TITLE

Ride Across America

AUTHOR

Preston Hunt

DATE WRITTEN

2003-8-17

ABSTRACT

Eric's and my 3,400-mile trek across America.
I'm riding out there... to look for America, my friend. I've seen the brochure, now it's time to experience it firsthand. --Metal Cowboy, p.183
Pacific Ocean: Netarts, Oregon
Day 1, Mile 0 		Atlantic Ocean: Coney Island, New York
Day 42, Mile 3419

Trip statistics

Pictures

I have sorted the pictures into three buckets: If you want to see only the best pictures, choose short. If you have more time, you can choose medium, long, or even all (which shows everything, even blurry or duplicate photos). The longer albums contain all of the pictures from the shorter albums, so there is no need to view the shorter albums if you view the longer ones. Lastly, you can see all of the pictures at once (although very small) by selecting thumbnails. You should also select thumbnails if you are having trouble viewing the pictures with the other links.

CollectionShort AlbumMedium Album
(Recommended)		Long AlbumAllThumbnails
Oregon Pictures (Days 1-6) 36 pictures 57 pictures 76 pictures 90 pictures Thumbnails
Idaho Pictures (Days 6-11) 24 pictures 60 pictures 83 pictures 98 pictures Thumbnails
Wyoming Pictures (Days 11-17) 28 pictures 55 pictures 77 pictures 91 pictures Thumbnails
Nebraska and Iowa Pictures (Days 17-26) 46 pictures 83 pictures 119 pictures 148 pictures Thumbnails
Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio (Days 27-35) 41 pictures 71 pictures 92 pictures 109 pictures Thumbnails
Pennsylvania and New York (Days 35-42) 67 pictures 98 pictures 162 pictures 181 pictures Thumbnails
After the ride (Days 43-44) 21 pictures 22 pictures 27 pictures 31 pictures Thumbnails

Stories

If you didn't already read them, you can relive the trip by reading a collection of a dozen or so e-mails that I sent from the road.

You can also get info from the following sources:

Stuff below this line was part of my original pre-trip web site. I am leaving it up for historical context.

The details!

Are you going to publish updates from the road?

Yes. Sign up to the Yahoo Group and you'll get whatever updates we're able to send in from the road. If you don't want to sign up for a Yahoo account, you can send e-mail to this address and subscribe that way (don't enter a subject or a message).

How can I get in touch with you while you're on the road?

[Now that I'm back from the trip, just mail me at [email protected] -- the following text was for people to contact me while I was on the road.] The best way is to call my cell phone and leave a voice message. You can also send me a text message using this form or by e-mailing [email protected]. Lastly, I will try to check my regular e-mail ([email protected] whenever possible, but I have heard that Internet access is hard to come by on the road.

Who's going?

My college buddy Eric is joining me for the entire trip. Aimee was going to join me for three weeks, but changed her mind since she won't be able to go the entire way. Aimee and Tracy are meeting us in Jackson Hole for a few days on Labor Day weekend. My mom, aunt, and grandmother are meeting us for a week or so around Cleveland. And we expect to meet up with a big group of friends in Manhattan at the end of the ride.

Why are you doing this?

A few years ago, I saw a great film as part of the Banff International Film Festival. It was about three guys from San Jose who decided to bicycle across America with a basketball, have people sign it along the way, and present it to the basketball hall of fame. It struck me as the sort of awesome once-in-a-lifetime type of activity that people dream about but never do. And for several years, not doing it is exactly what I did.

When it came time for my 2-month paid sabbatical from Intel, I considered many options, but eventually ended up on the pRAAM because Eric offered to join me the whole way, because the rest of the world is too dangerous for travel right now, and because I might never have the physical ability and the freedom to do it again.

As part of my motivational reading for the trip, I came across the following quote from "Metal Cowboy" that seems fitting:

I was headed for Florida - a young writer pedaling the blue highways of America in search of freedom, exercise, good stories, and a few indelible images, moments of clarity and beauty to tuck away for that day when I would be well on the way to decaying and need them the most. -Metal Cowboy, p.141

Our guiding philosophy

We had originally planned for this to be a somewhat goal-oriented trip, but allow time for unforseen side trips. Alas, with a six-week time constraint, there won't be much time for anything but cranking out the miles. But, assuming this trip goes well, I see many more epic rides in my future (Canada to Mexico along the Pacific Coast, New Zealand, Europe, etc.) which will hopefully afford more time to stop and smell the roses.

Are we biking back as well?

One way trip. We're flying back and shipping our bikes via UPS.

Is this part of an organized trip?

Nope. We're doing everything ourselves, including planning the route, carrying all of our gear, and (of course) the biking. We are taking camping gear and will camp when necessary, otherwise stay in cheap hotels along the way.

You cheapskate, you're doing this trip as a cheap vacation, aren't you?

Actually, you would be amazed at how much money both Eric and I are dropping for gear and other necessities for the trip. And we haven't spent a dime yet on food or lodging. On the bright side, most everything that we bought can be reused for other trips once we're done.

Special thanks to...

Routes

Why did you pick these dates?

We didn't want the weather to be too hot, cold, or rainy for the trip. Also, Eric and I both had many weddings (in the case of Eric, his own!) and other social engagements that we tried to work around. Eric also had a hard stop of October 1 for completion and a maximum of 6 weeks off to do the trip.

We are hoping for pretty cool weather given that it is late in the summer and we are taking a northern route. And, fingers crossed, the brilliant changing foliage of New England will greet us when we get there. The only downside is that the days will be getting shorter; but how many hours can one bike in a day anyway?!

Weather Data: According to friends, weather in New England is pretty good early October. Weather data from various web sites corroborates this. We should be golden through Oct 15 easily. (New York: Avg Temp - Rainfall - Avg Min Temp)

Suggested reading

If followed by a review, then I have read it ... otherwise, still, it's on my to-do list

Web links

Epic bike adventures:

Lightweight gear resources:

Commercial sites

Miscellaneous links