arkansas river... riding through big horn sheep? canyon
taking a break for an amazing photoraph
sun setting!
after a wonderful day of white water rafting...
sun setting!
after a wonderful day of white water rafting...
Friday, July 31, 2009
more photographs
more pics from rocky mountain national park
more RMNP (12000+ ft)
on way down back to boulder.. we picked up a hippie hitcher who was burnt out like the kansas girl (he happened to be from kansas as well). gave him a ride down the mountain, he couldn't hold a thought if his life depended on it
the church we stayed at..... sweet place
lunch at a gas station
Random Photos
Here are some pictures from boulder to salida. we are currently at 7000+ ft above sea level. Today cole's cousin levi took us white water rafting, for 10 dollars we rafted for about 6 hours, had lunch. not just any lunch, chips and amazing salsa, veggies with dip, wraps with all kinds of goodness and my favorite, fresh cantelope.. i should have taken a photograph with my phone..
anyways, there are not any pics from the rafting trip for obvious reasons, when i get home i'll post some pics that i took with my camera phone (which was placed in a waterproof phone bag)
pics are from boulder at matts place, at rocky mountain national park, then riding through big horn sheep canyon..
enjoy
my horrible horrible facial hair.. i was going to leave it to see how gross it would get but couldn't handle it and had to shave
on our way up and up and up
at the top.. pretty aye?
anyways, there are not any pics from the rafting trip for obvious reasons, when i get home i'll post some pics that i took with my camera phone (which was placed in a waterproof phone bag)
pics are from boulder at matts place, at rocky mountain national park, then riding through big horn sheep canyon..
enjoy
first night in boulder.. matt makes some bomb lasagna
estes park CO, right before rocky mountain national park
my horrible horrible facial hair.. i was going to leave it to see how gross it would get but couldn't handle it and had to shave
on our way up and up and up
at the top.. pretty aye?
SALIDA, CO
Longest day today, riding through 3 passes in the rockies.. but lets talk about yesterday..
We leave boulder, late start 9am or so.. we're moving slow, the longer we ride, the colder it gets, we climb to over 7300ft and eventually it's so cold we have to stop. we are at monument at a grocery store to eat, it's freezing so i'm sitting inside. we decide that we'll have to bite the nail and get a hotel room.. i decide that it's a good idea to ask strangers to house us. i asked this one lady (cougar) with 3 kids and she said "yeah, let me see what the kids think" she comes out and says her kids said yes, but her bf said no.. oh well, can't say we didn't see that coming..
we're about to leave and this lady comes out (in her late 50's) and smiles at me saying "it's cold out isn't it" i respond, "yeah, it's freezing". we pack up and leave for the hotel and as i'm leaving i say to chad "wait, i'm going to ask that lady". i walk up to her, say hi and ask and she says "no, i'm sorry, i don't know you guys".. i tell her it's no big deal, only 1 person, a pastor has invited us inside his house. so we continue to the hotel and out of nowhere she pulls up next to me and says that her pastor said we can stay at her church.. SHIZAM... this church was awesome.. full kitchen, food, nice bathrooms, big screen tv.. we watched the polar express, made pasta, had pink lemonade.. it was fantastic.
today, was cold... that's about it. it rained on us, that sucked.. we rode a lot, up 3 major passes. i am tired, this is all you get for now.. photographs tomorrow.. oh yeah.. maybe no photos tomorrow.. we are staying with cole's cousin levi, who is a river guide and we are going WHITE WATER RAFTING TOMORROW.... life is good.
We leave boulder, late start 9am or so.. we're moving slow, the longer we ride, the colder it gets, we climb to over 7300ft and eventually it's so cold we have to stop. we are at monument at a grocery store to eat, it's freezing so i'm sitting inside. we decide that we'll have to bite the nail and get a hotel room.. i decide that it's a good idea to ask strangers to house us. i asked this one lady (cougar) with 3 kids and she said "yeah, let me see what the kids think" she comes out and says her kids said yes, but her bf said no.. oh well, can't say we didn't see that coming..
