Biking Across America (Part 1)

We're riding this three-seater bike across America. Our 3,000-mile route starts in Oceanside, California and ends at the Atlantic Ocean in Annapolis, Maryland. Obviously, since there are three seats on the bike, we won't be doing this alone. Our team consists of me and Nate, Nate's brother Dusty and his wife, Sarah, our friends, Rick and Beth, and their kids, Evie and Frankie. We all have vans that we'll be living out of for the whole journey, and we'll be alternating between riding the bike and driving the vans all the way across the country. So it's kind of like a relay. Over the last three years, we've accidentally created the tradition of doing an epic bike ride with this crew. In 2020, we spent two weeks mountain biking across Colorado on the Colorado Trail. In 2021, we rode tandems across Iowa in an event called Rag Bride. Trust me, it's way more fun than it sounds. And last year, we spent the week gravel biking across Tuscany. This year's ride is six times longer than any other ride we've ever attempted, making it by far our most ambitious challenge yet. We barely have any service. I don't know if this call's gonna go through and we're stuck on the side of the road. To make it even more challenging, we've done no training, unless this counts. And we only have a little over a month to complete the journey, meaning we have to average 100 miles per day for the next 30 days. My only pair of socks. All right, we've got the whole team back together. We are about to dip the back tire of the trandem in the Pacific Ocean. And hopefully 30 days from now, we'll be dipping the front tire in the Atlantic. Let the bike trip begin! Where'd that wave come from? What happened, Matt? This is our mascot for the trip. This is Matt. Let's go! It felt lame to only dip the bike. Oh, I got salt in my shanties already. All right, let's do it! Let's do it! We got it. Dusty, Sarah, let's do it! Okay, now let the bike trip officially begin. Don't mind me, just walking through a parking lot, talking to myself on the camera in my underwear. It is 9.05 a.m., the first morning of the trip. Probably the most concerning thing is that we're not on the bikes yet. We haven't even started and we're already behind schedule. Is it on? I just need to press this red button. I think it's on. No, it is. Are you sure? Yeah, it says we're good. Oh, okay. Are you ready, Frankie? What, what? I am gonna fall asleep. Honestly, I have done so little research on this trip that I don't even know what to be worried about. So I'm just going into this with ignorant bliss. All right, today begins the big journey across the country on the bike. I wouldn't want to be doing anything else over the next month. I'm excited to just share this with the family. I'm excited to see how the true proper team dynamic works. I think it's gonna be fun and enjoyable. Basically, this whole trip is just an excuse to spend one month living out of vans with our best friends. It can't go that wrong. I didn't do my hair. My makings are all messed up. All right, we just met Doug. He's on a one wheel and he's gonna lead us out. He's only 75 years old. Do you think we'll make it? You can do anything you want. How do we start? All right, Rick, I trust you with my life here. One, two, three, let's go. Bye! Get out of the parking lot. All right, all right, good start. Bye! Here we go. So I'm used to being enormously underprepared. But this feels a little different because this is gonna be a month, like 35 days straight of. I think we're basically just gonna get in shape as we travel across the country. That's my plan. To prepare for this journey, we have not done a lot. Actually, we did a lot. What did we do? To pack, it was so hard. We mean training wise, did we do much training? No. Nothing, we did nothing. All right, we're officially off. We met Doug in the parking lot. He just rode up on his one wheel, curious about the three seater bike. So the route that we're riding is called the RAM route. Stands for Race Across America. We're gonna follow that route all the way to D.C. And this is my view for the next 30 days of my life. We're riding across America. You think we're gonna make it? Yeah. She's having triplets. This bike attracts so much attention. We've already made so many friends. Here we go. I just have way too much energy to be driving right now. I need to get on that bicycle. What's happening with these gears? I am not lying when I say, this is the first time I've been on a bike all year outside of a beach cruiser in Bora Bora. What have I gotten myself into? So in the van, we have a 42 minute drive until we get to our first meetup spot. I think it will take them a lot longer on the bike. So we're probably gonna get some groceries cause none of us are very prepared. I'm having a little bit of a hard time accepting the fact that this is the last day for the next month that my body is