FLATLAND2FLORIDA

Home Again

2009-11-12T14:08:00.000-08:00

Well, that's it. We made it most of the way to florida, and had a hell of a time doing it. Now we've made it back home and back to reality. We didn't raise as much as we'd hoped for the charity, but we tried. Oh, well. Thanks to everyone who followed us on this trip and hopefully you'll be able to follow us on more in the future.

Just get to Florida

2009-10-22T20:52:00.001-07:00

Since the last post, the trip has started to disintigrate. Maybe it's the more urban environment we've adopted, maybe the company we've kept, maybe the booze or lack of sleep, but mainly I think we're just running out of time. Bill mims provided us a ride to Charleston, Kate has offered one to Savanah, and Bobby's vehicle will be ensuring our arrival in Florida by Halloween, and now the trip seems to have become more of a wait around to be driven trip than a bicycle trip. We have clocked over 800 miles on bmx bikes, however, which I feel is a big accomplishment, but our timeline won't allow for the original endeavor to fully play out as planned. Enough of this though, here's the update for the past days.

On sunday night we stayed with bill in a beautiful and remote cabin a short ride outside of charleston and then visited PK's ramp for a morning session early Monday. Actually it was around one, but he had just awoke when we arrived and it was easy to see why. The ramps were littered with empty cans and what appeared to be melted rubber, which didn't make much sense to us until we saw PK's back tire that showed some severe and recent fire damage. Accompanying pk in the former nights escapades, and for the past week as I understand, was Cody Jennings.

Cody had heard of our trip online, and when we met with him he was quick to announce his intentions to join us if we would allow it. We informed him that we were carrying only enough gear to provide for our needs and he would basically be on his own even if he was 'with' us, but he ensured us that his backpack filled with a full wardrobe of t-shirts, a small blanket and a bottle of mouthwash was all he would require. I guessed that two days would be enough to prove this wrong and, although I was correct, in my mind it would be two days of riding and campig out that broke him. In reality it was a bender that, sparing some details for the younger audience, left him much poorer and us barred from bars and houses throughout the area but with enough stories to start a new blog if we so desired. On the eve of the second day he was on a train home and dispite our plans to depart we were still in Charleston with April. We've been here since and are now awaiting Kate's ride to Savanah.

Check out the photos below fom bryce's camera that we were just able to upload.

photo update #2

2009-10-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

Nice set of hooters ya got there!

2009-10-18T15:02:00.001-07:00

The owls! They're beautiful!

Slept on the beach last night in Myrtle beach. It seemed like a good idea at first, but after I crawled in my sleeping bag, added the sleeping bag liner, put all my clothes back on and was still shivering it lost a lot of it's appeal. We watched the steelers today at hooters and then headed over to he bass pro shop to wait for Bill Mims to pick us up. We're sitting at the stores bar right now.

I wasn't aware that stores ha bars until now, but I like it. I dropped my phone a second ago and now it has a large crack in the screen. Good! We'll be staying with bill tonight, and with April tomorrow in Charleston. More to come later.

P.s. For those of you not up to date on current popular movies, much of the blog recently has been a spin off of the movie Dumb and Dumber. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend that you do.

The hell with water! We're runnin on beam!

2009-10-15T19:35:00.001-07:00

When you camp next to a military base you don't get much sleep between the sounds of gunfire and grenades. Even so, the forecast called for rain Wednesday afternoon so we planned to rise early and make the 38 mile ride into wilmington before the weather became a problem. We managed to coax ourselves out of sleep around 8 am, but unfortuinately the rain did as well. After about an hour of unsuccessful attempts at hitch hiking, we chose to give in and just make the cold, wet ride. 38 miles later we arrived in wilmington soaked, but with a nice place to stay and shower up for the night (thanks again mom and dad!). We desperately needed to wash our clothes and wanted to avoid the rain as much as possible, so we called a cab and soon met mr. Neil. We directed him to take us to a nearby laundromat, but he did one better. The soapbox, a local laundromat/bar, allowed us to clean our wardrobe and start our night out at the same time. After that new experience, we headed down the road to the front street brewery for a few more pints. There we met Michael who was on his way to work just down the road. It was $1 mystery beer night at his bar and he promised to choose well when we ordered ours, which he did.
After getting to the bottom of many mysteries, we realized that we had been joined in the bar by Fred B. Noe, bourbon ambassador and seventh generation Jim Beam master distiller, who happily posed with us for this picture.

