we ended up staying in damascus for almost a week-- definitely our longest stop. the town is amazing, small enough that by the time we finally pulled ourselves away it sort of felt like leaving home. we stayed with our new friend dennett, who we met at trivia night and who graciously took us in. not only did he offer us couches, but also a ride to the carter family fold for an all-night bluegrass festival. the next night he took us to a farm party where nearly everyone living in damascus-- all ages-- came together to bet on how many cans of beers could fit into a heavy-duty tank used to store bull semen. neither of us won (it could fit 401!) but we did get to light fireworks and play in the old men vs. young ladies volleyball competition. we lost that, too. over the next few days we hiked and biked around the area to nearby waterfalls and rocks, (even rode into tennessee!), and got into the bad habit of staying up till the wee hours and sleeping till noon. the town is right in the mountains, and while only 900 people live there it has 7 bike stores and a bunch of outdoors stores (and a fly-fishing-outfitter/espresso bar). especially after a month of moving, we liked being able to walk around town and wave to everyone we knew. we finally admitted to ourselves that we actually do have schedules, and headed into bristol, tennessee (the self-proclaimed birthplace of country music) to get on a 15 hour wacky greyhound bus ride to philadelphia. we're there now, wandering aimlessly and adjusting back into city-mode.
anyway, in 3 hours we're off to ny. crazy that our trip is almost over. we have loved (almost) every moment of it--thank you to every person who helped us along the way, you have shown us how good people really are. maybe there is no way to escape sounding too corny, but we are definitely coming home with a wider lens of the country and a new sense of our place in it. we're already planning our next lap around... anybody want to bike the west?
love,
c+s
(oh, and our emails are cturett@gmail.com + skendall87@gmail.com-- please stay in touch! especially those of you who didn't give us your information. also let us know if you're coming through nyc, ohio, or southern california. we've got a whole lot of generosity to repay.)
bicycaling!
8.02.2007
writing from damascus, virginia, a place that has been our kinda-sorta-maybe destination since day 1! its awesome because it's where our bike route intersects with the appalachian trail and the virginia creeper trail-- an old railroad that's been converted to a bike path, which makes it a great little biker-hiker mecca right on the river and at the heart of the appalachian mountains. we're not sure what the next part of our trip will look like, we're thinking of hiking/boating around here for a few days, or getting on a bus and going somewhere for our last week (any ideas?) or maybe continuing east via bicycles before hopping a bus (or a ride? anyone?). it feels great to have such a blank slate in front of us and we're soaking up the lack of structure. it's also incredibly beautiful right here, and we're sort of thinking of making this a final destination.. forever.. we're also pretty happy to chill out for a bit cause we've had a crazy week.
since our last post we've found ourselves plunged into american history, biking alongside tourists on horse and buggies, following daniel boone's footsteps, passing through abe lincoln's birthplace and the home of the father of bluegrass, bill monroe. (!!!!!!!!!) we got into a little bit of a kentucky-slump as we started to realize how wide the state actually is, waking up later and taking afternoon cat naps and veeeery long lunch breaks. we spent one entire afternoon eating watermelon with an amish couple who were so good looking they looked like celebrities playing amish people. our tendency towards long conversation even got us into a few local newspapers, so if you're around kentucky look out for our smiling (sweaty) faces.
passing from state to state has made us ultra-aware of the slight differences between different regions in america, mostly in the food we eat, probably cause we eat so freakin much of it. entering into kentucky we immediately saw fried chicken and sweet tea served everywhere (woohoo!) and have become way too knowledgable about the variations of hashbrowns across the country. cara likes kansas hasbrowns, sara is a kentucky girl. we also hit a few college towns in eastern kentucky, and were actually way-too-excited to be back in the land of overpriced coffee and the whole collegey thing. (note to nate and mark: in danville we almost ended up camping on the lawn of the president of centre college! him and his wife are big fans of yours.) berea was also a cool place and the home of a college where every student works for tuition. we spent a whole day there hanging out with baptist hippies at a peace conference and a minister who refuses to wear shoes. town sirens told us there was severe weather in the area and we were happy to not be on our bicycles, especially after we made an anarchist folk-singing friend named jack who found us a big quaker meeting house to stay in, took us to a swimming hole, and even biked 83 miles with us the next day. poor jack joined us for our longest and hardest day as we got lost and found ourselves winding through lush tobacco fields and up and down mountains that stretched on forever. some surprises along the way: the red lick bluegrass festival where we stopped to listen and eat deliciously gross festival food-- we even got front row seats and free admission... and a writer's workshop in hindman where we were given a tent to sleep in, showers, breakfast and got to spend time with some cool writers.
