Final episode of a 36-day tandem bike journey (the 'trandom') led by Nate and Kara Buchanan. The group extended the trip to 36 days, switched from the RAM route to rail-trails (Great American Rail Trail), faced severe weather, numerous flats and mechanical failures (including stripped freehub and broken spokes), rode through the night, and ultimately reached the East Coast (Annapolis/DC) with emotional reflections on the experience.
Chapters
We have spent the last 36 days biking over 3,000 miles across the US on this three seater bike, averaging not quite 100 miles a day like we had planned. There have been ups and there have been downs.
Turn the vans around, we got another flight.
But most importantly, we've made memories that will last a lifetime with some of our best friends.
Things are getting weird as we get towards the end.
This last week is not going to be easy.
Well, this might be the end, but.
Easy was never the goal. In this final episode, we make the decision decision to change our route. But that turns out to be a mistake.
I think we rode long enough that people are awake and going to work.
The weather takes a turn for the worst and we're forced to ride through the night in an attempt to make it to the finish line. Buckle up. Because the last six days of the ride are the most challenging and eventful yet.
This fight fit into the bike ride.
Good morning. I'm wearing triple the amount of clothes as usual because it's freezing and raining.
You and Sarah dressed very differently this morning.
The third seat has more draft.
I think you do get all the spray from the back.
Maybe we should put a trash bag on me.
You gotta look like an alien from this side.
It's day 31 and things are getting weird. Love you.
Wait, what is this? Is that coffee?
Tea?
Before we start the last 600 miles of this trip, there are two massive updates that we need to fill you in on.
Number one, we are extending the trip by six days. We've been saying that we were going to try to make it across the country on the trandom in 30 days, but in the back of our minds the whole time, we really gave ourselves like 33 days because we know stuff happens.
A few days ago we started doing some math and realized that even with the three extra days of buffer, there was no way that we were going to finish. We all have other commitments after this adventure is over and we all moved our flights back the maximum amount possible. So we have now added six days to this trip. So in total, it will be 36 days of biking across the US so.
We now have 695 miles left to do in six days. Important update number two, we are abandoning the Ram route.
For the first 2500 miles of this trip, we followed a route called the Ramp. It's short for Race across America. It's a 3100 mile route that ran from San Diego all the way to Annapolis, Maryland. And the plan was to follow that route the entire time and after 2,500 miles of riding on busy roads, we decided we were done with the cars.
We would all like to survive this trip and actually make it to the east coast without getting hit by a car.
In Missouri, we rode this beautiful rail trail called the Katy Trail.
It was amazing. There were no cars. Nobody gave me the middle finger.
So we started doing a little more research to see how many more of these trails existed around the US and we found something called the Great American Rail Trail. One day when it's finished, it will be a rail trail which is basically a bike path that's built on a railway across the entire US it is.
Adding over 100 miles to the route, hence the reason why we extended our time. But we think it's going to be worth it.
It's pretty wet as you can see. We got a really late start this morning cuz we were hoping it would stop. Hopefully the dads don't have to ride in the dark for too long tonight. Cuz yesterday was pretty much exact same rain all morning. So we stalled, we got on the bike super late and then they had to ride through the night and they got lost. They ended up on frat row in the middle of some university.
People love the trail. I think they think it's a Halloween costume.
Well, Evie just put me in my place. Just found a little surprise in my snack bag. At some point this morning I was trying to get her to take my spot on the bike because it was raining and then she disappeared for a little bit.
It's gonna be so loud. It's good.
We have four hours until we start.
Good luck dads. Bye dad.
See you girls.
I think my poncho is making us less efficient. Too bad we don't have a tailwind. I could just hold it out and we blow down the trail. I definitely can't hear anything if anybody's trying to say anything to me.
What? Cool. That was epic. You're doing great up there, Rick. Nice smooth driving for the game.
I like the music. You got a system in that thing?
How's it going?
So cool. That was awesome. We've been seeing horse poop all over the trail and we were wondering why, but I guess the Amish just use this as a safer road.
Wow, this looks trippy. It smells like horse poop.
Ladies have just arrived in Apple Creek, Ohio and it is from finally time to do some much needed laundry.
Oh no. Oh no. If we make it this whole trip without a dog nipping at my ankles, I'm going to be so Impressed?
I think when I have two loads.
I think I might have to get $20 worth of quarters. Here we go.
That's what $20 worth of quarters looks like. I got a pocket. Got a pocket full of quarters.
Well, he did make it before dark wearing the safety man suit underneath the poncho. It like reflects right here around my head and I kind of feel like I'm at a disco.
I feel like I wear the same things every single day and somehow end up with this many dirty clothes. I don't understand. Maybe it's mates.
Uh oh. That little growl happens when our water tank is getting low. It gets angry. Fill me with water.
Am I dirty? Yes.
How did you get dirty under your poncho?
Your legs?
Look how dirty this is. Actually, I don't think this thing did anything.
It didn't.
Real quick, I want to say a big thank you to Surf Shark for sponsoring this video. As you can probably tell, we are no longer on the bike trip, but it is still raining. It's following us and I'm going to go inside. In the spirit of Thanksgiving weekend, I just wanted to say how grateful we are to Surf Shark for continuing to support our adventures for the last three years. Whether we're biking across the US or relaxing in the Maldives. And also for keeping us safe with the best VPN on the Internet. Over the past few years, we have connected to a lot sketchy WI fi and we have yet to have our identity stolen. If you don't know what a VPN is, it stands for Virtual Private Network and it encrypts all the data sent between our computer and the Internet so that no one can steal our sensitive information. But VPN can be used for more than just security. We have also used it all around the world to watch our favorite show when we need a laugh Experience is the best teacher. That's because it's super easy to change the virtual location of your computer and get access to a completely new content library. If you don't already have a vpn, we obviously highly recommend surfshark. It is the only VPN to offer one account for unlimited devices. Plus, right now they are offering a special Black Friday deal where you can get up to 6 months for free by using Code Cara and and Nate. To take advantage of this special Black Friday deal, just click the link in the description below. Now back to much colder rain.
So it got cold. Kara's putting on a diaper.
It's not that like I don't want to get dirty, it's just I only have so many clothes and if they're all soaked and muddy. Nothing is drying in this weather.
Look at my shoes from last night. They're just covered in a layer of mud.
How do I look? It actually fits really nicely. Like, it's like snug.
We've never seen her with this much energy before 9am.
You can tell we're serious cyclists by the gear we have. It's just top of the line stuff.
I take my riding really seriously.
Only the best trash bags.
Some people wear Patagonia. We wear Hefty.
Hefty, Hefty. Things are still weird.
We're all just trying to laugh because we're wearing Stretch.
How did something just drip on me? We're falling apart over here. I am on my way to meet up with two very special guests who have chosen to join us for the last few days of this ride. Even though the weather is cold and miserable.
Can't believe this is my life. Honestly, times like these just make the good times even better. If it was just perfect weather, sun and rainbows the whole time, it would be boring. At least that's what I'm telling myself.
Look who it is. You're back. And you brought the rain with you. It'd be cold and rainy, but it won't miss out.
Are you regretting your decision yet?
45 degrees and raining right now. Last time we were together, we were on a boat in the freezing cold rain for a week together. Are you gonna ride with this thing on the back?
Yeah. Got the extra battery, snacks, water.
So they brought one ebike with multiple batteries. And the plan is for my mom to ride with the girls and then we'll swap out batteries and my dad will ride with the guys.
There's a toilet.
Oh, gosh.
My wings are a bit obnoxiously loud now that we're riding.
What a morning.
Is it as miserable as it looks?
It's so bad.
You want some hot coffee?
Yes, please.
It looks even more like a diaper now.
Yeah.
Are you excited for this?
They're scaring me a little bit.
What's the furthest you've ever ridden a bike?
I think maybe 50, 15 miles. Not 50, 15.
I'm a little nervous, especially after watching the vlog. Last night made it seem a little. A little harder than I was thinking.
What did you tell me your butt looked like last night?
It looked like one of those baboons with the red.
What a morning.
Is it as miserable as it looks?
Is.
So you want some hot coffee?
Yes, please.
It looks even More like a diaper now.
Yeah.
Are you excited for this?
They're scaring me a little bit.
Also. I think this is the most people we've ever had in the van. It looks like one because you can't see any, but there's four more up front.
We've got seven people. There's room for three or four more.
The girls are just in here warming up. All right, Kara. Kara, stop trying to scoot into the van.
I'm letting your mom out so she can get me a brownie.
It's time to get back on the bike.
I need a brownie first.
You can eat it out here.
No, I'll eat it in here.
So my mom's practiced a grand total of six miles. That's the total on the odometer. What's the furthest you've ever ridden a bike?
I think maybe 15 miles. Not 50. 15.
