Final Thoughts

We are 2 teachers, riding on 2 bikes, we traveled 2222 + 273 miles (that's 2501 miles for those of you who don't like math) mostly on highway 2 from Rochester, New York to Columbia Falls, Montana. Along the way people kept asking us "why we were doing this, did you have a cause?". Our response was, "cause we can!". The inspiration for this trek was to do do something big during our 30's because Michael and I both turned thirty this year and let me tell you, this counts as something big. We spent a few days riding with two 19 year old bikers from New Hampshire, met a gentleman who was fulfilling his lifelong dream and celebrating his 60th birthday by biking from coast to coast, ran across large groups and small groups of cyclists with varying abilities and equipment, and learned that bike touring is something that anyone can do. This experience was a learning experience for the both of us. We learned a lot about ourselves, about biking, about human kindness and about highway 2. We were hoping to stick with the 2 theme and report that we only had 2 flat tires but that wasn't the case. A list of our final stats include: 2501 miles, 30 days, shortest day 36 miles, longest day 105 miles, no crashes but Michael fell off his bike once (it was my fault). Shawna gained 1 pound (I can hardly believe it either), had 8 flats and 8 showers. Michael lost 12 pounds, had 4 flats and 4 showers. The list of road kill is too long to mention but you could imagine how much we sa in 2500 miles. There were a billion mosquitos and we only had mentionable tailwinds a handful of times (maybe twice). Needless to say this was an epic adventure and we are both glad we did it. Since Michael convinced me to sign up for the Portland Marathon we are looking forward to our next adventure in October. Life is good, go big or go home.