for those of you who actually read our nonsense, we've obviously had a pretty blessed trip and have had nothing but luck along the way. until all sorts of bad luck came at us at once-- we started the morning by getting totally lost on a busy highway and ended up staring at a sign that read "BICYCLES PROHIBITED", an ordeal which added like 12 miles. when we finally found our way-- onto another bad highway with no shoulder-- sara took a big spill onto the middle of the road. she's fine, but has a gnarly knee-wound to show for it. we stopped at the next grocery to get a bandage, only to find ourselves face-to-face with a 90+ yr old cashier who tried to charge cara 100 dollars and make her fill out an application for a value card. burnt out, we decided to push on, but got stopped only a few miles further by a sudden downpour forcing us onto the side of the road to avoid coal trucks with bad brakes. eek! we were starting to wonder if maybe this wasn't the best day for us to ride-- someone or something was trying to stop us from getting to damascus-- but we're stubborn and a little mad. as we went on a lightning storm erupted just overhead, hitting the closest power line and scaring the bajeezus out of us. we got off our metal bikes and huddled under someone's porch. we heard later that only 2 miles down the same road someone was killed by a flying roof. guess time was on our side. after that scare, the day did a 180: the woman whose porch we had invaded invited us into dinner, and later her son offered us a ride to the next town, abingdon-- another historic spot with a big festival going on. we went to see oliver at the barter theater, one of the oldest theaters in the country where, during the great depression, hungry actors charged 35 cents or the equivalent in food. farmers brought their surplus crops and everyone won-- in the first year, the actors made less than $4 but had a total weight gain of over 300 pounds. we offered our peanut butter and jelly and a few soggy granola bars but they were unimpresed. we really liked spending a night at the theater with spandex and bloody knees, although our neighbors might have felt differently. we also met a group of fireman who gave us a key to their station, lounge and showers included. we would've slept on their monster couches if not for the terrifying emergency dispatches that came in on the loudspeaker every few minutes. we went to sleep that night not only exhausted, but pretty grateful. sometimes it takes some real lows to appreciate the highs. maybe we had gotten a bit too used to things going our way. 
we'll let you all know our next destination as soon as we know it. in the meantime, if anybody feels like taking a road trip, or is anywhere north or east (or south or west) of here let us know, cause we might just find our way to your doors. for those of you in new york, we'll be home in about a week?
love! c+s
since our last post we've found ourselves plunged into american history, biking alongside tourists on horse and buggies, following daniel boone's footsteps, passing through abe lincoln's birthplace and the home of the father of bluegrass, bill monroe. (!!!!!!!!!) we got into a little bit of a kentucky-slump as we started to realize how wide the state actually is, waking up later and taking afternoon cat naps and veeeery long lunch breaks. we spent one entire afternoon eating watermelon with an amish couple who were so good looking they looked like celebrities playing amish people. our tendency towards long conversation even got us into a few local newspapers, so if you're around kentucky look out for our smiling (sweaty) faces.
passing from state to state has made us ultra-aware of the slight differences between different regions in america, mostly in the food we eat, probably cause we eat so freakin much of it. entering into kentucky we immediately saw fried chicken and sweet tea served everywhere (woohoo!) and have become way too knowledgable about the variations of hashbrowns across the country. cara likes kansas hasbrowns, sara is a kentucky girl. we also hit a few college towns in eastern kentucky, and were actually way-too-excited to be back in the land of overpriced coffee and the whole collegey thing. (note to nate and mark: in danville we almost ended up camping on the lawn of the president of centre college! him and his wife are big fans of yours.) berea was also a cool place and the home of a college where every student works for tuition. we spent a whole day there hanging out with baptist hippies at a peace conference and a minister who refuses to wear shoes. town sirens told us there was severe weather in the area and we were happy to not be on our bicycles, especially after we made an anarchist folk-singing friend named jack who found us a big quaker meeting house to stay in, took us to a swimming hole, and even biked 83 miles with us the next day. poor jack joined us for our longest and hardest day as we got lost and found ourselves winding through lush tobacco fields and up and down mountains that stretched on forever. some surprises along the way: the red lick bluegrass festival where we stopped to listen and eat deliciously gross festival food-- we even got front row seats and free admission... and a writer's workshop in hindman where we were given a tent to sleep in, showers, breakfast and got to spend time with some cool writers.
