Day 11-14 Nothing more than hot, and the people.

(pictures will be added soon)It’s been really hard to write or take pictures lately. The heat is a constant 105-112. One day it stayed in the low 90’s, but it was so humid we were soaked all day. The news said it was 88% humidity.

But the people we’ve met on this leg of the trip have been amazing! Matt broke a seat bolt in Indianola, NE. All the stores were closed, but the Settler’s Celebration was going on at the park so we went to look for some help down there. These two guys helped us out for 2 hours! Finally pillaging some parts from one of his kids’ bikes in order to get us back on the road.

Every town we’ve stayed in or passed through has been like this! It’s really been amazing how generous and helpful everyone has been. Last night we were camping in Fairmont, NE. They let us camp in their city park (they don’t have sprinklers we made sure to check). A wife and kids of one of the town board members brought us a big Tupperware container of cookies! She told us to take as many as we could. Unfortunately we had just spent 4 hours in the neighboring convenience store waiting for it to cool off and the sun to go down. We ate and drank quite a bit so we didn’t have much room left. We are what we could and they were really good!

We’ve also been surprised by the town swimming pools that we’ve come across. The previous two nights we camped in Town Park’s right next to the town pools. Disappointingly they were both closed… but we might have taken a swim anyway.

Today we arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska. It is August 14. Tomorrow will be the two-week point of our trip, and the halfway point. We rode ridiculously hard this morning and made the 56 mile ride in 3 ½ hours. We had good motivation as we are staying with a good family friend, and it’s also the first time I’ve been in a house in almost two weeks. It’s still hot outside, and doesn’t looking to be backing off anytime soon. We’ll rest here and head out on Thursday morning. I’m very excited to be in Lincoln! It will be nice to be somewhere that I know, and around people that I know, even if only for a day.

Day 10 – Heat and Hello Nebraska

The final night in Colorado was thankfully uneventful. The storms abated. The wind blew a little, but mostly it was calm. The only trouble occurred at 4am when the sprinklers kicked on. At first I thought another intense rain storm had found us, due to the amount of water that was entering the tent. I popped my head out and saw myself completely surrounded by sprinklers. Rather than face the gauntlet of sprinklers in my skivvies while dragging a fully loaded tent I wished for the best and zipped the rain fly door closed. It would have been perfect had it not been for me inside out rain fly. I must have but the fly on inside out when I set the tent up the night before, and so the rain started to drip through the zipper and the vent on the other side. I rolled over and went to sleep. It was not worth fixing and I was only going to sleep for another 1 ½ to 2 hours anyway. I can do that wet.

The ride today was grueling. It was 108 at our hottest reading (that’s at speed with the wind cooling us a little). In addition this was also our longest day yet, we pushed through for 102 miles today.

The three notable milestones are entering my third state! The second is the Central Time Zone. Both Matt and I had forgotten/momentarily lapsed that we’d soon be gaining an hour of sleep. Although Matt was curious why it kept getting lighter earlier. We easily lose track of things like this. Time and distance take on a new dimension at the speed of a bicycle.

The third and final isn’t so pleasant, the first crash. We were pulling into the town Palisades, NE, in search of some cool air and refreshments, which is usually in the shape of a grocery store. As I turned the left hand corner I saw a large swath of what looked like wet pavement, but wet pavement happens all the time so I didn’t think much of it. As I entered the turn my tires slipped out from under me without hesitation! I hit the pavement and started sliding jamming my wrist in the process, and removing bits and pieces of the flesh from my shin. In the end nothing major was broken. My ego was a little bruised; I slightly tore a bag and had some minor injuries. Not too bad for an accident.

We picked up and headed into town. We were searching around for our relief when a gentleman gave us a quick tour. He pointed out the restaurant, directly in front of us. The grocery, across the street, and the location for “a good spot to cool off and have a beer.” Not normally being much of a drinker it’s amazing how good a cold beer has been tasting at the end of these days. We walked over with him to the American Legion. We wheeled our bikes in and sat down. We talked a bit about our ride, cooled off, drank a beer, asked about the town, about what the four guys do, filled out water bottles, and then headed down the road. We had another 29 miles and the sun wasn’t going to wait.

These next 11 miles proved to be the hardest. My method of using half of my water to soak my clothes was becoming less effective as our constant 20 mph headwind started to dissipate and the humidity climbed. Thereby leaving me wet and hot. Not until out last 10 miles did the temperature begin to drop. When it did we kicked up the tempo a notch and burned through the last bit at a racer’s pace finally arriving at the free McCook, NE, City Park. Complete with showers, water, electricity and camping! All from the good people of McCook, Nebraska.

Day 9 - Don't Dare

The land of Giant Grasshoppers has graced the shoulder of our highway this morning. I've never seen insects this size before! They're as big around as hot dogs, sometimes larger, and about 3 inches in length. They were all over the side of the highway. Sometimes in lonely solitude, and then others were getting it on.



