Hoorah! At last, we’re done with Texas. I’ll refer to Texas as a she henceforth, not knowing if that’s correct protocol. She is a staggering 5.3 times the size of England, to give you an idea of how McMassive she is (England is 50,356 square miles compared to Texas’ 266,807, for those who like random…

Last night we found ourselves in Katy (named after my sister), which a suburb of Houston. After completing yesterday’s ride, we had a two-hour drive here, as we had gone so far past our planned stop (wanting to get some contingency miles stored up in case of anything going wrong – and plenty has gone…

I remember a terrible film in the ’80s called ‘Ernie Goes to Camp’. It was meant to be a comedy but was simply dire. The makers of that film should have spent some time with this Ernie, our host, because he is hi-la-rious. He’s got ideas coming out of his ears and is like a…

I only got a few hours sleep, as usual. At 6am, we regrouped. Geoff came out and said he was feeling too rough and needed to go back to England. He couldn’t put his family through any more of this, and didn’t want to be a further liability to the team. It was horrible, and…

The great modern philosopher and sage, Jennifer Aniston, once declared: “There are no regrets in life, just lessons.” It sounds profound at first, but actually on closer inspection it’s really stupid, I think. Sorry to shoot you down, Jen, when you’re not here to defend yourself (you’re welcome to make a guest appearance though if…

Lance Armstrong once said: “Pain is temporary; quitting lasts forever.” Today was very nearly the end of my ride. As I write this, I’m so grateful to still be in the fight. What happened? Read on. The day started early, as it always does due to my relative insomnia. Actually Craig was so desperate to…

Warning: this was written very late in a semi-comatose state, and the censoring police had already gone to sleep, so maybe some bits got through that shouldn’t have – apologies in advance, but it’s sharing the real experience. Skip if easily offended. Today was a fabulous day. We left Brackettville at dawn, just so grateful…

I worked late last night to get as much GLO business out of the way to try to stay on top of things, which is an added pressure on this trip. We had internet access in the church hall, and as John and I finished and walked back home under the starry sky a family…

So we’ve finished Week 2! In the last six days we covered 96miles, then 107, 108, 103, 84, and 103, bringing the overall total to 1,203miles, so we are over a third of the way through. People who have ridden this Southern Tier route before us (most of whom take 10-30 more days to do…

At breakfast, Liz said she was going to join us on the first 12miles of the ride, which was great because it meant we could have some more time with her. She’ll turn 60 this year so is no spring chicken and feared she’d slow us down, but we’re no speed merchants anyway, and having…

(Long, straight road)  It was a pretty borrrrring day, at least the first half was. Overall, in crude terms, we did 84miles at 13.6mph average from Valentine to Marathon (almost). We stayed at a basic RVpark in Marfa (has to be said with a cockney accent) with no showers or internet access, just electricity and…

Last night I ended up speaking at two meetings. We were hosted by this superb lady Kelly, who had been at the Citadel (military school like Sandhurst or West Point) with both John (driver) and Olivia (who is GLO National Director in Burundi right now filling my shoes). In fact Olivia had had a massive…

  (Taking a break) Disclaimer: something in this blog isn’t true – I’m just trying to keep you on your toes, and may do it over the next few days, we’ll see – but I wonder if you’ll be able to work out which bit. I love the USA, it’s a great country, and there…