we're about to leave and this lady comes out (in her late 50's) and smiles at me saying "it's cold out isn't it" i respond, "yeah, it's freezing". we pack up and leave for the hotel and as i'm leaving i say to chad "wait, i'm going to ask that lady". i walk up to her, say hi and ask and she says "no, i'm sorry, i don't know you guys".. i tell her it's no big deal, only 1 person, a pastor has invited us inside his house. so we continue to the hotel and out of nowhere she pulls up next to me and says that her pastor said we can stay at her church.. SHIZAM... this church was awesome.. full kitchen, food, nice bathrooms, big screen tv.. we watched the polar express, made pasta, had pink lemonade.. it was fantastic.
today, was cold... that's about it. it rained on us, that sucked.. we rode a lot, up 3 major passes. i am tired, this is all you get for now.. photographs tomorrow.. oh yeah.. maybe no photos tomorrow.. we are staying with cole's cousin levi, who is a river guide and we are going WHITE WATER RAFTING TOMORROW.... life is good.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
misunderstanding
this is john's sister blogging for john...apparently there was a miscommunication and john is no longer banned from all R.E.I.'s, nor was he ever terminated, as he was told by his manager, Nancy.
i should write embarrassing stuff about john since i now have his password, but i won't go there =)
PG-13
One last note before I leave.. this blog is going to be a lot more PG-13 from this point on.. my father called me and told me that it's probably not the best idea to be telling stories from freshman year, especially with family and potentially younger kids reading this. Mind you, he's cracking up while telling me this.. but it's probably a good idea, i'll curb my tongue a little bit, for the kids.. not the adults.. you folks all laugh inside, but tell me it's bad.. ie; dad.. ha ha
Last blog for a while
So we've been busy in boulder and i haven't updated over the past 24 or so hours.. Lets just say it has been interesting, lots of highs and lows.
It's been great to see luther and matt again. we all went out for margaritas on monday night, i ended up eating way too much food (my plate and part of dans) and drinking way too much margaritis (mine and part of dans).. the sheer volume of food and liquid in my stomach wanted to make my explode.. needless to say i got back and passed out before 10:30pm.
the next day dan and matt both had to work so we woke up early and and breakfast at luciles a creole type breakfast that was literally inside of a house, neat setup. food was pretty delish. we walked around the pearl street area and felt like uber tourists....
from there we went to rocky mountain national park, gorgeous place. a must visit for all, one suggestion, bring a jacket, it gets freezing up there, even in the summer. if i wasn't leaving soon i would post some pictures up.
from there the night gets interesting. we go to REI boulder to pick up our bikes because they call us and say they are done with them.
i go in and have to return a camelbak that was purchased the day before because it was a lot smaller than i thought. the manager of the store calls me over and tells me (in front of a bunch of other customers) that i have been banned from all rei because i have commited fraud against them. at this point my jaw is on the floor and i am thinking if it was some kind of sick joke.
long story short: monday we go to rei to bring our bikes in for a warantee tuneup. i go inactive (due to cycling across country) at rei and was told my employee discount would not work. well monday i'm in there making a few exchanges on items that just broke/died on me during the trip no big deal everything goes smoothly as normal (though i did feel like "that" customer while making the exchanges), i apologized to the CS guy for making him tag so much stuff, he's cool, doesn't care. then i needed sunblock so i grab one, i'm wondering if i went inactive (wondering out loud mind you at CS) and say well try my employee discount, if i'm inactive it probably won't work. well, what do you know.. my employee discount works, i'm thinking i must not have been made inactive if it works (come to think of it now.. i should have not used it as i should have known i was inactive, therefore none of this would have happened, but c'mon, i'm a sucker for deals and honestly felt that i was not made inactive if my discount still worked).. well since my employee discount worked i was now able to afford a few things i couldn't so i made a few more purchases (said camelbak earlier and a few things to keep cool in the AZ heat).
well apparently REI claims that i have committed fraud because i "stole" from there. the stealing part comes when i used my employee discount. the boulder manager tells me he has called the boston manager who said i was terminated before the trip, which is an obvious surprise to me. last time i checked i left for vacation and was put inactive, if i was "terminated" i was not made aware at all, not even a courtesy call. that i'll have to find out today when i call nancy to find out what really happened.
