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Posted by Dave at 9:52 AM EDT.
You can now enjoy the ride with us. Download The Ride of '05 Media Guide Here. It takes a couple of minutes to download so please be patient. And don't forget to visit our wonderful sponsors who supported us.
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Posted by Dana at 9:52 AM EDT.
We would like to offer a sincere and special thank you to those who helped us throughout our journey. Specifically, we would like to thank our corporate sponsors:
PalmOne
PowerBar
Performance Bicycle
Holiday Inn & Holiday Inn Express
Trek
Avis
New York Life Insurance Company
Chemung Canal Trust Company
Color Ad Sign Corporation
Hopper Holmes
FedEx
SVM
Cargill
Seneca Clipper Inn
We very much enjoyed working with you and are grateful of the support you provided.
We would like to recognize our support crew for their tireless support while we rode across the United States. We offer a special thank to each of you:
Kim Lampman
Linda Carr
Rick Carr
Bob Spencer
Mary Kay Spencer
Tanya Mackiewicz
Brittany Wolanin
Courtney Wolanin
We will always remember the great times had in the Ford Expedition, at-speed bottle exchanges, late night dinners and wonderful conversations.
We would also like to thank those who donated to the Lance Armstrong Foundation and the Ride of ’05; we could not have done this charity event without your support!
Finally, we would like to thank our family and friends who helped support us, not only during the ride, but in the 18 months of planning and training before the trip. We are very blessed to have each of you in our lives. From the bottom of our hearts…THANK YOU!
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Posted by Dana at 9:17 AM EDT.
Time: 171.8 hours
Distance Traveled: 3,052 miles
Average Speed: 17.8 mph
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Posted by Dave at 12:07 AM EDT.
Time: 4 hrs 17 mins
Distance: 80.0 mi
Average Speed: 18.6 mph
What a trip!!!
To be honest, it didn’t really feel like today was the end of our month-long journey. Day after day we rode and rode and rode, and today was just like all the others. The only difference was it was the last one we’ll have to do.
There was so much preparation going into our final night’s stay that we didn’t really get a chance to reflect on the trip. So we awoke this morning with many delights. First, Dana’s family arrived in the wee-hours of the morning. Rick, Dana’s father was passed out in the passenger seat of his vehicle. Then my parents drove in yesterday to meet us too. Our room and hotel door was plastered with “Congrats”, “You’re last day”, “You’re almost done” signs. The car too was plastered with similar signs. Apparently Brittany and Courtney are a bit sneakier than we thought…making up all those signs in the middle of the night! Then a bit after we finished breakfast a car full of women cyclists arrived with what seemed like 10 bikes on the back. These women, Robin Parker, Karen Leatherman, Lynn Leatherman, Tracy Egelston and Rita Corcoran, were all from a cycling group in Florence, SC called the Pedal Pack. It was a delight to share stories and 60 miles of riding with them. And we were glad that they came out to support us and encourage us to get to the beach.
So our final day began! We started biking and talking to everyone that was with us. We exchanged stories and experiences, and just simply enjoyed ourselves. It was a great start to the last day. We were also accompanied by an entourage of support vehicles. It made us feel like we were in the Tour.
On our way into Myrtle Beach, we noticed the traffic picking up more and more. Nobody really gave us a scare, but when your biking along on the side of a non-shouldered road and tons of cars are passing by, it can make you a bit nervous. However, when we got to around 60 miles, we turned onto Route 31 and were picked up by a police officer. At this point, the girls from the Pedal Pack called it quits and went off with the rest of their day. It was sad to see them go, but realized it was time to finish our journey. The police officer drove behind us for the rest of the trip and diverted cars around us. This section of the ride was also the most difficult. We encountered a headwind that was just enough to make us want to turn around and head back to California. So we decided to do minute pulls and work with each other rather than independently. All the while, the officer was on his radio yelling up to us things like, “’Sit back down. I don’t want to be looking at that the rest of the way.’, ‘Keep pedaling. I gotta get other things I can be doing.’” He made us laugh and got us pumped a bit more to work harder for him.
Another aspect most people probably don’t know about our trip is that it was the last weekend of Biker Week when we were arriving. There were lots of motorcycles out and about. Something we noticed that is very strange…South Carolina must not have a helmet law. These people were driving around like crazy people, in big groups and without helmets on. Frankly, we thought they were kind of nuts, but then they probably thought the same thing about us.
When we arrived at 69th Ave around 1:45pm, we were greeted by a large group of family, friends, a councilman, and some media. Dana and I were done!
Maybe it’s the way Dana and I are, but we didn’t even think to do all the things that would signify our finish. People had to tell us to go to the beach and touch the water. We were just talking to our supporters, the media and eating some food before people said, “Go jump in the ocean…you’re done!!”
Like we’ve said all along, words can’t describe the experience we had.
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Posted by Dana at 11:56 PM EDT.
Time: 6 hrs 18 mins
Distance: 118.1 mi
Average Speed: 18.6 mph
We drove back to Rock Hill this morning and started our day with an interview by a reporter from the local newspaper. After chatting with the reporter, we were off on our second to last day of the trip. We started in the city center and took route 5 south to route 21, which bypassed the city of Lancaster. From Lancaster, we turned onto route 9, which took us along northern South Carolina to our destination in Dillon. With temperatures in the low 90’s all day coupled with high humidity and 118 miles, it made for a challenging day.
Our only relief from the day’s heat was lunch in Pageland, SC at your guessed it…Subway…Eat Fresh! I think we are going to rival Jared as Subway’s new poster boys.
After lunch, we continued our ride on ‘light’ rolling hills, which flattened out towards the end of the day. We also noticed that as the hills disappeared, fields of crops began to spring up. The last 25 miles from Bennettsville to Dillon was literally a ride through the crop fields that lined the roadways.
Finally, after a good day in the saddle, we arrived at the Hampton Inn in the late afternoon in Dillon, SC. After a dip in the pool, we got cleaned up and enjoyed dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s in nearby Florence. Speaking of Florence, tomorrow a group of cyclists from there will accompany us on our ride to Myrtle Beach; we certainly look forward to the company.
Nothing very exciting today except the comic relief that Courtney and Brittany provided by squirting us with water guns the last 25 miles of the trip. It was much appreciated because we were ‘baking’ while riding through endless fields on our way to Dillon. Other than that, it was a long warm day in the saddle; over 6 hours! The great news…tomorrow we’ll be refreshed by the cool waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Tomorrow we reach the beach…Myrtle Beach!
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Posted by Dave at 11:40 PM EDT.
Time: 4 hrs 5 min
Distance: 77.1 miles
Average Speed: 18.8 mph
Well, today was the longest short day we had, but it was well worth it!
The morning started out just like any other morning except we didn’t pack our luggage because we were staying in the same hotel upon our day’s finish. Ruth was our starting spot, so we drove there and began the ride for the day. About 30 miles into the ride we arrived at the Holiday Inn Express in Shelby where we were greeted by two local policemen and the Holiday Inn staff. No, they didn’t arrest us or kick us off the road, but instead, they were giving us a police escort into the town of Shelby, NC where they had a special event planned for us.
So the police drove in front of us stopping traffic at every intersection allowing us to bike continuously through town for several miles; it was awesome! The support vehicle drove behind us not allowing traffic too close to us and we only backed up a little traffic. But it was good to see everyone stopping their cars to check us this long train of vehicles snaking through the city.
When we arrived in downtown Shelby we were greeted by a group of fifty kids holding up congratulatory signs. They were cheering and yelling, but we didn’t realize we were supposed to stop, so we just blew by them…waving of course. Then we realized we were supposed to have stopped and turned around to greet them. The kids were very excited to meet us and their enthusiasm made it the highlight of our day. We then introduced ourselves and told them what we were doing and why. Following, we opened up a question and answer session to get provide feedback and interaction with the kids. From some of the questions they asked, our responses produced looks of awe on their faces; as if we were celebrities. Honestly though, it was awesome to think that an event like this might help shape a child’s mindset or aspire them. A very welcome treat to two guys who truly wanted to give back something to the cancer community!
Afterwards, we met the Major of Shelby and he presented us with keys to the city and read a plaque proclaiming May 26th the Ride of ’05 day! Truly a special token of there appreciation for including the city as part of our route, but we were equally grateful they recognized us in the final days of our cross country ride.
After lunch with city and county officials, we saddled up and rode 10 miles east to the Town of Kings Mountain. After exiting route 74, we met up with the assistant to the mayor and he too, organized a police escort for us into town! And for the second time today, we followed police into the city center; boy…what a way to travel on a bike!
Upon arrival into Kings Mountain, we were greeted at the Town Hall by the Major and his wife, who was also a cancer survivor. We then proceeded into the building and were presented with keys to the city and May 26th, was proclaimed the Ride of ’05 day in King Mountain. We were very grateful for the recognition and enjoyed the chance to mingle with town officials at a luncheon.
