Assateague Island, VA (Home)

We’re all home. We did it. We pedaled 4000.8 miles from Crescent City, California to Assateague Island, Virginia on a bicycle. How ridiculous is that?!

4000.8 miles across America

On our last night before Assateague Island we spent an entire day riding a ferry 30 miles from Reedsville, VA to Crisfield, MD in order to cross the Chesapeake Bay. I wanted to pedal in place on the ferry to get our mileage in for the day but no one would have it. The ferry ride itself was only 3 hours long but we spent a 4 hour layover on a island called Tangier Island which is an isolated world of its own. When we reached Crisfield we were met by Casey’s mom and 2 sisters (Corrie and Petra) along with Andy’s dad and Cooper, Sarah and Caroline Linde. This entire trip we’ve been really blessed with good friends and families who’ve gone far out of their way in order to see us and this was just another one of those blessings. We spent the night in Crisfield and prepared for our final 50 miles of the trip the next morning. The last 50 miles for the most part was a breeze. We ditched our panniers and replaced them instead with Cooper who rode with us all the way to the beach which was a real honor for me. He kept saying it was his honor to ride with us but this is the man who paved the way for us and inspired me with stories of his bike ride across America 4 years ago. The ride up the beach was really surreal and it’s still overwhelming to think about. The culmination of nine and a half weeks of biking came down to this and I remember us all pedaling like mad-men that last mile as we could smell the beach coming closer. I remember looking over at Andy and seeing the biggest grin on his face. That pretty much sums it up for me in my mind. All of it is surreal. Seeing the endless Atlantic Ocean knowing that we could not bike any further. Seeing our friends and family on the beach waiting for us. Letting the waves wash over our exhausted bodies. Lifting our bikes high above our heads. All of it is surreal.

We reached the Atlantic Ocean!

A week after this trip has passed I’m still in withdrawal. This is more for me than anyone else but I’m going to make a list of things I miss to help me cope.
I miss:
-Andrew, Andy, Brian and Casey
-biking with a purpose and covering ground everyday
-loitering
-thinking simple thoughts
-meeting new people everyday
-drinking tons of Gatorade
-eating simple things
-waking up sore in the mornings
-going to bed exhausted in the evenings
-taking refreshing showers
-living simple lives
-seeing God so obviously all around me
-feeling totally grateful for people’s hospitality
-seeing beautiful sights of nature
-fixing flat tires
-sweating profusely
The list continues forever and becomes more sentimental as it goes on so I’ll spare you all my tears for now.

Home!

As for the guys on Team Wolfspank, each one of those guys are without a doubt some of the most quality men I will ever meet. It was a privilege to be able to bike along side them and share in this experience. I must say a word or two about each of them:
Casey: The amount of additional work beyond all of us that Casey did on this trip is quite astonishing to me. Not only did he have responsibilities of planning the route with Andrew (which is a task in and of itself) but also dealt with our mechanical issues nearly everyday without a word of complaint which really amazed me. There were many moments on this trip when the sun was melting my brain and I would sit on the side of the road under some shade to take a break and I would see Casey out in the blistering sun helping someone re-adjust their brakes so it didn’t rub against their wheel and I would think to myself, “How the heck is he still functioning out there?!”. It blew my mind to see how much Casey sacrificed on a daily basis to keep everyone on this trip running smoothly and there is no better mechanic in the world than Casey. Truly this trip would not have been possible without him.
Andy: Minus the one week where Andy read Dracula and became really dark and weird, Andy has always been the one to lighten the mood and keep everyone laughing which is no easy task when everyone is constantly tired, hot and exhausted. He may not know it but his determination on the bike really pushed me to pedal harder everyday so I personally have him to thank for that. In my mind if I was able to keep up with Andy I was a pretty happy guy. This here is a smart and genuine man who will obviously make a huge impact in the lives of the people/trees he meets. I’ve never seen anyone get so excited talking about plants or trees and seeing his passion and joy for nature was refreshing. It’s clear to me that people want to be around Andy because of the laughter that ensues when you’re around him. We had a little tally on our site of how many hits our each individual pages got and Andy took the lead by nearly 200 more hits than everyone else. Even though we’re convinced 100 of those are from his grandparents alone, it’s obvious that this is one popular dude for good reason. I have no doubts that he will make a great impact in the lives of everyone he meets.
Brian: Brian has got to be one of the most talented people I’ve ever met and I think we’ve all had the privilege of benefiting from those talents. Whether it is his amazing cooking skills, his angelic musical voice or his savvy technology prowess we’ve all had the privilege of experiencing in those gifts. His quiet determination in the face of challenge is something I respect the most about him though. As Andrew mentioned there were many moments when Brian could have given up and tossed in the towel but this was clearly not an option for him. Even when he was faced with the reality of pedaling longer than most of us in the hot sun he always kept at it and persevered. His growth since the beginning of the trip is the most apparent out of all of us and it’s obvious that Brian relies solely on God for his strength (because surely his 4000 calorie diet, only upper body workout and cut-out-all-cardio training regime in preparation for this trip did not strengthen him, haha).
Andrew: There is no doubt that Andrew was the glue of this trip as he was the key and link between everyone this trip. One of the coolest things for me to see along this journey was to see how his closest friends have impacted and molded him into the great man that he is today. I can see a little bit of Andy, a little bit of Brian and a little bit of Casey within Andrew which is pretty neat to think that he is so receptive to his friends. Andrew always kept his cool (except the few times where he went absolutely delirious) and managed to keep everyone else’s tempers cool in the process. His leadership on this journey was totally invaluable and I’m lucky to have a friend like Andrew to bring me along on a journey like this. Everything from his willingness to take the B.O.B multiple days in a row in order to give others a rest or the way he carried himself during and after his injury was amazing. I remember as the paramedics were putting Andrew into the ambulance stretcher he started tossing jokes around and putting me at ease. This is truly a good man who ponders on life, love and God and lives his life to the fullest.
It’s been my privilege to spend 9 weeks with these guys and I miss them dearly already.

I’m still in the process of decompressing everything that’s happened and I imagine I will continue to do so years down the road but this adventure was everything I expected and more. This was an absolute amazing journey with 4 of the greatest guys on earth and I don’t believe I will every experience anything quite like this ever again in my life. A special thank you to Mrs. Fittz, Corrie Fittz, Petra Fittz, Dave DeGennaro, Adam Smith, Mr and Mrs. Zhao, Adam Zhao, Cooper, Sarah and Caroline Linde, Mr. Petran and my dad for coming out to the beach to meet us. Thank you to everyone else at home and along the way who encouraged us and helped us as well. We love you all and hope that our journey made some sort of positive impact in your lives as it has ours.

