Portland OR to Portland ME

A change of plans

2011-09-29T20:05:00.000-07:00

So instead of biking to maine, we will now be riding to Boston, The details will be coming in the next two days. Thank you for following us on our adventures

2011-09-29T20:01:00.003-07:00

Upstate new york is notthing your hear about back in portland. Its always the "Big Apple" that is brought into the portlanders mind to travel. After our ride to Rochester, I feel a need to inform the west coast of a peaceful, beautiful, and kind area of New York. We rode a bike trail that followes the Erie Canel for 200 miles. On the way we stayed at three diffrent towns, each almost identical in aperrance. Hank's Dad grew up in rochester new york and planned for us to stay with his old friends from his college days, with the oppurtunity to stay in a house with a warm shower got us very excited. Riding away from the peace of no motor vechiels, we headed onto a main street and towards lake ontario. where we planned to meet Ed's friends.
We climbed up and down rollers, a fast coast into a hard pedal up the hills, north we road, heading towards Hank's Dad's friends. Upon arriving we found an empty house, wondering towards the back the hung out and waited for the owners. Staring at long pond and relaxing for 5 mintues we heard a load scream, " oh my god, they are here!". Martha ran down the stairs and gave us each a hug. Tim walked down the stairs after Martha and invited us inside. after our intrductions, we walked inside and found huge leather couches that attracted us, almost more than the showers and laundry. Tim walked inside with a 12 pack of creme ale, apparently a memory of hank's dad. Soon the food begun to simmer, boil, fry, and broil. Gathering around the diner table we drooled over the home cooked meal of grilled steak, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, sauted mushrooms and steamed broocli covered in a swiss cheese. Can we ask for more, no! beau and charles sat for an hour trying to finish everything while thier stomaches complained about the task. Later in the night we got excited to watch the very new two and a half men, with Ashton Kuther, follwed by the roast of charlie sheen. Tim and Martha stayed awake as long as they could, and drank probably more than they should of, but the night ended well, and we all were happy to have a rest day with martha, a lake, and a couple of kayaks.
We woke very late, all of us sprawled over the house, tim left for work early, and the Grand children came soon after. We woke to the kids asking thier grandmother who we were, and if we were nice. Playing thier secrect agent games as we slept, doing thier best not to wake us, we soon crawled from our slumber. A kid dressed as batman, and another as spider man, had us running around, shooting laser beams at them as we toasted our bagles. Once they got use to the big kids, we sat down and played with playdo for a couple of hours. As charles and beau made sculptures hank and donald headed out on the kayaks, paddling into the silence of a quiet lake. Soaking in the freedom and calmness of the water we waddled around the lake. Relaxing for the day we got ready to head out for the day following. A 40 miles day should shake off the laziness and get us back into shape. So we hope...
In Rochester Tim and Martha showed me my Fathers stoping grounds, the house he grew up in, the high school he atended, and the bars he drank at, and some very great stories. Dad, dont worry, they wouldnt tell me the good stories, they said that the good ones would be left for you to tell me. A parent feel, and kindness made us not wanting to leave, but the ride must continue and so we had to leave. A sad face, wrinkles in a frown, and not wanting to mounts our bikes, we did just that, riding off in the distance we rode, upstate new york awaited.

Oh, Canada!!

2011-09-29T19:58:00.001-07:00

"Jumping Jesus! Portland? My God, I remember Portland, was there back in the 70's. Driving around and didn't know more than a dog knows about his dad. So how has it been fella's,?" Our first conversation in Ontario Canada was a great begining to the rest to happen after. The owner of a small gift store in Sombra, a gentleman in his late 60's sat in a chair behind his desk, looking up at us, his eyes still light with a spark of youth, he kept speaking in a rapid jumble of words and phrases. "You guys just crossed the good ol' blue ferry? A good boat there eh?" The rest of his words passed our ears, as we smiled and just wanted to exchange our American currency for some Canadain Cash. We finally got our money exchanged and hurried out of the store. Outside we looked around, Canada, finally here and we have no clue where to go. Riding north along the river we found a campsite were we set up camp and got ready to celebrate our arrival in our first province and out of our 7th state.
From Sombra we rode south and slightly east to the coast of Lake Erie. The ride was no different from another, the usual farm after farm, mile after mile of corn crops. The scenrey finally started to turn into a flush green spread thought the country side. A fimalar sight that brought back memories off home. We finally have learned to avoid if possiable, and if not possiable to spend as little time as we can in any big city. Which we accomplished in Wallecburg. By the end of the day we rode over a hill and got our sight on the third Great Lake of our trip, Lake Eire. A deep teal "Ocean" layed out infront of us, out in the distance was no shore, but onloy where water meet sky. An amazing sight to see, a fathomless awe to behold.
For the remainder of our travels througout Canada we followed Lake Erie towards the east. The one thing that amazed me was the wind turbines scattered throughout the land along with solar pannels in every other farm. Something we never saw in America and that we see a huge advantage if so. We got blank stares when asking for the bathroom, but pointed in the right direction when asking for the washroom. 1000 eh's later, we took a look a look at our maps and realized that we would be going to Niagara Falls today.
Battleing headwinds up the river, we soon heard the load crash of water pouring off, making the glourious Niagara Falls. A spatuaclur sight to see. The best view was crowed with tourist from all over the world. After riding our bicyles for 4000, we all kinda felt like yelling just that and a "get out of our way!." Instead we polietly waited intill we could mange to shimmy our way into the better view. After a couple of beers we decided to cross into back into the good Ol' USA. Crossing back consitied of the usaull were are you from where are you going. After customs we made our way to an Indain Buffet, which ended up with us moaning and complaining about deciding to eat at a buffet as we rode towards the KOA for camp. On our way we decided that a motel would be just as expensive and checked into one on the way.
Today we road out to niagara where Charles, Beau's brother would be meeting us to join us on our ride to Maine. Seeing a familar face was very strange and exciting. We watied for him at a gift shop that displayed the "barrels" that were used by insane people to go over the falls. Why they wanted to, I have no idea, the fact that they did it, pretty cool. After an hour of fantizing about making our own "barrel" we say a grey hound bus pull up. Walking outside we saw the beautiful, bearded, goofy, and smiling charles unpacking his bike. We all circled around him as he assembled his ride for the next two weeks. After showing the new biking member niagara falls we headed back to camp and rested for our ride for the day following.

on our way to canada!!

