Home sweet home!!

Well after the long and grueling 51 best days of our lives, our dream of cycling this great nation of ours is complete, done, finished, over!!! Other than T's marriage to his lovely fiance Sabrina the road for us both is pretty uncertain. Our trip was everything we expected to see and more. The hospitality of the USA with the few exceptions of course was phenomenal, the scenery greatly diverse, and the people we met during the trip unforgettable. We would like to thank EVERYONE from our families, friends, and lady friends back at home who supported us through it all to the companions we made on the road. Sadly to say the easy part is now over and the hard part is about to come...life. We will be thrown into the real world sooner than we want only to think back to our manifest destiny as a memory to last a lifetime.

other than that, I'm sure you guys just want to here about the last week of our trip!!

• we hit OREGON, the last state!!!
• Met an English guy named GUY who ate a 1/2 gallon of ice cream before our eyes!!
• Sneakily made it through one of the windiest places on earth , the Columbia gorge with minimal winds. thank the lord!!!
• Rode along very old scenic highway 30 in Oregon passing over 75 waterfalls!!!!
• My trailer getting its first flat of the WHOLE trip 10 miles from the Pacific coast?!?
• arrived at SEASIDE our final destination
• survived a 12 foot+ diameter tree falling in the middle of the night at our campsite
• Surfed the Oregon coast while becoming the talk of the town somehow(probably our good looks)
• skated Burnside skate park all day in Portland while waiting for our flight

So becoming the talk of the town at least needs a little rundown of how this all happened once we hit seaside. It all started when we were man handling our bikes down to the water to dip the tires in the water when these tourist happen to see that we obviously are accomplishing something pretty big. so they meander over and start a little small talk as we get them to take our picture for us when this lady become infatuated with our trip. well knowing that people finish all summer long in seaside, we thought this would be no big thing and went along with finding out more information about town. well about an hour later this same lady, Sheree, finds us again and tells us how her friend called one of her camera man friends Dave and that he's on his way out to shoot our story. When Dave arrives, he shoots our story and all is fine. Dave calls his friend Keith who runs the local aquarium and tells him that he just has to meet these two guys who just rode their bike from Virginia!! Keith comes over, takes us back to the aquarium gives us a sweet tour and he just happened to be good friends with the owner of a local surf shop Josh. During small talk we let Keith know we're trying to rent some gear and hit the beach, hes like "oh man let me make this phone call." Keith then calls Josh at the surf shop and is like you have to meet these guys. well you get the point...Josh gives us free gear, Keith then takes us half way to this sick surf spot, Dave calls another buddy next door from where we got dropped off at to try and find us a ride, Jeff from the copy center says he can do it, Jeff actually cant do it so he calls his buddy Tom who then pulls up and we hop in his truck. we leave our bikes at the surf shop and in about 20 min down the road Tom drops us off. Before we knew it, T and I were SURFING FOR FREE!!!

the next morning, after we survive the tree falling, ( Dave and Keith come out to the spot and check on us to make sure everything is fine. Keith actually brings along Pam a reporter from the local paper who then interviews us for a little while. This whole time Dave is getting double footage from the tree and us. we end up surfing. Well Pam being a really really nice lady wants to take us out for dinner and treat us to a real meal after our accomplishment. after she saved us from being marooned out at this surf spot all day, she then gives us a VERY educated tour of the whole city and tops it off by taking us to the best fish and chips in town. in addition to all this, Dave the cameraman let us stay in his guest house/ cottage thing!!!

talk about a perfect ending to a perfect trip. (Pam writes an awesome story about us that takes up about half of the front page of the newspaper the next day)http://www.dailyastorian.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=398&ArticleID=52339

We, T and JC, formally close this blog forever and always to be used as aids for us killing time at work and remembering what riding 8 to 10 hours a day feels like and the memories that goes along with riding our bikes CROSS COUNTRY!!

-Thomas William Fortune

-Justin Craig Cantrell

BIRTHDAY and SUNSHINE!!!!!!

The weather has been PERFECT since the last post. everyday the weather has been 75/80ish with the sun shining. when we left stevensville we met a lady on the way out of the sandwich shop where we grabbed some lunch at who just told how great Missula was. Long story short, she talked us into taking a half day off in missula and hangin out. She informed us about some live music that was happening in town that night and after romping our way through a thrift shop we met her and some friends before these shows that they had in store for us. First show they took us to was some pretty "upbeat country rock" stuff that was really good. the good news about this place was that people could dance... and i mean legit dance. moves and all. T and I tried our best but when it came down to it we kinda mingled with the people and watched the music. after our dance session there they had another place in mind and right when T and I walked in, we knew this place was a little more our style. The music right when you walked in took control of your body!!! from the depths of your soul, your body just was automatically GROOVING with the music. probably one of the FUNKIEST bands either one of us have heard in our lives. to say the least we were there until the place closed a good 3 hours later covered in sweat and about to fall asleep standing up. One of Shelly's friends allowed us to crash at her place to complete one of our craziest nights yet.

After Missula we left and climbed our way into the last time zone we will encounter!!!! not to mention that was the state line into Idaho. Idaho was perfect!!

