Day 25 Richmond to Marysville (103 miles)

It's Wednesday, it must be - Ohio!

Yes another day another state. We crossed the boarder into Ohio 2.5 miles into the ride and stopped to take the obligatory photo. About 30 seconds after leaving the hotel it started raining. It was also freezing, and my arse was hurting. I have to say it was certainly the most miserable hour of this trip and probably of my biking career, not counting the infamous Dartmoor challenge from last year. At one point I looked up from the spray that was hitting my face and all I could see was very dark clouds in all directions, it looked like we were in for it all day.

Amazingly after an hour the rain stopped and it started to brighten. We also passed the grey van, which I was very glad of. The rule is that once your luggage is loaded, that's it, you can't get to it (fair enough). However we're allowed a day bag of clothes we might need for that trip. I fortunately had packed a heavy weight jacket and thermal gloves. Hands were so cold that it took about 5 minutes to get the gloves on.

Lots of directions to follow today. I missed a turn and had to retrace my steps, which meant about a mile extra. Not as bad as one of the others who missed a turn and ended up adding 12 miles to what was already a long day. Battled side winds most of the day, but fortunately they turned largely behind us for the last hour. Terrain is open farmland. Largely flat with the occasional rolling hill.

Staying in a Motel 8 this evening which ranks bottom of my list of chain hotels. The rooms are too small, don't they realise that we have bikes to store and wet washing to hang everywhere? They don't have a laundry room here and after 4 days I was all out of clean cycling clothing. However the owner very kindly drove me to the local launderette. A really nice guy except he is a Man Utd supporter.

Spoke to Kate this evening and also other friends via Skype (which is the most fantastic invention, since, well the internet I guess.) First thing everyone asks is 'how's your arse?' Well it's doing OK thanks, a little better than yesterday. Infact it doesn't really hurt much at all, it's just the scary prospect that in these conditions, with no rest bite, things can go downhill very fast. I'll keep you posted.