The usual early morning wakeup call from the human alarm clock that is William Kerwin arrived at 5.50am. “Leonard, find out do they do breakfast across the road and get Macker up”

With the healthy option consisting of hash browns, bacon and sausages in our bellies we were on our way just an hour after rising and back on the dreaded interstate road I-90 which we have been following virtually every day of this cycle. Each day we leave as early as is possible to gain the advantage of the cooler temperatures Rather than launch into a William Kerwin–esque rant on the day in question, today was just as the song goes “a perfect day” all things considered. At the same time, today was quite an eventful day.

The temperature although warm was a great deal cooler (just in the 80’s ) and for the first time on our cycle we had the wind at our backs which made a huge difference and allowed us to keep an average speed of approx 18 Miles Per Hour and a record breaking 46 M.P.H. on the downhill. Not a puncture was had between the 3 of us which was a first and just what the doctor ordered. We also crossed the time zone and have clocked up approx 1,600 miles ,which was another landmark and are now just 6 hours from Irish time.

What’s more for the first time on this cycle we came across a fellow cyclist on the interstate which broke the usual boredom of the long day of cycling .On first sight young McNamara couldn’t believe his eyes and dismissed the dot on the landscape of the hard shoulder as a “motorbike”.The cyclist in question was a Scottish gentleman by the name of Dan , whom has been travelling to the U.S each summer for the past 12 years from Edinburgh to “bike for fun” all at the young age of 65 would you believe.He was a joy to converse with and we cycled along side him and before we knew it we were at our final destination of Kadoka, where the COA team joined Dan for luncheon . An inspirational character and it was fantastic to exchange war stories about our respective trips.