August 29th 2003 The last update came after more than a months cycling across open countryside; the last chance we had of a decent night out on the tiles was back in Salt Lake City. Now we have rejoined forces with Christ and the real sized 'cities' have started to appear things are going on a little bit different . . .
We continued on the narrow unmade-up 'route 30' across Iowa into Illinois and to within spitting distance of Chicago; it was in the small town of Shabbona that we met a very hospitable man named Will. The reason for his hospitality soon became apparent as he told us of the 2500 mile cycle trip he had made from Illinois to California 25years ago! It was interesting to hear his stories and see his pictures; neither of which were too far from our own - met this nice person, fixed that broken bike part, took this picture of another road . . . Sympathising completely with our fatigued, unwashed and hungry situation he took us into his house for the night, a shower and some beer, cheers Will!
The following day we met Christ for the first time in more than a month, we were glad to see that he had not gone completely mental, extremely sorry to hear of his camera loss (Maybe we would never know what he had been up to!) and amused to see that the fabled ginger beard was back! He unfortunately lacked the funds to jump out of the plane with us, but took some great snaps from the safety of the ground instead. Such an experience is not capable of being captured by photography, to feel the thrill of freefall is something you just HAVE to do! But I think that the smiles on our faces will give you some clue as to the fun we had.
Negotiating the road through the Chicago suburbs to the cities center is something suited entirely for motor vehicles, to try it on a bike you would have to either be completely mad or have a death wish! We opted for the safe option and hired a transit van about 30 miles out from 'downtown' in the suburb of Aurora. It was a good option, affording us a free nights accommodation (even if it did attract a bit of police attention!) and getting us straight to the hostel through all the nightmare traffic. My old friend Dave and his wife Laurie met up with us every night we were there, they have just moved to the city so were discovering places for the first time just as we were; our guesses were pretty good, I think they will certainly be visiting Bhabi's Kitchen curry house again at least! Fortunately they had jobs to go to and so were unable to accompany us to Big Wig club where we experienced Drum and Bass 'American style'. Drum and Bass is a U.K. phenomenon, it started out in the U.K. and all the top name producers and Djs are British: Grooverider, Hype, Bad Company, Roni Size etc. Jungle and Break-beat records were being pressed and spun over there back when Michael Jackson was still black! American Djs being American however they wanted to rewrite history and put their two pence worth in. The method they chose was to play some classic jungle tracks and all their more recent drum and bass records speeded up to Techno BPMs! All the moody baselines were lost, all the carefully crafted drum patterns disappeared and generally it ended up sounding a bit bollocks. We left the night disappointed; if only we had arrived a week later it would have been Shy FX on the decks instead . . .
We left Chicago having achieved absolutely nothing, except a good hang over and a change of bike tires. Leaving on a Saturday morning we were privileged to see all the posers of the city running up and down the lakefront trail flexing their muscles and looking for a bit of attention, we must have looked (and smelt!) quite out of place! Our route out of Chicago took us round the bottom of lake Michigan, though the 'Black' areas of the city. Everyone (who was white) in the north part of the city had warned us to go through by the light of day in our group of three; having taken their advise we can't really comment on the savoryness of the place other than to say it all looked pretty run-down and not many shops were open. We heard in the pub that we stopped in just outside the suburb of Gary (Where Michael Jackson was born incidentally!) that there had been 47 murders so far this year - no wonder the morgue was the best kept building on the high street! It seems from the whispers and hear-say that you get on the rich side of town that these destitute areas are doomed to stay that way, unless something pretty radical happens.
That night we met our most fascist park ranger yet, never mind those handbag toting librarians this guy was following the rules to the letter! Standing hands on hips with handgun hanging from his belt he told us that there was no more room at his camping site. When we asked if we could sleep at one of the picnic rest spots he told us that if he caught us sleeping on state park property that night he would fine us $100! "You can't expect us to cycle on these roads at this time of night, it's bloody dangerous!" - "You should have thought about that before you set out." He even had the audacity to say, "Have a good night" as we cycled off swearing into the night! Municipal parks have been doing the job since, they may not have showers but dope smoking kids are much more amenable than anally retentive park rangers!
It was only four days ride to Detroit once we were out of Chicago, we took the 12 most of the way across Michigan state, we saw a few Amish shops but unfortunately didn't see any of the cart driving folk in person. The most interesting man we met on that stretch was a 70 year old fellow called Bill, he kept us talking way past our bedtime with his fascinating life story, as much as I would love to put the shocking details down on this page it would take too long and detract from my tales! To cut a long story very short he was completely fed up with the 'American dream'. Having suffered harassment from the Klu Klux Klan during his married life, been locked up for 11 years on the testament of 2 convicted criminals and now reduced to the status of second-class citizen you can see why.
