Phototime!

There's No Place Like Home

Hey all,
So we're done with all the cycling of the trip having arrived in Fredericksburg, but that doesnt mean that there is nothing left to read on this blog. Soon we will post the most super awesome wrap-up post of all time, replete with pictures, awards, and more. Stay tuned for that within about a week's time.

Tall Man Out.

Oh Yeah, Back in Good Ole VA

Well, yesterday every one's four favorite cyclists crossed over the border into Virginia thus making true our blog url. West Virginia really made us earn the right to get home, we all agreed that yesterday was the most technically challenging day of riding for the entire trip.

We set out from Elkins, WV with the hope of making it just 60 miles to Monterey, VA. Fortunately, on the way out of Elkins we saw a topographical map of our proposed route, so there were no surprises. We were warmed up by about 20 miles of rolling hills then the tough stuff began. First, 4 miles at 9%, then a 4 miles at 8% , then a pair of 2 mile 8% ascents. For those of you who aren't familiar with the percent grade system, 1% = roughly 52 vertical feet per mile. So on that first climb, we ascended roughly 1800 vertical feet in 4 miles, by far the longest steep climb of the trip (Logan's pass was 12 miles at 6%, a comparably easy ascent). Lucky for us, the rest of the trip is through towns where we have an abundance of places to stay. No more camping for us!

So in high spirits we are headed to Staunton today, just 45 miles east of Monterey and with only 2 significant climbs. I can't properly convey how excited we all are to finally be back in Virginia and to be so close to completing what has really been the trip of a lifetime. From Staunton to Charlottesville, from Charlottesville to Fred Vegas. We can't wait to see you all.

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS

Tall Man Out.

Ohi-oh!

The final leg of the trip has begun. We are all definitely feeling close to home now that we're in this part of the country (and finally in the eastern time zone again). Chicago was an absolute blast, but departing made us remember there's still some work to be done before getting back to Virginia. Fortunately though our bodies have had time to reboot and our spirits have been quickly renewed.

The route through Indiana was pretty quick and we've been in Ohio for the past couple days. We stayed in Bowling Green for a night and got to watch the final 2 stages of the tour which was really cool. Also, this may only be relevant to certain people, but Connor and I discovered that a person known as Big Red now resides in the campus area there. As terrifying as that may be, Bowling Green is a pretty fun and lively college town.

Today we got to enjoy a day at the lake with extended friends, the Jacksons. Their hospitality has been great. Trivial Pursuit, paddle boats, frisbee, cannonballs, and bellyflops all ensued. Now we have the West Virginia border eyeing us down. There are a few small hills coming up I think (the Appalachians or something..) but we're ready keep on pedaling.

Eastern time zone, baby!

I suppose I'm a little overdue for a post, seeing as we have passed through Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana since we last spoke. A lot has happened. Connor has outlined most of the activities up to Chi-town so that's where I'll begin.

We had a blast in Chicago. Taking a couple days off in a row finally gave our bodies a chance to really recover. The first night we took it pretty easy, basically just tied a few on in the hotel room then walked around a little. Day two we welcomed two guests to the city. Beau and I were fortunate enough to get Jackie and Mia to come out and suffer through the locker room stench of the our hotel rooms. That night we went out to a couple bars in the northern part of town. On the third day Connor's mom flew out to spoil us yet again with her generosity. We went to a great pizza place...the name of which completely escapes me (something with a "G"). That night, after Momma Maloney went to bed, things got a little rowdy. Without divulging everything, there were several bars, at least one last call, Giant Jenga, and a blurry cab-ride. As for the night life, that was pretty much it.

The daytime attractions in Chicago were spectacular as well. The Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Aquarium all received good reviews from the group. Also, as cheesy as it sounds, the Skydeck on the Sears Tower is also pretty fun.

Unfortunately I cannot show you any pictures of these attractions because I cannot get them on this computer. They will follow shortly.

So, right now we are in Bowling Green, Ohio and we expect that we will only have another 8 or so days left in the trip. Everything's going great, we're super psyched to get back. It looks like we are going to pick up Rt 250 here in Ohio today which not only takes us to Virginia, it takes us through Staunton and Charlottesville. I'll see you all soon, we're just around the bend.

Tall Man Out.

