The infamous Day 8

Yesterday was day 8 of riding. By that point I should have either pushed past the exhaustion block, or given up on the trip. It is supposed to be the hardest day of the trip.... I did over 90 miles. Day 8, how's it feel?

Anyways, I am super excited that on day 8 I felt really good. That night's sleep was crazy. My lean-to that I made with my rainfly in the canyonvalley ended up blowing off in the middle of the night, so it is a REALLY good thing that it didn't end up raining. The moon looked like a giant block of swiss cheese. The weather when I woke up was gorgeous. Probably 50 degrees or so.

The bike ride out of the valley was uneventful. It was super flat and really fast riding. On the only climb out of the canyon, a red truck passed by yelling at me like crazy. It was pretty funny. When I got out of the valley, I only had 12 miles to go until Vale. I know in yesterday's post I said I wouldn't bash headwinds ever again because of what they did for me. But I hate them again. I really do. I averaged 6 mph into that dang wind. It was pretty frustrating. Little tractors kept passing me. I really do hate headwinds with my whole heart again.

Got to Vale, and decided to grab lunch at the local diner/cafe. It was packed so I deemed that a really good sign. It was. I got the special, then spent another 3 dollars on fresh strawberry pie. Best strawberry pie I've ever had. It was a quarter of the pie, and almost 4 inches tall. I still don't believe that. I thought I was going to throw up. In the best possible way, I am sure it would taste mighty fine the second time around. Hahaha. As I was leaving, those guys that honked at me from the red truck came up to me. They were these to grumpy old geezers. We talked for about half an hour. They were hysterical. When they drove past me the first time, they couldn't decided if they wanted to see if I wanted to grab on for the ride up the hill (which I would have appreciated, but thankfully declined). As they were arguing amongst themselves, they didn't come to a conclusion until they were passing me, at which point they just ended up yelling at me out of their windows. This whole time they were talking to me, they were bickering back and forth like crazy. Tom and Franky. Awesome dudes. I want to be crotchety like them when I am older. I can't wait

Decided I would crank out the last 46 miles to Caldwell, ID. These miles went super fast. I crossed over the Snake River into Idaho about 14 miles outside of Vale. That was a huge mile-mark for me. I was pretty pumped. One state out of the way. A few left to go.

The miles were uneventful. They were flat and boring and in the farmland. I got to Caldwell pretty quickly. My only stop after Vale was at a pawn shop advertising "glass bottle sodie pop". I talked to the lady, and upon her recommendation got the Rock and Rye. It is a red cream soda, which is quite incredible really. I feel like I keep rambling about food and the like, but it is awesome trying the local stuff.

Once in Caldwell, I unpleasantly discovered that my dad gave me the wrong directions to the Nelson's house, so that was interesting trying to find a house in a town of 48,000 people. Figured it out though with the help of Mrs. Nelson.

The Nelson's are great people too. They are friends with my Grandparents (the Mayhill's). I think that I am going to adopt them as my tertiary set of grandparents, of the Idahoan descent (even though they are from California, doesn't matter.) They made me dinner, I got a shower, finally did laundry, and had a warm bed to sleep in. Unfortunately for Charnise, Sav, and Nathalie, the shorts that I was wearing at the Childe's house did NOT end up getting washed. CHAR, I REPEAT, I HAVE NOT WASHED THOSE SHORTS YET.. I just want' to make that clear to y'all. Sorry....not.

It has been super fun getting to know them. They are really funny to talk to, and have two crazy dogs. They took me out to a local breakfast place this morning which tops any country fried steak I have had in the South. It was pretty dang good. (once again, more about food, sorry, I am done.)

I getting ready to leave in the next hour or so, I just want to knock out an easy 50-60 miles today to allow for a little recovery time. Can't wait to sleep outside again, nice.

I found out I am still technically in the high desert..... crap that is depressing.

