Eastern Time!

Whew.  It's been a busy couple weeks...

We have made serious progress since my last update (which was all the way back in Kansas - now we're in Indiana) - we're back in Eastern time!  The two highlights have been Olathe, KS (a suburb of Kansas City) and St. Louis, MO.  In Olathe, we had a hero's welcome complete with a gigantic American flag; this thing was seriously about 50 feet long.  That night we were honored at a Kansas City Royals game on the biggest scoreboard in major league baseball:

On the ride to Olathe, we experienced the steepest hill of the trip - it was only about 100 yards long, but it was an 18% grade.  It looked like we were about to bike up a wall, and some of the cyclists mentioned their front wheel was lifting off of the ground while pedaling.  We then continued onwards through Missouri.

I want to take a minute and go into more detail about Missouri.  This state proved to be the hardest point of the trip so far for two reasons.  First, it was continuous climbing.  Missouri is full of rolling hills, so some days we would literally alternate climbing a quarter mile then descending a quarter mile for 100 miles.  That turns out to be a huge amount of climbing (probably around 8,000-10,000 feet in a day).  As if that wasn't hard enough, it was hot - I mean ridiculously HOT.  The temperature was on average 105 degrees with 90% humidity, resulting in conditions that felt like 115 degrees.  At these temperatures it is an absolute chore to stay hydrated.  Let's take a moment to do a little math:

You are supposed to drink a bottle of water every 10 miles in normal temperature.  In this temperature, I averaged 1 and a half bottles every 10 miles.

Each bottle is 24 oz.  1 and a half bottles is 36 oz.

For a century, that equates to 36 oz. for 10 10-mile stretches = 360 oz. of water.  To give you a handle on the amount of liquid that is, a gallon is 128 oz.  So, I'd drink about 2 and a half gallons of water a day.  Whoah.

That amount of work gives you a sense of accomplishment and pride - the people on this team are working extremely hard in some harsh conditions.  Don't let anyone ever tell you biking is easy.

But enough about the conditions.  The next stop was in St. Louis, home of the world famous St. Louis arch:

And yes, that's the team playing around in the fountain.  We are very mature for our age...

We've visited a couple of different chapters along the way.  We visited the University of Missouri, Indiana State, and we're currently at Indiana University.  Tomorrow we'll be heading to Indianapolis for a much deserved day off.  The weekend after next, we'll be back in Blacksburg - I'm putting out a call to all friends to come visit while we ride through.  I'll post more details a little closer to the date.

That's all I've got for now, hope everyone is enjoying their summer - its flying by!

Get The Heck Outta Dodge!

Since Denver, we've been riding pretty hard and we are now in Kansas.  The temperature in Eastern Colorado/Western Kansas has rocketed up into the 90's (and in several places, over 100 degrees!); I personally wish we could go back into some of the colder weather we experienced earlier in the trip.

Right after our stop in Denver, we had another day off in Colorado Springs.  In one of the coolest programmed events of the trip so far, we got to see behind the scenes at the US Olympic Training Center:

We got to see where the wrestlers train, where the gymnasts train, the swimming pool, and even got to eat in their cafeteria.

We also got to meet THE Bruce Rogers - the Bruce Rogers who inspired Journey of Hope in 1987 by riding across the country for Push America.  He still actively bikes (and is still pretty good at it too):

Since then we've been riding through extreme heat.  Our first stop in Kansas was Garden City, home of the world's largest municipal swimming pool.  That night we were also treated to Golden Corral, giving the team a chance to show off our incredible appetite (we had two poor waitresses constantly running back and forth the whole time).  Last night we stayed in Dodge City, KS (birthplace of the phrase "get the hell outta Dodge") where we were treated to a wild-west museum, a mock gunfight, and a can-can show:

Tomorrow we ride to Wichita for a day off.  Apparently tonight we get to eat some gigantic steaks for dinner - I can't wait!  Everybody enjoy your humpday!

P.S.  Can't wait to see the final Harry Potter in a couple of days - it's already getting rave reviews.

Arrival in Denver

Sorry it's been so long since the last post...we've had an extremely tough stretch on the road and I've been too tired (read: lazy) to put anything new up.

