The Maine Event

ttp://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/612/2653/320/084_84.jpg" border="0" alt="" />







Laydees and Gentlemen, we are alive and well and we have since reached our landing point of Bar Harbor, Maine and returned to sunny California since my last posting. As a matter of fact I'm the biggest lagger in the world and I haven't posted for the last three states of the trip. Maybe it was the the vibe of Vermont and New Hampshire that just made me feel so irie that I just totally forgot to sit in front of the brain melter and update my blog. No seriously though, Our New England leg was nearly the most impressive and visually splendiforous. The trees as we expected were exploding with color and energy, the people were just as colorful and willing to say hello and chat nearly wherever we went. I know this sounds ridiculous but the most welcomed privelage of our New England leg was the abundance of organic food co-ops and killer little organic cafes littered throughout the region. After a long long stretch through grease country in the midwest and upstate New York we were really jonesing for some wholesomeness in our grub. Along with the glorious presence of awesome foods we also got extremely lucky or blessed maybe with the weather. Not overexaggerating, we took the ferry ride from New York across Lake Champlain and into Vermont and as soon as we took our first two pedals off the ferry the sky opened up and sunshine was delivered from that moment all the way until the day we got on the plane in Portland, Maine. This was nearly a phenomenon in my book, since we had been constantly in touch with rain through the whole damn country at least every couple days. For us to get to our most anticipated part of the trip and have stupidly clear crisp sunny weather for the last two weeks straight made us feely like pretty lucky little pedalers. Even in the locals regard they were bragging about what a wonderful fall they were having, reinforcing my notion that that doesn't happen for everyone and that folksonspokes are the coolest bike tourers of all time. Ok alright maybe just in this century. Just as the rest of our tour we were consistently provided delightful accomodations in private residences throughout our New Englandism. People of all walks of life, our age, old age, unexpected personalities and tranquil souls. In all walks of life we were treated wilh nothing but respect and care. The Adirondack Mountains are a hikers paradise or rather a mountain biker's. Vermont and New Hampshire are really like their own little worlds. 99% of the businesses are locally run and owned and it seemed to me like all the food and materials were self produced and sustained, kind of like they didn't need the rest of the world and it's sophistaction to survive or even thrive as a community.
Our Maine experience and expectations were nothing short of what we had hoped for. With the most coastline in the United States and only roughly a Million people in the whole state, the place just seems so mystical and enchanting, like you could run away in the woods and drink moonshine with Falcore and Willow while playing dijeridoos and cooking mindblowing seafood feasts and not have a care in the world except for when the seasons were changing so you could knit yourself some sweet new socks for the frigid winter. With that said we spent our final days of the trip in a ridiculously huge penthouse overlooking Bar Harbor and it's multiple little island friends out to sea. Champagne soaked private balcony hot tub sessions were oh too common and nightly lobster engorgements resembling the last supper seamed surreal. We couldn't have asked for one speck more of spoiling thanks to Liz's Mom and her confidant Dennis. You really made our trip's end butter sweet (Lobster and butter) gosh i'm such a cheez. I wish I could plunk away at this keyboard with all my stories but I have decided to save them all for my first post collegiate writing project. I will be making a compilation of our most memorable stories and photos from our four month journey. More detailed and strikingly more sarcastic and humorous i like to envision it. To all who have spent tiny fragments of their life looking at our blog and sharing our experiences with us I thank you so much. Believe it or not it was one of the most exiting things for us to share our stories with you all and hopefully give you hope in our nation's general public, most of all we looked so forward to seeing comments from yooz all. We love you all and you really kept us going. Folksonspokes dedicates this blog to our viewers for their interest in knowing what we were up to, it means a lot to us... Thanks again.

In with the New.....York

Buffalo, so tasty, so big, I'm getting hungry just thinking of her.

Is my butt getting bigger?

Buffalo Brew Fest. More Grog and Grub than your gut can gargle.

