Why Not Bicycle?
Seriously... why not?
Friday, October 7, 2011
Wait... its OCTOBER!?!?!
So ANYWAYS, I had my interview that Wednesday and that night we had a ton of fun going out for "Geeks who Drink" trivia at a local brewpub with friends from back in CA, Toshia & Jorge Chavez, where we successfully assisted in defending their title of 'almost 3rd place!' The next day we started making the drive back to the Hatten's in St. Louis -- this time through scenic Kansas, lol. We were really torn on what we wanted to do next, and since we've never really had a solid plan of where this bike ride was heading, it took a lot of back and forth debating to finally decide on what our next move was going to be. At the end of the day, we just weren't that excited about any of our directional choices when it came to biking. I mean, once we reached Missourri, we were looking at having to head through either Nebraska, Kansas or Oklahoma... all of which we've both driven through and none of which were particularly interesting to us as far as biking went. Plus, moving into October most of the campgrounds were now closed for the season, and places to stay were few and far between.
So based on all that and a lot of other factors, we decided to just head back to CT to pick up our junk and move out to Denver now! Boy am I glad that was our decision because just a couple days ago the company I interviewed with called and offered me the job -- woot! I'm glad I found out about it while I'm here getting ready to move, and not while riding my bicycle through Oklahoma! LOL.
So now we are here in CT packing up and saying 'see ya later' to Jeff's family and some old friends. We pick up our trailers tomorrow and will be heading out of town early Sunday morning on our way out to Colorado. We will of course be stopping in at the Hatten's in St. Louis to grab our bicycles and talk about Ninjas, Chuck Norris and Terra Nova -- can't wait to see them again!
Anyways, when I do these blogs not everything always comes out the way I am thinking about them, and this time is no different. I wish I could explain better how crazily the stars aligned from leaving our jobs at Unilever to biking, to finding out I got a face-to-face interview while staying with the Hattens, to coming back to CT only to find out I got the job, to finding out where I'm working has a sister plant in Germany where Michelle lives! It's crazy and this isn't even close to showing all the crazy coincidences. Did I mention I didn't even apply for this job? I applied for a different one... on my birthday... lol.
OK, enough about that. Its been real, its been fun... and it has been real fun! Can't wait to keep bicycling out in Colorado and continuing to live the dream! Now, time for some good 'ol fashioned Geocaching!
~Styx & Bones
Sunday, September 25, 2011
We teleported to South Dakota... there, I said it!
OK, so since we last blogged we have become the luckiest people in the world. First, a friend from CT (Adam McCaherty) hooked us up with places to stay with his family in both Sherman and Carlinville, IL. While we were in Sherman, I found out my old Air Force friends Regina & Chris Hatten were just down the road by St. Louis, MO, so we took somewhat of a detour and rode down to their place to hang out - man, was that awesome! It was so cool to catch up with them and Jeff & I had such a great time! Once this bike ride is over I am going to swing back by their house and steal their Pomeranian Charlie and his underdog sidekick, JoJo... seriously, I am.
Ok, so back to how the heck we got to South Dakota. Well, on the way down to Chris & Gina's, I had a phone interview scheduled with a potential job in the Denver, CO area where Jeff & I are relocating to after this bicycle ride is over. We were a little over halfway to the Hatten's when I received the phone call from the potential job, and although I had planned to be at a place where I could properly take a phone call, it had begun to rain on us about 10 miles before my scheduled call time and we just didnt make it. So where did I take the call? Standing under just enough roof attached to a sign that had a bike trail map on it that was literally able to keep just my head and phone dry while the rain continued to pour down on me. OH, and the whole time I was on the call Jeff was wandering around aimlessly in the rain waiting for me to be done. I must have done OK though, because I advanced to the next round of 'face-to-face' interviews in Denver, CO and will be taking care of that on Wed.
Thankfully with the potential job, all the stars managed to align and we were able to stash our bikes at the Hatten's and head out in a rental car towards Denver. What was that? South Dakota isn't on the way to Denver from Illinois? Lol... yeah, you're right, but I've seriously wanted to see Mt. Rushmore since I was BORN, so we headed up a little north of our destination and checked The Badlands & Mt. Rushmore off of our list of cool places to see in this lifetime. Now we are settled in at Scottsbluff, NE for the night and headed into Denver to look for apartments and catch up with Toshia & Jorge Chavez tomorrow night -- can't wait to show Jeff Colorado and introduce him to some folks from back home!!!
