Sunday, September 16, 2007

we camped near a compost pile, in a Virginia mansion, behind a truck trailer, and everthing in between





3 stories of pizza, a bloody knee with 23 miles to go, and a 1 hour chat with The Cookie Lady





The bicycle is parked, the ride is finished!


The 4,670 miles ride is over. After getting to Yorktown, we managed to hike down this trail with our bikes to take a pic with the wheels in the Atlantic Ocean. Reminds me of Florence, without the sand Dunes. Also took a swim in the warm waters of the mouth of the York River...
Time to eat bagels and cream cheese and sit on our sore bottoms on a couch or something a little different then the bike seat. Meaghan drove down all the way to Yorktown and then drove us back to her D.C. home last night. Finally washed those stinky clothes and took showers (it's sad though, I was getting to like my B O), and rest our legs, which have quite a beating in the last month of riding 80+ mile days and only a few breaks. There was only 1 day of our entire trip that we didn't get on the bikes once and that was Golden City, Missouri, when we experienced the best pie from coast to coast. I'm sure Sarah will write some final words of wisdom when I stop hogging this computer. Thanks to all of you who made this blog worth keeping!
-Derek

Final Trip Log up to September 15th!

Day 1 (7/2): 29.5 miles, Davis to Lake Berryessa
Day 2: 49 miles, Berryessa to Jim Town, CA
Day 3: 45.6 miles, to Indian Creek Campground (in Redwoods near Boonville)
Day 4: 44 miles, to Mackerricher Beach State Park just past Fort Bragg
Day 5: REST DAY!!!
Day 6: 55 miles, to Richardson Grove State Park
Day 7: 63 miles, to Fortuna RV camp
Day 8: 43 miles, to Clam Beach County Park
Day 9: 63 miles, to Crescent City (Orman Guest Ranch and Stables)
Day 10: 33 miles, to Brooking, Oregon Harris Beach State Park (WE REACHED OREGON!!!)
Day 11: 50 miles, to Humbug Mt. State Park
Day 12: 70 miles, to 8 miles north of North Bend
Day 13: 35 miles, to Honeyman State Park (near Florence)
Day 14: REST Day!!!
Day 15: 60 miles, to Junction City
Day 16: 15 miles, to Eugene Whitaker Hostel
Day 17: 55 miles, to Delta CAmpground USFS, 4 miles past Blue River
Day 18: 55 miles, to Indian Creek Campground, 6 miles before Sisters
Day 19: 81 miles!, to Ochoco Divide Campground
Day 20: 56 miles, to Dayville Presbyterean Church
Day 21: 53 miles, to Dixie Pass Campground
Day 22: 60 miles, to Oregon Trails RV Park in Baker City, OR
Day 23: REST DAY!!!, sadly, last day Rachel is with us.
Day 24: 84 miles, to Brownlee Dam, ID (WE REACHED IDAHO!!!)
Day 25: 78 miles, to New Meadows
Day 26: 64 miles, to Whitebird Swiftwater RV park
Day 27: 69 miles, to Lowell
Day 28: 68 miles, to Powell Campground
Day 29: 60 miles, to Missoula, Montana (WE REACHED MONTANA!!!)