2011-09-15T18:27:00.000-07:00

day 80- 85

2011-09-15T17:18:00.000-07:00

hiding from the rain, we sit inside a warm hotel room, our bikes and clothes spread across the room, a thick musky smell rises from our feet and belongings filling the room from brick wall to brick wall. Sprawled on the beds, we mindlessly stare at the t.v. It is still a little unreal to us that Canada sits right across the river that the Inn sits on. The last half of Michigan flew by, from the Cafe in Clare (the city of the last blog update) to midland, to bay city, to a small campground near fairgrove, to Emmet KOA, to marine city. Sitting on the edge of our seventh state and staring at our first province, the excitement of Canada preempts the memories of the last half of Michigan. I will give a brief summary of our days from Clare to our comfortable hotel on the boarder.

The ride from clare to Midland was strictly on a awesome bike path called the Pere Marqutte Trail. An old railroad tracks turned into a non-motorized multi use path labeled Rails to Trails. A brilliant system sprouting all over the country. 28 miles with a nice tailwind brought us to a pizza joint in Midland, where the employs gave us each two free t-shirts to advertise on our way to Maine. Riding through town we started to notice large troll decorations placed in the gardens on every corner of downtown. We found a nice camping spot hidden a forest next to a river.

We woke up to the worst rain we have had on the trip so far. Pounding hard on our tents, we fell back to sleep. Waking up at 2pm we called a rest day. Eating alot and stretching our legs we had a good relaxing day.

Bay city sits right on Lake Huron, the largest lake in the world, if you dont include oceanic lakes (Caspain Sea would be the largest if so). At the camp we were invited over by our next door campers for sloppy joes. Later in the night one of the men brought over hot dogs, and a couple of logs to make a fire. We quickly grabbed kindling from the forest but found it useless as he rushed back with his a pair of his wifes underwear. Slightly confused, it soon made sense as he drenched the underwear in gasoline and made our fire, telling us not to let his old lady know about her underwear being lite on fire. The family was awsome, continually bring food over through the night and offering coffee in the morning.

The two days to the Emmett campground were very uneventful. We camped at a small campground the day before the KOA. On our way to the Emmet campground we meet a fellow cyclist, his only luggage was a bag on his rear rack. He was a true minimalist. Finding that he started in Seatlle a month ago, we figured he rode around the same milage as us, just didnt take the two week break in minneapolis. At the campsite we offered for him to stay with us so he would't have to pay 20 for a site.

Rain is no fun to ride in. 40 miles in the pouring cold droplets that pounded on us made for a very quite ride as we held our heads down and pedaled hard. We finally hit St.Clair and got our first glismpe of Canada. At the Burger King we called all the local Hotels, getting dry and having a nice warm shower was to tempting. And here we sit, watching South Park and ordering Pizza. (I apologize for the short posts, the T.V is very, very distracting)

Pictures to the middle of Michigan

2011-09-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

day 76 to 78

2011-09-01T14:49:00.002-07:00

The past four days in Michigan have been wonderful. From the scenery and vegetation to the people and towns. We left ludington a little late, forcing us to make a shortcut to our campground for the night. The woods started to get thick and very green. Rolling hills stood in our as we cycled to Leisure Time Campground. Sitting outside as we all re-grouped we spotted a cyclist walking towards. He hopped over the fence still in his spandex, reaching us his first words, "its quite expensive here." He was silent as we asked him how much, staring at the campsite for a while he turned and faced us " you usually can bargin the price down but I'm a little to tired." the campground host came walking out asking if he could help us. Hank asked for a site that could fit all five of us. The health department only allows two tents per site, even though we could easily fit ten. He said he could make a deal with us if we got two site. Talking it over amongst ourselves, he made the deal for us and said " what the health department doesn't know doesn't hurt them" and allowed us to have one site. That was easy...the couple came over later in the night to chat with us. They were on a world bike tour. starting in New Zealand than to L.A, up the pacific, across the northern tier, than to Europe to ride to china. Some of us were extremely jealous and inspired by their journey. Warren, the guy talking to us before said that in the states, everyone they encountered have been extremely nice, giving them money, food places to stay. Saying that you would never find that in Europe, he said we have something very special here in the states, something to be very proud of. (At least we have that :) ) Thinking back on the trip, he is indeed right, the people and culture here have been amazing in many ways towards us. We do have something to be proud about and hope it continues throughout our trip, and even after than.
The following day we made it to Luther. Around 30 miles, the group was moving really slow as a couple of us were a couple miles ahead riding around 8mph waiting for the others. With 50 miles to the next campground, daylight would not of made it possible. Once again the negotiation of a discount on a campsite was easy, getting on campsite for only 20 dollars, showers included. The ended early as the clouds grew thick over head.
Waking to rain, we covered ourselves in our rain equipment and got to it. Packing up as quickly as possible. By the 5th mile the sky cleared and we were sweating once again, stripping layers every 500 feet. Making it to Lake George we stayed at the local campground, taking showers, reading, and cooking up chili dogs.

