Austin's Big Ride Across America

Day 48 Washington, DC ....We made it!!!

2008-08-09T06:27:00.000-07:00

Thanks, Ed. I'm glad to share this experience with one of the greatest guys i know.
and the greatest group of riders, too.
getting close to the finish line

Only 50 more miles until the end. During the ride, simon blew a tire that sounded more like a driveby shooting and Noah pulled the greatest "Fike" in Big Ride History... the bunny hop fike/fump...This takes incredible skill and believe it will never be repeated again...ah, the stupid things are what made this ride entertaining and unforgettable.

On a more serious note, the magnitude of completing the ride finally started to sink in. About 10 miles into the ride my eyes started to well up with tears, tears that quickly dried from the light breeze. As we rolled through the last 50 miles, we each gave handshakes and high fives (even hugs) congratulating and thanking one another for what we were about to accomplish and for being who they are.

After a minor setback of getting lost in DC traffic, we finally turned the corner near the Lincoln Memorial and saw the crowd of the big rider family and friends cheering us on. After bear hugs and gang tackles, I rushed over to a local bike shop to get my bike boxed. Apparently they can't box it in a day, so nick helped me out and got my bike boxed and ready for shipment (thanks, man). Ash and Pauline hosted a party in their suite with wine and cheese, chips and dip, a tub full of booze and the company of big riders and their families for one last hoorah.

well, I'd like to thank my readers. I hope you enjoyed following along and joining me on this epic journey across the U.S. as much as i enjoyed riding it.

and to my fellow big riders..."biker gang...roll out!"

Day 47 Clarksburg 50 miles

2008-08-08T06:04:00.000-07:00

Sharon! wait up, don't leave...we need water
my view for 3300 miles...thanks ed for pulling me across the country. Ready to turn back around and do it again? I'd go, but only if you're going.
hanging near the campfire...bro-mance is in the air
me, big C and Ed having one last drink

Only one more day and it's all over...I can't believe we're so close to DC. The last two days have no more than 50 miles so we can take it easy and just enjoy each others company until the end. We've enjoyed perfect biking weather for the last 3 weeks, also. But, a jinx was set whenever a group of more than 4 people cleaned their bikes and a storm will roll through the night of. hopefully not tonight. Me, ed, letty and steve wanted to have our bikes shiny and new rolling into DC and risked the jinx. i'm crossing my fingers.

Day 46 Gettysburg, PA Rest Day

2008-08-07T22:02:00.000-07:00

couple memorials near the battle of gettysburg (catie told me that if the war hero sitting on top of a horse that has their 2 front legs up in the air means he was killed in battle. One leg up he was injured in battle and survived or legs firmly on the ground means no injury and survived)
site where abe lincoln gave the gettysburg address (at the bottom there are 4 figures representing war, history, peace and plenty. 60 feet up Liberty holds a wreath of victory)
the shrivers home

Noah pleading for rain. but with it came some hail and a whole lotta wind

(picture from ed, who's nice and dry inside his tent) Me, noah and reuben trying to get our cribbage on inside doug's tent when his fortress collapses on us. (picture from ed, who's nice and dry inside his tent) putting on joe's rainfly (you owe me, buddy

well...you let me crash at your place in chicago. we can call it even)
nothing can stop us, well, at least Noah

I packed the rest day in with a tour of the Shriver House (nothing real special about them). The tour took us through the everyday life of how the typical family cooped with living during the civil war times, checked out the American civil war museum, some battlefields and helped save 3 tents from being blown away or drenched in the storm. Me, Noah and Reuben took shelter in Doug's tent to play some cribbage. When ed yelled out "Tent down! Tent down!" I looked outside and there were 2 tents flying up in the air. Me and noah ran out to stake them down. Only problem...no mallet. Catie ran off with it after she staked her tent down. it would have been helpful, but we used large rocks to knock them down.

Day 45 Bedford to Gettysburg 102 miles

2008-08-06T21:24:00.000-07:00

with the rain dissipating the big riders ride on.

last part of the downhill

Ed set out to “crush” the top speed record set yesterday with the “treacherous downhills” on todays ride. But the conditions (grade, terrain and weather) didn’t allow him to. Hahaha, no crushing today buddy. Supposedly, this is the final exam. ALAW saved the hilliest and hardest century until the end. Initially, we were to wake up at 530 to get an early start on the ride, but that got shot down really quick when a huge down pour came at 430 and didn’t stop until about 6. The rain woke me up, so I threw on some earplugs and back to bed I went. With the late start and more rest, my body felt good despite yesterday’s heavy climbs. I really wasn’t concerned about the ride. I was more concerned about being the last “real” ride. I don’t want this ride to end and wish America could be longer, wider and bigger. Although, it’ll be easier if ALAW starts a different route that could go up to maine or someplace farther. It’s not the riding per se, it’s simply being around everyone, joking and laughing. It’s atypical of me to be mushy and I don’t start to miss people until I actually see them the next time. But I’m really going to miss everyone. They truly made this an unforgettable experience and I enjoyed every moment of this trip (except for breakfast duty). Thank you, big riders.

Day 44 Confluence to Bedford 78 miles

2008-08-05T20:35:00.000-07:00

Realizing i'm no longer in california anymore.
grabbing some eats at a local cafe.

Sharon gave the riders the option to ride the YRT (slope of 0.212%) again or climb the highest peak in Pennsylvania (some parts had slopes of 16 and 19% grade). The YRT’s nice, but I already saw what the YRT has to offer: riding crumbled limestone, trees lining the river bank and river rafters...Up the mountain we go. Simon secretly wanted to be the first at the top (Simon, if you learned anything from this ride, you should know that Ed loves to go “huntin'”) and he blasted off ahead of everyone from the start of the mountain and no one saw him until Ed caught sight of him with only a mile left. Simon tried so hard to be the first atop Mount Davis but ed just demoralized him, crushed his dream of being first. That’s ed’s new nickname “the crusher”. He crushed me during the hot dog eating contest, crushed simon today, and crushes everyone elses spirits when they think that they are flying on their bike just to have Ed breeze by them while he sips on his water bottle, asshole.

simon's smiling on the outside, but crying inside (l to r- steve (either flexing his muscles or about to smell his armpits), simon, reuben, me and the asshole :)

After the climb, Simon had no desire to ride and just lumbered the rest of the 40 odd hilly miles. As for me, my eyes lit up when I saw a sign posted at the top of a hill "13% grade for 1 1/4 miles". The perfect chance for top speed and guess what, who's numero uno?...that's right me blastin to 54 mph while ed went a measley 53.86mph. Dewayne was only one "gray" hair away with 53.5mph.

campgound in bedford.

Day 43 Washington to confluence aug 4th

2008-08-04T19:34:00.000-07:00

all you can eat ice cream thanks to Frank, an alumni big rider. Ed chowed down 4 klondikes and i had 2 choco tacos.
nick checking out the overflow from the dam in confluence
dinner time: Lasagna, garlic bread, salad and the best chocolate chip cookies.

We rode through some state park that reminds me of the santa cruz mountains that ed and I climbed during our training rides and then the YRT (youghiogheny river trail) in Pennsylvania.

click on the link to check us out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcBmsbmhnkk

Me, Noah, simon and ed started screaming like pirates at commercialized-guided river rafters just to elicit some response. only 1 out of 20 "aarghed" back. We only did this to break from the monotony of the ride.

Day 42 New Waterford to Washington, PA

2008-08-03T17:58:00.000-07:00

could've reached the speed limit if i had use of both feet.

Right before we enter Pennsylvania you can see the nuclear power plant and we stopped to take a picture from the distance. Sharon warned us earlier in the morning that we can't take pictures of it upclose because the cops will confiscate our cameras if we do.

This picture prevented me from reaching my true potential top speed. I unclipped out of my pedals and in the process got a rock wedged in my left cleat. I couldn't get it out until the bottom of the hill. I didn’t want to get it out while riding and risk losing balance. So I got up to 50 with just one foot. I would have been upset if i didn't get over 50 because i'm not sure if i'll get another opportunity during this ride to get up this high.

apparently we were a little too rowdy and were being disrespectful for one of the visitors of the cemetary and she threatened us that if we "don't leave in five minutes i'm going to call the cops!" So mark packed up the pbj's and drinks and found another spot.

noah can make a wrapper float in midair, cool trick.

