Bike the Borderline

Ham House & Mustard T-shirts

2011-06-27T04:58:00.000-07:00

There was a brisk freshness to the air blowing in through the bedroom window as the alarm went off at 6am.

“I thought it was going to be a scorcher,” Anthony remarked, stretching as he made his way to the bathroom.

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Kat replied, “just give it a couple of hours.”

Decked out in our mustard yellow T-shirts, numbers pinned on the front, we set off into the streets of North London. They were empty. Barely a car on the road. We could even hear the clicking and whirring of our chains as we pedalled along.

“We should come out at this time more often,” Kat commented.

“I am usually out at this time,” Anthony sighed, “while you’re still tucked up in bed.”

Kat huffed.

“Yeah but not at the weekend.”

The ride began at 8.30am at Battersea Power Station. The sun had started to burn through the clouds already. We felt the beads of sweat slipping down our backs as we all crowded into a funnel, a sea of yellow, as they started releasing groups of cyclists across the start line, staggering the start.

A grin crept across Anthony’s face.

“Have you seen that?”

“What?”

Kat followed Anthony’s gaze and saw a lady not much younger than us. She had split her regulation yellow T-shirt up the back to reveal a large, flowery tattoo on the small of her back, just above the waistline of her shorts.

“They should do a photo of that and just put a caption above it saying ‘The Definition of Narcissism’” Anthony whispered.

Although she’d rather ruined the look by taking the split up a little too far, the band of a grubby white sports bra peeking through. Not the ultimate fashion accessory.

It wasn’t the last alteration we saw to the T-shirts. A couple of minutes later we rode past a girl in her mid-twenties, her blonde hair in two pigtails, who had tied her shirt in a knot at the front, with a white T-shirt emerging out below it.

We gave each other a knowing look.

“I guess some people are just going to annoy us today,” Kat said, as we cycled past another couple of riders who had cut the arms of their T-shirts, and hacked at the neckline.

We’d only gone about half a mile when the jostling for position started. Two cyclists on carbon fibre race bikes shot down the outside lane in the traffic, shouting a warning for everyone else to keep out of the way as they flew by… and then screeched to a halt at the lights. Heavens above, they weren’t even wearing yellow T-shirts at all! They had their own cycling tops on and had their numbers well-concealed.

“Idiots,” Anthony hissed.

But our slight irritation at the worst aspects of our fellow riders and their manufactured attire subsided as we got into a rhythm. The early burst of testosterone in some of the participants seemed to have subsided and a good-natured, convivial atmosphere had materialised.

Pedalling through the quiet streets, taking in the river views, we crossed Blackfriars Bridge, made a loop through the city and headed out east. We motored our way forward on the many cycle paths, all the way out to the Thames Barrier, the most easterly turn-around point.

“You’ve got to love Docklands for cycling,” Kat sighed, “there’s nothing and no-one here.”

“There’s nobody here because there’s nothing to see,” Anthony observed.

He was right. We absorbed the entire grey, dusty, panorama, with its elevated rail system and concrete flyovers. The only people we noticed were crowded around the Excel centre, a large, swarming pack, with an apparent purpose that was and would remain a mystery to us. And there was one lady out jogging, slowly, labouring along in the heat. But that was it.

We stopped for our first break at the King Edward Memorial Park in Wapping, eating a banana and a couple of bars, and topping up our water. Then the route headed west on the north side of the river, through the City and along the embankment all the way to Chelsea. Negotiating the streets of Fulham and Putney, it wasn’t long until we crossed Hammersmith Bridge and found ourselves in the heart of Richmond Park.

It was a spectacle of lush spring green. Recent weather in London has had every proud gardener boasting that his flowerbeds are looking so good that they should have had a spot at the Chelsea flower show. And the parks are looking just as enchanting.

As we neared the Richmond Gate, we could see a few people gathering around with cameras. A herd of fallow deer was resting under the shade of a large oak tree, about ten or perhaps fifteen of them, a mix of young and old, male and female. A typical Sunday family outing. They were perfectly still, save for the twitching of ears to rid themselves of the odd fly.

The westerly turnaround point was at Ham House. Built in 1610, it’s a beguiling example of a Stuart house. Neither of us had seen it before and we were quietly awestruck. An impeccably restored redbrick building, with pristine gardens and, we expected, beautiful interiors. We would have liked to take longer and have a look around but, after a quick break, and Anthony chomping his way through a packet of every flavour of Walkers crisps available, we were back on the road.

It was a short hop to the end, returning past the pretty duck pond on Ham Common, and then tracking the perimeter on the other side of Richmond Park. Negotiating the busy streets of Putney, we emerged on the Chelsea Embankment, which by now was heaving with soft-top sports cars full of bon-viveurs heading out for a champagne brunch.

Fifty-two miles later, significantly hotter and more weary, we arrived back where we had started. We celebrated with a lunchtime beer and a greasy burger on the baking forecourt of Battersea Power Station, proudly wearing our finisher's medals.

“I’d forgotten how absolutely exhausted we used to be in the evenings after our rides,” Kat mumbled to Anthony that afternoon, waking up after a quick nap on the sofa.

“Yeah, well we did do seventy miles today, with the ride there and back.”

“True, and at least we don’t need to write a blog at the end of the day, or plan tomorrow’s route.”

Ahem.

Well, here’s the blog anyway.

Us x

Back on the Chain Gang

2011-06-25T11:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Followers

It's been 253 days since our last confession...

We're not sure that any of you are checking the site anymore. And who can blame you. But we wanted to post a blog to let you all know how we're getting on back in London.

We'd like to say that it's been easy slotting back into normal life, like a bird soaring through a cloudless blue sky, or a shark slicing through the deep, icy waters of the ocean. But actually it's been quite tough.

It's hard to match an experience like the one we had on our trip. Getting up each day with an adventure ahead of us. A new horizon, quite literally. Meeting new people, breathing in fresh air against an unknown and frequently beautiful backdrop, and never knowing exactly where we would be laying our heads at the end of a day. Yet also feeling a constant sense of achievement as we notched up another few miles, and carried ourselves a few thousand pedal strokes closer to our goal.

But we're learning to smile and be happy with where we are now. Once more in the serenity of our home in Crouch End, we've forced ourselves to return to a life of routine, of being settled. Giving ourselves a sense of comfort in the familiar and taking pleasure at being enveloped back into the cocoon of family and friends.

From a practical perspective, we are of course back in the daily grind, with Anthony having returned to full-time employment in the City, and Kat writing a book about the trip. But we're approaching it all with a fresh sense of purpose, and priorities.

Tomorrow, we will be participating in our first organised ride since our return. We, together with Trusty & Steed, will be pedalling 52 miles around the streets of London in the London Bikeathon 2011, in aid of Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.

Here's a link to our JustGiving page for any of you who would like to know more about the event or the charity, or would like to donate.

We met so many truly wonderful people on our journey. You know who you are. We miss you very much and think and speak about you often. We hope that you are all happy and healthy, and enjoying life.

Us x

Ode to A Honey Badger

2010-10-15T10:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it’s not easy

Without making you all feel queasy

To tell you how wonderful the Honey Badger is

Riding along on Trusty in front

Of the rain, wind and hail he took the brunt

Pelted daily with flies and bugs

Even then, he was free with the hugs

From time to time there were broken spokes

But the Badger would just laugh and tell some jokes

When his hernia arrived and caused him so much pain

He simply dug in his heels and upped his game

Yes, the Honey Badger is a treasure and a half

With the unique ability to make us all laugh

So thank you, AHB, for being like that

You’re loved by us all, but especially by Kat.

Thanks sweetheart, I couldn’t have done this trip without you. You’re amazing.

Kat x

Dedicated to my cycling partner

2010-10-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

For the past year we have been writing blogs for your and our entertainment. We were careful not to give too much away concerning who had written each blog, but we know a few of you could tell anyway!

No more guessing required for this blog! Its me Anthony ‘the badger’ Carey, and I write this brief eulogy in recognition of Kat ‘baby face’ Allison and her amazing efforts, contributions and support during our Epic Journey. There are far too many examples of her utter brilliance to write about, but I feel compelled to remind you of one such occasion when she fainted and then fell off her bike through sheer heat exhaustion, yet still got one her trusty steed without complaint and pedaled in agony for another 20 miles …awesome!

Kat you are great and thank you for helping me along this trip.

Anthony x

There & Back Again

2010-10-12T15:35:00.000-07:00

Wow …what an adventure! We’re back in the United Kingdom, sipping wine and sharing stories with our friends and family. The trials and tribulations of snow in New Mexico, extreme heat in North Dakota and tropical storms in North Carolina are but a distant memory.

Leaving New York City is always an emotional and difficult thing to do, and waking up at 5am this morning made everything that little bit more difficult. So it was at 6:30am we were looking back over our shoulders in the back of an iconic NY cab as it emerged from the Queens Midtown Tunnel, gazing mournfully one last time upon the pulsating NYC skyline, patting ourselves on the back (aka snogging like juveniles) and shedding more tears.

The journey to NY JFK Terminal 7 was a blissful one. As soon as we arrived in the terminal building carrying our Panniers and Pan B’s we were greeted by the ever professional British Airways Ground Crew who treated us like Kings and Queens (Anthony hates it when he’s treated like a Queen) and showed an authentic interest in our journey. We have to give a big THANKS,HUG, KISS and WE LOVE YOU to the lady who changed our seats …you know who you are …you really made our day.

As we boarded the 747 the King & Queen treatment continued. We feel it’s unfair to single out individual members of the cabin crew, but unfortunately we didn’t write down everyone’s name. So we would like to thank Amita and Carola and all the cabin crew on the 08:40 BA0178 flight from NY JFK to LHR …WE LOVE YOU TOO. For those readers who haven’t traveled British Airways …three words …Just Do It!

Landing at Heathrow reminded us of how important family is. At the arrivals gate were David, Sheila, Susie and Leo who had driven over 3 hours to be there for their daughter/sister/aunt and James and Lyn who had the easier but no less important task of driving the 1 hour for their son …thanks Mum and Dad (and sister and nephew) for being so totally awesome … we’re loving you more.

Back in Olde Blighty now and enjoying the moment, but missing our American and BA friends …don’t forget to visit us in sunny London!

Us x

The Fat Lady Sings

2010-10-11T16:56:00.000-07:00

It’s been a few days now since we finished our incredible journey. At times, it seems hard for us to remember what we have just done. But then when we look at our photos, it transports us right back there. Yesterday, we took Trusty & Steed up to Toga Bikes, where we bought them from a year ago, and had them packed up for shipping. It was an emotional time, and seeing them today all broken up, but fitting snugly into the boxes, it was hard not to shed a tear. However, hopefully, they will soon be back with us in the UK and ready to explore some of that fine land.

After some consideration, we decided to bring our flights forward, and will be flying back to London first thing tomorrow (Tuesday), arriving Tuesday evening London time. We’re looking forward to seeing our amazing families at the airport, and stepping back onto UK soil. Though we will miss the US desperately, and are sorry that we did not get time to see all the people whom we would have liked to have seen in New York.

We have many people to whom we want to say Thank You.

~ To those who have performed great acts of kindness when we have needed it most on our journey ~

Bob & Susie (Pinos Altos, NM); Jim & Susan (Fort Bragg, CA); Debbie (Fort Bragg, CA); John (Santa Cruz, CA); Oscar & Elizabeth (Petrolia, CA); Tracey & Jonathan (San Francisco, CA); Alfonzo (Glamis, CA); Jane (Prescott, Ontario); Jordan & Carrie (Orange County, CA); Garrett (Baton Rouge, LA); Marilyn & Bernard (Round Top, TX); Nick & Rachel (Detroit Lakes, MN); JB Royer (Round Top, TX); Farren (Newport, WA); Bob & Kris (Sagola, MI); Holly and Matt (Hayward, WI); Jim & Edie (Bodega Bay, CA); Lu & Jerry (Geneva-on-the-Lake, OH); Kevin & Sonja (Glendive, MT); The guys at the Dude Rancher Lodge (Billings, MT); David & Ramona (Ann Arbor, MI); Heather & Matt (Escanaba, MI); The Staff at Rockwoods (Otsego, MN); Anthony & Alexandra (Westport, NY); Kevin, Scott & Zac (Auburn, ME Fire Department); Dave & Kelly (Sunset Beach, NC); Meg & Dan (Twisp, WA); John (Georgia) and his granddaughter (Sarasota, FL); Catherine (Petoskey, MI); Pat & Chava (Los Angeles, CA); Bob & Janet (San Diego, CA); Valerie & Paul (Portland, OR).

~ To those who have done our laundry for us (a matter close to our hearts), or allowed us to use their machines ~

Cindy (Titusville, FL); Tony & Lisa (Wolf Lake, MI); the staff at the Holiday Inn Express (Cleveland, OH); Abigail (Branford, CT); Sonia (Winthrop, WA); Evelyn (Glendive, MT); Jeremy & Erin (Stillwater, MN); Brenda & Bruce (Middlebury VT); Jami (Bisbee, AZ); Chris & Deborah (Safford, AZ).

~ To those who bought us drinks, food etc ~

Bobby (Blanco, TX); Rebecca (Ridgefield, CT); Molly (Portsmouth, NH); Margaret (Harrellsville, NC); Anil & Gita (Derby, CT); Louis & Al (Middleboro, MA); Heather & Dave from Ocean Spray (Middelboro, MA); Keith (Naples, ME); Hayley, Steve, Dawn & Matt (Huron, OH); the staff at Chipotle (Bowling Green, OH); Laura (Minneapolis, MN); the guys & girls from the Thunderbird Camp (near Lake Bemidji, MN); Maddie (Wauconda Café, Store & Saloon, WA).

~ Each and every one of you that has donated to MS ~

~ Continuing support from Multiple Sclerosis Charities~

Laura (MS Trust UK)

~ Our followers, and especially all those who have commented on the blog ~

~ Our friends and family at home, who have been a constant support ~

~ Special mention for consistent commentators on the blog ~

SB, TMG

~ The owners and staff at many of the bike shops that we have visited during our trip ~

Toga Bikes (NYC); Bath Bike & Ski (Woolwich, ME); Freewheel Bikes (Minneapolis, MN); Missoula Bicycle Works (Missoula, MT); Adams Cycles (San Diego, CA); Performance Bike (Tucson, AZ); Clearwater Cycles (Clearwater, FL); Bay Cycle & Fitness (Panama City, FL); High Peaks (Lake Placid, NY); City Bike Shop (Traverse City, MI); No Boundaries (Boyne City, MI).

~ Interesting cyclists whom we have met on our way around the US ~

The Rolling Rev (MI), Dave (TX), Wolfram (TX), Brian (TX), Russ & Laura (TX), Matt & Page (NM), Brian & Paul (CA), Eric (OR), Pete & Jenny (WA), John (WA), Paul (WA), Alan & Chris (MT), Dick & Arlette (MI); Mike (IN).

Finally, thanks to those who have made recent donations: SB, The Groveenders, Sue V, Ashvin, and Laurel & Terry.

It’s been an incredible adventure.

Us x

Cycle Facts

2010-10-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

States = 33

Distance = 13,261 miles

Ave Distance = 59.37 miles per day

Duration = 347

Cycling Days = 236

Time in the Saddle = 1,057 hours : 28 minutes

Total Elevation Gain = 444,316 ft

Total Calories = 964,014 C

Max Speed = 50 mph

Ave Speed = 12.5 mph

Ave Bike Cadence = 62 rpm

Us x

Mission Accomplished!

2010-10-06T14:10:00.000-07:00

Looks like we made it

Look how far we've come my baby

We mighta took the long way

We knew we'd get there someday

They said, "I bet they'll never make it"

But just look at us holding on

We're still together still going strong

We guess that you probably would not have expected Shania Twain to be our choice of lyrics for our blog today… perhaps Jay-Z “99 Problems but the bikes aren’t one”! But, we’re truly overjoyed to be back here in Manhattan, 13,250 miles after we started.

We have a LOT more we want to say, but we need to go out and get a few things done…oh, and do a little bit of celebrating too. So, for now, we’ll just say thanks for all the comments on yesterday’s blog, and thanks to Lucy, Sue, Bob & Janet and Julie & Paul for your generous donations.

More tomorrow…

Us x

There and back Again

2010-10-05T18:54:00.001-07:00

What can we say? We’re in Nyack just 27 miles away from NYC. A place we used to frequent on our other bikes, TC and Canny, when we lived in Manhattan. For those who don’t know, TC and Canny are thoroughbred versions of Trusty and Steed: taught, light and very fast racing machines.

So it was, after a short 26-mile ride from West Point, we arrived via an off-road trail along the Hudson River, with which Trusty & Steed coped admirably, at the Runcible Spoon in Nyack to reminisce and have our picture taken by Sierra.

After some great coffees, cupcakes and scones we cycled the remaining mile to our hotel, cleaned the bikes (it was raining again all day) and chilled for a while before setting out to the Thai House for our final Thai meal of the trip. Needless to say, it was the best Thai food we had had.

We can’t believe tomorrow will be our last day! Just one day left for the rest of you to follow Lisa, John & Sofia’s example and donate to MS – thanks guys.

Us x

No Sleep Till Brooklyn

2010-10-04T18:20:00.001-07:00

So, it appears that the weather and cycling gods are both going to keep testing us until the very end. Today, the rain started literally as we stepped out of the front door of our hotel in Ridgefield, CT. Initially, it was a light drizzle and we had notions of it remaining that way. But it was not to be.

We cycled out of Connecticut, crossing the New York State border only a few miles into today’s ride: the last State border of our journey… another significant milestone. It was a fairly straightforward trip, and there was limited opportunity to stop for a break. But when we climbed a long steep hill and passed a scenic overlook in the Hudson valley, just before Bear Mountain Bridge, it was too tempting to pass by without a brief stop. Pulling over to look at the misty view and take a breather, all of a sudden the heavens opened. There was no shelter to be had, and so we simply stood and got very wet indeed as we stuffed a couple of energy bars into our mouths, and kept hoping for the rain to stop and the clouds to lift, so we could take a couple of snaps. Alas, no mercy.

As we reluctantly set off again to descend the hill in the pouring rain, freezing through to our core, out of nowhere Trusty had managed to get a puncture in his rear tyre. So, back it was to the scenic overlook to execute the repair, oh, and get a bit more drenched, and a lot colder! Heaven knows how Anthony managed to get the tyre back on, but he did, and it was plain sailing after that to cross the Bear Mountain Bridge and cycle to our hotel in West Point, NY.

It’s a historic place right on the gate of West Point military base, and has been offering hospitality to military men and women for many years, as well as the odd president from time to time! Despite this grandeur, it’s actually quite a down to earth and reasonable place to stay, and best of all it has its own restaurant, so we didn’t have to set foot outside again tonight…

It’s a short ride tomorrow to Nyack, a town that has a special place in our hearts since it was the turnaround point for our favourite ride out of NYC when we lived there, and also has one of the best coffee shops/bakeries around (which we hope will be open).

More rain tomorrow! Kat's Dad, David, will no doubt sympathise with us as he tackles a sponsored walk of 54 miles along the Weaver's Way in Norfolk over the next few days. We wish him luck and hope that the weather is kinder to him than it is being to us.

Finally, a huge thanks to Squid for your generous donation.

Us x

Hanging on by a thread!

2010-10-03T14:44:00.000-07:00

We posted a holding Blog yesterday because we were very tired last night, after a torque busting day of cycling followed by a late night of enjoyable eating and drinking.

With just 4 days of cycling left, we woke up yesterday morning in Branford to a welcome break from the rain and wind. However, despite the weather being perfectly set to blues skies, bright sun and mid a 60’s temperature, everything else was on its final legs. Steed (Kat’s bike) was making all sorts of noises from every single moving part and Trusty’s nuts (and bolts) were shearing and literally hanging on by their final threads. Even our clothes are looking threadbare and rather unsightly. We were feeling a little worse for wear ourselves. But, motivated by the short 46-mile ride into the very chic (if slightly snooty) town of Ridgefield, we set off with a slow and relaxed pace, which was fortunate. Although short, the ride was not what we would describe as flat. With over 4,000ft of climbing and an average speed of under 10mph (only ever done 4 other times) yesterday was one of the most mentally and physically demanding days of our cycling career.

We took a break halfway through at a Subway in Derby, run by Anil and Gita, who were very kind, giving us some food and drink gratis …thank you guys. The remainder of the day was just Hell! Climbing hills so steep we couldn’t help pulling wheelies and found it difficult to control the bikes at times. Our hellish day ended (not soon enough) as we arrived at the Elms Inn and then went for dinner at the Elms Restaurant next door where we met Mark, Deb, Jon and Rebecca (thanks guys for today’s comment).

… we slept in this morning, took a walk around town, had lunch outside watching an organised parade of dogs and their owners pass by on some kind of sponsored walk, then came back to the hotel to chill some more and watch Rocky IV on TV. We’re not sure where to eat tonight, but it will be a bit more subdued than last night’s outing, as we’re back on the road tomorrow.

And thank you Bill C for the US donation, we really appreciate your generosity.

Us x

Holding Blog

2010-10-02T20:46:00.000-07:00

We had a really tough day today and are very tired. However after meeting Monica, the manageress of our hotel and then late night drinks in the restaurant next door with the wonderful Rebecca, Mark, Deb and Jon we're feeling great again ...more tomorrow!

Us x

Catch a Falling Leaf and Save it for…Today

2010-10-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

It’s Fall in Connecticut, and it’s beautiful. We know that if we were here just a couple of weeks later, the colours would be even more vivid, but the leaves they are a changing, the squirrels are scurrying around with huge excitement at the abundance of acorns, oh, and did we mention that the weather is closing in!

