DAY 3 - GOODBYE PATRICK

We woke up at the Palouse Falls campsite with an amazing view. The 2 mile climb out of the campground woke up our legs and we powered through a couple hours of riding. We crossed an awesome bridge before saying goodbye to our Washington host Patrick Burns as he headed to Spokane via 127. Thanks for joining us, Patrick! We miss you already. 

Next, we stopped at a local grocery store for lunch, and brought it to the town park. We thought we might not be getting enough vitamin D, so shirts came off. 

Next, we made it to our second state: Idaho! So nice to have a state completed. Washington was not easy, but we are expecting the worst from the Rockies, yet to come. 

10 minutes after stopping at a bike shop and briefly tuning up our bikes, Justin's rear tube spontaneously exploded. We fixed it pretty fast and back on the road. We passed through beautiful farm fields; the most impressive being bright yellow fields of canola. At the end if the day, we hit a long steady incline of over 15 miles. Totally brutal! Creeping along at about 6 mph, we finally rolled into Woody's in Craigmont, 8 miles further than our goal. There, we stuffed our face with BBQ and met an incredibly kind man, Jesse. He knew the area very well and gave us a ton of advice. He even let us crash in an old pizzeria he bought which remains vacant. It was the best night of sleep so far. That's Justin already passed out on the floor. 

DAY 2 - FAST AND FLAT

We made an executive decision that given the long first day and the stop for flat tire, we would try to eke out a little extra sleep our first night and wake up a little later for our start on day two. We headed out from a little roadside coffee shop after taking care of a ton of breakfast sandwiches. Our bikes looked pretty cool stacked inside the door:

From there, we got straight on a highway that went straight as an arrow out of town heading into the hills to the east. After climbing a little, we reached a ridge with some majestic wind farms. These things are so cool to ride by (though it gets a little distracting to keep watching them. Those things move fast! Also, neat to see that the same winds that can either be a huge pain or a terrific help to us as cyclists can also make energy. I'm confused how people can be so vehemently opposed to them.

At the top of this ridge, the road started sloping down slowly but the tailwind hit us at the same time. No joke, coolest ten miles I've ever ridden. It was like skiing down a mountain - we coasted for ten straight miles without a SINGLE car on the road through hills with giant turbines on them. (Mom and dad warning: don't read the rest of this paragraph, and I swear we're responsible and safe) Also, a new top speed for me (ever!) of 44mph. Oops? We didn't break the speed limit, though, so no worries.

After the ten wondrous miles of downhill we got to crossing for the Columbia River, which we had to brave on I-90. Very pulse-raising, but we got across safely. The rest of the day was spent mainly on highway 26, with a stop for a mountain of fresh fruit grown right by the side of the highway we were riding along!

Lunch stop was a walmart parking lot (keepin it classy on this trip) where we got asked for advice on marathon-running by a staffperson, and then we headed out from Othello, WA, on the small Cunningham Road which we took for 35 miles. Straight, with a tailwind, and about 6 cars for the entirety. Pretty darn lucky, I'd say.

Probably the best ending to our day: Don's sister Diane called around to food options in the area where we planned to stay for the night (Starbuck, WA) and found the owner of a bar/grill who offered to come get us at our campsite so that we wouldn't starve in the food desert around Palouse Falls State Park, where we're sleeping.

So Dan, the owner of the ONLY restaurant open in Starbuck tonight, picked us up in his truck and gave us a ride to the Rawhide Grill. We met his wife and a couple other people, played some pool, and relaxed after a long day of 140 miles. Tasty fried chicken, cheap beer, and even a mini convenience store where we picked up supplies for s'mores and breakfast. If there's a Yelp site for this restaurant, they deserve a hundred stars (I'll work on that when I get back to Boston). They just started a couple years ago, but they clearly know a thing or two about hospitality. Dan, if you're reading this, you absolutely made our day. Thanks again.

Alright, time for some stargazing out here for me - these are amazing!

DAY 1 - THE START

Late update, we know, but we made it through our first day leaving Seattle!

After a late start in the morning, we rode from Patrick's to Pike Place Market for some Seattle-scenic photos and then down to the water, where we dipped our rear wheels in the salty west coast water (in anticipation of getting some Atlantic water on them when we reach Boston).

Though we expected a tough time heading out of Seattle on busy roads after that, it turns out that people in Seattle bike a lot, so the roads were full of courteous drivers and lots of other cyclists! Patrick, our sherpa for the way out of Seattle, took us and we headed towards the mountains.

Somewhere around mile 10, we started riding in the vicinity of another rider. We dubbed him "Owl" because he was so wise. Turned out he gave us directions and then we ended up riding with him for a long time- almost all the way to our lunch stop. He warned us about sharp turns ahead of time, busy roads, and was an all around superstar.

Thanks, Owl, for everything. You were our spirit animal for Day 1, definitely.

