4 weeks on the road

Nastyhand. Note the watch tan and the greasy hands. This computer is ridonkulously slow with the photo uploads, so I'll have to post the rest up later. Sorryyyyyyyyy.

It's ridiculous how much stuff I forget to put into these posts. I think up stuff while I'm riding then forget about all of it as soon as we stop.:::





COLLEEN LEFT US. Dunno if I ever mentioned this, but she was the mom of our group, but in a good way. She took care of us, but didn't bitch us out when we did stupid things. The whole trip, she's been the caboose, leaving us each morning with a friendly "I'll see you assholes in Kansas." But she left us in Illinois due to unexplainably painful fatigue on some of the monster hills before Carbondale.





Her name's Helen, and I'm not forgetting again. She got chased by 15 dogs today!!! (she counted) Here's their blog thingy:
biketransam.wordpress.com. They've been leaving earlier than us, but taking longer breaks, so we catch up halfway through the day. Today we caught em early after Becca broke a spoke. Good news: I was able to straighten out the wheel enough to get her going again. Bad news: next bike shop is halfway through Kansas.





Just read the introduction and started On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I don't think I coulda found a more perfect book to read on this trip.





Ozarks are SWEEEEET. Easy grades, long hills=fastnasty. Sure, there are some short steep ones that make you want to die, but overall, they are a lot faster and more fun to ride. I don't have to curse under my breath as we're cranking up a 2 mile hill. The drivers seem pretty friendly- lots of waves, few middle fingers. We've had trash thrown at us in the past two states, which never occurred in VA or KY.


Songs stuck in my head cuz I cant get em out cuz I don't have no music:

1. that Nutcracker song


2. Piano Man by Billy Joel (Walker picked up a harmonica from a little General store, and it was all over)


3. Your time is gonna come, Led Zep

I was hoping that if I had overeacted about my iPod, it would all be okay. I was guessing the world would right itself and my iPod wouldbe healthy after a couple days of rest and evaporation. But nay. It appears to be officially deceased. Maybe I'll scatter it's ashes in the Pacific.

We ran into a couple other biking parties:

• Dad and 12 year old son. Both on mountain bikes. Dad doesn't wear a helmet. Kid is ridiculously fast up the hills- in part due to the fact that he's not carrying a load, and also because he's completely nuts. We only rode with them for a little while. Supposedly they're doing 100+ miles a day, which is completely sick. Dad says they're going to hike the AT over summer break (most people take 6 months). I get the feeling junior is going to grow up a bit disfunctional.
• Halley and Colin, two just graduated college graduates from college. Haven't spoken with them much, but they seem cool. I might be riding with them for the Western portion of le trip. They're ahead of us now. I said I'd call em, but haven't. I suck at life.

I've been trying to design some foldable shelving in my head, for implementation in le apartment when I get back, but so far have been unsuccessful. I have a real hard time concentrating on anything for a any length of time. I spend a ridiculous amount of time thinking about the fact that I can't think about anything.

Lost my little military can opener. Crap.

Had my first soda of the trip. Some nice guy offered it to us when we stopped to jump in a river. Grape soda. Can't turn down free stuff.

We broke 1500 miles a couple days ago. This is good.

I gotta figure out how we're doing for schedule. I might have to duck out before Colorado. This is bad.

I, along with many other people, are getting tired of these dagum broad-leafed trees. I WANT TO SEE DEAD STUFF OR MOUNTAINS OR SOMETHING. Sure, the landscape is a little different, but I'm really excited to see the Rockies rising out of the plains, and the desert landscape on the other side.

We saw a dead armadillo. Cracked shell, guts everywhere.

Ticks. I guess I get them when we stop and run around in the grass or something, but I've found 6 or 7 crawling on me so far. One latched onto my no-no area last night. He dead.

Catchup

Eat that horsee!!!! Technology wins!!!
Purty roads at 7 AM after Mammoth Caves.

Whoa now, don't get too excited.
Guy from Netherlands, heading East. 58 years old. Check out his Dutch setup. Aparently these rigs are ubiquitous over yonder. Talking to him was quite inspiring- Western Express is looking to be real hard, but freaking awesome. We shall see. He's been all over the place. Toured the Netherlands 4 times-- twice with wife, once with son, once with daughter. He says Amsterdam is still the most beautiful city he's been to. I might have to check it oot.

Amish country clouds.