DAY 30: REST DAY!!!
Day 31: 83 miles, to Sula Spring Gulch in the Bitteroot Valley
Day 32: 72 miles, to Big Hole Pass, camped at the Carrol Ranch info station
Day 33: 85 miles, to Alder, secretive free camping spot, so called KOA #"41"
Day 34: 54 miles, to South Madison BLM Rec Area campground
Day 35: 64 miles, to Yellowstone Madison Campground (WE REACHED WYOMING!!!)
Day 36: 76 miles, to Colter Bay campground in Grand Teton National Park
Day 37: REST DAY!!!
Day 38: 69 miles, to Dubois Longhorn RV site (Dena joined us!)
Day 39: 72 miles, to Lander
Day 40: 80 miles, to Mud Flats (we reached 2,000 mile point for our trip !!!)
Day 41: 86 miles, to Saratoga (our highest mileage day for the trip!!!)
Day 42: 70 miles, to Walden (WE REACHED COLORADO!!!)
Day 43: 76 miles, to Grand Lake (10 feet from boundary of Rocky Mountain NP)
Day 44: 86 miles, to Boulder (we biked the highest road in the US,--12,183 feet!!!)
Day 45: REST DAY (staying with Sarah's friend Kirsten and Evan)
Day 46: 81 miles, to Byors, CO
Day 47: 72 miles, to Limon, CO
Day 48: 85 miles, to Eads, CO
Day 49: 80 miles, to Leoti, Kansas (WE REACHED KANSAS!!!)
Day 50: 81 miles, to Ness City, KS
Day 51: 65 miles to Larned, KS
Day 52: 96 miles!, to Hesston, KS (longest daily mileage of trip so far)
Day 53: 83 miles, to Eureka city park, KS
Day 54: 83 miles, to Erie City park, KS (we reached 3,000 mile point for our trip!!!)
Day 55: 81 miles, to Golden City, MO (WE REACHED MISSOURI!!!)
Day 56: REST DAY in Golden City, eating pie at Cooky's cafe, best pie ever
Day 57: 79 miles, to Marshfield City Park, MO
Day 58: 88 miles, to Summersville City Park, MO
Day 59: 77 miles, to County Line Bar and Campground, MO
Day 60: 74 miles, to Chester, Illinois--home of Popeye the Sailor Man (WE REACHED ILLINOIS!!!) and crossed the MISSISSIPPI RIVER!!!
Day 61: 70 miles, to Goreville, IL
Day 62: 82 miles, to 6 miles past Marion, KY (WE REACHED KENTUCKY!!!)
DAy 63: 100 miles!!!, to Fordsville, KY (LONGEST MILEAGE DAY OF OUR TRIP)
Day 64: 82 miles, to Howardstown, KY (passed into EASTERN TIME ZONE, 3 hrs ahead of Davis)
Day 65: 76 miles, to Harrodsburg, KY
Day 66: REST DAY in Harrodsburg, oldest town of Kentucky (our last rest day)
Day 67: 91 miles, to Vincent, KY
Day 68: 85 miles, to Pippa Passes (WE reached 4,000 mile point for the trip!!!)
Day 69: 80 miles, to Bee, VA (WE REACHED VIRGINIA!!!)
Day 70: 75 miles, to Konnarock, VA
Day 71: 86 miles, to Radford, VA
Day 72: 81 miles, to Buchanan
Day 73: 67 miles, to Blue Ridge Reeds Gap (climbed the famed Vesuvius Pass)
Day 74: 76 miles, to Tabscott (day we sat and chatted with the famous Cookie Lady of Afton)
Day 75: 100 miles, to Glendale
Day 76: 60 miles, to Yorktown, making visits to Jamestown and Williamsburg along the way