• free camping anywhere
• natural hot springs(this includes a WEIRD story that will have to be told in person dealing with nudist hahahahaha)
• camp fires every night
• the Locksaw river
• on top of all that T's 22 BIRTHDAY!!!!!!.

we are actually out of Idaho but that just means one thing...were in WASHINGTON! I'm not too sure if you guys know but Washington is clear across this nation of ours? i mean FAR FAR from home. less than a week away and were getting excited. the library lights just flashed so i think that is a little hint to wrap things up. we miss everyone and cant wait to actually tell all of our stories in person, this whole typing thing with numb hands doesn't work too well.

-The Good, Bad, and... (we both look good)

Winter in June???

Well since last post, which has been a little while, our bodies have not seen the light of day!!! Wyoming summed up-wind, rain, cold, ice, hail, snow, oh did we mention the wind? It literally rained on us every day in Wyoming, snowed on us twice, 2 hail storms, and I'm not too sure if it ever rose above 50. and it def got below freezing a multitude of nights. no need to worry though, between being real men, meeting really nice people, sleeping 6 cyclist in one hotel room, and finding ever natural hot springs in the whole state, we made it! oh dont forget the wyoming traffic jam we survived...see pic!!!!

enough about Wyoming, Montana has treated us a tab bit better. we met a three some from Colorado going from fort Collins that we rode with a couple days, a professor from Boston riding to Portland, and believe it or not we ran into someone from flipping JMU!!!!!!! Our buddy Dave is going from west to east and RANDOMLY bumped into him at a Patagonia outlet factory in Dillon MO. after exchanging stories of AWFUL weather we all shared a hotel room only to wake up to a severe weather warning for the day!!

quick perfect story of the hospitality of America /(could have been ax murderers but we had hope) after riding through a HAIL storm in early MO, this lady in a suv came up beside T and started drilling him with questions of just where are you going? after that? oh my goodness after that? long story short, she pulls off the road and talks to us a little and opens up her home to us. she gives us directions, a hot shower, and a warm bed. we said well of course well do that!!! we look on the maps to see where this is and it is over 150 miles away!?!? we were a little confused but after a couple days of riding we call her up and tell her we will be in town shortly and if the offer was still up we would love to stay for a warm night with yall. she said oh my goodness well i wont be there but my husband will make you dinner and just call him and let him know?! so we called a person we literally have never met, told him we will be at his house in about 2 hours and that we would love dinner. when we got there, it was the most beautiful house, he was making buffalo meatballs and spaghetti!!!! and told us that by the time we shower up, dinner will be ready. we get out of the shower and he offers us anything from his full bar in the back, and pours us some wine with dinner and then Tom, his daughter Sarah, and us chill around the dining room table stuffing our face!! we literally thought we were going to wake up from a dream. nothing could have been better. in the morning they left for work and told us that fruit coffee, and eggs were right in the kitchen and to just help ourselves!!! on top of this when we walked out side, the sun was shining and it was going to be 70!!!today. our week and a half of miserable winter weather in June was finally over and Tom, Sarah, and Darla helped us have a rejuvenation of a lifetime.

well i hope that some of these pictures you guys baking in a heat wave in the east can appreciate because we went a couple days without feeling our fingers or toes. at the first sight of a drop of sweat today, we are going to stop and celebrate and we have made a vow to never complain about being hot again!!

Lewis and Clark

ps we think in Missula MO we are going to catch the lewis and clark trail to portland since we lost massive time the last week or so. this will cut a couple hundred miles. this will allow us to keep the mind set of "vacation riding of look at that lets take a pic" instead of "we have to get miles in today!!!" to say the least, im pretty sure were making the right decision.

Wyoming...and still going.

Its been a while, but we finally got those pictures to upload. Theres a handful of new ones at the bottom of the page for you to check out. Colorado was unbelievable....the pictures don't even begin to do them justice. We got into Wyoming last night...and apparently wyoming is very windy. A lady we met told us today about how 100 mph winds are not uncommon!! But luckily, she said most of that happens in an area that we are not traveling through, so lets keep our finders crossed. We are both doing well, gettting weird tan lines, and excited to be making so much progress. We hope to write more soon, but we've got to go for now. Ok bye.

Highest of Highs, Lowest of lows!!!

Well lets go over one of our most eventful day yet. Day 25!!

