Day 4

We took it a little easy  today and did 82 kilometers  to Lungsund,  which  is close to Storsfors.  We found a really great campground and just relaxed and did a little  swimming.  Pretty cold but definitely  refreshing. Even though  the cabins weren't open yet the couple who run the campground opened it for us and made us feel really welcomed.  Highly recommended  Storlungen camping I think we're  going to focus  on an average  of 100 kilometers  a day to get to enjoy this experience  a little more.
            I didn't take to many pictures  today, as for most of the travel was on route  26. We're at 28 percent now. Thank you for all that have donated.  Please if anyone back in the States  needs help with the translation let me know.  I put one on my information  in English  but maybe it's a little tougher.  Well, time for sleep. More tomorrow!

Arrived at Askevik

That was a long hard day  in the saddle. We had a headwind against  us for the first 4 hours on what should have been an easy ride. It was flat on an old railway  up to Falkoping. Then it was a lot of hills on the way to Marie stad  this is really hard with auto correct,  it won't let me spell Swedish words. Anyway, there was plenty of beautiful  scenery  along the way. We stopped  at an old bronze  age burial site near Falkoping  dating back 4000 years.
                   I've decided I need to lose some kilos from my load, so I'm taking a risk and dropping my mattress and some camping gear, for I don't  think we will wild camp. My knees are taking a real beating and I don't want to lug that much on the upcoming  hills. We're off lesjöfors early and that's around 130 kilometers,  which will feel short. Tommy is still going like a champion.  I'll post a picture of him taking what  he calls and active  rest stop.
              Away from the sore knees and blisters, it's going as planned so far. We'll keep on peddling till the goal is reached. I feel good about that. One nice thing today, right before we reached our campground,  a car was pulled  over on the side of route 26. Tommy was ahead of me and I thought they had car problems but they saw our vests for the barn cancer  fund and gave Tommy 100 kronor. Very nice! Right now  the fund is at 23 percent, so please keep sharing posts and hopefully  get it up there. That's it for now. Bed time

Arrived att Ulricehamn

It's  two  down, 10 to go! We left Halmstad att 7:30 this  morning  and arrived  here in Ulricehamn around 19:00
We got a nice  stuga att Skottens camping and were  given a very nice discount by the lady here. It has a great view of the lake. So far, we've come 337 kilometers  sinne Malmo.  We will go to Sjotorp  tomorrow which is 142 more. This is truly  amazing! Gonna keep this  short because  I'm really tired now. More  tomorrow.

Arrival at Halmstad

Well, it was a very  exciting day
It started off great, we left  Malmo  at 7:20 on a beautiful  morning. The bicycle  gods were  definitely  looking out  for us. Passed a lot of beautiful  scenery  along the  way. I was sitting there  with my energy  bars and drinks and it was  Tommy setting  the pace today on his museli  and carrots
He was truly  amazing! At times cruising along at 30 plus. But, he's  asleep already  on the couch.
          We had some major stress at the end because  my battery  went dead  and we got really, really  lost near the campground.  I had to use Tommy's phone and call my wife so she could  call the campground  here because they closed  at 18:00. The man was so nice, he stayed an extra hour for us. It was pure adrenaline  that pushed  us the last 20  kilometers.  They sponsored  us with an awesome  cabin and  it's  greatly  appreciated.  Especially,  when we were  really close to tenting  it. So a big thank you  to Hagons camping here in Malmo.
  Time for sleep now.

The arrival

We'll we arrived  safe and sound in Malmo. We're in a nice little  campground  with a beautiful  view of the bridge to Denmark. Just relaxing now and  getting  ready for a good night's sleep. We're  off early tomorrow  for Halmstad  and hope to be there by 16:00 or17:00. New update then.

