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.........

Final Soggy Test Ride

We've been putting off loading the tandem up with luggage and taking it out due to the weather, which we know isn't going to be an option on the trip, but when we have the luxury of choice it's become clear that we are fair weather cyclists at heart. Anyhow, come Saturday (weather: raining), then we really couldn't delay any more, so we packed our kit into the panniers, loaded them onto the bike and set off on a test ride that would replicate the sort of stresses and strains that we would be encountering on our trip.

So, after ten minutes on the flat smooth cycle track that runs next to Oxford's ring road, we both heartily agreed that both us and the bike were ready for the worst a Himalayan mountain pass could throw at us. We retired for a well earned bacon and egg roll... well, in Den's case an egg roll.

Finally we have declared ourselves ready for the off..... well apart for that tool that Richard needs to get, the important one for the brake!! and the packing of the luggage and the cleaning of the house and the hundred and 1 other things that I am now starting to remember, but I am sure it will all come together in the end I just hope that it is before Thursday evening!!!!!

First port of call on Friday is LA - bring on the sun.......

Projected tandem milage Zero...... (and it will remain boxed for the 4 day LA holiday before the adventure/pain/torture/fun begins in New Zealand a week on Thursday)

There will be pictures at the next posting as the ones that we wanted to post are not available to us owing to a small incident with a Nissan Micra, a memory card and a trip to Swansea.

New year action......

The deed is done, the trauma is over, the flights are booked..... there was a minor problem with baggage allowance and we thought we were going to have to pay £30 per kilo over the 23 kilo allowance , needless to say I was not impressed as we had previously been quoted as having two pieces each. Luckily our friendly travel agent's boss rode to the rescue and confirmed that we did indeed have the higher allowance... Who'd have thought you could have so much fun in a travel agency on new year's eve. Anyhow we are leaving on the 5th March, that's now officially less than two months. Hurray!

Well, finally we got our act together and went out on a test ride around the villages east of Oxford at the weekend, then it took me 4 hours to thaw out my toes! Richard is now having kittens as to whether he made the right decision in choosing drop handle bars on the tandem, apparently (yawn!) they are not so great for control when trying to man handle 350lbs of tandem, luggage, stoker (or rear-admiral) and captain on unsealed roads, and especially since his recent experience of sliding to work through the snow on a dropped bar solo nearly led to disaster.... mmm. Anyhow, that's a decision for him to make... I just hope for his sake that there'll be no inelegant and unsightly losses of control when I am on the back!!