1 5.
I'm a little nervous, especially after watching the vlog last night made it seem a little harder than I was thinking.
What did you tell me your butt looked like last night?
It looked like one of those baboons with the red.
You feeling confident?
You'll fit right in? We're just making everything up as we go as well, really.
Y' all got this? 20 more miles.
30. 30 more.
All right, halfway.
Whoa.
She's coming through, everybody. Do you think the E bike's gonna be able to keep up with the tandem?
I think the TR is going to have to be able to keep up with the.
The girls have been doing this to us recently. It is 1230. They still have 30 more miles to go also. I think this is the most people we've ever had in the van. It looks like one because you can't see any, but there's four more up front.
We've got seven people. There's room for three or four.
The girls are just in here warming up. All right, Kara. Kara, stop trying to scoot into the van.
I'm letting your mom out so she can get me a brownie.
It's time to get back on the bike.
I need a brownie first.
You can eat it out here. So their earliest finish time will be 3:30, and then we'll be expected to get on the bike and ride an additional 50 miles. With only three hours of daylight left.
We'Re on a tow path that goes along this lovely river. We have about 30 miles to go. Hoping I don't get as cold as I did this morning.
The girls looked cold.
Now I didn't in here.
So My mom's practiced a grand total of six miles. That's the total on the odometer. You feeling confident?
You'll fit right in. We're just making everything up as we go as well.
Really. Y' all got this? 20 more miles.
20 more.
30.
30 more.
All right.
Halfway.
Just trying to soak up this heat and hot tea.
This is a uncharacteristically steep hill and our brakes are very wet and slippery right now. So we're walking it. Wow.
Well, that was exciting.
I'm really hoping that today is the most miserable day of the trip because I think today is the last day that it's supposed to rain.
Whoa.
She's coming through, everybody. Do you think the e bike's going to be able to keep up with the trandom?
I think the trainer is going to have to be able to keep up with the e bike.
The girls have been doing this to us recently. It is 1230. They still have 30 more miles to go. So their earliest finish time will be 3:30 and then we'll be expected to get on the bike. It's also the first day that it's been really cold. After this it's still going to be really cold, but it shouldn't be wet.
We're basically off roading with the trandom still wet and cold. My legs are disgusting. The diaper is still doing its job though. At this point I wish it was a diaper because I have to pee.
Rail trail has ended for now. We're back on the main roads for our last seven and a half miles. Chrissy is not a fan of the roads.
Ride an additional 50 miles. With only three hours of daylight left.
We'Re on a tow path that goes along this lovely river. We have about 30 miles to go. Hoping I don't get as cold as I did this morning.
The girls looked cold.
Not sure how y' all hadn't got yet. The highway was scary. I came back with a little. Had a crash.
Bike up a little bit. So there was the wooden bridge which I knew would be slick. I must have hit the brake and I laid it down. I'm gonna pee in my pants.
I'm just trying to soak up this heat and hot tea.
This is a uncharacteristically steep hill and our brakes are very wet and slippery right now. So we're walking it. Woo.
Well, I'm excited.
Good to see you. How are you feeling? I feel great. Looking at that brake handle bent over sideways.
I was flat.
I was flat bound. She's on the ground like this with the bike on top of her and I'm like Christy frown.
It's going on.
Oh my goodness. As we were getting on the bike to start riding I could just hear air gushing out of the back tire. So we are currently changing our 12th flat of the trip before we get going today. I'm really hoping that today is the most miserable day of the trip because I think today is the last day that it's supposed to rain. It is already 4:30 which means we have two hours of daylight left. They have a lot of night riding in store. It's also the first day that it's been really cold. After this it's still going to be really cold but it shouldn't be wet.
We're basically off roading with the trandom still wet and cold. My legs are disgusting. The diaper is still doing its job though.
And they're off, ready to go. I have a feeling after the girls ride. You've heard enough complaining about how cold it is. But I'll say it one more time, it is cold.
Sorry, that was a lot.
The E bike is similar to the unicycles on the downhill. We just pull away and then he immediately catches us on the uphill. There's like a giant slinky going down the road.
Hello there. At this point I wish it was a diaper because I have to pee.
Rail trail has ended for now. We're back on the main roads for our last seven and a half miles. Chrissy is not a fan of the roads. It is already 6 o'.
Clock.
I nearly fell asleep hanging out in the back. Now we are all four driving to the next town of Bowerston.
How's the E bike? Good? Well, it's raining.
Not sure how y' all hadn't got yet. The howlings. Scary. I came back with a little. I had a crash. How are you? Mess the bike up a little bit. So there was a wooden bridge which I knew would be slick. I must have hit the brake and I laid it down. I'm going to pee in my pants.
Look at that beautiful sign. Is this the first? No. They've all got electric collars on. Come get us. I bet you won't.
Feels like we've been in Ohio forever. And besides the rain, I've been loving it. They have really cute little towns.
They've had a change of plans. The E bike has ran out of battery and these fat tires are not gonna keep up with this strandom. Good to see you. How are you feeling? I Feel great looking at that brake handle bent over sideways.
I was flat.
I was flat bound. She's on the ground like this with the bike on top of her and I'm like, Christy found it's going.
Oh, my goodness. As we were getting on the bike to start riding, I could just hear air gushing out of the. Rick has graciously agreed to go back to the warm van. My dad is gonna get on the bike.
Someone had to do it, you know, Wasn't an easy choice, but I gotta take one for the team sometimes.
Your butt is never gonna be the same.
I'll miss you.
Oh, Rick.
I'll see you later.
Back tire. So we are currently changing our 12th flat of the trip. Before we get going today.
Both of the parents bring in the drama. And they're off.
Once again.
It is already 4:30, which means we have two hours of daylight left. They have a lot of night riding in store and they're.
I have a feeling after the girls ride, you've heard enough complaining about how cold it is.
And it's dark. The dads are still on the bike and I'm making something delicious. Menu tonight is something new. I'm stir frying some frozen veg.
Trying to at least.
And then I got this bag of like marinade Y type stuff. So I'm picturing just like dumping that in there and then adding some tofu.
But I'll say it one more time, it is cold.
Sorry. That was a lot.
All right, Daddy. How you feeling? I feel terrible. My butt hurts. My thighs are burning.
My knees.
The E bike is similar to the unicycles on the downhill. We just pull away and then he immediately catches us on the uphill. There's like a giant slinky going down the road.
Hello there.
I can't stop pedaling.
Y' all won't stop paddling. Besides that good. You being on the bike is making me realize how much better shape I'm in than when I started. Full moon, night before Halloween. Paranormal activity all over the place. Look at this bridge.
It is already 6 o'.
Clock.
I nearly fell asleep hanging out in the back. Now we are all four driving to the next town of Bowerston.
Welcome home.
This is all. How's the E bike good? Well, it's raining. We like that we have left.
Are you serious?
I was literally holding it out, shining it for Dusty to see the trail.
The headlamp died. All my safety lights died. Am I supposed to put my underwear. What did I do with it? My thighs are burning so Bad. I couldn't stand up.
I'm glad y' all made it safely.
My toes are completely numb. I can't feel them. Look at that beautiful sign. Is this the first? Nah, they've all got electric collars on. Come get us. I bet you won't.
Feels like we've been in Ohio forever.
No, there was not a comfortable place on that seat. I tried every square inch, and my butt was killing me.
And besides the rain, I've been loving it. They have really cute little towns.
But besides that, I was having a great time riding with my sons. Trail in the dark in Ohio somewhere. All right, thank you. This is the best part of the day.
It's a miracle sunshine for the first.
Time in four days. So we've had a change of plans. The e bike has ran out of battery, and these fat tires are not going to keep up with this strandom. So Rick has graciously agreed to go back to the warm van.
It's so beautiful.
Good morning. It is day 33 of biking across America. My dad is gonna get on the bike.
Someone had to do it, you know, Wasn't an easy choice, but I gotta take one for the team sometimes.
Okay. And if you thought we were maybe being a little overdramatic about the cold yesterday, take a look at the bike this morning for the second time on this trip, it is completely frozen. A water bottle from last night is frozen. The handlebars are frozen. The seat's completely frozen. But you know what? Your butt is never going to be the same.
I'll miss you.
Oh, Rick.
I'll see you later.
Thought I like both of the parents bringing the drama. And they're. It's not raining.
Here.
Once again, the train tracks are here. We slept here, Beck. How many trains passed last night?
Then it's dark, the dads are still on the bike, and I'm making something delicious.
Did you hear the trains last night? Apparently two went by and we didn't wake up.
Classic. I'm glad we can leave Ohio seeing it not gray. Ow. Why would you do that? Menu tonight is something new. I'm stir frying some frozen veg.
Trying to at least.
Just want to see if I still had it.
