3835 miles
47 days
242 total hours spent on the bike
flat count: 68
max speed: 60.3mph (set by Oliver)
$100,000 fundraising goal: shattered. (Currently at $130,067)

All for our veterans:
www.ride2recovery.com 

Today was absolutely incredible. The feeling of sprinting across the beach to the Atlantic ocean in victorious conclusion of almost 4000 miles was stronger than any victorious feeling I have ever had. Ride 2 Recovery, and Gus's bike shop organized an honor ride from St. Paul's to Rye Beach this morning. Riding with over 30 people as a cyclists army through the roads in New Hampshire to the coast was so powerful. 

When we got within 5 miles of the coast the flock took the lead and pushed with way too much excitement to the coast. As soon as we saw the sandy beach we took off sprinting to dip our front tires into the beautiful Atlantic ocean. We officially did it! We connected our country from West coast to East coast by bicycle fundraising the whole darn way. 

We owe so many wonderful people a HUGE thank you. The support we have received  from our parents and family is way beyond what we could ever expect. Not to mention the wonderful communities that have hosted us along the way - every meal and every interaction we have had has had a incredible impact on each one of us and this was an experience we will never EVER forget. 

xoxo,
JT

We woke up in the "man cave" at King Blossom farm with not very much sleep and had a yummy breakfast courtesy of Jeff and "Cooker Karen". Patches, Beatriz, and John Wordin from Ride 2 Recovery showed up to ride the last two days with us. Patches helped us get started way back in Anacortes so it was good to see him again. We had a short 50  mile ride from Grantham, NH to SPS. Riding with the flock today was Sam Wiit (Jacob's brother), Kristin Van Everen (Oliver's sister), Karen (team mom), and the 3 R2R representatives. It was fun riding with a bigger group. We left around 8 and ended up moving a little bit faster than we had planned so by our water break halfway through we realized we needed to kill quite  a bit of time before SPS was expecting us. No problemo - we went full speed ahead to Dos Amigos, our favorite Mexican restaurant in Concord.  Shout out to the Dos staff for dealing with the unexpected large crowd of large appetites. After scarfing down burritos, tacos, quesadillas, etc. we rode up to SPS for quite an exciting greeting! As we got closer and closer to campus, we got more and more excited and were singing and cheering louder and louder. Coasting down rectory road to a group of cheering faculty & staff felt so darn good. My personal final destination for the trip was truly SPS so I kept forgetting that we actually had 60 more miles to go until we truly finished the coast to coast ride. 
SPS greeted us with ice cream Sundae's and a flurry of reporters. We said hi, hello, whatsup and then went full speed ahead to the docks to jump in and enjoy our very own Turkey Pond. 

At 6 Ms. Chicoine, vice rector, hosted us for a killer BBQ at the rectory. Thank you Adam for some of the best food yet. John Wordin, founder of Ride 2 Recovery presented the flock with a R2R jersey signed by many of the R2R warriors. It's really neat. 

After dinner we explored the chapel and then went to Chucksters to satisfy our go karting needs. It's bittersweet hanging with the flock for the last night. I'm definitely going to miss the shenanigans with this crew. Tomorrow is a big day - the final push to the Atlantic Ocean! We're riding with quite the army of cyclists.. crazy exciting!

xoxo,
JT

About 50 days ago in a series of interviews we were consistently asked the question; “What do you think the hardest part of the trip will be?”. Without hesitation I always answered “Day 2, the elevation profile tells me that day 2 will be the hardest.”. My hypothesis was correct for the entire trip all the way until today. I don’t know how or why, but somehow today unexpectedly turned into a BRUTAL day. Brutal in the best way possible, though. This morning we grabbed a great bakery breakfast at Otter Creek Bakery in Middlebury, VT. Working behind the counter was an SPS grad of 2010 who recognized us as the SPS cyclists right away! It was crazy to run into someone familiar with the school and who we were. The breakfast panini’s and blueberry scones were on point as well. 

