Nationwide Bike Tour 2002
You heard it here folks!
SO, i'm sitting in front of my computer on a warm day in may, about to buy a plane ticket to Nepal for some post high school trekking. The information was inputted, the flight selected...i had the credit card info all set, but for some unknown reason, i could not bring myself to hit that 'confirm' button.... moments went by.
It hit me like a ton
of bricks. Why am I doing this? I should be riding my bike
across the country for petes sake! So i quickly exited the web site
and began to plan the trip....
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Then a swing down south for a stop in TN. Perhaps go see stone mountain or graceland or somethin cheesey southern thing like that...play it by ear.
That's my ride above...the cannondale T800 circa 2002.
The following is published with the authors permission:
"Basically, people will tell you that you're insane to take a long cycling trip. They think that it can't be done. That it's too dangerous. That you will be killed. Death awaits us all, but touring is not the death sentence that most people perceive it to be. I ride about eight thousand miles a year and I'm not dead.
I was told to watch out for bears and I never saw one bear. "You know I heard about this woman who was attacked by a puma. You better be aware of that when you're out in the middle of nowhere." I would have loved to have seen a puma given their rarity. The biggest, baddest animal I saw was a coyote and it looked pretty timid to me. Like a really, really big dog. If it came down to a fight I'm sure the coyote would have won, but both of us were more interested in getting to where we were going than in a confrontation.
I was told to beware of truck drivers by several people. This is idiotic. Truckers are professional drivers. If you make your living on the highway, why would you do anything to put your livelihood at risk? Truck drivers are your allies on the road. They actually pay attention when they drive and they know how to operate their vehicles responsibly.
I was told I would need an air horn or people wouldn't see me. You'd think that being so low to the ground would put you off the radar of most drivers, but the reverse is true. Recumbents (a type of bike this man rode) are so unusual that they attract lots of attention from motorists. I've heard from a few recumbent owners that this is true even in Manhattan where it's easy to disappear behind double-parked cars. Drivers basically can't take their eyes off of you. On an ordinary bike, you disappear into the background (get some idiot on a cell phone behind the wheel and you're liable to become Spandex-covered road kill) but not on a 'bent.
I was told to carry mace or I would be mauled by vicious dogs. Where are all these crazed animals people keep talking about? Most dogs are house pets. Americans treat their pets like little babies and lavish plenty of attention on them. Every dog that ever chased me (with one important exception) was playing a game. The minute I stopped peddling they gave up. I was more concerned that these dogs would be hit by a car than that they might attack me. The only vicious dogs I ever met were feral animals in a derelict industrial part of Sunset Park, Brooklyn. They did not live with people and so did not have a kind opinion of me riding through their territory.
Still, this was just one incident out of countless dog
encounters. Most accident-related deaths occur in the home, but no one
ever uses this as an excuse to sleep in the backyard. Millions of American's
die of heart attacks but no one is scared of butter. People can not put
danger in perspective. Cycling is dangerous, but certainly not any more
dangerous than taking a shower or driving to work every day."
Bikes
Toolkit
Jackknife w/fingernail clippers built in ;)
Bike Shoes
gloves
3 pairs of bike shorts
3 jerseys
1 t-shirt
1 pair of really light windpants
3 pairs of socks
1 Spare Tire
sleeping pads
tent
matches
cooking pot
One of those fork/spoons with a fork on one end and a
spoon on the other
Tin Bowl/Dish thingy
Maps
ATM cards
Phone cards
Cash
Toothbrushes
Right Gaurds
SMALL Flashlight
sunglasses
watch
small notepads
shaving razor
pens
small first aid kit
Think of something else we should take???
potat0@potat0man.com
"good lord, just take me home already"