Long long day

45 miles was supposed to be a nice easy day. Sure we knew that it
included One of the biggest climbs of the trip but that includes a big
downhill... Right? Well it turned out to be one of the toughest days.
The climb was def. the longest and pretty darn steep too. We are
talking close to two hours in my granny gear taking switch back after
switch back. It was a great road for a climb though, no traffic, great
views, no wind, and did I mention no traffic? So the climb was what we
expected and I had hoped for a nice long downhill. I did not get my
wish. Nice short downhill thru the pine trees and then WTF another
uphill? We had to climb to reach New Mexico. We then lunched at the
Mule Creek post office with stuff we had bought in the morning. We
then hoped it would be flat or even downhillish to Buckhorn, our final
destination. Well because of our late start we had a nice windy
afternoon and of course it was into us. The 19 miles were some of the
longest of the trip. At an intersection a car pulled up and I noticed
Cali plates and a Santa cruz holder. I thought, driving here would
have been a much better idea. Finally into buckhorn and a nice
surprise of a shower at the RV park and pizza. For those of you on the
edge of your seats about my bowel situation. Well I maybe have pushed
myself to the other side with Pepto. I should no in the morning.
Hoping that my powerball numbers came up tonight. I may right now be
175 million richer and I'll get to share the winnings with my
wonderful mother. Thanks mom for your support, not only for this trip
bit for all the crazy things I've done. You've always helped pave the
way and never complained about the gray hairs I've given you. Love you.

joe

Friends in low and high places

It was the hardest kind of tough to leave the hospitality offered us by Cary and Marilyn, but even here among the windy mountains we find some of the creature comforts of home. Joe is seen below introducing himself to our host. We can simply not thank our supporters enough, especially those who have shared their homes and more with us--Brit and Chris, Jon and Tara, Jen and Deanna, Betty and Jim, and of course Cary and Marilyn. But I regret to inform you that you have all been replaced. While he doesn't offer much in the way of conversation and can't cook worth a darn, Leif Erikson is full of more energy and charm than quite a few humans I've known (though none on the previous list). We have deciced that if he follows us down the road as we leave camp we must adopt him and place him wrapped in a towel to ride in my handlebar bag. Of course when we get to El Paso we'll find him a proper helmet.
(By the way, thanks again RJ for another Friday--I owe you some RJ tribute blogs, coming soon.)
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A furry welcome

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Thar's gold in them thar hills!

Like the reckless dreamers who came before us in search of wild riches and unspoiled beauty, Arizona did not simply allow us to cross her border--rather, she pulled is in, wide-eyed and thirsting for a taste of her legends. I was particularly entranced by the tale of the Lost Dutchman Mine, a juicy story with all the best elements of romantic old-west adventure and tragedy, including a death-bed riddle. There's even an Apache curse to contend with, and countless mysterious deaths after which bones and belongings are sometimes found, but the map is always missing. I thought long on the legend as we climbed near and around the appropriately named Superstition Mountains. Is there a lost load hiding deep in those secret stone hills just waiting to be reclaimed? Waiting for me; calling to me?
I decide that while Arizona does have enormous treasure awaiting those with enough luck and grit (they have powerball here, haha), her true riches are far easier to find and far more enduring than even the heartiest gold rush myth. I am talking about the distinctive Saguaro cacti that are rarely found outside Arizona but somehow evoke all the lore and mystique of the entire southwest. Seeing these living artworks in person was just as magical as I'd anticipated. No human mind could conceive of nor any artist hand replicate the infinite variations of form and figure found in a Saguaro field. Endless arms posing in suspended motion, figurines reaching and bending and limb-twisting with heads fashioned ever skyward.
As we prepare to leave Arizona and its aura behind us I realize the only Saguaro we'll see for the rest of the trip will be on jars of salsa. I know the places we're about to see hold other treasures that will make our eyes alight, but somehow I think none will be as poignant as the green gold that's hidden in plain sight here in the Arizona desert.
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Living Legends

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Shamrock Shake!

TMI Zone

Word of caution to our readers. The followingmy be more info then you
want to know. Feel free to skip this entry if you do not like to read
about bodily functions. For those of you still with me, here is the
over share. I haven't had a solid bowel movement since Monday morning,
it's now Friday morning and it's wearing on me. Tuesday, our first day
off in phoenix I felt horrible all around. Wednesday I felt better but
still the same bowel issue. I was hoping my body just missed riding
and things would go back to normal yesterday. Well 66 miles and no
luck. I'm drinking even more than normal making sure I stay hydrated
and am hopeful my body can beat out whatever I picked up. I'm hoping a
little RJ Friday luck will come my way. Thanks to my dad and step-mom
for hosting us and letting us make a mess in their garage. We needed
the break. Send me positive energy for solid waste

joe

Tough days in Phoenix!

