It felt like we left Mexico in a rush and were suddenly back in travel mode with a quick tour of California that lead right into a cross country drive and then on to New Jersey. We’ve been here for a week now and have seemingly slowed things down. The … Continue reading
Urbyville.com has crossed the 25,000 mark and I wanted to thank everyone that frequents our site and finds what we have to say entertaining or interesting enough to keep coming back. We are very excited to have so many people viewing the site and it is very rewarding to see … Continue reading
One of my favorite things to do is to sit and think about what I was doing this same time last week, and what I’ll be doing this same time next week. For the last few years, the answer was often, “Working and…working.” There wasn’t much of a difference from … Continue reading
We are now in Ocean City, NJ after driving for three out of the last four days. We have had a whirlwind of traveling since we left Mexico last Saturday with many great visits with family and friends and many many hours of driving on the great US interstate system. … Continue reading
It’s really only me that calls myself “the Horse” but yesterday, I got my first experience horseback riding in well over a decade. On a side note, it’s somewhat strange that I can now speak of my life in terms of decades. There is a little back story to the … Continue reading
It’s all in a day’s work here in Baja…at least for Matt and me. Machetes abound as the tool of choice for most anyone looking to get work done around here, so when it came time to cutting down the limb of a banana tree in our yard, what better … Continue reading
With all our time to plan, read, exercise, and relax here in Mexico, it’s now time for Matt’s Book Reviews, #2. The second book, Nurture Shock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman was a major improvement from my first book on the Kindle and one that … Continue reading
Our time in Todos Santos has shared many similarities to our time in San Francisco in the sense that in between the short adventures with Mike into La Paz to visit with the crusty sailors and our trip today to the mountains to visit Marcos the potter, we have had … Continue reading
Now that we have been in Mexico for over a week, it’s time for a little observe and report on the area, particularly the peculiar things that we’ve seen and done in our time thus far. As with pretty much any travel that one does not only within the US, … Continue reading
Yesterday, Julie, Mike, and I all headed to La Paz for an afternoon getaway. It’s about a 90 minute drive away and it’s the biggest town down here in Baja at somewhere around 200,000 people. We headed down to the waterfront and spent some time in the touristy part of … Continue reading
What a wonderful life here in Todos Santos. First, apologies for not updating for a few days but my excuse is that we’ve simply been enjoying the new environment so much that we haven’t taken the time to write. It would have almost been a chore to do so, but … Continue reading
Julie and I are getting so tech-savvy since quitting our jobs. We purchased a smart phone with a cool wi-fi hotspot tethering feature. We purchased this awesome netbook computer that we type all our blog entries on. We bought an awesome Sony Bloggie HD video recorder and camera that only … Continue reading
And just like that we have been transported out of the US and into Mexico, out of the bicycle life and into the problem-solving, Spanish remembering, attentive world of foreign travel. And many have told us that going to Baja Sur is like being in a US resort and I … Continue reading
This past Saturday we hopped on the bikes and departed from our cousin Chris’s home only a few blocks off our coastal route and pedaled down to the Mexican border. There was a little emotion but generally, it was more a matter-of-fact activity than the culmination of a monumental journey. … Continue reading
Happy 30th birthday Julie. You are my best friend and I wanted to take this moment to tell you how happy I am to be spending my life with you. Whether it’s a bike trip, a hiking trail, a running path, or the career path, they’re all better because we … Continue reading
I was so, so wrong and it’s time for me to come clean. Many that know me well will likely be surprised to even hear me say this but I cannot go on anymore with my inaccuracies of the past. SoCal is actually really awesome. I can’t and won’t deny … Continue reading
With just three days left of riding, Matt and I spent the evening in Santa Monica with friends on Tuesday. We did 78 miles to get to their home that day, we were feeling great about the ride and about finishing before the weekend, and were loving the weather of … Continue reading
I’m not sure what the Beatles were singing about but today we rode through so much farmland and the strawberry fields were absolutely fabulous. Today was also our biggest day so far, 75 miles, and we still got in at a reasonable 5pm. We had some flatter terrain to thank … Continue reading
Maybe Matt and I should go out and buy a lottery ticket, because the numbers seem to be in our favor right now. We had a crazy Karmic connection in Carmel, California just a couple of days ago that just might go down as one of the best stories of … Continue reading
After my first brick workout of the bike trip and the frantic planning session that was SF, it’s time to tell about one of the exciting plans scheduled for this winter with Julie and my brother Jeff. As the title suggests, there will be marathoning, and lots of it. We … Continue reading
It’s time to recap, regret and rejoice over the content of our diet for the last week spent in San Francisco. In case we haven’t said it enough, we are forever grateful to our friend Jed, who let us stay in his home for the last 9 days. It allowed … Continue reading
We have run into the top hospitality of the bike trip so far and the honor goes to Jed and Jamie. We arrived in San Francisco nine days ago and just now got back on the bikes. We had an amazing stay and it was all made possible by the … Continue reading
It’s essentially the self-imposed diet rules I’ve been living under for the last five weeks and it’s a feeding schedule because it’s become somewhat of a running joke with Jenn and Dave, our cycling friends, because of how much we consume at our dinner meal with them. Julie hasn’t fully … Continue reading
SF has been great to us. We always talk about the food, and yet again, we have loved the dining here and will have a review of all the great places soon. We’ve had a good time with our friends and family. And most importantly for us at this current … Continue reading
We’ve been in San Francisco now for over 5 days and haven’t even touched our bikes. While we were out riding, we’d been struggling a bit with a feeling of aimlessness and lack of purpose that has been wearing on us quite a bit. We went into the biking trip … Continue reading