I am sitting in a giant valley. (from May 18)

So I woke up today and the weather was beautiful. I slept in a little bit, which was pretty ice. Finally being dry from the last day was such a good feeling. Nick called me at like 7-something and had questions about camp. I don't think I said a single coherent thing to him. I think I kept asking him what day it was. I still don't know the answer to that. I will have to call him back definitely. Anyways. I got the continental breakfast from the motel, (Katie Kopp, I had non-sugary cereal, which I know you also agree with. haha) It took me almost an hour to repacked all of my gear. I made sure everything was dry, then completely redid the organization of the bags to optimize available space. It worked wonders. I now have tons of room for extra nick-nacks along the trip. I went to the grocery store and talked to a bunch of people bout the trip as I was shopping. I don't think they see a ton of guys in tights pass through Burns, OR. I may be mistaken, but I think that it may have been a dead give-away that something was not normal.

So I took off, the first 22 miles sucked. They were in a straight line toward the huge mountain range. The crazy raining from the previous days flooded the fields and overtook a couple roads, so I had to make a few detours. With 20 mph headwinds, I was getting pretty mad at the day, when I noticed that the crazy headwinds were actually blowing the insane rainstorm in front of me to the South. At this point I said to myself, I said, "thank you headwinds." I will never bash on headwinds again. They blew 4 storms out of my way during the whole day before I ever got wet. Didn't get rained on once. So nice. I thought today wouldn't be that much climbing, but I climbed for a good hour or so right out of the farmland area of Burns. Elevation 4842 feet. What I saw next blew my mind. This valley 14 miles wide, with crazy rivers and rainstorms over the top of it lay before me. I was pretty speechless. It was the prettiest thing I have seen on the trip so far. Again, I couldn't bomb the hill down into the valley (which was 3 miles long), because of the headwinds, but so worth it. That extended view as I went down was incredible. But the bad part about that quick descent was on the other side of the valley, of course, another climb. That one took me an hour and a half.

The good part though is that was the last climb I had for a while. The last 15 miles to Jarthura was a bomb. I did it in 30 minutes. That averages close to 30 mph. It was sick.

Jarthura was great. A man named Jim was sitting outside the only establishment in town, The Oasis Cafe. WE talked for a good 20 minutes about God, the weather, the old reservation down the road, and the cherries he was selling. The were pretty dang good. The Oasis Cafe is INSANE good. It is the only stop for 60 miles in either direction, so the food is super good. I had a bison burger, (which I have never had) that made my face melt. Fresh cut Idaho potato french fries on the rest of the plate. I thought I was going to explode I was so full. 6 bucks. Still can't believe that. OH! and Miss April, my waitress/owner of the cafe, gave me a free bowl of soup for an appetizer. I will definitely come back and visit them someday. I already know I will. They were nice people. Super nice.

Once I found out that the rest of the way to Vale followed a river, and was mostly downhill/flat, I decided to take off for another 20 miles. The weather is great right now. I am sitting in a pair of shorts and T on the side of this huge mountain/valley. ON the opposite side of the road from me is the beautiful river, and the entire wall of the valley is radiating orange from the sunset. The clouds are purple and pink. This is one of the best campsites I have ever made. It actually is the best campsite I've ever made, looking around again. It is stunning right here.

Today I named my legs while riding. The right one's name is Barney. The left one is Leg-olas. (Lord of the Rings? anyone? anyone?)

The Amphitheater

So a lot happened in the last two days. I left Bend, OR a little later than anticipated, because of hanging out with Jack and getting my stuff together. I ended up leaving right after 12 o'clock. The high desert was not what I expected. I'll be honest, I don't know what I expected really, but what I rode through was definitely not what I thought of. Well they were calling for rainstorms. Any person with eyes could have seen there was supposed to be rain. I don't really know what happened. I had a 60 mile day planned, and riding it out in the rain sounded terrriiibbllle. Here is the deal with the high desert. Once, you climb the initial 4 mile climb up to the plateau, the only thing up there is little brush plants and mountains in the far, far distance. If you have never been in a truly flat area, you don't understand what a rain storm looks like in this description.

