Coast to Coast

Penultimate

2009-09-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

So I had plans to do some big farewell post, but I've been missing so many days, a standard update seemed necessary, even though the trip is over.

Washington was still beautiful. I was still in the dry area, but it would soon turn out that there was a lot more diversity in the environment than I'd been exposed to.

Amazing right?

We stopped at a town which had a huge Western theme going on. It was like being on a movie set.

There, we saw that the P2S team had been there just a week earlier. There they are on the picture to the left, and there we are in the picture to the right.

The next day, we left our campground to go back into the beautiful Cascades. There I am to the right.

There was snow along the way!

The road was curvy and surrounded by snowy peaks. It was a fantastic ride, and fast becoming my favorite riding day.

Quite an elevation change; there I am looking down at the road I'd just been on.

Remember the picture two images up? There it is in the background.

The backdrop pretty much made this photo mandatory.

On the way down, I saw the most curious sight ever. It was a bright cyan lake, called Diablo Lake.

After a fantastic descent (where Wade reached 53.3 mph!), I saw beaches right up next to the Lake.

Naturally, I had to go for a quick dip.

The next day, we discovered that the road we'd been riding on was lined with blackberry bushes. They were so tasty.

The day going into Surrey, BC, we made a stop at the border office.

The day into Vancouver, we were all extremely excited.

By the time we were getting close, we all stuck together.

And there's the Pacific!

So I'll save the concluding remarks for my final post, which will come soon. Basically, though, arriving at the destination was awesome, and I want to thank all the people who met us there for all they did. Thank you!

As people started to leave, a few of us decided to go for one last ride around Vancouver together.

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There's Vancouver's Lionsgate Bridge.

And we also got to see some wilderness up in North Vancouver.

One more post left. Bye!

Deserts?

2009-08-20T17:02:00.000-07:00

Hello! Wow writing this in the 30 minute library limit is going to be today's challenge.

Now that I've been in the state of Washington, the terrain has quickly been changing. My days have now consisted of big ascents followed by big descents as I go through the Cascades.

It's also gotten hotter, with the temperature in the Fahrenheit 90's.

Four thousand feet higher, it was a bit painful, but beautiful, and honestly, I like the heat.

The towns now have a Westerny feel to them, with saloon doors and the lot.

To beat the heat this morning, we started out early in the morning, waking at 5.

The ascent was less tough than the climb yesterday, and the cooler air made it a lot more painless.

Jay took pictures of me today! I was very happy. This is me on a descent after a sweltering climb.

The towns are little oases in vast drylands. The mountains were misty in smoke today (and yesterday) as there were reports of forest fires in Canada.

The homestretch into Omak, Washington, where I'm writing now!

Who knew that Washington had deserts...

:D

Chewelah

2009-08-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

Hello from Washington state!

Wow, it's a fantastic feeling to know that I've now arrived at a west coast state. The weather has been beautiful, and the terrain magnificent.

On the ride into Sandpoint, Idaho (and out of two weeks of Montana), the mountains piled around me and the clouds hugged the peaks, making for some breathtaking views.

That day, the ride took me around Lake Koocanusa, and I could peer over to my left to always see the clear waters.

Jocelyn and I were sweep that day, and here we found that some bikers had left their bikes to go on a short hike, so we went to check that out.

There were some water rapids...

...as others had gone out to take a closer look.

We arrive in Idaho!

Northern Idaho had some beautiful mountains. (Kelsey, Lauren)

That night, Sandpoint had a festival with the Spokane Symphony coming to play with a clarinet soloist. They played swing music; it was a pleasant end to a fantastic day.

Today, we rode out of Sandpoint into Chewelah, Washington. There's Jay as he rode on a trail parallel to me.

And there's the Washington state sign!

There was a very big ascent I climbed, called the Flowery Trail Road.

After some 14 miles of climbing, I was just so happy to see that I;d gotten to the top.

So following that picture, I descended to about 1600 feet over 8 miles into Chewelah.

And now, I'm in the Chewelah library relaxing my legs for a bit.

From Libby, MT

2009-08-15T21:34:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Ah yes, so last time I left, it was about the pretty Whitefish Lake and all.

Today's ride was just as scenic. I got to trace Lake Koocanusa which looked very clear and pretty.

Aside from the lake, I was also surrounded by a lot of beautiful rocks, cliffs, and formations.

Sometimes, I would be way high above the lake (as here), and other times, I would be riding big descents to go just above the water.

I got to ride around this all day. The locals back in Eureka told us the ride would be beautiful.

Luckily, even the weather held up fine.

Even the town I'm staying in tonight (Libby, MT) is surrounded by the mountains.

Here's a video from today I uploaded:

Here's another video I found in my camera of Wade, Nick, Abby, and Jay riding across some flats:

Intense

2009-08-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

So I didn't want to go sailing. It was raining, the water was rough, and I definitely hadn't dressed for the weather. Still, at sailing camp, they make you sail, so four of us campers went out on the water in the Puffer. The water kept splashing into me, and we stubbornly kept our boat just floating right off the dock. The wind picked up, and I sat in my puddle on that boat just shivering away.

That's the memory I always think about whenever I feel really cold (often at bus stops in Chicago). I always think about this, saying to myself:
Ted: "Well hey, this isn't as cold as that, right?"
Theo: "No, I guess not but THIS IS STILL FREEZING."

Well yesterday, my little conversation went a bit like:
Ted: "Well hey, this isn't as cold as that, right?"
Theo: "OH MY GOSH IT REALLY IS AND IT'S GETTING COLDER!"

