Much Thanks!

Hello to everyone who has been following and supporting us for this great adventure and Cycling 4 A Cure! We would both like to thank you for all donations made to helping us help the American Cancer Society! For anyone who is still wanting to donate please do so, our website on the ACS website will stay active for a bit longer! or fell free to make a check out to the ACS and you can get the needed sheet off our ACS website or sent it to Chance and 922 3rd ave ne, Aberdeen SD 5701 and he will take care of the mailing for you. We hope that everyone enjoyed reading about our trip and if you have any questions please feel free to send us an email! For all of you that we have been so lucky to meet along the way, thank you for all of your help and generosity! We have been so lucky to have met all the wonderful people that there are spread across this great country of ours. If you travel across the country remember take the back roads I know it may be slower, but you see so many wonderful sighs most people miss. Don't forget to stop in the small towns they usually have the most to offer in the form of kindness! Again, thank you all! We could have never done it without you! Look forward to pictures to come! As for what we are doing now. Chance is back home in Aberdeen, SD working construction and hanging out with family and friends. I am in Maplewood, trying to unpack from school, and enjoy the things of summer I love so much! I will be going to Aberdeen on the 17th for Chances birthday and he will then be coming back to teh cities in September to get ready for our trip to Hawaii! Again thank you all so much and we hope to stay in touch!

San Francisco and the end!

The last two days we spent in San Francisco before we would fly on home. We had a great time seeing the sights, sleeping in and getting things ready to go home! In San Fran we saw the typical tourist sights of Pier 39, Fishermans Warf and so much more! We even rented these little cars called Go-Cars! They took us all over the city and navigated us by GPS we both had agreat time! IT was nice to relax and kind of weird to think that we were done and it was about time to go home. The last day Chance and I spent relaxing, and packing for the plane! It was time to get home. We took the Red Eye flight home on the 2nd of August and arrived in MN at 6am! It was a great trip and one that will be memorable for a lifetime!

The last day of riding...

It's been a long time coming! Today was our day we would enter San Francisco. IT has been a very long 2.5 amazing months and we are ready to see the ocean and head home! The morning ride was quite easy as we zig zagged our way through city streets. We were headed to Dublin where we would get on the BART and head into San Francisco! My knee was bothering me quite a bit today but I kept my spirits high as we were excited to complete our journey! Chance was wonderful as always and worked with me so that I could feel strong the rest of the way. We knew this afternoon we would have our last larger climb. we had no idea what we were in for. As we approached this climb, we knew the summit would be roughly 1,500 ft and we started at 35 feet so we had a pretty good climb left in front of us. The first part of the climb was pretty gradual and a bit a of a head wind. Chance flew ahead as usual but I took my time as I always say the turtle wins the race! Eventually the wind picked up and things got a little crazy. I got blown off my bike 2 times and I was like screw it I have all day so I got off and walked. It got so windy I was stopped in my tracks and could not push m y bike. Eventually I saw Chance again making it to the top having to push his bike as well! The kind guy that he is, he ran back down to help me out! As he was pushing the wind just kept picking up, the wind was so strong at one point, that it actaully took two of us to push my bike. At the top we took our time and got ready to make our way down. we both had a great time going downhill and cruised into Panda Express for lunch and a little break before we our final lag of the trip.. After lunch it was a great ride, full of excitement we made our way to the BART station and got on and let out a deep breath! We made it! We were on our way into the city and talked with a few of the locals who were a big help. once we got off the BART we of course got back on our bikes and made our way over the Golden Gate bridge dodging the tourists on rentals and took our pics! The last task was to find the bike store. At the bike store they would box our bikes and ship them home for us! It was agreat feeling to be done! We were both exhausted and headed to our hotel for a shower, food and a night of relaxation! It's been a great trip!

Rode to Modesto.,..

