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Introduction The idea of crossing the United States on my bicycle emerged back in October 1996. I instantly knew, that I really wanted to do this. The problem was that the longest break from school we had, was 6 weeks during the summer. Taking 6 weeks and the roughly over 4000 mile long Transamerica Trail as cornerstones for my calculation I ended up with a 100 miles a day. Without resting! Having only once done more then 100 miles in my life, I entered unknown territory. But I was optimistic. You have to want it, that's all, I thought. Training wasn't as proper as I would have wanted it to be. Due to bad weather and school, I'd never done more then 80 miles before leaving. I ordered the touring bicycle I wanted to use over the Internet, at a place called Nicollet Bike Shop. They told me, that they would send the bike to a shop in Norfolk, where I could pick it up at the beginning of my tour. With a bike waiting for me and high motivation, all that was left to do was enter the airplane and go for it. |
| July : | | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
| August : | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |
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Friday, July 4th Zurich, CH - Norfolk, VA |
Where it all begins. |
| The day I'd been waiting for for such a long time had come. The Americans touched down on Mars, I touched down on America. The flight from Zurich to Amsterdam was fascinating. Beautifully structured thunderstorm clouds. A mom and her little son were sitting next to me. The kid asked me if I could build a paper airplane for him. I gave my best; he was happy. Amsterdam Shiphool is, like most Airports, not a place you would want to stay. At the gate next to mine, a black man all of a sudden freaked out, yelled like a madman, threw something at the airline-guy. Security was on the scene immediately. He didn't have much of a choice but to calm down. A few minutes later, we were being told to leave our waiting area. Uniformed people looked into litterbins, under benches, even into the plantbowls. Why does a security check make me nervous? After all, it's supposed to do just the contrary. Getting over the big blue proved not to be a problem. First land I saw was Canadian territory. Very rugged, lots of lakes, bits of snow, wilderness. The guy next to me was quite a curious one. He kept reading my newspaper. He was Belgian. Let's build a cliché. The suburbs of Detroit were amazing. Huge with a capital H, thousands of little homes. A big black lady drove us to our terminal, bag of bagels next to her. With an enthusiasm that would get her into a nuthouse if she were in Europe, she yelled : Gate ABCD, D like delicious, Gate EFG, G like generous. It was then, when I realized that I had truly entered America. The flight to Norfolk was a bit bumpy. Shortly before landing I had an attack of headache of previously unknown magnitude. I really thought my brain had to start dripping out of my ears any second. Ten minutes later it was over and I felt a bit shaken. As I left the plane in Norfolk the heat and the humidity almost knocked me down. 35°C at 10:30 pm? Where the hell (?) was I? I was hoping to meet someone of the bicycle shop, who was holding my bicycle at the airport. No one to be seen. Asked some people if they were waiting for Remo. One replied: What's a Remo? Start of a long night in an uncomfortable chair. | |
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Saturday, July 5th Norfolk, VA - Greenville, NC |
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| Not being able to sleep on the chairs from hell, I decided at 5 am to go look for the ocean. I hoped to compensate my lack of knowledge (distance? direction?) by asking a woman who was working on the parking lot. The question "How do I get to the ocean", though simple in content and structure completely baffled her. And when I added that I don't have a car and I was on foot, she completely lost it. I couldn't get any valuable information from her, so I just followed the cars leaving the airport, depending more on luck than on common sense. After about a mile, it slowly came to me, that without a map I would not find the ocean and decided to return to the airport. Well, at least I could enjoy the sunrise (picture). At 8 am I tried to call the bike shop again. No answer. So I took a cab. When I told the cab driver about my plans he turned into the second American at that day who thought I was crazy. He told me that I had rather gone to Florida or California and had picked up some chicks. Oh, Ouch! Rub it in my face why don't you. At around 9:30 am the bike shop opened and I got to see my touring bike for the first time. It was love at first sight. The bike shop staff helped me out with directions, distances and even with a map. They also warned me of the heavy traffic. They almost managed to scare me. Traffic turned out to be o.k.. Just like home. After crossing the Virginia / North - Carolina border (picture) I made a stop at a little restaurant. A man came up to me and started babbling something. If it was the fact that he had only 3 teeth left or that his IQ was about the same as his shoe size, which made him so hard to understand I cannot say. What I know is that it didn't seem to bother him much that we obviously weren't communicating. About 70 miles into the trip I made a stop at a little grocery store. Bought some bananas and milk. While the buying turned out to be easy, the eating wasn't. The heat, the jetlag and my poor condition were demanding their toll. To satisfy those evil spirits, I took a bow, closed my eyes ... and threw up. My goal for today was to reach Greenville, because Sara, a friend of mine, lives there. Even though we had never before met in the real world, we had spent many hours chatting to each other over the Internet. About 20 miles from Greenville, having ridden 112 miles, I couldn't go any further. I called Sara and asked her if she could pick me up, which she did. Just in time, as it turned out, because a heavy thunderstorm broke loose just after she turned up. I had a hard time eating that evening, because my whole system was upset. We watched a movie and I got a massage that made me forget some of the blows I had taken that day. | |||||||
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Sunday, July 6th Greenville, NC |
A day at the beach. |
| Surprisingly enough, I had a good nights sleep. Frosties for breakfast tasted grrrreat. We decided to go to the beach, a place called Atlantic Beach. I was glad that I got the chance to see the Atlantic Ocean (picture), since I was denied the opportunity back in Norfolk. It took us about 1 1/2 hours by car. Longer if we had cared for the speed limits. The beach was quite beautiful. Fine grained sand, waves, blue sky. Nice. Once we were back in Greenville, Sara had already called up Brian and set up a game of Frisbee-Golf. As we wanted to leave for the Frisbee-Golf range, Sara's car decided that right now would be a good time for a new battery. Brian hat to drop by with his new, flashy truck and help us out with his battery. Frisbee-Golf is good fun. We played until it got dark. I did o.k. We had dinner at a place called Denny's. As we were leaving, a black guy came up to us and told us that he was having problems starting his car. We offered to help him. Somehow what he needed merged into 20 $. How exactly I don't recall, but it sounded logical at the time. He even offered me his gun (threat?) if I would give him the money. I let him have the 20$. I guess I'll never learn. As I went to sleep, I was sad that I had to leave Sara, and I was happy that tomorrow I would finally head west. | |
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Monday, July 7th Greenville, NC - Cary, NC |