As the day gave way to the heat the grasshopper's disappeared and we were in search of a new pair of biking shoes for Matt. We had just gone 25 miles with Matt wearing a sandal on one foot and his remaining shoe on the other. We were told about a bike shop in the "college" town of Sterling, CO. But in Sterling, CO it turns out they don't have any bike shops. In fact it turns out the nearest bike shop might be in Lincoln, NE. With this hear that's going on a ride for a couple hundred miles in Africa. Instead Matt ordered a pair online and had them shipped overnight to McCook, NE. Tomorrows destination.

All things considered the ride was going very smooth. We continued to cruise through used to be towns with their grain elevator skylines giving them away for miles in advance. We were lucky enough to find an actual grocery store out in the wilderness of the grasslands, many towns don't have their own grocery stores. Matt bought a bag of ice, gatorade, and a sandwich. I bought a gallon of water (room temp), a vitamin water (cold), and a sandwich, for lunch.

The thermometer was reading 98 degrees in the shade. The air conditioned grocery store was telling me to just stay inside, forever. The ice just wanted to be water, and so it was, and the bikes just wanted to be pedaled so we did. We were almost 2/3 of the way to our stop for the night, Holyoke, CO. The heat was beating down on us and i was really feeling it. My energy and motivation just being sapped from me. We passed through another used to be town and then of in the distance the clouds. big black beautiful clouds! I exclaimed to Matt my excitement about the prospect of potential rain. We both agreed that a break from the sun would be nice, and we dashed for the shadows of the clouds a couple miles ahead of us. Then I made a big mistake. I looked at the big beautiful clouds, I pointed my finger at them and I said, "Rain on us you clouds! I double dog dare you!"

Matt laughed at my childish dare. But within 20 minutes the skies began to open up and volkswagen size raindrops were falling. Matt caught one in the eye and had to stop to recover. Still we were hooting and hollering in excitement. Almost instantly my body was rejoicing at the temperature drop. I was opening my arms to the rain and letting it wash the sweat and salt from the days. I could taste the salty water as it ran down my face. A couple drops of rain hit my lips and I winced from the pain, i kept my head down a little after that. I started to pour my water bottles over my head to speed up the cooling down and rinsing process.

We sprinted into town to find a campsite. Outrunning the storm for 5 minutes when it came back with a vengeance. The storm dumped heavy, intense rain like I haven't seen in years, and it continued to do so for the next several hours! It was at times furious rain with claps of thunder and lighting. We darted for the town park and caught shelter while the storm abated just long enough to dash to the laundry mat. Then I darted to the internetless library in search of the internet. From which we reconvened and made our way to the public pool where they let us shower for free! Then to the fairgrounds for some free camping! Thankfully our ride from the laundry mat to the showers and then to the campground was dry. Then we started cooking, and hell hath no fury like the weather on a dare, and it poured!
After the storm blew off in the distance we were left with some amazing sunsets! Now I'm laying in my tent writing, with a storm on the way in.

Day 8 - The Missing Shoe

Day 7 was an off day at Ft. Collins. (the internet here seems to slow for video and pictures... I'll have to update all of this in Lincoln)

Today, Day 8, started out like any other day, but slower and later. Thankfully we had a quick and fairly easy ride into Stoneham, CO. After passing through a couple there's nothing here towns we were excited about the prospect of a town with more than a gas/grocery/antique station.

Earlier today we ran into a woman who filled my water bottles with water, and ice completely unprompted by me! She told us when we get to Stoneham we need to check out Dewey's, and to not bother with the cafe on the highway. But on the way to Stoneham we bumped into this little cafe, the only thing in town except for the rodeo and the grain elevator. With the rodeo apparently being the best in the region according to all the newspaper clippings on the mini fridge. The best part was the 50 cent soda machine outside, and the $1.00 fountain sodas inside. I can't remember when a drink other than water could be b ought for a dollar or less!

We've been getting funny responses from people throughout our trip, although they lack variety. The woman running the cafe asked us where we were headed. Usually these questions get only two responses: 1) A grunt followed by a laugh. The person then exclaims, "Not Me," or "Better you than me" or something very close to that. 2) Their eyes get big and they say, "Wow that's far." Followed by, "How long is that going to take you?" Then almost everyone responds along the lines of 1. She was number 2.

We pushed on down the road and got to Stoneham a few hours later. Having forgotten the advice regarding where to go we went into the cafe on the highway. We walked in as we admired he Harley's out front. I walked in first, all spandex clad. As I stepped in every eye in the place fell on us. Everyone stopped what they were doing and just stared. All 9 people. Unconsciously but out loud I said, "Woah." Then smiled and said hello. It would have been perfect if a creaky swinging door hinge was fading out behind me while a tumbleweed blew through. But Matt and I sucked up our self consciousness and got an overpriced burger and some soft drinks. before long everyone there was curious about what we were doing and all of them were responding according to the #2 question response type.

We ate then asked the woman behind the counter about camping. We headed into town, which turned out to be 8 people, a grain silo, and Dewey's (one block in total).

