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!