for those of you who actually read our nonsense, we've obviously had a pretty blessed trip and have had nothing but luck along the way. until all sorts of bad luck came at us at once-- we started the morning by getting totally lost on a busy highway and ended up staring at a sign that read "BICYCLES PROHIBITED", an ordeal which added like 12 miles. when we finally found our way-- onto another bad highway with no shoulder-- sara took a big spill onto the middle of the road. she's fine, but has a gnarly knee-wound to show for it. we stopped at the next grocery to get a bandage, only to find ourselves face-to-face with a 90+ yr old cashier who tried to charge cara 100 dollars and make her fill out an application for a value card. burnt out, we decided to push on, but got stopped only a few miles further by a sudden downpour forcing us onto the side of the road to avoid coal trucks with bad brakes. eek! we were starting to wonder if maybe this wasn't the best day for us to ride-- someone or something was trying to stop us from getting to damascus-- but we're stubborn and a little mad. as we went on a lightning storm erupted just overhead, hitting the closest power line and scaring the bajeezus out of us. we got off our metal bikes and huddled under someone's porch. we heard later that only 2 miles down the same road someone was killed by a flying roof. guess time was on our side. after that scare, the day did a 180: the woman whose porch we had invaded invited us into dinner, and later her son offered us a ride to the next town, abingdon-- another historic spot with a big festival going on. we went to see oliver at the barter theater, one of the oldest theaters in the country where, during the great depression, hungry actors charged 35 cents or the equivalent in food. farmers brought their surplus crops and everyone won-- in the first year, the actors made less than $4 but had a total weight gain of over 300 pounds. we offered our peanut butter and jelly and a few soggy granola bars but they were unimpresed. we really liked spending a night at the theater with spandex and bloody knees, although our neighbors might have felt differently. we also met a group of fireman who gave us a key to their station, lounge and showers included. we would've slept on their monster couches if not for the terrifying emergency dispatches that came in on the loudspeaker every few minutes. we went to sleep that night not only exhausted, but pretty grateful. sometimes it takes some real lows to appreciate the highs. maybe we had gotten a bit too used to things going our way. 
we'll let you all know our next destination as soon as we know it. in the meantime, if anybody feels like taking a road trip, or is anywhere north or east (or south or west) of here let us know, cause we might just find our way to your doors. for those of you in new york, we'll be home in about a week?
love! c+s
7.23.2007
sorry we're so bad at posting. since we last wrote we've finished (somehow) the missouri mountains, passed through a strip of illinois, and are now making our way through kentucky. one of our favorite spots was in houston, missouri, where we took a sweeet yellow school bus with a guy named pony boy to a swimming hole and jumped off a nutso cliff. most bicyclists hate missouri cause it feels like going up and down a roller coaster but we tried to make the most of it, stopping in every lookout tower and swimming hole, canoeing down and riding a 4-wheeler around the jacks fork river, and hanging out in state parks with our surrogate mother Jeannie. as we passed over the mississippi river into illinois we entered the land of vineyards and wineries (and the home of popeye, too!), passed through amish farms and dodged scary coal trucks.
its a bit crazy that our scariest experience so far has been entering "superwalmart". we expected to encounter situations that felt unsafe but this trip has really taught us about the real goodness of people. people continue to let us into their homes and offer us everything under the sun (one woman said "don't come into my house, i'll keep you forever!" which was, in retrospect, a little creepy). one couple gave us money even after we emphatically refused, although that might just be because we do tend to look homeless. and smell. every night is a little adventure as we scout plcaes to sleep, and have ended up in some of the weirder spots. so far we've spent the night mostly in parks, some courthouse lawns, fire stations, RV parks, a camper van, a boat parked on the street (very comfortable bed-- who knew!), and a few churches and some really lovely homes.