After leaving the Cushman ranch, we racked over the Tetons into Jackson, WY to start our stretch of centuries. This is why we racked over them:

An extremely high grade and no shoulder made the Tetons just a tad too dangerous to bike over.  We did have a string of bad luck afterwards also - a stomach virus made its way through the team and we had a crash, but everybody is pretty much back to normal.  I was one of the lucky 5 people on the team who did not get sick and managed to bike every ride.  Oh yeah, and we got to see some wildlife!

On the last century day (from Casper to Wheatland) we got caught in a couple of crazy storms.  At one point, this is what we were outrunning:

We could see individual streaks of lightning a couple miles away from us.  It was a little disconcerting, but pretty cool at the same time.  We were all happy to finally make it to Colorado (our 5th state), despite Wyoming's best attempt to hold us in.  When biking from Wheatland to Cheyenne, we experienced constant headwinds of 15-20 mph with gusts of 30 mph...try biking in that for 5 hours and tell me you aren't frustrated.  We averaged about 6-8 mph the whole day, making it a miserable day.

The day after the obnoxious headwinds proved to be the polar opposite - it was one of the prettiest rides we have done so far (not to mention the team hauled tail).  We ate lunch in Fort Collins, CO (our first stop in the state) at Raising Cane's, the first restaurant we've been to that had respectable sweet tea.  After leaving Fort Collins (home of the Colorado State Rams) we headed to Boulder, home of the Colorado Buffaloes.  We spent the 4th of July watching fireworks on a rooftop.

Yesterday we had a police escort from Invesco Field (home of the Denver Broncos) to the capitol building in the heart of the city.  We got to meet Chad Coltrane (CEO of Push America) and Bruce Rogers (the rider in 1987 who inspired the beginning of Journey of Hope) and now have some free time to explore the city.  Tomorrow we head to Colorado Springs where we have another day off - I'll post more when there's more to post.  In the meantime, have a good week!

P.S. We met up with North Route in Denver.  That's Chris Anger on the far right, one of my brothers from the Virginia Tech chapter.

Week 3 Happenings

We've had a lot of stuff going on since my last blog post. The past week has been pretty tough on the bike...we've been climbing steadily for three weeks now. I'm currently looking at the Tetons in the distance as we relax at an elevation of 6200 ft. in Driggs, ID (very close to Jackson Hole, WY).

Our first stop out of Missoula was Philipsburg, MT.  They have a world famous candy shop there where I ashamedly spent $12 on candy (they had some of the best fudge I've ever tasted).  We climbed up yet another pass to several amazing sights:

This is the waterfall at the top of the climb.

This is Georgetown Lake.  The water was absolutely motionless, giving a perfect reflection.

We then rode to Butte, MT (the day before our 2nd century) and had the best friendship visit so far. We had a dance party, where I definitely confirmed that I do not know how to dance. Since then we've been to Bozeman and West Yellowstone:

We are currently staying at the Cushman Ranch where they have fed us amazing food and given us the opportunity to horseback ride, shoot skeet, drive golf balls, hike, fly fish, play poker, and lounge in the pool/hot tub.  They have also been taking guys off-roading in their H1 Hummer.

On a side note, I have lost ~7 lbs. already (my shorts are getting loose!).  For you dieticians out there, here is a typical day in terms of meals:

Breakfast: half a bagel w/ peanut butter, cup of cereal w/ milk, juice, and half a banana

Lunch: Sandwich (two slices of ham or turkey and cheese), chips, two carrots, two cookies

Dinner: 2 large helpings of spaghetti w/ meatballs, salad, 2 pieces of garlic bread

4th Meal: Big Mac meal from McDonald's

This is in addition to eating Clif bars on the road and other snacks in lodging.  Dinner will vary significantly from place to place (for example, last night we had ribs, chicken, pork medallions, coleslaw, potatoes, bread, and as many chips, dip, shrimp, and other assorted appetizers we could eat).  We're practically starving out here...

Unfortunately, tomorrow we have to leave, starting a tough stretch (5 centuries in 6 days through the mountains).  We have all really enjoyed our time here, but we have to get moving.  I'll post more after a few days.  In the meantime, enjoy the week!

Edit: I forgot to post this picture of a billboard we saw on the road:

Apparently Rocky Mountain Oysters are a big hit here...

Finally Out of Pacific Time

Whew...

