Day 65: Goldendale, WA to Maupin, OR

Today we dedicated our ride to Kenneth Ballom, who battled a brain cancer diagnosis. We met Kenneth’s father the other day in Pullman, WA. He had recognized our support van and saw the Illini paint on it and asked us if we were from Champaign. It turned out that his father, Kenneth, used to be a vice chancellor there, and they were both from Illinois originally. We were excited to hear about his story and to talk about Illinois with someone who knew the area!

It is HOT out there now, folks, we have been outrunning summer so far but today it finally caught up to us. Today was a 71 mile day that we thankfully finished fairly quickly before it got too extremely hot out there for us. We had some truly beautiful downhills today: one into Oregon and one into the Deschutes River Valley. It is interesting because we are on the east side of Oregon that does not get much rain, so today was a ride through the desert! Tonight we are at Maupin Junior High School where we are lucky to have in-house showers! That is big time after such a hot day.

Another very important person on our team is one of our ride leaders: Steven. Steven did the ride in 2016 when he was a freshman, and had one of the most impactful experiences of his life. He applied to be a ride leader this year to give back that life-changing experience to all of us on the ride, and he has definitely accomplished that. The team agrees that we probably would have had a difficult time ever getting out of New York if it wasn’t for Steven. He has kept us really organized and has strived to run a tight ship since day one. He is really good at calling for food donations and has secured us countless meals and showers. He is always down to pull off of the road for something cool and engage with any and every stranger that we meet. He is a great, safe leader and I am really thankful to have spent the summer getting to know him and learning from him.

Day 64: Yakima, WA to Goldendale*, WA

Today’s ride was dedicated to Sister Regina Dubickas. Sister Regina is a friend of Viraat’s father, and is currently battling cancer. She is fighting hard and with such admirable strength, and we thought of her throughout the day while we biked our last full day in Washington.

You may notice that our original route has us in Maryhill State Park this evening instead of in Goldendale. Originally, the plan was to bike to the State Park and then camp tonight. However, camping after a long day of biking is not always the most comfortable, especially at this time of year when the heat is starting to take hold. We were really excited when Viraat reached out to the Father’s House Fellowship and they told us that we could use their church to sleep in tonight. Instead of camping in the heat, we were able to stay in this wonderful facility that has in-house showers AND laundry (so good because the last time we did laundry was 2 weeks ago and things were getting a little smelly)! 75 miles up hills in the heat is a lot easier to do when you know that you have a comfortable place to stay that night when you are done, that is for sure!

In two weeks, we will be in San Francisco! I am not sure where the time has gone, but I know that I am excited for these next couple of weeks with this wonderful team.

Our team would not be nearly as wonderful if it wasn’t for Mike, one of our ride leaders. Mike completed the ride just one year ago in 2018! It was really fun to get to do the ride with him because he so vividly remembers a lot of our stayovers and knows a lot of the cool spots in town to show us. On the days that we bike a different route from his year, Mike is always down to explore cafes or cliffs or anything that comes up along the way. He collects license plates that he finds on the side of the road – which I didn’t think would be a common occurrence, but he has at least 25 license plates by now if I had to guess, and it is fun to see what he has collected by the end of the day. Not only is Mike an adventurous person who genuinely enjoys biking and finds adventure in every day, he is hands down the most kind and patient person I have ever met (and the whole team agrees with me about this). You can go to Mike for anything at all and he will be there to listen and help. He is a trustworthy leader and also an amazing friend to everybody on the team. Sometimes it can be easy for tensions to run a little high when you are around the same people for 70+ days, but Mike is always there to remind us that we are a team and should always be kind to one another. I have learned a lot from Mike about how to be a good friend and a great leader, and we are all thankful that he was selected to help lead us across the country.

Day 63: Connell, WA to Yakima, WA

Today’s ride was dedicated to Tammy, a good friend of Marie’s mom. Tammy is a breast cancer survivor who has undergone many different surgeries and a year of chemo during her battle with cancer. She has always remained positive and it was an honor to dedicate the ride to her today.

Well, today’s ride was supposed to be the longest remaining ride of the trip ringing in at 96 miles. However, we ended up shuttling for about 35 miles due to some smoke coming from wildfires in the distance. It was really far away from us, but the fact that we could see the smoke in the air was enough for us to get off of the bikes and shuttle to where there was no more smoke visible at all. Shuttling creates a different kind of long day that involves a lot more waiting around than biking, but we had a nice time getting to hang out together and did get to finish the ride after we were past the smoke!

