quick

We've been hanging out in richmond, VA for a few days now.
The day we arrived was the first really rainy day we have had throughout this entire voyage, and it sucked...
We got really poured on, it started sometime in the middle of the night when we were still about 30 miles from the city area. So come morning we had to pack and ride away from where we were. We rode 21 miles that day before we had to throw in the towel. We were stopping almost every 5-7 miles. I got a flat and had to change it in the down pour, vanessas feet were both numb, and she couldn't ride with her glasses on so once we got within 10 miles of downtown the traffic was way to intense. We were able to find out info on the local bus system, take out panniers off the back of our bikes and get the bikes on the bus bike rack. The bus took us to a stop just blocks away from where vanessas friend nicole lives.
We have now taken just as many days off here in this area as we had the entire trip prior to getting here. Vanessa has a few people in the city here that she knows from back in high school days and we have spent the past three nights crashing their couches.
I dont have the time to get into all the fun stuff we've been up too. But it has been that, A lot of fun. Everyone here is way into bicycles and good times and we've been very happy to take a few days to hang with them.
We'll sleep at nicoles again tonight and leave in the morning to start heading further north. In DC we'll hang with sarah ruth and were excited for that. Im going to try and get online and post some pictures and some more words about everything thats been happening when we get there. That will be 2-3 days from today.
Things are getting really very close to the end and it is a bitter sweet kinda thing.
for now, were still partying our days away in Virginia.

I forgot to mention we bought a small size of "slap ya mother, cajun Seasoning" made in ville Platte the town we met tony in!

Above is a picture of vanessa and myself with our new friend, Tony.

We stop ed in a town called Ville platte, Louisiana to get some lunch. We almost went to the first place we saw as we entered town, but instead we took a lap around the town and decided to go to this other cafe on the fact that their were way more cars outside of this place, and that's a pretty easy way to judge who's serving the good stuff.

Tony was sitting at the table next to us, he started talking to us because he wanted to know about our tattoos, and about our trip because he saw our bicycles out front on his way in. He told us about his trip to New York when he was working as a truck driver. We finished our meals, which were amazing, and said our goodbyes. We left from that cafe and rode just about 4 miles down the road to the local Wal-mart to get some food to eat later that night for dinner. In the towns that have Wal-mart, it is your only option for anything, so thats where we ended up.

We wasted some time there, even sat down and ate a small ice cream each right in the doorway. As we were getting ready to finally leave, out walks Tony. So we started talking again. He then confessed to us that he had wished earlier that he would have asked us if we need a place to stay or anything he could do to help. We let him know that we were doing just fine. But he told us he'd really love to have us stay at his place and that he would drive us back down the road the next morning to start where we would have anyway. We gave it a minute before we answered, continued talking, just last minute make sure measures to prove to ourselves Tony was not a serial killer. And he wasn't, not at all.

We headed to Tony's apartment and hung out all afternoon. He had just gone fishing the day before and had already planned to cook a bunch of them up that night with his neighbor and their friend Jan. So we ended up meeting all of them. Not only that but before all of that we stop ed by the local store so he could buy some "boudin" a local food, alot like sausage but smokey er and has rice in it as well. He insisted we get it once he found out we had never tried it before. We were happy we listened once we ate. They informed us that we were in the real heart of Cajun Culture. His neighbor Tim talked in such a thick Cajun accent, which is a mix of a thick southern speech mixed with a french twist. All of the food was amazing, but what really made it all so great was to realize how lucky we were to be able to experience Louisiana this way. We slept on the couch and got up early to hit the road.

We got this picture when Tony dropped us off at the gas station the next morning in Washington, LA. We always forget to do this, NOT THIS TIME!

So many people are to afraid of the world to let things like this ever happen. Sure you have to be careful about who you trust, and I am plenty aware that there are bad people out there in the world. But for the most part you can trust your gut, and if you can start doing that you'll find life a lot more interesting.

Its been hot out lately.

We took a Ferry ride across the Mississippi River!