The Windy City

"...But our trip was different. It was a classic affirmation of everything right and true and decent in the national character. It was a gross, physical salute to the fantastic possibilities of life in this country - but only for those with true grit. And we were chock full of that." -HST

Well now, the summit dubbed "Virginia Riders" have arrived safely in the Windy City. As we press on towards the eastward horizon megalopolis looms near and Chicago becomes the absolute opposite of North Dakota's desolate stretches of "highway". The city brings a few days of rest, rendezvous with friends and family, and a hammerhead blow to the bank account. Writing from the 3rd floor of the world's largest public library (i.e. The Harold Washington Library) it seems plausible we will be able to remain entertained without pedaling the bikes for a few days.

Our route through Milwaukee was pleasant but rather disappointing. Neither the goal of touring the Miller Brewing Company nor Heckling Barry Bonds were accomplished and we set our sails south for Chicago. (On a personal note, I will never again patronize baseball after Mr. Bonds finalizes the symbolic downfall of the national sport. I can only hope that his record breaking home run is made possible by a underarm lob by some witty pitcher.)

Prior to our visit to "the good land" (Thank you Alice Cooper) we took rest for two nights in Madison. Alright, we didn't do that much resting but we did enjoy ourselves. We gave State St. a try, did some "power" shopping, ate Chipolte, and visited a bike store to fix our worst mechanical problem since the beginning (Isaac has been carrying a Virginia flag since Minneapolis and despite my nagging to fly the flag (I can barely manage to see it so oppressed underneath his bungees) it took its own revenge, tangling itself in his spokes and grabbing onto the derailleur snapping the aluminum hanger which is oh so important to the basic function of the bicycle). So, thank goodness we were in Madison... no way we could have fixed that on our own.

Highlights included getting to play with my cousin Emma (who does excellent cartwheels, by the way) and finally getting to watch some movies on a couch and do nothing else at all. Thank you Kerry, Ranny, and Grandma.

As for now, me and Chuck will continue our date while the remainder of the quartet awaits the arrival of their better halves at the airport. Hope everyone is well out there. More to come....

New Youtube Video

3 more videos should be available on youtube.com under the same keywords

chuck beau connor isaac

we are off to Milwaukee this afternoon before taking a train into Chicago

enjoy

...and go Vinokourov!

Description

Below:

Tall man and beau marveling at free video games in Mcdonalds

Mall of America

Minnesota

Wisco

The Mayor of Summit, South Dakota... totally totally drunk

The End of State Street

Isaac's bike disaster

This guy swore he was the back up pilot for air force one... and a bull fighter... and was a tortured POW.... and wrote the welfare reform for america....

Me feeding a baby cow on an organic dairy farm (thank you Slingers)

Carol cooking us a great big meal

Photo Time

Beau's Playlist

this is what beau hammers to when he hammers across the country:

one genius/GZA - liquid swords

my bloody valentine - loveless

boards of canada - trans canada highway

pixies - greatest hits

madlib - the other side of las angeles

the Midwest: Cheese and Family

yo yo everybody
were in mad-town (aka madison, wisco) on a beautiful and breezy day this july 19th. as you read, for the past few days weve been taken care of by connor's extended family which has been awesome. totally delicious homecooked meals and sleeping indoors is great after a month of fast food and faster biking. id like to say thanks to the slingers, as well as carol and shirley for their hospitality. that was so great. tonight and tomorrow were staying in the home of another awesome aunt, before biking on to milwaukee (the good land), and the trip's expected highlight, chicago. the new harry potter book is coming out in two days...who's psyched?! speaking of HP, we saw the new movie in imax 3-D while in faribault, which was simply mindblowing.

other than HP, weve enjoyed the midwest very much. connor bought some 6 year old cheddar today at a reccomended cheese stop which was delicious. the roads here arent the best, narrow shoulders and lots of bumps and patchwork, but weve made it through all right.

okay, ill leave something for the other guys to post. theyre gonna put up some pictures and stuff while were here i think. i cant wait till chicago and home - beau

Hectic Times

Hey all,
We've returned to civilization. After crossing the SD-MN border, the world around us changed rapidly. Cell phone service, towns every 10 miles, libraries open 5 days a week, gas stations open on weekends. It's amazing. Two nights ago, the Slingers graciously welcomed us into their home in Fairbault, MN (about 40 mi south of Minneapolis). We were pretty haggard upon our arrival, and we were spoiled with hot showers and a fiest the likes of which we had never seen. We are all incredbly thankful for their hospitality.

