OllieBray.com

Google Apps for Education WebeX Seminar

Last Thursday evening I participated in my first Google WebeX Seminar on Google Apps for Education. I can’t remember where I saw the event advertised (probably Twitter?) but it was free and interesting to attend.

The on-line seminar was mainly presented by Katie Rose from the University of Notre Dame and also features Miriam Schneider from the Google Apps Education Team.

Unfortunately, during the seminar I couldn’t hear the sound and as I was outside of the UK it was difficult to dial into the presentation. However, I was able to follow the chat conversation and read the presentation slides. The session was also recorded and has now been up-loaded to YouTube and I’ve just spent the last hour listening to the presentation in the background.

I have embedded the presentation video (You Tube) and the question and answer session that followed below:

A got a lot from the presentation but I found the following points particularly interesting:

• The marketing of Apps was really important in the success of the roll out
• Google Apps was rolled out to 15,000 students and 150,000 alumni
• Students studying chemical engineering to create ePortfolios using Google Sites
• The university saved $1.5million by migrating to Google Apps for education
• Google Apps for education is free for education institutes
• Student satisfaction has gone up by 36%
• Calls to the IT helpdesk has gone down by 20%
• Individual student storage went up from 100mb to 7GB (per user)
• Students were particularly pleased to a ‘suite of Apps that worked together’.
• The Google Apps Bus was sent to the campus to provide extra training for the students.
• The evaluation team that looked different solutions noted that Google Apps was particularly versatile on the a variety of mobile platforms and also cross OS (PC and Mac)

Recently East Lothian Council migrated its student email service over to Gmail and from this week all of the students in its secondary schools will have Gmail Accounts. East Lothian has also been making extensive use of Google Apps for education in other areas for a number of months now. This included the use of Google Sites for the Guitar Hero 2009 Transition Project and Google Docs to gather and compile evidence for the recent local authority inspection report.

As part of their roll out strategy to make more use of Google Apps for collaboration all of the newly qualified teachers in East Lothian were shown and had an opportunity to use Google Apps as part of their ICT induction last Thursday.

For further ideas and example of how students like to use Google Doc and Google Apps in the classroom have a read of this nice little article over on the Google Student Blog.

I would be interested to hear from any other education authorities in the UK making good use of Google Apps for education at school level?

Getting to work by jetpack?

One of my jobs at Learning and Teaching Scotland if to investigate new technologies for learning. I don’t think jet packs are specifically covered in the remit but it would certainly be an interesting way to get to work down the cannel between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

What will they think of next? (You Tube video below).

Guitar Hero Transition Project features in Teach Primary Magazine

I received my complimentary copy of Teach Primary this week in the post. The latest issue has been out for a few weeks now and is an ICT special.

Our Guitar Hero Transition project features on pages 71 and 72 and it’s a really accurate description of what we did with the project in the form of an interview. Unfortunately, there is not an electronic version of the article available so you will have to take my word for it!  Pages 58 and 59 also features a nice article by Tom Barrett titled, ‘Nice to Tweet You.’ As you might have guessed it’s all about the use of Twitter in the classroom

If you subscribe to Teach Primary and read the article I would be interested to hear what you think.

Newly Qualified Teacher Training in East Lothian: Internet Safety and Responsible Use

Today I had an opportunity to speak to all of the Newly Qualified Teachers in East Lothian who will be spending the next year working for the authority. There were about 100 in total and I spoke to them in groups during four 1hr and 20 minute slots. This was a great way to run the sessions as it allowed time for some good questions and debate.

Over the last 18 months in East Lothian we have run training for over 1000 adults including large groups of parents and staff. We have also trained at least one member of staff in most schools to be able to deliver the Think you Know Programme. Recently East Lothian has also invested in Keeping Yourself eSafe – which is a fantastic resource that you check out if you have not seen or used it.

Below are the main slides from the presentation:

Internet Safety and Responsible Use: NQT Presentation - August 2009

View more presentations from olliebray.

Below are the main websites that I mentioned:

1. East Lothian Council Internet Safety Area for Parents and Families

The on-line web resource that we created to support parents and children in East Lothian.

2. CEOP - Child Exploitation Online Protection Agency:

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is dedicated to eradicating the sexual abuse of children. That means we are part of UK policing and very much about tracking and bringing offenders to account either directly or in partnership with local and international forces.CEOP also delivers free education programmes into schools to help children of all ages stay safe online.

