To be honest, I don’t really know what to write about the last week, because I was done riding my bike and the adventurous part of my trip was over when I packed my bike in its box in San Francisco. Then I was a regular tourist and I would usually not keep a blog for a normal vacation, but since I said I was going to write one more blog-entry, I at least want to share a few pictures and summarize my trip a little bit.

In San Francisco, I was staying with Nisha and Brandon in their nice apartment right in Haight-Ashbury, the former Hippie-Center. After just relaxing for one day and packing my bike, I had one day of sightseeing. It involved a lot of walking and by the end of the day, I had walked for about 15km. I went all the way to the harbor, checked out the ‘steepest street of the US’, had lunch in Chinatown and hung out at a park for a while. It’s a nice city and I was again really lucky with the weather, but I have to say that there are just too many sketchy people, drug-addicts and homeless in my opinion. It’s a huge problem that I have noticed throughout California and in San Francisco it still seems to be hip in somce neighborhoods and I just find it disturbing. But nevertheless, my day of sightseeing was great and I was really tired in the evening and looking forward to my roadtrip to Vegas.

The famous cable-cars of SF

Lombard Street – the steepest street in the US (?)

Alcatraz in the background

Harbor

Weird to see Christmas trees. Doesn’t feel like it!

Chinatown

The next morning, I picked up the rental car and felt really American when they upgraded me to a big SUV since they didn’t have a smaller one available. It was weird to be driving again, but I guess you never forget how to and since it was a Sunday morning, we (Addison joined me for the trip) at least avoided the rush hour. After a few stops on the way, we reached Yosemite National Park. We both were pretty tired and lazy and didn’t really have that much time to go for a big hike to check it out since the sun was about to go down. So we just drove through the park and over the pass and enjoyed views and the sunset from the car. We spend the night in Mamooth Lakes in the mountains of California.

More comfortable than a bike, but less adventurous – my rental car.

Sunset in Yosemite

In the morning it was freezing cold and we left at 7.30 – I was definitely glad not to be on a bike at that time, but in a warm car. We drove a couple of hours before we reached the Death Valley National Park – the last one for me! I have been to this National Park several times, but I am amazed by the landscape every time again. The desert, the mountains surrounding it and just such a hostile environment with miles and miles of nothing – fascinating. It also would have been a huge challenge to ride the bike through it, but unfortunately that wasn’t an option (at least not this time).

“Don’t fall asleep”

View from Death Valley Park Entrance

Death Valley

Zabriskie Point

In the afternoon, we finally reached Las Vegas and after getting some groceries for the next days, we went to the hotel and were right in time for the managers reception – free snacks and drinks. The days in Vegas were really relaxing, but also pretty uneventful. We walked on the strip for a long time, through hotels, gambled a little bit and enjoyed the sun at the pool. One night, we wanted to go Downtown to see the lightshow at the famous Fremont Street and after a long 20 minute busride, we discovered that the road was closed for construction – that was kind of disappointing since this was the only attraction away from the strip we wanted to see, but we saw lots of lights anyways.

Downtown Vegas was pretty dead

Relaxing in nice temperatures before the cold of Germany

After Addison had left on Wednesday night, I packed all my stuff and got a cab to the airport the next day. The cabdriver asked me what I had in the big box and when I told her about my trip she was really impressed and luckily we had a 10 minute-car ride to have a short Q&A-session.

Time to go back

That was it – as mentioned before, I don’t have the funny, crazy stories this time and I feel like this might be the best evidence to show that a bike-trip is something special. At the very beginning of this trip, I said that this blog might help people understand why anyone would bike across the US or any country. And I think and hope I was able to answer this question through my stories and pictures to some degree.

On a bike, you move slowly enough to stop wherever you want to to take pictures, a break or just talk to people. You are also ‘forced’ to speak to locals, because they want to know what you are doing or you need directions or help. And as soon as you talk to people, you remember towns, places and roads and looking back at maps or pictures, I will probably remember almost all of the encounters I have had in these 86 days.

It is still to early for me to realize that I have done what I had been dreaming of for half my life, but I’m sure it will hit me once I’m back in real life and I’m looking forward to going through all the pictures and videos.

A lot of people have asked me if there weren’t any moments where I just wanted to quit and go home. And of course there were! Some weeks, I had that feeling at least once every day and just hated myself for doing it. But I knew before I started in NYC that this would happen and even after the toughest ride: at the end of the day when I reached a destination and was a little bit closer to my goal, I knew why I was doing it. I think the bad times are part of the trip and make you enjoy and appreciate the good times even more.

I think on a bike trip, there are always three phases: at the beginning everything is new and exciting and you can’t wait to start. The middle-part is challenging, because you realize for the first time what is still ahead of you and sometimes it feels like you are not moving. And then the final when you get closer and closer to your destination. I believe that these parts adjust their lenghts to the total time of the trip. Meaning that if you go on a trip for – lets say – 6 weeks, you’ll have 2 weeks of each phase while on a trip of 6 months, you’ll have 2 months of each. My feeling in the middle part was that I liked what I was doing, but this would probably be my last big tour. But the closer I got to the end, I realized that I would actually miss it and especially miss having a big goal for the next 10-15 years that I could work for/dream about (besides family, job etc.). The last 2-3 weeks of riding and even while taking the picture infront of the Golden Gate Bridge, I caught myself thinking about one thing: “what could be next!?”. I did come up with some ideas that I really want to do at some point in my life – I know it won’t happen anytime soon, but it’s always good to have something to look forward to even if it might never happen.

Finally, I want to answer the question everyone always asks:

Worst/scariest part of the trip:
1. The thunderstorms in Kansas. I had written about it on here. Being on a bike with noone and nothing around you in the plains of the Midwest for 100km can be scary. But add huge thunderstorms to that and it reaches a new level. I was lucky to never got caught in one, but just the feeling of being surrounded was scary and stressful.

2. Kneeproblems. I never really wrote about it, but after about a week I thought I might have to end the trip. I have pretty messed up knees from soccer and after a couple of days, they started hurting while cycling. First only right, but then both and it got to the point where I couldn’t sit or even lay in bed without enormous pain – let alone climbing a hill. I tried everything, took painkillers and in the end, a simple adjustment of my seating position did the trick and I never had any problems again.

Best part:
The people were amazing and I didn’t have ONE scary moment. The drivers were better than expected and respectful and it was just all in all great. I’m not lying when I say that everything was great: people, weather, landscape, scenery…just look at all the pictures over the last months and that will give you a general idea.

I want to thank everyone for following my adventure, sharing the blog/posts with others, commenting, messaging, liking or just reading it. The feedback I received from all of you was motivating to keep doing it and now I have a great memory to look back at.

And a big thank you for all the donations to Make-a-Wish Germany! With your help, I was able to help fulfill the dreams of others while fulfilling my own. 2600€ are a great amount and I’m really happy!!!

THANKS GUYS – 130%!

One last fact: 0 (ZERO) flat tires on the whole trip!

Take care and maybe there will be a C2C 23 (the C might not stand for ‘coast’ that time) 😉

Freddy

“Essay” for school written in 2003 I took on tour with me to keep me motivated in bad times (never had to look at it thankfully). Back then I thought I was pretty much done with planning and had it all figured out. But most of it is actually pretty good considering my age.
“…I will start training for the tour this summer, since I have set this to be my lifegoal” – gotta find a new one.

My trek up the coast continued under blue skies as I was leaving Oxnard and passing through beautiful beachtowns such as Santa Barbara. It was nice to be out of the big cities and there were decent bike-paths along the beach most of the time. Outside of the towns, I stayed on Highway 1 for the most part which varied in quality and shoulder-width. I had actually expected a short day and thought my couchsurfing-host was close to Santa Barbara – I took long breaks at the beach and even a 30 minute nap before I checked the map and found out that I still had 40km to go – oops. It was early enough to do it and when I got to Jim’s place, I was glad I had made it. He and his wife live in a really nice neighborhood and I got to stay in their guest-house with ocean-view with another couchsurfer, Ander from Bilbao/Spain. Jim took both of us down to the private beach of the gated community. I was surprised to see a lot of cameras, gates and even armed patrol-signs at the entrance, but the explanation was simple: Brad Pitt owns a house at this beach and therefore only the few people from the community and Brad Pitt (+Angelina and all the kids I guess) are allowed there. After checking if Brad was home, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

On the way to Santa Barbara

Too bad Brad wasn’t home

The view from Jim’s terrace – could get used to it

After the stay at Jim’s house, I had to go inland for about two days to follow Highway 1 and the scenery changed completely. No ocean-view anymore, but a lot of farms. California is huge in agriculture and I finally could see it – especially the smell of fresh strawberries for hours while riding past the fields was a nice side-effect. After spending my Halloween-night with Andrew and his fiance in Lompoc, it was time to first get a hair-cut and then head back to the Pacific for some of the best days of the whole trip. On my way from Lompoc to San Luis Obispo, I was taking a break at Pismo Beach when another cyclist pulled up beside me. It was Addison who I had heard about earlier from a warmshowers host. We actually had tried to meet up in LA, but that didn’t work out so it was nice to randomly meet on the road. He started his trip in August and went from Montreal, where he had just graduated from McGill University, all the way down the East Coast to Key West, Florida. Then he flew to San Diego and is going up to his hometown Vancouver. He is the only cyclist I have met going North and we decided to ride up the coast together until San Francisco.

San Luis Obispo from the top of a hill

Morro Bay

Car show in Morro Bay

Finally SF is on the sign

I don’t really know what to say about the last days of my trip and will just upload a lot of pictures that hopefully capture the beauty. Highway 1 hugs the coastline and the views are just spectacular – provided you get lucky with the weather. And that is the one thing I am really thankful for (besides staying healthy of course): the weather has been absolutely amazing on my trip. I think I might have had 5 days of rain in 86 days of riding. People had warned me about the fog, clouds and wind on the coast going up North which would have meant that I wouldn’t have been able to see anything but the street. Instead, we had perfect weather and it was just a pleasure to cycle despite the fact that the road is superhilly with steep grades and not a lot of shoulder to ride on. Besides the views, there was another cool thing to see on the way: elephant seals. These big creatures come to the beaches in that area to chill on the beach and relax. There were tons of them just laying around and making weird noises and it was fun to watch them and think about how calm and relaxing that life must be.

The tough life of an elephant seal

Big Sur region

It was really nice to have company these days on the coast. We camped a lot and since it gets dark at about 5PM already, it’s easier to stay up if you have someone to talk to. There are lots of cyclists on the Pacific Coast anyways and at the hiker/biker sections at the campgrounds, we met a lot of other people riding down the coast every night. We also camped at the campground in Big Sur, because everyone had told us how beautiful Big Sur is. So we had started talking about it too and when we finally got to the ‘town’ of Big Sur, we realized that it was a gas station, a cafe/pub and a couple of houses. And we both had to admit that we had no clue what the hype was all about. Later that afternoon, we hiked back up to the cafe from our campsite in order to use the internet. It didn’t work at first and so we killed some time by playing battleship, but when it finally worked, I looked up what Big Sur actually is and we learned that the town itself isn’t that special, but the term Big Sur also refers to the whole coastal region with its cliffs and great views – and yes, that hype is justified.

