Our holiday is drawing to a close. We’re back in Blighty, having landed at the very uncivilised Sunday morning time of 6.50am. It’s good to see that we’ve brought the sunshine back with us, but a relief that the temperature is only knocking 70 (F) as opposed to over 90 (F) as it was in Washington yesterday. I’m pleased to report that our bags with the bikes in have also arrived safely and there doesn’t appear to be a repeat of the crushed helmet incident. The in-flight entertainment was reasonable, I watched Hitchcock and an episode of Downton Abbey, (I do like a nice costume drama). We were also entertained by the two (clearly gay) cabin stewards covering our cabin – where do they find them? Both boys, (they could hardly be described as men) were spray-tanned to within an inch of their lives. Forget cabin lighting – they positively glowed. They were also camping it up with ‘sweetie’ and ‘darling’ as though camp was going out of fashion. Their approach to dealing with passengers who wouldn’t put their drop-down tray-table up for landing or turn their headphones off was to go into ‘camp orbit’, flapping their hands, rolling their eyes and screeching at full volume ‘It’s not me darling, it’s the law’. Whilst this performance showed one side of Britain, the episode of Downton Abbey showed another. Wealthy aristocrats, big old houses, fancy costumes and servants, (after all, we all have them over here don’t you know!). The script of Downton Abbey is also full of ‘oldie-world’ English language that doesn’t often get spoken here nowadays, such as ‘marvellous’ and ‘splendid’. While watching, it dawned on me that the reason Americans ‘adore’ Mike everywhere we go in the USA is that he speaks to them in this very language, with beautiful pronunciation to boot, (you’d never know he was a Geordie boy!). As I chuckled to myself, I pointed out to Mike that he spoke to Americans with ‘Downton dialect’ – to which he replied ‘I do not, that’s how I speak to everyone’. I stand corrected, back ‘downstairs’ for me, I know my place!

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!

I’m generally an early riser and as today is our last in Washington, (our flight is at 6.40pm) I was up early to make the most of it. What better way to start the day than with a run with Mike down to the Lincoln Memorial and along the National Mall to the Capitol? When we’ve been down there already this holiday it’s always been crowded and full of tourists. Going at 6am is definitely the best time to visit if you want to see it on your own. With the exception of a few other crazy runners out in the morning sunshine and 80 degree heat, (yes I know, it is 6am!) the Mall was all ours for the taking. Our running time was not great a) because of the heat and b) because we kept stopping to take photographs. Nevertheless, it was a brilliant way to round off our trip to Washington DC and a good way for Mike to start his training for the Berlin marathon at the end of September – I hope it’s a bit cooler than this then – run Mike run!

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.

Our arrival in Washington DC was timed perfectly with the Independence Day celebrations. People certainly like to show their patriotism, lots of stars and stripes and red white and blue being worn. Almost everywhere we went the national anthem, (Star Spangled Banner) and other patriotic songs such as America the Beautiful were being played. We heard lots of ‘God bless America’ statements being uttered too!

After our quick bike tour to get the photos to prove we’d ridden it, we went to freshen up at the hotel. Then we visited the Air and Space Museum – obviously I was desperately keen to go here, (not! – but I’m a very supportive boyfriend, if ‘not very good at being a boy’ as Mike would say – preferring plants to planes!). After the Museum we met up with Mike who’d come into DC by car/metro to drop off our cycle bags at the hotel.

The National Mall was our destination to get a good spot on the lawn to watch the fireworks, (see more about all of this in Mike’s daily summary). We found a good spot, by chance next to a group of gay men – it was interesting eavesdropping on their conversation. It seems that gay men the world over have similar ‘small talk’ topics of conversation, (where people live, who they are going out with, which men they fancy etc.). The thing I find particularly weird about the USA is that despite their proud nationalism and independence they have a very odd obsession with our royal family. When we were in the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Baltimore they had not one magazine, but a whole section devoted to the British royal family. There was even a magazine just about the pregnancy of Kate, Duchess of Cambridge. Being a devout republican (in the UK sense – I’m definitely more Democratic in the US political sense), I’d be quite happy for the Americans to have the royal family if they like, (I can hear my aunt Janet tutting at this point!). They refer to the capital here in DC as ‘the hill’, so if they want they can have Betty, Charles and the rest of them and put a Queen and King on the hill – they might find the ‘magic’ wears off pretty quickly!

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!

We have arrived in Washington DC on our bikes all the way from Chicago – how exciting is that?! The route from Mike’s house was lovely, through undulating countryside for about 15 miles until the edge of Washington. The roads were quiet as it’s a public holiday. We rode straight down to the White House for the obligatory photo and a free ice cream for me, (they were being handed out for Independence Day), I think I’ve definitely earned it. We cycled over to the National Mall and caught the tail end of the 4 July parade and saw the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol. After we freshen up we’ll go for a stroll, then later we’ll be watching the fireworks – happy Independence Day everyone.

We’re about to set off on our final cycle stage of the holiday from Columbia to Washington DC. Mike has mixed feelings about today, excited about getting to Washington but sad that it’s nearly the end of our trip. I’ve tried to cheer him up by suggesting he starts planning our next ride (perhaps a honeymoon!). The route today is our shortest so far, only 29 miles so it shouldn’t take long (famous last words!). With a fair wind we’ll be in central DC for lunch and the Independence Day celebrations (if I can drag Mike away from the Tour de France coverage). A cup of tea would be nice too (we are British after all!), so if you’re in Barack we could pop in for a cuppa – and we promise not to burn the place down.

It’s become a pretty regular pattern over the past fortnight, wherever we’re staying I’m normally wide awake at 4.30am. Quite handy for keeping the blog up to date and for syncing with the UK, which is five hours ahead – but not so great for keeping refreshed. Today I have a good reason to be wide awake so early – excitement! It is 4th July – Independence Day, so have a good one to all our American (and non-American) friends who are celebrating. After our final 35 miles of cycling we hope to be in Washington by lunchtime to join in the celebrations. Everywhere we’ve been people have said how great It is to be in Washington DC on 4 July, there is a big parade this afternoon and after dusk the firework show to end all firework shows! I’m also looking forward to seeing the decorations. As we’ve cycled along I’ve noticed people putting up their red, white and blue flags and swags. Businesses also get into the mood by having special Independence Day shop windows – we saw this cake shop window in Cumberland, I’m sure there will be pictures of many more before the day is out.

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!

Would you ‘Adam and Eve it’? We’ve cycled nearly 900 miles from Chicago and have been in Columbia at Mike’s house for about an hour, when I find myself on my way to Baltimore to visit the Baltimore & Ohio Railway Museum! Mike had heard about this museum from Linda and her son Sean who we’d met when we stopped to fix a puncture on their lawn on day one of our ride. I didn’t actually think we’d end up visiting, (especially as we had to spend an extra morning on the road today) but true to form, Mike found a way to squeeze in a visit to see the choo choos. Now who else do I know who likes nothing better than visiting railway-related attractions? Yep, that’s right – it turns out I really have ended up being attracted to a man who shares an uncanny similarity of shared interests with my father!

