Hello and welcome to our blog!

You can view older blog entries here:

• May 2018
• June 2018
• July 2018
• August 2018
• September 2018
• October 2018
• November 2018
• December 2018
• January 2019

Hank and Kathy have been married 38 years and reside in Spokane, Washington.  They raised three great children (Geoff, Josh & Steph) who are now amazing adults and currently making their own paths in this world.  They also have a new daughter-in law, Amanda that they adore.   Hank and Kathy have worked hard throughout their lives.  They love to travel and have discussed riding their bicycles across the United States for about 15 years.  They decided to travel to all 50 states and realized they needed to take the time off now while they are still physically able.  Lucky they have the health and finances to be able to go on this journey.  So the plan, visit all 50 states on their bicycles in about 17 months.

Here’s a little more background on these two…

• Hank is retired from the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Federal Courts.  His work focus was mainly in Information Technology.  He loves playing a variety of instruments along with building cigar box guitars.  Hank loves learning anything new.  His main joy in life is hanging out with Kathy, Geoff, Josh & Amanda, and Steph.  Hank enjoys many outdoor activities like running, hiking, snowshoeing, but he is most comfortable on his bicycle.  He has been avid cyclist for over 20 years.  He was a year-round bike to work commuter.  He also enjoys mountain bike riding, cyclocross racing, road riding, bike touring, and really just wandering about on his bicycle exploring new places.
• Kathy is a retired nursing leader who specialized in healthcare improvements.  She is a former marathon runner and enjoys many outdoor activities including backpacking, hiking, cycling and snowshoeing.  She is a quilter,  loves to travel, enjoys her wine and time with her girlfriends.  Kathy was a recreational cyclist until this past year when Hank somehow managed to get into her subconscious and tell her that bicycle touring was fun.  Kathy’s greatest times are spent with Hank and their now four adult children.

Kathy and Hank retired from their jobs in March & April 2018.  On May 3, 2018 they left on their cycling adventure.

In their words, here is rough plan:

Wander across the northern part of the country and end up in Maine in September 2018 just in time for their Fall colors (Orange line on map below). Then travel down the Atlantic coast arriving at Key West, Florida in December (Blue line on map). From there in the Winter months we will wander across the south to San Diego, California arriving some time in March 2019 (Red line on map). The penultimate leg takes us on a wildly roundabout path to Chicago, Illinois in June/July 2019 (Purple line on map). From there we take a train to Klamath Falls, Oregon. The last leg takes us from Crater Lake in Oregon up to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.  When we arrive in Seattle, Washington we will take the ferry up to Alaska where we will pedal up there for a few days.  We will then return on the ferry to Seattle, Washington and then ride across our home state back to Spokane, Washington in approximately in August 2019 (Lavender line on map).  Once we are back to Spokane we plan to take a trip to Hawaii and rent bikes there to make it official and ride all 50 states!

Along the way we will visit state and national parks, friends and family, and meet all kinds of great people. We’ll camp, make use of warmshowers.org when we can, stay with family and friends, and–Kathy insists–stay in a hotel/motel at least twice a week.

It will just be the two of us riding around the country enjoying the experiences that each day holds.  We will carry everything on our bikes in our pannier bags.  Hank’s bike weighs approximately 95 pounds and Kathy’s bike weighs around 75 pounds.  We will ride approximately 40 – 50 miles per day, and depending on the elevation this will equate to 5 – 7 hours of riding each day.  Notice: Our plan are tentative and may change depending on inclement weather, sore muscles, having too good of a time with family and/or friends, or we just feel like mixing it up.  Being retired allows us the flexibility to adjust our timeline as we like.  We are looking forward to our travels!