• Woke up in a barn
• Freezing morning- 3 to 4 layers still shivering
• 58 miles of nothing
• Perfect tail wind morning- big ring session on flats
• Sun finally came out- temperature rose like 50 degrees in a hour
• COLORADO!!!!!!!
• hit desert
• ate at a ranch house with no ranch
• after lunh still tail winds--> Straight into a storm!!!! black as night
• road randomly turned away from storm?? the head winds started!!!! grrrr
• watched a TORNADO drop out of the shelf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• storm going opposite direstion though, dont worry ladies
• RAGING head winds for the next 4 hours--> couldnt even stand still without blowing over
• did see Prarie Dogs!
• finallly got to sugar city after a 118mile day!!

well the next day didnt treat us any better in regards with the winds. from the time we woke up til the time we got off our bikes in Pueblo 55 miles after. Pueblo was in fact a HUGE town where we replenished our cash supply, hit a walmart, and an attempted verizon store visit to fix a phone(didnt work, grr). we ended up sleeping in a city park next to the zoo and woke up ready to embrass the mountains. Today is what we have drempt of for months. riding in the desert, looking at the ROCKIES straight in front of us. i mean PEEEEEEERFECT. we just wanted to stop riding and set up camp looking at what were about to traverse!?!?! in the next two days we will hit our highest elevation of hoosier pass over 11,000 feet! aint no thing. from this town were in, Canon City, we will climb the next 8 miles up to a gorge crossing thing? not to sure what that is going to have in store for us but everyone in town is worried we arnt going to aclimated to the altitude. they keep making sure were going to stop if we get dizzy since supposedly us virginians wont be able to hang. we'll show them. Also the place were shooting for tongiht might be the first night we voluntarily pay for sleep. all we hve to say is that they dont have the showers turned because they are scared the pipes will freeze!!! good googily what are we doing?!? well were going to try and post some pics now for ya, we have herd most of you guys dont even read this and just check the pics anyways, but im preaching to the choir now arnt we?

-about to be cold and colder

Kansas!!! why are you so flat

Day 18 -->Fair grove, MO to Pittsburg KA
Day 19 --> Pittsburg to Chanute
Day 20--> Chanute to Rosalia
Day 21--> Rosalia to Nickerson (104)
Day 22--> Nickerson to Larned
Day 23--> Larned to Dighton
Day 24--> Dighton to (Tribune not quite there yet)

so to take in effects of towns being FAR apart and the towns having fewer people than we had in our freshman classes, libraries are becoming even harder to find. not to mention a Holiday thrown in the mess of things.

since last time...well theres been a bunch of nothing!! plains and more plains. some cows, some oil pumps, and did i mention some plains.

At the end of day 18 we ended up staying a a city park on the degree of a small amusement park. that also meant we woke up to train whistles and 500 elementary kids screaming!!!! good goo! this was also the first time we ran into two ladies riding from Chicago to California. Karen and Emily were there names and it was the beginning of a vacation from our vacation. we ended up riding a couple days with them which made the time fly by and added to our list of riding buddies.

when we woke from the amusement park, we visited a much needed bike shop. by the end of that rondevue both our pockets were a little hurting. after a LATE start we pushed to Chanute where we help a little kid pump up his tires and caught a ride into walmart from a fellow RV'er named Doug. after grilling some brauts and hangin out we hit the sac only to rose by the thunder and lighting of one of the most CRAZIEST thunderstorms imaginable. i thought we were going to be sucked up and blown away!!

Since the day before we were in the bike shop til 3ish, we woke early and had a big day. having good weather and nice people the day ended with us actually meeting back up with the ladies in Rosalia. they let us know that a very nice lady named Jan open up the church for us all night and that she let us shower in her house. she was a school teacher for 43 years and was the nicest lady!! after showering and pampering us, she called us in the morning to let us know she was coming over to cook us breakfast at the church and everything!!!! she helped us start out the day right. we then left with the girls and crushed a huge 100 mile day. (by the way the ladies before meeting us said they were riding about 50 miles a day so this was there first century!! just a little over what they were going for)

the next day we woke up and hit the road after a huge breakfast. the day before was full of clouds but no rain but that was not the case this day. SUN all day and really hot. the stretch also didn't have a town for a 58 mile steatch so we were in for the long haul. about 25 miles in, we decided it was time for a break. our attempt at chilling next to water ended up being next to a ditch swamp thing but after baking under the sun, all 4 of us ended up in some pretty GROSS water. in the end it was totally worth it. we ended up trying to part with the ladies but when we hit the next town the weather had another plan for us. we called ahead to the next town to check the weather and the sheriff literally said "BAHAHAHAH i would come this way if i were you!!" all you have to know to see is the pictures we took of the clouds. a very nice church opened its doors to us and we ran in.

the weather passed and the next day was an all in all good day.

this mornings weather was pretty miserable. we woke up to freezing weather, hard winds and cloudy skys. good thing we had our rain gear this time. we are about to hit another time zone change and we are about 30 miles from Colorado now!!! the library closes in 5 min so were outta here!

JC and T

T gets owned!!!!

HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!

T just got owned!!! trying to use his phone, the only service he could find was in the bathroom supposedly. well long story short, its a tiny library and we could kinda of hear the whole conversation. pretty soon the library lady goes over and knock knock knock, "pardon me but you cant use your cell phone in the library, including the bathroom." akward silence. "thank you."

just thought you guys would like to know that.

Day 16 --> centerville to Houston
Day 17 --> Houston to Fair Groves

all in all normal day yesterday. good weather, some hills, slight head winds at times. today we are repping out the miles. we even have a 5 to 7 mph tail wind in our favor. that helps a TON cause we hit some pretty plainy plains today. farm land for miles and a road every mile. literally like a grid. well we will try to post more pics since there nott o much to say!!!

adios