we've also been doing a whole lot of wildlife watching-- mostly roadkill, but also tons of deer and some wild turkey, too. armadillo fact we've learned: they're fast, but armadillos are roadkill targets because they have sensitive hairs on the top of their bodies that, when agitated, cause the armadillo to jump straight up in the air a few feet. so cars pass over them and they jump up and go splat. it's horrible to ride pass so many dead coats of armor, but we are learning lots.
we get asked nearly everywhere we go why we chose to do this trip. we learned, as we entered kentucky, what was perhaps our real reason-- we had come JUST in time for one of the biggest motorcycles parties of the year, called little sturgis. we spent a day hanging out with hundreds-- actually thousands-- of hardcore bikers, feeling a bit shabby but also very proud of our hardy bicycles. library closing, more later!
love, c+s
its a bit crazy that our scariest experience so far has been entering "superwalmart". we expected to encounter situations that felt unsafe but this trip has really taught us about the real goodness of people. people continue to let us into their homes and offer us everything under the sun (one woman said "don't come into my house, i'll keep you forever!" which was, in retrospect, a little creepy). one couple gave us money even after we emphatically refused, although that might just be because we do tend to look homeless. and smell. every night is a little adventure as we scout plcaes to sleep, and have ended up in some of the weirder spots. so far we've spent the night mostly in parks, some courthouse lawns, fire stations, RV parks, a camper van, a boat parked on the street (very comfortable bed-- who knew!), and a few churches and some really lovely homes.
we've also been doing a whole lot of wildlife watching-- mostly roadkill, but also tons of deer and some wild turkey, too. armadillo fact we've learned: they're fast, but armadillos are roadkill targets because they have sensitive hairs on the top of their bodies that, when agitated, cause the armadillo to jump straight up in the air a few feet. so cars pass over them and they jump up and go splat. it's horrible to ride pass so many dead coats of armor, but we are learning lots.
we get asked nearly everywhere we go why we chose to do this trip. we learned, as we entered kentucky, what was perhaps our real reason-- we had come JUST in time for one of the biggest motorcycles parties of the year, called little sturgis. we spent a day hanging out with hundreds-- actually thousands-- of hardcore bikers, feeling a bit shabby but also very proud of our hardy bicycles. library closing, more later!
love, c+s
7.14.2007
we're in missouri, and we've officially entered the ozark mountain range! egads! definitely feeling these roller coaster hills in our legs, butts, minds, etc.. but it's also exciting to have entered a new state and to see some new landscape. the last few days have been great, we've been waking up even earlier (this morning got up at 5!) and sometimes riding as the sun sets. today is our 2nd week anniversary and we seem to be getting into a groove, feeling more at home on our bikes and in our tent. plus, we sent home 11 pounds yesterday (as soon as we hit the hills) and so we're feeling grand. some highlights: arrived at a lovely lutheran church in hepler, kansas just in time for vacation bible school and to get a tuba lesson from pastor john... ate the best pie we've ever had in golden city (for free!)... and got hit by swarms of mosquitos in recently-flooded toronto so dense and hungry we dropped everything and set up camp in less than a minute. hi to the firemen we met in chanute and to doug in ash grove (the detour to marshfield was a great success). more later...
7.09.2007
hi again! it's thunderstorming in rosalia, kansas, but we got invited into a home for some strawberry shortcake and a bed, so we're happy as clams. we've been riding through some breathtaking parts of kansas--- fields of sunflowers, sunsets, and even an exotic animal farm. it flooded here last week so there are hundreds of frogs on the roads and we spend our days frog-dodging and trying to identify birds. talk about multi-tasking. on one part of our route the road had collapsed from the floods and we ended up carrying our bikes/bags over a thin wooden plank. it felt ridiculously hardcore. had our longest day-- 76 miles!-- followed by our sweetest day, in which we slept for about 15 hours and ate mountains of delicious food with the lilyhorns in hutchinson. we only have 2 more days or so in kansas so we're soaking it all up. more later!
