Day 10: Waylaid by Injury and Tornadoes

Augusta, MO to Washington, MO

Stats!
Miles traveled by bike: 14.1
Total miles traveled by bike so far: 312.3
Max speed: 19.2 mph (flat, flat, flat!)
# of tornadoes: 0 so far (fingers crossed, and we'll hide in the motel bathtub if we need to)
# of tornado warnings: 1
# of flash flood watches: 1
# of river flood warnings: 3
# of hours spent at doctor's office: 1.5

Yesterday Dean had a fall from his bike that wrenched his wrist, right as we were ending our ride. He said he'd sleep on it and hope it was better in the morning. It was worse in the morning. The B&B owner and everyone in all of Augusta warned us about a coming severe storm today and possible tornado this afternoon. We decided that with Dean's wrist and a possible tornado, that we should veer off course a bit and head for the nearest big city -- Washington, MO, about 15 miles away. They had doctors and motels, and medical attention and shelter were what we needed.

Dean refused the B&B owner's offer of assistance, and said he thought he'd be okay biking a short distance, as his wrist felt okay as long as he didn't twist it. We hit the road and he felt okay for most of the ride. There were some serious dark skies on our ride to Washington.

We got to the Urgent Care facility and I waited while Dean was with the doctor. While I was waiting, the nurses were talking about the coming tornadoes. They were supposed to hit pretty soon. Dean finally was released with a splinted arm (it was a "strain"), the weather looked okay, and it was less than a mile to the Super 8, so we hit the road.

We are now in the Super 8 watching the skies and the Weather Channel. There is a severe weather watch until 9 p.m. We'll head for the bathroom and lock ourselves in if it gets serious. Mom, Dad, Anita, and Roy -- we'll call tonight once it's passed.

One thing I meant to mention yesterday that was cool was that yesterday was May 24, 2011 and we were in Augusta, MO. On May 24, 1804, Lewis and Clark were in Augusta, MO. Very cool.





Also, here's a cool photo of a rock wall on our trail.

Keep your fingers crossed for us. We'll post more when we can.

UPDATE: We had a terrible storm and the tornado sirens went off, but it's now passed us and we are safe.

Day 9: We've Been to Hill and Back

St. Louis, MO to Augusta, MO

Stats!
Miles biked: 53.9
Total miles biked so far: 308.2
Max speed: 23 mph
# of mountain ranges biked: 1.5 (Blue Ridge and Appalachians)
# of mountain ranges covered via support vehicle: 2.5 (part of Appalachians, Alleghenys, and Ozarks)
# of times Dean's chain fell off today: 0!
# of times Dean was off the chain: 6

First let me say that we took _a ton_ of pictures today, but we have a very weak signal and are having problems uploading them. When we get somewhere with a stronger connection we'll edit this post to include photos.

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday. My parents picked us up in Blacksburg to take us to Illinois and we were exhausted when we arrived. We had originally planned to bike Illinois and southern Missouri (the Ozarks), but it would have been 8 days of miserable biking through mountain ranges, and the same distance only took 30 minutes by car. So I asked my folks to drop us in St. Louis. We didn't quite make it last night, but they took us to St. Louis early this morning. THANK YOU, Mom and Dad, for the final use of the support vehicle! I think our trip will be much happier without 600 miles worth of mountains. 600 mi of mountains on a bike = unhappy Meredith = unhappy Dean = lame honeymoon.

And even going 600 miles by support vehicle, we'll still cover thousands of miles -- certainly more than 3,000 -- on the trip, so I think it still counts as cross-country.

And! Our ride from St. Louis to Augusta today was great! We started off at the arch, which was beautiful. The gateway to the west! Downtown St. Louis was amazing. I definitely could live there. It has a lot of old city feel, and it smells like hops! Beautiful architecture, very bikeable, multiple universities, a great park. Loved it!

Once we got out into the suburbs, things got a little tougher. We definitely had a hilly ... maybe 10 miles or so. And one of the roads that we were on for about 4 miles was being resurfaced, so it was rough and grooved the whole way. NOT ideal biking, especially on steep hills. We were white-knuckling it.