Cyclist camping

Since we had decided to camp at Big Sur to check it out, we had a really long and tough day ahead of us all the way to Santa Cruz, about 130km away with big hills and headwinds. We were making good progress, but it wasn’t the easiest and nicest day of cycling with the wind and tired legs after the last hard days. We stopped at a corner in the middle of farmlands to have a look at the map and had to turn left. I said “30 miles of headwinds from now on” and was not in the best mood when all the sudden we hear a guy screaming and shouting from the other side of the road a few hundred feet behind us. I just see an old guy with a white, long beard jumping up and down and then we hear the words: “FREE FOOD, COME ON OVER GUYS”. Those are the words that make every cyclist turn around and I’m so glad we did, because it was yet another unique encounter in the middle of nowhere. Paul is a retired teacher and biked across the US in 1983. He had told himself back then that he would give back in some way the hospitality he had received from people all over the states. So now, every Tuesday and Thursday from 10.30AM to 2.30PM, he sits in his green VW-van at the same spot and is a road-angel to cyclists passing through. He gives out energy bars, freshly baked cookies (SO GOOD!), water, has tools to fix bikes and best of all: energy and happiness. This guy, he calls his van and himself Kermit due to the green color of the car, is amazing and a real inspiration. He was so excited to help us out and talk to us about our trips that we completely forgot about headwinds, hills or any other kind of annoyance. He was full of energy and just looking at him and listening to him would make everyone smile. He had a little sticker on his shirt with a “fun-meter” and it was set to max which was absolutely appropriate. And if some of you now think – like I first did – that he is just a crazy guy, I can assure you he is not. His outlook on life is great and when he said: “Well, what else am I going to do when I’m retired? Sit at home with my wife and wait until we die or go out there, experience the world, help others experience it and just enjoy everything?!” I thought about it and really hope that I will be as energetic and motivated as him when I’m his age. This encounter also made me realize how much I will miss the life on the road – of course the scenery, mountains, beaches, cliffs, animals etc are great, but there is nothing more memorable than the random, special people you meet in the places where you would not at all expect it.

Legendary road angel – Kermit

After meeting Kermit, the rest of the ride was so much easier and we arrived in Santa Cruz and got to spend the night at Tom’s and Deb’s place which was great after having camped for a couple of nights. The next morning, Deb actually rode with us for the first 20km up the coast to a coffee-place where we stopped for breakfast. As we were about to leave, we saw a lady pushing a trolley up the big hill on the highway. We could tell she had obviously come a long way by looking at her equipment. Pierrette is from Quebec and has been walking for 7 months all the way from Alberta, Canada down to California and is continuing on to Argentina. She had great stories to share and walks for peace and non-violence towards kids. Another inspirtational encounter and also another Canadian – have had a lot of those on my trip (and slowly picking up the “eh” at the end of each sentence).

Pierrette from Quebec walking for freedom and peace for children

Nice spot for lunch

Music is the best recipe to forget about the headwinds

We continued on to Half Moon Bay, where I set up my tent for the last time on this trip. It was a great campsite at the beach and we had a few beers to celebrate the achievement. The next morning, we took our time since it was only about 60km to San Francisco and we weren’t in a rush. It was a slow day and the closer we got to San Francisco, the more anxious I was to finally see the Golden Gate Bridge and complete the trip. After one of the steepest hills of the whole trip, I saw a little red bridge about 20km away and it sure was the Golden Gate Bridge. The last kilometers, I was being really careful, because I really didn’t want to have an accident so close to the finish line. But there was nothing to worry about and at 3:04PM I had reached my goal – 86 days of cycling and 7738km after leaving the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, I had made it all the way across the American continent to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Waking up at the beach

Half Moon Bay Harbor

One last steep hill…

San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge 20km away (picture doesn’t really show it)

Mission accomplished!

I have to say that it is a really weird feeling right now. This has been my dream for half my life and I just can’t believe I have actually done it. I still remember how I googled “Bike tour New York San Francisco” more than 12 years ago and was fascinated by the idea. So I guess the word ‘bittersweet’ best describes the feeling. I’m definitely proud of myself and more than happy to have lived my dream, but at the same time sad it’s over. But as Kermit would say: “Life is good” and there are more adventures out there!

Packing the bike in SF

One of these adventures will be my little roadtrip that is coming up. After exploring San Francisco, I’m going to rent a car and drive to Las Vegas from where my flight departs next Thursday. On my way to Vegas, I will go through Yosemite and Death Valley National Parks which should be a nice drive. Addison has decided to join me for my roadtrip and the days in Vegas – I’m happy because now I don’t have to go to the great All-you-can-eat buffets by myself which is always awkward ;).

I will update the blog one last time before my flight home with the last updates. Hope you have enjoyed reading the final part of the bike-story and once again I want to remind you that you can/should still donate for Make a Wish Germany on www.donare.de/coast-to-coast-2013 if you haven’t already done so (or even if you have).

Thanks for reading and have a nice weekend,

Freddy

The last week was a big one! After almost 7000km, I got to San Diego where I reached the Pacific Ocean. But let me summarize the events of the past days.

After leaving Brawley, I had one more mountain range between me and the Pacific. It went up to 1400m (4000 feet) and it was challenging, since I was actually below sea-level in the valley I was in. The climb started just behind the little town of Ocotillo and I decided to camp there for the night in order to have all day for the mountain. The roads to Ocotillo were all terrible – sandy roads, broken roads with cracks and just no fun at all/not safe to ride on. So I decided to be illegal and take the interstate (comparable to the Autobahn) for about 25km, because it had not a lot of traffic and wide shoulders. All the locals had told me I should just take it and I was glad when I arrived in Ocotillo without any police-officers stopping me – but apparently they tolerate cyclists on that stretch since they know about the other road conditions.

The “roads” to Ocotillo in great condition to ride your bike on

Spent some time below sea-level in the valley

The climb out of Ocotillo was again one of the tougher ones with steep and long grades, but since I knew in advance what was coming up, it wasn’t too bad and I got to my campspot fairly early. At the campground, the cleaning lady, Donna, asked me about my route and was thinking that there was a better way to get to San Diego. Since she couldn’t think of it straight away, she decided to take me on a 30km test-ride in her car so I could decide which road I wanted to take the next day – and after all I stuck with the original plan which is always the best (according to my mom).

I would love to have the struggles of car-drivers sometimes

The climb from Ocotillo just went one way – UP!

Spotted some UFOs

Mexico is right behind the fence – a lot of border patrol to catch illegal immigrants

Although the next day was supposed to be a fairly easy descent into the outskirts of San Diego and it looked all downhill on my elevation profile, it was an exhausting day. I’m not sure if I have mentioned this phenomenon on here before, but it’s all about the expectations. If you know a tough day is coming up and you prepare for the “worst”, it usually isn’t that bad since your mind is set to take on whatever is coming up. If you, on the other hand, are too relaxed and think the next day will be a piece of cake, every hill, every rough road and any kind of wind will be demoralizing and hard to deal with. It wasn’t a bad day, but just not as easy as I had expected and therefore I was glad when I finally got to my hosts house in San Diego, about 25km from the beach. At Jeff’s and Ruth’s house, I got some needed rest and also met Patrice, a cyclist from Quebec. I had heard stories about him over the past 3 weeks from several people I had stayed with and never thought I would catch up with him. But there he was and it was funny to chat with him about our experiences in the morning.

Descent towards the Pacific

The big day had arrived and the weather was not appropriate for it! It was cloudy, foggy and only about 20 degrees Celsius with a pretty cold wind. The weather is typical for the region and it usually clears up during the day, but sometimes it doesn’t. The fog and clouds mostly stay at the beach while the weather inland is pretty decent. After waiting at Jeff’s house until about lunchtime for the weather to get better, I decided to just take off. I made my way through the busy streets of San Diego and ended up on a bike-path which led me for 5km to the beach and the Pacific Ocean. It’s hard to describe what it felt like when I did see the Pacific for the first time. I was really happy, proud and couldn’t believe I had actually biked across the American continent. At the same time, I didn’t really know how to ‘celebrate’ the moment, since the weather wasn’t too inviting to go swimming. It actually looked like the north sea back in Europe with the grey skies, but I still went for a quick swim and traditionally dipped my front-tire in the Ocean – I took a better picture the next day though, when the sky was blue!

The first picture I took of the Pacific – looks like the North Sea

The view from the balcony of my host in San Diego – just a mile inland the weather was way better

The following days, I cycled up the coast and it was mostly a pleasent ride with nice views although the weather stayed strange for the most part with clouds at the beach and blue skies inland. On my first days up the coast, I also encountered my enemies for the last stretch of this trip – the wind and hills. Most cyclists choose to go down the coast since the prevailing winds are coming from the Northwest – most people I talked to on the way were therefore surprised that I was heading towards San Francisco and one of them said what probably all of them were thinking: “What the hell?! You are supposed to be coming down from San Francisco!”. But since I chose my route for a reason, I’m going to do it all the way!

Those are the views I was looking forward to and now it was time for a better picture

Went through a marine base and all the sudden had to watch out for tanks

Halloween is coming up!

After going through famous beachtowns such as Laguna Beach and Newport Beach which weren’t always biker-friendly and had a lot of traffic, the next big challenge was to get into Los Angeles. I was staying with a friend from Barcelona, Emiri, who lives downtown which was another 25km from the beach and my route. There are more exciting tasks than going through the second biggest city in the US without a lot of bikelanes and awful traffic. I talked to several people on my way and they all told me to stay at the beach as long as possible and take a big avenue downtown in order to avoid the dangerous and sketchy neighborhoods where the gangs rule the streets. I tried my best to follow the advice and after all it wasn’t too bad – again it’s all about the expectations!

Beautiful sunset in Newport Beach

Trying to find the best way into LA

Met Jim and John in Huntington Beach and they helped me with the routefinding to downtown LA

San Francisco on a semi-official sign in the harbor of LA

After a long day: downtown LA!

It was really nice to see a friend again after such a long time on the road and always meeting new people. I stayed with Emiri for two nights and somewhat explored LA. We went to Hollywood, the Griffith Observatory, the University of Southern California where she goes to school and to a German restaurant – I think that’s all you can do in one day in LA ;).

Bratwurst and German beer far away from home in the “Wurstküche”

Impressions from the great time in LA with Emiri – what a huge city!

The way out of LA was not too bad, but with all the traffic I constantly had to focus and be alarmed in case a car got too close. After all, I made it and rode along the beach through Santa Monica and Malibu before getting to the place I’m staying at tonight in Oxnard. My host here, Chris, took me to a dinner with his friends which was really interesting since they have a rather unusual hobby: knitting. Turns out that I’m a natural and besides learning how to milk a goat, I now also know how to knit! Had a fun night and realize more and more how I will miss random evenings like this when I get back!

