WE ARE OFFICIALLY TRANS-CONTINENTAL CYCLISTS!

DONE! DUSTED! FINISHED! COMPLETED! AND BOY DOES IT FEEL GOOD!

All good things have to come to an end and our arrival yesterday in Yorktown, Virginia on the Atlantic Ocean brought this epic bike ride to its conclusion. It has been the most incredible of adventures and no words can possibly do it justice. Hyperbole isn't our style but we really won't ever forget our 54 days, without a single full rest day, on the roads of America. The trip has been a monumental success in every respect; we have seen an incredible variety of staggering and beautiful scenery; we have experienced overwhelming warmth and kindness from the American people on countless occasions; we have discovered a new hobby in cycling that we both intend to continue; we have made new good friends with some of the cyclists we rode with; we have passed our fundraising target for Cyclists Fighting Cancer; the weather was kind to us; neither of us was injured (though we came close on a few occasions); the list could go on...

Here is the final batch of statistics:

8/8: Hindman, 66 miles
9/8: Breaks, 68 miles
10/8: Rosedale, 43 miles
11/8: Troutdale, 61 miles
12/8: Radford, 77 miles
13/8: Troutville, 61 miles
14/8: Vesuvius, 67 miles
15/8: Charlottesville, 59 miles
16/8: Ashland, 104 miles
17/8: Williamsburg, 78 miles
18/8: Yorktown, 13 miles

That brings us up to a final total of 4123 miles in 54 days. Quite a long way! We were actually sat riding on our saddles for about 325 hours, so we've crammed at least a year's worth of exercise into less than 2 months. It's hard to express how far 4123 miles really is in a meaningful way, but essentially we've cycled from Land's End to John O'Groats about 7 times, or from London to Venice roughly four times, or more than 16,500 times round an athletics track.

From Rosedale to the end in Yorktown we rode in a group of 5, with Mark and Kristen who we hooked up with in Bardstown, and Mike, aka "Wolf Douche", who joined us in Rosedale. Since it was the final segment of the trip it was fun riding en masse, lowering the tempo and winding down a bit. We are also now enjoying having a group to celebrate finishing with.

In Eastern Kentucky we found the Appalachian mountain range to be tough cycling, as we knew it would be, but nothing we couldn't handle. After riding over such long distances and all different terrains you have the leg strength to pretty much get up anything without too much pain and it's just a case of keeping the legs rotating. The Appalachians were definitely harder than the more famous Rockies; the Rockies may be higher but the Appalachians are much steeper. The advantage of climbing in the Appalachians, however, is that any climb is over in no more than 30 minutes, whereas in the Rockies a mountain pass could take as much as 3 hours of uphill cycling to reach.

As well as the Appalachians, Eastern Kentucky is also renowned among cyclists for being home to the most aggressive of canines. Now, it may sound crazy, but after a few weeks of getting used to being chased by dogs we had actually come to look forward to their appearance as we had learnt how to handle them. The most important lesson was to slow right down rather than speed up, because all most of the dogs really wanted to do was race us. If a dog continued to bark at us and show its teeth we would either bark back at it or shout at it to "GO HOME". And if that failed we would send in Kristen with her hot sauce in a spray bottle...

Entering Virginia was a brilliant moment as, despite still having over 500 miles to go, we were at least in our final state and we really felt like nothing could stop us reaching the ocean from then on. Even if Virginia was a horrible place we would have enjoyed riding in it because we were so near the end, but it is beautiful so it was a wonderful arena for the conclusion of the trip. Much like in Oregon, we were passing through idyllic rural landscape.

The final day and a half were made perfect thanks to the friendliness and generosity of members of the Grafton (near Yorktown) Kiwanis club. Kiwanis is a global organisation of volunteers who work with the broad aim of improving the lives of disadvantaged children in whatever ways they can and Mike/Wolf Douche has been raising money for them. A few of their members joined us on their bikes for the final 25 miles of our penultimate day, showed us the sites of the gorgeous old colonial town of Williamsburg, put us up in a hotel suite there, cycled the 13 miles to Yorktown with us in the morning, acted as a welcoming/celebration party at the beach in Yorktown, loaded up our bikes into their cars, took us to their weekly meeting at a restaurant, made generous donations to our own charities, then finally delivered us and all our belongings to a hotel in Yorktown. Bill and his wife Nancy must be singled out in particular for all their help. The whole experience made the end of the trip extremely memorable and we cannot thank the Kiwanis enough.

So now we begin the process of adapting back to real life! Dan has the ominous prospect of finally starting his job in London in less than three weeks, but he's actually rather looking forward to getting his teeth stuck into something and using his brain for the first time in quite a while. Rob doesn't hit the office until February so he can look forward to some time relaxing in Oklahoma with his girlfriend Sarah's family before returning to London where he hopes to learn Spanish and continue our fundraising efforts.

