6 days and counting...

it's very surreal that this trip is almost over. we have less than a week left and i still don't feel like i have traveled across the country on bike. it's insane that in 6 days we will be on the beach in san francisco dipping our tires into the ocean.

we are currently in nevada and i have to say ... i'm not really a fan. i wasn't really sure what to expect for nevada, but it is definitely much different than i thought it would be. nevada is climb after valley after climb. we climb a mountain for about 15 miles, descend the mountain, then ride through a valley where y ou can see the next mountain you're about to climb but it takes an hour and a half to get there. the valley is always incredibly windy. then you start climbing again. it's the same thing over and over.

there are also hardly any towns. we are riding on what has been dubbed the "loneliest road in america." every day, we look at our map and have no services until the next town which is usually around 70 miles. absolutely nothing to stop and see.

a couple days ago, there was a very random bar at the top of one of the mountains we climbed. it was so incredibly random because there was nothing else for miles, so we couldn't help but stop and grab a beer. if there is anything i have learned on this trip, it's that it is never too early to drink a beer. at least not when you're riding an average of 70 miles a day.

utah and nevada have had a lot of open range areas. it's always odd to see a bunch of cows just chilling on the road, but also pretty cool. just as long as they don't get in my way while going down the mountain.

two nights ago we stayed in eureka, nevada. we stayed at a little park that was right across the street from a bar/restaurant/casino that -- lucky for us -- was having karaoke that night! not only did i rock out to 'build me up buttercup' but i also played my first slot machine. no really... i rocked out HARD to build me up buttercup. unfortunately, matt (my route leader) filmed it. i didn't realize what a weird dancer i am.

from left to right: carmen, seth, bret, tara -- singing "friends in low places." after this, almost the entire BUSMS crew went up and started singing

alex & me at karaoke

today we rode into middlegate, nevada. there is absolutely nothing here except for a bar. we are camping behind the bar and luckily they have wifi here so i am finally able to blog. about a mile outside of town, we saw a "shoe tree" that we had heard locals the past few days talk about. we were so excited to finally see it. it's amazing how many shoes are on it. apparently the story behind the tree is this: "A young couple camped there on their wedding night and got into a tiff. The woman said she was gonna walk away and the man said, "If you do, you'll have to walk barefoot," and threw her shoes in the tree. Then, the man got in the car and drove to Middle Gate to have a drink at the bar. The bartender talked him into going back to his wife, which he did. A year later, they brought their first child's shoes to the tree and tossed them into the branches. Since then, people have been adding and removing shoes from the tree so that when you drive over a hill on that ver desolate road, all that you can see is this cottonwood tree with shoes hanging from every branch."

well, that's about it for now. here is video 7. a lot of the footage is from mountain biking on our rest day in telluride, colorado. no footage of me wiping out, though.

utah. you're incredible.

i'm currently sitting in a hotel room. air conditioning. tv. shower. bed. it's amazing. we are currently in escalante, utah. the restaurants and stores here have a very austin-like feel to them which is surprising for such a small town in the middle of nowhere.

unfortunately, i got an email from at&t saying that i've been using too much off-network data and if i continue doing this, they'll drop me. i take all of my pictures on my phone and then email them to myself and upload them onto blogspot. well, i can't do that anymore and for some reason my phone isn't compatible with this computer. so... this post won't have any photos. hopefully i'll find a way to get them before my next post.

anyway -- i am so sad to be done with colorado. i absolutely fell in love with it. on our rest day in telluride, we ended up going mountain biking. i will never get on a mountain bike again. actually, they say one of the best places to mountain bike is telluride so i probably shouldn't have chosen that to be the first place i tried it. lets just say that my legs are currently black & blue. once i got back to the campsite, i told everyone i was never getting on a mountain bike again. then seth showed up in his rented full-suspension bike and i just had to try it. bad idea. now i really never will get on another mountain bike. i like my spandex, skinny tires, and riding on pavement.

when we reached the 'welcome to utah' sign, i was so sad that all i did in the picture was do a thumbs down. i was fully expecting to hate utah. well... i was so incredibly wrong. utah is absolutely incredible. i've seen the most beautiful views of the entire trip. utah is definitely a challenge though. i wasn't expecting it to be this hard. i actually think climbing the rockies was a lot easier than what we've been doing the past few days. the heat doesn't make it any easier, either. we literally tried to see if we could fry an egg on the pavement.

i can't tell you enough how much i am loving this trip. it's absolutely incredible and i am so lucky. seeing the country on a bike is the way to do it. i appreciate it so much more than i would if i were just riding in a car. i get to stop every so often and look at indian petroglyphs, waterfalls, stop at amazing overlooks, and bomb down the mountain after climbing it all day. amazing.

