Special Airfares.

Our friend Di – who is also our travel agent, told me she had found some really special airfares to the USA, the only catch was that they had to be paid for the next day. How do you work out dates for a trip that you don’t know how long it will take?

I have all the maps.

 Having just left my job, I no longer had the ability to save and my savings would have to cover the tickets, and these special fares meant that Niel and I both had our fares paid for. But again how do I work out dates? Flexible dated tickets were out of my price range – I had to work out an itinerary I had all the maps for the Trans Am route with the mileage on them. I absolutely love staring at maps, so I stared, added up kilometers, stared some more, counted more kilometers, adjusted and tweaked and when I finished staring and counting I came up with a challenging but realistic itinerary with a day off programmed in every 2000kms to rest and recover (well I’m not going to win it am I?) and 5 emergency days up my sleeve in case of mechanical problems, injury or illness or bad weather. If I don’t use them cycling then I’ll use them at the end of the event. Then there is the few days flying there and getting to the start at Astoria, and getting back to the west coast in time to fly home. In addition to all this I had to bear in mind that I had to get home before Niel left for his adventure in the first week of August.

A lovely field of blue flowers among the Hop vines.

 So now I am committed, no more procrastinating. Actually I am glad as I can finally get my mind into the right head space, being ‘between jobs’ gives me the time I need to train properly and summer has finally decided it is here for good. But now it is Christmas time, the sun is shining and it is the longest day, what have we got planned? A kayak and swim down at our local beach – a typical kiwi Christmas.

Cycling past a do it yourself Nativity scene - Kiwi style.