We're not going to preach, but if there is one lesson that we have learnt from this trip it is that anything is possible. If you want something to happen, you just have to go out and make it happen. There may be hurdles, but they won't ever be completely impassable. We decided we wanted to cycle across America and after a great deal of planning and effort we have achieved that goal. Anyone else with an equal level of commitment could do the same. So we'd just encourage everyone to go out and do whatever you want to do, because you can if you want it enough!

It would be a lie if we said that we only did this trip to raise money for our charity; the sheer challenge and adventure appealed greatly to us as well, so non-altruistic factors were involved. But raising money for such a brilliant cause has added a fantastic dimension and sense of worth to the whole endeavour and watching our sponsorship total continually rise really spurred us on. We are so pleased with the amount of money we have raised, every penny of which has gone directly to Cyclists Fighting Cancer, and we sincerely thank all of our very many sponsors for their huge generosity. It has meant a lot. One final plea for more: http://www.justgiving.com/robertdstevenson1/

We hope you've enjoyed following our progress over the last couple of months. If you'd like any more information about any aspect of the adventure please don't hesitate to get in touch with either of us and we'll be only too glad to reveal all.

Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing as many of our friends and family as possible soon.

Best wishes from Dan and Rob.

Chicken fried chicken, tators, biscuits and gravy please

Did we mention slowing down in the last post?! Well, we're not sure where that crazy and pathetic idea came from (we've been beating ourselves up for allowing such weakness to enter our minds, even if only for a fleeting few moments) because these are the distances we've covered in the last week:

1/8: Carbondale, 98.5 miles
2/8: Cave in Rock, 87.5 miles
3/8: Sebree, 55 miles
4/8: McDaniels, 79 miles
5/8: Bardstown, 88 miles
6/8: Berea, 92 miles
7/8: Booneville, 56.5 miles

So that takes us up to a really rather grand total of a mental 3426 miles after 43 days and we can practically smell the salty Atlantic Ocean. Bizarre as it may sound to "normal" people, but the 750 miles or so, including most of the Appalachian mountain range, that we have left seems like nothing to us and we very much feel like we're in the finishing straight. So now it is just a case of savouring the last fortnight or so of what has been one hell of an amazing adventure.

Highlights from the last week have been numerous. Back in Farmington it was a real privilege and the fulfilment of boyhood dreams to stay overnight at the fire station. We had the "Mobile Command Unit", kitted out with TV and sleeping cots, to ourselves and got a very good sleep, but we were disappointed that there was no pole to slide down. Firemen obviously have to work very well as a team, and the necessary spirit is encouraged by a VERY communal toilet facility. See the photo!

On the day that we rode from Farmington to Carbondale we were joined by our buddy Mike Triebwasser who is currently busy doing a PhD at Washigton University in St. Louis, Missouri. It was really great to see him, and also a privilege to ride with a man who won a prestigious cycling Blue at Oxford. Check us out, rolling with the big boys! Also on that day it was rather exciting to cross the Mississippi River and then cycle through a section of its basin. The Mississippi holds an almost mythical status so it was incredible to experience this vast mass of water.

Illinois provided some really nice riding through rolling hills but didn't detain us for long before we entered Kentucky, our penultimate state. Our first night in Kentucky was spent in the First Baptist Church of Sebree and it was quite simply wonderful. We had been told as far back as Colorado that this church was an absolute must to stop at, and all the hype was very much warranted. Cyclists basically get given free run of the church's community facility, including shower, laundry, games room, lounge area and mattresses on the floor, but the best bit is the hospitality provided by Pastor Bob and his wife Violet. Violet's home cooking was SUCH a treat and their genuine kindness was almost overwhelming. They've taken in 176 cyclists this year alone and their reputation is spreading.

In Bardstown we met Kristen and Mark who are cycling the same direction as us and for the last few days we've made up an elite bad-ass biker team of four. We've had a lot of good laughs, mainly of a highly immature and innane nature as is common practice for long distance cyclists, and hopefully we'll continue riding together. We've actually been cycling really well as a group of four, probably much faster than we would just by ourselves, so we think we're going to be able to storm through the Appalachians.

Here in Kentucky we have taken unhealthy eating to new depths and all-you-can-eat fried chicken has become a staple. It is disgusting, but it is simply impossible to say no when it only costs $4.99 a pop! Kentucky is of course home to KFC, but we think there is a niche in the market for KFD (Kentucky Fried Dog). The business model would be to send out loads of cyclists onto the roads, let them be chased by the endless dogs who love nothing more than snap at the colossal calves of us toned atheletes, then trap them in nets, before obviously deep frying them. To be honest, KFC probably serves up dog anyway, so at least our business would be honest and transparent.

So all is going great! We are extremely excited to soon be entering our final state of Virginia. Although we are having the best time ever we are quite looking forward to finishing and becoming normal people again (but probably boring you all with our stories from the trip). The adventure has been all the more worthwhile thanks to our hugely successful fundraising. Indeed it has been so successful that we have raised our target from 5000 pounds to 6000. Please do head to http://www.justgiving.com/robertdstevenson1/ to keep up the good work.

Bye for now folks. We're off to have a nice cold soft drink. A beer would be better but Kentucky is almost entirely dry. That sucks.