Tonight we are staying at the Wesley United Methodist Church. They are so kind and cooked us some food, shuttled us to showers, and gave us 12 whole bags of fresh cherries! I did not know that cherries are primarily grown in the state of Washington, and they are DELICIOUS. We also got some food donations from some area restaurants that made for a really big dinner ensuring we are all going to bed stuffed :)

You might recall from previous posts that Marc is our team mechanic, and I really want to emphasize how much he does for the team! Our bikes are definitely the most important tool that we have in this adventure of cycling across the country. Bikes are a little more fragile than cars in the sense that if one little thing is off, the whole vehicle can be off. Marc used to work as a mechanic in his local bike shop and he knows a TON about bikes. He has been able to fix almost every single bike problem both big and small no matter what. He always offers to work on people’s bikes at any hour of the day, even if it is during the middle of the ride at a rest stop and he has not even gotten a snack or a drink of water yet. You can tell that he enjoys the work and he offers so often that you don’t even feel bad asking for help, which is really important because it means that if someone has the tiniest of issues, they don’t feel intimidated to ask Marc for help because he is so open and will never make you feel bad for not knowing how to fix it yourself. I think that’s such an important characteristic to have as a teammate, and it is something I really appreciate about Marc. I have learned a lot about bikes from him and continue to learn more and more each day!

Day 62: Pullman, WA to Connell, WA

Today’s ride was dedicated to Joe Wadden. Joe is a friend of Steven’s Aunt Gail, and is currently undergoing treatment for metastatic kidney cancer. Joe has a wife, a 9 year-old daughter, and a 7 year-old son who he is fighting hard for. He rode his bike across the United States about 30 years ago (so cool!) and intends to do it again some day. We hope that Joe is able to follow along with our cross-country adventure and will be able to set out on another of his own soon!

Today was a long trek: 101 miles with a 15+ mile per hour headwind the entire route. It seemed that no matter what direction we turned, the wind kept blowing right in our faces. Nevertheless, we kept pedaling and kept moving. We biked through the rolling hills of wheat that turned into rolling hills of rocks – none of us knew what to expect from this part of Washington but it certainly has not been like we imagined it would be!

Tonight we are staying at Connell High School where we are lucky to be warm (it’s pretty chilly outside – sorry to our IL friends and family going through this heat wave!) and dry and clean because of their awesome facilities that include showers. We also want to thank the Pizza Station for providing the whole team with a delicious dinner tonight complete with a salad bar to make sure we have our nutrients!

Today was tough for a lot of riders, but Viraat especially kept morale very high today and I definitely want to say more about him & his spirit! I remember doing my Illini 4000 formal interview AND physical try-out with Viraat and I was thankful through both that he was very positive and a very thoughtful person. Viraat notices when people are down and always goes out of his way to ask if he can do anything or will just keep up his own positive attitude to spread to others. He is always there to help out, lighten the mood, or simply be by your side through a tough day. Viraat is also our Portraits director while on the ride, which means he is in charge of the filming and organization of our Portraits – definitely the most important thing we do on the ride. We all like to poke fun at him a little bit for his “Portraits Pitch” (he uses the word serendipitous every time he talks about Portraits – Viraat definitely has a large and unique vocabulary!), but I admire his passion for the Portraits Project and know that he believes each and every word he says and genuinely wants to hear people’s stories. He has met so many people on this ride just by starting up a conversation, and many of our ride dedications have been found because of his passion for talking to others.
He is also famous for turning anything you say into a pun (I guess you could say he is punstoppable).

Day 61: Plummer, ID to Pullman, WA

Today’s ride was dedicated to Richard Hill, Sherry Hoon, and Becky Campbell. All three of these individuals are people we met during our ride a couple of days ago into Mullan. Richard is a survivor of kidney cancer who has been cancer free for five years! He means the world to his family and it was an honor to be able to ride for him today. Sherry Hook is a breast cancer survivor (!!!!!!), and Becky Campbell is currently battling breast cancer. We are thinking of Becky and her fight ahead of her and admire both her and Sherry’s strength.

Our ride today was 57 miles (for most groups – one group had a little 10-mile detour and made it a 67 mile day) into Pullman, WASHINGTON! We have officially reached the west coast!!!! We have not seen the pacific yet, but knowing it is at the other side of this state is incredible. The ride today was pretty windy and absolutely beautiful. It is pretty crazy how drastically the scenery changes when we enter a new state. So far we have seen rolling hills with wheat and a lot of pine trees.

