Samstag, 13. April 2013
Sonntag, 7. April 2013
The Route
Starting in Yorktown, Virgina I'm gonna cross the Appalachians and their hilly outskirts.
At some point I'll reach the great plains where headwinds and the heat might be issues more than elevation gain.
Crossing the Rocky Mountains will be my next goal, followed by the extreme loneliness of Utah's and Nevada's deserts.
At Lake Tahoe I'm finally gonna enter California. One more climb - Sierras this time - and eventually the beautiful San Francisco Bay will come into sight, where such a trip traditionally ends by dipping the front wheel into the Pacific Ocean.
Without any misleadings or turnarounds we're talking about 3757 miles or 6046 kilometers.
For comparison: That's even more than from the southermost point of Europe(Tarifa, Spain) to the northernmost(North Cape, Norway).
At some point I'll reach the great plains where headwinds and the heat might be issues more than elevation gain.
Crossing the Rocky Mountains will be my next goal, followed by the extreme loneliness of Utah's and Nevada's deserts.
At Lake Tahoe I'm finally gonna enter California. One more climb - Sierras this time - and eventually the beautiful San Francisco Bay will come into sight, where such a trip traditionally ends by dipping the front wheel into the Pacific Ocean.
Without any misleadings or turnarounds we're talking about 3757 miles or 6046 kilometers.
For comparison: That's even more than from the southermost point of Europe(Tarifa, Spain) to the northernmost(North Cape, Norway).
Samstag, 6. April 2013
But isn't it dangerous?
That's what people ask me all the time.
The answer is simple:
It's more dangerous than staying at home.
People get killed on bicycles and in cars, by murderers and by falling coconuts.
The risk to get murdered in the midwest or rocky mountains isn't higher than where I live, there's no reason to doubt that.
The only risk I see is the risk of traffic accidents.
I take that risk, like mountaineers take the risk of avalanches and pilots take the risk of engine failure.
In the rare event of getting killed by a car, I died doing what I loved most.
The answer is simple:
It's more dangerous than staying at home.
People get killed on bicycles and in cars, by murderers and by falling coconuts.
The risk to get murdered in the midwest or rocky mountains isn't higher than where I live, there's no reason to doubt that.
The only risk I see is the risk of traffic accidents.
I take that risk, like mountaineers take the risk of avalanches and pilots take the risk of engine failure.
In the rare event of getting killed by a car, I died doing what I loved most.
I've made my decision
Hello world!
As most of you probably know, I've spent my last two summers riding a bicycle through beautiful California(not to forget the half day actually in Nevada).
It has always been hard to decide for a certain route. After my first trip in 2011 I really wanted to do the Transam. Coast to Coast - the holy grail for many bicycle traveleres.
I spent hours calculating days and miles but at the end I had to learn that there just wasn't enough time for such a long trip. Therefore I chose to stay in California, where I had a amazing time.
However, doing the Transam always was in my mind.
Time wouldn't be the problem in 2013, but money in fact is.
Weeks ago I had already accepted not to see my beloved United States this year, I couldn't see a way to fund it. But yesterday night my mind changed. I couldn't sleep, so I randomly switched through the one million channels my TV offers.
As always - I stoped as I saw some US streets on the screen. The show turned out to be a documentary of some friends doing a road trip from New York to San Francisco reenacting Jack Kerouac's famous book "On the road".
All those wonderful memories from my very own experiences on the road came into my mind and it took only few minutes to be sure:
There's no way not to spend another summer in the US.
Money? I decided to sell most of my belongings. I wouldn't be able to use much of that stuff during the next years and I always prefer memories over interchangeable goods.
The decision I had to make was to own amplifiers, loudspeakers and things like that or to let my dream come true.
I've made my decision.
As most of you probably know, I've spent my last two summers riding a bicycle through beautiful California(not to forget the half day actually in Nevada).
It has always been hard to decide for a certain route. After my first trip in 2011 I really wanted to do the Transam. Coast to Coast - the holy grail for many bicycle traveleres.
I spent hours calculating days and miles but at the end I had to learn that there just wasn't enough time for such a long trip. Therefore I chose to stay in California, where I had a amazing time.
However, doing the Transam always was in my mind.
Time wouldn't be the problem in 2013, but money in fact is.
Weeks ago I had already accepted not to see my beloved United States this year, I couldn't see a way to fund it. But yesterday night my mind changed. I couldn't sleep, so I randomly switched through the one million channels my TV offers.
As always - I stoped as I saw some US streets on the screen. The show turned out to be a documentary of some friends doing a road trip from New York to San Francisco reenacting Jack Kerouac's famous book "On the road".
All those wonderful memories from my very own experiences on the road came into my mind and it took only few minutes to be sure:
There's no way not to spend another summer in the US.
Money? I decided to sell most of my belongings. I wouldn't be able to use much of that stuff during the next years and I always prefer memories over interchangeable goods.
The decision I had to make was to own amplifiers, loudspeakers and things like that or to let my dream come true.
I've made my decision.
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