Days 11 & 12

Yesterday was day 11. We biked only about 30 miles from Thompson Falls to Missoula, Montana. The first 12 miles or so were terrible. The pavement was pretty much solid gravel, and I was struggling to go 12 miles per hour or so. It was so frustrating because I was going slightly uphill for a while without knowing it; it didn't make sense why it was so hard to pedal.

When we rode in to Missoula, every pace line missed a turn and we had to turn around, adding to the confusion of biking as a group through a city. Missoula is a city of about 40,000 people (I think) with more in the towns surrounding it in the valley. We are staying at one of the high schools in town, Hellgate High School.

We explored the town a little, went to see a movie (Get Him to the Greek), went to a pub/grille for dinner, hung around in the gym, and went to bed. Here is a picture of the sunset, taken from a bridge while walking home from dinner:


We had a day off today, with no programming but a sponsored dinner at China Buffet at 630 (courtesy of last year's trans PM, Jeremy Jones), so I slept in until 1145. When I got up I went with a group of guys to climb to the giant "M" that was on a hillside just outside town. We found out that there was a hiking path up to it and that the M is for the University of Montana.


When we got up to the M, Wes and I decided to climb up higher to the top of the mountain, Mount Sentinel. On out way up we met a man, Don, who was from the area who pretty much acted as our tour guide for the hike. He knew a ton about the area. Here are some pictures:








This is a picture of a slab where hang gliders jump off from, reminding them to hook in their carabeeners:


On the way down we walked right by a deer, about 30 feet away:


When we got back, Wes and I got pizza at an amazing pizza shop, Pizza Pipeline. They had one dollar slices. Here's a picture:


I did my laundy in a laundromat and went to dinner. When we got back we cleaned out the vans and hung out and got ready for tomorrow. Now I'm about to do push ups and ab exercises, pack for tomorrow and go to bed on my broken air mattress that will be flat by 2 am. Wake-up is 6 am tomorrow; we have a long ride, and the forcast is heavy rain and thunderstorms. It should be fun.

Here's a picture of a crazy tailgate I saw on a pick up truck in the parking lot yesterday:




- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Missoula, Montana

Days 8, 9, & 10

Okay so, heres the deal. Two days ago I was racked. I found out the night before that one of the crew members had seen me pissing in a less than idea location on the side of the road. I thought I was fine, but whatever; I was racked for the day. I spent the day with Wes, Kent, and Brent in van 3. I was a really rainy day with only 40 or so miles of biking (pretty much all on a bike path), so I guess it was a good day to be rack, if there is such a thing. I really wish I could have been on the bike though, because I wanted to be able to say i biked every mile of the trip. Anywho, it was day 8 of the trip, and we went from Coeur d'Alene to Kellogg, Idaho. We stayed at Kellogg High School, and went to the 1313 Club in Wallace for dinner. Here's a picture of me in a metal space ship type thing outside a restaurant in Wallace:


Yesterday was day 9. We went from Kellogg, Idaho to Thompson Falls, Montana. It was a really long day (75 miles) with two huge climbs over the Thompson Pass, and it was raining and freezing. It was probably the coldest I've been in my adult life, and we were out there all day. It got to the point that we were praying for more hills to climb, because it meant that we didn't have to go downhill. Going downhill was bad because not only were we zooming really fast, making it seem even colder, but our fingers were so cold that it hurt to hold on the brakes the whole way down. It was a little scary at times, but we made it. Of the 18 riders that are on the trip, only 10 finished the day. Everyone else either was injured or racked themselves mid-day. I rode with Matt, Andrew, and James for the day, but Matt racked himself halfway through the day. It was really fun because those guys are hilarious, and we kept ourselves warm by laughing at each other's ridiculous stories.

We ended up the day at the high school in Thompson Falls. We had to drive to the middle school to shower. Luckily I got out of the shower just before the hot water ran out. That evening we went to a local diner/grille for dinner, and then went back to watch game 7 of the NBA finals. The Celtics lost. Oh, well.