The night ended with a sketchy ride home from a gentleman who had to make 'just one stop before I take y'all home' for reasons unknown...

Today started with a lunch of enchiladas and tacos from a local mexican eatery and a ride back to the downtown area to window shop. When we emerged from one of the thrift shops we ran into three men on fully loaded road bikes who we joined for a few beers, again at the front street brewery.

Jon, Blake, and Aaron are on a trip that they're calling the 'Ditch the Van Tour' from Boston to Florida and playing shows along the way (yes, there are instruments in that trailer).

After a bit of food and a few drinks, we parted ways and headed back to the hotel. Tonight will be a night to hang out and relax for tomorrow. Teenage mutant ninja turtles the movie is on tv.

. . .a sixth of the way across the country in the wrong direction!!!

2009-10-13T10:12:00.001-07:00

In the past two days, we've been turned around twice by faulty directions and wrong turns. A sixth of the way across the country may be a bit of an exaggeration, but suffice it to say that now we don't have enough money to get to Florida, we don't have enough money to get home, we don't have enough money to eat, we don't have enough money to sleep!

Welcome to north Carolina, where a 16oz coke apparently has more 'mmm' than a two liter. Gia pointed out in a comment on the last post that our blog is turning into a food journal, but as Bryce so gracefully put it, 'We just rip all day and get psyched on food', which is true. Every night is a struggle to find a decent place to camp that we won't be removed from before morning and one thing we have to look forward to at the end of each day is good food. Speaking of being removed from campsites, that was also a minor setback for us in the recent days when we were discovered by the owner of a local tree farm and instructed, politely, to get off his land. He was understanding of he situation and directed us to another tree farm down the road where we wouldn't have any trouble. At least it wasn't raining at the time, which it is tonight as I write this post. Other than food, riding, and camping, we haven't done much in the past days. We have, however, continued to meet 'characters' as Bryce calls them. Some nice, some crazy, some obviously under the influence of mind altering substances, but all eager to throw in their little bits of advice, criticism, or praise for what we're doing.

30 miles today. If we keep this pace up, we'll be on track for Florida on the 31st.

The first layer of hell

2009-10-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

So first, you get a sore throat. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but now you have to ride 30 or more miles a day every day. Next it progresses to a fever. Your whole body aches and you're exhausted, but you have to keep riding. As it gets dark you find a suitable place to camp that turns out to be a cactus patch. As you are picking the cacti off of yourself and out from under your tent, a swarm of mosquitos and gnats cover every inch of your exposed skin and you can't hide because your tent can't get staked out until all the cacti is gone. You finally get in the tent and the bugs follow. After what seems like an eternity of swatting and flicking insects you are reasonably satisfied that all your unwelcomed guests are either fed or dead. Now you try to go to sleep but you can't because you're too sunburnt and feverish, and when you finally get some shut eye you have to deal with your inflatable, or uninflatable rather, pillow that needs attention hourly. This has been my life for the past few days, fun to say the least.

It's not all bad news though. The past few days, while some of the worst for me, also included some of the best days for Bryce and I on the trip. Since the last post we've been crusing through the outer banks in North Carolina. You can't camp anywhere around here without paying a hefty fee, which explains the cactus and bug dilema that haunted us the past few nights. But enough about bad experiences, here's the good stuff.

Just before my cold took full effect, we stumbled into Mulligans, a local bar and grill, for one last decent meal before we returned to the rice and beans diet. It was half price burger night, so we couldn't pass it up. We ordered our food and told the bartender our story, but she seemed confused. I think when we said bmx her first thought was of some type of motorbike. Regardless, we headed out to the patio to wait or our food and were soon joined, not by our food, but by the owners son, Aaron.
"Ya'll are goin to Florida on bmx's?!? You're not vegetarian or anything are you?"
Puzzled, we answered,
"No."
"Ok, good, my girlfiends making you guys a plate downstairs."
The next day, while riding and still semi-healthy, we met Don (Bryce insists his name was John, but I repeated 'Don' to him and he confirmed it). Don came upon us as we were eating lunch near the beach and we struck up a conversation. After explaining what we were doing and getting a bit of advice for the road from him he went on his way down the road, but as we put our heads back down to our meal we heard
"I tell you what I'm gonna do".
We looked up to see Don headed back in our direction.
"Heres twenty bucks. Treat yourselves to something nice tonight". And we did.

