Monday 25 January 2010

In a big country, dreams stay with you

Yes the US is a very big country and don’t we just know it! Mounting our bikes in Newark on October the 25th 2009 doesn’t seem that long ago. Hell, we can still recall our first holler from two street guys who yelled “nice bikes, how much did they cost, where you two going?” Well ‘random New Jersey street guys’, we’re in Shepherd, Texas, 3590 miles and exactly 3 months later. We can’t quite believe we have come so far but are still far from finished. Only another 10,000 miles, 9 months and 20 states remaining… enough said!

Rather than focus on the long road ahead, let us tell you about today. Today being the day after yesterday, and yesterday being that day we pushed our bikes for 85 miles against a ferocious headwind, you can guess how we were feeling this morning? Every single muscle in our bodies was tired. It’s no surprise, then, that we had an extended lie in this morning. Even after a healthy cereal and banana breakfast with fresh orange juice and coffee, we just weren’t looking forward to the short 50-mile hop to our next Motel. We did eventually get on the road by 10:30am, and it didn’t take long for us to assume our normal westerly orientation and meet face to face with ‘Edwin… how many expletives can we use *&?@! and *&?@! and *&?@! again’. To make things worse, the ‘Hounds of Hell’ have returned, only now they’re bigger and meaner and come in packs of 3. Fortunately, Anthony has been religiously studying the Animal Planet channel and has equipped himself with the instinctive skills necessary to let the dogs know he’s no push over. Kat can see he’s getting pretty good at the dog whispering thing; she swears he’s looking more like a little Mexican-American day by day.

Despite all the winds and woofs, today’s bike ride was wonderful. Texas holds a beauty that’s very hard to describe in words. With its open roads that run through an endless landscape of pine forests, rivers and wide plains of scorched earth revealing the occasional homestead bearing an uncanny resemblance to South Fork Ranch, everything about Texas is just bigger than usual… we love it, and look forward to spending the next 4 weeks in this great State. Surprisingly, we averaged 13.1mph today and arrived at the Motel with bags of time to spare, so we hosed down Trusty and Steed, bought some beers and sat down with some foot long Subways for the evening.

Tomorrow is another 80+ miler … this time with hills … grrrreeeeat!

Us x

3 comments:

  1. Ant & Kat but especially Kat

    I am sorry to say that I have again lost the magic email and the magic piece of paper that contains the date of Kat's birth. We know it is an important one and we don't want to miss it, we're sure it is either the 26th or the 28th, yes, that sure...please, please put us out of our misery and confirm. In the meantime, we are thinking about you lots, saw Simon & Susan at the weekend, they send their love, Simon is working on a secret PR opportunity for you when you get near Detroit...although it may be so secret that even you don't get to know. Also spoke to Karen last night and she was amazed at how far you have gone. Keep it up for all of us who are spending long hours in airless offices!

    Love & kisses MG&T xxx

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  2. Hey Camille,

    Texas is indeed wonderful! It's great to see you're keeping in touch via the blog. Happy New Year to you too (sorry for the delay).

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