Day 41 Burton to New Waterford 58 miles

2008-08-02T18:06:00.000-07:00

This ride happened so fast I can’t remember anything special about this ride, other than joe getting pranked by himself. Joe saw Rueben, chad and steve catching fireflies (aka lightning bugs) in Dixie cups and wanted to join in on the fun. They told him they were going to throw them into rachel’s tent and needed him to distract her. Joe had a conniving smile and was all over it. The guys seized their opportunity and instead threw the fireflies into joe's tent.

Noteworthy: Throughout the big ride many riders haven’t quite developed their intestinal tract and have major gas at all times of the day. The guys termed the running-from-behind-jump-up-and-fart-in-your-face the “fump” and the riding-from-behind-and-fart-in-your-face, the “fike”. Pictured above Ed perfected the "fike" and steve literally got ran off this road and into the grassy ditch because of it.

Day 39 Sandusky to Burton July 31st 92 miles and Aug 1st (rest day)

2008-08-01T18:25:00.000-07:00

simon and noah dipped their big toes into Lake Erie and claim that they were "in" Lake Erie. If you want to be "in" at least get your boys in the water. Ed did his best "noah" impression and superman'd off his bike. Fortunately his capoforma bib and pink jersey didn't get damaged in the fall...close call, buddy. (fyi, ed turned back to look for traffic and a moment later his front tire twisted 90 degrees into a pothole)

steve, rueben and i couldn't decide whats so great about cleveland...
until we saw the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. I'm not sure if the people were giving us funny looks because we were wearing spandex or because ed was wearing spandex with a pink blouse. But, those rock 'n roll guys they came to check out (like mick jagger, david bowie, madonna and her snow cone lingerie outfit, had way funkier clothes than us).
We had our rest day here in Burton. I wanted to go to Canton and check out the NFL HOF, but no one wanted to rent a car and drive an 1.5 hours to see dead footballers they don't know about. After dinner, half the sky was perfectly clear and the other half covered in clouds and lightning. I rushed back to camp to put my rainfly on my tent but neglected to stake my tent down (as always). The weather's strange here. Absolutely no wind. and then without warning, gusts of wind so strong it blew my tent poles into me when i was sleeping. Good thing i put all my bags in my tent, otherwise i'd probably get blown away.

Day 38 Napolean to Sandusky 92 miles

2008-07-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

everyone had a jumpin' good time except for james. Top Left to right - Simon, Reuben, Noah, Me, Joe. Bottom l to r - james, nick, ed, steph, rachel.

We woke up super early in the morning for the ones who wanted to head out to cedar point amusement park. The only thing, no one really wanted to go until 5pm when patrons pay $26 for admission. so i really didn't understand the early wake-up call. Typically, james and steph arrive into camp 1 or 2 hours after the seventy year old doctors, but not today. They blazed through the 92 mile day with a breeze. I never seen them so motivated.
We all had a hop in our step at the beginning of the day but drained and hungry by nights end. overall, a wicked experience. the rides are bigger, faster and crazier than the ones in Cali. check out the video...and sorry for the profanity...but if you ever experienced the maverick you'd understand. (my voice sounds strange in the video, i have this grunting, husky voice and then i scream like a sissy.)

Day 37 kendalville to Napolean 70 miles

2008-07-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

color photo of boat on lake near our campground
b&w of the some big riders me taking a picture of the wind turbine and another cornfield
relaxing at the local pool. joe smoothed talked the manager into letting us in for free.

Sorry, I can’t remember much from this ride other than we went to the local swimming pool. Chad won on who could swim the farthest with one breath.

Day 36 Valpo to kendalville 109 miles

2008-07-28T17:57:00.000-07:00

a nice change of scenery (something other than corn)
even better though was the ice cream shop

tony and steve can attest to that.

Ed pulled most of the way because the ride was flat and had no wind. I have no problems pulling him, but if he doesn’t give me the cue he’s done (wiggling his elbow back and forth- this allows the rider to keep his hands on the handlebar and still communicate), then I’m not pulling. Some 90 miles later he’s still in front but only this time we’ve got four others who hop on the “Ed train”. The only thing that slowed him down was the ice cream parlor 12 miles away from camp.

Day 35 Chicago Rest Day

2008-07-27T17:33:00.000-07:00

"take me out to the ball game...."
"Play ball!"

Chicago Skyline

me at wrigley field

Ed and I took a boat tour of Chicago, where we saw the old post office used in the film “the dark knight”, sears tower of course, and learned some cool facts about Chicago.
Factoid: What is the Native American translation of Chicago?
Is it: a) Da Bears
b) Stinky Onion Patch
c) Land of many winds
d) Home of the Deep Dish Pizza
The answer found at the bottom of today’s blog.

After the boat tour, we cabbed it to Wrigley Field and caught the game. The second we get in Alfonso Soriano blasted a shot over the fence for a 3 run homer…Cubbies win the game coming from behind 6-1. We met up with the others who decided to watch the game at Goose Island Pub when the game ended. I finally got my sushi fix satisfied at Tsunami where I indulged in a Lychee Martini, Ahi Tuna Tartare, 4 salmon sake and their special maki roll. Ed ordered a huge plate of sashimi and a chicken fajita burrito at chipotle because he was still hungry.

If you guessed A, you must love your sports and should read something other than espn

If you guessed B, then your mama raised you right

If you guessed C, you were fooled...guess again, buddy

If you guessed D, you must love food and morbidly obese

Day 34 Cole City to Valpo 86 miles

2008-07-26T13:56:00.000-07:00

me and rachel salivate when we have 8 scoops of ice cream in front of us

ed starts to salivate when he sees either a beer or a girl dancing in front of him.

Getting to valpo as fast as possible so we can catch the 4 o'clock train to Chicago was my only motivation. And Ed and I completed the ride in 4.5 hours. We wanted to do laundry and wash up before we left to Chi-town, but the truck was late and we didn’t know exactly which dorm we were sleeping in at Valpo University. Long story short the twenty-somethings caught the Chicago-bound train where we stayed in Joe’s apartment just outside downtown and 1.5 miles from the train station. In between, you can find everything that you need; tons of department stores and restaurants. Mexican food, Ghiradelli, H&M and $200 later we make it to joe’s apartment. Not an hour passes before we are out the door to experience chicago’s night life. We essentially missed the street fair going on in Lincoln park, but gave us the opportunity to live it up in Grand Central, where ed dropped $100 on his beer tab. The tax is outrageous here. I think it was in Wyoming where there are no taxes, in Chicago it’s 10.25%.

Day 33 Belvidere to Cole City 100 miles

2008-07-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

getting ready to flip or dive all without jumping (don't ask - it's one of the rules) essentially...no fun
us breaking all the rules. hahaha

3rd century in as many days and my body didn’t cooperate with me until after I had a nap on the 75th mile. The only thing keeping me going the first ¾ of the ride was the off the wall topics reuben and steven were making up, so off-the-wall I cannot mention it on this blog. It’s only worth mentioning because that’s the only way I could’ve completed this ride. Today I ate at least 8000 calories. For breakfast 2 packets of oatmeal, 2 bananas, 2 glasses of oj, my multivitamin and calcium tablet. 1st rest stop – Dehydrated Apples, Trail Mix, Gatorade, apple and banana. 2nd rest stop – 2 pbj’s, 1 powdered donut, banana, 24 0z Gatorade. 3rd rest stop 48 oz Gatorade and a 10 minute nap. Pre-dinner – Chili dog, Pastrami sandwich and double cheeseburger. Dinner – 1 bowl of mangoes and papayas, 2 bowls of mango and papaya juice, 5 glasses of lemonade, salad topped with onions, croutons, tomatoes and papaya, 2 pieces of garlic bread, 1 heaping plate of spaghetti loaded with parmesan. 1 rude trip to the bathroom.