The day of riding began with an absolute BANG up and over the Middleburg gap. We kind of forgot what a true climb feels like. The 10 mile climb was a quick reminder. Actually climbing the pass wasn’t all that bad, but the 70 miles afterwards were a challenge. The flat parts through and around the green mountains were absolutely beautiful (although a bit of a nostalgic trip to day 3 in the Cascades), but then all of a sudden the flat parts weren’t so flat anymore. 

At lunch we all sat down absolutely wiped, but also with a weird tingle of excitement running through our veins as we ate on the New Hampshire border! Finally in New Hampshire… unreal. We didn’t actually have an official route from our lunch stop to Grantham, NH so we pulled out google maps and a few other resources to start brainstorming. We quickly realized that there like wasn’t technically a way to get to Grantham, NH without taking interstate’s or dirt roads. Our 18 miles remaining quickly turned into 25 miles remaining with a hefty elevation factor. As the Buddhists of the flock would say, we’re over it. Right before the base of our first climb we caught up with a guy from New Hampshire named Robin. He does a ton of cycling including a bit of local racing. He didn’t have  a set-in-stone plan for his afternoon ride so he joined us for the climb. He raised his eye brows when he heard that we were approaching Methodist Hill. Yeah, that scared us…. for a good reason. Methodist hill was absolutely savage. 1.2 mile climb with segments of 17-18% grade. I think we all climbed in disbelief that our legs were actually still pushing up this hill. We got to the top and all reached a state of runners high like euphoria. It was awesome. Drenched in sweat and exhaustion we pushed on for the remaining 14 miles. Incredible descent (55mph!!!), an incredible overgrown bike path following the interstate, and an exciting sign with the actual Concord, NH on it. All was great and happy (and tired) until we reached the base of yet another hill with an absurd grade. With 1.6 miles remaining we looked up at a hill that was probably 1.4 of the 1.6 miles remaining. We laughed. a lot. and then absolutely powered through up to the beautiful King Blossom Farm, our lodging for the night. We were greeted by the most hospitable people ever along with the local fire department and some cycling/veteran friends and neighbors. a great crowd of great people. Great showers, great food, great night. Thank you King Blossom Farm!!

These kinds of days are the absolute best and they really are what makes this trip memorable. I love that we have the ability to end a very hard day (totally unexpected) with laughter and genuine smiles. I can not believe that we are in the state of New Hampshire this close to our final destination!!! Tomorrow we meet up with some people from all sorts of different connections to ride with us into SPS and then the next day is the final 60 mile push to the real East Coast! We’re so darn close!!!

xoxo,
JT 

Flat count: 50

The past three days through/across Ontario, Canada have been an enjoyable change of pace due to lower mileages each day. We’ve been able to leave later in the morning and get in earlier in the evening - everything is finally winding down…crazy!!

We’ve missed a few days of blog posts, so here are some high lights to catch up:
Oliver - yesterday we had a short enough ride to get into Canadian Niagra early enough for lunch and then do the whole tourist experience viewing the falls. We got to go on the big boat (along with 600 other humans…) to/around the base of the falls. It was the full experience with pink ponchos to block the drenching mist from the natural wonder! 
Jacob - We have discovered that we all have a new passion. This passion is unlike biking due to the presence of an engine. We are now Go karting maniacs. In just this past week we have managed to find 3 different go karting places on three separate occasions. It’s so much fun.
Webster - Last night for dinner we went to Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville in downtown Niagra. Classy, to say the least. Webster’s favorite part was the lovely blonde waitress on stilts making him a shark fin balloon hat. 
Jamie - Things are a little different here on the Canadian side of things… as we got nearer and nearer the busier part of things on the main drag of Niagra we kept passing more and more places advertising “massage” or “massage XXX” or “girls girls girls”. There are SO many of these dark windowed establishments. Sketchyyyyy.
Gabby - Coming into Dunnville, Ontario we picked up the most absurd tail wind for the last 30 miles. After our last rest stop Gabby and I took up the lead slowly pushing the pace to 25ish mph. After not too long I switched out hoping to catch the draft for a bit to hold the high pace. Gabby took it upon herself to lead all the way to our destination - it was amazing! Not only did “G star” lead the pack for the full 30 miles, but she, without fail, held the pace above 20mph. It was such a haul! Segments like this make me step back and consider how far we have come in terms of pace line strategy and just overall biking skill. Back in week 1 across Washington it was very apparent that we all had a lot of bases for improvement to cover. Now, every single one of us effortlessly changes our grip frequently, has good form for the most part, and we manage to efficiently put pace line strategies to use. 