Tonight we are at the Emmanuel Baptist Church and it is AMAZING! We are able to sleep in their very comfortable community room and are also able to hang out in their youth room – complete with air hockey and video games. The church members were so kind to us and grilled us burgers and hot dogs and provided salads, chips, cookies, fruits & veggies, and other treats! They are also cooking us some breakfast casseroles for the morning which we are extremely thankful for. There are definitely many teammates who have grown pretty tired of our oatmeal breakfast so it will be extra special to change it up a bit :)

Today I want to highlight the iconic Marie Hubbard! Marie is such a character and adds so much to this team. Her iconic sayings have become integrated into my own vocabulary and will probably always be a part of the way that I speak. Marie is a natural leader who is very organized herself and keeps our group on track so much. She is always one of the first people ready in the morning and is always helping others with their tasks while encouraging people to be a little more speedy (which is very necessary when everyone is groggy in the morning). Marie was only a freshman this past year, which I would never have guessed just by knowing her. She is an incredibly responsible teammate and an excellent rider. I know that I do not only speak for myself when I say that I would trust Marie to accomplish any task and would want her on my team through any type of situation on and off of the bike. She will be on the board next year and will help pick the 2020 Bike America Team and will contribute to the decisions that the organization will make. I couldn’t think of a better person to represent the 2019 team and am so thankful to have spent the summer around her!
(and that’s the tea!)

Day 60: Mullan, ID to Plummer, ID

Today’s ride was dedicated to Sandy. Sandy is a close friend of Steven’s mom, and is currently battling renal cancer. She is staying incredibly strong fighting the fight with her family right by her side. We thought of her and her family and friends all throughout the day as we biked.

Today was 72 miles from Mullan to Plummer Idaho entirely on a trail!!!!! And this trail was paved and absolutely beautiful. We had a fun treat today because we got to play music out loud on our bikes due to the fact that we were exclusively on a trail and therefore did not have to worry about any cars around us. Of course we kept it to a reasonable level so that we could still hear each other, and it sure made the day go a lot faster! Along the way, we say an old mine, a moose, and a lot of kind people.

Tonight we are staying at Lakeside High School in Plummer. We were able to shower, swim, AND use the hot tub at the Marimn Health Wellness Center thanks to Terry who is a local and was able to talk to the staff there. We were really excited to get to relax and swim and take our time there. We are also getting various food items from generous nearby restaurants who donated to us! The team has gotten pretty good at calling for food donations: this evening everyone was on the phone making 109 calls (but who’s counting) in order to make sure we had enough food for the team! It was a really fun team effort.

It is so weird/sad/exciting to say that I am getting down to the last couple of weeks of posting on the blog each day. I love doing the rider shout-outs, and I’m going to switch it up a little bit and do some longer posts about each rider starting today and continuing until we cross the Golden Gate Bridge. Maybe these posts will reach them, and maybe they won’t, but I want all of you out there to know a little bit more about each of these very special teammates of mine:

The first rider to be written about is going to be my good pal and honorary lil’ brother Zane Inman. Zane is from a small midwestern town just like myself, and he understands how important Casey’s gas stations are and is able to be confused about the Chicago suburbs just like I am. Zane does not like biking. Which is really funny, because this is, after all, a cross-country bike tour. Zane joined the Illini 4000 under the impression that it was a casual cycling club. Zane’s dad passed away after battling cancer when Zane was in high school. His dad enjoyed casual cycling and so Zane figured he would try out a cycling club. When he found out the mission of the organization was to fund cancer research and patient support services, he knew it was fate and that he had to do this trip. Hearing about Zane’s dad from him & his mom during a portrait back in Paxton IL really impacted me and several others on the team who were present. Zane still does not like biking. Nevertheless, he puts himself out there every day and does the thing. When I ask him how the day is going, I know he is going to be real with me. Sometimes he says “not that great” other times he says “today is a good day.” There is value in being positive, and there is also value in being real with one another and sharing our struggles and how we are doing and what keeps us pedaling every day. I’m thankful to have spent all of this time with Zane and have loved hearing about his dad and all of the great memories they have together. I also like his jokes even though sometimes they really aren’t that good (sorry buddy). Big shout-out to Zane’s mom & aunt, who I know give him a lot of strength on hard days.

Stay tuned for more rider info over the next couple of weeks! We are already leaving Idaho tomorrow and entering Washington state on the west coast. I am already sentimental about this team if you can’t tell!

Day 59: Superior, MT to Mullan, ID

(written in the Pacific Time Zone!!!!!!!)

Today’s ride was dedicated to Donna, who is the mother of Marie’s friend’s. Donna has a tumor in her throat, and this is her third time having cancer. At the current time, she has a lot of trouble with speaking due to her tumor, but has no trouble remaining positive for herself and her family and everyone around her. Such strength and positivity is what drives us every day to get through even the toughest days.

