Day 24 (6/25): Casper, WY; 110 miles

Team Photos

There truly is nothing like starting the day off with a hot breakfast…the wonderful ladies of the Shoshoni Senior Center outdid themselves again making us biscuits with sausage gravy, sausage links, hashbrowns...mmm mm! Once on the bikes, though, we quickly realized the toll yesterday’s tough ride had taken on our bodies. Andrew and I swept so we were automatically at the back of the pack (Donde and Britton also rode with us), but everyone was pretty slow moving starting off…roads were fine, winds weren’t too bad…just couldn’t get much past 12 mph or so (unlike yesterday when we were rockin 25 mph from the start!)

Though we were slow we were steady…kept truckin on crew stop to crew stop. Officially traveled through the smallest town ever (yes, even smaller than Lowell, ID, who if you recall had 24, no excuse me, 23 people)…the great metropolis of Hiland, WY, population: a whopping 10 (must be hard to find a date in that town).

Just before the halfway point we had an unexpected treat…happened to come upon “Hell’s Half Acre,” an incredible mini-grand canyon setting of natural beauty. Cool tidbit (and also an apparent point of pride for many natives of Casper): Starship Troopers was shot here for its unique ‘alien planet’ look.

Miraculously, after 50 miles we started to pick up the pace…perhaps our worn out bodies were finally getting warmed up! We were able to roll at about 20 mph the rest of the way. Stopped for some quick crew-chief lunch at about mile 77, before finally rolling the rest of the way into Casper…by far the biggest town we’d seen in a while with over 50,000 peeps.

We lodged up at Kelly Walsh high school after doing a patented staged double paceline for some local media. Got all showered up and relaxed a bit before dinner time.

At around 5 we packed into the vans to head over to a local park where the Kiwanis Club of Casper was sponsoring a meal with us. It was fun meeting some Wyoming natives as we munched on some delicious smoked beef brisket…my tablemates were some rather strongly opinioned politicos; our riveting convo centered on the politics behind the politics of the Wyoming senate seats. One of the main Kiwanis guys was a pretty take charge fella who got rather uncomfortably ‘close’ to some of the guys when he was talking to them…ahh the things you’ll remember…

After dinner we rolled back to lodging to get changed up. Pretty much everyone went out on the town (cuz tomorrow’s a day off...yayaaaa). Our scene for the night was “Old Chicago,” a place very similar to Uno’s which had a plenty big bar to suit our needs. I played some bar trivia games with Jake and Farley while sippin on an impressive variety of hefeweizen beers. Good time all around…called it a night around 1ish…

Day 23 (6/24): Shoshoni, WY; 95 miles

Team Photos

Fo’ Shoni!! I don’t care who ya are…95 miles in 4.5 hours in ride time is dang fast. For some reason the pedals were turning and the mph was stayin high. Didn’t hurt that I was riding with the hammerheads today…Geren, Pops, and Snyder…these guys like to move (I kinda prefer taking it a little more easy and soakin in the scenery, but zoomin is fun once in a while). Coming out of Dubois the roads were relatively flat and the wind was calm, letting us average over 25 mph. Got into a great rhythm and before we knew it we had covered 50 miles in just 2 hours…nuts! The scenery was very desert-like…sandy rocks and small shrubs…reminded me of the southwest.
Ended up having to hang out at the 50 mile mark for over an hour…little excitement of the day came when a high speed chase went down right on the highway where we were riding. Actually never saw any of it…was over before we got up to where the chase happened. Problem was Sollner got the frantic message from last night’s sponsor late so he frantically had us all stopped (good to know he loves us so)…when he realized it was over already we were back on track.

Couldn’t ever regain that rockin rhythm we had for the first 50 miles but we were still moving fast. After a crew chief lunch at mile 75 we were even more sluggish, and the sun started brutally beating on us (hit 95 degrees today!). No rest for the weary though…the fast boys had our paceline moving over 20 mph consistently until we finally pulled into the teeny town of Shoshoni (only 635 people…even smaller than Dubois!)

Our lodging is a pretty sweet Senior Center…has everything ya could want: AC, pool tables, cool water jug, internet…only problem was: no showers. So around 3 we packed into the vans over to the next town, Thermopolis (sweet name!) to hit up the “World’s Largest Mineral Hot Spring.” Took a nice soak in the hot water (which apparently has miraculous healing effects…mainly it felt like a smelly, cloudy hot tub), then hit some showers and rolled back over the Senior Center.

After a short nap we piled into the dining area where the sweetest ladies made us an amazing dinner of fried chicken, meatballs, salad, veggies…mmmm.

We now have the place to ourselves….couple guys are watching “Goodfellas,” couple guys are playing some poker, Karl’s doing a puzzle (haha). Think I’m gonna catch up on some correspondence then hit the hay…

Day 22 (6/23): Dubois, WY; 105 miles

Team Pictures

Highest point of the whole route today! Woke up at the church at 6:30 am (yay for sleeping in) and racked up the bikes on the vans…the first 30 miles of the day were backtracking what we had already ridden so in the interest of time we decided to drive em. Dibs and Pops came to see the whole morning operation…wake up, rack-up, breakfast…and also joined up for circle up which was awesome, so they got to see the plan for the day, the dedication, and prayer…all the good stuff.

Our van had a couple complications on the ride up to the start point…had to pick up some ice from McDonalds (always an interesting experience in spandex…but they are always really nice about giving ice). When we were packin the coolers back into the van Ezra got a nice finger smash by the back door…youch! After a little first aid we were back on the road and up with the team at the Moran junction. Actually only got to ride 5 miles or so before having to rack up the vans again because the road was torn up for re-paving. Said the final goodbyes to momma and poppa who had come to see us ride for a little before rolling up to Yellowstone for the day. Love you guys…best part of the trip yet!!