I was feeling so happy and joyous, and you just ruined all of it. And then I got this bag of, like, marinady type stuff, so I'm picturing just, like, dumping that in there and then adding some tofu. You better. Nate.
I can't run. My knee hurts.
It's cold, but it's dry and it's sunny, so I'm not gonna complain. Just wanted to state that it was cold. And that's ice 35 degrees right now, if anybody was wondering.
Hey, Nate.
Good morning. How's your butt? All right, daddy. How are you feeling? I feel terrible. My butt hurts, my thighs are burning.
My knees are aching.
I can't stop pedaling if y' all won't stop pedaling. Besides that good. You being on the bike is making me realize how much better shape I'm in the when I started. It's surprisingly good. Yeah.
Having some brake props so the the pads can be brought in and out away from the tire by using the tool.
Morning's not going too smoothly for the lady climb crushers. Our break is, like, kind of fixed, but this route, it's bringing us through this gated off factory.
Full moon, night before Halloween. Paranormal activity all over the place. Look at this bridge.
Welcome home.
This is all.
Yeah, we can't cross through here, can we?
No, we liked what we have left.
Are you serious?
I was literally holding it out, Shining it for Dusty to see the trail.
They had left.
We were told we can't go through, so we're turning around. We're going downhill. And Sarah says, well, good news is we can test the brakes on the way.
Who knew southeastern Ohio is so hilly.
If you're wondering where my parents are this morning, they don't have a van. So the plan have died. All my safety lights died. Am I supposed to put in my underwear? What did I do with it? My thighs are burning so bad, I couldn't stand up. As each night they're just gonna find a hotel close by.
I'm glad y' all made it safely.
My toes are completely numb. I can't feel them. There was not a comfortable place on that seat. I tried every square inch, and my butt was killing me. And then meet back up with us in the morning and keep riding. When my parents originally decided to come, we had told them that we were going to be riding on bike paths the rest of the way because that was the plan. They were not big fans of the road riding, which is fair enough. So they're going to sit today out and then meet back up with us tomorrow. Because we believe the last 300 miles of this trail is definitely going to be on a bike path. Although I have. But besides that, I was having a great time riding with my sons trail in the dark in Ohio somewhere. All right, thank you. This is the best part of the day.
It's a miracle sunshine for the first.
Time in four days. Learn not to say definitely about anything on this entire trip.
I was not expecting to climb this much today.
We've been on a total of zero rail trails today. It's all been the road just going up and down and up and down. It's finally happening. It's so beautiful.
Good morning. It is day 33 of biking across America. And if you thought we were maybe being a little bit over dramatic about the cold yesterday, take a look at the bike this morning, for the second time on this trip, it is completely frozen. My water bottle from last night is.
What are we getting? Maybe nothing. It's a travesty that they don't register Trandom. Hello.
Are you on a bicycle?
Yeah.
Okay, you're gonna have to place your order inside.
Okay.
All righty.
Thank you. We're leaving. We're going to Wendy's.
There was no Wendy's, and I really wanted a large french fry and hot coffee, so we went inside. Next time, we're going to Wendy's. How great is this rail trail?
Eh, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania.
West Virginia.
All right. These are our last moments in Ohio.
Frozen. The handlebars are frozen. The seat's completely frozen. But you know what? It's not raining.
So the train tracks are here. We slept here. Becc. How many trains passed last night?
Two.
Did you hear?
Wow. This bridge is nuts. That is water. We're so high.
Ohio, Ohio. Ohio. Ohio. Ohio. West Virginia. Is this our ninth state?
The trains last night. Apparently two went by, and we didn't wake up.
Classic. I'm glad we can leave Ohio seeing it not gray and red. Ow. Why would you do that?
Just want to see if I still had it.
I was feeling so happy and joyous, and you just ruined all of it. California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio. West Virginia. We made it.
Well done, lady. Climb crushers. Wow. It's been a roller coaster.
Took forever.
Physically. You better, Nate.
I can't run. My knees hurts.
It's cold. It was a roller coaster because we were going up and down and up and down, up and down all day.
Pretty sure I saw McDonald's on Find My.
Huh.
But it's dry and it's sunny, so I'm not gonna come complete. We were in a city stopped.
There were a lot of red lights.
Really long red light. We did hit this one really long light. Just wanted to state that it was cold.
And that's ice.
35 degrees right now. If anybody was wondering.
Oh, what it tastes like lunch.
Can I get pickle Woohoo. You go, girls. Bye.
We have renamed the Great American Rail Trail to the Great American road trip because that's all we've been on for the last two days.
Hey, Nate. Good morning. How's your butt? It's surprisingly good. Yeah.
Having some brake props so the pads can be brought in. In and out, away from the tire by using the tool.
To Pittsburgh we go.
The other ladies, seriously, I'm not sure.
If we said this, but today is Halloween and we just got a piece of candy from a giant pinata. And look at this. We're back on the trail, baby.
Well.
Morning'S not going too smoothly for the lady climb crushers. Our break is like kind of fixed, but this route, it's bringing us through this gated off factory. Yeah, we can't cross through here, can we? No, we were told we can't go through, so we're turning around. We're going.
One crack in the road. Hit it a little too hard. Now I gotta fly.
This is 13.
This is eating into our trick or treat time.
I just realized that the panhandle trail is called the Panhandle because we're going through the panhandle of upper West Virginia and we are crossing the border downhill.
And Sarah says, well, good news is we can test the brakes on the way out.
Who knew?
Pennsylvania. Back into Pennsylvania.
Pursue your happiness. Southeastern Ohio is so hilly.
If you're wondering where my parents are this morning, they don't have a van. So the plan.
I love that already feels different up here.
I'm pretty sure we were in West Virginia for a grand total of nine miles just straight across the upper Panhandle. We barely squeaked into it.
As each night they're just gonna find a hotel close by.
Good morning. Last night, after we got done riding, we threw the bike in the back of the van and then googled the nicest neighborhood in all of Pittsburgh. It's a kids trick or treating there.
Ew, something stink.
We couldn't decide with this and then meet back up with this in the morning and keep riding. When my parents originally decided to come, we had told them that we were going to be riding on bike paths the rest of the way because that was the plan. They were not big fans of the road riding, which is fair enough. So they're going to sit today out and then meet back up with us tomorrow because we believe the last 300 miles of this trail is definitely going to be on a bike path. Although I have this guy sitting in the street was real and Kara was The only one brave enough to go up and try to grab a sucker.
And we just continue to get braver and braver with where we sleep. Last night we slept underneath this bridge. Learned not to say definitely about anything on this entire trip.
I was not expecting. Expecting to climb this much today.
We've been on a total of zero rail trails today. It's all been the road just going up and down and up and down.
It's finally happening basically in the middle of downtown Pittsburgh. And there are signs everywhere that says park closes at 11am this is the first time we've explicitly broke the rules to sleep somewhere, but it's freezing. We had a late night last night, and I'm literally standing on the bike path where we'll be starting this morning.
I slept right across the street from the Cheesecake Factory.
We just had to.
Ready for this. I had to get a positive attitude this morning.
I didn't sign up for Survivor. What are we getting? Maybe nothing. It's a travesty that they don't register. Start trying to. Hello.
Are you on a bicycle?
Yeah.
Okay. You're gonna have to place your order inside.
Okay. I'm wearing hand warmers and.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you. We're leaving. We're going to Wendy's.
There was no Wendy's.
All right. We're almost done. Positive attitude this morning.
Yeah.
It feels like this should be the victory lap part of the ride, but unfortunately, the way we've set it up, this will be the hardest three days we have of the entire ride.
And I really wanted a large French fry and hot coffee, so we went inside. Next time, we're going to win. How great is this rail trail? Eh.
Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. Penny.
Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania.
West Virginia.
All right. These are our last moments in Ohio.
130 miles a day average to finish, which we've not done yet.
Yay.
Bye.
The trail that the girls started this morning.
Wow. This bridge is nuts. That is water. We're so high.
Ohio, Ohio, Ohio, Ohio, Ohio. West Virginia. Is this our ninth state?
It's called the Great Alani Passage. And from everything we've heard and read, it is completely finished. So we think the next 340 miles all the way to Washington, D.C. is going to be on a bike path or a rail trail. That's what we're hoping for.
Rail trail.
Finally.
I do think if there's one thing that I've taken away from this trip, it's this idea that you can pretty much do anything that you set your mind to.
California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, West Virginia. We made it. Well done, lady Climb crushers. Wow. It's been a roller coaster.
Took forever physically. For the last 30 something days, this group has gotten on a bike and pedaled somewhere around 100 miles. And eventually, after doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over over again, we are almost done. If something feels too big and too crazy and too overwhelming, the key is just to start and then show up every day and keep doing the work. And eventually, no matter how crazy it seems, you will get there.
