As Mike has mentioned previously, we’ve been amazed by the number of hits the blog has been getting every day. Today we were even more amazed by something. As we cycled away from Roberto’s house into Portland city centre on our way towards Neskowin, a cyclist came up beside me and said ‘Hi Matthew, where are you cycling today?’ – I was gobsmacked, how did she know my name? I said “We’re riding to San Diego”, she said “I know that. But where are you going today?” The cyclist in question turned out to be Lisa, one of the very kind people who had responded to our last-minute pleas for accommodation in Portland. She’d been reading our blog and recognised us from the photos. What is the chance of running into someone like that? Pretty slim I’d have thought.
Anyway, we stopped and chatted for a bit. It was great to get to meet Lisa and thank her in person for her offer of accommodation. Our appreciation and gratitude of Warm Showers just keeps growing.
Day 05 – Portland (Tuesday 30 September) Rest day – no cycling Posted by Mike
We arrived at Roberto’s and Larry’s at around 6.30pm. They live in a gorgeous house in the Irvington district of NE Portland, (Downtown is about a 20 minute walk).
Matthew was enraptured by the garden, it has lush planting with huge bamboos, (which he was quite envious of, as ours are minnows in comparison). There are enchanting lights all around and a garden cabin that we could have slept in, (Mike wasn’t keen – although Matthew thought it would be quite romantic). We could see that many of the houses in the area have really beautiful gardens, too.
In front of the house opposite there’s a Gaudíesque statue of a lizard decorated with fragments of different coloured ceramic tiles. Roberto said that it was made by an artist who used to live in that house and that it has a bigger brother in the park around the corner.
Matthew was enraptured by the garden, it has lush planting with huge bamboos, (which he was quite envious of, as ours are minnows in comparison). There are enchanting lights all around and a garden cabin that we could have slept in, (Mike wasn’t keen – although Matthew thought it would be quite romantic). We could see that many of the houses in the area have really beautiful gardens, too. In front of the house opposite there’s a Gaudíesque statue of a lizard decorated with fragments of different coloured ceramic tiles. Roberto said that it was made by an artist who used to live in that house and that it has a bigger brother in the park around the corner.
Roberto works as a psychotherapist and Larry has a mail order business selling Chinese material through eBay.
Roberto
They prepared a delicious dinner for us: fresh bean stew with courgettes, beet stew and brown rice with fresh melon salad. Lovely! It was so good to be in such a comfortable house with lovely company.
We’ve left Washington State now and it has been a joy to cycle through. The countryside is very green – lots of farms and woods with gently rolling hills. Along the coast there were dramatic Sounds – wide inlets with islands dotted about. In the distance to the east and on our left we often saw volcanic mountain ranges – high peaks with snow on the uplands: Mount Baker, Mount Rainier and Mount Saint Helens. When we were on the ferry from Vashon to Ruston a couple of other cyclists that we were chatting to told us that they’d just returned from a camping trip in the mountains – it sounded like it’d be really good to do that sometime.
The roads so far have mostly been superb – smooth and well-maintained. Signage is excellent and city street layouts, with their very clearly numbered roads, make it very easy to find our way. One thing that has taken a little bit of getting used to is the siting of traffic lights. It’s necessary to stop much further back from them than we would in Europe because they’re usually suspended on a cable over on the far side of the road that’s to be crossed. If we stopped just in front of a red light in the USA, as we would in Europe, another vehicle would come into us from the side! There are no advanced stop boxes for cyclists either. Many of the out of town roads have a wide hard shoulder, where we’re expected to cycle. In the towns and cities there are usually bike lanes, which as Europeans coming to the USA was slightly unexpected, to be honest. The hard shoulders sometimes have a bit of road debris: gravel, small stones and sometimes quite big stones or bark, that can make cycling a bit uncertain at times, but mostly they’re good quality. The junctions are worst for debris and they are also the places where we worry a bit about vehicles coming from behind and turning right into us. It’d be wonderful if the hard-shoulders were swept clear from time to time! I’ve not seen any road-sweeping vehicles on the roads.
Another surprise is that the speed limits seem to be universally lower than in the UK (20, 30 and 50 mph zones are common). Drivers are reasonably good at keeping to the limits and have been really courteous to us while we cycle – often slowing down and pulling out very wide as they overtake. The vehicles on the road are more or less what we expected: massive lorries with high cabs and curved bonnets, (sometimes sporting bright chrome or elaborate paintwork); there are lots of pick-up trucks, too. Some look very extravagant – highly polished with wheel arches that seem improbably high from the top of the wheel, so the whole vehicle is raised in the air. Many pick-up trucks look like the only things they’ve ever picked up are the kids from school or the grocery shopping! Big cars are still very common on the roads, although they tend to be older. We’ve seen several smart restored classic models from the 50s and 60s. There are plenty of more modern, modest cars too: Toyota Prius, Audi and VW Beetles seem popular. Then there are the recreational vehicles RVs – some of them are bigger than 70 seater coaches, many of them are towing smaller cars as well.
It’s a little disappointing to report that we’ve not really seen many other touring cyclists out on the roads so far. Most of the bikes that we see are strapped to the back or on the roofs of other vehicles. It rather reminds me of a funny storyline in Rick Smith’s Yehuda Moon comic strip (www.yehudamoon.com). A fat man goes to the Kickstand Cyclery to buy a bicycle that he wants to attach to his car. When Yehuda asks him what sort of bicycle he’s looking for, the fat man explains that he doesn’t care, because he’s not planning on riding it; he wants it as a car accessory. The punchline comes when Yehuda persuades him to buy a helmet that he isn’t going to wear for the bike that he isn’t going to ride!
As we were making our way out of Ruston on Sunday, a young man on a nice shiny black urban hybrid bicycle and who was pulling a little covered trailer with a small child inside hailed us at a set of traffic lights. He asked where we were heading and was very impressed with our plans. As our ways crossed he shouted after us: “Keep the rubber down!” We’d never heard this phrase before, but it’s become a bit of a mantra for us – if I’m flagging a bit and slowing down, Matthew will say: “Keep the rubber down, Michael!” (and vice versa, of course). Well, so far – so good and we’ve managed to keep the rubber well-down!
When we met Bud in Kelso, he told us that almost 95% of Washington’s residents live in a narrow corridor alongside the interstate main road, I-5, that runs north-south through the state. This makes the population mostly urban, (and the state Democrat). Then there are the vast sparsely populated areas. Once out in the countryside the traffic levels dwindle to almost nothing … we have ridden for half an hour before anything has passed us. It’s wonderfully quiet and peaceful. There’s a beautiful rhythm to cycling and we can just talk, enjoy the scenery – it’s actually been really relaxing so far and we’re not in the least tired. I’d better give an update on that in a week or so! Overall, Washington State was really good and I definitely want to come back.
Back to Tuesday in Portland … and the Dilemma of the Day: to go for a run or not? Actually, this is not really much of a dilemma, I’d brought some running gear with me, so it was kind of inevitable that I would go running. You may have noticed that I tend to look out for and comment approvingly when I see runners and bicyclists when I’m out and about. It makes me really happy to see them, I suppose because they’re part of My Story. That’s the bit of my life where I started to cycle more seriously and go out running to help me lose weight – I lost almost 60lbs (4 st) a few years ago, (hence the “chunky monkey” remark at passport control in Heathrow airport – I don’t look like I used to). I’ve found that there’s a wonderful camaraderie about cycling and running, they’re both amazing ways to get about and see places and I can still eat lots without worrying too much!
Cycling and running are not really compatible though – they use muscles differently and one doesn’t particularly help the other, which is why I think that people who do triathlons are amazing sportspeople! I sometimes worry that running might hurt my cycling – I can be a bit stiff and sore after running in a way that I never am after cycling. But running in a new place is thrilling and I couldn’t resist, so my day in Portland began with a short 5 mile run down to the Steel Bridge, along the east side of the Willamette River – partly along some incredible floating cycleways, then over the Hawthorne Bridge and along the west side and back over the Steel Bridge to Ne Multnomah St, NE 9th Ave and to Roberto’s.
After my run Matthew and I headed out on foot to see some of Portland. We went to a coffee shop ‘The Morning Star’, which also happens to be the name of Britain’s Communist party daily newspaper, (a dreary, hectoring and badly-written read I’m afraid).
A little sightseeing in Portland – we came across two of the ten ‘animals in pools’ fountains – there’s a whole series of them with bronze life size animal sculptures made by Georgia Gerber in 1986 – we found bears and ducks. – they’re clearly very popular as they had shiny patches where they’d been petted.
We happened upon Director Park (officially Simon and Helen Director Park) on our way to the tourist information office.
At the tourist information office in Pioneer Courthouse Square there was a man working on the desk who was from Ayreshire, Scotland. He said that he came to America in 1950 after he had left the army. He’d worked as a draughtsman for most of his life, but he said: “I’ve waited 50 years to get this job. I’m paid to tell people where to go!” He gave us a really useful (and free) cycling map of Oregon that might well help us as we travel down the Oregon coast. (And I can always threaten Garmin with the map, when it starts playing up). He also said “I hope that you don’t think I’m being presumptuous”, as he proffered us an ‘Out in Portland’ booklet. “Not at all.” I replied, “You’re being perceptive!” (Perceptive? Who do I think I’m kidding?!) He told us that his son is gay, which was very sweet of him.