When we woke this morning, a flood watch and wind advisory were in effect for our area and we were seriously thinking about the option of staying a further day with our friends at The Whaler’s Inn in Mystic, and condensing a couple of our remaining days into one. We were seeing pictures of torrential rain, and hearing about winds gusting up to 60 mph. It was not pretty. But, strangely, outside our window, the roads were dry. There was wind, and not just from the pork and veal we consumed last night, but it really wasn’t that bad. So, why not stop making excuses and just do it?! As Jim and Edie say, it’s all about extreme perseverance!!

Well, less than a mile into the ride, the rain started, and we pulled into the side of the road under a tree to do the necessary with the rain gear. Good job. Seconds later, the heavens opened and within minutes rapids of water several inches deep were gushing down the street. We decided to set off again anyway (trees aren’t that much use with that amount of rain), and immediately found ourselves dodging hazardous flotsam that had been ripped off the trees and were now being carried along with ease by the torrent of water that covered the area that had just a few minutes ago been a bike path/shoulder. Cresting the hill, and riding our brakes down the other side, we were closing our eyes tight as the wind blew the rain directly into our faces and, well, pretty much everywhere….

Eventually, the rain slowed down and, although we were only 16 miles into our journey, we decided that we had earned a stop at the “Dunkin Dog-nuts” in Niantic: apparently America runs on it, so we thought that we would try cycling on it today. We chatted with the two lovely ladies who served our coffees and jelly donuts, one of whom has a sister who was recently diagnosed with MS. We wish them all the best, and will be thinking of them.

A few miles further on, after a bit of rain jacket hokey cokey, the rain finally stopped. Yay. And after 55 miles of riding, we were pleased to arrive at By The Sea Inn & Spa in Branford, CT while it was still light. The lovely Abigail, Abby, Abi (it depends on her mood as to how she spells it) not only showed us around, but also did our laundry for us, and then drove us to our restaurant for dinner (it was raining again by then). Abby – we love you!!

Dinner was a wonderful affair. We had read online about Le Petit Café, and saw that it had good reviews, but really it was stunning. It’s a tiny unassuming place that is a little piece of France in the middle of Branford, CT. Having gorged ourselves on all manner of rich food and wine, we were set to leave when Roy Ip, the chef, came out from the kitchen for a chat. He’s originally from Hong Kong and trained in French cuisine at the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan. We couldn’t believe that such authentically French food could possibly have been born as a result of Roy’s single year of training, but whatever the explanation, he’s certainly a man of great talent, and grace.

We’re now chilling out on the comfortable bed in our room listening to some chill-out Jazz….”Jaaaaaz” as John Thompson would say. On the road again tomorrow, and hoping for the sunshine that is forecast. Our friend, the Rolling Rev, will be glad to hear that we’re heading inland away from US1 (we agree with the comments, though it was actually great today), and that we have a tried and tested route down the Hudson Valley to get us back to NY in a few days time.

Us x

33rd State …done!

2010-09-30T20:47:00.000-07:00

Our vision was to actively take part in a life changing experience that would broaden our appreciation for life. We embarked upon a mission to cycle around the perimeter of North America and along the way set ourselves many goals and targets. We’re on schedule and have successfully reached many goals, but it hasn’t all been plain sailing. We’ve missed a few targets, such as not cycling through the Grand Canyon and falling short of 14,000 miles. However …drum roll please …today we reached another goal, our 33^rd and final state, Connecticut (CT). It’s not long now until we complete our mission and realize our vision.

Being so close to ‘Mission Accomplished’ it would be very easy for us to get ahead of ourselves and lose concentration, which is not something you’d want to do when cycling the final 200+ miles into Manhattan. Therefore, with sensible heads screwed firmly on, we jumped on a bus to leave Newport over two impressively large and busy bridges, which did not permit bikes. When safely back on the mainland, we removed Trusty and Steed from the rack on the front of the bus and breathed a sigh of relief. It’s never easy sitting on a bus witnessing a grumpy driver executing every move possible to try to dislodge the bikes and run over them, only to turn around and say “sorry guys it was a mistake!”

Giving the grumpy bus driver a two-fingered salute (English style) and saying farewell to Kathleen, a lady we got talking to on the bus who suffers from MS, who gave us that extra bit of inspiration to push us along the final stages of the trip, we were back on the bikes and making our way toward Mystic, CT. The cycling was 50/50. Half the trip was on a scenic beachside highway and the other half was along a busy state highway. The shoulders were wide, the road surface was great, the traffic was thin but very fast and scary. We made it to the CT State line, shed a little tear and pushed on to Mystic. Arriving at our hotel we were faced with an Internet connection that didn’t work in our room and the realization that we had lost our cell phone …bummer.

To be honest guys we’re extremely shattered and are looking forward to being back in NYC and then the UK with family and family.

Us x

Finding the Road into Rhode Island

2010-09-29T19:40:00.000-07:00

Today was… well, today was one hell of a day. It was the day when we passed our 13,000^thmile, and ventured into a new state, Rhode Island, but it was also one of the toughest days we have encountered in the whole trip.

The 64 miles from Plymouth, MA to Newport, RI should have been fairly easy. It looked like a long straight road with a wide shoulder, followed by a good stretch of bike path, and then a quick jaunt over the only bridge into and out of Newport that allows bikes.

Unfortunately, we did not bank on the fact that our long straight road was super busy and scary dangerous at the junctions. And apparently, cycling on it was prohibited… oops. We only found that out several miles into our ride, at which point we decided that we had better respect the rules of the road, and get the hell off! Problem was, we didn’t have a map: we are going off-piste for this last bit of our trip, skirting round the coast rather than following the ACA route inland. And, as you can imagine, the Gamines were a fat lot of use in such a crisis.

Still, with help from some wonderful people along the way today, we got here safely, and before dark… phew. A huge thanks to Louis, the owner of the Louco gas station in Middleboro, MA and Al, the owner of Middleboro Car Care next door. Al gave us some great directions to get us on our way, and Louis packed us off with some gratis bottle of Smart water. Then, when we had followed Al’s directions, we stopped Dave, who was out running in his lunch hour from the nearby Ocean Spray Corporate Headquarters, and asked him if he could direct us for the next few miles. Dave invited us into HQ and to the front desk, where Heather searched online for suitable directions for us all the way to THE bridge, and added to our liquid refreshment tally with a selection of yummy Ocean Spray Cranberry energy drinks – thanks you guys, you’re amazing.

After battling a fierce headwind, dodging drains and potholes in the road and trying to stay out of the way of the armies of cars and trucks gathering behind us during rush hour, we were relieved when the ride was over. Arriving in Newport, we were struck by all the beautiful buildings as we made our way to The Cleveland House Inn, our hotel in the centre of town. Jeff greeted us warmly, finding a safe place for Trusty & Steed to rest their weary heads overnight, and recommending a great place for two starving cyclists to eat (that’s us). The whole experience at The Moorings restaurant was superb, especially the food. We also had a good chat on our way out with Sean (bar manager, we think) who is planning to sail around the world with his wife – now that would be a real adventure! We wish them luck.

Finally, we want to mention Christina, the wonderful breakfast lady at the Best Western Cold Spring in Plymouth, whose daughter, Linda, is sadly suffering from MS. We were moved by Christina’s description of the challenges that Linda faces day in day out. When we hear stories like this, it makes a day like the day we had today not seem so tough after all.

Us x

Plymouth Rocks

2010-09-28T20:13:00.000-07:00

Today, we’re really shattered again! 43 miles into a very strong headwind to get from Boston to the historic (Pilgrims, Mayflower, Rock, first Thanksgiving, English settlement, etc.) town of Plymouth took its toll.

Still lovin’ y’all

Us x

A Rainy Day in Boston

2010-09-27T21:31:00.000-07:00

Although we’re only a few days away from the end of our trip, we found our non-cycling day in Boston still filled with the usual activities. While doing the laundry, we looked with a wry smile at the state of some of the clothes that we continue faithfully to wash, and agreed that their days were numbered. We booked the last of our accommodation, and had the usual frustrating time plotting the GPS waypoints for the next few days worth of routes. We’re off to Plymouth, MA tomorrow and then down into Rhode Island.

Us x

Tri-State Ride

2010-09-26T22:16:00.001-07:00

It’s late, we’ve just finished dinner at a local Thai Restaurant and we’re back in our very comfortable hotel room watching TV and of course writing the blog.

The day began with us waking up at 7:30 this morning, packing our Panniers early and then meeting our fellow guests over breakfast. Lori, a super fit athlete, and her friend Joy were on a shopping and general pampering break, whilst Alice and Bill were visiting the area to attend a variety of theatrical and musical events. We all chatted for ages before eventually saying our farewells and going our separate ways.

Our plan for today would take us through 3 states, ending up 71 miles SW in Boston, Massachusetts. For the most part the ride was great. The tail wind pushed us along beachside highways at speed, with grand views of the Atlantic Ocean and the Sun shining bright. As we sped along, we saw hundreds and cyclists riding in the opposite direction as part of an organised ride from New Hampshire to Maine. We sympathised with their situation, with many of them displaying painful expressions on their faces as they struggled against the brutal headwind. …been there, seen it, done it.

The final 15 miles into Boston were pretty hairy! Not only did we have to battle against rush our traffic across many an 8-lane highway on awful road surfaces, but the light levels were dropping and we had to ride with extra vigilance. We had a few close calls with the traffic, but made it to our hotel safely.

Not long now.

Us x

The bands of Jupiter trump the rings round Uranus

2010-09-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

It was a HOT day today for our 60-mile ride from Portland, ME to Kittery, ME. Negotiating the busy streets of Portland to start off, we were glad to make it onto some of the bike paths that led out of the City and down to the Coast. Yes, we couldn’t resist dipping out toes in the Atlantic Ocean again… in fact we were desperate for a swim, but we made do…

Battling a strong headwind, we were pleased to roll into our hotel by around 4.30pm, with plenty of time to relax and unwind before strolling into town, and across the State Line! Weird but true, as we walked across the bridge over Badger Island (yes, we paid homage to the Badger), and into Portsmouth for dinner, we actually walked into New Hampshire.

We ate at Pesce, a wonderful Italian restaurant serving lots of fresh fish. Hi to our fabulous server Molly – we had a fantastic evening – thank you! On our way back, there was a man in the street with a huge… telescope, with a line of people ready to look through it. Not knowing what all the fuss was about but not wanting to miss out, we joined the line, and soon found ourselves looking at Jupiter, with its Bands and 4 moons visible… totally awesome.

Then it was back across the bridge to our comfortable B&B for some GPS route planning, TV-watching and chilling out. A long one tomorrow through NH and into Boston, MA!!

Us x

Portland, Maine

2010-09-24T19:47:00.000-07:00

Another short and sweet blog today guys! We woke up fairly early today, had breakfast, returned the Ford Escape to Hertz and then whilst Kat was planning where we would be staying for the next few days, Anthony watched Ironman2 on HBO.

At 6pm we were in a cab from the hotel to the Old Port area of Portland for dinner. Our cab driver, John was a Yorkshire man (preparing us for our NYC nights with Pat and Tim), an ex-bodyguard who has been living in Maine for the past 10 years and seems to be enjoying it. Being dropped off at the restaurant, we could see it was a popular place. No tables were available when we arrived but with help from Megan our server and Caitlin the Maître d', we were seated within 20 minutes and enjoying a lovely meal …thanks Caitlin and Megan.

Back on the road tomorrow, exactly 11 months on the road.

Us x

The Great Escape

2010-09-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

OK, so this time, we are talking about the car. Today, we hired a Ford Escape and retraced our steps/tyre prints along the Maine coast by driving from Bar Harbor Airport to Portland, ME.

After a great breakfast at 2 Cats, across the road from our hotel, and a quick word with the resident cat at our hotel (a rather elegant grey feline with white socks and a hunting physique), we were on the road again. We cycled the 13 miles back across the island to the airport, this time finding a much better route that kept us away from the traffic and somehow also managed to have a better road surface as well… how does that work again?

Once in the rental car, we couldn’t believe how quickly we were eating up the ground, including the road works and dug-up road surface… but we also experienced a strange phenomenon. In the past, we have noticed that walking is no longer a natural movement for us. Our muscles ache as our legs try to go in a circular motion, and we keep expecting to be able to see people behind us in our helmet mirrors. When we realise that we don’t have our cycling helmets on, our heads feel strangely naked. Today, driving along, Anthony found himself taking his left hand off the steering wheel to point out pieces of debris on the road as he gently swerved to avoid them. We wonder when we will start to be normal again?!

Anyway, averaging around 50mph rather than our usual 12, the 125 miles went by in a flash and we arrived at Portland airport, and our hotel. We took advantage of the Manager’s reception in the lobby, knocking back a couple of free glasses of wine, before ordering some Thai food. Tomorrow, we’ll find our way into the city centre to have a look around, and then it’ll be back on the bikes again.

Us x

Go South

2010-09-22T15:35:00.001-07:00

Drum roll please! Tomorrow we start heading south along the Atlantic coast. Our final 500’ish miles take us on our final leg into Manhattan. Not quite believing what we have accomplished this past 11 months, we spent most of today in automatic pilot, researching hotels from here to NYC and of course, doing the laundry. On a disappointing note, we did realise that our final mile count would be closer to 13,000 than 14,000. We blame that on the snow in Arizona, which stopped us from cycling the Grand Canyon loop …you didn’t expect us to blame ourselves for the shortfall did you?

We’re about to go out for a nice celebratory meal, get an early night and tomorrow morning start on our way to Portland, Maine.

Us x

p.s. we have returned from our celebratory meal later than planned thanks to the lovely time we had with Cerri our server at Mache Bistro

The Cadillac Escapade: An Excellent Ride

2010-09-21T19:38:00.000-07:00

No, we’re not talking about the SUV favoured by the hip-hop crowd and notorious for being involved in drive-by shootings. We’re saying that today we climbed 1,532 ft up to the top of Cadillac mountain, the highest spot on the North Eastern Seaboard, offering 360˚ views of the surrounding area. It was stunning. And, without the bags on the back, Trusty & Steed were light as a feather, making the ascent a true “ride in the park”. The descent wasn’t bad either…

Despite the fact that we were supposed to have a “rest day” today, we decided that our surroundings were too outstandingly beautiful to either sit indoors chilling out, or even wandering around the cute town and drinking lattes etc. So, after a relaxed morning, we hit the Bar Harbor Bike Shop to pick up a map of the bike paths – Hi to Steve and Jessie – and then pedalled off into the distance…

Having reached the top of the mountain, we did the touristy thing and wandered around the loop at the top with all the other visitors, snapping away on the camera. As we were starting to head down the mountain, we bumped into Mike and Krista, who had hiked all the way up the mountain and were looking to catch a ride down... oh, we should also mention that Mike was “very funny”! We had a chat about Northern California, where they are from, and especially Gualala, CA, where they are building a vacation property, and which was one of our favourite places on the California coast.

The way down was lots of fun… it would have been more fun for Anthony had he not caught up with the cars in front and even overtaken a couple of them, but it was still a blast. Then we finished the ride by following a few of the well-groomed carriage roads in the area, away from the traffic and through some lovely wooded areas with lakes and streams etc. Bliss.

Tonight, we went back to Café This Way again, which didn’t disappoint. We’ve decided to take a further rest day here tomorrow, and then instead of backtracking by bike on the same (and only) route, we’re going to get a rental car and whizz back along the coast, freeing up some extra days to explore some new areas on our way back down the coast towards NYC.

Finally, we have two HUGE Thank You’s. Kurt, Ross and Roger Leedy, thank you so much for your amazing donation. We hope you enjoyed your trip around New England on the Harleys. Susan and Jim, thank you guys for your generosity; it’s so kind of you. We’ve been thinking of you a lot and hoping all is going well over in Fort Bragg, CA.

Us x

The Far East

2010-09-20T22:44:00.000-07:00

Let us pause for a while and consider what we have achieved! Firstly, we are at the most Easterly part of our trip, Bar Harbor (longitude -68.206558) on the Atlantic Ocean. The first time our Epic Journey spied the US Atlantic coast was on October 20, 2009 gazing out the window on board a British Airways flight holding position before safely landing at NY JFK. Secondly, we met an extraordinary amount of fantastic people today: Lesley, Paula, Danielle, Tim, Jack the beautiful chocolate brown Labrador, Muffy (she isn’t a vampire slayer) her husband David and an inspirational hard working American called Matt. Thirdly, we had 6 comments on yesterday’s Blog (3 of them should have been on today’s but we published it late …sorry), which made us feel great, so thank you Susie aka David & Sheila, The Rolling Reverend, Laura (you’re brilliant), Lesley and Paula aka david.

So, why was today a most wonderful experience? Well …leaving Bucksport this morning under clear and sunny skies and a refreshing chill in the air, we began our 47-mile ride into Bar Harbor feeling relaxed. The first 20 miles had to be navigated carefully, as in places the road surface was as bad as a couple of days ago and the traffic was pretty heavy, but we made it through without mishap and, just as we were ready for a quick break, we cycled into the lovely town of Ellsworth. Searching for somewhere to rest a while, we stumbled across a fantastic coffee shop called ‘Maine Grind’ and as we tucked into our cup cake, pain au chocolat, beer and coffee, we met Lesley the owner and Paula her friend. Chatting for ages before eventually saying our goodbyes, we wished we could have stayed longer, just chillin’ with Lesley and Paula in the sunshine. But of course it ‘aint over till the Fat Apple sings, so we parted company and carried on our journey along a picturesque highway heading toward Bar Harbor.

The road into Bar Harbor was also pretty busy with lots of RV vacationers and 18-wheelers finishing their shifts. Occasionally we would look to our right and catch a glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean peering through the gaps between the huge houses that occupied the prime real estate, gorging on the fantastic views all to themselves. It was shame we couldn’t see more because we would have liked to take some pictures. Not despondent and hoping for better views tomorrow, we carried on up and down the surprisingly hilly terrain. At the top of one of the final climbs for the day, just as we were beginning the descent, we passed by two cyclers who we would meet later that night over dinner.

The Quimby Inn was our hotel for the night. Greeted by Tim and Jack, we parked our bikes in the shed, moved in to our room and kicked back and relaxed. We’re not too sure why, but we have been finding our rides quite difficult of late. In comparison to the gargantuan rides completed early in the trip, it’s baffling why our recent ones aren’t a ‘ride in the park!’ If any of you have any theories…please share. So after a brief rest we got ready for dinner and made our way out to Main Street. Walking through the hotel reception we got talking to Danielle, the other owner, and shared stories. She explained that she hiked for 6 months, completing 2,174 miles along the Appalation Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine] raising money for MS in honour of her mother and like us, doing something challenging for herself. Again we had a long and great chat with Danielle and are very impressed with what she achieved.

Downtown Bar Harbor is a lovely little place, full of great shops and bustling with activity. On Lesley’s recommendation, we found a great restaurant called This Way Café and were tucking into some great food, when a rather healthy looking couple sat down on the table next to us and said “are you two cyclists?” “Yes were are” replied Anthony, “how did you guess?” To which David replied “your skin colour”. We all laughed, knowing that in rich affluent areas of America you don’t see many black guys! David and his wife Muffy explained that they noticed us whizzing past them down one of the final descents into town. We noticed them but didn’t recognize them in the restaurant, which is understandable ‘cause all white people look the same you know! We spoke for hours about all sorts of stuff and had a great time. David was especially interested in how fast we went down hill as he thought he was going at a fair clip. Muffy found the descent quite hairy, so she road on her breaks for most of it, which is fair enough. We explained that we were also pretty scared on the descent with all the big potholes in the road, taking it easy and keeping our speed below 35mph.

We had a great day today and are looking forward to our rest day here in Bar Harbor.

Us x

Quack, Quack, Oops

2010-09-19T16:02:00.000-07:00

We awoke to the sound of ducks on the river below our window. They were a raucous bunch: a few white ducks with orange bills, a couple of black ducks, and a whole stream of grey juvenile delinquents with a lot to say for themselves. By comparison, the Mallards were impeccably behaved!

After a hot shower, a couple of breakfast bagels at the café next door, and a large coffee, we were well and truly awake, but still not particularly enthused about getting back on the road. It’s difficult to explain really. Perhaps it’s our bodies telling us that we have been pushing them too hard for a very long period of time, or it’s a psychological thing because we are so close to the end. Suffice to say that we gritted our teeth and jumped back on Trusty & Steed, knowing that we only had a 36-mile ride today from Camden, ME into Bucksport, ME.

The roads started off as their usual challenging selves. The road surface in Maine has been particularly difficult in places with small or no shoulders and the worst kind of broken up road surface: long, wide cracks in the direction of travel… just big enough for a tyre to slip down and throw you off balance. Still, we stayed upright and soon rolled into the small town of Belfast where we were chuffed to find a large Co-Operative supermarket. We haven’t seen one of these since Bozeman, MT and consequently ran around like kids up and down the aisles wowed by all the fresh and good quality produce. We decided to buy some cheese, crackers, wine and fruit for dinner tonight, and left feeling like all was good with the World. We also met a nice couple outside, and chatted to them for a few minutes before heading off again.

The road improved dramatically after Belfast, and before we knew it, we had arrived at our motel in Bucksport. We found that we had completed over 2,000 ft of climbing, despite the short distance we had travelled, but didn’t feel too bad for it.

We’re looking forward to an evening just totally chilling out, putting our feet up and watching TV. Bar Harbor tomorrow: the North-East turning point of our trip.

Us x

The Breaking of Trusty!

2010-09-18T20:46:00.000-07:00

Today was a day to remember! Not for the scenic beauty, but for the catastrophic event of Trusty. Before launching into the details of our crazy afternoon, let us tell you about this morning.