Let me paint you a picture.
You are on a road. The road stretches as far as you can see forward, and as far as you can see backwards. There are no turns. There are no buildings. There are random mountains in the distance and that is it. Because of this, you can also see every single cloud in every single direction. Kinda scary sounding? no? Now imagine turning around and there is a cloud that is almost literally black. This cloud starts on the ground and shoots up as high as you can see. It goes on infinitely to both sides. It is a giant wall of greys and blacks. You can see where the rain is an opaque sheet falling from the clouds. Now you goal is to outrun this cloud. You only have one direction to outrun it. Forward. Forward into a cloud almost equally impressive, with the same amount of waterfall falling from it. All you want is to not get rained on so you pray that it doesn't. You pray like crazy for 4 straight hours that it doesn't hit you.

You catch up to the cloud in front of you. The cloud splits a 10 minutes ride away from you. The ground is still wet from downpour, there are still puddles flooding the side of the road. The right split disappears. The left side split drifts further North. You never get wet. You bike another hour. Turn around, the giant wall of death rain is now following the other cloud to the North. All you can see is a sky that could end all skies. A blue deeper than any body of water. Snow capped mountains within miles on both sides of where you are standing.

I talked to a guy named Tone (short for atonement). He called it The Amphitheater. Everything is magnified. Everything is bigger. It is beautiful. It is aptly named.
The sunset looked like a wall of fire. The death cloud was back-lit in reds, oranges, and yellows that would put a Clemson sunset to shame. I read some Psalms out loud. Shouted them too. Such a beautiful thing. There is no reverb to any noise you make, no echos. Every sound is swallowed up. It was intimidating and incredible.

O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise,
of you enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:
all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8

That was only a picture that my feeble attempts at writing could produce. Words couldn't describe it. I set up my hammock and rain-fly in an empty horse fence on the side of the road. The stars looked like powdered sugar. No ambient light in 60 miles in any direction. The only thing brighter than the stars was the moon, the size of a bowling ball.

So I had a great nights sleep. Until I woke up. I woke up to 30 degrees and snowing. That was miserable. I should have slept in the tent. Everything I owned was pretty wet. I started biking the 70 miles for the day. It stayed around 35 degrees all day. It rained. It snowed. It hailed. It was pretty miserable. I tried to hitch a ride several times, but I don't think the beard was helping me much, cause no one stopped. So I gutted it out, (while contemplating what life without fingers would look like) and made it to a truck stop about 25 miles from Burns, OR. I took a two hour hiatus from biking and drank a couple hot chocolates, took a nap, got a little dry. I got my dad to get me a hotel for the night in Burns. If I had camped tonight, I would have frozen to death, everything was so wet. As soon as I left the truckstop, of course the weather was beautiful. It was giant blue skies and huge puffy white clouds (blueberry skies and marshmallow clouds). The weather here is so jacked up. Anyways. I am now sitting in my hotel room with my entire trip draped on anything I could hook it on, with the heater set on the inferno setting. I am tired, but feel great.


Life is lukewarm. Crank dat heat up.

My legs. I can't find my legs.

Yesterday was probably the hardest thing I have ever done physically. Originally the plan was to bike around 60 miles and stop in La Pine, OR.

So, I woke up around 7 and went to a McDonald's for breakfast and internet. Got all my stuff packed and headed off on my day. I took highway 58 up Willamette Pass, then took a cutoff towards 97N (to Bend). Well it turns out that the road up to Willamette is uphill the entire way. I am not talking uphill part of the way. I am talking there were literally no downhills for 4000 feet of climbing and 25 miles of riding. I had to do this method near the last 3 miles of the uphill where I would bike for 5 minutes, then take a break for 2-3 minutes. It took me almost an hour to bike up it. It was so dang pretty though. I got to pass snow banked waterfalls that dropped hundreds of feet. I got to bike past little hidden mountain lakes that would just pop up as you rounded corners. It was crazy. As I was biking up that last section, it started to snow. I am not talking about little sissy snow. I am talking flakes the size of quarters. Flying down so fast you couldn't see 40 feet in front of you. It was crrrazy. Well I got to the summit, which might have been the most exhausting thing I have ever done. Started going down, and decided against it. The turns were too sharp and I definitely would have got merked if I tried. So I hitched a ride with a truck for the 4 or 5 mile descent. The couple that drove me down was Megan and Danavian (or something like that). They were awesome. Super nice. They actually were from the Pigeon Forge area in Tennessee.