After all the food digested, the guys went out to the lake to do a little r&r after a hard week of riding (there's still one more day of riding, i can't wait until the rest day comes).

Day 32 Madison to Belvidere, Illinois 100 miles

2008-07-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

l to r : Reuben, Scott, Jim, Ed, and me with our MGD...thanks Joan!
Golf course - Me, jim and scott filling up on candy and gatorade

ed patiently waited for me to finish loading my bags into the truck before we left on the 2nd century in two days. We caught up with jim and his buddy scott, an ophthalmologist, yacht racer and a category 3 bike racer (that means he’s a very good rider). He allowed me, jim, ed and Rueben to draft him the entire ride. He seriously pulled us about 95 out of 100 miles. We got slowed because ALAW changed up the route to avoid heavy traffic areas and instead got the most of the riders lost. Lucky for us, Jim and Scott are from Illinois and had the general sense of where to go. Reuben’s GPS phone confirmed their male intuition and we were on our way to Belvidere. We rode in so fast we missed the sag stops. Fortunately, we found a golf course that served us free beverages, candy and topped off our water bottles. A life saver. Jim’s wife, Joan, snuck passed us and strategically placed cans of MGD on the road leaving a cookie-crumb trail that lead to her and a truck full of goodies.
For entertainment, we splashed around in the pool, played some ping pong and shot some bball. Rachel and I challenged noah and simon to game of 2 on 2 up to 7. Noah wanted to beat me so bad because he hasn’t beaten me at anything yet, including me putting an ass whoopin’ on him playing ping pong left handed. Rachel and I go up 6 to 3 and had 7 shots to win it…none of them dropped and noah and simon beat us on a backdoor play where I tripped and fell on my ass and simon makes a gimme layup basket but only after he missed the 1st attempt.

Day 31 Viroqua to Madison 109 + 8 miles = 117 miles Happy Bday dad

2008-07-23T05:19:00.000-07:00

from top clockwise: Super Slo-mo Speed Racing techniques- Superman (me), Ballbuster (Rueben) and "drunk man throwing up out of driver window" (me), the Mermaid (noah) and fetal position (me), "drunk man" (simon, creator of the drunk man)

Our century day took a little longer because we had one mental lapse and missed our turn. We rode uphill and back down before we realized our mistake. The biggest news about the ride wasn’t the mileage. It turns out our ride leader has been relieved of his duties for various reasons. The rumors started brewing when we all saw sharon driving the big white truck instead of Dan. Ed and I believed that Sharon driving the truck doesn't mean Dan got canned. when we reached the following rest stop, Nick, the mechanic, told us otherwise. The day didn’t end smoothly for the faster riders (but it probably ended better than our former ride leader) because there was a change in the location of the campground, which happened to be one road before the original site. Me, ed, noah and simon were gassed from all of the super slo-mo speed racing (the rules are simple- no pedaling and man to go farthest without pedaling wins) and plopped on the bench and rested for about 30 minutes before we made any attempt to find the new campground. I saw my first firefly. There are more than just fireflies in Madison, we cannot escape from the freakin’ mosquitoes. It ruined our dinner as most grabbed food and seeked refuge in their tents.

L to R - firefly, sunset of the campground, me patching up chad's and g-regs tent while catie overlooks my hem job.

Day 30 Winona to Viroqua 66 miles

2008-07-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

ed getting his carboload fix.
Kate Meyers interviews both ed and noah during the rest stop.

corn fields a very familiar site for the past 10 days

A super easy day before the dreaded 3 centuries in a row. About 20 miles into the ride, the Meyers family welcomed the big riders. In fact, they open their home to ALAW riders since their grandfather passed away from emphysema. They made tasty homemade treats for the riders, like carrot cake, espresso and chocolate raspberry muffins, ice tea, and punch. When I first rode up Kate Meyers comes up and asked me to autograph her baseball card of…me (I have my own baseball card and same with all of the other riders). I never knew I had a fan in Minnesota. In fact the family is so enthralled by the riders they had pictures of us on their personal computer’s screensaver. Any other time I’d find that a little stalker creepyish, but the Meyer’s family gets a pass in my books. They were very hospitable, making sure we were well fed and entertained. They even conducted interviews with some of the riders and can be found somewhere on the web (if I knew I’d tell you). If you participated in an interview you get a bracelet/anklet or necklace.
Poor Letty, a lactose intolerant suffererer, had a carrot cake muffin with the slightest bit of cream cheese frosting and gave her a not so good feelng in her tummy. Although she said it was worth the tummy-ache. (note to meyers family - the carrot cake muffin (and frosting) was awesome. I ate at least 3 of them and 1 of each other muffin. Yum, thanks a lot)

Day 29 Owatonna to Winona 90 miles

2008-07-21T18:55:00.000-07:00

alumni sag stop

Ed and I arrived first into Alumni sag stop. Ane, last years alumni rider, happened to be a couple miles before the rest stop and alerted us of the surprise break, where we ate sliced fresh fruit, brewed coffee, donuts (jelly-filled kind too.), all this for free. then 5 miles after the rest stop we discover 2 little kids selling those Dixie cups you find at the dentist to pour mouthwash into filled with lemonade for $0.25 with no refills. Idk how these kids can stay in business with a product like that. McDonalds didn’t become the largest chain restaurant in the world selling Dixie cup full of sodas with no refills. I would’ve supported the tikes but i don't carry cash and they didn’t take credit card or atm.

lemonade stand...the con artists disguised as little children...don't be fooled by their cuteness.

After we rode through some more cornfields and into Winona, Steve bitched at me for overlapping his tire. But I didn’t and I proved it. I went up to his tire and asked him if he considered that overlapping and he said yes. I quickly served to the other side of his tire to show that i wasn't. He flipped out and told me to “never F’n do that again or I’ll intentionally run over you.” I’m gonna stop because he could beat me in an Indian leg wrestling match. (Although he's known as "the rocketman" he should be renamed “quadzilla” because he's thighs are almost as big as catie's). Speaking of catie, she had a bike accident. Idk what exactly happened, but she'll be fine. Rumor has it, she pulled a "noah" and clipped the side of the elevated pavement and went tumbling. She's not quite as gummy as noah and couldn't bounce up off the ground like him. So, she has a slight sprain in the right shoulder and level 2 sprain in her wrist.

noah, me and steven...steve and i kissed and made up after a slight discrepency in riding/personal space

Day 28 New Ulm to Owatonna 72 miler

2008-07-20T17:24:00.000-07:00

We played our version of frogger and pacman to entertain ourselves during the ride. The frogs come from the marsh on the side of the road and don’t quite make it past the shoulder. We counted 253 dead frogs. We were stuck on 198 for about 4 miles, thought that we’d never get over 200 and then outta no where…a frog massacre. There have been complaints about a mystery rider dropping fruit in the middle of the road. It could be dangerous if someone isn’t looking and slips on a banana; not very likely to happen, but, nonetheless not safe. Ed and I passed most of the riders and wanted to reach the next check point to narrow down our suspects. So “the serial fruit dropper” better beware. Sheriff Simon and his sidekicks are after you. We stopped of at one of the original dairy queens for a rest stop to scope out our suspects. Exhausted after our frantic search for the evil-doer we chilled at one of the rest stops with a lakeside view. They might have gotten a way this time, but we'll get them next time.

l,c,r: sheriff simon, frogger -most frogs didn't look like this. In fact, most could only be identified by a frog toe or a bulging eye. the usual suspects

If we played pacman, we'd score major points with the fruit we picked up.

The bad guys got away. So we just kicked back and enjoyed the view of one of the 10,000 lakes in Minnesota

Day 26 Tyler to New Ulm

2008-07-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

on my way to a rest day

The fog burned off by noon and Ed, Joe and I wanted to get to New Ulm quickly to rent a car and drive to Minneapolis to eat decent sushi and party with the girls from the big ride. But no luck because in all of new ulm not a single car rental agency can be found. Just a bunch of people wearing polka stuff. Instead of getting’ down on the dance floor, we watched “The Dark Knight” in a theater that had half of the chairs broken. We bought one large refillable bag of popcorn amongst the 10 of us and only managed to finish 2.5 bags. Great film. It's a shame it would be Heath Ledger's last.

