He's waiting for me!

Hmmmm..

....feeling unwell.  Just pre-ride nerves or show stopping I wonder?
Not part of the plan.

I need a ferret....

Yep, a ferret, according to Phil, is what I need to have to hand to pass to a grizzly if he attacks me.  This will distract him sufficiently for me to make my exit......apparently.


So....how do I keep a ferret with me for two months?  Should I tie him to the back of the bike and get him to run along behind me?  What do ferrets eat?  Can I get a ferret through US customs?  Answers on a postcard please.

Getting just a little nervous now.....:)

Time has taken on that peculiar 'stopped' feeling you get when waiting for a bus to arrive.  Everything is packed now and I'm eager to get off.  The prospect of departing makes me savour and value the precious things here: family (yep even those teenagers....), a solid roof, cricket, radio 4 (apart from grumpy John Humphries), the prospect of autumn smells and colours.

The bare minimum

...this is all I can manage to take with me to survive for the next two months.  It doesn't seem much does it....until you have to drag it up every hill.

Why would anyone want to go abroad to the US.....

....when there's such beautiful cycling on my doorstep....

Feeling a little furtive......

Cycling around Exeter early this morning I felt a little like a truant schoolboy.  I kept thinking that people might come up to me and ask 'why aren't you at work eh?'

What surprised me was just how many other people didn't appear to be at work either.  Haven't they got livings to earn and an economy to refloat?