so here is another collection of pictures from the trip. they are of the past week of riding. we are trying to get caught up so we are just starting to put pictures up. some of the last few blogs are out of order cuz Jarod got excited and posted his blog before i could post the new ones.

Three pass Wednesday - June 23

We rode ahead to Prairie City to get breakfast before the girls caught up with us. We found a little local kitchen and got 2 biscuits and gravy for $3.50, it was so good. The girls finally rode in and we started the climb of the first of the three passes of the day. They all started rough at 3500 ft and summited around 5100.

We climbed one pass at a time and just as we were about to climb the third pass we decided to eat lunch by a fresh water spring. If you have not guessed yet we ate ramen for lunch and it was just as good as the first day we ate it for lunch. Jarod broke another spoke, which made us really nervous cuz we did not if his bike would make it to the next shop. We took a water break at about 4760 ft and I looked up how much further the lake was on my phone, only 10 more miles! We mounted up and Taylor swift took us to the top of the pass, she did a great. The down hill was amazing, all the way to the lake! The group found a great place to camp by the lake with high hopes of not paying! We ended real early that day and decided to take a refreshing dip in the lake. This was not refreshing at all, it was ice cold and a storm was rolling in. At first glance it almost looked like a green smog was rolling across the lake as we swam. Well in fact, it was a huge pollen cloud that was miles wide and blanketed the valley the lake was in. I quickly swam out of the lake to retrieve my allergy pills and watch Jarod and Chad, with a few girls, stuck out on the dock. They finally jumped back into the freezing water and we all went back to set up camp before the storm rolled in. Well the storm came in real quick and caught us in the middle of setting up camp. The girls went to a little shelter to eat dinner, we just laid in the tent and cooked dinner. We did not come out of the tent for a good hour and half, that is where the food was, so why would we. After the storm passed and we all had dinner, we played a game Chad told us about that made for a great ice breaker for the two groups. The pass couple of days where a little weird as we kinda just hung out together. As the game started we just meshed and it was the start of an amazing friendship and journey across america together.

We decided to gather firewood to get warm as the chilly air rolled across the lake. The whole group spread out and started looking for wood. Me and Chad went to get small stuff to start the fire for Jarod walked off without the hatchet and that only met he would bring back a tree. Sure enough me and Chad had all the little stuff in the pit and Jarod stools in to camp with logs and he "found" a wooden post that happen to read sewage on the side of it. He said it was dry....it made for a good laugh and kept us nice and warm.

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Location:Phillips lake

Chocolate chip cookies for breakfast....yes Please

Well we discovered that all five girls combined have the same weight as one of us, we really thought about it and said we might be able to live with out some of this stuff. We decided to ship stuff home when we got the chance due to all the flat tire problems we were having, which all the weight probably caused.

Well no morning is complete with out some form of bake good, so we waited at the front door of the small store and waited for it to open. We got a couple of the best muffins in Oregon, and Jarod got a carton of chocolate milk. After our delicious breakfast we took off down the road after the girls for they just left us, we later found out that they thought we left them. We caught up with them and broke wind for the group and enjoyed the amazing view as we climbed up a small hill,all 4369 ft of it, only to peddle over the top to an amazing decent that twisted though a canyon. The group got split up due a front flat on my bike. We concluded that something was stuck inside my tire that kept popping tubes. We finally caught up with the girls and took a small detour to see Somo national monument, this was a lame detour. We had 8 more miles to lunch in dayville. Lunch consisted of ramen and instant mash potatoes, the girls gave us the idea, it is amazing. Jarod broke a spoke and made lunch just a little bit longer, but everyone was fine with that for it was about 87 and no clouds. We finally reach John Day and the group split for dinner, girls grocery store and guys subway. We put down a foot long and cookies. We all bought at least 3 cookies and then saw they just pulled fresh cookies out of the oven and could not let them go to waste. We bought a dozen and spilt it, it was a perfect way to end the night, so we thought.

We received a phone call from the girls and they said that they found a church to stay at and if we want to we could call and ask if we could to. We called and the pastors wife answered and said i don't know about boys and girls staying together. So to make things easier we were going to try our luck out side of town and find a spot by the river or maybe try our luck with a farmer. We rode about six miles out sided of town and came to the first farm house, no luck with this one. The next one just looked inviting, so we stopped and asked to see if we could stay by the river or in the corner of the farm. The farmer was more then will to help us out and let us stay in his barn. This was just the begging of an amazing night that just kept getting better.