We got to sleep in today, waking up at 830, but we were late getting the vans packed, so we won't be sleeping in anymore. Today was a long day, but a pretty easy ride, riding about 75 miles from Kellogg to Arlee, Montana. It's a small town located on a Native American reservation (I think). Here's a picture of the sign going into town:


Here are some cool pictures that I took on the road today:


That's a plastic bag in the bottom left corner.



That's Jared. He's from Indiana.








Left to right: Andrew, Mike, and James.

I didn't take any pictures yesterday because I didn't have my phone on me during the ride, which turned out to be a good thing, because it would have gotten soaked.

We ate dinner at a local grocery store with a food place inside of it. We were going to go to a tiny little casino, but it was closed. We played bocce and frisbee outside the school, and I accidently threw the long distance disc onto the roof of the building across the field.

We haven't had many friendship visits so far, because there isn't much out here in this part of the country, but the views have been great, and the down time has allowed us to really bond as a team. We had a team meeting today and it went pretty well.

Today wasn't a good day for my butt. I have some serious chafing going on in my crack. I've considered shaving, but I think it would feel worse growing back. Also my Achilles tendons are still really tight. They have been tight since day two. It's weird because it hurts worse when I walk than when I ride. I think I'm going to get my bike fitted for me to make sure I'm not making things worse by sitting to high or anything.

I need to buy some chamois butter.

Here are some pictures of license plates I took the other day:






Still no progress on posting videos. This application is supposed to work with videos but it didn't last time I checked. Well, I haven't checked in a while and I haven't searched for any alternatives. If anyone knows what to do, please let me know. Thanks.

It's tough finding time to write all of this on a little iPhone. There's so much stuff to do as far as maintaining my bike and clothes and cleaning everything, but I still want to spend a lot of time hanging out and relaxing during down time. Sorry if I'm not keeping in touch or calling anyone (mom).

No progress on the Professor cube. I took it out today but put it away without even moving it. I'll give it a few more days.

Oh yeah, I got racked the other day so I did push ups equalling twice the day's biking mileage (2x40=80). That reminds me, I haven't done today's push ups. Oh well, I'll catch up tomorrow, we only have 28 miles tomorrow.

I've been doing 7 minute abs pretty much every day.

I've been drinking almost no soda.

Good stuff. I'm having a blast, I just wish my thank you notes were done and my body wasn't aching/stiff/chafing.

Oops, I'm not allowed to complain. I threw my complaints and selfishness into a lake in Washington.

Call or email me! I probably wouldn't even mind a text. I can't promise a response though, so I guess there's not a really good reason to contact me in the first place.

Nick, Delilah is a terrible song, jeez.

- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Arlee, Montana

Days 5, 6, & 7

Two days ago, Sunday the 13th, was day five of my trip. It wasn't actually a century ride, we only rode about 90 miles, from Grand Coulee City to Spokane, WA. It was a beautiful ride, proving once again how diverse the state of Washington is. We rode up hills and through wide open crop fields:


Oops, I forgot to mention the night before we went down to the Grand Coulee Dam for a laser show in the dark. There was accompanying music and a storyline telling the history of the Columbia River and the dam itself.

So anyways, the next day we rode in to Spokane, which is a pretty big city in eastern Washington. Here is a picture I took of some falls on the way in to the city:


That night we drove to a house outside the city where a couple, Joel and Honor Sears, sponsored our dinner. They had a pool and a hottub and a really cool patio area, so it was a great place to relax after a day of biking. They cooked us grilled chicken and it was delicious. I played a pretty intense game of pool basketball with Matt and Kent against Rob, Craig, and Nick. Here's a picture of the Sears' backyard:


We stayed at a community center church youth group church recreational facility type place. I have no idea what it was but there were lots of toys and stuff there. That night was one of the guys' 22nd birthday so I went out with them to a bar and played some pool.

