Sick for two weeks, epic dancing, mountain biking etc.

So like I said before, I was feeling a little bit sick when I rode out of Seattle, but I wanted to get going and I figured I could make with no trouble.  The ride was pretty nice - about 100 miles total, with maybe 35 miles on a paved bike path, which was great.  It was a beautiful sunny day, but unfortunatly I was pushing against some pretty massive headwinds by the end.  Not too much fun, but it was all worth it when I got to the last 15 miles or so, riding on Chuckanut drive.  It was ridiculously senic.  The sun was setting over Bellingham Bay and by this time the wind had finally died down.  I was stopping every half mile to take more pictures-- it was too beautiful.  I finally made it into Bellingham to find my friends Gretchen and Margot partying already.  I took a quick shower, had a few beers, then we all headed downtown for drinking and dancing.

Next day (saturday) I was still feeling a little sick.  As if riding all those miles wasn't enough, I probably should've thought twice about dancing.  "oh well,"I said to myself, " I will just take it a bit easier tonight."  Well that night was Marie's last night in town, so I had to have a few drinks with Marie and her friends.  "Sure, I'll have another" became he the phrase of the evening.  Then of course, that night was foam night at Rumors (the local dance spot)  Now for those of you who don't know what foam night is, its pretty simple.  Basically, everyody's dacing in a bubble bath.  By the end of the night the foam was four feet high in places, everybody is covered from head to toe, bubbles everywhere, condoms on the floor - Epic.  Truly Epic.   Well, as you've probably guessed, I couldn't say no to Foam night.  It was soooo much fun.  Don't worry, there are pictures, thanks to a friend's waterproof camera.  

So of course I was still sick the next day.  Next couple of days, actually.  I took it easy.  I rested.  I drank a lot of tea and layed around in the sun.  I even painted my toenails.  And it was working.  I was starting to feel a bit better. 

 So on thursday I was hangin with Nick S. and he suggested we go mountain biking.  Why not, right?  I'm feeling better, probably over the worst of it.  He let me borrow one of his downhill bikes and we hit the trails. It was alot of fun, despite that my chain would pop off if I pedaled more than a few rotations at a time.  It was a blast and riding a full suspension bike really made me realize how crappy my mountain bike is.  I also managed to go over the handlebars, which wasn't too bad at the time, but I hit my ribs pretty hard.  Now it's a week later and it still hurts to take a deep breath or cough.  After riding, we picked up some booze to celebrate everyone being done with finals.  Of course, we ended up going dancing.  People later told me that I was "shirtless and all over the ladies" but I will just have to take their word for it.  

Of course, during the night the cold germs were able to regroup and make a fresh assault on my sinuses and throat.  The next two days were spent resting and recoverying.  I even went to bed early on friday while everyone else was partying and dancing. (amazing, I know).  But saturday I couldn't say no.  It was Gretchen's graduation and (forgive me Gretchen) she was soo drunk and happy; how could I not party?  Maddie was visiting for the weekend as well, so really I had no choice.  We ripped it up on High st. for a while, then back downtown for, you guessed it, DANCING!  It was great dancing.  Photobooths.  Shirtlessness.  Gyrating.  It was all there.  

Now its a couple days later.  Im still sick and my ribs still hurt.  I am going to go to the doctor tomorrow.  The doc will probably tell me to stop drinking and dancing.  To which I will reply, 'NEVER!'  But seriously, despite the fact that I've been here so long and I can't shake this cold, I've had a fantastic time in Bellingham.  This town is awesome and the people are amazing.  Thanks so much to my wonderful friends Margot and Gretchen for putting me up for so long, you're the best.  

But lets get real.  So far I've spent way more days hanging out with friends and goofing off than riding a bicycle.  What happend to riding across the country?  Well don't worry people, its going happen.  When I say I'm going to do something, I do it-- I just end up doing it way slower than I planned.  (This is why I am always late to everything)  So its going to happen, but its going to happen on Greg-time.  And I am fine with that.  Greg time is good time.  

Today we have a special guest, here to talk to you about funk music...

After a great couple of days in P town, it was time to hit the road again.  Will and I got some breakfast, then I started riding around 1:00 pm.  I ended up riding to Toledo WA that day; about 90 miles but it was pretty flat and I had a bit of a tailwind for most of the day.  I rode past a cool little airport that evening so I pulled into do some exploring.  It was here that I enjoyed that right of passage all of us clipless riders get to expierence at least once-- I came to a nice, slow stop and went to put my foot down, only to find it still quite attached to the pedal.  And down I went, in fully glory!  Fortunatly, no one was there to see it.  I kept riding, and made camp at a state park just past Toledo.

