Rebecca Fahringer recently relocated from New Hampshire to Bend, Oregon. She and Kona Adventure Team manager Barry Wicks went on a quick overnighter with some friends where Rebecca re-created a classic dish from her childhood in Ohio. Here is her take on all of it, as told to Barry Wicks (all photos by Patrick Means)

“I grew up in Clay Township. It is sort of a suburb of Dayton, but maybe I’d actually say I grew up in Englewood. 

There are two types of people in Ohio. If you are from the southern part, it’s all about eating at Skyline Chili and going to the Kings Island Amusement Park. All the rides there are based on Paramount Pictures movies. Up north they have Gold Star Chili and the Cedar Point Amusement Park. I’m the Skyline Chili kind of Ohioan.

At Kings Island my favorite ride was called “The Beast”. It is the biggest wooden roller coaster in the world. They built another one called “ Son of Beast” that had a loop, but the loop part was made out of metal. They had to take it out because people were getting wrecked on the bumpy wooden part after going so fast to make it around the loop.

Humans don’t really have to fight to survive that much anymore, but as athletes we still search for that basic sensation to feel alive. Pushing into physical boundaries is good therapy.

Now since there is so much uncertainty about racing, I am enjoying doing weird adventures. Barry always just says we are going to go do something and then we just do it. I like that. I think we should just call off sports for 2020 and then we can stop living in constant anxiety about if races are going to happen or not. 

I plan to race in Europe from late November through CX worlds, but who knows if that will even happen. I really missed racing the Gravel season this year.

Sometimes you just have to ride your bike to the top of some hill and make Skyline Chili with your friends. It’s way easier to just make it at home in your kitchen, but where is the adventure in that?

Gluten Free pasta does not keep very well. It gets too soft but also hard and crunchy at the same time. I had to compost the leftover pasta. 

I want to start dabbling in long distance running adventures. I also want to ride my bike somewhere with a fishing pole, catch a fish, cook it right there and eat it. When I was a kid, we used to go fishing a lot. I never had my own pole, usually I just used a fishing line tied to the end of a stick. You can make a fishing pole out of pretty much anything.

Bend has been a good move. I’d describe it as expensive but wonderful. I still need to get my car registered here. It’s a bit of a hassle. The riding here is great. My biggest problem is deciding which bike to ride because there are so many good options. Sometimes I get PTSD on my mountain bike because we will go do some 27 mile ride with 7500 feet of climbing and I am always anticipating the next climb and forget to enjoy myself.

As a kid, the hardest part about going to Skyline Chili was deciding between a Coney Dog or a Bowl. The dilemma is: do I want to pick it up and eat it, or twirl it on my fork? Life is like that sometimes. I guess it is good to have options.”