The day leading up to Fairbault was a long one. We began in Delano, MN, about 30 mi West of Minneapolis, and biked into the city. We all really enjoyed our quick trip through the city, it seems like a great town. But we weren't really there for the whole city, just a particular edifice in the southern part of it: The Mall Of America.

I've gotta tell ya. That place is KA-RAZY. 2 roller coasters, a log ride, mini golf, a ferris wheel, 2 food courts, 4 stories. After spending the prior three weeks in Montana and Dakota ranchland, walking through the doors of that monument to capitalism was a total sensory overload. One cannot help but bump into other people because the whole time you just want to look up. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) we could not stay long because we had about a 100 mile day to complete. So we ran a couple errands (Chuck got a haircut, Beau got an iPod, I got a Virginia flag, and Connor got an Ireland flag....because, you know, there's a flag store).

Yesterday we had our first full day of rest since Vancouver, again thanks to the Slingers. Today we ride to Rochester, MN to be pampered once again. In fact, for the next week or so, we may not have to sleep outdoors. A strange thought. So, at this point its Chicago-or-Bust then a beeline for the coast. We are less than three weeks away by our calculation. Practically around the block. Keep up the comments, we all like hearing from you.

Tall Man Out.

The word of the day is...

tolerance (n.) - sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one's own.

This word has been particularly relevant over the past week.

First props goes to Beau for his noteworthy and commendable tolerance of my stinky feet and snoring tendancies in our "cozy" two-man tent. He even bought me an awesome "Daddy's little trouble-maker" sticker for my bike as a present.

Next, kudos to Connor for his patience with my slow learning curve this trip and his tolerance of my questionable ability to retain important information. His understanding in this area has been invaluable.

Finally, Isaac deserves much appreciation for his tolerance of my increasingly-faulty rear wheel. I really need to get a new one soon, but up until now he has steadfastly helped keep my bike in working order.

A final note of gratitude goes to the Slingers, Connor's relatives from Faribaut, MN, who graciously took in four weary cyclists (and all of our dirty clothes). This stay has been great so far and our bodies will definitely enjoy a day of rest.

Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago are on the horizon. There promises to be lots of great stories to come.

Where the Werewolves Love Techno.... These Roads are Stained with Varmit Blood...

Hello all...

and welcome to the Connor Maloney awards

first up

the award for worst roads in North America go to... South Dakota
-this was a close one folks but the 12 miles of gravel on a major road and the apparent inability to maintain a consistent pavement makeup for more than 50 feet gives SD the win over its closest competitor, North Dakota

the award for largest amount of road kill in North America goes to... South Dakota
-again, another close one, but the number of decapitated deer, fallen birds, and unbelievably flat raccoons earns this state another trophy

The award for the overall worst state goes to... North Dakota
-There is a reason people don't go or live there. And there are a lot of reasons we are never going back. For instance, I'm not sure cell phones or internet have reached that place yet...

anyway, i'm getting kicked off line...

the pictures below are in no particular order but (and I apologize for the wrong angles, more computer problems):

Isaac consuming the biggest pancakes we've seen yet (we've seen a lot of them)

A great sunset over the Missouri River

The best picture we got of the plains

Our July 5th celebration

One more

More Photos

Tour de South Dakota

Hey everyone.
Were nearly out of the Dakotas now (finally), and growing ever closer to an exciting string of cities in the midwest. (wow, i never thought id be so excited to be in the midwest.) Highlights from the Dakotas: a large number of bird sized mosquitos, more roadkill than i could ever imagine, and lots and lots of grass. Weve been keeping eachother entertained by yelling at cows and starting stampedes, and playing a lot of this game called Botacelli or something. Its pretty fun. Besides the obvious motivation to get out of the grasslands, our progress has been amped up by watching the tour de france at sports bars, a killer 20 mph tail wind (3 days now!!!), and what my mom would call an "unhealthy" amount of caffeine. Dont worry, were keeping it reasonable...they wouldnt make triple stregnth rockstars if we couldnt handle em.