While enjoying our nice dinner courtesy of Mr. Don, we were interrupted by two men at the bar.
"So how far you guys hiking?"
Seeing our backpacks, a lot of people make this assumption.
"Going to Florida. On bmx bikes actually."
"Those litle bikes out there?!? You (expletive deleted)'s are crazy. Come on, we're buying you guys a beer"
Not being the argumentative type, we agreed to the proposition and explained to them more about the trip in the meantime. After hearing the whole story, Jim and Doug offered us more beers and the extra room at their beach house for the night and an evening of drinking, fishing, and clothes washing (that doesn't really fit in, but it happened) ensued. The one unfortuinate detail they left out was that they were staying with six others, including two children, who were as surprised to see us as we were to see them. Some of the residents were reluctant to let us stay at first, but after getting to know us, hearing our story,and realizing we wouldn't harm them in the night, they allowed it.

The next morning my cold hit full force (I wonder why?), and the skies threatened rain as winds gusted up to 40mph. I attempted to ride but after about five miles of pain and with a drizzle already starting, we surrendered to mother nature and my sickness.

We woke up in the tent hours later and searched for some reasonably priced food to eat. Soon we were directed to the Life Boat Community Church where they offer free dinners on Wednesday nights. Lucky us again. After breakfast for dinner at the life boat, we continued for another 5 or so miles (ok I lied about the 30 miles every day, but it sounded good, right? It was getting dark by then anyways.) and set up for our first night in the cacti.

The next day, I awoke as sick as ever and dehydrated. I hadn't been hungry much since the cold came on, but subway was one thing that sounded appetizing. We stopped there for lunch, picked up some phony nyquil, and then continued on to our planned destination for the previous day, the first ferry crossing. We camped out just after the ferry, again in a cactus patch and a day behind our plan.

The night time sniffling sneezing coughing stuffy head fever knock off seems to have done the trick fairly well. Apart from a little acheyness and continued dehydration, I feel reasonably well. We only rode about 13 miles today, but a 2.5 hour ferry ride took up a good portion of the day. We met some more cyclists, Tom and Tom, who are on a father/son ride from Rhode Island to the keys, and a Canadian couple who were nice enough to set us up for another good meal in the near future. Our second $20 tip in 4 days. I guess there's something in the water down here, southern hospitality is even rubbing off on the visitors.

Right now we're in the tent somewhere just off the ferry (actually we're probably riding, cause it's tomorrow now and we had no service last night). I'm not sure what this place is. It was dark when we set up, but it appears to be some kind of park.

Bryce lost his head lamp.

Now leaving Richmond.

2009-10-05T08:57:00.000-07:00

Several days after we arrived, we're on our way out of Richmond. After being introduced to Mojo's by Crandall on our first night in town, we found it hard to stay away from the bar/resturant when we weren't asleep in the dutchmen. Over the past days, I've been surviving primarily on Mojo's Philly's that, in my opinion, warrant a passing of the crown from the city that gave the sandwich it's name.

Even with our days filled with Philly's, we still managed to meet some cool people (thanks for the shots Dave and Vonda), ride the fbm ramps alongside some great murals and graffiti, save a praying mantis, and tune up our bikes, which, luckily, was much easier than Crandalls undertaking. We had planned on leaving yesterday morning but were offered a ride to a skatepark near the Virginia coast by mr. Rob Tibbs, and couldn't turn down the opportunity to check out the park and knock off some mileage from our trek.

In the car now headed for the coast for a day of riding then we're on our own again.

Thanks to everybody who helped us out in Richmond, especially Steve Crandall, Shelly,and Shony B for the place to lay our heads at night and Rob Tibbs for the ride and the discount bar tabs.

