Some readers of this blog may have detected a slight difference of writing style in some recent posts. This can be explained by a ghost writer, one – I might add – who was initially quite dismissive of this blog! So, dear reader, some tips to help you identify the ghost writer’s posts as opposed to those written by me – Matthew.
1. The ghost writer tends to appear late at night.
2. The ghost writer does tend to write lengthy blog entries.
3. The ghost writer uses impeccable grammar and spelling (unlike me).
There are no prizes for guessing the ghost writers identity (*Mike edit: that should be writer’s identity! You asked for that, I think!!). They are most welcome to contribute to this blog and I hope you’re finding our combined blogging enjoyable!
We took some detours to avoid busy roads and then we had a bit of messing about in Seattle – all added some extra miles.
Avg speed: 13.2 – another day when our 15mph target wasn’t met. I think (hope!) it’s a consequence of so much stopping and starting at junctions as we ride through built-up areas. We do seem to manage 18-24mph on the flat open roads without too much difficulty.
We left Mount Vernon a little later than anticipated as we now need to try and find alternative accommodation in Portland on Monday and Tuesday. The early part of the journey was really nice – Skagit City and county and around Skagit Bay – lovely looking small towns – and a long train.
We were riding on quieter roads that ran along either side of the freeway: Interstate 5. There is a huge urban area north of Seattle – it maybe continues from the centre northwards for about 35 miles. So traffic really became busier in North Marysville and there was no respite from quite busy roads.
Marysville, Everett, along Evergreen Way (hardly any green!), east of Snohomish Airport, through Lynwood, (which had been our original destination for the day – but on reflection we thought that it wasn’t far enough south at about 60 miles from Mount Vernon), so we pressed on to Aurora on Pacific Highway, route 99. We turned west off this road just before N 155 Street towards the Seattle Golf and Country Club and the traffic seemed to almost disappear. We had a really enjoyable ride into the city, along Greenwood Ave North – into Greenwood; then on in to Phinney – a really nice-looking and slightly bohemian suburb – it felt a bit like home in Southville, Bristol. Joy of joys – we started to see people on bicycles! You can be pretty sure that you’re in a nice place with good people when the local people are on bicycles!
As we came down the steep hillside to come into Seattle over the Freemont Bridge, we caught our first glimpse of the Space Needle – one of the iconic buildings of Seattle. It was thrilling! The Space Needle will be very familiar to anyone who has watched Frasier – it was clearly visible through the windows of his apartment. **Spoiler alert** – any Frasier fans might want to stop reading until the end of this paragraph. We found out today that Frasier’s apartment doesn’t actually exist – and couldn’t exist, as there are no buildings in Seattle that provide the view out of Frasier’s apartment windows that audiences of the tv show see. That view was a photomontage … disgraceful! So that’s another piece of media innocence gone! So any of you who dreamed of living in Frasier’s apartment one day can forget it. One more thing, it turns out that Kelsey Grammar, the actor who played Frasier is a member of the Republican party – that was enough to deter Mike from buying the complete series box set on DVD!
Otherwise, Seattle was everything we hoped for – a really good place – cycle lanes almost everywhere, impressive buildings, wide open expanses of water and snow-topped mountains in the distance.
We came across a ‘ghost bike’ on Dexter Avenue North – a bicycle painted white and decorated with flowers in memory of a cyclist who was killed – Michael Wang in this case. It was a sad moment, and reminds us how vulnerable we can be – even in a cycle-friendly city like Seattle. RIP Michael Wang.
We debated whether to visit a Starbucks’ or not – they were founded here in Seattle and so it seemed a shame not to, so two iced green teas and oat biscuits in the original Starbucks Seattle! We’re not really tempted to visit those other two big Seattle exports – Microsoft and Boeing … well, Mike is extremely tempted, but Matthew wouldn’t stand for it!
We headed off to meet our Warm Showers host, Aaron, at his bicycle shop – but just before we arrived we were spotted by him and his son, Braxton as they cycled home from the shop! We were easy to recognise, apparently! It’s a shame we didn’t get to visit Aaraon’s Bicycle Repair Inc. We were especially keen to meet the two resident cats: Presta and Shraeda.
Presta and Shraeda
That’s something else to add to the list of things to do when we’re next in town. It looks and sounds like a really cool cycling establishment – check it out at: http://www.rideyourbike.com
So it was back to his lovely house for supper and a chat around a big open fire in the garden.
Braxton was quite interested in the differences between US and British English – it started when Mike talked about lorries – Braxton looked a little blankly and said “What?”, so Mike said it was English for truck! We developed a long list of words that just go to prove how much the British and Americans are separated by a common language!
One more thing … Aaron had a set of scales in his bathroom, Mike can never pass up an opportunity to feed his body weight obsession, so it’s 141.8lbs/10st 01 … all this cycling hasn’t brought him under 140lbs/10st yet – more’s the pity. Maybe fewer cake on the cake stops … or even ‘No cake stops’ perhaps?!
It’s a bit foggy in Seattle this morning. In fact it was sunny when we left Aaron’s house, but as we dropped down into the valley and towards the coast the fog started to envelop us. It will probably burn off later, so should be another nice ride. We’ve stopped off at (another) Starbuck’s for breakfast before setting off – well, when in Seattle, do as they do!
Quite a lot of our route so far has been running alongside railway tracks. After bicycles and aeroplanes, the train is the next favourite transport thing on Mike’s list of OCD transport obsessions, (he likes trams, rapid-transit subway systems, gliders, hot air balloons, Lego … does this remind you of anyone Nicky?!). When we hear the horn of the train or the clanking bell of a level-crossing, Mike is transfixed until the said transportation chugs past with its extraordinary long cargo. Mike can stare at US trains with a smile on his face for some time as they’re so long that it can take an age for one to go past. I’m trying to coax him into cycling at the same time as a train is passing. I also tried to take a picture of one for Mike today, but it doesn’t really capture the scale of the train, so it may not persuade him to keep on riding when the train horn sounds!
We’ve arrived in Seattle – another beautiful day to be cycling, with clear blue skies and warm temperatures. The route has been a bit mixed, with some really quiet roads running parallel to the Interstate highway and then some quite busy roads into Seattle from the north with mile after mile of shopping outlets.
