From Coast to Coast...Here We Come...

it is incredibly surreal to think that in just two weeks we will be headed towards the east coast to start this epic bicycle journey across america.

over these next two weeks we are going to post a number of things talking about the trip and also our preparation leading up to the trip. so...if you are along for the journey...let the journey begin.

part of any great story is the combination of positive turns and negative turns. we have definitely had some of those over the last couple of weeks. let me share with you one of each from the last couple of weeks.

first the negative turn:

the monday before last, we were riding after work and had ridden the first half of our ride (the out) and were starting into the second half (the back) and as we were cruising along, cailyn took her eyes off the road for just a split second (to wave at someone getting ready to cross the road) and she hit a huge pot hole dead on. It sent her front tire flying up in the air and when it came back down she couldn't keep the bike upright and she crashed...pretty hard...we were probably doing 18mph or so. she wasn't hurt too bad, but the really crazy thing is that as it turns out, there were people outside of the house that she crashed in front of, and so they came out to check on us right away...and as the first guy gets out to us he says..."are you okay, my son was just killed here a couple of days ago." which is not really something you are prepared to hear and was incredibly hard to know how to respond to. we found out later that the boy was only like 8 years old and apparently he had been hit by a car while riding his bike.

the whole night shook both of us up pretty badly, and it was difficult to feel like we should just can the whole trip. but we both knew that would make for a terrible story and that we could not let that emotion win out.

now for the positive turn:

i was talking to a lady in town on the phone the other day about a program we are going to be running this fall. she was going to check on some things and then get back to me in a couple of weeks, and so i wanted to let her know that i was only going to be around for a couple of weeks and then i was going to be gone for a couple of months. and then i told her what i was going to be doing for those two months. and the lady say, "no way, we are getting ready to take my son to the west coast on may 29th (the same day we are leaving) to ride his bike across the country." so she and i start talking more and basically her son is riding almost the same trail (the exact same one from Pueblo, CO to the east coast) and he is wanting to do it in the exact same time frame as we are wanting to do it in. it was very surreal to say the least. and it felt like a great little piece of inspiration...a reminder that we are not totally crazy, but that things like this are what great stories are made of.


and so...a negative turn and a positive turn...i am sure just a pair of many more to come over the next couple of months.