Here we are in Richmond

2009-10-02T23:15:00.000-07:00

Day 18:

Today was spent in much the same way as day 16, excepting the fact that today we had a headwind against us all day making the uphill sections twice as torturous and the downhill sections half as speedy. Nonetheless, we managed a 46 mile day ending in Richmond Va. We started the day following the bicycle touring maps given to us by 'bike mike', but after realizing that following the map meant the difference between making it to Richmond today and making it there tomorrow, we disregarded the map and simply followed US 1, shedding nearly 20 miles from the trip.

I have always had a certain respect for truckers, bus drivers and the like, and still do, but the more time we spend on the road, the more I dislike (and in some cases fear) the 'I spent a lot on this vehicle and therefore am a good driver' motorists. A good portion of the day was spent (to the discontent of many travelers) in the center of the right lane of the highway to ensure that this type of driver was forced to pass us in the other lane, after we were startled one too many times by a passing car too busy to move to the passing lane for the bicycle riders on the shoulder.

In an homage to Peter Fonda in Easy Rider, bryce added this accessory, which we discovered on the roadside early in the day, to his pack. An entertaining tribute, so long as our trip doesn't end the same way theirs did.

In Richmond at Steve Crandall's house for the night.
The weather will tell us if we leave tomorrow or later.

Goodnight.

Good fortune, bad tempers.

2009-10-01T16:34:00.000-07:00

October 1, day 17:

Today was our first 30+ mile day since leaving D.C. It's been hard getting used to all the hills and traffic, both of which we didn't have to deal with while on the bike path. After a bit of riding through farmland, we stopped in Fredericksburg for lunch looking for cheap fast food, but instead found our way to a reasonably priced Chinese buffet. The meal went well, and for the first time in my life I have a little bit of faith in fortune cookies. After lunch we continued our ride through Fredericksburg where we were given a little history lesson, passing both the Fredericksburg national cemetary and a civil war battlefield. Tempers flared late in the day and I nearly banished bryce from the tour for obvious reasons, but he eventually came to his senses. We had hoped to make it to Richmond tomorrow, but after being set back by a few detours it's looking more like a Saturday arrival date as of now.

In the tent again. No fire again.

Goodnight.

On the road again. (not path)

2009-09-30T17:07:00.001-07:00

We woke up late today to the sound of Mikes scurrying little companion chomping on any food scraps in sight. Our ride didn't start until about 2:30 pm and consisted of pushing our bikes up large hills on US1 and then tearing down the other side at nearly half the speed limit. The highlight of the day came near the end of the ride as we were pushing our bikes along the side of the road when an overpaid, undereducated bimbo decided it would be a good idea to honk the horn of her Mercedes and salute us... with one finger. Just as she passed us, continuing to stare at us and gesture obscenely, she missed a turn on the road and careened on to the shoulder, narrowly avoiding a ditch in her pricey means of conveyance. All in all it was a boring day punctuated with a missed opportunity to see the most beautiful backfire of a plan in my life.

We're in the tent now. No fire tonight cause I don't know who this property belongs to.

Next stop Richmond.

Goodnight.

Now leaving d.c.

2009-09-29T21:16:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning to find the 'cast away' movie file done and ready to watch. While dining on a breakfast of leftover shephards pie we watched most of the film, but the entertainment was cut short when we noticed it was getting late in the morning and we had a decent ride ahead of us to meet with bike mike, seen here with his pet, buddy, and Bryce.

We took our time riding along the Mount Vernon bike trail, which mike was less than modest about mentioning throughout the ride as he entertained us with his cycling stories, including his bike tour from California at age 54 which was unfortuinately cut short by a heart attack in Kansas. He took us on a winding journey through the streets of Virginia ending at his house in Woodbridge, and then drove us to the local Walmart to replace Bryce's worn out shoes and purchase some watches and an odometer to more acurately track our mileage. The night was spent reviewing his tour on google earth, hearing stories of his cycling and hang gliding adventures, and reviewing our route to Florida. He even lent us some cycling maps of the east coast to help us along the way.

Lots of thanks to Caitlin and Paige or the great food and a roof over our head last night and also to bike mike for all the hospitality tonight, even though Freddie was a little disturbing to sleep around.

