Fun Facts

trip distance: 4,684 miles
biggest week 745 miles
longest day: 143 miles
shortest day: 12 miles
average miles a day: 74.3 miles
century days: 8
90+ miles days: 9
rest days: 7
longest stretch between services: 78 miles
highest pass: monarch 11,311 feet
most climbing in a day: 11,000 feet
max speed: 58 m.p.h.
most consecutive days without a shower: 3
zen days: 3
dogs hit: 1
times I cried: 2
summits: a lot
weight lost: 15 pounds
gear weight: ? too much!
broken/lost phones: 2

places I stayed
hotel: 10
campground: 17
House/B&B: 19
side of the road/park:24


4 flat tires
2 new tires
1 cracked rim
new handlebar tape
new chain
1 tire made it all the way across!
8-12 spokes broken

best road was seven devils road in Oregon
worst road was in California by some surf spot on a rutted gravel/dirt
toughest climb monarch pass 7 miles @ 6.5% took 2 hours to climb
funnest descent was hayters gap
most scenic state Colorado
best state for cycling Oregon
worst state was Nevada, go figure
best weather California warm and a little rain, but no humidity or 90 degree days
toughest day, last day I rode with the infected saddle sore


favorite foods on the trip
twix ice cream bars
snickers ice cream bars
swiss rolls
cold coke or pepsi
ritz crackers
chinese buffets
well, any buffet

THE RIDERS

Here is an incomplete list (because I don't remember everyone I passed ,sorry) of the riders that I met on the trip or saw in passing a runner and a few hikers to. Congratulations to all the riders who completed the journey and push on to all those still on the road. I hope you have tailwinds and no mechanicals.

Matt from Arcata
Mitch
Barbara
African-american man riding home from work
Rob and his friend out for an evening spin
Rob and Chris fron N.Y.
Mike
Group of riders just before highway 1 turnoff
Canadien couple I met outside Samual B. Taylor state park in California
Touring cyclist riding up to seattle on his first day of the trip
Frank from NC 61 years old!
Shawne Camp from California. He is an animal.
Jeremy heading to San Fran
Chris from Essex, U.K.
Roadie from San Diego on a time trial bike by breaks national park
Glen on the handcycle Panguitch,UT
Heather the mountain biker from Canada in Bryce
Nicki riding to Pheonix
John the runner trying to boston qualify!
Claus from Germany 'too much windy'
Ewan from South Korea
Mike from Boise,ID it was fun riding/giggling along with you. let me know you made it.
Mike from switzerland who smokes
cyclist from Amsterdam
cyclist from holland
Ralf
Eric the mountain biker and his coach who rode the Transam back in 1976
Drew
cyclist riding to florence
Danni from L.A.
two cyclists I camped with in Golden City,MO
Couple on a tandem who were German and I learned three words from
three female cyclists I met at Tom and Gale's
Tom and Gale the tandem couple
adventure cycling non-supported riders
Jimmy
adventure cycling supported riders. PUSSIES!
Mach from Seattle
'red man' 'chicken man' and 'poo man'
three cyclists just east of Sebree
MS riders
Chris from Germany 'I don't normally shoot dogs'
19 year old kid from England
Kevin & Max
four cyclists I met one of whom gave me a spoke
two guys and one girl I saw after hayters gap
two couples I saw about 20 miles east of hayters gap
cyclist just before damascus who had thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail
Hot Chocolate who was hiking the A.T.
Nathan, boy scout, and his dad
two ladies who were hiking the A.T. and I gave my couscous to
two guys and two girls I met at a church thanks Aaron for the water
Spoon & Hazard A.T. thru-hikers
roadie who sat up for me on the blue ridge parkway
Aaron,hiked the A.T., and Shaz siblings who were headed to Seattle
Lou, rode a fixie around Boston, and Mallory who were going to San Fransisco via western express.
two others one who had done part of the trans am and the other whose brother had done it a couple of years earlier.

THANKYOU!!!

I just wanted to say thank you to some people who sat around and talked with me, or opened their homes up, or were willing to help out us touring cyclists along the way. It was very much appreciated and I hope that you continue to help other riders on their journeys.

This is a chronological list.