Pics from L.A. to Phoenix

Two Guys on Bikes - L.A. to Phoenix

And we added somemore from Santa Cruz to L.A. from Brian's Camera

Two Guys on Bikes

Phoenix

Seems kind of weird to be sitting outside by my dad's pool and not
worrying about biking or where we will sleep tonight. Weird but nice.
We said goodbye to our new friends yesterday morning and Linda sent us
off with hugs and lunch money. We will never be able to thank them
enough. We rode the 8 miles back to where we had met Betty and too
pics of the bar sign and headed on. Stopped in a little town called
Aguilla and had a Fanta and some chips and wondered how long it would
be before we saw my dad. The plan was for him to drive route 60 until
he saw us and we would hop in. Well brian had a flat front tire and we
both had leaks in our back tires so we didn't make it far before we
just found a good pull out and waited. Amazing how fast the miles role
by in a vehicle. Stopped in Wickenburg to have some lunch which
included eating my weight in tater tots. Then in to Phoenix where I
was lucky enough to get to see my aunt Clar and Uncle Roger on their
last day in Phoenix. The plan is to work on the bikes today, go to a
cactus league game on Wednesday and head out of town on Thursday.

joe

A Lovely Sunday

One of the things I think Joe and I were looking forward to most about this trip was all the interesting and terrific folks we would meet. Well today, I'm confident, will go down as one of the overwhelming highlights of the trip in that regard. After leaving our nice little campsite fairly early, we slogged through 45ish miles on tired legs, stopping off and on to rest. Big miles the last two days must have tired us out. When we finally came to a halt in front of the only open lunch spot in the tiny town of Wenden, we didn't expect much more from the rest of the day-just more riding tired, then searching for a spot to camp at dusk. What we got was better than we ever could have imagined. As we were enjoying one of the best meals we've had on the trip, we were approached by a woman with short salt and pepper hair and a mischievously friendly smile. The usual questions ensued, but she was also particularly interested in Joe's Team In Training shirt. We learned she is a Lymphoma survivor, and we talked for awhile about the Leukemia Lymphoma Society and such. Then she inquired about our plan for the night, where we were getting to, camping, etc. As you probably already know we pretty much make it up as we go along, so we asked if she had any suggestions. "I'll be right back," she said. A minute later she flew through the door and said "You're staying with us. You can use the shower, stay in the guest room--we're on our way back to play horseshoes with some friends, get your bikes and let's go." To make a long story short we spent the evening with just about the nicest people you could hope to meet. Betty and Jim and their friends and relatives made us feel like one of their own. They schooled us at pitching shoes. They shared a wonderful meal (Loretta's cornbread is the best I've ever had). Even as I write this I'm warming my sandaled feet by the last smokey orange enbers of their campfire. And shortly I'll fall asleep on their couch and enjoy a night almost as peaceful as I'd find in my own parents' house. Yes, readers, there are good people in the world--and fortunately for me and Joe, we seem to find the best of 'em. Actually they usually find us. G'night friends, have a wonderful week.
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Horseshoes and chips and salsa

Thinking back on my life so far, I don't believe I've ever been picked
up at a bar, until today. Here is what happened. Brian and I were
making good time and we stopped in Hope to get a ice cold fountain
drink. It was still to early for lunch so we thought we would try
Salome or Wenden. Salome didn't seem to promising so we rode the 5
miles to wenden and stopped at the only place that was open. It had a
sign that read Warm beer, lousy food, bad service, thanks for coming.
We were sold. We sat at the bar, got chips and salsa and some water.
Once the chips and salsa came out we knew the lunch was going to be
great. Warm chips, good salsa. I had a double cheeseburger and fries
with a taco thrown in for good measure. All was amazing. Then Betty
came over and put her hand on my back. I waz wearing a Team in Traing shirt and She asked about Team in Trainng
and is a lymphoma survivor herself, though had never heard of TnT. We
chatted it up some more and she asked where we were camping and we
said we really didn't know and Brian asked her for a suggestion. She
said wait here and we gave each other the look. We both knew she was
going to take us home. Her husband Jim gave the ok, she gave us
directions. We actually back tracked to get here and it's been great.
Horseshoes. Pot luck. Cards. Shower. Lots of friends and neighbors
being so nice to us. Great people that make the pedaling worth it.

