Home Again!!

Having left Sunnyside on September 2 in the heat of summer, we returned home on Monday, October 27 . It was a welcome sight. The flowers are blooming and the fall colors are still showing their splendor.

The drive from Missoula, Montana to Sunnyside was spectacular. The weather was sunny, crisp, and gorgeous through Idaho on Highway 12 over Lolo Pass. The road skirts the Lochna River through the Bitteroot and Clearwater Mountains. Just gorgeous fall colors among the evergreens with the Tamarack trees changing their colors and losing their needles, as well as a few deciduous trees.

We made very few stops. Clarkston, Washington was a must as we were so happy to be back on Washington soil and needed to stretch our legs. The hills after harvest looked good to us. The wheat farmers were all busy discing, plowing and planting their winter wheat.

The harvest is over and so is this odyssey. It has been an adventure across the United States and back again, seeing sights we have not had the privilege to view previously. The weather for our entire two months away was lovely and we would recommend traveling in September or October to anyone. With the exception of a prevailing East wind on Leroy's bicycling days and two days of rain, we could not have asked for better weather. We did take note many times from Mississippi all the way to Washington that now the wind was blowing from West to East!

Thanks to each and everyone of you for being supportive, reading our blog, and holding us in your prayers for the past two months. We could not have accomplished this without you.

Last Bit of Trivia = Total Miles Traveled in my Honda Civic = 11,024

Total States Traveled Through by Bicycle = 9

Total States Traveled Through by Car = 18

God Bless You

Libby and Leroy Werkhoven

Wyoming to Big Sky

WYOMING -- Saturday, October 25

After spending the night in Scottsbluff, Nebraska and waking up to 27-degree temperatures; we continued on through “amber waves of grain”; however this time it was miles and miles of corn. Winter wheat has been planted and already greening up the rolling hills.

It wasn’t long before we reached Wyoming the land of open range, cattle, miles of hay fields and trains. Don’t let anyone lead you to believe that the railroads of America are dead. Already in Western Nebraska we began viewing 120+ car freight trains loaded with coal heading east. After seeing this for an entire day, I wonder if any of Wyoming will be left in a few years.

Immediately, we felt “home on the range – where the deer and antelope play.” At first the antelope were a pleasant surprise, but 50 miles later we were still seeing them in the fields, along the streams, in the campgrounds and even in some of the small towns we passed. Antelope dotted the hillsides and fields throughout our travels in Wyoming.

The signs for historical markers began appearing at regular intervals along the roadway. One that caught our attention was historical ruts of the Oregon Trail. The interstate on which we were traveling is located where several trails West traversed years before in the form of the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, the Pony Express Trail and also the Lewis and Clark Trail. We stopped in the small town of Guernsey, Wyoming and took a country road out of town just a little over a mile and came to a nice pathway leading to some of the ruts that the wagons made between 1830-1880 on the Oregon Trail, which closely followed the North Platte River. As you can see from the pictures these ruts were so deep and made their mark in the sandstone along the riverbanks that they still exit. Another mile up the road brought us to the Register Cliffs where pioneers over the years carved their names and the year into the cliffs along the river. What a lasting monument to those who had traveled so far through much adversity and still had miles to go . . .

We traveled North from Casper to Sheridan, Wyoming where we spent a delightful evening visiting the Melius family. Stay tuned for more on our stay in Sheridan.



ANTELOPE TO BIG SKY COUNTRY -- Sunday, October 26

Doug, Robin and Jesse Melius gave us the grand tour of Sheridan, Wyoming upon our arrival on Saturday evening. Visiting with them was like a piece of home, as they had ministered to us in Wapato at Community Presbyterian Church. Doug fixed us a yummy lasagna dinner cooked in a Dutch oven heated with charcoal briquettes.

Sheridan is a neat Western town, which has kept its main street downtown in spite of expansion on the outskirts. Great school buildings, parks, a pathway through and around town, a community college, a revitalization of older downtown buildings and museums to enjoy. There are even buffalo and elk in a park in town for all to enjoy.

This morning we worshiped at First Presbyterian Church and thoroughly enjoyed hearing Doug preach on the first tablet of the Ten Commandments from Exodus as well as Robin lending her talents to the church choir. We left after church and drove west into the Big Sky Country of Montana.

We enjoyed viewing more antelope, deer, mining, horse ranches, ski resorts, fresh snow in the distant mountains, mining operations, beef ranching, hay fields, fall colors of the cottonwood trees, and beautiful sunny weather.

Just as with our trip East, we are ahead of schedule. Plans are to drive through Idaho into Clarkston, Washington and home ahead of schedule. Soon these travels will be over and it will be back to everyday life in Sunnyside.

