Well, we made it... SEATTLE BABY!!!!

I can tell it's time. I can tell it's time to drag my sore ass out of bed by the sunshine, by the birds, and by the sound of Stumbles gathering her gear. Forget that. I roll back over and bury my face into a strange pillow, just the flavour of the day.

I can tell it's past time. I can tell it's past time to drag my still sore ass out of bed by the way I ignored it actually being time to do so a half hour ago. And by Stumbles telling me she's going to start riding and she'd see me down the road. Not too uncommon an occurrence. Me being a late (6:30am) riser and all, it's not such a bad thing that she get's out ahead of me and puts some miles on. This is the last day though. This is it, this is summit day, Katahdin day, the final push, the last shebang, the final ride, the yada yada yada. 108ish miles to Seattle. 108ish miles to the city we'd finally settled on being our destination after a transamerican bicycle ride. How am I not jumping out of bed at the thought?! How am I not eager to perch my sore behind in that high saddle?! I am actually. I am ready. I am savoring it. Savoring that taste of victory in my mouth before I set out on the last leg of this endeavor. It taste a bit like whiskey. Harsh but you love it, and the more you swallow it the easier it goes down the next time. It's a good damn taste.

I didn't even unpack last night. I took a shower and changed into town clothes. I didn't touch anything other than that, so it makes packing up this morning especially easy. I look at my two kits. One matches my bike a little better than the other, the black and white one, and I choose that one. Gotta look fly when you cross the line ya' know? Pull my socks up even with the black/white (basically) tan line on my ankles. Look around for my gloves, but remember I lost them in a drunken stupor a few nights back and decide to put sunscreen on my white hands instead. That's it innit? I believe so. Ready to leave I step out of the little side room we were staying in to sign the note we were leaving for the warm showers host we'd stayed with, Gerard. Turns out he'd just risen himself and he invites me to sit down. A little oatmeal and some Vietnamese coffee'll do my good before the bomb. So, I sit down and we do some chattin' before I decide to go for the disengage. Gerard follows me out the garage, chats a bit will I slip on my cleated shoes, and then waves goodbye as I clip in and tenderly rub my butt on the saddle to make sure the twelvefuckingthousand ibuprofen I just took have set in. They have. And I'm gone. Not with the wind, but into it.

SERIOUSLY. It's the last day. The very last f'n day (<== he says in a very whiny voice). Couldn't life please, please please please please, just give me a tailwind so I can slaughter these miles? I want a 4 hour century, I want to slaughter this, I want to sit down in Seattle and drink a celebratory whiskey. Please? But no. No no no no no. Not even close. It's a, and I am not exaggerating, it's AT LEAST a 25mph headwind. Do you know what that is like? That is like riding through water. That is what it's like to be a fly and to be swatted. It was like the sky was crashing down around me. The sky was falling in a torrent, pouring down the mountain walls, booming into me. And there was nothing, nothing, I could do about. The wind was so thick, so brutally harsh, I felt as if I needed to hold my breath in order not to drown under its weight. It was crushing me. I was taking 7mph out of it on the flats. On the f'n flats! It took such a grand effort to crank on the uphills I thought I felt my muscles tearing. I thought I was going to bend my crank and shear the teeth off my gears with the amount of leg I had to put into each stroke over and over and over again. For 24 agonizingly slow miles I put my head down and I went for it. And the wind went for me, doing all it could to stop me. This was the last day though. All the chips were on the table. It didn't matter if I couldn't ride the next day, or the day after that. None of that mattered. What mattered was this: It was the last day, and, in my opinion, the wind had no business to speak up in a matter such as that.
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Thank goodness or something, but the wind got a little bit better once I got in the Lee of Snoqualmie. Snoqualmie pass was the last pass I had between me and Seattle. He was it, the last long climb. And I was ready. I hit his base with a fury. I was ready for a fight. I'd even took the day before to express mail him a letter, just so he wasn't unprepared for my attack:

Dear Snoqualmie,

Alright, so this is it. I'm throwing down the gauntlets, I'm calling you down. You and one hundred miles are all that stands between me and Seattle. The three thousand before didn't stop me, so don't believe that you have the slightest chance. I'll meet you tomorrow, at noon. We'll duke it out. Then, and only then, when the dust has settled, when I am looking down on you, we'll see who's really a mountain, and who's just a pass.