Just realized tonight that I need to update my sponsor calander.

MAGAT!

Night.

joe

Highlight of the day has got to be leaving California and the fact
that we did before lunch was great. We got excited for pizza hut
buffet but we were too late and they don't have it on sat. anyway.
Pizza was still good and it was nice to eat salad for once. We are
camped in the Colorado river basin and it is very undesert like, even
a few mosquitoes We were just south of the London bridge(in lake
havasu) but never got that tempted to make the hike to see it. We out
did yesterdays 75 by going 77 today and I do believe my legs are going
to feel it tomorrow. Will be nice to take a couple days rest in
phoenix. We are starting a long stretch of days sponsored by my mom
and step-dad. Lots of thanks to them and I will def. Write more in the
days to come. Night from Arizona.

joe

Two Guys Enter Arizona

After a 59 mile morning, two guys are enjoying lunch in the friendly town of Parker, AZ. Bye California, we'll miss you!
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Will you look at that...

We are out of Cali. Phew!

Snow

This pic was a couple of days ago near riverside. Wanted say a quick
thanks again to RJ for sponsoring our Fridays. They have been good to
us.

Been thru the desert...

Last sign we saw said next services 100 miles. I say that counts for
the middle of nowhere. Hoping to get an early start this morningand
get in some good miles so we can make it to phoenix on Monday. Let's
hope the desert is kind.

joe

Two Guys Leaving The Park

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Joshua Tree by Day

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Joshua Tree at Dusk

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Joshua Tree

"High"lights from Thursday:
1. Woke up under enormous windmill
2. Joe flat #1
3. Huge hill, much traffic, minor fall
4. Milk and Pop Tarts at Chevron
5. Huge hill #2
6. Met inventor of bullseye hubs at McDonald's, where I ate two big macs
7. "The Explosion"
8. Huge hill #3 into park
9. Flat #3 by dark, me this time, few miles from camp
10. Fell asleep under icy clear stars and awoke under icy-covered tent

Now we head into the middle of nowhere, hopefully leaving Cali in a day or two. Happy weekend!
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Rolling into camp

Joshua tree

Flat tire Thursday

Thursday will now be called flat tire thursdays. Minutes after pulling
out of camp I sprung an audible leak. Then we climbed and climbed and
did a little more climbing not to mention the head wind. Our avg. Mph
was only 8 today but we did make it to Joshua tree and it is
beautiful. However let's go back to lunch. Post mcdonalds feast we are
chatting with a guy outside, I had just given my tire some more air
because it was seeming low. After maybe 15 min of talking with the guy
there is a huge bang (thought it was a gun or firecracker) and then my
bike fell over in slow mo. The tire had litterly blown up. Hopefully
the pics brian took will turn out cause the tube was destroyed. Then
as happened last night brian got a flat right before our campsite. Got
to love flat tire Thursday. Did I mention it is freezing here in
Joshua tree? Cause my toes are numb. I will leave you with the picture
of brian running down the road in his bike shoes after a trash bag
that just won't quit. It was priceless and almost made me cry. Night
and stay warm.

joe

Week Three-and STILL in California

Seriously, could this state get any bigger? Anyway, the first day of the third week had highs and lows, but it doesn't get much better than waking up in a bed and eating Honey Nut Cheerios for breaky. When we finally got goin we realized there was a price to pay for the comfort we'd enjoyed the past few days-our legs had been dipped in cement. We shook the dust off and finally fell into a rhythm, and right about that time the mighty wind made his presence known, and how! We battled directly into the blow for what felt like hundreds of miles (sadly only 26) when we decided to stop for lunch. As we rode the fence between Burger King and Jack In The Box, a lovely retired couple struck up a conversation (we're rather conspicuous). Before we knew it Carol and Stan were treating us to Subway, ensuring that this would go down as a good start to the third week. After more wind, many giant windmills and yet another flat (me again), we made camp in the shadow of snowy mountains on a flat overlooking Palm Springs. Tomorrow we ride to Joshua Tree, and I hear it'll make the trip worthwhile. Shout out to our several day sponsor Sarah Hoffman, who besides being one of the nicest people in the universe, with a constant smile that could melt the snow off Mt Everest, shares her last name with the second best hot dog company in NY. Hoffman's Hots are exceeded in greatness only by Zweigle's, a fact I will defend to my grave. Sarah, however, your greatness knows no rival, and if you were a hot dog I'd choose you above any other (even if I wasn't starving). I'd slather you with spicy brown mustard. You'd be delicious! So thanks again, Sarah, and gnight everyone, happy Thursday.
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Two weeks out...