The next day, day number six, was a day off of the bikes, but we still had a very busy day. We slept in until 8 and went to McDonald's, which sponsored our breakfast. From there we went to the Ronald McDonald House, which interestingly enough only recieves 5% of their funding from the McDonald's corporation. The group split in two and half of us got a tour of the Ronald McDonald House and the Shriners Hospital across the street. The other half of the group went down the street to Sacred Heart Childrens' Hospital. We all met at Sacred Heart for lunch and then switched, but the tour guide at Sacred Heart had already gone home. At the Shriners Hospital we met a little girl who had scoliosis which curved her spine. She was in a wheel chair that had a contraption above it, from which hung a metal halo that was screwed into her skull to help stretch and align her spine. Seeing someone like that makes any problems I'm going through seem like nothing at all.

For dinner we went back to the Ronald McDonal house where volunteers cooked us a delicious spaghetti dinner. We met a little girl named Anecia (I think that's how you spell it), who was being treated for cancer. She wasn't shy at all, and wanted to take pictures of every one of us with all of our cameras. We all had a blast playing with her and the other kids there, and it was a bit sad when we had to go and she asked us if we could play with her again.




We stayed in Spokane again last night and then rode over the state line into Coeur d'Alene Idaho:


It was a short day, with only about 40 miles of biking, most of it on a bike path. There were come confusing contruction detours, and we ended up walking across a soccer field, up and over a dike onto a highway and then across a bridge to get back onto the bike path.

Today we didn't have any programming, and got to spend the whole day at the Kroc Community Center, where we are sleeping:


It is a really cool athletics and activity complex, with pools, a giant slide, a huge hottub, bsketball courts, a fitness center, a rock climbing wall, a game room, and a million other awesome things. In the late afternoon we walked to Red Robin and I attempted to break their unofficial record for the most free refills of strawberry lemonade (11). It would have been fine but I had already eaten four baskets of free refill fries and a big burger, so I only made it to nine. Here is a picture of me by a sign on the way to dinner:


After dinner we watched the Celtics game (game 6 in LA). The first game I get to see of the finals and it's a blowout in the Lakers' favor. Lame.

Oh yeah, two days ago my back tube burst just as I was rolling my bike inside the building we were staying in. I changed it last night, and I think I might need to get the wheel re-taped because there is a sharp piece exposed where the tape ends.

I don't remember what else I wanted to say. It's weird because so much is going on, and I try to just make a mental note to write down later what I want people to hear or what I am going to want to remember.

My farmer's tan is coming along as expected: burns on the upper arms where my jersey ends.

I've started taking pictures of license plates; I might try to get a complete state set:


Tomorrow we are riding about 55 miles to a tiny town in Idaho. I might be racked for tomorrow. Well, I am racked, but I might get un-racked tomorrow. More details on that later.

I think that's about it.

Peace.


- Posted from my iPhone

Days 3 & 4

Days 3 & 4

Yesterday was day three. The church we were staying at sponsored our breakfast and had a smoothie bar; it was delicious. We departed from Wenachee and rode about 70 miles east to Coulee City, WA. The ride was beautiful, passing through huge gorges and wide open fields. It truly amazes me how diverse the state of Washington is, even the few hundred miles I have seen so far. Here is one of the views along the way:



I won't be taking very many view pictures because there is no way a camera can get the perspective that human eyes can get when viewing things this big.

We had a crew chief lunch, or Drew's Cafè as we like to call it. As we stopped, a reporter from the local newspaper asked about us and took our picture and interviewed me and two other cyclists. Here is a picture of our lunch stop.


We stayed at a middle school. This school was super lucky, and I was making unbelievable trick shots with the basketball. We will be staying in a lot of school gyms, so I think we will all be very good at basketball by the end of the summer. At dinnertime we had our first encounter with the Cattlewomen, who cooked us some barbeque beef sandwhiches. After dinner the team went to see a cool canyon and I was left behind in the bathroom. They came back and picked me up.

Later when most of the guys had gone out to a bar, a group of us that couldn't or didn't want to drink we out exploring. We went to a gas station with a grille and icecream shop inside. The woman at the register remembered the guys coming through town the year before. I fell down trying to sit down onto a chair because my muscles locked up or something. I had a corn dog. Also I saw a sign on a closed store that gave the hours of operation as seen below:


Monday to Monday? What? Why not Monday to Sunday? This is crazy.

