October 1st Day 25. Round Up, Montana

Average Speed: 19.9 Km/h
Days Distance: 123.11 Km
Total Distance: 1139.22 Km

If riding through Southern Montana does nothing more for me, it will have at least added 1 solid inch of muscle onto my legs. We did make it into the small town of Round Up. A 123 km ride taking just over 6 hours. In elevation, we actually rode down 800 feet, but with the amount of long and steep uphill climbs today, it just didn't feel like it.

The vegetation and landscape have changed dramatically over the last few days. The rolling hills have turned into rolling mountains, and the wheat fields are now filled with Alfalfa. And jesus we saw so much wildlife on todays ride, I thought we were in some sort of zoo.

I'm crusin down a hill at about 50 km/h and deer comes bounding over the fence and right in front of my bike all within seconds as I yell out "holy shit, it's Bambi!" and slam on my brakes to avoid a messy situation. That one was maybe the 2nd of about 20 deer we saw today.

The hills are also absolutely littered with black cows. So many in fact that from a distance the hills actually look like giant ant colonies teaming with activity and life. These cows are a little more interested in us than the Alberta cows who just run away if we get to close. As we ride by, whole herds of cows run along with us until they are blocked by their fences. It's quite a site!

Because we didn't leave Lewiston until about 1 PM, we had to go look for some warmer biking clothing, we had to ride the last 40 km's in complete darkness. What an experience that was. Quite scary, interesting, fun, repetitive and everything else I can think of. We rode with our Caughlin's headlamps to light the way, about the same amount of light as your normal household flashlight, only you wear it on your head. Both our batteries ran out. PJ's first, we changed his batteries, and mine second with no spare batteries left. So I had to ride close behind PJ with his headlamp being our only source of light.

40 km's in the dark seems like 80 km's in the daylight. You can only tell uphills from downhills by how easy peddling is, you can't see corners or what that was jumping out of the bushes right beside you and scaring the living hell out of you. You can't see anything more than 15 feet ahead of you except when a car drives by and lights the way giving us a peek as to what's coming. We just rode one meter at a time staring only and sticking faithfully to that painted white line that led us the right way, for 40 km's. A long night for sure!

We are tired and grunting whenever we move our bodies too much. So the beds are highly welcomed. Only an 80 km ride into Billings tomorrow. Childs play!

October 2nd Day 26. Billings, Montana

Average Speed: 16.5 Km/h
Days Distance: 82.51 Km
Total Distance: 1221.73 Km

Leaving Round Up, YEEEEEHAW!, I was pretty excited and anxious to get into Billings as my legs were pretty sore from the 123 km ride yesterday. I knew we would be taking 2 days rest and that served as my main motivation to carry me the 82km's we had to ride today.

Although today was no easy ride.

On the first 20 km's I couldn't get my bike going faster than 12 km/h and that was getting the best of me. At the 20 km point, I angrily got off my bike and took a 5 min walk to get my thoughts together. I was pretty frustrated. At 25 km's, and not doing any better, I lost it.

I wanted to pull over to "gather my thoughts" again and tried clicking out of my secure peddle clips to no avail. SNAP!!! I got out of the clip, screaming and swearing at the top of my lungs and spitting like I was trying to put out a fire with spit. I threw my bike down and ripped off my new sunglasses and smashed them into the ground. I sat down and did not move for about 8 minutes. PJ climbed the mountain behind me and made his hand shadow hit my head shawdow for laughs. I still wasn't in the mood for laughs or smiles. After about 15 mins of calming down and a Clif's Energy Shot, we rode again all the way through the Bull Mountain Range.

The rest of the ride was faster but not much. I averaged about 16.5 km/h. A tough day but we are home free and in the hotel with some food in our bellies and big warm beds to fall into.

Biking is 110% mental, and 100% physical!

October 3rd Day 27. Billings, Montana

Ok I didn't really notice it last night.

Maybe it was that I was too tired or maybe because we only had to walk a half-block to find a great place to eat. Jakes. But today we find ourselves back in our hotel room after walking the perimeter of exactly one city block, looking for new directions to an internet cafe so we can satisfy your ferocious appetite for our journal entries. I told you this trip would be exciting!

What we thought would be an internet cafe, turned out to be a coffee house with 4 data ports. That just means only four people, who happened to bring their laptops could access the internet. Sadly enough for us, the guy who gave us directions and knew we were on bikes, didn't have it in him to realize that we more than likely are not carrying the beastly machines in our bike bags.

They are filled with useless things such as food, clothing, and shelter. Sorry for my cynisicm but I am a little impatient with the lack of insight!

*Note:

It seems as though I have raved once again, for nothing. The guy I mentioned in the little story above did in fact give us good directions. I just didn't see the only two computers in the coffee house. It was too busy.

My apologies to you kind sir for misconstruing your insight. I am the idoit!

October 4th Day 28. Billings, Montana

A lot of people have been asking us how we manage to pay for our biking trip. It's a fair question as anyone can easily see that this type of trip does require a significant budget. There are very few people that I would like to thank for helping to make this trip a reality. But of those people, who I do not wish to thank, my sister Margaret is not one of them.

Margaret, thank you!

Without you taking care of all my left over junk from before the trip; the phone calls to Telus for my cell phone and phone bills, the modem, the checks in my old mailbox, the tight-ass banks, and expecially running my business for me, this trip would not happen.

I want you to realize that I picked you in the end to run my business for me, because I knew I could count on you no matter what happened. I knew you would do as wonderful a job as you are and I couldn't be happier with the way things are going.

I love you and can't thank you enough! PJ is also pretty dam thankful!

I also want to mention that my other sister, Alice, and her husband, Darcy, have just found out that they are pregnant! I am going to be an uncle for the second time!

Way to go guys! I am so excited for you and can't wait to meet my nephew, please when I get home!

And just one more person, my mom! Mom, I love you!

