Defender axle oil change
100,000 miles is the recommended interval which equates to 160,000 km. As I’m not sure that it was…
Back in Staffordshire
Brought my father back to the UK after a week spent with us in Belgium. We went back…
Washington DC on foot
18.42km. 98m ascent. 4h14 walk time DC is full of things to see and they are fairly well…
Fredericksburg-Washington DC
107.14km. 993m ascent. 5h25 ride time Not a great ride. Komoot basically routes up the old highway which…
Richmond – Fredericksburg
115.77km. 777m ascent. 5h25 ride time The penultimate day of our epic ride in the USA. Very hot…
Richmond guided city tour by bike
38.74km. 294m ascent. 2h33 ride time Patrice offered to give us a guided cycle tour of Richmond, something…
Defender axle oil change
100,000 miles is the recommended interval which equates to 160,000 km. As I’m not sure that it was done when I bought the Defender with 78,000km I have decided to do it now (~100,000 km)
Back in Staffordshire
Brought my father back to the UK after a week spent with us in Belgium. We went back up to Staffordshire in the midlands to visit my elder brother and his family before returning to Eastbourne The driving was painfully slow going up to James and coming back down to Eastbourne. Just too much traffic…
Washington DC on foot
18.42km. 98m ascent. 4h14 walk time DC is full of things to see and they are fairly well spaced out….. Our first job was to find 2 bike boxes to pack our bikes for the home journey. These we found at The Daily Rider who kindly gave us 2 with the original inside packaging material.…
Fredericksburg-Washington DC
107.14km. 993m ascent. 5h25 ride time Not a great ride. Komoot basically routes up the old highway which is not to be recommended. I find Komoot good in Europe but less so here in the USA The best part of the route was actually here in DC where the city is super bike friendly and…
Richmond – Fredericksburg
115.77km. 777m ascent. 5h25 ride time The penultimate day of our epic ride in the USA. Very hot and humid but a beautiful ride with, luckily, plenty of shade, thought the beautiful Virginia countryside. It was brutally hot again and this drained our energy but we made good headway and arrived at our motel around…
Richmond guided city tour by bike
38.74km. 294m ascent. 2h33 ride time Patrice offered to give us a guided cycle tour of Richmond, something Phini usually does but he had just undergone surgery and was not allowed to ride! We had a great ride around the sights of Richmond and Richmond is a city where I could live! They have the…
Williamsburg – Richmond
101.42km. 543m ascent. 4h42 ride time Our journey draws to an end as we make our way up to Washington DC to catch our flight back to Belgium. We have a whole day in Richmond, mainly because we were way too early in Yorktown and we have time to spare. Changing our ticket is prohibitively…
Williamsburg on foot
13.44km. 68m ascent. 3h10 walking time No ride today but a foot tour of the old colonial town, probably the world’s largest living museum! Williamsburg is beautiful and a lot of the houses are original. All commerce is kept out of the town so you have to go to the edge to get a coffee…
Newport News – Williamsburg
34.65km 131m ascent. 1h36 ride time A short ride today to bring us up to Williamsburg so we can spend the day visiting tomorrow. Not a great route through the built up areas but not bad. We had a great stay over with our Warmshowers hosts, as almost always we had plenty of common ground…
Fort Monroe
75.64km. 219m 3h46 ride time Still staying in the fantastic church hostel in Yorktown, but we didn’t want to outstay our welcome and give cyclists a bad name so we got a Warmshowers overnight in Newport News and rode down to Fort Monroe which is the biggest fort on the Atlantic coast. It looks out…
Jamestown settlement museum
84.05km. 435m ascent 3h29 ride time Today we went back up the Colonial Parkway to Jamestown which is just below Williamsburg on the James River. This museum is huge and explains the early settlement of the British arriving in America and their interaction with the native Americans. It is really well done but the indoor…
Thoughts about our TransAmerica Trail adventure