Since there wasn't much to do in New Ulm, we managed to entertain ourselves by climbing, hanging, hitting things and playing more practical jokes on big riders.

simon hangingjoe climbingpatty hitting

G-reg and Chad (the pranksters)

Day 25 De Smet to Tyler, Minnesota

2008-07-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

Dinner in the church's basement that gave a few others the poopies, including me

Weather forecasters predicted a thunderstorm during the middle of the night and clear up by morning. That didn’t happen. In fact, it started pouring rain after I woke up and went to the bathroom. Here I am stuck in the bathroom stall waiting out the storm, while everyone had their bags loaded on the truck and safely eating bfast in the church’s basement. I’m not sure if I wanted to eat the church’s bfast cuz their dinner gave me an upset stomach that lasted throughout this ride. Instead of the typical 3 water bottles filled with Gatorade and electrolytes, I packed an extra bottle of pepto with me. At first I thought I might not have washed my hands thoroughly enough after cleaning my bike, but 4 other riders had the same problem as me. Riding’s not fun when it’s cold, rainy and when you have the urge to throw up and have the poopies.

I would've taken a picture of the "welcome to minnesota" sign, but it was raining and i didn't bring my camera..

Day 24 Miller to De Smet

2008-07-16T20:01:00.000-07:00

The day started off rough. Half of us camped, the other half slept in the high school. I chose the high school, good idea; slept in the same room with Ash, bad idea (I thought he was noah –late riser). Ash is one of those dreaded early riser. I like the canuck, but does he really need to get up at 445 for a 6am bfast? (he’s not even on bfast duty). Whatever.

The ride started off with another “noah idiotic moment”. I might have some blame on this one, though. Me, ed and noah just started the paceline 1.2 miles away from where we left. I led the way and in the distance I could see james and steph stop and get off their bikes. I thought, “I hope everything’s alright with them” and then it dawned on me why they got off (but it was too late). Seconds later, I hear a bunch of loose gravel disguised as road under my tires and then a little sissy girl shrieked, “Oh, F*@!” I turned back only to see noah superman his handlebars again. He got some road rash on his elbow and a pair of shorts with a new set of pubic holes. At this rate, he’d never have to pay for another Brazilian. We couldn’t stop laughing at how he fell. He bunny hopped 1” to get onto the 1.5” elevated pavement, hence the fall (note to noah- don’t do anything that requires you to lift your front wheel over cement). At the University of Montana (Billings aka rimrock) he tried to copy Nick and “front wheelie” over a curb. Only this time he T-boned the curb and then crumbled to the parking lot floor, entertainment at its finest. I hope you guys don't think that I enjoy seeing people get hurt. It's just that even Noah starts laughing at how stupid he is and that's what makes it funny.

Noah Reenactment and battle wound from Fall #4 and #5

Day 23 Pierre to Miller

2008-07-15T18:43:00.000-07:00

Half-way there

ALAW staff couldn’t have been crueler. They put me on Bfast duty…again and on the day we cross into Central Time, where we lose another hour. Apparently, the bfast and dinner duties have been previously schedule and Dan, the ride leader, has no control over it. I’d be happy to do dinner duties, but bfast duties hurts, man. I had to wake up at 5:30am. I don’t think I’ve even adjusted from Pacific Time yet so I’m practically getting up at 3:30am for bfast. I snoozed a couple of times and got out by 550am. Tony, an early riser, assumed I’d be late and set up half of it by the time I got there (thanks!). It’s funny, some of the slow risers use me as a barometer for how late they are. If they see me out of my tent, then they’re seriously late (better start moving your ass, Simon).
Ride really isn’t worth mentioning, except when Noah rubbed Ed’s tire when drafting. Noah shrieked, “Oh, F*@!” like a little sissy girl before his crash. The moment I turned around, I see Noah superman over his handlebars. He went unscathed except for his “big ride” shorts. He now has two matching holes along his pubic area, one from the fall and the other from getting snagged on a tree branch.

Noah - notorious for falling (#4). he strategically placed camelback in front because there are under 18yo reading

Me, Ed and noah couldn’t stop laughing at how he shrieked like a beotch, how he fell and how he has a new pair of shorts that almost exposes his junk. Thanks for the entertainment. When certain stretches get boring, I think of Noah flying face first and chuckle enough to snap me out of the boredom. Ed, on the other hand, straight up falls asleep, veers off the road and has to run over the rumble strips or loose gravel to whip’em straight.
We celebrated Chad’s 21st Bday at the only restaurant in town that would feed 40 hungry riders. After a couple of sirloin tips went down the hatch, we wasted no time to throw down some drinks. Even the locals bought rounds for the guys. Before I forget, I gotta give a shot out to my main man, Bobby Hanks. We had a 20 minute convo about life and to be honest I didn’t understand a word he said. It was as if I was talking to my grandfather (he speaks Chinese, I speaka English), I just nod and said, “uh-huh, yeah”. It didn’t help that he has a deep accent and had a $50 tab when I got to him – drinks run about $4.25, you do the math. But at least he bought me a drink.

Day 22 Kadoka to Pierre

2008-07-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

My Speedplay Pedals

Blown Tire

Pedal split in half, cell phone breaks, tire blows up. great day, eh? The last 25 miles I had to ride with one pedal. Not the most comfortable situation to be in, but i still managed to go 38mph on the downhill. Missing a pedal meant that i couldn't get out of the saddle and stand up during the climbs or during the ride. Having my foot slip off the rod of my pedal (the remaining piece of my pedal) wouldn't be good. I could either lose my balance and fall flat on my face or crunch my goods (which would you choose?). My tire blew up because i parked it next to the car in the sunlight. I needed to change my tire anyway. So no biggie. my cell phone i can't figure out. It might've gotten squished in the luggage. Hopefully, I can find an at&t dealer somewhere.

The panhandlers and homeless folks in the park steered some folks to book a motel room a block away. They were harmless but I still roomed with 4 other dudes. Five guys in one room could mean trouble. Especially, when one has a bday today. They were having a little too much fun …. Can you tell?

“wrestling”

post-coital (chad’s happy because he got his bday gift)

Day 21 Rapid City to Kadoka 101 miles

2008-07-13T14:04:00.000-07:00

Amy came knocking on my door because she was afraid I might be sleeping still. I rolled out of bed, packed up, crammed some oatmeal in my system for an “Easy” century. The first 30 miles went in a flash. We had 18 riders in a pace line going about 22 mph. We rode through Badlands National Park, containing the world’s richest Oligocene epoch fossil beds, dating 37-28 million years old, the evolutionary stories of mammals such as the horse and rhinoceros arise from the 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires (wikipedia).

Steph drove me around part of the Badlands so i can do some drive-by’s soaking fellow BRAA riders with the toy water guns she bought me. I sprayed them down as I did my best scarface impersonation, “say hello to my little friend”. But then joe came outta no where and shot me right between the eyes. Weapons of Mass Destruction

Just outside the National Badlands, the world's largest Prairie Dog

I rode in the last half of rollers with Noah and Simon and set up camp at Kadoka where we met the Mayor, Life Gaurd and Officer of Kadoka

the mayor, life gaurd and officer of Kadoka

Day 20 Rapid City Rest Day

2008-07-12T13:44:00.000-07:00

Crazy Horse - final dimensions will be 641 feet (195 m) wide and 563 feet (172 m) high. The head of Crazy Horse will be 87 feet (27 m) high; by comparison, the heads of the four U.S. Presidents at Mt. Rushmore are each 60 feet (18 m) high. http://www.crazyhorse.org/

The rest day wasn’t really a rest day. It was a fun filled day packed with site-seeing , car shows and wine tasting. First stop, the laundry room, whoa-who. I had to get my laundry done because my clothes smelled like “dewayne” funk. As soon as my errands were done, we set off to do the fun stuff. Next stop Bear Country USA, where live animals freely roam around. For the most part, they just find shade and sleep. Kinda like what we do when we finish our daily ride. The most impressive display in south Dakota is Crazy horse. He’s not found in Bear Country. In fact, he’s not even an animal. Crazy horse was the Lakota Indian Leader and is being sculpted into the side of the mountain. Although it’s not complete, it’s still worth a look-see. On the way back home, steph and I checked out a car show and sampled some wine at the Prairie Berry Winery. Their berry wines are light-bodied and very sweet. Not my cup o’ tea. I prefer more full-bodied and complex flavored wines, like cabs, not like I’m a wine connoisseur or anything. If you want to start wine tasting, Prairie Berry might be for you (mom). It tastes like welch’s with a hint of alcohol.