Or something to that effect. It was intimidating. It was fierce. It was so impressive that Snoqualmie shut itself down to bikers. No, for reals, there was construction at the top and a little sign that said "Fuck you cyclist" (Not really, it just said "Cyclist must exit here", but I like to make things a little more dramatic than they really are sometimes). So, for once, I abided by the warning signs and exited the interstate. I was standing there looking at the detour sign and thinking to myself. This is a bad idea. This is a terrible idea. Who even knows what a 'bike' detour is. I don't want to go do a decent down the side of a mountain. And, as I was sitting there pondering/ staring like a retard at the detour sign, a guy pulls up and ask me if I want a shuttle past the construction. Well.... yeah?

It goes basically to the top of Snoqualmie. The rest is downhill. I'll call it a TKO.
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Until I got a flat. That actually wasn't downhill. If you ask me it was actually quite shit and a bit of a low blow by life. All's well that ends well though and while I was changing my flat these two touring cyclist rolled up, soon followed by Stumbles. They're a boy and girl. Brother and sister. Andy and Daniela. Turns out, the world is kinda small. They were ending their touring trip in Seattle as well. On the very same day that we were ending our touring trip in Seattle. Seriously, what're the chances?! They were coming from Miami and we from Maryland, all four headed to Seattle to end an adventure! We exchange numbers for shenanigans later, they ride on, and we change my tube.
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And, to be honest, the finish was pretty anti-climatic, kind of like this blog post. It was nothing like fighting the wind that morning. It was nothing like the courage it took to start this thing. It was no great push at the end, no mountain to climb or miles to conquer. The finish was a maze of bike paths to get to the edge of Seattle, and, once we got there, we couldn't find anywhere for a photo or a tire dip. We ended up at a bar, exhausted, neither of us could even tell it was over. I had a double shot of Jameson. The two cyclist we'd met earlier, Andy and Daniela, came by and spent the night with us. We all laughed at the headwinds. Mitch, Stumbles' friend from trail (whom we're staying with while in Seattle), came for the party too. We all took the ferry across the sound to watch the sunset and see a view of the Seattle the skyline. Seattle, we'd made it. We'd ridden our bicycles across America. We still didn't know it was over yet, and, to be honest, I still don't know it now. But it is, and, I suppose, that's as grand a finish as I could hope for.

Be happy, 

Beacon

It's like I can see Seattle

It's happening. It's really actually completely in real life happening. I'm in Spokane. Spokane! It's like Seattle is just over the horizon! This is the last state. I'm in Washington. The last final pushes! There's only one hill left, Snoqualmie, and I'm not worried in the least. I have less than 300 miles to ride to Seattle. I could walk that if I had to. It's going to put it right at about 3,000 miles in 7 weeks of riding through 13 states, East coast to West coast. Me and Stumbles' first time touring. Am I ready for it to be over? Maybe. My ass is still sore, but I'm excited. That's a good word for it, I'm excited. I can already tell I'll look back on this and remember what it was like to wake up every morning with the sole purpose of consuming food and riding a bicycle, West, into the wind. There's just something about the simplicity of these trips that really appeals to me. No worries, just go in a direction. It's a beautiful way to do something. 

I haven't blogged on here in a while and I know the few that I did do weren't quite quality. But, understand, that you get busy when you're traveling and some (most) days, after riding your bike 100+ miles, typing a post on your phone is the least appealing thing you can imagine. When I get done riding I wanna kick it. Find some food, some cold drink, and put my feet in the air. This is just a little 'I'm alive' post and 'this is where I am' post. In the past month in a half I have met countless countless people. Incredible strangers. People I never would have otherwise met if I hadn't perched my butt in the saddle every day with manifest destiny in mind. The scenery has been incredible and some of the days have been real challenges. But there are stories behind it all. I'm hoping to catch up on all of it once I get to Seattle. Maybe I can sit down for a few days and write it all out for y'all. Write it out decently too, not this drabness of late. Then you can have the stories, and then, hopefully, you'll decide to buy a bike and go for a ride as well! 

Just a teaser photo 

Planning to make it to Seattle in 3-4 days, Real stories to come after that I hope. 

Be happy everyone!

