pictures!

one big arrival, one big hang out!

well, friends,

we made it!

we crossed over the golden gate bridge within an hour of our anticipated arrival time and have concluded our collective nomadic two-wheeled travels (for now). right now we're all eating spectacular pancakes at the angeles-cady residence in burlingame, ca. we had a wonderful welcome into foggy san francisco on monday including a visit from linda, an oberlin alum who rode from oberlin to connecticut on a tandem bike in the early 1960s.

it's hard to believe we're here. it's been quite the journey. what do we do now? suggestions welcome. in any event, it's not the end, but rather the beginning of 1 big bike's one big revolution.

love,
linden & 1BBM

so close!

here we are, in napa california.
tomorrow on to stinson beach and then, finally,
after two months on the road,
san francisco!

we will be crossing the bridge at 12:00 noon, august 4.
be there.
(there will be food!)

also, come to my house at 7:00 the same day for more stories and food.

also, thanks to julie and her family for being the best and totally taking care of us while we are in napa.

love,
linden & 1BBM

On to California!

After riding over 300 miles on "The Lonliest Road in America" over 13 mountain passes and escaping from the Nevada creeper, we are almost out of the Great Basin Desert. We are stopped in Fallon, NV after a two day 110 mile-long ride through the desert. In two more days we will be California and crossing the Sierra-Nevada Mountains over Carson Pass, which may very well be our hardest climb yet. It's been a long time since we've been in a town with a movie theater, so a lot of us are going to see the new X-Files movie tonight, which is pretty exciting. A local biking association has offered us dinner and a place to stay for the night, which is pretty great as we haven't slept indoors or had a home cooked meal in a while. Actually that's not true we had a fantastic meal in Eureka, NV after our workshop, which went really well. I don't really have anything else to say. If you are going to be in San Francisco on August 4th, you should come to our arrival party. I don't actually know anything about it, but we will put more information about it on the blog later.

1BBM presents "Shifting Gears" at Eureka Opera House

Last in Nevada, at the Eureka Opera House, we with One Big Bike presented a series of workshops entitled "Shifting Gears." Participants heard presentations and discussed the topics of Passive Solar Heating and Cooling, Powering Your Vehicle with Vegetable Oil, and Composting with Worms. It was a memorable experience for us, because our audience at once so gracious to forgive our grimy appearance and engaged in the material we presented. We gifted a number of our red wiggler worms to a wonderful lady named Joy, who intends to start a worm bin right in her home in Eureka. Just think, those worms traveled 2k miles just to find their home with Joy. And they are the same family of worms as the ones we gave to the Living Green Store in Yellow Springs, OH and the ones at Langston Middle School, the Cat in the Cream Coffeehouse, and a number of households in Oberlin, OH. They came from the George Jones Memorial Farm--thank you, Evelyn Bryant, for getting us going with worms last fall--So many people are connected now, and composting, because of you!



We are so thankful to all of the people who have helped us along the way. Just yesterday, a man just back to town from fighting wildfires in western Nevada looked at our route with us, and reassured us that we wouldn't be affected by the fires burning right now north of Sacramento. He also pointed out the "soaks" (hot springs) along the way, which we shouldn't miss, and even invited us to his home, where he has his own hot springs, but it was too far off the route! And Mime, our hostess here in Eureka, was so kind to take so much time out of her schedule to look after our accomodations, recreation (swimming, and showers!), and especially, our appetites! She prepared a great homecooked meal for us with the help of her friends Joy and Ruby. It really is travelers' luck to feel at home on the loneliest road in America.



Highway 50 has been our guide through the vast, wild country of Nevada. Each day new beauty is revealed to us in the endless expanse of basin and range. It's just marvelous, and to think we were so worried about crossing "the desert"! The Great Basin is so much more than that, and so much more than you see on the Interstate.



Next is the "treacherous" Austin Pass, and then it's "all downhill" to Fallon, so we're told. But we've learned that it's never actually as steep or windy as the locals tell us, and that a route which is "all downhill" to a driver is usually a little more nuanced on a bicycle.



