Seeing small town America from the bicycle seat ___________________________
When I hear something about Idaho, I sometimes think about comedian George Carlin’s routine about states and their mottos. He compares New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die” to Idaho’s much less consequential, yet proud, “Famous Potatoes.” On Saturday I finally arrived here. [Read more…]
So for I’ve ridden 497 miles from when the odometer was set at zero at the Pacific. Yesterday (Friday) was a 54 mile ride into Halfway from Baker City.
Getting a late start seems to happen while you’re at a hotel. [Read more…]
Yesterday (Thursday) began the second week of the trip. I was awake at 4:18 but didn’t get out of bed until after five. One of the first things I did was bang my upper left shin into a heavy wooden chair while crossing a room in the dark. [Read more…]
Yesterday morning, all of us who stayed overnight at Patrick and Jalet’s amazing bike hostel in Mitchell lingered around the breakfast table having a conversation. None of us were in a hurry to leave because the place is so relaxed and comfortable. [Read more…]
The ride Monday from Prineville to Mitchell was only 48 miles. After rather level riding for the first ten miles or so, the climb began up to Ochoco Pass. This was nothing like McKenzie Pass from the other day, as the elevation change was only around 1700 feet. [Read more…]
After Saturday’s rather brutal ride up the 5000 plus foot McKenzie Pass, I decided to make Sunday’s ride into something of a Sunday drive. It was a 48 mile journey into the town of Prineville and would be relatively flat the whole way, with just a few stretches of uphill.
I didn’t even get out of camp until almost eleven, [Read more…]
This day (Saturday) started out great and ended great. It was the large part in between that was a bit of a problem.
The plan was to bike 43 miles to the town of Sisters, which gets great reviews as a stopover point. Forty three miles doesn’t sound that bad, but as I mentioned in the previous post it includes a climb of about 4000 feet (1200 meters). [Read more…]
It was a 60 mile day yesterday into McKenzie Bridge (the name of the town). Great ride out of Eugene along the Willamette River and some very quiet back roads.
Along the way I ran into Jeff (another one). He’s from Wisconsin and is trying [Read more…]
And so it begins. I was up very early this morning, still adjusting to the time change. Even though I was up early, before 4am, I still didn’t hit the road until just before eight. I turned the room key in to the guy at the office. There was some small talk between us, but I didn’t mention that when I walked out the door I was getting on a bicycle and riding to Virginia.
As I put the gloves and helmet on in the parking lot of the Silver Sands Motel, the idea was now a reality and it was finally time to begin. That first moment of pedaling was unique with thoughts of “Ok, here we go,” knowing that it was the very beginning of a whole lot more. [Read more…]
One of the things you’re supposed to do on a cross-country bike ride is bring your bike down to the water of the ocean you start at. You have no choice. So that was on the agenda this morning. The ride to the ocean was the easy part. Carrying the bike with the gear across an incredibly wide beach with mini-sand dunes down to flat land may go down as the hardest part of this trip.
There weren’t many people at all along the beach. Thankfully a mother and daughter [Read more…]