Sunday, February 13, 2005
Random googleness!
I had a quick look at my stats for the blog today, and it looks like people are finding it through google now. And if you google "getting a fat belly" (using the inverted commas) my blog is the first thing to come up!!!
Safely and Sadly Back From My Stateside Saddle Soreness
I'm back in Edinburgh now, back at work. But it's OK being home - I had an amazing trip. And it's nice to be sitting on a chair instead of a saddle, and having a real bed and cosy room instead of a tent!
The journey home was fine, though my bike got a bit damaged in transit, but at least it made it back!
Since then I've just been catching up on the insane amount of work that's been waiting for me. But I'm getting on top of that now, and have been catching up with all my mates in Edinburgh. The weather's not too bad for a Scottish winter - a bit damp, a bit cold, a bit windy. But when I'm not cycling I don't really care. It took a few days before I could bear to ride my bike properly - I had a meeting about 10 miles outside the city. And to be honest I didn't ride out of choice - the battery on my car's dead flat after 6 weeks of not being used, and despite Nicky's best efforts we've not been able to fix it. It was wierd riding my bike without any luggage - it felt so fast!
It's interesting comparing Edinburgh to the places I've been. I was out last night with a few friends at a Battle of the Bands (at the hellhole that is Subway Cowgate) and pretty much all the music was really heavy rock or heavy metal. One band from Livingstone had obviously bussed in all their long-haired mates for their show, so there was this crowd of about ten 18 year olds headbanging, crowd surfing and stage diving. We went to see some friends of Nicky's, who came third - www.mynextgirlfriend.com
Went to see Goldie on Friday night at the Venue, which was mad. I'd never been to a drum and bass night before, but it was interesting to see someone as famous and influential as Goldie, and to get into a totally new kind of music.
Anyway, I don't want this to turn into one of those blogs that just describes my rather mundane daily life, so I'm going to stop writing about it! Over the next few weeks I'm going to type up the journal that I wrote every evening on my trip - so if you want to read my very personal thoughts then keep checking the site. I'll insert the journal entries with the dates that they were originally written on, inbetween the blog entries that I did at the time. I'll also add some of my best photos. I've got about 670 photos and I'm really struggling to narrow them down to a number that won't bore people to death. Appologies to Franca and Kerry who made the mistake of offering to look at my photos before I'd sorted them properly!
And thanks to everyone who kept in touch while I was travelling, and to all the amazing people I met on my journey who's emailed since.
Keep life interesting.
Tom
The journey home was fine, though my bike got a bit damaged in transit, but at least it made it back!
Since then I've just been catching up on the insane amount of work that's been waiting for me. But I'm getting on top of that now, and have been catching up with all my mates in Edinburgh. The weather's not too bad for a Scottish winter - a bit damp, a bit cold, a bit windy. But when I'm not cycling I don't really care. It took a few days before I could bear to ride my bike properly - I had a meeting about 10 miles outside the city. And to be honest I didn't ride out of choice - the battery on my car's dead flat after 6 weeks of not being used, and despite Nicky's best efforts we've not been able to fix it. It was wierd riding my bike without any luggage - it felt so fast!
It's interesting comparing Edinburgh to the places I've been. I was out last night with a few friends at a Battle of the Bands (at the hellhole that is Subway Cowgate) and pretty much all the music was really heavy rock or heavy metal. One band from Livingstone had obviously bussed in all their long-haired mates for their show, so there was this crowd of about ten 18 year olds headbanging, crowd surfing and stage diving. We went to see some friends of Nicky's, who came third - www.mynextgirlfriend.com
Went to see Goldie on Friday night at the Venue, which was mad. I'd never been to a drum and bass night before, but it was interesting to see someone as famous and influential as Goldie, and to get into a totally new kind of music.
Anyway, I don't want this to turn into one of those blogs that just describes my rather mundane daily life, so I'm going to stop writing about it! Over the next few weeks I'm going to type up the journal that I wrote every evening on my trip - so if you want to read my very personal thoughts then keep checking the site. I'll insert the journal entries with the dates that they were originally written on, inbetween the blog entries that I did at the time. I'll also add some of my best photos. I've got about 670 photos and I'm really struggling to narrow them down to a number that won't bore people to death. Appologies to Franca and Kerry who made the mistake of offering to look at my photos before I'd sorted them properly!
And thanks to everyone who kept in touch while I was travelling, and to all the amazing people I met on my journey who's emailed since.
Keep life interesting.
Tom
Saturday, February 05, 2005
I made it!
I made it to St Augustine, and with a day to spare after pushing myself hard doing two 100 mile days in a row (a certain part of my body is hurtin' real bad).
