Home Sweet Home

It’s been a week since the epic ride, but I’m still riding out the wave that this journey has created. From supportive Facebook messages from strangers to warm (and loud) congratulations from my school superintendent, I’ve broken something of a personal record in terms of backslaps and hearty commendations. I’m really glad to be home, and every day I wake up thankful that I get to wake up (at an ungodly hour, but still...) and go to school -- and it doesn’t even matter if there’s a 15 mph wind coming out of the northwest! My body is grateful as well -- but it’s either exacting vengeance for its trials and tribulations or preparing itself for further abuse because I’ve been eating everything that isn’t nailed down. Nothing can satisfy my hunger. It’s getting ridiculous and I expect to be whale-sized within the month.

Anyway, besides the joys of not biking a hundred miles a day, I’ve been so surprised and delighted with how closely my classmates at school have been keeping up with my journey. I thought most of them didn’t know, but apparently everyone does! The warm welcomes and encouragement of these classmates is bound to make my senior year a good one. I did have to start school just a day after we got home, but in a way that was a good thing. I would have gotten into a fantastic rhythm of babying myself including more of my mother’s wonderful cooking than I have any right to and 16 hours of sleep per 24 hour cycle.

After the ride, I took two full rest days and touched my bike for the first time this Thursday on our CIBA group ride. Let me tell you that removing our 25 pounds of gear was amazing and I was reminded how nice it is to not have a twenty-five pound artificial butt. I wonder if I’m actually beginning to like hills now that it doesn’t take a thousand years for me to climb them! It was wonderful to see the riders that have supported me not just through the epic ride itself but also through the long and arduous training process. Of course, their Summer training brought them from a 15 mph average to an 18 mph average and mine brought me from like 12 mph to 15 or 16 mph, but hey they still ride my pace on Thursday nights so it works!

The Sherpa and I have tried to keep up with the news stories, and hopefully in a few days we’ll be able to post a nice list of links to the news stories covering our journey. We were very lucky to get the amount of coverage we did, and we’d love for you to check it out if you haven’t already! (Of course, for those of you who are Facebook friends with me or anyone I am related to, it’s quite possible that you’ve seen a couple of these links posted and reposted because hey, we got excited, but if you’d like to watch again you’ll have the opportunity!)

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"Sir Wrigglesworth the Strange," or just Wrigley, my beloved dog.

I’m actually still excited. My mom told me that after she’d finished her first century on her bike, she smiled for a week. I’m rather like that. I’d like to once again thank all of you for the ways you reached out and supported me. I feel like I’ve learned a lot about doing hard stuff and pressing on, and I find it so much easier for me to be grateful for things and people. I bet there’s a direct correlation between sitting on your bike all day for a week and thinking that it’s such a huge privilege to just sit and pet your dog. Of course I could be wrong and it’s always a huge privilege to pet your dog -- or at least it is when your dog is the beautiful and glorious Lord Wrigley who strikes terror into the hearts of his enemies with but a glance.

But I am truly grateful for this experience and everything it has done for me. I think I’ve learned that for me, gratitude is the single best motivator. As a young candlemaker from an intellectual family, I’ve been full of ambitions from day one -- but that’ll only get me so far. In the heat of day six on the road, I learned that much. It’s the fact that I’ve been given a dad who will hop on his bike and morph into The Sherpa because I had a dream, and the fact that I’ve been given a mom and grandparents who will stalk my phone with abandon at ten, eleven o’clock at night, wanting to know if I’ve made it in for the night, and the fact that my not-so-little town of Franklin got excited and helped spread the word that made me want to keep going. And now, because of that, I get to hold this experience as my, “Yeah, I can do this,” for the rest of my life.

Thanks for reading,

Bethany

The Arrival!

779 miles to Macalester. Worth every pedal stroke.

Right now I am eating Taco Bell at 11pm in the car, happily contemplating the nest of blankets and pillows I have built for myself here in the backseat and the wonderful happenings of the day. 

Today was an amazing day, the culmination of half a year's planning and hard work. The Sherpa and I woke up around 8 and had a leisurely hotel breakfast with our family before setting off on the ten miles left to Macalester. When we arrived, I saw a small contingent of people standing on a street corner, including a camera -- and then I glanced at the corner opposite, and was shocked by a whole horde of people welcoming us to the end of our epic journey. It was extremely difficult to take in -- when we stopped, I just smiled dumbly at them for awhile until in quick succession a stream of Macalester figureheads stepped out to congratulate me and introduce themselves. Even the college President came out to see the triumphant arrival. I was so happy to see each and every one of them, their enthusiasm and support significantly added to the confirmation of my own beliefs in this ride's importance and impact. I was absolutely not expecting this warm welcome -- or to discover that the entire admissions office has been reading and keeping up with my blog. 

