Archive For February, 2020

If you’d told us at the beginning of the day we would end up spending the night camped on a plastic sheet in the pitch black bunker of an Alabama fort dating back to the civil war, we’d never have believed you. But so it is and I’m lying here on the concrete floor with…

I was rudely awoken from my sofa slumber by a flash of lightning and the crash of thunder. It was only 5am and it was sheeting it down outside with the forecast predicting it would continue all day. It was also promising thunderstorms stretching out across the rest of the week all the way from…

We both seriously thought about giving up the Southern Tier today, and this evening we are wondering if we’d be better off stopping in New Orleans, flying north and then finishing our journey west on the TransAm instead. It’s all down to the 90, the wretched 90. It’s doing its best to ruin what should…

I really do think there are some days when Terry just wants to kill me. This morning I’m really tired and my head just isn’t in it. I can’t imagine how I’m ever going to cycle the 70 miles we have planned for today. I can hardly walk to breakfast. My right knee is hurting…

It seemed whatever way we turned today the wind was in our face trying to smash us back into the Atlantic. It hit us with such force we even had to pedal going downhill. The Southern Tier was trying to tell us something – ‘go home’ – and at this stage of the journey we…

There’s an old proverb which says he who takes pictures of junkyards shouldn’t be surprised when they attract the unwanted attention of junkyard dogs. I should know better really, but I just can’t resist the lure of scrap cars and that down at heel muscle car with its bonnet up looked very much like a…

I’m beginning to think long distance cycling touring must be a bit like childbirth – it’s very easy to forget all the pain and agony until you find yourself back in the same situation again. Over the last five years we’ve obviously remembered all the good bits of the TransAm and forgotten there are some…

It doesn’t take much to keep Terry and I happy and today it came in threes – an encounter with an Elvis impersonator, meeting some fellow Brits also cycling the Southern Tier and dogs. Yes, we were chased by our first dogs and it finally felt like we were home because no ride across the…

We woke just before seven to the sound of a bird hooting in the woods and the roar of trucks hustling down Highway 100. It was still dark when we emerged from our tents a short while later and the air was thick with moisture.  The damp ground was carpeted in lichen, most of it…

After spending a considerable amount of time and money fettling and servicing our bikes (I’d treated the Surly, to a new bottom bracket, cables, chain and even a new set of transfers to replace the scuffed originals) we undid all that good work in just a few seconds by plunging them into the salty waters…