Here is a random list of things which struck me as being ‘only in the USA’. There is no order of importance, just. things which struck me as odd or different… FriendlyAmericans are incredibly friendly! The image we (I) have in Europe of Americans: Fat, camera toting, loud, badly dressed and generally unpleasant is absolutely…
Williamsburg to Yorktown. TransAmerica day 76
21.39 km. 149m ascent. 1h07 ride time The last leg of our epic TransAmerica Trail, just 21 km along the beautiful parkway. Quite fitting to end the TransAmerica Trail after 76 days as it was made in ‘76 and is named ‘Route 76’ We have ridden 7,131 Km and climbed 59,500m on this trip We…
Mobile repairs
This was a great idea that saved us a lot of hassle when Stef had 2 broken spokes A mobile bike repair. Jimmy’s mobile bike repair He came out to the motel to fix the wheel with his mobile workshop and only charged $35 for the job
Glendale to Williamsburg. TransAmerica day 75
80.35km. 312m ascent. 3h42 ride time Super easy ride today bringing us so close to the end of our trip across the USA. (We still have 310km to ride up to Washington DC, but that is an extra) Most of the ride was on the dedicated cycle path and we have not met as many…
Bumpass to Glendale. TransAmerica day 74
112.38 km. 625m ascent. 5h14 ride time We left our Warmshowers host after a leisurely coffee with Fred on the deck as the sun rose. It was an easy ride today as we approach the end of our trip. We now have less than 100km left to ride 🤩. We will take 2 days to…
Charlottesville to Bumpass. TransAmerica day 74
95.87km. 929m. 4h51 ride time Great name for a place Bumpass 🤣. We left the route for the last 25km to come to our Warmshowers host here at Bumpass, which is an old farm. The Virginia countryside was a little less inspiring today compared to the last days but a relatively flat, hot and humid…
Afton to Charlottesville. TransAmerica day 73
60.20km. 714m ascent. 3h23 ride time A relatively short day today to bring us to our Warmshowers host and time to visit Thomas Jefferson’s house. We’ll worth the visit. Stopped for coffee at Wyants Store, which has been there since the dawn of time and had a great conversation with the Liars Club. At first…
Lexington to Afton. TransAmerica day 72
86.47km. 1,435m. 5h04 ride time We left the beautiful town of Lexington to ride 30km gently uphill to the big climb Vesuvius was the big climb today. It’s the toughest on the TransAmerica Trail, it starts with 3km at 11-18% then goes 3km more at 8-12%. Really enjoyed it though 🤩 At the top we…
Daleville to Lexington. TransAmerica day 71
78.92 km. 504m ascent. 4h01 ride time An easy day today to bring us to Lexington as we have the hardest climb ahead of us tomorrow: Vesuvius up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We set off in pouring rain 💦😓 but it wasn’t cold and by lunchtime the rain stopped. We also bumped into Matt…
Radford to Daleville. TransAmerica day 70
90.13km. 1,044m ascent. 4h16 ride time (I’ve been miscounting so no day 69!) What a beautiful ride today! It was supposed to be downhill, but we still had over 1,000m ascent with all the little ramps we climbed. The Roanoke Valley is really beautiful. Apart from that the day was uneventful and we are now…
Troutdale to Radford. TransAmerica day 68
127.57 km. 1,411m ascent. 6h02 ride time Despite a good night’s sleep in the bunkhouse, I wasn’t in good form today. I don’t know why, but I had no power in my legs. Anyway the ride was generally downhill even though we actually climbed over 1,400m The first part of the day was beautiful, the…
Rosedale to Troutdale. TransAmerica day 67.
90.03km. 1,424m ascent. 5h23 ride time Probably the most beautiful days regarding scenery. Really a great ride through the lush, green, Virginia forests. Not too hot and we had plenty of shade. Always very humid though. Only one long climb which wasn’t steep at all, just a pleasure to ride. Our overnight was a church…
Breaks to Rosedale. TransAmerica day 66
72.16km. 1,316m ascent. 4h20 ride time. Another day of climbing today. Straight out of our motel and into 320m ascent 🥵. With 92% humidity we were glad to have a cool start. After the big climb, where my sweat ran down my arms, through my brake levers and off the end of my handlebars, we…
Hindman to Breaks. TransAmerica day 65.
