We woke up and set off around 8.15 from Yogi Bear’s campsite in Haggers something along highway 40. It was a great campsite with loads of things to do for children including the American obsession for mini golf. Americans seem to take their mini golf seriously with amazing configurations of waterfalls, tunnels, monsters’ mouths opening and closing, all on the finest green astroturf engulfed by an obligatory grey concrete surround. They even have a leaning post after each hole to scribble your score down on your card. Adults and children politely queue at the 1st hole to take their turn, for most of them it would seem that this forms the core to their weekly training and weight loss regime, although the hot dog halfway house probably nullifies any calorie deficit actually taking place…..

We encountered rolling hills for the first 50miles which really scrambles any rhythm.. The temperature was consistently high but we are acclimitised to this now so not a major problem anymore. The scenery was beautiful as we followed highway 40 heading east. We passed a few other cyclists going the other way, some waved/nodded, others just stared straight; that’s the east side for you… We went through Baltimore and met with picked up some random cowgirl Amy who has joined us for the last few days in the US (whose speciality is motivational talks and ham and egg omlettes) and then I subsequently got a puncture in quite a dodgey part of the city.. It was a rapid change about 6 mins in total and arguably the fastest since we have started.

We were up to 100 for the day with the penultimate 50 mile leg of the journey taking us to Wilmington, a 6 lane highway and toll bridge with no bikes allowed. Thankfully the RV had sussed this and were waiting to take us over. We got dropped on the other side, it was about 7pm and we anticipated another 50 to Atlantic City. Almost immediately we passed a sign for ACity 58 miles…. ETA was therefore 10pm. The traffic was almost bumper to bumper coming towards us and away from the coast. As it got darker this proved to be a real help as the car headlights lit up the road in front of us. We really started to pick up the pace with a perfect prevailing wind, smooth roads and great drafting. We had 2 further water stops which took us within 20 of our final destination. As we rode close to ACity and the suburbs I started to think about the significance of this trip for me and what I have learnt about myself.. The loneliness of the long distance cyclist will be on the shelves in time for Christmas so all will be revealed then… I thought quite a lot about my mum and what she would have thought about this crazy adventure… She would have been worried like any mum but would have been driving me on through all of it, ticking me off for my cheeky end of day’s budweisers, but inwardly chuckling to herself about my individuality and aversion to comply with the norms…..

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Its all a bit of a blur now as its Saturday morning and we are just about to head off. I’ve been feeling more and more tired as the days have passed which is inevitable I suppose so missed a diary entry last night (sorry). When you read this I hope we will have finished in Atlantic City, some 3000 miles away from our start point. Today’s ride will be tough so I will make this as brief as poss. We ended up in Columbus on Thursday night, around 170 miles from the days start point. We had a bit of a nightmare again with the roads so had to come off the highway for a few miles until it was safe again. The RAAM guys are allowed to use the interstate roads and have escorts, we have no such luck so have to engineer a different route.. Sometimes the highways have evolved into interstates for a few miles so if there is no alternative then you have to come off.. Some of it has been quite dicey to say the least and not recommended for the faint hearted.. The trucks are monsters over here and scream as they go past…

We made it to Washington on Friday (not DC after following highway 40 for most of the day.. And within striking distance of the final destination. The good news is that Matt is cycling well again which means that meaningful drafting is back on…

Moving on.. Saturday has been the hardest day so far with effectively 120 miles of repeatedly riding up and down Ditchling Beacon. Awesome scenery through PA, but our legs and bodies have taken such a hammering.. Lots of stories from this day which I will recount later when I can muster the nrg. Last push and final day tomorrow so going to hit the hay. Night.
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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….

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The temperature was really hot and humid in addition to the rolling roads, combined with 2 punctures in the first 8 miles meant that the going was slow for the AM session. It would have been a lovely ride on a normal day and an interesting change from the normal straight roads. We followed the 140 alongside the Mississippi crossing over it a few times.

The ground is very green and fertile which is a welcome change from the various shades of brown. We crossed St Louis over the river again and encountered rush hour traffic with no soft shoulder. It was terrifying to ride through the traffic and after a couple of close shaves we decided to jump on the rv for a few miles. The RAAM riders have escorts on interstates and through cities, we just rely on nous and London riding experience…..

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The day started badly with a storm headwind confronting us from highway 94. The wind has such a big impact to our daily mileage that it actually sends you into a depressive zombie like state. Coupled with this was a total of 5 punctures in the first 2 hour stint. Each puncture takes about 10 minutes to sort out and change.

You have to take your bottles off, take your saddle pouch off, turn the bike upside down, take the wheel off, get your tools, spare inner and gas out, lever the tyre off, take the inner out, unscrew the cap and adaptor rim ring, check the tyre for any embedded stones etc…..

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Evening all….. Big and hot hard day took us 201 miles into Missouri. The weather was a killer and I am exhausted after today. Average was dead on 20 which was hard work but worth it as a big dent of missouri was cleared.

Our whitebits are interesting as in long shorts and t shirts we look like we have been lying on a mediterranean beach for a fortnight. The reality is that we look very odd when you see body top to toe. Our tans stop mid bicep and around the knee so I am thinking that I will have to invest in some fake tan if we ever make it to the beaches of New Jersey.

