Ten days later

Ten days ago Ryan, Bryan, Kyler and myself rolled out of Richmond.  So much can happen in ten days. So much has happened in ten days. Our first four nights along the way we had the comfort of staying inside houses. Fredricksburg was night one where our friend emily hooked us up with a friend of hers. She met us there and made us an amazing dinner.
     Day two we rode to DC. We stoped off about 15 miles out and visited kylers grandfather over a cup of coffee and some stale cookies. When we got back on the bikes it rained on us all the way into the city. We stoped at one intersection where the bike path croses a busey rode. While standing there a car flew off the side of the rode missing kyler and myself and kylers bike by only a few feet and hit the tree next to us. She was okay, we were fine. We continued on. all the rain stoped once we made it into downtown. Only a few weeks prior I met Sean, our house host of dc. He offered up his place right away when I spoke to him at a party at Ryans house that we had for britts birthday. He did so because he lives in a beautifuly large warehouse/art studio/gallary/home/show space. We had more then enough room to unload our wet gear. We took a day off to dry out, and we were lucky enough to be able to cross paths with my favorite part of dc. Sarah ruth. Although currently in the transition of moving to boston, she was around and free for brunch. I love having my friends of different worlds getting to meet each other.
     Dc to pittsburgh is an incredibly amazing bike trip that I will forever tell all of my friends to do if you have the chance. Over 300 miles of bike trail, no cars, free camping, wild life, rivers, bridges, tunnels. Day one on the trail was muddy due to the rain two days prior but it didnt slow us down much.  I have never had a bicycling experience like that before. Flying through the woods with a group of friends, blasting through mud with our bikes weighed down with bags full of gear.  It was all good though because once again we had a house at the end of the day. We stayed with our friend meghans crazy aunt who we refer to as mama all good. She is the producer of a hippie jam band fest call "all good". We once again partied as if we werent leaving on bicycles the next day. Stayed up late drinking beers and sharing some whiskey around a fire pit that had "its all good" cut out around the edges. Haha it was a weird night.
     Since then we've just been riding and camping and loving it. The bike trails been some of the best bicycling of my life. I've seen two bald eagles, three owls, a wild turkey, hundreds of turtles, lots of snakes, lizards, groundhogs, squirls black/grey/&brown. Deer. Andddd a crop circle, like a real deal alien from outerspace wild design crop circle.  And now almost 500 miles from richmond eight days of riding, here we are in Pittsburgh.  We plan to take a few days off here. Explore and hang with some friends of friends.  As of now were camping near a fire pit in the back of a friends house. A beautiful house with a big garden, a dog, a cat, chickens and a full on farm run by the neighbor at the top of the hill behinde the house. Right in the middle of the city. I already dont want to leave.  
     I want to post pictures but when I do so from my phone they come out really tiny. So I will wait for day that I get to use a computer.  Maybe before we leave pittsburgh!
     Thats all for now. Time to ride around this hilly city.

Last day in richmond.

Sometimes things happen that no one can control.  This is the case for mikey G. My buddy who is gonna continue on from chicago with me.  Due to unforeseen circumstances, he will not be leaving with us tomorrow for the group ride to the windy city. However, he does plan to meet us up there to cross the rest of the country with me.  As long as all goes as planed. If not, i'll be solo from there on out and that will be just fine but obviously a totally different trip...
    That aside, I am incredibly excited to hit the road.  Todays my last day in the city of Richmond.  We partied hard last night at ryans and i'll see more friends tonight at my friends birthday party. Tomorrow i'll wake up on Ryans couch and await the arival of kyler brian and mark. (ryan,kyler,and brian are riding to chicago. Mark is joining us for just the first three days) We'll be having a big family breakfast with whateved friends can make it over. Then we will start our trip with a 65 mile trip to fredricksburg where we'll be staying at a friend of a friends house. One day later we'll hit dc.  Then its 300 miles of camping, cooking, and bike path riding with no cars honking at us All the way to pittsburgh.
     Richmond has been so beautiful lately, and all my friends are the best. It's hard to say goodbye to a place like this. But the time has come. Im ready to travel.  All of our bikes are set. The route is perfect and we have friends in all the right places. Things are looking good. Although like outkast once said "you can plan a pretty picnic but you cant predict the weather" and thats the truth. So our fingers are crossed for not to much rain and for the wind to be on our backs.
     I'll end this with another quote from a song by glass candy "This summer is gonna be sick"  for real.