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So we head off towards those Rockies.

And these don't count! I could be sitting on a couch for all you know.

Well, I made it into the Rockies, and the climbs were beautiful. Gorgeous mountains all around.

Those Rockies are mammoth, and up close, any given peak is so different from all the rest.

Another picture of yours truly with those beautiful peaks.

The roads seemed to have a surprise at every turn, and though the inclines slowed me down a bit, it only gave me more time to enjoy the scenery.

Hey more bikers! (Jason, Nick)

At the campsite in Saint Mary's, the wind complicated things. (Cydney)

Yeah, we camped out right next to that view.

A few of us took a swim in Lake St. Mary. The water was frigid to the point that once I fully submerged myself, my whole body was numb. It felt awesome after a hot day of climbing. (Physnick, my head)

As the sun began to go down, the mountains looked even more amazing. (Jason, Eileen, Nick)

That night, a few of us laid down to look up at the stars. I had no idea there were so many. I saw 5 shooting stars that night. And a satellite.

The next day was the day I have been most excited about. One, cuz Jay had the camera, and two, the Going-to-the-Sun Road. This picture embodies both :)

As does this one, but note the clouds and the wet ground getting wetter.

There we are in front of an amazing view.

So that story in the beginning. This is what happened. The rain started coming down harder and harder as I climbed higher and higher (and the air around me got colder and colder). Finally, I reached the peak, as I was shivering. There was a little museum there, so I stopped by and put on more clothes. I then went off to descend the mountain. It was frigid. The temperature was in the low forties, the wind was getting at me, and the rain was hitting me all over my underclothed self. There were shuttles going down the mountain, and I'd decided to get on one. It didn't have a bike rack though, so I decided to just go down. The coldest experience of my life. I stopped a couple times. My left foot had gone numb (not just super cold, mind you) and I'd recently read a book about Rulon Gardner who had his feet frostbitten. I was genuinely concerned. I'd even stopped by the road to take off my shoes in the cold rain to warm up my feet. I ended up stuffing some boxers in my left sock, stuffing a handkerchief in my right sock, and wrapping my left (braking) hand with basketball shorts.

I'm gonna go ahead and stop writing about it now, because I can't really express how intense that whole experience was on this library computer with a timelimit. I was thinking about videotaping myself in the cold but I wasn't sure if I'd even be alive to enjoy it later on :D.

Anyway, the descent on the Going-to-the-Sun Road is the most intense experience I've ever had in my life.

The next day, we had a build day. For lunch, Cydney's aunt (Hello, it was so nice to meet you!!) generously catered vastly vast amounts of sandwiches, salad, pasta, desserts, vegetables, hummus, dips, all kinds of things. Sadly, I was so excited about the food I didn't take a picture of it. But there's the aftermath.

There were several groups volunteering that day, including a group of people affiliated with Lewis and Clark College and a group of Care-a-Vanners. I opted to help out at the ReStore, and we moved merchandise to and from the warehouse and the store. (Eileen, Rachel, Jay)

There we are in a truck. (Rachel, Ali, Matt, Jay with a hammer, Jason, Wade, Kat?, Laura?, Eileen, Jeremy, Jocelyn)

This morning, a few of us decided to stop by Whitefish Lake, which is the biggest natural lake west of the Great Lakes (uncited). (Cydney, Nick, Ashley, Laura)

As I'd expected, it was beautiful. Western Montana is beautiful. (Cydney, Jeremy)

Today's ride had some rain and it was cold (Fahrenheit fifties), but I just thought of that ride in Glacier:
Ted: "Well hey, this isn't as cold as that, right?"
Theo: "Nope. Not. At. All."

I Can See the Mountains

2009-08-10T15:07:00.000-07:00

Hello!

So the past few days, the scenery has not changed much. It is a lot of hours riding past endless flatness.

Still, the riding has been fun, and the flatness makes a lot of the riding go at an exciting pace (oh it would be excruciating if we were plodding along the same scenery for hours and hours).

So Montana's fairy desolate in that towns are quite a rarity. Here, we made a stop at a bar, where a patron turned out to be a reporter and spontaneously decided to write an article on the trip. Notice the green can of Off! he holds in his pocket. Malta is, I hear, the "Mosquito Capital of the Nation", and I was getting eaten alive. I took a picture of my leg but it was kinda gross. (Jon's getting interviewed).

There's Ali as the route went along the desolation that is Eastern Montana.

There's Jay, Nick, and Wade along the desolation that is Eastern Montana.

Montanans do like to talk with strangers a lot, and the route passed by some horses, and some kids shouted us over to take a look...

and ride!

The next day, we had more of Route 2 to deal with.

It was a lot of this.

But it was a beautiful day. I like the heat.

Once we got to Chester, I saw a little doggie that followed around a bit.

This morning, we hit more of the same.

But gradually, the hills started getting more common and there were some strange faint outlines in the back that kept getting closer.

We were stopped by a train crossing our way. It kept going...

...and going...

...and going...

...and going, so finally I decided there was time enough for someone to get a pic of me.

So this pic sums up a lot of the last part of today's trip. It was super windy, and in the background, you'll see many windmills which made up a huge expanse of wind farm. You'll also see the mountains. They're coming! (I suggest clicking to get a bigger picture of this.)

Tomorrow we're headed to Glacier. Get excited.

Hannah...

2009-08-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

...Montana!

Well, let's start with North Dakota, and thus begins my personal favorite riding day of the trip so far.