Last night we had decided to implement a ‘get out of bed early go to bed early’ strategy. And so it was that this morning Anthony got out of bed at 7:30am. Showered, dressed and packed we both left for breakfast before 9:00am, where we met Pauline and Grenville originally from Derbyshire (England) who were visiting family in Jersey and then taking a vacation up the New England coast. Following breakfast we were back in our room making final decisions about what bike gear to wear to ensure we didn’t get too cold on the ride (the temperatures have been dropping recently). By 10:30am we were outside at the front of the hotel in the searing heat (yeah we were surprised too) taking layers of clothes off! We started to pull a small crowd. Chatting to a few people we explained that we were cyclists and not voyeurs with a fetish for black skin-tight clothing.

Waving goodbye to our new found friends we set off on our 55-mile ride toward Camden. The going was tough but not difficult. For the first 5 miles, the road surface was horrendous and the traffic was thick and fast. But we soldiered on and as luck would have, 1 mile later we turned off the main road and onto a quieter and smoother version. All was good as we crested the brow of our first hill climb for the day and began a gentle descent down the other side. Whilst freewheeling with carefree intent, Anthony decided to pick up the pace a little and put some torque through the crank. At that precise moment everything went crazy! Seriously, we had no idea what happened, but the resulting image of his back wheel, spokes, rear derailleur, chain and cables meant that cycling was off the menu for today (see photos).

Fortunately our mobile phone and the prompt service from a nearby taxi company, was instrumental in helping to save the day. Jerry our taxi driver picked us up in the middle of nowhere and drove us to the nearest bike-shop, Bath Cycle & Ski where Jesse fixed everything, Davis grilled some chicken on the BBQ and Marnie was really nice. We must have spent 4 hours in the shop whilst Trusty was put back together again and we give our full gratitude to Jesse, Davis and Marnie for getting us back on the road. By the time all was present and correct and after receiving a very kind donation from John Bouchard, it was 5pm. Rather than begin a 50 mile cycle with the last 3 hours/30 miles being completed in the dark, we called the cab company again and had to spend dollars to get ourselves to Camden. Thanks to Tony our other taxi driver who got us to our destination safely and still with daylight hours to spare.

Strangely, we were still tired and hungry for fresh good food when we got to our hotel. Our prayers were answered, as just 2 blocks from our hotel was a great (utterly great) and honest restaurant, The Long Grain. Run by a couple from Bangkok, the meals were very tasty, made with organic ingredients sourced from local farms. We met more lovely people and especially enjoyed our time spent with Paul and Julie, who were vacationing, having their own kayaking adventure …good luck guys, it was great meeting you.

Back in the hotel room watching House, we hope tomorrow will be less adventurous.

Us x

Cream Crackered

2010-09-17T16:39:00.001-07:00

For some reason the last few days have taken it out of us! It’s strange because the people we have met recently on our trip say to us “you must be in great shape by now” after we describe our adventure so far. And we would agree with them: we should be. Yet we find ourselves with aching muscles and just wanting to spend all day sleeping, or at least lying down, and doing as little as possible.

So, being kind to ourselves, that’s just what we did today. We ventured out briefly to wander up and down the small, cute high street in Bath and buy a latte and cupcake (!) but otherwise we limited our activity to some essential admin and (of course) laundry. Following our stomachs again, tonight we will go out for a quick bite to eat and then try to get an early night… zzzzz.

On the bikes again tomorrow, heading North East along the Maine coast.

Us x

Time to take a Bath!

2010-09-16T22:03:00.000-07:00

There’s this lake …and it’s very long. The name of this lake is Long Lake and it is a very beautiful 11-mile stretch of water surrounded by a dense ridge of trees that are in the throes of changing their colour from green to kaleidoscope. Our B&B, The Inn at Long Lake is perched on a little hill at the southern base of the lake. Looking out of the window as we woke up this morning, we were greeted with a vista akin to a Turner painting …it was wonderful. We had a lovely breakfast with Keith the owner/manager of the Inn and once again chatted about all the things that were wrong and right with the world. We’ve picked up so many pearls of wisdom whilst on this trip we’re beginning to feel like an aromatic plant with grayish-green leaves! Wishing Keith well, we set off on a 55-mile roller coaster of a ride toward Bath, ME.

Our starting elevation this morning was 350ft and our finishing elevation was to be 100ft, so today’s trip was supposed to be short and simple. The weather was playing ball and despite starting later than planned we still had loads of time. What we didn’t plan for was (i) over 3,600ft of climbing: “How is that possible with a net descent for the day?” you ask …well it was possible, and it hurt; and (ii) two stretches of road being closed, with very long detours, 2 miles and 15 miles respectively.

Approaching the first ROAD CLOSED sign, we duly cycled past it ignoring all warnings of no THRU ROAD. A mile later at the bottom of a very steep hill, we were confronted with a giant-sized hole in road, filled with all sorts of construction equipment. The way was shut and there was no route across …funny that! We reluctantly about-turned, pedalling back up the steep hill and took the short detour, as instructed. It was getting later and we were getting tired, the realisation that ‘short n simple’ were not going to be the adjectives for the day was becoming apparent. We took a quick break at the side of the road, refuelled and began again. 10-15 miles later we approached a second ROAD CLOSED sign. Learning nothing, we were about to cycle straight through, our usual Modus Operandi, when fortunately, Anthony had a rear wheel puncture right next to the “road-closed” barriers. We say “fortunate”?! Because, as Anthony was fixing the puncture, Kat removed the Panniers from Steed and went on reconnaissance down the closed road …15 minutes later …Kat returned and explained that there was no way to cross the road. Apparently a massive crane was fixing the road next to the river, when the road suddenly gave way …the river claimed both the road and the massive crane. The road was now closed for different reasons, as the county departments work out how to get the crane out of the river. However, as luck would have it, during her reconnaissance, Kat had met some burly firemen who said they would escort us across a private field avoiding the collapsed roadway and more importantly the 15-mile detour. Thank you Thank you Thank you Kevin, Scott and Zac for saving our lives (we know you save lives everyday).

Despite experiencing another rear wheel puncture, we struggled up many more steep hills and made it to our hotel in Bath, ME at 6pm, just before the rain started! Dinner at Solo Bistro was very nice and we were happy that tomorrow would be a non-cycling day.

Us x

The Maine Event

2010-09-15T19:40:00.001-07:00

OK, so we went to bed last night saying “we’ll be up early tomorrow morning…NO EXCUSES”. Well, here are the excuses… (1) the washing machine broke with our laundry in it last night, causing a delay and leaving us with half-dry clothes that we had to hang up before finishing the rest of our duties and turning in for the night; (2) we were woken by our not so light-footed neighbours stomping up the hallway stairs and once in their room (directly above us), proceeding to march back and forth into the early hours for no apparent reason; (3) at 1am a gaggle of drunk girls stumbled into the car park outside our bedroom window cackling loudly, looking for the keys to their car and setting off their car alarm 4 times for a minute at a time; (4) at 2am the car alarm went off again, at which point Anthony went outside to “sort things out”; (5) we’re just not very good at getting up in the morning (especially applicable to Kat); and (6) the dog ate our homework.

Despite all the above, we did manage to get up at an almost respectable time, and drag ourselves to breakfast at our hotel, where we were instantly woken up by the guys on the table next to us. Kurt and Ross are brothers who are on a trip with their Dad, Roger. They’re all riding Harleys, and they were full of beans this morning, chatting away to us about our trip and about journeys they have made before on their Bikes (of the motorized variety). Their energy and enthusiasm gave us a bit of a boost, and by the time we set off, we were ready to tackle our first challenge of the day: the small matter of a 2,855 ft climb to the top of Kancamagus Pass.

It was quite tough starting at the bottom of the climb, as our little leggies were a bit tired after the last few days of hills, but once we were into our stride, it was a doddle. The weather wasn’t really playing ball, however, and we were doing our version of the Rainmac Hokey Cokey… you put your rain mac in, you take your rain mac out; in, out, in, out, you shake it all about; you don your Gore-Tex trousers and you turn around; that’s what it’s all about … oh the rainmac hokey cokey etc etc... rah, rah, rah… repeat to fade…

Anyway, 14 miles later, we had reached the top and the rain had pretty much gone away for the day. Instead, it was freezing cold, so the long trousers had to come out as we prepared for 20 miles of descending. But we’re not complaining – it was a stunning view, and we’ve been quite enjoying getting back to a bit of hill-climbing and hurtling down the other side. No land speed records today, but a lot of fun!

After 69 miles we arrived at our destination for tonight, Naples, Maine, and a charming B&B called The Inn at Long Lake. We were welcomed warmly by Keith, the owner, and later wandered out to dinner at a local Brewpub, Bray’s. With no TV to keep us up tonight (ooh, did we list that as an excuse for our late night last night), it’s 10.15pm, we’ve done all our chores, brushed our toothy pegs, and are ready for bed. Let’s see what time we make it up tomorrow?

Us x

P.S. Don't forget to check out the photos.

The Hotel New Hampshire

2010-09-14T22:25:00.000-07:00

We met a lot of lovely people whilst staying at The Norwich Inn and leaving this morning was no different. After a large and very fulfilling breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant, we scurried back to our hotel room to get the bikes ready for our long ride over some serious climbs. Making our final lubrication and pannier fastening checks in the rear car park, we got chatting with some fellow cyclists who were just about to begin a 35 mile ride in and around the area, and 2 ladies, one of which we met the night before, who were sincerely interested to hear our story a second time. We eventually finished preparing the bikes and managed to cycle all of 20 meters to the General Store at the front of the hotel, to buy fluids and peanuts, when we got chatting again! to the two cashiers in the shop. One of which, Ben Ryan, is the son of Lloyd H Kasper –Dept of Neurology, Dartmouth College MS research and Director of local MS Clinic. We hope they’ll be following the blog.

So it was a busy morning and despite our early’ish wake up, it was 11:30am by time we got rolling. The featured item on today’s menu was sauteed hills in a hill reduction with a side of hills and hills! It rained on and off all day but for the majority of the time it was bright and sunny around us, fairytale mists crowning the mountains high above us, and a slippery wet sheen beneath us. However the treacherous road surface didn’t stop us from enjoying both sides of the mountains! You must understand that when sweating blood and tears for over an hour climbing a steep high mountain, all you can think about along the way is getting to the top, and when you get to the top you feel like a God. High and full of euphoria, you are then eager to feel like a kid again and zoom down the other side …and we wanted to feel like kids again So you will all be pleased to hear that, 6 miles from our destination soon after conquering the last ascent, Anthony became ONE with Trusty and hurtled down the slippery wet mountainside, sweeping around bends faster than Lewis Hamilton managed to do in last weekend’s GP and broke his land speed record. A very respectable 50mph/80kph in the wet…awesome and scary! Needless to say the final few downhill miles brought us to our hotel in the ‘shake of a lamb’s tail’.

Dinner was a rushed affair this evening. Tomorrow’s ride will be a longer, higher and harder, which will require an early start tomorrow morning… …no excuses this time. We also had to do some laundry and plan some routes.

Everything was done in time, apart from the blog, so apologies for the late posting. Before we go, a quick mention to Joseph, Anthony’s son, who is doing a charity fun run on September 25^th, raising money for cancer research …good luck Little Fella. Our followers can donate to Joseph’s cause by clicking here –-> donate to cancer research cause Joseph is keeping fit and doing something good.

A new state today, another state tomorrow: Maine.

Us x

Only Happy When It Rains

2010-09-13T21:42:00.000-07:00

Hearing torrential rain pounding down outside our B&B in Middlebury, VT from the early hours of the morning, through until the alarm rang out at 7am, we thought that we would cheer ourselves up by having a massive argument to start the day! Well, they do say that when it rains, it pours.

Anyway, by the time we had finished yelling at each other about nothing, it was around 11am, much later than we had intended to leave for our 66-mile ride into Norwich, VT. On the positive side, the rain had stopped!!

The day started with a long and steep ascent over Bread Loaf and the Middlebury Gap, which stirred Anthony’s “hisnia” up nicely, followed by one of most precipitous descents we have experienced on this trip: a 12% gradient where we accomplished a max speed of 46mph while dodging the many pot-holes. After all the climbing, the downhill was over in a flash. Hmmm, that helped our mood no end…

Knowing that we had a long day ahead of us with a further climb towards the end and worrying about fading light, we decided that we didn’t have time to stop for a break in any of the cute little towns that we passed through. As luck would have it, around 35 miles into the ride, the rain started again. Being forced to pull over and don our rain gear, we took the opportunity to pack down a few choice tidbits from our handlebar bags, which actually made us feel a bit better. From then on, although we could see clear blue skies ahead, behind and either side of us, a large black raincloud hung directly above following us for the next 20 miles, emptying its ruin upon our weary bodies without respite. We guess we deserved it… miserable gits!

As we continued on, Kat noticed that a lot of the places in this area, including our destination for tonight, Norwich, seem to be named after places in Norfolk: not only Norwich, but Thetford and Brandon too. And then, as we were cycling through the town of Sharon, Anthony spotted a road sign that helped us crack a smile (see photo). We noted that there are a lot of Sharons in Norfolk too.

Once we laughed and smiled, the rain stopped, the sun came out, and we turned off the busy main road on which we were cycling and onto the unmade Quimby Mountain road. Usually we would have done a great deal of tutting, rolling of the eyes and cursing about the road surface, but for some reason, Trusty & Steed came into their own, and we really enjoyed our climb over Quimby mountain. On the way, we bumped into David, who was out walking his Boxer dogs, and looked pretty surprised to see us (it’s a quiet road). We had a good chat with him as we got our breath back and found that he’s a keen bike rider too.

After a few more steep sections, it was downhill all the way into Norwich… yee-hah! We love our room at the Norwich Inn, and had a great meal in the restaurant here, ending the day in much better spirits that starting it. Tomorrow, we’ll be leaving the beautiful Vermont and moving on into New Hampshire. We can’t believe that we don’t have more photos, but since it’s rained almost constantly since we crossed the state line, we’re not going to beat ourselves up too much.

Us x

Breakfast in Bed

2010-09-12T20:55:00.000-07:00

As non-cycling days go, today would be classified as an ‘Hors Catégorie’ Rest Day’. We started this morning with a healthy breakfast in bed followed by Brenda & Bruce doing our laundry for us (big thanks for being so selfless). The remainder of the day was seriously relaxing. Apart from customary route planning and reorganising the NYC accommodation to accommodate the premier standards of the high rollers who will be joining us in the Big Apple, we spent most of our time chilling out in our room watching TV.

We’re back on the road tomorrow.

Us x

Patience is...

2010-09-11T11:11:00.000-07:00

If patience is a virtue, as they say, today we were calling on all of our reserves. After Anthony’s tyre blow out yesterday, we were straight on the phone at 8am this morning, trying to track down some suitable tyres that we could get to, or that could get to us, sometime today so that we could make it to our next location, 35 miles, plus a ferry ride, away in Middlebury, Vermont.

We managed to get through to the guys that we met yesterday at High Peaks in Lake Placid, who said that they could help. Alex’s girlfriend Phoebe was driving over from Vermont to see him, and could drop by our hotel in Westport on her way armed with the tyres that we needed sourced from a bike shop in Burlington, VT. Initially, we were expecting Phoebe to arrive around 12-1pm… then it was 4pm, and then eventually she arrived at 5.50pm! We’re not complaining. Alex and Phoebe did us a massive favour. It’s just that we found that we are not very good at kicking our heels with an uncertain departure time, and with every minute that passed after 4pm, fixating on the fact that another minute of daylight was being knocked off the time available for us to get to Middlebury.

So, as soon as the tyres arrived, it was action stations. Anthony & Alexandra, the owners of The Inn on the Library Lawn in Westport, who had very kindly let us stay in our room all day while we waited for the tyres, had offered to give us a lift to the ferry to help save us some time. Trusty & Steed were already safely in the back of their truck, wheels off ready for the new tyres, and somehow Anthony (that’s our Anthony) managed to get all 4 tyres on the wheels during the 17-mile journey to the ferry. Thanks guys, for everything, and we enjoyed chatting with you…

Pumping up the tyres like crazy people and rushing down the gangway to the ferry across Lake Champlain, the sun was already setting by the time we touched down on the Vermont side of the Lake and started the 16-mile dash to our B&B. With flash backs of Bisbee, AZ in our minds, we soon found ourselves riding along in the pitch black on a road without a shoulder, and with a very poor road surface. Going downhill, we found it best to assume a mountain biking stance, close our eyes and just let ourselves go… don’t ask. Well, somehow we made it to the cute town of Middlebury in one piece. We were warmly greeted by Krista at The Inn on the Green, and shown to a gorgeous and very comfortable room, with water, Gatorade, ice, cheese and fruit to help us recover.

Decamping very swiftly in the direction of a nearby hostelry to get our dinner order in before the kitchens closed, we found 51 Main at the Bridge, a great little nightspot with live jazz, delicious tapas, and of course some chilled wine. Bliss. Our server, Elianna, was wonderful and the stresses of the last few hours soon melted away.

They also say that “patience and fortitude conquer all things”. We found that a few kind people and a couple of glasses of wine go a long way too…

Us x

Another Tyring Day

2010-09-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

It was meant to be one of those short and simple 45-mile rides. A leisurely endeavour, where sweat isn’t broken and heavy breathing would be a distant afterthought. At first, everything was as expected. A chilly yet comfortable 9°C, a dull English mist clinging to the tops of the tall mountains, clouds inanimately buoyant in the sky, blocking the Sun’s every effort to scorch the ground, and a light prevailing west wind gently encouraging us along our way…perfect cycling conditions.

The terrain wasn’t ideal but who cared? Having experienced the dizzy 8,500ft climbs of New Mexico, the near vertical ascents of California and the mammoth expeditions over the Passes of Washington, we felt comfortable with the challenges of today. The problem was ‘Hernia’. And no, that isn’t the unfortunately named young girl we met on the road in Saranac who decided to join us on our ride today, or the laughing dogs you’ll find hunting Antelope on the African plains, but the painful bodily condition that’s plaguing Anthony’s progress up the steep hills. Just in case anyone’s worried, don’t be. Anthony’s now taking the advice of Bob (the Veterinarian we met in Port Hope) and is sleeping on his back with his legs in the air to help minimise the adverse affects…can you confirm David?

So with Kat cycling with one leg tied behind her back to keep the steady (slow) pace, we cruised up and down, up and down, up and down, across and over the mountains of the Lake Placid area aka Essex County. All was going well. We stopped every 15 miles to rest, eat, and buy anti-chafing cream: DZ-Nuts for him and DZ-Bliss for her’nia (sorry couldn’t miss that joke opportunity). Our second stop involved stopping at High Peaks Mountain Adventures to order some new tyres for Trusty and Steed. We stayed a little longer than planned but enjoyed chatting with Bob and Alex …thanks guys for your help. Our next rest stop, after a great 43mph downhill section and gut busting 6mph uphill section, was in a place called Elizabethtown. We stopped for drinks and a comfort break and met Rose who is a trained concert pianist and has enjoyed a few cycling tours of her own. We also met a lovely guy called Pete whose story touched our hearts …wishing each of you all the best.

Our final leg, before arriving in the beautiful town of Westport, NY and the wonderful B&B, The Inn on the Library Lawn, required just one more 200ft climb. And it was at that precise moment, half way through the climb that Anthony suffered another tyre side-wall failure. It’s a very dramatic and sudden event, and we are both grateful that it didn’t happen during our 43mph descent earlier in the day. If it had, this blog would have been signed ‘Kat x’ and not ‘Us x’. So, thanks to the cycling Gods, we are still with you today. With the tyre patched up in true Blue Peter fashion (sticky-backed plastic) and inner tubes replaced, we limped downhill into Westport and our B&B to meet a different Anthony, the owner and a great host.

After freshening up, we decided to treat ourselves and have a slap up meal at the nearby French restaurant. Veal was on the menu but after seeing yet more Veal Crates a couple of days ago, we decided to have the bloody beef instead.

Us x

The Sun Always Shines On TV…

2010-09-09T18:10:00.000-07:00

… but it didn’t shine here today, at all! It was raining when we woke up, when we set out on the bikes from Potsdam, NY and when we arrived 60 miles later in Saranac Lake, NY (or Packamac Lake, as we have affectionately named it).

It was a ride that transported us right back, in our minds at least, to some of our days in Washington State. And not just because it was raining constantly. With total climbing around 3,500ft, and our end point being 1,100ft above our start point, we were back in the “granny gear” for some of today. It was cold too.

To add to the challenge, it was Kat’s turn to have a sidewall failure in her tyre today. Luckily this occurred as we were going uphill rather than downhill, but it was suitably dramatic nonetheless. Of course, it wasn’t fun changing the tyre by the side of the road, getting colder and colder, and digging into the bottom of the panniers for the spare tyre in the pouring rain, but we can’t really complain given that this tyre has been on since Missoula, Montana…

Tonight, we arrived at our hotel in the centre of Saranac Lake, and couldn’t wait to get warm and dry. We were soon out again packing in some pasta and garlic bread at nearby Little Italy, where our waitress Christine looked after us well. We’re now back in the room stuffing newspaper in our soaking shoes and hanging our rain gear from Trusty & Steed’s handlebars. It’s a glamorous life… when the sun shines.

Us x

P.S. Congratulations to Kat’s nephew, Leo, on his first steps. We’ll have him on a bike in no time (or the wagon …only joking Susie)!

This could be Pots-er-dam or anywhere!

2010-09-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

Just another short blog, sorry! We rested today here in Potsdam, New York Baby! Ummm ...getting a little jaded of saying that now, but no worries, the next time we arrive in the Empire State it will truly be the beginning of the end of this ‘crazy journey’. But before we start to give too much away of what our final reminiscent/nostalgic Blog may sound like, let’s refocus on today.

