Up early and out for a run, (no cycling today, a long flight later … and a marathon for me in three months!).

It was warm, bright and amazingly quiet. We’ve been to the Lincoln Memorial and the National Mall a few times now and it’s always been heaving with people. This morning was different – a few other runners and ‘power-walkers’, but really hardly anyone about. I was wearing my local Southville Running Club vest – so I wanted to have some pictures of me wearing it around Washington DC. We were out for only about 2 hours, we saw the Lincoln Memorial again, the WWII memorial, the Washington Monument and the Capitol.

It was extremely hot by the time we’d finished our run. We called into a grocery store to get some juice and fruit for breakfast then off for some more shopping for M. Apparently that store last night wasn’t Crate and Barrel – it was CB2 – similar, but different in some very important respects … so to get to the real McCoy required a Metro train to Clarendon to the west of the city. We found the store and there were some nice things there – including a Vitamix blender for $599.95 – I didn’t buy it! Matthew bought some stuff – citronella candles for the garden and a chopping board I think. Next door was a huge storage-type gadget shop, half the shop seemed to taken up with selling coat hangers of various kinds! I came across a fabulous and entirely unfamiliar (for Brits like me) ‘back to school’ -type display – stuff for pimping one’s locker! This included pre-cut ‘wallpapers’, miniature chandeliers, tidy boxes and mirrors to hang inside the door … I fear that I have seen the future!

Back at the hotel, just time to consolidate the bags before setting off for the airport. An extension to the Metro has been approved apparently, in the meantime getting to Dulles is a nightmare. Either pay a fortune for a taxi or a shuttle bus or take a Metro to L’Enfant Plaza then a bus, (this was quite a bit of hassle with our bicycles in their bags, but saved us in the region of $50). On weekdays the buses are every half hour and beyone reason on weekends they’re only every hour – even on the weekend after 4th July! Needless to say the bus was absolutely rammed and some people couldn’t get on!

Dulles looks a bit dated now and no oversize luggage facility that we could use so at check-in our bicycles were loaded by a rather slight man, who could hardly lift them onto the everyday luggage trolleys. It felt strange bidding them good-bye – especially as we just abandoned them in the middle of the concourse. I was worrying as we walked away that they might not get to our plane. It took ages to get through the long queues for security. But there was a little sushi bar by the departure lounges and the vegetarian sushi was vegan, so we had some of that.

The plane was an Airbus A330-300 with 218 passengers and 14 crew – quite a few empty seats dotted about.

I watched Admission – with Tina Fey, Paul Rudd – mainly because I saw that it had Lily Tomlin in. Fey is a Princetown University admissions officer who believes that a bright young man is the son that she gave up for adoption. She tries to get him admitted to Princetown. Matthew watched Hitchcock – with Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren – about the making of Psycho. Then he watched an episode of Downton Abbey – yuk – dreadful Tory propaganda … he did keep chuckling all the way through, though. I’ve no idea why. After we’d landed he said that he was laughing at the language use, which reminded him of my speech! Grrr …

In early to London Heathrow, landing just before 7 am and time to wish my sister, Lisa, the best of luck today with her ‘Monopoly Run’ – a fundraising run through all the streets and placed on the London edition of the Monopoly board. It’ll be a hot one!

Mileage: 31.26

Cumulative distance: 948.78 miles

We didn’t pack our bicycles in bags last night because Matthew wanted to ride to George Washington’s farm at Mount Vernon today, it’s about 15 miles east of Washington DC. He’d also found a vegan bakery, about a mile-and-a-half from our hotel: Sticky Fingers in Columbia Heights … so we rode over there for breakfast. Wonderful to have so much choice. And it was delicious, really making the point that vegan food isn’t boring or in any way sub-standard. It’d be nice if it was available more widely!

We headed to Mount Vernon – first taking our bicycles on to the metro to Huntingdon, then joining a beautiful and well-used bicycle path alongside the Potomac River for about ten miles to George Washington’s estate.

Mount Vernon is made up of several gardens and outbuildings as well as the main house. A landing stage, the Washington’s tomb and a slaves’ cemetery. It was boiling hot – it felt like our hottest day so far and I have to say that I found the whole place a little underwhelming and somewhat dispiriting. At the entrance there was a gallery of photographs of some rather unsavoury visitors: Churchill, De Gaulle, Hussein of Jordan, the Reagans, various Bushes, lots of hideous royals including the Queen, Margaret, Charles, Queen Mother, Akihito of Japan, etc. (too ironic that they visited the house of a founder of a republic). Then I thought that the whole place had very odd air about it – strangely uninformative, uncritical and upbeat. It was disturbing to find that it was overwhelmingly being visited by white, overweight people. In the museum there was only one black person in the room – and he was the security guard. The place seriously needs to implement a diversity strategy! The shop had a very scary children’s book homage to ‘the remarkable’ Ronald Reagan! I tried to hide them behind some other books.

We cycled all the way back to Washington and that perked me up considerably – the path ran up the Potomac, often in the shade of trees, so it was pleasant and cool. There were some incredible smells: pine and cedar and maple syrup with mingled with the smells from the sea – all intoxicating. I’d no idea that the Potomac was do big – its tidal section and estuary are huge. Occasionally the path crossed little creeks or inlets on wooden cycleways, wide and close to the water, surrounding some were tall bulrushes and other water plants. As we neared Washington DC the route passed through a pretty old town – Alexandria, with some old shops and brick-paved roads – quite touristy, but not in an unpleasant way.

Then on past the regional airport – the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport as it’s known. I do quite like airports and here there was some excellent vantage points from the cycleway to watch planes taking off and landing … in fact I spent as much time as I thought I could get away with there. However, I do wonder who came up with the absolutely stupid idea of naming the airport after Reagan. I also struggle to understand how enough people to make it happen could possibly have agreed? The man was a monster – his callous indifferent failure to do anything meaningful for people with HIV and Aids should be sufficient to condemn him forever – and that’s before mentioning all the illegal covert operations.

Back in Washington we stopped again at the Lincoln Memorial and people-watched for a while.

We got back to the hotel, showered and changed and then it was time to hit the shops. Matthew wanted to go to a trendy neighbourhood called Georgetown – something to do with barrels and crates, (not that we need either of those items). The area was busy – and we came across a section of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, there was a cycle path from Cumberland that would have followed that – but it wasn’t going to be suitable for cycling on. We called on at a lovely market: Dean and Deluca – we bought some nice treats there.

We took some pictures at the canal had a Chinese meal and back to the hotel to spend the rest of the evening dismantling out bicycles and packing them away for the flight home :(

The whole show lasted 20 minutes and was accompanied by lots of patriotic music – from America the Beautiful to Elvis. This little snippet was part of the ‘Irish immigrant’ themed section.

Estimated mileage: 29 miles, actual: 32.67 miles

Avg. speed: 13.5 mph

Cumulative distance: 917.16 miles

It’s US Independence Day! We’re not sure how they’ll feel about two British guys arriving into Washington, D.C. today! Hopefully we’ll be fine, providing we don’t appear to be playing with any matches!

When we got up Mike (McL) had yesterday’s Tour de France stage replay on tv – so we watched that over breakfast. Then the broadcast carried on to today’s stage … it was going to be very hard to turn my back on that – but a short ride to Washington awaited and maybe a trip to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum on the Mall!

We left at 10:00 for a very gentle ride to DC. We went past the restaurant that we’d eaten at last night in Clarkesville and a just afterwards had puncture # 6 (Mike front – a small shard of glass went through the tyre). Once the puncture was repaired and we were in our way again we took Route 108 to Highland, then Brown’s Bridge Road. It was really quite semi-rural with lots of big detached housed surrounded by massive clipped lawns and lovely gardens – almost everywhere we could hear buzzing noises and there were people using sit-on lawns mowers and strimmers! We descended to a bridge over the Rocky Gorge reservoir, then on Ednor Road, Layhill Road – past Northwest Park Golf Course and over the I-370 into the start of the built-up area at Glenmont. Now lots of stops and starts at junctions along Georgia Avenue, through Wheaton, Forest Glen and under the Beltway (ring road) through Silver Spring. The houses were becoming grander and interspersed with lots of churches, a beautiful National Synagogue, parks and some minor embassies as we rode closer to Downtown.

Still two miles out and Matthew spotted the very top of the Washington Monument in the distance – the obelisk is the tallest freestanding stone structure in the world. As we approached we could see more and more of it.

It was with a real real sense of mounting excitement that we approached Washington – partly because it’s so famous, we’ve never been before, it’s almost endlessly iconic and of course it represents the final stopping point on our journey.

The road we were on – 16th Street – passed Rock Creek Park, which ended at Lafayette Park – and suddenly we could see the White House right there in front if us! Just Amazing.

Matthew was given a free tub of ice cream for Independence Day!

We saw some of the parade balloons and floats and marching bands. Then we went to the Lincoln Memorial for more pictures and back to the hotel.

After we’d cleaned up we took the metro to Chinatown and walked to the Air and Space Museum :)

The first incredible thing that it’s possible to do at the Air and Space Museum is touch. a piece of Moon rock!. They also have the actual Apollo 11 command module, (the cone piece that brought the astronauts back to earth and that parachuted into the sea); a lunar module, (LM-2, which was a backup); the Wright flyer; The Spirit of St. Louis, (Charles Lindberg made the first solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927); a nose section from a Northwest Airlines Boeing 747, ( it’s possible to visit the flight deck); an Eastern Douglas DC-3; the plane Amelia Erehart flew solo across the Atlantic in, (the first woman pilot to do that). They had lots of first and second world war planes – including a beautiful late-design (mk-4) Spitfire. A Messerschmitt 109, a P-51 Mustang, and a Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero.

Mike (McL) brought our bicycle bags in to Washington for us so that we could cycle in. He left them at our hotel and then we met up again at a branch of Chop’d – a fast food place that specialises in salads. After dinner we walked back to the National Mall to watch the 4th July fireworks. They began at 9:10 and lasted for 20 minutes. Huge crowds were sitting on the grass of the National Mall and in the streets around. We found a fantastic spot near the base of the Washington Monument. The fireworks didn’t disappoint – they were launched from the reflecting pool, which was just in front of us – some even became gigantic letters in the sky when they exploded – a U, then an S then an A – the crowds went wild with delight when they saw that. Music accompanied the fireworks, too – with a USA theme. It was all free – worth coming to Washington on the 4th July alone for!

We walked back to our hotel, had a drink in the bar, then it was time to say thank you and goodbye to Mike (McL). He’s been a superb companion on the trip from Pittsburgh to Columbia – helping us to keep the pace high, keeping the conversation going, making excellent suggestions about the route and what to see. Then he was a wonderful host – showing us some of Baltimore and Colombia. I feel proud of him. It was sad to see him go and we’ll miss him. Thanks Mike! Already we’re starting to wonder if we’ll get to see him in San Diego next year as that’s where his work is taking him next!

Tomorrow is our last full day in Washington – for this trip. I fear that it might be dominated by Matthew and shopping!

Estimated mileage: 35 miles, actual: 38.14 miles

Avg. speed: 14.9 mph

Cumulative distance: 884.49 miles

A very short ride today. We weren’t realistically going to be able to get to Columbia before it went dark last night, so we could have something of a leisurely morning in Frederick before setting off. We woke up and there was torrential rain outside – another reason to take it easy this morning!

Over breakfast at the Hampton Inn, we were talking about the Tour de France – a Mark Cavendish sprint-finish win in Marseilles! On the next table Were Jeff and Ally from Richmond, Virginia. They had been cycling around Gettysburg – the site of the biggest battle in the US civil War in July 1863 – and perhaps the turning point in the war. We chatted about the Tour and our ride. Later, as we were leaving we met up with them again and took some photos – Jeff had a friend who he said would admire my Condor frame – so several pictures were taken of that! The bike’s the star!

We braved the downpour and made pretty good time along highway 144/Old National Pike. There were some undulating sections, but nothing at all taxing. The rain eased and it started to brighten up about through the journey at Mount Airy.

The houses and townships were all looking very prosperous now. Also, the roads were in good condition – smooth and well-maintained. Not far from Mike’s (McL) house we saw our first sign to Washington – 32 miles! We’re almost there!

We arrived at Mike’s at about 12:30 and just had time to change before Mike’s friend Chris arrived to get Mike to his car. Which was left at Chris’ house after Mike had flown to Pittsburgh with his bike. Mike is from San Francisco but said that he didn’t sound like he was from there – I’m not sure that I could exactly pinpoint a San Francisco accent, but Chris does have an extraordinary voice – I could hear South African, British and Irish when he spoke.

Chris was not far from Baltimore, so I took a risk and made a pitch for a visit to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum – Sean and Lynda back just outside Valparaiso had recommended it. Mike had never been, so we ignored Matthew’s slightly downcast air and off we went.

It was baking hot in Baltimore when we arrived at the B&O Railroad Museum. The main complex is a huge round engine turning house – faced in red brick and with an enormous slate roof. It was 2:45 when we arrived and they closed at 4:00 – so it was going to be something of a flying visit.

Baltimore was where the very first passenger railway track was laid in the US in 1830 – the start of the track was in the turning house. The B&O Railroad Museum has a huge collection of nineteenth and twentieth century engines – they’re really impressive … so much bigger and more powerful than what we saw in Europe. There were some lovely model trains, too. I wish that we’d had longer – but it’s often the case on these sorts of trips. Just before they closed I was speaking with one of the volunteers and he told me about the collapse of half the roundhouse roof after a heavy snowstorm in 2003 – the pictures were incredible and it’s a miracle that what was underneath survived. The restoration was beautiful though.

After the B&O Railroad Museum there was time to wander along Baltimore’s waterfront – some nice-looking ships, a huge Barnes & Noble bookstore where I bought Mike a present: a Calvin and Hobbes anthology. I was surprised that he didn’t know about Bill Watterson’s comic strip that follows the adventures of Calvin, a six year old boy, and his rather sardonic stuffed toy tiger Hobbes who Calvin imagines is alive.

We’d not eaten, so Mike took us to a vegan restaurant near his house: Great Sage – was fantastic. After we’d eaten a woman on next table started talking to us. She’d heard speaking to each other and knew that we were English. She’d been to Manchester to visit her sister’s family and had liked it, but she hadn’t liked Wolverhampton! We thought that it made a bit of a change for an American to have been somewhere other than London or Stonehenge! So after a good dinner – home to bed. Another very happy day!

When we arrived at Mike’s (McL) there was quite a bit of post for us! New transfers for my Litespeed bicycle and these rather fetching bicycle-shaped cookie cutters. Mike got one as a present – the others have homes lined up for them.

Estimated mileage: 89 miles, actual: 91.93 miles

Avg. speed: 14.1 mph

Cumulative distance: 846.35 miles

Last night, while we were all in bed asleep, there was a terrific crash at about 12:15 am. Next door in Mike’s (McL) room a framed picture fell off the wall and smashed on the floor! There was glass everywhere. The hotel staff were fine about it – and laughed when we said that we’d had a wild party! They told us that it was probably one of their resident ghosts – funny they hadn’t told us about them last night!

