0 miles ridden – 0 feet climbed – emotions felt – many……

Yesterday evening we had a real treat as Lon and his wife Joanne invited myself, Ernie, Tim and Richard to their house for dinner. Lon even drove 45 minutes each way to collect us from, and return us to, our hotel.

We were not sitting on plastic seats in a noisy over-airconditioned restaurant eating lots of fried food off plastic plates with plastic cutlery. We were sitting in a quiet, beautiful garden eating delicious BBQ’d meat, coleslaw, potato salad and (my newly defined best flavour) key lime pie ice cream.

Thanks to American Airlines cancelling the 09:31 flight from Minneapolis to Chicago I had to get up at stupid o’clock in the morning to take the 06:00 flight which has resulted in a 9.5 hour lay-over in Chicago O’Hare Airport. However I am on a soft chair without butt balm.

I’m wondering how to summarise the trip. Firstly, the statistics are quite astonishing:

•  1744 miles cycled.
• 43,830 feet climbed – that’s 1.5 times the height of Mount Everest.
• 93,864 calories burned – that’s the equivalent of 375 Mars Bars, 870 medium sized bananas, 133 Pizza Express American simple Pepperoni pizzas, or 720 cans of Coca Cola. Sadly much of this calorie deficit was used on SAG food – I do not want any bananas, fig rolls, chocolate chip cookies, or ‘trail mix’ for the foreseeable future.
• 24 different hotels – I only forgot my room number twice on this trip. I think that the layout of all hotel rooms should be standardised to assist men of a certain age avoid toilet location panic while half asleep.

It was great to spend time with Ernie, Lon and Paul again. We spent a lot of time reminiscing over our cross-country trip and then moved on to create new memories with lots of laughing. As the trip progressed we all managed to spend at least some time with all the other riders. Along with the other Brits – Tim from Stamford, Richard from Bridgend, and Peter and Sue from Huddersfield – Cynthia from Mill Valley, California; Patty from Wilmette, Illinois who addition to trips like this swims over 3000 miles a year for charity and is a truly inspirational 72 years young; Ward and Susan who keep bees in Ohio; Michael and Barb from Oregon (Michael finished a cross-country ride 2 weeks before this started!); Bob from San Francisco who was on his first ever bike tour and stunned us all; Charles from Larkspur, California who completed his first century ride on day 5; Wayne riding with his daughter Mindy who are actually riding another 240 miles right to the source of the Mississippi; the super fit & fast group – Keith and Ruth, Alex and Paula, Doug and Kathy; Bill and Daun from Tuscon Arizona; and Ann, Jay and Rick who rode with us for the first section to Memphis.

Unfortunately we had two casualties. Bill and Daun sadly had to leave us in Cape Girardeau after Bill came off and broke his collarbone and Rick fell on the second day and sustained a fractured pelvis. They stayed in touch over the remainder of the tour and seemed remarkably philosophical with speedy prospective recoveries thanks to both having surgeons who are cyclists.

Most Brits who visit the US stick around the big cities and Florida. The warmth and welcome we received as we passed through some of the remotest and poorest areas of America was stunning, it’s like being in a different country. Focus on politics, guns, and social policies and there  isn’t much to talk about. Share the moment – where you are, what you see, what you hear, local history – and you realise that we are all much more alike than we are different.

What else have I learned this trip? P20 sunscreen is phenomenal – no sunburn at all despite long days in strong sun. Titanium bikes are maybe not as strong as everyone thinks. Raisin Bran is over-rated. Washing clothes with travel wash in a sink is boring – you can wear the same pants for 3 days in a row.

Most importantly I miss Sue – can’t wait to see her tomorrow.