Then the map told us to go through this suburban neighborhood (and they had a typo on the street name), and instructed us to sneak under a chained off area and cut through a housing complex parking lot. It was signed "PRIVATE PROPERTY NO BICYCLES" but we did it anyway. What choice did we have? We don't know our way around Maryland Heights, Missouri.

It led us to a path that took us across the Missouri River. We stopped at a little restaurant on Mallard Lake and had some refreshing beverages before we started to tackle the Katy Trail. Dean had his first mid-ride beer. We saw an awesome T-bird in the parking lot.

The Katy trail is crushed limestone, and flat, flat, FLAT (Dean wants me to say it was "flatter than piss on a plate."). Haaaaaaaah-le-lu-jah! It mostly followed the Missouri River. Very pretty. It smelled of honeysuckle most of the way. We saw lots of turtles, a few cranes, and the bluest birds you've ever seen. I don't think they were Bluebirds or Bluejays -- they were electric blue and shiny. They were a dark bright blue, if that makes sense at all. I tried googling but have no idea what they are. Anyone know?

We stopped in Defiance, MO for ice cream, on the recommendation of a random stranger in the suburbs of St. Louis. It turned out that the ice cream shop was also a bike shop! Dean got a new jersey (apparently he is now a huge Hawkeyes fan -- should go over well in Iowa) and replacement tubes since we've had a few flats. The shop was really cute, and they had a shop cat named Harley who was very sweet. The ice cream was excellent.


Not long after, we arrived in Augusta, got a place to stay, and had dinner at the brewery. Somehow, Augusta - pop 218 - has a brewery, a winery, and 5 B&Bs. The food and the beer were fantastic.

Tomorrow should be hillier. We'll see where we end up!

Day 7: Our First Rest Day, And A Plan Devised

Blacksburg, VA

Stats! (from yesterday)
Miles biked: 20.0
Total miles biked: 254.3
Max speed: 25 mph
# of meltdowns: 3 or 4 (all Meredith)

So, yesterday was tough. I mean it was TOUGH. We'd gone through our difficult day 4, decided to soldier on, had a great day 5 on gentle terrain, and thought all was well.

Then we hit the day 6 terrain. We are still in the mountains. The hills are what they call roller-coaster hills, which means that as you ascend, you can kind of tell that you're up high, and that the bottom is surely down there somewhere, but until you summit, you can't see the actual road, because it's too steep. The climbs that we could do were debilitatingly exhausting, but there were a lot that we had to walk. It was broiling hot, passing cars were jerks, I still had heat rash on my leg and saddle sores on my butt, and five miles into our ride, I blew out my left quad. I guess I pulled it? Not sure, but it was in serious pain.

One of the easy hills

It was a grueling, miserable day. I broke down and told Dean that I couldn't do one more day. I could not possibly do another day of these terrible hills. And after the Appalachian mountains come the more treacherous Alleghenys, and then the Ozarks. Three consecutive mountain ranges, covering hundreds of miles with no end in sight.

I couldn't do it. I just couldn't. I don't want to be miserable on our honeymoon. I thought we'd just gear down for the mountains and cover them slowly, but with 40 lbs of gear on a steep mountain, no gear is low enough. It kills your muscles, it sucks all your breath until you're wheezing, and you're still only a quarter of the way up.

Dean and I talked about our options. I told him I could not do Kentucky. It is notoriously the worst part of the trail (as far as countless consecutive steep ascents and descents go), and I was miserable already. We talked about trading in our bikes for a motorcycle, we talked about taking the money and doing something completely different, we talked about biking the east coast only, and lots of other things.

Ultimately we decided to once again take my parents' offer of a rescue mission. They are coming tomorrow to take us to Carbondale, Illinois. I told Dean that I couldn't do Kentucky, but that I could do the Ozarks. As long as we never do more than a 25 mile day in the treacherous parts, and we can take as many rest days as we need. He said okay.

