USA-Ride Diary

Hey. Just a short post this time. Training has been developing nicely. The arrival of the cold weather may mean some of the miles will have to racked up on the turbo wheel but still they are being completed. We have provided links to some other sites which can offer support and advice for those affected by cancer. They are all such valuable resources. We have also provided links to other organisations who arrange similar events in support of cancer research too.  We will post again soon.  

Hello! We are now using this computer on the correct side of midnight, so hopefully with less bleary eyes. We are staying in downtown San Francisco at the Adelaide hostel which is really nicely placed for getting around and doing everything. Like typical tourists we are taking in much of the famous sites, and planning to head to Alcatraz prison tomorrow to have the tour around. It feels great to wake up on our second morning and not pull on the lycra clothing. It is unusual to hear Liz having so much trouble deciding what to wear, now there is an element of choice!
I think we need to remind ourselves that we are no longer cycling…our food intake is still too high! Thank you Tristan for suggesting we go for the In-N-Out special! Took some getting through, and I think we piled in enough calories for several days.
As for the photos…I promise we are trying to get them up! Only it takes so long and there are still limits on the time we have with the computer…but little by little we are uploading them on to the computer so we can launch them on to the site soon! For now though - follow that old facebook link for pictures of the last few hundred miles and reaching the end. Anyone who knows Owen too…he has a whole abundance of pictures in his photo albums.
Wow - it feels good to be finished!!

WE ARE FINISHED!
Today we completed our journey across the country! Since Tahoe we have been riding under perfect blue skies, taking in more hills than we were expecting to be between us and the coast!! Perhaps we spoke too soon when we suggested the last climbs were already done?! In more ‘typical’ fortune, Owen took over in the puncture rankings…he racked up numerous punctures in a couple days, and wore through another tire. Good work. As you will see in the photos, entering California was not the most exciting part of the trip. A narrow, vertical post at the side of the road indicated that we had moved from Nevada in to California, and thankfully, having rolled past it, Liz’s beady little eye noticed we had entered our final state on the route.
So after passing through some more small towns, we started to get in to more built up areas surrounding the suburbs of the major cities. Owing to some road construction work, we had a few interesting navigation issues which were soon sorted without too much trouble. We rode through some really nice countryside, with lots of fruit growing areas, and vineyards too. The humidity briefly seemed to return too, but thankfully the cool breeze from the coast quickly came and cooled that down.
Our final day has been a pretty short one in terms of cycling time. We rolled 1.5 miles from the centre of Vallejo to the ferry which took us across the bay to San Francisco…We were surprised by the extent of the fog, and also by how much the temperature dropped. It was, for the first time in a while, pretty chilly. We were met straight away with skyscrapers and gridlocked streets. Car passengers seemed happy to swing open their doors, just as we were riding beside…something we were not too keen on! Eventually after weaving through the traffic and making our way up some very steep San Franciscan streets…we copped a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, just as the fog was clearing. We took plenty of pictures at the beach, and then headed over to the far side of the bridge to officially complete our journey across America. It was a wonderful feeling to finally reach this point, and look at the map, seeing the journey which we had just completed.
As usual, the tummy was in control, so we soon set off in search of some food and drink. Then the sleepy eyes set in…which is why I am struggling to write something decent as this entry! Perhaps I should re-try in the morning when we upload our pictures! In fact, I think that is what I will do!
Thanks to everyone who has been following us and keeping an eye on our progress. It has been wonderful hearing your comments…
Keep an eye on the gallery for our pictures once we upload them very soon! 