The ride this morning was pretty good. We had a bit of climbing in the morning to get out of Groveland. The one major exciting part of the day was the hill we got to go down called Priests Grade. Now, we were told there are 2 hills to chose from, old priest grade and new priest grade. When we got up to the split we looked down old priest grade and it was crazy, at some points it can get to over 20% and is 3 miles long. The New Priest Grade which we went down was 6 miles long. Chance really enjoyed the ride, flying down and cutting corners as you could see 3 turns in front of you. I however, did not like it as much way too fast for me. So I took my time and took pictures along the way as well. Chance had to wait for me and was not too happy about it.. So we continued on our way! It was great to see the mountains start to dwindle, they didn't disappear but they got smaller so that is always good! The ride went fairly quick and the temps stayed nice with the wind so we were not boiled like other days. We stopped in Oakdale, CA for lunch at Denny's! Lunch was delicious and we continued to get more excited to almost be in San Francisco. Once we left Oakdale we were in city limits for the rest of the ride into Montrose. In Modesto we did our normal routine and hit up the library. The library is so packed that we had to wait to get a computer and then you only got it for 30 min. From there we headed to the tourist info center and talked with the lady there about camping. we were told there was no camping within the city area but we could ride another 30 miles. That was no sounding good so we made our way to the Motel 6. Once we were settled and showered Chance was very excited for his first taste of In and Out Burger. While he enjoyed it, it was not super great. After dinner we stopped by the gas station to pick up a few things headed back and got ready for out last day of riding on this crazy trip of ours

Oh, It's all down hill out of here!

This morning we woke up a bit later then normal but it was ok, it was suppose to be all down hill to Groveland. We gathered our things and packed our bags, said goodbye to Joel and hit the road. We knew that we had a little hill to climb and then it was suppose to be down hill, and it was, for a bit. We went up to 8500ft and then flew down to 7500 feet and then had to climb back up to about 8300, WTF! Does know one from the west coast understand the concepts of down hill and flat, because it looks like they don't get it to me. I don't know, maybe I, a mid-west boy need to make a guide for dummies to riding your bike in the west, because someone needs to set the story straight and I guess the locals can't fathom it so they have to bring in a consultant. Well at the top of the other hill I stopped to take a pee and wait for Kelly. It wasn't long and we heard a familiar voice, "Hey slow pokes" it was Joel he had caught up. I guess we got one more day of riding together. The rest of the ride was rolly and there was a pretty big down hill and Joel and I got separated from Kelly. We thought it was because of traffic or just because she didn't want to join our draft line. Joel and I were really moving down the hill. So we waited and it took a little longer then normal and finally when Kelly rolled up to the turn out she didn't look good. We asked what was wrong and while she was crying she told us a bee had flown into here helmet and stung her before she could get stopped and take it off. So I looked at it and sure as could be she had a stinger in her head. Joel handed me a tweezers and I pulled it out. It looked to be already swelling and we could only hope that she didn't have an allergic reaction since there wasn't any medical around. But Kelly's tough and she rode it out. We had one more hill and then a huge down hill to the turn off were we stopped at the gas station to grab a bite to eat and bid farewell to our new friend. At the corner we went right towards San Fran and Joel went left into the valley to enjoy some more beautiful wilderness. The rest of the ride wasn't too bad. It continued to be rolly but we had some amazing down hills, Kelly calls them scary and rides her breaks but I love them. As we dropped elevation we could feel the temperature rise and it got hot for the last 20miles and stayed that way till the sun went down. When we got to town we ate some ice cream and found this really weird "motel" where you rent trailer houses, little cabins or tents and if you had your own tent it was only $25, ha only. We set up camp and went to 2 guys pizza. The food was good but I don't think it set well with Kelly or I, we spent quite a bit of time on the toilet. The rest of the night was spent trying to figure out our escape plan from Cali. Unfortunately we didn't get that great of sleep since at about 10pm all sorts of people decided it was time to have a party! Oh well, thanks for your support!

