Eric On Two WheelsFrom Coast to Coast

The last two days have been great, we entered into Massachusetts with a welcoming 2 mile 6% grade UP, took our pictures by the State sign and went down, then of course we kept going up and down all the way to one of our new great friends, Steve’s House (Who we met from Warmshowers.org).

We showed up at his house around 4:30, he is fellow cyclist and tourist, he has toured some great places with some great stories, he did the Coast to Coast USA trip, as well as 7 weeks in Europe, in which most of his stories came from.  We spent the night sharing stories, and late night conversations about anything.

The next morning he rode the first 21 miles with us, as there were some huge climbs to go over, so he decided to go up and over a few of them with us.  Was he right, there were some winners…. When I think of Massachusetts, I did not think of lots of hills and trees, at least not these kind of hills.  There are plenty of 1 mile-ish long hills.  Which is long enough I can’t sprint over the top and coast down.  But after lots of climbing we made it a short day to Northampton (45 miles) and relaxed at a Barnes and Nobel Bookstore all afternoon.  We were soo excited about doing this all day, just sitting, chilling, drinkin coffee, we all grabbed a handful of magazines to read, and what do you know…  We all grabbed a couple of the same ones, like the Tour De France issue of bicycling, and a few others.

Day 42, we had a slow start, as we only expected to do 50 miles today…. (We had a plan of doing low miles since we have time and the roads are proving really hilly) so we stopped at noon for lunch after 20 miles,  saw that our Warmshowers person was a little out of the way of our route, sooooo Why not.  Let’s just go 70 miles to the Coast…….

So now we got serious, we were all really happy and got butterflies in our stomach as we were riding our from lunch thinking this is our last day now.  Only until we soon got hit with another mile long climb that got us really tired, I had to think to myself are we sure…. Of course, keep going….

We pushed most of the day, besides for a slushy stop (Which we had the best slushies we have had yet at this Gas Station) and a Dunkin Donut rest stop.  Traffic started to increase as we got closer and closer, the shoulder would come and go.  Ben actually hit a car as a car went right in front of us to turn right and slowed down enough that Ben could not stop fast enough, Thus Ben hit the back of his car, and the car just kept driving off,  He was not hurt or anything, just annoyed that that just happened.

Boston, we made it, soo now we have to find the coast….. Ha, easier said than done.  We were doing pretty good for a while, then Sam, Scott and I started doubting a little Ben’s directions, we thought we needed to turn and go East, so we did and we got lost and turns out was a bad idea.  Ben was right once again, just like he has been the whole trip.

But we were getting really hungry, and we still needed to see the coast.  We almost thought about just going to get food, then go to the coast tomorrow.  Eventually we found the coast, took some pictures and rejoiced.  We were all really happy to be there, took a video.

The trip was priceless….

We went to a TGI Friday’s (Yes this is not original, not local, but it was what people around the beach said was the closest to us) and had a great experience.  Some of the waitresses found out what we were doing, and we got to have some fun times talking with them.  Mellissa was our waitress, and she was soo much fun.  Gave us the skinny on Boston, a little, had some laughs with us, why can’t every restaurant experience be like this.

To make this blog post longer, at last minute, like on the way to dinner, we finally found a place to stay for the night.  One of my Dad’s co-worker’s (The company has an office in Boston), kindly has let us stay at their house for the night, or for two if we need it.  This was extremely last minute for him, so we are really grateful for his hospitality that he has shown us so far.

As for today, well I just woke up in Boston, on the East Coast.  We are not too sure what we will do today, Freedom Trail, Walk around down town, we may even take a road trip (By Car) to Cape Cod.  But we do have a couple days to just have fun and not bike from A to B, be just bike around point B.

We Made It

Today was an un-usual day… Started the same in that none of us really wanted to get back on our bikes, but we did.  At one point during our ride today, Sam and I realized that we were not really physically tired, like the hilly roads we were on were not that big of deal, but we were just really un-motivated.  For instance… around mile 30 (5 miles after our lunch break) Ben thinks he has a flat, so we pull over at a rest stop which convineitly has some park benches and shade, as Ben and Scott worked in the bike, Sam and I layed down on the benches to wait word that we need to stop biking for the day….. Those words never actually came.  But we all ended up resting for about 15 minutes until we saddled up again.