*Shoutout to my friends and donors from the lemonade stand: one of the admissions ladies told me she had to stop reading my blog at work when she came upon your little part of the story, because crying at work is professionally frowned upon.* 

After this initial greeting, I was interviewed by no fewer than three TV stations, which was just wow -- I've never been on TV before! After the interviews the reporters hung around for a bit taking "candid shots" -- I'm not 100% sure what made one sweat-covered, dazed and giddy Bethany picture more honest than the next but I suppose it must be a trade secret.  

Then, my family and I attended a Macalester information session followed by a campus tour followed by free food. I kind of love Macalester; it's going to be so hard for me to pick a college at the end of the year! 

I am so incredibly happy -- and I owe it all to everyone who has supported me on this journey. It was hard -- much harder than expected, even -- but every time I was ready to give up someone pulled me out of it. I'm so lucky to have had this experience, and to each and every one of you who has sent me a text on the longer days, put up a Facebook post reminding me to keep pedaling, donated to the Foundation, given me free lemonade, hosted me at your home, followed my crazy story on the blog, prayed for me, or in some cases become a fully-fledged Sherpa and ridden the whole distance with me -- thank you. 

I intend to keep updating for awhile, so the blog lives on! I'll update major events or epiphanies; maybe I'll come up with another ridiculous idea, who knows! 

But for now, we made it. And we couldn't have done it without you.  

Thanks for reading,

Bethany

PS - I won Yellow Car! The final score was 73-72 but I got two bugs today so had the tie-breaker as well. Yes, all is as it should be.

PPS - The Macalester photographer sent us a zip file of all of her photos, so there will be more of those tomorrow when I have access to the 'real' computer and not just my phone. 

Day Nine (94 miles, 769 so far)

Today was the last really long day -- and good thing too because at around mile 70 I stopped my bike on one of the godforsaken gravel roads in Minnesota and just stood there, saying, "Yep, that's about it." (Of course it didn't end there -- I spent a determined fifteen minutes glaring at my surroundings in my most ornery state but The Sherpa had been commissioned to drag me and my stubbornness all the way up the mountain, and wasn't going to let a little gravel end our journey so close to the finish. He enlisted the aid of a friendly gentleman and his much more terrain-suited vehicle -- an all-terrain golf cart -- to fetch me from my sullenness. Then The Sherpa rode my bike a hundred yards or so out of the trench and we continued on, gravel and all.)

Why is this god-forsaken gravel not on the map?

But there have also been wonderful, incredible encouragements today. Not least of which, remember that lemonade stand I visited a few days ago? Well, the young entrepreneurs have made a reappearance:  

Hi Bethany- This is Tara, the overseer/babysitter of the kids with the lemonade stand you stopped at last Thursday. They really were SO excited that you stopped. After you left we closed up shop and went online to look at your story. I read a little bit of your story and your route plan to the kids and they decided they wanted to donate their earnings (all $7) from the day to your cause. You truly inspired those kids and they are enjoying keeping up on your journey. Best of luck to you, and thanks again for making their day.

I really can't describe how fabulously encouraging and uplifting things like this are, and again thank you, all of you, who do things which make sitting on a bike for nine days worth it!

Another such great moment came when I got to see the rest of my family for the first time in a week and a half. We were even able to see my uncle Ben (technically he's some twelfth upside-down cousin twice removed but only halfway ... "uncle" seems to work just fine for me!) and his daughter Pearl. {Ed note: Ben is actually The Sherpa's first cousin.} They live in Minneapolis, and took us out to Chili's for dinner. I ate so much food that it was difficult to roll myself out the door, but I take pride in my newfound ability to consume ridiculously large amounts of food at a startling pace. 

A Pearl of great price. (And Uncle Ben & The Sherpa)

Unfortunately, the massive volume of food is rapidly sending me into a food coma, so I will say goodnight for now. 

Tomorrow we ride the last ten miles on this epic journey!

Thank you for reading, 

Bethany

PS - Yellow Car Update: Literally as we pulled into our hotel, I caught a yellow bug and tied the score 69-69, and evened up the tie-breaker. Tomorrow is it - but ties go to the daughter, right? 

Day Eight -- (70 miles, 675 so far)

We're getting there! We were lucky enough to have a shorter day today, because we managed to cover enough distance in the past two days. 

Today we have also been fabulously babied because our generous hosts, the Kilgallins, not only provided us with a delicious dinner and lovely lodgings but drove out in the morning to meet us for breakfast just after we crossed the 'Mighty Mississip' into Winona, Minnesota.

Can't believe I rode my bike to Minnesota!

