<p>Everyone I know who has bicycled across the country (several friends and lots of family members) has gone the other way–west to east. It’s worked out well for a few of them who have decided not to finish. They didn’t miss the drama of the west, and there were lots of bail-out options.</p>
<p>^^ plus the wind is at your back!</p>
<p>I have explored all of the group options with him, including Bike & Build; he truly wants to do a solo trip. I do appreciate all of the advice, suggestions, and anecdotes of other riders. I will pm dmd77.
Cardinal Fang, how did you charge your phone and how often were you able to charge it? I am guessing you would need to consume about 6,000 calories a day? Did you camp the entire way, or occasionally use a Hostel (or hotel?).<br>
I know ending with the West is probably a tougher ride in a sense, but he is planning on leaving here (we live in VA) on his bike and flying home.<br>
JHS regarding the blog, how did they manage to update it? Did they find internet cafes that frequently (like in Europe) or did they actually bring a laptop and find wi-fi spots?</p>
<p>Ditto Adventure Cycling, whose maps my daughter used. She did more than half her trip solo. I will send her a link to this to see if she wants to comment. The trip was wonderful for her.</p>
<p>3321 – You know, I don’t know! I guess that they must have had one notebook for the group. One of them was an avid photographer and blogger, who had previously done a blog about a trip through Nepal, and she did a lot of the heavy lifting. They often found people to stay with, or who would let them camp in a yard or field, and I suppose plenty of them had internet access. They didn’t update every day, but they usually had 2-3 entries per week.</p>
<p>My childhood best friend spent almost seven years sailing around the world with his family, and THEY had a blog. The problem was, they hardly ever posted to it when they were on land, doing the sorts of things that interest me. At sea, the blog was updated daily via a satellite connection, but it was almost entirely about wind speeds, sea heights, sail trim, seasickness, and fixing broken equipment. This would go on for weeks, sometimes months, and then nothing for 4-5 months afterwards.</p>
<p>My daughter asked me to post this for her:</p>
<p>Hi, I’m dmd77’s daughter. I’m a 25-year-old woman and this past summer I rode from Portland, OR to Yorktown, VA. My fiance rode with me to Boulder, CO and then left, as planned, to start grad school (plus, he was mostly interested in the west). I rode the second half solo. For the most part, I followed Adventure Cycling’s TransAmerica Bicycle Trail route (a.k.a. the BikeCentennial route or US Bicycle Route 76). I was off the route from Portland to Eugene, OR; Hot Sulphur Springs to Florence, CO; somewhere in eastern Kansas to Farmington, MO; and I took a few shortcuts in Kentucky and Virginia. I rode on paved and unpaved bike paths, empty country lanes, city streets, busy state highways, and, for ~13 miles in Wyoming, the interstate (the shoulder was very wide).</p>
<p>I am happy to have chosen an Adventure Cycling route for my first major tour for lots of reasons:
—It took the guesswork out of route mapping.
—I met other cyclists! The TransAm is probably the most popular cross-country bike route, and I probably on average met another cyclist or group of cyclists every other day or so. I always loved pulling off to the side of the road to chat about what’s behind, what’s ahead, how awesome our respective trips are, etc.
—Because the TransAm is so established (it’s been roughly the same since 1976), lots of people who live along or near the route know what’s going on. The few times I was seen as crazy, weird, and/or suspicious all occurred off the TransAm. There are churches along the way that provide cyclists a place to stay for the night, and sometimes a kitchen and/or shower (no proselytizing, just hospitality!). Restaurants, campsites, and general stores sometimes have logbooks where cyclists can sign in and share tidbits. There are even kind individuals whose names and numbers get passed on from cyclist to cyclist who will host you for a night, feed you a tasty dinner, and so on. As a rider on the TransAm, you participate in this culture and history of hospitality and generosity. Do the ride and stop by the Cookie Lady’s house in Afton, VA, and you’ll see what I mean. The #1 lesson I learned on my trip is that in the absence of fear, people are fundamentally good and generous. It was an amazing lesson to learn.