So we begin with a ride across a bridge. Over a beautiful river.

Hey, I even took a video! Good job me!

That day was the first day where I really felt like I was in the American West. I even saw two cowboys and a cowgirl! Mesas and plateaus were in the distance, and I was surrounded by a lot more vibrant colors. Those mesas are awesome, they look like giant tree stumps, making me feel microscopic.

For the first time in a long time, we had a tailwind, so we were flying. Just a great feeling. (Jay there.)

At the lunch stop, we were surrounded by mountains and red rocks and all kinds of exciting terrain. We all felt amazing. And I thought, wow, Theodore Roosevelt National Park (our destination) must be this beautiful.

The awesomeness surrounding me continues. (Jay there)

After some more of the biking through the area, I turned a corner at the top of a hill and saw the terrain plunge down into a series of gorges and beautiful round mountain tops surrounding a valley. The descent was awesome. So breathtaking a few of us did it again.

Going down into the valley gave me a feeling like no other. (A bit shaky, but I feel like you get the idea)

After getting out of our biking shorts and jerseys, a few of us decided to go explore the park a bit. (can't really tell but I know Angel's at the far right)

I was particularly excited to see some animals, but I kept my expectations low. (Jason, Jeremy, Eileen, Laura, Nick)

We walked through a prairie dog town and those prairie dogs were EVERYWHERE. They were pretty fearless towards us humans, too. (Jay and a lil friend)

Those formations were big.

We walked around in an area surrounded by the large rock formations. It just seemed surreal.

Jeremy and I went up to an overlook, and after a pretty big ascent, we were greeted by a spectacular view. I did some hard thinking up there :D

On all sides, as far as you could see, it was all nature, untouched by roads or buildings.

Those are some crazy rocks.

So early the next morning, I was a bit sad to leave the place, but I was satisfied with how much I had seen the previous day. It was super cold that morning (hence the jackets). (Jay, Julia, Rachel, Laura)

We camped out about 5 miles deep in the park, and it was a beautiful morning ride out. (Jay, Nate, Jeremy)

We were interrupted a bit by two herds of bison blocking the roads, but we were lucky enough to have a construction pickup randomly come by and offer to clear a path for us.

Bye Theodore Roosevelt National Park! (Laura, Julia, Jeremy, Nate, Rachel)

Well, the beauty did not end when we left the park. Amazing colors on amazing terrain, all over again.

And we reach Montana!

And since I didn't post a picture of crossing into North Dakota (the sign was atop a bridge), here's a picture of the ND state sign.

Already, Montana's looking to a be a state favorite of mine. (Jay on the left)

Just crossed the Missouri River bridge, and it looks a bit like Theodore Roosevelt National Park over again.

Currently, I'm riding through a lot of Native reservations. We stayed at a church yesterday night that showed us some wonderful hospitality.

The ride through Montana is gonna go on for quite some time (almost two weeks?). Tomorrow headed to Glasgow.

So yeah, saw a ton of animals. All sorts of surprises.

In New Town

2009-08-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

Hello! Here's a lil quiz for ya:

So two days ago, was the weather:
A) Windy
B) Not so windy
C) Sunny
D) Rainy
E) All of the above

I'm sure you can guess the answer, and it was quite an experience going through pretty much every possible weather phenomena North Dakota could fit during our ride into Minot. (Also explains why I have no photos to share with you from this day :( )

During our day off, people went to the North Dakota State Fair, the zoo, the bike shop, and a few of us just stayed in the church. I did the latter, and again, no photos to share with you (they wouldn't be to interesting anyway.)

The North Dakota winds still persist. Today's ride into New Town was beautiful. The ride went off of Route 2 onto ND-23 to ride through hills and farms and water. A lot of the ride was spent outpacing a storm blowing towards us.

I wish I had more pictures to share with you today, but alas, this video will have to do. It's Jay riding on a long stretch into New Town.

And a video from a few rides back as we went to Crookston:

In order, it's Ashley, Ali, Jay, Nick, Heather, Laura, Jeremy, and ME. Thanks Wade for taking the video!

Posting from Route 2

2009-07-30T19:30:00.000-07:00

Hello! We've now crossed over into North Dakota! Not many pictures this time around, but I'm sure there will be plenty once we're in Minot.

I will admit that it does get repetitive at times to be on the same route (Route 2) for miles upon miles at a time, but one nice sight to see is the occasional field of yellow flowers. And these are huge fields.

This was a nice change of scenery as we had been on flats for hours and hours. There's Jeremy biking.

There's Angel and Ali biking around.

So this place has the "geographical center of North America", so I took a picture.

Well, to be honest, being on the same remote route for miles and miles doesn't give many opportunities for interesting photos, but I'm sure the road holds a few surprises up ahead.

Oh if I could photograph the wind, that would be something. Or if I could photograph the people who we meet on the road and talk with about the cause (but it'd be kinda weird if I just started snapping pictures of them)

Gonna be on this route til Idaho!

Twin Cities

2009-07-21T21:16:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I am currently at the home of a host who has so graciously offered up his Internet and computer for my use as much as I'd like. I have spent a lot of time backing up my pictures and videos and such.

Today's ride from Pepin to St. Paul began as a toughie.

A resident of St. Paul biked down to Pepin yesterday to meet us and guide us into St. Paul. From this picture, you see him (Mark) drafting behind Jay. You can also see some heavy clouds which would later just lay down some serious rain. With the inclines and the water, today was one of the hardest days. After lunch however, things brightened up in the sky and it was great biking weather.

