The Bone Flute

Today we have discovered a tool used for entertainment pruposes. Its called the Bone Flute. Its usually an arm or leg thatz been hollowed out with holes in the top to put your fingers over when you blow in. When you press on different holes they make different tones. The bigger the hole the lower and the smaller the higher. These are often played in rituals and can make very amazing music. These flutes are just another example of how unwastefull the Native Americans can be.

Week 16

Hello Once again! Today I'm writing about week 16 of our journey! It went by way to fast for me! All the blood, sweat, and tears we've put into this trip so far I believe is greater than any textbook or class. Ok so heres how the week started out. It was Hood River, Oregon where we stayed with a great family that goes by the name of the Bryers. You may remember them from back in DC, they were the nice folks inspired by John's book. We also caught up with them in Montana because they were taking a different route than us. They gave us a lot of hospitality at their home. They also gave us GREAT meals. They started us out with chicken cacciatore. Then they gave us delicious molasses cookies and fresh fruit. Then they invited us to stay at their house. being on the road for 5 weeks it sounded like a good idea. We rested up for our ride the next day and they gave us a hearty meal of cereal for breakfast. It was all you can eat. Then they allowed us to run up their phone bill ;) by letting us call home. It was great talking to their two kids Allison and Elise. They fully understood what kinda journey we're on. Then we had to bid them a farewell and gave them a peace medal. Then we visited the great Deschutes State bark. It was really pretty and we even got to follow the Colombia River all the way through it! It reminds me of one of those nature movies that are good in high-def. It was full of pine trees, waterfalls, and tiny streams all through it. Then we came to the Gorge. It was real pretty with walls all around the river. When Lewis&Clark went through there they had a tough time but not us. We had a little help from the dams ;). When we finally left Hood River we thought Oh it looks like it'll be a clear and sunny day. Oh it looks like we were wrong. And we were. It was FREEZING rain and started raining real hard. To make it worse we had tons of hundred foot climbs. At least we were warm climbing. Anyways we rode after dark when it was STILL raining but we got balanced out karma and we got to stay at a motel and take a dip in the hot tub. Then we got to portland. We wondered what if the food in college is terrible. What if we have to go 4 years+ on really bad food. Yet again we were wrong. It was the best food i've ever had at a cafeteria by far. It also had the widest variety's of food i've seen so far. They had, Burgers, Sandwiches, Fajitas, Pasta, Everything A-Z in the cookbooks. To make it even better there was an ice-cream sunday bar. Then we got taken to the kitchen to meet the nice chefs. Then we gave them peace medals and we headed out on our way. After that it seemed like Hell. We had to double up on days (actually all days) to get to the ocean in time. Some days were so long that we had to go 90 miles. I dont know what you do for workouts but carrying 60 pounds behind you for 90 miles in a day isn't what i'd call a walk in the park. To make it worse there were hills of which seemed never ending. But I knew the oceans were close. We could hear the seals barking and I could smell the sea breeze. Then on Friday, Glorious Friday we saw the ocean for the first time in 4 months. Being a person of the coast thats a LONG time. We took a dip in it and it felt great. It was cold but we didn't care, we were just happy to be back on the pacific coast. It was amazing but it also made me realize that this trip was coming to end and that we'd be living with out them. But then my spirits were lifted when we got to have our big family reunion dinner at Silver Salmon Restraunt. We had a great meal and when dessert came out we found out that the nice people back at Monticello payed for it. We just scarfed it down and it was delicious! Then to be even more generous they invited us to a Lewis&Clark Bicentennial Celebration in Monticello next January. Then on sunday we had to put all our bikes and bobs into boxes and ship them over to Monterey where we would continue our ride down the coast to the Shores of Santa Barbara.

The Snowshoe

The snowshoe is an important tool that we will be using in the next couple of weeks.  Its a made of twigs (usually a flexible substance) bent into a circular shape, and leather rawhide strips woven into the frame.  They are usually very long and narrow some know to be 3 times as long as their width.  They allow man to walk swiftly through deep snow and hunt.  This is very important in the winter because you still have to hunt and eat then!  They have been known to date back to 6,000 years ago!  They were used to cross a unknown straight connecting Asia to a place that we think is very close to the river connecting us to the Pacific.  It shall be very important in our journey for we have to cross what seems like the never ending Rocky Mountains in up to 10 feet deep snow!  I just hope when we come to the peak of it all we can look to one direction and see the east and to the other the north.  Anyways the Snowshoe shall help all of us on our journey to the Pacific.  

