7 of these trips have been in USA and the other in France ((to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in 2014). USA because we can get to point A (or get from point B) with relative ease and because costs can more easily be contained. We're currently in midst of transam east to west (over 3 years) and start from Granby CO heading for Astoria , WA in April on the third phase. We can't wait.
For future retirees, and to give the full flavour of the cycle touring experience, I can do no better than quote our good friends Mike and Joan Weingarten from Ohio. This is an extract from his 'final conclusions' post to their excellent blog of their trans am east west trip (at exactly the same time as we were going west to east on the northern tier). I make no apology in doing so, 'cos it brilliantly captures all that we enjoy so much and in a way that I could never describe. And it has Mike's full blessing. Thank you Mike.
* The sounds: Listening to the crickets chirping in the coolness of the early mornings, and the bird songs and their warning cries as the day wears on. The cicadas outside of Jamestown on this trip were amazing. The sound of the wind. The sound of your bike's tires against the pavement. All these sounds are music in their own ways.
* The smells: They envelop you as you ride -- the heavenly sweet honeysuckle, the freshly cut hay, the pine woods, and yes, the scents of manure from a farm or of the road kill you just passed - less attractive, but still part of the experience.
* Feeling your proximity to the animals, sometimes visible and memorable, but often unseen. You hear them scurrying off into the underbrush as you ride past.
* The wonderful, interesting, genuinely nice and supportive people you meet along the way. People who are curious, who want to know where you are going and to hear your story, and who willingly share their stories with you. People who are willing to give and offer to help. People who restore your basic faith in human beings.
* The dozens of unsolicited waves and nods you get from drivers, pedestrians and homeowners you pass on the road, and the very high percentage of return waves you receive when you are the first to gesture.
* The people and organizations who make it their mission to support traveling cyclists with food, places to stay, facilities for showers and laundry, etc., etc. It is amazing how many such groups and places are out there, and how wonderful they are.
* The good, physical feeling of bike riding. The breeze is in your face, your legs cranking steadily and easily in that perfect gear as you move down the road, generating that good sweat.
* The physical challenges you overcome - the long days, the big climbs, the thunderstorms, the headwinds, the heat - each in its own way causing you to take a deep breath, call upon your reserve, and feel the satisfaction of accomplishment when that obstacle is behind you.
* The utter simplicity of life lived on the bike. It is just you, your bike, and whatever you are able to carry on it. Here and now. All other material things don't matter. The problems of the world are suspended for a while. You keep your focus on where you are, on the life necessities of food, water, shelter, on the people you are meeting, and on safely navigating your way through your current surroundings. I find this simplicity one of the most refreshing things about this kind of travel, something that clears the cobwebs for me.
* The daily sense of adventure, and the unknown. Every morning you arise, with new things awaiting you. New places to go, new things to see, new challenges to overcome, new people to meet. You just never know what the stories will be about today, what today's journal entry will say. Every day seems to be filled with all sorts of possibility. That is exciting, and life feels very full.
* Last but not least, the meeting of traveling companions, others out on the road doing what you are doing. Everyone from a different place, with a different background, in a different spot in their lives, but each sharing the same joys and trials of the biking journey and providing a special sort of camaraderie and support.
So many times we are asked why we do these bike trips. I always find it hard to answer that concisely in 1 or 2 sentences. But it is all of the above that make for the joys of traveling by bike. And when all those words are supplanted by the feelings you have when you are actually out there, well, then you really know the answer.
