2026 Break – 5 months in the USA

Posted on by Patricia & Dustin

March 5th – August 18th, 2026 on a break in the USA

August 19 – 23, 2026 back in Lima, Peru preparing bikes & gear

  • Day 530 – travel day
  • Day 531 – arrive in Lima, Peru
  • Day 532 – 535 – bicycle preparation & 70km of shakedown/butt training rides

After completing almost 12,000 miles and visiting 12 countries we left our bicycles and gear in Lima, Peru from March until August 2026 and returned to the USA for a “break”. This was the second major break of the trip after taking 4 months off the bicycles in 2025 from Quito, Ecuador. We have previously done minor breaks (North Carolina, Arizona, Mexico City & the Galapagos) which we still counted toward our total day count. For these long “breaks” we press pause on our count and resume when we return to the trip.

This post is mostly a recap of our time away from the touring bicycles – if you’re here just for the bike part then skip down to near the end of this post to the “Arriving in Lima, Peru” subheading.

These long breaks have allowed us to connect with family, build connections within the Western North Carolina community where we purchased a fixer-upper cabin, and to take a rest from the daily logistics of long-distance bicycle travel. 

Most of our 5 month break from the bicycles was spent in the Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina

We’ve divided the summary of our time away from the bicycles into the following categories: reconnecting with family/friends, community/gig work & cabin work.

Reconnecting with friends & family near and far

This 5 month break allowed us to reconnect with friends & family. We’re not the best at maintaining long distance relationships so being in person allows us to revive the connections we cherish.

Since our cabin is not finished we stayed on the farm with Dustin’s brother’s family, “the farmers”, again this year in exchange for helping them out on the farm as they traveled for kayaking. We ended up farm sitting for 67 days while the farmers were gone. With the farm sitting we feel like we’re contributing and not just squatting on their property 🙂

We hiked with the farmers at sunset on the 4th of July to watch fireworks from several of the surrounding communities.
While staying on the farm we also get to spend a lot of time with our princess, Katy – she absolutely LOVES the farm and all of the critters she gets to hunt, sometimes for hours on end. In this photo she had been pursuing something in a hole next to the creek for hours.

In April Dustin was able to take time and drive with his parents and two aunties to Alaska in his parents’ RV. It was A LOT of togetherness time as it took them almost 2 weeks to drive the nearly 5,000 mile journey. Everyone arrived safely & miraculously still talking to each other.

Dustin does a last minute repair on the RV before departing from Wisconsin to ward Alaska
Two class A motorhomes – family friends Chris & Terri, Dustin’s parents & two aunties fueling up for the Wisconsin to Alaska journey.
Dustin drives his parents’ giant motorhome toward Alaska. It took them almost two weeks to make the nearly 5,000 mile journey.
Dustin’s parents’ RV headed toward Fairbanks, Alaska.

Patricia flew in and met everyone in Fairbanks – we were able to spend a little time with the family in Fairbanks as well as reconnecting with friends we hadn’t seen since we left Alaska in May of 2024 on our bicycles. It was so great to see Fairbanks again and many wonderful people – such a special place with amazing folks.

While in Fairbanks we were able to review our Outdoor Emergency Care skills with the Moose Mountain Ski Patrol – thanks Don!
Friends Jonathan & Christine rode with us as we pedaled out of Fairbanks, Alaska in May 2024 – it was fantastic to catch up with them again!
Beth let us borrow our old car back – great to see her & her growing family as well
Patricia’s mom came to the farm in Western North Carolina for an early spring visit – we put her to work to collect the eggs.
We were able to see Patricia’s niblings on a few occasions – here we gather for nephew Jack’s college graduation. Aunt Patty feeling really short 🙂
Patricia was able to visit her parents on several occasions – here she’s with her dad, so thankful at 84 he’s sharp as a tack!
Dustin improved his whitewater kayaking skill – his goal for the summer was to paddle the Ocoee River which he did three times at varying levels of success. In the righthand picture you can see Dustin top right out of his boat hugging a rock while niece, Ivy (red top), and brother, Brett (yellow lifejacket), chase down his abondonded boat.

Nantahala Community & Gig Work

After almost 5 months on our bicycles riding through Ecuador & Peru it was so nice to come back to the familiarity and welcoming community of Nantahala in Western North Carolina. Last year Patricia worked at the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) and we both volunteered for kayak races on the Nantahala River. Dustin decided to join Patricia this year working for the season at the NOC – Dustin worked as a raft guide while Patricia worked in bikes/aerials (zip lines). We both really enjoyed our gig jobs and especially meeting and quickly being accepted by this eclectic community.

