It will take a couple of days of travelling in order to get to my starting point in northern Florida at Jacksonville where I will join the Southern Tier Trans USA Cycle Route and head west, initially across the Florida Panhandle and on to the southern States of Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and on in to Texas.  Then the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona, and finally in to California and the West Coast.

To get to the start point in northern Florida, I fly from London to Miami with my bike and all my stuff and clobber for the next couple of months, enjoying some comfort at the front of the plane - or rather upstairs on an Airbus A380. Then after a night in a hotel at Miami airport, I take the Amtrak train north from Miami to Jacksonville FL, a journey of some 450 miles and 10 hours on the train. American trains do not go fast.  This one will have started further south in Florida and will end up in Washington DC after dropping me and my bike off at Jacksonville.  The next morning, I will head west to begin the Southern Tier route. I really should start some 20 miles further east on the coast at St. Augustine FL, but it just seems a bit of an effort to hike over to St Augustine FL only to come back west, so I will start at the river in Jacksonville and say that it is a tidal river so that counts as being on the sea at the Atlantic !

I suppose I could have flown to Jacksonville FL and bypassed Miami and the 10 hour train ride, however that would mean a change of plane somewhere, but when I'm travelling with my bike I prefer to do it point to point - less chance of losing the bike or getting it damaged when changing planes.  I could ride the route north from Miami to get to my starting point, but that would add another six or seven days to my trip, and I'm conscious of starting a little later than I should in order to get though the heat of the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona by mid-May.  So, train it will be, which should be interesting, meandering north along the Florida coast.

I'll post on this trip, probably weekly,  and you can follow if you so desire.  If reading my travel experiences and thought isn't your thing, remember you can always press the delete button !

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