Frogs

Last night we celebrated Bill's 63 birthday with chocolate cake and ice cream.very enjoyable end to the day.Off again at 07.30  with dark clouds all around and light rain in the air.put on our rain jackets from the off,but, despite appearances , the rain never amounted to much.

And we were able to leave our jackets as we passed Dana in his car.As I narrated yesterday there is a lot of standing water in the fields and in the slight gutters at the edge of the fields,today all this standing water seemed to be inhabited by frogs,who set up some raucous croaks as we sped by.The temperature was cool ,in keeping with the cloud overhead,so conditions were good for cycling with a light tail wind.Thus we sped along to the first stop at 48 Kms.All along the road to the stop we were regaled with views of collections of windmills,which lasted for 30 Kms.

We refueled at the refreshment stop

and set out again.After another 14 Kms we reached one of Americas many half way points.This one was the mid point between New York and San Francisco.But at least it felt good to be midway and after all we set out from near SF and will finish beyond NY,so midway is good!At the midway marker there was a small museum with a house built from sods and assorted memorabilia,including a bicycle ridden across the country by a 19 year old.Next door was an attractive little church.

the second refreshment stop came after 85 Kms ,in a lovely parkland setting.Once again today we were blessed with a great deal of birdsong and a lovely view of two red winged blackbirds.

Not my photo alas!Was quite rural round about,with some rapidly running rivers

And soon after passing the above a beautiful deer stopped by the road side to give us a good look.As soon as I reached for the camera he was gone! As we cycled along a convoy of lorries carrying 6 combine harvesters,intermingled with motorhomes and lorries carrying spare tyres etc swept down the road in the opposite direction to us.The draught created by their passing whooshed my helmet to the back of my head(good it was done up)and nearly knocked us off our bikes.I do not know where they were due to harvest,but it could not be too local to here.

We turned left and stopped for a sandwich after 103 Kms ,needed fortifying as we were now heading into the wind for the last 35Kms.Slow progress made slower by another puncture.Was hoping to arrive in the hotel in time to watch Liverpool play Spurs but the best laid plans.First the punctre,then when we arrived at the hotel ,the client before us had to try 4 credit cards before the receptionist was happy.Then could not get to grips with finding our room,and finally we arrived in the room and could not change channels on the TV! Three remoye controls later and a retuning of the TV let us watch the second half!!!!

 Anyway that is us past 1500 miles,and only a little short of having climbed 50,000 ft,so ready for some food.