Crossing a country on your own power - it feels like owning it.
He rides and he rides
He sees the bright and hollow sky
He see the stars come out tonight
He sees the city's ripped backsides
He sees the winding ocean drive
And everything was made for you and me
All of it was made for you and me
'cause it just belongs to you and me
So let's take a ride and see what's mine
In July/August 2011, I'm going to make the great tour across the United States: West Coast to East Coast on bicycles, together with a bunch of devoted cyclists. We have 25 riding days to complete 5000 km. We'll use the best machines you can get for this: velomobiles, faired recumbent bikes. We will attract lots of attention, have lots of fun, and we'll DO it.
Samstag, 27. August 2011
Donnerstag, 25. August 2011
Day 29 - 15 km
Total:
5178 km
4 time zones
15 states (OR, WA, ID, MT, ND, SD, MN, WI, IL, IN, OH, PA, MD, VA, DC)
approx. 30.000 hm
approx. 850.000 crank revolutions
Mittwoch, 24. August 2011
Day 28 - 183 km
It's coming to an end. Today we had our de-facto-arrival at Washington DC. 100 nasty km in the Appalachians before we entered the Washington & Old Dominion bike trail which led us smoothly down south. In Vienna, Virginia (nice coincidence) we gathered and did the final 20 km together.
Great trip through Georgetown during rush hour.
We arrived in the hotel in the evening, very exhausted, very happy.
Day 27 - 192 km
You know you're still in Pennsylvania when you need the lowest gear just to get off the campground. Heading south, we went up and down in the Appalachians, collecting 2300 m of elevation on climbs up to 20%. The last campground of this trip was already in Maryland, which translates "almost there".
Day 26 - 150 km
They say "Pennsylvania" would translate as "Penn's woodland", but that is not true. Sylvana was the wife of Penn, and he cursed her one million times when they were biking in this area, because it was all her idea. This story has a tragic ending, and who has ever cycled Pennsylvania, understands why. It involved some items which the timber industry could profit from, after people did finally stop talking about what Penn did to Sylvana. Seriously, it was a hard day again with 2000 m of steep climbs again; but on better roads and with good weather, it was nice to ride. A couple of downhills where I hit 100 km/h helped to keep motivation high.
Lunch stop at Puxsutawney, home of Puxsutawney Phil, the weather forecast icon. To my disappointment, the had no groundhog burger on the menu.
If a groundhog sees a velomobile today, then what?
We also came to Amish communities again.
Reports say an Amish recumbent rider was spotted! Hoping for pics.
We also left some customized ROAM street signs behind:
Lunch stop at Puxsutawney, home of Puxsutawney Phil, the weather forecast icon. To my disappointment, the had no groundhog burger on the menu.
If a groundhog sees a velomobile today, then what?
We also came to Amish communities again.
Reports say an Amish recumbent rider was spotted! Hoping for pics.
We also left some customized ROAM street signs behind:
Montag, 22. August 2011
Day 25 - 196 kk
When I got up at 5:30 and realized that it was raining, I was almost sure this was not going to be an easy day. And it was not. From the beginning, we were in the steep hills of the Alleghennys, which provided a steady up and down; and you could be sure that at the bottom there was a stop sign, a traffic light or an intersection that made you stop and make sure you could not take any speed into the next climb. That way, we collected 2300 m of elevation.
We've done more, we have been riding longer distances, but I found this day was one of the hardest so far. (Of course, it didn't help that we found no breakfast for almost three hours and that my cleats came loose, with replacement parts being at the campground.)
We also had a bike path today, well suited for velomobiles:
But we made it, finally ...
Abonnieren
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