Ben and Chandra owned a cattle farm just outside of John Day and had to wonderful children. He showed us the barn to stay in and asked if we needed anything for the night, we told him thank you but we are good. We started to set up the tent and get for bed and dinner. We herd a 4-wheeler approaching and Ben came back with a pitchfork, he said it was to kill the rattle snakes. Now we where excited, he even asked if we wanted to go hunt rattle snakes before dark. Before we could say yes or no, he saw mine and Jarod's fishing poles and asked if we want to go trout fishing. The moment we have been waiting for the whole trip, trout fishing! He told us he had a stocked pond with about 100 trout that he has not fished yet. His family joined us around the pound and we caught dinner. It was amazing to get to know this family and to eat trout. Jarod caught a little guy and Ben, the farmer, caught a huge one for us to eat. We headed back to the barn to start a fire to make dinner, trout ramen. Ben was on is way back to the house and told us he would leave the 4-wheeler we used to go back to the lake with us in case we wanted to use it. He also mentioned something about maybe his wife would make use breakfast in the morning. We could not believe the night we where having, we have truly been blessed byso many people across the country.

We packed up camp in the morning with high hopes of bacon and pancakes...etc. When we approached the house Chandra was in the door way to greet us with a good morning, and a good morning it was indeed. She one upped our hopes and went straight to the top.....COOKIES! Chocolate chip to be exacted. She even asked if we minded eating cookies for breakfast, little did she know that we ate donuts for breakfast almost every morning. We said our good byes and thank you, and made sure to leave out blog site and exchanged e-mails.


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Location:John Day, Oregon

You never know who you will run into....

We decided to start getting up earlier to beat the heat and end earlier in the evenings. We woke up with smith rock still blanketing the canyon below with a cool shadow. As the alarm went off we just tightened our mummy bags up and rolled over for just five more minutes. Which turned into another solid 40 min of sleep, until the sun came up over smith rock and turn the tent into a sauna. Me and Jarod got out of the tent and as usual Chad slept for another 10 min. We packed up camp and headed off to the small town of Mitchell, Oregon. We biked about 2 miles and I got a front flat tire once again. After a quick fix we were back on the road and heading to the middle of nowhere. The country side was amazing and made for a beautiful afternoon ride. It seemed like the sun just kept getting hotter and hotter and the miles longer and longer as we rode on. We finally came to the small town of Primeville and ate lunch. We saw a sign for subway....umm chocolate chip cookies! We headed in to town to find the subway and as we went down main street all three of us screamed PIZZA BUFFET! This took care of lunch and after a lot of pizza and a quick water bottle fill, we saddled up for our trek to Mitchell. We only had one long, tall obstacle ahead of us....Ochacco pass. It felt like we climbed forever as the temperature climbed and seemed like it was not going to stop. Finally we saw our favorite sign at the top of the hill, the down hill sign with a 7% down grade for miles.

The sun started to fall behind the mountains as we approached the small town of Mitchell. A big sign read business district, we turned down the road thinking we could get a cool drink from the local store. The first ten buildings we came to either where falling apart or had a closed sign in the window. This was not a good feeling due to the fact we just biked through a desert and really needed some donuts. We found just one small store open in town that did not have much but was enough to feed us, no donuts though. As we were checking out, the cashier lady told us three girls just bought some fire wood from them and where biking too. This caught our attention and we asked if they were staying in the camp ground across the road. She said yes and we got our food and peddle to the camp grounds not knowing what to expect. As we entered the camp, we found that there where five girls and they where heading to Maine. After further discussion we found that they were riding the same route we where until Yellowstone National park. Both groups had a camp fire and just talked about our adventures so far. We both decided it would be sweet if we grouped up and rode together till Yellowstone.

We barley knew each other, but we had one goal in common, THE EAST COAST!

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Snakes and Sprinklers - June 24

Oxbow, Oregon

(This post is written by Jarod)