When we reached Seattle the bike lanes and cyclists became far more prominent. The stopping and starting through the suburbs meant we only really had time to have a quick drink in Starbucks – well we had to, didn’t we? As it is their home town.
We were heading toward Aaron’s Bike Shop, (Aaron is our Warm Showers host tonight) when he spotted us as he was heading back home with his son. We must have stood out as British touring cyclists as he shouted out our names as we cycled past on the other side of the road – it felt odd to be recognised in a place that we’ve never been to before.
We’re just about to tuck into some tabbouleh while we sit around a camp fire in Aaron’s garden. Chilling out in Seattle is fun. Will sleep well tonight I think.
The Tulip Inn at Mount Vernon was nice – a spacious room, en suite bathroom and free wi-fi, so Mike could get a Radio 3 fix. Unfortunately, BBC iPlayer doesn’t permit the listen again service overseas, (bloody hell – we are licence-fee payers) after all!), so we’re denied our daily visit to Ambridge, courtesy of Radio 4 – although we think that there may be a daily podcast of The Archers that we can download, so all is not lost. Also at the Tulip Inn … complimentary continental breakfast … But as they’re a motel and don’t have a dining room, it was necessary to go and collect coffee and breakfast provisions and then bring them back to our room. Not wanting to appear greedy, we went separately and both brought back sufficient for two! It was all good food though … including porridge oats, fruit, bagels with peanut butter or cream cheese … guess who had which! There was fruit and yoghurt too. We’d bought some soya milk in Wal-Mart last night, so it was a perfect breakfast.
When Mike went for ‘breakfast round 2’, he started chatting with the proprietor, a lovely, elderly German lady whose family came from Bremen. She said that she was planning to sell the business and move back to Germany in the next two years. We were in Bremen on our trial long-distance ride to Hamburg at Easter. It’s a beautiful place – Mike remembers the grand square, enormous cathedral with two high west towers topped with huge green copper pyramid roofs, the elaborate facade of the medieval town hall with gilded carvings, some stunning art nouveau buildings tucked down a little lane … Matthew remembered the ‘ice cream incident in Bremen’, when our orders arrived Mike was alarmed that there was so much, but that didn’t prevent him from starting to eat Matthew’s as well as his own – just to try it, you understand!
Just after we left Mount Vernon there was a rather unfortunate incident – we rode past a Jiffy Lube garage. Matthew screeched to a halt, shouting “I’ve got to get a photo of this.” Anyone of a sensitive disposition should stop reading now*
*Aunt Janet, this mean you!
… by way of explanation, there’s a brand of condoms in the UK called Jiffy and they’re heavily marketed to gay men with slogans such as: ‘Real men come in a Jiffy!’ So, there you go … The tone for the rest of the day was established right there. Hopefully it will be raised somewhat when we get to Seattle – but do watch out for posts in which Mike reminisces about Frasier!
Janet can restart reading here.
Oh, we also had an email this morning from George our Warm Showers host in Portland. We were planning to stay with him on his boat for two nights next week … but he explained that he’d called away by work, so couldn’t host us after all. It’s a shame – we were looking forward to staying there. We spent an hour or so looking through the Warm Showers listings for Portland and e-mailing some people to plead for shelter! Warm Showers has lots of amazing stories of people being rescued and accommodated by other members, and we’ve done a fair share of rescuing people ourselves when we’ve taken in cyclists at the last minute. Cyclists are a ‘good sort’ by and large, so we have high hopes … and of course if we don’t find anyone, we can always stay in a hotel.
In Marysville now, having lunch. Marysville is yet another loaded name that has Matthew giggling. In the UK Mary is an archaic, gently derogatory euphemism for gay men. So someone might be ‘a bit of a Mary’ – or even a ‘Mary-Ann’, they’d be a little bit effeminate (camp) and probably somewhat self-absorbed. I remember being at a Bristol Labour party meeting sometime in the 1980s or early ’90s, chaired by Brian Richards. The Bristol Labour party had (still has) lots of gay men as activist members. There was a particularly heated discussion going on about something or other – lots of people were wanting to say something in any case. A woman called Mary indicated and was called to make her contribution to the debate. Unfortunately, sitting a couple of rows behind her, was another woman called Mary Harris, who thought she’d been called and stood up to speak. There was some confusion as the two women were on their feet, and speaking at the same time. Poor Brian – he explained who he’d called, then complained, rather innocently and by way of explanation: “There’s too many Mary’s in the room.” well, most of the many gay men who were present (and some others) understood the unintentional double entendre immediately and there was gales of laughter! Brian had no idea what he’d said that caused the uproar and looked completely baffled – which just added to the mirth, really!
Anyway, back in Marysville, there were lots of yard sales and swap meets going on in the small towns that we’ve ridden through this morning. We’re off into Seattle, the roads are beginning to feel quite busy, glad it’s Saturday at least.
Day 01 Vancouver to Mount VernonPosted by Mike Garmin prediction: 82.3 miles /actual: 82.97 – (also maybe 3 or 4 extra miles looking around Vancouver not counted). Avg. speed: 13.6 mph – too slow, but there was lots of stopping … Continue reading →
Those of you who know me will be aware that a) I like shopping and b) I enjoy the odd Frankie Howerd-style innuendo. As we cycled away from Vancouver yesterday through British Columbia (BC) I was spoilt for choice of ‘tongue in cheek’ shop names. I’m not sure what this says about the town of Surrey BC, but one can explore the retail delights of Lube World, Mr Lube and Lube ‘n’ Go – so much choice, how is a boy to decide? If that’s not enough you can always call in at Nuts Maintenance. Alas, baggage restrictions prevent any retail therapy until I reach San Diego – such a shame as I saw a wonderful Gunnera for just $3 yesterday. I’ll just have to settle for getting my nuts maintained instead ;0)
We left Vancouver at about 11.30am. Cycle routes in the city are good but like any city you’re unfamiliar with, you end up stoping and starting to check maps and reassure yourself that you’re going in the right direction. The first part of today’s ride after leaving central Vancouver was fairly built up and not very pleasant to cycle through. Things improved after we got past the US border. The border has a lovely landscaped park with the peace arch sitting in the middle. Around the arch were beautiful flower beds, trees and artwork. Mike snapped some shots and even asked some passing tourists to take pictures of us.
