Riding at around 15 miles an hour is the perfect speed to take in not just the scenery but also the wildlife – and there has been lots of it! On our first ride of this trip (just after the incident with the chasing dog) we passed a stream besides a wood. The light was dimming, but stood in the water, it’s silhouette clearly contrasting with the water was a beautiful deer. A little further along the road we saw another deer, this time leaping through the corn fields. Today we have seen a lot of wildlife – some of it with a death wish. Not long after setting off from our hotel this morning we came to a six lane highway interchange where a family of ducklings (no mum or dad to be seen) we’re waddling their way through the traffic. Most of the cars were slowing down but it was terrifying to watch. We contemplated for a moment whether we should intervene – but though we’d probably make things worse. We crossed our fingers for the ducklings and pedalled off. Once on the Cardinal Greenway we were surrounded by nature. First there was the startling red Cardinal birds (the state bird of Indiana) that kept darting along the path in front of us. Next there was the chipmunks who seemed to be playing a game of chicken with us as they hurled themselves across the path in front of our wheels. We didn’t get any, but it was a close run thing. Then there was the thin black snake coiled up on the edge of the trail, (it moved out of the way quickly), followed shortly after by a turkey that strolled across in front of us. However, the most extraordinary wildlife event of the day was our close encounter with a Beaver. I say a Beaver, we’re pretty sure it was but as neither of us have much experience in the Beaver dept, we could be wrong. It could be a muskrat. Anyway, as we approached we first thought that there was a rock on the path, as we got closer the rock started to move – but not to the side into the undergrowth but straight on. Before we knew it we had formed a Peleton with a Beaver. Mike on one side, me on the other and our gnawing friend in the middle. Thankfully we soon outpaced him and left him to chew on some logs . Hopefully we won’t encounter any more kamikaze animals on this trip.
Matthew and Mike Travel from Bristol 
Hi Mike testing
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You’ve goy it! Brilliant! So now we’re all dying to know how a chipmunk ended up in Newcastle. I’m thinking that this could have the makings of a lucrative children’s book! Love M x
Hi a beautiful day here in Portsmouth. To commence the tale of Harry the chipmunk I don’t think there is a book in it . Your dad Mike brought the chipmunk in after receiving it from one of his customers .The lady of the house thought her husband was going to kill it apparently he threatened to do so . Mind I’m not surprised as it had a cage about my size (5ft)and it would hurtle up the sides leap over to the other side and down then back over again defacating while it did it so . There was chipmunk poo flying round too. I was forever washing walls ,cage ,floor and everything else round the area of the cage. While it was leaping about it often would manage to open the cage door so it would often escape round the house . At that time we lived in a flat and had 4 flights of stairs .I would place 5 sunflower seeds on every other stair in the hope I would know where it was by which stair the sunflower seeds had been taken . He was usually found either running along the top of the pelmet after scampering up the curtains or up in the attics . We didn’t know if it was a male or female although he was called Harry ( the previous owners named it but they didn’t know either.) Anyway the blooming thing every now and then would start chirruping and it would go on day and night we didn’t know if it was looking for a mate or what . The noise drove you crackers . Well when I was going to have Lisa I said we would have to find a new home for it as I didn’t want all that fling poo round the baby so your father found it a new home and the owners loved it .They had it for years we often were told how he was doing.still had the same antics. The new owner even sat up and nursed him all night the night he died