The weather was beautiful after we left the blizzard. I got these little candies at the gas station. They are the old time Anise candies. SO addicting. I took this road called the Crescent Cutoff, or something like that. It was long slopey downhills for 14 miles. Such a relief after so much climbing.

So I got to 97 N and started biking to La Pine, which was the original goal. I biked that 17 miler in a little over an hour. I didn't really feel like stopping there (it was pretty small). So I got the number for the YL area director in Bend and gave him a call. Then biked another 32 miles up to Bend. He gave me the number of this leader named Jack that I could stay with.

Jack is awesome. They stay in this sick house overlooking Bend and the mountains, (they only pay 150 for rent which doesn't make sense.) But he made me a sick pasta dinner last night. I got a bed to crash on. Woke up this morning and took me to an awesome coffee place. I had the best cappuccino I've ever had. I think that west coast coffee places should move out east. Just saying.

So yah, level 2 of the trip was the Cascade Mountain range. Finished that sucker in a day.
Boom Roasted.

Level 3 is the High Desert. Bring it on High Desert. You ain't got nothing on me.




My legs feel like jello, but look like tree trunks.

Flyin Solo

We had some impending news as of two days ago. It turns out that Fletcher had hurt his knee during the first two days of riding. He ended up having to go to the doctor on Friday. The doctor had good news and bad news. Good news: the knee isn't severely injured but (bad news here) he had to take 9-14 days off the trip. Without those 9-14 days there is no way the trip would be finished. So after an off day of hanging out with our OSU friends and playing disc golf, I decided to carry on with the trip by myself.

So, before you go all freakout mode and yell at me about it not being safe, here is my argument against you.
1.) It isn't as safe as riding with a partner, you are right in that.
2.) We changed the route so I am riding safer roads that have a good amount of cellphone service and are trafficked enough.
3.) I don't care that you don't think it's not safe, you don't have to do it.
4.) I met a girl who did it solo. (no offense to girls, obvi, but inherent risk of danger is obviously more imminent with a solo girl rider.)
5.) I still don't care that you don't think its safe.

So with that said, here is the blog from yesterday.


I left Corvallis yesterday at 9:30 for Eugene, OR. We changed the route, as I said, to make it a little safer and easier to travel. It was 40 something miles of long gradual uphill. If you are curious, this is my least favorite road type. I was strugs the last 5 miles. But Eugene was cool. I remembered that is where Hayward field is (where Steve Prefontaine used to through down back in the early 70's). So I took a couple mile detour and headed over to see it. There was a masters track meet going on. I talked to this guy, Mark, about running and my trip. He was super cool. He gave me directions to get to highway 58. Turns out that you are legally allowed to ride on the INTERSTATES in Oregon. What an awesome state. I got onto I-5 and found a small group of people riding from work. So I hopped in behind them. They have a little section on the far side of the shoulder that is used for bikes that they keep clear.

Highway 58 might be my new favorite highway in the US. It was long gradual uphills winding from the foothills up into the mountains. The entire time you are next to either Dexter Lake or a whitewater river. The mountains here aren't quite the rockies, but they are much more severe in steepness compared to the apps. Dexter reminded me a lot of Lake Burton out in Clayton, GA. It is one of the prettiest places I have seen in a long while. I can't wait to see more of these mountains today.

For dinner I went to a local Mexican restaurant in Oakridge, OR. I put down an entire fajita's meal and two baskets of chips. Ravenous was an understatement.

There weren't any campgrounds in Oakridge, so by the time I was finished with dinner, I just wanted to go to bed. I found a hill by a railroad track and posted up at the top of that with the hammock and rainfly. I thought that I would be cold at night, but I ended up being way overheated. I slept on top of my bag for most of the night.

This morning, legs are pretty sore. I biked around 90 miles yesterday. I didn't realize how far that was until I got finished. Today I am looking to just get out of Willamette National Forrest. After that it should be a breeze.


Let's Ride....(that's for you Pete L.)

The Pacific Ocean.

