It seems that 4 am comes really quickly when you have gone to bed at 2 am, but I think that we have everything we had decided on taking.

Only time will tell.

We had started out the day on the wrong foot today as we left 3 hours later than the originally planned 6 am. This pushed our departure time to 9 am, and it also pushed my arrival time to 7 pm in Olten.

The day started out slow with Emmanuelle’s arm in a cast. I rode with her for a while, but I wanted to make sure that she didn’t stress her arm too much for these crucial first days of the trip; I decided to drop her off in an early town and go on my way alone. Alex decided to take the first leg of the trip with her to show his support. He has been a great encouragement for us both. I was almost relieved to drop off Emmanuelle early because the first thing I ran into was a climb of 300 m for about 6 km. I was still fresh so it didn’t seem so big but now, as I type this, I feel it in every muscle in my body. I think that if I make it through the night I will try to take it a little easier in the morning to give me a better reserve for the afternoon.

Should also write my log during the day too to give a little better representation of the day.

I had every type of terrain and weather today and I hope that it is not a preview for the rest of the trip. The morning was sunny and hot. And then...blah blah blah anyway noone wants to hear about the weather. Generally the weather just sucked all day. That’s all I have the energy for right now, can hardly keep my eyes open... Olten is beautiful

How do you start a trip like this? Well you begin by leaving 3 hours late. I guess I have to apologize to my husband once again. We finally left Fribourg at 6 upside down. I was a little self-conscious as I was noticing people looking at my prosthesis arm, one lady had recognized me from the newspaper which had come out this morning. We took it very slowly as I needed to take care of my arm. Contrary to my body, my mind and heart were racing. I was not only nervous but excited too. I was glad that Alex was with us as I quickly realized that his support was no small thing. I became tired and sore quickly and had to realize my limits so it was time to say good bye to my husband. I then took the train to Bern. Believe it or not he arrived in Bern before us. Okay okay it was due to the wait for the train.

We had all met in Bern for lunch and it was nice but the sky was threatening to break and it was making my husband nervous, as he needed to keep in front of the clouds.

Another goodbye. We took the train again to the first destination... Olten.

Due to a lack of planning I was forced to choose an expensive hotel for the night but the good thing was that it was close to the train station and it was easy to meet Chris later. It was my brother’s turn to leave; now I was really on my own but my bike was safely locked in the hotel so I didn’t have to worry about anything but to wander around town. That was really nice to walk through the streets of Olten a quaint little town set back into the mountains of Switzerland. But I was anxious to see Chris and see how the trip went from his eyes. He arrived at 7pm 5 hours after me.