No One Said This Was Going To Be Easy

Yesterday started out just fine. We left Santa Cruz (without having seen the boardwalk) a bit late (10:30) due to our late arrival the previous night, but we got down the coast all the way to Carmel pretty quickly. We stocked up on calories there and then headed out for Big Sur.

As you can probably imagine, the ride was beautiful. The weather was cooperating so we took plenty of pictures. We arrived at Big Sur at 4:30, each scarfed down a delicious burrito as well as miscellaneous other goodies (I also ate a king size Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for instance, which was worth a whopping 400 calories!), and then made the decision of the day... Actually, it was the decision of the entire ride.

Remember how Jody said this ride was going to be "epic?" Well... Just like the previous day, we knew how important it would be for us to make up some ground. The problem was twofold: 1) By that time it was 5:00 p.m. but we had only gone 75 miles or so; and 2) Continuing on basically meant riding all the way to San Simeon, which was another 70 miles down the road, and, even though the weather was still OK, rain was supposedly on its way.

Yeah, so we were stuck between a rock and a hard place. If we were to stay where we were, we would lose the ground we had gained the day before. If we were to go on, we would obviously gain ground, but at the risk of having a miserable night, which might ruin the next day of riding. Decisions decisions...

After a good 30 minutes of back and forth, we made up our minds to give it a go...

All was well until we reached the next town, Lucia, 25 miles and 2 hours later. That's when the lady in the lodge did her very best to put the scare in me. She told me things like: a couple of weeks ago, one cyclist went off the road and another was hit by a car; the climbs that were still to come were the worst ones yet; the rain was coming; there were lots of rocks in the road, and so on.

What did we do? We rode on of course...

My main concern was for our safety, since it was dark, the road we were on was relatively narrow, and there were lots of cliffs off to our right. Luckily, however, since we were in the middle of nowhere, there was very little traffic. In a way, that's a bit ironic. We really don't want to be riding at night, because of the decreased visibility, yet riding in broad daylight is much worse due to all of the traffic. Go figure.

Anyway, we knew the rain was going to come, but I was still hoping that it would hold off. At 9:15 p.m., the first few drops started to fall. By 9:45, I was soaking wet. By 10:15, I was feeling the cold. By 11:00 I was absolutely miserable and freezing.

All sorts of bad thoughts began to enter my head. And then, the wind really started to pick up. That's about when Joe said, "Just when I thought it couldn't get worse."

The next 30 minutes were absolutely brutal. I didn't think I was going to die, but there was a lot of negativity going through my head. I had to remind myself to fight that off with thoughts of survival.

Jody had the only really great headlight among us, but because he was a bit ahead of me, I did my best to stick with Joe, who was shouting out instructions like, "Stay close to the middle of the road so if you get blown to the right, you won't go off the road!" and "Stay as low as possible so the wind won't have a big target!"

At one point, Jody yelled "ROCK!" so I knew there must have been a big one in the road, but I was going so fast downhill and I could barely see a thing that there was really nothing I could do but hope to not hit it. (For a split second, Joe and I both thought Jody yelled something else, beginning with the letter "F," but I knew that there was no way Jody was going to lose his cool, even under those conditions.

At about 11:30, it felt like we were riding through a typhoon. We were being battered by the rain and wind. It was unbelievable and certainly the worst conditions I had ever ridden in.

A couple minutes later we arrived at the Ragged Pointe Inn & Resort and thought we were saved.

Joe said, "I don't care how much they want for a night, this is as far as I'm riding tonight!"

We pulled in and jumped off of our bikes, only to discover that nothing was open. We tried the gift shop, but it was closed. Then we tried the restaurant, but it was also closed. Then I panicked a bit and wondered where the heck everyone was.

Finally, Jody just said that we should ride it out, so off we went again. I couldn't believe I was getting back on my bike...

I knew we were still about 15 miles from San Simeon, and I was getting more and more scared by the minute. The wind just wouldn't quit, and it was still raining, it was still dark, of course, and we still had quite a ways to go downhill.

Occasionally, a car drove past us and I imagined that the driver would stop, pack us all in, and drive us out of there. I guess the drivers had other ideas...



We made it to San Simeon and I hurt all over, but we're back on schedule and tomorrow is another day.

Good night!

Mini Update

Which picture is cooler? The one of me or the one of Jody?

I vote for the one of me, but as designated trip photojournalist, I suppose I should vote for the picture of Jody, since I took it...

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A Taste of RAAM

RAAM stands for "Race Across America." I don't have time to go into details about RAAM, but one key to successfully finishing the race is to ride for nearly 24 hours a day, day after day after day. For example, you ride until midnight, sleep until 3, and then hop back on your bike and do it all over again.

For most of our journey so far, we've arrived at our destination in the early evening and gotten about 8 hours of sleep.

Today is a different story.

We left Santa Rosa at 8:45, which got us off to a good start, but because we had to stay off the freeway, we ended up taking a most circuitous route into San Francisco. By the time we had reached the southern end of the city, it was already 5 p.m.

What to do?

Our fearless leader Jody asked us how we felt about riding all the way to Santa Cruz. My response: I'm fine with that, as long as we keep the pace down. Joe, too, agreed we should give it a try.

You see, we're still about a day behind schedule (or were at that point, anyway), so we really needed to make up some ground fast.

