How sweet it is.

I'm writing this short and giddy post to let the world (or at least the world wide web) know that the TransAm 2011 team is on the ferry and San Francisco bound. This has been an incredibly humbling and enlightening experience. And now the land of hippies and hills, the land of chinatown and the birthplace of the beat generation (which Kerouac loved and wrote so fondly of) is in real grasp.

Most importantly I must point out that thanks to great friends, distant and close family, two extremely generous and supportive parents, an awesome brother, coworkers, the memory of my grandparents and most importantly generous strangers I will be arriving in San Francisco the leading fundraiser! This is an incredible thrill for me to be the first MS patient to ride with Bike the US for MS and thanks to all the kind souls who gave to my goal I can arrive with $6,666! There are simply no words to describe how thankful I am to all those who helped me get where I am today.

I would like to give a very sincere and special thank you to everyone over at Birmingham Bicycle Company for all the support and great deals I got for this trip. You ask took my distant dream and turned it into a very real adventure. Y'all rock!

30th

Today we will be riding about 60 miles into Winters. Winters in only about 60 miles from San Francisco. The reality just hit me like a brick after staying in a suave Courtyard Inn. The weather for the day is a high of 87/97 with south winds of around 10mph (in Winters)... I don't know what to say, tomorrow I will be resting my head in the city Kerouac wrote so enigmatically about so often. And all in the name of fighting MS. Please help me reach SF as lead fundraiser... I need at least $200 to grab the spot! go to www.bauserbikesms.com

The beginning of the end...

Bittersweet. That is the only way I could describe the elation which washed over me as I walked, no, cycled into the final state... sunny California!

The most anticipated state crossing of the trip. I was grinning from ear to ear the whole morning. I was finally going to be in California! Can you believe it. Under two months ago I was but a biking ballet dancer who had a dream (and MS) dunking his tire into the water in Yorktown, VA. Now I am in California and I can finally taste the fruits of my labors... and they were sweeter then I could imagine. The crossing was even sweeter thanks to meeting my fundraising goal of $6000 and leaving the dry and desolate 50W and lonly side of Nevada behind.

In only days I will be riding on the golden gate bridge and celebrating the completion of my trip! I can never say thank you enough to those who have given to reach my goal but we are not done yet. I am about $200 from being the leader in fundraising! Could you imagine!?! The first person to ride with MS making the most to fight MS!?! Well we don't have to imagine, just go to www.bauserbikesms.com and give anything you can. Send your friends to www.bauserbikesms.com and tell them to tell a friend! Remember, there is not a cure for MS and with your help we intend to change that!

For now I will continue to ride in humbled elation thanks to all the kind souls (and especially those who I have not had the pleasure to meet) who have donated to such a good cause/group and my own goals. You will never ever know how much it means to me! I promise.

Dance Party Colorado (video of a unique water stop)

this is the brainchild of Pepper... great idea and some interesting moves!

A hesitant goodbye.

Now I can go reasonably fast for what I have called a "lifestyle rider"... that's my story and I'm sticking to it. But today I was going even more slowly than I usually do. This was because today was a day I have in many ways been regretting... today we left Colorado.

I love Colorado. It is a shining example of what I mean when I say I love the "outdoors". The trees, the people, to mountains, heck even the rain is something amazing. Life like something out of an old folk song or even a Jack London novel. Colorado is for many of these same reasons considered one of the best states in the USA for adventurers. And I will go back... someday soon I hope.

But having said that I am now opening the next chapter of this trip, Utah. Sure it won't be the same as Colorado but that is exactly why I look forward to it. It will be something entirely new. And if there is anything I hoped to accomplish on this trip it is to experience new things, see new sights, and test my limits. I think so far this trip has done an amazing job of all those things. So on that note I go to bed like I have since the first of June... excited for what tomorrow brings. I can only hope that is a feeling I can hold onto after this trip is over.

You've got to admit it's getting better...

There have been some really miserable situations on this trip. Rain, hail, dogs, irritable truck drivers and more. Now I say miserable situations because that is all they were, the situations that try to ruin your day. And the situation does not have to win. But still (like in anything in life) trials will be presented while on an adventure like this... but somehow each day has been laced with excitement and infused with euphoria.

That statement has never been more true than today. Yesterday we rode in to Telluride. The roads in through the mountains were as breathtaking as I have ever seen. I felt like I was in the Alps or something... this could not have possibly been to the west in my home country all this time. The nation we live in has such a rich and vibrant history and such a variety of terrain most people who live here will never see or realize (or more importantly respect) how lucky we really are.

Today is also our first (and only) rest day where we do not have a service project to do for an MS patient. I really enjoyed those projects and getting to know others with MS, but Telluride really is the perfect place to saunter the day away. This town resembles so directly one of my ideas of utopia... even as a tourist town. Great restaurants, shops, bars, and I am writing this from the Steaming Bean which is a hip little cafe with hippies and good vibrations from the speakers. It should be mentioned that the 16 oz french press coffee (one of the best cups of my life) and a bagel liberally filled with lox, cream cheese, tomatoes and capers was a blissful way to wake up to a truly heavenly town (and I would not be surprised to wake up again and this all be a dream)

Also I would like to wish Pepper Schuette (rout leader) a very happy birthday today! What an amazing place to celebrate.

iridescent on the horizon.

The clouds were resting to large and ominous in the sky (and a gigantic sky at that) in Kansas. Even into the most eastern part of Colorado the clouds clung to the horizon: beatific and grand they slowly flew up from the western horizon as we followed the maps west. But one day there was that same distant iridescent blue growing from the sight line. We rode on but the blue just grew through the blueness and bigger into the view until, finally, the realization came that this was not clouds but mountains in the distance. Finally we reached the (much younger than the Smoky Mountains) Rocky Mountains.

Ever since visiting my father while he was working in Helena, Montana I fell in love with the incredibly humbling view of the mountains. The incredible power of continents colliding. Plates from the earth pushing together so violently making such beatific scenery.

I write these words from the Cafe Dawn in Salida, CO. I am getting ready to climb up towards Monarch Pass (which reaches an elevation of about 11,312 while we are between 7000 and 8000 here in Salida). Monarch Pass will be the highest point we reach on our trip. I am filled with satisfaction and joy when I look at any map and see just how far we have come already. Sure I was sick and was forced to ride in the van for a few days while I waited for my medicine but I will not get caught up in all that now. I'm in Colorado... and that is pretty swell! No matter what direction I look I see beauty. I see peaks of silent history and the tree line's where shades of brown and green to grey and blue kiss the sky with clouds carrying the weight of so many bodies of water that, perhaps, I have passed. And beyond it all: the west. And past that the pacific.

It is hard to believe we have come so far as a group already on the power of our own bodies to fight the disease that tried to take cycling from me already. It's impossible for me to truly see all the faces of those we have touched on this trip but hopefully one day I will be able to see the difference that the $175,724 that we (as an organization) have raised so far. And as my climb to my highest summit is just starting my climb to the top of my fundraising is also just beginning! I have almost reached my fundraising goal of $6,000... but almost is not quite enough. I am sitting at $5,185 and with all your help I can reach my $6000 goal! So please give anything you can at www.bauserbikesms.com to help make a difference in the lives of those affected by MS.

Peace and love,
~David

The official video for TransAm2011 episode 2! (great job Pepper!)

Episode Two (mostly water fun!)