The Past Few Days

June 25th: Shoshoni to Casper
The ride was 101 miles according to my bike computer, a rough one following the 96 miles from the day before but we made good time. It was hot again but there were some clouds in the sky, as opposed to no clouds on the previous day. It doesn't really seem to be getting any cooler so I guess it's time to adjust. We hit some head and side wind early, but we also got some tailwind. Right at the end, we hit this big hill before we got to Kelly Walsh High School. My knees took it pretty hard because I didn't go to the granny gear, just powered up it.
For dinner, we ate with the Kiwanis Club of Casper. It was pretty normal and no friendship visit on this day. We did meet a guy with family in Puyallup though. We had brisket sandwiches and rhubarb pie. In the evening, a lot of guys went out and relaxed at Old Chicago, a local watering hole.


June 26th: aahhh... a day off in Casper!
Got up on this morning at about 9:30 but slept off and on between 6:00 and then due to some volleyball practice or camp going on. You could hear EVERY bounce on the ground and yell/cheer. Showered and ate breakfast and eventually made my way to the bike shop. It was a much needed stop because I had been having major squeakage for over a week. The guy at the shop made a bunch of little adjustments and cleaned a lot of the gear and lubed. No more squeakage! He only charged me 12 bucks too! Soon after, I was able to grab some lunch at Arby's, 5 items for $5.95 is a great deal!
After our team meeting (which we have every day-off) we headed to a park for dinner and a friendship visit. Immediately, the team was engaged in a wiffleball game with a bunch of kids. Well, kind of a wiffleball game. We made fools of ourselves in the field while about 4-5 kids cycled through hitting. A few others played catch with the football and frisbee and more continued to show up and chat. Definitely a very cool visit and we hadn't had one in a while so it was great to get out there and have some fun again.
When it was time to grab some dinner, I got a hot dog, chips, a cookie, and some water (a common meal) and headed toward a family sitting by themselves. I just kind of threw myself into the family (mom, dad, two adopted daughters) and had a great time. The daughters were 13 and 7 and fun to listen to. The parents were also very open and engaging and revealed a lot of the kind of stuff that has been going on. It's great when the parents want to talk to you about those things because you're always curious but a lot of times afraid to ask such personal questions. I'm actually pretty proud of myself for jumping out of my comfort zone and sitting down with complete strangers. It's something I've been working on, not needing another guy with me to help with conversation. After the great visit, it was off to another exciting adventure at the laundry mat!


June 27th: Casper to Wheatland
Well, what can I say? I've never experienced wind like this that lasted so long and always seemed to be in our faces no matter which way we turned. Rolling hills and some heat (plus the wind) piled on top of a 116 mile ride seemed unbearable. Only 7 riders were able to conquer the roads today (I wasn't one of them). Any small complication or drawback, when we had to be ready for dinner at 5:30pm, and it was gonna be tough to make up. It's not like you can get behind and say that you'll just push it harder to make up time. That just doesn't work too well into the wind. The day started out fantastic. A lot of the guys switched up pace lines to ride with guys they don't often ride with. I was real excited about my group and we had just started sharing random stories when we got hit with a slower rider who didn't want to stay at the head of the pack. Just coming off of a sickness, he kinda dragged us down. It sounds bad but we stuck together as long as we could. When he finally decided he couldn't go any further, around 80 some miles, we were in far too deep of a hole to make up the time. I have mixed feelings: on one hand, I really wanted to beat the road and the wind today but none of us were willing to leave a man behind. So, I didn't make it the entire 116 miles today... it's not something I'll be thinking about in Washington D.C.... or even tomorrow.
For dinner, we went out to a woman's ranch who is a member of the Cattlewoman's Association. We had dinner with members of the same organization already once but this was cool and unique in its own right. We got taken on a ride drawn by horses to see parts of the ranch and were fed some real good roast beef sandwiches, fruit and veggies, potato chips and some chocolate cake with chunks of cherries in it. It was a delicious dinner and great company. What an exhausting day though. I may or may not be enjoying a root beer float in about a half hour, so wish me luck. Thanks for reading!

It was a hot one...