The main task when we got up this morning was to get all the dirt and dust from the cycle trail cleaned off our bicycles and ready for the day ahead. Matthew and Mike (McL) had determined that our destination should be Frederick as our destination – about 89 miles away. Between Cumberland and Frederick there were the absolutely ginormous hills, though – we’d have to take those carefully.

The Cumberland Hotel and Spa offered various treatments and one of staff told Mike (McL) that he smelled dehydrated! Whatever that means! He’s been chugging back water ever since! We had to go for breakfast and Mark’s café in the centre of town was recommended. It was really good – they had soya milk and made my oats with it. I was asked if I wanted ‘craisons’ – I assumed this would be a mix of cranberries and raisins, but they turned out to be sweetened dried cranberries.

While we were having breakfast Mike (McL) went to a bike shop to top up the air in his tyre. While he was there he talked to the staff about our route and was advised that it was probably the best way to go given that we’re riding bicycle with narrow tyres.

Meanwhile we took advantage of the free Wifi in Mark’s Café to FaceTime Mam and Janet – it was nice to be in touch with family back home and show them where we were.

We set off out of Cumberland and the road undulated before a series of slow, hard climbs then fast swooping descents: Rocky Gap and then down to Flintstone (accompanied by Matthew ‘singing’). Then up Green Ridge, a quick descent and on to the monster of the day: Town Hill – we took some pictures from the Town Hill Overlook, (while we recovered!). Then down and up Sidelong Hill for a descent into Hancock where we paused for lunch. We met two other cyclists who were riding from Pittsburgh to Washington DC . One told us about a 20 mile trail that we might have used! There was about 5 miles left she thought. We were surprisingly sanguine about this news – there was nothing we could do now, but we thought that we might make use of the trail as it would take us off the road for a while.

We bought provisions in a petrol station Sheetz – this is third one that we’ve used on this trip (see Matthew’s post about this). They have free wifi and it’s usually possible to find some stuff that I can eat. We took our food to a local park and picnic spot (adjacent to the elusive bicycle trail).

There were some young men hanging out at the park – mostly complaining about being bored. “This town is sheet. There’s nevva nuthin’ to do” that sort of thing. They were impressed with our journey though and had the good grace to acknowledge that the cycle trails had brought life and a certain amount if prosperity to the town; they also thought that tourists had the effect of driving up prices.

We went up onto the trail, which ran for more like ten miles rather than 5. We had our first proper look at the Potomac River, which runs through Washington DC – exciting. I fantasised about finding a little rowing boat and sitting in it until we carried into Washington DC (“Or the mid-Atlantic!”, Matthew retorted!). In any case, of course, that would be cheating.

The trail went to Big Pool and rejoined the road to go past Fort Frederick State Park. Then on to something of a roller-coaster road in to Williamsport where we called at the Desert Rose Café for a break and drinks – they had a copy of Canal Quarterly! That made Matthew very happy! The staff there said that half of their summer trade was people on bicycles. They also said that Mike (McL) looked like he was too tired to go on!

The countryside was really beautiful now – we rode alongside Antietam Creek over little hump-back bridges and past ponds near the Devil’s Backbone Park.

A series of historic quintessentially American civil war era towns – all with lots of buildings and houses decorated for 4th July. Boonsboro, Middletown, Braddock Heights and final (we hope) very hilly up and down to Frederick.

Mike (McL) had been to Frederick before and said it was an attractive place, (the outskirts were not – acres of very wide roads, stop-start junctions, food outlets, malls etc.), but we decided to take a look at the downtown area before searching for a hotel. It was really nice – lots of old stone and wood buildings – some quite grand. There was a real lively buzz about the place. As we cycled through the main street- Market Street, we were cheered by some lads on the pavement/sidewalk. One of then shouted: “Lance Armstrong!” Funny! We wondered which of us had been taking the most stimulants throughout the day – and decided it was Mike (McL), he’d virtually survived on energy gels!

Garmin came into his own in Frederick – I called up a list of hotels and there was a Hampton Hotel less than 2 miles away. Garmin took us there and they had a room with two queen-size beds that we could all three share.

While I was waiting for my turn in the shower, my sister Lisa called on FaceTime – it was 1 am back in the UK – she was a but the worse for wear, having fun with her friend and when she caught sight of Mike (McL) thought that he looked like Action Man – hilarious!, But he said that he was happy to take that! Lisa is planning a ‘Monopoly run’ at the weekend with some of her club mates: the aim is to run through London and go to every point on the London-themed Monopoly board. She’s doing it to raise money for cancer charities and I asked her how it was going – she has over £1,000 already. Amazing. Good on you, sis!

Near the hotel there was a Weis supermarket and we went there to pick up food for dinner. On the way back we heard a thud on the road by the junction – a car had hit another – they drove into the car park looking cross and the little red sports car looked pretty badly mangled. Prompting a conversation about how the US might reduce its dependence on the car!

Back in our room and time to catch up on the Archers podcasts – listening made difficult with Mike (McL) making comments and/or asking questions about characters and plots every minute and with Matthew too obligingly providing long convoluted explanations about who everyone was, their relationship to each other and what had happened to them – this is the longest-running radio soap opera in history … and it was going to be a long night!

Estimated mileage: 75 miles, actual: 82.26 miles

Avg. speed: 15.1 mph

Cumulative distance: 754.42 miles

An early, but exciting start to the day. When we planned the trip, we knew that we’d have an opportunity to see some iconic buildings in Chicago and Washington. During the detailed route planning stage, we realised that our journey would take us close to Fallingwater, a country retreat designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935. It’s perhaps the most famous piece of twentieth century domestic architecture in the wold. To be honest, although we both knew about the house and had seen pictures of it, neither of us had any idea about where is was. So for it to be so close to our route meant that we had to make a little detour to have a proper look.

Fallingwater was designed as a weekend house for the family of Edgar J Kaufmann, a Pittsburgh department store owner. The family owned the land and liked to be near the waterfall on Bear Creek. They wanted their house to be near the waterfall, but were surprised that Wright designed the house to ride above the falls rather than face it. The Kaufmann’s took to the design with very few changes.

Fallingwater exemplifies Wright’s concept of architecture that is in-keeping with the landscape more than any of his other buildings. The house had alternating sandstone walls, glazed bands and offset horizontal cantilevered concrete ‘trays’. The concrete trays are a pale orange colour – that are designed to blend in with colour that the rhododendron bushes turn in the autumn. The whole building therefore sits snugly into the landscape with the horizontal local stone helping to blend and connect the house to its surroundings.

In 1963 the house, its contents and grounds were given to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy by the son – l knew that he’d never married, one of the guides referred to a gender-neutral “life-partner”, which was unhelpful but intriguing. I looked Edgar jnr. up afterwards – and of course he was gay – but it’s not mentioned or referred to at Fallingwater. Edgar jnr. was responsible for persuading his parents to choose Wright as the architect, (their budget was $50,000 and they paid $150,000 for the house in the end!). Edgar jnr. supervised the build when Wright was away, which was most of the time apparently. Edgar jnr. donated the house to the public. Edgar jnr. Is intimately connected to the house and after he died his ashes were scattered at Fallingwater. But we’re apparently not allowed to know that there was a talented, generous, innovative, hard-working gay man behind Fallingwater – it’s all about Wright and Kaufmann snr. This makes me cross – there were lots of references to the parent’s marriage and what they did, so it’s clearly a deliberate policy.

In true Symonds style we were up at 6 am – extremely early – so as to be in time for our 8:00 am tour, which was only just over 3.5 miles away! We’d been warned that the climb was very steep and the receptionist at the motel advised us against cycling it – pah! We Are European Cyclists. The Alps and the Pyrenees are our playground … and the Mendips and the (very flat) Somerset Levels! But we are not going to be easily deterred here in the Appalachians. We did make one concession to the climb – we left most of our stuff at the motel after we’d checked out and only took one bag with a change of clothes for looking around the house. In deference to my age, (I think) Matthew carried the one bag to Fallingwater and Mike (McL) carried it back.

It was absolutely tipping down with rain when we left our motel and there was a very steep climb from Ohiopyle to Fallingwater so we arrived hot and wet. We changed and had a coffee before the tour began.

Our guide was Caitlin. She was really knowledgeable and we went through the whole house visiting every room – even those now used as offices for the current staff. We were allowed to wander about – so long as we didn’t touch anything – and as we were there so early, it was good to get pictures without the crowds. Our tour was meant to last two hours, but by the time we’d been around the house and looked at the grounds and had some lunch, it was gone 12 noon when we left!

Back to Ohiopyle and onto the trail. The rain had stopped but the trail surface was fairly poor. It deteriorated through the day. To be honest, although the scenery has been beautiful, the trail shouldn’t be regarded as a cycleway in my opinion – it’s certainly not suitable for narrow-tyred road bikes. Cue lots if ranting about the acres of tarmacked roads and the crap uneven bicycle trails that would cost a fraction of the roads to make good.

The bulk of the ride was a fairly steady – a gentle climb followed by a very steep descent into Cumberland.

We took the ride fairly easy through Confluence, Harnedsville, Fort Hill, Markleton, Rockwood, Garrett and into Meyersdale at about 4:00, where we stopped for something to eat. We saw some super-long trains – that was exciting. Over Meadow Mountain and through Sand Patch and Deal. Then over the highest point on the trail, which is 2,392 feet and start 25 miles of descent. Through Big Savage Tunnel, which is 3,294′ long. An epic piece of construction work. Riding through the tunnel was exciting – we were still high up and cloudy-mist was swirling around the entrance. The tunnel was dimly-lit and once inside it was quickly impossible to see forward to the exit or back to the entrance. We rode through whooping and making steam-engine whistle noises!

A sharp stone cut into tyre into Mike’s tyre and he punctured. The wall of the tyre was cut through and when the inner tube was repaired and re-inflated it bulged through the hole – that was never going to work in the medium term, but I hoped it would take us 20 miles to Cumberland.

We crossed the state border out of Pennsylvania and into Maryland at the Mason-Dixon Line, which was marked with a metal strip across the trail. North of the line, slavery wasn’t allowed, apparently.

Through the Bordern Tunnel, which is 957′ long and on to Frostburg, Mount Savage, Barrelville and Brush Tunnel, (914′ long). 11 miles to go Mike (McL) flatted again – we didn’t even bother to try and repair it. We decided to change the tyre and the tube – that way we had a good chance to get in without it puncturing again. Mike (McL) was a little surprised that we carried a spare tyre! Alongside the Maryland Scenic Railway line we passed deer and groups of runners. A very fast descent took us through Corriganville and into Cumberland.

At the Cumberland Lodge and Spa we found that we apparently had no reservation – Matthew had emails to prove that we did! It wasn’t a problem in the end, though, as they had room and were very kind and made us comfortable.

We also discovered that Matthew had miscalculated the route and that we weren’t going to be able to get to Mike’s (McL) house tomorrow. I left Matthew and Mike to sort out tomorrows destination and headed off to bed!

Estimated mileage: 77 miles, actual: 80.25 miles

Avg. speed: 15.9 mph

Cumulative distance: 672.16 miles

Patrick has one wall in his living room that he paints with blackboard paint and his Warm Showers guests write on it. When it’s full, he cleans and repaints the wall. We left some messages of thanks and took some pictures. Then it was time to say our goodbyes. Patrick has been absolutely superb – he’s been immensely kind and patient with us, even though he’s been very busy himself.

Mike (McL) had to take some stuff to Sam’s in Shadyside near Carnegie Mellon University, so he went off at 8:00 and we agreed to meet him at the Hot Metal Bridge, about 3.5 miles out of the city, at 9:30.

Before we set off we had time to clean our bikes and I discovered puncture #5 – Mike (McB) rear (again, this is becoming tiresome and I’m tempted to replace the tyre. I went with a new tube as it was faster than a repair – the tube already had two patches). We set off and it was a lovely, warm and quiet morning. We wanted to begin this leg of our journey at the official start of the route of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail, by the fountain in Point State Park. We wanted someone to take our picture and we asked a guy with an good-looking camera and who looked like he knew how to take good pictures to do it. He was called Duane and we chatted while he photographed us. He told us about hiking down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon – something I’d love to do! We rode off to meet up with Mike (McL), we were going to be a few minutes – but we rather banking on him being a bit late too!

Staying on the route was really straightforward, there was good signposting. There were loads of people out on bikes – all ages, sizes, abilities – it was brilliant.

Michael had arrived just a few minutes before us when we got to the Hot Metal Bridge. Mike was talking to guy – also called Mike – with a new mountain bike, (he offered me a go on it when I said how much I liked the look of it, which was a really friendly thing to do). He was waiting for a friend before setting off for Frick Park, which has mountain bike trails. He admired our titanium frames – he was a metal worker! We asked him to a picture of all if us and we set off.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. The trail turned from Tarmac to fine grit after about 20 miles, but it was quite well-compacted and easy to ride on, as Patrick has said it would be.

We travelled east and upstream mostly with the River Monongahela on our left. The trail took us through Homestead, Duquesne to McKeesport where the Youghiogheny River joins the Monongahela River. We crossed the Monongahela and started to follow the Youghiogheny River Trail. At the start of the trail we saw our first sign to Washington DC – 314 miles!

In Boston we stopped for coffee and juice, (plus French toast and maple syrup for Matthew and Mike (McL).

Then Greenock, West Newton, Whitsett, a campground called Roundbottom, which I thought was amusing. We’d intended to stop at Dawson for lunch, but it was on the north bank and we missed the turning – if there was one – there may not have been a bridge, so we carried on to Adelaide where we stopped for lunch at Milepost 92 Café, which was part of a campsite – there was a little pool (with rather large people in it) and rather fetching plastic frogs and flamingos all around! We were only about 20 miles from Ohiopyle by now.

After lunch on to Connersville, where there were some lovely community gardens segregating the cycle lane from the road. We called in at bike shop that we passed to buy some spare inner tubes. I saw some chamois cream called Chamois Butt’r and as Mike (McL) had been complaining I bought some little sachets for everyone!

After Connersville the road climbed gently but persistently to Ohiopyle. Just before entering the town we crossed a narrow iron bridge over river and high up in trees – it reminded me of the tree walk in Kew Gardens. We stopped to take some pictures – a man who we’d overtaken earlier, his name was Larry, came past and we asked him to take our pictures. He also directed us straight to our hotel – brilliant.

At Ohiopyle station Matthew fell off his bike – he wasn’t even moving, but couldn’t get his foot out of his cleats quickly enough – we were laughing at him and everyone around looked a bit more shocked and concerned! He was fine – just one or two some cuts and bruises, his pride was the main thing that was hurt!

Ohiopyle is a very small town, with only 74 residents according to the town sign – but it was very busy with tourists. There were lots of people milling about with bikes and some people were playing in the river – Matthew wanted to go for a swim and decided that after his fall he definitely wanted an ice cream.

The motel in Ohiopyle didn’t serve breakfast (probably not enough people to staff it) and there were odd injunctions in the room booklet against using too much toilet paper or stealing towels! We showered and then headed to the grocery store – bit hopeless but we managed to get some fruit and cereal for breakfast. At another store around the corner from the first Mike (McB) found a store selling soya milk – result!

Matthew and Mike (McL) had the ice creams that they’d been promising themselves since Adelaide (probably earlier in Matthews case), we went for a paddle, (it was too cold to swim in Matthew had decided) so we sat at the river’s edge and dipped our feet in the river.

