A retired computer programmer is set for an epic year-long road trip to visit America's Glasgows.
Mike Slavin wants to find out about the 20-plus communities in the USA named after Scotland's biggest city.
His trip, which will cover thousands of miles and dozens of states, begins on April 8 when he sets sail from Southampton to New York on the Queen Mary II.
Mr Slavin, 67, said: "I've always had a fascination with America. I was watching a TV programme about Glasgow in Montana and I looked for it on the map.
"It'll be fascinating. I am going to document how these place names came about."
After his six-day voyage across the Atlantic, Mr Slavin will travel to Chicago where he'll catch a train to Seattle then on to Glasgow, Montana.
The explorer, who will chronicle his travels in an online blog, plans to hire a campervan and head across Oregon and California before turning back to the east coast.
The father-of-two, who grew up in Penilee, Glasgow, but now lives in London, scoured the map to discover places named after his home city.
He found 31 features listed in the US Geological Survey with the word Glasgow in their name.
Of these, part of Renault Monroe County, Illinois, was last recorded as Glasgow in an atlas of 1876.
Another in Cloud County, Kansas, settled on the Highland sounding spelling of Glasco and nine more have names such as Glasgow Landing, New Glasgow and West Glasgow.
A total of 21 places in America were simply called Glasgow and range from a tiny town in Fallen Timber County, Pennsylvania, which has 63 inhabitants, to Glasgow in Kentucky which has a population of 14,000.
He said: "One of the main reasons I'm doing this is to find out why they called these places Glasgow.
"I'm going to travel alone and I haven't even got an itinerary yet. After the first few Glasgows, I'll probably play it by ear."
Back in the original Glasgow, which was founded in 1190, Mr Slavin yesterday collected gifts of pennants and greetings from the Lord Provost in George Square which he'll take to each town and city leader.
In the friendship letters, Lord Provost Bob Winter welcomes visitors and invites its ex-pat citizens to come home so Glasgow can continue to flourish.
He writes: "I am sure the Glasgows in the USA are every bit as friendly as the original Scottish version."
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