Day 5 Long Island, Stonybrook football game

Our Saturday in Stony brook, Long Island started a little bit later since we finally got too sleep in after 5 mornings in a hurry. We all got brunch at an awesome place that my best friend Bryce took us to, we all got awesome sandwiches like Ive never had before. After we went through the Stony Brook University Campus, unlike schools on the west coast there campus is all spread out through trees and hills. We got back to the house and rested before the football game, all the players had to be there early so everyone in the house left other than me my mom, friend, Brooke and Bryce's mom Tina who were also visiting. The football game was awesome it was a  total home town feeling that doesn't happen out where we live in Orange County. All the parents get there hours before and set up there BBQ and start cooking and chatting with everyone. Great environment, and i hear they are here very game rain or shine, quite the family get together. The game went good with Stony Brook beating the opposing team 52 - 14 or so. The after game party is amazing as well with all the parents still out there cooking for the players, the players some into the parking lot and all grub and talk with everyone about the game! Once again we just hung out that night and packed some stuff for the next day, where we were going to explore Manhattan for the day then leaving from JFK later that night. 

Day 4 Jersey Shore to Long Island

We woke up this morning around 7:30am and got out of the hotel and found an awesome little breakfast place in Seaside Heights before we started our ride for the day. As we road down Ocean ave. we took pictures of all the amusements and rides we saw up and down the boardwalk. Our route took us 30 miles up the Jersey Shore through good parts of towns and bad, there were some 4,000 sq ft houses over looking the ocean and some really run down motels. But all in all everything was different and really awesome to see. The weather was still very overcast but kept us cool, we arrived in Highlands about 40 minutes before the ferry took off for Manhattan. The ferry ride was pretty fun, we went by Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty of course and saw the skyline of Manhattan. We got off the ferry and met my good friend Nick at a great little pizza place and he showed us around the area and his apt. We tried to catch a train out to Long Island at 4pm and got stopped by train security for having our bikes, after i exchange a few words with him and made a scene we got outta of Penn Station. We decided to pack up our bikes and ship them so we could get on the train and didn't  have to lug them around anymore. We found a local bike shop that let us take them apart there and pack them ourselves, then took off for Penn Station round 2! We arrived in Port Jefferson where my best friend Bryce lives and goes to school at Stony brook, it was a long day but got to see a lot. Tomorrow we are checking out the school and going to a Stony Brook football game, should be fun and exciting to see some action!

Day 3 Philly

Our day started at 8am when we left the hotel headed to Starbucks, even though it was about 1.5 miles away it took us about 30 minutes! There was a bit of traffic plus there are so many one way streets its hard to find the right way and of course the parking the city haha. After we got my mom her fix of espresso, we dropped off the van we had rented for a day. The best cheese steak place in town just so happened to be about a mile away, i must admit it was a pretty good cheese steak. After we went to the JFK Park where the love sign is, and took all types of pictures and got some cool gifts. After we headed to the Rocky steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and of course took the cliche pictures. We then headed to Independence hall and the park area around there, unfortunately it wasn't under construction but still awesome to see it. After we finished the sight seeing we crossed over the bridge into New Jersey and headed for the coast. The route to the coast was full of tree lined highways and not many hills, it did not end up raining today but was awful dewy! We didn't arrive to the island in New Jersey until about 8pm tonight but got a quick room and are ready for the ride up the coast to Stanton Island tomorrow!

 Occupy Philly

 Geno's Cheese teaks, South Philly

 JFK Park, Love Sign

 Green bike path

 Rocky steps, Philadelphia Museum of Art

 City in the fog

Day 2 Baltimore!

So this morning we ended up sleeping in since we were up yesterday from 4:15 am until just about midnight. After we got all packed up and checked out we went straight to The White House since we could not leave DC without seeing it. Of course it was a sight to see, no body was around and we almost had the whole front to ourselves to take pictures and talk with the security guards, who were extremely nice people! After we got all our pictures a huge bus dropped of a school of about 150 kids so we left and had breakfast at an awesome little  place called Cosi just around the corner from The White House. Right as we left breakfast it started raining and didn't stop all day, our goal was to get about 80 miles outta DC. Except  the weather conditions just wouldn't let us move, we only got about 40 miles in almost 6 hours due to the terrain, weather, and route that had lots of cars and street lights. When we got through most of downtown Baltimore we stopped at a Enterprise and rented a van to get to Philly and catch up on our trip, we didn't want to feel so stressed since were on a pretty tight schedule this time. Tomorrow should be a nice day checking out the city and sights in the morning then riding to the Beach in Jersey!

Day 1 of riding on the EAST COAST!

So our morning started at 4:15 am, we got up packed all our things and got a ride to the Greyhound station in Raleigh, NC. Our Greyhound took off at 5am headed towards Richmond, Va where we had to board another greyhound to our final destination of Fredericksburg, Va. The Greyhound wasn't to bad since we both got to seats to try n get comfortable and sleep on! We arrived in Fredericksburg, Va at 9:30am and walked about a mile to the UPS store to get our bikes and put them together. Took about hour and a half to assemble the bikes and get the packs on, after we got a sandwich right next door then went on our way! We busted out about 45 miles in 4 hours or so taking in all the scenery and rolling hills along the way, it was awesome with all the changing colors! We arrived in Mt. Vernon and hoped on a bike trail that paralleled Hwy 1, which was an amazing trail going in and out of the woods next to the Potomac River. As we crossed over the bridge we saw the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and The Washington Monument, which were sights that are was more awesome in person than the movies. Took us about 2 hours to find a hotel since of course there is a convention in town that took up all the hotels. We found a great place mile north of the parks called the One Washington Circle, great hotel and great staff. We got some dinner and got some much needed sleep, day 1 accomplished!

North Carolina!

Our plane landed in Raleigh at 7am on Monday(Oct. 10, 2011). Of course we got little to no sleep on the plane due to how cramped they are nowadays. We had a good time with the family(my uncle Randy, moms brother) driving all around town, checking the city, downtown area, and of course the countryside.We checked out my uncles house which is on a few acres with awesome forest around it. We left the house headed for downtown where we saw NC State, the business district, the Carolina Hurricanes stadium, and some pretty sweet murals. We had dinner at a great BBQ place called The Pit, and after went to a real authentic ice cream place called Sunni Skys near there house. We crashed early since we had to wake up at 4:15 to catch a greyhound at 5am the next morning.

7 Hours......

until the plane to North Carolina takes off! We are both very excited to go to the East Coast since we have both never been to a lot of the places we are going to be stopping by. The temperature in Raleigh right now reads high 70's, light wind, 65% humidity, and chance of showers in the evening. We will be staying with my uncle/mom's brother a short drive outside of Raleigh. I have heard that the countryside in North Carolina is amazing, with lots of wildlife and streams. Hope us a safe flight and well see ya on the East Coast!

Image from last years ride to Florida.
Location: Mississippi
(First time we saw the ocean in almost 4 weeks, pretty big deal for me!)