Our ride yesterday and today has taken us closer to the east coast, as we’ve cycled along you notice the architecture changing. Some of the buildings look older – well by USA standards – and certainly more familiar. The architectural style resembles elements of Georgian buildings that we have in Bristol and Bath. Sash windows, columns, porticos are all quite common around here, however the materials used are very American. Most of them are constructed from wood and painted white or pretty colours, all very pleasant. The style of buildings are not the only familiar sight on our travels today – we saw roundabouts (or traffic circles as they call them in the USA). The Americans love their roads but much prefer cross roads and flyovers to these weird European round things that get in the way of the traffic. So uncommon are they that traffic circles here are often accompanied by signs telling drivers how to use them, for example, ‘yield to traffic on circle’ (we would say give way) and arrows telling drivers which way to drive around them. This is quite a contrast to the UK where roundabouts are common and liked to the degree that there are actually groups that campaign for roundabouts and who take care of existing ones with planting and art installations . We must have seen about ten roundabouts along our route today (unfortunately they weren’t as pretty as European ones) – fortunately we managed to go around them all the correct way.

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.

Last week as we cycled out of Columbus Ohio I couldn’t avoid seeing the giant advertisements along the road for a local radio station called ‘Oldies’ – clearly targeting a certain demographic. The cover boy for this particular advertisement campaign was not other than our own Sir Elton John (or as he’s known back in England, Reg Dwight). I pondered the irony in this choice as Elton seems to have spent most of the last few years trying to defy the ageing process be it by hair replacement surgery or marrying a man many years younger than himself, I’m not sure he’d like to see a 12 foot image of himself plastered across the road alongside the slogan ‘oldies’! It was quite a busy road, so I didn’t fancy stopping to take a picture so you’ll just have to use your imagination. I did, however, notice another oldies radio station advertises in Cumberland, clearly it’s a growing target market here in the USA – Reg will always have some to listen too when he’s here.

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!

So far on our travels they cycling has been pretty flat – partly because we’ve followed as many old railway trails as possible and partly because the bits of Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania we’ve cycled through have been pretty flat. The only serious climbing we’ve done to date was in the tiny bit of West Virginia and the street Patrick, (our Warm Whowers host) lived on in Pittsburgh. This all changed yesterday on our route from Cumberland to Frederick. To avoid going on the windy and not sealed Chesapeake and Ohio canal towpath, the only way was through the Appalachian Mountains. We took on five serious climbs, but they were worth it. The views were fab and the descents were fast and (mostly) long. As I always like to say, hills are only a problem for cyclists 50% of the time – they’re a bonus when you come down them! In the Tour de France the winner of the mountain stages are rewarded with a red polka dot shirt, there wasn’t any one winner on our mountain stage, we all shared the pain pretty evenly taking turns to lead. However, it was hot and the heat (and sweat) under my helmet has brought out a nice polka dot rash on my forehead. I did win the prize for the least moaning (I just put my head down get on with the hills), but the two Mikes both moaned their way uphill – more like a moantain stage for them!

We passed the ‘Mason-Dixie line’ between Pennsylvania and Maryland on Monday so our now in the fifth and final state on this trip – so here are a few things you may or may not know about Maryland.

Maryland is one of the smallest states in terms of area, but it remains one of the most populous as well as one of the most densely populated states of the United States. The state’s largest city is Baltimore, and its capital is Annapolis. Although the state is officially claimed to be named after Queen Henrietta Maria many historians believe Maryland was named after Mary, the mother of Jesus by George Calvert, prior to his death in 1632. The original intent may never be known. Maryland has the highest median household income, making it the wealthiest state in the nation – you can certainly tell this when you cycle here, the roads in Maryland are very well maintained.

Ethnically, Marylanders are chiefly of German, Irish or African-American ancestry. Maryland has a large Korean American population. In fact, 1.7 percent are Korean, while as a whole, almost 6.0 percent are Asian.

The two counties of Western Maryland, Allegany and Garrett, are mountainous and sparsely populated, resembling West Virginia more than they do the rest of Maryland. Guess which two counties we cycled through yesterday? Yep, you guessed it – the hilly ones.

Maryland’s economic activity is strongly concentrated in the tertiary service sector, and this sector, in turn, is strongly influenced by location. One major service activity is transportation, centred on the Port of Baltimore and its related rail and trucking access. You get a sense of this when you see the improbably long freight trains carrying metal cargo boxes stretching for miles.

Since before the Civil War, Maryland’s elections have been largely controlled by the Democrats. Maryland has supported the Democratic nominee in each of the last five presidential elections, by an average margin of 15.4 percent. The Governor of Maryland is a Democrat, both of Maryland’s U.S. Senators and seven of its eight Representatives in Congress are Democrats.

Famous Marylanders include Cass Elliot, singer of pop band The Mamas & the Papas, Philip Glass, composer, Billie Holiday, singer and Michael Phelps, Olympic swimmer.

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!

Two years ago when Mike and I cycled down the west coast of the USA we were regular customers at Safeway’s supermarkets and Starbuck’s coffee shops. These suited our needs a) because they had a reasonable choice of vegi food and b) they had free wifi, (ideal for updating the blog). Unfortunately Safeway doesn’t really have much of a presence in the mid west/eastern board of the USA and we’re boycotting Starbuck’s due to their habit of not paying their taxes in the UK. This and the fact that Mike is now vegan has made finding feed stops on this trip a bit more challenging. Thankfully, as soon as we arrived in Pennsylvania our task was made a bit simpler by their discovery of Sheetz. These stores are really just petrol-station shops, but they have a self-order deli system where you use screens to choose your own burger, wrap, sub (what we call rolls) or salad – you can also add extras such as fries and onion rings. This system works well for Mike, since he can choose only the vegan content – sorted. The only trouble comes when he forgets that hot and spicy foods give him the hiccups – steer clear of the jalapeño peppers Mike – hick!

Last night we sat down to work out the route of today’s stage from Cumberland to Mike’s house in Columbia. I soon realised that we had a problem. However I tried to route us, the miles were showing up to 170 – some way from the 105 I had on my schedule! It turns out in the planning when we’d been altering destinations along our route, I’d managed to keep in one of the previous finish points instead of the actual one.

Fortunately on these trips we always build in a bit of slack at the end so that we can cope with any problems – even ones like this. We eventually found a route that was either 126 miles in one go (doable, but hard). But we’ll probably find another hotel for tonight and split our final leg into two more manageable 60-something miles on each day. We’ll lose our spare day tomorrow, so probably no trip to Baltimore – but it won’t affect our sightseeing in Washington DC.

When me and my brothers were little, Janet – my aunt – would take us to the pictures. She passed her love of movies to us. We would see an eclectic range of films from comedy to sci-fi. We didn’t see enough costume drama for my liking … but I was outnumbered! We did, however, go to see a movie called ‘Across the Great Divide’, the plot concerned two orphans travelling across America’s Rocky Mountains to claim their inheritance. To be honest, I can’t recall much about the movie, bar a few images of log cabins and blue gingham dresses. But the film has gone down in our family’s history as my brothers think that this was the most boring film/movie they were ever taken to see.

Today we passed our own very real ‘great divide’. After climbing for 50 miles we reached the Great Eastern Divide – the highest point on the Great Allegheny Passage. After this point it was downhill all the way to Cumberland for 25 miles.