We are now very happy to be in Canada, our passage into the country was not exactly smooth though! Not wanting to make a habit of getting out of the saddle for major conurbations we decided to take Detroit from the south; approaching it on a minor road that runs along the St. Clair lake front. The road passes straight through the 'city' of River Rouge where if you are search very hard you will find a "dangerous cargos" ferry crossing to Canada four times a day. Having left it to the last minute as ever we were thwarted by a long freight train crossing our path! Having missed the last boat and not being allowed to use the bridge or tunnel crossing with our bikes we were forced to spend a night camping in south central Detroit - Nice! When buying our dinner through a Plexiglas portal we were warned that being from out of town (white guys) we should not to walk the streets after 8 at night! We solved the problem by sleeping on the asphalt outside the customs office at the port. The huge steel mill next door was a 24hr. affair but we found the horn blasts and chimney fumes much more preferable to a 'cap in the ass'!
We have been in Canada 3 days now and are now only 550 miles (880 kms) short of New York so the pressure is very much off. The people are similarly very friendly and interested in our trip but are much more quietly spoken then their American neighbours! We have seen far fewer national flags waving in the front gardens and received less agro on the roads - which are of equally bad quality for cycling. The Canadian beers seem to be winning the flavour battle and most of the time even go above 3.5% alcohol by volume! We are in the province of Ontario which is just south of Quebec so a lot of the signs and adverts are mirrored in French, c'est très bon, parce que mon Français est formidable! The party of mosquitoes that seem to be following us obviously have valid passports (some of the 7% of Americans that do!) and are unswervable from their blood sucking mission. Otherwise the humidity is starting to drop off and we will soon be close enough to Niagara to get our first shower in a week or so! It's all good! See you in N.Y!
September 10th 2003 This final belated diary entry actually comes from a pleasantly warm and surprisingly sunny England, we reached New York City on the 7th of this month completing our 80 day, 4300 mile cycling mission across the country.
Whilst still in Canada not only did we meet Trinidadian tobacco pickers imported for the season but also a short sighted driver who reversed his car into my bike as it stood waiting for me to return from dinner. I was in the toilet at the time but Christ ran out to reprimand him, what he could not know at the time was that the collision had broken a couple of the very thin wires within my solar panel! It was basically a right off but I continued to carry it for the rest of the trip as a "Visual aid" to champion my cause. Robs spokes continued to break but fortunately we found a shop (independentbikes) which contained some very cool Canadian dudes about our age who consented to role us some spokes the right length for the right price - cheers boys!!
Anthony an ex-pat from the north of England found us eating our dinner on the pavement outside a petrol station in Jarvis. Our banter with the locals kids proved helpful as it was they that introduced us, a night of proper 'European' beer drinking ensued, your hospitality was much appreciated Anthony!
Another event that heralded our homecoming was a football (soccer) match we took part in just 30kms short of Niagara falls. The teams were mixed and the scores pretty close (even after Christ's attempt to decapitate one of my players with an almighty toe-punt!) Team one was: Jim, Rob, Mitchell and Trevor. Team two was: Christ, Tim, Devon and Colleen. Good game, Good game! If this lot are anything to go by then Canadian football has a bright future! Their exuberance didn’t do our cycling legs any good though; finishing off the distance to Niagara was a micro-mission!
Initial impressions of the "tourist town" of Niagara falls were just that, it didn’t help matters that we arrived on Labour day - the place was packed! We squeezed onto the K.O.A. site between two groups of campers who seemed to be having a who's-got-the-most-bogus-music competion; obviously we were in no position to compete! We visited the natural wonder the following day, taking a bus after our attempt to hitch fell flat. I think we were most impressed by the radius of approximately 1 mile around this astoundingly beautiful sight where there is nothing but flashing neon lights and money grabbing capitalist swines!!! Unbelievable! People arriving there must have difficulty in discerning between the awesome power of nature and the awesome power of a free-market-economy! Disgusting.
Leaving Niagara falls - Canada for Niagara falls - U.S.A. was very disappointing for Christ who learned that international customs had prevented his Camera from arriving in time for our departure. It was not a major disaster; we are all using digital cameras, which make our pictures ultimately transferable! So after our first photo of the New York State sign we pedalled off to finish our journey, a team with one common goal, and one common camera!
The road to New York for those not interested in mountain biking follows the New York Throughway. This picks up the Mohawk river, follows it all the way to the city of Albany and then follows the Hudson river all the way down to N.Y. Thus avoiding the large and unpleasant Appellation and Catskill ranges. The fact that it follows river valleys is no guarantee it's going to be flat, as we were soon to find out - much to our chagrin!