The cicadas are in full force these days. We found hundreds on an Orange Osage tree in Harrodsburg. Lincoln country.

Bourbon capital of the world: ah crap I forget the name. There was a bourbon refinery to the left of this frame.

Mammoth caves were pretty sweet. Touristy as hell, but sweet. And cold too. 54 degrees. You can only go down in a tour, so you don't mess up stuff. The scale was pretty amazing.

I am still alive. I haven't seen a scale in a month, but I think I've lost some weight. Not good. Trying to gain it back at Mammy's Kitchen.

Insanely wierd sunset in Carbondale.
Hiding from the rain in front of JC Penny. We left shortly afterward, and got poured on. Can't stop whistling that song- "Raindrops keep fallin on my head..." You know the one. Crazy storm, Carbondale. There was lightening jumping from the cloud into thin air. Never seen anything like it.

As you may already know, I almost never drink caffeine. However, I felt a little guilty while using 8 travel books at one time at Barnes & Nobles (scoping out the West and SanFran) so I got a grande Americano. I am currently completely freaking out in my head. It took me 10 minutes to find Kerouac's On the Road because I couldn't say my ABC's to K. I kept on getting messed up around F. I'm not kidding. So please excuse any idiocy in this post.

So, stuff that's happened:

• Won a race against a couple kids in an Amish buggy. Smoked em good. Pics soon.





• Ran into 3 girls from Boston area, heading West, they've been sticking with us for a few days, though they'll prolly split soon. Telula, Becca, and I've forgotten the other's name about fifty times now. They might be headed to San Fran, so we may meet again.




• Before Elizabethtown, stayed at Baptist church, courtesy of Bob and Violet. It was absolutely ridiculous. Violet served us a humongous dinner: creamed corn, amazing chicken salad, black eyed peas w/ salsa, ham, salad, canaloupe, ice cream w/ every conceivable topping, brownies, and sweet tea. They do this for every biker that comes through. 31 last week. 200+ last year. Ridonk. Watched the Pianist. Depressing, but good.



• Left Kentucky. Western Kentucky was pretty sweet. There were about 3 days of picturesque rolling farmland. I'll miss it. Despite that fact, we all let out a war-whoop of joy as soon as we rolled off the ferry into Illinois. Woo hoo. We'll be crosst the Mississippi by the end of today.


• Anne caught the itis, something similar to what I got on the WORST RIDE EVER. She's had a lot of real life stuff going on, and she's leaving us today. I've been hanging back with her on a regular basis now, and I'll be sad to see her go. I'm not surprised though- she wasn't determined to get to the west coast, she only wanted to see stuff and have fun. I don't think I would make it if I wasn't so bent on getting to San Fran. We'll see. 2500 more miles, not much time. Ahhhhhhhhhh crappppp....

• Left my iPod in my jersey pocket when I put it in the wash. It's not turning on. $150 down the drain. I suck. Bad.
• Lost my Art to Wear handkercheif shortly after letting it hang in my brake pad and frying it.
• Bike looks more and more hobo-like every day.
• With Anne gone, it looks like I'm almost certainly doing the Western express leg (Pueblo CO, to Sanfran) solo. I've got mixed feelings. I'll probably talk to more people, learn a bit more. But the 1500 miles will probably be a bit harder, more lonely, more dangerous without some riding partners- what with the lack of water and civilization and whatnot. We shall see is all I can say. I just hope to get to the Rockies asap. We've been taking it a bit slower than I hoped we would, and this is the easy stuff.

The caffeine is still freakin me out here. Everybody gone. Must go find others. PS, Carbondale is big. Multistory buildings. Weird.

Fare thee well

Steven

Carbondale

06-27-08

Springfield Stopover

In the middle of great ride on the way to Mammoth caves. Prolly wont be able to update for a while due to lack o libraries. Next library on the map is listed in Dixon, KY. We're stopping in Bardstown tonight, en route to Cave city to check out some underground awesomeness. Watching a movie tonight, possibly the Happening? yes no? If you have any suggestions please gimme a ring. I wish you good day, dear sir or madam.
Ned Overend rocks!!! Yeah!!! Yeah!!!
Sometimes there just aren't any bathrooms at 6 am in the morning after you've had 3 humongous quesadillas, if you get my drift. However, there are bridges with poison ivy. Argh.
Harrodsburg library map showing where all the people that visited came from. Pretty sweet eh? There were a couple people from out of country, but nobody cares about them cuz they aint american right? right.
Yesterday, forgot to mention, we ran into some random guy that Colleen worked with briefly in Nebraska. In Kentucky. Random.

