Day Seventy-Five - Grand Finale.

Sorry for the delay in writing this, by the time I arrived last night I wasn't really feeling up to writing. Also, if you've messaged me and I havn't responsed, I promise it's on my to-do list, I've not had Internet access for very long here.

I woke up early today, obviously full of excitement. I'd heard the weather was going to be hot, but I'd heard that the whole way accross the western part of the trip so it didn't phase me too much. I went accross for my continental breakfast, and got on the road by 8:30.

The first part of the day was spent along cycle paths leaving Davis, including roundabouts dedicated solely to bicycles. This lead me out of town, and onto back country roads. I encountered an eastbound cyclist who was actually cycling round the world, dwarfing the trip I've done. He'd been on the road for 12 months, which is a LONG time. I continued onwards, through back country roads and grape fields, eventually arriving at somewhere that I cannot remember the name of for a break. Because the weater was baking hot by this point, I was feeling a bit lethargic and not great. Even on the last day, I'm learning new things about how to ride better, this lesson being "don't eat complimentary continental breakfasts because they don't fill you up enough." I bought a half gallon of apple juice (safeway apparently doesn't sell refrigerated soft drinks), and drank it down probably way too fast, and felt grim with stomach ache for the next bit. I wasn't sure if it was hunger (I didn't feel like eating) or what, but I didn't feel good. It was weird too, because I needed to stop not too further up for another drink in the shade, being both completely bloated with liquid and feeling dehydrated..

Anyway, after this drink I took a detour from my route, probably saving me a good few miles. The route took me two sides of a triangle, when there was an abandoned road that 'everyone knows about', which is just about good enough to cycle down. I did have to take my panniers off to get under the gate, but I encountered a cop down there who only asked if I got through okay. I decende into Valejo, and managed to follow my nose to the ferry port. I must stress at this point that it was around 4:30pm. I knew I had a full day ahead of me, but with all this talk of 'nearly there', I forgot how 60 miles is still a long way. I boarded the ferry, and despite it going seemingly ridiculously fast for a boat, it took an hour to get to San Francisco.

On arrival, I didn't need my map, and just turned right and found my way round the bay and up to the bridge. This took ages too, I never apreciated how far out of town it was. I reached the far side by at 7pm, and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

My story doesn't end there though, as I had to get to a place called Danville on the outskirts of town. To do this I had to head back into town and catch a BART train out. This was a challenge in itself, as I was relying on google maps to take me there. I eventually arrived there, to discover that it was like a tube station with no lifts, meaning I had to get my bike down stairs. I don't know if you've felt/lifted a packed bike, but it's heavy. They also have a tendency to want to roll down the stairs, meaning you're holding the brakes with every ounce of strength you have in your fingers. After negotiating the stairs, the next obstacle was the ticket barrier. The barrier system here is a lot like two spanish fans opening and closing, with the edges meeting in the middle. I must not have been thinking straight, as I pushed my bike through slowly, meaning the gate shut with me and half my bike still on the outside. I went up to a desk with a guy who didn't want to hear it, so I figured that if I jump over I would either get away with it, or he would hear me out. I had a perfectly valid ticket just so you know, I was well within my rights. Upon reaching the other side, I had an escalator to go down, which was harder than the stairs and I ended up clutching onto the bike for dear life, not letting go for fear of mauling the people further down.

I eventually made it to the platform, and got my train with relative ease. I had a slight scare that I was going the wrong way on it, but made it to my stop fine. By this point it was gone 10 and I was exhausted, so I took a cab to the house that I'm staying at. Taxi Drivers are very good queuers, and despite the fact that there were people carriers further back, I had to get in a 'normal' car. It all just about fitted, though my chainring (I think that's what it's called..?) made a bit of a mess of the back seat. Hey, if you make me go in this car, you can't complain when...

So that's the end of my story, or just about. I've now got a week off doing a cross between touristy things, sorting my bike out and just generally resting. I slept like a baby last night so I think this rest is a bit overdue. I will probably do a couple of summary posts in a few days, but I won't keep a day to day one (as it's become a bit of a chore of late). Other than that, I thankyou very much for your loyal readership, and that if you havn't done so already, could you please sponsor me through my website. It's an amazing charity who do great work, I'm sure you'll agree. The address is:

http://gregstransamericacycle.co.uk

Day Seventy-Four - Penultimacy.

After yesterday, I was very much hoping for an easy, stress free day. No such luck.

After going out to eat breakfast around 9, I was ready to go about half an hour later. I rolled out of the car park, over to the other side of the road, and got a flat. I couldn't believe it. It wasn't just a puncture either, the whole valve had sheered completely leaving a gaping hole. I had no choice to change it. Some time later, and I was on my way.

No more than 200m further up the line, I felt the rumbling of metal on concrete, to find it had punctured AGAIN. It was a 'normal' puncture this time, fixable with a repair kit. Because of all this, I was running low on spare tubes, so I had to pedal back uphill to the placerville bike shop. It was around 11 before I left Placerville.

The first part of the ride was down quiet backroads through lots of winery's and grape fields. I arrived at Folsom 20 miles later, where I was to pick up a bike trail. Not before another puncture though, with the valve sheering off again. I'm not really sure how it happened, I was stationary when I heard it fall on the floor next to me. Yesterday was only the second time that I'd put a presta valve tube on, and thought O might have been doing something fundamentally wrong. The tube has a little nut that comes screwed on, which I put between the inner tube and the rim rather than on the outside. Shout if you have no idea what I'm talking about. With the benefit of hindsight, this seemed to have done the trick. I didn't know this at the time though, and spent the rest of the day being overcautious to the extent of paranoia that I'd get another one.

After picking up the bike trail, I rode for about 30 miles, mostly along a river. It took me 'through' Sacremento, but it seemed as though I was in wilderness most of the time. The path was well used though, so I couldn't be too far from anywhere. Not a whole lot to report, except that I chatted to a guy wearing the Team GB Jersey/Short combo (I'm assuming he bought it rather than earnt it, but I could be wrong), on a very serious looking bike. By serious, I mean that the handlebars were so low that they bent over the front wheel, meaning the rider needs to duck down to hold this / aero bars, or ride with no hands the whole time like he did.

At around 55 miles, I stopped for a break after leaving the trail. I wasn't feeling great, the trail wasn't how I imagined at all, and there wasn't much oppertunity to buy anything. Before stopping, I went down a road that I later decided was the wrong way, and so after resting set off in the other direction. I later found this to be the complete wrong direction, and I was right the first time. I'm sorry, but it's near impossible to navigate somewhere like Sacremento with some roads and all road names left off. I resorted to turning on Google Maps and got that to take me.

I found my way a good while later, and went through Old Sacrememto to Davis. Old Sac. isn't as nice as you might assume, it was just a street full of motel after motel. I was glad I wasn't staying there, as it'd have been a nightmare to compare prices. I took another cycle path parallel to a freeway to Davis, this one being nowhere near as well maintained as the other. I was glad to just make it through without getting a flat or catching anything.

And so I arrived in Davis. It is a very green place I've found, meaning there is no room / need for big tall signs in the air. I didn't realise how much I relied upon these, but after finding that there was less a 'main street' and more a 'downtown', I had no idea where I was going. It was probably by chance that I found the Best Western there, and decided that I'd pay the price for a bit of luxury. To be honest, it's not a huge amount better than yesterday, but at 6:40pm I was in no mood to continue looking.

Tonight I ate at a little Chinese restaurant, which was just okay. I was the only person in there for a while, something I didn't realise from outside, meaning it was hugely lacking in atmosphere. That, and my food came in about 4 minutes flat, which I hate. At least pretend like you didn't have it ready... The reason I didn't go to somewhere in the heart of downtown was because there was a bike race on, a circular track round about 3 blocks up and one block wide, meaning the bordering restaurants were rammed. They had lots of races on, I saw some singlespeeds bombing round on the walk to, and racing bikes on the way back. Seeing how fast they can go so effortlessly makes me want one a lot.

There isn't really much point in saying where I'm heading to tomorrow, I've been counting down to it for weeks. It's not a short ride though, probably into the 60 mile mark by the time I arrive. I therefore expect to be there mid afternoon, but from today I'm sure you can see how that can all change. Fingers and toes crossed it all goes smoothly, literally.

Day Seventy-Three - Final Decent.

Despite the fact that I had no TV to distract me, a phonecall to home and slow service in the only place open for breakfast (it was full of cyclists from the day before. It was probably closer to 10 by the time I eventually left. I didn't mind too much though, as my map told me that I was defending from 8000ft to almost sea level.

I started out with an uphill, which I knew about, which lasted about 15 miles or so before I came down. I had some support from passing cars with racing bikes on roof racks in the form of waves, honks and the ocasional 'woop!'. Soon enough, I was on the far side of this, and began the downwards run. The downhill wasn't as I expected. Instead of being one long road that was continually downwards to the bottom, it was downwards for a bit, then had a steep uphill for about a quarter/half mile. This wasn't so bad to begin with, but it got a bit of a drag after a while. After 30 miles, I decided it was time for a rest.

After about an hour, I headed back out and onto the back roads down to Placerville. I knew they were the back roads because there was a big sign telling me how snow ploughs didn't go down there, and it could be icy. I decided to take my chances, and headed off. This was quite uncomfortable down here, as the road was very bumpy.

Not a lot else happened until I reached somewhere called 'Fair Play'. This was where the mostly downhill turned to mostly uphill in the foothills. They weren't particularly long, but were nearly vertical in incline. I've also discovered how it being so much lower has made a significant difference to how hot it is.

About 3 miles outside of Placerville, disaster struck, and I got a flat. I couldn't believe my luck. I wasn't sure how close Placerville was from my current location, so I was forced to stop and fix it. After this, I had a small roll down thehbill into town and got a room for $48, less than half price to what I had yesterday, and the TV works. shocking.

Tomorrow is my penultimate ride, and so it would seem fitting that I go to somewhere called Davis, the so called bicycle capital of the world. I'm not quite sure how this is the case, but I know they have roundabouts just for bikes. I also go through Sacremento, the hometown of a whole load of massive computer organisations amongst other things that I'm not too sure of.