The next day ended up being my most challenging day of the trip so far.  I accidently woke up around 7:00 AM.  Thinking it was 9:00, I got up, packed everything away and hit the road.  As soon as I started riding, it started raining hard.  It was a little over 2 hours in the rain before I made it to Centrailia and by the time I got there, most of my rain gear was soaked through.  It was pretty miserable.  I contimplated stopping for the day in Centralia, but the rain quit, so I headed out.  The weather kept getting better, so I kept riding.  I stopped for a break in Elma and then again in Shelton.  By this time I had rode something like 90 miles and I had 40 more to go if I wanted to get to Bremerton where I could catch the ferry to seattle.  There was still plenty of sunlight and the last ferry was due to leave Bremerton at 11:30PM So I pressed on.  Passed Shelton, I had some amazing views of the Olympic Mountains across Hood canal and I got to watch the sun set over Mason lake, which was pretty incredible.  The last 15 miles were in the dark, but I was able to make it to Bremerton with enough time to get a beer and some hummus before the ferry pulled away.  By the end of the day I had rode 130 miles with a 90 pound bicyle from 7:30am to 10:30pm.  It was epic.

So I rested a couple days in Seattle.  I stayed with my friend, Kevin; he is a music teacher at a school teaching K-8 grade.  I wanted to see him in action so I went with him to work the next day.  It was great!  All the kids call you Mr Jans and the drinking fountains are only 3 feet off the ground.  I got to talk to all of his classes that day about music, and drums and everything.  The high point was definetly giving a lecture on funk music to the 2nd and 3rd graders.  It was pretty hilarious, I played them some good examples of funk music including Parliment and The Crusaders.  They loved it.  Then I tried to teach them the lingo.  'Ok kids, lets all say it together, "Make it funky!"'  "Can you dig it?"  Slap some skin, honky"  It was a lot of fun, and kinda made me wish I had a job teaching.  Summers off? Can't argue with that, I could do a lot of bike touring if I had every summer off.

I spent the rest of my stay with my dear sweet grandmother.  She took me out for some Thai  the first night, and the second I went to a dinner party with some friends of hers- it was alot of fun.  By  the end of my stay, though, I was starting to feel a little sick.  Nothing too bad, I suspect I picked something up from the children. Just a little cold.

Oh yea!  So a funny thing happend to Kevin and I as we were driving after my big ride into town.  Kevin has this kick ass '67 (ish) Chevy painted bright yellow.  We were cruisin down the freeway, feeling good, when we noticed that a cute and possibly drunk girl in the passenger seat of the car next to us was really diggin the truck.  Naturally, I blew her kiss which she must've liked because she proceded to flash her tits at us.  It was a good end to a very long day.

Its on, baby!

This is happening!  We are a go!  Divert all power to the main engines for maximum warp because The Great Pan-American Tour of 2011 is officially on! 

So to bring y'all up to speed, I made it back to Wenatchee a couple weeks ago; took care of some business, got a haircut, went to the dentist, you know, the usual pre-adventure things that we all gotta do.  Next, I hitched a ride to Seattle with Andrew to catch a Sounders game (We won!) and to hang with the old gang for a bit.  It was great fun-- Drinking, shish-ka-bobs, double dreams hands, we really managed to squeeze in a great deal of good times into two short days.  On the 23rd I caught the ferry from Seattle to Bremerton.  It was a beautiful day with just a few clouds in an otherwise blue sky.  A lot of great views of very fancy houses with wealthy children running around their perfectly maintained beach-front gardens.  damn kids!  Leaving Bremerton I hooked up with the Adventure cycling Association route that runs from Vancouver BC to San Diego - had to ride up some of the biggest steepest hills I've ever rode up, but like I said, it was a great day and I was very excited to finally be riding.

That first day I rode 70 miles to Elma WA and though it was beautiful at first I ended up getting rained on for at least 2.5 hours.  Heavy rain too, My feet and hands were soaked- not terribly fun.  But I made it and I camped out in the backyard of a hostel.  The guy running it was nice and the next morning suggested an alternate route for my ride to Astoria.  I took his advice and rode 95 miles the second day.  It was long but I made it and his route probably saved me another 45 miles on top of what I already rode.  Along the way I met some Germans that were also riding in the same direction and a group of five cyclists from Canada.  I ended up riding with a few of the Canadians for a couple hours - they were very friendly and having them with me helped boost my speed that day.  It was a long day though so I was grateful to meet up with Connie and Paul Benoit-- family friends who gave me a shower, big meal and comfy bed.  Thanks P and C, it was delicious and much appreciated! 

