fall reflections

here we are. just living in seattle like normal people.     

  
it’s quite easy to forget that just over a month ago, we were biking across the united states.  in fact, amidst the chaos of learning to love a new city and being a student again, i don’t think about the trip all that often.  but when i do, i am flooded with wonderful memories and all of the emotions.

we get asked about the trip less often now then when we just arrived.  because of this, our reflections have been reduced to sharing a funny picture or laughing about a random stop in a random town somewhere in middle america – inside jokes, essentially.  i hate that the trip has been reduced to that.  but, you know, life goes on.  incredible things happen and adventures end and new ones begin and it’s all part of the journey, right?

a friend from the transam (we met him in newton, kansas), kevin, has a blog.  he asked us to write a reflective post about our trip that he could feature this week and i am so thankful he did.  while i wrote papers about organizational theory and policy problems in schools, david put some wonderful words on paper (well, on the computer screen) about our trip.  and i definitely couldn’t have articulated anything better myself.  

david’s reflections from our trip can be found HERE, on kevin’s blog.  while you’re there, check out his other features! and some of the pictures he took on the transam are pretty incredible.

happy fall!

we made it!

on monday afternoon, we hopped off the ferry from bremerton, wa and biked the final 8 miles of our trip through seattle to finish at golden gardens park in ballard.  our final week of biking through the pacific northwest was full of moderate terrain and beautiful scenery.  we biked along the west coast and through pine forests and along little lakes and smelled the sea.  as the trip was coming to a close, i was overwhelmed with excitement to call this region home.

thinking back, it doesn’t seem real but we did it!  in 68 days, we biked 3500 miles on a tandem bike across the united states of america.

so many people have been following our journey this summer and we can’t thank you all enough for your support and encouragement.  we’ve been congratulated so many times on our “amazing accomplishment” but it feels so much different than any thing else that either of us has achieved.  sure, we reached a goal and we did something that was physically kind of crazy but instead of being proud of ourselves for finishing, we’re both just kind of sad that it’s over.  i mean, we spent 68 days together — literally together, on the same bike — and loved it.  and now we have to go back to the real world?  the real world where we have to go to separate jobs and pay bills and we can’t just hang out together all day?  it’s hard to just check the bucket list box and move on.

the completion of our trip feels a bit anti-climactic since we won’t be returning to where we started.  we’ve have thrown ourselves immediately into a new challenging adventure – settling into life in a new city.  over the course of the bike trip, we saw new places and met new people and were integrated with the country in a very unique context.  while we depended on a lot of people to help us along the way, we weren’t building any sort of community.  we also got pretty selfish about our routines and habits and most of the time i was content staying in our own little two person tandem bubble.  but now we’re in seattle and reemerging into a life where our days are more complex than pedaling for 8 hours.  the transition back to being engaged in community is tough.  especially being in a big city, i’m having a bit of culture shock.

in the coming weeks and months, as we learn how to live life again, i’m hoping to post some retrospective anecdotes from our trip.  there are so many good stories to tell! so stay tuned.

sometimes, plans change.

we’ve gotten into a groove.  we have a routine of getting up, drinking coffee and eating breakfast, and pedaling the day away.  sometimes the pedaling is harder than others but we know when we need to stop for breaks and how we need to energize and how to decide where we should stop and sleep for the night.

just the other day while we were riding along, I was mentally resting in the ease of our routine and getting excited about the fact that we’re in the homestretch of the trip (3 weeks left!) and that they should be a breeze, logistically.  but then people started asking, “aren’t you worried about the fires?”

and we weren’t.  we decided that if there was a fire in our way, someone would tell us that the road was closed and we couldn’t continue – it would be fine.  but as we kept biking north through Montana, the air got thicker and hazy and smelled a bit like a campfire.  we realized that those weren’t thunderstorm clouds and there were air quality warnings listed for so many of our future destinations.  tonight we’re sleeping in darby, mt where the air quality was deemed “hazardous” just the other day.

the fires in northern Idaho are pretty bad, we’ve learned, and they are on our route.  like, the towns along the road we’re supposed to bike on have been evacuated because of flames.  we probably shouldn’t bike there?