Everybody's waiting for me as usual.

Steven

Correction, we was at Harrodsburg, KY. I was a bit confused when I found that there was no such thing as Harrisburg KY.

Berea and beyond

Sweet road. Made me gasp, seriously.
Jailer?
We seem to be lost. Ended up riding an extra 19 miles. Hardcore.
Yesterday. Dog on 4-wheeler- nice balance. He was funny as hail. And nice, too.

So yesterday we rolled into Berea, and now I'm in. I dunno, where am I. I'm at a library at a computer with a keyboard that has one of those tiny little backspace keys and it REALLY RUINING MY DAY, MANN. We're in Harrisburg, KY.

Just got an e-mail from a concerned party that mentioned that I prolly shouldn't trash talk on KY so much. I'd just like to say that I'm probably one of the least hateful haters in our party of KY hating cyclists, and I must also say that today I thoroughly revised my opinion of KY after an absolutely beautiful day of rolling countryside roads.

But first, let me tell you about my WORST DAY OF CYCLING IN THE HISTORY OF EVER.

It all started the night before, when we set up camp for Booneville. My opinion of KY was immediately elevated from a 2 to a 5 after discovering that the local baptist church had set up an awesome little hangout for bikers with a shower and a shelter and a portapoty and lots of sweet fake flowers. I had a healthy dinner of every food within sight, and supplemented it with the most delicious quart of mint chocolate chip ice cream I've ever had, mixed with the most delicious orange I've ever had. I ate wayyyyyy tooooo muchhhhhh.

I woke up the next morning at 6, and immediately started feeling sick in the stomach. Not too sick to eat a hearty oatmeal n raisins breakfast. Well I kept feeling more nautious. I decided I'd stick with the slower peoples and take it easy. So took care of business and went to sleep. I woke up 20 minutes later, people almost ready to go, looked around, and threw up my breakfast- quite violently, I might add- right next to the stairs. I immediately felt awesome. I cleaned up my mess, and we hit the road.

10 miles later I felt like complete garbage again. I was fighting nasuea, I felt like I'd been run over a car several times over, and I still had 50 miles to go. My arms hurt to hold up the bike, my fingers hurt to click the shifters, and forget about me legs.

Mile 15: chug some pepto bismol (for those of you who aren't aware, I don't do drugs, I never take pills, this is drastic).

Mile 20: Pepto bismol didn't help, ride up some of the steepest hills we've messed with yet.

Mile 30: Break for lunch on side of backcountry road. I went off, relieved myself, and fell asleep next to my bike in a ditch on the side of the road. Woke up, rode back up the hill to meet the guys, fell asleep again, helmet and sunglasses on.

I woke up feeling only mild nausea. I still couldn't eat. After a few miles, I realized it was far from over. My body felt more destroyed than ever. My mind was barely there. It took every bit of energy and concentration just to keep on pedaling, knowing there were hours more to follow. The downhills were only a mild relief, as I felt so weak that controling the bike down the hill was a challenge. After a while, it actually hurt more to coast than it did to pedal, so I continued cranking even when I had no need to.

For the last 20 miles, I ended up putting my iPod in one ear, listening to the Smashing Pumpkins while imagining various Disney cartoons playing the instruments. Daffy duck was on vocals, that crazy cat was rocking lead guitar, and that angry pig with the gun was banging on the drums. I couldn't come up with any other characters at the time. Yes, I was messed up.

We finally rolled into Berea, and it was like we were in another universe. It was amazing. Businesses, schoolbuidings, parks, congestion, Wal-mart. The library was sweet. I was in a daze. I laid on the sidewalk; indifferent, while the group debated places to sleep. Us boys ended up sleeping behind the library in a sweet little shady cove. The girls went the route of luxury and relaxed in the campground down the road. I munched on a little off-brand FrostedMini-wheats, chugged some water, sluggishly set up the tent and stuff, and passed out by 8.

Worst day of riding. Ever.

The day after the worst day of riding. Ever.

I woke up at 8. 12 hours of sleep. Yesssssssssss.

We rolled at 9 or 9:30 or something. I didn't care much, I was in relaxation mode. If you ask some, it was a tortuous day of getting lost , grinding a bajillion rolling hills, and getting lost. If you ask me, it was completely perfect. Other than my chafed sitting implement.