Afterwards, we said our thank you’s and again were escorted through town to the final state line of our trip. After thanking the police, we crossed into South Carolina and made our way to Rock Hill via narrow shouldered roads. Although the final 30 miles of the day’s trip were quite hot, we made in uneventfully and now have only 2 days remaining. This time 48 hours from now, we’ll be able to jump into the Atlantic Ocean; only 200 miles to go!
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Posted by Dana at 12:25 AM EDT.
Time: 6 hrs 11 min
Distance: 107.9 miles
Average Speed: 17.4 mph
Today we had a very pleasant 108 mile ride with rolling hills, a few challenging climbs and fun descendents. The scenery was also very beautiful with green hills, mountains, lakes and rivers a plenty. The temperature was a little cooler (high 60’s), but mostly cloudy skies in the morning gave way to sunny skies in the afternoon.
A recap of the day’s events…
This morning, our breakfast at the Waffle House was comp’d by the manager who looked just like Will Ferrell. The meal was obviously good, but when it’s free, it’s that much better.
After a ‘nutritious’ breakfast, we began our ride on route 25 towards the Tennessee/North Carolina state line. Our pleasant 26 mile ride to the state line was very enjoyable because the route wrapped us around the base of the Great Smoke Mountains and traced a scenic river. After a brief break at the state line for pictures, we resumed bound for two steep back to back climbs before reaching the city of Asheville, NC.
The two 800 foot elevation climbs were as expected…steep and relatively short (about 2 miles each). We say ‘short’ because out west, we would climb gentler mountains at a lesser grade for 10, 15 even 20 miles. But on the east coast, hills are steeper and more numerous with less of an elevation differential.
After our challenging climbs, we rode into Asheville, NC and stopped for lunch at the Atlantic Bread Company. Afterwards, we hopped on the bikes to finish the final 52 miles of the day.
We reach the last major climb of the trip 80 miles into the ride. The road switch backed countless times on our ascendant through the green canopied forest along route 74. At the crest, we changed gears and enjoyed the fast descendent down into Lake Lure and Chimney Rock areas in the late afternoon. All things considered, Lake Lure and its surroundings was one of the most beautiful and scenic places of our trip; a real sight to behold for those traveling west of Charlotte, NC in the near future!
After leaving Lake Lure, we made the final 20 mile ride into Rutherfordton/Ruth and ended the day in the early evening. After packing up the support vehicle, we were off to the Holiday Inn Express in Shelby, NC to meet the very pleasant general manager Tina Salzman. In addition, we also had the opportunity to talk with reporters (Alan and John) from Shelby Star newspaper.
After being called “Yankees” at Ham’s Restaurant several times while having a late dinner, we decided to call it a night. Tomorrow was a big day because we have two special events in two separate cities to commemorate the mission of The Ride of ’05; very exciting!
One final thought…the one interesting item our “excuser” at Ham’s Restaurant wanted to know was why so many people from the Northeast are so thin!?! We really did not have an answer for him, but if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to email us. We certainly will be humored by your responses!
Good night for Shelby, NC.
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Posted by Dave at 10:43 PM EDT.
Time: 6 hrs 9 min
Distance: 112.5 miles
Average Speed: 18.2 mph
A nice tailwind, some hills and a beautiful day are what we had to contend with today.
We started our day in Elgin, TN, a small town northwest of Knoxville. Our day started out a few hours earlier then they have the past couple days. While we were preparing in a gas station parking lot we witnessed a seemingly common site from the roadside displays we’ve seen. A car was driving by, rounded the corner directly in front of us and off goes the front hubcap. It rolled and rolled and rolled until it went through half a yard and hit a broken down car. It got a laugh out of us and started our day off on the right foot.
We rode through the winding roads of Tennessee into Knoxville where the roads were congested and a bit more unwelcome. A few miles away from Knoxville we crested a hill and were able to see downtown. It’s quite a site to see a city from afar. A couple miles into the city we needed to grab some lunch and stopped for a bit then headed off again on a few city roads. Riding during this time reminded us of riding through Albany with the traffic congestion, but without the potholes.
So after leaving Knoxville we headed east on route 25. The rolling hills continued but reminded us of the coming Smoky Mountains over the next couple days. Off in the distance we could see through a light haze the tops of the mountains. They don’t scare us like we were in the beginning of our ride. I always say whatever obstacle you overcome make all the “lesser” obstacles in the future seem that much easier to conquer. Maybe it’s not true at all, but it works for me.
Anyway, we came to a cool site around the 100th mile. There was a beautiful lake with steep tree covered embankments lining the water. The only place I can compare it to is Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks. There was a nice long bridge we had to cross to get to the other side and enjoyed the view the whole time. With only a few more miles to our day’s finish, we were happy to see a site like that. But the last few miles seemed to last forever.
Now we’re here at the Holiday Inn awaiting our much needed day off. Actually, it’ll be the last day off we get. Next week is only a four day week, but will go by fast and be very busy. Tomorrow will bring us to the barber for our first haircuts of the trip, a bike shop, the mall and, hopefully, some time in Knoxville.
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Posted by Dana at 1:15 AM EDT.
Time: 5 hrs 42 min
Distance: 97.6 miles
Average Speed: 17.1 mph
Today was a very nice 98 mile ride on eastbound Tennessee route 52, which was newly paved with large shoulders, beautiful scenery and a few challenging climbs. The temperature was also pleasant (high 70’s and low 80’s) with a light breeze from the southwest making today’s ride one of our favorites. Many times route 52 took us twisting and turning beside massive rock walls and large trees that continually canopied the roadway. This was particularly enjoyable while descending through these areas at speeds up to 40 mph.
A brief recap of the day…
Unfortunately, we had a rather late start because our hotel was located one hour south of our start point in Cookeville, TN. After finishing yesterday’s ride at 8:30 PM and driving an hour south to the Holiday Inn, we decided to sleep until 8:30 AM. So after getting around, packing up, checking out and having breakfast at Cracker Barrel, then making the one hour drive back north, we started riding at 12:30 PM.
Despite the late start, with a light tailwind, we rode the first 44 miles of the day in two and a half hours and stopped for lunch in Livingston at Subway (of course). After a late lunch, we resumed our ride looking forward to a few more moderate hills and one of the last major climbs of the trip: a 2.5 mile 1,000 foot elevation change hill at mile 70.
We both particularly enjoyed the major climb and took it at a swift pace, even after yesterday’s speed intervals in the late evening. As an aside, we are certainly getting stronger and handling the 100 mile days very well now. Unfortunately, we only have 5 riding days left to Myrtle Beach!
At the crest of the climb, we entered the “City” of Jamestown and proceeded eastward on 52 until we crossed into the east coast time zone in Rugby, TN! We made the zone change while riding across a bridge that spanned a major ravine of South Big Fork National Park. After a few more hills on 52, we reached our endpoint for the day in Elgin, TN at dusk.
So another nice day on scenic roads with great weather; we couldn’t ask for anything more.
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Posted by Dave at 10:01 PM CDT.
Time: 5 hrs 11 min
Distance: 88.1 miles
Average Speed: 17.0 mph
After a heavy traffic day to close out the day yesterday, we found ourselves riding some of the best roads yet. The more we ride, the more we are seeing the major differences between the east, central and west parts of the country. The conclusion we’ve come up with is that they’re all beautiful. The east is very pretty and green, while the west is very scenic. The west takes forever to get to whatever you see in the distance, while the east, well the east you can’t see three miles in front of you so there’s no comparison.
As for today’s ride, it was low traffic and nice roadways. We got to go through some small towns which really help make the miles go by quicker. The big difference between today and any other day is that we had to stop our ride after 28 miles and resume the last 60 later on. Tanya, this week’s support team, had to catch her flight out of Nashville and we had to pick up Courtney and Brittany, our final support team. So we got to Nashville International, after spending way too much time in backed up traffic, and made the switch. Then we decided to grab a bite to eat at Subway, the rider’s lunch of choice, which was partially comped. After Subway we headed back up north to restart our day’s ride.
The rest of the ride was very nice and relaxing. There weren’t any hills that we couldn’t handle and the wind was a manageable 5 mph or so from the northeast. So at mile 70, with the sun slowing setting, we decided to kick it up a notch and get a nice workout in. Like we’ve done in the past we chose to do one mile pulls to make the time go by faster. Not that it was a big deal, but we knocked off about 15 minutes from our time.
