Wrap up- thank you everyone!

The last 2 weeks flew by. I made it back safely to Indianapolis where I am sorting through the hundreds of pics of the the ride that I gathered from fellow riders. This morning I went in to speak to 2nd and 3rd graders at the local elementary school. It was a great ego boost to hear the kids shout "It's Dr. Ben!", but then several gave me a harder time about the appearance of my beard than Lori did, which I didn't think was possible. I had to barter with them and came to an agreement that I would shave if they had a healthy summer and wore their bike helmets. One teacher went to great lengths to set up a bulletin board in the hallway with a map, pictures, and excerpts from my ride. The kids were a great audience and hopefully learned something from the powerpoint today and while following the trip.

I owe everyone an update status on WV to Bethany Beach since I have not added a blog submission in quite sometime. The same excuses apply: too few hours in the day, usual lack of wi-fi, and wanting to spend any free time enjoying the last few days with fellow riders instead of in front of my computer. With the now being over, I feel like I just returned from a 2 month long summer camp for adults. It was a tremendous experience. The top pic is me tossing up my cycling gloves while on the steps of the Lincoln memorial.

The breakdown by state:

WV- included some pretty long days of riding, rolling in and out of the Appalachian Mountains. There was a sense of duty as we marched through West Virginia in our groups, passing many homes in shambles with derelict cars scattered through their yard. Given the nature of the state, we were all hypervigilant for IUDs (intercepting unchained dogs that kamikaze themselves between your wheels). Thankfully there were as many as expected, yet there were frequent howls from the several that were chained to their doghouses as we rolled by. My support day fell to allow me to ride the entire state of WV, nearly 400 miles in 4 days. My legs were throbbing, but got me through.

Virginia- was beautiful, came and went fast though. I'll remember:
1) attempting to bike through deep gravel roads
2) beautiful Colonial homesteads- The majority of which we couldn't see the homes from the street, only the immaculate yards and old world style stone fences.
3) The Bachelor- Andy Baldwin (center of pic), star of the second season of the TV show, "The Bachelor" joined us for a morning. He is a Navy medical doctor, experienced cyclist, ironman, public health promoter, one of America's 100 most desirable bachelors (according to some magazine), a great guy, and some other stuff, but other than that hasn't done anything. For his joining our group, I think most of the guys wanted to prove that we could out ride him and his $10,000 sponsored bike, while most of the ladies just wanted him to pose for a picture with them. I think both groups fulfilled their wish. He was a very good sport and we were glad that was interested in riding with us (Which came about because he lives in DC and heard about the ride while speaking at Ohio State last year).
4) Alexandria- We stayed in a church in old Colonial Alexandria, a suburb of DC. It felt like a step back in time to the 1900s with large brick homes lining the brick streets, no showers, etc...(ya, no showers for 2 days after riding 90miles in 85 degrees. Thankfully, several riders had families visiting and therefore hotels with showers that we could use). We had some free time in Alexandria and walked around the boardwalk area, amongst the hundreds of other tourists who were visiting for the holiday weekend.

DC- The highlight of our trip. DC had a great "Rails to Trails" bike path that we were on for most of the day. Surprisingly, we road all the way to right up to the Lincoln monument on this path which was nicely wooded and took us through many parks by the riverside. I was quite impressed by the trail system and in shock at the sight of the Washington Monument from 7 miles out. I think that was the point for most people when we had realized what we had accomplished and what a surreal experience this had all been. Upon rolling in to the Lincoln Monument, there was a large group of family members/long lost loved ones all decked out in orange, with signs, cheering like crazy at everyone's arrival. There were at least 100 other random people standing around on the steps that joined in both before and after hearing about our accomplishment. It was an unforgettable moment.