Final Random Count:
-Number of waves: 850+
-Angry honks: 20
-Number of inner tubes: 26
-Middle fingers: 3
-Cat calls: 9
-Number of times Andy used his sneakers on this trip: 2
-Number of times we complained about carrying Andy’s sneakers: 13+
-Gallons of Gatorade/Powerade’s drunk: 125+
-States crossed: 12
-Miles Biked: 4000.8
-Days: 69
-Champions on this trip: 6 (Team Wolfspank + Charlie)

~Chris ‘Napoleon’ Ahn

 

Reedville, VA (nearly home)

I listen to a good amount of country songs when I ride. And as the miles have piled on, snippets of lyrics have popped out to me as being really applicable to whatever plight or emotion I was feeling at the time.

“If you’re going through hell, keep on going, don’t slow down, if you’re scared don’t show it, you might get out before the devil even knows you’re there”- Rodney Atkins

“He just takes the tractor another round and pulls the plow across the ground
and sends up another prayer. He says Lord I never complain I never ask why, please don’t let my dreams run dry underneath, underneath this amarillo sky”- Jason Aldean [except when I quietly sing along to the song, I change the lyrics to “He just takes his bike another round and pulls the BOB across the ground…]

And just today as we were riding into Reedville, VA, Rodney Atkins voice echoed in my ear once again with the words “Yeah, makes me wanna take a back road, makes me wanna take the long way home. Put a little gravel in my travel. Unwind, unravel all night long. Makes me wanna grab my honey. Tear down some two-lane country. Who knows? Get lost and get right with my soul.
Makes me wanna take, makes me wanna take a back road.” [For this to be completely applicable for me, “my honey” became Andy, Brian, Chris and Casey]

Those words summed everything up really well. We wanted adventure. We wanted excitement. We wanted to explore and see America. We wanted to learn something about ourselves. We wanted to see God’s face. We wanted to reconnect with our souls. We wanted to take a back road….and we took the longest way home possible.

Amadeus

Home. I think we all really miss home. And even though that may not be a specific place and most of the guys are starting new beginnings when we return (Chris in Massachusetts, Andy in St. Paul, Casey in Severn, and Brian in Chicago?), home (in my most cliche, sentimental voice possible) is where the heart is. And we were reminded of that every time we saw family. Seeing the Wongkamalasai’s and Mrs. Petran in the Midwest was such an encouragement for us. They watched three of us grow up and took the time to make the long drives to remind us that we are loved and what’s it’s like to be taken care of by your parents. It was wonderful. And then seeing my dad and Mr. Fittz in Kentucky…it was really neat to hear about them hanging out in a small plane getting to know each other for a few hours and to think of all the time Casey and I have spent in our tent together talking and bonding. Even hearing Chris talk about his sister and her soon-to-be-birthed son…family’s really important and we’ve been away from family for too long.

Napoleon

I’ve had this mental image in my mind for a while now where the 5 of us are racing to the beach at Assateague Island wearing our Wolfspank jerseys and sprinting into the water raising our bikes high over our heads. And I choke back tears every time. Those words: the “Atlantic Ocean” have so much meaning to me. A few days back, we reminisced to when we left the Pacific Ocean (Casey joked that those memories are all in sepia and there’s talk boxes instead of sound). We were so naive then…so much has happened since then, it’s hard to even enter into the mindset I had back in June.

The “Atlantic Ocean“. It’s closure. It’s the finish. The destination. The goal. And it puts a back cover on so many memories…

• Like crawling up a windy highway north of the Redwood Forest where there was no shoulder and a guardrail that pinned us against the road and huge logging trucks passed us around blind corners and we all thought we were going to die and had to stop halfway up and camp in some strange woods. That was our first day.
• Or spending an entire afternoon biking 22 miles uphill with Casey and remembering my birth mom as we gazed upon the grandeur and beauty of Crater Lake.
• Or climbing Lolo Pass with the BOB after already biking 80 miles uphill and being exhausted and reaching the summit around 9pm to enter Montana and hit 1,000 miles, and then freezing our butts off as we rolled into Lolo Hot Springs, where we were greeted by a huge hippie, teenage rave with the bass thumping until 5 in the morning with nothing in our stomachs but really undercooked Rice-a-roni
• Or being face down on the pavement on my knees not moving and breathing slowly and deliberately with a thousand thoughts going through my head because I didn’t know how badly the road had ripped up my body after my tire blew out
• Or trying to adjust to the thin air and elevation in Colorado and then biking our first century
• Or losing my mind as my sanity deteriorated when we biked through the hottest day in Missouri history with heat indexes of 110+
• Or seeing everything from the roaring tides of the Pacific Ocean to the snowy mountains of Oregon to the barren lands of Hell’s Canyon to the ranches of Montana to the surprisingly rolling hills of Kansas to all the corn in the Midwest to the old money farms in Kentucky and now to the coastal areas of Virginia

Sherlock

The Atlantic Ocean also represents endurance. We overcame the elements: wind, rain, hail, heat, snow, humidity, etc. Of course we endured physically (we’ll be just over 4,000 miles when we hit the coast!), but we also endured mentally (like going up hills, lying down each night knowing that we had to get back on our bikes the next day) and emotionally (we’ve spent the past 9.5 weeks with the same 5 guys).

Finally, when Team Wolfspank reaches Assateague Island on Sunday, we know we couldn’t have made it without the help of countless people. That was a big part of the trip for us. Going out and meeting people. Being open and seeing who God included in our journey and really appreciating the hospitality, care, and love that is present in humanity.

“Well I been deep down in that darkness
I been down to my last match
Felt a hundred different demons
Breathing fire down my back
And I knew that if I stumbled
I’d fall right into the trap that they were laying

But the good news
Is there’s angels everywhere out on the street
Holding out a hand to pull you back up on your feet” (More Rodney)

And that was our experience. When we were exhausted, tired, sweaty, and smelly, there were always people there, angels there to offer us a place to stay or with a cup of ice water or to encourage us in what we were doing or to just be good company and good people.

…Rose at Dayville Presbyterian, Mitch and his seeing eye dogs in Baker City, OR, Uncle Kelly and the lake house in Polson, MT, the Lesniks and spending over a week with John at the smokejumpers base, Wynn and Charlie and the Taco Bus in Dillon, MT, Tyler “Blaise Wolfspank”,the nice lady who cut my hair for free in Rawlins, WY, Cal and the great mexican food, beer, and talking about rafting in Saratoga, WY, enjoying great food, good conversation and hot springs with Casey’s grandad Jim in Steamboat Springs, CO, Charlie in Breckenridge and riding up Hoosier pass with the BOB! and Kristen, the Johnstons in Merwin, MO, Pastor Mike in Leoti, KS and Pastor Chris Snyder in Adrian, MO and Reverend Bill Pickering in Tappahannock, VA, Scott and Jan at the mexican restaurant in Georgetown, KY (and the mysterious PT Cruiser guy who paid for our dinner!), Tina & Liam in Ashland, KY…the list will always be incomplete

Breakfast with the wonderful Rev. Bill Pickering

And after some deliberation and thinking while riding, here are some final reflections:

