Less than 20 days to go - Hoping to make a difference + some new friends.

What is happening?! The days seem to be evaporating and in just over a fortnight’s time I will be climbing on a plane and flying about 5,000 miles to Seattle. However, my diary is rapidly filling up and I have much to do before I travel to the airport.

The whiteness that is Greenland! On my way to Seattle in 2019

One of the most important things to be done is on this coming Thursday (15th May) when I will be climbing on a train instead, and flying at a height of around 3ft up to London. Then on to the Underground Tube up to High Barnet on the north side of London. Finally, walking for few minutes to reach to offices of the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice, the second children’s charity I hope will benefit from my West Coast charity bike ride.

I will post some more details about this visit on my next blog, as well as more detailed description about what exactly the charity does, although this is summarised above. My decision to support them, however, came through a friend of a friend and the tragedy that person faced when his new born son passed away. I cannot begin to fathom what emotions he must have gone through and is probably still going through, but it does make me feel incredibly blessed that this is something I have not had to face.

If you know me by now, my heart cannot just pass this off and, therefore, I have to do something to try to make a difference. Raising money for charity by riding a bike is now one of the most rewarding aspects of my retirement. I have a new set of tyres to go and do things I could not have done whilst I was working in an office and supervising construction projects. I have been re-tyred to help change lives (I hope!)

This up and coming ride will be my third north/south crossing of the USA, to compliment the West/East crossing in 2019. I did the ‘Underground Railroad’ from New Orleans to Cleveland in 2022 (the gulf to the lakes) and the East Coast in 2023 from Georgia to Maine. Many of the people I have met through these rides are now wonderful lifetime friends and many of them have travelled to Europe to ride bikes on this side of the pond,

Stonehenge in 2022

Ireland in 2024

Last year I had the opportunity to cross off another ‘bucket list’ item when I cycled the length and breadth of the UK by cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats. Again, a whole new set of friends were created by doing this adventure and we are still in contact with each other and sharing the new cycling adventures we continue to experience.

All the riders from the 2024 LEJOG.

I really am truly blessed to have such great purpose out of my retirement. Long may it continue!