Thank you for everything you are doing for us. Even though my email inbox is always filled with blank emails from you, I don't care. It doesn't bother me to see that you are finally learning how to use the computer! I love getting your emails no matter what they contain!

Thank you for all the help with contacting the media mom. I really appreciate it!

Also would like to add that yesterday, on a phone call with my sister Margaret, I realized that PJ has been publishing his "little" anecdotes about me on the website. I am actually flattered that PJ even takes the time to write about me regardless of what he has to say, which is usually trying to degrade me in a way that is comical so that everyone laughs...ha ha ha! Now I almost feel bad about not giving him many mentions in my publishings.

It's not that I don't have any stories to tell about PJ's antics, there are a few, it's simply that I wanted to keep my journals about the bike trip. But now, from the comments that my sister has made I think it is time to share more about PJ's bike trip through the eyes of Ian. I won't delve too much too soon into the stories of this highly odd individual, but will instead ease you into it. It's probably better that way.

I will start with the comicalness of PJ's, how shall I say, short short fuse. PJ get's mad at everything and anything that does not comply with any one of the following; his attempts to work with his 7 bungee cords and the many things they obvioulsy will hook on when being pulled on all at once, his heavy bicycle not rolling, steering or leaning the way he wants rather than what gravity dictates, or his constant attempts to dismount his bike gracefully, he has fallen at least 8 times on this trip to my one.

I wish I had a picture everytime PJ has kicked, punched, yelled at, lost it on, slapped, jabbed, sucker punched, slapped, threw or tossed something because it didn't react the way he would have liked it to. But I just can't take that many pictures. I have neither the battery power nor the storage capacity to digitally record this amusing phenomenon. But trust me, it's all the time.

Ian

October 5th Day 29. Somewhere, Montana

Average Speed: 22.6 Km/h
Days Distance: 115.92 Km
Total Distance: 1337.65 Km

It's back to campin! Not that we couldn't find a hotel to stay in or anything crazy like that, it's just that we are tryin to save some money. Too many hotels is hard on the budget.

It's still frickin freezing at night but at least the tents provide us with shelter from the wind and the rain. We rode through our first rainy day today. It wasn't pouring but we did get pretty wet. The rain suits are awesome but we with the amount that we sweat inside of them, they prevent our clothes from drying in the air. We both got pretty soaked by the time we were done our 115 km's. Now I sit in the tent trying to get used to the sounds that I am no longer familiar with.

I am used to hearing the TV in the hotel room as PJ can't fall asleep without it on. Weird! But tonight, vehicles, trains, the winds and constant patter of small droplets of rain hitting my tent shell are what I am getting used to again. It's completely black outside with no natural light. The clouds are hanging low and covering any chance of night light that exist. It's kinda scary again. If you don't hold your thoughts together, you can almost scare yourself out of a good nights sleep!

See ya tomorow!

October 6th Day 30. Casper, Wyoming

Average Speed: 14.6 Km/h
Days Distance: 56.61 Km
Total Distance: 1394.26Km

So I bet you are asking yourself "how did they get from the southern part of Montana to the middle of Wyoming in only one day?" Right?

Well today started off with a cold morning. Awoken by the sounds of air horns from truckers who think they are funny, or should decide when it's time for us to wake up, I stumbled out of my tent to get the day started. Boy were things going slow, and about to get worse.

With the wind in our face, and the mountains getting bigger all the time, we rode into the Big Horn Mountains which are gorgeous but make for a dam hard ride. The most beautiful and ever changing panoramic views continued to open up before our very eyes as we rode to the top of hills and peaks of mountains. We broke for lunch after a really hard 50 km's. This is when the story gets really interesting.

I took off after lunch as usual, and headed down a huge hill. I stopped at a pull over area with some garbage cans so I could get rid of my garbage I was carrying. I looked behind me to see where PJ was, hmmm....no where in sight. This was weird because it was downhill all the way from where we were, to where I was. But no PJ in sight yet.

I took this opportunity to take some pictures of the beautiful mountains and noticed a small black blip coming slowly down the hill I had just rode down. Oh boy, something was wrong! PJ walked his bike the whole way down the hill as the tire that was slowly losing air during our ride, was now flat.

When PJ finally got to the bottom of the hill, where I was waiting for him, he told me that I should ride into the next town to get help or phone Vince, the guy who sold us the bikes in Edmonton, and ask about the funny valve stem on his bike tire. We couldn't inflate the tire with our pump cause of this funny stem. Anyhow, I started riding ahead not knowing what to think. What if there were no taxi's to come back and pick up PJ? What if the next town in far away? What if, what if, what if... anyone who really knows me, knows I hate "what iffers". Just do it.

Luckily I met up with two truckers, right at the Wyoming border (we made it!!), who had pulled over on the highway whom I pulled up to and asked how far to the next town. About 16 miles or 25 km's. A 1 hour 40 minute ride the way things were going. The truckers were inquisitive, having passed by us just moments ago and seeing me taking pictures and PJ walking his bike down the hill. They asked why I was asking and I told them the situation.

Mark, a great guy with a southern accent that you couldn't miss, offered help immediately and asked his other trucker bud, Russ from Seattle another simply amazing individual, if they could do anything to help us. Russ said he could use his air compressor to fill PJ's tire. Great! We are saved!!!

But when PJ arrived, and Russ tried to inflate his tire, the stem once again wouldn't have it. So Russ and Mark told us to load up our gear, tie down our bikes, and they would give us a ride into the next town. We told them we needed to go to the next big city that would likely have a bike shop so we could get this situation resolved. That city just happened to be Casper, Wyoming which was about 150 miles or 240 km's away from where we were.

So I hopped in with Russ, and PJ with Mark and we were off. I have never been in a semi before, but have always wondered what it was like. It's awesome! They are super nice and the sleepers in these babies are unreal. Carpet floors, padded walls and roofing, coolers, sattelite music, mini closets to hang clothing and more! Simply awesome!