And that... is the story of how we ended up in South Dakota... as told by my flaky memory and sporadic mind...
~Styx & Bones
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Sophie's Choice...
For instance, when we reached Ft. Wayne, IN, Jeff and I were sitting at a diner near our hotel (and the 5 gentlemen's clubs around it) and Jeff suddenly looked up and said "Holy Smokes! We are in Ft. Wayne! I only planned up to Ft. Wayne!" Decision faced with: where to next? While the answer to this question literally changes every day, we have realized over the past few days of rain, wind, and brrrrrrrr 'cold' temps, we are not going to be able to tackle the 'Northern Tier' cycling route we had originally wanted to travel. That route would have had us going through South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and some other cool states we haven't been to but would like to see. Decision made: take an improvised route in a south-westerly fashion until we run out of gas or hit the Pacific Ocean... or Colorado... or wherever we decide is the finish. We've tried to get a little better at planning ahead, but even today we were supposed to end up in one city... and here we sit in a completely different city and will not even end up going through the original one we planned to be in. Weird!
So back to Sophie's choice. The first and foremost is: Highways vs. Backroads. Often when we ride we are able to decide between taking country roads and riding along highways. The obvious downfall to riding along a highway is riding down a road with cars going 60+ MPH and hoping all of them notice that you are there. Another downfall is... that its actually kinda boring. The great part about riding along highways is that the roads are always pretty good (hence, we go faster) and there are NO DOGS! :0) Riding on backroads is more enjoyable because Jeff and I can ride closer to each other and chit-chat without worrying too much about getting mowed down by a car. HOWEVER, when we are travelling on a backroad, we are traveling in the land of crazy wolf-dogs... dogs with the power to smell you from 5 miles away and somehow magically teleport itself to within 6" of you... sometime without you even noticing!
My first flat |
Didn't clip out of my pedals fast enough |
Its not even 5pm yet, and I'm pretty sure I'll be asleep in the next hour. I'm so tiiiiiiiiiiiired.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Dog Day, then Cat Day... OMG!
This is where the dog latched onto my rear pannier |
While this was all going on I hesitated and slowed down for a second thinking maybe this dog wanted to be my friend, but that seemed to make the dog's greased-lightning-like-speed go even faster. Suddenly the dog was ahead of me! I yelled at it, but apparently all that did was make it even MORE mad, as it lunged at my front tire and snarled in hate at me. I screamed to Jeff and pedaled as fast as I could. The dog fell behind for a second and then I felt my bike being pulled to the side, then lunged forward. I saw the dog hesitate for a second, screamed to Jeff again (this time he heard me), and the dog ran off. A couple miles up the road we stopped so I could freak out and calm down for a second. Thats when we noticed the strap on my rear left pannier that the dog had grabbed with its saliva soaked teeth --- there was a mark on it where it had grabbed on for dear life... then thankfully slipped off and thudded to the pavement.
Dog day scared me. Hard. Jeff rides a lot closer to me now. Oh, and a couple miles after our little break, Jeff was chased by a ferocious Boston Terrier. Haha.
Cat Day was Wednesday.
One of many roadblocks for the day |
Yeah,something aint right here... |
The last 20 miles of the day it was raining... raining and getting darker and gloomier. Good thing we got into Ft. Wayne, IN right smack in the middle of rush hour! Of course the bike route we were supposed to take in town was gated and locked, so we did the best we could on roads and sidewalks to get to the shady motel we were staying at. About 5 miles from the motel, Jeff went right to get onto a sidewalk by a school near a really busy intersection. I followed, but neglected to factor my speed, angle, rain factor, and pretty much anything else when I hit the 1.5" entry curb to get up on to the sidewalk. WIPEOUT! Good one too. Scraped up my ankle... fist-sized knot on my shin... and my handlebars literally spun 90-degrees to my wheel. But, luckily, it was all made up for when we reached the motel and we realized it was surrounded by about 5 different gentlemen's clubs - haha, I did say it was shady! And what greeted us on the way into our room? A black kitten all curled up and looking cute just waiting to cross our paths! So there it was... after 72 miles... cat day finally came to end with a lukewarm flip-flop wearing shower in a gross bathtub, a paper thin pillow, and a rock hard bed. And just when I thought the night was turning for the better with the Big Brother Season finale, guess what....the station cut out just when they anouncing the winner! Is this some kind of joke? I mean... seriously...