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| I said bye to Sara. She made my stay worthwile. May only good things come her way. Filled up my waterbottles and headed towards Raleigh, NC. Slowly the scenery started to change. The once flat road was replaced by lots of unnecessary altitude changes. Still very hot. I called my mom. She was relieved to hear from me. Having reached Raleigh, I tried to find a cheap motel, but couldn't. The YMCA turned out to be full. Next stop was the North Carolina State University, where I was hoping to find a place in their huge dormitories. No can do, was the answer I got. Not a very nice move. I left Raleigh, hoping to find something soon, as I was already pretty tired. I ended up in Cary, where Bill Rogers, a local motel owner, whose place was already crammed, offered me to put up my tent in his backyard. I gladly accepted. After an improvised shower, I got myself some food and something to read. On my way back there was a nice little car accident, involving a neat black Ford Mustang. Amazing what the locals do to entertain foreigners. Ate, read and listened to some music, what a nice way to end a day. | |||||||
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Tuesday, July 8th Cary, NC - Greensboro, NC |
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| The alarm clock went down at 7am. I packed up my tent and put everything on my bike. I witnessed a slow increase in order in the way things got placed on the bike. I said bye and thanks to Bill and went on my way. Sometime during the day, I took a wrong turn and made a few extra miles. Bummer. By 11:35 am I'd done 50 miles. That's good! It got really hot later, 38°C according to my odometer. I had lunch at KFC. All you can eat buffet. Not a good idea. You learn something new every day. In Greensboro, I couldn't decide whether to stay at the Campground, at a motel or in the YMCA. That was when I met Aaron who releived me of this problem by offering to find me a cheap place to stay. He's also a cyclist, coming from Pennsylvania if I remember correctly. He called a few people and took me to a few places, without much of a result. In the end, he offered me to stay at his place. I gladly accepted. His place was a mess (picture). His girlfriend dropped by, and we had pizza. Later they went off to whereever. Before leaving, Aaron told me about the gay guy who lived in the other room. Gee, thanks Aaron, I couldn't have done without that. Check your homophobia! I listened to some music and soon fell asleep. | |||||||
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Wednesday, July 9th Greensboro, NC - Homeplace, NC |
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| I was up to a quick start that day. Said bye to Aaron, who had slept outside on the couch. Once I got out of the city, I went north for a few miles to get around Winston-Saleem. I had enough of the big cities. My legs were feeling kind of shaky that day. Having ridden 2 hours, I stopped at a supermarket and got myself a really big sandwich, like 30cm+. I had planned to stay at Pilot Mountain State Park. I could see the mountain from far away (picture), finally a thing that deserves the name mountain. When I got there, I soon decided not to stay. There was absolutly nothing going on there. No campers, no shop, no nothing. Asking a few people along the way, I found out that Homeplace Campground was the place to go. To say I took the shortest way to Homeplace would be exaggerated, but I eventually got there. After putting up my tent, I went for a swim in the pool. They even had some springboards and a waterslide. After seeing me jump, a kid came up to me and asked me how old I was. As I answered, he replied : You'll never make it to 30. Cool ey? Once again the weather flexed its muscles, thunder in the distance a few raindrops. Please don't let it rain. As I walked to my tent in the dark, I was amazed by all the fireflies rising out of the grass as they sensed me. | |||||||
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Thursday, July 10th Homeplace, NC - West Jefferson, NC |
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| I was looking forward to a joyful little ride. Looked like 62 miles on the map. Oh boy, how wrong I was. All it took was a wrong turn. I made a 25 mile extra loop through hilly terrain. But that wasn't all, the 2300 ft climb wasn't something that I had anticipated. Americans don't seem to bother much about heights, since they most of the time are behind the wheel of a car. That's why there is no information about altitude changes on American maps. As a cyclist you learn to hate the cartographers. The famous Blue Ridge Parkway, while pretty to look at, also isn't what I would call flat. Climbing a total of about 7000 ft, that has been the hilliest day so far. In West Jefferson, I immediately tried to phone Brodrick Shephard. He is another one of those friendly people who offered me to stay at their places. The phone number was defunct. I looked in the phone directory. Aha, another number. I called it and got to talk to an answering machine. I asked some people including a policeman if they could help me. They couldn't. I gave up on him and checked into the first motel of my journey. I decided to eat myself happy again. Coming back to my motel room with lots of burgers, the phone rang, and would you believe it, it was Brodrick. He invited me for dinner. Oh boy, I took a look at my burgers and told him that I'd be happy to come. That was how I came to eat a Quarterpounder, a MacFish and a MacChicken, followed by grilled ribs and corn. I also met Brodricks lovely wife and their little daughter Bethany. Brodrick had also done a Coast 2 Coast trip a few years ago, so he knew what it was like. Having returned to the motel, I enjoyed the comfort of a remote controlled TV, washed some of my clothes and soon thereafter dozed off. | |||||||
| July : | | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
| August : | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |
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Friday, July 11th West Jefferson, NC - Rosedale, VA |
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| I met with the Shephard family at 8:30 am and they took me to a place which served a truly delicious breakfast. I was surprised, that I had appetite at all, after what I had eaten the night before. Brodrick had also organized a local reporter, who wrote quite a big article about me. Looks like they don't have much real news in that part of the country. Still I'm really psyched about having a newspaper article about me. I left later as usual and was a bit worried about the weather, looked wet, but in the end it stayed dry. I crossed the Virgina border and finally found myself on the ACA Transamerica trail. A trail that is frequently used by Coast 2 Coast cyclists and best of all has detailed maps. After some tiring climbs, I decided to call it a day in Rosedale, where I checked into a surprisingly cheap motel. Bought some food at the gas station and watched TV for the rest of the evening. No remote control, what a shame. | |||||||
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Saturday, July 12th Rosedale, VA - Breaks State Park, VA |
