Home Again Home Again

Was any of it real even?  It sure seemed real at the time?  Is this real?  What is real?  Reeeeeeeaaaaaaaalllllllll.  It feels like the end of Mario 2.  Well I never owned Mario 2 but I definately played it.  I remember watching somebody beat it at Phil Ryan Thompson’s house when I was little.  Mainly I’m just obsessed with the music.  Koji Kondo didn’t write the music for it but maybe that’s partly why it’s good too.  But Koji Kondo is amazing as we all know his tunes.  If I can take one thing away from the entire bike riding experience it’s that Nishant won’t stop to eat unless there’s a picnic table.  I walked up to see my mother, sister Kit, and my 2 nephews at the airport.  I almost started to tear up as I approached but held back because I’m a stupid man.  Now I’m back for reals.  It’s so huuuuuuumid.  Must be something in that North Carolina air………  Oh yeah, humidity.  Back to the steamy hot cloud that I call home.  I’m sweating just thinking about walking outside right now.  I told no one else that I was coming home.  

I am not getting paid for that advertisement.  🤔  I called my Dad and said, “What are you doing right now?  Wanna hang out?”  He said,”Suuure, yeah man let’s do it.”  Then I told him I wasn’t kidding.  I’ll be over there in 30.  He was shocked.  While I’m with my Dad my Grandmother calls him.  I pick up the phone.  It takes her a moment to process.  She is shocked.  Hahahaha.  We go over to hang out with my grandparents and talk.  A woman who takes care of them named Reanetta, asked if I’d called the news stations yet.  Hahahaha.  No I have not.  Lot’s of people ride their bikes across the country!  I met some of them.  She said she’d call them for me!  She took down my information but I havent heard nuthin yet.  Later, I go over to my old house where my old band mates still live.  I walk up and Ryan’s on the porch.  We laugh hard!  I walk up to Kyle’s room and knock on the door.  He opens the door.  We laugh hard!  

These are them and me there on the left

After I do a little bit of this, I just lay low at my Mom’s with Kit and the boys for a while.  Beth comes back from Boone to hang for a day.  Remember when I gave Beth my van and she was gonna live in it?  Well if you don’t, that was at the beginning when I first left NC.  Anyways, she said she didn’t want the van because it was too much work to fix up!  Hooray!  That means I have a van again.  A glorious creepy Astro that can take me to the stars and I can explore the wonders of the astro plane.  🆙  🚵🌈

You guys wanna come inside for some popsicles?

This picture was taken after I bleached the inside and scrubbed her down.  Before, I would throw cable boxes and tools and sometimes an entire bands worth of equipment with a full band back here.  Not anymore.  I’m going to take care of her good now.  I always wanted to make this van totally a awesome dude.  Now I will.  I’ll just steal Beth’s idea and live in this van and travel around.  I guess I’ll have to figure out how to make some money soon but I’ll do that with the van.  I have to do regular people things now.  Go get tags inspection and everything.  Ewwwwww.

When I’m in public I can talk to anybody about anything anytime.  I was so used to people constantly coming up and asking me questions.  I should work in customer service now.  Syke!  I heard that when people are finished with a bike tour they get a depression.  My dad said that it’s like coming back from war.  I never went to any war but adjusting has been hard.  I did get a little depressed.  Empty.  Now I’m just a dirty, hairy, homeless, jobless dirtbum.  Going from having a goal every day that builds up to a larger goal.  Every person I met, their eyes lit up when I told them what I was doing and they’d try to help me in some way.  This happened many times a day every day.  It’s like a high that I got used to.  Now there’s no goal.  BUT when I go out in public people are still coming up to me and starting up conversation.  Maybe it’s my big hair, or maybe I’m emitting, “hey, come over here and pay me some attention stranger”  Must be my antennae.  I’m waiting on my bicycle to get here.  I’m going nutz not being able to ride.  I just wanna ride.  Just a joy ride.  Any ride.  Ride ride ride ride ride.  When will it be here??????  Is it here yet????? I get sick for a couple of days.  My nephews were sick.  Maybe I got something from them.  Or maybe my body has given up and is just gonna die now.  What’s the point?  What do I do now?  I wait a week for my bicycle.  When it arrives I immediately leave for the beach!  My grandparents have a house at Oak Island and I am going there to figure it all out for a while.  Maybe I should’ve had an,”After Trip Plan”  But that was the point.  Not to really have a plan.  Near Lumberton the van is shaking hard.  It’s loud.  It happens for a while and eventually I hear, “spwooishhhhhhhhhhhhhhh flap flap flap flap flap flapn”  Sounds like a flat.

That highway looks really cool

At first I’m nervous about changing the tire on the side of the highway.  Then I remember,”Oh yeah, I’ve been on these roads all summer long!”  The muffler has been rattled apart a little.  That explains the loudness.  Now I sound totally awesome riding down the road.  When I get to the beach I put my bike together.

Ohhhh man.  It feels so good.  I remember this seat.  These pedals.  Oh, and those wonderful racks!  My Dad’s there too.  We’re talking while I’m assembling my friend.  During all this I get a text on my cellular telephone.  It’s Yaqing!  She says she’s coming through NC and stayin in Myrtle Beach tonight!  What?!?!?!?!?!?  I should’ve just expected that to happen!  Her and her friend Taesu are coming tomorrow.  Yeah!  

One week you’re on the west coast, the next you’re on the east coast.  

Me trying to wear Yaqing’s knap sack

We hang, we swim, we hang some more.  

Cool

She’s gotta be in New York to start school in a couple days so they take off.  Man that was wild.  My Uncle Chris takes my pop and I out on his boat one morning fishing.  

I feel a little weird killing a little fish to catch a bigger fish but really we’re just feeding the fishies.  It’s fine don’t think about it too hard or your head will hurt.  I think one decent sized fish was caught.  

Kit and the boys come down for a few days………

Hey

That was fun.  Eventually everybody leaves and it’s just me, alone, at the beach.  I do nothing.  That was my plan.  After a few days of nothing a man starts to change…  you know?  I ride to Southport one day which was nice.  

I changed my rear tube yesterday.  Soon after crossing the bridge, a flat!

I rode this thing acoss the en(tire) country and never had a nail go into my tire.

It was a long nail too!  Luckily I was right next to a bike shop and fixed it.  Maybe the owner goes out there and throws nails in the road for some extra service.  Probably.

Eventually I come back to GSO.  I talked about going to Boone and finding some work maybe up there but I have decided to stay here for a while I suppose.  I did sign up for Vipassana in November.  Vipassana is a 10 day meditation retreat where you can’t talk for 10 days.  You do alot of meditating all day.  Sounds intense!  The closest and soonest one I could find to accept me is in November and in Texas.  Let’s do it!  Currently the situation that I’ve found to fit me best is to park my van in the driveway of my old house.  The HellRaiser House.  I’ve worked out a deal with the residents there.  They said it was okay.  It works out because I don’t want to live in a house yet!  I can’t go back yet.  Still not ready.  I can drive this van to Texas and sleep in it along the way.  I can take this thing anywhere!  Oh yeah!  I’m living in it!

It’s a work in progress.

I’ve been living in a tent all summer.  I consider this quite the upgrade.  I guess I’ll have to make some posts about what I’ve done thus far huh?  And what I plan to do.  I’m stealing little bits and pieces from other people’s vehicle’s I saw along the way.  Does anybody want to pay me money for services rendered????????  I would consider myself a hard worker.  I rode to Tate Street to make this post.  I will leave you this.  Until next time.

Uh oh. It’s happening again

Protein From The Sun

The last post I made titled, “Nick’s Vegan Picks (Portland Edition)” has somehow vanished.  Man, I really liked that one too.  Anyways, I ate a ton of vegan food and it was the best.  In between eating sessions I also hung out and looked at Portland.  Sooooooooooo okay.  Rememember when I destroyed a third of my spokes on my front wheel in the middle of nowhere and within the hour a car pulled over and gave me a new wheel???????

Here is a picture of that instance.

So Ted (the guy on the left giving the peace sign)  gave me the wheel and said I could trade wheels again if I go to Portland where he lives.  So I go to Portland.  I have arrived.  I ride around looking for vegan treats and I find.  I guess I’ll put up one picture.

