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Hotcakes and cold rides

Saturday, September 18th, 2010

Holed up in another motel in Glasgow, MT at the moment. We had intended to take just one rest day yesterday here but the night before, after doing about 82 miles in a little over 7 hours of riding, we only made it to Nashua, about 15 miles short of Glasgow. We ended the day riding for an hour after dark on Rt. 2 which was a little bit amazing and a little bit scary. Figuring we could do the last little bit on our rest day and being very exhausted, we camped for the night with only some Triscuits and cranberries for dinner.

We woke to a very chilly, rainy morning that barely nearly kept us huddled in our sleeping bags for the day. Starving and cold, we found ourselves in Bergie’s up the rode and with a menu that started with “Bike Trekker’s Breakfast.” Pefrect! 2 jumbo pancakes, 3 eggs, 4 slices of bacon or sausage, and a pile of hasbrowns. And best of all, it stated beneath it “If you finish, we pay for it” Even better! Of course, I quickly ordered this without even thinking while Marissa picked the Adventurer’s Breakfast just below it that didn’t come with hashbrowns. I suppose we should have been clued in by that little offer to pay for the meal that something was amiss. Turns out those 2 jumbo pancakes that we each got were a full 16″ hotcake, each. Ugh. We both managed to finish about half of each plus all our protein and my hashbrowns with lots of coffee, tea and milk. So much for becoming competitive eating champions after this trip.

Zoom Zoom from Andrew Frasz on Vimeo.

the most perfect stretch of road

It was still raining and cold when we decided it was finally time to finish those 15 miles to our hotel (there were none in Nashua). Thinking we were properly fueled up and bundled up as best we could, we set out for what should have been a 1 hr 15min ride. What we didn’t take into account was that this was Montana and the weather is anything but predictable. So, instead of a wet, sluggish ride, we got a snowing, freezing, windy ride from hell. The snow was actually hitting us in the eyes! Plus, no shoulders on the road meant it was anything but playful as the trucks and semis went whizzing by. Needless to say, I got a lot of angry looks from Marissa. By the time we rolled up to our little motel, neither of us could feel our feet or open our mouths for fear of saying something we might regret later.

So, having spoiled what was supposed to be our rest day, we are now on day two in the La Casa Motel. It’s not such a bad place though and with all the extra time, we were able to go out and get some good waterproof gloves and do some really good meals. And update this here blog, so lucky you.

The rest of our time in Montana, and North Dakota for that matter, has been pretty nice. The mornings are chilly but within an hour of riding, we are quickly shedding layers. It’s a lot of flat, endless roads with a lot of oil trucks and pick-em up trucks. Oh, and an update from the end of the last post. Feelilng pretty down about all the wind we were getting in Rugby, we started asking around the motel for a ride to Minot. We ended up piling our bikes into the back of another pick-up owned by a man named Rory who worked as an oil pipe-line inspector. What would have taken us all day to ride took us all of 60 minutes to drive. Feeling more than thankful, we excitedly shared all the great stories so far with our new friend. I don’t know what exactly stuck with Rory but, as we pulled into town, he suddenly announced that he was taking us straight to a nearby hotel and putting us up for the night. That’s right, he payed for a $100/night stay in the local Holiday Inn before he headed straight back to Rugby. Thanks Rory! And best of all (well, not really but it was a treat), I got to watch the Browns game the next morning in restaurant next day.

Hitching a ride from Andrew Frasz on Vimeo.

One other nice little highlight worth sharing was two nights ago. We were rolling through Culberston on our first day in Montana and stopped for groceries before trying to make it to Bainville for the night. Outside though, we met Mary Lou who stopped to chat about our trip. Upon hearing our final destination was inside the Indian reservation, she quickly steered us to her daughter’s house just shy of town where we could camp out behind their barn. What could have been a sketchy experience turned out great. Laurie and her husband Buzz were very welcoming as was my new best friend Monte, their German shepherd. We slept great as Monte prowled the farm, barking at all the coyotes and then sharing our breakfast in the morning.

Posted in Andrew, On the road | 2 Responses »
Tags: camping, eating, generosity, Montana, motel, new state, North Dakota, rain, snow, video

Winds and deadlines

Saturday, September 11th, 2010

No posts for a while because we haven’t had internet at all here in North Dakota. At the moment, we’re camped out at a motel/RV park that happens to have it . Marissa is still snoozing so I figured I’d clue you all in quick.

