Mt. Rocky

I'm pretty sure I messed up the count. So I'm done with that. July 1st will be 1 year of living in a van, rent free. It's been 57 days since I left New Jersey on a bicycle.  

Colorado has the most beautiful scenery. Well, if you don't include eastern Colorado.  That place is worst than Kansas. We hit 11,000+ feet of elevation soon. Monarch Pass.. That might be the highest point I reach while taking the Western Express to San Francisco.  Altitude Sickness is no joke. You know things aren't going well when you have to remind yourself to breath. 

If you think riding a bicycle across the country is crazy then you haven't talked to any hikers. I met these two dudes, Baker and Cheetah, they are hiking up towards Canada. I think they started separately around Mexico.  

I had a job interview, over the phone, the other day. I might be back in Ozark country again. I'll keep you posted. 

You can follow the bike trip here: www.facebook.com/NJ2CA2016

Kansas isn't flat

Day 358

My whole life I've been told Kansas is flat. It's disappointing when you catch the world in a lie. So far, the eastern part of Kansas has been long, extended hills. If you factor in the headwinds and the eighteen wheelers blasting you with a side wind that pushes you off the road... This state is horrible for people riding bicycles across the country. Luckily, the hills should end soon. West of Witchita, the rumors are, it's flat. Soooo flat that you can see for miles and miles and miles. The kicker is there is nothing to see. So you have wind in your face, preventing you from peddling fast. Wind from your side because of big trucks, pushing you off the road. And, you have nothing to look at. Total mind F! 

I CAN'T WAIT! 

I've applied to a few Radio Producer jobs while out on the road. I've also contacted/stopped in a few radio stations that I've passed on the trip. Ideally, it would be awesome to secure a job before I end the trip. I really just want to move out of New Jersey, so any radio job would be awesome. (I'm not only apply for Producer jobs) I guess that's why Uber and Lyft are a thing. When I get back if nothing pans out I'll just drive you wonderful people from the bar to your homes.  

No regrets. Nothing to it but to do it.  

To to follow our journey and not just mine, visit our Facebook page.  

Coast 2 Coast Bicycle Adventure 2016

 NJ2CA2016

Random sights in Kansas

A Confused State of Mind

Day 351.. I feel like somewhere I miscounted.  

That's not the reason I'm confused though. I'm currently in Missouri, the county I'm in is Texas, and I'm in the middle of a town called Houston. Say what?! 

38 days to get to Houston with 5 rest days, ain't bad, right? 

These hills in the Ozark Mountains are killing me. The scenery in this part of Missouri is beautiful though. So it's pretty much an even trade. Hard work all day and in return you get to see sights, like in the picture below. We hope to be in Kansas before the end of the week. Since Kansas is flat, I'm hoping we get atleast one day done with 100+ miles. 

No arch under my foot. One arch over my head.

Day 349.  

I have a foot defect of flatness. 

the end.

100 years of racing

Hello all. Day 338. 

I'm in Indianapolis.. I rely on my iPhone's autocorrect to spell "Indanapolis." The city is pretty busy because it's the 100th race at the Indy Speedway. It's the first time in 50 years that it's sold out, so locally they won't black it out on TV. The locals are pretty exited. It's interesting from a TV/Radio background. I guess. Our goal today is to be in Illinois by the end of the day.  We don't have a place to sleep planned out, yet. I'm kinda looking forward to stealth camping or knocking on a farmer's front door and asking to borrow some of 'ye ol' land.' If you know what I mean? The app Warmshowers has been awesome so far. All the people on the app hosting are very generous. I'm about to use it all the time when I get back to #VanLife. 

That's all for now.

My snapchat has been bumpin', so if you want to check that out. ADD ON SNAP

Til next time y'all! Heading west to San Fran! 

Ohio State

Day 334.. 

Prior to yesterday, I had no clue Ohio State University is located in Columbus. The city itself was pretty empty. It was raining heavily as we rode around. Columbus is a very bicycle friendly city, lots and lots of bike lanes and paths. Tomorrow, the plan is to make it to Springfield, Ohio. 

I hate to say this but I don't really miss the van. It's been raining a lot on this trip but I'm still glad I took the leap. To be honest, it was really hard for me to quit my job. While visiting the OSU campus today, I thought about my time going to Rowan University. The only reason I went to Rowan was because I really liked to radio studio they had on campus. Lucky for me it sort of worked out, because before I graduated I started working for CBS Radio in Philly. I tweeted out to two stations in Columbus. I wanted to show them the cool hello sign I have on my bike. 

Even if I don't end up finding a job in radio after this trip is over, at least I'll have an amazing experience to share with others.   

Stay tuned.  

Nothing New.. Everything New.

331 days living rent free. Nothing new there.  

18 days of riding a bicycle.. That's sorta new. 

