Stoney’s farewell blog….from Orlando

Well, its finally over. We have now arrived at the Quality Inn, Orlando for the last night in USA before traveling home to our loved ones after a job well done.

This has been a wonderful experience which will live in my memory forever. We’ve had a lot of fun along the way, although I will be more than happy to forget the experience in Panama City where I thought we’d lost the Bear. To say that Phil acted heroically would be an understatement. His reaction at seeing Andy prone on the carriageway was undoubtedly one of the most selfless actions undertaken by anyone. Without thought for his own safety, he ran back into the middle of the carriageway stopping traffic that would have struck Andy. He could easily have been struck himself, but didn’t care a jot about this. Only his mate’s safety. I’d like to think I would have reacted the same, but HE actually did this. Phil is a top man. The Bear will be forever grateful. As will all his relatives and friends.

Enough doom and gloom. We all had to say a few white lies to our loved ones, because The Bear wouldn’t let us tell anyone until he’d told Sue and the family, so apologies to everyone!!!!

What I will remember about this, apart from getting soaked by a passing car driving through the river that was the hospital road, was Andy’s version of “A Church in Abergwili” whilst being fed painkillers via an IV tube. Mike Mouth would have been proud of it. After nagging everyone to cycle, I fell off in the rain, too. Rich got spooked by a dog and stopped, causing me to hit his bike at a fair lick. My handle bars (of my new sexy cycle) absolutely wrecked his frame. That’s two wrecked bikes for Stoney on this trip (although my new bike was fine) Cuts and bruises down the left side, but no way I could moan, after what The Bear had gone through.

Arriving at St Augustine was a satisfying moment, but tinged with sadness that the organiser and driving force of this whole expedition was unable to cross the finishing line on his own steam. After cycling round the fort for the inevitable camera shots, all of the five remaining cyclists, led by Pork Pie marched up to the camper and shook Andy’s hand, thanking him for making the whole thing possible - a moment that will stay with me forever. THIS WAS NOT CAUGHT ON CAMERA!!!!!!! It was a private moment and had to remain that way.

After a tough night in Casa Yallaha, where Andy struggled to get comfortable and Phil literally kicked the bucket (of unmentionables), we took Andy to the hospital again, where this time, he got the proper treatment. After this, he was great. He had an afternoon in bed, whilst Phil, Henry, Merve and myself finally got to look around St Augustine. A few beers and lunch in a jetty restaurant, followed by feeding seagulls and fish at the same time (fine except for the dive bombing by our feathered friends). We then adjourned to a Cigar and Guitar Cuban bar. I decided that we had to bring Andy down here.

In the meantime, Porth and gar were getting the party BBQ sorted. When we arrived at the hostel, I promptly dragged everyone down to this bar. Andy, H and Phil were playing whilst Merve started singing. Great memory.

Back to the hostel for the food, which was excellent. I made everyone say what the best moment, the worst moment and the funniest moment was on the trip. Again, this will stay within our memories, although my snoring was not mentioned as often as I expected!!!!!!

Finally, we drove down to Orlando. I must say that this is my least favourite place since we’ve arrived in America. Benidorm in the States. Not one I want to come back to, even though I probably had my best meal!!!!!

Right, lets sum up this trip.

Hard work.
Lots of rushing around.
Tiring
Exhilarating sights
Lots of laughs (and almost a few tears!!!!)
But basically, this is definitely one for the memory cells. Old friends and new will be with me forever. Thank you Andy for organising this. Thanks to the rest of the team for all your efforts in making this a success. Thank you Eileen, for letting me go this one, last time. And finally, thanks to all who have sponsored this event. Lets not forget why we did this. We’ve raised over £50k for a childrens' hospital in wales, which we shouldn’t have to be raising money for anyway. But that’s beyond our control. 11 men travelled to America to try and cycle from east to west…….and succeeded.