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Finally settled into real life. Nico is down in San Luis Obispo and Calen in Santa Cruz, school is underway for both and reality fully kicking in. Its been 24 days since the biking ceased and already the trip is seeming distant, however the time has allowed us to gain some perspective on the whole trip and we are able to finally reflect. The trip in every way was a success, and was as a whole an unforgettable experience. Thank you everyone for following the blog, your support and encouragement was invaluable and helped make the trip that much better. We have already begun planning the next trip, but until then its back the real life with walls windows floors and a little less biking.

Calen and Nico

Some Pictures

Here are a few photos from the last little part of our trip. The wheel touching ceremony will take place later today. We have some post cards to send out... Comment with your address if you would like one!

New York City, NY

Well we have made it! Sorry for the delay, but about one week ago, on tuesday we made it into NYC. The trip into the city was fantastic. We were able to follow a bike route all the way that took us across three different bridges from upstate into Brooklyn; Bear Mountain Bridge-George Washington Bridge-Brooklyn Bridge. As soon as we got into the city we were able to head to some family friends of Nico's, Charlie and Kim. They have been absolutely wonderful, providing us a home base and a place to chill. The moment we got here we were able to shower, sit down, and just relax. After a day or so staying with them, we headed up north to visit some family of Calen's. With our motivation to bike almost tapped, and a tighter timeline, we were lucky enough to have the luxury of driving a car, in fact its the same car that is going to get us back to California. Anyway, we have been able to really put a dent into the list of family members of Calen's to visit and we've had a blast visiting everyone. We stayed with Grandparents in Millbrook, and on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and spent some time with uncles in Manhattan and in Connecticut. We arrived back from Mass. on Saturday just in time to catch Nico's brothers show. Vince plays in an awesome band called Ikebe Shakedown, who put on an excellent show and are a really cool crew, tonight we are going to see them play again. Yesterday, Sunday, we spent the day roaming the city made it out to the Museum of Modern Art, and caught a show at one of the movie theaters in Brooklyn.

Now that we are officially done with the trip we have been able to really look back on the time we spent in the road, and have a little bit of perspective on everything. We couldn't have hoped for a better trip really. The amount of hospitality and kindness we experienced was beyond anything we expected, completely restored our faith in the USA. Thank you everybody who helped us out on the trip it really made our experience that much better. Those delicious cooked meals, and warm showers were a real treat.

Here are some stats from the trip:

Total Miles: 4358
Miles Pedaled: 4148.7
Miles in Car: 210
Total Days: 76
States Visited: 12 (CA,NV, UT, ID, MT, WY, SD, MN, WI, MI, NJ, NY)
Countries Visited: 2 (USA, CAN)
No. of nights of paid sleeping: 10, 2 hotels
Flat Tires: 27
No. of Inner Tubes: 13
No. of bikes: 3
No. of tires: 5
Hamburgers eaten: 89
Loaves of Bread: 30
Farts: 72,643
Showers: 18
Gallons of Water drank: 286
Mosquito bites: 87,534,621

We are planning on spending the next couple of days here in the city and heading out on Thursday. We will be driving back along a much more southern route, and visiting some of the places we were unable to visit. This trip has been an amazing experience that we will never forget and we will continue to look back on for years to come.

-Calen and Nico

were in new york havin too much fun to post... the finale is comin soon!!!

Newark, New York

We are on our way and heading east through New York. We've found this cool route called New York Bike Route 5 and it keeps us on roads that have wide shoulders the whole way to the city. Its been nice to not have to dodge side mirrors or risk it on the super highways. We made it out of Niagara Falls losing only a little money at the casino and headed into the states. The moment we stepped into New York the sky cleared and the air dried up a little bit. We have already met some real friendly people.

But actually, on this whole last leg of the trip we have hung out with and stayed with some amazing folk. In Owen Sound we were slowed by a tornado some 30 miles south of us, and as a result we met Nick and Brad. Two school teachers from the area who were absolutely awesome. We shared some drinks, had some laughs, and ended up sleeping on their lawn. They also treated us to an excellent breakfast the following morning, thanks a lot for the hospitality and good times guys. We were also lucky enough to happen upon a town totally saturated with friendly people, Holstein was the town, and we came through just as the Farmers Market was going on. They forced us to accept, loads of cookies, cinnamon rolls, coffee, and bike repairs all for free. Martin, the local bike mechanic, even invited us for lunch but we unfortunately had to decline for the looming clouds suggested we get the heck on our way.

The end of the trip is in sight, we will continue to follow this bike route along the Erie Canal. We have at least two places along the way where we know we will be able to stay with friends and family. Then into the city and onto the couch. Looking forward to some hardcore veg time.

Tornado Damage in Durham! We were supposed to camp there that night...



Checking out the Erie Canal.

niagara falls new york

back in the usa.... final state.. final stretch... niagara falls was way more vegas-like then we had imagined... on our way to the ocean now less than 500 miles to go.

Pictures