Man we are all up really early. I think Sandy was up by 5.30am. So I guess that yes we want to get on the road and make it back as quickly as we can. We pack up and get onto the road, only we are going the wrong way!! We do about a mile and a half and realize this! Back to square one and start again. We have debated about our route into New York, thinking that we might find a bike route or take the smaller side roads. If we take the side roads we know that it will take a really long time to do the remaining 60 miles. So we plump for Route 46 again, knowing that there will be loads of traffic and certainly lots of intersections. Sandy is a little concerned and is heard to say “You guys are crazy”, but we really do want to get back.
Route 46 is busy and we make sure that we are all safe, Felipe and Angel are sharing this last day with Angel riding first. So we have 5 on the road, with Andriy driving and Felipe waiting his turn to ride.
Still some long hills and lots of drink stops. We have also made the van stop every 5 miles rather than 10 miles, which we feel is safer.
There are one or two other bikers on this route, and one points out a huge pot hole under an underpass, which I don’t see and hit at speed. Literally 100 yards later I have a puncture – my fourth in the last two weeks. Unbelievably there is a bike repair shop 4 miles on. So I get into the van and we drive there. It takes 45 minutes to get this repaired. A pretty busy place. We catch up to the group who are in a gas station. The decision about keeping going on Route 46 has to be made, as it’s getting extremely busy and there are now major interchanges. We take the decision to drive through the Holland Tunnel and then ride the West Side Highway back up to the Bronx. We all think that this is a smart decision especially Jack and Sandy who now don’t have to ride the George Washington Bridge! So we pile into the van and drive into New York.
The West Side ride is really great, no vehicles, only people out to enjoy the day. Under the GWB and over the Broadway bridge, and we are into the Bronx! It takes us another 40 minutes to safely ride through traffic and to Arthur Avenue, where we are met by CitySquash parents, Felipes and Angels. Joe Di Bari is there to meet us, he’s from Fordham and has come to take pictures for the Fordham University paper. We go to Michael Angelos restaurant to celebrate this epic journey and the fact the we made it back. We really cann’t believe that we did this. 2,700 miles give or take a few.
We have a party form 5 – 7pm in Michael Angelos, and we have parents, students from Fordham and some CitySquash kids and supporters of CitySquash there. Congrats all round, no speeches, just lots of stories about the Ride.
For me, I am amazed that we have done this, but it’s been a fantastic experience, one that I will never forget. Hopefully memories will come back about places, people, the group that I rode with, the mountains and the vicious hills that we all rode. Right now it’s great to be back.
I want to take this moment to thanks everyone who supported, donated, sponsored us, and encouraged us – A HUGE THANK YOU – we, BP, Jack, Andriy, Raymond, Felipe and Angel all appreciate this.
I also want to say to those who doubted that a) I would ever get this Ride organized, b) that I would actually do it, and c) that we’d finish it too – now you have to donate! We organized, we rode AND we finished, so please put your money where your mouth is. Thank you.
This blog isn’t finished yet – I still have to present the jerseys (a la Tour de France), and there are quotes that have to be told. So let me rest up and I will have these for you all.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Day 33
Penultimate day and we are getting excited about Riding into the Bronx tomorrow. Over the George Washington Bridge, with its spectacular view of Manhattan. Wonder what it will feel like when we ride it? Anyway we are meeting up with Sandy today, he’s arranged to meet us around noon, somewhere in NJ! Man NJ is a big place so I hope that we do meet up!!??
Well we do meet up in Milford and earlier at around 11am at the local diner – we are having breakfast when he arrives, courtesy of Shrubb who has driven him to meet us. Well done Shrubb and thanks. We’ve ridden about 25 miles to Milford from our camp site. Sandy settles in and enjoys a breakfast with us.
Sandy is kitted out the full cycling gear, bike shorts, snazzy top, glasses, water bottles the lot and ready to go. He’s excited to be here and doing the last two days into the Bronx with us, although, like Jack, he’s afraid of heights and not looking forward to the George Washington Bridge!
We are on our way and doing well. There are still lots of hills and they are pretty long. We’ve been told about these very early on in this Ride, but now we are getting to experience them. Sandy says we are all looking fit and well, and believe me we are very fit. I think that it’s something to do with biking nearly 3000 miles, and hitting the hills! Anyway we, I think surprise Sandy with our biking, and leave him on the hills.
Small towns are getting more frequent and traffic is certainly getting a little more dense. Not good breathing in those fumes!! I guess that we are getting close to the big Apple, well relatively speaking!
We are definitely getting nearer as we cross over into New Jersey. Pics taken then on we go, just one more State to go! We are on Route 46, quite a big highway, so we’ve been making sure that we are safe, even with the big shoulder.
It starts raining and we also hear some thunder in the distance. Sandy reminds us all just what to do if it starts to thunder and lightning. Good advice, however no lightning but the rain does keep coming down. We do the miles and finally get to our destination, Stephen State Park, our last camp site, wooppee! It’s in a really wooded area and one of the first signs that Felipe sees is about BEARS! And not aggravating them. Now who would do that! Also there’s plenty of mosquitoes too, not good, so out comes the bug spray. Tent up, tarp over the top so all good, we decide to treat ourselves to a meal, Applebees restaurant in the nearby town. Actually Sandy does the honours and treats us to this meal, thank you Sandy we all appreciate it.
Back to the camp site and sleeping bags, although I don’t think that there was much sleep as we are all getting excited about the last day and getting back to the Bronx.
Well we do meet up in Milford and earlier at around 11am at the local diner – we are having breakfast when he arrives, courtesy of Shrubb who has driven him to meet us. Well done Shrubb and thanks. We’ve ridden about 25 miles to Milford from our camp site. Sandy settles in and enjoys a breakfast with us.
Sandy is kitted out the full cycling gear, bike shorts, snazzy top, glasses, water bottles the lot and ready to go. He’s excited to be here and doing the last two days into the Bronx with us, although, like Jack, he’s afraid of heights and not looking forward to the George Washington Bridge!
We are on our way and doing well. There are still lots of hills and they are pretty long. We’ve been told about these very early on in this Ride, but now we are getting to experience them. Sandy says we are all looking fit and well, and believe me we are very fit. I think that it’s something to do with biking nearly 3000 miles, and hitting the hills! Anyway we, I think surprise Sandy with our biking, and leave him on the hills.
Small towns are getting more frequent and traffic is certainly getting a little more dense. Not good breathing in those fumes!! I guess that we are getting close to the big Apple, well relatively speaking!
We are definitely getting nearer as we cross over into New Jersey. Pics taken then on we go, just one more State to go! We are on Route 46, quite a big highway, so we’ve been making sure that we are safe, even with the big shoulder.
It starts raining and we also hear some thunder in the distance. Sandy reminds us all just what to do if it starts to thunder and lightning. Good advice, however no lightning but the rain does keep coming down. We do the miles and finally get to our destination, Stephen State Park, our last camp site, wooppee! It’s in a really wooded area and one of the first signs that Felipe sees is about BEARS! And not aggravating them. Now who would do that! Also there’s plenty of mosquitoes too, not good, so out comes the bug spray. Tent up, tarp over the top so all good, we decide to treat ourselves to a meal, Applebees restaurant in the nearby town. Actually Sandy does the honours and treats us to this meal, thank you Sandy we all appreciate it.
Back to the camp site and sleeping bags, although I don’t think that there was much sleep as we are all getting excited about the last day and getting back to the Bronx.
Day 32
Nearly there guys !! So Again off bright and early, Jack and BP on the road. We actually find a bike shop that repairs Felipe’s tire and also repairs Angels’ front handlebars, but we also find out that Angels gears are really messed up, so his bike is still a problem. Still Towanda is left behind and we are into the Pennsylvania rolling hills and man do they rock and roll! Too much – they are not long, but they are frequent. Seems like there is a lot of German influence here, with farm buildings and other buildings having that Northern European look about them. Certainly names on farms and businesses are very Germanic. We have a change and Felipe and Andriy are out and on the road, for their stint, “Go boys”. We are getting into practice for Friday when Sandy arrives we are looking to work him hard other the last two days! We also have riders trying to come and join us on Saturday, Lee Rosen and possibly Chris Walker, which would be terrific. We’ll let you know if this happens.
Another change and its Jack and BP back on the bikes – we are both determined to do as many miles over these last days as possible. I think we are in Pocono territory, with lots of lakes and definitely getting more RV sites and camp sites too. They all seem to be by lakes, which look great and very clear, as opposed to the muddy waters that we had been seeing in Mid-America.
Angel and Raymond are taking it easy in the van I think that they are steeling themselves for the last two days and it’s now Scrabble instead of Monopoly on Jack’s iPod!!! Not sure who is winning at this! We do try to keep the van people entertained, what!! Other than the driver that is!
It’s a tough day, plenty of down hills but always those up hills, and there is ,more traffic on the roads now too. Plenty of CO2 into our lungs! But we are making good time and taking water breaks every 10 – 15 miles. I love the Gatorade powder in mine just makes the water taste better!
Also we are working out the party for Saturday and it’s going to be at Michael Angelos at Arthur Ave., and 189th Street in Fordham, so come on everyone make the effort to be there and we’ll tell you the alternate blog of this Ride, and there are some good ones too!
Into the town of Hamil, nice little town, reminds me of the actor, although I cann’t remember his first name – anyone help me here? A huge lake called Wallenpaupach, which has some terrific beaches around it, and Angel wishes that he could get out and swim. No can do Angel. Still more lakes and camp sites, and finally route 402 East, to Blooming Grove. We take this and end up at a cross road with a Church on one corner and workmen building a small bridge on the other corner! This is it Blooming Grove, we cann’t believe it, that’s it nothing else, no real village even. The van meets us there, they have been lagging and playing Scrabble, but catch up with us.
So we find a camp site, as ever we do this last thing, but we’ve never been let down or disappointed – google is a terrific way of finding anything!
The camp site is on a wonderful lake, and Angel and Felipe wander off to see what’s happening. They have two rockets, and they are determined to set them off tonight!
Count down and two days to go. See you Sandy tomorrow.
BP
Another change and its Jack and BP back on the bikes – we are both determined to do as many miles over these last days as possible. I think we are in Pocono territory, with lots of lakes and definitely getting more RV sites and camp sites too. They all seem to be by lakes, which look great and very clear, as opposed to the muddy waters that we had been seeing in Mid-America.
Angel and Raymond are taking it easy in the van I think that they are steeling themselves for the last two days and it’s now Scrabble instead of Monopoly on Jack’s iPod!!! Not sure who is winning at this! We do try to keep the van people entertained, what!! Other than the driver that is!
It’s a tough day, plenty of down hills but always those up hills, and there is ,more traffic on the roads now too. Plenty of CO2 into our lungs! But we are making good time and taking water breaks every 10 – 15 miles. I love the Gatorade powder in mine just makes the water taste better!
Also we are working out the party for Saturday and it’s going to be at Michael Angelos at Arthur Ave., and 189th Street in Fordham, so come on everyone make the effort to be there and we’ll tell you the alternate blog of this Ride, and there are some good ones too!
Into the town of Hamil, nice little town, reminds me of the actor, although I cann’t remember his first name – anyone help me here? A huge lake called Wallenpaupach, which has some terrific beaches around it, and Angel wishes that he could get out and swim. No can do Angel. Still more lakes and camp sites, and finally route 402 East, to Blooming Grove. We take this and end up at a cross road with a Church on one corner and workmen building a small bridge on the other corner! This is it Blooming Grove, we cann’t believe it, that’s it nothing else, no real village even. The van meets us there, they have been lagging and playing Scrabble, but catch up with us.