Well I have already lost track of time. I feel like the date doesn't matter at all. Yesterday morning was our first ride heading east. We woke up and Amy made us cinnamon raisin french toast and sausage. I put down a ton of that, a couple glasses of orange juice, a cup of coffee, two cliff bars, and a huge chunk of brownie for breakfast. (I have been eating more than normal humans do, it's pretty funny seeing how much I have been throwing down.) But they went to work while Fletcher and I got our trip stuff packed. Having warm and dry socks and gloves after freezing to death in the rain was a great great perk to staying in a house. I would have quit if it rained again. Well, maybe not.


We rode over the bay bridge and headed down to Historic Nye Beach. The entire coast of Oregon seems to be on a giant cliff over the ocean, so I rode down a super steep trail. Bike tire in the Pacific Ocean.... Check. Sand in my shoes.... Check. The sand on the west coast makes me equally mad as the sand on the east coast, so if you are traveling to the beaches here in hopes of better sand, don't. It is a waste of time. It is all the same, it is all annoying.



We started back on a beautiful sunny day with a full belly through the Oregon Coast Mountain Range. There was a huge amount of construction on the road starting at mile 15 or so. I think people didn't want to have to bother with it, so took other routes, because we didn't see very many cars for almost 2 hours. So it was a beautiful quiet mountain road. It was a good ride. We rode a little faster yesterday. Overall for the day we averaged 10 mph including stops. So that is pretty good time. I am happy with the rate we rode.

Got back to Corvallis really tired. We called Janae and we ended up going out to play disc golf with a bunch of her friends. She had to go to work, so she wasn't even there. It was pretty funny. It was Ben, Brandon, Tristan, Bryan, Sam, Taylor, and Charlotte. I am terrible at disc golf now. But the course out here was really good. Everyone drinks a ton of beer when they play. That made me laugh even harder, because as the game went on, people cared less about how they were doing. By the last hole they were like, "let's just leave."

For dinner we went to American Dream Pizza, a little campus hole in the wall pizza place. I got the classic pepperoni and sausage calzone by recommendation of the waitress. Except for the Emerald Kettle in Pike's Market, Seattle, this was the best calzone I have ever had. It was so good.

I went home and passed out. What a good day.



Bring it on Cascade Mountain Range.

Negative Miles

Our first day was nuts. Yesterday, we went out to this coffee place and met our new friends Janae and Charlotte. This coffee place was awesome. They are on OSU campus and just have good coffee.. Supercheap too.

Anyways, they invited us to play disc golf with them and some friends tonight after we come back through Corvallis.

So, it was our first day of riding, and we decided to bike to the coast to dip the tires. As soon as we got our bikes fully loaded in the garage, it started raining. Which was pretty funny when we were in the garage. But as soon as we went out into I was thinking it might as well have been snowing. So we got going. 30 feet from the driveway was our first stop. hahahha. I had to cut a spare ziptie that was tangled in my wheel.

We made good time. Yesterday was a 55 mile ride through the beautiful Coastal Range in Oregon. Even though it was raining, the mountains were unbelievable. Fog just floating in between valleys on one side, 18 wheelers full of logs going by at 60 mph on the other side. It was awesome. In Blodgett, (smallest town ever), we met some really cool people. They were all really excited about where our trip was going to take us, and were giving us advice about the road we were taking and where the construction problems were happening.

By the way, I don't know how this happened, but it did. We started in Corvallis, elevation roughly 100 feet about sea level. We ended in Newport, elevation 0 feet. If that is the elevation change, THEN HOW THE HECK DID WE BIKE UP HILL THE ENTIRE TRIP. Seriously, it was ridiculous. I think we biked down hill for a total of 14 minutes, then biked up hill for 6 hours. That was miserable. But we averaged about 9 miles per hour which wasn't that bad. For some reason I had to pee every 10 minutes, which was weird. I drank a ton of water I guess.

When we got within 3 miles of Newport the sun came out. It was the happiest part of my trip so far. After being frozen all day, and not being able to feel my feet or hands, sun was a good thing.

A bad thing happened too I forgot to mention. I got in wreck yesterday (mom I am fine. Just a bruised shin and thumb, scraped shoulder, and tore apart my rain jacket.) We were biking and I hit the brakes really hard, at 9 or 10 mph our so. I forgot to tighten one part of my handlebar set and they just went to the right and I lost control and crashed. That kind of sucked. But it is what it is. I was more mad than anything. Then I thought, at least this didn't happen when I was biking 36 mph a little while ago.

