The night before our flight, getting ready to go. Eric's friend Erik came over and helped us get the bikes ready for the flight and helped us wrap the chains and deraileurs with bubblewrap.
We and the bikes made it to Seattle in one piece! Here's Jason sitting in the corner of the baggage claim pumping up the front tire.
Jason in the foreground, Mt. Rainier in the background.
On the nice bike path leaving the airport on the way to the house of Eric's friend Brad's parents.
Watch out for mindless robot trains!
At Brad's parent's house south of Seattle, WA.
We passed Boeing on our way into Seattle.
Fish (salmon) and chips on the pier in Seattle
Seattle, WA
A church on Bainbridge Island in the Puget Sound
Traveling north to the next island in the Puget Sound
Settling in for our first night on the road
View from our campsite with Mt. Rainier still visable in the background.
Near Townsend, WA in the Puget Sound
The Olympic Mountains overlook the Puget Sound.
Deception Pass over the Puget Sound
Back on the mainland in Washington State
Coastal wetlands
Pacific Ocean/Puget Sound
Eric dipping his bike in the Pacific Ocean
Jason dipping his bike in the Pacific
Bye, bye ocean, hello hills
Foothills of the Cascade Mountains
Eric's new friend
Gas station food: the foundation of high calorie, sodium, grease, high-fructose corn surupy bicyclist's diet
Concrete, WA. The foothills end, the mountains begin (but it's only day 4!!!)
If Jason and Eric are honorary members after biking across the country
The hills are getting bigger...
and bigger...
Turquiose mountain stream
Cascade Mountains
Is that snow up there in this 100 degree heat???
Our first super steep hill and our first tunnel!
Diablo, WA
Diablo Lake where we jumped in to the 33 degree F water. It felt soooo good!
Our beautiful campsite in Diablo, WA
Eric and Jason about to eat their "victory bananas" after a hard day. Potatoes roasted in olive oil and spices are for dinner.
On the way up to Washington Pass, our first and most difficult climb of the trip. It took us about 8 hours to travel 40 miles horizontally and 4,000 ft vertically.
Mountain flowers along the road.
Butterflies like the salt from Jason's dried sweat on his handlebars.
What do you do when it's noon, 105 degrees F, and you just feel like dying? Jump in a shaded 33 degree F mountain stream, of course!
Mmmm, open-face peanut butter and peanut sandwich.
After hours of biking up hill at a snails pace, we finially reached the first fake pass. Now it's time to go down several hundred feet so we can assent to the real pass, which is even higher! Arg!
I know it doesn't look so steep in the photo, but trust me, it was!
About one mile till the pass and Eric looks like he might colapse.
Jason is ready to stumble over to that ditch and die. But only one more mile or so and it's all down hill!
We made it!!!
Washington Pass
Snow on a 105 degree day!
Ready for a snowball fight!
Time for the down hill and speed approaching 40 miles an hour. It took us 8 hours to go up, but only about 35 minutes to go down.
The valley on the east side of the first pass. The landscape is much drier than on the west side
Next pass.
Entering dude ranch country.
Wild west!
The landscape becomes progressively more arid after every mountain pass we cross on our journey east.
Oh dear!
The fresh fruits we picked up along the way were amazing! Here, Jason eats and appricot, which makes him smile in spite of the pain.
We did it! (again)
Racing down the mountain.
After climbing up and coasting down Wauconda Pass, we got into Okanogan, WA, pretty late and had no place to camp. Fortunately, we happened to run into a nice lady, Joan, who offered to let us stay at her place. It's almost unbelieveable how nice people can be! Here, we ate our ecclectic dinner of nasty cornbeef hash from a can, buiscuts, and an organic salad with olive oil and a pinch of lime.
You can buy everything you need at this store!
Sunrise in the Okanogan Valley
Indian reservation.
The remains of an old log cabin.
Taking a break on our way up another mountain pass.
An old railroad bed turned into a bike path outside of Republic, WA
On our way up to our last pass in the Cascade Mountains
Break time
Eating good in the wood'! Sloppin' down some pork'n beans with a loaf of bread Jason baked in the fire washed down with Alaska Amber Ale. We were really roughing it.
Beautiful campsite on the Pend Oreille River in eastern Washington State
Pend Oreille River
An eagles nest
Bridge to Sandpoint, ID
A choo-choo train!
Pend Oreille Lake at our campsite
Lake Pend Oreille
The Idaho panhandle is the most redneck place I've ever been in my life, and I've been to West Virginia.
Idaho
Montana
Lake Koocanusa, named after the KOOtanai river, CANada and the USA.
Lake Koocanusa
Every town in northern Montana consists of one grain elevator, one bar, two casinos, and 6 houses.
Can see Jason's ribs, but the jelly-belly remains. Give it a couple thousand more miles... Nice tan though!
Oopsies!
Near West Glacier, MT
Glacier National Park
Our campsite by Avalanche River in Glacier National Park
Avalanche Creek in Glacier National Park
Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park
The mountains above Avalanche Lake
The mountains above avalanche lake
Nothing like freezing cold water on a hot day!
The Going-to-the-Sun Highway, our last mountain pass.
Going up to the pass on the Going-to-the-Sun Highway in Glacier National Park
Going-to-the-Sun Highway
The Going-to-the-Sun highway in Glacier National Park
U-shaped valley carved out by the glaciers
One of the really cool old red cars the park runs to shuttle tourists through the park
On top of the world in Glacier National Park
We did it! We climbed the last mountain pass of the trip!
View from Logan Pass
Jackson Glacier, one of the few remaining glaciers in Glacier National Park. Scientists estimate that all glaciers in the park will dissappear by 2050.
East side of Glacier approaching St. Mary
St. Mary Lake
View of Glacier National Park from St. Mary, MT on the east side of the park.
