Originally Posted by
smudgy
I rode across the country in 1985 with a buddy. We had heard of Bikecentennial, but we didn't know where the route went. It turned out that we were on it a good part of the way in Montana and Wyoming. But we rode across northern Kansas and Missouri and crossed the river at Hannibal.
We started in Seattle and finished in Savannah, Ga.
I guess I enjoy hearing about other people's adventures and sharing my own. Thanks again!
Thanks for your reply. I recognize the early Bell Helmets. When we rode we only had the leather "hairnet" type.
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
My wife and I crossed the country in 1977 from LA to Washington DC. Some of the now-old-fashioned elements as I recall:
Hairnet helmets, woolen bike shorts, jogging suits for colder weather, toe clips, paper maps, phone booths for calls; sent post cards; for cash we used travelers checks and had money orders wired to us at various post offices. We were not into photography, so instead of an SLR film camera, we had a Kodak Instamatic.
To track mileage we had a mechanical odometer with a metallic striker affixed to a spoke. For lights we used those strap on D-cell battery powered lights with a front yellow and rear red lenses.
We rode Merciers, model not recalled, with sew-up tires and fullly loaded rear panniers (not recommended)…
As I noted we met a 1976 Bikecentennialist in Garden City KS.
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
… In Garden City, KS we were approached in the city park by guy in his 20's who had ridden BC the previous year, and GC was his home. He showed us the sights and his family put us up for the night in an apartment above their jewelry store.
Such is the fellowship of the Cross-Country Ride.
From the best I can tell, it looks like our routes crossed around Larned, KS. BTW, Bikecentennial has a Wikipedia entry.
Speaking of sharing adventures,
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
It was one of my most pleasant cycling days in 40 years of cycling, to ride with @jppe, and to direct his wife in the van to various locations and ultimately the Atlantic Ocean on the last day of his cross country ride from Oregon to Boston…
We next rode to Bedford, and took the 11 mile Minuteman Bikepath to Arlington. We could ride two abreast, and Ihad a chance to hear all the details of his ride.
As did many respondents to his threads, I already knew of the virtually day-by-day details, and I asked pretty specific questions about the activities. I was impressed by his engineer’s approach to planning the trip …
I told jp, “Well this far, and no farther.”(a favorite line from an episode of Columbo), and we took the end-of-ride pictures. We then had a celebratory dinner at a fine Boston seafood restaurant (Legal Seafood Harborside). We re-hashed our respective cross-country trips, including the current one with Jeri’s point of view.
While jp was away from the table, I asked her how she liked the trip…”I had a blast."
Last edited by Jim from Boston; 03-25-20 at 01:46 PM.