We hauled ass in the semi's and I wathced the passing scenery trying hard as I could to take it all in as I knew I wouldn't be seeing it by bike. Our Wyoming trail is breath taking. Large mountians with valleys still covered with green grass and hardwood trees with their leaves turning yellow, red and gold as autum arrives in these parts.

We arrived in Casper and took Mark out for some supper to say thanks. Russ had to continue on to Denver, Colorado to meet a deadline. Thanxs guys. It was great ridin with you in your semis!

Russ and Mark are probably the nicest people that we have met in the US so far. These two guys were more than willing to help us out when they saw us in need. Thanks so much you guys. I hope you get to read our stories sometime! Mark, thanks for your genuine concern for our saftey on our bike ride. You are a top notch individual brother, thank you!

We gained 3 days back on our schedule and will be just a tad warmer now for our ride into Colorado...I hope anyways. Quite an interesting day actually. This trip will not cease to surprise us!

October 7th Day 31. Casper, Wyoming

It seems that the internet hasn't made it's way to central Wyoming yet. Or it's not very popular around theses parts. Finding the connection here is tougher than a 13 km climb. We did manage to get in one hour at the local library.

We stopped at a cool pub, Sanfords, for some beers and a bite to eat. One drink turned to a bunch and we ended up meeting two of the Sanfords waitresses. Trisha and Keesa...hope I spelled those right girls. They took us out tonight to watch Monday night football, the Packers won, and show us the local scene.

Oh yeah, remember those tantrums I told you about earlier that PJ has. Well on some light conversation about music, PJ decided he no longer liked what was being said, got up and walked home. You rude bastard.

Anyhow, thanx girls for showing us around and for a cool night in Cheyenne.

PS. PJ and I went back to Sanfords and he was going to apologize, but you weren't there...oh well!

October 9th Day 33. Douglas, Wyoming

Average Speed: 22.6 Km/h
Days Distance: 80.79 Km
Total Distance: 1476.07.26Km

We stayed an extra day in Casper to get in more internet time and do some groceries and shopping. Not much to tell about yesterday. But today was eventful from start to finish.

Let's start at 9:00 AM. I did my first ever media interview. I did a live radio show interview with CBC news in Edmonton. I think it went really well. PJ was also supposed to be on the call but didn't get the chance cause of some phone tag mishaps.

We then packed up and were about to leave when PJ noticed that now his front tire was flat. So he had to unpack everything again, pull off the front tire and walk to the bike shop...again, to get the thing fixed up. He came back witha new tube and a spare. He didn't know it yet, but we would be needing that!

Today was perfect riding conditions. Finally warm and we had a 30km/h wind at our backs. Awesome. We did 40 km's no probs and stopped to have a bite just before a big downhill. We took off, PJ first and then me which is unusual but I didn't think anything of it. Expecting to have a big day, I was totally pumped and ready to go.

Three minutes into my downhill ride more problems arose. BANG!!!

I heard the pop of my back tire over the Alice n Chains tune playing on my Mp3 player. The next thing I know I am sliding all over the highway and starting to panic. I look at my speedometer to see how fast I am going, 55 km/h, and realize that I just may take a bad spill with no helmut on.

I pound the brakes on my bike and unconsciously click out of my peddle clips with no problems and all without falling. Phew! Boy was that a good scare. Now I have to deal with the fact that we have just taken off, Pj is ahead of me and moving fast with the wind at his back. He probably won't look behind him for awhile to see if I am there.

I ended up walking my bike 4 km's before PJ and I met up again. Now the challenge was for us to learn how to change a bike tube. It can't be that hard right? HA! It took awhile but we managed to figure it out. The first tube we changed went flat after about 2 km's of biking. Great! We have to go through all that unpacking, taking apart the bike, changing the tube, and repacking....again. We figured out that we had been "too rough" while pumping up the tube and the seal where the stem attaches to the tube had been ripped open.

We had already used up the extra tube that PJ bought, my extra tube, and the two others from PJ's two flat tires. We had one last chance. PJ tried his hand at patching up his original tube and we carefully pumped that up. I crossed my fingers. I was now going to ride with my safety at the hands of PJ's work on my tire. Good god....why me?

Normally I would trust a tire patch job as they are used all the time. Where my main concern came from was watching PJ "learn" how to change a bike tube and patch a tire all the while acting like he knew exactly what he was doing.

Needless to say, I had no choice but to give enough trust in my companion to patch up my tire and realize if his work failed me, I would suffer.

But way to go PJ...the patch held out and we were able to make it to the next town of Douglas, Wyoming where I will fill up the tire to it's proper pressure. But this is not even where todays events ended.

When we got to the hotel we are staying at tonight, a great guy namde Mike was outside and he told us he had seen us riding outside of Casper. The usual Q & A session happened but Mike showed much more of a genuine interest in us and decided to invite us for supper on him WOW! What a great treat!

We also met Scott who was travelling with Mike and the four of us dined at the restaurant and ate a great meal over some great conversation. Mike is another one of those people you meet on a journey such as ours that makes it so much better. Thanks Mike and Scott for a great night. We hope to see you in Cheyenne!

October 10th Day 34. Wheatland, Wyoming

Average Speed: 18.6 Km/h
Days Distance: 101.10 Km
Total Distance: 1577.57 Km

My body is hurting more today than it was even in my first week of biking. God I am sore all over! Todays ride was so hard on me and I can't really figure out why. My front tire went flat today. Ya 4 flats in 2 days. But that was quickly patched up by PJ but my tire pressure at about 48 PSI is not even close to the 80 PSI I like to ride on.

We got the opportunity to see our new buddies Mike and Scott again. They saw us changing my tube and pulled over to see if everything was ok. We will see them tomorrow in Cheyenne as they will give us a lift into Denver tomorrow where we will break for 3 or 4 days depending on how much fun we have. Back to the ride...

The first 40 km's were done with relative ease and the wind diagonally at our backs. The last 61 km's was wind either in our face directly or diagonally. That probably has something to do with the difficulty of the ride.

