I was too glad to make it into California. Last state of the trip. But at the same time, I knew I still had a good amount of ridiculous desert to roll thru.

The thing about the desert is not that it’s too hot or arid or anything like that.  But that there is so little out there.  You can ride 50 to 80 miles without seeing so much as a single gas station.

This is horrible when you’re hungry, thirsty, want to take a break, and etcetera.

My first day in California, I only came across one gas station and they happened to have a mini restaurant inside of it which was AMAZING. At that point the fact that they offered good food made-to-order was a huge bonus.

Closing out the first day in California I rode the last 25 miles of it in the dark, which was a bummer like always. I hate night riding. But regardless, I made it into Amboy, California and pulled into the desolate town right as I noticed that the motel I scouted out on Google maps was out of business.

The owner of the only gas station in the town was closing up as I pulled in.  Turns out his gas station didn’t even sell gas, or food really.  He was only there because this station he bought was on the historic route 66 and he was selling t-shirts and other nick-naks, among candy bars and trail mix until he got it fully restored.

I told him that I was looking for a place to stay and the motel next door that I planned on was out of business.  He offered to let me camp out in the picnic area near the public restrooms for his business.  I took that offer.  Had no choice.

The bonus was that his restrooms stayed open all night. So I liked that.

The town was so small that nobody really came by to use the restroom except for once every few hours or so.  Thus, I felt it was cool to take an entire bath out of the sink in the womens restroom.  I choose the womens restroom because the hot water actually worked, as it didn’t in the mens.  Would’ve been a bit more than awkward if someone came in there and caught me.

But nobody was around.  I found an electrical outlet on top of one of the stalls in the womens bathroom also which was great.  I charged my iphone up on it before I went to sleep. Then, put my ipod on there overnight.

Bad move.

As I woke-up and my shit was GONE.

Summamabitch!

I thought it was safe enough to leave it on there.  Most of the people who came by to use the restroom were men throughout the night anyway.  I had the charger tucked away in like stall number 8 of 11, what are the odds that it was found? And besides, who would want to steal my ipod with a cracked screen.  You couldn’t even see the songs you were playing.

That truly pissed me off. I used that ipod versus my iphone so that I wouldn’t drain my phone battery when playing music on it for 8 – 12 hours a day.

Well, at least I was smart enough not to leave my iphone in there. But damn. That hurt. I hate hate HATE when someone steals from me.

…

My last day started in Palmdale, CA. It was a tough ride because I had the San Gabriel Mountain range to get through in the Angeles Forest.  One last series of mountain climbs prior to getting to LA and confronting urban riding.

The San Gabriel mountains were interesting, I swear they were never ending.  The path I took; I knew I had 40 miles of ups and downs.  There were a few areas where I could see fire damage from a recent forest fire.  I even saw a helicopter dumping water on areas. I didn’t see any fire though.  It must’ve been close because I also saw the Fire Department out there doing drills and such.  Or perhaps, the helicopter was running through drills also.

I also came across a construction crew working on the road.  One of the workers stopped me, to tell me that he had some cold water to offer in a cooler.  He said it was for the crew and hikers and cyclists that came through.  That was super cool.  I refilled at least two of my bottles thanks to him.

I could tell when I was getting closer to LA, because the traffic picked up with motorcycles.  A lot of guys with their sport motorbikes where up in the mountains “canyon carving” as it’s called.  This is when dudes would suit up in full leathers go out on their sport bikes and enjoy all of those twisty turns up in those mountains.  Think, any sports-car commercial you’ve ever seen, and swap car with motorcycle.  It’s mad dangerous, as many areas of those roads didn’t even have guardrails. One slip-up on a patch of sand and it’s a wrap on life. But if you stay safe, I’m certain it’s an amazing thrill.

Once I got to the peak of what would be my last decent, it was an amazing feeling.  I could see Glendale, CA off in the distance.  To say I enjoyed that last downhill, would be an understatement.  And with my most unbiased opinion, that downhill was the most fun due the the number of switch-backs it had.  I felt like I was doing my own canyon-carving.