We are currently in Rugby, ND, the geographical center of North America, about a days ride from Minot which is about half way across the state. Coming out of Fargo, we had a day of headwinds followed by 2 beautiful days of tail winds. We were talking real pretty to the wind, trying to shmooze our way across the state with promises of love and devotion if she would only keep on blowin at our backs. Well, all was going well until we reach Fort Trotten on Devil’s Lake when the wind brought us some very heavy rains and thunderstorms. Lots of truck traffic and no shoulder to speak of kept us pedaling as fast as our legs would carry us to Minnewauken. I also had the wonderful fortune of discovering that my rain jacket is not so rain proof. Lucky me.

The next day turned sunny but we’re once again riding into headwinds that were supposed to be coming from the south but really were straight west into our faces. When it’s like that, we can barely manage 10 miles an hour which makes putting in 60 miles an arduous task. That’s also the number of miles we have to do today to reach Minot before we can take a rest day. Accuweather (which is not so accurate on this trip), has promised us some lovely 45mph westerly gusts.

60 miles a day also happens to be the magic number we must average the entire rest of the trip in order to make it to Seattle and hop a plane back to Cleveland. I’m due to serve as the best man in my friend’s wedding on the 16th of October so I can’t exactly be late. Needless to say, we are on a schedule that really doesn’t allow much flexibility.

Knees are killing me at the moment too. Sorry, such a bitchy post. Our spirits aren’t exactly peaking but hopefully we’ll be in better shape tomorrow as we try to catch the Browns game, haha. Until then, feel free to send me any great stretches for knees and lower thighs. Or all you folks out east can start puffing your cheeks, blowing the wind westward. We’re gonna need it.

Posted in Andrew, On the road | 2 Responses »
Tags: bitching, camping, knee pain, North Dakota, wind

Pennsylvania

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

The state is long gone but I feel somewhat obligated to write at least one post for each state we pass through (sorry Jersey, forgot about you).

We somehow managed to spend only two days cycling through the state which is amazing considering how long it took us to cross New York. For the most part, we felt pretty let down by PA. It wasn’t exactly a bad state to pass through but I think after NY, we were just expecting a little more. Plus, Marissa wasn’t feeling so hot for a few days and every hill was a huge chore. We were so excited about the prospect of flat land that each new rise felt like a slap in the face. We also missed our amazing bike map with it’s elevation chart, handy resource guide, and it’s now friendly dog-eared charm. Oh, and berms. New York had ‘em, Pennsylvania didn’t. So lots of hilly roads, bad pains, no shoulder to ride in, and no detailed map left us filling pretty slighted.

I suppose the state wasn’t all bad though. Mostly we just wanted to get across it and make it to Ohio in time for Marissa’s birthday and to see my parent’s for the weekend; PA was just in the way. We did manage to find some more Perry’s so that was a plus. The first day was really tough though so when we came across our Perry’s sign and it just happened to be sitting across the street from a closed drive-in movie theater, we felt like it was a good time to call it quits. So, happily satiated, we rolled our bikes into the grassy lot and started made camp behind the projection building. I’d been wanting to do this for a while now since we started passing so many drive-ins across New York. It was definitely high on the list of favorite campsites from the get go. We had plenty of time left in the day to lounge around, take some pictures, and still get to bed early.

The next day promised to be a chore since we had to make it the rest of the way across the state or we would never get to my parent’s house in Ohio. Our route had us coming down from Jamestown, NY, joining the Pennsylvania State Bike Route Y and then ending in Jamestown, PA just below Pymatuning State Park. For the most part, this leg was about as boring and tedious as possible. More hills, some sketchy highway riding, non-descript towns, and just a generally long day. We were both glad to hear that the campgrounds had showers and plenty of camp spots of available. PA did even try to redeem itself in the end when a friendly stranger outside the gas station in Jamestown kindly passed along a ten dollar bill to cover our camping fees at the gas station. That’s the second time now we’ve been offered money on our trip. We must look pretty miserable and helpless.

So that was PA. We were gone by 12 the next day and on to Ohio and a few well earned rest days. Oh, and Marissa’s birthday.