ughmmghmmmgh.....

well, these past two days, have been so CHALLENGING. the first day, when we decided to bike for 50 miles UPHILL... i was about ready to cry, i think i did a little bit :) i hadn't realized just how much this was going to take out of me. so about 35 miles into the trip, it was just hill after hill after hill, i started hyperventalating... no biggie! don't freak out! i was able to start breathing normally after a minute or so. but i was just so overwhelemed. especially since we had gotten directions from steevo and we were supposed to be so close after we saw a wendy's. well, we found A wendy's only to discover that the REAL wendy's was still a long ways away. so hill after hill after hill. it was awful. i felt so bad for peter and dan, they had to put up with me. then the gray's pulled up in their mini-van when we were about 6 miles away. WORST SIX MILES OF MY LIFE! haha. by this time, it was almost dark, and we had to keep going up. we found the road that led to steevo's house, and by this time, it was so dark, we had little flashlights on the back of our packed bikes so that we could see a little bit of the road. i felt so funny. i was tired and hungry... i was babbling so much. and i was trying to follow this little tiny light. and if i was too slow, it would get too far away and i couldn't see anything anymore. but if i went too fast, i would run into dan. i kept flashing back to that movie tron. where they're in the little cars... it was a fun night. so when we finally reached danielle's house, such relief! my brother was there, he stayed to say goodbye. it was so nice :) he offered to drive me home, and i almost agreed haha... i was feeling so awful. but after some delicious food, and a shower, playing ISPY with steevo, and sleeping for a good 10 or 11 hours... i decided that the journey must continue! so yesterday, we only got about 30 miles or so, the first 10 were just as bad as the day before, but i tried to keep telling myself that soon it would be flat, and things will get better haha. such fun. we were on the road and around 7:30 we started looking for a campsite. we found the perfect spot right up next to the river. we asked the people in the Apple Tree House if we could camp there, and they said that people do it all the time. so we set up our little tent, and this guy in a mustang comes around and tells us that camping is prohibited and we should leave before the warden comes. we talked amongst ourselves and decided to risk it. but then 10 minutes later, the warden comes around. his name was john. but he was really nice, he asked the Apple Tree House people if we could stay on their property for the night, and they agreed, so all we needed to do was cross the street :) he even helped us take our things over. it was really nice of all of them.
last night, we had our first cooking experience with the 30 year old swiss stove... we made some watery rice and beans and we had some burned bagel and cheese sandwiches. so very very tasty :D. sleeping, was a little difficult. three people in a two man tent haha... it was interesting. but we survived. this morning we tried to make pancakes. which didn't work out so well. they burned. (we didn't have butter, or oil, not even pam!) so we settled for oatmeal and wrapped up the batter...
we've been traveling for a few hours already and we have reached this somewhat conveniently located public library.
it's been a little rough for me... with the two taller, stronger, more athletic guys and then me. shorter, weaker, pudgier, less atheltic girl :) but i'm still really excited about this whole thing. even though i'm probably making life miserable for these two gentlemen. i'm glad that so far, they haven't admitted it, and that soon, we will be in CANADA! singing, and exploring our little hearts out.
somehow, it still doesn't seem very real to me yet. with all of the frustration, and overexertion. this journey still feels like something completely natural. like i've been doing it my whole life. hmm... oh, and i also found out that my filling in my molar popped out somehow... so that should make eating quite interesting as well :D haha, but i'm still smiling, somewhat :)

-carly