Fortunately we encountered not only hills but also all-you-can-eat buffets on our way! Excellent cycling fuel stops; but a trifle unsettling when you realise that really can eat all you can! Where does this food come from? Why is it so cheap? Why isn’t food this cheap all the time? What about the starving millions?! We have quickly come to terms with the culture; it's only natural to want as much as you can get isn't it? Whatever thoughts cross your mind as you are stuffing your face there is always that grateful one that you are not tucking into your 5th peanut butter and jam (jelly) sandwich of the day! We have had a pretty limited diet during our tour. It is best to avoid sugary foods when doing a lot of cycling (you only regret it later!) and eating fatty foods only makes you really thirsty. Wandering past miles and miles of supermarket shelving in the states you will soon realise that apart from heavy tinned produce and fruit everything else has been sugared and salted to the max! I often lived on bagels, horribly artificial bread and cream cheese for days on end. We ate-out when a diner or restaurant coincided with our progress along the road, surprisingly prices are comparable to buying a meal in a super market. The majority of these offer some form of deep fried food in varying meaty flavours, not much good if you have a heart or obesity complaint and even worse if you are a vegetarian! Lipoidal platters we enjoyed were: burgers and fries (I didn’t see one veggie-burger on sale!), fried chicken and fries, fried shrimp and fries, fried cheese sandwich and fries, pizza, fries and the occasional Mexican meal. In the defence of American cuisine breakfasts can be pretty awesome: Eggs, Hash browns, omelettes, toast, oatmeal, pancakes and syrup, sausages, bacon etc. The ultra cheap coffee with free refills is a nice touch; although beware the addictive powers of caffeine - an effect I know Rob was feeling by the end of our three month stay!
As we took on our final state (almost!) the population density was becoming a bit more of a problem, the 'no-trespassing' signs on field gates are harder to ignore when there is a house right next to them! We spent one memorable night in a graveyard, thinking we would not be disturbed . . . Someone had woken the warden up so that he could come and tell us "this is a private graveyard"(!) "Trespassing corpses will be exhumed" (he didn’t actually say that, but I’m sure there was a sign up about it somewhere!). Fortunately that wasn’t until 6 in the morning by which time we had concluded our business there.
Only 4 more days to go until we reach the end! Hoorah! We still had a lot of cycling to do (about 360 miles). By this stage it was easier for us to concentrate on how much we had done and not on how much we had left to do. The beautiful scenery and talk of the characters we had met along the way staved off the frustration for the most part. Rob broke a couple more spokes and we had to stop at another bike shop to remove the cassette and replace them. PLEASE REMEMBER if you buckle a wheel badly and have to replace the rim REPLACE STRETCHED SPOKES at the same time!
The most notable meeting we had on the "home straight" was with the pastor at the city harvest church in Albany who was very good to us, concerned about our spiritual welfare as well as our physical he evengelised to Christ and Rob and discussed what my faith meant with me. Fortunately I do not heed men's empty words! They certainly practise what they preach and much respect to them for it!
We would not have had such a cruisy route into the big smoke if it had not been for the help of the make up artist (and route planner) Aleta Wolfe; stopping in her garden for the night was cool too, ta!
The last state boundary we crossed was that with New Jersey. A photo was snapped for the records despite only being in the place for a couple of hours, soon we crossed the George Washington bridge over the estuary to our final American city. . .
What a city it was too! It was a bit like cycling onto a film set, one of the most famous places on earth . . . I suppose we were bound to enjoy the place as it was not only the end of the cycling but also our gateway home! We ended up in a hostel in Harlem, not your typical tourist destination, but then I suppose we are not your typical tourists! Things did get a little sketchy around there on the streets late at night, but if you wander down the wrong ally late at night in any part of New York (even Reading!) I'm sure the risks are just as great. With so much to see and only 3 days to see it in we resigned ourselves to celebratory beer drinking instead! One day, after avoiding arrest and the confiscation of my juggling clubs by a cop in Time Square Rob and I went to a pub to kill some time. It was there we had the great fortune of meeting Ray and Guinavere, a most generous couple! After hearing our story they decided they were going to take us down to Manhattan - in their stretched limo! We didn’t spend a penny all night! After the second pub we went on to a strip club where we watched a number of foxy (and not so foxy!) ladies shaking their booty all about the place, most refreshing! Ray paid a cabby to take us home later that evening, what a legend! His rock'n'roll life style was great fun to be part of for the evening but knowing that it stemmed from a decision he had made after arriving late for work on the 11th of September 2001 we couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. That incident has changed many lives around the world, most of them for the worse . . .
To raise a contentious issue, one that American citizens should be concerned about at least; the introduction of the Patriot act. This act of Congress gives new sweeping powers to police officers and the FBI to arrest and detain, without trial, anybody they suspect of 'terrorist activities'. This and new laws allowing the monitoring of peoples activities some people believe is an affront on their civil liberties. We met a very well informed and interesting street activist as we mooched through the financial district. While we were talking to him and listening to the anti-consumerism lecture broadcasting from his stereo system we were moved on by a policeman who said "I don't want to listen to that". It seems that opinions are wide and varied on such matters, it's just a shame so few people are willing to discuss them. Fear of being branded a usurper? Dangerous when there is the possibility of a secret arrest being made!
Unfortunately just as we were getting to know the city it was time to move on. This time it was to catch our flight back to our more liberal European home land! Wicked! We took advantage of the Subway to get us as close to the airport as possible - we knew it wouldn’t be a problem taking our bikes on, a couple of days ago we had seen a bloke moving his sofa about on it during rush hour! The final test to our orienteering skills was a hefty one; it appears there is actually no-way to get to the airport by bike! Christ was flying form a different terminal to Rob and I so he had to fit his machine on a bus, we risked a junction on the freeway, a parting shot to a traffic system we didn’t believe in! Viva la révolution de vélo!