Smoked tofu with mellow yellow chipotle sauce and cole slaw

I get to Ted’s and it’s big.  He says 15 people live in the house.  There’s 2 small sheds out back that people sleep in.  I get to set up my tent in the back yard.  Gaylen (the other guy from the above picture) lives there and is super cool.  I hang with him.  Lots of other people come to the house and we have a fire.  There’s a little boy who asks if we want to do plum races.  I’ve never heard of a plum race.  He’s made paper tracks and you roll the plum down the track.  Duh Nick.  Oh yeah, there’s bikes everywhere.

My wheel is in this picture. Also look for Wizard WhiteBeard

Bikes on bikes on bikes on bikes on bikes.  Yep.  It seems as though I’ve come to the right place.  Saturday I ride around looking at this city.  There’s a ton of bikes here.  In the city.  Very bike friendly.  I see alot of other people with odd things strapped to their bicycle.  I don’t stand out as much anymore.  Lots of what seem to be homeless folks about.  I passed by a 711 gas station.  There were people strewn about lying all over the sidewalk with loud classical music playing.  It was a scene.  Lots of vans and buses and RV’s with people living in em.  Also, all the rest rooms from Washington and Oregon don’t have genders on the door.  They just have a vacant/occupied latch.  Very progressive.  I try to figure out where I wanna go next on my bicycle adventure.  Down the west coast of course.  Everywhere I look at on the map I do not care about.  Nothing seems appealing.  It’s as if………………. I don’t care anymore!  I have a big contemplation day.  It reminds me of this.

Well it’s official.  I’m done!  I no longer want to ride my bicycle every day currently anymore.  I buy a plane ticket to go back home for tomorrow!  Just like that.  Well, I’ve been pretty done for a while actually.  Just didn’t conciously want to accept it I suppose.  I’ve been riding for almost 3 and a half months.  Sheesh.  I mean I did ride my bicycle across the entire country.  Well for the most part.  Got a few rides here and there.  But the big question is, “You don’t eat meat.  Where do you get your protein from????”  Got my protein from the sun.  Duh.  Ever heard of someone you know with a protein deficiency?  No.  Doesn’t exist in this food world we live in today.  I think most of us are getting too much protein.  Whoa whoa whoa.  Where was I?  I got a little off topic there.  Oh yeah, protein from the sun.  

Steven sent me this

This whole trip people have been calling me Forest Gump.

Later in the day I go back to the house and tell them of the news.  Ted keeps trying to get me to reconsider.  “Nick, Nick.  No no no.  You’ve got to stay in Portland for at least 5 more days.  Nick, I’ll find you a cheaper flight.”  What?  No Ted!  I’ve made up my mind!  I’m ready to go!  My last night in Portland, another biker from D.C. is staying in the backyard with me.  We have lots to talk about.  He said he was riding with 2 other guys and one was from Greensboro!  Well I’ll be a sungun.  The next day is Sunday my last day.  Ted asks if we wanna go on a ride in the morning and I say yes of course.  I didn’t realize until later that it’s a huge ride with thousands of people and they close off bridges and parts of the highway!

Here we are, team Red Scarf

Check out Emily’s bike.

Everybody’s got folding bikes out here.  Also works as a nice kickstand.  After the ride we go back home and we all ride each others bikes to see what they’re like.  I need to disassemble my bike.  I go through my belongings.  I trash a buncha stuff, give away a bunch, and try to figure out what I can take with me.  

She’s so nekked

I go to a thrift store and get a duffel bag.  The zipper breaks immediately.  I eat one last vegan meal at a vegan deli.  It’s so good.  Vegan cheesecake.  I gotta go make some food now, I’m hungry thinking about this.  Then I take my bicycle into a bike shop and ask them to ship it to Greensboro NC.  I walk out of the store and don’t know what to do.  I feel naked.  Empty.  Oops I accidently shipped Ted’s wheel back to NC.  🌞  The whole reason I even came to Portland in the first place.  I walk 4 miles back to Ted’s with my new old bag.  It’s evening now.  My flight leaves at 10:30 tonight.  

Ryan’s bucket looking pretty good still

Beth’s is trash

Bye guys!

The buckets have served their purpose and are now here for the next shlub.  I hang with Gaylen and then my biker bud comes back and it’s time.  I summon my first Uber and Ted comes out and they all see me off.  I’m off!  The lady who drove me to the airport says she used to live in Greensboro!  She asks me if I know some guy who’s a plumber in Greensboro.  Ummmmm nope.  She drops me at the aeropuerto and I feel like we’re cows going to slaughter or we’re being processed in prison.  I say the bit about prison to the girl behind me in line and she agrees.  She was shaking.  I think she was scared to fly maybe. 

My zippers are all broken on this huge bag and I’m carrying it on with me so I kind of have to just hold it under one arm and look like a badass.  I board.  This plane feels like a sad bus in the sky.  

This is how I sit for 4 and a half hours

I’m smooshed between a young vegetable lasagna to my right and some pretty girl to my left.  I try to talk to the girl but she barely speaks english.  They turn the lights out as we ride into the night.  Hours later we’re in Charlotte!  Weird.  It’s cloudy out.  Kinda like the west coast.  I have a few hours until my flight to GSO.  The time is 3 hours off and I haven’t slept all night I’m all messed up.  Finally I get on the 20 minute flight to Greensboro.  I’ve tried to strike up converstaion with people in these airports but nobody’s having it.  Not like those small towns where everybody will just talk to you for hours.  

You Like Sexy And Hot Women?

Got her all fixed up

I did get my bike fixed.  I sure did.  It took 7 hours but I got my bike fixed.  Went ahead and got a new rear wheel, cassette and chain.  You guys.  It’s like butter.  The gears change effortlessly.  Very nice.  But I can’t get it to go down to the smallest gear in front again!  Blargghhhh.  It’s 4:30 and I don’t even wanna ride muhhhhhhhhh.  It’s cold!  It’s foggy!  There must be something in that Washington air…….  A mountain!  Yarghghghghghgh.  I climb this mountain and setup my tent on the side of the highway.  If you were driving by you might look over and say, “Hey look, there’s a tent.”  The next morning I chat a bit with a bicycle man while riding.  He says he rode from Tennessee!  I thought he was a foreigner before he opened his mouth and heard the accent.  Today I gotta get to Astoria (which is an old CUCUMBERS song《CUCUMBERS is my band in case you’re not privy》) and find a spot so I can watch this Panthers game!  I heard from a little birdy(N-Man) that the bridge to Astoria is intense.  Guess what.

It is!  In this picture you can’t even see the other side of it.  Cars whizzing by.  I just turn up the tunes and sing and pedal.  I’ve never gone uphill on a bridge before this day.  Construction on the bridge?!?!?!?  Once I finally cross over and make it to the other side, the air is freezing and a fog has taken over.  The game starts at 4:30 it’s almost 4:30!  Ride.  Find a bar or an internet!  I cruise by a brewery and see Panthers on the TV!  

There he is. Clam Newton

Praise him, for he is Clam.  I’ve found my spot for the next 3 hours.  I walk outside and hear sealions sealioning around.  3 of them swim by!  I say to 2 women, “I guess I walked out at the right time.”  They just look at me.  They didn’t like it.  I’ve never seen no sea lion before lady.  Back to the game.  A guy comes and sits next to me.  We start talking.  He’s a traveler too!  Cody says he walked up the Pacific Crest Trail before and it took him 5 months.  Currently he’s coming from Chicago going to Bend Oregon in a van he converted!

Oh yeah, I’m in Oregon!

The ultimate Thanksgiving movie

Hooh Ah!  Oregon!  Cody is a cool man.  I think we would hang out if we lived in the same town.  We part ways and it’s dark!  Uh oh.  Usually I have a campsite setup before darkness and I’ve never setup camp in a populated area!  Well earlier today I did want a challenge.  Now I’ve got it.  I hear the sea lions going bananas.  “Or or or or or!”(thats’s the sound they’re making)  N-Man tells me it’s mating season.  I ride down a paved trail by the water and decide to set up camp here.  In the wilderness I feel like The Nature Boy.  In the city I have become Hobo-Man.  Somebody walks by with their dog at 5:00 a.m.  I back it up by 5:30 and roll.  I see Cody’s van at the grocery store and leave him a note on his windshield.  I’m off!  

It’s cold and foggy.  I’m so tired.  Muhhhhhhhh.  I stop into a small restaurant to escape this cold.  Somebody asked me to be their friend on facebook and I said,”Okay”  

Victoria Anderson

Messenger

Messages

Victoria Anderson

You’re friends on Facebook

Works at Fleuriste

Lives in Chicago, Illinois

THU 12:18PM

You are now connected on Messenger.

