of the afternoon. We picked up some groceries and a clerk at the store gave us a ton of free Rice Krispies treats and a PayDay bar each. Nice clerk. The townspeople were all really nice and didn’t mind that we loitered in front of the store for nearly two hours while I fixed another broken spoke and a flat. We headed out of town and camped at a state park just outside of Hayden, Colorado. At camp we met a great set of families from Colorado Springs who were headed on a six-day rafting trip of the Green River. These families try to get out every summer and raft a river. We’re talking about 15 people with the most efficient camp I’ve ever seen. Huge meals, which they so kindly shared with us, fast service, cleaning procedures, and great conversation. We only stopped by to bum some quarters for the shower from these people and we ended up with drinks, meals, and brownie sundaes. We’d like to give a shout out to those families and Kyle and Stacey to say thanks for the hospitality and the conversation.

Dave chats with a Steamboat Springs Police Officer while they check all our IDs. Apparently a motorist didn't take too kindly to us riding our bikes on their hiway.

The next day we cruised into Steamboat Springs after a small stop with the local authorities over an altercation with a vehicle that none of us saw happen. In any case, the local police were nice and their dog was friendly. After a rest in Steamboat and some inspiring words from Dave Johnson, we headed up our steepest ascent to date–Rabbit Ears pass, 9426 feet above sea level for a cumulative elevation gain of about 3000 feet over 15 miles. The climb was actually quite fun and we had some nice motivational slogans spray painted on the road that were left over from the “Ride the Rockies” ride a couple of weeks before. We camped at the summit that evening and then headed down into Grandby to stay with the lovely Farrell family.

Staying with nice people like the Farrells along the way was incredibly encouraging throughout our trip.

I know parts of the Farrell family from CCU and Mrs. Farrell hooked us up with an incredible couch and an awesome meal from her daughter Kimberly. Kim cooked up some spicy Indian chicken and we ate with her, her husband Tanni (sp?), Casey (Mr. Farrell), Rhonda (Mrs. Farrell), and the family pets. The food was outrageously good and the company was equally as fantastic. The Farrell’s will definitely be receiving a post card from us along the way. Rhonda most certainly has the heart of a host.

That’s about it for now, so thanks for all of the prayers so far and all of the support and encouragement that we’ve been receiving along the way. Special shout outs go to Dave Bell, the Farrell’s, Nicole from Jackson, Uncle Jim, the Obendorf fam (Brock is spelled with a ‘k’ not an ‘h’ (oops), and the Anstey rafting crew.

Thanks, the Fellas

Location: Jackson, Wyoming Teton Public Library
Total Miles to Date: 940
Average speed: 14.5 mph

After our visit with Aunt Dolores in Nampa, at which she and her son Mike fed us well and got us all cleaned up–including buzz cuts for Dave and Kevin, we headed into Boise to a bike shop for lunch and then on to Mountain Home. Trying several other routes, we ended up having to take the interstate for about 30 miles into Mountain Home. Not the best place to ride a bike. We camped out about 10 miles past Mtn. Home at dusk and then went on to Hill City in the morning. Hill City, much like its name indicates, is up in the hills. We did a significant amount of climbing and made it all the way to Fairfield before stopping. Just outside of Fairfield we started getting drenched with rain. We grabbed dinner in a small cafe and then went and set up camp at a 4H shelter. We literally spent the night in a barn. It was dry and warm–excellent. Later the rains let up and we did a pub crawl around town (population 394), which only included two pubs. We had a great evening of spades and hanging out after a short 50 mile day.

The next day we made our way to Arco over 90 miles of southern Idaho desert. We had a head wind and uphill roads. We were very tired when we rolled into town.

One interesting character of note at this point is a gentleman who we met at a gas station in Carey, Idaho. He had been on the road for over three years as a sort of cycle evangelist. He rides from town to town with a vantrilliquist puppet on his bike and lives out of his bike trailer. He has done over 7000 miles, most of which come from the Washington area. From day to day he has no plans other than staying in touch with his fiance who is currently in the Philippines. Pretty dedicated individual.