Unfortunately, our much anticipated freewheel into town was disrupted by not one, but two mechanical stops. First Michael’s (McL) tyre punctured rather dramatically with a large pop, the tyre had been ripped by a sharp stone. After a running repair we set off again, but only made it a further ten miles before the tyre failed again. Fortunately we carry a folding spare tyre and so after Mike and Mike switched the tyre and tube we were off again – perhaps not quite as exciting as an action movie, but certainly not as dull a day as the other Across the Great Divide and we passed some very Hollywood-sounding names such as ‘Great Savage Mountain’ – thankfully we went through it as opposed to over it, (and through a very scary tunnel). Despite the incidents we conquered the Great Divide!

After my numerous tumbles yesterday it seems to be appropriate to be visiting a landmark with the word ‘falling’ in the tittle. I am of course referring to Fallingwater, the house designed in 1936 by Frank Lloyd Wright as the holiday home for the Kaufmann family.

The house is a national monument in the USA and considered by many architects to be one of the finest modernist buildings ever built. It is also the only Frank Lloyd Wright house in public ownership with its entire furniture, grounds and artwork intact, (the house was gifted to a conservancy by the family in 1963). We didn’t even know the house was here until I spotted it marked on a cycling map as I plotted our holiday route a few months ago. Once we knew we’d be passing, it would have been crazy to miss the opportunity to visit, so I took the decision to book us on an 8.30 am in-depth tour of the house. Mike was a bit aghast at the cost of this tour (£138), but I though, how many times are we going to be cycling (or driving) past Fallingwater? – Not often was my answer, so that justified the expense. We were not disappointed. My words can’t really do justice to the house and how it sits in the surrounding landscape so I’ll leave that to some pictures.

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.

What better was to end our day’s cycling than with a bit of fishing? The bait we were using, was in fact our feet. The cooling water of the Youghiogheny River was the perfect tonic to help us unwind and chill. The water wasn’t warm – but neither was it freezing, so sitting in the warmth of the evening, (the temperature is still easily in the 70s) it was wonderful.

Plenty of youngsters were paddling well up to their chests, (I suspect they have better circulation than us), we were happy just to watch.

The Tour de France began a few days ago in Corsica. Normally we would spend a couple of weeks following the Tour. But being in the USA makes that quite difficult of course, so we’re having to catch up with news from the Tour when we can get online. For us today is ‘stage 7’ from Pittsburgh to Ohiophyle, not that our 80 mile ride compares with what the Tour riders go through. It is also our first stage with our own mini peloton now that Michael (McLoughlin) has joined us.

Having three cyclists makes it possible to set a faster pace and to share the load of riding at the front more – so each of us takes a turn up front, while the others tuck-in behind, benefiting from the slipstream. We made good progress, especially considering most of today’s ride was uphill on an unsealed compacted limestone path. Our average pace was 16 mph, one of our best paces of the journey so far! The benefit of the path, built on an old railway line, is that it’s very level with only a gradual incline. A gradual ascent meant no ‘King of the Mountains’ for us – for those who don’t know the King of the Mountains is the title given to the Tour de France rider who wins the most points for mountain stage climbs.

I did, however, get the embarrassing ‘King of the Spills’ title for falling off my bike today – not once, but twice! Even more embarrassingly I was virtually static both times that I went over. Firstly I was coming to a halt at Cedar Creek Park and rode over what looked like a little bit of mud. It turned out to be a little bit of very slippy mud, before I could in clip my shoe from the pedal my wheel was sliding and I was on my side.

The second incident happened just as we’d arrived at the end of today’s section. We’d pulled in at Ohiopyle Station and Mike called me back to stand in front of the station sign to have a group photo. As I turned to wheel back I again didn’t get my foot released in time and plop – I was on my side again. The second incident was more embarrassing, given the number of tourist around and as I actually grazed my knee – nothing serious, but not great for my nicely developing cyclists’ tan. A little later I realised I had a second injury. I could feel that my right toe was sore, upon investigation I found a small cut on the underside knuckle. So there we have it, not only have I gained the ‘King of the Spills’ crown I’ve also discovered a new injury – cyclist’s toe (beat that one Bradley!)

A short film from the start of the Great Allegheny Passage.

We’ve discovered a new (if rather tenuous) link between Pittsburgh and Bristol. The baseball team here in Pittsburgh are called ‘the Pittsburgh Pirates’ while in Bristol one of our (rather rubbish) football teams, (that’s soccer to out US readers), Bristol Rovers are also called ‘the Pirates’. As we cycled out of Pittsburgh this morning we passed PNC Park, the home of the Pirates – a rather more impressive stadium than the Bristol equivalent.

There was a baseball game here last night and the stadium was lit up so brightly you could see it all over town. Our host Patrick was taking us up to Mount Washington to see the city skyline at night. On our way we realised that there were going to be fireworks at the end of the match. We caught a glimpse of the fireworks as we drove up, I couldn’t help thinking the Americans know how to put on a show, you’d be lucky to get an inflatable banana at the end of a Bristol Rovers match.

Nothing to do with Wimbledon – just no wifi in Ohiopyle. The only wifi in town was down due to the storm. Normal blogging will now resume!

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

Today we bid farewell to Patrick our Pittsburgh Warm Showers host. He’s been a great host despite us being particularly disorganised at replying to his emails and turning up and hour and a half late! I’m sure that when it appears Mike’s daily summary for yesterday will say more about our stay with Patrick but I just wanted to highlight his wall. Patrick is incredibly generous and hosts lots of passing cyclist and back packers. He’s come up with an ingenious way to record his visitors. No conventional visitors book for Patrick, instead one wall of his living room had been painted with blackboard paint and visitors are encouraged to ‘go crazy’ and leave messages on the wall. Patrick photo’s the wall when it’s full then wipes it ready for the next guests. He’s been so hospitable lately that there wasn’t much room on the wall for us, but I’ve manages to squeeze in a few messages – although not enough to really convey our gratitude. Thanks Patrick, you’ve been great!

Today we’ll be back in the saddle – and now we’re three, with Mike (McLoughlin) joining us for the next three days from Pittsburgh to his house in Columbia just outside Washington. After this three leg stage there is only a tiny 35 mile section to complete before we get to Washington, which is a bit sad really :0( Anyway, we’d better make the most of what we’ve got left. I’m very excited about this stretch as we’ll be travelling on the Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) – the 150-mile route will connect with the 184.5-mile C&O Canal Towpath at Cumberland, Maryland to create a 334.5-mile traffic and motorised vehicle-free route between Pittsburgh and Washington, DC. We’re only travelling between Pittsburgh and Cumberland today and tomorrow before we switch back to the road as the C&O canal towpath surface is a bit rutted for our bike tyres. The GAP is supposed to be really scenic with the old railroad route weaving its way though wooded valleys, across rivers and under mountains (there are several tunnels including one half a mile long). Mike is a bit concerned about the surface on the GAP trail as it’s mostly compacted limestone not sealed Tarmac, but I think it will be fine as long as it stays dry. We’ve got two shorter cycling days (75 and 77 miles) so we can go a bit slower and still make good time. Watch this space – there could be two daily summaries today if Mike decides to go on the road – because come whatever I’m cycling the GAP!