We were motivated to keep gonig as we knew we were going to stop at the next ice cream shop on teh road, surely there would be one, ended up being another 35 miles till we found it, we stopped at a Gas Statino that sold Ice cream, and between the 4 of us we bought 2 half gallon things of ice cream, I loved it, and ate part of Ben’s half too since he did not want any and was still hingry, so Sam challanged me to another 1/4 Gallon, I accepted, and regretablly finished it.  the last 5 miels to the camp site was not that fun, Sam wanted to race.

To rewind and bring you up to date on Adventures in Utica, From last night….. We got the privilege to go out to dinner with the Johnstons (Kathy, Katie, and Nana), they treated us to a very filling Italian dinner in downtown Utica.  We had a great time with laughs and sharing stories.  Kathy and Katie have been car tripping the East Coast to visit some friends.  They were awesome, and really appreciate them.

These next couple days, we have scheduled with fairly low miles, as we were told there are a lot of hills, but we have been pretty disappointed with the hills, there was a lot of hype with not much living up to the word we heard.  But there are days left to prove us wrong.

New York has become my favorite state to bike through.  My favorite roads are the rolling hills, hills that are short enough to push hard all the way up and then coast down the other side, nothing huge so far.  I am loving it, Trees, Lakes, Rural Cities, Big Cities, Agriculture, etc….

We made it to Buffalo, although the roads there are horrible and not biker friendly (pot holes, cracks, and gravel) and we got lost in the city.  Big cities are proving once again to not be our friend.  We made it to Anchor Bar in Buffalo, where supposedly Buffalo Wings originated, people used to throw wings and legs away as trash because people thought they were useless, until some clever guy in Buffalo dared to dream and put hot sauce on these pieces of meat and declared them awesome.  They spread like wild fire.  And we had more than enough wings, we ordered 100 wings between 5 of us (By the way we all starved ourselves the first 60 miles in order to be starving for these wings, i think our stomachs shrinked instead, should have kept the stomachs primed).  Had a good time with our waitress Marci, she informed us that if we send a picture of ourselves in later they will frame it and put it on the wall. We ate all the wings, i even think we were given 125 wings instead, what good service.

Sam was not feeling good after the wings, so wanted to get a ride 18 miles to Niagra Falls, but…. he wanted to earn it, so we video taped him (or so we thought) taking a “shot” of the suicide sauce for the wings.  Unfortunately Ben forgot to push the record button, so for proof, Sam took another, the 2nd time being way hotter then the first since he decided to lick the second one clean.  Marci gave him a complimentary cup of milk to tame to heat.  Sam earned his ride.

While Scott, Ben and I continued on 18 miles to Niagra Falls, on what have been hands down the worse possible roads we have been on, not because of traffic, but of road condition, we all got really frustrated.

Niagra Falls was a real treat, I honestly did not expect to be soo impressed with water falling over a cliff.  We rode on the Maid of the Mist (Pam and Jim got married on this in the TV show “The Office”) pretty cool experience.  Would recommend everyone to go here at some point in there lives, if you get a chance.

Other New York adventures you might ask…. we have loved the oohh so common local diner’s on the side of the road.  Went to Flo’s diner today (Flo is the name of the waitress from one of the scenes in “Dumb and Dumber”) so we had to stop.  A very generous man heard of our adventure and decided to sponsor us for $30, paid for our meal.  We felt soo blessed, and yesterday stopped at another great diner with really god food, some good locals driving through, met a guy from Albany, that ran the Boston Marathon and loves these kind of adventures.  Have had a great time with people in New York.

Ryan Edick (Who previously went to school in Rochester NY) introduced us to what they call the “Trash Plate” and wow is it interesting, and completely un-healthy.  Basically a big plate with fries and beans topped with your choice of meat, a special sauce all mixed together.  Very good, but not something i should eat very often.

We stayed at Ken and Karin (a family we met through warmshowers.org) in Rochester, they are both retired, and have been doing a lot of touring on there tandem recumbent bicycle, very unique looking contraption.  Pretty cool.  They gave us some tips for traveling through New York, which we found out has an extremely elaborate and friendly bike system.