So we find a camp site, as ever we do this last thing, but we’ve never been let down or disappointed – google is a terrific way of finding anything!
The camp site is on a wonderful lake, and Angel and Felipe wander off to see what’s happening. They have two rockets, and they are determined to set them off tonight!
Count down and two days to go. See you Sandy tomorrow.
BP
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Day 31
A drive by day, so a good rest before the last three days. We were up and off pretty early, none stop to get on the road, as it was a longish drive by. We had to make Towanda PA before dark. Jack was going to start the driving, but decides not to so BP is driving, which always scares Felipe, not sure why you’d have to ask him that! Now Jack has an iPod which has the Monopoly game on it, and this is the start to vicious Monopoly games, wheeling and dealing and trying to bankrupt each other! Just a game lads! More later.
I ask Felipe to take a pic of a truck with the initials PFC on the back. I’ve asked him to do this because my son John supports Portsmouth Football Club, so he at least might appreciate this pic! Pretty much of a muchness the scenery, although it’s starting to change to rolling hills and not as near as densely wooded as yesterday. We roll into Roanoke, which in fact is a really great little city and has a wonderful old area, which we park in and decide to eat the local BBQ food at The Blues BBQ Company restaurant. Great spiced lunch, but Andriy and Raymond have pizza – not as good as the Bronx boys! Stoked up we move on.
We’re on the road again and I’m seeing signs that maybe indicate that once again I’m back in the Old Country. You just cann’t get away from UK place names! First up are New Market and Edinburg, both close enough spellings for me. Then Winchester, which is very close to where I hold my Camps on the South coast of England, at Lee-on-Solent. Winchester was once the capital of England. Also we’re still in the bible belt, churches and crosses everywhere, hey whatever grabs you. West Virginia comes and goes pretty quickly, as does Maryland. Then the Mason Dixon signs which indicate that this is where the North and the South were divided at one time. PA welcomes us, and by this time Angel has won three games of Monopoly, much to Andriy and Jack’s annoyance. These game seem to last forever! He’s just been crushing them, along with a little help from Felipe though. They trade properties, and wheel and deal, apparently just like the real world Jack says. But there’s no stopping Angel. In a least one of the games Jack and Andriy literally give up in disgust, losing all to Angel. He’s really just too good at this game. Go into finance Angel, I’m sure you’ll do well. Felipe plays to annoy Jack and is always making “ridiculous trades” as Jack says.
Carlisle is next to show up, this is a town on the opposite side of the country from my home town in England. Berwick-on-Tweed is on the East coast of England and on the border with Scotland, while Carlisle is on the West coast of England on the border. Just how many more UK place names will there be?
The Susquehanna river is pretty wide and we are now following this river for quite some time, and it’s getting late, and getting dark. Very dark by the time we get into Towanda. Everywhere is full, even camp sites. There is a huge oil and gas industry in the area and they literally take all the available space in hotels, motels and camp sites. We do find a camp site, but the first one we went ot Felipe was really terrified “Hey this is in the middle of nowhere, we might get killed!” He’s very touchy about stuff like this and trusts no one especially late at night. We do find a camp site and settle in for a good sleep. But before going to sleep Angel reminds us all that he’s the KING of Monopoly – sorry Jack!
BP
I ask Felipe to take a pic of a truck with the initials PFC on the back. I’ve asked him to do this because my son John supports Portsmouth Football Club, so he at least might appreciate this pic! Pretty much of a muchness the scenery, although it’s starting to change to rolling hills and not as near as densely wooded as yesterday. We roll into Roanoke, which in fact is a really great little city and has a wonderful old area, which we park in and decide to eat the local BBQ food at The Blues BBQ Company restaurant. Great spiced lunch, but Andriy and Raymond have pizza – not as good as the Bronx boys! Stoked up we move on.
We’re on the road again and I’m seeing signs that maybe indicate that once again I’m back in the Old Country. You just cann’t get away from UK place names! First up are New Market and Edinburg, both close enough spellings for me. Then Winchester, which is very close to where I hold my Camps on the South coast of England, at Lee-on-Solent. Winchester was once the capital of England. Also we’re still in the bible belt, churches and crosses everywhere, hey whatever grabs you. West Virginia comes and goes pretty quickly, as does Maryland. Then the Mason Dixon signs which indicate that this is where the North and the South were divided at one time. PA welcomes us, and by this time Angel has won three games of Monopoly, much to Andriy and Jack’s annoyance. These game seem to last forever! He’s just been crushing them, along with a little help from Felipe though. They trade properties, and wheel and deal, apparently just like the real world Jack says. But there’s no stopping Angel. In a least one of the games Jack and Andriy literally give up in disgust, losing all to Angel. He’s really just too good at this game. Go into finance Angel, I’m sure you’ll do well. Felipe plays to annoy Jack and is always making “ridiculous trades” as Jack says.
Carlisle is next to show up, this is a town on the opposite side of the country from my home town in England. Berwick-on-Tweed is on the East coast of England and on the border with Scotland, while Carlisle is on the West coast of England on the border. Just how many more UK place names will there be?
The Susquehanna river is pretty wide and we are now following this river for quite some time, and it’s getting late, and getting dark. Very dark by the time we get into Towanda. Everywhere is full, even camp sites. There is a huge oil and gas industry in the area and they literally take all the available space in hotels, motels and camp sites. We do find a camp site, but the first one we went ot Felipe was really terrified “Hey this is in the middle of nowhere, we might get killed!” He’s very touchy about stuff like this and trusts no one especially late at night. We do find a camp site and settle in for a good sleep. But before going to sleep Angel reminds us all that he’s the KING of Monopoly – sorry Jack!
BP
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Day 30
Did the tire stay up? Yes it did, wonder of wonders. Pack up, but Felipes flip flop was wrapped up in the tent! Oh man he’s heading for the MVR (Most Valuable Rider) of this Ride! Anything else to sort out other than the van which gets more and more filled up with personal “stuff”. The comment of the Ride will be “It’s in the van!”, so when anyone asked if we’d seen anything the reply was always the same – “It’s in the van”!!!
Everything was “In the van” we were on our way to Hazard, an eighty mile ride, which we all felt good about. Andriy, Angel and BP up first and out of the camps site and out of Berea. Good roads with decent shoulders, so we got up some speed, rode through a rain downpour, which was refreshing to say the least and made the twenty miles to the van pretty quickly. Seems like we are in little England again, we were going through London, then Manchester to get to Hazard! At the van we were all gung-ho so we decided to keep going and again the pace was fast, Angel was doing his bit trying hard to keep me at the back of the three man pack! At twelve miles into this twenty ANOTHER puncture! Angels back wheel was gone, man were we stunned - AGAIN, eight punctures on the trip so far, please no more! We call Jack in the van and he has to come back to get Angel and his bike and take him into Manchester, but can you believe it no bike shops in Manchester! Plenty in the region, but a hike to get to any of them, and as Manchester is half way from Berea to Hazard we decide to bike on with Angel in the van. To bad.
The country side is actually interesting, Again trees up to the road, and as faras the eye can see, but there were vines wrapped around trees, telegraph poles, electricity poles, buildings and anything that these vines could wrap themselves around. Looked pretty surreal, and maybe out of a movie set!
Onward we go and looking forward to seeing Hazard because of the “Dukes of Hazard”, TV series, and the movie. Wow what a disappointment, nothing like anything in either the series or the movie. What we wanted most of all was to see a sop that sold Hazard Ts, but not to be. In fact nothing in the town at all about the shows.
OK so tomorrow is a drive by day, and quite a big one, so we have driven into Virginia and are now at our favourite camp site KOA in Wytheville. It cuts our drive down tomorrow and we love KOA.
Sandy coming to ride with us Friday and Saturday, so looking to him riding with us, and into the Bronx. Should be fun.
Not long to go people, then parteeee time in the Bronx.
BP
Everything was “In the van” we were on our way to Hazard, an eighty mile ride, which we all felt good about. Andriy, Angel and BP up first and out of the camps site and out of Berea. Good roads with decent shoulders, so we got up some speed, rode through a rain downpour, which was refreshing to say the least and made the twenty miles to the van pretty quickly. Seems like we are in little England again, we were going through London, then Manchester to get to Hazard! At the van we were all gung-ho so we decided to keep going and again the pace was fast, Angel was doing his bit trying hard to keep me at the back of the three man pack! At twelve miles into this twenty ANOTHER puncture! Angels back wheel was gone, man were we stunned - AGAIN, eight punctures on the trip so far, please no more! We call Jack in the van and he has to come back to get Angel and his bike and take him into Manchester, but can you believe it no bike shops in Manchester! Plenty in the region, but a hike to get to any of them, and as Manchester is half way from Berea to Hazard we decide to bike on with Angel in the van. To bad.
The country side is actually interesting, Again trees up to the road, and as faras the eye can see, but there were vines wrapped around trees, telegraph poles, electricity poles, buildings and anything that these vines could wrap themselves around. Looked pretty surreal, and maybe out of a movie set!
Onward we go and looking forward to seeing Hazard because of the “Dukes of Hazard”, TV series, and the movie. Wow what a disappointment, nothing like anything in either the series or the movie. What we wanted most of all was to see a sop that sold Hazard Ts, but not to be. In fact nothing in the town at all about the shows.
OK so tomorrow is a drive by day, and quite a big one, so we have driven into Virginia and are now at our favourite camp site KOA in Wytheville. It cuts our drive down tomorrow and we love KOA.
Sandy coming to ride with us Friday and Saturday, so looking to him riding with us, and into the Bronx. Should be fun.
Not long to go people, then parteeee time in the Bronx.
BP
Monday, July 4, 2011
Day 29
Happy 4th July America! Jack has his American bike top on and it’s impressive. There’s a $3 breakfast at KOA so we all take this, and it’s served by an Essex woman, been in the States for a long time but still has the accent!
So this is the last week, and I’m not sure that we were glad or sad to be finishing. I know that we all were saying that it would be great to get back, but I also think that we would be sad to finish this awesome trip – The Ride X America. One tent, one van and 6 people means that we all live pretty close, and this can get a little intense at times, but we seem to have got along well over the five weeks.
So we drive back to Bardstown and start the 80 mile ride to Berea, nothing special, same old same old country side. Probably wish we were all back in the Rockies with the tremendous scenery, but here we are in the rolling hills of Kentucky. I drive first, with Jack, Raymond, Andriy and Felipe all biking, man that’s impressive that they all got out there! 20 miles and then a change, I’m up and it’s me and Jack, he’s still going and we are doing 24 miles to Danville, easy peasy! Danville is a pretty historic town, so we stopped for lunch then some of us rode around the town spotting the various historical sites and buildings. The first successful abdominal surgery was performed here on Christmas day 1809, and get this, there was on anesthesia so the woman sang hymns all the way through the operation! That was the first piece of historical information, then there is the Presbyterian Church one of three founded in 1784. With all this e-mail now can anyone remember actual mail? Well we have the first Post Office West of the Alleghenies built pre-1792! Off course how could I forget the first tavern in Danville, built pre-1800 and used by the Danville Political Society. The town also has the Center College, a liberal arts College with a really wonderful campus.