Once again we saw much beauty as we rode past 120 foot cliffs, the North Platte River, and many other interesting sights. Many of the would-be creeks and rivers have completely dried up around here and leave only a dry bed of dirt and rock where the waters once ran. It seems that there is a severe drought in Colorado that affects even southern Wyoming.

I got quite a scare today as we rode our last 15 km's. I was riding along watching the sun set into the mountains that loom over us from a close distance and I am taken by complete surprise as I hear two gunshots bang off from a very near distance. As thoughts of the Maryland Sniper, who has now killed 8 people to date, run through my mind, I scramble to make sure everything is ok. No bullet holes in myself or my panniers. It turned out that a god dammed redneck was shooting at ducks within town boundaries. He scared the hell outta me.

Anyway, we ride about 120 km's tomorrow into Cheyenne. I am going to get an early start, around 7:00 AM, just to make sure we make it by 7:30 PM. We get our ride from Mike and Scott into Denver (160km's) tomorrow if we make it on time.

I know some of you, especially my family, are thinking; hey you are supposed to be biking the whole way. But I think we deserve the ride! We have rode our bikes further than many of you thought we could, and now with my body already aching, we have to do another 120km's through the friggin Rocky Mountain Foothills to earn this reward.

I am reading the book The Alchemist, that Jeanette gave me way back in Calgary, for the second time. I really enjoyed it and find it's lessons to be quite intriguing and highly related to what we are doing.

This bike trip is certainly offering PJ and I some really great rewards, but none of them have come easily. For instance this ride into Denver mysteriously offered itself to us but to reap the benefits of this prize, we had to do some pretty tough biking through some pretty tough terrain. Since we have started our new challenge, I have had 4 flat tire tubes to test our patience, strong headwinds to test our resiliance, and long distances with all the aforementioned obstacles to test our wills to succeed.

The Alchemist relates the words luck and co-incidence to the universal language of life. A language that is spoken between your soul and that of the world around you. Not everyone understands this language, or even believes in it, but it is there. I may be digging to deep but I do find that luck and co-incidence do happen to PJ and I. But we always must first be aware of the opportunities that appear, and second work hard to get them. Strange huh?

Thanks again Jeanette for this book. I love it.

October 11th Day 35. Cheyenne, Wyoming

Average Speed: 14.6 Km/h
Days Distance: 68.03 Km
Total Distance: 1645.60 Km

"To realize one's Personal Legend is a persons only real obligation...And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to acheive it."
Melchezedik, King of Salem
The Alchemist

Yesterday after my bike ride, I literally fell on the floor in complete exhaustion. Today we were to ride an extra 20 km's over yesterdays distance to reach Cheyenne and get our ride. I awoke much earlier than I am used to in order to ensure that we'd have the time we'd need, plus extra, to complete the 120 km trek before 7:30 PM.

The first 25 km's were not all that hard. I felt great and expected if things remained the same that we would complete our ride by 4:00 PM. Lots of extra time. But then the challenges of the day crept up upon us. Actually only one challenge. The wind.

The winds has been in our face the first leg of our ride but they were so calm it didn't really affect the ride. But just as I started riding again after our first break, the wind started to howl. It did not just slowly gain strength either, it was out of no where and strong. The situation was comparable to that of the day we rode into Lethbridge. A side wind so strong it was pushing my bike onto the highway if I didn't excercise complete control of my bike and steering. More trouble arose as the highway started turning into the head on wind.

The highway curved around some spectaculor mountain rocks that looked like castles the way they were cut by the course of nature. They jutted out of the ground and towered above all else nearby. The faces of the rocks were shear cliffs with jagged edges that added to the look. Awesome!

But they did nothing to stop the winds from coming on strong. I really struggled with the uphill climb against the winds. I am sure PJ had a harder time than what he is used to as well, but he dissapeared ahead of me. I battled on and finally reached PJ who was already taking a rest. We carried on and the wind did not let up.

I lost my temper a few times out of frustration at the winds but I continued on, I had to. I also now was starting to realize that if I couldn't pick up my slowing pace, we would not make it to Cheyenne in time. The winds were turning colder as well be we received a bit of a break as the highway curved in a way that allowed for more speed but still poor stability. Making it in time would mean maintaining this pace which could easily be slowed again by a simple turn in the road, inevitable!

Right now we are sitting in the lounge at the chosen meeting place between us and our ride with Mike and Scott. We arrived here at about 5:00 PM. Did our pace increase? Did the wind let up? Nope.

At the 60 km mark, the world conspired in helping us to achieve our goal. A couple who were driving an RV from Seattle to Houston pulled over to offer us a ride. They felt that we may need one as the wind was blowing even their massive RV all over. I gladly accepted thier kind offer.

Joel and Leona Bachman, thank you so much for thinking to offer us a ride. We certainly appreciated it!

To give you an idea of what we dealt with, here is my biking times. The first 25 km's took me 1 hour and 21 mins. The next 35 km's took 3 hours and 10 mins.

Well we will be in Denver, Colorado tonight and we will break for 4 days. Then it's out of the mountains with winds mainly at our backs (hopefully) as we head easy towards Kansas. Our southward bound leg is over. We are also over the 1000 mile mark (1609 km's). I can't wait to party in Denver.

Thanks again to all those who helped us along the road to Denver.

The Davinsons from Calgary: Jeanette, Rick and Carole.
Our buddy Clay's family in Lethbridge: Dalyce, George and Wilma.
The truckers in Norhtern Wyoming: Russ and Mark.
Our ride to Denver: Mike and Scott (see you in Tampa Mike!)
Our saviours on the windy day into Cheyenne: Joel and Leona Bachman.

Without all of your help, this trip would have been much less enjoyable and much more difficult. Thank you all!!!

October 14th Day 38. Denver, Colorado

The last few days have been awesome!

Mike has been overly generous and treated us to two nights on the top floor of the Holiday Inn, and more excellent suppers with nice wines, and beers in the afternoons. Mike, stop it, I could really get used to this. But thank you. It was great!