We made our way up to Washington Park, where there was a vast rose garden and a lovely Japanese garden – which is beautifully done and both much bigger than we expected. Roberto told us Portland’s climate is ideal for rose growing, so it’s famous for them. In the Japanese Garden the acers are looking wonderful and the colours must be really spectacular in the autumn. We bought a solar-powered Chinese lantern, that we thought might look good in Roberto’s garden. The park is high up and there lots of cyclists about, including Judy, who kindly offered to take our picture. She had a very nice-looking Trek road bicycle – we took her picture, too, and gave her our blog address so that she can prove to her friends that she was out riding uphill.
On the Warm Showers site, one of the questions to answer for people who might want to stay is the distance of one’s house to the nearest bicycle shop – this is in case a cyclist passing through needs spares or repairs. On one of the Portland listings, someone has written that you can’t swing a cat in Portland without hitting at least three bicycle shops! So it was very challenging not to visit as many as possible! We visited a few Portland bicycle shops and realised that we could easily have spent the whole day admiring ‘bike porn’ and talking bikes, (well Mike could). There’s a law of bicycle ownership which suggests that the ideal number of bicycle to own is n+1, where n = the number of bicycles already owned. In other words, Mike is always looking out for a new bike … His current four being at least one fewer than the optimum. Matthew has rather unilaterally introduced a ‘first amendment’ to the law: one in – one out. This is deeply unfair of course, and never seems to apply to any of his stuff.
The nicest bicycle shops in Portland included the Recyclery Bicycle Shop – with lots of renovated old steel frames from the 1970s and earlier, (I spotted a lovely old Holdsworth), fancy chrome and intricate lug work. They sell for about $800-900 – our friend Andy H could make a fortune here. They also had a yellow jersey signed by Greg Lemond hanging on the wall. Very impressive! Next, the Bike Gallery, with some funny bicycle-related t-shirts, socks and local club jerseys the Oregon Ducks and Portland CC.
River City Bicycles was the best bicycle store we visited and also the only shop in the US that sells the lovely Rapha cycling gear from London that is our cycle clothing of choice. If anyone likes the look of our cycling kit: visit http://www.rapha.cc – be warned, the prices are eye-wateringly high. Rapha is even more expensive in the US than in the UK, but one of the assistants assured us that it sold very well.
Finally, we saw that there a shop called Coventry Cycle Works. We couldn’t resist visiting as (a) Matthew is from Coventry and (b) Coventry Cycles are a famous old brand in the UK – sadly no longer being made. The shop had just closed when we arrived, but we took some pictures and could see through the windows that they specialised in recumbents.
All these bicycle shops, plus the fact that Portland is the home to Nike sportswear and we saw a HUGE Nike outlet store, made it quite difficult to resist the temptation to consume. I just had to keep reminding myself that I’d struggle to carry anything else in my one pannier bag, so managed to resist the urge to buy.
We headed back to Roberto’s and his friend Dave had arrived from Vancouver, while Larry had gone up to Seattle. The four of us went out for a Chinese meal – it was a good place to be vegan, (although Dave didn’t seem to be so sure that he’d enjoy it and was wondering about a beef fix). The food was fine and the bill was amazing: $39 for four! I thought there’d been an error – that’s £6 each – that meal would have cost about £20 each in the UK.
So back home to bed, after a very nice rest day in Portland.
We’re leaving Portland this morning and heading west towards the Pacific. We had a lovely rest day wandering around Portland, it is a city with a great vibe and some lovely green spaces. We visited the Rose Garden and Japanese Garden in Washington Park, both were stunning in different ways and I especially enjoyed seeing so many wonderful local front gardens.
Our host Roberto has some superb plants in his garden. The bamboo is stunning, and the banana plant also stands out. If only I had room and the climate for these in my garden! Many people in Irvington (the area where Roberto lives) cultivate the strips of land in front of their homes between the road and the sidewalk, making the whole area seem like a public garden, I wish more people did this in the UK. All this talk of plants is making my palms itch and want to be gardening, I hope my garden is doing ok while we’re away.
I braved the slightly cooler morning here in Portland and used the outdoor shower in Roberto’s garden. It was wonderfully warm and nice to be washing outside amongst the bamboo and banana plants. For those of you who are wondering – it was very private, no overlooking from the neighbours – only a squirrel searching for nuts got a little more than he bargained for!
Having a wonderful ‘rest day’ in Portland – the USA’s capital of cycling. Lots of cyclists and runners, (making Mike very happy) – so he’s not actually been resting, he went out running at 8 am. Also lots of on-street food carts – they look delicious, but we’re settling for lunch in the Morning Star Cafe – nice food and good for people-watching too.
Day 04 – Monday – Centralia to Portland Posted by Mike
Estimate: 97 miles, actual: 110.1 miles – had to use a diversion in Longview and looked around Portland when we arrived, so that added on some miles. Avg speed: 15.8 mph – very good Cumulative distance: 346.98 miles
Good news! The Warm Showers cycling community has come good, (who ever doubted that they wouldn’t?!), and a lovely man in Portland called Roberto – and his housemate Larry – have offered to accommodate us. He was away on a camping trip when we sent our message, but he replied as soon as he came home. This means that we won’t have to search (and pay) for an hotel later, which is a bit of a relief.
Roberto suggested that we call him to make arrangements last night, but because of the problems with the wi-fi at the Motel 6, it wasn’t until we were in Safeway’s at about 9 pm that I was able to pick up Roberto’s e-mail and relate the good news to Matthew. He was so happy that he ended up buying too much – more than we could eat in any case, (but that seems so easy to do in the USA). It was a bit late to call, I thought, so I sent a quick message to Roberto to let him know that I’d contact him this morning, which I did. He said that he was working to about 8.30 this evening, which was good news, it meant that we didn’t need to hurry on our journey today. His housemate, Larry would be at home and would expect us. I told him how excited we were about visiting Portland, because it was famous as the cycling capital of America. He replied, “Yes. And we’re very proud of that.” It made me so happy to hear someone say that. This trip sort of evolved out of my strong desire to come to Portland and find out a bit more about it and experience it for myself. It was fitting and perhaps inevitable that we should cycle to get there. I’ve always loved cycling so much and I have always found the cycling community is a very open, accepting, relaxed and happy place for me to be. Portland is a sort of bicycle pilgrim’s Mecca. But there can sometimes be a little anxiety about fulfilling a dream … will the reality disappoint? Somehow that seems inevitable, and I’m something of a pessimist by nature: if I expect the worst, I’m less likely to be disappointed. ‘Pessimists only get nice surprises’, as the saying goes. What Roberto had said, led me to think that I wasn’t going to be disappointed by Portland. We took down Roberto’s and Larry’s address and set off.
Garmin was being particularly stupid today. Our routes are all stored in Garmin’s memory, but our route for today was no real use – it was to Sauvie Island, about 10 miles west of Portland, where we had originally been intending to stay. Roberto and Larry are in north Portland, so I programmed their address into Garmin and asked it to plot a route. It came up with a route with a distance of 200-odd miles – I knew that the journey was actually about 100 miles. Perhaps Garmin was piqued by the disparaging comments in yesterday’s post. Anyway, there was no way that I was cycling 200+ miles today, just to satisfy a cycling computer, so it was over to Google. I plotted a route on my iPhone that would be 97 miles … that was much more like it! While we were riding, we started to notice stencilled markings on the road – SP … later we discovered that this was the official Seattle to Portland bicycle route – we could have just followed that!
Today’s trip was in two sections: the first from Centralia to Napavine, then Winlock and Vader, through the Enchanted Valley following the Cowlitz River to Longview/Kelso for lunch.
The terrain was rolling woodland, beautiful – the roads were quiet and immaculately surfaced. That part of our journey was 51.49 miles and we managed an average speed of 15.5 mph – I’m very pleased with that. The weather was ideal for riding; a little cloudy and overcast, some quite welcome cool conditions compared to the last few days.
A man stopped to talk to us while we were having lunch outside Safeway’s (Kelso), (yes – this is becoming something of a habit, but at Safeway’s they usually have free wi-fi, a deli counter, and almost all of the things that someone as difficult to feed as me needs). Anyway, the man we were speaking with was called Bud and he remarked that it was a nice day for cycling! I’m not certain how, but we ended up talking with for an hour and ten minutes! We were only planning on spending 30 minutes or so having lunch in Longview. But he was really worth talking to. He was an out-of-work steel worker, very much involved with the US labor movement and still involved with his trade union. He was very happy, (to my enormous surprise since we’re in the USA), to talk about socialism and Karl Marx! He was very engaged with issues and worked hard to keep the pressure on his local representatives to be progressive and fair-minded. He told that the Republican Tea Party is known as the ‘Teahadists’ by the left – a wonderful joke, I thought!
Bud and Mike
There are local elections taking place all over this part of the US at the moment, and it’s impossible to ignore the billboards and poster boards in people’s gardens calling for someone to be elected mayor, chief fire officer, town treasurer, woodland commissioner and the like. Unlike in Britain, election posters tend not to state which party a particular candidate belongs to. When we talked about it on one if our rides, Matthew thought that there were more independent candidates in US local elections than in the UK – so maybe that explained it. I was less sure – I’m pretty sceptical about the notion of independents – in my experience they’re almost always conservatives … or worse, who have a particular reason for not declaring their true right-wing political affiliations. So I wondered if it was possible to ‘decode’ the posters, for example text in red being more likely to be for a Republican and on blue a Democrat. Bud said that often happened and there were other ways in which for some elected positions, party affiliations had to be withheld, but that most everyone would know based on positions taken on issues what candidates’ values were. Bud was amazingly knowledgeable about British politics and the coalition – I think that he would shame plenty of British people with what he knew! I hope that he’s not out of work for too long – perhaps he should run for Congress! We’d have enjoyed talking with him longer, but there were still another 50-odd miles to go, so we had to get back on the saddle and head out on our second leg.
