By Paul Broekman

The journey of a lifetime – 1 month on the road

One month ago we set off from Seaside Oregon, and today, 5 states later we are in cattle country Wyoming. We have completed 30% of the total ride and during that time we’ve had daily treats of spectacular scenery and wildlife, which hopefully Alison’s blogs and Caroline’s reels have been able to convey.

The careful accomodation and route planning done by Alison and Caroline since Christmas is paying off. Miraculously we are still on our planned schedule.

We’ve been spoiled with support from our son Mark at the start, Dave Tempest who arrived midway through our longest and toughest day with a cool box of drinks and fruit and a boot large enough to take our lugguage, Jim and Denises support and companionship throughout Idaho and the good company and banter from Julia, Paula, Marianne and Steve has meant the 450 miles we cycled together in Montana flew by.

June 15 was an important date for Alison being 10 years since her diagnosis so we raised a glass to her and our middle fingers to Parkinsons. Well done Alison!

Those scenic sections may now be behind us as we head to the next section of our journey – middle America. Maybe the last 2 days have been a taste of what we can expect as we have been cycling between the Shoshone national forest to the Bighorn mountains. A relatively flat and uninteresting scrubland dotted with farms but with elaborate irrigation systems managing to sustain some green fields for the cattle herds. The temperatures have reached new highs as we have decended over 4000 feet from the relative cool climate of Yellowstone.

Daily distance, climb, wind speed and direction, temperatures, food and water stop locations and shop opening times have become the new parameters of our lives. Wifi codes, laundry facilities, the nearest ice machine and breakfast provisions are the questions we find ourselves asking at each new accomodation. Our bodies are acclimatising though there are no easy days, the afternoon temperatures see to that.

We are excited to see what the next stages of our journey will bring.