Ford Cobra

Prairie Berry Winery

Day 19 Newcastle to Rapid City

2008-07-11T23:01:00.000-07:00

Trains tooting their horns when the conductor sees you “air-pull-the-horn” is cool. But when you are trying to sleep…it’s irritating. These guys in Wyoming work nonstop on transporting coal. Every hour a train blares their horn notifying the incoming delivery. I put in my earplugs but they kept on falling out of my ears. I went through three pairs because I couldn’t find them in the dark of night. I had a miserable and restless sleep and the ride didn’t get any better, although riding through custer national park was a pleasant surprise.

self-explanatory

Riding out of it was another story. The wind picked up later in the afternoon; “picked up” I mean 30-40 mph winds with 50mph gusts blowing from the north. And guess where we were headed…directly into the wind, 15 miles of wind wrestling and rolling hill climbing, my favorite. Normally, I climb up rollers at a decent pace (around 12mph), but with the wind I crawled at 6 and the downhill at 8mph. Sick and tired of climbing at such a slow rate Ed decided to fight the wind for the last 5 miles at 13mph. By the 3rd mile, I was cussing like a sailor at ed and the wind, but mostly at Ed. My monologue went a little something like this: Why the bleep are you bleepin’ goin’ so bleepin’ fast, you bleepin’ mother bleeper? You bleepin’ told me not to bleepin’ fight the bleepin’ wind. What the bleep? Bleep! All the yelling did no good because it was so windy Ed couldn’t hear me cussin’ his bleepin’ ear off. At the end of the ride, I thanked him, gave him a hug and told him I appreciate him being here. he kinda makes it easier for me since I get to suck his wind (bike lingo for “drafting”), but makes it harder at the same time, since he rides so freakin’ hard, ALL THE TIME.

This tops the most difficult ride of the trip, pushing aside the 4th of july ride to numero dos. We pushed through the last 15 miles fast enough to finish first along with the chuckster and dewayne. A little later Barb came and gave ed and I hug for giving her the inspiration to keep on pedaling (apparently, seeing us gave her hope that this ride is possible- glad to be of service, barb).

For dinner I skipped out on the cafeteria food because a special guest came to see me. A $500 plane ticket to see me definitely warrants for some fine dining and not overcooked spaghetti and meatballs. So Steph and I went to Delmonico Grill where we enjoyed or I enjoyed the buffalo steak, some shrimp dish, ahi tuna, a glass of Goose Island Pere Jacques (a malty sweet ale) and a glass of wine. Afterwards, we dragged ed and catie to see mount rushmore and the overhyped lightshow (they flip the light switch to ON) I expected a laser show, but you can find that at the Crazy Horse Monument.

That's the light show...no joke

Day 18 Gillette to Newcastle 73 mile

2008-07-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

The god squad saran wrapped and teepee’d our bikes together (A little retaliation after some guys hung their bikes on the trees - let the games begin)

A relatively easy day considering yesterdays ride. Once again, more rolling hills and more headwind and Wyoming is ticking me off. Thank goodness, we’re leaving it tomorrow. No disrespect to the state of Wyoming but, man, rolling hill after rolling hill gets annoying to ride. We finished climbing up one hill to find yet another one. The gradual downhill doesn’t reward us for our efforts because of the headwind and with another hill to climb waiting in the short distance. Ed and I wanted to take our time getting to Newcastle, but Big C had other plans. He hunted us down for 7 miles to catch up to us and was gassed when he caught us.. With 5 miles left to go, he asked if he could be 2nd into camp because he’s never been this far up in the ride. “no way, you got to earn it”, I challenged Big C. 72.75 miles later it comes down to a .25 mile sprint. Chad beat me to the sprint, but I gave it to him. You should of seen his face when he asked if he could come in 2nd, I couldn’t beat him…besides, he needs an ego boost. Congrats to Chad on the pity win. We camped out at a community center where there’s a computer room, 3 pool tables, a poker table and big screen tvs. Hope to never be under one of these bad boys

After dinner, we had a jersey exchange (similar to a white elephant). I stole my jersey back and made a side deal with doug to get the shirt he stole from me. Ed got the rawest deal out of all of us. He gave up a $60 specialized jersey and wound up with a ladies pink sleeveless bicycle shirt.

Jersey Swap Participants

Ed sportin' his new jersey

(he wore it the next day with his $300 CapoForma Bib and got a couple of winks and honks from the locals- and why not? the shirt brings out his man boobs)

I shot some pool with Noah. Beat him 4 games to none, even when he puts his ass on top of the pocket i'm aiming for and farts to distract me. Nice try, bub. and did i mention that the pool room smelled like fart.

Day 17 Sheridan to Gillette 113 mile

2008-07-09T20:41:00.000-07:00

a familiar site, me eating while everyone gathers around getting their queue sheets

For the longest ride in the tour I packed 3 gu shots, one clif bar, 3 water bottles and stopped at all sag stops. But it helped to have a filling breakfast. Once again everybody finished packing and ready to ride while I’m still chowing down on my breakfast (2 packets of oatmeal, banana, glass of oj and some water to throw back my daily multivitamin, Sudafed and allegra). Ed and I made up a lot of ground since the first 18 miles had some uphill and were leading the way until we stopped off at the Spotted Horse Café at mile 74. It took the joint an hour and a half to get my burger cooked and allowed the rest of the riders to regroup and left before I even got my burger. All in all it took 6 hours and 20 minutes of ride time to finish. The last 20 were packed with more rolling hills and even stronger headwinds than in the early afternoon, blah. To top off the longest ride of the trip a group of guys went to the Prime Rib Steakhouse (mainly the older guys who can afford it- I feel for the college kids). Idk if it’s because I was hungry, but that was the best prime rib ever and now I have food coma. So I’m calling it a night.

Day 15 Billings to Hardin

2008-07-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

camp at the high school

Today’s an “easy” day (50 miles) so the “biker gang” stalled and searched for bars that televised the tour de france. No luck. We finally left for hardin at 9 instead of the original 7am departure time. When we found out that there’s a pool and hot tub we could access, it didn’t take long for us to get moving. Don’t know why dan didn’t tell us earlier. I ended up bonking on the first 15 miles because i had bfast at the normal time (630am) and had no fuel in me by the time we left. I didn’t pack my usual 3 gu packs, clif bar and nuun electrolytes. Instead I had only 2 gu’s and no clif bar and no nuun. I didn’t want to use my gu so early, but I had to do it. When the rest stop came I loaded up on some pbj’s and stuffed my jersey pockets with extra trail mix, just in case I get the munchies again. We get to camp about 3.5 hours later and we were in the pool 10 minutes later. Simon and I were testing out new dives. I tried to do a double front flip by got only 1 ¾ flips and landed on my flat on my back and received a standing ovation from the local swimmer. But, the funniest one was Kevin, a senior citizen and fellow BRAA rider, attempts a 1.5 front flip, but flips straight into a belly flop. yyyeeoouch...and the funny thing was, he did it twice.

