The forecast was right and it didn’t stop raining all night. We awoke to more rain and grey skys.. Rain slows things up, including getting out of bed, so we didn’t get underway until nearer 8 this morning. Matt put his waterproof socks on and I put my feet into 2 plastic bags… Same effect in the end, you get wet but its a warm wet. We put neoprene booties over our shoes and ventured out into Dolly. We got going quite well and I thought that we would make good progress until we came across a gas station on highway 40 only 8.5 miles from our start point that apparently sold fresh doughnuts and coffee for a couple of bucks. A momentary glance later and Matt and I were scoffing and quaffing in our dripping lycra and waterproof outfits much to the delight of the cashiers… I suppose we looked a bit different from their normal daily customers. Several doughnuts later and we were back on highway 40 and the pouring rain.

Regardless of marketing hype, in my experience of outdoor work and play, nothing is waterproof other than the skin you were born with. If its raining hard and you are out in it for long enough you will get wet. The key thing is to keep warm and wet and to take things off as soon as the conditions permit so you can dry from the inside out.. We had a brief stop after 30 in Effingham….

My intuition told me (and Doc De’s) that the rain was going to stop and the sun was going to poke its head out. As a former NASCAR driver (Ricky Booby) I took a gamble on the dry tyres, Matthew remaining cautious with his full wets…Within 10 mins the sun was shining and the roads were drying out.. happy days!! Highway 40 is a famous route (Americans pronounce it rowt… Which always makes we want to correct them.. But I remain quiet in case they have decided to take up their right to defend themselves and own a gun… Flippin Abraham Lincoln) and apparently highway 40 made The USA.

Certainly there were a lot more things to look at and more chasing dogs to test our sprinting ability on. We were warned about yard dogs before we came out and were instructed to carry a few dino biscuits in our back pockets… In theory a good idea, but the palaver of reaching around into one of your shirt back pockets whilst trying to accelerate to a dog-uncatchable speed was all too much for me so my strategy has been based on initial observation and then pedal like buggery… It has worked so far although we had a close call today. If it hadn’t had been for the rain and the swollen flood ditches I think that one of us may have been riding shoe less for a bit… It was quite amusing as this massive cross breed thing pelted after us through the long grass and down the bank in front of his estate. The poor thing hadn’t done the joined up thinking though, and not anticipating that the ditch would have water in it, galloped right into the stream, knocking the wind right out of his sails; barks degenerating into yelps… His brother in arms, a much smaller sausage/collie cross, realised the schoolboy error of his buddy, subsequently stopping still on high ground and enjoying the moment, along with Matt and I as his mate embarrassingly shook himself down to resume guard for the next coast to coast cyclist that would appear on highway 40.

I managed to pass the rest of time on H40 by listening to the local radio station and putting in a few calls to friends and family back home. I wouldn’t normally advocate such a thing but with smooth wide roads and no other cars I thought that it might relieve the boredom a bit. I managed to perfect the technique of phone to ear whilst resting my other elbow on my tri bars (I knew they would come in handy at some stage). The truth is that I ride quite bit on the bars although by doing this it seems that I have lost power in my left arm and hand.. Pip tells me that this is to do with trapping a nerve or something… All I know is I can’t button up the flys on my jeans so have resorted to wearing 2 pairs of pants just in case.

The support that Pip and De are giving us is legendary, I don’t know how they do it.. Anyway, here’s to them and its goodnight from me, good night.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

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