The start of the second part of our journey from Kelso, through Longview took us from Washington State and into Oregon. The state border is marked by the mighty Columbia River. The cantilever bridge over the river is the most Super-Scary Bridge I’ve ever cycled across: the Lewis and Clarke bridge is over 2.5 km (one and a half miles) long and 64m (210 ft) in the air. At the time of completion in 1930, it had the longest span in the United States. I don’t really like heights to start with and I had a real sense of trepidation as we approached the bridge – it’s huge, I mean HUGE! There were long tailbacks of traffic to get onto the bridge, including massive lorries loaded with gigantic logs. As logging and timber are significant local industries, there are pieces of bark and bits of wood strewn all over the roads – most of it seems to get pushed over to the sides of the road, where we’re cycling – so that makes riding a little bit more bumpy and hazardous. When we started up the bridge access ramp, it quickly became clear that the bridge only has a very narrow cycling lane and that it was heavily strewn with bark, bits of wood and other pieces of roadside debris. It was really difficult to keep an eye on steering around the rubbish on the roadway without going into the line of traffic and also (for me) making sure that my view didn’t mean that I was looking over the edge. The bridge is so high to allow big ships to pass underneath and one was moored just underneath. It was a very odd sensation to look down from so close onto something else that was so big – but I just kept averting my eyes and concentrating on the road surface ahead. To compound the general high-level anxiety that I was feeling, there was work being done on the bridge and a couple of sections of bridge on the Oregon side were shrouded in plastic – as we cycled through these, the light levels dropped and it became very dim, also the roar of the traffic was deafening. My heart was pounding and my mouth went dry. I felt a little giddy and I was anxious about Matthew’s safety as well as my own. We’re both experienced cyclists and we’re used to all kinds of difficult situations – but this one was up there among the worst! Thankfully we both survived and coming off of the bridge and I started to calm down.
I rather feared that some of the conditions on the bridge might be replicated on the road as we continued south, but this wasn’t the case and Highway 30 was fine. Although the traffic was quite heavy, (no respite from the logging trucks), there was a wide cycle lane almost all the way into Portland – often with room for us both to cycle along side by side.
Welcome to Oregon
We rode through Rainier, Columbia City, St Helens, Scappoose, past the entrance to Sauvie Island, (so that original Garmin route would have been useful after all), and into Portland. The road ran parallel to the Columbia River along a flat valley floor. The river was really wide and there were lots of beautiful lakes either side, covered in lilies, which must look incredible when they’re in flower. There was a broad flat plain on the far side of the river, and we could see a long way across the water. To the west and south side of the river where the road we were riding on was built there were lots of wooded hills.
It was fantastic to get to Portland at last … and unsurprisingly as we approached the city from the west at about 6.00 pm, we saw more and more cyclists. On the outer edge racing cyclists out on their training rides then inside the city there were lots of commuter cyclists. It was heaven! I was also amazed by the amount of runners out along the sides of the river – but Portland id the headquarters of Nike, so perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised.
We arrived in Portland a little earlier than we expected – Highway 30 was fast and smooth (riding along there brought our average speed up to 16.1 mph – an excellent pace. We decided to spend a bit of time exploring downtown Portland and the cycle routes along the river before heading to Roberto’s and Larry’s for the evening.
We’re staying in Portland tomorrow and don’t have anywhere to get to, so I’ll update the blog on our evening with Larry and Roberto, more about Portland and a summary of cycling in Washington State tomorrow.
One last thing for now – and just to prove how amazing Warm Showers is, two (count them), two Warm Showers members from Portland: Lisa and Stasia, emailed us to offer accommodation. Stasia isn’t even in town at the moment, she’s in California, but said that her partner James was still in Portland and could put us up. How amazing is that?! I think that I might have written already about how Warm Showers is full of stories of miracles and that cyclists were a ‘good sort’ – here’s even more proof.
Second leg: 58.61 miles at an average speed of 15.8 mph
No, not the shoes and clothing store, but Washington state logging country. This morning’s ride from Centralia took us through vast timber plantations – mainly poplar and giant pines. We’d been advised in advance to be careful of the large logging trucks that would be on the road, but we were pretty lucky as all the loaded wagons seemed to be heading in the other direction to ours. The few trucks that did pass us were empty and gave us a very wide berth and a friendly honk of the horn. The full trucks were enormous – almost double the length of a standard UK lorry with vast tree trunks stacked up on them.when empty the timber trucks did a very clever trick of collapsing down with the back part of the truck sitting on the front.
Cycling through the USA is a fantastic way to see real America. The pace we’re travelling at means that we can see stuff that we’d probably miss if we were going by car. At one part of our trip today it really felt as though we’d been transported into the set of the Walton’s. There were traditional timber houses with porches, people driving around in old Chrysler and Ford pick-up trucks from the 50s and a real feeling of old-town America. If we’d been travelling by car, we would probably have zipped down the Interstate 5 and missed all that. Today was the day we also left Washington state and entered Oregon. So in true Walton’s style it’s goodnight Seattle, goodnight Centralia and goodnight to route signs with George Washington’s profile on. So, hello to Oregon, Portland and route 101 down the Pacific coast and onto California, but that’s for another blog entry…
Estimate: 80 miles, actual: 78.55 miles Avg speed: 15.6 mph – hurray, over target for the first time this holiday. Cumulative distance: 236.97 miles
It’s Sunday and Aaron was having a lie-in, so we didn’t get to take a photo of him and Braxton, which was a shame. We were up and about at 7 am and met up with Aaron’s housemates, who were really nice. They said they were sorry for staying up late and keeping us awake – but they really needn’t have worried, we weren’t disturbed at all! We’re still a little jet-lagged as UK time is seven hours behind, so we flag fairly early and then we’re waking up at around 3am! Aaron had shown his housemates our blog … it’s curious to meet people that we don’t know, but who already know something of our cycling adventure and a little about us from our blog!
Matthew thinks that perhaps our blog has the potential to go viral! He’s been checking up on the number of ‘hits’ and is becoming quite excited; a couple of days ago 19 ‘hits’ in one day, then it climbed to 56, then 77 and we wondered if it would ever be more than 100, well yesterday the number of ‘hits’ topped out at 183! I’m flabbergasted – I didn’t think we even knew that many people!
We helped ourselves to some coffee, (thanks Aaron) and chatted about our trip with Aaron’s housemates and they told us about their visits to Europe – Germany, Netherlands, France, Italy and also to Hungary and the Czech Republic, where she was told by someone that they didn’t really like Americans. We had a bit of a deep early-morning discussion about Britain and American foreign policies over the last 100 years or so – a good topic. We agreed that overseas interventions are often unfortunate, can be mishandled but that sometimes they’re for a good reason – such as defending democracy, liberating people, helping to bring aid – the ideal situation would be if they weren’t necessary. After we’d spent the morning putting the world right, we left for breakfast at Starbucks’ (Seattle #2) to consider far more important matters …
Dilemma of the day: Garmin or Google?
When we were planning our daily routes from Vancouver to Tijuana we used Garmin Base Camp on my computer, connected to an Edge 800 cycling GPS system loaded with City Navigator, USA. The Garmin contains all the roads in N. America on a micro-sim card, which is amazing. With Base Camp software it’s possible to produce routes specifically designed for cycling, so it won’t use motorways for example. It’s also possible to tailor the Garmin computer to plan routes that avoid busy dual carriageways too, so it can suggest some lovely routes for us. Generally speaking it’s pretty good that means we can dispense with paper maps and it’s a real boon on a trip like this one. However, it has to be made clear that the Garmin is also extremely stupid, annoying and frustrating at times! It takes everything that it’s told very literally, so for example when it was asked to make a route that avoids busy main roads on our last trip to Germany, it added an extra 100 miles on the section between Hannover and Hamburg, just to avoid a 5 mile section of main road, (that even had a cycle lane running alongside it, which it obviously didn’t know about)! It’s also seems to have quite a masculine persona in that it doesn’t seem able to be sensitive to other people’s emotions – after a long, hot, tiring day in the saddle no-one wants to be told to ride another 20 miles, (even if it is on lovely scenic country lanes), when they know that they’re only 5 miles from their destination.
I have a kind of parent-child relationship with the Garmin, (and I’m not certain who’s the adult sometimes). Garmin might suggests that I take a particular turning and I might shout at it: “No, I’m not doing that”, and I also ignore it sometimes. Then it starts going crazy – beeping at me and flashing messages: ‘recalculating route, please wait …’ (I’ve turned recalculate route off now – that’ll show it!). I never have this sort of trouble with my Garmin GPS running wristwatch – although I never ask that to show me the way! So to compensate for Garmin’s occasional shortcomings, we use Google maps to see if the suggested walking route between two places, (which will almost always be shorter than Garmin’s cycling route) looks like a better choice: more interesting, scenic, shorter etc. If it is, we can force Garmin to take us on all or part of Google’s route – now who’s on charge?! Trouble is, Google can be pretty dense at times, too. So, just as Garmin won’t route down cycle tracks (and it does have some excuse, because it doesn’t know about them), Google will sometimes route down roads that are not accessible to pedestrians or sensible to use for cycling, like major A-roads and dual carriageways that are motorways in all but name. Google try and wriggle out of responsibility for being so stupid sometimes by having a warning on the screen telling everyone that ‘Google walking routes are on beta – use with caution’. Thing is, they’ve been in beta (a test version), for years – it’s probably the longest anything’s ever been in beta! So it’s best to work out a compromise between Garmin and Google, which is why all that route-planning was such a palaver before we left. With today’s route, however, that wasn’t really possible because Garmin routed to the Fauntleroy ferry terminal in south west Seattle and then across to Vashon Island (20 minutes on the ferry), then suggested riding south down the island for another short ferry crossing to Ruston (10 minutes), back on the mainland and then south through Tacoma, Parkland, Spanawau, Roy and Bucoda to Centralia. Google didn’t want us to use the ferry at all and kept us on the mainland – routing through south Seattle, Des Moines, then more or less agreed with Garmin: Tacoma etc.