I had to fight thru the traffic of Glendale, Burbank, West Hollywood, and Beverly Hills before I got to the beach, which was my ending destination.  Once I finally got to that beach, it was a trip to just let everything set in and reflect on the entire journey that I had started 65 days prior.

I was most happy that I didn’t suffer any major injuries or worse on this trip.  In my head I kept thinking, “If I die on this trip, my Mom is going to kill me”.  She certainly hated the whole idea.  But now she need not worry about it anymore, because at the moment I definitely wouldn’t even think about doing it again.  But who knows…I have no idea what I’ll be into a couple of years from now.  I could have the itch to do it again.

But right now, all I can think about is letting my body repair itself.

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You can follow along in real-time and spot exactly where I am, as I have a GPS unit that updates a Google map in real-time every few minutes.  To view it, “LIKE” the iHeartCardio Facebook Fanpage.

Also, you may contribute to the American Heart Association which is the cause I’m riding for.  100% of what you donate goes to the AHA.  You may learn more about WHY you should donate. Whether you choose to donate or choose not to, please help SPREAD the word.

Last but not least, I want to thank my equipment sponsors. GoPro and Detours.

As I exited Arizona, I encountered a mountain range that was unexpected because it didn’t show up on my Google map.  On second thought, it wasn’t really a mountain range I don’t think.  The issue was that the city of  Bullhead City, AZ was at an elevation of approx.  400 feet.  And all the land surrounding it was at 3K+ feet.  So the city was basically just in a valley.  It was real fun entering that city, at about 25 miles of good downhill.  But coming out SUCKED.  Especially since I didn’t expect it.

I was so exhausted once I got out of that valley that I decided to skip visiting Las Vegas.  It was a tough decision, because I really wanted to kick it in Vegas for a few days.  But I just couldn’t stand the idea of another surprise valley/mountain range like that again.  And besides that, at that point I could definitely start to feel my body breaking-down.  I made the call to B-line to Cali and get this journey done.

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You can follow along in real-time and spot exactly where I am, as I have a GPS unit that updates a Google map in real-time every few minutes.  To view it, “LIKE” the iHeartCardio Facebook Fanpage.

Also, you may contribute to the American Heart Association which is the cause I’m riding for.  100% of what you donate goes to the AHA.  You may learn more about WHY you should donate. Whether you choose to donate or choose not to, please help SPREAD the word.

Last but not least, I want to thank my equipment sponsors. GoPro and Detours.

As I exited Colorado, I stopped at the 4 corners monument where, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona meet.  It was pretty anti-climactic actually, I don’t know what I expected.  It was cool to stop by and look at, it keeps you interested for about 3 minutes.  And on top of that it costs $3 to enter. I know it’s a small fee, but I hate paying a fee to see something that’s already outside. Like if you had to pay $3 to look at the Seattle space needle.

Once, I left that monument, I entered northern Arizona shortly thereafter and also entered the Navajo Nation.  And I instantly noticed a huge increase in roadside litter.  And about 80% of said litter was in the form of beer bottles and hard alcohol containers.

As I rode, I thought to myself…perhaps alcholism really is a big epidemic in the native american community.  I originally thought it was a bit exaggerated, despite learning of this problem years ago.

It’s as large a problem as I read about.  I even walked past an HR Block in Kingman, AZ and taped to the front door was a notice that stated, “…if a customer is believed to be intoxicated on our premises they will be asked to leave and police will be called”.  I was like, “damn”. It ‘IS’ that serious.

I mean, seriously.  There was so many bottles on the side of the road, that it looked like a dump truck drove at a speed of 20 mph, with its truck bed tilted while it just unloaded all of these bottles.  And because these bottles were most likely thrown from cars whizzing by into the desert sand, so many of them weren’t broken.

