The Route So Far - Google Maps


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Why?

We are doing this ride to raise money for Research Autism. We are aiming to raise £20,000.
We are supporting Research Autism because my cousin Jamie is severely affected by the disease, and I have seen its effects not only on him but on the whole family." He is 13yrs old, but cannot yet talk.
Just take a moment to imagine not being able to talk.
Imagine understanding everything going on around you, but not being able to comment.
Imagine having to be dressed every morning in clothes you don't choose, and then hurting your parents as you try to tell them you wanted the blue shirt today.
Imagine being swamped by having to hear everything that everyone is saying around you, and not being able to listen to just one thing at once. Jamie loves being in a swimming pool, just floating, legs held motionless by the weight of the water, while he keeps his ears underwater to just relax, hearing nothing.
He understands everything - he appears to have a photographic memory - but can’t get his thoughts out.
Frustration leads to despair, and anger, which is just one of the many things that his family has to deal with.
He has extremely specific eating requirements and requires round the clock supervision. Jamie is at the severe end of the autistic spectrum, but given that one in 100 people suffer from the disease (with varying severity), and that everyone has some autistic traits, it is shocking that so little is known about it'.
Click here to support our cause and donate to Research Autism.
Read the "Meet Jamie" post - the only post in February, for more information about Jamie, and a poem - painstakingly slow for Jamie to type, but ultimately incredible.

Photo Video - New York to St Louis

May 10, 2010

Jamestown, TN - 8th May

No internet yesterday - here is what I wrote.

Although the movie yesterday cost us only $2, today it cost us some more – we only left at 12.30, because of our late night yesterday. Today was the first day heading northwest towards St Louis, and it was a beautiful day. But, beautiful day or not – we needed to do 70 miles to get to civilisation, the town nearest here is 30 miles. 70 miles and leaving late is not a good combination; we work on an average of about 10 miles an hour including breaks and stops which meant that we eventually scraped in at ten past 8.

We went through some extremely scenic areas which was great, the unfortunate thing is that scenic areas are hilly areas and we are reliant on our legs to take us up them. The fun thing is that what goes up comes down, and we had some epic descents. I clocked 64kph – 40 mph, which seems to be about the maximum that we can manage fully loaded. One particular section, round a bend downhill through a forest was about to be a highlight for me – cruising round the bend at 30miles an hour, but when I looked back, Alex was in the ditch. He went too fast round the bend and came off the side in a dramatic but luckily not too serious tumble. He has some stinging grazes that will be a reminder to use the brakes a bit more, but no real structural damage. The bike was ok, although the handlebars bent substantially, one tug was sufficient to bend them back into shape.

Tomorrow we intend to do at least another 70 miles, starting at 9ish, and seeing how far we get.

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