It was a roller coaster because we were going up and down and up and down, up and down all day.
Pretty sure I saw McDonald's on Find My.
Huh.
We are in a city stopped.
There were a lot of red lights.
Really long red lights. We did hit this one really long light. It was all worth it. This rail trail is amazing. Check out this bridge. Woohoo. Yay. It's fun. Fun morning.
This trip must be catching up with me. I kind of laid down as a joke just to show that I was tired. And then next thing you know.
Oh what it tastes like lunch.
You like a pickle.
I woke up an hour later. I never know my pillow has a.
Big drool spot on it.
All right, you go girls. Bye.
We have renamed the Great American Rail Trail to the Great American Road Trip because that's all I've been on for the last two days.
What a beautiful sight. Who's the president? How long have I been gone? Is it summertime yet?
You seem delirious.
I literally.
Is your brain frozen?
Maybe we need to do 70 more today. It's probably going to take us seven hours to do it on that trail going at the speed that we'll probably go. So we're going to finish it midnight or beyond. However, if we just put A to B on Google, not necessarily following this rail trail, that 70 miles becomes 50 to Pittsburgh.
We go.
The other ladies.
Seriously, I'm not sure if we said this, but today is Halloween and we just got a piece of candy from a giant pinata. And look at this. We're back on the trail, baby.
Well, it might be the only way we can do it.
Kara, do you think we should take the road? Yeah.
So rail trail is so slow and so monotonous. I literally feel like I've been gone for seven years.
Oh, we came all this way just to be on the rail trail. Now we can think of is getting off of it because is so slow.
All right, back to the Road it is.
We will connect back up to the rail trail. We'll give it a second chance on the flat and downhill parts.
Kara, you can do the rail trail again. Second chance tomorrow. Evie, what are you doing tomorrow?
Had one crack in the road. Hit it a little too hard. Now I got a flat. This is 13. This is eating into our trick or treat time.
I just realized that the panhandle trail is called the Panhandle because we're going through the Panhandle of upper West Virginia and we are crossing the border.
I got a thing.
You want to ride on the rail trail?
Yeah.
The great American rail trail.
I gotta go, Ricky. I gotta do a thing.
Bye, everybody. The one way they all stand outside the vans to see us off. But I think everybody was so cold and done with it today. They all just went in the vans and we haven't seen them. Tight squeeze. Well, we managed to time this bike ride where we've gotten to ride through three totally different seasons. We started in summer in California. Summer continued through the Arizona desert. Pennsylvania back into Pennsylvania.
Pursue your happiness. I love that.
Already feels different up here.
I'm pretty sure we were in West Virginia for a grand total of nine miles, just straight across the upper Panhandle. We barely squeaked into it.
Then we got to experience peak fall in Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.
And now we're finishing out this ride in winter. Everything just looks more dead and depressing.
I feel like today is the first day that I've just really felt like the monotony of this trip has just really caught up with me. Just felt long and my butt hurts more than ever on these rail trails.
Good morning. Last night, after we got done riding, we threw the bike in the back of the van and then googled the nicest neighborhood in all of Pittsburgh. And kids trick or treating there.
Ew, something stinks.
We couldn't decide if this.
We got about 5,000ft of climbing left out of 150,000ft. And the bike's just falling apart.
Sounds like the chain's gonna break at any second. So we've opted to push it up this hill.
We're gonna savor these last few climbs and just walk them.
There's something depressing about watching two grown men walk a three seater bike up a hill. Hey, don't forget me. Solidarity for pushing. What do we think the chances are these gears work? This guy sitting in the street was real. And care was the only one brave enough to go up and try to grab a sucker.
I'm the girl with a short Skirt. And.
We just continue to get braver and braver with where we sleep. Last night we slept underneath this bridge. We're back, baby.
I think it's also a mindset thing. Like, I know we're almost there. And so the days are feeling a bit longer.
I don't know if you can see it, but it's snowing and I don't know. Full body sweat pedaling up this hill. This hill we're climbing is 13% grade. We've been on it for the last 20 minutes.
Still very happy that it didn't rain. It could have been slow and wet. I'm very grateful to be driving.
We've climbed so far up in elevation that there's now dusting of snow on everything. Yeah. It's feeling like this rail trail might have been a mistake. We'd be cruising into D.C. tomorrow. Yeah. Basically in the middle of downtown Pittsburgh and there are signs everywhere that says park closes at 11am this is the first time we've explicitly broke the rules to sleep somewhere. But it's freezing. We had a late night last night. And I'm literally standing on the bike path where we'll be starting this morning. Paddle slow. Forward, slows. Oh, that's off. Right. Close it down. Wow, look at that sunset. Beautiful. But it means that we still have to do the next 35 miles in the dark. You might be faster on uphills, but. But we got you on the down. Yeah, go for it. Oh, my goodness. Oh, all that sweat is just instantly freezing.
We slept right across the street from the Cheesecake Factory.
We just had to.
Ready for this.
I had to get a positive attitude this morning. I didn't sign up for Survivor.
Marring hand warmers and her.
Greg, how is it up front?
I'm absolutely frozen.
I've lost complete feeling in my fingers.
For some reason. I just had to have a cinnamon latte. It is pitch black outside. I feel a little guilty for how happy I am right now.
Well, the sun has officially set. It is 7pm and we figure we still have four hours of riding left to go. Making memories.
So we're at the trailhead where the guys will go from the road back to the bike path. We decided to come wait here just to see how everyone's doing. Have a little check in, see if everything all right.
We're almost done. Positive attitude this morning.
Yeah. It feels like this should be the victory lap part of the ride, but unfortunately, the way we've set it up, this will be the hardest three days we have of the Entire ride.
Rice, go with their layers. Maybe give them a hot cuppa. We really need to keep going, but I have a feeling we're not.
I was not expecting to set a new record this way into the trip, but we just set a record for the steepest grade, which is a 16% climb, which doesn't sound like much. We're literally having to swerve back and forth on the road to keep enough momentum to keep going up.
130 miles a day average to finish, which we've not done yet.
Yay.
The trail that the girls started this.
Morning, it's not all fun and games around here. I am gonna be working while I'm being cozy.
Outfit change before the last big climb. It's just me breathing behind the camera.
Okay, this is crazy. The guys still have at least three hours. It is 30 degrees in the road that they're on. It is sketchy. So the girls and I have made the executive decision to go ambush them.
It's called the great Alani passage, and from everything we've heard and read, it is completely finished. So we think the next 340 miles all the way to Washington, D.C. is going to be on a bike path or a rail trail. That's what we're hoping for.
Put them in our vans and drive them to where they were supposed to ride tonight.
Well, to add to the adventure, our back break is almost completely locked up. Oh, man.
What are they doing? This looks so creepy.
This is what our brakes sound like going downhill. Oh, my gosh. The most memorable night of the trip for sure.
Okay, this is weird. We didn't tell the guys that we were gonna come because we knew they would tell us not to. Sarah and I have Dusty Nate's location, and it hasn't moved in, like, 30 minutes.
Rail trail.
Finally.
I do think if there's one thing that I've taken away from this trip, it's this idea that you can pretty much do anything that you set your mind to. For the last 30 something days, this group has gotten on a bike and pedaled somewhere around 100 miles. And eventually, we don't want to drive.
The vans down there because we're a little nervous the vans will get stuck or there won't be a place for us to turn around. Oh, my gosh. His location just disappeared.
Yeah. So what's going on now.
Is the freehub. The rear wheel has just stripped out, and even though everything's in place here, we can pedal the bike forward.
The back wheel should be spinning right now.
Backwards. The Chains up.
After doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over again.
Everything's good. And the tire does not move forward.
I can't believe this. If you watch the Colorado Trail series, this is exactly what happened to Dusty's bike at the very end.
We're pedaling full speed right now and they're.
Well, this might be the end. We're in the most remote place of all the things. This is like the one thing that we think might not be possible to fix.
What's up?
This might be the end of the bike ride.
Well, it might be the end of the tr.
Oh no.
We are in the middle of nowhere on a gravel road. The Google maps took us on in the snow. If you can send back to pick a top, that would be great.
What if I told you that we came to ambush you and put you in the vans and we're half a mile up the hill from where you are? All of us.
No.
Yeah.
Are you serious?
I have big news. I think the bike is broken.
We are almost done. If something feels too big and too crazy and too overwhelming, the key is just to start and then show up every day and keep doing the work and eventually. No. No.
What? Like the whole bike. I don't think we're biking anymore. Do you remember me saying imagine if the bike just broke today, two days away. They're pushing it up the hill. No, they are not.
Good morning. Last night we drove to the town of Cumberland because it had the closest bike shop that looked like it might be able to fix the trandom. We slept under a bridge. How are you feeling about our chances of getting the bike fixed this morning?