Beacon 

Warm Showers

There is this thing out there called Warm Showers. It's a program similar to that of Couchsurfing, but it is designed specifically targeting long distance cyclist. Somewhere along our little bike ride someone told us about this and we decided to give it a shot because why not? It sounded like a cool thing and we would be able to save a bit of money on the ride which happens to always be a plus. These are our three experiences with warm showers so far: Faith and Robert, Kevin, and Jess.

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Faith and Robert

We had no idea what to expect. We were in the middle of nowhere Iowa and here we are going to meet these two people we know nothing about other than that somehow they have an affinity towards cyclists. So we roll up to their cute little house still not knowing what to expect, and we're greeted by an extremely cute couple who give us the short tour of the house. They turn the whole basement over to us to make ourselves at home in and then give us a little bit of space. We take showers and get laundry going, of course, because those are always our priorities once we arrive somewhere, and then tentatively head upstairs to talk to our hosts still uncertain of the host-hostee relationship here. They immediately offer us an assorment of drinks, wine for Stumbles and bourbon for me. And they launch into these awesome stories of all the things they've been doing together all these years. You see, Faith is a school teacher and Robert is a school nurse, so they both have their summers off every year to go adventuring, which they take full advantage of. They have us help them cook up some dinner and we have a little dinner party and swap adventure stories with them telling us about El Camino de Santiago, and us telling them about the Appalachian trail and South America. Then, as if all this isn't grand enough, we all go out to soak in the crazy awesome hottub outback after dinner! I can't tell you enough how much that does our aching muscles. Which isn't even the cherry on top because we go sit around the fire with drinks after that! 

Faith and Robert

A great nights sleep and pancakes for breakfast, then we were off telling Faith and Robert goodbye. It was an amazing first experience with Warm Showers, finding amazing people in the places you expect the least.

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Kevin


We finally make it into South Dakota. It'd felt like we were in Iowa forever! It was our first long state, not to mention we did a lot of northward jogging through the state. It was a relief to have another state under our belt and it was starting to feel like we'd made it somewhere on our bikes as we approached the halfway point of the trip. Anyways, all that, not important. We'd decided to try our hand at warm showers again and after a short day rolled up to Kevin's place. We're greated with some amazing homemade salsa and incredible prison wine that Kevin enjoys making. We get some time to chillax on the couch and watch some Netflix (Kevin quickly gets us hooked on Wilfred). After a few (or a few fews) episodes of that we all go out for a quick game of disc golf. Anything of the bike seems like gold at this point in our ride, it's just nice to get on our feet and do some goofing off without wheels under us. Plus, I just love disc golf. All of this is followed by dinner and a little hike over in Nebraska! 

Nebraska! (We didn't bike there)

I know it's all common place stuff, but the incredible part about it all is that we'd never met Kevin before. He just opened up his home completely to us like all the Warm Showers people've done. Yeah, we don't do anything extrordinary at anyones house, but we do have a good time meeting new people and having new laughs. It's actually quite incredible and if you need a little faith in humanity this is a sure way to find it. 

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Jess

Jess welcomed us into her home even though she was supposed to have for other Warm Showers cyclists coming through PLUS a hosueful of kids. We did a solid 96 miles to end up in Rapid City that day. We rolled up to Jess's house to find 5 or 6 kids sitting around the outside patio and at first I couldn't even identify Jess because she looked just like one of the kids despite being around 40. She was wearing a tealish looking beanie over her hair, a loose fitting shirt, and some torn up jeans. Instantly you could tell she is a super hip person. She owns the bike shop in town and loves to do art, living a little more on the free spirited hippy side of life. Which is completely awesome. She introduced us to everyone, got us some beers, chatted it up, and then let us go take some showers. Once we got out we continued to chat it up because she is such an insanely interesitng person. I seriously loved some of her life philosophies and the things she was doing with the house she was in and all the kids. The whole place was like a safe haven, sheltered from the rest of the world. It was one of the most relaxed nights I've had on this trip. Jess made dinner for us and all the other kids as well. The other four Warm Showers cyclists didn't end up coming so it was just us there and it was just great. 

Jess

I can't emphasize enough the magic of just meeting someone and being welcomed into their home and their family. There is some special nugget of spirit inside those sorts of people that speaks to you and puts you comepletly at ease. There is nothing like meeting a stranger in this world. Nothing like it.

