THE EATON'S ARE OUTBIKIN

Rochester, NY - Franklin, NH and return! Sounds simple doesn't it!

2010-08-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

This trip almost didn't happen! We had been talking about visiting a friend in Franklin, NH. But we only had two weeks to work with. We decided to drive to New York, leave the van and do a loop up to NHampshire. We had some friends in Rochester we wanted to see also. And I wanted to see Niagra Falls. So a bike tour was born! We figured we could ride 900-1000 miles during this time. I already had the Northern Tier Bicycle Route from Adventure Cycling. The section I had went through Niagra Falls and went all the way to Bar Harber Maine. We decided to use this map, then head south to Franklin, NH. New York State DOT sent us some "recommended" bike routes across the state that went through Albany NY to Buffalo following the Erie Canal. I will try to put a map somewhere on this page if I can figure out how to do THAT!

You can check out more pictures from the trip at www. flickr.com/outbikin

Just a week prior to leaving Hap's dad passed away. So that made it difficult to do anything let alone get ready for a bike tour. Hap rebuilt the rear wheel (it was damaged from our year long tour), went over the bike, and I got clothes, etc ready. We kept thinking hey we are only going for a two week bike ride. That's nuthin.....seems an awfully short ride...but let's go.

Saturday, July 31 and Sunday, August 1 Rochester-Sodus Point

We left two days later than we thought, on Saturday we loaded the van and headed for New York. We didn't have time to start in Buffalo like we wanted so we drove on to Rochester and spent a great evening with some "ol" friends of Hap's. On Sunday we left the van with them and started out the Erie Canal. Let me just say that we started out great when we got lost within one mile and couldn't find the trail. As we were looking at the book I bought "Cycling the Erie Canal", another cyclist rode up and said the trail starts right over there. We were maybe 50 yards from the start! The trail is really nice but it is a cinder, gravel trail. OK for our tandem but it sure slowed us down. We only rode 20 miles on it at first and then got off it and rode north toward Lake Ontario. Our second oops was when we went to look at our County map book. I pulled it out of the trailer only to find that we had our OHIO county atlas. Does that tell you how this trip was going to go?

It was really great to get on the road again. There isn't anything like being out on the bike, in the hot sun, (it was really HOT, and not that dry heat either), watching out for the crazy drivers, looking for a place to sleep, hoping for a nice shower and of course the most important. What are we going to eat?? Oh and I almost forgot to mention that when you haven't been riding a loaded bike and you first start your legs do say, hello there, I really don't care how much you have ridden! It's a whole different animal.

The route (Seaway Trail) to Sodus Point was fairly hilly, but we did have a good shoulder, low traffic volumn and we were still speaking to each other after the hectic start to this ride. That's always a plus, when you ride a tandem! We stayed at South Shore RV park on Lake Ontario. For dinner we had.....are you ready.....drum roll please....freeze dried beef stew over rice.

It was a beautiful morning for riding. We rode into Sodus Point for breakfast. It was a great spot looking out on the Lake. We saw two cyclists in town but didn't get a chance to speak to them. The route today was alittle hillier, and busier we were still on the Seaway Trail. We noticed a "noise" in our front crank. Mmm.....what's that I say to my mechanic. Turns out he had changed the rear cassette cogs but not the front ones. Isn't that something you should do, says I? Well, sometimes but they looked ok. It's just a little noise. But just in case we stopped at a bike shop in Fulton, NY. They didn't have the right size. The chain ring that was making the noise was the small one in the front which is our Granny gear. For loaded tandem touring this is our most important one. We always want Granny to come out and play when we asked her to. But my mechanic said she should be alright..................I hate it when he says "should be". Never mind that we are heading into the mountains in Vermont and N Hampshire. We stopped for lunch, PBJ at a little park. and then rode on to Texas NY and camped at Jellystone Park with Yogi. Dinner? Couscous and green beans and almonds.

Monday, August 2 Sodus Point, NY-Texas, NY

We woke up to another beautiful day. Another HOT one! We are riding into the Adironadacks now so the terrain is much hillier. Alot of steep, long climbs. I didn't know that I could sweat so much. Several of the hills required alot of standing on the pedals. Granny came out to play thank goodness, but I am not sure she was the happiest. Maybe the noise we are hearing is groaning! We met another cyclist finishing a cross country tour. We are also riding into more forested areas. It was really pretty. The campground we found for the night was Styes Brown Barn Campground in Texas. Of course it was the bottom of the hill. But then it was just following some of the rules of the bike ride: The campground shall be either at the bottom of the climb or at the top! The owner was really nice. He had a great set up. He had a kitchen/dining area/tv room/playroom/banquet hall that he let us use. It was nice. Then I read on the wall that this used to be the dairy barn and we were staying in the cowbarn. After we set up the tent, the couple we saw in Sodus Point showed up. They were from Philly and riding from somewhere in NYork to Philly. We started to cook dinner inside and realized it was pouring down rain. Elliott and Sarah ended up sleeping in the cow barn but we slept in our tent. Dinner tonight? Mac and cheese, salad and hamburgers.

Wednesday, August 4 Texas-Boonville, NY

We started the day with breakfast in the cowbarn. Elliott and Sarah started riding with us in the AM. There were once again alot of steep, rolling hills (hello granny??). There was one very long, steep climb over Blue Mountain that was memorable. The humidity and heat was up there again. As we were riding we heard one of the most feared sounds of biking. Pinnnggg..... Uh oh...that wasn't a broken spoke was it?? Well as a matter of fact yes it was. We said good bye to Elliott and Sarah. It didn't

take Hap long to get it changed more annoying than anything. Standing on the side of the road and sweating is not any fun! But the rest of the day went well. The climbing continued but bike and bodies held up! For dinner we had Rice/beans/carrots/ and Peanut butter sandwiches. We camped at Hideaway hills. It was right on a little lake. I was hoping for a swim, but the lady said oh you are not allowed to swim. It was an ok campground, not that clean but our tent was clean on the inside! We met a couple who said if we needed anything to ask. Hap did his typical sad man walking around the campground looking for a beer routine so he went over to ask his new "friends". He was successful and came back with a cold one! We finally finished watching a movie I had brought "Mr. Limpitt" an old Don Knotts Movie where he turns into a fish. It was one of my favorite movies growing up. I know, what does that say about me? It took us four nites to finish it!

Thursday, August 5 Long Lake, NY-Ticonderoga, NY

It started raining just before we got out of the tent to pack up. So we waited until it slowed down and then rode over to the Long Lake Diner for breakfast. It was about a 4 mile uphill ride in the rain. We were quite the hit in the diner with our "train" sitting out front. One lady came over and asked what we were doing and asked if it was ok if she gave us some brownies she had made. We couldn't be rude? What could we do? We only had a few showers the rest of the day. Then the humidity and heat started again. I think I like riding in the rain better. Just before Ticonderoga we had a major climb (have I mentioned that it was hot?) and then a huge downhill. What a great view from the top. THAT'S why we climbed up here.....There were not any campgrounds around so we decided on a hotel tonight in Ticonderoga. It wasn't fancy.....and you probably wouldn't stay there if you could drive somewhere else. We rode into town (downhill-3 of them!) got our laundry done. Then rode back up the hills (3 of them) to a Walmart and picked up dinner. Rotisserie chicken and salad.

Friday, August 6 Ticonderoga, NY-Killington VT

We rode over to Walmart for breakfast. I had been wanting some yogart and it is difficult to get it when you don't have a refrigerator. From the hotel we rode to the ferry to cross Lake Champlain and go into Vermont. It was a beautiful, sunny hot, humid day. We started climbing as soon as we got off the ferry and didn't stop for the day. We didn't have a Vermont county map book so we stopped at the first store for one. We hadn't decided our exact route down to Franklin (surprise, surprise). We stopped at one town for suggestions at the local info center. And of course we got lost. Hap has renamed us as "Mr and Mrs Missed IT". How many times can you turn this bus around? How did we get here? That's odd.........We broke another spoke today.............mmm...Hap what's that all about? It'll be ok we have spares. We ended up in Rutland, VT on a Friday nite, during rush hour, riding Rt 4 (main road out of town!) and climbing 10 miles to Killington. I don't think anyone passing us that day really liked us very much. I swear we are nice people. We did have a shoulder thank goodness, but it was a very LONG climb. There was a hotel near the top............Hap did you see that.........what.........?Did you......do you...........WHAT?....nevermind! We got over the top of the climb and made it to Gifford Woods State Park just as it was getting dark. I asked if they had a campsite and she said, we only have one do you want it?? Do we want it? NO we WANT to climb back UP the mountain, in the dark and ...........nevermind. The campsite was really nice though. The temperature dropped below 50 degrees that night. It felt like it was freezing after all our hot weather. I put on my heavy shirt and my down vest. I told Hap I was going to wear it at least once since we carried it all that way. But then it only weighs 10 ounces! We got showers, fixed dinner (spaghetti and peas) and went to bed.

Saturday, August 7 Killington, VT-Grafton, NH

For breakfast we had oatmeal and fruit. The weather was hot, humid again. We were on Route 4 for much of the day. There was a nice shoulder. The first part of the ride was downhill (remember the 10 mile climb yesterday). We stopped at a bike shop to buy more spokes (just in case). It is a beautiful area here. We have been up here several times to ski at Killington. We saw several covered bridges. In Woodstock, VT we stopped at a deli for great sandwiches. Woodstock was a very busy town. We saw some kids jumping off a big rock into the river. We rode some nice backroads around Woodstock to get off of Rt 4. We crossed the river in Lebanon and found a rail trail that went all the way to Grafton where we were spending the night with Nancy Carr. It was slow going on the trail. So we finally gave up and got on the road. Nancy lived on a beautiful little lake. It was a little hard to find. But Mr and Mrs Missed it, made it with only a couple of do-overs. Nancy fixed us a wonderful supper of beans and cornbread. We sat out on the deck by the lake to eat.

Sunday, August 8 Grafton, NH-Franklin, NH

We ate breakfast out on the deck and said good bye to Nancy. She gave us directions to Franklin where her mother, Marcia is in Peabody Home an assisted living facility. That is the reason we wanted to ride up here was to see Marcia. She lived in Circleville for years before moving to N. Hampshire to be closer to her daughter. It was another hot sunny day. But we didn't have far to ride. We spent several hours with Marcia, eating lunch and visiting. It was so good to see her. We stayed close in Franklin and went to a nearby hotel. The owner of the hotel was Sarah. She was a hoot. She also had a border collie that looked just like our Katie. Except that hers was much taller. We rode down the street to get our laundry done at the gas station (that' how they do it in NH!). For dinner we ordered a pizza that was delivered. Then we just enjoyed the air conditioning!

Monday, August 9 Franlin, NH-Claresville, VT

So who said bicycling was an exact science? The only thing I have written in my notes today is 2 more broken spokes! How is that possible? Mmm...something must be going on....ya think? It was a hot, humid day today again. Lots of climbing and beautiful scenery. It didn't take Hap long to fix the two broken spokes. But now we are thinking. We only have 3 spokes left! Maybe we need to go to Plan B? Do we have a Plan B? We rode to Wigan State Park (back in VT). It looked like it was going to rain so we opted to stay in a Lean To. We set up our tent underneath a really nice wood Lean to. We cooked stir fry for dinner. It did rain off and on all night. So the extra $7 we spent was worth it. It was a beautiful campsite on the river.

Tuesday, August 10 Claresville-Manchester,VT

We ate oatmeal for breakfast and then headed down river for about 5 miles. Then we turned west and started climbing. It was 10 miles UP! A long very steep climb. A car went by and I said Hap why are they laughing, as we were standing up on the pedals. Within 10 miles we broke another spoke AND found 2 more spokes cracked.....uh oh.... Now this is getting exciting. Hap fixed them, and we spent all day climbing toward Manchester. We stopped at a town and asked where there was a bike shop. They said 15 miles from here in Manchester (where we were going). Hope the wheel holds together until then! What can we do but keep ridin! The roads we were on were really good roads for riding. And the scenery was just awesome. We had another huge climb up to another ski resort and then 10 miles of down into Manchester. But the wheel had another idea. Howabout I break one more spoke (remember we only had one spare one left)? How does that sound? Yes, you guessed it just before the crest of the climb. Think standing on the pedals??? We heard THAT sound again. Pinnnggg..... Instead of fixing this one it wasn't too much out of true Hap said it would be ok to ride easy into town. So we spent 10 miles of incredible downhill, coasting and braking. Don't ya just hate that? We found the bike shop (at the bottom of the hill) and he did have what we needed. Hap made a call to the tandem guru he bought the new rim from and they decided that the "pattern" that Hap used when building the wheel was wrong. More on that later! Hap bought 56 new spokes, we found a hotel about a mile away (uphill ofcourse) and Hap completely rebuilt the wheel. We walked next door for dinner. Whew what a day!

Wednesday, August 11 Manchester, VT-Scotia, NY

We started out the day with Hap riding the bike, without any bags or extra weight (including me) back to the bike shop to use their truing stand to finish up the wheel. Needless to say we didn't start riding until around 11am. I had looked at Google map for our route for the day, Google has a bicycle route option now. Bad choice. Google doesn't recognize either how hilly the route is OR if it paved or not. At the top of one VERY steep climb, the road turned to gravel. This isn't going to work! We turned around got on the closest state highway and headed toward Scotia. That ended up being a bad route also because Rt 40 was the main route in/out of Albany/Cohos NY and there was not a shoulder. And of course it was rush hour. We got off that road asap and found our way back to the route. We were trying to find the start of the Erie Canal. The next thing that happened was that a bridge was out and we ended up making a big detour around it. After all that we finally found the trail in Cohos and then we saw a sign that said Trail Closed-Get off! Well, not exactly but it might as well. We got off the trail and came down onto a very busy highway, somewhere. We didn't know where we were AND it was getting dark. Remember our late start!? A cyclist stopped and gave us some directions. We put on all of our lights. (total of 5 + I had a flashlight in my hand!). We looked like a christmas tree train. Hap asked a guy at a traffic lite if he could see us and he laughed and said oh yeah! By the time we got to the Arrowhead RV campground it was after dark. We quickly set up the tent, walked over to the laundry room to do laundry and called for some pasta from a pizza place that delivered to laundry rooms! No trouble sleeping that night!

Thursday, August 12 Scotia, NY-Herkimer, NY

The day started with breakfast at Dunkin Donuts. Bet you will never hear that from us again! We started out riding the gravel Erie Canal trail but the going was very slow. We got out on Rt 5 to make better progress. There was a nice shoulder and not much traffic. We were going to Utica but stopped short in Herkimer just because it was just so hot. We rode into Herkimer and asked at a nail/beauty shop about a motel. She recommended the America Best inn just up the road. We went down, checked in and walked to Ponderosa for dinner. Then back to the hotel to enjoy the air conditioning.

Friday, August 13 Herkimer, NY-Plainville, NY

We got an early start (for us-9am) with breakfast at Denny's. We really needed to pick up some miles so we decided to get on Rt 5 and not ride the trail today. We were alittle behind schedule due to the wheel problem. The route was flatter than we had been riding. But it was once again very hot and humid. We moved along better than any other day due to a nice tailwind. At 3p we decided to push on another 25 miles (for a total 91 miles for the day) to make up some of the miles. Everything was going great until....we came up to an area of about 10 miles where there was a huge mall. The traffic was very heavy and the people were in a hurry to get to the shopping. It is amazing the chances that people will take in cars. I guess if someone has to die so you can start shopping sooner so be it. I had a really hard time with this section. Sometimes on the back of the tandem because I am not in control of anything, just sitting there watching cars come at you can be very unnerving. But Hap did a great job! Once we got away from there all was good again. We got to Sunset Park campground and set up camp. It was a nice campground on a small lake. We headed over to get water to cook with and was told we couldn't drink the water from there. We had to get water back up hill at the "spring". That would have been good info when we were checking in. So off we went in search of water. A couple came over and asked us over for a bonfire. After our shower, the showers were really dirty and dinner (beef stew, rice) we sat around the fire with about 15 people. During the night Hap got a really bad stomach ache. Not sure what that was about, very unusual. But the next morning he was fine.

Saturday, August 14 Plainsville, NY-Rochester, NY

We started with our usual oatmeal breakfast before heading out on Rt 31 toward Rochester. It was very hot and humid again. We were very glad we had ridden the extra miles the day before because we had a side/headwind and we were both tired from the long day before (7 hours in the saddle!). We were paralleling the Erie Canal trail so we decided to get on it off and on to give us a break from the wind. It was nice being away from the traffic. But the gravel sure slows us down. We stopped for an ice cream break. We had alot of hills towards the end of the day. And then just when you thought it was over, the lady was starting to warm up, yep you guessed it....p.innggg.... Was that a .....? Yes it sure was. We had 30 miles to ride in this trip and now we are once again standing on the side of the road, in the heat, changing a spoke. Ah well....that's bike touring. Hap fixed the wheel and I fixed us PBJ sandwiches. We arrived in Rochester before dark that's the main thing! We went out to an Indian restaurant with Bev and Lance to celebrate our return to the real world.

Wrap up

All in all a great trip. But a difficult one. I think we were alittle spoiled at having time to take our time and not have to do certain distances every day. You can do that when you are on a year long trip. We loved traveling in the New England states, I wouldn't be surprised if we end up there again soon. We didn't have enough time but then that happens. The most important part of this ride for us was visiting with Marcia. It was great to see that she was healthy, happy and very well taken care of. As far as the wheel, well, one thing I that came to mind when all of this happened is that bicycling is NOT an exact science. You just don't know what is going to come up. When we were standing on the side of the road, with only one more spare spoke after breaking 7, our thought was don't panic...just work with what ya got and keep peddlin!

Until next time......

TOTAL MILEAGE: 900 MILES

TOTAL FUN: PRICELESS

2009-09-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

2009-08-25T21:14:00.000-07:00

My favorite picture

2009-08-25T21:07:00.001-07:00

Spray Lake early in the morning!

Details details

2009-08-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of how we cook our food, filter our water, and pitch our tent!

The rest of the story..........

2009-08-25T20:15:00.001-07:00

We made it home yesterday after a very long day of travel. We got up at 4am to get to the airport. Taking 2 bicycles, trailer and gear through customs went pretty smooth. The flights were all good. And the bikes and gear made it home without being damaged. One of the pictures shows Hap pushing the big boxes through the airport.

I wanted to fill you in on our last few days of riding before we got to Banff. We had a good nights sleep beside a beautiful flowing stream at Weary Creek. It was a cold start to the day though. 40's. This day turned out to be the hardest day of the trip. We had to climb over the Continental Divide at Elk Pass. The weather was sunny and warmed up to the 80's. We started on a gravel road and then turned onto a trail that went up over the pass. There was a small tree over the trail and I decided that my bike could jump it! Well, maybe it could....if it wasn't attached to a trailer. I hit the tree and fell over. I wasn't sure where I was falling so as I was going down I grabbed a bush. Hap had to help me get up, I was trapped under my bike. Just after that happened a group of about 6 cyclists were coming down the trail. They stopped and we chatted for awhile. What a small world. They were all from Missoula and one of them was "Julie" that worked at Adventure Cycling. Adventure Cycling is the group that makes maps for cyclists. We have been a member for almost 20 years. One of the others knew one of Hap's old neighbors who now lives in Missoula. And we thought we were in the middle of nowhere! We climbed to the top of the pass. It was a tough climb. There was a picnic table at the top so we stopped for lunch. Then we headed down what we thought was the right trail. Guess what? Yep! We were on the wrong trail. We rode right into a watery bog. I was first and by the time I realized i was riding in water it was too late. There were logs laying across the trail so not only was i through water, I was trying to bump over the logs. So....you guessed it...I got stalled and couldn't go. I knew I was going over so I jumped off. Now I am standing in calf deep black mucky water. Yuch! Hope I get a shower tonight!

We finally reached a gravel road and started down it but we weren't sure which way to go. We turned around and saw BIKE and an arrow written in the road. We figured the group we saw had marked the route. That helped alot. Now we knew which way to go. We ended up in a parking lot in Peter Lougheed Provincal Park. There were several campgrounds but we weren't sure which one had the showers. We had stayed here on another cycling trip several years ago. We went up the road just a short distance and saw a campground sign and a picture of a shower! Yeah! We were at Bolton Campground. We stopped at the campstore to register and then had a heck of a time trying to find our campsite. We finally found it, set up camp, cooked freeze dried spaghetti and headed to the showers. There was a line to get into the showers and when it was my turn a girl said, that shower (that I was going into) only had cold water. I said "it will be better than the cold stream we have been standing in for our bath! It turned out to be a HOT shower.

The next morning was really chilly. Our campsite was in the shade while we were packing up. It was 11am before we finally left. We rode a paved road out of the park and then turned on a wide gravel road. Then the climbing started again. Everyone had told us it would be all downhill after Elk Pass.....right! We saw a moose on the side of the road. There was more traffic on this road and it was pretty dusty. But the scenery was incredible. I hope the pictures show up ok for you to see. There wasn't a suggested campground so we planned to just pull off the trail to camp. Oh I forgot, we were told that we were in the grizzly bear roaming area and to take extra care. Remember bear spray, 30 feet, then lay down in a little ball! We passed a lodge called Mt Enigedene so we stopped just to see if they had any rooms/cabins. It was a nice place for $350/night! But she said that includes dinner and breakfast...no thanks. We kept going hoping to make it to Canyon Dam.

The route turned onto a very narrow trail next to Spray Lake. It was beautiful. But it was also alittle scary. We did alot of singing, talking and whistling......Yo bear..... The trail was fun, more fun without the gear though. We made it to the dam and found a beautiful spot by the lake. We pitched the tent, cooked dinner, and hung our food and cooking gear very high and very far away from the tent. We took alittle sponge bath. Before we got in the tent Hap decided to get more bear prepared. He got to tools out of the tool bag, our big knife, the bear spray and the binoculars. And then said NOW I'm ready. See the picture above.

I slept really good because I knew that Hap was watching out for the bears. Helicopters were constantly flying up and down the lake. Apparently it was to take people up to a lodge on top of the mt.

The next morning we fixed our usual oatmeal, peanut butter and bread for breakfast. The route was now on a gravel road that was closed to vehicles. Check out the scenery from this ride. We rode to Goat Trail that took us into Banff. Before heading down the trail we ate the last of our bread. Guess we better get to town!

Banff Canada

2009-08-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, well here we are in Banff, CA on Saturday, August 22. We actually arrived here on Thursday. Today we are packing the bikes in boxes, tying up lose ends and plan to take a shuttle to Calgary tomorrow. Our flight back to Ohio is Monday morning. I haven't been able to post a note since Sparwood so for now I will tell you what has happened since arriving in Banff. We are in the Banff library and time is limited. On thursday we rode into Banff. The trail into Banff was called the GOAT TRAIL. It was mostly downhill BUT it was also MOSTLY ROCKS! Try that with a mt bike and Trailer or with bags on the bike. Poor Hap didn't have a full suspension bike like mine. Sorry about YOUR luck! I can only say my new Giant Trance bike has been awesome. It has really made a difference in my back. Which by the way is still attached. Back to the story enough about my new toy! The trail was beautiful. I will be posting pictures when we get back to Ohio. So stay tuned! The mts are awesome and the weather was great. It was a good ride into town. We only got lost or should I say had a view "do overs". There were several waterfalls and bridges lining the trail.

We arrived into Banff behind the Banff Hot Springs Hotel. (An impressive sight!). It was very odd to go from riding in the middle of nowhere to a hustling, bustling tourist town. It is very beautifully nestled in between the mts and alongside the Bow River. The first thing we did was to ride to the bike shop to make sure our boxes we had arranged for were there. And yes they were. So Plan A was in force for the moment...... PLAN A: We had arranged with Sister Sonnie who has a Parcel/Post store to have our stuff sent via Fedex to Ohio. We actually arrived in Banff a day earlier than we thought we would. The reason..we ran out of clean clothes and hadn't had a shower for two days! And there was no campground or shower in sight. I called the Driftwood Inn and they said we could check in a day early. OK. PLAN A still a go!

Friday we got up, ate breakfast in the room (oatmeal, bananas and peanut butter). And took off to ride a trail that was recommended by the bike shop. Rundle River Trail. He said that it was very rooty and rocky and you would either love it or find it very frustrating. Doesn't that sound like fun! Of course that's the trail we want. After all we have just ridden 400 miles pulling all our stuff, that should be easy. We took off on our LIGHT, no gear mt bikes. We decided to ride to Canmore Nordic Center. That is where the 1998 Calgary Olympics held their Nordic events. And it is the Olympic training center. The trail was 10 miles long. Piece of cake........... off we go...the first thing that happened was we couldn't find the trail. I hate it when someone says "you can't miss it!" Doesn't he know who we are? We finally found the trail and started UP. Although we didn't realize we were climbing. It was a beautiful trail along the Bow River. And he was right there were lots of rocks and lots of roots. But other than that it was perfect. We rode through tree lined trails with lots of moss on either side, across rock fields, over bridges, one section of very narrow trail just on the EDGE of the river (Jill you wouldn't have liked it!). The last 3 miles or so was in the Nordic Center series of trails which was more double track. But uphill Of course. We went to the Nordic Center for a snack of Pita bread and Hummus (mmm good) and an apple and coke. Then we headed back. Oh did I mention we are still in bear country and there are signs everywhere of watch out for the bears? That makes it alittle more interesting. Hap had his bear spray though so we were safe. He left his noise makers and knife at the hotel (you'll have to wait until the next post to see what that means!). The ride back was even better. We started with a neat, fast downhill (watch out for those roots!). I kept leaving Hap behind on the downhills and then he would catch me on the ups. Remember the full suspension that you said you don't need Hap???? About half way back a girl (and guy) passed us......uh oh .... game on! (does anyone know me very well.. the part about the girl "passing me?" Let's just say that I passed them back in short order and had to wait for Hap at the end of the trail. It was one of the best mt bike rides I have ever had. It was awesome. I wish we had trails like that in Ohio. Oh and the girl......mmm...where did she go? We stopped at the grocery for dinner supplies and headed back to the room. Dinner was a salad, nuts and a turkey sandwich.

So back to PLAN A. Today we called FED EX just to double check what we needed to do. They first told us that they would email us the info, fill out the form, there you go.... Hap got the email, printed it out but didn't quite understand how to fill out the customs form. So he called back. This time they said we could't even use FED EX in Canada unless we had a CANADIAN account. Uh OH! So now what? PLAN B: Take the bikes on the plane with us. We have done this for 20 years. Usually just ride to the airport and they sale you a box for $10, no problem. We thought why are we taking a shuttle why not ride to the airport. It's only 80 miles. We had an extra day to do that. OK. PLAN C: Ride to Calgary Airport, box up the bike and the BOB trailer and fly home. Should we call to make sure they have a box at the airport? Remember that time???? OK, so Hap calls the airline! NO, we don't have any boxes. Now we are at PLAN D: Box the bikes and trailer in Banff, shuttle to Calgary Airport, shuttle to the hotel, shuttle back to the airport at 5am Monday morning. Are the shuttles big enough to carry the bike boxes? Remember that time...? We call the hotel first.....let us check and call you back....yes, but that shuttle doesn't run on Sundays......mmmm....will they fit in a mini van?? Of course we say.....mmm.....yes that will work. Now we call the Banff shuttle....do you take bike boxes? Yes that will be $10.30 for each bike....Alrighty then. Now we have $175 to fly each bike, $175 for the trailer, plus the shuttle......

So here we sit in the library. Everything arranged, bikes in boxes, trailer boxed. Only a few questions left to answer. How do we get three boxes through customs? Can we take our bear spray? What about our stove and fuel bottles? Remember that time....................?

I have to say that even though the cost is higher than expected. This trip has been awesome and worth every penny. We have had an amazing two weeks of just riding and being together. In spite of the cold, wet weather it has been wonderful. We have decided though that it is much easier just to ride home. So look out for the next trip! We don't need no stinkin aeroplane. We for sure would have ridden back into the US if we had known all of this hassle was going to happen. But when you travel like this you just have to be prepared for PLAN A, B, C, or D or ??? But remember it's all good!

I will be posting pictures when we get home and also more about our last four days of riding! So stay tuned.

