An early 5am start from Essex to drive to Heathrow Terminal 3 (thanks Brian) for an 11am flight to WDC. Thanks to Virgin Atlantic for all their support beforehand and today, great service as ever, rider, crew and bike boxes all safely arrived in Washington.
Picked up the red Dodge SUV (probably lots of photo's of this will appear alongside the bike over the next 15 days) and now in Candlewood for two nights of rest and a day of prep before hitting the road early on Sunday morning.
Lady luck seems to be on our side, intermittent thunder storms will disappear to a clear day on Sunday with temperatures forecast around 104 degrees, possibly a little too hot for Day 1 but no complaints.
More to follow tomorrow on our final preparations and more on Sunday's route out of Washington to Morgantown via the Appalachians and 200 miles of road, crossing over the first State boundary as we go, the real beginning after 8 months of planning..
Breakfast from the local supermarket followed by unpacking and re-assembling the bikes, all went to plan and no mechanical issues which is a relief.
Spent the afternoon checking the routeout of Herndon, Washington to get onto the route to Morgantown. After the first few miles the initial main stretch follows the Washington and Old Dominion Trail, 25 miles West on what is effectively a closed road, an old rail line out of Washington, a gentle controlled start before hitting (@greenlizardbike) Highway 7 for most of the route. At the start of the Trail we found Green Lizard Cycling, a wonderful bike shop and cafe, taking good local advice from Bernard and finding out from Beth later his quite remarkable background and involvement in cycling, a perfect way to spend the final afternoon before hitting the road. We'll keep in touch (Beth and Bernard) along our journey to San Francisco, hopefully we'll be able to tweet a photo of the Green Lizard sticker at the end of our challenge.
Looking at the weather forecast tomorrow, the aim is to set off at 5am to get some miles in before the heat kicks in, forecast is very, very hot!
Next update should be from Morgantown....
(''the scariest moment is always just before you start'' - Stephen King).
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