Day Seventy-Two - Final Ascent.

My alarm went off the same time as usual, but somehow I managed to fritter away three hours before finally getting on the road. I was pleased to see that my puncture repair hadn't gone down overnight, though I was paranoid that it was going down. When me and all my stuff are on it, the tire can look a bit flat at a glance, even though it isn't.

The first part of my ride went fairly quickly. I made it to a town called Genoa in the length of one album, and then the Nevada/California border in the length of the next one. It was all either flat or very slightly upill, which made it easy going. The wind hadn't picked up yet either. Once I'd crossed the border, no sooner than about 300m had passed before I was in my lowest gear on the side of a mountain. That was to be the way the rest of the day would be, though I didn't know this yet.

I stopped at Woodfords for a break, where I had planned to stop at before plans changed. It had an extortionate sandwich bar attached to it, leaving me little choice but to have a liquid/Hersheys based lunch. The owner of the shop was a bit of a busybody too. She asked me literally a couple of minutes after I bought my first round of drinks if I'd paid for them, and also told this mother and son (a son aged about 5 I might add) that he could have no part in the scratching process of a scratchcard. Please, it wasn't as if he was going to try and claim it if it won..

Anyway, I set back off again and discovered that there was a bike event going on up the same route I was going. I felt very conspicuous amongst all these riders in their sponsored jerseys and carbon fibre bikes, with me and my fully loaded bike. I felt a lot like those people that run the marathon dressed as something ridiculous. I'm pleased to say I held my own though, even overtaking a couple of people. Of course, the majority overtook me, but I didn't mind that after the first 100. It was 15 miles to the top of Carson Pass, and it took me about 2 hours 45 to do. It may well have taken me longer, but the other cyclists around and people supporting at the side provided a welcome distraction. By the time I'd reached the top, it was around 4pm, and I had planned to to a further 25 miles. The weather was closing in very fast though, and I was grateful to make it to Kirkwood before the heavens opened. I decided that it would be better to stay here since tomorrow would have been short anyway, and because of the rain. I chatted to a guy called Forest for a bit, and to cut a long story short, is enquiring about me staying at his Parents house in Sacremento, apparently it backs on to the bike route I'm going on. It would make for a long day tomorrow, but i've got loads of down so it might not be too bad. I'm waiting to hear back though.

I went to the only hotel here, which I knew would be expensive. Even after my 20% discount it came to $108. For that I get an apartment/condo type thing. They told me up front that the Cable didn't work, and that I could have a go at fixing it if I wanted. I think this place has been bought by someone, and they lease it put through the hotel. I opted for the DVD option, but still gave fixing it a go. I spent hours trying to fix it, so much so that I didn't leave myself enough time to watch one of the DVD's I got. I eventually went out for a meal, and now I'm back.

A I said, not sure where I'm going tomorrow, but it's definitely downhill. :)

Day Seventy-One - Carson City.

After another early start, I was just about set to hit the road around 8:30, before finding out that the complimentary breakfast was cereal. I like cereal, but I'd have to have eaten so much of it that I didn't have the time or the patience. I therefore went to Sonic, before heading out by around 9.

The ride was fairly boring today, with the ground being mainy flat with a few small uphills. It was still through the desert, but there were much more service stops along the way. I stopped for a drink at somewhere called Stagecoach. I was quite lucky with the wind too, but it kicked up with 15 miles to go to be fairly strong, meaning I could only go about 10 or 11mph. For 95% of today, I had a lane/hard shoulder to myself, which was great because I didn't have to watch out for traffic. I did however have to watch out for tiny stones to avoid a puncture. I did so well at this until about 3 miles out, where I picked up a puncture at the back. I managed to pump it up to limp the next mile, but I was having to stop to re-pump that I decided to just push, as I was only about 2 miles away from where I wanted to be.

I eventually arrived at my hotel in Carson City, checked in, and fixed the puncture. I ordered a pizza to the room because I couldn't be bothered to go out (the pizza guy tried to take my $20 for a $16 order.. the cheek), and I'm now watching the first Harry Potter, to which I listened to a lot of the audiobook today.

Tomorrow I'm heading to something creek reservoir resort park, I can't remember what. It'll be the last significant uphill of the trip, with the following day being a return to almost sea level.

Day Seventy - Hold Up.

I woke up this morning at 5:30 to the sound of shooting, but only coming from someone watching a spaghetti western next door. I didn't get up until 6:20, and went over to the bar to eat. I didn't fully have my appetite back from last nights shennanigans, so it was a bit of a case of eating because I ought to. I eventually got on the road at 9 or so.

The first 15-20 miles or so were the last of this part of the mountains, leaving only the Sierra-Nevadas to go in a couple of days time. I decended into the desert plains. This is a lot more how you or I might expect the desert to be, rather than the dry, sandy mountains that I've been going through this far. The road was painfully straight and boring along here too. The scenery is amazing, but it's kind of like staring at the same postcard for hours on end.

So really, not a lot happened for the next 30 miles to Fallon. I stopped for lunch, which was quite a novelty as it was the first time I'd reached civilisation during the day. I ate lunch, and took my maps inside to change them over. It was here I noticed a typo on the map. I'll try my best to explain it. My map has panels of about 22-40 miles roughly, and when you get to one 'matchline', you go up to the next matchline above it. Silver Springs is exactly on the matchline, which means it is shown on both map panels. After the name 'Silver Springs', there are a list of symbols of facilities that there are there, and when there is a star, it basically means it's a good place to stop, and has somewhere to stay, a grocery, a restaurant, and a couple of other things. The Silver Springs that was written on the lower map panel had a star, but the Silver Springs above had everything but somewhere to stay. I looked on the back, and sure enough, there was nowhere to stay. I think the most likely explanation was that there used to be somewhere there, but not anymore, and the crude people at the Adventure Cycling Association havnt updated the map properly.

As a result, I've been forced to stay in Fallon tonight. I'll try and head to Woodfords still tomorrow, but that's 90 miles from here, so I'll have to see how it goes. If I don't make it that far, it means i'll have a longer day the day after, hopefully still ending up in Placerville on schedule. It doesn't matter too much now for timing because I'm so close.

Day Sixty-Nine - Relief.

I set my alarm for 6:20 this morning, which felt like a long lie in compared to my 5:45 starts of recent. I packed everything up, and was out by 7:30, set off at 8:30. I did speak to a couple of eastbound cyclists though, one of whom was 18, and other who was significantly older. We chatted for a bit, before setting out on our seperate ways.

The first few miles were an easy downhill, before reaching the first summit of the day. Compared to yesterday, this summit was easy, and K was up and over it in not too much time. There was a second one about 6 miles on, but again that didn't take too long. I was 26 miles in by this point, and had a mainly downhill stretch to the finish. I was also surprised that the wind wasn't blowing strongly at all, and the sun wasn't too feirce. To be honest this stretch was quite boring, because the road was straight, and the scenery only changed once every 20 miles or so. The only company I had (other than traffic) were some fighter jets way up high playing about. I only realised they were there from a sonic boom from one, making me jump out my skin. I guess it must have been too high to see.

I was hoping to stop for a break at a place called cold springs. I arrived there 5 miles after the wind had picked up, looking everywhere for the cafe in the 'cafe and RV park'. I stopped to ponder, and noticed a flat area of tiled flooring, and a tree that was scorched on one side. It had obviously burnt down. Reluctantly I went off to my finishing point. It was only 15 miles away, but I was in the mood for a sit down break.

I arrived at 2:30 or so, and went into one of two buildings that are in this place. Middlegate used to be a stop over place for people on the pony express, but became redundant after the invention of the telegraph. As a result, it's fairly tired looking, and most things that are here are old. By that, I mean there is a rusted Ford Model-T parked outside from goodness knows when, next to a horse cart that's been there even longer. I went into the bar and got my usual massive drink, and discovered that they somehow have wireless there. I guess the telephone box in the middle of the car park outside is also redundant now. I caught up on business, before deciding that I wanted to get a room rather than slum it in a car park. It only cost $30, which frankly is a bargain. Everything here is 'adequate' rather than 'nice', but it's a darn sight better than my sleeping bag. I don't get any TV channels, so the bar has a load of DVD's you can watch, which was cool.

After settling in and watching 'Not Another Teen Movie', I went back to eat. I noticed this on the menu earlier, but couldn't manage it rgwb, but felt very up for it now. It was called a monster burger, and was basically a big mac on steroids. By that, I mean it was well over 6" tall and had 1lb of beef in it. The deal was that you get that and a portion of French fries, and if you eat it all you get a t-shirt. It needed to be done, so I got it. I don't know if you've ever seem a pound of meat in front of you on a plate, but it's a lot. The knife they give you to eat it with is more of an offensive weapon than a utencil. I am pleased to report that I was successful, and have my T-shirt. It has a typo on it and is a tiny bit moth eaten, but I wasn't going to wear it anyway so it just adds to the sentimentality.

I'm off to Silver Springs tomorrow, which is on my last map! I spoke to an eastbounder who is staying here too, who told me about how awful a stretch is coming up, the day I'm doing 84 miles to Placerville. Apparently the hills are hugely rolling. As much as I want to believe him, I do go from 8000ft to sea level, and he did the opposite, so I think the odds are in my favour.

Day Sixty-Eight - The Final Countdown.

Today marks one week until I am hoping to arrive in San Francisco!

I woke up this morning at 5:45, to find it absolutely freezing cold. I knew it got cold overnight in the desert, but up until now I'd never experienced it. I had to try and find my hat and gloves at the bottom of my bag before getting ready, which in turn was made harder because my hands were so cold. I went down the road for an omlette, that was completely unsatisfying, leading me to order two slices of French toast. This came to $18 after tip, so perhaps I'll fill up on stuff from a petrol station next time. There was also a powercut for about half an hour, so all this was done in darkness.