You’ve heard it all before: laundry, route planning, hotel booking, UK Admin, Thai Food, watching Criminal Minds, buying inner tubes and not drinking alcohol (honest); another perfect day. We’re back on the road tomorrow and heading into the Adirondacks. That means more hills!

We’d like to give another heartfelt shout out to all the crew at the Cambridge Suites Hotel in Toronto for their generous donation …much appreciated.

Us x

New York, New York, New York, So Good They Went There Thrice

2010-09-07T18:10:00.001-07:00

We’ve all experienced it before. The sudden realisation that we have made a mistake: not any mistake, but a big mistake. It hits us in a flash, we start to feel a hot flush creep right from our toes up to our faces until our ears are burning, our throats go dry, and then it’s like someone reaches into our bodies and clenches an iron hand around our hearts.

Last night, as Kat was preparing the GPS route for today, she read something on the internet saying that the bridge that she had decided (despite Anthony’s repeated suggestions to take an alternate route) for us to take to cross the St Lawrence River back into the US did not permit cyclists or pedestrians… oops! Consulting the map, it was either 50 miles further on or 40 miles back to get across the river, and things were looking bleak. Despite the super comfortable bed in our beautiful B&B, it was an unsettled night for both of us.

Waking to the sound of rain falling gently outside, we got up and prepared for the day, with heavy hearts, but planning to ask our lovely hosts Jane and Geoff for their advice. As we ate a fabulous “Full English” breakfast cooked by Jane, we explained our dilemma to her. In a shot, she told us not to worry, and that she would drive us (and Trusty & Steed) over the bridge herself. Just as the words were hanging in the air, the sun came out and we could have sworn we were in the presence of an angel!

And so it came to pass… After chatting away with Jane for quite a while about politics, Canada, the US and many other things, we got ourselves packed up, slotted ourselves, T&S and the panniers into Jane’s little car, and were overjoyed as we zoomed over the bridge from Canada to the US with the river far below. Looking at the fact that there was no sidewalk, that the bridge roadway is constructed of metal grating, and that it is around a mile long, we could see why bikes are not allowed, and were extremely grateful. Jane told us that one of the decisions that she has made in her life is to be happy and to spread that happiness to others. Speaking for ourselves, we can certainly say that we found Jane’s energy, humour and generosity of spirit infectious, and we set off for our ride feeling transformed. Jane – thank you, thank you, thank you!

Having crossed the bridge, it was just a short 28-mile ride into Potsdam, NY. It wasn’t without its challenges, however… one of Anthony’s panniers fell off into the road as he went through a big pothole, and a few miles further on he got a puncture. Still, it was a glorious day, in the 80s (after the 50s and 60s of the weekend), and we enjoyed our time on the road.

Arriving bright and early at our hotel, we went out for dinner at a local Thai restaurant and were back in the hotel by 7pm ready for a relaxing evening watching a bit of trash on US TV.

Finally, a huge thanks to Heather for her generous donation. We haven’t spoken in ages, so lets hope we’ll see you back in NYC

Us x

Au Revoir les Canadiens

2010-09-06T19:03:00.000-07:00

It was like meeting old friends over our healthy breakfast of fruit and waffles this morning. We chatted some more with Rob and Marie-Josee about the joys of touring, cycling, riding motorbikes, Harley Davidsons and Fatboys. As Marie-Josee was expressing how one day she would like to ride her own motorbike rather than riding pannier behind Rob, she mentioned a few makes and models that could fit the bill. Problem was, being a die-hard Harley man, Rob vehemently objected to her mention of said Japanese sports bikes, and if cost wasn’t a consideration, recommended she get a Harley, explaining that once she got used to the weight of the bike, she’d love the feel of it. And who are we to argue with Rob’s testimony, as he recounted that he, quote “… once saw a girl riding a Fatboy!” much to the amusement of everyone in the breakfast room. We loved chatting with Rob & Marie-Josee and invited them to see us in London if they ever decide to tour Europe on the bikes. And before leaving, we managed to take a quick photo of the “German Girls” and find out their names: Nina & Anna. Surprisingly, they left for their Tour from NYC and have visited many of the same cities as us …safe travels for the rest of your trip girls!

Our travels today were very safe! Mainly due to the 30 miles of cycle paths and very quiet county highways that followed the path of Fleuve St Laurent. The region between Gananoque and Cornwall along the river is known as “Thousand Islands”, because there are about umm, 1,000 little islands scattered throughout the river. We took a few photos to try and capture its beauty and were amazed to see, no matter how small the Real-Estate, how someone will find a way to build a castle on it. It is said that “No man is an island”… we’re not sure we believe that anymore.

Despite leaving late this morning at 11:18am, we arrived in Prescott, ON just before 3pm, to a fanfare welcome from Jane and Geoff, the owners of The Colonel’s Inn. There’s a lot of interesting history about Prescott, too much to mention on the blog, but Wikipedia does a great job of listing all the facts. Lucky for us, Prescott also hosts a selection of casual yet authentic eateries all within spitting distance of our B&B. Geoff and Jane encouraged us to pay a visit to The Red George Public House Inc. and we weren’t disappointed with the Chicken-Pot pie, beer, white wine… and garlic bread for dessert. Yes, that’s right, garlic bread for dessert: we were famished. Everything about this evening was made perfect by the hospitality of the Manager, Scott, and our waitress, Erin. And just as we were leaving we got chatting to the Crapnell and MacKay family who were very interested in our trip and kindly donated to the cause …thanks guys.

Back in the USA tomorrow

Us x

It's All About (the) U

2010-09-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

This trip always keeps us guessing. Some days, we can cycle for miles without encountering a sole, or at least anyone who wants to talk to us (or who we want to talk to). Other days, we can be inundated with people who we meet who inspire us, and who we want to wax lyrical about on our blog. We’re pleased to say that today followed the latter example!

As we ate breakfast at our hotel in Napanee, the lovely lady who was in charge of the very fine breakfast, a Kiwi called Sandra, sought us out as she had seen us arrive yesterday, slightly dishevelled from the wind, and was interested to find out what we were up to (and perhaps us coming to breakfast in our cycling gear gave us away too). We had a good chat about the vagaries of the Toronto traffic (a phenomenon of which Kat had been blissfully unaware) and life in the area.

Stepping outside the hotel, we found that it was ****ing freezing! Not quite long-trouser weather, but we were both headfirst digging out our musty smelling Windstoppers from the bottom of our panniers for the first time in months. And then, a couple of miles in, we were dismayed to find that what we thought might be a short, light rain-shower was showing signs of turning into persistent drizzle. We dealt with it as Brits always do. We ignored it for about 30 minutes, hoping it would pass and being unwilling to admit that it was raining, and then we stopped, admitted our denial, and donned our raingear. Within 5 minutes, the sun was out and there was not a cloud in the sky. How? Why?

With a small push today from Talwin, we pedalled on to the next big town, Kingston, where we first stopped for Anthony to mend a puncture on his bike, and then for a spot of lunch. Our server, Jeff, was a downhill cyclist (riding hell for leather on a heavy mountain bike down a ski slope in the summer months). Some of his stories, particularly those of his various “tumbles” made our eyes water, and encouraged Anthony to order another beer. Good God people, it is Labour Day weekend after all…

Wending our “merry” way out of town, we soon found that it was necessary to make another stop. Well, a pint and half of Barley Days doesn’t disappear all by itself. Usually (i.e. 99% of the time) it’s Kat who’s crying pitifully that she needs to pull into a side road or a forest clearing for a quick “comfort break”. But today, it was Anthony’s turn. Luckily, we found the Treasure Island Marina where Mike was washing down one of the boats, and kindly not only let us use their washrooms, but also donated $20 to the cause, as well as entertaining us with a few stories as we chatted away in our animated state.

It was only a few more miles further on, and we reached Gananoque ON, our destination for tonight. We were rather surprised to arrive at our B&B to find the German girls that we had met at Hill and Dale Manor in Port Hope just getting out of their car as we rolled in. Hilarious! Hopefully tomorrow morning, we will find out more about their trip, and perhaps even their names…

This evening, we strolled into town, stopping to eat at the restaurant with the most distinguished name: Anthony’s … of course. We had some satisfying comfort food, and a lovely evening courtesy of the wonderful staff: Connor (our fabulous server – apparently we were his first ever table, and he did a fantastic job); Danielle (Connor’s big sis); Angie and Cindy. Thanks guys and gals.

Staggering back to our B&B, we met a couple of fellow guests, Rob and Marie-Josee, who were on their way out to walk off their dinner. We had a great chat before turning in for the night.

Finally, logging on to the computer, we found a generous donation from Dave and Jeanne at Hill and Dale Manor – chaps, you’re grrreat! And a comment from our friend the Rolling Reverend, who we met in Michigan, and who has cycled over 200,000 miles over the years for charity – Go Rev!!

Us x

3 Great Things!

2010-09-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

Dave and Jeanne laid out a glorious breakfast this morning, to a crowded table of hungry guests. We had a very entertaining time chatting with everyone, who for very different reasons found themselves sitting at the Hill and Dale Manor breakfast table sharing short stories. We had a mother and daughter from Jamaica who were in Port Hope preparing for the daughter’s first day at Trinity College School; a couple of German girls who we believe were touring the US and Canada by car; another couple who had recently helped their daughter move into her new University and; Kate who had wisely decided to give herself a little break from the stresses of everyday life and pamper herself for the weekend.
Many of you may be familiar with the classic 1980’s animation ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe’ and the super human powers given to Prince Adam by Castle Grayskull. Today we felt a little like Prince Adam transformed into He-man! We were still suffering from yesterday’s herculean ride, and secretly wished for assistance to complete today’s challenging ride. And then as if by the magic of Grayskull (but actually the edges of hurricane Earl), ‘Talwin’ turned up blowing at 20 mph from the SW. We definitely felt like “we had the powweerrrr” as we headed NE toward Great Napanee, ON for 73 miles, completing the trip at a record-breaking 15.5mph average speed.
We’ve now completed 12,000 miles “…booyah”

There are of course 2 more events that are worthy of a mention. David, Sheila, Barry and Aileen, thanks for your lovely comments and the UK donations… awesome!

Us x

Calling Our Bluff

2010-09-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

Waking up this morning, we prepared ourselves for what we thought was going to be a fairly easy 67-mile ride along the shores of Lake Ontario from Toronto into Port Hope. Feeling relaxed, we pootled around, ate a good breakfast in the hotel restaurant, and then had a long stretch of our muscles, which had become tight over the 3 rest days to which we had treated ourselves. And before we knew it, it was noon, and raining hard, and we hadn’t even set off…oops.

Donning our raingear, we bid a fond farewell to Toronto and the Cambridge Suites Hotel (Kat is now a big fan too of the city and the hotel), and followed the Waterfront Trail again, climbing up to the top of the bluffs that run alongside the lake and meandering in and out from the lakeshore. Hmmm… we soon realised that our 67 miles was a tad of an underestimate. In fact, it was 76 miles of climbing and descending on paths of varying surfaces (including soft sand/mud, crushed gravel etc), as well as a few stretches of super smooth bike path (so it’s not all bad). In fact, it would have been a truly glorious ride, had we just set off a little bit earlier!

Anyway… pegging it along the last section like men and women possessed, we arrived at our lovely B&B in Port Hope, the Hill and Dale Manor, just as the sun was setting, and with about 3 minutes to spare of the designated checking-in time. Dave and Jeanne greeted us warmly and were very forgiving about our late arrival, settling us in (and Trusty & Steed – they are cyclist and cycle friendly) and giving us some great restaurant recommendations.

After a very quick turnaround, we ended up eating at the Black Beans on the main street, which was an extremely good choice! Owned by veterinarian turned entrepreneur and all-round people person, Bob Sanderson, it’s a hopping little spot serving fantastic food and great wine in a fun and casual environment. After downing a mammoth jug of water (we got a little dehydrated on the ride) courtesy of our lovely server, Stephanie, we tucked in to the yummy food, and then spent quite some time chatting with Bob. Kat was particularly interested to hear Bob’s story as her Dad is a vet (now retired) and long-time foodie (not retired!) and has always talked about setting up his own restaurant… food for thought.

Bob then introduced us to Mark, a fellow cyclist, family man and super-successful businessman (he is President of a very large publishing company we found out some way into our conversation). We had a fascinating discussion and didn’t want the evening to end, but our bodies of course were telling us different.

Sinking into our comfortable bed at the B&B, it was more than we could manage to write the blog there and then, but we did log on and found an amazing donation and some lovely comments from our favourite Dutch friends Annita and Jan, and their little ones Roza and Annemoon. Thanks for the cryptic Dutch remark guys – very funny, we’re sure MG&T and PCH will be chuckling away too!

Us x

Taking it easy

2010-09-02T16:43:00.000-07:00

Its nearly 8pm and we haven’t done much today. Just did the laundry, planned some routes and stayed indoors. We’re back on the road tomorrow heading around the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Thanks Ed for pushing the UK donation total a little higher.

Us x

High Point

2010-09-01T14:07:00.000-07:00

Today we did the touristy thing and went up the CN Tower. At 553.3m, it is apparently the tallest tower in the world … it certainly gave Kat a touch of the vertigo, especially when she stood on the glass floor 1,122ft high! Still, it was a great adventure and the views were spectacular. We tried to capture them in a few snappy snaps, but it’s nigh on impossible to encapsulate the whole experience.

After such excitement, we were pretty peckish, so we decamped to a nearby sushi bar: Ki. Wonderful food and a super cool restaurant. Tonight, we’re going to the manager’s reception at the hotel. Not a bicycle in sight!

Us x

To-Ron-ToToTo, To-Ron-ToTo

2010-08-31T22:06:00.000-07:00

We spent the day chilling out, buying a few bits and pieces that we’ve needed for a while but which you can only find in a big city, getting through a bit of admin, and then eating a yummy meal in Golden Thai, just a block from the hotel. We’re liking Toronto… a lot!

Us x

So far, so cool, so close, yet still so far

2010-08-30T20:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday as planned, we cycled 62 miles into Burlington, so that today’s ride into Toronto would be a short 37 miles, giving us plenty of opportunity to enjoy the views along the lake shore and cycle without urgency. Consequently, our breakfast this morning was very relaxed, so relaxed that we didn’t even have the routes programmed into Margaret and GaGa! Fortunately we were lucky enough to meet Jeff and Alisa over breakfast, who informed us of the Waterfront Trail: a route designed for cyclists and pedestrians with a desire to steer their way around the perimeter of Lake Ontario, and a route that they had followed the day before from Toronto to Burlington. Following their advice, we jumped aboard Trusty and Steed and headed North East on the Waterfront Trail toward Anthony’s favourite city in the world.

It was a very hot and humid day today and ‘sweating profusely’ was on the menu. So much sweat in fact that, half way through the ride, we decided to take ourselves off the beaten track and navigate our way through the Rattray Marsh Conservation Area toward an open bit shoreline on the lake. 30 minutes later, we emerged from the Wood and onto a secluded sandy beach. Before you could say “I’m so hot and sweaty I think there’s a Jacuzzi in my belly button”, we had ripped off our clothes behind a nearby tree, carefully avoiding any accusations of lewd conduct, donned our swimwear and dived head first into Lake Ontario. We swam around for about 15 minutes then hung ourselves out to dry before returning to cycling attire.

Rejuvenated, we made our way back onto Lake Shore Drive for a short 10 mile ride along the main road before getting back onto the dedicated shoreline boulevard that took us all the way into Toronto without a single vehicle in sight …very nice.

We arrived at the Cambridge Suites Hotel (Anthony’s favourite hotel in the world) and, being Kat’s first time in Toronto, she was very happy with what she saw. With lots of time before dinner, we chilled out in our room for a while before heading out to see what was new and interesting in the city. It didn’t take long. 2 blocks from our hotel we found ‘South of Temperance’, a new restaurant that had been open for all of 10 weeks. Gotta say, the food, atmosphere and service were perfect. Thanks to Tom the co-owner and Kate our lovely waitress, we had a great night.

More rest tomorrow.

Us x

Lake Ontario

2010-08-29T19:36:00.000-07:00

A better start to the day is hard to imagine. Anthony woke to find the Belgian Grand Prix on the TV, Lewis Hamilton taking the lead right from the start of the race, and then winning it – go Lewis! Kat found herself able to sleep an extra 90 minutes without being told it was time to get up and, save for a few shrieks and yelps (especially when the safety car was sent out) leading to a few strange dreams, it was all very peaceful and quite a treat.

It was pretty difficult for us to turn our backs on the Falls as we set off today. A view like that should be enjoyed for as long as possible but, without eyes in the back of our heads, we had to set out North and console ourselves with the fact that we were headed towards Niagara-on-the-Lake, reputably the prettiest town in Ontario. We were not disappointed. It’s a cool little place, full of chic little shops, cafes, restaurants etc, and has an amazing view of the Niagara River as well as Lake Ontario.

Stopping to top up with liquid, we met Troy and Ian, who own Customs House Cigars in NOTL. We had a great chat with them, and while Troy gave us the contact details of the owner of the biggest bike shop in Toronto, Ian gave us a few tips for our route into Burlington, ON, which had the result of not only cutting around 8 miles off our 71-mile journey but also sending us right along a bike route, next to the Lake, and dropping us just outside our hotel - thanks guys!!

Heading along the bike route, we decided to leave the road and take try a bit of the off-road trail, and soon found ourselves in front of a gorgeous beach right on the shores of Lake Ontario: a perfect opportunity for us to bag our 5^th and final Great Lake Paddle (see photos). While drying off, we bumped into Lorraine, the 2 cutie miniature schnauzers that she was looking after, and some of her friends from the cycling club (a big hello to you all, ladies, we enjoyed meeting you). With a few more tips and details for our route (well, riding without a map for this bit, we can do with all the clarification we can get), we set off again, realising that we were running a little behind time…

Still, we rocketed along, and arrived at our hotel in Burlington by 6.30pm, which all in all was a bit of a triumph. The lovely receptionist, Gabriella, was such a sweetie and greeted us like old friends, also recommending a fantastic Thai restaurant across the street: Siam Dish. We ordered enough food to feed a small town, and promptly devoured it all. It was truly fabulous.

Now we’re chilling out in our room, plotting our route into Toronto tomorrow and watching a few of our favourite shows on TV.

Us x

Wet n Wild

2010-08-28T20:42:00.000-07:00

We reckon it’s fair to assume that in the average person’s lifetime, there aren’t many occasions when you witness something truly, jaw-droppingly magnificent. But on those rare occasions when we do experience a scene that words fail to eloquently describe, 90% of the time its likely to be a Natural World experience rather than a man-made one. However, this inevitability doesn’t stop our narcissism getting the best of us and our endless pursuit to build what we think is more beautiful, on top of natures efforts …often we get it so wrong. So here we are, with a selection of the other 28 million tourists that visit the Falls each year, and were wondering why, with such a beautiful 173ft high, 3600ft wide natural spectacle dumping 202,000 cubic feet of water per second, would anyone want to construct a Blackpool Pleasure Beach (Atlantic City, NJ) amusement park in mockery of such splendour!

Alas, we had to leave the sanctity of our ‘room with a view’ and venture outside into the chaos and disorder of downtown. But before doing so, we took a boat trip on the Maid of the Mist into the belly of the Falls and got very close up, personal and wet. Being so close to the immensely powerful water and getting soaked by the violent spray was awesome (we also met a lovely girl from London who is now living in upstate New York… Hi Meera). As difficult as it is to recount the beauty of water falls, finding the right words to describe downtown Clifton Hill, Falls Avenue and the ‘car crash’ of amusement parks, karaoke bars, fast food outlets and wax work exhibits that lined their kerbs is near impossible. The wax-works were the funniest… filled with Play-Doh figures crafted by the local 5^th graders that resemble no-one (the only way you could distinguish the effigies of Tiger Woods from Michael Jackson was by the lines/queues of female tourists bending down in front of said figure #1, giggling hilariously whilst having their picture taken).

Dodging tourists in the manner of walking down Oxford Street or 5^th Ave btw 55^th & 59^th, we found a little Jewel of India, a sanctuary where we could sit down and eat authentic Indian food in a peaceful environment. Needless to say, the restaurant was ¾ empty because it didn’t sell burgers and fries, but we had a great meal, poppadams-and-all, washed down with a couple of bottles of KingFisher.

Back on the road tomorrow ...ooh nearly forgot c'mon Lewis and well done the Arse!

Us x

Niagara Falls, ON

2010-08-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

It was a tiddler of a ride from Buffalo, NY across the Peace Bridge into Ontario, Canada and on to the Niagara Falls (Canadian side). We knew it was only 24 miles or so, so we had a lie in and set off late. Yay!

The sun was shining as we pootled along on the Niagara Trail, a cycle path running alongside the Niagara River, and it was all very peaceful. As we approached the Falls area, we bumped into Jacqueline from Quebec who was doing a loop of the Niagara area and parked up her bike to have a quick chat and take a few photos. Hi Jacqueline! And then, as the river was getting more and more choppy and turbulent, we could suddenly see the mist rising up over the top of the falls. We were shocked but overjoyed to realise that we were going to be riding right next to the Horseshoe Falls, and from there, we could see the American Falls just across the river. For some reason, we thought that it would be a trek from the town to see what we wanted to see, but it was all there!

Nothing really prepares you for a sight like this. It’s so amazing that it almost doesn’t seem real. And being close up, you can actually see how clear the water is as it pours in torrents over the top and then transforms itself into a sea of white foam as it hits the bottom. And, of course, it creates a huge cloud of mist that turns into a big wide rainbow in the sunshine. Stunning.

We spent a little while with the bikes mesmerised by the view before decamping to our hotel for the night. Having done a bit of internet research, we decided to walk a mile to Koutouki Greek Cuisine for dinner. Those who know Anthony well will know that he is a bit of an aficionado when it comes to Greek food, and pretty much all things Greek. Well, he was blown away by the meal and pronounced it the best Greek food he had had outside of Greece. High praise indeed.