It’s getting hillier again, but riding along the Ocean is amazing

New hobby/skill: learning how to knit

I do want to talk about one encounter I had on the streets this week though, because I have thought about it a lot. When I was riding on the beach-path through Huntington Beach, I noticed another touring cyclists who was sitting on a bench close to me. I went over to him to talk about his ride and Ed told me about his problem: He broke his back a couple of years ago in a work accident and ever since has not been able to work and had to retire and lives off of the government’s social security system. He didn’t want to sit at home and do nothing and started cycling. Right now he is doing a big loop from his hometown Denver down the Pacific Coast and then back to Denver. Due to the government shutdown, he didn’t get his money this month and all he had left were 17 cents. He will get the money for last and the upcoming month on November 3rd which meant he still had 5 days to go on 17 cents. He had found a place to camp for free at the riverbed and was desperate because he didn’t know how to get food. I felt really bad and offered him a cookie and some fruit. He was so happy about it and before I left I gave him some money so he could at least get lunch that day. Why do I mention this? A lot of people ask me if this trip has changed me or if I have learned something. And although this situation was nothing major and I don’t want my trip to be philosophical, it did make me realize that I have a different view on certain things after 3 months on the road. While the initial questions in my head were: “Why can’t he work, but cycle?” or “Why didn’t he save more money before going on a trip?”, I after all decided to help him out a little bit, because so many people have helped me on this trip and given me money, food or a place to sleep. I just think I should be a little less sceptical and believe in the good in man – but of course this shouldn’t make me naive. Anyways, this was just a sidenote for the people who have asked me this question.

Ed enjoying the cookie I gave him – hope he’ll be able to continue his ride

My arrival in San Francisco will most likely be next Thursday, November 7th and the days until then will be tough but I’m really excited for the last part of this incredible adventure. I will probably update the blog again after I get to SF which means next weekend.

One more note: I have reached my initial goal of 2000€ for Make a Wish Germany thanks to your donations, but you can still donate! I raised the goal to 2500€ because some people thought they couldn’t donate anymore, but it is still possible even beyond the goal :). So just go on my donare-page and if you need English instructions, you’ll find them there.

Take care and thanks for reading!

Freddy

I’m almost at the Westcoast. Since I usually post an update on here every week, I decided to do another one today, because I don’t know if I will have internet the next two days and when I get to San Diego, I want to enjoy the beach and not have to worry about writing a blog-entry right away. I also apologize that I didn’t get to update the blog last night and I have heard several people were disappointed that their sunday reading was not online ;). I do appreciate the fact that people obviously enjoy reading about my journey though!

The last week marked the end of my “wasting days”-strategy. I had been taking days off in order to not arrive at the coast too early. But since Wednesday I’m on the road again and it feels good to be moving.

The restday in Flagstaff was one of the tougher ones. My host Ray asked me if I wanted to go on a quick bike ride around Flagstaff after breakfast and I sure did. My definition of the word ‘quick’was just a different one and I was not expecting to ride 35km on my day off. It was really interesting though and we even ran across a tarantula. I have seen a lot of them on the road recently and apparently they are not really dangerous, but still somewhat scary looking.

New pet in Flagstaff

From Flagstaff I rode to Cottonwood and passed the town of Sedona on my way. A lot of people had told me about this beautiful highway and town and I had high expectations. After all, it was really pretty, but I have been spoiled with all the great scenery I have seen on this trip and the stretch to Sedona therefore was ‘just another day’. The town itself is a very touristy spot and besides a quick lunch-break, I tried to keep going to my host in Cottonwood, Mike. He welcomed me with great food and home-made beer and I felt right at home. Mike just got back from his bicycle trip from Alaska to Arizona and talking to all the people about their adventures gives me inspiration for possible rides in the future. Since it was really comfortable and I had one more day to kill, I decided to take a final restday there.

The way up to Sedona and the small downtown

On Wednesday morning I was excited to get on my bike again. A really tough climb was waiting for me right outside of Cottonwood to get to the little town of Jerome. It’s a small community of artists (tourists I talked to called them ‘hippies from the 60s’) and a pretty interesting place. Today only a few hundred people live there, but back in the days it was a mining town with up to 15.000 people – not quite sure how 15.000 people would live in that small place. Jerome was only the halfway-point of my climb. I still took a pretty long break there because I became a small tourist attraction and got asked a lot of questions. A couple of hours of climbing later, I had reached my last pass over 7000 feet and was ready for a descent into Prescott. Arizona has probably been the least bike-friendly state of all and the shoulders either didn’t exist, were covered with trash and glass or in really terrible condition. The last kilometers going through Prescott weren’t a lot of fun, but my warmshowers-hosts for the night, Mark, made up for it. His wife cooked a great meal for dinner and we had a nice evening (I feel like I’m repeating myself with these statements, but the truth is that it always is nice!).

Looking up the hill to Jerome

Looking down from Jerome on the street I came on

Last time climbing up to 7000 feet

After a great breakfast with fresh fruit and cereal, it was time to get moving again. The destination for the day was Wickenburg. I was looking forward to get there, because from there I would stop going South and start heading West again. The day itself was another great day of riding with a couple of climbs, but also a major drop in elevation. For the first time in over a month I came down to below 1000m again! It was a fun descent and the outlook from the top into the valley was fascinating. I can’t stress enough how lucky I have been with the weather on my trip. I don’t remember the last rainy day and it’s just great – especially if you know what German weather is usually like during this time of the year. A sad sidenote to this day: I passed the small town of Yarnell. Some people might remember the story from the news: this June, 19 firefighters, so-called “hot-spots”, died in a bush-fire that destroyed half the town. Along the highway, there were signs reminding people of what had happened.

Making my way through Prescott National Forrest

The town of Yarnell is still shocked by the tragic events from June

Enjoying the view at lunch

Welcome to the wild west!

In Wickenburg, I was going to stay at a campground, but when I got there, the lady told me that the only grass-spot she had was being re-seeded and she could only offer me the driveway. Since my tent is not self-supported and therefore needs grass, I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do for the night. But luckily, the owner came back outside and told me I could just pitch my tent in her frontyard – for free. It wasn’t the most peaceful night since I was camped just a few feet away from a busy 4-lane highway, but after a long day of biking, you can sleep wherever! The next day, my destination was Salome – my last night before getting into California. Salome is just a very small town and the day was pretty unspectacular – flat desert for miles and miles (and for some reason I do find that really spectacular nevertheless!). When I got to Salome, I again was expecting to spend the night at a local campground. I stopped at the small grocery store in the middle of nowhere to get my dinner for the night (pasta and baked beans) when two guys on their 4-wheelers came up to talk to me. They wanted to make sure everyone had been treating me well on the trip and were impressed by my journey and asked where I was staying for the night. When I told them about staying at a campground, they told me to just come to their RV and I could set up my tent at their site for free. It was another lucky coincidence and it’s just amazing to see how many nice people are out there. When I got to Mike’s and Martin’s huge RV, they told me to make myself at home, take a shower, use the computer and do what I needed to do. I really appreciated it since I was expecting to have a rather boring afternoon without people to talk to/internet. We had a campfire going later that night and enjoyed beer and food while talking about all kinds of stuff. After a while, the ‘neighbor’ came home and talked to us for a while. Dave is a pastor in Tuscon and was on a 2-week roundtrip with his wife and kids through Arizona. He was interested in my journey and asked if I needed anything – ‘unfortunately’ I couldn’t think of anything though. The next morning as I was sitting at the table to have my usual breakfast, Dave’s kids came over and asked if I wanted to have breakfast with them. Of course, I didn’t say ‘no’ as pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon sound/taste way better than my sandwiches! Before leaving, we took a group picture and I left well-rested and fed.

According to the sign I’m getting closer

Good company in Salome

The day was special since I was going to enter California. I felt like a little kid on Christmas Eve and couldn’t wait for the state-line. Unfortunately, I had 100km to go before reaching it, but that just made me pedal a little bit faster. By 3PM, I was ready to cross the Colorado River to enter my final state on this trip. The toughest task of the day was to get decent pictures of the state-sign as it was on the nearby Interstate, but not on the road I was on. I did my best and I think it worked out well. I only had a couple of kilometers to go to my destination for the day, the city of Blythe. My first impression of California was not what I/people/Europeans/Germans think of when they hear “California”: A lot of trailer parks, sketchy people, bad roads. But I didn’t care at that moment and was just happy to be there. If it would have been Kentucky and not California, my mood would have probably been a different one. I spent the night at the local bait-shop. They were having a highschool-reunion from the Class of 1963 and there was a little party going on. For me that meant one beer before going to sleep since I had a really tough day ahead of me. Later that night Brad, another cyclist, showed up and it was nice to have some company. Brad is from Philadelphia and just started his journey in LA heading home. He is a 3-time state champion in time-trial racing and therefore well-trained for this!

Desert life

Crossing the Colorado River into California

The next morning, Brad and I headed out really early for a breakfast at McDonalds before we went on our separate ways. One thing cyclists have in common is the way of selecting food on the trip – most calories per dollar. Thankfully, McDonalds and all the other restaurants in the US write the amount of calories of each meal next to it on the selection-board. While the regular customer might try to find a meal with the least calories, the common cyclists seeks the opposite. We both struggled between getting the big breakfast plate for 5,99$ with 1340 calories or just 5 or 6 biscuits and burritos for a dollar each with a total of over 2000 calories. In the end, we both, surprisingly, picked the breakfast plate – the missing calories were added with tons of syrup and ketchup. This is one thing I’m not going to miss about the trip: Burning 5000-8000 calories a day also means taking in a huge amount and the best/cheapest/most convenient way to do it is with junk-food while on the road.

Breakfast-Buddy Brad from Philadelphia

After the “good” breakfast, I was off for one of the longest days of my whole trip: 150km through the desert in 35 degrees heat. I was feeling good and drank lots of water so it turned out to be a really nice ride. After about 100km I got to the Imperial sand dunes which was a nice change to the usually rough, red desert here. I got to my destination for the day, Brawley, in the late afternoon and was welcomed by yet another great warmshowers-host. We had dinner and Mark gave me some tips for the route for the next couple of days.

Making my way through the sand dunes – 35 degrees and the heat is affecting my brain

Now that’s what I was expecting to see in California!

Tomorrow, I will try to sleep in since I only have 65km to go. The day after that will be the last big climb (and one of the toughest of the whole trip) before getting to the Ocean. Since I want to enjoy the ride and not rush through a big city like San Diego on a bike, I’m taking it a little bit slower and will stay the night on Wednesday a little bit away from the beach and should get to the Ocean on Thursday after a 25km-ride. I really cannot wait and am super-excited – just hope the weather will stay good for a dip in the ocean, but I’ll go anyways. Some people have asked me what I will do for the rest of the time since I’m in California already. Just a reminder: I’m still about 160km from San Diego and have another 1200km to San Francisco. Now you know what I will be doing 🙂

Take care and thanks a lot for reading my blog, donating and following/supporting my trip – it’s nice to see that people like what I’m doing! And just to let you know: my goal was to raise 2000€ for Make-a-Wish Deutschland e.V., but that doesn’t mean it can’t be more than that!

Freddy

I have made it to Arizona, my 14th state of this trip and only California is missing! But let me summarize the last couple of days on the road.

