America

We have just crossed the United States of America having ridden 3,666 miles in 47 days, with 1 day off. It has been an extraordinary experience, full of contradictions and contrast as we crossed this amazing and complex country. 

We started our journey in early January in San Francisco having crossed the date line from New Zealand – leaving Summer behind and finding ourselves shivering in the cold. 

We left the outskirts of San Francisco and headed for the coast. The western coast of the USA is truly stunning, with some of the most beautiful scenery of our whole journey to date. 

We cycled around the famous 17 mile drive, next to the US Master’s golf course at Pebble Beach, and through Carmel with its slightly too immaculate shops. 

We were excited about cycling through the Big Sur, a remote stretch of Californian coast line which is mountainous, lined with red wood, and extraordinarily beautiful. We crossed Bigby Creek Bridge, as the light was fading, and finally found accommodation having ridden in the dark. As we were probably in the most beautiful place on the whole trip, Raz decided to spend the entire evening throwing up – blaming pasta we ate in the local restaurant. The next day was the hilliest day of our ride across the US. Raz did amazingly well to ride that day as it was a long, hard day but really beautiful. It was incredible to think about the remoteness of this coast in the heart of California. 

We continued our journey down the coast heading towards Los Angeles, passing seals, which we could hear calling even in the dark, and Hearst Castle the home of Randolph Hearst, on whom the film Citizen Kane, (by Orson Wells) was based, and who was visited by 1920’s film stars including Charlie Chaplin. 

We were feeling the cold, especially in the mornings and evenings as the sun went down. This was the first time that we had  cycled in the cold and we noticed the difference it made, especially after the heat of Australia. It took time to adjust. The days were also short making it challenging to get our milage completed in the daylight hours. 

We were contacted by bicycling.com magazine and interviewed about our trip. It was incredible to think that our journey was being shared with cyclists across the USA. 

We arrived in Los Angeles after a long day, almost 100 miles along the coast, and stayed with the lovely Kevin Jones in Santa Monica , who I have know for many years. Los Angeles was busy but we found a cycle route along the beach which, although slow, was great fun as we watched people skate boarding, cycling, running, walking dogs, playing beach volley ball and surfing. 

We were heading south to Oceanside where we would leave the coast behind and head East until we reached the Atlantic Ocean. We hit the hills as we left the coast climbing over 50 miles towards the Anza Borrego desert. In the middle of no-where we came across a massive Casino - inevitably we stopped for coffee, being served by an incredibly enthusiastic barista, as we watched people who, on the whole, looked incredibly miserable, feeding money into slot machines. 

The descent through the huge desert rocks, in the evening light into the Anza Borrego Desert National Park was truly amazing and incredibly cold. In the morning we saw a hummingbird feeding on nectar incredibly surviving in the freezing temperatures.

We were used to remoteness, having cycled across Australia, and the USA, in a similar way, has areas which are very sparsely populated. This meant that travelling across the interior was challenging at times, because of the distances between places to stay and eat.

We were still heading south east and reached the Mexican border near El Centro. We decided to cross the border, seeing the Wall being built to separate the USA from Mexico, for the first time. Getting into Mexico was easy. The contrast was startling, the poverty in the border towns was apparent but everyone was friendly, waving to us as we passed by.

It was, however, more of a challenge to get back into the US. We queued in the traffic line. We got to the front and were told that we were in the wrong place- we should be in the pedestrian queue. This is unusual as we don’t cycle on the pavement (or side walk). Someone kindly let us into the pedestrian queue as we had already waited in the vehicle queue. Not surprisingly Alice was too big to get through the barrier set up to regulate the pedestrian line. We asked a border guard to let us through, he refused and sent us to the back of the pedestrian line. He was aggressive and rude for reasons I simply don’t understand other than what was clearly a general disapproval of us having crossed the border into Mexico in the first place. I’m sure these guards have their reasons for being aggressive, but it doesn’t reflect well on their country. In spite of this, we enjoyed our day in Mexico and we don’t regret visiting the 21st country on our around the world journey.

