The first 500 miles

The full Join the Cycle crew

We have cycled over 500 miles! And what an interesting trip it has been. We have been faced with many challenges along the way: 5 flats, 2 broken spokes, a broken saddle, a fishtailing bicycle, a busy highway with no shoulders, some kind of stomach bug, heat exhaustion, a pulled back, and a relatively major accident (see blog soon to come). Unfortunately, the out of whack back has caused one of our riders, Chris, to drop out of the ride - at least for now. We hope he heals up and that we can meet back up with him a ways down the road.

Fixing a flat

Despite all of these challenges, we have had a pretty amazing trip. As mentioned before, we have met and keep meeting amazing people - some of whom have really helped us out and have totally taken us under their wings - some of whom have made us happy just by getting excited about our trip and pledging to ride their bikes more. I can't explain how great it feels to see people's eyes get wide when we tell them where we've come from and where we're going to - and to have them tell us about their bicycle experiences and get so excited about it all that they want to get out and ride their bikes.

At Joshua Tree National Park

We have also seen many cool places and things. We got to pedal through Joshua Tree National Park; we've seen the landscape change from city to Joshua tree and cactus desert to creosote desert to mountains and forest and back to creosote desert (with some juniper and grassland transition in between); we ran into a rattlesnake that was unhappy about our presence but held its cool; we have ridden along large portions of Route 66; we got to hang out in Flagstaff, AZ - a great town with some crazy and fun people; and we stayed on a corner in Winslow, AZ, like the Eagles (in "Take it Easy"). And now we're going to do just that - take it easy, as we let Hannah heal a bit from her crash.