I'm not feeling particularly "on form" today, so will try and take it easy, and keep stress to a minimum. I think the prep for this trip may be more stressful than I imagined it would be, and that is very definitely having a negative effect on me. So ...
Factors that mean I don't need to be stressing or worrying about any of this ...
1. The actual routes are complete, only some stop cataloging still needs work on. If I don't do that, it doesn't matter because I can pull up stops from the various apps, and just text Nick Lat/Long instead of a stop number.
2. It doesn't really matter if we are ready or not on Friday. All that really needs to be done is put clothing in the van, cos I can buy anything else along the way. Of course Nick's bike stuff also needs to go in, but I never get involved with that anyway.
3. It doesn't matter if we don't actually even do this thing, or don't stick to the estimated schedules or anything. We can bail and just holiday at any point.
4. I shall point blank refuse to get on the cross-trainer at rehab on Tuesday, because the pain in my left hip and shoulder is enough that I'm concerned that I can't drive properly. Its improving, but will be really bad if I let them put me on it again on Tuesday.
OK ... so ... strategy in place. Breathing and relax, breathe and relax.
Today, I shall spend some time on my waypoint spreadsheet, and after today, not look at it at all, whether it is finished or not.
Saturday 30 April 2016
Friday 29 April 2016
A week until we set off from home
To speed up our journey northwards, Nick will be catching a train to Rugby, and I'll pick him up from there. That neatly puts us out of London, in the right direction and sidesteps the Friday afternoon/evening traffic. I just have to ensure that I leave home in good time and don't get stuck in some earlier traffic of my own, leaving him lurking around the station for ages.
The countdown timer reflects when the cycling will start, which is why there is a discrepancy between its countdown and my Departure countdown. It will take many many hours of driving to get up to John O'Groats. We are hoping to get there early afternoon on Saturday, take a little time out to explore, and then have a very early night.
We went out for dinner last night, just to have the evening off thinking about this trip, and I think we succeeded. We only mentioned routing a couple of times, and stopped talking about it as soon as we realised what we were doing.
Nick is having a 'late start' day today, and is replacing bits on the road bike that he took off for the service it had on Monday. He plans to start work around 11am today, which of course means that he will be at work far later than usual, and get back home again really late too. This isn't too much of a bother for me in terms of planning stops, because he is quite good at checking the roads/paths he'll be cycling at lunch time and sending any adjustments, so his odd working hours for today shall have a minimal impact on planning.
Technology is proving to be a bit of a downer today. Nick and I each have two phones ... a personal one, and then Nick has one that we call the bike's phone, and I have one that we call the van's phone. Well the bike phone has died. Rather annoying really, because its only a few months old, but it was a cheap pay as you go phone purchased in a hurry following a prior phone failure in the middle of a long ride. Will have to order something today. Nick's phone will become the bike phone, my phone will become Nick's phone (he never usually gets new phones, because he's quite heavy on them), the van phone will stay the van phone, and I will need to buy a new phone for me. I love the Nexus we have for the van, but two identical phones ... nope ... things will not go well, I'll always have the 'wrong' one with me.
*** Have temporarily solved the phone problem but getting a cheap £20 phone off amazon for same day delivery. We only need it to last a couple of weeks, and £20 is a 'small' price to pay to not have phone shopping distractions today.
The countdown timer reflects when the cycling will start, which is why there is a discrepancy between its countdown and my Departure countdown. It will take many many hours of driving to get up to John O'Groats. We are hoping to get there early afternoon on Saturday, take a little time out to explore, and then have a very early night.
We went out for dinner last night, just to have the evening off thinking about this trip, and I think we succeeded. We only mentioned routing a couple of times, and stopped talking about it as soon as we realised what we were doing.
Nick is having a 'late start' day today, and is replacing bits on the road bike that he took off for the service it had on Monday. He plans to start work around 11am today, which of course means that he will be at work far later than usual, and get back home again really late too. This isn't too much of a bother for me in terms of planning stops, because he is quite good at checking the roads/paths he'll be cycling at lunch time and sending any adjustments, so his odd working hours for today shall have a minimal impact on planning.
