acantor

Very true. Several years ago, while visiting the USA, I spent a night in a hospital emergency ward. I was discharged after five hours. The workup consisted of one test, some IV fluid, and a shot of pain killer. Mostly I rested. I was examined by a doctor for about five minutes. I think we met twice: once when I arrived, and once toward the end of my stay.

The bill came to nearly $10,000... an average of $2000 per hour.

(Yes, I had travel insurance! )

NomarsGirl

Certainly look into travel insurance to be sure you are covered in case of medical emergency.

gauvins

"niaise", as a verb, is a colloquialism used in Quebec (Canada) and should probably be translated as "don't act as a moron" rather that "do not be afraid "

I very much doubt that our French readers know what niaiseux (someone who niaise) means anyway. "Con" comes to mind. (has nothing to do with the word "convict" in France's French). As in, "faites pas les cons -- achetez une assurance voyage"

djb

sorry, I know I didnt write that very well, I just wanted to do it before I forgot, to make sure this couple thought about the whole insurance thing.

many years ago, maybe 15 at least, someone I knew went to San Francisco, rented a bike to look around, but had a little fall. Had a little hairline fracture in the wrist somewhere, so x-rays, cast etc, but no overnight or anything, and if I remember properly, the bill for that was $7000.

gauvins

No reason to be sorry. Very sound advice actually. Not entirely clear to me if purchasing trip-specific insurance is the way to go vs getting a platinum credit card -- they usually provide travel insurance. I must admit that I've never looked at the details.

rm -rf

I like to use weatherspark.com for yearly weather averages.

For example, Flagstaff Arizona
Click a month link on the right side to get averages for just that month.

The average high and low temperatures for the year. (Change to metric at the top of the page.) The lightest color bands are the 90 percentile range.



Average Hourly Temperature
Then I look at the ranges of temperature for different times of the day.

"Cool" light green, and "Comfortable" in yellow are very nice for bike riding.
"Cold" is good with the right clothing layers.

For example, on May 1, the average is "Cool" from 11:00AM to sunset. (Of course, there will be days much warmer or much colder than this average.)

Anna4255

Nothing to contribute. I'm just following thread to learn.

hfbill

Je suis sûr que votre anglais est meilleur que mon français!

Fredandsveta

Firstly, thank all for such big participation !! that a quite active forum, it will take me a while to answer
I’ll try to compile all the information,

- About the visa, we come under the ESTA and Waiver visa. We would love to stay more but we have to move to South America to continue the travel and match with the austral spring and summer.
We will stay exactly 86 days, from the 3th March to the 28th May 2018. We expect to ride around 2800 miles in this period of time.

- About the way to leave Los Angeles, the Boltbus to Barstow look the best motorized solution, but after visiting the adventurecycling road especially the one called “Bicycle Route 66” we start to imagine simply to ride for leave the big city.
What we like in this idea is the itinerary crossing Los Angeles, certainly it will be very interesting for us, and good fun to cycle through those places!! For foreigners victims of the Hollywood “brainwash” from the time we born (we like American movies, nothing wrong with that!!), we know and heard all the name we see on the map, so it can be nice to replace the virtual experience by a personal one!
The point will be to find for 2-3 nights different host on the road, with WarmShower certainly.
Is it a crazy idea?

- About insurance, that a serious question sure. For the 3 month in USA we will be covered by the insurance included with our Visa premium credit card, so for that period we don’t take more insurance, it should be enough. But I’m going to call them just to check how it work.
Thanks @djb for your concern!
I feel bad that American people have to face to such situation regarding health expenses….

- About the season, the weather and temperature; we are not really worry by the cold, we are autonomous until almost 0°F, it’s more the rain we would like avoid because it complicate a bit the daily life of the road We also use weatherspark.com.
We are aware that in the area we are looking for, Las Vegas – SLC, we will cross elevated place, but that ok, we adapt ourselves and get used to that. We come from Grenoble, a beautiful city in the French Alps.
Thank you @DXchulo and @ooga-booga, it’s exactly the kind of itinerary we are looking for. As soon as I have 10 posts on the forum I will share a Google collaborative map where I’ve added your proposition. That sounds the good adventure!!

pdlamb

Just a suggestion, not knowing if this is your inaugural trip: plan to roll into your terminal city (Salt Lake City?) 3-5 days before your plane leaves. That'll give you a bit of margin on your ride. Snowstorm? Hole up for a day or two. Bike broke, needs a part? Order it and wait for it to arrive. A day or two at the end also lets you unwind, leisurely (instead of hurriedly) arrange to have your bike packed to ship, visit the area, etc. Staying up packing until 2:00 in the morning to catch a 6:00 a.m. flight doesn't make for fond memories.

Fredandsveta

Hi @pdlamb,

Thanks for your advice
It's exactly our plan to stay few days quite in Salt Lake City before the flight. It will be a certain job to pack the tandem, and we will need to make some shopping before start the trip in South America, like an extra Schwalbe Mondial Marthon tire, the chains to change, to change the oil on the Rolhoff hub, what else...
We cross the fingers for find available host with WarmShower.

Fredandsveta

10 posts reached!! I can now share more than plain text!

Here is the link of our Google collaborative map :
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Py...vU&usp=sharing

It's in read access only, let me know if you which the right to modify, that's welcome!