After about 10 more miles of van time we were finally on some good road and got crankin on the bikes. Almost immediately hit the beginning of a pretty intense 17 mile climb up Tegowotee Pass. Kept the miles clickin away with some stories some great stories from Justin and in no time we reached the top – our final pass over the continental divide and the highest point we reach on the whole trip, 9658 feet. Obviously had to take a sick pic at the sign. Our glorious 9 miles of downhill were rudely interrupted by more road work and blasting…so after only riding 4 we racked the bikes back up to van it for 15 more miles or so…but after a delicious crew-chief lunch (with pistachios…thanks mom and dad :-) )

Finally we were on the final leg of our trip to Dubois…a quick and easy 20 miles on nice road with a little tailwind. The scenery changed rather abruptly from the evergreen-covered grassy hills and mountains to a more desert effect with cool reddish-rock hills. We rolled into Dubois…a teeny town of about 1000 people. Passed by the site of the giant jackeloupe statue…a big town attraction…before pulling into the local middle school for lodging.

Had a nice couple hour nap before dinner time (these naps are a necessity of the trip). At 7ish the ladies of the local Cattlewoman’s Association came into feed us some of the best slow-roasted beef brisket I have ever tasted. Wyoming is huge cattle ranching country, and these ladies were veterans of the industry (over 40 years in it!) They and their husbands raise about 250 cattle each and sell the calves off to the feed farms every fall…but have been having tougher times lately with the rising grizzly bear and wolf population eating the poor little calves. It was fun hearing about what they do, and they even hinted at the idea that they could sponsor food along the whole trip next year…beef all across America! That’d be some good eatin.

After dinner it was already getting a little late. I rocked out the swing in the back for a little while (higher than any I got to play on as a kid, very cool), catch up on a few phone calls, and now its about time to turn it in for the night...

Day 21 (6/22): Jackson, WY; Day Off

Team Photos

It’s glorious sleeping in till 8 am knowing that a hot breakfast is waitin for ya. The team roused and headed over to the Teton Steakhouse for breakfast buffet, where Mom and Dad were already inside waitin. Jill had brought a couple of her friends: Tim (who actually worked at the steakhouse…and was wearing a sweet karate robe over his uniform) and Micah, a 21 year old sweetheart to join us. Tim was absolutely hilarious, running around and talking to the guys…he even borrowed Brent’s helmet cam and walked around the kitchen chattin with the cooks and staff. Quote of the day was when we were about to leave…Tim, hitting on Micah: “baby you ever need anything from the steakhouse just let me know and I’ll hook ya up!”

After breakfast we headed straight over the to the King Snow Resort on the south side of town, where Jill had gotten us free access to all the awesome amenities. First activity was the chair lift up the ski mountain…no snow this time of year…but you get an amazing view of Jackson and the surrounding area, and of course, the incredible Teton mountains. Hung out at the top with Dibs and Pops for a little before chairlifting it back down (don’t think I’ve ever done that before!) Next up was the alpine slide…which is like a little go cart you take down this semicircle track that winds down the side of the mountain…AWESOME (apparently it’s a big thing out west). One drawback is that if ANY piece of skin touches the track at all you can kiss it goodbye…roadrash city…so you gotta watch your speed and control pretty carefully (you have a lever in front of you…push forward to go fast, pull back to apply the brake). I got a sweet little rub on the side of my leg but thankfully recovered control before tumbling out…Brent wasn’t so lucky, ending up with a pretty radical scrape on his arm. All in all the Alpine Slide pretty much rocked (and I blew Pops away going down).

Final activity was some pool time, where 12 or so of our guys hilariously played some sharks and minnows and marco polo (a little more fun with more people) with some of the kids that were at the pool too. Jill got us some Subway for lunch which we munched before heading back to lodging for our necessary nap of the day.

Around 5ish the ‘rents met back up with us and the team headed over to Bar J Chuckwagon suppers…a very unique dining and entertainment experience. “Chuckwagon” dining emulates how the cowboys did it back in the cattle herding days…you sit in a big cafeteria (750 people!), get in line with your tin plate and go down the line: potato, chicken, beef, beans, applesauce, roll and a piece of spice cake…delicious. Everyone’s got a full plate in under 25 minutes. After gorging ourselves on the grub it was time for the show: the Bar J “Wranglers” singing some good old country western tunes and crackin jokes. I don’t know about most of our guys but I had a blast and thought it was hilarious (admittedly, the show was prolly more geared toward the 55 and over crowd, but whatev). They were rockin on guitars, fiddles, harmonicas…you name it….jammin some sweet cowboy tunes with surprisingly awesome harmony. One of the guys, Jerry, had the deepest voice I had ever heard (made for awesome bass effects), and Brian was the funny man of the group with plenty of one-liners.

After the show it was nearing 10 pm already so I headed back with the team to get some shuteye before tomorrow’s ride. Stinks I have to say goodbye to Dibs and Pops tomorrow!

Day 20 (6/21): Jackson, WY; 80 miles

Team Photos

Dibs and Pops are in town!! Ended up having to rack the first 40 miles or so of today’s ride in the interest of time…had to get in early for whitewater rafting :-) Little did we know we were in for an extra treat…those last 40 miles were some of the best riding I have ever done…flat, super-smooth road (maybe even a little downhill) with a tailwind so we’re effortlessly flyin at about 25-27 mph…AND the Jackson hole valley and Teton Mountains are off to our right the entire time….just simply awesome. We get into Jackson, a little touristy town nestled in the mountains (reminded me a lot of Gatlinburg, TN for those in the know) in no time.

