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This blog chronicles our ride across North America. We began on June 14th in Anacortes, Washington, and rode roughly 3400 miles to Portland, Maine, with breaks, over 37 days.


My name is Evan (26) and my father is Dave (60). This was his crazy idea.We have chosen to raise funds for an organization called the FHSSA, which has a new website here.


A donation page has been set up for our trip, on the National Hospice Foundation website

You all have helped us raise $2300 so far, so a big thanks.

If you want to know why we chose this fund, see THIS POST HERE.

If you want to be emailed updates, you can use the "Follow" gadget (on the right, below), as I won't be doing the weekly mass emails that some have come to expect from me. On the flipside, I'll avoid updating you on every cornfield we pass.




Tuesday, June 15, 2010

"...feels good 'cause it's early."

Day One: Anacortes to Diablo Lake, WA
88.86 miles. 6:12 in the saddle.

It's late in the day and I want to see if this Ishmael guy in my book ever finds work in his sea port town...

So let me try brevity.

First off, we have been warned to take it easy on the first day by many a touring cyclist. It was nice to run into a few today as well (one of which was celebrating her two new knees with a jaunt through the Cascades...)

7 am woke in the morning with... French press, hot cereal, cheesy photos with our back tires in the salt water. Thanks Brad for those things and leading us out of town. First 45 miles were a blur (flat, blue skies, snakes and hummingbirds). Then burgers, shakes, too many photos, coffee AND espresso.

Dave hit the blurry eyed wall around mile 68 (this means you stop, drink a liter or two, eat an energy bar and start pedaling slowly as these things kick in, hopefully within five minutes.)

6 miles later I hit that same wall. When you get to this place, and shake your head disapprovingly at the hill in front of you, you can feel your brain sloshing and lagging behind where your eyes have focused. Everyone should try ţhis.

The whole day was a slight uphill as you follow the river up to the Cascades. A lot of waterfalls to be seen, of course. The final 10 miles of today got steep enough that we were spinning at a cool 4.5 miles per hour at times. Maybe it was the 70 before them, or maybe it was the overkill of cotton shorts, 15 power bars and full size crescent wrench that I chose to carry (among other dumb items that will get sent home when we get to the post office tomorrow).


The town of Diablo has a few free plots down by the river and the folks nextflap to us had us over for some cherries and a fire. Tonight I learned about mine-proof tank construction in Qatar (great job!) and the migratory patterns of Washington's grapes and how the world thinks their fancy drinks hail from the Napa Valley.

I can tell a conversation will be worthwhile when I approach a group of older strangers who are discussing the finer points of The Big Lebowski.

See you in a couple days when I recover from the 4 (5?) gigantic hills that dwarf anything we'll see east of Montana.

Welp, I fail at brevity. If you want the cliff's notes just look at the map at the top of this blog.

Back Tire in the Water, Anacortes


Brad & Dave riding out of Anacortes towards the refinery (the one with the explosion..)


Mossy Boat:


CONCRETE, WA:


Dave's rediculous organization skills:
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1 comment:

  1. JoshJune 16, 2010 at 6:36 PM

    Good luck on your ride, my dad(mike Hadway), and I will be following your blog. This whole adventure looks pretty dang cool!

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