Father and daughter ride cross country

A father-and-daughter combo who are riding a tandem bicycle from Seattle to Boston stopped in Havre Tuesday, where they had a calorie-packed breakfast at PJ's Restaurant & Casino before hitting the road again.

John Carpenter and his 14-year-old daughter, Olivia, who started Tuesday morning from Hingham, are planning to bike 3,400 miles six days a week for nine weeks in order to raise money for the endangered toothed whale, the orca. They left Seattle June 24 and plan to arrive in Boston Aug. 25, just in time for Olivia's birthday.

Eating high-caloric, fatty breakfasts comprising eggs, bacon, pancakes and toast without remorse is certainly one of the great things about the trip, John said, laughing and taking a bite of a large piece of bacon.

The idea for a cross-country bike ride sprouted last July Fourth.

"'Hey, I've been thinking,' were his famous words," Olivia said of her father's preceding sentence before proposing the idea.

Since they would be riding anyway, John said, they might as well do it for a cause.

"I'm passionate about the environment, generally," John said.

They thought about causes and options and found a way to marry his and Olivia's passions.

Olivia said she's been passionate about orcas since she was 7, when her grandmother started taking her to camps on the San Juan islands where she learned about them. Pollution, global warming, boat traffic and lack of food are all threats orcas face, Olivia said.

Once the father-daughter duo had a cause, they began planning.

The Carpenters initially wanted to raise $10,000. But since they are approaching that number faster than they anticipated, they are thinking of inflating it. People who would like to donate can go online to RideForTheOrcas.com and the money is then distributed to organizations dedicated to orca preservation.

John, who said he commutes to work on a bicycle in Seattle regularly - rain or shine, or rain - said traversing the mountainous terrain of western Montana has been one of the toughest parts of the trip, with the hot weather only compounding the challenges.

"The heat's been brutal," he said, adding it's been inescapable. "The day we left Seattle it was 93 degrees."

Traffic is another major concern, he said. The shoulders are not always great, leaving the two with little space between them and the vehicles speeding by.

As the trip progressed, so did the number of miles a day. They rode 37 miles the first day, John said. The miles kept climbing and they were on track to do about 100 miles Tuesday.

John and Olivia are riding a bicycle custom-built by a Eugene, Oregon company and loaded with modern features.

A solar panel the size of a medium-sized notepad is mounted on the back. Attached to it is a battery pack that Olivia uses to charge her cellphone, which is mounted to her handlebars when she rides. John's cellphone, which he also keeps mounted on the handlebars - he rides lead - is powered by a little power generator built in the wheel hub.

The Carpenters have relatives in Boston. For the trip back, they plan on flying to Seattle. They'll ship the bicycle back, try to sell the RV John's wife Emily is driving as the support vehicle, and get back to Seattle in time for Olivia to start school.

The Carpenters stopped in Dodson for the night. Emily had bought some cupcakes from Henny Penny's to celebrate John's 52nd birthday.