107.52 km. 1,346m ascent. 5h46 ride time Last night we shared the hostel with 3 others, an Englishman, Matt riding the same way as us and 2 American TransAmerica racers. The racers got up at 03h00, I heard their alarm clock! They left without cleaning up after themselves which, I think is inexcusable. To empty…
Buckhorn to Hindman. TransAmerica day 64
73.05km. 1,034m ascent. 4h08 ride time Tougher than expected today! We first had 2 hard climbs up from the lake but then we had some more after that too, a couple of <15% which, when you are carrying all your luggage, is hard work. Yet again the countryside was beautiful but near the coal mining…
Berea to Buckhorn Lake State Park. TransAmerica day 64
130km. 1,907m ascent. 7h16 ride time Today was to be a big climbing day so we set out early to try to arrive before it got too hot. The climbing started in Richmond and brought us to McKey where we saved another turtle from certain death on the road. Again the countryside was beautiful, green…
Harrodsburg to Berea. TransAmerica day 62
80.64 km. 952m ascent. 4h03 ride time Today we actually got a decent breakfast at the hotel. That’s the first time since we set off! Another beautiful ride through Kentucky. It was super humid today at 96% humidity and quite warm in the upper 30s but such beautiful countryside. We stopped at a sign ‘cyclists…
Springfield to Harrodsburg. TransAmerica day 61
45km. 512m ascent. 2h05 ride time Super humid and hot today but we had a short ride to get to Harrodsburg to visit the 1770s reconstructed fort there. The ride continued through the beautiful countryside of Kentucky with plenty of short sharp climbs to keep us sweating. An excellent choice and only $6/person (over 55…
Riding with wind
Some may think I am a bit obsessed with the wind. Well, I am! Wind affects our ride as much as the profile. We have had more than our fair share of headwind and, not only does it slow our progress, it also has a big influence on our morale. At home we usually (always…
Buffalo to Springfield. TransAmerica day 60
91.35 km. 934m ascent. 4h32 ride time 60 days continuous riding. Neither Stef nor I have ever done so much riding We are really in the rhythm and feel we could go on for ever at this pace or even more 😊 Easy day today through the beautiful Kentucky countryside with no wind at all…
McDaniels to Buffalo. TransAmerica day 59
83.88 km. 734m ascent. 4h08 ride time After a good night’s sleep in our tent at the lake we set off around 07:36 in cool but sunny conditions. This is the first day when we have set off with temperatures under 19C for quite a long time now. A beautiful day and although the wind…
Sebree to Rough River dam. TransAmerica day 58.
123.11km. 1,271m ascent. 6h16 ride time After an excellent night’s sleep in the superb church hostel in Sebree we were ready for a big ride It started fairly flat, it was cool and the only thing against us was the wind (all day) so a good start and we had plenty of opportunity to fill…
Church hostel update
The generosity of the people her in the USA keeps on surprising me! We arrived here at the First Baptist Church in Sebree which has an irreproachable reputation anyway, but we were greeted by a one of the congregation and he showed us where we could sleep etc. He also asked us if we liked…
Marion to Sebree. TransAmerica day 57
73.24km. 678m ascent. 3h56 ride time Today we needed a shorter day because we have been pushing quite hard. As it turned out we had a strong headwind so not as easy a day as we had hoped for. Anyway the weather was perfect (except for the wind) and Kentucky is a beautiful green State…
Goreville to Marion. TransAmerica day 56
127.04km. 1,481m ascent. 6h38 ride time Up at 05:30 to get an early start just to hear the thunder and a huge storm outside our window. We decided to postpone our start until after the rain had eased. Neither Stef nor I were feeling particularly vigorous this morning despite a good nights sleep and decent…
Progress report. Saturday 25 June
5,272km ridden (78%). 38,713m climbed (69%). 267hrs riding 1800km and 21,486m ascent to go.
Chester to Nielson. TransAmerica day 55
We left our mini-hostel, which we shared with Bill, (free for cyclists and air-conditioned) early to get breakfast at Casey’s in Chester because they open early and the coffee is actually good. 😊 We had a choice to either take the inland route or go down to the Mississippi and follow it for several kilometres…
Pilot Knob to Chester. TransAmerica day 54.