Anywhoo, today was the shortest day yet. We rode only 30 miles from Coulee City to Grand Coulee City, WA. Here is a picture of some other guys riding and a picture of me with the river in the background:





We are staying at a middle school again but this gym is not lucky. We had a tour this afternoon of the Grand Coolee Dam. It produces more power than any other dam in North America. Here are some pictures:









I need to go do 7 minute abs. I ripped the audio for the video off of YouTube before I came and put it on my iPhone. Some of us have been doing it every day. Also, most of the us are doing a push up for every mile we bike, twice the distance for the day if we get racked. Tomorrow is our first century (100+ mile day). Sorry I am writing in such poor style. It's annoying typing on this phone. I really want to get a lot of details down for memories later though.

Oh, also I am trying to solve the 5x5x5 Rubiks Cube (the Professor Cube) on my own by the end of the summer without looking up any strategies. This is how far I am:





I'm really proud of myself so far, because I never figured out how to solve a regular 3x3x3 Rubiks cube; I looked online for a solution strategy when I had figured half of it out (the first two out of three layers, i.e. the easy ones). I'm viewing this as an opportunity to redeem myself. I just need to learn how to swap the last two unmatched middle tredges (pieces with two faces). Once all the tredges are in correct groups of three I can solve the whole cube easily as if it were a 3x3x3 cube, moving the middle three pieces as one.

Also, to those of you who are wondering why I'm almost done with the Professor Cube but you still haven't received a thank you note, the cube didn't take that long, and it can be done in the car... I'm getting to them slowly but surely... kind of. Jeez I need to finish those. Okay, peace.

- Posted from my iPhone

Days 1 & 2

Days 1 & 2
Yesterday was the first day of my journey. We finally left Seattle, after what seemed like a month. Wait, I forgot to talk about Tuesday. Tuesday was our training ride. We got to ride on a velodrome, which is a giant banked cycling track. Our team cycling coach, Dean Peterson, taught us how to safely ride in a group, and afterwards we went out on the road for our training ride. The ride went pretty smoothly; it was about 26 miles round trip and no one got racked. Getting "racked" means you must get off your bike and put it on a car rack, riding in a van with the crew for the remainder of the day. It is used as punishment for unsafe behavior and is meant to ensure that everyone is conscious of their safety at all times.

Okay, so yesterday, Wednesday the 9th, was day one of the trip. We biked 70 miles, from Seattle to Skykomish, Washington. There was a net elevation change of about 900-1000 feet, starting at sea level in Seattle. Day one was not a good day for me. I started out really strong but my the end I was barely crawling along. The last few miles were one big climb, and my butt was absolutely destroyed. The bones in my pelvis that sit on the back of the seat had been in the same position all day and felt like they were bruised pretty badly. I hadn't been standing up and moving around enough to keep the blood flowing to all parts of my body. When we got to lodging I could barely walk.

Skykomish is a tiny little town of 200 nestled between some mountains in western Washington. It rains pretty much every day there. We stayed at the local church which barely had room for us to sleep on the floor where the pews usually go.


We had to shower at two separate tiny houses whose owners had been generous enough to lend us a hand. We would normally had stayed in their elementary school, but a local oil spill from a train crash caused the building to be condemned.

I woke up this morning to find my Front tire deflated. I changed out the tube and found a staple in it. I'm glad I found it then because I didn't have any problems while on the road. I felt much much bettertoday than I did yesterday. We had a huge climb to over 4000 feet in the first 16 miles, crossing over Steven's pass which separates the wet and dry parts of the state. Dave, one of the other cyclists really helped by leading Wes (another cyclist) and me up the pass, slowly but extremely steadily, so that at no point did we feel like we were working a whole lot more than before. Here's a picture of me a little way past the pass.




Coming down over the pass we had some pretty steep and fast downhills with slight rain. Everything was wet, which made the decent even more dangerous. The second half of the day was smooth sailing with about 60 miles of slight to moderate downhills and only a few minor uphills. We rode in through Wenachee where we are staying, which is a much much bigger town than Skykomish. It is situated in a valley with huge rolling hills on all sides. I had never seen such big hills with so few trees on them. Apparently the trees don't grow because of the wind and the fact that Wenachee is located in the rain shadow of the mountains. When I was riding in, looking at all these awesome hills I actually smiled, thinking about how this is "literally the only time in my life" that Mike Skalandunas will be jealous of me.