I got on the road by 8:30, and started out with a downhill for about 10 miles. This was followed by a very straight road for about 30 miles. This was relatively painless, and I hit halfway in about two and a half hours. The wind began picking up though, which as usual spoilt plans. It probably was blowing harder than it has done ever before, making me hope that the windspeed doesn't increase exponecially the further west I go. I also passed a man wandering in the desert without anything. I didn't stop to ask him if he needed anything though, because I assumed that if he did then he would ask.

I reached 55 miles or so only encountering one hill, which was quite good going. The last 15 miles or so would prove to be awful though, and took probably as long as the first half (if not more) to do. It was a combination of the midday heat, an inquenchable thirst due to the dry air and my overall tiredness finished me off, and I had to prop my bike up to make a small amount of shade and rest for a bit.

The rest of the ride took close to two hours to do 10 miles, 3 of which were downhill. I guess that shows how often I had to stop. It's not so
much that the temperature isn't hot (because it is), it's more the strengh that the sun is shining down on you. It completely saps your energy, and there is no shade to escape to.

Enough complaining. I rolled down into Austin at around 3pm having lost all the time i'd made up earlier. I went for my now routine massive rehydradion from a petrol station, before thinking about somewhere to stay. I'm starting to find that because Nevada is so sparse, they tend to do motels rather than csmpsites because they are more popular, especially in the quiet in-between towns like this one. That, and the fact that I was feeling positively grim made the decision to stay in a motel a no-brainer. I went to the one called the Cozy Mountain Motel, because it had been recently refurbished and had the best sign. It was only $40 too. I let a guy go in front of me in the queue, who ended up getting the last queen bed in the place, but I'm fine with what I have.

Tomorrow I'm planning a lie-in of sorts, before heading out on the main route (as opposed to the Carroll Summit Alternate) to another tiny place called Middlegate. The Carroll Alternate takes you off Highway 50 'for a change', up and over a summit. I'd much rather stay on the main route and take the long downhill, with one smaller summit. After then, I'm not sure where because it's on my last map, which is exciting because it's becoming more real now.

Day Sixty-Seven - Second Month.

I woke up at 5:30 again today, beating my alarm again. Instead of rolling over and going back to sleep for 15 minutes, I seized the moment and got up. My new favourite TV channel TBS is the same broadcasting nationwide, so the TV I used to watch between 7-10 eastern time now starts at 4, so it kind of works in my favour. After a quick chat on the phone (mornings are way more convenient now), I went over to the first McDonalds I'd seen in a while. I knew that I had a long day ahead, so I made the effort to eat as much as I could to get the whole way through. I therefore went for the deluxe breakfast, consisting of a hash brown, scrambled egg, a flat sausage (like a burger), a biscuit (like a fried looking English muffin, i'm not too fond) and three pancakes. I also had a fountain drink (which are unlimited here) and a large vanilla milkshake. As I'm sure you can appreciate, this took a while to tackle, and as planned, I was stuffed. I decided that feeling overly full at the start was better than being completely empty at the end, which more often than not happens anyway because I can't carry enough food to satisfy my appetite during the day.

I set off at 9am eventually, having been chatting to a couple who's son had done this trip a couple of years ago from Oregon to Virginia. They were telling me all of the things he was suffering from when he got back, all of which I can empathise with. I was straight into my first hill on leaving, which was really easy to be honest. It was an 18 mile gradual climb to the top, which was made easier by the fact that it was the first of the day. I thought it was 22 miles to the next summit from here, which upon later inspection was actually 25. I didn't realise this when I was climbing up the side of the hill though, going round every corner and switchback at 7mph wondering why I wasn't at the top yet. I eventually made it, and began down the other side.

The wind had been blowing from the west all morning, but I think it must have kicked up a gear at this point because the downhill was hugely unsatisfying for all the hard work i'd put in. I was thinking of the best way to explain this to someone earlier, and best analagy I could think of is this. You know when you're walking in a swimming pool, but you obviously can't walk as easily or as fast? That's exactly the same as pedalling into a headwind. Downhill in a headwind is slightly better, but you just don't go that fast and get completely battered by the air.

Anyway, by this point I had two more summits to reach. One was a kind of mini-looking one on the map, and I should have known better to think it was. It was a short and steep one, which are always the deceptive ones. I had a longish gradual downhill from here into the wind, that was hard work but better than uphill. Because the landscape is so vast, you can see the straight road ahead of you for 20 miles. I thought I saw a petrol station way off in the distance that was something to aim for, but by the time I got to it I realised it was just a tree. Damn. To put me in a further bad mood, my cycling pet peeve of all pet peeves occurred. The one thing that annoys me more than anything is the need for overtaking on a road that everyone is going the same speed on anyway. It doesn't affect me usually, because I always get overtaken. But people overtaking other people when they are oncoming does affect me, because it means I've got a car travelling at about 70mph in my lane towards me, leaving me no choice but to have to pull right over onto the verge to make rude gestures at them.

The final hill was a long one, partly because it was long in actual milage, and partly because I was feeling sapped from 7 hours in the sun. I'm not sure how well time translates over here, but well over an hour on a hill is a long time. When I was at the top I had a 4 mile
downhill to Eureka where I was stopping. On arrival, I went to the only petrol station I could see, and helped myself to a 44 floz fountain drink. (I don't know what that is in normal measurements but it was just what I needed.) I found a tiny bit of wifi from somewhere and managed to get emails. While I was sat there, someone told me which of two RV parks were better to stay at, fortunately it was the one that was about a mile back uphill. Excellent, I thought, and begrudgingly got back on and went up to it. I was glad I did when I arrived, the other one looked a bit of a dump. I'm not adverse to having a shower in one that has been a bit neglected, but I am fairly partial to the clean ones, which made the uphill worth it. The woman that saw me only charged me $5 to camp, and the piece of grass I'm on is well sprincled, which is quite a luxury when it comes to putting tent pegs into the driest state in the US.

That pretty much brings me to now, I'm in a Diner/Casino, though though think less Las Vegas and more Wild Wild West. The casino part is in a side room to where I am now, making it seem slightly taboo to go in there. I had traditional fish and chips tonight, which I must say was a good effort. The fish was Halibert rather than Cod, but I can't really fault them on that because I'm not sure they know what a cod is here.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Austin, a place that shares it's name with the hometown of Lance Armstrong. It's a 68 mile ride, and is easier than today was (I hope), with the rest of this downhill I'm on now, followed by a very slow uphill, and then a weird kind of mountain complex that is a bit like a crab claw. The only thing that will mess it up is the wind, so I think I'll try and get some good
miles in while the air is cooler. That reminds me, I somehow got sunburnt on my shoulders THROUGH my top, and managed to miss putting suncream round my eyes this morning so I look a bit like a panda now.

Day Sixty-Six - Winds.

I had quite a disturbed night last night, I found out that I'd put my tent up in a place that fighting animals frequented, with bouts every couple of hours. I woke up at about 5:30 though, feeling fairly refreshed. I packed everything up, and wanted to go to the place accross the street to eat, but it wasn't open, so I had to go to the place I camped at. This was no big deal really, but I kind of resented paying $10 for an omlette. The guy that owned it was nice, but miserable, and had a note in the menu telling 'foreigners' what is the US custom for tipping, which was again the upper bound of what I've been doing.

So I set off at about 8 o'clock, and I was straight onto my first hill. It was 15 miles long from bottom to top, and because of the time difference I'd lost an hour, so it was hotter an hour earlier. I also was down to my navy blue top, something that I hadn't worn for a while because it would make me too hot, and it did just that. It didn't take too long to get to the top though, and I was onto the downhill the far side. The downhill is where I usually make up time that I lost on the uphill, but this wasn't to be re case here. The downhill was straight into the wind, that both made progress about as slow as I was going uphill, but also sapped my energy. This went on for about 12 miles before turning west and out of the headwind. It was still affecting me from the side though, and luckily there was an unmarked pub that I could stop at at around halfway. I stopped here for about an hour, before heading the 5 miles to the summit of the next pass. It was steeper this time, and the fact that it was hot didn't help. It took close to an hour to get to the top, after which I had a 20 mile steady downhill to Ely, the end point for today. The wind picked up again here, and held me up further.

I eventually made it to Ely, and went straight to the Motel I was staying at. It was a Motel 6, which are I think the cheapest of the big chains. I was completely sapped of energy by this point, and the nearest campsite was a few miles out of town. I booked in, went for something to eat, and then came back to do some much needed handwashing of clothes.

Tomorrow I head to Eureka (another one), which is 78 miles and 4 passes away. It sounds tough, but the uphill gradients aren't too steep so it should be easier than the past couple of days.

Day Sixty-Five - Independance Day.

I woke up at 5:45 today, keen to get on the road as early as possible. I knew today would be long, but I wasn't sure how long, so by setting out early I could make the best of it.

I left my room at about 7:30, and went in search of food. The person who I asked at the restaurant last night told me everything would be shut, but I found a petrol station that wasn't. I opted for the only thing I could find - preheated breakfast muffins in a heater. They weren't great, and were expensive for what they were, but it had to do. I left at around 8am, but not before my bike decided to spontaneously fall over (it does that a lot because of the uneven weight spread over it), crushing all of the Doritos I'd planned for lunch. Great.

So I set off, passing a diner and a nice hotel on my way out. I was a bit annoyed, but there was no way to know it was there before, and I wasn't going to stop again. As I said yesterday, the route was over three passed, with two valleys and a long drawn out downhill to the 84 mile finish line. The first pass wasn't too bad, partly because it wasn't too high or too hot, and partly because I was feeling relatively fresh. I can't remember exactly how far it was, but it didn't take too long to reach the top, and I went over and down into a massive valley. It was deceptive how big it was, but put it this way, from the top of one side, you could probably see the road about 15-20 miles further up on the other mountains the far side. If you spotted the tiny spec of a car coming down, you could easily wait 10 minutes before it overtook you. Massive.

Luckily, I could freewheel about two-thirds of the way accross, because the far side was steep. This took me quite a lot longer to conquer, especially as it was hotting up by this point. I reached the top, and freewheeled down the far side, to a view that was fairly similar to what I had just come accross. The downhill wasn't as long this time though, and had to pedal a lot of the valley. There was a tree by the side of the road though, that I thought would be a good place for a break. Unfortunately though, many many ants and other bugs called that shade home, and I quickly got back into the sun to escape being eaten alive.

So I started up the third hill, which wasn't as bad as the second but harder than the first. I remember the exact mileage was 52 miles at the third summit, leaving a long, gradual downhill to my end point. This wasn't as easy as i'd thought it'd be. I was getting tired by this point, but then I knew I would because I always do when I miss out on a proper lunch. A headwind was brewing like usual, and a thunderstorm with occasional lightning bolts were on the horizon.

Progress slowed, but I arrived at about 3pm local time having crossed the state line into Nevada, marking my transition into Pacific time. I stopped for a drink in the first place I saw, which happened to be a coffee shop, restaurant, campsite and motel. I didn't know all this until I arrived, and the guy who served me told me that I could camp for free if I ate there. Sounded good to me, so I accepted and here I am eating. At $17 for a Thai curry, it's a little pricy, but I prefer to think of it as camping with a $2 meal.

I think I'm heading to a place called Ely tomorrow, said 'ellie' rather than 'ee-lie'. I can't remember how far it is, it's either 63 or 78. I'm hoping for the former.

Day Sixty-Four - Easy Start.

I had a fairly restless night last night, facing a catch 22 situation of being either too hot, or waking up with a headache because it's too cold. As a result I didn't get up until 6:25, and didn't get on the road until about 9:30, after going to a hardware store to pick up some better tape to fix the front racks better.

The first 20 miles or so were easy, a gentle decline through landscape that was wide open, something that was quite a novelty compared to what I'd been going through recently. After that, I had a fairly steady uphill, that was surprisingly easy going, and not as steep as I was expecting. It didn't slow me up too much either. I soon reached the 6500ft summit, and cruised downhill to Minersville.

I stopped for lunch in a petrol station/diner combo for around an hour, not minding the time because Milford was only about 15 miles away. I eventually left and headed down the road, again taking less time than I thought. I was quite grateful for this, because historically the days after rest days have been hard to get back into the swing of cycling.

When I arrived in Milford, I was quite surprised at how quiet it was, I was expecting a town slightly larger. Anyway, I followed the directions to the RV park where it suggested camping, which was basically a shingle car park with a tap in the middle. There are so many reasons why this place wasn't suitable, so many that I can't be bothered to mention. I therefore headed to a motel that advertised '$34.99 rooms.' Brilliant, I thought. It turned out that sign was painted years ago, and I couldn't really dispute it because the owners barely spoke English. So I got into my room, spoke to home, and went out to eat at the restaurant next to where I was. It was here that it struck me as to the relevance to tomorrow, in that I think EVERYWHERE will be shut. I therefore stocked up on snacks, and I'm just hoping that somewhere is.

I've got an 84 mile stretch to a place called Baker tomorrow, which is the longest stretch without services I have left. I do have plenty more of 70 and 60 miles, but I suppose I can take some kind of milestone from it. I also pass into Nevada, and Pacific Time in about the last 5 miles. The route consists of three hills, two with an incline roughly like today, and one that is quite a bit steeper. We will see how all that pans out.

Day Sixty-Three - Rest Day V.

Today was a very lazy day, spent doing nothing more than venturing out twice for food, and snoozing / watching TV. The weather was fairy overcast and didn't get any higher than about 70 degrees, so it wasn't as though I missed out on a huge amount.

Tomorrow I am heading to a place called Milford, which is around 55-60 miles or so. It's also fairly flat too, something I'm quite glad about. I say flat, it has one hill, but I don't think it goes on for longer than about 10 miles or so. The route is due north however, which is annoying, but it's going up to Highway 50 which is pretty direct, so I don't mind too much.

Day Sixty-Two - Cedar Breaks.

Today was another slow start, but the thought of having a rest day tomorrow was motivation enough. I was on the road again by 8:30, and was straight onto the uphill I had to overcome today.

The climb today has only one word to describe it. Long. It was 36 miles of continual uphill through terrain that reminded me quite a lot of that in Missiouri, very green, with pine trees on either side. There wasn't a huge amount going on either side of the road to be honest, and the only thing worth commenting on was how it got quite a lot cooler by the time I had reached the top. It was also increasingly overcast, with ominous looking black clouds coming overhead.

It took exactly four hours to get to the top, but the downhill into cedar city of about 25 miles took about half an hour/ 45 minutes. On arrival, I found a motel that had everything I needed for $36 per night. Bargain. It's perfectly adequate inside too, so I'm happy

Sorry for the briefness of this post, I was just about asleep before remembering I hadn't done one, and I wanted to make sure I got the main stuff down. If I remember anything else I'll put it on tomorrow.

Day Sixty-One - Change of Fortune.

Today was a slow start, almost like a hangover from last nights lethargy. I persuaded myself to get up (it's 6am at this time), and was packed up by 7:30 or so. I made sure I had a good breakfast, and was off by 8:45, after realising the only petrol station around was back at the other end of town. (I needed to buy bottled water because the stuff out the ground was cloudy.)

I can't remember if I said this yesterday, but the overall plan for today was up, down, up, down, all in roughly equal proportions. The first 18 to the top took exactly two hours. (I know this because I listened to a 2 hour Kissy Sell Out show from Radio1.) This was hard work as it was heating up quickly, but by the time I got to the top I didn't mind because I could cool down on the decent. I swept past about four eastbound cyclists, who only could manage to say to me 'how far?' in reference to the climb. I'm assuming it was a tough uphill. I cruised downhill, and made it to a place called Tropic for lunch. I was grateful for the stop by this point, I was feeling tired and a bit dehydrated by this point. (I had no need to be, but I couldn't be bothered to stop two miles out to refill.)

I had a hamburger from the only restaurant I could find, fortunately having WiFi. Over an hour passed, and I thought I'd better leave. I wasn't full from lunch though, so stopped in a shop for an energy drink. I don't know / doubt you've been following, but on Twitter I bet someone I could find a bigger can of one than they could, something that I succeeded in doing here. 946ml is the total to beat. I had that, and was absolutely wired on B Vitamins and sugar. I'm not sure if it was this (I expect it was) or my choice of music (a guy who goes by the name of Arnej), but I shot up the next hill with ease. It was ridiculously steep, but it only went on for less than 10 miles so either it didn't take too long, or I was well entertained in the process. I went past turn offs to Bryce Canyon, which I've been told is very nice, and into Red Canyon. Along here I was diverted onto a cycle path, the first I'd been on in literally thousands of miles. It felt really weird to be honest, everything on it was like a normal road, but minature, making me feel like an absolute giant thundering down a normal road. This was all good fun, I took lots of photos, etc etc, and before too long I was back onto the road and on the final decent into (I can never remember the name of this place....) Panguitch.

I found where I was camping, set up my tent, and went to find somewhere to eat. I wasn't up for something expensive, so walked past the place that looked expensive, and went to somewhere that looked a bit run down from the outside. Of course, it would have to be the case that I'd got it wrong with my pricing assumptions, and ended up ordering the cheapest thing on the menu at $13.50. It was very nice, but to be honest it was wasted on me because I'd have probably just as soon had a mcdonalds if there was one.

Anyway I'm back at my campsite now, about to get an early night for tomorrows monumental climb to Cedar City. It's a bit like today, only both of the uphills are one after another, followed by both downhills one after the other.

The title of this post is in reference to my front rack (as well as me finding it a lot easier than anticipated) because in a similar way to what happened when I broke the first side, I found another bungee cord at the side of the road, meaning it will probably last until California now. :)

Day Sixty - Exhausted.

I set my alarm for 5:45 today, in an effort to try and beat the heat that I knew was coming. I got on the road eventually at 8:30, after an ordeal at a petrol station trying to get some cash back from one of my two cards since the ATM was empty. Neither of them worked (the guy must not have known what he was doing because one of the two always works), so I was forced to leave with only pocket change.

The first 25 miles were mostly uphill, with a few deceptive downhills that made me think I was further than I was. Eventually the downhill did come, just in time for the rain. Rain again in Utah!! Luckily it was only really at the top, so having put all my rain stuff on, I was peeling it off 10 minutes later,

The downhill went way too fast for my liking, and I was in 'Boulder Town' before I knew it. I pulled into a place that was a museum type building, and got talking to four young-ish people. It turned out (though they may well have been lying, it seems kind of weird) that two of them were on their honeymoon, and the other two were tagging along. They were doing backpacking, so perhaps it was to make up numbers. They fed me a small assortment of weird foods such as Wasabi peas and peanut butter filled pretzls. (they were from Oregon, apparently they're all quirky up there..). They drove off, and I went inside to ask if there was an ATM around so I could get money out. The woman snapped 'no.' quickly back at me, so I left. It was only 20something miles from here to Escalante, so I thought I'd just go for it.

My map told me that it was almost all downhill into Escalante with the exception if a short uphill. It turned out that this short uphill hadn't been drawn to scale, as I must have spent the best part of 45 minutes getting up it. It felt like it was vertical (which it almost was, as steep as any hill in the Appalacians). Once at the peak of that, it was downhill to the finish, but luckily for me my old friend the headwind was back, meaning I had to pedal downhill to maintain a mere 11mph.

I eventually made it, and stopped in the first place I saw, which luckily had a subway. Of course, I couldn't buy anything until I withdrew money, which meant going back to a petrol station I'd passed. I decided not to pedal back uphill, making my walk seem like hours. To cut a long story short, I eventually ate, but I was already beyond lethargic. I eventually persuaded myself to leave the unlimited drink machine in peace, and went up to put my tent up in the RV park. The earth here is as good as concrete, so I've had to do another bench tye-up to hold my tent up.

So tomorrow I've got a 67 mile ride to Panguitch, involving an up and over of two 'hills' (though at 7400ft and 7900ft or so, they have the potential to be killers). After Panguich, I have a steep 33 miles uphill from 6650ft or so up to 10500ft, and then an equally steep decent into Cedar City, for a much needed rest day. I also need to have a look at front racks there, because my right one has snapped in the same way as the left one has. I wasn't so bad when it was just one, because I moved all the essential items into the working bag, but now they're both out, they're both out of action. Either that, or I'll need to have a major reshuffle and prioritisation of stuff.

Day Fifty-Nine - Bitten.

After a fairly restless night, I was up by 6:25 and on the road by 8:30.

To be honest, today was mostly uneventful. My route today was straight along the same road for 50 miles to a place called Torrey, with the incline being progressively uphill the whole way. The first part was fairly flat, and I was able to average around 14mph, but towards the end it got a lot steeper. It also was very hot today, though this could have been because I wasn't moving very fast. I got bitten a fair amount by Mosquitos, the only creatures that seem to survive in the desert. Perhaps it was me smelling, or my legs, or that my panniers are flourescent yellow. I need to pick up some repellent at some point, they are a nightmare.

I arrived in Torrey at around 1:30, and decided that I wanted to stay in a hotel to get out the heat. I opted for the Sandstone Inn, which is $74 per night. I didn't mind that too much though, I've earnt a surplus from camping the past couple of days.

Tomorrow I'm heading to a place called Escalante, an even 60 or so, including the peak I've been working towards today. This is my third-to-last major peak (over 8000ft), with the next one the day after tomorrow and the last being before I swoop down to sea level. I've worked out that I have 14 more cycling days to go, throw in a rest day and that means I'll be arriving in San Francisco on the 13th July. Exciting Stuff!

Day Fifty-Eight - Day in the Desert II.

I set my alarm for the same time as yesterday, but that was obviously optimistic because after my fourth 'snooze' I set a new alar
for 6:30. I managed to haul myself up, and after a breakfast of protein-type cereal bars, I set off at 8:00 on the dot.

My riding was progressively up for the first half, and progressively down for the second half. It was more of the same scenery while I was going up, moving between the shade of the massive canyons either side of me and the hot sun that was still low in the sky. I could have taken pictures all day, but it was again kind of important to reach my destination before I got grilled, There was no danger of rain today.

The last 10 miles or so were in more what I would call 'desert', with wide open views and scrub bushes scattered about. I'm looking forward to my first piece of tumbleweed, but today wasn't the day.

I arrived into Hanksville at.. I don't know what time. Lunchtime. I pulled up at a service station, that was relatively heaving. I was surprised to see so many people there, I guess it was because it's the last stop before the desert. One thing that surprised me was that there were a huge amount of water-going vessels. Powerboats, Jetskis, Canoes, the lot. I couldn't help thinking that they were a couple of hundred million years too late, but I guess there must be something here for them.

I went to the only campsite I could find, which was conveniently not far away. It has wifi too, which was great. The only problem I found was that it was hotting up now I didn't have my self-generated breeze in my face. I chatted to people on Facebook for a little while, before deciding enough was enough, and I didn't want to be hot anymore. I went for a shower and then as fast as I could went back to where I had lunch, where I promptly froze. This must seem like a completely irrelevant problem to peoples everyday stresses back home, but for me this is about the size of it. I left there after taking full advantage of the unlimited refill policy, and went to the restaurant conjoined to my campsite, getting some much needed vegetables, which brings me to now, where I've been typing up yesterday and todays blogs which has taken me hours. I rather short sightedly put my yet under a fruit tree, thinking it'd offer me shade. It didn't, but it does have a whole load of flies that enjoy eating the fallen fruit on the floor.

I have no idea where I'm going tomorrow, but I know it's almost all uphill. I'm not sure what your preconceptions of Utah are, but it is a lot hillier than I thought. It is by no means flat open plains that I was expecting, making this quite a tough place for riding.

Day Fifty-Seven - Day in the Desert I.

This post refers to Friday 26th June.

I set my alarm early this morning (5:25) so I could get on the road as soon as possible. I wanted to make it to my stopping destination at a tiny place called Hite by the time their shop shut at 4pm so I could stock up on snacks and fluids.

As it turned out, the place I went to breakfast (I found out that the my hotel in fact only serves morning coffee) were leisurely in service and large in portions, meaning 8:30 was the best I could manage. By then, it had already rained twice, which was bizzarre because I thought it didn't rain in the desert? Anyway, my first 20-30 miles were mostly uphill, and took me quite a while to complete. It was getting hot by this point, but nowhere near what I thought. To be honest it was like any other hot day I've had. After these 30 miles, the rest was progressively downhill, very much appreciated. It meant I could get some miles in a lot faster.

During the latter part of the ride, I noticed black clouds and darkness following me (made to look pretty appcalyptic through my sunglasses), so I had a new challenge - beat the rain.

As it happened, I arrived at my stop place with two hours to spare, partly because the shop was open an hour later than I expected it to be. Hite was quite an interesting place as it turned out, it has only existed in it's current form for about 40 or 50 years because old Hite is now underwater from a dam that's been built. It's got the population of something ridiculous like 20, and is a settlement that only came about due to a gold rush a while back. They have a communal telephone (there I was thinking I might get wifi...), a grocery store/petrol station, helipad/runway, and that's about it.

I went inside the grocery store to buy some drinks and spoke to someone who had a badge that looked like one of those old sherrif badges, so I assume he was either a sherrif or a park ranger. He showed me a nice spot on the porch of a building next to the helipad I could camp on. It as concrete again, but at least it wasn't shingle. To be honest, I had more facilities than I was expecting, I had a public toilet all to my myself and some picnic benches under the porch to tie my tent up to. While I was doing that, two bikers pulled up, asking about the route I'd come. It turned out they'd been there for two days, waiting the right conditions to head out to blanding. They eventually did at 4pm, meaning they wouldn't arrive until pretty late tonight. Very late in fact. Almost right as they left, it started to rain, prompting two motorcyclists to pull up, one who lipped for half an hour and the other who I spoke to. It turned out they had rode from Telluride today, making my days seem ridiculously short compared to theirs. They left when it stopped raining, and I ate snacks and read the cycling magazine I bought at Heathrow for the rest of the evening. I found that magazine painfully boring, but for some reason it's become interesting. Perhaps I've become a bike geek.

Tomorrow I'll be off to a town called Hanksville, which is only 50 or so miles, but as I mentioned before I'm dictacted by where towns are slightly. I'm hoping to get some Internet / some sort of signal, I feel quite disconnected at the moment.

Day Fifty-Six - Preparation.

Today was a part rest day, having only furthered myself 20 miles.

Last night was uncomfortable at best, and my optimism of last night was... optimistic. It didn't matter too much though, because I wasn't going far. I packed up, went to the restaurant next door for an omlette, and was on the road by 8:30. To be honest, the riding was mostly uneventful, but I could definitely tell I was moving into desert, with the ground gradually turning into red dust.

I arrived in Blanding at about 10:30, and realised that I didn't really have anywhere to go. At 11 I went down to the Super8, where they luckily had a room available for me. After getting in, I chatted to home for a bit, went out to eat and bu stuff for tomorrow / the next day, and currently my laundry is tumble drying.

Tomorrow I am heading out into the desert overnight, and am camping at a place called Hite Recreation Park. There is a campsite and grocery there, so It's not as if there will be NOTHING. The following day I'll be heading to a place called Hanksville. I've found with Utah that in a similar way to Kansas, you are fairly dictated to how far you go each day by how the towns are laid out, so some days will be longer than others.

Day Fifty- Five - Utah.

I've invented a new alarm on my phone called 'lie in', that goes off at 06:45. Today was the first time I tried it, and it worked wonderfully. After much faffing about and talking on IM to home (seems to be the only way at the moment), I was ready to go by about 9:45. After yesterdays shennnigans, I concluded that my inner tubes that I'd spent were beyond repair, as in each case the valve was damaged. I rolled up to the bike shop to find that it opened at 10. No big deal, I thought. 10:20 came and went, without any sign of it opening. I did speak to a guy who was at the shop on behalf of his family, buying tyres. Apparently there were four of them who had come from San Francisco and were going to somewhere up in Canada. I asked how long ago they left, to which he replied 3 and a half weeks. Fair enough, but he then went on to tell me that they were only doing 20-30 miles per day. There must have been a breakdown in communication somewhere...

Anyway, the shop eventually opened, and I got 2 tubes for $10. bargain. Time was pressing on, and so I said my goodbyes and left. I was quite pleased to find that my corridor between mountains opened out into rolling countryside, much like that of western Kansas. I had fairly simple navigation too, 10 miles on one road, 50something on another. Just as I was coming down a hill and preparing to make the transition from one to the other, I felt a searing pain on my stomach, so much so that I had to pull over to see what it was. It turned out I'd either had a bee back into me at 30mph, or I'd caught it up, and it was hanging off me by it's sting. I quickly discarded it, and went for some bite cream, witch on opening wouldn't stop coming out, must be the pressure or something.. anyway. I tended to that, and was back on my way.

The riding for today was mostly uneventful. The roads were back to being straight, but there were a lot of undulations. The Ozarks of the West would be the best way to describe it, only they were slightly more drawn out than the real thing. They were plenty tiring enough though, and by the time the state border came with 18 miles to go, I'd had enough for today. I plodded on into the headwind (that's what you get for hanging about in the morning), and eventually reached Montecello (the second one I've been to since being here, I can't remember where the other was, all I can remember is Bert the Dutch guy saying it in his accent, so it must be Virginia). I had the option to go on 20 miles to Blanding, but I opted against, having been told there is a big hill between here and there.

I found my RV park of choice, which was absolutely deserted. I was prompted to pay at an ATM machine thing for the site ($15), and I could have wherever I wanted. While I was deciding where, it began to pour, so I made for a sheltered driveway area and decided that would be it. It is on gravel, but I've slept on concrete before since being here (Telluride was rock solid too), so I prioritized staying dry with comfort. I put my tent up spectacularly (I have a photo that I'll eventually get round to putting on here), without the use of any tent pegs. My tent isn't free-standing either, which makes it even better. It is a bit of a death trap getting in and out of, but ducking under ropes and over a strategically placed bike is a minor inconvenence I'm willing to put up with.

I'm now writing this in an ice cream parlour, having had an Oreo Malt. I didn't spot my usual hot fudge until after I sat down, it was on special offer today at $1.99. Dang.