We checked the maps, and it looks like we'll have about 8 days of tough biking through the Ozarks, going at the pace I'm willing to go. Some days will be 10 mile days, even. With the tough terrain, it will still be really hard, but once we hit Iowa, it will be smooth, flat biking all the way to the Rockies.

We decided to figure out what to do about the Rockies when we get there.

Today has been a nice rest day. We walked around Blacksburg and around the Virginia Tech campus. I showed Dean all my old haunts. It's odd to go somewhere you lived a long time ago. It's all very familiar and jarringly different at the same time. I was really excited that we got to go up Slusher Tower and see my Freshman dorm room (all the dorm rooms were open, for cleaning maybe?).

For the VT alums, Our Daily Bread and Backstreets are still here (hi, Etienne), we're going to the Cellar tonight for dinner and we went to China Inn last night. Slusher is now co-ed, which is weird, but my room looked just the same. Ton 80's going strong, as is Gillie's. Sharkey's is now next door to where it used to be (Arnold's), and there's a theater on College Ave now (not the Lyric, but some modern student arty theater). The Lyric is alive and well. It's all very familiar. I think this would be a great place to live and raise a family, but there's nothing really for Dean to do here, so I guess Rockville it is. :)

Despite our difficult day and our differing expectations, I think we're both happy with the decision. We love each other and we're determined to make this a good honeymoon for both of us. The next week or two will be hard (depending on how many rest days we need), but I think we'll be glad we decided to keep going when we hit the flatlands.

Since we're driving quite a long way tomorrow, I may not post. More once we're in Illinois.

Day 6: Another Really Difficult Day

We're in Blacksburg. It was a very hard, long, sad day. We may not continue the trip. We're ok.

Day 5: This is a ROCKIN' 99 cent gas station hamburger!

Lexington, VA to Troutville,VA

Stats!
Total miles biked today: 49.9
Total miles biked on trip so far: 234.3 (we passed the 200 mile mark! yay!)
Max speed: 26.5 mph (steep hills means you ride the brakes)
# of dogs that chased us: 2
# of meals consumed: 4
and a first! -- first other trans am tourist we met on the road (Bruce)

Our new attitude really helped us have a great day today. It really was a fantastic day from start to finish. However, I will go ahead and get the bad news out of the way first. I have sun poisoning and saddle sores. BOO. But we have a rest day coming up very soon, so if I can just make it through tomorrow, we can hide in the dark and salve my butt. :)

We got up early this morning, giving us a reasonable jump on the day. The first part of the ride was *beautiful*. Babbling brooks and white horses and rolling green hills -- fairy tale stuff. It was great. Bunnies followed us on the trail. We passed badgers and chipmunks. We did see one HUGE black snake just hanging out in the road, but he was totally chill and we just passed him. We also saw a cat who was standing in the road, but when (s)he saw us, (s)he just lay down in the road and took a nap. Very odd.

A lot of today's trail followed a railroad, and we saw an abandoned train station that was overrun with vegetation. Also, lots of just chimneys were along the trail. The train went by and the conductor waved at us. Nice!

The terrain was much more gentle today. We still had a lot of significant elevation ups and downs, but they were more gradual. Only a couple of really tough hills today. I am beginning to think we are going to have to walk through all of Kentucky, but we'll make it! (I hope)

About ten miles into the trip today, we made it to a gas station. We were both almost out of energy. Dean wanted to buy $4 trail mix. Then we both noticed the 99 cent refrigerated hamburgers. A much better value. So we each got a burger, and decided to split a Powerade. The burgers were DELICIOUS. I mean, I know we were hungry, but they were just the thing. Hit the spot and allowed us to make it to our real lunch spot in Buchanan (pronounced "Buck cannon"), which was called "The Fountain Sandwich Fountain." Awesome.

Buchanan was a really cute town. After that, it was a lot of nothing. And by a lot of nothing, I mean a lot of elderly men riding lawn mowers around several acres of land. We must have seen three dozen of them. Today was clearly lawn maintenance day in Botetourt County (pronounced "Bot-eh-tot").