It wasn't raining, we weren't cold, and we were all still rather fresh at the time, so off we went.

How we made it all the way here is beyond me, but we did it!

We rolled into town just before midnight, got cleaned up, and even went down the street to a diner for a billion calories.

It's now 2:30 a.m. And here I am typing away...

I hope some of you got to follow us tonight using the GPS link. That must have been especially fun, since you probably thought there was something wrong with the service, or perhaps you were placing bets as to how far we would get. Congrats to those of you who chose Santa Cruz!

Lots more to write but no time to do it, so I have to bid thee all a good night.

Seeing the Golden Gate Bridge today was a turning point of the ride and we can all smell Tijuana. After all, we are now on the bottom half of the map!

Stay tuned for more about the ride and please leave comments. They are very encouraging!

Painfully yours...

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p.s. Flats: one (Joe.) Miles ridden: 145 (trip record). Hours in saddle: 11+ (trip record). Temp: 60's. Calories burned: Too many.

"Cold Start" or "How to Take Down The King"

The Giants just won Game 1 of the World Series a few minutes ago, so it's time to blog. The bad news is, I did not get to see the game, either live or on TV. The good news is, I have access to a laptop once again! Hooray!

In  my last post, I mentioned how not-so-great a place Laytonville was. Well, besides the bad food and weird crowd, what I forgot to mention was the fact that Laytonville was a bad place to spend the night, strategically. Why? Because it is high up in the mountains, so it was really, really cold there this morning. Of course, "really, really cold" is a relative term, so I'll let you be the judge: it was in the 30's.

We had some cold mornings earlier in the ride, but nothing like today. Unlike Jody and Joe, however, I had yet to bust out my full-finger gloves. Today was the day, though.

We hit the road at about 8:30 again, but after only about 30 minutes of riding, Jody, who was in the lead as usual, pulled over. At first, I thought there was something wrong with his bike, but when I approached him, he said, "I gotta warm up."

My ears, fingers, and toes were absolutely freezing at that point, too, but all I could think about was getting the heck off of that mountain. The last thing I wanted to do was stop. Since Joe decided to stay with Jody, I took the opportunity to keep on pedaling to the next town, Willits, about 20 miles ahead and much lower in altitude.

I arrived just before 10 a.m., found a place to get some coffee and food, parked my bike out in front [whenever one or two of us makes an unscheduled stop, we put our bikes in a highly visible place for the following rider(s) to see], and waited for the other two.

As you can imagine based on some of my other posts, I was pretty surprised that Jody was so bothered by the cold. Granted, it was "really, really cold," but still, this is 10-time-Ironman-Jody we're talking about...

Yeah, so while I was pedaling down the big hill, by myself, ahead of Jody, the thought certainly crossed my mind at least once that I was actually stronger than Jody in this one little respect. Or better. Or braver. Or dumber. Or whatever. I really don't know. Don't get me wrong: Jody is the man. But not in the cold...

Anyway, when Joe arrived about 15 minutes later, he was by himself. After another five minutes or so, there was Jody. Beaten. Destroyed. Frozen.

One of the first things Home Slice said was, "Now you know how to take down the king."

He also mentioned that while he was pedaling down the big hill, he was imagining me riding through the same brutal weather in my underwear and thinking, "Ironman is failing! Ironman is failing!"

The other story of the day was flats, yet again. No joke.

As soon as we left the cafe, Joe got yet another flat. Luckily, there was a bike shop just up the road, however, so we left Joe there to get set up with new tires and tubes.

And then, one mile out of Ukiah, at just under 1500 km (about 950  miles) into the trip, I heard that really loud, dreaded "chhhhhhhhhh" sound blasting away from my rear tire. Jody called it "the world's longest tire change," but no matter; we got it changed and got rolling again. (Thanks for the help, Home Slice!)

Since my rear tire now had a gash in it to match my front tire, it was high time I got some new rubber. Jody used his handy dandy "it-does-everything-but-give-you-a-massage" phone to locate the nearest bike shop, which, thank you lucky stars, was only about 2 miles away. While I went into town to get set up, Jody played lookout at the exit and waited for Joe.

The boys at Dave's Bike Shop (yo, we told you we'd give you a shout-out!) got me back on the road in a jiffy with a set of Bontrager Hardcase tires that were described to me more or less as follows: "These are so thick, nothing gets through 'em."

Well, as luck would have it, that only lasted for 55 kilometers (about 35 miles)...

Going uphill, I thought I heard an "air" sound coming out of my tires. That's when I said to Joe, "My bike is making a new sound." His response: "My body is making a bunch of new sounds."

A few minutes later, Joe noticed my rear wheel was slowly going flat, so we pulled over. Joe helped change my tire for me (big thumbs up to Joe!), and he even found the little piece of incriminating wire that had popped my tube...

The rest of the ride went well. We actually got off of the freeway and rode quite a bit on the Old Redwood Highway, for instance, which prompted me to say, "Geez, no freeway? Are you kidding? Where are the trucks? Where's the danger?"

Joe jinxed himself by replying, "Yeah, but now we got 'clip crashes.'"

Sure enough, a good hour later, very close to the end of the ride, at a red light, down went Joe, victim of a "clip crash." Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it, because I had put my camera away when it started drizzling earlier in the day. Joe handled himself like a champ as he went down in slow-motion, finishing with a huge grin on his face that was simply priceless.