Highlights of the day:
1. We are out of LA
2. We woke up to fog but it turned into sunshiney day
3. Stan and Carol, an amazingly nice couple bought us subway
sandwiches for lunch. Origanaly from long island, they moved to Cali
30 years ago.
4. Chocolate milk tastes so good at the end of the day
5. Windmills. I love them and we are " camping" under some.

Lowlights:
1. Head wind from hell but that I'd why the windmills are here, so it
makes sense but it is no fun to only be able to go 8 miles an hour
down hill
2. Staples! They like our tires.
3. Traffic.

Now 4 things I love about Sarah Hoffman.
1. She is a great Team in Traing mentor. This is how we met. My first
season with the team she got pulled in from the walk team to be a run
mentor because there were a lot of runners. She was great about
cheering us all on and making us believe we could do it. Then as
seasons wore on she became a true runner herself.
2. Which leads me to the fact that she has great calves. Everyone is
jealous of her amazing calf muscles and we all try to follow her up
stairs so we can stare.
3. Sarah has a great smile and it is usually turned on. I'm not even
sure I could name a time she was in a bad mood except for maybe when
she is losing at beer pong
4. Sarah is a nurse and it takes a special person to be a nurse and
even more to be a good one. I'm excited for Sarah to move back to
Santa cruz so I can get free medical attention.
Bonus: Sarah has the Biggest cat ever, and I love when Sarah tells
stories about it getting stuck.

Thanks for sponsoring us Sarah!

Night!

joe

All Aboard!

So if you have been to LA, you know that there are a lot of people and obviously a lot of cars. What you may not know is that it has a pretty poor bike system. Very few bike lanes to speak of and only a few actually bike paths that by no means circumnavigate the city. So you can imagine trying to bike across it. Well, that is all we can do too. After much consideration and a little dose of reality we decided not to bike across the city. Instead we biked into downtown L.A. and hoped on a train. Still was 26 miles of LA biking but much safer and actually kind of fun to walk thru Union Station with our loaded bikes.

Want to give a shout out to Coco Conn who is the first person to make a comment on our blog, who we did not know before leaving on the trip and of all the people we have talked to, she was on her bike, I only told her the name, she talked with us for a couple of blocks, and boom she goes and checks out the blog. Love It, thanks Coco Conn.

Also want to say to Sarah Hoffman, who was our Sponsor yesterday, today and the next couple days. We are going to properly introduce you to the world tomorrow. You are a GREAT sponsor and we will give you your due.

Night All, its into the desert tomorrow for us.

On the road again.

Hey guess what? We moved today. Not exactly in a direction that gets
us towards our goal but we moved and I updated the map. So you might
be wondering , did they run out of steam? Are they lacking motivation?
Did they get discovered as they were biking thru Hollywood and we will
soon see them on the big screen? The answer is NO! What we have been
doing was surprising our better halves for valentines day. After we
biked into LA on Friday we locked our bikes up at Jon's apt and rented
a car, drove the 7 ish hours back to Santa cruz (took us 8 days to
bike it) and surprised the ladies. It was a perfect rainy weekend to
hang out with two of the best ladies on the planet and great for our
bodies to be free from the bikes. We made the drive back to LA today,
dropped off the rental, hoped on our bikes and rode to the house jon
and Tara are house sitting. Tomorrow we are off to riverside to visit
Jen and Deanna, friends I met in Vermont. With a little luck the rain
will have stopped and city biking will not suck as bad as we think it
will. Sorry about the pause in excitment, we now continue with the show.
Joe

Thanks Beth!