• Just as Casey said it in the last post- I’ve talked with he and Andy about it and I think the one thing we’ve really missed while on this trip is culture. The five of us, well we’re a brotherhood and though there are nuances we’re all fairly similar. A common joke the past 2 and a half months has been the lack of any existing girl our age between the two oceans. And that probably scratches at the surface of what we’ve missed. We miss talking to girls, yes, but we also miss being around diversity. Having relationships with those older than us and younger and from other cultures and ethnicities. Engaging with people truly different than us who have different perspectives on life and different upbringings. I miss being challenged by uniqueness. When you’re around people the same as you, you don’t get challenged, you just get…honed, honed into becoming more similar. Small town America is surprisingly consistent from state to state.
• We’ve experienced a different kind of spirituality this trip. It hasn’t been Bible studies, evangelism or even profound discussions on theology and the nature of God. We’ve been forced to live a life that is constantly reliant upon God. We’ve had to give up control- a lot. We’ve had to embrace humility and let others take care of us. We’ve had to find strength that didn’t originate from ourselves. We’ve had to be see the best and worst of each other and learn to love in both scenarios. We’ve had to speak up and hold each other accountable even if it meant we made ourselves vulnerable. Essentially, it’s been a spirituality that I can’t really explain or point you to a book to read more about…it’s been a spirituality that has resulted from life and what it throws at us and our belief that God is always present and we’re in this together.
• So how has this trip changed us? That’s really hard to say and I think that the best people to answer that question are our friends and family who see us when we get back. However I do know this- none of us consider ourselves to be a part of some elite, unapproachable segment of society now. Heck, it sounds like only a couple of us might keep on biking regularly once we get back. But we’re the same old guys- just with a greater appreciation of the things we enjoy in life….good friends and family, quality eats, cold yuppie beer, a roof over our heads, music, girls. And we’ve accomplished something wonderful together that we will never forget. We’ve set a new standard for ourselves as Mr. Fittz put it. Biking across America? That’s just a single challenging chapter that we can put a check mark next to- there’s plenty more ahead in life, but we can meet them with confidence.

Huckleberry

I’m so proud of this team. I’ve said all along that I made out like a bandit with this roster because these are 4 of my very best friends. I’ve known Andy since the third grade and it seems like our friendship has never grown stale or old or boring. This trip he’s played every role from the team nurse to the team nutritionist to the wise old man to the jokester. To be able to share this journey with him and see him grow is another incredible blessing that I can add to the many that is our friendship. He’s been by my side through pains, adversity, and joy and I don’t know if I would’ve made it across America if he weren’t here with me through it all. I’m unbelievably excited to finally be able to live with him this fall in St. Paul. I’m probably the most proud of Brian. There were so many times when he could’ve thrown in the towel, but he didn’t. He pushed through it. And Brian had a lot to overcome- his own misconceptions about this trip, a bum knee, a slower natural pace, changing motivations, being the most different from the rest of the group…but he didn’t quit and he didn’t take the easy way out. And to hear him talk about how God worked this summer and trusting in the way He moves and puts opportunities in our lives, well, it’s all very encouraging and I hope he can start his next chapter in that confidence. This has been Casey and my baby since the get-go. We’ve had countless talks about it- who was coming, what we expected, what we wanted from it. And it’s been quite a ride as we’ve met everything this trip has thrown at us head-on. Even though he’s the youngest one of the group, Casey’s led. With his selfless nature, maturity, and honest feedback, he’s led. And despite our different personalities, I feel like Casey and I have always “got” and understood each other since I first met him and this trip has only grown our friendship. I’ve always viewed Chris as the engine of this trip. His unfailing optimism, faith in humanity, and go-getter attitude has strongly influenced the overall nature of this team. Also, Chris finds the best freakin’ people everywhere we go. I’d say the majority of the wonderful people we meet or sweet hookups we get are a direct result of Chris’ persistency and personable approach to conversations. One thing I’ve always admired about Chris is that he always does what he says (or at least tries his hardest). He said he was going to be a firefighter. And he tried. He was going to run a marathon. And he did. Twice. He was going to work on a farm. And he did. And he’s going to again. He wants to start an orphanage in Mexico. And he gained experience working on one. That’s why when Chris was the last member added to the team, I knew we were going to finish. This is a man who pursues his passions wholeheartedly.

Chachi

Tomorrow we’re riding a ferry across the Chesapeake Bay and then on Sunday, we ride our final 50 miles.

More reflections will probably come as the days pass, but for now it’s been an unbelievable ride. Thank you friends and family for loving, praying for, and supporting Team Wolfspank. We are so incredibly blessed.

This is country music,

Chachi

Oh and here's a picture of Team Wolfspank on a firetruck

Mineral, VA

Howdy All,

It’s been a while since I’ve updated the blog so I’m glad excited to give my two cents about the trip.

First of all I have to clear my name from insinuating remarks made in Andy’s post about the Katy Trail. Yes I may have injured or even killed two animals while on the Katy Trail, but you should examine the circumstances before judging me. Our first day on the Katy Trail was excruciatingly hot (The next day we found out that it was the hottest day on record in MO, and due to a late start and mechanical problems we ended up having to bike more in the heat of the day then we normally do). So picture me biking along next to Andrew, my brain is being fried by the toaster oven that is my helmet. All of sudden Andrew thinks that his front tire is getting low on air. Not wanting to stop to examine it he decides to simply lean over and look at it while riding. This, not surprisingly, causes him to swerve into me and push me careening off of the trail. This left me considerably jarred and a bit sore. So now I’m biking along, dazed from the heat and nearly being mangled by Andrew, and I see a squirrel in front of me. I couldn’t swerve to the right because it would have put me off the path, and with Andrew still biking on my left I felt no desire to recreate the scenario that he had just put me through. So I continued on my course, assuming the squirrel would have the good sense to get out of the way. The squirrel ran away from me but it stayed in front me. I started frantically yelling at the squirrel to get out of the way, but it was too late. The squirrel, giving in to its fate, turned around and looked me in the eyes, then(for no good reason) flopped over on its back right before I ran over it. As Andrew can attest, I immediately hopped of my bike and wailed over the plight of the squirrel. I was going to spend the next few days wearing sackcloth and ashes, but could you imagine the chafing? Regardless, that’s my story, you can decide if I’m a murderer or if I was just a victim of fate. On another animal killing note, the next morning a bird bounced of my neck, but it was far too dark for me to have seen him so that clearly wasn’t my fault.

Kentucky

West Virginia

Since the last post we’ve already made it in and out of West Virginia.  Leaving Ashland KY was pretty rough, we had a really late start and that tends to make most of us pretty antsy. Worst of all when we were only about 4 miles out of town Chris’ rear shifter cable snapped. I had to bike back to town(which, on the positive side, wasn’t that far away) to get a new cable, and then bike back to where the rest of the team was waiting. As a bike mechanic, one of the things that I hate working on the most is shifters. Road bike shifters are made of little intricate plastic parts, and what this essentially means is that you can’t work on them. Fortunately Chris’s shifter was more or less fine, the only problem was that what remained of his shredded cable was jammed in the shifter. We spent about half an hour attacking the shifter with a pocket knife and tweezers before we finally got the jammed cable out. Once we got the jammed cable out it was an easy fix from there and we were soon on the road again.

