A Summer Odyssey
Recent East Valley High School graduates Nolan Fridley, Josh Birt and Dave Musser bicycled 3,000 miles across America this summer, pedaling from Spokane to Virginia Beach, Va. Here’s a look at how they made the trip:
June 17 - Depart Spokane and spend the night at Wallace. Camp in a church pastor’s yard.
June 18 - Superior, Mont. Stay with motherin-law of EV wrestling coach Craig Hanson.
June 19 - Rock Creek, Mont. Stay in a teepee at a campground. Fish but catch nothing.
June 20 - Helena. Stay with family they didn’t know. Compare notes with family’s son and friends who are visiting on a cross-country tour from Oregon to New York.
June 21 - Bozeman, Mont. First 100-mile tour day. Stay in apartments thanks to Liberty Lake resident Randy Grinalds, who had seen newspaper article about their trip.
June 22 - Big Timber, Mont. With pouring rain and hotels full, stay in a pastor’s house and are taken out “on the town” by six girls.
June 23 - Billings, Mont. First night in a hotel.
June 24 - Harding, Mont. Stay in a church.
June 25 - Sheridan, Wyo. After Musser crashes and is taken to hospital for treatment, the on-call nurse takes the boys in.
June 26-27 - Gillette, Wyo. Lady in store lets the boys stay in her RV trailer. Rain the next day forces them back to town, where sisters who own a retreat ranch feed and house them.
June 28 - Spearfish, S.D. Youth group puts them up in hotel.
June 29 - Wall, S.D. Another 100-mile day to a tourist attraction.
June 30 - Murdo, S.D. Musser stays in city park to save money; Birt and Fridley finagle free night at a campground where they shower and do laundry.
July 1 - Mitchell, S.D. Lady takes them in, feeds and houses them. “Made us give her a hug before we went to bed.”
July 2 - Sioux Falls, S.D. Birt’s rear wheel gives out. Young couple drives by, but returns and takes them 10 miles into town. Feeds and houses them while bike gets fixed.
July 3 - Spencer, S.D. Bike to Lake Okoboji, touted by Playboy magazine as one of top six places to spend July 4th. MTV filming the party so trio leaves and stays in hotel.
July 4 - Emmetsburg, Iowa. Taken in by people hosting a family reunion. There’s a crowd but the grandfather tries to have them stay another day.
July 5 - Charles City, Iowa. Longest distance covered to date, 115 miles with a tailwind. Receive money from a church group. Interview with newspaper.
July 6 - Prairie Du Chien, Wis. Broken spoke forces a stopover. Birt leaves wallet, which is later forwarded to his aunt in Ohio, intact.
July 7 - Barneveld, Wis. Knock on door of family for place to stay. Children want to play tag all night.
July 8-12 - Antioch, Ill. Stay with John and Mary Lochhead, childhood friends of Fridley’s mother, and their family. Spend four days seeing sights and playing. Decline invitation to stay longer and watch boat races and Cubs game.
July 13 - Chicago. Meet rider on bike trail who asks them to spend the night and invites them to join him next summer on the annual 530-mile RAGBRAI bicycle ride across Iowa. July 14 - Nappannee, Ind. Car-driving Amish man offers help for flat tire and takes them in for ice cream. “It was wild seeing how the family (10 children) honored and respected the father. What he said was like law.”
July 15 - Bryan, Ohio. Meet avid bicycling family of Ron and Elizabeth Phipps who warn them of road construction and offer them the use of their house for the night. The Phipps’son, an intern for the local newspaper, interviews the boys.
July 16 - Another family takes them in on way to Ravenna after stopping at a Catholic Church carnival.
July 17-18 - Ravenna, Ohio. Stay with Josh Birt’s aunt, Donna Schneider. Retrieve Birt’s wallet.
July 19 - West Virginia. Spend night at campground near small town. Fridley gets separated looking for a phone. Panic sets in until his return.
July 20 - Union Town, Pa. Final hotel stay on the trip.
July 21 - Cumberland, Md. Historical American Revolution and Civil War city. Taken in by city’s events manager.
July 22-25 - Frederick, Md. Meet up with Fridley relatives Mike and Ferrol Dougherty. Tour Washington D.C.
July 26-29 - Richmond, Va. Stay with Musser relatives Steve and Marty Rowe. Visit historic Jamestown.
July 30-Aug. 3 - Virginia Beach, Va. Stay at the new home of former Spokane residents Rhonda and Greg Anderson. Three days of surf and sand. Interview for yet another newspaper article.
Aug 3-6 - Bus ride home. Seven changes, interminable stops and 68 miserable hours later, the trio reunites with families at 1:30 a.m. in Coeur d’Alene.