gonna feel normal. Like after today, I'm gonna be in some kind of pain whether it's my butt, my legs, my back. My neck usually starts hurting pretty bad by the end of these trips. Like this is the beginning of struggle in a lot of ways. But it's also the beginning of one of my life's greatest adventures. It's just such a weird feeling like balancing all of these emotions and I'm just alone in the car. Like what a bus kill. I can't wait to get on that bike. Doug's decided to go down the super steep windy part as if I've ever done anything like this on the Trandem before. I don't even know if we can do this without crashing. I'm actually terrified right now. Hey, we made it. Nice work, Rick. Thanks, guys. I'm so glad that I'm on the back and I can just slide off when something goes wrong. See you, Doug. Nice to meet you. Keep the rubber side down. Wise words. All right, we've left Doug behind. We are officially on our own. I feel like Doug is the first of many interesting people we are gonna meet on this journey. It feels real now that we're on the shoulder of a highway. I gotta be honest, I don't love the cars. Hello, Cara from the future here. Episode two, to be exact. Alive and well. A little bit more sore than I am right now, but all is well. I'm actually sitting at a laundromat and I'm just here to tell you about the lovely sponsor of today's video, BetterHelp. I am just so happy to live in a time where talking about your mental health and taking care of your mental health is not only accepted, but it's encouraged and cool. It hasn't always been this way. So I'm very excited to tell you about BetterHelp and why I love them so much. BetterHelp's mission is to make therapy more affordable and accessible. And the biggest way they do that is by being 100% online. I don't think it could be any easier to get started. All you have to do is go to their website and answer a few questions about yourself. Then BetterHelp will match you with one of their licensed professional therapists who best meets your needs. And once you're matched with your therapist, you can talk to them whenever you want and however you want, wherever you are in the world, which is very convenient for full-time travelers. But of course, no one's perfect. And if there's any reason why it's not working out with your therapist, BetterHelp makes it super easy and free to switch to someone new. So if you're struggling or if there's anything interfering with your happiness, please consider giving therapy a try. And if you use our link in the description below or here on the screen, not only are you supporting our channel, but you can also get 10% off your first month with BetterHelp. Thank you so much to BetterHelp for sponsoring this video. Okay, back on the road. The tricky thing about being on a tandem is that everybody's feet have to work together. All these pedals are connected. So if Rick and Dusty are pedaling, I have to be pedaling the same speed. If they stop pedaling, I have to stop pedaling. All right, the girls have made it to our meeting spot well before the boys, obviously. So we're gonna go stock up the vans with some food. We've ended up in an elementary school parking lot. I mean, we don't look like creepers at all on a triple bike. Just a bunch of grown men riding a bike together. Honestly, one of the things I'm most excited about on this trip is the unlimited heating. Zesty. May have over shopped just a tad. Turns out the route's a little harder to navigate than we anticipated. We came from there. It feels like we should be going that way, but the GPS is telling us to go this way. Now's for the fun part where I get to put all this away in our tiny van. Challenge accepted, y'all. Let me just show you what I'm working with here. This cabinet is food. Actually just got these new little baskets. They still have the tags on them. Obviously the fridge is full of food. I have also been storing food in the shower. So yeah, there's not a lot of extra room, but I'm gonna do my best. All right, we might be back on the right track. Also, when I'm really hunched over cranking, this is my view all day. Chain's fixed. Back on the road. I don't know why I bought so many of these. All right. This is our first big climb of the trip. The road's taking us up there. Turns out we made it to the train for a ride across America. This cabinet is like my overflow storage. There, all done. All right, we have lost the back chain for a second time. All right. Pedaling a three-seater bike up a steep hill is pretty challenging. We just came from down there all the way. We're almost to the top. I'm following Nate's location on my phone, and their last four miles have been so slow. I'm not sure if they're on a hill or if they've had technical difficulties. We're just patiently waiting. They'll be here any minute. All right, our first big downhill. We'll see if the brakes work. Sounds like we're catching