so what do we do? we’re not sure.  we’re getting a ride to Missoula, mt tomorrow and plan to ask the folks at adventure cycling association to give us some advice.  we’ll have to get around the fires and through Idaho somehow and that might not be with the route we originally planned.

regardless, we’ll finish the journey that we started.  we just might not follow the map exactly.  we’re still learning to be flexible along our way.

glorious tailwinds

yesterday, we biked our first century! 107.62 miles from newton, kansas to larned, kansas. we hadn’t planned it. in fact, we were feeling a bit tired and tight from our rest day in Newton and wanted a short day.  but we kept checking the weather and the wind was at our backs all morning and the forecast the next day was miserable (104 heat and strong headwinds) so we thought, “this is a good idea.”   

I’m not sure when it’s ever a good idea to bike 100 miles. and then today, we biked another 60+ miles! and we’ll bike again tomorrow. what is wrong with us?!! in all honesty, I cannot believe that our bodies are handling this daily torture so well.  

when we were marathon training, we had to be incredibly careful about resting, stretching, eating, etc so that our bodies would perform.  but this summer, we just shove convenience-store food (lots of poptarts) down our gullets during 5 minute butt-breaks mid-ride, reach our destination and collapse.  sometimes there’s stretching before bed but not always.  and then we wake up and do it again the next day. and our legs (and digestive systems) are still functioning.  it blows my mind, really.  

outside of our tailwind-filled ride yesterday, we have experienced some headwinds and they are tough.  the wind can shift at any moment which can make them unexpected.  and then there’s the added challenge of cars (and some really big trucks) passing in either direction which causes the air to stir.  so wind has been challenging.  at one point a few days ago, we were pedaling hard downhill and barely breaking 10mph, which was sad. 

for the most part, we’ve enjoyed kansas?  it’s a pretty long state, though, and the landscape doesn’t change a lot.  it’s started to look a bit like a screensaver of prairie land filled with cows.  it is the most different landscape that either of us have seen and that has been really cool- to truly experience a part of the country that was entirely unfamiliar.  we keep pedaling (slightly uphill) toward the rockies and are really excited for the day that we’ll all-of-a-sudden be able to see them.   

today marks the beginning of our 2nd month on the road.  it’s hard to believe we’ve been biking for one month. sometimes it seems like it’s been only a few days and other times it feels like it’s been an eternity.  most of the time, we’re still having fun.  of course, the heat and the wind and the sometimes not showering and the soreness and tiredness and dirty clothes can get frustrating.  there are also logistical challenges that we hadn’t expected (we don’t bike through a lot of large towns in western kansas).  and most mornings, when the alarm goes off at 4:30, I really don’t want to ride a bike.  but once we get moving and the sun rises, I am really thankful for all this time that I get to spend with my best friend (literally attached to him pedaling across the country).   

the disaster before carbondale

monday morning, we had big plans.

we had biked a long 66 miles the day before and had crossed into illinois.  the bike was making some noise, so we were hoping to get to carbondale, a somewhat daunting 76 miles away, by the early afternoon to visit a bike shop before it closed at 5.

we cruised into elizabethtown, il on sunday evening and had a lovely campsite setup.  we were camping in the backyard of a b&b right on the ohio river, which provided a wonderful sunset view, plus! there was a pool that we were welcome to use.  we went to the floating restaurant nearby and ate some delicious fried catfish and got to bed early in order to wake up the next morning at 4:30am to get on our way to carbondale.  our spirits were high and we were excited for the big day on monday.  

  we woke up to the early alarm (only hit snooze once!) and got moving quickly.  we were almost ready to go at about 5:30 when it started raining.  so, we waited.  we checked the radar (because it’s always 100% accurate) and saw that it should pass soon.  no worries! just a tiny bit later than we hoped.  once we started biking (around 7), we made it about 3 miles before the rain started up again.  it looked to be clear skies ahead so we loitered under a tree before heading out again.  just another mile later, the clouds opened and it started absolutely pouring on us.  thankfully, there was a church just off the road with a covered front porch.  that covered church porch kept us dry for an hour and a half while it rained and rained and rained.