Hello
how are you ?

Nick

Hello Victoria. I’m cold, how are you?

I am very good thanks
In fact I do not think I know you, but I want to know you, unless you do not have a problem. OK ?

Nick

Haha okay. Why do you want to know me?

I live in chicaho
And I am 24 years old, and you?

Nick

32 riding my bike

you are married ?

Nick

No.

I’m single
Now I’m lying in my room half naked in my bed, and I watch a movie X
can I ask you a question ?

Nick

Haha okay

You like sexy and hot women?

Nick

Hahaha yes

hum
I am a sexy hot woman and I am alone on my bed at the moment and I am hot then it tells you to be envied to the camera both and if we agree we meet Ok

Nick

How much

????????????

Listen to me I’m not the one for money so tell me you wanna do it with me on the camera Yes Or No?

Nick

Well no. I’m in a diner eating tater tots

Me I’m looking for a serious relationship With a Man and if we do it both to the camera after we see for real So tell Me you wanna do it With Me has the camera Yes Or No?

Nick

Tots dude. Eating them. Me. Now

That’s a funny converstaion.  Later in the day I hear a, “honk honk”  Cody passes by.  So tired.  Nap in the park.  Up a mountain.  I don’t even care about you anymore mountains.  I have truely become the machine.  I ride through a town and a guy in a big white van shakes his fist at me and says, “Yeahhhhhh!!!!!!!!”  I shake my fist right back and scream as loud as I’m capable, “YEAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!”  I sleep in a ditch on the side of the road and have terrible sleep.  Hobo-Man strikes again.

Gonna be in Portland today.  Gonna eat so much vegan food.  The girl Elizabeth who met me in that internet cafe says she’s still in Olympic filming something for Columbia sportswear!  Oh well.  I’ll go to Ted’s.  Remember, the guy who gave me a wheel a few weeks ago on the side of the road?  Here’s some info I got about the city today.
Cool things about Portland: by Ryan Stack

• 1)  They turn old closed-down schools into places where adults can get drunk, watch a cheap movie and swim.
• 2)  I hung out in a neat house.
• 3)  There are old wet clothes and bookbags all over the sidewalk.

Nishant is in Texas for a wedding and subsequently so is Yaqing!  

Not creepy at all

My next post is solely going to be about me eating vegan food in Portland.  Nothing else.

The Background

These are some things you might find in a weed shop

I don’t even know what some of that stuff is.  Weed soda.  Weed candies.  I would not want a weed soda. 

I know what these things are

We hang around Georgetown?  We indulge in margeritas.

Hey

Later, we hop on rafts and float across a big lake.  We float near a roped off area where families are swimming.  A life guard keeps yelling something we can’t understand at us.  The more he yells the harder we laugh.  I don’t think he wanted us there.  

We go to a neighborhood potluck and then to sleep.  I gotta get up and ride out of this crazy Seattle world tomorrow.  Every inch of Seattle has been touched by man.  It looks cool but I gotta go on and get outta here.  I hit the ferry over to Bain Bridge.  I call Nishant on the way out and say my goodbyes.  As the ferry starts to go I feel the loneliness.  I havent actually been alone in over a month.  Weird.  I ride on.  

These are all my friends

There’s a haze in the air.  I thought it was humidity.  A woman at a gas station tells me it’s smoke from wild fires up in Canada.  I ride somewhere near Sequim.

Just hang around in Sequim for a day.  It’s hot son.  I broke my left shifter!  The closest bike shop is in Port Angeles.  I have a mission now.  I’m near the ocean.  I can smell it.  

Just across the way you can see Canada.  So I’m not at the coast yet.  Not the true west coast.  Port Angeles is cool!

The bicycle man has an eye patch so of course he’s an immediate badass.  We talk for a while and he starts to tell me…..  I cut him off and say,”My cassette and chain need replacing?”  He says,”Yeah man!  You should ride em out til it snaps!”  I probably should have gotten it fixed but I kind of want to see how far this thing will go.  The guy in St. Louis told me it was starting to stretch.  The bicycle man is describing the roads up ahead to me.  He says I’ll go over some roly polys.  I don’t know what that is but me likes the name.  As I start down the 101 low and behold, roly polys.  I get it.  It makes sense.  Little hills that dip up and down.  It’s hot.  I stop at a gas station and sit outside.  Time passes.  2 women come right by me.  One woman is in a wheel chair and she needs a chair charge.  We all start chatting.  They’re giving me advice on what roads to take.  I stopped because there was construction on the road ahead.  We pretend to have a picnic and then actually kind of do.  Why yes I’ll take some fresh blueberries from your garden.  They’re about to leave to go meet up with Teena’s son.  She asks if I want a ride!  Well I mean.  I don’t need a ride but I have to say yes!  

We all hop in!  We’re going to the river!  

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXZNsnaBn1z/?taken-by=teenaleena19
Teena’s son on the left there with the monster dreads is a bicycle man like me!  Sounds like he had an accident and can’t ride a bicycle anymore but still rides trails constantly.  He wants to go on another tour!  Do it!!!!!!  So cool.  Don’t you never ever never stop.  Teena cracks a beer and we’re all passing it around sipping.  These guys are giving me tips on where to go.  So cool.  We all ride up to the top of the bridge and part ways.  I was just gonna go down the 101 but now I’m headed for a trail north of Crescent Lake.  As I draw nearer to this lake, the road begins to fade more and more.  It becomes more of a hike than a bike ride.

It’s like a blurry jungle out here

I make it through.  It’s almost dark dood!  There’s a campground.  It says full but I bet there’s a hiker/biker spot.  There is no hiker/biker spot!  I’m riding around this madhouse of a campground when I hear,”You looking for a spot to camp?”  I slam on brakes and slide down the hill.  “Uh uh um gee whiz Mr. that sure would be awful swell of yah.”  I’m in!  A nice Canadian couple let me setup camp at their site.  A beer is put in my hand.  We chat it up.  They’ve never heard of chizzlers, but they have heard of a cinnamon bear.  Just a different type of black bear I’m told.  We hit our hays and in the morning they’re gone.  Whoosh.  The air has become cool and filled with moisture.  Like a fog.  Gotta wear a jacket.  As I ride this morning I question reality.  Is this real?  What is real?  Am I in a video game?  Does this matter?  What matters?  What is matter?  I convince myself that I’m living in a game that I’ve put myself here on earth in order to grow and learn something or something(which I do from time to time) Later, I see a guy pushing his bike down the road ahead of me.  I pull up behind him.  “Are you okay?”  No response.  I ask a few more times.  No headphones.  The couple last night said they came across a deaf bicycle man.  I ride up next him and ask again as I pass.  He won’t make eye contact with me.  He turns around and starts walking in the opposite direction.  Alrighty then.  Was he real?  Maybe he thought I was the guy he murdered last night.  Maybe he was just put here like in the background of a video game.  Maybe he’s like the guy betting money in the background of Street Fighter.  You can’t actually interact with him but he seems like he’s really there.  He was the background.  I am the foreground.  A little later I stop for a snack.  I look back and he’s less than 200 feet behind me!  He’s still just pushing the bike.  Glitch!  I ride like hell.  I stop in The Bear Cafe.  An old man says he saw the other guy so it’s confirmed that he’s real.  Later even, I take a nap in a park and I see the background again!  Ahhhhhhhh.  I ride away.  I stop at an information center later looking at a map.  I start a convo with a nice Canadian couple on bikes!  They’re going down the coast and just started their tour.  I go to a campground later, and there they are!

Where’s my photographer?

  I warn them of the background.  The next day my goal is to touch the Pacific waters.  I ride to Ruby beach and do so!  The background is at the beach!  I choose to ignore him now.  Out of sight, out of mind right?  

Holy lord.  I was proof reading this and I think that guy on the right is The Background!

It’s cold, foggy, rocks shooting out of the water.  The complete opposite of what I usually think of when I think of the beach.  Which should be expected.

Pine trees all around.  I ride and ride and ride.  Eventually I push my bike into a nice clearing in the woods for the night.  

Piper texts me saying that the moon is full tonight so if I don’t want to be filled with power I should stay away from rocks.  I’m surrounded by mountains.  She says go by water.  Actually I have wild dreams all night and have a terrible sleep.  Must’ve been all that damned moon power.  I lay in bed until 1:30 in the afternoon.  I pack up and backtrack to the closest store.  I see a sign for coffee so I go to the local internet cafe.  While I’m on the internet in the internet cafe, Nishant is messaging me wanting to know my location.  He’s relentless.  Why does he want to know exactly where I am so bad?  I don’t even know where I am.  He says,”Exact location”  Apparently a friend of his is in the area and he wants us to meet.  15 minutes later I see a girl walking around the parking lot.  She comes in and we start talking!  

