The Breen Machine

The Breen Machine
CyclOcar at the Guadalupe Desert Salt Flats, Texas nearly 2,000 miles into it's 30,000 mile journey. Pedal Power = Carbon Neutral Living

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Wednesday 20 October


Gerry woke up to find he was underneath the flight path to Leesburgh airport hence the load roaring sounds through the night!  When he came out of the tent he found a man there who asked me if he could help me.  Taking him literally, Gerry said "yes I have to get to San Diego!" He didn’t see the funny side and said that “here is not the place to stay”.  He was very unfriendly so Gerry packed up & left, heading towards Ocala, which is a large town about 30 miles across.  He stopped at a gas station to pump up his tyres, "$1 for 3 minutes of air – no such thing as a free lunch here everything is charged for.  $1.999/10 almost $2 dollars for a bottle of water that’s even more expensive then fuel which is just $2.749/10, a gallon – why they just say $2.75?"
By 11 am it was very humid and 33°C.  He saw signs up saying and share of my house for sale – things are really bad it seems.  He gets the impression that Florida is just like a dinosaur on its last legs!  People seem tense and the atmosphere is not as friendly as it usually is get over there.

Yesterday he had lost his flags so bought some more today, along with a Union Jack sticker.  He was given a breast cancer sticker and a smiley face sticker so has put those on the front of the trike as you can see from the photo.


I called Gerry for free on Voip but for some reason he has been charged to receive my calls, so he called into a Verizon store in Ocala and explained what he was doing to Scott Whetter, who spent a long time helping him get a free transfer to another phone package which means that he can receive calls for free and also email photos back home to be loaded on this blog. – he's really pleased about that so a big thank you to you Scott for your help and advice.

Later he travelled through The Village, with 80,000 OAP’s, it is the biggest concentration of OAP’s in one place in the States and they are all riding around on motorised wheelchairs - one even asked him where his motor was!

He had just seen two people on bicycles – the first since he's been here which made a nice change from V-signs and comments like “get an engine”!  I spoke to him at 6pm his time and it was still 30°C but it had got up to 40°C today.  He had only cycled 36 miles so far today becuase sorting out the mobile phone took a while.  He's following Route 27 North-West to Perry and Gainsville.

On about 20% of junctions there are people with handwritten signs saying “Homeless family need work or donation”.  He said it was sad to see that this is happening in what is the richest economy in world.  He will photograph this next time he sees it. 

He ended up cycling 62 miles today.  He couldn't find a campsite so booked into a motel.  When he went to the local bar, the people there asked him where he was staying.  When he said the motel they said "what roach motel!"  Not the best motel he's stayed in!

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