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| Returning the keys to the motel owner, I ran into Sherry. She turned out to be a Coast 2 Coast cyclist too. I decided to tour this day with her. First of all because I enjoyed her company and second because I was tired. We took our time to get to Breaks State Park. In Sherry I encountered a totally different kind of touring cyclist than I am. Nothing seemed to bother her, as soon as we stopped, she got into a conversation with people and above all, she actually seemed to have fun. It was a whole new world I discovered that day, maybe not made for me, but nonetheless a whole new world. Along the way there were some sites of historical meaning. Mostly accompanied by a sign describing what had happened there. Almost entirely the signs were talking about poor white people having been killed by the mean Indians. Think of it what you want. In Breaks State Park, we met Brian, a Scottish touring cyclist. He doesn't look like the average touring cyclist, but the 1500 miles he had already done told a different story. We went for a walk together (picture) and later, Sherry and I had dinner together, since Brian had already eaten. The salad buffet was another highlight of that day. There was a bluegrass band jamming along as we went back to our tents. Listened in for a few minutes and then decided that it wasn't that great after all. We all talked a bit and then crawled into our tents. | |||||||
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Sunday, July 13th Breaks State Park, VA - Hazard, KY |
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| That night something weird happened. I woke up and heard rain. I touched the ceiling of my tent to check for wetness, but there wasn't any. I opened my tent, reached outside and again, no rain. I went back to sleep. After repeating the previous procedure a couple of times, I started to realize what was happening. Or at least I thought I did. It was raining inside the trees. It was very misty and somehow this must have generated drops of water falling from the higher parts of the trees to the lower one's. I can't really explain this, but I know that I heard rain, and I know that no drops were reaching my tent. The three of us rolled down into Kentucky (picture) together, where we also had breakfast. Pancakes, yummy. Having finished breakfast we broke up. Too bad, I liked them. This part of Kentucky is coal country. You always had to be alert, because some of the coaltrucks are a bit in a hurry. Another part of the coal industry are the really BIG caterpillars and trucks (picture). These things are immensly impressive. Next to one of those machines, I met two men, who were just hanging around. I asked them if they were driving these monsters. They said: No, we have to clean them. We all agreed that driving them must be more fun than cleaning them. A real bad dirt track and some steep climbs together with high temperatures were getting to me. I was glad when I reached Hazard, where I immediately checked into a fancy motel. Again. | |||||||
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Monday, July 14th Hazard, KY - Berea, KY |
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| Another of those foggy (picture) mornings. Cleared up pretty soon though. The landscape seemed to get flater once again. It got really hot again. And as if that wouldn't have been enough, my butt also started to hurt. Well, I guess that's just part of the deal. Mere minutes before falling to dust, I stopped and asked an old man for water. He offered me a chair in the shade. We just sat there and talked for a while. He told me how things used to be here in the old times. It was really interesting, sometimes even surreal, because it was so full of clichés. When I had to leave, he didn't want to let me go. I left anyway, but kind of sad. Somehow I made it to Berea. Checked into one of the first motels I saw, which was a mistake, as I soon found out. There were cheaper and better one's in town. At a gas station I finally found the much talked about, rarely seen coupons for motels. I grabbed some. That day was hard. I was happy to take a shower, lay down and eat. | |||||||
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Tuesday, July 15th Berea, KY - Bardstown, KY |
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| Not much of interest happened. The usual up and down. Cycled through Springfield. Was hoping to see yellow people. Didn't. Bardstown almost seemed to have some kind of history, what a refreshing change. Stayed at a Red Carpet Inn. The carpet was brown. | |||||||
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Wednesday, July 16th Bardstown, KY - Glendale, KY |
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| Isn't it nice if the first thing you do in the morning is cycle 10 miles into the wrong direction. At 11 am, I rode my 1000th mile of the trip. Yeah! I got off the route to get to Glendale because I had a coupon for a motel there, temptingly cheap. Before getting there, I had to lose several cujo-type dogs. Yelling "sit" sometimes helped. At 1 in the afternoon I reached the motel. I called home. My mom said that 5 days were too long a time between two calls. I thought 5 days were fine. Played my favourite game: Lying in bed, not moving. I was getting pretty good at it. | |||||||
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Thursday, July 17th Glendale, KY |
A day of rest. |
| Aaaah, a day to relax. Just went up to Elizabethtown to get some groceries. 20 miles to relax my muscles. I started to have doubts if I could make it. I only had a quarter of the way so far. I also got a chance to talk to the India-born owner of the motel. He didn't seem to like the Americans very much, because as he said, they were wasting their resources. He told me how they got rid of plants growing on the shoulder of the Interstates. By soaking everything in Diesel, he told me. Amazing. | |
| July : | | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
| August : | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |
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Friday, July 18th Glendale, KY - Sebree, KY |
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| I left very early, hoping to ride in the cooler hours of the day (picture). I crossed my first time zone today, ET to MT, meaning I won an hour. Later, I met two cycling couples in Utica. One of them was using their honeymoon to cross the States (picture). We all agree that this is a good opportunitiy to get sick of each other. Thanks to my early start, I reached Sebree at 2:30 in the afternoon. Asking a guy at a gas station if there was a motel in town, he first denied but then later admitted that there actually was one. But he also told me that he would not recommend to stay there. Well, was the local guy, I was sure that he knew what he was talking about. He told me about a public park, where cyclists usually stay. Getting there I realized, that I wouldn't have much comfort that night. Thank god there was a swimming pool nearby, where I could cool off and get clean. A couple from Nevada, both around 50 joined me. They were also on their way across the continent, heading east. That evening some people were having a pool party, and lucky for me, they had some spare burgers and Pepsi, which they offered me. Another night in the tent, sweating. | |||||||
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Saturday, July 19th Sebree, KY - Golconda, IL |
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| In the morning everything was wet, full of dew. John Oakes and his wife were already leaving as I got up. I wished them a safe trip and away they were. I rode the rollercoaster for a while until I got to the Missouri River, where I had to take the ferry (picture). On the ferry, I talked to an old man about my trip. Shortly before leaving the ferry, he gave me a 5 Dollar bill. I was a bit surprised. He told me to buy myself a nice dinner sometime. On the other side of the river, there was this place called Cave In Rock. It's called like that because of the caves along the riverside, where in the old days pirates used to hide before attacking boats on the river. I was thinking about staying in Cave In Rock, but after looking at the Campground, I decided to head for Golconda. The ride, again, was pretty tough, up 'n' down, endlessly. In Golconda, I found a nice little motel. Later, I went to the public laundry to wash some of my clothes. Also got some groceries. Pre-baked chicken. Loved it in the beginning, hated it in the end. | |||||||