      Wow - it has been a wee while again since we last put some updates on here. Well we are currently waiting at Lake Tahoe for a few days to delay our arrival in to San Francisco. I guess this is a better position to be in, rather than riding like crazy to make it in time. Before we made it to Tahoe though, we took in some long days through the West of Nevada. We took in another day of well over 100 miles, which took us through some salt lakes and through some incredibly empty landscapes. It was a shock to the eyes to reach the small town of Genoa, where greenery suddenly re-appeared and it looked like people could actually live there! It was nice to sit down with some ice cream and food while the Pauls travelled on to Tahoe to check out the camping situation. Owen and Liz made their best efforts to crash the local wedding, but to no avail…anything for a free meal now!
Perhaps the most bizarre things we have seen since crossing Nevada, was a solitary tree completely covered in pairs of shoes. The tree didn’t appear to belong to anywhere…50 miles from the nearest place. There must have been several hundred pairs in total. Having travelled to America with only a pair of flip-flops, I was excited about the possibility of finding a nice new pair for my weary feet…Unfortunately none of them fitted.
Trying to convey the scale of this place is very hard. We met a guy called Jack at one of our numerous summits who has been working and living in the area for many years. When we asked which way his nearest neighbour was, rather than an immediate response, it was suggested that it was most likely West of where we were at the time, and about 30 miles, if not more until we would go past there! This really is a big open place!
But we are currently sat on the Western side of that space, on the border of Nevada and California - the last of the states we are crossing on this journey. Tomorrow we will continue with our progress West, heading through Placerville, Sacramento, and Vallejo on route to San Francisco. We left route 50 (thankfully) once it started to become much more busy. At times it equated to riding on the motorway back home, but thankfully we avoided too many horns as we spent a little time on the ‘cycle path’ at the side of the road.
But for the remainder of today, we will head out, as many sportspeople do, to the golf course, for a relaxing time before the journey continues bright an early in the morning. Now, by golf I don’t mean anything too strenuous…this involves playing through the monkey’s legs, past the 12 foot snake, through the waterfall and down through the volcano to the uneven green where we will then spend far too many shots trying to “taap it in.” What are rest days for?!
Due to very small time limits in all the libraries which we manage to find, we have been unable to get many pictures up on to the site. In just a few days we will be in San Francisco where we will track down a computer which doesn’t have such a limit placed on it! We will then endeavor to get more of our pictures up on here. Sorry that we haven’t been able to do it all that regularly.

Happy birthday Sarah Thomas!
      We are now in to Nevada and the last-but-one state of our journey. After a while heading North along the border with Utah for just over a day we ventured West once more in to Nevada, and across a higher latitude to avoid the extreme heat of further south. We stopped in several ’small’ places which have been very quiet…Milford, Baker and now Ely. To say these places are lively would be an outright lie. Infact it would require imagination to make these places busy! 
To get to this stage of the desert, we have travelled on some of the straightest roads we have ever seen. Roads which have even put Kansas to shame. At the top of our second climb yesterday, we could see the road disappearing off in to the distance. It looked as though the road might be heading downhill for about a mile and then another long climb again. But after nearly 15 miles the hill still went down, yet looked like it was going up! A really strange perspective, which made judging the distances nearly impossible. 
We are in what is called the ‘Basin Range’ and basically we are climbing or descending continuously. As soon as we are at one summit, we descend back down to our orignial elevation and then begin another climb back to the top. At times it is pretty hard going, especially when the object visible in the distance remains there for far, far longer than anticipated. I don’t know how many people have seen Monty Python, when the knight is riding up to the castle and the guards can see him galloping along, but never gets any closer…then all of a sudden he is there??! Well that is kind of what it is like! Only, I found more humour when it happen in Monty Python!
Today we started out on Route 50 which is known as the Loneliest Road in America…and we can see why! We have been fortunate to have the company of a few cars briefly today, but over the next three days until we are clear of the desert we are expecting to have a little less company…over to the Pauls to entertain us?!
So that is us to date. We are in to Nevada and on the edge of a pretty barren few days. We are looking forward to passing through a series of ghost towns pretty soon - a chance to take in what life was like when the Pauls were a little more youthful.  

