Why, exactly?

Admit it- you've asked us the number one question, too.
Why are you doing this?

And its likely that it was followed with the number two question.
Isn't it a little late for that?

I'm reminded of a lunch break near the border of Wyoming. A group of Eastern Montana men surrounded Nathaniel, arms crossed and hat brims low. Imagine some tumbleweed and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly music (Whan whan whan, doodle oodle oooo). I was instantly reminded of the four of us hovering around one of our one-pot-wonder dinners, licking our chops. Intimidating. Moments later, they attacked. At first, we figured we were experiencing the usual interview, just slightly more aggressive. But then I started to get a bit nervous and was very happy to be on the side-lines with Emily and Flynn for the round. "Don't you kids have jobs??", "Why would you ever do a thing like that??", "No, no, no. East coast? Thanksgiving? No. Nope, can't do that.", "Shoulda done that months ago!", "That girl's got BUCKETS!". It was horrifying, and sort of hard to take ours eyes off of, until we realized that we were hiding around the corner of a building while leaving Nathaniel to get slaughtered out there. We huddled, made a game plan, and acted. We hopped on our bikes and headed for the hills! There was some dirt flying and a bit of panic, but we did manage to drag Nathaniel off before the buzzards knew what was happening. It got us thinking, though. We needed to be able to stand our ground out there. What should we say when people ask the inevitable question: why, and why now?

-Wait, its going to get cold? No one told me. Should I have brought a coat?
-Gaaaaahhh!
-The cycling alone isn't enough. We need a greater challenge.
-Shhhhh, not so loud! We're hiding from the aliens!
-2012? The apocolypse? We're going to be prepared, and who's gonna be laughing then?
-We're actually government agents rating the sleepability of post offices.
-Never too late to lose weight!
-Please tell me about when you did it, since you seem to know so much.
-The doc said it'd cure these boils I've been getting. I can show you how much better they are!

Its fun to joke about it to pass time on the road, but after months and thousands of miles of cycling, turns out there are a lot more reasons "why". None of us could have expected that people of every walk of life would open their homes and lifes to a group of smelly, free-loading dirtbags. We've had the opportunity to reconnect with friends and family, experiement with gas station food, and bring some flavor to towns across the west with populations of less than 75. Our faith in humanity, and especially Americans, has been restored, and I feel like I have learned an invaluable lesson in communicating with strangers and teammates alike. We have experienced in full every inch of the journey and country that takes mere days in a car, a couple hours by plane to cross. And why not right now? We were lucky enough to have eachother, equally eager adventure seekers. We were finished with work, our leases were up, and we had time to kill. Admittedly, we dream of warm summer days, but we do more than manage and we appreciate the good weather more than ever. Also, I'd swear we receive more offers for indoor accomodations. Plus, as one Harley dude told us, we're hardcore, simple as that. He was so astonished that he let his cigarette go out. We even got the secret handshake.

Some days we have no idea where we'll be sleeping, what we'll be eating, and to boot, we're soaked to the bone. Somehow, the journal entries on those nights are mainly about a really kind and fun waitress at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere that served fantastic food, local microbrews and let us camp for free in the backyard on a day where we went way further than we thought was possible. So have faith, things will work out, even when your muscles are cramping before you even start up a hill, two cars have honked and driven too close, and all you can see is your breath. Nothing lasts- not the glorious and well deserved downhills, the daylight, a crummy shoulder on the road, an ice cream at just the right moment, or a relentless headwind. We've learned to appreciate things for what they are while they last and to take each moment and each day one at a time. Will it rain tomorrow? Are we almost out of fuel? Will Iowa smell terrible the whole way?  Will we get stopped in our tracks by a blizzard? Would we make it for Thanksgiving, or at all? Its can be hard to say, but right now we're making great tracks, we're meeting people left and right, and everyday is a surprise.  No more predicting, instead we just keep pedaling. There are times when I know deep down that this one hill, this damned flat tire, an early start on a freezing morning with ten miles of gravel road and a headwind is not fun, not at all. But looking back someday, I doubt I'll even remember those moments and we're be better for it all. I mean every word when I reply with, "Well, because its almost always fun!". These days we have a hard time answering "why" because there are so many reasons to choose from.

