This is a little idea of what each day looked like!!
![Picture](/uploads/5/2/1/4/52148477/published/bike36_1.jpg?1511556249)
The only way to describe a bike trip across America is State by State. Heather and I crossed 9 states (3787 miles). We arrived in San Francisco midafternoon thinking we would simply spend the night somewhere in the city a nice campsite or something. On investigation, we found that a campsite would cost the same as a decent hotel anywhere else. The western express trail we were taking from San Francisco to Pueblo CO starts at the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. I was incredibly excited to start here because the landmark it is in our great country but sadly it was kind of a letdown. It was cool to see that big red monument and see Alcatraz in the distance. But we could only see a hundred-yard section of the bridge because it was so foggy not to mention how cold it was. The rest of California was having a heat wave while a 2-mile circumference around the bridge felt like a winter storm. It was pretty cold. We left the bridge cold optimistic for the whole trip but knew that we were about to miss our 6 o'clock ferry time. We started at the bridge and it was 6 miles to the bay ferry. We caught the boat literally while the nice attendant was closing the gate but he still let us on. The sunset was beautiful on the back of the boat and it really helped me to think about the vast journey we had ahead of us.
The cold day at the bridge might have done our third compadre in for it. Ethan was struggling with a respiratory problem for the next few days and he decided that he should not continue once we got past Sacramento. We met a really nice man named John while on the bike path in Sacramento seeing our bags and hearing about our lofty goals said: "if we needed anything to give him a call". John came through huge because when we were deciding on how to get Ethan home. John volunteered to take pick up Ethan and his gear and take him to the train station it was pretty amazing. Ethan made it home and we see him again later.
The next challenge was going to be getting over Carson pass. From sea level to 8000+ ft over 3 days was not easy. Not to mention it was 105 until we got to a higher elevation. Getting over Carson Pass was not just a great early victory it was one of my first and favorite highlights of the trip. The higher elevation was way prettier and a lot cooler in temp. But seeing heather persevere through two whole says of climbing it was the first sign that I knew she could handle this trip.
The cold day at the bridge might have done our third compadre in for it. Ethan was struggling with a respiratory problem for the next few days and he decided that he should not continue once we got past Sacramento. We met a really nice man named John while on the bike path in Sacramento seeing our bags and hearing about our lofty goals said: "if we needed anything to give him a call". John came through huge because when we were deciding on how to get Ethan home. John volunteered to take pick up Ethan and his gear and take him to the train station it was pretty amazing. Ethan made it home and we see him again later.
The next challenge was going to be getting over Carson pass. From sea level to 8000+ ft over 3 days was not easy. Not to mention it was 105 until we got to a higher elevation. Getting over Carson Pass was not just a great early victory it was one of my first and favorite highlights of the trip. The higher elevation was way prettier and a lot cooler in temp. But seeing heather persevere through two whole says of climbing it was the first sign that I knew she could handle this trip.
Not long after coming off of Carson pass we crossed into Nevada which would become the hardest state we crossed. It wasn't the climbs, the warm temperatures, high afternoon winds or the lack of shade it was how desolate and far apart the towns were that made Nevada so challenging. Towns and resources would be anywhere from 30 miles on a good day to 80 miles apart from each other. We were running out of water constantly and without the help of some construction workers and nice RV'ers, we might have ended our journey really early on. At some points, I was carrying an extra 20 pounds of water on my trailer so we could make it from city to city. Nevada wasn't all bad, we were having a particularly challenging day pulling into Austin and at dinner met two other cyclists on the same route as us. They were two brothers from Massachusetts named Jeff and John. John had an incredible goal to bike across the country from San Francisco to his home in Boston. We didn't know it at the time but John would later become a very dear friend to us and share life and a couple thousand miles with us.
Biking across Nevada was simply one large search for water. I think under different circumstances (like driving a car) Nevada could have been more enjoyable.
The day we were going to Utah we had our good friend Ethan come out and meet us. This made Utah incredibly enjoyable. He drove a car and carried our gear for us. Utah was just as remote as Nevada if not more but Ethan made it so that we could enjoy the amazing rock formation and national monuments without being slowed down with the weight of our gear and the stress of looking for water.
Utah was one of our favorite states not just because we were not carrying our stuff, but we were reaching the infamous two-week mark where your body has really adjusted to the life of being on a bike all day. Another great thing about Utah was the roads. It was as it the paving crews were literally a day in front of us laying down new asphalt and it literally felt like we were riding on butter it was so smooth. On a few occasions the asphalt was so new without lines it couldn't have been more than a few hours old.