After two relaxing days at Pete’s and Tina’s house in Boulder, it was time to get on my bike again. Right after Boulder, I had to ride on the ‘Hogback’, which is a narrow road that has canyons on both sides of it. The day before I rode on it in Pete’s car and therefore knew what I was getting into. But it was way scarier in a car than on a bike since you don’t go as fast and there was some space on each sides before it went steep down. Apparently they have redone the road several times and it’s less dangerous now. I tried to take good pictures and capture the drop-off to both sides, but since I couldn’t just stop in the middle of the road, I’m not sure if it worked.

The “Hogback” – maybe it’s hard to tell on the pictures, but it has steep drops to both sides

After a long descent with beautiful views into the canyons, I got to the Calf Creek Campground which is a popular spot for hikers. Since it is owned by the federal government it, and even its parking lot, were closed due to the government shutdown but there were still a lot of cars parked on the road. Pete and Tina had recommended to hike down to the waterfall. I left my bike at the entrance and started walking, but realized that it was a long hike (about 10km) and since I knew that I still had climbing on my bike ahead of me I decided to get back at my most important task on this trip: pedaling.

Only picture from my short hike at the Calf Creek Campground

It was a good decision not to hike, since the climb before my destination in Escalante was a tough one. Long stretches with 8% and a couple of switchbacks. During the climb, I passed Dave and John who were on their racing bikes and taking a break. Their wives were driving the support vehicle and they didn’t have to carry anything, except for themselves, up the mountain. I talked to them for a while and at the top of the mountain, ran into the support vehicle and its ‘road angels’ again. They invited me for lunch and I had some fresh fruit, cheese and crackers and delicious homemade cookies! The four have been friends for almost 50 years and it’s the 8th year they do a trip like this. On the following downhill, they were faster with their racing bikes, but we caught up in the town of Escalante again where I was spending the night. The campground was really nice and thanks to a cyclist discount, I only had to pay 50%, meaning 8$.

Looking down at the street I just came from – if you follow it, you can tell it’s steep

The next day meant the next day of climbing. I hadn’t decided on a destination for the day yet when I started in the morning which is unusual for me. I first wanted to see how well I would make it over the first two mountains and then decide if I’d also take on the hardest one into Bryce National Park on the same day. I was feeling great, the weather and landscape were once again beautiful and I was at the foot of the mountain leading to Bryce at 1PM. I chose to do the last climb aswell as that would make the next day easier. But first I had to wait until 2PM, because that was when the grocery store in Tropic, the little town I was in, opened. Just like the last couple of days, there was not a whole lot going on in the little towns I was passing in southern Utah and a guy infront of the supermarket told me the reason: the annual convention of the Mormons was taking place in Salt Lake City that weekend and everyone was either there or watching it at home. Most people in Utah are Mormons and I didn’t and still don’t really know a lot about their religion. One thing most people associate with them is the polygamist lifestlye, but that’s only happening in very few fundamentalist groups today. One thing I did notice and find pretty entertaining (but only because I didn’t have a flat tire) is the fact that Utah is the state where I have seen by far the most broken beer bottles on the shoulder or at the side of the road. Considering Mormons are not allowed to drink, that’s pretty impressive. (UPDATE: Arizona is even worse – there is more glass than pavement it seems like)

After getting my shopping done, it was yet another steep and exhausting climb with beautiful views. It’s a shame that all the national parks are closed, because I would have loved to see Bryce Canyon. I was spending the night just a couple of miles away from it but noone was allowed in. At the campground, I met another nice guy from Vancouver in his huge RV. He invited me to have a beer with him and gave me some cheese for the next day and helped me out with some milk and butter for my Mac&Cheese dinner. He had come all the way from Canada to see the national parks and now he was forced to just sit at the campground and find alternatives.

Impressions from the climb up to Bryce Canyon

The night at Bryce was the coldest of my trip so far. Minus 5 degrees Celsius and I was glad to have good equipment and several layers of warm clothes. The good thing is that it warms up quickly as soon as the sun goes up. I made my way from the campground on a bike path (yes, they exist in the US sometimes) through the Red Canyon. Impressive views, but unfortunately also a lot of tourists, since it was one of the few attractions that isn’t a national park.

Waking up after a coooold night in my tent

Lucky number?!

Bike path leading to Red Canyon

Red Canyon – amazing how the landscape completely changes with a “clear cut” as seen in the last picture!

After leaving the Red Canyon, I saw two cyclists behind me and waited for them – it was Dave and John again and they invited me to lunch a second time. We stopped in the little town of Hatch where the support vehicle was and grabbed some snacks. When we were about to leave, we saw another touring cyclist in the distance – Tim, the guy from Seattle who I had stayed with at two different hosts on my trip already. We talked for a while and then left Tim who was getting a coffee in town. The three of us climbed up to the last pass of the day and were struggling in the wind. I was lucky and got to ride behind them the whole time which made it a lot easier – I felt like I was wearing the yellow jersey in the Tour de France and my teammates were supporting me. In Glendale, they stayed at a bed and breakfast place and unfortunately I won’t run into them again on the road as they are flying back home soon and taking a different route. I’m going to miss the company and the lunch provided by the road angels -Thanks for that!

Looking back at where I came from

Enjoying lunch and company on the road

I spent the night at Gary’s place in Orderville. He is another warmshowers-host and a different one. He is 58 and lives in a trailer on the local campground. He hasn’t lived in the same place for more than a year in 40 years and loves nature and travelling. Tim, who also stayed there with me, described him as a modern mountain man. Right now, Gary works as a cook in a nearby restaurant, but just to save up some money and travel the next 5 years again. It is a fascinating lifestyle and he really only has the things he needs on the road. Cooking dinner therefore became a challenge since he also only owns a small camping cooking pot. So we each used our own pot to cook up some pasta. With three people, it did get pretty crowded in the trailer, but it was fun listening to all of the crazy stories Gary had to share and the night was warmer than the last nights in my tent.

The next morning, we all biked down to Gary’s restaurant at 7AM. Gary was meeting a friend there to go hiking for a couple of days. Tim was going west to St. George to fly home – his knee is still hurting and he decided to stop before it got worse. And I was going south towards Arizona and the Grand Canyon. The bikeride to the restaurant was one of the toughest of the whole trip. It was 8km in -3degrees. The wind was icecold and my hands were about to fall off. I couldn’t feel them anymore when I got to the restaurant and it took 30 minutes and 2 hot chocolates to feel alive again. The breakfast was really good and I only had about 30km to go that day. On my climb over the mountain to Kanab, I met a lady from Australia on her bike. She had come all the way from down under for a weeklong biketrip through all the national parks in southern Utah – and they are all closed. I felt so bad for her!

I got to Kanab at 11.30 in the morning and was excited to have a full day ahead of me in such a huge city (3500 people and several restaurants). I got to the campground, pitched my tent and saw an all-you-can-eat Pizza place nextdoor for 5$. I was in heaven! The whole trip I have been dreaming about all you can eat buffets and now it was next door. I stayed there for about 2 hours – the only downside was that I was feeling pretty full and sick afterwards, but I just had to take advantage of this opportunity. Besides eating, I also did my laundry and went grocery shopping for the next couple of days.

My plan was to leave Kanab really early as there were another two or three windy days coming up. Every time the weather changes from hot to cold or vice versa, this area gets really bad winds and it’s not a good idea to be biking. I left at 7.45AM and the day turned out to be not bad at all. Had one really long and tough climb up to Jacobs Lake, but then it was all downhill and the wind was not as bad as I had expected and coming from the side. The only disappointing event of the day was the crossing of the Arizona state line. There was no colorful sign, but jut a little green one stating that I was in Arizona now. Since I figured there would be a bigger one coming up, I passed it without taking a picture. Besides that, the day was great. Had impressive views over the wide-open valleys and it’s just fascinating to be cycling through such country – no people or even signs of people for miles and miles.

Long stretches of nothing, wild horses and crazy clouds welcoming me in Arizona

The little straight line you can (or can’t) see down there is the road I took through the desert

I was tempted to find out where this would lead to…

Funny that I did find a couchsurfer in one of the three settlements here (settlements in this case means: a restaurant/lodge and a couple of trailers where the employees live). Eran is 31 and from Portland, Oregon. She moved down here to work in the office of the lodge and loves hiking in the area. She took me on a little hike and it was cool to explore the non-touristy stuff. I’m actually writing this part of the blog here and will just add a few notes the next two days and upload the entry when I get to Flagstaff.

Impressions from the hike with Eran

Unfortunately, I had to change my route due to the government shutdown. Cedar Breaks, Zion and the Grand Canyon are all closed since they are national parks and the politicians are still playing their stupid games. I already cut out Cedar Breaks and Zion and instead of going by the Grand Canyon, I will have to go via Flagstaff since they even closed the highway towards the Grand Canyon and don’t allow people in. Of course, it would have been nice to see these attractions, but I’m not too sad about it. Like I said before: I have seen so much stuff, met so many people and experienced a lot on this trip – I would have never done that on a normal vacation. And I can always go back to the national parks…they won’t run away. I thought about it a lot and have come to the conclusion that my trip has been amazing so far without any major problems. If the government shutdown is going to be the main negative issue of this journey, I’m more than happy.

———————–Update from Flagstaff——————-
Ok, this is the second and shorter part of this blog-entry. From Cliff Dwellings where I had stayed at Eran’s house, I had a long day ahead of me with a lot of climbing again. I left pretty early and after a few miles crossed the Colorado River on the old Navajo-Bridge. It’s only one of 7 bridges on a 700 mile stretch of the Colorado River. It also marked my entry into the Indian Reservation. I had heard different things about the reservation. Some people sayed it would be scary or sketchy, but I didn’t have any bad encounters – mostly because I barely had any encounters, I guess. There weren’t a lot of people/buildings and it is probably true that the Native Americans got the land noone else wanted – desert. I wouldn’t want to live out there, but riding through it was amazing – I just really enjoy the color of the desert here.

Crossing the Navajo Bridge at Marble Canyon

There was one little town/trading post around where you can actually buy some basic groceries. When I got to town, I saw another touring bicycle outside of the store and after a short while Pascal, a Swiss cyclist, came outside. We were both happy to see another crazy guy on a bike in the desert and sat down infront of the store and talked for a long time and had lunch. Pascal is coming down from Vancouver and going all over the place. Eventually he will fly to Zanzibar and drive home to Switzerland with a friend in a van from Oman. He has done a bicycle trip from Switzerland to Tansania before and it was really interesting to listen to his stories! After lunch, I had to leave him though, because I still had 55km ahead of me and I didn’t even know what time it was (the state of Arizona doesn’t recognize Daylight Savings Time but part of the Indian reservation does – confusing!).

Lunchbreak with Pascal from Zurich in Navajo Country

After a long day, I finally got to Cameron. The last part of the day was not much fun with a lot of traffic on the highway, no shoulder and lots of broken beer bottles on the road. I was glad when I arrived at the Trading Post in Cameron and actually got to camp there for free – I invested the money I had saved in a delicious burger for dinner and went to bed in a good mood.