We are staying in a local church and we showered at a YMCA. We went to a really cool park by a river for our friendship visit. I don't remember the name of the organization, but there were a lot of people there. There were some really interesting people, and it went pretty smoothly, but it was at times uncomfortable, trying to have a conversation with someone with extremely severe physical and mental disabilities. I met a guy named Tony who was a huge fan of furries, Superman (he's had four parakeets named clark), and the TV show Smallville. He said that the 9th season ended with a big cliffhanger regarding how Clark Kent will get out of his predicament. He said that in the last episode when Clark opens a box from his mother you can see in his eyes the reflection of the superman suit, so something regarding that must come into play. Danny, if you're reading let me know what you think...

Now we are back, I'm still way behind on thank you notes so I might try to get some of those written. My mouth is full of canker sores, so that's not fun. I'm going to try to get to bed early, tomorrow we have a 6 am wake up and a 70 mile ride.

By the way here's a picture from the kick off breakfast sponsored by The Arc at gas works park outside Seattle.


(I'm not in this picture in case you don't know what I look like.)

Here is a picture taken from a van of Mt Ranier on the training day. It is over 14000 feet but it seems much bigger because there are no other mountains around it and it rises up alone from sea level.


Please send this link to anyone that knows me! I want as many people as can to read this. Maybe I won't have to tell the same stories 100 times when I get back...

Also, email me. It's easy for me to respond quickly to an email.

- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Spokane St,Wenatchee,United States

Site traffic tracking

This text is so that hopefully I can track who views my blog and from where.





- Posted from my iPhone

Location:NE Old Cascade Hwy,Skykomish,United States

Seattle orientation

Okay, so I still havnt recovered from the disaster last night, I might get a new application to write blogs, or just save more often. Anyways, here is a short version of what I wrote last night.

I left Logan Airport in Boston at 8 am eastern on Saturday, had a layover in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and arrived in Seattle at around 1pm pacific. I was picked up by a fellow team member named Kyle from Purdue, and we drove back to the hotel with two other team members, Kent from Texas A&M and Alex from Drake. Kent is another cyclist, but Kyle and Alex are crew members. The crew are the guys who make sure we are where we need to be when we need to be, safe, fed, etc. They drive the support vans that carry our equipment and pretty much do everything it takes to get us across the country besides riding the bike; they are the real heroes of the Journey of Hope.

Once at the hotel we got our team apparrell and I had to immediately shave my mustache. It was the first time since 2009 that I had no facial hair of any kind. We then went to the Alpha Delta chapter of Pi Kappa Phi at the University of Washington for dinner, introduction to orientation, and a ritual.


After that we went back to the hotel and myself and my three roommates (Kent, Wes, and Kenny), reassembled our bikes after shipping and then went to bed.

The next day we went to the original REI store for shopping, orientation training (safety, cycling rules of the road, crisis management, etc.), lunch, and more shopping/looking around. The store was massive, and had biking and hiking trails around it, in addition to a waterfall in the mini forest surround the building (which was in the middle of downtown Seattle).

We then went to Gas Works park to have our first friendship visit, with a group called The Arc that primarily supports people with Down syndrome. It was a lot of fun, it was really cool how interested the people I met were in what we are doing. We had some good food including cranberry frozen custard and hung out around the park. We saw some people twirling ropes and batons with fire at the ends:

And in the parking lot we saw the craziest looking pickup truck from Montana, presumably belonging to the fire weilders:


I haven't been to the website yet but I can only imagine the kind of stuff they sell. I took a picture of the bumper stickers, but there is some profanity, email me if you want to see it.

This morning we woke up at 530 and did a practice pack (30 mins to get everything out to the vans and the vans packed). We then had breakfast and walked our bikes over to the Seattle Sky Needle (or Space Needle, I don't remember the name) for skills assesment. We had to do various tasks on the bike such as clip in to the pedals without swerving, navigate through cones, pick up a water bottle off the ground with our feet still clipped in and moving, changing a tire, and riding in a paceline.

