Just to let you know that I have completed the ride and am now at my good friend Leon Ross's river house in upstate Florida where the internet connection is not the fastest or most reliable. When I am able to I will post the account of the last day which is on the presses and waiting to roll!
Sorry for the delay.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Bad weather cycling gear, England 2008. OK, maybe not. Just my other passion, skiing, at Whistler, 2008
.jpg)
Edward, Lynne, Daniel, Jennifer and yours truly
.JPG)
....that will get me down the East Coast
A further honest, satirical look at bicycle touring in the USA
HOW TO DONATE
PLEASE READ THIS
This is the serious bit.
Last year I cycled across the USA from West coast to East coast. Many people asked me whether I was doing the ride for charity and the simple answer was 'No'.
This year is different and I am riding for a charity.
This year has been a bad year for me for losing good people to Cancer - people who carried the dreadful disease with more courage than I could ever imagine. Far too many of them died far too young. Cancer doesn't care who it targets.
CancerCare does care about all those affected by cancer.
They do great work in the community in North Lancashire and South Lakeland. Look at their site and see: http://www.cancercare.org.uk/
PLEASE donate!
If every time you read this blog you put a coin in a box - at the end of my ride you could donate it! I'm not going to badger anyone for money and ask you to sign up to pay me when I have done the ride. I want your conscience to work. Donate any amount you can - PLEASE!
There is a link at the top of the page - 'HOW TO DONATE' - and it's dead easy to do. Do it through the web and UK taxpayers' donations can be 'gift aided'
I'm doing my bit by riding this ride.
Will you do your bit, too, please?
Oh, and TELL YOUR FRIENDS as well, please!
Last year I cycled across the USA from West coast to East coast. Many people asked me whether I was doing the ride for charity and the simple answer was 'No'.
This year is different and I am riding for a charity.
This year has been a bad year for me for losing good people to Cancer - people who carried the dreadful disease with more courage than I could ever imagine. Far too many of them died far too young. Cancer doesn't care who it targets.
CancerCare does care about all those affected by cancer.
They do great work in the community in North Lancashire and South Lakeland. Look at their site and see: http://www.cancercare.org.uk/
PLEASE donate!
If every time you read this blog you put a coin in a box - at the end of my ride you could donate it! I'm not going to badger anyone for money and ask you to sign up to pay me when I have done the ride. I want your conscience to work. Donate any amount you can - PLEASE!
There is a link at the top of the page - 'HOW TO DONATE' - and it's dead easy to do. Do it through the web and UK taxpayers' donations can be 'gift aided'
I'm doing my bit by riding this ride.
Will you do your bit, too, please?
Oh, and TELL YOUR FRIENDS as well, please!
GLOSSARY
AbB - America by Bicycle. The company who are running the whole ride.
Big Boys' Rewards - A long, uncomplicated downhill stretch of road lasting for 1/2 a mile or more. Usually follows a period of extensive exercise on a road that leads up to the start of the long, uncomplicated downhill stretch.
Bonus distance - Can be measured in feet, yards or miles but is extra distance of any variety. Staff diversion, road diversion / road closed etc. but most likely 'Pilot Error.'
Cue Sheet - the sheet handed out at Route Rap that gives details of the exact route to be taken on the ride. It shows that distance to the manoevre, accumulated distance and what the exact manoevre should be. Always followed by all riders and mostly blamed when operator error is the real cause for problems
Dowling tailwind - a Headwind. This appears as a very recent addition due to (Graham) Dowling, my very good friend, business partner and riding companion who when we are out riding, always insists that the weather will improve "after lunch and the wind will be on our backs to help us home". Invariably, the wind never is and getting home involves a face full of windburn.
Locals - a person (rider, member of AbB staff or anyone else) from the United States of America
Route Rap - Meeting at the end of the day to read and prepare for the following day's ride with the AbB staff highlighting any issues of note
SAG - Support and Gear. These are obligatory stops on the route during the day's ride where one has to sign in to show that you aren't completely lost! Also a time for a little social intercourse, energy food and mind-stretching concoctions e.g. Peanut Butter and pickle sandwiches. Also the time you find out how far there is left of the day's ride.
Big Boys' Rewards - A long, uncomplicated downhill stretch of road lasting for 1/2 a mile or more. Usually follows a period of extensive exercise on a road that leads up to the start of the long, uncomplicated downhill stretch.
