About Neil

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Neil is an idiot

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Dog Shit*

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I managed to delegate the big responsibilities for cooking last night and just played a supporting role.  Everybody got fed and I heard no complaints so I'll call that a success.  There was a large communal fire pit and, after dinner, our film crew were keen for some shots of us sitting round the fire talking bollocks...so we obliged.  I rummaged around in the woods for some kindling then set fire to a fair chunk of a giant redwood that was sitting in the log trunk waiting.  The night in Redcrest Resort is always a memorable one and I think it delivered again. Today we did another 26 miles along the Avenue of The Giants ending with a lunch stop in Garberville, a place that distinguishes itself by having more homeless people, hippies and general weirdos than usual.  This despite the bar being set pretty high in Northern California. If California were a country in its own right it would have the 4 th  or 5 th  largest economy in the world....
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Heroes

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We did it!  Correction, THEY did it.  Sitting in a van for nearly 6 weeks isn't going to impress anyone but riding up to 2093 miles with a condition that many probably perceive to be life-limiting isn't too shabby! We met up with the Chicago team in Steele Indian Park, just 3.5 miles from the convention centre, for a final mass ride to the finish line.  A CBS news crew turned up and did a couple of interviews and all 40 riders formed up for the glorious final miles.  The Phoenix Police Department, bless their cotton socks, provided a group of Highway Patrol motorcyclists to close the road and set the lights to green as we swept into town.  Ahead of the group was our documentary crew, filming from the back of a pickup truck, and behind were our support vehicles, decked out with balloons.  It was probably the coolest thing I have ever been part of.  There have been many moments on our journey when I have wondered why on earth I do this and these g...
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When The Going Gets Tough

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We plan our trips, as far as is practical, to enjoy decent weather but this is never a given. A bit of rain is to be expected, and nothing to be afraid of, but the forecast for Lisbon was wetter than a wet thing.  Faced with the prospect of finding shelter for building our bikes then 20 miles of sub-aqua cycling to our hotel we resolved to get a taxi. Arriving into Lisbon, there was a noticeable absence of rain so figured we might as well revert to plan A and cycle.  The promised long queues for biographic data capture didn't materialise.  Those cunning Portuguese had found a way round the problem...they didn't bother trying.  As a man who has been preparing his stool sample for several days this was a bit of a disappointment. Finding a good spot to build the bikes is always a challenge and today we came up with a corker.  We hauled the boxes off the oversized baggage belt and built them right there.  This created the tantalizing p...
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