—The Adventure Cycling people are really nice. Even if you don’t follow one of their routes, if you’re passing anywhere near Missoula, MT, you oughta stop by their headquarters. They have lots of good resources to share with you, including free ice cream (definitely an important resource for a long-haul cycle tourist!).</p>
<p>Bike & Build has been mentioned here too—I recently met a woman who rode cross-country with them and has nothing but good things to say about the experience. Sounds like a great alternative to solo travel, for sure.</p>
<p>Bike tourism takes all kinds. I met folks who stayed at motels every night and folks who never paid for a place to stay. I was in between. I camped most of the time, sometimes in pay sites and sometimes not, and stayed in motels when I really wanted to get out of the weather or just couldn’t stand it anymore (not too often). I also made use of CouchSurfing.org whenever possible (CS is a great resource and I have never had a bad experience with it), which was mostly in or near larger cities. I also, as mentioned above, received a lot of hospitality from people and institutions I met along the way. Trust your intuition. I probably met some less-than-kind folks, but I listened to my intuition and walked or rode away from them immediately, so the kindnesses are what I remember, and there were a lot of them. I can’t emphasize this enough. I never felt that I was in danger from people (I was more concerned about grizzly bears and electrical storms, to be honest).</p>
<p>I didn’t really train for my trip, to be honest. However, my fiance and I rode our bikes as our main form of transportation around Portland, where we lived, and we probably rode at least 100 miles a week. The first few days of the trip were pretty grueling, but we got in shape quickly.</p>
<p>My #1 safety recommendation is a rear-view mirror. I bought a little one that clipped onto my glasses so I could see cars and trucks coming up behind me. Don’t rely on sound—ambient noise or traffic coming towards you will distract you from traffic coming up behind you. Visibility is also important. Wear brighter colors, and lights are great, especially in darker weather.</p>
<p>I would be happy to answer any specific questions. PM my mom and she’ll give you my personal email address, or you can post questions here. I can also send you my blog address, where I wrote about my trip.</p>
<p>Oh and I notice there was a question about internet cafes… every tiny library all the way across the country has computers with internet access. Often they have time limits, and in Missouri they charged a buck or two. I brought a $200 netbook on my tour, which was great, until it stopped working halfway across Kansas. When I had it, it was nice to be able to draft my entries and sort through my photos without a time limit, but I don’t think I’d bring it again. It wasn’t necessary.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks so much! I will get in touch with your mom at some point today; your information has been great, and I particularly appreciate the tip about the rear-view mirror.</p>
<p>I end up scrambling around to charge the phone. I charge in cafes when I go to them. In campgrounds with power, I often charge in the bathroom. Sometimes people in RVs will let me use their outlets.</p>
<p>I don’t know how many calories I eat when touring. A lot, for sure; I eat all the time. And every self contained tourist I know of loses weight when touring. I lost 20 pounds on my xc trip.</p>
<p>Between high school and college back in the 70’s, a friend and I planned a bike trip around Lake Superior. We spent a lot of time planning, dreaming and preparing. He bagged out on me one week before departure. I didn’t go, and I’ve been regretting that decision ever since. </p>
<p>Since then I have taken about a dozen week long tours, starting in my late 20’s, and they really are highlights of my life, but I still regret not doing the one between high school and college. </p>
<p>Your child is not a child any more.</p>
<p>D of dmd, Thanks for the post! I am going to copy it and email it to my son.</p>
<p>3321- We are in a similar situation. My son is determined to bike x-country solo this summer. My objection is to the solo part. My wife is going nuts just thinking about it. He had the same idea 2 summers ago which I managed to negotiate into a 1 week father/son bike ride up the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a wonderful experience for both of us, but this summer he still wants to do the solo x-country trip. (Maybe we can introduce them!? 
) Thanks for all the resources and tips.</p>
<p>I did a cross country bike trip this past summer unsupported with a small group. Best time of my life. As long as he has all the logistics planned out, i say go for it.</p>
<p>incoco, thanks for the info re: regretting not doing a bike trip. I do understand he is not a child but initially the solo part did concern me. Biking friends insisted he have a companion, and they are all adults who apparently never did a solo trip:-) dmd77, her daughter and Cardinal Fang have all reassured me though; NJres, that would be great if they could meet and perhaps decide to bike part of the way together…I can pm you a bit later (getting ready to head to work, but did a quick check here) and elillianr, thanks as well.</p>
<p>NJres, </p>
<p>If your son takes one of the major cross-country routes, he’ll most likely end up riding with one or two other people who ride at his pace. He’ll be fine. Don’t stop him from doing this.</p>
<p>He left Boston Saturday (after visiting the harbor Friday), right around the NY border now. He has been sending frequent texts which is nice. He will join the “Northern Tier” route somewhere around Syracuse.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t it be nice if you could somehow use the motion of the bike to charge the cell phone?</p>
<p>^^ That actually wouldn’t be difficult to do and is a good idea. Hmmm…</p>
<p>There are some emergency radio/flashlights that use wind-up power and claim to charge cell phones (if you find the right cable to use… and crank a lonnnnnng time). I think the one I was on LL Bean.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You can. You need a generator hub and a bit more stuff. All is available from, for example, Peter Jon White, [url=<a href=“http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/index.html]Peter”>http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/index.html]Peter</a> White Cycles Home Page<a href=“no%20affiliation,%20yadda%20yadda”>/url</a>.</p>
<p>I don’t have the extra stuff to use my generator hub as a charger for my phone, but I do have a generator hub to power my bike lights, and I love it. Finally, no worries about batteries being dead when I’m out at night.</p>
<p>Back in the old days, my bike had a little generator whose little wheel rode on the side of the tire and powered my bike light. I’m sure technology has improved…</p>
<p>My daughter’s touring bike has a generator hub (the one CF mentions, in fact). She was happy to have it when she did her ride. My husband, the speed-demon, light-weight-obsessed cyclist, makes fun of it from time to time… “adding resistance? why would you want to do that?” </p>
<p>I have a tiny hand-cranked light that lives on my bike (and which no one has bothered stealing, much to my surprise). It’s good enough for an emergency, and that’s about it.</p>