Sparwood British Columbia Canada

2009-08-15T14:18:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
We finally made it to a computer to put down some notes from our ride so far. Today is August 15, 2009. But I am going to start our journey at the airport in Kalispell, MT. We made to Montana, our gear that was shipped made it to Montana, we got off the plane ok. But the shuttle that I had arranged to pick us up for the 20 minute drive was not there. Mmm...I called and he said oh your here now! Yes our plane was delayed in Denver but we would still like a ride. Otherwise we are going to have a long walk at 9pm in the dark, down the highway. He finally came about an hour later. He sure was cheerful. Me .... not so much. Have you ever noticed how cheerful people can be when your NOT in the mood? We arrived at the Hilltop Hotel in Kalispell and found our two bikes and extra box of camping gear in our room. We spent a couple of hours putting them together, sorting gear and making plans for PLAN A. (Ride to Whitefish to get on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route). The first day of the ride was a pretty short day. But it gave us a good opportunity to check out our gear and make sure my new rack was working. A short lesson on racks and bikes.....I just got a new full suspension mt bike. Giant Trance. We were hoping that the suspension would help my back! The bike is awesome, I love it. But the color?? White...why does it have to be white? Back to the rack lesson. On all our other trips we have used rear and front racks. But with a front suspension you need a special rack. We rode the last time on the Great Divide with just rear racks. So we thought the same would be ok for this one. Hap did alot of research and found a rack that looked really good for a full suspension bike. The problem is that there are no places to mount the rack with the suspension and my new DISC (yeah!) brakes. Does anyone see where this is leading yet? On the way to Whitefish Hap noticed the rack "wobbling". We both were carrying maybe 50 lbs or so. Oh let me tell you about the traffic. It was a sunday morning and we passed alot of churches. This part of the ride was on regular paved roads. Traffic was whizzing by pretty close. We decided all of the churches must have let out at the same time. And if they happened to kill a cyclist on the way home from church oh well! Sorry about that. That's a sensitive point for me! I cannot get this target off my back. We stopped a couple of times and Hap did what he could to make the rack more rigid. That's why we carry so much extra rope, straps and duck tape! When we got to Whitefish we first stopped at Snappy's Sporting Goods for Bear Spray. It looks like a small fire extinguisher that is actually pepper spray! The directions say to spray it at the bear when he is 30 feet from you! Yeah right! Oh and then lay down in a little ball and "pretend" to be dead. We rode on into town and found all the bike shops closed of course. It was sunday. They gotta ride sometime. We decided we better not leave civilization until we fixed the rack situation. So we found a campground in town, stopped at a subway for sandwiches, took a shower and went to sleep. Hap saw one of the dreaded SPRINKLER HEADS near our tent so he went into the camp office to ask if they went off at nite. She just said "I don't know.." I bet she would if she ever had one go off in the middle of the nite on HER tent. But then after paying $26 to camp we thought maybe we should get a BONUS shower!
Monday, August 8
We woke up to a gorgeous bright sunny day. Temps in the 90's. While we wer packing up a guy from the next site came over. He was driving a big RV BUS. He started talking about the bicyclists on Route 93 (the main route through the area). When I heard him say "You just never know if the bikers are going to stay on that white line or not, ESPECIALLY on those blind corners". I had to walk away (see reason in paragraph number 1!)
So now lets get to the story of the rack. We went to Glacier Cyclery and met the owner Ron, who has done alot of touring. He had just the rack that we wanted for my bike but couldn't find it. Oh and by the way when we took off my rack it had already started to bend and we hadn't even gotten off the paved roads. After much discussion, wavering, hem hawing, figuring, calculating, and lots of other stuff. We ended up buying a new BOB (beast of burden trailer) and renting a front rack for me. This process took about 4 hours! We finally left the shop after 1:30pm. Me now pulling a trailer and a front rack with our sleeping bags. Whew! It seemed like the right thing to do. Because we have a trailer at home we knew this set up would work. We left Whitefish late in the day and started climbing past Whitefish lake. It was beautiful. We were on rough 2 lane dirt, rocky road. A few cars passed us but now many. It was great. It was a difficult ride though. I gave it an eight on Diane's Rigor Scale. We reached Upper Whitefish Lake and set up camp. An awesome campsite beside a crystal clear lake. There was a few people there fishing and kayaking. We even had a picnic table. For dinner we cooked freeze dried Terryaki beef. It wasn't that great but it was food. We sure didn't have any trouble sleeping that night in the 39 degree temps.
The next day we fixed oatmeal for breakfast. The road we were on was pretty rough. We had a couple mile warm up and then started a pretty tough climb. We stopped at Red Meadow Lake for lunch. The downhill leaving the lake was as scary as the going up. I went up the hill at 2.7 mph and down the hill at 3.0 mph! I decided I only need two gears for this ride first and second! Or go or stop! We haven't seen any bears on this ride yet but we did see lots of bear poop. And it is true what they say bears do love those berries! We got to Tuchuck campground late. There was a group of seven guys already there and a couple from Holland. It is fun to have other cyclist to talk to. The girl from Holland came over and said if you want to wash in the stream go ahead, my husband will look away. I laughed and said, it doesn't matter just make sure he doesn't laugh at me! The water was freezing but it sure was nice to get clean! For dinner we had our favorite freeze dried meal of Leonardo de Fettucini. It tasted especially good tonight. I am sure we are burning loads of calories. The Rigor scale was 8 again today!
On August 12 we rode from Tuchuck Campground to Eureka. Oh, I forgot to tell you about the sign at the campground. Watch out for grizzlies. Apparently this is part of the ranging area through Glacier Nat. Park. We are riding just to the west of the park. Good thing we bought that bear spray. Remember 30 feet! And do you THINK I have a tape measure? We woke up to pouring down rain. It is really nasty when you have to pack up in the rain. It was about 45 degrees or so. We packed up fast. For breakfast we ate a couple of power bars. Leaving the campground we immediately started climbing. It was a tough climb in the rain. We climbed for four miles over Whitefish Divide. It was beautiful and once we got warmed up not so bad. We had some wonderful views of Glacier Park too. We saw more bear poop and lots of Huckleberries. When we got to Eureka we decided to stay in a hotel. What a concept. That might have been the best shower I ever had. It rained all day. It finally stopped long enough for me to ride back to a laundry mat. We stopped an ordered a pizza that was delivered to the Ksanka Motel for us. We took everything out of the bags and dried out.
August 13 we rode from Eureka to ELKO. Yes you guessed it we woke up to a downpour again. We stopped and ate a good breakfast and then rode the 8 miles to the Canadian border at Roosville. We were on Hwy 93 for the ride to Elko. It wasn't bad except when it started to rain harder. The canadians have a great idea with their roads also. A berm! What a great idea. When we almost got to Elko it really poured. I could only see a few feet in front of me. I had called a hotel in Elko and make a reservation. Good thing because it was their last room. There was another group of 8 cyclists there looking for a room. They ended up getting a ride to another town. The room had a kitchen which was great. We cooked dinner, emptied all of the bags AGAIN. And dried everything out AGAIN!
August 14 we decided to ride a short day to Fernie. Hoping the weather would change. It was cooler today in the 40's. We had oatmeal and juice for breakfast. The road was a dirt road following the Elk River to Fernie. A pretty ride, but a cold one. We are in a beautiful valley with mts on both sides. The views are great. Wish we could see the tops of the mts.! We got into fernie and stopped at a Bagal shop for a sandwich. I found a room at the Raging Elk Hostel for $55. It was pretty clean but it looked like they were working on it. We had a great view of the Fernie Ski Hill. Looks like a good place to come back to. This area is know for its mt biking and skiing. There were 4 bike shops on Main Street. One of the shops was clear full of the Giant Trance Mt bike like mine. (without the racks! or BOB) I washed all of our clothes out in the sink and we hung clothes lines across the room. Now that was a sight. But I hate to wear dirty clothes. Its kindof funny when we ride like this. I even forgot to bring a comb for my hair. I don't think the bears will even notice! Maybe that's why they have to get within 30 feet! Just after we got to the hostel it really started raining hard again. But by the time we got everything washed and hung up it was just alittle drizzle. We walked back up town and found a burger and a beer. Neither was very good and both were very expensive. We should just have cooked at the hostel. Next time! We also stopped at the grocery store for some supplies. Back at the hostel we played some cards. And somebody won!
August 15-Todays ride...It was alittle brighter this morning but colder. In the 40's when we left. No rain though so that's a bonus. We rode a shorter ride today waiting hopefully for some better weather. Today the ride was all highway. It was beautiful but not too exciting. We are just riding north up this narrow valley with beautiful mts on both sides. We arrived in Sparwood early and went to the Mt View Campground. I washed everything out again. And we finally found a computer at the library to use.
So far the trip has been good. Challenging and problem solving but then that's why we do this isn't it?? Otherwise life would be boring. We saw the best t shirt saying that I think we are going to adopt! Here it is:

Confidence is the feeling you have before you fully understand the situation

Until next time!
Hap and Diane

Continental Divide Trip Part 2 Whitefish, MT-Banff

2009-08-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

Hi there, it is time for another trip on the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. Tomorrow we will be leaving (on a jet plane) to fly into Whitefish, MT. The last time we rode the divide we went south from Whitefish. this trip we are heading north to Banff. Should be a great ride.....that is if you like riding in the middle of nowhere, with nuthin sept the trees, wind, weather and of course the wildlife. But then I think the wildlife out there will be better than the "wildlife" we have been seeing driving on the roads of Pickaway County lately!
Here it is 1pm and we have finished all the packin except for tying up some loose ends, finding plane tickets, reservations we made. You know simple stuff like that. We didn't have much to pack, clothes for a couple days, rain gear, cold weather gear, down jacket, heavy gloves.......hey this isn't MY first rodeo ya know. I 've been out in the wilds before with Hap. At least this time we have a compass. GPS..naw we don't need no stinkin GPS. You know Hap's motto "You can't be lost if you don't care where your going!"
Not sure how much posting I can do on this trip. We aren't taking the computer and the bears probably won't let me use theirs. But I will post as often as possible. Hopefully you'll get them email alert or whatever you call this.

Later. Gotta get some sleep before the sun comes up. Details....details!

Team Alpha on the Greenbriar River Trail WV

2008-05-23T17:44:00.000-07:00

Back home again in Circleville, Ohio 10,300 miles

2008-05-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

It's official we are home! And it's double official because I went back to work today at Berger Health System. I am the Wellness Director at the hospital. Don't tell my boss but I think that I have the best job in the world. I get the opportunity to go out into the community, local businesses and Berger employees to help them to learn ways to become healthier. I am not sure that taking a 10,000 mile + bike ride is a healthy idea but I'll get back to you on that.

We rode the last leg of the ride from Chillicothe to Circleville in a downpour. But then that's bike ridin'! It didn't bother us at all. In fact we had a wonderful tailwind so it actually felt like we were sprinting to the finish line. A great end to a wonderful ride. When we rode out our driveway last May we decided that we would do everything and ride anywhere we wanted for a year. We wouldn't regret anything or leave anything out. And that is just what we have done. No regrets. No, we wish we had..... just it's time to go home for awhile. Then??.........??

When we rode into Circleville we were pleasantly surprised to see Amy and Gregory standing on the side of the road with balloons, flowers and signs. Thanks guys for the great welcome. They really went above and beyond to come out in the rain. Then they followed us through town taking pictures of us. And all of the balloons on the car was a bonus! It was sort of like a parade!

Our house survived, but as you can see from the picture someone needs to mow the grass. I think our grass would get mowed more if the lawnmower had pedals!

Thanks to everyone who has supported us during this year with notes, emails, phone calls and prayers. We couldn't have done this without the support of all of you.

I will be making a couple more entries in the blog. We are doing a ride this weekend in W. Virginia with Dugan, my brother in law who has Alpha One. It is a fundraiser for the American Lung Association along the Greenbriar River Trail. Two days and 70 miles. Dugan is planning to ride with us. So for all of you who have all of healthy lungs, Dugan will be riding with about 1/4 of one lung with oxygen on his bike! No excuses is there?

Chillicothe, Ohio

2008-05-10T20:27:00.000-07:00

When we arrived in Charleston we went out to dinner with Deb from the ALA and Neva who is an Alpha One support group leader. She has arranged for Hap & I to meet with the WV Governor tomorrow at the capital building. What an opportunity to do some PR for Alpha! Thanks Neva! We also were going to present our check to the ALA for the TREK bike tour we are doing with Team Alpha next weekend. It is a 2-day ride along the Greenbrier River in WV. It is a beautiful trail. Hap & I rode it a few years ago.
The next morning we were supposed to be at the capital building at 9:15a. We were only a few blocks from there so we got to the gate a little early. A TV cameraman showed up from WOWK Charleston station and did an interview. Another station WSAZ also did an interview. Meeting Governor Manchin was really cool. He read a proclamation stating that May was Alpha One Awareness month. He told us that he had mandated that when any knew roads were built in WV that a 2-foot shoulder was required. We thanked him for that. All in all it was a special day for us. We are still trying to figure out why people are so amazed at our “little bike ride”. All we are doing is having fun! When things get tough sometimes along the way, I remember Dugan and how hard he trained and worked to ride his bike with a quarter of a lung! What we are doing is easy. Hopefully we got some good press for Alpha.
We left Charleston and headed towards Huntington. We stopped at John’s bike shop in St Albans. We were very impressed with the bike shop. Great selection of bikes, parts and Jeff actually knew something about them. He had done a tour across the US back in 1976. We ate lunch at Taco Bell. We stopped at Jim’s Campground outside of. Milton, WV. There were two choices of campgrounds. The KOA wanted $30 to pitch our tent. Jim’s wanted $12. Which would you pick? Jim’s was really nice. We had a huge shelter house that we could park the bike under and cook our dinner too. It also had electric outlets as a bonus.
We left the next morning after eating our traditional oatmeal, peanut butter and banana breakfast. It was hot and sunny. The road was little busier as we got closer to Huntington. Most of the traffic gave us plenty of room. But there’s always that 10% rule. We had a flat tire on the way into town. It’s always much more fun to have a flat tire, in traffic, with no shoulder. It didn’t take long to get it changed. Hap’s getting really good at it. I don’t even have to tell him what to do anymore! It was supposed to start raining so we planned to stay inside in Ashland, KY. We stopped at a gas station to look in a phone book for hotels. While we were there a guy said, “Hey didn’t I see you on TV this morning?” He talked to us for quite awhile. We had been wondering why so many people had been blowing their horns at us and waving as they passed. Maybe they saw us on the TV! That would explain it. Before we got to the hotel we stopped and bought another tube. Just in case…..We have had to ride in more junk on the side of the road just because of the traffic. We got to the hotel, left the trailer and road to a Wal-Mart for dinner supplies and to get a prescription filled. While I was standing in line a lady behind me said, “Didn’t I see you on TV this morning?” I asked her if she learned something and she said yes she did. It was very interesting. Oh, did I mention that the Wal-Mart was on TOP of a big hill? So here’s the picture…..four lanes, no shoulder, slow tandem, lots of traffic. We had a lot of people come pretty close. I guess they had to get to Wal-Mart in a hurry. I am sure that it was some sort of an emergency that’s why they couldn’t wait 10 seconds or so to get around. But we all made it into Wal-Mart and no one got hurt. That’s the important part.
The next day it was pouring down rain. We decided to stay an extra day in Ashland. We spent the day doing laundry and eating. We only have 30 miles to go to get to Portsmouth, OH. Then maybe 70 miles or so to home.
This morning we left Ashland, stopped at Bobby’s place (or Bob Evans to all of you who aren’t from Ohio!) and road north on Rt 23. Rt 23 runs through Circleville HOME. Not far now. We are getting to our neck of the woods. It was overcast all day but still a great ride. We made a call to All Saints Episcopal Church in Portsmouth about spending the night there. We have stayed there many times when we road TOSRV (Tour of the Scioto River Valley). They agreed to let us stay even though TOSRV is the next day. We planned to be riding north tomorrow as TOSRV riders are heading south to Portsmouth. This way we get to see all of our biking friends that we haven’t seen for a very long time. We got to the church just in front of a big downpour. My brothers and wives are driving down tonight to take us out to dinner. It sure will be great to see them!
We are down to two more days of riding before finishing this year long (and three day) adventure. I go back to work in a couple more days. Where did the time go?

Today we rode to Chillicothe. It was fun to see all of the TOSRV riders coming south. We saw alot of old friends that we haven't seen for a long time. It sure is good to be on home turf. We have ridden the Tour of the Scioto River Valley every year since 1983 so we felt like we knew every turn and crack in the highway. It is a very pretty ride following the Scioto River. In Chillicothe we made a quick stop in the park to talk to the local newspaper and take a picture. Then we stopped and bought my mom some roses for Mother's Day. Of course I told her that I had bought them in Portsmouth and hand carried them from there. All of my family showed up for a cookout. It was great to see everyone. Especially the three new babies, Korbin, Reed and Rowdy. I plan to spoil all of them soon!! Tomorrow is our last day on the road. I go back to work at Berger Health System on Monday. Hap will be busy getting our house (assuming it is still there) back in working order. We have ridden 10,280 miles. Tomorrow's ride will be about 30 miles. It is supposed to be a stormy, rainy day. A fitting end don't you think?

Charleston, WV 10,000+ miles!

2008-05-05T17:19:00.000-07:00

We ate a banana and peanut butter for a pre-breakfast before we left the motel. We continued south on Rt 7 toward Gallipolis. It was nice because we had a nice shoulder and not much traffic. It was also warm and sunny. We stopped at a restaurant for some pancakes. OK, so we ate twice in an hour, is somebody out there counting? It was such a pretty ride along the river. Everything was so green, spring is finally here! We stopped in Pomeroy for a very special event! Our 10,000 mile of this trip. Of course we had to have ice cream. It seems impossible that we have actually ridden that far and it has almost been a year. Today we were on a secret mission. Niece Kendall (Dugan's daughter) is graduating from Rio Grande this weekend and we are planning to surprise her. She thinks that we are a million miles away (in biking miles....) and has no idea we are coming. Ssshhhhh....... Traffic started to pick up on Rt 7 but we were going to turn west off of Rt 7 before we got to Gallipolis. We had ridden between Rio Grande and Gallipolis before and taken this route. But that time we were on our mt bikes with Hap pulling Katie (our dog) in the trailer. We remembered the route as being really pretty with not many hills. But guess what happens when you add 180 pounds to a tandem. The route gets hillier and the hills get steeper. Or maybe we just didn't notice the hills. By any standards it was a very hilly route. It started to rain just before we got to Rio Grande. Several members of my family were on their way to Rio at the same time so we were on the phone alot talking to them. On the outside of town we called Kendall's sister, Tiffany to have her call Kendall and find out where she was. Tiff said she was at the apt. We rode to the apt to surprise her. Boy was she surprised. It was great! I told her that I had been lying to her for several wks. And everytime I lied I had to call someone to confess. About that time Dugan called. He and Sonnie were on their way down. He asked where we were and I told him that we weren't there yet, we were about 4 miles from Rio. Yes, I lied to him also. But I'm confessing it to all of you! The rest of the family showed up a short time later. It was great to see them. The best part was seeing the twins, Reed and Rowdy. If you have been following us you know that they were born last November.

We spent a wonderful weekend with family. The worst part of this last year is being away from them. Mom and Dad came down. Dugan and Sonnie were there. We shared lots of stories, ate alot of great food and just enjoyed being together again. I tried to show everyone where my shingles were but no one seemed interested.

Yesterday we reluctantly let go of the twins and road away from Rio Grande. It was cool and sunny. We took a different route to Gallipolis that was alot better than the other day. We crossed the Ohio River and then the Kanawa River. We had planned to camp in Point Pleasant WV. But when we called they said sorry we don't allow tents. Then why do you call it a campground! We thought there was a hotel in Buffalo, WV so we headed south on Rt 62 on the Kanawa River. It was a beautiful route. When we got to Buffalo we were surprised to find that the hotel only rented by the week. Whoops! We asked about camping down the road and no one seemed to know of anything. So we just bought a gallon jug of water and planned to camp along the river. We stopped at a convenience store for a snack. When we were talking to some locals they said they wouldn't camp along the river. OK so now what? We didn't have any choice so we kept going south toward Charleston. We stopped in Eleanor at a convenience store. There was a local policeman in the store. We asked the clerk if she knew of a place to camp and she said why don't you camp in the city park. The cop said it closes at 10pm. Hap said can't you look the other way for one night? He said no! For the record, in alot of the towns we have been through they will let you camp in the park. We have many times. But I guess in WV you have to keep out the riff raff! I looked in my AAA book and found an Econolodge in Nitro. I called, made a reservation and we headed on down the road. We got to the Econolodge after a long day. Hap walked next door for spaghetti dinners.

This morning we had a short ride into Charleston. It was warmer today. I had been dreading riding into Charleston but it actually wasn't bad. We stopped at a Shoney's for lunch. We also stopped for haircuts. Are you wondering why we are going to Charleston, which by the way isn't on the way to Circleville from Gallipolis? We had an opportunity to raise some awareness for Alpha One. We are doing a fund raiser ride for the American Lung Association the weekend of May 15. Which is the weekend after we get home. We decided to hand deliver our donation for the ride to the main office of the ALA, in Charleston. They have arranged some media coverage for Alpha. We'll let you know how it goes next time.

Little Hocking, Ohio

2008-05-01T15:49:00.000-07:00

We left Wheeling on a cold overcast rainy morning. And because we are in West Virginia we started with a climb. We finally had our first view of Ohio across the river. Our plan was to ride south down the WV side of the river hoping that Rt 2 wouldn't be as busy as Rt 7 on the Ohio side. Before leaving Wheeling we stopped at AAA to pick up more maps. While we were in AAA they mentioned a bike trail along the river. It took alittle bit of trial and error but we managed to find it. It was only maybe five miles long but it did get us out of the busy downtown section of Wheeling. When we got off the trail we stopped at a KFC/Taco Bell for lunch. Then we got back on Rt 2. Or at least we thought we were going to. The road became a limited access freeway. When we headed up the entrance ramp we saw the sign (the dreaded sign) that said No Bicycles. Mmm.... well look at that! We sure didn't expect that. We checked the map and our options were to go back into Wheeling, go across the bridge into Ohio and take Rt 7. Or get on the freeway to the next exit which was only 1/4 mile and then climb the ridge and loop way out south and then get back on Rt 2. We decided that was the best choice. We were only on the freeway for a few minutes so I don't really think it was a foul. We got off and wound our way through the small towns of Benwood and McMechen. On the south side of McMechen we discovered that the freeway was no longer limited access and was ok to ride on. Thank goodness. There was some construction but traffic wasn't bad. Just before we got to the town of New Martinsville traffic really picked up. Not sure why. We couldn't find a campground so we stayed at the Plaza Inn. Next door was a grocery store so we bought some dinner fixins. Tonight we had beef vegetable soup and salad.

We left the next morning once again on a cold day. But at least the sun shined off and on. We decided to go across the river and ride down the Ohio side and hopefully the traffic would be less. On the other side of the bridge we saw a sign that said Rt 7 is closed 25 miles ahead. Uh oh, that's not good! We stopped in a gas station to see if maybe we could get through. They were all so helpful. Even the customers got into helping us see if we could get through. Hap called the sheriff and he said no way. Does anyone find it ironic that we have traveled almost 10,000 miles all around the US and now that we are within 100 miles or so of home we can't get there! What we ended up doing was ride 15 miles south on the Ohio side and take a ferry back across to Sisterville WV. The funniest thing happened on the ferry. We walked onto the ferry with our bike and were standing behind a pickup truck. A lady got out of the truck, looked at me and said, "Do you know Darlene?" (which is my mom's name!) then she said, "Are you Diane?" It scared me for a minute. I thought something had happened at home and people were out looking for us. She then said "I'm Rita do you remember me?" As it turned out it was my Aunt Rita that I had not seen for over 20 years! Small world! She knew about our bike ride from emails from my mom. What a shock. When we got off the ferry, she and her husband asked if we wanted to stay with them. We said sure and rode 15 miles to St Mary's. It was really great to see her after all this time. And we really appreciated the hospitality and opening up their home.

This morning we left on a warm sunny day. Finally back into the 70's instead of the 50's. We stopped at Subway for breakfast before crossing the river (AGAIN!) back into Ohio. Rt 7 was a good cycling road. It is great to be back in our home state. After traveling all over the country we realize how pretty our state really is. The Ohio River Valley is beautiful. Everything is green and the flowers are blooming. We got a call on the way into Marietta from a TV reporter from WTAP in Parkersburg. She met us at Walmart and did an interview. Check it out at http://www.wtap.com/.

We had planned to ride to a State park south of Belpre OH. When we were riding through Belpre we stopped to call the State Park. We thought we had about 20 miles to ride but when we asked her how far it was she said "It's a 40 minute drive". Umm... we didn't think that we could get there before dark so we decided to punt. We stopped in Belpre, got something to eat, and looked in a phone book for campgrounds or motels. We found a motel in the town of Little Hocking that was only about 5 miles south. The bonus!? It was only $25. When we got there we were very happy to find a small, very clean place to stay. See? Sometimes you don't know where you are going to end up? Look what happened to us the last two nights! I can't wait to see what happens next! Can you?

Wheeling, WVA The 27th state!

2008-04-28T20:10:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful breakfast at the B & B. Then we started out our day by climbing a steep hill to get to Rt 136. I love to climb hills, but not first thing in the morning especially on a full stomach. It was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the 70's. The day turned out to be hilly all day but then it was pretty much what we expected. The traffic wasn't too bad but there were a few drivers who were just annoying. Hap asked me if I had my target shirt on today. At times it felt like it. There was one ol' guy in a pick up truck who was trying to pass us just as we were crossing some railroad tracks, with another car coming toward us. There was no shoulder. He was right on the trailer. He was going really slow just sort of following us. I could see what was happening and I did the math and realized that all three of us (four counting Hap!) wasn't going to fit at the same time over the tracks. I yelled at Hap and he just pulled off the road and stopped. It was pretty exciting. And it just made no sense. But we made it safely over the tracks and headed down the road. We are back on the "S" route which was a really nice route. In the hotel Hap spent alot of the evening cleaning up the bike. It was pretty dirty from the time on the trail.

This morning we left Washington on National Route 40 paralleling Interstate 70. But this time we left in the pouring rain. It stopped during the day but was overcast and in the 50's all day. When we crossed into West Virginia it was our 26 state of the trip! That's amazing. It sure doesn't seem like we have gone that far. When we arrived in Wheeling it began to rain again. It was a very pretty ride today. Not much traffic and the weather didn't bother us much. Thank goodness for gortex raingear. We checked into a Super 8 and took a hot shower. Then walked across the street to a Wendy's. In the hotel we did our laundry, did some reading and watched TV. Nothing too exciting today. For dinner we ordered a pizza. Tomorrow we plan to ride south down the Ohio River toward Portsmouth, OH. Later.

West Newton, PA

2008-04-26T18:31:00.000-07:00

We left Somerset on a beautiful sunny day. The temps were already the 70's by the time we left. We had about a 10 mile ride to Rockwood where we get on the Alleghany Passage trail. You can check out their website at http://www.atatrail.org/ We have ridden a section of the trail on another trip from Cumberland, MD to Washington DC. We were looking forward to getting out of the line of fire of the cars/trucks. We rode into Rockwood to the start of the trail and stopped at a bike shop. As we got off we noticed we had a flat tire. Hap fixed it and then noticed that the rear rack wasn't right. He discovered a broken bolt on the rack. He bought one from the bike shop and we were on our way. We stopped on the trail for a lunch of peanut butter and bananas. The trail is not paved but was packed down enough that it wasn't a problem at all on our tandem. It was alot smoother than the section that we had ridden from MD to Wash. DC. thank goodness. There are several little towns that you go through on this route. Lots of B&B's and places to eat. We stopped in Confluence to get something to eat. We ended up camping at the Outflow campground. Unfortunately the shower house wasn't open until next weekend so we didn't get that shower that I look forward to. Oh well! We set up camp and walked over to an ice cream stand. But then we both decided we were hungry and ate fish and chips. How could we be hungry when we just ate?? When we got in the tent we watched a movie that I had downloaded off the internet. That's the first time that I had done that and it worked pretty well. I think I'll try it again.

The next morning was another beautiful sunny morning. We fixed our oatmeal and bananas for breakfast and got back on the trail. One thing for sure we aren't blazing a lot of miles lately! But we sure are enjoying the trail. We are riding next to the Youghiogheny River. It is a big rafting, kayaking, fishing river. We saw lots of fisherman standin in the water. I can't figure it out. I always see them casting but I don't think I've ever seen one catchin'. We loved watching them fly fishing out west in MT, WA, ID. Same deal out there. Lots of castin goin on...... When we went through Ohiopyle we stopped for lunch and had a great Hummus sandwich. Or was it so good only because we were so hungry....again.... We stopped on one of the bridges and watched some kayakers for awhile. Then we saw an upside down kayak. Hey Hap? How long can that guy hold his breath?" Finally we realized or hoped that he wasn't in the boat. That can't be good. Eventually we saw him sitting on the rock way upstream. I guess it's not like snow skiing where we put brakes on our skis. While we were standing there another cyclist rode up and said that he had just seen a black bear run across the trail. Cool! But we didn't see him. He was probably so scared he is still running. We saw lots of cyclists, runners and walkers using the trail. People of all ages. Even people as old as Ol' Hap and me! I love to see people out and doing something. We rode into the town of Connelsville and stopped at the bike shop to ask about camping. A lady told us that there was a campground about 3 miles out of town. We started to head that way and then decided since it was going to rain to stay inside. And of course the motel was at the TOP of the hill (one of those bicycle laws!). We checked in and walked across the street to Walmart to buy some dinner groceries. Anyone seeing a theme here? At the motel there was a small group of cyclists that we started talking to. It turns out that Tom runs a company that leads bicycle tours on the C & O and the Great Alleghany Passage. You can check out his webite at http://www.getoutandgo.biz/ Oh, and we also discovered another flat tire on the rear. Wassup with all these flat tires?? When Hap checked the rear tire he noticed a pinch in the sidewall. And we were so hoping that we could get through without having to buy another tire.

This morning it was raining when we woke up but then cleared off and was another beautiful day. This would be our last day on the trail so we planned a short day to West Newton. We made reservations at a B & B. A little unusual for us but hey were just trying to be like all our friends! And we only have two more weeks before we have to live in the real world again. Our first stop was at the bike shop again to buy a new tire and another tube. Hopefully it will be the last! Tom had told us that the trail was alittle softer but it turned out to not be so bad. We just enjoyed the trail and the quiet before heading back to the road tomorrow. In West Newton we ate a sandwich at the Trailside Inn before going to the B & B. It was really a nice place. I especially liked the shower! We walked back to the laundromat and to the drugstore for another bottle of sunscreen. For dinner we got some spaghetti and salad to take back to the B & B. We only ate again to go with the wine that they had at the B & B. We spent most of the evening planning our last two weeks. I can't believe it is almost over. A year ago we were just getting ready to leave. It will be very strange to have a car to drive again. Mmmm....maybe I won't want to. We'll see! Later.

Somerset, PA

2008-04-23T16:34:00.000-07:00

We spent three nights in Breezewood with Bing and Susie. And their family of dogs. Hooter, Stoney and Elton. They are on their way to the National Poodle Show in MD. It was so great to see them again. If you have been following our journey you may remember that they drove out to Glacier National Park and spent several days with. We didn't do much in Breezewood except relax, watch movies, play cards and eat. It was great!

We left Breezewood and rode to Bedford. We are still following the PA "S" bicycle route. The route was beautiful. Everything is so green and the trees are just starting to bud. We saw a brand new baby calf. It must have just been born. It was still wet and was trying to stand for the first time. The mom even still had the afterbirth attached. We had quite a few short steep climbs today. But we have been expecting the crossing of the Alleghany Mts to be pretty tough. We have climbed them before on a couple of bike tours. The biggest difference between crossing the Rockies or western mts and the eastern mts is outwest you might climb for 20 miles or more but at a 5-6% grade. In the east you might climb 1-7 miles at a 7-10% grade. Which would YOU pick? We found a few of those 10% grades today. Ah well, that's bikin! As we were entering Bedford we noticed a big factory with the name Cannondale on the outside. Wonder if that is the bicycle factory Cannondale. We pulled in and Hap went in and asked. As it turned out it was. He set us up for a tour in the morning. There was a campground just down the road so we headed down there and set up camp. For dinner we had rice, peas and chicken. Does that sound good to anyone else? We played a game of cards and someone won but we don't need to go into that! Bing had loaned us a movie "Mystery Alaska" so we watched it on the computer. It was really a good one. Thanks Bing!!

This morning we got up at 7a, I know ..... guess I better get used to it since my date to get back to work at the hospital is getting close! I am really looking forward to it too. Not the getting up early part! The being a part of a great team at Berger Health System. That's what I miss. The tour at Cannondale was awesome. It almost wants someone to add to our stable of bikes. But not quite. It is nice to know that an American made bicycle is a quality machine. We saw alot of pretty bikes and learned alot about how they were made. They had one bike that was made special for President Bush who is an avid cyclist. The tour guide said they got tired of seeing him ride a TREK bike! When we left Bedford we decided to take a slight detour from the "S" route. We opted to take Rt 30 to see the Memorial to Flight 93 that went down near Shanksville on 9-1-1. Route 30 is known as the Lincoln Highway. It was a good riding road. Some berm and not much traffic. It was a pretty ride once again. Who knew that PA was such a pretty state. We had lots of climbing. One climb was 7 miles long. We climbed up to over 2000 feet. The memorial was really a special place. It is just a temporary one for now. They are working to put a permament one up. There was a lady there who lived in Shanksville and told us about that day. She said the explosion shattered windows. I just cannot imagine what it must have been like for a large jet plane to hit the ground at over 500 mph. There wasn't much left. While we were there I looked over and saw a familiar face. It was my cousin Wayne from Dublin, OH. What a surprise. It was good to see him! After we left the site we rode into Somerset. We thought we were going to see a campground on the way into town but somehow it wasn't where we thought it was. So we ended up at a Days Inn. Which worked out just as well since it started raining as soon as we checked in. I washed out our clothes while Hap worked on the bike. The gears have not been shifting like we like. Or let's say that I kept having to jump off the bike and "help" us get into the lowest gear. And with all the hills it got alittle tiring. He cleaned everything up and hopefully tomorrow it will work better. Dinner was pizza and salad from Pizza Hut. Tomorrow we plan to get back on the "S" route and ride to the Great Alleghany rail/trail. That connects Washington DC with Pittsburgh. Until then...............