After that we drove out to Kerry Park Viewpoint, overlooking the Seattle skyline, for our team photo:

The video above is of the view and the picture below is of me in my uniform:


Jeez I just lost a whole lot of this blog post again because the application crashed. Oh well.

Anyways, we went out in the afternoon today on a ferry to an island across the bay, but we ended up turning back due to time constraints once we made it to the island. It was still fun though, the ferry was the main attraction. It was huge, and the captain gave me a thumbs up back when I gave him a thumbs up from the passenger deck for a good job docking the boat, so that was cool. Two videos of the ferry ride:


When we got off the ferry we had about three hours to walk around Seattle and see the famous Pike's Place Market. We saw some guys throwing fish, and ate at a restaurant by the water. After we went out to look at the water and saw the most amazing cloud formation, with pillars of light and mist surrounding it, falling down from above the cloud to the surface of the water. I didn't even attempt a picture because I know a camera wouldn't do it justice, especially my phone camera.

So that's what I've been up to. Tomorrow we have our first training ride, just about 25 miles. I'm really excited to get on the bike. The next day, Wednesday the 9th is day one of our cross country trip, and on day two we climb up a mountain pass.

This ended up as a fairly long post, I don't know if I will be able to be this detailed in the future. I'm torn because I want to take pictures and videos and post blogs, but I want to spend enough time absorbing the information and not thinking about home and people reading my blog (no offense).

Also, I tried tagging my location for this post but it will probably say the middle of the bay because that's where I started writing this. Rest assured that I am not on a boat in the middle of the bay 6 hours before I need to wake up.

Also I am calling it the bay because I do not know what it is called.

Also email me with any comments, and can someone tell me if the pictures and videos aren't working, and also if anyone knows if the videos have been posted to my YouTube account that would be good to hear.

Thanks for reading,

- Joe Fox Jr.

Damn, ok the videos aren't working. Sorry. Maybe when I have a wifi connection it will work. I'll figure it out.

- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Seattle Ferry Terminal,Seattle,United States

Another test

This is a test to see if posting pictures works:


- Posted from my iPhone

Wow

I just spent a very long time typing a very long post, with video and pictures, and this stupid application just crashed and deleted it. I'm too tired to do it again. I have to be awake in 5.5 hours. Man. Okay, I'll post my Seattle orientation blog post tomorrow.

I'm really angry. I can't believe I paid money for this app.

-Joe Fox Jr




That's Ben Rich, a friend of mine from home expressing how angry I am. Thanks Ben, even though you don't know I'm using your picture for this purpose.

- Posted from my iPhone

This is a test

So, I just downloaded this program, BlogPress, for 3 bucks, breaking my vow to never pay for an application on an already overpriced phone. Let's see if it works.

Above you should see visual proof of the fact that I did in fact have leg hair before this trip. I'm going to miss it dearly.

Just setting this up right now

Hey all, my name is Joe Fox Jr., and I am starting a blog. As of right now.

The primary reason for this blog is to let my friends and family know how/where/what I am doing this summer, while I bike across the country, from Seattle to Washing, D.C. This ride, called the Journey of Hope, is organized by my Fraternity (Pi Kappa Phi) and our philanthropy Push America. So far, (with your help) I have raised almost $8500, all of which will be presented to organizations for people with disabilities that I will visit throughout the summer.

For information regarding my trip and the organizations that I will visit, use the following address:

https://secure.pushamerica.org/events/profile.cfm?rID=1182800&ridecode=joh2010

Or go to PushAmerica.org and click on:

"Events" --> "Journey of Hope" --> "2010 Roster & Profiles" --> "Joe Fox"

I am not sure how often I will be updating this page, or how detailed each segment will be (I will most likely be writing all of my posts on my cell phone), but I will try to post some sort of update at least once a week. Save this page, and check back a few times throughout the summer if you want to know where I am. A day-by-day itinerary and route map is provided on the Push America website (I am on the Trans-America route).