I think what made today's ride so tough for me was that I just wanted to get here so badly...

Petaluma, which is on our way.

And a big thanks to Richard and Olga for hosting us tonight! What a great meal and such fantastic hospitality!

Oh, and Tom, we're glad you're having fun up in Oregon. Too bad you won't be joining us for the rest of the ride, but it's like Olga said, "You're on vacation. Why do you want to suffer? You should be on the beach!" So enjoy!

I'd Rather Be ...

Since Jeremy has been appointed the journalist position for this adventure, you'll just get a short post from me (Jody).

Our ride started today in near freezing, 34 degree weather. My hands and feet were both numb, my face frozen, and my body ached. There was frost on the grass and the skies were dark. I was beyond miserable, this coming from a person who likes to suffer. I kept thinking "I'd rather be anywhere than on my bicycle."

It's strange how things change so quickly. Less than than two hours later, we descended a thousand feet, the temperature warmed up to 50 degrees, the sun was finding some holes in the clouds, and everything around me was beautiful. I thought to myself, "I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be than on my bicycle."

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Punk'd

Joe got punk'd today, as in one puncture after another. Before today, he had already had a single and a double, and today he hit a grand slam! Actually, by my count it was five, but the point is, he got punk'd. Bad!

Except for all the tire drama, the day went fairly well. For the first time since Vancouver (it seems), we awoke to blue skies. We even got a relatively early start, hitting the road at 8:30. By the time we stopped for breakfast, we had already covered 30 miles. Unfortunately, that's when all the pop-a-pop-pop started.

No matter. We stayed with Joe to make sure he was OK, and finally got rolling again.

Unlike all the other days, we ended up riding separately today. I had no desire to try yet again to keep up with Home Slice (Jody), especially considering how I strained my right hammy doing so (it's still pretty tender), so I decided to ride at my pace. Funny enough, I even caught up to Jody at Garberville (but don't tell him I said that). I was so desperate to get his attention when he came into sight that I yelled "Homes Slice! Home Slice!" over and over, with a "Jody! Jody!" or two thrown in for good measure. (The Boys are ticking in again and here I am typing away still on this puny keyboard...) Luckily, he eventually heard me, so I had a riding partner again. But that didn't last long. (Joe Also caught up when we made a pit stop.)

So for the most part, Jody led the way (for once!), followed by me and Joe.

I really enjoyed riding at my own pace. I saved my legs and wasn't really that far behind Gordon Ramsay...

Dinner here in Laytonville really sucked. The service was slow, the food overpriced, and the portions small. Furthermore, the place was full of druggies. It was the only restaurant in town, though. After dinner, we stocked up on calories (food) at the local supermarket, checked in to our hotel, and stuffed our faces. (Check out all the junk food in that picture. Jody ate 3/4 of it!) Joe did some wheel maintenance, we all took showers, and now it's time to say good night!

Tomorrow we are heading to Santa Rosa, another 100 miles down the road to TJ. We expect rain, but are hoping for the best. We're more than half-way there, but still riding one day at a time.

I am really looking forward to tomorrow, because I get to see my cousin Rivka and maybe even my father.

It will be hard to keep cycling, knowing I'm essentially home, but I'm all in, so onwards ho!

Good Night from Day 8,
Your White Bread

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You can now leave comments!

Sorry for having had the settings screwed up, but I took care of that. You can now leave comments. Thanks!

Hell's Kitchen

Finally, a laptop to use again, so I can add more than just a bit to this blog...

Today we started in Brookings and now we're in Eureka, a bit over 100 miles south. Today was Day 7 of this "epic" ride and my body is feeling it!

It's really hard to write a lot, because I'm so tired. We're staying at a friend of Joe's tonight. The other two guys are already getting ready for bed, but here I am, typing away. It's like Jody said, that's why they invited me along, so I can record their achievements, not mine... That's just one of the countless jokes going on back and forth between Jody and me, and it's what is making this ride fun. Not much else about it is, trust me.


Jody, or should I say "10-time Ironman" Jody, rides a bike like he's walking on water. Like he's breathing air. Like he's brushing his teeth. Like he's eating a piece of chocolate cream pie. Effortless. It's sickening, Truly sickening.

For the past two days (or has it been three?), I've been staring at his back, at his back wheel, and his chain. I've been sticking to him like glue, as much as possible, so that I can get through the day as quickly as possible. You see, if I were riding at my pace, I'd finish about one or two hours behind him, no doubt about it. But riding at his pace, I finish just as it's getting dark, and not alone, which is what I want.

Now that there are three of us, rather than four, the riding is a bit more complicated. We can't ride in two teams of two, for instance, so we either ride all together, or at least one of us rides alone.

Today, for a good part of the ride, Joe was by himself. He got off to a slow start and also had two more flats (back-to-back thanks to a sneaky piece of glass), but he finished really strong. I don't know how he did it, but he's been riding since he was born, so all that experience helps. I don't have that many miles of riding under my belt, so if I had been in Joe's shoes today, life would have sucked.

Yeah, so the plan is to keep following Jody to the finish line. But that won't be easy.