Andy fast asleep on the shoulder of a busy highway

That night we stayed in Charleston WV. With the late start that morning we didn’t end up getting to town until much later than normal. This meant that no one would be at any of the churches who’s doors we would otherwise knock on. We tried calling the pastors of different churches but we weren’t able to find any that would let us in. In the past we’ve found that churches will very rarely say no to our faces, but they generally have no problem saying no over the phone. When we can’t find a church that will take us into a three step course of action. Step 1: Chris mentions asking the sheriffs office for a place to stay. Step 2: Andrew or I suggest sleeping under a pavilion in the park. Step 3: We find the cheapest motel that’s on our route and get a room there. We repeated these steps adeptly not only in Charleston, but also in Marlinton, WV and Staunton, VA. The night between Charleston and Marlinton (editor’s note aka Andrew and my (Andrew) great memory: Summersville) we were convinced we were going to have to sleep under a pavilion until Chris found a pastor of a Presbyterian church who was more than happy to let us stay in the church. Unfortunately the fact that he called himself the weird pastor of the area did not seem to bode well for us finding churches later nights. Then again, the east coast is not known for its hospitality among touring cyclists and we knew that when we made the decision to ship our tents home.

Nearing the end of the trip has turned all of our minds toward reflection on the past nine weeks. Personally, I take a long time to mull over things before I feel like I have a good grasp on what happened. With everything that has happened I’m sure it won’t be for a while after I’m home that I have clear picture of what the trip actually looked like. One thing that I have been thinking about a lot lately is the influence of the team on me and the trip. My approach to this trip has always been at least slightly different than everyone else’s. I’ve been thinking about doing this trip ever since my senior year in highschool, so when it was decided that I was doing it during the summer of 2011 there was very little that could stop me. I knew from the beginning of our planning for the trip that even if everyone else dropped out and couldn’t make it, I would still go. Everyone’s presence on the team has undoubtedly changed the nature of the trip from what it would have been if I was by myself. Although I’ve found that change frustrating at times, it has definitely been overwhelmingly positive.  Its given me a chance to learn a lot about my self and everyone around me. Its also meant that I’ve been in situations that I wouldn’t have otherwise been in were I by myself.

Looking forward toward the end of the trip, here are some things that I’m sure I’ll miss once its over:

• Biking everyday
• The simplicity of having only one goal at a time(i.e. bike to such and such, eat, bike to such and such, find a place to stay, etc.)
• I already miss the mountains so much

Here are some of the things that I’m looking forward to once the trip is over:

• Culture: I’ve really missed the diversity and large amounts of people that come with living in a metropolitan area
• Academia
• Family
• Having a regular schedule, and predictable things day to day, even little things like getting coffee at the school co-op or going to work

Right now we’re all very ready to be home, ever since Platypus day there hasn’t been any other goal. Unfortunately this has changed all of our goals to being about the destination not the journey, but at this point does it really matter that much?

God lives in Virginia

On a final note its been great being in Virginia and recognizing names of places I’ve been through or been backpacking in. So in a certain sense I already feel like I’m home and that’s been encouraging.

xoxo

Casey

Ashland, KY

Ladies and Gentleman,

We are here in Ashland, Kentucky right now and per usual quite a lot has happened since our last post which was a really long time ago. Sorry about that.

After leaving the Wongkamalasai’s in St. Louis, we biked to Mt. Vernon, Illinois the next day where we met up with Andy’s mom who drove 300 miles from Chicago to see us. Mrs. Petran really took care of us and fed us a delicious dinner at Cracker Barrel and put us up in a great hotel for the night. When we opened up our hotel room we were welcomed with the site of delicious food and drinks piled up high which we immediately devoured. There were even strawberries in the bathroom which really threw us for a loop but we later found out that Mrs. Petran washed the berries in the bathroom then forgot to put them out. All I know is, I’ll be eating more strawberries in the shower from now on. I’m not going to lie though: After going 8 weeks of fending for ourselves, it felt pretty good to be taken care of in motherly fashion even for just a little bit. There are some things 5 boys just can’t do properly, like sewing a tattered jersey together, so it was quite a blessing to have her there. Thanks a bunch Mrs. Petran!

Mt. Vernon with Mrs. Petran

While in Mt. Vernon we also made a monumental decision as a group. We decided to stop following the TransAm maps and trail-blaze our own path home. We did this for a few reasons: 1) The TransAm maps had us taking a very indirect route home which would have added more unnecessary miles to our trip. 2) The TransAm maps also had us going through South-Eastern Kentucky and we heard a lot of horror stories from fellow bikers telling us to either bike hard and fast straight through it or avoid it as much as possible. Things such as untamed dogs out to bite your flesh as owners watch and laugh. So it was a bonus that we would skip that part of Kentucky. 3) We wanted to be at our final destination on a weekend so it would be easier on friends and family to come visit us on the beach at Assateague Island (So dear friends and family, please know that we pedal everyday with the hopes of seeing your shining faces on that beach when we arrive!). 4) I think everyone on this trip has a stubborn enough personality where we don’t like to be told what to do or where to go and the TransAm maps just felt too restrictive. The lure of finding our own unknown adventures was too irresistible and we went with the call of the wild. 5) We’re just too cool for school.

So as we blazed our own path to our fate we spent one day in Illinois before we quickly passed into Indiana. Not really much to say about that place. It’s Indiana… However one cool thing did happen. While we were eating lunch at 10AM in the morning in a Subway restaurant a reporter came by and interviewed us for a story for a local online newspaper. We regaled her with stories of our journey and the article can be found here: http://www.dcfreep.com/five-guys-big-trip/. Basically we are the most famous people we know. We biked hard and whizzed through Indiana in two day before we hit Kentucky. 3 different states in 4 days on a bike. Common, that’s pretty good.