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.

It seems that our lives have become intertwined with bicycles, more often by chance than by design. Not that I’m complaining – as H.G.Wells put it: ‘When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the human race’. First we came across the Wright Brothers’ Cycle Works in Dayton, (completely unplanned) and now as we get to Pittsburgh we discover to our joy that the Carnegie Science Centre is hosting a fabulous exhibition called ‘Bike: Science on two wheels’, how could we resist?!

The science part was very interesting – lots of interactive things to explain how the bike works – these were mainly designed for the kids, but since I like to think of myself as ‘down there with the kids’ (a UK phrase used to suggest ‘being cool’), I joined in too. However, the main attraction was the amazing collection of bikes on display – or as we could call it: ‘bike porn’! From the very earliest velocipede (a bike with no pedals that you’d wheel along with your feet) and penny farthings right through to the most up-to-date bikes. The collection includes a Singer Tricycle made in Coventry – fancy coming all this way to find a bike made in my home city?!

I was quite taken by the collection of bike posters on display, some of which I’d never seen before. Some may think that the World War II propaganda poster image of Hitler sitting next to someone in their car with the caption ‘When you drive a car you drive with Hitler – Ride Your Bicycle Today!’ a bit harsh – but not Mike! I think this image will be appearing in an office at Bath Spa University soon – perhaps it might even become the University moto for their green travel plan! Pittsburgh has certainly earned itself a gold star with this exhibition, as the logo on the exhibition information boards put it, we were in ‘bicycle heaven’.

When life gets busy, or stressed there is definitely one thing that will help – go biking! There is nothing better to clear the head and help you get a different perspective on what’s really important in life. The pace you go at on two wheels is perfect and gives you time to think, chat and just observe the world around you. It’s not surprising them that a two-wheeled revolution is going on around the UK – indeed around the globe. From London to New York, Chicago to Paris people are turning back onto bikes.We’re really pleased the Bristol is right up there in the cycling revival. In Bristol cycling numbers have almost doubled in the past ten years and now a quarter of all those travelling to work go by bike. The other great result of the interest in biking is the emergence of a new generation of bike cafe. We’ve been enjoying ‘Look Mum No Hands‘ cycle cafe and bike works in London for a few years but we’re very excited that when we get home Bristol will have it’s own community cycle cafe and hub. ‘Roll for the Soul‘ (RftS) opens its doors on Monday 1 July (tomorrow!).

We’re sad we won’t be there for the first day – but I’m sure we’ll make up for it afterwards! RftS emerged from a ‘pop-up’ bike cafe that opened during Bristol’s Bike Festival – after a huge amount of hard work the guys raised funding and secured a location in central Bristol on Nelson Street.

If you’re in Bristol city center, (on bike or not) be sure to pay them a visit – they’ll have great coffee (hopefully with soya milk so Mike can enjoy it too) and a passion for cycling that you won’t find in another cafe in Bristol. Good luck Roll for the Soul – may your lattes be as smooth as a well-oiled bike and your customers flock to you in pelotons – we’ll certainly be there soon!

Following yesterday’s downpours, it’s been a relief that the weather has returned to warm and sunny, perfect for exploring Pittsburgh. We took a stroll along the waterfront, and there’s plenty of it to stroll around. The city was founded at the joining of three rivers – the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela River. The rivers were clearly a boost for trade and industry, but they haven’t always been such a bonus – the city has experienced several major floods in its history. Crossing the rivers are many sturdy steel bridges, Patrick told us that Pittsburgh has more bridges than any city in the world with the exception of Venice. As many are very high up, in retrospect this maybe isn’t the best place to bring a boyfriend who has a fear of crossing very big high bridges! Much work has been done to clean the city up since it was at the centre of the prosperous, but dirty, steel industry. The river walkways are wide and landscapes with trees, benches and public art. The pictures show the Vietnamese war memorial. Where the three rivers meet a park has been created, the Point State Park has at its centre (or point I suppose) a giant fountain set in a large round pool with several smaller fountains besides it. On a hot sunny day, sitting at the edge of the pool with a fine spray of water was perfect for cooling down. The fountain was very popular and there was a wedding party having their pictures taken there. After we visited the park we walked to Downtown and found another pleasant water feature in the Agnes R Katz Plaza. We sat in the cool enjoying people watching. Pittsburgh is a great city – I could easily let it wash over me if we had more time – another place to add to the ‘would like to return to’ list.

Estimated mileage: 105 miles actual: 108.5

Avg. speed: 14.1 mph

Cumulative distance: 591.91

Today was something of a mixed bag – lots of highs and good things, but also some setbacks and frustrations.

We went down to breakfast at the Hampton Hotel to be greeted effusively by Deb, “Your breakfast host,” or perhaps more accurately: the Uriah Heep of Newcomerstown. “Good morning … How are you today? Did you sleep ok? We really do appreciate your staying here. Enjoy your breakfast. Have a great day today. Have a great weekend. If there’s anything that I can get you, anything at all, you just ask.” She went on and on and on – and every time anyone new arrived for breakfast, Deb, (or Debs – she hates being called Deborah), began her obsequious mantra all over again. It was driving me nuts. At first I wondered if she was possibly a cost-saving measure to get people out of the all-you-can-eat breakfast area as quickly as possible, but it seemed that most of the other hotel guests were lapping it up and only me and Matthew were finding her intensely irritating. Anyway, I took her at her word and asked her for soya milk, she said “Oh, no, I’m very sorry sir, but we don’t have that”. I wasn’t surprised and in fairness, lack of soya milk apart, breakfast and other facilities at the Hampton hotels have been good: lots of fruit for me to eat and decent coffee!

Back in our room and I needed to repair the puncture to my rear wheel. Overnight the tyre had deflated, and I found a fine piece of wire embedded in it. Getting the wire out was a bit of a struggle, it was short and sharp and I was trying to prize it out with my penknife – all the while feeling quite nervous about slipping and slicing my finger! Eventually we managed it together and so puncture repaired, we set off at about 10:30.

It was warm and bright, but rain was threatened. There’d be two sections of bicycle trail today: a short section between Bowerston and Jewett, then after Steubenville we’d be joining the Panhandle Trail – a longer section for 30 miles into Pittsburgh.

We left the hotel in Newcomerstown and took highway 151 towards Uhrichsville. We’d only travelled a few miles and we spotted a sign reading: Lock 17. We assumed that this was the next lock on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Behind the trees on the other side of the road we could see some large masonry blocks and we wondered if this was the remains of the lock, so decided to take a look. There was a small house further up an embankment and a young women there asked if she could help. We asked if were looking at the old lock and she said “Yes. I have and old picture that I can show you if you’d like.” She was called Kelly and said that she has six kids. She showed us the old photograph – so much had changed, but the spot was still recognisable. We told her about our trip. She said that she didn’t know how we could cycle all that way. I said that I didn’t know how she could deal with all those kids! (See Matthew’s post on Towpath Tails for more about the canal).