The Chapman family are the nicest people I have met. They were so accommodating. They made us grilled salmon, corn, potatoes, bread, salad, and brownies and icecream. Such a great meal at the end of a hard day. It was incredible. They even let us crash on there spare beds upstairs. I am glad we met them. The world would be a better place if they were as nice as Amy and John. I think they are making us breakfast right now downstairs.

Jesus is letting us do big things on this trip. It is going to be hard, but I can't wait to see what it looks like. I will let you know when I do.


I am a hipster.

The night of day 0.

Well, a lot happened in the span of yesterday aftnoon.

Fletcher's flight got to the airport 45 minutes early somehow. That is remarkable since he was only flying from Denver. Pilot had a lead foot I guess (do planes have gas pedals?). So we went outside to wait for our shuttle that arrived in an hour. Fletcher had a cloth frisbee so we were obnoxiously playing with that in front of a ton of people sitting on the benches. In the first hour here, we already accomplished what the main point of the trip is supposed to be. Our goal for this trip is to go and meet people. To love them like Jesus did and talk to them. So we met a lady named Amy Chapman (if your reading this today Amy, hello.) We sat next to her on the 2 hour bus ride to Corvallis. We talked to Amy about our trip and got to know her. Amy lives in Newport, OR, where we are going to be biking today. She invited us over for our first meal of the trip. She and her husband John are making a fresh Salmon Barbeque for us for our first meal. ARE YOU KIDDING?! That's crazy.

First, I love salmon so much.
Second, Southern Hospitality lives in Oregon apparently, so that is so sick.

So when we were talking to Amy, we also started talking to another lady named Lulu. She offered to call her daughter who lives in Sisters, OR to see if she will put us up for the night in a couple of days. At this rate we won't have to camp at all. Which would be kinda nice for fresh meals the entire trip.

So we got to Fletcher's Aunt Charlotte's house. (Does anyone know how to do punctuation/ownership for the previous sentence correctly. I am stumped) We found out my bike hadn't arrived yet. Well crap, that sucks. That is what I thought at least. We found the tracking number, looked on the website, no stinkin clue where that bike was. Seriously we called 4 or 5 numbers and got nothing. We heard they may make stops until 6 o'clock. So we waited starting at 5:30. Sure enough, right before 6, bike arrived. I have never been so excited. I freaked out enough that the FedEx guy didn't really know what to do. We took the bikes out. Decided to put them together later, then rolled out to dinner. (We had a gift card for a pretty good pasta place from Aunt Charlotte.)

Again, we start meeting people. Our server was Janae. She was a junior/senior at OSU. She was pretty funny. I am curious what her thoughts were on us, since all we talked about was biking. We were in a weeeeird mood. Anyways, we invited her to go for a bike ride with us after she got off work. We didn't end up going on account of the time zone difference. I was passed out just walking around at 9:30 at night. Way past my bedtime. But we are going to the local bike shop to meet up with her this morning, and when we come back through Corvallis in 2 days, we are going to grab coffee with her and a group of friends.

west coast coffee places> east coast coffee places.

Got home. Put the bike together. I couldn't get the brakes to work very well. They still don't. I will hopefully figure them out. (don't read that last line Mom).


Guys. My first day was awesome. This trip is going to be crazy. We leave for our first ride in 4-5 hours. I am glad you are reading this. Send me texts or phone calls or anything really. I'll keep in touch. Can't wait to hear what you are doing with your summers as well.





Go love people.

That lady stole my window seat.

Dang it.

Day 0

Day zero.

I really am really tired. 5 hours of sleep, and up at five o'clock is not the way to go. Stupid life choices. Benj brought me to the airport with plenty of time to spare. I love little airports in the morning, because there are no lines and everyone is so happy. I talked to the security guy about my hair for a good five minutes. It is looking crazy this morning, and he saw the picture of my from back when it was 11 inches. That made me laugh. Also, they took my bag off the belt and said they had to run a "liquid test". For those of you that have never seen the "liquid test," it was him taking my bag and rubbing what looked like a baby wipe all over the plastic clips. If that was a security threat to an airplane, then ok, do it. But to me it looked like he just wiped baby bottom cleaner all over my bag handles. That ain't cool airport man.