June 24th: Dubois to Shoshoni Wyoming
Boy oh boy. We woke up in Dubois at 5:30am and were off to Shoshoni by 6:30. My fingers were freezing. It didn't take long though to heat up. It got up over 95 degrees today, maybe even hitting 100. On top of that, it was a 96 mile day on the bike and we've got over 100 miles to do tomorrow to get ourselves to Casper. The terrain was a lot different than it has been, very desert like. We've been told to expect the same tomorrow. The road was actually pretty fast and we had some decent tailwind for most of the day which made the miles rack up quicker. That heat though, in my last 20 miles really took a lot out of me.
As soon as we got to the Senior Center which is where we are staying for the night, we packed up for the hot springs they have here in Shoshoni. We weren't allowed to stay in the 103 degree spring water more than 20 minutes. That is also where we all showered. Once we got back to lodging, Andrew and I played pool until we were served dinner by the kind women putting us up in the Senior Center. Great meatballs. After that, I played a little more pool and waited around for internet. No cell service here, at least for Cingular (surprise). A lot of guys are watching The Goodfellas and a few were playing poker. It was pretty relaxed here today, expected with the ride we had and the ride we have tomorrow.
The guys and I in Van 4 started reading Dean Koontz's "The Taking" aloud to pass the time on longer rides. Two of us have been reading but whoever's not reading usually starts to nod off for a nap. I've taken more naps on this trip than I have probably in my whole life. Alright, well that's about it for me. Not too exciting of a day and we haven't had a friendship visit in quite a while. Here's a few random pics from earlier days on the road.

June 23rd, day 22, hot and steep but fast.

Today out of Jackson we woke up at 6:30, we got to sleep in an hour because we found out that we couldn't get into the school until 2 pm. the day started off steep with a 17 mile climb up a 6% grade.

on the other side of the hill, i got was able to hit 50.1 mph my personal fastest for the trip. after only 4 miles downhill we had to rack the bike because of construction. when we all unloaded the vans and got going we noticed and extreme tail wind, which was nice because of our climb earlier in the morning. we ended up completing the last 20 miles in 45 min. averaging about 37 mph on flat ground the whole way. we were able to break the 30 mph speed limit in Dubois and ended up missing our left turn to the school because we were going so fast, it was nice. after we showered and shaved some of us went and bought postcards and milkshakes at the malt shop then went back to take a nap so we could be up and hungry when the Wyoming cattle womens assoc. came to cook us a large home cooked beef dinner. after dinner we were all so tired from our 104 degree day we passed out, looking forward to going to the Shoshone hot springs tomorrow.

June 22nd, day 21, finally a day off after six with out.

The day began at 8:15 when we woke up to the lion king soundtrack blasting from a small cd player. we went to breakfast at the Teton steakhouse, it was a delicious all you can eat buffet. i ate with Tim, a young man with down syndrome who has worked there for about 5 years and helped us get the meal donated. after breakfast we got to go to the snow king inn where we received lift tickets to go up to the scenic outlook as well as tickets to use the alpine slide, which basically is a water slide with a cart instead of water.

Brent, the 40 year old guy from London, also the oldest man to ever embark on the journey of hope was the only one who crashed. if you can imagine what it would be like to slide down a dry water slide at 20mph i am sure you would not think pleasant things. after the alpine slide we got to swim in the pool there until lunch, donated by subway. after lunch we had about 4 hours to hangout until out next event so some of the guys and i went downtown to look at the shops and such. after we walked around for 3 hours and bought nothing but postcards we decided to head back and get a nap in before our dinner show. dinner was at the bar j ranch, an all you can eat "authentic" chuck wagon meal. a little during and after dinner there was a concert/comedy show, the music was traditional western cowboy music with jokes thrown in all over the place. it started at 6 and ended at around 9:30, Jake was excited that he finished in time to get seconds, since that rarely happens, then after seconds he said that he couldn't enjoy the show as much as he wanted because every time he took a breath it hurt. we all just went back to lodging and went to bed after our huge dinner and long day.