More updates tomorrow....

Pacman2florida

2009-09-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

Bryce discovered yesterday that his friend, Caitlin, was in the process of moving to d.c. and was nice enough to offer us the pullout couch in her hotel room to sleep on for a night which was just enough to convince us to stay an extra day in the town. After a long day of sight seeing, Bryce whipped up an amazing shephards pie from a heaping bag of groceries that Caitlin's friend (and now ours), Paige, brought home in the evening. After the feast, we were off to the bars for a few pints of great stout and pacman. The plan was to come home from the bars and watch 'cast away', but with all the YouTube posts of it deleted and a download time of over two hours it would have to wait til morning.

Goodnight!

To D.C. and then some.

2009-09-27T15:17:00.000-07:00

Sunday, Day 13:

Today was spent recovering from last night and replenishing our backpacks for the ride ahead. We're watching the Steelers game right now. Not too much else to report for the day, but here are some photos that you all missed out on before:

"Lunch Rock"

Big Savage Tunnel

Harpers Ferry

So far on this trip everyone has thought we were crazy for even trying to do this on BMX bikes. Rather than tell people that we're riding from Pittsburgh to Florida, we started telling everyone that we were going 'to D.C. and then some', allowing them to dictate how much we told them. Most people still thought we were crazy for even trying to get to D.C., but some were curious of how far 'then some' was and were supportive. Now, we've made it to D.C., so we can't use that line anymore.

Here goes 'then some'.

Made it to DC! In the rain!!!

2009-09-27T14:59:00.000-07:00

Saturday, day 12:

Boyscouts start their days early, and so did we today. We woke at about 830 to a breakfast of pancakes and orange drink and started our ride by around 10. Lots of thanks to Dave, Dave, Kyle, and Jesse (hope I got all your names right) for the food and fun. We started at milemarker 44 today an decided that we would finish the trail today. We rode to mile marker 17 before breaking for lunch, but just as we had packed away all of our cookware the rain came back. We thought about waiting it out, but soon just draped our ponchos over us and continued riding. Considering our trail ride along with city riding, today was a 50+ mile day.

We were welcomed at dennis' house around 6 or so where we were able to get our first shower in a week, and to clean off our dirty clothes. The night consisted of chili dogs and pbr at Millie and als followed by an attempt to karaoke at peyote where the dj was less than generous to anyone without a decent tip for him. Oh well, fun was had by all regardless, and Dennis managed to do some advertising for the blog.

Rain.

2009-09-27T14:50:00.001-07:00

It's now Wednesday night. The tent is set up and the rain is out (for now). The day started with a turtle rescue. We ran into mountain bike mike, who we had seen several times yesterday but were just formally introduced to today. We rode 15 miles to the town of hancock maryland where we were directed to weavers for a great meal. We then pedaled over to the save-a-lot to replenish our food supply and back onto a side trail for a little shortcut to our camp tonight. The side path was a real treat as it was paved, and the main path we had been riding on since Cumberland had become rather bumpy to say the least. 30 miles today which ended with a rainy night in the tent again but also with a few raspberry cookies we bought at weavers.

We went swimming in the Potomac Thursday morning to clean up before starting our muddy ride. About 20 miles into the ride we were hit with a detour from the trail which took us on to country roads for about 5 miles. It was nice to get off the path again and on to some smooth roads, but the hills weren't as enjoyable. The detour ended with a steep hill with signs that warned 'steep grade dismount and walk your bicycle'. We chose to ignore the signs and had a much better time for the decision. Today was filled with wildlife as well. Early in the day, we rescued our second turtle from being smashed on the path. Later on bryce caught a treefrog that he thought had poisoned him because his hands broke out in a rash, but after a short look around and an itching sensation all over my body I realized that we were in the middle of a large nettle patch which we quickly exited. The night ended with a big storm again that would soak the trail for our ride friday. Horay!

We woke up Friday and rode all day through the muddy trail. We decided to push a little harder and rode until dark to get through 36 miles. We arrived at our campsite to find that we would have to share it for the first time with a full bouscout troop. They offered us smores and invited us to play werewoles and townspeople with them, which we did until retiring into our tent. The boyscouts, however, decided that 10:00 wasn't a good time to turn in and spent the majority of the night sabotaging each others tents and throwing rocks around which hindered our ability to sleep, but it was entertaining.