Onwards to Berea, or so I thought. I get 2 miles out of Danville and lo and behold a puncture!!! I shout to Raymond that I have a puncture, no cell phone and the van is now on its way to the 20 mile away mark! Great! So I down the bike, take a drink and wait for Raymond to get to the van and the van to return to get me! What a wait, over two and a half hours. But I get to talking with two neighbours, on opposite sides of the road who are cutting their grass. A retired Naval Officer, and a local born and bred in Danville. Two very fascinating people but so very different. They offer drinks and whatever I would like, but I’m afraid to move from the side of the road incase the van goes by and misses me! Finally I get picked up and off we go to Berea! Guess what the camp site is a KOA, with kitchen, so we are all pleased as this means that we can actually cook our food tonight! Oh and I repair the puncture, well I hope that I have, we’ll see if it deflates overnight!?
Everyone on the camp site has the Stars and Stripes out, bunting, and other red white and blue decorations and are getting ready for some fireworks.
Hope that you all had a terrific 4th July.
BP
So this is the last week, and I’m not sure that we were glad or sad to be finishing. I know that we all were saying that it would be great to get back, but I also think that we would be sad to finish this awesome trip – The Ride X America. One tent, one van and 6 people means that we all live pretty close, and this can get a little intense at times, but we seem to have got along well over the five weeks.
So we drive back to Bardstown and start the 80 mile ride to Berea, nothing special, same old same old country side. Probably wish we were all back in the Rockies with the tremendous scenery, but here we are in the rolling hills of Kentucky. I drive first, with Jack, Raymond, Andriy and Felipe all biking, man that’s impressive that they all got out there! 20 miles and then a change, I’m up and it’s me and Jack, he’s still going and we are doing 24 miles to Danville, easy peasy! Danville is a pretty historic town, so we stopped for lunch then some of us rode around the town spotting the various historical sites and buildings. The first successful abdominal surgery was performed here on Christmas day 1809, and get this, there was on anesthesia so the woman sang hymns all the way through the operation! That was the first piece of historical information, then there is the Presbyterian Church one of three founded in 1784. With all this e-mail now can anyone remember actual mail? Well we have the first Post Office West of the Alleghenies built pre-1792! Off course how could I forget the first tavern in Danville, built pre-1800 and used by the Danville Political Society. The town also has the Center College, a liberal arts College with a really wonderful campus.
Onwards to Berea, or so I thought. I get 2 miles out of Danville and lo and behold a puncture!!! I shout to Raymond that I have a puncture, no cell phone and the van is now on its way to the 20 mile away mark! Great! So I down the bike, take a drink and wait for Raymond to get to the van and the van to return to get me! What a wait, over two and a half hours. But I get to talking with two neighbours, on opposite sides of the road who are cutting their grass. A retired Naval Officer, and a local born and bred in Danville. Two very fascinating people but so very different. They offer drinks and whatever I would like, but I’m afraid to move from the side of the road incase the van goes by and misses me! Finally I get picked up and off we go to Berea! Guess what the camp site is a KOA, with kitchen, so we are all pleased as this means that we can actually cook our food tonight! Oh and I repair the puncture, well I hope that I have, we’ll see if it deflates overnight!?
Everyone on the camp site has the Stars and Stripes out, bunting, and other red white and blue decorations and are getting ready for some fireworks.
Hope that you all had a terrific 4th July.
BP
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Day 28
We’ve taken the rest day today instead of Wednesday. It’s Wimbledon and we want to watch Rafa v Joko. Wow, Joko played well, what a match, although we all thought that Rafa would pull it back. So a new Wimbledon Champ., well played Joko. I have to say that watching the match was pretty great as we were in the only AC room on the camp site, and man it was hot even mid morning, 85+.
Now off into Louisville, Jack’s found the Louisville Slugger Baseball bat manufacturer and so off we go to visit. Louisville is a big city on the banks of the Ohio river, and the old city, which is where the Slugger factory is, is really fascinating, very much in a renewing programme, with buildings still just shells but which would, I’m sure, be wonderful.
The Louisville Slugger factory was terrific, basically the history of the “bat”. It has a huge bat outside the entrance, with lots of bats hanging up in the main area. Wx figures of the famous baseball players – Babe Ruth included. Sayings on the floor by various MLB players, history on the walls of the World Series (never did get the World bit as it’s only played in the USA, so how could it be a World Series?) Oh and there was a bit about the Cincinnati Reds and their winning years of the 70s. I had to take a pic for Tim as he’s from Cincinnati! It seems that Mr Hillerich had the market tied up with about 80% of baseball bats used made here – MLB, Minor League, Little league, and any other league you care to mention. Most of the MLB Teams buy their bats here for their players! And we were told that most players used anywhere between 60 – 100 bats per season! Go figure that out! The factory was really a factory and a museum, so it was very interesting and the tour to see how bats are made even more fascinating. 40,000 trees are cut down to supply baseball all the bats used each year. The forests are self sustaining, managed, and mainly in Pennsylvania and New York States. It used to take 20 minutes to hand make a bat whereas now it takes 40 seconds with the computerized machines. Each player has his own computerized software to make his own bat, and there are over 20,000 combinations. At the end we all got our miniature Slugger bats to remind us of our visit.
Down to the river side, and again this is a huge river, very wide and lots of bridges over it. The streets of the old town have various sculptures of some of the various events and places that are here. The Kentucky Derby horse, Kentucky University horse, the KFC Center which is the home of the Louisville University and would grace any NBA team’s stadium! On the riverside walk I found another map to Lewis and Clarke, across America route, and a statue to Fox who was Clarkes slave but went with him to discover the route across America.
Finally we gave in to food and went to the BBC restaurant which served pulled pork and other such great Kentucky food. Once refreshed we made our way back to the camp site to relax and to get ready for the last days of the Ride X America. Tomorrow here we go!!!
BP
Now off into Louisville, Jack’s found the Louisville Slugger Baseball bat manufacturer and so off we go to visit. Louisville is a big city on the banks of the Ohio river, and the old city, which is where the Slugger factory is, is really fascinating, very much in a renewing programme, with buildings still just shells but which would, I’m sure, be wonderful.
The Louisville Slugger factory was terrific, basically the history of the “bat”. It has a huge bat outside the entrance, with lots of bats hanging up in the main area. Wx figures of the famous baseball players – Babe Ruth included. Sayings on the floor by various MLB players, history on the walls of the World Series (never did get the World bit as it’s only played in the USA, so how could it be a World Series?) Oh and there was a bit about the Cincinnati Reds and their winning years of the 70s. I had to take a pic for Tim as he’s from Cincinnati! It seems that Mr Hillerich had the market tied up with about 80% of baseball bats used made here – MLB, Minor League, Little league, and any other league you care to mention. Most of the MLB Teams buy their bats here for their players! And we were told that most players used anywhere between 60 – 100 bats per season! Go figure that out! The factory was really a factory and a museum, so it was very interesting and the tour to see how bats are made even more fascinating. 40,000 trees are cut down to supply baseball all the bats used each year. The forests are self sustaining, managed, and mainly in Pennsylvania and New York States. It used to take 20 minutes to hand make a bat whereas now it takes 40 seconds with the computerized machines. Each player has his own computerized software to make his own bat, and there are over 20,000 combinations. At the end we all got our miniature Slugger bats to remind us of our visit.
Down to the river side, and again this is a huge river, very wide and lots of bridges over it. The streets of the old town have various sculptures of some of the various events and places that are here. The Kentucky Derby horse, Kentucky University horse, the KFC Center which is the home of the Louisville University and would grace any NBA team’s stadium! On the riverside walk I found another map to Lewis and Clarke, across America route, and a statue to Fox who was Clarkes slave but went with him to discover the route across America.
Finally we gave in to food and went to the BBC restaurant which served pulled pork and other such great Kentucky food. Once refreshed we made our way back to the camp site to relax and to get ready for the last days of the Ride X America. Tomorrow here we go!!!
BP
Day 27
Cave in the Rock to McDaniels KY – another State. But I biked down into Cave in the Rock and just sat outside the café, which even at this early time was packed. I got funny stares from everyone when I went in to get milk. But a ‘Good morning” to all made them wonder even more who the hell was this foreigner with the Northumbrian accent?! Took a few pics of the town, seems like we are following Lewis and Clarke backwards, they had been through Cave in Rock, but apparently very cautiously! The sat outside the cafe and literally just watched the world go by. Wonderful.
The van came and down to the ferry for our river ride to Kentucky, and it was free, amazing and joy oh joy! Great little ride over, with Felipe wondering what would happen if we sank! Come on – we’d swim to the bank and hitchhike home, what else.
Kentucky, not a great State sign! Then the rolling hills, actually really beautiful, covered with dense trees, almost encroaching to the road, interspersed with rolling meadows. 85 miles to McDaniels, so we did a relay, although Andriy was on the bike much of the time, with myself, then Raymond did a stint, with Angel and Felipe doing their bit too. A good ride, nothing exciting, until I got an e-mail (on a break) from Tim telling me that my cousin had donated. Tim lets us know all the time when people donate, which is great. Thanks Ian, he lives in Dallas I think, certainly Texas. So come on John, my son, the beards staying on so just accept that and make the donation, and sis, in Berwick-on-Tweed, Northumberland, come on. A little excitement later when we pass a Harley Davidson three wheeler with the Confederate flag on the back, and Dixie House restaurant, which was for sale – anyone? It was hot 90+ degrees, so we sweated lots, but the relaying helped, and plenty of water. We got to McDaniels, but couldn’t find a camp site with showers and we needed laundry, all of us! No kidding! Plus camp sites seemed to be full, something about celebrating the week-end. I guess that as a Brit I just didn’t know what was going on! Yea right! Google camp sites with shower and laundry facilities. The nearest was a KOA and we had used these before on the Ride, and they were always pretty good. However it was 62 miles, so a quick decision was made that we would take our rest day tomorrow, Sunday, instead of Wednesday. I think that Andriy and Jack wanted to watch Wimbledon men’s final, which just happened to be Sunday! Also it was decided that we should also visit Louisville, which was 20 miles North of the camp site, and visit the Louisville Slugger baseball bat manufacturer. So off to the Shephardsville KOA, showers and laundry – heaven! A huge KOA which stayed open late, just as well for us!
As ever the tent up first, then everything else follows. I can tell you the showers are great.
BP
The van came and down to the ferry for our river ride to Kentucky, and it was free, amazing and joy oh joy! Great little ride over, with Felipe wondering what would happen if we sank! Come on – we’d swim to the bank and hitchhike home, what else.
Kentucky, not a great State sign! Then the rolling hills, actually really beautiful, covered with dense trees, almost encroaching to the road, interspersed with rolling meadows. 85 miles to McDaniels, so we did a relay, although Andriy was on the bike much of the time, with myself, then Raymond did a stint, with Angel and Felipe doing their bit too. A good ride, nothing exciting, until I got an e-mail (on a break) from Tim telling me that my cousin had donated. Tim lets us know all the time when people donate, which is great. Thanks Ian, he lives in Dallas I think, certainly Texas. So come on John, my son, the beards staying on so just accept that and make the donation, and sis, in Berwick-on-Tweed, Northumberland, come on. A little excitement later when we pass a Harley Davidson three wheeler with the Confederate flag on the back, and Dixie House restaurant, which was for sale – anyone? It was hot 90+ degrees, so we sweated lots, but the relaying helped, and plenty of water. We got to McDaniels, but couldn’t find a camp site with showers and we needed laundry, all of us! No kidding! Plus camp sites seemed to be full, something about celebrating the week-end. I guess that as a Brit I just didn’t know what was going on! Yea right! Google camp sites with shower and laundry facilities. The nearest was a KOA and we had used these before on the Ride, and they were always pretty good. However it was 62 miles, so a quick decision was made that we would take our rest day tomorrow, Sunday, instead of Wednesday. I think that Andriy and Jack wanted to watch Wimbledon men’s final, which just happened to be Sunday! Also it was decided that we should also visit Louisville, which was 20 miles North of the camp site, and visit the Louisville Slugger baseball bat manufacturer. So off to the Shephardsville KOA, showers and laundry – heaven! A huge KOA which stayed open late, just as well for us!
