Dear diary,

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