Dinner – basic, but really nice after the best day’s ride so far. A Magic Day.

Dear Dr Mcbeth

Thank you for your email, from which I am sorry to learn that your helmet was damaged.

We take our baggage handling seriously and do everything we can to make sure your belongings arrive on time and in the same condition as you gave them to us. The occasional accident does happen, although I’m glad to say it’s very rare. I’m sorry that you encountered problems this time around.

As part of our claims procedure, we do expect any damage to luggage to be reported at the arriving airport where a ‘damage report’ is generated. I’m afraid as you didn’t notify our airport staff at the time, and haven’t completed a damage report, we’re unable to accept this particular claim.

I’d like to clarify that if passengers take delivery of their bags and leave the airport without reporting mishandling, it is deemed that the bag and contents were in good condition at that time. This is detailed in article 16.1 our Conditions of Carriage (which are available on our website), and is supported by the Montreal Convention (1999). Our Conditions of Carriage state:

16.1 Notice of claims
Acceptance of baggage by the bearer of the baggage check without complaint and without completion of a property irregularity report at the time of delivery, is prima facie evidence that the baggage has been delivered in good condition and in accordance with our contract of carriage.

Our online claims form is for those passengers who have completed the Damage Report at the airport or who, in the case of lost luggage, are pursuing a claim for this.

If you took out private travel insurance, I would recommend that your claim be referred to your insurers for their consideration as their liability may extend further than that of the airline.

I do hope that despite this issue, you are having a wonderful time in Chicago Mr Mcbeth, and that your return flight is more enjoyable. I’m confident that future flights with Virgin Atlantic will be relaxing and trouble free in every respect.

Yours sincerely

Becky Byers
Baggage Services Advisor
Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd
PO Box 747
Dunstable
UK
LU6 9AH

We were joined yesterday by our friend Michael, Mike (McL) as I’ve taken to referring to him. Mike is the eldest son of our friends Aileen and Martin in Bristol.

I’ve known Mike and his brother Ruari since before they were born. Mike is 27 now. He regards me as something of an uncle, apparently. Which is kind of how I feel, I suppose.

Mike had been working on secondment in the USA for two years and coincidentally was starting his posting when we we were last cycling in the US. He happened to be in Los Angeles at the same time that were passing through, so we met up then, too.

This time Mike wanted to ride with us, so he flew from Baltimore to Pittsburgh with his bicycle. We sent our bicycle bags from Chicago to Mike’s in Columbia and we’ll be staying at his house the night before we go to Washington.

Cumulative distance: 591.91

No cycling for us today – but today is a special day for cycling – it’s the first day of the Tour de France! It seems a little odd to be so far away from it. This year is the 100th edition of the Tour and it’s starting in Corsica – a bit of a controversial decision, as there are quite a few people in Corsica who don’t particularly regard themselves as part of France at all! We’ll be following the Tour from afar this week and then going to see the finish in Paris on our return.

We were planning in spending a very leisurely day exploring Pittsburgh. My knees were still a bit sore after all the climbing we’d done yesterday. So no riding whatsoever.

I needed to get some soya milk and some other breakfast things, so I wandered down the hill into the city to find a grocery store. Walking down afforded a wonderful view of the city skyline and brought home how much climbing we’d done at the end of our journey to get to Patrick’s house – it’s in a district called Fineview – there was a clue right there! I went through Deutchtown – an attractive nineteenth century area.

Back to the house for breakfast. Patrick had started some repair work on his shower, (so curiously no warm shower for us today!). Mike (McL) had ordered a new new cycle rack, but had discovered that it didn’t fit on his bike, so that needed to be sorted out, (I’ve a terrible reputation for being last-minute, but I think that even I would have wanted to establish that rack and bike were compatible sooner than the day before a trip!) Patrick took Mike (McL) to a bike shop over on the South Side of city – miles away. While they were out they also collected some donated bikes for charity – something Patrick often does on a Saturday. Patrick is a brilliant bicycling advocate (and he works for the city’s transport department – superb!) He’s also an exceptional Warm Showers host – I don’t expect that ferrying strangers from England across the city is what people expect when they sign up, but this is entirely typical in our experience – cyclists are nice people by and large and I’m really happy to count ourselves part of the cycling community.

While Mike and Patrick were preoccupied with plumbing and bicycle racks and donated bikes, Matthew and I went into the city to visit the Carnegie Science Center exhibition on the Science of the Bicycle – much more to my taste, (although I do a good line in plumbing DIY).

The Science of the Bicycle. exhibition was lots of fun and it was really interesting to look at so many vintage US bikes. My favourites were the 1950s and 1960s, children’s machines that were brightly-painted, had fake petrol tanks on the top tube and must have been a struggle to ride very far, light-weight they were not!

The display boards were really informative and revealed how as bikes became less popular in the ’50s and ’60s because car use increased, bicycle manufacturers concentrated more on children’s models – that mimicked some of the styling from cars and tied in with popular personalities of tv programmes. There was a ‘Champion the Wonderhorse’ bicycle, a Pewee Herman bicycle that looked like a scooter, and even an Elvis Presley bike!

There were some lovely bicycle posters on display, too.

Having paid our entry fee, we could visit any other part of the Center with our ticket so we also manged to go on board the Requin – a US submarine built in 1945 and launched just before the end of WWII.

It’s preserved as a museum and it’s fascinating – I couldn’t help feeling that it must have been a terrible life in such cramped conditions. There were recollections from crew members though who said that it was a good place to be, with a strong sense of community. I didn’t realise that submarines spend hardly any time submerged – mostly they sail on the surface with the crew able to be out on the decks. The kitchen was improbably big and well-equipped. The display boards made it clear that one of the ways that sailors were enticed into serving on submarines was the prospect of better food!

There were some stunning views from the Carnegie Science Center and the Requin over to the city and Point State Park on a peninsular, at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River, (which become the Ohio River at the peninsula) and down to the West End bridge that we’d crossed on our way in to the city last night.

Matthew wanted to visit the park, so we walked up past the Heinz field – home of the Pittsburgh Steelers American football team and up towards PNC Park, where the Pittsburgh Pirates, (aka the ‘Buccaneers’) baseball team are based. We passed a beautiful Vietnam War memorial and over Fort Duq Bridge to Peninsular Park. The park was laid in the 1970s and it was a deliberate attempt to change the image of the city from a declining industrial city to a more diverse and vibrant place.

We wandered through the park and watched the enormous high fountain for a while – getting soaked when the wind blew the jet over and gallons of the water landed on us! We headed towards downtown and visited the Fort Pitt block house, which was built in 1764. We saw an amazing sand sculpture still being prepared – we thought for the 4th July as it seemed to show the westward expansion of the USA.

Up through downtown, the skyscrapers are very concentrated in a small area – Pittsburgh was used as Gotham City in the filming of the recent Batman films/movies and we could see why.

We read about a major flood in Pittsburgh in March 1936 – a plaque on the wall showed the water level up to 46 feet – that’s over 14 metres! Heinz Hall was rather splendid, too – Heinz  has been a part of Pittsburgh since 1890 and the company’s world headquarters are here. The famous ‘keystone’ logo is based on that of Pennsylvania, which is known as the ‘keystone state’. We’d passed Heinz Field stadium earlier on the North Shore near the Carnegie Science Centre.

We took a bus back to Patrick’s house and waited for him and Mike (McL) to come in. I’d suggested to Patrick that we could take him out to dinner and he’d suggested a Thai restaurant that was in an old house. We drove there in Patrick’s car. The restaurant was perfect, we sat in the garden among plants and flowers and with fountains playing. The food was really nice – it’s so good to be able to have a hearty vegan meal every now and again! While we were there, we were visited by dozens of brightly glowing fireflies. We talked about Patrick’s work and family and his adopted city. After dinner Patrick wanted to drive us to up to Mount Washington a high point overlooking the city. It was fantastic. The baseball game had finished and there was a spectacular fireworks display. The view was terrific and it was really kind of him to show it to us. Back home – tired, after a good rest day.

Estimated mileage: 95 miles, actual: 97.69

Avg. speed: 15.0 mph

Cumulative distance: 483.41 miles

It was raining fairly heavily when we woke at 5 this morning, so our plans to leave early were quickly amended. The rain prevented Melissa from having her morning run, but at least it gave me the chance to ask her about her studies in England. Brook couldn’t remember where it had been. However, Melissa told me that she had gone to Leeds! She mostly attended philosophy lectures there, but didn’t remember a great deal about the city. We put that down to over-consumption of cider!

When I’d been showering in the bathroom last night I noticed that water was constantly running out of the toilet cistern and into the toilet bowl. I’m sorry – I’m just the kind of man who notices this sort of thing! I’d been fretting about the waste of water all night – I knew that it was probably an easy thing to fix, but even I wasn’t about to start doing DIY in someone else’s house! I asked Brook how they paid for their water and she told me that water bills were included in their rent. I said that I’d noticed the water running out of the cistern and she’d noticed it too, but thought it only happened immediately after flushing. I said that it was constant because the cistern was overfilling and that it should be possible to fix the by turning the screw on the opposite side of the float to lower it further into the cistern and shut the water flow off sooner. She immediately went to find a screwdriver and was off to fix it! When she’d fixed it, she was delighted. She said that if I achieved nothing else on my trip across America, I should be happy that I stopped an overflowing cistern! I think that my dad would have been quite proud of me!

We had to rearrange our plans for today. Our intended Warm Showers host had emailed us to say that unfortunately they were not able to host us tonight after all. We were looking forward go it – a cabin by a lake! But they had warned us that the people staying there might want to stay on and so it had turned out. It wasn’t a problem and we booked in at the Hampton Hotel in Newcomerstown.

By the time we left it was 10, but the rain had eased and we experienced intermittent showers for most of the morning.

Getting out of Columbus was straightforward – out along Indianola Ave then Morse Road (!). We found the Alum Creek trail and headed north-east towards Westerville and the Hoover Dam, (another one). This was a very different track from the ones we’ve been on so far – it was narrower and curving as it followed a river valley. The sides were very heavily wooded with grasses and ferns around the base of the trees. It was cool and damp and felt quite European.

We’d travelled about 10 miles and had been chatting amiably when Matthew said that he had some exciting news. “What’s that?” I asked. “I’ve managed to trace some bicycle-shaped cookie cutters, they’re in the USA and I’m going to order them and have them sent over to Michael’s.” I said that wasn’t really what I was expecting when he told me that there was some exciting news! Poor Michael, he’s becoming something of a convenient poste restante and forwarding service for us all – I’ve already arranged to have some bicycle transfers sent to him. Our bags are going to him and now some bicycle-shaped cookie cutters!

Ten miles further on and we were talking about out rest day in Pittsburg on Saturday. Matthew said “I found out something exciting about Pittsburg.” My heart sank – not more bloody cookie cutters! “No”, Matthew said, “There’s an exhibition at the Carnegie Science Museum in Pittsburg and it’s called the … Science … Of … The … Bicycle”.
Now that IS exciting!

By this time we’d gotten to the Hoover Dam, it was really spectacular with water gushing out of the bottom. There were several cyclists about and people running too. Seeing the runners reminded me of email that I received yesterday from Berlin marathon organisers telling me that there’s three months to go. I looked at it and thought to myself “What on earth am I doing cycling through the mid-west when I should be in training for a good marathon time?”

The area beyond the Hoover Dam was beautiful – forested rolling hills. We cycled past an enormous deer that didn’t disappear into the trees until we were really close.

We took Central College Road through New Albany; many of the roads seemed new or to have been resurfaced and they were very smooth – perfect for cycling on. It was drizzling on and off by now – but that kept things cool and we didn’t mind it. There were lots of recent, (or not quite that recent but unsold) properties around with some odd-looking landscaping – a bit like a huge golf course with new houses all over it – lots of grassy knolls, ponds and impressively high fountains that perhaps wouldn’t have been so out of place in a city centre, but this was quite rural, so it all seemed rather incongruous). Along the verges there were masses of orange hemerocallis daylilies and tall dusky light blue cornflowers – beautiful.

We joined the TJ Evans bicycle trail at Alexandria. The trail is adjacent to the Racoon Valley Road, (there were no racoons that we could see), and on in to Granville, where we watched a bunch of men and women doing boot camp exercises (sorry no picture – they were big!). We changed to the Cherry Valley trail – over a lovely light iron bridge that crossed a steam – and on in to Newark, passing an amusing cycling sculpture.

Newark is a pretty town, we did a little circulation of the main square to try and find somewhere for lunch. The square is attractive, (but really spoiled by too much traffic). There’s an imposing 1876 Second Empire style courthouse faced in limestone and set in open gardens in the middle of the square. The courthouse has a clock tower that dominates the town, with a copper-coloured roof and statues of justice.

The square also has a lovely 1920s (Midland) theatre, recently renovated by the look of it. Outside the box office there’s a statue of Mark Twain on a bench. (There are bronze statues of ordinary people going about their business all around the town we noticed). Also in the square a Downtown Cycles – a new and welcome addition according to a father and son who were exiting the shop as we were outside admiring it. On the corner near the bicycle shop a lovely building: The Home Building Association Company – a little jewel box of a building. It’s early twentieth century, originally a bank, it has gray-green terra cotta slabs that are edged with border designs, the whole is heavily ornamented and these included a winged lion! The building looks empty and neglected now, which is such a shame.

It was almost impossible to see past all the cars and admire the nice buildings in the square without risking ones life and stepping into the road. The whole square would benefit most from preventing traffic using it as a through way, narrowing the road to single-lane and creating more calming, open-spaces would turn this into a really more attractive place to shop and eat and chat. I don’t suppose they will do this though – car is king and all that.

On our second turn around the square we picked out Simply Rising Café for lunch. I was really pleased with our choice. It’s been a bit if a challenge here in the mid-west to find non-meat, non-dairy/egg food. First of all Simply Rising Café stocked soya milk. Wonderful. Then they had an avocado, black bean and mango salad. Heaven! Matthew had a baked potato and saw a cinnamon roll in a glass case, so asked for one of those. We sat outside in the square and the cinnamon roll arrived first – it wasn’t one from the display, it was huge! And covered in frosting. I burst out laughing. Matthew said that he might leave half if it – he didn’t of course!

We talked with the proprietor and his wife – Edward and Seraphina. They were married recently and had only been running the café for about a year. Congratulations to them both! Edward said they has had lots of cyclists visiting, (I’m not surprised, we’re quite a discerning bunch, tend to be better off and Simply Rising Café was by far the most attractive place we’d seen to stop by at). He talked about setting up a bike rack outside the café – a very good idea and there was already a really nice-looking blue one a little further along the road, with a chainring shape attached to it. I suggested to Edward that maybe he could work with the bicycle shop proprietor to promote some Tour de France screenings in the café! (Only two days to go – now that is exciting!)