She was driving to work which was an hour away.  She lives in Portland.  Hey, Im going to Portland!  Gotta get my front wheel.  She says I can stay with her while I’m there.  Uhhh yeah.  She’s a traveler.  You know it’s kind of like when you’re sitting in an internet cafe in the middle of nowhere and a pretty girl walks in, sits down at your table, and invites you to her house?  We talk for a bit but she’s already late for some work meeting.  Right as she’s about to leave my biker buddies walk in the door!  Bye!  Hii!  More conversation!  We talk and eat for a while and take off down the road.  I haven’t actually biked forward today until 4:30.  Good thing I slept in all day!  I sleep in the woods again.  I’ve got to get to Hoquiam because of my chain and cassette!  It keeps slipping.  Well it finally happened.  Also I have a broken spoke.  I’m in Hoquiam right now as i write this.  The man is fixing my business.  Across the street my clothes are being washed.  I have filled my fat belly with food and now it’s time to look over this thing for spelling errs

Seahawks

It’s strange you know?  Things and stuff.  Ryan made this song about me kind of.  It’s really good.
https://m.soundcloud.com/user-181181926/wild-hairy-oyster

Trying to get to Seattle right?  The land of plaid and sad rock and roll songs.  The coffee mecha.  Well we gotta leave this Palouse Falls first.

Since we leave at 6:00 a.m. what do we decide to try to do?  A century.  Ride 100 miles.  A hundy.  I never done did that before.  Let’s rock.

It’s hot and there’s nothing around anywhere out here.  Just yellow, fuzzy stuff covering the earth.  Hay for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles.  You know the song.  

Late in the day we’re dragging.  Mr. Nash pulls over to find some shade.  We go to the only tree’s for miles.  It looks like a closed winery.  There’s a woman watering her flowers.  She welcomes us and says,”Jump in the pool.  It needs to be used.”  Okay!  We park the bikes and hop in!  Perfect.  We all begin chatting you know and she busts out the wine.  You know, the wine that’s made here right where we are.

Cheers!

We were at the Foxy Roxy winery.  Her boyfriend and brother came and we discussed the land, our situations, and society.  Just another day.  One of Nishant’s trailer tires exploded out of nowhere while we were there.  I thought it may have been a sign that we were to never leave this place.  But we must leave this place.  We have to ride 100!  They say there’s alot of downhill ahead towards Vantage where we’re headed.  Then the huge uphill after.  He uses the term,”Truck Eater”  The wind is making the end of this day miserable even if it is slightly downhill.  The sun is down.  We eventually make 100 and just setup camp on the side of the road and pass out.

We’re only riding 30 something miles today to stay with a man in Ellensburg.  We fly down the hill to the river and then the dreaded uphill climb.  Actually it wasn’t that bad.  Climbing the mountain was easier than fighting the wind last night.  As we approach the top you can see Mount Rainier in the distance which I have no picture of.

We get to Ellensburg and I meet Barrett.  Super cool dude.

We go out and about.  We stop in a weed shop.  A marijuana reefer store.  Gangja.  The chronic.  Grass.  Mary Jane.  The babysitter.  Wiz.  Squeabage.  A little toot toot on the puff puff.  Bud.  Sticky icky.  Cheeba.  Green stuff.  They’re getting some marijuana cigarettes.  It smells nice in there but there’s a weird vibe.  Like everyone in there feels like they’re in trouble or something.  We go back to Barrett’s and perform the usual ice cream and cereal ritual.  The next day:  Goal, get as far as possible because we are due in Seattle on Sunday so we can spit on the Seahawks stadium.  It’s saturday.  I wouldn’t spit on any stadium.  It was a joke.  We’re on the 90 then signs tell us we have to get off.  The wind is awful.  Nishant’s getting flat tires.  Nick breaks a spoke.  We’re barely moving it feels like.  We get on a trail but it’s too hard to ride on.  We’re neither here nor there.  Near the end of the day we’re back on the trail and we go through a 2 mile long tunnel.  It’s cold and I’m afraid of the ghosts.  It’s awesome.  Full of awe.  We camp just on the other side of the tunnel.  It’s our last night on the road together.  We wake up to a marathon of people running a marathon!  

We’re talking to people, people are thanking us for being there.  They think we’re helping out with the marathon.  We most definately are not.  After we see most of the runners pass by, we head down the trail.  This may have been a mistake.  Now we’re behind 1000 + people having to say,”On your left!  On your right!”  These people are wearing headphones.  They can’t all hear us.  They’re exhausted and confused.  Some are crabby.  After a couple hours of passing people we finally make it out.  We go to North Bend where there is a Twin Peaks diner we go into but it’s way too expensive so we leave.

Maybe I should’ve taken a picture of the inside

Stop in and check out Snoqualmie Falls.

Off to the big city now boy.  It’s hot.  We get close and meet up with the N man’s parents for an ice cream that they all eat and I watch.  They were super nice and I didn’t get any feelings that they thought I was a dirty hobo at all.  We ride up many hills.  We’re here!  

It’s mountains and water.  We slide into town right on time to meet up with people.  Mark comes out.  We met Mark at the badlands.  Me, Nishant and Mark all met the same day.  That was a wild day.  We eat drink and be merry.  Nishant’s got the keys to a friends condo.  This place is too nice.  A garage, above that is a living room, above that is a room, above that is a room.  We eat cereal and ice cream.  I sleep 14 hours that night.  The next day we go out to look at the city.  It’s huge out here.  It just keeps going and going.  The city I mean.  

I get my spoke fixed and it’s time to part!  We are awkward and say goodbye.  When you’re around somebody day and night for 5 weeks you kind of get used to it.  2020 Nini world tour.  Anyways……  I’m going to Victor’s!  Of course!  You remember Victor right?  We used to play in a band called The Anteater’s Dream and lived in a wild house of Tad together.  

Victor, Emily and the me all hang.  I setup camp in the backyard.  I am here now and have been writing this in the backyard.  The doors are locked so I can’t get in to use the little boys room.  I’ll try to get in again.

Never Any Worries

There’s some things that happen sometimes and some people say that some god is responsible or some universe is responsible.  Some.  But what if we’re responsible in ways that we don’t understand yet.  Or maybe both?  Or none of the above.  I stopped believing in coincidence years ago because coincidental things happen to me constantly.  Be careful what you wish for.  It might just, well you know.  

Has nothing to do with coincidence, or does he?

Missoula is cool.  Kat and Jed are cool!  We had to release Yaqing back into the wild.  Naturally she wanted to be dropped off at a truck stop gas station so she could do her hitch hiking business.  

We went Huckleberry picking out in the woods.  Kat’s friend came and Kat’s friend brought her friend and her friend brought her 2 kids.  It’s a party in the woods.  A huckleberry has kind of a funky taste at first followed by a sweet/tart flavor kind of like a blueberry.  Yum.  Elyna sent us vegan marshies!  

Yeah!

The next day we leave this nice place.  Kat makes some pesto and gives it to N man.  I accidentally take us 9 miles past our turn.  Whoopsies.  We have to ride 9 miles back to turn onto 12!  That’s 18 wasted practice miles!  We ride into The Clearwater National Forest.  

We ride next to a river for a couple days.  It’s so nice.  We’re riding slightly downhill the entire time.  We find a hot spring where the hot water meets the cool.

Later, we camp on a bridge over the river.  It’s very relaxing, just like one of those cassette tapes.

ChizzBot 9000 needs snax

The days are hot again.  There must be something in thaat Idaho air…..  We have to start taking hang out under tree’s in the shade breaks again.

Yaqing tells us she hitch hiked down from Butte to SLC.  A man took her in and his nephew is in Jed’s band and she saw Jed again.

One day we ride through a nice small town on the way to Piper’s house.  At lunch, the N man purchases 2 large Budweisers.  We drink them in the park.  Then the other N man buys 2 more and they dissapear.  Well it’s only proper to reciprocate,  Now that we’re good and sleepy we ride.  

Immediately we climb a hill so steep, I have to push the bike a few miles up.  Then, more uphill for most of the day.  

