Corvallis High School teachers Kevin Skillings and Mary Leinenweber learned a very important lesson during their summer vacation.

People are good.

After embarking on a month-long, 2,429-mile bicycle journey from their doorstep in northwest Corvallis to their home state of Wisconsin, the pair found the folks they encountered along the way friendly and helpful.

Relaxing in their yard Friday, the Burley tandem road bike they propelled across the country leaning against a car in their driveway, the couple shared stories of the kind and generous people they met on their trip.

"In Iowa, we had stopped on the side of the road just to drink water, and a farmer came out and asked if we needed more water," said Mary.

They were invited in for dinner. When the hosts found out Kevin teaches shop classes, they were given a tour of the farmer's wood shop.

"We ended up staying for four hours," Mary said. "We had been there about three hours when the farmer's wife said: 'It would be good if we learned each other's names.'"

With Kevin controlling the gears and brakes in the front and Mary pedaling away in back, they took U.S. Highway 20 pretty much all the way to Kevin's mom's house in Kenosha County, Wisconsin.

All along the way locals helped the couple with directions, gave them cold water and offered assistance when they stopped to fix flat tires on the side of the road.

Once, while Kevin was doing a bike repair in Wyoming, a woman yelled out her car window: "Do you need help? My husband's a bike mechanic!"

Before the trip, some friends and family members worried about whether Mary and Kevin would be safe.

After camping out the whole month, on the very last night of their trip they stayed in a motel and watched a little TV. The shows they saw as they flipped through the channels - featuring what Mary referred to as "violence, spooky things and weirdos" - reminded them why people were worried for them.

They were happy to find out that in the real world they were not likely to find many spooky weirdos.

"What I came out with is people have good intentions, and people want to take care of each other," Mary said.

"I'm sure there are psychopaths out there," Kevin said. "But it's more likely that we would be struck by lightning five times in a row than have any issues with people."

They learned a few other things during their trek, such as there are a lot of mountain passes in Idaho, coffee in the Midwest is weak, and that the ingredients for a favorite snack of CHS baseball fans - Spartan Crunchers - can be found at every convenience store between here and Wisconsin.

Made by opening a bag of Fritos corn chips, pouring in some warmed chili and topping it off with cheese, Spartan Crunchers became a staple of their diet.

Riding an average of 80 miles a day - and more than 100 miles a couple of times - Kevin and Mary found they tended to obsess on food. As they pedaled over mountains and past ranches and farmland, they daydreamed like Homer Simpson about the doughnuts, ice cream and pie they could buy in the next town.

"We were fascinated with what the next food we were going to eat was and when we were going to eat," Kevin said.

Luckily there were a few distractions along the way to get their minds off of their next meal, such as the breathtaking scenery of Grand Teton National Park in northwestern Wyoming, all manner of wildlife and curious farm animals.

Mountain goats, antelope and elk; a badger, a rattlesnake and, in western Idaho, even a moose.

In eastern Idaho they saw a snowy owl. Kevin got animated when he remembered it.

"It flew right over our head," he said, waving his arms in the air. "It was so cool!"

In Cambridge, Idaho, a six-pack of vicious wiener dogs chased them down the street.

"They were really mean," Kevin recalled.

As they pedaled out of Idaho and through Grand Teton National Park they found the terrain less arduous.

"It was my birthday as we passed through Wyoming," Kevin said. To celebrate Kevin's 32nd year, the couple did laundry.

This was significant, as Kevin wore the same shirt for 31 days.

"I washed it in the creek," Kevin protested when Mary teased him.

Growing up in Kenosha, Wis. - a town the couple describes as "not bike friendly" - neither Kevin nor Mary rode bikes before moving to Eugene four years ago.

They soon took up the sport in the bike haven that is the Willamette Valley.

Mary, who teaches English as a second language classes, commuted to work in Eugene on a $15 used Schwinn picked up from the Goodwill.

They continued biking after moving to Corvallis in 2004. After participating in a few seven-day bike tours in Iowa, Kevin and Mary decided they were ready for something more challenging.

After packing a bike trailer with a tent, a two-person sleeping bag, a few clothes and bike-repair tools, the couple tore relevant pages out of a 2004 road-atlas and hit the road.

Though family members refer to their trip as a once-in-a-lifetime event, Kevin and Mary plan to keep on pedaling.

"Next year, maybe we'll ride from Anacortes, Wash., to San Francisco," Kevin said.

If they take that trip it will be about half as long as this year's trek, but they will still have the opportunity to remember another lesson learned this summer.

"Things can be more mentally challenging than physically," Kevin said, remembering grueling uphill stretches looming out before the tandem bike, the wind in their faces and no towns in sight.

"You know there's a downhill," he said. "You just focus on the downhill."