In March we farmsat for lambing season – it was a mix of awe and stress as a few of the lambs were initially being rejected by their moms and had to be caged together for force the bond.
The lambs grew so fast – in this August picture they are almost as big as their moms.
The chickens we took care of while the farmers were gone – the rooster (mid picture on the right, cream colored with the plumy black tail) was mean and attacked Patricia on a few occasions. Finally they came to an understanding haha.
Dustin getting the eggs one evening with two of the Anatolian Shepherds checking him out.
Those chickens produce a lot of eggs 4-6 dozen per day that must be processed or used.
Katy the helper – moving 500 lbs of feed!
All 3 of the Anatolian Shepherds – protectors of the flock. This picture makes them look small but they are actually HUGE dogs.
Patricia, standing in the coral shirt, volunteered for the US Open Kayak Cross in April while niece, Ivy (bib number 250), competed on the Nantahala River.
We joined a local biking group and had a great time meeting people while riding Tsali Trail Complex in the Nantahala National Forest.
Dustin connected with Nantahala River friends
Dustin worked for the summer as a Nantahala River whitewater raft guide – it was a lot of loading, unloading & moving heavy boats.
During her lunch break Patricia caught Dustin moving life jackets
Always a goof – hanging out with many people half our ages keeps us young 😉
Once a week Dustin was assigned to TNT (truck & trailer) where he had to go to the put-in and inflate numerous watercraft and have them ready for guests
Patricia did several guided mountain bike trips at the Tsali recreation area
For Patricia’s job sometimes there were large camp/school groups where up to 25 bicycles were loaded into a trailer and driven to the biking location.
Most of Patricia’s job ended up being the van driver for the mountain-top zipline where she was very careful to avoid running over Eastern Box Turtles who frequently were on the desolate mountain road
Patricia learned to make baskets at the Nantahala Community Library – here she is with her first basket & wonderful volunteer teacher Susan
Many of the NOC aerials crew hiked up to the Wesser Fire Tower for an end of season sunset. Katy joined as well 🙂
Toward the end of the summer we took a few of our Nantahala neighbors on the river with Dustin (yellow jacket) guiding

Cabin Work

In June of 2025 we purchased a small log cabin next to the farmers in the Nantahala community of Western North Carolina. The shell of the cabin had been put up 40 years ago and the property was never finished (no walls, plumbing or electric). Last summer Dustin dedicated almost his entire “break” from the bicycles to work on the cabin. This summer we decided to take a different tack and contract for a few of the major items while Dustin worked as a raft guide.

Just as with any major project we had successes and failures…

We put on a metal roof and installed 4 skylights on our cabin
We had septic installed
Dustin poses with our framing inspection report – we passed!
Our property is heavily treed so we also had to do quite a bit of tree work again this year. We tried to take down trees which could pose a threat to the cabin or driveway. We used a pulley system and cabled the trees. Patricia drove the tractor and pulled tension on a tree as Dustin cut it down to ensure it fell away from the cabin. Once the tree was safely down then it had to be brushed up moved. Roughly estimating we took down about 50 trees this summer!
We attempted to have a well drilled for water – we went 800′ down and didn’t hit water – a great disappointment. Somewhat unheard of for Nantahala area but it does happen occasionally. So now we have a (very) expensive hole in the ground and no well water.
Patricia does a preventative insect treatment as we button up the cabin for the winter.
Saying goodbye to our cabin

Leaving Nantahala

After spending almost 5 months in one location we took several days to pack up our Nantahala lives and get ready for travel back to South America.

Packing our parts and tires for the flight to Lima, Peru. As we had left our bikes & most of gear in Lima we needed only to pack new parts & spares. Here Dustin is packing one piece of our luggage, a cardboard box, containing new tires, cassettes, chains, etc.
Patricia packs up one of our bins of USA stuff – things we don’t take on the bicycles but is nice to have for extended stays – hello muffins, a food processor, crockpot & rice cooker 🙂
Just days before we were scheduled to leave Patricia got a new fat tire bike for a future adventure – the deal was just too good we couldn’t pass it up 🙂
The farmers had a special birthday celebration for Aunt Patty before we left – her birthday which often falls around election day is missed by many. She felt so loved with a special (delicious!) cake made by Ivy
A red salamander from the woodpile next to the camper wanted to say goodbye to us – the biodiversity of the Appalachian Mountains is amazing.
Saying our last goodbyes to Katy and nephew Vance just before we hit the road & headed to the airport.

Arriving in Lima, Peru

In the middle of August we arrived back in Lima, Peru to continue our journey south.

We brought in goods from the USA for our AirBnB host, Johanna, who watched our bicycles & gear for the entire time we were gone – we are very grateful! We also flew in parts for fellow bicycle travelers, Dino & Suzy, who we had ridden with for 3 months in the USA and Mexico.

