New Orleans

We've made it to New Orleans. This feels like a bit of a milestone: 15 days in the saddle, 13 since the official start in St Augustine, and something over 1000 miles on the clock. 

We decided to check ourselves into an AirBnB on arrival here for some much-needed admin (read laundry!) 

Arriving at around 5pm we quickly set to work sorting ourselves out. Tonight we're in a campsite again before heading off in the direction of Baton Rouge tomorrow (Wednesday 19th October). We have manged to stick to an average of 60 miles a day which is what we need if we're to be sure of making it for our flight to Hanoi from San Diego on December 9th 2022. It hasn't felt too pressured, but we've been conscious of the need to keep pressing on whilst we're fresh to buy ourselves a comfortable margin for error.

The highlights? Probably the beach leading to Gulfport which we followed for a whole day...

And the generosity of those we have met along the way (including having our restaurant meal paid for on two separate occasions!) 

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And we're off...

The last ten days have involved a whirlwind of activity to get things ready for our extended absence from normal life. We've set things up to work on auto-pilot whilst we're away and got in a few days' supply teaching to top up the coffers before Le Grand Depart.

Bike boxes were squeezed into a taxi at 0645 in the morning and we set off for Manchester airport. At the airport there followed a period of being passed from pillar to post as the authorities scratched their heads wondering what to do with our unfeasibly large bike boxes. But we got through in the end and are now ensconced in a cute little AirBnB in Orlando whilst we get ourselves set up.

You can follow our progress on Strava and we'll post here occasionally too of course.

The main purpose of this trip is for personal enjoyment/fulfilment. But we do have the ambition to raise a little money for two Far East-based charities that have links to Bangkok where this will all wind up sometime in January. If you feel inclined to show your support with a small donation it would be much appreciated :-) Here's the link to click to donate.

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