I swept today so we were the last group to pull into the local Presbyterian church, where the team was waiting (as planned, of course :-) ) with Dibs and Pops. Steve came through with the dozen rose purchase, which I give to Dibs as we all take a knee to sing her the rose…it was perfect…happy bday Dib!! Also gave her the moose poops (awesome chocolate from Yellowstone) and a signature doodled card.

I have to give a huge shoutout to Jill Quinlan…who organized everything for us here in Jackson. She self-contracts her time to help support local individuals with disabilities, and has been a long-time supporter of the Journey of Hope. I’ve never met someone so good at rallying support from the community…she pretty much got all of our activities/meals sponsored for free!!

We had about an hour to unpack before hittin the river…so I headed over to Sports Authority with the ‘rents and Brent to pick up some water shoes (very key). We met back up with team at McDonalds for lunch…an amazingly delicious quarter pounder (I had to go for a second it was so good). Jill brought one of her friends, Sydney, a little sweetheart who was pretty psyched to hang out with a group of good lookin guys.

After lunch it was time for the big event of the day…whitewater rafting on the Snake River. Took the bus about 10 miles further south of town (an interesting ride with good commentary from Gray (our to-be river guide) and the most eccentric bus driver I’ve ever seen…talking borderline creepy with his long French-tipped fingernails ::shudder::)

Piled into the 16 man boats (we had a couple other “civilians” on our boat) and shoved off. Gray was absolutely hilarious…only 19 years old at Hampton Sydney college…this was his first official summer as a river guide). Bill, the guide for the guys on the other boat, turned out to be a Pike and was apparently crackin some pretty out-there jokes. The Snake river was beautiful and the rapids rocked (not as intense as the Gauley back in WV, but pretty good). Got to see a bald eagle along the way which a first for me. One of the best moments of the trip had to be Geren’s absurd tackling of Wes off the other boat…we’re talking completely rocked). It was also funny seeing poor little Dibson get soaked even though she tried to avoid it by sitting in the middle of the boat :-)

After rafting we headed back to the church to get cleaned up and relax for a little. Around 6ish a feast of dominoes showed up at our door which we gobbled while having a brief team meeting. Went over the next few days of cycling (which are apparently pretty intense) and shared some stories from the trip. Brendle and Holley are headed off until Casper for family affairs so we’ll miss them for a few days. After the meeting we did a Kids-on-the-Block dry run, which is a puppet show intended to teach children about the abilities of people with disabilities….pretty hilarious watching our amateur puppeteers try to do voices and move around the (surprisingly heavy) puppets. Dibs and Pops showed back up to catch the tail end of the show.

Afterwards a bunch of guys hit the hay, but the rents and I, along with Ezra, Justin, Farley, Grant, and Cockrell were ready to hit the town. First we had a little pre-game action in the ‘rents pad at the Sundance Hotel…total 1970’s style interior…pretty hilarious. Then it was time for the Million Dollar Cowboy bar…a hoppin place with saddles for bar seat. Did some honky-tonk dancing to the live music, Justin and Ezra spit some unsuccessful game to some ranch girls…all in all a great time. At about midnight we decided to change venues, and after discovering the Silver Dollar was closed Pops suggested going to 43 North, a place a little away from downtown. Momma and poppa decided to turn in, but our crew trudged on down the residential street, almost giving up hope that this place didn’t exist before happening upon it in such a random area. This place was hoppin too, so we had a few more drinks before luckily catchin a cab ride from Grizzly Adams’ twin before curfew at 2 am.

Day 19 (6/20): West Thumb, WY; 50 miles

Team Photos

So today was definitely the sightseeing day…50 miles took about as much time as 100 should have because of all of our stops. After wake-up and breakfast we headed over to the entrance of the actual attractions area of Yellowstone Park (the one ya have to pay to see). Just beyond the entrance was the border into Wyoming (only a tiny sliver of Yellowstone National Park is in Montana and Idaho, the vast majority is in Wyoming). All the cool hot springs, geysers, mud pots, wildlife, etc. of the park can be seen around a big loop…we just rode along the bottom left portion of the loop today on our way to West Thumb, which actually treated us to most of the good stuff.

First sight we hit was the “Fountain Paint Pots,” which are super-cool bubbling puddles of mud…hot gasses from Yellowstone’s volcano (underground and quite active) rise up and are consumed by “thermophilic” bacteria that produce sulfuric acid…this breaks down rock into clay and you get the hot bubbling mud…sweet lesson huh? Also around this sight were my favorite natural wonders: the hot spring cauldrons. These deep pools of intense blue are ringed by colorful mineral deposits…just absolutely beautiful. We even saw a couple of small geysers…lotsa coolness in just one place. So the crew didn’t exactly know the entire team decided to stop to see all this…turns out they were frantically wondering where all the cyclists went…whoops! But we all got back on track in no time.

Further down we passed more hot springs with their characteristic rust-colored mineral deposit rings….some even had cool flows of water coming off them creating pathways of the beautiful rust color.

Finally got to see some wildlife!! Several times we passed male Bison just hanging out near the road…turns out these big boys are loners when its not mating seasons. Toward the end of the ride we hit some traffic as tons of people were hopping out of their cars to snap pics of a grizzly bear mom and her two cubs…what an awesome sight. They started to come really close to the road which made for great pics…but also had moms frantically telling their kids “get back in the car in case we need to get moving fast!!!” Kinda hilarious.

We were all just having a grand old time with the ride…just about 15 miles to go…when it turns out that we were crossing the continental divide not once but twice! So after two killer climbs we got some shots by the big divide sign…then finally pulled into Grant Village, a set of really nice lodges that put us up for the night…it’s a real treat to have a bed and your own bathroom (even with 4 big dudes per room)!

