Welcome to The Philtrons Pedal The Americas, Daisy and Jason’s blog about cycle-touring the route between Alaska and Argentina. In September 2016 we completed our route, and we are currently living in Central Pennsylvania. Daisy is a statistics Professor at Penn State, and Jason is working as and engineer in a small company. We are happy to be settled down again!
Sometime soon we’ll start blogging about our various adventures in Pennsylvania, but until the semester ends we’ll be working working working! We’ve cleaned up pretty well from our big adventure and you’d never know from the look of us that a short time ago we were ultra-long distance adventurers.
One year on the road, and counting…
On this blog you’ll find stories about our year-long cycling adventure – from the initial preparations to pictures of the beautiful scenery along the way. Our trip began in Anchorage, Alaska, USA, on May 10, 2014.
We hope you’ll stay around awhile to read some of our posts. Start here to read about how we got the idea to take a two-wheeled gap year and then go directly to our blog to see the latest posts. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment, or visit the Contact Us page.
Happy reading! And, of course, happy cycling!
The bikes pre-departure. They are a lot dirtier now!
Goooooo Philtrons!!!
Go Philtrons!
You guys are amazing! I heard about you through Cathy Bostron, NYC.
There are Bostrons in Argentina. A distant cousin in Denver visited them recently. I will try to find out more details.
Brian, great, we’d love to visit with them if we can!
What a great adventure! We are related through the Derksen side/ re your grandmother’s family. Perhaps you may be seeing some of them in your travels! I will look forward to following your shared journey!
Angela
Thanks!
We loved seeing you here in Bellingham. What a great adventure you have planned! Looking forward to hearing all about it,
Toby & Steve
If you come through san diego you have a place to stay/shower etc.
Thanks Lynn – we do plan to ride through San Diego, and spend a few days there visiting friends and getting restocked for Mexico and beyond. I would love to see you!
Hi, My name is Jana I was on the first part of the Australian cruise with your folks. I live in California, central valley now. Attended Humboldt State which you will pass by. If you need any assistance when you get to California drop me a line. Not sure when you will reach CA Coastal HWY 1, but be careful. You do not want to meet two motorhomes on the outside curves very narrow and dangerous. Congrats on your graduations and good luck.
Thanks, Jana, and we will keep your offer in mind! … Yes, we will definitely be coming through the Arcata/Eureka area (near Humboldt State, of course). We might even drop through during the time when the county fair is happening! (I always enjoy local events like that.)
Good Luck guys! I am very excited for you! Keep us posted on your adventures!
So good to hear from you Adriano! We are excited too! We will update as often as we can, internet can be hard to find in Alaska…
Hola, chicos. Estoy haciendo un seguimiento de cómo va el viaje. Pásenlo bien. Llegó la play. Gracias
Hi bikers. Got word of your trip via Debra Bostron here in West Friendship. Plan to follow your adventure and report on you occasionally in the Howard County Times. What a trip! Cheers. Lisa Peklo
Thanks, Lisa! If you’d like to do a Q&A or anything else for the paper, just send a note through the ‘Contact Us’ page – we’d be happy & excited to.
Bill and Rosemary spotted you at the rest stop this side of the turn off to Dawson City. Glad to have the rain this morning, but sorry to have you in it. Wonderful to see you again. You are both so magnificent! Paul would be so proud of you! Cheers, Alice
Wow! This is so awesome! I wish I had the strength you two have! I live in Palmer, Alaska and I assume you rode your bike through my town. ;) How exciting to be doing this…I am not good with bikes, but an RV would be fun! haha Good luck and enjoy your trip!
Glad you found our site! Yes, we certainly rode through Palmer, and almost stayed a night there. What a beautiful spot. Thanks for reading!
Hi Daisy and jason! It is Jim, as in Jim and Wayne who ran into you twice in the Yukon. We are the older guys who were on a mere 7 day tour. I finally checked your blog and it looks great!
Hi Jim – glad you made it to the site! Of course we remember you, until a few days ago you had the distinction of being the only cyclists we met twice. It is certainly different terrain and weather now that we are in southern Oregon. To be honest, we sometimes really miss the far north and its loooong cool afternoons. All the best!
Hi Philtrons, My name is Marco I recently finished a Vancouver to Mexico Tour. I hosted Ryan in Long Beach, CA. My wife and I are the ones he talked about in his blog.
Anyway. There is a large gap for camping between Malibu and Dana Point. If you would like a place to stay in between we would love to host you. Just email me if you are interested and I will get back to you.
Cheers
Marco, Thanks for the note, and the offer! You are right about the camping gap. We actually already snuck through there and stayed with some college friends in Santa Monica, but I still really appreciate that you took the time to contact us. I can’t wait to meet Ryan again somewhere down the road. Best wishes!
Hey, you two. I just got your San Diego post card yesterday. Methinks mail comes from the US to Canada by bicycle.
Had a wonderful six weeks in Europe to mark my upcoming 80th birthday and saw Mama Mia on Broadway on the way back.
It is minus 2°C this morning so you guys are definitely going in the right direction.
I have an appointment with the surgeon this afternoon to discuss my F-kedup knee.
Hugs, hugs, hugs
Sounds great, and we are soooo glad we’re not in the cold right now! We’ll have perpetual summer for the next year and we are excited about it. Good luck and quick recovery from surgery if it comes to it!
Congratulations on 5 months of pedaling and 7,000 miles!
Love you both.
Hi! Seeing Cathy Bostron/Ray Fishman today in Denver. They are visiting for a few days. Where are you now?
Hoping to connect with the person that has visited the Argentinian group.
Brian
Brian,
Great, hope you have a great visit! We are currently in Merida, on the Yucatan. All is well. – Look forward to hearing about the Argentinians.
Happy New Year,
Jason
Hi guys, I saw you in the hostel San Patricio in Cancun, I was in bicycle too. Your trip is awesome and thank you to share it with us. I’ll follow your posts, and really I wish you to have an incredible adventure! I’m glad to meet you. The universe bless you, and take care of you.
Lovely to meet you at the Chilean-Argentine border!
Your trip looks truly incredible and we hope that we see you again out on the road.
The Upping The Andes Team
Great to meet you guys. Was just talking about you and the amount of good food, etc, you were able to carry after so long on the road. Impressive.
Hola, esperamos que lo hayan pasado bien en la ciudad de Calama, los atendimos con mucho cariño.
Mucho éxito en su aventura.
Recuerden lo que aprendieron:
Equipo de fútbol de Calama: Cobreloa
Mejor equipo de fútbol de Chile: Colo Colo
Memoriales de personas muertas en la carretera : Animitas
Juntar dinero para comprar algo: Hacer una vaca
Cuando algo vale muy poco o no vale nada: Vale callampa
Pasarlo muy bien: Pasarlo chancho
Estar muy enfermo: estar pal gato
Un abrazo
Excellente. Recordaré las palabras!
Suerte en su aventura, gracias por la alegria y la amistad
Bueno conocerte y el grupo de cyclistas!