The Clots are losing.

That is to say that the swelling in my foot and ankle are going down. My foot once again looks similar to what you might expect a foot to look like as opposed to a grap-a-melon. What's to be done on the knee is yet to be finalized. Looks like surgery, but we can't do that till the clots are gone and I am off blood thinners. As much as I appreciate the things that medical technology can do for us, I hate going to the doctor/hospital/orthopedist/vascular doc. etc...... anywho, I'll keep you updated.

Nate!!!!!; the main reason you guys are still reading. :-) Nate called a couple days ago from Scottsbluff, NE. NE.!!!! thats right, the big guy(not calling him fat) is in the "home" state. He said he was gonna take a day off in Scottsbluff to give his legs a chance to rest. So I don't know what there is to do in western NE. but I'll bet he tried to find it. So that should put him in Omaha by the end of next week or so.

The right coast? thats the question. Will he continue? I don't know. He had mentioned that being alone has been costing him more than he expected (ie-camping, not divided between two people, etc....) So, we'll see. He is healthy and seemed to be doing pretty well. We'll see what he does.

Thats all for now, I promise a little more reflection from my "bike trip across oregon" soon! Now that I've had a chance to process some of it.

peace,

matt

So....Doctor called this afternoon with the results of the MRI and said that I have a partially torn miniscus. (sound of a balloon deflating) So....what that means is that we can either have surgery (where they can either repair it or remove the torn tissue) or not (which would mean letting it heal as much as it can on its own, this would also mean that the rough edges of the tissue would still be there and may cause future injury. So....thats something. Decisions that I wasn't really looking forward to making. This has been tough, on both me and the family. I feel deflated. This isn't how this summer was supposed to turn out. I should still be out biking.

But I am not, for whatever reason. And in the past week of being home I think Ive come to the place of realizing that this is not the end of the world. I will live to see another day, I will live to see another bike ride...someday. It has made me more thankful for the health that I do have.

Deflated but not defeated. Keep praying for us.

peace,

matt

Monday has come and gone and as is typical the doctor didn't have a slot for me on Monday. So....I went in to see him today(Wednesday) and after a little pushing, prodding, twisting, kneading, turning, pulling etc..... He thinks it might be a torn (or partially torn) ACL or Miniscus. So....thats something. He ordered an MRI (I know, these are a bunch of foreign acronyms for me too) so I will get that done tommorow (you know how hospital scheduling goes.) Due to the swelling in my andkle and foot he had the suspicion that I may have a blood clot in my ankle, which testing confirmed. So, I am on blood thinners for that for a couple days. Nothing major should be gone soon.

So that is where I am at. I will let you know the results of the MRI tommorow.

Nate rides on. Last we heard he is in or near Jackson, WY. Making pretty good time. He predicts that he will be in Nebraska and near Omaha in two weeks. What we heard from him was very vague due to a poor cell phone connection. So, that is about all we know. We hope to hear from him again here soon. I think he is doing well.

Thanks guys for your thoughts and prayers. This has been kind of tough for us(my family, Nate and I) I appreciate the support. I love you guys.

peace,

matt (and nate, of Jackson, WY. fame)

What happened six hours after I posted; "Knee(s) are feeling better!" (or; You know that feeling when you shift gears (in a car or on a bicycle) and it either slips or there's that painful "KRRRRKKKKKKK!" sound.)

That's how I feel right now.
I've had plenty of time to think about this post, too much time. That is, I've had more time than just 8 hours of riding in the day to think about this post. I am back in Omaha. Here's the story;

Tuesday morning, May 16th. We are up and out of camp at 8am with about 78 miles between us and Juntura, OR. That's alot of riding, not to mention a couple very long climbs through the Oregon desert.

By 3pm we have traveled 53 miles inlcuding "Stinking Water Pass" (4800'). We are about to embark on the second "Drinking Water Pass", when my front tire goes flat. Not to worry, this is nothing unexpected, the third of our trip so far. Nate had one earlier in the day, now it's my turn. Temperatures are in the mid-90's so I hop off my bike and set to replacing my front tube as quickly as possible. Old tube off, new tube on, great! Start pumping it up...and the stem blows off! So, from a crouched position I jump up, a little out of shock, a little out of wanting to get another tube.

Thats when it happened. Somewhere between crouched and standing I feel a "Pop!" in my left knee, followed by a good deal of pain. It is suddenly very difficult to stand and my tire is no closer to being fixed. Feeling faily helpless we do what anyone would do in a time of need, we asked for help in the form of a lift.

We hitched a ride to Boise, ID. got my knee looked at and stayed at my friend, Scott's house (THANKS SCOTT AND FAM!!!!) Realizing that I wouldn't be able to continue biking 60-70 miles a day I decide it best to head home. Thirty-two hours on a bus later, I am in Omaha...on crutches and pain medication.