Bethany Beach- talk about getting spoiled in the name of World Health. The last night after riding into Bethany Beach, Delaware, we were awarded 5 complementary beach front condos. The last couple of miles we dumped out the water in our bottles and filled it with some Champagne for a Tour de France-style finish. The beach was packed with Memorial day travelers who again gave us great applause after hearing our accomplishment. When carrying our bikes onto the beach, one security guard told us that we were not allowed to take bikes onto the beach. He could have been shooting at us at point blank range and we still would have all tried running by him with our bikes. The water felt so cold and so good. Later that night, we had a cookout, hung out, and had one last hurray prior to shoving off back for Columbus early the next morning (only to sit in gridlocked traffic for 6 hours prior to crossing back over the Bay Bridge).THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR SUPPORT, INTEREST, AND DONATIONS

Columbus, Athens, now WV

Busy couple of days- I haven't exactly been up to blog speed. I've spent more hours per day on a bike recently than I have sleeping. So after arriving in Columbus, I shortly headed out unexpectedly to attend a funeral on my fiancee's side. This involved borrowing a nice outfit and a car, then driving to Pittsburgh on Friday to pick Lori up, then down to Morgantown, WV, for Friday night/Saturday, then back to Columbus Saturday night for the great cookout hosted by Clare's parents. In the whole fiasco, I think I left my digital cam in Clare's car, so my remaining blog entries may be pictureless- my apologies. Hopefully my writing can sustain you.

Our ride out of Columbus to Athens was a hilly 92 miler. We pushed it pretty good. I figure this is the best biking shape that I'll ever be in so I might as well enjoy sustaining a fast pace while I can. We still can't outrun dogs though. Jesson had a close encounter with a dog and actually kicked it by happenstance with his pedal just before it ran between his tires. This may be our biggest worry heading into WV, with the second being an obscene number of tick sightings. Athens, Ohio is home of Ohio University. I was quite pleasantly surprised by the town and the university. They had a brand new, ritzy union where we gave a lecture. Several of the D.O. (doctor of osteopathic medicine) students there were nice enough to put us up for the night. Westin and Bridgette, a first year, had us over to their log cabin for a cookout and bonfire. There cabin was amazing- reminded me so much of Boulder, Utah and Ace's place. (I drug this low resolution pic off another rider's facebook just to have some visual.) Both were OU grads. Westin is working on developing their farm with dreams of consuming only what he produces in crop, goat milk, honey from his bees, and whatever else he can put together for a 1 year period. I also had a conversation with Justin, a Ball State grad who circumstantially currently lives in the barn of Westin and Bridgette. The barn had a poster of the Appalachian Trial and I saw several similarities to my experience on the AT as Justin described how he has to coax his cat into catching the mice that scurry across his bed each night. All were very nice and interesting people.

Today we reached West Virginia! I was on support and it was a nightmare- gravel roads and a road that literally disappeared underwater. It was definitely our biggest hiccup so far logistically at least, but could not have been foreseen. The other roads we had the riders on today were under construction or had them on a busy highway with no shoulder and trucks at 60mph. It was not ideal riding at any point, but we made it. We are staying at a 4h campground in Harrisville tonight- pretty nice accommodation's actually: bunk beds, nice kitchen, and wifi, but no cell reception.

Stormy Ohio- Cincinatti to Columbus

This post is a little outdated at this point, but is up nonetheless

We woke up from Vince's in Cincinnati at 5 am to get geared up, only to realize that it was thunder storming outside. We drove out to Monica's parents house where 1/2 the riders had stayed (Monica's parents were great hosts for the team and had a cookout for us and always plenty of food out). The day was slated to be 120-130 miles, so we needed to get going as early as possible. It was a downpour as we were trying to load the vans. Thankfully, the lightening stopped long enough for us to hop on top the vans to rack the bikes (Yes, the roofs are quite dented at this point, as are some of the sides of the vans. A windshield is cracked. One van still has alternating "check tire pressure"/ "change oil"/ "service engine" lights and all have a continual wet dog/BO aroma- We love you though Toby- Clare's little poodle). We had to drive out about 40 miles until it stopped storming, only raining, and unloaded everyone.

The majority of our day was on a nice bike trail that was riddled with branches from recent storms. We were soaked from the get-go, but thankfully it wasn't too cold, nor too windy. There was quite a bit of wildlife on the trail. I saw 2 opossum and had to swerve to not hit one. When I told Chris, that I had an opossum close encounter, he said it look like the opossum was still attached to my face. I corrected him by saying, "no, that's just my beard, but thank you for the compliment."