We continued past Uhrichsville and with a tailwind we were really flying – our average speed made it up to 18 mph! Next town was Dennison, it has has a steam train museum alongside the railway line. I’d have really liked to see inside, but there wasn’t time for that today – particularly this early into our day, so I had to make do with a picture of the big black hulk of an engine that was parked outside. Hopefully awaiting restoration.

In Bowerston and time for a quick lunch stop. On the way into town there was a little convenience store staffed by Julie and Bettie. All the sandwiches on display had meat in them and when Matthew asked if they had anything else, they offered to make him a fresh cheese sandwich. Only coffee and some crisps for me though. Julie had lots of Irish ancestry her mother’s family came over in early 1900s and her father came from from England.

Julie and Bettie were lots of fun and we gave them our blog address – so we hope to hear from them again. They laughed and joked about being old and not internet savvy, Bettie said that she was 54 and I said that 50 was the new 40. Julie wondered what the new replacement for 75 was!

We really struggled to find the start of the trail in Bowerston – we’d been told to just go over the bridge and turn right. Trouble is there were two bridges – one had the main highway on it, so we assumed that it was not that one (wrong!) and cycled into the middle of the town. Over the second bridge we expected to be able to access the trail, but we were on a piece of waste ground in front of the railway line. There was a small tunnel under the railway line and as we approached it we could see that the ground was full of water and debris. There was also a swastika graffitied on the wall – we thought that it was just some kind of storm drain, not a cycle route (wrong!). We wondered if perhaps there was another bridge further on, so we rode through the town and out the other side, up a steep hill. We knew that the trail ran parallel to the railway line and it was

unlikely that the railway would have travelled up such a steep hill. So we turned back and went to the second bridge again. We looked at the drain/tunnel/swastika again and really didn’t fancy it. Matthew charged off to look at bridge number one, meanwhile I spotted a women out in a nearby garden with her children. I asked her for directions to the cycle trail. She told me that the it did indeed run on the other side of the railway line and we either go back and over bridge number one (where Matthew had just gone), then turn right, or go through the tunnel – it was a tunnel not a drainl! Or we could go along the road behind her house an cross the railway line just beyond the next house and we’d be on the track. Now I had to locate Matthew. He came back with news that we could go back to bridge number one, etc. rather than climbing uphill yet again or venturing into the tunnel, we opted to try and cross the railway line behind the houses.

I’d assumed that there’d be some sort of level crossing, but there wasn’t – this was becoming really irksome – we’d wasted an hour in Bowerston now, so we carried our bicycles over the railway line – walking over ballast in shoes with cleats on is no fun. But there we were, at the start of The Conotton Creek trail.

After all that hunting for it, the Bowerston trail wasn’t really worth it. It had the worst surface of any trail we’d used so far; really rough, uneven and pitted. it was hard going and I flatted after about 3 minutes. So puncture #4 Mike, rear – a pinch puncture, so two holes in the tube. At least it was easy to locate and fix. We set off through Scio to Jewett where the trail ended.

We had to travel on the main highway 22 to get to Steubenville. It was getting hotter and hotter. There were flashes of lightening accompanied by thunder. We were riding quite fast along route 22. And Then The Storm Came. It was horrendous! It went quite dark, big drops of warm driving rain pelted down and cars whizzed past throwing water everywhere. It was hard to see sometimes. The thunder and lightening and rain continued for about 25 miles. We passed Hopedale and Bloomingdale then left the main road to climb up to Winterville where we decided to take shelter in a filling station. They had coffee and napkins at least! Some of the other (motorized) customers looked at us with pity! We were completely bedraggled. We didn’t know whether to stay put and see if it abated or whether given that we were already completely soaked, we should just continue on. There was still about 40 miles to go. This was not going to be pleasant whatever we did. I was contemplating trying to find a hotel for the night in Steubenville. One of the filling-station customers said that it worse over to the east, (i.e. towards Pittsburgh). We decided that on the basis that it was unlikely to improve that there was no point in waiting and that we’d see how far we’d manage to get. It was 5:00 now and the traffic was pretty bad – riding into Steubenville there were lots of junctions, so lots of stopping and starting, and a horrendous 9% descent on wet roads. Steubenville town centre was rather desolate and run-down – but there was a very nice courthouse.

Just beyond the courthouse I was rather alarmed to see a very ominous-looking bridge over the Ohio River.

Matthew needed to go to the toilet and we noticed some portable ones over by an open air performance area. We headed towards those and saw that we were by a replica wooden fort: Fort Steuben. The portable toilets were locked, so we wondered if there were any at the fort’s visitor centre. There was a metal railing with a gate that opened into the fort – and it was amazing. We were the only people there, the rain was subsiding and all the different parts of the fort were accessible, so we had a look around!

The original Fort Steuben was built in 1786 by the First American Regiment to
protect surveyors who had been sent by the Continental Congress to map
the Northwest Territory from hostile Indians. The replica was built on the 200th anniversary of the fort in 1987. The current buildings are a more-or-less exact copy of the original and had rooms laid to look as they might have done when the fort was first built, (although they obviously wouldn’t have had any shop mannequins from the 1980s dressed in eighteenth century costume in them).

After we’d had a mosey around (and used the toilets), we headed back out of Fort Steuben. A man was walking towards us. “I fear that we may have broken in” I said. “Yes you have”, he replied. Oh dear. It wasn’t on purpose, honest! He was good enough not to charge us any admission and even gave us directions. Going on, of course, meant my having to face That Bridge.

I’ve said it before – I write it again: I just don’t like heights. Being enclosed, like in an aeroplane is fine; having a high barrier between me and the edge, like that time I flew in a hot air balloon – fine. Very high buildings with floor-to-ceiling glass windows? Not fine. Bridges in America with hardly any parapet protection between me and the edge and lattice-work slippery metal surface that it’s possible to see through all the way down? Really not fine! The man at Fort Steuben said that cyclists normally carried their bikes up the steps and ride along the pedestrian walkway. We did that. It Was Horrendous.

The Market Street Bridge is 546.8 meters (1794 feet) long, the walkway has a gap on the left between it and the main bridge. The walkway had slippery fine gravel on it and the ‘barrier’ on the right was really low and it had massive gap at the bottom that it would be easy to fall through in my view. My heart was pounding as we traversed the bridge and there were two points where I just wanted to shut my eyes and curl up and wait to be rescued. Once when my front wheel skidded in the gravel and then when the path had a step as two plates overlapped. I didn’t look down and just focused on Matthew in front. We made it and discovered, (rather unexpectedly that we were in West Virginia and not Pennsylvania as we’d expected – there’s a narrow strip of West Virginia – the Panhandle sandwiched between Ohio and Pennsylvania.

We cycled by the river and passed an evil-smelling iron and steel works. Then turned up Mahan Lane – it was a very steep climb. The roads were strewn with leaves and branches. Some trees had obviously been hit by lightening from the storm – we could see lots of freshly splintered wood. At the top it was drying up and warmer, so we took our raincoats off. A man passed us in a black pickup truck, he slowed and leaned over and shouted out of the window: “Hey, were you guys out in that storm?” When I said yes, it was horrible, he said “Sure was!” It kind of made me feel a bit better – someone else who was local had thought that it was a terrible storm – so it must have been, and we’d ridden through it!

