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The Pedouin Second Month Mileage LogOur second month of practice already. Incredible how time passes by. We have pedaled about 50 miles in our first month of practice. It has been a great experience, with lots of joy, quite some snarling and an increase in teamwork.
06/01/2009 After a weekend off the quint bicycle, it is time for Bill, Cheyenne and Jasmine to hop back on. This time Amarins gets to ride too. Our friend Zac brings Robin along. Now this is a total different experience for Bill. Amarins on the bicycle makes an incredible difference. He has to learn to change gears all over again. What used to be possible only in low, now can be taken in medium. 
The balance on the bicycle has also changed. It makes quite the difference whether it is 40+ pound Jasmine that moves in her seat, or whether it is Amarins - of undisclosed weight... - that repositions herself. By being on the quint bicycle Amarins has given up control over the gear she rides in. Bill's gear is her gear now. When Bill says 'cruise', we cruise. When he says 'pedal, pedal, pedal', we pedal. 06/02/2009 We had mail today! We ordered a special seat for Robin, to be attached between her seat post and Jasmine's seat post. The salesperson told us the span of the special bar the seat is attached to was up to 32 inches. We need 27. What a disappointment when we tried to attach it and it didn't even come close to reaching the 27 inches we need. Robin will have to wait a while longer before she can ride with us.
06/05/2009 The rain has cleared. On the bicycle we go. Robin is staying home with big brother Jesse, since Amarins is away on personal business. Riding the long quint bicycle is getting easier and easier. Cheyenne and Jasmine know how to get on and how to get their feet in the straps. Before we know it we are off again. The route is becoming very familiar terrain. It gives great practice for the use of the gear system. We did not beat our 35 mph speed record today. The roads will have to be dry before we can 'fly' down the mountain again.
06/06/2009 Bill, Cheyenne and Jasmine participated in the 2.5 mile Get Healthy Berea ride this morning. You can understand the attention they got with 'Big Yeller'. It has been a great experience to show the bicycle publicly. We met a lot of cool bike folks who thought we are crazy yet think it’s a great idea to take an extensive journey as a family. One said: "I wish I had the freedom to do what you are doing." This brings up an interesting point. What gives a person freedom? It is a question each of us will need to answer individually. What fits us will not fit another. What makes us feel alive might enthrall someone else. Do what you need to do to live a happy and fulfilling life of abundance. After the ride Bill picked up an extended bracket for Robin´s seat. Perhaps she can ride tomorrow. 
06/07/2009 Cheyenne had an accident with her bicycle. On the way to our neighbors she fell and skidded down the mountain. Not wearing a helmet this resulted in scrapes on arms and head. She now has learned her lesson and consequently wears her helmet every time she is on wheels.
06/07/2009 Robin´s maiden voyage on the quint! The bracket works like a charm. Now we can bring Robin along on the quint bicycle. She was very excited and had a ball. Our friends Raney & Teresa w/ friends came over and brought their 'bikes' with them. They went along for the ride. How wonderful to share a ride with us.  Rain, rain, rain Undoubtedly we will receive plenty of rain on our journey. For now we choose to not ride in it when we don´t need to. It’s amazing our home has not washed down the mountains yet. The rain is great for the grapes though. The tomato plants and bell pepper plants are slowly growing taller. The cantaloupe, watermelon and cucumber plants are little by little getting bigger. We might not be able to take advantage off the fresh produce this year, but our friends will.
06/12/2009 Robin is on the bike again. She loves her seat. It has a headrest that she uses to lean on. The weight of Robin does not affect the way Bill needs to shift. Now we only need to add Amarins and the quint is complete. On the way the chain came off the front sprocket. Bill had to hold the bike with kids up to fix it. It is still a puzzle as to how it happened. 
06/13/2009 Going to the playground is always a special treat. Up and down the mountain we go. When Bill needs the girls to give extra effort he will say 'Dig, dig, dig'. Jasmine's response: "Shovel, shovel, shovel!" Bill and the girls ride an average of 11.4 miles per hour. A very good speed. We are very pleased with it. We are planning on riding about 35-40 miles per day on our journey. Two days on the bicycle, one day off. It sure feels doable.
06/15/2009 Five on one bike! We are finally to the point that we are riding together. What an incredible feeling. Robin sits proudly in the middle. Cheyenne tells Bill the gear we are riding in. Jasmine 'shovels' away and Amarins is enjoying the ride. It is very special to be riding together. Bill is becoming a master in turning the bike around, without the girls needing to get off. None of us like to fall, so we sit as steady as possible while we gently roll the pedals around. We did it! Time for a water break.
06/16/2009 Including the ride today, Bill, Cheyenne and Jasmine have been riding over 100 miles on the quint bicycle. Quite an achievement. During the ride we have had a shifting problem. While shifting from medium to low gear and going uphill, the chain got stuck between the sprocket and the frame. Amarins got off the bike and fixed it. All good to go, Bill took off again! The girls laughing and shouting. He had forgotten that Amarins still needed to get back on the bike! Thanks girls! 