After we got to Troutville, we realized we must have made a wrong turn as this is in fact Pleasantville. Everyone has been eerily nice to us. We got a free place to camp, free showers, a free kitchen (if we want it), dinner recommendations (the Country Cookin', which was a recommendation we took), and wildly varying advice on how to cure sun poison. As I was just blogging, a Troutville resident stopped by our tent in the park to bring me aloe. We are big news in Troutville, and she'd heard in the market that a bike tourist had sun poison, so she stopped by with aloe from her plant. SUPER nice, and desperately needed.

Later, at the Thriftway, I got a slim jim, and it was the best thing I'd ever eaten, after the 99 cent gas station burger, of course.

Anyway, I think we're both really glad we decided to soldier on. It was a really fun day. Tomorrow our goal is Blacksburg, where we'll have our first rest day. Thanks for reading, and for all the encouraging comments on our last post!

Day 4: A Series of Unfortunate Events

Vesuvius, VA to Lexington, VA

Miles traveled by bike today: 25.8
Total miles traveled (by bike): 184.4
Max speed: 29 mph
Elevation increase: a lot
Miles traveled via support vehicle: 50-some

This morning started out bright and shiny with promise. We were up early and met my folks at Teri and Alex's place in Charlottesville. My parents had agreed to take our gear in their car for our massive ascent of Afton mountain.

We had originally planned to start out in Charlottesville, but decided it would be better to face the mountain fresh, so my parents drove us and all of our gear to the bottom of the mountain, skipping about 30 miles of rolling hills. By the time we got there, it was maybe 10 a.m. or so.

We biked the first five miles of the mountain before giving up in utter defeat. The incline was so steep, and it seemed to just go on forever. My quads were SCREAMING, I was sucking wind hard, and we had 20 more miles (straight up) to go. I told Dean it was time to call it in. This is our honeymoon, and I don't want to spend it miserable. We didn't train at all on hills, and they are HARD. I mean hard. I mean really, really hard. In a way that you can't understand until you've tried to climb an actual mountain on a bike. It's hard.

Dean, waiting at mile 5 marker for the rescue mission

So my parents came to pick us up and drove us over the main mountain to Vesuvius, VA. We figured we could still get a full day's ride in, as it was about 11:30 a.m., and we could salvage the day and make good progress.

The first 15 miles or so were fast and fun. Then we hit more hills. Steep hills. Grueling hills. We made it to Lexington, but I was ready to quit the trip, take the money we had left, and spend a week in Cancun. Seriously, I considered this. I just can't convey to you how hard it is to cross the frickin' Blue Ridge on a bike. What were we thinking??? The rolling hills of central VA were tough but fun, and now we're into some serious business, mountain-wise, and it is really not fun sometimes.

A waterfall we encountered during the fun part of the day.

I had another total emotional meltdown on one of the tough hills. I told Dean that I wasn't having fun anymore, and I wanted to talk about quitting the trip and just going home. I was feeling pretty defeated. Here was this dream I'd had, and we were doing it (!!!) and it sucked more than I could have possibly imagined.

We got to Lexington and we met with my folks and they gave us back all of our gear. Dean and I talked about our options. We could just quit, or we could take our bikes in the car and drive cross-country, doing short bike tours where it looked good, or we could take the money and do something totally different, or we could soldier on. I was really not in favor of soldiering on after those last few hills, where the uphills were steep and grueling, and the downhills were steep and terrifying.

As it happened, Dean had left his bike gloves on the side of the road on Afton mountain. His chain had fallen off (AGAIN) and he was pretty PO-ed about it. So we went to a bike shop to get some new gloves (though Dean did ask me, do we really need to go to a bike shop?, i.e. are we quitting this thing or what?). But we went in, and I'm glad we did.

Lexington Bike Shop is home to two guys about our parents' age (one shop employee and another guy who just hangs out there b/c he's a major bike enthusiast). The enthusiast had done many tours, including Trans-america (David) and the employee (owner?) had seen many a trans-am bike tourist in his day. They gave us some good advice and the courage to go on.