Total Mileage from July 2nd through September 15th: 4,670 miles.

Monday, September 10, 2007

mileage update 9/10, with 385 miles to go!

Day 1 (7/2): 29.5 miles, Davis to Lake Berryessa
Day 2: 49 miles, Berryessa to Jim Town, CA
Day 3: 45.6 miles, to Indian Creek Campground (in Redwoods near Boonville)
Day 4: 44 miles, to Mackerricher Beach State Park just past Fort Bragg
Day 5: REST DAY!!!
Day 6: 55 miles, to Richardson Grove State Park
Day 7: 63 miles, to Fortuna RV camp
Day 8: 43 miles, to Clam Beach County Park
Day 9: 63 miles, to Crescent City (Orman Guest Ranch and Stables)
Day 10: 33 miles, to Brooking, Oregon Harris Beach State Park (WE REACHED OREGON!!!)
Day 11: 50 miles, to Humbug Mt. State Park
Day 12: 70 miles, to 8 miles north of North Bend
Day 13: 35 miles, to Honeyman State Park (near Florence)
Day 14: REST Day!!!
Day 15: 60 miles, to Junction City
Day 16: 15 miles, to Eugene Whitaker Hostel
Day 17: 55 miles, to Delta CAmpground USFS, 4 miles past Blue River
Day 18: 55 miles, to Indian Creek Campground, 6 miles before Sisters
Day 19: 81 miles!, to Ochoco Divide Campground
Day 20: 56 miles, to Dayville Presbyterean Church
Day 21: 53 miles, to Dixie Pass Campground
Day 22: 60 miles, to Oregon Trails RV Park in Baker City, OR
Day 23: REST DAY!!!, sadly, last day Rachel is with us.
Day 24: 84 miles, to Brownlee Dam, ID (WE REACHED IDAHO!!!)
Day 25: 78 miles, to New Meadows
Day 26: 64 miles, to Whitebird Swiftwater RV park
Day 27: 69 miles, to Lowell
Day 28: 68 miles, to Powell Campground
Day 29: 60 miles, to Missoula, Montana (WE REACHED MONTANA!!!)
DAY 30: REST DAY!!!
Day 31: 83 miles, to Sula Spring Gulch in the Bitteroot Valley
Day 32: 72 miles, to Big Hole Pass, camped at the Carrol Ranch info station
Day 33: 85 miles, to Alder, secretive free camping spot, so called KOA #"41"
Day 34: 54 miles, to South Madison BLM Rec Area campground
Day 35: 64 miles, to Yellowstone Madison Campground (WE REACHED WYOMING!!!)
Day 36: 76 miles, to Colter Bay campground in Grand Teton National Park
Day 37: REST DAY!!!
Day 38: 69 miles, to Dubois Longhorn RV site (Dena joined us!)
Day 39: 72 miles, to Lander
Day 40: 80 miles, to Mud Flats (we reached 2,000 mile point for our trip !!!)
Day 41: 86 miles, to Saratoga (our highest mileage day for the trip!!!)
Day 42: 70 miles, to Walden (WE REACHED COLORADO!!!)
Day 43: 76 miles, to Grand Lake (10 feet from boundary of Rocky Mountain NP)
Day 44: 86 miles, to Boulder (we biked the highest road in the US,--12,183 feet!!!)
Day 45: REST DAY (staying with Sarah's friend Kirsten and Evan)
Day 46: 81 miles, to Byors, CO
Day 47: 72 miles, to Limon, CO
Day 48: 85 miles, to Eads, CO
Day 49: 80 miles, to Leoti, Kansas (WE REACHED KANSAS!!!)
Day 50: 81 miles, to Ness City, KS
Day 51: 65 miles to Larned, KS
Day 52: 96 miles!, to Hesston, KS (longest daily mileage of trip so far)
Day 53: 83 miles, to Eureka city park, KS
Day 54: 83 miles, to Erie City park, KS (we reached 3,000 mile point for our trip!!!)
Day 55: 81 miles, to Golden City, MO (WE REACHED MISSOURI!!!)
Day 56: REST DAY in Golden City, eating pie at Cooky's cafe, best pie ever
Day 57: 79 miles, to Marshfield City Park, MO
Day 58: 88 miles, to Summersville City Park, MO
Day 59: 77 miles, to County Line Bar and Campground, MO
Day 60: 74 miles, to Chester, Illinois--home of Popeye the Sailor Man (WE REACHED ILLINOIS!!!) and crossed the MISSISSIPPI RIVER!!!
Day 61: 70 miles, to Goreville, IL
Day 62: 82 miles, to 6 miles past Marion, KY (WE REACHED KENTUCKY!!!)
DAy 63: 100 miles!!!, to Fordsville, KY (LONGEST MILEAGE DAY OF OUR TRIP)
Day 64: 82 miles, to Howardstown, KY (passed into EASTERN TIME ZONE, 3 hrs ahead of Davis)
Day 65: 76 miles, to Harrodsburg, KY
Day 66: REST DAY in Harrodsburg, oldest town of Kentucky (our last rest day)
Day 67: 91 miles, to Vincent, KY
Day 68: 85 miles, to Pippa Passes (WE reached 4,000 mile point for the trip!!!)
Day 69: 80 miles, to Bee, VA (WE REACHED VIRGINIA!!!)
Day 70: 75 miles, to Konnarock, VA
Day 71: 86 miles, to Radford, VA

We only have 385 miles of Virginia to cross now and the Blue Ridge to cross, which is coming up in the next few days. On Thursday, we'll be descending the other side of the Appalachians, then it's an easy ride Friday and Saturday to the East coast! We have been on our bikes a total of 4,286 miles since July 2nd!