Honestly, it seems very 5050 right now. All I know is somehow we're getting that bike across the finish line in two days. If we have to strider bike it all the way to freaking D.C. this.
Is an actual option. He said if we just take all the pedals off, it's actually really efficient. We could strike our bike.
We come so far. We are two days from the end of this whole thing and now we're staring at a broken bike. It's heartbreaking.
No matter how crazy it seems, you will get there.
It was all worth it. This rail trail is amazing. Check out this.
Woohoo. It's fun. Fun morning.
Last night I was so over it. I was ready to get in the car, drive to the east coast and chuck that bike in the ocean.
At least I guess you're in better spirits today.
I am.
I was sad for you Yesterday, I.
Woke up with a reset. Like, when I look back at this time, like, what am I gonna.
This trip must be catching up with me. I kind of laid down as a joke just to show that I was tired. And then next thing you know, come an hour later. I never know.
My pillow has a big drool spot on it.
Remember? And I don't want to remember being grumpy, which is what I was yesterday.
I was so prepared to ride till 2am last night. Like, it was just starting to get fun and exciting. Okay. We decided to go to another bike shop, not the one that we were originally gonna go to for, for this reason.
What a beautiful sight. Who's the president? How long have I been gone? Is it summertime yet?
Trashy and poor service. Had a puppy that attacked me as I entered the store.
You seemed delirious.
I literally.
Is your brain frozen? Maybe.
Horrible place to go. Owner had an attitude from the second I walked and the door. Would not recommend this place at all.
Rude.
Unprofessional. He actually kicked me out of the shop.
Us going in and saying, we need a bike fixed quickly sounded like a bad idea.
It did sound like a bad idea.
We need to do 70 more today. It's probably going to take us seven hours to do it on that trail, going at the speed that we'll probably go. So we're going to finish at midnight or beyond.
You're coming in as the hero. We call a lot of things, but.
The hero probably wasn't one of them.
How you feeling, Rhett?
I mean, when we asked for a new wheel, he didn't say no immediately.
So you're telling me there's a chance.
However, if we just put A to B on Google? Not necessarily. Follow this rail trail, that 70 miles becomes 50.
But you're telling me there's a chance?
See that chewed up part, right?
That's what your bearings are running on. I'll see if I have one to match that. These are older.
It might be the only way we can do it.
Okay. Do you think we should take the road?
Yeah. So, rail drought is so slow and so monotonous.
It's pretty cheap.
Oh, yeah. I can usually improvise around that, too. So as far as you can tell, it's just. It was just gunked up.
Hey, bro. I heard you performed a miracle today.
Basically, all I did was shine up the outside so it looked like it's done.
I literally feel like I've been gone for seven years.
Oh, we came all this way just to be on the rail, it didn't.
Look that good at the start of the trail.
It didn't. It didn't.
That crack on the inside, I don't recall ever seeing that before.
I have the trail and all we can think of is getting off of it cuz it's so slow.
Seen some that have cracked on the outside. You know what causes that? Diesel torque.
Is that right? So you've been doing this for 44 years, you've never seen one of these crack inside like that?
Not. Not in that area there, no. All right. Back to the road it is.
We will connect back up to the rail trail. We'll give it a second chance on the flat and downhill parts.
Thought it was appropriate the new official team name Triple Trouble Tour. Thank you for saving the bike trip. No problem. Now the real work begins. Yeah. All right. So if we average 12 miles an hour, it'll take us 10 hours. Best case scenario, 10pm Finished. Most likely scenario, 1am Finished. Kara, you can do the rail trail again. Second chance tomorrow.
Evie.
I think we're gonna do it in seven hours. I've seen this elevation profile. It's like a tabletop here in dc. I've been wrong before.
I gotta sing.
You want to ride on the rail trail?
Yeah.
The great. What? I am looking forward to this flat. Totally flat. If it's uphill one bit, I'm throwing this bike in the river. American Rail Trail.
I gotta go.
Snap donuts. Yep. Good to go.
One, two, three. Rinky.
I gotta do a thing.
Bye everybody.
Go fast.
Normally they all stand outside the vans to see us off, but I think everybody was so cold and done with it today they all.
We did it. Don't worry about us.
All right.
Washington D.C. we're so close. There's been a lot of confusion with the whole dc, Annapolis, east coast, Bay, Atlantic Ocean. We're using the mall. Entertainment. To be honest, we don't know where we're gonna end up. But we're going east.
Just went in the vans and we haven't seen them. Tight squeeze. Well, we managed to time this bike ride where we've gotten to ride through three totally different seasons. We started in summer in California. Summer continued to the Arizona desert.
Oh, just spilled coffee on my arm.
Lots of coffee.
All right.
We obviously got a late start to the ride, but good news is we're riding. That was not guaranteed today from where.
We started back there. We have 184 miles to get to Washington D.C. then we got to experience peak fall in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. But we've decided that this trip has to be finished in Annapolis because that was the original ending of the RAM route. So we have 184 miles. Washington D.C. and then 30 more miles past that will get us to the Chesapeake Bay in Annapolis, which technically the Atlantic Ocean flows into.
The plan is just for them to go as far as they possibly can towards the East Coast.
And now we're finishing out this ride. In winter. Everything just looks more dead and depressing.
I feel like today's the first day that I've just really felt like the.
Goal for the day is to knock out 124 miles.
My job today is just to be the support van. Just hope the tandem holds up.
12 miles in first flat of the day.
The monotony of this trip has just really caught up with me.
Pretty much riding like a mystery trail. It's really beautiful. You just can't really see what's coming up because of all the leaves.
Man. This one was new tire material.
Does anybody have a dollar?
Just felt long and my butt hurts more than ever on these rail trails.
Nate's mom brought us brownies and they're so good. She should not have left these in here with me.
I think it's time to go back to the road. It's quite fitting to go to Washington D.C. george Washington stuck up inside the shire.
George is saving the day. Is this a federal crime?
This is how George Washington would have wanted it. We got about 5,000ft of climbing left out of 150,000ft. And the bike's just falling apart.
Sounds like the chain's gonna break at any second. So we've opted to push it up this hill.
We're gonna savor these.
All right. These support vans are en route to the guides. We're just gonna go bring them a spare just in case. We have learned the hard way that anything can happen back on the road.
Definitely not having children.
The drama continues.
Last few climbs and just walk them.
There's something depressing about watching two grown men walk a three seater bike up a hill. Well, we got another flat. We can't get to the road for another 2 and 12 miles where the girls are there to meet us with an extra tube tire. Still has a little bit of air in it. But it was not enough to carry three people. So we sent Rick on ahead by himself on the bike to hopefully make it to the vans.
Nothing like walking in a diaper. Hey, don't forget me. Solidarity for pushing. I don't think the chances are these gears work.
We're back, baby.
I think it's also a mindset thing. Like, I know we're almost there, and so the days are feeling a bit longer.
We're gonna do this even if I have to walk all the way to Annapolis. I did not expect to be walking the next time I saw you.
Yeah, me either.
But Rick made it all the way with a flat tire, so that saved us a lot of time. Wow. I feel really picky right now. Like, I feel like we can't be pleased. We're like, we want the rail trip. I don't know if you can see it, but it's snowing, and I'm in a full body sweat pedaling up this hill. Oh, we don't want to ride on the road. And as soon as we get on the rail trail, we're like, we want to ride on the more efficient road. We're thinking in about 20 miles, we're going to reconnect to the ram road and finish it out on the ram route. This hill climbing his 13 grade. We've been on it for the last 20 minutes.
Still very happy that it didn't rain.
We want her back.
That is hilarious. Good luck.
Thanks for the ride.
Welcome.
I love being sport.
It doesn't matter if you just leave.
It sticking out, it'll be a noisemaker.
It could have been slow and wet. I'm very grateful to be driving.
We've climbed so far up in elevation that there's now a dusting of snow and everything.
Nothing's stopping us. Spokes.
We'll walk to the Atlantic Ocean. At this point, we can literally still see the vans. And the spoke just broke off. It's really feeling like we're not meant to finish this ride, but we're going to do it anyway.
Yeah. It's feel like this rail trail might have been a mistake. We'd be cruising into D.C. tomorrow. Yeah. Paddle slow. Forward slows. Oh, that's off.
Oh, my gosh. What a roller coaster.
In a way, I really do feel like the guys, especially Nate, love how this is going. Like, the challenge of it overcoming all of these obstacles.
And now we walk just.
Down. Wow, look at that sunset. Beautiful. Should we ride it? Actually, probably. It's going to get dark. All right.
Yeah. This is safe at all.
Oh, nice. The e bike coming in clutch.
I mean, this is cool. I don't know if I call it a bike.
Tr we get comments sometimes. Welcome to West Virginia.
What?