We returned to our room just in time to see the fireworks explode over the top of the Falls. Quite a spectacle. A rest day here tomorrow for a bit more oo-ing and ah-ing at the view.

Us x

Buffalo Wings and Pink Champagne

2010-08-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

As you all know we’re now back in New York, the Empire State. It’s strange for us to recall how we felt when we first set off from Manhattan excited, apprehensive and nervous about the road ahead, only now to laugh, smile and fondly reminisce about the journey travelled. Along the way from Dunkirk to here in Buffalo, NY we continue to meet a wide and diverse group of very interesting people, from gangs of kids screaming around on their bikes and hanging out at the local Subway to businessmen cruising the intersections on golf buggies during their lunch breaks, who upon hearing about our travels, ask us “What’s been your favourite place so far?” You would have thought that this question would be very easy to answer by now, but you’d be wrong. Worse still, being back in New York has put the last 10 months (exactly) into a euphoric haze of dreaminess. It’s so difficult for us to single out one specific moment that stands above all others. So to all those out there who want the answer to this obvious question …you’ll have to wait for the book release.

So, we’re nearly home and we’re constantly reminded of the common belief that successfully completing the last 20% of any given activity generally requires 80% of the effort. Physically, this has been true for Anthony as he has been cycling for the past two weeks with a very painful hernia (the cyclists among you may have noticed his average cadence has increased by 5-10 rpm’s) and every day tries not to let the prospect of completing the remaining 2,000 miles powered on ‘1 cylinder’ defeat him mentally. Kat on the other hand is full of beans! Looking forward to Toronto, NYC avec des amis and getting back to Le Crouch End et Soozy Q, and consequently has been cycling along each day with a spring in her step and plenty of gas in the tank …Anthony feels emasculated that he can no longer keep up with her.

Tonight we’re back in a metropolitan city; Buffalo, that sports many wine bars, clubs, restaurants and gentlemen’s clubs. We decided to only take part in the restaurant scene tonight! Fortunately, we’re not having a rest day here, because we’ve heard that hernias and Gentleman’s Clubs don’t mix! Anyway, tonight’s meal was divine; we treated ourselves to a pink fizz aperitif and a limóncello digestif in recognition of successful completion of the loop from New York to New York via San Diego and Portland Oregon.

Before signing off tonight we must say a big thanks to Alison S and Dave & Fran (see you in NYC with the TMGPCH’s) for the generous donations. Niagara Falls tomorrow… we can hardly contain ourselves.

...don't forget to check out the new photos in the New York and Pennsylvania albums

Us x

We Will Paddle with them on the Beaches

2010-08-25T18:55:00.000-07:00

Today we have reached our Dunkirk. Dunkirk, NY that is. Yes, after a 50-mile ride from Erie PA, we are back in the State in which we started our trip, though we still have a way to go.

We must begin by thanking Chris from the lovely B&B where we stayed last night in Erie: The George Carroll House. We had a lovely chat with Chris over breakfast during which she printed out some details of a nearby beach for us so that we could go and dip our toes in Lake Erie, and also made a generous donation to MS. Thanks Chris.

And then we were on our way in the heat of the day, but blissfully with the wind on our backs. After a quick detour down to the beach, a paddle in Lake Erie, and a bit of skimming stones on the lake, we were back on the road again and crossing the state line into New York… a very strange feeling.

The last part of the day was a bit of an adventure. We had decided to leave it to the Gamines to plot our last few miles of the day, guiding us from the ACA route to our hotel. They did quite well to start off with, taking us down a lovely long straight road with minimal traffic and a bridge over the Interstate. Good work ladies! Then into a quiet residential neighbourhood and over a bridge… ah, a bridge that is closed!! With our usual disregard for such signs, and seeing that there was actually some sort of a structure there spanning the river, albeit one that had obviously only just been covered with concrete and where sprinklers were in operation to prevent the concrete drying out too quickly, we decided to risk it. We’re hoping that we didn’t leave 2 sets of footprints and a couple of tyre marks (actually, we know we didn’t as the concrete was already fully set but we naughtily chuckled at the thought) and we reached the other side without incident. Still, we’re not sure the workers would have been very pleased had they seen us.

Next, the Gamines took us right through the middle of the University. Laughing at how Margaret and GaGa were probably looking around saying “Young maaan, oooh young man”, we pedalled on, feeling very out of place, but grateful for the lack of traffic and interesting surroundings.

We reached our hotel in good time and resigned ourselves to dining in the Applebee’s next door… a bit different to last night’s extravaganza. Buffalo tomorrow.

Us x

Public Announcement!

2010-08-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

On October the 25^th 2009, day 1 of 1 we arrived in New Hope, PA. And guess what? Today, day 204 of 304 we’re back in PA. That’s right, who would have believed that after such a seemingly short time, just 11,500 miles later we’re back in Pennsylvania, and tomorrow we’ll be back in New York State. But before prematurely getting our hopes up, we still have 6 states and roughly 2,000 miles to go before completing this Epic Journey in NYC, where we’ll be celebrating our achievements with the TMG’s and the PCH’s …can’t wait!

Getting back to today’s events. We left the unbelievably great hospitality of Lu, Jerry and Lyndsey of the Eagle Cliff Inn, Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio this morning. Feeling privileged to have spent time with such a lovely group of people and of course having a great breakfast of eggs sausages, muffins and fresh fruit, we were in moods for today’s ride. Also, a big thanks for the very generous donation.

The ride out of Geneva-on-the-Fake (its nothing like Lake Geneva) was great. The temperature was cool and refreshing (helped by a few clouds in the sky) and the sun was shining with a gentle warmth. Making matters more idyllic were the 30 miles of Lake Shore roads. It’s interesting how the presence of water tends to attract wealth in America, and that’s not just because both words begin with the letter ‘W’, it’s because all the crappy food chains have yet to work out how to build floating ‘drive-thru’s or ‘all you can eat for $3’ food outlets. Once they figure out that conundrum, trailers and project housing will replace all the chic and exclusive 15-bedroom houses. True! So whilst the mechanics and economics of constructing floating buildings evade the likes of McDonalds, DQ, KFC, Hardies, Wendy’s and Sonic, we enjoyed cycling along the quiet tree-lined avenues of Erie, PA.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective) our hours in the saddle have been pretty uneventful. No longer do we post pictures of striking colours, magnificent landscapes or wild animals going about their business; and we apologize for this. Today followed similar suit and our pictures consisted of the usual State Line snaps. However, we’re hoping that tomorrow we’ll bring some exciting pictures of us dipping our toes in Lake Erie …an event not to be missed!

Finishing the ride in downtown Erie, PA and arriving at our B&B, the George Carroll House, we freshened up and made our way to the Bertrand’s Bistro. A local French restaurant, which in our view scores 9½ out of 10 for atmosphere, food, wine, service and value for money. We chatted at length with Alison our server who is also a very talented artist and Bertrand the owner who is originally from Orléans (that’s in France not Louisiana) and has been running the only French Restaurant in the city for over 8 years …wishing you all the best Bertrand and thanks for the Ricard or two.

Feeling Excited.

Us x

Geneva-on-the-Fake

2010-08-23T19:28:00.000-07:00

We woke this morning to the gentle pitter-patter of rain falling on the rooftops outside our window. It’s a sound that we only like to hear on rest days. And when we switched on The Weather Channel and found that, not only would we likely have some rain showers today, but we would also be treated to a headwind of 15-25 mph, we were distinctly underwhelmed about the day ahead of us.

The lovely breakfast crew at the Holiday Inn Express did their best to cheer us up. Especially Shelia, a great lady with whom Kat bonded straight away, when Kat told her that her mum is called Shelia, and found that Shelia’s mother was called Kat. And then we met the general manager, David, the same name as Kat’s Dad. Spooky, but true. And after following down the coincidences with a bowl of raisin bran and a couple of bagels, we were feeling much more like tackling the day.

We were back onto the urban trail for the 57-mile ride out of Cleveland, OH and into Geneva-on-the-Lake, OH. After so many days of glorious countryside, we have found it quite tough dealing with the traffic and dodgy road surfaces that seem to go hand-in-hand with the ‘burbs of most major cities. It’s a predictable formula though. We leave the glitz and hubbub of downtown. We pedal (quickly) through an industrial and slightly run-down area, and then all of a sudden we are in the posh area of town. In this case it was called Lakeshore Drive. It consisted of mega-million dollar house after mega-million dollar house, each in an individual style and inspired by a different period of history. It was an eclectic collection. Then all of a sudden we were on the “wrong-end of Lakeshore Drive” and it was back to McDonalds, Convenience Stores and pedalling quickly again.

You can also tell when you are moving from a challenged neighbourhood into a moneyed area by what you see on the ground. Moving into the new zone, all of a sudden you find a smooth, well-marked bike lane with the odd golf tee tossed nonchalantly towards the kerb, presumably out of the window of a soft-top sports car. Look behind you, and you will see a rough pothole ridden pavement, littered with broken bottles of beer that you have been dodging around just minutes earlier. Oh the joys of our trip!

Anyway… having battled against the headwind all day, dodging rainclouds for the most part, we were overjoyed to arrive at our B&B, The Eagle Cliff Inn, where Jerry was an absolute star, finding us a safe place for Trusty & Steed to rest for the night, and then upgrading us from the cute little room we had booked to a beautiful suite with a 4-poster King bed. Thanks Jerry (and his wife Lu, whom we haven’t met yet).

We weren’t so lucky with dinner. Finding restaurant after restaurant serving fried food, we found ourselves in a winery, which actually had quite decent wine, but a menu and seating configuration that was so confused that it really could have done with Gordon Ramsay to give it a huge kick up the backside.

Ordering burgers (the best of a bad bunch), and munching our way through the tortilla chips and dip that accompanied them (why?), we were alarmed to find that the live music seemed to have been switched with the Karaoke advertised on the billboard next door. At least it sounded like that anyway. But worse, just as Anthony was knuckle deep in a mess of ketchup and mustard, we heard it: dicka deedee dee dee dee dee dee, dicka deedee dee dee dee dee dee… the distant sound of duelling banjos. As a reflex action, Anthony kicked off his well-worn flip-flops and checked his escape route. But luckily it was all over quickly, and we were back to New York, New York and a substandard effort at Eric Clapton’s Layla, and then we managed to escape.

Walking back along the “strip” with Anthony trying to divert Kat’s attention from the amusement arcades, a role that Kat’s sister used to play on family holidays, we were relieved to be back in our haven of a B&B.

It’s bye bye Ohio tomorrow, and hello Pennsylvania, for the second time on our trip. We must be getting close to home!

Us x

Another relaxing day doing nothing

2010-08-22T20:06:00.001-07:00

Well its still raining! Not wanting to have a repeat of yesterday’s involuntary confinement, we took a walk around downtown Cleveland at the first opportunity when there was a break in the wet weather. We wandered around the Tower City Shopping Centre and took a few photos of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument. Fortunately the rain didn’t return and we had a pleasant day out. Briefly returning to our hotel room we planned our route into Bar Habor, Maine and are now really excited about visiting all the choice locations along the way …especially Toronto!

We had a wonderful Sunday supper tonight and are now looking forward to getting back on the bikes tomorrow and burning some calories.

Us x

Dull and Overcast in Cleveland

2010-08-21T20:05:00.000-07:00

Not that we're complaining but we spent the whole day indoors. The weather was pretty bad outside, the wind was blowing hard and the rain just kept falling. It was wet and miserable and we ventured outside just the once, to eat at a fabulous Vietnamese restaurant around the corner. Hopefully better weather tomorrow.

Us x

A Cavalier Approach

2010-08-20T21:04:00.000-07:00

Cleveland, Ohio. The second largest city in Ohio; home to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; previous home to LeBron James, prior to his outrageous decision to defect to Miami; and the location for two whole rest days for us. We are cock-a-hoop!

It was a hot day for cycling the 51 miles through a veritable urban jungle into Cleveland, OH. Being a touch dehydrated from our little drinking session last night with our friends in Huron, and knowing that we could have been out on the water in their boat, with the wind in our faces, probably didn’t help our mental or physical well-being. Still, it was a surprisingly pleasant ride at times, with some glimpses of Lake Erie along the way, and then a wonderful view of the Cleveland Skyline and its huge lakeshore beach as we neared the city. And, of course, we had the thought of unpacking our panniers at the other end to keep us motivated.

Arriving at our hotel and telling Steve behind the desk what we are doing, we found ourselves being upgraded to a Jacuzzi suite with a lovely polished wooden floor, a fantastic view across the city, and lots of room to spread out – thanks Steve.

Our Huron friends had also recommended a trip to Sushi Rock at some point in our stay. Rather than hang around, after a quick wash and brush up, we headed straight there and gorged ourselves on lots of delicious sushi, edamame and miso soup. Thanks for the tip, guys!

Rain forecast tomorrow, so we might be forced to have a lie in!

Us x

It’s a bit Erie around here

2010-08-19T19:54:00.000-07:00

It was a longish ride today from Bowling Green to the town of Huron located on the south shore of Lake Erie, but the wind was with us, making the 68-mile ride feel relatively comfortable and stress free.

The most memorable part of today was meeting Hayley, Steve, Dawn and Matt at the local hot-spot, I-5's. A Caribbean restaurant situated on the boardwalk in the corner of the Marina at the mouth of the Huron River and Lake Erie that played authentic country and western music all night long! As we sat outside with our new found friends sipping beer, wine and hard liquor, animatedly talking about all those subjects which are considered taboo or ‘un-PC’ in America …you know, politics, ethnicity, rubber, latex, marriage, media, religion, alcohol, parenting, education, studded dog collars, etcetera etcetera the night stealthily moved towards midnight. We sensibly realised it was time for bed and said our good nights, sorry that we wouldn’t be able to accept their kind offer to join them on their boat tomorrow morning for a relaxing day on the lake. Hayley, Steve, Dawn, Matt, it was great meeting you.

Us x

P.S. Sorry for not posting a Blog yesterday. Our hotel claimed to have free Internet access but it wasn’t working.

Bowling Green, Ohio

2010-08-18T19:06:00.000-07:00

If you thought the name of yesterday’s stopping point was cool, we think tonight’s is even better. It conjures up images of a perfectly smooth lush green square, and perhaps Sir Francis Drake strutting his stuff. We’re not really sure where the name came from, but Bowling Green itself is a hopping little town, with a huge student population and a really nice feel to it.

It was a good cycling day today for our 49-mile ride from Defiance, OH. A little cooler than the constant heat that we have been facing of late and, despite the threat of showers, the day just got better and better as it wore on. We set off fairly late after a yummy and hearty Hampton Inn breakfast, for which many thanks to Diane, who was on breakfast duty this morning. After pedalling back over the newly opened bridge (good job guys), we cycled many miles along the banks of the beautiful Maumee River through some more curiously named places including Independence, Napoleon and Grand Rapids. We’re not sure what it all means, but it keeps us chattering away for hours on our rides!

Talking of Grand Rapids, this is the 3^rd one we have encountered on the trip so far, after the ones in Minnesota and Michigan. Although apparently once this spot boasted fierce, turbulent waters rushing downstream, you’ll see from our photos today that things have changed a little: Petite Calms might be more appropriate. Though it’s still a stunning spot. So much so, we decided to take our lunch break here and get an ice cream from Rita’s Dairy Bar. The ice cream was pretty good, but we can’t say much about the welcome… There was a sign up telling cyclists not to lean their bikes against the building or indeed anywhere else where they might actually be able to stand upright, though we were welcome to “lie them down on the grass”…nice! You’d think that if you get enough cyclists through to cause you to put up a permanent notice, perhaps you might instead think of getting a bike rack and putting up a sign saying “Welcome cyclists: please use the bike rack”. Still, perhaps that’s just too much to ask for.

Anyway… all was redeemed when we went for dinner tonight in Chipotle, Bowling Green, where we were given a warm greeting, and some seriously tasty food. Chipotle is one of those “fast food” chains that really gets it right: ethically sourced ingredients; a small but well-chosen menu; good prices; swift and professional yet friendly and courteous service; and really fresh, flavoursome and satisfying Mexican style food. The folk there were so sweet to us, refusing to take any cash from us for our second round of tacos and chips – thanks, you guys!!

So, we’re now chilling out in our room, rubbing our tummies and watching a bit of TV. More riding tomorrow.

Us x

Defiance, Ohio

2010-08-17T19:50:00.000-07:00

Indiana didn’t last long, just over 100 miles actually! Were now in Ohio after following a really peaceful ride along deserted county roads and under blue skies with big white fluffy clouds.

Before enjoying today’s events, we started with a philosophical breakfast this morning. Sitting around the breakfast table of LaSalle B&B in Fort Wayne, IN with the owners Rosie-Aimee & Clark Butler and a fellow guest Lynda (an antiques dealer from N’awlins who frequents the ‘shires of England to buy her Victorian treasures), we were privy to the sage reflections of Clark who is and has been a Professor of Philosophy for over 40 years. Needless to say, we fixed the issues concerning American federate policies and European Confederacy, identified the problems and inevitable downfall of the human race based on the exponential growth of the desire for instant gratification, predicted Arsenal FC were going to win the Premiership this season and of course Lewis Hamilton will be crowned F1 World Champion 2010.

With the world put to rights and satisfied with our hearty breakfast, we set off around 10:30 this morning. Despite a few short sections of extremely busy highway, we cruised the 53 miles to Defiance, OH at an average speed of 13.2mph. We didn’t meet any cyclists on the road but we did get chatting to a local Pastor who gave us his blessing …thank you local Pastor.

At one point in the ride, we thought we had been dropped into a low budget 1980’s horror movie! On a tranquil stretch of highway sandwiched between thick forest and a field of corn the size of Long Island, we cycled head on into a very large and angry swarm of Bees. With Kat emitting high pitched squeals and Anthony uncontrollably shouting BEES! BEES! BEES! BEES! we accelerated from 14mph to 26.4 mph in 2 seconds, just managing to escape the Wrath of B’s.

1 mile from our hotel the road was closed due to a Bridge Opening ceremony (cutting of the ribbon). Fortunately, the City Mayor and other dignitaries planned on making the grand opening at 4pm, giving us 20 minutes to scarper across the closed bridge before the TV crew switched on their cameras and Security tightened their grip on proceedings.

We made it to the hotel nice and early and had dinner in Buffalo Wild Wings, which was surprisingly quite nice.

Us x

Can We Get A Witness?

2010-08-16T20:48:00.001-07:00

So that’s how they really do it… on our 68-mile ride from Shipshewana, IN to Fort Wayne, IN today, we rode away from the Amish town set up for the tourists, and witnessed some of the Amish in their day to day activities. It started when Kat asked an Amish guy at the gas station with a battery on the back powering his bike whether it charged up by dynamo as he pedalled along. He looked slightly bemused and then said quite plainly “No, I plug it into the mains at night”. And forget all that “pimp my carriage” stuff that we saw on Saturday with the tinted windows on the horse-drawn carriage. Today, we saw a couple of Amish guys in a Ford F-350, moving some farming equipment around! Still, we remain in favour of the whole thing. We had such a peaceful rest day, and everyone seemed so happy, it was pretty infectious.

It was a great day’s cycling through the farm roads and lanes of Indiana. The temperature was up there in the 80s but we were breathing a huge sigh of relief for the reduced humidity and the tail wind. Talking of which, as we rolled into the small town of Huntertown, we spotted Mike on the other side of the road, a lone tourist doing his own version of the Northern Tier from East to West … we haven’t seen many (if any) of those type around here… he must be getting a headwind every day, and we can’t even think about how he is going to feel about North Dakota. Reminds us a bit of ourselves on the Southern Tier!

Tonight we’re in one of Indiana’s big cities: Fort Wayne. It was pretty busy getting here in rush hour, and we’re hoping that our departure tomorrow morning will be a bit less frenetic. We had a good meal at a Ft Wayne institution tonight, Henry’s, just a few blocks from our B&B. Somehow our bodily cells, starved of alcohol for the last 2 days, found themselves soaking up the white wine like sponges, and before we knew it, we were 2 bottle of unoaked chardonnay down. Oops.

Oh well, we’ll be ready to face tomorrow’s ride into Ohio once we’ve had a hearty breakfast…

Us x

Peanut Butter & Jelly Pizza

2010-08-15T18:16:00.000-07:00

The problem with most non-cycling days is that they generally don’t provide enough material for an interesting blog! We like to have the odd uneventful day but realise it doesn’t make for a piece of literary genius. With that in mind, we are writing another short one.

Today we sent a few emails, planned our route into Buffalo, did some laundry and watched Tyler Perry movies on TV…very funny! Oh and one last thing! We had pizza for dinner and even sampled a Peanut Butter and Jelly Pizza …whose bright idea was that?

We’re setting off tomorrow morning for a longish ride into Fort Wayne, IN.

Still lovin’ y’all

Us x

Shipshewana-Shape & Amish Fashion

2010-08-14T20:12:00.000-07:00

We woke this morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed after the best night’s sleep in a long time. It must have been the huge and insanely comfortable bed in our B&B. Ambling downstairs, we were treated to a delicious breakfast prepared by Terry and, while we were eating it, enjoyed talking with Lance, who is originally from North London, but grew up in the US, and is now a high-flying doctor here. Before we left, we chatted again with the lovely owners, Laurel and Terry. They packed us off with chocolate chip cookies, lashings of ice-cold lemonade, and a wistful tear in our eyes: we were sorry that we had to leave. Kalamazoo, and especially Kalamazoo House B&B …we likey a lot!

After yesterday’s journey, which was more like an 8-hour session of Bikram Yoga than a cycle ride, we were secretly pleased to find that it was overcast today and, as a result, considerably cooler. Following a brilliant route out of town suggested by Laurel and Terry, we tripped along a number of quiet roads and bike paths, before rolling over the state border into Indiana.