After cleaning up we went and grabbed dinner at the “Lakehouse” restaurant which gave us all-you-can-eat pasta and pizza…good stuff.

We still had plenty of hours of light (gotta love summertime) so most of the guys headed over to see Old Faithful. Our van got there just 2 minutes late so we had to wait another hour and 15 minutes before the next eruption (she’s only somewhat faithful these days), but we made the best of it hitting up the gift shops and whatnot. Finally at 8:15 on the dot the old gal did her thing…shooting water about 150 feet in the air…pretty spectacular sight! After about 4 minutes of gushing she was all done so we packed back into the vans and rolled off (necessary sidenote: on the way out we were treated to one of the most beautiful sky scenes ever…sun just looked amazing behind the clouds with rays beaming out in all directions)

After getting back to the lodges most of us took advantage of the sweet digs and crashed out early in the beds. Great day….and I get to see mom and dad tomorrow!!

Day 18 (6/19): West Yellowstone, MT; 90 miles

Team Photos

So to say today was a 90 mile ride is kind of a lie…after some crew chief breakfast we racked up the bikes and cruised the first 40 miles to avoid some unsafe shoulder action. Though it was a shorter ride it was pretty slow-moving for the whole day.

About 10 miles in we officially crossed into Yellowstone national park…took some necessary goofy shots at the big sign before getting back on the bikes. Rode with Brent and Snowberger for a little ways in…when we stopped at one point some passers-by stopped to ask what we were doing and ended up donating $15 bucks on the fly…rock on. Snowberger’s knee started bothering him again, poor guy, and he racked it up, leaving Brent and I to cycle two-man style about 5 miles to the next crew stop: normally no big deal, but the head wind today was out of hand. Fightin to even go 12 miles an hour we finally caught up with the rest of the pack, and we decided to split into two bigger pacelines of 7 guys each to get some better drafting going. Wind was rough the whole rest of the way which made appreciating the scenery of Yellowstone a little tougher….real bummer was not seeing any wildlife…not even a freakin squirrel! But apparently the best part of Yellowstone is on tomorrow’s ride. We trudged through the last 20 miles before finally reaching the small touristy town of West Yellowstone…pretty neat place.

Lodged up at the local school and munched some crew chief lunch. Not quite enough eats though so after showing up (sidenote: the entrance to the showers looked like a carwash entrance, funny to me, guess ya had to be there) a group of us rolled over to Arby’s for some glorious roast beef. I also couldn’t help but try the loaded potato snacker things, which fyi aren’t as good as they look.

Got back to lodging and pretty much the whole team passed out for some much needed nappage. Sollner woke us all up around 5:40 to head to dinner at a local restaurant, The Timberline, for a team dinner. I sat with Pops as he shared some stories of his time in Iraq and his chapter’s crazy formals week in Florida (it was a broad conversation). The fish and chips were good but the kicker was the buffalo chip ice cream (chocolate w/ bits of snickers).

Afterwards a couple guys went out but most of us hung out at lodging (which had a ton of sweet “Got Milk” posters) before callin it a night.

Day 17 (6/17): Bozeman, MT; 100 miles

Team Photos

Wake up was a little tougher this morning after staying out late…but not too bad. As we headed out of the Y at 5:30 a spinning class was already in full swing…haha yay cycling. Quick crew chief breakfast and we were on the road. Today Scott Shek from the Boulder chapter joined us…he’s interning at Push this summer making videos of the team for recruitment and sponsorships…hope he gets some sweet shots of my good side.

Ride started out with a pretty intense climb…another no-name pass full of lovely switchbacks. Best part of climbing is of course going down the other side….several miles of sweet downhills opened up into a beautiful flat area surrounded by mountains…truly got to experience “Big Sky Montana” here. As we passed through the little town of Whitehall we stopped to give a quick interview for the local newspaper. I spouted off the whole rundown to Kendall, the college-bound intern who really had no idea what was going on (I think they just told to go talk to the dudes riding bikes)…I don’t think she even asked a question…maybe I was just really thorough haha. Afterwards we hopped back into the paceline (me, Nick, Todd, Jake, Andrew….solid crew) and kept moving. Hitting the rolling hills wasn’t so much fun (I prefer big climb w/ big downhill…not little one after little one) but we were movin along and stopped for lunch at about mile 66.

Crew chief lunch was quick and relaxing…afterwards I hit the road with Geren and Jay, who had been riding with only two – which is tough. These guys like to push it…so we basically rocked out the fastest 34 miles I have ever done…pretty intense. Rolling into Bozeman was a bit nerve-racking with traffic and a crappy shoulder w/ rumble strip, but we made it in safe to the local high school…beaming over having finished our first legitimate century ride (100 miles in just 5 hours of ride-time, baby!…out of control). Kicked back and relaxed while the rest of the team came in (our meat-head ride had put us pretty far ahead).

Bozeman is a pretty big town (one of if not the biggest in Montana…Kelly the bartender from last night nicknamed it “Boze-Angeles”). After showering up Ezra, Jake, Jay, Grimace (Josh) and I headed over to the CVS to load up on snacks…by far the biggest CVS I have ever done business with.

At around 6 we headed to dinner at Eagle Mount, an amazing organization that runs programs to allow people with disabilities to ski, swim, ride horse, cycle…you name it. Got to tour the barn and meet some of the horses…beautiful animals. Richard, one of the cycling participants, let the whole team try out his hand-cycle…wicked cool, but pretty hard to handle. We feasted on some burgers with the staff and directors at Eagle Mount and they told us all about their programs…really neat stuff. Snowberger’s aunts and cousins actually live in Bozeman and volunteer with Eagle Mount so it was fun meeting them.

