Shout Out to Great Hosts and Hostesses

In Denver this past weekend, after having climbed the Rocky Mountains and transversed such a great distance of the US, we were hosted by my good friend from college, Andrea.  She took us to the grocery store and paid for a whole cart of whatever we desired.  She barbecued for us.  She allowed us a spot on her comfy sectional sofa.  She drove us around town and showed us her favorite book store.  She took a good pile of mail from us with the promise of posting it.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  It was so wonderful to see you!

And, come to think of it, I don't know if I have acknowledged Jeanne on the blog yet- but of Jeanne, we love you!  Jeanne was our hostess in Boise (pronounced "Boy-Cee" just for reference). She is the daughter of a woman that was in Larry's congregation back in Beaver Dam and not only brought us much needed supplies like sunscreen and laundry detergent, but then let us stay at her home.  She made us a beautiful breakfast and let me take a bubble bath. Can you believe this?  A bubble bath?!  I can hardly imagine a better treat to a body weary from many miles and days in the hot sun than a relaxing bubble bath.

Marv and Doreen were our first host and we still remember them quite fondly.  I don't know that I've had a tougher time waking up in the morning and starting out on a ride than I did that morning in Kennewick when we had to leave their lovely home to begin our second week touring.

We're really quite spoiled and blessed.

Random Tidbits Regarding Food

<-- Here's what Dave eats in a day.  He manages to pack all of this into his jersey pockets and on his bike.  And this is just lunch and snacks!  We figure that we burn about 4,000-5,000 calories a day.

<-- And, here's me appreciating the beef.  (The sign behind me rubbing my belly and making a yummy face reads "Treat Yourself EAT BEEF.)  It's been a little tough being a vegetarian on the trip this summer. There are only a few of us and the kitchen crew sometimes does not know what to do for us. But, I'm eating a lot of rice and beans and peanut butter sandwiches.  And Dini (kitchen staff wonder that she is) has been making special meat-free dishes.

Climb Every Mountain

It's been hard riding lately.  We've done +85 mile days since Saturday!  We are so warn out, but so happy that we've made it each day.  The days have felt especially long because we have climbed a lot of mountains lately.  We tend to get into camp just after dinner has started, exhausted and hungry.  Thank you again kitchen crew for your service to us all.  Here are a few

 photos from the summits- where we are feeling most glorious.

We are in Colorado now.  We are staying at the YMCA of the Rockies- which is cool because we were just here before this whole bike trip started.  And cool because there are so many Calvinites here as counselors and such.  Dave just ran into a prof from the Geography Department in the cafe!  I think it's going to rain on us all evening, but we're getting tough enough to handle that too.

We have an 80 mile day tomorrow with a 3000 foot elevation climb.  Just one more day and I think we'll be out of the mountains for a while.  Woo Hoo!  (We woo hoo a lot here- if it's a tough day, sometimes we even woo hoo for no reason at all.)

Everyday Activity

In case you're curious, this is our daily routine:

We wake up each morning at 5:00-5:30am.  Usually we are awoken by the sweet sounds of tents zipping up and sandals flip-flopping to the restrooms.  We get dressed in our cycling gear, take down our tent (this can take a while, Dave is reluctant to get out of his sleeping bag), have breakfast, and collect up lunch goodies to pack on our bikes and in our jersey pockets.  We leave camp between 6:30 and 7:30am and begin our cycling journey.

We have several SAG (Support And Gear) wagons along the route where we can rest our weary limbs and refill our water bottles.  The first one of the day is usually Cory's van with a port-a-potty in tow (I love this stop).  Then, we get to Walter's RV where we are sometimes served "waltermellon"- Walter often parks at the top of the highest peak of the day.  We're always dying to find him.  And finally, Julie has a pick-up truck somewhere along the last bit of the route where we can fill up our water bottles once more.

We get back to camp pretty late most days.  We tend to fall in the middle back of the pack. Then we set up our tents, take showers, eat dinner, have our nightly Peloton meeting (where we talk about our route for the next day and take stats about flat tires and falls), small groups, and finally get to sleep.  Showers can be spotty, but dinner is always terrific, small groups are a job, and sleep is oh so welcome.

IDAHO

In Idaho we got to see some neat stuff.  Here are some cows on a carousel, for instance:

We cyclists were treated to a tour of a dairy farm.  The farmer was generous enough to welcome 144 of us wearing helmets and spandex and show us around.  He gave us samples of his delicious milk even.  (P.S.  The cows get milked on the carousel.  They know how to load and unload themselves from the contraption all on their own!)

Then, we saw a gorge!  In the words of Dave, it was GORGEous.

It has a sweet bridge across it that base jumpers were using as a take-off point.  The crazies.

And finally, those who chose to bike the difficult route, saw a beautiful waterfall in Twin Falls. Dave and Larry were brave enough to make the journey and took this great photo.

New Friends

There are some really cool people on this trip.  I was telling my brother, Pete, about Kathryn in particular.  I said something like, "I've been riding with this really sweet person named Kathryn."  And Pete said something like, "Sweet, huh?  As opposed to all the other jerks on the trip."  Really, we're running a pretty jerk-free operation.  We've enjoyed cycling with all 144 of these folks and we LOVE the support team.

Anyway, here's my new friend Kathryn (the person I ride with) and I.

We also made friends with a Calvin grad that was at Calvin while we were there but whom we had not met until now.  His name is Dave, so he and Dave have a lot in common.  And we met Aaron at the airport as he first flew in to Seattle at the start of the trip.  He thought we were the shuttle and were going to drive him back to camp.  Ha.  We didn't have the vehicle, but he still thinks we're cool now I think.  We think he's cool at least.