We spent most of today packing and unpacking again as we checked out of the Holiday Inn and into our first Youth Hostel of the trip. Not really what I had expected. It's an old apartment complex with small rooms and shared bathrooms and kitchens. Our room is about the same size as most college dorm rooms and there are two beds, actually one bunk bed in which PJ sleeps on the top level, 2 chairs and a TV. That's it. Pretty old and run down. We haven't really met anyone here either which was the whole reason for wanting to be here. Oh well, maybe later tonight or tomorrow.

So we spent the afternoon in the local gothic pub. A little crazy at first with all the face piercings but everyone just minded their own business and were actually quite friendly. This place was only 8 blocks from our hostel and was supposed to have internet access but it was down. Our luck sucks when it comes to the net. We paid $12/hour at Kinkos the other night and ended up totaling a $72 bill...OUCH! But this pub should have the internet by tomorrow.

So instead of playin on the net, we got the opportunity to play some chess. I finally beat PJ and ended his 5 game win streak while drinking some Heinekens. We even partook in a few Burnsteins, a B-52 with a shot of espresso served hot. A little taste of back home for Pj and I.

Then our evening started gettin really cool. We went out and partied with Steve Reinprecht from the Colorado Avalanche. PJ wasn't lying about being this guys old teammate. I thought he was just desperatley trying to impress me by name dropping. But whaddyaknow! Had a great supper with a couple bottles of wine, a drink I am beginning to love, and went back to Steve's to play some foozeball. What a cool guy. He's got a real nice house which comes as no surprise as he has millions waiting for him in the NHL. Way to go Steve, good work and thanks for a real cool night.

I guess he got PJ and I some tics to the Av's game. Denver so far has treated us really well. What a great time!

October 16th Day 40. Denver, Colorado

Well, the Av's game was awesome! Too bad Colorado lost 2 - 1 with the last goal being scored by Boston Bruins with 0.05 seconds left to play. But the game was great and it was fun to be there.

I am typing this journal update on the new laptop computer I bought. After that internet cafe not having access and all the while saying "we'll get it tomorrow", and also having horrible internet access at the local Denver library, I was fed up. I walked by an Office Depot and noticed that they were getting rid of all their old computers for like 20% off. So I got a great deal on a super nice laptop. Hopefully we will be able to update more easily now and also get all the pics we have been taking on the website. There are some real cool ones. We also bought a cell phone to talk with media.

But tell you what, since you are a loyal reader and have read this deeply into our journals, I will give you our phone number so you can call us some time. You deserve it for reading so much about us. 1 303 249 8014.

After playing with the computer for a little while, Steve called us to go out again. We went out for a great supper again and more wine. Then we headed over to another Avalance players house. Scott Parker. Another really great guy....what a monster too. This guy shrimps me and I stand over 6 feet tall. Anyhow, we partied there for a bit but then had to go as I bought PJ and I tickets for a Better Than Ezra concert that just happened to be playing one block from where we were staying. So we said our good byes to Steve and headed to the concert feeling pretty dam good.

The concert hall, called Ogden Theatre, was the oldest theatre I have ever been in. It was a huge theatre but the roof was more rounded at the corners, with an older victorian style decor. Just by being in the building I felt as if I were in a 60's theatre. Really cool.

The opening band was a band called Cowboy Mouth. The drummer was also the lead singer, a set up you don't see often as it takes a lot of coordination just to play the drums, never mind singing too. This guy was from Louisianna for sure. You could just tell by the way he looked and talked. But man, did he get the place rocking. An amazing job and I am glad I got the chance to check em out. You can check out their website by clicking here.

Better Than Ezra was good to watch too, not quite the show that Cowboy Mouth was but I went there to see three songs; Good, King of New Orleans, and Desperately Wanting. Three awesome songs. And when they played those songs, it was awesome. I also got the chance to meet the drummer from Cowboy Mouth at the end of the show and told him what we were doing. He seemed interested and wrote down our website address. I told him to sign the guest book so let's just see if he does or not.

We leave tomorrow morning and are now heading east towards Kansas. We have a new route in mind that includes a 4 or 5 day ferry or barge ride down the coolest river in the US. The Mississippi River. An adventure just like Huck Finn had...well maybe not as cool but hey, I still get to do it and I can't wait.

October 17th Day 41. Last Chance, Colorado

Average Speed: 20.7 Km/h
Days Distance: 128.24 Km
Total Distance: 1774.43 Km

Today started with a bang...literally. We are about 1.5 blocks away from our Hostel and my front tire blows. Not only did my tube pop, my actual tire was ripped along the seam which rendered it useless. So I hopped in a cab with my bike and went to The Bicycle Doctor. 2 new tubes and my replacement tire were added to my bike along with a new air pump. The one we have sucks. Off we go...

As we head east, away from the mountians, the landscape flattens and the highway does not turn. It appears as though we are in for a pretty ugly part of the USA. Prairies. Not much to see other than my first snake sighting. The dam thing was crossing the highway and I almost ran him over. I stopped to take a picture from a distance of course. I'm not sure waht kind of snake it was but at about 4 feet long I didn't care to get to close of a look.

At 50 km's, bang! Oh god, my new tube! I got another flat. Can you believe this? Is someone trying to tell me something? A thorn was to blame an d maybe a really worn out and thin tire as well.

We stopped at 80km's to decide what to do as Last Chance, a small town on the map was still about 35 km's away. Or we could just camp at the 90 km mark and save a bit of money. I chose to ride into Last Chance in hopes of a really cheap motel. Nope.

And it wasn't 35 km's away, it was 45 km's away. I know you may be saying "it's only 10 more km's" but this is after already doing 118 km's and 10 km's on a bike takes about half an hour at a decent pace.

We did our second night ride tonight only to find that Last Chance boasted a fat chance of having a motel or anything for that matter. So we set up camp in the dark and ate supper in the cold. Dam it gets cold at night. Down to about 0 degrees celcius.