xoxo,
JT

Yesterday day afternoon Sandy & Dave, dedicated Ride2Recovery volunteers, met up with us in Frankenmuth, MI. These two are from Michigan and pretty much pour their life into volunteering for and supporting Ride 2 Recovery. Sandy & Dave have met up and hung out with the last 3 SPS Cyclists groups. We loved meeting them & enjoyed the homemade "party mix" perfectly sized for our jersey pockets. Thanks for making it out, guys!

We woke up this morning to find pouring rain and no sign of it passing until 9 or 10 am. In the words of Oliver Van Everen: "C'mon, maaaaan!". We packed into the van to make a quick breakfast run to Mcdonald's before we took off for the day. Breaking news: Mcdonald's parfaits aren't exactly gourmet or top of the line. After about 2 hours of riding the rain decided to stop, but it stayed cloudy and quite humid for quite some time. By the afternoon the world got sick of holding us under clouds and decided to clear up and hit 90+ degrees. Quite the day, temperature wise. 

Courtesy of Linda Wells, we continue to be treated to the most gourmet snack stops and lunches. She took it upon herself to bring a fancy variety of cheeses and herbs with her and, oh boy, we are enjoying! 

When we rolled into Marine City we had an extremely warm welcome to our lodging for the night; we're staying in an incredible apartment sitting above a super neat Titanic museum. Our hosts are the nicest people treating us with significant hospitality. We wish we had a rest day here! 

In other news... G continues to use over a gallon of SPF 900 sunscreen and still manage to get sunburnt THROUGH her jersey, our flat count hit 43 today, and we still throw more m&m's in attempt to catch them in our mouths than we actually eat. 

Long day tomorrow into CANADA!!!

xoxo,
JT 

33 days into the trip, we have become pretty efficient at finding fun being sore, tired, and sleep deprived. So after 7 days of waking up before 6 A.M. to ride 100+ miles, there was nothing going to stop us from having fun. That night in Ludington, MI when a Tornado Warning came flashing on TV at 8 P.M, that was definitely not going to stop us. So to have some fun, we all changed into running clothes and are swim suits and decided to race like complete morons down main street for 2 miles, cursing every time a boom of thunder roared from the sky above. Lets say the people working at House of Flavors were a little surprised to see 7 soaked teens running through the door, each asking for an X-Large cone with 4 scopes of ice cream. After finishing the ice cream in record time, we just decide to run around a tad more, singing of tone to Umbrella by Rhianna. Next time I will think of a Tornado Warning, I’ll always remember that little TWIST.
-Reid Noch

Hey everyone,

Since the beginning of this trip, I've been recording as much of the biking as possible with my GoPro. Sometimes it's difficult to capture everything I want, as the camera can only hold 45 minutes of video at a time and I have to also manage the battery. My goal each day is to try to take 45 minutes to an hour of video in hopes of making a highlight video when the whole trip is over. Every week or so I'll try to post some videos to keep everyone updated.

Hope you enjoy!

Jacob

There’s a tornado coming!! As someone who has never experienced a tornado or serious weather other than the classic Montana blizzard here and there, I am very excited! I’m also excited because this also means there is no chance we are risking disaster and sleeping outside. After I set up my luxurious camp for the night, Miles came out to fill us in with the weather news. We’re stoked because this means a night in a Super 8!! Three cheers for beds! 

The Rivers Edge Tubing & Camping of Leeman, Wisconsin graciously hosted us in the bar for pizza and salad after it had closed for the evening. After we had spent way too many quarters in the quarter pushing machine and made friends with the bartenders, we packed up the van and set off for the town of Shawano, WI for a spontaneous hotel stay. (They also have DQ) 

Tomorrow morning we plan on hitting the road around 5am and pushing pace for approximately 90 miles in order to catch the 2pm ferry across the great lakes. 

xoxo,
JT