day 74 75

2011-09-01T14:49:00.000-07:00

74
another time change in michagian, had us waking up at 9:30 instead of our usual 8:30. Scrambling to pack up our gear before a camp staff member finds us camped out in the middle of a trail, we got ready to hit town for breakfast and figure out just how many days Minneapolis put us back on our shcedual. Splitting up, three of us went to subway, our usaul breakfast stop, while Hank and Beau went to a nearbye cafe for a good homemade omlete. Since we took a more straight shot through wisconsin, we have nbeen off the planned Adventure cycling planned route. Grateful to be back on the maps for they took away the stresses of finding good roads to ride on, where to camp, the nearest town, and bike shop, we took a look at just how many miles we have left to accomplish. 1300 miles are ahead of us, not alot since we have already acomplished 3000. Deciding to take a nice break in Ludington we stayed at the cafe for about 2 hours, and then hoped over to the nearest bar for a couple of beers and blog. On our way a cyclist passed us and turned around to talk, we all scrambled away, tired of the same constant questions and answers. Evan got traped as she started to talk about how she sttempted to conqure the southern tier, but quite with hopes to try it agian. Offering us dinner, we declined because we needed to catch up on our blog, she quickly starterd to dig into her backback and pullked out money for us, Evan said it was to much and that we were fine on money. She insistied on helping fellow bikers and told us she was buying us a beer. We gave in and headed to the Blue Moon tavern for our beers and homework(Blogging). They bartender, a very friendly freespoken woman demanded that she was to be put into our blog. Here you go Annette, thank you for the laughs and the beers! We found the local beach and great place to sleep. Right on the beach by the ocean like lake and under the bright stars, we made a nice temperpedic bed out of the sand and drifted to sleep with the waves crashing onto eachother.
75
Once again we woke up late...This time 11'oclock. Minneapolis still has her claws on us, we decided to stay one more night in Ludington, hoping to finish the blog, venture through town and go swimming. Visiting the same restraurnats, the same stores and riding through the same streets we headed for the lake. Today's weather made for a great day to take a dip. Running through the sand like a group of teenage girls, giggling and pushing eachother we jumped into lake and amazed by the tides. Body surfing and wave jumping for a couple of hours got a little tiring. Hungry, we headed to grab lunch. Devoring our meals in no more than 5 minutes we decided to call it a day and sleep on the beach once agian.

73 Moving without pedaling

2011-09-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

Throughout the trip we have had checkpoints, certain areas that standout and entice us in different and unique ways. The first being Sandpoint Idaho, followed by, Glacier National Park, Fargo North Dakota and Minneapolis. Reaching the next one today, we will be boarding the S.S Badger to take us across Lake Michigain. The four hour ride turns into 5 hours from the Eastern Time Zone, our final time change. We camped 25 miles away from Minitowoc, a quick hour and half ride brought us to the downtown of the lake city. We stopped at a local pub to pass the two hours in till the ferry left, choosing the first one we found we were surprised to be walking into the oldest house and bar in the whole town. Autographed pictures hung from the wall, all saying there thanks to the Stage Door, and how much they loved it. The Lady serving us was the second owner of the bar, which was built around the 1880's. Talking with her about the history of her building and our trip she turned on the news for us to watch as we enjoyed our Irish style beers. The weather channel instantly grabbed our attention as warnings of the east coast hurricane Irene was being brodcasted. As the news anchor was urging everyone in the area to stay inside and away from the beach, we quietly thought about the different historic events that we have encountered or have happened on this trip, from the Williston oil boom, to the flooding in Minot and now the first time New York City has been evacuated from a Hurricane. At least we have a month for the coastal cities to repair and clean from the aftermath. Realizing that we have to make our boat, we road down the street and to the harbor. A huge boat in the far distance floated towards us as we eagerly waited to board. The constant questions about who we are where we are from and were we are going to a little to repetitive. With the cars unloading from the ferry we watched the works drive the cars out and then sprint back to drive another from the belly of the boat. Finally it was our turn. Stacking our bikes under a stair well, we climbed to the upper deck and waved bye to Wisconsin. Finding a quite room, some of us slept others updated their journals, and some grabbed drinks from the bar. Four hours latter we rode off the boat and entered our 7th state, Michigan. After dinner we headed for a campsite in town, the road turned off into a gravel road leading to a dark creepy forest. Following the trail we gave up and found a nice spot to set up where hopefully no one would harass us.

72

2011-09-01T13:19:00.000-07:00

Written by Beau
the sounds of a tractors engine woke us. As we stumbled out of our tents a hayride packed with sugar filled kids and an unenthused Yogie Bear rolled by. While packing up camp we all decided to wait for the water slide to open because we were unable to the day before. In the meantime breakfast sandwiches and bike matenice kept us busy; Hank and Kane switched their tires, evan re-wrapped his handlebars, and Beau adjusted his brakes. Two hours later it finally opened. All five of us were in our shorts and got ready for some childish fun. Little did we know it cost even more money for a wrist band to be able to go down the slide. Fortunately we had to walk up three flights of stairs to get to the top of the water slide. The kind little girl let us each go down the slide once versus having to walking down the stairs. we got our kicks then it was time to hit the road. A few short miles into the ride Donald got yet another flat. And a few more miles another one. We stopped in appleton for lunch. Appleton is a large town about twenty miles east of Fremont. Hank was in dire need of new clips for his shoes, for his current ones were useless. The traffic out of Appleton stop and go, stop and go. No good to keep a steady pace. but the terrain changed quickly into Wisconsin Country roads. We had planned to head all the way to minotowoc but the sun was going down quick and it still another twenty five miles there. Brillion became our nesting point for the evening. In brillion there was no camping so we found spot behind some grass tall enough to hid us and our tents.