Out of Oklahoma, Through Kansas and Into Nebraska

We woke up this morning to ice on our windshield in Perry, OK, just North of Oklahoma City. Beginning early, we traveled in the dark North towards Wichita, Kansas. Driving on the Kansas Turnpike was probably the best road we have had the privilege to drive.






Once leaving the turnpike we continued North on an Interstate with the exception of a short five mile side trip to Lindsborg, Kansas. What a delightful small town capitalizing on their Swedish origins. Bethany College is also located in this community. Hopefully, the pictures will highlight their quaint main street.

Kansas lived up to its reputation of "amber waves of grain" but not wheat this time of year, but milo and soybeans. Many grain elevators and oil pumping rigs lined the skyline as well as a section of the new windmills producing electricity. Continuing North into Nebraska we noticed that it has rained recently; with one small town of Elwood, Nebraska having enough snow that it had been bladed; leaving small piles along the road. Sure glad we dug out the jeans and long sleeved shirts this morning.
The day was spent mostly driving North and West to reach Scottsbluff, Nebraska where we are staying tonight. A quick stop to view a Pony Express Station in Gothenburg, Nebraska was awesome. We enjoyed driving off the Interstate paralleling the North Platte River for most of the afternoon. As darkness approached we viewed Chimney Rock which served as a beacon of the plains to those traveling the Oregon Trail to a new life in the West. One forgets just how much history abounds all over these great United States.




Tomorrow we plan to push on through Wyoming, with a stay in Sheridan planned for Saturday night and Sunday.

Arkansas and Oklahoma

After spending the night in Conway, Arkansas just North of Little Rock we traveled Northwest into Oklahoma and connected up with a section of Route 66. It was very picturesque and included a stop at this round barn which was totally restored by a group of volunteers -- all over the age of 65. It was interesting to tour and see how involved the restoration was for those folks.

Just a mile up the road was another attraction, but this one was very new and modern, called Pops. We stopped for lunch and marveled at the selection of pop flavors from all over the United States. Every flavor, color, and bottle shape imaginable were there for viewing or purchase. It is a restaurant, gas station, tourist attraction, park, picnic grounds, just a fun place to spend a little time.






On the outskirts of Oklahoma City we stopped to tour the National Cowboy Museum. It is a huge complex with historical displays and currently a display of American Crafts which was most impressive.







Following Route 66 into Oklahoma City, we managed to locate the memorial of the courthouse bombing that happened in 1995. A very fitting park and grounds have been erected to those who lost their lives in the bombing. The tree pictured survived the bombing. The chairs are arranged on the lawn according to how many died on each floor of the building, with the smaller chairs representing the children that died. Outside the entrance some of the temporary fencing has been left up so people can place items there in memory of those who died.






Tomorrow we will be continuing our travels North and West through Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado.

Trivia = We purchased gas tonight in Guthrie, Oklahoma for $2.19. Of course there are oil wells pumping the oil out of the ground located just a mile from the gas station in all directions.

Traveling Through Alabama and Mississippi

We spent the night in Florence, Alabama and spent yesterday morning touring Ivy Green which is the birthplace of Helen Keller. Behind this "Little House" where Helen lived with her teacher, Anne Sullivan; is the well where Helen learned her first word, "W-A-T-E-R". The other home is a Frank Lloyd Wright home in Florence that has been restored and is open to the public. It was awesome to be able to take a tour of it.


The drive down the Nachez Trace Parkway was just lovely and thoroughly enjoyable. It was the original pioneer trail of 475 miles, of which we drove only 50 miles. There is so much history with many stops at overlooks and displays. Driving across Mississippi was delightlful also. We drove for about 150 miles through flat Mississippi Delta farm land that was just beautiful.


Renewing acquaintances with Pat and John Stoltman and their two grown children Katie and Chris was wonderful. It has been about 30 years since we have seen them. We were able to tour Clarksdale, Mississippi, a nice town with lots of real Southern flavor with Pat. Chris works as a manager for a farm of about 10,000 acres where they raise sod, cotton, and soybeans predominately. He took us on a tour of the cotton and soybean harvest. Leroy was a "farmboy" again and delighted in a ride on a 6-row cotton harvester (John Deere of course)! Having had several textile classes as a Home Economics major in college, I especially enjoyed the tour of the cotton gin process.



Leaving the beautiful Mississippi Delta farmland, we drove to Little Rock, Arkansas and toured the Clinton Library at the end of the day. Very interesting and well presented. Tomorrow we hope to travel into Oklahoma and do some touring.

No miles traveled by bicycle.