We were expecting that it could take a while to get throughout the border and we were correct. Unlike the cars that seemed to queue for a short while and then drove through, pedestrians and cyclists wishing to cross were herded in the custom building where we had to fill in more forms, answer more questions and pay for the privilege! We’d already paid online to enter the USA – but apparently that only counts if one enters by air! So we’ve had to pay twice! What a disgrace – anyone would think they didn’t want us! The road after the border was much nicer and quieter.
We stopped this afternoon for a break in Bellingham (pronounced Bellingeham). We also had a doughnut each at Rocket Donuts – lovely they were too. The final stretch of today’s ride was along a beautiful wooded valley beside the sea called Chuckanut Bay. Matthew, our Warmshowers host in Vancouver recommended it and he was certainly right. If you’re ever passing through Washington State it’s well worth a visit.
After Chuckanut Bay, we emerged from the woods onto the flat and fertile plains before reaching Mount Vernon. We passed by lots of organic farms. There are lots of wonderful things about touring cycling, including that it’s a great pace to see the world, but I really love that you not only see stuff – you can smell it too. We cycled through pine forests and camomile fields today – both were a scent sensation.
We decided to postpone the start of our trip south, by heading north into downtown Vancouver – along the waterfront – lots of runners and cyclists – it’s a beautiful city and very cycle-friendly. There are huge expanses of water, lots of parks, tall modern buildings in downtown and the suburbs have lots of tree-lined streets with cycle lanes almost everywhere.
We’ll leave Canada for the USA , today – it’s a shame that we’re not here for longer … I’d definitely come back again.
We’re recovering from the (very) long journey yesterday by tarrying (already,) and having a lazy breakfast in Vancouver before setting off late morning. It’s very warm here – a little cooler besides the water.
The start of our adventure hasn’t been as smooth as we’d have liked. Firstly our flight arrived way later than we’d anticipated. Secondly the luggage firm at the airport couldn’t ship our empty bike bags to San Diego. So we had to take a taxi to the large UPS depot near the airport. They were able to transfer the bags (for a princely sum) but getting to the courier company, unpacking and building the bikes, packing the bags into one another and filling all the forms to despatch them to San Diego took four hours, so by the time we were heading into Vancouver it was dark. Fortunately, we had lights and hi-viz bike bag covers, but it was not a nice ride in. Navigating a city you don’t know at night when extremely tired is tough. Well done to Mike (and Garmin) for getting us to our first Warm Showers host – Matthew Cooke. We arrived at his house gone 10pm but were welcomes warmly by Matthew and Rex the dog (once he’d had a good sniff and lick – that’s Rex, of course, not Matthew). We were pretty pooped by then after nearly 24 hrs travelling with little genuine sleep on the plane, so we turned in almost straight away.
Morning. Feeling bit fresher after a night’s sleep – looking forward to some coffee. We set off on our first leg of the journey proper today to Mount Vernon. I think navigating our way out of the city will be the trickiest bit, followed by getting across the USA border, (arranging to send an empty bike bag parcel across the border was complicated enough). After that hopefully a good 80 mile ride lies ahead of us, fingers crossed.
We finally departed the UK at 4pm (British Summer Time), three hours later than scheduled due to a ‘technical problem’ with the plane we were intended to fly on. As Mike has already mentioned, the change of plane also meant a change of departure gate – from terminal 5A we had to get the ‘transit’ train to terminal 5B. When we were finally boarding the steward checking Mike’s documents looked at his passport photo and couldn’t help but notice his obvious considerable weight loss since the passport photo was taken. Observing the loss of weight is understandable, but I wasn’t expecting his follow-up comment to Mike: “You were a bit of a chunky monkey weren’t you?!”‘ – how do you respond to that?
As I type this, (to be posted later), we’re just over three hours into an eight-hour flight. We should now arrive in Vancouver about 5pm local time. It will take a good hour to reassemble our bikes and arrange for our bike bags to be couriered to San Diego. After that we’ll cycle into Vancouver to our first Warm Showers host Matthew Cooke.
Don’t really like flying – it’s all a bit cramped and boring after a while. The other thing I don’t enjoy is how noisy it is. The constant roar makes it difficult to get any real shut eye – but one must try, a long ride tomorrow. Ta ta for now.
A bit later…
I’ve just watched a movie called ‘The Journey’ staring Martin Sheen. Not a particularly good film, (a bit of a thin and predictable story). The strange thing was that it was about an American dentist (Sheen) from Ventura, California whos son dies walking the Cameno – the pilgrim’s walk from the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compestella in Spain. What’s strange about that you ask? Well we’ll be cycling through Ventura in a few weeks and my work colleague Ruth is walking the Cameno this autumn, starting on 9 September – spooky or what?! The film may have been a turkey, but Ventura and the Cameno both looked good. Let’s hope both of our journeys go smoothly and help recharge our batteries as both Ruth and I need that.
Ding boing … “Welcome to Britain … please form an orderly queue … and should you wish to leave, please form another orderly queue – over there”.
Oh dear … because of a’ technical issue with the aircraft’ (what does THAT mean?), our flight has been delayed to 14.00 instead of 12.55. We have to fly on a different aeroplane and depart from a different gate, (it’s further away) … there are lots of people grumbling. Mike is alarmed about the possibility that (a) the bicycles will not be put on the right plane, and (b) that his request to be be fed vegan food while airborne will be lost … The good news is that the revised departure gate means that he can now have a go on the underground transit train and spend some more time looking out of the windows at aeroplanes … so he’s pleased about that .
We’ve just bidden a rather anxious farewell (and fare well), to our very precious bicycles. Hope that all that investment in costly new bicycle bags keeps them safe. At baggage drop-off we were redirected to ‘oversize baggage’. Mike doesn’t really like being parted from his beloved Condor titanium bicycle and was looking rather pained as the bag containing it was manhandled (literally) onto the conveyor belt and then disappearing behind a sliding door – the whole thing was all rather too reminiscent of a crematorium for his liking!
Heathrow Terminal 5 is huge – and a very impressive modern building with an enormous single-span curved roof. It also offers plenty of diversionary people-watching. Matthew’s gone off to explore the shops, Mike is sitting with a cup of green tea while watching all the planes parked and taxiing out on the apron and ruminating on what make and model of aeroplane we’ll be on to Vancouver. That pretty much sums us up really!