Day 13 Harlowton to Billings

2008-07-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

view from the university of montana dorm room (rimrock)

A 90 mile ride followed by a century drew some concern, especially after eating 6 dogs, chips, ice cream and some beers for dinner. I didn’t know how my body would react to my junk food binge last night. To my surprise, this ride happened to be the easiest 90 mile ride of my biking experience. We finished the ride in 4.5 hours and could have done it faster if we pushed harder. For a couple miles, Ed and I paced ourselves at 33 mph, he led the way of course. I’m glad we got into town early so I can get my chores done and over with. I want to use the rest day to do absolutely nothing. Beyond Basil catered our dinner. They had an array of foods: quinoa with tomatoes and bell peppers, wild rice with oranges, papaya and dried cranberries, edamame garnished with shaved parmesan, corn and black bean salsa, lentils with squash and microgreens, grilled steak and mahi mahi. After dinner we decided to watch a Hancock. Only problem, the theater is supposedly 2 miles away. Some opted to walk, while 8 of us went for another joy ride …“Biker gang, roll out” (I feel like i'm part of hell's angels) We didn’t roll very far when the rain started pouring down. It was okay with me because I had my goretex rain jacket. I felt bad for those who walked because the theater was actually 6 miles away. But there’s a trade-off because those who rode in watched the movie in soggy underwear.

Day 12 – Townsend to Harlowton

2008-07-04T14:05:00.000-07:00

The Chump, I mean champ

Ed carbo-loading with gatorade and hotdog buns

coney island got nothing on harlowton

The contestants Counter-Clockwise starting with me, joe, chad, g-reg, noah, steven and ed

To watch part of the action click on the link

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2040164487918705731&hl=en

Mark, ALAW support member, told us that this century should be easy because it’s practically all downhill with a tailwind. Bleepin' Liar. An uphill climb for the first 20 miles happened , rolling hills that should be considered small mountains and 15-20mph headwinds throughout the ride, too. I didn’t prepare myself for that mentally. In fact, I thought the whole time the ride would be a piece of cake (note to self: never listen to mark again). By mile 80, I had to stop and take a little breather, refuel with some soy nuts and m&m’s. As I was munchin, dewayne and patty passed me and ed. They too were feeling the effects of the ride and were tanked. With 20 miles left, we stuck it out and worked together as a team, Ed leading the way. He pulled us through the last 20 miles. DeWayne and I pulled the pace for ½ mile intervals, while Ed hammered out 2 miles at a time. Patty didn’t pull because she was that tanked, amazing how she was still able to stick on our wheel. We kept our pace around 20-22mph and got to camp in a little over an hour. Great job guys, fantastic teamwork, it's been my favorite moment of riding thus far.
My favorite moment outside of riding is the hot dog eating contest. Coney Island isn’t the only place having a dog eating contest. The contestants: Noah (the “heavy” favorite), Chad (the sleeper), Ed (the instigator), Joe (the dogsitter), Steven (RocketMan), and Me (the underdog). Noah won, but only by a quarter of a dog. Chad placed 2nd and Ed beat me to third. He was out grilling more dogs because he lost but I secretly was still eating to place third. I had only one more bun to eat when he ran over to his bun-gatorade filled water bottle. I munched, grinded, gagged to get the last bun down, but the bun-gatorade mix went down Ed’s hatch before I could finish. Chad should be crowned the true dog eating winner because he threw down 10 dogs, a hamburger, a few slices of watermelon and still had room for 2 scoops of ice cream. Noah, on the other hand, looked like shit. He would have forfeited his crown if he yacks within an hour of finishing and he actually held it down. Good job, champ.
There was another thunderstorm warning and a local rodeo cowboy told us to take shelter in a horse stable. I dragged my belongings to the stable and turned around to look for a motel. call me a priss, but there is no way in hell I’m going to sleep on the floor of a horse stable with hay and dried horse shit scattered randomly. No good. We piled 5 guys into a motel room for $10/person. Worth every penny.

Day 11 – Avon to Townsend

2008-07-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

We had a short 60 mile ride into Townsend, where we stayed at another high school. Only this time we couldn’t sleep in the gym for reasons idk. Although this was a short ride, we took forever getting to townsend. We knew going into this ride that there isn’t much to do in the small towns of Montana, so we stalled during the ride. Each rest stop we’d take an extra 20-30 minutes to bum around, chat and eat. We finally get to town around 330 and letty, catie and I went into town looking for some wine and cheese. The small market didn’t sell cheese but told me about a local deli that sells it. I moseyed on over to Full Belly Deli where there’s a wide variety of cheese to select from, so the clerk says. I was expecting at least 25 different cheeses, but there was only American, swiss, cheddar and muenster. I went with the muenster and some of their salami, which paired nicely with my merlot in a white Dixie cup.

When night fell a thunderstorm was a brewin’. In the distance, it looks really cool but when you’re directly under it a little scary. Some of the rider’s tents weren’t assembled correctly, zippered up, or just too damn big and flimsy to withstand the wind and rain. Lucky for me, i zippered up, staked it down, and everything remained dry.

we see a lot of this on our ride

Day 10 – Missoula to Avon

2008-07-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

It happened to be one of the best rides of the trip so far. The temp was just right and the scenery was beautiful riding into Avon and the whole ride had a slight tailwind (It’s not uncommon to find the riders in better moods with a tailwind). During the last 15 miles it began to rain just a bit to cool us off and not so much as to make us miserable. The rain dissipated when we reached camp and decided to not set up our tents since there was a cabin that can house about 20 of us. Some chose to camp it, while the others chose to bunk it. Each having their drawbacks, camping you obviously have to setup it up and take it down. Bunking, you have to share with other people and had to deal with Simon’s mad gas problem. The dude farts, seeps through his sleeping bag and slowly creeps to the other side of the room. I felt bad for chad because he shared bunks with him.

a game of horseshoes (me and chad)

g-reg and chad haven't been struck by the simon-stink-bomb yet

Day 9 – Missoula Rest Day

2008-07-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

Today I receive my first care package, thanks to my gf, steph. She sent my favorite trail mix, Sweet, Savory & Tart Trek Mix from Trader Joe’s. It was perfect because the chocolate melted and then clumped the nuts and raisins together, just the way I like’em. (Thank you much, they were just what I wanted…that’s very sweet of you). I had to stop eating my mix or I would have been late to my massage. Rueben found a massage clinic in downtown Missoula, 90 minutes for $50. When the masseuse first started my massage she began to chuckle, idk if it’s from my funky tan lines or my mosquito bites on my ass.
A bunch of us walked over to the pizza parlor and had dinner. Afterwards, both of Ed’s Achilles stiffened up and he couldn’t even walk and had to use me as a crutch to get back to campus, a little more than a mile away. Idk how he’s going to bike 99.6 miles tomorrow.

The university of montana

Day 8 – Thompson Falls to Missoula

2008-06-29T20:23:00.000-07:00

The only thing I hate on this earth is mo-skee-toes. They attacked me the moment I stepped out of the high school doors, 2 bites on my butt (it looks like a pair of boobs because they got me right in the middle of each cheek), at least 10 on my legs and one on each of pinky toes. My pinky toes? Really, are they that desperate? After we escaped the mosquito wrath we had a 101 mile trek which ends at the University of Montana. Ed and I motored through most of the ride until the 80th mile where we met up with Rachel, she had dizzy spells, perhaps from dehydration. I gave her one of my nuun tablets, an electrolyte supplement, and about an hour later she was good to go. Ed and I stayed with the group until a monster downhill came up and we couldn’t resist. We barreled down the highway at 49 mph, if I knew we were at 49 during the downhill I would’ve pushed harder to get to 50. Ed got a little wobbly because he put his stomach on his seat and his ass hanging just above his rear tire all this to get more aerodynamic (I can’t do that because I carry 2 extra bottles under my saddle and it gets in the way).

You can’t hear it but the train tooted its horn

One of many rest stops along the route. we had cookies (chocochip, snickerdoodles and oatmeal raisin), pbj's of course and water and gatorade.

Day 7 Sandpoint to Thompson Falls

2008-06-29T16:17:00.000-07:00

even with two teaspoons of honey at a time, Ed couldn't take down Chad in a honey eating contest

The days have been getting hotter and hotter and we rode in an 88 mile scorcher today. When we arrived to Thompson Falls High School some of the riders left there bikes outside and their tires popped because of the heat (PV = nRT explains this occurrence). We all went to Minnie's for dinner and i ordered a pork chop that was seasoned with salt and pepper, blah! wish i had my salish salt and healthy heart seasoning from Seattle to spice it up a bit. Chad challenged ed to a honey eating contest, they went teaspoon for teaspoon, until chad started squeezing the plastic honey-filled bear into his mouth (10 minutes later chad had that glassy-eyed look you get the night after heavy drinking).

view from the high school parking lot.

it may look serene, but the town has ruthless mosquitoes.