We got back pretty late…some guys headed out to the appropriately named “Bar”…I decided to stay in and take it easy for the night and get in some solid hours of sleep.

Day 16 (6/17): Butte, MT; 60 miles

Team Photos

Early morning rise…delicious crew chief breakfast…the usual. Said goodbye to little Philipsburg as we hit the highway. Today’s ride started off with a pretty sweet climb up a pass that I don’t know the name of. It was fun climbin up and up then seein the road up ahead hundreds of feet higher than we were. But the payoff was rockin…we came upon an incredible waterfall down a canyon that was gushing out of a hole in the side of the mountain. That same stream was flowing from the Georgetown Lake dam just a little up ahead…a breathtaking site. We stopped to take some pics at the lake with the snow-capped mountains in the background. Added coolness was some old mining cart lines following the stream…those guys were crazy back in the day. Rest of the ride into Butte went pretty smoothly with some more great scenery.

We lodged up at the (super-nice) YMCA and ate some Ezra-style lunch out front. After most of the guys made good use of the Y’s awesome pool facility – hot tub, waterslide…golden. After a little R&R we got ready to head to dinner and a friendship visit with the local Special Olympics folks.

Great turnout at the visit…met tons of new friends. I dined with Ellis and Kerry, a couple of total sweethearts. Elaine was hilarious, shushing everything I was trying to stay….and it was tough keeping up with Barb, who liked to always be on the move. We all dined on some awesome fried chicken, spaghetti, beans…a smattering of deliciousness. All too quickly we gathered for the group pic and said our goodbyes.

Got back to the Y and hung out for a little bit longer…most of the team was pretty beat and headed to bed but Pops, Farley, Ezra and I decided this was probably our only time ever in Butte and we had to seize it. Pops had been talking/hitting on one of the trainers earlier and we think she misunderstood him when he told her we were “bikers” because when we pulled up to the bar she had suggested…Dano’s…it wasn’t quite what we were expecting. But hey we were game and headed on in. The bartender, Kelly, was a cool cat with some good stories about Butte and his days on the road as a media uplink truck driver. We shot some pool with some locals and Ezra made friends with “Tree” and “Hurricane Katrina”…very free-spirited pair. We enjoyed a pitcher or two of Mandarin Hefeweizen…delicious…and rolled back home around midnight (with a late-night wendy’s run first, of course). Good times.

Day 15 (6/16): Philipsburg, MT; 80 miles

Team Photos

Even without going out the night before, waking up at 6 am after a day off was tough. We packed out things and shoved off from Hellgate highschool after some crew chief nourishment. At our team meeting yesterday we established a stretching routine at the first crew stop which went off smoothly today for its trial run. We mixed up the guys in the pacelines a bit more which kept the whole team much closer together throughout the day (the past couple days the first group of riders had been beating the last group by over an hour).

Throughout the ride we were treated to some more of what Montana has to offer: flowing golden meadows of flowers and of course cool mountain scene after cool mountain scene. I saw my first cattle-herding as we passed a small group of good ole’ cowboys leading the herd down the street amidst many a “moooo.” Just a little further down we came upon a pair of horses communicating with another horse that must have been a few hundred yards away….the first horse would give a good “neeiiiggghh,” then the other would quicklky respond. It was extremely cool…we tried to break into the convo with some neighs of our own but the horse weren’t fooled in the least (they were probably even making fun of us).

Lunch was a quick one on the road around mile 60….everyone was a bit more sluggish on the bike after gorging on tortillas, bread, meat, and pb&j. Towards the end of the ride we came upon a super-sweet winding stream that followed the road: could have easily been the most ultimate lazy-river ride I have ever seen….we all wanted to badly get in it. Finally we made it to Phililpsburg, a small town tucked nicely in the mountains to the north of the highway.

We lodged at the town high school (at the top of a huge steep hill, per usual) which looked like it must have been built 100 years ago (which we later learned it in fact was…the oldest still-standing school in all of Montana). The school mascot is the menacing “prospector” and the picture of the student body council posted on the door was pretty hilarious. We had a little downtime before dinner which I used to shave up the ole’ legs…tried a razor this time, but not just any razor…the Venus itself, which paired with my skintimate “raspberry rain” (they were out of peaches) made for a smooth and hassle free shave…it pays to have the right tools, hats off to the ladies on that one.

Our sponsor for dinner was the town Rotary club, whose members were also the founders/designers of the “moon saddle,” a “revolutionary” bike seat shaped like a crescent moon that doesn’t put pressure in the unwanted places normal bike seats do…only snag is that most people find the seat impossible to ride on, haha. For a few years now the moon saddle has offered a small stipend promotion for any JOH cyclists willing to try it out (Donde and Snowberger did on our team…neither can get it to work).

Philipsburg just happened to be having its annual BBQ cookoff that evening; we feasted on some of the finest pork roasts, ribs, and shish-kabobs in the state of Montana (the shish-kabob took first place….well deserved!) Despite a little Montana rain we had a great time.

After dinner a few guys went out for a little bit and ended up kickin it with the town firemen (one was celebrating his 50th bday). Lovin the small town atmosphere.

Day 14 (6/15): Missoula, MT; Day Off

Team Photos

Nice and relaxing day off. After naturally waking up at 5:30 I promptly went back to sleep for a much needed recharge. I woke up around 9ish as most of the guys were getting up shaking off last night’s debauchery. A crew of us headed over to McDonald’s to satiate our craving for McGriddles and McMuffins…sure beats cereal and a bagel.

The rest of the morning I used to catch up on correspondence…around noonish most of the team headed over to the Laundromat…where we had some “good clean fun!”