At one point when we were riding today, he told me a story about a trail-running partner of his and how he could never really break her. (Just what I want to hear while I'm riding with him, right?) Yeah, so I guess when she needed a break, she would say something like "I need to tie my shoe." Of course, her shoelaces didn't need tying, but that got Jody to stop momentarily.

We stopped for some fuel (food/drinks) with about 40 miles to go today. Jody said he wasn't planning to stop for the rest of the ride. That was bad news for me, since I prefer to stop every 20 miles or so, being a rookie... So when we hit Trinidad, after 20 miles, I was really hoping we'd stop, even just for a few minutes. But no, Jody just flew on past the exit (we were on the freeway) and kept pedaling away. At that point, I was really running out of gas. Or was I? I have no clue. The point is, we didn't stop and he was upping the pace. It was a nightmare...

Even when I told him I had to pee, he said, "Not a good place!" and kept going and going and going. So I tired to trick him:

"Hey, Jody! I need to tie my shoelaces!" I yelled up at him. Didn't work. 10-time-Ironman Jody kept pedaling. And all I could think was "10-time Ironman, 10-time Ironman... What the hell I am doing trying to keep up with a 10-time Ironman?"

My right leg is pretty sore from my hellish ride today, but I'm pretty confident I'll be OK in the morning. Tomorrow we're going to try to add another 100 miles to the odometer, so that we end up in Laytonville or so. And the following day, we hope to be in Santa Rosa.

As we crossed into California today, we had to slow down for a moment to ride through a checkpoint. The lady waved us through, but I said to her, "I'm back home!" and raised my right arm like I had won a race...

I even shed a couple tears a few minutes later, for whatever reason. It was obviously an emotional moment for me. Part of that was sheer joy for having made it that far. Part of it was thinking about some of the people I'm hoping to see in a couple days who I haven't seen in at least two years, the last time I was in California. Tears of suffering, tears of joy.

There are so many hours in the saddle, so many thoughts go through my mind. I sometimes picture certain colleagues, friends, and students from back in Japan hovering above my head in little balloons cheering me on. I want to finish this ride for myself, but also for them. I want to be able to hold up a sign at the border that says, "Dekita!" (I made it!)... But that's still so far away. Ugh.

That's why, pretty much every morning, I say to the guys: "Hey, let's go for a ride today." As if I haven't been doing this over and over for the past week...

We've actually met some people along the way doing far crazier things than us.

One couple from Holland drove their car from there to Vladivostok, took a ferry to South Korea, shipped their car to Vancouver, and are now driving to Baltimore...

We also heard about a guy who rode his bike from Michigan to Bolivia. But Jody and I kind of laughed when we found out that he covered the 8321 miles (or whatever it was) in a year, which works out to an average of about 22 miles a day... We do that in an hour... Well, Jody does.

And then there's the couple who already drove 5000 km west from their home in Canada to Vancouver, and are now on their way to ... Panama! Wow!

Anyway, it's late, so I gotta jump in my "bed." Take it easy and talk to you again soon.

Life's been Hell lately, but life is still good!

"I'll give you Gold Beach...

... but I won't give you Brookings.

That's what one lady we came across today said to us. Well, she was wrong. Here we are in Brookings, one day late. Today was another wet and windy day, and it really took a lot out of me. Thank goodness, Jody is leading the way. I think the only way I'm going to make it all the way to TJ is if I stay on the Jody Express...

We had a nice dinner tonight, especially the amazing cheesecake for dessert. We guessed that we consumed about 3000 calories during that meal alone...

Tomorrow we are hoping to make it to Eureka I think... We are at least three days from San Francisco, but we cross into California tomorrow...

My odometer rolled past 1000 km today...

At one point today, during a pit stop for fuel, I noticed a gash in the sidewall of my front tire. Luckily, Jody has a spare tire, in case I need it. I should probably get a new one soon, however. Jody and I are also having some (hopefully only) minor mechanical issues with our bikes, mostly due to wear and tear, as you can imagine...

Tom may re-join us in SF...

That's all for tonight. It's not easy typing with one finger, but I need to get my beauty sleep, anyway. Oh... and if any of you feel like stopping by and giving us massages, we'll take 'em!

Later, Yama a.k.a. White Bread... (Don't Ask...)

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And then there were three

(Posted by Jody)

And then there were three. A severe Pacific Northwestern storm blew Tom right off his bike. He's out for the ride. We're hoping he rents a car, takes a few days R&R, and then continues on with us from San Francisco. He was having some issues with his knee, and then with saddle sores too ... But being knocked right off your bike from the wind was the final straw.

Today was rough, it rained all day, and there were some of the strongest headwinds I've ever ridden in. I just took the camera out once to take this photo.

Vince Lombardi said, "That which does not kill me makes me stronger." Well, following that quote, I guess that puts me in the category of Hercules because today nearly killed me. We're really hoping for some better weather to reach us soon.

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My Name Isn't Jody

(From now on, all posts by Yama unless otherwise specified.)

I'm beat. We rode from Cannon Beach, Oregon down to Newport, Oregon. We "only" went about 115 miles, but we arrived at night and it was windy... Anyway, Tom and I rode all day together, which was really nice. Jody, the human machine on wheels, made it first, of course, followed by Joe, and then us...

We escaped the rain, but tomorrow looks bad, especially due to high wind advisories, possibly up to 50 or even 75 mph! Not sure what to expect.