We're slated for San Fran on August 4th--come to our welcome party in Golden Gate Park!



"California here come, right back where we started from..."

Truckers, Kittens, and Goodbyes

1. We rolled into Roosevelt and promptly lost John. We stayed up until 2 or 3 looking for him, slept in the park, and looked for him again in the morning. We finally found him around 11 near an auto parts store, lost, phone , bike and attached valuables stolen while he slept on the side of the road, running on a few hours of sleep and some cottage cheese a community center gave him. It sucked. A lot.
2. Later that day, we found a kitten with a broken leg, hobbling around the park and biting everyone who tried to pick her up. John and Benji took her to the vet and got her leg set. We actually don't know her gender because she is still too small to even tell, but we've just been using she. John named her Rose, short for Roosevelt.
3. We came into Vivian Park near Provo for our lunch break and ran into a trucker named Jim and his friend Matt. They live in Provo and let us stay at their house. We had a cookout and shared stories.
4. Due to a lack of bicycle, money, or ID, John had to leave the trip in Provo. We're kinda down about it. We had one last group hug before he left on the Greyhound.
5. Eventually the kitten will wind up with John. For a while, though, she's gonna stick with the trip.

Utah

Today we passed into Utah. Pretty cool, no?

Forgot to mention how cool Ft. Collins was. We spent the morning volunteering at the community-oriented botanical gardens, ate lunch at Rasta Pasta, and spent the afternoon wandering around town and touring the bike-obsessed and generally amazing New Belgium Brewing Company.

You Rock, Rock.

We're in the Rockies! Two days ago, we did Cameron Pass. Yesterday, we did Muddy Pass and Rabbit Ears Pass. It was hard. However, we did get to pee right on the continental divide. We made the 7 mile descent from Rabbit Ears to Steamboat Springs in about 15 extremely downhill minutes, with the mountain to our right and a sheer cliff looking out on the gorgeous valley on our left. Best. Ride. Ever. Also, terrifying.

Expressing the beauty of our surroundings right now is kind of impossible. Hopefully we'll be able to get some pictures up one day.

Colobraska!

We've passed from Western Kansas into Eastern Colorado, cutting one 8 mile corner of Nebraska along the way. Last night we slept in a lovely, grassy park in Wray, Colorado. We were woken up at 4:30 am, when the sprinklers went off about 2 feet from where we were sleeping. Getting everyone up, normally a 20 minute process, took about four seconds. It was very impressive.

We had some big hills in Western Kansas before hitting Nebraska, but now that we're in the baby foothills of the Rockies the road is pretty flat and manageable. We stopped for a night in Oberlin, Kansas, which was slightly disorienting but pretty cool, and for a night in Bird City where we ate at the best steak house in the state. We're all excited to see the terrain gradually change as we move west - we saw our first cactus a few days ago, and by now most of the corn and soy beans have stopped and the cattle have begun. The bugs are getting bigger and weirder, and trees are a rare sight. We'll hopefully be able to get some pictures up in a few days, when we stop for another rest day in Fort Collins.

smith center, ks

yesterday we had a lovely rest day in smith center, kansas, the geographical center of the united states. we were housed by kind member of the community, which was wonderful (and which meant we got to sleep in real beds!) we also got our first newspaper clipping from the local smith center newspaper announcing our workshops in town.

the temperatures are starting to climb; yesterday may have been our first 100 degree day of the summer. fortunately, it also coincided with a day we were not riding. now we are back on the road, though it's still pretty hot, toward norton.

also, today at lunch we had watermelon, cut into pieces with our large all-purpose cleaver, which was quite pleasant.

thanks to everyone leaving comments and following our progress. it's great to hear from you!

love,
linden & 1BBM

also,

kansas has the best clouds ever.