We even saw a bald eagle. Perhaps even you could if my camera had some stronger zoomage. But in person, I could see it real clearly. Wow. This picture might be better.

This is on our ride into St. Paul. Another excellent biking city, with many beautiful bike paths.

Same city, this time with ME!

There was a lot of art just laying around in the city, including this statue.

There was also a huge hill (you can see in the background) which I could definitely not traverse on bike had this been before the trip.

But we finished it! (And these photos greatly understate how steep I perceived the incline to be..)

And what a view!

Finishing off our route, we had to wait for some geese to cross the road.

So, not much to write in this post, as it's been only a day. Tomorrow, we have our very first free day to explore the Twin Cities. Perhaps I'll have more to tell next time!

Today, I'll leave you with a video I'd mentioned before, the marshmallow dance party:

Through Wisconsin

2009-07-20T19:12:00.000-07:00

Hello! Time for another installment :D

So as we set forth for a hundred miler out of Madison into Gays Mills, I was particularly overwhelmed (as I so often am) with the views we got. From the beginning, there was Julia being greeted by a long stretch through some cow-heavy farmland.

Very cow-heavy at times.

Oh, and corn-heavy. (As well as alfalfa and grain.)

This ride was surprisingly hilly. It reminded me our rides in Vermont, although this area had much more livestock milling about. There exist mountains in the Midwest! They really are there!

Oh hey! What's this? A truck pull, you say? Maybe you know what this is, but I had no idea what people were talking about. Judging from the crowds, it looked to be a huge deal. Well. I was not particularly impressed, and I felt quite out of place.

So Gays Mills is a small town (about 300 residents) in a valley. We had a fun downhill slope into the town, and the next morning, we had a nice climb out of the town. The town itself has seen a lot of hardship, as it has experienced floods in the past two years and a lot of people have been moving out. It's a huge expression of compassion that people who are still feeling the consequences of natural disasters open their churches and offer us generous hospitality. There's Jay getting ready to ride out in the morning.

This area has a lot of bales of hay, some lining the roads, and we passed by a few bikers taking a short hay-stack-break. (Julia, Kelsey, and Sidney)

Our ride that day hugged the Mississippi River, and here, we finally caught up with it.

We crossed a bridge over and went into Iowaaa for a bit.

This picture was a bit blurry, but I'm including it anyway.

We were only in Iowaaa for a little bit, and we met up with Minnesota for a few miles, as well. There's Cydney (whose mom I hear reads my blog! Hello!) in the background and Wade's feet on top.

The Mississippi is just huge. Scenic overlooks dotted our path as we traced the river, and here, we took a small break. There's Cydney, Ashley, Wade, and Nick.

We crossed over Wisconsin state lines again, and saw this sweet sign.

At the church in La Cross, we were greeted with some amazing bratwursts and other foods, as well as a local news reporter. There's Physnick, Wade, and Nick.

At dinner, we did one of our presentations where we talk about who we are and what we're doing. That day, it was Ally, Jocelyn, Ashley, Matt, and Physnick's turn to present. They did an excellent job.

Today, we headed out of La Cross into Pepin, where we are at now. There's Jocelyn, Jon, Jeremy(?), Physnick, Jason, and Jay, and some other folks I can't make out.

Jay and I took a detour into a wildlife refuge where we saw an eagle, turkeys (they're huge), and a lot of waterfowl we saw with those telescope things (and they were free yay).

There's one of the waterfowl through the telescope lens. It stood there the whole time.

There we are going next to some tracks. There's Nick and Julia.

There were some more bales of hay. We decided to go bale-riding. There's Wade, Jay, Nick, and me.

Don't worry, I'm sure Jay deserved it. (Wade and Julia on right.)

There's Nick and Wade hard at work fixing a flat...

...while Julia, Wade, and Angel are posing with the mountains.

And as for how I get pictures of myself, well sometimes, if I find a nice ledge or something, I do a self timer and run into the view, and other times, I bug other biker/builders to take photos of me.

And cuz I want one more picture of me, here ya go:

We're heading to St. Paul tomorrow, so I'm going to go sleep. Good night!

A Week of Firsts

2009-07-16T13:22:00.000-07:00

Man, it's been a while since I've been on a computer!

So where did I leave you guys. Ah yes, we were at the church in Michigan. And we had a build day there in Edwardsburg.

The work we did was on a full house. All 30 of us did various jobs, ranging from insulation to building the garage (me!). There I am cutting something to put in the spaces between the roof and the walls of said garage. It was a super hot day, but the progress we made during our work was very apparent and quite satisfying.

There's Laura, Eileen, and Jason working on the house front, which, might I add, looks fabulous now.

There was a lunch break in there somewhere, and the organization we were working with provided some great food.

Afterwards, a few of us had the brilliant idea to go swim in the lake. For some reason, only three of us ended up going. Jeremy talked with one of the guys who was interested in what we were do ing, and he ended up offering each of us a ride on his jet ski! My first time! There's video of this, and I'll post it up sometime.

The lake was just beautiful. It was lined with waterfront houses and there were some people out just lounging, swimming, or boating. There was a patch of waterlilies (?) out there. I've never swam (or is it swum) in a lake so pretty!

We later headed to dinner, where Alicia, Jason, and Angel were deep in thought. Well, they were trying to tie cherry stems.

Even later that day, there were a couple guitars lying around (one of which was a twelve-string!) and so we got to do some songs and listen to each other sing and play. Perhaps my favorite time this week.

