This is my journey...in Video form

VANCOUVER...Tire Dip!

4,000 miles.  Thank you all I had a great time!  I'm now waiting in the Vancouver airport for my plane to leave.   There is sweat, saltwater, cake, dirt and champagne in my hair which I am pretty sure many people can smell...(but I did change out of my bike clothes!) 

I have a lot of fond memories thank you all!  <3>

Thank You sponsors for all your kind donations.  Thanks Rick Roberts for bringing me to the airport in Vancouver (and bringing me a box for my bike!) 

Lynden, WA - Richmond, B.C.

Soooo. We peaced out of America today.  Holy poop, I've (we've) made it to the other side of the country. Tomorrow there is 12 more miles to ride before its all over and the 4,000 mile journey across the states has come to an end. 

Again....THANK YOU TO ALL MY SPONSORS AND FRIENDS AND FAMILY WHO READ MY BLOG AND SUPPORTED ME ALONG THE WAY!

Story of today.  

Who didn't get lost today?  I have no idea. 

Kristen, Derek and I ended up confused and in Vancouver early...as in we rode a minimum of 12 extra miles.  Shoot.   Our cue sheet wanted us to go on a 3 lane highway and when we started to go that way, we panicked, got off of it immediately because we thought it was wrong and headed back in another direction.   

It rained ALLL day which was a serious bummer since many of us had cleaned our bikes the day prior.  The morning part of the ride was all hills and the second half was all fast traffic. To top it all off, my back brakes ceased working so there was (and still is) no way for me to use the rear ones currently and since it is still raining I have yet to look at them to see what can be done. 

At this point with 12 more miles to go perhaps the best thing to do is to ignore the fact that they don't work all together and just have them fixed when I get home (Claremont Cycle Depot, you may have some work ahead of you...)   :)

Rockport, WA- Lynden, WA

RODEO in Lynden. awesome.   I saw a pink horse that was barrel racing. neat. 

Lynden was pretty neat, we were supposed to all go to a build site but there wasn't enough work for us all so about 18 people stayed back and cleaned the van and trailer instead.  Fun...

I got interviewed for the local paper in Lynden which was pretty neat, so that would be cool if sometime I saw the article, but who knows.   Along the way to Lynden we stopped many times to pick blackberries and to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Okanagun, WA- Rockport, WA

Need more uphill? Yes I think that you do! Do you want it to rain too? and to Snow? and then to have a croswhind that could push you off your bike? Well, I know the place for you! Its Washington Pass! Another 20ish miles uphill, but it was our last mountain pass!!!

And we are out of the cascades, which were much harder to travel through than the Rockies for sure. We hit some high peaks, but its all rolling hills from here!
woot!!

Omak, WA- Okanagun Natn'l Forest, WA

Need a dose on 18miles uphill? Why yes, I think that is just what the doctor ordered, thanks Okanagun! Rain, Rain would be helpful too. Since it was raining all day and we had to camp that night, gross. I claimed a spot in the van (..no I haven't slept in a tent at all this summer even when we were camping.) Oddly, enough there was no hurry to get in the van and one whole seat was left-over all night long, apparently people on this trip like to be cold and damp for thier morning bike rides?


Mazama! the last town for 74 miles... meaning...don't die on the mountain somewhere.

Republic, WA- Omak, WA

OOOOOHHH OOOmak. So we get over some more mountain passes today (since we are in the Cascades) and I didn't think that Omak sounded like a very big town, but apparently I was very wrong, It had a starbucks (in the middle of the Cascades...who knew?) Omak was where we collected a person, Brendan Newman (one of the big-wigs in Bike and Build) who will be joining us for the rest of the trip.

When I was loooking for a good sleeping place in the church, I came across this room that was just filled with inflated balloons. The lights didn't turn on in the room which kind-of made it even more fun because it was pitch black and Kathy, Quang, Chris and I were stumbling aound the dark throwing balloons everywhere. needless to say I didn't sleep in that room

Chewelah, WA- Republic, WA

Anyone want to take a stab at how your legs feel after a 25 mile uphill at a 6-8%grade in 104 degree heat?

umm..ouch.

