I’ve been doing nothing but reading and planning for our bike trip for the last several weeks now. I’m still leaning toward putting together my own route, but if for whatever reason that’s not feasible I’l use the Adventure Cycling (ACA) Routes for the entire trip.
This is my (our) ideal trip:
Very little automobile contact and most of our journey will be on rural roads and bike trails.
Farmers’ markets along the way. I am hoping not only to find farmers’ markets but find them open all the way until Thanksgiving.
Inexpensive campgrounds/motels/hostels. Or just warmshowers hosts for the entire length of the trip.
Nice people who will either leave us alone (if they aren’t nice) or somehow help us by giving directions or water or permission to pitch our tent somewhere decent.
Good weather (har! har!)
No aggressive animals
The less we spend on the trip, the longer will this vacation last. I am expecting to reach Southern Colorado (CO) in November and the plan is to stay there until Spring (if the snow season has begun) or continue on using ACA’s Western Express route to reach San Francisco. If we stay in CO, we were thinking of getting some temp jobs to last until Spring and then continuing the journey. Of course, I might just get sick of everything on our second day of riding and decide to get on a Greyhound and be done with this nutty plan. But I’ll try to be optimistic for now.
Since we’re wimpy and cheapskates, we plan on cooking nearly all our meals on the road and riding very little every day. So this is basically going to be the Snail Express route to the West Coast.
I’ve been reading that riding every day gets one’s intestines in tip-top shape - so that means that our chance of getting colon cancer is even less and our time spent hunting for toilets will be greatly increased. I’ve also been thinking of using the diva cup for the trip and am wondering if I should get this device called a freshette.
I bought our tents and sleeping bags (which can be zipped into one large bag for warmth and snuggle purposes although other activities might be dicey), and a stove that claims to use alcohol but is very flammable (so this might be a 100% fossil fuel-free trip).
Not sure if this is helpful, but most Walmarts around the country allow people to camp in their parking lots overnight. You might want to look into that as an option. I don’t think they even charge money or make you go into their store.
Thus, I have been in the parking lot of a Walmart when we took an RV trip to Seattle and back, but I have never been physically inside a Walmart.
Comment by arduous — July 15, 2008 @ 12:54 pm
Are your sleeping bags mummy bags? If so, be sure that you bought one right-zip bag and one left-zip bag! Jon and I bought the same model of sleeping bag for our extended travel for the zip-together purpose, but they were both right-zip so one of them always had to be upside down when they were zipped together
And yes, Walmart does let you sleep in their parking lot. I did it once in my car, but I’m not sure if you’d really want to pitch a tent there. I think it works fine for cars or campers, but I don’t know about sleeping there in a tent. They probably wouldn’t care but you probably wouldn’t want to stay there.
Which states will you be going through?
Comment by Karina — July 15, 2008 @ 1:12 pm
I’ve heard of camping in Walmart parking lots in RVs but haven’t heard of bikers/backpackers using them. I’ll look into this some more to see if anyone else has done this.
Yes I did get one left-zip and one right-zip mummy bags. I originally was looking into purchasing one large bag for two but found them to be too expensive, so the second option was the zip-it-together option. There is this world of travelers that I’m only learning about and I am constantly amazed at their experiences and advice and attitude.
I do wish the WaPO hadn’t posted the Chandra Levy story though…now I’m paranoid about running into dead bodies in state parks.
I will be posting a delayed itinerary because of my general paranoia. So everyone will know where I’ve been once I’ve passed through the place.
Comment by Beany — July 15, 2008 @ 1:46 pm
We’ve just returned from a week of bicycling around Minnesota. Neither my nor I have spent that much time biking in our lives and it’s a pleasure to say that it isn’t difficult at all. Biking is wonderful way to meet people, land and sky.
As far as intestines — I have a problem eating fatty foods (I think my gall bladder hates me), but while biking I was able to eat french fries with reckless abandon without the usual ill effects. It is difficult to find the foods we are used to, so be ready to look at a lot of menus with hamburgers and chicken patties and fries as this is what Middle America eats.
Long distance biking is really, really fun and I miss my trip already. Going west will not be all that much fun as the prevailing winds will probably be in your face more often than not. But, after a while, you’ll hardly notice them.
Comment by yam — July 16, 2008 @ 5:06 pm
I am looking forward to all the pie I can eat - and it will be required even!
Long distance trips find me craving meat very badly. Especially red meat. I find that strange since I almost never eat meat, but I do listen to my body. So if it wants meat, it will have meat.
As for prevailing winds, since this is also a move, I don’t see any point in starting in the west coast to bike to the place we’re trying to leave. Maybe the experience will enable me to really push for wind farms in the mid west.
Comment by Beany — July 16, 2008 @ 5:18 pm
You know, after watching the documentary on WalMart, “The High Cost of Low Prices”, I’d think twice about camping in their parking lots. Apparently, there is a fairly high rate of crime there. Not so much an issue if you can lock up inside your RV, but I wouldn’t want to be in a tent. But then again, I’m a bit paranoid.
The freshette looks like a good idea, but I guess you’d have to use a little water to rinse it each time. Does it have a pouch to carry it in?
Pretty exciting, Beany!
Comment by Chile — July 24, 2008 @ 5:49 pm
The freshette does have a pouch that it comes in. I guess it will be golden shower time through the nation’s forests. I think Crunchy Chicken will be proud.
Comment by Beany — July 26, 2008 @ 9:50 am