And once we landed on the east side of it, everything changed. really, through my life I think I always considered the old Mississippi the divider of the east to the rest of the country, When we drove across a few years ago up in st. Louis, not much changed from one side to the other. But down here in LA. It was really like two separate worlds from the west side the east side. The lay of the land just changed, Hilly, greener, the towns just felt more east coast as opposed to Cajun land Louisiana.

swampy though, no matter where you go down here. This picture is of a creek in Mississippi. We didnt get a welcome sign into the state of Mississippi either, like texas and Louisiana. This creek was picture worthy more then the other because it ate my water bottle. It slipped from my hand and dropped all the way to the water and quickly floated down the stream.

We were only in Mississippi for about 3 days, nothing that interesting happened in Mississippi. I have to thank it though, It provided us with great weather, excellent days of bicycling. Just not all that much to see or do.

(we made flags so all of the reckless driving logging trucks can see us from further away)
Ahh Yes finally, a new sign for us to take our picture under. Alabama! The miles seem to double in size here. We ride 30 and we feel like we rode 60. Its the Hotness, Humidity, and Hills, that cause this feeling.

We are trucking along just fine though. As I mentioned in my last entry, we have been considering the idea of getting on a train from Tuscaloosa, AL ( home of the university of alabama) and taking it up to Charlettesville, VA. and that is exactly what we are going to do. We already had a route that planned to ride in the direction of this town anyway. We hit mobile ,Alabama which was a pretty neat town with loads of civil war history and from there we go north. We are officially off of the southern Tier of America, Heading north.

Undesirables are listed in order

undesirable #1=Bugs that bite

undesirable #2=Dogs that chase ( this happens way to often)

undesirable #3=Logging trucks/ Other really loud large vehicles

Vanessa cut my hair shorter the other night, it was much needed. 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity!

We are about 2 days from Tuscaloosa, we hope to get there before the rain hits us. It's headed this way apparently and should come down for a few days. From Charlettesville time will fly I'm sure(good or bad I'm not sure). We still have lots of land to cover but after being to such foreign feeling areas just being on the eastern coast will make me feel like we have made it.

20 days of texas

Texas Texas Texas.
The state that at any point in time has the right and ability to split into Four separate states.
The state that has an average speed limit of 80 mph, except at night when they have to lower to 70 mph... They have "hills" here that are more like Mini Mountains. Steaks that are bigger then my head. The list goes on, the point is this... Everything really is bigger in Texas.




we crossed into the central time zone shortly after crossing into texas. This was strange for a week or so. we were still so much closer to The west coast and yet we were closer in time to the east coast. It threw us off a bit with the sun setting so much later. When it did set though, the stars were incredible. So many camp spots blew my mind once night fell.
There was this one day where I got two Flats. This was unusual, In total, from start till today Vanessa and I have gotten 5 flats combined. NOT BAD!.... A guy I became friends with through work, his name is mike. He and his two friends rode from san diego to the east coast in 2005, they only took 2 days off and did the whole ride in just 44 days. but in those 44 days they got something like 78 flats between the three of them. Im sorry to tell you mike, but you guys were doing Something wrong! He was a good guy, gave me a bunch of helpful hints before leaving. but yeah, those two flats used our last two spare tubes, causing us to make sure we stoped at the next bicycle shop on route.
This next shop was in the town of Alpine, Tx. The name of it was "Bike Man". Here we met the owner and wrench worker, John. He was the bike man. There was a painting on the outside of a superman but it was with his face and it had a B on his chest!
Anyways, he helped us out. We bought four new tubes, Puncture protection tubes at his suggestion. Some real heavy duty stuff. He also gave us the heads up on the local natural foods store, and about a Hostel/art compound 30 miles down the road that let any cyclist spend the night free of charge. He reminded Vanessa and I of an Older Seamus. Seamus is our buddy and local bicycle mechanic shop owner in downtown San Diego. He helped us out a lot prior to this trip( www.thisisabikeshop.com )

so yeah, we went to that hostel. It was in the town of Marathon, Tx. A population of somewhere between 400-600 people in the entire town, And this amazing place is a part of it.


The outdoor Kitchen. attached to the Hostel House.

The Entrance

The wash room. Laundry/Toilets/showers.
www.lalomadelchivo.com

A really inspiring place, And a free bed and roof to sleep under. On a night that rained no less!

The 5 or 6 people living and working there are "wwoof'ing" (world wide opportunities on organic farms) They are working for Room and board. There is an organic garden here but the main objective is to build this place that is sustainable and practice and experiment with different ways to do this. All the buildings are made from various recycled components. And everything is beautifully done really. Nothing is just what is needs to be, everything is turned into a piece of art.

