Bike Across 'Merica

(Our bike ride was jokingly our month long bachelor party as both of us are now married)

(All the states we biked through)

It's been almost three months since we got back from the longest ride of our lives. To this point. And probably till the next life. 

We left for flagstaff Arizona, April 27th. Jeff drove us to Winslow Arizona and there we began biking the many miles every day to Washington, D.C. The first week was rough, our bodies were not ready because we hadn't trained sufficiently, and we did more climbing than we expected and encountered more winds than we liked. It was also so very cold at night. We barely made it on our bikes every night to our destination and would just crash. That said, we were still juiced up from the excitement of beginning our journey, and kept meeting many wonderful people with such different lives. The first week could be called "breaking in". The next couple of weeks seemed to fly by, with a few hard days due to rain and cold. We met more wonderful people, but mostly, we enjoyed the Sundays at the small towns with the little branches we were able to attend. We stayed at wonderful members homes those two Sundays and felt recharged every time. The end of week 3, we really started raking up the mileage and spent more and more hours on our bikes, resulting in 6 consecutive centuries and ending with 7 of our last 8 days as century rides. The last week took us over the Appalachians and we ended up in Washington, D.C.  

What did we learn and why did we do this trip? This trip ended up costing over $1000 in just living expenses and $800 more for a new bike Casey needed to buy. Despite these high costs and the toughness of this expedition, we would do it again in a heartbeat if we were to go back to before this trip. What we learned and experienced is infinitely more valuable than the monetary cost of the trip:

1) learning to work hard. Hard work. Long hours. Finding joy and ways to keep pushing through many hours of relentless peddle to the metal. 

2) in the world not of the world. Seriously the most cut off from the world (save for the mission). And yet we were more in the world than ever before. It was so refreshing to remove ourselves from the complexities of the world. Our focus these past 4 weeks was solely: get where we needed to go, find food, find shelter, enjoy real experiences, keep our motivation levels up, and of course stay in good touch with our fiancés. 

3) We really got to see a whole spectrum of different kinds of life, from the spaced out flatness of Kansas, to the mansions and expensive cars of purcellville. We got to see how people achieved satisfaction and happiness, we got to see what made people happy and content, we got to see who wasn't happy and content, we got to see and to a large degree classify what kind of life it is that we do want. What we learned, it's not about the stuff. It's about people, it's about finding joy in what you do, it's about doing whatever you do to the most professional ability you have, it's about living in the moment, and learning from the past, and embracing the future, and loving the now. 

4) Others are important. It is more important to focus on others than to focus on yourself. Sometimes we think we see so clearly but am so quick to judge the selfishness of others and forget how self centered we can be ourselves. We couldn't have made it through this trip without shifting the focus of our attention to others. It was so important to remain selfless and to rejoice in the success of others and to always be serving and helping others. 

5) finally we learned how very lucky we are. So incredibly blessed to have the gospel in our lives. This world is so chaotic and noisy. Truly tossed about as on the waves of the ocean, but the gospel is such an anchor for us and we are so grateful. 

We can't believe we did it. We did it. We biked across America, but we will never think of it as that, but more as a sacred time we were blessed with. 

Day 26: One Day More!!!

"One day more...Another day, another century, This never-ending road to DC."

Only one more day before we make it to dc! Only 50 miles stands between us and our goal. We had a fantastic day coming out of the Appalachians. We had the most elevation gain because of big climbs today overall but also managed to bike the 105 miles from mt storm to purcellville. 

We saw amazing breathtaking views biking down from mt cheat:

 And for anyone still doubting about the Appalachians being mountains...

Check out this view! We were on our way down from Mt. Cheat, and we still had this fantastic view!

Casey's first time to Virginia! 

Day 25: Mountains to Climb

Anyone who says the appalatians aren't really mountains has never biked across them. Today we went our highest speed (41) and our lowest speeds (around 5) on the road today. We also went our highest elevation and lowest elevation on this side of the Mississippi. We climbed Mt. Thornton, Mt. Laurel, Mt. Casey Messick (as we named it), Backbone mountain, and Mt. Storm. All in 69 miles. We are exhausted! We decided today that we will stay in Mountaineer motel, to rest up and shower for the first time in over a week. We realized these last few days that our legs were getting darker and our tan lines fading. Then we realized that it hasn't been sunny all week. 😳 Yes, gross, and we know it. So to prepare for our triumphant victory ride into Washington DC, we will shower. 