Today was about a 67 mile day that took a bit longer than expected! We began our day on normal roads, and then had planned on being on trails throughout the rest of the day. However, when we approached the trails it was evident that the trails were designed for mountain bikes, which would not be the best for our road bikes! Mountain bikes typically have larger and heavier tires that allow a person to go over rocks without skidding or losing control, and allows you to climb and go down rocky roads like this trail was. Our road bikes are, as named, mostly meant for paved roads due to their smaller tires that are kept at a higher tire pressure (say that five times fast). SO, we had a little reroute onto interstate 90, which we have rode on in several states now because a lot of states out west allow bikes on their interstates. Despite detours, we made it into Idaho and the Pacific Time Zone, therefore gaining an hour!

Tonight we are lucky to be at the Mullan Athletic Pavilion, where we have been able to make ourselves at home and take warm showers. At this point, we are undoubtedly the cleanest team in Illini 4000 history. A combination of luck and determination has allowed us to find showers in well over 85% of the places we have been thus far. The athletic pavilion also has basketball and volleyball which we have been playing all night, having a really great time.

Today’s shout-out goes to Mike, who was awesome in the van today. The reroutes were pretty stressful because we were in a part of the mountains that did not receive service, but Mike thought through every possibility and made sure that all of the teams were safe and together and knew the plan. We know he is not excited that his bike is broken and he is in the van, but he is a trooper anyway and always positive, supportive, and great to be around.

Day 57 & 58: Missoula, MT to Superior*, MT

Our rest day in Missoula was so much fun!!!! We started our day off touring the Adventure Cycling facilities. Adventure Cycling is a non for profit organization that leads groups of cyclists all around America throughout the year. We even derived our early Illini 4000 routes from their organization because the routes are very safe and cycling friendly. It was awesome to see some old bicycles around the room and read stories of cross country cyclists that came before us. After that, we split off and some group members went white water rafting, while others decided to take a more restful approach to the rest day and hang out at coffee shops, diners, and other local establishments. At the end of the day we all came together for a free meal at Five on Black (think, a Chipotle style restaurant but for Brazilian food!) and then had some ice cream before calling isna successful day off.

This morning we dedicated our ride to Viraat’s neighbor Tony Spicer. Tony is currently battling cancer, and we kept him and his family in mind throughout our ride today.

Our ride today was an easy 57 miles, except for it wasn’t that easy because we managed to get ourselves into some adventures today! There are times as I’m sure you know where Google maps leads you astray and you end up where maybe you shouldn’t be. Today, we were on a gravel road that eventually ended and lead to someone’s private property. After some impromptu hiking with our bikes, bridge climbing, and a lot of hard pedaling on gravel, we made it into Superior Montana (our website says Riverbend – this is the town just up the road!) with a lot of time to relax.

Our stayover this evening is the amazing air-conditioned Superior Community Church, complete with warm showers and a delicious home cooked meal. We are thankful to be here during our last night in Montana!

A huge shout-out for Marc and his family for sending us food on our rest day! We ate a lot of it today and it kept spirits high

(also shout-out to my own family for the snacks and words of encouragement, I love you!)

Day 56: Drummond, MT to Missoula, MT

Today’s ride was dedicated to Jodi’s brother-in-law Kelly Flynn, who has renal cancer. Jodi is the amazing librarian in Drummond who invited us into the library to present about our organization and she and her husband provided us with refreshments. We were thankful to meet her and honored to dedicate the ride to her brother-in-law.

Our ride today was beautiful once again through Montana into Missoula. The first 20 miles were very eventful. Our route on the frontage road next to I-90 was partially closed due to a landslide from the neighboring mountain! Luckily because we are on bikes, we were able to navigate around the rocks and did not have to change our route (our route had already been changed by the amazing Nathan who cut our day down from 90 miles to 55 miles!!!) and were able to continue on. Along the way we also found a “hot springs” which could probably be renamed to warm/cold springs. They were absolutely beautiful and we enjoyed a little morning swim before getting on the bikes to finish the rest of the ride.

The rider shout-out for today goes to Maria for being incredibly helpful in the van! She is off the bike for a little bit due to doctor’s orders but continues to be an amazing part of the team and always a smiling and kind face to see at each rest stop. She helps have snacks ready and fills water bottles and is all around an amazing and supportive teammate!

We are staying at the Grace United Methodist Church for the next 2 days and are thankful for their in-house showers and the food they have provided us. We are thrilled to be in Missoula and have a rest day tomorrow! Our last rest day was spent camping in the Tetons, which was beautiful and a ton of fun, but being inside and being able to sleep in past sunrise will truly feel so restful and is necessary as we set out to complete our last 20 days of this adventure.