Basically, they said that this was a tough part of the trip, and Kentucky would be even worse (yipes), but if we were stressing it, we were going about it all wrong. David said that if you tell yourself you have to do X miles per day and make it to Oregon on your insane route that adds 1000 unnecessary miles, you're going to go nuts and hate it and suck all the fun out. It's most important to do what you can do each day, and each day you'll get fitter. And he gave the best advice yet -- switchbacks on steep hills. He said we shouldn't power through straight up and kill our quads and lungs, but just weave back and forth as much as necessary to ensure you're not pushing too hard. The fitness will come. But cars on the roads (on this trail) are few, and you can hear them from far away, so if it's all clear, just swerve back and forth in your lowest gear. It doesn't matter if it takes an hour and you make terrible progress -- you're making progress and not killing yourself doing it. It will get easier and easier as you go. Plus he talked about how amazing his trip was, and said he'd really be sorry for us to miss it.

The employee/owner guy said that he'd seen many a "shell shocked" bike tourist come through, ready to give up. After Yorktown to Charlottesville, this part of the state can be shocking and miserable, but that it's normal and we're young, etc., and should keep going.

After talking to them and getting our bikes and gear situated, it was after 4:30, and the next town was 20 mountainous miles away. We felt better about moving on, but thought we should pack it in after a very emotionally and physically challenging day. However, we plan to wake up bright and early tomorrow and get back on the bikes, and go however far we can. When we get to western Kentucky or Missouri, we will consider changing our route entirely to shave off several hundred miles, so we might still be able to make it (Sorry, Heather and Joy!). If we can't make it to the west coast, we go as far as we go, and have fun. It seems reasonable and sane to just do what we can do, and not kill ourselves to make any particular goal. This is a honeymoon and I want to have fun.

The rest of our trip will be:

Day 3: Central Virginia is Like a Rollercoaster, Baby Baby

Mineral, VA to Charlottesville, VA

Stats!

Miles biked: 40.4

Total miles biked: 158.6

Max speed: 30.5 mph

# of total emotional meltdowns: 1

# of crying jags: 2

# of hills climbed: lost count

# of downhills: too few

# of roads named "Three Chopt": 5

# of weird triangular purple things in trees: 6

Today was a short day. We had originally mapped out a 54 mile route to Charlottesville, but when we hit the intersection with 250 (the road we had intended to take to Charlottesville in my 70 miles per day dream world), we decided to take that road instead, cutting 15 miles off our route. Yay!

We got to C-ville early (about 2:30 p.m.), which was great, since today was essentially half a rest day. But the first (non-rest) half of the day was filled with hills, hills, hills. It was really tough. Early on I lost it on a hill. It was steep, I was exhausted, and I snapped. We stopped, I ate a granola bar, we got back on the road, but I was still kind of a mess. I pulled it together pretty quickly, though.

This trip is really fantastic, and really tough. I like watching the Biggest Loser on TV, and the contestants are forever having emotional breakdowns. Today, I got it. Three back to back days of grueling physical activity with no end in sight, and you snap pretty quick. At least I get to eat barbecue sandwiches.

We saw a ton of weird big purple triangle things in the trees today (and yesterday, and the day before). We keep seeing them. What are they?

Today also saw our first near-death experience. Charlottesville is full of terrible drivers who see bicyclists as expendable objects rather than people with lives. Lots of cars determined to go 70 mph past us, while oncoming traffic fast approaches. Now we know why our map didn't take us down 250.

When we arrived to Charlottesville, my friends Teri and Alex who live here took off work early to meet us! Very, very nice. We got to hang with baby Brandon and eat lots of food, which we always enjoy. :) And tonight we get a bed which is super great, and Teri and Alex are always super fun.

Sadly, no photos today. I only took one during the day, which I may choose to post another day. But there wasn't much exciting scenery, the ride was short, and so was my fuse. ;)

I am actually really worried about tomorrow, when we hit "the big one." Afton mountain. The hill that broke my spirit was maybe a 250 ft increase in elevation. Tomorrow we go up 2000 ft. Let's be honest, probably less. We're going to do what we can do, and we'll have a support vehicle with us (thanks, mom and dad!). The goal is to make it to Love, VA, but if we don't, we don't. Right now we're just doing what we can and getting accustomed to daily hard biking.

