Grace, ancestors and a pilgrimage

So, I was cycling to Dee's yesterday against the wind and feeling sluggish and wondered about whether grace was ever possible for me on the bike, you know that effortless physical harmonious movement when everything works easy (including the bike) and well without any strain. Then suddenly I was in it and enjoying the ease of movement and feeling like I could cycle for ever....

This LEJOG journey of mine could be a kind of pilgrimage, there will certainly be an inner journey as well as an outer journey. And like all other journeys the unexpected will happen and there will be likely interesting encounters on the way. I hope my body and my bike hold up with out too much need for repair and that my map reading skills are at their best and that the weather is cool and dull with a little breeze.

It feels like the journey is in four parts: Devon and Cornwall which is fairly new to me and will be more than a bit hilly!; the Welsh borders which is a delight and fairly well known and where at least one of my ancestors the Rev Thomas Lewis, (my mother's mother's father) a Baptist minister came from; Knutsford up into Cumbria and into the lowlands of Scotland; and finally the Scottish highlands which I hope to fit enough for!

A daunting challenge but my life often seems to be about needing to scare myself from time to time!

Best to all,

Bill on Bike

Mad dogs, whippets and Grace

I got harrased by a viscious dog on the bike (No I was on the bike Not the dog!) on Friday and its owner a young lad was a bit slow to call him off. No damage done but a bit unpleasant, a bit scary. I remember Richard Ballantine's advice in his 'Richard's bicycle book' that when attacked on your bike by dogs ram your pump down their throat. Seems a bit harsh to me but had that dog continued his harrassment and got even more phsyical who knows...

Barbara Ellen in her Observer column a few months ago was writing critically of David Cameron the Tory party leader and saying he wasn't a real cyclist because all her cyclist friends had bodies like whippets. So that has become my catch phrase - 'I'm turning into a whippet'. However I got overtaken by two young things on mountain bikes this morning so maybe I am turning into a tortoise.

However, apart from my shapely legs - that have to be seen to be believed - I believe them - in my cycling run up to Christmas I had to tighten my belt an inch and then when we all got gastric flu last month I lost another inch and remain that way - one trouser size smaller. This is weird and people are commenting on it.

However, I feel great and the regular cycling feels good.

So inevitably perhaps Grace, my 8 and a half years old daughter has launched her blog site -
www.emilynotonbike.blogspot.com She complains about the quality of my jokes - since she has heard them many times before and she discusses the prospect of camping. What next - my wife Sheila's blog? Sheilanotonbikebutdrivingthebackupcar.com or Sheilanotonbikebutsickofthewholedammthing.com watch this space!

William