2011-09-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

day 70 Ive got the magic in me
Waking yup in Stevens point was not like another day on the trip. We all woke up to a huge lawn mower right next to us, so we all packed up as fast as we could so the next time the lawn mower came around we would be gone. Before we could finish our breakfast Kane had already convinced us that he would pay for a cheap run down motel, so we can have and undeserved rest/laundry day. The motel was a small two bedroom, not a room you would want to fit 5 smelly guys and 5 bikes. After rearranging the motel to fit our bikes and gear, we headed to the local laundromat to was the STANK out of our clothes. As the smell was being washed out of our clothes we all looked for something to eat...Hank and Evan found a wonderful mcDonald's and the rest found another buffet. Hank and Evan returned to the motel rather earlier than Kane beau and Donald... they were taking their time at the buffet, about 2 hours went by before there was no room in their now bloated belly's. So they walked slow, hunched over holding their guts when they walked in they all flopped on the beds and complained about how much they ate. The stank had been washed into one half B.O and one half laundry detergent making for a interesting smell to say the least. After sitting around watching T.V we got the idea t go see a movie, we ended up seeing 30 min or less, with Aziz and Danny McBride. After the "stoner" flick and laugh riot came to a end they made their way to the gas stating to grab a 12 pack to bring back to the small hotel Once all the beer was gone Hank knew there was only one thing left to do. TACO BELL!! this was not the normal run of mill t-bell, it looked just any other taco bell, tasted the same, cashier was the same boring guy hating his job, but it was all of the other customers that made the night for us. About 50 college kids and one long bearded balding man where all playing magic cards. Yes, magic the game, other not so popular game...kinda like Pokemon's distant cousin that was adopted into the family. Anyways we looked around and had a quick ;laugh. we left with our 20 or so burritos and headed back to the motel to devour the poorly made food. After we ate all the taco bell as we possibly could, we passed out into our food coma.
71 yogie huh? yogie what? yogie Bear?

Once the food coma wore off we packed up our things and kinda cleaned up the motel...not to much though. When we finally stopped sitting around enjoying the last few moments we had to lay on a real bed we left the motel around11am...a pretty slow start since we should be use to waking up/ packing up by 8. 3 blocks later we found our selves in the local bike shop, looking for new cleats for Hank. We left campus cycles with free water bottles and finally hit the road. Our ride consisted with Donald racking up as many flat t;ires as he could possibly get. not literally but he did get four flats within the day. The tail winds made up for the misfortune of flats. With the 25 mph tail winds we made it weyauwega, 30 miles from Stevens point, in good time. As we sat around eating Subway we soon found out that the campsite that we planned to sleep at turned out just be a online camping store. A good 30 minutes passed before we stopped looking at our IPhone and asked a police officer where we could sleep. The closet place was 10 miles southeast in the town of Fremont. The Fremont campsite was like an amusement park mixed with a campsite. The pool had a 20ft water slide and this is the only reason we payed the stupid amount of money to stay there, also the whole campsite had the theme of Yogie Bear and jellystone park. we camped on the corner of Boo Boo drive, and Cindy bear ave. All we could say is that we are not in Oregon anymore. Wisconsin has the fake Jellystone and all we have is the enchanted Forest. 20 hot dogs later it was time for bed in Jellystone, hoping yogie wouldn't come in the dead of night and steal the food in our panniers.

Day 68/ 69

2011-09-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Written by Donald
We started out the morning wearily from falls creek grabbing a classy breakfast at the nearby gas station. Breakfast burritos filled with an almost creamy like egg mush, and sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits. before we tool off a lady drove up to us and asked if we needed anything for our ride, it was the 3rd person to offer us something Falls Creek. Great little town. As were getting closer to the east the weather has held up great, its got a bit cooler as well so were not waking up drenched in sweat. It was a smooth ride along highway 10 and with a short ride of about 30 miles we stopped the day early in a town called Nielsville. After grabbing lunch at Subway we hung out in a grassy area near the parking lot which slowly turned into a 45 min nap from such a long excruciating day. Once we slowly awoke one by one we decided to whine down the evening with a beer at the local bar. After watching football play being analysed from TV highlights, the bartender changed the channel and we were fortunate enough to have it switched to...The Proposal, that's right The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and that one guy who always gets unfitting roles and reminds you of the dude who didn't even know but hated in highschool. But none the less we watched the whole movie happily, which I guess cycling across a country at the point you'll find anything on TV somewhat amusing. Once the credits rolled an advertisement for Bridal Wars came up and we though it was time to leave. For what we thought a nearby campsite ended up being about 15 miles away and with the sun setting we though we would ride around the neighborhoods and try to find something closer, eventually finding a nice park on the side of the road which we luckily had no problems with. The following day we woke to another good day of weather and continued our ride along highway 10. The re-route through Wisconsin which has taken us through the center as opposed to the North has been great. Scenic and bike friendly. Continuing our ride we were also getting into Amish country which is defiantly something new to all of us. We started seeing carriage signs on the side of the roads and a couple of them parked in a big barn. Eventually we saw a large Amish family sitting out in their lawn and as we road by all heads turned and faced towards us. As much of an experience as the culture seemed to us I'm sure riding by they were just as curious. With a nice ride of about 60 miles we ended our day in which happened to be a pretty big college town called Stevens point. Our first stop was dinner at a local diner that had great food for cheap[ and after discussing our plans on where to camp we thought we would give another shot at stealth camping. Riding around we found a huge park with a luxurious playground set and even had a disk golf course right along the lake side. unfortunately we didn't get to play disk gold but we did happen to find the perfectly spot for all of our tents that was surrounded by large bushed and trees staying out of sight. We called it a day and found home for the evening. And after having a beer and stargazing we rested up for the riding to come tomorrow.