but the true question is how this all happened. it actually all happened because i offended the bike tech in the bike shop, who decided to check on a few things. it definitely didn't happen on monday since everyone was around and said i didn't say anything to her, plus everything felt normal. tuesday i spoke with her once, she called about my bottom bracket, i asked a few questions and told her to do what she had suggested, i requested to keep my old bottom bracket since it still worked according to her. everytime i spoke to her someone was by my side and everyone claims the conversation was completely normal. so i don't know... kind of miscommunication of some sort.
anyways, that was a slight sour point in boulder, everything was going great until that. hopefully when i talk to nancy later today we can clear a few things. i had no intentions of "stealing" from rei, i just simply thought that if i was inactive my employee discount would not have worked. in hindsight i probably shouldn't have done it, but hey when i'm talking out loud and saying "i wonder if i'm inactive, i guess i'll try my emp. number and find out" and the guy at CS punches my number in like it's no big deal and then allows me to use the discount you can see how it would be difficult for me to think that i was doing something wrong to REI.
but hey, hopefully it will be clear that this was a misunderstanding, if not i'm banned from REI's for one year.
the funniest part of the night was when they tried to not give cole his warantee tuneup.. he busted out sally jewel and the managers almost shat themselves, they promptly give him the warantee tuneup (and chads as well).
but hey, today the sun rises again and after i talk to nancy this will be over and done with. we have 1300ish more miles to ride, we leave for new mexico today!!! hopefully we'll find people nice enough to invite us inside and allow me to blog here and there.. if not.. i'll talk to everyone when i get to sunny san diego!!!
It's been great to see luther and matt again. we all went out for margaritas on monday night, i ended up eating way too much food (my plate and part of dans) and drinking way too much margaritis (mine and part of dans).. the sheer volume of food and liquid in my stomach wanted to make my explode.. needless to say i got back and passed out before 10:30pm.
the next day dan and matt both had to work so we woke up early and and breakfast at luciles a creole type breakfast that was literally inside of a house, neat setup. food was pretty delish. we walked around the pearl street area and felt like uber tourists....
from there we went to rocky mountain national park, gorgeous place. a must visit for all, one suggestion, bring a jacket, it gets freezing up there, even in the summer. if i wasn't leaving soon i would post some pictures up.
from there the night gets interesting. we go to REI boulder to pick up our bikes because they call us and say they are done with them.
i go in and have to return a camelbak that was purchased the day before because it was a lot smaller than i thought. the manager of the store calls me over and tells me (in front of a bunch of other customers) that i have been banned from all rei because i have commited fraud against them. at this point my jaw is on the floor and i am thinking if it was some kind of sick joke.
long story short: monday we go to rei to bring our bikes in for a warantee tuneup. i go inactive (due to cycling across country) at rei and was told my employee discount would not work. well monday i'm in there making a few exchanges on items that just broke/died on me during the trip no big deal everything goes smoothly as normal (though i did feel like "that" customer while making the exchanges), i apologized to the CS guy for making him tag so much stuff, he's cool, doesn't care. then i needed sunblock so i grab one, i'm wondering if i went inactive (wondering out loud mind you at CS) and say well try my employee discount, if i'm inactive it probably won't work. well, what do you know.. my employee discount works, i'm thinking i must not have been made inactive if it works (come to think of it now.. i should have not used it as i should have known i was inactive, therefore none of this would have happened, but c'mon, i'm a sucker for deals and honestly felt that i was not made inactive if my discount still worked).. well since my employee discount worked i was now able to afford a few things i couldn't so i made a few more purchases (said camelbak earlier and a few things to keep cool in the AZ heat).
well apparently REI claims that i have committed fraud because i "stole" from there. the stealing part comes when i used my employee discount. the boulder manager tells me he has called the boston manager who said i was terminated before the trip, which is an obvious surprise to me. last time i checked i left for vacation and was put inactive, if i was "terminated" i was not made aware at all, not even a courtesy call. that i'll have to find out today when i call nancy to find out what really happened.
but the true question is how this all happened. it actually all happened because i offended the bike tech in the bike shop, who decided to check on a few things. it definitely didn't happen on monday since everyone was around and said i didn't say anything to her, plus everything felt normal. tuesday i spoke with her once, she called about my bottom bracket, i asked a few questions and told her to do what she had suggested, i requested to keep my old bottom bracket since it still worked according to her. everytime i spoke to her someone was by my side and everyone claims the conversation was completely normal. so i don't know... kind of miscommunication of some sort.
