Hello, everyone.

First of all, I want to thank the Duff family again for everything they did for us. We had a wonderful time with you guys. Thank you for all your help, too. And that flight simulator, by the way, was amazing! Thank you so much for taking us. We’ll never forget that.

We’re in St. Augustine, Florida now. It’s the oldest city in the United States. We had fun walking around last night looking at the city and watching the city lights reflecting off the waters of the river. We’re staying at the Pirate Haus Hostel and Inn. Everything is pirate themed, even the pancakes (they all have faces with eye patches). It’s a cool place with people like us who love to travel.

Now for the bad news… Last night I received a call from my dad concerning the dog bite. I can’t go into details, but I have to go back to Knoxville, TN to take care of things and it will take quite some time to take care of it all. It’s unavoidable. If there were a way out I would take it, but there isn’t. Needless to say, the Epic Road Trip has come to an end.

I want to thank everyone for reading. Overall, this has been a wonderful, unforgettable trip. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about it as much as Caitlin and I have enjoyed taking it.

I also want to thank everyone who showed us kindness along the way. We did touristy things and we saw a lot of beauty, but the people are what we’ll remember most. You’ve confirmed my beliefs in mankind and, even though the errors of a few have taken the trip from us, the many have given me something that can never be taken away. Thank you for the compassion, trust, and faith. You’re amazing people and you’ll always be with us.

Goodbye for now.

And may your tires be trued and the wind be at your back.

Hey everyone!

Today we’re in Jacksonville, Florida with friends that I made back in July of 2006 in Oaxaca, Mexico. We were attending the same language school and hit it off. We’ve tried before to get together, but until now haven’t managed to meet up. It’s great to see familiar faces! I want to say thank you to the everyone in the Duff family for feeding us an amazing meal (the best we’ve had on the road so far), giving us a comfy place to sleep, and for spending so much time with us. You’ve been great friends and you’ll never know how much we appreciate your kindness. I knew I’d see you guys again!

We crossed the Georgia/Florida border a few days ago. We had a great time just before crossing the border at the Okefenokee Swamp Park. We rode into the park around 8:30 AM and I immediately started looking for gators. After about 30 minutes of looking I finally saw one in the ditch to our right. I tried to get a good picture, but the lighting was bad. Caitlin wondered if it was really an alligator, but when we looked away for a couple of minutes then looked back it was gone. Once we were in the park we bought a ticket for a swamp tour. From the boat we saw a mother with about three or four babies. We also saw a few other gators swimming around the channels surrounding the park. At one of the shows we each held a baby gator and a couple of snakes. I have pictures and I’ll be trying to put them up later this week!

Since we’ve gotten to Florida things have gone so much better. On the 21st we camped on a beach near Little Talbot Island. It was so beautiful. We walked along the beach searching for seashells, crabs, and whatever other life we could find. We found two starfish last night, one of which was on the beach. I grabbed it and put it back in the water. This morning Caitlin saved about four starfish. She also found a sand dollar.

The afternoon before we went camping we went to the Kingsley Plantation, the oldest plantation (still standing) in Florida. It had the most beautiful dirt road leading to it. It had a million shades of green on both sides. There were palms, palmettos, and old trees covered in spanish moss. I think it’s the prettiest road we’ve ridden on yet.

The last few days have been extremely hot, but being the resourceful cyclists we are we found a solution. Instead of buying ice cream cones from a fast food place for a few bucks, we found we could spend less money and get a lot more ice cream by buying a half gallon instead. Today we downed an entire half gallon of cherry vanilla ice cream in front of the grocery store. Caitlin said the good thing about riding bikes is that you can eat whatever you want. So true…

Yesterday at a McDonald’s outside of Orange Park, FL we met a really nice guy. He asked us what we were doing, where we were going, and wished us good luck. We had gone outside and were getting ready to pedal off when he came outside and said, “here’s something so you can buy a cold drink,” and handed me $40. I said, “are you serious?” I was shocked! He responded, “it’s in your hand, isn’t it?” smiling from ear to ear knowing he had helped us so much. We didn’t catch his name and he didn’t know ours, but he was so kind to help us. Thank you so much for helping us, mystery man!