Look I’m in Washington state now dood

Piper said she lives in Palouse.  I’m mapping our day to go to Palouse.  Only natural.  I put her address into my phone and she lives in Pullman.  Not too far from Palouse.  Palouse is a place and also what a large area in Washington is called.  Not confusing at all.  No.  We finally make it to Pullman.  Piper is an old friend from the way back when.

Piper is there.  Alex is there.  Dave is there.  Sean is there.  Moolisa and Skoal the dogs are there.  Moolisa hates us the entire time we’re there.  Maybe there’s demons in these bikes.  Moolisa is a funny name.  Piper is putting spells on people.  

We take our day off.  Me, N-Man, Piper and her little one Hugo go into town.  I busted a spoke the other day, gotta fix that.  I get a book I wanted to get in the past.

Later, we go to Alex’s and make curry.   Mmmmmm curry.  We finish all of our reminiscing and catching up with a good meal.

Nini has got to get back on the road.  Headed to Palouse Falls.  

Another hot one.  Nini’s days are few.  Only a few more days until Seattle where Nash is stopping.  Nishant forgets to get baby wipes at the store.  Now he has no way to shower tonight.  😦  Nick just stays dirty.  It’s a nice contrast.  Okay, so my front buckets over time have started to bend inward into my spokes while I ride sometimes.  I put a stick on the left side and it’s been working nicely.  My right side has started to go and I’ve just been jamming a stick in there.  It’s been working nicely.  Until today.  In the middle of the hay desert, I go over some kind of bump.  I hear a, “Crunchhh”  Seems as though the stick came out and jumped directly into my spokes on the front wheel!  Oopsy.  My spokes are toast bro.  7,8,9,10 more?  I can grab a handful of loose spokes.  Some are twisted around the bearings.  Haha.  Spokes.  Time for pushings.  I push to Nishant and we laugh.  He goes on ahead to the next town and I just push and maybe some nice person will pick me up or something.  The air has cooled so I don’t mind.  Maybe 20 minutes later a car pulls over.  They ask if I need anything.  I show them the wheel.  They say they have an extra wheel I can just have!

Same size and everything.  One guy said I should relax and takes the wheel from me and puts on the tube and tire and starts pumping it up.  He says they’re all riding 90’s bikes like mine.  Another guy is giving me ice water.  The girl says they know a Nick Jones!  My hands are dirty so she gives me a baby wipe.  Then she gives me the whole container!  Nishant is going to be so happy about these wipes.  We exchange info and Ted I think says I can stay with him in Portland when I get there and he’ll hold onto my wheel so I can get it fixed when I get there.  Nice!  I don’t believe in luck.  The sun’s setting.  I put on some Cake and ride 10 miles to Washtucna.  There’s cursing in this song.  😉

It’s dark and Nash is waiting at a picnic table where we decide to camp near.  The sprinklers come on and soak our tents.  We just laugh in our tents.  The next day we ride to Palouse Falls.  Just take most of the day off at the falls.  A guy hangs out with us for a little bit and gives us weed gummies which are legal here.  I’ve never done anything like this before.  I eat one.  

If it did anything it just made me sleep the afternoon away.  Beth texted me last night and said she saw a car accident with a bunch of bodies that had crawled out of the car.  They’re in the other place now.

The rest will come shortly.  I mean, did I make it or did I not?

A Good Times

I would recommend listening to the above song while reading this post.  If you don’t feel like reading this post right now (which would be odd because you probably just visited me here so you could read a post) I would recommend turning the volume on the above song up loud(make sure it’s okay with your parents first), turn the bass up(as always), and just dance around a little.  You know, maybe stand up and just sort of sway around a bit.  Pretend your arms are made of rice noodles and wiggle about.  You’re getting it now.  

This is the inside of Kevin and Brody’s school bus they share to sleep in.

A week out here seems more like a month or more.  It’s good!  What am I writing about?  We’re going rafting down the Yellowstone River with Kevin today.  This is gonna be fun.

So  I get to drive Kevin’s Mustang into town so we can ride a raft.  A Mustang??  Dang.  I feel powerful in this thing.  I feel like a different person riding around.  I also feel a little scared because I haven’t driven a vehicle in a couple months.  I feel like a somebody you guys.  We ride into town in this Mustang.  Did I mention it’s a convertible??????  I want coffee as always so we stop into a recommended spot from Cindy, a nice woman.  I’m in the coffee shop paying for my brew when I hear, “Are you Nick?”  I look over and to Nick’s surprise it’s Andrew the guy I met in the burrito place in Spearfish!

Before, in Spearfish Wyoming

After, in Gardiner Montana

Man, that burrito place was so good.  Curry on a burrito?  Andrew said he was just in the area doing a little work.  Photography stuff.  This whole trip is just experiences like this.  We all hang outside on the porch for a while and watch this puppy ruin some plants and get mud everywhere.  It was nice.  Bye Andrew!  I’ll see you somewhere else probably!  Me’s and Nash gottsta go get raftn.  We suit up and get our group.  Our group is a french speaking family.  We all get in the water.  Nishant and myself and in the front.  Kevin’s in the rear of the raft trying to direct everybody in the raft.  The water is cold!  Instead of saying,”All forward!”  Kevin wants to say it in french so he says,”Sebachii!!!”  When he says sebachii we all paddle forward.  He’s saying sebachii, we’re all saying sebachii, me and Nishant are trying to keep everybody rowing at the same pace saying, “Un!  Deux!  Un!  Deux!”  The kids keep jumping into the water and we keep pulling them back in the boat.  It was alot of laughing even though we can’t understand each other.  The ride comes to an end and we go back home.  Kevin says it was the worst trip.  Haha, we had fun.  Kevin’s gotta work but we go back to camp and hang.  He says all the instructors are goimg down the river later and that we should go.  He says bodis will be everywhere.  I don’t know if I want my body to be everywhere.  

These guys are making mimosas or something

Just look at that weird tan where my gloves lay

We finally get talked into going on the second ride down the river. We’re hesitant.  Everybody hops in the vehicles and we head to the river.  Once we’re in the  water, everyone cracks their beers and for some reason I’m in the front again.  This ride is alot more wild than the first.  We’re splashing and crashing!  2 guys are in the water on some kind of boards with their gopros on their heads.  The dolphins.  B-Rad’s directing us.  At one point Joe and B-Rad are wrestling, trying to push each other out of the raft.  Joe wins.  B-Rad overboard!  Hahahahahaha.  Joe’s in control now.  Megan get’s pulled out by one of the Dolphins!  Ahhhhhh am I next?  Snack time!  We’re having a party in a raft on a river as the sun is going down.  The second ride is the ride you wanna go on.  That’s the wild one.  The next morning the older woman Cindy is looking at our bikes, giving us dehydrated refried beans and she notices I have a ukelele.  She says she plays too!  I tell her I would play but I have a busted string.  She has strings and she gives me a set!  She busts out 2 ukeleles and plays a song for everyone.  Nice!  The time is drawing near for the leaving us’s.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWnRWUug5-X/
Flat/downhill to Livingston today.  It’s hot and small shouldery today.  Pretty day though.

We make it to Rhonda’s.(a woman from couch surfing)  We’ve got cereal and iced cream.(of course) She says I think it was her daughter’s friends were in town and they painted her pocnic table.  One of the friends is from Greensboro and he played a show with me in a basement!  Well CUCUMBERS played with him.  He’ll be at the bar we’re going to later.  Me and the N man are pooped and aren’t feeling too bar-ish tonight but we go out anyways.  We go and we meet up with Bob Fleming and Dawn from the Gate City!

These are my people

We played a show the 4th of July a couple years ago in the basement of The Dogwood House  Glendwood a couple years ago.  That was a fun show!  This is my life.  We hang and they tell me they’re touring the country, playing music and working when they can.  Nice!  Eventually we leave and go eat cereal and iced cream.  Naturally.  Wake up, eat more cereal and iced cream.  We’re off down I-90 today.  The first day on this entire trip that I’ve ridden listening to music on my headphones.  It’s the best!  Dancin, singin.  A guy pulls his car over on the highway and puts a cooler down. He gives us beers and we chug them on the highway.  Brice thanks!  

By the end of the day I’m pooped.  We camp just in a little gravel loop off the highway in the middle of somewhere.  As I’m laying in my tent before the sun sleeps I hear Nishant say,”Nick, I need white guy out here.  Would feel more comfortable with a white guy out here.”  There were a couple trucks close with whie guys in them.  I came out and they left.  Using my white man powers for good.  Mr. Jonse is playing in the background of this coffee shop I’m in right meow.  The next morning I awake to 2 new souls.  Oh yeah, Nishant’s friend Sutton is coming to make a documentary about the bicycle riding.

