TransAm 2012 - Cycle across America

Sunday, 12th August 2012
Airport & flight home

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Lots of footage out of the window. Tried to name as plany places as possible and even Canon City where we cycled through.

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Blog for the day (Monday, 13 August 2012):
I'm sitting at a rather nice airport in Portland now. The ride in was excellent, clear roads at 6am, which led straight to the airport. White lines passed either side of us as we whizzed along. It's pretty nice here, looks new and it seems to work well. I could be tired or maybe it's shell shock at the realisation that the trip is over. What to do now, where to go?? Jake had boxed my bike on Wednesday and I threw in lots of other stuff as my bag was filled to the brim!! I got stung at check in for being overweight, well, my bag, not me. If I had two bags I would have just paid $30 for an extra bag, instead of $60 odd for it being overweight. Grrrrrr. On top of that, $150 for my light bike. Crazy!!!! Not much I could do :(

Portland is a nice city, clean & crisp. Pretty new looking with a large young population. It's pretty chilled and laid back, would have liked to have spent more time here. Lots of tramps about though.

Just have to wait for my plane. Most of the group have now caught their planes, trains & automobiles home now. Work on Monday :(

I got to Dallas ok, lovely flight over and must have flown over part of the route somewhere. I got a view of the city in the distance, but no sign of J.R. anywhere. I wonder what everyone else is up to. I had a long wait here, 4 or so hours. Not much to do, a few shops but nothing worth buying! So no pressies guys. The plane was ok although the flight was pretty long.

Happiness is seeing a British airways jumbo pulling in. Lovely. I chomped a big meal before boarding as not eaten all day, found some tat to buy, nothing in duty free though. I boarded and like the previous flight, everyone was coughing and sneezing so I am bound to go down with something now. I got my nice seat, sat back and relaxed.

And relax! Champers to start with and a good steak meal followed later on. I watched The Hunger Games which was ok. Flying high over much of the land I had cycled over and heading home. Out over the Atlantic where three months earlier I had started peddling towards the Pacific. I have never been happier to see the onboard route of the little plane, edge closer and closer to home. I pissed over Ireland and through the clouds I could make out home. Fields heavy with crops, little towns and roads. Usually when returning from holidays, your not wanting to return, now, I was happy to be back.

It's only then, when I looked down upon England, that I realised what I had done, and I think, changed too. I guess we will see with that one. Dropping further out of the clouds, we followed the M4 down to Oxford, flew over Windsor castle and dropped into heathrow. I had hoped that we would fly over the Olympics site or our house, I had chosen my seat accordingly. Nope! Grrrr. I stepped foot on home soil with a big smile. It's a shame my nephews were not there to welcome me home though.

I had done it, cycled across a continent, just under four & a half thousand miles in three months. I had seen and done so much. What a great time I had and how lucky I am to have done it and survived it!! What next?? Afternoon tea with clotted cream ;)

Groan, Monday morning and back commuting to work, sucks. Bike is in the shop waiting to be put back together. At the gym spinning on the bike, it hardly feels I've been away. Nothing has changed, same fat old people trying helplessly to loose weight while going out for a Indian meal in the evenings. Work later, oh no!!!

I guess I have to end this blog properly soon. Thanks to everyone who helped put this trip together, the team leaders and the other guys on the 3month adventure. Going to miss you.