Day 65/ 66/ 67 Wisconsin State #6

2011-08-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

Day 65 Afton to Menominee
Not wanting to get in trouble by the park staff, we rose early and got packed. Looking to out to the East, we gazed upon the trees of Wisconsin across the St. Crouix river. Our sixth state was only 20 miles away. We climbed out of the park and headed to the nearest town, Afton, a small river town. A small cafe called to us, and we made our first stop for food. Large breakfast burritos surrounded the table, for a couple of minutes...Procrastinating once again, we charged our electronics and decided to head the river for a quick look. A nice ride down a bike trail brought us to the St. Croix river. A dark murky brown river that was not at all appealing to swim in separated us from Minnesota to Wisconsin. We headed north, where we would cross the river into "America's Dairy" land. The 10 miles to the bridge followed the river on a bike path and kept us from the heavy traffic, no shoulder, two lane road that we would have to take if the trail was absent. After a couple wrong turns and U-turns we finally crossed the bridge and were on Wisconsin land! The bike path disappeared after a couple of miles and we were soon on country roads. The further east we headed the greener the scenery became, trees spotted the hills in the distance. Hills!! we never thought we would be happy to say that, but the monotone terrain of the North Dakota and Minnesota flats had driven us bored to many times. Finally we were sweating and panting up hills and free to coast down them, a nice change. Today's total climbing is around 4000 feet over a span of around 50 miles. Halfway on the ride we noticed that we may have been attacking the hills a little to hard, as Evan and Beaus knees started to bother them, hindering their speed and comfortability. We finally rolled into Menominee, a McDonald's sat right on the edge of town, without really thinking about it we found ourselves riding into the parking lot and dismounting our bikes. 20 burgers and five large fries later we sat slipping in and out of a food induced coma. Summoning the last of our energy we headed out for the two miles into camp. The city park allowed camping and were happy to see a disk golf course at the park. Throwing our disks intill dark, we said our good nights as we couldn't see where we were aiming.

Day 66
Menominee to Eau Claire.
Breakfast at McDonald's. Another good part of biking is that you can eat pretty much what you want and not have to worry to much about the side effects of poor eating. After fueling up on eggs bread and grease we hit the road with another beautiful sunny day. Our route today was on and off country roads. At some point we had to ride onto busy highways, thankfully there is a wide shoulder without to much debris. Highway 10 was a direct shot into Eau Claire, so we decided to stick with the highway, hoping it would be a little bit faster paced as well. We found another route to town through the back streets in neighborhoods, which led to a bike path and further more lead to a Wallmart. Cheap food is to tempting, we made a stop to stock up on sandwich materials before heading to the campsite for the night. Calling ahead a staff member said that they had a large campsite that would be able to fit all five of us. Secluded in the back of the grounds away from the numerous R.V.s in the regular sites. Amazed by a huge field we set up our tents a good 20 feet away from each other, just cause we had the room. (Maybe to get away from each others smells as well.) After our rounds of long showers we had dinner and talked into the night till we spotted dark luminous clouds overhead. We ran and took shelter in our tents before the rain got us.
Day 67
Eau Claire to Fall creek
When we first Started this trip, the first two hours of the morning would be spent packing up our gear, while Hank sat reading already done. His wilderness program trained him in very quick packing. After two months everyone is putting on their last pannier in around 25 minutes. Packing our sleeping bags, rolling up our air mattresses, re packing our clothes from the night before, rolling out of tent, disassembling them, rolling them up while cleaning and re-loading our bike with our panniers, has become a very efficient morning procedure. Food has become a very good motivator on this trip. We planned to get out Neilsvillewakeup right when the sun rises to be on our bikes before anyone found us sleeping where we weren't allowed.

2011-08-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

We have updated the blog for a couple of days after Minneapolis. The rest of the days up to today(8/27), Ludingtion Michigan are written but are awaiting to be posted. They should be online in the next couple of days. Oh yeah, the donate button is up and running once again, so if your wallet can spare it, our very depleted ones will be very happy to purchase us new socks and a run at the Laundromat. Thank you every one for reading our blog, and spreading the word of ptowntopwhat. Comments very much appreciated

Oh Yeah, the donate button is working...

Day 63/64

2011-08-27T14:12:00.000-07:00

   More thank to David and Angie for having us and showing us a good time! Come to Portland!!
We left Davids place and rode to downtown Excelsior to a coffee shop, were Hank got on his laptop looking for a place to stay for the night. After sitting there for an while a lovely lady started talking to us about our trip and her travels in Guatemala. Her name was Candy, and after talking to us for a bit, she offered us a place to stay the night at her son's house, just a couple of miles west of where we were. She left the coffee shop and we decided we might as well take her up on her offer. Since it was around four in the afternoon, an d we still haven't found a place for the night.
         We gave her a call and met her at a gas station about 2 miles down the road. On the way Donald got a flat, as he patched up his tube, Candy sat in her car talking to Evan about Portland. We found out that back in the 1980's she lived in Beaverton and Gresham, working as a apartment manager. Small world.
     We got to her son's house and were introduced to Bradly, her Son and his roommate, Josh. We actually felt pretty lucky because a storm was passing right when we got there, a situation we would usually have to ride through.
         We ordered pizza's, watched T.V. and movies, which has become a forgotten luxury. A huge thanks to Candy, Bradly and Josh, for opening your house to us and letting our feet make the whole downstairs smell.

