Day 1 [Damn Coyotes]

Day one consisted of an exhausting 45 mile climb down the Pacific coastline on California 1.  We began the journey from about 50 miles north of San Francisco and 10 miles inland.  Zac and I met up with David and set off by 11am.  We rode all day and just barely managed to barrel into our intended campground by sunset.  With about 20 minutes of daylight left we climbed the final two mile ascent down a dirt road to our campground (some of it I walked) and began to set up our tents for the night.  As soon as we began to put up our tents, we got a visitor - a skunk.  He decided to keep us away from our campsite for about 15 minutes as he meandered around, forcing us to setup the rest of the way in the dark by the time he decided to leave.  California 1, at least during this portion of it, is absolutely brutal...I mean I rode the hardest 45 miles today that I've ever ridden in my life!  Steep incline followed by steep decline is all you get.  This being said, as soon as we all had our tents set up and our sleeping bags rolled out, we got into our tents (at around 7pm).  That's just how damn tired we all were.  The worst part is that good sleep never came out of this.  There was no one else in our campground, and this can be kind of nerve-wracking when you begin to hear coyotes howling.  For a while the howls started to sound like they were getting pretty close, and then we heard nothing else from them.  After that, every time I heard a stick breaking (which was quite frequently) I had to assume that it was a killer coyote that stepped on it.  I got maybe four hours asleep...while clutching my bear mace canister for dear life in my tent.  Here's a morning photo of the first night's campsite.

Lift off!

After months of anticipation it all finally begins tomorrow.  I've been hanging out at my brother's house in California for a little over a week now getting everything finalized for the trip.  Zac's bike, which was the one he had used three years ago for his cross-county trip, was in need of some major repairs.  We also had to do a minor repair to the truck that I drove out here to get it through the California smog testing.  Other than that, we split a whole lot of firewood with a 24 ton gas powered wood splitter, and played quite a few rounds of cornhole (or simply "bags" as they call if out here) with friends.  Tomorrow morning Zac's fiance will drive us out to a point on the coast about 30 miles north of San Fran, where we will meet up with a buddy named David who's going to ride the first two or three days with us.  We'll be riding on the windy and shoulderless California 1 with the Pacific Ocean on our right side for most of the way to San Diego.  Apparently all of California's state parks are closed down due to budget cuts, but we should still be able to camp in them unmonitered.  Anyway, one last day of preparation and rest today...and tomorrow it begins.

PST

Not too much exciting stuff to report today, just a long and scenic 500 miles that crossed me over into Pacific Time.  Utah was almost as beautiful as Colorado!  The picture below is an example of the ridiculousness I was witnessing the whole way to Salt Lake City.  I had intended to stay in SLC tonight with one of my brother's old friends, but after I couldn't get a hold of him I decided to press onward to the Nevada state line. Tonight I am staying in a Motel 6 in Wendover, UT.  Wendover is a small casino town which is half located in Nevada, and the other half in Utah.  It's only about 4 miles long, but contains like 10 casinos and 20 motels.  The picture of the gas pump is from a gas station here in Wendover.  Notice the odd grades of gas.  I don't know what type of car calls for 85, but I have been seeing it on pumps for the past thousand miles.  Most gas stations I've seen also don't go higher than 91, so I guess the Midwest hates BMWs, Mercedes, etc.  Tomorrow I make it to Reno, and Friday I'll finally be in California!  I'm getting pretty sick of driving...ready to ride a bike already.

85? 88? WTF!?

Busted out a 450 mile day today passing through Colorado Springs, Denver, and Cheyenne, before stopping in Laramie, Wyoming.  Once out of Kansas, I rode on 94 West in Colorado to get to the Garden of the Gods.  This is an awesome road and has to be one of the more rural ones in the entire U.S.  I went 70 miles on it without a single gas station, house, or any other sign of civilization.  Even other vehicles were spotted in about 10 minute intervals.  This was a great road for making my own bathroom stops.

 Garden of the Gods is a tourist attraction/state park located in Colorado Springs.  It consists of large and beautiful natural red rock formations.  To accompany the rock formations, there is a gorgeous view of the snow-covered Rockies in the background.  Some of these rock formations were hundreds of feet tall and had people climbing them.  The signs at the bases of the formations read "climb at your own risk", whereas in Virginia these signs would have given some sort of warning about being prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law if caught climbing.  I also passed through Denver on my way to Wyoming, but was only there long enough to check out Tebow's house.  The drive through Colorado was the most enjoyable I've had yet.  It is simply a beautiful state, and traveling along I-25 you get an amazing view of the Rocky Mountains pretty much the entire way.

 The surprise of the day goes to me randomly finding the town of Buford, Wyoming.  Months ago I had read about this place on Reddit but didn't even remember that it was in Wyoming until I saw an exit for it today!  I'm not sure how or why this happened, but apparently the town of Buford has its very own zip code and is home to just one lonely man.  Forever alone in Buford, WY.