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Sunday, July 20th Golconda, IL - Carbondale, IL |
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| I couldn't wait to get to Carbondale. I would either stay at Dan's house, he's a member of the Warm Shower List, or I would check out the well known Bike Surgeon, who is known for his hospitality towards touring cyclists. On the road, I met Suzie. She was also touring alone, heading east and she looked like a tough cookie. She also told me about the Bike Surgeon. Getting into Carbondale, I actually met him on his way to the lake. That was when I discovered that the Bike Surgeon is actually two people, a couple (picture). They told me I could go to their place to take a shower, they'd be dropping by later. Amazing how much these people trust complete strangers. I hope they never get dissapointed. In Carbondale, I got into a conversation with a guy who turned out to have gone crosscountry too, on horseback.. Crazy people. I found the Surgeon's house easily. It was a bit of a mess, but boy did it have style. Next I checked out Dan's house and met Jerry, who was house-sitting while Dan was in Japan. I also met Maestro (Dan's a music teacher), Dan's dog, who was afraid of me as soon as he had smelled my shoes. I decided to stay at Dan's house because it featured the extra comfort of air condition and TV. Later I went to the movies, to see "Face / Off". Good action movie, but not much else. I went back to the Surgeon's house for a little chat. You meet interesting people along the way. Ah yes, before I forget it, Carbondale featured the first bike lane I had encountered on American soil. Isn't that special. | |||||||
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Monday, July 21st Carbondale, IL |
THE DECISION |
| Dan's place was just too nice to leave, so I decided to take a day off, knowing that I really couldn't afford it. I sent excess baggage back home. It surprised me how few pieces of clothing one actually needs. After calling home, I checked out the Amtrak station. Studying the Amtrak network, I learned, that I could clip off about 800 miles of my journey by taking the train from St. Louis to La Junta, CO. I like to think that this was a hard decision to make, that I actually hesitated destroying my whole plan about going Coast 2 Coast on a bicycle, but looking at it now, I guess the decision was made as soon as I realized its potential. The rest was just arguing with myself to make me feel better. | |
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Tuesday, July 22nd Carbondale, IL - St. Louis, MO |
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| Hey, how's that for a change, no hills on that day. A pretty smooth ride for about 80 miles. Then it really started to get hairy. RAIN! It had to come one day, that I always knew. I was shocked by it anyway. I quickly pulled up under a bridge, hoping that it would end soon. I had no other choice but to wait. The street I was riding on was dangerous even in dry conditions, when it was wet, it was hell. Since the rain didn't stop, I had to settle for the other solution, to get off that road. This also meant losing the bit orientation I had up to that point. So I asked someone at a gas station for the distance to downtown St. Louis. I expected something like 4 miles. Instead it turned out to be 20. I got really wet heading towards the city, but as it stopped raining, I also got dry fairly quick. As I got into East St. Louis, I quickly realized that this was not the neighborhood I wanted to be in. Blacks only, looking anything else but friendly. I put up my "don't mess with me" look and hoped for the best. Next problem was finding a way across Mississippi River. All the bridges were car-only. I ended up taking the Metrolink to Union Station. I liked Union Station immediatly. It's a tourist place, it's friendly, it's safe. I called up Sara, another Warm Shower List member and asked her if I could stay at her place the next day. Today I would be staying at a motel. While talking to her, this black kid sneaked up to me, and suddenly grabbed my wallet. I yelled at him and grabbed him by his shoulder. He immediatly returned my wallet and looked kind of puzzled, then walked away. Does that make sense. Back at the phone, Sara told me that I could stay at her place. Cool. The motel was pretty bad, even though it was downtown, it was just the block that matters away from the good neighborhood. The lady at the reception had a banged up eye. Very unfriendly, fences everywhere, go figure. | |||||||
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Wednesday, July 23rd St. Louis, MO |
City of justice? |
| I stayed in the motel as long as possible. At checkout time, I transfered myself to the Union Station again. Phew, safe ground. I was supposed to meet Sara at 5 pm so I still had a few hours. I decided to go look for her place in advance, so I wouldn't be late. Eventhough I had the address I couldn't find it. Instead I ended up in another bad neighborhood. It's amazing how close together these huge social differences are. Something is not right in this city. At 5 I called up Sara, so she could once more explain to me where she lived. Had no problems finding it this time. Sara welcomed me and showed me my room. Alright! Later that day I also met Joachim, Sara's boyfriend. I was surprised to find out that he was German. This resulted in us switching from English to German back and forth for the rest of the day. Both of them were really cool about having a stranger in their appartment. That evening we went to a Salsa concert at the St. Louis Botanical Garden. I met a lot of Joachim's coworkers, most of them German too. I guess it's true, Germans tend to stick together. The music was o.k., just that I couldn't see a difference between the songs. It sounded all the same to me. Before returning back home, we went to one of the many pubs and had a Schlummertrunk. | |
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Thursday, July 24th St. Louis, MO |
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| In the morning Sara handed me a key for their appartment, so I could come and go as I pleased. Try to find that in Europe! I bought the new Stephen King novel. It's about a small town alongside Highway 51 in Nevada. Highway 51, the lonliest highway on earth. I didn't know it by then, but I would ride on 51 in a week or so. Around noon Sara played city guide for me. She showed me all the attractions, the most prominent of them probably being the Arch (picture). Following that we went to the children's hospital, where Joachim works. He was so kind as to let me use his Internet access so I could try to create the web address I was handing out since I had started 20 days ago. I couldn't do it. So what! At least I managed to read my e-mail. In the afternoon I went out to look for a movie theatre. I learned quite a bit about the American system of Boulevards, Avenues and Streets that day. Had to walk quite a bit until I finally found what I was looking for. Watched "Men in Black". Good fun, maybe a bit on the short side. Later, we went to the movie theatre again, this time all together. Peter, the Australian, was also with us. He's quite a character. | |
| July : | | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
| August : | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |
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Friday, July 25th St. Louis, MO - Kansas City, KS |
To serve and protect. |
