The longest days ride up todate.

Distance Travelled: 130.4 Miles
Time in saddle: 8Hrs 56 Mins
Overall distance: 1085 Miles.

I woke up this morning pretty wet, my tent was fine but the weather was lousy last night. It kept waking me up, along with the strategically placed rocks, by whom I don't know but it made for an uncomfortable night.....rocks and stones don't go together...work it out your self. The tent nearly blew away, It's a god job I had my fat backside in it or else it would have done. The thunder storm was pretty amazing and the lightening was....well, en-lightening, a play on words....clever hey? I packed everything away and some of my things were pretty wet, the clothes I put on didn't really matter. In fact it felt nice to have them wet as I knew they would dry pretty quickly....is that a fetish I hear you say...no just convenience.
After a good nights sleep I felt really strong...I didn't want to lift anything up or anything like that but you know what I mean. The first thirty miles was easy and I had an incentive...there was a town at that very distance, Green River. It should have been called Brown River because the river was brown, or maybe the first settlers were colour blind.....James were your ancestors ever in Utah? I wanted to make up for the miserable performance I did yesterday. I was determined to get back on track. I know that I will have some 'off' days but I need to make sure that I make the time up.
I had something to eat and on leaving had a chat with a guy whose ancestors came from the UK, great stuff. He didn't know where from but that doesn't matter, they were Brits. He gave me some indication as to the terrain over the next four hundred miles......hills. They are everywhere, front, back, sidewards, they wait for me to come....cuckoo, cuckoo....sorry lost it for a moment. He very kindly gave me his card and offered to help me if I was in trouble in Kansas. It's like that line from The Last of the Mahicans..."stay alive and I'll find you" I've always wanted to use that line, but it doesn't sound the same when saying goodnight to a girl in Orford....or maybe it does. I keep saying this but I've met some really nice people on this trip....hopefully it will continue.
As I got to one hundred miles I had a choice. I was being chased by a thunderstorm. It wasn't actually chasing me....it didn't know my name or anything, unless someone told it I was coming...paranoid or what? I kept ahead of it pretty much for quite a few miles, I was really chuffed as the sky behind me was black, and it was only three o'clock in the afternoon. I peddled like a madman. Fear has a colour, it's brown and smells of poo.
The funny thing is that being so close to the storm the wind that is in front of the thunderstorm helped me cycle faster, great stuff. However just when you think you are clear the bloody thing comes from the side, and even the front. It's like when you are swimming off the beach in Towyn, North Wales. I remember being there in my imitation leopard skin woolen trunks....yes woolen...when I came out of the water it looked like the Mersey Dredger....well I was only seven. My mum said I would grow into them....yes when I was fifty one...God bless her. Getting back to the story. I remember seeing a jelly fish. But it couldn't catch me because I was bigger and stronger than it was....but the next minute I was surrounded. It's the same with storms...they are everywhere out here. I actually caught one up...didn't mean to. I waited under a bridge until it went away...it waited for me round a corner like someone playing hide and seek. I got drenched. The last thirty miles were wet to say the least. The good thing about getting wet is that you can only get so wet, then it doesn't matter. That's the way it was. I approached the Colorado River and knew that salvation....well a motel room...was near. There was a convention in town so there was chance that I may be sleeping in a seven eleven doorway. There was an hotel room, but the prices were inflated....capitalism don't you love it sometimes? I managed to get a room, two big beds...I might just sleep in both to mess with their heads. I've been assured it's the Queen Anne Room....she never stayed here, that I am sure of.
I'm sure that I am not the only person who is unhappy about the prices...I can hear a woman moaning next door....but I can assure you love God is not coming.