Ride raises over $10,000 for the Black Dog Institute

“At the start of the year, you have school fees, might want to have a holiday, birthdays, and you don’t really budget for a hairy tit rat from Hume St hitting you up for money for the Black Dog Institute,” Ben said.

“When you think about what people rustle up and find for you to help you along your way, either because they feel that it is a good cause or maybe it is a personal thing, perhaps they have struggled with the black dog or at times their life has been quite hard, or there is someone close to them, that has gone through a tough time.

“Most of the time, when people donate to the Black Dog Institute, it is a very personal contribution.

“That is the part that breaks me up when I think about how many people donate because it affects them.

“I don’t know that any of us get through life without having a bit of a rough go of it at some stage.”

Ben didn’t want to sit on his bum and not do something to help others, which is how the fundraising trip across the United States came about.

Starting from L.A., Ben and his mate Redmond travelled across the country on rented Harleys to the Daytona Beach Bike Rally.

“Once we got through all the logistics, even though both countries speak English, they don’t speak Australian,” Ben said.

“We navigated the linguistics of being stateside, got out past Palm Springs in California, to the Joshua Tree National Park, it is like the frickin moon.

“The landscape is just phenomenal, like a really lunar alien landscape.

“Then you move into Arizona, New Mexico.

“Having grown up watching Westerns, I just had a big smirk on my face for three days riding past three prong cacti, pretending I was John Wayne riding into the sunset.”

The ride took the pair through Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, and into Tennessee before arriving in Daytona Beach, Florida.

“Once we got out of the city, the Yanks are just the friendliest people going, absolutely polite to a fault, ridiculously hospitable, gorgeous, giving, friendly people, that absolutely made the trip for me, it was just brilliant.

Ben and Redmond loved doing 90 miles an hour, 145 km on the interstate through Texas.

Ben recalled two notable American experiences - the first at a gas station in Alabama.

“You pull into a gas station in the middle of nowhere, in some little town and there is a very polite young Indian man behind the counter with a little bit of Alabama twang on his accent,” he said.

“He has got trendy jeans down past his bum, white jocks up past his hips and he has got a Glock 9mm tucked into his jocks.

“And that is one of those things where you just all of a sudden, you are like, oh yeah, we are in Alabama, everyone carries a gun over here, even the guys behind the counter at the gas station.”

The Daytona Beach Bike Rally attracts about half a million people and their bikes, but Ben’s second notable experience was tucked away from the rally at a little bar full of locals.

“It was a little fibro shack, with three beers on tap, an old mate from Louisiana cooking shrimp on a George Foreman grill, and it was one of the most amazing meals I’ve ever had,” Ben said.

“Drinking Bud Light on a warm Daytona, slightly humid night listening to a bunch of greasy rockers in their 40s smash out all these 70s hits while the American stars and stripes are softly waving in the breeze, that was my real American moment.

“It was just the authentic America, and I just loved it.

“Maybe I grew up watching too much A-Team and Dukes of Hazzard and all that stuff, but it really flicked my switch big time.

It is not too late to donate to Ben’s Black Dog Institute fundraising page at https://www.teamblackdog.org.au/fundraisers/bennyscoastrun/benny---redmond---black-dog-usa-road-trip.

If you want to see more of Benny and Redmond - Black Dog USA Road Trip, visit https://www.youtube.com/@reddirtpirate618.