The blue point are some national Park we found through some google search,
the red line is following the places where we have to go,
the blue line is the proposition of itinerary from @ooga-booga on post #17

diphthong

looking at the route i proposed...assuming you spend 2-3 days at each national park and average 40-60 miles a day,
it looks like you blow though my route in approximately 5 weeks. that leaves you with another 4-8 weeks. i'm also assuming that once you start hitting the really gorgeous stuff like the grand canyon, monument valley and all of southern utah, it will slow you to a crawl. still...that's a lot of extra time. on your itinerary, you've got a few things-calico ghost town. it's interesting (more of a fabrication) but i think you might enjoy rhyolite ghost town on the eastern boundary of death valley national park (on the way to beatty, nevada) a little more. valley of fire state park and lake mead recreational area are fairly close to las vegas (as is red rock national conservation area). all are worth riding so that's another 3 days along with a potentially obligatory las vegas side trip. i would also recommend dipping down in a southeasternly fashion after leaving las vegas on the way from kingman, arizona towards flagstaff, arizona. this would allow you to contact the historic, hillside mining town of jerome, az and also a fantastic copper museum in neighboring clarksdale (i'm not joking-the museum is one of a kind) enroute to the idyllic town of sedona, arizona. would add another 3-4 days to the ledger before you head north to flagstaff, az then onwards to the south rim of grand canyon national park. if your trip was a month later in the year, i'd say forget about the south rim of the grand canyon and hit the north rim instead. problem is that the north rim is closed from mid-december to mid-may. zero services. elevation is around 8,000 feet so plenty of snow. theoretically, you would be there sometime in april. it's said that arizona highway 67 that runs from the restaurant/motel/general store hamlet of jacob lake, az to the north rim of grand canyon np is the most beautiful highway in all of arizona. having ridden it, i can say it's definitely beautiful. it's roughly 45-50 miles one way from jacob lake to the road's end at either cape royal or the grand canyon lodge. views at either surpass anything you'll see from the south rim imho. maybe it's doable on a bike, maybe it's not. they'll allow hikers and cross-country skiers in. can't find any reliable info on whether cyclists can ride in when the north rim is closed. i suppose you could always circle back to it and then zip up to salt lake city depending on exactly when in may you depart the states. hitting the north rim from/enroute to kanab, utah would add another 3 days.

cb400bill

four

saddlesores

if weather is a problem at that time, stay south longer. from south rim could go to tuscon
for saguaro national monument, some nice gravel roads in the area. then a stop to see
"the thing" and then gradually head north. monument valley, canyon de chelly, and into
utah.

axolotl

I would suggest heading to Joshua Tree NP at the beginning, as you originally proposed, as opposed to Death Valley. From there, I would seriously consider heading toward southern Arizona. There are several interesting places to see near Tucson, including Saguaro NP. The weather should be good for cycling there during March. Then, you can head northward, perhaps toward Petrified Forest NP and Canyon de Chelly NM, before continuing northward to Utah. I don't know if there is a recommended cycling route to go from southern Arizona to northern Arizona. Perhaps someone else here has some suggestions.

diphthong

and it looks like you probably would, given your direction of travel, but utah highway 12 from bryce canyon national park to capitol reef national park-or vice versa-is not to be missed. it may just be the most scenic stretch of road you ride on your vacation here.

DXchulo

Looks like a solid outline to me!

Fredandsveta

Thank you so much again for your time to answer.

We are quite slow travellers! We like to take our time, stop and look, take photos, etc..! No goal of daily distance or riding time!!
Usually we travel between 31 and 50 miles by day, ride 3-4 days and then we take a day off, preferably in a lost place and near a river if we can choose!
For the 3 months in US we count about ride about 2800 miles.

We finally don’t have to go through Twentynine Palms, so from LA we can ride directly toward Death Valley. So we may not see the Joshua tree NP and the Mojave NP.
After crossing Las Vegas we will adapt according to the weather, between headings to the area of South Flagstaff, Grand Canyon South Rim or best option the North Rim.
Anyway we will see all along the road which direction we take until SLC.

diphthong

awesome. let the weather be your guide. death valley is better than either mojave national preserve or joshua tree national park,
both are worthy but death valley is more iconic. (high) desert-wise...arizona and utah up the ante. any essential high-desert trip in the west
should include: death valley national park, grand canyon national park, zion national park, bryce canyon national park,
grand-staircase/escalante national monument, capitol reef national park, canyonlands national park & arches national park.
you include all those places, your routes to/from will have some pleasant and unexpected surprises.

Fredandsveta

one question regarding the US roads, which kind of road or highway is forbidden for the bicycles?
For example the 93 and 95 at the south-west of Las Vegas, they start in two double one way road and at some point become a simple two way road. Is it possible to ride those roads?

boomhauer

yes on 93 and 95.
no on 15.

300ps

Note that both 93 and 95 have stretches without shoulders, but plenty of trucks. I don't know what your tolerance for that kind of riding is, but a lot of people would consider those roads dangerous for cyclists.

There are places where you can ride the interstates such as I-15 if there is no other alternative. I've ridden it from Baker, CA to near Barstow. The interstates always have shoulders but they aren't always in good condition.

300ps

"niaise pas", en français de France, je dirais "déconne pas"

chrisx

95 near lake havasu is the most dangerous road I have ever pedaled on. Truckers without proper papers use this and near by routes to avoid inspection.

Do some research on bicycle routes, find roads with shoulders, they are out there.
Research your route = nice day.
Any old route = bad day.