So what an interesting last day in Oregon!! It all began at 6:00 AM where we awoke to what sounded like a hail storm smashing the tent! We all sat straight up in our sleeping bags wondering what in the world was happening. Chaz peaks his head out the door to find that our tent is surrounded by sprinklers. All of our cloths were hanging to dry and our bags just sitting right out in the open, for there was not a chance of rain that night. Chaz tells me that my bike and bags were just getting blasted so I jump out of my bag, run out of the tent where I totally trip and fall flat on my face in the wet grass. I get up and moved all of the bikes out of the sprinklers except Chaz's HAHA and it was just because his bike was covered in hanging clothes and looked way to complicated to move at 6:00 in the morning. While I was moving the bikes, a man came down and apologized and said that the sprinklers were set on a timer. I really couldn't say much too him other than "oh that's fine" because after all, we were camping in the day use area. So after laughing hysterically, we finally go back to sleep only to wake up to another lady at 6:30 AM! She screams "I hope you guys realise that your stuff is getting soaked, I hope you guys pay me my ten bucks for camping in my DAY USE AREA." She then left an envelope on my bike and rode off. This did nothing except made us even angrier at the whole situation. We all went back to sleep, again, and didn't wake up until about 8:30 - where again Chaz peaks his head out of the tent and Say's "guys! we need to get up, the girls already have there tent torn down and are ready to go." Its funny because that is exactly how it is every morning. The girls are always ready to leave before us, but we laugh about it. We decided that our groups are good together because they get us out of camp and we keep them on pace on the road. But anyways, we crawl out of the tent in between the sprinklers and begin to pack up. We pull our tent out of the sprinkler area to dry just after 9:00. Then, oddly enough the sprinklers just randomly shut off at exactly 9:11. They kept them on for 3 hours and 11 minutes and they shut off immediately after we move our tent out of the area.... seemed a little fishy to us.
After discussing all the nice "presents" that we could leave in the envelope and drop in the box, we decide its best to do nothing and just leave. When I say "do nothing" that obviously means do not pay.
We rode off around a dam, along a river, up a huge hill to another dam and finally to a huge lake in the middle of the mountains! Amazing. On the way, we come across about a 3 foot long snake sunbathing on the road. Obviously Chad, Chaz and I stop, start taking pictures and video's when it escapes in to the high weeds. We now could not find it so we started chucking rocks to find it. Chad thinks he spots it, so I chuck a rock and sure enough "hsssssssssssss!!!!!" We got it! We all just start chucking rocks, chad smacking with a stick haha... We may have gotten a little bit carried away. We now have all the weeds in the area flattened and the snake pinned under a rock. I got a huge boulder and chucked it and totally missed haha.. it was very funny. But we find more and kill it as Chad is just beating it time and time again with a huge stick. Cars driving by had to just think "what on earth is going on over there in the grass" haha. We were going to eat it for dinner, but since it was so early in the day and none of us wanted to carry a snake on our bikes, we decide to feed the fish instead. After riding several more miles, we go through a swarm of "bugs," where I say wow look at how many bugs there are. I then hear Chad scream "These are not bugs, these are BEE'S! We all kind of panic and just zoom out of there. It was crazy ow many bee's there were! We ride on across the lake and stop for lunch at a little cafe on the lake. It was nice because it was just beginning to rain and all 8 of us were able to sit inside and actually order food from a menu and be waited on for once. After Chad, Chaz, and I ate a double burger, fries and beans, the waitress tells us that for 2 bucks, she will make us a cone as large as she possibly can. How can we say no to this? We let her make these cones and WOW, she sure did fit a lot of ice cream on these cones. As we were eating our cones another group of 4 guys from Seattle roll in. They were riding the same exact trail across America as we were! We talked about our trip a bit as we ate our cones, finished, and then headed out. Bad timing on bloating ourselves because we now had a ridiculously long hill to climb, 7 miles long. The uphill is always hard work, but the down hill always makes it worth it, although this time we had to ride down hill in rain. the hill drops us right in to a small town where we take a little break and eat a little snack. We pack back up and ride on the final 20 miles of the day to a town called Council. The last several miles we had to pick up the pace in order to beat a storm that seemed to be following us but we were successful and were able to set up camp in the local park. We all decided that a "family" dinner would be fun so we headed to the grocery store where the girls got all the stuff to make burritos. We went back, the girls cooked as Chad, Chaz and I did what we could to help them (which was hardly nothing at all, they had it under control, I think we just were in the way), so really we just sat and watched. The burritos turned out AMAZING! Like every bit as good as Chipotle, if not better. We all bloated ourselves, once again - then moved on to desert. The first desert was watermelon followed by Chad, Chaz, and mine dessert surprise. Donuts that we covered in cookie doough. Wow, if you have never tried this, you need too!! We pretty much ate til we were sick then sat/laid around the rest of the night and just talked and had a good time. Finally found the ambition to get up and make our ways to the tents and pass out for the night.

Once again....sorry

Some of these got posted out of order....we have to post these so quick.


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It's a small world

Before we left i did some research and found a few different web sites for bikers. One of them was warm showers, which people opened up there house and let you shower, use their kitchen, and camp in their back yard. I found someone that would let us stay in his back yard. He had an amazing story to tell and we could not wait to meet him. He biked across America, bike a mountain bike trial from Canada to Mexico, and walked across 17 states. He informed me that he might not be there that those days and we could stay with his best friend who was the first women to unicycle across America. Well as you know from pervious post that we are behind schedule and when we got to Eugene, it was the middle of the day and we spent a good portion of it in REI getting our new tent.

