Saturday, April 30, 2011

Goodbye Nightshade v.2.0

The Nightshade v.2.0 is now off on its own little journey. The next time I meet up with her will be in 11 days, 3300 miles from here. I miss her already. I don't even know what I am going to do with myself while waiting to ride again.

Funny story, after I disassembled her and packed her, I took her to the FedEx place. The lady couldn't lift it off the counter. She slid it onto the floor, and then blatantly ignored the 6 "this side UP" signs and the giant arrows all over the box. As she turned it onto the side, all you hear is a bunch of clunks and clanks as my bike shoe and crescent wrench slowly make their way from one end of the box to the other, hitting every single metal thing in that 40 inch span. She looked like she broke something, so to reassure her, I made my face an expression of horror to assume she really did break something, and then immediately told her I was just kidding, it was fine. Always a good laugh, when someone breaks something valuable to you. It is even funnier when that something is the only thing that can get you back home this summer.

Teasing people is really fun sometimes.
I thought she was about to cry. Whoops.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Yah, it is real.

Fletcher texted me today.

"2 weeks. 14 days. 336 hours. 20,160 minutes... No biggie"

So yah, I leave in exactly 2 weeks from today. Its going to be wild. Yesterday I did a 19 mile ride in an hour, so I was feeling really great. That is the fastest I've ever gone. It is kind of crazy that it is coming so fast. I am now sincerely ready to just go. School is bothersome at this point. Just give me my dang grades and let me peace out of here. I know now is not the most interesting part of my blogging, just because I am not doing very exciting things. But once I get going I would love comments on the blog. I will definitely be responding throughout the summer. I guess they will be an awesome way to keep in touch with people, and I will be super encouraged by them too. I will have a computer with me for that. But if you want interesting now, I just got a recipe for chocolate tiramisu. So that is going to be unbelievable. I am making it tomorrow I think.

Also, big news, we had 47 kids at YoungLife club last night. The most at Daniel HS in a long long time, if not ever. The Lord is doing huge things there, it is sick to see. We are going to have 100 next year. Without a doubt in my mind.

47 kids, I can't get over it.

dkal

Sunday, April 24, 2011

16 and 47


You may be wondering why the two numbers are the title of this post. Well the answer definitely is not how many miles I rode this weekend, because that number would be zero. (I don't have a valid reason for that, I just didn't go)

16- The days left until my trip starts.

47- The number of days I have yet to cut my beard. Only 133 days left on this baby.





Yah, I know it isn't very impressive.

Dang it.


Thursday, April 21, 2011

We are now in the teens.

As of today, there are 19 days left until the trip. So close I can almost taste it... almost.

Anyways, yesterday I went on my first fully loaded ride. I did 19 miles in an hour and 20 minutes. For those of you who don't want to do the math, that is about 14 mph. This is probably good news only to me and Fletcher, because that is what we wanted to average for our trip. There were no pressing issues. That means all I have to do now is get my bike tuned up one more time, then take it apart, then ship it to Portland, then fly to Portland, then bike back here.

The best part of yesterdays ride was when I was riding through Pendleton. I was on 88 and this guy on a moped rides up next to me and started asking me questions about where I was going, how far, all of that stuff. We ended up talking for only 3 or 4 minutes. But we backed up the cars on that road probably 15- 20 cars deep. So good.

Don't you just hate bikers on the side of the road.

"Why don't you just ride on the &*@! sidewalk"- Some guy yesterday out of an F- 250.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Almost 60... Almost.

Yesterday concluded my longest bike ride to date in training for this summer. I biked almost 60 miles. It was a great day. I did it in a pinch less than 4 hours. I also biked for close to 20 miles into a headwind. That sucked. Bahaha. Anyways.

23, soon to be 22 days until departure. This is getting really crazy. I talk to Fletch almost everyday. We are just constantly getting jacked up about this trip. We decided that skinny dipping in every body of water/river we can find, without getting in trouble, is now on the to-do list. So we are making huge steps in progress for major trip decisions. We will figure out the little stuff, like our route, when we get to that part of the journey.

On a high note, I made Pimiento Mac n' Cheese for dinner last night. I'm talking, gooey, spicy, cheesy, creamy, beautiful, delicious Mac n' Cheese. Oh. My. Yummy.

That is all.