Yaqing, Sutton, Nick

Sutton found Yaqing on a ride share or Yaqing found Sutton on a ride share or something?  Anyways, it doesn’t matter.  We have 2 new people in the story now.  A little filming happens.  They kind of follow us down the road from time to time.  We’re riding on I-90 so the scenery is just beautiful.  Today we riding up up up.  Up the hill a man givs me a water and 2 bucks!  I find an unopened water on the road and drink it.  I was running out of water guys.

This is what Montana looks like.

We finally make it over the mountain and into Butte.  We make lots of butt joks of course.  We hang at a playground that has the wildest toys ever.  The cowboy swing, the big circle hangy fly around hold onto a circular bar thing.  Everyone in Butte is a little off.  It’s a wild scene man.  We’ve landed on planet Butt.  We try to ride on but the rain comes in hard so we strap the bikes on top of Sutton’s vehicle.

The plan was to ride today and tomorrow to Missoula.  Nishant knows somebody there of course.  We decide to drive up to Glacier instead!  It’s some hours away.  We get there near nightfall and camp out in the forest.  Lots of laughing takes place.  The next day we drive alot.  Do a nice hike called Scenic Point.
  

Twins

Oh yeah.  Sutton is the female version of me.  Or I’m the male version of her?  The more we talk the more similar we find each other to be.  We have matching jackets and glasses even.  It’s a nice hike with a nice view.

Cool tree

We find camp for the night.  Yaqing’s never had a camp fire before!  She’s roasting everything in sight over the fire.  Corn, marshmallows, bread, dates.  I had a hot date that night.  The next day is Nick’s Birthday!  Not that he care’s or anything….

Burfday breakfast

Another hike today.  Grinnell Lake?  Beautiful awesome.  

 

Alright, that’s enough pictures.  So cool.  We spent most of the day here.  We thought we lost Yaqing at the top but she finally showed.  We had nice bonding talks at this place.  Later we rode the Going To The Sun Road in the vehicle.  Whoa.  I should have taken more pictureys.  

I had a very nice birthday in Glacier.  We ride to Pole Bridge in the morning.  Then to Missoula.  Long day in the car.  Jump in the cold water!  Back in the car.  We’ve arrived in Missoula.  We lose Sutton.  She’s gotta get to Seattle.  We lost one but don’t worry.  We took an appropriate picture.

Hahahahahahahahaha my god.  And then there were 3.  Plus some new guys.  We’re at Kat and Jed’s.  They’re super cool!  We go get delicious pizza where Kat works with a cool dude named Hunter.  Make mine extra vegan please!  Today all I’ve been doing is writing this blog it seems.  Right now I’m in the adventure cycling association headquarters which I had no idea was here.  I played the piano out on the sidewalk before I came in.  Nishant and I got the tour from a guy from High Point!  I found a picture of a guy named Frank that I met on the Katy Trail!

Frank the tank

2 Crude Dudes

I’m not going back to spell check any of this.  Me and Nash gotta go ride.

Nick Rides His Bicycle Around Part Dos

Good morning!  Downhill time!  Wheeeeee!!  We have entered Grand Teton National Park.

An old lady told us that the tetons is french for the tits.

Only 34 miles today.  We’re getting a camp site and we invited our last 2 couch surfing hosts Connor from Gillette and Elyna from Buffalo to come hang in the Tetons!  For some reason they said yes.  They’ll be here later tonight.  They have jobs or something.  We setup camp and pass out for 

The view from camp

Me and Nishant walk about the campground trying to kill time.  Finally they get here at night and we try to setup Conner’s tent for an hour.  Day next:  We are tourists today.  We get to ride around in a vehicle to see all the goodies that Yellowstone has to offer.  Of course the first thing we go see is Old Faithful.

It’s a madhouse

Kaboom

He goes off about every 90 minutesish or so or something?  It is pretty cool seeing something that you’ve known about your whole life finally in person.  Geothermal activity.  Somebody said that Yellowstone is like Disney Land.  They were right in the sense that there’s a bazillion people everywhere.  I can’t wait tot ride my bike through this madhouse.  Let’s check out some pools!

Whoa

Green stuff

What a stupid kid

The day was filled with driving around sight seeing.  We went to a general store to stock up on snacks.  An old man behind me brought up a big box of fancy beers.  I told him he could plop them up right on the counter there.  He thanked me and said if I could carry them to his car he’d give me a couple.  I said I would of course.  These are all jokes we’re making.  I go sit outside with my pretzels.  Snacking away.  My friends come out and the old man comes out and plops the beers down beside me.  He reminded me of the hunter from Jumanji.  He opens the box and sifts through the beers and hands me 2!  Haha!  I offer him some pretzels and he gladly accepts.  We leave with our bonus beers back towards The Tetons.  They’re so cool.

Yellowstone is cool, but I enjoyed just looking at the Tetons even more.  We find a spot really close to em right on the lake.  We’re just admiring when a guy comes up and asks if we work there.  We say no.  He asks where we’re from and the story begins.  Well me and him are on bikes, I started in North Carolina and he started in Wisconsin and we stayed at his place in Gillette and the next day we stayed at her place in Buffalo and then they both came out here a week later to hang out today.  The dude says he’s from NC.  He seemed like a dude you know.  I asked him what part.  He says High Point!  Hahaha.  High Point is right next to Greensboro if you didn’t know.  He went to Ledford.  Pretty cool stuff.  He couldn’t believe we rode our bikes that far.  I can’t either really when I think about it.  We go back to camp and have a proper campfire and hang.  The next morning Conner and Elyna leave and we joke about them coming to Missoula.  Some place we’ll be in about a week.   Nishant says he knows somebody in Jackson Hole named Rachel who he stayed with last time he was in these parts who says she’ll pick us up and let us stay at her house for the night!  Hahaha.  Jackson Hole is an hour drive south but she’ll drop us off back at the campground the next day so we can continue with the biking.  I say yes of course.  We’re hanging around our campsite waiting.  One of the guys that works there comes by and talks to us forma while about bears and Rockefellar and about how he started the national forest.  Nice guy.  Later, we here a guy yelling at us to come over.  We go over and meet Lee and Myra and their pup Dali.  They’re headed to Utah and they’re from Connecticut.  Lee’s family owns a pho restaurant.  Oh how I want some pho.  We’re hanging out at their campsite which is right on the lake and Rachel shows up.  Now she’s hanging out too.  Eventually we pack up and our new friends come to Jackson Hole too!  This is just how my life is now.  We hop in the truck and go!  We get some foods and hang out in Rachelz backyard.  Eat, shower, laundry.  Reboot.

Myra, Lee, Rachel, and Dali the dog

Rachel takes us to a restaurant/bar.  We all eat, drink, and be merry.  Me and Lee were born 3 days apart so we’re pretty excited about that.  Eventually our new friennds go back to their camp and we go to Rachels.  Her roommate Mike pulls out maps of Yellowstone and is giving us inside intel on our ride tomorrow.  He’s a ranger there.  He’s telling all these places to go and to not go and what time to ride this street and don’t ride there then.  We’re so tired we’re not fully there.  Also,  we have to leave the house by 5:00 a.m. if we want a ride back to the Tetons.  We snooze, get up super early and ride back out to the wilderness.  She drops us off on the side of the road and we become bikers again.  We start the ride around 6:30.  It’s cold out.  It feels good.  We start riding up a mountain.  When we get into Yellowstone the shoulder dissapears.  Up on the mountainous road, portions do not have any railing.  The road just falls off into the abyss.  So that’s something.  

We’re riding the same roads we’ve already done.  We rode them with Elyna and Conner.  The traffic’s picking up.  Today’s not really a site seeing day, more of a ride or die day.  We stop for food in woods in the afternoon.  I fall asleep.  Naptime for Nicky.  We do find an off road where not alot of people are.  

Finally we make it to Madison and find the only campground around.  Nishant asks a family if we can set up our tents on their site to see if we can save a few bucks but they say there’s only one tent aloud on the site.  Oh well.  We only pay 8 bucks for a hiker biker spot.  One of the guys working here is from Wake Forest!  NC represent!  There’s 2 other bike boys at the site.  I am exhausted.  

We’s be headed towards some place called Gardiner todays.  It’s in Montana.  That’s right.  But first we gotta ride up into the mountainous hills.  Nishant keeps having tire trouble which gives me plenty if opportunities to eat snacks.  The road ahead is being worked on by machinery and men for 3 miles.  The people there offer us a ride in their pickup truck!