So one funny thing that we saw today started in Springfield and continued until dusk. In Springfield we saw a couple of houses having yard sales. We figured this was ok since it was a nice Saturday afternoon. So there were a couple here and a couple there, no big deal. They were all advertised as yard sales and they were all in people’s yards. Then all of a sudden we started seeing yard sales alongside the road, but without the house and yard. These people just set up a small tent, some tables and sold their stuff as a yard sale on the side of the road…but made yard sale signs. A couple of these would’ve been fine, but there was one about every two miles. We couldn’t figure out what these were all about so we made up our own conclusion. Here goes: There aren’t any malls or major shopping plazas in this vicinity so they make their own. They sell their used clothes and such for cheap, make an easy buck, get rid of unwanted “junk” and allow others to get their shopping bug out of the way. Hey, if it works it works.
Now we find ourselves in the car driving to our hotel in Cookeville, TN. It’s over an hour drive so I’m typing away to get this out of the way so we can eat by 10:00. Adios from the road!
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Posted by Dana at 11:07 PM CDT.
Time: 5 hrs 33 min
Distance: 90.1 miles
Average Speed: 16.2 mph
Today, after a late start from Murray at 11 AM, we headed eastward for The Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. We arrived at the national park 22 miles into our ride after crossing Red Man Lake and a really cool bridge onto the peninsula (see photo gallery). We then took a road known as “The Trace” down to Dover, TN.
As you could image, the Trace took us through very scenic dense green forests and over MANY rolling hills. But the 27 miles through the park went quickly and we really enjoyed the peacefulness and little traffic. Once we arrived in Dover, we had a tasty lunch at Sonic to fuel up for the remainder of our ride into Clarksville.
After lunch, we took 79 north battling heavy traffic and a disappearing/reappearing shoulder, making for an interesting 25 miles this afternoon. Luckily, minus a few upset drivers, we made it safely into the city.
Once in the city, we had a nice ride at rush hour and saw many of Clarksville’s sites the final 10 miles of the day. We concluded our ride at the intersection of Interstate 24 and 76 and “only” put in a 90 mile day; now considered short after yesterday’s adventure!
Tomorrow, we’ll resume at the Shell station on 76 and proceed eastward to Red Boiling Springs, just northeast of Nashville.
Signing off from Clarksville…good night!
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Posted by Dana at 11:06 PM CDT.
Time: 7 hrs 58 min
Distance: 148.4 miles
Average Speed: 18.6 mph
This morning began with breakfast at the Holiday Inn followed by an interview with Karen at the Poplar Bluff newspaper. After a nice discussion and a photo session, we were ready to begin the day’s ride to Murray, KY.
We left at 10 AM and were soon riding on nice FLAT scenic roads; a welcomed change after the 200 miles of serious rolling hills the past two days. So we spent a few hours snaking through endless crop fields in the southeast corner of Missouri getting closer and closer to the Mississippi River. Even better, a moderate tailwind from the southwest helped propel us down the road at very pleasant speeds (22-28 mph).
Once we reached the 75 mile point for the day, we decided to eat lunch at the Double “B” restaurant in downtown East Prairie, MO; quite an experience considering the atmosphere and screaming kids in search of a snack after school.
After lunch, we were back at it destine for the Mississippi. We took a long and winding road (route 102) outside of East Prairie until we arrived in Dorena, MO 20 miles later. It was here we took a barge across the waters of the Mississippi to the east bank.
After a short 10 minute trip, we docked in Hickman, KY and began heading for Murray along route 94. This well paved scenic highway was very nice, but after 50 miles of light rolling hills, we were ready to be done for the day. We finally arrived in Murray at sundown, but put in a solid eight hour day with temperatures in the high 80’s! The distance and climate were challenging, but it’s a real confidence boost to know you biked nearly 150 miles in eight hours. Plus, after today, we only have two days over 100 miles. As funny as it sounds, we “only” have about 750 miles to go; so far we have covered 2,300 miles in 3 ½ weeks!
After arriving in Murray, we checked into the Curris Center at Murray State University and got cleaned up. We then went out and had a nice meal at Applebees, were they comp’d our meals again (the Applebees in Durango did as well).
As an aside, one of the neat things that happened today was crossing over a TEPPCO (my employer’s) pipeline in Bernie, MO. For all those at TEPPCO, a picture of us near the downstream highway line marker can be found in the photograph section of the website.
That’s all for now…it’s bed time!
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Posted by Dave at 9:38 PM CDT.
Time: 5 hrs 53 min
Distance: 97.2 miles
Average Speed: 16.5 mph
Hmmm, what to write?
Well, today continued to be the rolly riding we’ve been doing in Missouri. The road was gorgeous for the first 75 miles, but our fingers got the best workout they’ve had all trip. The reason for that is the constant switching of the gears. We try to keep our pedal cadence and output relatively the same whether we’re going up a hill, on flat ground or down a hill. Think of our bikes as a standard car, but with 20 gears instead of four or five. When we start to go up a hill we downshift. When we start cresting the top, the pedaling gets easier, so we shift up a gear or two. It’s the same thing going down the hill. So now that you got a lesson on shifting, I’ll tell you that I’ve never heard two bikes shift so much. It’s kind of funny when you put so much time on a bike, the shifting becomes second nature. We decided that we enjoy having difficult/hilly riding days on beautiful roads rather than a 30 mph tailwind on bad roads like we had on Route 66 in California.
The temperature today was quite warm getting as high as 88 degrees. The road seemed to exploit the heat and made it seem a lot hotter when we were in the sun. However, being in well wooded areas we found ourselves shaded by the trees. They didn’t change the temperature that much, but made a significant distance over the course of the day.
Ok, little side note: I just did spell check on our document and it returned a Flesch-Kincaid grade reading level of 7.9. Not bad for an Engineer and a Mathematician! Let us know if you’re having trouble reading this, we can probably find someone to help you with your reading skills.
We’re now at a brand new Holiday Inn in Poplar Bluff, MO. I’ve never stayed at a brand new hotel, but it is really cool. Everything is still new. The shower curtain still has creases from when it was folded, and the pillows are still soft and fluffy. Then there’s the restaurant attached to the hotel; The Pasta House. We ate a delicious meal that April, the House’s manager, compensated to show the restaurant’s support. Then it was on to Dairy Queen to make sure we had enough Calcium in our bodies before we headed off to bed. And that’s where we’re at now. We get to sleep and dream about the nice 10-15 mph southwest wind we’re supposed to be getting tomorrow.
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Posted by Dana at 10:10 PM CDT.
Time: 6 hrs 42 min
Distance: 109.8 miles
Average Speed: 16.4 mph
Rolling hills, green pastures and trees; we could have been back in upstate New York, but instead we were in southern Missouri. As my coworker Robert Cooper said, Interstate 35 is really the dividing line between the east and west coasts. And from what Dave and I have experienced, Robert is absolutely correct! Northeast Oklahoma and southern Missouri are beautiful areas with rolling hills and open green pastures; very similar to our hometown back in Horseheads (the southern Finger Lakes Region of New York). So although we were riding hundreds of miles from home, it felt as if we were just around the corner!
Today's ride began in Clever, MO at 9:30 AM, after our day off yesterday in Springfield, MO. Yesterdays massages and rest day left us feeling great all the way to 100 miles; unfortunately today was a 110 mile day! Eventually, the non-stop rolling hills along scenic route 14 got to us, which made the last 10-15 miles a little uncomfortably. But we toughed it out and made it successfully to the Holiday Inn Express in West Plains at 5:15 PM.
Upon arrival to the hotel, we meet with Dennis, the Sports Editor from the West Plains newspaper, for an interview. Dennis was very interested in our trip and thought the Lance Armstrong Foundation was a great organization, which it is! So tomorrow morning we look forward to checking the newspaper and reading the article (we’ll include a link to the online article in tomorrow’s journal entry).
So that is all from West Plains. Tomorrow’s ride is much the same as today; 100 miles of rolling hills with light to moderate winds and temperatures in the high 70’s and low 80’s.
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Posted by Dave at 10:02 AM CDT.
Time: 6 hrs 54 min
Distance: 110.3 miles
Average Speed: 16.0 mph
Well, what can be said about today….we’re alive. Today’s trip led us on route 60, which we were on all day yesterday too, for the first 100 miles.
We made a judgement call to take route 60 towards Springfield instead of the originally planned route. The original would’ve taken us 140 miles on all back roads that may or may not have been conducive to our cycling needs. Yesterday route 60 was nicely paved with just a touch of added traffic towards the end of the ride so we figured that would continue today. We were right in one aspect; the road was paved.
The traffic volume was quite a bit higher then yesterday, which was ok. We’re used to high volume roads. However, the shoulder, if there was one, was not very well paved. There were tons of pot holes, left over concrete patches from highway work, large cracks, and lots and lots of debris. So when there wasn’t a shoulder to ride on, we tried to ride the white line. This allowed cars about six inches to clear us when there was oncoming traffic. So needless to say we’re quite happy we made it and happier we cut down on mileage.