Welcome back to the trail I guess -- still lovin it -- still keepin' on truckin!
~Styx & Bones
All of our pictures are in different "Why Not Bicycle" folders in this picasa album: https://picasaweb.google.com/113448133157937829305
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Bicycling Vacation!
Just wanted to put up a quick blog to say we had a GREAT vacation from bicycling back in CT and are now officially back out on the road cycling towards the good 'ol west coast!
Our time in CT seemed to fly by, and we were constantly on the run, but it was definitely an awesome time. Our first night in town we were lucky to grab dinner with Dave & Lina at our favorite place, The Cougar (chowder) Pot before they made it official and got all married up on Saturday.
The next night our awesome friends from Unilever Trumbull met up with us in Milford for a little bowling action - shout out to Stephanie, Yaling, Caryn, Craig, Andy & Danielle - thank you for the great night!
After that it gets blurry... Too much running around! But, on 9/10/11 we had the pleasure.of witnessing Dave & Lina's marriage at Jackson Gore in Okemo, VT. The ceremony was fabulous, and basically so was everything else! The ceremony was fun and fit them very well, and we especially loved the speech given by Daves dad, Dick, during the ceremony... and how they all danced down the aisle on the way out! It really was the best time, and it was great to catch up with Dave & Lina's family and friends - we've met many of them over the last few years, and really enjoyed seeing them all. Seriously awesome time - I can't say it enough!
We were able to catch up with Jeff's mom and dad the next day and made it back to Ohio to keep heading west on this bike ride yesterday. It's amazing how many things have happened in the last two days of riding... But its Survivor/Big Brother night in America... So i'll be blogging about that tomorrow! Don't miss it!!!
Miss you all! Thanks for reading!
~Styx & Bones
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Cleveland's HOT! And also cold... and also has Thunderbirds?
A couple of days ago going into Cleveland the temperature was seriously 90, "feels like 100" with 5 MPH wind and a dew point in the high 70's --- it was seriously the worst day ever trying to make it 55+ miles through Cleveland to city center where we had a free night at a hotel. At one point around lunch we were so overheated we went into the first restaurant that didnt look overly sketchy just to soak up their a/c for a while - very nice.
As we approached city center I saw a bunch of people just baking in the sun on the side of a hill across the freeway just staring out in one direction over Lake Erie. I was thinking maybe they were going to have some kind of awesome fireworks show that night or something, but turns out there was an Air Show going on and the USAF Thunderbirds were about 10 minutes from performing. Just as we got into downtown Cleveland, we could hear them take off -- I had seriously never seen an air show so close to a major city before! I mean, I've seen the Thunderbirds, but I've never seen them do their tricks and then fly around all the skyscrapers that made up downtown to come back around for the next trick --- it was VERY cool!
The last couple days have been windy, rainy, and cold! We've been windswept sideways on our bikes, hailed on and it was definitely lightly raining sideways on us yesterday! We met a couple of older gentlemen riding their bikes east -- its always nice to meet other cross country riders -- they are always excited for us and urge us to keep going!
Speaking of keeping going.... today is the day we peel off the trial for our friends wedding! We have 40ish miles to knock out to pick up a rental car and get our behinds back to Vermont. Speaking of that, why the heck are 1-week rental's so DANG cheap compared to 1 or 2 days??? Anyways, we haven't had a plan so far, so the question is... will we be back to finish, or is it moving time?
Have a great rest of your week!
~Styx & Bones
Friday, September 2, 2011
Oh, sorry! I didn't see a car...
Lol... Camping at Geneva on The Lake in Ohio about 50 miles east of Cleveland. We rode our bikes into camp, just like we always do. We proceeded to pull various sacks out of our panniers, just like we always do. Our neighbors in their huge houses on wheels tried not to stare at us with their puzzled looks as they saw an entire campsite come out of our bikes... Just like they always do. :0)
We are the lucky campers next to the water fountain tonight. Jeff and I were in the tent playing a rousing game of Uno when a lady came traipsing through our campsite and was startled when she heard us talking inside.
"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't know anyone was here - I didn't see a car."
And you won't, my friend. You won't.
Goodnight all!
~Styx and Bones