Beautiful farmland, blue grass, very little traffic or wind, fast rolling hills, fluffy white clouds (lots of whales, lobsters, clown faces, upside down rabbits), and one of the most picturesque shady little roads I've seen yet. it war sooooooooo greeeeeennnn.

Well anyways, library close, yet again. Me go now.

Steven
05-09-08

Hazard is Hazardous

Heyyyyyy, check out this cool map that my dad made to track my progress cross le country!

In case I didn't mention it, the Appalachains are supposed to be harder than the Rockies because of the ridiculously steep stuff. The Rockies are a lot taller, but a lot more gradual. So put that in your pipe and smoke it, Uncle Mark :)

This steep stuff is murder on the knees. I've been taking it easy for the past couple of days, but I get some nasty pain if I push myself, like I did just now. It's incredibly frustrating being in good shape, yet held back by weak knees. I got pain like this a couple years back. The orthopedist I went to see was completely useless, but stretching ended up fixing it. Problem is, we've all been stretching nonstop, so I'm not sure what more I can do, other than take it easy.

Also, I discovered this morning that I got me some poison ivy. On le legs and a little on my right arm. Last time I got it was 4 years ago, and it sucked, massively. We'll see how it goes this time. What's really troublesome is that I've been real careful, and I don't know where I got it from.

One other exciting note: Kentucky still sucks. Today, we went through my least favorite part of the entire United States of America, thus far. Hazard, KY (as in Dukes of Hazard) can suck it. Seriously, it was disgusting. Up until this point, I've been taking pictures of stuff to remember how nice it is. Today, I took pictures to remember how horrendous it was.

We started today's 65 miles with a beautiful ride through some green backroads in some 65 degree weather. Very fast, very fun. Then the roads just got nastier and nastier. We ended up on a 4 lane highway with huge medians strewn with rock, coal, glass, and bits of motor vehicles. The coal trucks were huge, loud, and incredibly intimidating as they bore down on you. They almost never moved to the inner lane, and for some reason, they had a ridiculous vortex following them that pushed you out, then sucked you back towards the road.

The road narrowed, and we were forced onto the rumble strips every time a truck started roaring behind us. Anne was right in front of me when we heard screeching tires right behind us and BOOM, the library is closing right now, and we's gotsta go,

Booneville, KY

06-17-08

OMG, Linda said hey!!! OMG!! Imo call you K??

Too much for one post

Walked and I sat down to a game of chess while devouring 1.5 quarts of chocolate ice cream. He destroyed me. Cool.
Hostel wall-o-rules, in case you were curious. I took a book entitled "Can Man Live Without God" from their pile-o-books-you-can-take. I was later informed that it might have just been a pile-0-books. I dunno.
stormnasty

WHOLY CRAP. It's arm guy, in KY!! 100 miles or so from where we saw him in VA.
Tasty KY treat. Peanut butter rolled in icing. Apparently KY is one of the most obese states in the USA. I blame this thing.

Sorry for the out-of-orderness. This blogger thing is a pain in the butt to reorder photos with. KY cliffs+Johnathan. I thought his name was John, and nobody corrected me, and I just found out a few days ago I was wrong. I really didn't figure him for a John. He called himself John the other day. I win.

Unbridled is one way of putting it. Hey purty lady. (Bike)
Aaron didn't want to go hide behind something while he took his lycra off, so he just did it with his pants on. I still have no idea how this is physically possible. There was lots of grunting involved.

Billy took a different approach.

Curry for dinner, cockroaches for dessert.

Sooooo, I'm sitting in the library away from everyone else because this was the only available computer, and I look over and everyone is gone, so I think I'm going to run now.

Roll me Away, from Kentucky

We ran into this guy- Dave, on the road. He camped with us one night before we split. He's a bit slower than us, but a lot steadier. He's never biked before. Graduated college this spring. Air Force pilot training in October or something. (Heck yes.) He's aiming for Oregon. Go Dave!
This was way back in VA. Walker and I missed a turn and rode an extra 8 miles or something. But this was way worth it.

Billy in VA.

Western VA. We had stopped to admire the view. Check out this guy's arm.

Sweet hills.
Breaks Int. Park, double rainbow!!