So, everything is going along just swimmingly. Were still eating about 3000 calories a day, check out the monster stack of pancakes tall man put down this morning. Despite crashing about twice a day on average, chuck remains uninjured and in high spirits.

If anyone we have met along the way is reading this post, id like to say Thanks for the free meat! seriously, every tom, dick and tina we meet hooks us up with some deer jerky or something from last seasons kill. Totally awesome.

The trip rules, and i look forward to seeing everyone back home again and resuming, if only for a few days, the relaxing lifestyle of the summer. peace out - beau

More Photos

Damn these claws!

Traveling through the Dakotas during the past week has been quite interesting. Far removed from bustling civilization, we've passed through lots of tiny towns with populations of 324, 406, or even less. Sometimes there's nothing more than a sign with the name of the town on it. We finally reached Aberdeen, SD last night, our biggest stop in over a week (over 24,000!), and we got a chance to sit down at a sports bar and watch stage 3 of the tour.


The landscape is a bit more tame than that of Glacier park... a lot of slow rolling hills and flatlands. We try to keep morale and amusement levels high by yelling at cows as we pass through, and I must say the cows in ND are a lot quicker to scare than the ones in SD. The people have been great, though. A few nights ago we got caught in the dark trying to make it to Hettinger, but fortunately we found an amazingly nice lady at a farm who cooked us dinner and even hooked us up with some delicious beef jerky.


We've gone almost 2000 miles now I think, and we're coming up on Minneapolis. That should be a fun stop and a good place to recharge. Our time in the remoteness of the Dakotas should be over within the next four or five days.


Updated Statistics:

times crashed: 6
bad jokes told: 344
mosquito bites: a lot.


That's it for now, more to come.

Chuck

I Wish There Were More To Report

Hey,
Been a while since the last post, but to be honest, there's a perfectly good reason for that. Nothing actually happened in the last two states (ND and SD). I suppose I could go on and on about how much grass there is, but just thinking about it is putting me to sleep. It has gotten to the point that the brightest moments during the ride are the ones where we can scream at roadside cows loud enough to get them all to run.....seriously. Most of the towns we have been in this month have been about as populated as your local Wal-Mart, with approximately the same demographics. We passed town after town that advertised their populations, down to the individual. 1,345 here, 952 there...Roscoe, SD was a bustling metropolis of 234 people. Today we are in the biggest city we have seen perhaps since Vancouver. Aberdeen, SD has a little over 24,000 people. Cities are a mixed blessing, I suppose, because on one hand, more people usually means things like a guaranteed bike shop and a good sports bar to watch the Tour in, but on the other hand it means lots of cars and higher food prices.

So this afternoon we are running for the SD-MN border on our way to Minneapolis. It should be about four days ride from here to Twin Cities, but we're told its much nicer due to the prevalence of gas stations and nice city parks to camp in. Back into civilization we go.

Tall Man out.

YouTube Time

Unfortunately is takes forever to upload here so you've only got one video to hold you over...

there are some better ones and maybe we will get it together with editing and music... but probably not...

so just try and imagine some explosions in the sky pumping in the background or something...


oh crap.... i don't know how this works....

search you tube for keywords : logan connor chuck isaac beau

hope you can find it

The Space Needle in Seattle, finally
Seattle
The Tall Man Contemplating - he has become the bike surgeon and has subsequently been blasted by a whopping average of 2 flat tires a day
Beau writing his daily Haiku

Photorama2

Our Camp in Troy, MT - Outside the Home Bar
Beau's Toes (He's fine now)
Northwest Washington State

Photorama

Going up Logans Pass
Mountain Goat at the Top
East Side
Lake Macdonald/McDonald
Looking Back at the Top - One of the lower grade climbs we've accomplished

The produce section in the Troy Grocery Store:
Avalanche Lake
Lake McDonald
Nice View From East Glacier
Sweet Tan Lines and Salt Stains - These have only improved

Sorry for the horrendous misspellings on the last post... we were in a terrible rush. Total Mileage for that day ended up being 133... You have never seen 4 hungrier boys than at the end of that day...

enough reading though! time for some pics:

Campfire with Dennis before the best meal/breakfast of the trip.