We had some beautiful views across heavily forested valleys as we coasted down in to Colliers to join the Panhandle trail for the final leg of our journey.

We’d been looking forward to this long flat straight section, but it was a disaster. The ground was soft, fine grit and we were sinking in as we rode along, it was really hard going on our knees and we were barely managing 10 mph. It was getting late, we were tired and we’d been soaked. There were still 30 miles to go, but we couldn’t stay on the bicycle trail and we were in the middle of nowhere. So we decided to abandon the trail and take the road, it did mean lots of climbing and descending – but at least we were making progress. We went through some attractive little towns on our way into Pittsburg: Burgettstown, Bulger, Midway, McDonald, Noblestown, Oakdale and Rennerdale. In Carnegie – we had an email from Martin to say that Mike’s (McL, who we were meeting in Pittsburgh) had broken his phone, so he wasn’t able to get the address of where we staying tonight – we forwarded that and continued through Green Tree and the outer suburbs of Pittsburgh where there was another huge and terrible bridge to cross! By now the light was fading, which helped me a bit. We had to lift our bikes over a concrete crash barrier and onto the pavement at the start of the West End Bridge. There was no way that I was cycling on the road – it was getting dark and I discovered that my rear light wouldn’t stay on. it was flooded out. So we went really quickly over the bridge and through the city: Allegheny West, Central Northside and steeply up into Fineview where Patrick lives.

We arrived full of apologies for being late and looking so bedraggled Patrick was charming and friendly. He said that he’d prepared spaghetti and meatballs for us. We both froze. There was no way I was eating meatballs or fishing them out of a tomato sauce. I was trying to work out what to say – and Matthew could see that I was readying myself for what he later said was likely to be a rather long and convoluted explanation about why I couldn’t eat the spaghetti and meatballs, so he came to the rescue and said: “Thank you very much. We’d love to eat the pasta. We’re both vegetarian, in fact Mike’s vegan and I’m vegetarian. So we won’t be able to eat the meatballs.” Patrick was a total star – he didn’t seem in the least bit fazed and offered to make some fresh tomato sauce. He did and that’s what we had.

While we were eating, we were wondering where Mike (McL) was. There was a knock at the door and it was him! Great, so now there are three! Mike (McL) had his own challenges getting to us – the storm that had engulfed us, delayed his flight. As well as his mobile/cell phone dying and not having the address anywhere else, (hence the call to his dad back in Bristol and his dad emailing us), he’d also had trouble with the brakes on the car he’d picked up to get from the airport – but after all that we Mike got to us. Oh, and Mike isn’t vegan or vegetarian, so he ate lots of the meatballs!

Yesterday (28 June) is exactly one month since I started my new job as Boater Liasion Manager with the Canal and River Trust (CRT). You’re probably thinking: ‘What? You started a new job and then went on holiday three weeks after joining?!’ I know, I felt a bit bad about that, but this trip was planned and booked months ago before I’d even seen the job advertised. If my new boss – Sally – is reading this, thanks for being understanding and be assured I’ll work hard to make up for it when I get back!

Anyway, even though I’m on leave I can’t escape canals completely. There are not many canals here in the USA – well not compared with the 2000+ miles of them we have in the UK. They do have some big rivers, (many with super-scary bridges you have to cycle over). Even though the canals are not easy to come across, we’ve managed to find one – or I should say the remnants of one. Just half an hour after leaving Newcomers Town yesterday, we passed a road sign that said ‘Lock 17, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal’, we had to stop and have a look didn’t we? (Mike thinks I’m turning into a gongoozler – the canal equivalent of a train-spotter!). We pulled over to take a look at a stone wall that we though we’re probably part of the old lock.

As we stood looking at them a young women outside a house adjacent called out ‘Can I help you?’. We explained why we’d stopped and Kelly said ‘hold on there, I have a picture to show you’. She went inside and came back with a black and white copy of a photo taken around turn of the last century showing lock 17 in all its glory. With the exception of one white wooden building there was nothing else left that was recognisable from the picture. Much of the canal fell into disrepair following major flood damage in the 1920s and 1930s and only parts of the eastern section of the canal now exist and form part of the cycle route from Cumberland through to Washington, we’ll see some of the remaining canal when we get to Washington but we’re taking to road from Cumberland as the towpath is apparently a bit muddy and rutted for our tyres.

If you’re interested, here’s a bit more history about the canal;

The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal, and occasionally referred to as the “Grand Old Ditch,”operated from 1831 until 1924 parallel to the Potomac River in Maryland from Cumberland, Maryland, to Washington, D.C. The total length of the canal is about 184.5 miles (296.9 km). The elevation change of 605 ft (184 m) was accommodated with 74 canal locks. To enable the canal to cross relatively small streams, over 150 culverts were built. The crossing of major streams required the construction of 11 aqueducts. The canal also extends through the 3,118 ft (950 m) Paw Paw Tunnel. The principal cargo in the latter years was coal from the Allegheny Mountains. The canal way is now maintained as a park, with a linear trail following the old towpath, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.

We have now crossed into the fourth state of our trip, so here’s a little bit about Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania is the 33rd most extensive and the 6th most populous state of the USA. It is one of the 13 original founding states. As of 2006, Pennsylvania has an estimated population of 12,440,621. It has a Republican governor, 1 Democrat and 1 Republican senator and 13 of 18 congressman are Republican.

If Pennsylvania were an independent country, its economy would rank as the 18th largest in the world. Pennsylvania ranks 19th overall in agricultural production, but 1st in mushrooms, 2nd in apples, and 3rd in Christmas trees. The U.S. chocolate industry is centered in Hershey, Pennsylvania, with Mars, Godiva, and the Wilbur Chocolate Company nearby, and smaller manufacturers such as Asher’s[123] in Souderton, and Gertrude Hawk of Dunmore.

Not a lot of people know that there is a connection between our home town Bristol and Pennsylvania. Admiral Sir William Penn, the father of William Penn (pictured) from who the state was named lived and was buried in Redcliffe Bristol. Here’s the history behind the naming of Pennsylvania:

On February 28, 1681, Charles II granted a land charter to William Penn to repay a debt of £16,000[28] (around £2,100,000 in 2008, adjusting for retail inflation) owed to William’s father, Admiral William Penn. This was one of the largest land grants to an individual in history. It was called Pennsylvania. William Penn, who wanted it called New Wales or Sylvania, was embarrassed at the change, fearing that people would think he had named it after himself, but King Charles would not rename the grant. Penn established a government with two innovations that were much copied in the New World: the county commission and freedom of religious conviction.

We’ve made it to Pittsburgh after a long hot, then wet, day’s ride, (all will be revealed in the daily summary tomorrow). We’re staying with Patrick our Warm Showers host and have met up with our friend Mike who is joining us on the final section of our trip from Pittsburgh to Washington. It’s 12.30 am as I write this and I’m bushed, so I’d better get some sleep ready to spend our day out of the saddle seeing some of the sights down town. We got a brief glimpse of how pretty the city looked as we travelled over the river on our way to Patrick’s (sorry the picture is a bit blurry) – can’t wait to see it in the daylight.