Breezewood, PA

2008-04-19T18:33:00.000-07:00

We had breakfast at the Twin Bridges Campground. Our standard oatmeal and fruit. In the picture above you might notice the "racing stripe" on our cantalope. It had a little accident on the ride to the campground last night. Ooopps..... We left the campground at Chambersburg on a beautiful sunny day. This is the warmest temperatures we have had in awhile. We had to ride east on Rt 30 which was a fairly busy road. Thank goodness there was a nice shoulder / berm for us to ride on. We stopped and had lunch and sandwiches. We could see the Appalacian mountains getting closer. We know we have to climb them somewhere. In Fort Loudon we stopped at a restaurant and had some lunch. Then went across the street to a grocery store that was going out of business for dinner stuff. They didn't have much. So we ended up just buying a can of green beans and chicken to go with our rice for dinner. After leaving Fort Loudon we started climbing up to Cowens Gap State Park. The real climb was three miles long up to the "gap". We found a nice campsite. And tonight we got to have a hot shower! The bugs were kindof bad but we had some skin so soft that worked pretty well. Dinner turned out pretty good tonight. At least we didn't go to bed hungry! One good thing about camping is you for sure get to bed early. We were in the tent and listening to music at dark. We had a flat tire today. We also developed a new noise on the bike. When we got to the campground Hap spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out our extra noise. He finally discovered a loose bolt on the rear wheel and our rear rack has developed a small crack. Thank goodness it is not in a critical place. We'll just keep an eye on it.

This morning was a another beautiful day. It was in the 80's. We had breakfast at the campground. Oatmeal, peanut butter and bananas and juice. I am starting to worry about Hap though. He is starting to have conversations with odd things. Like bugs. While he was taking the tent down he was telling the bugs that it was their last chance to get out of the tent and be with their friends before he killed them..... should I be concerned?? Maybe too much bike riding?? The ride from Cowens Gap was really pretty. We rode through tree lined areas with little traffic. We are still following the "S" route across Pennsylvania. We were taking a little detour today though through a section of the old Pennsylvania turnpike that is closed to car traffic. It goes through two tunnels. One is a mile long. We did alot of climbing to get their but it was worth it, because it saved us climbing over a couple of mts. We saw lots of cyclists as well. We put on our lights and went through. It was alittle scary but we made it. I had a light in each hand and Hap had a light on the handle bar. Breezewood was right on the other side of the tunnel. What is interesting about the Pike 2 Bike detour is that on their website it says "This route is closed use at your own risk". http://www.pike2bike.com/ We are in a hotel tonight because we couldn't find a campground. We walked across the street and ate dinner at Bob Evan's. Tomorrow we are meeting up with our friends Bing and Susie from Indiana. If you have been following our trip you might remember they drove out to Glacier Park and spent a few days with us there. It will be good to see them.

Chambersburg, PA

2008-04-17T15:09:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, we are now just outside of Chambersburg. I am sorry I haven’t written for awhile. We have just been having way too much fun. It is hard to believe that we are down to out last 24 days of riding!! And the big question is are we tired of riding our bicycle after almost a year of pedaling? That would have to be a great big NO! Would we change anything about the last year? No, when we rode out of our driveway last May, we made the decision that we would do everything that we wanted to, if we wanted to stop and see something we would. We didn’t want to get to the end of the year and say, we wish we would have done…..that! I am happy to report that is just what we have done.
Now, about the last week………..we decided to spend a couple of days in Lancaster with Fred and Will. Fred was the person who hired Hap at RCA back in 1971. It was so good to spend time with him. We are only sorry that Rae Jean, Fred’s wife couldn’t be there. But we promised Fred that we would be back. He took us out for a drive into the Amish area. The first thing we noticed was how huge the Amish farms looked compared to the one’s in Ohio. The scenery was spectacular. While we were there Fred went out of his way to feed us with some great food. It was just a nice and relaxing few days.
We left Fred’s house and retraced our path back to York. We are riding on the S Pennsylvania bicycle route across southern PA. Getting into York was alittle tricky with all of the traffic. We did our usual thing though. If you are riding through a town, usually you can go one street parallel to the main road and find a less traveled route. In this case it ended up being an alley. We took the alley up to Rt 30 where we had a hotel reservation and ended up riding right into the back of the hotel parking lot. Just like we knew where we were going! Right next door there was a grocery store so we walked over and got us a bag of salad and salmon for dinner.
The next morning our goal was to ride to Gettysburg which was off the S Route. But first we had to figure out how to get out of York! Which wasn’t easy….. Somehow we missed our turn, went down a big hill and THEN noticed that we missed our turn. Why is it that you find out about the turn at the BOTTOM of the hill? In York we were constantly going either up or down anyway, we didn’t really need an extra one. Finally we made our way out of town and onto Rt 234 east. It was a beautiful road for riding on. We stopped on top of a big hill and ate our lunch (apples and peanut butter). Once we reached Gettysburg we ran into lots of traffic, and this isn’t even the tourist season. Oh, I have to tell you about this one idiot……driver…..sorry….but …..he….was… Here’s what he did. We were riding on the side of the road, and a car came up beside us going very slow. I was watching him and apparently so was Hap, because both of us at the same time yelled, He’s going to turn right. Remember he was right beside us?? Thank goodness Hap saw him because he hit the brakes and sure enough the idiot…driver..turned right into a parking lot and stopped to park! Do you get the picture? I have no idea what this person was thinking. It makes you wonder doesn’t it?? In Gettysburg we wanted to go to the Visitor Center before going to the campground which was 5 miles out of town. You would think that would be easy wouldn’t you?? Ok, maybe if you are driving a car and not have to climb the hills, watch out for the tour buses, watch out for the idiot in the truck. Finally we found the visitor center, but then we discovered there was a new visitor center and it was on down the road (at the bottom of the hill, do ya know what that means?). We rode to the visitor center and went in to check it out. They had just opened this one yesterday. It was pretty cool. We watched a movie and then decided to come back tomorrow to look at the museum. Now we had to find the campground. We took a shortcut through the battlefield so that we didn’t have to dodge the tour buses again. The ride to the campground was a beautiful ride. Everything is just so green. The battlefield is very impressive. And everyone is driving very slowly so it was a nice ride. We arrived at the campground, set up camp, cooked dinner and went to the rec room to play cards. It got pretty cool at night, down in the low 30’s, but Big Agnes (sleeping bag) came through for us and kept us plenty warm!
The next morning we rode back into town for breakfast. Then we took a bus tour of the battlefield. It was good because it really gave you an idea of what happened in the battle. So many lives lost in such a short period of time. It is hard to imagine what that is like. After our tour we went back to the visitor center to the museum. Then we stopped for groceries before riding back to the campground. For dinner we had stir fry. It was pretty good but I really need to perfect my technique. It is really hard to make stir fry in a 5 inch fry pan!
This morning we got a late start as usual. But we planned a short days ride anyway so that was fine. We cooked oatmeal and had bananas for breakfast. The riding today was tougher than what we have been having. We had some really steep climbs today. It was in the 70’s and felt really hot after all the cool days we have had. But it was a beautiful ride again. I had no idea that PA was such a pretty state. We are starting to see more buds on the trees finally. In Chambersburg we stopped at a grocery store for dinner supplies. I’m going to try something new. I bought frozen salmon, rice and peas. We’ll see how the frozen salmon works in our little fry pan. We rode 5 miles out of town to the campground. It wasn’t much of a campground. And I had to take a COLD shower. So you know how I feel about this place. Later.

Lancaster, PA

2008-04-12T19:36:00.001-07:00

We didn't leave the motel at Hunt Valley until noon. We made a stop at the post office so Hap could get some things mailed off. Then we rode to the North Central rail/trail that we had heard about. It wasn't paved but we were hoping that it was packed down enough for us to ride on. We were also hoping that we could ride on the trail long enough to get away from some of the traffic. Hunt Valley is just off of I - 83, north of Baltimore. A very high traffic area. We found the trail and headed north. This trail runs north all the way to the Pennsylvania border. We were thinking that we would get off of it where it connected with the Adventure Cycling route that we have been following up the east coast. But when we got to that point we found it so nice to ride without having to worry about traffic that we just stayed on the trail. The weather was beautiful finally! It was in the 70's and sunny. We ran into lots of cyclists, joggers and walkers. A couple of cyclists rode along with us for awhile. We saw an interesting sight on the trail. There were some very large trees that some industrious eager beavers were busily eating through. See the pictures above. I think I'm very glad that the beavers weren't around. They must have very large teeth! We crossed into Pennsylvania on the trail at the Mason/Dixon Line. When we got to the town of New Freedom we stopped for ice cream and debated on whether we should continue on to Lancaster or find a place to camp. We ended up riding back down the trail about 3 miles to a campground. The campground wasn't on the trail. It was in Freeland, MD. We had to climb a mile and a half up a steep hill to get to it. On the way we passed a large buffalo farm. At the campground they charged us $28 for a site with no water or electric. Somehow that seems so unreasonable. But what can you do? I guess I won't complain about a hot shower and a picnic table! We set up camp, cooked our pasta, salmon and green beans for supper. See picture above. Then watched a movie on the computer. Or should I say Hap watched a movie....I watched the inside of my eyelids.

It was an overcast morning when we left. We rode back to New Freedom for breakfast. Actually it was lunch since it was 11:30A. There's nothing wrong with hamburgers for breakfast is there? We decided to stay on the trail heading towards York, PA. then getting off the trail to Lancaster. We had a flat front tire so Hap went ahead and put a new tire on while changing it. This is the third tire on the front and we are on the sixth rear tire. That's great tire wear for a ride like this. We have been very happy with the tires that Hap picked when we left. When we got off the trail we ran into another cyclist who helped us with directions. Have you ever noticed how easy people make directions seem. We were able to follow the first four turns...it was the last few that caused the problem. We got all turned around. As we were stopped looking at the map (again) a lady pulled up and asked if we needed help. We told her we wanted to get to Rt 462 headed to Lancaster. Here is what she said "well, if you go right you can go to Rt 24 to get something to eat, because you are probably hungry, there's a pizza place down on the corner, and if you need something to drink there's a .......... so do you want to follow me?" We thanked her for the directions and took a chance and followed the sun! We got to another crossroads and another guy in a car stopped. We asked how to get to Rt 462 and he said "go to the T, turn left and it's right there". See we did know where we were! We got on Rt 462 toward Lancaster and found a very nice shoulder to ride on AND lots of cyclists on the road. That's always reassuring. We made one ice cream stop before we got to Lancaster. Riding through Lancaster wasnt' bad at all. Then we had to find our friend Fred's house. We asked a lady where Landis road was. She said go one mile and it's the next road. By the time we got to Fred's house it was starting to get dark. But we made it. It was great to see Fred. We plan to spend a couple of days here and then make our last left turn towards Ohio.

Hunt Valley, Maryland

2008-04-09T19:28:00.000-07:00

The morning we left Fredericksburg was in the pouring rain. Temps were in the 50's. It was a good day to be a duck! Today was the first day of the entire trip that we have had to break out our gortex socks and gloves. So I guess we shouldn't complain about a little rain. Leaving the hotel the first few miles were on a very busy road. Thank goodness it was four lanes for the part we were on. Once we turned off the main route, we were on some nice low traffic roads. The rain stayed with us most of the day. It didn't seem too bad though. We just didn't stop much today so we stayed warm. The terrain is becoming more rolling hills. Guess its time to get our climbing legs in gear again. We ate on the fly today. I guess its called grazing. Our plan was to stay as close to Mt Vernon as we could so that we could visit Mt Vernon tomorrow. In order to get to the motel we had to cross an interchange for I-95. That was exciting. I don't think any of the drivers had a sense of humor at all. But we made it, AND I don't wanna do it again! We got to the motel, did some laundry and cooked some soup and salad for dinner. All of that and it was STILL raining!

When we left the motel the next morning we had one goal for the day! Stay off of Rt 1. When we did a tour several years ago from Ohio to Va Beach, we had ridden to Wash. DC, Mt Vernon and then got on Rt 1. That was really scary. We knew that wasn't a good idea. Today we ended up doing a big loop around Rt 1, going through Fort Belvoir on the way to Mt Vernon. Hap took his officer's basic training there (a couple of year's ago......). Oh, I forgot to tell you. It was raining and in the 50's again when we left the motel. Oh well, that's bike touring. What can ya do? Going through the Fort was interesting. I think everyone else decided to drive through at the same time that we did. Wonder why THEY didn't go drive on Rt 1? We finally got to Mt Vernon and took the tour. What a fascinating place! We left Mt Vernon, heading to Alexandria on the Mt Vernon bike trail. The trail runs along the Potomac River. It would've been prettier had it been sunny instead of rainy and overcast. In Alexandria we planned to stay with Jim and Kim from the tandem club. They had a beautiful 200 year old home in Old Alexandria. We walked a few blocks to an italian restaurant for dinner. Great food!

Jim decided to be our tour guide to Washington on the bike trail. Sort of a bike GPS! He had also contacted another tandem couple who was going to meet us and help us get to the Capital Crescent bike trail that went north out of Washington. It was cold again, in the 40's, but at least it wasn't raining! We rode passed the airport and across the 14th street bridge. The cherry blossums were blooming and were beautiful. Washington is actually a great city to see by bicycle. This is the third time we have ridden into Washington. We met up with Gabe and Diana and Jim headed home. Gabe and Diana gave us a short tour of a few monuments before showing us how to get on the trail. As it turned out they live north of the city just off the bike trail and invited us to spend the night. So we made plans to meet them further north. We stopped in Bethesda for some mexican food for lunch. Diana and Thunder rode out and met us on her trike (see picture above) and once again we had a guided tour. We could get used to this! Gabe and Diana took us out for chinese food. Oh, I almost forgot today we entered our 24th state!

This morning we left on the Rock Creek bike trail and headed north towards Baltimore, MD. It was in the 50's and NOT raining. It is supposed to warm up finally. We'll see! The sun did come out briefly in the afternoon. When we got off the trail the terrain was rolling hills again. We had a good ride today. More traffic than we had in southern VA. We stopped for lunch and had some great sandwiches. As we were riding I noticed that my pedal or crank seemed to be getting loose. So we stopped and Hap tightened up my crank. Towards late afternoon the roads really got busier. The last five miles of the day were just ridiculous. We kept pulling over to let people go by. There were no shoulders and traffic was backed up going both directions. But we made it to Hunt Valley. I called the hotel to get directions and the lady asked me where we were. When I told her she said, "Oh, you need to turn around and go back......." What? I'm NOT going back there! We finally figured out she was wrong and we just needed to keep going forward. But the main thing was to get off the road. When we got in the room we both shut the door and said, "now they can't get us!" We walked down to the grocery for our dinner. Our plan now is to ride to Lancaster, PA before turning west to Ohio and home. Later....

Fredericksburg, VA

2008-04-05T18:56:00.000-07:00

At the motel in Sandston Hap discovered that somewhere along the way we had broken a rear spoke. We aren't sure how long it had been broken. Usually its pretty obvious when one breaks. Hap spent some time replacing it. This is the first broken spoke we have had the entire trip. On past trips we have broken alot of them so we were prepared. Hap's a gotten very good at fixing them over the years. So it didn't take him long. For dinner we walked across the parking lot to a place called "Soul Food". It was an interesting restaurant. You paid by the pound for buffet food. $5.49/pound. The food was ok.

We left Sandston and planned to skirt around the northeast corner of Richmond. We found a nice four lane road that was great for riding on until we found some road construction. After all the traveling on the bike, it is interesting to see how people/cars react to our bike in traffic. Being on the back of the tandem I can really watch what is going on. Afterall I have to protect our "assets"! One lady drove right up behind us, we were on a 4 lane section, and she had a clear passing lane to move into. But she just stayed on our wheel. Finally she had both lanes of traffic lined up behind her. Eventually she passed us, BUT she kept all four of her wheels on our side of the right lane. Interesting?? Before leaving Richmond we stopped for some sandwiches. Once we got out of town we were on nice low traffic roads again. There wasn't much traffic at all. When we left the hotel it was about 60 degrees and threatening rain. By the time we left Richmond the temps were dropping, eventually down to the 40's and it started to rain very hard. We spent the rest of the day riding in the rain. We were heading for a little town called Beaverdam where a friend of ours lived, Charlotte. The terrain changed today. We are finding more rolling hills. It was a beautiful place to ride. We arrived in the town of Beaverdam and called Charlotte. She said her house was another 4 miles down the road. So off we went again in the rain. When we arrived Charlotte welcomed us with some great hot coffee and a warm, dry house. Thanks Charlotte! She also cooked us a great meal of homemade stew and biscuits. Mmmmm.....

Since the weather was supposed to be bad again the next day we decided to take a day off and spend it with Charlotte and Boo Boo. Ok so we are getting our dog fix again as you can see in the picture above. Charlotte cooked us breakfast and then showed us the sights around town. We stopped by the post office to mail off the maps and things we don't need anymore. We are on our last set of maps. That's so hard to believe. When we left home last May, I collected all of the maps that we would need for our adventure and put them in a huge plastic tub in our living room. Throughout the year someone has been going by the house, getting the maps we need and mailing them all over the country. Now here we are almost a year later having used most of those maps. Wow! Hard to believe. We went out for chinese food for lunch. Then we stopped by the EMS station that Charlotte works at for a look see. By the time we got home we were all pretty tired and just sat around and talked.

This morning we left Charlotte and Boo Boo heading for Fredericksburg. Once again it was threatening rain, but it was warmer in the 60's. We were expecting rain all day. We had a great ride today. Low traffic roads, some rolling hills and pretty scenic views. We also had more color in the trees and bushes. Maybe spring is finally on its way. It seems like it has been a cold winter. When we arrived in Fredericksburg we were trying to find the Motel 6 that I had made a reservation for. I called the motel and asked the lady for directions. When I asked her how far it was to the hotel she said, "I am not sure by bicycle, but if you drive it is about 5 miles!" I am leaving ya'll with that statement. If you figure that one out let me know. I asked her about it when we got to the motel. "Wouldn't the distance be the same if you were riding a bike or driving a car?" She said, (and I quote) "I don't know, I've never ridden a bicycle.........."

Sandston, (Richmond) VA

2008-04-02T17:32:00.000-07:00

On the way out of Suffock we stopped at a grocery store for breakfast. While we were sitting there eating outside the rains came. It rained pretty hard for several minutes and then stopped. This was the theme for the day. The temperature was a balmy 70's. We had a good tailwind all day. We were going off the Adventure Cycling route once again today. We decided to make a stop in Jamestown/Williamsburg area. We saw that a free ferry ran across the James River and there was a campground near the ferry stop. The riding was wonderful again today. Not much traffic and excellent roads. We are using the Delorme Virginia atlas to navigate. We arrived in Surry and made our way to the ferry. When we got off the ferry, for some reason several sheriff and police stopped the traffic from unloading and loading the ferry. Then three sheriffs came running up the road to the ferry. We were far enough away that we couldn't see what happened. As we were walking by another sheriff I asked him what happened and he said that they were probably just looking for someone. So I said, we're they lookin for a couple on a bright yellow tandem. He said yeah so you better get outta here. We rode down the road alittle and found the campground was closed. Mmm.... no problem, I'll just call one of the other 3 that I have numbers for. No answer. OK. No problem, we'll just stop in the Jamestown Visitor Center and see if we can get some info. We went in and asked at the desk if they knew anything about campgrounds. No. There's some literature around the corner she said. We went where she said and found a stack of general brochures on Williamsburg. None of them had anything about camping. We went back outside and I called a couple of hotels that I had found the day before. While we were standing there, several people stopped to talk about our trip. It was fun to share our adventure with them. And also talk about Alpha One. As we were standing there, the rains came! By the time we left they had stopped ... for a minute. It started pouring again as we rode to the hotel. We found it finally after calling a couple of times.

This morning we stopped at a pancake house for great banana pecan pancakes. Then we rode through Williamsburg before leaving town. What an interesting place. Definitely worth a revisit in the future! Once again we became our very own tourist attraction! Today the weather changed to cooler temperatures in the 60's and a headwind. The riding was great again. We followed Rt 5 toward Richmond. It was a little odd though that even though there wasn't much traffic, we had several cars either blow the horn at us, yell out the window, or not move over at all. It didn't make sense especially when there just wasnt' that much traffic. Oh well! This is such a beautiful part of our country. I think I will take this beautiful green countryside over the brown desert, rocks of the southwest! We stopped for a snack beside the road. Our snack today was an apple and peanut butter.

Suffock, Virginia STATE NUMBER 23! 9000 MILES!

2008-03-31T15:51:00.000-07:00

In Plymouth we walked down the street to a laundry mat. Hap got another beard trim next door at the Barbershop. It sure seemed hot today. It was in the 80's. While we were walking back we found a chicken dinner fundraiser. Hap walked back later and picked up a dinner for us.

When we left Plymouth in the morning we were surprised by a sudden drop in temps! It was 40's and the wind was fierce from the north. We got maybe a mile and decided to put on our tights and another layer. Big change from yesterday! The roads were once again super for cycling! We got alittle confused at one intersection that said "Bicycle Route Port of Call Detour" and it sent us the wrong direction. One trick I have learned over the years, is when you are cycling through a state, if you check with the Dept of Transportation of that state usually they have suggested routes for cycling on. Most states have a State Bicycle Coordinator that can help you with questions. In my looking at North Carolina I came across the Port of Call Route that they were talking about. So we figured that wasnt' the same route we were on, since we are generally following the Adventure Cycling route up the east coast. We continued through the detour sign and found we were on the right path. Just before crossing the Abelemeyer Sound we stopped at a little store for a snack. It was at this point that it started to rain. We knew that we had a 5 mile bridge across the sound. We were alittle concerned about crosswinds, and trying to negotiate the 2 lane bridge in traffic. But it turned out to be not so bad. Not much traffic and the wind wasn't that bad either. After crossing the bridge we turned onto a side road that took us into Edenton, NC. What a pretty town! As we were riding we saw a Kiwanas Fish Fry and decided to stop and eat again. Hey we had to support the town didn't we? The food was excellent and the people doing the cooking were fun to talk to. After a while though it started to spit rain again so we decided to find a hotel and get in a hot shower. We checked into the Super 8, took a hot soak, and then started eating again! It was nice to be out of the rain!

The next day it was still raining and in the 40's so we decided to stay another day. We got up and walked to the Edenton UMC that was just down the street. We met Bill and Gail at church who were kind enough to take us to the grocery store after church and then back to the hotel. We bought lunch and dinner supplies. Most of the rest of the day we spent relaxing and going through our extra maps and stuff. We are going to mail home some things that we don't need anymore since we are on our last leg of the journey. We also got a call from the local newspaper, who did an interview with us about our trip. I think we will definitely be back to Edenton! I wish the weather had cooperated so that we could have seen some of the sights. But we'll be back!

This morning a photographer from the newspaper came by to take a photo of us leaving town. We headed out Rt 32 towards Suffock. It was still overcast but temps had warmed up to the 60's. We road off and on Rt 32 north most of the day. Once again great cycling roads, and low traffic. We are starting to see more farming land. Today wheat and some cotton along with the pine trees. It started to sprinkle when we stopped for a pizza. We had planned to camp tonight but instead will stay in Suffock inside.

We had an interesting experience with a hotel room in Suffock, VA. Another first! Hap called a Days Inn in Suffock and told the guy we were cycling through and asked if he had a room tonight? The guy said, (in a foreign language....I'll let you guess which one.....) bicycle? No, no room..... OK. Later in the day, I called Trip Rewards which is an 800 number that represents several different chains, one happens to be the Days Inn (yes, the same Days Inn). They said the Days Inn in Suffock had rooms. Mmmm... ok...we'll take it. We ride into town, well actually we had a heck of a time getting into town. Couldn't find the road...road on the freeway...don't mind the NO bicyclist signs on the onramp...that's just a guideline. Hey Hap, do you think that sheriff noticed us riding on the freeway? We stopped at three gas stations and asked directions. No one seemed to know anything about where the Days Inn was. We finally found it. When I went in the lady said no, we don't have a reservation for you. I said I called Trip Rewards and made it. She said, well they didn't call me. I am full. I went outside and called Trip Rewards. They assured me that we did have a reservation. I said can you call the hotel and talk to them. Trip rewards put me on hold and called the hotel. After speaking with the lady at the hotel. She said I should file a complaint with Trip Rewards. I'll transfer you. No, I just want a room. I will call back for that. When I went back in the lady discovered that she did have a smoking room on the second floor but we couldn't take our bike up because we would get the carpet dirty and besides we had a heavy bike............?? OK, I'll let you guys figure that statement out. We went outside, called another hotel and got ready to leave. Now, the lady comes running out the door. She said I called a lady and she isn't coming. So I do have a room. I couldn't give it to you because I would get in trouble with her. Well, now your in trouble with me cause I also had a reservation. Never mind we don't want a room, we found another. Thanks! After all that we saved $10 by staying at the other hotel. The moral to the story?? I'm not sure yet. But I will figure it out! I wanted to ask her if every person on her list of "reservations" had personally called and made the reservation with her? They must have because she didn't seem to know what the internet or online reservation was. Oh well, we had a big chuckle out of it. And the funny part......it was still raining when we road across town looking for the other hotel!

Plymouth, NC

2008-03-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

We ate breakfast in the room at the Days Inn in Jacksonville. The room had a jacuzzi so Mr. Shingles took advantage of a morning soak beofre we left. There was quite a bit of traffic on US 17 through Jacksonville. Luckily we followed the Adventure Cycling route and was able to get on side streets away from the traffic. The weather is beautiful. Sunny and 70's. All of the riding today was on low volume side roads through rural North Carolina. It was beautiful. Lots of pine forests and a few farms starting to pop up. The forests reminded me of riding in Tar Hollow and Scioto Trails near our home in Ohio, but without the hills. Maybe we are getting close to home? We stopped for sandwiches at a little store for lunch. As we were sitting beside the store, all of a sudden a rooster crowed right behind us! Scared us to death! It was pretty funny. Wonder why he was crowing at 1:00pm? We arrived at New Bern on the Nuese River and where we thought we were going to cross the river the road was closed. We called the KOA and found that they were actually in Bridgton which was on the other side of the Nuese River. The lady said just come down US 17 you can't miss it! I hate it when they say "you can't miss it" The bridge over the river was really something. It was almost like 2 or 3 bridges coming together in the middle of the huge river. And of course all of them merged from 3 lanes down to 2 with no berm. It wasn't bad though everyone seemed to move over for us. Once on the other side US 17 divided off of another major route so we had to negotiate a busy interchange. After that we had our 2 miles on US 17. Now the cars and trucks weren't so happy. By the time we got to our turn, a car zipped up beside us, turned on his windshield wipers and finally went around. Hey Hap is it raining? The KOA was very nice. We set up camp and I went to do the laundry while Hap cooked. Beans, rice and green beans for supper. Thanks Hap!

The next morning we stopped at a restaurant for breakfast. As it turned out, if we had ridden into town on the way to the KOA yesterday we wouldn't have had to ride on US 17. Once again the Adventure Cycling route we are following is on low volume backroads that are just great. We stopped and watched some lumbertrucks picking up trees. Who knew there was so much tree cutting being done in North Carolina? It is so nice not to have to keep watching for traffic. And it is so nice to have some piece and quiet while riding. We couldn't find a campground on the AC route so we opted to go into Chocowinity, NC to camp. On the way to the campground we stopped for dinner stuff at the grocery store. A lady came over to us, introduced herself and said "how would you like to buy some auto insurance?" What? "We don't have a car? "No, problem, you can still use it. They pay you if you are in an accident" Now she had my attention. "So what's the difference between this and my car insurance?" "Well, they pay you $10,000 if you die!" Ok, that's enough. She finished by saying "You can sign up anywhere, so if you are interested here is my number and I will come wherever you are and sign you up!" OK, so we're going to call her from every state before we get back to Ohio! Twin Lakes Campground was very nice. We cooked stir fry broccoli and caulifower for supper with rice. For entertainment we watched a DVD on the computer. It was a good night.

This morning we fixed oatmeal for breakfast before heading out. It was even warmer today, in the 80's. We also had a wonderful tailwind. The route was again backroads with little or no traffic. What a joy! This is what riding is all about. We stopped in Pineville NC at a church for lunch. We had our very own smorgesborg. We rode into Plymouth expecting to go another 8 miles or so to a B & B that we had found on the internet. But when we arrived in town we decided to check out the hotels. There were no campgrounds around. We stopped at Wendy's for a Frosty before checking into the Plymouth Inn. We had to walk down the street to do the laundry and Hap also got a beard trim. On the way back we stopped at the store for a barley soda.

The last three days of riding have been some of the best riding we have had in awhile. I think on this trip it is easy to get into the mode of just riding. Sometimes you just need that little nudge to remind you why you love doing what your doing. Thanks Lord for the reminder.

Here is the latest picture of Mr. Shingle. As you can see the spots are clearing up nicely. The three spots on the right are the original three that appeared. I have finished taking all of the anti viral meds. I am still having some pain in the area but it is for sure better than last week.

Jacksonville, NC

2008-03-25T17:29:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful stay with Gayle and Larry in Wilmington. They sure went out of their way to take care of us. We felt right at home. It was such a blessing to have a couple of days to spend in a real home. My shingles thanks you! We sure had some great food while we were there. Larry cooked breakfasts of sausage gravy and biscuits because she had seen on the blog that I was missing my mom's. He also fixed some fantastic sweet potato pancakes that we had never had. Yesterday, they loaned us their car and we drove down to Caroline Beach to pick up two mailings. One of them is our last set of maps for the trip. It is so hard to believe that this adventure is down to a few maps. We can hardly wait to see what happens in our remaining time!

Gayle arranged for a Fox and local NBC news came over and taped an interview and of us riding for Alpha One. Cystic Fibrosis is a lung disease many people have heard of, but Alpha One Antitrypsin Deficiency is a disease that is less understood. You can check out the story at :

http://www.wect.com/global/story.asp?s=8065636

We left their house this morning after the taping and it was hard to leave! Larry and Gayle drove out with us. Gayle sitting in the back videotaping our departure. We have a date though! A year from now we are all going to meet somewhere and they will be riding with us! We cannot wait! Thank you guys so much for all you did.

Today's ride was beautiful. We left Wilmington, NC on Rt 133. We thought it wouldn't be so busy because it paralleled I-40. It was a little busy but not bad. The biggest news for today was the sunny, but cooler weather. Perfect for cycling. When we got to Burgaw we turned east on Rt 53 toward Jacksonville. There was less traffic but there were several big logging trucks. We stopped for a snack at a Hardees. Traffic really picked up in Jacksonville. As we were coming into town, there were two big trucks behind us. The first passed just fine. The second, I don't think planned to slow down or move over, so I put my hand out to hopefully let him know we were there. Finally he slowed but as he went by the car coming toward us had to run completely off the road! Then the two trucks got stopped at a light and we passed both of them just up the road! I don't know, doesn't make sense to me!

A Shingles update: The rash is much improved, the pain is lessoning but still in the "I'm not havin any fun and I don't like this category". We plan to take things day to day and just go by how I feel. So we'll see. Would I be dissappointed if we couldn't finish this thing? Of course but my health is first, so we'll just leave it in God's hands and see what happens!