As ever the tent up first, then everything else follows. I can tell you the showers are great.
BP
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Day 26
Actually let’s start with the night and the camp site - Murphysboro Lake State Park. A really off the beaten path site by the side of a lake, and pretty spooky! We had pitched the tent earlier in the evening and had gone into Carbondale to get the puncture repaired. We also had dinner and then went to watch “Transformers” not a bad movie with lots of action. Naturally the good guys win, what’s new? We’d all decided to relax, hence the movie, then back to the camp site in the dark, and lo and behold a raccoon had raiding the trash bag which Jack had hung up on a pole. Van lights on and mosquitoes, insects and other such bugs were all around the van.
Andriy and I went to the tent but in the meantime a group of raccoons came back to the trash! Jack, Felipe, Angel and Raymond were in the van, and were actually a little scared. I think the theory was that if they got out they would be attacked by the raccoons, be bitten and die from rabies. So now a plan to scare off the raccoons! Lights on high, van engine on and revving, then back and forth with the van, headlights flashing, but to no avail, The raccoons were no doubt enjoying themselves! Meanwhile Andriy and I were watching all this from the tent, talk about comic antics! The comments were the best – “they’re leaving, no they’re not!”. “Yes they are”. No they’re not”, “Oh come on raccoons what have we done to you?” I could just imagine a raccoon saying “Well you left the trash out, thanks”. Then the great escape and the run to the tent all of 10 yards, in and “Close the zippers, don’t let them in!”. So we were safe, or were we? The noises in the night were loud and many, we tried to work out what they were – bullfrogs for sure, ducks (not sure), dog howl or was it a coyote, fox, or whatever? Definitely had moseezes (mosquitoes) in the tent too!! Raccoon type noises again. Back for more no doubt! Finally sleep.
Caution in the morning incase the raccoons were there to attack us and our food! I think that this might be the fastest that we have packed up. Felipe showed us his bites! Man they must love him, the mosquitoes! We were very quickly on the road to Cavenrock or Cave in the Rock. A fascinating place name which we were looking forward to getting to, to see exactly what this was about. A 75 mile ride, so not too bad and we were on the road early, well earlier than we had been for the past few days. Long inclines through rolling country side, very green and lots of trees but you know this by now! Route 13 the Lincoln Heritage Trail, we were in the land of Lincoln, Illinois. However this turned into the Ohio Scenic Byway route, so we were obviously very close to the mighty Ohio river. I was very curious as to where this was taking us, and we were now on route 1, still the Ohio River Byway. Well Cave in the Rock, and what a terrific little river village/town, not sure which, where route 1 came to an abrupt end right on the banks of the Ohio river – yes full stop. The only way over was by a small car ferry! Wow. The main street was fascinating. There was a Grand Opry House, a wonderful café, and murals on an old wall of the cave in the rock. Also a banner telling a little of the history of Cave in the Rock – the cave was discovered by the French in 1729. It was used as a hide out for river pirates, robbers, killers counterfeiters and pioneers headed West. What history. Our camp site was in fact very close to the cave. So tent up, and down to the cave which was right by the river. A great place to explore and to see the river and imagine the river pirates marauding the boats that would pass by. I love this town, it’s a place that everyone should visit. It’s so out of the way, but a really neat place. This could be one of my favourite places of this Ride.
Food, a beautiful sunset (red sky at the night shepherds delight) and sleep, without the raccoons!
BP
Andriy and I went to the tent but in the meantime a group of raccoons came back to the trash! Jack, Felipe, Angel and Raymond were in the van, and were actually a little scared. I think the theory was that if they got out they would be attacked by the raccoons, be bitten and die from rabies. So now a plan to scare off the raccoons! Lights on high, van engine on and revving, then back and forth with the van, headlights flashing, but to no avail, The raccoons were no doubt enjoying themselves! Meanwhile Andriy and I were watching all this from the tent, talk about comic antics! The comments were the best – “they’re leaving, no they’re not!”. “Yes they are”. No they’re not”, “Oh come on raccoons what have we done to you?” I could just imagine a raccoon saying “Well you left the trash out, thanks”. Then the great escape and the run to the tent all of 10 yards, in and “Close the zippers, don’t let them in!”. So we were safe, or were we? The noises in the night were loud and many, we tried to work out what they were – bullfrogs for sure, ducks (not sure), dog howl or was it a coyote, fox, or whatever? Definitely had moseezes (mosquitoes) in the tent too!! Raccoon type noises again. Back for more no doubt! Finally sleep.
Caution in the morning incase the raccoons were there to attack us and our food! I think that this might be the fastest that we have packed up. Felipe showed us his bites! Man they must love him, the mosquitoes! We were very quickly on the road to Cavenrock or Cave in the Rock. A fascinating place name which we were looking forward to getting to, to see exactly what this was about. A 75 mile ride, so not too bad and we were on the road early, well earlier than we had been for the past few days. Long inclines through rolling country side, very green and lots of trees but you know this by now! Route 13 the Lincoln Heritage Trail, we were in the land of Lincoln, Illinois. However this turned into the Ohio Scenic Byway route, so we were obviously very close to the mighty Ohio river. I was very curious as to where this was taking us, and we were now on route 1, still the Ohio River Byway. Well Cave in the Rock, and what a terrific little river village/town, not sure which, where route 1 came to an abrupt end right on the banks of the Ohio river – yes full stop. The only way over was by a small car ferry! Wow. The main street was fascinating. There was a Grand Opry House, a wonderful café, and murals on an old wall of the cave in the rock. Also a banner telling a little of the history of Cave in the Rock – the cave was discovered by the French in 1729. It was used as a hide out for river pirates, robbers, killers counterfeiters and pioneers headed West. What history. Our camp site was in fact very close to the cave. So tent up, and down to the cave which was right by the river. A great place to explore and to see the river and imagine the river pirates marauding the boats that would pass by. I love this town, it’s a place that everyone should visit. It’s so out of the way, but a really neat place. This could be one of my favourite places of this Ride.
Food, a beautiful sunset (red sky at the night shepherds delight) and sleep, without the raccoons!
BP
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Day 25
Getting these guys out of bed is not getting any easier! Still while they were getting sorted I went to see the Fort Kaskaskia cemetery, a fascinating place. It had been moved from the city to the higher ground when it was realized that the city would be flooded by the change of course that the Mississippi made over a number of years in the late 1870s.
Angel and I rode out of the camp site while the others took the van into Chester. The camps site was on the West side of Chester so it was a 6 mile ride into the town. We past a great log house which was wood and plaster built and looked pretty authentic. Then into Chester and man anyone love Popeye, Bluto, and Olive Oyl and all the other characters? Well Chester is where they were all “born”. They were brought to life by E. C. Segar right here in Chester. There’s a small park that has been built, and it’s bounded on two sides by buildings with the characters painted onto the walls – Angel loved it, as did I. Obviously pictures were taken, then onwards on route 3.
Route 3 follows the mighty Mississippi for a long way and as we traveled along this route we could see the flooding that had occurred. In fact the water came right up to the road that we were on, and if it had not been for the fact that we were a little higher we’d have been under water too! Finally into a plain that was between us and the river on one side and on the other side rolling hills with masses of trees and small holdings.
Bang – damn puncture time AGAIN!!!! What’s going on, for three weeks we are fine then the three arrive on Saturday and leave on Tuesday, and we have 4 punctures and a spoke break. They leave and we think we are fine, but their mojo is still with us!! Now since they have left three punctures!! Please please no more! It’s my turn for the puncture, thankfully I was not in last place at the time! Jack goes by and I tell him, Raymond goes by and I tell him. Now I’m on my own pushing the bike along. I call Angel – guess what no reception! I txt him hoping that this might go through, we’ll see. Keep pushing the bike, with cars pick-ups, trucks going by, After what seemed like an eternity Andriy arrives in the van and in I get to laughter, which is not appreciated!
Raymond and Jack are left to ride to the camp site, Murphysboro State Park. Another terrific State Park, next to a lake. We pick tent and drive into Murphysboro to get the puncture mended.
Pizza for dinner and we have decided to go to a movie, to relax. And that’s where we are right now, debating which movie to see!! Let you know tomorrow.
BP
Angel and I rode out of the camp site while the others took the van into Chester. The camps site was on the West side of Chester so it was a 6 mile ride into the town. We past a great log house which was wood and plaster built and looked pretty authentic. Then into Chester and man anyone love Popeye, Bluto, and Olive Oyl and all the other characters? Well Chester is where they were all “born”. They were brought to life by E. C. Segar right here in Chester. There’s a small park that has been built, and it’s bounded on two sides by buildings with the characters painted onto the walls – Angel loved it, as did I. Obviously pictures were taken, then onwards on route 3.
Route 3 follows the mighty Mississippi for a long way and as we traveled along this route we could see the flooding that had occurred. In fact the water came right up to the road that we were on, and if it had not been for the fact that we were a little higher we’d have been under water too! Finally into a plain that was between us and the river on one side and on the other side rolling hills with masses of trees and small holdings.
Bang – damn puncture time AGAIN!!!! What’s going on, for three weeks we are fine then the three arrive on Saturday and leave on Tuesday, and we have 4 punctures and a spoke break. They leave and we think we are fine, but their mojo is still with us!! Now since they have left three punctures!! Please please no more! It’s my turn for the puncture, thankfully I was not in last place at the time! Jack goes by and I tell him, Raymond goes by and I tell him. Now I’m on my own pushing the bike along. I call Angel – guess what no reception! I txt him hoping that this might go through, we’ll see. Keep pushing the bike, with cars pick-ups, trucks going by, After what seemed like an eternity Andriy arrives in the van and in I get to laughter, which is not appreciated!
Raymond and Jack are left to ride to the camp site, Murphysboro State Park. Another terrific State Park, next to a lake. We pick tent and drive into Murphysboro to get the puncture mended.
Pizza for dinner and we have decided to go to a movie, to relax. And that’s where we are right now, debating which movie to see!! Let you know tomorrow.
BP
Day 24
Tough to get out of a great bed! But had to be done, so that we could get a good breakfast before starting to Ride East. We wanted to get onto the road by 8.30am., but as usual certain bodies were not ready! However we did get going and first thing first we drove through St Louis and before we realized we were going over the great Mississippi and into Illinois – our next State. Over the bridge and onto the bikes, except Felipe started to pump up his front wheel and bang, he broke the metal part that goes into the tyre and into inner tube!! So we find a bike shop in Columbia and he gets it fixed, what a start! We had gone maybe two miles when Jack gets a puncture again! So back to the bike shop, that’s after waiting 45 minutes by the side of the road for Andriy to come back! Finally we are set to go and go we do. Route 3 is pretty pleasant, it called the Great River Road, Illinois, and I guess that it kind of follows the Mississippi, although we cann’t see the river. The ride today is not long, in fact just over 50+ miles, so we are not in a rush, which is great.
Into Red Bud – no it’s not a red Budweiser – I’m guessing that at some point the trees have red buds on them, or maybe in the past? It’s a decent road, although some of the time the bike path is narrow and there are some big lorries (truck for Americans), that seem to get close, but then the path widens again.