anyways, that was a slight sour point in boulder, everything was going great until that. hopefully when i talk to nancy later today we can clear a few things. i had no intentions of "stealing" from rei, i just simply thought that if i was inactive my employee discount would not have worked. in hindsight i probably shouldn't have done it, but hey when i'm talking out loud and saying "i wonder if i'm inactive, i guess i'll try my emp. number and find out" and the guy at CS punches my number in like it's no big deal and then allows me to use the discount you can see how it would be difficult for me to think that i was doing something wrong to REI.
but hey, hopefully it will be clear that this was a misunderstanding, if not i'm banned from REI's for one year.
the funniest part of the night was when they tried to not give cole his warantee tuneup.. he busted out sally jewel and the managers almost shat themselves, they promptly give him the warantee tuneup (and chads as well).
but hey, today the sun rises again and after i talk to nancy this will be over and done with. we have 1300ish more miles to ride, we leave for new mexico today!!! hopefully we'll find people nice enough to invite us inside and allow me to blog here and there.. if not.. i'll talk to everyone when i get to sunny san diego!!!
Monday, July 27, 2009
July 25th: Colorful Colorado
Woke up in the horse barn, it smells like poo, but whatever.. we ride to anton and on the way i get a flat (my 2nd one and first one not due to a huge 5 inch nail) and eat some pavement.. my wrist and elbow hurt but otherwise i'm ok..
best state sign so far.. leave it up to the hippies to make one instead of using a metal sign..
i had to climb up it.. did you expect anything else from me?
chad pulling up..
so our last stop was at this gas station... i was craving ice cream so i had 2 snicker ice cream bars (the best ice cream snack in the world by the way).
we ride and it's raining and we stop at last chance colorado.. population TWENTY THREE... no on is home and it's in the middle of nowhere.. we have 2 choices to stay.... abandoned homes.. or side of a church.. the decision was simple..
i was the only one to shower that night, due to the high amounts of mosquito's.. as a result of showering i have 5-6 bites on my rear end.. not worth the shower..
this dog has a crush on chad
best state sign so far.. leave it up to the hippies to make one instead of using a metal sign..
i had to climb up it.. did you expect anything else from me?
chad pulling up..
so our last stop was at this gas station... i was craving ice cream so i had 2 snicker ice cream bars (the best ice cream snack in the world by the way).
we ride and it's raining and we stop at last chance colorado.. population TWENTY THREE... no on is home and it's in the middle of nowhere.. we have 2 choices to stay.... abandoned homes.. or side of a church.. the decision was simple..
i was the only one to shower that night, due to the high amounts of mosquito's.. as a result of showering i have 5-6 bites on my rear end.. not worth the shower..
July 24th: HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT
Talk about a slow ride....... 11.9 miles into oberlin and we just dragged like we haven't dragged before. The heat was killing me.. we stopped at an A&W for some food, had the best root beer float ever. for our next stop i had a TIDAL WAVE.. a 44oz sprite. From that point on was the easiest 41 miles i've ever ridden... pretty much cruised at 20mph all the way to st. francis KS.. the craziest thing happened though, i farted NONSTOP the whole way, i blame it on the 44oz tidal wave.
these folks (young couple, probably our age) had all sorts of animals... the geese vs dogs went on until sunset..
i was upset for the natives when i read this.. yeah, poor settlers who were "slaughtered" but nothing about the complete eradication of a culture.. i call BS on that.
So we were at this gas station for our last stop... cole is out looking for this outdoor shower a guy told him about, i'm on bike watch when this total burnout walks by and sits down next to me. she's smoking a butt so i already want punch her in the face for making me smell the terrible 2nd hand smoke. thankfully the cig was on its last pull and she finished. this girl is clearly a burnout townie, judging by her looks she was in her mid to late 20's, but who knows. so she sits down next to me and starts talking and i realize she is baked out of her mind.. her shirt is way too large for her so her bra is popping out and she smells funky. so she's asking me what we're doing and i tell her, yadda yadda.. nothing special, i just want her to leave, but i'm alone at the moment so i'll entertain myself at her expense. then she did something that made me want to throw up, she touched my leg. my natural reaction was to just make this face as if someone rubbed feces all over me. i think that did the trick because she retracted her hand..