We literally biked into this cloud

Days 21-24: climbing the toes of the Appalachians

We have been biking hard and haven't had enough energy to write at night these last few days. Here's a recap:

Day 21: Versailles, Indiana. Wonderful day. We enjoyed doing nothing but eatibg and sleeping. We couldn't get to a chapel this weekend so we enjoyed a full days rest. We also gave our bikes a much needed bath (now we just need a bath!!)

Day 22: 107 miles to Hillsboro, Ohio 

It was really far.

Day 23: 119 miles to Coolville, Ohio 

This day was really, really far.

Day 24: 95 miles to Bridgeport, West Virginia, this ending our six day streak of centuries (100 miles or more in a day)

To sum up our last few days: calories, miles, food, biking, eating, climbing, calories (did I mention that yet?) If previously we biked across the back of the Ozarks, we are now climbing the toes of the Appalachians, toes from a millipede, neverending hills. 

3400 calorie meal, each:

Day 20: yard sales

Apparently it's national yard sale day in Indiana because there were a unbelievably large number of garage/yard sales going on. We saw close to twice as many yard sales as miles we biked today (108miles)

We're in Versailles Indiana. Lovely little town. 

We are so grateful for the weekend. Unfortunately we didn't make it to the city we wanted to due to some great and spacious hills, and that was the next lds chapel closest to town. Maybe we can find a local Christian congregation in town and make some new friends :)

We saw some amazingly beautiful scenery today! Just absolutely breathtaking! These past couple of days, Indiana has just been full of surprises. If you want to see pictures you'll have to google it, sorry didn't have time to take any pictures today 

Grocery shopping for the sabbath!:

Day 19: 2 Days and a Night without a day

Today it rained. Again. So today we chose to dodge the rain. We downloaded a weather radar map, and if we saw a storm about to nail us we'd get off the road...QUICK! This made for slow going, but we stayed dry. For 107 miles. 650 more to go!

We had a great meal at Hunan Garden in Lawrenceville, IL. It was a family that moved here from Fuzhou a few years ago, and they were super nice.

When the sun finally came out, we were exhausted, but thrilled. Haven't seen it for a couple days. 

Day 18: dodging storms

More rain today! But we learned our lesson. As long as we don't get wet we're okay! So instead of pushing through rainstorms, we waited them out wherever we could, at people's barns, at convenience stores, at restaurants, enjoying more calories for our tired bodies, and even at a winery where a nice lady gave us some jerky. We would wait till the rain stopped then pushed as hard as we could to get to the next town before it rained on us. In this very tiring yet successful way we were able to accomplish 90 miles for the day, still leaving us behind on schedule. If it just wasn't so cold we would have been alright. 

Sorry no pictures today! We're not very good at remembering to take them sometimes. 

We're right now nice and dry in our tent camped out behind a church under a pavilion we saw to the side of the road 

Enjoyed a great bike store in edwardsvillev today. Shout out to the bike factory!

Day 17: mud and rain

It rained and got real cold today. Soaking wet, we biked 77 miles to get to Alton, il, across the Mississippi River. Casey had been constantly telling Bryce how excited he was to cross the Mississippi and how he was looking forward to the day. Well, the day has come and gone and he got his wish, in 40 degree wet rains and winds, not how we imagined it at all. The only parts of our body that wasn't absolutely freezing was our faces thanks to facial hair. I guess that's why god made man to grow beards, so that they can keep bikers faces warm when biking in the rain over the Mississippi. 

We're currently feasting to make up for all the energy trying to stay warm on our bikes yesterday, between the two of us, we devoured almost 5000 calories. Thank you McDonald's 

Here are some pictures:

For bikers:

Definitely make sure to use touring bikes for any long distance touring and not road Bikes. They require less maintenance and are more versatile for the different roads you could encounter and the ride is a little more comfortable. Also cheaper to fix

Day 16: On the Backs of Ozarks

This morning started super hilly, and we struggled through a light rain to make it into Jefferson City. The last hill outside the city was the steepest hill we've biked up all trip! But this afternoon our dreams came true: We found a shop that had thorn resistant tubes! 

We've stopped in around 10 bike shops as we've crossed the country, but J&D Bikes is the best so far! Not only because they had the tubes that no one else had, but Steve was also super willing to help us. He helped us find a new, flat route that avoided downtown St. Louis, and even gave us some free stuff and service. It's no wonder that they've been in business for over 40 years!