We’ve encountered so many people that have gone out of their way to help us. In all, we’ve met so many more good people than bad. I would say for every one bad person we meet at least 40 good ones. I believed before we left that we would come in contact with more good than bad and I was right. I write a lot about the negative things that happen to us because those things are what make the trip an adventure. We get in those situations and have to escape from or deal with them. They make great stories because they grab your attention. But in the end what will make this trip truly memorable are all the good things that happen to us and all the good people we meet. I want to apologize if I’ve written too much about the negative things that have happened. I don’t want anyone to get the wrong impression. Overall, this trip has been an amazing ride. Every day is a new adventure and I look forward to pedaling my way to new destinations and experiences. I hope you all will continue to keep up with us. Thank you for reading!

May your tires be well-aired and a stranger always be willing to help. Thanks, again!

Hello, all.

It has been the most exciting two days of the trip. To be honest, I don’t remember everything, but one event sticks out in my mind…

A couple of nights ago we were in Dublin, GA. There were four leaf clovers everywhere and the high school team was the Fighting Irish. It’s an interesting town with lots of old houses and at least one half of town has a good feel to it. Unfortunately, when we had to go to the laundromat we were sent to the not so good feeling part of town. We’ll skip the boring part about the laundry detergent and folding clothes and get to the good part.

I had just put up our laundry basket and was walking out of the laundromat. There was a pit bull in my way and I walked around him saying, “bye sugar” as I walked by (that was the dog’s name, by the way). Seconds after I walked past I felt something grabbing my right calf. I looked back and saw the dog and looked down at my leg and realized he had bitten me. I screamed at the dog and then at the dog’s drunk owner. I rampaged across the street to the liquor store (and on the way there met the dog again… I threatened to kill him and he ran away. Haha.) and called the police. I went back to the coin laundry and started fixing my leg with our first aid kit. As I put peroxide on my leg the drunk guy tried to talk to me, but I was still pretty mad and told him to leave me alone for now. The police arrived a few minutes later and we explained what happened…

It was pretty late at night. Around 9:30 maybe. It was dark and we were in a really bad part of town, but I knew I needed to go to the hospital to get a shot. We had gotten directions from the officer and headed that way. I guess the dark made it hard to follow directions because we ended up lost on a street with absolutely no light being yelled at by a really scary guy. We went to the police department and got new directions and around 11 got to the emergency room.

When we got in there they cleaned up my leg and gave me a tetanus shot. They also told me that if I had rabies I had to get a series of shots. We won’t know for another nine days if he had rabies or not, so keep your fingers crossed for us! When we were in the emergency room I asked the doctor, “if I have rabies I’m not gonna go old Yeller on my girlfriend, am I?” I have yet to froth at the mouth or get lockjaw… so far so good!

We left the ER around 12:30 that morning and rode in the dark to the other side of town, the good part, and stayed at the Bible Church. We set up our stuff and settled in until that morning when Colby, the pastor, came upon us. He was pretty shocked, but after we explained the situation he helped us out quite a bit. Before we left he prayed with us. Thanks, Colby, for everything you did for us!

Yesterday, we rode a whoppin’ 58 miles. It was our longest day by far. It was pretty hot when we finally got on the road because we had to stop in several places, like the court, the police department, and we also had to make some calls. The ride was good though. I can tell from the landscape that we’re in southern Georgia now. There was one place we rode by that looked like an old plantation. It had a big fence around it and, on the surrounding property, there were hundreds of trees. It was gorgeous.