Thanks for all the comments so far. We love them!

Day 2: Rain, Rain Go Away

Alternate title: Day 2: Downhills aren't worth it

Richmond, VA to Mineral, VA

Stats!
Miles traveled today (all on a bike today!): 54.8
Miles biked total: 118.2
Max speed: 31.5 mph
# of dogs that chased us: 2
# of dogs that would have chased us, had they not been caged: at least 12
# of times we hid from the rain: 4

We woke up bright and early and ready to ride. Unfortunately, it was POURING in Richmond, so we ate some breakfast at Sapna's house (thanks for the awesome soysage!) and waited it out.

We got on the road at about 9:45 a.m. We weren't even out of Richmond the first time we had to hide from the rain. However, throughout the day the rains came and went, and we never needed to hide for more than 45 minutes or so.

We hid at a closed down restaurant, a Friendly's (yum!), a sports camp, and a Domino's (we didn't eat at the Domino's, since we just had Friendly's). Thunderstorms chased us all day. But we were not daunted! And when the sun did come out it was beautiful.

We had originally planned to bike halfway to Charlottesville on Broad St. and just stop at 35 miles (halfway). However, halfway to Charlottesville there are only snake-ridden wheat fields, angry dogs, and children bearing rifles. (<---- 100% true)

So we cut north 20 miles to Mineral, VA, where you can camp at the Volunteer Fire Department for FREE! And they let you use their showers, etc., so it's a great deal. We are blogging from our tent right now.

Other stuff from today .... I had my first fall, Dean's chain fell off again (twice), we saw a huge turtle, a bolt of lightning, and a double rainbow part-way across the sky! It was a VERY hilly ride, which is exhausting. But there will just be more and more hills until we hit the middle of the country, so this is good training. :)

Day 1: A Series of Firsts

Yorktown, VA to Richmond, VA
Miles traveled: 72 (on bike: 63.4)
Average speed: not included in future posts b/c our bike computer averages in our lunches, but about 10 mph
Max speed: 26 mph

Let me start by saying that I wanted to title this post "Day 1: A Rude Awakening," but Dean thought we should be more positive, hence a series of firsts.

So let's talk about the firsts! Today we had our:
First day on our
First bike trip!
First time getting lost
First time losing the map (we found it)
First flat tire (Dean) and first flat repair!
First fall (Dean)
First time biking more than 40 miles in one day
First time biking more than 6 miles fully loaded (yeah, we weren't so hot about training with our gear)
First motor vehicle rescue
First potato tacos

Dean fixes the first flat of the trip

So you may be wondering how we traveled 72 miles but only biked 63.4. See, what happened was.... we only ever trained up to 40 miles, but then planned our first day to be more than 70 miles. Not to mention that we were hungover (thanks, mom), started three hours late due to missing shoes, and got a flat along the way. So when my parents thoughtfully showed up with donuts at mile 63 (with 9 miles of pure uphill left, with the sun setting), we took them up on their offer for emergency transport. My folks live very near our starting point, so they started out with us and popped up every so often with food and encouragement. It was great having a support vehicle, and I'm sorry we won't have them the whole way!

Dean realizes his shoes are missing, so we hit the local bike shop for replacements

The lesson we learned was that we were just way too ambitious for days one and two. We've adjusted plans for the next couple days to slow things down and give us a chance to recuperate from day one. We aren't planning to make it all the way to Charlottesville in one bite. We figure that after we get going more, and are a little more accustomed to the long rides, and when the terrain gets flat, we'll make up for lost time.

But despite a rocky start, in some ways, it was really great! Starting in Yorktown was amazing and I'd recommend it to anyone planning a similar trip. The water was pretty and there were tons of flowers along Colonial Parkway, and they smelled amazing. We saw TONS of cool animals frolicking, or doing whatever animals do. The whole ride was beautiful and the roads were thankfully in really good condition. Dean is super into birds (beats me) and he saw two huge hawks roosting in a tree we passed (very close), but we spooked them, and they flew off but followed us by air for miles. Also, around here the 13-year cicadas are out, and they are LOUD. We had pretty dense forest on both sides most of the way, and the cicadas were buzzing and humming all along our route.