Wilmington, North Carolina

2008-03-23T15:44:00.000-07:00

We left Murrells Inlet on a beautiful sunny morning. It turned out to be a warm, 72 degree day with a great tailwind! We at breakfast in the hotel room. So breakfast was leftovers....peanut butter and tortilla, jello and fruit, protein powder, and gatorade. Now that's a...well, not real sure what that is..... We new this day would be one filled with lots of traffic on US 17 that we were riding following most of the day. And yes it was. We rode all day through the beaches area of Myrtle beach and North Myrtle beach. On spring break. We didn't factor this into our trip when we left home. We have been following the adventure cycling map (sort of) as we have come up the east coast. Because of our little "detour" into Georgetown for the little "stayover" (who knew?) we had to ride on US 17 to go north or go out of our way back to the original route. We have been talking with another tandem couple, Jeff and Louise, who are also cycling the east coast via cell phone. Hap ran into them when they were checking out of the hotel we were in at Georgetown. Hap said hi you must be the tandem couple who started in Key West? How did he know? Well, about a week or so ago we stopped for breakfast in the town of Midway, GA and the owner said a tandem couple had been there a few days before and we're traveling north up the coast from Key West. We just happened to be in the same hotel a week (or however long it was) later. Since they we're leaving they exchanged phone numbers. They are also riding north up US 17. US 17 is the main thoroughfare for coast traffic on the east coast. Not our choise for cycling on but that's where we are now! For the two days that I was laid up (or on my side!) Hap talked via phone to them about the route and they also stayed in the hotel we stayed in at Murrells Inlet. Thanks guys! As we were leaving Murrels Inlet we called and they had stayed about 10 miles north of where we were. We talked frequently on the phone and they told us a great route that they were following trying to stay off US 17 as much as possible. Sort of a Tandem / GPS! We finally met up with them, I think in North Myrtle Beach (not sure though). All I know is there was lots of traffic, going somewhere, in a hurry! We ate lunch with them and rode together for awhile. We had quite a time negotiating the traffic and detouring off of US 17 as we could. I wonder if the drivers appreciate the fact that we probably added 15 miles or so to our day but zig zagging? Probably not, but I am sure they got to the beach or bungee jumping or ziplining or eating or who cares, in time........for what?

We left Jeff and Louise as they stopped for the night and kept going north. Our plan for the day was to ride as close to Wilmington, NC as we could get. And to make sure that I was ok. We had an incredible tailwind. It made the day pretty easy. I think that the shingles are alittle better but certainly not clear yet. Our friends Gayle and Larry invited us to spend a few days with them in Wilmington recuperating and to go to Easter Sunday service with them. Thank you Lord. His timing is great isn't it? As we rode we talked to Gayle about our progress. They were going to come and pick us up after Larry got off at 6pm. Oh, I forgot to tell you we crossed into another state, N. Carolina. Number 22! At 5pm we arrived in Shallotte, NC. It was another 8 miles to Supply, NC so we called Gayle and said we would meet them in Supply. As we left Shallotte we did ONE map check (Rule #2,349: Please check the map a minimum of two times. Said reading must be witnessed by both Eaton's or a substitute is allowable). We happily leave town thinking we follow one road all the way and as we are riding. I said where is all this traffic going? The road doesn't really go anywhere? Finally, a certain someone (no names but remember I 'm not driving!) pulls over to look at the map. Mmmm..... (uh oh, I hate it when he does that!) We were supposed to turn about a mile back. Where does this road go? Oh, HOLDEN BEACH! And it's the only route to the beach...no wonder! We turned back and found the best riding of the day. Finally a small country road with no traffic. It was great. We went into Hardees at Supply, called Gayle and planned to meet them. They came bringing, a truck, a car AND FOOD! Gayle had made crab cakes (still warm!), shrimp (still chilled), cole slaw, bananas, and brownies (Still warm!--bonus points for warm brownies). It was getting dark so we sat inside the car and ate. They drove us to their house, where we had a great place to stay, AND a warm oatmeal bath for Mr. Shingle, sir. (I think I need to call him sir, cause I don't want to make him mad again). It was a great day.

As we rode I was thinking about our route, the traffic and wondering why, if we don't really like the beaches, or the traffic, why are we always riding IN the traffic, BY the ocean? I think the next lap do around the US, we are going to take a smaller loop and stay off the coasts. That way everyone can drive to the beach and no one will be in the best place, THE MOUNTAINS!

We are going to stay another day here in Wilmington, see how I feel, pick up mail and maps tomorrow and go from there. So until next time. Happy Easter. HE LIVES!

Murrells Inlet, SC

2008-03-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

We had a great ride on a beautiful sunny day into Andrews. The route was great with not much traffic. We rode through a National Forest with lots of pine trees. We stopped for a juice break about mid day for lunch. It was one of those perfect cycling days. We even had a tailwind! We arrived in Andrews with a storm on our heels. There were no campgrounds so we stayed at the Colonial Inn. The only hotel. We rode over to the grocery store for dinner supplies after checking in. We also checked out a few churches for church the next day.

Now the story of where we have been all this week really starts! As you can see everything was fine on Saturday's ride into Andrews. Sat. afternoon I thought I noticed alittle tightness in my left hamstring but nothing really unusual. Sunday morning when I woke up, my left buttock was extremely sore. It was so sore that it was difficult to walk. We decided to take the day off thinking that this was my typical back pain issue that I've had for quite awhile. We also noticed that I had three what looked like "bug bites" on my left gluteus maximus (look it up!!). Mmmm....maybe they are spider bites? So Hap spent some time "googling" spider bites. We had camped out a few nights before so maybe I got bit? All day long I spent in bed as the pain kept getting worse. We were in Andrews, SC which was about 20 miles from the closest hospital. We weren't sure what to do. I hated to call 911 to get a ride to the hospital because I kept thinking someone who is having a heart attack might need the ambulence at the same time. We decided to call one of the local churches to see if there was anything they could help us out. Rev. Stockton and another pastor came over to the motel. They prayed for me and annoited me with oil which was such a blessing to us. It's alittle scary sometime when you are just "out there" and aren't sure what to do. They also suggested that we call 911. After they left I just tried to go to sleep hoping the pain would somehow get better. Well it didn't and by about 4am, I just told Hap to call 911. The ambulence ride was about 30 minutes or so. It seemed like forever to me. When the doctor came in the first thing we talked about was my back problems. I know that I have several bulging discs and my first instinct is to consider the possiblity that I have "blown out a disc". Which would be a disaster. But when Hap mentioned the "bug bites", and the doctor looked at them for about 3 seconds and said, "You have the shingles". I couldn't believe it. On the one hand I was happy(I am not sure I should use the word HAPPY about anything this week!) he was sure it wasn't my back. But on the other hand shingles can be very painful. Ouch! The treatment for shingles? Steroids, Anti viral, and pain meds. Then we had another little problem We are in a hospital 30 miles from our hotel and our bike, no transportation, and no place to stay? Hap ended up renting a van, Enterprise car rental picked him up at the hospital, he came back, picked me up, dropped me at the hotel (that he had found sometime?), picked up prescriptions for me and then rushed back to Andrews to get our bike and gear. He was a very busy boy!

All this week we have been staying at the Jameson Inn in Georgetown, SC. The pain has gradually decreased all week. Yesterday we took a short ride in town just to see how I would feel riding. It wasn't too bad so we decided to move forward tomorrow.

Today we rode a short 20 mile ride to Murrells Inlet. It was a pretty day to ride. We rode alot on US 17 so there was alot of traffic. But the ride went well so I think we feel comfortable with continuing the ride. I wasn't so sure a couple of days ago.

Just in case you have never heard of shingles. Here is some info for you. Shingles is a virus that is caused by the chicken pox virus. It occurs in people who have had chicken pox. For some reason the virus "hibernates" in your nerves and comes out for various reasons. The symptoms? A blistering rash (sooo that's what those bug bites were), usually following a nerve tract, severe pain, tingling or tightness. There is a vaccine for shingles on the market now. I think I am going to do alittle more research on that when we get back home.

Moncks Corner, SC

2008-03-14T19:04:00.001-07:00

We have now been through or at least been in 21 states on this little bike ride. And we passed the 8500 mile mark today. We spent a couple of days with Hap's ol' boss from RCA, Nick and his wife, Phyllis. We had a wonderful two days of resting, relaxing and eating some great food. Hap "helped" Nick with a few projects around the house. As you can see by the picture above Nick is "supervising" Hap. Just like the old days. Nick and Phyllis live in Sun City which is really the size of a small city. We were surprised by the amount of traffic and people. Nick took us down to the salt water pool (one of four pools at Sun City) and we also got in the hot tub. It was so good to swim laps again. That is one thing that I really miss. The hot tub felt great. We ate at a Golden Corral Buffet that was awesome. The second night we went to the Greek Table and the third night we ate at a chinese/japanese buffet. It would be great to have so many food options at home. Hap and I made a Walmart run for some supplies.

Yesterday morning we left Sun City and rode to Waltersboro. It was a great ride. The temps were in the 70's and sunny. We rode on some really nice low traffic roads. There isn't much berm here but the S. Carolina drivers have seemed to figure out the "how to pass a bicycle concept". Something the Florida and Louisiana drivers haven't. In Waltersboro we camped at Green Acres Campground. It was a nice little campground that reminded me of the campground we used to go to when I was growning up. Everyone was really friendly. Alot of people came over to find out what the heck we were doing. Another couple named Eaton came over to meet us. We set up camp, cooked noodles, salmon and green beans for dinner. And then went to the community building to read and check email on our computer. There was a group in there. The women were knitting and the men were playing cards. Finally one of the men came over to the women's group and announced to his wife "It's 22 minutes and 47 seconds until 9pm and it is time to go to the trailer." That caused alot of laughter especially from his wife!

This morning we packed up and rode to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast. I tried the biscuits and gravy hoping they would be as good as mom's. But they weren't! Guess I'll have to wait until I get home. We had another good ride today on low traffic roads. We are once again following the Adventure Cycling East Coast route. They do try to keep you off of the major highways. It was alittle more overcast today but the temps were still in the 70's. It is supposed to storm tonight so we are thinking of staying at a hotel once we reach Moncks Corner. We got into town about 5pm and found a hotel. We had to walk down the street to get our laundry done. So we just ordered a pizza for dinner. Now we're just headed for bed. Later.

Sun City (Hilton Head), South Carolina

2008-03-11T20:17:00.000-07:00

We ate breakfast in the hotel. The big story for the day's ride is the WIND. 20-30 mph with 40 mph gusts from the west. We are heading north and out of Florida finally! Another state down, how many to go? Well, that really depends on how we are getting home. I hope we decide soon....... We hope to stay along the coast as long as possible to hopefully have warmer weather until the spring weather arrives in Ohio! We got on Rt 17 and headed north. It turned out to be a nice road for riding on. We just had to hang on and wait for the wind gusts. It wasn't as bad as we thought it would be though. The temps were cooler in the 50's. But I guess if you consider that Circleville had a foot of snow fall and blizzard conditions we won't complain about having to wear our tights today. We stopped in Yulee FL to pick up our mail. Before we left Florida a carload of kids threw a deck of cards at us. That was a first. Glad it wasn't a bottle because they hit Hap right on the side of his head. Good bye Florida! Before crossing into Georgia on Rt 17. We discovered that we were on an actual bike route. We saw signs that said Georgia Route 95 Bike Route. That's a good sign. We rode to Brunswick for the night. We both were pretty tired after riding in the wind all day. We stopped at a grocery store and got some chicken, green beans and corn for dinner. We had a scare also. I discovered that I didn't have my cell phone. I quickly called the hotel in Jacksonville and they didn't have it. Then Hap remembered that I had put it in my pocket when we went to breakfast and THAT pocket was packed inside the trailer. So we called "the trailer" and sure enough "the trailer" rang.

The next morning we continued on Rt 17 north. The road continued to be a great road for riding. The wind had died down which was nice. Traffic was light too. We stopped for a snack along the road. While we were stopped another cyclist road up. He was a 78 yr old man who said he rides 25 miles every day. I said well you've got a nice road to ride on. He said it is today but you it is really busy during the week (it was sunday). I said oh so you don't ride this road all the time. He said sure I do. I don't care if they do throw stuff at me or yell at me I'm still gonna ride my bike. I guess if you're 78 and still riding you can ride anywhere you want to! We spent the night at the Midway Motel. It was supposed to get down into the 20's. All I have to say about the Midway motel is that the towels had hair on them. Yuch. I showed Hap and he just started to pick the hair off! Hap stop that. Please just go get me some clean towels. For dinner we walked down to Captain Joe's restaurant and had some great seafood and salad bar. I'm not sure going to an all you can eat salad bar is such a good idea for us. We were stuffed!

We left Midway in our usual "early morning" fashion. 11:00am. We stopped for breakfast. Then got back on Rt 17 heading for Savannah. We decided not to ride into Savannah but stay on the outskirts of town. We road out near the airport and stopped at gas station for a snack. While riding we the traffic did it's usual thing when you get near a bigger city. Even though there were four lanes, we're in the right hand lane, left lane is clear, cars would fly up behind us and just sit there. Some day someone will explain this to me. I"m not asking for anything special. Can't they just drive their vehicles? They wouldn't even have to slow down. It's called turn the wheel slightly to the left and keep going. After leaving Savannah we went through the Savannah Wildlife Refuge. It was pretty. But it went right by a big factory. And that means big trucks. But they were all pretty good and gave us room. Not too bad. The only really bad traffic we found today was when we were just a few miles from Sun City which is just west of Hilton Head. On Rt 170 there was no shoulder and lots of very important drivers. I know they were important because them getting to wherever they were going was much more important than us surving riding on the road. But we made it. Oh and when we were just getting ready to merge onto Rt 278 with alot of traffic, a van pulled up next to us and a guy leaned out the window and started asking us questions about where we are going etc. Uh, would you mind if we pull over to have this conversation? Finally the van went on and we managed to get to Sun City in one piece. We arrived at Nick and Phyllis's house. Hap and Nick worked together at RCA in Circleville. It is so good to see them again. We plan to spend a couple of days here before heading north.

Jacksonville, Florida

2008-03-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

We rode to a cafe for breakfast before leaving the town of Hawthorne. It was alot cooler than it had been. It was clear down in the 60's! Brrr.... Yes, we have been watching the weather back home in Ohio! In Hawthorne we decided to take Rt 20 instead of following the Adventure Cycling Route. As it turned out Rt 20 seemed to be a nice route. There was alittle traffic on it but nothing too bad. We stopped for lunch at Palatka. Traffic picked up as we moved closer to the big city! We debated on which route to take into St Augustine. While we were at lunch we called four different campgrounds. Two of them were full and the other two wanted $45 to camp! I don't think so. We called a hotel and found one for $49. I think it was a better deal! We took Rt 207 into St Augustine. It was a nice wide four lane highway with a really nice berm and not much traffic. We saw a couple of cyclists that were riding. They pulled over and stopped right beside of us. We said hello and they sort of said hi and then turned away. Mmm..... Hap do I stink?? Riding into St Augustine was alot better than we anticipated. We had ridden through there a couple of times before and didn't have fond memories of it. We only got tooted at a few times and maybe one yell at so I think that is a pretty good ratio. When we checked into our hotel, I got the laundry done while Hap did some bike maintance. He put on a new back tire, tightened up some nuts and bolts and lubed a pedal. We have been hearing a creaking noise for awhile and we can't seem to find it. Doesn't that just drive you crazy? Maybe it's the OLD bodies starting to creak? I'm not sure that WD 40 will help! For dinner we walked next door to IHOP.

We ate oatmeal and fruit in the room for breakfast and then started our left turn north. The day was beautiful. Sunny! 70's. We had a headwind but it wasn't so bad. We rode up A1A along the shore all day. It was really pretty. We stopped for a snack on the beach. While we were stopped mailman George called to go over our mail with Hap. We were going to have him send it to our friends in Hilton Head that we will be visiting in the next week. But first we have mail to pick up in Yulee, FL. As we got into Jacksonville Beach the weather became more cloudy but the temp was still warm. We got alittle lost or should I say I didn't tell Hap where to turn and we went way out of the way and had to turn around so it made for a much more fun ride! And that's what it's all about right! We finally found the right road and headed for the ferry to cross the St Johns River near Jacksonville. On the way to the ferry many drivers passed us alittle too close for comfort. One particular car, which was full of....let's say alot of silver haired people, seemed to make a special effort to see the writing on our bicycle. What was sort of funny depending on who ya talk to was that we were all going to the same place. So when we got to the ferry terminal ALL those cars with ALL that silver hair was sittin and waitin. And to make it even better. When the ferry came they told US to get on the ferry FIRST. So ALL those people had to wait while WE walked onto the ferry! I call that BLIND JUSTICE! The man who was directing traffic getting cars on and off was a character. When he walked off the ferry he looked at our bike and started talkin very fast....we couldn't understand a word he said. What we heard was ....bike.....long.....must..be.....on..first....go.... WHAT!?

When we got off the ferry we stopped at a gas station for some dinner supplies. What can you buy at a gas station for dinner? OK here's my healthy tip of the day. We already had rice and a can of chicken. So we bought a can of green beans (yes, they have them at gas stions check it out!), a beer, powerade and some chips. There ya go. Dinner! Hap refilled our fuel bottles for our stove with unleaded gas. The lady at the gas station said that was the least amount of gas that she had ever had. It was .76 cents! We had about a mile to ride to Hugeonot Memorial Park. Now they had campsites for $7 bucks. Now we're talkin. And that included the shower. It was pretty late so we quickly set up the tent and cooked dinner. The bugs came out about that time which speeded up the dinner process! As we were walking to the showers it started raining. So that's why it was getting dark so early. We were in the tent by 7pm because it was dark by then. It was a long night. During the night a storm hit and the wind was just wicked. We had to get out of the tent several times to batten down the hatches. The wind even pulled our stakes out of the ground. I woke up in the morning to Hap saying "We gotta get out of here! There's a bad storm coming. It had been raining all night. He was looking at weather.com on the computer. I think the red stuff is the really bad stuff and that is what was coming. We quickly started packing up. In the middle of that it started to rain again so we jumped back into the tent until it slowed down. Does anyone think this is fun? We stopped at the bathroom before heading out and a couple of people told us that their tents had blown away during the night and they had slept in their car! MMmmmm.... And several motorhomes had packed up and left during the night. MMMmmm....maybe we should be worried?? We had planned to stay along the coast until Fernandina Beach which was 25 miles north. But looking at the Adventure Cycling map we were only 12 miles from the Jacksonville Airport. So we decided to ride to the closer place. Afterall it's only 12 miles. That's nothing. Never mind the howling winds, or the pouring rain....we're tough....we love this stuff..... As we were riding I was debating whether I would rather be doing this ride today or be at work! I never reached a conclusion because we were really moving along and I couldn't breathe. And of course there was the several turns that we missed. That helped the plan also. We finally got within striking distance of the airport and stopped at a gas station to get directions and call some hotels. We have found if you call first you can get a better rate. The manager in the gas station was so helpful. She called a hotel for us and even said she would take us. Oh and a guy walked in and said you guys better be getting somewhere it is going to get worse in about 30 minutes. We only had a mile or so to go so we thanked her for the help and went out into a downpour. I hate it when my feet get wet! When we got to the hotel we were drenched and everything we had was also. When Hap opened the trailer there was a big puddle of water in it. We opened everything up and I headed to the laundry room. My brothers and wives called and were heading home from Daytona so they stopped by to say good bye. They left us some left over grilled chicken that was great for supper. Tomorrow we will be leaving Florida and into Georgia. Another state closer to home! Oh yeah, did I mention that the 12 miles was actually 25 miles! A few more miles of fun!

Hawthorne, Florida

2008-03-04T15:45:00.000-08:00

We're back! We have had quite a busy week driving all over Florida. We couldn't have planned this week because everything fit together too well. We rented a mini van threw the tandem and gear in and headed to Miami to visit the main offices of Alpha One. It sure seemed like we were moving awfully fast! It was a beautiful sunny 80 degree day. As we were riding we got a call from Alpha telling us that there was a major power outage in Miami, maybe we should consider not coming or staying outside of the city. As it turned out we had been talking with Father Dale and Val from Grace Church in Circleville and they were in West Palm Beach. We arranged to stop and spend some time with them and their daughter, son in law and grandson. We had a wonderful visit. It was such a blessing to see them. We didn't get to see Val, she had the flu. By the time we left West Palm Beach, the power was restored and we drove into Miami. I am not sure we would ever get used to the traffic in Miami. We found out the hardway if you are not moving a split second after the light turns green, someone will let you know! I am really glad we are not on the bike down here! Yiomara, her husband and daughter picked us up at the hotel and we went to a great seafood place for dinner.

The next morning Yiomara and Katie met us for breakfast along with a photographer. We went across the street to the University of Miami to take some neat pictures. When we left Ohio many months ago, on our mission to spread the word about Alpha One we never expected the very warm welcome we received from the whole Alpha One organization. Yiomara brought her bike and rode with us over to the Alpha one offices. It was a mere 3.5 miles BUT we SURVIVED! It was some ride. We rode on and off the sidewalk trying to avoid as much traffic possible. Ha Ha! That was a joke. When we rode up to the Alpha office we were greeted by all the employees standing outside with noise makes, and confetti. Boy we're we surprised! It was awesome. Then they took us inside for an incredible meal and to talk about our trip. We also got to learn about the function of the Alpha Organization. It was a wonderful surprise. What I didn't realize was how much the Alpha organization was a family. We felt like we were part of a big family. We loved it and appreciated it so much. We rode back to the hotel and Yiomara picked us up and we met several of the Alpha group for dinner at a great seafood house. We had raw bar with trays of fresh oysters, stone crabs and shrimp. I had my very first raw oyster and I liked it! We also got to know alot of the people that we have been talking with for the past many months. We left there feeling like we were leaving our family. Thank you Alpha for all that you did for us in Miami! We are looking forward to doing anything we can to spread awareness and help Alpha patients.

We left Miami and drove west toward the gulf coast. We stopped to look at some alligators and neat birds at a sanctuary on the way. In Fort Myers we found a hotel and went to the grocery for dinner stuff.

The next day we spent on Fort Myers beach. We thought we should at least get on one beach while we were in Florida. It was fun for a couple of hours. Then we headed north to Palmetto (by Bradenton) to stay with our friends Chuck and Annmarie that we had seen on their way south. It was som much fun to see them. We had a great time. The first night we went to a chinese buffet. The next day we spent the day on Anna Marie Island. It was a beautiful beach. And it wasn't as "touristy" as the other beach. Chuck let me drive his "sportscar". It is a BMW Z4 convertable. We drove across the big bridge to Tampa. Just as we were coming up to the bridge a Carnival Cruise ship was going under the bridge. That was pretty cool! It didn't look like it was going to fit but it did. When we had 3 clear lanes in front of us, Chuck said "Punch It!" So I gave it alittle gas. He said "no all the way to the floor". So I did! Wow! We took off like a rocket. It was neat. But then I've been traveling along at 15 mph instead of the 95 mph!

On Sunday morning we went to the Baptist church with Chuck, Annmarie and another couple from Ohio. After chuch they had a fish fry so of course we had to eat. What can you do? We didn't want to be rude! Then we relunctantly left them to head to Ocala to meet my brothers and wives at the Ocala Speedway. There came down to race their motorcycles. They race vintage motorcycles. My family has always been into motorcycle racing. My dad raced back in the 60's. They have been coming down to Daytona for Bike week in March since I can remember. In fact the way Hap and I met is Hap sold Mike a motorcycle when Mike decided to go roadracing instead of dirt track racing. They started racing together back in the mid 70's. I sort of tagged along to the races when I could. It was really fun to see them race again. We stayed at the track with them in Jeff and Peggy's RV. So THIS is what "camping" is?

Yesterday we drove back to Gainesville and checked into a motel to repack and get ready for the last leg of our journey. And it has been a journey. I think it is funny when people ask us how we planned for this trip. Believe me there is no way to plan something like this. Like the note at the top of the blog "Everyday is an adventure and God is always there". Ya never know what will happen next. We spent the day just relaxing at the hotel. Although, I did get a massage and a haircut.

This morning we woke up to a threat of severe storms, so we decided that our fallback plan would be to do a short ride to Hawthorne mostly on the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail. It was a nice trail. We checked into a motel just as the rain came. But we lucked out again. The awful storms they predicted never happened. Just some heavy rain. After the rain we walked down the street and went to the Dollar Store. Ok so now I am worried about me. I realized how excited I was to be able to go "shopping?" At the Dollar Store?? And I was looking at underware?? Anybody else see a problem. And then when we checked out the girl said, "Do you ride bikes?" I thought how does she know that? Is it obvious? Maybe she saw me looking at the underware??? I asked how she knew and she answered "Because your legs look strong!". Oh, ok. Tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful clear warm day. We will be riding to St Augustine and the "left ocean" tomorrow for our next left turn. We have one more before reaching Ohio.

Gainesville, FL

2008-02-25T16:21:00.000-08:00

WE HAVE PASSED THE 8000 MILE OF THE RIDE!

We left Medart on a very foggy morning on Rt 98 east. There was a nice berm to ride on all day. The temperature was a warm 70 degrees and the fog burned off by mid day. We rode through nice pine (at least I think they were pine trees) trees all day. We didn't go through any towns before getting to Perry at the end of the day, so we stopped at a picnic table on the roadside for a break and snack. There was a guy (who looked like a "street person") sitting at the picnic table. He was riding an old mt bike that one of the pedals hanging down, an old backpack hanging from the backrack, a big blue tarp tied to the handlebars and another backpack that he had on his back. He was very nice and talked alot about the area. He said he was riding from Gainesville to Tallahassee. An interesting fellow he was. We rode on into Perry, stopped at a Winn Dixie for dinner supplies and rode down the road to a KOA campground. It was really a nice one. And it was movie night. They had a TV in the rec room so we put the laundry in the washers and went to the rec room to watch The Tour of California. Levi Leipeimer, an American was leading the race. It was also interesting to watch since alot of the area we had just ridden through. After the race was over, we cooked some rice, green beans and put chicken in it for dinner. We took our dinner over to the rec room and spent the evening watching a movie with all of the other "old" people at the campground.
The next morning we fixed oatmeal for breakfast. It went great with the fresh strawberries and blueberries that I had bought at the grocery store. We left Perry in beautiful sunshine. And the warmest day that we have had for a long time. It was in the 80's. We had a great ride. The road and conditions were perfect. Today we had alot more open terrain with cattle, sheep and chicken farms. In one big field there was a couple of big white dog, probably Great Pyrenees that were guarding the sheep in the field. They ran along the fence line for a long time barking at us. They were just beautiful. We also came across a field of Longhorn Cattle! And here I had been on a gator watch since we had been in LA! I thought these cattle lived in Texas. We stopped in Mayo at the Subway for lunch. While we were there we called our friends Chuck and Annmarie. They were on their way to their trailer in Bradenton. We have been hoping to catch up with them. They decided to find us so we told them we would meet them in Branford. When we arrived in Branford we stopped at a gas station for some healthy ice cream. Branford is on the banks of the Suwannee River. When we rode across the river, Hap started singing the song "Way down upon the Suwannee River..............." I did not realize that this is a big diving area because of all of the springs. Chuck and Annmarie arrived and we all checked into the Steamboat Dive Inn. We took a short walk and then walked next door for dinner. It was so good to see them. We have been biking and running with these two for a long time. We met back in 'ot 82 or so when I was teaching a fitness class at the YMCA. In 1989 we went on a bike tour in Germany with them (along with my brother Jeff). We had so much fun! Annmarie is from Germany so she (and Chuck) spoke the language. We spent a week riding with them and then ventured off on our own. It was great!
This morning we ate breakfast with Chuck and Annmarie before they headed on down to Bradenton. We got on a bike trail in Branford and rode it to Fort White and then got back onto Rt 27. We once again had just a beautiful day to ride in, 80 degrees sunny and a tailwind. We had a nice shoulder to ride on for most of the day. We stopped in High Springs to pick up our weekly mail (thanks mailman George for getting that to us!). Hap also got his hair and beard cut. He was starting to look alittle straggly. Now it's my turn. In High Springs we stopped for a slice of pizza for lunch. When we got closer to Gainesville the traffic picked up. We saw alot of cyclists. When we had to get on a couple of roads with no shoulders that was when the drivers started to do their thing! One trucker yelled something out the window. We couldn't understand what he said but I think that it was something about how pretty our tandem was, and he hoped that we had a very nice day or ....something along those lines.
We are going to detour alittle from our planned route to St Augustine. The Alpha One Organization asked us to go to Miami to the main headquarters. Since they agreed to rent a van for us we said sure. It will be great to put a face with some of the names we have been talking to for the past many months. In addition my brothers are coming to Florida to race their motorcycles this week. We are going to meet them in Ocala. It will be great to see family again. And to top it off. Father Dale and Valerie are in West Palm Beach this week and we hope to see them on our drive down to Miami. It's a win win all the way around. So my next posting will be from a van from somewhere in Florida! We plan to start our ride from Gainesville to St Augustine probably next Tuesday. We'll keep ya posted. In the meantime for everyone back in Ohio, we hope you stay warm and dry! Take care.

Medart, Florida

2008-02-22T11:14:00.000-08:00

When we left the hotel in Destin we felt like we were going into a war zone as we got back on the very busy four lane divided highway Rt 98 east. Ken had told us about an alternate route but we had a few miles on the main route to get there. It was very busy! I am sure that everyone who was in such a hurry to get by us had some type of emergency like getting to the outlet mall asap, or to breakfast or maybe to play golf. We even got yelled at by an ol' lady. I don't think I 've ever heard someone that age say some of "those" words. That's interesting! We got to the turnoff in one piece and onto Old Rt 98 that Ken recommended. There was a bike/walking trail by the main road. But it was full of people so we stayed on the road. It wasn't too bad. Most people were reasonable. It was a beautiful road by the gulf beaches. One thing that I noticed though was there were occasional signs that said "Do not walk on dunes, habitat area". And then right beside these "habitat areas" were huge condos, motels, restaurants etc. I must be missing something. There is some video of us riding through this section at www.youtube.com/outbikin. We had to get back onto the busy Rt 98 for a few more miles before turning onto Rt 30A that had a bike trail along beside it. The bike trail was really nice. There were some sections that were very bumpy and full of gravel so we occasionally got on the road. It was a pretty ride through the small towns of Seaside. There were some beautiful houses. But too many people and cars for us. We did see alot of people cycling on the trail and on the road. We stopped for a banana/peanut butter break and another cyclist stopped to talk. We asked him about a campground that we had seen on the map. He said that was where he was staying but it was only for RV's. AND they were very picky about the RV's they let in. If an "old" RV pulls in they won't let them in. Sooo I guess that means that us riff raff tent people couldn't stay there. No, but there is a state park near there. Yes, we called there and you needed to make a reservation in 2007 to get in! We thanked him for the help and went on down the trail. The trail ended where Rt 30A came back out onto Rt 98 again. We were just west of Panama City. We did have alittle bit of a berm at this time though. Traffic was still pretty heavy. What was interesting though was that there were these signs that said "Cyclists on roadway". Mmm....wonder what that meant? All of a sudden I noticed the rear tire feeling funny and sure enough we had a flat tire. We pulled into a parking lot and Hap changed the flat. While he was changing it a sheriff pulled up and asked if we needed any help. I asked him if he could find the hole in the tube. He said no, but there is a bike shop just up the road. I said thanks I think we are ok. He asked where we are going. I said, that we were going to Panama City. Oh, he said you want to be careful the road is very busy. Do you want a ride? I told him no thanks. It was really nice of him to stop and check on us though. It does make us feel better knowing at least that someone cared. Hap got the tire fixed and we went back out into the war zone. Coming into Panama City we crossed another big bridge. I had found a coupon for a hotel for only $35! It was just on the other side of the bridge. We somehow made it safely to the hotel. It actually was not bad. We were alittle concerned but it was alright. I got the laundry done while Hap did alittle bike maintance. For dinner we ordered a pizza and salad.