We are amazed by the generosity of Dr. Lee in hosting us strange strangers into his home. I think we went 10 days since our last shower and over 800 miles so it was nice to have this stop on our journey.

I'll post more pics and such Sunday in D.C. when we're not biking 10 hrs a day.

An unexpected update from Radford, VA

So a few days ago (9/7), we happened upon the small town of Buckhorn, Kentucky. This town consisted of a general store and a guy who stood behind the counter. His name was Dick. Like many such men, Dick had a small notebook behind the counter which he gets all the cyclists to sign as they pass through. When Derek was signing the book, Dick pointed out an entry which said "If you need a place to stay in Radford, VA..." or something like that, and had the name and address of a family. Well we ended up calling, and here we are! A beautiful home, a sweet chocolate lab named Olive, showers (our first in...well...awhile), and free dinner!
We have 385 miles to go to Yorktown and 5 days in which to do it. Currently we are in the region of the Appalachians known as the Great Valley, which lies between the Alleghanies (western Appalachia) and the Blue Ridge (eastern Appalachia). The Alleghanies were not tall, but they were steep and pretty tough. (Although we saw some steeper climbs in the Ozarks (Missouri), they were very short and we were only in the mountains for about a half a day). The Blue Ridge Mtns are much taller...So the next three days or so will be very tough, but soon enough we will be descending out of the small town of Afton, where we will pay a visit to the Cookie Lady (although rumor on the road has it that she's pretty sick this year, so she's not making cookies anymore) (http://www.biketouring.net/rides/xcountry/curry.html) and then proceed down the ridiculously steep grade to Charlottesville. From there, the rolling hills of the Piedmont and Tidewater regions will carry us gently to Yorktown, and if our brakes get all worn out on the way out of Afton, straight into the Atlantic Ocean.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Derek's word

I hope you enjoyed this blog. we did our best and updated it when we had he chance (which wasn't very many times). Add a last minute comment if you'd like so that I can see who's actually checked the blog and feel more special. hehe

I'm in the county library in Harrodsburg, KY, also trying to figure out what to do when we get to Yorktown. So far, it looks like Sarah's sister Meaghan will meet us there on Sept 15th as we bike to the ocean, and we'll head to D.C. I'm going to act as a tourist and check out the historical cool stuff in D.C. and then maybe take a bus to Manhattan to visit my buddy Hashim and Annie, and my cousin Tony, his wife Vicki, and their baby son Gabriel. Then I will fly back home to Davis (originally planned to take the train back but I think that would be torture to wait any longer to arrive in Davis) so forgive my jet fuel pollution if you would. I hope you will. I then return to Davis as a Senior Biological Systems Engineering student, trying to raise my grades and maybe help out the local compost establishment as well (:>).......

This country was wide, hilly, windy, rainy, beautiful at times, ugly at times, very corny and soybeany and sorghummy, and with lots of cattle, and the people we've met along the way have been the nicest I've ever met in my life...there have been the occassional jerks that remind me of L.A. drivers but for the most part...very good people who don't mind talking to a stranger and saying hi when you pass them in the street.

Well, we still have 791 miles to go, which is still a lot of biking, and we are hoping to get by all those unleashed dogs of kentucky without them getting hurt by cars as they chase us in the street and without us getting bit. so far successful!

I end with a poem I wrote in the 10 minutes Sarah was on the phone with Keren last night:

"my ass hurts" by Derek Downey
To drive across the country
you'd lose your money and your glee,
to bike across this continent
you'd find no one who'd believe,
the ability of the common
folk to pedal sea to sea.