We did the 10 mile system with the van waiting for us, this worked well today and before we knew it we were at our camp site Fort Kaskaskia – which had once been the gateway city to the West, but was no more as it had been flooded by the Mississippi as it changed it’s course in 1881. An historic site, and as you entered the site the old Fort was on your left. Not really a Fort as we would know it, more grassy mounds that made a square and I guess protected the garrison that once lived there. Kaskaskia had been given royal status by Louis 14th of France, and as I’ve said became an important city when traveling to the West. You could see the Mississippi once you were onto the site. It was huge and very broad, and in flood. With fields on either side under water. You could see a huge barge struggling against the flow, and it didn’t seem to be making any headway at all going up stream.
Tent up and we went into Chester, the town that was our stop for this leg. The only place open for food was a Mexican restaurant. We went in and tucked in to some good grub.
Matches were the order of the night as we left the Mexican – Felipe and Angel always have a fire going at night, to keep the bugs away.
Sadly on hotel tonight, it was the ground for us. Back to reality! Which was the way that it would be for the rest of the Ride.
Good night.
BP
Into Red Bud – no it’s not a red Budweiser – I’m guessing that at some point the trees have red buds on them, or maybe in the past? It’s a decent road, although some of the time the bike path is narrow and there are some big lorries (truck for Americans), that seem to get close, but then the path widens again.
We did the 10 mile system with the van waiting for us, this worked well today and before we knew it we were at our camp site Fort Kaskaskia – which had once been the gateway city to the West, but was no more as it had been flooded by the Mississippi as it changed it’s course in 1881. An historic site, and as you entered the site the old Fort was on your left. Not really a Fort as we would know it, more grassy mounds that made a square and I guess protected the garrison that once lived there. Kaskaskia had been given royal status by Louis 14th of France, and as I’ve said became an important city when traveling to the West. You could see the Mississippi once you were onto the site. It was huge and very broad, and in flood. With fields on either side under water. You could see a huge barge struggling against the flow, and it didn’t seem to be making any headway at all going up stream.
Tent up and we went into Chester, the town that was our stop for this leg. The only place open for food was a Mexican restaurant. We went in and tucked in to some good grub.
Matches were the order of the night as we left the Mexican – Felipe and Angel always have a fire going at night, to keep the bugs away.
Sadly on hotel tonight, it was the ground for us. Back to reality! Which was the way that it would be for the rest of the Ride.
Good night.
BP
Day 23
Rest day yahoo, and woke up in a great bed in the Marriott Springhill Suites, Chesterfield, St Louis – beautiful. Everyone down for breakfast as this was included and really would Felipe turn down the chance of a breakfast – no way.
Jack, who had stayed with a friend, came to take Raymond, Andriy, Felipe and Angel to the Budweiser Brewery, which is actually a listed building, and a historic land mark. Me IU stayed at the hotel trying to catch up with the daily blogs, and this is the catch up for Day 23!
We all met up In Blueberry Hill at the Dart restaurant – a great place, and off course it’s called Dart because it has part of the restaurant with dartboards. It’s a fascinating place as the owner owns a theater just blocks away which is a terrific gig venue and goes back to the mid 80’s when he renovated. There are literally hundreds of pics of him with singing stars over the last 25 years plus. Really great history of music over the last ¼ century. Felipe and Angel learnt how to play darts, and boy have they both got different styles!!
From here to the Arch and the old St Louis, right by the Mississippi – the divide, East from West. It’s where people really started the long journey to the West. The river is high and is still flooding paths along the side of it. What a spectacular sight the Arch is, and the ride up is interesting. You get into a 5 seater pod, very small, and tight. There are 8 pods which start off going diagonally up and then I think you end up one at the top with the others hanging below going up! Really very interesting, and some screams from other pods!
Wow once at the top, 630 feet above ground, what a sight – oh Angel had declined to come up as he really didn’t like the idea of the height! No kidding! You could see for miles and I swear that we could see our last camp site. We returned to terra firma and met Angel who had visited some of the Museums that are at the bottom. I took a picture of Rainbow Arch which is in Bryce Canyon and we didn’t get to see!
Jack had got one of his friends who owns a string of pizza parlours, Cecil Whittakers, to donate dinner so off we went to collect it. Collected this and then back to the hotel where we really just relaxed had dinner. Angel and Felipe went off to the hot tub to enjoy a soak. Me I’m finishing up these last three days blogs, and wishing that I had had a hot tub too, my body needs it.
This is the last night in a bed, sadly. Tomorrow we are back in the saddle and off Eastwards.
Cheers all. BP
Jack, who had stayed with a friend, came to take Raymond, Andriy, Felipe and Angel to the Budweiser Brewery, which is actually a listed building, and a historic land mark. Me IU stayed at the hotel trying to catch up with the daily blogs, and this is the catch up for Day 23!
We all met up In Blueberry Hill at the Dart restaurant – a great place, and off course it’s called Dart because it has part of the restaurant with dartboards. It’s a fascinating place as the owner owns a theater just blocks away which is a terrific gig venue and goes back to the mid 80’s when he renovated. There are literally hundreds of pics of him with singing stars over the last 25 years plus. Really great history of music over the last ¼ century. Felipe and Angel learnt how to play darts, and boy have they both got different styles!!
From here to the Arch and the old St Louis, right by the Mississippi – the divide, East from West. It’s where people really started the long journey to the West. The river is high and is still flooding paths along the side of it. What a spectacular sight the Arch is, and the ride up is interesting. You get into a 5 seater pod, very small, and tight. There are 8 pods which start off going diagonally up and then I think you end up one at the top with the others hanging below going up! Really very interesting, and some screams from other pods!
Wow once at the top, 630 feet above ground, what a sight – oh Angel had declined to come up as he really didn’t like the idea of the height! No kidding! You could see for miles and I swear that we could see our last camp site. We returned to terra firma and met Angel who had visited some of the Museums that are at the bottom. I took a picture of Rainbow Arch which is in Bryce Canyon and we didn’t get to see!
Jack had got one of his friends who owns a string of pizza parlours, Cecil Whittakers, to donate dinner so off we went to collect it. Collected this and then back to the hotel where we really just relaxed had dinner. Angel and Felipe went off to the hot tub to enjoy a soak. Me I’m finishing up these last three days blogs, and wishing that I had had a hot tub too, my body needs it.
This is the last night in a bed, sadly. Tomorrow we are back in the saddle and off Eastwards.
Cheers all. BP
Day 22
Oh yea another storm in the middle of the night, and what a beauty, thunder, lightning, loads of rain, wind that was ferocious and once again we had not put the tarp over the tent. Hey it looked great as we sat round the fire and looked at the stars, only hours earlier!! Jack and Felipe were the men, actually it was Jack who summonsed Felikpe to get up and out and help him with the tarp. Well done lads great job, although by now we were all awake and listening to the storm. The wind was pretty rough and I do remember thinking OK so where will we land as literally the tent rose from the ground – but it’s a great tent PJ and it clung to the ground. PJ Watson and family who had loaned us the tent for this epic journey, and we want to thank them, it’s kept us pretty safe and pretty dry in the two storms that we’ve been through. Holly in her own tent, was apparently praying to stay alive and make it back to the Bronx, all the way through the storm! The rain didn’t stop and it was belting down when we ventured out of the tent, pouring big cats and dogs. We took refuge in the last evenings Church service open barn hoping for some divine intervention! Now you have to understand that for the last 21 days we get up, pack up and get on the road to ride, so when Shrubb produces bacon and eggs this completely throws us! What - breakfast?!!! And yes he’s even going to cook it for us. Well divine intervention didn’t stop the rain, but manner from heaven – YES!! Thank you Shrubb a wonderful gesture and please do it again – he’s actually leaving tomorrow, sadly.
Breakfast in the rain, pack up in the rain, load the bikes in the rain - we had decided to drive the 12 miles into Rolla to the local bike repair shop, Route 66 Bikes, to get all the bikes repaired. Still raining on the way in, but as we get to the shop it stops and definitely starts to brighten up – whoopee! So the deal is Jack is going to stay with the bikes that need repaired and we will ride on, on the bikes that are good. My bike’s tyre has been repaired very quickly so I am able to ride too. The three ask about the route, and they unanimously decide to take the scenic route! Hey they are only here for two days so let’s keep them happy! Actually it’s a great route and really beautiful, have I described it before, rolling hills, open fields, trees for as far as the eye can see. Yes I think I have. But none the less a terrific ride. First 10 miles and guess what sod’s law – my new tyre punctures!! Jack’s a stalwart and drives back ot the bike shop and they repair it again! On we go into Jesse James country and Meramac caverns. These are where Jesse and the gang hid when being chased. Apparently these caverns are huge and spacious, where you can hide with your horses and literally anything. They stay pretty much at 60 degrees most of the time, which is more than can be said for the temp we were riding in – high 80s to low 90s. We sweated loads as you can imagine.
Some terrific old wagons on the side of the road, and off course signs that maybe suggest that maybe the English had been here before – St Albans!!
Angel gave me the low down on the Lewis and Clark trail, explorers who had crossed America trying to map out a route across this huge country. Angel told me that they had an Indian guide helping them, and this was one of the reasons that they could pass through Indian territory. He seems to know what he is talking about that’s for sure.
The three were doing well, Tim was on the charge, Shrubb was riding the Blue machine and doing well and Holly was keeping the pace. I think the camelback helped.
There was some confusion about half way through the day, when we all took off in different directions, much to Shrubbs amazement. Once we had all met up again, it was viewed as a miracle by Shrubb. For us it was the second miracle the first being breakfast! The third miracle was Andriy’s driving. He’d taken a “No through road” while driving ahead, and had stopped thinking that we would all take this! The bikers all stuck to the correct route, the old Route 66. He did figure it out and came back and made the correct turn – so you see miracles do happen!
The final part of the ride into St Louis was pretty easy, going through some very beautiful and expensive areas. To our hotel, the Marriott Springhill Suites in Chesterfield, St Louis, which had been donated to us and boy we were ready for a good night’s rest. Before this though, Michael Puertas the Director of Squash at the St Louis Downtown Club, had kindly found sponsors for a meal at the Pii – the best pizza restaurant in St Louis. President Obama had had pizza from here and had also flown the chef down to DC to make pizza at the White House – so really good pizza. Great to catch up with Mike I had not seen him for some time, and was actually the England BU19 Assistant National Coach way back when with Mike in the squad and he made the team too, quite a player.
So a good day, and now we had a rest day tomorrow In St Louis and a definite visit to the Arch.
We want to say thanks to all the help in St Louis that we got from Mike and all the donors who made sure that we were very comfortable in a real bed and enjoyed great pizza – Cheers St Louis.
BP
Breakfast in the rain, pack up in the rain, load the bikes in the rain - we had decided to drive the 12 miles into Rolla to the local bike repair shop, Route 66 Bikes, to get all the bikes repaired. Still raining on the way in, but as we get to the shop it stops and definitely starts to brighten up – whoopee! So the deal is Jack is going to stay with the bikes that need repaired and we will ride on, on the bikes that are good. My bike’s tyre has been repaired very quickly so I am able to ride too. The three ask about the route, and they unanimously decide to take the scenic route! Hey they are only here for two days so let’s keep them happy! Actually it’s a great route and really beautiful, have I described it before, rolling hills, open fields, trees for as far as the eye can see. Yes I think I have. But none the less a terrific ride. First 10 miles and guess what sod’s law – my new tyre punctures!! Jack’s a stalwart and drives back ot the bike shop and they repair it again! On we go into Jesse James country and Meramac caverns. These are where Jesse and the gang hid when being chased. Apparently these caverns are huge and spacious, where you can hide with your horses and literally anything. They stay pretty much at 60 degrees most of the time, which is more than can be said for the temp we were riding in – high 80s to low 90s. We sweated loads as you can imagine.