When we set out to go to Chicago, I was just so excited to get back to my city (Frank you better be reading my blog now). Early on, there were some golden fields lining our way.

As it was a long day (112 miles?) we had two lunches, each of which were generously provided by two families. Here we are at our first lunch stop, enjoying some sandwiches at a museum park.

There's Jeremy riding towards a cooling tower. I've never seen one of these before, so I was particularly thrilled to ride up by it.

And here we are in Chicago! On the lakefront path, to be exact. When the skyline came into view, it was quite exciting. As we pedaled down the lakefront path I know so well...

...this was not the icy-cold Chicago I knew. She had changed so much! Haha, there were people packing the beaches and even SWIMMING in Lake Michigan. Who knew Chicago had it in her all along. Not me.

The next day, on our way to Wildwood (Grayslake, if you look at the website), we decided to go back into the city a bit. There's video of this, too. We had a great view. My favorite part of this was hearing a jogger say to her running partner "Oh! I saw these bikers on Michiana!" Michiana is a road (a beautiful beachfront road) we biked along earlier the day before.

We paid the Bean in Millenium Park a visit, and took about a bajillion pictures.

So, on our way to Janesville, we took this picture at the Wisconsin border.

In Janesville, I got to meet Ali's parents, among others. (Hello! and thanks for everything.) Janesville has a very successful waterskiing team, and we ate dinner at the riverside park, so we got to see them practice for their show. Wow, it looked awesome, and I wanted to try.

Well guess what! Ali's father took a bunch of us out on his boat and we all got the chance to try! There's Will doing some wakeboarding. He's really good. Me, not so much (at waterskiing). There's a video of my attempt out there somewhere, perhaps I'll get it posted one day.

The next day, we all woke up and went to Mocha Moment, where the owners provided a fantastic breakfast for all of us. A great coffeeshop.

That day was a build day in Janesville, and I did some work at the House of Mercy. Later, we went on to work with Community Action in demolishing a house. (Is that Kelsey and Wade?)

More demolishing.

Later that day, we went to the Boys and Girls Club to give a short bike clinic.

It just so happens that I was in charge of writing the trip journal for this day, so I feel like this would be a great time to plug our journal. Just click on that pencil. Specific to me, I put some more detail about this particular day on that journal.

This morning, the paper had an article mentioning us.

This is a couple of us on a ride in Madison.

Met some cool people in Madison, including Marcus (hey Marcus! Hope you consider joining up some time).

Well, I gotta go. We have a build day tomorrow here in Madison, and I'm pretty excited to look around the city!

Happy Dumpsters and Cat Naps

2009-07-10T16:48:00.001-07:00

Online again, wonderful! Camden UMC showed so much enthusiasm in offering our group hospitality. A couple of them even sang for us. It was very sweet.

Now, we're in Edwardsburg, Michigan. I was a sweep rider (along with Jon) so that meant we were the "caboose" of today's ride. We went from Camden to here (both towns in Michigan) via Indiana. You may notice I don't have any state sign photos here, and that's because there weren't any =/. But there WAS a clear indication of where the state line was from the quality of the roads. Michigan's roads are just in total disrepair, while Indiana's were significantly smoother.

This here's a group picture of us right before we set off on our ride. The pastor and a parishioner joined us for the morning ride. The church was so sweet to us and took some pictures, which should be found on their website soon. (We weren't really ready when this particular one was taken, and there are better versions.)

I didn't take many pictures today, but we did pass through some beautiful Amish areas. We saw some horse/buggy's and lambs and goats and cows and all kinds of cool stuff. We even saw a robot mailbox! And we saw these happy dumpsters. Look how happy they are!

During the ride, we took a break on a small plot next to the route. I tried smiling for the picture, but I was just exhausted...

..but then I saw Jon taking a quick nap.

The church we're staying at today is the Hope United Methodist Church. They have already served us a wonderful taco dinner this evening, and they'll be hosting us for tomorrow night as well (as tomorrow is a build day).

I've mentioned that tomorrow, we are building with the local Habitat chapter. I'm not sure what we're doing, but I'm hoping there'll be more pictures then.

corn.

2009-07-09T13:59:00.000-07:00

Hello hello!

Important announcement: If you're reading this through bikeandbuild.org, go to the full blog at tedandtheo.blogspot.com ! :)

Since we've started heading out into the Midwest, the weather has just been beautiful. Real sunny, and with our biking along the vast coast of Erie, I could easily be convinced I was in Hawaii or the Bahamas. So the big lesson there is, Ohio is just beautiful. Beachfront houses and everything.
There was a cliff we saw on our way from Ashtabula to Avon Lake, gives you a picture of Ohio's natural beauty. There's Nick and Wade in the background doing some exploring.

We passed through a couple cute towns along the way. Stuck at a traffic light for a second so we stole this picture of me in front of the city hall.

The Ohio roads are particularly rough and cracked, but we got a stretch of a lakeside bike path going into Cleveland.

First sight we saw in Cleveland was the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

That's Abby, Sidny, and me against the Cleveland skyline.

Once we got through, we were back along the lakeside. That lake seriously looks like an ocean.

When we got to our host church, we (Angel and I) were greeted by this very sweet sign. They threw a huge potluck for us, and we ate with about a hundred people from the congregation. I don't think I've seen so much great food in my life. ALSO, I got to meet my faithful readers, Eric and Kathi. I wish I had more time to speak with you both, but it was nice to meet you nonetheless.