Upon arrival in Arco, the first town on the planet to use nuclear power, we met a few local high-schoolers who pointed us to a nearby park and then hung out with us for about an hour as we cooked up dinner with our stoves, which highly impressed them. The park had a great little covered area that utilized for the evening and then left shortly after the high-powered lawn mower awakened us. We got out of town about 10:00 a.m. and headed for Idaho Falls with hopes of making it all the way to Ririe. Coming into Idaho Falls was more desert and more head winds. Time did, however, fly by as we met up and rode with a fellow named Ed for about 20 miles. Ed is a professional kayaker who mounted his kayak onto a cruiser bicycle. Ed was heading south toward Pocatello to raft a couple of rivers there with a final destination of New Mexico. Basically, Ed makes money by having adventures and then selling stories to magazines. His website is http://www.soulboating.com. We haven’t had a chance to check it out yet so I’m not sure what it’s all about. Just outside Idaho Falls Kevin and I both got flats and Kevin broke another spoke. We pulled into a nice gas station and scored some free corn dogs while Kevin repeatedly patched his tire until it finally decided to hold air. We then cruised on across town to a bike shop to get Kevin a new wheel and get me a new pair of shoes (the ones I had were not releasing when I tried to get out of the pedal which made for some very interesting times getting off of my bike). We hooked up with the new components and had a fine meal at the local Wendy’s and did some grocery shopping. We’re getting pretty good with bagels. We rode on to Ririe to log some extra miles so that Jackson would be a shorter ride the following day. After asking everyone that we ran into in Ririe (population 590), we decided to try our luck at sleeping at their city park. No one was sure if that was allowed or not but we figured that if it wasn’t somebody would tell us right? Once again, the park had a nice little covered picnic area in which we set up camp. All was beautiful until about 1:00 a.m. when we heard the sprinkler system kick on. Kevin got pretty wet and we all thought that it was pretty hilarious until another sprinkler came on and hit the rest of us. After a half hour of dodging water spray, we commandeered a few trash cans and strategically placed them about so that we would no longer enjoy our evening shower. Once again, all was good–until 5:00 a.m when another set of sprinklers came on and created the same situation all over again.

Half-way rested, we headed out of Ririe about 10:00 a.m. toward Jackson, Wyoming. Every local that we met was full of encouraging words for our trip to Jackson. You know, things like, “Ouch, that’s quite a climb,” or “That’s a big mountain any way you look at it,” and “Have fun climbing and climbing and climbing.” And all of these comments came even after we chose the lesser of elevation-gain paths. In any case, the scenery through Swan Valley and Pallisade Resevoir is excellent and the view all along the Snake River in Wyoming is absolutely stunning. By the end of the ride that day we had accomplished another 97 miles. That is three 90-mile days in a row. We decided to take the next day off in Jackson. We skipped setting up camp thinking that we would go to a spot recommended to us by a Gart Sports employee, Nason, who said it would probably be open for the duration of the evening.

We grabbed a lot of food at Taco Bell (five tacos each) and then headed over to get a drink. At some point along the road I made a comment to Dave that I could handle more Coca-Cola than he could beer in a single sitting. It was with this in mind that we walked into the Rancher, a local pub, to put our stomachs and bladders to the test. I got a pitcher of Coke and Dave got a pitcher of Fat Tire. Murph and Blodgett laid down the ground rules regarding speed of consumption and the need to poo from all of the Taco Bell. The deal was, the first to pee lost. After a pitcher each in under 45 minutes Dave and I were still both going strong. I got another pitcher of Coke and Dave opted for the Bud Light. Towards the end of the pitcher Dave started pushing the pace and I was struggling to keep up due to carbonation and the mass amounts of sugar now inundating my system. With one glass left for each of us we both decided that it was time to boot (a.k.a. throw it up). All said and done Dave and I each downed about 120 ounces of liquid in under 2 hours, which is not what the human body was intended to do in case you were wondering. Dave and I both spent ample amounts of time in the bathroom for the rest of the evening getting to know the interior decorating. So, for those of you betting on this match up, it was a determined a draw by our officials.

Upon exiting the pub at about 2:00 a.m. Kevin fell down some stairs with his BOB right onto the boardwalk in front of a nice young lady named Nicole. Dave asked Nicole about lodgings and she was kind enough to offer us her home for the evening. We made our way through Jackson in the dark with two members of our team being not of sound body, to Nicole’s appartment where she hooked us up with places to lay our sleeping bags and a bathroom. Nicole was definitely a cool chick for taking in four strange, smelly, and stumbling bikers. We got up in the morning and had a great pancake breakfast at Buba’s and then headed to the bike shop for some more tubes and miscellaneous items. Currently, we’re at the Library and intend on relaxing until we find a place to camp tonight and then heading back south in the morning towards Colorado.