The next morning we left in sunshine and cooler temps, 60's. The traffic was much better once we got away from Panama City. There was a nice berm also. We passed a couple of Air Force bases on our way out of town. It seemed like a difficult day for some reason and then we realized that we had a headwind. Oh, no wonder we're workin so hard! Rt 98 was really nice to ride on now. Since it was supposed to storm we decided to stay at the Dixie Belle Motel in Port St Joe. We stopped at a grocery store for dinner supplies. They had a grill at the hotel so we got a steak to cook. As it turned out it didn't rain that night. But when we woke up in the morning it looked like it was going to rain on our heads at any time. I made sure that all of our rain gear was on top and easy to get to before we left. We stopped in Appalachacola for some great calzones for lunch. We asked the waitress to wrap up our leftovers and we took them with us. When we came out it was pouring down rain. We put on our raincoats. At least it was a warm rain! There was a huge bridge to cross over the river. It was 3 miles long. The wind was blowing really hard from the side. It seemed like the more we moved forward the more we moved sideways. We rode into Carrabelle and stopped at a grocery store for dinner supplies. All we needed was a salad to go with our calzone leftover. We checked into the Georgian Hotel. We were alittle wet but it could've been worse. The owner of the hotel let me do our laundry (it was two of our three cycling outfits) which was really nice. Just after we got checked into the hotel, the rains came. There was a terrible storm during the night. Flood warnings were in effect and several tornado warnings were out. As I was looking on a Florida DOT website I found a list of cycling laws in Florida. I thought one of them was really interesting. It said that drivers are required by law to give cyclists three feet distance when passing them. MMM... Either the drivers here hadn't read that law, most people here aren't from Florida OR they think the 3 feet is measured from where the driver is sitting! It was supposed to storm again tomorrow and tomorrow night, so we decided to ride a short day tomorrow as a rest day. And then do a long day the next day when the weather was better. It is nice to have this option! We made a reservation in Medart at the Best Western for tomorrow.

This morning we were prepared to wake up to more rain, but were pleasantly surprised to find the rain had stopped. But it was extremely foggy out. It was a warm 70's just a soggy one. The fog reminded us of the west coast fog. The big difference was that it was a warm fog instead of a cold fog. It was a really nice ride inspite of the fog. We had all of our bright rain covers on the panniers. All of the drivers gave us plenty of room as they passed. I think they were probably trying to figure out what we were! There was hardly any traffic and the scenery was really pretty. The only downside was that one of my migraines decided today was the day. Oh well. We rode into Medart, stopped for dinner stuff and at a Dollar Store. The hotel was a new one so it was especially nice and clean. It makes you really appreciate having a clean place to sleep in! I think I am going to have to change my housekeeping habits when I get home!

Destin, Florida

2008-02-18T19:54:00.000-08:00

We ate dinner at the hotel. We had Latino food. Not really sure what made it latino except that it said "Latino food". It tasted good but then again when you ride every day all food is good. Except for that spicy texan/mexican last month. Tomorrow's weather is supposed to be stormy thundershowers with possible tornadoes. So Hap signed us up for another night at the Day's Inn. We spent most of the day off, doing nada. Watchin tv, playing games, doing laundry, washing our sleeping bag. Big Agnes was gettin kind of dirty so we through her in the tub and dryer. We were alittle concerned about washing our expensive down sleeping bag but she seemed to come through it just fine. Hap was feeling down from his cold, so it was a good day of rest. The weather report was accurate as the storm hit about 1 pm. There were several tornadoes but none in our area. They stayed north of us thankfully. We ordered some chinese food to be delivered for dinner. The wind really blew all night long. It was supposed to change direction so that we would have a tailwind or wind from the northwest tomorrow. Sounds good to me.

Today we woke up to beautiful sunshine. It was in the 60's and yes we did have a tailwind! We headed east on Rt 98 along the coast. We decided to take Rt 399 toward the city of Gulf Breeze on Santa Rosa Island. About half way down the island there was a sign that said "road ends in four miles." Hey Hap what do you think that sign means? Isn't there another bridge at the end of this island that we can take back to Rt 98? There sure is! So why does that sign say THAT? Oh, I'm sure it's just a guideline. It doesn't really mean that the road ends for bicycles. So we kept riding east and sure enough there was a big gate and very big signs that said road ends. Mmmm...we asked some walkers if a bike could ride the road and they said yes. And that some other bikes just went through. We called the police dept, a bike shop and neither of them knew if we could get through. So we called the park ranger for Gulf Shore. Yes, the road is for sure closed. MMmm....if we have to go back that is going to add at least 20 miles. What do you think?? Let's keep going. The road was there, it was just chewed up in places and had sand across it. We had to push across some sections. It was damaged in Hurricane Ivan in 2005. Finally we came to the end of the road and into the town of Navarre Beach. One thing we did notice was all of the houses for sale. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant and had a New Orleans Shrimp Po Boy. It seemed funny that we were in LA near New Orleans and had not had a PO Boy. I asked Hap if it was worth riding 1000 miles for and he said no. But it was ok. We rode across the intercoastal bridge to Rt 98 and headed east. We had about a foot berm to ride on. There was alot of traffic but everyone gave us room until we got into the town of Fort Walton. Then things got interesting. The shoulder went away and traffic picked up. It was interesting that there were signs up that said "Bicycles on roadway". I'm not sure why they had the signs up because no one seemed to pay them any mind. I think they are JUST A GUIDELINE or something. We had a couple of bridges to cross before we got to Destin. I think the best way to ride a bridge is to just claim the lane and go. It was alittle dicey. We got to the hotel and had a bonus of a whirlpool. We went out to dinner with some friends from Circleville. It sure was great to see some familiar faces. We had some great seafood. Ken and Connie took us down Rt 98 and showed us a detour that we could take tomorrow that would get us off of Rt 98 for awhile. And they told us about a 27 mile long bike trail. We are heading to Panama City tomorrow. Until then...........

Pensacola, Florida

2008-02-16T20:31:00.000-08:00

It was a cool start to the days ride, but it was sunny and beautiful. It was a really nice ride to the ferry from Dauphin Island. There wasn't much traffic and what traffic there is gave us plenty of room. The 10% rule didn't even apply here! Now it really feels like we are riding in the southern US. We had to cross a big bridge to get over to Dauphin Island. It was huge. And the only hill we've seen for a while. The spokes on the rear wheel loosened up as we were riding across the bridge so we stopped and Hap tightened them up. Dauphin Island was a pretty little place with lots of what looked like new condos. We arrived at the ferry that would take us across Mobile Bay just as it was arriving. It cost $5.00/each for the short 20 minute (or so) ride. When we got off the ferry we ate our snack that we had with us. Peanut butter and bagels. Then we headed east on Rt 180 to Gulf Shores. It was a beautiful ride along the coast. And the really good news was that there wasn't any traffic except when the ferry came and went about every hour or so. We ran in to a couple of other cyclists that were headed west. We stopped and chatted for quite awhile. It is fun to run into other people who are doing what we are. Then we headed on to Gulf Shores State Park. It was a huge place. I think it had 250 campsites, 11 bathhouses! We set up our tent as fast as we could because it was getting dark. We had stopped at a Walmart just before the park and picked up a rotissere (sp?) chicken and some broccoli salad for dinner. After setting up the tent, we cycled over to the laundromat. We ate while our laundry was getting done. Then rode to the shower house for a much needed shower. It was pretty chilly by this time. I 'm really glad I decided to bring back those fleece jackets! Once we got in the tent though Big Agnes kept us plenty warm. Sleeping was not a problem!
The next morning we woke up to a beautiful sunny day. It would've looked alot better to me if I had not woken up with a migraine. I don't know if anyone else has migraines but they are just "yucky". Sorry for the technical medical language. Thank goodness for a medication called Imitrex. I can give myself a shot of this and the headache is usually gone within 10 minutes. Because of me we got a really late start. I think it was noon by the time we finally got on the bike. It was a chilly 50 some degrees but at least the sun was shining. We headed east on Rt 182 and only made it as far as Big Lagoon State Park near Gulf Beach. We sure didn't break any speed records today with the headwind! Isn't there something somewhere about a prevailing wind out of the west???? We also ran into another cyclist who was headed west. His name was Paul and he had left New York City on New Year's Day! Brrrrr..... He was headed to Tucson. Good luck Paul! We had a great campsite in Big Lagoon. I tried cooking something new for dinner. Salmon. In our frying pan. I hadn't tried that before. It was delicious along with the rice and green beans. We had a great hot shower too and headed to bed. Tomorrow we planned a short day to the Naval Museum in Pensacola.
This morning we woke up to sunshine and warmer temperatures. But once again, a migraine! But once again the Imitrex did it's thing! I cooked pancakes this morning. This was my first try at pancakes on our whisper light stove. They were so-so! I learned a few things. Like make sure you use enough water (Hap did you bring the measuring cup), make sure you shake it very well (I didn't SEE any clumps), make sure you use enough oil, make sure you have the fire adjusted juusst rrriiigghhttt.......... Maybe I'll do better next time! But with enough peanut butter and syrup on them you wouldn't know they weren't perfect pancakes. Hap said, they're just the way I like them..................
It was a short ride to the Navy Museum. We really enjoyed the museum. It is facinating seeing all of the different types, shapes and sizes of planes and their evolution. We really liked the IMAX movie of "Fighter Pilot". Since Hap wasn't feeling very well (he is getting a cold, the first time either of us have been sick since we left.....my headaches don't count, those are NORMAL), we decided to stay in a motel in Pensacola and take the next day off. Hopefully he will feel better by then. And hopefully I won't be getting the cold. Our next goal.....head east towards Gainesvill and St Augustine and then make our last left hand turn towards home, Ohio! Later.

Bayou La Batre, Alabama

2008-02-13T18:55:00.000-08:00

We spent most of Monday hoping that our new rim was going to show up at the post office. But it did not. It could be worse though. It was a beautiful sunny 70 degrees so we sat by the pool and just relaxed. I could tell you that we played a game of cards but then I would have to tell you who won. Doug and Dinah called and invited us to eat at an italian buffet restaurant. I forgot to tell you about Dinah's service dog, Casey, a beautiful black lab. What a sweetie. Casey showed us how she would pick up anything that Dinah dropped and that included her leash! We had a great dinner and they took us back to the hotel.
Tuesday morning the post office called first thing to tell us that the rim was here. We met a couple from Michigan at breakfast at the hotel who offered to take Hap to the post office to pick up the rim. Hap spent the day rebuilding the wheel at the hotel. Thanks to Doug who brought us a wheel truing stand. Thanks Doug!! For dinner we walked across the street to Denny's for soup and salad. Some terrible storms passed through the area. Thankfully the worst of the storms stayed north of us. A tornado touched down in a town north of us. It hit a hospital. A patient was killed when he/she went outside after the hospital had a lockdown and called a code grey (tornado warning). That's a scary thought!
This morning we woke up to a cold, sunny day. Doug had dropped off some fresh donuts to the front desk on his way to work. Thanks Doug!! We decided to ship the cracked rim home with some other things we needed to send home. I think it will make a great picture frame. Don't you?? When we left it was about 40 degrees and a strong north wind. The picture above shows how we tired the box on the bike to get to the post office. It's amazing how much stuff you can tie on a bike! We headed east on Rt 90. Most of the day we rode on a nice four lane highway. The berm was a little rough but not bad. There was quite a bit of traffic but most of the people were reasonable. I think I like the drivers in Mississippis than Louisiana. We stopped at the Waffle House for lunch. Just after crossing into Alabama we got to the town of Grand Bay where we needed to pick up mail from home. We called the post office to get directions and was told, "We are right beside the old hardware store". OK that's helpful. So we stopped at a gas station and they said, "turn left and go to the old hardware store, it's right beside there". Got it. Turn left. We found the old hardware store AND the post office, got our mail and rode east on Rt 188 to Bayou La Batre. We went to the grocery store and got some salad fixins for dinner and headed to a hotel. It was supposed to be down in the 20's tonight. Brrrrr.........
Until next time!

Ocean Springs, Mississippi

2008-02-10T14:36:00.000-08:00

We had a great breakfast at the hotel in Hammond. It was nice to be in a clean place for once. There must have been a lot of wind that went through last night. Storms had been predicted but most of them went nort of us. There were alot of tornadoes throughout the south. Thankfully none in Hammond. It was alittle cool when we started riding, but fairly warm in the 50's. We intended to take Rt 64 back to east Rt 190. There was alot of traffic all day and no berm at all. I am getting pretty good at riding sitting backwards on the tandem. The road was really pretty to ride on. Maybe that's why there was so much traffic. We had to do alot of map checking today because it wasn't quite a straight shot back to Rt 190. We stopped for sandwiches at Arby's for lunch. Once we got back onto Rt 190 we were on a four lane road. Now wouldn't ya'll think that if there are four lanes and cars can drive in two of them, that if there is a car (or bicycle...i.e. slower vehicle) in the right hand lane you would just go ahead and move into the left lane?? It's not brain surgery we're asking people to do, just drive the car! People would come zooming right up behind us, even though it was clear in the left hand lane, and just sit there. Finally, and sometimes with my help, they would decide, oh maybe I should drive in the other lane....what do ya think Ethyl should I pass in the lane that's open?? Uh.........ok.............here we go......... Ok I'm done venting now. We rode into Hammond on Rt 190, found the hotel and shut the door. It was an exhausting day, not the riding, that was the easy part. Jim and Sue (pictured above) picked us up and took us for Crawdads, or is that crayfish.....not sure...but anyway they were good. Sue gave us a quick "how to eat them" lesson. We had a great time with Jim and Sue. Hap was in the Purdue Drill Team with Jim a couple of years ago.............

We spent alot of the evening and into the night debating whether or not to go back north and get on Adventure Cycling's route through this area or to go south and ride along the gulf coast. Jim and Sue both said the drive along the coast is really interesting and we did want to see what the coast and what Hurricane Katrina damage was still there. I did a search for local cycling clubs. Sometimes the best info comes from talking to people in the area about routes. This doesn't always include bike shops. I know that sounds strange but I am not sure that everyone who works in a shop knows much about actual riding. One of the websites I came across was Gulf Coast Bicycle Club. I emailed Doug from the club about routes. In the meantime we talked to another bike shop about a route and he said that he would ride the southern route. He told us to ride east to Silbee following Rt 190 to Rt 90. With all of that input we decided to do a short day to Covington, LA and then do more research about which way to go. The guy at the bike shop told us that Rt 190 was fine for riding on. We were very surprised to find out that once again we were on a very busy two lane road with no shoulder, lots of traffic and drivers who obviously did not like cyclists on their road. It wasn't a fun day of riding. Although the weather was good, so that was a blessing. I just have to get used to riding backwards on the tandem! I feel like more of a lookout than anything else. We arrived in Covington and went to a McDonald's to grab something to eat and to the grocery store for dinner supplies. The traffic in town was particularly heavy. Since we couldn't find a campground (again!) we headed to a hotel about a mile out of town. As we were leaving town we saw a bike trail. Mmmm.....wonder where that goes?? We got to the hotel and asked the owner. He said that goes all the way to Silbee! Right where we wanted to be if we took the south route. When we got into the room, we knew we had made a bad choice. But by that time it was too late to go anywhere else. It smelled terrible. I don't think that I have ever smelled anything like it. I think it must have been mold or mildew or something. Maybe this hotel was underwater from Katrina or something. We got an email from Jim with the Gulf Coast Bicycle Club. http://www.gulfcoastbicycleclub.com/ We called him and he said that riding the south route could be safe as long as we were careful. There was alot of traffic and construction. There were also two bridges that needed to be crossed. One in Bay St Louis allowed bicycles and the other did not. We decided that we had been fighting traffic all along in LA anyway so what the heck. We decided to take the south route on the Gulf Coast. If you look at a map we are just northeast of New Orleans.

The next morning we got up early. I opened the door asap. I needed some fresh air! We got out of there as fast as possible. We rode to the bike trail and stopped for breakfast. It was sunny and 60-70 degrees. Breakfast was peanut butter, bagels, and bananas. The bike trail we stumbled on was the Tamany Trace trail. It ended up being about 30 miles long. We couldn't figure out why no one had mentioned it to us. It sure was nice to ride without traffic for awhile. It was a beautiful sunny day. We saw several cyclists and rollerbladers on the trail. One of the best parts was that there were bathrooms along the trail. We rode to the end of the trail in Silsbee. We had to ride through the middle of town which of course was busy. We got alittle lost and stopped for directions. We finally found our way back to Rt 190 and rode out of the town. There wasn't a shoulder but there wasn't alot of traffic thank goodness. We came to the intersection of Rt 90 and turned towards the coast and Mississippi. The area we were riding in was mostly marshland with some houses. We are starting to see some of the damage from Katrina. We crossed into Mississippi and promptly had a flat tire. Then things started to go bad. Hap noticed a crack in the rear wheel rim as we was changing the tire. Uh oh! It's amazing how quickly your mood can change. One minute we were hustling to get to our next stop and the next we were trying to figure out how we could keep moving forward. He decided that it was ok to ride on it. So off we went for Bay St Louis. The last 10 miles or so were on another four lane highway. So of course we went back to cars whizzing up behind us, sitting there, open left lane, you get the idea don't you?? There weren't any campgrounds available again so we stayed at a Knights Inn. It sure was nice to stay at a place where people actually speak english. I don't have anything against people who don't...all I'm saying is that if you are coming to the US to manage a hotel you should be able to understand a simple question like: "do you have a room for the night?" That's all I want. We called several local bike shops to see if they had a 48 spoke rim which we need for the tandem and of course they didn't. So we made a call to Tandems Ltd. http://www.tandemsltd.com/ Jack had helped us in the past. He said sure he could help. He would put a rim in the mail tomorrow and have it overnighted to Ocean Springs. Of course it was Sat so that meant we should have the rim on Monday by 10am. Hap could rebuild it, problem solved!

The next morning we took Rt 90 across the first bridge at Bay St Louis. We were pleasantly surprised by the lack of traffic and the nice wide berms on the bridge. Once over the bridge the road narrowed and there was construction but we were able to either pull over so people could pass or they slowed down and went by. It was fine. No worries. Riding along Rt 90 was beautiful. We were very glad that we had come this way. Instead of going over the second big bridge we went around the bay. The post office was north of the city so this made more sense. We had been in contact with Doug of the Gulf Coast Bicycle Club so he came out and met us on his bike and escorted us to the hotel. It was nice to be able to take some backroads and to meet and talk with a local cyclist. Later Doug and his wife Dinah took us out to THE SHED for some great BarbQ. We sat outside and listened to some good music. The Gulf Coast Bicycle Club is busy trying to get a bike lane that runs from bridge to bridge.

When we got up this morning, the plan was for Doug to pick us up, take us to the post office, pick up the rim, Hap rebuild the wheel, use Doug's truing stand to true it up, and head on down the road tomorrow. Things started to go south! Hey, I made a funny...... when we called the post office and they didn't have it. Even though the tracking number said that it had arrived in Gulfport (just down the road from here) last night. We have been on the phone with them all day and they can't seem to find the rim. That's interesting. The last person said "well maybe it will show up tomorrow.........." Oh thanks so much for the help.............so now we are on hold until the post office finds the rim. Maybe it will show up tomorrow and maybe it won't. The bright side? We are safe, the weather is beautiful. Stay tuned.....................

Zachary, LA

2008-02-05T14:44:00.000-08:00

The hotel in Opelousas was certainly an adventure. Hap, why is the floor and carpet all wet?? Why is the water IN THE TOILET HOT? Diane, how do you know the water is hot in the toilet? Because when I sit on it, I feel heat. Try it! I guess you're right! That's interesting! When we woke up in the morning we intended to get an early start for no other reason than to get out of the hotel room. We packed up and then discovered a flat tire on the trailer. And the owner of the hotel kept walking by the room to see if we were out. By the time we (or Hap) changed the tire, the owner was standing outside the door, waiting. I'm not sure what time check out was but it was only 10am when we walked out the door. We stopped at a restaurant for breakfast before heading east on Rt 190. The weather was beautiful, sunny and 70 degrees. Rt 190 was nice for riding on. Most of it was four lane with a nice berm and not much traffic. The wind was blowing in our faces of course. I thought the prevailing winds were supposed to be west to east? Whassup with this? In Krotz Springs we stopped at a Dollar Store to buy some laundry detergent. We crossed a big bridge over the Atchafalaya River. Coming up to it, the bridge looked like it went straight up. But it wasn't that bad. See the picture above. In Livonia we stopped at a gas station for some cokes, bananas and peanut butter. Then we turned north on Rt 78 to head up to New Roads and the ferry across the Mississippi River. The road up to New Roads was a beautiful two lane road. And the tailwind was nice too! We stopped at a DQ only because Hap wanted to try out their new Chocolate Cherry Blizzard. He gave it an outstanding rating. We called Jim's Place Campground for directions. When we arrived there, we found that Jim's Place was actually a Bar/campground/RV park/fishing pier/party central/Mardi Gras float building area. We pitched our tent by the river and headed to the showers. Let's just say....I didn't take my shoes off or touch the walls! But the water was wet and warm. For dinner we went into the bar for some pizza.

This morning we got up very early for us, about 7:30am to pack up. Today is Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras and after seeing the partying from last night, and seeing the partying starting before we left we really wanted to get on and off the road before it got too late. We also discovered that in New Roads they have two huge Mardi Gras parades. The first one started at 11am. As we rode through New Roads we rode through the parade route, which was already starting to fill up. You can check out some video at www. youtube.com/outbikin of our ride. Later on the news we heard that 17,000 people were in New Roads today for the parades. Glad we got out of there. We had about an 8 mile ride to the ferry across the Mississippi River to St Francesville. We stopped at the post office for our mail that our postman, we'll call him George, had sent to us. Then we got some breakfast. I called a hotel in Zachary to make sure that we had a place to stay before leaving town. The girl at the hotel said you are going to have to detour because a bridge is out. Uh oh. She wasn't sure where the detour was so we stopped at a gas station. I went into the gas station to ask about the detour. The first girl I talked to couldn't find St Francesville on the map........Maybe she couldn't see past her FOUR inch fingernails. She said yes the bridge is out you are going to have to go all the way around here to get to Zachary. I said can't we just go across this road? No, you can't get to that road. Then she called for back up. Bobby. So where do ya'll wanna to go? Zachary. Oh, to get there you need to take this road and go all the way around......but what about this road......no, you can't get.....So are there detour signs?? (says me). Yes, there are by the .....plant (couldn't understand that part)... You know the .....plant? We're not from here, we're from Ohio....oh sorry...then you need to go all the way around......can we get through the detour??? Oh, sure you can just ride around the detour and continue on south down Rt 61 (where we wanted to be!) So after a 15 min. conversation I discovered, yes there was a detour, but we could ride around it. Then a delivery guy came in.....Bobby says to him "Hey Buzzsaw these people are from OH and they are riding their bikes back to Ohio!". Buzzsaw answers "tonight?" OK time for me to go......................We got on Rt 61, got to the detour, talked to the sheriff who was routing traffic through the detour and said can we just ride across the bridge? He said, "You might be able to!" You might?? What does that mean? What if we can't................we took our chances and headed south to the bridge. When we got there two TV stations were there filming the bridge that was still there but was ready to fall in. When we left the bridge we had quite a ride down Rt 61 south. The wind was really blowing, in our faces of course. It also seemed very hot and humid. We discovered when we got to Zachary that it was 83 degrees and winds were out of the south at 35 mph. Well, no wonder! We checked into a nice, new, clean Best Western! I got the laundry done, and Hap replaced the rear cogset that had been shipped to us. It sure is nice to be in a clean place! You know I don't mind wearing the same clothes for this year, but I refuse to wear dirty clothes.

Tomorrow we are headed to Hammond, LA to meet up with a friend of Hap's from his days at Purdue! Later.

Opelousas, Louisiana

2008-02-03T17:25:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is possible to ride across Texas in one year! We finally made it out of Texas. We left Kirbeyville in beautiful sunshine and 50 degree temps. We stopped at a donut shop for some "healthy" donuts for breakfast before heading out of town. We left town on 2 lane road with no berm. There was a plywood mill along the road so we saw lots of logging trucks. Our favorite! Most of them were "biker friendly" except for one. Why does there always have to be one? We were thankful there wasn't alot of traffic on the road. The road was a really pretty tree lined road. It was a beautiful day for riding. When we got into DeRidder we stopped at the grocery store for dinner supplies and to do our usual yellow pages lodging shopping. We found a hotel and fought the traffic through town to it. For dinner we had a salad with tomatoes, avacado and salmon. Mmmgooodd....

In the morning we started the day with a pancake breakfast at McDonald's. We met Naomi and Lonnie while we were eating. What a nice couple! We had a great chat with them and then took off for a great ride in sunny and 70 degree weather! The road was once again a tree lined road with a nice berm for riding. There wasn't much traffic so it was just a great ride. Oh, I forgot to mention the headwind. But then I am riding with Headwind Hap. While riding past a gas station we saw another couple on bikes so we stopped to talk for awhile. Stefan and Sheri have been on the road for four years. They said they had been hearing about us from several people for a few days. They also told us about a guy they had seen who was SKATEBOARDING across the US! And you all thought we were crazy! We rode into Oberlin and stopped at a grocery store (are you seeing a theme here?) to look at options and pick up some food (of course). The Adventure Cycling route we had been following went through a little town of Mamou which would have been the next place to stay. I called the RV Park/Motel and asked about either a room or camping. I just didn't get a good feeling about the place. When I asked about the room rate she said "oh it's uh $60. We'll try to have one for you....." Where are you located?? Seems like a simple question to me. She couldn't really tell me.....ok thanks! We decided to go off the Adventure Cycling route and head south to Kinder. There were more choices for lodging there. It looked like a simple route to get there, just ride south on Rt 165. But what we didn't figure on was the road construction. That always adds just that much more fun. We had about a 2 ft strip of pavement that had gravel all over it. And lots of traffic. Oh, yeah and a headwind. When we got to Kinder we found a hotel, they were calling for storms the next day. We walked across the street to a grocery store. They had a deli so we decided to get some fried chicken. We were going to get four pieces for $1.50 each. But the lady said "how about 8 pieces for $2.50?" Sounds like some of that new math to me, but we'll take it, along with some of that corn and green beans.

This morning we woke up to warm temps, 70's, but rain. We had breakfast at the hotel and headed east on Rt 190 toward Opelousas. Rt 190 was really nice for riding on. There was either a berm to ride on or at times the road was a four lane road. We stopped in Eunice for lunch. Just before we got to Opelousas it started to rain alittle. We got into town, only to discover that both of our spare tires (one for the tandem and one for the trailer) had fallen off of the trailer. Great! We backtracked a mile or two and found both of the tires. Thank you Lord. We rode to the Budget Inn. It was a $35/night hotel. I think it would have been better to camp! I didn't take my shoes off in the room. But we wanted to watch the Super Bowl. We walked next door to get our laundry done. Then we walked down the street for take out. We had some great steaks. Hap had pepper steak and I had Pecan Steak. Mmmmgoooddd. As I was riding today I got to thinking about the difference in riding in LA and TX. So here is my list of HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU ARE OUT OF TEXAS! 1. Not everyone is driving a pick up truck. 2. Instead of seeing horse "exhaust" on the streets we saw Mardi Gras beads all over the place. 3. Restaurants serve PO Boys instead of Tex Mex. 4. LSU fans instead of TX Longhorns. 5. Crawfish instead of Barbeque.

Kirbeyville, Texas

2008-01-30T19:08:00.000-08:00

The morning we left Cleveland was pouring down rain, but it was a warm 70's. We rode in the rain most of the morning and the sun finally came out in the afternoon. The terrain is really changing now and looking more like what we have seen in Georgia and S. Carolina. We had some rolling hills which are a nice change of pace. There was a really nice berm to ride on once again. There was alot of traffic but everyone gave us plenty of room......except for that ONE logging truck. There always has to be one! Riding in the rain isn't much fun, but I think that both of us really enjoyed the warm temperatures. We haven't had temps this warm since we were in Arizona (what was that about a year ago......?). The biggest problem is the bike and everything just gets so dirty. By afternoon the sun came out and we really enjoyed a great ride. Shorts and t shirts again. We also had a nice tailwind. The road we were on was a great cycling road. And we finally saw a longhorn cow/bull. Isn't he posing nice for us? Now we can leave Texas and know that we have seen everything, cows, desert, cactus, The Alamo, pickup trucks, mexican restaurants, Dollar Stores, Walmarts....... We stopped at a small store for some cold drinks and then road into Kountze. We were planning to stay there but with the great weather and tailwind we decided to go on to Silsbee. As we were entering Silsbee we heard a big thump thump thump and the back tire went squirrly. We stopped and discovered that the back tire had a big bubble in it. It was pretty impressive. Something we hadn't seen before. We were expecting to see a hole in the tire, but it wasn't a hole it was a bubble. Check out the picture above. We have been carrying two spare tires for the bike and one spare for the trailer. Hap put on a new tire and tube and we were good to go. In Silsbee there were no campgrounds, but there were three hotels. We had called one and decided to stay there. We got into town and couldn't find it. We asked 2 different people, one of them called the hotel, and we ended up calling them again. And we still couldn't find them. The lady didn't speakidy english very well. We ended up at another hotel up there road. It was alittle more costly but at least we were off the road. Traffic in Silsbee was very busy. I used one of the trash cans in the hotel room to soak all of our rain covers and rain coats to get some of the dirt off of them. We washed our clothes in the laundry and then walked across the street to a mexican (what other kind is there?) restaurant. When we got back to the room and opened the door I saw a flash of a little animal (we'll call him BEN) running across the floor. That's a nice touch! We figured BEN wouldn't hurt anything so we went to bed. After we turned off the lights we heard BEN "inside our bag" rustling around! We got up, put the food bag out of reach and closed up everything else. We turned the lights off again and heard him scurrying around again. This time we got out the flashlights to see if we could see him. Of course we couldn't. So we turned the lights out again. Now we are discussing ways that we can trap BEN. Hap is designing a BEN trap in his head. What do ya think? If we can get him to jump into the trash can by using peanut butter................ how about we just go to sleep Hap? BEN didn't bother us anymore that night. When we checked out of the room we told the manager and he did take $10 off the room rate. I told Hap that I thought maybe he would charge us more because we had a "pet" in our room and there was a big sign that said "NO PETS IN ROOM YOU WILL BE CHARGED".

Today's ride started out in sunny but alot cooler temps. 50 degrees and a headwind all day. We had a short day planned due to the fact that there wasn't any place to stay unless we road another 45 miles or so. We were on a four lane highway all day. Lots of traffic but we had our own "lane"/berm again. The temps were a shock after yesterday though. We stopped for lunch in Buna. It was then that Hap discovered that we had been riding with the rear brakes on. That's nice Hap. Maybe if we ride with our brakes on we can finally get in shape! We arrived in Kirbeyville about 3p and checked into a hotel. There are no campgrounds once again. For some reason we were both very tired today. Maybe because we spent half of last night planning how to catch BEN and the whole time BEN was laughing at us, waiting for us to get the peanut butter down from the shelf we had put it on. When we got into our room we both fell asleep. When we finally woke up, it was dark out. We had some soup in our food bag for dinner. We walked next door to a gas station and got a can of green beans. We fixed the soup and green beans in the microwave. Now we've had dinner so we can go to sleep again!! Tomorrow we will be in Louisiana. Another state!