The rest of day 1 was not quite as awesome. After we left Owl, we had a great lunch stop in North Bend. Twede's Diner (also called twin peaks diner, apparently) have us some awesome endless fries and other tasty things, along with pretty scenery:

Post-lunch, we hit some scattered downpours and intermittent sunshine. After north bend Dave got the first flat tire of the trip, but luckily we were close to the bike shop back in north bend, so we could just head back to switch his tube and tire. Trying to get through the Cle Elum pass in the pouring rain was tough. Mostly because there is no other way to do it than taking I-90, which we emphatically do not recommend. An interstate with fast cars in the rain and avalanche closures is not a great place for cyclists. 

Biking after the pass to our campsite in Ellensburg was tough with some windy spots, but it was worth it for our last fifteen miles into camp with some terrific gentle downhills along a deserted smooth road that went alongside a river in a canyon. All in all, an okay afternoon with some hiccups that were good to get out of the way early in the trip.

Dinner at the only restaurant in Ellensburg (population ~2700) because apparently everything closes before 9pm, and then we fell into our sleeping bags the minute we got back.

THE START

The three of us (and Patrick Burns) starting out in downtown Seattle. Patrick housed us the first night and will be joining us for the first 2 days until he heads back to Seattle for work. 

GETTING AERO

It's that time again, time to get aero. As we're about the start the journey, we all took the opportunity to get rid of some hair. We need all the help we can get, so why not?

OLD FASHIONED MAPS

We are going to be using Google Maps on our iPhones to navigate our way most of the time. However, there will be many places our cell reception is nonexistent - especially when we go black (AKA Airplane mode) in Canada. Rather than taking hardcopies which are bulky and could easily get destroyed, we decided to draw out the route on road maps and take pictures of the course. These pictures are uploaded to our phones, so now the only problem is battery life. . .

If you want to see our anticipated route up close, or happen to know of things to do or people to see near where we are going, let us know. Here are the MAPS.

SHAKEDOWN

I remember calling our first loaded ride a shakedown when doing bike tours about a decade ago. Our first (and only) weighted ride is under our belt. The seat post racks are more secure than they look, and the gear that sits on it weighs only about 10lbs. It's a pretty aero setup, as well. Much better than bulky, heavy panniers.

B2VT

The B2VT (Battlefield to Vermont, which was rebranded from the great B2B, Brewery to Brewery ride) was our last long training ride! 132 miles wasn't easy, but we managed to finish pretty quickly - a ride time of a little over 7.5 hours.

Don beat Dave in the King of the Hill (a race up the biggest uphill) with a time of 21:15 minutes. Dave finished it 29 seconds after Don.

Dave is happy about men in spandex. Don is happy about food.

ROUTE PLANNING

With a little over two weeks before our departure, we convened for a much needed meeting.  We were successful in finalizing our route with the knowledge that it will change to some degree while we are on the road.  We decided to cross the Rockies via the Lolo Pass (Lewis and Clark in reverse) and then continue south to Yellowstone, Devil's Tower, Mount Rushmore, and into the Badlands.  There appears to be a magical Route 14 which runs along our desired path nearly 1000 miles, across the states of South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.  We’ve been concerned about navigation in areas without cell service, so we took photographs of the route to store on our phones (see photos).

We still are not sure how we will cross into Ontario, Canada from Michigan as bikes aren't allowed on the bridge at Sarnia, but Dave, who is from Grand Rapids, MI, assured us that a family member could meet us and take us across in a pick-up with our bikes in the back.  We plan to cross into NY at Niagara Falls then take one of the NY State bike routes (#5) along the Erie Canal, departing from it in Schenectady to head to Williamstown.  Williamstown is the only location that we have a scheduled stop.  On Thursday July 24, we have third row tickets to see Chris Pine in Fool for Love at the Williamstown Theatre Festival.  We’ll be 180 miles from the finish which gives us two days to get to Boston, dip our front wheels in the Atlantic near Castle Island, and get ready for our welcome home party at 6 PM Saturday July 26th.

JERSEYS

Sometimes on a rainy day in Boston, it's tough to get motivated to go outside and get on the bike to ride on the potentially treacherous streets of the city when your bed is completely dry and warm. But since biking across the country doesn't allow for a day off just because of some pesky rain, there's a point at which we've got to get used to conquering our dislike of being uncomfortable in favor of the end reward. On our trip, the reward is that we get 120 miles farther in a day instead of sitting in our tent and waiting out the rain and then having to make up that distance later. While we're still in Boston, that ultimate reward is harder to see - a warm bed is quite tangible compared to those extra muscle fibers added to our legs from a morning ride in the rain.

But on these rainy days where it sucks to get on the bike, there are still some things to get excited about as we prepare to embark on this crazy trip (three weeks and one day before we fly out!). For one, our custom jerseys. These things were designed just for us by Don's sister, who has a secret calling as a sportswear designer. Aren't these things sweet? (Thanks, Gail!)

Though they won't arrive until the day before we leave for our trip, it's still pretty exciting to see what we'll be wearing out there on the road for July. And, in case any of you guys happen to be out there somewhere on a hot day in July, hopefully you can spot us by recognizing these jerseys!