Day 55: Butte, MT to Drummond, MT

Today’s ride was dedicated to Marie’s neighbor Tasha. Tasha has had several experiences with cancer, including her husband passing away after a battle with cancer, and having a current diagnosis of her own. Tasha has a young son that she is raising while fighting cancer and while staying positive throughout her experiences. We were honored to ride in memory of her husband and with her current battle in mind.

Today was an 80 mile day into Drummond Montana. Montana reminds us a little more of the Midwest in terms of having a bunch of little towns along our route, and we were excited to get to stop at some gas stations and stores for our rest stops compared to the side of the road stops we have done lately. We got to do a beautiful climb and descent up and down a mountain (easier said than done but everyone killed it as always!) and we arrived at our stayover at a decent time today.

Our stayover today is Drummond High School. They have graciously provided us a place to sleep, showers, and food!!!! We ate soup, bread, chili, salad, and cookies. After dinner, we went to an event at the local library where we got to present about our mission to community members! They were amazing and engaged and had a lot of questions that we had fun answering. Then we went to a little bonfire with smores and games. Such an awesome night where we feel right at home!

Today’s shout-out goes to Zihao. Zihao’s chore involves inventorying our cooler every evening and night to make sure that our food stays good and we always know what we have. He and his chore partner Anisha had a brilliant idea to save the ice/make our own ice every night where a freezer is available to make sure that we don’t ever have to buy ice from a gas station. It seems like a little thing, but buying a bag of ice each day really adds up over 78 days. Zihao is also constantly positive and makes everybody laugh, which is so valuable on some of these tough days out west.

Day 54: Bozeman, MT to Butte, MT

Yesterday while at a rest stop, we had the chance to talk to a lot of community members and share our mission with them. We heard many stories of those affected by cancer, and today we dedicated our ride to two of those individuals: Robert Martes who has battled bladder cancer and Julie Caldwell who has battled lung cancer.

Today’s ride was 97 miles, so almost a century! We made great time as we biked through the beautiful mountainous roads of Montana and got to have lunch at the Lewis & Clark State Park. The end of the ride had a steep 12 mile, 2,000 foot climb and then a beautiful descent into Butte, where we are lucky to stay tonight.

We are so thankful to be staying at the Abundant Life Fellowship this evening. They have so much room for us and in-house, warm showers, which are extra nice after such a long ride today. We are also thankful to be getting food this evening in the form of pizza, sandwiches, and food from the Montana Rib & Chop House. Our team has done an awesome job with calling pretty much every food establishment in every town we have gotten to stay in and have been successful almost every day finding generous restaurants that donate food to us.

Today’s shout-out definitely goes to Viraat. He has really lead the charge to call all of these restaurants in his down time. It makes a huge difference in team morale to have local food, so we are thankful for Viraat and all of his work!

Day 53: Gardiner, MT to Bozeman, MT

Today’s ride was dedicated to Mike’s neighbor, Mr. Guthrie. Mr. Guthrie is currently battling against his cancer diagnosis, and we kept him and his loved ones in our thoughts as we biked today.

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, we didn’t ride the whole 80 miles today – instead we ended up doing some shuttling with our support vehicle and also got to eat a bunch of delicious donated food! We had homemade pizza, delicious burgers, sushi, and olive garden all donated to us by some really amazing people. Everybody is going to bed full and rested and ready for tomorrow!

We are staying at the Bozeman United Methodist Church this evening and are thankful for their numerous couches and in house (and warm!) showers! Montana is treating us really well so far and we are so thankful.

The shout-out today goes to Jonathan. Jonathan is an extremely safe rider who is amazing at communicating with cars to make sure that both the cars and the bikers are safe. Today he had a teammate take a spill and he took quick action to make sure the situation was safe and everyone was okay. He is a great and caring teammate that we are lucky to have around.

Day 52: Yellowstone National Park, WY to Gardiner*, MT

You might notice that our city has changed from the original Big Sky location. No big deal, we just had to change our plans because we were able to more easily secure a stayover in Gardiner.

Today’s ride was dedicated to Gerald W. Connor. One of the teams met Gerald’s family while biking up to the Tetons. They had just discovered that he had passed away from lung cancer, and were setting out a memorial at an overlook in his honor. They thought it was fate to run into us, and we know it was fate that we ran into them. We were honored to get to ride for Gerald and his family as we biked further into Wyoming.

Because our stayover location changed, we got to go back into Yellowstone National Park to bike today! We got to see even more bison and elk. You might be both happy and sad to know that we never did see any full grown bears on our trip (so far, anyway). We also got to see the Mammoth Hot Springs in all of its glory. It is funny that something that seems like a mess up like a location change actually turned into a great day getting to explore more of this great National Park. There were some pretty unforgettable downhills today that were really fun to experience.