We kept the high spirits and great energy going into Colorado. It was great biking closer and closer to our home in Colorado Springs knowing that we would take a well needed day off, but we still had the mighty Rockies to go through. Our first full day in Colorado we were going to climb over our second highest pass of the whole trip. Lizard head Pass rising to 10,222 ft. As we finished lunch and were climbing lizard head, Colorado did her somewhat predictable thing and started developing a summer afternoon thunderstorm. We road for a few minutes hoping that it would blow itself out, but it rained harder and even hailed a little. Thankfully Ethan was still with us. We were able to retreat into the car until the worst of it had blown by. Seeing that it would not stop we decided to try and tough it out and just get wet. Climbing the pass in the cold rain was not as bad as we thought. However, going down the other side for a 5-6 mile downhill turned out to be the hard part. Going up we were staying warm by fighting gravity. Coming down without great rain gear at the mercy of the wind and cooling body. Our hands were so cold we could barely hit our brakes, so we didn't fly off the side of the mountain. Heather was quickly getting hypothermic but there was nowhere to stop. I kept encouraging her that there was a gas station at the bottom of the hill and we would warm up there. We were planning on going further that day since there was another 6 or so miles of downhill but decided that it would be wise if we went two miles off course to Telluride. This turned out to be the best idea since we were very wet and cold and were not sure where we would have stayed had we pressed on down the hill. We were incredibly thankful to John for getting us a hotel that night and saving the day and maybe the entire trip. Colorado even though cold in the mornings was my favorite state. Every corner was beautiful every climb was more and more breathtaking both in altitude and in the scenery. This was the best we felt the entire trip. Our legs were strong our butts used to the saddles and we had found our groove in the Rockies.
We were excited and nervous to get to the highest point of our entire trip Monarch Pass 11,312 ft. It would be a 10-mile climb but I was more nervous since the weather was bad at the Golden Gate Bridge that it would be bad at this next milestone crossing the continental divide. It was perfect, we saved the 10-mile climb for first thing in the morning we were fresh, excited and we passed the miles with barely breaking a sweat. Coming down the other side of the continental divide will be a memory I carry with.me forever. We had a 30 mile downhill into Salida CO. The road was smooth, the Aspens were changing, and the weather was perfect. We couldn't have asked more for such a monumental point of our trip.
A few days later we were excited to take a day off in Colorado Springs. We got to see friends, sleep in our bed, resupply snacks and food and get a tune-up at our awesome bike shop all while having some comforts of home. Making it to the front range of Colorado was our mental halfway point of the trip. We ended the western express trail and starting on the famous Trans am route that was established in 1976. We were excited to be on the trans am because how well established the route is. The towns and people on this route are used to seeing thousands of cyclists a year and we were excited to see the hospitality we had heard about.
Kansas wow what can I say. It was surprisingly one of the hardest states we went through. We had heard about the wind and how mind-numbingly boring and flat most of the state was and it did not disappoint. The wind played a huge factor in why Kansas was tough but it was also the flatness. We had just crossed the west and went over dozens of passes climbing and descending thousands of feet. Yes, the uphills were challenging but we usually had a restful downhill on the other side of the pass. All of a sudden we had to pedal every inch of Kansas and we did not have what we liked to call "free miles" on the downhills. This combination of wind and constant pedaling beat up the same muscles and ate our lunch day in and day out. We were still averaging huge 100 mile days across Kansas but we paid for it. We would cycle from sun up to sun down and the extra time in the saddle took its toll on what we thought our iron bottoms. A positive thing I cannot say enough about Kansas was the people. We did not have to camp out a single time in Kansas because of the number of people who opened up their homes to cyclists. We had a warm shower, laundry and a great place to sleep every night we were in Kansas. Our final night in Kansas we stayed with an awesome college student named Nathan in Pittsburg KS. It should give our country great hope for the future to know that there are young people out there who are willing to share what they have to help people. Nathan even cycled with us the entire next day into Missouri spent the night and then cycled home.
The entire trip we kept hearing stories about how hard Missouri was. We were told that Ozarks would be harder than anything we rode in The Rockies. This did not make sense to us how could the Ozarks possibly be harder than the mighty Rockies. I will not say that the Ozarks were harder but they were definitely extremely challenging. I did not know that you could pave roads that steep. I had only road grades this steep on mountain biking trails and was not expecting this. It, however, was very welcoming to the legs to have some up and downs and even letting some of the "free miles" add up again. Kansas was the state that the people opened their homes, then Missouri was the state that the city's opened their doors. Missouri had more free cycling hostels than any other state and the closer we were getting to the east coast the more often we were finding these free places for cyclists to stay.
