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.

helloooo missouri!

i haven't blogged since i was in kentucky. since then, i have biked through illinois and now i'm in missouri. we enter kansas tomorrow. wow, i am terrible at updating this thing.

we took the ferry across the ohio river into illinois. here are a couple pictures on the ferry.

right when we entered into illinois, we stayed at a campsite in a town called "cave in rock." why was it called that? because there was a cave in a rock. we went exploring after dinner. as soon as i saw the cave, i instantly thought of harry potter. it was eerily similar to the horcrux cave in 'harry potter and the deathly hollows.' i tried to take a picture of it but it was too dark. it basically looked like this though:

then we had a rest day in carbondale, illinois. a few of the guys on the ride are from there so it was a wonderful day off. we rode around 82 miles into carbondale and stayed at seth's parent's house. they had a TON of food waiting for us and it was wonderful. then we went to a bar afterwards, all wearing matching "welcome to the 'dale" tshirts that one of the boy's mom made. it was such a fun night with lots of dancing.

the next morning, we woke up and did a bunch of yardwork for a woman who has MS. she is in a wheelchair and isn't able to do yardwork anymore. she was so excited to have us there and we did a huge transformation to her yard. she was such a nice lady and i'm grateful that i was a part of that.

after yardwork, there was a HUGE barbeque at seth's house. nonstop food and pool action. a little later, a few of us went to the movies. i was able to see toy story 3 in theaters which i am extremely excited about. i was so afraid i wouldn't be able to see it in theaters since i'd be riding all summer, but i was able to see it with mark. it was a fantastic movie and i may or may not have bawled during it. i like to think that even the 8 year old me that fell in love with toy story 1 would cry during the third movie as well.

the next day, we went to a local radio station and talked a little bit about what we are doing. there was also an article about us on the front page of the paper.

when we entered illinois, there was no "welcome to illinois" sign. so right before crossing the mississippi river into missouri, i took a picture with the missouri sign. even though i had been out of kentucky for a few days, i decided to take a "so glad i'm not in kentucky anymore" picture. i think i look more scared than excited, though.

then we crossed the mississippi river and took a picture with the missouri sign.

wednesday was a such a tough day. it was 87 miles and EXTREMELY hilly. we rode through the ozarks wesnesday and yesterday in 100 degree heat. let's just say i'm extremely thankful for this little gem we found.

(taking a quick siesta after swimming and before another 35 miles on the road)

on wednesday, we woke up at 4:45am and didn't get into camp until around 7:45pm. yes, we WERE the last ones into camp. (it was me, liza & carmen.) carmen had 3 flats plus we stopped A LOT. a lot of people got into camp way before us so we heard "did you just get into camp?" a lot. actually, we hear that just about every day. there is a group that likes to wake up at 4am every morning and race to get into camp first. the ladies (myself included) like to take our time and actually see the country. we don't like to race. not that there is anything wrong with the way they do it... except for when i hear them rustling around at 4am and wake me up. not cool. once we got into camp, though, we stayed at a campsite right on the river. here is my tent right next to the water. it was absolutely wonderful.

the next morning, we woke up to don making us pancakes. the route leaders will make us breakfast from time to time and it is always amazing when they do.

yesterday we rode through houston, missouri in texas county! it was pretty exciting for me. nobody else seemed to think so. but i got a picture of the texas county sign! made me miss home.

anyway -- that's about it. or at least what i remember. oh, and here is the new video.

hello central time zone!

we rode through virginia in 10 days, left behind the appalachian mountains by day 13, and this morning crossed into central time zone! it's crazy how fast this trip is flying by. kentucky has been a lot of rolling hills, which is nice compared to the mountains we had to climb in virginia. i've noticed just in the past few days how strong i have become. before these hills would have been the death of me, but now they are no big thing (not counting the 17% grade hill today that came out of nowhere and almost killed us all. i swear, i thought i was about the fall backward riding up it.

