Messages

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General Discussion / Re: Why did you go coast-to-coast? Research for a book.

« on: November 12, 2025, 11:11:44 am »

I went coast-to-coast in 2017, starting from Astoria, Oregon and finishing up in Yorktown, Virginia. It took me just under 11 weeks, riding mostly solo but meeting up with a handful of other riders along the TransAm.

My motivation was a mix of curiosity and closure, I guess. I’d spent years working long hours behind a desk, always promising myself “one day.” When my father passed away unexpectedly, it hit me that “one day” isn’t guaranteed. The ride became a way to process that loss, to reset my perspective, and to see the country at a human pace.

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What surprised me most was how the journey ended up being less about distance and more about connection—small towns, strangers, kindness, and the quiet moments in between. The coast just gave the trip a natural bookend. The real story was everything between the oceans.

Nicely put.

I felt the same way about finishing my nearly 4-month journey at the beach in NJ, which I did as part of the second largest MS 150 ride in the country.  It was all that I had experienced along the way that was (and remains) the most memorable.

Finally, to anyone out there that is thinking "There's always next year", there easily might not be.  While I got my cross country trip in back in '99, I still tour and am regularly coming up with ideas fro trip.  Some of the trips I have sketched out will now never become realities due to deficits left behind after I was found on my kitchen floor hours from death after mysteriously developing sepsis. 

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General Discussion / Re: Why did you go coast-to-coast? Research for a book.

« on: November 11, 2025, 08:31:41 pm »

think coast to coast is a stunt. I generally have a destination in mind when I tour.

The coast is a destination.  And writing "generally" suggests not always.  So are you saying that your tours with no destination in mind and "stunts"?

Please explain.

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General Discussion / Re: Court rules license plate readers illegal.

« on: November 11, 2025, 08:26:33 pm »

A federal judge has ruled FLOCK cameras are public records. https://www.carscoops.com/2025/11/police-cameras-get-shut-down-when-judge-rules-images-are-public-data/

Which seems to run counter to your claim that they are illegal.

Absent something like harassment (e.g., being chased by paparazzi), I don't believe you have a right of privacy when you are out in public.  That's why it's called 'public".  What's next?  Someone suing someone else because they looked at them?

There are reasons license plates exist.  To be able to identify vehicles and link them to their registered owners.  They are also handy for things like tracking down people who commit hit-and-runs and other traffic violations.  We have a very dangerous strtetch of U.S. 1 in my city.  Since installing red light an speed cameras, which capture license plates, accidents and deaths have dropped dramatically.  Too many people cannot be trusted to behave civilly and in accordance with laws when it comes to driving, and those failures kill and injure people every day.  I have a dollar to a donut that says you would be quite happy if you were injured by a motorist who was later identified using a license plate reader.

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General Discussion / Re: Why did you go coast-to-coast? Research for a book.

« on: November 02, 2025, 10:20:32 am »

Seattle, WA to Bar Harbor, ME in 1999.  Started the fourth week of May.  Finished 93 days later.  It was ACA's group, unsupported Northern Tier tour.  Started with 12 people and the leader.  Two people dropped out along the way.  After resting a few days on Bar Harbor, I rode home solo to Philadelphia and then on to Ocean City, NJ as part of the MS 150 City-to-Shore, which was event I had done more than 15 years in a row. Even though that event was supported and I had housing in Ocean City, I still carried my own gear.

Why?  I was in my mid-30s.  I knew for well over a year that I was going to be downsized in the wake of a corporate acquisition.  I had done a couple of supported tours across PA.  I had also ridden from home to the NJ coast several times.  I thought it would now be great to ride across the country.  I looked at supported trips, but they were more high-mileage (90-ish/day) than I was interested in.  I didn't want to just ride, eat, sleep, and repeat.  I wanted to have time to really experience the places I was going to ride through, especially since, other than a one-week visit with a friend in Seattle years before, I had never spent any time west of the Mississippi.  I also imagined that repeated long days might result in me getting a SAG ride at least once, and I was determined to ride every mile.  Ended up finding about ACA and decided on the Northern Tier because it went west to east, which meant I would ride to my doorstep.

