Hosted Touring Cyclists
 

My wife and I hosted Janet and Stephen Rickey, about 7300 miles into their "no end in sight" ride that started in Seattle, went down to San Diego, then over to Key West FL and now up the East Coast. They have been enjoying the East Coast Greenway trail.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...2b16a63e40.jpg

Janet and Stephen and their loaded e-bikes as they set off from Lake Artemesia MD on the way to Annapolis MD.

You can see their journal at https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/...a-trail-rocks/ where they reached us.

I'm going to try to meet up with them as they ride into Baltimore today, if I can sneak it in between some annoying work commitments.

updated URL
 

I enjoy having visitors to Boston, not necessarily providing a place to stay, but otherwise:.. @jpescatore , Do you know how to get in touch with them? I might like to meet up in Boston if they are headed up this way. Boston in the summer is fantastic.

I took particular note of their itinerary:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jim from Boston (Post 16936399)

…We toured also during those decades, including an eight-week cross country cycling honeymoon from Los Angeles to Washington DC. I'm doubtful she would want to go back to touring, but might want to participate as follows. When I win the big lottery, I want to buy a luxury RV as my sag wagon and cycle the perimeter of the country, so I’ll need a driver. :innocent:

I have daydreamed about it to the extent of defining the perimeter as riding within 50 miles of the border all around the country. The only other definition I know of is in the motorcycle community, where I have read the definition as traveling from the cornermost towns in the country. This would obviously be a shorter route since it would bypass the additional contours of Michigan, upstate New York, and Texas.

I'd like to try for a continuous ride: starting in Boston around September and down the east Coast to Florida in December; across the South though to March or April, the West Coast to June/July (though North to South is apparently the preferred direction), then across the North in the heat of the summer (or start in Boston in around June or July for the counterclockwise route).

In the course of my fantasizing, I have discovered Perimeter Accomplishments - Perimeter Bicycling]The Perimeter Bicycling Association of America Inc. which maintains perimeter cycling records for various political and geographic entities. (link. Scroll down to World Records). For the USA, the record is 12,092 miles in 180 days held by Richard J. DeBernardis (date not specified).

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[QUOTE=jpescatore;20920997]They have been enjoying the East Coast Greenway trail.

[/QUOTE]
Which enjoyment will likely all come to an end when they hit the PA border, if not before. Nothing says "Greenway" quite like PA 291, which is also called "Industrial Highway." I love the smell of Marcus Hook in the morning. It smells like....Cancer.

Safe travels! Seriously.

Well, they should be able to zip through there with those motors. They certainly won’t have to breathe as many fumes.

:lol:

Maybe someone could paint the tanks green:

http://www.google.com/maps/@39.81656...7i13312!8i6656

No need. There are some green weeds there.

I was wondering if you asked your guests as to why they chose motorized-bikes to do their tour?

He is 72 and last year started to find he could not do the mileage/climbing combinations he had been able to do in the past, due to health issues. They have done multiple cross country tours on standard bikes over many years, and did not want to stop being able to do that.

They run the e-bikes in "eco" mode vs. "turbo" mode - not because of religious arguments against having a motor, but because it both gets them the physical exercise biking that they have always enjoyed and because the batteries last longer!

In the motorcycle world, aging bikers have been buying 3-wheeled motorcycles for similar reasons, and I see a lot more 3 or 4 wheeled bicycles on the roads and paths these days, too.

Over their 7300 miles on this trip and multiple previous cross country tours in past years, they've pretty much biked on the best and the worst roads out there!

I met them on my bike yesterday, about half way on their ride from Annapolis to Baltimore MD and road about 15 miles with them. After the B&A Trail ends, the ECG route into Baltimore makes the best of getting into the city from the south, but it many parts of the route are not anything anyone around here would ride on for recreation - pure transportation. They were pretty much unfazed.

The ECG shows some unpaved trails as alternate routes for part of the route into Philadelphia - I told them I haven't biked up there, but often drove up for business, and that I would err on the side of trying the unpaved paths vs. the surface streets...

Which enjoyment will likely all come to an end when they hit the PA border, if not before. Nothing says "Greenway" quite like PA 291, which is also called "Industrial Highway." I love the smell of Marcus Hook in the morning. It smells like....Cancer.

Safe travels! Seriously.[/QUOTE]

Those unpaved paths don't come until later. And they are a small portion of the PA mileage. They will be on city streets by the time they get to the Rocky statue, near my house, and be on those streets until the northern border of the city. If you zoom in you can see an ECG sign:

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9668...7i16384!8i8192

They are welcome to post here, unlike CGOAB. Apparently some people here are interested in e-bike touring. I’m not one of them, but I don’t think anyone would be offended.

I didn't notice they rode E-bikes, but I have long-touted a "Brotherhood (Cameraderie) of the Two Wheels" mostly in reference to motorcyclists, like bicyclists, in open vehicles subject to the elements and automobiles.

D'oh, I just woke and realized I should include trikes, quadricycles, and other human-powered multi-wheeled vehicles like party bikes. And what about scooters, elliptical trainers...pogo sticks (though not wheeled); as confusing as Gender Identity nowadays. :foo: As funny IMO as Gyno-Americans .

I hope I can still bike tour when I'm that age. That's awesome. Are they camping too, or just staying with hosts or hotel? They're certainly fully loaded, so I assume camping gear?
And why not on an e-bike? It's all of the great parts of riding a bike, none of the less enjoyable stuff like pressing your worn out legs up a long, steep hill or that last crappy 5-10 miles after you're tired and not to the camp ground yet. I haven't toured on an e-bike, but I bet it's pretty great.

They are mostly staying at Warm Showers hosts, or friends. Next choice is cheap hotels/motels, then camping only when they can't or don't reach an indoor place to stay. They are carrying everything just in case no place to stay or no place for food.

I'm a credit card style tourist myself!

I’d be a little irritated as a Warmshowers host if they showed up up on e-bikes without letting me know in advance. Hopefully they do that.

I was following them on their journal, so I knew they were on e-bikes. With Warm Showers hosts they said they told them in advance to make sure there were no storage issues. They don't seem to have run into any Warm Showers host objections to them being on ebikes when they did so.