This week’s quote of the week comes from a worker at Subway (we eat there a lot) in Bartlesville, OK: “Are you guys in the Tour de France?”…no…”Oh, ‘cause I was going to ask you which one of you was winning.” Yeah, ‘cause they let 215 pound guys ride in the tour.
So we get a day off….YEAH!!! Only two weeks remain and has time ever flown by. It seems like yesterday we were getting our stuff packed and shipped. Now it’s almost over.
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Posted by Dave at 10:49 PM CDT.
Time: 6 hrs 56 min
Distance: 121.8 miles
Average Speed: 17.5 mph
We awoke this morning to a nice change in weather. The rain and tornados had subsided which left us with mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-70s. It was a much needed change since we’d been in dreary weather for the past few days. The sun made us a little more cheerful and our bodies a little more responsive. It’s interesting to notice how much the weather affects our minds and bodies.
We began the day in Ponca City, OK. The morning started out just like all the rest of Oklahoma that we’d seen…desolate. However, about twenty miles into the ride we noticed a very sudden change. The road actually curved a little, the dry cow infested fields became green and there were even trees. We were told once we crossed I-35 everything would be green due to the moist Gulf air, but we never envisioned such a dramatic change. The rolling hills that we’d been experiencing were still present, but now the road followed those hills just like they do in New York.
The population even changed. We actually biked through some small towns that had houses and cars and random people walking the streets. We eventually came to a “large” town called Bartlesville, OK. It was considered to be the largest town we’d been in since Las Vegas. These larger towns that we’d been going through all day made us realize one thing. We miss New York and the civilization we’ve come accustomed to. Biking was somewhat boring the past couple days since there wasn’t anything to look at. Towns, houses, cars, trees, people and dogs chasing after us make the riding go by a lot faster. Yes, we were chased today by three dogs and outran all of them.
One thing that we noticed today more than anything was the road kill factor. There are two creatures down here that are predominantly littering their dead bodies on the road. First are the Armadillos. We equated them to be similar to New York’s Woodchuck problem. The only difference is Armadillos have a thick outer shell that, when run over by a vehicle, breaks open exposing everything. It’s a very grotesque site that we quickly got sick of looking at. Second are the ever popular, but ever so slow Turtle. What’s up with these guys trying to cross highways? We actually saw one that had made it all the way to the double yellow line. There was actually a thought to celebrate, but we decided to move on. So between the Armadillos and Turtles it was like biking through a 120 miles of land mines.
All in all, it was a very positive day and we’re both feeling extremely well. It’s nice to have the sun back. Tomorrow is our last day of riding before our next break in Springfield, MO.
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Posted by Dana at 10:01 PM CDT.
Time: 5 hrs 45 min
Distance: 93.8 miles
Average Speed: 16.2 mph
Overcast skies, drizzle, rain and thunderstorms…these are the elements we coped with riding from Alva to Ponca City. Although the terrain was fairly flat, we battled a moderate cross and headwind, which made our 94 mile ride feel ALL uphill. Even better, we spent much of the day dodging heavy mist from speeding tractor trailers on route 64 and 11. As you can image, it was not a very exciting day, just more mileage through Oklahoma where we saw more farm animals and battled mental staleness that challenges folks involved in such an endeavor. But great news for tomorrow: sunny skies, lower humidity and less wind; a wonderful combination.
Once we arrived in Ponca City this afternoon, our bikes were in serious need of a cleaning. So we washed up the Trek 2300’s to ready them for the sunny days ahead as we get closer to the eight state of our trip (Missouri).
This afternoon, while cleaning our machines outside our hotel room, we had a very nice conversation with Dr. T.J. Murphy, a retired professor from The University of Oklahoma. Dr. Murphy was a very pleasant man with great stories and jokes you come to appreciate from “Grandfather like” figures. Murphy’s story of the day was the rediscovery of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker in east Arkansas. This massive bird (with a wingspan up to 36”) was thought to be extinct, but was recently rediscovered. T.J. thought it would be worth our time to visit the wildlife refuge and see this cool bird. At the very least, he felt we should remember that this bird is BIG NEWS!
So after our discussion with T.J., we got cleaned up and had a great Mexican dinner at Enrique’s in the Ponca City Airport. Certainly an interesting location, but the food was good!
Final thought…our motto today was Ben Stiller’s “Do it, do it,” line from Starsky & Hutch, mainly because of the mentally challenging day we had with rain, mist and threats of tornadoes. Every time we thought of this fun line it made us laughed and hang in there. Laughter and humor, we’ve found, is essential for a trip such as this. Without it, you’re in for a long five week trip.
Signing off.
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Posted by Dave at 9:16 PM CDT.
Time: 6 hrs 40 min
Distance: 126.3 miles
Average Speed: 18.9 mph
A nicely cooler day allowed us to put in some good mileage today.
The morning started out pretty cold, but was quickly warmed by our body temperature. The scenery remained the same as it has the past couple days. Cows and horses lined the roadways behind long fences of barbed wire while telephone poles still stretched to the horizon. However today’s terrain ventured into rolling hills after the mostly flat morning. We found ourselves with a slight backwind during the majority of the day and that allowed us to arrive at a small town called Buffalo, OK at mile 70 in a little over three hours. While in Buffalo we decided to grab some lunch at Subway to fill our bodies with something other than energy bars. There weren’t any tables to sit at so we sat in the support vehicle eating our lunches when one of the workers came out to tell us there was a severe thunderstorm approaching. The storm was said to have golf ball sized hail so we made the quick decision to hang out in the support vehicle until it passed us. Sure enough as the worker left us the rain started and so did the lightening. There’s something to be said about thunderstorms in wide open plains. You can see the bolts for miles and it’s very mesmerizing. So while we were waiting the storm out, we fell asleep listening to the pebble sized hail and thick rain for the next hour or so. Once it had ended we quickly jumped on our bikes and headed off for the final sixty miles.
The final miles went pretty quickly, but the roads became much more rolling. However, we were feeling very good after our siestas and turned the dial up a notch. The final 10 miles we, for some reason, decided to begin a pace line. We did half mile pulling rotations that allowed us to maintain speeds of over 25 mph. What the pace line does is streamline our efforts. The person at the front breaks the wind and does the brunt of the work to keep the high speeds. After the half mile was up, the person that was leading dropped back to recover for a half mile. Then the next person would pull for a half mile and so on. This allows us to maintain high speeds, cover some miles quickly and also makes us stronger riders.
Today was also the day we crossed our halfway point for mileage. It seems that everything is going by so quickly. Everything is going by quickly, but is also bringing us new memories everyday. There isn’t a whole lot to see out here in Oklahoma, but at the same time it reminds us of how beautiful the hardest parts of our trip were. It’s kind of funny how the most boring things are those that make you appreciate everything that little bit more.
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Posted by Dana at 9:15 PM CDT.
Time: 5 hrs 17 min
Distance: 100.0 miles
Average Speed: 18.9 mph
Good evening from Liberal, KS. Today we continued our cross country ride through the great plains of the US. Although this massively flat area is beautiful in its own unique way, it sure is boring! Today was the flattest we’ve had so far; the grassy fields are like oceans; they span as far as the eye can see. It’s so flat that even telephone poles disappear into the horizon miles ahead. All that being said, we rode a mindless 100 miles through the panhandle of Oklahoma.
Yesterday, we were blessed with a strong tailwind that literally blew us down the road; we averaged over 24 mph for our 100 mile day! Today, however, we battled a strong crosswind, but managed to average a respectable 19 mph. This south, southeast wind was so strong we were sometimes riding diagonally down the road.
One of the major observation we’re made over the last few days is there are more cows and animals than people out here. Today, we must have literally seen thousands of cows scattered throughout the endless fields of Oklahoma! In fact, other than the major towns and cities, there are not many people that live out here.
So that was today, nothing spectacular, just a warm day of riding with partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the high 80’s. Until tomorrow…good night!
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Posted by Dave at 10:53 PM CDT.
Time: 4 hrs 7 min
Distance: 100.1 miles
Average Speed: 24.2 mph
Today’s journal will not describe our ride, but rather inform you of the very reason we are doing this ride.
As all of you know, the Ride of ’05 is cycling across the United States to raise awareness and funds for cancer. As we are in the middle of our journey, being away from “reality” for the past couple weeks, we have been awakened by the very reason we are submitting our minds and bodies to this cycling trip.
Ironically, last night I received some information that touches me very closely. My Godson and cousin, Thomas, has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Thomas is a mere nine years old and has Burkitt’s Lymphoma. After some time of not feeling well the doctors were finally able to diagnose the disease having found some lumps in his abdomen and have begun the six month chemotherapy treatments. He will be hospitalized and needs to be under constant testing to make sure the treatments are affecting the disease appropriately while maintaining his normal bodily functions. Although Thomas is a very intelligent boy, he may not fully comprehend what cancer entails, as many of us do not.
