It is 275 days since I posted part 1 and at least once per day ever since I have spent time wondering exactly what to say.

I lived a 25 year old dream. It was every euphoric and every dull moment crammed into an 8 week journey although as many of you will recall the dullest moments were in the first week. Every time I drive up the A12 to Suffolk I think of those first 3 days.

Periodically one of the ABB group will circulate messages about Austrian ducks or rides they have been doing since then which remind them of our epic ride. The reality is that almost anything can remind me of that ride – even standing on the Tube (subway) for an hour crammed in with hardly air between passengers makes me think of the open spaces of Idaho and Wyoming.

The nearest I can get to those wide open spaces is up in Suffolk – a county about 100 miles North East of London – where there are roads with grass growing down the middle, old WW2 airfields, and pretty villages full of thatched cottages and gardens with fruit trees and roses. Beautiful but not quite the same.

So in summary, the essence of Epilogue Part 2 is not to reflect further on a true life-changing adventure but to use the experience to sculpt different perspectives and strategies going forward. This is already happening with my approach to new work opportunities and, once I have revisited a couple of old cycling challenges – Dunwich Dynamo 120 mile nightride on Saturday 8th July and the Ride 100 around London on 30th July – to see whether or not they ‘feel different’ when I am able to preface all interactions with other riders with “when I was cycling across America last year”, hopefully cycling will change too.

Sue and I are teaming up with Murray and Heather for a 720 mile ride around Northern Italy from 28th May to 9th June so I will be posting pictures and daily updates as we make our way through a very different landscape to last year. Sadly the fourth member of Across America North 2017’s League of Nations, Darin Coté, will not be with us leading to some concern as to how we handle the first 5 miles of each day given that he was the only one able to communicate constructively first thing in the morning.

Sue and I are currently at Club La Santa in Lanzarote where we are doing some cycle training in between morning runs, exercise classes and sunbathing (NOT me of course). Some challenging landscapes here too – today we cycled through a volcano: