Going The Distance

We left Salt Lake to go and meet Austin and Lois, also in a Ural, in Moab, South Utah.

They have been journeying through the Southern States – so this is as far west as they are coming and as far east as we will go (for the moment anyway – the Mexico boarder question remains an issue) so we’re going to meet, video each other on the bikes, and have all the campground mayhem you’d expect from the kind of people prepared to travel huge distances in an absurd but wonderful vehicle, which people endlessly point at, which only travels at 65mph, which may not be conducive to conjugal harmony…

It starts inauspiciously. We leave Salt Lake City FIVE HOURS LATE. Even for us, that’s saying something. We passed a sweaty cyclist south of Moab, who they guessed (given that there are simply no other cyclists in the desert) may have been BBC presenter and adventurer Mark Beaumont (and star of those Orange ads..), en route to South America. An inspirational guy, with an entirely different experience of the road from Alaska. Check out his site: www.markbeaumontonline.com, and BBC blog: www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/cyclingtheamericas His book “The Man who Cycled The World” is in the shops now.

We knew about his trip, and have been hoping to cross paths with him at some stage. Mike and he share a mutual friend, so we got hold of his address, and – given that he was also in Salt Lake – tried to set up a meeting. We got an email reply to say that we’d missed him, but that he’d give a call when we could. Fair enough. So we set off, and about an hour down the road, on a winding road through the southern Utah canyons, there was a lone bike rider. Mike pointed, we pulled up beside him, and I hollered in my usual shy way, “MARK! MARK BEAUMONT! WE EMAILED YOU!” which I’m sure didn’t scare the crap out of him at all. A pair of Evil Knievel lunatics in a wartime-design motorbike and sidecar is totally normal. Only one machine gun rig on the sidecar away from tea and biscuits.

He indicated that we should drive ahead and pull over, and he joined us a couple of minutes later. What a dude! He goes like sh*t off a shovel, and didn’t even puff when he pulled over. I was being typically Alanna and gave him a hard time about the fact that he was doing it all on the BBC One dime and we hadn’t even managed to convince BBC back-of-beyond to commission us… (he was utterly charming in the face of my lady-like onslaught. Mike suggested that I might have been a bit full-on. I, natch, thought I was being funny).

We will try and cross paths with him further along the road for a proper chat, rather that an hour at the side of the freeway. But the dude is a legend. He did, when we asked him for advice on our trip, say that we were very very lucky to have company. He said he got very lonely on the road but that he was loving the trip. We hope to catch him in Mexico. And to leach his success, obv.

We met up with Austin and Lois late. But it was, of course, totally brilliant. Austin is still mad as a brush, Lois is the epitome of glamour (on a roadtrip?! It defies belief) and we ate, drank and laughed as we exchanged tales of burning up the States on our Urals.

Next up, we’re off to Vegas via Grand Canyon. More, as ever, to follow.

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