July 22 Massadona to Steamboat springs

we met some riders along the road. we asked them how the terrain was out to steamboat springs (110 miles away!) and they said that it was pretty flat out there, but that the climb out of steamboat was rediculously hard. I quote: "You will only get 15 miles in that day" apparently it is tough.

once we got to steamboat springs we went to Andy's house. he was signed up for warmshowers, however he was on a bike hike himself that day. He left his house open for us to use. what a champ! showers at last!

July 21 Duchesne to Massadona

Great library visit in Vernal.

out of Vernal we met a grasshopper named sage. He hopped on my bag and rode for about eight miles into Dinosaur Colorado. Friendly little guy. I did not kill him with my spokes.

We passed blue mountain. (hangliders) we did not see any, but they can fly from there 100 miles.

We rode the last twenty miles as the sun was setting. right over the border between Utah and Colorado there are very colorful cliff faces and rocks. gorgeous. Also, there is a much better highway in Colorado than in Utah.

We had milkshakes in dinosaur, they were delicous, and helped us get that last twenty miles. they were worth the ten bucks we paid for them, although just barely.

Now we are at a sucky campsite. the portopotty has been tipped over and not cleaned out afterwards. maybe tipping it over is how they clean it out? ten wasted bucks.

But the campsite has water, and a moderately flat spot. also, no rattlesnakes. and no sprinklers. Worth ten bucks.

Strawberry Reservoir

July 20th

Today was windy and fast. we started out at the Glassford's house through Provo canyon and up a horrendous hill to Strawberry Reservoir. After Strawberry is was windy and fast downhill the whole way to Duchesne. We finished up 107 miles in record time.

Grasshoppers eat dead grasshoppers. Along the road you will see three or four grasshoppers munching on the carcass of their earstwhile brother. Then I will come along and skoosh them all. I imagine that later ten or twelve grasshoppers will discover the smorgasbord that I have left and thank me.

Butterflies are also attracted to us. perhaps becuase we wear brightly colored spandex the butterflies think that we are friends. we are not friends. The butterflies flit and flutter hopefully around our bicycles and then decide to take a chance at befriending our spokes. so sad.

We went to a pool after we got into Duchesne. The pool felt great, the shower felt better. now we are camped at a park and we are going to bed.

Visiting the Family

July 18th

Hung out with the family in Provo. Had a picnic at the park. Went in the provo river. The day was hot but the water was freezing cold. Bill, Christine and Steph all dunked their heads in. Told stories. Eric and Robin are rediculously cute. Dave is amazing. Jen and Michelle look great. Christine and Steve look happy together. Mom and Dad are living the dream. We love them!

Sunday. Watched the tour de france. Go Lance! Cheryl made us a delicious dinner. Church was great fun.

Brigham City to Highland, UT

July 17th. Brigham city to Highland.

Easy day, all downhill. Bad drivers. A car cut Bill off in Salt Lake City...he ended up hitting the back of the car...it was a pretty beat-up car anyways. Heavy trucks over point of the mountain ran Bill off the road. Lots of honking. Not everyone in Utah is a bad driver, but Utah really does have horrible drivers. Went to the Salt Lake City Bike Company...awesome bike shop! It is owned by Brent...great guy! Steph knew him in Boise when he was a rep for Idaho Mountain Touuring.

The Heat and Rockets

July 16th

Malta, Idaho to Brigham City, UT.

Long, hot day. 100 degrees! Hottest day so far. We were in the middle of the dessert and saw a rocket factory. There was an explosion in the hills...they must have been testing something big! They had green grass and the only tree for 60 miles...so we did what anyone would do...we took a nap outside the rocket factory and dreamed of colorful airplanes in a yellow sky.

Camped behind a church in Brigham City. Bill slept with his clothes on because he was sure someone was going to come tell us to leave in the middle of the night.

Shower, Sprinklers, and the Milky Way

July 15th. Hagerman to Malta.
We rode another 100 miles today because we are trying to get to Provo by Friday. We show up to Malta, ID and have not showered in two days and don't know where to camp either. We saw an LDS church that had cars parked out front. Turns out there were young women there for their Wednesday Night activity. We basically snuck in (so not to disturb them) and found a shower in the Men's restroom. Score!

Someone told us there was a park nearby, so we camped there.
It was a great park, but as we were setting up the tent, the sprinklers came on. Great! Now what?
Well the park actually had a fire pit off to the side of the grass that was surrounded by gravel. We figured that was a safe spot because they wouldn't sprinkler the fire pit and gravel.