The trains were a really big part of our trip through the south west. Everyday some times for days on end our Route followed along the same route of the train tracks. Sometimes we'd see amtrak trains but for the most part its freight trains. I really enjoyed this. Sure sometimes it was frustrating when we were camping (what felt like) only feet from the tracks and we'd be woken up multiple times in the night. But for the most part it was really nice. Everyday i'd see these huge trains fly by. I always try ed to read all the graffiti writing as it zipped by. And there was a lot of that. We'd also try and see if we could spot anyone that was getting a free ride. Never did.

Most of the rivers are marked on our map. When we ride we hardly ever go further the 20 miles without stopping for at least a few minutes. So when we see that a river will be up ahead we usually wait to take our break there. Eat an apple, Banana, Peanut butter snack, and watch the water go by. This here is one of the larger rivers we have crossed. Most of them are much smaller and we can walk right down to them from the road with our bikes, we've even been lucky enough to camp right by a few of them. That might not be ideal now a days with being on the east coast comes Humidity, humidity+More water= BUGS.

Somewhere along the line before hitting austin we camped at this campground that had a great tent area. we were tucked away from all the RV's deep into the woods. We met two guys there who were also traveling by bicycle. The one kid Kinda Dressed like a mix between a punk Rocker and a cowboy, I liked it...

We made a pretty great fire that night.

We have no digital pictures of our trip to austin at all. This trip happened a pretty funny way really.

We ended up heading into San Antonio Prior to Austin but then got stuck because of rain and had no way of getting to austin but did not want to be in san antonio. I went onto the rideshare section of Craigs list and found a listing from a women name Sarah who drives to work 5 days a week from san antonio to Austin and is always looking for someone to split the gas for the trip. After talking to her and deciding she wasn't a crazy psycho killer. We met the next morning and got a ride with our bikes and all in her ford explorer to austin, Tx!

we took two days off there, they city was cool, Its population is about half of san diegos but yet felt very crowded... I enjoyed the Bike Lanes. and the massive amount of other people who were riding bicycles. It was really nice to see a city that worked this way. where so many people were aware of the connivance and benefits to cycling instead of driving. And how the city helped make this happen.

Being in Austin wasnt everything we hoped for though really. Its just hard. When we enter a city of this sort, not knowing anyone or anything. We end up being viewed as tourist. and we aren't your average tourist who wants to hang out on 6th street and go to the shot bars. We want to experience each city and town the way the locals experience it. But how does one do that when you know no one. you don't! ahh whatever. we still had a really good time. We met some really really great people at the hostel. 3 other people, YOUNG PEOPLE traveling by bicycle! everyone we meet on the road is at least 20 years older then us. so this was great. we didn't just meet them in passing, we were able to sit all night, over drinks, and share our stories. We'll probably stay in touch with Will, He is also riding from CA-NY but going all the way south to New Orleans before heading north, so we'll be a bit ahead of him.

What I did like about Austin was the amount of grass and trees that were right there in the city itself. And that when we left town, we stooped about 10 miles away from the hostel and realized we were once again surrounded by country farms. no sign of city life. Its nice that people can live just 10 miles away and feel like they are in a different world.

Cows. They were everywhere, we saw some other farm animals also. Donkeys, horses, Sheep, Goats. Mostly cows though. We always say hi to the animals as we pass them. I often try and Moo at the cows in hopes that i'll make some sort of sense to them. sometimes i think i do. They often stand up and stare at us. Maybe my moo translates to ( stand up and stare at me.)

Many night time thunder storms!

we've been really lucky though. To this date we have only had that one day from san antonio where we felt we didn't want to ride because of the weather. It has rained, A LOT. but mostly at night and alot of those nights we've been able to find an over hang of sorts to set our tent up under. we have had a few motels though, like right now, im in one. The 6th one of the trip. we hate em, but they let us update with the Internet world and do laundry and shower and all of that.