Until there is a cure for cancer, the outcome of people living with cancer is in their attitude, our support, the current technology we have and, more importantly, something greater than us. We know that everyone has their own beliefs about things, but I’m asking you all to add Thomas and his family to your prayers. I’ve found that no matter what kind of prayer it is, they all get to the right place!
Thomas’ mother Sue, who was supposed to be a member of our fourth support team will, for obvious reasons, be unable to assist us now. As a result, we are looking for a female support member to join my sister, Tanya for that fourth week. If you are interested in helping, please contact us immediately for information. We would need someone to arrive Monday 5/16 and leave Saturday 5/21.
This week, we will be out riding across the hot plains of Oklahoma trying to get people more involved with this world’s cancer problem. A great way you can help is to donate to foundations such as the Lance Armstrong Foundation that help families such as mine help fight the battle with cancer that can sometimes present themselves.
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Posted by Dana at 10:15 PM MDT.
Time: 5 hrs 6 min
Distance: 101.0 miles
Average Speed: 19.7 mph
This morning we began our ride in the quaint town of Taos at an elevation of 7,000 feet. After a brief ride through the village, we turned left on route 64 and began our last major climb in the west coast mountains. The climb was about 20 miles long and happily was a gradual ascent to an elevation of 9,100 feet. This narrow well paved road snaked through gorgeous mountain scenery until we reached the crest after 75 minutes of climbing. From there, we descended several miles down the twisty turny highway and rode through a beautiful valley between snow capped mountains for several miles.
We had our first break in the small lake town of Eagle Nest, NM, 32 miles into the day’s ride. After our break, we made the small climb out of Eagle Nest and then the fun began! From mile 35 to 75, we absolutely flew; averaging 26 mph while gradually dropping 2,500 feet over this 40 mile section. We reached sustained speeds of 30 mph for miles at a time; the support vehicle was even having difficulty keeping up!
After arriving in Springer, NM a little after 1 PM, we had lunch at Brown’s hotel and afterwards, decided to add mileage onto the day. This would reduce the distance for tomorrow’s 125 mile day to Boise City, OK. So after a warm afternoon ride on route 56, we did 26 extra miles to make an even 101 for the day, ending the day in the booming metropolis of Abbott, NM. This “town” had only two houses and that was it! The open space out here in the plains is absolutely amazing!
After our ride, we drove to Raton, NM to stay in the Holiday Inn Express, where the owners graciously provided two complementarily rooms for us. After the typically pool and hot tub treatment, we showered and had dinner at the Icehouse Steakhouse in town. After dessert at Diary Queen, we called it a day.
Tomorrow, we’ll ride another 100 miles and are hoping for the same tailwind we experienced today. If so, we hope to finish in around 4 hours because we drop 2,000 feet over that distance. We hope that Kansas continues to suck and Texas continues to blow.
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Posted by Dave at 10:51 PM MDT.
Normally on our day off we don’t write in our journal, but we thought it’d be a good idea to let everyone know what our “days off” entailed.
This morning we woke up around 7:00. Dana and I decided to split our duties today and get more accomplished. Dana drove our support team two hours to the airport in Albuquerque, waited for our new support member and drove back to Taos. Meanwhile, Dave had busy work while Dana was away.
First and foremost we had lots of cycling clothing that needed to be washed. The bikes needed to be cleaned and re-lubed. The website needed to required changes too. So with the helping hand of Dave’s friend Tina, the clothes were washed and the bikes were cleaned. Emails were all sent to our Webmasters to update the Ride of ’05 site.
When Dana returned at 2:30 he and Bob, our new member, rearranged our support vehicle. In the late afternoon, we laid down to watch some TV and take a nap. When we awoke, we took a trip to Wal-Mart and visited the Taos Spa to go get massages. The massages were great and afterwards were informed of yet another great place to eat. So, this great place to eat is the main reason we are writing tonight.
We ate, what all three of us are calling the best Italian meals we’ve ever had, at a place called Vecinos. Now what we’ve found traveling is that you can’t judge a book by its cover. This place did not look like your average Italian restaurant, but the food that was served and the hospitality of its owner/waiter/cook…yeah, he was the man…was impeccable. Here’s how it worked: We walked through the door and noticed three families sitting there waiting for their meals. This guy (named Pattz) standing behind the counter, which is just a wall separating the dinning room from the kitchen yells up to us, “Hope you guys didn’t come for the pizza because we’re all out of mozzarella. But I’ll make you guys a (something, something, something) white pizza and you’ll love it.” We sat down to check out the menu, which included HOMEMADE PASTA. You could get whatever you wanted in the ravioli and manicotti, which is made right there on the spot. So we ordered our meals from the owner/waiter/cook. He brought out what can only be described as Italian meals straight from Italy. This food was by far the best meal we’ve eaten…possibly ever! So in the middle of our meals, this owner/waiter/cook came over and was asking us how everything was. We went on to tell him about our trip, the LAF, where we were from, blah blah blah. Pattz too was from New York State and sat down near us and we talked for about an hour.
So here’s the deal…if you’re ever in New Mexico or within this general vicinity, you NEED to stop by Taos’ Vecinos! Trust us, it’s the best Italian you will ever eat.
Over and out from Taos.
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Posted by Dave at 10:45 PM MDT.
Time: 6 hrs 3 min
Distance: 112.6 miles
Average Speed: 18.6 mph
This morning we awoke to a gorgeous winter morning although it was May 8th. It was a very warm 30° with a slight flurry remaining in the sky. Not a bad way to start a bike ride. Luckily for us we had to drive 30 miles to get to our actual starting place; the New Mexico – Colorado border.
When we arrived at the starting spot the temperature hadn’t changed much. It had warmed to a whopping 39° and the flurries remained. We started biking and got off to a great start. The flurries didn’t bother us much since they weren’t sticking to the ground or us. However, about 10 miles into the ride the flurries quickly changed to hail and that bothered us a bit. Like yesterday, when you’re going 20 mph and have to contend with being bombarded with pellets, it’s not fun. The hail didn’t last long, maybe 10 minutes or so, but that was plenty long enough. We did get to cross the Continental Divide. For those of you who don’t know, it’s the geological location where, depending on which side the rain falls, the water goes to either the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean.
We descended into a town called Chama, NM and began our dreaded journey to crest the San Juan Mountains at around the 40 mile mark. Today was the day we would climb to our highest elevation of the trip. The mountain was a long 18 mile battle that left us smiling at the top of its 10,500 ft elevation. Neither of us had ever climbed to such a height, let alone that distance. You can’t really imagine what it takes to climb that far until you’ve done it. It was quite an amazing climb now that we look back on it. Every other mountain now looks like an ant hill. Plus to add to our joy we were surrounded by five feet of snow. You can see in our photos how we set up our bike rack when we were at the top.
So 50 miles into the ride we were at the hardest part of our day. Now the fun could begin! Coming down the other side was AWESOME!! We were topping out at speeds around 55 mph. There were still over 60 miles left to ride, but at these speeds it didn’t take long. To put it all into perspective we crested the mountain at 51 miles and about 3 hrs 15 min. We finished the day at 112 miles and 6 hrs. So after the mountain we did 61 miles in 2 hrs 45 min. You might not think that’s all that big of a deal, but we think it’s some great stats.
Now we’re in this cool New Mexico town called Taos and we get a day off tomorrow. We’re pretty excited about that because we’ve concluded this week was probably the worst week we’ll encounter. Provided the wind stays at our backs through Oklahoma, we should be able to cruise through next week.
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Posted by Dave at 10:22 PM MDT.
Time: 5 hrs 32 min
Distance: 89.0 miles
Average Speed: 16 mph
Today turned out to be, thus far, the most interesting day we’ve had. Not just on the bikes, but off the bikes as well.
The day started out in Durango. We were informed of a great place to eat called CJ’s Diner so we stopped over there to check it out (we haven’t been lied to yet about a good place to eat, but I’m sure it’ll happen sooner or later). While we were sitting there eating our food a gentleman approached our table and excused himself asking, “Are you really biking across the country or did you just buy those jersey’s because they look cool?” We then went on to tell him about our cause and journey. He too was a cyclist as were many of the people in Durango. If you’re an active person, Durango is the place to be.
After breakfast we started our daily routine of loosening up our muscles, joints and attitude. The first two took about 20 miles to start warming up, but the last one took a bit longer. The hills out here are tough and long. Those two coupled with a decent headwind create poor cycling conditions. When you finally crest a hill and get blasted with a headwind it’s like continuing to climb the hill even though you’re not. So we’re climbing and climbing and climbing….you get the point….and the temperature starts to drop. Go figure, we’re getting up there with the snow capped mountaintops at this point. Then a nice dark cloud rolls overhead and decides to start pouring its cold rain on us. There’s nothing quite like a cold rain that feels like someone's pelting you with rocks, headwind and long hills to go along with a long bike ride. It’s like being kicked when you’re down. So we battled the elements and rode 60 miles until we came to Pagosa Springs, CO.
