USGS
Imagery of Southern Tour of USA by Bicycle
USGS
Imagery of Southern Tour of USA by Bicycle
Wow, how did I get here? I’m now on the porch of the Samesun Hostel in San Diego, California where I’m staying for at least one night. It’s a great hostel. Somehow, I’ve just ridden my bicycle across southern USA. On the one hand this is real; on the other, it’s all like a fairy tale so some of the following is a fantasy.
I sometimes surprise myself. I’m thinking about my recent bicycle rides over the last few days that I continued to do daily for weeks and months. These rides started when I arrived in St Augustine Beach on the Atlantic Ocean. There I joined an organized bicycle tour that was headed to the Pacific Ocean. I took it all in a day at a time. I had trained for this ride, but had second thoughts of continuing, to go the distance, for many days. Do I really want to stay in this group? Do I belong here? Should I stay? Do I want to go home and ski?
|
|
|
I had left where I live in the cold north with great expectations of warm temperatures in Florida that is 2 thousand kilometres further south. This was a bad assumption. There were many cold, freezing mornings on this trip and only a few truly warm or hot afternoons. But, contrarily, 3 of the last 5 days of the trip had sun stroke inducing, hot temperatures of 95 F and higher.
My plan was to take this trip day to day and see how it goes and I did. My attitude is that every day is just another day, every hill is just another hill, every crank of the pedals is just another spin, eh? Just remember “small is beautiful” and every completed day is just another win, a reason to smile. At times, other people kept asking me how I planned on doing all the climbing or all the distance required in some day many days ahead. I had absolutely no answer. I did not know. Every day is just another day. We’ll see how it goes. Every hill climb only starts when you’re at the bottom of a hill. Don’t worry about it! Just think about it then!
The first really bad day was the third day when there was pouring rain and cold temperatures all day. I had all my clothes on and was still cold. The forecast was for a nice day the next day so I persevered. At least the rain stopped. It was still cool.
Somewhere in here I joined a couple of other riders who were on the same tour and we rode along together. Somehow, this continued for many weeks. It all gets mindless after awhile and one stays with “the group,” eh?
I kept thinking: maybe I can even get through this with the help of a few others? We endured many cold mornings and had only a few warmer afternoons, at least, at first.
Some other people grumbled about the tour. I was having second thoughts, but kept my mouth shut. Instead, I wrote my negative thoughts about the trip into my diary and they stayed there. They did inspire the section below on “What I Put Up With To Do This Tour?”
With “the group” I persevered and chatted about how to get there, where we were going to stop and take breaks, what we were going to eat, and when the next in-door overnight stay would happen. See, this was a camping trip, but, at times, one wondered, as we stayed in many churches, a few motels, and the cabins in one campground.
We continued every day even when there were strong winds in our faces of 25 mph with gusts of 45 mph. Luckily, there were other days with tails winds and even a few days with no significant winds in any direction. The strong tail winds blew us into camp early. At the end of this trip, another participating bicycle rider did some calculations and determined that there were more days with bad winds than good ones.
My only plan was to not try too hard, to not get overly strained, to only put out effort that was absolutely necessary. I took direction in fulfilling this tactic, from how I felt and a power meter and sensor on my bicycle. I tried to ride using a power level of less than 2 watts per kilogram, most of the time, as this is a rate of exertion that I know I can persist at forever. I may be able to deliver more continuous power. I’m testing that out now, after the trip, when I can rest for a few days if I over-do my efforts.
As it is, my old power meter stopped working after a few days. My solution: buy new power sensors and power meter ASAP. I did so a few days later at a good bicycle store – Ride More Bicycles in Pensacola, Florida. Thanks again you guys for supplying my new power sensor. It enabled me to continue each day on this ride, and eventually do the whole ride!
This is a brief story of this tour. After a few days, the rain stopped and the weather did become a bit warmer, even in the mornings. Each day was OK and I felt OK, so I continued. I get less overwhelmed when I think separately of the tour’s major parts: Florida, the Gulf Coast, Texas, a Warm Desert, a Hot desert, and the Pacific Coast.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Atlantic coast of Florida has a nice beach, eh, as we see here in St Augustine. There are almost-white, sandy beaches and miles of ocean side piers topped with almost perfect landscaping. These all get left behind when one travels inland. One then finds many small lakes, ponds, and swamps amidst lots of green landscape. There are huge trees. One also sees vast fields of agriculture as much of the world’s fruit is produced here. There are also nature sanctuaries like the Aucilla Natural Wildlife Area.