The reason this entry has that name is because of a funny failed dog attack. We were chased by something like 15 or 20 dogs through the course of the day. One of them was in a small town (Glenwood, I think). There were a few kids in the yard and their big lab started chasing us. I reached for the pepper spray, preparing for the worst and still nervous from the night before, and heard one of the kids yell at the barking beast, “shut up, you big dummy!” Caitlin and I nearly fell off the bikes laughing. We made it through Glenwood without getting bit.

We arrived in Lumber City, which was supposed to be our final destination, at around 8 PM. We went to the store and bought some candy. We were going to camp out at the church there, but it was in the open and I knew the cops would be called on us, so we rode out to the next town.

The sunset was beautiful, but it also told us it would be getting dark soon. I thought we could make it to Hazlehurst before we ran out of light, but we didn’t make it. Caitlin was nervous because she couldn’t see the road and I was nervous because I didn’t know if the cars could see us (even though we have lights on the backs of our bikes). We finally reached Hazlehurst around nine and started searching for a place to camp. There was nothing. We decided to stay at the Best Western.

Over the last few days we’ve done nearly 180 miles. We’re pushing harder than ever so we can meet our friends in Jacksonville, FL. Our legs are finally in shape! Even though we’ve been going further than we were before our legs haven’t been bothering us. Tonight we expect to make it to Waycross.

Thank you, everyone, for reading the blog! Keep us on your minds and in your prayers.

May your legs be speedier than the dog that wants to eat them! Thanks again!

Hi everybody and thanks for reading the blog!

Today we’re in Jeffersonville, GA. In the last two days we’ve biked around 85 miles. We’ve gone further, ridden harder, and tackled more hills in the last 48 hours than we had in around the five days before! Here’s what happened…

We stayed at the First United Methodist Church of Lawrenceville the other night. When we woke up in the morning we headed down the road, made a couple of phone calls, ate breakfast, and asked for directions. I asked three men at a gas station if we were going the right way to Athens, GA and they said we were. It turned out we weren’t! In fact, we were going in the opposite direction back towards Atlanta! We didn’t realize this, though, until we were around 12 miles out of our way. Needless to say I wasn’t happy.

But we looked at the bright side of getting lost and realized we were closer to Stone Mountain, a place I’ve always wanted to visit, but never got the chance. We spent that night at the Stone Mountain campground. It’s a beautiful place, but I wouldn’t recommend carrying weight through there if you’re on a bicycle. I felt like I was climbing Mt. Everest on a couple of those hills!

That night we rode a boat across the lake to the Stone Mountain Monument and watched the biggest laser show in the world. It was incredible! There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people there in the yard ooing and ahhhing along with us as we watched laser beams and fireworks light up the faces of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson. It was a really fun night.

The next morning we woke up in good spirits, ready to tackle another day on the road until… we opened our tent and a yellow jacket flew into Caitlin’s hair. I started swinging at it trying to get it out and was attacked by three myself! She walked away unscathed. Turned out our tent was right next to a yellow jacket nest. It took us a while to get out of Stone Mountain because we had to pack our stuff without stirring them up.

We left Stone Mountain and made our way towards Lithonia. On the way there we decided to stop and enjoy the air conditioning at the Family Dollar. We walked in and bought a snack and before we knew it we had made some new friends. I started talking to the security guard, Marcus, about our trip. He went into the store and got another one of the workers, Elena. When she heard we were going across the USA on bicycles she said “are you freakin serious???” I think she was more excited about the trip than I was! We told them we were going to camp out and they were going to go with us, but things didn’t work out. That night they put us up in a hotel in Lithonia. Thank you so much for your kindness, Marcus and Elena! I’m holding you to your word. See you in California!

The next day we were stranded in Lithonia because of the rain. We stayed at Wal-Mart waiting for it to stop. Then we went to El Pollo Loco waiting for it to stop. It never stopped! We decided to stay at the Red Roof Inn that night because it was so close to where we were.