After 4 flight delays, being unbooked (and losing our seats) and then being rebooked back on our original flight and then arriving in Lima at 4am caused us to have to camp out on the sidewalk for a bit to wait for the keys to our AirBnB. The large orange bag was full of items we had brought to Peru for our AirBnB host. The cardboard box was filled with our replacement bicycle parts as well as a few parts for fellow bicycle travelers who were meeting us in Lima.
We arrived in Lima at 4am, crashed for a while, and then went and retrieved our bicycles – they had been kindly stored by our AirBnB host. There was some surface mold on bikes & gear so we gave everything a quick bleach & vinegar wipe down.
Dustin works on refitting the bicycles in our AirBnB with the parts we had brought from the USA.
As we were going through and preparing our gear for departure we’re thankful when we leave ourselves notes such as “toss next” on this tube that had a total of 8 patches
So excited to meet up with fellow world bicycle tourers Dino & Suzy from the UK. We rode with Dino & Suzy for almost 3 months from Utah to the middle of Mexico – they taught us SO much about being long distance tourers! We brought them bicycle parts from the USA & they treated us to lunch – so wonderful to see them again 🙂 We ended up hanging out with Dino & Suzy quite a few times – always a jolly time, right mate?
We went back to the Patagonia store to get one more shirt mended – it was the shirt Patricia was wearing so she put on only her vest as she waited for the repair.
Shakedown ride #1 (unloaded) – Dustin put new tires, cassettes, chains & brake rotors on both bikes. We tried to ride a little each day to start “breaking in our butts” for the 6,000 mile journey ahead.
On one of our shakedown/butt training rides we rode to a bluff overlooking Lima (pop 12 million) – buildings as far as you can see
Trying to get a little climbing in as part of our training we rode up a popular cycling route to a bluff overlooking Lima. Here Patricia poses in front of an old cannon used in the 1800s to defend the important port city. Behind Patricia is Cruz del Papa (Pope’s Cross) originally constructed to welcome Pope John Paul II to Peru.
Patricia rides on one of Lima’s many dedicated “micromovilidad” lanes for bikes & small electric transit (scooters, e-bikes, etc).
Happy to be back in the land of many “salsas” (sauces) with tiny spoons as well as the “chicha morada” beverage made from Andean purple corn, fruit peels, cinnamon, cloves, and finished with fresh lime juice just before serving.
Halfway through our longest shakedown ride of 40km (24 miles) with the bicycles half-loaded with gear. We think we’re ready 🙂

Our plan is 8 months of bicycle touring from Lima, Peru to the bottom of South America. After we reach the bottom of South America, our original intention to “Ride the Americas” by cycling from the top of North America to the bottom of South America would effectively have been completed. However, after looking at the calendar and cost of flights from specific airports we tentatively plan to head back north again back through Patagonia before making our way toward the Atlantic coast of South America and hopefully to Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

We will need to complete 6,000 miles to make it to the bottom and back up to Buenos Aires. We might utilize the Chilean ferry system on our return through Patagonia. Honestly we don’t know our exact plans or route but it should be an epic adventure 😊

The hope is to post a new blog entry every few weeks – if you’d like to receive an email when we publish the newest update you can sign up at the bottom of this page.

34 thoughts on “2026 Break – 5 months in the USA”

  1. Gosh, you’all fit a lot into a short space of time. Great basket! I was chased by a rooster. Once. The understanding we came to was that he fit beautifully into the stew pot. He was delicious.

    Safe journeys. May the wind be always at your back.

    Reply

  3. Glad you are back on the road. I enjoy your blog very much and am absolutely blown away the huge variety of skills the two of you have. Looking forward to the next edition! Happy riding.

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  8. We have been thinking about you two and missing your blogs. What a delight to hear from you again. Love how you connect with other bikers, like the bicycling club. Good to hear you contracted some work out on your house.

    Often, when we tell people, or brag to people that we know this couple doing this fantastic adventure, they ask how old you are. Do you care to divulge??

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  9. It’s hard to imagine your journey across the Americas, even with all your blogs and photos, which can’t tell everything.
    There’s so much to life on the bikes in foreign countries. Thanks for filling us in on the highlights of your adventures. Can’t resist thinking that your theme song could be “On the Road Again.”

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  10. Happy to see all you have been doing. Safe travels my friends. Looking forward to seeing you complete your journey.

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  11. Thank you for the updates! Love to follow along with your blog and Facebook posts. Once you are back in the US Cameron and I would love a guided raft tour in NC 😬. Take care and enjoy the ride.

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  12. We always look forward to your updates. I love seeing all your adventures and the beautiful life you’ve created. Safe travels as always.

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  14. Safe travels! Looking forward to hearing about your adventures. 🙂 We’ve tried camping in and around Nantahala several times and have been thwarted by campground closing levels of storms and heavy precip each time. Maybe we’ll try again when you all are back in town.

    Reply

    1. You’re welcome to camp with us anytime! Earlier in the summer is typically better to avoid the rains – officially we live in the Appalachian Temperate Rainforest so rain is par for the course 😉

      Reply

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