Some terrific old wagons on the side of the road, and off course signs that maybe suggest that maybe the English had been here before – St Albans!!
Angel gave me the low down on the Lewis and Clark trail, explorers who had crossed America trying to map out a route across this huge country. Angel told me that they had an Indian guide helping them, and this was one of the reasons that they could pass through Indian territory. He seems to know what he is talking about that’s for sure.
The three were doing well, Tim was on the charge, Shrubb was riding the Blue machine and doing well and Holly was keeping the pace. I think the camelback helped.
There was some confusion about half way through the day, when we all took off in different directions, much to Shrubbs amazement. Once we had all met up again, it was viewed as a miracle by Shrubb. For us it was the second miracle the first being breakfast! The third miracle was Andriy’s driving. He’d taken a “No through road” while driving ahead, and had stopped thinking that we would all take this! The bikers all stuck to the correct route, the old Route 66. He did figure it out and came back and made the correct turn – so you see miracles do happen!
The final part of the ride into St Louis was pretty easy, going through some very beautiful and expensive areas. To our hotel, the Marriott Springhill Suites in Chesterfield, St Louis, which had been donated to us and boy we were ready for a good night’s rest. Before this though, Michael Puertas the Director of Squash at the St Louis Downtown Club, had kindly found sponsors for a meal at the Pii – the best pizza restaurant in St Louis. President Obama had had pizza from here and had also flown the chef down to DC to make pizza at the White House – so really good pizza. Great to catch up with Mike I had not seen him for some time, and was actually the England BU19 Assistant National Coach way back when with Mike in the squad and he made the team too, quite a player.
So a good day, and now we had a rest day tomorrow In St Louis and a definite visit to the Arch.
We want to say thanks to all the help in St Louis that we got from Mike and all the donors who made sure that we were very comfortable in a real bed and enjoyed great pizza – Cheers St Louis.
BP
Day 21
So the three CitySquashers arrived at our camp site, outside Girald, just before midnight. They were pleased to be with us and excited to be doing two days riding with us, although I don’t think that they realized just what they had let themselves in for!! They had flown into St Louis and borrowed two bikes from Michael Puertas, and they were great bikes. The last bike was really a disaster – a blue mountain bike, which was really not a Ride X America kind of bike. The tent situation was another interesting situation. We had been sleeping two in the van (Angel and Raymond) and the rest in the tent (BP, Jack, Andriy and Felipe). Now we had two more in the tent – Tim and Michael Shrubb. From four to six!! Holly had her own tent which she was very pleased about, and her own miners head lamp just like Charlie, very thoughtful. Our tent was a seven person tent, but now no real room! We all made our mark and settled down for the night, with wake up call for 6.30ish!
UP and at it with everything packed and we were ready to go. Tim and Shrubb were on their bikes with Jack and BP, and off we went. We were actually riding out of a town called Republic, just as well it didn’t have the AN on the end as Tim is a Democrat! It was a 20 mile relay and pretty fast, then the next riders were up, with Holly as one of them. The new comers were really enjoying themselves so far! Little did we know that this was going to be an eventful day ahead – was it coincidence that we had three new comers on board?
Again the scenery was typical, rolling hills with open fields, but lots of tracks of trees, some of which are National Parks. The three are determined to ride as much as possible, and we are very happy to let them. First signs of a sore butt is when a rider gets up off the seat and then takes time to readjust his/her seating position, and yes this was now happening but I’m not saying who!
All along the route there are huge billboards, advertising just about anything, plus off course, something that I haven’t mentioned, churches, churches and more churches. The group reminds me that we are in Middle America and the bible belt, off course.
The ride is going well until a puncture on my back wheel! One down! As we rode on we could see the storm clouds building, and man they looked vicious dark and ominous. Our three riders were not happy with this and did not want to ride if it started to rain! Another puncture, this time Angel, two down, and within miles Jack gets a puncture, so we are now down to 4 bikes and a blue mountain bike! On we go, but at the next 15 mile stop another bike dies! One of the borrowed bikes has a spoke out and maybe a buckled back wheel! Is this the curse of the three? We all think it is, in fact we know it is.
Jack and Andriy and others, have now drove on to find the camp site and set up the tent, which they do and then send us the address of the site. Remember we are basically out in the boonies right now on bikes, and with one back up vehicle. Talk about trying to find the camp site! Basically we went around the site with the cars GPS telling us that we were there. Finally we are talked in by Jack, relief.
Now I’ve been on quite a few camp sites in my day, but never a one where there is a religious gathering going on, in an open barn (no side walls – I guess that this is used for shelter on site if the weather is bad), right next to where we have set up – good placement of the tent guys! So we have finished our first day with the three. I went to the washroom and lo and behold a framed cartoon of a frog with the West Ham United theme tune underneath – “I’m forever blowing bubbles”. For the uninitiated West Ham as a football (soccer) team in London that have this as their tune. Just thought that it was funny to see this hanging in a washroom so far away from the East End of London!!
Food time and then smors around the fire that Felipe and Angel have built, but again little did we know what was to come that night!!
UP and at it with everything packed and we were ready to go. Tim and Shrubb were on their bikes with Jack and BP, and off we went. We were actually riding out of a town called Republic, just as well it didn’t have the AN on the end as Tim is a Democrat! It was a 20 mile relay and pretty fast, then the next riders were up, with Holly as one of them. The new comers were really enjoying themselves so far! Little did we know that this was going to be an eventful day ahead – was it coincidence that we had three new comers on board?
Again the scenery was typical, rolling hills with open fields, but lots of tracks of trees, some of which are National Parks. The three are determined to ride as much as possible, and we are very happy to let them. First signs of a sore butt is when a rider gets up off the seat and then takes time to readjust his/her seating position, and yes this was now happening but I’m not saying who!
All along the route there are huge billboards, advertising just about anything, plus off course, something that I haven’t mentioned, churches, churches and more churches. The group reminds me that we are in Middle America and the bible belt, off course.
The ride is going well until a puncture on my back wheel! One down! As we rode on we could see the storm clouds building, and man they looked vicious dark and ominous. Our three riders were not happy with this and did not want to ride if it started to rain! Another puncture, this time Angel, two down, and within miles Jack gets a puncture, so we are now down to 4 bikes and a blue mountain bike! On we go, but at the next 15 mile stop another bike dies! One of the borrowed bikes has a spoke out and maybe a buckled back wheel! Is this the curse of the three? We all think it is, in fact we know it is.
Jack and Andriy and others, have now drove on to find the camp site and set up the tent, which they do and then send us the address of the site. Remember we are basically out in the boonies right now on bikes, and with one back up vehicle. Talk about trying to find the camp site! Basically we went around the site with the cars GPS telling us that we were there. Finally we are talked in by Jack, relief.
Now I’ve been on quite a few camp sites in my day, but never a one where there is a religious gathering going on, in an open barn (no side walls – I guess that this is used for shelter on site if the weather is bad), right next to where we have set up – good placement of the tent guys! So we have finished our first day with the three. I went to the washroom and lo and behold a framed cartoon of a frog with the West Ham United theme tune underneath – “I’m forever blowing bubbles”. For the uninitiated West Ham as a football (soccer) team in London that have this as their tune. Just thought that it was funny to see this hanging in a washroom so far away from the East End of London!!
Food time and then smors around the fire that Felipe and Angel have built, but again little did we know what was to come that night!!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Day 20
Up early but I have to say it’s getting harder to get these students up and on the move – they are like zombies when they wake up, and seeing them trudge to the washroom is funny! Tent packed up and on the road and it a relay day today 15 miles on 30 off. We start from the middle of Girald and Andriy and Felipe are up followed by Jack and BP and then Raymond and Angel. The morning is cool and slightly overcast so not too hot yet! Within 20m miles we are into Missouri, our 6th State and we are psyched. It’s getting hotter and the day goes to 92 degrees! But we are doing well in relay and stacking up the miles, the 15 miles each pair is working really well. I love it when the route signs say East on top, 96 East is good, any other direction is never good! Through a little town called Avilla. I had to take a pic as we have two members of CitySquash who’s last name is Avila – OK so one more L in the town’s name, but close. It’s rolling hill time as ever, lots of cattle, plenty of corn and great horses. Green fields rolling hills and long straight roads, oh and it’s the old Route 66 so let’s get some kicks here. We turn into a gas station and wait for Angel and Raymond. There is an incredible Coca Cola shop with loads of old Coke memorabilia dating back years. Old bottles, ice machines, signs, just about everything that you could imagine about coke really cool! Jack bought a lamp and Andriy bought a checker board - nice
We change our plan and decide to stay in Springfield, rather than go on the extra 35 miles to Marshfield. It’s a KOA camp site and we have not stayed in one for a few nights, plus we have visitors – Tim (CEO of CitySquash), Holly Alderman (Middle School academics), and Michael Shrubb (Righthand man to Tim). They have flown in to St Louis and driving to the camp site, and then riding three days with us. I guess that they’ll say that they did the Ride X America once they’ve done the three days!!!!
Right now watching “The Longest Yard” in the lounge of the KOA and waiting for our guests. They are in for a big surprise when they hit the road tomorrow, I’m not responsibly for sore legs, sore arms OR sore butts!!
CU tomorrow.
BP
We change our plan and decide to stay in Springfield, rather than go on the extra 35 miles to Marshfield. It’s a KOA camp site and we have not stayed in one for a few nights, plus we have visitors – Tim (CEO of CitySquash), Holly Alderman (Middle School academics), and Michael Shrubb (Righthand man to Tim). They have flown in to St Louis and driving to the camp site, and then riding three days with us. I guess that they’ll say that they did the Ride X America once they’ve done the three days!!!!
Right now watching “The Longest Yard” in the lounge of the KOA and waiting for our guests. They are in for a big surprise when they hit the road tomorrow, I’m not responsibly for sore legs, sore arms OR sore butts!!
CU tomorrow.
BP
Day 19
Bad start we slept in! I guess that we were actually getting tired! Also Angel had sat upright in the middle of the night and started talking to Raymond about broken glass – what was that all about!! The last two days had seen some good biking, fast and long, maybe this had hit us! We had around 98 miles today and starting late – not good!
Same old same old country side, open plains, big skies and pretty hot! But we kept going and I teamed up with Angel at the back. It’s actually not to bad hanging and seeing what’s to see. Angel found a dead firefly which he hoped he could get back to NYC! Very optimistic, but he hope to set it and hang it in a frame. Across the Verdegris river where we saw turtles swimming, and diving, again this was Angel who spotted them. He also noticed that there were lots of dead animals on the side of the roads, especially armadillos. Sad really that so many animals die on the roads.
The day went well and we made the State Park Camp Site, which was huge, and just outside of Girald. Set around another lake, actually I think it was a damned river, but the lake was pretty big with lots of boats and jet skis, and off course fishing – go Angel!
The lads’ bike once again had a loose back wheel with the tyre hitting the brakes, but this time an easy remedy, release the back axel and line up the wheel again – fixed.
The ground that the tent was pretty stony so not a good place to sleep, but hey beggars can’t be choosers!
Girald to Springfield tomorrow. Good night.
BP
Same old same old country side, open plains, big skies and pretty hot! But we kept going and I teamed up with Angel at the back. It’s actually not to bad hanging and seeing what’s to see. Angel found a dead firefly which he hoped he could get back to NYC! Very optimistic, but he hope to set it and hang it in a frame. Across the Verdegris river where we saw turtles swimming, and diving, again this was Angel who spotted them. He also noticed that there were lots of dead animals on the side of the roads, especially armadillos. Sad really that so many animals die on the roads.