So, what to do? Take the ferry and visit Vashon Island or not? I was a little uneasy; would it be cheating? After all, we’re attempting to cycle – CYCLE – from Vancouver to Tijuana. Matthew thought that the it might be a pleasant addition to the adventure if we took the ferry and that a visit to Vashon Island might be nice. He reasoned that even though we’d be taking a ferry, we were still doing the journey by bike. I thought that by that logic, we could take our bicycles on a train for the whole journey and still claim to be going by bike! Matthew thought that the crossings didn’t amount to much distance-wise (this is true), and that we’d be cycling the equivalent distance and more with the extra miles we did going off route, riding around cities etc. One of the biggest considerations was what the roads and traffic might be like via Google … the road into Seattle from the north was mostly unpleasant to ride, so it would be best to avoid that kind of relentless stop-start traffic through soul-less landscapes of tin sheds. But it was a Sunday morning and the roads seemed fairly quiet. What to do? As we were pondering this, three cyclists came into the Starbucks we were at and Mike decided to ask them if they were local and which route south would be best: mainland or island? They were unanimous: Vashon Island was definitely the most sensible route. It turns out that they were teachers who lived there! They’d just come off the ferry to the mainland to ride along a local greenway. So that was the decision made, (phew). We chatted with the other cyclists a bit – they knew Bath, where I work and had been cycling in the Cotswolds – it’s such a small world! (We go cycling through the Cotswolds to go up to Coventry to see Matthew’s family). We gave them the blog address and invited them to visit us in Bristol – hope they do, it’d be lovely to meet them again. So off we went to the ferry terminal.
My heart sank a little as we approached the ferry – it was quite foggy down by the water and there were long queues of cars waiting to use it. I needn’t have worried – ferries are usually brilliant for cyclists – they often allow cyclists to board first and then we also usually get to disembark first, too. Result! There were a few bikers (motorcyclists), pedestrians and cyclists waiting for the ferry at the head of the queue, so we bought our tickets $11.50 for two – took us on both ferry legs of the journey, a bargain!)
We struck up a conversation with one of the other waiting cyclists – a women with a lovely Specialized road racing bike – a matte black carbon bicycle with some nice understated pink accents, arching top tube, Sram groupset … all rather lovely. We chatted a bit about our respective rides and how to become a better rider, (we agreed: join a group to keep you competitive and practice). I wish that I’d taken her picture – she was very stylish in good-Lycra and also immaculately made up – wearing foundation, blusher, subtle pink lip gloss (obviously to match her Specialized road frame) along with pretty little pearl stud earrings. Now this is rather unusual in female road racing cyclists – at least it’s very uncommon back home; as for in Seattle – who knows? I wondered about asking her if I might take her picture to send to Copenhagen Cycling Chic, but was afraid that she might think that I was some kind of pervert! For those who don’t know, Copenhagen Cycling Chic is a superb website with photographs showing people looking stylish, nicely dressed and generally cool while on their bikes – and not just in Copenhagen, (although that place does seem to have something of a monopoly of beautiful people on bikes for some reason). She was a definite contender (and eventual winner) for the Most Stylish Cyclist of the Day award. Now before some people start commenting, I want to make it clear that I think that men can be stylish on bicycles too, (go and look at the site). In fact I think that I could be a worthy winner myself on some days, days when I’m riding my grey and orange Trek single speed and wearing black Rapha trousers, a cool t-shirt with a nice slogan on it: ‘love me, love my bike’ or ‘one less car’ for example; Camper shoes, a check cycling cap and a Crumpler messenger bag over my shoulder.
While we were in Starbucks Seattle #2 the rear tyre on Mike’s bicycle had gone down – why is it always the back one?! So that’s puncture #1. We quickly pumped it up again and rode to the ferry, then Mike was able to fix it on the ferry crossing – found a small thorn embedded in the tyre.
The crossing was lovely – calm water and incredible views across the water, back to the city and over to the mountains.
There was a little steep climb once we landed at Vashon Island and we were out of the mist. The island is beautiful – little coves and inlets all along the undulating roads with lovely views of a snow-topped Mount Rainier across the water to the south east. The houses were pretty and in the small towns there were lots of nice proprietor-run independent shops, (which made me feel a little guilty about going to Starbucks). The shops were selling interesting things, including a lovely quilt shop. We’d been recommended a wonderful bread shop by the teachers in Starbucks, but we missed it somehow. There were loads of runners and other cyclists – including some road riders in a bunch – about 8 or so. Lots if other pairs of riders and some fours. The most popular brand of bicycle seems to be Specialized, there were quite a few Trek bikes too and I spotted some that we’re made by Giant.
After the second ferry crossing there were some some incredibly big posh houses along the water in Ruston, but then came a really horrible bit – a busy road flanked hideous car showrooms – outside one, employees looked to be protesting with banners, placards and whistles. Once past there, a Garmin routing problem – the stupid thing directed us to the gates of the huge Gray military base and expected us to cycle along the road that goes right through the middle of it … the military had other ideas, of course. After a bit of shouting and swearing at the stupid *+&;@£^ Garmin, we went around the outside of the base.
Not far after Roy, we discovered an amazing wide segregated cycle track that went on for over 10 miles through woodland and past lakes. It ended about 7 miles north of Centralia. We were able to increase our speed and this really helped drag our average up to something a little more respectable.
Staying at a Motel 6, tonight – part of the Accor group. Basic, but nice and clean. Even a little pool, well used by children, so probably best avoided! We had to pay extra for Wi-Fi, but it didn’t work – so no posting for a while. There was a laundry room and we were able to wash all our cycling clothes, which were beginning to smell a bit I think! It’ll be wonderful to wear clean cycling gear again – especially as we’re heading to Portland – with its reputation as the cycling capital of the USA – there’s certain to be lots of cycling chic there, so we should aim to look our best in our Rapha gear!
We concluded the day with a trip to Safeway’s to buy some provisions for dinner. Matthew says that he thinks Safeway’s in the USA is a little like Waitrose in the UK. I think that’s overstating things somewhat, it’s not nearly as posh (or as expensive) as Waitrose. It’s more like Sainsbury’s really. Anyway, I had to drag him away from the home-style magazines with lots of Halloween ideas for treats and carved pumpkins … he was sneakily photographing some the pages, so no doubt the ideas will be making an appearance in Stackpool Road cul-de-sac at the end of October!
As is usually the case on our holidays, we’re having much fun touring the aisles of local supermarkets. We’re not doing as well as my nephew Toby, who on a recent trip to France played ‘supermarket bingo’ and attempted to visit at least one branch of every chain possible. So far we’ve only been to Safeway’s (thrice) and Wal-Mart. ASDA is part of Wal-Mart, so that will give you an idea what that’s like. Curiously, all the clothes in Wal-Mart are the same ‘George’ brand that are available in the UK – this used to be an ASDA brand. Wal-Mart have imported it to the USA and ‘supersized it’ for the larger consumer. Safeway’s is a bit more like Sainsbury’s, which explains why we’ve been to three branches! I’m beginning to wonder whether I should sign up for one of their loyalty clubcards! One thing we’ve not found yet is soya yogurt, although they do have soya milk. – often sold by the gallon! What would anyone do with a gallon of soya milk? Recipe ideas, anyone? They are very big on gluten-free things, my sister-in-law Richmal would have a ball here. Last night we noticed that the Halloween merchandise has started to emerge on the shelves – a sure sign of summer drawing to a close. I had a very happy 20 minutes checking out, (and stealing) ideas from a copy of Martha Stewart’s Halloween magazine. For our UK readers unfamiliar with Ms Stewart – think Delia Smith on steroids with a sprinkling of Oprah for good measure, (oh, and a criminal record for tax avoidance, you’d think someone might want to lie low after that sort of thing). I think I’m going to excel myself with goodies for trick and treaters this year – watch and weep Delia!
Some readers of this blog may have detected a slight difference of writing style in some recent posts. This can be explained by a ghost writer, one – I might add – who was initially quite dismissive of this blog! So, dear reader, some tips to help you identify the ghost writer’s posts as opposed to those written by me – Matthew.
1. The ghost writer tends to appear late at night.
2. The ghost writer does tend to write lengthy blog entries.
3. The ghost writer uses impeccable grammar and spelling (unlike me).
There are no prizes for guessing the ghost writers identity (*Mike edit: that should be writer’s identity! You asked for that, I think!!). They are most welcome to contribute to this blog and I hope you’re finding our combined blogging enjoyable!
We took some detours to avoid busy roads and then we had a bit of messing about in Seattle – all added some extra miles.
Avg speed: 13.2 – another day when our 15mph target wasn’t met. I think (hope!) it’s a consequence of so much stopping and starting at junctions as we ride through built-up areas. We do seem to manage 18-24mph on the flat open roads without too much difficulty.
We left Mount Vernon a little later than anticipated as we now need to try and find alternative accommodation in Portland on Monday and Tuesday. The early part of the journey was really nice – Skagit City and county and around Skagit Bay – lovely looking small towns – and a long train.
We were riding on quieter roads that ran along either side of the freeway: Interstate 5. There is a huge urban area north of Seattle – it maybe continues from the centre northwards for about 35 miles. So traffic really became busier in North Marysville and there was no respite from quite busy roads.