St Augustine was cool, very beautiful old town. Went on a bit of a pub crawl with one of the guys from the lovely Pirate Haus hostel there.
The next day I got the first Greyhound down to Miami, a rather dull 10 hour journey, releived by a fascinating conversation with a 27 year old guy who'd just got out of jail after 2 months. It was amazing hearing him talk about how it felt to be in jail, and how it felt to be out. I'll write more about that when I have time. But it had been a very spiritual time, and I felt that it had a lot of similarities with my trip - a lot of time to contemplate life, being thrown in with a really random mix of people, spending a lot of time thinking. But obviously there's the major difference of freedom.
Arrived in Miami after dark, and pretty much went straight out. South Beach is such a cool place. It really reminds me of a slightly chilled-out version of Florence - everyone is beautiful, well dressed. There's a real mediterranian feel - everyone dining out doors in glamorous restaurants. The one thing that I don't like so much about it is that it's a real club culture - that's where everyone goes, and they're really expensive. I was wandering around in my cycling clothes - a Helly Hansen Tshirt and lightweight hiking trousers - I felt really out of place amongst the glamour. But one great thing is that the shops are open 'til about 1am - and they're very like Italian shops - really gorgeous clothes, a bit overpriced. But I treated myself to a pair of jeans and a nice shirt, which I put on immediatly, and felt a lot more at home! Found a really nice Irish bar where I chatted to a few folk, then discovered a great Jazz bar with a live band playing a wierd and wonderful fusion of reggae and samba. It was open 'til about 3, so that was good for me. Stopped at a brilliant Mexican for a late night burrito, then hit the hostel for the night.
Started the day today with a walk along the beach at sunrise. There's not a lot of cities in the world where you can paddle in the sea in shorts and t shirt first thing in the morning in winter. I guess San Diego is another. Emigration is looking more and more tempting! (though not to Miami). After I'd worked up an appetite (not hard for me) I had a delicious breakfast of huevos rancheros (fried eggs on a tortilla with refried beans, potatoes, cheese & salsa) and a great coffee, sat in the sun doing some writing, then wandered around the shops.
I'm gonna miss this - the food, the people, the sunshine...
Hmm.
c ya
Tom
St Augustine was cool, very beautiful old town. Went on a bit of a pub crawl with one of the guys from the lovely Pirate Haus hostel there.
The next day I got the first Greyhound down to Miami, a rather dull 10 hour journey, releived by a fascinating conversation with a 27 year old guy who'd just got out of jail after 2 months. It was amazing hearing him talk about how it felt to be in jail, and how it felt to be out. I'll write more about that when I have time. But it had been a very spiritual time, and I felt that it had a lot of similarities with my trip - a lot of time to contemplate life, being thrown in with a really random mix of people, spending a lot of time thinking. But obviously there's the major difference of freedom.
Arrived in Miami after dark, and pretty much went straight out. South Beach is such a cool place. It really reminds me of a slightly chilled-out version of Florence - everyone is beautiful, well dressed. There's a real mediterranian feel - everyone dining out doors in glamorous restaurants. The one thing that I don't like so much about it is that it's a real club culture - that's where everyone goes, and they're really expensive. I was wandering around in my cycling clothes - a Helly Hansen Tshirt and lightweight hiking trousers - I felt really out of place amongst the glamour. But one great thing is that the shops are open 'til about 1am - and they're very like Italian shops - really gorgeous clothes, a bit overpriced. But I treated myself to a pair of jeans and a nice shirt, which I put on immediatly, and felt a lot more at home! Found a really nice Irish bar where I chatted to a few folk, then discovered a great Jazz bar with a live band playing a wierd and wonderful fusion of reggae and samba. It was open 'til about 3, so that was good for me. Stopped at a brilliant Mexican for a late night burrito, then hit the hostel for the night.
Started the day today with a walk along the beach at sunrise. There's not a lot of cities in the world where you can paddle in the sea in shorts and t shirt first thing in the morning in winter. I guess San Diego is another. Emigration is looking more and more tempting! (though not to Miami). After I'd worked up an appetite (not hard for me) I had a delicious breakfast of huevos rancheros (fried eggs on a tortilla with refried beans, potatoes, cheese & salsa) and a great coffee, sat in the sun doing some writing, then wandered around the shops.
I'm gonna miss this - the food, the people, the sunshine...
Hmm.
c ya
Tom
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
270 miles to go!
Well I've only 270 miles to go, so I'll be in St Augustine either thursday night or friday morning. But sadly it's going to rain every day until then. Though I've stopped believing the weather chanel too much since I woke up with the heaviest frost yet on my tent on monday morning - they said the temperature was going to stay in the 40s.