At three I caught up with Brent and Ezra for some safety committee action before the whole team meeting at 3:30. We went over the next 6 straight days of riding (yowza) and did some debrief on our friendship visits…the guys are having some really positive experiences. It’s awesome sharing stories about the friends we’ve met.

After the meeting I rolled over to the post office with Chad, Country, and Ezra to do some posting (did I mention I’d write back to those who wrote? J ) When we got back Sollner had picked up some dinner: delicious burritos bought by another Pi Alpha alum from Washington.

Now a few of the guys are watching “300” on one of the laptops. Between the really cool scenes I’ll get a little work done before turning in. Sounds like we’ll be climbing some more tomorrow!

Day 13 (6/14): Missoula, MT; 60 miles

Team Photos

Trying to scramble to pack all your stuff and get ready to ride in a tiny cabin with 8 other guys is tough. Despite stumbling over bags and bikes we were out and ready by the required 6 am for some crew chief breakfast. Our last treat before shoving out of Powell was an old guy coming over to wish us well, and also mentioning that these campgrounds sometimes reminded him of his time in ‘Nam…if only you were here Schuey haha.

Today’s ride had our biggest climb yet: Lolo Pass, 5 miles at a 6% grade. Thankfully it was at the beginning of the ride, only 8 miles in…we split into smaller pacelines and Jay, Country and I rocked it out no sweat. The summit (5235 feet) was actually the border of Idaho and Montana and where Pacific time becomes mountain time…guess you could say we were time traveling, zing! We took some pics and started down some sweet downhills into Montana. Our pride from climbing the mountain was kept in check when we met an elder lady who had just ridden up the pass with her bike loaded down with gear…and she had started her around the world trip from Laos, Vietnam. All right so she’s more BA than us, no big deal.

After about 45 more miles of beautiful Montana country we reached Missoula, home of the University of Montana and all in all a nice lookin city. Our lodging is at Hellgate High School…kind of a freaky name huh (named for a canyon nearby).

Lunch was at Adventure Cycling, a not-for-profit organization that plans out routes and organizes trips for cycling enthusiasts. The group grew out of the organization of “Bikecentennial,” a huge cross country trip in 1976 to try and revitalize cycling as a great pastime rather than just a kid’s activity. Over 4000 people participated. Their route was the original “Trans-America” route...in fact when Bruce Rogers (the inspiration for the Journey of Hope) first rode across the country in ’87 (hence our ride being the 20th anniversary) he followed this route put together by Adventure Cycling. Greg, one of the organization’s founders, gave us a tour and a fascinating history of cycling….he had done rides from Alaska down to Argentina…nuts!

After lunch we had some downtime…I went to Wal-Mart with some of the boys to pick up some Venus razors and Skintimate Raspberry Rain (they were out of Peaches)…gotta keep the legs smooth haha.

At around 6 we headed to dinner and a friendship visit at Opportunity Resources. They have a beautiful home that houses 8 wonderful folks. We all feasted on some Taco’s while Dan taught us some sign language, Don showed us a sweet handshake and sang some “For the Longest Time”, and Andy dropped some choice language (in an innocent way, of course). It was a blast.

Not long after getting back to lodging the guys got changed and headed out on the town. Just a few blocks down we hit the Iron Horseshoe Pit…a pretty sweet bar. We fratted it up pretty good for a few hours fueled by some good ole’ college town specials: 2 wells for $2.50…nice! Silly times were had before we all headed back around 1:30…day off tomorrow whoooo!

Day 12 (6/13): Powell, ID; 100 miles

Team Photos

Sweep or be swept. Jay and I decided to answer the honorable call of keeping the team safe today. After some delicious breakfast of fruity pebbles and half a bagel at 6 am we were on the road for our second near-century. Man 100 miles is a long way at the back of the pack. Jay and I passed the time talking economics and politics…a real high level convo on the bike…as well as discussing which Planeteers and Power Rangers were the most powerful (Fire and the Green Ranger, obviously).

Riding with Small and Tanabe all day we were treated to more incredible scenery (upstate Idaho is actually quite beautiful. My favorite scenes were the tributary creeks feeding into the Clearwater river. We kept the mood light on the long ride with some silly visits to the crew stops and Jay showing off some of his “talents” on the bike. Midway through the ride we pass through the rockin town of Lowell Idaho, which sadly must have just lost Old Brotha Joe or something pushing the population back to a solid 23. Lunch was on the road around mile 70 with the usual fare. Finally we pull into the Locsha Lodges…not even sure if there is in fact a “downtown” Powell…but these lodges are pretty sweet.

We pack in cozy with 2 men per bed…and most of the team relaxes and grabs some snacks from the convenience store while waiting to use the 1 shower. I get cleaned up and spend a whole dollar to leave a message (!) from the payphone because in some crazy scheme to not lose money the cell phone companies didn’t build out their networks in upstate Idaho.

At around 6ish we pack into the main lodge (which has apparently been around run by the same family for 75 years…bigtime hunting, fishing, cross-country skiing area). They serve us up some hearty meals…I had the roast beef plate, amazing…and again we gorge ourselves till our stomachs hurt.

After dinner came the best part of the stop in Powell: sitting round a bonfire with the bros. Fahrley masterfully constructed a raging blaze as a few guys threw some chew or lit up cigars. John, a regular at Lochsa, came down to hang with us for a little bit and share his bizarre and usually tactless humor. After a few hours of conversation centered mainly on living the fraternity life we retired to the cabins for some much needed sleep….psyched for 5:30 wakeup tomorrow!

Day 11 (6/12): Kamiah, ID; 75 miles

Team Photos

Rough day on the bike. Wakin up at 5:00 am after hittin the bars just shouldn’t be allowed. Morning highlight was breakfast burritos cooked up by Todd’s awesome girlfriend, Amanda, who has been like a team mom through Washington state…hold on to that one Todd.