on fire. Oh, there they are! Just questioning my life choices, and then I saw you guys. Oh no! The first leg is finished! Turns out biking across the U.S. is gonna be hard. Oh no! And we'll be lucky if we don't get hit by a car. One in every 10 just come like an inch. You feel the bike do this. I'm sorry, it was scary. You're very sweaty. Yeah, it was hard. All the miles that we had this morning are gone. Yeah, they parted just in time for us to climb that hill. Chain fell off three times. We got lost. We ate all our snacks, drank all our water, and we're 1% of the way across the U.S. Here you go, darling. Thanks. What are you gonna make me when I get back? Peanut butter. Bread. Stay in that for a couple hours. Oh no. Like the hill that we climbed is so small. No, like the elevation. And 100% today we're gonna do a hill three times. Oh my God. Oh no. I mean, tomorrow. Are we gonna make it? Not at this pace. Oh man. Yeah, so we're a little bit past this blue line, just like mile 32, maybe right here. That was about 1,000 foot climb, and it was really steep. This one is gonna be about 2,000 feet, and the top of that's another 2,000 feet. This black shirt is way too hot, but I've come prepared this time. I bought this for a joke, but it's turned into one of my favorite shirts. Oh yeah. Also, I figure a little more color might just save us from getting hit by a car. I'm gonna be honest, my body feels like it's ridden 100 miles. Love you. Thanks for biking again for us. Good luck. You're our best. If you don't see us, we're at the casino. One, two, three, and they're off. Bye. Bang, bang. All right. Bang, bang. All right, lunch took quite a bit longer than expected. Continue on Lilac Road for one and a half miles. All right. We're heading to the next meetup spot, which just happens to be a casino. It's only a nine miles, but these nine miles are supposedly straight up. We decided that the guys were gonna keep riding this next leg because this road is scary. So as much as I'm ready to get on the bike, get some of this nervous energy out, I'm actually very thankful to be driving. Hopefully this is just a rough start and it'll be smooth sailing from here. Right? How hard can it be? Yoo-hoo! This is epic, unless the brakes give out. Oh my gosh. We are driving down a mountain right now. Look at these views. Oh gosh. The shoulder is like a foot wide. Next we have to climb that. Just got to the casino and the guys have already packed it. I guess that means they survived that crazy hill and hopefully we see them soon and they didn't fall off the cliff. That's the road right there. So I'm down to a crawl. They knew we were coming. Oh gosh. I'm just a little worked up right now because I pulled into the casino parking lot to wait for them and a guy literally tried to open my door asking for a ride and he was not well. Oh no, I'm just so thankful that the door was locked. I cannot believe that just happened. Like I almost had a crazy person in my car. Let's keep going, let's keep going. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. Woo! This hill is so easy in a car but so hard looking on a bike. Holy cow. Keep up the good work guys. It's not even hot right now and I'm soaked from head to toe. This is brutal. I know. Zero shoulder and so steep and curvy. It's only day one and I'm already nervous eating. How are you feeling? This is tiring. It's a lot of work to balance all the weight of three people. That's definitely something I hadn't already thought about but yeah, my shoulders are kind of on fire. I'd certainly say maybe we should have trained a little bit. Yeah, I think I could have just done like lap pulls for four months or even a day would have been more than what we did. It's looking like we're gonna be riding in the dark all night one. I'm not complaining. No. I signed up for this. Totally. And I'm so happy to be doing it but the reality is it's hard. This is a little bit more of a dramatic day one than I was expecting. How beautiful is this view though? Come on boys, you can do it. I hear their voices. How did you do that? Are you okay? Oh my goodness. That was so hard. There's a campground in 1.4 miles. You wanna go all the way? I feel like I'll just wear both of the flashy things like a big light up X on my back. You wanna make an X? Yeah, let's do it. Let's put a light. The sun technically sets in 15 minutes. So I think this is the most visible we've been all day. I've got three flashers on. You look like you work at an airport. This way, this way, this way. I am so happy I got those on Amazon the night before we left. And I'm so happy you didn't get hit by a car. Oh, you're so sweaty. I'm like literally completely soaked. That mountain you just climbed with no shoulder. How many times did you almost get hit? I mean, it's just like once a minute. It's amazing how many strangers have to make the right choice and not hit us for us to make it across