Most of these towns are skiing towns and they’re nestled into their little coves within the mountains. Pagosa Springs is where our hotel was located even though we had to ride beyond there. When we arrived the rain/rocks were falling pretty heavily so we called it quits for a bit to warm up and see if it’d blow over. We washed our bikes off (they get more showers than we do) and jumped in the hot tub for a bit. Then it was time to go grab a bite to eat.
Pagosa Springs, what a place. It was like being in the Twilight Zone. Maybe we just came at the wrong time, but we walked into this place to eat around 4:00pm and all the dining chairs were up on the tables except for the two people sitting at one of them. We figured they may just be closing early or something like that, but we noticed they didn’t close until 9:00pm. When it was time to place our order, we did and asked to get some cookies. “What you see is all that we have", answered Miss Personality. "We make them in the morning and whatever is there is there.” Yeah, ok, there were five cookies left, two different kinds, from this morning and they weren’t going to make any more before 9:00? That was told to us by what could only be described as the Wicked Witch's sister from the Wizard of Oz. Some people just weren’t made to serve. So we politely thanked her…no reply. Maybe she didn’t hear us…again, thank you…no reply. Yeah, she was definitely not made for counter service. So we got our chairs off our table and ate. The clouds were still lingering overhead but getting darker so we decided we were in the Twilight Zone or there was a UFO controlling this town. It’s probably one of those “had to be there” moments, but it was funny.
Now back to the hotel to get ready for our second ride and finish our mileage. No sooner did we clip into our bikes did it start raining hard again. We had a decent hill we got to go down for a bit and when we descended it the rain stopped and all was nice again. Still no sun, but we could handle that. We finished up our day around 7:30 closing out another state and headed back to the hotel which is where we’re at now.
We’re hoping tomorrow brings us some better weather going into our day off on Sunday. We’ll let you know tomorrow how it went. Until then, have a great night and enjoy your Saturday off…we’ll be biking 100 miles.
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Posted by Dana at 12:08 AM MDT.
Time: 8 hrs 4 min
Distance: 122.1 miles
Average Speed: 15.1 mph
While most people spent eight hours in an office today, we sent that time on our bikes! This was due to the fact that every possible condition that could halt our progress happened. The most prominent element we dealt with was a constant 20 mph headwind from the east. If you add rain showers, a thunderstorm, 4,000 feet of elevation difference between start and finish and a flat tire for Dave at the base of our final 15 mile climb…that was our day. However, when we finally reached the Holiday Inn Durango, we felt a great sense of accomplishment and perseverance.
Some highlights of the day included…
-Visiting the Four Corners late this morning, which is the only point in the United States where four states have a common boundary line.
-A thunderstorm “delay” outside of Cortez, CO to wait for lightening to pass.
-Descending the final 10 miles of our ride into the town of Durango in about 20 minutes! After cresting the summit of the snow capped mountains along route 160, on our descent we reached sustained speeds of 50 mph. Yeah…its lots of fun!
-Today’s most picturesque landscape award belongs to the snow capped Rockie Mountain Range we ascended and partially descended late this afternoon.
Well, that is all for now; we have to get our rest because we continue climbing the Rockie’s over the next two days. Good night!
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Posted by Dave at 8:50 PM MDT.
Time: 4 hrs 3 min
Distance: 68.2 miles
Average Speed: 16.8 mph
Today’s short 70 mile journey allowed us to wake later in the morning. After eating breakfast we reconfigured our support vehicle to allow ourselves more room. Then it was time to get a start on our mileage.
The first 25 miles were somewhat “boring”, but on beautifully paved road. After that the road turned a bit worse and the scenery became amazing because we rode through Monument Valley. Maybe I’m geologically unintelligent, but I’ve never heard of it before. For those of you who are like me, check out the pictures we took. There’s a couple of “monuments” that should look very familiar. We think the one was used in a SUV commercial a year or two ago. Anyway, we spent quite a bit of time admiring the formations and continued on our ride.
After some stiff climbing the past couple days, it finally paid off. The valley led us to a 6 mile section of 8 – 10 percent downhill grades. To put that into perspective we can ride about 25 mph on flat ground and hit the low 30s on slight down grades. The 8 – 10 grades allowed us to reach high 40s and low 50s. These few moments of excitement make all the hard work we put into the hills pay off. One of the hills led us into a 25 mph curve. Dana and I took that curve around 35 mph and tried to get it on camera, but found that it was not functioning properly. That curve led us to a nice long hill that was fun to conquer. After ascending the mountain we found ourselves in Bluff, UT our destination. Bluff’s a small town but has a beautiful log cabin hotel, the Desert Rose Inn and Cabins.
So you probably think that we cyclists just sit there, push the pedals and make sure we’re close to the white line. Well sometimes that’s true. But Dana and I tend not to do that at all unless we’re trying to go fast. So we’ve decided to inform you of some of the stuff that goes on during the course of our riding. So far the one that’s going to be a constant lingerer is the song that Dana decided to start. Dana’s been having knee pain due to the consistent pedaling. Advil and ice have been the medicine that’s helped him lately so he’s made a song to sing when he’s feeling pain. It’s in it’s beginning stages but here’s how it starts, “ Ice…and Advil…and good prayers…make me healthy!” We’ll have a full two or three minute song by the time we finish. Dana’s trying out for American Idol next season with this original hit song.
Another thing we do is laugh a lot. Life would be boring if we didn’t make some jokes and get some laughs out of each other. The only problem we’ve faced thus far with this theory is laughing trying to get up a hill. There’s nothing quite like taking your breath away when you need it most. So today I decided, while we were laughing going up a hill, that it’d be a good idea to play the ABC game. We could only use letters on cars or road signs. Out here in the middle of nowhere the game should’ve lasted a long time, but when our support vehicle drove up we got all the way to the letter Q. Apparently our support car plastered the alphabet all over it. Let me tell you, the letter Q is not found anywhere out here in Utah. We were stuck on Q for about 5 miles. Then it showed up on a license plate and the game was quickly finished.
So to create a little interaction with our readers and followers we’re going to extend an invitation to come up with some other games we can play while we’re biking. Email us here, let us know your idea and we’ll try to give it a shot.
From the Twin Rocks Café, we bid you farewell until tomorrow.
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Posted by Rick Carr at 10:35 PM MDT.
Time: 6 hrs 38 min
Distance: 118.4 miles
Average Speed: 17.8 mph
Hello from the road! This is Rick Carr, Dana’s Dad and current member of the support team, acting as guest reporter for today’s journal entry. Today was another great day for the boys. They covered nearly 120 miles from the edge of the Grand Canyon to Kayenta, Arizona which is at the entrance to Monument Valley. Along the way we saw some wonderful natural sites that were just breathtaking. We also saw some of the most abject poverty that exists in the United States in the living conditions of some of the Native Americans. Such poverty amidst such natural beauty really gets you thinking.
But I do have some other observations of the trip thus far. First, I am absolutely amazed at the overall scope of this undertaking, and at what the guys have accomplished so far. To talk about riding across the country sounds really cool when it’s at the kitchen table or in conversation with your friends. Even the numbers, 3000 miles in 34 days, doesn’t really sound that hard when you’re just talking. But when you really are riding over 100 miles each day, every day, it really begins to hit you how difficult this really is going to be. Despite all the planning there are lots of unknowns in the trip; the weather, the road conditions, the traffic, injuries, bike trouble and lots more. This just means that each day is a different challenge and the guys are doing a great job in dealing with everything. 810 miles in 9 days, amazing! I am so proud of both Dana and Dave for just starting this adventure and I’ll be even more proud when they arrive in Myrtle Beach.
Second observation, what an unbelievably beautiful country we have. If you haven’t had the opportunity to travel in the west, you must make the opportunity. There is a little bit of everything; ocean, desert, valleys, plains, hills, mountains, and its’ all beautiful. The Grand Canyon is, of course, breathtaking. But there are equally beautiful sights all along the route. All you need to do is look around. However, America is beautiful at a distance but close up is another story. We have not stopped the car anywhere along the road since we left California where we haven’t encountered TRASH! America’s roadways are all lined with garbage! It’s disgusting, it’s embarrassing! It must be stopped! So please support your local “adopt a highway” program and never litter anywhere. Stop littering by others when you see it. This is a problem that can be cleaned up, but it must also be stopped at the source and that’s each of us. Keep our beautiful America beautiful.
Tomorrow we travel through Monument Valley, another area of beautiful natural rock formations. It should be another wonderful day on this difficult but exciting journey.
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Posted by Dave at 10:52 PM PDT.