The glory of Illinois

Indiana: shining in the reflected glory of Illinois

We biked into Kentucky early in the morning and immediately hit Louisville to meet up with Jenna and Andy Schmidt who provided us with a delicious and hearty breakfast. They were amazingly non-cranky hosts to 5 guys rolling in sweaty and smelly at 7 in the morning. So up until this moment in Kentucky things seemed to be great! However as we left Louisville things quickly got ridiculous. Shoulders became non-existent so we were forced to ride on a narrow sliver of the pavement on treacherously busy roads. Cars got madder and madder and the angry honks become more and more frequent. Cars barely gave us any passing room and we found ourselves in the midst of exhaust fumes quite frequently as trucks gunned their engines angrily past us. One man, raging red in the face, even rolled his window down and began to yell profanities at us. With only 20 miles left to go in the day, I pulled up to a stoplight about to turn into a CVS to take a break. Passing by me was a school bus full of children armed with crumpled pieces of paper. They proceeded to pelt me with balls of paper which really spoiled my break. I came pretty close to getting off my bike right then and there and crawling into the fetal position. What a day. I had lost all hope for Kentucky by this point but in a surprising twist, this turns into a story of redemption. When we reached Georgetown, KY for the night, I didn’t think a single nice person in Kentucky existed. I was confident not a single person would welcome us into their home or church. But we still had to try so I put on my usual boyish charm and went to a Presbyterian church in the hopes that they might house us. All we asked for was for a floor to sleep on and the woman at the church simply said ‘We don’t have anything like that here.’ Apparently this church did not have floors. This only confirmed my suspicions. There was no way we were going to find a place to stay in all of Kentucky. I felt defeated  by this point because of all that had happened in the day but I tried again and found a man named Scott standing outside a Methodist church. I explained our plight and was fully expecting another rejection but he caught me off guard when he offered us to stay in his home. However because Scott was currently remodeling his bathroom and couldn’t offer us his shower he offered instead to pay for a hotel room for all of us! We’ve experienced amazing hospitality this entire trip so this was nothing new but considering all the terrible events of the day this was truly unexpected and quite welcome. Scott took us out to dinner with his boss Jan and we ended up having a great time well past our bedtime. Thanks Scott and Jan for single-handedly redeeming the entire state of Kentucky. We still get honked at and yelled at daily but knowing there are good people in Kentucky makes me feel much better about biking through this state.

Scott and Jan in Georgetown, KY

So putting that eventful day behind us, our spirits brightened once again and we headed to Morehead, Kentucky for Platypus Day! Platypus Day was the given alias for a day when Andrew’s father and Casey’s father would fly out to meet us wherever we were at. Andrew and Casey were giddy the entire day in anticipation of seeing their fathers and climbed steep hills like the devil was on their back. Casey’s dad, a pilot in the military, flew a small plane with Andrew’s dad in it from Maryland to Morehead. It was another great reunion of families and Casey’s dad took us all for a flight around Morehead in the plane. It felt pretty good to get off the ground for a bit and travel at speeds greater than our usual 15-20 mph. This trip never ceases to produce new and amazing adventures! The fathers took us out for a great dinner filled with hot wings and cool beers and even put us up in a nice hotel for the night. Seeing Andrew’s and Casey’s dad was another great taste of home and I think everyone is experiencing a strong case of homesickness now. The fathers left well before we woke up and just like that we were on our own again.

Platypus Day!

We hit the road the next day for a nice and easy 60 miler to the town of Ashland, KY where Andrew found a contact through Warmshowers.com. A kind woman named Tina and her husband Liam opened up their beautiful home to us and gave us a place to rest our heads for the night. She offered us delicious peach tea, cool showers and even did our laundry! Kindness like this never gets old. We caught a movie in Ashland at matinee prices and we ended up watching the movie, “The Help,” a heartwarming story of a small town in Mississippi during the Jim Crow era. I would highly recommend it if you’re looking for a good cry.

This post doesn’t quite do justice to all the things we’ve experienced in the past few days since so much has happened but this is the best quick recap I can give for now. As our journey nears to its end I think all of us are really starting to absorb and reflect on what’s happened here. Well after this trip is over, I’m sure we will still look back and learn new things about ourselves as we recall old stories but I really enjoyed one thing Casey’s dad said over dinner. He mentioned that from his experience in the military, what people generally take away from an experience such as this is not that they’ve asserted their manhood or masculinity but rather that they’ve set a new standard of expectation for themselves. When others quit is where we might press forward. I’ve seen these 4 guys at their best and worst. I’ve seen tears of exhaustion to fiery willpower in their eyes. I know they can all handle whatever is thrown in their way and I’m proud. I’m excited to see what else is to come in our final week or so and this trip is far from over so with that I’ll fall asleep now.

We love Ronald.

Random counts so far:
-15 angry honks
-10 undecipherable/angry shouts
-1 school bus full of brats throwing paper at me
-700 waves
-2 gas station breakfasts (the worst kind of breakfasts)

~NapoleAhn

St Louis, MO, the 3000 mile city

Hey there folks, I write this during our much needed day off in a wonderfully air conditioned room in St Louis, but there’s much to update you on before this point, so lets get started, shall we?

The Wongkamalasai family have been a true blessing here in St Louis

One of my favorite parts about our stay in Sedalia was when Brian found a scale in the weight room at the church we were staying at (yes, this church had a weight room, among many other amenities one would only expect to find in a nice hotel) and we decided to weigh ourselves, and see what this trip has done to our bodies. Chris and Casey maintained about the same weight, but neither of them were surprised, since they didn’t have a whole lot to lose in the first place anyways.  I was already about 4 pounds below my usual weight when the trip started, and I lost another 8 during the course of our 6 weeks, taking me to about the lowest weight I’ve been since high school. Brian lost even more, about 10 pounds. Then Andrew got on. We were all expecting him to have lost about the same as Brian or I, since his tummy was noticeably smaller than the start of the trip. But when the scales stabilized it showed that he actually gained a hilarious 8 pounds since we started biking. It seemed that the muscle mass added to his massive leg frame more than made up for shaving off a bit of fat from his torso. Still, it’s been quite funny thinking that biking across a country could cause a thin man to gain such a significant amount of weight.

We cruised across the Katy Trail in the past couple of days, and remembering it arouses mixed emotions. On the positive side, this trail was absolutely beautiful, historic, tranquil, mostly shaded, and the absence of traffic reduced a good deal of our on-the-road stress. The wildlife was abundant, and gave me something else to think about and look for while I rode, though I must say the wildlife on the trail is slightly less abundant than what it was before we started it (cough-CASEY-cough).

A turtle we found sunbathing on the Katy Trail

The trail did however, come with its downsides. It was essentially unpaved for 240 miles, with very fine, white gravel that was sometimes soft enough to cause skid-outs if you weren’t careful, and random massive ditches you had to always keep your eyes peeled for. Two days ago I wiped out hitting Andrew’s back tire because he slowed down to take a bump and I wasn’t looking, probably staring at birds or something dumb. I flew over my bike, but my helmet took almost all the blow, and I was back on and riding within two minutes  or so. The fine gravel also coated the entire bottom half of our bikes and legs with layers of dust, and after 4 days or so it looked like our bikes had been dipped in wet flour.

We took a bit of the Katy Trail with us after we left

Finally-and although this isn’t the Katy Trail’s fault- I know that whenever we look back upon the trail we will always attach to it the memory of intense, scorching heat. A stupid amount of heat. Heat indexes that constantly topped 110 degrees. A level of heat that make Lebron, Bosh and Wade seem frigid in comparison. The number of analogies could go on forever. The heat forced you to find other things to preoccupy your mind while you rode, because if you only thought about the heat, it would drive you insane. On our last day on the trail, we had to ride through forests of cobwebs in the morning, and after about 20 minutes I noticed strands of cobwebs flying behind Andrew like a cape of silk. I seized this opportunity to give myself a game to play. I spent the next two hours or so trying to get the ends of the cobwebs flying behind Andrew to stick onto me; my bike, my jersey, my helmet, so that our two bikes were connected by cobwebs as we rode, almost like Andrew was pulling my bike along with the cobwebs. Is this gross? Weird? Disturbing? Probably, but it made the morning go by quicker, and kept me from dwelling on the wet, wet heat.