Tonight we are staying at Gardiner High School. So thankful to be indoors after several days of camping! We are also incredibly thankful to the local Subway that let us come in and order anything we wanted for free. It was so fun to get to make our own sandwiches and get cookies and chips and a drink! We are also thankful for the local laundromat that put up with all of us washing our smelly camping clothes in their awesome facility.

Today’s shout-out goes to Steven. Today we had a rider take a spill on the road and get a little road rash (Google at your own risk). Steven quickly stepped up and got out the first aid kit to clean out the cuts and patch our rider up. He is really excellent in stressful situations and we are thankful to have him as one of our ride leaders.

Day 50 & 51: Grand Teton National Park, WY to Yellowstone National Park, WY

Our rest day in the Tetons was amazing! We got to sleep in and relax in the morning and then go to Colter Bay for a few hours of hiking and exploring the Tetons. It was nice to have a break after our longest period of not having a rest day so far on this trip (11 whole days!). In the evening we cooked over a fire and had baked potatoes, beans, hot dogs, and s’mores. We got to see a fox run through our tent and some other wildlife around. Still no bears at our campsite though, no worries :)

The next morning we woke up at 4:45 and packed up the tents we had been living in for the past couple of days. We dedicated our ride this day to Nirmala Ram, Viraat’s great aunt who passed from breast cancer a few years ago. She was deeply loved by her entire family, and she also enjoyed visiting Yellowstone, which was our destination for the day’s ride.

Yellowstone was incredibly unique and we are so fortunate to have been able to ride through it. We got to have lunch at Old Faithful and see it erupt two times! Then, we got to see the Grand Prismatic Spring which everyone agrees was the highlight of the day. I am not a biology major but the way I understand the colorful hot springs at Yellowstone is that there are certain microscopic organisms that can survive at the extreme temperatures that exist in the springs. Those organisms in the Prismatic springs happen to be super colorful and amazing to observe! We had a great time pulling over every few miles to really get to experience the park.

We camped out again at Yellowstone after quite a long day. It rained on us overnight, but that little bit of bad luck was counteracted big time by the 2014 Illini 4000 team who sent us a care package filled with AMAZING SNACKS that we haven’t had in so long. A huge thank you to Ellen who brought us popsicles along our ride and delivered the snacks to us in person. We seem to always see a refreshing face and get good food when we really need it the most.

NATHAN GETS SHOUTOUT OF THE YEAR for having the forethought to buy waterproofing stuff for our tents. We sprayed our tents the first night camping at the Grand Tetons and needed it desperately for the next couple of nights. Our team operates on a very small budget so our tents aren’t the top-of-the-line type, but having them be more waterproof saved us and our stuff from getting soaking wet when it definitely would have without his forward thinking.

Day 49: Dubois, WY to Grand Teton National Park, WY

Today we rode for Jack Sattler. Jack is Mike’s good friend who fought and won against his diagnosis with Leukemia. We thought of him every time we saw a bear (which was only twice and we were very far away, so don’t worry!). We find every story powerful and are thankful for stories like Jack’s that have a positive outcome.

To start the day riding into the Tetons we had to prepare with some grocery shopping for the next several days. You’ve probably noticed that we have been MIA on social media and that’s because we’ve had an amazing few days camping out in the Tetons and Yellowstone. To prepare, we had to figure out how much good we would need for the next several days. We bought the store out of wheat bread, got some hot dogs and s’mores, and headed up the mountain! It was a stunning ride first up a mountain for 30 miles straight, then a lunch stop at a beautiful mountain top lake, a fast descent down the mountain, then entrance into the National Park.

Seeing the Tetons was amazing. All day we kept wondering if we had seen them, if this mountain was part of the Tetons, etc., but when we finally saw them, we instantly knew. We got to our campsite not long later to set up our tents for the next couple of days. We had some team sandwiches and got to hang out with each other because we knew we could sleep in the next day!

The rider shout-out for today goes to Erin. Erin helped big time with all of the shopping we had to do to make sure that everyone was full and happy. She is always very level-headed and a person that you want on your team both on and off of the bike.

Day 48: Riverton, WY to Dubois, WY

We are back in the land of service for good for a while! Prepare for several days worth of adventures coming your way :)

Today’s ride was dedicated to Mary. We met Mary when we were making calls to businesses about donating food to our team and/or asking for a place for our team to shower. When we told her about our mission, she told us that she is a two time breast cancer survivor, and also survived a brain tumor. We ended up doing a Portrait with her and found that she was unbelievably positive about her situation and had an amazing vigor for life. It was an amazing portrait, and everyone was talking about it all day on the ride and even afterward.