More stuff later.

Hops, Over doubles, and cancan grinders

2009-09-23T18:15:00.001-07:00

I know the links didn't work in the past few posts but now, thanks to 3g Internet, all the pictures are uploaded and working properly.

The interview with the Cumberland times went well Monday. It was a busy day filled with food, laundry, ice cream, and after that we even managed 15 miles of riding in the evening.
We set up camp and had a good drum/harmonica session before a good nights rest.

Mondays short ride got us on track for a more productive day Tuesday. 30 miles, which seems to be quickly becoming the standard. Our food supply was dwindling, but we supplimented it in a corn field along the path.
We set up camp early and cooked our corn that actually ended up bring feed corn and didn't feed us very well. The mosquitos that normally bother us seemed to have taken the night off, but were replaced with a multitude of different varieties of ants, spiders, and multi-colored catterpillars. We got some good rest anyways, and were ready for Wednesday, which I will tellyou about later, because my battery is about to die and I want at least this much to be published.

Its raining really hard.

Good night.

Ooooooooo.... Those those ones with those little bikes.

2009-09-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

Lunch Rock was such a nice place we ended up staying a little late on Saturday. Had a good breakfast of eggs, bacon, and oatmeal, and a nice cold swim in the river. The trail was a lot busier saturday because it was the weekend. We met a lot of cool people along with several ignorant idiots and heard a lot of 'when you gonna upgrade to a bigger bike', and 'what are you trying to prove riding the trail on those little things', and of course the great quote from our grammar rodeo princess who was able to use the word 'those' thrice in a sentence. The fact is though, all of our detracters were out for an afternoon ride, and we had been on the trail for nearly a week. Most of them were obese anyways. Our goal for the day was Deal PA, about a 30 mile ride, but when we got there we saw that we were just miles from the eastern continental divide and decided to keep riding. We made it to the divide around 5:00 pm, and saw this, which gave us a little encouragement to keep going further still. We rode on through the big savage tunnel a nearly mile long tunnel with minimal lighting, across the Mason Dixon line, past Frostburg, and into the evening, arriving in Cumberland MD well after dark with head lamps lighting our way. Our plan was to get a cheap motel for the night, and then rest the next day, but with one hotel asking $119 for their cheapest room and the only other completely booked, we were out of luck. We stopped at Wendy's and spent the first money so far on the trip, $3 each from the value menu, and then returned to the trail to find a campsite for the night, but after finding nothing after a 3 mile ride back in the direction we came from we simply threw the tent on some grass next to some train tracks and slept with rocks in our back for the night.

We woke up early Sunday and headed back into town. This would be our day off. We got a hotel room courtesy of my mother and father. Thank you! After checking in we headed off to the Queen City Creamery for breakfast, an ice cream parlor/deli decorated in 1940's soda fountain style. We were so impressed with the food and atmosphere, we would return here for lunch monday before setting off on the trail again. Sunday night was spent at Carmichaels Pub/Resturant where we would enjoy a few beers, a great crab dip, and a buffalo chicken pizza while watching the steelers game. The owner of the establishment, Bill Michaels, overheard our story as we told it to one of the patrons and approached us asking us to join him in his office. He happens to have a connection with the Cumberland Times and sent off a quick email to the paper. Within the hour we heard back from his friend, who set up an appointment for a photo shoot and write up today!

We'll let you know how that goes later on...

Balls...Balls...Balls...To the wall!!!!

2009-09-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of updates, but before we left on this trip I neglected to take into consideration the fact that forests lack the direct sunlight necessary for solar powered chargers to operate.

29 miles on Thursday. Whoever does the zoning in Connellsville should be fired, because a glass factory next to a bike path is not a good idea. Flat number one and Bryce was the victim. Later that day I hit a 2" diameter twig at about 10 yards during slingshot practice. That'll come in handy when we deplete the food supply and have to resort to small game. Finished off the day with a walk up a steep hill that never seemed to end. It was actually about a quarter mile, but each time you reached what you thought was the top it just turned and kept going. Oh well, the campsite was worth it and we got a good nights rest.