There was no grand welcoming sign or indeed any sign at all that we had left Michigan, save for the change from a lovely smooth road surface to one swirled with what we affectionately call “tacky tar”, since our tyres stick in it on hot days. We also realised that we were nearing Amish country when we started to see their eco-friendly, but not very bike-friendly, vehicle emissions splatted on the road! And then we saw our first horse and cart. It was no ordinary pony and trap though. This one had an enclosed cab with windows of blacked-out glass (no joke) and an extremely sleek thoroughbred upfront. After we had exhausted as many jokes as we could think of about Amish hip hop stars, excessively tinted windows and being pulled over by a horse-drawn vehicle where the horse has a flashing blue light on top of its head, we found ourselves at the end of our 52-mile jaunt and at our destination for tonight: the small and touristy, but seriously Amish town of Shipshewana, IN.

There’s something incredibly peaceful about an Amish town. Don’t get us wrong; there are still a few cars on the road, but in general it’s a procession of well-turned out horses and carts clip clopping past, the occupants seemingly incredibly happy and friendly, as we exchanged a lot of waves and nods both on our way into town on the bikes, and also en route to and from dinner.

Dinner was an interesting affair. We ate traditional Amish style, including a sampler plate of succulent slow-roasted beef, squealingly scrumptious ham and the most delicious fried chicken we have tasted (sorry Louisiana), all washed down with… a glass of iced water. Yes, as we expected, the whole town is “dry”. Still, with memories of our behaviour in Escanaba fresh in our minds, we figure that we can happily live without the grape and the grain for a couple of days. A rest day here tomorrow before we head off towards Ohio.

Us x

Friday the 13th in Kalamazoo

2010-08-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

Not since 26 July have we left before 10am to begin a cycling adventure. Well today we had to get back to being early birds because on this day, Friday 13^th, we had over 80 miles to cover …and it was damn hot and insanely humid. So leaving our hotel at 09:54:58 we pointed our trusty steeds south and set off at a steady pace toward Kalamazoo (honestly, that’s not made up).

We passed through many quaint little villages along the way, no longer avoiding Chevy Trailblazers in fear of bumping into the resident serial killer, and just enjoying the people and places of Michigan. Being Friday the 13^th, today could have been another difficult day, but for those of you who like to hear good tidings, we were smiling all day and felt even better when we met a guy called Tim, who said, quote “…every day is a good day”. Tim’s positivity strangely stayed with us, as when we stopped for a second rest 30 miles later, the lady in the shop provided us with free towels to dowse in cold water and wipe our faces …she was obviously shocked to see us bright red/deep purple and sweating with the heat.

The final few miles into Kalamazoo were energy sapping, but we made it to our comfortable B&B and were greeted by the owners Laurel & Terry, their assistant, Kim, and a spread of cheese & wine…perfect.

We had an awesome meal tonight at Epic Bistro and are now ready for bed. It’s going to be a warm and sticky night tonight!

Exhausted Us x

A Blog for the Sake of a Blog

2010-08-12T17:59:00.000-07:00

It was a short 34-mile ride today from Howard City, MI to Bedling, MI, where we are staying at a golf resort (!), it being the only accommodation for miles close to our route. It would have been a great ride: sunshine, no rain, light wind, no mechanical failures, were it not for the fact that we spent the whole day arguing! Still, that is part of the trip. Spending 24/7 together is not always easy.

One good thing that happened today was that we met a lovely man called Jon who, with his wife Katie, are running an organic small-holding, where they are self-sustaining and also sell quite a bit of chemical free produce. We were inspired by our discussion with Jon and pleased to find that there are these good people in the world doing amazing things.

Anyway… tomorrow is another day, and we will try to start that in a more positive light that we finish today.

Us x

Another milestone reached, 11,000 miles!

2010-08-11T20:06:00.000-07:00

Yes that’s right folk’s we have passed the 11,000-mile mark, and it wasn’t all that bad really.

We left the Day Star Motel and our hosts Tony & Lisa Zoulek late this morning, 11:48 am to be precise. We’re not quite sure why we have been making our rides more difficult than they need to be, of late. Maybe we’re just getting fitter and completing a 64-mile ride in less than 5 hours is now de rigueur for cyclists of our experience …or maybe we like to sleep a lot and getting out of bed is becoming more and more difficult as we pile on the miles!

Anyway, we managed to get out of bed, eventually, then headed SE toward Howard City into a very strong headwind, rolling up and over the many hills of the Manistee National Forest. It was a lovely ride today. Despite the sun being out in full force, the tall forest trees and the vale of thunderclouds above kept us sheltered from its ‘death rays of heat’, and we managed to find some safe shelter (under a lone tall tree) when the thunderstorms and lightning struck!

We wish we had more exciting news to tell you, but the truth is our recent days have been pretty same old same old …you know …cycling hard, sweating much, having lunch in gas stations, peeing at the side of the road, dodging big trucks, getting caught in thunderstorms, being chased by dogs, … just a normal day in the office, sorry.

Before signing off …thanks to David & Ramona for their generous donation and thanks to Tony for the bottles of Hot Sauce!

Us x

Cry Wolf

2010-08-10T22:58:00.000-07:00

When we started this trip, we had expected that on occasion, one of us would be feeling ill, and we’d have to take a sick day or two out of our schedule. It’s true that we’ve had to do it a couple of times: Kat’s fall in Billings; hangover day in Escanaba (!), but generally, we’ve ridden through the sniffles and sore throats and come out the other side. We’re doing that again now, as we both have been suffering from some sort of summer cold, giving us headaches, blocked noses and the scratchiest throats you can imagine!

So, neither one of us was volunteering to get up when the alarm went off this morning, and got pushed back at least a couple of times. We decided that we needed the sleep however, and didn’t give ourselves too much stick when we eventually departed our hotel at 11am, stopping in town for breakfast and to do a few chores before eventually hitting the road around 12.30pm for our 64-mile ride into Wolf Lake, MI.

It was a hot hot day, but we kept ourselves well hydrated. We stopped for a short break around half way through the ride in a town called Mesick, thinking to ourselves that maybe we should just stay there, given that it was a place clearly showing empathy for our situation. But instead, we simply popped a couple of DayQuil down the hatch before pedalling off again.

We met a few interesting people today as well. During our stop in Mesick, we bumped into Dick and Arlete, who are cycling from Seattle to Maine, though taking a slightly different route to us. We also offered assistance to a couple of guys who found themselves with a flat tyre and a pump that did not fit their inner tubes! Luckily for them, our pump worked, and they’d also been rescued by a Good Samaritan called Jim, who agreed to drive them to a nearby bike shop to buy a new pump for their trip. They reminded us of ourselves on the first few week of our trip on the Atlantic Coast…

Rolling into Wolf Lake, we were pleased to check in to our comfortable motel, the Day Star Motel, where we cooked ourselves dinner in our kitchenette and had a lovely chat with the owner, Tony. A big thanks to Lisa and Tony for being such wonderful hosts, and especially for doing a load of laundry for us… you know the way to our hearts!

Us x

Relaxing in TC!

2010-08-09T21:16:00.000-07:00

Going to keep it brief for today. We’re here in Traverse City relaxing and soaking up the joys of this playground for the rich and famous. Similar to the Hamptons of Long Island, NY, Traverse City and the surrounding Grand Traverse Bay area is a place where the people of Detroit and other Michigan metropolitan cities come to unwind, relax and party …it’s safe to say, “we like Traverse City”.

Whilst performing a variety of chores, which surprisingly didn’t include doing laundry, we’ve met loads of very nice people today. First of all a big thanks to Jeff of the City Bike Shop owned by Steve & Julie Baesch, for giving Trusty and Steed a once over and getting them back to supreme working order. Secondly, whilst having dinner tonight at Amical, a lovely French restaurant on Front Street, we struck up a great relationship with Nate, one of the chefs and our waiter/server who we think was called Shane (sorry Shane if your name is something completely different). We also got chatting to Sue on the table next to ours, who upon hearing about Our Epic Journey donated to MS after hearing about our story …thanks Sue.

We’ve really enjoyed this rest day and are excited about getting back on the road tomorrow to experience more of these ‘little jewels’ dotted around the shores of Lake Michigan.

FYI - we have no Internet connection tomorrow.

Us x

Carrying a Torch

2010-08-08T23:20:00.000-07:00

We think we’ve found our perfect summer destination: Torch Lake, MI. 19 miles long, 2 miles wide, it’s beautifully clear and is the most stunning shade of turquoise. Apparently National Geographic have named it America’s most beautiful lake and, having Googled it on reaching our destination, we see that a few celebrities including Michael Moore and Eminem have houses there. So, maybe it’s not quite the secret find we thought we had discovered, and perhaps there are not going to be many cheap places on offer, but we are really smitten.

Waving a fond farewell to our lovely B&B this morning, full of a yummy breakfast and having had a great chat with the owners Philip and Marci, and the other guests, we found ourselves travelling the terrain of a receded glacier. Up and down, up and down, truly like a roller coaster, for miles and miles. The route eventually flattened out a bit when we reached Torch Lake, and we pedalled along with our heads permanently turned to the right trying to catch as many glimpses as we could of the gleaming turquoise water. Eventually finding a path to one of the few public access areas, we parked Trusty & Steed up and took off our socks and shoes. The water was surprisingly warm but still gloriously refreshing. We took a quick paddle, snapped some photos, and hung around in the water longer than necessary, not wanting to leave… ever. Oh well. We can dream.

It was a lovely but physically demanding 57 miles into Traverse City, MI, probably due to our being tired after 6 days of cycling on the trot, and the combination of the terrain and the head/side winds. We were glad to arrive at our hotel right in the middle of downtown, within walking distance of several restaurants and pretty close to the water’s edge (West Arm Grand Traverse Bay), especially as we have a rest day here tomorrow. Yay!

Us x

P.S. Special thanks to David & Ramona, guests at the B&B this morning who took some photos of us all and emailed them to us.

All go, no quit, no boundaries

2010-08-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

Depending on your natural tendency toward life, optimism and karma, we either had a very late start this morning or an extremely early start this afternoon! Last night we went to bed comforted in the knowledge that we only had to cycle 34 miles into Ellsworth today. A consequence of which being that getting out of bed this morning was not a hurried affair.

Eventually mounting Trusty & Steed (without having breakfast, we add) and completing our first 2 miles along the cycle path at the edge of Little Traverse Bay, we checked the time and realised it was already past lunchtime! Fortunately we were still in downtown Petoskey where the famed eatery, Roast & Toast served simple but sublime creations for many a hungry cyclist and the uber-rich clientele. Propping up our bikes against the outside of the building, we wandered in to see what treasures we could consume. We weren’t disappointed! An Avocado BLT sandwich, two chocolate cookies, a very nice Latte and a bottle of apple juice later we had found that 60 minutes had passed by without much complaint and we were now sitting outside soaking up the sunshine chatting with a great couple Pete & Chris about our adventures around America. Chris then produced her iPhone to show us a picture of her, Pete and none other than Lance Armstrong. Pete then explained how he had once ridden with the “God of Cadence” for 28 miles, which was a humbling experience…very cool.

Time was now pressing on and we knew we had to get on the road if we wanted to arrive in Ellsworth before dark. Saying bye bye to downtown Petoskey we pushed off into the head wind and some very steep hill climbs, which was pretty much how the rest of the ride panned out. Yeah, of course the weather and temperature were perfect for cycling, the wooded and lakeside scenery was calm and peaceful, and the roads where smooth and not very busy; but the hills just kept rolling and the head wind just kept blowing. But it was only for 34 miles and we did plummet down a very steep hill at one point hitting over 44mph (into a headwind)…awesome.

Halfway through the ride, we stopped at a bike/outdoor adventure shop in Boyne City, NO BOUNDARIES to buy some Chamois Cream aka Butt Butter and energy bars. It’s a great little shop with a good selection of quality items, which was opened by Bob (the owner) and Ben (the manager) in April this year. They certainly seem to share our philosophy of life (credit to Bob and Ben for the title of the blog today), and we wish them well in their venture, which we are sure will be a success. Describing our epic journey to Ben, Bob and Meryl (their trusty assistant), Bob kindly gave us some free t-shirts and advice for our trip…Thanks again Bob, Ben and Meryl.

Arriving in Ellsworth, we cycled past a nice-looking restaurant in the village, where we planned on eating tonight (good job Kat for making the reservation last week) and just 0.3 miles further we pulled into our B&B, “The House on the Hill”. That’s not “Amityville”, the House on the hill sang by Lovebug Starski on “Now That's What I Call Music! 7 (disc 2)”…a classic eighties hit! But the picture perfect one run by Marci and Philip perched atop a hill over looking Lake Saint Clair Lake. Marci and Philip showed us around their estate (trust us, it’s an “estate” complete with acres of woodland, gardens, sun porch and kayaks for messing about on the water) and then to our lovely room with a view. It’s a shame we’re not staying here an extra day, because there’s loads of relaxing things to do.

After freshening up, we took a leisurely walk to the restaurant, had a great meal and then strolled back to the B&B to retire.

More cycling tomorrow, and then a well-needed rest day! Talking of tomorrow, many happy returns to Kat’s super-cute nephew, Leo, who is celebrating his first birthday!

Us x

Lake Mich-again

2010-08-06T22:51:00.000-07:00

What a day! We jam-packed so many things into yesterday that we were too tired to write the blog by the time we got in, and we forgot to charge the Gamines! Unheard of…

We set off pretty early from our super comfortable motel in St Ignace, MI (we wrote earlier this week about our accommodation criteria and the Moran Bay Motel ticked all the boxes, as well as being fantastic value for money – we can’t rave enough). After stopping at a nearby restaurant to grab a couple of breakfast sandwiches, we hopped aboard the ferry to Mackinac Island.

Mackinac island is a place where the bike is truly King. No cars or other motorised vehikkles are allowed: only horses and bikes. We rode the 8-mile loop around the island, which was stunningly beautiful and surprisingly unspoiled, given that the island was teeming with tourists. It was definitely necessary to keep your wits about you to avoid the “steaming road debris” (gotta love those horses) as well as the people who were on bikes but didn’t seem to have ever learned how to ride one…

By around lunchtime, we were ready to depart and caught another ferry to Mackinaw City, putting us back on the mainland and across the other side of the Mackinaw Straits that join Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. And then our brief but enjoyable flirtation with Lake Huron was over, as we will now be skirting down the East side of Lake Michigan for the next few days heading south to Indiana.

We’ve discovered that this part of Lake Michigan is a bit of a playground for the rich and famous. We cycled through a couple of really chi-chi little towns, where the houses were big, the views amazing and the cappuccinos plentiful. We took full advantage of this, stopping at a little café in Harbor Springs to sip a couple of lattes with another cyclist called Scott, who we’d met earlier in the day at a gas station. Arriving along a bike path into Petoskey, MI, our destination for the night, we overshot our motel by quite some distance, ending up in downtown and having to double back. Not the Gamines fault this time, but Google, who had put the hotel in the wrong place on the map!

This also contributed to us having a rather long walk into downtown for dinner, which we ate (late) at the City Park Grill. We had a ball talking to our waitress, Catherine Stakoe, who is having a great summer cavorting with said “rich and famous” in the area (her words!!) At the end of the night, Catherine offered us a lift back to our hotel to save us the 2 mile walk, which we gratefully accepted – thanks Catherine!

Us x

Lake Huron

2010-08-05T21:08:00.000-07:00

It was only 45 miles from Naubinway to St Ignace, but it was a weather extravaganza of a ride! We left at a reasonable time this morning with the sun high in the sky and a cool breeze blowing in from the west. We were travelling east, so everything was good. Good that is, until we hit Moran Township, a place just 15 miles outside of St Ignace. It was truly weird! One second the wind was blowing from the north west then the next second as we had an unobstructed exposure to Lake Michigan’s vastness, the wind suddenly switched, blowing hard from the south east. To make matters worse, looking high over our right shoulders we saw what could only be described as a big black sheet the size of Wales hanging from the sky. With blue cloudless skies ahead of us and the fast approaching vale darkness to the right and above us, we upped our speed to try and out pace the wind, blowing in this massive thunder cloud …we lost, and 10 seconds later we were soaked and cycling in rain drops the size of golf balls.

Our fully dressed Power Shower lasted a short, but very long! 30 minutes. Abruptly stopping to allow the clouds to peel back and reveal blue skies, sunshine and rainbows. Unfortunately, we weren’t out of the woods just yet. Replacing the torrential rains were orchestral claps of thunder and blinding lightning that crackled ferociously as it zapped the ground beneath. We were scared riding upon our trusty Lightning Conductors, but risked the last 5 minutes cycling out in the open, knowing that we had only 1 mile to go before reaching our destination.

Safe to say we’re now in St Ignace, which is just around the corner from the Mackinac Bridge that spans the straights where Lake Michigan meets Lake Huron. It’s beautiful around here! Words don’t quite describe the atmosphere and ambience of this place. We can’t explain it but it’s magical to witness these two huge bodies of water meeting underneath a bridge whose span is wider than that of the Golden Gate Bridge. Fortunately, we arrived at our Motel early in the day and managed to clean the bikes, do the laundry, paddle in Lake Huron, take a few photos and eat dinner all before 9pm.

We’re back on the Ferries tomorrow to witness the Famous Mackinac Island

Us x

Blazing Saddles

2010-08-04T15:45:00.000-07:00

Last night was what you might call an experience. The sort that people would probably refer to as “character building”. Having met the owner of the hotel at 4.30pm to get into our room, we were not best impressed with the state of it. Still, at least the owner had shown us his loaded gun while we were checking in to reassure us that we, and the bikes, would be safe in his establishment…at which point Anthony switched his muscle reflex mode onto “ultra fast-twitch”!

It was one of those places where the more you looked, touched and experienced, the more uncomfortable you started to feel. We won’t go into details, save to confirm that the silk sleeping sock made another appearance and that we woke this morning to find a spider on the ceiling near the bathroom (we weren’t really surprised since there was a whole family of them just outside the door to our room). It was lowering itself down, Little Miss Muffet style, and then shooting back up again with alarming speed. Kat kept her beady little eye on it throughout observing the age-old cyclists’ proverb: “a watched spider never crawls into your pannier”. Oh, and it would be remiss of us not to mention that we were woken up at 7am this morning with the not so gentle sound of a tarmac machine right outside our window, mending cracks in the car park… like that was the most urgent thing that needed fixing in the whole place?

Anyway, the whole experience had us pondering over breakfast about the complexities of finding suitable accommodation on this trip. When it’s raining outside, or it’s a ridiculously hot, humid and mosquito-ridden evening, we count our blessings for whatever roof we have over our heads, nodding at each other and saying “better than a tent”. But the truth is that we take quite a lot for granted, and get all squirmy when even the basics are not present.

As cyclists, our needs are a little different to your average tourist. At times, we have taken the estate agent’s view that the three key factors are location, location and location, but that’s not really the whole story. For us, an ideal location means: being within walking distance of a restaurant which cooks hot food from scratch using fresh ingredients; a gas station or grocery store to buy the gallon of water we consume every day; and of course somewhere not too far off the cycling route. On rest days, we need a Laundromat (always), a bike shop (often) and a post office (sometimes). But on top of that, it’s essential for us to know that we can either take our bikes into our room or keep them secure somewhere else on the property; and also that we can get a decent WiFi signal or other internet connection in our room for blog-posting and the myriad of other things for which we rely on the lap top. And of course, we’re on a budget, so we need to get all of the above for a bargain price!

We’ve been pretty lucky so far, and we identified a number of places on the trip that would definitely go in our Top 10. Last night we’ll definitely place in the Top 2 Worst Places, but you can’t win them all.

On the positive side, we had a fabulous, hearty breakfast this morning at the Cedar Street Café and Coffee House, an absolute gem of place. We had lovely chats with a couple from Pennsylvania as we let our eggs and bacon settle, and also with Scott and Pacific who were on vacation in the area. And, as we were putting our helmets and gloves on outside, we were caught by Sheryl, a Manistique local, who was interested in our trip and told us a bit more about the town. Hi to all of you guys!

With full tummies and our spirits lifted, we rocketed the 45 miles from Manistique, MI to Naubinway, MI in a little over 3 hours. We’re now in a café just round the corner from our motel in order to get WiFi access to post our blogs. We’ve managed to pack away a bowl of meatball soup and an extra large salad in the process…yum. Hurrah for the Michigan Cafes!!

Us x

Hot & Humid

2010-08-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

Well! Umm…umm. Nothing much happened today. We got up, ate granola and fruit in our room for breakfast and began cycling in 85°C heat and ‘sauna like’ humidity. Our first 10 miles were along a busy highway with a very narrow hard shoulder and a population of drivers who seemed to be unable courteously to give us a wide berth when speeding by.

The journey back down to the northern coast of Lake Michigan was only 45 miles, dropping to approximately 580ft above sea level. It’s crazy to think that we were once in New Mexico writing Blogs explaining how we were elevating to dizzy heights in excess of 8,000ft or completing 3000ft climbs in one day, and now we’re impressed with a being 580ft above sea level …we guess we’re coming home!

Feeling hot but not tired, we arrived at our motel at 3:20pm to find the owner was not in. He left a note saying he’d be back at 4:30pm, so we took the opportunity to wander up Main Street to find somewhere to eat, which we did, and you guessed right …chips, crisps, burgers and BLT’s.

Thought for the Day: “It’s strange how one can eat fresh grilled fish with salad and baked potatoes as we did last night, and then the next day just 45 miles away on a different body of water, the only choices for food are fried food and sandwiches”.

