Spencer before and after

Before

After

And a little more after...

Mutton chops woo!

Then finally more Seattle.

Pikes place.

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Seattle part 2!

Hugs galore!

My parents and I at the beach!!!! Love you mom and dad!

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Seattle!!!!!!!!!! Part 1

I'm pretty late on this update and some of yall may have seen facebook
updates, but here we go. We arrived in Seattle on the 18th to
cheering parent and many others to what was an amazing conclusion to
an already amazing summer. Here are some pictures from the day.
Stories/commentary to follow.

The wheel dip! I'm missing all of the pictures from us rushing into
the water but I'll add those as I get them.

Route leader pic with Kristian!

Poppin champagne like t-pain!

All of us singing our trip song! Also, special picture bonus!!...an
older lady in the foreground!


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The rest of the day

We descended into a small valley before climbing rainy pass and then
heading towards diablo lake. Once again the pictures are awesome but
don't really do the place justice.

It's hard to see but in the distance you can see the top of desolation
peak where jack karoack (I just butchered his last name) wrote the
dharma bums.

Diablo lake (yes the water really is that color. It's from minerals in
the mountains collecting in the water.)

Looking over the cliff!

The view from outside my tent at the rockport campground at 7am the
next day.

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Some less photogenic pictures

I have this tendency to only post decent looking pictures of myself
and friends so here is a break from the norm before returning to our
Washington pass day.

Sorry for the short tangent. I thought it might be nice to mix things
up.

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More Washington pass!

The first few pictures from my last post were from this road. That's a
car at the top of the picture.

Similar picture...boring.

Anthony Derrick and Hassan taking in the view from the top.

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Up up up Washington pass

The ride to rockport, WA was by far the most beautiful ride of the
trip. I won't bog all of you down with my boring commentary so for now
I'll just post pictures for you to see for yourself.

This was probably the biggest switchback of our trip.

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Ride to Spokane and more.

Let me preface this entry by saying that riding with Hassan is a
blast. Do you know anyone who will serenade you with a guitar while
riding a bike? Well Hassan is that guy. Add a scavenger hunt to the
mix and it makes for one fun ride to Spokane. Highlight of the hunt:
"getting arrested" at the coeur d Alene courthouse. (photo is on
another persons camera)

Last state line!

Spokane!!

Perfect street name.

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Other recent adventures...

We sometimes get creative with our lunch sandwiches but this is by far
the worst. 4 pieces of wheat bread, peanut butter, grape jelly,
apricot jelly, banana, strawberry jam, marshmellow fluff, nutella, and
sausage. Delicious.

Coeur d' Alene is amazing.

One of the top courses in the nation...I didn't make it past the front
gate in my chammy and dirty cycling jersey. I could see their island
14th hole from the bike path though.

The amazing bike path into town.

Part of the beach, town, and one of the resorts.

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God's Gift to (Wo)man.

So the other day I was just perusing the Dead Sea Scrolls and I discovered an omission from the bible that has somehow escaped modern translation. It goes something like this: "On the 8th day God realized that he did so much for man that he decided to throw in some creation magic for women too. Carried by a host of angels suspended in a sunbeam was born a red head so handsome that the only thing tying him to the earth was a gold thrift store jacket and jean shorts. He will be forever pursued by woman as he is the pinnacle of desire." Below is his only surviving image:





End of sarcasm.
A very special thanks to Sam for getting the most ballin' picture of me in his newly acquired thrift store jacket. The jacket is awesome. It's an amalgamation of European renaissance tapestry and an MC Hammer jogging jacket. I wish I could call it mine.

My first driving day as a leader!

Driving the trailer and van for the first time was stressful, but I had great company with Justine and Adrienne riding with me due to injury. We parked the trailer at the top of the climb (which happened to be the Continental Divide!) and proceeded back down the mountain to check on the riders' progress. I think my favorite part of the whole set up is pumping techno and screaming everyone on as they climb 1,200 feet of switchbacks.

Picture of the day: The van crew at the top of the Continental Divide.

Ride to Bozeman!

The ride to Bozeman was awesome simply put. We descended 2,500 feet over the course of 80 miles making the pedaling extremely easy. The only issue, it was 31 degrees when we left in the morning and warmed up to a scorching 45 degrees by 8am. (Needless to say it was a cold morning). However, after lunch the sun warmed things up to comfortable riding weather in the high 50's and low 60's. The entire day we rode along a river which was gorgeous. We decided to jump onto the rocks in the middle of the river to take sweet pictures (see below), but UK Anthony failed to make it back without falling in and soaking his legs.

More Jellystone...