Technology is proving to be a bit of a downer today. Nick and I each have two phones ... a personal one, and then Nick has one that we call the bike's phone, and I have one that we call the van's phone. Well the bike phone has died. Rather annoying really, because its only a few months old, but it was a cheap pay as you go phone purchased in a hurry following a prior phone failure in the middle of a long ride. Will have to order something today. Nick's phone will become the bike phone, my phone will become Nick's phone (he never usually gets new phones, because he's quite heavy on them), the van phone will stay the van phone, and I will need to buy a new phone for me. I love the Nexus we have for the van, but two identical phones ... nope ... things will not go well, I'll always have the 'wrong' one with me.
*** Have temporarily solved the phone problem but getting a cheap £20 phone off amazon for same day delivery. We only need it to last a couple of weeks, and £20 is a 'small' price to pay to not have phone shopping distractions today.
Why the routing takes so long
I thought it may be worthwhile to give you glimpse of our routing process.
It usually starts with me, working in Basecamp, creating a route from A to B, obviously avoiding motorways (illegal), and and stretches of A roads that look like they are cycle unfriendly. I try and pick the most direct route, and will use bits of A road that don't look that great, if its going to add a lot of mileage to avoid them.
Next, the route goes across to Nick, in .gpx format, and he follows the route on Google's streetview, and makes adjustments for anything that he doesn't want to try and cycle down. These adjustments are usually to avoid bits of A roads that are very cycle unfriendly, or little country lanes with so much grass growing up the middle that he feels he should push a lawnmower ahead of the bike. He also sometimes tweaks the route into side roads in towns to avoid certain types of junctions. While going through the route on streetview, Nick will also waypoint any laybys and car parks on the route that look good for stopping to replenish supplies, toilet breaks etc.
The route then comes back to me, as a Garmin Track with waypoints, and I adjust the routes on my Basecamp to match his. I then add in all the waypoints I have for the area (CCC, CC, BritStops, WildCamping points etc ... everything I have that we can use for overnight).
The next step is a massive delete ... anything that is obviously more than 3km off route goes. I then work my way along the route, measuring how far off route each stop is, duplicate and rename it with a number (consecutive for the route direction), and in the paper spreadsheet that we will both have with us, not the distance off route, what type of stop it is (what facilities are there if its a campsite ... of course I'm particularly interested in CDPs and taps).
I don't like having too big a gap between stops, because we have no idea where we will be spending the night, and I want to have stops that Nick can cycle to, even when he's tired at the end of a long day. My worst nightmare would be having to get up at 4am with him and drive him to where he needs to start riding, because there hasn't been a convenient place to stop.
Usually, with a ride where we plan a set distance in advance, the nightly stops are prearranged between us, so there is very little planning on the fly to do be done, and we just have stopping points every 25km (1 hour riding), for potential breaks during the day.
It usually starts with me, working in Basecamp, creating a route from A to B, obviously avoiding motorways (illegal), and and stretches of A roads that look like they are cycle unfriendly. I try and pick the most direct route, and will use bits of A road that don't look that great, if its going to add a lot of mileage to avoid them.
Next, the route goes across to Nick, in .gpx format, and he follows the route on Google's streetview, and makes adjustments for anything that he doesn't want to try and cycle down. These adjustments are usually to avoid bits of A roads that are very cycle unfriendly, or little country lanes with so much grass growing up the middle that he feels he should push a lawnmower ahead of the bike. He also sometimes tweaks the route into side roads in towns to avoid certain types of junctions. While going through the route on streetview, Nick will also waypoint any laybys and car parks on the route that look good for stopping to replenish supplies, toilet breaks etc.
The route then comes back to me, as a Garmin Track with waypoints, and I adjust the routes on my Basecamp to match his. I then add in all the waypoints I have for the area (CCC, CC, BritStops, WildCamping points etc ... everything I have that we can use for overnight).