7.05.2007
hi from dighton, kansas!
it's been a while since we've posted so we'll just give some highlights. crossed our first state-border and time zone a few days ago, and have seen some really lovely and mostly tiny towns along the way. the best thing so far has been the overwhelming hospitality of nearly everyone we meet-- one guy handed us gatorade out of his truck while driving past (we had actually daydreamed about that happening the day before), a cool girl from haswell, colorado gave us some of her mom's homeade banana bread and her grandma's pumpkin cookies, and just this morning a group of farmers refused to let us pay for breakfast. (if you can't tell, we're hungry all the time and eat about 6 meals a day.) we've been meeting a steady stream of cyclists heading the opposite direction, and the other day had dinner with two women both riding solo-- yahoo! we spent the 4th of july in scott city, sitting on bleachers at a football stadium watching fireworks from every direction. it was a nice holiday to take part in as we're seeing new parts of the country and thinking so much about where we fit into this larger picture.
it's been a while since we've posted so we'll just give some highlights. crossed our first state-border and time zone a few days ago, and have seen some really lovely and mostly tiny towns along the way. the best thing so far has been the overwhelming hospitality of nearly everyone we meet-- one guy handed us gatorade out of his truck while driving past (we had actually daydreamed about that happening the day before), a cool girl from haswell, colorado gave us some of her mom's homeade banana bread and her grandma's pumpkin cookies, and just this morning a group of farmers refused to let us pay for breakfast. (if you can't tell, we're hungry all the time and eat about 6 meals a day.) we've been meeting a steady stream of cyclists heading the opposite direction, and the other day had dinner with two women both riding solo-- yahoo! we spent the 4th of july in scott city, sitting on bleachers at a football stadium watching fireworks from every direction. it was a nice holiday to take part in as we're seeing new parts of the country and thinking so much about where we fit into this larger picture.
we're here at the perfect time-- the wheat is ready, and loads of harvesters are travelling across the country following the harvest. we're learning an incredible amount about the process of harvesting and getting a really personal look at where so much of the food we eat comes from. we can't help but get into long, winding conversations with nearly everyone we meet-- so much for making it all the way home. people are really patient with how little we know (and generally find us pretty amusing, maybe stupid?) and everyone seems to want to help us out or take care of us along the way. we're endlessly floored.
we're also tired, sore, burned, and blistered. the wind out here is heavy and each day feels really long, but we're gaining muscle and confidence (and mileage!). trying to ride for this long, we've realized, is a lot about learning to define our own limits-- when to push them, and when to surrender to them. most people we meet tell us we're nutty and sometimes it feels that way, but mostly we feel grateful to be out in the sun and feeling so self-reliant. we probably could use a shower.
it's hard to predict how much internet access we'll have but we'll do our best to keep updating.
sending love!
c+s
6.30.2007
hi all!
just got to ordway, colorado. we're spending the night at the house of a woman who lets cyclists stay over in her master bedroom and shower and take care of all sorts of business. we're chilling in her lovely house (next to a petting zoo!) and she isn't even home yet. nearly everyone we've met has been this nice-- so nice it makes us nervous, or feel like asshole new yorkers. we've run into a bunch of cyclists along the route, and passed through the smallest towns you ever heard of. (re: population 66..) we've only just started but you wouldn't know it from our sunburns and butt blisters.
had a wacky train ride from nyc-denver and made gabijillions of friends. met some rainbow people who played the dirigidoo and told us we had a white light shining from our hearts. (yahoo!) also traded emails with the whole amtrak baggage crew in denver.
it's almost 8pm and is getting awful close to our bedtime. see you all on the flipside.
love, c+s
just got to ordway, colorado. we're spending the night at the house of a woman who lets cyclists stay over in her master bedroom and shower and take care of all sorts of business. we're chilling in her lovely house (next to a petting zoo!) and she isn't even home yet. nearly everyone we've met has been this nice-- so nice it makes us nervous, or feel like asshole new yorkers. we've run into a bunch of cyclists along the route, and passed through the smallest towns you ever heard of. (re: population 66..) we've only just started but you wouldn't know it from our sunburns and butt blisters.
had a wacky train ride from nyc-denver and made gabijillions of friends. met some rainbow people who played the dirigidoo and told us we had a white light shining from our hearts. (yahoo!) also traded emails with the whole amtrak baggage crew in denver.
it's almost 8pm and is getting awful close to our bedtime. see you all on the flipside.
love, c+s
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coal train with 127 cars
