SPOKIN' HOME - A YEAR OF ADVENTURE

We love to travel and especially to visit our family in Denver. Four years ago we had the crazy idea to ride our bikes home from Denver, approximately 1550 miles. Over a period of several months we told many people about our idea - the idea began to turn into a plan and before we knew it we had told enough people that we were going to do and couldn't turn back!

So over a period of four months we started seriously working towards doing this. There were some ups and downs and we certainly were not in the condition that we hoped to be by our start date. We started by doing biking on stationary bikes at the LifePlex in Plymouth, IN. We have had some good hours on the bike and were able to watch a few movies on their projection system while biking. It is great to have such a nice facility. I admit that watching Julie and Julia, instead of the 2008 Ironman is a little different workout, but it has been fun.

We had a great ride for 1,000 mile and then we had a little mishap. If you read through our blog Stick with our blog you can read more about that cycling experience and other adventure for that year.

Now we are four years down the road. Many good things have happened to our family during those years. On May 28, 2014 we will return to our last riding point, get on our bikes again and finish the last 500+ miles. Join us as we continue our adventure.




Saturday, May 29, 2010

Blessing our Bikes - In Denver - Loading Up - Practice Ride

The night before we left for Denver family and friends met at Opie's Deli in Plymouth.  We had a great evening.  Father Kummer and Deacon Terry (or known as "Tink" at the right time) blessed our bikes for the trip.  We really appreciated that.  Too bad Mary Kay didn't have her clips on.  Poor Ruby had two black eyes and a stitch from her wayward step off the pier a couple nights before.  We will miss everyone.  Krysta already sent us a short video of Beck pitching a baseball to her.  That brought a tear to our eyes the first day out.  What will it be like after 15 days?

We had a great trip to Denver (driving).  We are looking forward to the trip back.  On the way out we stayed in Omaha, NE and had a great meal at the Baby Blue Sushi.  It was a great restaurant - we would highly recommend it.  The next day our eating was a little different.  We ended up having lunch in Ogallala, NE at the Pizza Hut.  When we stopped the waitress wanted us to know that they weren't going to put any more food on the lunch buffet, since it closed in 25 minutes.  Just a little different atmosphere.  We did meet a neat older gentleman.  He seemed to be looking for someone to talk to.  During our conversation he told us quite a bit about the history of Ogallala.  This was one of the main destinations for cattle drives from Texas.  As he said it was quite a town with quite a reputation.  Lots of saloons, dance halls, and red light districts.  As he said many of the trail drivers got paid in cash and left for Texas broke.  He knew some families who had ancestors come up as drivers and ended up starting ranches in the area.   We told him what our plans were and he told us about riding his bike with a friend when he was a kid.  They would each tell their parents that they were staying overnight with the other boy.  Then they would ride their bikes 15 miles to another town to go to a movie.  Sometimes they would spend the night with the other boy's grandparents, and other times they would ride back in the late at night.  I guess there probably weren't too many cars on the road back then - there aren't too many even today.  What started as a pretty normal lunch turned into a nice conversation. 

Today we started packing and doing a couple of practice rides with the trailer on the back of my bike.  With all of Mary Kay's cosmetics, hair products, body lotion, sun screen etc., I think we have one pannier just full of that.  I am starting to wonder just how many pair of underwear I really need to take.  I put the tent, sleeping bags, air mattress/pump, a hatchet, boys scout cooking set, and a few other things in the trailer.  It is full.  I told Mary Kay I am not going to weigh everything until we get back to Plymouth.  I don't think I want to know how much it weighs today.  My practice ride of four blocks went well.  I was hardly out of breath.

I looked at our map and the first few days rides a little more thoroughly last night.  Kansas is going to be interesting.  Finding campgrounds may be difficult, but now I am wondering just how many convenient stores and restaurants we will find.  Many of the towns we will be riding through have populations of 90 to 300.  I think a big town might be three to four thousand.  We will be on route 96 for most of the time.  I plan to list the upcoming routes a few days in advance, so that anyone wanting to keep track can see where we are headed.  The first day will be using some bike trails down to Larkspur, CO.  That should be about 50+ miles and give us a pretty good first day.  The second day we will head to Fountain, CO. not quite to Pueblo where we will pickup the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail.  We should get there on the third day, but I am not sure where we will stop that night.  Mileage wise we should be in Boone, CO. (pop. 323), but camping there is in the City Park with no restrooms. We could go on to Fowler, another 15 miles with a pop. of 1206.  It looks like they have a campground or maybe we will live it up at Bushy's Blue Sky Motel.  We will see.

Tomorrow I want to talk a little about the scholarship in honor of Noel.  Remember, - Do something for others today!!
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