For a while I didn't know if I was going to make it out of Pennsylvania. The hills were out of control and I packed way too much stuff onto my bike. I'm planning on mailing clothes and other items back to New Jersey on our next rest day. Now that I'm in Ohio, there are less hills and riding is much more enjoyable. Especially since it's not raining everyday and we've had some really nice, sunny days. 

I'm posting a lot of videos and pictures on Snapchat and my other social media. Check it out! 

www.facebook.com/NJ2CA2016

Day 304.. SAY WHAT!?

Today is a bit of a scary day.. It's officially my last day of work. OMG! What am I doing with my life? I quit my full time job to ride a bicycle across the country. 

Actually, THIS IS AMAZING! Two months on the road, peddling towards the Pacific Ocean. Besides getting to the Pacific Ocean, my only other objective is to not get eaten by a bear. We pretty much have all our equipment for the trip. We still need to get smaller items like bug spray and suntan lotion. Oh.. and we still need to figure out exactly where we want to start in New Jersey. We all agreed we want to start at the Atlantic Ocean, but we haven’t decided what town.

Also, I did a few searches on Google Maps and it looks like getting out of New Jersey on a bicycle going east to west is a challenge. I hope we make it. 

Thanks for “Liking” our Facebook Page. I’ll keep posting on here but for all of our perspectives on the trip and not just mine, the Facebook page will have all the good stuff.

I’LL MISS YOU VAN MORISSETTE!

www.facebook.com/NJ2CA2016

Side note.. Sorry Prince, but I'm going to act my shoe size, not my age, for the next two months! RIP

Coast 2 Coast Bicycle Adventure 2016

Day 295..

July 1st marks one year living rent free… On April 29th I’ll be downsizing from the van to a bicycle for about two months. Van Morissette will be missed. I find it a bit funny that the final weeks leading up to my one year anniversary of #VanLife, and I might be thousands of mile away from the van. No need to worry, the Dude In Van will still be posting even though I technically won’t be in a van. I have some plans for the future of this website, and I’ll be testing them out while I’m on the road. If it makes you feel better you can type www.onlysandro.com into your search engine, instead of www.dudeinvan.com.

Most of you know I don’t really talk to my parents that often. In fact, they don’t know I live in the van. I did tell my father about the bicycle trip, last week, because he emailed me inquiring about vacation time in April or May. His reaction was the same as Phil and Nick’s parents. Our parents in general are not pleased, to say the least.

I understand my father’s concern. I am his son, he reminds every time he emails me. (He starts off all his email with “Hi Son”) I just don’t agree with him implying that I’m ruining the rest of my life and career by taking a two month break to ride a bicycle across America. That’s a tad bit dramatic. Regardless, I’m excited for this trip, as you know. Quitting my job hasn’t really set in yet because I gave them a 6 week notice.  I’ll give you an update in two weeks before I leave. Maybe by then I’ll be freaking out.

If you want to follow along with me and my friends, Nick and Phil, you can do so by clicking “Like” on our Facebook group Coast 2 Coast Bicycle Adventure 2016. We are planning on posting pictures and videos as we roll across the country.

Also, we have self-funded the trip. We bought touring bicycles, tents, all sorts of gear for the biking/camping, cameras, maps, and more. We are planning to camp and not using any hotels to keep our costs down. If you’d like to support the trip with more than just kind words, you can do so by visiting out GoFund Me page! www.gofundme.com/NJ2CA2016 Our plan is to use this money for food and bicycle maintenance.

Thanks for following along and all the support!

#NJ2CA2016

Day 226

Day 226...

I used a slow cooker today to cook my dinner tonight. I made some chicken dish. Sorry I don’t have any pictures. I'm also considering to sell my solar driven generator. I haven't used it much this winter and I'm thinking of downsizing for the summer. I'll keep you posted on that.

Yes, this is a blog post.. So you know what that means. No podcast this week. It’s funny the week I get two podcast cancelations is the same week I kind of missed out on a great opportunity because I haven’t booked any “BIG NAME” guests in my career. I’m sure the old me would get real mopey and start dwelling on where I went wrong, but honestly I’m okay with it. Now I can focus on my two month bike trip. 

Living in a van is easy. The hard part is being creative and adventures enough to follow through with actually doing it. My life hasn’t changed much in the last 226 days, and the things that have changed are mostly a change for the better. I’m not talking about the morning I woke up and my brakes weren’t working.(Click on the Social Media portion of my page and scroll down my twitter feed to catch up on that) That change wasn’t fun. I’m talking about my life socially and personally.  

I’ll keep this short. We are all busy and I don’t want to pull you away from your life too long. I’ll leave you with this.. Remember to think outside the box from time to time. I know what I’m doing doesn’t seem normal at first but if you take a moment to really think about me living in a van you’ll see it’s really not that crazy.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the picture above! (I know it's messy.. I'm messy!)

sandro@dudeinvan.com if you have any questions or interest to be on the podcast.