As we where biking to the state park in a small town outside of Eugene a car slowed down and a women asked if we were going across America? We told her yes and she said she did it back in 2006. We exchanged a few more words and they said bye and drove off. We looked down the road and the same car was parked n the side of the road and the two women where waiting by the car for us. They asked us if we knew of some hot springs and asked if we had a place to stay tonight. They showed us where to go to get to the hot springs and though a little more conversation we found out that the women that biked across America in fact did it on a unicycle. We all looked at each other and i asked her if she was the first women to and if she new a Matt. She said yes i do, he is my best friend in fact. The three of us started to laugh and said no way, we were going to stay at matt's house last night but did not make it. He told us we could stay at his best friends house who was the first women to unicycle across America. If you have not made the connection....it was her. It was sweet to talk to her and her friend for awhile. We got our picture taking and we went our separate ways.


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Location:Eugene, Oregon

We are unworthy

Last night we all three decided it would be a good idea to stay for the church service, it the least we could do since they let us stay the night. We also figured that our mothers would be happy we went to church. Before the service started we wanted to ride our bikes to the local bakery and get our morning donuts. The town of sisters has an amazing bakery, if you drive though we suggest stopping in. The pastors wife offered to drive us to the bakery and we could not pass up getting to the bakery faster. We had just about everything packed up before the service started that morning and decided it was time to go to the sanctuary after the 10th person came in to talk to us. The service was amazing, about fathers days of course, and we walked away thankful we have the wonderful dad's we do.

Once the service was over, pastor Frank and his wife Mary, invited us veer for lunch. We told them we would be fine and we did not want to intrude on their fathers day. They said it was fine and that was all it took for us. They told us to arrive around 1:30, we pulled in at 1:29 and ready for lunch at 1:31. We had no idea what lied ahead for us as we sat in the family room staring out the big window over looking the three sisters. Which we found out there original names were hope, faith, and charity. Mary said lunch was ready and our jaws hit the floor when we came to the table. A huge plate of ham, the flakiest bisects, big bowl of green beans, and a huge backed potato. It did not end there either, for desert we had some of the best ice cream and lemon meringue pie. Some food was still on the table and they kept telling us to eat more. Everyone id they were done and we then cleaned the table of everything. We walked away with the feeling they thought we were savages. We had a great time with them and learned a lot about the town and other sweet fact about the mountains and such. They waved us off as we pulled out of the drive way to soak up the sun. This was really the first day we had true sun and we were enjoying every second of it. Oh wow... Totally forgot to tell you the name of the church, it was New Hope church in Sisters, Oregon.

We had a good 2 miles down the road they lived on to get back to our route. As we turned the corner we hit a huge tail wind for the first time and it pushed us at a blazing speed of 20 miles an hour to the next town. We had entered some what of a desert and it was a good change of sene. We peddled down in tho a gorgeous canyon, only to peddle up out of it a few miles later. We rolled into the town of Redmond, Oregon and we were really surprised at how many unfriendly people live in Redmond. Sorry guys but you get voted worst city on the trip so far. We where on our way to wal-mart when we stopped at a stop sign and two thugs with their pants around their ankles walked by and said....I wish i could wear tights to. Then when we asked one at a store front where the nearest laundry mat was, a man in his car was screaming at us and yelling you guys going to cross or not. I kindly answered yes we are going to cross...lol.





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Location:Sisters, Oregon

New tent day!

So the first night we camped out we found that the tent had holes where the pools rubbed up against the tent. We don't really know how they got there besides the sun baked the poles to the tent when Jarod had it set up at home. We called black diamond to see what they could do for us, only thing they could do was send us patches. Long story short we sent that tent back and got a new one when we reached Eugene at REI.

pictured above is the new tent.

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Location:Eugene, Oregon

This mountain is not going to climb itself!