My favorite memory of Beth is from a team traning we did last season, and I wish I had a picture to go along with the story. It was the infamous Pogonip run, a mentally tough 13-miler that goes into the woods behind UCSC. Many of you know and love it, but for those that don't the most outstanding thing about it is that you go uphill most of the way out and downhill most of the return. Most folks find its bark is bigger than its bite. Anyway I was standing at the finish as folks were coming in, and I remember seeing someone who ran like Beth a bit down the road. Whomever it was looked uncomfortable. As they approached I could see it WAS Beth, and she was uncomfortable. In fact she was covered with mud head to toe, but apart from looking tired and dirty and uncomfortable, she didn't seem unhappy. I expected her to immediately tell me the story, but the first words out of her mouth were a report on how some participants were doing. When I asked how SHE was doing, she said she had fallen somewhere on the course, and from how she looked I guessed it had been pretty bad. But that had been up on the hill somewhere, miles away, and here she was at the finish with a muddy smile and her only concern was for her participants. That day told me a lot about Beth. She's a survivor in every sense of the word, and her toughness is well-masked by her sweet personality. Thanks for sponsoring us Beth, I'll remember you on our next tough climb and tell myself "just keep going."
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That is right... we havn't moved.

You may have noticed that we haven't moved. Well... frankly we are a little sick of the rain and another BIG storm is hitting the coast so we will be heading to Riverside on Tuesday. Hopeful that the storms will have moved past us. I wanted to give a quick shout out to today's sponsor, Beth Blackstone. I met Beth thru Team and Training which has been a big part of my life since moving to Santa Cruz. What I picture when I think of Beth is her laughing. She has one of the best laughs out there and I remember doing a Team Shuttle down at the San Diego Marathon and Beth sitting in the back seat laughing at something and it just became contagious. As luck would have it, Beth was actually in the Santa Cruz Newspaper today and it gives you great in sight into the amazing person she is. Check it Out! Thanks Beth but I'm sorry to say your lottery ticket was a dud.

Pics from Cruz to L.A.

I've uploaded all my pics from Santa Cruz to L.A. I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I normally do but sometimes when you are on a roll, it is hard to get yourself to stop and snap a picture, especially if it is cold and wet. Out of 8 nights we spent 6 close enough to the ocean to hear the waves crashing, 1 next to a lake, and the other in the Home of Britt and Chris. Not too shabby.

Two Guys on Bikes

Happy Valentines Day!

Well, it is a little strange to be typing on an actually computer keyboard but what is even stranger is that I just biked to L.A. Feels great to have a day off and because of the weather, we just might take two. Riding into L.A. might have been my least favorite part of the trip so far. It was rainy and cold, there was WAY too much traffic and they did not seem to care a whole lot about two guys on bikes, Brian got another flat tire, and frankly my butt was sick of being in the saddle. The pizza we had at Frankie and Johnnies, made things better until we had to go outside again. We parked our bikes under Jon (Joy's brother) and Tara's (Jon's better half) car port and put on some warmer clothes and then began working on our Valentines surprise for our lady friends, which will be revealed a little later on.
Those of you who know me well, know that I am into the gadgets and the technology and one of my favorites of the past year or so has got to be Facebook. If it was not for Facebook, I would not have been able to reconnect with so many wonderful people from my various lives and one of the ones I've been most happy about is Mr. R.J. Covey. I don't think I could tell you the last time R.J. and I actually saw each other, perhaps in Greeley? Which makes it even more amazing that he was one of our first sponsors and I love the fact that he picked all Fridays. My favorite memroy about R.J. is standing in line to go into the Rock Springs Haunted House and we were listening to Living Colour's song Cult of Personality over and over again with headphones and singing as loud as we could. "I tell you one and one make three" I'm attaching a pic of R.J., that I swiped from facebook and he looks a lot like I do after finishing a marathon. His was in Nashville! Thanks a bunch R.J., hope to see you soon!

R.J. Cuninghame with President Roosevelt on safari

RJ is far left
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Famous R.J.s pt. 1

Although I don't know Joe's old High School buddy, I'm not gonna let that keep me from thanking him for his generous sponsorship of our trip. A guy who sponsors five consecutive Fridays MUST be cool! So I'm going to spend some blog time each Friday highlighting a different famous R.J. in honor of the only R.J. I "know." Tonight's famous R.J. is R.J. Cuninghame, the famous African hunter and guide who led then Colonel Roosevelt on his expedition to East Africa. Cuninghame spent a year with Roosevelt in the African wild, and I can only assume they occasionally put their lives in each other's hands. R.J. must have been a fearless and rugged man-I mean look at how untamed he is in the photo! And once again I can only assume all R.J.s are equally larger than life. So here's to you, R.J. Joe's buddy-I'll hunt lions with you anytime. Thanks for sponsoring, and tune in next Friday when I utilize the assumed characteristics of a different mostly unkown R.J. to draw leaping conclusions about Joe's generous friend.
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LA Baby!