Dipping our back wheels in the Atlantic (okay, the Chesapeake Bay, but close enough!)

My butt is killing me and I am exhausted, but I am still really looking forward to day 2! After all, a day that ends with $1 potato tacos is a good day. :) Many thanks to Sapna and Bret for taking us in!

Sapna, Bret and Dean at dinner. $1 tacos are the tastiest tacos of all.

Your Questions, Answered!

I am so happy that people are curious about the trip! We are really excited, and are now just a few days away from departure (May 16 departure date)! Tomorrow is our last day of work. Aaaagh!

Anyway, I've been getting a lot of questions from a lot of people. Here are the most asked questions, along with their answers!

1) How far are you going?
About 4,800 miles (see post below)

2) Where are you going?
Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon. :)

3) How heavy is your gear?
Umm... heavy. I posted about what we're bringing, but we're not quite sure of the total weight. It definitely makes the bikes hard to control when still (at a stoplight, for example), when going up hills, and when making tight turns.

Ok, I just weighed it (the curiosity got to me) and my gear is about 40 lbs. Exactly 37, but I'm not quite fully packed yet. So let's say 40 lbs. Dean's gear is probably also 40 lbs. Plus we have to propel the bikes and ourselves, and neither of us are pixies.

Meredith with her fully loaded bike

4) What are you going to do for food?
We are going to carry cereal and powdered milk on us at all times, as well as emergency snacks such as granola bars. For other food, we will stop at grocery stores and restaurants along the way during the day.

5) What are you going to do for water? What if you run out?
We are going to each have two water bottles on our bikes and start the day with two full bottles. In addition, I'll have a Camelbak. We will refill water at all of our food stops along the way. We will do our best to make sure that we never run out. In case of emergency, we have iodine to help us purify water from streams, etc.

6) How far are you going every day?
We expect this to vary, but we hope to average at least 50 miles per day over the entire trip, and 60 miles per day if you take rest days out of the average. I think we will probably start with lower mileage days and work our way up as we get into shape and the terrain gets flatter.

7) Are you doing this to lose weight?
No. Don't be ridiculous.

8) How will you find your way? How will you know where you're going?
We have maps from the Adventure Cycling Association, which we think are awesome! ACA has a network of maps that cover the whole country, and we have patched together our route from those. The ACA maps keep cyclists on the roads less traveled (by cars), and provides information on where to find campgrounds, bike shops, grocery stores, etc.

9) What if you get a flat or your bike breaks somehow?
We both know how to change flats, and we have extra tubes and patch kits in case that happens. Both of us are using kevlar-belted tires, however, so I hope flats just won't happen!

For other breakdowns, we took the Revolution Cycles Park Tool School last month, and we are pretty prepared to handle most things that may befall us. We can fix a broken chain, replace and adjust brakes, true tires, etc. But if we have a serious breakdown (crash that breaks crank somehow, for example), I think we'll just rely on our cell phones and the ACA maps to get us to the nearest bike shop.

10) How much will this cost?
A lot. If you count everything (mortgage, health insurance, gear purchases, student loan payments, credit card payments, cell phone payments, etc.), and we do, since we're not earning any money and everything still needs to get paid, it costs about $25,000. If you take out all the stuff we'd have to pay for anyway and just count the trip stuff (food, lodging, bike expenses) it's about $9,000-10,000. In other words, definitely more than our wedding. :)

11) Where will you sleep? Are you camping?
We plan to camp six nights a week and have a hotel/motel one night a week. I'm sure that won't work out exactly right, but that's what we budgeted for.

12) Are you nuts? This is dangerous!
I will refrain from answering this one until we get back from the trip.

13) Aren't you SO excited? Aren't you nervous? Aren't you worried?
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Please post any other questions you may have in comments (along with, of course, any comments), and we'll answer them as soon as we can!