104.58km. 1,027m ascent. 5h02 ride time Following a good night’s sleep in our motel and good food at supper we set off just after 07:00 and it was the first morning under 20C since a long, long time. A beautiful morning and again lots of hills, some pretty steep but none very long 👌 We…
Eminence to Pilot Knob. TransAmerica day 53
118.25 Km. 1,636m ascent. 6h28 ride time New elevation gain record today 👏🏻 Today went pear shaped! I had booked a motel, supposedly in Lesterville, but Google tricked me into a ‘near-by’ motel which was not far away by car but 33 km all the same and 500m ascent on top of our 83km and…
Houston to Eminence. TransAmerica day 52
68.30km. 692m ascent. 3h17 ride time I forgot to mention that we caught up with a TransAmerica Race rider yesterday on one of the longer hills 😱 To bring things into perspective: he started 05/06/2022 (we started 02/05/2022) and he had been riding all night that day, so it’s not because we are super fast,…
Some useless information
As we are riding early morning to around midday, it gives us time to think about useless information to share on the blog I ride with a cadence of around 70/min which means on our TransAmerica trip I have turned my pedals 1,037,400 times up to now How fascinating is that? Leave a comment if…
Marshfield to Houston. TransAmerica day 51.
104.35km. 1,034m ascent. 4h49 ride time Following a not so great night’s sleep in the North Park at Marshfield due to the everlasting heat, we set off early to beat the heat agin. Wonderfully cool so early and a side to tail wind made today’s ride really enjoyable, even though it was up near 40C…
Ash Grove to Marshfield. TransAmerica day 50.
83.58km. 1,053m ascent. 4h21 ride time We gained a short term Co-lodger last night. Hans-Udo arrived shortly after midnight and left again at the break of dawn. He is racing the TransAmerica bike race He looked really worn out and almost asleep on his feet. Maybe it would have been a challenge I would take…
Progress report. Sunday 19 June
We have ridden 4,672km (69%). We have climbed 32,498m (58%). We have 2,371km and 26,405m of ascent left to do
Pittsburg to Ash Grove. TransAmerica day 49.
113.86km. 753m ascent. 5h49 ride time Again out at dawn to beat the heat and the temperatures were lower than yesterday. 23C when we left but it was already 10h00 before it hit 30C 😀 And we left flat Kansas behind after about 12km to enter Missouri 🤩 Missouri is known for its short very…
Chanute to Pittsburg. TransAmerica day 48.
Chanute to Pittsburg. 95.70km. 336m ascent. 4h19 ride time As the heatwave continues we are also continuing to start at dawn After a great evening and good rest at our Warmshowers host Rick Bushnell’s home with diner and breakfast included we were ready for another hot and humid day Flat again but with more trees…
Eureka to Chanute. TransAmerica day 47.
Eureka to Chanute. 103.99km. 438m ascent. 5h08 ride time With all the heatwave warnings we have been getting with 40C+ temperatures we decided to try to ride only before midday. We were up at 04:45 to leave in the twilight. We didn’t want to ride the on the highway in the dark as it was…
TransAmerica day 46. El Dorado to Eureka
El Dorado to Eureka. 58.30km. 257m ascent. 2h41 ride time. We had to make this one a short one to be sure to get a motel with AC and ensure a good night’s sleep after yesterday’s long, hot and windy ride. Eureka was the only real choice. Not as far as we would like to…
Hutchinson to El Dorado. TransAmerica day 45.