There are some ancient native American earthwork circles in Newark, one is the same size as the base if the Great Pyramid. We didn’t really have time to visit and storms were threatening, so we continued on – passing by an extraordinary-looking building that was made to look like a shopping basket! This we later found out is the headquarters of the The Longaberger Company, who happen to make baskets! (More on them and the building here: http://www.longaberger.com/homeOffice.aspx

On through Hanover and into Frazeyburg. The Frazeyburg town sign indicated that a lock on the Ohio and Erie Canal had been in the town. I remembered reading on the information boards about the 1913 flood in Dayton that many lock gates on the canals were blown up to speed the flow of water away from the area. Many sections of canal were also washed away and I wondered if this area had been affected then. Just outside the town and by the road we passed a big stone channel that was overgrown and I thought that could have been part of the canal. While I telling Matthew about that, it started to rain! just a bit of spotting at first, but it rapidly went dark and quite soon we were inundated. A car drive past – too fast – and sent a massive wave of warm water over me. I was completely soaked through. I couldn’t help wondering if they’d done it on purpose – either that, or they just didn’t care.

On top of the rain, puncture #3 Mike, rear. It seemed to be quite slow, so I just put some air in the tyre and topped it up until we arrived at our hotel. The rainstorm ended – it brightened and actually we dried up quite quickly.

There were no more cycle trails today, so we followed Garmin’s directions along quiet roads through Adams Mill, Conesville, Coshocton – some hills! Along the Tuscarawas River, through West Lafayette and into Newcomerstown and the Hampton Hotel.

The Hampton Hotel wasn’t near a grocery store as we’d expected – just a BP petrol station, a McDonald’s and a Wendy’s. So no soya milk and nowhere that I would go to eat. But we’d just cycled almost 100 miles – we were hungry! In the room there was a local guidebook with an advertisement for a local pizza place that would deliver to the hotel. I ran and ordered a vegetable pizza – without any cheese. They could do that! Bought pizza dough is almost certainly not vegan, but it was the best we could do.

We ate our pizza and caught up with some podcasts of recent episodes of The Archers! Ah, the good life!

As we cycled out of Columbus we crossed the Hoover Dam, Mike couldn’t resist taking a movie to share on the blog.

Estimated mileage: 87 miles actual: 85.98

Avg. speed: 15.0 mph

Cumulative distance: 385.72 miles

Our cycling kit was still a little damp this morning after we’d rinsed it out in the hotel bathtub last night, so our plan to take the advice of the people we’d spoken to in Roost and have breakfast out at Press Coffee Bar was scuppered. Instead we had to use the hair drier that was in our room to blow warm air over our jerseys so that they’d be wearable.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the hotel breakfast was the worst we’ve had – really mean and all I could eat were some oats with hot water, then a toasted bagel with some peanut butter. You can probably tell that we didn’t really warm to this particular hotel!

Dayton is known as the ‘birthplace of aviation’ and in an historic district to the west of the city centre and only about a mile from our hotel was the preserved bicycle workshop that had been the main business of Wilbur and Orville Wright when they developed a way to control aircraft – the principles of which are still in use today and which led to their being credited with the invention of sustainable powered flight in a heavier than air machine. The work that the Wright brothers did in designing, manufacturing and selling bicycles led them to believe that balancing and controlling something as unstable as an aeroplane was possible, since they knew that balancing and controlling a bicycle could also be learned.

I love bicycles and I really like aeroplanes, so I persuaded Matthew that we could make time for quick visit to the preserved Wright Cycle Company complex in S Williams Street – even if it was just for a picture outside, it would be worth it!

Our visit to the Wright Cycle Co., far exceeded my expectations. The shop and workshop are in a lovely area, not far from the Miami River. The nineteenth century buildings are made of brick and the roads are paved with bricks too, which ties everything in well. When we arrived outside the shop, I thought that it looked splendid. I was quite happy just to be there and to take some pictures outside. The building was closed, but I didn’t really mind as I hadn’t imagined that it would be possible to go inside. However, across a small plaza was a curved modern visitors’ centre. There was some information about guided tours, but we didn’t really have the time for that. I went in just to have a look around really. On the off-chance and on the basis that if you don’t ask you don’t get, I explained to the woman at the desk that were cycling through Dayton, leaving for Columbus soon, but I wondered if it might be possible to make a quick visit to the Wright’s bicycle workshop. She said ‘Sure.’ Just like that! I was delighted. She called a ranger who had the keys and he took us over and inside the workshop. It was beautiful – lots of exhibits and artifacts, including original Wright Cycle Co. bicycles for women and men. Information about the brothers, cycling, bicycle manufacturing and flying. The workshop was their third and was the one where they made the Wright Flyer.

We chatted to the ranger for a while and while we were there a group of seven women who were also visiting came in too; they also had lots of questions and we all started talking to each other. They were lovely – interested on our trip and I think that they had more questions about us, where we stayed, how we found people to stay with, how far we’d travelled, how our bikes got to America, how we found our way. It was fun talking with them and they were really sweet: they thought that Warm Showers was a wonderful concept and one woman said that if she’d known we were coming, we could have stayed with her!

We had some questions too – we talked about the bicycle trails and I told them about some of the animals we’d seen. I asked if they knew what the small bright yellow birds were: they’re finches; the animal that looks like a beaver is a groundhog. I’d seen a groundhog – amazing! One of my favourite films/movies is Groundhog Day and I’d met a relative of Punxsutawney Phil, without even realising it! The women agreed to take our pictures outside the Wright Cycle Co. store front and took our blog address. If you’re reading this – let us know who you are!

We headed back into Dayton centre and headed for cycle track 3 that would take us from the River Scape Metro Park along the Great Miami River and up alongside the Mad River tributary and then on for 20 miles south east to Xenia, where we would change to the Ohio to Erie trail, which would take us 40 miles and almost all the way to Columbus.

By the Engineers’ Club back in Dayton there was a life-size sculpture of the Wright Flyer in steel. Opposite, in the riverside park where our cycle route would begin we came across a memorial to the 360 victims of the Great Dayton Flood of 1913. The flood caused extensive damage to the city and Matthew read on the information boards that the amount of water passing through the river during the 3-day rainstorm equalled the flow over Niagara Falls each month. There was a beautiful waterfall memorial by the side of the river.

 

It would have been good to have spent a little longer exploring Dayton, but we’d already spent longer there than expected and we were expected at Brooke and Melissa’s house at around 7.

It was warm and the trail long the river was wonderful with a cool breeze. There were views across the water and we saw a beautiful heron standing in the shallows. At the Eastwood Metro Park just outside Dayton in Springfield, we changed to the Creekside Trail that would take us up to Xenia – a major cycle trail intersection.

As we cycled I said to Matthew that I’d read some quite disturbing things about Richmond, (the town we’d lunched in yesterday). In the 1920s during a national revival of the Ku Klux Klan, Indiana had the largest Klan organisation in the country and in Richmond up to 45 percent of white men were Klan members. Matthew said “I know, but I thought I’d better not tell you because I knew that it would upset you!” Hmmm … it’s a bit worrying that he keeps stuff from me. Also that he knows me better than I know myself. He probably thought that I’d refuse to ride through Richmond or be unwilling to eat there if I’d known this in advance. (Actually, that is probably just the kind of thing that I would do. My life is littered with those kind of futile gestures that end up inconveniencing me and achieving nothing very much!).

In Xenia we met a group of older guys out cycling – Bill and his friends were out cycling with Bill’s grandson Taylor. Bill gave us directions to the start of the trail to Columbia. He told us that there are over 330 miles of bicycle trails in the area and that he volunteers on the trails, giving directions and assistance. There are some amazing long-distance cycling events on the trails that Bill told us about and it’d be really good to find out more about them. We gave Taylor our blog address – so hopefully we’ll all be able to stay in touch.

We were a bit hungry by now, so we wanted to get something to eat – that Grand Hotel breakfast just hadn’t done it for us! Bill told us that it would be best to go back into the centre of Xenia. We seemed to spend ages traipsing about trying to find some lunch – it was really difficult today – we ended up in a UDF (United Dairy Farmers) store. Dreadful – very little there that I could eat, but at least some decent coffee (no soya milk of course!). I ended up eating nearly a whole packet of Orio’s – they’re vegan in the US, but not in the UK where they add whey powder for some reason – go figure! Anyway, I felt a little bit sick after that, but at least the sugar rush would propel me for the next 40 miles or so.

The trail was long and straight – just like yesterday – I kept thinking of Groundhog Day! We arrived in a lovely little town called, rather bizarrely, London! By the cycle trail was a really good shelter, picnic area, information board and seating area. A lovely little memorial obelisk was placed nearby to Bill Young (1953-2008) – he died young, that’s for sure – only 55. On the memorial it read: ‘Ride On’ and ‘Bill would say life is like a bicycle, you don’t fall off unless you stop pedalling’. That’s a good way to be remembered.

We could hear faint thunder rumbling in the distance, so we put the hammer down (pedalled hard) to try and outrun it. We didn’t quite make it and a heavy (but warm) rainstorm engulfed us just as we came into Columbus.

That didn’t stop us admiring the city centre buildings and the lovely Short North neighbourhood that we cycled through on our way to our Warm Showers hosts. There were lots of banners and rainbow flags for Columbus Pride on the lamp posts. In some of the bars people were celebrating the striking down of the Defence of Marriage Act (a dreadful homophobic law in the US that prevents same-sex couples from having equal rights with heterosexual couples). The case was brought by Edith Windsor who’s 84 year old and who was required to pay taxes on her deceased partner’s estate – something she would not have had to do if she were married. This is brilliant news – and definitely a cause for celebration.

Some fireworks were being set off as we arrive at Brook and Melissa’s street – wow, we were really being made to feel welcome in Columbus! At the house, there was a party at a neighbours – they were new arrivals. We met Christina, Melissa’s sister who was visiting and Gemma the dog and the two cats: Agnes and Dave.

While dinner was being prepared Christina told us that she was trying to sell her BMW, which she’d bought while she was posted as a nurse in the military in Germany. She was going to have to drive 3 hours to get home. I’m often amazed at the extent to which people in the US seem to think nothing of driving cast distances! Christina also told us that she’d been to England – to London and Stonehenge ! I suppose that for lots of people this is they see of the UK, (which makes the state if the Stonehenge site with its busy roads converging on it, chain-link fencing and rather tatty facilities even more of a national disgrace).

We had a lovely vegan dinner – bliss and chatted. Brooke and Melissa told us that we were only the third guests that they’d had staying with them from Warm Showers. And the first that had jobs! I admired their Vitamix – an eye-wateringly expensive blender, which they really liked and used almost every day for making nut butter, smoothies and soups. I’ve been thinking of getting one, but Matthew said it would clutter up the kitchen work surfaces! Bed and blog! Matthew has been crowing because the blog had had lots of hits – so thank you all our readers and commenters for keeping him happy!

Estimated mileage: 86 miles actual: 86.69

Avg. speed: 15.4 mph

Cumulative distance: 300.77 miles

We left the Hampton Hotel and headed into Muncie, to pick up the Cardinal trail which is part if the Rails to Trails network and would form a big part of our route today

Our hotel was on a junction taking a fairly major road over to the airport. We were just outside the hotel and waiting at a red light when Matthew pointed to a group if about 8 or 9 little ducklings that were scurrying about on the other side of the road. They were obviously frightened – darting about and changing directions – all on the road at the junction. Cars were stopping and slowing down and trying to drive around them. Cars coming across the junction from the other direction couldn’t see the ducklings, so they were whizzing past. The ducklings were running underneath the cars and I just couldn’t look any more. I wanted to go and do something – but the traffic made it impossible to get over the road on red, even if I’d managed to reach them – what would I do? Try herding ducklings off a main road with traffic thundering by? Where would I take them? Once the lights changed we had to move forward and with a very heavy heart I passed by on the other side – well actually it was worse than that, I passed by on the same side but still failed to help. I felt quite guilty and kept hoping that in one of the cars that were manoeuvring around the ducklings would be someone who would know how to rescue them. I imagine that they’re all dead now :(

Muncie – is a nice-looking little town. We passed Ball State University, where there seemed go be some kind of sporting event taking place with lots of competitors warming up. We rode into the centre along the river, where there was a beautiful park and cycleways. We saw a big sign for the Muncie Orchestra Concert – that’s a good sign to see! There was a huge, nice- looking bicycle shop, but no time to visit, unfortunately.

For any sociologists out there, you may be interested to learn that Muncie was chosen as the site of a series of in-depth anthropological studies of typical US Middle-American town life from the 1920s to 2000, was known as ”Middletown’. In 1929, Helen and Robert Lynd published ‘Middletown: A Study in Contemporary American Culture’; they returned to re-observe the community during the depression and published ‘Middletown in Transition: A Study in Cultural Conflicts’, in 1937. A third study by Theodore Caplow followed: ‘Middletown Families’ in 1982 and in the following year ‘All Faithful People’. In 1998 Capliw began another study: Middletown IV, which i think was made into a tv documentary, but I’ve not seen it.

As we were heading out of town, two boys on bicycles came out of a side-street and made to race with us. They had big grins on their faces as they bent down to pedal furiously to their impossible task of keeping up with us. It’s an amazing aspect of the human spirit I think – often we’ll do something even though we know that we’ll fail. I asked them where they going on their bicycles today – and they said that they were just biking around. When I said that we were riding to Dayton, one asked rather incredulously, “Dayton Ohio?”. I laughed, “Yes – Dayton, Ohio!”.

On the outskirts of Muncie we rejoined the Cardinal Greenway bike trail, (www.cardinalgreenways.org). We were really looking forward to this part of the ride – almost half of today’s journey was on this beautiful and quiet off-road bicycle track. The Cardinal Greenway is the longest rail-trail in Indiana and stretches 62 miles from Marion through Muncie to Richmond in East Central Indiana. We cycled through the morning and took the trail to Richmond. We saw some amazing animals on the cycle trails – Matthew’s writing about those in a separate blog entry

We passed a fellow riding in the same direction as us and wished him good morning. A little further on was a rest area where we could refill our water bottles and I could stretch out a bit. While we were there the cyclist we passed pulled in and we had a chat. He was called Gary, he lived locally and said that he rode on the trail most days to keep fit. He thought that the trails were not as well-used as they could be – we had to agree with that! Gary was retired, but had worked in automobiles, “All those jobs are gone now.” He said, ruefully. I asked Gary about some of the animals we’d seen, he didn’t know what the birds were called, but I described the little furry animal that looked a bit like a chipmunk, Gary said ‘That is a chipmunk!’ Now I should know exactly what a chipmunk looks like because when I was a little boy we had one as a pet – named Harry. Harry lived in a tall tubular cage and I remember he used to go crazy running round and around the cage – much to our amusement, but the poor little thing was probably desperate to get out. I’ve no idea how or why he arrived, or how long he lived – Mum, maybe you can tell me and everyone else all about Harry in the comments section.

We arrived in Richmond and it seemed to be a rather faded place. There were dozens of empty shops on Main Street. This is becoming a familiar sight since we left Chicago – businesses closed, empty stores and lots, people holding ‘yard sales’ in their front garden. It’s obvious that the recession has really hit this part of the country very hard.

I called in at a lovely old book shop ‘A dying breed’ the owner said, for advice about where to eat. He struggled to recommend anywhere, so we stopped for lunch at Kroger’s supermarket. They had a garden table and chairs for sale outside, and we sat there to eat. On the way out on the east side of Richmond were some very grand houses and Glenn Millar Park, with a very nice rose garden. Not sure why the park is named after Glenn Millar.