If someone wanted an idea for a side hustle, they could go and clean-up the bottles on both sides of US 160 for about 100 miles.  Take the bottles to California and cash them in, or another state that pays out for recycling.  Some states pay as much as 5 cents per bottle.

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You can follow along in real-time and spot exactly where I am, as I have a GPS unit that updates a Google map in real-time every few minutes.  To view it, “LIKE” the iHeartCardio Facebook Fanpage.

Also, you may contribute to the American Heart Association which is the cause I’m riding for.  100% of what you donate goes to the AHA.  You may learn more about WHY you should donate. Whether you choose to donate or choose not to, please help SPREAD the word.

Last but not least, I want to thank my equipment sponsors. GoPro and Detours.

After leaving Montrose, CO I was starting to get used to guaging my daily distances by how many mountain ranges where ahead of me.  So leaving Montrose, I knew I would be set stay in Telluride, CO or Mountain Village, CO.

I ended up staying in Telluride for the simple fact that was easier to get to at the end of a long day.  They are neighboring cities, and I could visibly see that Mountain Village was situated at the peak of a mountain to the right of the road I was on.

By the time I found a place to stay the night with a reasonable rate, checked in, and showered, it was around 9pm. And what I didn’t know is that the town pretty much shut-down at 9, when it’s off-season (non ski season).  This was going to be a problem, because I was starving!  This town was so desolate, that if I didn’t find a place to eat, I would’nt have been able to even get gas station food.  There wasn’t a gas station! I just would’ve been SOL and hungry for the night.

So I stroll into a bar, which seemed to be the only place open past 9. I ask if the kitchen is still open and the barkeep says it just closed.  Once I ask, if there are any other alternatives for food nearby, dude says no…and he could tell that I’d be screwed for the night.

So he talks to the cook in the back.

I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I could see the chef look at me while they were talking and then nod his head.

The barkeep comes back and says, “we can only offer you one dish, if you’re interested”.  He goes on to explain that it would be roasted duck, on a bed of spanish rice, with braised tomatoes and a sunny-side up egg.

Sounded like a very unique dish to me.  But he said it was only $8 and plus I had no other option.  He coulda said that they had squirrel and bear meat stew and I would’ve been game (pun intended).  So I order it.

Man!

That dish was amazing! I wish I would’ve taken a picture and asked more about the indgredients so that I could try to recreate it after the trip.  It was dope how something so good, could be so thrown together.

I was very thankful that the barkeep hooked me up. Because he was the difference in me having and not having food that night.

Telluride itself was a very unique town. When I walked to that bar from my hotel, the town had a very surreal feel to it.  Like in a manucured way.  The best way I can describe it, is that the whole town felt like a movie set.  Like it was created to mimick what the set designer felt a quaint mountain town should feel like.

I learned later that Oprah, Tom Cruise, Jerry Sienfield, among others currently have or had houses here in the past.  I can totally see that a town like Telluride would have such a draw.

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You can follow along in real-time and spot exactly where I am, as I have a GPS unit that updates a Google map in real-time every few minutes.  To view it, “LIKE” the iHeartCardio Facebook Fanpage.

Also, you may contribute to the American Heart Association which is the cause I’m riding for.  100% of what you donate goes to the AHA.  You may learn more about WHY you should donate. Whether you choose to donate or choose not to, please help SPREAD the word.

Last but not least, I want to thank my equipment sponsors. GoPro and Detours.

Prior to this journey I had never been more than around 1K feet above sea level.  As I entered Colorado and made my way towards Pueblo, it seemed that there was a gradual incline for miles that was barely noticeable until I got on the western side of Pueblo.

Once I headed towards Westcliffe from Pueblo, I soon realized that I should’ve left WAY earlier. I was riding thru the mountiains and it became a typical night of where the sun set way too fast and I was still about 2 hours away from my stop for the night.