It was early so we decided to take a nap at the dilapidated community center on the benches outside. After about an hour nap we headed down to Dewey's for some drinks to kill sometime before it was cool enough to setup camp as it was a cool 92 most of the day. So 5 beers and the best fried chicken I've ever had later we headed back to the community center to setup camp. As we rolled into camp, some 200 yards from Dewey's, Matt realized one of his cycling shoes was gone from his bag, which is in his trailer, which is attached to his bike.

They had been Velcro'd to each other then stuck under a bungee strap, but now only one was there. We searched the stretch of land to the bar, the other patrons even moved their cars to look under them (not even kidding this is how nice everyone that we've met is!), but nothing. I even climbed onto the roof of the bar the next morning just to make sure we weren't having a joke played on us. But it was seriously gone. All we could do was sleep. Amidst the cloudless rain showers and howling coyotes we finished off another day.

Day 6 - Hello Colorado

The morning began like most. Wake up, pack up, eat, then pedal for several hours on end. As I left Laramie this morning there were several police cars flying by sirens screaming heading for some unknown disaster. About a half an hour later I came upon traffic that was backed up for about 3-4 miles. As I approached I could also see a helicopter coming in from the distance. I rode to the front of the line and the heli was parked on the highway.

The victim was in an ambulance. It was a motorcycle driver. The rumor among the bystanders was that he tried to pass a vehicle and couldn’t make it. He then tried to pull back in, and hit a truck. His motorcycle was 120 yards down the highway from him where it had run off the road, looking like it was ghost riding of its own accord.

The other rumor was that he lost his leg in the accident. Three of his friends were there. They were all riding up to Sturgis for the bike rally. The hardest part of this for me was as I rode past the accident scene. There was blood all over the highway, and bits of flesh. It also looked as though he had been dragged for a good distance as there was a blood trail traveling in the opposite direction that he had been traveling. This was a very hard moment for me. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about my own vulnerability on this trip. I’ve spent many moments in fear of what was approaching me from behind. I’ve been run off the road several times by wide loads carried by tractor-trailer trucks. As a bicyclist I stand no chance against a motor vehicle. It does scare me that I’m putting my safety at the hands of all the drivers out there. I guess all that I can do is do everything that I can to be as safe as possible, which I do. I don’t know the fate of the motorcyclist. But I hope that he makes it through this, and I hope that his friends also are ok. I know how something like this can deeply effect a person. I found myself feeling increased annoyance with drivers who don’t make an effort to give me space when I’m riding. It’s easy to see the difference when all you do is stare at the white line on the shoulder.Many people move half way across the lane for me, even when I’m on the edge of the road. Then there are other people who ride the white line. Some even come closer as they pass by, and after passing meander back into the middle of the lane. They scare me. But it is all part of the journey. We’re not going to be seeing traffic like this for some time once we leave Ft. Collins. It’ll be back roads USA, Midwestern style.

There is an off chance that I may be meeting with a CBS affiliate during my stay in Ft. Collins. I hope to be meeting with them about mental health parity. I’m feeling like I haven’t been able to do a whole lot for this as of yet. Though I’ve been handing out my cards that have my web address on them, hopefully that will help. I hope this doesn’t lend to anyone’s fears or worries about this trip. I came into it knowing what the dangers of riding bicycles on the roads are. I know full well what can happen, and what does happen. What makes the risk worth doing this is that I can get hurt or killed anywhere. Most of my scars and medical bills have come from accidents very close to my home. I could worry about the what ifs, and spend some safe time on a couch. Or I can not worry and see what life has in store.

Most of the road into Ft. Collins was enjoyably downhill. There was a 2000 foot drop in elevation between Wyoming, and Ft. Collins, CO. I came across to interesting points. The first one is the town of Tie Siding. What's left of the the town is the grocery/post office/antique/flea market shop. The second point of interest if the abandoned post office/store at the top of the pass between Tie Siding and Fort Collins. I decided to give you the experience of this downhill ride and took some video, it's about 60 seconds of the downhill up until 37 mph when I started to get nervous about riding with one hand.
The only significant change from Wyoming to Colorado has been the amount of traffic. It's definitely busier here, and people drive like city people. They give you next to no space on the shoulder! Some even try to get closer as they pass. A bit unnerving. I also met up with Matt today. We almost rode past each other as he was headed to check out a KOA campground that we thought was 5 miles outside of town, but ended up being 10. As I passed it I thought it might be it but then thought better of it as the sign said 10 miles to Ft. Collins... so we stayed in town at this dive of a Motel for pretty cheap.

We went out for a couple beers and some all you can eat pizza, and by the way all you can eat really is the way to eat! Then we casually meandered back to the motel and crashed for the night.

The next day was the first off day. We ran some errands, various bike parts, food, then we went and saw a movie. We saw 1408 a horror film, it was ok. But tomorrow it's back to the pedals. After a day off my body feels completely rejuvenated! I'm excited to be feeling strong and pain free again! Alas my time with the internet is coming to an end.