On Monday, the 14th, we had a several problems. Four, in fact. And they were all the back tire on the Trek! We stopped in a gas station for a while to rest and I noticed her tire had gone flat. I took it off, examined it, and it appeared to be fine so I put it back on and pumped it up. It went flat again so I took it off, patched it, put it back on, and pumped it up. Then I did it again and it was fine. We got a few miles down the road and it went flat again, luckily it waited until we were at a gas station again. I took off the old tube and threw it away using one of our spares. Since then, we’ve had nothing but smooth riding!

We made a big decision on Monday. We’ve come to realize that we’re going slow as molasses! We’ve kicked it up a notch and we’re going to try to go 40-50 miles a day from now on. We’ll have times when we rest for a day or two, but for now we’ve got to stay strong and keep on truckin’! And by the way, our riding, especially Caitlin’s, has improved quite a bit. There’s no hill we can’t climb! Well, except that one at Stone Mountain. lol.

Yesterday, in my opinion, was the best ride we’ve had yet. There were trees everywhere, old houses, ponds, and country as far as the eye could see. A few times I would see an old house with a tree swing and feel like I was in Forrest Gump. It was by far the prettiest day we’ve had. The wind was against us the whole day, but we learned a lot about how far we can push ourselves and just what we can do.

We met a couple of really great people in Gray, yesterday. One was an older man at a fruit and vegetable stand. He told us stories about playing in the creek as a boy. We were going to buy peaches and a tomato from him, but he wouldn’t take our money. I wish we could have talked to him longer! We met a police officer at the Gray courthouse. We talked to him for about 30 minutes about the trip, about New Orleans (where he’s from), and about protection on the trip. He told me, “you got it right stayin at churches. I’d also stay in the back of cemeteries ’cause people stay away.” I told him that would creep me out and he said, “it ain’t the dead people you gotta worry about. It’s the ones walkin around you gotta watch for!” So far he’s right!

We spent the night at the Gordon Church of God in Christ in Gordon, GA. We looked for quite a while trying to find a safe place to sleep. When we found our home for the night we found the pastor working on the roof. I asked if he needed any help, but he told me he could handle it. He and his family were so kind to us letting us sleep there. They also left the church door unlocked so we could use the bathroom and clean up. Thank you for your help!

I can’t believe it has only been two weeks. It feels like so much longer than that. We’re having a great time on the road and making sure that we learn something from all our experiences. We’ve had our tough times, but we’re making it through and we’ve found ways to solve our problems.

But the biggest solution to our problems is still people, both those at home and those we meet along the way. We’re finding out with each new day that for every negative experience we have with a person we have a hundred positive ones with others. We’ve had an overwhelmingly accepting response to us and what we’re doing. Thank you again to everyone who has helped us!

May you have plenty of spare tubes and good multi-tool!

We stopped yesterday in Gordon, GA.

Hey everyone!

Today we’re in Alpharetta, Georgia. This public library is nice. Anywho, you’re probably not reading to hear about the library, so let me tell you what’s been up since we last wrote.

Oh my… the morning after we stayed with Mike and Joy we woke up and Caitlin’s throat was killing her. We ended up going to a walk in clinic in Eton, Georgia. We waited for what seemed like a few days, but eventually the doctor took her in. It turned out she had strep throat. The doc told her she needed a couple days rest so I thought it would be a good idea to stay in a hotel in Dalton, GA. The map had an arrow pointing near Chatsworth which made us think that Dalton was nearby, but it turned out it was 12 miles away. We hitched a ride (me in the back of a pickup balancing two bikes) with a lady (don’t remember her name) to Dalton. Without her we would have been in big trouble. Thank you, mystery lady!

We went to Dalton and stayed in the Econolodge… wow… Let’s just say it wasn’t the Ritz. Broken toilet seat, bad service, not allowed to lock up our bikes, and other things that are best left unsaid on this blog. It wasn’t the best stay, but it gave us time to recover. I did meet a cool guy there named Reinaldo who showed me several places in Mexico that I need to go, including the volcano near Toluca.