Why do these familiar surroundings feel so foreign? I would be lying to say that coming back to the comforts of home has been easy. My mind is on touring the country. The experiences from just a week and a half have been awesome. This sucks. I've said to a couple people that I feel like I am looking at a scoreboard and it says; "Bike trip - 1, Matt - 0" I feel a desire to not let it win. I have a number of decisions to make as far as what to do. Alot of those decisions are speculation till we hear from the doctor on Monday.

Bravely, like the hero he is to me Nate rides on. And though I don't envy him having to ride alone, I am very proud of him. He is nearing the eastern end of Idaho and should be toward's Wyoming in the next few days. I will keep you updated on both Nate's ride and my knee. Till then keep Nate in your thoughts, as well as my knee.

On the brightside, I made it 550 miles across Oregon. sigh.

peace,

matt (and nate - just a little more distant than usual)

So it has been a couple days. Sorry. ? Maybe not, this online journal thing should serve as a heart-rate monitor for us......a very slow, heart-rate monitor. So you all can check and see if we are still alive. Well, we are. I guess since we left you last we have; slept about a block from the ocean, had a beer at the world's best brewery, slept in a barn, ate at a casino buffet (awesome!), ate alot of clif bars and power bars, ate at a pizza buffet (mmmm, but didn't go over so well after...if you know what I am saying. We finished our first map in Eugene, OR. Stayed at a house there (thanks Michal and Cyndi!), took our first break day at the Belknap Hot Springs Campground/hotel (a hot spring piped into a pool, awesome!), climbed Santiam Pass (4817 feet and lots of "granny gear"), in one day we biked from Sisters to Brothers, OR. and it was great. Brothers is by far better. Had an awesome meal, met some super cool in a town of 5? 6? who knows, they had a school house that had one student and one teacher. Well, you may or may not notice, but we are "off-route" but it's planned....more or less, our original route took us north into Montana, who wants to go way north just to go back south. So we are most liklely just going straight across Idaho by way of highway 30. Cool?

Scott, if youre out there, we will be in Boise in a few days. You should meet up with us or something for a bit. Or let us camp in your backyard or something.

Oh, yeah for those of you placing bets on how good of a son I am, we DID call mom on Mother's day. Love you mom. See you in awhile!

till next time, keep leaving your comments. I love getting them. This is a whole new experience for us, it is completely foreign to what our normal lives look like, but we are getting into the swing of it all. Knee(s) are feeling better and overall physically we are doing well.



-----

There, now isnt that a more positive post than last time?

peace,

matt (and nate)

Ok, here we are. Middle of Biking; day 2. Tillamook, OR. and I dont even know what to begin to type. We have our bikes together and are on our way. Depressing fact #1 Rain, there has been rain in some form or another the past two days. Sucks. Oh well, at least it is not a down pour. This trip is unlike any other thing I've ever experienced. I really don't know what to type. We are doing well, about to cook up some lunch. After a late 1 O'clock Pm start yesterday in order to get our bikes together we have gone a collective 75 miles, with another 25 or so yet to do today. Nate's knee has been bothering him a bit, hope that goes away. My knee just started bothering me in the past 5 miles. Nothing to worry about yet. A few more hours of riding and we'll be at camp for the night.

peace and love from this side of the country,

matt (and nate)

So we're less than 24 hours away from departure. I am a nervous, excited, scared, ball of energy....minus the energy. The past couple of weeks have been great, if not exhausting. This summer is gonna be something. I guess from here we say Good-bye, see you in 2.5 months on the other side of the country. Thank you to all who came out last night, it was great to see you. Encouragement is something that we are going to need. We really can't do this without you, please continue to send notes, emails and comments. We'd love to hear from you. Thank you to those of you who donated. You can continue to donate by clicking on the links that are right over there>>>>>>>>>>

peace!

matt

Hey check it out! Actual links off to the side where they're supposed to be. I learned how to edit HTML today! So that means you can click directly on those links to learn more about our two charities as well as to be able to donate online. I'd like to say thank you to Word Made Flesh and to The Hope Center for Kids for putting their name behind us.

I would also like to thank my parents for providing all the food for the going away shindig at their house tonight. Again, 6pm at 11442 Queens Dr. Call (402)730-4823 for directions.

Also thanks to Cycle Works and Mooses Tooth in Lincoln for helping us get all of our gear together. We have alot of gear and we wouldn't have gotten it all together without them, Especially Butch, Jeff, Maggie and Chris. You guys rock!

Again we leave Saturday at 6:45am on Continental Flight to Houston, TX. You could totally come and see us off, this summer's gonna be nuts.

I love you all. See you either tonight or on the other side of the country.

peace,

matt