Us x

Truer, Madder, Deeper…

2010-08-02T19:34:00.000-07:00

We’re pretty impressed with Lake Superior, especially now that we’ve seen it up close and personal. Today we took a boat trip along the shore to see the Pictured Rocks, an area where the bluff along the lakeshore has become patterned with the vibrant colours of many different materials bedding down over millions of years: beautiful. Check out the photos.

It also brought home to us how enormous this lake really is. Our trip was a mere 37 miles… a teeny tiny little corner of the lake. Lake Superior is over 30,000 square miles in area, the same size as the whole of Scotland. It is the largest body of fresh water in the World: the widest, cleanest, deepest of all lakes... at least according to the Captain. Before wandering back to our motel, we took a quick paddle in the lake. It would have been rude not to. It was much warmer than we expected, given that its surface is 600ft above sea level and its deepest point (just 40 miles from Munising) is 700ft below sea level. Incredible! It was also crystal clear, partly because only 2 million people live around its 2,727 miles of shoreline… about the same population as Greater Manchester. Fortunately for Lake Superior, Yoopers live on its shores and not Mancunians; because if they did, we’re sure one would see all sorts of kebabs and chips floating on its surface!

After some fresh fish for dinner, we’re back in the room contemplating our next 6 days of cycling… yes, 6 days until another rest day this time. Bring it on…

Us x

Lake Superior

2010-08-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

Now that we’re in Great Lake territory, it only makes sense for us to try and dip our toes in all 5 of the lakes. We’ve already swum in the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific so why not try to complete the “large body of water, I’ve been there” experience. So thanks to Bob and Kris’ recommendation we left Escanaba on the shores of Lake Michigan and headed north this morning toward Munising, MI, on the south shores of Lake Superior. Needless to say, we felt very delicate this morning (thanks again Mat & Heather and thanks for the donation) but having another rest day was not an option. Therefore we packed up, drank loads of fluid and set off in the glorious sunshine on our 68-mile uphill ride through the picturesque Hiawatha National Forest.

The ride through the Forest was tough at times but great fun. It was very peaceful and full of surprises. We cycled for some 54 miles before taking our second stop at a General Store 14 miles south of Munising, where we met a couple groups of very interesting people. The first group were sitting outside on the porch of the General Store, having just finished running a marathon, then swimming across a nearby lake (we think it was Town Lake) to eat ice creams. The ice creams looked very yummy, so instead of embarking upon our usual consumption of energy bars, we too tucked into a couple of very scrumdiddlyumptious ice creams. Whilst tucking into our frozen treats, a group of Parish Bikers thundered into the car park with one thing on their minds…eat ice cream. We all sat and chatted over ice cream and before leaving they kindly offered to bless our bikes.

Refreshed and still wanting more, we reluctantly tore ourselves away from the store and completed the remaining 14 miles with a lovely downhill finish to the front door of our motel, where we met Alain, another Epic Adventurer from Québec. His English was of course far better than our French but our French is atrocious (where’s MG when you need her) so communicating was a bit difficult. We did manage to get his blog address [www.routard-en-velo.blogspot.com] and he kindly donated to the cause.

We’re having a non-cycling day tomorrow to see the sights of Lake Superior.

Us x

Couldn’t hold our Liquor

2010-07-31T14:41:00.000-07:00

We had to have another rest day today. Following last nights partying with Heather and Mat we felt as rough as Badger’s arses. (Anthony was slightly worse for wear than Kat)

Us x

Who Ate all the Pasties?

2010-07-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

A good rest day. And an even better evening, if we didn’t have to get up tomorrow. It’s now 3am, and we’re drunk, and we have to get up tomorrow and cycle…hmm.

Chores done, we ate a pasty at the local pasty shop (yum) and cycled down to the shore of Lake Michigan (stunning). A quick stop at the local bike shop and some sage route advice later from Dusty, and we were one our way back. At dinner, we met a great family originally from Coventry, UK, but now from here. Mat and Heather were such fabulous company, they kept us up until now…oops.

Us x

The Great Lakes

2010-07-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

The American Heartlands are spectacular in how they defy all one’s preconceived ideas about how Americans live their lives. We’ve written before about how amazing it is for us to witness people confidently leaving their trucks unlocked, keys in the ignition, engines running and with 1000’s of dollars worth of equipment piled high in the back for all to see, without a single worry or concern of theft. So imagine our surprise when we woke this morning to find Bob and Kris left for work with their hotel open for “self-service”. No joke! They’re so trusting of their guests, they leave the place unlocked for clients to arrive, walk in, sleep, wake up the next morning and place a payment (in a secret location) before leaving …no wonder Bob and Kris are so gracious and happy, they’re full of positive karma!

We left at 11:00am this morning, and made our way east on Highway 69 toward Escanaba. For the first time on this trip, it was rolling downhill all the way, with a nearly perfect tailwind and a silky smooth road surface with wide shoulders. We only stopped once on the ride for a quick break, to eat a packet of crisps and down some Powerade, subsequently completing our 61-mile trip in less than 4 hours of cycling.

So we’re back on Eastern Time …crazy but true. Escanaba is slap-bang on the western shore of Lake Michigan, just 150 miles away from where the ‘Great Three’ (Superior, Michigan, Huron) meet. We hope to take a short visit down to the lake tomorrow (it’s a rest day) and take some photos.

We can’t believe we’re only 1,300 miles from NYC, but still have over 3,000 miles to go.

Us x

We Like Trucking and We Like to Truck

2010-07-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest things about this trip is how a day can end in a totally different way to how it began; and a morning can be poles apart from the night before.

As we climbed into our bed last night, we could still see lightning flashing through the curtains of our hotel room, thunder was growling and then cracking in the distance, and we could hear the rain drumming down on the tarmac outside. When we woke this morning, the sun was pouring through the crack in the curtains and it was beautiful blue sky outside. Even better, the storm had freshened the atmosphere and it was a perfect cycling day, with a tail wind to boot!

It was a short 35-mile hop from Iron River, MI to the small township of Sagola, MI. We got up late, had a hearty breakfast, and then rolled out of Iron River shortly before noon. It was a relaxed ride mainly on rolling county roads next to woods and wildflowers that reminded us of our childhood. Nothing spectacular to make us stop and pull out the camera, but green and pleasant, and a joy to ride through.

Pulling up to our motel, Anthony’s head was turned by the large truck parked outside. And when we say large, we mean LARGE. Regular followers of this blog will know that the trucks, tractors, cotton-pickers and other industrial-style “vehikkles” of the US are somewhat of a fascination for Anthony. Well, he is a boy after all. Kat feels the same way about shoes. So, imagine his joy when we met Kris and Bob, the owners of the motel, and found that the truck belongs to Bob. And even better, after dinner at the local bar (Thanks to Dan and Marilyn, and Hi to Joe and Jeff), Bob took us for a ride down the road in the truck (!) and to one of the logging plant where he delivers. Now for the “science bit”…

This baby is a 42-wheeler (yes, really… 42 wheels). When fully loaded, it weighs 160,000 lbs (that’s double the weight of the next largest trucks). It has almost 600hp, 6 cylinders and a crane arm big enough to lift up a house …talk about optional extras… leather seats, a/c, 26inch wheels and a massive crane! Anyway, riding high in the cabin of this herculean workhorse with Kat beaming like an excited schoolgirl, we finally got a true perspective of how tiny we must look when cycling on the seemingly ‘very small’ hard shoulder at the edge of the road. We have a new-found respect for the professionalism of Truck drivers…thanks Bob. It was a truly amazing experience and one we couldn’t even have dreamed of as we set off this morning. It’s strange the things that make us tick but it was so much fun! And we won’t even get started on all the logging equipment that Bob showed us… but we do wonder whether you can get them in “Tonka” size?

We spent the rest of the evening eating Kris’s delicious Raspberry Shortcake & Cream and chatting away with Bob and Kris, putting the world to rights. They’ve also given us some great ideas about our route over the next few days. Escanaba, MI tomorrow, and after that, watch this space…

And finally… Happy Birthday to Susie (SB), Kat’s sister.

Us x

P.S. We’ll be back onto Eastern time tomorrow, 5 hours behind the UK.

Pure Michigan

2010-07-27T21:15:00.000-07:00

We seem to be stuck in the middle of another very severe weather system. Staying dry or getting very wet is decided with the flip of a coin; we just don’t know which way mother nature is going to go anymore. Setting off this morning was again very hot and humid. The sky was beset with menacing thunderclouds that at any moment could turn a dry road into a flooded fast flowing river in seconds. Fortunately for us, the 62-mile ride into Iron River, Michigan remained, for the most part, dry. Only a few light sprinkles of refreshing rain moistened us just enough to keep our bodies cool…very nice!

Most of today’s ride was along a deserted road through the Northern Highland State Forest. Travelling East through the dense wood kept us sheltered from the very strong winds coming out from the South. It also kept us guessing about what could be hiding in the dark cover of trees. We are in Bear country after all! ...Then, just when we thought it was safe to go back into the woods for a comfort break, a solitary figure strolled powerfully across the road less than 100 meters ahead of us. “BEAR!” shouted Kat, “Holy Shit”, replied Anthony as he upped his pace with a burst of speed that would have put Mark Cavendish to shame, trying to catch the 400lbs-killing machine before it disappeared back under the cover of trees. Fortunately, as Anthony closed in on the target, whilst simultaneously trying to pry the camera out of his handle bar bag, Mr Black Bear casually took two strides off the road and into the wood, and was gone. Kat caught up and could hear a melancholy Anthony mutter, “How do they do that?” “Never mind, at least you still have your arms and legs attached to your body”, Kat said in sarcastic retort.

Like we said, the road was deserted, which meant we had to cycle for over 50 miles before having a rest stop. So when we did eventually find a place to stop, pee, eat and drink, we decided to go the whole hog and order big style. A griddled chicken sandwich & chips with 2 pints of beer for Ant and a Ham ‘n’ Cheese melt on Rye & chips with 2 pints of shandy for Kat, all inhaled in 5 minutes flat. With a very nice but undigested lump of too many chips in our bellies, we covered the last 11 miles at a slow and cautious pace. And as luck would have it, we arrived at our hotel with 33 minutes to spare before the mother of all storms hit the region. Straight up guys, this dangerous storm entertained us with massive lightning bolts lasting 2 seconds, which on occasion would wipe out all electrical equipment in a 1-mile radius. And the rain was straight out of a disaster movie, flooding the car park at the front of the hotel in less than 10 seconds. Not forgetting the thunder ...very loud and scary. We didn’t have dinner tonight, as we’re still stuffed from too many chips…and it’s too scary to go outside.

We may not have internet access tomorrow …so no need to worry, unless Anthony decides to chase Bears whilst wearing a metal spike on the top of his helmet in the middle of a thunderstorm.

Us x

The Best Blog in the World

2010-07-26T22:44:00.000-07:00

We’ve noticed something about this area of Wisconsin. Everything has a claim to fame… apparently. We departed this morning from the Black Bear Capital of the World (Glidden), cycled through the Loon Capital (Mercer) and arrived 65 miles later in the Marly Capital of the World (Boulder Junction). What on earth next?

When Anthony started to limber up with some neck exercises about 20 miles into the ride, head to the left, head to the right…up, down, back, front, Kat wondered what he was up to. Then, as his line of vision switched from the left, to the right, to the left, to the right, rather like watching a game of tennis at Wimbledon, Kat realised he was scouting around for the black bears. We didn’t see any. Although, as Kat watched Anthony in his “Wesside” bandana, with matching vest top and super-stylish shades, and not an anorak or open-toe sandal in sight, she decided to declare Anthony “The Coolest Spotter in the World”. When in Rome ‘n all that.

So, tonight is our last night in Wisconsin, and we can’t quite believe it. We certainly haven’t eaten enough cheese. Michigan tomorrow.

Us x

Stage 181 – A sprinters stage

2010-07-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

Waking up this morning after another great nights sleep at Matt & Holly’s, we were presented with a fabulous caramelised! breakfast and ‘The best gift ever’. Holly agreed to let us check out later than usual so that Anthony could watch the German Grand Prix on TV. So in between packing our panniers, stretching muscles, brushing our teeth and applying sun cream, we watched the Ferrari’s sprint away from the field and Lewis Hamilton put in a respectable 4^thplace …thanks Holly, you made Anthony’s day.

Much like the F1 Ferraris in Hockenhiem, we had to execute a well-planned strategy in order to reach our finish line before the fuel ran out. It was 1:15pm when the red lights went out and we span our wheels away from Holly Berry, waving farewell in our rear view mirrors. It was scorching hot this afternoon and we had to cover the 52 miles to Glidden, WI before the only restaurant in the village closed its doors to service at 7pm. This meant today’s strategy was to cycle as fast as we could without overheating. Fortunately for us, the track surface was perfect, we had minimal traffic to negotiate and a very mild tailwind to push us along those long 10-mile straights. Up against the clock all day and thinking about the prospect of dealing with an ‘Angry Kat’ if we missed the final sitting in the restaurant, we set a hurried pace all the way into Glidden, stopping only twice for a 10 minute piss-stop. Miraculously, we made it to our hotel in under 4 hours of cycling/racing and had a great healthy dinner …just avoided a major katastrophe!

Missing yooooo all (said in an Upper Peninsular (“UP”) accent).

Us x

Relaxing with Holly & Matt

2010-07-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

We had a great non-cycling day today here in Hayward, WI. After a long and entertaining chat over a yummy breakfast with Holly and Matt, and the other guests at Holly Berry Inn, we turned over the day to the usual activities… route planning, accommodation booking, laundry (thanks Holly) and a trip to Walgreens. As we were about to leave Walgreens, having spent a “Hi-Score” number of dollars on…well, we’re not quite sure what on, but we definitely needed each and every thing… we suddenly noticed that it was seriously tipping it down outside.

These Walgreens folk are clever. They put the umbrellas etc in the lobby where you are waiting by the door for the rain to stop. We did sit it out for a while but eventually we relented. Not wanting to splurge on an umbrella, we bought a $1 rain cover each. Similar to a bin bag but with elasticated arms and ties for the hood… in blue for Anthony, yellow for Kat. Very stylish. Well, at least we gave everyone in the coffee shop a laugh as we stopped in on the way past to grab a well-needed latte.

We have to admit that we gave the main event in town a miss: the Hayward World Lumberjack Championships. Although we will no doubt be glued to ESPN when they screen them on TV. There’s something quite entertaining about a bunch of guys shinning their way up a tree trunk and chopping bits out with an axe… oh, and then chopping off the top of the tree, while hanging off it and balancing themselves on a wedge that they stuck in the tree. You really have to see it to believe it.

Holly and Matt invited us to dinner in a nearby brew-pub, the Angry Minnow, and we had a wonderful evening – thanks guys, we loved it!!

Us x

Another great day in the office!

2010-07-23T21:55:00.000-07:00

We covered 60 miles today, cycling from Cumberland into Hayward, and it was great. The deserted county highways that cut a path through the greenest of woods and around many deep blue lakes were great. We met a couple of fellow Tourers, Joe & Delores who were part of a bigger group cycling the ACA Northern Tier; and were great. The weather was great, the roads were great, the winds were great (excuse me) and when we arrived at our B&B (The Holly Berry) both Matt and Holly (the owners) and all the guests were great.

Us x

Cheese, Gromit?

2010-07-22T21:20:00.000-07:00

After a very comfortable stay at the Ann Bean Mansion in Stillwater, MN, we found it difficult to get up and moving this morning. To add to our lethargic mood, it was raining quite hard when we finished breakfast, giving us an excuse to stay a little longer and “sit it out”, so it was after 11am by the time we had wheels rolling today.

It was overcast and windy pretty much all day for our 66-mile ride into Cumberland, WI. Although the forecast had said that the wind would be behind us, of course, it was actually a headwind/sidewind. Add to that the rolling terrain, and it shaped up to be quite a tough cycling day. But most of all, it was our mental attitude that tired us out today. Although it’s happened to us only very rarely on this trip, there are some days when you really just can’t be bothered to ride, and all you want to do is get to the next destination and hope that you feel better tomorrow. Today was a bit like that.

We did, however, cross into a new state… Wisconsin. Neither of us know much about this place other than that they make a lot of cheese and have a pretty decent NFL team in Green Bay, so it’ll be good to learn more about it as we pedal through its roads and byways. Oh, and we might try a bit of cheese from time to time as well. It’d be rude not to.

Us x

Minnesota Nice

2010-07-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

Intense humidity was on the menu for today. After idling through a very hearty breakfast this morning, we didn’t get our wheels rolling until 12:00pm! Which wasn’t anything to panic about, as we only had to negotiate a 30-mile ride into Stillwater, MN. The planned route was 95% dedicated cycle path: ‘University of Minnesota Bicycle Transit Trail’ followed by the ‘Gateway Trail’. And these weren’t your average bike paths …oh no! These trails were the size of your standard County Highway. It took a while to getting used to cycling in the middle of what felt like a major road without fear of being mown down by fast approaching traffic, but we soon became accustomed to it...

2 miles in and everything was looking and feeling nice, apart from the humidity, which was causing Anthony to sweat from his eyeballs. Fortunately, we found FREEWHEEL BIKE, a bike shop that had all the items in stock for which we had been searching for the past 3 months. Anthony finally got a new rain stopper jacket to replace his old one that was as watertight as a colander and a new cycling vest to cope better with this crazy hot weather. Kat got her wheels, brakes, rims and gears serviced by Graham aka ‘Cracker’ and, with help from Jason, managed to buy some new shoes. She was a little disappointed that the designer was Sidi and not Ferragamo, but she’s pleased to finally say goodbye to Foxy Feet. We must have spent close to 2 hours in the shop having a great time chatting with Jason, Graham and the rest of the staff; and customers, Dr Reza and Tonya (see photos) who were all just great ‘nice’ people, who made us feel very special …Thanks guys.

Saying farewell to everyone and with Kat sporting her new fancy shoes, we had a very nice cycle all the way into Stillwater. Following a quick diversion into St Paul to take photos of the Cathedral and the Capitol Building, we arrived at Ann Bean Mansion and were greeted by the exceptionally nice owner Jeremy (and two glasses of Pinot Grigio) who showed us to our unbelievably nice room.

We bet you’re now thinking, “things cannot possibly get any nicer”. Well you’d be wrong. Because as we walked down the very steep steps hewn into the side of the very steep bluff that overlooked St Croix National Scenic River and ended up at the bottom on the main street of the very chic downtown Stillwater, lined with great bars, restaurants, architectural shops and lots of pretty things. We chose to eat in Marx, a fantastically nice restaurant. Amy our waitress was gorgeously nice and looked after us all night. It was Amy who coined the phrase ‘Minnesota Nice’ and how very right she is. She even sent us off with a complimentary slice of Banana & Blueberry cheesecake …thanks Amy.

We’ve experienced nothing but niceness whilst we’ve been in the state of Minnesota and we’re sad to be leaving it tomorrow.

Wisconsin here we come!

Us x

Girls & Boys

2010-07-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

Today was an “active” day of “rest”. Girl things: Kat spent the morning getting a haircut and various eyebrow and eyelash things done (thanks Dominique and Lisa), browsing around Nieman Marcus and getting herself a Caribou Coffee on her way back to the hotel. Boy things: Anthony did the laundry, went to the post office, and sat glued to the Speed channel (always available when the F1 is not on, but never, never available when it is). We then had a productive time dealing with various admin things on the computer and catching up with a few folks.

This evening, we couldn’t help ourselves. We had to go back to Grand Café where we ate on Sunday night. If it’s possible, the food tonight may have been even better then Sunday, but its close call. Our server tonight, Krista, was such a star and made us feel very welcome, pouring us a sneaky extra glass of wine, and sending us off with a couple of Limonatas for our journey back to the hotel.

Back on the road tomorrow, we have planned our route so that we can hopefully see a few of the sights in St Paul on our way through to Stillwater, MN, just yards away from the Wisconsin state line. So close to another State already? We can’t quite believe it either.

Us x

Chicken Tikkapolis

2010-07-19T22:29:00.000-07:00

We had good intentions today; you know …laundry, taking Trusty & Steed for an overdue MOT, completing paperwork etcetera etcetera! But after sleeping in until 10:30 this morning we felt a little lethargic. Not that we feel guilty you understand. We’re 5/7^th of the way through completing a trip that would place us at number three of the all time USA Perimeter Cycling world records, so its fair to say that we deserve every second of doing nothing right now. In two days time we’ll be back on the road again.

Dragging ourselves out of bed and eventually getting to a point where we could operate without yawning, we skipped breakfast, did a little admin and then made our way out to lunch, which was great! The rest of the day was pretty uneventful (apart from having a nice chat with Kat’s parents), but we did manage to go out this evening and visit the local contemporary Indian Restaurant for another lovely dinner, made even better by our kind waiter, Paul. We have another non-cycling day tomorrow, which will be filled with the normal chores.

Before we say goodnight, we’d like to say thanks to Sue Page for her generous donation to MS.

Us x

A City fit for (a) Prince

2010-07-18T22:22:00.000-07:00

As well as being the home town of the greatest musician in the world, Prince, we can see why Minneapolis was apparently rated by one of the bike magazines as the most bike-friendly city in the USA. We’re not sure whether it really does rate higher than Portland, but we can say for sure that our 69-mile ride from Milaca into downtown Minneapolis was one of the best rides that we have experienced, especially going into a major city.

After a few unavoidable miles at the start of the day on a federal highway, we were soon onto the county roads, which were perfectly smooth (Grand Cru Classe road surface), with very little traffic. And from the moment that we turned off the highway, and for the whole of the rest of the day, the ride had a really lovely feel to it. It’s difficult to describe because the scenery was not really spectacular, but it was all very green, pleasant and relaxing, and we had fun ogling at some of the large, stylish and expensive-looking properties that we pedalled past along the edge of the lakes, and the Mississippi River. And when it comes to the river, we were in for a real treat. We had many miles of unadulterated bike path along the edges of the Mississippi coming into the Twin Cities, even spotting a heron’s nest as we cycled along (see photos).