| Early in the morning, I went to the Amtrak station to get my ticket to La Junta, CO. Train would be leaving at 3:30 pm. Joachim even took a break from work to help me get my stuff down to the station. Very kind of him. At about 2 pm I once again made a stop at Union station to get something to eat. I locked my bike to a bench. Lots of people around so it should be safe. I was having the same as I had the last two days ago: Rice, orange chicken and sweet & sour chicken. Delicious! The guy selling the food even recognized me again. I had become a frequent customer. At 2:30 pm I decided to head for the station. I went down to get my bike. My bike? F***!! Where the hell was my bike? I was dying several times at once. This could not be true. I started running around, asking people if they had seen my bike. No-one knew anything. That was when I ran into Brian. Remember him? The Scottish cyclist. Under normal circumstances it would have been a happy surprise to see him. But the way the situation was at the time it just added to the surreal vibe of it all. He offered me his help, which I accepted without much hope that it would actually change something. We asked the lady at the information desk about the police. She sent us to the public security station. As we got there, I quickly explained my problem to the officer on duty. He wanted to know what kind of bike it was. I told him. He got up and left the room. A couple of moments later he came back .... with my bike. The police had cut my bicycle lock, because it was not allowed to lock bicycles to benches. I didn't know whether to hug him or rip his head off. I didn't bother asking him for a replacement for my lock, don't think I would have gotten one anyway. That was when I finally had time to be happy about meeting Brian again. It turned out that he was thinking about taking the train too. What a small world this is. The train was about an hour late, but that didn't even start to bother me. I was just happy to have my bike again. The seat in the train was pretty comfy. I realized my shoes were stinking pretty bad. I was a bit embarassed, but could do nothing to change that. At around 11 pm we had a 4 hour stop in Kansas City. I used the time to write some cards and put my bike into a bicycle box, which was mandatory for the train from Kansas City to La Junta. No, I don't know why. Found out that not even brute force could move my pedals to loosen up. | |
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Saturday, July 26th Kansas City, KS (La Junta) - Pueblo, CO |
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| The train left at around 2:30 am. I had some difficulties finding my seat, but finally ended up next to an old lady already sleeping. We arrived in La Junta at 9:45, 45 minutes later I was ready to hit the road again. At the first Bike Shop I got myself a new bicycle lock, since my old one had met its creator. Streets were straight and flat as a pancake (picture). The only thing that made riding a bit uncomfortable were the masses of Heuschrecken jumping into the street. After a while, I got used to the steady crunch-crunch-crunch under my wheels. There were also a lot of squirrel-like creatures alongside the road. Funny to look at. I was happy to see that Pueblo had a wide variety of motels to choose from. Checked into a Motel 6. I finally got myself a second pair of shoes. It was about time. Bought my first yogurt since the start of the trip. Liked it and decided to buy it more often. From my room I could see the Rockies stretching out towards me, together with some beautiful thunderstorm clouds. Did a little anti-rain dance and went to bed. | |||||||
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Sunday, July 27th Pueblo, CO - Current Creek, CO |
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| The day started with a tough ride along Highway 50 towards Cannon City. Cannon City was really tempting. Lots of motels and shops, just an all around neat little town. You simply cannot imagine how beautiful a motel looks unless you've done long distances on a bike, through the desert, in the heat. Still I had to go on. The first climbs of the Rockies were coming up. I had heard that the Rockies were easier to ride than the Appalachians. And what can I say, it's true. The beautiful surroundings and the slow gradual climbs really speak for the Rockies. I had met a lot of cyclists that day. A mountainbiker, 4 touring cyclists and and elderly couple, all heading west. With the couple and the 4 guys I ended up at the Current Creek Hostel. A private owned Hostel, without comfort, but with lots of soul. The owner used to hike all over the world and had lots of stories to tell. I just got there as it began to rain. In the guest book I found that Vilmar Tavares had been here, just about 4 days before. I had been corresponding with Vilmar over e-mail before I left for the journey. There was the coolest weather going on before I went to sleep. Mist, slowly creeping over the hills, awesome scenery (picture). The guy next to me weeped in his sleep. Kept me from falling asleep. Hated him for it. | |||||||
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Monday, July 28th Current Creek, CO - Kremmling, CO |
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| A misty, rainy morning. I couldn't complain. Only the second time it rained since 24 days. So I put on all my raingear and started for another day on the road. Getting over the first pass of the day, the weather began to clear up (picture). The landscape that came into view was simply breathtaking. The pictures do simply not show all the beauty of this place (picture). A few miles after a place called Hartsel, I caught my first flat tire of the trip. I changed tube and tire because there was something stuck in the tire, which I couldn't get out. It started raining again. As the rain kept getting harder, my spirits slowly sank. Out of the nothing a truck pulled up in front of me, and the lady driving asked me if she could give me lift. Sure thing! We chatted a bit and 10 miles later I continued on bike again, my motivation back on a high. Then the climb up to Hoosier Pass started. Hoosier Pass is the highest point of the Transamerica Trail (picture). Shortly before the summit I met an Ecuadorian cyclist on his mountainbike. We teamed up for the next couple of miles. The downhill from Hoosier Pass was a rush. Breckenridge, a popular ski resort looked like a neat place to stay. Virtually hundreds of shops. Couple of miles later, I left the Ecuadorian. I felt a bit bad about that, since I was heading for a motel and he, not having the money, looked for a campground. That's when a real nice tailwind started blowing. Pushed me to an easy 28 mph. 20 miles from Kremmling the wind turned. It was quite a struggle to make it into Kremmling. At the motel I met an Italian Coast 2 Coast cyclist, Cristiano (picture). He told me about his plan to leave the Transamerica Trail and take a shorter route west. I thought about that, while, once again, eating as much as I could. | |||||||
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Tuesday, July 29th Kremmling, CO - Craig, CO |
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| Cristiano and I started off together, climbing towards Rabbit Ears Pass. The road led us through an incredibly vast landscape. The sign : No serviced for 45 miles didn't look to encouraging. Once in a while you could see an old motorhome in the middle of nowhere. It makes you wonder what kind of people would want to live in a place like this. Sure, the landscape is impressive, for about 15 minutes, then it just gets incredibly boring. It started and stopped raining a couple of times. At our next stop I decided to take the shortcut Cristiano had suggested. Going down Rabbit Ears Pass was fun. A massive 2500 ft drop. Thanks to a strong tailwind we made good distance. About 15 miles from Craig it started raining really bad. I just managed to make it to a reat area. Cristiano wasn't so lucky and got wet. In Craig we found a nice cheap motel with an exceptionally friendly owner. After the daily cleaning ritual, we checked out the city together. | |||||||
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Wednesday, July 30th Craig, CO - Dinosaur, CO |