The next step is a massive delete ... anything that is obviously more than 3km off route goes. I then work my way along the route, measuring how far off route each stop is, duplicate and rename it with a number (consecutive for the route direction), and in the paper spreadsheet that we will both have with us, not the distance off route, what type of stop it is (what facilities are there if its a campsite ... of course I'm particularly interested in CDPs and taps).
I don't like having too big a gap between stops, because we have no idea where we will be spending the night, and I want to have stops that Nick can cycle to, even when he's tired at the end of a long day. My worst nightmare would be having to get up at 4am with him and drive him to where he needs to start riding, because there hasn't been a convenient place to stop.
Usually, with a ride where we plan a set distance in advance, the nightly stops are prearranged between us, so there is very little planning on the fly to do be done, and we just have stopping points every 25km (1 hour riding), for potential breaks during the day.
Thursday 28 April 2016
Departure -8
Still frantically filling in info on my spreadsheet of possible stops, but not stressing about it too much, because I have downloaded every conceivable phone app to help me find campsites, laybys, water etc en route.
I also signed up to the Caravan Club last night (I really hope they don't think it's because I was so impressed by Caravaner of the Year), so increase the number of potential stops we have available to us. It was a farcical process. Their website (after filling in all the forms) told me that it was unable to allow me to join. Ten minutes later I got an email with a membership number, but, I don't have a log in for the website/app, but that is sorted out now.
The Camping and Caravaning Club app thankfully only wants membership number, and not password, because there is no hope of me knowing what that is at this point.
Thank goodness the van has its own phone (really old contract with unlimited internet that I've never had the courage to cancel, because nobody gives unlimited internet anymore). The screens are getting rather cluttered with mapping, and camping apps. Quite a nice find, I think, was park4night. It seems to have lots of parking areas, and laybys and things, much like WildCamping UK.
Also have an AA camping app, and WikiCamps installed. It's a pity BritStops don't have an app, but all the regions that our route travels through have all their Britstops loaded as POIs in our Garmins now. It took some time, but will be really useful for finding places on the fly, seeing as there is now very little of this trip that we can plan in advance, other than routing.
With all these park4night, BritStop and Wild Camping apps, it must really seem like we're freeloading motorhomers. Not true at all, but, these informal places to park up, alongside roads etc, are the best possible overnight places for people that can't say in advance where they are going to be stopping. I will be trying to pick an overnight place around 3 hours before we expect Nick to finish riding, but this could change moment to moment.
We are adjusting our Lands End back to John O'Groats course to go via Saltash in Cornwall. Some of you ;) will know why, and this has lead Nick to decide to include a previous Devon Coast to Coast ride in the return journey, so I'm having to add stops and potential overnights for that area to my spreadsheet, as well as routing from the north end of that ride, back onto the Jogle route.
I'm also starting to realise just how little time is left, and that of that time, 3 days is weekend, of which 2 are fully booked. *and breathe and relax and reach for the wine even though its midday ... *
Oh ... and ... if anyone has recommendations of apps that I haven't yet loaded, please let me know!!
I also signed up to the Caravan Club last night (I really hope they don't think it's because I was so impressed by Caravaner of the Year), so increase the number of potential stops we have available to us. It was a farcical process. Their website (after filling in all the forms) told me that it was unable to allow me to join. Ten minutes later I got an email with a membership number, but, I don't have a log in for the website/app, but that is sorted out now.
The Camping and Caravaning Club app thankfully only wants membership number, and not password, because there is no hope of me knowing what that is at this point.
Thank goodness the van has its own phone (really old contract with unlimited internet that I've never had the courage to cancel, because nobody gives unlimited internet anymore). The screens are getting rather cluttered with mapping, and camping apps. Quite a nice find, I think, was park4night. It seems to have lots of parking areas, and laybys and things, much like WildCamping UK.
Also have an AA camping app, and WikiCamps installed. It's a pity BritStops don't have an app, but all the regions that our route travels through have all their Britstops loaded as POIs in our Garmins now. It took some time, but will be really useful for finding places on the fly, seeing as there is now very little of this trip that we can plan in advance, other than routing.