This is Clarity, a nice girl

This is Brackell, another nice girl

Later, we fly down the mountain and check out Mammoth Hot Springs.

In Mammoth a nice lady tells us information about everything that’s around us.  She’s like a free tour guide or something.  We fly down the moutain further into Gardiner.  Finally we’re out of Yellowstone.  Yellowstone was cool but there are sooooo many people.  Nishant always eats a tub of ice cream when we get to civilization and now it’s my time.

We go and meetup with Nishant’s friend Kevin at The Iron Horse restaurant.  Hang a bit.  Kevin works til 10 but he says we can ride to his place and setup tents.  We ride.  The sky is amazing.

Oh yeah.  Kevin is a river raft guide guy.  You know the people who take you down the river on a raft.  He lives in a bus.  We find the bus and there’s people there waiting for us.  There’s a tent city where all the raft guides live.  We’re just hangin out now with all these guys.

Kevin says we can go on a ride with him down the river fo free!  Yes we are doing that.  I’ll tell you how that goes later dude.

This message has been approved by Dr. NICK

Nick’s Bicycle Ride Part Uno

We start the day off right you know?  The correct way.  In good fashion.  We roll into Thermopolis and jump into a hot spring pool.  Mineral water.  Smells like poopy eggs.  15 minutes is all we can muster.  The cheese went bad.  It feels so good but it’s so hot you know?  Like a hot spring bath.  It’s July 4th and our only plan for the past few days has been to get a twelver and go to a campground and enjoy ourselves.  And so we proceeded to do so.  Got the twelver now alls we gots to do is ride 20 miles or so to the campground.  We ride.  As we leave town, in the distance all I see are huge hills.  Mountainous hills.  A guy at the hot spring was riding his bike cross country and said he came this way the day before.  He said he coasted down so I expect it’ll be uphill for us.  That guy had his wife driving a van with all his stuff in it though.  What a cheater.  Then I see something I didn’t expect….

We’ve entered a huge canyon!  The Wind River Canyon to be precise.  

Who knew this was here?  It’s amazing!  I can’t tell if I’m riding downhill or uphill or if the road is flat.  It’s very deceiving but I don’t care.  I’m just looking all around.  Whoooaaaaaa.  I don’t even feel like I rode uphill that much.  We find the campground and examine the place.  It is okay I reckon.  Not really anybody there.  We were hoping there would be people around that we could hang out with.  First order of business, empty the food out of my food bucket, fill it with river water and put the hot twelver in there.  There’s flying bugs and skeetos everywhere.  Good thing I caved and got bug spray.  The twelver never really gets cold and is kinda gross.  We have a really nice view though.  Right on the river.

 

Look at them legs

We walk to the top of the dam that’s just down the river.  

We have a good fun yes.  We go to bed right as the sun goes down and I got to see somebody set off a few mortar shells.  Alls I wanted to do was see a few fireworks.  We get up and leave before 7 the next day.  The skeetos are out for blood!  We gotta get outta here!  

We’re out in the desert and there is no stopping.  For if you stop you will be swarmed by the skeetos.  Don’t ride too slow either.  They’re always there….  We set out to do a century today.  A century is ride 100 miles.  I never did that before.  There’s no stores out where we’re riding and not really any shade.  It’s hot butt it’s no North Carolina hot+humidity all wrapped in one kind of hot.  There must be something in that Wyoming air…..  We see another guy riding his bike all loaded down.  He’s headed the same way we are.  We’re all looking at each others bikes pointing and talking.  He was cool I wish we ran into him again.  The rain starts later in the day as per usual.  Luckily there’s a rest stop just in time.  Our bodies are becoming how you say, “whooped” I believe.  We finally make it to a small store in Crow Heart.  Not Crow Foot or Crow Butt.  We get our usual.  I get soda and chips, Nishant gets a tub of chocolate iced cream.  We’re at 82 miles.  We’re done.  Don’t care about no century no mo.  We camp across the street at the fire station.  The old man behind the counter said it would probably be okay.  We’ll pretend he’s the authority around these parts.)

Today we’re headed Teton way.  Towards The Grand Tetons.  Something I’ve never heard of until recently.  Mountains or something.  You can see snow covered mountains in the distance.

Today is just a gradual uphill followed by a steep uphill.  We ride into the hills.  We pass a few other bikers along the way.  When I was in the middle of the country, I think I was a rarity.  A real oddball.  Out here it seems normal to ride your bike loaded down with snacks and toys.  We get into Dubois.  The last town until after Yellow Stone.  We stock up on snacks which is interesting because I’d rather have a lighter load for climbing mountains but you gotsta eat.  It starts storming so we wait around til 5 then ascend into the hills.

It’s really nice out here……except for the skeetos!  If you stop you are a dead man.  They follow you.  Swarms follow you.  We are fighting up mountains.  Pedaling up a mountain with a cloud of skeetos around you can be extremely frustrating.  Huffing and puffing and smacking and slapping.  Here’s some proof on an ass.

It’s almost sundown by the time we make it to the top.

It has become very cold and getting dark.  We need to find a place to camp!  We’d rather not camp just anywhere because everyone keeps telling us about bears and there’s bear signs everywhere. We ride.  We see a big rig pulled over and ask him to use his magic phone to find camping around us.  He finds a motel a mile down the road!  That’s how it always is.  We get there and they tell us about their $200 rooms and also a free place to camp around the corner.  We go to the big empty gravel parking lot and setup camp.  We put our food in the bathroom and hope for the best.

I’ve been trying to upload this for hours so I’m going to cut this post into 2 parts.  Maybe it’ll work if I split this into 2 pieces.  

The Monkey’s Birthday

My friend Leo from White River sent me some mail and I really liked it.

Nick,
I had a great introduction with you at the Dollar Daze in White River, SD. I hope things are fun more often than not for you on the road. From an ol’ Carny Guy, I know it can be. I pray for you the very best my Brother. 
We’ll meet again! 
Best,
Leo

Man, Rapid City is a cool place.  Especially if you stay with Dave.  You gotta stay with Dave.  It’s been about a week since I left there and me and Nishant still talk about being at Dave’s.  Also, I’ve been riding with Nishant since The Badlands.  It’s nice having someone else to bounce ideas off of besides yourself sometimes.  

Instead of a ladder to the attic he has a rock climb

Me and Nishant were going to ride to Mount Rushmore.  Bikes unloaded.  My stomach hurts soo bad.  I’m running to the bathroom all night.  I stay at Daves but Nishant goes.  I miss out on Mount Rushmore because of a broken tummy.  I’m not too torn up about it, but my stomach shure is.  

Nice wheels

Later a nice couple Didi and Serhan from Istanbul come to stay at Dave’s for the night too.  You can find them at naturalbornvoyager.com  They’re riding a motorcycle and it’s pretty awesome.  We all make dinner and hang out.  I’m hanging out!  Eating food!  Not going to the bathroom!  

I end up staying up all night on the toilet.  I have to ride my bike tomorrow.  I should go to the doctor right?  It’s not going away.  The next day we pack up and say our bye byes.  Dave tries to say bye to me but I’m on the commode.  

Hey guys

We’re off to Spearfish!(well at least Nishant is.  I dunno how far my tumbly with let me go)  It’s ride on the interstate day.  I-90 West.  You’re aloud to ride on the interstates in some states.  South Dakota is one.  I think the rest of the states in the North West it’s legal.  I can’t keep up with this man.  He’s got those long legs.  I feel rough.  Like sand papier.  We hang out in Sturgis for a while.  Alot of bikers gather there and do biker stuff.  Not bicycles.  Motorcycles.  We got a few looks.  Wrong kinda bikes.  We split up after Sturgis.  I’m not even gonna try to keep up.  The highway is loud.  The wind picks up, the clouds roll in, the rain comes down.  I’m close!  Pedal boy pedal!  Eventually the rain cools down and I make it into town.