So that day, the church arranged for us to go home with families to sleep in a REAL BED! Angel and I stayed with the wonderful Adams family (who may be reading, thank you so much for everything!). They took us to see the sunset at the beach and eat ice cream. It was beautiful.

This beautiful. (There's Jay, Kat, and Rachel.) Later, our hosts made a campfire for us and we made s'mores and lit some fireworks.

~~~~Yesterday! Going from Avon Lake to Bowling Green.

Our next stop was Bowling Green, Ohio. There were fields of grain and corn all along the way. Even after 9 hours of coasting through the flatlands, I didn't get bored of all the vast beauty.

Saw RUTHERFORD B. HAYES's home. Right there. Behind me.

More fields, and another picture of ME.

~~~
TODAY: From Bowling Green, Ohio to Camden, Michigan!
Had some smoother roads, and less traffic.

We passed by some wind turbines. I never knew they were so huge.

CORN.

Took a little seesaw break. It was a joyous time.

Today, we broke the border of Michigan. There's Wade at the top, again.

These signs just make the arrival. Pretty much means a fantastic host (oh they are!).

Theo Visits Niagara and Ashtabula

2009-07-06T11:32:00.000-07:00

Niagara was pretty nice. Well, very touristy, but the falls themselves are still very beautiful. Some of us riders just liked to think about how they would have looked before all the buildings and bridges got set up.

So on our way through the Canadian border!

Here, you can see me in front of just some of the tackiness surrounding the area.

A couple others (Ali and Jocelyn (whose mom reads my blog!)) at the falls. This picture shows how close you can really get to the falls. It's pretty close. Yeah I did a double parenthese.

On the bridge connecting America and Canada. Just an excellent view from here. I've got tons of pics from here but they'll have to wait (darn Flickr upload limit!).

So yeah, the whole thing was very interesting. The falls are like a huge cloud machine. Saw a rainbow in there a couple times, too. But yeah. Cloud machine, cuz the mist just gets kicked up higher and higher (it actually constantly "rains" when you're near the Horseshoe section of Niagara) and then they all crowd up together and leave as a cloud.

So one word could some up our whole ride to Westfield from Niagara.

Wind. (Don't wanna be blunt about it but there are wind mills in the background. See? Yeah.) We were tracing Lake Erie and I guess there are winds from the lake coming to meet us. Made the ride a lot more difficult, but it was nice to steal peeks at the lake throughout the ride. Something else of particular note is Jon's Canadian flag alongside the US flag on this Fourth of July ride.

Also, there were just acres and acres of vineyards. It's unbelievable. Just imagining that there are "wine countries" far vaster than this boggles my mind.

On our way to Ashtabula, we cut through Pennsylvania. I like to think we overtook the whole width of the state in a few hours.

That Erie Lake is huge. It's like being on a whole other coast itself. From now on, I'd like to think of the trip as Coast to Coast to Coast.

Group picture on the Ohio border! So I've talked to a few you and a common question has been "Where does a place called Ashtabula get its name?" Well, the kind woman (been here since 1959) who let Angel and I use her shower told us! It's a Native term referencing a river with a bunch of fish.

There was a huge sign saying "park" and there was this field next to it. Come to think of it, the sign was leading to a different area, and we were probably trespassing on some farmer's plot, but it made for a good few pictures of us in seas of green and amber.

We had a build day here in Ashtabula, but we instead volunteered with WIC to paint their local office here in Ashtabula. Here's one of our leaders (Nate) using the unconventional Palmer method of removing a tree as Cydney and Matt look on.

As usual (but by all means extraordinary), our hosts have been so gracious to us. We have been meeting more people on the streets (perhaps YOU are someone to whom I gave my site to?) and the friendliness we've been encountering has been great. I saw some great hospitality in New England, but the Midwest is proving to us that they've got that helping spirit as well.

The way I see it, there can't be too many pictures of me me me.

But this time, I'm gonna end with a video I got of us painting the trailer (!). I've watched this video at least 5 times, and it holds something new every time. (I actually had a whole paragraph going on of things to watch out for in the background, but I'll let you guys watch for yourselves.)

Updates in New York

2009-07-02T17:12:00.000-07:00

The past few riding days have been cloudy and rainy. So not much picture-taking time =/.

Heading into Rochester, the weather was questionable.

Well a picture here giving you a sense of how cloudy and rainy it's been. Still, would have liked to give you a picture of the grain fields (which are breathtaking) we pass by but the mileage has been putting some pressure against us picture takers.

Bah got another anyway. Passed by an apple (?) orchard.

At our lunch stop, where we were next to a lake (which feeds into Lake Huron?).

Took some shelter at the "Fly By Night Cookie Company". Was envisioning a huge industrial complex churning out cookies, but it was in fact an adorably cozy little cottage with jars of cookies.

On our ride into Rochester, we saw some nasty little clouds coming up. But that doesn't bother us! Pah!

WELL the raindrops were giving us a beating to the point we couldn't see where we were going, so we took refuge in a gas station, where we passed the time listening to this man talk to us about Vermont's history and his experiences in World War II. One of the most eye-opening parts of this trip so far.

At RIT, one single person cooked all 30 of us dinner, and we sat around one huge table eating. It was a lot of food and a lot of table.

The next day, there were some volunteer opportunities at a Habitat build site. We got to meet the homeowner there. Three of us put up insulation in the basement.

Today, we're in Lockport, so named because of the water locks in the canal which allowed ships to pass through. A bunch of us took a tour, where the guide showed us around and told us a lot of the history of the place.