Day 5 - Pain

I started out today with a let's get this over with attitude. I even packed last night with the intention of rolling out of my sleeping bag. Packing my tent. Eating a clif bar and pedaling. The pedaling was the only part I had trouble with. My but and left knee are sore beyond what I want. This morning I took 600mg of Ibuprofen and lots of butt creme. It took me until about 9:00 to loosen up and for my knee to feel a little better. Around the same time I came to a construction zone as I continued down I-80. This diverted all of the traffic from my lane into the oncoming lane. I debated whether to risk riding with no shoulder or bearing the construction zone. Since it's Sunday morning, I know I'm not going to find any construction workers on site, so I'll got for it. I ride about 5 miles when I come to the first understanding as to why they closed the road completely. I decided to not risk the tiny shoulder and instead try and hoist my bike up onto the bridge. It's friggin heavy... and I just drop it on its side on top. I came to another bridge obstruction, and a 1 mile section of dirt road. After navigating the 8 mile section of construction I had a noisy shoulder with lots of tractor trailer traffic to keep me company. I'm now excited to be in Laramie, and done with interstates! Never again!

p.s. I haven't taken many pictures in the last two days. I've felt incredibly tired and sore and it's sucked my motivation a little. Some good sleep and rested bones will change that.

Day 4 - The Trials

This morning the wind persisted. I struggled with a 6-7mph top speed through 11am when I approached a climb up a continental divide marker. Not a significant climb, just a step up to a plateau like area, and finally the head wind shifted. The wind was now blowing from behind and pushing me down the road. With much gratitude from me, as my mood and energy levels are suffering from lack of sleep.

I'm headed to Rawlins. From which I need to find a way to Walcott, my planned resting place, as the map showed I-80 as the only route out of Rawlins. I decided to call the highway patrol and see if their was an legal issues with riding down the Interstate. As it turns out, like most things in WY, you can do whatever you want. The woman at the highway patrol assured me that I can ride on the highway, but I need to make sure that I stay in the emergency lane. I didn't want to point out to her the obvious problem with riding in the traveling lanes, and only later wondered if they had previous problems with bicyclists in the traffic lanes.

I stopped at a gas station and grocery store in Rawlins filling up on water, clif bars, and one coffee. I made my way to the highway and found it to be easy and fast cruising. My planned stopping point of Walcott came up faster than expected, it was only 1pm. I decided to push on through for another 20 miles, knowing that it would make for a shorter day tomorrow. I was feeling great so I went for it. What I didn't factor in were the unknowns. The terrain and my potentially deteriorating physical condition.

After the first few plush miles of downhill, smooth pavement, and accelerating tail wind a large hill like I hadn't seen before appeared. Then 2 more came. By the first of the second two my left knee gave out. I began to pedal with just my right leg, but keeping my left leg moving. The pain isn't serious, just overuse. 350 miles will do that. At the top of each climb I felt an immense sense of accomplishment. After living on ibuprofen all day I'm really feeling the need for some off days. I'm now camping behind a hotel in Elk Mountain. I hope to get into Laramie early tomorrow. Relax, then headout early to Ft. Collins the next day for some R&R!

Day 3 - The Desert

I fell asleep last night around 8pm. Slept well. I woke up at 4:30am but decided not to rush. I packed last night so I knew I had time. Finally got on the road at 7. My body is hurting. Specifically my wrists, knees, hamstrings, and right achilles tendon. In no particular order, and some are new some reoccurring. Some I'm worried about, and some I'm not. What's a struggle without some pain?

I'm heading from Lander to Muddy Gap today. I'm assured their is a convenience store there. The morning miles rolled by as they're beginning to do quite regularly. I had a feeling a climb was in store, and sure enough... But when I reached the top there was no downhill this time. It had brought me to an all new elevation that persisted for miles, and almost instantly went from high plains to desert. Along with the elevation gain came what you back east call a hurricane, but in Wyoming they call it wind. At time it pushed me forward making my pedaling effortless, and others it would blow me right across the shoulder. The noise was almost deafening.

When I'd open my mouth to eat the wind would whistle across my mouth as it was open. The wind was loud, but it didn't cover the distinctive sound of a rattle. I slammed on my brakes, and swerved back around momentarily forgetting about traffic but snapped out of it in time to notice their weren't any cars around. I whipped out my camera and found the source of the noise. My first ever rattle snake. I didn't get too close, the video isn't great... Once I headed my way back down the shoulder the snake turned and did the same in the opposite direction.

My next stop was the little gem of a town named Jeffrey City. As I rolled into town I became excited by the number of buildings. After all that desolate hot earth and driving wind I was looking forward to a little respite and some company. But as I got closer to town things looked a little strange. Their wasn't any movement around town.







I only just found out that this once bustling Uranium Mining Town was abandoned in 1982. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_City The only still open business is the Split Rock Cafe, and as the white board tells ONLY business that hasn't closed. I rode around and looked at the buildings. Barracks and houses dot the once town but now are all empty, a modern day ghost town! I had lunch at the cafe (I guess when you're the only cooking, food, gas, anything for 85 miles in either direction you can server whatever you want) an interesting chicken sandwich and then pushed on down the road.

