Wisdom

I know at first the title for this journal might appear deep and thoughtful, and that one might expect it to start out with something philosophical like, "What is Wisdom."  However in actuality it's quite plain, and the answer to that question is simply that it is the name of the town in Montana where we are staying.

Today was a great day filled with climbs, descents, and everything in between as we went over a mountain ridge into an area called the Big Hole.  This area is a large flat expanse surrounded by snow-capped mountains making for one of the most beautiful expanses of terrain we have seen so far.

Also, as we are now following the Adventure Cycling route, we are encountering more and more cross country cyclists along the way.  Today we met a guy from Indiana who is also biking to Seattle, and is supported by his wife and daughter in an RV that travels with him.  We also met two ladies who actually live in the area who were cycling the climbs for fun.  Turns out one of them actually contributes to a camp for youth undergoing cancer treatment called Camp Mak-a-Dream located outside of Missoula, Montana.  This camp is for youth under the age of 25 who currently have cancer, and allows kids undergoing treatment to still have the summer camp experience!  It sounds really cool, and if you'd like to learn more, check out there website at www.campdream.org.  Hopefully it will be close enough to Missoula that some of us can visit it on our rest day. 

One of the great things about this trip is that we get to see how cancer treatment and the cancer experience can vary depending on ones geographic location.  This camp seems like an amazing program, and I'm really glad were able to hear about it while passing through Montana.

On a slightly less serious note, (Although some would argue that it is the most serious of all notes ever in the entire universe)  Mustache Montana gained seven new supporters as a majority of the girls on the team used a dry erase marker to draw mustaches and facial hair of all shapes and sizes onto each other.  I wish I had pictures to share with the world, but take comfort in knowing that Mustache Montana is alive and well, and open to all genders.

MONTANA!

Today we traveled from west Yellowstone to Ennis Montana. The mornings here are a lot colder due to the altitude and a lot of us had to bundle up, but it quickly got warmer.  

We stopped for water at a location that once held a resort building.  However, due to an earthquake a while back it fell in to the river.  Overall, the ride was flat and we arrived quickly. We where supposed to stay at Ennis Elementary school, but was a mix-up where we were unable to get in contact with anyone there.  After a little bit of searching, a few of us stumbled upon a church where a lady was turning on the sprinklers outside.  We told her about our situation, and after a few brief phone calls we were all set up for the night!  Big thanks to everyone at the Assembly of God Church in Ennis. The time spent looking for a place to stay was put to good use in other ways as well, as a lot of us were able to get some good candy at the local pharmacy.

On a different note, today marks the beginning of mustache Montana.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with this phenomenon, it involves a few brave souls gathering together the courage to wear a mustache for the entire duration of Montana.  It’s not so much about the mustache, but rather the camaraderie that all mustachioed people feel.  So far three of us are participating in this event (Nick, Praveen, and Jay), but I imagine more will follow after they see the raw maturity and ruggedness emanating from our upper lips.

Yellowstone!!

Well, here we are in West Yellowstone about 2 or 3 miles outside of the park spending our first night in Montana!

Yellowstone was amazing.  We stayed at Bridge Water Campsite along the northern shore of Yellowstone Lake, and the view was absolutely spectacular.  Most of spent the off day exploring around the Yellowstone Canyon or hiking up Elephant Back Mountain, while others used the rest day for some much needed rest and relaxation.

Today we rode the remaining seventy miles or so out of the park stopping at the many points of interest along the way, the most famous of which being Old Faithful.

We stopped there for lunch and waited for the geyser to come alive!  While we were waiting, it was amazing to see how many people approached us and inquired about what we were doing.  Many of the people even mentioned going on line to support us and our cause.  It's really amazing that no matter where we go, people everywhere seem to welcome us with open arms and are so excited to support us in our efforts to fight cancer.  Often times, people want to help us out and connect with us as a result of their own personal experiences with cancer.  While at times it is overwhelming to see how many people's lives have been affected by cancer, it is truly inspiring to see people all over the country doing what they can and uniting to combat this common problem.

Growing Up

I will preface this post by stating that its purpose is to give you, the reader, a glimpse into the minds of a select group of I4K riders.  In this way, I think you will find it to be much different from other posts.  I must apologize for selecting such a narrow topic as it may not describe the experience of your son or daughter.  In any case, I think you may find it interesting because it reveals one of the major sub-currents running through some of our minds.  Yes, this ride is about raising funds and awareness for cancer research, but it is also an opportunity for us riders to reflect and think about the future.  For those of us who are recent (and unemployed) graduates, this statement couldn’t be more true.