With all these park4night, BritStop and Wild Camping apps, it must really seem like we're freeloading motorhomers. Not true at all, but, these informal places to park up, alongside roads etc, are the best possible overnight places for people that can't say in advance where they are going to be stopping. I will be trying to pick an overnight place around 3 hours before we expect Nick to finish riding, but this could change moment to moment.
We are adjusting our Lands End back to John O'Groats course to go via Saltash in Cornwall. Some of you ;) will know why, and this has lead Nick to decide to include a previous Devon Coast to Coast ride in the return journey, so I'm having to add stops and potential overnights for that area to my spreadsheet, as well as routing from the north end of that ride, back onto the Jogle route.
I'm also starting to realise just how little time is left, and that of that time, 3 days is weekend, of which 2 are fully booked. *and breathe and relax and reach for the wine even though its midday ... *
Oh ... and ... if anyone has recommendations of apps that I haven't yet loaded, please let me know!!
Wednesday 27 April 2016
Departure -9
Today has seen the last of the laybys/stopping places along the route catalogued, and waypointed for the satnavs (a couple of Garmins, and phones). This has been quite a mammoth task, taking about 3 full days, with little else being done other than the waypointing. Next step is a spreadsheet of them as a backup to GPS and phones can begin. The spreasheet will also have contact information, and facilities information (need to know where we can empty the toilet. We have also bought in an additional cassette, so we can effectively have twice the toilet capacity if necessary. The 2nd squeaky clean cassette is only for emergency use if we can't empty the first timeously.
I've also done a little work on how we can make the live tracking work for readers, as well as us. You will be able to see the proposed cycle route on your tracking maps, which we cannot do on our phones, and both of us on the same map.
I've also come to grips with the blog format a little more and managed to add the relevant phones as 'authors' and such. Be warned, my typing is atrocious on a touch screen, and the posts will be more like a cryptic crossword clue than anything that makes sense.
Now ... back to the spreadsheet. Inputting all the contact and facilities information for just under 400 places is both boring, and time consuming :(
I've also done a little work on how we can make the live tracking work for readers, as well as us. You will be able to see the proposed cycle route on your tracking maps, which we cannot do on our phones, and both of us on the same map.
I've also come to grips with the blog format a little more and managed to add the relevant phones as 'authors' and such. Be warned, my typing is atrocious on a touch screen, and the posts will be more like a cryptic crossword clue than anything that makes sense.
Now ... back to the spreadsheet. Inputting all the contact and facilities information for just under 400 places is both boring, and time consuming :(
Tuesday 26 April 2016
Departure -10
In just 10 days, we set off on our first 'major' adventure with our camper van (Footsack). My husband intends to cycle from John O'Groats to Lands End, and Footsack and I will be support. We're aiming to stop and sleep wherever he stops, and at the moment I am consumed with waypointing laybys, car parks, pubs etc that are happy to be used by overnighters. I reckon this will take me another day or two to complete.
We had Footsack built for us by Camper Kong in Wigan, to meet our needs on cycle support journeys, and to be pleasant to holiday in, and although we've only had the van for 5 months, its filling our needs perfectly.
Today we got Nick's bike back from its annual service too. Hopefully nothing will go wrong with it during the ride. Although we will be carrying spare tubes/tires and some other bits and pieces, we will not be carrying a spare bike.
Nick is hoping to cycle the WOW Cyclothon next year, and this will be a test for that in many ways. An opportunity to iron out any problems with nutrition and muscles. He is planning 2 new bikes for the WOW ride.
We had Footsack built for us by Camper Kong in Wigan, to meet our needs on cycle support journeys, and to be pleasant to holiday in, and although we've only had the van for 5 months, its filling our needs perfectly.
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| Footsack |
Nick is hoping to cycle the WOW Cyclothon next year, and this will be a test for that in many ways. An opportunity to iron out any problems with nutrition and muscles. He is planning 2 new bikes for the WOW ride.
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