Standing outside of our night's stay in Augusta, MO

Yesterday, after a wonderful night staying in Augusta at Brian’s friend’s friend’s dad’s house (an odd connection, I know, but we’ll take it) we finally made it into St Louis. None of us had ever spent much time in the city, and so far we like it a lot. We biked through the campus at Washington University and a beautiful city park right next to it, and met Brian’s parents who provided us with hotels to stay at for two nights, and two of the best meals we’ve had so far on this trip. The amount of provision we’ve received this summer, whether it be from new friends or our loved ones, has truly stunned and humbled us all. We also spent last night at a place called the St Louis City Museum, which is essentially massive, warehouse sized jungle gym for kids and adults alike. I must say its the most fun I’ve ever had in a museum, and probably ever will.

Yes, that is an airplane modified into climbing apparatus outside the city museum

Did we mention the museum had a bar?

Maybe the best part about our arrival at St Louis is as Brian’s parent leave to go back to Chicago, they’ll be taking the despicable B.O.B trailers with them, as we’ve figured out a way to travel lighter and eliminate the need for them. Goodbye forever you vile, malevolent fiends! Haunt us no more with your demonic weight, and return to the abyss from which you came!

…that was perhaps too much, but we’re all happy about their departure.

Now, we will spend the remainder of our day off to relax, watch tv, nourish our legs, and hopefully catch a showing of Harry Potter 7 at a St Louis theater. Till next time, blog followers!

Amadeus

Sedalia, MO

America is hot. Really hot. I’m a reasonable man and it’s simply unreasonable how hot it is. Today we experienced something called “Ozone Warning: Orange”- whatever that means. But NapoleAhn and Sherlakamalasai already updated y’all on all that, so I’ll just say:

-We drink SO much Gatorade and Powerade…all the flavors are starting to blend together and become indistinguishable, but we have to- we simply sweat all day.

-After awhile, being in the sun for too long really starts deteriorating your brain and the things that come out of your mouth become less and less logical and more and more delirious. It’s absolutely necessary to break our day up into manageable sections. Waking up at 4am has helped a great deal.

– The heat is worse than the mountains. While climbing a hill you temporarily think about why you’re doing this, but with the sun, it’s a constant torment.

Missouri!

We hit Missouri a couple of days and have been taken care of immediately. In Merwin, MO we were disappointed to find that the town was really small and we had run out of fluids. However, Andy saw a woman walking in her yard, and before we knew it Jerry and Cathy Johnston had us relaxing in the shade of their backyard with a ton of ice cold water, fruit, crackers, and warm conversation.

The Johnstons: Angels in Merwin

In Adrian, Pastor Chris Snyder from First United Methodist Church went out of his way to house us in their church despite the fact that they had VBS running that night. Jackie, the lady directing the activities, convinced Andy, Brian, and Chris to play a song to close the night for the kids and they threw together a great version of “How Deep the Father’s Love”. And then, Chris called his friend, Pastor Jim Downing, at Sedalia’s First United Methodist Church and we got a place to stay here as well. Truly amazing hospitality.

Playing at First Methodist in Adrian, MO

We’ve been trailblazing off the TransAm Trail ever since Alexander, KS and today we finally got onto the highly anticipated Katy Trail (a rail trail) that goes from Clinton, MO to just outside St. Louis, where we are looking forward to meeting Brian’s parents and then on Sunday, we’ll be in Mt. Vernon, IL where we plan on seeing Andy’s mom and maybe Chris’ sister. Katy Trail is mostly tight gravel and it’s been nice to have the tree coverage and lack of cars.

Ridin' the Katy Trail

We’ve been incredibly taken care of and are grateful for all the people who have reached out and helped us.

So few thoughts go through my mind while I ride, yet at the same time I feel like there’s much to say. I think it’ll take time for everything to set in and for us to process this experience. I’ve seen growth in the guys and transformation happening, too. But those reflections will have to come out another day.

I’m so very tired.

Much Love,

Chachi

Garnett, KS

Folks,

I’m going to be straight up honest with you right now. Kansas is not great. Even some of the locals agree with me there. The few people we’ve met so far have been stellar and we’ve gotten housing along the way within churches every night which has been wonderful but Kansas is just demoralizing. Let me give you all a quick recap.

At some point along the way after Eads we made a group decision to get off the trusty TransAm trails provided by the Adventure Cycling Association and instead pave our own way towards the Katy Trail which will take us directly into St. Louis. We’ve made great progress blowing through Kansas as we have averaged at least 90 miles a day for the past 7 days. We are pretty much machines. We’ve still been waking up at 4AM every morning in order to beat the heat and it’s definitely paid off. A few times we’ve reached our final destination for the day by noon which has kept us out of the scalding sun. It also gives us a lot of time to loiter…per usual.

We see some amazing sunrises

People have always said Kansas is flat and perhaps it’s because I’ve held this belief that I get unnecessarily angry every time a small hill appears. Up until this point Kansas has been everything we’ve expected. Long stretches of flats with headwinds in our faces but we’ve done a great job of mentally preparing ourselves and working as a team to break wind and draft off one another. Plus, I’m usually listening to music or the voice of Ira Glass of This American Life a lot so that helps me get my mind off the barren nothingness (*Note: Team Wolfspank would not be opposed to having TAL cover a story of us. We’re pretty baller). However, today was brutal and really threw us for a loop…

From the get-go we knew today was going to be hard. Yesterday, Casey and Andrew poured over a weird combination of topographical maps, Google Maps and Mapmyrun.com (what??) in order to figure out directions through obscure county back-roads. So we did our normal thing. We woke up at 4AM, ate frosted flakes with chocolate milk (not advisable) and got rolling- expecting to beat the sun’s full intensity. Within 5 miles out of town the pavement ended and we found ourselves swimming through gravel roads. You can only go so fast trying to bike through gravel without falling so naturally our average speed dropped a bit. That’s alright though, we could still get some decent mileage in before the sun really takes effect, right? Then the flats started coming in. First my back tire blew out from a pinch as a result of the gravel. After catching up with the rest of the crew ahead of me, I changed my tube. “Okay,” I thought to myself, “We have 3 tubes left, we should be fine.” Then within a matter of minutes, things fell apart. Andy’s tire caught a thorn. 2 tubes left. While in the process of changing Andy’s tire, Andrew decided to pump his tire up a little bit as well. Somehow, Andrew managed to break the tire valve in half while pumping it up and just like that we had 1 tube left. By this point, the sun’s heat had started to take full effect and we still had 15 miles of slow moving gravel roads left before we could find paved roads. We made the wise decision to change our route from our original plan in order to get off the county back-roads and instead take normal paved roads at the consequence of adding more mileage to our day. Even the B.O.B had a rough day and ended up catching a thorn which resulted in a flat. Yikes. The other thing to note is that the heat here is stifling. By noon the temperatures are usually 100+ degrees with intense humidity. I’m practically chugging water and Gatorade constantly and I’m usually drenched in sweat and salt. And it’s only 6 in the morning.