Republic, is a pretty neat place, it looks a lot like the wild wild west, complete with the tumble weeds and the place we are sleeping at has a climbing wall..cool. Funny story of the day:

The townies (13-16year old boys) are out harrassing us while we are cleaning our bikes in the parking lot and they challenge Anson Moxness to a bicycle race. Eventually they jabber at us enough that Anson takes them on. He gets his bike shoes on and meets one of the 14year old boys on his bmx bike at the top of a hill. when they take off Anson and Kathy (who joined the race in the last minute) pull ahead of this kid riding no-handed, it was soo funny. when they won all of the townies left (I think that we had our first real townie-rumble)

Sandpoint, ID- Chewelah, WA

For starters..we are now in Washington (what?!) We had a great time in Chewelah, when we arrived we got to go swimming and then I met some of the most fun chrch members that we have seen throughout the trip, and they have been hosting bike and build for the last 6 years! holy cow!

On a very exciting note, I found my road flair today and it is now superglued to my very ugly new helmet that I have. The road flair is...a beautiful barbie head, and she loves to creep out almost everyone who is riding behind me.

oh..and I bought new bicycle cleats, because my old ones are junk. 

Libby, MT- Sandpoint, ID

OUT OF MONTANA!!!!! OFF OF ROUTE 2!!!

And who knew that Idaho had anything besides potatos in it? Because apparently it does. In fact it has an amazing rope swing (more on that when I am not on a library computer) and it hosts a Sandpoint music festival which we happened to be just in time for, because I got to see a Ziggy Marley concert while I was hanging out there and could have seen Wynonna (but opted out..)

We had an amazing build day (I have some great pictures..soon) where we got to do a lot of siding work and meet the home owners of the house that we were working on, which is a real treat!

Eureka, MT- Libby, MT

Dear Town of Libby,

You are awesome. When Kristen and I got to Libby we were greated by the (perhaps self-proclaimed) 'Town Clown' who made us ballon animal bracelets so that we could wear them while we are on our bikes (which we did) and it was great It seems that everyone in this town was so diverse which made us feel the need to sit next to a carved beaver and bear sculpture and watch the community members go about thier buisness. We met some fun people who were very paranoid that the Canadians were going to come into thier town and steal thier children (one lady in particular told us not to walk off the main street, she was one of the extra-unique people in the town). Once we were done exploring the town we went to the high school that we were sleeping in and discovered a bat which kept flying all around the gym, making the bike and builders scream and hide (apparently we aren't that brave). I feel like our Libby experience was almost all that it could be, the only thing left to do is explore the abandoned Libby Hotel.

Whitefish, MT- Eureka, MT

After our day off in Whitefish ended, we traveled to Eureka. Its hard to beleive that we are almost out of Montana, and that the trip is nearing an end. For breakfast in Whitefish we had sourdough pancakes which were basically the hi-light of my day and then we traveled the short 52 miles to Eureka, which was greatly appreciated after the mountian pass we traveled the day prior.

Glacier Nat'l Park, MT- Whitefish, MT

Best day on a bike ever.  I rode my bicycle up the rockies this morning and then down in the afternoon, and it was great.   The wind was really strong so I wasn't positive that I wouldn't end up blown off a cliff, but it died down in the afternoon (just in time for the ride down!)   I went to breakfast in the morning with Michelle, Kristen, and Zack at some cute lodge and we sat there for a little over 3 hours because he has time to kill since bicycles aren't allowed on the road between 11 and 4 over Logan Pass.  Finally it was go time and Kristen and I who were hopped up on coffee and adrenaline climbed the Mountain fairly quickly  (20 miles uphill in 2 hours time..6,000 feet) when we got the the top (continental divide) it was 43 degrees so we ran inside to try to keep warm until we were allowed to go down the pass.  

The ride down was stellar!  Sadly there was road construction so we took it really slow at points (one lane has that effect) but once we could let loose, we did.  Oh the views, that place was wonderful! We got into a town around 4:30 and had a chocolate milk to power up and then finished the leftover 50 miles after that, which made it a bit of a long day, but totally worth it. 

Cutbank, MT- Glacier Nat'l Park, MT

Today I'm a sweep, and there is a 18-25mph headwind.  HOLY CRAP (if you don't mind me saying) I was pedaling downhill at 7mph.  Easily today was the hardest day of riding so far.  It took sooo long to get to the KOA campsite we were staying at for the night, but when we finally did.  There was a hot tub waiting for us, because apparently the pre-rockies campsites are the ultimate tourist traps.   I will say that we could see the Rockies ahead of us all day which was really a great motivator to keep me from abandoning my bike and hitchhiking the rest of the trip.

Tomorrow we climb!!! 6,000 feet!

