Rainy Day

Trouble sleeping last night, and feeling tired now. Good thing though as need to go to bed early tonight with a 5AM wake up call tomorrow. Long day on the train, followed by the first 40 miles of the Journey. I picked my bike up from the shop today, a Grumpy Old Man serviced it, but the front brake was rubbing so – after waiting out a rain storm – rode it back and fixed it. Got back to Robs house and we decided to load our bikes with our bags and go for a ride. Of course, the Grumpy Man had said he had fixed my brakes as they were loose, but now with the bags pressing on certain parts of the bike, the rear wheel’s brake was completely engaged. So, a detour to the bike shop again to get it fixed. Then the rain came. We were close to my Aunts parents home, so made a quick dash through the rain there and waited out the storm over some biscuits and tea (water for me). Once the rain stopped, we headed back out and completed a 10  mile ride with some decent hills and lots of pot holes and water. Of course, an hour or so later, the skies cleared up. We’re certainly expecting a good amount of rain again tomorrow and the next day, so should be an interesting start to the LEJOG.

EDIT: I will not be taking my Laptop on the LEJOG. It simply just ways too much. I will most likely take it on the end of the trip. I will update this via my Uncles iPad, so expect briefer-then-expected updates. No pictures either, until I am back here on my rest days. I would have liked to have taken my laptop, but it makes just carrying the pannier its in too heavy.

Sleepless in the UK

Try and stick with me on this….

Monday, local time, I woke up at 7 AM. Started traveling at 12:20 PM. Arrived in the UK around 12:45 PM local time on tuesday…which to me is more like 5:45 AM tuesday morning. Managed to maybe sleep a solid hour or so on plane, and dozed for quite a while. Stayed up until 10PM local time, thinking that was a reasonable time to go to bed (aka 3PM MST to me). Clearly, by the time stamp on this post (4:40 AM GMT) that didn’t quite work out so well for me. Probably slept for 3 – 4 hours before waking up. Figured I’d check some emails etc and post on here since I’m up so early. Going to try and doze for a few more hours. Once the sun comes up, I’ll go for a walk along the canal and take the first pictures of my trip! Then the rest of the day will be spent packing, going over the route and plans etc with my Uncle, and all that other fun stuff.

Also, here is the tentative course we will be riding over the next 5 days. Day 6 involves a ferry at Liverpool, so the rest of the route has been planned by my Uncle. I guess we will solidify everything later today.

Day 1: http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=444795

Day 2: http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=444799

Day 3: http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=444806

Day 4: http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=444816

Day 5: http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=444817

I will probably make another post later today with any pictures I take.

So it begins…

Well, this is it. My last night in Aspen until the end of September. That seems like such a long time from now but I am sure it will go by quickly. I’m all packed up and as ready as I think I can be, just a matter of waiting for CME to pick me up around noon tomorrow. I think I will go into town in the morning and treat myself to some French Toast for breakfast, given that I am all out of milk for cereal at this point.

I will try and post on Tuesday once I arrive in the UK and get all settled in there. Thursday marks the start of the LEJOG (Lands End to Jon O’Groats) part of the Tour, with my Uncle, so we shall see how things go. Not sure how much sleep I will get tonight – its already 11PM and I am only just thinking about going to bed.

Miles

Presently, the rough estimate of my total miles for this trip is as follows:

LEJOG – 980 miles

LLC – 260 miles

Ireland – 1186 miles

Total: ~2500 miles total.

Of those 2500 miles, about 1500 will be done fully loaded with all my camping gear and also riding solo. Just a few more days before I head off to the UK – a week from today I’ll be hitting the 100 mile mark of the trip. I’m both excited and extremely nervous! 

One Week To Go

One week to go – I arrive in the UK exactly one week from today. Crazy to think that a week from Thursday I’ll be taking the first pedal strokes – of many! – on my way from Lands End to Jon O’Groats. I’ll have 3 days of rest at the completion of the LEJOG with my Uncle before I embark on the rest of my tour – some 22 days in addition to the 12 of the LEJOG – starting in Cardiff on September 1st. So, about this time but next month, I’ll be somewhere in Ireland heading South! I am not quite in a panic/anxiety over my trip quite yet but I suppose it still seems a little surreal. All summer long it has been a ‘plan’ – more then a thought, a plan – that was always in the future. Not too long ago, it became a little firmer, a little more set in stone, when I booked my plane tickets (to and from the UK) and started getting down to the nitty-gritty details. At this point, I think I am pretty much all set with my route. I just have to print out the cue sheets for each day and highlight the route on the map I am taking with me. Luckily, if I do get lost (chances are I will at some point) I will have my iPhone with me and can pull up the GPS on Google Maps to figure out ‘Where in Ireland am I?’.

I’ll post some dates and routes here in the next few days for those following this Blog – it will give you an idea of where I am (or am supposed to be) on a given date. If you’re in the area, I certainly wouldn’t mind a cycling buddy or two! (Especially if you know a better route from point A to point B). I am actually looking forward to the Camping each night that I will be doing – it gives me a greater sense of accomplishment, I suppose, since I am literally building my own lodging for the night (albeit in a tent) instead of taking the easier approach of finding a B&B where people cater to your needs. I figure that if I’m Cycling all this way, why not go the full 9 yards and make my own meals and bed too?

Its what I did back in ’03 on my London-to-Rome Tour (I imagine this one will be quite a bit wetter then that) though that was with a group of people roughly my age with two older tour leaders so wasn’t entirely self sufficient. This time around, I’ve planned my own route (with advice from others taken into consideration) and figured out my own lodging (one night in Ireland will be WildCamping at this point) and gathered my own equipment, paying with my own money, doing most of this on my own. All I have to do know is remember to take a lot of pictures along the way, enjoy myself and the freedom of being on my bike on the road, and try to update this blog every night!

Disaster Averted

My trip almost came to an end before it started, all thanks to UPS.

My passports (dual citizen) were back home on the East Coast. I had them mailed to me via UPS. Wednesday was the date for arrival, so I made it a point to stay home all day and wait for said delivery. Never came. I didn’t think anything of it so on Thursday I called mom. She gave me tracking number and then the alarm bells went off. Package was ‘Delivered to Front Door’ on Wednesday around 4 in the afternoon. What?! Nothing ever showed up at my front door. I walked all the way around the house, checking everywhere, even the back door. Nothing! Panic time.

Calls to UPS, calls to US Passport Department, etc. If my passports were truly lost, I would not be going on my trip. Takes nearly 2 weeks to get a new passport, plus I’d have to magic myself to Aurora, CO ( 4 – 5 hours away by car, and I don’t have a car) and it would have been a nightmare week just trying to get all that stuff sorted. UPS said delivery lady was going to come back later that day and show me where she left my package. Hours later, my neighbor saved the day. Turns out UPS doesn’t know how to deliver packages to the right address (I live at an Odd Numbered house, it was delivered to an Even Numbered house). Luckily, my neighbor the Clown (her profession) knew who I was and the correct address so brought the package over when she got home, about an hour before UPS was due to show me where they left it. Thank God! My trip was saved! But I was seriously ready to punch somebody over the whole ordeal. Losing passports in the mail was the last thing on my ‘things that could go wrong’ list!

Also, a preview of what the bike looks like fully loaded: (still gotta add some stuff)

First time loading up the bike fully. Will take off the front racks as they are not needed anymore!