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And those have been our three Warm showers experiences so far! In a nutshell of course. Each of these places we stayed went above and beyond the calling of the program and it speaks wonders for the type of people living the sort of lifestyle where they help complete strangers. Gotta say I love it!

Be happy everyone,

Beacon

New concept: Slack biking (slack winding? What do I call it?)

Alright y'all. Another new plan! I'm just gonna do short blog posts about short things... Go!

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On this particular morning Stumbles and I were riding out of Cedar Falls (I think it was falls) after spending the night at Doodles' house. Doodles is a friend of Stumbles' from the Appalachian trail. I'd never met the guy before, but he was awesome. Just having hiked the same 2,200ish miles automatically made us friends. Anyways, back to bike riding. We were riding our bikes out of town and directly into the wind. We've been doing this for days and weeks now as well as getting poured on the day before. After the 10 miles out of town we came to a quick decision, today was the day we were gonna try out slack biking. 

Us with Doodles

Here's where the concept comes from. Originally this is a hiking thing that came from our past hiking the Appalachian trial. What people would do is they would get a ride forward and then do the miles backwards. There are a few advantages to this. Sometimes it makes the terrain more favourable and most the time you leave your pack somewhere where you can pick it up once you arrive. That way you don't have to carry a heavy pack all day. That's the hiking version of it, but I tweaked it a bit for cycling. The plan was this: Hitchhike with out bikes 80 miles west and then ride with the wind at our backs for those 80 miles instead of with it in our faces. How lazy can we get? 

My professional hitchers thumb got the second truck passing by to pull over for us. I rolled over to his rolled down passenger window and quickly explained that we just wanted to ride with the wind. This was Dave (the first Dave, the second one is later) and Dave said to me "You lazy fucks. Put your bikes in the back." Turns out he is a super awesome adventurer who was big into train hopping back in the day. The ride was spent with him telling us of his adventures which turned out to be some of the coolest stories I've heard in a long long time. Go hobos.

It wasn't a problem whatsoever and riding back was one of the easiest days we've had. Other than the bridge that was out.... So we rode backwards to where we'd started the day off and stayed with Doodles again! And then we were out thumbing it again the next morning where second Dave picked us up with a reaction similar to first Dave's ("You lazy fucks"). But he enjoyed talking with us and gave us the hookup with a place to Stay in Sioux City a couple days in our future. Overall our slack wind plan was a great success I'd say! 

Trekking through what was once a bridge

Be happy everyone! 

Beacon

PS: This day, in Hoopeston Indiana, a small town newspaper starred us!

Cray

Beasley of Bloomington

Alright. That's it. I'm tired of this day by daying in the blog. Most days, in my opinion, have nothing going on. We just ride our bikes and eat a lot of food. That's really all that happens. Maybe, sometimes, it'll pour on us or we'll encounter a wild animal, but even those are nothing special to write about unless I was really really trying to make it interesting writing. This is my new proposed plan! Forget all this day # this and day # that crap. It's time for some stories. It's time for stories of the craziness that tends to come about out of the blue while you're on a little tiny journey such as this. I lovd that stuff, I live for that stuff. So the first story I want to start with is about Bloomington, Illinois, and Steve Beasley! Because he is always the most wonderful host.

We have had only one day of tailwind this entire trip so far. One day only. That means that every other day we have had either a cross or a direct headwind and, if you know anything about biking, you know how demoralizing the wind can be. This was that one day. We woke up to the sound of someone unlocking a door to the Hoopeston community center. We were lying there on the huge stage they had inside the building we were staying in when a lady came walking around the corner to find us. She looked at us a little startled, guess she didn't expect to find these two homeless looking fools sleeping on the stage.
"Uhhhh.... Did they tell you we were going to be here?" Stumbles asked. "No". Well.... this is awkward. We do a little quick explaining, gather our things, roll out the back door, and into the cold windy morning for the days ride.

Our stage

Thank goodness the wind was in our favour. This was the first and only time this trip so far the the wind wasn't destroying us. Apparently there is a prevailing wind across America? And no one told us this before we started the trip. If we had known, surely, we would have started on the West coast and rode East. And I would almost bet, almost, that we'd be done already if we'd done it that way. That's how amazing the wind can be, or how infuriating. Needless to say we killed, and I mean killed, those 75 miles into Bloomington. So much so that we were calling it a nearo (near zero miles). It was just after noon when we rolled into the parking lot of Steve's apartment. The first drops of rain were just starting to come down, we made it just in time.