(following no common poetry rules)

mileage update from Davis to Kentucky

Day 1 (7/2): 29.5 miles, Davis to Lake Berryessa
Day 2: 49 miles, Berryessa to Jim Town, CA
Day 3: 45.6 miles, to Indian Creek Campground (in Redwoods near Boonville)
Day 4: 44 miles, to Mackerricher Beach State Park just past Fort Bragg
Day 5: REST DAY!!!
Day 6: 55 miles, to Richardson Grove State Park
Day 7: 63 miles, to Fortuna RV camp
Day 8: 43 miles, to Clam Beach County Park
Day 9: 63 miles, to Crescent City (Orman Guest Ranch and Stables)
Day 10: 33 miles, to Brooking, Oregon Harris Beach State Park (WE REACHED OREGON!!!)
Day 11: 50 miles, to Humbug Mt. State Park
Day 12: 70 miles, to 8 miles north of North Bend
Day 13: 35 miles, to Honeyman State Park (near Florence)
Day 14: REST Day!!!
Day 15: 60 miles, to Junction City
Day 16: 15 miles, to Eugene Whitaker Hostel
Day 17: 55 miles, to Delta CAmpground USFS, 4 miles past Blue River
Day 18: 55 miles, to Indian Creek Campground, 6 miles before Sisters
Day 19: 81 miles!, to Ochoco Divide Campground
Day 20: 56 miles, to Dayville Presbyterean Church
Day 21: 53 miles, to Dixie Pass Campground
Day 22: 60 miles, to Oregon Trails RV Park in Baker City, OR
Day 23: REST DAY!!!, sadly, last day Rachel is with us.
Day 24: 84 miles, to Brownlee Dam, ID (WE REACHED IDAHO!!!)
Day 25: 78 miles, to New Meadows
Day 26: 64 miles, to Whitebird Swiftwater RV park
Day 27: 69 miles, to Lowell
Day 28: 68 miles, to Powell Campground
Day 29: 60 miles, to Missoula, Montana (WE REACHED MONTANA!!!)
DAY 30: REST DAY!!!
Day 31: 83 miles, to Sula Spring Gulch in the Bitteroot Valley
Day 32: 72 miles, to Big Hole Pass, camped at the Carrol Ranch info station
Day 33: 85 miles, to Alder, secretive free camping spot, so called KOA #"41"
Day 34: 54 miles, to South Madison BLM Rec Area campground
Day 35: 64 miles, to Yellowstone Madison Campground (WE REACHED WYOMING!!!)
Day 36: 76 miles, to Colter Bay campground in Grand Teton National Park
Day 37: REST DAY!!!
Day 38: 69 miles, to Dubois Longhorn RV site (Dena joined us!)
Day 39: 72 miles, to Lander
Day 40: 80 miles, to Mud Flats (we reached 2,000 mile point for our trip !!!)
Day 41: 86 miles, to Saratoga (our highest mileage day for the trip!!!)
Day 42: 70 miles, to Walden (WE REACHED COLORADO!!!)
Day 43: 76 miles, to Grand Lake (10 feet from boundary of Rocky Mountain NP)
Day 44: 86 miles, to Boulder (we biked the highest road in the US,--12,183 feet!!!)
Day 45: REST DAY (staying with Sarah's friend Kirsten and Evan)
Day 46: 81 miles, to Byors, CO
Day 47: 72 miles, to Limon, CO
Day 48: 85 miles, to Eads, CO
Day 49: 80 miles, to Leoti, Kansas (WE REACHED KANSAS!!!)
Day 50: 81 miles, to Ness City, KS
Day 51: 65 miles to Larned, KS
Day 52: 96 miles!, to Hesston, KS (longest daily mileage of trip so far)
Day 53: 83 miles, to Eureka city park, KS
Day 54: 83 miles, to Erie City park, KS (we reached 3,000 mile point for our trip!!!)
Day 55: 81 miles, to Golden City, MO (WE REACHED MISSOURI!!!)
Day 56: REST DAY in Golden City, eating pie at Cooky's cafe, best pie ever
Day 57: 79 miles, to Marshfield City Park, MO
Day 58: 88 miles, to Summersville City Park, MO
Day 59: 77 miles, to County Line Bar and Campground, MO
Day 60: 74 miles, to Chester, Illinois--home of Popeye the Sailor Man (WE REACHED ILLINOIS!!!) and crossed the MISSISSIPPI RIVER!!!
Day 61: 70 miles, to Goreville, IL
Day 62: 82 miles, to 6 miles past Marion, KY (WE REACHED KENTUCKY!!!)
DAy 63: 100 miles!!!, to Fordsville, KY (LONGEST MILEAGE DAY OF OUR TRIP)
Day 64: 82 miles, to Howardstown, KY (passed into EASTERN TIME ZONE, 3 hrs ahead of Davis)
Day 65: 76 miles, to Harrodsburg, KY
Day 66: REST DAY in Harrodsburg, oldest town of Kentucky (our last rest day)