Turns out they do sprinkler the fire pit and gravel...right about 2:00 in the morning. We were sleeping peacefully (with the rainfly off of course) when we were violently awaken by industrial power sprinklers. Talk about panic. It felt like a horrible movie!

So we got a little wet and had a hard time sleeping the rest of the night. One good thing came of it though. It was so dark out there that we looked up at the sky and saw the Milky way. Absolutely breathtaking!

Riding the Freeway!

July 14th
Boise to Hagerman. Today we rode on the freeway (I-84). This is a picture of us fixing a flat at a rest stop. We got a lot of weird looks, and it was as scary as all get out. Don't worry Mom, we didn't have to ride on it for very long. And we were protected by the rumble-strip "forcefield" the whole way!

When we made it to our destination... Hagerman, ID...we stopped at this little trailer called Righteous Ray's barbecue. There was the girl that worked there, and her friend. We ate barbecue sandwiches and chatted with them for a while.

The friend told us she saw some crazy cyclists on the freeway in the morning, near Boise. One with a purple shirt and one with a white shirt...just like us. Turns out is was us!

Slept in the city park tonight.

Quick Update

We are currently in Fort Collins, CO. Headed east towards Nebraska. We have fallen behind on posting due to the lack of internet. Don't worry, we have been writing great blogs and taking amazing pictures. (oh yeah, we lost our camera usb cord...but we are getting a new one tonight).

Here are just a few photos to keep you occupied.

Bill snoozing after lunch somewhere in Idaho.
Steph in the road. Real safe...I know.

We hate when this happens.

July 14th

Brogan to Boise.

Today was great becuase Boise Idaho, "Heaven on Earth" was so close. we flew, and cruised into Idaho Mountain Touring to visit with some pals. (GREAT NEW STORE! AMAZING!) Then we chilled in the classic Egyptian movie theater and saw the new terminator movie. the theater was great.

we stayed up too late though. tomorrow will be rough.

Left John Day and headed to Brogan, OR. It was a great downhill ride today, but the tremendous head wind slowed us down big time. We got into Brogan and could really find anything to eat but Oreos and Milk. Delicious...we ate the whole bag! Slept in the city park...it was great.

rest day

We spent this day with Mike and Sophie Cosgrove. Mike was the gentleman who helped us fix the spoke. He is very proud of his tiny town and wanted to show us some things.

we saw:

1. the painted hills. spectacular hills in blue, red and white. Mike knew the ranger that ran the park and so we got a personal tour of some of the cool areas of the park where they were thinking about building trails.

2. Chum Long How museum. this was amazing. crazy curses abounded. we have proof.

3. elvis presley as a native american. (steph and I danced in front of an audience and got a resounding applause.)

4. a great shower and a great bed.

Mike and Sophie are wonderful. thanks for the memories!

The Cosgroves!

I popped a spoke about five miles into the ride today. We pulled the spoke out, but there was no way to put the other spoke back in without taking off the rear cassette, and we did not have the tools. So we kept on riding. about ten miles later I had a brilliant realization

1. If I broke another spoke we would not be able to continue riding and...

2. we would have to hitch a ride to the nearest bike shop (70 miles away)

I immediately began bouncing up and down on my seat to try and pop another spoke. no such luck. 70 miles later Steph and I pulled into the bustling metropolis that is John Day, OR. (a stoplight! hooray!) Only to find that the bike shop was closed. everyone I asked about the bike shop said that there used to be one, but that it had shut up shop a long time ago.

Out of options Steph and I did the only reasonable thing;

1. got footlong subs and blizzards

2. tried to find a movie theater.

as we were searching for a great movie to watch we passed by where the bike shop had been AND THE DOOR WAS OPEN! Mike Cosgrove was inside working on a bike (he fixes bikes as a charity... there is a special place in heaven for him) I stepped inside and before long Steph and I were pulling apart my rear wheel and replacing the spoke. Neither steph nor I had ever trued a wheel, but we learned tonight! It was fantastic! we finally finished up around nine at night and Mike invited us to his house to spend the night. WHOAH!

Here are some observations:

1. John Day is an incredibly friendly town

2. truing a wheel is easier than it seems at first

3. Heaven is a bed and a shower.

Good old spray!

