Woke up at Ian’s house and he took me on a ride of his daily morning routine. We rolled down to the not yet awake beach front and to his favorite coffee shop. As per my usual I had hot chocolate with oat milk. The good conversations from the day before continued easily. A short pedal around afterwards, a brief stop back at the house for some writing, a visit to the United Bikes warehouse, and a walk to lunch filled up the early part of the day. 

I had forgotten to buy an adapter for UK and Euro plugs so we braved a busy shopping center in search of one. Traveler’s note, don’t forget to buy one of these before the trip! It is hard to fund a US to UK adapter in the UK as they seem to only have the UK to US ones. 

Ian drove me up to London to visit John Dye’s Volt BMX bike shop. It was good to catch up with John and cool to see both him an Ian in their good humor BMX modes. We hung out in the shop chatting and having a good laugh until they dragged me down into the basement to be on  the Union Tapes Podcast. 

John interviewed me about my time on a BMX and had an amazing memory for a lot of things I had forgotten. We talked for a long time about how I got started and about when I got going and all the way up until my career on a 20” bike came to an end. I felt comfortable being interviewed and it was nice to have Ian sitting in the wings backing up stories and helping us get the dates and places right. After two and half hours of talking about myself and reliving some memories my biggest take away was one of gratitude remembering all the people who helped me so much along the way. I doubt it will come off that way when the podcast comes out but in my head I was remembering so many people who were kind to me or supported me as the questions were flying and often after I had answered them. BMX really adopted me and showed me the world. It really took me under its wing. 

After the interviewing was over it was late and we enjoyed a very London dinner of Indian takeaway. Said goodbye to Ian and pedaled a few blocks to John Dye’s house and crashed on his couch feeling worn out.

PS You try explaining why your rear derailleur is wireless and costs $1000 to John Dye!