The festival we held inside the old central terminal train station. Makes beer drinkers feel important and refined. Like history majors, more like beverage minors.

Mugshot. No Comment. Ok, is that LiZ?

Drink up, there's thirsty fat asses all over the city who would love to be in your shoes........

My new best sort of not even related cousin sort of and I. Seriously though thanks for everything Brian. You made us feel like familia.

You would think this photo was taken after the festival but it wasn't. I just have the natural gift of looking blown.

The Buffalo Central Terminal. Scene of the crime.

Monroeville Indiana, sweet digs for a rainy windy night. Small town, big props on the hospitality.

Indiana's not all corn fields, just 99.9% of it. The rest is worth the drive, or pedal i should say.

Indiandadockcampspotonthelakeareyoustillreadingthis?

Corpsy Toes meet Lilly Pads. Lilly Pads meet Corpsy Toes.

He's alive and shakin in Illinois....Should've seen the rest of the band, must have flew in on the haggardship for the show.

Richard and Iris took care of us and let us leave our bikes in thier garage while we went to Chicago. Richard owns a bar called Pour Richards. He has the most amazing mesh hat collection ever. The whole bar's wall space is covered with the sickest meshies you've ever seen. Thanks for the stay and the frosty sips guys.......

The folksonspokes are still cruizin, floating across the great oosa. Since Illinios we have had some most excellent times as I'm sure we've all come to expect, but the most awesome thing is that Liz and I got a call from the Police department in Ashkum (where our stuff was stolen) letting us know that a farmer had found lizzie's drum, the backpack and the journal in a ditch about three miles outside of town near a cornfield. It pays to have great friends I'll tell ya. Thanks Ashkum Lions Club and all who helped with the investigation of the century.
Our continuation of the midwest and our expectation of more corn field monotany was pleasently interrupted by killer river camp sites. Secret little bass lakes and oodles of crazy thunderstorms which made our rides a little more action packed naturally. Heh Heh... Get it Naturally. Geez i'm a dork. So onward we went conquering the rest of Illinois and Indiana, that last day in Indiana we stayed in a huge community hall with showers, kitchen, laundry, T.V. , the whole nine. The town of Monroeville hosts cross country cyclists in their town Rec hall for free. It's almost worth pedaling your heiny across the country just to rest your head there and see how dedicated and gracious the township is. Ok, nuff about our lodging. Two weekends ago we spent four days in Cleveland shwillin and lurking around with our friend Megan from San DIego. Cleveland is most bodacious and should not be overlooked as a cool ass city to consider visiting or committing liver abuse in. Folksonspokes got Cleveland's back. Thanks for the fun Megs we miss you already. Leaving Cleveland the next two weeks of the expedition took place right alongside mystical Lake Erie. It was so nice and refreshing to ride and sleep next to a lake every night. We have gotten blasted by some random lake effect thunderstorms unexpectedly which are always great to pack up your gear in. Lake Erie i'm glad to report is definitely surfable and the water is warm warm warm, for now. I can't really explain the sweetchiousness of this area, it's really striking and history rich country. It's like one history lesson after another for us maden voyagers of the great lakes area. Tons of War of 1812 battlesites and Indian reservations. Lots has gone down out here, it's wierd to be places with some real american history behind them.
Hoy estamos en Buffalo, este cuidad es muy bonita y muy divertido. Mas interesante que expectado. We are staying with my cousin(sort of) and they have shown us a great time. Buffalo is definitely way bigger and way better than I expected. I feel like it's like America's forgotten city or something, most people are like me, they don't even know it's a huge metropolis with a skyline, museaums, ball parks, tons of history(probably close to the most important of the 20th century) and the most bestest food out there. Two thumbs up for Buffalo. Thanks to our hosts Brian and Amy, they took us to a ass kicking beer fest at this old train terminal, we tasted oh so much lovely grog. Cheers Kids! That's about all my little sausages can pound on the keyboard to day so I say bye now. We go to Canada tomorrow you hosers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

News Break!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Rachel Johnson. The big 25!!!! I can't seem to find your new email address or new phone #. So when you get this post (hopefully today) drop me some info so I can reach ya. Can't wait to see how you're doing. We love you and we hope you have a totally awesome birthday baby!