Day 64
Today we are finally going to make a try to get out of Minnesota. We have arranged a Warm Showers in Prescott Wisconsin. A good 60 mile day should warm up our legs from a two week break. The ride was 70% on bike trails, weaving through downtown Minneapolis, through St. Paul and into the long forgotten and surely missed farmlands. We took many breaks, as we slowly let go of the comforts of Minneapolis. Around 7 pm we were around 10 miles from Prescott when we got a call from from our warm showers host, saying that we are a little to late to camp at their house. Finding the closet place to sleep, we pedaled hard to Afton State Park as the sun was slipping away in the horizon. The campground was not to be found. In the pitch black darkness we had a very hard time finding the campsite, the road went up and down, continuing the same pattern, we gave up and camped and the first field we found. Staring at the stars and munching on pop tarts before we went to sleep, we gazed in a bewildered daze at the exploded suns and planets of the past that illuminated our nights sky, engaging our minds to think of subjects past our intellect, how super novas could be the missing link in creating the essential elements in making our planet, how water found on other planets could be the beginning stages of a life form similar to our own, and just how small our world is, but inside of it are numerous journeys that can take many lifetimes to explore. The thoughts reflected to us like a mirror, here we were on a journey of lifetime, exploring our own country in a way that opens natures own treasures to us in a very unique way. We look around and are happy that we are doing this with eachother. Wisconsin, tomorrow we will pedal your lands! We hope.

12 days in a Bigger Portland

2011-08-23T19:29:00.001-07:00

We have come to love Minneapolis. It may be a sub-conscious home-sickness, but mostly we think it cause it is such diverse city were everyone is really nice, and its a huge change from the small towns of 200 people we have become accustomed to. We have spent 9 days in the city. And three days in Excelsior, a rich lake town around 15 miles west of downtown. To sum up our adventures we are going to use a picture journal to explain the adventures in a bigger Portland. So much has happened that we would be here writing a novel to explain our adventures in Minnesota. Next to Andrews house is a local bar call "the Hexagon", were we met the best bartender in Minneapolis. The bar its self was a dive bar, but Laura made up for it. Hanging out with her every night we would then venture through different districts of the town. To uptown, to downtown, to dinkytown, to minnehaha to midtown. Going to white sand beaches, then to an underground punk show, to the Brit's pub to watch lawn bowling, and back to the hexagon to see Laura. We meet a guy named Jai who took us around town and invited us to go to his concert in Excelsior. Riding out to meet them at the Bayside grill, we entered the rich neighborhood. Rolling our fully loaded bikes, and not smelling to good we entered a bar nestled right on lake minnetonka. Jai had spread the word of us biking from Portland, and by the end of the night we had hundreds of people coming to talk to us. The next couple nights we stayed at the house of the lead guitarist, David and his wife Angie. They treated us to a couple boat rides and showed us how to party. By the end of the night, Hank had over ten numbers of people offering us to sleep at their place. We can easily stay here for a while. But the time has come for us to leave the great city of Minneapolis. It has treated us well, and spoiled us to the extreme. Tomorrow we head out for Wisconsin, riding a modified route that Hank planned. Saving us 300 miles, and will hopefully make up some of the 11 days we have spent here.

Thank you Andrew and Randy for letting us stay at your house, and to David and Angie for showing us a great time, taking us on the boat and letting us stay at your place, hope we didn't make it smell to bad. Drive that RV out to Portland and we will return the same favors. Josh, thank you for the access to bike tools. . Thank you Laura for taking care of us! We will send you a large case of Oregon pinot noir when we return. And please keep in touch, all of you are making our journey better and better

Pictures of minneapolis

2011-08-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the order of the pictures. Blogspot is very temperamental about where i can place pictures, so they are scattered all over the place. Hope you get a glimpse of our adventure in the Twin Cities.

52 53 arriving in a bigger portland

2011-08-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

52 it was a sad morning. we packed up and road to Hardies for breakfast, our last meal with the englishman. Making fun of his accent, his height and calling him french, is how we said our goodbyes. Reminiscing about our last two weeks as we chowed down on greasy breakfast burritos. Having alex travel with us has been great. I think excpiecally for Alex, traveling alone can be hard and I'm pretty sure he thoroughly enjoyed his American experience with us. Attempting a century a day to make it to the coast by September first. He wrote us a goodbye note in Evan's journal:

bonjour
A message from Alex the Frenchman
I have much to thank you crazy lazy bunch of retards for. Without my American Experience I would never have known what a spork is, would never have discovered the delights of snuss, would never have eaten a Mcdank, such wonders amaze me still.
and now a message for each of you:
Evan: Go home!
Beau- Stop sleeping in the street
Hank- nice mustache, come cycling in Europe
Kane- I hate your face
Donald- Think manly thoughts and the beard will come.
And now i Bid you adieu for the time has come to leave. Someone keep Sonia warm for me.
Alex, the foreigner

Watching Alex ride off a couple of tears rolled down our cheeks as we stayed for lunch as they switched the menu from breakfast to lunch. Our maps took us into Minneapolis via country roads, making the journey a 120 miles. Hank decided to re-route the ride down to 60miles following 169, a direct shot into town. The interstate was not as bad as we thought. A very wide shoulder, and not horrible traffic, just a bunch of debris, that we would point out as we headed south in our very practiced paceline. Hank and Kane began to miss Alex even more as they tried to bend i8nto the others very,very small slipstream. Hank led the group off the interstate and onto a country road that followed the Mississippi river. Camping 20 miles outside of the city in a KOA in maple grove, we watched videos and photos of Evan's and Hank's San Fransisco trip, and Donald threw his rain fly on a tree to let it dry, knocking three baby birds onto the ground in the process. We sat and watched the mother teach her babies how to fly and rescue them.

