63miles / 925ft climb Hutchison to Minneapolis https://videopress.com/v/Z9cI6ByG?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true With warnings of a strong headwind we were apprehensive about today’s ride and how hard it might be and how long it might take to complete. We shouldn’t have been. It was beautiful. For 90% or more of the ride today was on a lovely dedicated, tree … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 57

Redwood Falls to Hutchison 60miles / 1,037ft climb An easy, uneventful ride today where we enjoyed a tailwind at times, where it was hot but not as blisteringly hot as recent days and where the traffic was busy enough but not too many enormous trucks. It made for a quick 60 miles. We stopped just … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 56

Marshall to Redwood Falls 38 miles / 404ft climb 12th July 2025 With a number of route options today and none of us wanting a repeat of yesterday, we considered carefully our options and agreed to take the highway. For much of the route, the shoulder was wide enough and suitable for cycling on. However, … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 55

Brookings to Marshall 83miles / 1,965ft climb It is Paul’s birthday today. We suspect there are not many 62 year olds cycling across America and we now have two on our team. https://videopress.com/v/zEfhD9qL?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true We changed our plans yesterday and did a longer cycle to allow a shorter day cycling today. However, the best laid plans … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 54

De Smet to Brookings 57 miles / 1,332ft climbed Wednesday 10th July https://videopress.com/v/duPVFtdd?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true Back on Highway 14 for the first few miles. The thought terrified me but the reality wasn’t so bad. I had set off with Caroline & Paul and knew they were looking out for me too. It was less than ten miles, … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 53

Snippets from De Smet - Rest Day De Smet is famous as the home town of Laura Ingalls Wilder the author of Little House on the Prairie. De Smet is like a building site with every road in the small town dug up. De Smet was home to a monster storm last night which we … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 52

Happy birthday to me! As team statistician, I calculated, during some of those many hours turning the pedals, there was almost a 70% chance of at least one of us having a birthday while we were on this journey. What an incredible way to spend any birthday let alone a 62nd! As a guess I … Continue reading Happy Birthday Paul!

There was a downside to yesterday’s cycle that I can just about bring myself to think and write about without developing post traumatic stress. Much of yesterday’s route was pleasant, if not particularly exciting. We had explored and discussed two route options and all agreed to take the highway. Initially, the highway had a decent … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 51 (Part 2)

By John Anderson In theory route planning should not be difficult. You get up, see where the sunrise is, head in that direction, then stop peddling when you’ve done enough for the day. Of course on some days you feel slightly apprehensive about the size of the challenge the following day. On these days you … Continue reading Gadgets

Fort Thomson to Wessington Springs 44miles / 1,814ft climb Today, I cycled my 2,000th mile in pursuit of our 4,500 mile Cycle Across America challenge. We are nearly at the halfway point. Leaving the motel We have left the reservation, feeling slightly unsettled by a police presence we haven’t observed anywhere else and by security … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 49

Kennebec to Fort Thomson 33miles / 797ft climb Gerry, our motel host announced just as we were leaving this morning that it looked like a storm was approaching. We spent a few minutes debating whether to stay until the storm had passed or carry on regardless. We were feeling brave, possibly mad, strong and fast … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 48

Murdo to Kennebec 44 Miles / 1,135ft climb A slightly more acceptable start after a Best Western chain breakfast that included real fruit which was a) unusual b) very welcome and c) made it almost edible. With a storm forecast around 1pm, we were keen to reach Kennebec before then. The ride was relatively short … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 47

Midland to Murdo 36 Miles / 1,654ft climb Leaving at 6.30 am, we had a lovely cooling breeze to start our journey. By 9am this had turned into a strong headwind accompanied by a temperature in excess of 30° degrees and rapidly rising. The undulating ride I had been anticipating felt like it was continually … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 46

Interior to Midland 59 Miles / 1,811ft climb https://videopress.com/v/3DNbAm8G?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true Determined to avoid the worst of the heat today, John and I set off at 6.30am. We had 60 miles to cycle and the temperature was to soar by late morning and the headwinds were to get stronger. The first fifteen miles were pleasant, through the … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 45