The route had quite a few historical markers on it. Most notably was a former stop on the Oregon Trail, Split Rock. It was later used as a Pony Express Fort, the placard noted that at one point Wild Bill rode horseback for 20 hours some 240 miles, to deliver a message at one point riding one horse at full speed for 24 miles while outrunning a group of Native Americans.





There was also a section where the steel covered wagon wheels of the pioneers had worn away the rock, and the remnants of the pony express station could still be seen. My resting spot for the night is Muddy Gap, a mere 7 miles down the road. What I didn't know when I chose this location is that Muddy Gap is only a gas station at a road junction. I'm camped out on the front lawn of the gas station, as they kindly offered my the space to avoid the rattle snake laden ground that exists everywhere else. I'm looking out on the road I descended not to long ago.



I'm fed up (by that I mean I ate) and ready to go to sleep. It's 7:30pm. The sun and customer's aren't going to let me sleep for a bit, especially since this is the main route to the Sturgis Bike Rally. But it is rattle snake free unlike all of the other ground in this area.

-Morning note: The wind blew all night 30-50mph. I slept maybe 4-5 hours.

Day 2 - Reprieve

I woke up this morning at 5:30 and messed around until finally hitting the road at 7am. It was lightly drizzling, the skies looked like they’d hold back the sun for me. I prefer cold and drizzly to hot and sunny, just makes riding easier. I threw my rain gear on and headed into the unknown. I was a little afraid of the ride ahead of me after yesterday. My knees were sore from all the slow climbing and my cold has yet to cut me some slack, but thankfully the weather and topography were with me. The first 40 miles of the ride was all downhill!






No joke! I didn’t slip under 20 mph (well maybe once or twice) for that first leg of the ride. At 10am I had already ridden just over half of the ride! The scenery was also beautiful as I cruised through the Wind River Reservation.






(I can’t wait until towns are closer together than 85 miles. I wonder if that used to be a full days ride horseback, and so these towns popped up for people to stay at in between destinations.) After the 40 miles of downhill I found myself in these meandering rolling hills. It was almost a surreal scene. It started with a climb up a hill, which then I found myself on the top of another hill, which lead to a climb up another hill. But from any one hill you couldn’t see what was behind the next hill.





It ended up not really mattering as it was only hills behind each hill, but it was a little comical at times and I was laughing to myself about it.

I stopped at the Hines General store on the Reservation and ate a hamburger and bought a new gallon of water, since I only needed to fill up 3 ¾ of my bottles I had to chug the last bit of the gallon… between that and the burger I felt like I swallowed a bowling ball. It was tough to pedal but I really kept hoping that I’d find riding as easy as that morning and that really kept me motivated. As I pedaled out of the store I saw a stone marker for Sacagawea’s grave, which it told me was 3 miles down the road on the left. Now what’s ironic about this sign is that they tell you it's down the road, but their isn’t a sign at the turn that you need to take in order to see the grave. That was to be one of the sights I wanted to see on the trip, but alas it will have to wait.

Speaking of irony I’m glad to know that the weather has retained its sense of humor. What I had been most nervous about on this trip has been the heat, but since mid-day on the 1st it has been chilly and showering! It is now thundering and lighting out, and once again I have sought the safety of a motel room. I had setup camp in the Lander City park, as they allow free camping there, when it started thundering. Being setup under trees in an open area I started calling all the motels, and I was there within 20 minutes as was the rain. I’m going to need a day off soon to let my body do some healing, but for now I’m sitting here sipping on tea. It’s nice to be able to enjoy some tea after a long bike ride.

Holy #$*%! Day 1

Today was a first day of epic proportions! I started the day at 4:30 looking to get a head start on the sun. I was on the pavement by 5:30. Julia and Lucy accompanied me for the first bit of the ride.

Then it was nothing but pavement until 10:30 when I came to the Togwotee Pass. I started climbing the pass at 10:30 and continued to climb for 15 miles and 3 1/2 hours!! I'm not kidding. Previously I wrote about riding the Teton Pass and how that would be the hardest thing I could anticipate on this ride, yeah well I was wrong. Although this pass may not have been as steep as the Teton Pass it dwarfed it in sheer length! I knew that at some point on this ride I would be broken. However, I did not anticipate it being the first day! But eventually I did make it
as I am writing this from Dubois, WY.