Not often but at times we have gotten stuck. Not sure where we are going to sleep. Tired and thirsty with no water. destroyed tire with 60 miles to the nearest bicycle shop, the sun about to set and in the middle of no where... These things happen and have happened. But somehow it never lasts due to the goodness of the people we have met along the way. I have started to call them "Road Angels". Our first morning on the road set the pace and it has continued along the way. That first morning waking up away from san diego we met two really great people who invited us in for coffee and breakfast, which included mimosas. our visit to the hostel in Phoenix hardly dented our pockets because of the women working who only wanted to charge us half price. The TWO separate store owners we met in Texas who took it upon themselves to invite us to camp in a safe spot behind their store under an overhang rather then a not so great place down the road. And most Recently and older man named Dave and his Neighbors Mark, Willow, and Kyle.

In austin Vanessa and I both got brand New back Tires and new chains. (we were also given the travelers discount at that shop as well) and here we are not even a week later. We found this great spot to camp down by the river, we rested our bikes up against a pole and sat down to eat an orange. Only minutes later a loud "POW" vanessa's back tire exploded... Her bike was apparently sitting in a not so old fire pit. There was no sign of heat or anything when we put the bikes there, but there was apparently still some hot embers. completely melted through the tire and tube destroying them both. We were in the sticks. really nothing around, nearest bike shop was off route by 60 miles. With plans to hitch hike because we saw no other options, we headed down the road towards the nearest gas station. Along the way an older man waved us into his yard and offered us some cold water. This led to us talking, which led to him offering his front yard as a camp spot and a ride the next morning to the bicycle shop 60 miles away.

Dave is a retired navy worker. He mentioned many times of his Seven tours in Vietnam, And that he sleeps with a gun in his hand so we better not come inside at night because he'd kill us without thinking...

Meeting dave and having that offer to stay also led us to meet His neighbors, they came over after talking to dave and hearing our story. Mark told us they had a big tent set up in his backyard from when his son wanted to camp out the week before and that we should sleep in it. It really was a big tent. we thanked him and moved our sleeping bags into it. They had a big Bon fire going in their backyard and they then invited us into their house to eat dinner with them "sausage and potatoes". These people were so kind, So sooo different from us. a world away. In any other setting we would have never even talked. But we had dinner and talked about what they all did for work, how they just moved into this house and were fixing it up. they offered us some canned food for the road and mark gave me a whole roll of toilet paper haha. Things got really southern when after dinner the guys went out back to shoot some guns off into the fire.... true story.

Anyway, we got our ride the next day and were on our way, still got just as far as we planned to prior to the tire thing. Point is. We had a tire explode and sound like a gun shot and later that night there really were guns being shot... with some really amazing people. and im glad we had that happen to Vanessa's bike.

And then it happened, WE MADE IT OUT OF TEXAS. Were officially in Louisiana. The home of Gumbo, Jambalaya, and Po' Boys. which we ate within the first 48 hours in the state!

Brian Lynch asked me if the hype is real, and it is. So Sooo good. were going through a section of Louisiana that has a good mix of southern style home cooking and Cajun kitchen style cooking. MMMmmm. so yeah. those pictures are of the lunch Vanessa and I ate yesterday.

We spoke about headed north off our original route to take the Natchez Trace Parkway from Natchez Mississippi - Nashville, Tn.

Pretty sure we aren't going to do this. There is some really Terrible weather going on right now north of us in northern Alabama,Mississippi and Tennessee. So we really aren't in a rush to get up there.

With the Oil spills in the gulf right now that is completely out of control. and Tornado's with flooding and other terrible stuff going on to the north of us. We're in wild spot. A safe spot but wild.

Right now it is 94% humidity outside. with a chance of thunderstorms this afternoon. but supposed to clear up tomorrow.

From here we continue east and a bit further south to Mobil, Alabama then north up through Alabama, following the "underground railroad Route" thanks to Adventure cycling Association. If the weather stays this way, or maybe just for the heck of it we may take a train ride from a spot in mid Alabama to a spot in Virginia, Taking a chunk of riding out but overall saving us $ time and possibly our lives. The foot of rain Tenn. has gotten over the past 24 hours dosen't sound very exciting.

So for now here we are. Im sure our next week or so of riding will provide us with wet weather, hot humid weather, and probably a lot of roadside frogs. The stereotypes are real. They are everywhere down here.

This trip continues to surprise and inspire us. We miss our san diego friends very much, NY family and friends as well, but really SD because we both know we wont be seeing those people anytime soon. Hope you are all well. Love and miss you. Thank you for everything.

