Day 2

First lesson: If you have the right attitude, you will get better with age. We were in the desert, it was very hot. Like 115 degrees hot. Walt and Frank, as said before, are crazy. These guys have decades on me and were riding like all-stars…we had to literally drag Walt off of his bike. Frank gets so pumped up before he rides I feel like I’ve got an NFL linebacker in the van; he really gets the whole team ready “for battle” as we’ve coined riding in the heat.

The next thing I learned was that a good song is a good song, regardless of any boundaries that you may think are in the way. I was driving the van and had Frank next to me and “Fidelity” by Regina Spektor came on the iPod. A began to sing it and do the automatic arm motions that obviously need to be done every time you listen to it (all you kids that were in Lewisburg this summer know exactly what I’m talking about and I hope you are thinking about playing this song immediately to do the same) and Frank started to get into it. He asked me who was singing and said he loved her voice. Ever since, Frank has completely embraced the music we’ve brought and we’ve got him singing along and getting pumped up before jumping on his bike to tear up the road.

The third thing isn’t something I learned, but something I’m interested in learning. If anybody could help me out with this, I’d be very grateful. What exactly is“scampi”? We went to dinner and I got the chicken scampi, all I’ve ever heard of before is the shrimp version of scampi. Our internet privileges are limited so Wikipedia isn’t readily available and I’d rather learn from a friend than a website. And while you’re at it please look up what makes something “gourmet” because I thing that may be a word that gets thrown around way too much.

Day 1

We’ve been up early the past few days, not a big deal. However, it hit me the other day when I woke up extra early to write my blog entry, that you guys don’t want to read the play-by-play of what I’ve been up to. Well, everyone besides you, mom. Jay has been doing an incredible job updating everyone on what’s been going on with the race. That said, I figured I would take my blogging opportunity to tell everybody three new things I learn each day. I always ask my friends to tell me about the most interesting thing they’ve learned in a given day and figure now it’s my time to enlighten you guys, whether you like it or not.

The first thing I learned on day one had to be that you can actually lose a person on their bike while following them in a van going less than 20 mph. This happened twice! At first I just figured it was the fact that Kyle and I were driving and navigating respectively…Mayo, Skids, Rick, Ravi and Miller have some experience with Kyle and I not being the best pilot/co-pilot combo. Anyway, our new friend Naty, pulled our van over from his bike and had told us that we had lost Darrell, another newly found, totally hilarious friend we encountered on our trip. So we doubled back a number of times, driving around LA like the city was about to collapse and soon found out that Darrell had hopped in a car to meet the team at the next checkpoint.

We then lost Walt. However, this was a total misunderstanding. Nobody knew where Walt was, so we were sent to track him down. Being the oldest rider on our trip, and it being early our first day, we figured maybe Walt was trailing behind a bit. Boy were we wrong. Turned out, Walt had actually cruised well in front of everybody else and was trucking it down the mean streets of LA. Funny thing is that he hasn’t let up since and might be one of the craziest (crazy in the good way) guys I’ve ever met. Everybody should get a chance to meet Walt, our new best friend and one of the most impressive guys I’ve ever had a chance to meet.

Which brings me to the second lesson I had: always be prepared for surprises. I learned that some of the most successful people in the country still like to act like they’re in college and can, again, be completely crazy. First example is our new friend Darrell, a very successful doctor, whose socks were giving him a hard time and insisted that he ride the rest of Day 1 with bare feet. Along the same lines is our buddy Naty who lost his sandal somewhere in our Day 1 travels and wore one sandal with one biking cleat out to dinner that night. It was such a treat to hang out with Frank and Bruce’s riding club, The Silverbacks, for the first ride of our trip. They are such a fun bunch of guys who love to make fun of each other and drop a record breaking number of four-letter words. I hope that wasn’t the last we’ve seen or heard of all those guys.

The third thing from Day 1: sending postcards is really fun. Kyle and I got back to the hotel and went straight to the lobby. Looking through postcards and picking out the ones that remind you of your best friends can be a really good time. I suggest everybody try it on their next trip, or from home. All of you lucky people that will get your postcards from Day 1 will know what we are talking about and the rest of you will know soon…

Saturday

Bright and early Sara and her friend Annie took us out for a hike on the hills behind the house. It was a really gorgeous walk, from the top you could see most of the LA skyline on one side, the ocean on another side, and some pretty baler houses off to the left…it was incredible. We hiked through what used to be old Nazi camps (strange) and then got to climb a 712 stair staircase which was used as an escape route when the camp was active…made the Exorcist stairs we left back in DC seem like a step ladder.