I finally got my wish was was downsized at the end of April, 1999.  Because of some hiccups, I didn't get my racks and panniers from Robert Beckman until May 1st.  The first day of the tour marked the only the second time I had ridden a fully-loaded bike.  (I was a devout roadie up until then, and thought carrying a bunch of stuff on a bike was an excuse to go slow.)  The first night of the tour marked the first night I had ever really camped.  As a teenager, I was a camp counselor for a couple of summers.  We would occasionally have the kids drag their mattresses down to the model campsite and have a sleep out, but I didn't consider that camping.

In the end, the journey was about 6,000 miles, including miles spent exploring cities and towns and miles logged during side trips.  I carried a lot of film camera equipment, including two cameras, and shot nearly 100 rolls of film, which I periodically mailed home then developed myself after the trip.  (Not as much as it might sound because the film for the medium camera produced only 15 shots/roll.)

I had this fantasy that, during the trip, I would be resting at the top of a mountain climb when a gust of wind would hit me and I would realize what I REALLY wanted to do with the rest of my life.  That never happened, but I did fall in love with touring.  I had only planned to take the summer of '99 off.  But in mid-March of 2000, I flew to Andalucia, Spain and spent nearly two months touring the territory solo.  Returned home and the end of April, rested for a few weeks, then went back out to Seattle and rode to Cortez, CO (using ACA routes) to visit some friends who would be interning at Mesa Verde N.P.

When that summer ended, I decided I had better look for a steady job.  After doing some temp work for a while, I just happened to get my old job back in May of 2001.  I walked back in the door after having taken exactly two years off, and I stayed there until April 1, 2024, when I retired.

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General Discussion / Re: Court rules license plate readers illegal.

« on: October 27, 2025, 10:15:24 am »

There are now 40000 FLOCK AI cameras in use that read license plates and report to law enforcement. These are privatized which prevents the government from being sued. Any one can buy the information and any one can buy a camera for &2500. The public didn't win they were allowed to win because the government now has something better. After Ian a malfunctioning red light camera was issuing 20 citations a second in Orland Fl. I did a post about this on the Pentax forums. Things are still going to get worse for us. I got this from the Hampton Law Firm.

That doesn;t answer my question:  Where did a court rule license plate readers illegal?  The link you posted says nothing of the sort.

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General Discussion / Re: Court rules license plate readers illegal.

« on: October 24, 2025, 09:54:39 am »

Maybe I am missing something in the article, but I don't see a ruling on anything other than a motion to dismiss.  Denying a motion to dismiss is not a determinative ruling on a case.

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General Discussion / Re: Fears for the Future of Adventure Cycling

« on: September 27, 2025, 07:54:42 am »

A couple of the Walton kids have been investing a lot of money in cycling-related projects in Arkansas.  IIRC, they are into MTB-in big time.

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Connecting ACA Routes / Re: Missoula to Minneapolis

« on: September 23, 2025, 01:48:36 pm »

Just saw this.  You can get from Missoula to Whitefish (on the NT) on paved roads save for a maybe 30' section that, the last time I rode it (2019), was dirt.  Yiu can get from Missoula to Columbia Falls , but the only safe way I know of involves some unpaved riding through a residential area.  (I would not NOT take Hwy. 206 north of the junction with Hwy. 35.  Lots of fast traffic and no shoulder for a segment.)

The problem with heading to the NT west of Glacier is that to get to W. Glacier you either need to do some dirt/gravel or brave a shoulderless segment of U.S. 2 between C-Falls and Hungry Horse.

What width tires do you plan to ride?  Keep in mind that you could hit roadwork that would force you to ride unpaved surfaces.  Back when I was on the tA from Missoula east I hit two extended section of road that were being repaved and had their paved surfaces removed.  I am glad I had 37c tires.  I was on the TA in Darby back in June.  The section of U.S. 93 through town was being repaved.

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General Discussion / Re: How much water to carry?

« on: September 09, 2025, 07:43:37 am »

The above-link is spam posted in several threads.

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General Discussion / Re: Fears for the Future of Adventure Cycling

« on: August 28, 2025, 07:07:18 am »

Leaving aside management/personnel issues folks have mentioned(I concede that these are important but suspect that bigger forces are in play), does ACA’s existential crisis stem from changes in cycling generally or changes in *American* cycling?