In Columbus, we road into a pretty nice restaurant/bar where several family/friends of the Ohio Staters were waiting for us. Everyone else had on their work attire. I, in my spandex, felt like I was trapped in one of those dreams where you go to school without any pants on. None of us are too shy at this point however, but do find it inconvenient when we actually have to go inside to use the restroom.

Breaking away- from Bloomington to Cincinnati

I met back up with the crew late Monday night in Bloomington where we packed in the dorms to sleep. After a frequently interrupted 5 hours of sleep, we awoke early and I began reacquainting myself with the glorious feeling of my bike saddle (Ahhh, fond thoughts). Before we left, our host in Bloomington let us ride around the Little 500 track on a couple of the race bikes and told us a little about the history of biking in Bloomington. Everyone agreed it was a cool experience although few others knew anything about the magnitude of Little 5. Many riders have added "Breaking Away" to their list of movies to see.

Tim, our host, also helped us to reroute some of our ride to avoid gravel roads which we were able to do, for the most part. The ride was hilly and beautiful- as expected. We had our first rest stop in Nashville, IN which was a neat little town that I had heard of, but never been to. We road past a few lakes (Lake Lemon I think), through Columbus, Indiana, and by several farms and cornfields of course. We road until we got bored, then tired, then more soar, but then at about mile 95 the lactic acid either got to our brains or we hit an endorphin high from our rupturing thigh muscles and had a great time the last 20 or so miles. I pulled out the several pound box of cookies that my mom spent hours upon hours baking at our 75 mile stop for a new and much appreciated treat. There were actually enough cookies there for 26 exhausted people to eat their fill and still have leftovers- she went all out. Our total distance for the day: 117 miles, avg mph was like 16.5 which was great considering the hills.

When we got to Cincinnati, one of our riders who goes to University of Cincinnati College of Medicine arranged home stays for us with some of her fellow medical students. Christian and I stayed with Vince who had a way-to-nice-to-be-a-medical-student bachelor pad to himself. Vince was a great guy, destined to become a general surgeon- and a good resident he will be. Vince was energetic and on-the-ball. He had thought of everything as a host, from insisting that he will sleep on the couch and we take the beds (which we refused) to having his girlfriend bake us fresh cinnamon rolls for the morning. We were at Vince's 2 nights actually. The second day in Cincinatti we had an event day at the medical school, journal club, and some coffee shop time to catch up on email, blogs, residency paperwork, and etc.

It's official...Dr. Meyer

Yes, believe it or not that is me (and Dr. Nelson sister)just 4 years ago during my first day as a medical student. The other pic was taken this weekend during my graduation awards banquet (Lori (fiancee), me, Laura, Dad, Mom). I guess this time would be appropriate to thank my family for their continued support and the countless favors that they have graciously bestowed upon me during these 4 years that I have spent burrowed away in stress-filled cave of social hibernation (aka medical school). The years have been kind as you can tell. I hardly aged at all (sarcasm noted).

Most people were surprised at my appearance upon my return- and it wasn't just the beard. Despite riding my bike for 6+ hours a day the preceding month, I packed on 10 lbs! That certainly came from clear out in left field. For those of you playing at home, lets take a vote as to the culprit.
Was it from:
a) my beard (not likely)
b) push up/sit up club (doubtful)
c) the whole stack of Oreos that I seem to eat at rest stops daily, followed by handfuls of gummy bears, peanuts, and Poweraid to wash it all down (likely theory)
d) Ellen has been secretly sneaking her Maxxx Weight Gainer supplement into my water bottles each day (940 Calories per serving) (conspiracy theory)

If there are any math classes in Plainfield following the blog that want to calculate my estimated caloric intake per day for an average 80 mile/day ride to gain 10 lbs in 35 days, I'd be interested in hearing how much I've actually been consuming. I will attempt to address the rest of the classrooms' questions soon and hopefully be home in time to make rounds/give a lecture to interested Plainfield classes upon my return (circa May 25) prior to school letting out for the summer.