Marysville, Everett, along Evergreen Way (hardly any green!), east of Snohomish Airport, through Lynwood, (which had been our original destination for the day – but on reflection we thought that it wasn’t far enough south at about 60 miles from Mount Vernon), so we pressed on to Aurora on Pacific Highway, route 99. We turned west off this road just before N 155 Street towards the Seattle Golf and Country Club and the traffic seemed to almost disappear. We had a really enjoyable ride into the city, along Greenwood Ave North – into Greenwood; then on in to Phinney – a really nice-looking and slightly bohemian suburb – it felt a bit like home in Southville, Bristol. Joy of joys – we started to see people on bicycles! You can be pretty sure that you’re in a nice place with good people when the local people are on bicycles!
As we came down the steep hillside to come into Seattle over the Freemont Bridge, we caught our first glimpse of the Space Needle – one of the iconic buildings of Seattle. It was thrilling! The Space Needle will be very familiar to anyone who has watched Frasier – it was clearly visible through the windows of his apartment. **Spoiler alert** – any Frasier fans might want to stop reading until the end of this paragraph. We found out today that Frasier’s apartment doesn’t actually exist – and couldn’t exist, as there are no buildings in Seattle that provide the view out of Frasier’s apartment windows that audiences of the tv show see. That view was a photomontage … disgraceful! So that’s another piece of media innocence gone! So any of you who dreamed of living in Frasier’s apartment one day can forget it. One more thing, it turns out that Kelsey Grammar, the actor who played Frasier is a member of the Republican party – that was enough to deter Mike from buying the complete series box set on DVD!
Otherwise, Seattle was everything we hoped for – a really good place – cycle lanes almost everywhere, impressive buildings, wide open expanses of water and snow-topped mountains in the distance.
We came across a ‘ghost bike’ on Dexter Avenue North – a bicycle painted white and decorated with flowers in memory of a cyclist who was killed – Michael Wang in this case. It was a sad moment, and reminds us how vulnerable we can be – even in a cycle-friendly city like Seattle. RIP Michael Wang.
We debated whether to visit a Starbucks’ or not – they were founded here in Seattle and so it seemed a shame not to, so two iced green teas and oat biscuits in the original Starbucks Seattle! We’re not really tempted to visit those other two big Seattle exports – Microsoft and Boeing … well, Mike is extremely tempted, but Matthew wouldn’t stand for it!
We headed off to meet our Warm Showers host, Aaron, at his bicycle shop – but just before we arrived we were spotted by him and his son, Braxton as they cycled home from the shop! We were easy to recognise, apparently! It’s a shame we didn’t get to visit Aaraon’s Bicycle Repair Inc. We were especially keen to meet the two resident cats: Presta and Shraeda.
Presta and Shraeda
That’s something else to add to the list of things to do when we’re next in town. It looks and sounds like a really cool cycling establishment – check it out at: http://www.rideyourbike.com
So it was back to his lovely house for supper and a chat around a big open fire in the garden.
Braxton was quite interested in the differences between US and British English – it started when Mike talked about lorries – Braxton looked a little blankly and said “What?”, so Mike said it was English for truck! We developed a long list of words that just go to prove how much the British and Americans are separated by a common language!
One more thing … Aaron had a set of scales in his bathroom, Mike can never pass up an opportunity to feed his body weight obsession, so it’s 141.8lbs/10st 01 … all this cycling hasn’t brought him under 140lbs/10st yet – more’s the pity. Maybe fewer cake on the cake stops … or even ‘No cake stops’ perhaps?!
It’s a bit foggy in Seattle this morning. In fact it was sunny when we left Aaron’s house, but as we dropped down into the valley and towards the coast the fog started to envelop us. It will probably burn off later, so should be another nice ride. We’ve stopped off at (another) Starbuck’s for breakfast before setting off – well, when in Seattle, do as they do!
Quite a lot of our route so far has been running alongside railway tracks. After bicycles and aeroplanes, the train is the next favourite transport thing on Mike’s list of OCD transport obsessions, (he likes trams, rapid-transit subway systems, gliders, hot air balloons, Lego … does this remind you of anyone Nicky?!). When we hear the horn of the train or the clanking bell of a level-crossing, Mike is transfixed until the said transportation chugs past with its extraordinary long cargo. Mike can stare at US trains with a smile on his face for some time as they’re so long that it can take an age for one to go past. I’m trying to coax him into cycling at the same time as a train is passing. I also tried to take a picture of one for Mike today, but it doesn’t really capture the scale of the train, so it may not persuade him to keep on riding when the train horn sounds!
We’ve arrived in Seattle – another beautiful day to be cycling, with clear blue skies and warm temperatures. The route has been a bit mixed, with some really quiet roads running parallel to the Interstate highway and then some quite busy roads into Seattle from the north with mile after mile of shopping outlets.
When we reached Seattle the bike lanes and cyclists became far more prominent. The stopping and starting through the suburbs meant we only really had time to have a quick drink in Starbucks – well we had to, didn’t we? As it is their home town.
We were heading toward Aaron’s Bike Shop, (Aaron is our Warm Showers host tonight) when he spotted us as he was heading back home with his son. We must have stood out as British touring cyclists as he shouted out our names as we cycled past on the other side of the road – it felt odd to be recognised in a place that we’ve never been to before.
We’re just about to tuck into some tabbouleh while we sit around a camp fire in Aaron’s garden. Chilling out in Seattle is fun. Will sleep well tonight I think.
The Tulip Inn at Mount Vernon was nice – a spacious room, en suite bathroom and free wi-fi, so Mike could get a Radio 3 fix. Unfortunately, BBC iPlayer doesn’t permit the listen again service overseas, (bloody hell – we are licence-fee payers) after all!), so we’re denied our daily visit to Ambridge, courtesy of Radio 4 – although we think that there may be a daily podcast of The Archers that we can download, so all is not lost. Also at the Tulip Inn … complimentary continental breakfast … But as they’re a motel and don’t have a dining room, it was necessary to go and collect coffee and breakfast provisions and then bring them back to our room. Not wanting to appear greedy, we went separately and both brought back sufficient for two! It was all good food though … including porridge oats, fruit, bagels with peanut butter or cream cheese … guess who had which! There was fruit and yoghurt too. We’d bought some soya milk in Wal-Mart last night, so it was a perfect breakfast.
When Mike went for ‘breakfast round 2’, he started chatting with the proprietor, a lovely, elderly German lady whose family came from Bremen. She said that she was planning to sell the business and move back to Germany in the next two years. We were in Bremen on our trial long-distance ride to Hamburg at Easter. It’s a beautiful place – Mike remembers the grand square, enormous cathedral with two high west towers topped with huge green copper pyramid roofs, the elaborate facade of the medieval town hall with gilded carvings, some stunning art nouveau buildings tucked down a little lane … Matthew remembered the ‘ice cream incident in Bremen’, when our orders arrived Mike was alarmed that there was so much, but that didn’t prevent him from starting to eat Matthew’s as well as his own – just to try it, you understand!
Just after we left Mount Vernon there was a rather unfortunate incident – we rode past a Jiffy Lube garage. Matthew screeched to a halt, shouting “I’ve got to get a photo of this.” Anyone of a sensitive disposition should stop reading now*
*Aunt Janet, this mean you!
… by way of explanation, there’s a brand of condoms in the UK called Jiffy and they’re heavily marketed to gay men with slogans such as: ‘Real men come in a Jiffy!’ So, there you go … The tone for the rest of the day was established right there. Hopefully it will be raised somewhat when we get to Seattle – but do watch out for posts in which Mike reminisces about Frasier!
Janet can restart reading here.
Oh, we also had an email this morning from George our Warm Showers host in Portland. We were planning to stay with him on his boat for two nights next week … but he explained that he’d called away by work, so couldn’t host us after all. It’s a shame – we were looking forward to staying there. We spent an hour or so looking through the Warm Showers listings for Portland and e-mailing some people to plead for shelter! Warm Showers has lots of amazing stories of people being rescued and accommodated by other members, and we’ve done a fair share of rescuing people ourselves when we’ve taken in cyclists at the last minute. Cyclists are a ‘good sort’ by and large, so we have high hopes … and of course if we don’t find anyone, we can always stay in a hotel.
In Marysville now, having lunch. Marysville is yet another loaded name that has Matthew giggling. In the UK Mary is an archaic, gently derogatory euphemism for gay men. So someone might be ‘a bit of a Mary’ – or even a ‘Mary-Ann’, they’d be a little bit effeminate (camp) and probably somewhat self-absorbed. I remember being at a Bristol Labour party meeting sometime in the 1980s or early ’90s, chaired by Brian Richards. The Bristol Labour party had (still has) lots of gay men as activist members. There was a particularly heated discussion going on about something or other – lots of people were wanting to say something in any case. A woman called Mary indicated and was called to make her contribution to the debate. Unfortunately, sitting a couple of rows behind her, was another woman called Mary Harris, who thought she’d been called and stood up to speak. There was some confusion as the two women were on their feet, and speaking at the same time. Poor Brian – he explained who he’d called, then complained, rather innocently and by way of explanation: “There’s too many Mary’s in the room.” well, most of the many gay men who were present (and some others) understood the unintentional double entendre immediately and there was gales of laughter! Brian had no idea what he’d said that caused the uproar and looked completely baffled – which just added to the mirth, really!
Anyway, back in Marysville, there were lots of yard sales and swap meets going on in the small towns that we’ve ridden through this morning. We’re off into Seattle, the roads are beginning to feel quite busy, glad it’s Saturday at least.