But seriously, this is about to get super crazy in 5 minutes. My gate is being called next. I am about to step on a plane to Portland. I am about to bike across the country. Dang.


I am about to sleep for a whole plane trip. Word.

Day -1

So I haven't put much on the old blog in a couple days. I think that the reasoning for that is due to a large amount of nothing. I have been playing like crazy and haven't really had a lot to do. I procrastinated for the trip until today, and it was great. Today I had to pack and clean, which wasn't stressful, but I do wish I had done it sooner. This weekend, I helped move 6 different people out of their apartments. Saying goodbyes suck, but I love to make them awkward. This year I figured that the best way to go about that is the "see yah in 2012, dueces." I don't think people really appreciated that. But I thought that it was funny. So I guess that's all that matters.

So yah, today is day negative 1. In 8 ho

urs from now, I will be loading up on the plane and taking off to the beautiful land of Oregon. Which is like 310o miles from where I am sitting right here in Greenville, SC. I got to play in my first official volleyball game today, with the Childes' brothers. We won 2/3 which is pretty good in my opinion. I think they really wanted to win, but it was fine with me. I got to bring out the old Lazy Limbs playin' (which you may have never seen, but it is actually quite effective, ask me about it sometime.)

ANNNNYways. Yah, tonight we are getting ready to head over to get icecream and coffee in downtown Greenville. Then up at 4:30 to roll out to the airport. Super pumped, I will post in the airport tomorrow.

Here is the crew.

Off to bed... I don't think soooo.

I take play breaks for studying. So I don't play too much.

Well this week has definitely been adventure filled. Last night, MC, Kenzie, Kit, Miles, and I all went to Atamis Japanese Express for dinner. I wanted to eat there, and the girls wanted to come back and eat in their apartment. So I suggested an alternative. We ended up staying and hitchhiked back. I think my pedofile-esk beard had a lot to do with a lot of rejection from so many drivers. But the rain that was happening caused some sort of sympathy in Russ, our driving saviour. So we ended up succesfully hitchhiking back from Atamis. I would consider this good practice for the hitchhiking that is probably going to happen this summer. I can't wait to bum a ride from someone to the nearest town when my bike breaks down or we get hit by a car. Whatever happens, happens. Right?

Also, today in adventure land. I got to go mountain biking with Chip, Paul, and Kit again. We hit a couple really good runs (which were kind of wet from the rain last night). We ended up going to the dam/rope swing. I told Paul the dam would be fine to jump off of, so he did. The dam isn't necessarily the highest thing in the world, it is only probably 30-35 feet. The problem is you have to jump out 10-14 feet to clear the concrete that makes up the dam. So once that fear is conquered, you are good to go. So I said I wasn't going to jump. Paul had jumped twice already. Chip manned up and jumped. Kit manned up and jumped. I wasn't about to be the guy that turned out to be the girl, and didn't jump with the rest of the men. Walked to the edge, checked my path, got a running start, and just did it. So now that's out of the way and off my list, I am certainly never doing that crap again. But it was worth every second of that 3 second free fall, 4 feet from a concrete wall.

Life was beautiful today. Just beautiful.

Nine and Dine

Yes, I should have made this post yesterday when there were actually 9 days left to my trip. As of now, there are 8. But I am lazy and "8 and dine" does not rhyme, and that is the whole intention with a blog is to make funny witty rhymes for all the titles.. right? Ok, so maybe not.

Anyways, I now leave in 8 days. Since my bike has been packed up, I am looking for other avenues to help me train in this last week for my trip. Mountain biking was that avenue. I am not the greatest mountain biker. But I like to go as fast as possible. This video is really funny, and is a poor testament to my mountain biking abilities. But I promise you will laugh, make sure the volume is up. I got kinda hurt. But since it was funny, it is all good.