she continues to ask me if i smoked, i said no because it's disgusting and terrible for you. she then asks me if i smoke pot, also i said no..
at this point i'm done her entertainment value is next to zero and cole starts to walk back. i tell her to ask him, maybe he does and maybe he'll use her shower (she offered her shower at her home). i'm desperately hoping that i can pawn her off to cole.. he returns and she lights up again.. i now want to slap her across the head.. i tell this girl i'm cycling across the country to promote healthy living and healthy eating and she lights up in front of me.. i literally turn my back to her and write in my journal..
here is the exact writings from my journal: "This baked chick came over and is smoking a cigarette and it's nasty. she touched me leg. so gross. she offered me a shower at her place. OMG this girl offends me" i'm surprised i didn't mention that she was a complete waste of space on this planet... i really should have taken a photograph of her..
but that's enough about her.... later on that night we're at the farm, the weather is amazing. the guy says no rain for the night so we pitch our tents without the fly... then the wind picks up and we scramble.. well, here is the video.. wind is so strong my tent poles SNAP!..... cole almost gets picked up..
while cole, myself and clay (the owner of the house) move my tent to the horse barn we instruct chad to stay in the tent so it doesn't fly away.. he is spread eagle in the tent and says the wind was so hard the tent was flat on top of him.. his exact thoughts were (from chad) : "well, if i'm going to die getting swept up by a tornado would definitely be on the top of my list, you'll just pick me up in nebraska or something tomorrow"...
parents: DO NOT WORRY, we got safely into the horse barn and slept safely and well... i think the funniest part of the night was when i called chad out to help me put the footprint on.. i was yelling instructions but i forgot he has clawhand and was just terrible at putting the footprint on.. i couldn't stop laughing in the middle of a windstorm.. i decided he was useless at helping and ordered him back into the tent so it wouldn't fly away.. he thought it was the best thing ever.. until we left him there alone.. ha ha
chad being voyeuristic
these folks (young couple, probably our age) had all sorts of animals... the geese vs dogs went on until sunset..
at A&W, chad decides it's so hot he needs a whole gallon of water for the next 30 or so miles..
i was upset for the natives when i read this.. yeah, poor settlers who were "slaughtered" but nothing about the complete eradication of a culture.. i call BS on that.
So we were at this gas station for our last stop... cole is out looking for this outdoor shower a guy told him about, i'm on bike watch when this total burnout walks by and sits down next to me. she's smoking a butt so i already want punch her in the face for making me smell the terrible 2nd hand smoke. thankfully the cig was on its last pull and she finished. this girl is clearly a burnout townie, judging by her looks she was in her mid to late 20's, but who knows. so she sits down next to me and starts talking and i realize she is baked out of her mind.. her shirt is way too large for her so her bra is popping out and she smells funky. so she's asking me what we're doing and i tell her, yadda yadda.. nothing special, i just want her to leave, but i'm alone at the moment so i'll entertain myself at her expense. then she did something that made me want to throw up, she touched my leg. my natural reaction was to just make this face as if someone rubbed feces all over me. i think that did the trick because she retracted her hand..
she continues to ask me if i smoked, i said no because it's disgusting and terrible for you. she then asks me if i smoke pot, also i said no..
at this point i'm done her entertainment value is next to zero and cole starts to walk back. i tell her to ask him, maybe he does and maybe he'll use her shower (she offered her shower at her home). i'm desperately hoping that i can pawn her off to cole.. he returns and she lights up again.. i now want to slap her across the head.. i tell this girl i'm cycling across the country to promote healthy living and healthy eating and she lights up in front of me.. i literally turn my back to her and write in my journal..
here is the exact writings from my journal: "This baked chick came over and is smoking a cigarette and it's nasty. she touched me leg. so gross. she offered me a shower at her place. OMG this girl offends me" i'm surprised i didn't mention that she was a complete waste of space on this planet... i really should have taken a photograph of her..
but that's enough about her.... later on that night we're at the farm, the weather is amazing. the guy says no rain for the night so we pitch our tents without the fly... then the wind picks up and we scramble.. well, here is the video.. wind is so strong my tent poles SNAP!..... cole almost gets picked up..