We get comments here and there on our challenge videos that are like, why are you doing this? For YouTube. You don't have to do this to.
Yourself, but it means that we still have to do the next 35 miles in the dark. You might be faster on uphills, but we got you on the down. Yeah, go for it. Oh my goodness. Oh, that sweat is just instantly freezing.
And I'm being so honest when I say it's not for YouTube. Nate loves it and he's kind of made me start loving it.
Wow, that took forever. That was almost as much fun as driving a boat through one.
This is actually pretty epic. It was worth doing the rail trail.
Ray Cat just for this.
There is slick mud on the trail and about a 10 foot drop off straight into the canal just 2ft from where our wheel is.
Well, it's 9:30 and the guys should be here any minute.
How's it up front?
I'm absolutely frozen.
I've lost complete failing in my fingers.
For some reason. I just had to have a cinnamon latte. It is pitch. I've made Nate some instant noodles and I think the plan is for them to eat, maybe watch a little bit of the Titans game and then black outside. Feel a little guilty for how happy I am right now.
Well, the sun has officially set. It is seven.
Keep cycling through the night. I mean it feels crazy. At the same time, I don't know if we have another option.
7:00Pm and we figure we still have four hours of riding left to go. Making memories.
And I genuinely, genuinely think Nate wants to do it and is excited about it. So we shall see, I suppose. Just so funny that it's come to this. If we wouldn't have switched to the rail trail a few days ago.
We would be done. We just took a long detour. So we're at the trailhead where the guys will go from the road back to the bike path. We decided to come wait here, here just to see how everyone's doing. Have a little check in, see if.
I doubt you can see what's going on right now, but we're still biking on a mountain bike trail on a tandem bicycle. But the current strategy is following the ebike because it has a bread.
Go with their layers, maybe give them a hot cuppa.
They're light. We believe we have about five more miles of off road riding before we reach the pavement.
Are we up? Just celebrating tonight. Tonight when they come back. Yeah. Hello. We really need to keep going but I have a feeling we're not.
I was not expecting to set a new record.
He jumps off and I put it on his head. Definitely you're so nice for getting all this stuff from my dad. Aren't birthday parties fun? Yeah, I love them. All right, when they get here, come in here, grab the stuff. I'll start lighting the candles. Okay, I'll leave that cave. And Rick's birthday actually isn't for two days. But it's the day that we all say bye.
This way into the trip. But we just set a record for the steepest grade, which is a 16 climb, which doesn't sound like much.
Thought we would celebrate tonight.
That's not good. I'm hoping it's a short section. We gotta lead the way. The Great American Rail. We're literally having to swerve back and forth on the road to keep enough momentum to keep going up. Darkness update number two. It is now 10pm we have now been on the bike for eight hours and somehow we've barely done 60 miles.
Happy birthday, dear Rick. Yeah, it's not all fun and games around here. And gonna be working while I'm being cozy.
Outfit change before the last big climb. It's just me breathing behind the camera.
Okay, this is crazy. The guys still have at least three hours. It is 30 degrees in the road that they're on. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday.
I'm afraid I'm.
How about you blow it for me?
Can you do it?
Oh, I can't move my shoulders either.
You want some ice cream?
I can't feel my feet. They're like hot. Now what? I wonder how one of my shoelace has been untied.
I think it's called is sketchy. So the girls and I have made the executive decision to go ambush them.
The frostbite.
Nick, are you hungry? Put them in our vans and drive them to where they were supposed to ride tonight.
Well, to add to the adventure, our back break is almost completely locked up.
It's gonna take me 10 minutes to get the dexterity back on my fingers.
Let's get in there.
Oh, my God.
Oh, man.
What are they doing? This looks so creepy. Is this.
I don't know that we've admitted this to ourselves yet, but at some point I think we missed the turn off. What our brakes sound like going downhill. Oh, my gosh. For this paved bike trail and instead stayed on the hiking trail on the other side of the.
Oh, no. We have Red Bull and ice cream. So you also have ice cream.
The hardest part.
I thought you were joking about ice cream. Because it's vanilla Drake's favorite, most memorable night of the trip for sure.
Okay, this is weird. We didn't tell the guys that we were gonna come because we knew they would tell us not to.
Honestly, ice cream might warm me up. That's how cold I am.
Look how cold the bottom up it is. I can't feel it like I can. Honestly.
Sarah and I have Dusty Nate's location and it hasn't moved in like 30 minutes. We don't want to drive the vans down there because we're a little nervous the vans will get stuck or there won't be a place for us to turn around.
8.
It's 11 o'. Clock.
Not only is it 11 o', clock, but we're still 150 miles from the east coast where we have to be tomorrow.
Thanks.
I think. Sleep. Oh, y' all aren't going to be on a trail. Oh, my gosh. His location just disappeared.
Yeah. So what's going on now.
Is the free hub. The rear wheel has just stripped out. And even though everything's in place here, we can pedal the bike forward.
The back wheel should be spinning right now.
Backwards. The chains up.
Cheers on. Everything's good in the tire.
We're committed at this point. As soon as I take a sip of this, there's no going back.
Either just ride the bike for the next two hours or stare at the ceiling.
Now.
Oh, my goodness.
Does not move forward.
I can't believe this. If you watch the Colorado trail series, this is exactly what happened to Dusty's bike at the very end.
We're pedaling full speed right now and.
There Might as well ride the bike.
There's a hand.
Back on the brown trail now.
Yeah, they're crazy. It's says it's paved.
This is a toxic relationship.
We're doing this.
We're doing this because we found a sweet route on the Internet that says this is a good idea.
Well, this might be the end. We're in the most remote place of all the things. This is like the one thing that we think might not be possible to fix.
What's up?
This might be the end of the bike ride.
Well, it might be the end of the train, though.
Oh, no.
We are in the middle of nowhere on a gravel road.
I feel like I'm smoking a cigarette now.
According to Google, this bike ride should take three and a half hours. It's 12:30. I'll let you do the math.
At least there should be no traffic.
I cannot believe they're doing this.
All right, me and Rick are going to finish out the the last 36 miles of the day alone. That she's Having some The Google maps took us on in the snow. If you can send back to pick us up, that would be great.
What if I told you that we came to ambush you and put you in the vans and we're half a mile up the hill from where you are? All of us.
No.
Yeah.
Are you serious? Stomach issues, Conveniently.
Kidding.
I think they're. It's pretty bad. It's just me and Rick on the super smooth bike path.
I have big news. I think the bike is broken.
I'm exhausted. We just drove the fans.
No.
What? Like the whole bike? We're not minutes to the town of Greencastle in Pennsylvania again. Somehow I barely made it through the drive.
And I didn't even bike today. I don't think we're biking anymore. Do you remember me saying imagine if the bike just broke today? Two days away, they're pushing it up the hill. I can't imagine how the guys must be feeling. It's gonna be a miracle if we make it tomorrow. I'm leaving a door unlocked. No, they are not.
I guess I'm gonna go sleep. Looks like they're 17 miles away, so chances are they'll be here in a little over an hour.
All right, we've made it to 2am We've got the the road. Good morning. Last night we drove to the town of Cumberland because it had the closest bike shop that looked like it might be able to fix the trandom. We slept under a bridge all to ourselves. We have passed one car since we started. I think the Red Bull is still coursing through my blood. How are you feeling about our chances of getting the bike fixed this morning?
Honestly, it seems very 5050 right now.
I'm feeling surprisingly good. Either that or it's the cold air. Compared to what we did earlier today, these are easy miles. And we're literally just riding. Right?
All I know is somehow we're getting that bike across the finish line in two days if we have to.
Right in the middle of the road. Mr. Dusty. Watching those pedals go around by themselves, a little weird. Listen to my water bottle.
It's all ice. We're almost there. I think we rode long enough that people are awake and going to work. We finished the ride today.
The Strider. Bike it all the way to freaking.
D.C. this is an actual option. He said if we just take all the pedals off.
Wow. This is amazing. What a welcome. Made it back.
It's actually really efficient. We could strike our bike the rest of the way.
We've come so far we are two days from the end of this whole thing, and now we're staring at a broken bike. It's heartbreaking.
Last night, I was so over it. I was ready to get in the car, drive.
And now to the east coast and chuck that bike in the ocean.
At least you're in better spirits today.
I am.
I was sad for you yesterday.
I woke up with a reset. Like, when I look back at this time, like, what am I gonna. Liz, here we come. There are usually only about two times a year that I get up and make the coffee, and that's on Nate's birthday and.
Actually just one time a year. But this year, it was two, Remember? And I don't want to remember being grumpy, which is what I was yesterday.
I was so prepared to ride till 2am last night, like, it was just starting to get fun and exciting.
I much rather get up a little earlier and make the coffee than bike with mountain lions till four in the morning.