Graduation weekend

Taking the weekend off from the ride to graduate. I will be meeting back up with the team in Bloomington, Indiana on Monday. Only a few short weeks to go after that!

Kansas: telephone pole, cow, telephone, cow...

My the days have flown by, the miles have not. I'll try and catch up from the week with highlights. I'm not even sure exactly where we have been each night (other than on the gym floor of a different small town's high school), but can say for sure that the wind in Kansas does not blow in our favor.

Highlights:
1) We are over half-way! Tomorrow we reach Kansas City, Missouri! Kansas has been more scenic than expected, yet the weather has not completely befriended us. Most days we have been riding in 50 degree weather into a fierce headwind/crosswind which have caused our 100 mile days to be painfully long (averaging 10-12mph with unfavorable winds vs. 18-20mph with no wind). In the past 3 days, I have ridden 293 miles. Thankfully today, there was minimal wind and I was perched on my new saddle (which comfortably feels like a block of wood), otherwise I would not have made it. The scenery today turned greener and was surprisingly Irish-esque, with overcast skies, bare rock interspersed among the rolling hills, and various livestock to exchange glances with throughout the miles. Don't look for anything specific in this landscape pic- just typical Kansas, mile after mile. One of the T-shirts at a lunch stop town we saw said "On my drive through Kansas, I saw a cow, then a telephone pole, then a cow, then a telephone pole..." Truly stated, only slowed down 10x on bike.

2) Rachael ran over a dog!- The puppy lived, so did Rachael. We have had quite a few pups eager to speed us away from their property in the last couple of days. The majority back off with just yelling at them. Second line attempt is squirting water at them. Third line is throwing the water bottle. Rachael said this puppy was overly excited about running with her, tried lapping up the water being squirted at it, then darted in front of her front tire. She did an acrobatic flip over her handle bars, hit her head, and got a little scrapped, but not too bad. The dog ran off just fine, hopefully a little wiser.

3) Civilization- Kansas does have more readily accessible convenience food stores so we have been taking advantages of non-Powerbar food sources at our rest stops. Here is a pic of the world health beard-off contestants outside a Dairy Queen (Steven, Jeff, and myself) half way through our journey.


Lowlights

1) Ulnar Parathesias- I realized today after I got done riding that I had lost sensation of my fourth and fifth fingers on my left hand- a condition called ulnar parathesia that has affected a couple of us during the trip. It is much like carpal tunnel syndrome and is caused by compression of the nerve in palm from pressure on the handlebars. Hopefully, and likely, it is temporary (just as long as the other parts of my nervous system remain functional. Note to self: don't ever bike this much again).

2) Swine flu- By happenstance, the van who went into Herrington early for the lecture walked around town a bit and ran into the local physician. He joined us for dinner at his old high school (built in 1960) where we were staying and was telling us a little about rural medicine. His county was the one where two people were diagnosed with the swine flu after traveling from Mexico. He was not the treating physician, but quickly had his staff recheck their hazardous exposure safety mask status. On a separate note (hopefully), one of our vans has pretty much become a traveling infirmary as several of our riders have been battling (swine) flu like symptoms.

Smelliest town ever award: Ordeway, Kansas. Good God. As soon as we road into town, it was like someone had dumped every latrine in the country on this poor, small town. I'm not sure of the high school's mascot, but it should be the Crowly County Cowpiles. It was real bad, the kind of smell that we could actually taste as a gritty substance between your teeth while we dry heaved our way into the somewhat protected walls of the wrestling room. The stench was courtesy of the huge cattle ranch just a few miles upwind. We passed it the next day and there were hundreds if not thousands of cattle just standing shoulder to shoulder in their small holding troughs (expelling methane constantly presumably). Before we headed out the next day, I delivered the lecture to the high school. The best question from the students was "Why tha heck are y'all comin' through Crowly County?" as they all stared at us like we were crazy (not sure if it was because of our bike trip, the fact that I was wearing spandex tights, or our actual stop in Crowly County).

THANKS EVERYONE FOR FOLLOWING MY BLOG AND FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARD THE RIDE. I'll continue to make my best efforts to keep you updated and entertained.