Day 01 Vancouver to Mount VernonPosted by Mike Garmin prediction: 82.3 miles /actual: 82.97 – (also maybe 3 or 4 extra miles looking around Vancouver not counted). Avg. speed: 13.6 mph – too slow, but there was lots of stopping … Continue reading →
Those of you who know me will be aware that a) I like shopping and b) I enjoy the odd Frankie Howerd-style innuendo. As we cycled away from Vancouver yesterday through British Columbia (BC) I was spoilt for choice of ‘tongue in cheek’ shop names. I’m not sure what this says about the town of Surrey BC, but one can explore the retail delights of Lube World, Mr Lube and Lube ‘n’ Go – so much choice, how is a boy to decide? If that’s not enough you can always call in at Nuts Maintenance. Alas, baggage restrictions prevent any retail therapy until I reach San Diego – such a shame as I saw a wonderful Gunnera for just $3 yesterday. I’ll just have to settle for getting my nuts maintained instead ;0)
We left Vancouver at about 11.30am. Cycle routes in the city are good but like any city you’re unfamiliar with, you end up stoping and starting to check maps and reassure yourself that you’re going in the right direction. The first part of today’s ride after leaving central Vancouver was fairly built up and not very pleasant to cycle through. Things improved after we got past the US border. The border has a lovely landscaped park with the peace arch sitting in the middle. Around the arch were beautiful flower beds, trees and artwork. Mike snapped some shots and even asked some passing tourists to take pictures of us.
We were expecting that it could take a while to get throughout the border and we were correct. Unlike the cars that seemed to queue for a short while and then drove through, pedestrians and cyclists wishing to cross were herded in the custom building where we had to fill in more forms, answer more questions and pay for the privilege! We’d already paid online to enter the USA – but apparently that only counts if one enters by air! So we’ve had to pay twice! What a disgrace – anyone would think they didn’t want us! The road after the border was much nicer and quieter.
We stopped this afternoon for a break in Bellingham (pronounced Bellingeham). We also had a doughnut each at Rocket Donuts – lovely they were too. The final stretch of today’s ride was along a beautiful wooded valley beside the sea called Chuckanut Bay. Matthew, our Warmshowers host in Vancouver recommended it and he was certainly right. If you’re ever passing through Washington State it’s well worth a visit.
After Chuckanut Bay, we emerged from the woods onto the flat and fertile plains before reaching Mount Vernon. We passed by lots of organic farms. There are lots of wonderful things about touring cycling, including that it’s a great pace to see the world, but I really love that you not only see stuff – you can smell it too. We cycled through pine forests and camomile fields today – both were a scent sensation.
We decided to postpone the start of our trip south, by heading north into downtown Vancouver – along the waterfront – lots of runners and cyclists – it’s a beautiful city and very cycle-friendly. There are huge expanses of water, lots of parks, tall modern buildings in downtown and the suburbs have lots of tree-lined streets with cycle lanes almost everywhere.
We’ll leave Canada for the USA , today – it’s a shame that we’re not here for longer … I’d definitely come back again.
We’re recovering from the (very) long journey yesterday by tarrying (already,) and having a lazy breakfast in Vancouver before setting off late morning. It’s very warm here – a little cooler besides the water.
The start of our adventure hasn’t been as smooth as we’d have liked. Firstly our flight arrived way later than we’d anticipated. Secondly the luggage firm at the airport couldn’t ship our empty bike bags to San Diego. So we had to take a taxi to the large UPS depot near the airport. They were able to transfer the bags (for a princely sum) but getting to the courier company, unpacking and building the bikes, packing the bags into one another and filling all the forms to despatch them to San Diego took four hours, so by the time we were heading into Vancouver it was dark. Fortunately, we had lights and hi-viz bike bag covers, but it was not a nice ride in. Navigating a city you don’t know at night when extremely tired is tough. Well done to Mike (and Garmin) for getting us to our first Warm Showers host – Matthew Cooke. We arrived at his house gone 10pm but were welcomes warmly by Matthew and Rex the dog (once he’d had a good sniff and lick – that’s Rex, of course, not Matthew). We were pretty pooped by then after nearly 24 hrs travelling with little genuine sleep on the plane, so we turned in almost straight away.
Morning. Feeling bit fresher after a night’s sleep – looking forward to some coffee. We set off on our first leg of the journey proper today to Mount Vernon. I think navigating our way out of the city will be the trickiest bit, followed by getting across the USA border, (arranging to send an empty bike bag parcel across the border was complicated enough). After that hopefully a good 80 mile ride lies ahead of us, fingers crossed.
We finally departed the UK at 4pm (British Summer Time), three hours later than scheduled due to a ‘technical problem’ with the plane we were intended to fly on. As Mike has already mentioned, the change of plane also meant a change of departure gate – from terminal 5A we had to get the ‘transit’ train to terminal 5B. When we were finally boarding the steward checking Mike’s documents looked at his passport photo and couldn’t help but notice his obvious considerable weight loss since the passport photo was taken. Observing the loss of weight is understandable, but I wasn’t expecting his follow-up comment to Mike: “You were a bit of a chunky monkey weren’t you?!”‘ – how do you respond to that?
As I type this, (to be posted later), we’re just over three hours into an eight-hour flight. We should now arrive in Vancouver about 5pm local time. It will take a good hour to reassemble our bikes and arrange for our bike bags to be couriered to San Diego. After that we’ll cycle into Vancouver to our first Warm Showers host Matthew Cooke.
Don’t really like flying – it’s all a bit cramped and boring after a while. The other thing I don’t enjoy is how noisy it is. The constant roar makes it difficult to get any real shut eye – but one must try, a long ride tomorrow. Ta ta for now.
A bit later…
I’ve just watched a movie called ‘The Journey’ staring Martin Sheen. Not a particularly good film, (a bit of a thin and predictable story). The strange thing was that it was about an American dentist (Sheen) from Ventura, California whos son dies walking the Cameno – the pilgrim’s walk from the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compestella in Spain. What’s strange about that you ask? Well we’ll be cycling through Ventura in a few weeks and my work colleague Ruth is walking the Cameno this autumn, starting on 9 September – spooky or what?! The film may have been a turkey, but Ventura and the Cameno both looked good. Let’s hope both of our journeys go smoothly and help recharge our batteries as both Ruth and I need that.
Ding boing … “Welcome to Britain … please form an orderly queue … and should you wish to leave, please form another orderly queue – over there”.
Oh dear … because of a’ technical issue with the aircraft’ (what does THAT mean?), our flight has been delayed to 14.00 instead of 12.55. We have to fly on a different aeroplane and depart from a different gate, (it’s further away) … there are lots of people grumbling. Mike is alarmed about the possibility that (a) the bicycles will not be put on the right plane, and (b) that his request to be be fed vegan food while airborne will be lost … The good news is that the revised departure gate means that he can now have a go on the underground transit train and spend some more time looking out of the windows at aeroplanes … so he’s pleased about that .
We’ve just bidden a rather anxious farewell (and fare well), to our very precious bicycles. Hope that all that investment in costly new bicycle bags keeps them safe. At baggage drop-off we were redirected to ‘oversize baggage’. Mike doesn’t really like being parted from his beloved Condor titanium bicycle and was looking rather pained as the bag containing it was manhandled (literally) onto the conveyor belt and then disappearing behind a sliding door – the whole thing was all rather too reminiscent of a crematorium for his liking!
Heathrow Terminal 5 is huge – and a very impressive modern building with an enormous single-span curved roof. It also offers plenty of diversionary people-watching. Matthew’s gone off to explore the shops, Mike is sitting with a cup of green tea while watching all the planes parked and taxiing out on the apron and ruminating on what make and model of aeroplane we’ll be on to Vancouver. That pretty much sums us up really!
Our snazzy new bicycle bags are attracting lots of attention here at the airport with several people, (thankfully, not security) asking what’s in the bags? Perhaps their slightly odd shape is the cause. We came off the RailAir bus and were in the lift to departures and a rather severe-looking women in British Airways uniform, (although Mike wasn’t entirely sure that she was a women) glanced at our bicycle bags, looked at us and said: “That’s a lot of equipment you’ve got there!”. Ooo -err, steady on!
The look says it all: “You’re off again, aren’t you?”. Saying goodbye to Sws the cat this morning was the worst thing about going away. I know Ruairi will look after him well – in fact Sws will probably have forgotten who we are by the time we return home – but he does like company. So if you’re passing near our house and you see this doe-eyed fur ball sitting looking lonely, please stop and tickle our pussy, (as it were).
Going on holiday has to be one of the most stressful things anyone can do – sort of moving house in miniature (very miniature when travelling by bicycle with Mike!). We’re dismantling, (well Mike is, while I hold), and packing the bikes – quite an art. Still on the first one – so this could take some time. No early to bed tonight, I suspect.
Last day at work proved to be very long indeed 7.30am – 7.30pm, but I (just about) finished everything that needed doing – fuelled on by sticky sweets, (thanks Ruth and Hillary/Sean). Certainly not a balanced diet or good for the teeth, but I’m sure those extra calories will come in handy over the next 1800+ miles.
Got told off today for blogging, “When I should have been in bed asleep.” I agree – but to be fair I was in bed, just not asleep. My blog post tonight is slightly earlier (but only just). We’re just sending our final itinerary to our WarmShower host (Mike is doing this) and a link to this blog (“Hello”, if you’re checking us out – look forward to meeting you soon). We’re nearly ready, just need to pack our bikes into their bags tomorrow and check in online for our flights.
