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The day began on the scenic Luce Line rail trail, a tree-lined and paved bike path, offering a refreshing change from our usual rides along highway shoulders. However, within about 10 miles, we encountered a "trail closed" sign. Little did we know, this would happen to us three or four more times during our 80-mile, relatively flat journey into the Twin Cities. Navigating around closures and dealing with rough pavement caused by roots lifting the trails were the main challeng

Lakes, hog farms, soybeans, corn and finally some solid stands of trees. The ride went well after we delayed a bit first thing due to hard rain early in the morning. We rode through some small midwestern towns, had some late breakfast in Redwood Falls, rode though Beaver Falls and Buffalo Lake. Kind of a boring ride getting from point A to point B further east on the map. Team is tired but moving. We are all looking forward to our rest day on Friday after we complete one more

A very small town to start and a very small town to finish today. About 80 miles of the route done. Puts us at about 2,175 miles complete and about 1,850 miles left to Long Island. Over 90,000 feet climbed during our 30 days on the road and less than 30,000 feet to go! Less climbing usually means more distance each day as long as the wind and heat don’t get too intense! Every day has its challenges and surprises, good and bad. Today we started out with a flat tire on Jim’s bi

A day of riding east then a little north and then a little south and then a little east again. We are in the land of right angles. All roads in Eastern South Dakota are “sections” (1x1 miles grids of land). We followed the grid for 80 miles and definitely got a little warm. Climbing was reasonable at about 2,000 feet. Bit of a monotonous ride if it were not for meeting some very cool people. Brief breakfast sandwich at 20 miles in Iroquois. Ran into a retired group of guys wh

Today we hit 2000 mile mark on our coast to coast journey in support of The Seeing Eye and the guide dog puppies and are now just as close to the West Coast as we are to the East Coast! We stopped on a flat roadway at the 2,000 mile point of our journey. It was super hot, very humid and full sun but we celebrated by creating a makeshift sign on the pavement with tape and posed for a few pictures! All in all it was a good day in the saddle covering about 84 miles with about 2,

90 mile day! Biggest distance-day so far. Temperatures are rising (90 degrees at the end) as we get into the Midwest proper. The Missouri River is a cool milestone. We are close to the half way point! In fact tomorrow, we’ll hit 2,000 mile mark on our planned cross country route and as of today we are over 70% of the total climbing in the books! Tonight we’re in Chamberlain, SD for the Fourth. There is apparently a boat parade and fireworks around 10 pm. We’ll see if any of u

It been a long day, and I don't have much energy to write now. Overall, the ride went well, and we covered the distance we planned. The temperatures were pleasant, though the winds weren't in our favor, with some headwinds, particularly early on. The views in Badlands National Park were breathtaking, but this was only a short segment of the morning ride, with most of the ride on East / West Route 44—a road that was once a major highway and now serves as a service road for Int

We resumed our journey near Keystone from where we left off the previous day. The ride began with a smooth and rolling 20-mile stretch of highway into Rapid City. We descended more than we climbed as we moved away from the higher elevations of the western mountains and headed into the mid-west prairie lands. We made a quick stop at a Starbucks along the route before leaving Rapid City for the straight, relatively flat road leading to the day's highlight, the Badlands! Today,

We started relatively early from where we left off yesterday in Spearfish Canyon, climbing to a pass at about 6,500 feet where we joined the George Mickleson rail trail. Both Spearfish Canyon and the rail trail were fantastic experiences, especially riding on well-groomed dirt with a gentle grade of 3% or less, suitable for trains of old. We managed to cover about 32 miles on the rail trail before returning to the roads leading to the town of Keystone. Keystone is a tourist t

The journey from Hulett, Wyoming to Spearfish, South Dakota featured rolling hills and favorable tailwinds for most of the day. There were minimal services available for the initial 38 miles, with a gas station stop, followed by another 14 miles into Spearfish for lunch at Killian's, a cycling-themed restaurant. They claim mountain biking was invented here; I can't dispute it, though it seems convenient! In Spearfish, we also performed some bike maintenance at Two-Wheeler Dea

