For those of you who followed Anna’s ankle break with concern then I’m delighted to tell you that 11 weeks after the unfortunate backwards step on to an Austrian mountain forest tree root she’s made fabulous progress. Only wearing a (ski style) boot outside she’s mobile and gaining confidence every day. It helps that she’s diligently keeping to the physio’s twice daily programme. The next big step (not literally) will be being allowed to drive. For me this will have the downside that having learned where the ladies who do her hair or nails, in the surrounding villages, reside I will no longer have to chauffeur her there and then twiddle my thumbs for an hour. I did previously report my bemusement at spinning around Tesco in search of items that I had never heard of let alone shopped for. This problem ended when Anna started to drive herself around.
Staying with the family then we continue to delight in our granddaughter. She has a sweet and fun disposition: clearly that hereditary gene can be traced to me. Although I suspect the other females in the tribe may wish to debate this. Her mother recently declared at 9 or 10 months old she had reached the ‘dog stage’. Jarring a little we sought clarification. Firstly, she’s always pleased to see you, next she watches you intensively as you eat and, lastly, she is capable of tricks. I would have previously rolled my eyes at other parents or grandparents proprietorial pride when she responds to your clapping by clapping back!
I had to smile when Gary Richardson announced his retirement. He covered sport on the BBC Radio Four ‘Today’ programme and had his own Sunday morning show for literally decades. Moores’ (one of my former employers) hired Gary to speak at a golf dinner we hosted at The Belfry. As Sales Director I hosted the evening dinner that included lots of prizes being handed out and Gary’s talk. (No, I didn’t play but turned up in the evening!) He was very entertaining and opined to the diners that he’d once personally lent me £3,000 but hadn’t seen me since until now. However, on balance he thought it was probably money well spent to secure my long term absence! Following this night he invited my favourite eldest daughter and myself to visit the BBC studios in Shepherd’s Bush to look around and then sit with the producers whilst the Sunday morning show went out live. Great memories.
On a bike ride I recently entered in to a theological discourse in my head, or helmet to be precise. As we know Jesus is reported as laying hands on various unwell folk and suddenly their incapacity vanished. Maybe Jesus was a physio? This seemed a possibility as I have often had cause to submit to the ministrations of various practitioners around York. Their healing can be immediate and I too have ‘picked up my mat’ and scurried into the car park, poorer, but restored. Clearly not as exciting as the possibility of a miracle but, I jest ye not, my proposition needs considering.
I’m well aware that in my leadership position that my thoughts on fashion will be sought after. King Charles needs a makeover. This profound observation came after a friend’s (Bea) mother clocked up her 100th birthday. This pin sharp observer, whilst pleased to receive the card, did immediately see a likeness of the King and Queen to Albert Arkwright and Nurse Emmanuel from Open All Hours .
(Sorry if the sight of the Royal card ruins the surprise for my various readers approaching a century.)
I accept the old boy is knocking on and dealing (brilliantly) with his illness. However, whilst I’m not convinced that the Royals are overly relevant as we plod into the 21st Century I do think they could look less like a relic. Charles needs a haircut. A balding bloke with a wispy grey hair combover and a selection of suits (often creased or baggy) and tropical climate casual shirts that appear to have come from the stage wardrobe of an Agatha Christie revival simply need to go. Next time I discuss the crowd pleasing merits of Prince William in an Aston Villa away shirt…
Tony Ives’ Blog 
HiYa Tony! Thanks for the update on Anna, very glad she is back to driving (for her sake more than yours!) and otherwise recovering nicely. It has been quite the ordeal, not only the injury itself but the stress of obtaining the critical initial care, in-patient care, and transport back to York. A character building experience for both of you! I am also a frequent visitor to a physical therapist (aka known as a Jesus surrogate?), especially as I continue to grow older, and older, etc. Speaking of getting older, I plan to challenge the Guinness World Record for the oldest male to cross the U.S. on a bicycle next year. It has taken several months to jump through all the hoops that Guinness requires before they will even sanction an attempt, e.g. have a route approved, agree to obtaining witnesses daily, 10 minute video daily, keep a log that lists every single stop every day (even for going potty!), etc. Got final approval just recently. Present plan is to depart from Ocean Beach in San Diego on March 24th next year (the day after my 85th birthday) and, following mostly the Adventure Cycling Association Southern Tier route, head to Saint Augustine, Florida. Presently record is 79 years and six months.This will be my 5th cross-country ride, so wish me luck, I will need it! By the by, my wife, Kathryn, has threated, after each of my rides, to have a poster made that says “There is no fool like an old fool.”” I think she may actually do it this time! Very best to you and Anna. Friend Bob
LikeLike