Oh yeah, one more thing, the night ride included nothing but friggin big hills to contend with. But I am much better at hills as I have discovered a new pedal stroke which has added at least 5 km/h in speed to my climbs!!! Awesome. Goodnight.

October 18th Day 42. Idalia, Colorado

Average Speed: 22.2 Km/h
Days Distance: 121.07 Km
Total Distance: 1900.01 Km

A really good sleep last night even though it's pretty cold at nights. I still can't convince myself to sleep naked for more warmth. I am pretty dam warm with two pairs of pants, two shirts, socks, and my touque.

I awoke to the soundsof cows going mad. It was actually kind of scary as I have never heard a cow scream before. I thought they could just moo, but these ones were going friggin bezerk. I don't konw if I am glad or upset that I didn't see what was going on.

A fairly simple ride today as the roads are now flatter than ever but the scenery is gross, real gross. At about 84 km's we stopped in a town called Joes to buy some groceries and see if there was maybe an Inn to stay at as our 2 day distance was alreay over 200 km's. We also wanted to get a bite to eat at a local eatery called Lunas Family Restaurant. We sat down to eat after meeting the owners and were about to order when we realized we had no money. Well...no cash, but credit and debit cards of which neither was accepted.

But being the wonderful people they were, Luna and Andres and another guy who was named Joe I think (I didn't catch his name), cooked us up a great chicken fajita meal for nothing. From the blessing of god they said. Thanks you guys. Your meal powered me through 35 more kilometers when I thought I was already done.

We rode into the town of Idalia because we knew it had an Inn and wanted to do some web updates. But can you believe it, the one room they had left...thank god, has no phone it it. So no web updates. But that's cool as we are at 250 km's in two days and are now extending our three day destination by 80 km's so we don't do only a 40 km ride tomorrow.

Todays last 35 km's were done in the night again. The moon, which is only 3 days away from a full moon, lit the highway so brightly that we didn't even need our headlamps. There was also not a cloud in the sky which made for a breathtaking ride. The sky was full of bright stars which sparkled over the the enormous canvass of the sky. An unreal sight.

My calfs are huge.

October 19th Day 43. St. Francis, Kansas

Average Speed: 22.8 Km/h
Days Distance: 49.35 Km
Total Distance: 1949.36 Km

We made it to Kansas! We did a short ride today rather than the long long one I wrote about yesterday. The reason being that I started having small amounts of pain in my right knee and was not sure if I could do another 70 km's into the next town. So I am resting my knee for the rest of the day, and and will do the short 70 km ride tomorrow into the town.

St. Francis is a town that doesn't really have much in it. Not a big surprise to us as we are expecting things to be this way all the way through Kansas. I took a walk tonight around the downtown center. I walked by the town hall, which so far is very similar to all other town halls in the US so far.

They are very big grey brick buildings with the name of the town carved into the brick above the large entrance way. There are also cement stairs leading up to the entrance of the building which shows the pride and grandness of it all.

I sat down at the town park to gather some thoughts. Where I sat was actually an outdoor ampitheatre made of cement with stadium-like seating surrounding the stage in a large semi-circle. It was very nice.

As I sat there, I noticed the same 6 or 7 cars driving by every once in a while with one car doing what seemed to be laps. This driver passed by me at least 16 times before I left and I am sure he is still out there doing more.

I realized that these people, from small towns with little to do, are bored out of their minds without even knowing it. Kind of how I used to be back in high school. My life was simply school followed by the pursuit of fun. In my high school years I, as these people were doing, was always looking for something which then I thought was fun to do. But now I think that I was simply looking for better life choices. Other options or ways to live my life in a more exciting way. "There must be something more" I would often think to myself.

I guess my sitting there by myself for so long had stirred up some curiosity in some of the people in the vehicles as a few of them honked or waived at me. And later on my walk home a guy asked me if I was the dude sitting in the park cause some girls were trying to figure out who I was.

Just someone out of the ordinary who added a little more interest to a rather routine Saturday night of driving up and down the town strip. Good luck people. I hope you find what you are looking for.

My quads are dense as the base of an ancient oak tree.

October 20th Day 44. Atwood, Kansas

Average Speed: 22.8 Km/h
Days Distance: 69.12 Km
Total Distance: 2018.48 Km

Over 2000 km's under our belts now.

A quick ride today. 70 km's in under 3 hours with not much to see except two more snakes both dead on the highway and one pretty cool valley. Other than that the day was pretty much standard with my flat tires dictating when we take our breaks.

Ya, I got another flat today. I don't even know how many I am at now. I stopped counting when it got ridiculous. So with nothing much to write about, I will talk about the wind.

The wind is like adding 20 lbs to your bike on the up hills and flattening your tires on the downhills. That is actually only when the wind is in our face. But in our case that happens to be about 90% of the time so far. It is quite a meterological audacity. It is so ofthen that I, and if you know me you will be surprised at this, have just accepted it and learned to be patient with it rather than yelling or screaming at the wind.

I can't wait until the wind eventually blows at our backs. It should happen soon, I hope. Anyhow, good night for now.

My wild hair gives me rugged good looks.

October 21st Day 45. Oberlin, Kansas

Average Speed: 16.8 Km/h
Days Distance: 45.21 Km
Total Distance: 2063.69 Km

Nothing to write about. We just bike.

October 22nd Day 46. Norton, Kansas

Average Speed: 15.5 Km/h
Days Distance: 57.81 Km
Total Distance: 2121.50 Km

There are really only four variables that can make a bike ride tougher and less enjoyable.

1.) Head winds
2.) Low temperatures
3.) Precipitation
4.) Hilly

The only other major thing I would add to this list is distance but I chose to leave it out as distance is a variable which is controlled by the biker. The other 4 variables are uncontrollable. In todays ride of slightly under 60 km's, all four variables were present.