More Kansas

Hello,
Another update for you. We are now 5 states and over 1000 miles into our journey which is, as of today, 1/3 of the way done. We are spending the afternoon in Mankato, Kansas. We had a late start this morning, but the Kansas terrain and weather have been so nice that we didn't have a problem reaching our half destination by lunch time. For the past two days we have had a great tailwind that has made everything so much easier. We are looking forward to our rest day tomorrow in Smith Center, Kansas, which is the geographic center of the contiguous United States and also about halfway across the state. The nice, slowly rolling hills of eastern Kansas are dissappearing rapidly and the state is becoming flatter by the minute, which unfortunately means stronger headwinds. Last night we stayed in Belleville, Kansas at Pastor Lennie's house. They had this gigantic dog with the largest eyes I've ever seen. He had a look of perpetual suprise. We all enjoyed falling asleep to the early 90's classic movie Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. We are down to a riding party of four for the day as most of our crowd is already is Smith Center giving a series of workshops to the Smith Center, Chamber of Commerce. They will be giving workshops on passive solar heating and cooling, vermicomposting, driving a veggie oil truck, and giving a plant walk if time permits. Speaking of veggie oil, yesterday in Washington, Kansas, our support drivers for the day found hundreds of gallons of perfect waste veggie oil for our truck. We ate at the man's restaurant, which had delicous mashed potatoes, saurkraut, and lemonade and he said that we could take as much of it as we could hold. We can only hold about 120 gallons, but that should give us enough fuel to get us almost through Nevada. That's it for now.
cheers,
Tyler

KANSAS!

hello, all.

we have made it to the great plains of kansas, and are stopped for the afternoon in the town of washington. we crossed over the missouri into kansas on the 21st and will continue across the state for the next six days, before going through eight miles of nebraska and then colorado. the night of the last blog post we had the adventure of putting up a tent during the onset of a thunderstorm. fortunately we all survived and dried off eventually, and, although the weather set us back a bit, we revised the route and are now back on track. we stayed at a lovely community center in plattsburg, and then at a church in horton, america. last night we stayed at a park in marysville. in rushville, mo we met an 82 year old barber named norman gillis who made us a pot of coffee as he does for the loafers 365 days of the year. he told us many stories about his life and alex even got a free haircut. norman's favorite president is harry truman. today we met a man from japan who is walking across the country, starting in washington dc and ending up in san francisco. yesterday we passed by a biker headed from san francisco to boston. coming up we are going to have workshops in smith center, where our next rest day also will be. more news on how those go to come. right now the weather is lovely and riding is great. it's time for me to switch out of the public library's computer, but just wanted to give a quick update-- we're all still alive and on the road. and getting some pretty intense tan lines.
love,
linden.

more of missouri...

right now we are stopped for lunch and afternoon break in carrollton, missouri, quite the lovely town. the library is well air conditioned and pleasant. last night we stayed in the lovely slater christian church of slater, missouri. so much gratitude to the kind folks there who opened up their church to us (including some pretty comfy pew cushions), and cooked us not only dinner but breakfast too. (and i was SO excited for that fruit and yogurt!!). the last few days have been really long and quite warm. we spent some time on the katy trail, which was at times quite pleasant, and at other times, really hot and monotonous. also gravelly. while we were originally scheduled to ride through all of missouri on the katy trail, but, due to flooding we've moved to state routes, complete with many "rolling" hills.

at one of our shorter stops yesterday, at a fantastic convenience/general/antique store that also had costume jewelry, i got an excellent pair of earrings with unicorns on them.

the most exciting news of the afternoon, aside from a great pot of chili, is that our adventures are being written up in the carrollton democrat, the local newspaper. thanks to pauline and mary for bringing us over to the newspaper office and not letting us get away until the story had been reported.

two more days until kansas!

love,
linden

st. louis!!

yesterday we started out in salem, illinois. it was a dreary morning. we passed through odin, which boasted a taxidermist, a headstone engraver, and a funeral home. we were almost killed by anthropomorphic, murderous birds in aviston (fortunately we were also able to do this without my needing to alert the group of the danger we were in). we stopped at a really 50s diner in carlyle that played all the greatest hits of the disco era (funky town being tyler's favorite). we built some really impressive towers of creamers and geared up for the rest of the day. the next stop was in o'fallon park where benji made us some sweet lentil burgers (lentils being about 90% of our diet lately), and after some resting we headed onward into the sunset and st. louis. we rode into st. louis over the mississippi river on the eads bridge and triumphantly arrived at the memorial archway, racing down a grassy knoll and leaping from our bikes in joy. we tried to bike up the arch; it was pretty funny. we waded around in the mississippi, which was a little flooded, and then spent a really long time trying to find our final destination. nonetheless, we made it safely, ate a lot of toast, and slept for a long time. now it's morning of the next day, a rest day/reorganize our lives day, and all is well.