Bob, thank you. It seems like a long road to recovery but she’s doing very well and by Christmas she should be completely mobile. I’m still impressed by you planned ride across the USA. I didn’t realise you’d done it so many times. I wondered if you’d ridden the Southern Tier before? I rode from New Orleans to St Augustine in 2015. It seemed a straightforward ride but little in the way of relative difficulty. I always remember discovering Greensboro. This was the boyhood home of Ray Charles. It was a small and sleepy place. Around Pensacola and Tallahassee were busy with traffic but otherwise it was flat and the Gulf Coast was delightful with all those stilted houses. The requirement to do all this logging is enormous. Does this have to be submitted every day or can it be all submitted at various times eg. rest days? Are you doing this yourself? If you don’t want to write all this stuff down then your cell phone probably has a voice recording app. You could just record stuff like “10.30am stopped for 10 minutes for coffee”. At the end of the day you could rewind all this and submit it? Another thing i do is photograph things like signs or food. It provides a diary in effect that I can then draw on things when I write everything up. (Also the photo ‘info’ will tell you the time of day you took the photo.) For the video are you using your phone or affixing a video camera (Go Pro?) to your bike or helmet. Are you scheduling in an hour at the end of each day to collate all this? If in any way i can help whether before or during the ride then don’t hesitate to ask. I’m excited about your ride, truly. I suppose the other thing is the small matter of getting fit for the ride. Your body will know what to expect and I imagine your bike is now set up perfectly for you. I daren’t ask you about the Election next week! At a distance I think Harris won’t win although everything she’s said about Trump is probably true! Kind regards Tony
LikeLike
11/2/24 HiYa Tony! Yes, the Southern Tier was my first cross-country ride, did it in stages over three summers, though that was not my original schedule. Did the first leg as planned, San Diego to Austin, Texas in summer 2011. Started in Austin in spring 2012 but came down with bronchitis after only a week and aborted in Baton Rouge, La. Went back to Baton Rouge in 2013 and went to Tallahassee, Fl. and turned north to Yorktown, Va. In March 2022 I started in San Diego again and headed to Austin, Tx but had a crash in El Paso, Tx and broke five ribs, so that ended that ride. I met you in 2014 in early August in Virginia when I was near to completing the TransAm and you were headed west. Later, I did the Northern Tier over two summers, 2016 and 2017. Then, in 2019, rode from my home in Bend, Or. to Atlanta, Ga. So the ride next year will be my fifth (and last!) attempt to go cross-country. As for my planned challenge to the GWR next year, I chose the Southern Tier because it is the easiest route (and meets the required GWR mileage), and relatively flat, as you noted. The biggest climb is actually the first day as you gain over 4000 feet climbing the first 50 miles out of San Diego. I will have support as a friend (Jack) will do SAG from San Diego to San Antonio, Tx., then my wife, Kathryn, will take over in San Antonio for the finish to St. Augustine. I do have a good smart phone and will use it a lot for pictures and videos. I have designed two logs, one for noting stops each day and one for capturing info on witnesses. Jack and Kathryn will hopefully keep the logs updated, and help obtain witnesses along the way. The most important requirement is to have a continuous GPS track of your route, indicating that you start each day from exactly where you stopped the previous day. I will be using a Garmin Edge 130 bike computer for the GPS tracking, and each day’s ride will be saved in my online Garmin Connect account. Did several rides this summer to make sure it was all working out okay. I have a back-up mechanical Bontrager RIDEtime computer. I still use a Surly steel bike, heavy but very reliable and stable. I was on the Surly Long Haul Trucker for years but switched to the Surly Disc Trucker when they came out with disc brakes (a big improvement!). By the by, no more camping or staying in churches or sleeping on somebody’s couch, it going to be Mom and Pop motels on the backroads of southern America. This will be the biggest expense of this ride! Another issue, which you touched on, is training and how my body holds up. Leaving in March doesn’t allow for much, if any, time for me to get any riding done here in the mountains of Oregon. I have a stationary bike in my garage and belong to an athletic club which also has stationary bikes with good computers. My plan is to start in early January on a two month program to get in condition as best I can. As for my body, I married my Fountain of Youth (Kathryn is 16 younger than me) 45 and a half years ago and she has done an excellent job of keeping me young, at least in spirit! The rest is up to me, and we shall see how that goes! Now, to America’s main concern, our election on Tuesday. We are Democrats, of course, living in a blue state, so you know where we stand. It remains a mystery how anyone could vote for Trump, not the first time or now! There are a lot of bad/negative adjectives I could us use to describe Trump, but I am sure you have already heard them all. We are more hopeful now that Harris is our candidate rather than Biden, but it will be a nail biter, for sure. I am not a very religious person, but any and all prayers from others (even the Church of England) will sure be accepted and appreciated! Thanks for you offer of help, Tony. I appreciate it! I don’t have a plan right now to do any social media, it will take a lot of time each day to keep up with the GWR requirements but if I do manage some occasional emails I will include you on the list. I have thoroughly enjoyed your blogs over the years, you are a really good writer and I like how you infuse some humor into your accounts. Your rides in Australia were really an accomplishment, and your ride with a friend from York up into Scotland was a challenge, for sure! Keep riding and doing your blogs! Very best, Bob
LikeLike