We got back and Bruce picked us up, great to finally meet him. He was more than nice enough to invite us to his house to hang out by the pool for the afternoon and use his gym. We nixed the pool idea, mainly because the Pacific Ocean was about 30 seconds away. We ate lunch at Back on the Beach Café and then ran into the waves, which proceeded to beat us up for the next hour or so. Reminded me of Senior Week down in Hilton Head this past spring and how great of a week that was…even though it represented the end of something that was to come soon.

After and afternoon of screwing around we got reading for our send-off event at Susan Zolla’s house. First, much thanks to Susan and her family for being overwhelmingly nice and opening up their incredible home to all of us. We met a lot of new people at the event, some funny stories came out of it and new friendships were beginning to build. I tried my first ever mini cheeseburger, which left something to be desired, but at least I can tell Sakofs and Ravi that I ate a bacon cheeseburger. We got to start knowing Jake and Jess a bit more, who are an awesome combo and a lot of fun to hang out with. Nir also enlightened us on the fact that water “isn’t a drink”, which might be a funny concept to bring back to all our friends at Bucknell.

After the event we finished up packing and hit the hay, even though I couldn’t sleep and had multiple dreams of waking up and getting ready for the next day. Weird how dreams work, something that will give me things to think about while I’m cruising on my bike in the next 19 days.

California Dreamin’

We got to the airport and hopped in a cab to finally get to Frank’s house! We had talked the whole flight on what we thought Big Frank’s house would be like, etc. Man, were we surprised. We pulled onto his street which seems like it has no reason being in LA. It was a very beautiful road lined with gorgeous ranch houses and horse stables along the way. You know the “Slow Children” signs they hang in neighborhoods, well this area had “Slow Children and Horses” signs. It was such a cool road, especially because it seemed as if we were far off in the country-side, but literally in the biggest city in the United States (which we were about to cross on our bikes!)

We got there and met Frank’s wife Sara, who was extremely nice, but on her way to an event she had planned. She gave us free reign of the house, especially the kitchen (maybe a bad move on her part to give 3 fresh out of college guys kitchen privileges). So we concocted a giant salad, which I like to refer to as “Rocket Fuel”. Rocket Fuel is what we use to refer to any meal you make where you just throw everything in sight into a big bowl and see how it turns out. It was great. So we hung out and looked at all the pictures on Frank and Sara’s walls and waited for our first encounter with Walt. We met Walt and Izzy later that night and shared stories about Bucknell until Sara came home. Sara gave us a crash course on politics, whether we wanted it or not and made Kyle and I read The Constitution in order to justify being able to vote in the future. Meeting new people might be one of the more exciting things I try to do as much as possible. It’s always a new adventure when you have somebody new to talk to and discover their story, one of the very many perks of being lucky enough to be on this trip, meeting everybody along the way might be more exciting than being on the bike.

Lewisburg to Los Angeles

It seems like forever since we left all our friends back at Bucknell, which means I’ve got a lot to write about since. I’ll break it up into segments so you don’t feel like you’re reading a novel…especially one written by an accountant.

First, thanks to Lauren “Lando” Anderson for buy Kyle, Jay and I our last Freez before heading out on our adventure…we feel bad that she got the grossest one, but pistachio ice-cream can be dicey when you add things to it, it’s science. So Friday morning we scrambled around making sure we had everything, ate another Mark Hyde fraternity house breakfast and scooted off to Harrisburg International (I was told it gets to call itself “international” because they have one flight that goes to Canada). Super special thanks to Eliot for giving us a ride there, really appreciate it man, can’t wait to see you when we get back.

The flight to Philly was short, Kyle and I spent some time contemplating the visual science of which way a propeller looks like it’s spinning (very serious stuff). At the Philly airport we hung out for over an hour awaiting our 5 hour flight to the west. We got some food and did some very intense people watching and couldn’t stop talking about the month that was ahead of us, unless we took a break from that to tell funny stories about late night happenings during our short stay at Bucknell. The flight was great and reinforced the fact that I can fall asleep anywhere. Kyle barely ever peeled his head from looking out the window, even when it was just clouds, and badgered Jay and I on trying to find out what we were flying over (maybe why I kept falling asleep, sorry Kyle).

At Bucknell!!