Seeing the sign that we were entering LA County was incredible, passing the one telling us we'd entered the city limits was unbelievable, and seeing the Santa Monica pier was surreal (but it IS real, sir!). I frankly can't believe we just biked here! Leg one of the trip is in the bag, and we're ready for a break. We're gonna take full advantage of this raintastic LA weekend and give our legs some TLC. (Don't worry, we won't go chasing waterfalls.) And fret not, we'll be spinning down the line again soon enough!
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Brrrrrr

No LA sun for us.

It is cold and rainy and did I mention cold, in LA today but we made
it to Joys brothers for a day off.

Thanks Phil and Mimi!

If Superman and Wonder Woman had kids, they'd--wait, Phil and Mimi DO have kids. Yes just as Joe said, our goal as athletes and people is to be like you in every way. Sorry to say your lotto tickets were duds, but thanks again so much for sponsoring, you're both superheroes to us.
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Day 8--Ice Ice baby

Our first day of the second week out brought some healthy reminders of why we call this an adventure. Awoke to morning frost covering everything from sleeping bag (yes, it was INSIDE my tent) to saddle cover. A brisk ride to the disc golf course shocked our bodies into action , and after a breakfast chocodile and a somewhat pitiful but pretty round (the sun came out and the lake was spectacular), the day looked bright. Then reality bug bit again, the first flat tire of the trip. Joe fetched supplies while I began the repair job--reluctantly, but glad it was my front and I had no panniers on. Joe was back in a flash and after a quick camp breakdown we were off, late but with lifted spirits due to endless blue sky. A headwind slowed but did not stop us as we were determined to make the most of not waking to rain. Quick stop at Patagonia to thank Chipper bro for his advice and we were again attacking the pavement. For about three miles. Then the bug bit hard-- a second flat, Joe this time, but the rear and loaded down heavy. Wrestling match ensued and though man won, bike put up a good fight. Now it was more late than early, and we pedaled furiously to gain some ground before inevitably making 'camp by lamp.' And though it probably wouldn't have changed where we camped much, nor how soundly we ultimately slept to the rhythmic ocean at our tent doorstep, the fates had to prove their point. Just outside Pt. Mugu, 8 miles from camp, a missile museum (weird but cool)--another flat. Me again, front again (though with bags this time). Fueled by quickly dropping temp and a bit of vengeful rage, I attacked the tire madly, this time finding the relentless culprit--a hair-thin metal wire the length of an inchworm. Joe had found its twin earlier (the same one? IMPOSSIBLE! Or is it?)... We raced into the now night, down the 1 with headlights zipping by both ways. Finally in the distance-campground, a table, a tent, some peace. As we ate and drank within feet of the sea and took in another starry blanket above, we laughed about the first day of the second week. A reminder, yes, but in the end what we remember is that we are the luckiest. Our work has no stress, our job no boss. The elements determine our dress code, our hunger determines when we eat (constantly), and in the end a few flat tires only reinforce our knowledge that the unexpected things are often the most memorable, and attitude is everything. Have a happy Friday, I know we will. -Brian
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Creepy and well placed bathrooms.

Forgot to mention chocodile.

One Week

One week aniversary today and it was sponsored by Mimi and Phil. Met
Mimi thru team in training and the woman is my running idol. Mimi's F
U stage ( all marathoners hit it) is nicer then my normal everyday
demeanor. The woman is great. Though I don't know Phil as well, I too,
idolize him from a far. He is a cyclocross phenom who Brian and I
should have road with a couple of times before the trip to whip us in
to shape. They are a great couple with two great kids and I'm glad to
call them friends.

Today was a great day. Full of many highs and a couple oh doh's. Here
they are quickly cause it's late and COLd. Guy named Ashe chatted us
up at breakfast about our trip, oh and he picked up our tab. Amazing.
Fixed the annoying clicking sound from my pedal thank to a guy biking
from Florida to Oregon. Rode our last two mile section of the 101. Saw
some dolphins which led us to jennifer who led us to Patagonia
headquarters for free coffee and to meet chipper bro. Chipper bro led
us on a long ride to a lake we have only seen in the dark and
hopefully a nice round of disc golf in the morning. Also 1 week
celebration Fat Tire for dinner. Night from day 7

joe

joe

Us and our lady friends.