Illinois, Kentucky and Virginia kind of became a blur. Not because they weren't beautiful or we didn't meet nice people or we didn't eat great food. We were reaching starting to reach crunch time on our 47-day time limit. Based on the time that we had and the miles left to travel we really needed to put our heads down and work hard every day.
Kentucky did not disappoint in the hospitality realm either. Our second day in Kentucky John informed me that my back wheel was looking pretty wobbly and the wobble was rubbing against the brakes and really slowing me down. This was really starting to mentally drain me especially since there was not a bike shop on the route for another 4ish day and the closest shop off route was between 20 and 50 miles. I was praying so hard the whole day that God would send someone to help and was amazed how my prayer was answered. In the town of Clay KY. A man approached us at a gas station interested in our trip where we had come from, where we were going normal questions. He asked if we needed anything and I filled him in on my tire woes. After searching for nearby bike shops he told me that his son had a road bike and if the wheel fits I was free to take it and mail it back to him. We were all excited and so encouraged and this helped push us through this hard day. So there were some pretty nice cycling hostels in Kentucky. We met a couple named Bob and Violet in Sebree, Ky that had been housing cyclists in their church since 1979. Bob was the pastor of the Baptist church in town and Violet had a huge heart for hospitality and missions. So they were excited when literally everyone from around the world was stopping on their doorstep. We had called them the day before and Bob and Violet waited for us and prepared an amazing feast for us. Their kindness has inspired us one day to live next to a cycling or hiking route and shows travelers kindness that we had been shown throughout our trip. If you ever are going through Sebree, Ky you should stop and see this couple you will not regret it. The sad thing about Sebree Kentucky was this was the day that we split ways with our good friend and cycling buddy John. He was jumping onto the Underground Railroad bike route and would eventually end up in his home in Boston. We were so glad we got to share so much of this adventure with him and really glad he reached his goal.
Virginia our last and final state. Heather and I spent our college years in Virginia so much like cycling through Colorado cycling in Virginia felt like we were biking home. Seeing familiar sites and towns and knowing we were almost to Yorktown the end of our journey. Being in central and western Virginia in our college years we knew that this not going to be the easiest riding. Coming over the Appalachian Mountains were almost as steep as the Ozarks but we knew we were getting close. Heather really wanted to finish on the weekend so we were fortunate that Heather's mom had some time off for fall break. She was able to drive a car and hold our gear so we could focus on cycling and finish in Yorktown in a timely manner. The last and final big climb out of Vesuvius up to the Blue Ridge Parkway was almost as satisfying as climbing Monarch Pass because we knew it was a last significant climb and one of the few times we knew that we were going to make it to the end. Our second to last day we were joined by the (in)famous David Horton. For those who don't know him, he was our professor at Liberty who got us into some extreme endurance stuff. He is quite the adventurer lives an inspiring life and had cycled the entire Trans am route in the summer just a few months before our trip. He joined us for the last 30ish miles or so of the day and told great stories of his summer biking adventure. It was a great evening and one of the highlights of our trip.
The final day coming into Yorktown. We started at 430 in the morning with anticipation for some afternoon showers we wanted to beat. As far as cycling goes the day was somewhat uneventful very easy ride to the coast. The only issue we had was It seemed like we were never going to get to Yorktown. Heather's family came out and it was great to have them at our refueling stops throughout the day. Even though the day of riding seemed uneventful it was such a great feeling finishing at the Monument of Victory. All the pictures and blogs I had seen of it seemed very underwhelming. But on arrival to the end of a 3,787-mile journey, it was perfectly fitting and quite impressive in person.
I can't thank God enough for the protection he gave us on our journey it was a memory that Heather and I will have forever. The people who were following our journey and praying for us along the way I wish we knew them all and could thank you in person. This trip is impossible without the kind people and business throughout the US and glad to have met the people that we did. Most of all I am will forever be proud of my awesome wife who came on this trip as a birthday/bucket list present to me. I will cherish this with her forever.
Biking across Nevada was simply one large search for water. I think under different circumstances (like driving a car) Nevada could have been more enjoyable.
The day we were going to Utah we had our good friend Ethan come out and meet us. This made Utah incredibly enjoyable. He drove a car and carried our gear for us. Utah was just as remote as Nevada if not more but Ethan made it so that we could enjoy the amazing rock formation and national monuments without being slowed down with the weight of our gear and the stress of looking for water.