Welcome to Yosemite 9945ft

Alright finally a good nights sleep, it was cool right from the start and no crazy animals to wake us up. There were a lot of really creepy birds all over the camp ground, seagulls. It reminded me of the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds." I guess Mono Lake is one of their major breading grounds and they stick around because all the dumb foreign tourist keep feeding them since they think it's so cool. Well anyway back to the ride. We got up on our own this morning, no alarm since it was suppose to be a shorter ride with only a large climb up Tioga pass and then we were told that it was pretty much down hill to the other side of the Park. So we said goodbye to Joel and told him we would wait for him at either the top or Tuolomne Meadows Village. We headed out and started a very grueling grind to the top but it was filled with endless gorgeous views. It wasn't too long into the ride and I was waiting for Kelly. Her knee was starting to bother her and I knew it would take awhile to get to the top. I was had been waiting for Kelly for about 5mins and figured that she had already gotten onto her own break schedule so I decided to continue riding and it wasn't more then 3mins later and I heard her voice, "how did she catch me" I thought to myself and then I looked back to see her sitting in the front seat of a jacked up white Ford truck. She said she was getting a ride to the top. This didn't upset me since she was having knee troubles but it was now a personal challenge to see how fast I could make it to the top. I began to peddle as hard as I could and when my legs burned too bad to peddle I got off and walked until they felt better and then got on and road. It took me only 1 hour and 45mins to summit the beast and found Kelly waiting at the top cheering me on. It was a welcomed sight since I was extremely exhausted. It turns out that she was dropped off at Ellis Lake about 3 miles from the top. The ride from there was very pretty and not too difficult. There was only one 200 foot climb and the rest was basically flat.
While Kelly was waiting she met one of the workers that cycled to work, her name was Anna and she thought what we were doing was amazing and told us that she would give us guest passes so we didn't have to pay the $10 a person entry fee. So we waited for Joel so that he could get in free too. As we sat there we chatted with people that drove by and asked us what we were doing. We wrote down our website for a bunch of them so the could check us out. We kept getting mixed messages about how far Joel was back but he eventually made it to the top and we headed to Tuolomne Meadows to get some food. Tuolome Meadows is a very eclectic gathering point. It was interesting to meet all the hikers stopping for a piece of civilization. The term civilization means something different to a cyclist than a backpacker. To backpackers civilization is any place with facilities and people, to me as a cyclist, since we run into towns pretty regularly it's a place that offers amenities that I guess you could call luxuries like Mc Donald's. After we had ate, sent a few post cards and grabbed some food and a 6 pack to enjoy later we hit the road. According to a motorcyclist we had met the day before it was all down hill from here on out. We learned very quickly that they must have been on some good drugs because we had some pretty good hills to climb before we got to our campsite. When we finally made it to the campsite we tied our beer to a rock and through it in the stream, set up camp and then joined the beer in the stream to cool off and soak our tired feet. The after noon was very relaxing and enjoyable. We got to chatting with some of our neighbors and they were super cool. One couple were doing a National Parks tour and almost done and the other couple were just out doing some mountain biking for a couple days. The first couple invited us over to enjoy their curry with them and we spent the rest of the night sitting by the campfire and swapping war stories. It was a good time! Thanks for your continued support!