Cleveland, Texas

2008-01-28T18:41:00.000-08:00

We ended up spending two days in La Grange due to the weather. It was in the 30's and pouring down rain, so we did a "Weldon". You'll have to ask Bill and Jill what that is yourselves! The weather was just miserable. We walked down to Walmart for a big shopping trip. Say hello to more food............ I also found a $5.00 DVD for those nights in the tent. We rented a buck movie, "The Boune Ultimatum" from the Red Box. We had been trying to see it since it came out last summer. Then we walked over to a bakery that was next door for sandwiches for lunch. Did I mention that we had to walk about a mile in the rain and wind to do our little shopping trip?? It always amazes me when people say, "oh you have to see this or that or do this or that" but what they forget is that we don't have a car. Oh, sure just hop in the car, turn on the heat, roll up the windows and go wherever you want. When we walked out the door of the hotel Hap told me it was about a quarter of a mile, but ........... oh never mind..... he's only an engineer. I guess he didn't use his tape measure on that quarter of a mile. I know what you are thinking! I got all mad because he didn't tell me how far it really was but no I didn't. .....until....I got the cramp in my leg. Where did THAT come from. Hap was very supportive though, his comment.."you never get cramps.........." Thank you Mr. Eaton for clarifying that for me. As you can see our little jaunt to Walmart was another adventure.
The rain finally stopped the next day. It was still in the 40's when we left La Grange. It stayed cool all day. But it wasn't raining so it was a good day. We had more rolling terrain now. And the country side is finally beginning to look like something. I am still trying to figure out why people call Texas, God's Country. But I'm not going to say anything about that while we are still in Texas. We stopped in a little town of Round Top for a drink. We enjoyed the rolling hills. It sort of reminded us of Ohio.....oops there I go again! There roads are really nice for cycling on, there are nice wide berms that are actually used as passing lanes. When you are riding on them you really have to watch your rear, because of the bogeys. A bogey would be a pick up truck! I was also on the lookout for a longhorn cow/bull/whatever. Since we are in the longhorn state doesn't it seem like we should see at least one? Afterall we have been in Texas for a couple of months.....now....or something like that. One cow? Bull? Steer??
We arrived in Brenham and tried to find a campground. We called several but they didn't allow RIFF RAFF (aka tents) there. So once again we ended up in a hotel. We checked in and then rode over to a grocery store for dinner supplies. Next door to the grocery was a Verizon store. Our cell phone wasn't staying charged so Hap went in to see about getting a new battery. We thought maybe it was still under warrenty. But the guy said it wasn't so he bought a new one. I bought salad fixings and soup for dinner. Hap also made a call to the Verizon customer service 800 number and asked about a warrenty. Of course we have a warrenty and yours is over on Feb 1. He ended up crediting our account for $20 and telling us we may as well get a new phone. (To be continued)......
The next day left in sunshine and alittle warmer temps. By the end of the day it was almost 70 degrees and cloudy. The riding was great. Traffic was alittle heavy but with our berm no one bothered us. No success in seeing a longhorn again today. We rode into Montgomery and found a KOA to stay in. I think this is the biggest KOA I have ever seen. It was actually a resort. Indoor pool/hot tub/clubhouse/gameroom. We set up camp, cooked mashed potatoes and peas for dinner and headed to the hot tub. While our clothes were being washed we sat in the tub. OK so maybe we are just getting soft. We went back to the tent and Big Agnes. BA is our down double sleeping bag. She kept us plenty warm during the night. Now if I could just figure out how to go to the bathroom without getting out of the tent all would be good!
This morning we ate our "breakfast" (yogart and banana) inside the tent because it was alittle chilly in the 40's. As we were riding in Rt 105 we saw an IHOP and stopped for some great pancakes. Rt 105 was very busy but once again a nice wide berm/lane just for tandems. We saw another Verizon store so we stopped again to get our new phone. This time we were told we didn't need a new phone, just a new battery...... Confused??? Doesn't matter....we have a phone that works. It looked like the rain was coming again. It was 72 degrees. We stayed on Rt 105 heading east into Cleveland. The terrain is really starting to change now. We are maybe 100 miles or so from Louisiana. Yeah! Maybe we will get out of Texas.

Back on the saddle again LaGrange Texas

2008-01-23T17:17:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone,
We are on the move again after our trip back to Indianapolis for Mom's funeral. It has been a difficult week for us. We are so thankful for all of our friends and family who are praying for us. Also that Mom is with our Lord in paradise. We will miss her so much. It was difficult to come back to ride. When you do something like we are doing you really have to have your "head in the game." When we arrived back in Austin, as we were walking through the airport we both said, "I don't remember walking through this airport". It has been a whirlwind of a week.
John picked us up at the airport. John was one of the Alpha patients who was at the support group meeting that we spoke at in San Marcos. He graciously offered to take us to the airport and keep our bike and gear for us while we were gone. After he dropped us off it was alittle funny to see our tandem in the back of his pick up truck driving away. Afterall we didn't know him or actually where he lived. He picked us up and drove us to his house. We had a good time chatting. We also loved meeting his dog, Dakota. Another dog fix for us! Yeah. The next morning we woke up to a cool, windy day in the 40's. We had planned a short day anyway just to get our pedal legs back up to speed. Our plan was to ride to the Bastrop State Park and stay in a cabin. When we arrived in Bastop I called and was told the rates were $65/night + we had to pay $4 each to get into the park. That seemed alittle steep so we called another hotel and stayed there. The bonus was that there was a Walmart next door. We walked over for some supplies and got a bag salad and salmon for dinner.
This morning we woke up once again to a drizzly, cool day, but this time it was 37 degrees. We headed east on Rt 71 toward the State Park to at least ride through it. But again they wanted $4 to ride through. We changed our mind and rode back to Rt 71 and followed it to LaGrange. There was a huge shoulder on the edge so we didn't have to worry too much about traffic. It was cold though. I kept adding layers. The final tally? Undershirt, T Shirt, lightweight long sleeve shirt, heavy long sleeve shirt, vest, jacket, tights and gortex rainpants. Oh and a hat and earwarmers. I was plenty warm all day. The only problem was the mist on the glasses. But then I did not need to see. I hope Hap can see! We also put flashing lights on the bike and with our bright rain covers on the packs, and our jackets we felt pretty safe. We stopped in Smithville for a quick grilled cheese sandwich. While there we called a hotel in LaGrange to make sure they had a room for us. It is nice to have a target. We rode into LaGrange well before dark, had a much deserved hot shower. Hap walked across the street and got some take out pasta and chicken for dinner. Now this is roughing it!
The picture on the left above is of our friends Bruce and Joanna, OLD college friends of Hap from Purdue. They shared their house with us in San Antonio. On the left above is a picture of John at his house. Thanks to all of them for letting us leave our bike and gear while we had a vacation from our vacation!

San Marcos, Texas

2008-01-13T09:10:00.000-08:00

Sometimes what you think is important is not so important. Last night Hap's mother, Josephine Eaton, age 91 passed away suddenly at home in Indianapolis. She was surrounded by her family and had just had a wonderful evening. We spoke with her shortly before she was taken from us. Her passing is a huge surprise. Being home last week and spending time in Indianapolis with her, coincidence? I think not. The assurance that we have that she is with our Lord, and is no longer in pain is our comfort. We are flying back to Indianapolis and plan to be there for about a week and then continue our "little bike ride", just as she would have wanted. The above pictures are from last May when we stopped in Indy at the beginning of our trip.

In Ohio for a few days......

2008-01-09T04:20:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

We flew back to Ohio for a few days to see the new ones. I am the one in the picture trying to hold all three of the new ones. Reed, Rowdy and Korbin. I have been busy while we are home just running around trying to hold them as much as possible. Picture me trying to feed both Reed and Rowdy at the same time, the phone ringing.............. do you get the picture?? Tiffany and Heather are handling being new mom's great.

We head back to San Antonio this Friday to continue our ride. We are riding north to San Marcos to do a presentation for an Alpha Support Group this sunday. We are looking forward to sharing our adventure with them. We haven't seen the newspaper article from San Antonio yet.

I was looking back at our map from the ride and it is hard to believe how far we have come. It has been some adventure. People have asked us what is the best part? Or the most memorable? That is so hard to say. But as far as places I would have to say Mt. Rushmore, Glacier Park, North Cascades Highway. Those are "places" that stick out. But really the best part has been the people that we have met. There are so many people that have helped us out, given us food or shelter or laughed at us. It's all good. When you actually spend time at 13 mph riding across our great country, you really get the opportunity to see, smell and sometimes taste the countryside. It is awesome. Would I change any of the trip? Absolutely not! Well, maybe the day it was 114 degrees riding into Billings................. or maybe the day of the WIND riding into Del Rio........ but those are the days that build character don't you think? We sure have alot of character! Some people might say that we are real characters.

It is really hard to put the thoughts and feelings about this past 7 months in words. Accomplishment? Survival? Maybe some of both? Someone asked us what motivates someone to do something like this. That is an easy question. Because we are still able to. Because we love to travel on our bicycle, under our own power, with no particular plan. Is that a good enough answer or one that others can relate to? I'm not sure. We don't think what we are doing is special or different than what we have been doing for the past 20 years. Hopefully we have been able to help spread the word about Alpha One. I think alot of people don't give a thought to a disease unless someone in their family or someone they know is affected. For us Alpha One is personal. We have watched Dugan, Sonnie and the rest of the family deal with it for 20 years now. Maybe something that we say to one person can help them to either be tested for Alpha or help them deal with it. As part of my job as wellness director at Berger Health System, I have worked with many people over the years who have chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, arthritis. One of the things that I have learned on this trip as we have met with Alpha patients along the route is that not all diseases are created equal. What I mean by this is you cannot put everyone in a box or a category who has a chronic illness. I have seen so many times a doctor or other healthcare giver will treat all diabetic or heart disease patient or any other illness the same. Oh, Mrs. So and So if you have diabetes do A, B and C. But it's not the same. All patients are different and may need steps D, C, and A. As I talk to Alpha patients I see so many differences in care, treatment, symptoms etc, etc. How do we change this pattern of healthcare?? I'm not sure. I don't have any answers, only questions. So far I would just give one suggestion to anyone with any chronic illness. You need to be responsible for your health. I am not saying that you don't need your doctors or healthcare providers. On the contrary they are part of the solution. You need to be a partner with your doctor. Learn more about your illness. What are other possible treatments? And of course you know that I am going to say that you need to exercise! No, you don't have to ride your bike around the country. You don't even have to ride a bike. Just move!

Sorry I got off on a tangent, but since I am not working at the hospital right now. I thought maybe all of you might want to hear what I would be telling them. The good part is that if you don't wanna hear it, you can just shut me up by one click.....

That's all for now. We will be on the road again from San Antonio this Saturday. So until then.....Happy New Year!

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T18:26:00.000-08:00

Hello and Happy New Year to all of our friends and family wherever you are. We are spending New Year's Day here in San Antonio watching football games. We did a short ride into downtown San Antonio so that we could see some of the sights of the city. The hotel is about 4 blocks from The Alamo. I was dreading the ride into the middle of the city because generally riding into large cities is not a good idea and not much fun. But it turned out to be an easy ride. The weather turned warmer, 70's and sunny. We rode up to The Alamo for a picture before heading to the hotel so we could get the tandem in the picture. As we rode up I think that we were as much a tourist attraction as The Alamo. Sometimes we forget that our "bus" can be quite a sight if you haven't seen it before. After so many months and miles on the road it seems perfectly normal to be riding our 180 pound "bus". And yes we did ride it all the way from Ohio by the way of Seattle, and San Diego. Oh wait, I forgot we did have to walk across the Mississippi River on a very rainy, cold day when there was no berm on the bridge and the sidewalk of the bridge was too narrow to ride on. So, no, I guess we haven't "ridden" all the way from Ohio! After our picture we needed some stamps so Hap went into the post office while I waited outside with the "bus". A lady with a big camera came walking up, asking the typical, where ya from, where ya goin, etc..... As it turns out she was a reporter for the San Antonio Express News. She took our information, several pictures, so we'll see what actually gets in the paper about Alpha One. We went to the hotel and left the bus and walked back over to The Alamo, and the Riverwalk. San Antonio is really a pretty city. They were setting up for a big New Year's eve party downtown. We stopped at one of the vendor's and Hap got some kind of a chicken taco. We are not exactly sure what it was. But even Hap thought it was awful! We also got some chinese rice that was pretty good. But we decided we didn't want anymore of the vendor's food. The Alamo was really interesting. We also went to the IMAX theater to watch The Alamo story on the BIG screen. It was getting dark so we headed back to the hotel to watch football. For dinner we ordered a pizza.

Today we were just plain lazy. It has been many days since we have not ridden or done anything. It seemed weird not to get on the "bus". But it was fun just relaxing and watching all of the games on tv. We did walk down the street to a store for some lunch. For dinner tonight we ordered chinese take out or is that deliver in?? Anyway they are bringing it to us. We are planning to ride to a college friend of Hap's in Universal City which is a suberb of San Antonio for a couple of nights and then fly home for a quick week. We are anxious to see our newest arrival Korbin Scott Landrum. Thank goodness for frequent flier miles!

San Antonio, Texas

2007-12-30T18:24:00.000-08:00

We ate breakfast at the Amber Sky restaurant. I had my first breakfast taco. A breakfast taco is basically your choice of eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, onions, cheese on a tortilla. Good stuff! It was another sunny beautiful day, temps in the 60's. I can now tell you that the scenery has officially changed, alittle. We are starting to see some farmland. Corn and cotton. As we were riding along a car stopped and a guy got out of the car and was standing at the side of the road. Then we realized that it was Jon! Jon and the family were headed to Six Flags in San Antonio. What a surprise. It was good to see them again. We chatted for awhile and they went on. We had a headwind again today. There was alittle bit more traffic today but mostly everyone gave us plenty of room. We rode into Hondo and stopped at a hotel. The nights are getting down into the 20's. I hope Big Agnus doesn't get upset about having to stay on the bike instead of keeping us warm at night. When we got to the hotel, the guy who checked us in looked at my address and said "I lived in Circleville OH for a couple of years! Home of the Pumpkin Show right?" Talk about being surprised. In the room I washed out a couple pair of bike shorts and our jerseys since they didn't have a laundry. We called a pizza place who delivered and had spagetti for dinner. And watched football.

The next morning it was a little chilly to start. In the 40's. But with the sun it warmed up quickly. The road became a four lane but we still had a nice berm to ride on. The traffic picked up too. Probably since it was a holiday weekend. As we were riding along we were trying to remember the names of songs. At one point Hap said "The name is right on the tip of my tongue but I can't see it......." What??? Does that make sense to anyone else? We didn't have far to ride into San Antonio. So it was a very short day. The traffic picked up as we got closer to San Antonio. We have been following 90 East ever since we left the town of Van Horn many days ago. When we got into San Antonio, the traffic really picked up and we had the situation again where we were having to go across exit ramps and entrance ramps. That is a scary deal on a bicycle. Good thing our tandem has a lookout! We made it to the hotel, checked in and then asked about a grocery store. The lady at the hotel told us it was just down the street, go to the light, turn left, go under the freeway and it is right there. You can't miss it. I hate it when they say that. Can't they just leave well enough alone? We followed the directions and guess what we couldn't find it. And guess what there were about a zillion cars on the road. So....... I finally said stop I'm asking directions. I went into a barbershop (I hoped they spoke english) and got the directions. Then we headed out. After one U Turn, going past our turn, turning the wrong way, going the wrong direction on a one way road......we found it....no problem! We got to the grocery store. It looked like a shady part of town to me. Something about the sign on the front door that said please leave all backpacks at the front desk. I stayed outside with the bike and Hap went in to shop. When he came out we found a "backway" to the hotel.

Today we rode to SeaWorld. We had a great day walking around and watching the shows. It is just amazing what they can train the animals to do. In my first life I got my degree in Animal Health and planned to work for a Vet. I did work for some time at the Ohio State Vet Hospital. I loved it. But somehow I ended up working on people. Sometimes I wish I would have stayed working with animals. We rode back to the hotel and walked next door for dinner.

Uvalde, Texas

2007-12-26T16:45:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone,

The last time I wrote to you. We had stayed only about 10 miles west of Del Rio. The wind won the battle on that day. I hope we don't have to ride in wind like that again it was really something! As we were riding into town another cyclist came toward us on the other side of the road, waved and then turned around to ride with us. Jon rode with us to the Days Inn where we had reservations for a couple of nights. We planned to stay in Del Rio for Christmas. Jon is a F15 pilot at Laughlin AFB in Del Rio. When he left us at the Days Inn he invited us over to his house later. His family only lived a mile or so away. We exchanged phone numbers and he left. Our room was really nice. It was a suite with a full kitchen. We decided to get some groceries and cook our Christmas eve dinner. There was an IHOP down the street so we headed down there for lunch. They had pumpkin pancakes that were as good as any we have had at the Pumpkin Show in Circleville. We went back to the hotel, showered and walked back down the road to Walmart for groceries. Walmart was packed! I have been in a packed Walmart before but not one that had mostly Spanish speaking people in it. It seemed like no matter where I stood or tried to walk I was in the way. But it was fun to be able to do something fairly normal like shopping. We have been riding through some pretty barren countryside. So even though it was a pain it was kindof fun. We decided since we had an oven we would bake meat, potatoes, carrots and onion for dinner. Now all we needed was something to cook it in. We found something called cooking bags that seemed like they might work. Then we needed something to put the cooking bag in so we bought a disposable cooking pan. I hope this works! We walked out of the store with about 8 bags of "stuff". We had taken the bags off the bike. So we stuffed the backpack with some of it, and I carried all the other bags. Good thing we didn't have to go too far. When we got back we called Jon and set a time to go their house. By the time we left for their house it was dark so we put on all our flashing lights and headed over. We had a great time talking with Jon, Marianne, Kailie and Kody.

Christmas eve day we spent doing much of nothing. We rode over to the church we had picked out of the phone book to see if we could see what time their service was. But they didn't have any times posted. We went by several churches and none of them had times posted either. Strange?? So we went back to the hotel and spent the evening cooking our dinner and watching The Godfather. I don't know why we had to watch it again for the nth time. We know how it ends. They all die! Christmas morning we went to St. James Episcopal Church. After church Jon and Marianne had invited us to dinner. We had bought Christmas decorations back in Van Horn, so we decorated the bike and rode to their house. Marianne fixed a fantastic turkey dinner with all the trimmings. It was great. We sure appreciated being able to spend Christmas with friends instead of in a hotel room.

We finally left Del Rio the day after Christmas. Jon came over to ride with us to Bracketville. We had an amazing tailwind. The road was great for cycling on. We are still following Rt 90 east. We have been on Rt 90 since we were in Van Horn. The road became alittle rougher as we got closer to Bracketville. I don't have to tell you what the scenery is. I'll tell you what when the scenery changes I'll let you know. So if I don't mention anything about it you will know it is the same. We had a quick ride to Bracketville and went to the milkshake shop that Jon had recommended. Jon turned around for the ride back to Del Rio. Quite a chore with the 20 mph headwind! At Fort Brackett they had a campground and a hotel. When the lady told me they didn't have hot showers and the cost for the motel was only $35. I picked the motel. Wouldn't you??

This morning we woke up to wind again. But today it is blowing about 20 mph from the SE. And we are headed east! We fought the wind all day and the wind won. When this happens you just gear down, and ride the bike. And with no scenery (oops I said I wasn't going to mention that) it was a long day. We stopped at a Border Patrol check station and ate some lunch that we had with us. The old stand by peanut butter sandwiches! We were very happy to see the town of Uvalde. Hopefully the wind will be more favorable tomorrow. Later..........

Del Rio, Texas

2007-12-22T23:56:00.000-08:00

We ate breakfast in Peggy's Diner at Alpine. Breakfast was included in the cost of the room. Peggy's Diner looked like an old railroad car. As it turned out the hotel we stayed in was where all of the railroad employees stay. We have seen alot of trains on this trip. I guess since there aren't many roads that the railroad follows the road. Hap has been having a great time trying to get them to blow the horn by waving at them. So far I think he's 10 for 15 or something like that. The weather today was just beautiful. Sunny 70's or so and a tailwind. We had a short ride into Marathon planned. I wish I could say that there was something spectacular to see but we are in West Texas and the terrain is pretty much desert like, shrubby bushes, cactus, you get the picture! We continue to have the great berm on both sides of the road. And alot of cars will still get into the other lane when they pass. We are seeing quite a lot of semi trucks. We are also seeing alot of cars being towed by other cars. I am not sure what is up with that?? Are they trying to save on gas?? What's the deal? We both were listening to our MP3 player with some great tunes and just flying along. No, we don't usually listen to our MP3 player while riding but with no traffic, the huge berm and both of us watching for traffic through our mirrors we think it was ok. Believe me, we would never do that back in Ohio! We arrived in Marathon and stopped at a or should I say THE mexican restaurant in town for lunch. It was going to get down into the 20 's again. So we stayed at the Marathon Motel. It was an interesting little place. Each room was a little cabin. And when I say little......we couldn't bring the tandem into the room until we were ready for bed and then the door barely closed. But it was a nice clean place. We found out that they run a marathon every year from Marathon to Alpine. That would be an interesting run.
We ate breakfast in the outside diner at the hotel and left in beautiful weather again. The ride to Sanderson was 55 miles with no services. So we made sure we had plenty of water and food before heading out. We carry four water bottles and a spare camelback that holds about 2 liters of water. Today's ride was record setting. We averaged 19.3 mph! But then we had a great tailwind AND lots of downhill. But it was still great flying along. At one point I asked Hap how fast we were going and he said 30 mph! It was great. We stopped at a small roadside rest for a peanut butter sandwich. Don't you think that a rest area should have a bathroom? Well, not in west Texas! And those shrubby bushes and cactus are pretty small....good thing I'm short. When we got to Sanderson we went straight to the post office. Our mail that we were supposed to pick up in El Paso was supposed to be forwarded here AND we were expecting this week's mail. We were very happy that when we got there it had arrived. We road on into Sanderson looking for the motel. It looked like the entire town had closed up. There were a couple of restaurants, a few little stores, a visitor center and a gas station. But they were all closed. Guess Sanderson closes on Thursdays?? But the hotel was open and had a room. (There wasn't anyone else there!) We made our Dinty Moore beef stew in the microwave added some peas and called it dinner!
The next morning we woke up to overcast skies and cooler temperatures but still in the 60's. The terrain changed alittle bit today. There were more hills. We would ride down into a canyon and then up the other side. We also had a headwind. We again had a day of 60 miles and no services. There was one little store with a post office. We stopped to mail home a package, fill up water bottles and went on. We stopped for lunch again at another rest area. And no they still don't have bathrooms at rest areas in West Texas! The riding today was much more interesting with the change in terrain. We were heading for Langtry and according to our Adventure Cycling map (which we have now because it came in the mail finally!) had no services. There was a visitor center that our map said you could camp by. Langtry was the town that Judge Roy Bean lived in back in the day. I am not sure which day but it was sometime ago..... The Dept of Transportation had built a really nice center and display area where you could walk through his "courtroom" which was actually his saloon. The town of Langtry was maybe 10 houses that maybe 10 people lived in and a community center. The lady at the visitor center told us we were allowed to camp beside the community center but it was "dry camping". Which means no water, no bathrooms, no showers! So I washed up in the visitor center bathroom and we went over to set up our tent. The lady from the visitor center came walking over with a bag of food. I don't know, maybe we looked hungry? In the bag was eggs for breakfast, 2 cookies and 2 apples. We cooked dinner and went to bed. We watched the movie "Hunt for Red October" that we had been carrying with us. It didn't get as cold tonight and we both slept well.
This morning we woke up to the sound of WIND. We cooked our eggs. We discovered a new way to fix eggs. You break them into a small plastic bag and then boil them. Voila! Instant omelette. OK so you all probably new that already! But we were very pleased with ourselves. It was colder today (50) but still sunny. The big story about today's ride was the wind. I don't think we have ever ridden in wind like this. The wind was from the NW and we were headed SE. You would think that would be perfect wouldn't you. Well it was ok as long as we had a direct tailwind but if the road turned at all and we had any wind from the side it was scary. Hap was really having problems going straight. At one point we had a semi truck go by and we had a side wind. Hap hit the brakes, we stopped, planted our feet, and leaned the bike almost all the way over. Hap yelled do you want to just walk. But we didn't think we could push it either. We stopped at a bridge crossing the Pecos River. A spectacular bridge 300 feet over the river. The wind was incredible. Hap had to push the bike to turn around and he couldn't even hold it once he got it crossways to the wind. Then when we went to get on it, the bike started to take off without us so he had to hit the brakes. We have been riding our tandem since 1985, through all kinds of weather, down mts at 60 mph and I can honestly say this is the first time I have ever been afraid! It was a very long day. We made one stop in Comstock for a sandwich. It was amazing when we got off the bike to see how hard it was actually blowing. Everyone we talked to said we can't believe you are riding in this. But that's one on the problems with bike touring. What are you supposed to do if you are out IN IT? We had to get somewhere. When we got about 10 miles from Del Rio we saw a motel so we decided to stop. When we turned on the weather channel it said the winds were a "sustained" 38 mph! With 49 mph wind gusts from the NW. We walked across the street to get some drinks and I couldn't even hardly walk into it. We were glad to be off the bike today. It is supposed to stop tonight. Let's hope so.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Alpine Texas

2007-12-18T20:10:00.000-08:00

We had a good nights rest in the hotel in El Paso. Even if we weren't planning to stay in downtown El Paso. I had no idea that El Paso was such a large city. We walked a couple of blocks to a chinese restaurant for dinner. The next morning we called the post office again to see if our mail had made it. As it turns out, all of the General Delivery mail first went to a downtown post office and THEN went to a post office out by the airport. Since the mail still had not shown up at either place, we asked them to forward it on to Sanderson, TX our next mail pick up. We ate breakfast in the hotel. Getting all of our bags, bike, trailer down to the ground floor is quite a feat but we made it. Hap managed to get the tandem in the elevator this time. You should've seen the looks on people's faces in the lobby as he wheeled out the tandem. And then I followed with a cart filled with bags. We took the bike outside and put all the pieces together. It was cold outside and very windy. Temps in the 30's. Brrrr..... We weren't looking forward to riding through the city but we headed south anyway. We followed Rt 20 out of town. As it turned out it wasn't that bad. The traffic didn't seem so bad. There was only one incident. A car came roaring up behind us. Keep in mind that there were two lanes and there was no one in the other lane! It kind of startled me so I sort of raised my hands like what are you doing? He went by very slowly and then put on the brake lights. It was a young guy. Both of us went uh oh. But the guy kept going and I duck taped my hands to the handlebars. Once we got alittle south of town the road turned into a nice two lane road. AND the wind turned into a great tailwind. It did warm up into the 40's and was sunny so it didn't feel so bad. We rode through alot of farm land, mostly cotton farms. We also saw a couple of fishing lakes. The first lakes we have seen for a long time! We had called the Fort Hancock Motel to make sure we had a place to stay. It is still too cold to camp. Temperatures at night have been in the teens and 20's. When we got to Fort Hancock we checked into the only hotel. The town consisted of a Border Patrol station, Angie's restaurant, a church and a small grocery/store. We went to Angie's and had a great meal. We both had roast beef and mashed potatoes. MMmmmmm..... Our hotel room was alittle small, but it was warm and we had a shower!
The next morning we went over to Angie's for breakfast. It was 32 degrees! After breakfast we got on Interstate 10 and headed east to Van Horn. There was alot of traffic on the road today. Mostly big trucks. And big trucks have these big truck tires that have little teeny wires that stick in our tires and cause flats. We didn't have one today but it was surely a worry. We had a little bit of a tailwind today but we also climbed all day! It was sunny again but stayed in the 40's all day. We stopped and had lunch at a mexican restaurant. At some point we realized that there was a side road/frontage road so we got on it. I had to go to the bathroom of course. Do ya think they would have rest areas on the interstate? NOT! So I went down into the ditch and was just walking out of the ditch when the Border Patrol stopped by. Hello there where are you going? We talked to him for quite awhile. It was really interesting. We are maybe five miles or so from the border. He told us that his station had 45 miles of border to patrol. They originally had 30 people and now have 130 border patrol. He also said that in this 45 mile stretch last year 10,000 pounds of marijuana had been found. I asked him if it was safe for us along here. He said yes it was....during the day. Don't worry, I said, we'll be off the road by night! We got to Van Horn and since we had a coupon for a Motel 6 headed there. After we checked in Hap went up to talk to them about something and found out that the usual rate was what we paid anyway! Oh well. We were tired after the long climb we had. It was a long day.
Sunday we decided to stay in Van Horn and go to church. We went to the Baptist church and had a great service. Then we stopped at the Dollar Store. Dollar Stores sure are popular in this part of the country. We have seen them in almost every little town. The terrain we have been riding through looks mostly like desert with little bits of shrubs. We haven't seen any cattle or horses. We spent most of the day resting and getting caught up on paying bills etc. In the evening we went to a Christmas program at the church. It was really great to be with other christians to celebrate the real reason for Christmas. We got a ride home from church with Fred and his wife. They told us some great stories about living in this area. We are in real cowboy country now.
The next morning we overslept and quickly packed up and headed out. It was in the 30's again, but overcast which made it seem much cooler. For some reason I just couldn't get warm. We stopped a couple of times for me to put on another layer. I was finally warm with: two hats under my helmel, a scarf over my face, a tank top, t shirt, long sleeve t shirt, heavyweight shirt, 2 vests and my windbreaker. I was warm but I sure couldn't move. We climbed again all day AND this time we had a headwind. We saw a wild pig and a coyote dead on the side of the road. We stopped for a peanut butter and jelly bagel about half way. It seemed like a long day. We didn't get into Marfa until almost 5:30p. There wasn't much for places to eat so we stopped at Subway for a sandwich to take to the hotel. We had called the Riata Inn for a room this morning to make sure we had a place to stay. Camping in this cold weather just didn't seem like a good idea. In case you don't know where Marfa, Texas is.....it is halfway between somewhere in Texas and where the heck are we!
Today we started the ride in beautiful sunshine and warm 60's temperatures finally. And we had a tailwind. We planned a short day for today. Oh I forgot to tell you that yesterday the lady from the El Paso Post Office called us and said our mail had finally arrived and she was sending it on to Sanderson, TX just like we asked her to. That was really nice of her to call. The ride today was great. Tailwind, sunshine, warm temperatures and scenery?????????.........well at least it was warm! It was alittle hillier today. But the road was great. There is a huge berm on it and not much traffic at all. We got into Alpine and stopped on the side of the road to figure out where we were going. A guy from a bakery ran out the door and said "are you riding the Southern Tier?" Hap went over to talk to him and came back with a loaf of bread, muffins and cinnamon rolls. Maybe we looked hungry? We went down the street and ate lunch at a mexican restaurant and then went to check in at the Oak Tree Inn. The brochure we read said it had internet, hot tub and a laundry.....well at least it had a laundry. Hap spent the evening making our plane reservations for our quick trip home for baby holding in January. And me...well....I did laundry, watched movies and talked to you! Tomorrow we are headed to Marathon, TX and the weather is supposed to stay warm and sunny! Later.......

