Red Lorry Yellow Lorry Bloody Massive American Lorry

Kay, so we've just got back to our hotel battered and bruised from our first days riding. But before that let me fill you in on the last few days.

We finally arrived in Cleveland and our gracious hosts Adele and Lynn collected us from the airport and back to theirs. That night we planned the next day and talked about places to visit. Next day we woke up silly early (weird time difference), got ready and went shopping for bits n bobs. Upon our return I was expecting to see our Sat Nav on the porch but no joy. Soo we went to get the hire car Sat Nav-less (we also failed to buy a map!). Anyways after choosing our car we set off. I would just like say thanks to Lynn for all his help that day!

My first bit of driving in the USA was an illegal U-turn in the middle of the main street downtown Cleveland, which could have gone better - we have the video! Now en-route to Toronto we were flying up the I90 watching for cop cars. Once we got across the border a quick visit to Niagra Falls was on the cards. Got there and parked up - BTW, parking is CRAZY expensive here $20 a car! Niagra falls is pretty epic and an insane ammount of crazy tourists too.










The pic dose not do it justice. Here's me looking excited about it:















We headed on to Toronto not knowing where to stay and no Sat Nav to help. After getting lost, confusing shop staff and debating on sleeping in the car we found a Canadian Tyre and purchased a Sat Nav - Her name is Elizibeth, Good times. Anyways we drove through downtown Toronto which looks amazing at night! and up Younge street (the main one). With the help from Liz we found a hotel which had a deal with Joyride 150 to get a cheap rate. Next day woke up, had a swim and sauna, breakfast and set off for Joyride.

This park is epic! first room housed the beginner stuff, pump tracks and chillout area. The second room has the resi/foam pit, jump box lines and street park. We rode there for a good 6 hours but had to stop every 10mins as the heat was insane! dunno how much water we drank!? anyways here's some pics:

Vert wall was cool as. Did'nt get as many pics as we hoped but lots of vid.

Jay messed his elbow up basically cutting it in half, but he's double 'ard.

































Quote of the day: "Yo english shredders" from a kid at Joyride

Joke of the day: "how the hell does paper beat rock? stand in front of me and ill throw a rock at you while you protect yourself with a piece of paper "

I'm 26 now! Wheels and age! gunna get hammered tonight - happy days.

Thats it from me, Jay will do the next one.

This is my United States of Whatthefuck...

After struggling to get the bikes into the bags and keep our bags under the weightlimit, we have now made it to the US of A.














Due to being at the back of our first plane and so having to Q behind everyone else for customs, we missed our connection to Cleveland so are currently sitting in Charlotte the airport for 2 hours waiting for the next flight.

Got the Intro/Outro template for the videos done on the plane so once we have footage from Toronto and Rays bikepark we'll get the first vid up.

Making a shopping list for tomorow morning before we collect the car at noon and head up to Niagra Falls.

Shopping list:
Tent, sleeping bags
Mobile Phones
Pain killers
Energy drinks
Food

We plan to make it up to Toronto tom0row evening ready to spend Wednesday at Joyride 150 Bikepark and have a bit of a Toronto street session before heading to a club where we have guestlist and VIP for Lex's birthday :)
From what i've seen of Joyride in a few Pinkbike VOD's it looks epic!

Ha :D


Ok, got bag now and new wheels, just got to rebuild the rear with my DJD then i'm pretty much sorted :D

32GB SD card came this morning to. Happy days.

Nearly there!!

With only a few days to go till flights on monday moning, everything is starting to come together with only a few minor hicups:

Expedia managed to get our internal flight wrong, and instead of booking from Tampa, FL to Seattle in Washington state they have booked to Washington DC, about 3000 miles from where we need to be. still waiting to hear back from them if they've managed to sort it.

Ordered two 32GB SD cards from ebay for the GoPro cameras, but only 1 of the cards works.

Satnav was delivered when no one was in so deleviry company sent it back to the shop for a refund :S, so got to re-order that.

Good points:
Last day of work so not too stressfull and eaten lots of cakes!

Kerswell Jam this weekend so looking forward to a gd sesh there on Saturday!

Hopefully sorting hockey bags today so we can fly with our bikes for $25 a time as 'sports equipment' rather than the $100 it costs if they know its a bike.

New bike parts have arived, Spank Tweet Tweet bars, blue for me, black for Lex. Red stem and seatclamp for Lex, White vanilla cented 'TugJob' grips :)

Bought Extreme sports (stunt BMX) travel insurance, all confirmed and documents printed.

Dates of stay confirmed with Woodward West.


only 93hours till take off!!!

will try and get some pics and vid up in the first few days to liven up the page a bit!

Bloody hell, less than two weeks to go now! Still gota sort out car stuff/insurance, Woodward and getting to whistler - what a headache.

Anyways, looks like just me and Jamie going out for the first half, meeting Nikki (friend + photog) in NYC and hopefully other palces!! Also riding with the legendary Joe Prisel in Cleveland and at Ray's MTB park :)

Can't wait to get to Baltimore to stay with Jenn and her fella! should be a good one!

If anyone knows people with a place to stay/garden to camp in along our route and would be ok with two (probably hungover) bikers staying, get in touch! We're on a budget peoples!

Going to bath this weekend to play Volleyball of all sports, should be good tho!

Peace.

Lex

Getting Closer!

Ok, we've been sitting in front of our laptops for hours now! Golf is on the TV and we've not even noticed. Stuff we've just done:

- Ordered 2 x GoPro cameras (with bike/helmet attachmens) and spare batteries and 32GB SD Cards
- Ate too many Custard Creams
- Ordered a TomTom
- Found loads of clubs and bars in Cleveland and Toronto
- Ate more Custard Creams
- Ate more Custard Creams
- I hate Custard Creams
- Gunna be sick......

Also we have brought our coach tickets to and from the airport (Gatwick) and got a HSBC advance joint account so we can pay for stuff and withdraw monies without getting charges (they also gave me a $5000 credit card! wtf? Vegas here i come :) )

It will be two weeks tomorrow when we fly out, excitment is building!

I think we'll put picks up of our final days here and bike packing - which will be interesting.

Oh and if you're reading this - please spam this blog about like there's no tomorrow, we need da hits yeh! you get me blud!?

WESTWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! BOOOM!

lex.

America roadtrip blog

Finally got tickets booked for the trip, so thought id better get this going too.

Will have updates on here from all of us going throughout the trip!

People confirmed for the trip so far:
Alex Gross (Diamondback)
Jamie Taylor (Spank)
Tim Churchill

more updates soon.