So early

If anyone tells you Kansas is flat, they are lying to you or have never been in Kansas. Our entire 90 miles today consisted of huge rolling hills. I used to think the imagery of rolling hills sounded pleasant but when you’re on a bike, rolling hills are the worst. The thing with hills is that the downhill part passes by so quickly while the uphill part takes so much time and work. It eventually just seems like you’re going uphill all the time. Okay, I’m going to stop complaining now.

Group flat tire changing session

The reality for me is, these hard enduring moments are the things I’m going to remember long after this trip is over. And it’s not the fact that it was hard that will make me remember it, but rather, it is the unique motivation within that hard moment that will make it clear in my mind. I had a brief conversation with my mother a while back ago and she said something that’s stuck with me. She called me to see how I was doing and wondering if I had any aches or pains and of course I told her that I did. Then she told me that she was struggling as well with things back at home which saddened me but she said something interesting. “We’re both struggling,” she said, “but when I hear that you’re conquering your struggles on the road, it gives me strength to conquer my struggles as well.” I thought a lot about all our parents back at home and how our struggles are not just our own but are shared by our friends and family as well. I’m sure when parents hear that their children are in pain, it hurts them just as much as it hurts the child. But similarly, our successes are not just our own but also the combined successes of all who have supported and cared for us. So recently, I’ve thought a lot about all the people out there who can’t be on this trip. We’ve come across so many strangers who have said some variation of this phrase, “I wish I had done a trip like yours back when I was your age.” Well, I’m hoping that our trip, our blog and our stories can be a diving board for others to pursue whatever dreams they have and you can bet that all of you are part of my motivation to continue on and push forward.

We’ve got so many people to thank including all the churches that have sheltered us including the First Presbyterian Church in Cottonwood Falls, the First United Methodist Church in Leoti and the First Baptist Church in Ness City.

Random counts so far:
-500 waves (our wave count has gone down simply based on the few number of people that pass us)
-7 cat calls
-20 inner tubes
-2 new gloves
-4 new butt rashes

Thank you all for all your support and prayers. We’re really excited to get to St. Louis and finally see some family members! We love you all!

-NapoleAhn

Eads, Colorado: Halfway

Hey everyone- a lot has developed since the last I brought you up to speed. The biggest change being that we have finally stopped going north, stopped going south, and with excitement started heading due east. That also means our terrain has drastically changed as with the scenery. We are through climbing and descending through the Rockies, and we have entered the flat lands. There’s not a whole lot to see in these parts, but our terrain has allowed us to really pick up the pace. It also means that it’s significantly hotter.

Before I dive into more of what’s to come there are a number of people and places that have come and gone and helped us get to where we are now. Montana was really good to us. We saw gourgeous country and were greeted by so many gracious and hospitable people. Wyoming greeted us with Yellowstone National Park and with weather we had been hoping to stave off indefinitely. As soon as we left Yellowstone, Wyoming became the windfarm of the United States. I don’t think we have ever worked that hard to cross that simple of terrain. Wyoming’s wind was against us, but we were still able to make some new friends along the way.

In Jeffrey City, Wyoming we hooked up with Tyler, who we gave an honorary Team Wolfspank nickname – Blaise. Tyler became our fifth member while Andrew was still on his way to meeting back up with us. Tyler continued to ride with us and provided good company until we arrived in Walden, Colorado.

In Saratoga, Wyoming we came across Cal. Cal was incredibly generous and incredibly friendly. He instantly became someone we would never forget on this trip. Cal opened his home to us, not only giving us a place to stay, but provided us with a hot dinner, some micro-brews, and breakfast burritos. He’s an adventurer at heart and certainly impressioned us with some of that excitement.

Grand-dad Fittz, Jim, at the last minute offered us another much needed break in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. He picked us and all of our gear up from Walden and drove us all the way so we could avoid the climb over Rabbit Ears Pass. In Steamboat (now a location on my favorite places to visit list) we took time to catch a flick, celebrate Chris’s twenty-fourth birthday (I cooked a huge gourmet dinner), and we even made it to a beautiful hot spring (Strawberry Hot Springs) tucked away in the mountains there. Jim closed out our trip by driving us all the way to Silverthorne, Colorado. That gave us a simple short ride down a paved bike path to Breckenridge.

Strawberry Hot Springs

In Breckenridge we met up with more of Casey’s reletives at the brewery in town. We also met Charlie and Kristen. Chris had gone out to gather us some housing for the evening since there is no camping in Breck. He was more than succesful. Charlie and Kristen are locals to Breckenridge and opened their home to us with little hesitation if at all. We were given showers, drinks, and a place to crash and watch what was left of the Tour De France. It turned out that Charlie and Kristen are really into cycling, and after talking with us for a while the night before convinced themselves that they were going to summit Hoosier Pass with us the next morning. Charlie went a couple extra steps of kindness by taking us out for breakfast at Daylight Donuts (our BOBs are now rocking their bumper stickers) before we headed out. He then went as far as to drag up one of the BOB trailers for us. I’ll definitely be visiting Charlie and Kristen again this year come winter for my annual snowboarding trip to Colorado. I have to add that it was really nice to finally be somewhere familiar.

Hoosier Pass with Charlie and Kristen

This brings me to the first of a few major milestones. Our ride out of Breckenridge was momentous for a couple of reasons. First it meant we were climbing Hoosier Pass, the highest mountian pass on the Trans-American bike route at 11,500 feet. The sign at the top of Hoosier was pretty significant on its own because it reassured us it would be the last time we would cross the great continental divide. Secondly it was also the first time the team would venture to complete a “century” (100 mile ride). We succeeded in both of those things, of course, and we celebrated by making it to church on time! Making it to the evening service at Canon City Baptist was a double victory for us. We finally made it to church, and we were invited to spend our night in the airconditioned building. Our celebration dinner, to follow, was a trip to our first run-in with Sonic Drive In. You really can’t have too much cherry limeade and tater-tots.

Our ride out of Canon City was the first collision with the desert heat of Eastern-Colorado. It was… very, very hot. The heat is driving us to set our alarm clocks earlier and earlier in hopes that we might cover all or a majority of our distance before the sun bakes us dry. So comes Pueblo. Pueblo marks the second major checkpoint on our agenda. It means that we get to finally head East and start covering some distance across the country. It also coincidentally means we’ve biked over 2,000 miles. To celebrate we dined at the fine establishment of Chipotle Mexican Grill, and to escape the heat we caught a matinee showing of Captain America. It was a pretty awesome day to follow our first century and last major mountian pass. (Note: When we got to Pueblo, Andrew and Chris revealed to us that Uncle Kelly [Casey’s uncle who’s cabin on Flathead Lake we stayed at for Fourth of July weekend] had given us $100 to celebrate our Pueblo milestone, so Chipotle and Captain America were on him. Thanks Uncle Kelly!)