The day went well and we made the State Park Camp Site, which was huge, and just outside of Girald. Set around another lake, actually I think it was a damned river, but the lake was pretty big with lots of boats and jet skis, and off course fishing – go Angel!
The lads’ bike once again had a loose back wheel with the tyre hitting the brakes, but this time an easy remedy, release the back axel and line up the wheel again – fixed.
The ground that the tent was pretty stony so not a good place to sleep, but hey beggars can’t be choosers!
Girald to Springfield tomorrow. Good night.
BP
Day 18
Nickerson to Eureka – what names, but very appropriate for the great plains. Plains they are too, as far as the eye can see, but whoever said that Kansas was flat was wrong. Yes it looks flat but I have to say that going East there are some might long inclines, which just keep going and going. The scenery was changing from really open brush to more arable land with crops, corn fields, cattle and horses, so very much a mix of agriculture.
It was another good day as far as biking. We hit the road early and made good time and miles. El Dorado was the first large town that we went through. We biked on the pavement (oops that’s sidewalk for the Yanks), for some time as the road was actually busy. Stopped at Memorial site with a huge bronze Eagle and “Freedom’s not Free” etched into the wall surrounding the memorial. Cool. Then Angel spotted a bike route which took us off the main highway and through some terrific woodland and river scenes, nice one Angel. Turtles in the river we crossed, which was fascinating and an old man fishing. Angel asked him what he was fishing for, but I think the drawl baffled him.
We made Withita relatively quickly and into Subway – Jack’s favourite eatery! Withita is a very smart city, with new buildings and a terrific city center. We were impressed. But onwards to the East with reminders that this is oil country, as could be seen by the rigs and derricks in various yards, with the oil companies signs hung on fences.
Angel changed with Felipe and Jack retired to the van, and on we went. We finally arrived at another State Park again right by a lake – seems that that’s where most of them are, by lakes. Pretty spectacular, we picked tent and with thunder in the background we also put on the tarp! Just for good measure. In fact we needed it as it did rain hard, but no lightning this time, thank goodness.
In the morning we found that something had mooched around and found our cooler and had a good tuck in – so much for leaving the cooler out and below the van!
BP
It was another good day as far as biking. We hit the road early and made good time and miles. El Dorado was the first large town that we went through. We biked on the pavement (oops that’s sidewalk for the Yanks), for some time as the road was actually busy. Stopped at Memorial site with a huge bronze Eagle and “Freedom’s not Free” etched into the wall surrounding the memorial. Cool. Then Angel spotted a bike route which took us off the main highway and through some terrific woodland and river scenes, nice one Angel. Turtles in the river we crossed, which was fascinating and an old man fishing. Angel asked him what he was fishing for, but I think the drawl baffled him.
We made Withita relatively quickly and into Subway – Jack’s favourite eatery! Withita is a very smart city, with new buildings and a terrific city center. We were impressed. But onwards to the East with reminders that this is oil country, as could be seen by the rigs and derricks in various yards, with the oil companies signs hung on fences.
Angel changed with Felipe and Jack retired to the van, and on we went. We finally arrived at another State Park again right by a lake – seems that that’s where most of them are, by lakes. Pretty spectacular, we picked tent and with thunder in the background we also put on the tarp! Just for good measure. In fact we needed it as it did rain hard, but no lightning this time, thank goodness.
In the morning we found that something had mooched around and found our cooler and had a good tuck in – so much for leaving the cooler out and below the van!
BP
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Day 17
On the road again, just cann’t wait to get on the road again – there’s a song there somewhere!! Up and raring to go, as we have not ridden for the last two days. We are getting lazy! We quickly drive back down to Alexander, bikes out and off we go. It’s Jack, Raymond, Angel and me to start. Man it’s a beautiful day, cool and the sun coming up, not a cloud in the sky (which may not be good for later!). A great road very smooth, and off course FLAT! The van’s at the 10 miles and we reach it in a very fast time. Jack has set the pace and is flying. The land is golden, with the wheat and corn ready for harvest, actually some of the fields are already done, and combine harvesters are either being transported to other farms or are in use, as we can see. Every occasionally there is a small oil rig in the field (not sure that you can call them fields as they are huge unfenced areas), pumping oil from the ground. I’m sure that the farms out here are self sufficient in fuel. Also gas (that’s petrol for everyone else) is selling at the pump for $3.35. Eat your heart out New York, oh and Europe!
The van has gone 20 miles this time and we seem to be there In no time again. As Angel says “this feels like we’ve done only 5 miles!” But in fact it’s 30 miles that we have done. Out at 8.15am and at the 30 mile mark just before 11am. Very good going, I’m sure that it’s the very flat roads that we are on. The scenery is as ever flat as the eye can see, and it’s not looking like it will change any time soon. Another 20 miles fly by and we’ve done 50 already, before 1pm. Rest time and we can now feel the sun, it’s getting very hot. A great little park which is just off the road that we are on, shaded, and relatively quiet and a good place to refuel and get a few zzzz in. Which we do. Angel’s done and Felipe takes over – Mr Fasty and he’s ready to go too. So back onto the road and only another 46 miles to go. The van goes 20 miles and waits as usual, for us all to catch up. Lots of trucks, but not sure what they are transporting, maybe the harvest? With the truck the road is still a little dangerous, but they do seem to give us plenty of room as they pass, which we appreciate. Again 20 miles goes fast and we are at the van which has water and munchies. We do carry water with us, but always nice to get a cool drink at the van. Our water on the move literally heats up with the sun. On we go and in Sterling we see the van. Andriy makes sure that we have the correct way to Nickerson, we wouldn’t want to get lost now – which Jack promptly does taking a wrong turn and not seeing where we had gone! No one is really aware of this until the end when Jack comes in quite a while after us telling us that he’d taken a wrong turn!
So we are in Nickerson, but this is not camp site country, so we google and ask where the nearest camp site is! Another 15 miles away, these camp sites are just not helping us one bit. Another State Park which are in fact very good value, and this one by the side of a huge lake. No need for the van lights, so we pitch the tent and prepare for food, but you sods law, there is a wind off the lake and our grill takes forever to cook. Man, thank goodness for bread and peanut butter, and jelly. Jack, Andriy and Raymond take off to Haven to find a café and food, while Angel and Felipe, having had bacon sarnies, are more into the lake and what they can catch. Believe it or not the spear a fish! Me I’m catching up on the blogg, it’s two days now since I got this out there and still no internet. Hopefully there will be access tomorrow and I can get this to you all.
When they arrive back from Haven Felipe, Angel and Andriy are into the Lake for a dip to cool of. It’s been a hot day and we are all tired.
OK over and out. Remember if you have any questions please let us have them and we will try to answer. Do it through the blog.
By the way ½ way through tomorrow, Thursday we will be ½ way through Ride X America.
Cheers,
BP
The van has gone 20 miles this time and we seem to be there In no time again. As Angel says “this feels like we’ve done only 5 miles!” But in fact it’s 30 miles that we have done. Out at 8.15am and at the 30 mile mark just before 11am. Very good going, I’m sure that it’s the very flat roads that we are on. The scenery is as ever flat as the eye can see, and it’s not looking like it will change any time soon. Another 20 miles fly by and we’ve done 50 already, before 1pm. Rest time and we can now feel the sun, it’s getting very hot. A great little park which is just off the road that we are on, shaded, and relatively quiet and a good place to refuel and get a few zzzz in. Which we do. Angel’s done and Felipe takes over – Mr Fasty and he’s ready to go too. So back onto the road and only another 46 miles to go. The van goes 20 miles and waits as usual, for us all to catch up. Lots of trucks, but not sure what they are transporting, maybe the harvest? With the truck the road is still a little dangerous, but they do seem to give us plenty of room as they pass, which we appreciate. Again 20 miles goes fast and we are at the van which has water and munchies. We do carry water with us, but always nice to get a cool drink at the van. Our water on the move literally heats up with the sun. On we go and in Sterling we see the van. Andriy makes sure that we have the correct way to Nickerson, we wouldn’t want to get lost now – which Jack promptly does taking a wrong turn and not seeing where we had gone! No one is really aware of this until the end when Jack comes in quite a while after us telling us that he’d taken a wrong turn!
So we are in Nickerson, but this is not camp site country, so we google and ask where the nearest camp site is! Another 15 miles away, these camp sites are just not helping us one bit. Another State Park which are in fact very good value, and this one by the side of a huge lake. No need for the van lights, so we pitch the tent and prepare for food, but you sods law, there is a wind off the lake and our grill takes forever to cook. Man, thank goodness for bread and peanut butter, and jelly. Jack, Andriy and Raymond take off to Haven to find a café and food, while Angel and Felipe, having had bacon sarnies, are more into the lake and what they can catch. Believe it or not the spear a fish! Me I’m catching up on the blogg, it’s two days now since I got this out there and still no internet. Hopefully there will be access tomorrow and I can get this to you all.
When they arrive back from Haven Felipe, Angel and Andriy are into the Lake for a dip to cool of. It’s been a hot day and we are all tired.
OK over and out. Remember if you have any questions please let us have them and we will try to answer. Do it through the blog.
By the way ½ way through tomorrow, Thursday we will be ½ way through Ride X America.
Cheers,
BP
Day 16
Now if you’ve seen our route you’ll know that we have two drive by days. Today is one of them. No need for an early start so a leisurely up, shower, pack up, and then down into Pueblo to collect the bikes. Jack’s, Felipe’s, Raymond’s and mine had all been in for repair, now they were good to go. Bikes on board and headed out of Pueblo to Alexander, Kansas. We drove and the scenery became very flat and non-descript, just flat. The Rockies were now becoming small specks on the horizon, and just flat, and we were still in Colorado. You don’t really think of Colorado as flat but sure enough it is on this side of the Rockies. I have to say that this particular road was not great with a very small bike path on the side and more vehicles than we had seen for some time. So maybe that’s why it’s a drive by route.
Kansas and here we are. The scenery stays the same and we are unimpressed, just flat as far as the eye can see, and hot too. We pass through small towns and I mean small, maybe 6 or 7 houses, with some other houses boarded up and dilapidated. Seems like small town America is suffering.
We finally come to Alexander our stop – wow even smaller than the other towns we’ve passed through. Now for a camp site and we are told that the nearest one is 30 miles away North of Alexander. OK so that’s it! Onto the dusty back roads and off we go to the Kansas State Park camp site, 30 miles! We get there late and have to use the van headlights to see to put the tent up and to cook! Not good, but what else could we do? We get everything done and finally it’s sleep time. We have a long ride tomorrow, Alexander to Nickerson, some 96 miles. But we know that we are in flat lands.
Let me tell you about the van – Jack bid for it on a government site. The van was being sold by Kentucky Tech and Jack finally got the last bid in to get the van for just over 5k. A good buy, it’s a 15 seater and in good nick. A 2001 Dodge 3500 Maxi with under 100k mileage. Jack goes and collects the van and then drives it to San Fran where he meet us there on the 4th June. He actually does a road trip with his dad for part of this, which is pretty cool. Vegas and the Grand Canyon are some of the places he visits – not sure just how many miles Jack puts on the van though!! She’s still going, but I think we need to get an oil change soon.
BP
Kansas and here we are. The scenery stays the same and we are unimpressed, just flat as far as the eye can see, and hot too. We pass through small towns and I mean small, maybe 6 or 7 houses, with some other houses boarded up and dilapidated. Seems like small town America is suffering.