Bonus distance - Can be measured in feet, yards or miles but is extra distance of any variety. Staff diversion, road diversion / road closed etc. but most likely 'Pilot Error.'
Cue Sheet - the sheet handed out at Route Rap that gives details of the exact route to be taken on the ride. It shows that distance to the manoevre, accumulated distance and what the exact manoevre should be. Always followed by all riders and mostly blamed when operator error is the real cause for problems
Dowling tailwind - a Headwind. This appears as a very recent addition due to (Graham) Dowling, my very good friend, business partner and riding companion who when we are out riding, always insists that the weather will improve "after lunch and the wind will be on our backs to help us home". Invariably, the wind never is and getting home involves a face full of windburn.
Locals - a person (rider, member of AbB staff or anyone else) from the United States of America
Route Rap - Meeting at the end of the day to read and prepare for the following day's ride with the AbB staff highlighting any issues of note
SAG - Support and Gear. These are obligatory stops on the route during the day's ride where one has to sign in to show that you aren't completely lost! Also a time for a little social intercourse, energy food and mind-stretching concoctions e.g. Peanut Butter and pickle sandwiches. Also the time you find out how far there is left of the day's ride.
About Me
- Andrew Perry
- Lancaster, Lancashire, United Kingdom
- I retired from the Lancashire Police in 2001 after 30 years' unblemished service (well, never found out) and work mainly with the Police nationally in England in recruiting and promotion assessment processes. I've cycled all my life but only really seriously these past couple of years. For more details, see 'The real me - and my family' below
Bad weather cycling gear, England 2008. OK, maybe not. Just my other passion, skiing, at Whistler, 2008
The Perry Family
Edward, Lynne, Daniel, Jennifer and yours truly
The Real me - and my family
I'm 56 but don't look it - I had a very testing paper round. I have been compared in looks to Clooney (Rosemary) and Pitt (Cec) whilst pound for pound my sylph-like toned figure bears a close resemblence to the boxer Ricky Hatton (between fights) and a sumo wrestler. I have always had the ability to open my mouth at the wrong times which accounts for the family motto, "Semper in caecendi sumus sol altitundino variet".
I have been married to Lynne for 24 years and to Annika Sorenstam for the past five (well, that's who she likes to think she is) whilst Lynne has been married to me for 24 years and various sets of golf clubs for the past 5 since her divorce from Marks and Spencer.
We have three children.
Jennifer who has the courage to speak her mind and frighten anyone at home and at work to get things sorted out when she needs to (which is quite often). After three years as a ski instructor in Whistler, Canada, she has managed to drag her partner, Ross, to Dubai to try and make some real money for a change. He's building the place and she's hiring the people to work there.
Elder son, Daniel, is so laid back he is beyond the horizontal in most things, but he does care passionately about spending money - his own but preferably anyone else's if they are daft enough to lend (ha!) it to him - and rugby. He says he's an apprentice electrician but as he has never, ever changed a light bulb at home, the jury is out on that one.
The little one, Edward (Little? 6'3" and built like a brick outhouse in an inverted triangle shape) is the 'quiet' one. Yeah, right! On the day I leave home for this trip, he'll be getting his 'A' level results and he says that he will be glad I'm out of the country.
I love my family dearly and just hope that they all have a happy, long and healthy life.
I am proud of them all. I hope they are proud of what I am trying to do.
I have been married to Lynne for 24 years and to Annika Sorenstam for the past five (well, that's who she likes to think she is) whilst Lynne has been married to me for 24 years and various sets of golf clubs for the past 5 since her divorce from Marks and Spencer.
We have three children.
Jennifer who has the courage to speak her mind and frighten anyone at home and at work to get things sorted out when she needs to (which is quite often). After three years as a ski instructor in Whistler, Canada, she has managed to drag her partner, Ross, to Dubai to try and make some real money for a change. He's building the place and she's hiring the people to work there.
Elder son, Daniel, is so laid back he is beyond the horizontal in most things, but he does care passionately about spending money - his own but preferably anyone else's if they are daft enough to lend (ha!) it to him - and rugby. He says he's an apprentice electrician but as he has never, ever changed a light bulb at home, the jury is out on that one.
