June, and life was a predictable reality. I was studying at university, it wasn’t a very exciting university in an even less exciting town. Frankly, my life was predictable and going nowhere. I awoke one day and decided my life needed a new direction and that direction was travel.

This corner I was about to turn was made slightly more difficult for me than it would be for many others. I had (and still have) a degenerative disease of the nervous system, known as Friedreich’s Ataxia. Diagnosed at the age of ‘‘My Mad Life’ begun. Friedreich’s Ataxia would cause increasing problem0s with everything from co-ordination, strength and control of my arms & legs leading to problems with balance and speech deterioration. The biggest problem was the increasingly more d000ifficult transfer to or from my wheelchair to a bed or toilet. But it didn’t bother me, partly because of my intention to live for the present, I decided to turn that corner and begin Globe Wheeling.

The Unite0d States was the land which I had always dreamed of, so the US had to be my initial country to ‘conquer’, the first in a long globetrotting adventure, world-wide. California was the place where my dreams stemmed. I am starting in Seattle in the north where I bought an Amtrak rail pass and headed down from Seatle through Oregon, then down to California.

Introduction

June, and life was a predictable reality. I was studying at university, it wasn’t a very exciting university in an even less exciting town. Frankly, my life was predictable and going nowhere. I awoke one day and decided my life needed a new direction and that direction was travel.

This corner I was about to turn was made slightly more difficult for me than it would be for many others. I had (and still have) a degenerative disease of the nervous system, known as Friedreich’s Ataxia. Diagnosed at the age of 10, my walking got increasingly more difficult until the age of 19 when I went into a wheelchair, one year before ‘My Mad Life’ begun. Friedreich’s Ataxia would cause increasing problem0s with everything from co-ordination, strength and control of my arms & legs leadin00g to problems with balance and speech deterioration. The biggest problem was the increasingly more difficult transfer to or from my wheelchair to a bed or toilet. But it didn’t bother me, partly because of my intention to live for the present, I decided to turn that corner and begin Globe Wheeling.

The United States was the land which I had always dreamed of, so the US had to be my initial country to ‘conquer’, the first in a long globetrotting adventure, world-wide. California was the place where my dreams stemmed. I am starting in Seattle in the north where I bought an Amtrak rail pass and headed down from Seatle through Oregon, then down to California.

June 29th ; the day which changed my life, forever. The day I left England, travelling in my wheelchair, alone, aged 20. The beginning of a global adventure.

My entire philosophy is to give life 100%, the maximum – My life’0s motto became ‘Love to live life, Live to love life’

Globe wheeling– is a true glimpse at where I’ve been and what I’ve done. Everything is the truth, nothing made up and nothing exaggerated. Details have been omitted as they seem immaterial or boring. I may have forgotten trivial events. Some sections are very detailed others less so. Different sections have been rewritten from detailed notes or simply written from memory, but mostly written as events happen, much as a diary would be written. Many activities and events seem amazing but that’s been My Life ../………. Madness !