Sweet Sweet Victory

We touched the Atlantic Ocean yesterday! It was actually more of a challenge than I expected....we had some trouble finding a road that would lead right to the water. For some reason I thought we would pull right off the main road and be able to ride right up to the beach. Well, not exactly. We rode about half a mile before we found a bridge that would take us to the beach. The anticipation was killer. Then the bikes wouldn't fit over the bridge, so I just took off my front tire so I could dip it in the ocean. I know, ridiculous. But it was very cathartic:)

Then we decided to treat ourselves to the dollar menu at McDonalds as a victory dinner. Unlimited fountain drinks! Hot fudge sundae with extra hot fudge! Totally unhealthy and delicious. Good times. You would be surprised how few McDonalds we have seen across the country.

Anyway, we are in St. Augustine for 2 days, but I doubt we will leave the hotel room. We're resting a little before the ride back down to Miami. We'll probably watch more television in one day than we have in the whole trip.

Also, I might never ride a bike again:)

For the next blog, I have a really awesome story about how we could have possibly been killed on a 178 acre plot of land. We REALLY have to stop accepting offers to stay at a stranger's house.... :)

Almost There!

As of this minute, Bethany and I are in Starke, Florida. We are planning on moving along after we're done blogging, and we should touch the Atlantic in St. Augustine tomorrow! What an adventure. I should note that we lost a lot of our motivation these last few days. Somehow being so close to the finish line has a reverse effect on us. We had a couple of days where we only did 30 miles! Otherwise, we could have been finished by now. We'll chalk it up to the fact that we want to extend the trip as long as possible... :)

Of all of the states we have been through, I think Bethany and I agree that Colorado was our favorite. The landscapes are breathtaking, the people are polite and helpful, and most of the roads had a fairly nice shoulder (how lame that we judge the states by the size of the shoulders!?!?!? I'll answer that. VERY lame). I would go as far as to say that 75% of the people passing us in vehicles waved. Compare that to the .01% of people in Florida. Something to think about, Florida. Be nicer. Jerks. :)

On one of our days in Colorado, Bethany and I were sitting outside of a tiny general store sipping on some Gatorade and getting up motivation to continue on the trip for the day. We were right on the Arkansas River, so buses were always driving by with giant rafts, and a load of people that had just survived the rapids. It looked like such fun!

While we were relaxing, two older ladies sat beside us on the bench. They had their lunches....sandwiches freshly made at the little deli inside. We started up a conversation (just in case you were wondering, a loaded bicycle is a surefire conversation starter. I happen to have one if you want to borrow it when I get home:). We talked with them for a long time, and found out that one of the women was a cancer survivor....stage 4 lung cancer! What a tough chick. Another young man had joined the conversation by this time, and he had survived a brain tumor as a child. He was only 20 years old (he was hitchhiking back to his job at one of the raft companies - he had surprised his mother for July 4th. Aww!). Hearing about their ordeals made the fundraising portion of this trip feel a little bit more.....real. And necessary.

Unfortunately, the ladies eventually had to leave. They had generously offered to give the hitchhiker a ride, so all three were going together. Before leaving for good, one of the women walked over and pressed some money into my hand. She was inspired by our trip, and she wanted to help....so she gave us $40! I'm never quite sure how to respond when people hand me money, so I'm sure it was just some nonsensical babbling. Either way, Bethany and I thanked her profusely. It is oddly moving when a stranger makes such a generous gesture, whether it is $5 or $400. These are the people that I'm so happy to meet on this trip.

Anyway, there is more to the story, and it can be long, so I'll try to condense it.

We were still sitting on the benches outside the general store, still trying to get motivation to continue. It was a particularly hilly day, and it was rough trying to get back on the bikes. Across the road, a guy came blazing by on his Kawasaki motorcycle. He stopped in the store to get himself something to drink, then he came outside and sat on the bench with us. Again, bicycles make the greatest conversation starters! We were explaining our bike trip, and he explained that he was a river guide on the Arkansas, and he lived a few miles up the road. We talked for a little while, and he offered his house as a place for us to stay the night. Without much thought, Bethany and I agreed.

As it turns out, "a few miles up the road" was really about 40, and we were in the middle of nowhere. Steve's house was on a plot of land that allowed you to look in almost any direction and see the Rockies. It was quite bizarre and amazing at the same time. We cooked up some awesome microwave dinners (Yum! And ewww!) and sat on the porch to watch the sun go down. It was quite possibly the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen. The Rockies turned purple, and it was almost like a postcard. When the sun was all the way down, a little deer pranced out of the forest and walked around the house. Steve talked to her, and the deer wasn't afraid at all. And there were a million hummingbirds!! They were all chasing each other and zooming around at a thousand miles an hour. I felt like I was in a Disney cartoon. I half expected Thumper to come out of the forest next. It was a little bit surreal.