Had a funny time at dinner, at a pizzeria called Abby's Legendary Pizza. We originally ordered two 16" pizzas, but the guy we ordered from thought we were crazy and suggested we order just one. We gobbled that one up in 2 minutes, though, so we had to order another one... The guy felt bad and so he gave us $3 off that second order. By the way, the pizza was anything but legendary, but perhaps that's because it was hard for us to taste it. When you're that hungry, all you want to do is eat as soon as the food arrives, you know? You're not really interested in flavor.

Another crazy part of dinner was Joe and his salad. You see, you could either pay x amount of dollars for a salad or z amount of dollars for unlimited trips to the salad bar. Joe figured he'd save a couple bucks by mega-overloading his plate of salad rather than making several trips and paying more. You should have seen what he did: He put his salad plate on a tray so that he could pile up as much as possible without anything falling on the ground. Needless to say, the guy at the register gave Joe a dirty look or two. Too bad I left the camera in the hotel room... A picture of that salad would have been priceless!

We also talked about Jody's cool phone that does everything, so I suggested he download the "Pimp My Weather" app, so that we can just move bad weather left or right, up or down, accordingly... Lots of funny stuff like that tonight, but most of that was "you had to be there" moments.

What else? We're hoping to boogie outta here at 8:00 (after chowing down on the free "continental breakfast," trying to make it all the way to Brookings, down by the border, tomorrow. That's about 150 miles. I'm not looking forward to it. Naturally, at night, I'm always exhausted, but by morning, I'm usually OK. But still, this is tough! If the weather were great, that would make a big difference, but it's not. I gotta get Jody to download that app...

Oh yeah... We're at a hotel tonight, the Rodeway Inn (no typo!). A couchsurfer was going to host us, but it didn't work out. No harm done.

We had a great night last night with our couchsurfing host Sarah in Cannon Beach...

We talked a lot about calories burned during the ride and supposedly, I'm burning about 500 an hour, which means I'm eating WAY too little... Pass the food. Jody, on the other hand, rides in his sleep, so he only eats once before a ride, once during, and once at the end. The guy is more of a madman on wheels than I imagined. Chapeau, Jody!

I guess that's it. I wanted to post pix but I'm too tired. I want to post only pix one day (plus captions), but I'm not sure when I'll get the chance. This ain't easy folks. Well, for anyone not named Jody, that is.

I can hardly believe I've made it this far and can only hope to make the next destination. Tijuana is so far away, I can't even think about that yet, but I am sneaking a peak at the calendar, since it'd be great if I could see my cousin Rivka in Tomales on the 26th.

Good night! And wish me (or us?) luck.

The Rain --- Oh, The Rain

(Posted by Yama)

Well, here we are at our next couchsurfer's pad, in Cannon Beach, 100 miles down the coast from Aberdeen. We originally planned to ride to Tillamook today, but we figured it was worth it to cut some mileage off of today, since we had that really long day yesterday.

It's also good that we didn't have to ride the extra 40 miles or so, because about 5 miles out of town it started to rain. Actually, the weather was iffy all day today, except for a few sunny patches, so I guess we're lucky we made it as far as we did without getting rained on.

In any case, those last 5 miles were pretty brutal. It wasn't exactly pouring, but it was cold and very windy and we were so, so happy when we finally made it to our destination. We even had a chance to do laundry, so our clothes are good to go for tomorrow.

Unfortunately, however, the storm that has arrived is here to stay for about the next three days... So... the next 2 or 3 days do not look promising at all for riding. At one point, we even considered changing our course completely and heading east, eventually crossing the Sierra Nevada, at some point passing into Nevada, and then heading due south to Tijuana. That would save us several hundred miles, but may not be much help, since the weather along that route isn't looking very promising for the next couple of days either...

Yeah, so who knows what's going to happen. We wanted to go as far south as Reedsport, but now we're thinking about going to Newport, instead, which is about 115 miles away. Again, however, everything depends on the rain and wind.

Speaking of the wind, the other "highlight" of the day was having to battle winds of up to about 25 mph on the flats leading up to the Astoria Bridge as well as gusts of probably 35-40 mph while crossing the 4.1-mile bridge. The crossing wasn't brutal, but it was really slow going and there was only a narrow shoulder for us to navigate along.

Anyway, as I'm typing this I can hear the wind and rain outside, and I can only hope that tomorrow brings better weather.

If you asked me now whether I think we will be able to finish this ride (all the way to TJ), I'd probably say "No way," but none of us is going to give up just yet.

After all, tomorrow is another day.

May the sun shine!

A Long, Long, Long Day!

(Posted by Yama)

I wanted to post this story yesterday, but we didn't have access to a keyboard (other than the one on Jody's sweet smartphone), so it had to wait until now. Also, it's not the easiest thing to blog after a really long day of riding. Sorry folks!

Anyway, yesterday we rode all the way from the Lake Crescent Lodge down to Aberdeen, which was just under 150 miles (240 km)! My previous best for one day was more like 185 km, so I'm really happy that I made it. Tom also broke his record for longest ride, by about 35 miles.

As for me, well, early in the day, I wasn't so sure I would make it, because the hours were ticking by faster than my odometer was rolling over... I also rode by myself for several hours, so I had to keep myself motivated and focused. I had some ups and downs, but I made it, which is a really nice feeling!