while cole, myself and clay (the owner of the house) move my tent to the horse barn we instruct chad to stay in the tent so it doesn't fly away.. he is spread eagle in the tent and says the wind was so hard the tent was flat on top of him.. his exact thoughts were (from chad) : "well, if i'm going to die getting swept up by a tornado would definitely be on the top of my list, you'll just pick me up in nebraska or something tomorrow"...
parents: DO NOT WORRY, we got safely into the horse barn and slept safely and well... i think the funniest part of the night was when i called chad out to help me put the footprint on.. i was yelling instructions but i forgot he has clawhand and was just terrible at putting the footprint on.. i couldn't stop laughing in the middle of a windstorm.. i decided he was useless at helping and ordered him back into the tent so it wouldn't fly away.. he thought it was the best thing ever.. until we left him there alone.. ha ha
I bid you goodnight
i'm tired and sleepy but i'll leave you folks with one story that i had forgotten about..
so i'm staying with matty ice.. a buddy from college.. he makes his an amazing meal and we go hit up a bar with some live music... it's myself, ice, chad, luther and cole.
so we're having some beers and shooting the shit when matt reminds me of an incident that happened freshman year..
matts roommate was pat who we called big gay pat because, well, he was big, really gay (like tells you stories about how he gives fellatio out of the blue gay) and was named pat.. well one day (this is freshman year mind you) the doors are open and we're just having some drinks at the dorm... ice's high school friends are up and we're all chilling and what not..
pat storms out of his room and begins to flaunt how great this new drink he just made up is..
this is how the event unfolds:
big gay pat: "holy fucking shit, this is the most amazing drink ever, you guys gotta try it" pat begins to hand drink to me.
me: i'm pretty drunk at this point, so what do i do when someone hands me a drink when i'm drunk? i reach out for it like a normal air breathing human being..
ice: from about 25 feet away mind you (and with complete, sincere concern for my well being)..."TRAAAAAAN, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE SUCKS COCK WITH THAT MOUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
me: apparently i make this hideous face in response to that saving gesture and immediately hand the drink back to pat..
we never got to what happened after that.. my stomach was hurting i was laughing so hard..
i never did thank ice for that, but i will be sure to do so over an ice cold brew later tonight....
p.s.- LUTHER IS ENGAGED.... wtf? chad and i decided that no matter what he does for his wedding, there has to be an open bar.. or else we won't come.. PERIOD.
so i'm staying with matty ice.. a buddy from college.. he makes his an amazing meal and we go hit up a bar with some live music... it's myself, ice, chad, luther and cole.
so we're having some beers and shooting the shit when matt reminds me of an incident that happened freshman year..
matts roommate was pat who we called big gay pat because, well, he was big, really gay (like tells you stories about how he gives fellatio out of the blue gay) and was named pat.. well one day (this is freshman year mind you) the doors are open and we're just having some drinks at the dorm... ice's high school friends are up and we're all chilling and what not..
pat storms out of his room and begins to flaunt how great this new drink he just made up is..
this is how the event unfolds:
big gay pat: "holy fucking shit, this is the most amazing drink ever, you guys gotta try it" pat begins to hand drink to me.
me: i'm pretty drunk at this point, so what do i do when someone hands me a drink when i'm drunk? i reach out for it like a normal air breathing human being..
ice: from about 25 feet away mind you (and with complete, sincere concern for my well being)..."TRAAAAAAN, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE SUCKS COCK WITH THAT MOUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
me: apparently i make this hideous face in response to that saving gesture and immediately hand the drink back to pat..
we never got to what happened after that.. my stomach was hurting i was laughing so hard..
i never did thank ice for that, but i will be sure to do so over an ice cold brew later tonight....
p.s.- LUTHER IS ENGAGED.... wtf? chad and i decided that no matter what he does for his wedding, there has to be an open bar.. or else we won't come.. PERIOD.