This was my first real mountain climb since the Appalachians back east. I must admit that it was super scary riding thru this mountain range in the dark.  The crazy thing is that besides the occasional car that would pass in either direction, maybe every 7 minutes, it was extremely silent.  I’ve never been outdoors before and it be ‘that’ silent.  So this means I could hear absolutely everything else that was out there with me in those mountains.  At one point I heard a pack of coyotes/wolves off in the distance.  This was unsettling but, I didn’t worry about it too much because I could definitely tell that they were pretty far away.

I was riding and I got all the way to the point where I was 8 miles away from town. Only 8 miles!  At a climbing pace, I was usually doing around 5 miles an hour. So my day was nearly at it’s end.

At this particular point in the climb, in addition to the sound of the nothing I heard the strangest sound that I’ve ever heard and I couldn’t even describe accurately what it was, but I’ll do my best…

So, imagine the sound of a cat being strangled while it’s gargling listerine.  Strange combo, I know.  But that’s literally what it sounded like.  And the sound was loud enough to where I could tell that shit was just off the road in the bushes.

I stopped immediately once I heard that and turned around. It was THAT bad. I had no idea what animal that sound came from but was loud!

I had a decision to make. Keep going past the “thing” (worst-case scenario = mountain lion). Or find somewhere to camp nearby.

There happened to be a house nearby. It was out in the middle of nothing on this mountain.  I could see that dude was home as he had all the windows open.  He looked like he was gaming on his laptop or something.

Once I stepped foot on his property, I could hear his dog barking, but I couldn’t see it.  But it was definitely outside.

There was no fence around his crib.

I had the hardest time trying to get his attention while not getting bit by his stupid guard dog.  He had a window open, so I just started saying “Hello!” and he eventually heard me.

I initially asked if it would be cool for me to camp out on his land. He wasn’t cool with that. But he did offer to call the sherrif to pick me up and take me the last 8 miles into town.

So I went with that.

The guy was kind of irritated by me.

Anywho, Dude made the phone call and 20 minutes or so later the sheriff came by and picked me up in his SUV patrol vehicle. The sherrif was pretty cool. At first, I thought he’d be frustrated that I was wasting his time or something.  Turns out he was a cyclist too. So during the drive we were talking about bikes and the town of Westcliffe.

Before leaving Westcliffe, I had a mental battle with myself about whether or not I should double-back to the spot to where I got picked up.

It was a tough argument, because I knew that doing so would add an extra 16 miles roundrtip to the start of my day. I tried to reason with myself that I had already rode in excess of 16 miles while taking wrong turns leading up to this point.

But I ended up just doing it. It sucked too because a lot of it was a climb. I cursed the whole way. Feeling like I should’ve manned-up the night before and kept going.  But anyway, once I got it done I felt good about it as I knew that if I got to LA without doing the entire trip under my own power, I would’ve felt like I cheated.

There would be an asterisk next to my achievement, just like so many juicing pro athletes with their names in the record books.

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You can follow along in real-time and spot exactly where I am, as I have a GPS unit that updates a Google map in real-time every few minutes.  To view it, “LIKE” the iHeartCardio Facebook Fanpage.

Also, you may contribute to the American Heart Association which is the cause I’m riding for.  100% of what you donate goes to the AHA.  You may learn more about WHY you should donate. Whether you choose to donate or choose not to, please help SPREAD the word.

Last but not least, I want to thank my equipment sponsors. GoPro and Detours.

Kansas.

What can I say….

I’ve never really been in Kansas past the University of Kansas in Lawrence, which is in the eastern part.  And I found that Kansas doesn’t look as flat and desolate cliche-Kansas until you near the central parts of the state.

The flatlands of Kansas are really refreshing when on a bicycle. No worries about hills. You barely break a sweat in this state, besides when there are some strong headwinds or crosswinds.  Then, the resistance feels as if you have a parachute attached to your back or side.  Needless to say a tailwind is the BEST.

Town after town in Kansas was completely identical.  You could usually count on a grain elevator in the center of it and usually a water tower.

