Kate met me at Heathrow on Tuesday 6 May, with a bottle of bubbly which we immediately drank outside Terminal Three - perfect! Note tidy bicycle box, this time with front wheel, saddle and handlebars separate. The wheely suitcase I found in a thrift shop, so packing up was very easy in the end.
So, back home, still dreaming and waking up 'on the road' ('Where am I? Will I get there? Which turning?'), but time to conclude with some thoughts on the trip, from Daytona Beach Florida
to Santa Monica, LA, California, with the obligatory and fantastic swim
Total distance 2671 miles, in 36 days of riding and 40 days in total, an average of just over 74 miles a riding day, and about 470 a week overall.
So:
1. Would I do it again? No. But I would strongly urge anyone considering it to get out there, because if an itch needs to be scratched, it is a super trip to do. But I have regained my bug for long bicycle touring, perhaps just not that long or that solitary!
2. Did I enjoy it? Yes and no: it got better the further west I went, but at the same time more challenging, not least in terms of distances, shelter and water. I think one of the dangers of doing it on your own is that you can become prey to your fears, and quite often back-mind concerns about punctures, finding motels/campsites, water supply on some days, and the wind became more dominant than they would have with some company. But the sheer scale and the endless landscapes are powerful memories.
3. The Americans were extraordinarily courteous and the driving was really very good (almost without exception they gave me huge leeway), but at the same time solo bicyclists, especially with white hair, are seen as distinctly odd, almost hobo-like. I met 4 cyclists with luggage in that entire trip, which makes us a rarity. And a big thank you to Jim, Gene, Angela, Fred, Leanne, Steve, Ben, Ned, Maria, Chuck and others who really picked me up.
4. The tent was great, especially in the west (it would have been difficult crossing the Mojave without one) but the weight was more than I really wanted. The sleeping bag, tent and stove added about 9lb which I would have liked to save.....
5. 18 days continuously in the saddle from Austin TX to Santa Monica perhaps overdid it. I had planned a day off every week or so, but the headwinds began to get to me, and so I cracked on every day (I had a flight booked, and that really gave me a fixed aiming point - useful when things got hard.....). There were also very few places where I wanted to spend a whole 'spare' day, and I found that when I got match-fit I wanted to bicycle - a sort of 'drang nach west'. In fact, even now at home I miss the literal exhilaration of pedalling all day and seeing distance slide past. Compelling (compulsive?).
6. Gas stations (for the restrooms, coffee and the chat) and Walmart (for the telephone, decent food, brilliant service, ubiquity, air conditioning and anything else you could possibly want) were unexpected heroes and saviours.
7. I really missed a national newspaper. I still love beans n' rice and Hostess Glazed Cherry Pies.
8. Just brilliant roads - there can be few if any countries in which a decentralized system, with counties responsible for their roads (almost every county line meant a change in surface), can produce such consistently excellent quality. I might have occasionally muttered about the broken bits on some shoulders, but overall 98% were great.
9. A short and final plug for Virgin Atlantic (who could not have made the flights any easier or nicer, carrying a huge extra box for free, and being so unfussy about it) and Continental Tyres, whose Gator specials lasted all those miles with a full load, with just two punctures (four in total, but the other two were my fault due to under-inflation in the early days), and still with wear left in them. Worth every penny.
10. And well done to Claud Butler, who 35 years on provided just the geometry, quality and reliability I needed in a bicycle. In fact, my panniers, tent, pots n' pans, and even some tools were of that time. You don't need everything to be new, just serviceable and reliable. The rear wheel was the only point of failure, but even that held up for another 400 miles without distorting further.
Signing off. I hope these missives have provided some breakfast diversion, but it was therapeutic writing and posting them. Thank you all so much for your support, especially the 'commenters' - it connected me to a bit of reality!