I've written about Steve a lot I know, because it seems I roll through Bloomington atleast every once in a while, but there could never be enough praise for the man. Steve is incredible, the best of guys, and just an incredible entertainer. He welcomed both me and Stumbles into his house, and then Flip and his girlfriend came over too! For some reason Flip was in the area and wanted to come visit me and Stumbles, the old Peru crew together again! So we spent the night hanging out with Steve, Flip, his girlfriend, Steve's roommates (Asa, Alix, and Sean), as well as Asa's brother and his friend. It ended up being a huge get together and untold amounts of fun. Knowing that we were taking our first zero the day after this, we stayed up for a while...

Ah... Finally, finally, finally. Our first zero day has arrived! We'd been going pretty hard until then, all the way in mid-Illinois, and we were feeling the need to take some time off. So, we spent it on the lake, having some amazing home cooked food for dinner, and then going out again. All that can be said is that it was amazing and exactly what we needed for our first zero.

Steve it was amazing to see you again, you are way too generous towards me! It was great to see you again Asa, Alix, and Sean! Can't wait until the next time I roll through! Great to see you again too Flip! We'll be seeing you when we roll through Iowa! First zero day was a complete success!

Be happy y'all,

Beacon

Sven and Helga, King and Queen of Hoopeston

Day !@: Lemme' tell you something about bicycling. Everyone thinks it's the hills that hurt. Everyone thinks it's fighting gravity that's the challenge. Gravity is a challenge for sure, it's just not the challenge. The challenge is wind. Wind is what hurts. Wind is where you watch all your energy and efforts evaporate into the nothingness that's bursting all over you. Wind's even more of a problem when you do no research on your bicycle ride across America and ride against the prevailing winds (which, I now know, is West to East). We rode 85 miles into the wind that day. Just sayin'.


Day !#: Okay, let's just tell you right now. This is a story. This isn't the shitty talking about miles or ass hurting or wind I've been writing of late (but sometimes there's just nothing else that happens). This is a real story, one of the random occurrences that happens on your random bike ride across America.

We were planning to spend the night in Hoopeston. On Google maps there was a little motel, called the Downtown Motel, and it was our only option considering we were in middle of nowhere Illinois at this point (yay for our first time zone crossing!). We were kind of tired from fighting the wind all day, so we ride directly up to the motel. In the window there was a piece of, what looked like, butcher paper with a scribble, looking not much better than a 4 year olds hand writing, claiming the manager was in room 5.

Illinois 

I'm kicking it outside with the bikes while Stumbles goes to find the manager. I'm chillen' minding my own business when a woman comes up to me and starts asking if we were planning on staying at this motel. She was Susan, one of our saviors for the day. She proceeded to tell me there was no way we are staying there. We just couldn't stay there, there is no way, and we should not stay there. She'd find us a better place. Then, right at that moment, Stumbles walks back out with a look on her face like she'd just seen a ghost. Eyes wide, she looks at me, and slowly shakes her head no, as if to say we are going to get murdered if we stay here. We follow Susan.

This is how Stumbles later described the room to me. She walked into the room and the first thing she sees is the sink in the middle of the room, completely detached from the wall. The manager was like "Hey, y'all don't need a sink do you?", but, apparently, it was in the middle of the floor! No sheets on the bed and when Stumbles asked him about that he pointed her to a pile of gray rags on the floor claiming they were 'clean'. I think that's the point where she walked out without one word or explanation and we followed Susan into the church next door.

We were quickly introduced to JoHanna and a few of the other people who work around the church. They told us all about how the motel next door is crazy terrible. It's one of those sorts of places that people live, not stay, for dirt cheap and it actually sounded like a drug house to me. There was even an unsolved murder there a few years ago. Susan was calling all sorts of people to find a place for us to stay finally landing on the community building in the park, which sounded awesome to us. It would save us some money and of course it just sounded like an awesome opportunity as well.

Susan, JoHanna, the pastor and his wife

It was crazy like this, they'd just seen us going over to the motel and said to themselves 'we cannot let them stay there'. And, so, the townspeople of Hoopeston came to rescue us from what was, apparently, going to be our inevitable demise at the Downtown Motel. We hung around the church for a bit chatting it up and talking logistics before the biker hunger overtook us and we went across the street to find some chow.