After a great nights rest by the river, we headed down the road with a big decision ahead. We had two ways to see the cascade mountain range. One consisted of going a couple extra miles with a gradual up hill, and the other was pretty much straight up with a lot of switch backs. We stopped at the ranger station to ask if the pass was passable this time of year. They told us it should be pretty clear, and bikers have been coming across with no problem for days now. But, they did show us a picture that a biker took about 5 days ago with 12 foot walls of snow on either side of him. This made the pass a little more interesting, and it would be sweet to see the snow like that on the side of the roads. Along with the snow, we had the chance to see one of the biggest lava fields in the states that stretched for 50 miles. On top of the mountain, there was an observatory to see the three sisters, Mt. Washington, and the lava fields. So the pass was looking pretty good and the ranger said it was worth the ride, but the other route offered some pretty sweet stuff as well. Many movies where shot at these falls not too far off the road and made for a difficult decision. We came up with the idea if we went up the pass we would try to climb the middle sister. The ranger station had a sweet 3-D map that we looked over. We decided that we would all point to the route we wanted to take. 1...2...3...point! We all pointed to the three sisters with hopes of climbing one of them.

The trip was amazing up the pass. 11 miles down the road a gate was shut to keep cars from going up over the mountain until it was ready for safe travel. We had the whole road to our self and kept climbing up and up and up. We passed 2000 feet......3000 feet....and came to a little pull off that said water falls that way. We could not pass up the opportunity for a hike. About a half mile into the hike, we came to a gorgeous water fall about 150 feet tall in the middle of no where. We even got to hike though a small lava field. We got back on the bikes and climbed for another 1000 feet and reached the lava fields, which were amazing. We all got a small piece of lava, like we need anymore weight on our racks, and got a sweet group picture. Back on the bikes and finished our climb to the 5324 summit. It was sprinkling the whole way up the mountain, and when we reached the top it was raining and about 14 degrees cooler if not more from the bottom of the mountain. So we could not really enjoy ourselves, but did get to go into a pretty sweet observatory that had these sweet windows that lined up with all the mountains which we could not see because of the clouds. We had enough of the rain and booked it down the mountain and into the town of Sisters. We let Chad do his thing and see if we could find a church to stay in instead of the tent. We found a very nice little church just outside of town that opened up there doors to us, how God continues to bless and watch over us is amazing. Once at the church, it was time to grab dinner. This was an amazing experience for us. We took off all our bags and left them at the church as we rode into town for food. We all about did a burnout as we left the church parking lot. We stopped at a local grocery store called Ray's, and we picked up some frozen vegetables to cook on the church stove. As we were checking out, we had to ask if there was a good bakery in town and if they had any leftover donuts they were going to toss. It's a good thing we asked because we got two packs of donuts for the price of one. A quick run to the store and a nice warm sit down dinner at McDonald's made for a wonderful night.


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Location:Mackenzie pass

Happy fathers day!

We would like to take a little time out of our trip to say thank you to our dad's for being with us every step of the way with this trip and for the pass 20 some years. You have taught us everything we know that gave us the ability to even make this trip. Without you we would be lost....you have done a great job being a husband and a wonderful father to us. We love you and can't wait to see you in Yorktown!

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Location:Sisters, Oregon

Sorry.....

Well the last few blogs where posted a little out of order due to us being in a big hurry. So when you read them they might not make since.


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A coastal adventure

So as you have already seen from the pictures posted a few days ago, we have hit the coast! It was a great feeling to see the pacific ocean, for it was a new chapter in our adventure. We hit highway 101, new and old, and enjoyed the view of the white capped waves crashing on the beach. Looking ahead we saw countless haystacks along the coast with high hopes of seeing a whale just beyond it. This never happened, but the view was enough to satisfy the eye.

The first day on the coast was not the best of days, cloudy and rainy, nothing new. It has been overcast and rainy since Portland and has really put a damper on the trip. After a good 18 miles ride down the coast, we called it a day. Night time can be the craziest time of the day. It is a very different feeling not knowing where you are going to seep for the night. We came across an RV park, which was full, so finally for the first time we started to knock on doors. After much knocking and another mile of pedaling, we, I mean Chad, woke up a guy who had to get up at 1:30 for work. Thankfully, he let us stay and was very happy to help us out. So a huge thanks goes out to him for his charity.

We knew it was going to rain a little that night or in the morning, so we wrapped a tarp around the bikes and gear. Then crawled in to bed for journal time, which usually consist of a lot of nodding off and about a half page of scribble.




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Location:The Oregon Coast

Is That Another Viewpoint?

So today did not start out well at all, with a hard rain and cloudy skies for miles in every direction, moral went down a little. We crawled out of the tent and started to pack up, but it started to rain. To make a long story short, it stopped raining, camp was packed up, thank you note left, and saddled up again to keep on keeping on.