Tomorrow we will reach Yellowstone National Park, yet another major milestone in this year’s ride.  Reaching this point after months of planning, training, and more recently, riding has forced me to think about life after Seattle. I am but one of six recent grads on this year’s Illini 4000 Bike America team.  While John and Praveen know where they will be after the ride ends, the rest of us are utterly lost.  Graduation and the transition to whatever is next, it seems, caught us off-guard. 

I don’t know if I can speak for my peers, but I will admit, at least, that I am afraid.  I am afraid of ending up back at home; I am afraid of slogging through a job that I hate purely for financial gain.  It is as if returning home somehow means that I have failed – four years of college and I’m back where I started.  What have I accomplished?  How can I feel grown-up if I am living at home?  I know that I am not the first college grad to be in this situation (and I'm certainly not the only one this year), but it still seems frightening.  Maybe I should have been a business major!

We, the recently graduated and unemployed, will get up tomorrow morning and press on. Through conversation, exploration, and thought, perhaps we will find our passion….

Only 25 more days.

JMS

**As I have already stated, we will be in Yellowstone National Park over the next two days.  As such, we may have limited or zero internet access and cellular reception.  We will post as soon as internet access becomes available.

1 more day to Yellowstone !!!

Today we had a short ride to Cody, WY.  It was not as scenic as yesterday, there was less greenery and more rock formations,   We had our lunch in Cody.  Andrew's mom's friend, Ms. Jane Pennick bought us DQ.  Andrew mentioned free DQ in today's Mosher (Motivational) speech -- it really motivated us during today's ride.  Many thanks to Ms. Pennick. Large size blizzards are awesome!

Cody is an interesting town. It is deeply influenced by old west cowboy culture.  Walking done Sheridan St, we saw so many cowboy customer stores, cowboy gift shops, rodeo shows, etc. It was also a cyclist friendly town. We felt like we had a lot of previliges in the town because we had a seprate lane.  When we walked around in the town, we saw a lot of cyclists / cycling fans who were very interested in us.

We are so ready for Yellowstone National Park!

The Mountains of Wyoming

The day started off a little cool in Dayton. We began our ride somewhere around 3900 ft and went straight into our climb only about 2 miles out of town. The next 16 miles was an almost continual climb up to the summit of Cutler Hill at 8300 ft. We saw some of the thickest forests that we've encountered in Wyoming while riding through the Big Horn National Forest. We had some great decents and there were fields of mountain flowers. The air temperature dropped below 60 as we followed the tops of the mountains. We even got to play in some snow at our lunch stop. It was shortly after this point that we saw one of the most beautiful sights that we have ever seen. An 18 mile descent down into a gorgeous river valley called Shell Creek. As we rode our way down the scenery changed. Looming red cliffs arose before us. Large waterfalls crashed along the side of the road. The temperature slowly rose to 80 degrees as we neared the end of our downhill experience. This ride has only made us more excited for the upcoming Rockies. Two days to Yellowstone. We can't wait.  

Dayton!

Today, we left Buffalo and head for Dayton, WY. Today's ride is good us usual. The ride was 60 mile and most of the road was downward slope. Scenery in Wyoming is still beautiful. We finished our ride about noon and we went to see creek. Some people jumped into the river though the water was terribly cold because of the snow-water. Tonight we are staying at Tongue River high school in front of Horsehoe Mountain which is about 9000 feet. We suppose to climb this mountain tomorrow. Team members are preparing for tomorrow's challenging ride! See you.

Tomorrow: Greybull (long climbing and down hill!)

Pay it Forward

Today we entered the heart of Wyoming. With the exception of the large stony hills that punctuate the horizon, the landscape here is very broad and very green.   It is hot here, very hot; too hot for towns and most 21st Century Americans.  It is a landscape fit for only prairie dogs, cattle, and the kind of people Theodore Roosevelt referred to when he talked about “rugged individualism” almost 100 years ago.  I suppose there would be Buffalo here too if we hadn’t slaughtered them about 150 years ago.