June 21st, day 20, short and sweet to Jackson, WY.

so apparently its illegal to ride your bike out of Yellowstone so we were forced to rack up out of the park. which made the day only a 50 mile day. after a short climb in the morning is was straight and flat with a nice smooth downhill into Jackson. all morning the Tetons were on our right as we rode. they were soo huge they looked like they were only a few hundred yards away. when we arrived into Jackson at around 9:30 our sponsor Jill Quinlan met us at the church we were staying in and helped get us settled. she was a great sponsor for us and the teams in the past, she works very hard to get everything we do donated. lunch was donated by McDonald's, and after that we went white water rafting down the snake river. that was a cool experience to see the snake near where it begins because while i was on the rowing team at Washington state we rowed on the snake only it was 500 yards wide and moving so slow it was nearly standing water. after rafting we returned to the church were donated domino's was delivered and bed wasn't far behind that.

June 20th, day 19, west Yellowstone, mt. to west thumb, WY.

We started the day at 5:30 am on the cafeteria floor of the west Yellowstone school. Once up, it was bagels with peanut butter, cereal and bananas. We started off by waiting in line to get into the park, once in the park we took it slow.

I rode with Todd Wright, Nick Cramer, and my brother Jake. We held a smooth 13mph for the first part of the ride, it was mostly flat and we were trying to soak in the park. We stopped multiple times to take pictures, the first time it was for a pair of bald eagles and then their nest with chicks. Then there were multiple bull bison and small herds of elk to entertain us in our slow pace.


We eventually made it to a geyser basin where the whole team took a break and walked the trail around looking at all of the different pools and geysers. For me the most interesting pool was the painted mud pots, they looked like giant pools of boiling white paint. It wasn’t until after the geyser basin that we really got into the hills. These hills were tough, with constant and steep ups and downs. We actually crossed the continental divide three times.

Shortly after our third time, on one of many steep downhill runs we hit a spot of traffic, which in Yellowstone are known as bear jams. My pace line and I got off of our bikes so we could walk them on the shoulder past all of the traffic, trying to get to lunch soon because we knew the rest of the team was waiting on us, Todd and I were sweeps. As we approached the end of the bear jam we saw a few park rangers and a bunch of tourists looking and snapping pictures. We walked closer and saw that it was a female grizzly and her two cubs. It was an amazing sight but also a nerve racking one, I had just learned earlier in the day that a man, who had been mauled by a female grizzly rearing two cub, had died earlier in the week. We took a few pictures from a distance and called it good; we decided to let the “curious” people have the fun. As we were leaving we heard the ranger yell “NO RUNNING SIR!” when we all look over its Karl our historian scurrying around trying to get all of the pictures that he can, fifteen feet from the wild animal. We finally decide to get going, not wanting to witness anything tragic before lunch. It was a short ride from there to Grant Village where we ate lunch and got set for the night thanks to Yellowstone National Park Lodges and Xanterra. Most of the team got in the vans and headed out to visit old faithful as well as the other areas of the park before their all you can eat pasta dinner. I as well as Jake and Todd, the other two Washington State guys, are lucky enough to have a chapter brother giving guided horse tours in the park for the summer.

Jacob Turner drove along with the team all day and picked us (WSU boys) up after lunch and drove us to Roosevelt Corrals where we took a covered wagon tour of the immediate area while getting a history of the park. The tour stopped in a meadow for an all you can eat steak cookout. Then we took the wagons back to the corrals and watched the employees remove all of the saddles, and clean all of the horses. Jacob gave us a ride home by 10:30, and it was off to bed we went.

June 19th, day 18, from bozeman to w. Yellowstone.

the day was supposed to be 90 miles but due to the amount of traffic and the narrow shoulders we decided to rack past 30 miles in the name of safety. it just happened to be to the top of a steep hill. from the top of the hill everyone thought that the day would be easy since we cut 30 miles out of the ride, but instead it was extremely hard. once we got going we ended up hitting a headwind that pushed us down to about 11 mph the whole way, so in the end it was kind of a good thing that we racked or we might not have made it in time for out dinner reservations.

west Yellowstone is a pretty small town based mostly on tourism. we stayed in the high school which was k-12, they had a graduating class of 11. not much else happened in west Yellowstone other that preparation for the next day.