Hutchinson to El Dorado. 132.08 km. 624m ascent. 6h33 ride time Hard and hot. It was already over 30C at 08h00 and only got hotter…. The wind was supposed to abate around midday and also change direction, it didn’t. The temperature was supposed to go down to 24C by 17h00, it didn’t. Our problem was…
Lyons to Hutchinson. TransAmerica day 44
Lyons to Hutchinson 50kmh wind with gusts to 82kmh. And guess in which direction? Full on headwind for us Up at 05:30 to avoid the heat and breakfast across the road from our motel at Scrambled Sam’s at 06:00 Then full on headwind. We couldn’t even average 15km/h against the wind. We took 2km stints…
Ness City to Lyons. TransAmerica day 43
Ness City to Lyons. 152.68km. 971m ascent. 6h40 ride time We had hoped the SSW wind would help us today, especially as it was very strong. More than 46km/h with gusts up to 60km/h 💨💨 This wasn’t really the case, it just made progress difficult. At least we had the wind upstream of the trucks…
Progress report Sunday 12 June
We have ridden: 3,963km (59%) We have climbed 28,901m (51%) We still have 3,066km and 27,557m to go so we are well in our plan to arrive in Yorktown by the weekend of 23-24 July
Scott City to Ness City. TransAmerica day 42
Scott City to Ness City. 89.56 Km. 80m ascent. 4h15 ride time We slept at the gym in Scott City which was $15/person so not expensive and they have showers, a microwave and a coffee machine. Not much else and it was roasting hot. 31C when we went to bed and 29C when we got…
Sheridan Lake to Scott City. TransAmerica day 41
Sheridan Lake to Scott city. 124.42km. 99m ascent. 4h10 ride time You want flat, you get flat. Flatter than Holland today but we had a half decent tail wind so chain on the right (I don’t have a chain or a derailleur but the principle is the same). Biggest gear and full speed ahead We…
Ordway to Sheridan Lake. TransAmerica day 40
Ordway to Sheridan Lake. 145.63km. 360m ascent. 7h25 ride time We had planned an early start for 3 reasons: 1, It was a long stretch. 2, to beat the heat. 3, to try to avoid the wind which is less strong mornings. Unfortunately we had enjoyed ourselves a bit too much the night before and…
Pueblo to Ordway. TransAmerica day 39
Pueblo to Ordway. 90.13km. 154m ascent. 3h36 ride time Easy day today with a nice little tail wind and we arrived in plenty of time to check into the hotel / hostel. Rich Graham, who rode with us from 8 May till 5 June, came and met us with his wife Melanie at the hotel…
Wetmore to Pueblo. (day off). TransAmerica day 38
Today a day off. Just downhill from Wetmore to Pueblo. 54.95km. 259m ascent (644 descent). 2h35 ride time We arrived in Pueblo around 11:00 so went to the best coffee shop for a good coffee on Main Street before going to visit the Rosemount Victorian Museum. Very well preserved with about 95% original pieces in…
Guffy to Wetmore. TransAmerica day 37
Guffy to Wetmore. 97.85km. 903m ascent. 4h54 ride time. Today we left Guffy after not sleeping at all well. We were both cold in the night and the military cots were not as comfortable as they looked. Nothing was open, not the bar, not the bakery and not the café…. This left us with about…
Silverthorne to Guffy. TransAmerica day 36
Silverthorne to Guffy. The big one 138.31km. 1,462m ascent. 7h02 ride time Today was the big one with the Hoosier Pass at just over 3,500m and then a long run down to Guffy. We had company for the climb as I had met Scott and Christine Beam a way back when I stopped on a…
Progress report. Sunday 5 June
3223km. (47%) ridden so far 25,731m (46%) climbed so far 3764km and 29,909m to go
Kremmling to Silverthorne. TransAmerica day 35
Kremmling to Silverthorne. 67.61km. 761m ascent. 3h34 ride time We left our campsite in Kremmling after a good night’s sleep and only ~65km to ride to bring us to the bottom of the biggest climb on the TransAmerica Trail The scenery was breathtaking but as we had a bit of time on our hands so…
Walden to Kremmling. TransAmerica day 34
Walden to Kremmling. 129.87km. 901m ascent. 6h04 ride time Today we went over the Willow Creek pass at 2,950m which, I think, is the highest so far. We have been above 2,000m for the past week so reasonably well acclimatised to the elevation ( Sorry America, I can’t bring myself to say acclimated 😱) The…
Riverside to Walden. TransAmerica day 33
Riverside to Walden. 79.25km. 807m ascent. 4h08 ride time Today we left our campsite for a gradual climb all day with just 1 decent hill. The road had been ground off for the first 6km so the surface was rough and the wind was against us 🥵 The road was pretty quiet but just before…
Progress report. Friday 3 June
We have ridden 3,027km. (44%) We have climbed 24,137m (48%) We still have 3,953km and 31,603m to go
West Yellowstone to Bay Bridge. TransAmerica day 24
West Yellowstone to Bridge Bay campground. 101km. 957m ascent. 5:43 ride time We had been looking forward to this day for quite a while and our expectations were more than met. Today was to be a sightseeing day following tips we got from Larry in Dillon We saw bison, a lot of bison! and the…
Difficulty with media
I’m struggling to get media uploaded to my blog. I hope this will change soon…..