July 23rd.. CENTER OF THE USA
late morning for us.. 6:30 alarm.. old man was very chatty, but a nice man.. we dragged our feet all day.. but passed 4 miles from the geographical center of the united states of america.
below is a photograph of my dinner the night before.. i totally forgot to mention the nice guy gave us some fresh homegrown tomatoes that were really good.
photograph of myself and mr. lahodny
4 miles away from the dead center of the states..
we got there 15 minutes before they closed. 6.99 dinner special with all you can eat salad bar.... they had some really good deviled eggs!! that night we crashed in the back deck of the meyers of norton, KS.. they sent a pic of us to my gmail which i'll post later on. it was great.. mr. meyers offered us his shower.. oh man, a real shower feels soooooo good.
below is a photograph of my dinner the night before.. i totally forgot to mention the nice guy gave us some fresh homegrown tomatoes that were really good.
taking a break... we had to stop here.. for chad of course.. the lover of pickles.
photograph of myself and mr. lahodny
4 miles away from the dead center of the states..
we got there 15 minutes before they closed. 6.99 dinner special with all you can eat salad bar.... they had some really good deviled eggs!! that night we crashed in the back deck of the meyers of norton, KS.. they sent a pic of us to my gmail which i'll post later on. it was great.. mr. meyers offered us his shower.. oh man, a real shower feels soooooo good.
July 22nd: The wal-mart experience....
So we stayed at hiawatha on the night of the 21st.. the 22nd is our first long day in KS and our first day towards boulder, CO. we slept in, but still put it 60 miles by lunch time (1:30).. KS (route 36 at least) is NOT flat.. constant rolling hills... and not just little hills, they roll and are long rolling hills, but nothing too crazy.
so we stop at this wal-mart for lunch, this is probably the only wal-mart for the next 150 miles so everyone comes here.. cole goes in first, comes out and says "oh my god, the deals are rEdiculous.." i get all excited and run through the automated doors and grab a basket. first things first, LUNCH. i head over to the precooked food section, give me some mac n cheese, some teriyaki nuggets and i'll be on my way.. then the deals... oh dear, they were so good. i ended up purchasing 64oz of fruit punch, cookies, drink mixes, zebra cakes.. i purchased so much food i couldn't sinch by bag down..
not to be outdone, chad purchased even more food..... he had put on his camelback so he had a whole empty pannier, of course he filled it with, FOOD.
well after that our bikes were super heavy.. we rode a total of 118ish miles and stopped in belleville KS.. this guy let us stay in his back deck, he was a super nice guy. old man, that actually may be related to chad through family marriages.. that has not been checked up though... chad still needs to call home and talk to his father.
it didn't end up raining on us but we did see some great lightning storms...
ok, i know.. my stories suck.. it's midnight, everyone is sleeping and i'm getting pretty tired myself, i should have gotten that 3rd beer, it would have put me right to sleep.. but i didn't, so now i'm paying for it by blogging and updating all you folks..
the sun breaking through the clouds to lighten up the field..
as promised, a photograph of how we shower.. hose and soap.. that's all really
yeap.. 1.50 for all those crackers... grilled cheese flavor.. fantabulously good
chad trying desperately to fit all his food in this bags.. he ended up having to eat two oatmeal cream pies just to make some more room...
so we stop at this wal-mart for lunch, this is probably the only wal-mart for the next 150 miles so everyone comes here.. cole goes in first, comes out and says "oh my god, the deals are rEdiculous.." i get all excited and run through the automated doors and grab a basket. first things first, LUNCH. i head over to the precooked food section, give me some mac n cheese, some teriyaki nuggets and i'll be on my way.. then the deals... oh dear, they were so good. i ended up purchasing 64oz of fruit punch, cookies, drink mixes, zebra cakes.. i purchased so much food i couldn't sinch by bag down..
not to be outdone, chad purchased even more food..... he had put on his camelback so he had a whole empty pannier, of course he filled it with, FOOD.
well after that our bikes were super heavy.. we rode a total of 118ish miles and stopped in belleville KS.. this guy let us stay in his back deck, he was a super nice guy. old man, that actually may be related to chad through family marriages.. that has not been checked up though... chad still needs to call home and talk to his father.
it didn't end up raining on us but we did see some great lightning storms...
ok, i know.. my stories suck.. it's midnight, everyone is sleeping and i'm getting pretty tired myself, i should have gotten that 3rd beer, it would have put me right to sleep.. but i didn't, so now i'm paying for it by blogging and updating all you folks..
the guy had massive sunflowers.. apparently, the larger sunflowers are used to make oil
the sun breaking through the clouds to lighten up the field..
as promised, a photograph of how we shower.. hose and soap.. that's all really
yeap.. 1.50 for all those crackers... grilled cheese flavor.. fantabulously good
chad trying desperately to fit all his food in this bags.. he ended up having to eat two oatmeal cream pies just to make some more room...
