Craig Hamnett

I got treated to a breakfast fit for Lance Armstrong. Oatmeal, fresh fruit, toast – If only I had a team with me a chef would be my primary consideration. Tom wanted to ride with me for the first 10 miles or so, and once I’d finished packing up all my gear and loaded my bike it was time to hit the road.

We took a couple of photos for memories sake and began the ride towards South Bend over the next few days. The ride however was short lived. I could tell something was up with my wheel straight away – it was loose and wasn’t rolling properly. We’d literally just crossed the road, so we took the bike back over to the porch so that I could tighten up the wheel. It soon became apparent that this was more serious than a loose wheel. Continue reading →

Whilst at Fountainhead Cafe last night I sent out a Warm Shower request to Tom and Melissa who lived nearly around miles away. This morning I got a text message saying that I was more than welcome – my destination tonight was Richfield – 97 miles away according to Google Maps.

97 miles – If I manage to make it – will be the longest ride to date. This did worry me a little as the previous longest, 85 miles down to Bel Air, left me in such a state that I had to take a rest day to recover. Poor ass. Continue reading →

The best thing about yesterday was that it was over. Today was a new day, the sun beating down and the rain subsided. Not wanting to dwell on the hellish night, I asked Larry where the nearest McDonalds was and after politely listening to his life story I rode as fast as I could to my freedom.

I ended up finding a Starbucks first, my goal was for WiFi, Starbucks fulfilled that goal. After looking at the map whilst sipping my extortionate hot chocolate my destination today would be Beaver Falls. Not just because I liked the name. Continue reading →

After falling short of Pittsburgh and only managing 50 miles yesterday, I knew I could easily make the Steel City. I woke around 9 to find that the other 2 cyclists that had camped out had already left, they must have the good fortune of being morning people.

I went to use the showers and to use the WiFi to ring mother dearest. After a very nice chat and lots of moving around to try and keep the WiFi signal, I commandeered the showers. Not entirely impressed for the $20 I paid for the campsite but the shower did the job and I was clean until I started back on the trail. Continue reading →

After waking up and having breakfast with Dave he wanted to do a video interview with me which he later posted on YouTube. I thought it would be interesting to do a day of video instead of writing so this is it.

I don’t have video editing software (nor the processing power) to do anything with my videos so they are raw as they come off the camera. They total just over 3 minutes in length, it’s not exactly BBC documentary making. Continue reading →

So much for finding a place to stay where I won’t get woken up. I couldn’t have got closer to a train track and a crossing if I tried. The track ran ten metres behind the tent and the crossing was 100 metres down the street. The first train was at a fairly sensible 7:30 so I wasn’t too bothered about being disturbed. It was easy enough for me to get back to sleep for another 30 minutes before the next freight train. Time to get up.

The rest of the morning was spent catching up on blogging and uploading videos. Getting behind is a nightmare – maybe I need a manager to sort out things like route planning so I can concentrate on stuff I actually enjoy like cycling and blogging. After carefully studying the map tonights destination was Rockwood, 45 miles up the trail. Continue reading →

Waking up with the sound of the river 10 feet away is pretty awesome but I think it was the tooting trains that actually woke me up at about 7. I’ve now learned that it’s a legal requirement for trains to toot 2 long, 1 short, and 1 long – every single time they approach a crossing. Handy piece of knowledge for sourcing sleeping spots where I won’t get disturbed in the future!

I was on the trail at 8:30, still smelling faintly of smoke since there was no shower at this particular site (it was a free trail one). No, I wasn’t inclined on taking a dip in the river. Too cold, too fast flowing and not clean enough. It’s not exactly like the clear lochs of Scotland. Keep reading to find out about the Skittles Competition! Continue reading →