So I’m writing this entry in the library at Bucknell! Have been back at school with Kyle since Tuesday. We spent the weekend visiting some of our best friends in Hoboken/NYC and then high-tailed it up to Massachusetts for a quick visit to Mama O’Malley and family before we head off on our trip. Thanks to Sakofs and Rick for putting us up in their Hoboken apartment and showing us a good time while we were there. It was nice to see some familiar faces of kids we graduated with…a good transition into 4 days at Bucknell spending time with all the lucky kids that haven’t graduated yet.

So we’ve been bouncing around campus trying to say hi to all the people we left behind last Spring and getting a lot of double-takes from those who didn’t know we’d be back so soon. Life couldn’t be much better…I feel like I’ve been saying that quite a bit lately. One of the most exciting things since being back is meeting all the new guys that just joined our fraternity. I think Kyle and I have been more busy on campus these past few days than we were our entire second semester senior year. We’ve been non-stop, having meetings with different people that want to hear more about our ride. A special thanks to Tracy, Kristin and Sam who have been putting their time in to help promote our race and raise money for the cause. I know there a lot more of you out there that are also involved, thank you as well.

The only thing that feels different about being back is not having to go to class. Other than that I feel as if I haven’t missed a beat in the four months I’ve been gone (well really it’s been closer to two months because I spent some time living in Lewisburg this summer…thanks to Giggy for letting me crash at his place and Robbo for letting me sleep in his room, which I still don’t think he knows about). I still feel at home walking around campus, saying hi to everybody, going to the gym and hanging out at the fraternity house.

So we’ve got everything ready to go. Our bags are packed up, we had our bikes tuned-up and shipped out through FedEx and they should show up at Frank’s house tomorrow. We got one last ride in before shipping the bikes out, it’s always nice to cruise around central PA. Today we met Frank for the first time in person, which was very awesome. We both gave him a big hug and it felt as if we’ve known him for years…which might have something to do with the fact that we’ve been talking to him almost twice a day for the last month. Jay will be coming to Lewisburg in a couple hours, so it’ll be good to meet up with him and have a little bon-voyage celebration with all of our friends.

Oh, Mayo just took Kyle and I out to lunch at the caf…we were super pumped about that. The caf is always a great chance to people-watch and eat way too much food. We were also interviewed about a million times this morning in front of the LC by local media and student-run media, it was pretty fun but also a bit awkward to tell you the truth. We said a lot of the same things over and over, but I think we had a good time with it. We met some new friends and got to see a lot of people walking by. Thanks to Lee and Gavin for letting us borrow their bikes for the photos.

Everything is quite surreal right now…I can’t believe we’re actually heading to California in the morning, can’t believe we’ll be riding everyday for 19 days across the United States!, that we’ll get to hang out with Walt and Frank for those 19 days, that we’ll be back at Bucknell at the end of the month, that until I start work I will have not been away from Kyle for more than 3 hours in over a month (some would argue in over 3 years), oh man that I will actually have to become a working member of society when we return (which a really strange part of me thinks I’m ready for…or at least it does until my inner-college kid tells it to be quiet), and most importantly that I’ll have this story to tell for many years to come.

So we’re off to the airport in the morning. Time has flown by, and will probably kick into high speed once we get out west. I hope to meet a lot of new people along the way, and hope that everybody is prepared for our return on September 28th because it’s going to be one great weekend! The next time I make an entry it’ll be from on the road, wish us luck! Cheers.

Things are getting better and better

So now Jay is coming with us on our trip!  I got an email from Frank explaining that we needed another driver to come along, so I walked out of my room, took four steps into Jay’s room and asked him if he’d be interested.  Short story even shorter, he’ll be joining us and I couldn’t be more excited.

In other news, my hand is almost fully healed and I’ve been feeling pretty good on my bike.  I took Kyle on a nice 75 mile excursion yesterday, at one point it was close to 100 degrees outside, but we had plenty of water and made it back unscathed.  The camp we were all working at also decided it didn’t need us for this week so we’re all just hanging out before heading up to the Hamptons for Labor Day (compliments of Matt and the Goldshore family)!

So we go the boot from camp, it was fun while it lasted…we made some new friends in our seven and eight year old campers and realized how disappointed our boss (thick German accented Coach Franz) was that there wasn’t a world record for picking up trash.  In any event, we’ll have all day now to ride and explore the Nation’s Capital a bit until Thursday evening.  Come Thursday it looks like Kyle, Jay and I will be saying goodbye to our sweet house and our new city of residence for about a month…crazy that we’re getting so close!