Beaucoup cattle. Beaucoup smell.

This sounds incredibly boring. However, I will say that some of the most amazing views I’ve seen on this trip where in Kansas.  There were areas where the land was SO flat in all directions, it was surreal that a Lake Michigan or a Gulf of Mexico wasn’t nearby. You’d swear that a beach was nearby. That’s the only time I’ve ever seen land so flat.

No picture can really do the sight justice, but this is my view from a dirt road shortcut with what seemed to be grain growing on the left and raw land on the right where the crop was already harvested.

I have no idea what this was growing to my right as I got further down the road. But I thought it was amazing to look at. There are so many times that I could just stop and sit for hours while admiring the sights. But then, I wouldn’t get anywhere.  Still, I think this is screensaver worthy (do people still use those?).

I’m not the only cyclists on these roads.

On the way to Ordway, Colorado I happened to be riding and in my side-view mirror I noticed a small red-dot in the far distance that was approaching me fairly fast. Initially I thought it was just another car…

Minutes later.

I see.

It was a trip to see this guy.

Especially since he was hauling so much ass, he literally had to slow-down for us to chat and ride.

Turns out, his name is Jan and he was with his friend Zack and they had started their trip in upstate New York and where on their way to San Francisco.  So, Zack and Jan started out together and they met up with a guy named James in Illinois who was riding from Nashville to Washington state.

I met up with all three of these guys and they turned out to be pretty cool people.  We all ended up riding together into Ordway, Colorado as we all planned on stopping there for the night.

Jan actually had a contact to a lady who had a hostel, of sorts, which was a spare trailer of many on her property that she opened up to people from time to time.  It was actually really cool of her to open it up for us. I wasn’t expecting much, but the trailer had a bunk-bed, a stove, and was carpeted.

It was pretty awesome. And FREE.

Once Jan, Zach, James and I got to the hostel, we were met by yet another cyclist, Matt.  Who was traveling from Washington state to Virginia.  So it was pretty cool that all 5 of us where in this trailer just hanging out, telling stories, and what-not.

I found it hilarious that Matt seemed to carry the least luggage out of all of us on his bike, yet somehow had enough room to pack a 4 course meal, which he’s eating in this pic.

From left to right, Jan, James, Zack, Me, Matt.

We all ate breakfast together the next morning and then split up to go our separate ways.

Matt, was going east into Kansas.

Jan and Zack were headed south into New Mexico.

James and I were both headed to Pueblo, Colorado for the night, so we headed out together.

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You can follow along in real-time and spot exactly where I am, as I have a GPS unit that updates a Google map in real-time every few minutes.  To view it, “LIKE” the iHeartCardio Facebook Fanpage.

Also, you may contribute to the American Heart Association which is the cause I’m riding for.  100% of what you donate goes to the AHA.  You may learn more about WHY you should donate. Whether you choose to donate or choose not to, please help SPREAD the word.

Last but not least, I want to thank my equipment sponsors. GoPro and Detours.

Day 22 starts in good ole St. Louis, Missouri. The hometown.

What I found strange is that for 22 days I have been inching my way across the country and my perception of the accumulative distance wasn’t really intact until I arrived in Saint Louis.

Strange. I know.

But, my train of thought was kind of like…

New York to Philly…ah not a big deal. It only takes a few hours to get to Philly from NYC on the train.
New York to Baltimore..same thing.
New York to Indiana…that’s sorta far
New York to Saint Louis…wow. that’s around 1K miles. And to drive that would take at least take half-a-day and at least a few audiobooks for sanity.

It was a bit odd once I was in East St. Louis, IL as I had to do a bit of googling to find out which of the 3 main bridges over the Mississippi river was pedestrian-friendly. I hadn’t been faced with this dilemma all trip.  This was a large issue. Because I damn sure wasn’t going to take the main interstate bridge. I love life too much for that.