Utah was one of our favorite states not just because we were not carrying our stuff, but we were reaching the infamous two-week mark where your body has really adjusted to the life of being on a bike all day. Another great thing about Utah was the roads. It was as it the paving crews were literally a day in front of us laying down new asphalt and it literally felt like we were riding on butter it was so smooth. On a few occasions the asphalt was so new without lines it couldn't have been more than a few hours old.
We kept the high spirits and great energy going into Colorado. It was great biking closer and closer to our home in Colorado Springs knowing that we would take a well needed day off, but we still had the mighty Rockies to go through. Our first full day in Colorado we were going to climb over our second highest pass of the whole trip. Lizard head Pass rising to 10,222 ft. As we finished lunch and were climbing lizard head, Colorado did her somewhat predictable thing and started developing a summer afternoon thunderstorm. We road for a few minutes hoping that it would blow itself out, but it rained harder and even hailed a little. Thankfully Ethan was still with us. We were able to retreat into the car until the worst of it had blown by. Seeing that it would not stop we decided to try and tough it out and just get wet. Climbing the pass in the cold rain was not as bad as we thought. However, going down the other side for a 5-6 mile downhill turned out to be the hard part. Going up we were staying warm by fighting gravity. Coming down without great rain gear at the mercy of the wind and cooling body. Our hands were so cold we could barely hit our brakes, so we didn't fly off the side of the mountain. Heather was quickly getting hypothermic but there was nowhere to stop. I kept encouraging her that there was a gas station at the bottom of the hill and we would warm up there. We were planning on going further that day since there was another 6 or so miles of downhill but decided that it would be wise if we went two miles off course to Telluride. This turned out to be the best idea since we were very wet and cold and were not sure where we would have stayed had we pressed on down the hill. We were incredibly thankful to John for getting us a hotel that night and saving the day and maybe the entire trip. Colorado even though cold in the mornings was my favorite state. Every corner was beautiful every climb was more and more breathtaking both in altitude and in the scenery. This was the best we felt the entire trip. Our legs were strong our butts used to the saddles and we had found our groove in the Rockies.
We were excited and nervous to get to the highest point of our entire trip Monarch Pass 11,312 ft. It would be a 10-mile climb but I was more nervous since the weather was bad at the Golden Gate Bridge that it would be bad at this next milestone crossing the continental divide. It was perfect, we saved the 10-mile climb for first thing in the morning we were fresh, excited and we passed the miles with barely breaking a sweat. Coming down the other side of the continental divide will be a memory I carry with.me forever. We had a 30 mile downhill into Salida CO. The road was smooth, the Aspens were changing, and the weather was perfect. We couldn't have asked more for such a monumental point of our trip.
A few days later we were excited to take a day off in Colorado Springs. We got to see friends, sleep in our bed, resupply snacks and food and get a tune-up at our awesome bike shop all while having some comforts of home. Making it to the front range of Colorado was our mental halfway point of the trip. We ended the western express trail and starting on the famous Trans am route that was established in 1976. We were excited to be on the trans am because how well established the route is. The towns and people on this route are used to seeing thousands of cyclists a year and we were excited to see the hospitality we had heard about.
Kansas wow what can I say. It was surprisingly one of the hardest states we went through. We had heard about the wind and how mind-numbingly boring and flat most of the state was and it did not disappoint. The wind played a huge factor in why Kansas was tough but it was also the flatness. We had just crossed the west and went over dozens of passes climbing and descending thousands of feet. Yes, the uphills were challenging but we usually had a restful downhill on the other side of the pass. All of a sudden we had to pedal every inch of Kansas and we did not have what we liked to call "free miles" on the downhills. This combination of wind and constant pedaling beat up the same muscles and ate our lunch day in and day out. We were still averaging huge 100 mile days across Kansas but we paid for it. We would cycle from sun up to sun down and the extra time in the saddle took its toll on what we thought our iron bottoms. A positive thing I cannot say enough about Kansas was the people. We did not have to camp out a single time in Kansas because of the number of people who opened up their homes to cyclists. We had a warm shower, laundry and a great place to sleep every night we were in Kansas. Our final night in Kansas we stayed with an awesome college student named Nathan in Pittsburg KS. It should give our country great hope for the future to know that there are young people out there who are willing to share what they have to help people. Nathan even cycled with us the entire next day into Missouri spent the night and then cycled home.