53Portland has won the most bike friendly city for 6 years in a row, last year Minneapolis was given the platinum award. This got us very excited to see the cities bicycling infrastructure compared to Portland. Riding into town was a little harsh, the streets were split and littered with potholes. After 20 miles of dodging road hazards we saw huge building peaking over the horizon. Riding closer and closer certain areas reminded us districts back home. Pedaling through "Beaverton" and weaving through cars in "Hawthorne" we entered downtown. Gigantic building towered over us as we tried to figure out were to pull over and sit down and find our bearings. Our first conversation was with a homeless drunk complaining about the government. Reminds us of home. Hank stated to search online at a website called WarmShowers. A huge network of fellow cycle-tourist that offer their home for bikers coming through town. Offering either a shower, bed, lawn space for tents, kitchen space, laundry and sometimes even food. The first person he called was excited to have us stay with him. On our way to Andrews house, we passed an old museum made from an old mill sitting on the river. Lured by the modern architect hidden inside an old mill from the late 1800's we stopped and strolled in. Unfortunately the museum was closing in 20 min and we could not take the glass elevator to the top. Bored and tired we started for Andrews house, riding on a bike path that follows the Mississippi river. Finding his house in a neighborhood that resembled Belmont, we set our tents up in his backyard and went on a tour of the area. After visiting the local bar we headed back to the house and met Andrew. A very friendly guy who invited us into his house for a beer and a chat. Introducing us to the bike systems in the city, he showed us massive trail systems that spread throughout the city. We talked more about our tour, and also some of his past trip to Europe and the pacific coast. saying goodnight, we went to sleep, eager to explore the city the following morning.

day 50 & 51

2011-08-16T13:09:00.000-07:00

Day 50

to put things in perspective, Evan mentioned he felt much better waking up after a 100 mile day than he did waking up after 4 days in Fargo. Finally symptoms of the Irish Flu were fading away. 50th day on the road and we had yet to find a lake to swim in, until now. Back home in Oregon its hard to find a lake or river that wont freeze your butt off, unless you're used to that kind of water, which is why it was nice to cool off in a lake on a very hot day. Evan if the water smelt like sewage. After the refreshing dip and a snack we were off to finish our ride to Bowlus. Whether it was the circumstances that led us to to this point, or because we are just a certain breed of bike tourists, we managed to find an all all you can drink bar before we found an all you can eat buffet. Alex was once again being submerged in the American culture and rushed into his first all you can eat restaurant. We found a nice little family owned restaurant called Jories. One nice place about these small little towns, is that the restaurant you eat dinner at, the bar youy drink at, and the park you sleep at are all on the same block. The food at Jordies was great, bbq and fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing and coleslaw. IT was just like a family thanksgiving dinner, After we ate all we really could eat which was a lot, we went across the street to the city park to set up camp. After letting everything digest, the bar just 10 feet away looked to tempting, so we decided to check it out. the rest of the night was spent spending time with great small town people, like one guy who said one minute after minute "you'll never forget bowlus" and because of the night spent in that great small town, we really wont ever forget Bowlus.

51
it was definitely hard to leave our tents the morning we woke up in bowles. after a few hours of hanging around and pourposly taking a long time to pack up our stuff, we road two blocks for iced tea at the gas station. we looked like a shabby group of bikers at that point, barely being able to make it out of town, but thank god we did. Making it to royalton just 6 miles away, we stopped for a bit to rest our tires bodies, the majority of us were pretty beat. Alex averaged 90 miles a day before he met us. With two months to cross the U.S he road long days and hoped to spend some time on the east coast before flying back to England, and then to China. An older couple of cycle-tourists pulled up to the gas station where we were lying down. They had met Alex earlier on his trip, back in glacier and managed to catch up with him after all that time. Themselves, only averaging 40 miles a day. Explaining that we aren't the "average cyclists" They shook their heads and rode off. Mounting our bikes once again, we headed off, knowing we had to make it to at least Milaca. we pushed as hard as our hangovers would allow. Maybe we should of attempted this trip before we turned 21, cause Hank kept throwing up while riding towards camp. Relived to be at Milaca, we headed for Pizza hut, and ordered four large pizzas and two orders of bread sticks. Dazing in and out of a full stomach sleep while watching shark week was just the kind of break we needed. The town didn't have a campsite, so we ventured through town and found an abandoned garage with trees to screen us from the road. We set our tents while killing a massive swarm of mosquitoes. Exhausted we all feel into a very deep sleep, not looking forward to departing from Alex in the Morning.