Ennis to West Yellowstone. TransAmerica day 23
Ennis to West Yellowstone. 116.73km. 970m. 6h23 riding After a good night’s sleep at our Warmshowers host’s house, she was absent but gave us the use of her house anyway It was a long ride that shouldn’t have been too hard if we didn’t have the 30km/h head wind. That made the ride a real…
Dillon to Ennis. TransAmerica day 22
Dillon to Ennis. 112.15km. 847m ascent. 5:19 riding Great day with just one steep climb of 5km at 7-8% 🥵 The clouds were low as we set off from the hostel but by 11:00 they were high up again and our view was unimpaired 😊 We set off with a good tail wind and covered…
Wisdom to Dillon. TransAmerica day 21
Wisdom to Dillon. 113.63km. 804m ascent. 5h30 ride time What a day! Huge skies, cold but clear and sunny ☀️ We had 2 climbs and another highest peak at 2,243m on the Big Hole pass and we have been maintaining altitude above 1600m for several days now The views were breathtaking with snow covered mountains…
Darby to Wisdom. TransAmerica day 20
Darby to Wisdom. 93km 1,192m ascent Today we left our Warmshowers host Curtis to go over the Chief Joseph pass. Our highest pass so far at 2,216m The first 2 hours were gentle climbing to Sula where we had a last coffee (also the last chance to top up on water and food before Wisdom)…
Missoula to Darby. TransAmerica day 19
Missoula to Darby 96km. 490m ascent An easy and not particularly inspiring ride today, at least until we got onto the old Darby road after ~65km of riding a tarred but rough cycle track next to Highway 93 We picnicked off the highway with provisions bought on the road At least today we had no…
Lochsa to Missoula. TransAmerica day 18
Lochsa to Missoula 105km. 710m ascent Today started again with a climb this time up to 1600m so our highest peak so far Unfortunately the views were nothing to write about as everything was covered by clouds. It was cold but at least dry. After a warmup and some coffee it was downhill for the…
Lowell to Lochsa. TransAmerica day 17
106km. 717m ascent Another grotty day ahead. Although it didn’t start raining immediately it did start earlier than forecast 😓 Today was 1 long ride upstream and surprisingly hard 105km with no chance to freewheel. Even though the grade was seldom greater than 2% it was a slog The biggest compensation was the fantastic rapids…
White Bird to Lowell. TransAmerica day 16
108km. 1209m ascent Our biggest climb so far. Straight out of White Bird and up the old 95 for 873m with no flat road for 2.5 hrs 😅 Rich did end up with a goat head in his tyre but after pulling it out the tube self sealed and we were quickly back to climbing…
Some useless information
We have been following the Little Salmon River which runs into the Salmon River These are 2 of the so called ‘free flowing’ rivers left in the State of Idaho A free flowing river is one that has no dams on it. We are also riding the Highway 95 which happens to be the only…
Losing weight
It has become painfully obvious that I am carrying too much weight and am too slow up the hills As the climbs here are almost always long, much longer than we are used to in Belgium, it has been slowing our progress somewhat. Luckily Rich also wanted to dump some stuff he offered to send…
TransAmerica progress report
Astoria to Riggins 15 days in We arrived early at Riggins which has given us time to take a look at our progress and make sure we are near our 85km/day average We have covered 1,202km with 5,536 left to go. This gives us an average of 85.7km/day which is spot on our schedule! We…
TransAmerica day 14
Evergreen campsite to Riggins Just a gentle climb before 70km of almost all downhill. We are making 2 short days to gather our power reserves before the BIG climb out of White Bird which takes us 980m We had 10km to to where we should be able to get breakfast. Closed except the weekend but…
TransAmerica day 13
Brownlee to Evergreen campground No power in my legs today, no idea why but they were not doing well Straight after an enormous breakfast burrito which even I didn’t manage to finish After the 650m / 7km climb we went back down to about the same height and then had 60km of gentle climb to…
TransAmerica day 12
Richland to Brownlee reservoir At last we get to cross the state line and get into Idaho. With a new time zone: Mountain time, which is 1 hour ahead of Oregon Tonight was to be our first camping night as the weather has improved, no rain forecast and above 5C at night. Unfortunately, although we…
TransAmerica day 11
Baker City to Richland Following 2 hard days in the saddle we needed a lighter load today to ensure we didn’t burn out so early in the trip Just 70km and more descent than climb was the ride for today. Of course it did start with a little climb 🚵♀️ Because we basically only had…