I just stocked up at the g-store but I see a burrito place.  I am a weak man.  I go in.  It is a glorious burrito.  They put curry and pickled cabbage on the burrito.  The things I could tell you about this burrito….  The kid behind the counter offered to let me sleep at his place!  Nice.  I’ve got options.  I look outside and the rain is a falling!  Looks like I made it just in time.  But what about Nishant!  A woman from warmshowers.com said we could camp in her backyard.  I bet he’s swimming in it now!  Oh geez!  I figure out how to call him over the internet and he’s at Pizza Hut.  Haha phew.  I stay in the burrito joint and wait out the rain.  While I’m waiting a guy comes over and starts talking to me.  He’s traveling and working and living out of his vehicle!  He didn’t even know I was riding a bike until I told him later!  I must have the allure now.  We talk for a long time and it’s good.  As we go to leave he looks at the sky and says,”It doesn’t even look real.”  He was right.

I ride to the ladies house to find Nishant getting setup.  There’s not really any yard, and the yard that exists is too steep to sleep on.  We both setup on her tiny deck.  It works, and we get to stay dry.  I didn’t poop even once in the night.  I had nowhere to go if I did.  The next day we’re trying to get to get to The Devil’s Tower.  I’ve never even heard of it.  I sure am glad I could just hop onto whatever Nishant was doing.

We’re starting to see some hills now.  Little mountains.  

Some coal mining something

The scenery is beautiful.  We’re cruisin along.  It looks like storms up ahead.  You can see the rain falling in the distance.  Lightning.  We’re riding down a hill.  All I know is POW!  That’s all I know.  I black out for a moment.  Lightning must have struck right here?  Did I get struck?  I dunno.  I pull over because I don’t know what’s going on.  Nishant flys by me saying, “We have to get out of here!”  I say,”What happened?”  We push our bikes down a grassy hill and setup my big brown tarp over us to try to escape the rain that’s about to happen.  It get’s real cold and the rain blasts down.  The tarp is doing a good job.  We wait it out for an hour or so then  ride on.  I was told that I did not get struck by lightning.  

We ride and the earth opens up to us.  The colors are wild.  The red rocks with a super green grass.  We are in awe of the view.  Nishant says,”This is why we cycle!”  I take a picture of it but as usual, it does it no justice.  The above picture is me trying to grab part of the moment.

We ride into a small town called Hulet.  Devil’s Tower is only 10 miles or so away.  We gots dis.  We start to ride out of town and see the big one.  More storms!  We turn down a road that says,”Recreation Area”  We ride into a field where cows are and see a little building that looks like a bathroom.  We hideout there to avoid the rain.  It pours again.  Cows don’t care about rain or lightning.  Tough moo cows.  We decide to just setup our tents and sleep there for the night.  

No problemo

We’re watching the storm and the damndest thing happened.  It was the monkey’s birthday.  This was a new one on me.  See I always thought the devil was beating his wife.  I like the monkey’s birthday better.  

The next day it’s raining.  We wait it out and head for the tower.  

What is this?

This means something

Whoa

This this is a huge monster!  We get there and it’s 3 miles up.  There’s people everywhere.  We walk around the thing and look.  People are climbing it!  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!  You can see em up there just making they’re way up to the top.  Maybe when I’m old and gray I’ll try that!  We talk to a guy who took over for Ansel Adams taking pictures of all the National Parks.  He says he’s going to have a TV show on discovery channel this fall.  Sounds cool. We leave the Tower and ride on. 

This is Ralph

 We’re staying with a guy named Connor in Gillette tonight.  It’s a nice day until late afternoon.  Nishant is behind me somewhere.  I look back and see the biggest blackest cloud there ever was even seen by man.  I try to out run it!  It doesn’t work!  I setup the tarp again kind of.  I get wet and and a little hail is hitting me.  Nishant makes to me and we wait it out.  It’s cold and you can see rain falling all around.  He calls Connor and Connor is gonna pick us up!  We gotta ride 10 miles into town.  We ride into the belly of the beast.  The beast dissapears from in front of us and we make it safe.  We stop in a Subway sandwich restaurant and stuff our faces.  We see a car with a bunch of high school guys get out.  Like a clown car.  They just keeo coming.  They point at our bikes as they walk in.  Are they gonna beat us up?  They all come in and look at us.  One guy asks,”Are you guys bikin?”  We say yes.  He says,”Well welcome to town.”  Hahahahahahahaha we weren’t expecting that.  Connor and his friend get us in a very nice pickup truck!  We are whooped.  We make it to Connor’s where we get a twelver and hang.  Me and Nishant take the next day off.  My mission is to get a phone with service.  My phone hasn’t worked for the last month.  I go to the phone store a few times then just end up going to the Wal Mart to get a cheapo phone that works.  It does the trick.  Later, we make food and Connor shows us around Gillette.  

We ate so much cereal at Conners

We eat lots of cereal, cream, and sweets.  It’s wonderful.  The next morning, Connors co-worker wants to make us breakfast!  Whaaaa?  Okay!  We go eat in Sleep Hollow

This nice woman had coffee, OJ, pancakes, banana pancakes, fruit and more and more.  We stuffed our faces to prepare for the ride to Buffalo.  We all sat around and told our stories for an hour or two.  It was great.  We left and Connor says he’ll drive us to Buffalo!  Hooray!  70 miles.  I don’t think either one of us really wanted to ride anyways.  

He’s dropping us off at another couchsurfer’s place!  We’re really living it up!  Her name is Elyna.  We get there and there’s a guy named Tyler there too.  We all go up and hangout, even Connor.  They offer me an african peanut soup.  Uhh yeah I want that.  Plop it on some rice.  It’s very good.  I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.  Connor leaves and the rest of us walk around town.  Nice small town.  We all decide to get beer and drink it on her roof.  The day fizzles away into conversation.  Later, we go to a place call The Occidental which is an old hotel/bar.

Ahhhhhhhhhh

Ew

There’s lots of cool old pictures in there.  One had Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.  It was fun just to look around.  The next day we actually get up early for once and try to make our way to Ten Sleep.  But first, we must ride through The Big Horns.  These are mountains.  We’re in real mountains now.  Up, up, up.  We’re going up more than 5,000 feet today.  At first my heart is beating out of my chest.  Shouldn’t have got that coffee.  I feel like a kid when I used to have assmar.  The air must be thin.  Up, up, up.  A guy pulls his pickup in front of me and parks it.  He gets out and has a grin on his face.  He says he rode this path when he was 22 and he’s just driving the path back to Michegan now.  He loves what we’re doing and gives me 20 bucks!  He said he’d give me more if he had it.  These people.  The day drags.  Up, up, up.  Sometimes it goes down but there is always the up.  My body wants no more of this.  We make it to the highest point says google.  Downhill from here.  …….not really.  Mahhhhhhhhh.  It’s freezing up here!  The wind starts.  We can see rain ahead of us.  We stop into an RV poop dropper offer place.  That’s an odd thing to be out here thought me.  There’s water!  I’m almost out!  Never under appreciate the water.  We fill up on water and decide to just camp here.  Hooray!  This is bear territory so we hang our foods in the tree.  

We sleep about 12 hours.  I guess we  needed that.  We start the day and it is just downhill baby.  Nishant said it would be but I didn’t really believe him.  Down down down!  So nice!  We’re flying like birds in the wind.  A sign says,”6% down grade next 10 miles”  9, 8, 7, 6…….  We fly down and around some mountains and then KABOOM.  It’s rocks up all around.  It is amazing.  We just fly down a ridiculously wild looking place.  We went 27 miles in an hour and a half.  It took us all day to ride around that distance yesterday.  I felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie.  I didn’t take any pictures so here’s some I found on the internet.

Man.  We make it out and into Ten Sleep.  Ten Sleep to Worland.  The girl in Ten Sleep said it was Bad Landy.  It was.  Nuthin out here.  

It’s hot.  My mouth keeps drying out.  I think I rode enough yesterday.  We make it to Worland.  Nishant gets an entire tub of chocolate iced cream.  I get some chips and soda and we eat in the park.  We talk to some people for a while.  Dang, they didn’t invite us to setup camp in their yard.  A cop drives by.  I run over and wave him down.  “Is it okay to setup tents in the park?”  He says no, but there’s a campground.  We don’t wanna pay for no stinking campground man.  Then he says, “Or you could find a place by the river where nobody can see you.  That’s what I would do.”  Haha yes!  We leave the park and just ride towards Thermopolis.  Our destination for tomorrow which is the 4th of July.  On the way Nishant hits 1000 miles.  I wonder where I hit 1000 miles or how many miles I’ve ridden even.  

Off in the distance we see rain.  Everyday in Wyoming there’s a thunder storm.  Didn’t you know that?  We find a rest stop historical marker and setup camp.  The rain hasn’t hit yet.  The sky above our heads is riddled with lightning.  It looks so cool.  Back in the tent!