Day 2 Report

Total Miles 45.1
Average Speed 12.8mph
Total Ascent 440m

Ok, so I scored an even par round of 45 miles today leaving me about 13 under par due to a 32 miles on day 1. Unlike golf, being under par is not a good thing. However, given where I was a fortnight ago nearly 80 miles in 2 days ain't half bad.

Aside - water is important. Today was another scorcher. Roasting. So my 3 bottle strategy (2 750mls and and 500ml attached to the undercarriage making 2l is almost not enough! It's gone in a couple of hours so refills are shamelessly taken at every opportunity.

The morning started with back exercises - no room for complacency! And then a slap up breakfast at Ronnie's diner. Yum yum.

Today I had to get through US customs. This was about 15 miles into my morning shift. By the way, most of these 15 miles were out of town along straight country roads (as was nearly all of today) and I was loving it. These long straight roads do have one drawback however, they don't seem to employ any nice winding climbs, it's all straight up them. This is probably ok in a big, thirsty pickup truck. But on a bike this makes for some really nasty short sharp climbs and Granny Gear was deployed on more than a couple of occasions.

Back to US customs -I was (I thought) safely armed with my ESTA pretravel online visa (costing $14 US). I skipped quite a lot of the long car queue but stopped about 15 cars from the front (not wanting to take the total ...) alongside a couple of bikers (of the motor variety). Both were Canadian and were going to let their beasts loose on US tarmac. I had to chuckle to myself as one of them was a slightly overweight chap on a Harley. For all the world the spitting image of Jack Black in Anchorman (he plays a short amusing cameo as a biker). Not wanting to offend I kept this to myself but must have come across as a very jovial and cheerful fellow.

Ok, so now I'm at the front of the queue but the officer is shaking his head...not good..."no this is for when you arrive by plane, no use for you on your bike. You'll have to go INSIDE". The word INSIDE was said with a little menace (hence capitals). So I go INSIDE and have to fill out a different form and have everything to hand except my flight home details. Schoolboy error I know but I thought I was safely armed with my ESTA! Humms and hawwss and sucking of teeth were next the order of the day, before the nice customers officer told me to remember this for next time, took my finger prints and inside leg measurement (not really the inside leg measurement) and told me to pay another $6 - the cheek!

Anyway, I paid up and got through to the US - WOOHOO! the land of the free and the home of the brave.

After a storming prelunch session of 35 miles at 13.2 mph the mexican diner in Ferndale was a welcome sight. My back was about to transition from slightly uncomfortable into something resembling painful so it was a relief to stop.

Another aside - the cycling has been really quite pleasurable so far and no trouble at all from motorised vehicles. The North American motorist appears to be much more considerate to the cyclist than some at home - wide overtaking berths and manners at 4 way stops (the US version of a crossroads -right of way is with they who first get to the stop - your humble cyclist narrator usually waits until a nice motorist gives me the wave if there is any doubt - I usually get the wave). The roads I've been on are back country two way, single lane. However, these often have a mini hard shoulder thing juts wide enough for me to cycle along so as to not bother the motorists too much.

After lunch I decided to have a short recovery type ride into Bellingham for the night. only 10 miles or so and not too fast. I didn't need to look up the history books to realise that Bellingham
is a goldrush town. First clue - street name of Prospect street. It is a strange sort of town. On a random walk through the town centre I felt - industrial decay (big but largely unused docks), economic decline - (lots of closed up places), signs of a richer past (some nice olde worlde buildings) a thriving music scene (a few youths hanging wound with geetars.) A bit of a hippy scene (health food stores etc). Disclaimer - this was a random walk so I may be totally off the mark.

Ok, I'm off to do some stretching and read some spanish, ahhh spanish - you thought I'd forgotten about that maybe? More on that in due course. Bye for today.