We went to Historic Downtown Dalton and were a bit disappointed. There wasn’t much to do or see, but we did see some excitement. We were heading back to the hotel and I told Caitlin to turn right. She was ahead of me and saw two right turns and took the first one. It led to an underpass with railroad tracks. I was sure we were going to get attacked by hobos, but luckily we escaped unscathed.

After staying at the Econolodge for a couple of days we pressed on. We went to Cartersville, GA and had the time of our lives being yelled at, honked at, whistled at (I think they were whistling at Caitlin), and getting the cops called on us. It was pretty late at night when we realized we weren’t going to find anywhere to stop so we pulled into a wooded, abandoned lot and popped up the tent. It was an exciting night and definitely an adventure. We were sure the cops would come get us again, but it never happened.

We left the next morning and were going to go to some indian mounds, but missed the sign. We decided to go to Pickett’s Mill. It was closed, but we had a good lunch there.

After that Caitlin’s leg started to tighten up so we hitched another ride (me in the back of a pickup again). This time it was Keith Holloway who gave us a ride. I saw his wife Linda walking through their neighborhood and asked her if she knew where we could camp. She didn’t know, but she did call her husband and he was able to take us to a campground near Roswell, GA. Thanks, Keith and Linda. You saved us that day!

The campground was BEAUTIFUL. It had a lake and we were on a point where we had a great view. It’s one of the prettiest places we’ve seen so far. The first night we camped in a bad storm. We were hanging on for dear life and there was an inch of water under the tent by the time it was over. It was fun, though. And the tent never leaked! The next day was much better. No storms, just a little rain. One of the campground attendants was particularly helpful and kind to us. His name is Marvin Hires. Thanks for all your help Marvin. We won’t forget you or your advice!

Yesterday we went through Roswell, GA. I didn’t see any aliens or novelty shops. I’m a little disappointed, but I’m thinking maybe after our trip we can open one up. OK, maybe not. We liked Roswell. It was very biker friendly and all the people were kind to us. We ended up camping in a church yard last night. We didn’t know if the people cared, but we didn’t figure God would mind since we were only sleeping there.

We woke up this morning and pedaled our way to Alpharetta. It’s a nice town and the people are good too. I don’t know where we’ll end up tonight, but I know that things will work out. They always do!

Thanks for reading. We’ll keep you posted on the rest of our adventures.

Until then, may the wind be at your back and your tires be trued!

This is the end of day two of our Epic Road Trip.  Yesterday we battled through the hills all the way to Athens, Tennessee.  A whoppin 28 miles!  We were surprised and a little disappointed to find out that’s all we had done after all the time we spent riding.  Around 1:30 PM we decided to stop at the VFW to fill our water bottles and camelbak.  We sat and chatted with everyone in there for about 20 minutes and hit the road again.  Around 2:30 we knew we couldn’t go any further because of the heat.  There was no campground where we were so we went down a random road and met Bill and Jane.  We started talking to them and before we knew it Jane was giving us sweet tea and fixing us hot dogs with cole slaw and chili.  We camped in their backyard next to their garden where they had flowers called Nicodemus that bloom at nine in the evening, but only bloom once.

On day two we went all the way from Athens, TN to Cleveland, TN in about two and a half hours.  We thought we had it goin on!  Little did we know that the road from Cleveland had hill after hill after hill.  I hate to say it, but we had to walk the bike up a couple of them (but I’m carrying 70 pounds and Caitlin’s carrying 40, so I don’t feel too bad).

We made it to a small town called Old Fort, TN where we thought we’d camp for the night.  Then we went for directions to the campground and discovered it was 20 miles away and we’d have to climb a “big ol’ hill.”  We had climbed enough big ol’ hills for the day so we pressed on on 411.  Surprisingly, we made it into Georgia, stopping in Tennga.