Tomorrow is my last day at work before we go. There is so much to do and I’m afraid that some of it is going to have to wait until I get back. Apologies to my work colleagues, sorry if I have left stuff that you’ll have to do. Everyone at my work place has been through a tough year (and we’re still going through it) and I do feel a bit guilty going away – but I promise I’ll come back refreshed and energised and raring to go. Hang on in there guys, you’re doing a great job.
Really is time for bed now as it’s going to be a full on day tomorrow … night, night.
Packed my bag tonight – twice. Once with the clothes I’ll be wearing on the plane out and once with my cycling outfit out. It all fits with ample room. Haven’t seen much evidence of Mike’s luggage being prepared. Hopefully that will be done tomorrow.
The cycle travel bag inserts we’re waiting for are (we’re told) going to arrive on Wednesday. Leaving it a bit fine – but as long as they do arrive we’ll be ok. We’re getting a lift to the station from out neighbour Ann. I’m a little anxious that everything will fit in their car so we’re going to do a test run on Wednesday night.
Only three night left in our own beds – better go to sleep so I can make the most of it.
Hooray, we’ve finished our Garmin route mapping – all we have to do now is cycle it all! In true pre-holiday fashion my body has decided to go into meltdown. A celestial-like formation of spots has emerged on my forehead. I can’t decide whether they look like the Great Bear or the Plough! Either way, I hope it fades quickly. Perhaps a bit of west coast sunshine is just what is needed to rejuvenated frayed nerves and tired skin.
I’m going to pack my bag tomorrow and start wrapping my bike in pipe insulation. We’re still waiting to find out whether the foam road bike inserts for the bike bags will arrive in time. They’re due on Wednesday, if they don’t arrive I’ll be paying a visit to Fabric Land and constructing my own version! I didn’t watch Blue Peter for all those years for nothing – does anyone have an empty washing up liquid bottle I could borrow?
We have had two very nice house guests this weekend – Dad and Janet. A very short visit but lovely never the less. I managed to draw up a poster for the Wyken_herritage_open_day part of the national Herritage Open day. If you’re passing through Coventry on the 10/11 September why not drop in and see Coventry’s oldest building. There will also be crafts and refreshments available. Alas I won’t be able to go as I’ll be in San Francisco that weekend!
Even with visitors I’ve managed to check off a few more things from my ‘to do’ list. Collect train tickets – tick, print of coach tickets from Reading to Heathrow – tick, return pannier covers to Evans Cycles (didn’t know which size when I purchased them online) – tick, sort out how to use our mobile phones cheaply in the USA – tick (actually Mike did this one) – but there still seems loads to do, especially work stuff. I did some work on Friday night at home and then woke up really early this morning and so ended up doing some more then. I suppose I should really calm down, if it doesn’t get done, it will just have to wait for me to do it when I get back – neither Voscur or the voluntary sector in Bristol will grind to a halt because I go on holiday!
One thing that I though would be all done and dusted was the new garden pond. Unfortunately when I filled it up yesterday I discovered that the builder has manage to create a slopeing pond :0( The water is obviously level but the pond line is above the top of the water by about two inches on the side where you see it (if it had been the other way round it wouldn’t have mattered). This means that the whole thing will probably need to be relined – the first lining is cemented in so will be a right pain to get out. Any suggestions? I wonder if it is possible to just paint a waterproof seal at the top that would bond to the liner. I’m glad I’ve not paid the builder yet, but I don’t like having these conversations – I’m not a natural complainer and don’t like confrontation.
Saturday mornings in our house normally comprise of a lay in with coffee, BBC Radio 3 and the cat. Sws the cat isn’t allowed upstairs much, but we make an exception at weekends. As you can see he likes to stretch out and make himself at home. It’s not unusual for him to be on his back, legs apart having his tummy tickled. This will be the last Saturday for the next four weeks when we’ll have our ‘cat-urday’ lay in. Mike keeps suggesting Sws isn’t long for this world and that he might not be here when we return. I think he will be as he’ll have Ruairi to keep him company while we’re away. If you see him while we’re away please give him a tickle for us (Sws not Ruairi)!
Just five days to go – and only three of them are work days, which means they are going to be long ones! Apart from a lot of work to finish, everything else is falling into place. I picked up the hi-viz pannier covers today, finalised our ESTA forms last night, which means we can (hopefully) enter the USA, and have all my clothes washed and ready to pack, (that’s one of tomorrow’s jobs).
I’m hoping that I might also find some time tomorrow to tidy the garden up a bit – it’s a little dusty. Before we go across the Big Pond, we’ve a small pond to finish. I’ve put my birthday money towards having a new garden pond created. Aidan our builder has been very busy digging, cutting terecotta tiles, drilling holes and creating out new garden pond. It’s about four times bigger than the previous one and has a new water feature – which hopefully will be switched on tomorrow for the first time by two very special guests – Dad and Janet, who are making a flying visit to us before we go away – picture to follow …
We’re nearly half way through the detailed route planning now and Mike has had a little wobble at the thought of the challenge ahead. Ironically I think it’s me who should be having the wobble given that my daily cycle ride is about 1.5 miles downhill to work. At least Mike powers back and forth to Bath almost every day (almost 30 miles round trip) – I think he’ll be leaving me behind on this trip! The wobble was brought on at the thought of the longest day cycling we’re doing on the whole trip – 133 miles from Miranda Gardens to Fort Bragg. It will certainly be challenging, but it should also be beautiful as most of this section will be through the giant redwood forests. It is worth noting that we have done 139 in a single day once cycling from Bristol to Potters Bar at the start of our Easter cycling trip to Hamburg, so we know that we can do that distance in a day. It’s a good job that Mike and I have a kind of balance whereby if he gets wound up about something, I’ll be calm and vice versa. Enough wobbles for one night I’m off to bed or I’ll be in no fit state for work tomorrow – plenty of wobbles there to deal with too!
So much for trying to get to bed early – it’s now well past my bed time and instead of being tucked up dreaming about our holiday I’m sitting beside Mike agreeing detailed route planning. We’ve left Vancouver, passed Mount Vernon, Seattle and are heading towards Portland now. We could have saved a fortune and done this trip from Mike’s study! There was me thinking that the marvellous Garmin device would take the trouble out of navigation – but it seems to me to be just as much hard work. (Mike note – the Garmin gps will work out routes for us, but it might not direct us the best way – so it’s better to do it manually). Hopefully this attention to detail will mean that when we get to the States we’ll glide along with no wrong turns, missed turns, travelling in the wrong direction etc, etc.(some hope!).
I confess that many a family holiday of my youth ended in a few heated words after navigation malfunctions, (and this was well before the invention of sat nav). My dad used to produce charts with every significant junction listed with an estimated time of arrival (eta). The ‘designated navigator’ was supposed to write down next to the eta the exact time of arrival so that upon arrival my dad could calculate the accuracy of the journey plan. This seemed to work reasonably well until everyone except the driver had fallen asleep, (it was normal for us to depart from home on our family holidays at about 2am to ‘beat the traffic’). I was left scarred mentally, although surprisingly not physically injured, after one incident where we were well and truly lost, (where exactly on mainland Europe I do not recall). My dad lost his temper and after consuming his cup of tea threw his bakerlite mug into the air only, by some freak chance, for it to come down right on my head – and I wasn’t even navigating. I think he felt quite guilty about it at the time and so he should, nobody should treat a bakerlite mug like that. So with the marvels of modern technology we should have no incidents of that kind!
So much to do and so little time. I can hardly believe that there is barely a week to go (9 days to be precise) before we fly to Canada. We still need to sort the travel insurance and to test packing and unpacking the bike bags in their carry cases. We also need to contact our wonderful Warmshowers hosts again to check that they are still ok to accommodate us. I can feel a ‘to do’ list coming on!
I know that it’s probably a bit late to be asking this question, (and I probably won’t have time to do many of them) but any top suggestions for a USA west coast cyclist gratefully received. So far I’ve been advised to stop by at Hearst Castle, savour the giant redwoods and try a particular chip shop – can you suggest anything else? Who knows, there might be a small prize for the the best (i.e. my favourite) suggestion.
The London Olympic road race trial is complete (didn’t Cav do well?). I can also now confirm that the trial of my new bike is now complete – but not quite as we’d envisaged. We left Brighton in lovely morning sunshine, but it became more cloudy as we made our way to Winchester. Leaving Winchester after lunch was when the weather all started to go awry; we thought we were skirting around the rain as we headed over Salisbury Plain, but unfortunately we were heading right into it. The spots turned to drizzle, then the drizzle turned to rain, then the rain turned to low clouds and heavy rain. We clocked up 107 miles from Brighton to Warminster, but then decided to abandon the cycling and catch the train from Warminster back to Bristol (it’s only 4 stops). Mike had forgotten his rain coat, so was soaked to the skin and shivering by the time we arrived in Warminster – I had to resort to emergency fruit buns and a cheap towel from Lidl! Even though we didn’t make the 130 miles home I feel no shame; 107 is still further than most of the distance we have to ride each day in the USA and I was carrying a big bag today too – much heavier than my holiday luggage. One thing is certain, I will sleep well tonight!
Received an unexpected phone call from my brother this morning informing me that by coincidence, he was in Brighton with Julie and James. We wandered down to the beach to join them, passing the rowdy Brighton Pride celebrations on the way. James was so sweet, as soon as he saw me he threw himself into my arms and gave me a big hug. The beach in Brighton is a bit too pebbly and steep to be paddling when your little, so I suggested we stroll down to the play area further along the beach near the West Pier ruins. James had a lovely time and it was nice catching up with Philip and Julie too. It’s amazing how much energy James has, he runs around like a mad thing, he was in and out of the water, and up and down climbing frames over and over again. I’m surprised that Philip can keep up with him!