We’ve been in California for about a week now, after spending 10 days in Oregon, and while there wasn’t a hugely noticeable difference the moment we crossed the states’ borders, it has now become distinctly apparent that we’re not in “Kansas” anymore. We have only been in San Francisco for … Continue reading
This morning we had beautiful sunny weather as we rode into San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a memorable event and it also brought back many memories as we made our way through Marin County with little towns like Sausalito that we’d visited many years before and … Continue reading
Today was it in so many ways. We have had a great trip so far but today was special because I had that rare feeling of ecstatic joy that comes when I truly feel fortunate for so many things, but especially the simple fact that I am alive in such … Continue reading
That title doesn’t really mean anything, I simply needed a title and that was in my head. Here are some of the highlights of the past few days along with some valuable lessons learned… and one interesting connection (only one degree of Kevin Bacon). -Days off are awesome (and a … Continue reading
My last post was about all the wonderful things about this bike trip so far. To be fair and balanced, here are the challenges: 7.) Wind: It’s tough when it blows right in our faces coming off the ocean and downright scary when we have a crosswind when we’re flying … Continue reading
After one week of the Life on a Bike adventure, it is time to list the top nine things I love about this lifestyle. Know that I am heavily influenced by my hiking experiences so much of my love of the biking life comes as a direct comparison to hiking. … Continue reading
I spoke with my mom tonight and she told me how she just got caught up on reading our stories and viewing our photos after being out of town for the weekend. Her comment, and it wasn’t said critically (I’m still taking it that way) is the stories are getting … Continue reading
No, this isn’t a story about UFOs or anything like that, but is about new encounters that were unexpected. Since we are still so new at this biking thing, and doing it long-distance style, each day presents something different. I have come to find that there are road signs I … Continue reading
And we found other bikers, lots of them. In fact, by the time we made it to our camp spot in Nehalem Bay State Park after riding 60 miles today, we encountered nearly a dozen other long distance cyclists fully decked out with big bikes and panniers to carry their … Continue reading
I am not saying hills are a holiday, I am referring to two clearly separate things, both of which were impactful on today’s ride. A third thing, frugality, should also probably be included but didn’t work with the alliterative title. Today we got into the Oregon Coastal Mountains and got … Continue reading
We are one day into our bike trip and have completed 50 miles. We arrived in the small fishing town of Goble, OR on the Columbia River where we’re camped in an RV park 30 yards from the river after leaving Vancouver, WA today headed towards Astoria, OR, the northern … Continue reading
What is it? Hood to Coast is a 200 mile relay race from Mt. Hood to the Oregon Coast spread over the course of 2 days. The field of over 1200 teams of 12 runners each divides 36 legs of running among the runners. Each runner runs 3 times … Continue reading
We are getting ready to take off later this week and had the opportunity to learn a lot about bikes as well as experience a unique part of Portland we have never experienced before thanks to our friend David Gunther. We met David through a mutual friend a few weeks … Continue reading
What a whirlwind the past week has been. Last Sunday we drove from DC to Ohio and within 36 hours were on a plane to Portland, OR. Once in Portland, we took public transit to a bike shop Julie had researched and with our backpacks and gear at our sides, … Continue reading
It’s time for a little recap of the last few weeks’ events, as it was full of visits to family and friends, good food, a little sight-seeing, a respectable amount of running, and lots of other stuff in between. In total, we drove 2700 miles on the dot from the … Continue reading
As we work our way through the next path to choose in life, there are two big long term projects that are captivating my mind and both have been reinforced over the past few days thanks to our stay at the Wolpert family cabin in the mountains of Pennsylvania and … Continue reading
To summarize my experience on the road trip thus far and to find the commonalities between the various places we’ve visited and people we’ve spent time with, the most common thread is that I would love to live the lives of everyone we’ve spent time with and I’d be happy … Continue reading
The road trip is underway and our first stop was to visit the No-Car family in Toronto, Canada. No-Car was a hiking companion of ours for nearly 800 miles of the PCT in 2007. We spent Friday and Saturday with No-Car, his wife Yes-Car, and their lovely daughter Aaden. We … Continue reading
It’s been said that some of the best adventures start with a one-way ticket. At least, that’s what we’re hoping, as I have no idea who said that or what validity it has. These past few weeks since the trail have felt like being a bouncy ball at a Flaming … Continue reading
We’ve hiked the Appalachian Trail, we’ve had the ups and the downs of the trail, met good people and had amazing experiences, and I got the experience of the Lyme. We even have loads of Urbyville followers now and everyone is wondering, So Now What? What are you doing next? … Continue reading
I’m now a week removed from the Appalachian Trail, and wanted to write down my final thoughts about the AT experience as a whole before I get too far removed and too deeply involved in the next adventure. It is amazing what time does to memories, and how quickly time … Continue reading
It’s somewhat hard for me to believe but insect enemy number one, the parasitic deer tick, somehow managed to infect me without me ever seeing them sucking my blood. I knew I had many of the symptoms for Lyme disease back in June when I was sidelined in Cheshire and … Continue reading
We are finished with the Appalachian Trail yet here I am, sitting in my tent with Julie, typing a story for Urbyville. We are currently in Manistee National Forest (Michigan) with my Dad, off the side of a trail. We’re doing a four day bike trip through the forest and … Continue reading
The last day of the AT hike was one of the most memorable for reasons including it being the last day of the hike of course but also for much more. I shared some of my reflections yesterday but I also want to tell the story of our trail and … Continue reading
We thru hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine finishing yesterday on top of Mt. Katahdin and throughout the past week, I’ve spent a good amount of time thinking about why again it is that we do this sort of thing. I think this type of reflection is somewhat … Continue reading