Laters, Aaron and the crew

Location: Parma, Idaho @ the Obendorf Household
Miles since last update: 278
Average speed: 15.5 mph

So, we get out of Bend after a nice dinner at Deschutz Brewery in the beautiful downtown area at about 8:00pm. Our plan is to ride until sunset and find a place to camp on the side of the road. Eight miles out of town Dave breaks another spoke. At this point it’s dusk and we don’t want to risk getting farther away from the civilized world with Dave’s bad wheel. We decide to camp for the evening and ride back into the bike shop in Bend in the morning to have Dave’s wheel rebuilt. We’re hoping that they’ll be open since it will be the Fourth of July. Kevin and I walk down a driveway to see about using a phone at the nearest house to call a friend of Kevin’s in town. Upon entering his property, out comes Tim, a skinny, hung-over, sleep-deprived, high teenager. Tim takes a phone and wire and jimmy-rigs it to an outside attachment on the outside of another house and helps us make the call. Tim later informs us that we can stay on his land as long as we let him know because he’s a schizophrenic and if he doesn’t know that we’re there he’ll probably “freak out.” We decided to sleep in the field across from Tim’s. In the morning we rode back to Bend and completely rebuilt Dave’s wheel ($120). We thanked the bike shop staff with a 12 pack and got under way about noon. By now we were feeling like we were getting a little bit behind schedule for our 76 mile a day average.

After our crazy adventures in the Bend, Oregon area, we headed out east into the greater Oregon high desert. We decided to take the southern route to avoid as many passes as possible. Less scenery, higher speeds. Even though we left at noon, we actually rode our first century–that’s 100 miles baby! One mile before our 100 mile mark a highway patrolman stopped us and asked that we put on some lighting equipment. We let him know that we were only going another mile so he said alright and Murph threw on a headlamp for that last mile. We hit 100 and set up camp on some BLM land. The next day we rode about 77 miles and two passes and ended up between Stinking Water pass and Drinking Water pass at a beautiful field with a pretty incredible sunset. By the end of this night, we were pretty tired and the bodies were hurting. We spoiled ourselves with some Lipton rice and a green pepper that we added in. You’d be amazed at the level of sharing on this trip. Anything that you can give to someone else to lighten your load is a good thing.

The next morning we headed up over Drinking Water pass. It was a good size pass with a huge elevation drop on the back side that had us flying into Juntura. At Juntura we broke for lunch and ran into a Harley guy named Greg. Greg ended up giving us his phone number and inviting us to stay at his house in Parma, 86 miles away. We had already ridden 23. We laughed and took his number not really thinking that we could do another century day. As we were pulling out Greg says, “If you guys show up tonight at my place I’ll have cocktails at dark with smoked salmon and you’ll get air conditioning.” From that point on we considered his offer a little more seriously. All said and done, we caught a nice tail wind and rode mostly downhill from Juntura to Idaho and ended up at Greg’s house by dark. We had just ridden 110 miles and crossed a time zone. Greg had a cooler of drinks, smoked salmon hors devoirs with crackers, cheese, and fruit, which he followed up with a main course of grilled salmon, rice, enchaladas, and wine. On top of that, we all got our first shower in seven days and they’re currently doing some of our laundry. Parents, send these people thank you cards. Greg is a host in the most sincere form of the word. We ate until we could eat no more and then we slept out on his boat, which has a king size fold-out bed in it. We would have had the guest house, but it turns out that Greg invite a married couple on a Harley, which he met at the same stop in Juntura, to stay the evening with his family as well. Their names are Glen and Jules and they’re also two very cool people. This morning we are still at Greg’s farm hanging out with his great kids, Phillip, Broch, and Christian, and his wife Anne. Murph mowed their lawn and Dave and Kevin caught a ride on a motorcycle. I’ve been staying cool in the AC and updating this web page. It sounds like Dave may try to ride one of their bulls here in a few minutes and that’s definitely camera worthy. Today is our day off but we’re still going to ride on in to Boise after a likely small stop in Nampa to visit the Crows. We’ll fool around in Boise tonight and get going east through Idaho towards Mountain Home.

Prayer request continues to be health, particularly my right knee that now has a brace on it that I picked up in Burns, Todd’s left quad/knee, Kevin and Dave’s elbows, and all of our butts. Also, my right pinky has lost most of its functionality for some reason and it won’t straighten out (weird). This stay last night was a huge answer to prayer. In fact, we even got to see some sweet fireworks that the kids had for our own little Fourth of July celebration. Other requests include equipment durability and safety on the road.

