3 weeks to go!

A quick update...23 days to go!

On the 23rd June, Jamie, Sam and myself will roll out of San Francisco on our new purpose built bikes and set off for the east coast of America.

Preparations are well and truly underway on the logistical front ie. places to stay, the route, visas, kit and much more. On the kit front, it was good to be reminded by an experienced cycle tourer on one of my many trips to the local bike shop to ‘lay out all your kit that you’re going to take out on your bedroom floor, get rid of half of it and pack the rest.’ Judging from that, I fear it may well be a VERY smelly three months! However, there is one major part of our preparations that we have somewhat discarded…

Most people would probably argue that the actual riding of the bike was the most important bit to our preparation, but calling our training regime lack lustre would be a big understatement. In Jamie’s case, he has the perfectly decent excuse of living in central London revising hard for exams, needing to pass them all to be able to complete the ride. On the other hand Sam and I don’t have the same excuse and to put it bluntly are just being lazy! We will just have to get fit as we go (and I'm sure we will)…

On the donations front, we have exceeded even my wildest expectations at this stage with £12 000 raised to date and the generosity of friends and family has been amazing. Thank you so much! We have also been promised quite a lot when we have finished, so it gives us an even bigger incentive to get it done. I must say it’s quite addictive checking if anyone else has donated when I get home from work.

There is still one major problem though, our contact address in San Francisco fell through and therefore we are currently short of somewhere to stay. If anyone knows anybody that wouldn’t mind having Sam and me to stay for a couple of nights before the 23rd June please please send me an email at charlessale@hotmail.co.uk

We are prepared to house sit, baby sit, dog sit and are happy to sleep on the floor!

Way up North and Charles destroys his bike

We have spent the last few days in Newcastle and the North York Moors, obviously riding our bikes but also managed a bit of planning and also a night out on the toon!

Charles struggling with life

Chillin'

#Selfie

First step into the Sale residence and me and Sam could see how 6 months in Sri Lanka has affected Charles, he has now turned completely feral.. a true native, with his long ginger hair! After Tim told us all we were going to get lost at every opportunity in the States we set out for a cheeky ride in the middle of Northumberland (suburbia according to Charles!) and typically 10 minutes in his chain was stuck and unable to ride. Having laughed at him for 10 minutes Sam decided to give him a hand and then we were back on our way home to complete a rather painful ride.

The next day we did a fair amount of planning and now we might even have some bikes for the trip if we're lucky! Though the main event was our night out in Newcastle as we tried to reintegrate Charles into the normal world. I think all that needs to be said is Charles spent a lot of the night in the loo and we may have dropped him off at a kebab shop!

Steep

After a nice lunch at the Fenwick's we headed towards the North York Moors where we were lucky enough to have our own house to stay in... I can't see that luxury coming our way in the states! Our ride to Whitby ended in tragedy for me as I pulled a muscle in my hip about 8 miles in and had to head back. Sam and Charles managed to power on to get some scampi and chips on the seaside, though I don't envy them as they hit some 33 percent inclines!

We probably won't see each other more than once or twice now before we are actually in America but we will constantly update our blogs on here and facebook, and also instagram and twitter as we continue training!

Please do follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/sf2ny2014

and instagram http://instagram.com/goldengatetoempirestate

and look at our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/goldengatetoempirestate.

Last but not least please do donate, every little helps! http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserPage.action?userUrl=goldengate2empirestate&faId=376669&isTeam=true

Thanks for reading! Pass it on to anyone who may be interested!

Early Days with the Blogger

It's been a slow start with the blogger, unfortunately none of the three of us are technologically gifted, when we finally figure out how to use it properly we will update you on our little planning holiday up in Northumberland and bring some pictures too!