America. Looking good. They were in great spirits. I was definitely panicking more than they were. But you know, I feel like that was a good lesson. I need to not worry so much about what I can't control. They wanted to keep going. So we're gonna keep going. Somehow in the dark, I feel the most visible I've felt all day. I'm so happy right now. The guys' lights are so bright. We're calling it for the day. We're 50 miles in. We're gonna put the bike in the van and then drive it by somewhere to camp. That van is like Mary Poppins' bag. I cannot believe that bike fits in it. Bed slash laundromat. I know it's only day one, but it's an instant ramen kind of night. It doesn't mean I can't make it a little fancy though. Gotta add my cilantro and green onions and hot sauce. Hot. Here you go, darling. Thank you. Dinner of champions. Good morning. We camped at this incredible viewpoint last night. I'm not sure that you're actually supposed to sleep here, but no one knocked on our door and we got to wake up to this beautiful view. So I'd call that a win. Unfortunately, I think it's raining a little bit this morning. Guess who is not getting hit by a car today? Watch out, world. I didn't really think through my tank with my crop top. It should be opposite. But these are my brightest colors. Good morning, Rick. Good morning. How do you feel? I actually feel really good this morning. That's what I was thinking. I'll say my knees feel a little jello-y and my butt is sore to the touch, but besides that, I'm feeling pretty good. Jesse, how do you feel? Legs probably feel better than expected, but feels a little worse than expected. Okay, we are heading back to the gas station where we got off the bike last night so we can restart in the exact same spot. We aren't cheaters, this crew. This morning, it's the girls' turn to get on the bike. And it's freezing. Why didn't I get to ride in the beautiful ocean-side sunshine? I can't believe it's only been a day. It feels like a lifetime ago that we jumped in the Pacific Ocean. That is correct. Yesterday was long. What'd you see? No way! Yeah. We started in ocean-side yesterday. It is so fun how much people love the bike. We're just bringing smiles to people all across America. What's your confidence level, Rick? I'm just thinking, like, if there was only one of us to raise the children, which one would be better at it long-term? And it's like, I feel like Beck is probably the one that we can't afford to lose the most. And I'm sending her off on a trend in that she's just learned to ride in the parking lot before she does an entire day on it. My confidence level? She's pretty good at most things. I'd call it a six or seven out of 10. I'd call it a nine out of 10, 10 out of 10. If Rick is saying a six or a seven, that means it's really like a three. I can see a lot of shoo, shoo, ah! I won't scream, I promise. I can't promise that. You know what to do if the chain falls off? Put it back on? Well... Oh, I already did it! Okay, I won't do it again. Good luck, girls! They're doing it! Honestly, I think they started out smoother than we did. And you can definitely see them better than you can see us. Stop! No problem! Honestly, riding a Trandom is way trickier than it looks. I did not realize that this would be part of the challenge. I knew that like, it's harder than a regular bike, but I thought in a lot of ways it would be easier on a Trandom. But like, just doing a circle around the gas station was a little tricky. That's all I'm saying. Let's go, girls! Love you, have fun! I love you! It just started raining. All right, the girls are cruising! We're going slightly uphill. We've been passed by several cars, and it's not so bad. So far, so good. This road is 100 times less scary than I had envisioned. I'm very proud of us, as long as the cars keep going around. Thank you! We've only been riding for 45 minutes up a hill, and we've already gone seven miles, and I'd say the girls are crushing it. Trying to make eye contact with every driver, smile at them, and wave in hopes that they go around. Hello! This is amazing. It's like all of my nervous anticipation is just coming out in my leg muscles right now. It feels so good to finally be doing this. We're biking across America! Look at this beautiful lake! All right, time to go catch up with the girls and see how they're doing. Rick was the one steering the bike yesterday, and I think he's the only one that actually knows how hard it is. And he was pretty concerned for Beck being in the front, which makes me a little nervous. Kara's life is now in Beck's hands. But they were looking good, and Beck didn't seem to be too worried, so. There they are! Woo! Wow, they look great! Here they come! That was so fast! 11 miles! We're good! We'll see you in D.C. I'd say we're naturals. How was it? We were biking. It was perfect. Like, it was so good. I'm not even tired. That's because all you did was ride down the hill. How long have we gone, like 50 miles? Oh, we got two more. Yeah. Reflexes like a cat. I would say like 500. 