The next day was just a short ride from Astoria to Cannon Beach where I met up with my friend, Ariel.  She and Chris put me up for two days and showed me a great time in CB.  We went on some beautiful hikes, ate some good food, drank some good wine and got our dance on; It was a blast!  I also skinny dipped in the Pacific ocean, which I wanted to be part of my start and finish rituals for this trip.  Like a good beer, it was cold but refreshing and by the end my pants were off.  I also dipped my bike tires in the ocean, as per the custom of coast to coast cyclists, and by doing so, officially started the journey!  My original plan was to kick it off in Bellingham, but this way I can make it seem like the trip is longer, and I was really really excited to get it going. 

After a fun-filled two days in Cannon Beach and after the official start, I rode the 80 miles to Portland to meet up with my man, William J.A.P.  I made it into P-town about 10:30 and was quite hungry so we went out for a beer and some food.  The next day we had a great time, drinkin beer in the afternoon, sitting outside and enjoying all that Portland has to offer.  That night it was soul/reggae night at this awesome club so Will, MJ and I went out dancing and cut a mean rug for at least three solid hours.  The music was great and we totally got a bunch of people out dancing.  Great energy, great music, and still enough room to get my groove on; it was some of the best dancing I've experienced in a long time!  We also hit up a goth bar and tried dancing there, but by that time my feet were so sore and blistered I couldn't cut it to my maximum potential.  Overall a great night! 
So that's where I am at now- Hangin out in Will's apartment writing on my blog.  He's sleeping now, snoring away like a little angel. :)  I plan on riding out of Portland and back north up to Seattle tomorrow - it should take no more than two days. 

Here is my photobucket account with a bunch more pictures uploaded to it.


http://s1113.photobucket.com/albums/k503/Gregasus/

  That's all for now, stay tuned for more adventures from the open road! 
 

So long Grand Forks!

Ok I'm leaving Grand Forks today.  I meant to leave 2.5 days ago, but oh well, I had a lot of things to do and people to say bye to.  Now its three in the afternoon, and I still have to load my bike into the car.  But I am EXCITED to get the trip going!  More to come...

Hello, is this thing on? Can you hear me?

How's that, Jeff?  Are we on?.... Yea can you bring up the house a little bit.  That's great, and these cords here, that's not a problem?  Wonderful, thanks!

Well, welcome everyone!  Welcome to my web log, or "blog" as the young people are calling it.  My name is Greg, but most people call me Kablamo.  Boy have we got a fun night in store for you, its going to be a blast.  You're going to get the full story here, people, no censors, no editing, just live, raw, uncut, adventure.  You, the viewer in the audience, will see what I see, hear what I hear, and smell what I touch as I embark on adventure of a lifetime.  Riding my newly purchased bicycle (a Long Haul Trucker by Surly) across the country.  America, to be more specific.  Its going to be quite a journey, let me tell you.  Around the beginning of June I will depart from Bellingham Washington.  From there I will travel more or less east until I strike the Atlantic ocean, with brief but flavorful stopovers in Wenatchee, Sandpoint, Missoula, Grand Forks, Duluth, Minneapolis, [insert Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario here], Philadelphia, New York, and MORE!

Now, I know what you're all thinking.  You're thinking 'wow, this is a cool idea, but will he make it?  Does the Greg that I know, a simple and humble man not usually given to adventure or imagination, really posses the will power?  The motivation?  The Stamina and fortitude to realize such a lofty goal?  We could wait for time to tell, but who wants to do that-- I got the answer right here.
*holds up envelope*
Can I get a drum roll...Jeff do we have a drum roll on cue?
...and the answer is....*opens envelope*
Nicolas Cage for his role in Season of the Witch!!  Mr. Cage has just won yet another Oscar!
Just kidding...haha, yea come on people, who I did fool, hands up...yea lets be honest here

The answer is of course a resounding: Probably!  I will probably make it from coast to coast without being struck by a motorist, succumbing to heat stroke, eaten by a bear or getting tired and bored by the rocky mountains.  Truthfully, it will be all about the journey, not so much the destination.  I am going to give myself about three months, but I may just keep going until I run out of money.  And after all, what is being eaten by a bear really, but a great story to tell around the campfire years down the road.  This is why you people are in such a prime position; I'll bring the adventure to you and all I ask in return is that you put up with my ramblings, and wait until the commercial breaks to get up for snacks and to use the restroom.

So here it is folk: the start of the blog.  For now it will be in the future tense, but once I get on that road, 15ft wide, 4000 miles long, You can live the dream right along with me!  That's all for now, people.  If I can figure out how to upload pictures I will post some of my gear for all the bike nerds in the audience.  Stay tuned for more updates, you've been a great crowd, Goodnight!