ALSO................. To all of the great people we have met along the way, we need to retrieve some new information from you. We pretty much lost everyones information when our journal was taken.So let us know again what your address and phone numbers are so we can keep in touch. We love you all!!!! Thanks.

STILLINILLINOIS!!!!

ThE cRaZieSt tHinG, LiZzIe's aRm doESn'T shOW uP In HeR ShADoW... I kNEw tHaT aRm wAS a ghOSt.

CHICAGOHHHH!

FoLkSoNSpOkeS over HerE.

I'vE BeEn ReFlecTing ON tHis PicTuRe FoR soMe tIme noW.... InTereSting.

UrBaN yoU KnOw? LikE CiTy, LIkE ChICaGO AnD StUfF.

ThE MonItOr LOoks LiKe We'Re iN JaPAn buT it'S ReAllY JusT ChI-tOwn.
FRienDs frOm tHe RoAd, OrMand (left) Is riDIng thE whOle boRder oF tHe U.S., thE coUplE oN ThE rIGHT is FRom GerMaNy. ThEy FleW HeRE tO RiDE aCROss thE StaTEs. Top NoTch folKS.

MoRnING On tHe IllInoiS River. Da Birds.... Da Bridge.....

FriEnds frOm BiSHop HiLL, ThEy tooK GreAt CaRe of Us. FoOd, BeD, AC. Mi Me guSta... GRaciAs LiNda and CrYstal.

ThIs Is JiM aNd BrENDa fRom MusCatIne. CLAsSic AwEsomEness. ThEy maDe Us lauGH Non stOp. ThAnkS foR dInneR BreNda...MaSter oF yOur CrAft, tHe QuEen oF PaTiencE.

JiM and F.O.S., I wOUld HAve tO takE tHe rEst oF tHe dAy OfF tO WrIte aBout Jim, He'S JoN CanDy, tHe guY iS EfFinG hiLarIous aNd He'S GoT a HeArt oF gOld. ThE guY's GoT a PEz cOlleCtioN anD a LeGO wAtch AnD He's WorKS aT the JaIl as A ceLL guArd. A TruE ChaRactEr YoU aRe JiM. We LOve Ya....

