WalkerBikies

Two Nights and a Day in Jail. Although the vast flat wheat plains of Kansas have been tedious riding at times with straight roads stretching for 10 milles & beyond and strong winds from the side we have found the people of Kansas County friendly & helpful. Traffic has been light except for the few days when wheat harvesting meant we shared the roads with huge combine harvesters. The whole process from tilling the soil to planting, spraying & harvest is done by enormous machinery. Several times when camping on small village greens local people have arrived with water melon, stopped to chat & make sure we are fine. There has not been a single official camp ground in the past two weeks except the forest park at Toronto Lake. In the small town of Hudson ... read more

USA Californian Cycle. Arrived from Tokyo and had a 30 hour stay at Geneva Beach near a large marina. Visited the bike shop & assembled our bikes with no time for sight-seeing. On Friday morning a Polish film crew arrived to televise & interview the Polish cyclists in our group. They filmed us leaving town along the beachfront route to Santa Monica. The tidy beachfront houses were a stark contrast to the rather shabby retail area close to where we were staying. Even on the beachfront Parade there were signs of homeless people among the joggers, roller-bladers & surfers. We left the coast and climbed up into the suburbs of Beverley Hills & Hollywood. We stopped at the Avenue of the Stars (messages from film stars in the pavement) where a Police Woman moved us on ... read more

Well I’d just started the last epistle when I was interrupted, thought I was saving the file & off it went to everyone. Will try not to bore you too much with the daily details of cycling but there are a few incidents you may like to hear about. The driver who had been flown out from Lithuania found his driver’slicence was not valid here so Bill from Waiheke ( a fellow cyclist) the only person carrying an international licence agreed to take on the job for over 3 weeks. The first day the vehicle was not ready when we left Fukioka so we left laden with 4 panniers each & tent tied to the back of the bike. The cycle was meant to be about 110km but the campsite had not been confirmed so we ... read more