View of Forth Road Bridge from the airplane with my house in the background.  I would hopefully be comparing this to the Golden gate Bridge in San Franciso in a weeks time.

It is always a worrying time starting a holiday and wondering if you have forgotten anything, despite having made lists and been having "practice packs" for at least two weeks previous.  But once I had left the house there was no need to do any more worrying as it was now too late.  As it turned out I had got everything and by the end of the holiday would discover had way more than I needed of most things.

I only had one connecting flight to catch after leaving from Edinburgh and that was at Heathrow Terminal 5 for the final flight to Denver.  Despite the Denver flight leaving an hour late, which it subsequently made up during the flight, all flights arrived on time and everything was running very smoothly, no problems, YET.

I had also decided to travel in all my bike gear, including boots and helmet (carried not worn, as this may have worried other passengers on the plane).  In the unlikely event of my luggage going missing I would at least be able to start my holiday.  Wearing such bulky equipment was not the most comfortable on the plane but I would rather have the peace of mind that my holiday would not be delayed due to missing bags.

On arrival in Denver at 1830hrs (local) I got straight through passport controland could not believe my luck as I walked straight to the baggage reclaim carousel and there were my two bags both together just coming towards me.  My pre booked shuttle bus from the airport was on time and got me to the Motel at 2000hrs, where I was to meet Phil Derryberry, and Andy Derryberry.  During the shuttle bus trip I was reminded of the standard of driving that occurs over here told to me by Uncle Phil.  The driver was hardly ever off his mobile phone or looking through his booking slips, definately not paying full attention to the road.  A standard of driving that was to be re-enforced tomorrow when I also got a taxi to the bike hire shop.  Although both both Phil and Andy have the same surname they are not directly related, although I think they have traced common ancestors if they go back about 7 generations, and have also been riding bikes together since using bicycles back in their school days....a long, long time ago.

When I arrived at the Motel Uncle Phil and Andy were waiting for me as they had arrived a few hours earlier from their 1300 mile two day ride from Nashville.  There is only one way to greet Uncle Phil, and that is to return the Bear Hug that he greets everybody with, and he is too big to refuse this greeting.  By the end of this trip I will have ridden a total of approx 20,000 miles with Uncle Phil and we both knew each others ridding style and personality, but this was my first meeting with Andy, and I guess we both wondered how we would get on over two weeks of riding.  But it would turn out neither of us would have any worries on that score as Uncle Phil knew us both well and knew that our riding styles were similair and that we would get on okay.

After unpacking, well tipping everything on the floor, my mother would be proud of me, we walked the short distance to a nearby diner for an evening meal.

Uncle Phil And Andy, with a small snack, and Uncle Phil's compulsory pitcher of Iced Tea.

I would finally get to bed at 2230hrs amazed how awake I still felt considering I had now been awake for 22.5 hrs.