X-America by Bicycle: Pedalo out of St Louis

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.

May 20, 2010

Pedalo out of St Louis

It has been a while since my last blog, so there is much to tell! We had a great few days in St

Louis, watching a baseball game, going up the gateway arch(195 meters high), but best of all eating non-junk food and having a really good rest. I must thank Tom, Will's Uncle in law, who was so kind to look after us and take us around. I got my bike properly fixed (only after it was fixed the first time, but then broke again as i rode away from the shop and i had to walk a mile or so back to the shop with the bike on my back!)

Yesterday started out as a bit of a disaster, as about 300m from the house Will's chain popped off, just like mine did which has caused all my problems, and completely screwed up the back wheel, breaking lots of spokes in the process. So back to the bike shop we went. It appears all of our chain/spoke problems occur as a result of having a bent derailleur. After a lengthy wait whilst Will's wheel was fixed, we finally set off, away from St Louis at about 2pm.

There has been a lot of rain in the past few days, so there were a few interesting moments(as my title would suggest) where we were at least in a foot of water on the cycle path. Very Amusing. Anyway having pioneered a new water sport of 'water biking', we crossed the Missouri River and cycled roughly 45 miles on the 'Katy trail', which was like riding down a toe path....no cars, completely flat, great weather = perfect. We arrived to our camping spot quite late as a result of the delay in the morning, which was situated next to a baseball pitch, where a game was occurring. All i can say is that cricket is definitely a far better game!

Today we set off nice and early with the intention of riding 85 miles to Jefferson city, Missouri. The 25 miles we did on the Katy trail passed quickly and we turned off the trail back onto the roads. As we came into Hermann at roughly 12 another spoke problem! ANOTHER spoke broke on Will's rear wheel. We were lucky that in Hermann there was a bike shop, so we got it mended quickly. In the morning we set out into glorious sunshine but the weather turned dramatically in the afternoon. Rain and lots of it. Nevertheless we have reached Jefferson city and have treated ourselves to a motel. Setting up a tent in the pouring rain, already soaking wet surprisingly did not appeal! We have got just over 140 miles to Kansas city which we hope to reach in two days time, so not too a hard day tomorrow. Total miles done=1462.

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What we did!

Starting in late April 2010, we cycled across the USA in aid of Research Autism. We rode from New York to San Francisco, a distance of 6288km.

The ride took us through some of Americas greatest cities, over the Rocky Mountains, and across the Utah ‘badlands’, with temperatures ranging from under 0 to over 45 celsius, and altitudes from sea level to 11000ft: it was an epic. We camped along the way, meeting Americans from all walks of life.

6000km is the equivalent of London to Baghdad, or Nairobi to Cape Town and back. Click here to support our cause and donate to Research Autism.

About Us

We met during our first year at secondary school and found that we shared many common interests in sport, outdoor activities and travel. We are both going on to study geography at university later this year.

Will has lived all his life in Kenya, and spent much of that time outdoors, and is now a certified safari guide and sailing instructor. Alex grew up and still lives near London and has recently become a BASI ski instructor.

We wanted to raise money and awareness for autism by doing something different and challenging, and cycling across America certainly fills both of those roles.

Highlights

Watching an obese man eat a 3ft long cheese steak baguette in 14 mins.

Finally using 1 of the 4 tennis balls we have with us in a nice cold swimming pool, after a tough day.

Seeing some joker (called Sky, great guy – www.thirtysixer.com) on a massive unicycle wiggling his way up a hill on his way across country.

Top of the Rock in New York, for sundowners.

Worst day: Day 3 Philadelphia to Havre de Grace

Started off in the worst way possible by adding 10kms to the route by mistake, then had a hectic bridge to go over – on a highway with no shoulder with massive trucks in rush hour, steep uphill (too slow) then steep downhill (too fast to control with so little space) – at the end of which Alex fell due to a cunningly placed railway track – leaving him sprawled over the highway, luckily during a lull in traffic. Soon after I got a puncture (our first ever) and once we’d fixed that, Alex decided to get one too. Bear in mind as you read this, that the only time it stopped raining was just enough time to fix Alex’s puncture. Once we’d fixed his puncture, we were led quite firmly out of the area we were in by a paranoid man in a pick-up who was convinced that we were going to die if we stayed any longer in that area – called “Little Africa” – I didn’t tell him I was from Kenya, which was just as well – he then launched into a rant about how blacks were terrible which is why you should never go to anywhere called Africa.

To cap it all off, when we got to 1 mile away from where we were sleeping that night, we got to a bridge which it was illegal for us to cross – a fact google maps had neglected to inform us. But bad things come to an end, and we are still going.

Challenges

£5 a puncture

$10 a state

$10 every time someone guesses correctly first time where Will is from.

Challenging us makes the riding more enjoyable and means more is donated to Research Autism, so rack your brains and send us a suggestion by email.

If you are struggling to think of your own challenge - you can build on someone else's - send us an email saying which challenge you would like to increase.

If you are searching for ideas, bear in mind that we won't do anything illegal, and I don't want to ride with no clothes on (probably illegal too), but otherwise all is good.

X-America by Bicycle

The Route So Far - Google Maps

Why?

Photo Video - New York to St Louis

May 20, 2010

Pedalo out of St Louis

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