hi everyone! i am on a bicycle trip across the US with my cousin Glen. while i thought i would be living in DC and doing some writing this fall, this crazy opportunity came up and, since i had few concrete plans and nowhere i had to be, i decided to take it. we left from Lancaster, PA (eastern PA, close to Philadelphia) on Tuesday, August 20, 2002, and plan to be gone indefinitely (i.e., anywhere between two weeks and two years).
of course, anything could happen, but right now we are heading west, hoping to make it to montana and on to seattle before hard winter hits, then probably turn left and go down the west coast. after that, if everything is still going well, who knows?
for those of you who want to keep track of my progress, i am trying to post some sort of email update on this website (set up by my friend Phil Wenger, yeah Phil!) at least once a week. feel free to drop in and see where i am, then email me greetings, advice, people you know that will be close to our route and might put us up, etc.
to start off, i thought i would answer some general questions that you might have.
i have a Trek mountain bike that i just bought, and carry bags (called panniers) that hang off the side of a rear bike rack. i have: a bike helmet, biking gloves, sunglasses, two pairs of on-the-bike clothes, three pairs of off-the-bike clothes, a full set of polyester long underwear, one pair of boxers, one long sleeved shirt, four pairs of socks, rain pants and jacket, sandals, hiking and biking shoes, a pocketknife, toothbrush, bike lock, a few bike tools, sunscreen, a campers towel and soap, razor, winter gloves and hat, a book, a journal, a few plastic bags, a wallet, two tins of xeroxed poems to memorize, a sleeping bag, a therma-rest camping mattress, a headlamp, a hat, and that's about it. my cousin glen is pulling a small trailer, so he carries some group equipment like a tent and a very small camp stove, pans, food, etc.
we are heading generally west, trying to stay north, aiming for some friends in montana and then, eventually, the west coast. we have some maps with us; basically we wake up in the morning and decide where to go. every few days we try to have a destination, just so we for sure get somewhere. we talk to people along the way a lot, too, ask questions about what roads we should take, or if there are bike trails around. we try to stay on the smaller county roads when we can, for the scenery and for less traffic. sometimes, though, if we have to get somewhere, we just bite the bullet and get on a bigger road, put our heads down, and try to ignore the traffic going by. we usually end up putting in 60 to 80 miles each day.
so far we have been mostly camping in people's yards. when it's getting dark or we are tired, we start looking for places with a big lawn, a tree to sleep under, a barn to sleep in, a garden with some extra tomatoes, or some other welcoming feature. after picking a place, we simply knock on the door and ask if we can camp in their yard for the night. people have been very, very gracious and generous, and we haven't had to knock on more than two or three doors any night yet. all we really need is a small space of grass and some water, usually from an outside spigot, and most people are happy to provide us with these simple things.
we usually wake up around 8 or 8:30, then take an hour or so to cook some breakfast (often oatmeal) and pack up. we are usually on the bike between 9 and 10, stretching our legs out and getting into the day. during the day, we stop every couple of hours to eat something, to get water, and to rest. since it's tomato season here in the east, we've been eating lots of tomato sandwiches, sometimes with cheese or meat, sometimes without. we also usually carry some kind of snacks like pretzels or granola bars, and we always have peanut buter and honey with us. sometime in the afternoon, we usually stop at a grocery store and pick up a squash or an onion or some tuna or chili to cook with a staple like rice that we carry with us for dinner. once it starts to get dark, we find a door to knock on, a yard to camp in, then set up camp, cook dinner, write in our journal and knock out so we can get up the next morning and start over.
so far, it has been a wonderful experience to be on a bike with my cousin, traveling through the hills and small towns of western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. i love feeling like i am in shape again, and it's a great way to see America and to meet people. there are very, very many good people in this land, people who have been so generous to us, giving us food, allowing us to camp on their lawns, use their picnic tables, etc.
oh, one other thing, we are on a budget-- five dollars a day per person, so ten between the two of us per day. so far we have kept well below budget. with people giving us things, we have made it eight days on the road, all the way to central Ohio and have only spent forty dollars between us.
ok, i think i've typed long enough, so that's it for now. hopefully this has given you some idea of the kind of trip we are on. for the next update i will have some stories for you of people we met and experiences we've had along the way. for now, peace!
Keep in touch - Joe (lappjoe@yahoo.com) and Glen (glapp@juno.com)!