View from my campspot in Cameron – Little Colorado River

The next morning, I got up at 6, packed everything, had breakfast and talked to some people at the trading post about the National Park Closure. The road to the Grand Canyon was just one mile from there and they said there still wasn’t a sign of any updates. I therefore went south towards Flagstaff over another high pass and shortly before Flagstaff I had service on my phone again and saw 2 missed calls and a text from my parents saying that the Grand Canyon was open again. They must have opened the road right after I passed it, because the “Closed”-sign was still standing when I passed the road in the morning. Of course, it’s annoying that they re-opened it after I passed the road and of course I could do a detour of 200km and still go see it. But the past 2 weeks I have been planning a great alternative route, got people to stay with for the next couple of days and rather come back some day to actually explore the Grand Canyon instead of rushing up there for one day just so I can say that I have seen it on this trip.

From the desert into another mountain range – San Francisco Peaks

Now, I’m at Ray’s place in Flagstaff. He used to be a professional bike mechanic and therefore my bike got a perfect tune-up and maintenance check and is now ready for the final part of the trip! I’m really excited that I have made it this far and looking forward to reach California, San Diego and then San Francisco.

Ray working on my bike in his garage – the chain really needed some cleaning!

Only about 9 days of riding until San Diego!!!

Have a nice Sunday and hope you enjoyed the blog – realized it’s a lot of text, but I’ll try to add good pictures aswell. And thanks to all the people who have donated already for the good cause – but there’s still room for more!

Take care,

Freddy

It has only been a couple of days since my last entry, but I have had some of my favorite cycling-days of the whole trip and also want to take the opportunity to update my blog, since I don’t have internet most of the time.

After my 2 days in Monticello, I just had a short 35km-ride to the town of Blanding. I stopped there because it was the last town for 200km. I stocked up on food and water and left the next morning to hit the desert. It was an amazing ride! The street was in good condition, there was almost no traffic, the weather was great and the scenery breathtaking. I just really like the red of the sand in this area and there were some really cool rock-formations all around me. It reminded me of the pictures of Monument Valley, but the big difference was that I was able to enjoy all the views completeley alone. No other tourists and whenever I stopped to take pictures or just enjoy the view, the quiet and calmness was relaxing. I looked around and there was not a sign of anything human – except for the street I was riding on obviously.

Fry Canyon doesn’t exist anymore, so 120 miles to the next town

The way to Natural Bridges

I made it to the Natural Bridges National Monument and set up my tent at the campground. A German couple from Heidelberg that arrived in a RV invited me not only to stay at their site so I didn’t have to pay, but also for dinner and breakfast the next morning – what a treat!

Thanks for food and company!

This area of Utah is known as the one with the least amount of light-pollution in the US. When I first heard about that, I didn’t really know what to think about it but I soon found out: I have never seen clearer and more beautiful night-skies in my life. When I got out of my tent at night, it felt like I could reach out for the stars. There were so many of them and the milkyway was running right over my head – one of the most impressive views on this trip and also one I unfortunately cannot share with anyone since the pictures I took turned out to be just black. So you’ll just have to believe my description and go there yourself to be able to enjoy it.

When I was getting ready to leave the next morning, I filled up my water-bottes at the visitor center and talked to the park ranger for a while. I told him my plans for the next weeks and he goes: “you do know that all national parks might close tomorrow at midnight, right!?”. Of course I didn’t know, because I hadn’t had internet for a while and can’t really follow the news on my trip anyways. So I thought some of the parks might close because the season ends October 1st. But then he used the words that I had never heard before and should be hearing and reading a lot in the future: “federal shutdown”. I still didn’t really know what to think of it and just kept going, because the ranger station in Hite was the only place to get water for the next 150km – so there was no alternative. The ride to Hite was as beautiful as the one the day before and I could say the same things about it, but I won’t. I will try to select the best pictures to give you an idea what it was like. When I got to Hite, the rangers were really friendly and let me pitch my tent wherever I wanted. Besides the ranger-station and a small shop that was closed there was nothing. Hite used to be a marina and a popular spot for tourists with boats that went on Lake Powell. But the lake is not there anymore and therefore the town isn’t either. All that is left is a really cool dry landscape where the lake used to be and the marina facilities – one of them was perfect to take a shower.

Impressions from the ride to Hite

Remnants of better days – one of them was my shower

Cool ground structure where the lake used to be

Later that day, two Canadian couples showed up with their RVs and camped “in” the old lake. I talked to them for a while and they invited me for dinner – it was an amazing meal and good company! I ended up having some of the best meals in the desert. The night was a really quiet one again and the next morning as I was leaving the ranger station, the rangers were barricading the entrance – the shutdown was actually happening. I talked to them for a while and they didn’t know what was going on, if you could still take the highways through the parks or for how long this might last. I was really worried for a moment, because my next days and weeks consist of several national parks and I was afraid that they wouldn’t let me go through them. I didn’t really see any alternative. Luckily it turned out that the state highways crossing the parks would remain open. Only the scenic loops, restrooms, visitor centers etc would be closed. For me, that worked out perfectly, because I was still able to camp at those spots for 2 nights and fill up my water. If I would have been there 2 days later, I would have had no water for 200km. That shows that it’s not only a stupid political game, but also very dangerous!

Another big thank you!

They are putting up the roadblock behind me

The night after the ghosttown Hite, I stayed at a farm once again – in Caineville. Randy, the farmer and Emily and Jesse, the seasonal workers, let me pitch my tent on the property and I even got to pick some fresh apples to take with me. That’s one thing I really miss: a big supermarket with a good selection of fresh fruit. I haven’t passed one of those since Pueblo, which has almost been 3 weeks now. And probably won’t see one of them for another 2 weeks or so. All they have in the little towns are general stores with no selection, no fruit and high prices. But I’ll get over it.

Sunset at Randy’s farm

From Caineville, I made my way to Torrey and had to go through Capitol Reef National Park. The scenery was really cool with again red rocks, cliffs and canyons. As expected, everything but the highway was closed – I even got kicked out by a ranger for sitting on the wall of the visitor center to get off the road and take a break. After a heated argument, she let me finish my drink. That was one of the only bad experienes on this trip so far. It’s one thing to lock up restrooms and not let cyclists fill up their waterbottles on their way through, but to tell them they can’t sit on a wall is just ridiculous. I talked to the Sheriff a little bit later and he told me: “Well, the good news is: once you get out of the park, everything is open!”. I guess that’s a good way to look at it. I’m actually not too worried about the national parks being closed. I find that they are not really fun with a bike anyways. I see so much stuff on the way, canyons, mountains, rivers, forests, etc. It is pretty much the same just with less tourists and I can always go back to the parks with a car.

Impressions from Capitol Reef National Park

The night I stayed at Lyman’s place in Torrey. It’s another amazing warmshowers-host and when I got there, Tim, the 63 year old guy from Seattle was actually there aswell. He is taking a couple of days off to rest his knee. We cooked dinner and planned the rest of our routes. I considered staying another night aswell since some strong winds were coming up, but a day later, there was a chance of snow so I left the next morning. I had to cross another high pass (9600 ft – 2962m) and it was the toughest one of my cycling history. It was 40km long and had long steep stretches with up to 13% – again, these numbers are hard to understand if you are not a cyclist, but it’s tough. When I was about 5km from the summit, it started to snow and hail and my hands were freezing. The wind was really strong and I was just really happy when I got to my destination in Boulder. And although the climb was tough, I did have some really great views. Especially the colors of the trees were impressive and the yellow, orange and red leaves are – besides the dropping temperatures – another sign for the upcoming fall.

The climb to Boulder Mountain – struggling with the wind at the summit

In Boulder, I’m staying with Pete and his wife Tina. I had contacted their daughter Hannah via couchsurfing and while she is travelling herself, she helped me out and gave me the contact information of her parents. It’s really nice to have a place to stay inside when it’s cold and windy outside! They took me to a poetry reading at night and even let me stay another night to wait for the weather to get warmer and to write my blog. Today, I got to take their car to a nearby canyon and just got back from a hike up the mountain with Pete and their dog Pi. So even on my restday I wasn’t lazy ;).

Pete and Pi taking a break on our hike

Ok, that’s the main things I wanted to mention. At first I thought, I would only upload a lot of pictures, but it ended up being a long text aswell. As you can see, there is always something going on. I have actually been struggling to select pictures. I took about 300 in the last couple of days and would love to upload all of them, but I tried to find a good mix for you.

So, the agenda for the next week:
In about 9-10 days I will be at the Grand Canyon. I will stay a couple of nights there and then make my way through Arizona to California. I only have 18 days of biking left until the Pacific Ocean in San Diego. But I might take a restday here and there, because otherwise I would get to San Francisco to early considering my flight back is on November 14th.

Hope you enjoyed the blog and the pictures and don’t forget the donations on my donation page for Make-a-Wish Germany!

Take care,

Freddy

What has happened in the last couple of days?

After my restday in Montrose, I rode to Ridgway which is a nice little town in a valley between a lot of 14000er mountains. I stayed with Wyndham there and got amazing views on the snowcovered mountain-peaks from his house. Ridgway also has hot springs and Wyndham offered to take me there, but I was too lazy. The thing on a bike trip is that as soon as I step off my bike for the day, I don’t want to move anymore – it’s not necessarily about being tired, but it’s just such a good feeling to have arrived for the day that I don’t want to get up anymore. That’s what I really like about my situation now: I can take my time and actually just stay at a place for a day or two without having the pressure to bike again. Of course, I still keep going, but it’s at a slower pace than before and it’s more relaxing. Nevertheless, I did leave the house to get a pot for the stove I had bought in Montrose. So far, I haven’t been carrying a stove with me, because I usually just made sandwiches or stayed at people’s houses where I was able to cook and I didn’t want to carry a stove around without using it. But since I probably don’t have a lot of places to stay in the coming week(s) and will be camping a lot, I decided it was time to get one. In Ridgway, I found a light pot for 1$ at the local thrift-shop – a pretty good deal and now I can cook up some pasta while camping in the desert and I’m looking forward to that experience.

Ridgway, Colorado

The next day offered another scenic pass for me to cross – the Dallas Divide. It’s about 9000ft (2800m) and was a nice climb towards the snow. A lot of people from Colorado had been telling me that the fall is one of the best times to be in the mountains, because you get to see snowcovered peaks, it’s not that cold yet and also the trees turn into bright orange/yellow colours. I think I might have been a week or so too early for that, but some trees did have these colours already and it was a nice contrast to the white of the snow and the blue sky. On my way up to the pass, a racing cyclist was passing me and started talking to me. I took the opportunity to ask her if she would mind taking a picture of me climbing the mountain – it’s one of my favorite pictures so far, because I obviously cannot take pictures of myself riding and the background is just really cool. The rest of the day was pretty tough with a constant and steep climb up to the little ski-town of Telluride. It’s a really expensive ski area and I would compare it to St. Moritz or Aspen – just not as big. I went there, because I did have a warmshowers-host, but when I got there he told me he couldn’t host me, because his wife said they have had to many cylcists stay there in the past – it wouldn’t have been a problem if he would have told me earlier, but now I had done a 8km detour to get to town and the only option was a pretty expensive campground (my first bad warmshowers experience!). It was still fairly early and I decided to try my luck with couchsurfing since I had seen that there were a few couchsurfers in town. Usually, the reply-rate with couchsurfing is really bad and you either never hear back from them or pretty late. But I got really lucky and had a positive reply from Cameron within 5 minutes of sending my request. He let me stay in his condo, I got my own bedroom with a nice view on the mountains and we had interesting conversations. He told me about the free gondola up the mountain and although I was pretty tired I decided to go and it was a good decision! Cameron also told me I should stay more than one night in Telluride because it’s such a nice hiking spot, but I had to keep moving! It was Wednesday and by the end of the week they were expecting heavy snowfall and I still had to cross one big pass coming out of Telluride.

