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Passing through places such as Manchester, Cambridge and Gloucester, we might be forgiven for thinking we weren’t far from home. However the coastal roads we travelled and the sea views told us otherwise..

Beginning our journey (after the, by now customary, road blocks) along the Charles River was scenic but slow as we weaved our way along narrow paths against a tide of runners.

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Past Harvard, MIT and through Boston. Steve our team leader even gave us a brief history of Boston Harbour and Bunker Hill.

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We thoroughly enjoyed cycling together as a team again.

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As we focussed on cycling, our first stop was at 35 miles. A little jaded by the heat and from navigating some busy roads and junctions, we were reinvigorated by our rest and refreshments.

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Regular stops broke up the afternoon’s cycling and allowed us time to enjoy some of the views, rest and relax – a theme that followed into the evening as we met up with Marianne, Kate, John and Debbie for supper.

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We travelled 55 miles today, a warm up for tomorrow’s 75 miles!

Thanks to Marianne for organising everything (we miss cycling with you x), to Steve for leading the team (and not losing any of us), to Kate for transferring all our luggage (and Marianne!) to Rockport and to the rest of the team for a wonderful first day.

After reassembling our bikes on our first day in Boston, we tested them out and cycled to a local bike shop to stock up with some essentials and then explored a little of the areas around Boston via beautiful cycle paths along the river.

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And of course, cycling wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t have the challenge of a road closure!

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By evening, Don and David had arrived. Except for John who is meeting us tomorrow in Rockport, we now have the whole group together and our adventure begins…..

Having made our decision many months ago to take our own bikes with us to Boston, in the weeks leading up to our trip, our thoughts turn to the practicalities of this. We learned a few things along the way:

1. Transporting a road bike across the Atlantic is not as straight forward as it may seem
2. The $100 per day rental costs to hire a bike in Boston now seem like a bargain!
3. Bike boxes are enormous, heavy and expensive
4. A bike box does not fit into a standard size car
5. Despite YouTube videos to the contrary, dismantling and packing a bike, ready to transport does not take 7 minutes!
6. The longest time spent packing a bike was four hours and the shortest around two hours!
7. Costs included bike boxes, minivan taxi to and from Heathrow, minibus hire from Boston to Marianne and Steve’s home, additional insurance, accessories to protect the bikes inside the bike boxes…..
8. The 23kg luggage allowance is quickly used up by the weight of the box and the bike, leaving no room for anything else

We began to fear we may have to travel to Boston wearing our cycling helmets, clothing and shoes as the only means of transporting them there!

On our arrival at Logan Airport in Boston, we were absolutely thrilled to be met not only by Marianne and Steve but also by Hiro who was one of our team mates from last year’s LEJOG challenge.

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Thankfully unpacking the bikes proved much easier and with a bit of teamwork, we were ready to start our adventure.

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