But yah, Chip and I had a great 2 hour bike ride/ jumping off Issaquenna Dam/ Rope swing adventure yesterday. The water was great and the temperature was unbelievable. It makes me laugh thinking people are sitting in the library wasting there valuable time studying when this incredible outdoor playground is a 5 minute drive away. What a bunch of noobs.

As for the "dine" in the title. I had the pleasure of cooking a meal with a couple friends on Sunday night. We made some really dang good stuff. The highlight was the French Vanilla Chocolate Tiramisu. Everyone I know that has tried it has had their jaw drop after taking a bite. It turned out pretty amazing. Fluffy and coffeey and soOOO good. If you want to have some, well that sucks. You will have to come visit me in Chattanooga in the fall, and I will make it for you.

I bashed up my shin while biking, and it is throbbing.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

T-Minus 40 Days

Forty days left until my flight to Oregon. This is getting closer and closer. It seems like just a couple days ago when Fletch and I were in a kitchen in the mountains, standing at the pancake station, talking about doing this trip. Well dang, here it is. Coming super fast. I have been doing 20 milers with relative ease, along with a few runs in there every now and then. I am slowly getting into shape. On a downside, I have been coughing large amounts of mucus on a regular hourly basis and my coughing sounds like a fog horn. On an upside, we just go new Young Life leaders on our team last night. Which is great, but I didn't get to bed until 1 last night. That really messes up someone who has been going to bed at 11 on the dot for a whole semester. But I'm pumped to have them now. God is going to do big things through them at Daniel High School. I can already tell. And Greg Stephens, our new guy leader, is pretty good at Smash Brothers 64. That is the best part.


I am heading home this weekend to get some new gear. Actually a lot of gear. I have to redo a lot of stuff on my bike. (I also decided to ride clipless, Fletcher, if you read this. You convinced me.) Wes Emery also is donating a Go Pro HD camera to our trip. I like that kid a lot. He is awesome. I can't wait for y'all to see my crazy antics in video, instead of just reading about them. Speaking of which, anyone that wants to donate an SD memory card for my trip, (you will get it back), please let me know. It would be huge HUGE help.

With love, and other mixed emotions.
dkal

Pain.. Yucky.

Well, I just got back from a mission trip in Washington, DC. Pretty incredible. We got to love people well and do a ton of good work for the city. The only downside to the trip was the repercussions of being a van driver. As a van driver, you get less sleep. I also did not drink a lot of water in order to reduce the amount of pee breaks that were necessary. I also only got to go on one run during DC.

Why am I telling you this?

Fletcher told me after we got back that he was doing his first 50 miler this weekend for training. I said to myself, I said, "Daniel, you have to do a 50 miler as well." I don't know what logical thought was going through my head that made me want to do that after the scenario I just described above. But I did. So I looked up a 56 mile route that went up to table rock, packed my gear, and rode. It was a beautiful day, so I shed my sweatshirt and was rolling in my tank top. Took a couple wrong turns. I had to ask a cop for directions. Anyways. Four hours pass, and I still wasn't to the halfway-turn around point of the loop I was doing. I thought, "Daniel, where are you?". I kept riding and ten minutes later or so I get crazy muscle cramps in my quads. I'm talking about the "I can't walk, and it hurts to sit" muscle cramps. Not a good situation when you are 4 hours of bike riding away from where you live. Oh, and I didn't have cell service in the mountains. Crap. Found a gas station. I bought and chugged a carton of delicious Orange Juice, and started pounding waters down. My cramps went away after a short nap. I got on my bike, 10 minutes later RE-CRAMPED. Not a good situation. I had cell service at this point, so I called a lot of friends. All of them too busy to come pick me up, even though I made it specifically clear that I was stranded at Table Rock. Ashley Williams, (an angel I might add), found it in the goodness of her heart to come get me an hour away. I took a nap while waiting for her. I now have an unbelievably painful and bright sunburn in the beautiful shape of a tank top across my back. Yippeee. not.

I checked my route, I ended up biking about 44 miles. If I had finished the loop, I would have done around 76.

Morals of the story.
1.) Drink water.
2.) Drink more water than that.
3.) Go left on Meece Mill Rd. instead of Right.

I am an idiot.