Now this is when the day went from the worst day to a pretty good day. We will give you a progress update blog later, but this is where it all started. We started riding and saw a sign down the road....BAKERY! We had to stop to see...we love donuts. It's a good thing we did because one of America's best donuts is made here. This will all be laid out in our blog about the best bakeries across America. You can thank us later for doing this for you. As we were enjoying some of the best donuts, an older couple was enjoying breakfast. They left and the the gentleman left a WHOLE piece of toast. But this was of no concern to the man who was busting the table. For Chad this was a big problem, and if you have not guessed it yet, Chad ate the toast off the guys plate.

If the day could not get any better, the sun came out and off came the warm clothes. The ocean never looked better with sun glistening and the white capped waves crashing on shore. It looked so good that every viewpoint we came to, we stopped, took pictures and talked to many different people. This caused a problem due to the fact that some view points were only a half mile from each other....and us behind schedule. We came to a tunnel just over 1/4 mile long that had lights for bikers that was activated by pushing a button like a cross walk. Now the excitement of the tunnel was short lived for a very long incline lay ahead. After a good 45 min climb, we reached the top to come to the best view point of our coastal adventure. It was here where we met an older man who has biked across America before. It was a privilege to talk to him and his wife.

From the viewpoint, we could see lunch, the only problem was it was a good 4 miles away and we were very hungry. When we came to the town it looked a little small and not much to eat at. The next town was a few miles down the road, so we took off down the road to get lunch. We arrived and found out that the town was a tourist town, very expensive. So we did the next best thing, found a bakery! We all had four donuts for lunch and it was amazing. Ya we kinda of have a donut problem.

The rest of day consisted of biking down the coast and riding into more rain. This led to cooler weather and a nice ride around the Tillamock bay. When we reached Tillamock, we started to look for a Safeway to buy dinner for the night. Dinner this night was one of the best the whole trip and only cost about $3 total for all three of us. The price went up when saw a huge sign the said fresh berries next right. We pulled in and what we found was some some of the best fruit in Oregon and very nice people. We have been so blessed to meet so many nice folks along our journey that have helped out in any way they can. Sheree and Dan own the double D fruit stand in tillamock and blessed us with some great deals. They cut the price for everything about half and then as we where leaving they gave us a of dented apples. We ate like kings for the first time on the trip. With a couple pounds of spaghetti from safeway, and red potatoes,oranges, and apples from the fruit stand.

Our camping destination was a little park on the mouth of the bay, another 10 miles or so. We came to the state park that we thought had camping, but it did not so we camped out unnoticed, in a little building. We will put pictures up ASAP of this, it's pretty funny were we stayed. After our great dinner we crawled in to the tent and journaled for a bit. In the morning we walked to the lighthouse at the end of the cape to see if we could see any whales in the bay, no luck.


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Eugene or bust!

After we packed up the bikes and started down the road,the hunt was on for the nearest bakery. We passed the Grand ronde casino with the biggest buffet in Oregon, and it was very hard to pass up.

Once again, the skies did not look good and as bear grylls say....if a cloud looks menacing, it is! We waited out the rain for a bit at a gas station only to find out they had $.75 Donuts! So we waited out the rain just a little bit longer and headed towards the next town, Corvallis, Oregon. After a good afternoon ride, we came to a little town called mammoth and ate lunch at subway. On the way into town, we found a bike path along side the road and decided to get off the road and use the path for a change. We were just about a half mile out, and Chad said....Chaz you have not had a flat in awhile. Right after he said that, my back tire blew out and we had to change my tire. He had to say something. Subway was great and short lived, we were trying to get to Eugene, Oregon. So we headed off to the next town, which we new had a bike shop, to get new tires and tubes to stop all these flats from happening.

The sun was shinning, the skies blue, and a great tail wind to our backs. The afternoon ride was great and we got to Corvallis in no time. The people at the bike shop where very helpful and set us up with some very nice tires. I also picked up a new seat on top of new tires, let's just say i would like to have kids down the road and the blood flow was not real good below. And great balls of fire the new seat is amazing and will make the rest of the ride that much better. We picked up dinner and got our fathers day package ready for shipping. We called home and after a nice chat with the folks we came to the conclusion, Eugene was a bust....we were not going to make it tonight. So the next best thing was the town of Harrisburg, which was awarded town of excellence in 2002. I guess we where just 8 years to late. We decided to use our good luck charm Chad, and call another church. We have already been very blessed with churches opening their doors up and letting us stay. We decided to call one church before we started to look for a place to camp. The pastor was more then happy to help us out and even said that some guys come around 9 to play basketball and we are more than welcome to play. We said we will see after dinner! This was our most creative dinner of the trip so far. We used left over spaghetti from the other night and ramen noodles. We added some eggs to the mix and tossed it all on a piece of bread and had some very tasty sandwiches.