El Paso, Texas

2007-12-13T20:23:00.000-08:00

We left Deming on a cold sunny morning. The temp almost reached 40 degrees. But it could be worse it could be snowing! We rode out of Deming on a road paralleling Interstate 10. It was nice to be away from the traffic. There wasn't much scenery. But I think we are getting used to that. There are more scrubby bushes instead of cactus. I suppose that counts as a scenery change in this part of the world. We had a slight tailwind for much of the day. Eventually we had to ride on the interstate again. We stopped just outside of Las Cruces at a truck stop for Subway. There was an old bicycle with a sleeping bag perched on the top of it outside of the truck stop. When we went inside, Hap met another one of his old friends. I guess I would describe this one as a homeless guy. He and Hap had quite a conversation about where he had been and we had been. He had several maps with him and showed Hap how we should go through Florida. Florida? That's three months away! How about where are we going to stay tonight! We ate our subs and headed out. I asked one of the workers if the side road we saw coming in went all the way into Las Cruces. Sure he said. That's the best way to go on a bicycle. So off we went down the side road.....and then we saw the sign that said "Pavement ends". Mmmm.....maybe HE rides his bike that way but we couldn't. So we turned around to get back onto the interstate. That's when we heard THE sound. THE sound is THE sound of dragging the trailer because the back wheel was flat. We stopped to fix it. Since it had "slime" in it. That's the tire sealant that is inside of the tire, Hap just put air int the tire and it held. So now we get onto the interstate. There was some road construction and a big downhill into Las Cruces. The mountains sure were pretty in the background. I hope you can see that from one of the pictures above. The excitement started as we got to the Las Cruces exits. Traffic picked up. The real excitement was when there was an exit and we didn't have to exit there. Just picture riding a bicycle with traffic all around, they want to get off the interstate, we don't want to, and others are coming onto the interstate. Talk about being a lookout. We found our exit and stopped at the hotel we had picked out. We had a discount coupon but when we went in she said, oh no we don't take that one anymore. We just went to a gas station and started calling hotels. We found one not too far away and headed toward it. While we were riding, we had two cars cut right into our lane to make a right hand turn. Thank you very much. We got to the Teakwood Inn finally. While we were checking in Hap said "So what's your best rate for two very tired bikers from Ohio?" The manager answered "You rode from Ohio to here?" "Not directly, we went to up to Washington, down to San Diego and then rode to here". She gave us a great rate! Maybe we need to try that more often. They even gave us a huge room. The hotel had an indoor pool so we headed to the pool for some laps. It sure felt good to swim again.

The next morning we planned to ride to El Paso to pick up our mail. But when we called the post office they said it wasn't there. We decided since we had a nice place to stay we would just stay in Las Cruces again and then ride to El Paso tomorrow. I checked to see what we could do and found that there was an "old town called La Mesilla" that had shops, etc. We didn't want to take the bike because we didn't want to leave it outside alone. It gets lonely sometimes! We opted to take a bus. We called the bus station to find out where the bus stop was. There was one just outside of the hotel. Neither of us have ridden on a bus for awhile. As it turns out it is a cheap way to see a city. .50 for me and .25 cents for the old guy! We finally got to La Mesilla and walked around for awhile. There was a neat old church there but other than that it wasn't that great. We ate lunch at a mexican restaurant and then decided to just walk back instead of waiting on the bus. It didn't take that long. We stopped at a Hollywood Video store for a movie. I wanted to see the new movie "Bourne Ultimatum". They didn't have it so we rented the new Bruce Willis movie. For dinner we stopped at Whataburger. Then we tried to watch our movie. We had gotten one of the Blueray type movies. It wouldn't work in our computer. Oh well.

This morning we ate breakfast in the hotel. It was sunny and alittle warmer today, in the 50's. We took the movie back and when I told her it wouldn't work. She said do you have the special player for a blueray movie?? Ohhhhh..... It would've been nice if they had mentioned THAT when we got it. She gave us a credit and we headed out. Today's ride to El Paso was really nice. It was great being off of the interstate. We were on Rt 28 most of the day. We rode through alot of pecan farms and some vineyard/wineries. Once we got into El Paso the traffic really picked up. Coming into town we had a huge hill to climb. The hill wasn't so bad, it was the bumper to bumper three lane each direction traffic that made it really special. We stopped and called the post office and our mail still wasn't there. She is going to call us in the morning and tell us if it made it. We had planned to ride close to the airport where the post office was and find a hotel and pick up our mail. What we didn't know was that the airport is about 10-15 miles from where we were. And now that we are not sure if we are even going to have mail to pick up, we weren't sure if we needed to go out of our way. We were in the middle of town by now. We stopped at the first hotel. Traffic was still very heavy and now it was getting pretty late. I'll never understand why someone will drive right up behind us, and not pass us when there are THREE lanes with no one beside them. I just don't understand! We checked in and of course they didn't have a ground floor room. We were on the fifth floor. The picture above is of us carrying the tandem up the stairs. It wouldn't fit in the elevator. We finally got the bike, all the bags and the trailer into the room. Whew! A long day but a good day of riding. Now all we need is our mail to show up tomorrow. Until next time!

Deming, New Mexico

2007-12-10T14:27:00.000-08:00

While we were in Lordsburg we celebrated our 20 year anniversary. We made a special video for you. Check it out at www.youtube.com/outbikin. It is labeled Lordsburg, NM.

When we left Lordsburg it was in the 40's and now the wind was blowing out of the east! Guess which direction we were heading?? East! It was a very cold, windy start. We got back on Interstate 10 and headed into the wind. In addition we had a very slight climb over the Continental Divide. It wasn't much of an elevation change but with the wind it made for a difficult day. The temperature never did get much higher than 50 degrees. We stopped at a Trading Post rest area for drinks and to get warm. The scenery did change alittle. More scrubby grass and we could see mountains in the distance. We are riding just south of Albuqueque NM. But there just wasn't much to see. Not a fun day of cycling for sure. We stopped again at another exit with a trading post and a DQ. No, we did not have a Blizzard it was way to cold for that! But we were both starved. Fighting the wind all day will do that to you. We were able to get off of the interstate for the last 20 miles or so. There was a frontage road that took us into Deming. We had a coupon for a hotel so once we got into town we called to find out where it was. There was a Walmart just before the hotel so we stopped for salad fixins for dinner. By the time we got to the hotel it was getting dark and COLDER! We are hoping for a better day tomorrow.

This morning we woke up to a downpour! And it was about 40 degrees. Nope, not riding today! We decided to see if we could rent a car and drive back to Lordsburg and get the mail that wasn't there the day before. We called the Lordsburg Post Office and sure enough it was in. We called a car rental place in Deming and yes they did have a car we could rent. They came to pick us up and we drove back to Lordsburg and picked up our mail. We learned a lesson though. 2-3 day delivery doesn't guarentee delivery in 2-3 days. In this case it was 6 days. Good to Know! You can see how hard it was raining in one of the pictures above. It is a picture from inside the car as I was looking out at the rain. Don't you just love to look OUT at rain instead of BEING out in the rain!! I know I do. Hopefully tomorrow we can ride. Although this rain is supposed to last another day. We'll see. Our next stop will be Las Cruces NM. And then on to El Paso, Texas. Until next time................

Lordsburg, New Mexico

2007-12-08T19:03:00.000-08:00

We left Benson in beautiful sunshine and temperatures about 70 degrees. We headed east on Interstate 10. There didn't seem to be as much traffic today as yesterday. That's a good thing! Once again not too much scenery to speak of. Cactus and desert-like terrain. The berm/shoulder was pretty rough at some times. But mostly was ok. We did have a nice tailwind most of the day. We stopped for blizzards at the Dairy Queen. Since today was our 20 year anniversary we decided to stay at a hotel. The last 10 miles was mostly downhill, tailwind and sunny beautiful weather. What more could you want? The town of Willcox was pretty small. We checked into the hotel and walked over to the grocery store for a bag of salad, chicken, tomatoes and avacodo for a nice salad. There was a Radio Shack by the hotel so we stopped in to see if we could find some type of speaker system for the computer and my MP3 player. We found a fold up one. We also rented the movie Oceans 13 and watched it in the room. Like I said not a real exciting day! Hap put the new saddle on that we have been carrying around. He also had to adjust the front chain. It fell off just as we were getting off the exit to Willcox. We were almost able to coast in but we had to stop and put it back on.

We left Willcox and got back on Interstate 10. We had a bit of a delima today. We could either do a long day or one short day and one long day. One of the problems with this part of the country is that the towns are few and far between. And when you get to a "town" there might not be anything there. We decided to ride a short day to Bowie and ride on to Lordsburg the next day. Just before we got to Bowie we began to see real trees. Then we saw a sign that said Pecans. We later found out that they grow pecans, walnuts and pestachios in this area. When we arrived in Bowie we rode down THE main street of town. There was only one street. We passed a trailer that had a sign on it that said, "THE BEAUTY SHOP IS OPEN". Mmm...that's different. Hap really needed to get his beard trimmed so we stopped to get a beard trim .... in the trailer. As it turns out Dianne hitched up her trailer and moved from town to town cutting hair. After his trim, we went to the RV park that we had seen in our book. We were very surprised to hear that they did not allow tents. So here we are 50 miles from the next town, it was about 2:30p and we don't have a place to stay. Luckly their was a caretaker living on the property, Michael who said we could sleep in his trailer. That was how we ended up spending the night with Michael and Patricia. They even cooked us spagetti. Thanks Michael and Patricia for bailing us out! The next morning we went over to the Subway for omelette sandwiches. Then we headed onto Interstate 10 for our ride to Lordsburg. The day started out as a bright sunny day. But dark clouds were looming. We had a great tailwind to Lordsburg. But we could see that the weather was changing. We crossed into New Mexico about the same time that we reached our 6000 mile mark. The terrain in New Mexico changed somewhat. We saw less cactus and more sand and mountains. There wasn't much traffic on the interstate today. We did get passed by a couple of huge dump trucks that were on trailers. They took up almost two lanes. When we got into Lordsburg we went to the post office to see if our mail had arrived. It was not there. The temperature started dropping and the wind picked up. When we went to the KOA we decided to stay in one of their camping cabins. And it had a heater inside. I did laundry and we got our showers. During the night the wind was really howling but we were warm and dry inside our cabin.

This morning we woke up to more wind, cold temperatures (45 degrees) and 30 mph winds. Brrr........ We went to the post office to see if our mail was there but it still wasn't. B & J had sent our mail last Tuesday two day delivery. Today was Friday so it should've been there. But apparently when they say 2 day delivery it is not guarenteed. Good to know! With the weather looking terrible we decided to spend another night here in Lordsburg and checked into a motel. We spent most of the day watching movies and Hap working on finding my my and dad a Medicap plan. Talk about confusing! So now we have a spreadsheet and hopefully can help them figure something out. We walked across the street for a steak dinner. We are hoping tomorrow will be a better weather day. The temps weren't so bad today it was the wind. Until next time!

Benson, Arizona

2007-12-04T19:56:00.001-08:00

It has been awhile since I have posted because we have spent the last six days at Carol (Hap's sister) house in Tucson. We had planned to leave yesterday but developed a problem with our Verizon Card. We decided to stay so we could make sure we had it working properly. This was the first time in our whole trip that we have had any problem with it. We spent most of our time at Carol's just resting and spending time with Carol. We don't get to see her very often. We have been out to bicycle in the Tucson area a couple of times. We did El Tour de Tuscon in 1989. This is a 100+ mile around the perimeter of Tucson that is held around Thanksgiving every year. The year we went out was the same year that I had my ACL Knee Reconstruction. We did not realize that El Tour is actually a timed event with a mass start. That was a first for us. We had a great time.

Friday we had a person from the Arizona Star Newspaper come over to interview us and take a picture. It took them along time to get the picture set up, but I think it came out great. Don't you?

On Saturday I went Christmas shopping at the Tucson mall. You have to understand that I usually buy my christmas gifts on December 23-24. So this is a major event for me! Do you realize the advantage of buying the day before Christmas? First of all, you have to make a quick decision. Second, everything is on sale. And third, there is nobody in the store! I managed to get most of my shopping done, wrapped and mailed home. Hold your applause please. Going to the mall was an adventure. First of all, be sure to brush up on your spanish before you go. I am sure I will get used to this at some point on this trip. Hap, offered to go shopping with me.................. Actually I think that he begged to go with me...............of course you can go with me, I said................but don't you want to help Carol ?????????............... So, I went shopping, all by myself. It was hard being all alone.

Sunday, we went to church with Carol and had a wonderful service. After church we met a friend of ours who had recently moved from Circleville to Tucson to become a pilot. Scott and his wife Julie. Scott invited us to go flying. It didn't take us long to make that decision. Carol, Hap and I met Scott at the Tuscon airport and went up for a flight over the city. It was great to see Scott first of all. We have spent alot of time bicycling with Scott in Circleville, so it was great to see him. Now I am not a big fan of flying but the ratio of fun to fear was much higher. It had been raining the last two days but today was a beautiful sunny day. It was great as you can see from the pictures. When we were getting ready to land Scott assured us that he had reread the chapter on landing just the night before. We had a smooth landing. Scott dropped Carol and I off at the airport and he and Hap flew on to another airport to return the plane. Then we all met back at Scott and Julie's new house for dinner. They fixed us an amazing meal of rice, beans and "fixins". He also made some great guacamole dip. It was such a great time. We loved seeing them again.

Monday morning we got up at 6am because the TV station Channel 4 was coming over to videotape us and do an interview. It was about 38 degrees while we were riding around the block and they were videotaping. This should air this week. I will try to put it on the blog asap. After the interview we realized our verizon card wasn't working so we decided to stay another day. With nothing to do I suggested that I should go to the mall to see if Bicycle Santa forgot anything. Also, Marsha called to tell us that Heather's water had broken and she was beginning labor. So we were expecting the call all day. Hap and Carol dropped me off at the mall and went to run errands. I got my haircut while I was there. And yes, I did find a few little things that I had to have. What can you do? It was on sale...............

We finally got the call about 9:30pm. Heather and Scott had a petite baby boy weighing in at 10.1 pounds and 21 inches long. Korbin Scott Landrum. Baby, Mom and Daddy Scott are doing great. I am not so sure about Grandaddy Mike! He said that when the nurses started moving equipment in and put on their rubber gloves it was time for him to leave!

We left Tucson this morning, stopped to mail Biker Santa's gifts home and headed east on Interstate 10. There was lots of traffic on the interstate. More truck traffic than we expected. But we may as well get used to it. We have about 270 miles to El Paso, Texas and we will be on interstate until then. Tomorrow we are headed for Willcox, AZ. Later........

Tucson, Arizona

2007-11-29T10:19:00.000-08:00

How many have heard of the famous Dateland Shakes?? Well, neither had we. We didn't have one but Hap did have to sample all of the different types of dates. Who knew that dates grew in Arizona? We had breakfast at the famous Dateland Shake place, no not shakes, but omelettes and fixins. Dateland is just an exit on Interstate 8. Not much of a town. We road most of the day paralleling I-8 on old Highway 80. Once again we road through.....yes you guessed it----desert. I think once you've seen one cactus you have seen them all. The difference today was the weather it was overcast, alittle cooler in the 60's and we had a headwind. The last 20 miles or so we had to ride on the interstate but it wasn't bad. We are getting used to it. The biggest problem is the noise of the traffic. We know we can't hear each other in the first place, but when you add the noise of the traffic, well let's just say it's not pretty. A conversation is something like this "What kind of bird is that?" "No, I didn't see anything wierd over there" "No, I said WHAT KIND OF BIRD IS THAT?" "I told you I don't see anything over there". "Oh never mind". See what I mean? We rode into the town of Gila Bend (Pronounced Hila Bend) about 4pm. It gets dark at 4:45pm. And with the clouds and overcast it was really starting to get chilly. We stopped at a truck stop for something to drink and to discuss our options (when both of us could hear each other). We decided if we could find a cheaper hotel that we would stay inside. I called triprewards and found a travelodge at a good price so we rode down the street to the hotel. There isn't much to Hila Bend either. Just one main street with several hotels, gas stations and a few businesses. After checking in we walked next door to the Subway and got subs for dinner and a can of green beans to heat in the microwave. Hey, we had to have something green. It was a nice quiet night in the hotel watching Dancing with the Stars.

The next morning we went back over to the truck stop for breakfast. Subway had a breakfast burrito. And we had some yogart to go along with it. Today was alittle sunnier but still cool. We road all day on Interstate 8. We did see something different today though. Cotton. Did you all know that they grow cotton in Arizona. When we cycled from Ohio to New Orleans we saw alot of Cotton in Mississippi but had no idea it was grown in the desert also. That was pretty much the excitement for today. I decided to listen to my new MP3 player (since I'm not driving), so I was listening to the Ohio State Marching Band CD. We stopped at an exit for a peanut butter and apple break. We also made another stop at an exit to see where we were on the map. Just then Jill called on the phone so Hap was on the phone when the State Patrol pulled up. He just stopped to check and make sure we were ok. That was nice of him. He told us about a frontage road that ran along Interstate 10 all the way from Casa Grande (where we were headed to) to Tucson. We had been debating on how to get into Tucson. Once we left that stop we had about 20 miles into Casa Grande. We were heading for a RV park called Buena Tierra Campground. When we got close to the intersection of I-8 and I-10 there was a sign that said bicycles must exit. So we got off the interstate and headed north into Casa Grande. We found the RV park and of course they directed us to the very back of the RV park where the riff raff are allowed. We pitched our tent and went to the showers.. We found that we had to pay for showers also. There's just something about paying $24 to pitch a tent and then have to pay for showers. Oh well. Since it was getting dark we walked across the street to Wendy's for salads for dinner.

The next morning we got up to a beautiful sunny day. We found the frontage road that the state trooper had told us about and headed south to Tucson. Not much excitement about today's ride either except that we got a call from someone from the newspaper that wanted to do a story about us and Alpha. And then a TV cameraman called and wanted to get some video of us riding into Tucson. We finally were able to hook up with him and he got several shots of us coming into town and then onto Carol's (Hap's sisters) house. He interviewed us for the 9:00 news. So now we have made it to our break point for a few days. We plan to stay with Carol through the weekend and then head east on Interstate 10. Until then.....

Dateland, AZ

2007-11-25T16:05:00.000-08:00

When we left Yuma we were expecting smooth sailing but what happened wasn't quite what we expected. We ate breakfast in the hotel room and left fairly early for us. First of all we saw a Barnes and Noble bookstore and stopped to buy an Arizona county map book. After that we got maybe two miles or so down the road and saw a bike trail running beside the road. So Hap swung over to the trail. In a couple of minutes I noticed Hap kept picking things off of the front tire as we road along. I said what are you doing? He said rocks keep getting stuck on the tire and I am pulling them off. Then I noticed that the rear tire was losing air. So we stopped to check it out. The first thing we noticed was that the "little rocks" were "little burrs"! Just like the ones that we had found to be a real problem while cycling in the Salt Lake City area. While mountain biking we had FOUR flat tires at one time. A new world record I am sure. So here we are now with both tires losing air. Yesterday we had stopped at a bike shop and bought some slime (tire sealant) that you put inside the tube to seal up small leaks. Hap put some in both tires to see if that would stop the leaks. I found lots of burrs sticking out of the tires. Last night he had spent putting a tire, tire liner and slime on the trailer tire. We headed on down the road. There was alot of traffic leaving Yuma and I think ALL of them passed us at some point. The rear tire started losing air again and so we stopped to pump it up again. Hap's theory was that if we spun the tire long enough eventually the "slime" would fill the holes. We stopped for lunch before leaving town. Leaving town we were on the frontage road alongside of our favorite Interstate 8 and we knew at some point the road would dead end. Just at the point where we were debating whether or not we should get on the interstate, I saw a bike shop. So we stopped. Hap bought brand new "slimed pre-slimed" tubes for the bike. But he didn't want to take the time to put them on so we got on the freeway (the bike shop guy said that is where all the cyclists ride around here). We must have stopped 7 or 8 times to pump up the tire. Can I just say how much fun we were having. Don't you wish you were there to watch HAP pump up all the tires again and again and again. I especially loved all of the traffic whizzing by. That made it really special. We had to go through a border patrol check point as we were climbing out of the Yuma area. They just waved us through, laughing...... We had a good 6 percent grade to come down on the freeway. Don't worry I made sure that Hap stopped to pump up the tires ONE MORE TIME! All in all we only road about 35 miles or so to Wellton. We thought we were going to stay at a RV park but when we called them they said NO TENTS. We don't want any riff raff in our area. We called the police to see if we could camp in the park, but they didn't seem to know either. So we ended up in a hotel again. I spent most of the evening trying to find a place for us to stay tomorrow night. We finally called and found one in Dateland. Which is where we are tonight.
Today's ride was on a road parallel to I 8 for much of the time. It was old highway 80. There was hardly any traffic on it. It was a nice road. We did have a headwind. The temps are again in the 70's. The last 13 miles we were on the interstate. There was alot of trafffic due to the holiday weekend so we were happy to get off the road. It looks like tomorrow we will be able to ride most of it on highway 80 again. Not much scenery again today. Just desert and desert. Oh and a few mountains here and there. Until next time.....

Yuma, Arizona

2007-11-23T19:39:00.000-08:00

We left Jackson's RV ADULT Park. I wondered what they meant by ADULT. I was afraid that they wouldn't let Hap in, but Jackson said it was because he didn't want little kids there. So I checked to see if it was ok that Hap stayed. He said yes. We left in beautiful sunny weather. Temps about 70 degrees. We were riding on roads parallel to I - 8. The road service was alittle rough but there was hardly any traffic. We had alittle bit of a headwind also. The terrain is still mostly desert. We stopped in Seeley for a snack of chocolate milk and a cake. I should have brushed up on my spanish before coming on this trip. If you don't speak spanish in this part of the country your in trouble. Have you checked gas prices lately?? 3.34 per gallon. We'll get another 25 miles out of our chocolate milk!

We arrived in El Centro and decided to stop early today since it was turkey day. First we stopped at a grocery for supplies. Hap went into the store. We don't want to leave the bike alone. So I was the lookout. Hap was in the store forever. When he finally came out, I said what took you so long? He said he met his friend Roseanne. She had stopped him because she had seen the bike outside. She asked him if we were a team or something? He said yes, we are a team of two. But we happen to be riding to raise awareness about Alpha One. So he talked about Alpha One, gave her a card. Then he was asking her if she knew of any restaurants in town that were serving a thanksgiving dinner? Since she was just in town visiting her mother, she called her mother. While waiting for her mother to answer the phone, an old friend of her's that she grew up with, walked by. So they hailed Mike or Richard (Hap couldn't remember), and he came over. They asked him about where to find a dinner. He said he didn't know of any restaurants but there was the Police Athletic League serving a dinner and gave him directions. An hour later Hap came out and told me this story. We left the grocery store and headed to the PAL dinner. We road all over El Centro looking for it and finally found it. So we had a our turkey dinner. After eating we headed off to a RV park on the east side of town. When we got there, there was a sign on the office door that said CLOSED for Thanksgiving. Mmmm..... so we walked to the first trailer and a lady came out. Of course she didn't speakidy english very well but said something like. Yes you can put a tent over there. We will get you key. Mmm....what do we need a key for?? We put up our tent where she told us to and then discovered what we needed the key for. The showers and the bathroom. We went back over to her trailer and asked for a key. She said again, that the man (??) would bring us a key. So we waited and played cards and waited. Finally she came over with a key but said as soorn as we were done with it, to bring it back to her. That there was a party in the party house and they needed the key. Apparently there was only ONE key! There must be something that we are missing?? We took our showers, and took the key back to her. Finally Hap went back over and got us the key to the bathroom. We were allowed to keep the key all night. It got dark by 5:30pm so we went to bed at 6p. The next morning when we got up a guy in a golf cart came by and said he needed the key we had and he gave us another key. Don't ask me.....I'm just glad I was able to use the bathroom!

We left this morning to another beautiful sunny day. Temps in the 70's again. We rode into Holtsville and found a mexican (that's funny cause they are ALL mexican) diner for breakfast. We planned to ride into Yuma today. We talked to several people who told us not to ride on the side road that looked like it went along I-8 because it just was a deadend. When we got to the entrance to I-8 there was a sign on the ramp that said No bicycles. Generally in places like this if there isn't a side road you are allowed to ride on the interstate. Our only option was to go back to El Centro and get on a completely different road. We didn't think that was a very good option. So onto the interstate we went. But the whole time we were thinking that helicopters were going to swoop down, lights were going to flash and loudspeakers saying "YOU ON THE BIKE!" We road about 15 miles down the interstate and got off at the first exit. We hoped that at this point it was ok for bikes to ride on it. But no, there was still THAT sign. Maybe that's just a guideline Hap? We could still see the side road that we were told was a dead end so we thought ok let's see what happens over there. It ran along side of I 8. It was really rough and bumpy. My back just loved it! We stayed on it to the next entrance ramp and then tried again. Guess what? Yes, THAT sign was still there. But we just had no choice. We couldn't go forward and we didn't want to go back. We had about 20 miles to Yuma. At every exit we got off and hoped for a sign that said Bicycles ok. FINALLY we saw one. Now where exactly one was supposed to start riding on the interstate I am not sure. Because where we finally saw a sign was miles from anywhere. We road through alot of sand dune area today and saw thousands of RV's, dune buggies, motorcycles, four wheelers and other toys. The wind picked up through this area so much so that sand was in our teeth and eyes. Then Hap ran over some oil or something that splashed up on us and that was also very special! We finally arrived in Yuma and stopped at a visitor's center to find a campground. She said that only a couple of RV parks allowed tents and none of them were in town. We opted to stay in a hotel. We also stopped at a bike shop and Hap bought a new tire and tire liners for the trailer. Hopefully this will stop our flat tire problem. We found the hotel, ordered take out from Pizza Hut, did the laundry, and watched football on TV. How about our Buckeyes! GO BUCKS! It had been a long day. The next few days we will be riding on I 8 east on our way to Tucson. Don't worry though we checked it is legal to ride on the interstate in Arizona.

Ocotillo, CA

2007-11-21T18:27:00.000-08:00

We are moving forward again! We have been in Pine Valley for the last two days. Monday we spent just cooling our jets. There wasn't much to the town we were in. A city park, a restaurant, a diner, library, fire station and grocery store. We picked up some steaks at the grocery and used the hotels grill to cook it for dinner. The next morning we went down for breakfast at the diner and another cyclist pulled into town. We talked to him and discovered that he was riding to Columbus, OH. He went on his way and we waited and waited and waited.....
The part finally arrived yesterday. Hap had to replace the inside of the rear hub. That meant that first he had to get the broken piece out. So we needed a vice. We had walked down to the auto repair store the day before and the guy said we could use his but he wasn't going to be there past 5p or so. When the part got there we walked down and when Hap started to try to use it, it didn't seem too sturdy. The man told us there was a vice at the Fire Station so we walked over to use their vice. When we tried to use it we discovered it was broken. I hope they don't need a vice to put out a fire! We walked back to the auto repair place and Hap found a big piece of pipe that he could use to help brace the vice. With alot of tugging--me on one end---Hap on the other. The hub broke loose and he was able to remove it. We went back to the room and he fixed after a couple of calls to the company. Now you all know why I bring an engineer with me. Hap takes care of the bike and I take care of us!
This morning we got an early start. It was alittle chilly maybe 60 degrees or so. We had a good climb to start out with. We are still on Old Highway 80 that parallels Interstate 8 east out of San Diego. We had several long climbs today. The terrain today was alot of rock, shrubs, sand and nuthin! I think we are getting to the desert part of this ride. We went through a couple of small towns -- well I think they were towns. They had a cafe and a gas station. Does that count? We were right on the border in a few places. We saw lots of border patrol either patrolling or at road checks. We didn't get stopped. I guess we don't look shady enough. We stopped in one little town for some cheese and crackers for lunch. It was cloudy most of the day. As we got closer to Ocotillo we knew that we had to get on Interstate 8. We also knew that we were going to lose altitude. We started the day at 4000 ft. And ended the day at about 500 ft. The last 13 miles was down a huge hill! It was awesome. We were on I 8. The speed limit for trucks was 35 mph. Does that tell you how steep it was? The worse part was the wind whipping as we were coming down.
We got down the hill without any problem. We had to get off the interstate at that point. Mostly because there was a big sign that said BICYCLISTS MUST EXIT. That was a good clue don't you think? We stopped to ask for directions to a grocery store and was told that there wasn't any grocery store but there was a gas station. It was then that we noticed the flat tire on the trailer AGAIN! Mmm wonder when that happened? Surely we didn't drag the trailer down that hill with a FLAT tire. Nah! That couldn't happen. We changed (we meaning Hap) the tire, picked up some supplies and then headed to Jackson's RV park. It turned out to be a really neat place. Jackson is retired and runs this park with his son. He said why don't you just sleep in the recreation room. Ok, we said. How much? He said no charge. So tonight we are in a room with a satellite tv, library with DVD's and books, full kitchen, lounge chairs, and hot shower. How is that for a Thanksgiving present. Until next time..................

Pine Valley CA

2007-11-18T19:09:00.000-08:00

We left Jon and Joy's house in Imperial Beach (south of San Diego) and headed north on the Silver Strand. This is the way that we had arrived at their house a short six weeks ago. It didn't seem that long ago. When we left it was bright and sunny. We rode up the bike trail towards the ferry in Coronado. On the bike trail we saw a street sweeper. That was unusual. We arrived to the ferry dock just as the ferry was leaving. Our plan for that day was to ride to a hotel near the San Diego Zoo, leave the bike at the hotel and take a shuttle over to the zoo. I have always loved going to the zoo. In fact, I think my perfect job would have been to be a nurse at a zoo. Don't worry I am not changing again! When we got off the ferry there was a man there on a bicycle. When we told him where we were going he said I'll just take you there. So off we went. The only problem was that he didn't seem to think it was a problem to ride the wrong way on one way streets. We were in downtown San Diego, thankfully there wasn't much traffic. Our friend then decided maybe we should just ride up the sidewalk. If you look at the picture above you'll see that we cannot just flit around on our little train! After awhile he decided we were close enough and said keep going that way. So we did and THEN we got lost. Eventually we found our way to the Days Inn. I went in to check in and to find out how to catch the shuttle that they had told me they had. They said it leaves in five minutes and its the only one. So we hurried to get the bike into the room, changed and jumped on the shuttle. Our favorite part zoo was the monkeys, hippos, the pandas, and the reptiles. The shuttle picked us up and took us back. For dinner we had pizza and watched a movie. Or is that slept while watching a movie.... I don't think that either of us has transferred to west coast time yet.

We got up the next morning, ate breakfast in the room and headed east. Finally! We have planned to ride to short days to get used to the bike, time change etc. We had to stop at a post office to mail back the tool to Bill that we brought with us. No sense in adding any weight. Hap "googled" post office's in San Diego and found one not too far away. Or so it seemed! We found the right street but turned the wrong way. We ended up riding onto the freeway ramp! Oops. And there was a divider so we couldn't get into the other lane. We made a U turn and rode the wrong way for a short distance! Thank goodness there wasn't any oncoming traffic. We quickly turned into a parking lot and THEN stopped to ask someone if they know where the post office is? Now isn't that easier Hap? We finally found it and lost a few pounds! Riding out of San Diego was surprisingly easy. We had a bike lane most of the way with light traffic. We stopped in Lakeside and stayed at the Rancho Las Coches RV Park. It was a really nice and clean place. We met a couple of Canadian motorcyclists who were on a year ride. They are also planning to be in Daytona Beach the first wk of March for Bike Week. That is also our goal. Hopefully we will see them there!