Chester, MT - Cutbank, MT

Tonight we reviewed grant applications so that we could begin to decide who we want to allot out money that we fundraised to.  Its a really neat process, deciding which Habitat for Humanity or Land Trusts, ect. that we would like to give our money to. We have 8 grants to read and then its decision time!  How much fun! I really love reading about different housing organizations and getting to hear what their plans are for building and fixing up houses in America, it kinda feels like I have the inside scoop on America next year. I'm happy to say that it looks like its heading in a good direction.

Chinook, MT- Chester, MT

Well my bicycle helmet got crushed sometime between last night and the morning..it looked like someone stepped on it.sad :( it was so pretty. Luckily one of the only bike shops on route was on our ride today, so I bought what they had for a helmet...a really ugly white one. Blah.  

Malta, MT- Chinook, MT

Our lunch stop today was at an abandoned church sooo Kim, Dan, Reed and I went on a ghost hunt.  Our source of light was my flashbox on my camera and Dans laser pointer.  When we walked in all that we could see was bat poop on the floor and heard only swallows making a big commotion.  Many of the pews were broken and it was kinda freaky.  Eventually we found a basement to go into and we looked hard for souvenirs like a human skull..but had no luck.  One of the most hardcore lunch stops.

Glasgow, MT- Malta, MT

So today we rode our bikes through a Guinness world record! HIGHEST Density of mosquitos in the United States!! woo-hoo! I didn't take any pictures at all today for fear that getting off the bike would surely mean being eaten alive.  Did you know that a mosquito can fly about 15mph? 

Once we got to Malta I went to the laundry mat and did some laundry with the laundry crew and while we were waiting for it to be washed we went to tour the dinosaur museum in Malta.  The woman who works there told us all about Michelangelo (dinosaur found with skin and all of the organs..ect.) and how she and her co-workers were going to be on the discovery channel on September 18 showing it off, so basically I met someone famous. Neat.

Once the laundry was dry we laid it out on the lawn of the church for it to be claimed by its owners, sadly the lawn sprinklers turned on...so everyone got to claim their damp clothing. 

Wolf Point, MT- Glsgow MT

So there was a tailwind today..what?! AWESOME! Because we were cruising with the wind we had plenty of time to stop and enjoy the sites.  It happened that our lunch stop was at a cute little breakfast place on Route 2 (still.ugh.) Sean ordered a "small" pancake which turned out to be the largest pancake i've ever seen.  Beyond pancake eating Kristen, Katrina, Quang and I tracked down a geocache and found some amazing treasures!  

Culbertson, MT- Wolf Point, MT

It was a really short ride to Wolf Point (60 miles) so we all got there pretty early.  I took full advantage of that by taking a nap from the time I arrived until dinner started, which was fabulous. After dinner the ice cream crew went in search of something wonderful and tasty.  Sadly there was no ice cream in the entire town...including the grocery store.

TR NP, ND - Culberston, MT

Well we made it to Montana, where we will be for the next 11 days. sheesh.  It was nice to be in Culberston with awesome people and an entire street to air and dry out our tents.  The church that we stayed in wins the award for most comfortable church pew to sleep in and for best pancakes in the morning. 

New Town, ND- Teddy Roosevelt NP, ND

OMF(frekin')G.  landscape change and Bison, bison bison (right MLP/Taco?) So we pull into the park on our bicycles and not only is it gorgeous but picture this (i'll draw a diagram and post the picture later) 15 bicycles riding down the road and out road block is bison.  About 30 of them between us and a car on the other side.  We call the park ranger on our cell phone and she tells us to "wait it out" about 45 minutes later we decide to carry our bikes on our shoulders though the cacti and sagebrush around them.  

we get to the campsite and find out that about 1/2 of our tents actually have poles (this is our first camping experience so it wasn't us who lost them).  So there isn't enough room for all of us to sleep in a tent.  Some people make a lean-to with a tarp and decide to sleep under it.  I on the other hand feel like i've had enough camping in my life and was more than willing to sleep in the van.  Quang, Isaiah and I all take a seat and go to bed.  I plug in my headphones and pass out.  Around 3 am light wakes me up.  I unplug one earphone and clear a circle on the window where it had fogged up to look out at what people are now calling hurricane teddy.  Isaiah is a trip leader and he decided to go our in the rain to check that everyone is doing all right.  when he opens the door all that we can hear is Kathy Hill laughing between every crash of thunder, while everyone else is screaming and running to the bathroom.  I plug my earphone back in and sleep the rest of the night. 