  
amazingly, our spirits were not entirely crushed once we got on the road again after the rain.  after a few more miles, the bike was acting wobbly and i noticed that the back tire was looking funny.  maybe it needed some air?  it definitely wasn’t flat but it probably shouldn’t be shaking the way it was…. as david and i were communicating about whether and where to stop and check out, there was a very loud explosion.  that came from our back tire.  “well, that’s a flat tire,” said david.

so, at 9:45am, 13 miles into our day, david started changing our first flat tire.  he was very speedy at changing the tube and we thought we were in business, until we realized that the side walls of the tire were shredded and would definitely not be patch-able with what we had (and we aren’t carrying a spare).  soooooooooooooooooo, how to bike the remaining 60-some miles to the bike shop in carbondale?

  
hitch-hiking with a tandem bike is difficult.  lots of old ladies in small cars stopped to ask if we needed help, which was much appreciated, but we needed a truck. or a minivan. and someone able and willing to drive us over an hour to a bike shop.  AAA did not find it amusing when i called asking for “my vehicle” to be towed.  apparently they only service licensed vehicles and even though our tandem is currently our only home and vehicle, they wouldn’t help me.

finally, we found a retired schoolteacher with a minivan and some free time who was willing to get us to carbondale.  i’m not sure how genuinely he wanted to help us but as he said, “if i don’t help you, what will you do?”  that’s a good question, sir.

so, all of the things went wrong. but! we made it to carbondale before the bike shop closed! they even stayed open 2 extra hours to fix her up for us to get on the road the next day (she needed quite a bit of TLC).  while we were waiting for the bike, we had some tasty food and coffee at a local bakery and secured a place to stay for the night through warmshowers.

  
later, when our bike was fixed, our host for the night cooked us dinner (with fresh vegetables!) and we had local craft beers.  as we were fixing my chacos with super glue (the soles had totally separated and the pink duct tape just wasn’t cutting it anymore), our host karen said, “oh, what size are you? i have a pair of chacos that i just can’t make myself like.  i’ve been meaning to give them away and would love for you to have them.” welp, they’re my size AND green.  we slept in an air-conditioned room, on a mattress and had some of the best sleep we’ve had in a while.  on this day when so many things went wrong but ended up right, we were reminded that the plan for this trip is not in our control.  we’ve got to be open-minded and trusting and optimistic that’s it’s going to be ok.

   
 today marks 3 weeks on the road and we’re close to 1000 miles on a bike.  we reached missouri (on a bike! how crazy is that!) and have had some “excessive heat warnings.”  we feel like we’re getting into a groove and have found a way to find routine in the ever-changing circumstances of each day.  tomorrow, we’ll get into the ozarks and we hope that having the hills of appalachia under our belt will help us to tackle them.

central time zone

we have crossed into the central time zone! the past few days have been full of much gentler terrain and we have felt wonderfully victorious.  we have also been able to spend time with family of friends and have met lots of new people.

 
 we know the ozarks are coming but keep telling the eastbounders we encounter that they can’t be as bad as appalachia.  tomorrow, our hope is to enter illinois- our 3rd state! 

here is a link to our garmin profile if you want to check in with our progress each day.  it should sync with each new ride (as long as we have cell service which is not a given). 

  

we’ve encountered our first pool.

let me just tell you. virginia goes on FOREVER and has so so many mountains. these mountains are too steep (I mean SO steep!) and should not be biked over.  yet, we’re biking over them. 

we are in the middle of nowhere, appalachia.  I’ve always taught my 4th graders that the southwestern most region of virginia is a plateau– the appalachian plateau.  I’ve looked on the map a few times at where we are and if we’re not in that region of Virginia then I’m not sure it exists.  and then I look around me and see no plateau. I only see beautiful, green, rolling mountains.  the mountains we have to bike over. 

we had one of our toughest days today.  a few days ago, outside of chartlottesville, we climbed afton mountain and spent 26 miles on the blue ridge parkway.  it was beautiful! but it was also really hard and we were excited to have those miles under our belts.  our pep talk to ourselves is that, “we climbed the parkway! this hill won’t be bad!” however, today, the hills were worse. 

 
these past few days of steep hill climbs have crushed us. we’ve had to ask for help from a lot of people- our friends, families, strangers.  it’s really hard to let people help you– especially when you really need it.  and we’ve been amazed at how excited people are to help us.