We awoke to rain falling heavily but passing quickly so we decided to go. We were expecting light rain. It was cold but we do have the biking gear for this situation as we got our first chance to try it out. Just as we hopped on our bikes, the rain started to pour. Shortly after, the rain turned into hail which fell heavily in us and even stung at times on the point of impact.

After what I thought was an hour of biking, thoughts of turning around were winning the war in my head. But I looked at my odometer and we had already gone about 16 km. I was really dissapointed but decided it best to carry on. I don't particularly like Kansas and would like to be warm. So we peddled on.

It's a tough thing mentally to ride in these conditions. I found that the only things that really helped were thinking of warm thoughts or singing songs out loud wht Pj that contained the word "rain" in them. we thought of quite a few.

We stopped at 28 km, halfway, so Pj could warm up his fingers which must have been so cold. I have full fingered gloves and mine were numb. Out feet were also very cold and wet as our shoes are not water proof or warm. They are full of vents which are made to keep the sweat down. But they let water in pretty easily.

After going about 1 km out of the way to look for an advertised cafe, which turned out to be shut down, we carried on for the 2nd half of the battle. By now my fingers and feet were so cold and numb that I couldn't feel them any longer.

Lightning and thunder passed dangerously close to us as we rode, what seemed to be, right through the worst of a storm. More hail, lots of rain, freezing cold and lots of white wash. Do you konw what white wash is? Let me explain.

Have you ever had the urge, while driving your car and passing by a person who is walking past a big puddle in the street, to hit the puddle at full force soaking the unsuspecting victim from head to toe? Well the water that hits that person would be called white wash.

Well our white wash was not quite as easily taken. Ours came from transports travelling at 110km/h in cooperation with the wind. When we got sprayed the combination of wind and white wash from the trucks would a.) slow us down and b.) insure that if there were a dry spot anywhere on us or our equipment, that it be found and drenched.

I swear some truckers were crossing over the center line to satisfy that urge I talked of earlier. "Hell they are wet anyways...why noy?"

As we arrived closer to our destination, where the road signs were advertising the local town businesses and hotels and such, my swelling sense of pride through accomplishment took over my mood and I was happy again. I did it!

We rode into the skirts of town just as more hail started to fall. With only 1 or 2 km's left to ride I screamed out "bring it on". At that very momemt a truck passed by, going through a deep puddle, and you can imagine the rest. Pj had a great laugh at that one as he witnessed the whole thing from less than 10 feet behind me. How ironic.

We pulled into the first hotel we saw and moved quickly into the warmth of the office. The poor front desk lady, must have thought we were just out of the nut house as we shivered loudly and uncontrollably. She watched in disbelief as we both struggled to pull our wet and cold gloves off our swollen hands.

Once in our room, it took at least 30 mins to warm up enough to even look in our bike bags to see how water proof they really are. Well here is the skinn on Arkel bike bags after 4 hours of complete soaking. Nothing in our bags was completely soaked, but everything was a bit moist. Not too bad Arkel. Not to bad at all.

So we won a big battle. This ride, for me anyways, was now the biggest and hardest challenge I have faced. It sucked and it was tough but I am more than glad I did it. It will make all other seemingly "tough" rides easier to handle as when that ride becomes tough, I will think of this one.

October 24th Day 48. Norton, Kansas

Well we were suppsed to have one day of rest and then leave Norton again. However, the stupid amounts of snow that has falled on our day off has stranded us and we cannot bike on the snow and ice on the ground. Hell, I had a hard time even walking on it...it's dam slippery.

So we are stuck here until hopefully only tomorrow. I want on my bike again dammit.

I bought a Titleist had and I look incredible in it.

October 25th Day 49. Smith Center, Kansas

Average Speed: 25.4 Km/h
Days Distance: 100.73 Km
Total Distance: 2222.23 Km

Once again and uneventful and unscenic ride. The only thing to report today is that we did 100km's in under 4 hours today. Quite good. Also we will start heading south-east again tomorrow which makes me happy cause we can start campin once we hit warmth again.

I'm not conceited, I'm convinced.

October 26th Day 50. Beloit, Kansas

Average Speed: 23.3 Km/h
Days Distance: 90.91 Km
Total Distance: 2313.14 Km

The ride today was a little more scenic than the last few days. There are a lot more trees. God bless the farmer who decided not to cut them down. The corn fields are all harvested and are now just large fields of red stalks. It's pretty easy on the eyes with lots of color to look at. We also passed t he first lake since we have left. Nice to finally see some water.

The ride was fairly easy so not much to tell about. We finally also got a hotel with two seperate rooms. Can you believe it...still the same price but twice the privacy and much quieter at night without the TV on. This is a nice change.

My emerald green eyescan penetrate your soul and make you feel pleasant unfamiliarities.

October 27th Day 51. Beloit, Kansas

Well we stayed an extra day here in Beloit for two reasons. The weather being shitty and cold was my main reason. I also really like having my own room. But the other reason is really cool. Dave Matthews Band tickets went on sale today for Dec. 11th in Atlanta, Georgia. I know it's 6 weeks away....what's your point? The concert probably sold out in just hours so really there was no time to get them other than today. I consider it even lucky we got them as Pj only found out about the tickets going on sale yesterday. So we are lucky to have had the laptop to buy em.

The phone in ticket sales was ridiculously difficult and didn't allow for Canadian addresses for mailing the ticks. So we ordered 2 tics, pretty good seats, and we are both excited now. Although I am not excited to the point of dancing and singing like Pj, but I am excited.

We also had a good talk to night about past events, things that bother us and things that we can change to make the trip better. Overall, a good day off even tho we shoulda left. Out biking days to rest days ratio is gross.

So we are really going to do what we can to fix that. I promised Pj tonight I will do my best and this promise I don't want to break. You will find out how I do soon enough tho.

I am becoming legendary at guitar and will soon play sweet sweet melodies to foreign ladies...look out!