With best regards to everyone from coast to coast

NobadDays from Louisiana!

news! no pictures 4/13/10

We have made it into the biggest state in the lower 48, Texas.
The few days we had in New Mexico were amazing. we truly enjoyed every day of bicycling through the south part of the state. Everyone there was really friendly. literally almost every car that passed waved to us. We camped for free in the town park of Hillsboro the day we rode over Emery Pass. The next morning we had an amazing breakfast at their General Store. The Next night we spent in a state park camp ground where we met a really great park ranger. so great it made me kinda want to be a park ranger.... He hooked us up with a site for the night plus gave us a good amount of water and some food to snack on. He also makes Jewelery and is quite good at it http://www.benhoffacker.com/. We went to a bike shop the next day in Las Cruces. Before that we stoped and had coffee and some oatmeal and a chocolate scone at a place called "The Bean" We really liked that coffee shop, it was in the town of Mesilla which also happens to be known because its where Billy The Kid got locked up! So our 4th and final night in NM... We planned to go all the way into El Paso and cross into Texas but we got side tracked just a few miles before that boarder. We stop ed at a house that looked interesting. It had Large metal sculptures covering the yard mixed in with airstream trailers. we ended up talking to the owner and artist. his name is Willie Ray Parish. good him. he's awesome. His wife and him are both art professors and artist. They have an amazing space there and we were lucky enough to camp right there in the middle of what they call the sculpture garden.
We have pictures of everything i've been speaking about, they just aren't on the computer yet. but one day i'll post the best of the best.
Our first meal in texas was a mexican breakfast that blew us away. Absolutely amazing. I even dreamed about the cafe we ate it in that night.
so far texas has not been as great. but were just getting going and this isn't the best part of the state really. With all the terrible things happening right now along the boarder we are constantly aware of our surroundings and sometimes feel as if we cant stop and rest even if we want to...
We had prime conditions riding the first day, but yesterday was just the pitts. we ran out of water because one of the service stations that we were told was ahead was actually closed, and we had a terrible head wind all day long. The upside is upon our arrival into sierra Blanca, WE FOUND HUEY!! ha, so we caught up with him, shared our hate for the day that just ended. talked about where we have been since we last rode together, which was in california.
We were glad to see he was still on the road. He constantly gives off vibes that he might pack it in at any moment and head back to Colorado.
Anyways, thats where were at. hopefully today the winds on our backs. Were excited to keep riding and make our way into austin. we have a lot of good things ahead. Hopefully next time i post i can get some pictures as well.
$NBD$

4/08/10 New Mexico!

It takes both time and energy to sit down and write on the computer, Today is going to be a really big day for us, we'll be climbing up and over the largest peak of our entire trip at 8,228 ft. above sea level. But I am going to try and quickly update as to what the past week has been filled with!
First and foremost, in my last update I talked about how we were in Phoenix and were going to leave that day. That isnt what ended up happening, we decided to stick around for the day and spend one more night at the Hostel. The weather was perfect and there was talk of a large art walk that evening just up the street.
I am so soo glad we decided to stay, the art walk was hardly that. It was more of a festival. They apparently do this every first friday of each month. There were Bands playing all over the place, the streets were lined with vendors selling art and food of all kinds. We spent an hour or so walking around with our friends from london that we made at the hostel then parted ways so we could get a beer. We headed over to "hoodRide" which is a house/bikeshop/art gallery where a band was playing in the front yard and a dj in the back. 5th st is lined with places of this nature. There are houses families live in but in between there are these houses that have been converted into businesses. Another favorite of ours was "Conspire" which was a house that doubled as a gallery selling clothes and zines/library and a full stage in the back yard area where bands were playing all night. Here is where we met a fellow cross country traveler. Her name is Shay, She was on week 5 of her journey Walking across america. She was super inspiring and you can read all about her journey at http://www.fakeplasticshay.blogspot.com/
So we did eventually leave Phoenix after sitting in the morning for about an hour with shay sharing stories over coffee from our new favorite coffee spot. We have been making good mileage since that day off. We want to travel far every day for two reasons, 1. Everyday we travel further then average gives us more opportunity down the road to take time off and hang out. and 2. We DO in fact want to make it to New York before it gets two hot and humid on the east coast.
We have had a few more nights camping on the lawns of RV parks, One night In the grass next to the camping area in the parking lot of APACHE GOLD CASINO. And one night In a great camping area at 6,290 ft. elevation In the mountains 8 miles to the Arizona/new mexico boarder.
2 Days ago was probably the most visually stunning bicycling of our lives. Arizona was absolutely full of things we did not expect. We climbed up and over a Larger pass that day and on the back side we were welcomed by miles and miles of poppy flowers. It was unlike anything either of us have ever seen with our own eyes. It made me think of the wizard of Oz. We later climbed back up into the mountains and into a real pine forest which is unlike anything we have seen so far. Thats where we camped and thats were we froze. We are traveling quite lite and therefor not really prepared for almost freezing temp.
So this brings me to yesterday which was quite big for us. The day started with us coasting down from our camp site into the state of New Mexico. with that means we hit a new time zone. We took a picture to remember it. New mexico is nothing like the new mexico we saw when driving through a few years ago. Its much more "Home on the range"ish. And its quite nice. We later in the day fought through some hard uphills all the way back to the same elevation we camped at the night before and crossed the great continental divide.
Southern New mexico is Mountainous, which is what were dealing with right now. But after today things will mellow out again for a while as we head into Texas.
I'll try to upload a few pictures now but that can sometimes take alot of time so i'll see what i can get done before vanessa gets on here.