we’ve been anxious that we’re pedaling too slowly and that we might not make it to the end in time.  we’ve had to swallow our pride a bit (a lot) and decide that it’s about the journey and pedaling each day.  we’re lucky to be able to spend all day every day together on a bike meeting new people an seeing new places.  of course we still hope to make it to the west coast in time but we’re not worried about that yet.  we’re focused on tonight and preparing for tomorrow.

today, as we rode into council, va (in a kind stranger’s pickup truck with our bike in the back) and got dropped off at the pool and park where we’re camping tonight, it was a lovely moment of hope.  hope that we will have more pools at the end of hot days.  hope that kind strangers will continue to help us when the hills are too steep.  we’re full of hope each day that we will have fun together, pedal some miles, find a place to sleep, and meet people along the way.  thanks to everyone who has helped us on our trip so far! 

 
tomorrow we hope to leave VA and cross into KY!  knowing very little about kentucky topography, I am hopeful that it has more flat land (or just more gently sloping land) than virginia does. 

dc to charlottesville on a tandem bike- DONE!

we are so thrilled to have made it to charlottesville today and to have a wonderful friend hosting us in his house.  we’re excited to be following the official transamerica route starting tomorrow! bushwaking the way from dc to cville was not the greatest and google maps took us on a few roads we would be happier to not follow. but, we made it! 

our true first leg was early last week from DC to arlington to test out David’s knee. those 10 miles from hains point to north arlington were such a tease– hardly any inclines and we hauled none of our stuff.

July 8 was our official departure from our cozy resting place in north arlington.  we aimed to leave at 2pm but in typical fashion, weren’t ready until 4.  then it was raining.  at 4:30ish, a break in the skies appeared! our dear friends, the rowes, sent us off and we had a lovely first mile.    

 we were quickly confronted with steep and lengthy rolling hills and the fact again that we have TOO MUCH STUFF! and then it started pouring.  the rain continued for the next 19 miles.  after we were thoroughly soaked (as well as all our gear), I found myself having fun.  it’s kid of nice, riding a bike in the rain.  and then we were greeted in centreville by friendly faces, food&drink, and a place to dry off!  thank you to Vero and her family for hosting us our first night!  

 
the next two days were hard. they were full of searching for slivers of hope that we could hold onto and stretching our patience so that we could work as a team.

when we left Centreville, it was gorgeous and we felt strong!  we hit some traffic that wasn’t the most fun but we made great time and the beauty of our destination was incredible.  the inn at kelly’s ford was surrounded by rolling hills and Queen Anne’s lace was spattered all along the side of the road– we were thrilled to camp in such a lovely place! then our campsite was far away over hills of gravel and we have too much stuff and we were stretched to all of our limits. then the bugs and heat made it hard to sleep well…. 

 the next day we woke in high spirits.  someone rescued us from our campsite but then as we were packing up our gear to get on the road, things kept breaking! it took us hours to get loaded up and we were so frustrated and angry and discouraged — I wanted to either leave all of our gear behind on the side of the road, or quit altogether.  

we finally got moving but encountered lots of hills, not enough fueling breaks, negative attitudes (mine) followed by pep talks, gravel roads (with hills) wrong turns and some bella vistas.

we were exhausted and had to stop in Orange.  there was no way we were making it to charlottesville- another 32 miles.  but so so thankfully, we were taken care of! while all of our gear was exploded on the sidewalk in front of the post office (so we could frantically mail it home before they closed), pat walked up to ask us what in the world we were doing. “it just looks too interesting not to ask,” she said.  through conversation with her, we ended up getting hosted by her brother-in-law where we could shower, do laundry, eat and sleep in a bed! we are so thankful for the kindness of strangers– thanks pat and patrick!  

 
today was a great day of riding. lots of hills but we did a much better job of stopping for water and rests more often which fueled us for the hills.  we loved passing all the vineyard just north of town- such beautiful countryside!  and now we are comfortably settled into another home with a bed in one of our favorite places– the city where we got married a year ago tomorrow!  perfect timing that is totally different from my plans will never cease to amaze me. 

tomorrow we start following th transamerica route that will take us toward (and eventually over) afton mountain (YIKES!). good thing we got rid of some more stuff from our load! 