We finally managed to make it out of Pacific time and into Mountain time.  After leaving Spokane, we've not really been doing a whole lot in terms of team programming.  We haven't had a friendship visit in about 4 days, but hopefully we've got one coming up soon.  Also, let me address something really quickly: with most of our friendship visits, we are not allowed to take pictures, so I probably won't be posting too much in the way of the people I get to interact with.  I will say, however, that the visits have been amazing - in Spokane I got to hang out with a little girl named Sarah who was absolutely awesome.  We got to see the variety show the Arc of Spokane County made, a hilarious and dramatic reinterpretation of some popular movies (Ghostbusters, Alice in Wonderland, the Lord of the Rings, etc.).  I literally laughed out loud about 20 times - these people are amazing.  Also, at one of the sponsored dinners, the owner was a classic car collector:

Since Spokane, we've had several fairly easy bike rides (on mostly flat ground).  We got into Idaho, the state of beautiful mountains and terrible weather.  It was cold (around ~45 degrees) and rainy every day we were in Idaho:

Today we had our first real challenge in about a week: scaling Thompson's pass:

We ended up climbing about 4500 feet total today over the course of 73 miles.  It was extremely tough, but we at least made it through Idaho.  Now we're in Thompson Falls, MT, and we are nearing our next day off in Missoula.  I've gotten word that in a couple of weeks we'll be getting massages in Jackson Hole; words cannot describe how excited I am for that.  In the meantime, we'll be doing more friendship visits and hopefully seeing some more amazing views.  That's all I've got for now - I'll update when I've got more to share.  Hope everybody has a good weekend and a great Father's day!

P.S. - the moment you've all been waiting for...my unbelievable tan lines:

This is after 2 weeks.  I can only imagine what it will look like after 2 months.

P.P.S. - if you want to see more pictures from the trip, visit the official Flickr of Push America

Some Updates

Whew...what a week.  We're all getting MUCH better on the bikes, but we still have a ways to go.  Yesterday we did our first century - 115 miles in one day - and I promptly passed out (not before I got to swing around some of the cutest little girls in the whole world at a friendship visit).  At our lunch crew stop, a little dog came running out to visit us:

We also got to see some cool Wind Turbine farms out in the middle of the country (Matt Henry, if you're reading, this is for you):

Today we went a measly 75 miles from Pullman, WA (home of the Washington State Cougars) to Spokane, WA (home of Gonzaga, whatever their mascot is).  We had our first police escort into Spokane which was pretty cool.  We've got a much needed off day tomorrow to recover and work all the soreness out of our legs and rear ends.  It's still hitting me exactly what we're doing, but I'm so thankful I decided to do Journey of Hope.  I've only been here for two weeks, but I already feel like I've known these guys forever.  That's all I've got for now, I'll post more when we get going again.  Have a good week everybody.

P.S. - get ready for some pictures of ridiculous tan lines.  I already look like a raccoon.

First Days

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Mt. Ranier:

What a gorgeous view...but I'm getting ahead of myself.  The first day getting out of Seattle was a little hectic, but once we were out of the city, we got moving quickly to our destination for the night, Enumclaw.  There we had a friendship visit with the Ashley House, an amazing organization that helps children with disabilities.  It was 45 miles from Seattle to Enumclaw.  Our next destination was all the way in Yakima, a steep 125 miles away.

 To get to Yakima, we would have to pass over two mountains, climbing more than 7000 feet.  Wow.  I think we're all feeling it a little bit right now (I'm currently watching a groggy team struggle to get out of bed), but we'll be ready to go in a little bit.  The views we experienced in Mt. Rainier National Park were unbelievable - here's a sampling:

Today we have another 75 miles to go to Richland.  I'll post more pictures and updates when I have time.  until then, take it easy.

Arrival

I've been extremely busy since arriving in Seattle.  After assembling my bike and trying on my uniform (looking super sexy), I've been in meetings forever.  It seems like we've got a really solid team - we've got a great group of guys.  A lot of guys I've met are uncannily similar to people I know from home and school...anyway, we got a chance visit to the flagship REI store - a behemoth of a store - and are about to go to our first friendship visit.  I'll post more when there is more to post.

Headed to Seattle

I'm super excited about heading out to Seattle tomorrow morning to start the adventure of a lifetime.  Goodbye east coast - I'll see you in about 2 months!