Well this is it! Our final day of cycling the Southern Tier, a journey which has seen us cycle more than 3,000 miles over the last two months and pass through eight states – Florida, Alabama, Mississippii, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and finally California. There have been highs (Mardis Gras in New Orleans, our…
There was something very endearing about Jacumba Hot Springs and its determination to hang in there, despite its heyday being nearly a century ago. Though now only home to around 560 people, in the 1920s its population swelled to more than 5,000 when the sparkly residents of tinsel town used to splash around in its…
With only about 150 miles to go we are cracking up – quite literally. Terry noticed a buckled wheel on my bike a few days back and now, further examination has revealed the rear Shimano hub has a large crack running through it across several spoke holes. It’s impossible to tell how long it has…
Tonight we swam in the cool waters of the Colorado River with Arizona on the near bank and California, our final state, on the opposite shore. It had been another hot afternoon with temperatures in the mid 80s so when we arrived at the River Breeze RV site in Ehrenberg to be told the showers…
When we awoke beneath the trees at the Aztec RV park, the scores of vultures roosting in the two giant eucalyptus were still there, waiting for the sun to warm the thermals and send them spiralling skywards and northwards. By the time we wheeled our bikes across the park and onto the bridge that would…
Glen Campbell’s lyrics to ‘By the Time I Get to Phoenix’ says a lot about the girl he has left behind, but what they don’t make clear is that the suburbs around Arizona’s state capital are so vast the young lass in question would probably be an old woman by the time Glen had navigated…
When you’ve only got one day in a major city, it’s almost impossible to know where to go, but over a fabulous Mexican breakfast of huevos rancheros, cooked by Susan, our hosts gave us a whole list of possibilities before we cycled out to explore downtown. We opted for two museums. Our first stop took…
We only had 40 or so miles to cover today to get us into Phoenix, which is probably why I spent far too long talking to the motorcyclists camping next to us (they are off to Joshua Tree today) and why Terry, understandably, got a bit grumbly with me. But it got me thinking about…
Today I finally defeated an old enemy I feared would come to haunt me on the Southern Tier. When we rode the TransAm through Oregon five years ago I began to suffer heat exhaustion in the scorching weather we were experiencing. It was so hot the state was on fire – quite literally. At one…
“Hey, who the hell is on my campground?” we heard someone shout. Terry and I turned around in alarm to find a large chap striding towards us with a couple of his friends. It was clear they’d been drinking and in truth, so had we. We’d arrived in Jakes Corner, a remote outpost tucked away…