500 miles from America. Who's gonna count? 500 miles from America. 12 pieces of steering side for 62. Oh, wow. There's 62 for 12? I just feel like we're actually doing it now that I'm on the bike, in my skirt. How is this angle? Bye, girls! Bye! All right, back on the road! The girls must be feeling good because they've agreed to do another 27 miles. They're doing a 16-mile climb, which should be interesting, and then the biggest descent of the trip so far, which I believe is a 4,000-foot descent over 11 miles. That actually sounds pretty fun. Oh, my gosh. I was just about to get on here and celebrate that we were on this wide-open, beautiful road. Felt like everybody could see us, we could see them, and all of a sudden, we were going over a bridge, and there were two trucks coming towards us. One was overtaking the other, and literally was a foot away from hitting us, going, like, 70 miles per hour. As soon as it passed, our whole bike, like, wobbled from the wind. Thankfully, no one panicked. Woo! Oh, man, what a rollercoaster. Woo! Oh, man. All right, let's go, girls. ♪ Hey, hold my finger if you're the same way ♪ Whoa, this is gonna be a massive downhill for them. We've made it to the top of the hill. Now we get to go down. Wow, check out the view. Clouds are clearing. We crushed that climb. We just stopped at a pull-off halfway down the mountain. We're taking in the views and wondering if the girls are gonna be okay in this wind. Check out what we're about to do. We're gonna go down this hill, and around. Down, down, down, down, down. I'm losing this hat right now. It's because I have my hoodie tied. This is crazy. It feels like I can almost lean into it. This wind is nuts! At my confidence level, I'll call it a six or seven out of 10. At one point, Beck wasn't even braking, and the wind was literally slowing us down and almost pushing us over. I don't even know if you can hear me right now. Ah! I think it's always like this in this valley, because there was a sign at the top that said, caution, wind. We have made it to Borrego Springs. This is where we're gonna be waiting on the girls. It's a really funky-looking little town, and I might have found the world's largest tennis ball. It's bigger than the van. We officially made it off the mountain to the town of Borrego Springs. Oh, our first pedaling in a very long time. Now we're just looking for the boys, and they better have lunch ready. This girl is starving. I just got caught in a mini dust storm, and that actually hurts. This is such a funky little town. These metal dinosaur sculptures are giving me major Route 66 vibes. This is exactly the type of funky stuff that I was hoping to encounter on a bike ride across America. No way! How are your hands? There's muscles that I didn't know I had that are sore. It was so good. We didn't pay well for that. Really? Look at this mountain. That was us. Because we stopped, like, every three minutes, just so I could, like, do this with my hands. You did it, and you didn't get hit by a car. I know! I bet y'all as three girls in spandex got a lot of waves. Honestly, not as many as I was expecting. I think I was doing most of the waving. I was about to start on lunch, and then they got here 40 minutes sooner than we expected them. But look, I've already got your tofu and avocado wraps laid out. Big-time role reversals here. This is so fun. All right, I just put all the good stuff on two taco shells. Frankie Nibu brought us back ice cream sandwiches. We've just been here cooking, cleaning, taking care of the children. Cheers. Yeah, I was like, it's gonna be another hour, at least. You're like, we're here. I'm like, what do you possibly mean? Here, you? You ready for this? I'm looking forward to getting back on the bike, but I've been dreading this exact moment all day. Yeah, something about that second day. You can do it. All right. Okay, that's not. Not terrible? Ah! Bye! Oh, that hurts. It's not that bad. All right, the boys are off. We're gonna hang out here for just a little bit longer before driving to the next, ow, before driving to the next stop. And I'm about to make my favorite cookies, because I, sorry, this is not going well. I'm about to make my favorite cookies, because I have been thinking about them for the last two hours on the bike. Wow, we are cruising! The girls did 40 miles this morning. We're gonna attempt to knock out 60 before the sunset. Rick, what's our speed? 