That said, I write not to tell you about the scenery, though it is quite stunning; rather, I write to tell you about a simple act of generosity I experienced earlier today.  On the way back from the Buffalo, WY IGA, Sandy, Xixi and I ran into two young men carrying several packages of flour tortillas. After learning that we were cycling across the country (the shirts are a dead giveaway) these two young men invited us over to a Mexican-style BBQ at a relative’s house!  In this way, the three of passed the next few hours eating, taking, and getting to know the friends and family of the relative, Tom Saur, a pastor at a local church.

I will never cease to be amazed by simple acts of kindness like this one.  Over the past 44 days strangers from all walks of life have opened up the private spheres of their life – their homes, places of worship, and community centers – to help our team.  In a time when it seems as though we – the 300 million people who make up this country- have grown and are continuing to grow further apart from one another and write-off strangers, it is moments like this one that give me hope. 

Wyoming

Wyoming is prettier than I had imagined. It honestly look like one of those pictures out of a magazine. The snow-covered mountains I saw today looked so surreal, almost felt like it was a back drop; it was absolutely breathtaking to be riding beneath something that you'd never see in Illinois.

Several things I've been thinking about:

-The hospitality and generosity of random strangers are amazing. Random people on the streets would invite us over for dinner.
- The overabundance in food and shelter provided by these people should spur us on to become models of generosity to others.
-Jon should never shave his beard.

Getting Buff in Buffalo, WY

As we departed our restful stay at the recreation center in Gilette, we headed toward our next destination: Buffalo, WY. The ride was stunningly breathtaking - peddling up a hill as it revealed a spectacular display of snow-covered mountains. A combination of rolling hills and grassy plains covered the terrain. Although it was a laid-back 70 mile day, the heat overwhelmed us all. A side trip to Mickey D's cooled us off, though. After a pizza/salad dinner, a large group ended their day with a trip to the cinema for "Wallie." A couple others were met with an extremely kind group of strangers who generously offered them food and a fiesta.

A big thank you to:
St. Luke's Episcopal Church for your hospitality and provided food.
Grace Fellowship Church for a spontaneous fiesta invitation.
Cinema across the street who gave us a disount for "Wallie."

Tomorrow, Dayton! (and showers!)

If anyone would like to send us mail/packages to Missoula, MT we will have a general delivery mail stop there on the 16th and the 17th. The mailing address is:

(Rider name)
General Delivery
200 E. Broadway
Missoula, MT 59802

Feeling Spirited

Happy Fourth of July!!

Due to the late hour (12 AM) I am going to keep this fairly short and sweet.

Two days ago we left Rapid Cities to head towards Mount Rushmore. As I felt alive with patriotic spirit, along with the enormous amounts of people waiting to get into the National Memorial for the fireworks, I felt it a great opportunity to show our Illini and American pride. Mount Rushmore, although was built up to be much more than it turned out to be, was a great stop on our trip to Wyoming. Meeting awesome U of I alumni, I realized that this world is truly small and that you can meet anyone anywhere at anytime.

Riding through the Black Hills, I also learned an important lesson in perserverance. Struggling, due to my lack of sleep (which is one reason why I am trying to keep this short), and not having rode through mountains or large hills recently (other than the Badlands), I had several problems. I realized that although I wanted to give up several times and just wanted to quit I had to push through to not only prove it to myself, but to prove that through perserverance and a goal in mind I can accomplish anything.

As the day ended in Newcastle, WY I was also fortunate to take part in our Portraits Project where we got to talk to Scott and Susan Wiggins who were both survivors of cancer. With Scott's advice ringing very clearly in my ear, which is to always stay positive and have a good attitude, I vowed to make the next day better.

As the Fourth started, we cruised through our ride to Gillette, WY and ended in an amazing recreation facility that let us use their equipment. After playing a hilarious game of basketball and some intense raquetball sessions, I was extremely exhausted. However, that would never stop me from going to see one of my favorite things, fireworks. As few of us rode to a park to see an upclose look at the fireworks they were correlated with great patriotic rock  music, which my day was complete. After a firecracker popsicle and a nice air conditioned area to sleep, there is nothing else I could ask for, except for a nice tailwind tomorrow.

Mail Stop in Missoula!

Hey! It's getting late and with the fast internet connection I've been focusing on catching up on uploading photos so I'll keep this short and call my sister with a longer update tomorrow but I just wanted to let everyone know that we are going to do a general delivery mail stop in Missoula, MT. How does this work?