After months of keeping it a secret, it was a huge relief last night when Paul and Andy finally told Mike that his surprise birthday present is a trip to see the opera at Glyndebourne tomorrow. When they told him he was in Brighton for a surprise, you could see the fear in his face as he imagined all the surprise things he’d hate. Thankfully when told fear turned to joy and disbelief – he thought that you can only get tickets to Glyndebourne if you’re minted or have a title.
My big relief was that Mike’s new evening suit (that had taken much planning and conspiracy to acquire and have transported to Brighton) fitted him and looks lovely too. The finishing touch was the bicycle cufflinks I tracked down for him, he likes these very much. So all that’s left to do now is go and collect my suit from M&S and then we’re all set for the opera.
Taking shelter from the rain in ‘Look Mum No Hands’ cycle café on Old Street. Enjoying some lovely coffee, cake and the creative results of their recent ‘best bunting’ competition. Mike’s eye was drawn to the leopard print bunting, whereas I’m quite impressed with one featuring knitting and crochet flowers. It’s making my palms itchy, I might need to hit the haberdashery department in John Lewis on Oxford Street later. Would make a lovely SouthBank Arts trail competition, I wonder if the residents of the cul de sac would be up for a ‘bunt off’?
We made our final ‘mad after work dash’ of the summer season yesterday to catch the train up to London for the late-night Prom: Steve Reich. It was fantastic (check out the clapping piece, very smart), you can see the details and hear some snippets here:
The Royal Albert Hall was packed full of trendy young people (skinny jeans, square black-framed glasses, beards and short back and sides hair dos, lots of fixed-gear cycles tied up outside – you probably know the sort). Mainly (but not exclusively) men and unusually for a concert the queues were for the gent’s loos, but not the women’s.
The prevalence of men made Mike comment that he thought this kind of music, (it’s a musical style called minimalism) was attractive to a kind of ‘autistic men’ – of which he thought he was probably one!!! I was not in entire agreement, as I enjoyed it and don’t class myself in that category. My take on it was that from the look of the queues, this style of music simply attracts the prostately-challenged male!
After a very late finish (11.30am) we decided we’d stay over at the Hoxton Hotel and so we’ve got a day in London to enjoy. Will probably do some nice mooching around. Alas will have to catch up on some work emails at some point but given that there are now less than two weeks before our bicycling adventure begins, there is too much to be done before then.
My boss posted this fantastic short film made by a guy in California on my Facebook page. What is particularly amazing is that it isn’t actually a film at all, but is made up of thousands of individual photos. Take a look – it’s really lovely and is making me even more excited about cycling all the way through California from top to bottom.
So much for the ‘early to bed’ intentions, it now half past midnight and we’ve just got back from London after a lovely Prom concert (Sibelius, Grieg and another Nordic composer who has gone right out of my head just now). (Mike edit:- it was Karl Neilson’s symphony no. 4 – the ‘Inextinguishable’). The journey from the Albert Hall back to Paddington proved to be more exciting, (or should that be stressful), than we’d imagined. Mike’s bike key wouldn’t unlock a bike, I managed to unlock one at the second docking station in Hyde Park. So Mike said he’d run back to Paddington, (he’s quite a good runner these days) (Mike edit:- aw shucks, thanks!), while I cycled.
All well until Paddington and the nearest two docking stations were full! This was especially ironic as they were empty when we wanted to take bikes when we arrived earlier in the evening. I eventually had to cycle to a third docking station quite a way from the railway station, but I could at least tell from my iPhone app. that there were spaces at that one. It was then a case of sprinting back to Paddington and making the train with moments to spare. While I think that potentially I could be ok at running, I don’t think it is an advisable sporting activity to undertake when carrying a cycle pannier and wearing a rain mac.
Jam made and it’s still raining, so I decided to test my bag packing skills. I have to admit that my years working in a well-known supermarket chain (Every Little Helps), served me well in terms of efficient packing. Be it drawers, dishwashers or luggage, I can squeeze an awful lot into a small space. Mary Poppin’s carpet bag has nothing on my packing!
So gathering up my pile of ‘essentials for the touring cyclist’ I first laid them out. Here it all is…
I know it doesn’t look like an awful lot for nearly four week travel, but I am assured they do have laundry facilities in the United States of America and Canada! It is also important to remember that this is largely evening wear, as most of the day wear will be of the Lycra variety. Anyway, with a little bit of Gok Wan compact wardrobe magic I reckon that this lot will convert into about 10 different ‘mix and match’ outfits – “Go girlfriend!”. Best of all it all fits into one small pannier bag with room to spare for food essentials. Ta-dah!…
Well the idea of a test ride on the new bike was dashed again this weekend. Yesterday I had to focus on the dissertation so was well and truly grounded, with the exception of a swift cycle to the central library and into town for a very quick shop and drop (needed to return some mis-fitting garments). Today it has been wet, wet, wet. Heavy shower followed by heavy shower, the only break was when I managed to dash to the recycling centre but any attempt to go out on a ride would have certainly ended with one very heavy drenching after another. Took this picture out of the window showing the looming grey clouds, the forecast looks like there will be a few more this coming week.
So what is a boy to do when he can’t go out for a ride? Obviously make more jam! The bumper fruit harvest this year is leading to some extremely cheap fruit in the shops right now. So after stocking up on bargain blueberries and super saver strawberries I set about on the latest batch of jam. I think the blueberry jam is a particular success, the strawberry is what you might call ‘very soft set’, but now I’ve run out of jars so have bowls of jam filling the fridge. Anyone local with a few empty jars going spare drop me a line – there might be a jar of jam in it for you.
Eek, less than twenty days now to the off. Slightly daunted by the amount of work and non-work things that need to be done before we go. Most importantly I need to start the process of ‘bonding’ with my new bike. Hope to go out for a ride this weekend and some time next week too. Next weekend we’ll be cycling back from Brighton so that will be a good long ride test – hope the weather is kind to us.
The other big challenge for this week is to try and break the 12 stone barrier – below 12 stone that is. I’ve been lingering at 12.1 for a few weeks now and would really like to get to 11 something before we set off. I think that earlier nights, more water and a decent meal plan are needed to help me achieve this goal. Our meal times have gone to pot with so much going on at work. I’m also pondering whether I should take up the offer to try out running with Mike – however, this may need to happen after dark as I’m very self conscious about displaying my gangly body to the general public while I’m out running! So watch out if you’re about after the sun has gone down – you never know what might be heading towards you!
Despite having had my new bike for nearly a fortnight, I have (rather depressingly) had no time to go out for a ride on it. I’ve barely had time to even touch it or even look at it lovingly. This should all change this weekend when the inaugural ride on the Van Nicholas Yukon will take place.
With less than three weeks to go, test riding is just one thing that’s needed … the other is more sleep. Working ridiculously long days and writing a dissertation is not good for the skin. My face looks like a join the dots puzzle. Next week I’m going to try starting ‘operation early night’ in an attempt to get more sleep – fingers crossed that will do the trick.
Tonight’s CycleOut Bristol bike ride, led by Chris, took us on a ‘Gorilla hunt’. On our bikes we were able to see about 25 of the 80+ painted gorilla statues that have been placed around Bristol to celebrate Bristol Zoo’s 175th anniversary. Each has been decorated by a different artist and they are proving to be quite this summer’s tourist attraction – definitely worth a visit. Sadly I couldn’t persuade Mike to join tonight’s ride. I think he’d have enjoyed it, (especially if he’d known we’d be cycling past Waitrose in Westbury Park!). Finishing off with tea at the Tobacco Factory where there is an additional mini gorilla in the bar, courtesy of Ashton Gate Primary School.
The forecast for the American west coast for late August and September looks promising at the moment, but I think one needs to be prepared for a variety of weather. New ‘zip off’ legs trousers will provide the choice of long or short trousers, Rapha merino wool base layer T-shirts should do for warm and cool and now I have lovely pink neck tube, (not sure that’s the correct term) (Mike edit:- it’s called a buff), for my birthday from Aileen and Martin. Perfect for protecting the neck from both chilly breezes or strong sun.
It’s been rather a quite birthday, worked part of the day but finished around 2pm and have mooched around not doing very much. It was an indulgent treat to be able to have a little afternoon siesta, it made me think that introducing a day bed in the office wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Had a nice pile of lovely birthday cards to open this morning, including this very apt one featuring a touring cyclist’s camp from Jean and Syd. This will be us in just over three weeks, (minus the tent), looking forward to lots of Pacific Ocean sunsets just like this one.
August has arrived which means there are just 25 days until we’re off on the journey. Ruari (who’s house-sitting for us) came round tonight for a guide to all those exciting things like how to work the dishwasher, washing machine, boiler, TV etc. “Good luck with the TV” is what I say, what with two remote controls, nother for the separate surround-sound, another for the DVD, blu-ray and another for the hard disk recorder … I’ve barely manage to work out how to turn the TV on – let alone record something, (Mike edit: *sigh*). I think we’ll be writing lots of lists of instructions, as tonight’s whistle-stop tour was quite a lot for Ruari to take in.
August also means that it’s nearly my birthday, just 30 minutes to go, (well 9hrs 30 mins if we want to be precise). We had a lovely pre-birthday weekend in London, it had a bit of a bike theme with trips to Condor Cycles on Grays Inn Road, ‘Look Mum No Hands’ cycle café (pictured) and a few rides on the London hire bikes. Thankfully I resisted buying the new Rapha cycle jersey in Condor Cycles as today it has been reduced by 30 per cent in the Rapha summer sale, which means 30 per cent saved that can be spent on some more lovely Rapha goodies of course!
Matthew and Mike Travel from Bristol 