Anyway, I'm off to Blanding tomorrow, the grand total of 21 or so miles away. The reason for doing this are as follows - It's cheaper than getting a room for two nights, I don't need to spend a day going 0 miles, and there is nothing for 74 miles west of there, so I kind of have to go there. It will give me a chance to do some laundry and all that kind of stuff too.

Day Fifty-Four - Punctures.

My alarm went off at 5:50am this morning, in the hope that I'd get up earlier. It didn't work, and I just hit snooze a couple more times. I went up to the bakery that I ate at last night, and ended up having an apple fritter pastry thing, and a chocolate brownie. Traditional breakfast items were way overpriced compared to cakes, so I beat the system on that one.

I hit the road at 8:30, and started the long uphill to Lizard Head Pass. at 10,000ft, thi was the second highest pass I've done. It was a 16 mile uphill, and it took just over two hours to complete. The weather was good at this point, so it wasn't anywhere near as cold as it was over monument pass. The rest of the day was to be downhill, which I was very much looking forward to.

13 miles later, and I stopped at a place called Rico for lunch / a break. Here, my luck changed for the worse. Just as I arrived, a rain / hailstorm did too, and I was forced to wait for about an hour for it to blow over. Luckily, it did, and I didn't get wet. I set off again, but after no more than 6 or 7 miles, my brand new supposed 'super tough flat tyre resistant' tyre failed me, and I got a flat. Great, I thought. I quickly fixed that, and got on my way. Little did I know that a tiny stone had gotten between the valve and the rim when I changed the inner tube, so after a further 100m it was flat again. I must mention that I keep my inner tubes in the pannier I have to tie to the rack, so it's a pain to have to go into the bag. It was for that reason that I attempted to tape up the hole to see if that worked, which of course it didn't. I therefore decided another new tube was needed, so I undid all the rope, and fitted a new tube, this time with a Presta valve. Just as I was packed up and ready to go, it was flat. AGAIN. I realised it was because the inner part of the valve was bent, making the air come straight back out. I was spitting blood at this point with frustration, and went back into the bag for my last schrader valve tube. After fitting this and snapping both my tyre levers in the process (they were cheap and plastic anyway, I have others), I finally got going. I was absolutely paranoid about getting another puncture, knowing that I wouldn't be able to fix it without digging out the puncture repair kit.

The rest of the ride was largely uneventful, though paranoia was on my mind the whole time, and I stopped probably twice to put more air in unnecessarily. As far as I'm aware it's okay now, but I need to get a couple of tubes tomorrow, the ones I used today are beyond repair.

I'm staying in a motel tonight, overpriced but necessary because the weather is closing in. I also feel in need of a good nights sleep. Tomorrow I'm heading to Monticello, Utah, and the day after that is a really short day to a place called Blanding, the reason being I have a 74 mile stretch without anything, and then a tiny campsite place called Hite Recreation Area where I think I'll stay, and then a 54 mile stretch of nothing before the next place. Some do the 124 miles in one day, but I honestly don't think I can do that.

Day Fifty-Three - To Hell You Ride.

This morning was an early start, as a always the way when you're camping. My first thought of the day was how ridiculously cold it was, which it was. By 7:30 I'd completely packed up, and headed down to Sonic again, who's breakfasts are comparably cheap compared to similar places. I opted for the breakfast burrito with tater tots, like little hash brown nuggets. I've decided 'tater tots' should only ever be ordered by an American, saying those two words in my english accent just makes me sound ridiculous.

I was off by 8:30, and onwards and upwards, literally. Out of the 67 scheduled miles for today, 54 of them were uphill, with only a 13 mile downhill from a mountain pass as compensation for my hard work. It wasn't as steep as I'd thought it would be, and for a lot of the time I maintained a speed around 11/12mph. There were about 7 or 8 miles that I'd class as steep, miles where I was pinned in my lowest gear and plodding upwards only just faster than walking pace.

I stopped at a little shop at a place called placerville, 13 miles from Telluride, at the bottom of my 13 mile downhill. I spoke to two cyclists here who had come down from Telluride, and were quick to tell me how steep the uphill was. They also told me that they had been at a bluegrass festival there all weekend, and so camping in the park would be fine. Great, I thought. It was while I was stopped here that I noticed my back tire. It was completely bald, and my inner tube was punctured. Quite frankly I was gutted, I had come this far without a puncture, and getting one now was a kick in the teeth. I was more worried about my tire though, Having spent this entire trip going past shredded car tires at the side of the road, I didn't want that to be me in the middle of the desert. I pumped it up as best I could, and started my final ascent of the day. It was nowhere near as steep as I was told, except for maybe the last couple of miles. It did take a while though,
I had to keep stopping to pump up the problematic tire.

Eventually I arrived in Telluride, a place that I was quickly told is not named after hell, but after Tellinium (something like that) that was mined here. Whatever, my map says it got my nickname because in it's hayday it had something like 24 saloons and brothels in a tiny area. Another urban myth is that skiing was invented here by scandinavians (apparently) who wanted to get down the mountain faster than the others on payday. A famous bank robbery also took place here, were someone just waltzed in and took $10,000 (in the 19th century) unchallenged.

Enough trivia. It became obvious that this place was indeed the Monaco of the ski world, for the high rollers and celebrities as it had been described to me. There is a weird right of way system that is the exact opposite to normal, pedestrians priporitise over bikes (of which there are a LOT), who prioritize over cars. There are lots of expensive restaurants, and even more expensive hotels. Camping it was then.

When in Rome, I managed to spend $95 in about 10 minutes. $65 on a tire (which is extortionate, but it's meant to be the American Schwalbe Marathon, so fingers crossed), and $30 on a BUFF!!! I managed to find a shop that sells them!! (Again, for an extortionate price, but I wasn't in a position to argue It's a bit smaller than I remember them, but then again I have grown considerably since I last had one).

I went to my campsite, paid my $15 for my spot, had a cold shower ($3 for 5 mind of hot water? I don't think so), and went out to find food. I ended up in a little bakery place, where I had a Calzone pizza. I've decided that olives should be left out by default, and if you want them then they can put them in. Nobody likes olives...

Anyway, I must go, as it's getting dark, and I fear I'm outstaying my welcome with my phone charger in the wall. Tomorrow I'm going to Dolores, the end point on this map, perhaps further if there is a better place further up. Watch this space.

Day Fifty-Two - Downhill.

Another early start saw me on the road at around 9am, having fitted in a phonecall home during that time. I went to Sonic for breakfast, a fast food place that you usually have to drive in, but this one had an indoors. You still have to talk into a microphone though.

My route for today was simple - Highway 50 all the way. It was also a lot of downhill. This meant that I'd done the first 25 miles in around an hour and a half. I then had an uphill of about 5 or 6 miles, more downhill, uphill of anoter 5 miles and then a 14 mile downhill to the finish. I actually spent around a third of my riding time on the uphill even though they took up a much smaller portion of the distance.

You would think that this would have been a dream day, and you would nearly be right. The weather was nearly perfect, but the morning became fairly overcast and thus making it quite cool. The traffic was also a bit of a problem, in that there was a lot of it. Historically, Sundays have been good for riding because they have meant for quiet roads, but not today, in fact the opposite. This meant that although there weren't many commercial vehicles, there were a lot of massive RV's and Pickups towing trailers and caravans. I can't complain too much, there were some sections that had hard shoulders larger than the road itself, complete with rumble strips that could rattle my eyeballs out my head if I go over them, but enough to deter cars and the like.

I arrived in Montrose at around 3pm in glorious sunshine, and went to the campsite I'd chosen to stay at. $27.14. I thought camping was meant to be cheap!! Anyway, I paid and got my tent set up. The sun was shining and there was the unmistakable smell of barbeque in the air, so I was content. Montrose is in a massive valley, between the continental divide I've just rode over and a long, steady uphill slope in front of me. I feel tomorrow will be serious payback for all the downhill of today.

So I had a shower, and went back to my tent to wait until a good time to eat. I hadn't really thought that through though, and within minutes I was sweltering. By the time 6pm came, I could wait no longer and headed out. I ended up at a Thai restaurant, I couldn't resist as it's been the first I'd seen. I opted for a green curry, a good benchmark. I'm not sure if it's my tastebuds not being used to spicy food, but medium spiced had my nose running and gasping for water. It was very tasty though.

I'm now sitting outside at another Sonic, satisfying my craving for malts that has come on over the last few days. I'll miss this when I go home..

Day Fifty-One - Saturation.

Having gone to bed by 8:30 last night, I felt relatively rested by the time 6:15 came around. I was pretty much ready to go by 7:00, but breakfast was offered to me which I couldn't refuse. I got on the road by 8:30, and began my ascent to Monument Pass, topping out at 11,312 feet. The climb was about 24 miles from Salida to the peak.

The going was good up until about 14 miles in, when it got a lot steeper, and 6mph was about the best I could manage. As you can imagine, it took a while to get to the top, especially seeing as I needed to stop every mile or so to catch my breath in the last few. I was also surprised at how cold it got as I got higher, cold enough that there was snow at the side of the road and being able to see your breath. I thought I would be able to just scoot over the top and come back down without needing to put on layers, but each time I had to stop I ended up putting a layer on. It was with around three miles to go that the rain started. It had been an overcast day up until then, but I wasn't expecting it until much later. This meant that by the time I had reached the top I was cold and very wet. There was a cafe/ gift shop at the top that I went into and contemplated stopping there for lunch.

I decided that the cafe was too much for too little, and i'd brave the 10 miles downhill to 'Sargents' and eat there. I'd already experienced downhill in the wet in the Appalacians, and it was freezing cold at only 3,000ft. I tried to prepare myself for the cold by putting socks on my hands to fight the wind chill on my wet hands (I do have gloves, but they were at the bottom of the bag that I now tie on my front rack, so were as good as unaccessable). The result of this was having to stop every half mile or so to try to warm my saturated hands and relieve the cramp in my hands from squeezing the brakes. After about two miles of downhill I gave up, and put on a ridiculous number of layers and put on real gloves, which did the trick down the rest of the mountain.

