Leg 7 – San Francisco to Boston – Summary

Following the shortest leg of the trip, this has been the longest (unless I get very very lost in Spain)

Distance: 4497.81miles / 7238.52km
Riding Time: 305 hours, 41 minutes
Av. Speed: 14.7mph / 23.7kph
Riding Days: 42
Rest Days: 0

Mechanical Problems: North America has trumped everywhere else by a long way in this department. I came into it having had 6 punctures over 12,000 miles; I got 4 on this leg. And then of course there have been the numerous wheel problems – a broken rim required me to buy a wheel and after that, 6 spokes broke.

Food: Unhealthy.

So this has been exactly the same amount of time as the Australia leg (although there I had 3 days not riding), and much like Australia it’s very hard to sum up everything. It seems logical to break it up into states – but I don’t really have time to cover each one in detail as I have started riding again today, so I’m afraid this will have to be brief.

California: Not as sunny as I expected but San Francisco was a good place to start

Oregon: I can’t put my finger on why, but I was really happy to get into Oregon – or maybe it was being happy to leave California, I’m not sure. Oregon was where my wheel broke; but other than that, it was fine

Washington: I liked Washington, riding through the Palouse region was really nice (despite the heat), and the first climb and descent of the Rockies was good too.

Idaho: I was only here for one night but it seemed ok…

Montana: A lot of nothing – much like Australia except very very hot

North Dakota: Similar to Montana – although not quite as hot

Minnesota: I wasn’t here for very long but I really liked Grand Marais where I stopped for a night

Ontario (this is Canada): Friendly people, no moose, generally ok

New York (this is not Canada): Apart from a couple of spots, possibly my favourite state

Vermont: It was hilly..

New Hampshire: Bad roads

Massachusetts: I finished here and Boston was nice from what I saw…

America in general was fairly good but to be perfectly honest, I spent all of it thinking of the finish. London started to feel within reach after New Zealand and I don’t think a day went by where it didn’t enter my mind.

I’m sorry this summary is so short and unamusing but I didn’t get as much time as I thought I would and I still have to write today’s update. Pictures from America are not yet up… I will endeavour to change that ASAP.