...

morning comes and I look around the van Dan is sleeping under a pile or musical instruments in the back seat in the "multi-use sweatshirt" (towel, sleeping bag, shirt, skirt, dress, fashion..all in one)  with a fake native american pony on the front of it and under a towel and Dae is reclined in the front seat.  Kathy opens the door "Laura Maki" she states in a sarcastic, we were cursing you last night tone.   "smart girl" she finishes and walks away.  I pack up all my dry stuff and open my java monster energy drink that I bought the day before because I knew we weren't getting coffee in the morning (and in my opinion no day should start without it.) and watch all the wet people with their wet things wonder around laughing about the crazy night before.  

favorite quote "I never thought that I'd have to wake up in wet underwear under a urinal......again" 

because the storm didn't let up 25 people slept on the floor of the national park bathroom. and the funny thing is that they all claim to have "slept alright" apparently riding a bike makes you tired or something. 

Minot, ND- New Town, ND

My vote is in and North Dakota won the bad drivers in America award for having no shoulders and semi's who don't make any attempt to move for cyclists or any attempt to slow down form their speed limit of 75mph.  "We are in oil country and the money is fast and important" said a man in a gas station where I stopped to take a break from fighting the vehicles and he could clearly tell that I looked a bit frazzled.  

Besides the dense, fast and scary traffic...our van also broke down in Minot.  Thus leaving us with nothing to do or change into once we arrived in New Town.  So I napped on the concrete sidewalk in my wet cycling clothing for 4 hours before van finally arrived and we could all change and eat dinner which we cooked ourselves in the high school kitchen.  And I must say that dinner crew (Ian, Kathy (honorary member) Craig, Sharon and I) did a excellent job making noodles and sweet potato. 

Minot, ND- Minot, ND (day off)

Early in the day I went to an interesting art store/cafe to read and drink some coffee and I met a group of 3 (2 guys, 1 girl and 3 dogs) who were/are riding freight trains across America I talked with them for a good hour of so and they told me of all their adventures on trains which was totally interesting to me because of my great fear of trains...they started in Washington and will end up in PA in about 2 weeks (good luck guys!) which is really neat. 

 I called up Allison Horvath who is now currently living around here and we met for lunch which was a lot of fun.  We chatted and caught up a bit since we hadn't seen each other in a while and then she left me back to my overnight stay before dinner.  I spent the rest of my day off reading on the comfy couch in the bookstore until they closed and I had to go to bed.

Rugby, ND- Minot, ND

I'm not sure that I have to much to say about Minot, ND.  About the only thing going for it was a Scandinavian heritage park that looked like a mini golf course without the mini-golf.  Craig and I adventured to the giant horse but then decided that Starbucks was a much better idea.  After some chai I headed to visit the downtown area where I met up with Kim and then went to the bookstore and read until we fell asleep on the couches and eventually woke when we were hungry for dinner. 

Devils Lake, ND- Rugby, ND

Enthusiasm for the ride today (through a really really strong headwind) was Prom.   For extensive reading about prom... read Kathy Hills blog.  We made dinner, set up decorations for 'Harvest Moon'  and then began the dancing.  Prom was held at Rugby High School and was about as classy as my actual high school prom.  Dancing started at 10 and was done by 11 so that we could all go to bed.  We made sure to play about 30seconds of each prom song and danced our pants off all the while "leaving room for jesus"

Crookston, MN-Devils Lake, ND

120 miles and it was fabulous. I rode with Kristen (road name is now storm). At some point during the day we had a torrential downpour and waited out the worst of it in the van where we had a short dance party until the weather calmed.  One in Devils Lake a school bus came and picked us up and drove us to Isaiah's house where although we were tired we still managed to go horseback riding and play on the tractors and eventually settle down in the hot tub until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer.  (pictures don't want to upload at all..sooo maybe later sorry!)

Bemidji, MN- Crookston, MN

90 miles today.  So we got up early for multiple reasons.  Beating the headwind, we were still on route 2, heat, and to get to our destination on time (4pm) we left the church at 6:30am.  I ended up in a quick double-paceline (19mph average)  with Kathy, Kristen, Bobby,Katrina, Anson, Isaiah and the birthday boy Sean. We cruised while playing a word game called contact all of the morning we made it to out lunch stop at 8:45 am, ate fast and then cruised the the second lunch stop by noon and to the church by 1pm.  Thus riding a 90 mile day by 1pm. holy cow. (but there wasn't a strong headwind) 

I am pretty nervous about tomorrow since it is a 120 mile day and there is a chance of headwind...but we are leaving the church by 5:30 am so we might beat it....eep!