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| A really tough day. Up's and down's up to the horizon (picture). Boring scenery. Hardly any towns. Most places that existed on the map had been deserted a long time ago. At least it didn't rain. In Dinosaur, a place called after the Dinosaur National Park, we checked into a nice, cheap motel. There was even an in-room fridge. Fancy ey? We had dinner at the local restaurant. Had a Bronto-Burger. Good stuff. | |||||||
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Thursday, July 31st Dinosaur, CO - Duchesne, UT |
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| The day started off with a nice gradual downhill to the Utah border (picture). The rainclouds in the back, we hoped for good weather. Near Vernal there was this very weird terrain. Lots of little hills. Looking like a gigantic case of geesebumps. There were motorcycle tracks all over the place. I would have liked to hang out a few days there and maybe catch some air. Following that, the scenery changed once again and was replaced by what looked like Mars. I kept looking for the Pathfinder Mars Rover, but could not find it. I bet it was there somewhere. 20 miles from Duchesne, headwind got really tough. It took me almost 2 hours to get there. Couldn't find a cheap motel, so I had to check into an upperclass motel with a grumpy owner. I took him about 15 minutes until he finally had hacked my name into the computer. Guess computers aren't for everyone. 3 hours later Cristiano arrived. He was taking his time, because he was having troubles with his knees recently. | |||||||
| July : | | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
| August : | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |
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Friday, August 1st Duchesne, UT - Coalville, UT |
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| A fat climb up to Strawberry Reservoir. After many days in the desert, I was surprised to see that the scenery had changed into something very similar to Switzerland (picture). Daniel's Pass promised to be the last 8000 ft pass on our trip. There was a restaurant, just after Daniel's Pass, where I took a break. When I heard this squeaky noise I expected to see pretty much anything but the thing I actually saw. Colibris. First time I ever saw them little birds. Neat! As Cristiano joined me, we called the Utah Department of Transport, to find out if cyclists were allowed to use Interstates in Utah. It turned out to be legal, and we were quite happy about that. Saved us some extra miles. Downhill from the pass was not as easy as I hoped it would be. The beginning was fast, 46+ mph, later headwind kind of screwed up the whole thing. After another one of those unexpected climbs (bad maps), we hit the Interstate and raced, tailwindpowered down to Coalville. There was only a single room available in whole Coalville. We decided to share the room and Cristiano offered to sleep on the floor. I accepted. We got a new TV, because ours crapped up all off the sudden. Checking out the town, I encountered the motorcycle from hell. A massive V8 engine. Coolness! Before going to bed Cristiano once again started babbling about the beach. He was getting pretty desperate. 8-) | |||||||
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Saturday, August 2nd Coalville, UT - Tremonton, UT |
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| We went through some pretty scenery in the morning. Now I know why the Olympics will be held in Utah. It all started to change as we went out into the Salt Lake Basin. No more pretty. That was why I ignited the afterburners and did some fast riding on the Interstate, averaging 19 mph before slowing down and looking for a motel in Tremonton. In town, I got to talk to a local bike shop owner. He told me to be careful on my way out of here tomorrow. "There are some strange people out there". Thanks for reminding me, Duuuh! | |||||||
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Sunday, August 3rd Tremonton, UT - Burley, ID |
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| We had agreed upon leaving at 7:15 am. Problem was, I didn't know where his room was. So I had to wait for the reception to open, until I could finally wake Cristiano. After about half a mile, Cristiano stopped for a coffee, I rode on. The first few miles, up till Snowville (yeah, right), seemed really slow. I was glad not to find a "No bicycles" sign when I crossed the border to Idaho on the Interstate. That would have meant a huge detour. Idaho is really bad. Miles of nothing (picture). It got hotter and hotter, up to 42° C. First thing I noticed entering Burley, was the huge amount of Mexicans in town. Can't really explain it, probably low-wage workers. Found a nice motel. When I asked the owner if I could take my bike into my room, she didn't seem to happy about the idea. Investigating further I found out, that she thought I was travelling by motorcycle. I showed her my bike and her mood changed instantaniously. After Cristiano had arrived, we walked through Burley, looking for anything worth seeing. There was nothing, dead as can be. | |||||||
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Monday, August 4th Burley, ID - Mountain Home, ID |
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| For the first time, we didn't start off at the same time. Why bother, we would seperate after a couple of miles anyway. Cristiano had given me his pocket radio and some headphones. The headphone always kept falling from my ears. Taped them to my ears. Worked out fine. Time seemed to pass slower with music, but I also cared less with music. Go speed racer! Immense tailwind. Cyclist's heaven! Caught a flat tire after hitting a square piece of metal. You always have to keep your eyes on the road. That is a problem most short-distance cyclists don't give enough attention to. Depending on the direction of the road, the tailwind sometimes turned into sidewind, which was really a bitch. Dries out your eyes and mouth in no time. Getting to Glenn's Ferry, our planned destination, I had to find out that there was no room left in town. I decided to go on and left a message for Cristiano at the local restaurant. A few miles further, I met a couple with a car and a trailer, standing on the shoulder of the road. They were waving like madpeople. As I stopped they explained to me that they had a flat tire, and nobody was stopping to help them. I told them I would get help in the next town and rode on. I did no such thing. There just wasn't any town for another 30 miles and I was sure that by the time I got there, they would have gotten help from somebody else. I left the river canyon I was riding in for the last few miles and got onto a plateau of some sort. Damn sidewind. Already within the city limits, I got scared pretty bad by a truck screaming past me with blocked wheels. He had seen the car in front of me too late. We all got away with a slightly increased pulse. Exhausted I arrived in Mountain Home. Checked into a nice motel with a dirty pool. Hopped in anyway. | |||||||
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Tuesday, August 5th Mountain Home, ID - Boise, ID |
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| How's that for a change, Cristiano started before me. I slept in. Today's goal was Boise. We were psyched to get there because it was one of the milestones of our tour. As always, a supposedly easy day turned out tougher than expected. Long climbs and bad winds. And as if that wasn't already enough, I had another flat tire. I caught up with Cristiano at the first Interstate exit of Boise. Before looking for a motel, Cristiano checked out some "real Italian coffee". The lady at the counter was flattered to see that a native Italian actually liked her stuff. We got to the motel, a Budget Inn at around 1 pm. Having rested a bit, we checked out the city on foot. I was surprised to see that Boise, even though in Idaho, was actually a pretty cool place. Lots of cafés, bars and generally stylish houses. Bought groceries, ate till we dropped. Good night. | |||||||