I stopped for lunch at a restaurant that was probably more expensive than the previous place, but it was better food. I was caught at a moment of weakness and ordered a slice of premium pie, at $4.50 a slice. Ouch. It hit the spot though, and I was just about thawed out from the decent after finishing. You can imagine my disappointment when I stepped outside to find that the rain that I'd beaten down the hill caught me up, and it was hammering off the road. I was offered a ride to Gunnison (my stopping point by two different people, and had to explain to them both that as much as I'd love a ride, it'd confound my entire trip and I'd never be able to live with myself if I had. So off I went into the rain.

The rest of the day was largely uneventful, 30something long miles in rain/hail to Gunnison. By the time I arrived, I was desperate to find a room to dry myself and my clothes out in. After a very similar routine to that in biblical times, all of the motels/hotels were full on the east side of town. Apparently there is a softball tournament in town, and it's a weekend night so people go away anyway. I eventually found a cheap-looking place called the ABC Motel, that I ended up paying $69 for a room that isn't worth a penny above $45.

So that's the story of today, tomorrow I have an easier day to a town called Montrose. Tomorrow night there is a 0% chance of rain, which are odds I very much like as far as camping is concerned.

Day Fifty - Half Century.

Today was an energetic start, but I managed to stall over breakfast and ended up leaving at 9:30. I went for breakfast at the place I ate at last night, where I had an unexpected ridiculously large breakfast. It came with a pancake that was about 9" diameter, and about 1" thick. (Amercan Imperial measurements seemed to have rubbed off on me...)

The first part of my day was easy going, I was continuing down the same downhill I finished on last night. It gave me time to take a good look around at the scenery, which was a lot clearer in the bright morning sun. It was along here that I spoke to two guys called Mitch and Stephen, who were headed to Pueblo today. They were the first riders I'd come accross on this part of the route, and painted a better picture than how others had described it. They were heading home to Indiana, and today was their 20th day on the road. That sounds quite ambitious to me, but it's still in the not-too-distant future. They also told me about a festival thing that was happening this weekend in Salida, and reccomended I stayed there.

Onwards I headed onto Highway 50, a road that I'll be seeing a lot of in the coming days/weeks. Further up it is famously known as the 'lonliest road in America'. That definitely wasn't the case here, and I was being overtaken by cars, HGV's and RV's at ridiculous speeds. It became apparent that drivers assume it's safe to overtake unless they see otherwise, rather than vice versa, leading to some near misses for the cars and me being forced into the verge.

I arrived in Salida at around 2pm, and decided that this was where I was going to stop. It wasn't immediately obvious where 'downtown' was, as all the globalised places had set up camp along the highway. I found my way, and all of the fesival things that were going on. I stopped in two shops in search of a buff (as is the norm nowadays), and in both I had people asking if I needed somewhere to stay. The choices were camping in someones yard, or staying indoors. I opted for the second, and was told I had to wait an hour to see if it was okay. It was, but in the meantime I sat and watched some people playing in the white water in kayaks. I was approached by a couple who were interested in what I was doing, and after a chat, they gave me $10! It was soon time to go over to where I was staying, in a terraced house that looked a little greek from the outside. My tenants names are Jack and Patty, and are very hospitable. They live up in Minnesota, with this as their retirement holiday home.

I went in and chatted to them for a bit, before showering and heading out to Taco Bell for food and WiFi. I'm not sure why I hadn't been to one of these before, I'd never really fancied it. It was good, but not filling enough. I think I'll head over the road for a mcflurry, and then to bed for an early night. I've got Monarch pass to do in the morning, which is roughly 20 degrees farenheit cooler than where I am now at over 11,000ft high. I can't remember what Jack said, I think he said it was three miles above sea level.. but after that it's plain cruising to Gunnison I think it's called, 65 miles away.

Day Forty-Nine - First Mountain.

Today was a slow start like a Monday morning, a headache didn't help matters. It didn't help that I had a heavy-footed, 5am rising door slammer upstairs from me. I eventuallu got going at around 9:30.

It took me ages to get through and out of Pueblo, the town is full of one way roads. After a few detours including dodging a marching band, I was out into the wilderness. The first part of my riding today was through scenery that was a lot more interesting than that from the east of Pueblo. It was very desert-like, with open rock faces and Mountains as a backdrop. It was along here that I noticed that part of my front rack has snapped, meaning my front left pannier was clinging on by one hook. I taped that up as best I could (so not very well) and continued on.

It wasn't long before the tape came back out again, my right Achilles gradually bacame painful the more the incline of the road increased. I taped my ancle up, which seemed to do the trick. I had a long climb in the afternoon, so I stopped for a break at a store in a small village for a bit. It wasn't particularly steep (steep enough to need to be in my lowest gear), but at around 15-16 miles long it took ages to climb to the top. The highest point was about 9200ft, over twice the height of Ben Nevis, and you could definitely tell that the air was thinner. It's quite a weird feeling, breathing in was somehow less satisfying than before, making you need to stop to catch your breath frequently.

I arrived at the top, looking forward to my nice long downhill to Westcliffe. The wind had other plans, and gave me a strong headwind that stopped me going downhill faster than 15mph. Eventually I arrived to a very windy Main St. and went to look for the campsite. I discovered that it was 1.5 miles out of town, which is fairly inconvenient when you don't have a stove. After much umming and ahhing, I reluctantly decided to get a room, based upon the howling winds and black clouds coming over the mountains.

Tomorrow I'm heading to one of three places - Salida, Poncha Springs or Maysville. Salida is meant to be a nice place to stay, but the campsite is 3 miles out, Maysville has only a grocery store for food and Poncha Springs has only a Motel. I'll decide closer to the time, but Salida is probably the best choice. They also have two bike shops there, I might have a look at front racks. I found a long piece of rope at the side of the road, so perhaps that'll do. Any advice?

Day Forty-Eight - Rest Day IV.

Nothing really to report about today, I did precious little other than ride into town for a tour of shops looking for a buff, with no luck. I did manage to pick up sunburn on my hands though, forgetting that they are still as white as when I left (because of my mitts).

I'm off to a town called Westcliffe tomorrow, about 57 miles away. I do have a nice climb from 4900ft to over 9000ft, but it's over a distance of about 40 miles so I hope it won't be too bad.

Day Forty-Seven - End of an Era.

So, I find myself writing this in Pueblo, where I now head west to San Francisco, rather than going up North to Oregon. It's a fairly big milestone for me, I definitely feel like i'm on the home straight (a long one mind you).

I didn't set my alarm this morning, mostly because I knew I wasn't going far today. I went for breakfast at the local restaurant that was now open (I forgot to mention that I had trouble finding somewhere to eat last night, what restaurant is only open 6-2?!) I headed back up to the 96, and went up the 36 or so miles to Pueblo. The Rockies are now firmly in sight, a couple of mountains of which have snow peaks.

I arrived in town at about 11:30, but it wasn't until about 2:30 until I got into a room. I've decided that cycling here is a NIGHTMARE, the roads are uneven and cars aren't too cycle-friendly. Since then, I spoke to home, and went back out in search of bank that doesn't charge you $2.50 to get at your money.

I'm having a rest day tomorrow, where I am going to the ski, hike and bike (or something like that) shop to hopefullly finally buy a buff once and for all. That, and I'm going to take advantage of the laundry room here, I'm surprised my socks havnt walked off on their own yet!

Day Forty-Six - Crawling.

Another early start saw me back on the road at 8:30 this morning. The weather was surprisingly good, with only a slight headwind.

The first part of the day was to a place called Sugar City, where I'd initially thought about stopping tonight. This stretch took me through landscape that seemed even more wide open than before. I think it was because when you look north or south, it was only the curvature of the earth that stopped you from seeing any further.

I stopped in a cafe for lunch having reached Sugar City in good time, where I decided to aim for a town called Fowler, a further 24 miles up the road. I spoke to a guy in this cafe who wanted to show me the 100 year old garage and house outside, which I saw before leaving. The following miles were also fairly uneventful, it had become apparent though that I was entering desert scrubland, the ground at side of the road has now become very dry and sandy.

Ive had to get a room again tonight, there is a storm coming over in the night sometime that I don't fancy being in a tent in. I'll be in Pueblo for the next two nights too, but after that, camping it is.

A brief post today, not a lot has happened today to be honest. I promise some exciting stories west of Pueblo, that's when the fun starts in the Rockies.

Edit - I completely forgot to mention why I called this post 'crawling'. It was in reference to the number of flies/critters that decided to tag along with me by sticking to my legs and clothes as I went past. You'd think I'd have learnt to cycle with my mouth shut by now wouldn't you..

Day Forty-Five - Colorado.

As has been the story of much of the last week, today has been a day like any other on the flats.

I very much enjoyed my lie-in this morning until what felt like 7:30, even though it was 6:30. However, it meant that I set out an hour later than I would have usually, which may have had something to do with how the wind had picked up. This put me in a bad mood and I made
relatively slow progress to a place called Seridan Lake. I'd looked forward to stopping for a drink here, but apparently they're shut on Sunday. I stopped for a bit outside anyway, before continuing on.

I met two cyclists going in the opposite direction who looked very keen. They were doing my route in reverse, and were glad to tell me about how hard the Rockies are. I've decided that eastbound cyclists have conspired to say such things to westbounders, and I feel I should do the same if they ask about the Appalacians or Ozarks. I looked at my maps this evening, and to be honest, the Appalacians look worse on paper. Perhaps it's because the mountains are on such a large scale, but they don't look as steep or as tiring. I think they are just sour because it's their first mountain range and they are relatively new in starting out. Famous last words...

I've had a truly awful day as far as foods concerned, because it seems petrol stations are the only places open around here on a sunday. I've therefore eaten a wide range of microwaved food. Perhaps tomrrow I'll be able to get some REAL fast food. haha

Tomorrow I have a choice of places to stay, and where that is depends on the weather, and to whether I camp or not. Today was the eigth day of severe weather warnings in Colorado, but apparently it's getting better. I can only hope..

Day Forty-Four - Mountain Time.

I'd love to write something super interesting about today, but it was probably about as routine as my days get.