I ended up using the Eads-bridge and was surprised that it had a sidewalk.  So that was a plus.  I’m fairly certain that bridge was just recently revamped to be walkable.  Otherwise I might have been SOL (Or rather SOOL. Why is it that acronyms with redundant vowels are often condensed into one letter? Someone reading this knows EXACTLY what I’m talking about. wink-smiley-face)

Once I cross into town I head on over to my Mom’s house and it was great. So great that one planned day-off turned into 4. Man, I took so much time-off that I almost forgot all about this trek. With my Mom hooking-up homemade pancakes and such every morning, I had thoughts to ditch the rest of this bike endeavor. That’s not a joke.

But, during that time-off I was able to chill out.  Let, some recent thigh chaffing heal-up and go to the outdoors shop (REI equivalent)  to get some additional stuff:

More lights for the bike…
to stop the paranoia about not being seen at night

Firewood starter gel…
I was pissed-off last time I was camping and couldn’t get a fire going because of damp wood

More innertubes…
because you can never have enough of these things on hand

Handlebar side-view mirror…
best thing since that happend to this trip since listening to podcasts. I now won’t have to rubber-neck in traffic always.

Once I did leave STL on Day 27, I was able to hop on the Katy Trail.  The Katy Trail is a trail that nearly runs the entire width of the state of Missouri.  It’s a Rail-to-Trail, as it was once a route where trains ran and they’ve since made it obselete, pulled-up the rails, put down some fine gravel, and now it’s a trail for runners, cyclists, equestrians, etc.

This wasn’t the first Rail-To-Trail that I’ve come across as I rode a few hundred miles on trails in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio.

Here’s the rundown about trails…

The Good:
It’s relaxing to not have to worry about someone dude who is multi-tasking by dipping mint skoal with his left-hand and texting his toothless girlfriend with his right-hand in his super-duper modified Ford F250 complete with gun-rack, lifted suspension, camo paint job, and anti-Obama bumper stickers.

That guy, might just pass by you and give you 1 foot of space…or worse

The Bad:
These trails cut through some of the most remote areas of states. There have been times where I have ridden 20+ miles, multiple hours and not run into another soul.  Also, 20 miles can feel like 40 miles when you see nothing but the same constant canopy of trees. This provides for minimal distance-reference because the next mile looks like three miles ago. And when your iPhone says “No Service”, for hours at a time, that can also trip you out.

So a good mix of the trails is ideal.

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You can follow along in real-time and spot exactly where I am, as I have a GPS unit that updates a Google map in real-time every few minutes.  To view it, “LIKE” the iHeartCardio Facebook Fanpage.

Also, you may contribute to the American Heart Association which is the cause I’m riding for.  100% of what you donate goes to the AHA.  You may learn more about WHY you should donate. Whether you choose to donate or choose not to, please help SPREAD the word.

Last but not least, I want to thank my equipment sponsors. GoPro and Detours.

Once I got out of Indiana and into Illinois, my riding was pretty smooth. Smooth as in flat as can be.  There’s nothing like looking straight ahead and being able to see two miles or so into the distance. Riding through Southern Illinois was quite refreshing because of that and also the fact that since I’m originally from Saint Louis, MO the areas became more and more familiar as I went west.

Now that I’m working my way through the mid-west, and am a few weeks into this trip, you may be wondering…

“What are you eating and how much?”

Let me first say, I’ve had a few of my Facebook and Instagram friends point out to me that I haven’t been eating the most heart healthy foods. So I must address this.

Well here’s the deal.

I indeed haven’t been making the most healthy food choices. No lie. I’ve been going after the pizza, the burgers, the triple stacks of pancakes. However, my BodyMedia device, that I wear daily around my tricep, tells me I burn between 4,000 to 5,000 calories on a typical 70 mile day.

So I eat whatever I want and as much as I want. To answer the question.

I know I’m promoting heart-healthiness, but you must hear-me-out…

The quantities I’d have to eat with my typical clean-diet versus my cross-country bicycle-ride Mike Phelps eat-whatever-diet would be ridiculous.