So we crossed the Missouri River to the north shore to bike along a flat road in order to avoid 'hillatial hills' on route 50, as Steve had told us. We added on 40 miles to our route as a result, so we bikes 112 miles total that day to try and catch up a bit. But we couldn't stand the steep up and down hills of the Ozark Mountains anymore, so we were grateful for the flat. 

But traveling in the dark, we were forced to go up into the hills again; and it was 9 miles of up and down steeper than ever hills, in the pitch black other than our little bike lights. We heard the craziest sounds ever in the dark forest, and we are pretty sure we were being hunted by a wolf pack for half the time...

Today we also want to give a shout out to US Highway 54! We rode that highway all the way from Tucumcari, NM to Jefferson City, Missouri.  Today marked the end of hwy 54

Day 15: 97miles, 10armadillos, 2bikers, and 1storm

After a wonderful relaxing sabbath, we were ready to hit the road again. Today we put in around 7 hours of biking time and went 94 miles. Slow moving. Winds weren't as bad, but today we biked into the ozark mountains, which is why the following elevation map looks is as such:

Still a good day overall, although a storm finally caught up with us and soaked us pretty good. 

We've also been working on our animal identification, so far we've identified turtles, snakes, scorpions, frogs, raccoons, skunks, cats, dogs, possums and armadillos, all as road kill tossed mercilessly aside into the shoulder of the road where we ride. Today alone we saw 10 armadillos. 

We're used to the "share the road" signs  for bikers. Clearly, we are in foreign territory 

Day 14: Nevada (pronounced nah-veh-duh), Missouri

Today in Sunday School we learned the story about the prophet Balaam and his ass. We had never heard the story before, but on the way to a member's home after church we came across this fellow in the picture. A guard dog of sorts. He started braying at us full blast! Here's a picture of Bryce and an ass we came across after church.

We also had a wonderful time at the claypool home. They made us feel so welcome and gave us the most wonderful meal! It never fails to astonish me the wonderful kindness that people  have shown us on our own journey across the USA. Thanks claypools!

We head to Osage beach tomorrow. These next couple of weeks is crunch time. Wish us luck! Feel free to text or call us to help us stay motivated. We have many hills and windy roads this week and will need every ounce of help we can get 

Also, Casey heard a new joke today. After explaining his ethnic backgroud (dad from Idaho, mom from china) one of the members explained, "oh! So you're a Chinese spud then!" Never heard that one before!

Day 13: if you travel 80 miles an hour for one hour, how far will you travel?

Saturday is the best day, because we know we can take a break from cycling for one day! But it sure was a rough day! Lots of hills and winds again, even more than yesterday, making our pace very slow and sporadic. We finally pulled into Nevada, mo, leaving behind the beautiful Kansas, an 80 mile day. These past two days we've averaged only 15 miles an hour, making the time spent biking lots more. 

We went for a 5 mile walk to lossen up our legs and it felt fantastic! We waked to a china buffet managed by Korean people, then to a grocery store managed by Missouri people, then back to our tent camped outside the chapel for church tomorrow. 

Bryce, working on that tan whenever we stop (retribution for my zebra pic he posted yesterday):

Day 12: The Road Thru El Dorado, Kansas

Okay, so can I just say something crazy? I love crazy! 

Kansas has hills!!! For 92 miles today we were just riding up and down hills. We did drop slightly in elevation overall, but it was like a hill workout the whole time. Also, we ended up having to go an extra 20 miles than we planned because there was nothing in Neal, KS after all.

Also, Casey is in the running for the world's best tan lines competition, so please be sure to cast your vote! Check it out below:

For Bikers: 

1) When putting your bike in a bike rack, put the rear wheel in first so it won't fall as easily. Bryce's bike today fell, and with all the weight on the rack in the back it bent the front rim and he had to buy a replacement :/

2) Put corn starch on your inner tubes before you out it into the tire: it makes it so the tube won't stick to the tire as much, and make it less likely to get popped.

3) Burp the prests valve when filling it so that you can get more air in, and higher pressure.

4) Fill up the tire part way when filling it up, check to see if it is okay, and then finish filling it up.

5) Inside the rim is a tape covering the holes for the spokes to connect to the rim. Make sure the tabs is lines up right and covering all the holes so it won't pop the tube!