-Carolyn

P.S. Here is a cautionary tale, and I hope this comes up on a google if a cyclist ever decides to check out Pennsylvania's route 77 for a ride. Don't ever, ever go near this road. Ever. Not in a bike, not in a car. Sure, its the most direct way from Greenville to Cory and takes you off those icky main roads. Don't be fooled, though. It was late afternoon, a sunny day, when we decided that we had to take a break. I managed to get off my bike and get both feet on solid ground before flopping in the dirt. The topographic profile of the route would have looked like a heart rate monitor reading. I was convinced the ground was shaking as I munched on a plain bagel and wondered in dismay how it was possible for a vehicle to drive on a road with such sharp inclines and declines as this. Wouldn't they just nose dive at the bottom of hill? It was impossible for all four wheels to be on the ground, I thought, as I imagined a car wedged into the angle of a V.  We didn't count the steeps, it was demoralizing, and we came to realize that the "towns" on the map weren't much more than an abandoned market and that we didn't have a chance of making it to Cory. It was cold, there was snow on the ground, the wet roads were getting slicker, and both Emily and I were privately wondering what in the world we were going to do. We did have warm sleeping bags, right?... We could eat string cheese for dinner, right?... Thank goodness, it turned out Spartansburg was actually a town, complete with a market, a restaurant, a bar and a recently re-opened B&B. The proprietor, Melissa, must have taken pity on us and our quivering Elvis legs. That, or our begging to sleep in the carriage house, the yard, to do laundry, dishes or cook in exchange for a room won her over. We ended up sleeping in luxury and got the room with a jet bathtub. Thank you sooo much to the Gast Haus B&B in Spartansburg! At a bike shop the next day, a local looked at us, aghast. "You rode 77? Nobody rides 77. That's bad in a car!". We were slightly mollified, but a bit embarassed by our ignorance. I guess that's bound to happen sooner or later when you're winging it with nothing but a highway map.

A very, very cold morning. We knew we needed a break when we realized it wasn't just our hands, but our whole arms that were going numb. French toast, eggs, hash browns, coffee and apple pie is just what the doctor ordered.

Crossing into New York state. If that doesn't represent East Coast, we don't know what does! Our first state that actually touches the Atlantic, yeehaw!

Another beautiful day in PA.

Allegheny National Forest

Cruising through Pennsylvania. We biked by this huge reservoir in the Allegheny National Forest. Beautiful day to be riding!

Trying to stave off defeat on route 77. Ow.

This one goes out to Flynn and her trusty steed, Black Betty. This great guy gave us a big bag of bagels and introduced us to his "girlfriend", Black Betty! He even threw in a "Bam-ba-lam".

We wish this sign was pointing us to ocean kind of Atlantic... but still a ways to go!

We shared a great evening with Emily's PA relatives Conrad, Carol, Bill, Nancy, and John.

Emily's relatives greeted us in Greenville with a delicious meal and this fantastic cake. We felt very welcome in Pennsylvania!

We were lucky enough to have Brent, a professional cyclist, join us one morning. Our morning flew by in his company, and we were sad to see him go. What an inspiring and memorable part of our journey. Thanks for riding with us, Brent!

Try as we might, its hard to ignore all that Christmas cheer. Emily was a rockstar on the high-wheeler!

We arrived in Peninsula, Ohio and what did we find? A chance to ride a high-wheeler/penny farthing! Thanks to Century Cycles and Doug for a great evening and help with our bikes.

We had an awesome stay with Juli and Kris in Norwalk, Ohio. Thanks so much for everything!

It was wonderful to stay with my cousin Robin, her husband Mark, and their two great daughters. Thanks so much for a great stop in Madison!

Flooding creeks after the huge storm... We were so happy to have slept inside that night!

We biked slightly out the way for these out of this world donuts. A guy bought us these ones once he heard what we were doing. We polished them off, no problem, then each ate one more.

Sherry and Russ, our wonderful saviors in Bowling Green, Ohio who rescued us from the tornado. Thanks!