Blog

Aug

A wet night

Submitted by XL-Network on Sun, 2011-08-28 20:54

Last night it had rained a lot and the wind was blowing pretty hard. The last one wasn't such a problem because my tent is solid enough. Only the rain was a problem because I didn't have a ground cover so water came in through all the small gaps. Everything on the inside was wet. My sleeping mat, sleeping bag, my jacket and myself were all soaked. We should do a little washing to clean out all the wet stuff. Let's hope that the coming days stay nice and dry.

Aug

There's a storm coming

Submitted by XL-Network on Sun, 2011-08-28 20:11

We slept in this morning and had breakfast at the campground. Two pancakes with syrup, a cinnamon roll and a cup of tea. Did some washing and drying. My stuff had not been cleaned in days and after a hour or so everything was nice and clean and free from all kinds of weird smells. Jumped in the pool to de a few laps and afterwards spend some time in the hot tub to relax. Written some blog posts and put them online. This all took some time with the WiFi connection dropping every now and then, but that didn't matter.

Aug

Day 30: Returning bicycles

Submitted by XL-Network on Sat, 2011-08-27 23:17

Yesterday I went down to Starbucks for some tea and a sandwich, just a half hour work to get breakfast. This morning Bert had the good idea to go to the restaurant closely at campus. There you can just scoop it on your plate and you pay by weight. The also had free WiFi so I got to go online to get up-to-date again. After we put all the reserve parts in the truck we left for a short 40 kilometer ride to the company that was going to ship our bikes back to Europe.

Aug

Day 29: Roll over Washington

Submitted by XL-Network on Sat, 2011-08-27 22:25

This morning we first had a riders meeting to discuss our Roll over Washington and our visit to the European Union. There were around ten ROAM posters to be signed by all the riders and handed to the support team as a thank you. Finally I collected a number of photo's for the slideshow tonight at the EU.

Aug

Day 28: Hancock-Washington

Submitted by XL-Network on Sat, 2011-08-27 21:56

This morning when I woke up there was a cake on the pick nick table and my bike was decorated with balloons. Today, the day we would arrive in Washington, happens to be my birthday. Last night we also received free beer from Steve, a velomobile dealer. Steve also brought a Go-One Evolution and would ride with us the final day. After some 10 kilometers we had a short break and his tires looked very soft. Turns out he never had ridden the bike and the tires had only 2 bar in them. Also the yellow sticker was still on the SPD pedals.

Aug

Day 27: Patton-Hancock

Submitted by XL-Network on Sat, 2011-08-27 21:24

The landscape was getting more hilly the last couple of days. Today and yesterday there was some more climbing to do. Just after we left I heard a ticking sound ever six revolutions. I stopped and inspected the chain. Yup, a chain link was loose on one side. My repair set is probably still back in Portland, but fortunately Harry was behind me and had a chain tool. I removed to links and went on.

Aug

Day 26: Knox-Patton

Submitted by XL-Network on Sat, 2011-08-27 21:00

After I posted six blog messages online I took some time to look at the stars. It was a very clear night and there was no light pollution from nearby cities. That means that it was going a cold night (coldest so far). No problem because I have a sleeping bag that is nice and warm. Tonight was the first time I had to zip it all the way. Other nights were warm enough to leave it half opened. Also we could sleep in a hour longer because today was going to be a relative short day, only 150 kilometers, but with a lot of (short) climbs.

Aug

Day 25: Streetsboro-Knox

Submitted by XL-Network on Mon, 2011-08-22 04:20

This morning it rained lightly for a moment during breakfast. Luckily we were sitting in a shed of some sort, nice and dry. During the cycling it stayed dry the whole day except for a half hour in the morning. Put my foam cover on and cycled shirtless. After it stopped raining and the sun started shining it looked like the road was on fire, such a nice blanket of smoke.

Aug

Day 24: Shelby-Streetsboro

Submitted by XL-Network on Mon, 2011-08-22 04:17

Because I didn't have the chance to charge my stuff the battery of my phone died and I overslept and woke up at 5:50 AM. Reasonably on time. After 48.5 kilometers of cycling I had to make a stop and I noticed that my rear tire looked a bit soft. Turns out there was only 1 to 1.5 bar left. I pumped it up back to 5.5 bar and that did the trick.

Aug

Day 23: Fort Wayne-Shelby

Submitted by XL-Network on Mon, 2011-08-22 04:13

Because we het gained a hour yesterday we had to get up a hour earlier. My sleepy head packed everything in dark, eat and left. Together with Harry, because he had some problems with his Garmin Edge 800, so I was his navigator for today.

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