The Big Day...... Thursday 4th March 2010

The big day finally arrived, with it a list of last minute jobs that was as long as your arm, luckily Rachel, Richard's sister came down to help out, which was very handy as I had sold my car on the Wednesday evening and we ended up running all over town, mainly looking for a sports massage; I had handily wrecked my back tidying the garden on Wednesday. Not the best thing to do considering what we are about to embark on.

So, having been talked into having a massage over a bottle or two of wine on Wednesday evening I set off for Iffley Road running track and Peak Performance for one of the THE most painful hours of my life. I have never experienced pain like it, but my god was it effective, I entered the building practically on my knees in pain from just walking and by the end of it could bend down to do up my shoes with out any problems..... miracle or what, I have the number and would highly recommend the place and will be going back, I am pretty sure in a years time I will be needing it!!

With the back fixed as best as can be, we headed back to stress central a.k.a. my house for last minute packing, sorting, cleaning and bickering, luckily David (my Brother) who was giving us a lift was delayed so we had a little more time to play with. But, the time had come to say our goodbyes and head off to the airport. Which sounds pain free and uneventful..... this is without the help of a great ruddy stone, which just happened to take umbrage against the radiator of my brother's van (how rude) and caused us to spend just a little too much time in an ASDA carpark waiting for the AA to arrive. After 2 hours too long in the carpark in freezing conditions (the store was not much warmer), 16 liters of water, a bottle of rad welled and an AA man with long nosed pliers we set off again for the airport. Luckily in some kind of psychic premonition I had decided that we needed to spend Thursday night in an airport hotel so we were not racing to catch a flight else we would have been in serious trouble and had to pull in a favour, or two considering the size of the bike boxes.

The flight itself was very uneventful, thank goodness, however when a very helpful BA customer services man told us that, Ooops..... there was only one box on the flight and that the other one was hopefully on the next flight the stress levels went through the roof. Not sure if people are aware, but it is really difficult to ride half a tandem. but finally the second box has arrived (at this point I should say that we are staying with my friend Elizabeth and her husband Zack in LA for 4 days) it was a little worse for wear with a crank sticking out one end and the front chain ring looking like it tried to make a bid for freedom at some point, fingers crossed we can find a new bike box to get it to Christchurch, NZ our first port of call for cycling, but for now let the LA adventure and star spotting begin.........