31! Woo! This is crazy fast. Four ingredients. Number one, ripe bananas. The more rotten, the better. Oats, peanut butter, and most importantly, ow! Chocolate chips. That's it. That's seriously it. I know it's hard to believe. Also, I can't really ever keep things simple, so I typically add ground flaxseed and hemp seeds, because it just takes the health to the next level, and I always overcomplicate cooking. I'm just tucked in back here behind Dusty. We have a strong tailwind. We're going slightly downhill, and the bike is just cruising at 40 miles an hour without any of us pedaling. It's been five minutes since we've turned our feet. This is literally the exact opposite of how we spent yesterday afternoon. So, you don't even measure. You just put everything in a bowl and mush it together until it feels consistent to cookie dough, and then usually you bake them, but I don't have an oven, so I just put them in the frying pan. Then add some oats. Mix those in. Then just a few scoops of peanut butter. Mix that in. Finally, as many chocolate chips as you can possibly stand, and if you're complicated like me, add in the flax and hemp seeds. Add a little bit of sesame oil in a pan, and then I literally don't even put them into dough balls. I just scoop them right onto the pan. That looks so good. I know. This is the tricky part. We just passed the Republic of Slojamistan, whatever that is. That's it. The Republic of Slojamistan looks a bit desolate. It is your sultan coming to you live from the consulate of Slojamistan. Feels good to be driving the van again. Not gonna lie, my booty is a little bit sore, but wow, today was amazing. I could do today over and over again for the next month. We have an hour drive in the car to the next meetup spot, which is at a Walmart in Brawley. Icing. This is just the best. Like this feeling of accomplishment that I have that we crushed our ride this morning. We had a great time all hanging out, and then we swapped places. It's just everything I was hoping it would be, but probably better. Okay, that's all. I'm gonna listen to Taylor Swift now. Going through a little bit of a dust storm right now. Check out this layer of sand. Oh, I feel so bad that the guys have to ride through this. The good news about being on the back of the bike is I can just shut my eyes. I am crunching some sand in between my teeth though. The guys are absolutely flying. I don't know if it was the tailwind or what. They're literally almost to town. We gotta hurry and find camp and meet them there. We have made it to the town of Brawley. This is where we thought we'd probably be stopping for the night. We are 58 miles in, which is further than we went all of yesterday, and we were able to do this in less than three hours. But we still have about an hour until the sun sets. I think we're gonna try to squeeze in 20 more miles after downing some unhealthy snacks. We have just driven to the desert and the dad should be here any minute. It is still so windy and so sandy. I hope they're okay. Start for safety, man. Saves the day again. Ah! Yes! What a day! Nice work, team! 80 miles. 120 for the day. Woo! Aside from my butt got sore about 10 miles back in, I was like, Dusty, you got it. Oh, dude. I cannot feel my butt. The hardest I laughed all day was when Dusty first got on the front of the bike. It was so unstable. Rick had his legs out to catch himself. I couldn't breathe. I was laughing so hard, but I was too scared to pick up the camera. We were taking up, like, it was a two-lane road, and we were taking up the whole thing for a couple minutes. We were zigzagging across the entire interstate. He's not crashing. Is that what we did today? 120? 120. Heck yeah. That's a good day, too. Wow. We're so good at this! Safety man, disengaged. Disengaged. Oh, I don't know how these works. Disengaged. Cookies. I have so much sand in my eyes. Wow, that's a lot of cookies. That was crazy. They're so good. You love them? So good. 80 miles in a sandstorm is a long way. What a crazy two days. This is what the first two days are like. I cannot imagine how many memories we're gonna have by the end of this trip. Ours feels like a lifetime. What do you want for dinner? Cookies. Perfect. What I love so much about this crew is that just over two months ago, one of us had the crazy idea to ride a three-seater bicycle across the US and we're doing it. Stay tuned for part two. Like and subscribe this video. Part two of who knows how many. There were supposed to be four. Now there may be 10. Nice. Gross. Got it. Good night. There's so much sand in this bed. I could literally just pour sand out of my shoes right now. Please don't. Didn't even walk in the sand. It just blew in there. Perfect shirt. Beach shirt. I bet I can make you say no. So there's three dogs and only one of them's a cat. Have you heard this joke before? No. I told you. Dang it! What? There's a decent chance that at the end it's gonna be Rick in the front and his two little girls on the back finishing out for us. I'm excited to swim in the ocean. Oh. Really? That's literally gonna be 1% of this journey, if not less. I'm excited for all the ocean activities that'll take place in the next 20 minutes. Oh, this smells like fish. They're corn tortillas.