Unfortunately we had to go and ruin the mood by riding another 20 miles and setting up camp in Boone. Boone, for any future riders of the Trans-Am, is absolutely not your best option for camp. If you can avoid it, do exactly that. This hundred person town sits on a busy BNSF track. The city park that you are allowed to setup camp in is across the street from this track, and for some insane reason that track only gets used at night, all night long. The rumble of the passing train is rather loud and seems incessant. The worst part however is the train horn. I understood quite clearly why no one lives in Boone. If train conductors purposely blew the whistle of their engine for as long as it took them to pass through the town I lived in I wouldn’t be living their for much time at all. So, none of slept and we had a long hot 90 mile ride to Eads.

The heat of the plains states may be the worst thing we have come up against so far. Mountains were pretty tough to start out, but they were definitely something to set your eyes upon. Distance can be broken into chunks. Head-winds are disheartening, but they just force you to try harder. This heat we have come up against can literally stop us from riding. Water could be in short supply and dehydration is definitely a reality. We are waking up now at 3:30am in attempts to beat the heat or at least a majority of it.

We’ve done it though. We have come to the end of Colorado, and are Eastward bound. Please keep us in your prayers as we battle and ride against the heat and monotony of the plains. Also a thank you to everyone who has been keeping up on the blog. The team and I really appreciate and enjoy reading them. It reassures us that people are supporting us through this excursion.

Kansas!

Steamboat Springs CO and the Reunion

Hey All,

Huckleberry again.

While we were relaxing at the lake house in Montana we had a chance to sit down as a team and talk about how the trip had been up to that point and more importantly what we wanted the trip to look like from that point on. One of the major things that we decided was that we wanted to meet more people then we had up to that point. Whether or not our approach to the trip changed is debatable, however the lake house marked a definitive turning point in our trip. Ever since we’ve hit the road after the lake house we’ve met so many amazing people both on the road and off.

At Jefferson City we met a bunch of people, including Tyler and Carlos. Tyler was heading east on the TransAm which was cool for us to find out. Up until Jefferson City we thought that we were the last of the cyclists that were east coast bound for this summer. Carlos is riding the great divide trail south. It was great talking to him about his ride so far. The great divide trail is a mountain bike trail that goes from the northern end of the U.S. to the southern end, along the continental divide.  Coincidentally Carlos’s nephew is Roberto, who I know from the University of Maryland!

Casey and Carlos

After Rawlins we took a short day and headed to Sarrattoga WY. Once we got there we did the usual drill of loitering in a gas station for a while. Once we were sufficiently rested from the ride we started looking for a place to stay, there was a guy on warmshowers.com whose house were hoping to stay at but we couldn’t get a hold of him. Furthermore, the address he had listed on the website didn’t exist. So, with a threatening storm approaching, we decided to knock on the door of the nicest looking house around, and we hit the Jackpot. We met Cal who lived there, and allowed us to sleep in his house. Cal was great to talk to, he had been an avid kayaker and outdoor enthusiast so he knew what we were about. He bought us drinks and made us dinner and breakfast the next morning!

The Team and Cal

The next day we had a fairly long ride(70 miles+headwinds) to Walden. During the ride we finally crossed into Colorado. A welcome relief to the empty and windy Wyoming. We tented in the Walden city park and the next day my Granddad(Jim) picked us up and took us to Steamboat Springs, for a few days off. At that point we parted ways with Tyler who had been traveling with us since Jefferson City. It was sweet traveling with Tyler, and I think it showed one of the really cool features of traveling on the TransAm which is its social nature. When you travel on the TransAm you become inherently apart of a community of other bikers that are traveling on the same trail and the same fashion. That commonality(combined with the loneliness of bike touring) provides a solid stepping stone that has allowed us to get to know tons of different people from very different walks of life.

The Team Enters Colorado

The Team and Tyler at Walden

Steamboat Springs has been fantastic and I’m so glad that I have had the opportunity to spend time with my Granddad. We spent our first day here celebrating Chris’ birthday. Brian cooked a fantastic meal for all of us. Today we took it pretty slow, we saw a movie, went on a short hike and then topped everything off with the amazing strawberry hot springs.

Celebrating Chris Turning 24

The Team(Plus Chester) in Front of Fish Creek Falls

As always I love this lifestyle, I feel like I could spend years living like this. I have been blessed to find a hobby that I so extremely enjoy. However, at the same time I’m looking forward to seeing everyone back home and getting back into the swing of school.

Hugs and Kisses

Huckleberry(Casey)

Rawlins WY

Amadeus here.

I’m here to tell you all about what may be perhaps the worst night of our trip to date. At least for me.

It all started when the still ChaChi-less Team Wolfspank biked to a very small town named Jeffery City, Wyoming for the day. Yellowstone and the Tetons were behind us, and it was our first day of riding through Wyoming’s southern expanse of nothingness. Cattle grounds as far as the eye can see, and headwinds that make even downhills a grueling experience. Jeffery City used to be a booming uranium mining town, but after the mine closed the town was reduced from 5,000 to about 50 people. It’s a literal ghost town. 80% of the buildings are boarded up, and only a bar was open, where we spent most of our time.

As we made our way to our tent for the night, I looked to the horizon and saw lightning in the distance, with a wind blowing it our way. It seemed far off, and I hoped the storm would dissipate before it reached Jeffery City.

It didn’t.

At about 2:30 in the morning the wind shifted, the system passed over us, and the rain began. And then the wind began. And then the horror began. At first the tent just started flapping back and forth with the wind, and while Chris still slept soundly, one of the tent poles on my side (which already was broken) started collapsing inwards, and the only way to keep it from caving in was for me to hold the collapsing pole up until the storm winds abated.

So there I was, holding a pole up with one hand, the winds pushing against the tent like a person perpetually falling onto the canvas, and Chris was still sleeping soundly. Then the other pole (which was also broken) fell in as well. I had to hold that one up with my foot. It was like playing Twister, but with much more dire consequences. After about an hour of holding our collapsing tent upwards, Chris woke up, I explained to him the situation, and instead of showing sympathy or worry, he just started cracking up, laughing for a full minute, and rolled back over to go to bed. At which point I just let the tent collapse, out of hope, and the entire right side enveloped me.

Another hour passed of getting used to raindrops assaulting my head from the canvas, and finally the storm passed. But not before our broken poles tore through the rainfly and got chris soaked in his sleeping bag. Sweet revenge! I gratefully got about 90 minutes of sleep before the sun came up and it was time for us to start another leg of our journey.

It was a cheerful morning for all.

After another eventless and horribly windy 66 miles, we arrived at Rawlins, WY. A decent sized town, one of the few in Wyoming where the population is higher than the elevation, but the event was made sizeably more momentous because waiting for us at the TA gas station was Andrew! It was a glorious reunion indeed.

Now, with our team back together, we need to procure a new tent and head off towards Colorado, and hopefully greener pastures. Rocky Mountains, here we come!

Grand Prismatic Spring in YellowstoneThe beautiful Tetons