Our snazzy new bicycle bags are attracting lots of attention here at the airport with several people, (thankfully, not security) asking what’s in the bags? Perhaps their slightly odd shape is the cause. We came off the RailAir bus and were in the lift to departures and a rather severe-looking women in British Airways uniform, (although Mike wasn’t entirely sure that she was a women) glanced at our bicycle bags, looked at us and said: “That’s a lot of equipment you’ve got there!”. Ooo -err, steady on!
The look says it all: “You’re off again, aren’t you?”. Saying goodbye to Sws the cat this morning was the worst thing about going away. I know Ruairi will look after him well – in fact Sws will probably have forgotten who we are by the time we return home – but he does like company. So if you’re passing near our house and you see this doe-eyed fur ball sitting looking lonely, please stop and tickle our pussy, (as it were).
Going on holiday has to be one of the most stressful things anyone can do – sort of moving house in miniature (very miniature when travelling by bicycle with Mike!). We’re dismantling, (well Mike is, while I hold), and packing the bikes – quite an art. Still on the first one – so this could take some time. No early to bed tonight, I suspect.
Last day at work proved to be very long indeed 7.30am – 7.30pm, but I (just about) finished everything that needed doing – fuelled on by sticky sweets, (thanks Ruth and Hillary/Sean). Certainly not a balanced diet or good for the teeth, but I’m sure those extra calories will come in handy over the next 1800+ miles.
Got told off today for blogging, “When I should have been in bed asleep.” I agree – but to be fair I was in bed, just not asleep. My blog post tonight is slightly earlier (but only just). We’re just sending our final itinerary to our WarmShower host (Mike is doing this) and a link to this blog (“Hello”, if you’re checking us out – look forward to meeting you soon). We’re nearly ready, just need to pack our bikes into their bags tomorrow and check in online for our flights.
Tomorrow is my last day at work before we go. There is so much to do and I’m afraid that some of it is going to have to wait until I get back. Apologies to my work colleagues, sorry if I have left stuff that you’ll have to do. Everyone at my work place has been through a tough year (and we’re still going through it) and I do feel a bit guilty going away – but I promise I’ll come back refreshed and energised and raring to go. Hang on in there guys, you’re doing a great job.
Really is time for bed now as it’s going to be a full on day tomorrow … night, night.
Packed my bag tonight – twice. Once with the clothes I’ll be wearing on the plane out and once with my cycling outfit out. It all fits with ample room. Haven’t seen much evidence of Mike’s luggage being prepared. Hopefully that will be done tomorrow.
The cycle travel bag inserts we’re waiting for are (we’re told) going to arrive on Wednesday. Leaving it a bit fine – but as long as they do arrive we’ll be ok. We’re getting a lift to the station from out neighbour Ann. I’m a little anxious that everything will fit in their car so we’re going to do a test run on Wednesday night.
Only three night left in our own beds – better go to sleep so I can make the most of it.
Hooray, we’ve finished our Garmin route mapping – all we have to do now is cycle it all! In true pre-holiday fashion my body has decided to go into meltdown. A celestial-like formation of spots has emerged on my forehead. I can’t decide whether they look like the Great Bear or the Plough! Either way, I hope it fades quickly. Perhaps a bit of west coast sunshine is just what is needed to rejuvenated frayed nerves and tired skin.
I’m going to pack my bag tomorrow and start wrapping my bike in pipe insulation. We’re still waiting to find out whether the foam road bike inserts for the bike bags will arrive in time. They’re due on Wednesday, if they don’t arrive I’ll be paying a visit to Fabric Land and constructing my own version! I didn’t watch Blue Peter for all those years for nothing – does anyone have an empty washing up liquid bottle I could borrow?
We have had two very nice house guests this weekend – Dad and Janet. A very short visit but lovely never the less. I managed to draw up a poster for the Wyken_herritage_open_day part of the national Herritage Open day. If you’re passing through Coventry on the 10/11 September why not drop in and see Coventry’s oldest building. There will also be crafts and refreshments available. Alas I won’t be able to go as I’ll be in San Francisco that weekend!
Even with visitors I’ve managed to check off a few more things from my ‘to do’ list. Collect train tickets – tick, print of coach tickets from Reading to Heathrow – tick, return pannier covers to Evans Cycles (didn’t know which size when I purchased them online) – tick, sort out how to use our mobile phones cheaply in the USA – tick (actually Mike did this one) – but there still seems loads to do, especially work stuff. I did some work on Friday night at home and then woke up really early this morning and so ended up doing some more then. I suppose I should really calm down, if it doesn’t get done, it will just have to wait for me to do it when I get back – neither Voscur or the voluntary sector in Bristol will grind to a halt because I go on holiday!
One thing that I though would be all done and dusted was the new garden pond. Unfortunately when I filled it up yesterday I discovered that the builder has manage to create a slopeing pond :0( The water is obviously level but the pond line is above the top of the water by about two inches on the side where you see it (if it had been the other way round it wouldn’t have mattered). This means that the whole thing will probably need to be relined – the first lining is cemented in so will be a right pain to get out. Any suggestions? I wonder if it is possible to just paint a waterproof seal at the top that would bond to the liner. I’m glad I’ve not paid the builder yet, but I don’t like having these conversations – I’m not a natural complainer and don’t like confrontation.
Saturday mornings in our house normally comprise of a lay in with coffee, BBC Radio 3 and the cat. Sws the cat isn’t allowed upstairs much, but we make an exception at weekends. As you can see he likes to stretch out and make himself at home. It’s not unusual for him to be on his back, legs apart having his tummy tickled. This will be the last Saturday for the next four weeks when we’ll have our ‘cat-urday’ lay in. Mike keeps suggesting Sws isn’t long for this world and that he might not be here when we return. I think he will be as he’ll have Ruairi to keep him company while we’re away. If you see him while we’re away please give him a tickle for us (Sws not Ruairi)!
Just five days to go – and only three of them are work days, which means they are going to be long ones! Apart from a lot of work to finish, everything else is falling into place. I picked up the hi-viz pannier covers today, finalised our ESTA forms last night, which means we can (hopefully) enter the USA, and have all my clothes washed and ready to pack, (that’s one of tomorrow’s jobs).