3. Think You Know:

Think You Know is an education programme that encourage young people to have fun with new technology, whilst staying in control of the risks. Importantly, it also signposts (via the 'report abuse' button) where a child can go if they have any concerns. The site offers various free products which range from films, presentations, games, lesson plans and posters cover issues of grooming by sexual predators, children's risk taking behaviour online and cyberbullying.

The ThinkYou kNow website has been produced by the team at the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre.

4. Hector’s World^TM

Hector’s World^TM is the 5 - 7 year old area of the Think U Know website. It comprises of five state-of-the-art, animated episodes. It takes children on a journey with Hector and his friends as they explore issues such as personal information, trustworthiness, making positive choices online and how to be open with a trusted adult when they use the internet.

You can download five lesson plans on how you could use Hectors World in the Teacher / Trainer area of the think You Know web site. You can also order posers and stickers, and download colouring in books and song sheets from the teacher / trainer area.

5. Cyber Café:

 

Cyber Café is the 8 - 10 year old area of the Think U Know website. Within Cyber Cafe you can discover the safest ways to use the Internet, chat rooms, e-mail and send text messages.  You can download nine lesson plans and ideas for useing Cyber Cafe with your class in the Teacher / Trainer area of the Think You Know website.

6. Mobile Phones and the Law

For more information on mobile phones and the law - have a look at this article that I wrote:

Mobile Phones, inappropriate images of children and the Law (Scotland)

7. Childnet International

Childnet International’s mission is to work in partnership with others around the world to help make the Internet a great and safe place for children.

For a good introduction to Childnet’s work you can download Childnet’s IMPACT report here.

8. Spokeo

Find something out about your friends on-line.

9. The Wayback Machine

The Way Back Machine is part of the Internet Archive. In essence it’s a back up of some of the web. Try typing a website URL into the way back machine and if it has been cashed you will be able to have a look at previous versions of the website.

It's good fun but also could be quite scary stuff.

10. I also referred to these articles: 

• Guardian Article: 'Unprofessional' young tennis players have funding suspended
• Scotsman Article: Oil Worked sent 15 year old girl S & M Messages
• OTG Daily Article: Over half of employers say that Internet activity affects recruitment decisions
• BBC News: Bebo users quizzed over 'safety issues'
• BBC News: Kids' Top Searches include 'Porn'
• BBC News: Teenagers 'bullied by sex texts'
• BBC News: Children work around web controls

 

11.  Further on-line Handouts and Information

1. Purely for Parents Guidance Sheet
2. Think You Know who your talking to leaflet
3. Internet Safety Leaflet for Parents
4. Blog Safety Leaflet Parents
5. Young People, Music and the Internet

12. Questions and feedback

If you have any questions about this presentation please get in touch - contact details are at the top right hand side of this website. If you were at one of the workshops feedback is always welcome - please leave a coment below or get in touch by email.

Understanding the New Learning Landscape - Scottish Learning Festival 2009 Spotlight Presentation

The Scottish Learning Festival is fast approaching and if you have not booked your place to the fantastic free conference you need to book quickly as some seminars are already fully booked.

I’m presenting a couple of seminars on the Wednesday one is on Computer Games Based L earning in Secondary Schools and the other is one on Developing Motivated and Creative Leaders using a cluster approach.

NEW SPOTLIGHT PRESENTATION – JUST ADDED

Derek Robertson and I will also now be presenting a Spotlight Session on The New Learning Landscape.

A description of this session is here:

Technology has changed our lives from the way we communicate to the way we shop. The pace of change is growing increasing fast and some educators struggle to keep up with this rapidly evolving learning landscape. In comparison, our children have grown up in a world of rich multi-media and seem able to adapt quickly to changes in technology.

This seminar will look at the effect digital media has had on the children within our care. It will examine how increased exposure to modern technology has impacted on how young people communicate, behave and learn. 

In order to engage these 21 century young people schools must be prepared to evolve with the learner and not remain stuck in the past. Changes in technology and society must be seen as opportunities rather than barriers by schools if they are going to be successful in implementing a Curriculum for Excellence. The presentation will outline strategies for making the most of these opportunities in order to engage young people.

Finally, this spotlight will look at some of the emerging technologies that are starting to make there way into schools. It will touch on the latest developments and research into the use of the internet, computer games, virtual worlds, mobile technology and augmented reality.

You can book these and over 150 other seminars on the Scottish Learning Festival website.