on monday, we did our longest ride. it ended up being around 92 miles. a few of us woke up around 5:15am so we could get a head start on the day and try to beat the heat. tara and i fell back and ended up missing a turn. we didn't realize we had missed the turn until we were about 10 miles past it. we decided there was no way we wanted to add on a good 20 miles to an already 90 mile day so we looked at the map and found a different road we could take. unfortunately, that road seemed to be an extremely busy road without a shoulder. so, we road 20 miles thinking we were going to die the entire time because semi-trucks kept cutting it pretty close. sorry mom. it ended up being 100 degrees out that day, so with only about 8 miles until we reached camp, tara and i found a very large tree in the front of someone's yard and passed out. we were laying in their yard for a good 30 minutes before anyone came out and asked us what we were doing. that's when we decided we should probably finish the last 8 miles. when we finally got to the camp site, we realized that not only were we one of the first people there, but also that our route was 2 miles shorter than everyone else. WIN! then don, the founder of bike the US for MS bought us lots of pizza and beer. a perfect ending to a very long day.

yesterday was a short 45 mile ride which was so nice after such a long ride the day before. it was a fun ride with just a few hills. there was one point where a bunch of us were chasing after the support vehicle. it was such a fun road to ride down.

we ended up staying in hodgenville, kentucky which is the birthplace of abraham lincoln. liza and i decided to stop in the 'abraham lincoln birthplace national historical park.' i was so excited to see the house that he was born in, only to find out it wasn't there. it was just the land where his house used to be. so... it was pretty lame. but humphry had a good time and liza got her picture taken with lincoln.

today was another short day. we rode about 55 miles. usually me and the girls wake up around 6:30 and try to leave around 8 or earlier. today we decided to stop at subway to get some coffee before heading out. we rode to subway and ended up hanging out and talking for a long time. we didn't get on the road until 11am! the route leaders drive the support vehicle and stop every 20 miles so we can have a rest stop. they usually leave at 8am every morning and stay at each stop for about 2 hours or until everyone stops there to get water. they called us wondering where we were and we had only left subway 5 minutes before. needless to say, they left before we got there so we had to make our own rest stop where we filled up on chocolate milk. we saw a few amish people riding in their buggies which was kinda cool, but not so cool that we had to ride our bikes through the horse poop that was all over the road.

also riding through kentucky, i have seen a lot of rand paul signs! this basically makes me love the state that just a few days ago i hated because of all the coal trucks and dogs trying to run me off the road.

tomorrow we ride around 75 miles so i guess that means no hanging out at subway for 2 and a half hours.

each week, the route leaders create a video to capture the highlights of that week. video 3 was just created and you can watch it here. everyone keeps telling me that i have the best quote in the video, so watch for that. it's right after we climbed hayter's gap -- 1600ft climb in 4 miles.

eastern kentucky

so far so good. haven't been eaten by any dogs, so that's a plus. i have been chased by a few, though.

kentucky is... interesting. i miss virginia already. virginia was absolutely gorgeous. beautiful rides. beautiful scenery. i mean, just look at my gnome, humphry, checking out the beautiful views. he loved virginia and all of it's history.

the views in kentucky mainly consist of coal trucks and houses with about 10 rundown cars in the front yard. also, drivers in kentucky don't like bikers like drivers in virginia do. they like to honk at us and throw things at us. it's a good time, really.

here is humphry right as we entered kentucky... and right before we almost got hit by a coal truck.

throughout the trip, we have been lucky enough to meet some incredibly generous people. many nights we stay at churches or fire stations that have bathrooms, showers, and air conditioning -- 3 of my favorite things after a long day of riding. we stayed at a church a couple nights ago that even had a wii that we could play!

riding through kentucky

liza's first walmart experience. the girl must be very sheltered.

my favorite thing about riding a bike all day: milkshakes. milkshakes. milkshakes.

biked virginia in 10 days. bring on kentucky

tomorrow we will officially be out of virginia! i've heard many horror stories about kentucky, though, so i am kinda nervous. apparently there are a lot of viscous dogs that like to eat bikers for breakfast.

yesterday was probably my favorite ride. 82 miles, mostly in the rain. i had sarah jaffe playing on my ipod and for most of the ride i was smiling and thinking "wow. i love my life right now." then we got to hayter's gap. 1600ft climb in 4 miles. it's interesting going from one moment of loving life and the next moment thinking "this is what hell must be like." but the welcoming crew at the top of the mountain cheering everyone on once they reached the top must be what heaven is like. i love these people.

while i am riding, i always think "wow, i should blog about this!" and then when i finally sit down to write, i have nothing to write about. i need to take more pictures too. everyone else is way better at blogging than i am. maybe you should read theirs instead.