We were the only people sitting in the little Chinese food restaurant when a man with a camera comes in. It's the editor for the little towns newspaper and he has come to interview us for the newspaper. We're already laughing at the randomness of this situation as well as our good fortune and this makes it even better, we're going to be in the paper of this little town just for riding our bicycles through! Darn hilariously awesome!

After we get our photos taken and slay a plate of Chinese we go back over to the church where Susan tells us, I still don't know why, our new names are Sven and Helga. Which I think is great! Sven is a great biking across America name right?! And Helga, well, Stumbles I guess you're Helga now (hilarious). We're introduced to the pastor and his wife and the pastor is an incredibly nice guy. From talking to him it sounds like he's been all over the world doing all sorts of things and those are the kinds of people I like to chat it up with. Because it's not like me telling someone about Greece or whatever, it's like us talking about Greece and remembering our respective times there together. So they bring us cake and we chat it up until it's time to take us over to the community house we're going to stay in.

The pastor 

We're introduced to Paul, one of the groundskeepers, and he shows us how to prop the door open with a rock so we can get in and out. The place we are staying in is this crazy huge theater sort of thing with a stage in it and of course we choose to sleep center stage. Just as we were lying down to pass out we hear some loud rapping on the window that gave us a start. We tentatively investigate the source of the ruckus to find Susan and JoHanna outside with a huge blanket for us to sleep on.

Our stage

Hoopeston was seriously one of the most sincere, sweet, and honest little towns I've encountered. The total and complete unexpectedness of meeting all the people from this church in this tiny little town and all the help they gave us was magical. These are the things that make a trip like this, these are the people that make a trip like this something that you can never forget, restoring your faith in humanity all across America. Seriously though, we just show up randomly and the townspeople rescue us, put us in their paper, feed us cake, put us up for the night, and make us comfortable there?! Thank you so much for everything Susan, JoHanna, and everyone else we met over in Hoopeston! I hope I can come back to visit sometime, it was an honor to meet you all!

Stay happy everyone,

Sven (haha)

Somehow we're getting there

Day (: We rode our bikes 70 miles.

Day ): We rode our bikes 70 miles in the wind.

Day !): We rode our bikes 70 miles. BUT, something actually happened on this day! I was waiting at this Marathon gas station for Stumbles when this guy who works there came up to me and started asking me bike questions. Like where you going, how far, how long, yada yada yada. Well once he finds out I'm actually going a distance he launches into this crazy story.

A year and half ago he was riding his bike from Michigan to Virginia for the ginseng season or something random like that. He stopped at this very same Marathon and the owner, Bo, who has done some bike tours himself, offered to let him camp out back. After a couple days Bo offered him a job stacking wood and so he stayed for a month to make some money before continuing south. Well he heads off south and when the ginseng season is over he calls up Bo to see if there's any more wood that needs stacking. Bo offers him a full time job and, batta bing, batta boom, he has an awesome job working for the coolest gas station owner ever.

Stumbles comes up to the gas station and we go in together to meet Bo. Bo is the nicest old man ever, he has done a few long bike tours himself. He told us anyone who bikes that long can have anything they want in his store. He full on made breakfast for us and offered us any drink he had. He told us all about his tours and showed us the scrap book he'd made of it (because it was way back in the day). It was amazing talking to this random fellow biker! And then they give us t-shirts from the gas station too! As well as a special surprise ;). It was exactly what we needed at the time. A little crazy kindness from a stranger. He sent us off telling us that if we ever felt like quitting we should call him and he would give us hell for it. The grandest of guys, I thank them both for everything!

Our t-shirts (excuse the blurry photo)

Day !!: It's been like 10 days and I've gained like 15 pounds (at least). I thought I was supposed to get skinny this trip?!! Me and Stumbles have stopped yelling 'summer of skinny' and started on the 'summer of fat' yelling. It's pretty hilarious actually. Probably because my new favourite food is a salad with fries dumped on it. 

I swear there is a salad under that

We're about midway through Indiana and had an awesomely easy and short day of 50 miles down this bike trail. It's the first place we've encountered any other cyclist since beginning this thing. Anyways, all's good over here and sorry the updates are so uneventfully short!

Be happy!

Beacon