Yep, we are still in the great state of Illinios today, we are about thirty miles from the Indiana border. Liz and I have had some great times since Iowa. We left Muscatine after an awesome weekend with our friends Jim, Brenda,Steve, Mike, Davey, and Jamie. Jim and Brenda put us up at their house for a couple nights while Davey took us out to Mike and Jamie's house out in the country to hang out on their farm for the night. They grow all their own organic veggies, they got chickens, rabbits, roosters, and doggies. It was a darn cool experience hanging out with them down to earth folks. Sometimes stuff would just fall out of my mouth which may have sounded rude to them( My uncontrollable hick accent) but hey, they were all so awesome. Whatever, as we proceeded in to the state of Illinois again we couldn't help but notice how perfect looking all the houses and little towns are here. This state truly is the epitomy of classic America in my opinion.One small community after another with no fences and endless interconnecting lawns, all of them having ridiculously nice and generous people. So many people have helped us out in Illinois. We have been here for like ten days now and only camped twice! Everyone offers us a place to stay, a car to drive, dinner at thier house..... It's gotten to the point where we've had multiple offers and we've had to turn people down. What a great bunch of people we got here in the Old Midwest I'll tell ya... So we stopped in another great town called Bishop Hill, which is a historical landmark town of a 100 people, we were considering our first Bed & Breakfast experience here because we were kind of haggard from the partying all night long at the SMall Taters farm in Iowa. Literally moments before we were headed over to check in this lady pulls up in front of me, jumps out of her car and introduces herself. Linda was her name, she insisted that we come stay at her guest house and have dinner with them instead of pay for the pricey supposedly haunted B&B. Well hot damn you can guess what we did. We layed in the air conditioned guest house all day briefly waking up in between naps to catch Oprah babbling on about something on the T.V. Pork Chops, peaches, and oh so many tasty cervezas were supplied for dinner and we met some other really super peoples. Thanks all you Guys. So great you are. So I guess the experiences go on and on in this state. We left our bikes in Some other great newly aquirred friends Robert and Iris's garage and shot up to CHICAGO for the weekend. CHI-Town is BLOWOUT, best city ever...... But what do I know. We had great times, Robert and Iris felt like relatives by the time we left on tuesday morning. Thanks for everything Guys... See you in March. Well that about puts us up to date, vaguely. We're in Ashkum, Illinois at the moment on an unplanned layover. While we were camping in the park the night before last someone stole our guitar, backpack, drum, and journal. Obviously this was freaking devastating and really draining for us. This town of 700 people has become nearly half close friends in the two days we've been here and there is a full on man hunt going on as we speak. It's really amazing, the community has made flyers, the rumors are spreading throughout; the kids, the sheriff, the mayor, and the lions club are all out looking for our stuff. The lions club guys who we met at the park the night of the incident are putting up a reward for our stuff in hopes of getting it back. As shitty as the whole ordeal is it really feels awesome to have so much help and consideration from everyone. SO we stayed yesterday playing detective all around town asking questions, peeking in car windows and rooting around in trash cans. We're gonna stay today as well in hopes of some victory but who knows. Either way we've made some damn good friends here in Ashkum. Thanks to everyone. So that's about it for now, here's some photos of new friends, new places, and folksonspokes. Love you all, Stick and Liz

Oh corn can you see........

Like heaven huh???

The lovely Miss Iowa. Get it, Mississippi in Iowa.

Representing water drinkers from all around the world. Liz Dogg straight shwillin'.

These are mini horses, the one in the middle is seriously 18 inches tall. Maybe they're actually a midget horse colony.

These two photos are in the town of Nauvoo, Illinois. We pulled into town just barely outrunning the loudest most violent thunderstorm to find ourselves in what felt like the setting of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Everyone was walking around like robots with the same clothes and these little bookbags staring at us like we were robots. Well this town is like the capital of Mormonism. Its like Jerusalem for mormons. This is where Joseph Smith started his mormon colony and was eventually persecuted and pushed out to Utah. The whole town has major church buildings, monuments etc. All mormon temples and Joseph Smith comemorations. Anyway we had a brief layover here and it was a kind of odd feeling place. The facials capture the feeling.



Tent site in Illinois, I got freaking eaten alive by chiggers in the tent all night long. I look like Annie right now. So Harsh.....

Hot and miserable yet anticipating the Family Diner so much. Midewest food, not so hot right now.

Pretty corny picture eh?

Ahhh the sites...... Breathtaking really.

My great uncle Bob and Aunt Loretta. First time I've ever visited them. Makes me wish it was the hundredth.

Train, water, bridge. Good stuff.

The defeated and the defeat. We had to walk our bikes twice. It wasn't worth zapping our legs to ride slower than we could walk. Missouri was tough.

He knows the task before him.........

Now that's an eyefull.

Are you scared? Me too.

What's eating Stick and Liz?

Sunrise on Miss Missouri. Damn she's hot!

Julia and Alex, they gave us a bed, AC, good food and most of all great laughs. Darn good people I reckon.