Thank-you Ladies!

The posts below honor Joy and Nicole, the first two sponsors of this epic journey...
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Happy Happy, Joy Joy

I didn't make the greatest first impression on Joy. By itself the manvan was a pretty sweet ride, but after a week long roadtrip with the other guy on a bike who shall remain nameless, it wasn't even pretty ugly. It was ugly ugly. Anyway I don't think I spent any time around her more than once or twice before we were both in Santa Cruz. That's where I was able to get to know Joy other than just through Joe. Sure I can talk about what Joe's like since meeting Joy-I mean they have cute little pet names for eachother and lovey-dovey crap like that-historically very un-Joelike. But now that I've gotten to know Joy it's quite obvious what Joe sees in her. She's very open-minded, but strong in her beliefs. She challenges herself. She respects life-both living things and the act of living. She's notoriously upbeat without being that annoying kind of "perky." Very important to me is that she's always up for a trip to Marianne's. She's a good euchre partner and a great friend, and it's to her credit and my benefit that she didn't let her first impression of me remain the last.
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Atreyu? Is that you?

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The Legacy of Nikki Potts

I will never forget the first time I met Nicole. She walked into the office for an interview, and I knew right away there was something different about her. She had (and always will have) an energy about her that hadn't been stifled, and that she didn't try to contain. She thought she bombed the interview, but as we all know I would have been an idiot not to give her a job. Our friendship grew out of mutual respect, and because she didn't hold it against me too much that I told her I thought she looked like Atreyu from The Neverending Story (charming, eh?). Now of course we are best friends and I am in a constant state of wonderment that we are so (lucky? blessed?) to have eachother. But I'll never forget that I've known from the moment we met that she is one of a kind.
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To Joy and Nicole.

Tonight we are warm, well fed, and maybe most importantly, we smell
"good"(relatively speaking). We woke to sun and because this was rare
we go to sleep with sunburned noses. We actually got some disc golf in
and it felt really good to walk around and get off the bikes. As many
of our 41 followers know we have a sponsorship program and tonight I
would like to say a little something about our first two sponsors.
First off, we love all of our sponsors very much but we love our first
two THE MOST! We are amazingly lucky fellows who have smart, witty,
strong, easy on the eyes, and above all else the most understanding
partners anyone could ask for. Need proof? We are on a four month bike
trip! Nuff said. They have offered us more support than we could have
ever hoped for and we can only hope to pay them back for the rest of
our lives. So if you could all take a moment and give a round of
aplause for the best friends, anyone could ask for Joy and Nicole! If
you know them, you love them. If you don't, you should put yourself
out there more, meet new people. Love you so much Joy, thanks for
everything. Love you too Nicole but you know, in a different way. ;0)
Thanks for letting brian come out and play. Night from day 6

joe

Top Ten Things I'm Glad I Brought

Here they are, in no particular order...
1. Rain Gear-cuz frankly it's been very rainy
2. "Screaming Yellow" vest-you just can't be visible enoughout on the road
3. Wool Clothes-warm even when wet
4. Space Pen-writes even when wet
5. Down Sleeping Bag-cozy even when wet-getting the picture?
6. Video Camera-we've barely used it and I can already tell it's a gem
7. Recoverite-saving our legs one scoop at a time
8. Joe-makes excellent garlic pesto fry bread, and pretty good conversation!
9. Pictures of Nicole-home away from home
10. Blackberry-so I can write to you all and feel a little connected out here

I hope you enjoyed it, tune in next week when my list topic will be: "Top Ten Things That Smell Could Be"--G'night for now!
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Highest point so far

We crossed over our highest point so far today. I think we reached a
whopping 1000+ feet. Dosent sound like a whole lot but it was our 2nd
no 3rd big climb of the day. We made the mistake of thinking we were
smarter than the map and took a short cut to hell. Seriously this hill
was no joke. Think miramar (sc folks) on steroids. It was long and
steep and it wins the toughest short climb award so far. The other two
climbs of the day were just long and long. Takes a long time to do a 5
mile climb when you are going 4ish miles an hour. It was another 60ish
mile day, we made the push so we could have an easier day into Santa
barbara. In SB awaits our first shower and a hot tub courtesy of a
long time friend of joy's, Britt and family. We are in a closed
campground tonight but they let bikers stay here anyway which is good
cause we were not going any further. There is snow capped mtns and
it's about 40 here by the ocean. Have we mentioned that we've heard
the waves chrashing every night. We are two lucky guys on bikes. Night!
P.S. The pic below is heading into the big sur area.