Throughout the ride I had to deal with a lot of construction and dirt roads. I was escorted through one construction are by the pace truck, and by escorted I mean they made me and my bike ride in the back while they drove me through. The second construction zone I pulled up to just as they were getting ready to let people go. The flag guy told me I needed to wait for the pace car to get a ride, but as the gentleman who was peeing on the side of the road while in the line of traffic approached his pickup the flag guy yelled to him, "Hey wanna give this guy a ride?" To which the driver replied No, and the passenger sure. So I was loaded into the back of this pickup. Once in we were given the go ahead to continue. The passenger took his beer can from the floor crumpled it up and threw it at the flag guy who didn't notice, and with the spinning of the truck tires and some dust clouds we were gone. These guys were nice enough to drive me through the dirt road section. It was very rough and I definitely would have struggled greatly had I tried to ride through it. As we drive the rain started to come down. We were going fast enough that it was stinging me as it hit. They offered to keep driving me on into Dubois, but I declined feeling that I really wanted to do this ride the right way. I spent the rest of the ride trying to outrun thunderstorms, which left me seriously questioning the need to preserve my pride. I think I would have rather preserved my legs and my lungs in retrospect. But it was good to pedal, and I'm learning to not get excited when I see bends in the road, because most likely the top of the pass or town is not around that one, now matter how much you want it to be. With the rain now coming down in sheets, a flood advisory, and trying to kick this cold I decided I'd stay in a Motel tonight. Here I can watch the rain from comfort and hopefully sleep soundly and do some recuperating. Until tomorrow or next time I have internet.

Final Wrap Up

Sorry for the gap in posting! Tomorrow is the big day! I'm leaving at sunrise to begin this eastward trek. I hope to finish tomorrow in Dubois, WY, a ride of 85 miles. Definitely doable. I only have one mountain pass to ascend, and that's the Togwotee pass. I'm planning on arriving there long before the heat of the day so it should be no problem.

Thank you so much to the people who have donated money!!! This is a huge help. I've got some miles to do in the name of a few people so it's just a matter of getting the finishing touches.

But the first leg will be in the name of Suzanne Finn! My sister, who I'm incredibly proud of! She's going to be attending Yale to become a Nurse Practitioner after working as an ER nurse at Yale and several other Hospitals in the North East for the past five years. The first leg of my journey is going to be for her, the Suzanne Finn leg.

Which brings me to the next point. On the right hand side over there is a paypal button, and basically that is a buy a mile/leg of the journey fund raiser for me. This is to raise money to support my ride, it isn't a donation for my cause, the equity campaign, but is a direct contribution to me personally. I came up with this idea after trying to figure out how I was going to survive this feat. As in the process of planning for the ride I was relieved of my employment. Which turned out to be a blessing because of the amount of planning and preparation that I needed to undertake, but I'm digressing. When you purchase a leg of the journey or mile I will ride that distance in your name, the name of a cause that you like, or the name of your company. I've had some incredibly generous donations this far, and just really want to say thank you!! It really does mean a lot to me that people are willing to support me in this cause!

But now for the ride. I finished moving out of my house today. My bike is packed up. I've got a head cold, but other than that I'm ready to go. I'm ready to get this ride on the way! I have a lot of nervousness, and a lot of questions I think as anyone does before undertaking large adventures. But for now I've got to go drop of my car and ride back into town, get some sleep, and then get to pedaling. It's kind of nice to know that my only job for the next month is to: Eat, Sleep, and Pedal. (not excluding all the stuff that you have to do but I think the point is there) The next time you read one of these posts it will have been written under a different sky, and probably from some internet hub out there on the road, and so I sign off for the last time from the comfort's of houses, showers, and home cooked food.

Oh and I thought I'd throw my packing list in there for good measure:
4 h20 bottles
tools
stove
fuel for stove
rain gear
tent
sleeping pad
sleeping bag
3 bike shorts
5 bike jerseys
1 casual short
4 pairs socks
1 casual shirt
food (rice, beans, etc)
1 book
4 pens
2 pads
laptop + charger
cell phone + charger
memory card reader
digital slr camera + charger + 50mm lens
small digi cam + chrager
toothbursh
deodarant
baby wipes in bag with alcohol
toothpaste
chamois butter
sunscreen (30 spf and 60 spf)
first aid kit
knife
drugs (AD, antihistamine, ibuprofen)
paracord
flipflops
small tarp
Water purifier and nalgene for water purifier
4 spokes with 2 nipples

NPR and the weather

In news today. I was on NPR! I put the audio on the right hand side. The interview was pretty cool. I was really nervous and pretty much sweated through my shirt, but thankfully as Matt pointed out sweat doesn't come through on the radio, haha. The only bad thing is that my website was referenced, but she forgot to say the website address.... oh well.

Though I haven't done much training, I have been packing my things, as I have 8 days before departure, and I need to move out of my house by then also. But things are coming along slowly but surely.

It's been raining a little bit here in Wyoming, it's beginning more like Florida with this humidity. Hopefully it's the start of a cooling trend that will also span across the Mid-West, that would be awesome!!

You can also read the NPR article here, I've emailed them to see if they can place my URL in the article online.My NPR Interview

Jackson Man Will Bike for Mental Health Coverage
Elsa Heidorn

LARAMIE, WY (2007-07-24) A man from Jackson will ride his bike 2,800 miles from Jackson to Burlington, Vermont to raise awareness of the lack of insurance coverage for mental health services.

Twenty-eight-year-old Fred Finn says most health insurance provides little coverage for mental health, while covering physical problems extensively. Finn says leads to huge problems for millions of people.

