Coast to Coast 2023

Day 22 Claire here. I woke up this morning feeling healthy as ever, which was quite remarkable considering I went to bed 12 hours earlier with a fever, chills, and all the tell tale signs of being a sick little duckling. I was so grateful to wake up feeling well, and with none of those symptoms so I could keep biking with my team. And what better way to kick it back into gear than a 100 mile day! That's right, today we rode 102 miles from grassrange to Jordan, Montana. It feels ridiculous to say, and maybe this is just in comparison to our last 100 mile day, but it went pretty smoothly. It felt like we cruised the first 30 miles, then we were lucky enough to take a much needed rest around 70 miles in in Sand Springs, a one building town that included a post office, mini Mart, deli, antique shop, and probably even more that I am not even aware of. Let it be noted that we seriously considered buying the 5 pairs of matching vintage cowboy boots to add to the team ham uniform, but had ...

If I’m being completely honest I’m writing this a few days after when it actually happened, but at least it’s something! We started the day in Lewistown MT, which we quickly found out stops serving breakfast after 9am (aka our hunch is that lewistown caters to more elderly crowd than us). After finally finding a yummy breakfast spot in the Yogo Hotel we set off to Grass Range. It was only 30 miles to Grass Range so we got there decently early and decided to stop for ice cream at one of the three buildings in town. The ice cream was lovely and we trekked across the street to our destination for the evening. The “Little Montana Truckstop” was exactly as it sounds from the name, and we found ourselves carving out a little spot behind a dilapidated shed. The woman at the cash register who checked us in was a whole four feet of absolute loveliness, and made us feel completely welcome. Overall, the highlight of the day for me was when we found out that there were newborn kittens living about...

7/7/2023 Today marked one month of living off of our bicycles and at first, our one month anniversary seemed like it was going to be the best day ever. We were going to do another 100+ mile day (with less elevation) and we woke up in beds with a bunch of free honey stingers products!! Unfortunately there were no other cyclists at the Honey Hub Hostel at the same time as us, which we all laughed at in the morning because “we never see other cyclists!”. However, we had to eat our words about 25 miles into the ride when we started passing a whole slew of bikers moving west! One biker, a fellow woman, saw us and shouted “YAYYYYYYY, WOMMMMMENNNNNNNN” before continuing to pedal. We were perplexed by how light they were traveling despite telling us they started in Maine. Eventually we passed their very nice support van and learned they were cycling for Multiple Sclerosis awareness! Before long we were 50 miles in and eating lunch peacefully at the first gas station we had come across today. W...

July 6th, 2023 Hazelton ND - Gackle, ND Wow, day 30! Halfway done with our trip, both in terms of days and mileage. I know I just recently wrote about how cycling across the country is type II fun, but some days are actually just fun, and today was one of those days. After a month on the bike, cycling now feels homey in a way. The bikes have become extensions of us and it just feels natural to be riding.  The day started off in the usual way, but somehow we managed to pack up and start riding before schedule! We were all confused since this never happens. I even had time to reorganize my bags. After 27 miles of riding with blue skies along fields of corn, soy, and wheat and cow pastures we made it to the town of napoleon. The smell of cow manure in town was a bit off-putting, but we each nevertheless enjoyed a donut or caramel roll and a smoothie or coffee, all of which really hit the spot. We also paid a visit to the grocery store to stock up since we were unsure about the ameniti...

7/5/23 I woke up this morning to Kayla making tiny pancakes, so exciting! Somehow I am so hungry all the time (I wake up feeling like I could eat a whole loaf of bread and still have room for more). After eating a breakfast of eggs, fruit, and pancakes, we packed up and left the lovey Bismark home we’d been staying at. Shoutout to the kind strangers who have hosted us (even when they’re not home) along the way.  We made our way to 701 Cycling where we were met with incredibly friendly and helpful bike fit experts and mechanics. Both of the bike fit experts (master fitters?) had biked cross country. One told us how she raced coast to coast with 3 other cyclists in 7 days! They all had experience with saddle sores and recommended Desitin diaper rash cream along with frequent showers and laundry.  We all bought new, sized down bike shorts since our old ones have grown and we’ve shrunk. I also bought a new saddle! (Even though everyone else seems to love the power comp w/ mimic, I...

 Day 28: 7/4/2023   Happy 4th of July !!!!! and maybe more importantly, happy rest day to us !!!! We spent our rest day (after we slept in) running errands per usual. We all woke up hungry as heck which was surprising considering the amount of food (particularly bread) we consumed at 10 pm the night before…All we had with us was bagels so we just ate more bread. We went to the grocery store, pharmacy, and panera bread (was the only thing open within walking distance in the afternoon on the holiday). We stopped at Scheels (a chain outdoor gear store) to get a restock of energy chews etc. The man “helping” us was very little help at all… pointing out the most cushioned unreasonably large bike seats and telling us that was what he recommended….  By the time we got home from all of this, it was about 5 pm and we ended up ubering home (a friend of a friend’s parents’ house) from our last stop as we were getting a little delirious from hunger. As we were sorting out the groceri...

 C2C - day 27 - July 3rd  Today started off in high spirits! It was the day we had all been waiting for - We would be getting to Bismarck today! To warm showers and a soaking tub and separate rooms with beds! And best of all we wouldn’t be biking tomorrow. Nothing was going to get our spirits down, or at least so we thought…  We woke up in the Abbey and were escorted to breakfast by a very cheerful Father Odo who greeted us with a song. The breakfast of hot and cold cereal, fruit and homemade bread and was held in silence. It was very peaceful looking out over the rolling hills as we quietly ate our meals. Once there were only 5 monks left Father Odo began chatting with us quietly, stating that an old benediction scripture wrote that once there are only 6 monks left at the table you can talk plus, he added, most of them were hard of hearing anyways!  Soon after breakfast we were on the road again. A light drizzle had started but after an hour of cycling it past and w...