Just east of Richmond is the border with Ohio – so we’ve cycled through Indiana! We had a really fast ride to Dayton – apart from a section around Trotwood where we couldn’t find the continuation of the cycle track – so we used Garmin to get us in to Dayton and the (not very) Grand Hotel.

The hotel was a disaster, really. There was no laundry and the laundry service collected at 8 am then returned at 5 pm. Well that was never going to work for us! We were told that we could walk 5 blocks to a laundry. I asked about soya milk for breakfast, (I wouldn’t expect this in a remote, out of the way hotel – although some of these do routinely stock it – but in a large city-centre establishment it’s pretty standard nowadays). Well the answer to that was no, too. We could go to Kroger’s – about a 15 minute drive … we were standing in the lobby wearing Lycra and with BICYCLES – did they think we’d just pop out and rent a car? When the absurdity of driving to Kroger’s was pointed out, some other smaller local grocery stores were suggested. I had absolutely no confidence that any of these would stock soya milk. Also, I do sometimes resent -in effect – being asked to pay twice, once when we book out hotel where I assume I’m subsidising all the people who eat animal products and save the hotel money by not eating very much. Then I pay again for soya milk that I buy for myself (a lot of this gets poured away because buying small quantities is nigh on impossible in the US).

I was too tired to argue – we were paying to stay there – if we had a reasonable request like a laundry or soya milk I didn’t think it was appropriate to send us off somewhere else – especially after we’d cycled so far.

In our room on the fifth floor we started to unpack. Matthew undressed and went into the shower. There was no hot water. This place was turning into Fawlty Towers! Matthew had to get dressed again so the maintenance man could come up. He who told us to try turning the taps the other way or running them for longer … duh! Then he concluded that we should be moved. So we had to repack and wait for someone to come and move us. Our new room had hot water.

We’d not eaten so we headed out to get something to eat and go see if we could find a laundry. We never did find a laundry, but we did find an excellent restaurant: Roost in the historic Oregon district of Dayton. They were really friendly and completely unfazed by my asking for vegan food, which they seemed happy to prepare especially for me. It was a real treat. We thanked and chatted to the proprietors as we were leaving, told them about our journeys and the blog. They looked up the blog straight away – and had left a comment by the next morning!

Back to the hotel to wash our jerseys in the bath! A cup of green tea and bed!

This e-mail message came in from Bonnie this morning:

Visiting Chicago

Great to hear from you and am glad you made it to Rochester safely. Frank and I enjoyed having you both as our guests and regretted that the visit was so short. Please come back.

The camping was really great. It was sponsored by the Chicago Park District and we had brand new North Face tents to use. We all got to practice archery and fishing … fish were actually caught (and thrown back) which my four grandsons enjoyed immensely. They had never fished before. There was also a storyteller, S’mores, and the campfire with the city skyline in the background.

Thanks so much for the generous gift, the coasters. I did share them with Frank, and you are right…they match my new tile beautifully. So glad you made it to the Robie House. Stay safe and I will be checking in on the blog periodically.

Bonnie and Frank

That’s really sweet. I’m glad the coasters were shared with Frank, I was even going to suggest sharing them in my card, but that seemed a bit presumptuous. Camping out that night must have been amazing – it was warm and there was a huge ‘super’ moon casting a silver light everywhere. When we came back from the concert in Millennium Park we heard fireworks going off from somewhere behind the apartment building – we wondered if that was happening at the campsite. It was around 10 I think.

Thanks again to Bonnie and Frank who were exemplary, kind, generous, considerate, informative Warm Showers hosts. You both go up there among the very best – and that’s an increasingly competitive place to be!

Estimated mileage: 92 actual: 87.58

Avg. speed: 13.9 mph

Cumulative distance: 214.08 miles

Woke up feeling a bit stiff and sore
That was a long day in the saddle yesterday! I have had quite a sore back in the weeks leading up to our holiday – I think caused by too much sitting down and marking! My physiotherapist has advised that I stretch every half hour or so when I’m’ riding, which I’ve been trying to do. In a headwind on a bicycle though, the temptation is to hunch down as low as possible and for as long as possible – causing my back to scream in pain. I hate this because I’ve cycled all my life and it’s never hurt – cycling shouldn’t hurt at all. It doesn’t distract me too much from enjoying the trip, but I fervently wish it wasn’t this way. I’m taking anti-inflamatories and I hope that as we head further east there’ll be less of a headwind and therefore less demand for taking up a back-breakingly low position on the bike.

By the time we’d eaten last night, we realised that the Comfort Inn’s hotel laundry had closed, why I’ll never understand – it’s not as if it was staffed! We had to get up early to wash our kit and then left everything to dry in our room with the heating turned up while we had breakfast.

The Comfort Inn was proving to be very adroit at not giving much comfort. The buffet breakfast had almost nothing that I would eat and I was really glad that we picked up that soya milk last night.

We left Rochester really late at 11.30. It took ages to dry our cycling gear and then as we were about to go I couldn’t find my sunglasses – expensive Oakley’s and this is my third pair! I’ve managed to lose the last two! I was sure that I’d left them on the table in our room. Out at reception Matthew was calling Janet, he said that he didn’t have my sunglasses and hadn’t picked them up. He suggested that maybe I’d packed them in my bag. I knew that I hadn’t – why would I do that if I wanted to wear them? Also they have a little case to stop them getting squished in my bag and I still had that – it was empty. I went back to our room and turned it upside down – the sunglasses were not there. This was becoming annoyingly puzzling. Back in the lobby I had no choice but to begin to unpack my bag. Matthew was still speaking to Janet. No glasses in my bag. By the time he came off the phone I’m near boiling point with frustration. He must have picked them up. I insisted that he check his bag. He (rather too languidly for my liking) went over to his bike to start checking his bag. Before he’d even opened his bag he found that my sunglasses were nestled inside his helmet, which was hanging from his handle bars. “Here they are,” he said – and handed over my sunglasses to me. I was stunned. (Almost) speechless. “Aren’t you going to say sorry?” I asked. “I’ll say sorry, if it’ll make you happy”, he replied. I said “I don’t want you to say sorry if it makes me happy, I want you to say sorry because you are sorry”. *fume*. The receptionist was pottering about and I asked her if there’d ever been a murder committed in the hotel – amazingly, apparently not.

This wasn’t the best start to the day. But what is the best thing to lift a frayed temperament? A lovely long bike ride through beautiful countryside, of course. Guess what? Matthew had discovered something called The Nickel Plate Trail, (www.nickelplatetrail.org). It runs along the route of a disused railway line. The Nickel Plate Trail cycleway started in Rochester and runs for 40 miles or so to Kokomo. We were going along for about 20 miles as far as Peru. It was absolutely stunning. Mile after mile of flat, gently curving, well-surfaced road. Along the route we saw some beautiful wildlife: little yellow birds and slightly bigger dark red birds. also lots of little squirrel-type critters, but with thinner tails and mustard coloured stripes on their back. They’re a bit like chipmunks. They seemed to be playing chicken with us – they would often scamper out from the undergrowth on one side of the track to the other. It was a bit disconcerting. The scenery was fantastic and the trees offered lots of shade. The track was really quiet, though, which was puzzling. We saw four other cyclists in 20 miles. If this was in western Europe it’d be rammed with cyclists I’m sure! The Nickel Plate Trail gets the Magic Moment of the Day award and it really perked me up. We were being quite civil to each other after a few miles!

On the Nickel Plate Trail: puncture #2 Matthew rear, (again). Grrr … we replaced the inner tube but when we reflated it the tyre was not sitting properly on the rim. An annoying bulbous area caused his bicycle to bump up and down constantly. This is not ideal, of course. So the tyre and inner tube were taken out an refitted again. Same problem. Grrr … We let some air out if the tyre, which reduced the problem somewhat, but he could not go on like this for long. We were losing quite a bit of time by now and I thought that there was likely to be a bicycle shop in Peru – so we set off – with Matthew’s bottom lifting on the air slightly with every revolution of his back wheel!

In central Peru there was a big classical stone town hall, which looked fantastic on its lawn with its pretty flower beds surrounding it. Elsewhere there were some nice grand buildings, but everywhere apart from the town hall looked a little bit run down.

At the crossroads by the town hall I spotted a young man on a bicycle. I shouted over to him to ask if there was a bicycle store nearby? He stared at me, shrugged his shoulders and kept riding. I saw that he was wearing earphones, so I suspect that he didn’t hear me!

The gods of cycling were smiling on us today though. We took a wrong turn then stopped to check our maps. By sheer, joyful coincidence we happened to find ourselves outside
Breakaway Bikes in Peru, (www.breakawaybike.com).

They had some really nice jerseys and hired bikes too – a couple were just leaving the store on hired Raleighs – very nice!

Zac and Shannon ran Breakaway Bikes and Tony was wrenching. I explained the problem with Matthew’s bike and said that I wanted a new rear tyre,(preferably one that wouldn’t puncture twice in two days or cause the wheel to deform. Zac really kindly fitted the new tyre and patiently made it fit perfectly on the rim, (we decided to go for a 25mm wide rather than a 23mm which was on, these should be more stable and will offer better cornering grip – hopefully more resistance to punctures, too!).

Zac said that the only time they’d been to Europe was when they’d been to Finland for his brother’s wedding. We talked about cycling in Europe. I’d love to ride to Helsinki and visit Sibelius’ house.

There was an amusing conversation in the bike shop – he was admiring our bikes, while she was admiring our shoes. This is almost the perfect conversation to have with us – I’m obsessed with bikes and Matthew has something of a shoe fixation – I sometimes call him the Imelda Marcos of Southville!

We had to get on our way, so we paid and left. There was some lovely rolling countryside, but it was very hot. As we turned south, ferocious headwinds blew at us – really slowing us down and bringing our average speed right down. On this final leg today we were starting to wish we’d planned a trip from Washington DC to Chicago!

A high point was passing through the little hamlet of Matthews. We had to stop and get a picture next to the sign – although some dogs in an adjacent garden were going absolutely crazy at the time and we were a little anxious in case they escaped.

Just past Gaston we came across an access on to the Cardinal Greenway – another cycle and walking route that gave us a lovely end to the day – only about 6 miles, but we were protected from the wind and on a lovely flat surface.

We arrived at the Hampton Inn and Suites in Muncie at 8:30 – later than we’d hoped, but we’d set off late and that darned wind had really taken its toll.

Estimated mileage: 122, actual: 126.5

Avg. speed: 15.5mph

We expected that today would be the longest ride of the whole trip, so we wanted to set off early. Perhaps inevitably then, we faffed about for ages packing our bags and fine-tuning our bikes, (all the sort of thing that we should have done last night). So it was about 8:00 am when we set off. There’s a bike path running for 26 miles along the Lake Michigan shore and we planned to follow it to its end at South Shore then south south east to Calumet City, south through Burnham, Lansing (past Lansing airport) and to join the east-west US 30 east, ‘Lincoln highway’ just outside Dyer. From there we headed east through Merrillville, Valparaiso, Wanatah turn south on 421 through La Crosse, San Pierre and Medayville, then turned east again on 14 to Winamac and into Rochester. The reason that we couldn’t just head south east to Rochester because the US grid system of roads means lots of right angles.

A cycle track from just behind Bonnie’s apartment block connected with the Lakeshore cycleway. Even before we arrived at the path we knew that the beginning of our journey was not going to be as straightforward as we hoped. We could hear loud music and cheering and clapping as we rounded a corner on to the cycle way we saw lots of people running – all running in the same direction and with numbers pinned to their jerseys. It was obviously some sort of race. I love running and was happy to watch them all go by, but there were so many if them and they were all coming from the direction that we wanted to go in. Some other cyclists travelling in the same direction were cycling against the tide and it was obvious that we were going to have to do that too.

We turned into the flow of runners and I knew how a cycling salmon might feel – riding against the current! After a minute or two I noticed that there were no men running. At first I thought that perhaps this was the tail-end of the race, but even then I’d expect to see at least some men. It eventually dawned on me that this was a women’s race. My suspicions were confirmed when I noticed that a large number of the participants were also wearing Women’s Half Marathon jerseys. Sometimes it seems I’m just not that observant!

Riding along the Lakeshore path with a steady stream of runners coming towards us wasn’t as challenging as we feared. The path was good and wide. Runners tended to keep right – so it was only when other cyclists, forced to ride on the left, were coming towards us too that we had to brake and dodge and weave about a bit. But any inconvenience was more than offset by the fantastic atmosphere and support that the runners were getting and giving each other. There was music and drink stalls and fine sprays of cooling water along the route. I thought my sisters: Lisa, Lynn and Jane who all run and sometimes run half-marathons together, they’d adore doing this one.

It was bright and getting warmer – the sky was deep blue and the lake shimmered. All along the shore were other runners and people walking their dogs. I glanced behind me experienced a shock as I took in the incredible view of the Chicago skyline and the lake. A women runner (not wearing a race number, so therefore not part of the competition) was sitting on a bench nearby. I asked her to take some pictures of us because I thought that they would look fantastic on the blog, maybe even as a new banner picture! She was happy to help us.

At the end of the track we paused by the entrance to the South Shore Country Club – it wasn’t obvious which way we should go next. Garmin was suggesting straight ahead on the main road, but we’d seen some cyclists turn left and under the arched entrance of the Country Club, so we wondered if a cycling path continued along the lake. We were checking maps and had more-or-less concluded that we should go on the road when a couple of cyclists out for a fast spin stopped at the lights. I asked them about getting further around the lake and they said that if we went along with them, they’d show us the way. I was a little uncertain – one had tri-bars on his bike and we’d be certain to slow them up. However, they’d offered and needs must, so we set of with them.

Chris and Dave were absolutely brilliant – they took us through South Chicago and Calumet quickly and along quiet roads. There were so many turns and roadworks that we’d never have managed this easily on our own. They saved us lots of time and trouble – thank you both: cycling gold stars for assistance.

We chatted as we rode, Chris works with IT for a small finance broker in downtown Chicago. They weren’t exposed in all the debt-swapping or easy credit shenanigans, so they’re doing ok. He competes in triathlons, which is something that I’d love to try, (geddit?!), so we talked about that for quite a while. I told him about my recent conversion to running over the last two years and about how much I love it. I do wonder why on earth I didn’t do it sooner. Dave used to work in public policy but now has a job in a small business – I never found out quite what he or the business does, he didn’t volunteer to tell me and I didn’t quite feel able to ask. If you’re reading this, Dave, perhaps you can let us know. Dave pointed out the painted marks on the roads that mark cycle ways or the routes of cycling events – he pointed out that they might be worth following when we’re routing as they’re likely to be on quiet roads.

We were really making good progress and Chris asked me if I knew the film The Blues Brothers? I said of course, did I remember the bridge jump? No – I saw that film in about 1982. Well apparently there was a famous bridge jump scene and were about to cross That. Bridge.

Now any of you who have been following us on previous trips and read through the USA West Coast cycle ride blog will know that I am a nervous and have some trepidation about crossing bridges on a bicycle in the United States. This is because (a) I really don’t like heights – and some of the bridges are really high!
(b) Many bridges are narrower than the roads that feed into them – so the cycle lane is often narrow, too, or even non-existent. In any case cyclists often are squeezed up close to the parapet – which means that it’s hard to avoid seeing over the edge and down from the corner of your eye – even if you’re staring resolutely ahead.
(c) The parapets in most of the bridges that I’ve crossed in the US are absurdly low. I suspect that they were never really built with the intention that they’d be crossed so close to the edge by people walking or on bicycles. I often experience an irrational fear that I’ll fall off and over the edge.