Time: 4 hrs 51 min
Distance: 92.1 miles
Average Speed: 18.9 mph
Today was literally a roller coaster ride. Up and down and up and down. And these hills were not the normal little hills that we’re used to out in New York. These were half mile or more long and fairly steep. Somehow we managed to pull off the stats above, but it wasn’t easy.
Our day started out fairly cool with temperatures in the high 40s. That temperature didn’t really change much due to the high elevation we were at. We started out around 6,700 ft and finished at 7,500 ft. Not much else to say about the ride itself, over 90 miles of rolling hills. Truth is we’re glad they’re over with. Around mile 60 we came to the Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon is absolutely the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen. Being my first time seeing it I can honestly say that pictures and movies just don’t do it justice; which brings me to the first conclusion we’ve made. People always talk about how much more beautiful places are than other places. The truth is no place is any more beautiful than any other. California had its moments, with its high jagged mountains. Las Vegas was pretty spectacular all lit up at night. Riding from Las Vegas into Arizona we got to see the changes in scenery going from mountains to plains with mountains in the distance. Now we came across the Grand Canyon. We talked today and compared our own life observations and have concluded that no place is more beautiful, but rather every place is unique. We suppose the places have a lot to do with how long you’ve been observing them. If we lived in the Grand Canyon, it probably wouldn’t have the same effect it does on us now. Same holds true for living in New York. We’ve lived there all our lives so anything that’s different hits us a little bit harder. At the same time though, we come to appreciate what New York has to offer and realize that no place is better than any other.
We’ve also concluded that elderly drivers are the same no matter what part of the country they drive. There’s a possibility of two reasons why we believe they drive the way they do when coming upon cyclists. First reason is they believe it’s against the law to cross over any line whatsoever. We’ve been on stretches of road where you can see for about 40 miles ahead, no traffic coming at all, then swoosh…..within six inches we’re barely missed by Grandma’s mirror. Then there’s the other reason, which may be a bit far fetched, but probably just as accurate. Elderly people have lived long prosperous lives and they’re probably bored of the same old thing. It doesn’t take much to make them get a chuckle out of their everyday routine so what do they do when they drive?......they make a little game out of it. “Let’s see how close we can get to those guys riding their bikes.” “I can barely see over the steering wheel so I’m going to go as slow as possible to make sure I don’t hit anything.” “Oh yeah blinkers. I’ve used them so much, I’m sick of using them.” Yeah, that’s right. You all know what we’re talking about.
So now that we’ve vented a bit it’s time to get off to bed. Tomorrow is calling for rain and thunderstorms and we’re supposed to be riding over 100 miles so wish us luck.
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Posted by Dana at 8:57 PM PDT.
Time: 5 hrs 47 mins
Distance: 105.1 miles
Average Speed: 18.3 mph
May 1st was spent on Route 66...that's what we rode on today for 105 miles! Although it was a long day on this historic route, we saw some of the most beautiful and diverse scenery of the trip. The first third of the day was spent in the desert where brown hues covered the landscape. But once we crested a large hill at 40 miles, we rode into a huge valley probably 60 miles wide with hugh mountains on either side. Far off in the distance, we saw the southern rim of the Grand Canyon, where we will end tomorrow's ride.
So after riding through the valley, we took a break in Peach Springs around 11:30 AM. After munching on PowerBars and raisins and witnessing a pack of wild dogs ravage through garbage along the road, we were off. After climbing 2,000 feet over the course of 60 miles, we reached a long flat 15 mile stretch and only had a few grades to deal with from time to time.
But as we rounded a bend heading into Seligman, we reached the base of a long hill with a strong headwind. So, we motor-paced behind the support vehicle and allowed them to block the oncoming wind for the one and half mile climb. With the wind not a factor behind the Expedition, we got up to 22 mph climbing the hill (it's really amazing how much wind resistance can slow you down on the bike)!
After the hill, we descended into Seligman and had a small lunch at A&W. Afterwards, we hopped back on the bike and put in another 21 miles to conclude the day. This section on 66 was yet again noticably different terrain with lots of green trees and vegetation that resemble grass, but it was more like moss. So after a few good rolling hills in the final miles of the day, we called in quits at the intersection of I-40 and 66 in Ash Fork (exit 139).
Yet again, a good day on the bike with gorgeous scenery to observe as we cross the US.
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Posted by Dana at 10:08 PM PDT.
Time: 5 hrs 27 min
Distance: 86.3 miles
Average Speed: 15.8 mph (Good for Riopko’s wallet)
This morning, we began our ride at the intersection of route 93 and 95 just outside of Las Vegas. After a short spin into Boulder City, we hooked up with three local cyclists out for their Saturday morning ride. We chatted with them while descending into Lake Mead recreation area, but they turned north and we continued our descent towards Hoover Dam. Once we reached the dam, we had some dam questions, but could not find a dam tour guide. Regardless, we admired the views of this impressive national landmark and began our climb out of the dam.
Once reaching the top of our mountain climb, we rode into a strong crosswind for the next 60 miles along route 93 south. It certainly took a toll on the average speed, but the day did go by fairly quickly. We also applied the Gulden formula of wind today, which my late college coach taught our Bucknell Cross Country team. Basically, the formula states you use common sense and not push too hard into a strong headwind and tire yourself out for the next day. Good advice because this week is the most challenging terrain of the trip; in a few days we crest the Rockies!
So after two climbs in the final miles of the day, then descended into Kingman where a large car show was taking place. After admiring a few cars, we made our way to the Holiday Inn Express 4 miles up the rode on route 66 (yes, we’re back this historic route again). After one last half mile climb, we glanced at each other and decided to race for the hotel 2 miles up the road. At speeds up to 35 miles an hour, someone came away the winner by several seconds, but the winner shall remain nameless.
To summarize…a good day with beautiful sunshine and a strong crosswind that definitely slowed us down. But the 86 miles went quickly, which means we are adapting to the high mileage. Now, if we can get rid of those nagging knee and other joint pains we’ll be set!
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Posted by Dana at 10:07 PM PDT.
This morning we took our bikes to McGhies bike shop for a tune up before resuming our trip tomorrow. To our surprise, the guys at McGhies did the check overs free of cost!
After a delicious breakfast at The Egg and I and washing the support vehicle, we wandered around our hotel (Treasure Island) and the new Wynn Las Vegas. We also saw many contestants for the Miss Hawaiian Tropics International competition that was taking place at TI.
Basically, we took in the sites and sounds of Vegas close to home and enjoyed our rest day.
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Posted by Dave at 12:24 AM PDT.
Time: 3 hrs 45 min
Distance: 73.1 miles
Average Speed: 19.5 mph
Note: we sincerely apologize for the lack of grammar in our journal. We hope that it does not discredit our reputations as being somewhat intelligent guys. After putting in a full day, then trying to sit and summarize the day around 11:00 pm each night, it’s tough.
Well, today was a day for all you who were questioning what we’d do if we came across bad weather. So here’s how the day unfolded.
We both woke up feeling the same as every other day. Have you ever felt like you didn’t want to go to work or school, but knew you had to? Then when the day’s finally over, you were so glad you went. More was accomplished because you sucked it up and did what you had to do. Today was that day.
Clouds were hanging around so we figured it’d be a nice day away from the sun and heat. Our delicious breakfast was served by McDonald’s…..yes, McD’s…..we didn’t have any other choices except Beef Jerky. So we hopped on the bikes around 9:00 and began to pedal (very slowly). Then drip by drip we felt rain hit our helmets. The drips eventually turned into a constant rain. That didn’t stop us. In fact, we turned up the dial a bit and started cruising. For the next 40 miles we climbed about 1600 feet and stopped in a town called Searchlight. These towns are great. There’s about two convenient shops/gas stations in the town. Funny thing is between Vegas and Laughlin each shop has some form of gambling in it. As if people didn’t get enough gambling out of either those two cities, they need to play some more slots. After the stop, we rode the rest of the way averaging about 25 mph. It turned out to be an awesome day despite the rain.
So our first “rest” day is here and we feel pretty good. We both will need the extra day of rest not only for our bodies, but our minds as well.
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Posted by Dana at 10:52 PM PDT.
Time: 5 hrs 50 min
Distance: 112.3 miles
Average Speed: 19.2 mph
Today’s ride began in Newberry Springs at 8 AM with a moderate tailwind. After spinning out the moderate soreness the first few miles, we got into a nice rhythm until we came across what can only be describe as treacherous pavement along historic route 66. Finally, after 7 miles of rattling and banging around on the “highway” (it was more like a dirt road), we decided to hop on Interstate 40. With moderate traffic and a large smooth shoulder, this was a huge improvement over good ole 66. So onward we rode…and rode…and rode.
We began on I-40 10 miles into the day and got off at the rest stop in Essex, CA, 78 miles later. Along the way, we took breaks at Ludlow and one entrance to the Mojave National Preserve. Enroute, we gradually climbed a 1600 foot mountain, managed to avoid the speedy tractor trailers and motorists and dealt with our first mechanical problem. At 72 miles into the ride, Dave “sprung a leak” in this rear wheel which needed replacement (both a new tire and tube). But, after 15 minutes, we were off and bound for Exit 107 (Essex).
