Ride4Hope USA Update Day 13

There are a few not quite with it this morning. Yvonne and Anthony come waltzing past Keith with bags and bikes only to be reminded that they are still on the second floor, not the ground floor, Gary Torr has woken up at 3am, "freezing my b******* off", " I sat on the edge of the bed, pitch dark, didn't know where I was", "the air conditioning was screaming". Morty walks down with Sandals and SOCKS on, there'll be a fine for that later, then spills his cereal on himself.

Anthony endears himself to Thommo' (Dave) by cutting him up on the way out of the car park and that could mean more votes for Anthony tonight to go with his earlier clanger, there's not much the lads miss now and the voting for later on can start to get a bit tactical.

Team A set off and after only a couple of miles Gary Torr attracts a "reinforcing screw" into the side wall of his tyre. Team B by this time about 8 miles further on heading for their drop off point have to turn round and go back to do some running repairs. We have the spares on the RV so Shelly and Andrew jump to it and Gary is back on the road after 15 minute delay.

We had no idea what sort of a day we where in for, but as it turned out it was one of the toughest days we've had. The temperature must have started in the late 70s, but the humidity made it difficult to get your breath, some of the lads have had a late night and now they're feeling it. Our first port of call is Athens (home of the rock band R.E.M). We miss our turning and ride straight through a student meeting at the local park. Turning round and heading back out of town toward Highway 50 East we encounter dishevelled cobbled roads and hang on to the handlebars while trying to keep an eye on the RV as it disappears ahead of us. There's confusion ahead as we find our way towards the main highway, but there is a sign stating "No bicycles or Motor cycles under 5 BHP". We're stuck and Brocko' is nowhere to be seen. We're not sure what to do next and so wait on the carriageway, it's 30 minutes before we find out what's going on. Brocko' eventually locates us and and we quickly throw the bikes on board. The atmosphere is a bit tense on the RV, made worse by a lack of food in the fridge and the RV not having any water on board. There's a few harsh words and we have to stop to clear the air.

So far on this trip Brocko has covered over 4,000 miles and Anthony will have a similar figure. It's not lost on us that this is also some sort of achievement, how many people do you know who have driven an RV from one side of America to another, they too should be rightly proud of there achievement in completing the trip and ensuring our safety along the way, there is much to thank them for.

Finally we are heading up another energy sapping climb and me and Shelly start to see movement at the top. We think we're hallucinating and seeing trees moving closer to each other, but as we get nearer it Brocko', Morty, Gaz and Dave and there's applause all round as we get to the top, it's a welcome site, we're worn out and quickly get in the RV for air conditioning and a cool drink. Everyone is fussing round us as we strip, cool down and dry off.

Setting off it's now nearly 5.30pm and Morty heads us in the direction of a nearby McDonalds, it's the usual fast food fayre, but this time it's welcome, our legs are shaking from tiredness and hunger and we must still be dehydrated, so we get some liquid in and settle down for a rest. Even better news filters through that Liverpool have beaten Man' UTD 2 - 1, Wigan haven't lost and West Brom have sneaked a 3 - 2 win over West Ham (apologies to Gary Meyer of Wegoma, one of our sponsors for recording that detail).

We'll give Dick of the Day and Rider of the day a miss tonight and pick up tomorrow night instead. It's been a long day for different reasons and it'll be nice to get an early night.

Day Fifteen 14.09.08 (Grafton - Waynesboro, Pennsylvania 200 miles)

State West Virginia

The Rockies and the Appalachians were always seen as the biggest obstacle to us completing this event. The best climbers in the group and the fittest people those being Iain, John & Yvonne have all played a fantastic part in dealing with the more difficult aspects of the ride an we rightly applaud them for there efforts.

What I have written in the next few paragraphs is no exaggeration, in 90deg heat and 85% humidity 3 middle aged men and Sean set off on a four mile climb into the northern reaches of the Appalachian mountain range, it's always hard starting off on your ride as the legs need to get going, the next 10 miles or so we're averaging a fair speed indeed we complete the first 20 miles of this ride in under an hour. It will take us another 2hours 52mins to complete the remaining 36 miles. The climbs are bad enough, the heat is overwhelming, we are going through drink like it's going out of fashion. In nearly 3 hours we've drank over 12 bottles (6 litres) and had a litre and a half of Mountain mist lemonade and never needed a toilet break, none of us. The first group out with the better climbers had the worst terrain, so god only knows what they've gone through. We've completed 4 separate climbs along the way, each between 800 and 1,000 feet. As we come around one corner after barely completing the last climb, Gaz' shouts out " good god, look at that mother in front of us" and it's an other mammoth ascent. Without question there are thoughts going through my mind that it's probably going to be the first time in the ride when we'll have to get off and walk.

The RV has arrived behind us and we stock up with yet more water, at this point Gaz' is seriously considering getting in the RV, how Gaz' has climbed as well as he has in this heat on a double chain set is nothing short of sensational. Sean questions whether he has two more days in him and Keith is just spinning the pedals, it's hard to describe.

There is only one way up this last ascent, it's called teamwork and Sean takes off with Gary and they're spinning ahead. Graeme rides on with Keith and we're all spinning at 5-6mph for the next two miles, if there had been a camera crew filming then most of the watching public would have been close to tears seeing the road ahead and looking back to what we are leaving behind.

The final group are out on their ride, forget Arizona and the desert, Eastern U.S.A has provided the sting in the tail, there where riders out there on the edge of exhaustion and dehydration and today they've pushed the boundaries of endurance beyond that expected. If you think this has been a holiday, think again.

We're still thinking of both teams that have been out today. Team A led by Iain have had to do 74 miles in this heat, it was bad enough for us at 59 miles, just think what these lads have gone through. Even the most experienced rider Iain (macca) went past his maximum heart rate and John was pushing 150. There has to be an extra special mention for Richard and Andrew who have shown extraordinary resilience to come through this most gruelling of days, it will without doubt be seen as the hardest day of the ride. A comment from Iain regarding Brocko's assistance was that "without his constant support throughout the morning, being there when they needed him for water, they could have been dead".

Team C, the last team out and headed by Alan will be having an equally tough time. Though their route looks flatter than the rest there are still one or two peaks to get over and they'll be seriously hot like the rest of us.

It's about 7pm now and neither Team A or C are back yet. We nip over the road to the local pub "Pappy's bar" for a well earned lager. It's what you might imagine a typical bar is in the U.S, pool table, 2 dart boards, Budweiser, Miller lite and other beers. There are only about half a dozen people in the place and it's a Sunday night so we're surprised it's open. The locals are once again very friendly and take an interest in what we are doing. One lady at the bar drops us dollar toward the charity and the bar tender brings us some cheese, baloney & wafer biscuits as a snack. They also agree to stay open later than the 8.30pm closing time so that all the returning riders and support can get in for a cool beer. When they arrive back it's about 8.20pm and they look tired, nowone wants to consider going for a restaurant meal and the owner allows us to order Pizzas in.