Tuesday 19 June - Meeting a mad Swede

Prairie City - Mitchell

83 miles
6 hours and 41 minutes in the saddle
34.1 mph max speed
12.4 mph average speed

In spite of doing 120 miles yesterday we managed to get back on bikes today and do another good ride without noticing too much stiffness or posterior pain :) The first 30 miles of our ride were downhill, which was nice and relaxing.

Today we have seen several TransAm'ers that are riding west to east. We feel quite glad that we are at the end of our trip rather than at the start considering the heat that is building across the plains and along the east coast. We also met a Swedish man, who is 59, who is running across America. Running across America!!! Good grief. We think he is crazy - lots of people think we are crazy to cycle. I suppose everything relative to what you think is fun or a challenge to do. He told us that he expects it will take him 100 days to complete the trip, averaging 35 miles a day. That's like running 9 miles more than a marathon every day for over 3 months. He was pushing a 3 wheeled pram with his stuff in it. Oh boy.

What we have seen of Oregon has been very pretty. Lots of mountains and forests, lakes and rivers. We have enjoyed our riding so far and are sure that the next 3 days, and last 3 days (!) of our TransAm will be just as good.

Today Stephen caused our first bike kill when he rode over a snake. Soon after he had hit it a logging truck passed us, so we are sure the snake would have been killed anyway. At least that is what we choose to think to make us feel a little better.