Day 11: green mile

Last night we made it to the heart of the heartland of america. Well, at least as close as we're going to get, Wichita Kansas! And we stayed at wonderful sister Beth Hawkins home. Thanks so much for having us! Fantastic food and fantastic people and fantastic dogs

Thanks again to the Kansas wind, we biked 80 miles in less than four hours and made it early to witchita. We spent the rest of the time searching for the elluclsive thorn resistant tubes to no avail. We finally called stores ahead of time and found one! We are excited to be done with popping them tubes!

We've had really good riding over the last few days with lots of gradual downhills and good wind at our backs. It's not going to stay that way after Wichita though! 

Here's the rest of our trip mapped out to the end:

Day Ten: Storm Chasing-- Us!

This afternoon we stopped in Bucklin, KS for a break at the public library. We took care of some stuff on the computer and rested for a few hours. While we were there a group of boys named Eli, Caleb, Cooper, Challence, and Tate came up and started hanging out with us. We learned a lot from them and they were super cool to us. They brought us Cherry Cokes and pop tarts! What great guys, we know they will make great men some day.

After leaving Bucklin, we noticed some dark storm clouds approaching across the Kansas territory (tornado alley, right?) so we started biking to stay ahead of it. For three hours we biked to stay ahead of the storm, but it seemed like it was traveling east at the same speed we were. We were just on the edge, and the winds were howling and trying to suck us back in. While riding we looked left, and a few miles off we saw a small tornado touch down, kicking up some dirt in a farmer's wheat field. Bryce's boyhood dream fulfilled! We had heard a tornado siren sound briefly in one of the towns we passed through as well. 

After a long battle the storm caught up with us. The wind got stronger, nearly blowing us over. We took shelter a couple times in ditches and next to buildings a couple times when it got really bad. But finally we just had to keep biking so we could make it into town before dark. 

We raced the storm, and the storm won. Soaked. 

We finally got to Pratt, KS, and made a huge amount of pasta in the church kitchen. Destroyed it. 

For Bikers:

1. Public Libraries are a great places for taking breaks. They have free computer use, plenty of water, and often green lawns to take a nap in. Most every town has them too.

2. Bryce's Blackburn pump broke last week, but today when he called about the warranty they offered to send him a new one, for free, and said I could just throw the old one out. They didn't ask for any verification or anything. I was very impressed with their quick service.

3. Definitely invest is some thorn proof tubes, they will save you time and money. We both have one thorn proof each, and they have not been punctured yet! On the other hand, we can't count on both hands how many times each standard tube has blown. 

4. Don't over pump your tubes at gas stations if you use  their pump. The tubes will blow! Hah

Day 9: chasing daylight

Were behind on our daily blogposts, so we'll do two in one night

Yesterday, we were broken down in guymon, and had to wait for te bike store to open at 1pm in order to look at what we could do for Casey's bike. Well, turns out, the crank was so worn down because we biked 200 miles without a bolt on his bike, that he would need a minimum $400 repair job for a new crank set! Which would also set us back a couple days. Rather than spend a ton of money on something that should never have happened and set us back a couple days (which we might not be able to make up for in the end) Casey decided to buy a new aluminum jamis bike. And then we were back on the road! 

We ended up leaving guymon close to 5:00pm, thinking there was no chance to get to our previously scheduled destination of Meade, ks, 80 miles away. Well, with the wind at our backs, we raced the sun all the way to Meade, averaging 25-30 miles per hour! What a blessing! Even with some grocery shopping, and 3 flats, we were not to be denied and pulled in right as it got dark, found a campsite, and called it a night (after a quick bite of pasta to recharge our bodies) 

Here's a picture of a new friend we made in guymon while waiting at the public library for the bike store to open, here's Pat Lindsey. She was so great to us!

We also set a new record for the fastest tube change so far. We'll have to see if we can improve on it!

Day 8: hot and dry

The heat has arrived! Weather report tells is that's it's only going to keep rising, all the way to 97 by the time we get into witchita. So, we can probably bank on the fact that it won't be 97 because we know all about weather forecasts! 

Today we needed to bike 127 miles so that we could be within biking distance to a bike store in Guymon to get Casey's bike fixed. In order to tide us over till we got there (cause we had broken pumps and broken tubes) we bought some patches for tubes and some sealant inflator canister from Kmart, the only store with any kind of bike stuff. 

Today, we made it 70 miles in just over 3 hours before we both got flats and Bryce busted his actual tire. We put in our new tire that we carried as a spare. We then proceeded to use the patches on all four of our spare tubes as well as the sealant, without any success, ruining our spare tubes. The patches were not very good. 