We shoved off and almost immediately hit crappy road conditions – a busy highway with the shoulder taken up by a rumble strip had some of our guys buggin out when semi’s passed by. I grazed a rock in the road that graciously flattened my front tire, and after two tubes I was back on the road rollin with the sweeps (I just can’t get ONE flat at a time, I guess). Snyder and I kept the mood light with some shenanigans (“What are those cyclists DOING?”) but the road conditions just kept getting worse with an awful awful shoulder. On the bright side we were cruising along the Clearwater river, surrounded by beautiful mountain scenes. A long 75 miles later we were finally pullin into Kamiah, a tiny town (1300 people) which sits on Nez Perce reservation lands.

The ride felt long but was actually quick…we were in by 12 noon to get ready for lunch and a friendship visit. Yay for the coldest showers EVER…ya kinda had to get wet…soap up…then rinse off all while giggling like a little girl to keep warm. It was a good team bonding experience.

Lunch was a delicious pot luck with folks from another chapter of Opportunities Unlimited. We enjoyed the sunshine out at the town’s little park, and I hung out mostly with Jimmy, who loved to play piano and was saving up for a Harley Davidson…rock on brotha.

After lunch pretty much the whole team took a much needed nap…I roused around 5 o’clock, fiddled with all my stuff, and before long it was just about time for dinner. Mary Caldwell and her crew here at the Wa-A’Yas Community Center cooked up an amazing meal: Indian Tacos, which is a deep-fried piece of flatbread topped with chili, sour cream, cheese, salsa…the works. She and her sister then gave us a cool history of the Nez Perce tribe: their lands, their traditions, how they are getting along today…a little spooky when she was talking about how the spirits of some of the tribesman still roam the lands to this day.

It’s about 8:30ish now and some of the guys are heading around town for something to do but it sounds like most stuff is closed, and the local casino is just slots and bingo so most are coming back. I think I’m going to take it easy and kick it with some of the fellas here before calling it a night.

Day 10 (6/11): Lewiston, ID; 100 miles

Team Photos

Century rides would be no sweat if they were all like today’s. We roused in the dome at a dewy 5:30 am and set off for Lewiston after some of Ezra’s rooty-tooty fresh and fruity breakfasts (Happy big 21, Ez). Jim, who had provided dinner the night before, came to take some pics of the team shoving off and was nice enough to mail a postcard for me (p.s. send me mail and you get mail back :-) )

The ride started off through some flowing wheat fields (once Walla Walla’s main cash crop) before cruising through the picturesque northern end of the Blue Mountains. We hit our first amazing downhill about 30 miles in which had guys flyin at about 45 mph for nearly 3 miles. Then came our one big climb of the day up to the Alpowa summit (a modest 2785 feet) at about mile 70…but the reward was 10 glorious miles of steep downhill and mild downhills pretty much the rest of the way. Birthday boy Ezra decided to ride along with us for most of the day, on Snowberger’s bike that is ridiculously too big for him. Lunch was a quick crew-chief job with Karl filling in at the summit; the piece de resistance was definitely the cold leftover hotdogs…mmmmm.

We came into town along the scenic Snake River. Lewiston, ID is actually a sister city to Clarkston, WA (the two straddle the Washington – Idaho border). Took me way too long to realize the towns were named for Lewis and Clark, whose trail we’ve been following the past couple days, and apparently we follow it for much of the trip. It was a beautiful ride into town, topped off with the quote of the day from Grant as we ascended an absurdly steep hill right before lodging: “Is this some kind of f-ing joke??” Haha. Total mile count hit 96.99 after a short double paceline for local news.

Lodging was at the Lewis-Clark College arena, a pretty sweet gym. While most of the guys relaxed Ezra and I rolled out to town so I could buy a temporary replacement phone for my lamed-out Razr.

At around 6 we shoved off for dinner and a friendship visit at Opportunities Unlimited Inc., an organization that helps provide jobs and services for people with disabilities. It was a blast with a great turnout; I sat with Tom, whose life changed as the result of a logging incident. We shared some laughs and discovered we both had a love for Lean Cuisine meals. A pick-up game of basketball capped off the evening, with our boys getting rocked by some sharp shooters on the OUI side.

Around 10ish it was time to head for Ezra’s 21st bday celebration. We first walked into a bar called Bo Jack’s only to be told by the locals that “we didn’t belong there” so we walked right on through the back door…haha guess they weren’t psyched to serve 25 young dudes. Right down the street was Boomers, a sweet sports bar where the bartender was vacuuming he was so bored…much better reception. Pitchers and shots all around before heading back for 12 midnight curfew…yay for wakeup at 5 am!

Day 9 (6/10): Walla Walla, WA; Day Off

Team Photos

“Sleeping in” till 8:30 today was glorious. Team wake up wasn’t actually until 9:30 am, so I used the hour to catch up on these super-cool journals. We ate a quick crew-chief breakfast and milled around until our early sponsored lunch at 11. Walla Walla seems kind of spread out as we cruised through town; it was surprising to see fraternity and sorority houses (nice ones, even) at Whitman college. Merchant’s Ltd., a little coffee shop/deli served us up some delicious sandwiches; it was funny: their two rules were “no dogs, and no Starbucks, especially Starbucks” (there was a Starbucks across the street). Jay played “junior PM” and did his best Sollner impression when thanking the sponsor…”how’d ya like that meal boys?!” which had the team bustin up

After lunch we had a little down time back at the dome which I used to replace my brake pads on the bike (which will be important for slowing down on the ridiculous downhills we’re about to face). At around 1:30 the team headed to the Laundromat, or “washiteria” as Jay calls it to do some much needed laundry, followed by a short team meeting to go over the next few days and recap how the trip was going so far back at the dome.