We finally come to Alexander our stop – wow even smaller than the other towns we’ve passed through. Now for a camp site and we are told that the nearest one is 30 miles away North of Alexander. OK so that’s it! Onto the dusty back roads and off we go to the Kansas State Park camp site, 30 miles! We get there late and have to use the van headlights to see to put the tent up and to cook! Not good, but what else could we do? We get everything done and finally it’s sleep time. We have a long ride tomorrow, Alexander to Nickerson, some 96 miles. But we know that we are in flat lands.
Let me tell you about the van – Jack bid for it on a government site. The van was being sold by Kentucky Tech and Jack finally got the last bid in to get the van for just over 5k. A good buy, it’s a 15 seater and in good nick. A 2001 Dodge 3500 Maxi with under 100k mileage. Jack goes and collects the van and then drives it to San Fran where he meet us there on the 4th June. He actually does a road trip with his dad for part of this, which is pretty cool. Vegas and the Grand Canyon are some of the places he visits – not sure just how many miles Jack puts on the van though!! She’s still going, but I think we need to get an oil change soon.
BP
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Day 15 -- Denver
Actually let’s talk about the night going into Day 15!! The Mac and Cheeses was not spectacular, in fact anything but, so not a great dinner!
Went to bed, sleeping bags and all. THEN – rain, heavy rain, like you’ve never heard, pelting the tent, and we hadn’t put up the rainproof sheet over the tent!! Silly us! Plus high winds, really high winds! I was at one end of the tent with Jack at the other and Felipe, Andriy and Charlie in the middle section. Andriy was the first to feel the rain just coming through the tent roof (if that’s what you call the top of the tent!). Then Charlie and Felipe caught some, next up was Jack. I seemed to be in the one dry place in the tent. Suddenly thunder and lightning, which was absolutely right above us, and loud and noisy as could be. Literally every few seconds, boom then the lightning, and the heavy rain and the high wind that was bashing the tent. The lads were getting hysterical, with Jack’s nervous laugh, each time the thunder and the lightning happened, and Andriy getting up and screaming for someone to help him place the tarp over the tent. It was getting to be a little like Comedy Central inside the tent. Charlie who had a miners light around his head, got up to help Andriy, and the rain eased a little, so out they went into the rain and driving wind, to get the tarp and place it over the tent. Now you know sods law – just when you think things are getting better they get worse!! So just as Andriy and Charlie exit the tent the rain and wind intensifies! They get the tarp out of the van, but they are not in unison, and the wind is blowing it all over the place. So it’s hard to control and they get it wrapped the wrong way trying to straighten it out. Shouts and screams with Jack’s nervous laughter in the background each time there is a crack of thunder. Felipe has his torch on and this looks like an alien ship floating around the tent!
Andriy and Charlie get the tarp over the tent and secure it, but little do they know that the zip entrance on the tarp is on the opposite side to the zip entrance to the tent!! Now how to get in? Crawl up under the tarp and find the tent entrance, with the miners light all over the place and Felipe’s torch trying to help, and Jack’s nervous laughter and me giggling in the sleeping bag! Everyone gets in but the rain is relentless, fast and pounding the tent, with the wind almost lifting the tent of the ground! More thunder and lightning and we all wonder just when we are going to get hit and fried. Rain has gotten under the tent and makes it feel like a water bed. We are all now searching for a dry place to put our sleeping bags, quite hilarious when we all end up in a corner of the tent in the only dry spot! The night is long, but I think that we do get some sleep, but every so often you are getting feet pushing you, arms all over the place, and generally moving each other with limbs. Oh and all this time Angel and Raymond were safely sleeping in the van, not realizing just what was going on!!
Morning and we have managed to stay relatively dry, the tent is still in one piece, and attached to the ground which really is a miracle. The wind has subdued a little and the thunder and lightning long gone, but the rain is still coming down. We manage to shower and get dressed and into the van. We have placed most of our luggage into the tent to give it some weight so that it doesn’t blow away, which we still think it might. Bikes into the back and we drive into Pueblo to the Ski, Hike and Bike shop to get the bikes serviced, repaired and anything else that may need. They will have the bikes ready for tomorrow, Tuesday.
Charlie is leaving today, from Denver. So this is a chance for us to drop him off at the DIA and look around Denver. It’s a two hour drive and we say goodbye to Charlie who I think would have liked to have continued on this Ride. He takes the miners light with him, safely packed away, and not on his head, although there have been times when he’s forgotten that he’s wearing it and has wondered around during the day with it on! We are sad to see him go. But into Denver to see the City, and it’s a pretty new modern City. I was here in 1998 with the Men’s U19 World team to train before playing in the World U19 Championships. Changed a lot since then. We meet up with Eric Eijteljorg, the CEO of Mile High Urban Programme here in Denver. He’s literally just got back from the Urban Individual Champs. He and his team landed at 3am this morning. We talk about Urban squash, and the developing programmes. He’s from Philadelphia so we talk about squash there. Eric was a member of the Merion Club way back when, but still remembers his time there. More walking around Denver, then we see the Denver Athletic Club, and I know the Pro there – John Leskoe. He’s been in Denver a long while, but I first met him when I came to New York to be the Head Pro at the Heights Casino way back in 1993! Thomas Hercule the squash coach for the Mile High programme was at the Club too so really good to see him and chat about squash.
Finally we were going to have a fantastic meal. Andy, Audey and Gabriella Garr had told us a few days previously that they would donate dinner at any stop that we made. So we told them Denver would be good. Andy took care of it all and text us that he’d booked the Denver Chop House for 7pm. We didn’t know what awaited us! We all met up again at the Denver Chop House, went in, and what a terrific restaurant, and I mean terrific. We sat and drooled over the menu, appetizers, main course and deserts. We really didn’t know where to start, and it took some time for us all to decide just what we were ordering. Starters were delicious, a triple deck with calamari, onion rings, jumbo shrimps wrapped in bacon, portobello mushrooms in asparagus sauce, and corn bread, a feast in itself. Then the main course where we all chose steaks, New York Strip, Fillet Mignon, and Porterhouse and some included shrimp too. I don’t think there was any talking while we enjoyed the main course! Finally the sweets, with Felipe and Angel’s eyes lighting up. They both chose ice-cream, while others had raspberry sorbet, crème brulee, and lava cake. Me I enjoyed a coffee! What a wonderful meal in a great restaurant. We all want to thank the Garr family so much for making this possible. Cheers all.
Back to Pueblo and the camp site and wonder of wonders the tent was still there, only half blown away!
BP
Went to bed, sleeping bags and all. THEN – rain, heavy rain, like you’ve never heard, pelting the tent, and we hadn’t put up the rainproof sheet over the tent!! Silly us! Plus high winds, really high winds! I was at one end of the tent with Jack at the other and Felipe, Andriy and Charlie in the middle section. Andriy was the first to feel the rain just coming through the tent roof (if that’s what you call the top of the tent!). Then Charlie and Felipe caught some, next up was Jack. I seemed to be in the one dry place in the tent. Suddenly thunder and lightning, which was absolutely right above us, and loud and noisy as could be. Literally every few seconds, boom then the lightning, and the heavy rain and the high wind that was bashing the tent. The lads were getting hysterical, with Jack’s nervous laugh, each time the thunder and the lightning happened, and Andriy getting up and screaming for someone to help him place the tarp over the tent. It was getting to be a little like Comedy Central inside the tent. Charlie who had a miners light around his head, got up to help Andriy, and the rain eased a little, so out they went into the rain and driving wind, to get the tarp and place it over the tent. Now you know sods law – just when you think things are getting better they get worse!! So just as Andriy and Charlie exit the tent the rain and wind intensifies! They get the tarp out of the van, but they are not in unison, and the wind is blowing it all over the place. So it’s hard to control and they get it wrapped the wrong way trying to straighten it out. Shouts and screams with Jack’s nervous laughter in the background each time there is a crack of thunder. Felipe has his torch on and this looks like an alien ship floating around the tent!
Andriy and Charlie get the tarp over the tent and secure it, but little do they know that the zip entrance on the tarp is on the opposite side to the zip entrance to the tent!! Now how to get in? Crawl up under the tarp and find the tent entrance, with the miners light all over the place and Felipe’s torch trying to help, and Jack’s nervous laughter and me giggling in the sleeping bag! Everyone gets in but the rain is relentless, fast and pounding the tent, with the wind almost lifting the tent of the ground! More thunder and lightning and we all wonder just when we are going to get hit and fried. Rain has gotten under the tent and makes it feel like a water bed. We are all now searching for a dry place to put our sleeping bags, quite hilarious when we all end up in a corner of the tent in the only dry spot! The night is long, but I think that we do get some sleep, but every so often you are getting feet pushing you, arms all over the place, and generally moving each other with limbs. Oh and all this time Angel and Raymond were safely sleeping in the van, not realizing just what was going on!!
Morning and we have managed to stay relatively dry, the tent is still in one piece, and attached to the ground which really is a miracle. The wind has subdued a little and the thunder and lightning long gone, but the rain is still coming down. We manage to shower and get dressed and into the van. We have placed most of our luggage into the tent to give it some weight so that it doesn’t blow away, which we still think it might. Bikes into the back and we drive into Pueblo to the Ski, Hike and Bike shop to get the bikes serviced, repaired and anything else that may need. They will have the bikes ready for tomorrow, Tuesday.
Charlie is leaving today, from Denver. So this is a chance for us to drop him off at the DIA and look around Denver. It’s a two hour drive and we say goodbye to Charlie who I think would have liked to have continued on this Ride. He takes the miners light with him, safely packed away, and not on his head, although there have been times when he’s forgotten that he’s wearing it and has wondered around during the day with it on! We are sad to see him go. But into Denver to see the City, and it’s a pretty new modern City. I was here in 1998 with the Men’s U19 World team to train before playing in the World U19 Championships. Changed a lot since then. We meet up with Eric Eijteljorg, the CEO of Mile High Urban Programme here in Denver. He’s literally just got back from the Urban Individual Champs. He and his team landed at 3am this morning. We talk about Urban squash, and the developing programmes. He’s from Philadelphia so we talk about squash there. Eric was a member of the Merion Club way back when, but still remembers his time there. More walking around Denver, then we see the Denver Athletic Club, and I know the Pro there – John Leskoe. He’s been in Denver a long while, but I first met him when I came to New York to be the Head Pro at the Heights Casino way back in 1993! Thomas Hercule the squash coach for the Mile High programme was at the Club too so really good to see him and chat about squash.
Finally we were going to have a fantastic meal. Andy, Audey and Gabriella Garr had told us a few days previously that they would donate dinner at any stop that we made. So we told them Denver would be good. Andy took care of it all and text us that he’d booked the Denver Chop House for 7pm. We didn’t know what awaited us! We all met up again at the Denver Chop House, went in, and what a terrific restaurant, and I mean terrific. We sat and drooled over the menu, appetizers, main course and deserts. We really didn’t know where to start, and it took some time for us all to decide just what we were ordering. Starters were delicious, a triple deck with calamari, onion rings, jumbo shrimps wrapped in bacon, portobello mushrooms in asparagus sauce, and corn bread, a feast in itself. Then the main course where we all chose steaks, New York Strip, Fillet Mignon, and Porterhouse and some included shrimp too. I don’t think there was any talking while we enjoyed the main course! Finally the sweets, with Felipe and Angel’s eyes lighting up. They both chose ice-cream, while others had raspberry sorbet, crème brulee, and lava cake. Me I enjoyed a coffee! What a wonderful meal in a great restaurant. We all want to thank the Garr family so much for making this possible. Cheers all.
Back to Pueblo and the camp site and wonder of wonders the tent was still there, only half blown away!
BP
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