Another heroic day! Steph and I pulled one hundred and then miles with three 5 mile climbs! We climbed out of Deschutes, then saw these awesome windmills. then, while we were distracted we climbed another two file-mile climbs. Beyond tired.

we took showers in Spray, and (sort of) washed our clothes. Good people in spray. all three of them.

I threw in this picture because it is hilarious. got to love google maps.

Tough Day

Tough day. About fourteen miles into the day Steph and I took a wrong turn. twenty miles later we figured it out and had to backtrack. we ended up on this gravel road that wound its way through the mountains above the columbia river. astonishing views but slow and tough. when we finally made it back down we had only gone another fifteen miles towards our destination. we ended up getting thirty miles in for the price of sixty. ouch. We had a stellar campsite right by the Deschutes river. Dinner was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, just like breakfast, just like lunch. delicious.

105 miles and a tail wind!

We left Skapoosse, Oregon and decided to ride on the Washington side to the Columbia River today. It was breathtaking and beautiful. The first half was a lot of climbing, but the second half of the day just flew by....literally. The wind from the Columbia gorge was very strong. We loved it...especially in the tunnels. Since we made 50 miles in record time, we had a little time to goof around, and we are headed to a further camp ground back in Oregon.

Very wet today. We woke up to dark clouds and a steady drizzle. we packed up the tent wet (bad news) and set off. we did not have that much of a plan, but we ended up choosing a very busy road to ride on. Lots of campers coming home from a fourth of July weekend on the coast - huge behemoth campers with multiple pop out sections and wheels that made typhoons out of the moisture on the road.

we stopped for lunch about sixty miles into the trail (a little town called Ranier... as opposed to Raniest) picked up some chips and fig newtons and shivered our way through a few hundred calories. then, in a stroke of genius, we called a family on Warmshowers. We were pretty wet and miserable. The Kadera family welcomed us into their house, fed us a delicous meal and showed us their incredible garden.

tonight we will stay with the Kadera family, and then tomorrow we will leave at around six in the AM again and see if we can get to... somewhere else. white salmon or something. we will know when we get there.

Here is a photo of everyone here. Thanks guys! y'all are awesome!

Getting out of Portland

he airline industry is on tough times. Northwest Airlines wanted to charge us $300 to take bikes on the airplane. they also wanted to charge $15 per checked bag. Airlines are a really unique industry in that they set thier prices on how much they can gouge the customer instead of how much the service actually costs.

And Northwest really wanted us to pay the $300! The published charge for taking a bike on a plane was $175 - but Lorraine, the sweet soul behind the counter, asked three different sets of supervisors to see if she could not get the higher price. finally she had to give up and "save us some money" by charging us only $175. Our tickets did not cost $175! those bikes had better be getting some hot meals on the plane! Sweet, sweet Lorraine. I bet she is just a wonderful person when she is not at work. Probably really helpful.

We spent the first night at our Cousin Ben's house. Ben is a great guy - very well educated. He is what I would call a non-traditional JDMBA in that he now works construction. He picked us up from the airport in his silver nissan T-top, which miraculously fit in the bicycles and us. Snug, but we are family. On the way home from the airport Ben talked to us about the city. he said the neighborhood we would be sleeping in is decent - he had only been shot at twice. Apparently last weekend he also saw a gentleman get mugged (or shot?) on the corner and had to run when the muggers came after him.

then, as we are walking in the house Stephanie says: You know Bill, it is really nice outside... we could just set up the tent out here!

On Sunday we went to Church. We left at 8 to walk to the closest ward which we thought probably started at nine. it turned out to be a spanish ward that started at ten, so we trucked another mile or so in the opposite direction to find an english speaking ward that really did start at nine.

Church felt comfortable. lots of the same type of people as go to our ward; a hodgepodge of young families, old retired couples with walkers and middle-agers. Everyone was impressed that we were riding across the USA, but then told us about thier close family members who did the exact same thing. Apparently Portland is the biking capitol of the world for a reason!

Ben, the Champ, took us to the coast in his yellow 4 speed pickup truck that he bought for $150 from an old farmer. the last we saw of ben he was driving away from the coast, waving out of his window. Ben, we sincerely hope that the pickup truck got you home again.

Then we went to the ocean to dip our bikes in. I had this mental picture of a lovely beach with sunbathers and volleyball. nothing of the sort. The beach was cold, the wind was blowing and there was the rusted out hull of some ship standing like a warning for anyone who dared enter the water. There will be no swimming tonight!

that is all for tonight. the first day was easy: we did not ride at all on our bikes. day two will be long. pray for us!