Dinner was provided by Jim at his ridiculously awesome home on the outskirts of Walla Walla. As the deliciously-smell smoker cooked up some burgers and dogs we got to play around in the pool (our game of marco polo lasted one round as we quickly discovered the game does in fact suck), feed some chickens and collect their eggs, and hang out by the fire pit on what turned out to be a beautifully sunny afternoon. After packing into the vans we drove 2 miles down to the Oregon border to get some goofy team pics in front of the Welcome to Oregon and Washington signs…proof we were here!

Wake up is back to the norm at 5:30 am tomorrow with our first century (100 mile) ride to Lewiston…sure hope these legs are rested up!

P.S. My phone decided to stop working today so hopefully I’ll get that fixed soon so we all don’t miss out on potentially great conversations.

Day 8 (6/9): Walla Walla, WA; 65 miles

Team Photos

So three flat tires at one crew stop has to be some kind of record. Today’s ride was our shortest yet, but after my little flat-fest early on I was kickin it with the sweeps (guys who stay at the back of the pack) all day for what turned out to be a comedy of errors. The rest of the team was zoomin as we managed to take a wrong turn (which on the bright side provided some sweet canyon pics), and then ran into more bike trouble as Andrew’s bike chain decided to lodge in between his gears and wheel spokes. After all that fun we decided to smooth sail the rest of the way and enjoy the nice sunny day. Route 12 tracks through WA’s “wine country” …we must have passed 7 or 8 vineyards. Not sure but I think I’ve had “Ecole no. 41” wine before and now I can say I’ve seen where its made…sweet. We finally rolled up about an hour behind the main pack to the “Sun Dome” arena (part of Walla Walla community college) which reminds me of a golden mini-epcot center. I munched on some lunch with a good buddy I met at Charlotte midyears named Ian, who goes to WSU and rode with us today. The best part of the day was definitely getting the letter from Moffalicious; she’s a pretty cool cat J

We had about an hour between lunch and our friendship visit so I set up to get some work done and ended up crashin out hard…guess I needed it! Waking up a couple hours later it felt like a brand new day as we packed up to head to the Lillie Rice Community Center. There we had some amazing grub (bbq chicken, burgers, all sorts of salads and some rockin baked beans) and I got to try a Walla Walla sweet onion which you can eat like an apple it’s so sweet. I was definitely at the fun (and diverse) table sharing laughs with Liza from Ukraine, Mae and Mike from Taiwan, and Rasheeda and Pretty from India. None of these folks appeared to have any form of disability, perhaps the Lillie Rice Center helps to provide jobs to disadvantaged people as well as those with disabilities. Not sure how it went down but all of the sudden I was challenged by Liza to an arm wrestling contest, and as the crowd gathered I suffered an embarrassing defeat. Several more of our guys, including Pops, our team strongman tried their hands and were all good sports swallowing their pride to show Liza a good time; she was a total sweetheart. Things were then coming to a close so we gathered for our classic group shot and got ready to head back to lodging, but not before I learned from one of the sponsors that Walla Walla started out as a wheat farming town until they found out the soil and climate were extremely close to France’s: then came the mad rush of wineries.

We got back to the dome around 7 and a bunch of the guys and I went to see Ocean’s 13 at the local theatre…sweet movie, and it made us even more pumped to gamble at the little local casino/bar downtown, which is where we headed next. The Blue Mountain treated us to some fine spirits as the guys were cutting loose having the day off tomorrow. Got to chat with a local after he made fun of me for asking what a “pull tab” was (a cheap little lottery-ticket type game), before he proudly finished his beer and got on his “18 speed” to head home, ridiculous haha. I learned how to play Pai Gow poker from Grant which is a good game for casino drinking because it’s easy to get a push and keep your money, but we still lost $20 each. A last bit of fun came with a bachelorette party, which had some of our guys “winning” beads from the ladies (Pops put on an extra private show). Around 1ish we decided to head back to crash, which was a lovely 2 mile walk through rain and mud but hey it was worth it.

Day 7 (6/8): Richland, WA; 85 miles

Team Photos

Another beautiful hot day on the bike. After a botched morning prep (now wake up for sat. is pushed back 30 min, yay) we headed over to Jake and Andrew’s Uncle’s house for some b-fast chow. The cozy little Yakima houses are actually pretty sweet. With bellies full of pancakes and eggs provided by the McCaffrey boys’ uncle we hit the road en route to Richland, which turned out to be a little over 85 miles away. Most of the scenery today was straight out of the southwest…didn’t know this but the eastern side of Washington is nearly desert climate because all of the precipitation from the west gets blocked by the cascade mountains (thanks dad). So we were gazing at cool rock formations and burnt reddish grasslands as we cruised up and down hills. Rode most of the day with Geren, Jay, and Snyder—the stud cyclists of the team—so we were moving at a pretty rockin pace.

After some delicious crew chief lunch (peanut butter, mayo, mustard, chips, meat and cheese on a tortilla is tastier than it sounds) on the road at the 50 mile mark (where we were parked next to some horses that were too cool to eat banana) we rode on into Richland and lodged up at a local community center—a beautiful building with the Columbia river flowing right behind it. Before showering up a few of the guys got back on the bike for one of our classicly staged “ride ins” for the media, but at least the reported was cute. Dinner was provided by some kind Richland locals here at lodging…we feasted on salad and fried chicken while the seagulls watch on eagerly, which ignited Sollner’s strange fear of birds.

The rest of the night was free…a few guys went out but I stayed to tie up some of my many loose ends…