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Southern Man
According to the Guardian ‘comment is free’ so I thought I would use Dis’ forum tools of brilliance to advertise, perhaps with shamelessly ambiguous titling- my brother’s cycling trip across the States.
I know that in this day and age, people are doing bloody worldwide capsized kayak journeys and what not – and the accomplishments of a vaguely thought out bike trip are not so remarkable, but three things I hope will be the same anyway- that the States continues to be one massive monolith of a country – that at the same time, it is made up of a sum of many, and often overlooked varying parts, and that Dis readers will nevertheless find it interesting.
Unfortunately, my brother thought it would be cleverer to take a map from 1988 with him rather than a SatNav and to go off the designated cycle routes in keeping with a grass-roots ethic. Obviously this should make things more interesting – American city folk probably don’t cut it like the few remaining places where a passing bike can be a memorable part of someone’s day, but then it also makes the journey far longer. Starting in Boston, MA he has so far travelled through New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois in the past three weeks, and will bike through Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California in the next two months before arriving (hopefully) in San Diego on August 19th.
Of course he has not done this for no apparent reason. He’s cycling for three charities – which can be found here - www.justgiving.com/worldecology, www.justgiving.com/achanceforchildren, www.justgiving.com/ruralengland, which are always looking for support. Alternatively, comment is still free and Paul will be updating his blog – to be found at – http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/3548 as he goes.