The ride was a little bit long for one of our groups today! We had a fairly flat roads with not too many troubles, except there was definitely some debris in the shoulder that got in some of our tires. The first group to roll out in the morning made it to Dubois in time for free ice cream and the local Fourth of July parade. The last group arrived several hours later, but their spirits could not have been higher!

We were so lucky to have a place to watch fireworks tonight on the fourth of July! HUGE thanks to Ian and Cindie for hosting us not only for the local fireworks show, but also for a delicious grilled meal of burgers, hot dogs, salads, fruits, beans, cake, soda, and literally anything and everything we could have asked for. I know that quite a few of us feel homesick at times, especially on days like today that are usually spent with friends and family. We all felt so at home and are so thankful for the wonderful evening.

We were also lucky to be staying at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church who were very accommodating to us! It is becoming more and more common to run into cross country cyclists (I guess there are more crazy [in a good way] people in the world than I thought) so communities are often not shocked when we tell them what we are doing, and have lots of pasta and non perishables ready for us to take along our journey.

Today Viraat gets a huge shout-out. He was a part of the team that kept getting flat tires and had a really long day today. Funnily enough, he was the only one in his group to not get a flat. While that deserves a shout-out on its own, the really awesome thing was that he was smiling and supporting his teammates all day and helped turn what could have been a pretty disheartening situation into a really great day. He and his group were positive and resilient and we are thankful for that!

Day 47: Thermopolis, WY to Riverton, WY

Today’s ride was dedicated to a few people. First, we dedicated the ride to Steve Dykes who battled brain cancer, Martha and Joseph Vinton who battled skin and lung respectively, Leota Hardy who battled lung cancer, and Rick Hardy who also battled lung cancer. Yesterday we were interviewed by a very kind local for the newspaper and he shared the stories of these individuals. We kept them in mind as we rode today.

The ride was also dedicated to Ally Cramer. Ally is an incredibly strong young woman whom my aunt is very close to. Ally is only 20 years old and was diagnosed with a brain tumor last September. Since then, she has had 2 surgeries, 6 weeks of radiation, and just finished her 5th round of chemo. She seems to be doing very well which we are thankful for. The team also rode with her strength and determination in mind today.

Today started off with an absolutely beautiful 20 mile ride through a valley in the mountains right alongside a river. It was truly an experience that I am so thankful to have gotten, and one that we will never forget. It was hard to top that view for the rest of the ride, but the day went really quickly as we only had 55 total miles today. This meant that we were able to get to the stayover and relax, shower, and nap!!! Everybody has been pretty tired after our camping evening, so it was great to have a lot of time for a mid-day sleep.

The stayover this evening is at the Riverton Branch Library! They have a beautiful library that we were able to access during their open hours, as well as a kitchenette we are able to use and a whole room to ourselves to sleep in. It’s pretty fun switching it up and being in a library! We also want to give HUGE shout-outs to some local restaurants that provided us food this evening. First we were able to get coffee or smoothies from the Roasted Bean & Cuisine which was amazing and refreshing. Then, we all went to the Claimsteak Restaurant and could pick a meal to eat for free, which filled us all up. We also got a sandwich donation from the Trailhead Restaurant that includes a salad, cookie, and chips which we will get to eat tomorrow. We always feel so lucky to find these food places that are so generous to us. Not only do they give us food, but they are always so kind and caring and interested in our cause.

Today’s shout-out goes to Anisha, who is a real trooper and is always positive. Today Anisha got 2 flats back-to-back, but still showed up to the stayover with a smile on her face. She is always a lot of fun to spend time with, and is getting really good at changing a flat tire now because she has had to many lately.

Day 46: Meadowlark Lake, WY to Thermopolis, WY

The ride into Thermopolis was dedicated to Marie’s Aunt Terri. Terri was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was given 6 months to live with that diagnosis. She did not undergo chemo because she was currently pregnant with Marie’s cousin, but she still fought hard and lived 5 years beyond her diagnosis. We rode with her and her family in mind as we descended the mountain and completed our 78 mile day.

We started off our day with the most beautiful sight of the trip yet: a 20 mile descent down the Bighorn mountains. The views were indescribable! Several riders beat their personal speed record when it was safe to do so, and everyone was safe and followed the speed limit. We biked the rest of the way to the stayover past some rolling hills and natural hot springs.