John Day to Baker City
Our biggest ride so far and after a big one yesterday, today was the hardest. 3 peaks of over 1,600m and 130km. What we did have is a magnificent backdrop of clear skies and snow covered mountains to occupy our minds as we crawled up the, not too steep climbs. After the 3 peaks we…
Mitchell to John Day
A big day because there was nothing except campings between the two towns and our sleeping bags are good to about +4-5C. The weather has been uncharacteristically cold for Oregon this time of year so we are waiting to camp until the weather is better 😉 Lunch at the John Day fossil museum but we…
Prineville to Mitchell
Only 75km, so a relatively short ride but the first 50 we’re uphill! Not steep but long It was a great ride up with little or no traffic so we could enjoy the scenery and concentrate on our efforts After a much steeper descent WS had a short climb to Mitchell and our bike hostel…
WS in Prineville
Our hosts are up in Quebec making their Maple Syrup but let us stay anyway! We were offered the sauna out back in their garden. As the weather forecast was for-4C we lit the fire in the sauna before going out to dinner to be sure the stones kept us warm during the night Supper…
Easy day after all the problems
We had a super WS host again tonight (Jim and Jill). Home cooking, home made cookies, home made yoghurt, home brewed beer. Quite an inspirational couple with a beautiful house looking out over the 3 Sisters. We had a tailwind which helped us and, at last, dry and sunny weather 😉 Because we had a…
I seems we are unlucky with the Oregon weather this year
www.accuweather.com/en/weather-forecasts/rain-snow-and-wind-targets-western-us-this-week/1184462
Over the snowbound Santiam Pass
After meeting up with Rich who was also being hosted on WS by Jim and Jill it was obvious that we were not going to be able to ride the pass so we needed a ride. The forecast was for at least 2 more days snow and we don’t have 3 days to waste waiting…
Snow stops ride
We have stopped at the general store to take a weather check and it is not good. Only 1 lane in each direction and no hard shoulder so definitely not a risk worth taking We are at 400m here and it looks like the snow line is at 500. The pass is 1450m We are…
TransAmerica day 5
Today was relatively easy. We had uphill all the way but a gentle tail wind pretty much negated the gentle ascent. It’s the 4 day of almost continuous rain so we are ready for some better weather After 22km I got our first puncture. Luckily the rain eased up for me to fix it. Funnily…
TransAmerica day 4
A flat ride up the valley we thought, no need to set off early we thought, it will be a doddle / an easy day we thought WRONG We had gale force headwinds for 103 km! Luckily we had a WarmShowers host waiting for us in Eugene. We were royally treated by Jens and Shelly…
TransAmerica day 3
Miserable! We set off in pouring rain and 5C so we weren’t too motivated but as we have a time limit on this trip we have no choice but to ride We started on the scenic old 101 which was deserted of traffic and really beautiful with huge lichen covered trees all around After that…
TransAmerica day 2
Today we hoped to take the Bay Ocean Road which has been closed due to landslides. Unfortunately it is still closed after all the years So we cut across on the 131 and went back down to the coast. Big trees and big views were the order of the day before a steep 3km climb…
TransAmerica day 1
Overnight in a typical motel with zero sound insulation. We had to share a bed, which is not a problem but we had trucks driving through our room all night 🥲 Breakfast in the local café then back to the museum which is the official start of the TransAmerica Trail Let the adventure begin! Really…
TransAmerica getting to the start
Train down to from Seattle to Kelso where we jumped on our bikes to follow the Highway 30 to Astoria. We planned to use some of the side roads to avoid traffic but they were more hilly and not always sealed so in the end we stuck to highway. There was a lot of traffic,…
Bike ready to fly
My tourer for the TransAmerica Trail is now dismantled as far as necessary to fly, air out of the tyres, front wheel, front mudguard and handlebars removed so it fits in the box. I just need to tape it closed and add some ‘fragile’ stickers 👍
Packing for a 3 month bike trip
As the departure date draws near I decided to do a trial packing to see just how much stuff I wanted to take and how much it weighs 19.6kg plus hand luggage 😮😱 It does include some things which are for both of us: like the tent and cooking equipment. I was expecting around 20kg…
Do you need to train before starting a multiple week bike journey?
