Last week we flew home from Copenhagen, and somewhere over Iceland a woman behind us started shouting, "Help! Someone help me." I had my headphones on and a movie playing, and it took me a few seconds to realize the shouting wasn't coming from the movie. When I finally turned around, one of the flight attendants was bent over in the aisle, and on the floor next to her was a man who had just walked out of the bathroom and fainted. There's a particular kind of helpless you feel on a plane when...
5 days ago • 6 min read
We paid seven dollars for a cup of coffee this week. It was a very small cup, at least to our American-sized brains. We sat there waiting for someone to bring the rest of it. Nobody did. Everyone told us we would love Copenhagen. Friends said it, strangers said it, and one commenter said it with three exclamation points. We believed them, so we showed up ready to fall for the place. We've spent our days walking the city between training runs, and it is clean and friendly and easy on the eyes....
12 days ago • 3 min read
A few weeks ago we got an email from Peloton. They wanted to know if we'd run the New York City Marathon with their team this November. We said yes because honestly, tt's the kind of invitation you don't turn down. It's truly a genuine honor, plain and simple to be given this opportunity. We've both run marathons before, so we know exactly what that email meant. It meant we needed to start running because we only had eight weeks to train. Getting into the New York City Marathon on your own...
19 days ago • 5 min read
This email is late. Like, really late. A few weeks ago we started losing power in the Land Cruiser. Not all at once, just enough to notice. Something wasn't right. We figured it was the fuel filter, which is a pretty routine fix, so we pulled over just outside Gothenburg to swap it out. That's when the fuel filter holder snapped off in our hands. Turns out a previous mechanic had overtightened it, and when we went to change it, the whole thing gave way. So now we didn't just have a clogged...
26 days ago • 4 min read
I just dropped a meatball sandwich on my lap. That is not a bit. That is not a metaphor. I'm just a man trying to write a newsletter from the passenger seat of a 1988 Land Cruiser in Sweden with a sandwich that did not cooperate. We're back in the truck. We flew from the US to Europe on Friday, picked up the Land Cruiser, and pointed it toward Finland. And the flight is what we want to talk about today, because we think it could save you real money. We flew business class on Air France....
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
There's a moment on the Rideau Canal, somewhere between the second and third lock, where everything just slows down. Kramer was on the top deck with his nose pointed into the wind, ears flapping like he was trying to take off. Sara had her feet up. I was steering from the flybridge, which sounds impressive until you realize the canal speed limit is about 6 mph and the boat practically drives itself. But Le Boat handed us the keys after a 90-minute lesson at the dock in Smiths Falls, and...
2 months ago • 6 min read
Hey friend, Somewhere around mile thirty yesterday a man was standing at the end of his driveway with a garden hose, spraying down anybody who wanted it. No sign, no tip jar. Just a guy who figured out that a few thousand people were about to ride past his house in a hundred degree heat and decided to do something about it. We’re in Iowa. We’re riding RAGBRAI, which is a week-long ride all the way across the state, every July, with thousands of people. This is our second one. Between the heat...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Hey friend, It is hot in Tennessee. Not warm. Hot. The wet, heavy kind that soaks through your shirt before you've made it to the truck. We keep reminding ourselves we chose this. Some mornings that's easier to believe than others. So naturally, we decided to go make it harder. Kind of last minute, we're jumping into RAGBRAI, the week-long ride that drags thousands of people clear across Iowa on bicycles in the dead of summer. Think cornfields, pie stops, and a lot of sunburned legs. We rode...
3 months ago • 4 min read
One of you is about to win a narrowboat!! Stay tuned for the name below. But first... We've traveled a lot of places, and there's still no place like home. This weekend was America's 250th, and we spent it the way we like best. On the porch, watching the neighbors set off fireworks, smelling barbecue up and down the street, listening to the cicadas wind down as the sun dropped. It would take a few lifetimes to see everything this country holds, and we've barely made a dent. No country is...
3 months ago • 4 min read