we have 791 miles left to Yorktown, Virginia, on the Atlantic Coast. We plan on biking 10 more days,averaging about 80+ miles per day, starting tomorrow and finishing on Saturday, September 15th! Thanks for checking the blog...apologies for not updating it more frequently...internet has been hard to come by.

Daily Mileage update since Boulder, CO

Day 1 (7/2): 29.5 miles, Davis to Lake Berryessa
Day 2: 49 miles, Berryessa to Jim Town, CA
Day 3: 45.6 miles, to Indian Creek Campground (in Redwoods near Boonville)
Day 4: 44 miles, to Mackerricher Beach State Park just past Fort Bragg
Day 5: REST DAY!!!
Day 6: 55 miles, to Richardson Grove State Park
Day 7: 63 miles, to Fortuna RV camp
Day 8: 43 miles, to Clam Beach County Park
Day 9: 63 miles, to Crescent City (Orman Guest Ranch and Stables)
Day 10: 33 miles, to Brooking, Oregon Harris Beach State Park (WE REACHED OREGON!!!)
Day 11: 50 miles, to Humbug Mt. State Park
Day 12: 70 miles, to 8 miles north of North Bend
Day 13: 35 miles, to Honeyman State Park (near Florence)
Day 14: REST Day!!!
Day 15: 60 miles, to Junction City
Day 16: 15 miles, to Eugene Whitaker Hostel
Day 17: 55 miles, to Delta CAmpground USFS, 4 miles past Blue River
Day 18: 55 miles, to Indian Creek Campground, 6 miles before Sisters
Day 19: 81 miles!, to Ochoco Divide Campground
Day 20: 56 miles, to Dayville Presbyterean Church
Day 21: 53 miles, to Dixie Pass Campground
Day 22: 60 miles, to Oregon Trails RV Park in Baker City, OR
Day 23: REST DAY!!!, sadly, last day Rachel is with us.
Day 24: 84 miles, to Brownlee Dam, ID (WE REACHED IDAHO!!!)
Day 25: 78 miles, to New Meadows
Day 26: 64 miles, to Whitebird Swiftwater RV park
Day 27: 69 miles, to Lowell
Day 28: 68 miles, to Powell Campground
Day 29: 60 miles, to Missoula, Montana (WE REACHED MONTANA!!!)
DAY 30: REST DAY!!!
Day 31: 83 miles, to Sula Spring Gulch in the Bitteroot Valley
Day 32: 72 miles, to Big Hole Pass, camped at the Carrol Ranch info station
Day 33: 85 miles, to Alder, secretive free camping spot, so called KOA #"41"
Day 34: 54 miles, to South Madison BLM Rec Area campground
Day 35: 64 miles, to Yellowstone Madison Campground (WE REACHED WYOMING!!!)
Day 36: 76 miles, to Colter Bay campground in Grand Teton National Park
Day 37: REST DAY!!!
Day 38: 69 miles, to Dubois Longhorn RV site (Dena joined us!)
Day 39: 72 miles, to Lander
Day 40: 80 miles, to Mud Flats (we reached 2,000 mile point for our trip !!!)
Day 41: 86 miles, to Saratoga (our highest mileage day for the trip!!!)
Day 42: 70 miles, to Walden (WE REACHED COLORADO!!!)
Day 43: 76 miles, to Grand Lake (10 feet from boundary of Rocky Mountain NP)
Day 44: 86 miles, to Boulder (we biked the highest road in the US,--12,183 feet!!!)
Day 45: REST DAY (staying with Sarah's friend Kirsten and Evan)
Day 46: 81 miles, to Byors, CO
Day 47: 72 miles, to Limon, CO
Day 48: 85 miles, to Eads, CO
Day 49: 80 miles, to Leoti, Kansas (WE REACHED KANSAS!!!)
Day 50: 81 miles, to Ness City, KS
Day 51: 65 miles to Larned, KS
Day 52: 96 miles!, to Hesston, KS (longest daily mileage of trip so far)
Day 53: 83 miles, to Eureka city park, KS
Day 54: 83 miles, to Erie City park, KS (we reached 3,000 mile point for our trip!!!)
Day 55: 81 miles, to Golden City, MO (WE REACHED MISSOURI!!!)
Day 56: REST DAY in Golden City, eating pie at Cooky's cafe, best pie