We are closing in on Boston, we can actually figure our the total miles left and days left, we have 5 days left with 320 miles.  We are in no hurry to push it through yet.

I have been reading Book 1 of the Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers.  And I finished it the other night.  This marks down in history the fastest i have ever read a 500 page book before.  I am really excited about getting Book 2 of 3 and starting that, but may wait till Boston, I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good read.  I got really drawn into the book after about 5 chapters. Kinsey… You may like it, i know you are always looking for a new book after twilight.

Tonight we are staying with Ryan’s Uncle in Utica, New York, and a good friend from school Katie Johnston, Mom and Grandma are going to meet us up here and take us out to dinner.  We are all really looking forward to them.

We continue to be blessed by non-rain weather, although the sun has been taking it’s mark on us. Today i decided it would be a smart idea to bike all day without a shirt to decrease some of the intense tan lines i have acquired thus far.  Well…… mission accomplished but at a small price, burn.  Luckily i bought some aloe a few days back that i have been applying liberally to arms and legs the last couple days.  We have had great weather though the last couple days, we were stormed out one night on day 29, we stayed in a McDonalds for 2 hours to wait for a storm to pass, but besides that we are rollin.

Day 30 – We stayed with some of Sam’s friends, Steve and Laurie Scherk.  Great family that showed us some once again great hospitality and informed us about all the Amish lifestyle questions we had as we biked many miles through Amish communities. We even visited his neighbor, Merv, who is Amish that went further into the culture.  Very Interesting.

I broke my rim on my wheel, probably from a pot hole, bought a new wheel at an Amish bike shop, fun experience, got a GREAT deal.

The last couple of days the heat has brought en us to Love Ice Cream and Slushy breaks.  this is something we are loving, plus there are some great small shacks on the side of the road that have some really good homemade goodies.  Donuts have also found a good spot in our stomachs the last couple of days.  We continue to get asked how much weight we are loosing, and we still are not sure if we are really loosing any, as we eat a TON of food.  But we are all getting a little more conscious of what we are eating as we probably are eating way to much for the low intensity level we are biking.

We have stopped at 2 farmers markets to buy and eat fruit on the spot, sooooo good.  And we wish we would have started this treat earlier in the trip, as we passed many before here.

Besides one other bike breakdown i had, I broke an adapter for my shoe to my crankbrother pedals, to make the story short, i had to buy some new pedals.  Once again purchases that are not planned in the budget.

Last night we took a nice relaxing swim in Lake Erie, a few girls were laughing as they saw ben without a shirt, but due to his tan, they actually thought he was still wearing a shirt.  Our campsite was showing Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squekqual, so of course we had to watch it.

We are a little south of Buffalo, tomorrow we will try Buffalo Wings at a restaurant in which they were started.  And spend the rest of the day at Niagra Falls.  Our trip is going by fast, we are concerned with what we are going to do with all the energy our bodies are used to spending when we get back and not biking 100 miles a day.

Lets try a new method of blogging, bullet points of the last 2 days, i may have done something similar to this earlier.

-Yesterday morning, Sam broke a spoke, Ben and I finished the day with one of the wettest afternoons yet, thankfully it was warm so the pouring rain did not kill the moral.

-Stayed at a friend of Ben Hollon’s Dad in northern Chicago, got treated to yet once again another great meal.  We feel kinda spoiled as we have had about 3 days in a row of staying with famlies in houses.  It is nice being outside of the middle of nowhere, where people actually live.

-Some after dinner conversations got directed towards technology and computers and tech junk in which i nearly blacked out as all these numbers and codes where tossed around, soon enough i found a lull in the conversatino and intervined with a proposal to race the Ironman in Madison WI with Sam.  We decided we will, then Lance (A friend that drove scott back and is hanging with us for a few days) wants to do a Half, and we went on talking about what it takes to swim the English Channel, that would be crazy….

-after 75 miles today, we are STILL in Chicago, but now just southeast of it, this place is huge, and we do not like biking through cities anymore. But we did find a trail to bike on today for a while, but a lot of stop and go as it crossed roads.

-Sam re-joined after 50 miles and finished the day with us once he got his spokes fixed

-I have declared i will never eat Panda Express again, it tasted delicious, but did not do good things to my stomach for the ride after lunch.