here is the latest video. it shows a lot of footage from kansas. the wind was insane, as you can tell from the video. enjoy.

goodbye kansas. hello colorado.

well, we are done with kansas. in fact, we've been done with kansas for a few days now. whoops.

kansas was a great state to ride through. the people were incredible, and the winds, for the most part, were on our side. our first stop in kansas brought us to pittsburgh. we showed up to a free pizza/salad buffet for all the cyclists where we also got to meet a few people with MS and hear their stories. later that night, we stayed at the pittsburgh middle school, where we also got free dinner by some of the same folks who hosted lunch. the dinner was amazing, but not because of the food. here is an excerpt from one of the other cyclists blog: "Each volunteer introduced themselves and told us how they are associated with MS - to cap the night two women told us how they have personally dealt with having MS (one for 35 years). It was an extremely inspiring talk as the main speaker (after popping a wheelie in her wheel chair!!) discussed how research has progressed over the years and that she is now able to go up to 3 years without an MS relapse (previously it was approximately 2 months). She explained many of her life's details and this made everyone realize even more that MS is an extremely debilitating disease and still has a long way to come. The two ladies discussed how BUS4MS affects them personally by providing hope on the darkest days of their struggle. They expressed the fact that we are simply raising the awareness level of MS as we ride across the country, but we are also continuously raising money for research and MS related treatments." the people of kansas left us blown away and completely inspired.

the next day in kansas, we battled the wind and made it to chanute, kansas. we were again welcomed with free lunch and dinner provided by some local MS volunteers. in chanute, BUS4MS paired with the local MS society to build a ramp for a patient. some of our fundraising efforts this year paid for the ramp. (we have raised $92,148 but are shooting for $100,000. if you haven't donated, please do so!)

the first few days in kansas, we had some great winds. i not only did my first official 100 mile ride, but i also did 120 miles a couple days after. actually, liza and i rode into camp and the odometer said "98.8" so we decided to ride around until it reached "100" so we could have our official 100 mile ride. here we are once we finished:

there were a couple days in kansas that were not awesome. the winds were absolutely treacherous. the day after we did our 120 mile ride, we only did 25 miles because the crosswinds were so bad. kansas was also pretty boring. when we were riding the appalachians, all i could think about was how excited i was to reach kansas and have it be completely flat. after a couple days, it got old and i actually missed the climbs.

our last day in kansas, which was july 4th, we planned on only riding 60 miles into ordway, kansas. however, once we all finished 60 miles, we decided to do 50 more and make it to pueblo, colorado. the winds were in our favor and pueblo had way more to offer than ordway. pueblo had an amazing 4th of july celebration and the extra 50 miles were worth it. it also meant that we got a rest day on the 5th!

colorado has been wonderful. i am absolutely in love with this state. the first third of this state was actually almost exactly like kansas. it was relatively flat with endless wheat fields.

once we left pueblo was when we started climbing the rockies. i am loving these mountains. the climbs are longer than the appalachians, but they are also not as steep and more steady. it's easy to get into a rhythm and just ride up. our first day in the rockies, we had an 80 mile ride ahead of us. however, we didn't leave until noon because the local news wanted to interview us. not only did we get a late start, but then liza kept getting flats. needless to day, it was a race against the sun. i started riding with amanda near the end of the day. we had about 20 miles left but the sun was setting soon. we had about 10 miles left and decided to crush those last miles. unfortunately, we missed the turn and went 10 miles out of the way. it was 10pm, dark, and we had no cell service. long story short, we found a couple that offered to give us a ride to our camp. the support vehicle even went out and searched for us because they knew we must have taken a wrong turn somewhere.

the day after, we camped at 10,500 feet. rockies in july feels like san antonio in december. i was freezing and didn't pack very many warm clothes. i bundled up in everything i could find. then it started raining. we made the best of it, though, and it turned into a great night.

the next day, we climbed 1,000 and made it to our highest elevation of the trip, around 11,300. at the top of monarch pass, there were gondolas that took you up to 12,000ft. the views were incredible PLUS there was snow. very little snow... but still snow.

tomorrow we are riding into telluride, colorado where we are going to have another rest day. at the beginning of the trip, we only had 2 rest days planned, but then we did a couple of double days and made it so we get 3 additional rest days. i'm excited for telluride. it's supposed to be a pretty awesome town PLUS it looks like we might be going white water rafting or mountain biking. (what better way to rest from road biking than to mountain bike!)

i'll try to get better at this whole blogging thing but lets be honest... it probably wont happen.

here is video number 5 to tide you over until the next update.