The day started for us at around 8:00 a.m. We stopped for breakfast at about 9:30 and hit the road again about an hour later.

Luckily, we had another day of great weather to ride in, but like I said, it was a long, long, long day.

There were two minor incidents today: 1) Both Joe and Jody hat flats, our first two of the ride (and hopefully the last), 2) and we had a communication problem which led to Tom riding on ahead by himself and Jody taking off behind him trying to catch him, but otherwise it was a good day or riding.

Joe and I pulled into town last at about 8 p.m. and we headed over to the couchsurfer's pad where we were staying. Because we arrived at different times, we all grabbed dinner separately. In case you're wondering: Jody at at Subway, Tom and (later) Joe both ate at Jack 'n The Box, and I ate at a local dive (but I can't remember the name)...

We hung out with the couchsurfer after he got home and didn't get to bed until about midnight.

(I'm really tired, so apologies also if there are any typos and that I'm keeping this really short.)

What a View!

(Posted by Yama)

Good morning! We missed the views of Lake Crescent last night, since we were riding in the dark, so here's a look at what we woke up to! Awesome, isn't it? I even caught a glimpse of an otter swimming around, but s/he stayed too far away from the dock to get a good picture of her/him.

It looks like we'll have a nice day again, today, but rain is forecast to be moving in on us in a day or two :-(.

Anyway, we're about to hit the road, so I'll talk to you later!

Lake Crescent Lodge

(Posted by Yama)

Once again, I gotta keep this short. I haven't been sleeping well at all since I arrived in the USA, mostly due to jetlag and/or my mind being hyperactive at night. So I have to try to get some shut eye...

Anyway, I rode 60 km to the ferry terminal and actually made it there without really getting lost. And I arrived in plenty of time. The other three dudes beat me by about 10 minutes, but who cares? So I finally met Tom, too, which was nice.

We managed to catch the first ferry to Swartz Bay and then had a leisurely 35 km ride down to Victoria. We got there about an hour before our next ferry departed, so I walked around a bit and took some pictures.

We landed in Port Angeles, Washington, at about 5:30 p.m. and started our final ride of the day about 15 minutes later. It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to make it to our final destination, the Lake Crescent Lodge, so we rode in the dark for about a good hour, which wasn't that fun. We had actually planned to stay with a couchsurfer nearby, but since we couldn't confirm that, we decided to go ahead and make the reservation for the lodge. You know, that's just part of the way we have to do things on a trip like this. So it's not a big deal. The place is pretty nice.

Today was actually a "short" day. I logged in about 130 km, whereas the other guys, coming from Blaine, Washington rather than Vancouver, covered about 110 or 120 km...

Tomorrow we are hoping to cover way more ground, more like close to double what we did today. Our goal is Aberdeen, Washington, where we will be staying with a couchsufer, S.P.

What else? Oh, when we got to the lodge, there seemed to be a mixup with the reservation. We did get a room for the four of us, but there's a chance our reservation was actually for a Lake Crescent Lodge somewhere in Alaska, not here in Washington. Go figure. So we have to straighten that out tomorrow, since we paid for that, but that's no big deal. We're happy they had a room for us and that's all that matters right now.

Dinner for three of us was a burger. Joe went for the short ribs.

Oh, and it's pretty cold, but not unbearable.

OK, that's it for now. I really need to get to bed.

On the Ferry

(Posted by Jody)

Awoke at 5am this morning to officially start our journey. We got dropped off at the Canadian border and rode about 30 miles to the ferry terminal where we met Jeremy which finally brought the four of us together for the first time. No hiccups except that Tom accidentally left his helmet back in Seattle, so we'll keep an eye out for a bike shop along the way to get him a replacement.

We all boarded the Spirit of British Columbia ferry to the Saanich Peninsula where we'll ride a few hours to another ferry that will take us to the Port of Angeles in the United States around 4pm today. We couldn't have asked for better weather, it was a crisp 41 degrees, but sunny skies, when we got on our bikes this morning. The sound of freshly tuned bikes, clean chains and crisp shifting is like music to my ears. (Photo: Jeremy and Jody)

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I'm in Vancouver!

(Posted by Yama)

First of all, don't believe a thing Jody wrote, except for the fact that we will get along great. I'm taller, better-looking, and smarter, plus my bike kicks his bike's butt any day. And no, I did not steal his brownie.

Anyway, now on to more important things. I just paid CDN 1.50 for 20 minutes of Internet time, so I'm going to keep this short. I took the 7:40 train up to Vancouver this morning. (Grazie moltissimo for the ride, Joe! No, not you Joe. The other Joe!) All went well. My bike and I made it just fine, first to the train station and then on to the Jericho Beach Youth Hostel where I'm staying. I didn't even get lost on my way to the hostel, thank goodness.

Tomorrow presents a slightly bigger challenge, as I have to get my butt to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal by 10:00 a.m. or so to meet the other three jokers who are riding with me. That's a pretty easy task, theoretically, except for the fact that I'm taking the long way. The short way means riding to the tunnel (can't remember the name), catching a shuttle bus through the tunnel (no bikes, yikes!), and riding the rest of the way. Piece of cake, but I don't wanna take no shuttle! So I'm heading out of here, going toward eastern Vancouver, crossing that other bridge that I'm allowed to bike across, and then riding over to the ferry terminal. Basically, instead of riding about 20 km or so(?), I'll be riding about 50 km or so(?). But heck, I'm supposed to be riding, not shuttling, right?