Some Super-Scary-Bridges really make me sweat and get my heart pounding, so I approached the East 95th Street Bridge in Calumet with some trepidation. Perhaps sensing my nervousness, Chris chatted about that award-winning smoked fish restaurant by the bridge – how was he to know that I’m vegan and that this wouldn’t help?! We rolled onto the hulking black metal bridge and I discovered a new horror – the bridge surface was a metal grid – it was possible to see through it and all the way down to the brown fast-flowing water below. Not. A. Nice. Bridge. – even if it is a movie star.

Shortly after crossing the East 95th Street bridge we parted ways with Chris and Dave – they pointed us down a cycle track that would take us to the trail to Burnham and Lansing and skirt south of Gary – which was our intended route. We must have slowed them down – they were really kind to help us out. I was reminded about something Bonnie said to us: “Cyclists are good people” – I’ve almost always found that to be true.

We arrived at ‘historic Lincoln highway US30’ quickly and turned east. Lincoln highway was one of the first waymarked roads for cars to cross the US – it was opened in 1913 and runs from San Francisco to Times Square, New York. Much of the original route has been by-passed or widened now – but some original sections remain and there’s an association dedicated to preserving and promoting it as a historic artefact. This year is the centenary year of the Lincoln Highway.

We left Illinois and came into Indiana after about 30 miles of cycling. then through Dyer, which I thought was a nice pretty little town until I saw a monument outside a church – a white crucifix, maybe 6′ tall, with a bright red ‘bleeding heart’ on it and the message: ‘In memory if aborted babies’ Ugh, how disgusting and disgraceful – how low will these kind of people go? Sanctimonious bastards. I’ll not be visiting Dyer again maybe I should let the local tourist office know why.

We were hungry and it was almost lunch time, we were a bit worried that we’d soon be getting into very rural Indiana farm towns where I might struggle to find anything vegan to eat, so we stopped at a sandwich restaurant called Panera in Merrillville. After we’d eaten we were chatting to a couple with a beautiful rescue puppy. How can people just abandon dogs? They were heading off to the beach. We talked about out trip – he was into running, so we talked about that too. We’d been thinking about coming off US30 east as it was getting quite busy, but they assured us that this was just because we were at the junction with a major north-south route: 65. The road would quieten down in a mile or so, so we decided to risk it.

Not far from Merrillville, puncture #1 (Matthew, rear). We pulled into an opening off the road and set about repairing the puncture on what was effectively someone’s front lawn. That someone turned out to be mother and son Sean and Linda. They were the second couple who deserve a gold star for helping cyclists out. they came out to see if we were ok and I asked if they minded us pitching up on their lawn. “Not at all”, they said. And they asked if there was anything they could do and they kindly refilled our water bottles. I chatted with them, while Matthew fixed his puncture. Lynda’s dad was a prof at Valporaiso University – so we laughed about academic neurosis. I suggested that they put my cycling wanderlust down to that. Sean was a man after my own heart – he liked trains – real and model. Linda said that there was a good railway museum that we should visit – was it in Pittsburg or Baltimore? If you’re reading this Linda, leave a comment to remind me (turns out it’s in Baltimore – the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Museum). We gave her our blog address, so hopefully they’ll be able to remind me, (I’m getting old and forgetful now – 52!). I talked about the world’s largest model railway that we saw I’m Berlin at Alexanderplatz:
http://www.visitberlin.de/en/spot/loxx-miniature-worlds-berlin

I said that they should come to the UK to visit railway museum at York:
http://www.nrm.org.uk/

Sean and Linda – if you want to make a trip to the UK – you’d be very welcome to stay with us and be happy to go to York to see the railway museum again, we could go on a steam train ride too – we do that with Matthew’s father and aunt quite often – it’s great fun. I reckon that visitors all the way from the US would have a good chance of having a go on the footplate!

On to Wanatah – billed on the town entrance sign as ‘The crossroads of Indiana’, and it certainly was for us because here we turned left off the Lincoln Highway to head south. Just over 60 miles to go.

As we turned south, it immediately became apparent that this leg of the journey was going to be tough. There was a southerly wind blowing – it was relentless and we were on a dead straight north-south road through open fields for about 30 miles. Inevitably our average speed dropped markedly. There was hardly any respite, the only trees were in the little towns on the route – they were really little And there was only about three of them along the road: La Crosse, San Pierre and Medaryville. The wind has a tendency to make me a bit cranky … (Matthew thinks: “How could we tell the difference?!”), so I just got as low as I could on the drops, gritted my teeth and got on with it. I had to stop every 8 miles or so to stretch my back, but it wasn’t too bad. We’d ridden through the heat of the day and the one thing that the wind was good for was blowing incredible sweet scents in our direction: mint and bergamot. That was a real treat.

Inane conversations on a bicycle, part n of nn, (where n is a huge number and nn is significantly larger)

So we’re pedalling along side-by-side and I have a thought that leads to a conversation that goes something like this:

Me: Did you check that the hotel we’re in tonight stocks soya milk or if they can get some in for me?
Him: No, I forgot. I did check that they would be able to store our bicycles though.
Me: harrumph.
Me: (feeling a bit optimistic): Perhaps there’ll be a grocery store there that will still be open where we can buy some.
Him: It’s possible. Richmond will be biggest place we’ve been to today, after Chicago.
Me: Richmond?
Him: Yes.
Me: Richmond?
Him: Yes.
Me: What do you mean Richmond?
Him: Rochester.
Me: Thank goodness for that. Richmond’s in Yorkshire and Rochester’s in Kent. We’d be seriously out of our way if we were heading to Richmond.

The last 30 miles were beautiful. We turned east after Medaryville and so we no longer had the wind coming at us. It was blowing less strongly and coming from our right – it helped to cool us. Having ridden through the heat of the day, the temperature was starting to fall. The road was quiet, with hardly any cars, the sky was huge, the sun was behind us casting longer and longer shadows out in front of us and bathing everything in a soft golden light. Birds were singing and swooping back an forth. It was the Magic Moment of the Day – a perfect end even though we were tired.

While we were on this road a huge dog called Barwell who’d been resting in his garden caught sight of Matthew and chased after him, loloping and bouncing along – not at all in a aggressive way, but in a “Hello there friend, please play with me, can I come along with you for a while?” kind of way. He was beautiful and looked a bit sad to see us go.

We arrived in Rochester – and guess what? A 24 hour grocery store sold us some soya milk! Very happy about that.

Today our friends Ed and Pete were married. Warmest best wishes to them both! We were really sorry that we weren’t able to be there. They told us of their wedding plans about a week after we had booked our flights to the United States. Matthew did get involved in the wedding preparations though and he made their wedding cake. A three tiered affair with two grooms on the top! He didn’t want to post a picture of it on line because he didn’t want to spoil the surprise for everyone. It was really spectacular, though, so now that it’s after the event, the picture can be shown! By all accounts everyone liked it. We’re really looking forward to hearing about how the day went and catching up with Ed and Pete when we get back.

For us, today was more sedate and there’s less to report (phew!). We needed to get the bicycle bags off to Mike’s in Columbia, Maryland. I needed to replace my damaged helmet. We also wanted to go and look at a Frank Lloyd-Wright building at the University of Chicago and Matthew wanted to fantasize about being Sandra Bullock by riding the elevated Loop metro train (he’ll explain, I’m sure). Then we might still have time to go to the open air concert tonight at 7:30 in Millennium Park.

After breakfast we headed over to the post office to send the bike bags. There were some other people in the lift as we came down from Bonnie’s seventh floor condo. As usual, they asked us “What’s in the bag?” They didn’t look convinced when we told them that they were our bicycle bags. I think that perhaps they imagined we were smuggling a body out of the building!

We wheeled the bike bag (one is folded up and packed inside the other), to the post office which was a couple of blocks around the corner. Despite having called in yesterday to check that they’d be likely to be able to handle the shipping, when they actually saw it they said “no”, *fume*. We asked where the nearest courier’s might be and they just didn’t really know, (which to be honest, I found a little unconvincing). The woman at the counter thought that there might be a Fed Ex along the street, but it was “quite a way”. When I asked her how long it might take to walk, she said “About 15 minutes.” I said “we’re cycling to Washington DC, I think that we can walk for 15 minutes!”

We decided to try the bicycle store next – we figured that we’d get more sense out if them. They were in the same direction as the Fed Ex store in any case. We also wanted to ask some advice about the route out of Chicago.

We walked to the bike store, still trundling the bike bag behind us. Matthew had two more enquiries about what they were! The Cycle Store was a real treat – lovely, helpful staff, a very friendly old dog and the whole place really had the feel of a down to earth, honest bike store – staffed with people who cared about cycling and cyclists and busy doing repairs and giving good service. It’s on South Michigan Avenue, between 14th and 16th street if you ever need a bicycle store in Chicago. I told them I needed to replace my helmet and we looked at the ones they stocked. Unfortunately, many of them had what I regarded as rather garish designs on them and/or were too brightly coloured and/or had big designs or even text all over them … Aargh! These Just Would Not Do. There was one that I would have just about coped with – in any case it was the least awful, but just like any good bike shop should, the guy I was speaking to suggested I visit the Trek store down the road. He thought that they might have more choice. Despite my not buying a cycle helmet from them, they were perfectly happy to go through potential routes out of Chicago for us, even going so far as to call up various options on the computer screen and talk us through them. Also of course, they knew exactly where the nearest courier was. It wasn’t a Fed Ex it was a UPS store, and we were given clear directions to that.

The UPS store were really efficient – the man on the desk said that he’d wrap the bags in cellophane before they were shipped and also promised to tie through the zippers to keep the bag sealed. I was a little nervous when I noticed a big notice informing everyone that valid identity would be required before sending anything because we’d not brought our passports. But we must have appeared honest to him – there were no conversations about bodies. We weren’t asked to prove our identity, but we were asked for $130. So the bags are on their way to Columbia near Baltimore and should arrive there on Wednesday. Mike (McLoughlin) please note!

A little further down the street was the other bike store – it used to be a Trek Store, but now it’s called On The Route – it’s not at all like The Cycle Store, it’s obviously quite high-end and kitted out in a way that makes me feel that they were way more interested in selling stuff than caring about bicycles and bicyclists. They sell expensive Bianchi as well as Trek. They did have a replacement for my helmet, but in grey, rather than red and black. But I could live with that. The helmet cost $300 – this was turning into quite an expensive day and it wasn’t even lunch time. Hopefully, Virgin or our travel insurers will help to defray the cost.

Back at Bonnie’s we met her son-in-law, Gary and her two grandchildren. They’re all off camping on Northerly Island, which is now a public park, but was Meigs Field Airport until the mayor of Chicago controversially ordered that the runways be bulldozed in 2003.

We wouldn’t be seeing Bonnie and Frank again before we left, so we took some photos. We asked the grandchildren to take some pictures of all of us – one was too shy, the other wasn’t – so you can see the result below!

We set off for the University of Chicago campus, further south, to look at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie house. It was warm and humid so we decided to use the three-day travel passes that we had bought at O’Hare rather than cycle there. But we thought that we could take a bus from Lakeshore Drive where it runs just behind Bonnie’s apartment block. We wandered over there, but couldn’t find any bus stops and eventually realised that the particular buses we needed don’t stop between 11th and 43rd streets. No matter, we could easily walk down to 11th Street – it was just past the Natural History Museum that we had cycled past the day before.

There were loads of people cycling and running in all directions and we saw a cycling accident at a junction. It was one of those curious incidents where having seen absolutely everything right in front of us, we were still both slightly confused about what quite had happened. Cyclists were coming from both left and right and where the cycle path crossed over the road cyclists coming from both directions had to stop to give way to any cars that might be passing. On our right the cycleway curved around to the junction, so any cyclist approaching the junction and travelling quite quickly would not have much time to stop. A guy on a racing bike coming from our right stopped rather suddenly at the junction, and immediately in front of us. Another cyclist travelling more sedately from our left braked briefly at the road and carried on over the junction. He had obviously seen the speeding cyclist that was coming towards him, but I think that he must have expected the faster guy to go around him – but the first cyclist wasn’t going to do that – he’d stopped to give way. So the second cyclist rode on into the first: colliding head on with a stationary cyclist and then both ended up on the floor in a tangle of arms and legs and bicycles. The cyclist who actually crashed into the first hit the ground and scraped his arm, but quickly got up and back on his bike without really saying anything. What was so odd was that the stationary cyclist kept apologising and saying how sorry he was. But we didn’t think that he’d done anything wrong! They both continued on their way. Anyway, we hope that’s the only cycling incident that we’ll witness on this trip.

We got to the bus and headed up to the university. The bus dropped us off by the Museum of Science and Industry – a vast, beautiful classical building of pale stone and copper domes. The university is in a lovely area – wide leafy streets with lots if detached houses that have been taken over for university use. The main part of the campus is very grand – it has a tall thin Gothic tower that’s very ornate at the top. There were a couple of quite English-looking church buildings, quadrangles, halls of residence and lots of rather imposing Victorian-style halls. Further away some less faux-Oxbridge and more interestingly original modern buildings.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Frederick C. Robie House is close to the main older-looking buildings and really stands out among its surroundings. It was built between 1908 and 1910, (before any of the other stuff around it – much of which is made to look older). The house has three stories, is cantilevered out at one end and is low-roofed, long and thin in brick and glass and concrete. The colour palette is kept minimal – red brick and tiles, grey concrete in bands, black window-frames and light stone. It’s considered the best example of Wright’s ‘prairie style’ – the first architectural style considered uniquely American. the house is stunning and it still looks fresh and original and harmonious.

We were just in time for the 3pm tour and the volunteer tour guide was fantastic. The building is still in the process of being restored, so it wasn’t possible to see it all. What we did see exceeded my expectations – the way that everything was designed to look good together, the spare uncluttered interiors, lots of light, lots of glass with brick and stone made the upstairs feel very light and spacious – even though it’s a fairly modest house.

It was interesting to learn about the people who have lived in the house: the Robie’s had financial problems and marital difficulties, so they and their two children only lived there for fourteen months. The house changed hands a couple of times before being bought by the Chicago Theological Seminary, who used it as a student dormitory and dining hall. So, perhaps inevitably, it was knocked about and damaged quite a bit, (trust the bloody church – they always seem to think that they can do exactly what they like). Worse, the seminary only really bought the house so they could demolish it and redevelop the site – so they didn’t ever really care about the building. Three times the seminary tried to redevelop the site – the onset if WWII put those plans on hold and after the war when they tried to demolish the house again there were international campaigns to save it. The seminary were offered alternative (and more) space up the street – so agreed to move out. The building passed to the University of Chicago who gave it to the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust in 1997. the house is still being restored to its original appearance in 1910.

The Robie House had a beautiful shop, with some lovely books on Wright and his buildings … also some Lego models of some of his buildings (they might well end up on my Christmas wants list!). We saw some lovely matte ceramic coasters, that we thought might sort of compliment a tile from the Glessner House Museum front door that Bonnie has, so we they might make a good thank you gift.