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Wednesday, August 6th Boise, ID |
Farewell my friend. |
| We did nothing until 12 am. I then went out and looked for a movie theatre and a mall. I cycled quite a distance, but didn't find much. The motel owner gave us a tip and we ended up at the Town-Mall. A big one. I went to see "Spawn", Cris enjoyed "Men In Black". Back at the motel, I got myself some MacDonalds-junk. Before going to bed, Cris and I exchanged addresses. We would go different ways tomorrow, Cris heading straight west, while I was going northwest, to Seattle. I enjoyed his company a lot and hope he had a great rest of the trip. | |
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Thursday, August 7th Boise, ID - Baker City, OR |
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| I got up early, so I could leave at 7 am. I had some nice miles to the Interstate. Passing a huge onion field made me cry. A small car crash, with about 5 police cars flashing their lights around it, made me smile. I was running out of water once more. Not many service stations out there. A trucker I met told me that there would be a 10 mile downhill leading into Baker City. With this in mind I carried on, dreaming of just that downhill. When I finally got there, I had such an incredible headwind that I actually had to pedal down the whole damn hill. I was angry. Checked into an affordable motel with a swimming-pool. A clean one this time. Having refreshed myself I strolled through the city. Nice, it almost seemed to have some kind of history. I also met a couple of other cyclists doing a little tour through Oregon. | |||||||
| July : | | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
| August : | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |
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Friday, August 8th Baker City, OR - Pendleton, OR |
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| I left Baker City at around 7:15 am. I got into a very strong headwind, blowing me down to a mere 10 mph. I could not imagine going much further than La Grande, so I decided to call it a day there. Two hours later, the wind had calmed down a bit, and I jumped back to my original plan to reach Pendleton. Having passed La Grande, the scenery changed once again. Desert-like plains turned into trees, grass and flowers. Just an all around friendlier place. I climbed Summit Pass and Deadmans Pass, two rather easy passes. Once again I was looking forward to the downhill (picture) and once again, I soon regretted it. There was a construction zone all the way down. No shoulders and sometimes even only one lane. I almost got hit by one of these trucks, pulling one of these semi-mobile homes. That was probably the closest I got to actual accident. We're talking a couple of inches here. But obviously I made it into Pendleton and checked into the first motel with affordable rates. I finally found time to catch up with my diary. | |||||||
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Saturday, August 9th Pendleton, OR - Hood River, OR |
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| Getting out of Pendleton involved some climbing. I asked a woman walking along the road if this was the right way to the Interstate. She replied in Spanish that she didn't speak English. I reasked the same question in Spanish, which sounded something like this: "Interstate?". Seeing the direction I was pointing in, she agreed that that was in fact the way to the Interstate. Ha haaa, who's the man?! Getting to the top of the hill, a slow downhill to the Missouri River followed. I had decided just that morning that I would follow the Missouri River to the Pacific and then head north along the coast to Seattle, instead of taking the shortest route to Seattle. A good decision as it turned out. Before seeing the River, I saw the silhouette of what had to be a mountain. I had never seen a mountain like this. It rose out of nowhere, covered with snow, just beautiful. Then the smell started. First onions, from a huge onion field. It nearly knocked me off my bike. When I got into Boardman, it was the smell of Pizza. Another mile down the road, it changed into the smell of fresh pastries. I felt like Odysseus being tempted by the sirens. A little note on the side: Boardman is in Morrow county. I'm a snowboarder and I ride a Morrow. Cool isn't it. As the wind slowly changed from a headwind to a tailwind, I knew I could go far today. The scenery was amazing. A second mountain appeared at the horizon (picture), Hood Mountain, as I later found out. Missouri River turned out to be quite a big one. The problem with going a long distance was that I was planning to far in advance. I was thinking about doing a 150 miles before I even had 60 miles. That's always a dangerous thing to do. I made my first rest after 110 miles, and I felt pretty good about that. There were some hydroelectric powerplants along the way, creating cool currents. Currents rule! In Hood River, there was hardly a motel room left. One guy wanted 65 $ for a room. I didn't do him the favour. At a shaky looking motel, I found a whole appartment, 2 bedrooms, kitchen and livingroom for 50 bucks. The owner was very friendly and he let me stay for 40 $ if I promised to leave the rooms as I had found them, clean. I did exactly that. He must have been sorry for me. After 150 miles, I looked a bit dead. Later got myself 20 Chicken MacNuggets (Discount 2.99 $), threw myself in front of the TV and soon dozed off. | |||||||
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Sunday, August 10th Hood River, OR - Longview, WA |
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| I prepared myself for a rather easy 100 mile day. Does anybody remember what happened the previous times Remo thought a day would be easy? The first few miles were very nice. The Interstate led through some lovely scenery. I then left the Interstate to cross the river because I didn't want to get near Portland and because I hoped to see some currents. The map looked like there could be some. That was the first time I was dissapointed by the map that day. The street wasn't following the river as I thought it would, but it went up and down its boards. At a spectacular view-point, overlooking the whole river canyon (picture), I met a motocyclist (Jeff?). We got into a conversation, and I learned that he used to ride bicycles too before a back-injury kept him from doing so. He was very friendly. Getting near Victoria, things changed. The street got crowded, bad pavement, detours, and the biggest blow of all : "No bicycles on Interstate". OUCH!! I was forced to find another way north. This led to what would come to be known as "The 501 incident". I followed county road 501 because on my map, it went north, getting me almost up to Longview. 501 kept getting smaller and less travelled. Not a good sign. 12 miles into the road, the horror got a name : Dead End! I looked at the remains of Mount St. Helens and asked myself if I could cause a similar explosion. I had no choice but to ride back the entire 12 miles and look for another road north. Asking a guy who selled watermelons, I learned that there had been plans to continue 501, but somehow they never finished the road. Great, now he tells me! Back on the "right" road, things didn't improve a lot. Very steep ups and downs, headwind also picking up. I stopped a police officer, asking him for the best way to Longview. He told me to get back on the Interstate because it actually turned out the be the ONLY way to Longview. I gladly obeyed. Finally in Longview. Found a nice motel and even managed to get a discount on the room. I had lots of onion-cheese sandwiches that evening. That potentially easy day turned out to probably the worst of them all. | |||||||