Newly Qualified Teacher Training in Glasgow: New Tools for Teachers

I really enjoyed speaking to the 275+ teachers who are just about to start their newly qualified teacher year with Glasgow City Council. I spend most of the day with this highly motivated group of people and really look forward to finding out how they get on over the next year.

Glasgow have really worked hard to embrace collaborative learning and ICT this year. Every newly qualified teacher in the authority will be expected to collaborate on-line with colleagues from a range of schools and sectors (early, primary and secondary) in cross-discipline project within a specially set up wiki.

During the afternoon I gave a presentation on ‘New Tools for Teachers’ you can find the slides that I used during the presentation here:

New Tools for Teachers: Glasgow NQT's

View more presentations from olliebray.

I also referred to the following links:

Generators

Use generators to liven up your lessons and to set learning / homework objectives in a more creative way.

Fodey – Includes the famous wizard text and the newspaper generator

Wordle – Turn paragraphs of text into beautiful work clouds (try it with your exam syllabus departmental development plan or anything else you can think of!)

 

Search

Use the Advanced Google Search – remember you can use this to get specific file type returns such as just PowerPoint or shockwave flash (animation) files.

Quintura provides a really good visual search – excellent to use with children on project work.

Google News – searches the most up-to-date news web sites

 

Finding Images

Remember there is also an Advanced Google Image Search

Flickr can often provide really good and powerful images that can be used in education without breach of copyright.

BigHugeLabs lets you do all sorts of things with images such as make motivational posters.

Use of Web 2.0 Tools

Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, podcasts and wikis allow you to quickly publish information to the Internet. Most importantly they can be used as an alternative to traditional assessment and give the children a real sense of audience. Use these tools to make your own World Wide Wall Display.

Some Good Blogging Tools include wordpress, blogger and typepad.

Audacity is a free audio editing piece of software that will also w you to edit voice and audio recordings. It is also available as a Portable App – which means you can run it off a memory stick.

Think about getting your students to write Wikipedia articles.

 

Other great sources of Information to help you network, share and stay up-to-date

Learning and Teaching Scotland Website – The online service has lots of great content specifically for Scottish teachers

GLOW Scotland – Scotland’s National Intranet

Teachers TV – good classroom and professional development resources

Slideshare – A place to up-load and view PowerPoint and other presentations

Microsoft Innovative Teachers Network – join and collaborate with teachers globally

Twitter – A micro blogging service. You can follow me here.

 

Internet Safety

Digital literacy is the responsibility of all teachers.

Be very careful what you put on-line

Finally

Please leave any comments and feedback from the presentation below.

The KML Factbook – A new way to study spatial data

‘It's said that about 80% of the world's data has a geographical element’.

Nearly a year ago I went down to Google for the day and was shown the World Oil consumption as a layer in Google Earth. I was instantly struck the power of Google Earths ability to show spatial data. You can download the KLM file for free here.

I’ve used the animation lots of time in the classroom with children and also with staff. When you see this type of data visually you can’t help but be shocked at the amount of oil we consume globally and also the un-proportional spread of consumption across the earth. I demoed the layer as part of my Maps, Milkfloats and Mashups presentation earlier this year in London – you can view the video here.

I’ve often wondered if it would be possible to display other data by country in a similar way. Then this morning I came across the KLM Factbook (kmlfactbook.org). I think this website has been around for a while now and I’m not really sure how I missed it the first time around. I think it’s fantastic and has the potential to be a real game changer in the way we look at and compare country data within our classes.

It works by taking the country data from the CIA World Factbook (a very popular resource with teachers) and then you can overlay the data on top of Google Earth or export the data as a .Klm file (Google Earth File).

It’s fantastically simple to use, very captivating but some of the statistics are quite scary. Here’s a quick worked example to show the power of the data.

First of all, pick your data set. In this example we are looking at the population of each country (the data was last up-dated in 2008) so its fairly up-to-date.

You can now choose to view the data as a table:

 

Or as a 2D Map:

You can click on the countries to find out more about each individual place and zoom in and out just like any other interactive Google Map.

You can also view the data in the browser in Google Earth (requires the API plug in):

 

Finally you can download the file as .KLM File and get all the functionality of the data in Google Earth:

 

More information at www.kmlfactbook.org

BBC Learning Zone Scotland – Is this the BBC’s best kept secret?

I am sure that people have written about this before but I hadn’t heard of this fantastic resource until last week. It’s almost exactly what I know many teachers have been looking for.