JUST GOT KICKED OFF COMPUTER....DAMN!!!!! talk to you from Virginia
Day 55:

And on the 66th day, we rested.

September 5th, Rest day in Harrodsburg Kentucky. Sorry it's been so long since our last update (Boulder Colorado, 4 states ago!). I can tell I've been on the road awhile because (1) I don't really remember what it's like to be home and (2) my hair has reached this really ridiculous (thanks for the spelling lesson, Derek) length of about 2 inches, but when it's clean, it still sticks straight up in the air. And I think I'm making all the old ladies jealous. They all wish their hair could have this much volume, this much pizzazz.
From Boulder, we made our way SE using a route designed by Dena to meet up with the TransAm trail in Eads, CO. That was a tough couple of days because of the Northbound wind directly in our faces for hours at a time. Scenery in this region included fields of corn and sorghum a square mile in size, a grain elevator in every town, and ginormous feed lots. Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas looked remarkably similar, and we kind of blew through them, despite the headwind. Dena left us in about central Kansas, and we ended up biking a total of 10 days and about 800 miles from Boulder before crossing the border into Missouri. By this time, the farms were getting smaller and houses and trees became a more regular site. The terrain also began to get a bit hillier and things began to look a bit more familar as my East Coast Senses began to tingle. Brick houses, lots of greenery, colonial style mansions, etc. 30 miles after the KS/MO border, we arrived in Golden City, MO. We had heard of this town before. After being disappointed by the one chance we had to try a taste of the famous homemade pies of Kansas, we met a cyclist from Sacramento heading from Yorktown to Sac via the TransAm and Western Express trails (which continues Westward from Pueblo, CO through NV and UT to SF instead of northward to MT). This man told us tales of a wonderous place, with streets of gold, kind people, and a diner (Cooky's) with the best damn homemade pies money could buy. Well, he didn't mention the showers in the city park...and once we learned of that, we were hooked. This little town of about 350 people was to be our home for our first rest day since Boulder! Due to the small size of the town, that sunday was the first day since July 2nd that we didn't touch our bikes. We just ate at Cooky's, took a nap, read, and even went to church, for which we got all kinds of praises from the senior citizens of Golden City. Complete relaxation.
At that time, we calculated that, at the rate be had been going (80 miles a day on average) we would be able to make it to Yorktown, VA (and the Atlantic Ocean) in 19 days, and if we took 2 rest days, we would arrive on Sept 15th. So that's the plan. Since Golden City, we've biked 9 days, and here we are, in the oldest permanent white settlement West of the Appalachans. We kept up our goal of an 80+ mile average, and even did 100 miles a few days ago (just for kicks...). The terrain in Missouri was pretty tough through the Ozarks, with lots of short but exceedingly steep hills. But, wow, it is beautiful... The hills got progressively better through Illinois, and Kentucky has had generally fairly gentle terrain with some hillier sections. From here, we have 10 days at 80 miles per day, but the hills will progressively get steeper and steeper as we make our way into the Alleghenies, cross into Virginia, and then on to the the dreaded Blue Ridge (these are the two ranges that make up the Appalachan Mtns.). After about 5 or 6 of those ten days, we should be out of the mountains and into the gently rolling terrain of the Virginia Piedmont and Tidewater regions. And we're going to blast into Yorktown and right into the ocean (or at least the brackish waters of the Chesapeake Bay).