Too much biking!
On the road to Waterton National Park in Alberta, Canada
They weren't lying!
Hello Canada
Waterton National Park
The rolling plains of Alberta
Mooooo!
Put out to pasture
Where have all the mountains gone? Long time passing... They've gone to praries, everyone.
Wheat growing in Canada's bread basket - Alberta
Big sky country
Eric and Jason leave Cindy's house, an extremely nice relative of Eric's friend Eric in Shelby, MT.
They forgot to depict a casino on the sign.
Possibly the most interesting small town we visited. They had a really cool dinosaur museaum and a museaum of the town housed in an old railroad depot.
Dinosaur Museaum in Rudyard, MT.
Eastern Montana - it all looks the same.
A couple slices of heaven.
Glasgow, MT, where the nicest people ever invited us to stay at their home.
What's that tree doing there?
Can Jason's tan line become any more defined than this???
Nice legs, eh?
Typical eastern Montana town
North Dakota
The Rolfstad's, Eric's friend Erik's other really friendly relatives who we stayed with in Williston, ND
Jason broke another spoke
What do you do when the handle bar tap begins to peal off? Tie it back on.
Evidence of North Dakota's oil boom.
Did you know that North Dakota is the leading state in the production of sunflowers? They're #1 in navy beans too.
Salt.
Does he have any salt left on the inside?
Eric's dirty legs
The bikes and us get to stay the night indoors in Minot, ND
The geographical center of North America, Rugby, ND
The monument marking the geographical center of North America in Rughby, ND
Thunderstorms on the horizon in Balta, ND
One of the most serene, yet ominous moments - sitting on the edge of a small, peaceful lake surrounded by fields of wheat at dusk while thunderstorms encircle our campsite.
House falls victim to rising lake levels in North Dakota
Warwick, the town where Eric was born and raised. Oh, woops, wrong Warwick.
A replica of Eric's boyhood home in Warwick, RI erected here in Warwick, ND
High-class townie bar in Warwick, ND
um...
Jason spies a picturesque little home in Pekin, ND.
The sun sets on main street in Pekin, ND
A dammed up portion of the Missouri River in North Dakota
Eric's bike has a new friend.
Spagghetti made from North Dakota grown durum wheat. North Dakota is also #1 in the nation in growing durum wheat.
The sister of my pastor's wife from the church Jason grew up in in Cleveland, and her husband who we stayed with in Moorhead, MN
One of the 10,000 lakes in Minnisota
Our campsite in Pelican Rapids, MN
Cool entertainment at the town fair
Jason writes a journal entry lakeside under the long rays of the setting sun.
Neat looking house
Bratwurst and sauerkraut! Life is good.
Eric enjoys his bratwurst, sauerkraut and potatosalad dinner.
Our campsite on the banks of the Mississippi River - the first time Jason got T-Mobile service since leaving Seattle.
View of Stillwater, MN
Stillwater, MN had a bunch of beautiful homes
Eric and Jason sit down in a parking lot to eat an entire apple pie for dessert
What happened to that apple pie!?!?
The friendly Lutheran Church that took us in for the night in Stillwater, MN
Another beautiful home in Stillwater, MN
Did I just eat a nasty meal at Arby's? Yes you did, Eric.
Big old homes in a river town on the Mississippi River in Minnisota
Mississippi flood plain
Can't ride over this one...
The mighty mississippi
Nearing Iowa, we get rained on for the first time in the whole trip!
The Mississippi River in Iowa
View from the top of the bluffs looking over the Mississippi River.
A cathedral in Vienna, IA
A glorious feast at the Dyersville Family Restaurant in Dyersville, IA
The basilica in Dyersville, IA
Am I still in Iowa??? I think I'm actually in Germany... Interior of the basilica in Dyersville, IA
Dyersville basilica
The home of Sue, the nice lady who made us dinner and let us camp in her yard.
Bridge over the Illinois river
A storm's a brewin'...
After three days of torrential rains in Illinois, we decide to stay in a warm, dry motel and eat a great meal.
You can actually see the intense humidity in this photo! A view of our campsite in a forest planted by the CCC in the 1930's.
Jason eats the bagels that a racoon ran off with in the night. The racoon was generous enough to leave us 4 unmolested bagels in the ditch by the road.
Thankfully not our tent! Flooding in eastern Indiana.
High quality food at the small town store in eastern Indiana.
Orchard near Huron, OH where we got some amazing peaches!
A little boat on Lake Erie
Heading over the Cuyahoga River into downtown Cleveland, OH!
Eric in front of his building at CWRU in Cleveland
Home, sweet home at Jason's house in Mayfield Village, OH, on the eastside of Cleveland.
Ashtabula, OH
Great little 1950's diner in Conneaut, OH
The county courthouse in Painsville, OH
Taking a break in the town square in Painsville, OH
Beautiful Lake Erie
Jason with his buddies Bill and Barry at Jason's house
On the beach outside of Erie, PA
Vineyard in New York State
Vinyard on Lake Erie in New York
Eric at Niagra Falls in Ontario, Canada
On the Erie Canal in New York
Morning fog lifts off of the Erie Canal
Morning on the Erie Canal
It's cold out.
View of New York from Massachussets as we enter into the Berkshire Mountains.
We finished the bike trip!!! At 11:50 pm, we rolled into Warwick, RI at Eric's parent's house after biking 137 miles in one day!
Eric glamour-shot at his home in Warwick, RI
We lost count how many spokes Jason broke. Just for old-times sake, another breaks as we bike to the ocean to dip our bikes in to officially complete the cross country trek.
From the Pacific to the Atlantic, we biked all 4200 miles!
Del's lemonade, possibly the best, most refreshing drink ever!
Jumpin' around in the ocean