BBC Learning Zone Scotland consists of over 3000 searchable video clips from the BBC archive that have been edited into short sections for use in the classroom. Anyone can search and view the video database.

Each video also contains a short description suggesting how it might be used and if appropriate they are tagged to the correct SQA level.

You can access and search the learning zone by going to the BBC Scotland Learning homepage and scrolling down to the bottom left hand corner. Or you can access the site directly here.

Unfortunately you can’t download the videos. But this is still a great interactive resource from the beeb!

Podcasting for Teachers

Over the next few weeks I running a number of workshops for teachers where I will touch on some of the great web 2.0 tools that you can use in the classroom. One tool that I still believe is underused by many schools is podcasting.

Podcasting is the process of creating an audio recording and then distributing it on the internet. It’s a form of on-line radio but the big difference is as a consumer (listener) you can subscribe to the podcast and then you will automatically be notified when a new episode becomes available.

Over the years I’ve been involved in a number of Podcasting projects from creating some of the first web downloadable audio revision material to a regular weather Podcast that was broadcast out of my classroom when I was head of Geography at Dunbar Grammar School. I also listen to a lot of educational podcasts as part of my own continuous professional development.

Anyway, as I was up-dating my own podcast on-line handouts I came across this fantastic slideshare presentation titled, ‘Podcasting for Teachers’. Defiantly worth a look if your interested in finding out more about creating podcasts at your school.

Podcasting for Teachers

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Reflections from the Great Divide Mountain Bike Trail (8 of 10) –Improvised Camp in Gila National Forest, New Mexico – Antelope Wells, Mexican Border

This is the eighth of a series of ten posts about my recent trip to Mountain Bike the Continental Divide between Banff, Canada to Antelope Wells, New Mexico. Further information about the expedition can be found at www.bikingthegreatdivide.com

Day 28: Improvised Camp in Gila National Forest – Rocky Canyon Campground (75 miles)

I slept through my alarm for the first time on the whole trip and was surprised to wake up at 06.00. I sat under my tree and made my breakfast. Bruce cycled past and we chatted for a bit – it turned out he had camped about 5 miles down the road.

I was slow to get moving from my improvised campsite under a tree and eventually got away at about 07.30h. The tracks were of typical New Mexico quality as I cycled up towards the continental divide. There was a small reservoir marked on the map about 5 miles into my day but I couldn’t find it (it had probably dried up).

Water was pretty sparse on this section of the trail and we thought that we would be able to get some from windmills. But during my whole time in New Mexico I only ever saw a coupe of working windmills. In fact apart from the torrential rain storms – this was a very dry state.

The day got hotter and hotter and I was starting to get low on water. 40 mile into the route I came to the Beverhead Work Centre, where I new water might be available. Bruce has also just arrived and had found a hose by one of the offices. We filled our water bottles and drank and drank and drank. Strangely there was also a coke machine outside the office and we unpacked out bags to find as many quarters as we could so we could get some cold juice!

Bruce headed off and I rested for another ten minutes before following him down the track. It started raining heavily and the tracks quickly became muddy. My back break had completely gone and I was now reliant on what was left of my front break which was down to the metal of my break pads (not a great noise!).

Progress was slow and I caught Bruce on one of the hills before the decent to Wall Lake. We were both struggling with the wet and sandy tracks. Initially, I had hoped I might get to Silver City today but because of the poor progress that I was making this seemed unlikely. I just decided to try and get as far as I could.

Things started to quite literally ‘hot up’ after Wall Lake as I cycled right into a forest fire. The track was still fairly safe but the air was very smoky and the forest to the west was smouldering away. If it had been windy I would have been a very different story as the fire would have quickly gained strength and flames.

Eventually I seemed to cycle through the fire and I reached Upper and Lower Black Canyon Campgrounds. There was a stream here and I filtered water, filling up all my bottles (10 litres worth). This was one of the best decisions that I made during the whole trip (you will find out why in a minute!).

Bruce passed me as I was filtering. I told him my plan to reach Rocky Canyon Campground (10 miles up-hill) by that evening. It was 7pm and it was going to be a real struggle to get there before it got dark.

I headed up the track I was determined not to stop for the first two miles and the main steep section. I passed Bruce who was having problems with his knee, ‘I’ll see you at the campsite I said.’ ‘I might not make it tonight,’ he said, ‘but good luck.’