There are moments for riding and others for choosing a safe path. This morning, we returned to the spot 20 miles north of Gillette where we stopped last night, hoping the crosswinds we encountered at the end of the previous day would lessen early on. We set off and rode two miles in a 30 mph crosswind with 40 mph gusts, realizing it was unwise to continue as we were being pushed hard toward the road's center. We loaded the bikes onto the rack, skipped 18 miles of the route, a

Three weeks are now complete! During our three-week journey from the coast of Oregon to eastern Wyoming, we've ridden every day except one. We've covered 1,423 miles and climbed over 65,000 feet of hills and mountains! That's an average of 3,250 feet per day. I've been advised to avoid too many numbers in my blogging, but the engineer in me sometimes takes over! (I'm sometimes called Spreadsheet Jim, lol). Today's ride was essentially divided into two parts. The first half wa

Today was a big day for the Puppy Ride team. We had our biggest climbing session of the trip. It was pretty brutal, but what beautiful scenery we saw riding across the Bighorn Mountain range which we crossed in its entirety from west to east. The Bighorns are a national park like Yellowstone. Today's stage was just 64 miles—not our longest by any stretch—but with 6,700 feet of climbing, we put in a lot of effort and truly earned each mile! The majority of our day was focused

Last night the team drove 3 hours from the end of our ride yesterday to Billings and spent the night in an Airbnb. This morning, Jenny took off for the airport and Rick Chapman flew in a few hours later. We now have our new driver, Rick, for the next two weeks. This is our first full day off the bikes since June 8th. After 1,280 miles and something like 55,000 feet of climbing this “forced” rest day to change the support drivers was awesome! Today, we caught up on wash, reorg

The team camped last two nights in Cody. Last night we got some rain with thunder and lightening but slept well. We woke to clearing skies. Packed up camp and headed out for our 18th consecutive day of riding. Our ride today could be described as rolling desert terrain with a modest amount of ascent as we approached the town of Ten Sleep. We climbed about 2,000 feet over the 75 mile ride. Overall, it was a low key ride. Some headwind but nothing too challenging. (We are look

I said it’s a net down hill ride. I said it would feel like a recovery day. Only 1,700 feet of ascent, so after our epic Yellowstone ride the day before, this will be a piece of cake! Mother Nature said, “yea right” and threw us some serious headwinds and cross winds and some warm temperatures! Never say it’s easy until it’s over. lol! Wyoming east of Yellowstone all the way to Cody (about 50 miles) is stunning with canyon views as the Shoshone River works its way down to the

After two solid weeks of climbing through the Rockies with no rest days, the team decided to take a partial day off. On Monday (Day 15) we agreed to ride the short distance from where we left off on Sunday to the west entrance to Yellowstone. Not only did we need an easy day but we needed some time to plan our logistics over the next few weeks due to our trusty driver Kevin needing to head home for a while due to personal reasons. With Monday being a little less than 30 mil

Today was a grind. Weather was good although headwinds were a bear! (and for the record we got bear spray today since we are definitely heading for some wild territory). 75 miles with 3,600 feet of ascent. A lot of it came between Sheridan and Ennis in the first 30 miles. The remainder was a steady ascent up the valley toward Yellowstone where the winds ground us down all afternoon. Good thing for a good breakfast stop in Virginia city and some ice cream in Ennis after our

We had pleasant temperatures today with minimal headwind under overcast skies as we traveled from Jackson over two passes to get into Dillon, MT. We reached 7,400 ft on Big Hole Pass, our first ascent of the day, marking our highest point so far on the journey. After our two morning climbs, we enjoyed absolutely amazing downhill rides spanning over 5 miles each. The roads are in such great shape; the downhills were epic. Upon reaching Dillon, we had some lunch and then conti

The day began chilly in the 30s, as we are about a mile high in Montana, but it warmed up to the low 70s. This weather was perfect for our first 10 miles, which involved a steep but manageable 2,500 ft climb over the Lost Trail and Chief Joseph passes. We put in a lot of effort getting up and over the passes and then enjoyed some downhills and flat terrain - albeit with steady headwinds - from the mountain to about the 32-mile mark in Wisdom, Montana. We treated ourselves to