Happy Birthday Mum!
It has been a wee while since we made it to a computer last. We have been travelling through Utah which has some pretty remote places! However, it has easily boasted the most diverse landscapes that we have seen during our journey. In a matter of hours we have travelled through totally barren scenes, some looking like Mars, and some like the Moon (not that I have first hand experiences of either…but you can imagine too), and then on to wide open farmland, through to dense woodland. It really has been a diverse landscape. We have seen plenty more animals too…a great number of deer, some of which we managed to feed apples to. They really were not afraid of humans at all.We have also taken two days off from riding whilst in this state. We have taken time off to visit Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon. It was a pleasure to travel to Monument Valley with the Thomas family. I am not even going to attempt to describe what we saw, for no words would do it justice or paint an adequate picture. They were both awesome and well worth the visits. Besides the experiences, I think the fact that we have now woken up twice within a week and not had to pull on lycra cycling shorts has made them that little bit better!! However…we have still been in the lycra, (which I understand, many people wish to see Paul D wearing for a day??…we will see what we can do…but thank you!) and still been making many miles. We have passed through the 2, 800 mile mark, giving us just under 1 000 miles to go! Although, we are currently camped at the edge of Nevada with the temperatures and the emptiness awaiting us. Before I forget to mention it too - we also stopped off at Bryce Canyon. For anyone who has seen the terracota soldiers, it was an incredible canyon resembling them, which had been eroded in such an intricate way. The deep red colour had been with us for lots of the journey through central Utah, most obviously in Red Canyon which was the first part of the whole journey which had been set aside with a bike trail. We met a 72 year-young man out on his bike, putting us all to shame with the speeds he was sitting at! For the most part though, we have been taking in very long climbs, and then very long descents. The longest climb we have made so far has been just over 70 miles long, and the sun decided not to make the matter any easier. As part of a 130 mile day it decided to be as hot as it could all day long. I think the local farmers were in partnership with the sun, because not only was it really hot, but there were cattle grids nice and regularly along the road! Well hidden in the dips, mainly on the steepest part of the downhill, when the brakes have to work over time to stop us, or on the very steepest part of the uphill when all momentum is then lost. Thank you! For now though, we are all doing pretty well. We are feeling pretty full from the largest gammon steak I have ever seen, served to us in Panguitch last night. The pig (it was almost pig sized) took up the entire plate and an entire belly too! We are looking forward to the challenges of Nevada…but perhaps a little nervous about it too…
Give us a month. If we haven’t been back to update it by then, follow the directions starting from Yorkton in Virginia and you’ll be sure to find us at some point…   

Today we started by climbing 12miles from Telluride (appropriately pronounced, to-hell-you-ride) up to Lizard Head Pass. From there it was plain sailing to Dolores, the end of out seventh stage. It was all down hill, following the Dolores River, which like much of the other scenery we have passed through, was absolutely stunning. The excitement for the day came when a group of Elk ran across the road literally feet from us! Thankfully we received warnings from the oncoming drivers of their presence…
Now that we are at the end of stage seven, we are pretty close to the Utah border. In fact, tomorrow morning we will cross in to Utah, our seventh out of nine states. The elevation profiles look to be a little more interesting, and we are expecting some fairly major climbs over the next week! Still…you know what they say: “What goes up….continues going up for a lot longer than you were expecting.”
Liz has fallen in love with the many chip-munks running around the area. We had to empty her pockets and her bags to make sure they were left where they belong. She has also taken a liking for Mexicans…don’t panic Mrs Tilley…Mexican meals. Owen, on the other hand, is relieved to be meeting up with his parents just in side the Utah border. They will replenish his sudocreme supply, making his behind eternally grateful. While I am sat here trying to think of something informative to write, I can only note how Owen appears to be a screw loose. Actually, each day he appears to have another screw loose, (in his shoes) making a wonderful squeaking and clicking noise on EVERY turn of the pedals. Enjoying the peace and quiet of the mountains would be too much to ask for?? 
The upcoming Saturday will be our first day off from cycling since the start of the journey. We will be heading off to Monument Valley to take in some of the famous sights which we tend to associate with films and car adverts! We have sent some more pictures off to our IT experts (edgeliveuk) so along with these ones, we will hopefully be able to upload some more photos fairly soon. Some people have been in touch to say it takes a while to upload the gallery. Please blame me for this, if this is the case, as I have uploaded them poorly! We are trying to get them in to albums so it will be easier to browse, and should make more sense…
Anyway, thank you, as always, to everyone who is sending messages to us, and thanks for following our progress. Hello to everyone back home - has been one month of cycling now…Oh…for anyone on the modern means of Facebook (which Paul D happens to be too…I know - we were flabbergasted too!) you can check out some pictures which Owen has been uploading at USA-Ride Coast-to-Coast 2008 in the groups section.
Or you can put this in to the address bar at the top of the page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4797684732