As we crossed the Ohio River from Stuebenville we thought we’d be entering Pennsylvania but instead found ourselves in West Virginia – a long narrow area called the ‘Panhandle’. So here are a few (brief) facts about West Virginia.

West Virginia is the 41st largest state by area and the 38th most populous of the 50 United States. The capital and largest city is Charleston. It has a Democrat governor, 2 Democrat senators and 2 of 3 congressman are Republican.

The state is noted for its mountains and diverse topography, its historically significant logging and coal mining industries, and its political and labour history.

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.

Our cycling trip in the states has coincided with steps forward for gay equality, both here and at home.

On Wednesday a supreme court ruling struck down the controversial federal Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA) that discriminated against gay couples in the US and barred them from receiving benefits that married couples of the opposite sex could receive. This is a hugely significant decision, it came about because a woman called Edie Windsor was required to pay inheritance taxes on the estate of her dead partner, Thea Spyer – even though they had been a couple for 40 years, were married and had lived together. Their marriage had taken place in Toronto, Canada in 2007. But the same-sex marriage was not recognized – so inheritance taxes had to be paid – taxes that would not have been required if the couple were heterosexual.

Edie is an inspiration and here she is talking about her life at New Yorker Festival:

     EDITH WINDSOR TALKS ABOUT LOVE

The courts here in America have also dismissed another case challenging same sex marriage in California and therefore restored the right to marriage to thousands of gay and lesbian couples there. What a day!

Meanwhile back in the UK the ‘Marriage (Same Sex) Bill has completed its third and final committee stage in the House of Lords (the UK’s second chamber). The Bill will now have a final report stage, a third and final reading in the Lords and then be considered in its amended form by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Subject to approval the Bill will then receive Royal Ascent and become law. All of which means, in short, that after 19 years together, me and Mike might be able to get married in time for our 20th anniversary in June 2014!

The changes in law taking place on both sides of the pond, and indeed President Obama’s recent statement on his tour of Africa calling for countries there to drop their homophobic laws are a startling reminder of how far equality has moved for the gay community. When I was growing up the UK government were running an AIDS campaign that pretty much said ‘if you’re gay, you’ll probably get AIDS and die – oh and by the way, it’s you’re own fault’. Added to that the government of prime minister Margaret Thatcher also brought in Section 28 of the Local Government Act, which outlawed the ‘promotion of homosexuality’, which in reality meant that many public sector workers (such as teachers, health workers etc.) were being told by the government that they could not offer advice or help to gay people who sought it, so if you we’re a young gay man (as I was) or women who was vulnerable, then if the government were saying, you’re on your own.

It wasn’t much better at the time I met Mike, when the UK parliament was debating the proposed change for age of consent for gay men from 21 to 16 (bizarrely there had never been an age of consent for lesbians, widely rumoured to be because Queen Victoria would never accept that women would do such a thing as have sex with one another!). Back in 1994 I was 19, so still legally not able to have sexual relations with another man even though I had just met Mike and the fact that my straight friends had been ‘legal’ for two year. In a very typically British muddled way, parliament decided to lower the age of consent from 21 to 18 – not 16. We had to wait until 2000 for the Labour government to force through full equality against strong opposition from the right and the House of Lords. I remember feeling very miffed that not only was 18 an outrageous discrimination, but it also meant the age of consent had leapfrogged me and so I would never get that coming of age moment, (I take any opportunity for a party). I was just suddenly ‘legally allowed to have sex’ – but still a long way from being equal. Fortunately, many people (gay and straight) abhorred this hatred and intolerance and fought back, making the gay community stronger and more visible. This in turn, I’m sure has helped change public attitudes and helped get both the USA and the UK to a place where the majority of the population now support same sex marriage. Thank you to all the ‘friends of Dorothy’ and the ‘friends of friends of Dorothy’ fighting for change. We wouldn’t have got this far without you. The important issue is that it’s surely not the job of the state to say who you can fall in love with or who should be allowed to get married. Now we’ll just have to wait to see when (I’m pretty confident now that it’s a when, not if) the law changes to find out if we won’t have a 20th anniversary after all – and maybe we’ll have a first (wedding) anniversary instead.

The great thing about cycling across the USA is that you meet so many really nice and interesting people. Whether it’s people on bikes, walking or those who just start talking to you as we stop outside a shop. People are always interested (and usually amazed) to hear about where we’ve been and where we’re going on our bikes. We always get asked where we’re from and reply ‘Bristol, England’ followed quickly by ‘it’s about an hour and a half from London’. Bristol is sadly not that well known around the world (or even the UK for that matter – we like to think of our (adopted) home city as the ‘best kept secret’. If you’re reading this (whether you’re in the UK or somewhere else in the world) and you’ve not visited Bristol, you should! We are very proud of our city, its very beautiful Clifton Suspension Bridge and the world’s first iron-hulled propellor-driven Atlantic passenger ship – both designed by the 19th century engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Bristol is also a very creative city and was where the supersonic plane Concorde was built. The Hollywood film star Carry Grant was also from Bristol – we have a statue of him. More recently the city has become associated with the graffiti artist Banksy who grew up in Bristol and the Oscar winning animator Nick Parks and the firm Aardman Animation. Nick Park’s most famous creation is the wacky inventor Wallace and his dog Gromit (who normally rescues him from scrapes and capers). If you like Wallace and Gromit then this summer is an excellent time to visit Bristol as 80 five feet high statues of Gromit, each decorated by a different artist, are being installed around the city. The trail is to raise funds for our Children’s Hospital and at the end the statues will get auctioned. The Gromits are being installed as we speak, so when we get home they’ll have landed all over town, and as Wallace would no doubt say – they’ll look ‘cracking’!

Those of us who grew up in the 1970s will remember the action children’s TV ‘The Red Hand Gang’. This group of inner-city American kids would solve crimes and then leave their red hand mark on fences in the neighbourhood to show where they’d been.

Mike and I have not been solving any crimes on our travels, (fortunately there haven’t been any for us to solve), but we have developed our own mark. Despite the use of factor 55 sun cream regularly applied, the strong sun on out pale northern European skin has left us with some distinctive marks. Between our cycle glove and the cuff of our sleeves our arms have been well and truly toasted to a reddish-brown. We are the red arm gang! A similar shading happens from the cycle shorts down, Mike calls these tan lines ‘the cyclists badge of honour’. I’m sure I’ll be wearing this particular badge for several weeks after we get home, so perhaps I need to get the tan centre to fill in the white bits in between with a bit of spray!

There’s a saying in the UK that if you’re waiting for a bus for a long time then inevitably when it does arrive, two will come along. We’ve had a similar experience today with our new furry friend the Groundhog. Just two days ago we had never even seen one, today we’ve seen five of them. Usually they have been performing speedy acrobatics as they dart out of our path. Anyway, we’re clearly in Groundhog country so I thought I’d do a bit of research to find out a bit more about them, here’s what I’ve learned.