I’m hoping that I might also find some time tomorrow to tidy the garden up a bit – it’s a little dusty. Before we go across the Big Pond, we’ve a small pond to finish. I’ve put my birthday money towards having a new garden pond created. Aidan our builder has been very busy digging, cutting terecotta tiles, drilling holes and creating out new garden pond. It’s about four times bigger than the previous one and has a new water feature – which hopefully will be switched on tomorrow for the first time by two very special guests – Dad and Janet, who are making a flying visit to us before we go away – picture to follow …
We’re nearly half way through the detailed route planning now and Mike has had a little wobble at the thought of the challenge ahead. Ironically I think it’s me who should be having the wobble given that my daily cycle ride is about 1.5 miles downhill to work. At least Mike powers back and forth to Bath almost every day (almost 30 miles round trip) – I think he’ll be leaving me behind on this trip! The wobble was brought on at the thought of the longest day cycling we’re doing on the whole trip – 133 miles from Miranda Gardens to Fort Bragg. It will certainly be challenging, but it should also be beautiful as most of this section will be through the giant redwood forests. It is worth noting that we have done 139 in a single day once cycling from Bristol to Potters Bar at the start of our Easter cycling trip to Hamburg, so we know that we can do that distance in a day. It’s a good job that Mike and I have a kind of balance whereby if he gets wound up about something, I’ll be calm and vice versa. Enough wobbles for one night I’m off to bed or I’ll be in no fit state for work tomorrow – plenty of wobbles there to deal with too!
So much for trying to get to bed early – it’s now well past my bed time and instead of being tucked up dreaming about our holiday I’m sitting beside Mike agreeing detailed route planning. We’ve left Vancouver, passed Mount Vernon, Seattle and are heading towards Portland now. We could have saved a fortune and done this trip from Mike’s study! There was me thinking that the marvellous Garmin device would take the trouble out of navigation – but it seems to me to be just as much hard work. (Mike note – the Garmin gps will work out routes for us, but it might not direct us the best way – so it’s better to do it manually). Hopefully this attention to detail will mean that when we get to the States we’ll glide along with no wrong turns, missed turns, travelling in the wrong direction etc, etc.(some hope!).
I confess that many a family holiday of my youth ended in a few heated words after navigation malfunctions, (and this was well before the invention of sat nav). My dad used to produce charts with every significant junction listed with an estimated time of arrival (eta). The ‘designated navigator’ was supposed to write down next to the eta the exact time of arrival so that upon arrival my dad could calculate the accuracy of the journey plan. This seemed to work reasonably well until everyone except the driver had fallen asleep, (it was normal for us to depart from home on our family holidays at about 2am to ‘beat the traffic’). I was left scarred mentally, although surprisingly not physically injured, after one incident where we were well and truly lost, (where exactly on mainland Europe I do not recall). My dad lost his temper and after consuming his cup of tea threw his bakerlite mug into the air only, by some freak chance, for it to come down right on my head – and I wasn’t even navigating. I think he felt quite guilty about it at the time and so he should, nobody should treat a bakerlite mug like that. So with the marvels of modern technology we should have no incidents of that kind!
So much to do and so little time. I can hardly believe that there is barely a week to go (9 days to be precise) before we fly to Canada. We still need to sort the travel insurance and to test packing and unpacking the bike bags in their carry cases. We also need to contact our wonderful Warmshowers hosts again to check that they are still ok to accommodate us. I can feel a ‘to do’ list coming on!
I know that it’s probably a bit late to be asking this question, (and I probably won’t have time to do many of them) but any top suggestions for a USA west coast cyclist gratefully received. So far I’ve been advised to stop by at Hearst Castle, savour the giant redwoods and try a particular chip shop – can you suggest anything else? Who knows, there might be a small prize for the the best (i.e. my favourite) suggestion.
The London Olympic road race trial is complete (didn’t Cav do well?). I can also now confirm that the trial of my new bike is now complete – but not quite as we’d envisaged. We left Brighton in lovely morning sunshine, but it became more cloudy as we made our way to Winchester. Leaving Winchester after lunch was when the weather all started to go awry; we thought we were skirting around the rain as we headed over Salisbury Plain, but unfortunately we were heading right into it. The spots turned to drizzle, then the drizzle turned to rain, then the rain turned to low clouds and heavy rain. We clocked up 107 miles from Brighton to Warminster, but then decided to abandon the cycling and catch the train from Warminster back to Bristol (it’s only 4 stops). Mike had forgotten his rain coat, so was soaked to the skin and shivering by the time we arrived in Warminster – I had to resort to emergency fruit buns and a cheap towel from Lidl! Even though we didn’t make the 130 miles home I feel no shame; 107 is still further than most of the distance we have to ride each day in the USA and I was carrying a big bag today too – much heavier than my holiday luggage. One thing is certain, I will sleep well tonight!
Received an unexpected phone call from my brother this morning informing me that by coincidence, he was in Brighton with Julie and James. We wandered down to the beach to join them, passing the rowdy Brighton Pride celebrations on the way. James was so sweet, as soon as he saw me he threw himself into my arms and gave me a big hug. The beach in Brighton is a bit too pebbly and steep to be paddling when your little, so I suggested we stroll down to the play area further along the beach near the West Pier ruins. James had a lovely time and it was nice catching up with Philip and Julie too. It’s amazing how much energy James has, he runs around like a mad thing, he was in and out of the water, and up and down climbing frames over and over again. I’m surprised that Philip can keep up with him!
After months of keeping it a secret, it was a huge relief last night when Paul and Andy finally told Mike that his surprise birthday present is a trip to see the opera at Glyndebourne tomorrow. When they told him he was in Brighton for a surprise, you could see the fear in his face as he imagined all the surprise things he’d hate. Thankfully when told fear turned to joy and disbelief – he thought that you can only get tickets to Glyndebourne if you’re minted or have a title.
My big relief was that Mike’s new evening suit (that had taken much planning and conspiracy to acquire and have transported to Brighton) fitted him and looks lovely too. The finishing touch was the bicycle cufflinks I tracked down for him, he likes these very much. So all that’s left to do now is go and collect my suit from M&S and then we’re all set for the opera.
Taking shelter from the rain in ‘Look Mum No Hands’ cycle café on Old Street. Enjoying some lovely coffee, cake and the creative results of their recent ‘best bunting’ competition. Mike’s eye was drawn to the leopard print bunting, whereas I’m quite impressed with one featuring knitting and crochet flowers. It’s making my palms itchy, I might need to hit the haberdashery department in John Lewis on Oxford Street later. Would make a lovely SouthBank Arts trail competition, I wonder if the residents of the cul de sac would be up for a ‘bunt off’?