And from his 'final thoughts' entry
-More than I had expected, this trip connected us in a special way to history. Traveling east to west, in the direction that this country was settled, proved to be a really compelling part of the experience. We watched the years on the historical roadside signs go from the 1600s in Virginia to the 1700s in Kentucky, to the 1800s and early 1900s out West. Having traveled it by bicycle, we more fully appreciate the distances associated with this timeline, and better understand how much effort the westward expansion took. We rode the streets of the first settlements in Colonial Virginia, and past the heartbreaking Civil War battlefields near Richmond. We 'saw' Abraham Lincoln and Daniel Boone in Kentucky, and Boone again in Missouri. We could visualize the wagon trains traveling along the Oregon, California, Mormon, or Sante Fe Trails as we biked our own way across the Plains. We absolutely bonded with Lewis and Clark, starting from when they put their boats in the Missouri River at St. Charles, and we followed them past Beaverhead Rock, over Lolo Pass, and on to their arrival at the Pacific at the mouth of the Columbia. We marveled as we stood in their footprints at Ft. Clatsop and Seaside. We felt the pain and sorrow of the Indian Wars, and the tragedy of how the Nez Perce and other Native American tribes were treated as the masses began moving west. We felt the sweep of American history, the good, the bad, the difficult, the successful, as we never had before.
-We also felt connected to biking history on this trip, the history of the Trans Am. You cannot help but feel that when you visit the Cookie Lady, and spend the night in June's 'Bike House'. We also felt it strongly in Missoula, during our visit to the Adventure Cycling headquarters. Meeting Greg Siple, one of the original 1976 BikeCentennial planners, and being captured by his camera as thousands of others have been over the years, was really special. Witnessing the steady wave of cyclists coming through their office in the few days we were there told us that this is a healthy institution, and that the history will continue. We are happy and honored that we are now a part of it.
-The physical challenges and the weather on the trip were so varied. The extreme grades and grueling, repetitive ups and downs of the Appalachians. The waterlogged Mississippi and Missouri valleys, where we had to ford inundated sections of road and beat off mosquitoes. The extreme, oppressive temperatures of 'The Heat Wave of 2011' , day after day in Missouri and Kansas. The occasional thunderstorm in Virginia, Kentucky and Colorado. The long, long climbs into the Rockies, over 11,500-foot Hoosier Pass and a multitude of other significant passes, and over 9 separate Continental Divides. The Wyoming Wind Machine that always seemed to be blowing in our faces, doubling our effort and slowing us to a crawl. The frosty nights and mornings at high elevation in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. The return to extreme heat in Hells Canyon in Oregon. And then later in that same state, the bone-chilling, windswept cold of McKenzie Pass, and the raw, damp cold of the late September Pacific Coastal Range and coastline. We successfully avoided any early mountain snows. Otherwise, it feels like we saw it all.
-And yet, in spite of all the challenges, all the things that sound like misery, what really stands out to me are the 'Joys of Biking', as I wrote in that entry way back in June. The physical joy, the beauty of nature and the scenery, the act of really experiencing your environment, the wonderful people you meet, the triumphs of obstacles overcome - all of that more than trumps any misery that might temporarily come with the challenges. If you are not sure what I am talking about, go back and read that entry that appears just before Day #36. These are the things that keep us coming back for more.
Some key moments of our trips between 2007 and 2016 and with friends we've made wholly as result of cycle touring
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| Happy as pie. Somewhere on the Missouri River in remote Nebraska on our first trip in 2007 |
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| With Mike & Joan in Cincinnatti in 2008 when they put us and our bikes on a bus to Mobile AL for start of UGRR trip |
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| 2009 - Arriving at Owen Sound, Lake Huron, Ontario at terminus of UGRR |
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| 2010 With very dear friends Martha & Dick on a section of the Baton Rouge LA to Savannah GA trip |
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| 2011 Bar Harbour, Maine at end of trans am west to east |
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| 2014 Meeting for the first time Bill & Carol from Columbus OH ( Buckeye fans as you can see and Bill an idotter no less ! ) and Steamboat , CO, at the top of the Gorge du Nesque, Provence. Bill and Carol have subsequently become close friends. |
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| 2015 Back tire dipping at Yorktown VA with Martha (and Dick) at start of trans am east - west |
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| 2016 Crossing over the Kansas Colorado border |
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