We went in to the gym where we were going to stay, and the guys just started to play basketball. We couldn't resist but to join in even though we biked all day. After a few games, we cleaned and went to bed.

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here are some pictures of the first few days.

Count your blessing one bye one, and we mean one by one

So we made it to the town of grand ronde with hardly and any energy left and very hungry stomachs. All the RV parks were closed and all but two little stores were opened. One had all snacks and the other one was back across town. It is now about 8:45 with no food but what we had packed on our bikes with no place to stay. We passed a church and stopped in only to find no one was at the church. A man lived next to the church and we knocked on his door and had all our prayers answered in about 38 sec. He gave us the number to his pastor who pastored a NAZARENE church down the road. We called and he said i will be waiting at the door of the church for you. We love NAZARENES! This was the first moment we knew that god was truly watching out for us on this trip. We got to use the kitchen, in which we made a huge pot of beans and ate two loafs of expired English muffins we picked up in a small town a couple miles back for a dollar. Having bathrooms and sleeping under a roof made for a great night sleep. Especially since we were soaking wet and very tired from the
very fast up hill climb to the small town. This was also the first time we realized that we have been able to use a bathroom the whole trip so far. We cleaned up and left a very big thank you note in the mooring.


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Location:grand ronde, oregon

Kissing the coast good bye

So up at 8 and out of camp at 10 and on the road again. It was another rainy morning which led to a day of taking on and off the rain gear. We rode along the coast with a very bitter sweet felling for today was going to be our last day on the coast but we would turn a page on our journey as we head inland.

Now we have rode down almost the whole coast of Oregon and never found a good place to touch the ocean, but in the last spot on the coast was the perfect place to touch the ocean and truly go from ocean to shinning ocean. As we walked on the beach we found to women walking their dogs on the beach and was perfect timing to take a great group picture of us on the beach. We decided we needed to take something from the pacific coast, so we took a rock from the beach. And if anyone knows Jarod he is pretty simple minded sometimes, and he found the biggest piece of jade he could. Me and Chad just looked at each other, shook our heads and kept trying to find the perfect LITTLE rock. As we started back towards the bikes we heard Jarod yelling and the sound of rocks smashing. He decided to smash the big piece of jade. He deiced just one rock was good enough from the coast, he has the rest of america to find rocks. Before we left the beach we decided to top of the pacific with a little more fluids.

From the beach we got off 101 and started a very beautiful ride down, well up, old 101. We started down a 10 mile stretch of old 101 that took us though a national forest and a nice climb up a little mountain. The decent was about 4 miles and was by far the best down hill the whole trip. With windy turns and just the fact it was down hill...lol....made for a great ride. At the foot of the hill we came to a small gas station and took a break only to look back and see it just started to rain on the mountain we just came down.
We decided to wait to see where the storm was heading. Our destination was Grand Ronde, Oregon about 22 miles away. It was getting late and we did not know if we would make it to the town before dark or get caught in a rain storm. We decided to go for it and try to make it to the town.


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Location:Oregon coast

It's ok, I just get up at 2 A.M.

So after a wonderful night sleep in a sweet park, and our goodbyes to Bob, we saddled up and hit the road. It was a cool morning as we were approaching the coast! We were told back in Portland that we will encounter a big incline....well we did! We climbed for 924 feet and descended for 720 feet, only to go back up another hill down the road. This one was not as bad, only 813 feet. As for the decent.....well we were zipping down hill and all yelled STOP! Which usually means that something is wrong, but Coming up to a light, Chad found a license plate on the side of the road.

But this time we all yelled stop with a huge grin on our faces, and almost dumped the bikes to run down a small trail to an amazing little babbling creek. We spent quite some time there taking pictures and shooting the breeze. We hopped back on the bikes with a goal of getting to Astoria, oregon. This goal was reached but what happened before that must be told. We descend from the mountains...thank goodness....and started towards the coast only to be stopped by are first flat tire....Chad! We pulled off the road and started to fix the flat with some locals walking by asking where we are going. ( this happens often) once fixed we speed off to Astoria only to get their and be greeted by yet another flat tire. This time it was my turn ( that's Chaz for all you people who don't know it's me) and it took for ever this time. My tire some how was smaller then the rim and made for a great stop in Astoria.