If you would like to send the team or a specific rider something you may mail it to the post office in Missoula via general delivery.

thus if you were mailing me something you would mail it to...
Sandra Moxley
c/o General Delivery
200 E. Broadway
Missoula, MT 59802

*Note - you can replace my name with another riders name, just make sure the rider knows that you are sending them mail as the rider will need to be present with ID to pick it up.
Mom - the team loves MOXLEY cookies!!!

Check out the photo updates!

Badlands, Black Hills, and Wyoming!

Yesterday we officially ended our journey through the legendary state of South Dakota and ventured into Wyoming. It might be suprising but South Dakota actually turned out to be one of my favorite states so far. Other than the boring farm lands and crazy weather we had to endured for the first three days, our adventure through SD had been filled with beautiful prairie land, gigantic green mountains, and nice people. My favorite day so far turned out to be the day we rode through the Badlands national park. We rode through some beautiful eroded landscapes and crazy mountains with steep up and down hills. My second favorite day is the day we rode through the Black Hills going into Wyoming. I was told that the Black Hills was once the holy land to the Native Americans and I can tell why. The enormous mountains were covered with tall pine trees and rock formations. Although it wasn't easy to climb up and down mountains, the ride was very rewarding.

When we rode into Mt. Rushmore, the roads were covered with cars and peole everywhere trying to get to the camp ground on top for the firework that was going to happen that evening. We met another cyclinst from Switzerland who was biking from Boston to Seattle for the Lance Armstrong foundation by himself. I was suprised at how many Illinis we met once we got to Mt. Rushmore. People were interested in what our cause was and we gladly explained to anyone that was interested.

Wyoming definitely has the wild west feel to it. The landscape seems much drier and the weather is much hotter. Fortunately, we will be riding through some pretty flat lands for a few days until we hit Yellowstone.

i figured out how to put pictures up online

They're linked to my rider profile!  Just a few of them for now...

We're in Gilette, Wyoming right now, staying at the recreation center.  The city is having a fireworks display that we can view right from the roof...we are so lucky!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July from Gillette, Wyoming, the nation's largest exporter of coal!  We passed about 8 mile long trains full of coal on our ride in today.  Interesting.

I haven't updated in a while because of lack of internet access and time, but it's been a good couple of days, weeks, or however long it's been.  I tend to measure time in states or rest days, so it's been a good couple of states!  I expected most states to kind of blend together, but I've been amazed at how different each state is.  South Dakota was nice to bike through with pink roads, smallish hills, fields with cows grazing, and small towns.  Yesterday was one of my favorite days this summer as we rode through the Black Hills.  It was pretty challenging as the Black Hills seem almost like mountains to me, but it was beautiful.  We stopped at Mt. Rushmore which was fun to see and on our way out, my group saw some mountain goats very close to the road.  I had never seen mountain goats before and was surprised at how furry they are!  We also biked through a large area which a forest fire in 2000 had destroyed.  It was interesting to see the contrast between that barren, desolate area and the dense forest every else in the hills.  Another high point of our ride yesterday was meeting a few other bikers.  We met a guy from Switzerland who is biking by himself from Boston to San Francisco and two college students from Indiana biking from there to Seattle.  All three carried all of their gear on their bikes and made what we're doing seem easy.  The two from Indiana ended up spending the night with us at the church we stayed at so we shared stories with them.  Their approach is very different from ours as they don't plan their stayovers in advance at all.  They roll into a town and figure out where to spend the night once they're there, and they haven't spent any money on a stayover yet!    They also change their route as they please and don't have any deadlines for when to reach any destination. 

We crossed into Wyoming at the end of yesterday and today rode through very dry land with sagebrush everywhere.  It smelled delicious.  We had a tail wind today which made the ride fast and relaxing especially after yesterday's long day.  We're staying at a recreation center tonight equipped with everything we need; showers, laundry, and food!  Apparently it's dinner time now, so gotta go.

Hello from Wyoming

Wyoming is just beautiful ! We rode with dear family for a couple of minutes! To my regret I did not have my camera but it was just owesome. Also, today is the first July 4th in the United States for me. I do not know what is going on but I cannot wait fireworks tonight!!

See you!  @ Gillete.WY

The Best a Man Can Get...