In a tunnel made to channel water to power factories back in the day, in which we would later ride a boat.

UPSIDE DOWN BRIDGE!

There's so much more to write, but this library computer has a little clock at the top ticking away my time.

Later!

TOMORROW we're heading to Niagara Falls, and only have 20 miles of riding to do. Which means tons of time to spend in the city, so stay tuned next time for...

Theo Visits Niagara

Palermo, New York, next to Mexico, New York

2009-06-29T16:58:00.000-07:00

These past couple days, I've been riding through some of the quaintest of the quaint towns thus far.

This is my bike parked in the parking lot of a Rite Aid in Boonville. Got my camera issues all resolved, so there shouldn't be a shortage of pictures anytime soon. As the photography shop person put it, Boonville was very Norman Rockwell, and looking at this picture now, I can kinda see it, with all the store fronts lined up.

When we get to the host site, in this case the Boonville Methodist church, we all take our shoes and biking shorts off and stretch, as demonstrated by Nick here.

Today, we had a lot of miles to cover. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any pictures of myself, as today hurt, but the whole scenery can be expressed in a few pictures.

There were a lot of open areas with grass, lined with trees. That was the vast majority of the ride, save for the couple small towns we passed through.

Taking a short stretch/snack/drink break after a tough climb, which you can see in the background.

Early lunch! I was exhausted, and just sat on the grass til I was up for another go at the bike.

Closing in on the home stretch to the church, we mostly coasted down some hills through a lot of green til we got to the church.

Took this about an hour ago. At our host church, we met a few of the parishioners and some of their children brought their bikes for us to take a look at.

Now this post wouldn't be complete without my picture would it? Snapped this just now. It's yours truly using the littlest computer (thanks Ally) on a terrific internet connection (thanks Palermo United Methodist Church).

~T

PS With regards to the title, New York names a bunch of its towns just the most confusing names, including (but not limited to) Poland, Russia (which is actually East of Poland), Jamaica, and Mexico.

Second day in New York

2009-06-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

In Boonville, New York right now!

So I heard that a few of my readers are family of some of my fellow Bike and Builders. How sweet of you all to join me! Now that I know this, this doesn't mean I won't stop bombarding you with pictures of ME, but I'll make sure to post more pictures of the others.

I'll start off by showing some I chose not to include in my past posts:
Jason and Physnick enjoying some New Hampshire ice cream.

One of our morning route meetings, where we go over the general plan for the day's travels.

A group picture of all of us. Jay looks ginormous.

So, today.
Today was pretty long (70 miles?). Luckily, no rain today (not the same story yesterday).

These past few days, I think the most amazing things I've seen would be being able to see the edges of the clouds' shadows and racing down the road to meet the edge, after which the whole world goes from cloudy and darker to clear and sunny. Maybe not that interesting, but I thought it was pretty awesome.

Someone even saw a bear on the road today. Wow.

We had an early, 10:40 am lunch because our leader Rachel found this beautiful place for us to take our break. It's a lake. One of at least eight, in fact. It's called "Eighth Lake". I've got something on my chin. Try not to look at it.

So until the point of taking this picture, I couldn't really tell you authoritatively that the Adirondacks were stunning, as most of the time, I was surrounded by some very tall trees through which I could only see glimpses of the surrounding beauty. There was a clearing here, though, and it was pretty rad.

So we were bearing down close to our host location. My legs hurt and I was kinda tired and my palm was sorta numb and I had to go to the bathroom. But then we crossed over this bridge with some beautiful white water underneath, and I had to take the time out to get a picture anyway.

To me, New York means Broadway and restaurants and STERN (heh) and all that stuff but today, I got to some of the other 99.45 percent.

In Silver Bay, NY

2009-06-26T17:57:00.000-07:00

Wow, did not expect to be staying at a place like this. We've got rooms, beds, TOWELS, and internet! These past few days we've had some tough climbs, and I've definitely struggled a bit. From what I hear, there are more challenges in store in the next few days.

We've crossed over from Vermont into New York. First of all, I'm going to be missing Vermont and New Hampshire. Hopefully this is shown from the pictures, but these places are just amazing. I often talk about going to New Zealand to see all the cool places (from Lord of the Rings) but Vermont and New Hampshire took my breath away just as dramatically.

New York does not seem much different yet, but we've only just peeked in.

As I mentioned, there were some tough climbs. If I look like I'm crying in this picture, it's cuz I was pretty freaking close.

Early in the morning, mountains are everywhere. On all sides, I could see these mountains and pastures. Cows and horses, too.

Just beautiful. And the mountains are gorgeous, too.

During an ascent, I took a short break at the scenic overlook. There's Jay in the background. Hi Jay!

Some of us had a short bathroom break in a very cute little town and there was this big chair I saw. It rocked.

Ignore the unphotegenicity and check out those mountains in the back.

We all took a group picture in front of the welcome sign, but I only had this picture I snuck in at the last minute.

So here's where we're staying right now. Sleeping in an actual room.

A view of some chairs. Some family reunions and a wedding rehearsals are going on. Quite a beautiful place.

kay i'm going to go shower with a TOWEL-towel.

Past three days, and a hard ascent

2009-06-25T14:26:00.000-07:00

I've finally got a computer here in Rochester, VT!

So a few days back, I got to bike through some beautiful New Hampshire hills bordering a bunch of farms and waters and all kinds of neat stuff.

Wasn't near someone at the time, so had to take a MySpace style pic D:

Lunch time! The trailer was set up but abandoned, so I took a break to eat a few yards away.

