Author
Posts: 53
Location: Clearwater, Florida
posted 6 years ago
Oh wow, man, I'm having like flashbacks, dude...
No, wait, it was the 70's. All I see are disco balls and poufy hair. Never mind. I crossed America with Bikecentennial in the summer of 1976. It was about 4200 miles in 80 days. We left from Reedsport, Oregon and ended up in Yorktown, Virginia. I rode a Bob Jackson Custom Touring 15-speed that I still have and still ride. (Truth be told, that's the last new bike I've bought.)
The route went through Oregon, Idaho, a sliver of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, the bottom of Illinois, Kentucky and Vriginia. The group (there were 13 of us in that group) was self-contained. NO SAG WAGON, and you carried EVERYTHING. (My 25 pound bike weighted 80 pounds. No joke.) By the way, it was 1976. No cell phones, no GPS, no bike helmet. As for what happeend en route, well, I could write book. As a matter of fact, I did. It's called "Once A Tourist", however, in as much as I lack a literary agent, that book, like so many others, is on the "as yet unpublished" pile.
High point: Doing 65 mph down the east face of Hoosier Pass in Colorado.
Low point: Someplace in southern Illinois on a nasty endless gravel road (Yes, the official route) when I stopped to consult a map and, standing still, fell over. Not a good day.
Do it again? Yes. Yes, I would, but I'd take a more southern route, paralleling I-10 from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego and I'd use my Giant green Iguana with the road tires.
Touch not the cat but a glove.