(hoodride. Phoenix, Az)(Oz is just beyond that hill, Arizona)

(self explanatory, New Mexico!)

4/2/10 down the road

here's a snap shot of Huey and myself. I spoke about Huey in the last post but we haven't seen him in a Few days, He's staying in hotels and what not so we ended up going separate ways at some point.

The day after my last post we rode through some really movie picture book like desert spots in california. This was taking outside of Glamis, CA which they call "the sand Toy Capital of the world" on the weekends in the winter months 100's of 1,000's of people come out and camp with their Rv to ride their Quads/dirt bikes/dune buggies here.

That day we rode 75 miles to the closet place to camp from the day before. We stayed at an RV park that charged us 6 bucks to camp on their land. and we were very happy to pay 6 dollars. We woke up early to the sound of the birds. Which by the way is how we've woken almost every day, SO many birds in the desert. Who knew... Anyway, we rode on. It was a pretty mellow day, we saw some sheep!

And then we crossed the California state line! woo, were in Arizona!

This is a sweet picture of our bikes after that day, we camped at an over 55 Rv park for a whopping $3.50! wOooo

along the next day we stop ed for lunch at the Kofa Cafe, and it was great. I had a Sea Dog, It was a foot long Beer battered Fish on a hot dog bun also a foot long. with fries and coleslaw. vanessa got a nice Grilled cheese and we split a piece of coconut cream pie. we really splurged that day on lunch, we figured we deserved it for saving so much money on sleeping arraignments the 2 days prior.

We rode along and made our way to another Rv park to camp in, Rv parks is all there is to stay at when traveling through the desert. and its mostly people who are retired living there or what they call "snow birds" these people live up north most of the year and travel south and stay at these parks for the winter to get away from the snow.

Anyways, we made it safe to our destination and camped in grass instead of rocks for the first time in days. We also played a mean game of horse shoes. and vanessa beat me pretty bad.

Yesterday was the longest yet. We rode 90.93 miles all the way into Phoenix Arizona, the next week wont call for so many long days but we don't mind them to much, if we get enough of them in we can feel like we can take a day off. We stayed at a hostel last night, and they gave us a 2 for 1 deal. People have been really good to us once we let them know what we are doing, where we are coming from and where we are going. We had a nice dinner and shared some pasta with a guy named shane whos staying here from Seattle. Its a really nice place, it's just a big house.

so here we are, One full week on the road and over 400 miles behind us. We absolutely look like we have been living on the road, We are both very sun tanned / Burnt. With really weird tan lines, like the straps to our helmets and vanessas glasses. so we kinda look crazy. But its funny and we dont mind.

Were making today a mellow day. were not gonna leave town till the after noon and only go about 35 miles, then wake up tomorrow and start the new week fresh.

Our bikes bags and bodies have been holding up just fine. so all signs are go for a good first week.

Until next time. NBD