Gillette, WY. Today was a stellar ride. We rolled out with a strong start, maintaining about 22 mph average into mile 14 of our total 80 miles. We ended up flying over the gentle grades through various railroad towns, and having lunch at mile 60. The wind changed directions for the post-lunch ride, and we slowed it down until we arrived in Gillette. We arrived to some oppressive heat, and cooled off with delicious ice cream from a vendor in the parking lot (they must have known we were coming).

The rec center we're staying at is awesome! We had full showers, and were able to enjoy some of the indoor sports offered, including basketball and soccer. To celebrate the fourth of July, we'll watch Gillette's firework show. Nick draped a flag over his bike for patriotism, and Nick, Praveen and I sang America the Beautiful at lunch. We had to provide the music, since the car battery had died from overuse without enough time to be fully re-charged. A kind man with a nice diesel truck jumped our car, and we were back in business. Unfortunately, we had to miss the Devil's Tower, one of the first National Monuments. The columnar joints look awesome in pictures. Check them out in Google images!

Until then, John

Independence Day Ride

We rode into Gillete, WY. Today's 75 mile was speedy and scenic ride. Moreover weather was fine. We met family  of dear and rode together for a couple of minutes! It will be a unforgettable memory. We are staying at Gillete Recreation Center. Surrounded by the great facilities we are having relaxing time. Also, half of the riders went horse race stadium to watch fireworks.  Fireworks shot off from the vast prairie was really beautiful. We really enjoyed each  Independence Day at Gillete.

Tomorrow we ride into Buffalo. We will see a lot of animals!

The Illini 4000 visits Mt. Rushmore!

After a restful stay at Rapid City we headed towards our 14th state, Wyoming. Though climbing through mountains is hard work, our reward came when we stopped at Mt. Rushmore National Monument for a team photo. Upon arriving we noticed an enormous number of cars lined up for the parking garage for an independence day celebration. However, the exhaustion of parking space caused traffic to back up on Hwy 16, ergo created congestion, ergo made it fun for us to pass by the cars that normally fly by us on the highway!

We pressed on, passing hill after hill and stopping at shady locations chosen by the driver to enjoy some impressive vistas. These stops definately made the day more enjoyable and this supremo van service lifted everyone's morale. We finally ended the day with pizza and breadsticks from Pizza hut, tacos from Taco John and hand-prepared fruit yogurt. A last big shoutout to First Baptist Church in Newcastle who not only sheltered us on first request but overflowingly supplied us with food for the next few days. Thank you!

Tomorrow we hit up Gillette for a spectacular 4th of July celebration! Pics and more tales will be coming to you shortly!

Rapid City Rest Day

Hey! After a 60 mile ride yesterday we are currently enjoying a rest day in Rapid City our final stop in South Dakota.

Yesterday's ride from Wall was rather short with the majority of our group reaching Bethlehem Lutheran Church by 1:30 pm. Upon arrival we made a quick dash to the Dairy Queen located right next door to the church (who ever planned this stay over knew the importance of ice cream!). The American Cancer Society here in Rapid City generously donated water, pickles, powerade mix and free kids size blizzards from Dairy Queen - which we all used on our trip to the DQ.

After unpacking the van Praveen, Matt and I headed out to look for dinner donations. After coming up short at the first few places we stopped we pulled into Domino's where the manager generously gave us 8 pizzas to feed our hungry teammates. Many people headed back to DQ after dinner to complete their daily dairy fix.

This morning Andrew, Jon, Nick and myself got up and made the team pancakes as a pre-breakfast. (One box of pancake mix doesn't go as far as it use to.) I then headed downtown with Fei, Xixi, Andrea, Takaya and Yiming where we completed our breakfast at a local diner. From there we headed to the bike shop as I needed to get my bike checked out after the chain fell off three times yesterday afternoon. Upon measuring my chain I was told that it measured beyond the "needs to be replaced" mark meaning that I needed to have my chain replaced. Thankfully they were able to do it quickly and hopefully this will mean the end of my skipping, falling off chain! After visiting the bike shop we headed to the library for awhile where I uploaded some photos and started this blog. (Note: 30 minutes goes by quickly thus why I'm back here at the library 5 hours later to finish bring you this update!) From the library I headed to the grocery store to buy some food for lunch and then went back to the church to install my new break pads and do a Portrait Project interview.

Mt. Rushmore, the Black Hills and Wyoming tomorrow!