Week 4

This week was very fun and it was full of hospitality and great breakfasts.  First we camped on the lakefront of Hungry Mother State Park.  We got to go swimming there and we even got the brave Lynn to plummet off the sky dive.  It was amazingly refreshing and to my surprise very warm.  I just hope that It was really warm.  Anyways the folds over there were awful nice to us and we rode out with a smile on our faces.  We were looking back on our journey and we realized that we wanted to help peoples dreams come true just like the folks back at the Elk Garden Methodist Church.  We decided that we would have our ride benefit others so we decided to help out the nice people at the Dream Foundation.  You should really check it out, we have our own page on it. Heres a link on it http://www.dreamfoundation.org/ Then we set off to climb a what seemed never ending hill :p.  It was gruesome but the scenery made it all worth it.  Once you get to the top its just gorgeous.  You could even see the border of Kentucky and Virginia.  It also looks over the Southern Grand Canyon.  Its a massive canyon carved out of the Mississippi River.  Unfortunatley it rained real hard when we got to the top.  Then we swooped down into Kentucky and had what seemed like the best breakfast of the whole trip at The Rusty Fork.  They will whip you up a meal of massive proportions.  It filled us up but real good but ended up making us lathargic :p.  A few days later we stopped at a place called Crossroads Grocery.  We bought some warm local made gingerbread that tasty mighty fine considering it was wet and cold.  Then what seemed real good to me was when we stopped at this country store.  We walked in and we saw an elderly man at the counter.  We went to the back and got some gatorades when he asked John if we were the folks biking across America.  John had a big grin on his face and slyly said "Ya".  Then when we went to the front to buy them the man said "No one biking across America pays in my store" so we left with big grin and the power of free gatorade on our side.  Then we came across a once large and coal-mining town.  The whole city depent on it  but when all the coal was saturated the buisness moved to Illinois leaving the small buisness' doomed to failure.  Now its just a small down perhaps an fraction of its old size and prosper.  Kentucky also was great for its hospitality.  It tought me to be a kind stranger like those we've run into.  The paster and youth leader of the local church were amazing, they gave us a place to eat and best of all showers :D!  Then we came to something awfully strange.  It was the Kentucky Police Office.  It was a very laid back facility and all the officers welcomed us and got us a place to stay.  They gave us t-shirts, sheriff patches, and some digits of their favorite pizza place.  Sheriff Wheeler Jacobs gave us a great quote showing how far behind they were "The way I see it, we're so far behind the times that when the world comes to an end the folks here in Hindman will still have another 5 years left".  It was a great quote and gave us all a nice laugh.  Well Got to go to bed next week looks sure to be hard ;).

~Hannah

The Arrowhead

The arrowhead is yet another one of the intriguing indian tools we have discovered on our journey. It is a stone carved in a triangle shape with a point at the end of it. It's commonly made of flint, obsidian, or cherts. It is like the tomahawk, except it is lashed forward instead of the direction to the side. They are lashed on the end of a long stick to make an arrow. The indian arrowheads though seem to be sharper and harder than our European ways of making them. They are also lashed to the end of spears to make deadley war weapons.

The Tomahawk

The tomahawk is a traditional indian tool commonly used in almost all tribes.  They are made of a sharp Stone slates that are commonly used in indian rituals.  These stone slates usually have a hole carved down the center so they can be used as pipes.  This stone shaft is lashed to the top of a rounded piece of whittled wood.  The types of wood are always made as hickory, maple, or ash in indian culture.  They are one of the most versatile tools commonly used for butchering animals, fighting, chopping large pieces of wood, pipes, and a lot more that I shall not go into.  These are perhaps the best tool that we have found the native americans to use.  I hope that we discover many more tools along the way for Jefferson will douse us in gifts and luxeries that will make our names go down and history............

"The Grizzily"

We were sailing calmly up the river after finally leaving Fort Mandan after a cold long winter when we encountered a tremendous looking animal. it was a brown creature with large teeth and facial parts. It also had the most peculiar ears. We shot one the first day as it was a very easy kill, but several days later we encountered a much larger one and it was a extreemley hard to kill......... Then as we were along the river our canoe capsized! Luckly Sacagwea came to the rescue as when happens whenever the canoe capsizes. Me and some of my best hunters went to go kill the large animal we now call a grizzly bear. The grizzly charged me and my men and we had to retreat back to the ships. we shot it with several slugs and we failed to kill him. The men on the shore though were ready and after many guns fired and blood shed, a slug hit it through the head and killed it. We've encountered them many times now and they are very respectable creatures and troublsome........... We believe these creatures our monsters sent to devour us and down us like an extra ration of whiskey.........