Not only two miles down the road from us was the ocean,my first time west of the Mississippi river. The rain clouds put a damper on things but still made for a great coastal ride. With rain on it's way and our stomachs getting angry at us, we started to find a place to sleep. We knocked on doors,stopped at an rv camp,and finally found someone to let us stay in his back yard. We just woke him up at 8:30 when he has to get up at 2 for work. It made for a great night full of bonding and oh yes, lots of food! Tonights dinner is on the list of the best so far with ramen noodles and egg.


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Living the good life

So today ended with a big surprise that is going to make the rest of the trip very different. It's was starting to get dark and we where looking for a place to set up camp. Oh look a lake.....a pavilion....no wait, three pavilions....and wait is that running water and an electric stove! YES it is! Our very first night camping we found a old camp ground that we thought was not in use, but later we found out other wise.

So with running water, and an electric stove, we started to make dinner together. We devoured beans and weenies and where very satisfied with our $5 dinner for three. The rest of the night consisted of cleaning up and journal time in the tent. This happens every night about 10 o'clock. Last nights session started at 10 and ended at 10:09. We where pretty tired and in need of a good nights rest. We awoke to the tapping of metal, a wood pecker was pecking at a pool that had a metal cap on it.

Bob, who was opening up the park, kindly asked us what we where doing on this fine morning. We replied with biking across America, in hopes he would not kick us out. He thought it was sweet and said you guys are fine. We packed up and hit the road again.



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That stupid hat paid off.

So after a well nights rest we started to pack up and went to a little bakery and got DONUTS! We got directions to the bike shop and took our first steps into Portland, it was a beautiful morning. We made it about 3/4 of a mile out of the airport and then......a car slows down and stops in front of us. Many different things were going through our heads. But little did we know, Larry was a driver who just dropped off some billionaire that owned an organic food company. We walked up to the car and with a big smile he rolled down the window and asked where we were heading. I think he would of just passed us and kept going if it was not for Jarod's stupid hat, it screams I'm a tourist. So he gave us a ride to the bike shop where our bikes are waiting for us. During the drive we came to learn that Larry is a godly man that was on his way to his church. He and his wife are bikers that have biked many miles together on a tandem.
We came to the bike shop and said our thank you's and told him he just made our blog. As Larry was getting ready to leave he handed us a card and said if you guys get in trouble or need a place to stay tonight give me a call. So thank you Larry for you kindness and god bless you and your family.


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Location:Portland, Oregon

Shh....I'm still sleeping

It all started as we landed in Houston with 20 min to get to the connecting flight. Now mind you we still had to get off the plane and find the gate as well. As we where waiting to get off the plane me and Jarod where talking and he told me I hope gate C17 is close. I said wait a min...C17, you mean C34. Panic slowly came across our faces as we both yelled Chad! His ticket said C17 as well. So i was the odd man out and decided to not freak out just yet until we ask someone. It's a good thing we did as someone because the kind lady told us our gate was E23! So the mad dash across the airport started and it was a sight to see. Three guys sprinting with big backpacks on and one of us with a stupid hat on, Jarod, must of been pretty fun. Especially when Chad thought it would be easier to run on the speed walker until he ran into a group of Asians half way down. Let's just say me and Jarod made it to the gate first.

As the plane landed in Portland and we where said our goodbyes to our friends on the plane with last hopes of maybe one of them would let us stay at there house tonight. After the goodbyes, a lump formed in our throats. The only way back is by bike, this is really happening! This feeling was completely over shadowed as pure boredom set in. We wondered around the airport for at least an hour until we found the perfect spot to sleep. It happened to be the only place to really sleep, and it was the waiting area for families. Let's just say it was not quite until about 2 o'clock. Then final sleep set in and all was well. Or at least we thought! Im wide awake and can nit go back to bed because it is 8 in the morning.....at home! It's only 5 in Portland.

Well I'm going to try to get some more sleep before we hike across Portland to get the bikes. But before I go, let me just say that Jarod rolled over this morning and said " But I don't want to ride my bike. Today." this might be a long trip lol...god bless and keep checking back for more post.




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6 feet under

Once all the hello's and good byes where said, it sank in...we are on a one way ticket to the other side of the country. At this point we just turned to each other and laughed, "we are biking across America!"

At this point we got to talking and we all felt like are parents just said there FINAL goodbyes to their sons, never to hear from them again. So this is a shout out to our parents to say thank you for letting us do one of the most craziest amazing things we will ever do in our lives. This trip could not of happened without your love and support. We love you guys so much and can't wait to see you in Virginia.

Now get ready for the biggest story of our lives that will change us forever, and we want you to be apart of it. We do not know when we will be able to update the blog but will do our best to update it at least once a week. Thank you for all the support and prayers and i hope everyone has a great summer working!


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