Savory cafe owners who gave me a free beer and a ride to the campround.
Artist girl I met at the savory cafe.
Mellisa and Kieth who sang and played the guitar at a campsite in leigit.
Campground host by fort ross who made us sandwiches and gave us chips and firwood.
Miles parents for letting me stay atyour house and eat your food and drink your wine.
John with the dead battery who gave me some chow mein and 2 sodas.
Melody and Frank for teh room when I was numb,tired and hungry.
Dave and San for buying me lunch and giving me some granola bars good luck on the AIDS ride.
Leeann and Rolinwho made me breakfast in Uereka,NV.
The 3 boulder girls
Employee at breaun books in ceder city.
Lance, Steven and Charles who let me stay at the B& B they had rented and dinner.
Lady at the hite rec. area wholet me buy some things even though the store was closed.
Aria & Bailey for dinner and place to set up my tent in ridgway,CO.
Kimberly and Chris at the simple hotel in salida,CO.
Jackie at the bar in salida for the confidence boost and encouragement.
Melissa who split a 6-pack of heinekin with me and walked around town the next morning.
Wetmore general store/restaurant owner who gave me a blanket and dried my clothes in her dryer, also for calling around for a place for me to camp out.
Larry and Joni Castor for the hotel room and dinner.
Shari, Billy, Mel, and Gilbert for the beers, conversations and place to sleep and shower.
Sheridan Lake church for letting cyclists sleep in the basement.
Athleticlub for letting cyclists sleep in your lounge and get a shower.
Dan & Elaine at Elaine's bicycle oasis for the shower and dinner and conversation.
Ray, and Susan, who let us stay at their house in Newton,KS.
Joe in Rosalia at the bar he owned where he told us about ranching and farm life.
Tom & Gale for opening your home up to touring cyclists in Fair Grove,KS.
Tammy for the ride into Ellington,MO
Rafi for the ride into Farmington and dropping me off at the fire station.
Farmington fire department and all the fire fighters for letting me stay in your lounge for a couple days.
Tom for giving me a ride to Festus for a new rim.
The guy at crystal city cycles who a wheel off a bike in the store and switched everything over for me.
Eagles club in Chester,IL for letting us sleep behind your bar and get a shower.
Tanya the bartender at the eagles club for keeping me topped up on beer.
Guy who was watching bowling and bought me a beer.
Rob & Violet a the church in Sebree,KY who opened up the church and fed us all a wonderful dinner.
Family at double L grocery who fed us dinner, gave us a shower and let us sleep under the porch.
Jerome and Sara for giving us a ride to cave city.
Steve from Florida for giving us a ride to mammoth caves.
Guy in the bronco who drove us to cave city.
Guy who had us hop in the bed of his truck and got us to munfordville.
Lady at the cvs store whose husband gave us a ride back to sonora.
Guy outside baardstown library who gave us $10 towards the trip.
Kevin outside walmart who told us about free showers at the truck stop in berea.
Nick on the fixie who told us about a place to camp by the college.
Kid at the gas station who wouldn't let me pay for a water bottle full of coke.
Lady a tthe post office who gave me a can of coke.
Dave who ran the B & B at hindman,KY.
Church that runs 'the place' in damascus for letting hikers/bikers stay there.
Police officer who stopped at the city park in catawba and gave spoon & hazard a ride.
June Curry 'cookie lady' for welcoming cyclists into her home for longer than I have been alive.
Couple in Lexington who let me use their hose.
John in Yorktown for the gatorade, cokes and washing my clothes.
Church in yorktown for opening up that house to touring cyclists.
Guy who gave me a ride over the james river bridge.
Conti's bike shop for the bike box and the mechanic who gave me a ride over to the fedex store.
And lastly the cute Russian girl who snapped my photos at the atlantic ocean.

Also want to say thanks to everyone that followed along and/or posted comments. It was a little motivational boost when I had a comment after a journal entry. I remember telling my mom not to read them to me when I called home because I looked forward to reading them when I did my updates.