We were taking pictures outside a woman who was passing offered to take one of both of us. Her son had just graduated and she’d sold the condo that she’d bought for him while he was studying at university. I’m always amazed when I come across this sort of thing – parents with so much that they can buy their children flats near college. I can’t help thinking that however well-intentioned it stifles hard work and fosters a sense of entitlement in the recipient. Anyway, she was kind and we were glad to get the pictures.

We made a little tour of the campus. What seems odd and immediately obvious to someone from the UK on a US campus is the number of privately-funded institutions, buildings and departments. It’s rarely the Department of Sociology, it’s very likely to be something like the Ellen Degeners Institute for Social Research and the Louis B Meyer Department For Film and Media. In the socialist utopia that is UK HE the Jane and John Doe Centre for the Study of People With Too Much Money And Reactionary Opinions That They Believe Everyone Else Should Share is, thankfully, still quite rare. But we’re headed that way – there’s a Rupert Murdoch Professor of Language and Communication at Oxford – I wondered how anyone with any integrity could possibly accept such a post, then I noticed that the current post is held by someone called Deborah Cameron – this kind of stuff couldn’t be made up! I wondered if the Co-op Academic Bookstore building up the road was THAT seminary building. The library – sorry, The Joseph Regenstein Library with The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library Extension – is fascinating – a very tall blocky concrete central structure with a soaring curved glass canopy over a big hole in the ground for the adjacent extension. This latter looked like a smaller version of the beautiful National Botanical Gardens of Wales glasshouse (see here: http://www.gardenofwales.org.uk/). Next to the library a monument commemorating the splitting of the atom – the monument was great, but I I’m not entirely certain that on balance this particular scientific endeavour requires such uncritical celebration.

We headed back to the metro through Hyde Park, a lovely expanse of green with lots of people enjoying the sunshine, families eating out having made quite elaborate arrangements – big dining tables, chairs, lights, sound systems outdoor games – the whole works – looked to be great fun. The area around the 51st Street station was run down – I’m amazed at these sorts of stark juxtapositions between very wealthy (university area) and adjacent poverty (the South Side), that are so common in the US. I suspect its necessary to be an outsider to even notice the glaring unjust inequality in such short distances. We got on the train and Matthew had his take a ride on the elevated Loop.

We disembarked at Madison/Wabash station to get to Millenium Park in time for the concert. We were a bit early, so having secured our spot I scooted over the road to take a close look at the Aqua building that I’d only seen from a distance yesterday. As I suspected the building really does benefit from closer inspection, from below the whole thing ripples and undulates up into the sky – it’s a marvelous effect. I attracted some attention staring up and photographing the building – so by way of explanation I said “This is the tallest building designed by a woman.” A man replied “That must explain all those curves.” This was very annoying, sexist rubbish. Why is so much that women are and do and achieve linked so easily and lazily linked to their bodies and their biology? This just does not happen to men. I wanted to smack him for being so stupid – but that would probably have proven his biologically determinist view of the world!

A happier experience next door at the Aon Building. I was taking some pictures from outside the main entrance and a man came out of the building carrying a huge folder. I asked him if this used to be the Standard Oil Building and he confined that it was. When it was completed in 1974 it was the tallest building in Chicago and the fourth-tallest in the world. As it was built for Standard Oil Indiana, it was nicknamed Big Stan.

The man introduced himself as James and we chatted a bit about the building, about what it was like to work there and who occupied it. He was with Aon on the 14th floor. The upper part of the building is KPMG :(. James was really enthusiastic about Chicago and seemed delighted that I was interested in it and the buildings. He asked me if I was going to the concert in Millennium Park and I said that I was. He wasn’t going because he had work to do! I suggested that he probably wasn’t paid enough to be working at 7 o’clock on a warm summer Saturday evening! I started to head back over to Millennium Park and I heard someone running behind me. I turned around and it was James! He’d walked on after our meeting, had an idea and then run back after me. He was out of breath and he said (rather ruefully) that he shouldn’t run! (He was carrying a bit more weight than strictly necessary!). Anyway, he said that as I was interested in the Aon building, that he had some time to spare and that he would take me up to the 14th floor and then up to the top floor to see inside and take some photographs. What a sweet man. I was really tempted, but (a) I really don’t like heights, and (b) the concert would be starting in a few minutes and I was worried that I might not get back in. I politely declined and thanked him. I regret that now – because I realise that I could easily have gone back into the concert area at any time and the first half was pretty uninspiring – so missing the start Wouldn’t have been much of a loss and it would have been a wonderful opportunity to see inside Big Stan.

It was wonderful to go to the concert in Millennium Park. The atmosphere was so relaxed and friendly. Lots of people having picnics and children were playing and running about. I thought that the program was rather challenging for a free public open air concert . Quite a few people left in the first half! But the children really enjoyed it a piece modeled on Peking opera and classical music and concerned with the different facets of womanhood. The second half was more predictable: Fauré and Ravel. I chatted with our neighbours who Belonged to a choir that had talked extensively. Including to Coventry and they knew and loved Coventry Cathedral very well. He told me about it tapestry that had been created for a concert that they were involved in, the tapestry was in two parts and all of the members of the orchestra and choir had signed the tapestry and one part and gone to Dresden and the other to Coventry. I wondered where it is now. They’re about to start rehearsing Handle’s Jeptha – a piece that I really love. They’ll be performing it in Dublin in the autumn.

After the concert we wandered back towards the Cloud Gate sculpture, which looked lovely in the moonlight With all the buildings eliminated around it. We took some photographs and then went down to the Crown Fountain, which was as popular and as busy as ever with children and adjusts alike enjoying it.

We caught the bus back to Bonnie’s from outside the Symphony Centre (sigh), did some laundry and went to bed. Another lovely day in Chicago.

I woke up very early – 4 am, (which would be 10 am in the UK as Chicago is six hours behind – so that has to count as something of a lie-in). I managed to snooze for another hour, but then had to get up. Bonnie had left out breakfast food and had bought soya milk – she’s an absolute superstar Warm Showers host), so I had some muesli and set about reassembling our bikes.

Bonnie got up and was dressed for going cycling, she was wearing a fantastic Chicago jersey with a picture of the Chicago skyline wrapped around her – the Willis (formerly Sears) tower front centre and the Hancock building centred on the back. Fantastic! We were going to get a guided cycle tour of Chicago.

Before heading into the city we wanted to find out about getting our bicycle bags to Mike in Columbia. So we looked up the address of the nearest courier and went to off to check where it was. I tried to put my cycle helmet on, but it wouldn’t fit on my head – very odd – I turned it over to adjust it and when I looked inside I saw the problem. My bike helmet was crushed and misshapen; further inspection revealed an enormous gaping crack in the styrofoam inner shell. The helmet was in the bag with my bike on the aeroplane, so it must have been crushed on the journey. I imagine that perhaps Richard Branson is getting his own back for the disparaging things I wrote about him yesterday. It’ll need to be replaced and it’s a good excuse to visit some bike shops in Chicago.

A defective helmet wasn’t going to be allowed to get in the way of us having a good day cycling in Chicago, so we set off in search of the nearest UPS or FedEx office.

We headed south past the huge Chicago convention centre in the Bronzeville neighbourhood, a relatively prosperous African-American part of the city. It was so good to be back on our bicycles after so long cooped up on trains and planes and buses. The weather was warm and there were plenty of others out on bicycles and running. In fact there were cyclists and runners and children playing everywhere we went all day – it was wonderful and made Chicago feel all the more welcoming.

At the Bronzeville neighbourhood boundary there was an enormous bronze statue of a man with a suitcase standing on a mound of shoe soles and striding purposefully forward. The statue was made up of pieces that also looked like the soles of shoes – some obviously worn through with holes. The statue was wonderful – looked at from a distance it had the appearance of a green man clothed in leaves, but of course they were shoe soles, not leaves. The monument is to the great northern migration of African American men and women after the civil war. Opposite the statue was a lovely Bronzeville rusted iron bench designed using the shapes of houses.

We couldn’t find the UPS office that we were searching for, so we went instead to the United States Postal Service, to see if they’d be able to ship the bags. They’d definitely be cheaper than a commercial courier. They weren’t sure without seeing the dimensions and weighing it – but they were very positive – we can give them a try as they’re open on Saturdays until 3:00.

We were back near Bonnie’s apartment around the historic neighbourhood of Prairie Avenue. Bonnie took us through the Women’s Park and Gardens – a peaceful space with some allotment-type planting and in the middle of the park, Chicago’s oldest house: the Henry B. Clarke house, which was built in 1836. Its a lovely wooden classical square structure, painted pale grey, with a pediment and a central tower (that was added later, Bonnie said). The tower reminded me of the corner towers of Osborne House – Queen Victoria’s house on the Isle of White. The Prairie District was where many of the wealthiest people in Chicago made their homes after the great Chicago fire in 1871. Prairie Avenue is tree-lined and contains some really imposing mansions, including the John J Glessner House, which is a museum that Bonnie volunteers at. The Glessner house was designed by the architect Henry Hobson Richardson who wanted to develop a particularly American architectural style – he succeeded and it became known as Richardsonian Romanesque – and he remains the only American architect to have had a style named after them. The house is solid and rectangular, the exterior has dressed stone and a huge arched doorway with very restrained decoration. Bonnie has a tile that shows the decoration from the front door, which are rectilinear – almost portcullis-like. The proportions of the house are lovely and the whole has a real harmonious feel to it.

We didn’t have time to visit – maybe tomorrow(!) We headed off towards downtown Chicago. At the end of Bonnie’s apartment building is a cycle route that goes to Lake and then either north to Downtown or south towards the University of Chicago. On the corner of the block by the start of the path is an area of grass with a commemorative sign – it was the site of the Battle of Fort Dearborn in August 1812. The sign makes it seem less dreadful than it really was, but basically the Potawatomi Indians, encouraged by the British, attacked the fort and burned it down – 50 soldiers and 41 civilians (including children) were evacuated from the fort and were attacked – 60 of them were killed and many more captured. It all sounded horrible. Britain was trying to prevent the westward expansion of the United States, while the native Indians were trying to preserve their lands. Trust the British to get involved – in a bad way – of course.

We rode on the cycle route – marvellous; really wide and well signed. On a railway bridge that afforded some stunning views of the city we stopped for some photographs – we were so preoccupied that we kept stepping in front of runners and other cyclists! That was a little bit embarrassing!

We passed Soldier’s Field stadium, where the Chicago Bears play. Then the Natural History Museum – solidly built, imposing and in classical style. The look of the stadium is rather spoiled by a modern extension that looks as though a flying saucer has landed on top of it.

The cycleway went into Grant Park – sometimes known as ‘Chicago’s front yard’. The park is part of a long stretch of open space on the shore of Lake Michigan that’s remained largely undeveloped and open to to the public since the nineteenth century. Bonnie told us that preventing the land from being built on has historically been something of a challenge. In the early twentieth century Aaron Montgomery Ward, (who first developed mail-order catalogue shopping – and became very wealthy as a result) fought a number of legal battles (and made some powerful enemies in the process), to stop development of the waterfront area and maintain the rights of all of Chicago’s people to access it. He’s something of a local hero as a consequence. Ward’s office was high up a building that overlooks Grant Park – Bonnie said that this was so that he could keep an eye on the park to make sure no inappropriate developments were going on!

We paused at an enormous and elaborate fountain – like something from Versailles, the Buckingham Fountain was built with money donated by Kate Buckingham in memory of her brother, Clarence.

There were some young women in graduation robes and mortar boards having their pictures taken in front of the fountain – they looked to be very happy and we congratulated them. It was a lovely reminder of graduation to come in Bath when I get back home – that’s always a good day.

In Grant Park there was also a beautiful rose garden where a couple were getting married. The garden was set up with chairs for the guests and the couple were standing in front of a big rose arch. We were passing just as he was making his vows. We paused to watch for a while – who knows, it might be us getting married in a year or two!

On the other side of the street, Bonnie pointed out the Blackstone Hotel – where apparently the saying ‘smoke-filled rooms’ to refer to political plotting and scheming was first applied! That’s not surprising that such a saying comes from Chicago!

Ever since we decided on coming to Chicago, Matthew had wanted to go to Millennium Park. So when Bonnie asked us if we should go there next, of course he said yes! The park has an amazing garden – lots of grasses, with purple planting arranged in drifts. There were volunteer guides at the garden and while Matthew explored, Bonnie and I chatted to them. I said that I was visiting Chicago and when a volunteer asked me where I was from, I suggested that she might be able to guess. “The Netherlands or Germany”, she said! What is it with me and Americans not being able to hear that I’m English? When we were in California, a man we met there thought that I was “Goddam French”! When she learned that I was British she said that she’d had been on a tour of English gardens in the 1980s: Sissinghurst, Great Dixter, Hidcote. All lovely gardens that we know well. She also told us that she’d managed to get a spare ticket to the Chelsea Flower Show from a friend – a very generous friend, obviously. I imagine that even back then, Chelsea tickets were really expensive and difficult to get hold of.

It was good to admire the skyline from the gardens and Bonnie pointed out some of the beautiful buildings around us. At the Standard Oil building (now Aon), apparently the wife of the company ceo insisted that the building should be clad in Carerra marble – so it was – but apparently the marble soon started to drop off! The building does look better without it I think – rather finely austere, tall and graceful with lots of narrow vertical lines that serve to accentuate the height. Close by and just to the west was an unusual tower – Aqua – the tallest building designed by a woman, Jeanne Gang. It had shimmering bulbous and flatter sections and semi-circular balconies projecting by different amounts all the way up, Which makes it look as though the facade is undulating. Its 82 stories high – and it’s stunning.

The concert area in Millenium Park was next – with the orchestra rehearsing for that night’s performance. A real treat to listen to some Ravel and if there’s time we might get to go to the actual concert. It’s thrilling that there are free outdoor classical music concerts in Chicago.

We saw the ‘bean’ (Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate sculpture). It was beautiful – highly polished and shimmering – impossible to find a seam or a join anywhere on it. There was a security guard keeping watch and I asked her why she needed to be there – to stop people writing on it apparently. She said that the sculpture was inspired by a drop of mercury. We took lots if pictures – including of the adjacent historic Chicago Monument: the row of benches and tables where Bonnie met Frank!

On next to the Crown Fountain – a pair of amusing rectangular columns with water cascading off the top and down three sides. The fourth side display huge moving images of faces and every 15 minutes a jet of water looked like it was coming out of a person’s mouth. The pool at the base of the fountain was overflowing with children splashing about, whooping and yelling and just having a wonderful time. All around the edge their carers relaxed and chatted. When the spouts started the children went crazy and congregated under them – getting absolutely soaked. We were beginning to get soaked too, because it had begun to rain quite heavily, so we headed into Toni’s, a little French café around the corner for some lunch.

After lunch we went to the Chicago Cultural building, which was opposite the café. It used to be the main library and the headquarters of the Grand Army of the Republic. Incredibly it was threatened with demolition, it has the largest Tiffany glass dome in the world, which has been recently restored. Beautiful smooth marble walls inlaid with borders of mosaic tile in different shades of green – some in the shape of stylised tulips, others with geometric designs. Inside a (rather loud) gospel music festival was just finishing, also a fantastic exhibition of architects and designers Alfonso and Margaret Ianelli. Beautiful work that Matthew has already blogged about.