Much of our travel through here was on bicycle trails and roads with minimal traffic and a few other busy roads that had paved shoulders so were also OK for riding bicycles along. It was also quite flat so bicycle riding was easy. This tranquility was broken on the third day when we awoke to developing storms with heavy and heavier rain, and colder temperatures – the worst we had experienced. Luckily we stayed in a Motel-6 that night. It was great to get warm and dry again.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Our bicycles are still in Florida when we greet the Gulf of Mexico/America. The gulf coast is followed through Florida Panhandle, Alabama, and Louisiana. This is great bicycling. Most of the time the wind is at our backs, the Sun is out, and there are no clouds. Most mornings are very cold, almost freezing, but the temperature warms enough by 10 am to bicycle in t-shirts and shorts.
Along the Gulf Coast the road was often close to the sea shore that is mostly sandy. There were many tourist resorts and second homes. There was much access to the beach. The general atmosphere was one of wealth and happy living, enjoying life. There were a few other people out enjoying the weather, the beach, and the ocean. The facilities could accommodate many more and there are times in the year when they do. We’re just here in a shoulder season of the tourism calendar. All I remember is one great scenic beach after another interspersed by a few homes, condominiums, and entertainment facilities. There were also current military facilities and many historic ones.
On a break day, that is a day of rest with no bicycle riding, I go to a sports store to get a carabiner for hanging my dishes in the trailer and a fire starter. The carabiner is useful as riders are allowed to hang their dishes in the trailer on the van that’s accompanying this trip across America. This makes it more convenient to get one’s dishes at dinner time and any other time when one needs, say, a cup for some coffee. I also got a fire starter block hoping that we’ll have some camp fires on this trip. Noone on this trip seemed to be interested in camp fires, and, then, after we left the Gulf Coast, we were in high fire prone areas most of the time and campfires were not allowed. Drats! I still have my fire starter block as I write the story of this trip. Ah, there will be other trips and many campfires to come.
There were lots of complaints on this trip about sore seats on the bikes. Yah, mine was sore, too, until I went to the Trek bike store in Pensacola on the Gulf Coast. Riding the Gulf Coast was particularly wonderful for myself as I’m partial to sea shore. It was even better on a new bicycle seat. I’m pleased with this Cloud-9 Air Flow seat. It made a big difference in my trip. My old saddle was great at one time, but now, it was just OLD! A great time to replace it!
There continued to be an industry of agriculture along the route of our trip. Besides fruits, we started to see cattle, here, even before Texas, as is shown in the photo near Ville Platte, Louisiana. There were also many small towns interspersed along our route. One was Merryville Louisiana where we stayed in the park near the legion hall. All this was a couple of hundred yards, if that, from the downtown. At one point, some campers went to the library to use the wifi and internet. It’s in this brown building with the city hall where the pick-up truck is parked.
The next evening we camped north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Some riders took a lift in the van to the city the next day as we had a rest day in this campground. Others were recovering from the night before. The tents were put up as usual, we thought. We noted that they were close to a wide stream, but made nothing of it. It looked quite scenic and beautiful. At that point the weather was calm. All of a sudden there were gusts of winds that moved anything that was loose. Some tents had heavy item in them and others were staked, but I was just putting up my tent and getting something to put in it. The wind gust suddenly blew my tent into this wide stream. Hmm, I made the error of going in after it. I did rescue the tent. It did dry out quickly and only smelled a bit from the smelly stream. However, results could have been much worse. In the south it's dangerous to jump into streams as there may be alligators lurking. I'm from the north so this fact did not come to mind. No alligator encouters today. We learned a few days later that the alligators are lethargic right now. They have periods of being very active during the year and other periods of not doing too much. Luckily that's the way they were. Perhaps there were none in the area, too. but, 'twas exciting for our crew and something to talk about and ponder. In this fairy tale of a trip, everything always works out OK and better in the end, eh?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Steep hills
rough chip and seal
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Everything gets greener!
|
|
|
|
|
|
We visited the wall in Fort Hancock, Texas. The Border Patrol allowed us to inspect the wall, walk through it, see the lack of water in the Rio Grande River, and gaze over at Mexico. This was very interesting given the increasing political importance of this structure.
We saw THE WALL at other times, too - any time we road our bicycles close to the Mexican border. One time was near Canyon City, California.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The road to Shepherd's Sanctuary was a ways off our route down a few lanes, but worth it as this place promoted peace and relaxation.
746 Pendernales St, Austin Texas
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
March 20
|
|
|
|
|
|
Many of our group tested out one of the start up companies in Marfa that's a mile or 2 north of El Cosmico. It had a unique style of hamburgers that were tasty.
Though our group camped, El Cosmico has a variety of other ways to spend one's time, including teepees, trailers, and yurts. It's great for glamping. More pictures at this link, courtesy of Daphne .
I'm reading now that there are large works of art close by at The Chinati Foundation that's also in the south end of Marfa at the site of the historic Fort D. A. Russell. This is a must see next time one is in Marfa. I bet many people that visit and attend events also stay in El Cosmico. There's much more about The Chinati Foundation in Wikipedia. It contains the works of 12 artists and travelling exhibits and celebrations.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