Friday was a 22 mile day for a total of 51 over two days. We had planned on going a bunch further, but had to stop at 'lunch rock' (photos soon), a site that looked like it should be on the cover of a backpacking magazine and that we would later find out was, in fact, on the cover of a yoga magazine. We were informed of this interesting fact by Mr. Jeff and his wife who unexpectedly visited our secluded site at dusk. With Miller lites in hand and two children in tow they arrived, briefing us on the sites name as well as the presence of a vortex just upstream with healing qualities. Mr. Jeff was particularly interested in our trip because of his past experience on a bike. In 1981 he and 9 other riders completed a 5000 mile cross country trip on road bikes. Tempting, but I think we'll stick with 1200. Nonetheless, after a good chat the four visitors vanished into the treeline, but just as Bryce turned to me and said , "Man, I thought we were scorin' a couple miller lites.", who would emerge from the brush but Mr. Jeff, two beers in hand. Good Night!

We may be a little behind our original schedule, but as our friend Jennings said, "No wife, no kids, no dogs, no cats. Have a good time. . . Just no ugly ones."

More updates on the recent days soon...

Firewood makes you warm three times. First when you're collecting it...

2009-09-17T11:29:00.000-07:00

If I could have posted a blog last night, it would read "I don't have any service so I can't write a blog tonight", but I didn't have any service so I couldn't.

30 miles yesterday. A little better than day 1. I think we're both getting a little more accustomed to our 45lb packs.

We met some cool people who were also on the way to dc but, as they were on road bikes, they're now about 20 miles ahead of us. Thought we were getting sick from the youghiogheny river water but maybe it's just the MRE's. We set up camp at round bottom camp site right off the trail and gladly refilled our water holders with their well water instead.

More updates tonight (hopefully).

Lost already!!!

2009-09-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

Took a wrong turn and ended up in boston.

Not the most productive day. 23 miles. Well short of our goal, but we'll blame that on my slipping freecoaster and the lack of a continuous trail forcing us to take state roadsfor much of the way.

We're now set up near Boston PA off of the great allegheny passage trail, and from here it's a steady and completed trail to dc. Theres a lot of mosquitos here. More fun tomorrow...

The shirts are in!!!

2009-09-14T10:26:00.000-07:00

The shirts have arrived just in time. We'll be selling them soon on the site. Keep checking back for updates.

1 more day.......

The Flyer's done!

2009-09-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

Heres the flyer that will be distributed all around the place. 6 more days...

Gear...

2009-09-04T16:37:00.000-07:00

This is everything I'm gonna be taking on my trip except my bike. Clockwise from the top left is my cookware and food (dehydrated beans, vegetables, and rice), my sleeping bag, my tent on the top right, my sleeping pad and my backpack. The middles just all the little extra miscellaneous stuff like my gps, books, solar charger,knife, bike lock, tarp, hammock, flashlights, and other junk.

Bryce arrives in 7 days, we leave in 11...

Gettin' Started...

2009-08-26T17:34:00.001-07:00

Everything is finally coming together for this trip. Round 2 BMX will be providing all of my bicycle equipment for the trip, and Mercenary Apparel will be shelling out the money for shirts. I also worked out the details for my charity. I'll be donating the profits from the donations for the trip to the Pitcher Park Memorial Skatepark Fund. Lastly, I received word from Bryce Toole today that he will be joining me on the trip as a rider and the official photographer, so now its not so much 'Flatland to Florida' as much as 'BMX to Florida' or 'Brakeless to Florida', but those don't sound so nice, so I'm just calling it 'Flatland to Florida featuring: Bryce'

Hang out for more updates....

Here's the deal

2009-08-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

Next month on September 15th, I'm going to be leaving Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and attempting to ride my flatland bicycle to Casselberry Florida. I've spent months working out the details and its finally almost time to start. My calculations tell me that I should be able to finish the trip in a little over a month, but until I start riding thats just a theory. Either way my goal is to make it to Florida or as close as possible within a month and a half.

Stay tuned for more details of the trip and updates along the way...