sweet home alabama

camped in a state park in alabama last night. was really close to the coast and it was pretty funny sight. my tiny 2 man tent in a sea of RVs. managed to lose my tent pegs somewhere but luckily Fred, retired pensioner from mitchigan, helped me out and even took me for my first wallmart experience which was cool. Fred manouvered the cart around aisles of just about everything including spare car tyres!

got up early this morning and cycley along a peninsular where i caught a ferry across to Dauphin island. have been biking pretty quickly this morning as the wind has been behind me. am now in Forest Gump or Bubba shrimp village (Bayou La Batre) which is pretty basic and i feel like i really am in the the south now. somebody even called me Bubba when i opened the door for him! Could be through Alabama by the end of the day. Bring on mississippi!

florida finished!

so i finished last post on a bit of a rant but all changed at lunch when i met some retired teachers who paid for my lunch. cheers guys! that afternoon i managed to decend from a ridge and the wind died down. felt much better about my right peg and slowly made some progress off the route 90 and into the atmospheric southern countryside with swamps, grey dead trees and some lovely streams. finished the day on the smooth blackwater trail where nature surrounded me and not a car in sight. of course when i got to the bike shop in Milton it was the one day it closed early. sods law, cant beat it. decided i need a feast after a tough day on the saddle so i went to Dave's Catfish resaurant and got 'all you can eat' deep fried catfish. after 4 of them i decided i would probably burst if i ate much more. apparently people have dealt with 14 of them.....i didnt take on the challange. spent my first night in a hotel and enjoyed having a bath but felt a bit lonely for all of a few minutes before i fell asleep.

feeling good today. no wind, blue skies and alabama in my sights. had a few hairy moments getting to Pensacola going round Encambia bay which is epic (especially when you have been in the hills for a few days). had a quick break at a bike shop to oil my chain and pump up my tyres and then made it through the city surprisingly quickly. am now at Gulf Beach which is just before the alabama border. the sand is white like caster sugar so i am going to take it fairly easy this afternoon as i am planning to take the ferry tomorrow morning across Mobile Bay. 1 state down, 7 to go.

windy!

yesterday i pushed hard against the wind and made it further than i was expecting but then again i did get up at 6. ended up in a nice town called DeFuniak Springs where there is a beautiful pond surrounded by stunning wooden houses which all seem to have rocking chairs on their porches. i felt battered by the wind and put my bike up next to some historic building where an old woman was doing some gardening. i asked where i could pitch a tent and she wasnt sure but said i could stay in a house that she was renovating. couldnt believe it! the first person i asked again came up trumps! Marie was really sweet and even gave me a spare key. my legs felt pretty sore so i didnt make it far for some food and settled in with a pizza.

woke up this morning feeling very stiff and contemplated seeing a doctor about my ankle and knee on my right leg. after finishing the remains of the pizza and cheesy bread i decided to stubborn it out. the first half a mile was not pleasant at all and so i decided to lower the seat on my bike and it felt much better. think my legs might be different lengths as my right leg always stretches a bit more than my left. pushed through more wind which often tried to stop me in my tracks. met a woman a petrol station who said that her legs were different sizes and that she got them readjusted a couple of times. so am not doing amazingly well but i am not going to quit yet. am almost through florida and i want to make it to the golf of mexico. lets hope the wind stops soon. also i just had to bike 2 miles to get to the library. i can now understand why Bush invaded Iraq as you have to drive everywhere even in small towns, like Crestview, in order to use basic services. America needs cheap oil without it they would struggle as i cant see many of them cycling around!

conditons giving me grief

well I left steve and samantha all packed up with stuff from their store which they gave to me without letting me pay. one of things was 'monkey butt powder'! lets hope it doesnt get to that! so i made through tallahassee up and down loads of hills..... and more hils all the way to Quincy which is a classic american town straight out of Happy Days. the sun was blazing down and i think i am slowly ridding my self of my pastey british skin. made it to a small town called gretna where i played some horse shoe throwing with a large group of african americans who took the piss out of my lack of ability! loved their banter, think they would fit in well down the local boozer. the undulating scenery seemed endless but it was all worth it when i got to lake seminole which is right by a town called sneads. was the perfect reward for a hard days work. whilst enjoying the view i bumped into a fellow cyclist called Alan who said i was welcome to take a shower at his place. Alan turned out to be a great guy and we went out for some cajun fish. i stayed at his place and went to bed very early as i was shattered.

woke up riculously early today at 6 and said goodbye to Alan. the weather forecast was horrendous so i got going under ominous clouds. thankfully i made it to marianna for breakfast and the heavens opened. timing essential. after plenty of twisting and turning past the armadillo, snake and frog roadkill i stopped for a break at cottondale where the owner of a fruit shop opened his store just to give me a free orange and apple. dont know what i did to deserve all these lucky meetings. anyway it is almost lunchtime and i am taking a break from the 20-30mph headwinds at chipley. great library by the way, wonder if there is some mafia boss in town trying to appease the locals. Hasta pronto

properly going

since i last wrote i have been doing some serious miles but am trying to take it fairly easy so i dont burn out. I carried on west through Live Oak where i had my first proper mexican food which helped me on my way to a small town called Lee and that is where I started to get worried...asked at a hotel where the nearby campsite was. A polish guy appeared and said "you from europe, you are brother, you stay for free here." He showed me the room but didnt have the key and instead of opening the door he took a piss in the garden before searching for the key. of couse he had to show me his 2 sports cars and his jeep and of course i had to listen to pink floyd on his Bose speakers. he finally went to the back of the hotel and searched in the garage and i thought he was going to bring out a gun but thankfully it was a drill. he attempted to take down the door but stopped short of knocking it down. Then he went to reception where his son gave him the key.....very strange behaviour indeed. anyway the room was alright in the end although it was very messy. I locked myself in, had a bath and slept like a baby, thank god!