After my last blog entry I got drenched. And on leaving that beautiful town someone in a passing car fired a starter pistol in my ear. At least I hope it was just a starter pistol...
Further down the road I saw someone at the side of the road, but I couldn't work out what they were doing. When I caught up with them I got chatting to this guy called Lee from Tennessee. He was doing a 200km training ride for some mad 750km ride in Paris that is done in 80 hours or something. I was pretty impressed at him riding 200k in this weather, but what raised him from impressive status to insane status was the fact that he was doing it on a SCOOTER! It was a type I'd never seen before - a 26 inch front wheel like a bike with a small back wheel. It was called a kick-along or something similar, maybe a kick-a-bike. And he was managing 12mph, though he was down to 10 by the time he turned off.
But I had a really cool time on saturday night. I got chatting to a friendly group of girls who were working at the supermarket where I stopped to buy supper in Bonifay. They gave me the name of the motel where Lee and the other cyclists were staying, so I decided to spend the night there, dry out and chat to the cyclists. They were friendly - I chatted a lot to the wife of the organiser and her son. He gave me one of the yellow 'livestrong' bracelets that I've been searching for since I arrived in the US. While we were chatting we noticed some people in a car waving at us - it was the girls from the supermarket. They invited me to ride with them and see the town on a saturday night. So of course I accepted.
I bought a few beers and we drove around. There wasn't a lot happening - just everyone else driving around too. I became their performing monkey for the night - they got me to say 'git-r-done' in an American accent, which they found hilarious. One of them recorded it on her phone and played it back, and I realised why it was so amusing. They drove me around introducing me to everyone, and the car gradually filled up until there was about 10 of us in the car. Anyone that knows much about life in small town america can perhaps guess how the evening ended, but for various reasons I can't say any more about it here. But it was certainly one of the most unforgettable moments of my trip! Email me if you want to find out. But despite what happened I had a really great evening, and met one of the girls for a coffee at the waffle house the next morning before I left.
The next day was dry, and I camped wild for the first time, at a beautiful abandoned old house in the middle of the forest. At first it was a bit spooky being on my own with all the strange rustling noises, but I got used to it and enjoyed the tranquility and stars.
Not a whole lot of excitement since then, and it's raining again today but I don't mind too much.
See y'all soon,
Tom
x
After my last blog entry I got drenched. And on leaving that beautiful town someone in a passing car fired a starter pistol in my ear. At least I hope it was just a starter pistol...
Further down the road I saw someone at the side of the road, but I couldn't work out what they were doing. When I caught up with them I got chatting to this guy called Lee from Tennessee. He was doing a 200km training ride for some mad 750km ride in Paris that is done in 80 hours or something. I was pretty impressed at him riding 200k in this weather, but what raised him from impressive status to insane status was the fact that he was doing it on a SCOOTER! It was a type I'd never seen before - a 26 inch front wheel like a bike with a small back wheel. It was called a kick-along or something similar, maybe a kick-a-bike. And he was managing 12mph, though he was down to 10 by the time he turned off.
But I had a really cool time on saturday night. I got chatting to a friendly group of girls who were working at the supermarket where I stopped to buy supper in Bonifay. They gave me the name of the motel where Lee and the other cyclists were staying, so I decided to spend the night there, dry out and chat to the cyclists. They were friendly - I chatted a lot to the wife of the organiser and her son. He gave me one of the yellow 'livestrong' bracelets that I've been searching for since I arrived in the US. While we were chatting we noticed some people in a car waving at us - it was the girls from the supermarket. They invited me to ride with them and see the town on a saturday night. So of course I accepted.
I bought a few beers and we drove around. There wasn't a lot happening - just everyone else driving around too. I became their performing monkey for the night - they got me to say 'git-r-done' in an American accent, which they found hilarious. One of them recorded it on her phone and played it back, and I realised why it was so amusing. They drove me around introducing me to everyone, and the car gradually filled up until there was about 10 of us in the car. Anyone that knows much about life in small town america can perhaps guess how the evening ended, but for various reasons I can't say any more about it here. But it was certainly one of the most unforgettable moments of my trip! Email me if you want to find out. But despite what happened I had a really great evening, and met one of the girls for a coffee at the waffle house the next morning before I left.
The next day was dry, and I camped wild for the first time, at a beautiful abandoned old house in the middle of the forest. At first it was a bit spooky being on my own with all the strange rustling noises, but I got used to it and enjoyed the tranquility and stars.
Not a whole lot of excitement since then, and it's raining again today but I don't mind too much.
See y'all soon,
Tom
x
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