Life After the RIDE

These Blue Ridge Mountains in North Georgia depict the views we have so enjoyed throughout Georgia and Alabama since completing our bicycling odessey on October 11.

We experienced rain the day after the completion of our "ride" so after worshiping in a 150 year-old United Methodist Church in Savannah, GA; we drove up to the kids cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains for a couple of days R & R and to celebrate Rinda's birthday there.

A midweek evening ride with Rinda and the grandkids. This is the Silver Comet Trail which is a rail trail that Leroy rode on Thursday to the Alabama border and back adding another 100 miles onto the seventeen the night before with the group. He also took in a twenty mile ride through Atlanta on the Freedom Trail ending at Stone Mountain Park. Included is a picture of the famed "kudzo" which was very prevalent along the Silver Comet Trail.


On Saturday we were priviledged to see both Liske and Anneke play in their soccer games. As a former kids soccer coach and referee, it was great to see them playing. Lena Jean is only a few steps behind them in everything they do even though she is only 19 months!

Here are the reasons we took a week of R & R in Atlanta after the ride. We had a great time in Atlanta seeing our kids and grandkids. Ballet, soccer, shopping, Stone Mountain, a picnic, building a loft library for the girls, building a butcher paper holder, cleaning a closet, bicycling on the Silver Comet Trail (see below for more miles Leroy has added) visiting their church, relatives, and friends; made for a quick week.

Meet our friends, Ausie and Beth Clement. We go back many years to Fort Dix, New Jersey Basic Training and Fort Benning Georgia pre-Viet Nam. It was a gorgeous drive North through Alabama to visit them in Athens, Alabama today. We have visited a few times with them over the years. The water tower just seemed to embrace the support for our troops all across the South.

When we left Atlanta on Sunday afternoon we had a great visit with Al and Pat VanderPol in Anniston, Alabama. They are friends we both grew up with in Mount Vernon Washington; also our paths crossed at Fort Dix, New Jersey and Fort Lewis, Washington during the Viet Nam era. We spent the night with Zeke and Linda Willis, Army friends from Fort Lewis who live in Birmingham, Alabama. It is such fun to just take up where we left off the last time we visited, even though many years may have passed in the meantime.

Miles Traveled during our week in Atlanta = 137

Total Miles Traveled = 2,871

Trivia = Stay tuned as we travel through more of the USA heading home to Sunnyside.

The Atlantic Ocean -- We Made It!!!!

What will 32 days of pedaling a bike get you? -- from Santa Barbara, California to St. Augustine, Florida - - 2,734 miles or 85 miles a day. After riding 72 miles today, I was able to dip the front wheel of my bike into the Atlantic Ocean at about 1:00 PM. After the bike took a dip it was time to strip off the shoes and socks and take a swim. It has been 40 years since I was stationed in the area that I last took a dip in the Atlantic Ocean.

The trip this morning out of Palatka, Florida took us up and over the St. Johns River and then for 35+ miles north parallel to the river. This is a dammed river so in places it was well over 5 miles in width. The land was very rich sandy loom and one of the towns we rode through was named Spud, so it gives you some idea of what takes place as far as farming; in addition there were hundreds of acres dedicated to sod farming. Almost every home had a boat dock some of which had multiple boats moored by it. The ride was entirely flat with the exception of rises in the road that would take me over a drainage ditch.

We took several hours of time to tour St. Augustine following the ride and then started our trip up north toward Atlanta, Georgia. We will, however, do some additional sightseeing before we reach our destination. Tomorrow we plan to attend church in Savanna, Georgia; followed by some touring in that community.

For those of you that are concerned that I had promised 3,300 miles, well you’ll have to stay tuned to see how I will ride those miles. The first couple of hundred will be ridden on the Silver Comet Railway Trail that runs from Atlanta GA into Alabama. This is a beautiful railway that has been paved for at least 85 miles. This will also be the location that I will get to ride with my granddaughters who are very excited to demonstrate their long distance abilities.


Miles Traveled Today = 72
Total Miles Traveled = 2,734

Trivia = I thought I was just swerving to miss another piece of truck tire when the thing started to move to get out of the way. It was a good-sized snake!

I had a pickup stop along side me and ask if the road he was currently on was the fastest way to get to Jacksonville. I told him it wasn’t, but I was not sure how to get to the closest freeway that would bring him there. He asked where I was from and when I told him the State of Washington he just said S--t. Seems like he doubted me!

We paid $2.91 a gallon for gas when we entered Georgia. Why is gas so cheap here?

Oh yes, in recalculating the miles there was an addition error back about 21 days ago of 11 miles, therefore the corrected total is 2,734 = WE MADE IT