I was hoping to post some pix along with this article, but I don't have time. I gotta get to bed!

Oh, and today I hung out with a former student of mine from Gokase, which was really cool. Her English has improved like crazy in just the past 6 months since she arrived in America...

What else? Thanks to all those who are following along. Sorry if this was short, but heck, that's how it goes. We have plenty of long days ahead of us, so we'll try to post as much as possible. I will anyway. Jody can't type very fast, though, so don't expect to read much from him... jk jk jk...

Wish me luck for tomorrow morning! Then again, if things went as well as they did today on my 10 km ride, there shouldn't be any problems!

I'm outta here!

Jo Stange has arrived

(Posted by Jody Stange)

My bike and I made it to Seattle ready to start this EPIC adventure.  I flew in yesterday from Denver after pacing for the Denver Marathon.  The legs are a little sore, but it's nothing that 14 days of pedaling won't iron out.  It was good to see Joe's face at the airport, it's been nearly 5 years since our Feb 2006 ride across the United States from Los Angeles to St. Augustine Florida.

Joe mentioned he was coming to the U.S. again and asked if I had some free time for another adventure ... being that it's the middle of marathon season, I hesitated at first, but it didn't take much convincing for me to say "Count me in".  Our ride was originally going to be just a few days touring through Oregon, but somehow morphed into riding across the country ... AGAIN ... this time from north to south, border to border, from Vancouver Canada to Tijuana Mexico.

There are four of us taking this cycling journey.  I met Jeremy from Japan for the first time yesterday and can already tell we'll get along great.  I'm faster, smarter, and better looking than him.  (I wonder if he'll read this post).  I met the other guy Tom from Michigan this morning and helped set up his bike.  I found out that we're nearly the exact same age, only two days separates us ... he's younger (which makes me wiser).  In just the first 24 hours, I have no doubt the four of us will mesh perfectly for this journey.

And finally, this post shouldn't go without a heartfelt thanks to the generosity of both Joe's sister Sue and her husband (also named) Joe, for opening their home to us to use as a base-camp before our adventure begins.  P.S. - last night's dinner was stellar except for when Jeremy tried to steal my brownie.

The Bikes are Here!

(Posted by Yama)

This morning I made it to Seattle. I arrived at about 9:15 a.m. local time, which is 1:15 a.m. the next day (Saturday) in Japan, where I flew from. I slept as much as I could on the plane, so I think I'll get over jet lag quickly, however.

I'm also glad to report that ANA indeed let me check my bike in as a piece of luggage (yeah!), so I didn't have to pay extra to send her over. (Yo United: What's the deal with charging people $200 to fly a bike overseas, especially when the bike is one's only checked luggage? Not cool!)

My bike made it safe and sound along with me and I was able to put her back together in no time. Luckily, as far as I can tell, none of the parts got lost in transit!

My bike was the third to arrive. Joe's bike (the new used bike he bought on eBay) as well as Jody's were here when I arrived, and Tom's arrived later in the day. Hopefully, when those two guys get here, they'll also be able to set their bikes up in a jiffy, go for a short test ride, and be good to go.

Today was mostly just a really nice, relaxing day and a fantastic start to my first day back in the USA in two years. We're staying at Joe's sister Sue's place, which is a great house in a picturesque neighborhood. Sue cooked all of us a delicious moose(!) dinner, with couscous and green beans, and we also had brownies for dessert. I've been here less than a day and I'm already being spoiled! You gotta love it!

It's only about 50 degrees (Fahrenheit) here, but it's not really that bad and Joe insists it's warmer just a bit farther south, so I'm not too concerned about the weather at the moment.

Anyway, like I said, it's great to be back in the USA, I'm slowly getting settled in, and the ride start date is quickly approaching.

Tomorrow Joe and I plan to take our bikes for a spin and head into downtown Seattle, since this is my first time here.

Jody arrives on Sunday and Tom, the final piece of the puzzle, arrives on Monday.

I'm looking forward to finally meeting you guys!

My Bike, My Bag, My Goodness

(Posted by Yama)

Here is a picture of my bike, before I took her apart and put her in the box. It's an old steel-framed Panasonic.

I've been riding for a long time with blue Bontrager Race Lite tires, but for this ride I switched to yellow ones. My blue tires still have quite a bit of life left in them, but we're going to be covering so many miles, I decided it's best to go with new rubber and lower the possibility of getting a flat along the way.

Another reason I switched to yellow is that one of my water bottles (thanks, Joe!) is yellow, as is my new saddle. What you can't see is that even my shoes are yellow! Joe claims he can't stand riding behind me because my yellow shoes are so bright that they blind him...

About the only thing missing from the bike in this picture (besides a person to ride it, of course!) is the headlight. In other words, what you are looking at is what I'm going to be riding and living with for two weeks! I told you in an earlier post that we are riding light and I wasn't joking. The other three "legs of the table" (Joe, Jody, and "Jack") will all have a similar set-up.

What's in the bag you ask? Not much.

I have some clothing, such as arm and leg warmers, a spare pair of socks, a pair of underwear, a T-shirt, shorts, and a wind breaker (plus those shoes attached to the top of the bag).