Good question.  I suspect it's more limited to the U.S.  "We" (I am retired.   ) have much less free time in this country.  Our population is, sadly, less physically fit and more car-oriented.  And there is the culture of fear mentioned above.  One thing your post made me think of are the postings on the touring and bikepacking Facebook group I am am member of.  Most of them seem to be from people from other parts of the world.  I am surprised when I see a post from an American regarding a tour in the U.S.  In fact, I will bet you are more likely to see a post from a foreigner touring in the U.S.  And as I think I mentioned before, four of the shockingly few people I met recently on small portion of the TranAm in Montana were European.

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Routes / Re: How many people ride the Northern Tier each year?

« on: August 20, 2025, 07:35:35 pm »

Speaking of kind acts, my frequent riding partner during my NT trip and I were in a diner in Poe, IN.  We ended up talking to the Mayor, who was also a farmer and involved with the local fire department.  He left to start work.  When we went to pay for our meals, the waitress told us that the man had already paid for us.

Earlier in the trip we got invited to spend a very hot day and the community center in Oxford Jct., IA.  Locals had transformed the former school gym solely through donated materials and labor.  We offered that day's camping budget, but they would not accept it.  We ended up leaving the money anyway.  We also donated to the local museum in town after a local opened it up for us.  We donated money to it, too.  That night we dined at Shackey's.  Just looked at Google Maps.  Both the Community Center and Shackey's are still there.  The town bar is, however, our of business.

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Routes / Re: How many people ride the Northern Tier each year?

« on: August 18, 2025, 10:36:49 pm »

On my tour this summer, a guy in Fort Thompson, SD, handed me four one-dollar bills. I tried to tell him that I didn't need it, but he said that it would be his honor to give it to me. I accepted the bills so as not to insult him, even though I knew that he needed the money more than I did. Later in the tour, I found somebody else to give the money to.

Sometimes accepting is the best thing to do.  I volunteer for an organization delivering meals to ill clients.  During one run just before Christmas, a really nice, elderly couple insisted that I accept a $5 tip.  They said it was because of the holidays.  I eventually to took it so as not seem ungrateful or insulting, not ever before thinking about the organization's policy on tips.  After that experience, I asked the organization about the policy and was told we're not supposed to accept tips, but the volunteer organizer understood why I did in that instance.  I used the monety to but more cat food for the stash I carry in my car to feed homeless cats in the some of the areas where I deliver.  Some areas have a lot of them.

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Routes / Re: Missoula Bound in June

« on: August 11, 2025, 08:43:56 am »

Here is a BF thread (with photos and route map) about the trip.  You should be able to view it even if you are not a member.

https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/1310207-montana-trip-report.html

Made a slideshow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkiYEDcUutg

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Routes / Re: Philly to Chinqoteague Island

« on: August 11, 2025, 08:31:19 am »

Hello Bikers! Just a little question about a nice route from Philly to Chincoteague Island...I'd like to take a new rider there and hoping it's not too difficult or with crazy traffic issues. We can camp, stealth camp or use inns, hotels etc so no real guidelines we need to follow but timeline would be great!  Thank you all in advance.

I can get you from Philly (where I live) to the Cape May-Lewes Ferry various ways.  I do a couple of trips to Cape Henlopen S.P. every year and several to Belleplain State Forest, which is inland from Sea Isle City and has a huge campground with a lake.  The ferry ride is really nice.  Whale and dolphin sightings are not uncommon during the spring and summer months.  Cape Henlopen is a terrific place, especially if you ride.  The entire area is bike-friendly.  Worth spending a couple of nights there.  Just try to stay there during the week and make a reservation to be sure.  The campground is extremely popular.  I was there over Easter Weekend.  I made my reservation in early January.  Nearly all the tent sites were already booked.  The other day I was looking at availability for September.  It's imited.  Easier in early October during the weekdays.

You can shorten the distance to the Ferry (and avoid Camden, NJ) by taking PATCO or NJT into NJ.  Send me a PM is you want details.

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Routes / Re: How many people ride the Northern Tier each year?

« on: August 11, 2025, 08:16:50 am »

Kind of hard to not think about how others see you when someone walks up to you and offers you a sandwich because they think you are homeless.  That happened to me in my home city while I was sitting in a park next to my custom Bike Friday NWT doing the NYT crossword puzzle.  When he insisted that there was nothing wrong with accepting help I showed him the credit cards in my wallet so I could get back to my puzzle.