Low and behold we're still out here pedaling our carcasses through the country. Fresh off of our luxurious ride in our Chevy SUV across Kansas and on into St. Louis and a two night marination in a fancy Marriot hotel downtown. Lizzie and I had a most excellent time in Colorado with our great friends Nysa and Pete and of course all of their awesome pals. Breckinridge for the record Is Bitchen. Enough said. So we've been out here in the Midwest for 10 days now, eight of which have been sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hot and humid with get this, THE STEEPEST GRADES IN THE COUNTRY. This past week has definitely been the most trying and annoying part of the trip. Lizzie and I actually almost got mad at eachother. Almost. The heat drives us both insane as Im sure it does to most, we were given a couple great nights of R&R at my great uncle BOB's house in Hannibal Missouri as well as a night in Clarksville with a great older couple we met at the local restaurant while we were shwilling well earned beers. Alex and Julia took great care of us. Thanks BOB, Loretta, Alex and Julia. You saved our lives. Ha Ha. Aside from the agony of the hills and the heat Missouri is pretty freaking sweet. And the em eye ess ess eye ess ess eye pee pee eye is crazy. We like Missouri, kind of. We're in Iowa today at some great house with some great people who took us in off the street while we were desparately seeking Mexican food solice. We're headed to a farm outside Iowa City tonight to party with a bunch of Hippies. Well yall, Gotta go cause we have a lot of important things to do and a very tight schedule to maintain. Hey, we love you and gosh darn do we miss you all. Pat, Judy and Lilly we love you so much. Thanks for your time, it was great seeing you. It's off to see the wizard for us? Whatever..... I suck today. Bye.

We're in ColoRADoh!!!!!!!!

Hebgen Lake, Breaching the Cusp of Yellowstone. We raced those thunder heads all day. I sqeeked into town with a flat tire literally fifteen seconds before all hell broke loose and the rain was out to get someone. Not us!!! Yahooo!
This is Earthquake Lake. There was a major earthquake in 56 that collapsed the whole side of that far mountain which slid to the bottom of the basin. The earth that slid blocked off the existing flow of the river in turn making a natural damn and creating the lake. The trees were on the river banks originally but since have been drowned due to the rise in water level. It was really neat to see something so geologically transforming and astounding that has happened in such a recent time period.
Like totally far out man.....
Atmospheric Refraction at its finest.
This is what happens when you ride for six hours and only make it 18 miles, and then get completey engulfed in a thunderstorm of doom. You get blown completely off your bike from the cross wind(no Joke) and you have to scramble to the ditch on the side of the road and take cover from the 40 mile an hour wind and pounding rain under your janky tarp. It does something to one's sanity I think. This may be evidence.......











Lizzie's new official symbol. Self proclaimed.
Hmmmmmm????
Stupid tree was in the way of my sweet shot.
This is Warren and Katie, they invited us to their cabin for a sleepover. Fed us elk burgers, brownies, and cereal. Gave us a great place to sleep and shared thier great personalities and warmth along with their amazing property. I caught a trout in their pond and we ate it for dinner ten minutes later. THank you so much guys.


Some lake, somewhere.
Well its time for another update kids. While entering Yellowstone my bike decided it wanted some time off so it went ahead and stopped working for me. Such a nice honorable lad. So Liz and I stuck out our thumbs and caught some rides through the rest of the park. Lucky for us the great people who gave us rides let us stop at most of the geysers and sites for our viewing enjoyment. We camped a couple nights on Yellowstone Lake and as usual we were blessed with the invitation and company of a great couple from Chicago who gave us some good laughs and great grub and grog. Proceeding our camp leisure we had to find more transportation into Tetons National Park and on to Jackson Wyoming. We again scored a killer ride from an awesome couple thanks to lizzies masterful sign design that she made to help attract vehicular passerbys. So we had a killer time in Jackson but I needed to order some parts for old faithful and it seemed to be more and more of a hassle as I tried to find out what to order and where to have it sent. Even to this very day I'm still playing detective trying to figure out this fiasco. In the meantime we were able to rent a killer car and drive across the heat laden, desert strewn, what would have been a nightmare of a bike ride expanse of Wyoming. We stopped and visited some very special people in Casper for a couple hours and then trekked on into Colorado. So here we are in the most bitchenest of bitchen towns, Breckenridge. We are going to hang here for a minute and spend some time with some great and generous friends of ours. We'll be heading out soon but for next couple days we will be riding incredible mountain bike trails, shredding astronomical skateparks and waiting for my mystical little ball bearings to arrive at the bike shop. Adios, we talks to yooz soon. Much love.