Bonnie took us to the Chicago River, not dyed green at the moment as it’s not near St Patrick’s day! But seeing the size of the river made me think that getting it to be green must be an incredibly big task. We saw the amazing Marina City twin towers. These are locally known as the ‘Corncobs’. Seeing them in real life was thrilling. But they were not as high as I’d expected them to be. Nonetheless, they look more graceful in real life than I thought they’d be. The concrete floors hardly seem deep enough to take the weight of all the cars parked on them. Next door the elegant, tall black IBM building (as was – they’re no longer there) – the first of an amazing collection of towers in Chicago that were designed by Mies van de Rohe.

I’d been hoping to get my haircut before leaving the UK. But there hadn’t been time. So I asked a street cleaner where the nearest barber shop was, (they always seem to know where everything is). He directed me to the Illinois Centre – an odd, 1980s rounded building. I had my haircut while Bonnie and Matthew had some tea in a nearby café. The woman cutting my hair was Mexican and was interested in running. She said that when she went running it hurt. So we talked about how maybe she needed to run for less time or not so far and gradually build up distance. I also said that she could try having a shoe fitting to see if that would help.

Our day of sightseeing in central Chicago was almost done. We saw some more incredible Mies van de Rohe towers – the Federal Center – breathtaking: sleek and dark and generously proportioned. Really dignified buildings. I loved them.

At the base of the Chase building we saw an extraordinary Marc Chagal mosaic mural of the four seasons.

During the day Frank tracked down a vegan restaurant. What a sweet man. So we headed off to meet up for dinner. Native Foods had a cycling promotion poster on the wall (always a good sign), the food was good and there was lots of it. There was so much in fact that on this rare occasion that I was in a restaurant where I would eat desert, when it came to it I was too full!

The ride back to Bonnie’s was wonderful. Dusk was falling and the was warm and the air was sweetly scented. Bonnie took us through some parks and attractive new residential developments.

Once we arrived home Matthew fell asleep almost immediately. I stayed up and to talk to Frank for a little while – mostly about the changes in Apple iOS 7!

That was a good day.

It was a mammoth journey to get to Chicago from Bristol. We took a train from Bristol to Reading , but we couldn’t cycle to the railway station as we normally would because we’d had to pack our touring bicycles away in cases so they could travel with us on the plane. Our train left Bristol at 05:30 and we were a little uncertain about taking our packed bicycles in a taxi and in any case we wondered if a taxi would be reliable at that time of day. So Matthew hatched a plan to get us on our way. Our early morning alarm went off at 4:00 am and after a very quick shower and breakfast Matthew used one of his other (4) bicycles to go and pick up a van that’s part of our car club pool of vehicles – fortunately it’s parked near Bristol’s main railway station. Once there he put the bicycle he was using in the back of the van and drove back home. At the house, one bike came out of the van and the two packed bikes and their panniers went in. Along with a very bleary-eyed Mike! I spent the time while Matthew was away checking all the doors and windows of the house (again), switching everything off and pulling plugs out of sockets. It’s another of my OCD things.

We drove to the railway station and Matthew returned the van while I tried to collect the train tickets from the ‘Fast Ticket’ machine and get all the bags to the right platform. The Fast Ticket computer said “No” to issuing me with tickets – I didn’t have the right credit card apparently – even though the tickets were bought using a joint account credit card, the stupid machine wanted Matthew’s version, not mine. Bristol Temple Meads was surprisingly busy at 5:00 am, but of course there were not staff at the ticket counter at that time of day *fume*. I sent Matthew a text message about collecting the train tickets himself, hoped that he had the right credit card and made my way to the platform. Fortunately, Matthew was able to get the tickets and we boarded the train. The train manager wondered what was on the bags and why we wanted to store them in the cycle compartment! There were several other cyclists on the train – some in Lycra road racing gear, so I wondered if there was an event that they were going to – but I was too tired to ask them!

At Reading we changed to the RailAir coach – which is just a coach with a name that makes it sound more exciting than it actually is. Also waiting at the bus stop was a young man who was wearing a Nike T-shirt with ‘Running Sucks’ written across it in big letters – seeing as he was quite overweight I wondered if he’d ever done enough running to be able to make a proper assessment. He looked funny in any case!

Virgin Atlantic – the airline taking to Chicago and returning us from Washington is based in Heathrow terminal 3, which has undergone an amazing transformation since I was last there in the 1980s – then it was a 1960s white box with some horrid clashing and glaring 70s and 80s additions. Now it’s all sleek with high ceilings, tinted glass and marble floors.

Matthew had brought along a Sainsbury’s shopping bag with some breakfast food in it – in case we were hungry on the journey and I couldn’t find anything vegan to eat at the airport. So we brought a tub if hummus, some bread rolls, four small pots of soya yoghurt, some vegan biscuits with us. At the checking-in desk and oversize baggage handling I ended up carrying the food bag and it was with me as I went through security. This was a mistake. So, like a lamb to the slaughter I bundled my pannier bag, wallet, keys, iPhone, jacket, and That Bag of Food onto the conveyor belt and walked through the security gate. So far so good. I passed through the gate without incident. But as my stuff went through the adjacent x-ray machine I could hear a deafening alarm going off. “Just come over here for a minute please, sir”, said a member of the security staff … It turned out that the half eaten pot of hummus, (Matthew had had a go at it on the train) and the four pots of soya yoghurt were regarded as liquid and I stood accused of trying to smuggle prohibited items, onto the plane, threatening the lives of everyone on board in the process. I was required to wait at the other side of the security gate and endure a lecture about not bringing liquids on planes and wait for ages while the offending items were tested. If they were going to get chucked out anyway, I didn’t understand why they needed to be tested. Anyway, I was given a choice: did I want to keep the yoghurts and hummus and forgo getting on the flight, or give up the yoghurts and hummus and be allowed to fly? Meanwhile everyone else around me was passing through the security gates with apparent ease and I was feeling a little like a naughty schoolboy being given a talking to in front of the class. I thought that deploying my defence: “This isn’t actually my bag – I didn’t pack these things”, had the potential to get me into even more trouble, so I had to endure the humiliation. I did point out the difficulties usually encountered with getting food suitable for vegans in the kind of places that served food in airports. But he looked at me like I was mad, and said rather wearily “I wouldn’t know about that, sir. But there’s an information desk over there where you can ask.” Matthew, rather wisely under the circumstances, had gone through a separate gate some way off and was also (rather wisely), looking quizzically on from a distance. So the Great Yoghurt and Hummus Security Incident was resolved with my meekly promising that I wouldn’t try to to smuggle prohibited items on the plane ever again. Once in the departure lounge Eat had soya milk, so I could have some coffee and a little pot if fruit. I made Matthew go and fetch it.

Once we we had boarded the plane we passed three men sitting in a row, all wearing identical green polo shirts with a list if names printed on the back. Rich, Ade and Shaun (accompanied by their stuffed toy mascots), who were traveling to Chicago to begin a fund-raising motorbike ride along Route 66 – America’s old Main Street. They wanted to ride on old Harley Davidson motorbikes for 2,451 mi (3,945 km) from Chicago to Los Angeles to raise money for cancer care. The names on their backs were Rich’s parents – both parents had died from cancer in the last two years.

What a bunch of stars they were – and there are so many people doing good things like that. Cancer touches all our lives and I felt sad to think about all the people whose lives it affects but also happy about what they were doing to help others. We chatted about our trips – they were amazed to hear about our journey by bicycle, we are going to be doing it the hard way they told us. We wished each other luck and I went to my seat. By the window! Fab!!

For any geeks out there (well me and Matthew’s dad only probably – possibly Paul will be interested), we’re on a Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340-300. A beautiful wide bodied plane, which has four engines. There are 235 passengers and 11 crew on board. The estimated flight time is eight hours. The journey takes us out of Heathrow and across Wales and central Ireland then along 59 degrees latitude coming into N. America over Goose Bay, Ontario the Great Lakes and into Chicago.

I have to admit that I wasn’t all that keen on flying Virgin – I dislike Richard Branson, I think the company is vulgar and their marketing is misogynist. I also think that Virgin take a lot of public money to deliver overpriced and poorly performing services, while still managing to pay their shareholders fat (tax-supported) dividends and afford Mr B a wasteful and excessive lifestyle. Virgin happened to fly into Chicago and back from Washington at times that suited us best, so we didn’t really have much choice (despite what all the low tax, free market capitalists would have us believe). The flight cabin of the plane was boiling hot when we boarded – a faulty auxiliary power unit, apparently. Everyone in upper class and business class were getting cold drinks as we waited to take off, the rest of us in steerage just had to put up with the sweltering heat. Once we were on our way it cooled down and to their credit, Virgin served some nice vegan food – mild vegetable curry with coconut basmati rice for lunch, and chickpea pâté sandwiches (don’t mention the hummus), for tea.

Coming in over Lake Michigan to land at O’Hare airport was fantastic – it’s bright, sunny and very warm in Chicago – but unfortunately there was too much mist to make out much of the Downtown area as we made our descent.

The man at US immigration was funny when I told him that we were cycling to Washington. Apparently everyone who drives in America is either drunk or sending text messages on their cell (mobile) phones – so we should take extra care. The bicycle bags attracted lots of the usual sort of attention as we headed to Bonnie’s apartment in Chicago. She’s our first WarmShowers host of our journey.

A metro and a bus took us to Bonnie’s apartment block. The concierge was expecting us and was really welcoming. Bonnie is lovely and had arranged with her friend, Frank, to have dinner prepared for us. We had a lovely vegan dinner. Did lots of talking about our travels and our families. But I was so tired it was difficult to concentrate – we went to bed at about 8:30 pm local time (about 2am UK time). We’d been on the move for about 22 hours by that time, (on top of only a few hours sleep the night before) – so off to bed and some very much-needed sleep.

Today we’re setting off for Chicago and it’s also my Mum’s birthday. I’d better not write how old, as I’d be in trouble if that particular number was broadcast very far! I’m a little sad that we won’t get to see her, because she’s had a torrid year – battling cancer and dealing with all the many and various manifestations of pain and discomfort associated with her treatment. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy have all continued for months and months. She’s suffered dreadfully and it’s upsetting to witness all that happening to her. For a while, we all feared that her cancer might be terminal. She’s getting better and better though – looking wonderful and now has hair again! That’s got to be good!!

We’ve seen something of a different part of Mum’s character, especially since her treatment began. She’s always been quite self-effacing, saying things like “don’t worry about me”, “I’ll be fine”, “you do want you want”, “I just want you to be happy” – all the while, (of course), doing what she wants or working to make sure that things turn out as she would like! Mum’s steely determination reminds me of Grandma – her mother – who I adored and who was an extraordinary powerful matriarch. But Mam’s been steadfastly brave – pushing herself to get well and extraordinarily forthright about “Beating this bastard”, as she puts it!

Mam’s been quite businesslike about it all, but of course it’s necessary to accept help and curiously it’s often harder to accept help than to give it. But also Mam’s illness has been responsible for bringing lots of people closer together and that’s been the best part of the last 16 months or so. I’ve been going over to see her and have really enjoyed staying with my sister Lisa and brother-in-law Stuart and my niece, Sadie. Lisa is a crazy runner, too. Come to think of it, our family seems full of individuals who really don’t do anything by halves! Even with cancer, Mam managed to achieve the unusual and have two different kinds of cancer simultaneously!

I’ve really enjoyed getting out and about running around Potters Bar with Lisa and sometimes some of her running buddies. Mam’s had amazing support from Lisa and Stuart and Sadie – who’s 12 now and who was with Mam when the cancer diagnosis came. Many other family members have been wonderful, too – Jane’s been going through the final year of her degree while all this has been going on and still managed to pull off a first! incredible!! My middle sister Lynn has a young son to bring up as a single mum, while holding down a demanding job but gets to bring Mam to Portsmouth from Hertfordshire to do her bit. Nina our cousin has lobbied clinicians and kept us informed about Mam’s prognosis in the early days. Cousin Catherine visited Mum in hospital and even gave us a private guided tour of Westminster Abbey as a bit of relief from the hospital! Mam’s friend Michelle and Catherine and young Ella have always been there and played a vital role in persuading Mam to face down her tech fears and learn to use an iPad! Now Mam makes FaceTime calls, sends Facebook messages, emails and even sends output to an air printer! It’s been rather wonderful that so many of our older relatives and friends are getting themselves connected and embracing new technology. There’s hope for all of us!

So, the best I can do today is say “Happy birthday Mam”, with a FaceTime call and a blog post. I miss you all. We’re looking forward to reading your comments on our blog and to treating you when we return.Mam on her birthday, with Lisa, Sadie, Lynn and Jimmy

There are several reasons why we were so late getting to bed last night, (it was 2:30 am – and we were catching a 5:30 am train!). Loathe though I am to admit it, but Matthew is right with his observations about my inability to decide what to take to wear and my dithering over what to include given my determination to travel as lightly-loaded as possible. However, I am also just coming out of a protracted bout of lower back pain – possibly not unrelated to having also just about come to the end of the academic year. I’ve been through a groaning mountain of marking and reading.

This year I took up two new external examiner positions – meaning even more assignments and examination scripts and dissertations to read. As the positions were both new it’s also been a case of reading through degree programme details, module outlines, learning outcomes, assessment weightings and checking through all the grades. It’s always more onerous with the first set of work with an unfamiliar institution. I’ve had meetings to attend in Bournemouth and London, too. I only finished reading through and commenting on everything yesterday and sent my report to London at about 6:30 last evening. So that’s when I felt like I could begin packing for our trip!

Being an external examiner is a bit of a thankless task – but it’s always interesting – good to meet other academic colleagues and learn about what they’re doing. Timing is dreadful though – all their students’ work is ready to check just as I’ve finished working on my own students’ assignments. I was worn out and really looking forward to the holiday, even though I’d done very little planning for this one, (Matthew’s been brilliant and done almost all if it – route planning, accommodation, packing and much more – even though he’s just started a new job himself). So imagine my delight when this arrived in my inbox at 8:00!

Mike, as my 14 year old would say, ‘wow’! That is the best external comments I have ever read in 20 years of dealing with really good externals! There is a great deal to think about across the board, really useful and thoughtful insights. You pick up on a number of issues that we continually grapple with, your voice is a welcome one to help us with these struggles. Thank you very much for your hard work. Enjoy your cycling and I look forward to discussing these points with you in July, best regards, Stuart

That gave me a real lift and so even though we’re both dog-tired, I’m feeling really optimistic and excited about the trip and the ride ahead!

We’re expecting to cycle just under 900 miles from Chicago to Washington DC.

Our route takes into six US states: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland. We’ll visit Dayton, Columbus and Pittsburgh. Our friend Mike is joining us in Pittsburgh and then we’ll travel together on to Ohiopyle, (where we’re going to Fallingwater – a US national monument built in 1935 and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright). We’ll go to Columbia and stay at Mike’s house, then we should be in Washington DC for the 4th July Independence Day celebrations!

Here’s a map of our proposed journey (you can click on it to make it bigger):