"It really truly does affect everyone in this country. I know everyone can think of at least somebody who is affected," he said.

Both the US Senate and House will likely consider legislation this session that would force insurance companies to cover mental health services more fully. Finn will leave August first from Jackson and ride about 80 miles a day for nearly two months. His supporters can track his progress on a Web site.

© Copyright 2007, wpr

117 Mile Test Ride

Just returned from my first full load test ride. It went really well! I rode a total of 120 miles. I started out the ride at home in Jackson, WY. Went through a total plan and pack with food and water to last two days. The first half was an easy 30 miles down to Alpine, WY. It was hot so I drank lots and pedaled a lot more. The original plan was to camp down at Alpine ending around 5-6pm. But I made really good mileage and found myself at Alpine around 1. I decided to do what's in Jackson they call going around the block, it's a 100+ mile loop through Idaho and back to Jackson. After Alpine around 40 miles from home I hit some construction.

The flag lady told me I might have to ride in the pilot car, this is after I turned down an offer for a ride from a pickup driver who was also waiting at the stop. Eventually they let me ride but asked me to go at the end of the motorcade. Luckily they told me I could ride on the new pavement where the traffic wasn't yet allowed to drive. I ended up having 20 miles of highway with my own traffic lane!!! It was nice to not have to worry everytime I heard a truck approaching from behind. Around 5 pm I got to the South Fork damn on the Snake River. I pulled into a campground and jumped in the river for a swim, I can't remember anything that has felt soooo good! The 60 degree river greatly made up for the 95 degree riding all day long! I checked into a site at the campground and the "host" would only let me stay if I paid the RV rate which was 10 bucks. I really wanted to camp on the river so I could swim some more, but not enough to pay that much so I pushed on through into Swan Valley only another 10 miles down the road.

I found another RV camp that was closed. But what sold me were the trees, they were everywhere. I found a nice shady spot and set up camp. I ate bland minute rice, with mashed potato flakes, and the savior of the meal refried beans!! Yummm. I think they're going to save me on this ride. I forgot a book and found myself really bored so I took some pictures. This is the cokpit of my bike. You can see the computer, headlight, aero bars, and underneath is my bell! The aero bars are because I have a slightly broken wrist. I broke it in December, the scaphoid specifically. A very slow healing bone. Here is my camp. By 8 that night I was falling asleep, but forced myself to stay awake until at least the sun went down.With a plan to leave camp by 6 I fought my eyelids until 9:30 and then crashed. I woke up at 4 and tried to nap for another hour, eventually getting up at 5:30 and ate breakfast. I got on the road by 6:20 hoping to beat the grueling 95 degree temps of the previous day. I started pedaling and was so cold I had to put my rain gear on. I didn't have gloves so I had to pedal through my hands going numb from the cold. This kept up until about 9 when I reached the first pass and climbed for around 2 miles. Then it was a cruise down into Victor. But something odd happened once I got into Victor. I was looking for a place to eat breakfast and I started to not feel so well. I finally found a place to eat, I sat down, and when the waitress got there I was feeling light headed and dizzy. I attributed it to calorie deprivation as I had only eaten two packets of oatmeal that morning, and no shops were open in Swan Valley when I left. So I scarfed down eggs, bacon, home fries, toast, 3 glasses of water, and an order of french toast and called it even. I headed out onto the last leg of my journey which I knew was also going to be treacherous, the Teton Pass. As I was approaching the pass I was feeling very sluggish and not at all recovered, it had only been a mile since breakfast but I was feeling very drained. I pulled over at a gas station bought a small coffee, filled it half way and chugged it. Then as I stood out front waiting for the caffeine to kick in a little, I got this familiar sensation, diarrhea.

So I ran to the bathroom and did what I needed to do. My lower intestines and I battled through most of the approach to the pass. I was talking to them out loud telling them, "You have to absorb that water. You have no choice. If you don't absorb that water then I don't survive, if I don't survive then you don't survive." I know it was a little harsh, but I really didn't want to toy with having this problem through the 6 mile climb. Needless to say I made it to the top! It was grueling, it was hot and it was long!! A lot of the climb is on a 10% grade! And I've never been more happy to be at the top, I mean I don't like driving up it, nevermind pedaling a bike up that weighs 80lbs with gear! (on the way up their is a truck scale. I stopped and weighed the bike, the bike with me, and just me. The measures are: me:160; bike:80; bike+me:240;)

If you've read this far, thanks for reading. I know it was a long one, but it had a strong impact on me. I also learned a few things and came up with some rules.

Rules:

1- Always pack a book even one I may not like
2- If I am feeling anxious or stressed I'm pedaling too hard. slow down.
3- Get up VERY EARLY and beat the sun, half the day can be done before it gets hot
4- If I can ride over a mountain pass up 6 miles with diarrhea I can complete any task on this journey

Testing and planning

I tested the camp stove tonight for the first time. It worked very well! Boiled a camp pot full of water within 3 minutes. It sounded like a rocket engine taking off!