day 47 48 49

2011-08-16T12:20:00.000-07:00

Still recovering from the past days of celebration, we slowly started to move our gear and bikes out of the hotel room and downstairs. In a daze, we headed out of Fargo and into Minnesota, our fifth state of the trip. Unfortunately the road we were traveling had no welcoming sign, so we didn't stop for a ginyu picture. Today had harsh headwinds, 15-20 miles per hour. Heads down, high cadence and in a paceline, spreading across the road when needing to draft against crosswinds; the 20 miles to Braneville took us two and a half hours. Stopping for food, we got back up and tried to push another twenty to the next town. While taking a construction detour, Evan spotted a disk golf basket. Not yet playing golf on this trip we were eager to stop and throw some plastic. Playing a couple rounds, the sun started to slip past the horizon, and we rushed to find camp with some daylight left. The mosquitoes found us fast, hundreds of them swarming around us. Skipping dinner we hid in our tents. Waking in the middle of the night from loud gun shots of thunder we scrambled from our tents to get a look. A constant flash of lighting illuminated the sky like a off beat strobe light, and the thunder had a continuous roar. The constant flashes lasted for four hours, the thunder even longer. We sat watching in awe at what looked like the end of the world.
with us finally riding out of Fargo its been a hazy 4 days consisting of penny pints, line dancing, karaoke and our pathetic attempts of mimicking Alex's English accent, we have continued on biking to our next destination. Not making to much gain the last few days it the last few days it seem as though Fargo has left a remnance that has still lingered on with us cutting down miles and shorting our days. Fortunately we rode over a century today as planned to compensate the lost miles which takes us here today in a decent sized town called Long Prairie. Yesterday we made it to pelican Rapids with a short ride of only about 30 miles, we decided to cut the day short because of head winds. With the noticeable influx of Pelicans perched on gnarled trees with roots sunken below a muddy swamp, we knew we were getting close to town. Even getting into town you can tell the take much pride in their mascot, with sculptures and pictures of the bird every where in sight. With a generous helping of pineapple and jalapeno fried rice we set in for camp awaiting the arrival of the next storm. Which by the way has been quite the event. The rain can be a hassle and loud booming of thunder can make for a hard nights sleep but still none the less the light show given is amazing. Fortunately no rain pounded down on our tents, only the ominous roar of thunder clapped in the distance. Getting in late to Long Prairie we grabed a quick dinner at burger king, which happened to be Alex's first time. Then rushed for camp as the mosiquiteos started to eat us alive. Luckily we fulfilled our plan of riding a century which was needed to get us caught up from the past few days of laziness. If your reading this Alex, we apoligize for spreading the lazy bohemian style of touring with no time schedule onto you.

2011-08-08T13:10:00.000-07:00

Kane on a bike

2011-08-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

day 44/45/46 Hank's three day birthday celeberation.

2011-08-08T12:18:00.000-07:00

Today Hank turns 21. We made it to a big town for it, and plan to have a big night. One of the local bars has a promotion of "free beer night", a brilliant and horrible idea at the same time. Alex decided to stay with us all the to Fargo to witness a 21st birthday, and our plan is to show him how Portlanders get down. Inside the free beer building is three bars combined. Hopping from one to another we found a country bar. Cowboys and cowgirls filled the huge dance floor in the middle. We never thought that line dancing still existed, but we found it. Hank instantly jumped on the floor and quickly learned the cowboy dance. Alex got lured into dancing with a very large lady, and the the rest of the guys ran onto the dancing floor as hank start crumping during a slow dance. Waking in the morning we found out that it was free beer night once again. It was a drunken circle. Free beer night should not exist. On the good side, we kept it all under control and had good fun, and luckily nothing bad happened. We purchased another night at the Hilton to nurse our hangovers before hitting the road. When in Fargo....

Day 43 When in Fargo...

2011-08-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

Feeling out our clothes and panniers to see if there was any chance of drying, we started out the morning still re cooperating from yesterdays rainy ride. With breakfast in mind we went to the local diner for food. # pancakes the size of dinner plates for only $3. The best deal we have found yet. Leaving Hope, our minds were set on Fargo, being deprived from almost everything staying in such small towns a city of 100,000 people sounded unreal. With a steady ride of 60 miles we were getting close to seeing the first interstate we have seen since Seattle. With Fargo in the distance it was the first city we had seen for a while. Even from a far you could see the water towers and housing districts.Beau hollered out "hey look, buildings!" as we rode in, finally making it to Fargo. After a quick stop for a case of beer we eventually found the Hilton and settled in for what was going to be a adventurous time. We thought we would relax the first night and catch a movie nearby. While searching for showtime for the new and final Harry Potter, another round of went along for making it to Fargo, and for Hank's birthday, and Dad who used his Hilton Honors to get us the room. THANK YOU HANK'S DAD!

Day 41&42 esmond to warwick/warwick to hope

2011-08-08T11:25:00.000-07:00

A lazy start once agian. We headed out, happy that the winds were slightly at our back. assing Devils lake, Alex, being a history buff took a detour to a muesum while the rest of us rode to shyenne were we would all meet up. We took a small detour to grab some more food at the town of Warwick. Ordering four pizza's at the local bar, we ate and decided to camp at the park of this town. Instead of making the 20 miles east to the next one. During the night we all were woken up by a argueing couple screaming back and forth. After an hour or so the fighting subsided and we were back to sleep. Hoping to get to Fargo soon, the Hotel is sounded better and better every mile.

Cutting many days short earlier in the week left us with no choice but to push hard towards Fargo. Hank's Dad used his Hilton Honors to get us three nights and the Hilton in town, and we were not going to miss one minute there. We are planning to make it to Hope today, about 85 miles, and then Fargo the following, a easy 40. Leaving early in the morning, is good to beat the heat and get a good head start on time, but it also is leaving us with no open stores for food. Today we had 40 miles to the nearest town, Binford, before we could get any food. We were a sorry sight, fighting headwinds the whole way, we have had enough, and took a very long well deserved break. Full and energized we re-mounted and headed towards Hope. Looking behind us the saw thick dark clouds rolling towards us. We road right of its downpour for around 30 miles but finally got caught 20 miles from camp. Stopping to put on our rain ggear we finally get to use, we contiuned on. Trying to keep our thoughts from the miserable rain pounding on us, we played triva games. Turns out our water proof booties only work when wearing water proof pants. It was way to warm to wear the pants so we all had to deal with soaked feet as we entered the very small town of Hope. Wanting to get warm and dry we took shelter in a small diner. Waiting out the storm, we headed to the city park to try to find a dry spot for our tents. Somewhat dry, we headed into our sleeping bags to get warm and fall alseep. Excited to ride in Fargo tomorrow.