6/23 70 79mi 5:25 VIRGINIA BEACH,VA

For some reason this morning my bike computer decided 'oh well he is almost done dragging me all over the usa and expecting me to work so I guess I should be nice and work on this last day. No idea why it worked today, it just did. Woke up late and sat around. Ate some pasta I found in the cupboard. Read some articles/stories in a notebook left by transam riders. Read one article and cried just a little bit. I think the reality of what I had done finally hit me. They were happy tears though, not sad ones like they usually are. Got on the road around 10 ish and the adventure began. I started off on 17 south and there was absolutely no shoulder and I thought 'oh, f-it I'm not getting killed by a car just so I can say I actually touched the atlantic ocean.' About a quarter mile from where I turned on it widened and there was a shoulder and more stoplights and turn lanes, so I could actually ride with some peace of mind. I was riding in the tiny shoulder over the james river bridge and a policeman pulled up behind me and turned on his lights and said that only cars were allowed on the bridge. He said there was a phone to call the transit people and they would bring a transport vehicle and transport me across. Cool I thought and went in search of the phone. It didn't exist. I flagged down a local biker and he got me a number to the department of transportaion and they knew nothing about it. I saw 2 guys walking out of a restaurant right by the bridge and explained my situationa and asked for a ride. 1 guy said he had to be at a meeting at 1 and he said his buddy was with him. I turned away and muttered a thanks anyway and 1 guy said oh, I'll drive you across. That was pretty cool. He drove me across and I got back on the road. I didn't plan this very well, and I took roads to a tunnel which I obviously couldn't cross and then to a bridge that was under repair and finally, third try is the charm, got across on the military highway road. I got a little love tap from a car by a clueless lady who was talking on her phone. I was riding along and felt a pressure on my rear left side of the bike. She had brushed my rear pannier without even knowing it. It happened very quickly and all I thought was 'o.k. I can't move left, but I'm not being pushed into the gaurdrail, so I'm o.k.' I kind of waved my hand at her, but she had already passed me oblivious. There were a ton of stop lights and I ended up pulling into a bike shop to see if they had a bike box I could use. They did and I pedalled on toward the beach. I could smell the salty air about a half mile away and knew I was getting close. I saw the beach and walked my bike towards the ocean. Stopped and aksed a russian girl to take my picture adn she took a couple of me and the bike and the ocean. I talked to her for a bit and she thought that I was crazy and done some drugs to think up this trip. Rode back to the biek shop blissed out of my mind and got a bike box. I stupidly tried to ride and carry the bike box at the same time. Needless to say I got about 2 pedalstrokes in and fell over on my left side. Scraped up my knee and my pride. 1 of the bike mechanics gave me aride over to the fedex store and I rode my bike over thier to box it up. Took off the wheels, seatpost, handlebars, pedals, skewers adn threw them all in the box along with some other stuff andf tried to pad it as best I could. Put something in my fork so hopefully it won't get damaged and taped the crap out of it. Sent another small box of unneeded stuff home and then just had my drysack filled with stuff and my companion of the last 2 months wating around to get sent back home. Went back to the bike shop and ate at an Italian resaurant. I had been waiting to eat some good Italian food for a while and I ordered a bottle of chianti classico to celebrate. 2 entrees and 1 dessert later I felt satisfied. Talked to the waitress a little and she was impressed by the trip. I'm a little impressed to. I guess I just never sat back and really realized just how massive it really was. Just like with anything I try to look at small little chunks because they seem more manageable than being overwhelmed by the enormity of it all. Asked about some cheap hotels and started waling in that direction. Oh yeah, the food was delicious. Had some ghnocci pasta and it was different from the normal penne thatI usually get but it was good adn the chicken dish that morgan recommended was great. Stoped at a k-mart adn bought a backpack and some more food. I am going to have ahard time not eating everything in sight when I get home because I have ate whatever I wanted for the last 70 days and still lost over 10 pounds. Walked by a busstop and asked bout cheap hotels and the lady there named angel said to follow her. I sat arounda the busstop for about 40 minutes waiting for the bus to come. It finally did and a little while later a transvestite got on and then got in an argument with a guy in the back. They sat and insulted each other for about 5 minutes and then the guy in the back got off at the next stop. It was pretty entertaining. I was one of the few white people on the bus and that was different than I 'm used to up in washington state. Angel and I transferred and my phone had slipped out of my pocket and I didn't realize it. 2 phones lost/broken on the trip. Waited for a couple minutes and got on another bus. Finally pulled up to a stop and angel told me there was a hotel right there. It was about 1:40 a.m. by this time and I ended up paying $45 for a room that I had to leave for checkout in just over 9 hours. I am pretty pissed about my phone, but what can you do? It was an interesting night to say the least. Glad to be done and not have to pedal anywhere tomorrow. Now I just need to figure out how to get to d.c.

I DID IT!

6/22 69 82mi ? yorktrown,VA

Woke up and got going by 6.a.m. That is the earliest start I have had al trip. Didn't eat breakfast and I picked up some chips ahoy at the first store I came to. Ate at a buffet in williamsburg that was really good and talked to an old man who was interested in all my gear and bike. I think he used to ride a bit back in the day. Updated my blog and found a bike shop after riding to 2 that ahd either moved or closed down. I was a little bit aggrevated for some reason adn I don't really know why. Played phone tag trying to get a hold of someone at the curch in yorktown so that I would have a place to sleep when I got there. The colonial parkway was a nice 2 lane highway with trees on both sides and the pavement was pretty worn down so a lot of rocks were uncovered which made for soem bumpy riding. It felt a little like a mini paris-roubaix which wasneat. Got a hold of a guy named john and he opeded up the house, yes house that the church owned and let bikers stay at. He wa also nice enough to do my laundry and gave me a couple of cokes and gatorades. Got a shower and don't know if/how I'll get to virginia beach. Its looks pretty like sketchy riding or a huge detour that will make me backtrack and add like 50 miles. Went down to a pub because yorktown is just a tourist town and only about 200 people actually live there. It was loud and smoky and I was sandwiched in between people who were talking to their friends, so it kind of sucked. I had a burger and a beer and got out of there. Called some people and just sat around waiting to fall asleep.