Once we approached the rest stop in Essex, 88 miles into our ride, we decided to fill the support vehicle with gas to the tune of $3.60 per gallon! But, with 57 miles back to Ludlow and over 50 miles to Needles, we didn’t have much of a choice! Regardless, with $25 of gas in the tank and a short break, we took to the road, this time back on route 66, where we definitely had our kicks (we reached speeds of 32 miles an hour on flat ground with a tailwind)! This road section was 24 miles long and much improved over the 66 we saw earlier. Not only was in relatively smooth, but it was amazingly scenic along the southern border of the Mojave National Preserve.
Once we reached our original endpoint in Goffs, CA, 98 miles into the day, we decided to tack on a few extra miles because we felt good. Plus, it would reduce the mileage for our day into Vegas. So we ended up adding 15 miles to today’s ride, which makes tomorrows ride “only” 95 miles (down from 110).
All in, we did 112 miles in less than 6 hours; not bad for a couple working guys who like to bike in their spare time! After the ride, we rejoined the support vehicle and made the trip to Laughlin, NV to the Avi Resort and Casino (where our rooms were provided to us complimentarily! After a dip in the pool and soak in the whirlpool, we got cleaned up and had a nice meal at the Moonshadow Grille, were the manager comp’d half the bill! Linda and Kim, on the other hand, were business in the casino trying to win big bucks and get warmed up for Las Vegas. Viva Las Vegas, Baby, Yeah!
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Posted by Dave at 10:08 PM PDT.
Time: 4 hrs 45 min
Distance: 82.8 miles
Average Speed: 17.4 mph
Time: 1 hrs 16 min Total: 6 hrs 1 min
Distance: 24.3 miles Total: 107.1
Average Speed: 19.0 mph Total: 17.8 mph (Very bad for Riopko’s wallet)
The day started out a bit slow feeling just a bit tight in the joints. There were also the normal aches that go along with riding these distances. About 10 miles into the ride we hit some awesome road and suddenly the aches disappeared and we bumped our speed up averaging around 25mph for about 20 miles. The road was fairly flat and the view was the same with some snow-capped mountains off to the right and jagged mountains to the left. You’d never guess it, but we actually came across a raging rapid today in the middle of this desert land. The only problem we faced was how to cross it. That’s right, it was flowing right over the road. We managed it and continued on.
Pictures couldn’t describe the views that we’ve been seeing these past couple days. We try to take photos for you to see, but it doesn’t capture them as well. We decided to skip lunch today figuring it didn’t seem to help us yesterday. Maybe we should’ve because today we encountered our first meeting with the pavement.
We were riding along this nice straight road and Dana hollered up to wait up a sec. Normally that means that something went wrong so I decided to slow up quickly. Apparently I slowed a bit too fast and Dana, with water bottle in one hand, handlebar in the other, hit my rear wheel and flattened out on the pavement. Luckily there weren’t any cars and Dana got up with just some road rash added to his body. (Now all of you know why it’s important for cyclists to shave their legs!!)
The fall didn’t seem to be a problem because we finished the day in Barstow around 1:00pm. We ate at a small diner across the street and tried to take a little nap. Around 5:00 we figured we’d better get going on our second ride of the day and shorten tomorrow’s ride. It was supposed to be a nice easy ride, which it was, but somehow we cruised the entire way.
At 8:00pm we went to dinner at Vick’s Restaurant in Barstow to enjoy a complementary dinner. The dinner was outstanding. They used their own special Thompson’s rub on the beef that was amazing. We even got to see a waiter do some dance moves for us. The staff here at the Holiday Inn are very pleasant too and have gone out of their way to help us out, including setting us up at Vick’s. It’s unfortunate, however, that the local newspaper didn’t think as highly of our cause. Apparently there is just too much news around here in good ole Barstow to cover such a miniscule event like the Ride of ’05. People like that make us that much more appreciative of people like you! Thank you to all that have been here with us.
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Posted by Dana at 9:31 PM PDT.
Day 1: Ventura, CA - Four Points, CA
Time: 5 hrs 1 min
Distance: 85.6 miles
Average Speed: 17.1 mph
What an exciting first day! We began our day at San Buenaventura State Beach in Ventura this morning after leaving for my Aunt Jann's home in Northridge, CA (about 45 miles east). We stayed with Jann the last three days while getting our stuff around and packing up the support vehicle (a Ford Expedition). While in Northridge, we also had time to tour LA and see the sites. Anyway...back to our first day.
We began our day at 9:45 AM and maneuvered around Ventura to Telegraph Rd. Along Telegraph (~20 miles), we saw mile and miles of orange orchards and strawberry field and beautiful hills and mountains. We then proceeded to route 126 where we continued to enjoy the strong tailwind. Once we entered Santa Clarita, we stopped for lunch at Mimi's Cafe where they provided us our meals complementary! We then proceeded through Valencia to Soledad Canyon. This was a 20 mile long twisty turny road, mostly uphill, through gorgeous canyons. This was also the area we began to feel the brisk miles of the earlier part of the day. At about 70 miles (half way through Soledad) we started to tire, but after a few more climbs we were through the canyon and on Sierra Highway to the finish line for the day in Four Points (10 miles due south of Palmdale).
All is all a great first day with a delightful tailwind and gorgeous scenery.
That's all for now. It's AIB time (Ass in bed).
Dana & Dave
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Posted by Dana at 9:00 PM EDT.
Tonight is my last night in Elmira, NY (my hometown) before I leave for Los Angeles, so I'm packing up my essential trip stuff (see pic in pre-ride album).
I had an exciting day today because we receive our new Treo 650 smartphones from PalmOne (very cool), a nice donation from our bank sponsor Chemung Canal Trust Company and our clothing from Performance Bicycle. Needless to say, I'm very excited for the adventure we are about to begin.
We shipped our bikes via FedEx Monday to LA, so only after 3 days of not riding I'm starting to go through withdrawl (haha). But, in a stop time, I'll have all the riding time I could ever dream of...we start in 5 days!
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Posted by Dave at 7:40 PM EDT.
We'll be having our first public fundraiser at the Lamp Post Bar and Grill on Friday April 8th around 8pm. The Lamp Post is located on the corner of Western Ave and Quail St. Just bring a photo ID, some money and anyone you know. It's going to be a lot of fun!! Contact Dave if you need a place to crash.
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Posted by Dana at 4:48 PM EDT.
As many of you know, on April 25th, 2005, Dave and I will embark on a 3,200 mile cross country bicycle ride from Los Angeles, CA to Myrtle Beach, SC to fundraise for the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF). The goal of our five week journey is to raise awareness and $25,000 for the LAF’s programs that promote cancer research, treatment, public education and advocacy.
With less than 3 weeks until we leave for LA, I cannot help but think of the people we will meet, the things we will see and the fun we will have. But these wonderful thoughts are somewhat shadowed by the people in my life who have struggle in the battle with cancer; some have won (like me), yet others have lost. Therefore, if in someway, the awareness and funds raised on our cross country journey can someday save a person's life, then the Ride of ’05 was worth the effort.
In this regard, we are accepting donations to both the LAF and The Ride of ’05. Tax deductible donations directly to the foundation can be made on our website by navigating to the DONATE tab, LAF DONATIONS and secure online donation page link. You may also click on the donate tab at the upper right hand corner of the homepage and this will also direct you to our account at the LAF.
Likewise, donations to help offset our expenses can be directed to:
Ride of 2005
3 Philo Rd West
Elmira, NY 14903
You can learn more about the trip, route and team at our website: www.rideof05.com.
Our website will be the main communication tool we use throughout our trip. With the help of David Ledgerwood and Chris Comarato, we designed a site very similar to Dave Brofenbrenner and Scott Sehon’s www.runtheusa.com. In the JOURNAL section of the website (our blog for the tech-savvy folks), we will include daily updates and photos, so you may follow the progress of our whirlwind tour of the United States.
The best way to contact us while on the trip will be via e-mail at: therideof05@yahoo.com. We will also have new Treo 650’s that were kindly donated by the folks at palmOne (www.palmone.com). The numbers to the smartphones will be posted on our website in the coming weeks.
The only downside to our departure on April 22nd, is the inability to attend the dedication of my college coach’s memorial on the Bucknell Univeristy campus April 23rd. However, after reflecting on the many things that Coach Art Gulden taught the team, perhaps the most important lesson he instilled, was for us to believe in ourselves! For this and his many lessons, I am truly grateful to have been blessed by his motivating words and quest for excellence.
I wish everyone well in their respectively lives and hope to catch up with many of you in the months ahead.
Dana
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