We stopped in a delightful rv campsite and promptly half blew up our paddling pool for the first time so we could have an icebath next to the lake (swimming not allowed!). It was a Sunday night so the site had been deserted from the weekend campers apart from a war vet who was very friendly and gave us lots of homegrown tomatoes and marrows (they naturally ended up in the chicken surprise with a few slabs of salmon chucked in for good measure). Dowsey and I have become even more infatuated with chocolate milkshakes to the point that when we were in Wichita, and running low on the brown powder, we bought, instead of our carbo recovery drink, some kind of slimming drink; it was the only chocolate thing we could find. Knowing that the Doc would give it the once over we smuggled it on board in a suspicious brown paper bag; too suspicious for the Doc’s eagle eyes it would seem as we were rumbled the next day. The subsequent telling off reminded me that term time starts in 5 weeks time…….. Early start tomorrow to try for a back to back double century so night to you all back in the UK.
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We’ve just had a bunch of blogs from Andy as he finally found some solid reception around the Rockies so apologies for it being quiet the past few days. There’s Monday - Thursday below and we’ll hopefully be getting the weekends round-up shortly.

I’m sure they all really appreciate your comments and kind words so keep them coming and hopfully Matt will be back riding full days soon…. :-)

Quite an uneventul day..

Long straight hot roads that took us 160 miles into Dodge City. We decided to cut it short today due to the head wind that is hampering progress. It should have been prevailing but due to the hurricaine in texas we are experiencing south easterly winds. I managed to average 20 mph which felt like a big effort and was joined by Matt for the last 40 today..(Hurray!) He did well but is still not back to his former self and is still feeling fatigued and weaker than normal; he just needs to take it steady tomorrow.

Kansas is a nightmare for stimulating scenery; it nearly made me fall asleep on my bike today! Have a look on google earth and you will see what I mean. I was a bit concerned at the start of the day as I didn’t see the rv until 50 miles in. They had missed me when I had stopped at a garage to make a few calls and replenish my bottles. The reception is so poor out here we can’t stay in touch on the road. I have been unable to phone, text or email for days and even now lying in bed on the outskirts of dodge there is nothing. I just hope that as we go through the city tomorrow I will get some coverage.

I am suffering from a bruised bum which is being masked by Dr De’s wonderful conconctions. The painkillers wear off after about 2 hrs which gives me another 2hrs of biting my lip and low level sobbing before I am allowed the next booster: that, I am afraid, is life. You just have to get on with it.

We met a guy today who is cycling from west to east but on another route. He has been cyvling for 6 weeks to date and reckons he will finish at the end of august. He is taking all his kit with him and camping overnight.. Now that is really hardcore. Pip gave him some juice and bars which he was very grateful for, we wished him well and good luck for the rest of his ride. Its nice to bump into other chain gangers enroute, you share a common bond and speak about winds, roads and weather. The sun was out today bigtime, not as bad as the desert but hot enough for continual head dowsing. I drank so much today that I was heavier at the end of the ride than at the beginning. We are burning around 13000 cals at the moment per day which means that I will be very skinny in the next few days.. Wrong!! I seem to be losing nothing which means that our food and fluid intake is spot on..
Anyway… Tired and 200+ plus day tomorrow so better get some shuteye. Night. Andy.
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Total mileage today was just over 200 which felt good considering that included a mountain (can’t remember the name but still a part of the Rockies) which was 10,500 feet high. Matt still resting but hopefully he will be okay to do some of the legs tomorrow. It was nice to have him in the support vehicle cause he knew exactly where I would need water etc but I missed him massively over the course of the day.

I managed to get the first 100 miles at my desired average mph which we set at 20, in fact I was just under the 5hr mark by 10 mins which was a bit of a pb for me. After the climb and great descent I had to contend with one of the most boring bits yet. It was basically one straight road for 72 miles… I felt quite alone for the first 30 until the rv caught me up. I had gone well averaging around 25mph for this leg but slowed for the last 3 miles as I was on my last few drops of juice.. It was a hot few hours as the sun had come out after the lunchtime rain. Refulled and juiced up I ploughed on hitting over 30 on the flats (thanks to matt smuggling me a red bull!) I kept going on the same road, which I think I will need to see a therapist for complete recovery, until we eventually hit a town called juntha (or something like that). I had around 30 to go and managed to keep going until we hit our rv spot for the night. I’m just in bed now and looking forward to going through dodge city tomorrow… People at last!! Night…
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Cutting to the chase… Matt had to pull out after 22 miles into todays ride. We have been having pee tests every day and matts haven’t been looking very good for the last 3. He had a kidney problem last Autumn and it is the aftermath of that… He wasn’t bonking yesterday it was to do with this issue. Dr De has been concerned since the weekend and she said that matt’s body would ultimately answer the question. So very reluctantly he withdrew from today’s ride at the first water . We were all gutted. Matt needed to rest, he had no choice.

I got myself together and we worked out a new strategy which meant that the rv would follow me as opposed to leapfrogging ahead. The route took us 100 miles up to the bottom of wolf creek pass. I felt strong ( I think the rationed budweisers the night before helped, plus my new infatuation with alphabet spaghetti) so although going solo, I was actually looking forward to the 22 mile climb. The gut wrenching thing about matt missing this ride is that we have been talking about this specific challenge since we planned the route. Anyway I just had to get on with it. Apparently the scenery was stunning, I didn’t see much of it as my head was down for almost all of the assent.. It proved to be a massive test of my mind and body, averaging somewhere around 7 miles an hour for 22 miles is not much fun.
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