 

we haven’t left yet

we were supposed to pedal away this morning for the start of our cross-country journey.  however, we’ve encountered some obstacles. 

on tuesday, we moved out of our apartment in dc.  it was the worst of all worst moving days.  i know all moving days are horrible and i feel like i say that it’s the worst every time but this one was actually the worst.  we were physically moving for 16 hours.  throughout those 16 hours, we were appalled by the amount of stuff we had accumulated.  we were humbled by our greed and attachments to these material possessions — what IS all this stuff?! and why are we moving it to seattle if we never use it?! 

i know i get attached to things because of the memories that go along with the items — memories of sitting in certain chairs drinking coffee out of certain mugs with certain people.  i love those happy thoughts that i think of later when sitting in the same chair.  but does it mean that i need to hold onto the chair/coffee mug/table/coaster?  if i no longer have those things, will i lose the memory as well?  i don’t think that’s how our brains function….. 

but how can we make sure to hold onto the most important memories and lessons and let go of what doesn’t matter? how do we carry the good stuff with us?  where is the balance between purging and hoarding?! because david and i definitely haven’t found it. 

so anyway, we had to shed some belongings that wouldn’t fit in our moving pods.  there was no time to prioritize really so we just had to let go of stuff.  and thinking back on those moments, i feel refreshed.  and i’m also thankful that our stuff can sit for 2+ months while we live happily without it.  i’m really excited to live for a while without all of our things.  i’m hoping we’ll learn a little bit about what is really important which will make shedding some more things in seattle a bit easier.  

also from those 16 hours of physical movement on tuesday, our bodies are achy, injured, and exhausted.  we needed more time to recover before enjoying any sort of bike ride.  we hurt all over but david’s knee is a specific concern.  it hurts him quite a lot to pedal a bike at the moment so that’s a bit of a problem for our planned journey.  we are using some of our built-in buffer time to rest and hope the issues resolve themselves.  we’re trying to be patient and not let the calendar dictate our schedule.  we’re taking it a day at a time.  

#ryansacrossamerica

race across america (raam) started today.  the participants of “the worlds toughest endurance bicycle race” have a maximum of 12 days to complete their 3000-mile journey from oceanside, california to annapolis, maryland.  that math works out to riding 250 miles a day (without any breaks to eat or sleep) — and that’s the slowest possible speed to make it before the deadline.  THAT’S INSANE.

some people think we’re insane.  but we’re not that insane.

in 15 days, i’ll be the stoker on the back of a tandem bike bound for seattle.  don’t know what those words mean or anything about tandem biking? we didn’t either until about march.  since the hatching of this plan almost 10 months ago, it has slowly come to fruition.  we’ve been doing tons of research (mostly david does the research and gives me the skimmed version) and gathering so so many things we didn’t know we needed.

the crucial step one in our plan was getting a tandem bike.  thanks to dave and rhona in keyser, west virginia (and a very rainy drive there on a tuesday night), we’ll be riding a 1998 cannondale los dos tandem (we’ve named her nina).  nina will be hauling two panniers and a trailer– we’re not exactly traveling in the most streamlined, aerodynamic fashion.  we’ve gone on group rides and practice solo rides and lots of kids stare at us and point when we pass.  with the trailer, our set-up is probably 20 feet long so it’s actually incredibly comical to see us biking down the streets of dc.  

instead of trying to make it across the country in 12 days like raam, we’re choosing to be homeless and jobless for 2 and a half months while we bike from washington, dc to seattle, washington.  we’re just biking there because we thought that’d be the most exciting way to get there.  when moving from one coast to the other, why not go by bike?!  better yet, why not go by tandem bike?

are we insane? maybe a tiny bit…..

here is our route (for the most part).  do you know anyone who lives on or near it?  do they want to let us shower at their house or bring us lunch/dinner/a beer?  we would love to meet them.

we’ve already met so many interesting and inspiring people on this journey and we haven’t even left dc yet.  we’re excited to spend time in parts of the country we’ve never seen and learn how to be comfortable with strangers in unfamiliar places.  we’re excited to be very much outside of our comfort zones (mentally and physically) and reliant on the generosity and compassion of others.

we (mostly me) will be updating as much as possible along the way — keep tabs on us and our progress!

xx