I know Chris, you warned me about Breaks Interstate Park, and I strongly warned everyone else, but after a day of hard rain and 80 miles through the mountains, we didn't care much. Shawn's mom had reservations for a room in their shady little motel, so we all crammed in and fell asleep to Indiana Jones.

We trucked down the mountain to eat some Mexican, courtesy of Shawn's mom's rental car. Ate wayyyyyyy too much. Nearly threw up on the way back up. It was bad.

Last night, I don't even remember the name of the town, KY. We found a middle school to stay at. The buildings we slept next to were getting bulldozed at 8 am in the morning. I slept without my tent so I woudln't have to deal with the dew and whatnot in the morning. This spidey made it's web on my bike.

Word on the street is Food Lion Moose Tracks is da bomb. Too bad there's no Food Lion out here. Past couple towns, there's been either nothing or just an IGA. Walking through the folks smoking in the breakroom, I heard somebody say "When are you going to divorce him?" For cereal?

That last town we stayed at- Damascus, was purty dagum cool. The hostel was even cooler. $4/night donation gets you a bed, kitchen, shower, and a cool hangout spot. An army of boy scouts showed up on our second night. The leaders weren't too friendly and the kids were nuts.

Anne and I found the craziest piece of playground equipment I've ever seen. Imagine a see-saw, with tires to bounce and gain momentum off of, and a good risk of losing teeth/butting heads. Well crap, no, it doesn't look like that, I'll have to draw you a picture sometime.

We're now in Kentucky. We spent almost 2 weeks in VA, and we were ready to be out, but now we're all kinda pissed at KY for the following reasons:

1. Total anarchy. No helmets on motorcycles. No mufflers on cars. Dads hauling ass down the road on 4-wheelers with their kids in their laps, both without helmets. WHO ON EARTH DRIVES A GATOR DOWN A 45 MPH ROAD?




2. The hills are not ending. We've heard from countless people that "yup, it's pretty much flat from here on" To us, a 7 mile climb is not flat. Only reason we want flat is a few of us are developing some knee problems, myself included. I'm taking it easy, but we'll see how it goes.




3. Dogs.




4. Shady roads. Gravel around corners, more climbs than decents, George Bush. Well not really George Bush, but damn.




5. Rain. Our first day in KY, we got dumped on for a few hours. It wouldn't have been if not for the narrow shoulders and lotsa cars.

It's not all poop, though. It's still fun riding, it's just we're ready to git out of these here Appalachain thingies. West.

Other items of note:

1. Almost no foriegn cars in the country. A few of us waited for about 20 minutes on the side of a 4 lane highway. Out of 100 or so cars, we saw ONE import- a guy in a Toyota pickup who slowed down to tell us "good luck, and be careful, people can be crazy around here." A lot more pickups and SUVs than I'm used to, as well. Harleys everywhere. The louder, the better.




2. Tiny towns. The town we're in right now is HUGE, listed pop is 800-ish. Convenience stores with bathrooms are few and far between. Grocery stores are even more rare. Toilet paper is a good find. I've been taking a few squares from every place that has some.

We're still encountering a surprising amount of hospitality and unexpected friendliness. We get stopped by random people who want to know where we're going. I'm still trying to figure all that stuff out.

Argh-ish

Today and yesterday have been purty crazy. However, Friday the 13th decided to sneak up on me and get me good. We're resting today in Damascus, VA, and a few of us went down to the river to cool off. The water was real cold until you got in, and it was just a little chilly. Well, my theory is I got some mini-hypothermia, because when I got out, I immediately started feeling dizzy. I had goosebumps and I was shivering a little. By the time I got back to "The Place" hostel a quarter mile away, I was really messed up- super lightheaded, freezing cold, and a bit confused. I'm doing better now, walking around in thermals and rain pants, but I only have a few minutes so I'm just going to pop some pictures up and git out.

A couple highlights when this thing is loading:

-what first appeared to be man doing tribal dance in twilight ended up being totally drunk guy skateboarding destroyed bicycle

-Johnathan barely being able to order at Subway due to his BAC

-COOL WEATHER!!!?!?!!

-Boy scouts in the hostel, just rolled up, kids are punks, and dads refused to return my enthusiastic greeting. Jerks.

-Amazing curvy downhill into Damascus, preceded my surprisingly enjoyable 5 mile-ish climb

-4 bike shops in Damascus. Zero good ones. Weird.

-The Dairy King has no dairy. Also Weird.

-Library close very soon. Must run.