Day 6 - Spokane to Sandpoint, Idaho

2008-06-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

the rodeo parade

On the off day I finally got a good nights rest and woke up at 9am. Got some of my errands done, washed my clothes, cleaned my bike and ate. I hate it. every 2 hours I have to eat and off days mean everybody gets the day off including the support group for the riders. that means we have to fend for ourselves and find food. It was annoying to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner to only get hungry 2 hours later. Just about every night i wake up hungry, so i keep a clif bar by my pillow side, chocolate mint, yum. at trips end, chances are i won't wanna look at another clif bar. Hopefully, by the end i can become a faster packer. Every day i've been the last to leave because of my lack of talent in packing.

The route map wasn't very clear on the directions at the beginning of the route so ed and i had an 6 mile detour. Ed wore his grouchy pants today and had a rough day. Don't worry buddy, you're guaranteed to have another. We had a special treat in Newport, Washington. There was a rodeo parade. ya'll ever been to a rodeo parade? you think rodeo, you think horses and cowboys, right? nope, not here. just some random cars driving through the town. I felt shafted. I wanted to see rodeo clowns scaring little kids and cowboys on horses lassoing a calf and wrap that sucker up. now that's a rodeo parade. after the disappointment subsided, we hopped on our saddle and rode into idaho.

about 30 miles into idaho we arrive to our resting stop, Sandpoint High School. Set up camp and Bob Alliston, who is familiar with idaho because he worked here for a few years, escorted us to the lake. You couldn't ask for better water conditions, it had pockets of ice cold water that feels so good on the body. especially after an 80 mile ride in 90+ temps. Thanks bob for taking this picture and of the 18 y.o. lifeguard. But what would you do if some creepy old guy took a picture of your daughter when she was working in a bathing suit? (if you don't have a daughter, then it's ok...keep it up)

Day 4 - Odessa to Spokane (Gonzaga)

2008-06-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

This is the last ride before we get our first rest day and my body needs the r&r. Over 300 miles in 4 days can take a toll on a persons body. Ed and I grouped up with, starting from the left, Jim, me, joe, steven, rueben and chad, not pictured is Noah. Jim, a pint-sized chicago school teacher, can hammer it out, but wants to slow the pace down just a little bit to teach the other inexperienced riders to learn how to ride together safely and effectively.

Only 40 more miles to our rest day in Spokane
(Left to Right - Noah, Ed, Joe and Jim (yellow))
this is not an optical illusion, noah is that big and
jim is that small

yesterday, noah ed and i ate at subway. Noah inhaled his footlong while ed and i barely managed to eat half of our 6 incher. Typically, ed eats anything in front of him and i've seen him eat 10 hot dogs and was still hungry. So i know what ed can do. So i instigated and challenged noah and ed to a hot dog eating contest. Well word got out and now we have more than 5 guys who want in on it. My money is still on Ed because it's the small asian kids who can out eat 200lb+ white guys. Hot Dog eating contest will be held on the fourth of july of course. It won't be as big as Coney Islands, but just as entertaining, i'm sure. Right before we got to Gonzaga we saw a Sonic and i couldn't wait another 2 1/2 hours before dinner, so i ordered a 2 extra long chili dogs, an oreo sonic blast with extra oreos, a large limeade with strawberries and ed ordered, of course, hot dogs. He practiced on his technique and found that dipping in strawberry limeade isn't that great and eating it normally is easier for him. 4 hot dogs later, we went to dinner at the gonzaga cafeteria where he had 5 plates of pizza, bbq chicken, rice pilaf, green beans, jello, and cheesecake. He then carries his tray filled with only scraps and bones, slams it in noah's face and says, " you better eat up boy cuz you're going down".

Day 3 - Vantage to Odessa

2008-06-25T09:12:00.000-07:00

Daniel, our ride leader, escorted the 37 Big riders across the Odessa Dam

At this time the riders have been identified as the ridiculously fast (chuck, liz and tony), the fast (ed, joe, steven, tracy, katie and me), the not-so-fast. we can't wear an ipod during our ride for safety reasons so noah and chad sang "the greatest song in the world" by tenacious d to entertain us. soon enough we had 8 guys singing a bohemian rhapsody, some backstreet and mmmbop. who needs an ipod when you have the Big Riders Acapella group?
We set up camp at Odessa High School and a group of us went to the public pool to relax the muscles a bit. The little girls of odessa had a little crush on our mechanic nick and egged him on to do a bellyflop off the diving board. He's not much of a diver, so just about everytime he does jump off the board it looks like a flopper (stick to cycling, nick). I didn't want to make fun of him because we just met and he still has to fix my bike. After our dip, steven, who just turned 20 yesterday and nicknamed "the rocketman" because he rode shirtless, wore a camelback and when he took it off, it left a rocketpack tan line on his back, tinkered with my bike for about 10 minutes trying to fix it but didn't improve the situation. nick pushes us aside and after 30 seconds, voila! all better. He's our saving grace.

Day 2

2008-06-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

I made it through the first day and i already did a "no-no". I had breakfast duty this morning. three people were assigned to get the hot water going, get all the breakfast food out of the truck and the gas stoves, start it up and serve the riders. I way over slept and missed it all. But i did help out cleaning up, though. wups. So this ride we leave easton and arrive to vantage. After the 90 mile ride, ALA shortened the second ride to 70 miles with nutty 9 mile decline. At the end of the decline was a petrified forest. Ed and I thought it was worth a look-see and thought it would be cool to see a forest turned to stone. What a disappointment when we saw that the forest were actually stumps.

The day has come...

2008-06-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

I stayed up last night organizing the team jerseys until about midnight and called it a night. Didn't get much rest with a 545 wakeup call. I'm feeling anxious to get the ride started and hop on my bike. It's been over 2 weeks since i last got on and i'm afraid that my legs forgot its pain threshold. When we arrived to the start of the ride at University of Washington, we found out that they altered the route and increased the mileage by 20 miles, a total of 90 on the first day. Ed and I were the last to leave the ride because of the Lee paparazzi and a local news crew came an interviewed us and asked why we're riding. I gave some "let's do it for the skipper" type speeches. after that we were on our way. we strolled through the first 20 miles with a new buddy Rueben, an alleycat bike racer and bike messenger in minneapolis. During the ride the Lee Paparazzi harassed us, but got great action photos of us. The cool part about the 'razzi is that they double as a cheerleading squad. I wish they were there for the second half of the ride because there were some killer climbs, 6100 feet of total climbing strung across 90 miles. when the ride ended I set up my tent, mingled with the riders i didn't get to meet and passed out the team jerseys. Everyone loved them and they should cuz they're awesome.

eatin' good in the neighborhood

2008-06-22T19:40:00.000-07:00

It's the last day before the Big Ride and really I haven't had much time to think about it with all these activities going on here. First thing in the morning we joined a food tour, Savor Seattle, which featured 10 Pikes Market restaurants and shops. My favorite being Market Spice located next to the guys throwing over-priced fish. Although the food tour was a tasty treat, we had a feast for dinner. We grilled some steak, seasoned with salish (smoked) salt and "healthy heart" seasoning, salmon, walla walla onions (without them Pikes Market wouldn't exist-learned that on the food tour), wasabi mashers, corn and garlic bread. Leanne (my sister-in-law) created the ambiance of our fine dining experience at jon's. People would pay top dollar for this dinner with a great view. especially when the tablecloth was jeck's bedsheet, a drooled-on pillowcase as a table runner, cornhusk as botanicals, and coffee filters stabbed by skewers as a floral centerpiece. Thanks guys for making my last night unforgettable, i'm gonna miss you all i can tell already.