Okay. We decided to go to another bike shop, not to one that we were originally gonna go to for, for this reason.
Good morning. I managed to get about four hours of sleep.
Trashy and poor service. Had a puppy that attacked me as I entered the store.
It felt like three miles last night. Until this morning. I feel like my body's paying for it.
Lady Climb crushers have been riding for almost two hours now.
Horrible place to go. Owner had an attitude from the second I walked and the door. Would not recommend this place at all. Rude. Unprofessional. He actually kicked me out of the shop.
Us going in and saying we need a bike fixed quickly sounded like a bad idea.
It did sound like a bad idea.
And I believe we might be on our last climb this whole journey. We might change course two or three more times just for the heck of it.
I cannot believe that today is the last day.
Of biking across America, and we have almost done it. I still don't feel like that's really sunk yet. You're coming in as the hero. We call a lot of things, but.
The hero probably wasn't one of them.
How you feeling?
Right?
I mean, when we asked for a new wheel, he didn't say no immediately. So you're telling me there's a chance.
We have to make sure we lose the chain at least once before we get there.
Okay.
Just for old time's sake, you only have to make it 100 miles today. You can do it, little bike.
They're gonna try to knock out 50 or 60 miles this morning, and that'll leave us with 50 or 60 more miles to go. You're telling me there's a chance?
See that chewed up part, right?
That's what your bearings are running off. But as long as the bike doesn't completely fall apart, we are for sure. I'll see if I have one to match that. These are older. It's pretty cheap. Oh, yeah.
I can usually improvise around that, too. So as far as you can tell, it's just. It was just gunked up.
Hey, Bill.
Fishing?
I don't know that I ever felt this tired.
Last morning. Going to pick up the girls. Already starting to feel a little nostalgic.
I heard you performed a miracle today.
Basically, all I did was shine up the outside so it looked like it's done.
It's 12:30. The sun is warm.
It didn't look that good at the start of the trip.
It didn't. It didn't.
That crack on the inside, I don't.
Recall ever seeing that before.
I have seen some that have cracked on the outside. You know what causes that? Triple bike diesel torque.
Is that right?
Not complaining. This is amazing.
So you've been doing this for 44 years, you've never seen one of these crack inside? Like a.
Not. Not in that area there, no. Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania.
Maryland.
Back on the RAM route, I thought.
It was appropriate the new official team name Triple Trouble Tour. Thank you for saving the bike trip. No problem. Now the real work begins. Yeah. All right. So if we average 12 miles an hour, it'll take us 10 hours. Best case scenario, 10pm Finished. Most likely scenario, 1am Finished.
I think we're gonna do it seven hours. I've seen this elevation profile. It's like a tabletop. New DC I've been wrong before, but I am looking forward to this. Flat, totally flat. If it's up to a one bit, I'm throwing this bike in the river.
Yep, Good to go.
One, two, three.
Go. Fast. Oh, my gosh. We did it. Don't worry about us.
All right. Washington, D.C. we're so close. There's been a lot of confusion with the whole dc, Annapolis, east coast, Bay, Atlantic Ocean. We're using them all interchangeably. To be honest, we don't know where we're going to end up. But we're going east.
Oh. Oh. Just spilled coffee on my arm.
Lots of coffee. All right.
We obviously got a late start to the ride, but good news is we're riding that was not guaranteed today.
From where we started back There, we have 184 miles to get to Washington, D.C. but we've decided that this trip has to be finished in Annapolis because that was the original ending of the ram route. So we have 184 miles to Washington, D.C. and then 30 more miles past that will get us to the Chesapeake bay in Annapolis, which technically the Atlantic Ocean flows into.
The plan is just for them to go as far as they possibly can towards the east coast.
The goal for the day is to knock out 124 miles.
My job today is just to be the support room. Just hope the tandem holds up.
12 miles in. First flight of the day. Pretty much riding like a mystery trail. It's really beautiful. You just can't really see what's coming up because of all the leaves.
Man, this one was new tire material.
Does anyone have a dollar?
Nate's mom brought us brownies, and they're so good. She should not have left these in here with me.
I think it's time to go back to the road. It's quite fitting to go to Washington, D.C. george Washington stuck up inside the shire.
George is saving the day. Is this a federal crime?
This is how George Washington would have wanted it.
All right, these support vans are in route to the guides. We're just going to go bring them a spare just in case. We have learned the hard way that anything can happen back on the road.
Definitely not having children.
The drama continues.
Well, we got another flat. We can't get to the road for another two and a half miles where the girls are there to meet us with an extra tube tire. Still has a little bit of air in it, but it was not enough to carry three people. So we sent Rick on ahead by himself on the bike to hopefully make it to the vans.
Nothing like walking in a diaper.
We're going to do this even if I have to wait. Walk all the way to Annapolis. I did not expect to be walking the next time I saw you.
Yeah, me neither.
But Rick made it all the way with a flat tire, so that saved us a lot of time. Wow. I feel really picky right now. Like, I feel like we can't be pleased. We're like, we want the rail trail. We don't want to ride on the road. And as soon as we get on the rail trail, we're like, we want to ride on the more efficient road. We're thinking in about 20 miles, we're going to reconnect to the ram road and finish it out on the ram route. We want her back.
That is hilarious. Good luck.
Thanks for the ride.
Welcome.
I love Being sport.
It doesn't matter.
If you just leave it sticking out, it'll be a noise maker.
Another stopping us spokes.
We'll walk to the Atlantic Ocean. At this point, we can literally still see the vans. And a spoke just broke off. It's really feeling like we're not meant to finish this ride, but we're going to do it anyway.
Oh, my gosh. What a roller coaster.
In a way, I really do feel like the guys, especially Nate, love how this is going. Like the challenge of it overcoming all of these obstacles.
And now we walk this mount bicycles. Should we ride it?
Actually, it's probably just going to get dark.
All right.
Yeah, this is the same at all.
Oh, nice. The ebike coming in clutch.
I mean, this is cool. I don't know if I call it a bike.
Tr we get comments sometimes. Welcome to West Virginia.
What?
We get comments here and there on our challenge videos that are like, why are you doing this? For YouTube. You don't have to do this to yourself. Where we should have stayed all along.
This entire gigantic bag.
And I'm being so honest when I say it's not for YouTube. Nate loves it and he's kind of made me start loving it.
Wow, that took forever. That was almost as much fun as driving a boat through one.
Or they're just for the french fries in the.
Oh, my gosh. This might be our last petals. That's the lady Climb crushers. Gonna get some lunch with the guys and potentially let them take over till the end.
I cannot believe I'm about to put the chamois on for the very last time. And after this, it needs to be burned because I don't think it's possible to clean it. It has been washed once in 36 days. Face.
1 last slather. Might as well go thick. You know, I'm going to have a shower tonight.
Don't hold back. This girl is about to take her shammy off for the last time.
This is actually pretty epic. It was worth doing the rail trail just for this.
There is slick mud on the trail and about a 10 foot drop off straight into the canal just 2ft from.
Where I'm probably until next year when we do another bike trip.
Will, is.
Bad stuff going on down there. That does not feel good.
Oh, no.
We are down to the wire here. This is broken spoke number two. The wheel is slowly getting wobblier. But honestly, if we stop and go to a bike shop now, we just probably won't finish today, so. So we're just gonna Ride it till the wheel falls off.
This will give you an idea of what we're working with. That should spin perfectly straight, but instead it's hitting the brakes on both sides.
Look downhill, Dads. Make us proud.
Last ride.
We just have 55 more miles to Annapolis where we are going to dip the front tire.
Well, it's 9:30 and the guys should.
Be here any minute in the Chesapeake Bay. If we pedal really hard and things go smoothly, we might be able to make it there in time for sunset.
I've made Nate some instant noodles and I think the plan is for them to eat, maybe watch a little bit of the Titans game and then.
But if we're being realistic, it's probably gonna be dark.
Keep cycling through the night. Let's go to Annapolis.
26 more miles. One marathon left.
My plan right now is to go ahead and drive to the finish line and scout out the best place for us to park, for us to celebrate, and most importantly, the best place to put the transom in the ocean.
Well, the ramrod has kept it interesting right until the very end. Well, he left.
Whoa.
I'm pulling into Annapolis at sunset and it is so magical.
Well, we're not gonna make it before sunset, but we're gonna make it. Wow.
I mean, it feels crazy. At the same time, I don't know if we have another option. We biked across the U.S. i'm sad it's so. You're sad. I am too.
I'll be glad when this is over.
And I genuinely think Nate wants to do it and is excited about it. So we shall see, I suppose. Just so funny that it's come to this. If we wouldn't have switched to the rail trail a few days ago.
We would be done.
Call me the blister. I basically showed up when all the work was pretty much finished.