Climbing up to Dallas Divide

Made it 🙂

Impressions from the climb to Telluride – the rocks now started having a bright red to them

Nice view from the top of the mountain after the gondola-ride

That pass, called the Lizard Head Pass and 10222ft (3115m) high, was waiting for me the next morning. It was probably the hardest climb so far, since it was not only high up, but it did have a lot of steep grades in it (up to 8%), was long (20km) and there were really strong winds. I managed to get up there in a good time though and as usual: reaching the summit of a pass is one of the best feelings! Usually one of the reasons is because you have a long and nice downhill ahead, but this time the downhill was actually really tough. Because of a cold-front moving in from the Pacific, there were severe winds blowing from south-westerly directions – right in my face. I actually had to pedal going downhill to even go a little over 16km/h. That was pretty frustrating and it ended up being a long day to get to my destination in Dolores. On my descent from Lizard Head Pass, I ran into two cyclists from Arizona – Mark and Sandy. They are on their way from San Diego to the East Coast and we exchanged tips about the upcoming routes for each direction. I got some really valuable information about where to get water in the desert in Utah and since I had been worried about that for the past couple of days, I am more relaxed now and feel good about it. As I was finally getting into Dolores, I was pretty determined to ask my warmshowers-host there if I could take a day off, because I was just really tired. When I got to David and Belinda’s house a little outside of town, they had two friends from California, Bill and John, over and we spent a great evening talking about politics in Germany and the US while having some local beer. I decided that I’d push on one more day before having a restday since although there was a wind-warning in effect I was hoping to have tailwinds and it was at least supposed to be sunny.

A couple of bright yellow trees on the way to Lizard Head

Great views climbing up the pass

Mark and Sandy from Arizona on their way to the East Coast

The next morning started with a trip to the local bike-shop. Dolores has the last bike-shop for a few hundred miles and after getting only my front-tire replaced in Pueblo, I wanted a new rear tire aswell. Nicolas, the owner, was a really cool guy and actually fixed a lot of things on my bike – the only bad experience on this trip so far have been the bike shops and I have the feeling that after each visit, my bike was in worse shape than before (I’m excluding the Newton Bike Shop, the bike shop in Summit and in Dolores from this generalization!). The downside of this repair session friday morning was the fact that I didn’t get to leave Dolores until 1PM and I had 100km ahead and the winds only got stronger during the day. The first 60km were not bad – I mostly had strong tailwinds and the change in scenery was really cool. To my right, I could still see the high mountains in the east and to my left, where I was eventually heading I started seeing bushes and red sand – the first signs that I was entering Utah and the desert! About 40km before Monticello, my destination for the day, things changed since I was turning west and the winds with gusts of up to 80km/h were coming at me from the front and side. I had never biked in such strong winds and it was definitely not a pleasure. Every truck that was passing me pulled me to the side and when it was gone, I got hit by another gust and almost fell off my bike. Also, the barometric-future of my bike-computer was not working properly due to the strong winds and was showing -15% grades when I was going uphill – or at least I think I was going uphill…maybe it was just the wind. It was crazy! 13km into this 40km odyssey, I had one highlight coming up: I crossed the Utah state border. I tried to do my usual routine of taking a picture of myself and the bike infront of the state-sign, but it was pretty complicated since my camera got blown away all the time. Finally, I got it secured with some heavy rocks and got a decent picture. And I’m actually sad I only got two more of these state-sign pictures left – it’s always great to cross into a new state. Somehow, I managed to get the last 27km done which took me a long time and the only thing that kept me going was knowing that I would have a nice place to stay and take a restday. Sandstorms were all around me and I was so glad to arrive at Brian’s place in Monticello at about 6pm. Brian is an amazing warmshowers host and one of the very few in this area of the country. He cooked a delicious dinner, we had great conversations and I got to rest after a couple of really hard days. I also had the feeling I was getting a little bit sick, so now I’m recovered and ready to tackle the next tasks. On my restday, I didn’t do anything but chill and eat – the usual! In the evening, two other cyclists, Tony and Tim, came by and we had a good evening sharing stories and tips. Tony lives in Canada and has many years of cycling experience all over the world and it was fun to listen to his crazy lion- and elephant stories from Africa. Tim is 63 and has just discovered his love for touring cycling last year and said he wants to do as many trips as he can while he is still able to do it. This time, he came down from his hometown in Seattle and is actually going the same way as I am for the next week or so and I hope we’ll meet up again since it was really fun talking to him.

Sandstorms covering up the sky and sun

Utah!

Cyclist get-togethet at Brian’s place in Monticello

I think that’s all there is to say about the last couple of days, but I do have two more funny/random encounters from the way:
1. The stop-sign holders have become my best friends on this journey. I always feel so bad for them, because it seems like the most boring job in the world, but it also fascinates me that they are in a good mood and excited to talk to me about my trip. These guys stand at a construction site in the middle of nowhere all day holding a sign in there hand – one side is a ‘stop’-sign, the other one says “slow”. They just have to turn it every couple of minutes for the one-lane-road that’s coming up. Since I’ve been cycling on about 5000km I’ve talked to probably 20 or more of those guys. This week, there was a lady holding a stop-sign close to Telluride and we talked for a bit when I noticed her pretty thick accent which appeared to be German. And it was indeed. She was from Garmisch-Partenkirchen in southern Germany and has been living in Colorado for 27 years now. It was a nice change to talk to someone in German again and it turned out that she had actually crossed the US on her bike before. It could have been a nice conversation, but then she got the order to turn her sign around and that meant I had to ‘slowly’ move on.

2. On my way up the Lizard Head Pass, I took a break about 5km from the summit. My map told me to do so in order to get some water and snacks before hitting the final stage of the climb. As I was standing there eating a sandwich and drinking some water, a huge truck stopped behind me and the guy stepped outside and came towards me. It was Tucker the Trucker (if the little name-tag saying “Tucker” on his shirt wasn’t a joke). He was a big old guy and was interested in what I was doing, but also worried about me not having enough to eat for my trip. Although I told him I had plenty of food with me, he insisted on giving me some of his food. He disappeared in the his truck-cabin for a little bit and came out with about 5 small packages of smoked oysters and some smoked salami-sausage. What a nice gesture and I still have them in my bag for bad times – then I’ll be thankful for Tucker the Trucker! Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture with him, only of his truck.

Tucker taking off after donating a bunch of food

Alright, that was it for the week. I usually would have waited another day or two with another blog, but I don’t know when I will have internet again to write on here and upload pictures.
A short outlook: today I’m just going about 35km to the last town there is before the desert. After that, I’ll have a stretch of about 200km without any towns. There are two opportunities to fill up water and one little gas station to get some food on the way though and since the temperatures are really nice right now (almost freezing at night, but about 15 degrees C during the day), it shouldn’t be a problem and I’m looking forward to what’s coming next!

Take care and don’t forget to donate if you are reading this blog and enjoying it – Click here 😉 ,

Freddy

A lot of things have happened since my last blog-post and the people who follow my facebook-page (www.facebook.com/c2c13) have seen some pictures already, but I’m going to sum up the events of the last week.

The first big step was reaching the 4000km-mark which meant that I had reached 50% of my trip (probably more since it’s going to be a bit less than 8000km). The moment itself was not that special though, since it was a wet and cloudy morning on my way to Pueblo. Reaching Pueblo was still a great feeling. Ever since I had started planning this trip, Pueblo was an important step. I had set myself the goal of reaching it by the middle of September in order to avoid possible snowstorms in the mountains. I accomplished this goal by getting there on September 16th. Also, it definitely feels like I’m getting really close to finishing my trip which is weird since I still have thousands of kms to ride. But there are so many highlights coming up in the remaining states that I have something to look forward to pretty much every day. It is crazy, but I ‘only’ have about 26 days of cycling left until I will get to the Pacific Ocean in San Diego. Since my flight back is on November 15th and I want to get to San Francisco around November 9th, I now am in the luxurious position of being able to take my time, take days off when I’m in a nice area or the weather is bad – until now I was on a pretty tight schedule.

Time to celebrate – KM 4000

The ride to Pueblo itself was unfortunately not as great as I had thought. I was on a busy highway and since there were so many clouds, I didn’t get to see the Rockies yet. In Pueblo, I stayed with Monty, a couchsurfer, and had two relaxed days. A friend I met on my exchange in Barcelona, Megan, came down from Boulder to hang out for the day and it was nice to see a familiar person again for the first time in several weeks/moths. I also got my bike checked at the local shop and was really looking forward to the mountains.

Nice park and weather in Pueblo

From Pueblo, I had a fairly easy day to Canon City, but the weather was great and so I did get to see the mountains for the first time and it was amazing. Riding through this desertlike area with big mountains in the background and thinking about where I had started over a month ago was great. In Canon City I stayed with Nic and Leslie. It is a cool story how I got to stay with them and again shows the hospitality of the people and the network you start to build on a trip like this. The two cyclists that stayed at the church with me where I wrote my last blog entry, Jason and Ryan, were sitting infront of the supermarket in Canon City eating a sandwich when Nic and Leslie came up to them and talked for a while. After a bit, they just told them to come to their house to shower and spend the night. So when I was at the church with them a week ago or so and told them I was going through Canon City, they told me I might be able to spend the night at this family’s house. They gave me their email-address and a day later Nic replied telling me I was more than welcome to stay. So instead of staying at a campground, I got to spend a night inside not worrying about thunderstorms and resting for my first big climb the next morning.

On my way to Canon City

Out of Canon City, I had the first 12km climb and I indeed was in the mountains and will not really leave them until I reach the Pacific. The scenery was beautiful – blue sky, red rocks, creeks, rivers and snow-covered mountains in the distance. It’s actually really hard to pick a few pictures for this blog that capture the views, but I guess there needs to be some kind of incentive to still do a trip like this yourself rather than just reading blogs ;). My day ended in Salida which was the gateway to my highest pass of the trip, Monarch Pass. In Salida, I met this other cyclist from Basque/Spain, Lorenzo. He has been on his bike for 16 years (!!!). When he was 35, he quit his job as a high school teacher and decided to do a trip for not more than 18 months – and he is still on his bike. Every 5 years he goes back to Spain to visit family and friends, but he lives on his bike the rest of the time. He has been to every continent (except Antarctica) multiple times and is on his way from Canada to Mexico right now. It’s just unbelievable and talking to him made me feel like I was just on a quick ride to get some groceries or something. It was really interesting and inspiring to listen to all of his stories – but I don’t think I would ever be able to do that kind of thing. Still another great encounter on the way.