06/18/2009 After a wild thunderstorm, the sun came out and the clouds moved away, resulting in a beautiful blue sky. Bill has been working long days and is feeling rather tired. Today we will take a leisure ride, pacing ourselves going up the hills. 
It is a new experience. It is taking a little longer, climbing the hills, but we still feel rather fresh once we are on top. In this pace we last much longer. The need to coast for a while after a climb is not as big. The bright sun gives a clear shadow of Bill, Jasmine and Robin during our ride. 06/18/2009 We had mail again today! Our trailer has arrived. Tomorrow will be the first time we will be riding with the trailer. It adds another 3.5 feet to our length. Bringing the total to 18 feet!
06/19/2009 Five on a bike and pulling a trailer too. The yellow and black trailer matches the colors of our quint very well. During our water break a turtle came across the road to admire the trailer. We have never seen a turtle before who didn't crawl in its shell or came towards us. 
We could barely feel the trailer behind us. Perhaps because we had nothing in it yet?... The maximum load we can put in it is 100lb. We are currently looking for a lightweight tent that fits 5 people. We need to keep in mind that we will be locked up every now and then in the rain. Even though the girls are still rather small, the space will be used. With the arrival of the trailer we can practice pulling weight. It is going to be yet another learning curve for Bill and his gears. Each change has an impact. We are very content with how it is going. Our endurance increases with each ride. Getting on and off is going well.
06/21/2009 It feels good to have a schedule of two days riding one day off. 'Normal' life is easier to wrap around it that way. When we are on the road to Alaska, that will be our normal life. What used to be normal will then seem strange. A matter of perception, a powerful thing. With an empty trailer we can't call it a training, so we have started to fill it up. We don't have a lot of heavy things to put in it. So we filled up four water bottles. About 32 pounds total. Even with this weight we can barely feel the trailer. It looks like we made the right choice. It doesn't take up much more space on the road. The wheel base is about 22 inches, just a little wider then Bills broad shoulders... Bill is handling the bike very well now. Amarins stays on the quint until he has completed a full stop. When we take off, Amarins is already on and Bill gets the bicycle rolling. When his feet are on, we start pedaling. Neither Bill nor Amarins has click-on shoes. We are just to inexperienced for that to have to learn that too.
06/22/2009 We filled the trailer with 9 gallons of water and our 4-person tent. Total weight of about 80 pounds. Now we'll feel it. Up to the fire station first today. It is a relatively easy ride, with a dip and only one long, not to steep hill. We push hard to get it up the hill. We have it in the lowest possible gear. Once we are on top we cruise for a little while. The quint bicycle is an excellent cruiser. With the trailer that makes no difference. Stunning. At the fire station we have to turn around in gravel. Even going straight on gravel is a chore. This turn turns out to be more than we can handle and we have to stop our circle and walk the remaining part. After we are back on the road we start the long descent down the hill. The trailer gives an incredible push. We exceed our maximum speed! The new maximum speed is 36.31 mph. With this momentum we almost make it back up the other side of the dip. Wow, that's the way to take a hill! We continue our training loop. The turn around at the end is going great this time. We are doing an average of 10 mph. Pretty good we think. 06/23/2009 Our legs feel like rubber today. This is the first time we can feel we have been working out. The girls are feeling great though. They can give effort when they want to give it. Otherwise they just pedal to our beat. Today we are having an off day. Well, off the bicycle that is. Bill is off to work and Amarins is taking the girls to Ms Carla's story hour at the Mt Vernon Public Library. We have been to many story hours; in Florida, North Carolina and other ones in Kentucky. But Ms Carla's is the best. The kids are engaged in the singing and color cards. They enjoy the story and love the creative crafts. On top of all that they get a snack and a drink too.
06/24/2009 The ride is going well, but the girls are starting to wonder what the use of it all is. Same road, same hills. They are asking how many days until we get on the bike ride? Why can't we leave today? Well, we still need to work to get as much off our back as possible. We still have preparations to take care off. And we set our departure day for August 1 and it just isn't that day yet. We have 38 days till departure. We need to order all sorts of camping material; tent, sleeping bags + mats, stainless steel water containers, bicycle clothes. It is overwhelming at times. But regardless of whether we have all the right equipment, we have a great bicycle, a wonderful trailer and we have our helmets. Bill has bicycle shorts and gloves. Amarins and the girls will get theirs when the time is right. 