I am so glad we came for a short amount of time to experience just a tiny bit of what they had done.
It's a great testament to small steps in the same direction.
I will never look at a us map the same. We just took a long detour.
I doubt you can see what's going on right now, but we're still biking on a mountain bike trail on a tandem bicycle. But the current strategy is following the E bike because it has a brighter light. We believe we have about five more miles of off road riding before we reach the pavement.
It was so fun. Being on the bike with Beck and Kara was 10 10% the best part. I had so much fun. But remember all the memories you had. I mean, the obvious feelings I have are pure joy, gratefulness, excitement. I think Today is day 36, which is so long. It doesn't feel like it's been that long. It feels like we've been on this bike trip forever. This is our fourth bike trip in a row that we've taken with this crew. And each one, I feel like I've come out the other side just better in every way. I'm probably gonna have an identity crisis tomorrow when I. When I don't just wake up and get on the bike, because that's all I've done for 36 days. Almost there.
We were so close.
I'm super impressed with the lady climb crushes. Who knew that? Are we celebrating tonight? Tonight when they come back. Yeah, when he jumps off, can I put it on his head? Definitely. He would ride halfway across the country. I mean, all the way across the country, but half the miles. You're so nice for getting all this stuff from my dad. Our birthday party's fun. Yeah, I love them. All right, when they get here, come in here. Grab the stuff. I'll start lighting the candles. Okay. I'll. Keeping it together, Beck. I mean, you're just a fearless leader. You are the captain, I feel like, of the team the whole time. I don't even have words to, like, describe how she makes me feel about myself, about things that I'm capable of doing or capable of of at least trying and seeing what happens. But I think my favorite part was the people we're with. I mean, I'm just so thankful that I have friends like them. Kara's energy on the bike is always.
Just fun, happy. Let's play music. Let's party. We're biking across the US and, like, I just love that energy on the bike when you are surrounded by positive, positive, energetic, amazing, supportive people.
Rick's birthday actually isn't for two days, but it's the day that we all say bye. So I thought we would celebrate tonight.
That's not good.
You can do anything. This one will be hard to beat. I'm just so proud of him. I can't believe.
I'm hoping. It's a short section. You gotta lead the way. Great American man.
They've run across America in 36 days.
It's crazy.
I guess that's all. We'll see what happens. Stay tuned for next year annual bike trip. Can't wait to see what's next.
Darkness. Update number two, it is now.
This van smells like a bag of butts.
Wow. I can't believe it. We are officially one mile away from the Venice.
All right, we have the finish line all set up. The dads are literally seconds away. I can't believe we got my daddy here. My cousin Amy here. Pete is here. Nate's mom is here.
About 10pm we have now been on the bike for eight hours and somehow we've barely done 60 miles.
Happy birthday. We have a welcome party.
We didn't die. We did it.
We didn't die. We didn't get hit by a car. Hold on. Get people on the bike. Get everybody on the bike.
Hey, dear. Happy birthday to you.
You got bed wrist. Oh, no.
Hey, we made it.
I'm so proud of you. We did it. Happy birthday.
I'm afraid I'm going to snap. How about you blow it for me?
Can you do it?
Oh, I can't move my shoulders.
You.
You want some ice cream?
I can't feel my feet. They're like hot now. I wonder how one of my shoelace has been untied.
I think it's cold.
Let's go.
There are no other eight people that I would have rather ridden across the country with for 36 days.
We're dipping the back of the frost.
The frostbite.
Nick, are you hungry?
We're throwing it in 1, 2, 3.
It's gonna take me 10 minutes to get the dexterity back on my fingers.
Let's get it.
Oh, my God.
I don't know that we've admitted this to ourselves yet, but at some point I think we missed the turn off for this paved bike trail and instead stayed on the hiking trail on the other side of the.
Oh no. We have Red Bull and ice cream.
The hardest part.
You were joking about ice cream.
Because it's vanilla Drake's favorite.
Honestly, ice cream might warm me up. That's how cold I am.
How cold the bottom oven is. I can't feel it. Like I can. Honestly. Really? White.
It's 11 o'. Clock.
Not only is it 11 o', clock, but we're still 150 miles from the east coast where we have to be tomorrow.
Thanks.
I think sleep. Oh, y' all aren't going to be on a trail.
Cheers.
Cheers.
We're committed at this point. As soon as I take a sip of this, there's no going back.
Either just ride the bike for the next two hours or stare at the ceiling.
Oh my goodness.
Might as well ride the bike.
There's a hand.
Back on the brown trail now.
Yeah, they're crazy. It says it's paved.
This Is a toxic relationship doing this.
We're doing this because we found a sweet route on the Internet that says this is a good idea. I feel like I'm smoking a cigarette now.
According to Google, this bike rides to take three and a half hours. It's 12:30. I'll let you do the math.
I cannot believe they're doing this.
All right. Me and Rick are gonna finish out the last 36 miles of the day alone. That she's having some stomach issues conveniently. I'm kidding. I think they're. It's pretty bad. It's just me and Rick on the super smooth bike path.
I'm exhausted. We just drove the vans 40 minutes to the town of Green Castle in Pennsylvania again. Somehow I barely made it through the driver drive.
And I didn't even bike today. I can't imagine how the guys must be feeling. It's going to be a miracle if we make it tomorrow. I'm leaving a door unlocked. I guess I'm going to go to sleep. Looks like they're 17 miles away so chances are they'll be here in a little over an hour.
All right, we've made it to 2am We've got the road all to ourselves. We have passed one car since we started. I think the Red Bull is still coursing through my blood, but I'm feeling surprisingly good. Either that or it's the cold air. Compared to what we did earlier today, these are easy, mild and we're literally just riding right in the middle of the road. Mr. Dusty. Watching those pedals go around by themselves feel weird. Listen to my water bottle.
It's all ice. We're almost there. I think we rode long enough that people are awake and going to wait. Work. We finished the ride today.
Wow. This is amazing. What a welcome. Made it back.
Boom boom, boom boom.
Annapolis, here we come. There are usually only about two times a year that I get up and make the coffee and that's on Nate's birthday and.
Actually just one time a year. But this year it was two. I'd much rather get up a little earlier, make the coffee than bike with mountain lions till four in the morning.
Good morning. I managed to get about four hours of sleep.
It felt like three miles last night until this morning. I feel like my body's paying for it.
Lady Climb crushers have been riding for almost two hours now. And I believe we might be on our last climb of this whole journey. We might change course two or three more times just for the heck of it.
I cannot believe that Today is the last day of biking across America and we have almost done it. I still don't feel like that's really sunk in.
We have to make sure we lose the chain at least once before we get there.
Okay.
Just for old times sake, you only have to make it 100 miles today. You can do it, little bike.
They're gonna try to knock out 50 or 60 miles this morning and that'll leave us with 50 or 60 more miles to go. But as long as the bike doesn't completely fall apart, we are for sure finishing.
I don't know that ever felt this tired.
Last morning. Going to pick up the. The girls already starting to feel a little nostalgic.
It's 12:30. The sun is warm. Not complaining. This is amazing.
Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania.
Maryland.
Back on the ram route where we should have stayed all along, this entire.
Gigantic bag just filled with french fries. I'm enjoying the last day of just being able to eat anything I want guilt free.
Or they're just for the french fries.
Oh, my gosh. This might be our last petals. That's the lady. Climb crushers. Gonna get some lunch with the guys and potentially let them take over till the end.
I. I cannot believe I'm about to put this chamois on for the very last time. And after this, it needs to be burned because I don't think it's possible to clean it. It has been washed once in 36 days.
One last lather. Might as well go thick. You know, I'm gonna have a shower tonight.
Don't hold back. This girl is about to take her shammy off for the last time. Probably until next year when we do another bike trip.
Bad stuff going on down there. That does not feel good.
Oh, no.
We are down to the wire here. This is broken spoke number two. The wheel is slowly getting wobblier. But honestly, if we stop and go to a bike shop now, we just probably won't finish today. So we're just gonna ride it till the wheel falls off.
This will give you an idea, but what we're working with, that should spin perfectly straight, but instead it's hitting the brakes on both sides downhill.
Dads make us proud. Last ride.
We just have 55 more miles to Annapolis where we are going to dip the front tire in the Chesapeake Bay. If we pedal really hard and things go smoothly, we might be able to make it there in time for sunset at. But if we're being realistic, it's probably going to be dark.
Let's go to Annapolis.
26 more miles. One marathon left.
My plan right now is to go ahead and drive to the finish line and scout out the best place for us to park, for us to celebrate, and most importantly, the best place to put the transom in the ocean.
Well, the ramrod has kept it interesting right until the very end. Will we live?
Well, I'm pulling into Annapolis at sunset, and it is so magical.
Well, we're not gonna make it before sunset, but we're gonna make it. Wow.