Waiting to Exhale???

Adventure Cyling Association 30th Anniversary Party, Missoula. Happy Kids, Good Beer, Great People...

Evening camping behind elementary school in Jackson, Montana. Big Hole Valley. Surreal!!!
This is Gracy, she is Unicycling across the U.S. barefoot!!!! She is flat out the Gnarliest person traveling across the states this year. Gracy doesn't have brakes or gears. She controls her descents with her legs. She does 60 - 80 miles a day. SHe is the first woman to unicycle the U.S. We're not worthy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Check her out. WWW.ONEWHEELFORLIFE.COM

These dudes were rad. They were from Florida and we intermitantly met up with them a couple times. The guy in front said Liz looks like Nancy Kerrigan. Ha Ha......










Kootenai Falls. Flat out the most powerful natural thing I have ever seen in my life. The week we saw it was the fullest and fastest it has been since 76.
Coolest family in America?? Thank you Renee, Tom, Allie, T.J.

Ross Creek Cedars.
Liz and the Jibs. Allie actually seriously thought that she was going to ride her bike with us the rest of the trip. She asked her parents and they sacrastically said yes not thinking she was serious. When we left she was crying she wanted to go so bad. We love you Allie. Maybe someday we can team up!!!!
Just outside Lake Pend Orielle.
Flower Power.
City of East Hope. Lake Pend Orielle.
Yep, its me again, this is like a new record, updating the site two times in a week. I had and opportunity so I took it. We're sitting in this place called Strozzi's Pizza weezing free net again,lucky for us this guy named Rudy who has been pedaling with us for the past three days has a laptop which we can use at specified wireless spot like this one. So we're in the village of West Yellowstone and we decided to take the day off here cause there was some good stuff to do and we were tired after 340 miles this week.We watched two IMAX movies today and ate way too much crappy food but hey we earned it right? WIMPS! So I feel like this whole first quarter of our trip has been just MEGA, meaning amazing, awesome and sweet. Did I mention we are about a quarter of the way deep into our mission? We have gone 1,300 miles so far and we figured out we still have 3,700 to go!!!!! JUMPERS......So the title of this article reflects the fact that we feel like the whole trip was essentially based on the next 1,000 miles or so because it is supposedly the most drastic and mystical land in the US. We feel like we're about to enter this insane thrillride that we're not going to be able to believe. Yellowstone Park and the Grand Tetons national parks followed by the low deserts of southern Wyoming and then into the Colorado Rockies near Steamboat Springs and Breckenridge. From what we've heard this stretch is breathtaking....hence the cheezy title of my update. So we thought we had climbed all these bad ass passes up to this point, come to find out we have a 17 mile 6% grade climb up to 10,000 feet this week followed by a climb in Colorado that will take us up to 11,590 feet. Someone send me an oxygon tank........So along with the major sites we have some major work to do. Ok i can't take it anymore I have a confession to make, because we want to focus our attention in the upcoming areas and the Mississipi area as well as New England we have decided to hopefully bypass eastern Colorado and Kansas so that we can have more time in the eventful areas. Kansas has the tendency to produce serious south winds and head winds which can make a 10 hour day of riding only reward you 35-45 miles!!!!! So I hate to say it cause I feel like a cheater but we will be hitch hiking through Kansas. So I Guess our total mileage left is more like 3,000 miles. Real Pansys we are!!!! That's it, I've blabbed enough. Here's some more photos for your visual enjoyment. Bye Bye turkeys, Love you all and miss you soo much.......