Grand Rapids, MN- Bemidji, MN

Ohhhh route 2...Kristen, Quang, Zack and I decided that Geocaching is really a good way to make it through the really, really long days on the same road into a headwind.  Today our Geo treasure waited for us at mile 60 and it was pretty hard to find (hidden inside of the statepark sign) but it was lucky that we decided to look for the cache because not only did we each get cool prizes (plastic rings in exchange for neat walnuts and a business card) but we also found a bike trail that got us off the route for about 3 miles which was great! 

Once we got the Bemidji we learned that they apparently take claim for Paul Bunyan and his Ox too, so they constructed these lovely statues. The town was excited that we were there so the newspaper came and took a picture of all of us in front of good ol' Paul.

GeoCaching: Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing) is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure. A geocacher can place a geocache in the world, pinpoint its location using GPS technology and then share the geocache's existence and location online. Anyone with a GPS unit can then try to locate the geocache. (www.geocaching.com)

Duluth, MN- Grand Rapids, MN

Today I decided not to pack my camera because we had a long day and our first of many on Route 2.   I was a sweep today with my good friend Quang, we had a long (we got to our site by 6:30 on a 70 mile day after leaving at 8..)  but still very, very good day.  The night before I put my new aerobars on my bike so that was fun to test out all day which was nice (because we had a CRAZY headwind!)  On the way Quang, Kim, Arianna, Kristen and I found a Geocache at a gas station at about mile 50 which we looked for without a GPS (by just looking up the general area on google maps) so that was pretty neat-o.   Once we were about 10 miles from our destination some of our team came and gave the sweeps and friends smoothies.  

Duluth, MN- Duluth, MN (build day)

Today we had a build day with Common Grounds housing organization in Duluth.  It is a land trust organization which means that once the house is part of the land trust it is always going to be an affordable house (which differs from Habitat because Habitat homeowners can sell thier house to anyone which means that it doesn't always stay a part of the affordable housing community)  Joy, Kristen, Lindsey, Dae and I all went to a painting site for the day and painted some walls in an office.  Joy stepped in the paint tray which was pretty funny.  Today we got mail again (yay!) and we found ourselves laughing a bit at Joy again while she tried to open a box with a plastic knife.  Thank you for the package Grammy it was really great!  Dad and Mom sent me a case of Honest Tea which was pretty great too thanks! Megan Healy I love the letter!

Hinkley, MN - Duluth, MN

Happy Trails to us.  Today we rode on a bicycle path the entire 80 miles to Duluth.  Fabulous. In the morning we stopped for breakfast at a diner and then continued on the beautiful trail for the rest of the day.  Once in Duluth we went to Fin fest and compared the the last Fin fest I went to in Marquette, MI this one was quite sub-par.  We are all pretty excited about the festival and we walk about 18 blocks and then on a 1/4 mile raised indoor sidewalk (that was at least 85 degrees) and walk into the "festival" which has about 10 people there in a huge room and a polka band. 

We all started laughing at this situation and took our seats.  Then the polka announcer says "And now we'll have our traditional Finnish tango" (what?) Everyone clears the floor so Jessie (bike and builder) and Christopher (B&B'er) take full advantage of this and decide to improvise the tango with all the moves (like ones you've seen on dancing with the stars) including a lift and a point when Jessie spun away from him and he literally crawled to her the length of the dance floor.  We were laughing extremely hard by the time they'd done thier finishing dip for the third time and the polka band decided to do another round.  The song ended up lasting at least 7 minutes and was the longest song played of the night. 

Oh Duluth Fin Fest...

St. Paul, MN - Hinkley, MN

Well we were supposed to stay in Sandstone...but apparently they didn't want Bike and Build this year, so we went to Hinkley instead. Do you know where Hinkley is? nope. And that is because there is nothing there, at all! I was pretty glad that there was nothing to do though, because I got to go to bed at 7:30pm and slept well (mostly except when the train sounded like it was coming though the wall 4 times).  We slept on the floor of a basketball court and our therm-a-rests kept sliding all around so quite often you heard people re-adjusting themselves to balance on the air mattress and not have it slide out from under us, it was pretty comical. Needless to say we were happy to leave in the morning. 

Pepin, WI- St. Paul, MN

Since the days are becoming a little bit monotonous we decided to mix it up a bit and have a photo scavenger hunt some of the events included pretending to be a statue, finding a yellow ball, a dead frog, Unicorn, a population sign of under 500..It was a lot of fun! We are still waiting to see who won the scavenger hunt, but I think our group did really well. When we got to St. Paul I got to see Christopher Aldrich!  Way cool!