Dayton, Ohio

Today, we woke up early with the plan of taking bike trails almost all of the way until Richmond, IN, our destination. It was rainy and pleasant . We stopped for lunch in the metro park
and played with the geese. Upon leaving the park we discovered that the trail was flooded.
We had to climb up a levy carrying our bikes covered in dirt and goose poop in the rain. Then we had to ride through downtown Dayton. We stopped at Yummy Burger for second lunch. Eventually after riding on pretty busy roads, we connected up with another bike path and were able to make it as far as Lewisburg. Everyone was feeling very tired at this point so we decided to call the support vehicle. Tyler came to our rescue and drove us and our bikes to Richmond, IN, where was had a rest day planned for the following day.

More later!

Campus Progress

Check out Campus Progress, one of the generous sponsors of our trip!
http://campusprogress.org

on the third day...

we got started from richwood/magnetic springs/fulton creek evangelical friends church bright and early at 7:30 am. had to detour around an out bridge, adding on a few miles, and got to marysville for a breakfast break. it started to get pretty hot and windy and we ended up taking a nice long break in milford center under a pleasant picnic shelter, a swing, a slide, a nice hill to roll down and a pleasant rollin river. truck met up with us and kekkie and katie headed ahead for our very first workshop of the trip!! then there was a long afternoon battle with hills and wind, but in the end we made it to the unitarian church in yellow springs where bountiful food awaited us. finally the whole group was reunited again, and before long we celebrated by sleeping for a bit before getting on the road again. long day. good day.
love, linden

Day 2!

Today we got onto route 4 and had to deal with headwinds and semis. Fun stuff! We're in Richwood, OH and about to go to bed; we're really tired. Right now we're still figuring out how to schedule our day right so we ride at the coolest parts of the day and still have time to sleep and chill out. Tomorrow we are doing a workshop at 6:30 at the Living Green store in Yellow Springs, OH. It will be on passive solar heating and vermiculture!

P.S. Every time we stop for water, Ben finds us tasty plants to eat. We are all slowly picking up foraging skills.

P.S.S. This trip funded by Campus Progress!

on the road!

all right friends, the time has come! we have made it through our first day of biking! and the internet in the library is closing in five minutes. so, highlights.
we made it to shelby, oh, and are graciously being housed in shelby first lutheran church. after waking up obscenely early, we spent much time packing, cleaning and getting all kinds of last things taken care of. ben has a REALLY NICE BIKE, christened red rooster and jon b. has been rightly named its godfather. one time today we rode by a really big cow in the road. "wuthering heights" has been on repeat in everyone's mind, and that's the way it should be. the weather is beautiful, the people on this trip are incredible, and i'm so super psyched for the summer!!!

love, linden

note: this trip is funded by campus progress. katie is wearing the sweet shirt they sent us. thanks, campus progress!

1 day left

It's one day before we leave and we now have all but one "One Big Biker." We were joined today by John and Alex. Johanna will be joining us tomorrow. Katie's mom, a doctor, gave us a workshop on first aid. We went on a ride to Chance Creek near the Vermillion River, which is 20 miles round trip. Tyler was first introduced to Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights."

Here we are, living in squalor in Oberlin.

Test Post

This is a test post for our Blog. Tyler and Katie are sitting in Mudd Library screwing around. Did you know if you searh for us on google it comes up with three hits. www.dosomething.org/taxonomy/term/3515
www.backroadsandbeachesohio.com/blog.shtml
and
www.oberlin.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/events/calendar.pl?display=student&which=&s=0&_e=20279