Our stayover last night was at the Community Federated Methodist church in Thermopolis. They allowed us to stay in their community hall which had a ton of room for us to eat and sleep! Before dinner, we were able to go to a natural hot spring mineral bath just outside of town. It was super warm and relaxing and definitely good for our muscles after these past few days climbing mountains. We also got to shower at that facility, so we came back to the stayover clean and relaxed. For dinner we had a variety of different foods: McDonald’s gave us a $50 gift card, Pizza Hut gave us free pizzas, and Taco John’s gave each team member 2 tacos. You could say that it was not the most healthy dinner one could eat. You could also say that we were most definitely feeling that food in our stomachs even when we woke up this morning. However, it was free, and allowed us to not buy any food with Illini 4000’s money, so it was still a win in our books!

The rider shout-out from this day goes to our very own Kirby! Kirby had an absolute blast going down the mountain. He had some previous biking experience and is very comfortable on the bike, and really enjoys when he is able to gain some speed! He is a very consistent rider and we are happy to have him on our team. We also passed through a town called Kirby which was super fun!

Day 45: Buffalo, WY to Meadowlark Lake, WY

We have returned to the land of cell phone service! The past few days have been amazing and full of beautiful scenery and amazing feats.

Sunday’s ride was dedicated to John Perkins who battled lung cancer, and Charlene Perkins, who battled brain cancer. In their honor the team started off our day doing Handstands for Mom for the Andrea Lynn Cancer Foundation. They weren’t the best handstands in the world, but it was for a good cause!

The ride was quite a challenge: we literally climbed a whole entire mountain with well over a mile of only uphills. Usually we go about 10-14 MPH, but up the hills we were going 4-8 MPH. This made for a slower moving day, but spirits were high the entire time and the mountain was conquered! We did have to adjust to the altitude quite a bit because we are not used to the air, which was a lot thinner at 8,000 feet than it is back home where we trained and in every state we have been riding in so far. We also had to load up with bug spray to avoid the mosquitoes!

After climbing the mountain we set up our tents at our campsite, just in time too because then we got hit with a little rainstorm. Thankfully all of the tents were up in time and everyone’s stuff stayed dry. We got to walk around the lake and hangout together at our campsite all evening and had a picnic dinner of deli meat sandwiches and salad. It was a cold night in the tent but a really fun experience with beautiful sights! You may have heard about the “mini-bears” through our Facebook page and how we had some at our campsite. Don’t worry: mini-bears is just our name for squirrels!

The rider shout-out from Sunday definitely goes to Cari! Cari was in a group that ended up getting caught in a hailstorm during a pretty long downhill coming into the campground. After climbing the hills like a champ, she also descended in the hail like a champ. She also got our dinner ready and portioned it out so everyone had a fair amount, which is always very important to the team dynamic!

Day 44: Gillette, WY to Buffalo, WY

Today’s ride was dedicated to several individuals that we have heard about along our journey throughout Wyoming. Marc on our team is a very social individual who always takes the time to ask those we meet about their story. He shared with us the stories of Glenn Siron, who battled intestinal cancer, Barbara Siron, who battled lung cancer, Clara Bell McElley who battled pancreatic cancer, and O.F. Wallenburg, Margaret Trueax, C Henry Trueax, and Donald Trueax.

I know that is a lot of names and it can be hard to find meaning in just a name, but these are people in our world fighting each and every day, and we are honored to bike in dedication to them and their bravery and strength to wake up in the morning and keep fighting.

Today was another lovely day on the bike: 70 miles on one road almost the whole day! After our lunch stop we hit the road and saw our first glimpse of the MOUNTAINS! We can’t wait to conquer them soon. It was another overcast day – so far we have gotten extremely lucky with the weather and seem to be beating the heat. It must be all of the good thoughts that our loved ones are sending us along our journey :)

We are lucky tonight to be staying at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Buffalo. Groups have stayed here many times in the past, and they were ready to welcome us back with open arms. They put in a lot of work to arrange showers for us at a nearby motel complete with a swimming pool! The advantage of waking up early (besides beating the heat) is that we have so much time to hang out at our stayovers and have fun together! After we swam and got showers, we ate a delicious homemade meal (complete with AMAZING cookies and ice cream) and then got to relax. We are turning in early to get our energy up for a day of mountain climbing tomorrow and an evening of camping afterward.

I’m going to cheat a little bit and shout-out my whole entire team! Lately we have been waking up super early but have been rolling out on time and flying through days that would have been impossible to do merely a month ago. Today was not easy by any means, but everyone has become so safe and strong that it looked like a breeze out there and was a really fun day. I am excited to be going through this ride with them and am also getting a little sad that tomorrow is already July, and our time together is going to be over sooner than I would like!