Impressions from the ride to Salida

Lorenzo, the crazy Basque who has been biking around the world for 16 years

Then the big day had arrived – Monarch Pass was waiting for me. I had never biked up higher than 2400m before and I think the highest mountain I had ever been on before was 3200m. And this pass was up on 3447m – and I had to ride my bike up there. From Salida it was 40km uphill. The serious climb was about 20km with an average grade of 5%. It’s hard to describe the challenge of riding up a pass on a bicycle to people who haven’t done it before. It’s as if you would go to the gym, get on one of those spinning-bikes, turn it to the highest resistance level and pedal for 4 hours straight. I do like it though, because it is really challenging and you always have to set yourself new goals. You also need to take frequent breaks so you don’t get sick of the altitude. Fortunately, I was feeling great that day, the weather was amazing and I really enjoyed the climb. Finally reaching the pass was probably the biggest moment on this trip so far. I chilled in the restaurant on the pass for a while and started to get a headache – thin air up there! So I decided that it was time for the descent – and that’s when you realize how much you had been climbing. You can just sit on your bike, not pedal and go down the mountain for about 20km at a high speed. I used the descent to relax and just enjoy the beautiful views.

After about 4 hours of climbing, I reached the hightes point of my tour at 3447m

After the descent, I still had about 50km to go to my destination for the day, Gunnison. It was pretty easy though and when I got there, the “Oktoberfest” was waiting for me. The little town’s bank had organized an Oktoberfest with a little band playing in Lederhosen, lots of German food (at least what they thought was German and catered by the local pizza-place) and beer (not German unfortunately). It was a nice atmosphere and a great way to end this day – Sauerkraut, Bratwurst and a Bretzel with mustard for free, what more could one ask for?!

Oktoberfest in Gunnison with free “German” food

From Gunnison I took Highway 50 all the way to Montrose, where I am right now. It was another 105km and after the hard day before, I was feeling my legs a little bit and there were still some climbs – but ‘only’ up to 2500m. It was another great ride with beautiful views on the big lake and the cliffs that were bright red with the sun reflecting on them. About 35km out of Gunnison, I spotted 2 other cyclists going the same direction as me just a few hundred meters infront. I started speeding up, caught up with them and rang the bell. Before I said anything, the guy just goes: “Freddy?!”. We rode together for a bit and talked and it turns out that Paul and his wife were on their honeymoon crossing the US and were staying at the same family – that’s how they knew my name.

There have been worse picknick-spots

Randomly running into Paul and his wife on highway 50

All three of us took a day off here in Montrose, because the weather was really bad today and it’s a great place to relax, but also work! We are staying at John and Emily’s house and they just moved down here from Oregon and started a little organic farm. So this morning, John took us with him to help him with the morning-chores. We fed the pigs, chickens, turkeys and got to milk the goats! I did not expect to become a farmer on this trip, but it was actually a lot of fun and maybe it is a new career-option. (It actually wasn’t my first experience as a farmer though: Earlier that week, in Ordway, I stayed with Gillian who owns a farm and lets cyclists stay at her place. The one thing she asks for in return is that they work for 15 minutes on her farm. So instead of paying money, I worked on the field for about 15 minutes and it was a nice feeling to at least give back a little bit and not just be a guest and receive.)

Farmer Freddy milking the goat

John feeding the pigs

The view from the backyard

John and Emily also let us have another great experience: Montrose is really close to the Black Canyon National Park, but it still is 20km uphill and therefore not that great to do on a bike especially not in the rain. We talked about it and said that we might not do it because of the weather and John just goes: “Well just take a car – we have two anyways”. So it was time for a little roadtrip. Going up the steep roads, I was glad not to have done it on my bike. Especially since as soon as we got to the Canyon, we were in the middle of a thunderstorm. Lightning and thunder everywhere and it was nice to be in a car. Unforunately we didn’t have the best views, but it was still impressive (the canyon is about 700m deep and people say it’s actually nicer than the Grand Canyon – that’s debatable I guess).

Black Canyon of the Gunnison – 700m drop!

So, this was the weekly update again. By the end of this week, I will probably cross the border to Utah and then it’s only one state before getting to California. Utah is going to be a challenge, because of the mountains, the desert and the distance between places to get water. But I’m looking forward to it and just loving this adventure!

Speaking of challenges: I noticed that I have (almost) caught up to the donations with a bit over 50%. So, if you are following my blog and enjoying it and have a couple of Euros to spare, I’d appreciate if you would donate on http://www.donare.de/Coast-to-Coast-2013 for Make-a-Wish Germany!

Take care,
Freddy

After 8 days I left Kansas today and crossed the border to Colorado. Time to take a look at what this state had to offer.

First about the terrain:
To my surprise there were hills in eastern Kansas. Everyone had been telling me how flat Kansas was, but the truth is: it’s not flat until about halfway through. In the east, they have the so-called Flint Hills. They are not real hills with short climbs of 1%-3% but people in Kansas actually refer to them as mountains, but I think they just do that because they want to have some sort of different terrain than the plains in the west. Anyways, although they weren’t steep, the first days here were still tough, because it was really hot and the headwinds kicked in. After Newton, which is pretty much in the center of Kansas, it really did get flat. It’s amazing, because there literally is nothing around and you can see miles and miles ahead. It might sound boring, but it is also fascinating to really not see anything but fields and powerlines for a couple of hours. Of course this is also a challenge, because at times there was not a single house for 20km and you definitely need to make sure to carry enough water and also hope that a thunderstorm doesn’t begin when you are in the middle of nowhere – so far it has worked out.

Not a whole lot around – this picture sums up Kansas’ scenery

Nice surprise: an exotic animal farm with zebras and camels

Because of the heat and the winds, I actually did a couple of nightrides. I started at 4 AM and it was a great experience. There was no traffic, no wind and no heat. And the best part were the sunrises. They were simply amazing! The only downside was that I was riding away from them and always had to look back to watch them, but since a car came only about every 20 minutes, it didn’t really matter. There was one scary incidence though: I passed one farm at 5.30AM and it was still pitchblack when a dog started barking and I saw that it was a huge one that wasn’t on a leash and started chasing me. Of course I was an easy target for him, since I had so many lights on me and was the only glowing thing in the dark. But fortunately I was too fast for him and after a while he gave up – at least I think so…I couldn’t see anything.
Another fun thing about the nightriding was the fact that I had no idea how far I had gone already. I don’t have light on my bike-computer and so I just pedaled and pedaled and when I finally had sunlight, it was a nice surprise to see how far I had come. You also invent a lot of games to not get bored, so I started guessing the distance I had travelled and then checked with my flashlight if I was right – I got better at it! (other “fun” games in the Plains include ‘staying on the white strip on the right side of the road’ and ‘estimating how many kms will pass until you see the next house/car’).

Beautiful sunrise in Kansas

There is not really more to say about the terrain or scenery in Kansas, so I’m gonna explain my headline for this blog entry.

Rain showers:
For the last couple of days, the weather forecast has been pretty bad with thunderstorms, rain and colder temperatures. So far I have been lucky with the thunderstorms, but it is still not the best feeling to see dark clouds all around you when you know the next house is probably an hour away from you. On my way to Ness City, I had my rainiest day so far. I was riding my bike for 4 hours in pouring rain and was soaking wet when I got into town. It didn’t take me a long time to decide that it was time for my first motel-night on this trip. I definitely didn’t feel like camping in my tent and being rained on all night. It was a good decision and I watched the Weather Channel pretty much all afternoon. That’s when I heard about the flash floods in Colorado and that more storms were coming up – so I really hope it’s gonna stay relatively dry here. I also walked around the town a little bit – that’s an exaggeration when you know that there are about 3 streets in the town. But it actually has a tourist attraction or at least claims to have one: the ‘skyscraper of the plains’. It’s an old bank building and after all is a 2- or maybe 3-story house – I guess the term skyscraper is defined differently in the Plains.

Fort Larned

The skyscraper of the Plains in Ness City

Warm showers:
As you guys might know, there is this organization called warmshowers, which has the same concept as couchsurfing, just for cyclists. So people open up their homes to touring cyclists, letting them take showers, eat dinner and spend the night at their places. I have been using this throughout the trip and it has been amazing! But in this headline, I’m actually referring to the unbelievable hospitability of ‘random’ people in Kansas.
Two nights in a row, I got invited by people I just randomly met on the street to spend the night at their homes. The first night, I was planning on camping at the city park in Sterling. I didn’t have service to call the police department to check in and asked a guy in the park who was playing with his little son where the police department was. After talking to him about the trip, he told me I was welcome to take a shower at his place and I asked if I could just pitch my tent in his yard. After taking a shower, Dave invited me to stay in the guest-bedroom. I had a great evening talking to him and his wife about all sorts of things, from politics over history to religion.
The next morning I left at 4 AM and actually made it to my destination at 9.30AM already. So I had a whole day to spend in Larned. I was just chilling at the city park when a guy came with two young kids to have picknick. I asked him if he lived closeby because I wanted to leave my bike there to be able to walk around town all day without worrying about my stuff. He did live right next to the park and told me I was more than welcome to do that. A little later on, I left my bike on his front-porch with a thank you not at the door. When I came back after a couple of hours, there was a new note on the door saying that I was welcome to sleep on the couch and take a shower. I should just walk in because he was going to be working for a while. For me as a German just unbelievable: it’s one thing everyone leaves their doors unlocked, but inviting a stranger to go in your house and “make himself at home” while you are not there..a different world, definitely nice though! After I was relaxing in the house for a while, Adam came home after dropping his niece and nephew off and getting his work done and asked if I was hungry. He had brought home a lot of meat and all kinds of food, because he figured I would need some calories. So we had a great dinner and talked about Kansas. The next morning, he also made a delicious breakfast and I was ready for another day of cycling.
So instead of spending 2 nights in my tent at city parks, I had good company, a bed and warm showers just because I met the right people at the right time – that’s what it is all about.

And finally the bike shower:
I had heard from other cyclists about the bike shop in Newton and that it was a great place to stay at. So I decided to do that and it was definitly the right decision. James, the owner, has a great concept: since Newton is pretty much the halfway point for the official Transamerica Trail, he wants to make cyclists feel welcomed and offer them a place to crash and also to get their bikes ready for the second half of their trip. As a touring cyclists, you can spend the night for free, take a shower, use the kitchen, use all tools of the bike shop and also the bike shower. James rebuilt a human shower into a bike shower. You can hang your bike in it and clean it. It’s a great idea and definitely another highlight on my trip. I ended up spending the night at James’ house with this family and it was a great time – as usual.

Finally getting my bike clean at James’ bike shop in Newton

Now you know what the title is all about. This time, it was really hard for me to write the blog, because it has been a week and the days are so similar that it’s hard to remember everything that has happened.

