By bike from Texas to Alaska, or vice versa

On Sunday, May 3rd, I will swim in the Capitol 2K race on Lady Bird Lake. The race starts at Red Bud Island, just below the Tom Miller Dam in West Austin, and ends at the Rowing Dock. My wife will be on board the local fake paddle steamer watching me - last year the boat nearly ran me down, since I finished almost last (in exactly one hour), and was almost the oldest participant.

We will then go to an ANZAC Day Barbecue, hosted near the Pemberton Castle by our new Austin New Zealand Australia Circle. Anzac Day commemorates Australian and New Zealand troops who fought at Gallipoli in World War I, and since two of my Scouser great uncles, Paul and Leonard Gaskell, ran away at the age of 16 and joined the 6th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, which arrived at "that ill-fated battlefield" (in Paul's words - he wrote a small book about his experiences) on the 4th July, 1915, the occasion is very appropriate. Both uncles were wounded, repatriated, and discharged. They then started dating and going out to dances, and one of them was handed a white feather later in the war by a woman who was unaware that he had already done his duty by his country. Anyone who has read the book "The Four Feathers", by A.E.W.Mason, or any of the numerous films based upon it, will know what this meant. During World War I there was a movement, The Order of the White Feather, to coerce men into joining up by persuading women to present them with a white feather if they were not wearing a uniform. Both men died relatively young (before age 50) as a result of their wounds.

The next morning, Monday the 4th, I plan to leave for Homer, Alaska, by bicycle. This will be the second-half of my trip from the northeasternmost accessible point on the North American continent to the most southern point of the continental USA, and then up to the northernmost and northwesternmost points accesible by road. This trip is also an excuse to visit my brother Ted, who lives in Bethel, AK.

As I write everything is almost ready, except for my body: I have barely been on the bike in the last three months. So I'll have to start off slowly!

NOTE: many months later (Dec). Things did not turn out quite this way. I ended up being hospitalized for a heart catheterization just before the Cap 2K swim. A routine check at the cardiologist revealed a lengthened Q-T interval which, if I have the medical science and terminology right, suggested that I was due for a major heart attack. However, the catheterization revealed no blockages, and my doctor concluded that I had merely strained my heart in a recent 10K race. He therefore reluctantly gave his "approval" for me to go to Alaska.
Due to the late date of my departure and the schedules of some people I wanted to visit in Alaska, I reversed my route, and flew to Seattle on May 7th. The story is told in the following instalments.