October 28th Day 52. Clay Center, Kansas

Average Speed: 21.0 Km/h
Days Distance: 93.39 Km
Total Distance: 2406.53 Km

Ahhh....I am really starting to believe that this trip is only getting more scenic. Trees, although mainly once taken for granted in thier simplistic beauty, are now more than welcome pleasantrees. Get it? Pleasant Trees....no? Not funny hey? Well they make the ride much more enjoyable and help me to ignore the bad things like the cold air that massages my feet to the point of numbness or the different numbness that starts in my ass and travels down my inner thighs as the circulation to my legs slows to about the same velocity as Pj's slapshot.

The wind, even though most storm systems are moving west to east, blows into our face incessantly. How the hell does that work anyways?

I also saw some new types of land animals. Donkeys and sheep. I couldn't believe we saw such abnormal creatures so soon after having a conversation with my sister Margaret about the niceties of wildlife watching. Actually I was on the side of thinking that particular activity would be quite boring but from the picture you see here, you can easily tell that I was wrong. I am overtaken with surprise and joy as I move in for a closer look.

Note: I also cycled past a pig farm but did not want to take a picture as the stench was overbearing.

Only a 65 km ride tomorrow into Manhattan which now seems a relatively short ride. I wish I felt this way at the beginning of the trip. We will stay in Manhattan one day to do some bike repairs. My gears are squeaking now. The first sign of wear on the bike. I have also started into the spanish lessons. I think both Pj and I will learn faster if we try to speak to each other in Spanish.

Tengo bella. Buenos nuechos.

October 29th Day 53. Manhattan, Kansas

Average Speed: 21.4 Km/h
Days Distance: 65.41 Km
Total Distance: 2471.94 Km

Who knew Kansas had so many trees and hills? It seems we are getting into a much more hilly area. We have done some great downhill coasting on todays ride. One of the best ones was coming right into the town of Leonardville. A very picturesque town with large trees hanging over the highway making it look more like a small town street rather than an interstate highway. The best downhill coast, however, was into Manhattan. It was a long coast rounding a small mountain and opening up the view of large white letters "KS" embedded into the side of a big hill, and the town ceter appearing out of nowhere.

We rode to the Super 8 near the town center and spent $130 of our last $300 on two nights accommodations. The first thing I did was my laundry. I have been wearing the same biking clothes since Denver without any laundry services in any of the hotels we have stayed at. Each of the last few mornings I would try to hold off on puking whill getting dressed. The smell is god awful. Next I got on the net to do more worrying about our severe lack of funds. $170 is not a lot of money to have available if you know what I mean. Finally after enough worrying I decided to say screw it and go out for beers. Maybe getting drunk would give me some ideas! Pj wasn't around when I decided to drink away some worries and celebrate almost being out of Kansas.

He had went to the mall to get back in touch with civilization. I went to the mall to find him but did not. We eventually met back at the hotel and it seems he had the same line of thinking going on as me. But had been thinking of a creative way to present his idea to me, and also how to tell me he had bought new pants while I was fretting about money. He even hid the pants in the hotel hallway as he offered me his song and dance about the good or the bad news. I chose the bad news first as I would rather have the after taste of something good. "I bought pants" he said. He explained to me that they only cost $10 and they were so nice. What he didn't know was that I was already passed the point of caring about money.

He then told me the good news. We had $40 in Chilli's gift certificates and Chilli's just happened to be across the street. I told him "great, lets go drink it!" All excited we left to go drown bad past experiences. No mom, I am not a drunk. Stop worrying.

We quickly ran into another problem. The gift certs were good at only Edmonton Chilli's. Neither of us wanted to beg for their use at this restaurant even as poor as we were. That's classless. But we did discuss selling them at a good discount to people outside. So with no money and no gift certificates, I was back to let's just drink. I couldn't help but remember that a few days ago Pj said that I shouldn't worry anymore. He reminded me of all the times in life that he and I have been broke and still were ok. This was foretelling to say the least. We easily justified spending the $30 Pj found in his pockets, and what turned out to be a lot more as we got more drunk, in place of the gift certificates.

We did end up drinking ourselves back to the carefree individuals we should be. I can almost write a thesis on the positve energy generated by genuinely happy people and how it works like a magnet to attract more good things. At some moment I over heard some people asking about "that Canada jersey" I was wearing. I turned around to talk with them. Gary and Jean had a great conversation with us about what we are doing and why of course. They were really great people and they promised they would sign our guestbook. They did...twice.

They were sitting with the manager of Chilli's, another cool guy we met named Mike. He told us he would take us out to see the night life of Manhattan which is supposedly great as Kansas State University is nearby and plays host to 25,000 partying animals. Our type and age, finally!

Well we went back to the hotel while Mike closed up shop and I had a power nap....I passed out really. Mike showed up thinking that just cause we had been drinkin all afternoon that we weren't going to make it out. Guess he doesn't know us that well....how could he? He took us to Longhorns Bar and Grill on the strip werher all the bars are. We had more beers and tequillas, served up by a sexy lady who posed for Playboys Top 12 Colleges in the October 2002 issue, before heading back to Mikes house to close out the night. We got to the hotel at about 4 AM and passed out quickly but not beofre promising Mike that he could buy us dinner the next day at Chillis. I think he wanted to get us drunk again as we had a super time together.

Thanx Mike for a super cool time. You'd better keep your promise you made to us...see you in Florida buddy!

I should become the poster boy for either Cannondale biking shorts or Billabong beach wear!

October 30th Day 54. Manhattan, Kansas

We spent our day off just doing some internet updates, and we took our bikes to the local bike shop, Pathfinders. Dave the manager, and Jeff who talked to Pj first took excellent care of us and are currently doing some work on our bikes. A couple minor repairs were needed to both our bikes. I higly suggest that if any of you are reading this and will ever bike through Manhattan, take your bikes there and buy something even if you don't need it...these guys are great!

We are now going to contemplate changing our route again. We both want so badly to be warm that we may head south instead of continuing east to St Louis. We'll let you know tho!

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