Hello Everyone!

No i haven't forgotten about you guys, it's just been a pretty hectic time for me here so far in Oregon, but do not worry... I will be posting a final donation amount as soon as we have all the deposits in. There is still time to help donate to the Orlando family. With the donations total, I will also post a few favorite pictures from our adventure. I know I have said this many times before, but both Kyle and I are so moved by the generosity and support we have received from everyone while on our trip, both from back home and along the way across America. Not only did this trip change our lives forever, we were able to help the family of a dear friend to us as well. So please, check back within a week or two to see the progress we have made! Thank you all again for the continual support and positivity!

WELCOME TO PORTLAND!!!

So we are here in Portland, Oregon! We rode 112 miles into the night to get here from Biggs Junction. Wild night, but well worth it to finally be here. I'll update later today hopefully with more pictures for everyone!

oh, by the way...

WE ARE IN OREGON!!! Since the last update, we have beasted our way through the deserts in Idaho, all have had at least two flats, got sunburn on our faces, ate terrible gas station food, seen the Craters of the Moon, oh, and CROSSED INTO OREGON!

Arco, Idaho

Hello from potato country! We crossed into Idaho two days ago after a night in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. As of right now, we are 240 miles from the Oregon border! Today we are going to be riding through Craters of the Moon National Park, so that will be a cool sight indeed. We spent the night at our first KOA where we scored a killer deal on a little cabin, showers and laundry. The owner of the Kampground is a retired school teacher from Michigan, and was so into our ride that he gave us a touring cyclist discount. Good guy, with plenty of historical information for us about Idaho and it's atomic energy past. The weather has been absolutely beautiful for riding during the day, so we have almost no complaints there. On our way out of Wyoming we were fortunate enough to pass through the Grand Teton National Park, which in my opinion are the most majestic mountain's i have ever seen. It is almost overwhelming to see such magnificent landscapes and know that you have pedaled yourself from your driveway to their foothills. I have about one million pictures for everyone to check out, but those will have to wait till the next town library, we are almost ready to hit the road this morning!

Wyoming

Hey everyone. Just a quick update with a bunch of overdue pictures. Since the last update, we've stayed in an abandoned Masonic Lodge, a dude ranch, and a city park. All the while the weather has been staying pretty chilly, but yesterday in Lander, Wyoming (which to us, has been the redeeming town for Wyoming. Cool, young people in this town who all love the outdoors) we were able to stock up on some cold weather clothing. While in Lander, we also met a young couple from Georgia on a tandem headed east, and shared the city park with them last night. We are still riding with Guillermo, and Aaron from Hoboken and it has been awesome, and looks more than likely that we will be finishing up our trip with those guys. Good dudes with positive attitudes. Also, today is Kyle's birthday, so if possible send him a message or call or whatever you can. We were lucky that Lander is home to the Snake River Brewery, so we had a few rounds in celebration of Kyle turning 21 on the road. Today we start climbing, so hopefully more stories and updates soon!

Quick Update!

Hey everyone, we are in Rawlins, Wyoming! Woo! It's actually not that exciting here, but we have had some cool happenings over the last few days. After crossing the Wyoming border, we were fortunate to have caught an awesome tail-wind for about 27 miles. It was great, but as our luck usually turns out, that tail-wind quickly turned into a SEVERE head-wind, and also dropped about 25 degrees. It was almost unbearable. And to top that off, the most sinister clouds were looming above our heads, waiting to open up with freezing rain. Turns out, Kyle realized he lost his rain jacket somewhere in Colorado. Not good. As the rain began to pour down on us, we flagged down a pick-up truck with two hunters heading to Riverside (the nearest town), and asked if we could get a lift to avoid the cold. They were nice enough to hitch us in, although we sat in the bed of the truck and basically lost feeling in all of our limbs. Anyway, once in town we sought out shelter and warm food or coffee. While sitting in the Bear Trap Cafe in Riverside, two other touring cyclists walked in seeking the same. We got to talking, and found out the two guys live in Hoboken, New Jersey. Small world. The Bear Trap Cafe also rented out small motel room-like cabins for a decent price, so we decided to split a room with the guys. We woke up the next morning to 37 degree temperatures. Not at all the weather we were expecting. From there we rode into Rawlins, where we are right now and soon to hit the road. We split another room tonight because the local campground was going to charge us just about the same to set our tents up in the cold. This morning the other guys suggested we hop around the motels in town to see if we can sneak a continental breakfast from motels we didn't stay at. That plan worked brilliantly. I think we each had three different continental breakfasts, the Best Western was by far the best! I will be sure to update within the next day or so with tons of pictures, we just wanted to fill everyone back home in on our progress!

COLORADO!

Good riddance Kansas, finally. As of right now, we are in Fountain, Colorado. Colorado is absolutely gorgeous. Klye has family here that were kind enough to put us up, let us use their shower, air our tents out, clean our filthy clothes, raid their refrigerator, and whatever else it is that we do when we are back in a civilized world. We really can't thank them enough for all of their help, and kindness. This may not come as a surprise, but Kansas was as bad as everyone said it would be. We were hoping to make up some time in Kansas by CRUISING through the flat lands with an awesome tail-wind, but it turned out all we had was a head-wind and scorching sun above our heads. We heard a few sources mention that riding at night is a great way to beat the heat in Kansas, so we tried our luck that way. It was a great way to beat the heat for sure, but not as easy as we thought it would be. The one INCREDIBLE advantage to riding at night, is the mind-blowing amount of stars that are visible out here. Almost every night was like a trip to the planetarium. Our words can never describe the sights illuminated in the Kansas night skies. While in Kansas, we also met up with a few other riders who are West-bound as well! We happened to see two bicycles outside of a pizza hut in town that were obviously those of tourists, so we decided to go inside and see what was going on. While inside, another West-bounder happened to catch a sight of our bikes and got the same idea. It was really great because from the beginning of the trip till now, we have yet to meet anyone going the same way as us. It was like a class reunion or something. Yesterday afternoon, we were lucky to get an interview with a local news paper to help promote our ride furthermore. I believe the name of the paper is the Fountain Times. Tonight we head for Denver to meet up with a friend of ours who will show us around the city while we are in the area. Both Kyle and I are extremely excited for this leg of our trip, because from here on out there will be so many amazing natural sights to be seen. The Rockies are already over-whelmingly beautiful. Hopefully more updates, and pictures, so check back when possible!