Steve told us that he would take us the next day to go white water rafting on the Arkansas River. I was a little concerned at first...we had to make it to Pueblo by the next evening, because we were staying to a coworker's parents (hi, Bob and Phyllis!), and we didn't want to be too late. But the chance to go whitewater rafting was hard to resist. I love taking adventures that could cause my death.

We got up bright and early and headed down to the River. It was about half an hour away from where Steve lived. Then again, EVERYTHING was half an hour away from where Steve lived. We got there early, and we were set up on a raft. Before the raft left, Steve took us over to the Royal Gorge, one of natures other wonders. The cliffs were straight down, and the river was rushing through 1,500 feet below. America's highest suspension bridge crossed the top of the gorge close to us. There was a fence that said "For Your Safety, Please Do Not Cross Fence". So, naturally, we crossed the fence. Steve showed us the perfect place to climb to the top of the rocks so you could look straight down into the gorge. One false step and it was lights out. Completely scary and breathtaking at the same time....a lot like Bryce Canyon's trails without a fence to separate you from falling into the canyon. We took plenty of pictures to freak out our parents, then went back to get on the boat for rafting.

Aside from "popping wheelies" with the raft, the trip was pretty normal and uneventful...certainly not worthy of explaining in detail. There was a short section where the guide allowed us to jump out of the boat and float down river, and I was amazed at how fast the current was moving, even when it didn't look like anything was happening. Oh, yeah. And the water was freezing. It took my breath away. I guess it has something to do with the snow runoff? News to me! We pulled off the river right before we went into the Gorge, which would have been an awesome experience as well. I guess we weren't experienced enough:)

Not to mention, this trip was free. Steve used his "comp" and got Bethany and I on a boat for no cost. It wasn't until later that I found out that a trip like ours normally costs $53. I think if I would have known that sooner, I would have given Steve a big bear hug. He had only known us for under 24 hours! That seems to be the story of this trip. Extremely generous people.

I can't wait to be back in Miami and have some time to process this whole trip. It shouldn't be long now! It will certainly be nice staying in one place longer than one night. But more than anything, we're so excited to touch the Atlantic Ocean. Our cross-country will be complete!

"Aren't You Scared?!?"

Before I start, I would like to thank 2 people: First, Mack Leach. We met Mack in Columbus, Mississippi, and he bought us dinner at the most fabulous steak house in town. Second, John Duncan, a Deputy Sheriff in Selma, Alabama. We asked him if there was a public library in Selma (to update the blog!). He offered to drive us to the library...but instead, he took us to a really nice motel, pulled out a $100 bill from his wallet, and told us to get a hotel room in the safe part of town. He knew the hotel had a computer we could use for our blog, so we didn't have to visit the seedy section of town. Apparently they have 4-5 shootings per week? Whew, thank goodness for locals. And thanks, John. The hotel room is awesome.

Thanks to everyone we have met on this trip. You have all restored my faith in the human race. Mostly:)

Anyway, I know I said I was going to write about the Royal Gorge and whitewater rafting, but I really wanted everyone to hear about our sketchy motel experience.

"Aren't you scared?!?"

That was the question we got from the lady at the grocery store where we were buying supplies for dinner. It was a response to the motel we told her we were staying in for the night.

"Scared? Wait, what?"

Apparently, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

We had stopped in Aberdeen, Mississippi for the night. The town was relatively small, and there weren't too many motels. Just like every city in Mississippi or Alabama, we have been warned by the locals not to camp because we were in a "dangerous area". It ended up working out anyway, because the weather had been so bad for the past couple of days, that it was wise to stay in a motel anyway.

There were three motels to choose from: Best Western, which was too expensive, some other small motel, but I couldn't understand the guy at the front desk (really thick Indian accent), and the Tombigbee Inn, which was $35 after tax. SCORE. We headed up and booked a room. We had been in cheaper motels, so we weren't really concerned.

Ok, we have camped and slept in some pretty sketchy places, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING compared to this place. This is the one situation where I really wished I had looked at the room first. Try to picture this:

• We almost had to kick the door open because it was stuck. 18 layers of paint will do that.
• Nasty green carpet that was tracked over so many times it was more of a dark brown. Neither one of us wanted to take off our shoes while we were there.
• The tiny television had a message written on it in White-Out: "If you see this TV please don't buy this TV from anyone. Please call ###-###-#### if you see this TV anywhere." Yikes.
• There was a little pine tree air freshener hanging from the light fixture on the wall. And there was no lightbulb in the fixture. Come to think of it, there was only one little lightbulb in the whole room. It gave off about as much light as a small Bic lighter.
• I'm not sure, but I think there was a murder committed in the bathroom. There were creepy rust-colored spots everywhere, and they wouldn't go away. There was a bottle opener drilled into the door frame, but it had also been painted over 18 times.
• The bathtub also looked like it was painted, but the 18 layers of paint had been splitting and puckering for several years now. The hot and cold handles were different....one was a long, thin handle, the other one was a circle. They both looked like someone had pulled them out of the trash. And they were on the wrong sides, so it took me a second to understand why the water was not getting hot. We were so creeped out, both of us showered with our flip-flops. And clothes. :)
• There was a giant bug in the toilet when we first got there. Bethany flushed it, but I kept having images of insects swarming out of the plumbing. And there was nothing that could get me to actually sit on the toilet seat (which, by the way, was 2 sizes too small for the actual toilet, so there was a chance that you could literally fall in). Those rust-colored spots made an appearance there as well.
• The sink had funky handles. They were angled differently, and one turned left, while the other one turned right. And no matter how hard you pushed, it didn't stop the drip. Drip. Drip. Drip....Drip........Drip............
• You know how motels give you one or two bars of soap and the very least? Well, this motel was no different. It gave us two bars of mystery soap. The only problem was this soap looked like it had been sitting in the soap dish for weeks. If not years. I'm not sure how many "customers" this place has. The paper had faded from an off-white shade to a yellowish orange. You couldn't read the name on the paper. It also looked like someone had dipped them in water before placing them in the soap dish, because the paper was all crinkly....much like it would be if you, say, dropped it in the toilet water then put it back. Not saying that's what happened, but it was WEIRD. And there was no way we were even touching the soap.
• Don't you love how motels have those curtains that keep the sun out in the morning? Yeah, this was not one of those. There were 2 yellow curtains on our window. They were nearly see-through. They were cinched together in the middle and held together by pieces of shoelace threaded through little holes. The icing on the cake was the Breathe-Right strip that held together the last portion of the curtain. Magical. Magical, I tell you. There was also a black binder clip that held the curtain to the rod on top. I'm not making this up, I swear! I know you don't believe me, which is why I have a million pictures to prove it. I took more pictures in this motel room in 10 minutes than I had taken in the last 3 days.
• Most peep holes have glass in them. Ours had toilet paper shoved into the hole where the peep hole used to be.
• There was a brown folding chair at the "desk" in the room. Yeah, right.
• The motel was called the Tombigbee Inn, yet it had a "Clubhouse Inn" ice bucket and a "Rodeway Inn" pack of matches. Strange? Yes, strange.
• The sign outside the motel said " Butget 00 Rates. Weeklyyrate" It should be noted that the "W" is actually and upside-down "M".
• And last, but not least: the bed. Oh dear goodness, the bed. I won't even get into the bedspread. Bethany and I yanked that thing off and didn't touch it for the rest of the time we were in the room. Other than the spread, there was one thin sheet underneath. You know how Dateline does those exclusives in hotel rooms where they shine the blacklight, and it reveals all the disgusting "fluids" on the sheets. Ugh, we didn't need the blacklight. We could see all the stains with the ole' naked eyeball. Gag me, seriously. There was no way we were going to sleep on those sheets.

We were at the local Piggly Wiggly (HA!!!) trying to decide what to do about the bed situation. I'm not kidding, I'm gagging inside just writing this story, and we have seen some gross things on this trip.

As we were checking out, the lady asked us where we were staying. When we told her, she recoiled in fear, and looked at her fellow cashier. They both looked at us....kinda like you would look at someone if they had 2 heads. "Aren't you scared?" Well NOW I am. A little. But thanks for doing your best to calm my fears, ladies.

They told us to go next door to their equivalent of the Dollar General (which is in EVERY small town in America, along with Main Street and Walnut Street), and pick up some antibacterial spray to hose the room with. Dear goodness.

Instead, we came up with the fabulous idea of using those giant black garbage bags. Bethany cut them open lengthwise, and used them to cover every visible portion of the bed. Then we used our sleeping bags on top. Brilliant! I use the term "brilliant" loosely, because we might have been better off sleeping on the concrete patio in front of the door, just going inside to use the bathroom. That probably would have been our best option.

Oh, and the whole room smelled like someone had chain-smoked for a decade without ever opening the door.

Again, it would be easy to think I'm exaggerating, but I promise you, not even my clever mind could come up with the "Breathe-Right on the curtain" thing. Because....ewww. We just hope it wasn't used ahead of time. Grrrrooooosssssssssssss.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we escaped without catching a disease, and we weren't murdered in our sleep (although I slept with some protection, just in case). And we have a ton of pictures that I can't wait to share. But much like the beautiful Bryce Canyon, or some of the other breathtaking landscapes on this trip....you just don't get the full effect with a picture:)