The countdown

Well, in 48 hours we'll be in the campground  in Malmo  getting  ready for the trip. All these months, it always  seemed so far away  and now it's  here.  Hard to believe!  I've definitely  got some butterflies  in my stomach.  I just did some panic packing with the basics but I still have a little more to go. The total weight is 19.5 kilos  or almost 43 pounds. I planned  on 20 to 25 kilos. I did a test ride with that weight  and my bike handled  great. I probably could  do without  the blow up mattress but I'll cut back somewhere  else. 
               Right now we've hit 20% of the goal  for the fund.  I really have a good feeling of making it. Again, thank you  to those who have contributed  and please remember, every little bit helps.

                 

information on the barn cancer fund in english

I wanted to send out a link about  the barncancer fund in English for my friends back home. Also, the funds site is in Swedish, so I can help with the process if anyone would like to make a donation. Once your on the site, you will see  " Ge gåva via webben" which you would click. Then you put your name in " namn i givarlistan" or you can click anonym. You can click on an amount or choose your own in  "Valfritt belopp" then press "lägg i gåvokorgen" After that at the top of the page you would click "gå till Kassan" and will see "din gåvokorg" make sure the total is correct and click "gå till kassan"  ALMOST DONE   Then you just fill in all fields with an asterisk and click "betala" and it´s over. I know this is a little bit of a process but any small donation will be greatly appreciated. There is a widget to help you convert the dollar to kronor.

                                                https://www.barncancerfonden.se/in-english/
                                                https://www.barncancerfonden.se/1309403460/

                       

One more week

Well, this time next week we'll be in Malmo getting ready for the start  of the journey. Tommy, a friend  of mine from work will ride along  with  me. We're  going  to stay  the night in a campground  in Malmo and head out early  the next morning  for Halmstad. It will be nice to have some company, especially  for those long  stretches  of road with  no  civilization.
               My company,  Speed  Logistics sponsored  us with some really nice biking clothes and alerted some newspapers as to the trip. The metro contacted me and ran an article today, which was pretty cool. It really helped me to spread the word and hopefully help on meeting or exceeding the goal for the barn cancer fund (children's cancer fund ) Hope everyone will follow our trip and thank you to everyone who already has contributed. It's really  great! 

Planning and route

Well, after eight months of anticipation, the journey is only four weeks away now. On May 28th the adventure begins. What started as perhaps a crazy mid-life crisis idea, turned into an actual " this is really going to happen idea".  The original plan was to cycle around Lake Vättern, which is a yearly event and is 300 km long, but I missed the entry deadline. I started thinking of biking from Gothenburg to Stockholm but then I read about a guy who went from Malmo to Kiruna and I said to myself "that is the one for me" and the rest is history. After a lot of googling and e-mailing different people as to the route I should take, I settled upon the inlandsvägen, which will take me to places such as Halmstad, Orsa,Östersund and Jokkmokk. I can´t wait to see the midnight sun. I will have to average 150 km a day or 93 miles. I just think of it as biking back and forth to work 5 times a day. I should be in the saddle for anywhere  from 7 to 9 hours a day, depending on the rest stops. I have all the campgrounds planned out so I´m on a schedule.  Although we have in Sweden "Allemansrätt" which translates to right of public access or outdoor access right, we can pretty much set up camp anywhere, other then someones back yard. Even with that, I would like to avoid any chances of a possible encounter with moose, bears or wolves and stick to my schedule. So, here is my scheduled route for my first day. Malmo to Hagöns Camping in Halmstad, who were kind enough to offer me a free nights stay.
                         

Start of the Jouney --Motivation

After turning 50 last year, I decided I wanted to do a great adventure. I knew that it had to involve a great passion of mine which is bicycling and I wanted it to involve even a greater cause, which is the childrens cancer fund. I decided what better way to see this beautiful country then to bike from the bottom to top and along the way hopefully raise some money for this wonderful charity. So please help me along the way and together we can help make a difference.


Support the kids and donate to the Child Cancer Fund. The link is below.
https://www.barncancerfonden.se/1309403460/


You can also follow me on facebook at  www.facebook.com/david.muller.1840