It's coming down to the line. Tomorrow I plan to do an almost full load test ride along with overnight camping trip. Tomorrow is also the 14 day countdown point! T Minus - 15 Days. Hope everyone is doing well! Wish me luck in wrapping up the last details in the upcoming two weeks!

Salutations and zen

I went for a ride tonight that was more casual than anything else. The purpose was just to dial in the bike and keep the legs loose. On this ride I found what bicycling is really about, what it used to feel like to ride a bike as a kid. I was just riding for the sake of riding! I had no purpose, no goal, no destination. I found this zen like place that was pure relaxation. It was zen. It was exactly what this ride is all about. Just me and the road. No worries, no bills, no bosses, no due dates, no hounding customers, no favors asked, just the wind, the road, the bike, and me.

Zen.

Good to know that the only turn you can make is the Right Turn!

Thank you to those who leave comments. I like reading them.

Maiden Voyage, Probable Cause, and Road Rage

My bike came in yesterday. I spent the night building it and putting on the racks and panniers. This morning I then drove to Pocatello, a three hour dive, and sold one of my other road bikes!! A financial blessing. So of course today I had to take the new bike out for a ride.


I threw my camera and tripod into the packs, filled three water bottles and headed out. I thought I'd do it at the hottest point of the day so that I can work at bringing up my tolerance to the heat. And damn... it was hot. I was going through water fast, and my mouth was still dry.

I find myself always thinking about drivers on the road. I know so many people who have stories about close calls with cars almost hitting them, drivers harassing riders by throwing bottles at them, water, garbage, swerving at you, etc. The other night Julia and I rode our bikes to go out to dinner. As we were coming home a pickup truck pulled out of a parking lot. He made the turn really wide and was in the wring lane slightly. Then when he saw us he swerved at us, crossing far over into the lane. Then today I was riding across the bridge over the Snake. Traffic was slow and these young men were driving along side me when they sprayed their windshield washers, which were aimed out the side, and hit me, while yelling out the window, "Hey want some water?" Needless to say I wasn't too happy. I caught up to the car and asked them a few questions, then they drove off.

It made me dread something about this trip for the first time. It made me dread dealing with all those immature/dangerous drivers who feel the need to make close calls/harass cyclists. Something that I've known is a problem for a long time. In Europe they have a 5 meter rule. Drivers have to give cyclists a 5 meter girth! I wish we had that kind of protection.

So I headed home with a rush of adrenalin to get me up the next few hills. Then I decided I give the bike and racks a good weight test and I headed to the grocery store. I stocked up on all the needs and loaded them into the packs. I only had 6 miles of uphill riding left so it wasn't exactly grueling, and the bike and racks passed with flying colors.

Maybe you noticed the new logo on the right hand side of the page? That's my cause! This is what I've decided to ride for!! I'm riding for the Equity Campaign. This is a piece of legislation that is going through congress to end the discrimination of Americans with mental health and substance abuse needs. You should check out their website for more information! There is so much you can do to help! Stuff as easy as writing your senator! I'm going to be writing about this more in the future, so I'm going to leave you with this for now.

The Grand Teton and Cross Training

Outside of the world of cycling I accomplished another long term goal this weekend. I climbed and summited The Grand Teton! Here are some pictures from the trip. This is Julia climbing the first climbing section up to the lower saddle (base camp area)

Here I am tying in for a short traverse.

And here is one of the climbs we did, that's me climbing up.


Here we are at the summit.
And then the 90 foot rappel down. Definitely fun!!


This was an amazing experience that came to be in a matter of two days. James Keller was awesome for guiding us. We left the parking lot for the climb at 3:40 am and climbed for 15:30 hours straight!! It was an amazingly long day, but well worth it! You can check out more pictures at www.fredfinn.com/grand . This post is pretty short as I'm still recovering physically as well as needing sleep.

T Minus

3 weeks and 4 days until my date of departure. Things are happening and fast. All the pieces are coming together and almost taking on a life of their own. It seems as though all I need to do is move towards the goal and it just happens. But despite this apparent charmed nature I'm finding myself a little wrought with anxiety. I'm sleeping less and thinking more, usually not my favorite combination. In fact I prefer sleeping more and thinking less. I know this anxiety is a combination of excitement and worry. I can be a bit particular when it comes to details, and I try to anticipate every need/problem that may arise so that I already have a solution at hand, or know how to get one. I would now say it is a sense of control that I am needing, or the ability to let it go. To allow it to become it's own monster or poodle, whichever it may be.

I got a couple more necessary pieces of equipment today.



A headlight,









a tailight,

and two pairs of cycling socks.

The lights all run on AAA batteries so I should be able to find replacements easily at any gas stations or general stores along the way. The socks are moisture wicking, and black. Black is good because it's going to hide the growths of dirt and other deposits that I know I'm going to pick up on the ride. I bought these things through performancebike.com. As I no longer have a LBS (local bike shop) that I support and that supports me.