- I woke up at 6:30 again.
- Got on the road at 8:30.
- Cycled down the '96', a road that I today realised I've been on since the beginning of this map, and will be until I reach Pueblo, possibly even further.
- Arrived in Tribune at 10:30 local time, having crossed the time zone line about 20 miles prior.

That's pretty much it. My actual riding time was really short because I caught a slight tailwind, luckily which blew until I arrived. The place I am staying at luckily has an 'honour system', where you can take a room key, and then pay later on.

So that's my day. I've also decided that I'm going to camp more, just because today I entertained the idea of having money when I come home, rather than spending it all here. However, weather is playing an important factor at the moment, with frequent storms at night, tonight being no exception. After that, camping.

Day Forty-Three - Time Trials.

This morning was another grim start, but like yesterday, procrastination prevailed and by 9:15 or so the sun was shining. I stopped by a petrol station for an energy drink perk-me-up. I'm not too sure why or how, but I cycled super fast today. Perhaps I had a slight tailwind, and the fact that it was fairly flat. Without exaggerating, my average speed was about 21mph.

After an hour and forty minutes or so, I was 30something miles down, and I stopped for a short break. In this time, things changed. It was a combination of the wind changing direction, me becoming complacent in my days progress, and that my legs were crying out at me for going so fast. The second part of the day as a result was slower, but Ibwas still going 17-18mph. A further hour and twenty, and I'd arrived at Scott City, my end point for today. I could have gone further, but I am finishing at the same place tomorrow regardless, so it didn't matter too much.

I found where I was staying, so I went to eat and kill some time. An hour and a half later, still not ready. It wasn't until 5:15 before I got into my room. A bit of a waste of a day, but nevermind. Not a lot else to today other than meeting two cyclists who were going from Pueblo, Colorado to the East coast.

I'm not 100% sure where I'm going tomorrow, but it's in GMT-7 = mountain time! I'm going to try to stay on central time though, so I can get up an hour earlier in the morning without much effort. I'm not sure though, I do fancy a lie in!

Day Forty-Two - Trans-Am Home Straight.

I woke up early again today, with the intention of setting out early. However, it was bucketing down with rain and I didn't much feel like getting wet. I sat around and had a leisurely breakfast, while chatting to the first cyclists I'd see today. They were doing my trip in reverse, only they were doing it supported. They told me stories about what to expect of the Rockies, and quite frankly didn't make me feel great about them. Apparently I need to be really clues up on the weather, as it can change in 20 minutes for the worse.

I got on my way at around 9:30, and did the first 10 without much trouble. The next 20 were into the wind, which was not a lot of fun at all. I was on the bottom of my handlebars for most of the time, which is good for aerodynamics but not for my not-yet-strong-enough neck. I stopped at a place called Rush Centre for a much needed lunch. The place I went to had a menu with four choices - 1/4lb burger, 1/4lb cheeseburger, 1/2lb burger, 1/2lb cheeseburger, all with fries. I went for option 4, and even with two drinks the bill came to $6.

On the next stretch, I met three more cyclists, one who was riding on his own, and two other guys that was desperately trying to catch the first guy up. The rest of the day was uneventful other than me changing onto my last transam map, before I move onto the Western Express. I cruised at 20mph to Ness City, and am now at the Derrick Inn. This place looks a bit dodgy from the outside, it doesn't look like a normal hotel. I now realise this is because the building is inside out, and all of the doors are inside. Imagine a shopping mall, with bedrooms instead of shops. There is also a pool in the middle, but I didn't fancy using it because it's like being on stage, everyone can look out their windows at you.

Tomorrow I'm headed to Scott City, the last night I will spend in Central Time, before moving to Mountain Time, GMT-7. The day after that, I'll cross into Colorado and start warming up for the Rockies.

On a side note, there is a hiking/skiing shop in Pueblo, CO. Will my quest for a buff finally come to an end?!

Day Forty-One - 70 Mile Sprint.

After writing my last blog post, I got turfed out of the library before my photos had finished uploading, and I found out that unless you upload them all, none of them went, so I've got that all to do again. I left the library, and went for a slow ride round town to explore. I pretty much stumbled upon a space museum down the far end of the road I was staying on. Apparently it's the second largest collection of space stuff other than the Smithsonian. I have no idea what that means, but the fact they had a massive rocket outside and a jet fighter hanging inside the lobby justified the $9 entry. It was a pretty impressive place, the highlight being the actual Apollo XIII at the end. That was amazing.

After all this excitement, I went back to the church where I was staying and got an earlyish night.

This morning was an early start, and I got on the road by 8:30, after another tour of town finding somewhere that was open. The weather was miserable, there was a really fine rain that wasn't cold, but soaks you. The first 10 miles or so were out to Nickerson, the last civilisation before my end point. After a further 8 or so, I reached 95th Avenue, which was the road that went straight to Larned, where I am now. It was divided into three sections of 15, 15 and 20 miles (in my head, I found it easier to divide it up.) There isn't a lot to tell about this, since the road was dead straight and it was fields the whole way on either side. A school bus driver did stop and give me two mini chocolate bars when I was stopped at an intersection before starting the 20 mile stretch, which was very welcome.

Oh I did pass 2000 miles on my computer today too. woohoo!

With about 2 miles to go to Larned, it started raining again, just enough to get me wet before arriving. It was about 1:45 at this point. I basically sat and relaxed in my
room until early evening, where I went out to search for the Chinese restaurant, involving walking half a mile in the wrong direction before realising.

So tomorrow I'm heading to Ness City, which is on my next and last map on the Trans-America trail, before heading onto the Western Express. There is no elevation profile on this map either, but they do openly admit that there are hills in parts. I don't understand why they they don't just put it on...

Day Forty - Part Rest Day.

As I write this, I am in a public library uploading photos. They amount to just less than 1GB so far, and it says I've got 4 hours or so remaining. I wonder if it'll be faster once all these people clear off.

I deliberately didn't set my alarm for this morning, mostly because I knew I wasn't going to be going that far and it wouldn't be taking me that long. I also had a ridiculously wide bed, making it even harder to persuade my legs for me to get up. I did at around 8, and got going around 10, which felt weird knowing that I'd been getting up at that time before.

I was expecting to go about 30something miles today, but it turned into about 46 by the time I'd found where I was staying.

The main part of the riding today was along the same road for 22 miles, with about 14 miles from my hotel up through Newton and further north to said road. I couldn't decide which was the wind was blowing, it seemed to be breezy from every direction. It didn't stop me from pretty much blitzing the miles, and I arrived at the turn off towards Hutchinson after not much more than hour. The only hold ups I had down this stretch was a car accident (where I think someone had missed the bridge all together) and the road surface. I'm no expert in road works, but I think if they're planning on relaying it, they score the previous layer all up. They'd done all this to long sections of the road, so my bike was vibrating fairly violently at times.

I briefly spoke to a cyclist who was doing some supported ride across the State, I wasn't sure if he was racing or he just didn't want to hang around for very long. I turned onto the road into Newton, which was fairly busy with very little shoulder. I don't mind cars so much, it's the juggernauts that refuse to slow down because it'll take so long to re-accelerate the other side of me. I was only on this stretch for 6 miles, before turning onto 17th Avenue and the same sort of business district that I've gotten used to. There were plenty of places to stay up there, but instead I ploughed onwards for what seemed like ages (Hutchinson is a big place) to Main Street. After going the wrong way down it, I eventually found the bike shop, where I bought a bike lock, a new Livestrong band to wear while I find some way to sterilise the festering one I've worn this far, and got the key for the cyclist hotel at a local church.

The young guy in the shop gave me some really ropey directions, and just as I thought I was lost, he'd pedaled the route I'd come and caught up to show me where it was. I let myself in, and went for a shower. I was expecting this place to be a bit like an apartment in the back of a church, instead it's like a village hall with a bed on the stage, and a kitchen and bathroom out in a different room. I think they're airbeds too, they're ridiculously bouncy.

I didn't see any point in hanging around at there, I didn't get any WiFi and the TV only tunes to one channel. I got back on my bike (something that I found quite tricky without any bags on it, it's wobbly) and went in search of food. After that, I came straight to the library to try and put some photos online, but it's taking so long that I'm not sure I'll be able to do them all at once. I'll eventually get round to putting some photos into my blog posts, one day.

As for tonight, I'll probably go to choose from the vast selection of fast food restaurants I have nearly on my doorstep, though I think I'll have to ride to them because they aren't THAT close. Remember I said before about some places that were built AFTER the invention of the car? the outskirts of this place definitely falls into that category.

Day Thirty-Nine - Halfway.

Today marks the halfway mark in my trip, I passed the 1892 mile mark.

I wound my alarm back to 6:25 this morning, meaning I was on the road at 8:10. I think it was just coiciedence that this was 10 minutes before I left yesterday.

Overnight, a thunderstorm had gone through, resulting in the wind switching from south to north. It wasn't THAT bad for the first 18 miles west, but the following 17 straight into the wind was killer. I met two more cyclists right before I started this leg, Anne-Marie and John I think their names were. I chatted to them for a bit, and found out that they had just graduated from 'college', and were cycling from St. Louis to Seatle.

I left them in my wake and headed off into the wind. After 17 long miles, I arrived in Cassoday. I stopped at a service station where I planned to get a snack and a drink. Instead I opted for the three course all you can eat buffet, of which the main course was... pizza. For $7 I couldn't really complain, and got a good helping of salad.

Just as I was thinking of leaving, the two cyclists I'd met earlier came in and sat down with me. It'd have been rude to leave straight away, so I sat with them for a bit before I went. The next leg of the day was a 38 mile slog, with nothing in between. I didn't mind that too much, the fact that you just have to keep going forwards and there wasn't a lot around stopped me from getting distracted and stopping. The wind had died down considerably too which helped.

So now I'm in a town called Newton. Tomorrow, I'm planning on going only about 30 something miles to Hutchinson, where I'm going to replace my bike lock and stay in my first Church Hostel of the trip. The day after that I've got a 58 mile stretch with very little, so I'll have to stock up on supplies.