Just to fuel the calories burned on the bike, not considering those burned off the bike and while sleeping, I would need around 5,000 calories daily which would do the trick.  The typical Subway footlong is 1,000 calories, so imagine eating 2 footlongs for lunch and 2 footlongs for dinner with one for breakfast.  Not to say it’s not possible, but this is just to give you an idea of food quantities needed for fuel.

Now imagine how many apples, bananas, caesar salads, steamed brocoli, etc. it would take for 5K cals…

I would literally have to eat 8 meals per day or more.  Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Subway is a pretty healthy option for food.  However, the problem is Subway and simular healthy options aren’t always available even if I wanted to opt for them.  There have been times that I HATED the fact that my only choice was McDonalds.  But greasy-food better than no-food.

Nah mean.

During normal life…when I’m not on a bicycle all-day, I eat fairly clean minus a weekly cheat-day or two.

But with the amount of riding I’ve been doing, I’m eating whatever I want. It’s actually one of the few rewards I have to look forward to after all of the work.

When I go to Denny’s I get the largest breakfast combo they have on the menu. And it’s actually hard-work to finish it all, but I get it done.

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You can follow along in real-time and spot exactly where I am, as I have a GPS unit that updates a Google map in real-time every few minutes.  To view it, “LIKE” the iHeartCardio Facebook Fanpage.

Also, you may contribute to the American Heart Association which is the cause I’m riding for.  100% of what you donate goes to the AHA.  You may learn more about WHY you should donate. Whether you choose to donate or choose not to, please help SPREAD the word.

Last but not least, I want to thank my equipment sponsors. GoPro and Detours.

Following my most recent route through Pittsburgh, I decided that it just isn’t worth it to go through large metropolitan areas. The main issue is that the city traffic is far more dangerous than the rural traffic. Especially, when you don’t really know where you’re going.  Like I mentioned before, I rely solely on my iPhone for GPS directions.  So looking at it constantly, is the equivalent of texting AND riding a bicycle…with 60 lbs of luggage…with your feet clipped-in…with no idea of whether this car behind you is going to  side-swipe you…and that looks like a pot-hole big enough to dent your wheel and if you dent your wheel you’ll definitely be walking all the way to the nearest bicycle shop to buy a new one…which is probably closed for the day…and you’d have to find somewhere to stay for the night which is most likely going to be sky-high in this town.

With all of those thoughts happening pretty much simultaneously at all times. You might understand why I choose to eliminate the unnecessary hazards.

The Good.
Avoiding the large cities is safer.

The Bad.
Only seeing rural towns during this trip, is SO monotonous.

If you’ve seen one rural town, you’ve pretty much seen them all in my book.  Some of these smaller towns that I’ve been riding through are so dated, they look like they haven’t been touched since the 40’s.  And I mean, I could write a script, make “Doo Wop Divas” the working title, select a cast, hire Tarantino, and use any rural town that I’ve ridden through that doesn’t have a professional sports team, or college or university with more than 5,000 students.

I could shoot the movie in any of those towns without making any modifications. And every set would be perfect. AS-IS.

Ok, you got me. I’m exaggerating just a little bit. But you see what I’m saying.

Despite the monotony of rural routes. At least the sunsets never get old.

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You can follow along in real-time and spot exactly where I am, as I have a GPS unit that updates a Google map in real-time every few minutes.  To view it, “LIKE” the iHeartCardio Facebook Fanpage.

Also, you may contribute to the American Heart Association which is the cause I’m riding for.  100% of what you donate goes to the AHA.  You may learn more about WHY you should donate. Whether you choose to donate or choose not to, please help SPREAD the word.

Last but not least, I want to thank my equipment sponsors. GoPro and Detours.

I sit here from the Red Roof Inn in Saint Clairsville, Ohio ready to head out for the morning.  I strolled in here at 8am yesterday morning after a very very rough night.