This is a question a lot of people ask and we will be able to answer this after the first 10 days of our TransAmerica Trail ride. The general consensus is that you don’t actually need to be top fit to embark on a big bike adventure. We are starting our TransAmerica Trail (6,788 km…
Amstel Gold Race
Had a great weekend in the south of Holland near Valkenburg riding parts of the Amstel Gold Race. I don’t think I have ever been overtaken by so many cyclists 🥲.
Amstel Gold Race
This weekend we are out riding parts of the Amstel Gold Race. Preparation for Ria for the 1000km for Cancer research. Me for the TransAmerica Trail 😀
The floating chapel
Cycling near Borgloon today and apart of the ‘Doorkijk Kerk’ which everyone know we saw the less well known floating chapel quite sweet really
OM System OM-1 review
No I didn’t get given a pre-release OM-1 to test and review. But I did get to help my son Chris prepare his launch video. He was one of 5 OM System Ambassadors asked to produce content for the launch if the new OM System flagship camera the OM-1. You can see the review here:…
Levi x-country skiing
Back to the Arctic Circle in Finland for a week of x-country skiing. Lucky this time as we got a decent Aurora Borealis>
Aurora Borealis
Aurora Borealis Out on Sirkkajarvi last night to watch the Aurora Borealis.
A run with the Huskies
Into the sunset Today was a day off from X-country skiing and a quiet day out with the Huskies. Sunshine just -5ºC and plenty of snow made the ride a great relaxing outing.
Ski-Doo through the Artic
A day out in the Forets around Levi with the Ski Dos, beautiful countryside and good tracks.
Slush trudging
Today I had both the Beasty Boys but it was not such a great walk in the slippery, slushy snow
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Even the dog didn’t want to go far today
With strong winds and the included horizontal snow, even the Vanni wasn’t keen to go too far for his walk today
Defender reversing light
Today I added a new reversing light to my Land Rover Defender. As any Land Rover owner will tell you, ALL original lights are, at best, feeble and rather useless. I have already changed the head lights (another post to follow for that). Today H4 bulbs are equivalent to candles on horse-drawn carriages, so I…
Why the TransAmTrail?
Stef wanted to ride this epic route and invited me to join him. He is still working, I am retired and he has been able to take the 3 months off work. We planned to do this ride in 2020, but with the outbreak of COVID-19 we were forced to postpone for 2 years.
Is the Coronalert app worth installing?
This is the message I received today at 07:30. Yesterday was ‘green’ (no contact up to now) so if it takes 6 days for a contamination warning to get through I could easily have infected literally hundreds of people by the time I get the message! Luckily I know where the contamination comes from and…
TransAmericaTrail 2022
So, I have had to change the presentation of the breadcrumb trail of our progress. Google Maps only lets me have a limited number of flyers and I can only upload 5MB to each layer. As I am using the recorded GPX data, it is going to be impossible to upload the entire journey. Not…
TransAmTrail
This is the space reserved for our epic Trans America Trial ride due to start on 2022-05-01. The official Adventure Cycling Association Trams America Trail is 6,788 km long and entails 66,231m of ascent, this will be our route, and we will be looking in on the Association when we pass by. We are using…
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Back in the office
today was pricing day at work. 8 hours of preparing the price lists for the stage 5 engined TCI machines
Hello world!
After an absence of over 4 years the CreamTeam site is back and I will continue to populate it as time allows.
Just getting started…
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