I forgot an important detail last night, and that was Ron’s transparent white boxer shorts. When we went for a quick cool refreshing dip in ‘the blue hole’ at the RV campsite, Ron jumped in along with the rest of us, but when he got out to jump again, the poor teenage girls voted with their feet by fast deserting the area. Ron was beautifully unaware and liberated, beaming with enjoyment and satisfaction at a long hard day’s cycling completed. Let’s leave him in the dark on this one, I don’t think it’ll happen again. So our three new team […]

We scoffed lots of food at 6am at our Hampton Inn before heading out on this last week of our epic adventure. The sun blazed down on us all day, which was mostly spent on Highway 10 from Pensacola to Marianna, where I am now writing to you from a grotty room at the inappropriately named ‘Executive Inn Motel’. The others are in an RV park a couple of miles away, but we have three more guys joining our crew late tonight, driving up from Orlando, so we needed to meet them somewhere, and this seemed like a suitably smelly […]

  Oof! We’re nearing the home straight. Last week saw us complete 126miles on Monday, then 108, 103, 110, 108, and 110, bringing the total up to 2,501 miles so far in twenty four cycling days. Six to go, and I can’t wait to be back to Lizzie and the children. I honestly can’t believe I’m still in it, so am absolutely delighted that the knees have held firm and that nothing too serious has gone wrong to jeopardize the whole trip (apart from, of course, Geoff’s gutting exit. Keep lifting him up, he’s had more tests and still feels […]

We had an early start, 530am, to get to the ferry which is part of the ACA Southern Tier Route. It had been lashing down with rain throughout the night, and so we had our first grim drizzly cycling session, but only for 8miles until we came to the ferry terminal. As it was raining, we sheltered underneath a house on stilts. A woman called Janet was doing likewise, so we got talking, and she ended up crying with me over her wayward son. We prayed together, I gave her a hug, she said she’d get on our website and […]

It only takes one second for an accident. Life is full of small margins. I will not forget today in a hurry… Before we get to the day’s big event, there’s another family event going on across in Europe that I want to mention. Today is my parents’ 44th wedding anniversary, and I’m so grateful to them for all they’ve been and done for me throughout my life. Great long-lasting marriages might be becoming few and far between, but I’m thrilled and thankful to be a product of one. In terms of morale, I think yesterday was my biggest battle […]

Last night was spent in Baton Rouge with the delightful Dentons. As soon as we got there, we were grateful for having made the long drive to get to them because they were so generous, had prepared great food, and having a hot shower, comfortable bed and a massage chair is always a bonus. But the downside was this morning when we had to get up at 5am to make the long drive back to Easleyville to our departure point. Some days are just a real struggle to get going on. It was hard to keep positive. We dozed in […]

Last night, we’d stopped off at a nasty motel and booked just the one room so we could all have showers, and then crashed out, some in the RV and some in the dank, manky, musty room. At about 1130pm, what sounded like a loud drunk started jabbering away on his telephone just outside our door. It went on for a while, so eventually I got up and went out to politely tell the guy to zip it. I found an Indian man, sat comfortably in a chair, talking in Hindi with total disregard for those of us trying to […]

(Synced Cycling)  I might be emotionally unaware or insensitive, but had you asked me yesterday about team dynamics and how things were going, I would have given an unequivocal shining report about all things having been sweetness and light amongst each one of us over the last three weeks. The fact is, with all of us extremely tired, living in close quarters, and not getting as much sleep as we would have liked, you would have expected a few decent humdinger rows by now. Well, last night John asked me for a quiet word. He raised some issues that had […]

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 stats). We spent twelve days – more than a third of the whole trip – inside her. She played mind games with us, taunted us, heckled us, wooed us, and then opened her mouth wide for us to enter into her cavernous mouth. She chewed […]

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 wrong so far to keep us on our toes). John as driver brought up whether we should just stay at an RV park for the weekend to save on fuel, and I guess on his energy, but I thought having two nights in decent beds […]

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 little boy without a filter between his brain and his mouth. He knew we had to make an early start, so he arrived at dawn, bringing with him a few gifts. The conversation went like this (and to really get into it, for Ernie you […]

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 deeply sad. He is the reason we’re here. Bike for Burundi was his idea. So his contribution’s been massive even now that he leaves, but that doesn’t make him feel any better when he’s invested thousands of pounds and hundreds of hours in training 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 you’re good for lubing my chain each day and fixing my inner tubes). I mean, how could I/she/you not regret hurting people along the way, making mistakes that had negative repercussions on others’ lives? That would make us hopelessly heartless and egotistical, which I’m sure […]

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 talk to his little Joel that he got up at 3am to catch him (in the UK) before he went to school – such is Daddy’s love, all the more because I know Craig really needs his beauty sleep. Even as I dosed and tried […]

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 after yesterday’s killer session to have found an RV park with both shower and electricity. We got lost almost immediately and I hailed down a cowboy. He asked where we wanted to get to. I said: “Charleston, South Carolina!” It’s tongue in cheek really, and […]

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 of five deer waltzed by, and then the tree above us exploded into life as I guess we disturbed a hundred or so vultures from their sleep. Jeff said earlier over supper: “Do you know the best thing I like about Simon?” Jeff’s great by […]

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 it), have said that if you can get through the first two weeks without getting broken by it, then you’re well on your way. So that’s encouraging. Today was a rest day. I’m the worst sleeper, but forced myself to stay in bed until 830am. […]