Cycle Day 1 Chicago (Illinois) to Fort Wayne (Indiana)

Woke up to a gloriously sunny and warm day at Chris and Noelle's. They made us a massive breakfast of omelette, Canadian bacon, beans with fantastic banana pancakes. We packed the van and the big man and I set off a little later than planned at 10.30am. This was in part due to the time change here which meant we lost another hour.

The first 25 miles was a short hop through town to the lake side cycle path down to central Chicago and then onto the outskirts of town and the museum.

We'd been warned not to cycle any further south on the path as we were in the projects.

BFGUL was really on his toes when they picked us up and as we approached some traffic lights where some homeless guys were knocking on car windows asking for money and holding out paper soft drinks cups. Teddy shouted 'lock the door Lyndon' who jumped out of his skin and nearly lost control of his already struggling bowels.

A couple of miles in the van to get to a safe spot on highway 30 east was what we were looking for now but BFGUL who was in charge of the sat nav system couldn't find the destination city and we were soon off the beaten track and into some serious heavy area. Crowds of dodgy looking men on each block corner out side run down liquor stores, a real crack den area.

Teddy again shouts at Woohoo BFGUL "don't look at them Lynd' who is like a statue staring straight ahead.

I suddenly realise and point out that here we are, 4 white guys sitting in a big shinny new RV with 'RV Rentals of America' and huge pictures of a happy white American family with shinny white teeth splashed all over it while those looking at us had very little and in a number of cases no teeth... Nothing could have said LOOK AT THE LOST WHITE TOURISTS any better.

We lost another 45mins trying to escape this area and found ourselves heading in the right direction and on to our next cycle drop off point.

We needed gas so pulled into a station and I grabbed a road atlas as the sat nav was not being entirely truthful with us and we had our first change of driver!!!

Woohoo took over from Nik Nak (he of the magnificent Mono Eyebrow). Woohoo was completely out of his depth, he couldn't find the handbrake, cause there wasn't one, the clutch, cause there wasn't one or work the gear stick, cause it wasn't one. We are in an automatic we told him. "but I've never driven one of these things before!" We literally kangaroo'd out of the gas station after 15 minutes sat on the forecourt given Woohoo 3 to 1 tuition. We talked him to the entrance while Teddy wet himself in the back. Woohoo then turned left out of the station, needed to go right really and then proceeded to turn left back into the station at a different entrance but on the wrong side of the road, we were screaming at him...

We then talked him on to the correct road but had to perform a U turn.... pretty it was not.

After a few miles on the right road Teddy and I got onto our bikes and had a long 30 plus mile leg on the flat but into a decent cross/head wind, it was tough going.

We had a quick bite to eat and then back on for the 3rd leg and more of the same.

Onto the next stop and a quick chat and off again. The wind was taking its toll and we were in Indiana now and had no idea of the correct time as some areas do not observe the daylight saving idea.

The big man had a touch of cramp on the next leg but managed to cycle it off and we made it to the final stop of the day where we came across an Amish family in their horse and carriage. A couple of slyly posed photos helped us to capture them on camera with us posing in the foreground.

Back in the van and on to our destination for the night Van Wert which is just over the border into our 3rd state of today, Ohio and probably another time zone. Hopefully we'll find a cheap motel to book into as we have nothing pre booked for tonight and need to shower and get Woohoo into a crib of his own where he can snort, hhuuurrrghhrrh and fart to his hearts content without keeping everyone (except NIK NAK) awake...

Nos da

Pork Pie.