Why was it rough? I’ll tell you…

On Day 11, I rode from Robinson Township, PA to New Athens, OH. This was a good day, I was feeling good and got 80 miles in after riding a trail thru the west end of Pennsylvania and the northern tip of West Virginia. Tackled quite a few hills once I got off the trail and into Ohio. But felt pretty good none the less.

Once I got to New Athens, OH, it was about 8:30pm after I figured out that I would need to go to Saint Clairsville for the night to find a place to stay.  This was because there was absolutely nothing in New Athens.  Not a hotel, motel, hostel, restaurant, I don’t think I even saw a gas station. NOTHING.

So, I try not to ride at night, but I figured I had to get this done.  Saint Clairsville was only 9 miles away. And even though I was certain that was 9 miles of hills, I was going to do it.

I head away from New Athens and as soon as I get about a quarter mile from the city, I realize a few things:

1. I really don’t have the energy to do these hills, as I was presented with one right away.
2. I need to quit acting like there aren’t bears and bobcats in these parts that I’d have no chance against at night.
3. If the headlight battery on my helmet died, I wouldn’t be able to see my hand in front of my face. It was just about that dark.

After having these thoughts, I turn around and think about a plan-B. However, bad that was going to be. At this point it was around 9:30pm and I was just plain stuck.

I rode past a post office and saw that it was situated on the main road, was decently lit, and it looked like the best option to call it a night there.  I posted-up by the entrance and camped out until daylight.

These were the longest hours EVER.

For dinner, I ate my emergency energy food that I swiped from the Holiday Inn Express breakfast bar back in Pittsburgh.  Two bagels and a couple of slices of raisin bread.  Afterwards, I spent my time looking at the stars. You can see far more in rural areas when away from smog and street lighting.

Then, when that got old I tried to get some sleep.

Emphasis on the word, “tried”.

My sleep went a little something like this:

10:00pm – sleep
10:30pm – where in the hell did that dog come from? is it on a leash? no! ok, i think it’s a cool dog. it’s going to keep doing it’s thing over there. it see’s me and didn’t come over, so it’s cool.
11:00pm – sleep
11:15pm – what was that crawling on my leg? hope i don’t get bit by something venomous.
12:00am – sleep
12:02am – what is that dog barking at?
1:00am – sleep
1:30am – i have 6% battery on my iphone. damn
2:00am – how is the sun not up yet? damn this is taking long
2:30am – sleep
2:50am – why did it just get cold suddenly? i thought these were the dog-days of summer. what happened to that?
3:30am – i need to layer-up and put on every spare piece of clothing i have. i think these shorts will work as a skull cap. yep

4:00am – sleep
5:00am – damn right. the sun should be up any moment now so I can leave. let me google the sunrise time for New Athens, Ohio….6:48am?!?! sunbitch! that’s a long time from now.
6:00am – this concrete is really starting to feel like concrete. I’m out.

When I headed out, that morning I was reassured that I made the right choice the night before.  Because these hills were RIDICULOUS.  They were so steep that even on the downsides I had to drag my brakes to keep from going too fast and that’s saying a lot because I’m a speed-demon that loves the downhills.  They were THAT steep. Up-side and Down-side.  There was no-way I was making those the night before in pitch-blackness.

I got into Saint Clairsville, OH at 8am and passed out as soon as I got an early check-in.  It was almost as if I never slept the night before. That’s how my body felt.

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You can follow along in real-time and spot exactly where I am, as I have a GPS unit that updates a Google map in real-time every few minutes.  To view it, “LIKE” the iHeartCardio Facebook Fanpage.

Also, you may contribute to the American Heart Association which is the cause I’m riding for.  100% of what you donate goes to the AHA.  You may learn more about WHY you should donate. Whether you choose to donate or choose not to, please help SPREAD the word.

Last but not least, I want to thank my equipment sponsors. GoPro and Detours.