I think about my 2014 bicycle ride across America one way or another every day. It was an amazing nine weeks of adventure, phenomenal effort, awesome scenery and some new friendships. I’d call it the adventure of a lifetime as well as an item ticked off my bucket list. It was 3,900 miles of scary freedom across nine States not knowing when the next Kentucky dog would chase you or where you could fill up an empty water bottle in the sometimes 40°C heat. The cycle route was laid down on maps and either millennials, wondering what to do with their lives after graduation, or physically fit retirees, with time on their hands and still a head full of dreams. Cyclists would appear coming the other way and you’d stop and engage in a sort of 5 minute speed date before waving goodbye with one heading east and the other heading west. On July 25 2014 I met a guy as I cycled through Virginia. This was Bob Sanders. He was nearing the end; I was passing through my first State. We talked about the route, lodgings and he volunteered a calling card with his personal details on it. I pocketed it. He said that this wasn’t his first long distance ride, he was 75 and was looking forward to reaching the coast where after meeting up with his wife he had some respects to pay for some fallen comrades. He was a Vietnam War veteran. We shook hands, parted and cycled on.

Subsequently we’ve corresponded over the years and both of us continued on our two wheel adventures. Mine are well documented here on the web site. When Bob recently dropped into an email that he was going to ride across the USA for the fifth time and nail the Guinness World Record by being the oldest person, at 85, to do this I was literally blown away. Riding across the country with the wind, the sun, the variable quality lodgings and food, the potential bike issues, the endless minutiae of the logistics and all those long hills, day after day, was not an easy undertaking irrespective of your age, fitness, experience and mindset. It’s also an expensive project if you think of getting to the start, home from the finish, the hotels, the food and incidentals etc.

However, adding to the above was satisfying the Guinness World Record rules. The route has to be submitted in advance and be a minimum agreed distance, your own credentials needed confirming and then the verification process on the journey included obtaining witness statements repeatedly daily as well as completing a daily video record. It’s one thing to actually do this as well as the small matter of riding, maybe, 80 miles daily including 3,000 feet of climbing. All this needs collecting and documenting. What a determination and energy on and off the bike!

So whilst I’m sat in wintery York admiring Bob’s plan Anna had booked two weeks in Texas. She knew nothing of Bob’s record attempt. I’d not had sight of Bob’s itinerary and hadn’t worked out that maybe our paths could cross. Slowly but surely I woke from my metaphorical slumber and calculated that if Bob met his daily schedule there was a good chance by our driving west on our second to last day we could rendezvous. If you’ve read my other blogs you’ll know that Anna and I had a busy schedule all around the southern part of Texas and so this meeting would be a bolt on if Bob did the miles.

Stay tuned.