We were dying to make camp after riding 47 miles today.  As we were pedaling down the road we saw Mike in his carport washing his car.  I asked him if we could camp in the backyard and he said we could.  He offered to feed us too, but we had already eaten.  We sat inside and visited for a while with he and his wife Joy, drinking the best sweet tea I’ve ever had and playing with a little dog named Harley and their new dog who I call Bell (even though she doesn’t yet have a name).

So far this trip has proven to me what I already believed: that there are more good people in this world than bad.  Also, if there were more people like the people we’ve met this world would be a much better place.  I’m starting to believe the world truly is full of them.  The key to seeing it is getting to know them.  You can’t go by looks, background, economic status, so on.  You have to hear their experiences and their views of life.  With this knowledge you can see where they’re coming from and, in the end, everyone is pretty much the same.  We all want to be happy and we all want to avoid suffering.

We both want to thank everyone that has helped us so far.  I know that at the end of the trip all the pictures of the Redwoods, Yellowstone Geysers, and Atlantic Ocean views are going to be fun to show off and will help us keep memories of our trip.  But in the end it’s going to be the people we meet that make this the trip of a lifetime.

May the wind be at your back and your tires be trued.  Thank you, everyone!

Hi everyone!

My family and I are back from our vacation visiting family. It was a long, long, long ride home from the hotel. Before the longest stretch of road we visited my grandpa in Simpson, Illinois. We had a good time seeing everyone. Hopefully when we’re coming back home from our journey we’ll be able to go through southern Illinois and visit my family.

The finally preparations for the big day are under way. Caitlin and I are both getting our things together so we can start packing tomorrow. We have to go shopping, too. We’ll be looking mostly at food, but there are a few other items that will come in handy. I’ll also be canceling my phone plan. No, we’re not going to carry a phone. There are several reasons I don’t want one. First, it’ll have to be charged. Second, it’s two more things to carry (charger included). Third, I don’t want me or anyone else to have to pay for it. And, finally, I just don’t want one. I’ve carried a phone in my pocket for nearly the last five years. I’m tired of it. Anyone can reach me anywhere I am. If I forget it at home I’m stressed because I feel like something’s missing. It’ll make my life just that much simpler by not having it. And while we will definitely have some things that would be considered luxury items, a phone isn’t one of them.

But what about safety, you ask? We’re carrying the Spot, which is a GPS unit that has a 911 button on it in case of emergencies. The plan we have is so good that we can have a helicopter flown in to save us if necessary. Sweet, huh? I think it’s creepy as all get out, but it makes everyone feel better knowing we’re safe.

I’m at a loss for things to say now. I’m actually a bit overwhelmed by the fact that we have less than a day and a half to prepare. I know everything will get done in time, but the anticipation is difficult. Today it hit me (yes, just today) that soon I’ll be leaving a place I truly love. I’ll be leaving the people I love. I’ll be waking up every day, crawling out of a tent, and climbing back up on the saddle. And I’ll be doing it for a year. I’m not nervous or scared. I’m just thinking about this adventure that we’re about to go on and I’m realizing that it’s so much bigger than I first thought. I haven’t bit off more than I can chew, but I certainly have a mouthful. At 8 AM on Tuesday morning we’ll start chewing!

I appreciate everyone coming and reading this blog. I’d love to hear from you. I can’t promise I’ll get back to you quickly, but I’ll try to answer any email you send as soon as I can. Contact info is on the left side of this page in the about me section Thanks again for reading!

May your chain be well-oiled and the wind at your back! ¡Adios!

Hello, All!

Today I’m in Illinois on my farewell tour. We stayed with my grandma and grandpa in their beautiful log cabin on Friday night. Yesterday we went to see my grandpa Mac, my godfather Bruce, our old friend Joe, and my grandma Bev. Today we’re in Alton, Illinois. We’re going to visit my nephew Anthony for a few days. It has been an exhausting tour, but well worth it all.