After another six miles I reached the top of the climb – It was downhill from here to the campsite. A 4by4 (the first one I had seen all day) was coming in the other direction and stopped. I chatted to the ranch owner for while and he gave me more water and for one of the first times in my life I turned down the offer of a beer.

Before setting off on the downhill. I put my headtorch on. It was getting dark and although I didn’t need it yet I thought I might need to turn it on during the decent.

The track was awful, loose and wet. I was going to be pleased to get to the campsite and I was thinking to myself, ‘I actually going to make this. I’m actually going to get to Mexico in 30 days.’

Then everything changed

I was negotiating a steep section. The next thing I remember was thinking, ‘I’m going to crash’. I saw stars as my head hit the ground…

…I got up and walked the three or four steps back to my bike. I turned my head torch on to examine my bike. I was sore all over, my head hurt, blood running down my arm and leg, ripped clothing down my left side. The adrenaline was pumping I got back on my bike and free wheeled the mile to the camp site.

I was a state. I just sat a bench. I was hoping that Bruce might catch up with me and offer some advice, tell me what to do or just look after me. But he didn’t catch up with me that night. I was in a daze - after a while I took my cycle helmet off. It was cracked right through in three places – thank goodness I was wearing it. Had I knocked myself out? I couldn’t really remember the crash? Not a good thing when your by yourself in the middle of nowhere.

There was no water at Rocky Canyon Campground. But I used some of my spare water to wash my arm. Things did not look good. I bandaged it the best I could and tired to remove my cycling clothing. It was stuck to me – my whole left side was in pieces and I shouted out as I peeled off my shirt and shorts. I didn’t feel like eating, but I new I had to – everything was a struggle and I tried to prepare some food and set up my bivi.

Time slipped away and it was midnight before I got to lie down. I thought it was all over – there was no way I would be in a fit state to make the last 175 miles. It was going to be a struggle to make the next settlement. I had come so far and I honestly thought it was game over. I didn’t even know if I would be able to get back on my bike the next morning.

Sleep was near impossible I couldn’t lie on my left side because of my elbow and I couldn’t lay on my right side because of right knee and leg. Everything hurt and I was worried about my head.

Eventually I drifted off…

 

Day 29: Rocky Canyon Campground – Silver City (46 miles)

It had been an awful nights sleep (if you can call it sleep). A combination of a battered left elbow and a battered right knee had made it almost impossible to get comfortable in my sleeping bag.

The next challenge was trying to get up – everything hurt and I shouted loudly as I tried to pull my sleeping bag off my knee where the blood had fused it nicely to during the night. I was feeling sorry for myself, my elbow was not looking good and my elbow hurt like crazy – I dared not take off the dressing which was a bloody mess and I decided to wait until I got to Silver City or at least the next town.

Breakfast and packing up was a slow process that took about two hours. Then I got onto the bike and started the 2 mile climb to the top of the Continental Divide for the 30^th time since leaving Banff.

I had no idea if I would be able to cycle and I had prepared myself for the worst. Actually it was easier to cycle than to walk. I had to grip the left handle bar very loosely and at times I just rode using my right arm. Any vibrations were incredibly painful on my left arm and elbow. My right leg was sore, but it only seemed like surface damage – if I ignored it and got into a rhythm I could actually make good progress.

I eventually reached the top of the divide. Things weren’t great, but if I could cycle 2 miles I could cycle a 175 more – I had come too far to back down and give up now. Things just might take a little more time.

From the divide I thought it would be flat and downhill until Mimbress but the rain from the day before had turned the track into an un-navigable mud bath. Again I got back into the mode of taking the trailer off pushing it for a bit and going back for the bike. With my sore leg this seemed to take forever. After repeating the process several times the track got better and I got back on the bike headed downhill towards Mimbress and the village store in what was now blistering heat.

I must have looked a state as I walked into the store. The first thing the lady behind the desk said to me was, ‘are you all right?’. She offered to look at my elbow and even said I could use the shower if I wanted to. I declined on both saying that I was going to get myself sorted out when I got to Silver City or I was in danger of never getting there! She smiled and gave me a free cup of coffee. This was another great example of how kind people were to me during my time away.

The next 35 miles were hard, hot and slow but I eventually made it to Silver City and booked into a motel. I hadn’t realised quite how bad I looked the first thing the motel receptionist said to me was, ‘can I get you a doctor!,’ I replied, ‘no just a room, please.’ The motel manager came out as I was re-telling my tail, ‘give him a discount,’ she said.

