The Route So Far - Google Maps


View X-America by Bicycle in a larger map

Why?

We are doing this ride to raise money for Research Autism. We are aiming to raise £20,000.
We are supporting Research Autism because my cousin Jamie is severely affected by the disease, and I have seen its effects not only on him but on the whole family." He is 13yrs old, but cannot yet talk.
Just take a moment to imagine not being able to talk.
Imagine understanding everything going on around you, but not being able to comment.
Imagine having to be dressed every morning in clothes you don't choose, and then hurting your parents as you try to tell them you wanted the blue shirt today.
Imagine being swamped by having to hear everything that everyone is saying around you, and not being able to listen to just one thing at once. Jamie loves being in a swimming pool, just floating, legs held motionless by the weight of the water, while he keeps his ears underwater to just relax, hearing nothing.
He understands everything - he appears to have a photographic memory - but can’t get his thoughts out.
Frustration leads to despair, and anger, which is just one of the many things that his family has to deal with.
He has extremely specific eating requirements and requires round the clock supervision. Jamie is at the severe end of the autistic spectrum, but given that one in 100 people suffer from the disease (with varying severity), and that everyone has some autistic traits, it is shocking that so little is known about it'.
Click here to support our cause and donate to Research Autism.
Read the "Meet Jamie" post - the only post in February, for more information about Jamie, and a poem - painstakingly slow for Jamie to type, but ultimately incredible.

Photo Video - New York to St Louis

March 22, 2010

Preparation for Pedaling

Will touched down in the UK on the 15th of March, to begin the third and final stage of our planning. The first stage: vague planning, involved spinning enough of a story together to convince our
respective parents and two very generous travel grant committee’s that we were serious, and not just mad (which many of our friends in the last 2 months have suggested is the case).

Memorable quotes include:

An astounded friend - “Why don’t you do that when we run out of petrol?”

And when asking advice about which exact bike to get from a bunch of weary, even more mental cyclists at the halfway stage (in Nairobi) of their 12,000km Cape to Cairo mission, receiving the unanimous answer “motorbike”.

The second stage involved a lot of faffing around for many months – we had to decide where to start and where to finish. We have chosen to go from New York to San Francisco, which means temperatures in the Rockies will be bearable, and that we will ride with the sun at our backs in the morning, but that we may have to contend with more energy-sapping, mind-draining head winds.

So to the third stage - Doing the rest! Flights need to be booked, bikes need to be bought, our butt’s need to be hardened up, our tent and sleeping bags and clothes and cycling shoes and insurance and and and…. need to be bought. And all the while, continuing our fundraising efforts for Research Autism. Please help by visiting: www.justgiving.com/x-america4autism, and spread the word to all your friends.

Flights have been booked through Virgin, I will fly out to arrive in New York on the 13th April. Alex will flight out to meet me on the 20th, and we will fly home again, knackered but fulfilled (we hope) on the 1st July.

We have been going from one bike shop to the next, absorbing all the information we are given by tolerant sales people, and trying to come to a decision over which bike to get. Steel bike? Aluminium? (steel is stronger, and gives a softer ride - it absorbs more bumps). Which seat must I spend the next 90 days glued to?? What pedals does that bike come with, does it come with panniers and racks?

We have chosen which maps we need from the adventure cycling association, and are now planning a route for our mini-tour of the UK, to see what long-distance touring is all about. Has anyone in southern
England got a sofa we can sleep on along the way?

Thanks for following us,

Alex and Will

3 comments:

  1. i think it's really great what your doing to help your cousin

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  2. Well done William and Alex. Terrific achievement to have got so far.

    Ginny Rupert and I are all watching from home.

    Keep peddling

    Chris Kettle

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  3. 3. Yeah! I agree with you. Help a cause is really a great thing. And now a day, internet has developed so much that it helped to donate money to a cause, which is worthy enough to spend money. I am very glad about it. And people should do it more often. Donate money to a cause

    ReplyDelete