Mmmmm

Afternoon delight

After a rainy start, we busted out 38 windy miles including a long climb before breezing down into cloudy Lompoc. Joe is seen here enjoying a well-deserved hot cocoa at the local McD's. I of course had a chocolate shake.
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Pics

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Blogging Works!

I know lots of you have been waiting patiently to hear more from me, well here I am! An hour after walking into the Verizon store in San Luis Obispo my phone was fixed-thanks Roger! I know Joe has been keeping you up to speed on our progress, and I don't know what y'all are thinking but yesterday the trip became real for me. I always said that passing Hearst Castle on my bike would be far enough from home that we could actually start calling this an adventure, and yesterday we did. Now we're at a campground near Pismo Beach, closer to Santa Barbara than Santa Cruz, and we're headed to bed after our biggest day yet (62 miles!). Check out some pics from the past few days (if I can get them up), and look forward to my top ten list in my next blog. -Brian
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Pics

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Rainy morning so I thought I would put up some pics from the dryness
of my tent.

Day 2

So it's the end of day two and all I can say is OOFTA! You ever seen the movie the sound of music? Well the theme for the day was "climb every mountain," and just like that old nun who sings it in the film it was UG-LEE. I'm sorry Nicole, but I would have french kissed that old bat if she coulda made a call to God and arranged for one of three things: no more wind, no more cars, or no more hills. Totally worth the years of therapy I would have needed. Anyway we battled through it, and since no one is forcing me to do this I guess I'd better quit complaining. Tomorrow I will post something sunnier, "The Top Ten List of Things Brian's Glad He Brought." That should make me feel better about how heavy my bags are. So g'night for now everyone, talk to ya again tomorrow from the road!
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Well we made it out of big sur alive. All the twists and turns, ups
and downs, rain and wind will be tatooed on our minds for the rest of
the trip. Thanks to everyone who got worried that we were in the
ocean, when I upload our position, it won't always be real accurate.
We did however get some good shots today of the ocean coming close to
crashing down on us. Our campsite tonight only cost two bucks each,
which made what we spent on chocolate milk, chips, cookies, chef
boyarde, and diet pepsi all worth it. Brian has been bloging for all
you waiting for his wit and wisdom, we just can't seem to be able to
email them to the blog yet, we will figure it out in the next couple
of days and then you'll all have some make up reading to do. Lots of
love from day 4!

joe

I love you bunny man!!! (I found the previous message on my phone.
Snuck in by the bestest person in the world). So ... Today was rainy
and when I say that I mean that there was not one moment today when a
rain drop wasn't hitting my face. We did probably 30ish miles and we
got soaked. But it actually was a pretty good day, some good climbs, a
burger in big sur, a free cookie, some cold coffee, and some gin from
our campground neighbors who are from Santa cruz. Also our campground
has biker rates so only 5 a piece. Still raining. Night. Joe

joe

Day two! Let's just say hill and wind. Know of hurricane point? It was
hurricane season. Just crawled in my tent and can't imagine that
tomorrow will be the same thing, let's hope with less wind. I have no
cell service so this might not go up for a couple of days and we
aren't able to update the map. Did about 35 miles we think and we know
we have too much weight. We start tomorrow off with a big climb into
the town of big sur and some breakfast at somewhere tasty. Lots of
love to everyone. Miss you joy!

joe

We actually hit the road and it was a great day all in all. Dipped our
tires in the pacific, road 44 miles, drove to San jose to finnaly get
my rei order (thanks warrior Kelly for your car) and then got dumped
on in my new tent while we could hear the waves crashing. Good day!
Eating breakfast in Monterey then off to big sir.
joe

So... Wednesday it is!

As has been told to us (especially me)many times over the last couple of weeks, we may have waited a little too long to order some of our things. And with the late ordering comes things not arriving in time for our planned Tuesday departure. The biggest thing was a shipment to REI that I ordered 2 Saturdays ago but to save money I got it shipped to store and now a week and two days later it still has not arrived. We have our fingers crossed for tomorrow and even if it doesn't come we will take off on Wed. morning and figure out a way to get the contents of my REI shipment.

Huge thanks to everyone who came out to our Super Bowl / Bon Voyage party yesterday and to all the well wishes we have received in every form imaginable. We are two very lucky guys!

Here are more pics from our Party.