Ready or not, we are off on August 1! If you haven't checked out the journey, look at it and see if you can help us find places to camp along our route. Not all the maps are available yet, but we have our route description for each section of the journey. Jasmine took this picture of Bill after our 10 mile bike ride. 06/25/2009 A fierce thunderstorm kept us inside today. We are wondering what will happen when we are on the road and a thunderstorm blows in... We'd probably pitch the tent in a field as fast as we can and huddle up. We'd be playing word and number games. Perhaps we just take a nap too. There will be many things we have not thought of. We can only prepare up to a point. From there on we will have to take it the way it comes. And we'll be fine. 06/26/2009 Upon inspection of the trailer we discover a seam that is letting loose. This needs to be fixed as soon as possible. Contacting Burley and actually talking to a real person turns out to be no problem. A friendly sales representative gets right to the point and tells me what she needs: picture, serial number and proof of purchase. After e-mailing her the information she calls us back within the hour. A new bottom part of the trailer will be shipped to us today. So it will be there after the weekend. Wow. Service still exists! Thanks Burley!
06/26/2009 We have decided to spice it up a little. We do not like that the girls are bored with the same road. Instead of taking our normal training loop we took the main road towards town. We live on top of a ridge, so the only way we can go is down after that. And going down we did... Once we got off the ridge the descent started. Two miles down. Faster and faster we go. We don't need to pedal. Gravity is on our side. Our clothes wave in the wind. We can barely hear anything anymore. We are going 41.5 miles per hour. It is incredible. It took us less then 5 minutes to do these miles. Fly girls fly!
We also have to get back up the mountain. That is a different story. Pedal, pedal, pedal. We are not even going 4 miles per hour. It is a long way up. We continue spinning the pedals around. Flat spot. Phew. Time for a break. The girls are not out of breath at all. They get to go off the tandem bicycle and run around in a beautiful field with rolls of hay. It takes a while for Bill and Amarins to have some breath back. On the bicycle again. We are in the lowest possible gear. Around and around we spin our legs. The end of the hill is in sight. Can we make it? It is a steep portion of the hill. Perhaps 50 more strokes and we will be on top. 'Stop!' And we are standing still. Jasmine screams. She does not like stopping. It tilts the bike. Stopping on a hill does not make it any better. Sweat is dripping down Bill's nose. His shirt is totally soaked. We are taking a couple of minutes to catch out breath again. Amarins has gotten off the bike, thinking we'd need to push it the last part up the hill. Bill has another idea. Put the right pedal up a little. Amarins and Bill are both going to get on the bike, pushing the right pedal down and then imediately continue up the hill. We did it! We actually started on a steep hill from a dead stand still and we made it to the top of the hill! This feels super! We have done enough for today. Not many miles, but a great victory over the mountain. It is time for a well deserved popsicle.
06/27/2009 We are riding to the playground today. Yesterday we had a very intense day. This day we are riding just the regular route. The hills don't seem so steep anymore. A two mile uphill 'battle' has changed our perception. With all the practice we have done, we are feeling ready to go on our journey.  
06/28/2009 To make up for the thunderstorm day this week, we are going to do the big loop. Firehouse and regular route. We are actually going past the firehouse to a grassy field. It is easier for us to turn around in the field then in the deep gravel. And as a bonus for going a little further we get to see some beautiful wild flowers. Going down the hill the wind flows around us. It is a rather cool feeling. Robin is saying she is cold. She has not been feeling well today, so we are taking this into consideration. We decide to cut the ride short. Her health is very important and this way we can get used to when it occasionally happens on our trip.
06/30/2009 This is the smoothest ride ever. We are pedaling in a constant rhythm, whether it is up or down the hill. We are very much in unison. It is a cool summer evening. We are a little later then we usually are, around eight o'clock today. The traffic has stopped riding on the road. The neighbors have stopped mowing their lawns. It is so peaceful around us. As if we are the only ones here. On the ride we see seven rabbits, several turkeys in a field, a myriad of little birds and two skunks! What a reward for being out in nature. It is hard to believe our second month of training is over. We are in so much better shape now. Bill has figured the gear system out completely. We can shift going up hill now. We can even stop on a steep hill and get back on the tandem bicycle. This month we have added over a hundred miles to our leg muscles. We have added a two wheel trailer to our bicycle, making it a total of 18 feet long. Let's not forget that Robin and Amarins have been added to the quint bike too this month. We are riding together now. In the spirit of all the great experiences we have had this month, we will continue into our third month of training. Overview of second month of training It is hard to believe our second month of training is over. We are in so much better shape now. Bill has figured the gear system out completely. We can shift going up hill now. We can even stop on a steep hill and get back on the tandem bicycle. This month we have added over a hundred miles to our leg muscles. We have added a two wheel trailer to our bicycle, making it a total of 18 feet long. Let's not forget that Robin and Amarins have been added to the quint bike too this month. We are riding together now. In the spirit of all the great experiences we have had this month, we will continue into our third month of training. The last month before our departure on August 1 to Alaska. Read about our Last Month of Training
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