We made our final ‘mad after work dash’ of the summer season yesterday to catch the train up to London for the late-night Prom: Steve Reich. It was fantastic (check out the clapping piece, very smart), you can see the details and hear some snippets here:
The Royal Albert Hall was packed full of trendy young people (skinny jeans, square black-framed glasses, beards and short back and sides hair dos, lots of fixed-gear cycles tied up outside – you probably know the sort). Mainly (but not exclusively) men and unusually for a concert the queues were for the gent’s loos, but not the women’s.
The prevalence of men made Mike comment that he thought this kind of music, (it’s a musical style called minimalism) was attractive to a kind of ‘autistic men’ – of which he thought he was probably one!!! I was not in entire agreement, as I enjoyed it and don’t class myself in that category. My take on it was that from the look of the queues, this style of music simply attracts the prostately-challenged male!
After a very late finish (11.30am) we decided we’d stay over at the Hoxton Hotel and so we’ve got a day in London to enjoy. Will probably do some nice mooching around. Alas will have to catch up on some work emails at some point but given that there are now less than two weeks before our bicycling adventure begins, there is too much to be done before then.
My boss posted this fantastic short film made by a guy in California on my Facebook page. What is particularly amazing is that it isn’t actually a film at all, but is made up of thousands of individual photos. Take a look – it’s really lovely and is making me even more excited about cycling all the way through California from top to bottom.
So much for the ‘early to bed’ intentions, it now half past midnight and we’ve just got back from London after a lovely Prom concert (Sibelius, Grieg and another Nordic composer who has gone right out of my head just now). (Mike edit:- it was Karl Neilson’s symphony no. 4 – the ‘Inextinguishable’). The journey from the Albert Hall back to Paddington proved to be more exciting, (or should that be stressful), than we’d imagined. Mike’s bike key wouldn’t unlock a bike, I managed to unlock one at the second docking station in Hyde Park. So Mike said he’d run back to Paddington, (he’s quite a good runner these days) (Mike edit:- aw shucks, thanks!), while I cycled.
All well until Paddington and the nearest two docking stations were full! This was especially ironic as they were empty when we wanted to take bikes when we arrived earlier in the evening. I eventually had to cycle to a third docking station quite a way from the railway station, but I could at least tell from my iPhone app. that there were spaces at that one. It was then a case of sprinting back to Paddington and making the train with moments to spare. While I think that potentially I could be ok at running, I don’t think it is an advisable sporting activity to undertake when carrying a cycle pannier and wearing a rain mac.
Jam made and it’s still raining, so I decided to test my bag packing skills. I have to admit that my years working in a well-known supermarket chain (Every Little Helps), served me well in terms of efficient packing. Be it drawers, dishwashers or luggage, I can squeeze an awful lot into a small space. Mary Poppin’s carpet bag has nothing on my packing!
So gathering up my pile of ‘essentials for the touring cyclist’ I first laid them out. Here it all is…
I know it doesn’t look like an awful lot for nearly four week travel, but I am assured they do have laundry facilities in the United States of America and Canada! It is also important to remember that this is largely evening wear, as most of the day wear will be of the Lycra variety. Anyway, with a little bit of Gok Wan compact wardrobe magic I reckon that this lot will convert into about 10 different ‘mix and match’ outfits – “Go girlfriend!”. Best of all it all fits into one small pannier bag with room to spare for food essentials. Ta-dah!…
Well the idea of a test ride on the new bike was dashed again this weekend. Yesterday I had to focus on the dissertation so was well and truly grounded, with the exception of a swift cycle to the central library and into town for a very quick shop and drop (needed to return some mis-fitting garments). Today it has been wet, wet, wet. Heavy shower followed by heavy shower, the only break was when I managed to dash to the recycling centre but any attempt to go out on a ride would have certainly ended with one very heavy drenching after another. Took this picture out of the window showing the looming grey clouds, the forecast looks like there will be a few more this coming week.
So what is a boy to do when he can’t go out for a ride? Obviously make more jam! The bumper fruit harvest this year is leading to some extremely cheap fruit in the shops right now. So after stocking up on bargain blueberries and super saver strawberries I set about on the latest batch of jam. I think the blueberry jam is a particular success, the strawberry is what you might call ‘very soft set’, but now I’ve run out of jars so have bowls of jam filling the fridge. Anyone local with a few empty jars going spare drop me a line – there might be a jar of jam in it for you.
Eek, less than twenty days now to the off. Slightly daunted by the amount of work and non-work things that need to be done before we go. Most importantly I need to start the process of ‘bonding’ with my new bike. Hope to go out for a ride this weekend and some time next week too. Next weekend we’ll be cycling back from Brighton so that will be a good long ride test – hope the weather is kind to us.
The other big challenge for this week is to try and break the 12 stone barrier – below 12 stone that is. I’ve been lingering at 12.1 for a few weeks now and would really like to get to 11 something before we set off. I think that earlier nights, more water and a decent meal plan are needed to help me achieve this goal. Our meal times have gone to pot with so much going on at work. I’m also pondering whether I should take up the offer to try out running with Mike – however, this may need to happen after dark as I’m very self conscious about displaying my gangly body to the general public while I’m out running! So watch out if you’re about after the sun has gone down – you never know what might be heading towards you!
Despite having had my new bike for nearly a fortnight, I have (rather depressingly) had no time to go out for a ride on it. I’ve barely had time to even touch it or even look at it lovingly. This should all change this weekend when the inaugural ride on the Van Nicholas Yukon will take place.
With less than three weeks to go, test riding is just one thing that’s needed … the other is more sleep. Working ridiculously long days and writing a dissertation is not good for the skin. My face looks like a join the dots puzzle. Next week I’m going to try starting ‘operation early night’ in an attempt to get more sleep – fingers crossed that will do the trick.
Tonight’s CycleOut Bristol bike ride, led by Chris, took us on a ‘Gorilla hunt’. On our bikes we were able to see about 25 of the 80+ painted gorilla statues that have been placed around Bristol to celebrate Bristol Zoo’s 175th anniversary. Each has been decorated by a different artist and they are proving to be quite this summer’s tourist attraction – definitely worth a visit. Sadly I couldn’t persuade Mike to join tonight’s ride. I think he’d have enjoyed it, (especially if he’d known we’d be cycling past Waitrose in Westbury Park!). Finishing off with tea at the Tobacco Factory where there is an additional mini gorilla in the bar, courtesy of Ashton Gate Primary School.