Another great thing actually happened today though: I am in the town of Sheridan Lake in Colorado with a population of 88 (people here told me it’s probably closer to 40). They do have a gas station with a little convenient store and I was planning on having not a lot to eat since there is no grocery store. At least they have a church where cyclists can stay at, so I went there and just relaxed for a while. Then a man came into the building and I went up to him: “You must be the pastor, I’m a cyclist and would like to spend the night here”. But it wasn’t the pastor. It was Ronnie, who was just getting a microphone for his dad’s 80th birthday party that was going on next door. He asked me if I was hungry – and of course I was. So he invited me to join the party and just come on over whenever. When I headed over there I was surprised to see about 50 people in the room – the whole town was there apparently. I had a great time. They had a buffet with meat, baked beans, potatoe salad and of course a birthday cake – and they had plenty of it so I actually got to eat a lot and feeling great now! But besides the food, it was also nice to talk to the people there. They made me feel like I was part of the family. Talked to a couple of guys that gave me directions and advice for my upcoming days. To others I talked about the differences between Germany and the US. And at the end, I took a picture with the birthday-boy and his wife. He gave me a hug and told me to say hey to my mom and tell her that she has a great son – but of course she knows that already ;).
When I came back from the party, two other cyclists had arrived at the church. They are going East and so we exchanged a lot of stuff about what is coming up for us. So even in a town of 88 people, I ran into the right people at the right time. And who would have thought that I’d get invited to an 80th birthday on my first night in Colorado!?

Happy 80th Birthday, Dennis!

That’s about it, I think. A short outlook: if the weather is not too bad, I should make it to Pueblo by Monday. I will take a day off and then it’s time for the Rocky Mountains. I cannot believe I have made it this far already, but I also have a long way to go still. On Monday I will reach the 4000km (2500 miles) which means the halfway-point of my tour. But I think it will be a little less than 8000km all in all, but we will see. I think I will be hitting the Pacific Ocean in San Diego in about 2700km – that seems pretty close, right!?

One remark to Colorado: The scenery is not going to change for another 200km, in fact it is getting even less populated (didn’t think that was possible).

Made it to Colorado. I have been on the same exact road going straight for about 300km now. I hope I’m not going to miss the next turn in another 200km!

And now I just want to say thank you to all the people I have met along the way that have made it such an incredible journey so far. I really appreciate the conversations, company, beds, showers, dinners and whatever else there is I have been able to enjoy. (I just reread that and it sounds like the trip is over already, so I have to stress the ‘so far’ because I’m hoping to meet many more!)

Take care,

Freddy

Good news: everything is going according to my plan and since the last blog-entry I have made it through Illinois and Missouri and have crossed the border to Kansas today! But let me start from the beginning.

After my night in Carbondale, my next destination was the town of Chester. It had a lot to offer! It’s the “hometown” of Popeye the sailor! It has a lot of statues and monuments documenting it, a museum and even the grocery store is called “spinach can”. Besides that, it was also right next to the Mississippi River and the last town before the state of Missouri. For me, crossing the Mississippi was special, because now I really had the feeling that I’m moving far far towards the West. Also, people had been telling me that the humidity gets less west of the river – and it really is true, the days are still hot with about 30-35 degrees, but it doesn’t feel like you go into a sauna when you step outside.

The town of Chester – home of Popeye

Not a spectacular picture, but this is the Mississippi

After crossing the Mississippi, Missouri welcomes me

But there was also a downside to leaving Illinois: after about 10km, the hills started again. I knew that the ‘worst’ and steepest ones were yet to come in the Ozarks Mountains. But I didn’t spend my first night in Missouri in my tent in the mountains, but in a jail! It was my own choice though and I hadn’t comitted a crime – no worries. In Farmington, the old jail has been rebuilt into a cyclists hostel, called Al’s Place. Since a lot of cyclists pass this town every year on their way from coast to coast, it’s another legendary place to stay at on the route and I was really glad I did. After getting the code for the door from the police department, I had a whole jail to myself. But it was a great, luxurious apartment with a kitchen, TV, computer, air-condition and everything a cyclist could ask for. And then there was another treat: On the way to Farmington, I noticed that my pedal was about to break. It didn’t sound very good and I was frustrated, because that would have meant 1 1/2 extra days (It was a Sunday and the local bike shop wasn’t opened til Tuesday 10am due to Labor Day weekend). The jail also had a bike-storage room in the basement and as I put my bike there, I saw 2 extra pedals on the floor – some other cyclist had left them there since he didn’t need them anymore. Those are the stories that make such a journey so special. It might sound stupid, but I was in a really good mood after that because it was so random and lucky that I found a pedal there that actually fit on my bike.

The old jail I stayed in and the storage room where I was able to fix my pedal-problem

On Labor Day, I hit the Ozark Mountains. The weather was just beautiful – it has been the last couple of weeks – and the scenery aswell. The Ozarks are known as a rollercoaster-ride amongst cyclists. You have a constant steep up and down and if you pedal hard enough downhill, you might get to about half of the next climb. And during the couple of days in this mountain range (by the way: it’s the only one going from west to east instead of north-south on the American continent), I realized what an impact the mood and mind has on your days and cycling. While I was annoyed in the hills of Kentucky, I was in such a good mood in the Ozarks that I was riding faster and easier than ever. I didn’t have to worry about dogs, thunderstorms or anything else and I have to say that those days have been some of my most favorite so far – scenery, weather and not a lot of traffic.

Just a few impressions of the beautiful days in the Ozarks

When I got to my destination on Labor day, Ellington, I only had one concern: “what are you going to eat?”. Since it was a very small town and it was a holiday I didn’t really have a lot of options. I just got a salad and some tomatoes from the small supermarket and chilled at my campspot at the city park when some people showed up to have a BBQ. And to my surprise, it was the sheriff and his family – (you can tell how small the town is when I tell you that the first person I ran into was the sheriff and the second one the mayor). After a couple of minutes they invited me to join their party and I was really glad! I didn’t have to go to bed hungry, but had lots of food and a nice evening with the sheriff and his family.

I had some more memorable nights:
– in Marshfield, I set up my tent in a city park next to an arena (I’m not sure what kind of arena – it had a lot of sand in it, maybe a rodeo). I was just about to go to sleep when the lights of the arena were turned on shining right on my tent and I hear tractors and other heavy machinery. I look out of my tent and see that the local farmers were getting the field ready for the next event. So instead of getting sleep, I watched them work and wondered why they hadn’t started earlier.

At first, I thought it was going to be a peaceful night…

– the next day marked my exit of the mountains and I was going to spend it at the local Motorcycle bar in Everton. I had heard about it from other cyclists on the way and you get to camp for free if you eat at the bar – a condition I was more than happy to meet! Not only did I have a delicious pizza and get to share stories with the funny owner, but I also took a shower in a schoolbus. The owner had rebuild an old schoolbus into a “showerbus” with 5 showers. I asked him how he came up with that idea and he said that he was going to rent a shower-cabin for a weekend-event and they wanted 13.000$, so he decided he could get it done cheaper and he sure did. Plus it’s unique and just another thing you wouldn’t see if you didn’t travel on your bike. Because why would anyone go to a town called Everton with 500 inhabitants in the middle of nowhere?!

The “Shower-bus” of Everton, Missouri

Today was another big day! I finally entered Kansas. As you know I had been dreaming about Kansas for a long time, because it means FLAT. I was really motivated and started early, but had to find out soon that Kansas also means “nothing there”. Before getting to my destination for today, Pittsburg, there was a stretch of 50km without anything – no grocery store, no gas station, just fields of corn. Ok, to be honest, I’m only about 10km behind the border and therefore 40 of those km still belong to Missouri, but I will have to get used to it. The longest stretch without anything on my way through Kansas is about 100km and I will have to plan everything very well so I won’t run out of water or food on that stretch. I’m still looking forward to it and can’t wait for the next couple of days. I saw my first sunset in Kansas earlier and it was amazing – it’s going to be even better when I’m out of the city and get to see it with an ’empty’ horizon.

First impressions of Kansas

Just a few more random stories that I didn’t include in here:
-in Houston, Missouri, a couple recommended to get breakfast at the local hospital because it was really cheap and good. The next morning, I followed their advice and was not to be disappointed! I got scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuit and gravy and oatmeal – and all ofthat for free! The older lady working there gave me a hug when I was going to pay and said: “breakfast is on me today, young man! Be safe!”

Finally a good breakfast and for free too 🙂

-in Ashgrove, Missouri, I was taking a really long break because it was early and I only had 12km to go to my final destination. As I was sitting in the city park, the sheriff pulled up and was trying to convince me to stay in his town for the night. He even offered me to stay in a house with kitchen and air-condition, but I still rejected the offer since I wanted to keep moving. Still a funny situation and again showing the hospitality of the people here.

The sheriff leaving after trying to convince me to stay in his town

-and a story I completely forgot to mention in my last blog about Kentucky. I met my biggest fan there! I was going down a hill, when I saw a car sitting in a driveway on the right and the lady inside was waving and telling me to stop. When I did, she jumped outside and was really excited. She had seen a lot of cyclists go down that road and had always wanted to talk to one and finally it had happened. We talked for a while and she told me that she would be late for church just because of me, but did not mind at all. We took pictures and exchanged numbers and ever since, LaDonna checks on me every couple of days to make sure I’m alright. Just another reason why I liked Kentucky after all!

Funny meeting with LaDonna somewhere in Kentucky

One last thought:
Since I have a lot of time on my bike, I think a lot. And one of the things that fascinates me the most is the community of the cyclists. Every other day, you meet other cyclists and you start building a network. Sometimes you just talk for a while and exchange advice for the upcoming route, but sometimes you also exchange numbers or emails and keep in touch for further questions. About a week ago I met this couple, Scott and Ashley from Chicago, who are going the same way I am, but at a slower pace. Ever since, we write emails back and forth talking about what is coming up. I also still talk to Peter, the guy I was riding with for a couple of days and who knows..maybe he will catch up at some point. And I even talk to a guy I have never met: the 2 British guys I had met a couple of weeks ago gave me the email-address of Mike, who is about 2 weeks ahead of me heading for San Francisco aswell. So I contacted him and he keeps sending me emails with stuff I should know and be prepared for on the way.
So what I was thinking on my bike is that this whole trip is like a ‘treasure hunt’ on a very big scale. You talk to people and get advice or recommendations for some little town or turn that is thousands of km away from you, but at some point you will be there and remember the words and be thankful for it.

One of the last cyclists I have met – Ken from Idaho going from Oregon to Florida – always a nice break to talk to others on the road about the upcoming challenges

Alright, I think that’s it for now. There are so many stories to tell that it’s hard to put them into order. Also, some of them might not even be that great for a neutral reader, but I try to make it as interesting as possible.

A short outlook: I have planned my days for the upcoming weeks and should be in Pueblo, Colorado on September 16th. I will have a restday there and get my bike checked and will then head into the Rockies. I can’t believe I’m that ‘close’ (it’s still about 1000km) and hope everything keeps going well.

Thanks for reading and the next update will hopefully follow from the westside of Kansas or even Colorado!

P.S.: That was the entry I wasn’t able to upload yesterday. I’m actually in Chanute right now and have to say that Kansas isn’t as flat as I have hoped so far and I also experienced the first headwinds (the cyclist’s biggest enemy in Kansas). Therefore I will probably start riding at about 4AM on some days here in Kansas to avoid the heat and the winds that pick up around noon.

What I’m going to see for the next 1000km – straight roads, powerlines and fields