This morning we got up to a chilly day at least in the morning. The sun finally came out. And so did the heat. It ended up being 86 degrees and sunny! We should have suspected how the day was going to go when we came out of breakfast to find the tire to the trailer flat. Now THAT's the way to start a day! Today's ride was mostly uphill. We climbed 20 miles. It was a long day. The trailer adds an additional 18 lbs to our load. The terrain was dry and shadeless. We saw several bikers today so this must be the right way! Once again we had light traffic and a nice bike lane to ride on. We had a short 3 mile ride on Interstate 8. Basically we were parallel to I-8 all day. Just before we got to the end of the day. About 5 miles from Pine Valley where we are tonight, Hap started to cramp. I told you it was hot. He has this problem often so we are usually pretty careful about drinking enough fluids. As soon as he started cramping we stopped and ate power bars, drank all of the gatorade we had and then every 15 minutes he ate a power gel. We stopped at a store for more gatorade and bananas. The problem with cramping is that once you start to cramp it is usually too late to fix it. The best thing to do is stop exercising, rest and replace the fluids. Of course we were out in the middle of nowhere so we didn't have that option. We just kept pushing fluids, and put some calories in, slowed our speed down to about 5 mph (we were still climbing!) and stopped frequently to stretch. It worked the cramps slowed down. Then we had a new problem. We finally crested the hill (we climbed from sea level to 4000 feet) and had about a 3 mile downhill to Pine Valley. When we started to coast something happened to the back wheel. Hap couldn't figure it out on the road so we kept going just coasting downhill. We had called a hotel in Pine Valley so we knew we had a place to stay. We made it to the hotel. Hap took the back wheel apart and found the rachet mechanism in the freehub was broken. We had just had the back wheel rebuilt. Hap called the guy who built it for us and he said he had only seen that one other time. He suggested we call the company and they could send us a part to replace it with. We are not sure at this point what we will do. Hap will call them in the morning and see if they can overnight it to us here in Pine Valley and then he can fix it. Welcome to life on the road again. You never know what will happen. The good news about all of this. We are in a safe place. We'll let you know what happens!!!!!!!!!

San Diego---We're back...............!

2007-11-15T13:15:00.000-08:00

We arrived in San Diego last night. The last many weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. Both of us had alot of trouble keeping our eyes open during the flight. It was uneventful as flights go. Flying is such a headache these days that I think we'll just ride our bicyle back to Ohio! And as I filled up our gas tank in the van for the last time in many months, I had a good chuckle as I realized we didn't have to worry about the prices of oil for awhile! All we have to do is worry about how many miles we can get out of that chocolate milkshake!
Our boys were born Monday, November 12 at 8:09 and 8:10am. Reed weighed in at 6.4 lbs and Rowdy at 6 lbs. They both were 19 inches long! And all I gotta say about that is "how did they all fit??" Tiff was pretty uncomfortable the last few weeks. But she was a real trouper and had a picture perfect pregnancy and birth. I am sure that it was just because Aunt Diane was there overseeing all of it......
I want to give a great big shout out to the Maternity Unit at Berger Health System, Dr. Shield's office staff and of course Dr. Shields. All of them were just incredible to Tiff and the rest of us. They are the best. Way to go TEAM BERGER!
Hap was pretty funny the day Tiff had her last doctor appt he came with us. I told Tiff to hold up her shirt so Uncle Hap could see her pregnant belly. I don't think that Hap has ever seen one before. You should have seen the look on his face! Priceless!
Tiff, Dustin and the boys went home from the hospital to start their new adventure together. And it will be an adventure! Granddaddy Dugan is already looking for twin ponies for them. And he is also working on his "pond" which is in their backyard. We went to look at it and I think by definition it is NOT a pond it is officially a LAKE!
So, now we begin again. What will we do? Where will we go?? Today we are in Imperial Beach with Hap's cousin Jon and Joy. They were kind enough to keep our bike and gear safe for what we thought was going to be a short time. I guess babies will come when God says it's time, NOT when Aunt Diane and Uncle Hap want to go ride their bike. Today Hap is busy working on the bike. He is repairing the headset that has been coming loose. I am not sure what he is doing. All I know is that he had a big tool (thanks Bill-we'll mail it back it is too heavy to carry...) and has grease all over him. He also bought a new front rack. We have had a chronic problem with one of the front bolts breaking. He is replacing the rear tire again. I think this is our sixth tire. And a new addition is our Bobb Trailer that we brought back with us. We are going to try pulling it with our camping gear and see how that works. We have pulled it before and didn't really like it other than for pulling our dog. But we are about 20 pounds heavier than on other trips. And alittle top heavy. So we'll see!
Tomorrow we are planning a short ride to a hotel in San Diego and then hitch a ride to the San Diego Zoo. It is a place I have always wanted to visit. I am spending today figuring out a route and organizing our gear again. Since we are changing our system it takes alittle bit of time.
As I look over the pictures of the first half of our ride, it is amazing to think how far we have actually come. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Would we change anything? If I could just change the 100 + degree weather we had in Montana in July/August. Other than that no. This journey has been more than we ever expected. The best part of our trip has been the people that we have met along the way. The hardest part? Leaving our families and friends. The easiest part---pedaling! Are we tired of pedaling? No! Do you think it is possible that there is something wrong with us????..........
Until tomorrow........THE JOURNEY CONTINUES!

Help support Alpha One research by making a donation

2007-10-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

Several people have been contacting me about how to make a donation to the Alpha One organization. The link on the left side of this page is not working. I am not sure what the problem is but I am working to correct it. Please keep checking back.If you have any problems please let me know. I am working to correct it. You can read more about the Allpha One organization at http://www.firstgiving.com/eatons

Thanks so much for helping us out. And please know that all of this money goes directly to Alpha One. Hap and I are in no way financed or reimbursed for any of this ride. Well, they did give us a really cool cycling jersey! Our pay is in being able to meet with Alpha patients and maybe just maybe make a difference in spreading the word about a disease that is close to our hearts. The only way to fight this disease is to have the funds for research. Dugan started in a research study 20 years ago at THE Ohio State University (GO BUCKS!). He began taking the medication Prolastin before it was approved. For many years it was the only treatment available. Now there are a couple of other medications available.

Riding in Ohio

2007-10-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

I thought I would share some pictures of our rides in Ohio. You can see them on the left side of this page. We really do have some good roads for riding around here. And with the trees changing with the season it is just beautiful. From our front door we have the option of riding flat cornfield lined roads, rolling empty roads, or long steep tree lined roads. You can see that from the pictures.

We also have a "little" event here in Circleville called the Pumpkin Show. ww.pumpkinshow.com This year Dr. Leggett grew the largest pumpkin ever, at over 1500 pounds. The city of Circleville pretty much closes down for the week of Pumpkin Show. Schools are closed, businesses are closed. I play in the Pumpkin Show Community Band (see picture). We not only play at Pumpkin Show but play at numerous events throughout the year. There are over 70 members ages 15-80 years. As you can see in the picture we don't march through any of the EIGHT parades that they have. There are two parades per day! We have our own trailer. I love playing with the band. I played in the band in school and hadn't played the baritone for 20 yrs when I joined the PSB about 13 years ago. I love the challenge of trying new music. There are some terrific musicians. Me?? I figure it is a successful song if when the director stops at the end of a song, I end at the same time! It's not a good idea to have any notes left over.

And how are our pregnant girls doing? We had a shower last week for Heather and it was a good time. She looks great and the baby is doing well. I can't wait to see if we have a little girl or boy. Tiffany's twin boys are also doing well. They weigh 4.2 pounds each now. Tiffany is the size of a full term pregnant person. The docs are saying if she doesnt' go into labor they will do a C Section on Nov. 12. Our tickets back to San Diego are for Oct 30 so we'll just have to see when the babies are "done".

I do have to mention our Number 1 rated Ohio State Buckeyes. How 'bout them Buckeyes! GO BUCKS! I probably should do a shout out for that team from Lafayette IN. Let's see what was their name...........oh yeah, Purdue. Now are you happy Hap?

Hopefully we'll be back on the road soon. We sure miss it. We are probably going to be taking our Bobb trailer back with us. We are thinking that will balance out our "extra' weight that we have on this trip. We also bought a new front rack that hopefully is stiffer and will help with the problem we have been having with the bolt breaking on that rack. Hap says he has a "plan" for the front headset problem. I am not sure what he means by that. But knowing Hap he has researched the problem, graphed it, mapped it out, talked about it and whatever else you can do. It will be fixed. We'll keep you posted as to our EDT for San Diego. In the meantime we are enjoying the beautiful riding here in Ohio in the changing of the seasons.

Ohio news

2007-10-14T07:57:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone, I thought I would let everyone know that we are still here and are planning to continue our "road" trip as soon as we have healthy twin boys! Adjusting to regular life has been difficult. I have been working alot, and Hap has been making sure that everything here at the house is in good working order. MMMm..... wait was it before we left???.... Yesterday we discovered we had a "guest" in the house. We'll just call him BEN. Don't worry BEN is now in heaven with all of the other BEN'S out there. I am just glad that I did not see BEN first. We have been out riding quite a bit but we do miss riding every day. Above are pics of us on our "5 pound" bikes. No, Bing, they are not really 5 pounds. But I thought by the time you factor in the wt we were carrying and the weight of these actual bikes, do the statistics, draw the graphs etc, they weigh 5 pounds. It sure is a change from what we have been doing anyway. I love riding my Kestrel and Hap is riding his Giant TCR. In fact I am getting ready to head out now, before the next baby shower. I have gotten alot of emails about are we going to not go back to our trip. The only answer is YES, ASAP. The tandem is in San Diego at Hap's cousins house, sitting in the garage, all covered up and just waiting. We'll be there soon................

Our babies are all healthy. The twins are 4.2 pounds each and Tiff is doing super. All system's are go and hopefully they will cooperate with our EDT of Oct 30. Heather is also doing well and we are headed to her baby shower today. I am in debt from buying baby gifts but who knew what going to Baby's r Us would be like. Have you ever been there? Mostly I picked up "stuff" and said what's this for?

I am getting Physical therapy on my back, massages and seeing the chiropractor. It is tough to know just how much to do. I am used to lifting wts, swimming, etc here at home, but I don't want to mess up our BIG RIDE. So I'll just play it safe and do what they tell me. I am loving being back at work. Berger Health System has been awesome to me. Everyone is so supportive of our ride and what we are doing. We just opened up a new Berger Medical Center that will be a real asset to our community. It is a beautiful building.

So that's all the news that is news today. Check back and I will let you know when we will be headed to San Diego. The plan is to ride east from San Diego to Tucson, across N Mexico, Texas (maybe go down to the tip, Brownsville) and on east to Daytona Beach by March. Then back to Ohio. Oh, One last note. HOW BOUT THEM BUCKEYES! GO BUCKS!

One more note about Dugan. He and Sonnie have just started doing their own home infusion of Prolastin. I am so proud of them! Nurse Sonnie has really stepped up and is doing an awesome job.

Back in Ohio

2007-10-02T20:42:00.000-07:00

What! Back in Ohio! Whassup with that? Like I've been trying to tell you....we're having twins! I'm going to be a grand-aunt. Our boys are coming -- out boys are coming. We left the tandem in San Diego and plan to fly back to continue our adventure after they are born. We are looking forward to making our next LEFT TURN across the southern US. Hopefully, we have planned it so that the weather will be nice for our winter lap.

We rode through San Diego to Imperial Beach and left our tandem with Hap's cousin Jon and his wife Joy. The ride into San Diego was really pretty. It was right along the ocean with beautiful scenery. It was also really nice because there was alot of cyclists out riding. More than we have seen since we have left home. Traffic became heavier the closer we got to the city. But overall was pretty good. It did seem like San Diego drivers were not quite as patient as they were in LA. We were really surprised by that. We had another flat tire today. That is three in two days! Hap found a cut on the inside of the tire, so that's what the problem was. He got it fixed and we rode on. We rode to downtown San Diego and took the ferry across the bay to Coronado. We were alittle worried that the tandem would fit on that "little boat", but it did with no problem. Once across the bay we had an easy ride down the strand to Jon and Joy's. Joy fixed us a wonderful supper. The next morning we took a walk on the beach and stopped for breakfast. We walked out on the pier and watched people catching alot of big fish called Bonita's. We also saw some dolphins. We could see Mexico very easily. We are maybe five miles or so from the border. Hap cleaned up the bike and I took a nap. Hey I offered to help................... For dinner we went out to a great mexican restaurant with Jon, Joy, daughter Jenny, husband Nate and new baby (3 wks) Chase.

Today Jon took us to the airport for our flight home. The flight was uneventful. It was alittle wierd to think that it took us almost five months to get to California and about 5 hours to fly back to Ohio. Does that mean we have to start all over again?

Bill and Jill picked us up at the airport and we got a very special bonus. Tiffany came up with them. It was so good to see her. I thought I was going to have to wait til tomorrow. What a surprise. The house was still standing. It is alittle sad being home. We are looking forward to making our left hand turn in California. And NO we are NOT tired of riding the bike. In fact, my little 5 pound bike is sitting here looking at me. Too bad it's dark outside! Stay tuned for baby news. I am also planning to work while I am here. We'll see how all of this plays out.

Oceanside, CA

2007-09-29T21:36:00.000-07:00

We left the hotel near the LA airport we were both we not looking forward to today's ride through another 60 or so miles of city traffic to Mark and Jenny's house in Irvine. We started out by riding west back to the coast. We planned to get back on Rt 1 and head south. The roads were very busy mostly 3-4 lane. We had several people give us a thumbs up (in a good way) as we rode along. We even had a couple of people at traffic lights ask us where we were going as we waited for the light. Generally the traffic was good and patient. There were lots of cyclists around, so I think they are used to seeing cyclist. We finally got back to Rt 1 and went south down the coast. The weather was overcast and cleared up in the afternoon. There were some long climbs along the coast but it wasn't so bad. We rode through some beautiful areas with million dollar homes on the hillsides. Someday someone will have to explain to me why you would build a house like that on the side of a hill that keeps sliding off. I guess when you can afford to build something like that you can afford to just build another one. Or maybe just move to your other house!! We also saw lots of harbors with some beautiful boats or is that ships? What is the difference between a boat and a ship anyway?? We rode through the Huntington Beach area which was an interesting place. It was a four lane highway with a strip of beaches and on/off ramps like a freeway. We stopped to eat a snack on the side of the road. Mark and Jenny had told us about a Mountain to Sea bike trail just of Jamboree Road in Newport Beach that would take us right to their house. They also gave us the option of riding up Jamboree Rd to their house. They said it had a nice bike lane on it. We opted for Jamboree Rd because it looked shorter. We turned onto the road and started climbing. It was about 5pm so traffic was just awful and all the nice drivers that were on Rt 1.....well they were still on Rt 1.....we got to the top of a hill and it looked like we were headed onto a freeway. So we stopped to consider another option. It just so happened we stopped right beside a bike trail. Was it the Mountain to Sea?? Who would know ..... of course we didn't have a map! But what the heck...let's just see where it goes. As it turned out it did connect up with the right trail.........eventually. We rode past UC Irvine. There were alot of bikers and runners on the trail. It was really pretty. There were alot of parks, palm trees and no traffic. We followed the trail and then all of a sudden we realized we were not where we were supposed to be. We called Mark and Jenny and said "We're on the corner of .... and ...." They said so what are you doing way over there? They "googled" us and told us how to get to their house. Aren't computers wonderful? We finally made it to their house. It was good to see Mark, Jenny, Katie and Abby again. They headed off to church while Hap and I ate their food, used their shower and I watched a video before heading for bed. It was great!

We spent the next day just laying around the house not doing much. Jenny had arranged for me to get a massage at the house. Thanks Jenny! and my back thanks you too! It was just a quiet day at the house. Jenny's sister came over and brought her twins. All of the kids put on quite a show for us. The next day, Mark was off so we all went to Laguna Beach. It was fun to spend a day at the beach, looking at tide pools. We saw sea urchins, sea slugs, starfish, little fishies, crabs, and other "stuff" The weather had been overcast in the morning, but once we got to the beach the weather was perfect. When we got back, Mark and Jenny headed off for a party. Hap, myself and Jenny's mom watched Katie and Abby. I read Katie a story. Her comment to me was "That was a really looonnnnggg story...........".

This morning we packed up "the bus" and headed out. It was really good to see them, we had a great time. We got on the Mountain to Sea trail again. They gave us more directions this time AND they showed us where it started. We didn't have any trouble finding it this time. We got on Rt 1 south again. Today was Sat. so there seemed to be more traffic. We stopped at the Shake Shop in Newport Beach for milkshakes. They were delicious! When we got into Laguna Beach and had a flat tire. Only our second since leaving home. Hap fixed it and we continued on. There was still alot of traffic but there were also tons of cyclists. We had several longish climbs today. The temps were alittle warmer. All day today we rode along the beaches of southern CA on the right and million dollar homes on the left. What a pretty ride on a pretty day! Our plan today was to ride into Carlsbad and stay at the State Beach. When we got to Camp Pendleton we had to ride on Interstate 5 for about 8 miles. The last time through this area you could ride through there but they now have it closed and send you to the freeway. It sure was noisy!! We got off the freeway in Oceanside and stopped for a drink and to see if there was a campground in this town. It was getting alittle late, but we still had another 8 miles to ride or so. I called a RV park in Oceanside and they wanted $39 to pitch a tent. I don't think so! So I called around to see what hotels cost and found one for only $59. So would you spend another $20 for a bed?? As we were leaving we discovered we had ANOTHER FLAT TIRE! What's up with that?? We stopped to fix it and then headed to the hotel. By the time we got there it was almost dark. Across the street was a Thai Chinese restaurant. But the best news of the day!! We got to watch the Buckeyes beat Minnesota! AND Florida lose to Auburn. Isn't that sad! We had a great dinner, topped off with the pumpkin bread that Jenny sent with us. Hap found a cut on the inside of the tire wall. That is why we got the flats. He put our new tire on, fixed the inner tubes and were good to go. We have about 45 miles to ride to Imperial Beach (San Diego) tomorrow to Hap's cousins house. Yes, we do have to ride through another city. I can't wait until we are riding without all of this traffic. I may be sorry I said this when we are going across the desert of S. CA and Arizona. Until next time!

Los Angeles, CA

2007-09-25T23:05:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

We started our day in Lompoc by having breakfast at McDonald's next door. Hap went over and got us carry out so we could finish packing up the bike. Don't worry it was a "healthy" breakfast afterall we are in California. We started out in bright sunny skies with temps in the 70's. Since Lompoc is on the east side of the mts from the coast we of course started our day with a 14 mile climb. It was pretty gradual so not so bad. The scenery has changed again to the golden brown hills of California. There were several burn areas that we rode through. Once we started downhill we were riding along the coast once again. Just along the waters edge. It was beautiful riding. Rt 1 was mostly four lane with a very wide berm for us to ride on. Oh, we had one interesting thing happen as we were coming down the hill. Tell me what you think, maybe I'm biased. There were three lanes. Coming towards us there were two (one was a passing lane up the hill) and we had one lane and a nice berm. The berm had alot of gravel, dirt, some glass and grating. We got up to speeds of about 50 mph so Hap moved out into the downhill lane. There was hardly any traffic. Most of them just moved over and usually waved. But one lady as she went around us "motioned" through her sun roof that we had to move onto the berm. But at 50 mph we didn't feel it was safe to do that. There was one car behind her, which she held up because she was so busy helping us drive. Sometimes I just don't understand. We stop and get off the road anytime we back up traffic or have more than one or two cars blocked but when there is a clear road, and no traffic it just makes no sense to us. Oh well, we all made it down the hill safely. She probably got to her "hair appt or whatever" on time. And by the way how fast was she going if the speed limit was 55 and we were going 50 and she passed us pretty fast......

Once we got to the coast we stopped at Refugio State Beach to check on camping. From now until we get south of LA the camping is going to be sparse. In fact, we called the only campground for about 90 miles and they wanted $43 to pitch a tent! You've got to be kidding. I wouldn't pay that to pitch a tent. After looking over the map, we decided to stay at Refugio that would break up our ride through LA. It was a short day but it ended up being a good decision. The hiker/biker sites were right on the beach. It was a beautiful day. We spent the rest of the day walking on the beach, watching the surfers, and porpoises. What a great spot. We did get in trouble with the warden though. We pitched our tent in the wrong place (even though it said hiker/biker) so we had to move the tent. For dinner we cooked spaghetti and green beans. A hiker came in and set up his "camp" which consisted of a piece of plastic and a sleeping bag. He vaguely said he travels from Alaska to California working various jobs. It's going to take awhile to get used to the transient people. People who just walk or bike from place to place work for awhile and then move on.

We got up in the morning and ate our usual oatmeal for breakfast and headed south on Rt 1 again. It was once again a beautiful sunny southern CA morning. We rode through Santa Barbara again. We had done this on our previous trip down the coast. The last time Hap went through it so fast because he was trying to "beat the lights" that I couldn't see anything. So this time I made him slow down some. We got lost in Santa Barbara but fumbled our way through again! We stopped at an IHOP for lunch and some great crepes. The rest of the day we had trouble following the instructions in the book "Bicycling the Pacific Highway". But finally made it to our final destination of McGarth State Beach. We had arranged to meet another Alpha patient, Karen Erickson for dinner. We got there set up camp, took a shower and Karen picked us up. We had a great dinner with her at an Italian restaurant. It sure didn't take long to get to sleep!

This morning we got alittle bit of a late start because I had a migraine. Thank goodness for Imitrex. Karen was planning to meet up with us to ride today near Leo Carrillo State Beach. We had about a 20 mile ride to get there. Most of it was right on Rt 1. There was some traffic but it really wasn't bad. We really enjoyed the scenery today, it was awesome. We met up with Karen and rode with her. We stopped in Malibu for lunch. It was really interesting meeting another Alpha patient who rides with oxygen on their bike like Dugan. It's amazing what you are able to do if you really want to do it. It's kindof like our bike ride. People have told us that what we are doing is pretty amazing but I think being able to ride your bike with 29% lung function is super incredible. It would be sort of like riding while breathing through a little straw. We had a wonderful time with Karen and hope to see her again soon. After leaving her we rode on toward the airport, hoping that we could find a least expensive hotel there. We rode on a neat bike trail right on the beach in Venice. Then we got off the trail and headed toward the hotel. That was when things really got interesting. We had a heck of a time trying to find good roads but eventually we did. We even had two people stop and give us directions. Who knew that people would be that way in LA.? When we got close to the airport it looked like we were getting on a freeway but it turned out to be a road with a bike lane. And it was even the right road. We made it to the Comfort Inn, had Chinese food, got our laundry done and had a good nights sleep. Tomorrow we are riding through more LA traffic to our niece and nephew's house. Good night.

Lompoc, CA 5000 miles

2007-09-22T20:11:00.001-07:00

We had breakfast at the hotel and left about 11am. The weather was sunny and warm maybe 70 degrees. Perfect cycling. But before we took off I had to take a "drive" around the hotel parking lot (see picture above). We headed south on Rt 1. Today's ride was a big change from the previous days riding. We were finally in "southern California". We are now out of the mountains, in more open spaces, with the golden hillsides of California all around us. We rode the highway to Morro Bay where we got off and rode through the city of Morrow Bay. We stopped for lunch at a deli. Judging by the price of lunch, I would say "welcome to California!". But at least it was "organic". Would it be ok if I have mine NOT organic for $5.00 less? When we left Morro Bay we got alittle bit turned around. Or at least we thought we did. We had to stop several times to check the maps. It just seemed that we were going the wrong way. Then we realized that if we had just stayed on Rt 1 we would have avoided alot of city traffic (and the drivers!) and it was shorter. Oh well we're just out for a bike ride. To make it even more fun, the route we were on was wall to wall traffic. I love traffic. But we had a nice shoulder so it wasn't that bad. Just noisy. As we were riding to San Luis Obispo we saw large dark clouds lining up just ahead of us. Mmmm.....we were headed for Oceano State Park to camp. But it looked like that was where the rain was. As we were going through SLO we saw a Motel 6 and decided to abort the original plan and have a HOT shower and a dry bed. We walked next door and picked up dinner.
This morning we left the hotel and rode to Pismo Beach for breakfast. We saw alot of cyclists today. But then it was Saturday. We stopped at a cafe and sat outside in the nice sunshine. I had banana pancakes and Hap had quiche. The food was good, but it was too expensive and took way too long to get it. One thing that we are noticing is how many of the signs are in spanish. I would think you would have to learn to speak spanish if you lived in California. We saw alot of vegetable and fruit farms again. And along with that all of the migrant workers out in the fields. We also saw (and smelled) alot of eucalyptus trees. It reminded us of riding in Australia a few years ago. We went through the town of Guadalupe. Everything was in spanish. As we were leaving town, the rain that we had been watching (and hoping was going the other way) caught up with us. We stopped on the side of the road and put on our raingear. People ask us what we do when it rains....we ride....and Hap sings! Today's selection was "Here comes the sun." (Although I didn't see it at that point). We continued to ride through farmland. Eventually the sun did come out and we took off our rain gear. (That is what Hap is doing above in the picture). We stopped in the little town of Orcutt for a milkshake. The last 5 miles included a three mile climb with a 2 mile descent into Lompoc. As we were climbing the rain came again! That made the descent into Lompoc a cold one. We stopped to buy groceries and decided we were cold, wet and stayed in a hotel. Or maybe we just wanted to watch football. We love to watch the college football games. And we got a bonus in that we watched Purdue play Minnesota. Ohio State thumped Northwestern so life is good. So here we are in sunny southern California. I heard they need rain, so it's a good thing we showed up to help them out. Later..........

San Simean, CA

2007-09-20T21:33:00.000-07:00

Two other cyclists showed up at the Hiker/Biker sites in New Brighton Beach State Park. They are Pius and Stefan from Switzerland. They were riding their recumbents from Alaska to Tierra Del Fuego - June 07-February 09. See we are not the only crazy people in the world. You can check out their website at http://www.panamerica.ch/

The next morning we had our oatmeal for breakfast. By the time we got away it was almost 11am. All the other cyclists were gone already. It was a pretty morning. Alittle fog but not so bad that we needed our lights. The temperatures were nice and warm. Instead of following the route back into town we decided to blaze our own trail. BIG mistake! We ended up climbing several very steep bonus hills. But what the heck we're just out for a bike ride! Today we rode through alot of agriculture area. The picture above is celery (we think). We also saw brussel sprouts, artichokes, strawberries, tomatoes. There were alot of migrant workers in the fields harvesting the crops. I have never seen such large fields of strawberries or tomatoes. In each field there along with the workers there was a truck pulling a port a potty and playing music. Quite a sight as we rode along! As we got closer to Monterey we got onto a bike trail that took us into Monterey. We had been to Monterey several times before when Hap was racing motorcycles. Once a year we would drive out to Laguna Seca Raceway just outside of Monterey. We got into town and stopped at the visitor center to ask directions to the Veterans Memorial Campground. As we rode through town we stopped at a street fair and bought some fresh fruit to take to the campground. The campground ended up being at the top of a fairly steep one mile climb. One of those biking laws!! When we got to the campground we found Grant, Jenny, Stefan and Pius already there. We set up our tent, took our FREE shower and started to cook dinner. Grant said he wanted to go to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner so we all ended up going DOWN the hill to the wharf. Stefan and Pius walked down and we all rode. The weather had turned very cool and windy. We ate dinner at Rappa's Seafood Restaurant. Since it was the day before Hap's 61st birthday we decided it was his birthday dinner. It was really fun to go out do dinner with a group of people. By the time we got done eating it was dark outside so we put on all of our lights and headed out. Before leaving I heard seal lions barking very close so I walked around the side of the building. There was a great big one laying on the dock. Some people started walking towards it and he RAN them off. Boy they sure can move fast! It was really funny to see the people's reaction. The other guys decided to hit the bars so Jenny rode back up the hill to the campground. It was especially fun with a full belly.

The next morning we were the last ones to leave the campground again. Jenny and Grant decided to stay and go to the Monterey Aquarium. Late the night before another couple had showed up. They were from the Yukon. They are on a 10,000 mile birding journey. You can read about them at www.birdyear.com. It is so interesting meeting other cyclists and finding out their reasons for taking a cycling journey. We have discovered in our 20 years of cycle touring that the trips are more about the journey and not about the destination. It's how you get to where you are going. The people, the sights, the smells, the adventure. That's why I don't talk too much about how many miles we ride or how far we went in a day. It is so much more than just miles. I can't wait to see who else we get the opportunity to meet. The campground host told us a way to leave without going down the big hill, so we took his advice. It turned out to be a big climb anyway. But I guess it kept us from going down, climbing back to where we were and then climb some more. We were still in Monterey and went past the famous 17 mile drive. Someone asked me if we went down it. But at that point we were just trying to figure out a safe way through all of the traffic at that intersection. We had to merge onto US 1 and so was everyone else. Rt 1 started out with not much berm/shoulder and lots of traffic. But the traffic lessened as we got further away from Monterey. Today we spent most of the day riding right along the edge of the ocean. We had spectacular views. It was awesome. The weather was alittle cool and overcast. But the scenery made the day. Traffic didn't seem so bad either. There were quite a few hills today but nothing terrible. We had decided to stay in a hotel for the night so that we could charge up our phones, computer etc. But when we started looking at the prices around Big Sur we changed our minds. We ended up at Pfieffer State Park in a hiker/biker site. At $3/pp it sounded like a good deal to us. They had a laundromat so we took our cooking stuff and went to do our laundry and cook dinner. While we were there a couple from Chicago came to do their laundry. We had a nice chat with them while we finished up. We went into the lodge to see if we could get online since our verizon card wouldn't work, but no dice. Hap worked on our pictures for awhile and I went "shopping". Ok so I didn't buy anything again. I really don't wanna carry anything else. During the night it rained pretty hard, but we stayed dry in the tent. The only problem was when we had to go to the bathroom and it was "outside".

This morning we got up to a very wet tent. It had stopped raining but was soaked. We packed up anyway and went to the lodge for breakfast. Both of us had eggs benedict, sitting by a roaring fire and drinking Hot coffee. Ok, Hap now I feel better. The ride today started out with a three mile climb. Now your just being cruel. I need at least a 20 mile warm up before a hill. The sun came out but the temps today stayed cool in the 60's. I think today's ride was one of the best since we had left home. The views were just awesome. Hopefully the pictures will show you some of what we saw. We spent all day along the edge of the cliffs overlooking the water. We saw another whale today. Traffic wasn't too bad. Although we did have a black mustang come really close and a motor home come right up behind us and scare us. We tried to catch them but we were in the middle of another 3 mile (or so) climb. Too bad. Most of the traffic was going slow because they were looking at the scenery too. We stopped alot today to look, take pictures or eat a snack. We stopped in Gorda to eat. We got two cokes and some fritos for $8! There isn't much in the way of towns or commercial restaurants along this stretch of road. You could see where there were lots of areas that had slid off and they had repaired it. We came down off of Ragged Point and the road flattened out just before San Simean. We saw Hearst Castle up on the hillside. In San Simean we decided to stay at the Sea Breeze Inn. I had a coupon so we got a deal. We got take out at a mexican restaurant. Until next time!