(from left to right: Aaron, Dave M, Dave T)

Dave Refueling- No subtitle necessary

Liz Refueling- glorious granola

Catching Up

I hear from my sister-in-law Kate that I should do a better job letting you all know what we're up to, so I'll try and get you all caught up now.  I think I've missed some important events due to slight exhaustion and spotty internet on the road.

Dave had a birthday.  He turned 25 on July 10.  We celebrated the day in Huntington, OR where we had delicious pie and ice cream in a really cool diner.  Huntington was probably one of the coolest little towns we've visited thus far.  The pie was awesome, the town hung up signs to welcome us in, and the museum opened up after hours just especially for us.

In another town, a coffee house stayed open until 11:00 pm (even though it usually closes at 7:00 pm) so that we could use their free wi-fi and partake of their delicious beverages.  Visiting towns along the way is one of the coolest things about the trip that I did not foresee before leaving.  People are really curious about us and want to know who we are.  We pass out a lot of little business cards explaining the tour to shop owners, townspeople, and random passerby. These interactions are really fun and encouraging.

We eventually had to leave Oregon.  It's kind of sad to leave just as you're getting to know a place, but it's also really exciting to cross a state line and show a little more progress on the tour map.

Things are going well overall.  Each day has its own challenges: hills, head winds, heat...but we make it to camp in time for supper.

More Meyer News Bits

Alright, so, we've reached Boise, Idaho.  We like it a lot.  Were still in the desert, believe it or not, but there ARE trees here and rumor is that residents experience season changes.  Sweet.

Cycling has been going well.  We were treated to a few shorter days and not as many climbs. We'll be paying for that later I suppose, but we will enjoy the shorter easier days while we can.

We stayed with another host family here- I don't know how this happened exactly, but it was an amazing visit.  I got to have a bubble bath!  Thanks Jeanne!

We'll post photos later, until then, here are some links to some local news stories:

Arizona Republic article

East Valley Tribune article

Here's an article from Sea to Sea about the service projects we've been doing along the bike route.  It features an interview and photo of yours truly.

Washington down, 13 states and 1 province to go

We've reached Oregon!  It was glorious to cross a state line!  We had never bicycled across an entire state before.  What a mile marker!

We're having a good time with this group.  Everyone is very helpful- if you're starting to fall behind they will cheer you up, if you have a flat tire (praise God we have not yet) there's a crowd to help you patch or replace it.  These people also have a good sense of humor.  For instance, we keep statistics that we update as a group every night.  We track the number of flats we have each day and the number of accidents (they've all been minor so far, praise God again).  And then we track a random new stat each day.  One day a group of cyclists got 93 semi drivers to blare their horns.  And another day some bikers counted 29 discarded beer cases alongside the road.  I did a little stat of my own coming into Oregon- I counted 28 dust devils on the dry Sonoran Desert horizon.  Did you know the desert stretched all the way out here?  And can you believe I even cycled through a dust devil?  It was kind of scary, but OK.

Dave and I are getting some good press coverage.  I was interviewed to the Sea to Sea newsletter that you can sign up for on www.seatosea.org, Dave and I were both interviewed for a story to be printed in the Arizona Republic, and we talked to some local reporters here in Baker City, Oregon today too.  It's awesome that people are getting so excited about this trip. It reminds us that we are doing something really worth noting.

P.S. Here's a photo of Larry on his recumbent bike.  People tend to take notice of it as we cycle through small towns out here- it's definitely a little non-traditional.

In Kennewick...

we have been relaxing.  

After our first few days of climbing mountain passes, we have since biked some much easier days. They have been between 37 and 50 miles and over much flatter roads.  We have also been so spoiled by the communities we have been through!  We've had great accommadations at local schools in each city where we have stayed over night.  They have opened their soccer fields to our tents- and the sprinklers only soaked our tents in the middle of the night once :).  In Sunnyside, WA we were treated to a Mexican dinner, strawberry shortcake, rootbeer floats, and some of the best fireworks I've seen presented in a small rural community.  We were also served refreshments along the road in Zillah.  And in Kennewick, we were showcased in a tremendous Sunday morning worship service/ celebration rally.  We walked across an outdoor stage to Queen's song about bicycles and had a good old fashioned potluck at the conclusion of the worship.

Dave and I were also blessed with the opportunity to stay with a host family in Kennewick.  We slept on a bed last night and will get to again tonight!  We are so thankful.  Marv and Doreen Anderson you are such a God-send to us  (and to the 4 other cyclists you housed this weekend)!

Thanks Doreen and Marv!

3 Days Done!

We are amazing!  We've finished three days of cycling now.  We've climbed 2 mountain passes and biked over 180 miles- and we're still alive and planning to stick with it!  Awesome!  

The first day of cycling began with a tire dipping ceremony off the coast of Washington near Seattle.  We cycled along a great bike path that passed seaplane ports and gorgeous houses on the water.  The scenery off the path was still pretty amazing too.  Here's a photo of some of us stopping for lunch. 

Setting up camp that night was a sight to see.

I won't glorify this too much- cycling has been REALLY hard so far.  We're feeling pretty inexperienced, especially when it comes to the big hills.  But God is providing us strength and endurance.  And people are beginning to come together as a community to help keep everyone going until the finish line.  We received such wonderful cheers when we got to the top of the first mountain pass that I almost cried.  It's hard, but it's good.  I'm glad we're here.  

It appears that our internet connection is not quite what I imagined, I'll have to upload these amazing photos later.  Please stay tuned.