woke up sunday morning and had some waffles, chatting to the waitress who seemed to be really interested in icelandic water. fair enough. anyway it was a stunning day and i just kept on riding and loved it. really felt great about the trip and wasnt stuck in any introspective quagmire but was in fact just enjoying the scenery and the blue sky. cycled through Madison which is a beautiful southern town with all those drooping trees. is it wisteria? Stopped in Greenville where Ray Charles grew up and then decided against the short cut into Tallahassee and am well pleased about that decision. rode to a small town just south of Tallahassee called Woodville where in the first shop i went in to i met the manager steve and his wife samantha who said i could camp on their lawn. in fact they took me out for chinese with their cowboy friends (clinking with each step!) and i slept on their couch. awesome, cant believe how kind the americans are turning out to be. both steve and samantha were such great people and I feel so fortunate not only because of their kindness but also to be doing this trip. so far so good!

heading south

my last night in new york was great! went round to lien's friends apt in brooklyn where dennis and sandy provided some great entertainment. managed to find a chinese bus on tuesday morning which was "10 dolla" and smelt rather like chicken and was full of non english speaking people. got to philly a couple of hours later where i strolled around seeing some of the sights where american independence was born and was very temped to have one of the famous cheese steaks but had a veggie one after much deliberation...clearly made the wrong choice! had an incredible afternoon feeling like a 6 year old as there was a star wars exhibition in the science museum. i lapped it up. wez would be so jealous as there were loads of the original costumes, models and clips of how they made the films. linked up with marty and played dodgeball with his friend Emiliano in the gym. absoluely classic! could have been in napoleon dynamite.

the following day i helped out in marty and his mum's catering business before catching the train to north carolina. thought i had got a rubbish seat as the rather large black lady in the seat next to me was sleeping and we didnt chat for a couple of hours, but how wrong i was! turned out that she used to be A&R for warner records in new york and london in the 80s & 90s. chatted about music all the way through virginia. got picked up that afternoon by rachel and jean in Raleigh and later saw kalla. we all had dinner and went to a bar where there was an 'irish' rock band playing. was hysterical especially when this dude, who looked like Mr T started doing a riverdance jig like crazy to the last song, medalions going everywhere!

Thursday was chilled as I was feeling a bit hungover so kalla and I went bowling and played a bit of crazy golf etc. had dinner with the girls who provided some of the most random conversations i have ever had. thanks jean! hopped on the train at 9pm and thankfully slept pretty well.

Arrived in Jacksonville, Florida where Jim met me at the station. I met Jim on a cycling website and he turned out to be legend. he took me for some breakfast and showed me the bike shop where i had ordered my bike though Brian who knew everything there was to know about cycling. Finally at about 2pm I started the ride with Jim who came with me for the first 15 miles before heading back to jacksonville. feel really fortunate that Jim and various other friends have looked after me so well. will have to return a few favours in the future. biked till about 5:30pm after picking up a few supplies. set up camp in a forest not far from route 90. of course it was a bit of nightmare as i had never put up my tent and there were loads of mosquitoes. however i finally put up my tent and got a fire going and scoffed down a tin of baked beans and felt very much alive and happy to have started the adventure. that was until the lightening in the middle of the night felt very close to death at one point! do you think it is ok to be in a tent if lightening strikes? i have no idea and felt like it was a distinct possibility!

Today, I woke up a little wet from the torrential rainfall and packed up my stuff as quick as possible to avoid the mozzies and got on my way. so here i am at lake city with plenty of riding to do in the afternoon. well done if you made it this far!

The Big Apple

Arrived on Wednesday 13th February feeling excited about the prospect of checking out New York and catching up with lots of friends. NYC has certainly lived up to my expectations: iron fire-escapes, yellow cabs, tasty bagels and high-rise buildings. However I have had many unexpected experiences. Walking round Manhattan on Thursday I happened upon Chinatown and it was like teleporting to the streets of a Manchurian town, embroiled in the hustle of tonal Mandarin like cellos yo-yoing around my periphery. On Friday I was consumed by grannies ordering their fresh pasta in Italian in Little Italy in the Bronx. Then walking down 125th street in Harlem and soaking up the fashion flexed in the heart of Black culture, jewelry and sneaker stores engulfing me on both flanks. At many times I have been shocked by the diversity that oozes from every district. I even thought the architecture would be more homogeneous but the neo-gothic style is often shadowed by unique blends of brick and mortar like the residential brownstone houses in Brooklyn near Prospect Park. Sitting in cafes has been one of my favorite activities with customers ordering their own unique specifications and chatting to the person behind the counter who always makes it a pleasant exchange. It's such a small thing but coming from the icy service we expect in London it seems truly special.

Has been great to catch up with friends from Japan and old family friends from the time when I was born in Connecticut. Lien has kindly had me to stay in the Upper East Side and others have met up with me for drinks or a meal so it has been enlightening to hear everyone's angle on the city. On Sunday I visited a Kerouac exhibition so I am now fully geared up for many days of travel On The Road!

off tmrw

can't believe I've talked myself into this!