It’s Terry’s better half, Liz’s birthday today and he was determined to yell it from the mountain. So it was a good job our task today was to climb the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and search for the lonesome pine in the pale moonshine etc. It wasn’t quite night-time when we left the Cookie…
Last night we stayed in a church, tonight it’s a fire station, courtesy of Mineral Fire Dept, Louisa County. We ended up cycling 80 miles today, due mainly to a map-reading malfunction. To explain, the Adventure Cycling Association provides excellent maps of the entire TransAmerica route. Yesterday we did two and a half maps to…
Have you ever heard of Trail Magic? Nope nor had we – but by nightfall we’d know exactly what it meant – and it has already sprinkled its dust on the bestbybike duo. The day didn’t start as planned. We made the classic mistake of leaving late – and after a few hundred yards we’d…
Sometimes the hardest part of any challenge is getting started and so it has proved with the TransAmerica. The official start of the cross country route is Yorktown, Virginia, but to my geographer’s mind that’s on the York River, Chesapeake Bay, not the Atlantic Ocean. So Terry and I agreed that instead our ride would…
It’s amazing what cycling can lead to. Most people know that Wilbur and Orville Wright were aviation pioneers, completing the world’s first manned flight in December 1903. But before all that, they were cycle manufacturers. Only five bicycles made by the brothers still exist and we discovered one today at the Smithsonian Air and Space…
Took the bikes for a test-ride around Washington today. Although many of the cycle lanes aren’t segregated, the roads are wide and the traffic, for the most part, is rather sedate compared to other large cities such as London. As on any major roads you need to keep your wits about you, but we had…
If you’ve ever thought air travel wasn’t stressful enough, that passing through check-in, passport control and customs is made far too easy, then here’s a suggestion to spice things up a bit: Take two really heavy touring bikes, ten panniers and a couple of tents to the airport with you and it will be a…
With just two weeks before Terry and I head off to start the TransAmerica, the training isn’t going too well. We both had plans to rack up the miles on our new bikes, but with so much preparation still to do, kit to order and family and friends to see before we depart, the bikes…
It’s a strange phenomenon that riding a bike laden with panniers seems to earn you more respect on the road than even the most expensive carbon fibre machine. I’ve noticed it before, cars give you more space, pedestrians smile at you and small children look on in wonder. I guess people assume you are some…
It felt like going on a blind date without a safety net. I’d never met my companion before and apart from what I’d read, had no first hand experience of their personality. Yet I’d already agreed to nearly three months intimately connected with virtually every hour spent in each others’ company. The strength of the…