The little one, Edward (Little? 6'3" and built like a brick outhouse in an inverted triangle shape) is the 'quiet' one. Yeah, right! On the day I leave home for this trip, he'll be getting his 'A' level results and he says that he will be glad I'm out of the country.
I love my family dearly and just hope that they all have a happy, long and healthy life.
I am proud of them all. I hope they are proud of what I am trying to do.
TO ADD A COMMENT OR MESSAGE...............
1. Click on 'x Comments' at bottom right hand side of my latest posting;
2. Write your message in the 'Leave your comment' box;
3. Type the displayed strange lettering into the 'Word verification' box;
4. Check one of the circles in 'choose an identity' - if you don't have any of the first three, click anonymous, but please put your name below your comment at 2. above;
5. You can then see what your comment / message will look like on the page by pressing the blue 'preview' button or
6. Publish by pressing the orange button.
You MUST hit the 'publish your comment' button if you want to send it. I will moderate all comments then publish them.
You can READ any moderated comments on any day when the number at the bottom of the post has changed from '0'
2. Write your message in the 'Leave your comment' box;
3. Type the displayed strange lettering into the 'Word verification' box;
4. Check one of the circles in 'choose an identity' - if you don't have any of the first three, click anonymous, but please put your name below your comment at 2. above;
5. You can then see what your comment / message will look like on the page by pressing the blue 'preview' button or
6. Publish by pressing the orange button.
You MUST hit the 'publish your comment' button if you want to send it. I will moderate all comments then publish them.
You can READ any moderated comments on any day when the number at the bottom of the post has changed from '0'
The Bike...
....that will get me down the East Coast
About the bike
Those of you who think that a bicycle is just a two wheeled vehicle with a cripplingly hard saddle on it, read no further, otherwise your insomnia will be cured.
The bike is custom built by Bob Jackson Cycles of Leeds. You can read all about them from 'Links' below. I ordered it in October 2007 and took delivery, two months before the due date, in June 2008.
It has a Reynolds 631 metal alloy frame coloured metallic gold (does anyone know of another sort of gold?) with smoke; it has a Brooks B17 leather saddle ("You don't break in a Brooks saddle - they break you in"), front and rear Shimano disc brakes, a Rohloff Speedhub 500/14 gear system; DT swiss TK 7.1 rims with 700x25 front and 700x28 rear Schwalbe Marathon plus tyres.
It's a beautifully built machine that's been made to measure for ME!
Basically, it has two speeds - very fast downhill and very, very slow uphill.
The bike is custom built by Bob Jackson Cycles of Leeds. You can read all about them from 'Links' below. I ordered it in October 2007 and took delivery, two months before the due date, in June 2008.
It has a Reynolds 631 metal alloy frame coloured metallic gold (does anyone know of another sort of gold?) with smoke; it has a Brooks B17 leather saddle ("You don't break in a Brooks saddle - they break you in"), front and rear Shimano disc brakes, a Rohloff Speedhub 500/14 gear system; DT swiss TK 7.1 rims with 700x25 front and 700x28 rear Schwalbe Marathon plus tyres.
It's a beautifully built machine that's been made to measure for ME!
Basically, it has two speeds - very fast downhill and very, very slow uphill.
LINKS
COPYRIGHT
This website and its content is copyright of Andrew Perry - © Andrew Perry 2008. All rights reserved
Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited other than the following:
you may print or download to a local hard disk extracts for your personal and non-commercial use only;
you may copy the content to individual third parties for their personal use, but only if you acknowledge the website and the writer as the source of the material.
You may not, except with express written permission from the writer, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other website or other form of electronic retrieval system.
Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited other than the following:
you may print or download to a local hard disk extracts for your personal and non-commercial use only;
you may copy the content to individual third parties for their personal use, but only if you acknowledge the website and the writer as the source of the material.
You may not, except with express written permission from the writer, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other website or other form of electronic retrieval system.
3 comments:
Well done Andy. Look forward to seeing you at QA training. I wonder if there will be any 'attack dogs' on the North ride. Maybe I should try and hang on to my truncheon. Enjoy the rest.
ianP
Congrats! What's next? Backwards across the US?
Later,
Jane & Gene
Well done Andy! See you when you get back, Janet, Rob etc.
Post a Comment