6/21 68 126mi ? ashland,VA

Woke and the girls cooked everybody breakfast which was awesome. Got a little bit later start than I wanted, but it was nice to sit around and talk to everybody and just chill out in the morning instead of rushing off first thing. Gave shaz my pepper spray becaus eI didn't need it anymore and I don't think you caan mail that stuff. Hope she doesn't need it or accidentally spray her brother. Hope to hear from them when they get to seattle it would be cool to hear about the rest of their trip. Beer and dinner on me guys! Rode through historic charlottesville and stopped at the visitor center to ask about buffets. The lady there wasn't much help, and as I rode away up a hill I asked a couple about buffets and they told me I could use their hose in the back to wash off. I sprayed off some of my sweat and rinsed out my clothes from the day before. The nice thing about ti being so hot is that your clothes dry pretty quickly if you bungee them to the back of your rack. My legs were a bit dead after the town of mineral and I stopped in at a store and ate a pint of ice cream, my first of teh trip. It seemed to do the trick and I drank some coke. I have been drinking a lot of flat coke lately and it seemes to help keep the enrgy up there. Its just sugar water and caffeine after all. Made if to ashland just before 8 and ate at a buffet and then pedaled in the dark to the first curch I saw which was about 4 miles down the road. There was no traffic though, so it was pretty safe. Ended up sleeping on top of a littel slide/swinset playground because I had seen a black 3 foot snake laying in the road earlier in the day adn I kept hearing wierd animal noises coming from the woods behind the church.

6/20 67 120mi ? cookie lady's house afton,VA

My bike computer doesn't even try anymore now. It just tells me what time it is which is what it does in sleeper mode. Don't really care about it that much though. I'm not gonna lie, my legs were a little bit sore this morning after my ridiculous day yesterday. Got going a little after 7 a.m. Stopped in daleville and mailed my tent along with some extra clothes and other randon stuff home. Threw away a lot of garbage that I hadn't really used and didn't need anymore. 15 pounds lighter I headed out. One town I stopped in to refill my bottles had no potable water because their well had gotten contaminated. I was lucky to get stopped before ai filled my bottles and took off. Ate at a buffet in lexington and was on country roads for almost the whole day. Followed a river to vesuvius which was right before the last 'horrible, steep, scary, leg breaking climb' according to the westbounders I had been meeting. That climb was 'long' at 4 miles, but it wasn't super steep and you could even recover for about 10-15 seconds in about 5 places where the grades was only 1-2%. In fairness I do have around 4000+ miles in my legs AND I actually rode before that on a regular basis and I like/love climbing. Finished the climb in about 36 minutes and then was on the blue ridge parkway. I was excited to be on the parkway because I had read an article in bicyclign magazine about it a year or so ago and it sounded like a real nice ride. It didn't dissappoint. Great views, good road surface, low traffic (even on a saturday). I stopped and bought a gtorade and then as I rejoined the parkway saw a rider up ahead on a hill who had sat up and looked behind them a couple of times. I put in a good,hard effort to bridge up to them and as I got closer noticed the rider was wearing a purpleish jersey. All right I thought a female rider is up there, this will be great. As I got closer it turned out to be a dude, but a cool dude. He was from the area and chatted and rode together until the cookie lady's house which is just before afton. He pushed it on the climbs because he had no extra wieght and it was good because it made me push harder also, but it made talking difficult. I overcooked 1 of the corners and went off into the grass, but managed to avoid going tumbling down the ditch. I didn't follow the locals line and when the turn tightened I was already on my exit of it. Its good to do that every once in a while to keep your head screwed on straight. Stopped at the cookie ladies house ( she has been taking in cyclists for around 30 years and is a mainstay on the transam route) and decided to stay since there wasn't anything down the road for awhile. Got my picture taken by her and met 4 other westbounders as I was putting it in one of her many photo albums. There were 6 cyclists staying that night. A brother/sister pair Aaron and Shaz who were headed to seattle and hopefully I can get together with them and hear how their trip went. A coule from Boston Lou and Malory who were headed to san fran and taking the western express. A couple of other guys whose names I forget, but one of whose older brother had done the trip a couple years earlier. Made some dinner for myslef with some assistance from the girls and then we all sat around and talked. Talked to Lou about riding around boston on a fixie and just basically chilled out. A little while later malordy cooked up a second dinner and Lou made some tea and we all ate that too. So much junk food to snack on there and so good. Had a little trouble falling asleep for some reason, maybe it was becaus I couldn't hear cars going by during the night?