Month: August 2016

Day 47: Tramontane Cafe 

     I got an early start in Port Byron trying to beat the thunderstorms that were on the forecast for the afternoon.  The morning was nice but unfortunately already hot so I got as much mileage in before things got really terrible.  I was transitioning from the New Erie Canal to the Old Canal, occasionally needing to take to streets and highways.  I made it through Syracuse pretty early after very good riding conditions.  The sunlight was filtering through the trees onto the paths I was riding on, rays of beautiful sunshine lighting the way forward.

Continue reading “The Northern Tier: Days 47-52 and The End of the Tour”

Day 43: Warmshowers in Buffalo

     Just as I was leaving the campground at the New York state line I met a guy named Jeff.  He was also touring on a bicycle, although he was maing his own tour up the fly as he made his way from Virginia to Ontario, visiting friends and stealth camping the entire way.  He was an interesting fellow as I discovered while riding alongside him for the day.  For the uninitiated, stealth camping is when you camp in a way least likely to arouse suspicion or people’s attention of you.  This typicaly comes into play when camping on someone’s property without them knowing, camping without paying for a campsite and more generally camping anywhere illegally, all of which I have done numerous times, as it happens to be the cheapest (and therefore one of the best) forms of camping around.  Jeff is a pro at this style, having stealthed his way from Virginia all the way to Lake Erie using a hammock and his wits.

Continue reading “The Northern Tier: Days 43-46”

Day 39: The Gift of Wind

     Our forecast called for thunderstorms in the afternoon so Jenny and I got up early.  I woke up at five and worked on breakfast and trolled the internet trying to find an apartment in Seattle.  Side note: apartment searching while on a cross country trip is a nightmare.  More on that later. Monroeville was cool in the morning, and there was a slight fog hanging over the fields.  The wind was blowing us gently towards our destination of Bowling Green and things were shaping up for a nice morning.

Continue reading “The Northern Tier: Days 39-42”

Day 33: RAGBRAI

RAGBRAI is an acronym for the Des Moines Register Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. The ride has been hosted every year on the last week in July since 1973.  It starts from the west side of the state of Iowa, where riders dip their tires into the Missouri or Big Sioux River, and ends on the west side of the state, where riders dip their tires into the Mississippi. Each year the ride takes a different route, starting from a different western town and ending in a different eastern town.   Although I did not join the ride across Iowa, I did happen to be in Muscatine, this year’s finish town, on the same saturday that the ride finished there.

Continue reading “The Northern Tier: Days 33-38”