There was a lake (river?) here, but no swimming...yet.

We arrived at our host church and they provided so much hospitality. They're so kind and very talented chefs as well. We ate things ranging from stuffed mushrooms to pasta to lasagna to rice.

Even hamburger shaped cookies. :D

~~~~

The next day, I was part of a group that volunteered to do some landscaping with Habitat. We spent time transplanting plants, clearing weeds, moving mulch, seeding the lawn...those kinds of things. We had some help with the clearing out part. The work was really tough and the sun beat down hard.

This is me taking pictures while everyone else is hard at work. On the right was the volunteer who helped us out. He was so knowledgeable and had some interesting stories to tell.

By the end of it we could really see how much progress we'd done.

Later that day, we went out to riverfront house. It was really high up and we had a great view of the river from the roof.

This jump seemed to take forever! I've never jumped from so high in my life. Today, we departed from Lebanon, heading into Vermont. We hit the border pretty quickly.

The whole ride was fascinatingly scenic. Mountains, rock formations, waters, farms, and pastures lined the ride, and it was just beautiful.

Behind me were acres and acres of pasture, with faded blue mountains in the distance.

This is a sign I always like to see!

We went up a mountain called Mount Bethel. It was breathtaking in its views and in the way that the ascent was averaging 7% for around 6 miles (or was it 3?) Either way, I was WORN OUT by the time I got to the top. I got video of me racing down the descent. That made it all worth it.

Today, we're staying at the home of a very kind family. I don't think I'll ever get used to the fact that people are so willing to invite all 30 of us into their homes and places of worship and even cooking food for us.

My butt hurts, I'm gonna go.

New London in New England

2009-06-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

So the kind folks at Colby Sawyer College got me some internet :)

The eve of our departure, a group of us volunteered at a Habitat ReStore, helping out with organization and shelving. We biked over from Portsmouth and the route between there and Dover is just beautiful. Sadly, I could only take a few pictures (like the above one of us on a nifty bridge) whilst biking but when the weather is nicer, I'll be mounting my camera on the bike so I can take more.

In Chicago, the ReStore volunteers are very kind, and in Dover, it was no different. ReStore is a fairly simple idea: they take surplus, unwanted, or otherwise donated homebuilding supplies and sell them at a markdown of 30-80 percent. It allows more people to make their homes more suitable for living, allows businesses to collect a tax refund, and saves waste by recycling.

After our work, we explored Dover a bit and took a small detour up to Maine and then went into downtown Portsmouth.

It was a weekend, so the area was quite busy. Some of us spent some time in downtown Dover.

It was a lot of fun to see all the activity going on (families eating, art festival, band playing, wedding with kilts).

~Departure!

The first day of cycling started out on a rainy day in Portsmouth.

Group picture on the coast.

Along the way, we saw some pretty nifty things (like the above sculpture). A lot of animals, most of them alive, some on the side of the road. I'm still trying to get used to those.

Heard a tiny waterfall making quite a commotion, so checked that out.

We arrived in Concord and I made sure to get a picture of myself at the capitol building.

That day, a small gym offered their shower facility for our use. It was so nice I had to take a picture.

Today, we set forth to New London, where I'm at now. Along the way, we passed through Warner and I got this picture in front of a Civil War memorial.

Chalking directions for the other bikers.

I guess the New London area's doing one of those animals on parade things, and there's on right in front of where we're staying at.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's pleasantly overwhelming to see how infectious goodwill is among people. When people hear about what we're doing, they show so much hospitality and friendliness towards us. It's something I couldn't really believe if I hadn't seen it firsthand.

The views I'm seeing on the way are incredible, and I often have to remind myself of the core reason for all of this; our upcoming build day is going to be this Wednesday in Lebanon, NH.

~T

First few days!

2009-06-19T19:19:00.000-07:00

I have internet!

So currently, I'm in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from where we will depart come Sunday morn.

I was able to snap a few pictures, so here they go:

This was the church in Portsmouth we're staying at. When I came in, the forecast read cloudy and rainy for the next ten days but morale is still high! To the right, you can see the van and trailer which will carry around all the stuff.
We all went out for a test ride around the area and stole a quick photo when we started to head back.
And the sun came out! Storm clouds rolling out.
The church in the sun. Portsmouth is quite homely and sweet from what I can see.
And there's the trailer in the parking lot.

Lately, we've been mainly occupied with safety briefings, etc. but tomorrow will be a build day with two organizations: Habitat and a local building organization.

And on Sunday, we will go over to the Atlantic ocean, get on our bikes, and begin going west.

Much more pics to come!

All Packed Up and Ready to Go

2009-06-17T23:02:00.000-07:00

Everything for the next nine weeks in a bin, a backpack, and a box.

I'm going to be waking up in four hours whereupon I will be flying on an aeroplane to Manchester, whereupon I will be driven to Portsmouth, where the trip begins.

A great big thank you to all those who have supported me and to all those who made my reaching the fundraising goal possible.

Keep following this site, many-a-goodies will come about!

Unpacking the Bike

2009-05-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

ohboyohboyohboy guess what came in the mail the other day

Yup, the bicycle that will help me get around!

big package

WHAT. But I... I just... when you... how did...

Well, I guess I gotta help you sort yourself out little fella.

hup!

Oh dear.

Hmm, mayhaps these will help.. (nope)

AND BAM. I DID IT*. THERE YA GO.

*gave up after several hours, packed it all back up, and took it to a bike shop for them to assemble