Since we’ve been on the road and been busy visiting family I haven’t had a free moment to train. I’m hoping that tonight, after we go to the gambling boat, of course, I’ll get a chance to go for a run or ride the stationary bike at the hotel. I’m not really concerned about not getting proper training this last week before the Epic Road Trip. I know that the first several days are going to be tough, but we’ll hit our second wind and pull through it stronger than before. The first few days will be more of a mental than a physical struggle.

Just as a side note, gas prices here in Alton, IL are $4.17. Anybody else want to take up biking yet?

Hello, everyone!

I’m sorry I didn’t write on Sunday. I’ve been having some allergy problems and I guess it just slipped my mind. I’m still having some problems, but I’m not as medicated right now so I’m thinking a little straighter.

Since I’ve been layed out for a few days Caitlin and I haven’t trained much. We were finally able to ride together again today. We took a ride from her sister’s place in Sweetwater all the way to the outskirts of Athens. It reminded me of exaclty why I wanted to bike. The scenery was great and it was so much more authentic than the interstate experience. There were amber waves of grain and baseball diamonds. I was waiting for an apple pie to show up, but it never appeared. But I promise you… there WILL be apple pie on this trip.

Something I haven’t covered yet is where we’re going. The plan right now is to ride down to Savannah, GA which will be one of our first big stops. We’re also going to spend a couple of days at Jekylle Island, GA. St. Augustine and Jacksonville, FL are next. After that we don’t have any big plans. We’ll just be beach hopping in FL going West. Once we get into Texas we’ll probably visit a friend of mine in Austin. After that we’re going to try to visit the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. National Parks are the main event on this trip. So far the list also includes Mesa Verde, Carlsbad Caverns, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, the Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, Kings Canyon, Sequoia, Yosemite, Redwood, Lassen Volcanic NP, Crater Lake, Yellowstone, and the Tetons. If there are others along the way that are within reach we’ll go.

Some other places that will probably be visited that aren’t national parks, but are just interesting are Crystal River, FL (swimming with manatees), Seaside, FL (the filming location of the movie “The Truman Show,” which was an inspiration for this trip), Austin, TX (home of the biggest urban bat population and live music capital of the world), San Antonio, TX (the Alamo), New Orleans, LA (good food, among other things), Roswell, NM (site of a UFO landing and overall weird place), Santa Fe, NM (artsy place), Taos, NM (ski town, but we won’t be skiing), the Trinity Site, NM (site of the atomic bomb test), Sedona, AZ (looks gorgeous), Felicity, CA (Official Center of the World and site of a history of the world on marble monuments), and many, many others.

Only two more weeks! Thanks for reading!

Hey everybody,

Sorry to everyone who may have looked for this post earlier, but I’ve had a busy day. I went on two rides today, one of which was with my new partner. Let me start from last week…

Last week I went on a date in the Smoky Mountains. It was a beautiful day. The trail we were hiking had dozens of cascades overflowing with water, the rhododendrons were in bloom, and the bugs were coming from everywhere to feast on us. I knew that if this girl loved the mountains enough to fight the skeeters that I had found a keeper. The date lasted a lot longer than I ever expected and, towards the end, I realized that this girl definitely IS a keeper. Unfortunately, she had plans to go to New York and I was going on the Epic Road Trip. My how plans change…

Don’t worry. I’m still going on the Epic Road Trip, but now I’m brining Caitlin. Her travel plans fell through and she decided she wants to come with me. The other day we bought her bike, the Trek 520. It’s an amazing bike that will definitely be able to keep up with my LHT. In fact, she’s already passing me up. Looks like I’m the one who needs to train more.

That’s it for this post. I’ve got a lot of planning and ordering to do. Until next week, may the tailwinds push you through that last mile and may the dogs trip over their feet before they bite yours.