The entire trip we kept hearing stories about how hard Missouri was. We were told that Ozarks would be harder than anything we rode in The Rockies. This did not make sense to us how could the Ozarks possibly be harder than the mighty Rockies. I will not say that the Ozarks were harder but they were definitely extremely challenging. I did not know that you could pave roads that steep. I had only road grades this steep on mountain biking trails and was not expecting this. It, however, was very welcoming to the legs to have some up and downs and even letting some of the "free miles" add up again. Kansas was the state that the people opened their homes, then Missouri was the state that the city's opened their doors. Missouri had more free cycling hostels than any other state and the closer we were getting to the east coast the more often we were finding these free places for cyclists to stay.
Illinois, Kentucky and Virginia kind of became a blur. Not because they weren't beautiful or we didn't meet nice people or we didn't eat great food. We were reaching starting to reach crunch time on our 47-day time limit. Based on the time that we had and the miles left to travel we really needed to put our heads down and work hard every day.
Kentucky did not disappoint in the hospitality realm either. Our second day in Kentucky John informed me that my back wheel was looking pretty wobbly and the wobble was rubbing against the brakes and really slowing me down. This was really starting to mentally drain me especially since there was not a bike shop on the route for another 4ish day and the closest shop off route was between 20 and 50 miles. I was praying so hard the whole day that God would send someone to help and was amazed how my prayer was answered. In the town of Clay KY. A man approached us at a gas station interested in our trip where we had come from, where we were going normal questions. He asked if we needed anything and I filled him in on my tire woes. After searching for nearby bike shops he told me that his son had a road bike and if the wheel fits I was free to take it and mail it back to him. We were all excited and so encouraged and this helped push us through this hard day. So there were some pretty nice cycling hostels in Kentucky. We met a couple named Bob and Violet in Sebree, Ky that had been housing cyclists in their church since 1979. Bob was the pastor of the Baptist church in town and Violet had a huge heart for hospitality and missions. So they were excited when literally everyone from around the world was stopping on their doorstep. We had called them the day before and Bob and Violet waited for us and prepared an amazing feast for us. Their kindness has inspired us one day to live next to a cycling or hiking route and shows travelers kindness that we had been shown throughout our trip. If you ever are going through Sebree, Ky you should stop and see this couple you will not regret it. The sad thing about Sebree Kentucky was this was the day that we split ways with our good friend and cycling buddy John. He was jumping onto the Underground Railroad bike route and would eventually end up in his home in Boston. We were so glad we got to share so much of this adventure with him and really glad he reached his goal.
Virginia our last and final state. Heather and I spent our college years in Virginia so much like cycling through Colorado cycling in Virginia felt like we were biking home. Seeing familiar sites and towns and knowing we were almost to Yorktown the end of our journey. Being in central and western Virginia in our college years we knew that this not going to be the easiest riding. Coming over the Appalachian Mountains were almost as steep as the Ozarks but we knew we were getting close. Heather really wanted to finish on the weekend so we were fortunate that Heather's mom had some time off for fall break. She was able to drive a car and hold our gear so we could focus on cycling and finish in Yorktown in a timely manner. The last and final big climb out of Vesuvius up to the Blue Ridge Parkway was almost as satisfying as climbing Monarch Pass because we knew it was a last significant climb and one of the few times we knew that we were going to make it to the end. Our second to last day we were joined by the (in)famous David Horton. For those who don't know him, he was our professor at Liberty who got us into some extreme endurance stuff. He is quite the adventurer lives an inspiring life and had cycled the entire Trans am route in the summer just a few months before our trip. He joined us for the last 30ish miles or so of the day and told great stories of his summer biking adventure. It was a great evening and one of the highlights of our trip.
The final day coming into Yorktown. We started at 430 in the morning with anticipation for some afternoon showers we wanted to beat. As far as cycling goes the day was somewhat uneventful very easy ride to the coast. The only issue we had was It seemed like we were never going to get to Yorktown. Heather's family came out and it was great to have them at our refueling stops throughout the day. Even though the day of riding seemed uneventful it was such a great feeling finishing at the Monument of Victory. All the pictures and blogs I had seen of it seemed very underwhelming. But on arrival to the end of a 3,787-mile journey, it was perfectly fitting and quite impressive in person.
I can't thank God enough for the protection he gave us on our journey it was a memory that Heather and I will have forever. The people who were following our journey and praying for us along the way I wish we knew them all and could thank you in person. This trip is impossible without the kind people and business throughout the US and glad to have met the people that we did. Most of all I am will forever be proud of my awesome wife who came on this trip as a birthday/bucket list present to me. I will cherish this with her forever.