The forecast for the American west coast for late August and September looks promising at the moment, but I think one needs to be prepared for a variety of weather. New ‘zip off’ legs trousers will provide the choice of long or short trousers, Rapha merino wool base layer T-shirts should do for warm and cool and now I have lovely pink neck tube, (not sure that’s the correct term) (Mike edit:- it’s called a buff), for my birthday from Aileen and Martin. Perfect for protecting the neck from both chilly breezes or strong sun.
It’s been rather a quite birthday, worked part of the day but finished around 2pm and have mooched around not doing very much. It was an indulgent treat to be able to have a little afternoon siesta, it made me think that introducing a day bed in the office wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Had a nice pile of lovely birthday cards to open this morning, including this very apt one featuring a touring cyclist’s camp from Jean and Syd. This will be us in just over three weeks, (minus the tent), looking forward to lots of Pacific Ocean sunsets just like this one.
August has arrived which means there are just 25 days until we’re off on the journey. Ruari (who’s house-sitting for us) came round tonight for a guide to all those exciting things like how to work the dishwasher, washing machine, boiler, TV etc. “Good luck with the TV” is what I say, what with two remote controls, nother for the separate surround-sound, another for the DVD, blu-ray and another for the hard disk recorder … I’ve barely manage to work out how to turn the TV on – let alone record something, (Mike edit: *sigh*). I think we’ll be writing lots of lists of instructions, as tonight’s whistle-stop tour was quite a lot for Ruari to take in.
August also means that it’s nearly my birthday, just 30 minutes to go, (well 9hrs 30 mins if we want to be precise). We had a lovely pre-birthday weekend in London, it had a bit of a bike theme with trips to Condor Cycles on Grays Inn Road, ‘Look Mum No Hands’ cycle café (pictured) and a few rides on the London hire bikes. Thankfully I resisted buying the new Rapha cycle jersey in Condor Cycles as today it has been reduced by 30 per cent in the Rapha summer sale, which means 30 per cent saved that can be spent on some more lovely Rapha goodies of course!
They say ‘when a bike is stolen, a fairy dies’; so I’d like to think that when you give a bike to someone ‘a fairy is born’. Hence yesterday a bike fairy fluttered into life as we met with Jane and Ruby (Mike’s sister and niece) so that we could hand Mike’s old (but much-loved) lovely, red, hand built, steel Orbit bike on to Jane. This will hopefully give the bike a new lease of life with Jane as it’s been stored hung up rather underused in our outhouse for quite a few years. It was a bit sad watching it go, but good to know that it’s going to a good home (and thinking of all that extra space we’ll have for more bikes!).
In London for the weekend – thought I’d picked up my bike hire key (it’s normally in my Oyster card holder), but I realised once at Paddington that unfortunately, I must have shoved it in the pocket of my trousers when we went to the Proms last week. Thankfully, it is now possible to use the bikes with a credit card, so with a bit of patience we were soon on our way. Still only costs £1 for 24 hours as long as you’re no more than 30 minutes on a bike at any one time.
Lots of fixed-wheeled cyclists in London, all very trendy and zippy. Michael loves them! I know it’s very bad to race, but I can’t help myself sometimes. Especially when I’m on a London cycle hire bike (they weigh a ton), I nearly beat another cyclist tonight, but a bus got in the way. Would have been no good if I’d had to stop in a hurry, once you pick up speed (which you’re not meant to of course), you’re off like a velo-missile! Back to a more sedate pace tomorrow I think.
Tonight I chaired the Bristol Bike Forum, the first time I’d managed to get to a meeting for ages. I guess it is inevitable that when you get a bunch of hardcore cyclists in a room it all gets a bit geeky. I had attempted (and failed) to try and get more women to go along to try and improve the feel of the meeting, for some reason they didn’t seem to be very attracted by endless talk of this pot hole or that advance stop line. I can’t imagine why, it’s all so thrilling! My heart sank tonight when very near the start of the meeting, one attendee said ‘I’d like to discuss anti-social cyclists’. We all know they exist, but it’s not like there are thousands of them – what about anti social car drivers or anti social pedestrians? (Yes I was once knocked off my bike by a rogue pedestrian!). It wasn’t exactly what I’d intended spending my evening talking about. Thankfully, that agenda item was deferred to the next meeting – mark the date in your diary now: 29 Sept!
On a more positive note, I mentioned WarmShowers under any other business. I was a bit surprised that very few people at the bike forum had heard of it. It had a very positive reception and it was even proposed that we make it one of the forum’s aims to make Bristol the most cycle hospitable city in the UK by having more WarmShowers hosts than any other city. So that is the challenge, will you be part of it? All you have to do is join WarmShowers, (if you haven’t already) – become a host and live in Bristol obviously. I’ll be keeping a note of the number of WarmShowers hosts between now and September to see how we do.
Sweet peas! The sudden warmth has meant they are going crazy. I’m picking bunches of sweet peas from the garden every day. They bring back memories of my brother’s wedding, I think Richmal’s aunty put two big bowls of sweet peas by the church door as people went in. I’ve not had very much time for the garden at all this summer (work, work, work) and I fear what it will look like when we return from America. We’ve been very fortunate that a friend has agreed to house-sit for us, but I don’t think he’s much of a gardener – maybe I’ll be proved wrong … are you reading this Rauri?!
New shoes arrived today, nice shiny new Specialized road shoes – my first pair of road bike shoes for road riding. I’ve worn shoes with cleats for a while, but they’ve been mountain bike shoes, which means that you can easily walk in them when you’re off the bike as the cleat is recessed into the sole of the shoe. The new shoes have the cleat sticking out so they are far more efficient for road riding… but much harder to walk in!
Buying new shoes is not easy at the best of times, but cycling shoes are particularly hard to buy. They are not very stylish and certainly can’t be compared with Jimmy Choos, but I’ve gone with a very plain black pair. I was momentarily tempted by the patent red pair, but then thought no, too Wizard of Oz and so put them back on the shelf. So now I have shoes and bike, just need to put the two together and go for a test spin – the only trouble is I’m probably not going to have time to until next Monday :0( At least when I do go for a spin it will be to go and see my friend Polly – and I might even get to meet her man too, for some reason she has kept him well away from me – can’t imagine why.