Wenatchee River Rafting

2008-06-21T21:50:00.000-07:00

The night before we went for a night hike at Rattlesnake Trail, somewhere just outside seattle. We brought along, Chris, the photographer from last nights solstice moon skyline photo, and his dog daisy. We got to the trail pretty late because justin's (twin bro aka jeck) flight was delayed. We prepared for subzero temperatures because of last night at the photoshoot of the skyline (it was chilly yesteeday night, but i had my (cycling) arm warmers on so the cold didn't bother me none). mistake. just about every one was complaining about the distance of the hike, and how hot they were (esp jon), except for chris. who had on about 10 layers of clothing and a 35 lb backpack full of camera gear. we get to the top eventually despite not having batteries in my headlamp. snap a couple of photos, get blinded by the flash and we made our way back down. right as we approach our minivan, these behemoth animals are creeping around the trail. Jon asked,"um, are those bears up there?" and then bolted in the opposite direction, screaming like a sissy-gurl. i'm kidding about him bolting and screaming, but he is a sissy-gurl (the animals turned out to be dogs, newfoundlands to be exact.)
the next morning we grab some crumpets caked on some nutella and drove half way across washington to go white water rafting. They were class 3-4 rapids, not enough to kill you, but scary enough to almost crap your pants. the craziest was when jonathon (raft guide- great guide btw) asked jeck to sit at the front of the raft with his feet hanging off the edge holding the rope with only one hand, all this after witnessing the tour guide ahead of us get ejected 6 feet in the air from the raft after getting pounded from an 8 foot swell and jeck still did it and survived. dude, you rock.

Sleepless in Seattle

2008-06-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

it's June 19th and my parents and my auntie sharon took me out to lunch before they brought me to the airport. It was my choice to pick the restaurant but was restricted to only a couple of options: dim sum at louie's, or dim sum at china palace. yum my two favorite restaurants (sense my sarcasm?). anyway, auntie sharon joined in on the ride for moral support. My mom typically has a nervous breakdown whenever she takes one of her children to the airport. Thanks, Auntie Sharon. But, to my surprise, my mom wasn't tugging at my ankles begging me not to go. She just waved good-bye while trying to hold back her tears.

I met up with my sister, Tifany (aka jia) and steph (gf) at the airport, rented the minivan (shoulda got 2 sedans, tsktsk jia) and headed to Jon's corporate housing apartment situated a block from pikes market and has a sweet view of the puget sound, to boot. My sister planned a jammed packed weekend filled with rapid waters, killer vista points, night hikes, tasty treats of seattle and a festival flanked with the crazy peeps of seattle (thanks for doing that jia, i had a great time) So in 5 days we all got a taste of what seattle has to offer, a beautiful city that rivals San Francisco (look at the picture above). The picture was taken by Chris Mullins, a great guy and photographer (jia's buddy)

Happy Happy Birthday to Me and J

2008-06-08T14:52:00.000-07:00

all the planning for the Austin's World Justin Rules Challenge was worth it. I had such a great time planning and participating in the events. About two months ago j & i came up with our bday events over lunch in berkeley with our sister. She thought we were weird talking about it so early. anyway, here's what we did:

event 1: Tricycle Race

event 2: Potato Sack Race

event 3: Rock'em Sock'em Boppers

event 4: Spin the Batter

event 5: Human Wheel Barrel.

I have to thank my mom for making the superhero capes and the coordinating potato sacks and to everyone who made it out, I hope you guys had a good time. The first event was supposed to have 4 heats but half of tricycles broke after the 2nd heat (i either have to get sturdier tricycles or skinnier friends). Anyway, Ed trained for months for this event, piling up more than a 1000 miles on the bike, yet gets toasted by my cousin amy on the home stretch "burn some dust and eat my rubber, ed". Some of the other highlights from the other rounds: Rock'em Sock'em Boppers - an epic battle, instant classic in my book, between Ruban and my uncle greg. It's supposed to be best of 3, but they were all so close they fought an extra 3 rounds, uncle greg eventually knocked rubans block off. Potato Sack race - sam crying like a sissy and complaining that 2 other groups cheated when they clearly out-hopped his team. Spin the batter: pretty much everyone who spun on the bat correctly, then taking one step forward and then falling flat on their butts. The Final event, which was the ultimate highlight, incorporated all of the aforementioned events but each had a little twist to it, the funniest one being the "mamma bird feeds baby bird gummiworms" (J and Jason have perfect technique, don't you think?) That particular event was the demise to most of the teams and were disqualified from winning the gold star medal flanked with pix of justin and myself in our superhero outfit making dee-dee-dee faces. Each team member must be fed 3 gummiworms, a total of 12 per team. There were only two teams that did this correctly and the team to get back to headquarters fastest was Justin, Charla, Jason and Steph (Fefe) despite a 10 second disadvantage. Congrats to the season 1 champions of Austin's World Justin Rules Challenge.

Happy camper, not-so-happy camper

2008-06-02T23:24:00.000-07:00

Steph and I went to Big Basin for the weekend even with the Santa Cruz Mountains up in flames. Fortunately, the fire did not affect Big Basin. So the next morning we hopped on our full suspension mountain bikes, complements of Derron and Leanne (thanks guys) and went for a little joy ride. It was supposed to be a nice stroll along the campsite, but ended up turning into a 34 mile ride up and down the santa cruz mountains. We have to thank a volunteer ranger for telling us about the Gazos Creek Trail. He said it was an 8 mile downhill to the coast and at the end we'll find a bus stop to take us and our bikes back to camp, he was very convincing. He suckered steph enough to go. She was content on riding down to the coast, but not back up to camp. well, about an hour or so later we arrive at the coast line, enjoyed a bite to eat at a local bar and grill and asked the waitress, the cook, the locals where the bus stop for Big Basin might be. no one knew of any. So the only way back to camp was ride up. Steph was pissed (and rightfully so), but not at me, just at the fact that she had to ride/hike back. I told her I'd ride back to camp, jump in the car and pick her up. But she wanted to ride. 3 hours, 2 squished banana slugs and 1 grumpy girlfriend later, we made it back. just in time to make dinner and some killer s'mores. yum.

clock is ticking

2008-05-25T14:39:00.000-07:00

i've been squeezing in only 35 mile rides in the mornings. Nothing too exciting, i pass by few wineries, a couple of farmers selling fruits on the corners I've been juggling my time amongst packing all my things for the Big Ride and Optometry school, planning mine and j's bday party, finishing up the Big Ride Jersey that I designed for the American Lung Association and tying up all the loose ends before I take off. you see, I'm not coming back home. The moment I finish riding my bike and arrive at D.C., I fly out to Puerto Rico where i'll be going to optometry school. I haven't told my mom i won't be coming home after the ride because i know she'll freak out. But, I'll have to tell her soon. In any case, I finally found a place to live, its a 10x10 room for $375. It's pretty close to campus, but as soon as i get comfortable with my surroundings, i think i'll move closer towards the beach. I checked online, beach front studio or 1 bdrm apts for $800. That's a bargain. Try paying for that in california.

(to the left: J making corrections/improvements to the final event for our bday party)

ride update

2008-05-21T10:17:00.000-07:00

To keep everyone updated on my training, I have logged in 1877.5 miles on my bike since January. But, it might be a little more since I go to spin class at 24 hr fitness twice sometimes three times a week. In may, I completed the Lodi Sunrise Century and the Delta Century. The Lodi Century was a pleasant ride, especially the last 15 miles, which had a tailwind to push me along. The Delta Century, on the other hand, was like riding through hell. The temperature reached the exact number of miles we covered, 102. I rode the Delta century with my buddy Ed, who's doing the big ride with me, as well. We've been riding together for the last four years with many rides up old la honda, through tunistas creek, climbing Mt. Hamilton and the marin headlands. come to think of it, I don't think i'd be doing the Big Ride if it weren't for him. Thanks, Ed for being my bike buddy. Also, I wouldn't be riding across country if it weren't for all of my supporters. A huge THANKS to everyone who donated. But, I am forever grateful to have my mother play such a pivotal role in my fundraising. More than half came from the San Joaquin County Sheriffs department (that's where my mom works). If it weren't for her I wouldn't be close to reaching my goal. Even when she went to the hospital to remove her gall bladder she still was concerned about how my fundraising is coming along. what a woman, eh? Thanks, Mom.