Originally, I thought this was a really out-there plan, and it sounded like alot of fun. Now it seems alot less out there, and even more like something I want to do. It would be late june – late august 2003. I’d be doing it by myself (though tardis has offered to semi-accompany: he’d be touring via motorcycle, and leap-frogging me the whole way.)
I’m thinking I’ll most likely do a fairly circuitous route (provincetown – boston – burlington vt – ithaca ny – cleveland – chicago – madison wi – minneapolis – denver co – santa fe – phoenix – san diego – san francisco.) over roughly 2 months (possibly a couple of extra days).
This plan is for over a year in the future and kinda assumes I make it into berkeley next year. I could and probably would do it anyway, but that part is for the future to decide.
I’m planning on saving up about 2k for the trip. (assuming ~60 days, that works out to ~$33/day for everything. Assuming I would be averaging about $14/day (100/week) for lodging (probably camping at least 6/7 of the time, followed by cheap hotels, friends’ couches and bed & breakfasts), and about $15/day (105/week) on food. Then there’s the capital (ie, getting a touring bike)
I’d also probably have to get in shape. And a few practice bike tours, probably starting this summer, wouldn’t hurt. Maybe a 5-day-weekend trip (over labor day weekend) to dc, or philly. In the meantime, I’ll probably want to find some local biking venues. Yay, stuff.
Later, folks.
If you make it all the way down to DC, let me know, I have futons you can crash on. 🙂
Having actually bothered to look at a map (online of course, what do you take me for?), it seems that Washington is significantly closer than philly. Like 245 miles, taking a pretty direct route. Still, that’s like 3 days, if I get into good shape beforehand and push myself. Apparently amtrak doesn’t do bikes to pittsburgh from either washington or philly, so that’d be another problem. I could just make it a week off, but even then, I’d only be in washington on weekdays, which would kinda blow, as all the interesting people I’d like to visit in the area would most likely be quite busy. Besides which, turning around and going back the same way I came would kinda be a drag. Probably the major cool thing about these trips for me, at least conceptually, is that I’d be exploring new, and somewhat-off-the-beaten-path locations in an up close and personal kinda way. Re-exploring the same route just a few days later seems kinda lame =)
Thus, for an experimental, 5-day trip, I’d wanna go somewhere closer, taking two different routes, or bitchslap the environment a little and find motorized transportation back for me and my bike. As my older sister lives in dc, and my little sister will be living less than 2 miles from by then, I can probably con one or the other of them into assisting me in my venture with their car, and maybe bribing them with the chance to see the other. Hmmm, this might work.