Our Long (Island) Ride

I had hoped this wouldn’t be just a travel blog, but seeing as life is pretty low-key between trips (excluding the excitement spawned by a New Year’s resolution to do at least one thing new every day) it might be better this way.  On that note, my dad and I are preparing for another long distance bicycle trip – this time to Long Island.  New York.

We’ve joked a lot about doing another ride, mostly to salve the withdrawal we suffered since finishing our Floride (San Antonio, TX to Florida and back), but when the opportunity to visit my brother in New York arose I asked seriously: “Dad, do you want to ride there?”  (One of these days I’ll learn not to ask these things.)

Thankfully, this will be a one way bicycling trip – we’ve got another way to get home – but considering that we’ll be covering the length (or height or whatever) of the country and half the width, it’s still a formidable ride.  Not to mention, we have to cross a mountain range.  We’re planning on following the Southern Tier, Great Rivers, Transamerican, and Atlantic Coast routes, so if you have any pointers regarding these, please drop me a line.  I’d love to hear any experiences involving those areas of the country.

A major question I have about these routes is whether they require camping.  Are they motel-friendly or should we plan to camp?  We can find compact, light-weight tents, but the mass and volume of camping supplies balloons when cooking gear must be included.  Staying in motels proved more expensive than we expected, but are the savings of camping worth the extra weight?  We’ve considered joining a hospitality group and might end up doing a combination of all three (camping, motels, staying with other cyclists) and welcome any comments or suggestions on the subject.

Most importantly, if you think we’ll be passing through your neck of the woods and you’d be interested in riding with us for a few hours (or a few days), contact me with your location and info.  It would be great to have some friendly cyclists along for the ride!