I made it through Kansas today, well most of it, and am staying in an exquisitely run down motel about 40 miles from the Colorado border.  Yesterday I drove only a few hours from St. Louis to Kansas City, MO and stayed with Terry an Andy, some extended family members from my bro's side of the family.  They were awesome people who fed me an epic home-cooked chili dinner and let me sleep in what was one of the most comfortable beds I've ever slept in!  On the way to their place I stopped in Columbia to visit the home of the #3 college basketball team in the nation, go Mizzou!  I also made it to Kansas University today, but felt that their basketball arena was too crappy to warrant a picture.  Sorry KU.

 I also visited, according to my research (highway billboards), the only museum in the state of Kansas.  Yea, you guessed it, the Wizard of Oz museum.  Of course they didn't have a pair of authentic "ruby slippers" from the movie, but they did have an informative sign explaining that there are only five pairs in existence - and among those only four are accounted for.  Oh well, at least it was only a $4 tour, and I got to get my picture taken with a plastic version of Judy Garland.

 The biggest realization I've had today is that Kansas is not a state that anyone should ever drive through more than once.  The picture below sums up EVERYTHING that you will see traveling across I-70 for the almost 400 miles that Kansas spans.  I feel bad, but Kansas is truly a fly-over state if there ever was one.  However, if you are interested in buying an affordable plot of land about the size of Delaware, then look no further!

Indianapolis to St. Louis

Well today was a short but interesting day.  It turns out that the decision to sleep in the Walmart parking lot last night in 15 degree weather was not one of my best.  I was bundled up in my sleeping bag and a wool blanket, but the cold still bit through.  As a result I ended up waking up every hour to let the truck run and warm up the cabin  a little bit.  In the process I ended up guzzling over a quarter tank of gas, or the nearly the price of a cheap motel room.  I had planned on making it to Kansas City today to stay with an extended family member, however I was unable to make it on 3 hours of terrible sleep.  60 miles into the drive today the tarp that I was using to cover the bikes and gear in the truck bed came loose, and it almost flew off on I-70.  I pulled over and attempted to re-tape it, but the strong winds rendered me unable to do so.  A few minutes into fiddling with it, a kind Illinois State Trooper pulled up behind me and helped me remove it entirely and store it inside the truck.  During a day of constant driving it's hard to predict when you may encounter rain, so I knew I had to get the tarp reattached as quickly as possible to avoid damage.  Luckily for me, the first exit I took into a very rural town with a population of only 3,000 people contained a large mechanic's shop - and not much else.  The shop was technically closed, but they were having some sort free customer appreciation breakfast.  They were nice enough to hear my story, and then they offered to help.  I pulled the truck in one of the garage bays and literally everyone in the shop came over to help.  I spent about 30 minutes with these guys trying to figure out the best method of securing the tarp to the truck, as well as telling them about my cross-country road trip and subsequent bike trip back.  After getting the tarp on I asked them what I owed them and they said "nothing, keep it for your travels", and refused all attempts I made to give them cash.  I am elated that I received such kindness from strangers that could have turned me away at the door.  A big thanks to Tim, Rob, and everyone else at BEI auto shop!  

 With my once again attached tarp I made my way to St. Louis.  Before checking into a motel for the evening I took a little tour of downtown, and I have to say I think I'm in love with this city.  It's hard to compare to any other city I've been to, but perhaps that's because that short list of cities pretty much starts and ends at New York.  St. Louis is clean and lovely.  The traffic there (granted this was at 3pm on a Saturday) was non-existent.  It's not overwhelming like NYC, and certainly isn't disgusting.  I had no problem maneuvering the large truck through this place, and was even able to drive right up to the home of the current World Champions and take a picture.  The truck was parked closer to the stadium then I was in this picture!  You can't do anything like that in shitty Baltimore.

Road Trippin' to Healdsburg, CA

So it's 4am and I wish I had just woken up, but in reality that came about two hours ago.  Overwhelming excitement with a dash of nervousness is what I am feeling right now.  I've been waiting for this day for six months now.  Originally I had planned on flying out to California to begin my bicycle tour, but luckily my brother purchased my uncles old truck and so I will be transporting it to him.  There is something undeniably practical about driving a 7.5L 460hp F-250 3,000 miles across the country.  Despite the fuel economy, I'm sure I will enjoy seeing another section of America that I will miss out on during the bike portion of my trip.  As of now I plan on passing through Columbus, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Reno...just to name a few of the larger cities.  The plan for today is to hit Indy by the evening, which should take about 9 1/2 hours or so.  As much as I want to rush through the driving and begin the bike tour, I may slow it down a little bit to snap a few photos and whatnot in some of the cities that I fancy.

Update:  Made it!  Drove all day and through some nasty weather.  Finally got in around 9pm and drove by the Colt's stadium before finding a nice Walmart parking lot to get some rest in.