Rapid City to Interior 73 Miles / 1,128ft climb The directions said ‘follow road for 73 miles then turn left’. It sounds like it couldn’t be easier but we didn’t commit to this expecting it to be easy and it was far from it. The route would take us through the Badlands of South Dakota, … Continue reading Cycle Across America- Day 44

Hill City to Rapid City - Sunday 29th June 41 miles / 2474ft climb Setting off for Rapid City today, Caroline and John had planned a route taking us via Mountain Rushmore. As we have become accustomed to, there were the inevitable hills and the option of an ‘off-road’ adventure! Off-Road Option! Thankfully, these two … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 42

Hill City Crazy Horse Monument - Crazy People! There was a complete misunderstanding between the four of us today. Today was our first rest day in the ten days since we left Cody. I was excited for our rest day. I envisaged getting up when we woke up. No 5am alarm call, no cycling, a … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 41

Spearfish to Hill City 63 Miles / 3868ft climb https://videopress.com/v/qGHNmJpi?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true The clue is in the name. Hill City. I had some anxiety the evening before setting off on this ride. This was to be our tenth day’s riding without a rest day and having struggled with yesterday’s 800ft of climb, I wasn’t sure I could … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 40

Many times in preparation for this Cycle Across America adventure I have brought an old atlas down from my bookcase and studied our proposed route on it. The atlas had belonged to my Dad and was handed down to me when he died. It contains not only the written information, somewhat dated now, it contains … Continue reading Dad

Hotel breakfasts, lunch on the go, eating out for supper or the occasional BBQ or picnic are becoming pretty much the norm for us. Fast Food USA A few observations of the challenges we face in our quest to eat a nutritionally balanced diet to fuel our cycling. Also, a few interesting observations comparing eating … Continue reading Dining in the USA

Moorcroft to Sundance 66 miles / 3776ft climb https://videopress.com/v/M48NXfoE?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true To suggest that Devils Tower is an incredible sight would be an understatementt. Realising that we were within 10 miles of it but we hadn’t factored a visit into our plans, none of us felt we could miss this natural phenomenon. So, we replanned our route, … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 38

We are excited to follow the posts and blogs of our friends who are cycling through Portugal this week. We would all love to be there with them. They have been training hard, many of them are living with Parkinson’s too and all of them will embrace the challenge ahead of them. Like us, we … Continue reading In Other News

28 Miles / 450ft climb A short cycle today, due to the logistics of finding accommodation and avoiding having 70+miles cycling days. We were all pleased it was only a short ride today for two reasons. First, it afforded us a rare, unhurried morning and second, the very strong head wind working against us every … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 37

Arvada to Gillette 55 miles / 2327ft climb https://videopress.com/v/xnpdiVj5?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true The ‘highway’ to Gillette looped ahead of us like the yellow brick road. We left our remote cabin in Arvada, (population 9) and passed almost nothing for 60 miles, except for Spotted Horse with a population of 2, to arrive in Gillette, a sprawling town with … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 36

Reflections from 10%ersThe relatively short time Steve and I cycled with the trans America 4 highlighted the ups and downs they will face on their 4500 mile challenge.Our highlights:Cycling open roads with a big sky, dramatic mountains and waterfalls, seeing a cinnamon bear foraging in the woods, a wolf jogging along the Yellowstone river and … Continue reading By Marianne & Steve

Reflections from 10%ersThe relatively short time Steve and I cycled with the trans America 4 highlighted the ups and downs they will face on their 4500 mile challenge.Our highlights:Cycling open roads with a big sky, dramatic mountains and waterfalls, seeing a cinnamon bear foraging in the woods, a wolf jogging along the Yellowstone river and … Continue reading By Marianne & Steve

Reflections from 10%ersThe relatively short time Steve and I cycled with the trans America 4 highlighted the ups and downs they will face on their 4500 mile challenge.Our highlights:Cycling open roads with a big sky, dramatic mountains and waterfalls, seeing a cinnamon bear foraging in the woods, a wolf jogging along the Yellowstone river and … Continue reading By Marianne & Steve

Buffalo to Arvada 47miles / 645ft climb For only the second time so far, I needed my long thermal cycling tights on today. It was markedly colder than it has been of late and there was suggestions of a storm brewing later in the day. As on a number of previous days, the directions were … Continue reading Cycle Across America – Day 35