Back in the saddle again

Since my last post, things have been going really well. I’ve spent the last week or so riding my bike basically with one hand, but still having fun out there. Biggest news: Kyle is now moved into our house in DC, along with Matt, meaning our 5 is now complete…soon to be a complete 6 when our dog Gracie arrives tomorrow.

Jeff, Jay, Kyle and I all got jobs at the same day camp for the next two weeks. This means that all day we spend our time running around with young kids, then come home to our incredible house, Kyle and I go for a ride and we come back and make a big meal together…life is good (to quote a hat from our buddy Sakofs).

I took Kyle on out on my favorite DC ride today. It’s a route that goes along the Potomac river, down into Mt. Vernon, VA. The ride along the river is really nice, you get a great view of all of the monuments as well as a ride right by the airport where you can see planes go and come in right over your head…kind of like that scene in Wayne’s World when they’re laying on top of thei car. Anyway, it’s great to have a riding buddy again and to have our house full.

I still can’t stop thinking about arriving back in Lewisburg once this ride is all said and done. Once we have hopefully raised a great deal of money for a really deserving cause, and once I’m good and ready to hop off the bike for a couple days and spend some time with my best friends in the world at my favorite place in the world. No rush though, because once that time comes it means I’m getting really close to entering the “real” world, so for now I’ll stick to playing soccer all day with kids and living with 5 of my fraternity brothers (and one pooch).

On the DL for a few days

Since I’ve been in DC, I’ve crashed my bike twice. The first one wasn’t too bad, just got a nasty road rash on my leg and a bone bruise on my hip. This past one (two days ago) was pretty rough. I was flying down a bike path and my tire caught the edge of the path which flipped my bike forward. For some reason my feet didn’t clip out of the pedals and I went down hard. Thankfully nothing is seriously hurt, but I really cut up one of my hands pretty bad.

So, I had to take yesterday off and am going to try to jump back in the saddle today, but my hand is still really hurt. We’ll see how it goes…

From Lewisburg to DC

When I wrote my last entry I was actually staying in Lewisburg for a portion of the summer until I found a place in Washington, DC with four of my friends, Kyle being one of the lucky members of our group. We were having a blast waking up, eating cereal, going for a ride around the nice rolling hills of Central Penn. and spending the rest of the day falling asleep on the bench in Huffnagle Park while reading a book, walking to the Freez and sampling a variety of beers that our buddy would have us try (props to Mayo for providing drinks with our dinner every night). Man, it doesn’t get much better than summers at Bucknell…

But soon enough, Kyle went home to visit his family and I realized how fast the summer was going by, it was almost August! Anyway, by some stroke of sheer luck, and countless searching hours by our friend, and new housemate, Jay (awesome job man!), we came across a real gem of a house in NW DC. This place is truly incredible, way too nice for 5 recent college fraternity boys to be living in with a dog (hey Gracie). Regardless, we signed the lease and now have a place to hang our hats. Since then 3 of us have moved in. It’s myself, Jay, and another housemate, Jeff. The three of us are hanging out here settling in and making this place “ours” while waiting for Kyle to get back from Ohio and Matt to get back from his roadtrip with our pooch!

I have spent everyday going out for hours on by bike exploring all the trails this area has to offer. It has been a bit of an adjustment given that DC isn’t nearly as hilly as the area surrounding Lewisburg, and the air quality doesn’t measure up by any means. Nevertheless, it has been fun, even on the days where it gets to just under 100 degrees. Becasue I moved my start date with PwC back to October, I found myself a waitering job at a place in Georgetown called The Peacock Cafe on Prospect Street (I start this Thursday if you’d like to come check it out!) With the new job it looks like I’ll be up even earlier to head out on my bike, which will be nice to beat the heat.

This race is on my mind constantly, I can’t stop thinking about what it’s going to be like on the road, in the vans, each night where we stop, and I especially can’t imagine how nice it’s going to feel when we finally find our way coming through the entrance at Bucknell when it’s all over and we’re back “home”.

If you’re in the DC area and like to cycle please send me an email (omalley.pj@gmail.com), I’d love to have a riding buddy seeing as how Kyle is all the way in Canton, OH. If you don’t cycle, email me anyway, I’d love to grab a bite to eat or go check out what DC has to offer with someone that may be more familiar with the area!