I loved Arizona, crossing the desert with its huge organ pipe cactus and amazing light. The sun rises and sets were particularly stunning – the whole of the sky and the desert bathed with red light. Accomodation was sparse in this area and we spent one of our freezing evenings in the tent . Even sleeping fully dressed in down jackets was not enough to keep the cold out. 

In Tuscon we stayed with the incredibly hospitable Michael and Elena. Michael is on the board of US cycling and still time trials, even though he was well into his 70’s. He has ridden the famous RAAM (Race Across America) amazing.

We continued our journey across the desert visiting Tombstone, were there is a daily enactment of the gun fight at the OK Coral and staying a night with Fran in her school bus one cold evening. The environmentally conscious Fran lives off solar – having converted a garage. One of Fran’s many projects is building an outdoor bath room with tub surrounded (almost) by a concrete wall built with empty bottles. It was certainly an experience, and Fran was incredibly generous to let us stay.

We crossed over the border into Texas. As we were following the border we could see the Wall separating Mexico from the US being built. It is huge between 30 to 50 feet high and over 1000 miles long. We witnessed the polarised politics which are evident in the USA, (and we are seeing increasingly across the world). In the rural and often poorer communities, the Wall is on the whole welcomed. We heard the unsolicited views of the locals who clearly welcomed the wall and were keen to know whether we were carrying weapons as we rode close to the border. We saw support for President Trump in the form of flags, banners (including life size cardboard cut outs of Trump strangling a life sized Hilary Clinton), and generally from the locals. We also heard concerns from others about the impact the Wall will have on wildlife migration.

The support for the current President appears not as strong in the wealthier areas urban areas – a generalisation, but that is how it seems. It is also the case that the poverty in some of the rural communities we cycled through was startling. Many people live in RVs and trailers and seem to have limited access to health services or fresh food – which was certainly a problem for us. 

In Houston, we stayed with the incredibly lovely and generous Sarah and Matt, Brits living in Houston with their daughter Charlotte. They have an immaculately restored heritage clapperboard house in the middle of Houston’s historic area. It was great to have home cooked food and hear about life in Texas. We cycled through the historic area the next day, but it wasn’t long before we were in a run down community along side the railway tracks, as we left the city. 

We crossed the border into Louisiana crossing through wetlands teeming with bird life as we followed the coast along the Gulf of Mexico on route to New Orleans. We had promised ourselves a day off in New Orleans, (the first day on none riding in the US), and we were glad to arrive and relax in this amazing city. We had Alice (tandem), serviced and were fortunate to be in town for the infamous Krewe Du Vieux, an adult and lewd procession full of effigies of President Trump and various phallic objects. We listened to jazz and visited the famous Café Du Monde, eating its sugary donuts. We watched the New Orleans marathon as we headed out of the city on terrible roads, presumably damaged by the floods.

We continued to follow the coast crossing into Alabama, where we met Trisha an ultra marathon runner and others, running along the coast as part of a multi day event. We arrived in Dauphin Island having crossed an amazing causeway linking it to the mainland. The plan was to get a ferry across the inlet joining the coast to the east. We woke to thick fog - we waited and waited but the fog was not clearing. We decided to back track through Mobile which added about 100 miles to the journey and took us onto the busy Highway 90. We finally made it into Mississippi and over the famous river.

The number of churches in the Deep South is phenomenal. Every possible demonisation is catered for – many have signs outside warning about sin and sinners. There are certainly more churches than cafes. In fact, we later learned that this area is seen as a food desert –  it seemed impossible to get fresh healthy food. We survived on pizza and chicken sandwiches (white bread). One of the things about cycling an average of 80 miles per day for months that no one will tell you is that it plays havoc with your ability to digest food effectively especially fried food.

We crossed the border into Florida. It was warmer and we braved camping again before heading to Orlando were we stayed in luxury at the Grove Resort courtesy of Dom Pickering. Restored after a night of luxury, we continued our journey east finally reaching the Atlantic Ocean which, felt like a milestone having crossed our last continent and almost at the end of our longest stage. 

We headed south to Miami passing huge mansions with manicured lawns before reaching the outskirts of Miami. We have cycled 16,763 miles on our journey so far. We are on track for the world record as we pack Alice up for her last flight of this journey to Casablanca in Morocco.