We’ve made it from Portland, Maine to Washington, D.C. in one weeks time. Now that we’ve navigated our way through the entire east coast and survived some aggressive drivers, thick accents, and overpriced beers, we should be able to find more peace and serenity once we head towards the midwest.
Before heading out of Baltimore, Joel’s brother-in-law Morgan, who cycles professionally and should probably trade spots with any of us on this journey, was nice enough to check over our bikes and fine tune and/or fix a weeks worth of damage. 
It was reassuring to have our bikes touched up, as our method of bicycle maintenance thus far usually consists of rattling the bike a couple times, shrugging our shoulders and jumping right back on. We really appreciated Morgan taking the time to lend his help, but we were a little disappointed that he chose to drive away in a car afterwards instead of riding our bikes to California for us.
Today we had our first guest rider, Joel’s sister Shannon. What a great addition to the team for a day…especially after putting up with each other all day, every day for a week now. Shannon not only was a great sport and fun to be around, she also cycled like a stud all the way from B’more to DC…just a mere three months after giving birth to a beautiful baby girl, Jane.
Once we hit D.C., we stopped at the famous Ben’s Chili Bowl for another extremely unhealthy yet delicious meal. Although Lance and his friends at the Tour de France probably don’t stop to slam down chili-fries, chili-dogs, chili-hamburgers, and milk shakes during their time trials, Ben’s served as a great pit stop for us.
We finished our ride here in D.C. by stopping at the Lincoln Memorial for some photo ops. When we were riding around the National Mall, it really hit us that we’ve already made it from Maine to DC in just eight days. Thankfully everyone is feeling strong, so we’re pumped and ready to start finally start heading due west.
Monday serves our first rest day, so we’re looking forward to giving our rear ends a nice break from the saddle for a day. We’re actually going to visit wounded soldiers at Walter Reed, so if we aren’t already motivated enough to finish this ride, I’m sure we’ll gain all the extra inspiration needed while visiting our nation’s heroes.
Thanks again to everyone for their support.
-The XC10 Guys
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Hey Pete and Dan,
Taran thought we should try to contact you this way. What a great thing you all are doing. We are available to host you three guys after July 4th. Please let us know what we can do/how we can help. We have plenty of room to put you all up. Will you be riding the MKY trail through MO? Columbia is located halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City. Let us know. Dawn and Jim Eckenrode
Congratulations to you and much success. I am glad you built in a rest day.
We are not in Cincinnati June 19, 20 and 21 but any other day is fine if you fits your schedule.
I am sending your website again to my friends to get them interested again to donating to your misson- Wounded Warriors