Till then, Aaron

Location: Bend, Oregon @ Bend Public Library
Miles since last update: 190
Average speed: 14 mph

Well, we’re a few days into the trip now and the quads are screaming. Our first day we did about 75 miles followed by about 65 yesterday and we’re hoping to get in about 75 today. Our send off at the campsite in Florence was great. Blodgett’s family bought us dinner at a great Mexican place the evening before and then provided banana bread and watermelon the next morning. To start off we rode to the ocean, which was only a few hundred yards away, and got some good pictures of us all posing with our rear wheels in the Pacific. Probably the best comment of the day came from Brad: “Girls, go hug your brother.” To which they responded, “Why dad?” To which he responded, “Because he’s going on a long bike trip and you might not ever see him again.” Ouch.

The first night we stayed in Eugene, Oregon at a small park near a nice size river (the name is currently escaping me and I only have an hour before I’m kicked off of this machine). The park was definitely not a legal camping ground so at 9:00 pm when it closed we packed up and headed to the Korner Mart to pick up some supplies (a local Oregonian six-pack of Beer called Deschutes and a Coke), and then headed back to the park after watching the locals fool around with their cars in the parking lot. Luckily, no one found our camping spot, which meant that we got to sleep in a little bit before heading out.

On the 2nd we rode from Eugene to about eight miles shy of McKenzie Pass. We stayed at a beautiful little campground called Alder Springs and hung out under the huge Oregon trees and nice cool weather. The pass had started about 12 miles earlier and up until that point it had been a nice, easy climb along the McKenzie River (which we ate lunch right next to and took a nice nap until a snake slithered over Murphy’s foot as we were sleeping, which in turn woke us all up). After lunch we rode to the hung a left on highway 254 and headed over the scenic route, which is posted as several miles shorter than staying on the 126. We figured we cut the corner and save some time; all the while, not realizing that we would be embarking on hill climb that encompassed over 4000 feet of elevation gain. But I figured, “Hey, I’m a Colorado kid, I’ll make over this easy.” At 10 miles up and with no end in sight—Oregon doesn’t believe in too many road signs—we pulled over to assess the situation and decided to ride to Alder Springs since the name sounded like it had water there, which we did not. So, short on water and extremely tired, we headed up the campsite that offered more of a trickle than a stream but hey, it was beautiful and we were able to boil up enough water to cook Ramen and fill our bottles.

Today we rode over the rest of the pass and down into Bend. By the way, around dinner time last night we decided that it would be faster and slightly easier to take highway 20 instead of highway 26. Our goal was to stop in at Bend, visit a friend of Kevin’s and fix Dave’s spoke that he broke the night before, and then ride another 25 miles or so. The downhill on the back side of McKenzie pass was awesome—we’re talking 30 mile an hour straight-aways and very fast corners (one hairpin corner in particular with a suggested speed of 20 miles per hour that we did a little bit faster than that). After a quick lunch at a gas station in Sisters, we got back on the rode to Bend. At this point Dave was sporting a temporary spoke that Todd brought along for emergencies. About 10 miles out of Sisters we were keeping up a fast pace of about 18 miles per hour, which is huge after you just spent your morning climbing up 2000 feet of elevation gain. We were drafting pretty close to each other and Murph was in the lead when he decided to scratch his back and stop peddling. This meant that I had to slam on the brakes to avoid Murph and Blodgett had to hit the dirt on the side of the road. It’s really amazing how agile Kevin is. He was able to save all of the skin on his body and land on both feet after jumping over the handlebars. His bike, however, wasn’t so lucky. The noticeable damage looked like a bent rear derailleur and a slightly bent rear tire. So, we saddle up and keep riding to Bend (remember that we’re trying to make good time because we have some work to do there) and Kevin decides to try to change gears and see if the rear derailleur is still operable. Bad idea. Two spokes blow immediately and Kevin and myself end up in the sand on the side of the road with our bikes underneath us—once again, no personal injuries were sustained. After half an hour of trying to get Kevin’s tire in riding shape we abandon that idea and flag down a truck heading to Bend. At this point we were about 10 miles outside of town. Kevin hitches a ride with a nice guy who rides bikes and lives out near RPI in New York; Dave, Todd, and I continue on to Bend to meet him at the bike shop. Shortly after Kevin leaves us, Dave blows out another spoke. We keep on riding hoping that Dave’s tire holds up and eventually make it into Bend. Currently we’ve been here about three hours and I’m at the Bend Public Library using their Internet services while Dave, Kevin, and Todd all have their bikes repaired (Murphy had a loose headset).

Prayer requests include muscle fatigue, lodging accommodations and campsites, overall health, and gear stability and durability.

Well, till next time.

Aaron