We finally gave up the battle and hitched a ride to dalhart Texas from a super chill man, Gilbert, who runs a tire business in dalhart. Before we could, we were stranded on the side of the road for a couple hours. We stopped at a steakhouse in dalhart where Casey got his first texas steak! Bryce downed a bacon cheeseburger. 

We managed to get a hold of the branch presidency in dalhart who drove us the rest of the way into guymon where the closest bike store was located. Thanks brother jerry leisure! 

Despite everything that happened today, we very much enjoyed meeting and greeting people. We had a wonderful time at the steakhouse with our awesome texas waiter, Cheryl, awho is as Texan as you could possibly be as well as the rest if the restaurant who was very good to us. Jerry leisure was so good to us, a Vietnamese war veteran, and was our hero for driving us all the way to guymon. We very much enjoyed talking with him. 

Also we met a fellow traveler on the road today, WALKING the other way from New York to Huntington Beach California, Don Erickson. He is raising awareness for organ donations. He has been walking for almost a year now. Truly amazing! 

Check out his cause:

Us and jerry leisure 

Casey and don Erickson

Day 7: tucumcari

We absolutely loved spending time here with the members of the church of the tucumcari branch. We felt so welcomed and loved despite the fact that we were two complete strangers. One of the members, Barbara Stallcup invited us into her home for dinner and a place to sleep. She is an 83 year old powerhouse and we love her so much already. Here's us and her:

We're excited to hit the road again tomorrow. We have a big day. We also spent a lot of time with the missionaries today. Jonathan Harper, do you know an elder Webb? He claims he is your brother in law. Small world! He's doing super well, training an awesome missionary and we can tell he is working so hard trying to share the gospel and is doing a good job:

Day 6: Route 66

Today was a shorter day. We're at tucumcari, nm, and are excited to attend church at a branch tomorrow! We are also really looking forward to resting our sore muscles and lounging around for the day. 

If any of you have ever seen cars, it's really true! All along Route 66 are closed down businesses because of the interstate that goes right by it. It is really amazing to see places frozen in time. We saw a motel ad today on the side of the road:

Rooms for $17.89

Colored cable tv!!!

Wow! Colored tv! We would have taken them up on that offer, except they probably haven't been open since the interstate was built. 

Happy sabbath!

Biking hands:

Pizza Hut never tasted so good. All for $11, they gave us free salad and fruit, so much kindness in the world, especially in small towns: 

Day 5: The Battle for Santa Rosa

Today we biked 124 miles. 'Nuf said.

Despite many hold ups and challenges today, we made some awesome friends in Edgewood. We met jack dowdy and his friends who work at smiths. After a wonderful meal chatting with jack who happened to be from 5 miles away from Bryce's hometown in Washington crossing, they have us some wonderful needed fruit. Without, I'm not sure we would have made it to Santa Rosa. They were such a blessing. They gave us fruit and we chatted away and enjoyed life together. The one time our paths cross and they feed us. Good people:

But seriously, today was a battle. We changed four flat tires (all Bryce's). There are these little metal shards that get caught in our tires, and we were wondering where they come from. Ends up they are attached to the alligators (or the spare treads that are wrapped around tractor trailer tires) and when they come off on the highway they end up on the shoulder. Where we bike. Brilliant:

Bryce's first flat in a year. He got 4 in 4 hours!!!:

Our second bike pump broke on our fourth flat, stranding us on the highway. (The quality of these pumps is frustrating). But amazingly enough, our pump broke when we were next to a random gas station where we were able to fill up for our last time. So now we are riding without a pump or tube patches cause there isn't another bike store or walmart for 200 miles. Please pray for us. 

Also, today we had to run away from 4 dogs on 2 different times. They all snuck up on us, and then we just sprinted away on our bikes. We would just be cruising along, and then the dogs would show up and we'd suddenly be going twice the speed we were going to get away. 

Last funny story, we finally pull into Santa Rosa, and after eating dinner we go to set up camp in a random field behind some houses. A dog just starts barking like mad. By this point,we are really starting to dislike dogs. While we are setting up, 3 cop cars cop cars show up, clearly looking for something or someone. We walked over and turned ourselves in, even though they never saw us until we walked up to them. We expected them to say sleep in a hotel or campground or something, but instead he said, 'You can if you want, but you don't have to sleep in this crappy field, so sleep right in the city park across the street!' So that's what we're doing. We like Santa Rosa.