A new companion and the wonderfully pricey town of Lee Vining

This morning we woke up around 5.30 or so but we were up on and off through out the night. Around midnight there was a siren that went off for about 10 mins. I'm assuming it was a rural fire volunteer wake up call because about 10 mins after that we heard a couple fire trucks go tearing by. Then around 4.20am this damn rooster started crowing and didn't stop, he was soon followed by a quartet of dogs and then some other animals that were unrecognizable. According to Joel the rooster was trying to stay on central time just like us. That was unfortunate for us, so much for a good nights sleep. Well we readied ourselves and headed out about 30mins before Joel. The mornings ride was absolutely brutal. We had a 7 mile climb that hit grades of 10% at times and that wasn't the worst of it. The head wind was almost unbearable and we had to push our bikes for much of the 7miles. Then there was a very long down hill and then right back up a long gradual grade. At the top Kelly and I stopped for a snack and saw Joel for the first time this morning. He was about 3miles behind us and we figured that he would catch up so we continued on. The next section was labeled the 5 mile dips. it was absolutely ridiculous. It was like a giant whoop section down a road. The hills were short and steep. As Joel later put it, what the f@#$, how lazy is California, why couldn't they just flatten that road. There are a million illegal Mexicans that will work for pennies. Just take a little damn sand out here and add a little there! Haha, it was hilarious because we felt the same way. Joel caught up to us at the top of the next hill as I was waiting for Kelly. He rode with us for the rest of the day. The most of the day was filled with climbing. We were told we would have about 10miles of climbing and then it would be down hill. I guess they can't judge distance very well or they just forgot about the summit of 8600 some feet. It was such a relief to see that summit sign. We had climbed about 3500 feet so far this morning and we were ready for some down hill. At the top of the summit sat an RV and they were setting up some sun shelters so we stopped by to see what they were doing since they had two nice road bikes on the back of the RV. When we got closer we saw the sign on the side. They were the Sag for a ride to help raise money for the Eastern Sierra Disabled Sports program. They were really nice and couldn't believe that we had ridden as far as we had with all our gear. They asked if we wanted to have a soda and we gladly excepted. Then they asked if we would stay for lunch so all their riders could meet us and we could meet this amazing man who was riding a hand bike and doing all the hills, unfortunately I can not remember his name, sorry. So we stayed around and enjoyed an amazing lunch. Joel almost ate them out of house and home. I thought I ate a lot. He's super skinny and eats like a horse! haha, but it was nice to meet all the people and we gave them our information. They guy on the hand bike was absolutely amazing and it was so motivating to see him climb that last hill and ride all the terrain that we struggled to. It was great to meet all of those great people and they were so supportive, they gave us some Cliff Bars and cheered us on as we road away. The rest of the ride was very scenic and extremely different to what we had gotten use to for the last couple of weeks. We dropped quickly into a densely forested area along Mono Lake, one of the oldest lakes in the US and it is a salt water lake that has a 25% higher salt content and is a 100% more alkaline than the ocean. The day was nice and cool but unfortunately we were not done climbing. We had one more shorter climb and then it was a gradual climb into Lee Vining. When we got to town we stopped at the Mobile Station just out side of town and ate at the Whoa Nellie Deli like we were instructed to by the other cyclists. The food wasn't super amazing or even that cheap but that's not what it was about. It was about the scene. It was a super cool laid back area were people from all walks of life stop to meet other interesting people. There were tons of tourists like everywhere but there were also longs of hikers and some mountain bikers and there was live music to enjoy while you ate. The manager of the deli loved what we were doing and gave us a free piece of pizza and a free beer. We ate our food and enjoyed the music and asked about camping opportunities and were directed towards the RV park since it was the only place were we could shower. So we headed over to Mono Lake Resort and RV Park, what a joke this place was. It cost us $23 dollars to set up our two tents on a plot of grass and then we had to pay $1 for every 5 minutes of hot water we wanted in the shower. They also advertised Wi-Fi so we were excited to use that but they failed to mention that it was $6 to connect. It was even worse then staying at a KOA. Fortunately there were some nice people that we camped by so that made it worth it. When we had set up our tent we went down to the local camp store to try and find Joel a new sleep mat since his blew out the back of a truck in NV when he was hitching a ride. When we got back to the camp site we sat around and chatted for a while enjoying the cool weather. Kelly was pretty tuckered out so she went to bed early. Joel and I met this guy doing a tour on his motorcycle and chatted with him for awhile and then made our way to bed as well. It was a biter sweet day. We had quite a struggle in the morning and then met some amazing and inspiring people and were blessed with a beautiful ride in the afternoon. Thanks again for all of your support. We are almost there!