After I got cleaned up I was feeling a lot better and headed into the town to the bike shop. My request was simple. I just needed the bike to get me 125 miles. But for this I would need a new chain and at least one working break. I had a good laugh with the boys from the shop as they removed what was left of my break pads.

We laughed even more when Mark Beaumont’s mum, Una, rang the shop while I was there. I’ve spoken to Una on the phone a number of times and she was booking Mark’s bike into the shop for a service when Mark arrived in Silver City as part of his Cycling America’s Tour. It’s a small world and Mark and I laughed as we exchanged a few tweets that night. 

After a couple of hours my bike was fixed and running better than it had done for the past two weeks. I pushed it back up the hill to the motel (I just couldn’t face getting back on it!).

I had arranged a shuttle from the Mexican border for 12noon. But because I wasn’t sure how fast I would be able to go I managed to change the pick up time to 14.00h. As it would happen I wouldn’t actually get to the border until 16.00h. My plan was to start cycling at 03.00h and just go for it.

Day 30: Silver City to Antelope Wells (122 miles)

My alarm went off. This was it, my last day.

Make it or not this would be my last day on the bike if I was to stand any hope of getting back to Phoenix and home in time for work on Tuesday morning.

It was also the first day in the last month that I would be riding without a BOB Trailer. As I would be being shuttled back to Silver City at the end of the day I decided to leave the BOB in my motel room and attempt the final push as light weight as possible. The only things that I carried were a few bike spares, some food, my waterproof jacket and lots of water. I also strapped additional water bottles to the frame of my bike (thank goodness I did!).

I had 125 miles to cycle and I was out the motel door at 03.30 – I couldn’t eat anything before I left and I felt incredibly sore from the crash a couple of day previously. My body was in need of a rest but it still had one day left to go. The first few rotations of the legs were agony but I gradually got into it.

Much of the route was on the pavement today apart from a 30 mile stretch down the Separ Desert Road. At 04.30 it started raining heavily – I couldn’t believe it. The rain could make the Separ road impassable, which would mean a 30 mile push or a 65 mile diversion. It was still raining heavily when I reached the start of the Separ Road – I decided to risk it. The first few miles were hard in the wet but the rain stopped as the sun came up. The sun quickly dried the road and I started to make fast progress (with the exception of a couple of sand traps) towards the settlement of Separ.

At Separ I turned East into a strong headwind – again I couldn’t believe it – it was as if the route wanted to make me give up. First with the rain and then with the wind I was barely making 8mph on the flat as I struggled along the gravel. I caught up with Bruce on this section who was as tired as me and we rode together for a few miles.

Turning South towards Hachita the wind turned with me and although the road improved to tarmac I was still only just making 12 mph.

There was a small shop at Hachita where I bought some juice and re-filled my water bottles. It was getting very hot and I still had nearly 50 miles to go. I was exhausted and really suffering from my knee and elbow. I couldn’t grip my left handlebar properly as the vibrations were so painful. I actually considered trying to get a lift 20 miles down the road to help me – but apart from the store keeper the town was deserted.

As I progressed south along the road towards the border it got hotter and hotter and I got slower and slower. At 13.30h I heard a car pull up behind me and friendly voice shouted, ‘are you Ollie,’ It was Mike. If Mike had offered to pick me up I think I would have said yes. But instead he said, ‘I’ll see you at the end – take your time’ then he sped off.

There were 17 miles to go – it was the longest 17 miles of my life into the wind in the boiling hot. At 10 miles to go I got off my bike and pushed for a mile. Then I ate all my food, drank the rest of my water and put my head down and just tried to keep my legs moving.

I reached the border at 15.57. Mike was there smiling with an outstretched hand as we took some photos and then wasted no time in getting back to Silver City. As we drove back up the road towards Hachita we passed Bruce who was still peddling towards the end – at 55 I hope I am at least half as active as Bruce!

Back in Silver City Mike took me to buy some Fat Tire Beers and then dropped me back off in my motel. The hotel staff greeted me at the door and I celebrated for 20 minutes drinking ice cold beer in the hotel reception with a complete group of strangers who for some reason had become gripped with my story. I headed back to my room but didn’t even make it to the shower before I fell asleep and I slept for 12 long hours.

I had made it to the end and achieved a 12 month old dream.

In my next post I’ll talk more about the logistics of the route, advice and possible route variations.