The Groundhog is also known as a woodchuck, whistle-pig, or in some areas as a land-beaver. It is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. In the wild, Groundhogs can live up to six years, with two or three being average. In captivity, Groundhogs are reported to live from 9–14 years (so perhaps the message here is that we should all adopt Groundhogs – move over woody the chipmunk!). Groundhogs primarily eat wild grasses and other vegetation, including berries and agricultural crops, when available. Groundhogs hydrate through eating leafy plants rather than drinking from a water source. Groundhogs are excellent burrowers, using burrows for sleeping, rearing young, and hibernating. The average Groundhog has been estimated to move approximately 1 m3 (35 cu ft), or 2,500 kg (5,500 lb), of soil when digging a burrow. Groundhog burrows usually have two to five entrances, providing Groundhogs their primary means of escape from predators (not to be confused with the entrance to a Beaver’s hole, which normally only has one underwater entrance). In most areas, Groundhogs hibernate from October to March or April. Despite their heavy-bodied appearance, Groundhogs are accomplished swimmers and excellent tree climbers.

Famous Groundhogs

Punxsutawney Phil Sowerby is a Groundhog resident of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. On February 2 (Groundhog Day) of each year, the town of Punxsutawney celebrates the beloved Groundhog with a festive atmosphere of music and food. During the ceremony, which begins well before the winter sunrise (which occurs at 7:27 AM Eastern Standard Time on February 2 in Punxsutawney),[1] Phil emerges from his temporary home on Gobbler’s Knob, located in a rural area about 2 miles (3.2 km) east of town. According to the tradition, if Phil sees his shadow and returns to his hole, he has predicted six more weeks of winter-like weather. If Phil does not see his shadow, he has predicted an “early spring.”[2] The date of Phil’s prognostication is known as Groundhog Day in the United States and Canada. He is considered to be the world’s most famous prognosticating rodent. During the rest of the year, Phil lives in the town library with his “wife” Phyllis.

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!

In preparing for this trip I have been quite organised. I have prepared lots of plans – routes (check), accommodation (check), bag packing list (check). In fact I thought I had everything covered until yesterday! Whilst reading the Ohio Bike free newsletter when we stopped on the trail at London I was disturbed to find out I’d overlooked a plan – we need a dog plan. This is not to be confused with the other dog plan that Mike has been hatching – to get a dog as soon as the poor old cat goes to the scratching post in the sky – but rather a plan to deal with aggressive dogs we meet on our ride. So far we have not needed this plan but the Ohio Bike newspaper assured us we need ‘something to squirt at the dog, something to make a loud noise (they suggested a siren canister), something to best the dog off with and most important a cell phone (or mobile as we would say) to call for assistance’. Being the USA there was a large section of advice on all the evidence you need to collect to be able to make your legal claim against the dogs owner and also a section on federal legislation letting you know when it’s appropriate to kill said attacking dog (in self-defence obviously) without being prosecuted. We have been lucky so far only to have met friendly dogs (including the lovely Gemma who belongs to Brooke and Melissa in Columbus) but in case that changes I am now developing a ‘dog plan’ which largely involves pedalling a lot faster than the dog!

The image of the USA that we’re fed in Europe is often very far removed from the experiences we have when we cycle here. The news and cinema footage would have you believe that Americans are all red-neck, gun-touting, inward-looking, aggressive people who drive giant cars and who are stinking rich. It’s true that their cars are generally the size of small British houses, but they drive much slower than maniac UK drivers and the roads are much wider so you feel quite safe on a bike. The people we’ve met on our trips dispel much of the conventional stereotypes we’re fed in the UK. All the Americans we’ve met have been generous to a fault, extremely interested in our travels and to hear about the UK and Europe and have much more progressive political views than many media commentators back home would have us believe. As for being wealthy, yes there are lots of well off people, but there is also a lot of poverty too. You notice this travelling on a bike where the broken down and boarded up houses stand out amongst the neatly trimmed lawns and white picket fences. In some of the small rural towns we’ve travelled through its been quite stark to see the poorer neighbourhoods and closed down shops on Main Street whilst on the outskirts of these places are miles of sprawling retail sheds and fast food joints. Some parts of the ‘American Dream’ are clearly not working for everyone. Cycling along I can hear the voice of Matt Fry (former BBC USA correspondent now at Channel 4 news) talking about ‘the other America’ – the poor America that is plain to see in the richest nation on earth. Rich or poor however, Americans are warm and hospitable, if this could be translated into cash they’d all be wealthy.

It turns out today’s riding was a bit like yesterday’s with more miles of great Rail to Trail routes – although we weren’t awoken by the sound of Sonny and Cher singing ‘I got you babe’. We did, however, become a bit wiser about local wildlife. Yesterday I mentioned that we had been in a close encounter with what we thought was a beaver, well it turns out we were wrong. Clearly I wouldn’t know a beaver if it hit me in the face – or in our case ran parallel to us for 100 feet. Whilst talking to a group of women visiting the Wright brothers’ Heritage Centre in Dayton earlier today we described our close encounter with the furry friend. They knew instantly that this was not a beaver – silly us – but rather a groundhog! These women clearly know their beavers from their groundhogs better than us. Of course now we know it was a groundhog we’re kind of wishing we stopped and set it some kind of test to predict the weather for the remainder of our vacation. Sadly not only are we not beaver spotters but we’re not Bill Murray and Andi McDowell either!

There is a great discussion in parts of the UK right now about the government’s proposed second high-speed rail route. The first phase of this line would pass through some very picturesque parts of the country such as the Chiltern Hills. Driving transport links through beautiful countryside isn’t a new thing, we’ve been doing it for centuries. In the 1700s when the canal boom got going the routes tended to twist around, following the contour of the land and avoiding the need for expensive tunnels and locks. Of course the canals were soon to be superseded by railways, which were built in much straighter lines and were faster. There lies the crux of the matter with high-speed rail. High-speed trains need very straight rails and building long straight tracks is hard to do without hitting something (such as the Chilterns). This clearly wasn’t an issue for the builders of the Ohio and Erie Railway, part of the route that we cycled on today. The route felt as if someone had drawn a straight line on a map from a to b and that was the line of the railway. The track stretched out ahead of us for miles and miles only twisting slightly when we reached roads.

The straightness of the trails and the fact that they’re fairly flat makes it possible to really pick up speed, at times were cycling along at 25 mph. Our thanks go to those earlier railway pioneers, without you we wouldn’t be enjoying the ride quite so much!

It’s been a British kind of cycling day today – first the customer service at the Dayton Grand was very British, (in a not very helpful sort of way) and not what we’re used to in the USA. Then we cycled through London, not our London clearly, but a very pleasant town just over halfway between Dayton and Columbus. It didn’t look very British – rather quintessentially Midwestern USA, lots of timber buildings with pretty porches, but they had a fab welcome sign as the trail entered town, we had to stop and take pictures. The thing that really made it feel British today though was the weather. It was in the 80s again for most of the day but at about 65 miles as we approached Columbus a storm broke and boy did it rain. Fortunately we had rain coats and lights so a quick stop to don those and we carried on. It’s always a bit nerve racking riding in the rain after a long warm spell a) the roads can be quite slippy so you can fall over and b) often bits of glass and metal get floated to the surface making punctures much more likely. We were lucky that neither happened. The rain continued pretty much all the way to Columbus but unlike British rain it was very warm and so a bit like cycling in a warm shower. I did ponder stripping off and doing a mini naked bike ride into town, but my British reserve kicked in and I refrained.

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!