I have some supplies, such as a few wrenches, tire levers, a spare tire, and an inner tube.

I have some miscellaneous stuff, such as aspirin, plastic baggies, batteries, and my camera.

And I have my credit card and a toothbrush.

Pack my Ride

(Posted by Jeremy, a.k.a. Yama)

Well, as you can imagine, with the ride date quickly approaching, it's time we started packing our bikes up and getting them ready to ship/fly.

Joe is the only one of us who won't be packing, since he decided to buy a bike for the ride on eBay. There's obviously a bit of risk involved in that approach (the bike might not be in great shape mechanically, or maybe the components won't be as good as promised,for instance), but nothing that Joe or the local bike shop guy can't deal with.

Joe's also the only one of us already in Seattle, the meeting point, but I believe he's still waiting for his new (used) bike.

Anyway, here are two pictures of Tom's bike (just about to go in the box, and in the box). I swear, Tom must secretly be a professional bike packer. I told him he should start a new show on MTV called "Pack my Ride."

I spent a couple hours putting my bike in a box last night, but the result just isn't as nice as what Tom did, as you can see by the third picture.

Jody has to box up his bike, too, so hopefully I'll get a picture of that to pass on to you readers, too.

Tom (a.k.a. Jed) and Jody are shipping their bikes to Seattle via FedEx, but I'm taking mine on the plane from Japan.

When Joe and I flew with our bikes to Taiwan last year, we didn't have to pay a cent for baggage. Thanks China Airlines!

Thus, I just assumed that I'd be sending my bike on the plane for free this time around, too. Well, not quite. It turns out that ANA lets you check in a bike for free, but United doesn't. Lucky for me, I start off flying on ANA out of Fukuoka, before switching to a United jet in Tokyo. In other words, if all goes well, I should be able to get the bike to the States for free. (ANA and United are both members of Star Alliance.)

Not so on the way back. Since I'll be taking a United flight out of SFO, I might well get stuck with a hefty $200 fee for taking along my ancient steel beauty. Ugh! Screw you United!

One option available to me is to try to switch to an ANA flight, but that will take some luck. Another option is to disassemble the bike as much as possible, box her up, and try to get by with claiming my baggage is really "bike parts." I've heard that can work. (To that effect, I'm even considering leaving the wheels behind and buying a new set in Japan.) A third option that I've read about is to give a skycap at the curbside check-in a hefty tip so that he'll take care of it for me. We'll see.

Oh, yeah... I'm also flying my bike from San Diego to San Francisco on Southwest after the ride, and that's gonna cost me another $50, unless I can beat the system using the "bike parts" or "tip the skycap" method... Hmmm... Southwest Airlines: Where Bags Fly Free (until you read the fine print).

It's amazing how much trouble is involved when all you want to do is go for a little ol' bike ride with some friends...

From Vancouver to Tijuana --- Gettin' Ready

(Posted by Jeremy, a.k.a. Yama)

On October 19, 2010, The Border-to-Border Ride begins.

That's when I'll start riding my bicycle down the West Coast of America, from Canada to Mexico, alongside, ahead of, and sometimes probably after three other guys, only one of whom I know:

Joe, a friend of mine who also lives here in Japan and who got me started riding; Jody, from Los Angeles, a friend of Joe's who sounds like a freak on wheels; and Tom, from Detroit, another friend of Joe's who I know nothing about.

(Tom shouldn't really be allowed to join us unless he changes his name to something with a "J." Maybe during the ride I'll just call him Jack. Or John. Or Jed. Yeah, Jed sounds good. Then again, "Three J's and a T" kind of has a cool ring to it, don't ya think? We could open up a coffee shop and... Oh, never mind.)

Jody has a particular adjective that he uses to describe our upcoming ride; he keeps saying the ride is going to be "epic." I think he's right. We only have 15 days to cover roughly 2800 kilometers (1750 miles), so we're going to have to cover roughly 200 kilometers (125 miles) per day. That's no joke.

The most I've ever ridden in one day is about 185 km, with Joe in Taiwan last year around Xmas. I'll certainly break (or should I say "shatter"?) that record during this ride: There are a couple days when we plan to ride about 250 km! Yikes!

Our route will mostly hug the coast, as much as possible, and we tentatively plan to stop in such places as Lake Crescent, Washington; Tillamook, Oregon; Brookings, OR; Fort Bragg, California; Tomales; Monterey; Santa Barbara; and Oceanside.

I'm starting my ride in Vancouver, whereas the other three guys are starting at the U.S./Canada border town of Blaine, Washington. We plan to meet up at the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal at around 10:00 a.m. on the 19th, so that we can catch the 11:00 ferry to Swartz Bay.

From there, we ride south to Victoria, where we catch another ferry back to the United States (Port Angeles, Washington, to be exact).

Once we land, we'll be heading west for about 50 km (35 miles) to our first destination, Lake Crescent, which probably means we'll be riding a bit at night.

This kind of ride is a "toothbrush and credit card" ride, which means we travel really light: No sleeping bags; no tents; hardly any clothes besides what we ride in; very few luxuries, if any. We'll each basically just have a small rack bag attached to our bikes to carry our supplies. That's it.

Anyway, I'll post a few more stories before the ride gets started and I'll do my very best to write daily updates and post pictures as we go, so you can follow along nicely.

Wish us luck!