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Monday, August 11th Longview, WA - Long Beach, WA |
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| Yeah, today I would reach the beach! I decided to go back into Oregon to get there. This meant crossing the Missouri River once more, this time on a narrow, heavy traffic bridge. A couple on a tandem were riding the same road. They were on their way to California. I left them behind at the first uphill. A slight headwind, lots of logging trucks and rolling hills dominated the following miles. In Astoria, I met a Dutch cyclist who had been on the road for 17 months then. When he saw that we both had the same panniers, he went : "Aaah, that's the way you're supposed to close them". Duuuh! The bridge back over Missouri river is gigantic (picture). I'd have to say about 4 miles. In Ilwaco, I took a wrong turn which rewarded me with my first look at the Pacific (picture). I checked into a motel in Long Beach. It probably had the biggest room I'd been in so far. Refreshed, I went down to the beach, a mere quarter of a mile from my motel. I stood on what was supposed to be the longest piece of beach in the world. I walked for a couple of miles, frequently meeting people who were playing with their kites. I then got off the beach and walked back along the parallel street. Some typical tourist places. One even had a go-kart track. For 3 bucks you could race your brains out. I couldn't go as fast as I wanted because I was stuck behind a female driver. Enough said. As it got dark I returned to the beach and enjoyed the sunset (picture). Realizing that from here, there would be no more going west, that I had actually reached the end of my Coast 2 Coast trip (picture), slowly started to get through to me. | |||||||
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Tuesday, August 12th Long Beach, WA - Elma, WA |
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| Another not so nice looking morning. It cleared up later. Swamps and beautiful rainforest-like forests were the most prominent features of that day. In Elma, there was only one motel. Expensive but true. That evening, I called Laura in Seattle. She's also a member of the Warme Shower List. I had talked to her before, using e-mail, so she knew that I was coming. | |||||||
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Wednesday, August 13th Elma, WA - Seattle, WA |
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| I woke up easy that day. After all, it was my last day touring. I got really excited. Then I opened the door of my room. It was raining. I went back to bed for another hour, hoping that the rain would stop. It didn't. I hopped into my raingear and started. My goal was to get to Bremerton, where I would board a ferry that would bring me to Seattle. Once again, the beauty of the Washington forests hit me. As I got to Bremerton, I was happy to learn that the ferry was free and ready to leave. The water was full of jelly fish. During the trip, the seagulls were sailing along the ship, trying to steal some food from the passengers. At the horizon, I could see Mt. Rainier, one of Seattle's attractions. Then the skyline of Seattle came into view. Click, click, click, lots of people making lots of pictures (picture). The ferry gets you right into downtown. I discovered that some of the streets of Seattle look just like the famous San Franciscan streets. Very steep. I got into a conversation with a bike messenger. I asked him if he considered Seattle to be a safe place for cyclists. He said no. I kept that in mind. Next stop was the tourist information center, where I got a bunch of brochures. My flight back to Switzerland was scheduled for August 20th, so I had to find a place to stay until then. I found a cheap hotel in the middle of downtown, where I made a reservation for 3 nights, starting the next day. Now that I was organized, I bought some milk and a sandwich and ate them on a bench under the famous space needle. Then I had to look for Laura's place. A cyclist I asked for directions, his name was Eugene, brought me straight to the right place, approximatly 6 miles from downtown. I met Laura and her teenage son Brian. They were very friendly and made me feel right at home. We had pizza for dinner. As I told her when my flight would be leaving, Laura offered me to stay at her place until I had to leave. I happily accepted. | |||||||
| July : | | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |
| August : | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |
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Thursday, August 14th - Tuesday, August 19th Seattle, WA |
Coffee, Airplane, Software, and so much more. |
| I had a good time in Seattle, so good in fact that I have hardly any notes in my diary about that time. I'll try to reconstruct some of the events. Thursday I didn't do much more than looking at downtown Seattle. It really is a beautiful city. Wandered through some of the shopping malls, more looking than buying. Brian also showed me the downtown of Ballard, the part of the town he's living in. On Friday, we went to a gathering of some friends of Laura at the beach of Lake Washington. They had just graduated from something, that's why we were having this party. I went for a swim in Lake Washington. They even had a springboard there. Jumped around a bit. 6 weeks of cycling didn't improve my jumping skills. Seattle turned out to be quite a cyclist-friendly city, having at least some bike lanes. Sunday, Laura and I took a ferry to Bainbridge Island (picture). That's a small island in the Puget Sound, which is often used as a kind of recreation area for cyclists. We rode around the entire island. Laura caught a flat tire, thank god she was prepared for it. I wouldn't have been. Getting back to the ferry, we were welcomed by a big crowd, cheering and applauding. They had mistaken us for participants of the AIDS-ride. A 300 mile ride to raise money and the awareness for AIDS. It was pretty cool, the whole ferry was full of cyclists, virtually hundreds of them. We rode with the pack for a while. Closest to a Critical Mass I ever got. We had a little BBQ that evening. On Monday, I decided to ride around Lake Washington to see some of the surrounding areas of Seattle. I also passed the Boeing factories. Pretty big. In the afternoon, I went out to get some blackberrys. I prepared a dessert for dinner. We call it Götterspeise at home, it consists of the mentionend berrys, vanilla pudding and toast-bread. Everybody seemed to like it. On Tuesday, it was time to take my bike apart and put it in a box Laura was so kind to get me. I had my doubts if the bike would survive the flight unharmed, but I didn't have much of a choice. Laura also organized a shuttle which would pick me up Wednesday morning at 5 am. | |
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Wednesday, August 20th Seattle, WA - Zurich, CH |
Where it all ends. |
| Both, Laura and Brian, got up to say goodbye to me. I cannot thank them enough for what they have done for me. I truly hope that life only throws good things in their path. The guy who was driving the shuttle, seemed kind of weird to me. I was afraid he didn't know where he was going or that he would fall asleep, or in fact both. Seattle said bye to me with the most beautiful sunrise I had ever seen. | |
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Outroduction Did I fail? Who cares! It was certainly an experience. I will go touring again, be assured! If I had to write down a list of the Top 5 things I learned during this trip, it would look something like this :
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