PARADISE!!!!
it's 9pm mountain time and we just finished dinner.. matty ice made lasagna (two types) and all kinds of delicious food..
we're staying here until wednesday morning so i'll blog some more tomorrow.. time to hit the bars of boulder, CO
I posted that before we went out.. but posted it on the old blog for some odd reason... anyways.. here it is.. we're back, went out to this nice bar with a live band.. def caught up on some good times.. i'm going to update from the 22nd on.. so stay with me here!
we're staying here until wednesday morning so i'll blog some more tomorrow.. time to hit the bars of boulder, CO
I posted that before we went out.. but posted it on the old blog for some odd reason... anyways.. here it is.. we're back, went out to this nice bar with a live band.. def caught up on some good times.. i'm going to update from the 22nd on.. so stay with me here!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Shower situation
so we've ridding a total of 18 days so far and everyone wants to know how we shower... well, the fact is we've had 7 real showers and 10 outdoor hose showers using soap. so we're not as dirty and smelly as you think when we go to bed.. of the 18 days there is only one day where we did not shower.. that was our first day without a house.. we learned quickly that rinsing off with the hose is a good idea.. in fact it's much better than showering because you don't waste nearly as much water and it's super refreshing since it's generally cold water.. unless it's late at night, then it kind of sucks because you're cold..
either way, we are pretty clean by the time we head off to bed...
so there you have it..
i'll try to take photographs of hosing off so you can all see what i'm talking about.
either way, we are pretty clean by the time we head off to bed...
so there you have it..
i'll try to take photographs of hosing off so you can all see what i'm talking about.
Monday, July 20, 2009
tweeting during lunch break while on way peoria, IL
200 yards from this place the time changes 1 hour.. it was great.. one minute it was 9pm.... next minute it was 8pm.. mwa ha ha.. really nice guy let us use his back yard and hang our stuff up to dry after we washed it.
watching the sun come up is a lot easier when you gain an extra hour!
chad gettin gout of the tent.. kind of like a dinosaur cracking out of the shell.. moans, cries, whines.. all of it. that is all for tonight.. tomorrow is a short 35ish mile ride to hiawatha kansas.. from there it's another 544 miles to matt's in boulder colorado... can't wait to see matt and hopefully luther as well when we are out there.. eta in boulder: sat night or sunday.. depending on how many miles we put in a day throughout kansas.. if the weather is ANYTHING like it has been recently we'll be in boulder by saturday easily.. if the wind is a factor looking more like sunday night.. if the wind is at our backs and we feel strong friday night MAY be a possibility.
center hall, PA.. after a long day of rolling mountains we stopped at this house.. outdoor shower, nice view.... hence why we were so happy. i had the tent to myself that night as well.. couldn't have asked for a better day.
chad deciding what to eat for dinner at center hall, PA
on our way to catawissa PA.. taking a nap break while waiting for chad.... it was so warm and cozy..
found a great place in PA.. i can't even remember where this was.. all i know is that the man made lakefront property was fantastic. we had dinner on the dock and relaxed a bit.
visiting pat and gabby at south bend, IL. pat took us on a tour of notre dame where he attends grad school.
Some scenic riding through PA... this is probably the ONLY flat stretch of PA.... see those hills on the side.. we pretty much rode over those for the WHOLE STATE...
Ahh yes, here we are again.. on our way up one of the hills. gorgeous day though.. we met 2 girls earlier on, both from brooklyn but visiting home for summer break.
After 2 hours of 12-14% grade climbing chad wants to hide away in his jersey..... unfortunately for him we had about 40 more miles of some steep climbs left... this is also when claw hand was at its worst.
taking a day off at jersey.. eliana and her family were fantastic hosts!! caught some good ole jersey fireworks!
cole and chad on the george washington bridge.... getting on the bike path was so much work we spent a good 30 minutes enjoying the view and snapping plenty of photos.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