I like Minnesota. I like the presence of decorative mooses (meese?) on every possible surface, and the log-cabin feel, and even,  I kid you not, the evergreen covered hills. I usually hate hills but Minnesota seems to have done a nice job, as far as hills go. It takes forever to climb them but then there's this immediate, spectacular downhill, and all the while you get to enjoy this unbelievable view. 

I did not, however, see any actual bears or mooses. I am heartily disappointed and fully expect Mother Nature to step up her game tomorrow. I request the appearance of at least one truck-sized moose, please.  

Anyway, today when Mr. Kilgallin asked me what I was planning to major in -- a perfectly reasonable question considering that this quest is technically a college search -- I kind of choked on my stock answer of "English!" and found myself plunged into a momentary desperate limbo in which, against all society's strictures, I still didn't know what I wanted to be when I grow up. I kind of stuttered out, "Well I really like English but I imagine I'd be as happy wandering around some third world country attempting to do good as anywhere." Mr. Kilgallin seemed to think this was reasonable and The Sherpa didn't seem at all surprised, but I'm still kind of chewing on it, at this moment.

I've toyed with ideas like international travel, but I think this whole Bethanywhere adventure has changed my perspective. I suppose that I've always imagined that I would go to college, get a job, and settle down somewhere close to my family to lead a pleasant suburban life until retirement, when I would move somewhere warmer to suit my creaking bones.  

Captured trying to rest my creaking bones.

But I believe this crazy trip and all its unforeseen setbacks, exhausting demands, and moments of hard-won triumph has given me a taste for the extraordinary. I don't know what exactly I'm going to study in college, but I think if some wild opportunity to expand my comfort zone or help me find a greater understanding of a world that's so much bigger than Franklin, Indiana presents itself, I'll take it. 

I also think that if anyon ever decides to take it into their heads to bike from Indiana to Minnesota -- they can spend a night at my house. I mean, you can only handle so many nights of seedy motels. 

Once again, thank you for following my journey and listening to all my crazy thoughts, 

Bethany

PS - Yellow Car now stands at 65 for me and 64 for The Sherpa. He does retain a one point tie breaker advantage, but that is clearly irrelevant. All is as it should be.

Day 7 -- (98 miles, 605 so far)

Today, I am delighted to say, was a lovely day for a bike ride. Some way, somehow many of my aches and pains checked out for the day, allowing me to fully enjoy the beautiful Wisconsin scenery. It helped that the vast majority of today's ride took place on gorgeous state trails.

We even gallivanted through some old railway tunnels that had been blasted straight through moutains. They were super creepy and fantastic -- there were no lights and as soon as you'd gotten a hundred yards into the tunnel it was pitch-black without the aid of a flashlight. Also, although it was a sunny, temperate day, inside the tunnels it was raining. I was kind of disturbed by this phenomenon as we were emerging from one of the three tunnels on our route, and commented something along the lines of "at least there aren't bats" at which moment The Sherpa decided to assure me that there most certainly were.

The Sherpa and I fancied ourselves photographers as we explored these caverns, and here  are some of our attempts:

"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here..."

White crystal walls, cool rough ceilings.

One of the more creepy vistas

Walk toward the light!

We couldn't quite manage to capture the immensity or depth of these tunnels on iPhone cameras, but let it not be said that we didn't try!

As we emerged from the final railway tunnel (this was the longest one -- it lasted three quarters of a mile) we encountered a man who identified himself as "Tunnel Tom," a retired furniture-maker who spends a lot of time in the tunnels.  While chatting Tom up, the Sherpa snapped a pic in front of the great double doors at the beginning of the tunnel, so here I am at what very much appears to be the gates of Hogwarts. 

Unfortunately not everyone we encountered on our trek through the tunnels was in any shape to take photos for us -- right at the mouth of one of the tunnels, we came upon a woman who had taken a rather nasty fall. We of course stopped to try and help her daughter get the unfortunate lady out of the road, and were finally able to make use of our slightly nerdy and yet infinitely useful supply of stuff strapped to the back of our bikes by sharing our first aid kit. 

We also came upon a biker couple that had even more stuff strapped to their bikes than we do -- they were from Kansas and had traveled through Iowa and along the Mississippi all the way to their turnaround here in Wisconsin. He is a professor at a liberal arts college, and it was pretty cool to meet them and discover that crazy hair-brained bike tour schemes like ours aren't so weird as I had thought. 

All in all, it has been an incredibly encouraging day that reminded me that I actually do really like riding my bike :)  

I think we're going to make it!!! 

Thank you for reading and being fantastic, 

Bethany

P.S. Yellow Car stands at 60-59 with The Sherpa in the lead. Yes, yes, I need to get my act together, but I did improve my tie-breaker by one today. There was a dark moment today when The Sherpa claimed THREE Yellow Cars in a row and my prospects were quite bleak but I eventually recovered, and fully intend to take the lead again!!