Kirsten Hotchkiss

Yesterday was scheduled to be the longest ride of the trip — 119 miles. In anticipation of heavy winds, our ride leader provided the option of doing an extra 40 miles on Wednesday afternoon. Many of the group took him up on that – they piled in the van and drove out the first 40 … Read more

Last evening at dinner, I discovered that one of my riding companions, Patrick, attended the same school during his junior year of college that I did during my junior year. What an amazing coincidence! It’s a really small school (Richmond College in London) and only about 100 US students attended each year. The “campus” for … Read more

The last two days have been perfect for Rob and me. Both days were about 50 miles and both days were primarily down hill. We finished by 2 PM and lounged (or slept) the rest of each day. BUT, one of the reasons we chose this route is because the prevailing winds go from West … Read more

One might wonder what kind of accommodations we are staying in during our adventure. I can assure you that every night we have had comfortable beds, air conditioning and running water. But the similarities stop there. On a ride like this, you have to go with what’s available. Aside from your standard franchises (Comfort Inn, … Read more

I must admit that, but for this trip, I would never have set foot in Marfa, TX, but it’s quite a cute town. Everything is repurposed. The coffee shop we had breakfast in is a former gas station. There is an art exhibit of beat up trucks and there are colorful murals on many of … Read more

Note – this post should have gone out on Saturday, but internet issues held it up. More to come on Monday. Last night at dinner, our ride leader, Dennis, aka the Bear, announced that we are 1/3 of the way across the country! Wow! We feel our legs getting stronger, and my pace is faster, … Read more

Yesterday would have been an easy 75 mile ride day. It was flat as flat can be, the roads were smooth and traffic was limited. Rob and I got an early jump out of Columbus so that we would stay ahead of the fast riders as long as possible (that lasted until the second water … Read more

We Turned Left

We left Benson this morning at about 7:15 in chilly weather. By 10 it had heated up and we all swapped out leggings and armies for shorts and short sleeve shirts. The roads were rolling with some great down hill soars. Tombstone was exactly as expected, a dusty downtown street with saloons on either side, … Read more