The temptation of picking my neighbour’s plums became too much today, so as soon as I arrived home it was out with the ladder. Next door have a very overgrown back garden, (in fact the whole house is pretty overgrown as well!). With the exception of some Buddlieia, the only other recognisable feature is the plum tree. Each year it manages to fight its way through the weeds and offer up its branches laden with fruit, hanging temptingly over our back garden wall and into Vicarage Road. Seems a shame to let them go to waste! Plums now picked, stewed and jammed.
With a dissertation to finish and a long cycle ride, I’m having to be quite organised with the preserving this year – especially as I have a prize-winning jam title to defend at the local Best of Bedminster Show. With that in mind I’ve upped the stakes with some additional secret ingredients – but I’m not revealing what they are yet. Let’s just say, I think the Women’s Institute judges will approve!
I know I’ve already sung the praise of Warmshowers on here (and probably will do some more once we start our trip), but I can’t not mention the guests we put up on Saturday night. Arend, Mireille and their children Emrys and Kiren, from Mechelen in Belgium were passing by on their way to Lands End. They had cycled from London to Bristol in one of the wettest weeks of the summer, so we were very pleased to host them for the night with a dry, warm bed a washing machine and of course a warm shower.
Thankfully, the weather looks much kinder for them this week as they wend their way down towards Cornwall. They’re travelling at a far more leisurely pace than we’ll be going at which is rather enviable, but it’s hard work: Arend and Emrys are on a tandem with a well-loaded bob trailer, while Mirelle was cycling with Kiren on a pull-along. I don’t think that Kiren was doing much pedalling – but she was quite small, but this meant lots of work for Mirelle. I hope that the Teddy makes it to Cornwall (and back to Belgium) – Kiren was holding it dangling from her handlebars in a very precarious grip as they set off.
I am a very happy (and lucky) boy, I have a lovely new bike. We collected my titanium frame Van Nicholas Yukon today from Leisure Lakes in Cheltenham. It is beautiful and means that we both have bikes ready for the trip. Poor Mike is very envious as he’s been pining for a new bike for ages and I’m the one who has one. Can’t wait to go out for a ride, but that will have to wait until Wednesday as that’s when my new shoes will be arriving. Anyway here’s a picture of the lovely new bike … this one makes us an 8 bike household now!
Today I’d intended to be visiting Coventry to see Dad, Janet and family – picking up my new bike on the way. The bike is ready, but unfortunately I’ve been engulfed in a lack-of-sleep/too-much-work wave or tiredness, so am not really up to the ride. The bike will have to wait and I will need to rearrange a date to see Dad and Janet – although unfortunately it probably won’t be before their holiday to France.
It’s a shame not to be riding today as the weather is lovely and sunny – the first time it’s been like this for ages. This week has been wet, wet, wet, I hope we don’t get too much wet weather along the west coast. August/September is meant to be the driest time of year along this route and it should get drier as we go south. I read an article on the BBC News website about the heatwave currently sitting over the central/east of the USA and Canada. There was a little bit at the end saying that on the west coast they were experiencing unseasonably cool weather. Someone from Seattle was quoted as saying they didn’t know it could be so cool at this time of year. I expect we’ll still find it pleasantly warm compared to a British summer though!
We’ve been practicing some high-speed cycling today in preparation for our holiday. The only trouble is that travelling at high speed on a Transport for London (TFL) hire bike is heavy going!
After work we travelled up to London for tonight’s Prom (Sibelius No 7, Bartók Piano Concerto No 3 and Janáček Sinfonietta), well worth the effort, but travelling back from the Albert Hall to Paddington to catch the 22.15 return train to Bristol required some seriously strenuous pedalling – but as we did it in ten minutes I’d say that is a promising sign for our USA trip.
When I tell people that we’re riding nearly 2000 miles for our holiday, many of them ask: “Are you doing it for charity?”. Well the answer is “No”, but the more people who ask, the more I wonder whether I should.
If I did do it for charity, I’d have to choose a worthy cause. There are two that spring to mind. Number one: the Southville Centre, (of which I’m chair of trustees). The Centre is twenty years old this year and there are plenty of bits that need some love and attention. It would be mainly fundraising for the ‘un-sexy’ bits, (such as the glass roof lantern, new door etc) – the bits that are really necessary to enable all the fun stuff and community development stuff to happen.
The second one I would probably go for is MacMillan nurses. I have a good friend who is having a rough time with cancer at the moment. I know that the MacMillan nurses have been a great help to her, it would be nice to be able to thank them in some way.
So if I do ride for charity, the other question is – would anyone sponsor me? I can’t answer that one … over to you!
Well I’ve been hoping that we’d get through the next six and a bit weeks before our American holiday unscathed. Unfortunately, a very bad white van driver had other ideas today as he overtook Mike at a traffic light, turned left across himself and sent him flying across the road. Just to round things off, he drove off without even stopping. It all happened during the morning rush hour and so lots of other drivers were around – fortunately many of them stopped to check Mike was ok. Thankfully he was. A bit scratched, bruised and shaken, a ripped Rapha top and a broken key ring but no broken bones, thankfully. Let’s hope that’s the last road incident we have for a long, long time.
Having planned the entire route down the west coast of the USA, I’ve been pondering how best to actually get to Heathrow airport with two very large bagged-up bikes. My initial thought was to use the airport coach from Bristol, but it appears that they have a ‘no bike’ policy! And Bristol is supposed to be an official cycling city! Someone did tell me that it is up to the driver whether they’ll let people on with their bikes. I decided that I’d rather not take the risk of missing a trip of a lifetime because of being stranded at Marlborough Street bus station in Bristol! So I have opted for the train to Reading with a little bit of airport bus, (which apparently does allow bikes as luggage) to Heathrow. Not sure how I feel about the fact that the cost of getting to Heathrow is 10% of the cost of the flight ticket – I’m pretty much certain it isn’t 10% of the distance! Is it a case of ‘rip off Britain’ or are airplanes seriously under taxed – or both? Anyway, at least I can relax a bit now knowing that the last bit of our journey plans are arranged.
Matthew and Mike Travel from Bristol 