It was cycling along the riverside path that we also really noticed how much of an impact yesterday’s tornado had taken. We had been dealing with twigs and other tree debris along the roads and paths throughout the day (not that it really hampered us unduly), and we had spotted several casualties among the arboreal world. But as we were making our way along the river bank, we suddenly came across a huge tree had been ripped down, falling right across one of the bike paths… luckily there was a parallel path just a few feet away, but it was a salutary warning as to the power of these storms.

Perhaps it is coping with the cold winters, the summer twisters and of course the millions of mosquitoes (!) that makes the people around here so down to earth. We can see why the Minnesotans are rumoured to be among the nicest people in the whole of the USA. Having made good progress on the ride this morning, we decided that we had time to stop for a quick lunch. After quizzing a friendly guy in a small town called Elk River, we ended up at Rockwoods in Otsego. In dire need of some fresh food after our “death by nasty pizza” experience last night, we ordered fresh fruit kabobs and salads. On hearing about our story, and particularly our joy at having passed the 10,000-mile mark, the lovely ladies at Rockwoods decided that lunch was on them, and they wouldn’t accept a cent from us. We were really quite choked by their kindness. A huge thanks to Mallory (Mrs Carey – yes, she’s married to a “Carey”…spooky), Beth, Ashley and Katie. Hello also to Travis and Hillary, with whom we had a great chat as we got ready to depart from our comfortable table at Rockwoods.

And then this evening, we went out for a bit of a celebration meal to mark the big “10-K”. We found a fantastic little restaurant, Grand Café, in a neighbourhood called King Field. It has a laid-back, local restaurant feel to it and serves fresh, honest and flavourful French-style food and wine. We loved it. And our server, Laura, was such a sweetie that she took care of our glasses of bubbly for us, which was a real treat. Thanks Laura, and Michelle who also looked after us very well.

We’re now very sleepy, ready for bed and looking forward to a couple of non-cycling days here.

Us x

10,000 miles in 176 days

2010-07-17T23:02:00.000-07:00

It’s day 266 and we’ve cycled for 176 days. Finally today, in Milaca Minnesota we have passed the 10,000-mile mark. Gaining entrance into this exclusive 10,000-mile club was no mean feat today. Another 70 miles against gusting headwinds, soaking snowy hailstorms, high humidity and a scorching hot sun, we arrived at our hotel battered and exhausted.

Foolishly, we thought we’d experienced every type of weather system in one day and things couldn’t get anymore interesting. Just then, the town sirens sounded, warning everyone within a 10-mile radius to get inside and batten down the hatches. We were confined to our room as the biblical tornado passed through main street …gotta say it was pretty scary. Seeing trees bend over double and rain pummel everything in sight as if it came from a giant fireman’s hose (no pun intended) was evidence that we were in the thick of a large tornado.

To make matters worse, after not eating for over an hour, our only choice for dinner tonight was Pizza ‘crappy processed food that has no nutritional value, but just sits undigested in your stomach in a sickening lump that will just make you fat‘ Hut

… so tired, more tomorrow in Minneapolis.

Us x

This morning was great, today was tough!

2010-07-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

Sitting around the breakfast table this morning with the owners and our fellow guests was great (see photo). When breakfast was over, we packed the bikes, got ready and set off in one direction whilst Jane, Lynn, Phyllis and Lowell set off on their bikes in the other.

It was 11:15am by the time we left and despite having close to 80 miles to cover before arriving in Aitkin, we felt relaxed as The Weather Channel predicted tailwinds all day …Al, Jim, Stephanie – you’re fired! All day the winds oscillated between the South and West in perfect synchronous with our chosen direction, meaning that for 70% of the time we experienced strong head winds and crippling side winds.

We pushed really hard today and made it to our motel with plenty of time to visit the local bar and inhale 4 pieces of Broiled Chicken, Fries and Coleslaw.

We’re sooo tired it’s time for bed… goodnight, still lovin’ ya!

Ooo! One more thing… we were blessed with an encounter with a Bald Eagle flying just 15ft above our heads today …gotta say, it was the most amazing, magnificent, humbling, impressive, awe inspiring thing we have experienced on the trip so far.

Us x

A Grand Day

2010-07-15T21:03:00.000-07:00

Some days are just a dream. Today’s rest day was one of them. We got up in the nick of time for a yummy breakfast at our super-comfortable B&B, the Morning Glory (ahem!) in Grand Rapids, and had a lovely chat as we ate with one of the owners, Karen, and two of the other guests, Julie and Dan.

Splitting tasks and resources, Kat then went to the post office to mail some more excess baggage back to the UK while Anthony went to the Laundromat to start the laundry. Kat picked up some lattes from the coffee shop, and we chilled out reading magazines while the cycling gear spun around in the machines, and a naughty Black Labrador called Ally ran in and out of the door, being chastised by her owner every couple of minutes, and making us smile.

The afternoon was spent on the computer plotting our routes and catching up with news from home (click this link to see our favourite story involving a dead badger, some white lines, and the craziness of working for public bodies in the UK).

This evening, Karen and Ron were so sweet and invited us to join them for dinner at a local restaurant next to a nearby lake. But we had already decided that we would return to Rivers Italian, where we had a fabulous meal last night. Arriving at Rivers, we bumped into Jane, Lynn, Phyllis and Lowell, four other guests from the B&B who are here on a cycling tour. They have been getting together every summer for the last 26 years to cycle all over Europe and America, and their home state of Minnesota is this year’s choice. We joined them for dinner and all got on famously as we piled in the pasta, and quaffed the very drinkable wine.

We’re now relaxing in our room, watching a bit of TV and contemplating being back on the road again tomorrow. What more could we ask for?

Us x

We’re Weathering the Storms

2010-07-14T21:40:00.001-07:00

We’re currently in the middle of several severe weather systems targeting the upper Midwest. Falling Trees, Flash Floods, Lightning Strikes, 100°C Temperatures, Tornado High Alerts and Land slides …and that’s all before 12pm. So waking up nice and early this morning and drawing back the curtains to review what we’d be facing this morning during our 68-mile cycle into Grand Rapids, we weren’t too pleased to be greeted with the image of black thunder clouds and torrential rain outside of our window. After much deliberation (approx 3 minutes) we decided to go back to bed and wait out the storm …a good strategy, because 90 minutes later the storm had passed, blue skies were on the menu and we felt a lot better.

Our only challenge for the day was the 18mph headwind, which actually did us a favour. Today’s humidity was so high it was nice to have a gale force wind in ya face to cool down. We didn’t meet many people today, but during our first comfort break in Cass Lake we spent some time chatting to a really cool family outside of a Supermarket, whose daughter had just returned from an educational trip to London and Europe!!!

We arrived at our B&B this afternoon ahead of schedule, which was odd because we honestly thought that with the strong head wind we wouldn’t be arriving until after 7pm …we must be getting fitter as we still managed a 14+mph average speed. After meeting the owners, we cleaned up and headed out to a great Italian restaurant that served authentically French cuisine …we’ll be back there tomorrow.

Us x

A pack of Kellogg’s with a Thunderbirds Chaser

2010-07-13T19:48:00.001-07:00

When we entered Minnesota on Sunday, we were very upset to find that there was no “Welcome to Minnesota” sign so that we could take our usual “another state line” photo. It’s happened to us before (Louisiana, Wyoming to name but a couple of States), but it’s always a bit of a downer. Well, today we definitely received our WELCOME TO MINNESOTA loud and clear from the lovely people that we met.

But first we should say that the riding today was out of this world. When it comes to cycling, Minnesota has got its sh*t sorted. Today, we rode out of our hotel in Park Rapids on a dedicated cycle lane for about half a mile, and then onto a 12 foot wide, paved bike path for 60 miles that dropped us, you guessed it, about half a mile from our hotel in Bemidji. They only completed part of the bike path a couple of months ago, and had resurfaced some of the existing parts, so it was a pretty smooth ride, with beautiful flora on each side (and the occasional bit of fauna…birds, deer etc). It was like our own personal conveyor belt from hotel to hotel. We did take a quick break half way in a chi-chi little town called Walker, where Kat was pleased to get her latte fix (which has been missing for a while), but even then there was a “spur” to take us into downtown Walker so we didn’t have to rough it with the traffic. What more could one ask for?

So, perfect cycling, but even better than that, some truly lovely people along the way. Just North of Walker, we met the Kellogg family who had jumped on their bikes to cycle up to the lot they had bought on the side of Lake Leech in Walker Bay. Looking like the healthiest family in the world (see photo), they tried to persuade us to have a swim in the lake with them and we were sorely tempted, but thought that we had better press on to our destination. Great to meet you guys!

Then, when we arrived at our hotel, which is on the side of Lake Bemidji, we though it would be churlish not to go for a swim in the lake. Soon after diving in, a boat approached and the guys on board started to shout hello and offer us a beer! As they threw a couple into the water, and Anthony performed his search and rescue exercise perfectly in order to pluck them from the bottom of the lake, we swam over to join them for a while on the boat. Turns out that they are a bunch of guys and girls from the nearby Thunderbird camp, who were kicking back on their day off. They included boys and gals from several countries, including the UK, Australia and Israel as well as the US, and we spent a pleasant 30 mins or so chatting and drinking beer before they kindly dropped us off at the jetty of our hotel, so we didn’t have to swim back. A special thanks to “Zeke” (we’re not sure about the spelling) who kicked it all off by throwing us the beers and inviting us on board! Thunderbirds are GO…..

A perfect day!

Us x

Rolling Hills & Languid Lakes

2010-07-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

The Lake District National Park is a mountainous region in Cumbria, England made famous for its association with the early 19^th century poetry and writings of Williams Wordsworth. With its geographical features formed as a result of periods of glaciation, ‘Scafell Pike’ is its highest point at 3,209ft and it has approximately 90 lakes covering an area of 900 square miles (however in typically English correctness, only one body of water ‘Bassenthwate Lake’ is officially named a lake. The name mere or water is usually given to a larger body of water, while tarn normally refers to a smaller one) …we all know how beautiful the Lake District is!

So you can image how tough it is for us to cycle through this 87,000 square mile region of lakes (many of which are more than 10 acres in size) and take photos to reflect the enormity of what we see. The best we could manage today was to take a picture of the lake seen from our hotel this morning and Silverton Lake, which we passed about halfway into our journey toward our destination in Park Rapids.

The trip to Park Rapids was only 41 miles, but the head wind and rolling hills made the ride a little more difficult than expected. We met so many lovely people on the trip, especially Krista who we met at a grocery store just 11 miles outside of Park Rapids. And would you believe that she attended college in Alnwick, Northumberland, England, which you’d be interested to learn has an historic medieval Castle featured as Hogworts in the Harry Potter films.

We quickly completed the remaining 11 miles and made it to C’Mon Inn before 5pm. After a quick search on the internet we located a fantastic place to eat, a mile’s walk away from the hotel. The Good Life Café was just what we needed, Stella on draught, breaded haddock, chips, malt vinegar, tartar sauce …just like the Lake District.

Missin’ y’all

Us x

10,000 Lakes, 10 Gazillion Mosquitoes

2010-07-11T21:47:00.000-07:00

You got it! We’re in sunny Minnesota, the land of the lakes. Unfortunately, there was no “Welcome to Minnesota” sign on our 60-mile ride from Fargo, ND to Detroit Lakes, MN today, but we did meet a very friendly cyclist called Paul shortly after we crossed the border, who cycled with us for a while, and certainly made us feel very welcome!

It was a little cooler today than it has been of late, for which we were very grateful. Still, to make up for that, the cycling gods decreed that the road surface would be bumpy, and we would have a 10-20 mph cross wind for most of the trip. They also gave Anthony a flat tyre just as we stopped for a break in Cormorant around 45 miles into the trip. But you can’t have it all. We enjoyed the scenery, and the peace and quiet of being away from the interstate, so we can’t complain.

Detroit Lakes is also a happening little place. It seems to us a bit like the Hamptons of Minneapolis, where people have weekend and vacation homes, and a lot of water skiing, eating, drinking and general lounging around takes place. We met a couple of great people tonight: thanks to Nick, the night manager at our hotel, for driving us to a nearby restaurant that we wanted to try; and Rachel, our receptionist, for organising that. We walked the mile back to the hotel, trying to avoiding the 10 gazillion flying neighbours along the way (since no-one really knows how many of these pesky creatures exist, we feel it appropriate to use the Bush technical term).

Thanks also to Len, who we met while doing our laundry this evening, who furnished us with a pamphlet of Minnesota bike trails, which we will find very useful over the next few days.

Us x

Last night in North Dakota!

2010-07-10T20:53:00.000-07:00

It was hot today. Apart from Anthony spending a couple hours rotating the tyres on Trusty & Steed and giving them a general service, we stayed in our room for the most part. We’re staying in the very popular Radisson Hotel in the centre of Fargo. So popular in fact, 3 separate weddings are taking place here as we speak. Fortunately, the drunk ‘Always the bridesmaid and never the bride’ crowd seem to be a lot less boisterous than the drunk ‘Frat Boy’ crowd we met with in Portland, so we’re not expecting too many problems tonight!

We’re chillin’ out tonight watching the Miss Hooters International Pageant on TV after having dinner at the same restaurant we ate at last night. Thanks again to the staff for being so welcoming and a special thanks to Jessica for the advice on avoiding mosquito bites, and the “special potion”, which we will try out.

Us x

Looking Pretty Chipper

2010-07-09T23:05:00.000-07:00

It started as an unremarkable day. We had a 60-mile ride from Valley City into Fargo, and we knew that there were no frontage or suitable parallel roads, which meant another day on T’interstate. Still, knowing that this was the “short-cut” we had chosen across North Dakota, and that we were staying at a nice hotel at the end of the day, with a few decent restaurant prospects, we were suitably sanguine about the ride.

And so we motored along and covered 40 miles before stopping for a short break. It was just like another day in the office. It wasn’t until around 50 miles in that a few unusual things started to happen. We had exited the interstate and were trying to pick our way through West Fargo and into downtown, while avoiding playing chicken on the busy 6-line highway that went directly into town (since it had no shoulder and was packed with Friday rush-hour traffic). Every so often, as if by magic, a cycling path would appear, unannounced. Then, as suddenly as it had started, it disappeared again in a cloud of smoke, and a prominent “End of Cycle Path” sign (they were good at telling us it had ended as we perched on a piece of sidewalk in the middle of a busy junction, but not so good at suggesting what we should do next). Anyway, we decided to make a detour through a residential area, which required a short ride between a gap in a fence and across some pretty uneven ground…hey, this is supposed to be adventure cycling, you know. Just as Kat went over a particularly large bump in the ground, she suddenly felt something major happen at the back of the bike. Oops… the whole of her pannier rack had come apart and her Pan-As were dragging along the ground, hanging helplessly…

On closer inspection by Anthony, it all became clear. A couple of key ring-shaped components had come loose and fallen off, allowing the rack to deconstruct. After a bit of rummaging around in the brush, Anthony managed to find Kat’s ring-pieces, and emerged triumphantly holding both of them in the air. A bit of ad hoc repair work outside a bemused man’s trailer, where his small dog barked at us incessantly, and we were back on the road! Thank god it didn’t happen as we were whizzing down a hill somewhere.

As we neared downtown, things became a little easier, and we cruised the last couple of miles without too much difficulty. As we rolled into the hotel, a car pulled up behind us. A distinguished looking gentleman emerged with an entourage, introduced himself as “Kent” and told us that a member of his “staff” had seen us cycling not only twice today, but also earlier in the week just outside Bismarck, and asked about our journey. If we were not sure before that this person was “someone”, we were certain of it when he told us that he had flown in from Valley City, while we had cycled the same journey!

It turns out that we had been introduced to the senior senator for North Dakota, Kent Conrad. Fancy that. Obviously, we Googled him as soon as we got into our hotel room, and found that he is a Democrat (yay), although he’s not been on board with all of the things Obama is trying to do. We’re not sure about all of his views, but we can say that he seemed like a very down to earth and friendly man.

After a quick shower, we were out to a nearby restaurant, the HoDo at the Hotel Donaldson just round the corner. We were thrilled to find a rooftop bar, where we sipped a cocktail in the sunshine, and then a cool and airy restaurant inside for dinner. The restaurant had positive reviews, so we were hoping for something good, but nothing could have prepared us for the quality of tonight’s meal. The highlight was a horseradish mashed potato which tasted like heaven on earth, but really we could wax lyrical about the whole shebang. We were lucky enough to meet the talented chef behind all of this: Timothy Fischer, an American originally from St Paul, MN, but who has worked in restaurants all over the world. No exaggeration, this was the best meal we have had on the whole trip… in Fargo, ND. Who’d have thought it!

A rest day tomorrow, giving Kat the opportunity to continue coming up with quotes from Marge, the policewoman from the movie Fargo, and one of her favourite characters ever… poor Anthony!

Us x

Where are we now?

2010-07-08T20:43:00.000-07:00

…well not far to go until we reach Fargo, right on the border of North Dakota and Minnesota. Tomorrow we’ll cycle approximately 60 miles into Fargo and then have a rest day. We will have completed just over 9,500 miles and will hopefully hit the 10,000-mile mark by the time we reach Minneapolis. Reminiscing about our journey so far brings tears of joy and pain to mind. It’s hard for us to believe that we’re actually cycling around the perimeter of the USA, pushing the boundaries of our relationship, physical well-being, mental strength, tireless commitment and of course our ability to eat fried food. But the truth is that for all our efforts we’re rewarded with a new experience every day that ultimately makes us feel happy and fortunate.

Today was another mini adventure! Faced with an option to take the Interstate or a little known County Highway out of Jamestown and into Valley City, we decided to take the CoHwy for some well-needed respite from 80mph 18-wheelers. The CoHwy route was only 40 miles and for the first 30 miles everything was perfect. Even with the gravel road surface and the occasional ‘ROAD CLOSED – NO ACCESS’ signs we joyfully cycled on, ignoring the road closed signs believing that we knew better and roads were not allowed to be closed; because we were ‘Ant & Kat the Intrepid Explorers’. Like we said, for the first 30 miles this level of egotistical belief served us well as we cycled along our private ‘closed’ roads taking a few choice pictures and being free from the annoyance of motorized vehikkle’s.

10 miles left to go before we reached Valley City and we spotted another ‘ROAD CLOSED – NO ACCESS’ sign. Without a care in the world we cruised passed the sign and soon after the road began to steeply descend toward what we could only describe as a mirage-like image. Getting closer to the mirage it soon became clear that this ‘ROAD CLOSED – NO ACCESS’ sign meant business (check out the photo). After a 5-minute discussion to determine if we could manage to ride the road, we concluded that it was time to do a Worzle Gummidge and take off our ‘Care Free’ heads and put on our ‘Sensible’ ones. Taking a slight detour, we were back on the Interstate, but only for 10 miles, arriving less that an hour later at our hotel.

Dinner tonight was great! We managed to have fresh fish and vegetables and had great chat with our waitress, Jane.

Us x

The Buffalo City

2010-07-07T20:43:00.000-07:00

Today was a non-cycling day in Jamestown, ND. It’s known as the Buffalo City because it has the world’s largest buffalo statue and also a National Buffalo Museum, which has some Albino buffalo, among other things. We didn’t visit the museum, spending our time on the usual “rest day” activities. We did eat some buffalo again in our favourite restaurant here: Buffalo City Grille but we’re not sure that really counts!

Another thing we’ve noticed is that the railroad here is extremely busy. Though we’ve been very comfortable in our “Peggy Lee” suite (apparently she’s a resident of Jamestown), we’re right next to the railroad crossing. That’s not a good place to be when the trains go past every hour or so during the night, honking their horns as they approach the crossing. A touch of the My Cousin Vinny (for anyone who’s seen that movie). We’re counting our blessings that we only have a shortish ride tomorrow into Valley City ND.

A quick update on Kat’s recovery. It’s now 2 weeks since her fall, and she’s feeling much better. The shoulder injury is improving all the time and, despite a little stiffness in the shoulder and neck, the pain has pretty much gone. The grazes on her arm and elbow are now completely healed, and even the bruise on her leg has faded, so she’s feeling extremely fortunate. Thanks again for all of your kind messages.

Us x

Cool Runnings

2010-07-06T22:11:00.000-07:00

This morning was a relaxing affair. With only 30½ miles to cycle into Jamestown, ND, where we planned on having a rest day, time was not of the essence. Faced with the twelve eggs we failed to cook with last night’s tomato soup and bacon butty dinner, we leisurely prepared a twelve-egg omelette, whilst watching Stage 3 of the Tour de France in TV. Piling the finished eggtravaganza between 2 burger buns each, we lovingly stuffed ourselves to bursting point, happy in knowledge that this gluttonous intake of carbs and protein would last us until dinner this evening. A few cups of coffee later and after watching Lance Armstrong perform super human feats on the cobbled stones of Belgium, we wheeled our bikes outside to find the sun was out, temperatures were cool and the wind was blowing strongly out of the West.

Today’s ride was perfect, travelling along at an average speed of 15.4mph with the wind on our backs, we effortlessly completed the 30 miles in under 2 hours, arriving at our hotel just before 2pm. Still full of energy we chatted for a long time to the lady at the hotel reception desk, explaining our trip and the joys of cycling. We think she must have been impressed with our story, because as we enter our room we found that we had been upgraded to a larger themed suite decorated in Peggy Lee memorabilia …and just across the hallway is the laundry room!

Anthony had Bison Short Ribs for dinner this evening and is feeling slightly bloated. But wants to inform his mum, who constantly ribs him about his weight, he has lost 16lbs so far.

Us x