Wow - it feels like a long time since we have been able to get on here and put up some updates! We have come a long way since we last wrote, and have also climbed a lot of feet. We have taken in some truly incredible sights too. The scenery here in the Rockies has been / is far too difficult to describe. We took a side tour to the Black Canyon, and that was incredible. The biggest shock that we have had since being up here in the mountains is the cold weather in the morning. It has been a case of layering up with thermals and fleece, particularly on the downhill stretches. Some of the uphills have been lasting the best part of 40 miles…so once we get to the top, the next part is where the fun begins!
We have also had our first ‘issue’ with the locals…while travelling through one of the canyons to Salida, Colorado, Ben was hit by the wing mirror of a truck as it tried to pass needlessly close! When expressing his displeasure with the driver, the brake lights slammed on, and out jumped the driver, exceptionally angry that an Englishman should utter such words in his country! Lets just say words were had, in both directions, before the bike was remounted and the journey continued.! Some of the drivers really are crazy!
However…now that we are in to the mountains, and indeed making good progress through them, we feel like we are somewhat making good ground. We were very impressed with the effort when we saw on a map at the Continential Divide exactly how far across we have come to date…having said that - there are still plenty of miles and plenty of mountains to come!

       Kansas…what to be said about Kansas. Well, it has been very, very windy and warm. The temperature seems to have stuck at the 100 mark, making riding pretty tough, especially with the continual head-wind. Today though, we arrived at Leoti, in the West of the state, having taken on a 130 mile day yesterday to try and push on some more time. We have been lucky enough to meet some more great people along the route (which, in case anybody was wondering, is still road 96…and will continue to be for some time yet). Thank you to Marcia Mehl who has been extremely generous in buying us dinner for this evening! Such a kind gesture is wonderful at the end of a tough day.
In case we were not happy with changing tires and inner tubes, Liz has provided enough practice for everyone, picking up punctures throughout the day. We’re pretty handy with that now, so hopefully there will be fewer lessons from now on! Fingers crossed anyway. We passed one real great guy headed the other way. Fully loaded with his bike, he was making great progress, but what made him more special than any other rider we have seen, was the fact that his luggage was his dog! She rides in the trailer on the flat and downhill, and then jumps out to run alongside on the uphills! What a great experience for them both!
We are planning to take a rest day once we get in to the start of the Mountains, so we will then take the opportunity to get some of the pictures and videos up on the site too!  Hope everyone is doing well.  

A few more miles have been added since we last made it to a computer to add some ‘blog.’ We are now in central Kansas with very high temperatures and strong sunshine. Having made it out of Illinois we entered Missouri, which I often pronounced ‘misery’ not to be too far wrong on several occasions! The change in the scenery was great, and we made it back in to rolling hills and wooded sides of the track. Before making it this far we had patiently sat and listened to many riders and locals talking of the dreaded Ozark mountains… Well fortunately we passed through these with little problems, and managed the climbs without too much trouble. Confidently, we pulled up to camp and went canoeing, swimming and river jumping (sorry, this is starting to sound like a holiday). We pulled up to camp, having cycled many many miles in great heat and were so tired we sat with our feet in the river water to cool off.
Early to rise the next day we set off to take in the rest of the Missouri. Then we found the dreaded Ozarks! Only we found them on the 114 mile day to Ash Grove. Not quite what we were hoping for. Still we spent the evening chatting to the local police man (not because we’d done something wrong Mum), who filled us with confidence about the land finally flattening out… We went to bed, beside the quietest trainline we’d encountered, much to the pleasure of Paul D. His usual 1, 3 and 5am visits to the ‘restroom’ were nicely alarmed with the continual blasting of the horns! Perfect. So here we are now in Kansas. True, the land has flattened out a little and the mountains are no longer with us. But as one old person once said to me (yes I do mean Paul D) the grass may not always be greener. That is true on two accounts…firstly, the grass in this place is yellow. Everything is yellow. Except the trees…there are no trees. Secondly, because for the last 250 miles we have had a constant head-wind, with nothing to see. Unfortunately, that is no exaggeration! This is meant to continue for another 350 miles…my how we chuckle. But the good news is, there is meant to be even less to see! I don’t feel even the slightest amount bitter about the cheery people headed the other way with their tail-wind. Not at all.
We have met some amazing people recently though. We met one guy riding on behalf of his friend who is currently receiving cancer treatment. He is riding up to 200 miles a day, and it was great to talk to him about his journey so far. Also Pat and Paul Voytko from Cassoday, KS, took us in to their home and allowed us to clean up and get a good night’s sleep before another early start at 0500. They trusted us enough to take their Harley in to town to the old saloon…I will say no more about that, but we will get the pictures up on here as soon as we can!
It would appear that things are getting further and further apart as we move through the centre of the country, but we will continue to update as much as possible. Thanks to all those who are leaving comments - it feels great to read them!