Messages

1411

General Discussion / Re: What roads can you cycle on?

« on: March 06, 2009, 02:00:12 am »

Generally speaking, some interstates you can cycle on and most you cannot; you have to find out which. Aside from private stretches of road and turnpikes, etc., you are pretty much free to cycle any public road in the country. Be forewarned; some roads are really great for cycling, heavenly almost; some roads are straight out of hell; there are many roads of varying degrees of suitability for cycling between heaven and hell. Try to choose your routes along the high roads as well as you are able to.

1412

Connecting ACA Routes / Re: West Coast of Florida Connector

« on: March 06, 2009, 01:34:37 am »

I am one of the comparatively few in my age bracket who was born and raised in Florida. I am from the east coast. My hometown has a beach on the Atlantic. The town is about thirty miles east of the east side of Lake Okeechobee; Stuart. I have begun several of my long bicycle tours from there.

1413

General Discussion / Re: Living on my bike

« on: March 06, 2009, 01:15:55 am »

I don't think Bobbirob is in the least bit nuts for wanting to do that. Once you have had a good look at the world you would see that there are over six billion persons inhabiting this planet, and lifestyles vary beyond your wildest imagination. As long as you have the necessary funds there is no reason why you cannot make your dream a reality. You may have some kind of dysfunction of the nervous system, but that would not prohibit you from working now and then for extra money.

As for myself, I have been working overseas for years on contracted projects. At the end of a contract I may want to renew. If not, I can come back to Florida. I might, usually actually, take off on a long tour across the United States. I also cast around for other jobs overseas. If I find something that interests me I try for it. I do not always get what I apply for, but sometimes I do. If I am successful or lucky or whatever it is that gets me employed again, I take off back overseas. Before I started working overseas I would take long tours. I too had an independent income, but from a private source, not disability or government. I certainly was not rich with it, but it enabled me to be free and independent of having to take unfair employment just because of the pressures of economic necessity; that in and of itself could be seen as form of wealth.

1414

General Discussion / Re: Cross Country for a Cause?

« on: March 06, 2009, 12:45:13 am »

If you google the Gobin Guards Association in Carlisle, Pennsylvania you might be able to acquire some help. The Gobin Guard is a non profit organization dedicated to helping veterans and their families. There is a war college in Carlisle, PA where the Gobin Guard is located. There is also Gobin Avenue leading up to or near the war college. I think I read it is the largest war college in the country. The Gobin Guard was named after its founder J.P.S. (John Peter Shindel) Gobin who was a prominent veteran of the civil war, president of the state senate of PA, lieutenant governor, major general commanding the PA national guard, and United States commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic. The GAR was by far the largest and most powerful veterans organization in the USA with some 410,000 members at its zenith of power.

I don't know, but it seems like they might be able to help you, or know somwhere you can get that help. It wouldn't hurt to try there considering the nature of your ambition. A statement dated 1993 said the Gobin Guards were independent of local, state, or national organizations. I was thinking it might be different from what you could expect from the usual VFWs or other official veterans' organizations.

1415

Connecting ACA Routes / Re: West Coast of Florida Connector

« on: March 05, 2009, 02:18:00 pm »

That was what I meant, the indian reservation casino. Maybe someone might think it was a casino run by people from India. There is a reservation or reservations in the glades. I thought it was actually a good ride across the everglades by Tamiami Trail. I have done it twice. What can I say? I liked it a lot. The thing is, one cannot be lackadaisical about the gators. We both know that. They are more dangerous than any third rail. Regardless of our own self concepts as human beings, they see us as a moving feast. They are carniverous reptiles whose main job is to take us apart, and store our remains in some burrow or other under an embankment where Mr. Gator can dine at his leisure. Just thought I would throw that in. I have not heard of any human stock being taken by them lately, but occasionally it does happen. Extrame caution might be the watchword for the unknowing cyclist wheeling acoss that part of Florida, and spending nights in a tent. They do come up on the road, and travel some distance across land. They are amphibious and they can run like the blazes for short distances. It is what has enabled them to survive for millions of years.

1416

Routes / Re: Southern Tier............

« on: March 05, 2009, 01:57:11 pm »

There is something to be said about the radical change that highway 90 in northern Florida takes at the town on Milton in NW Florida. Across the top of the state 90 is really great for cycling, except when you go through Tallahassee which has far too much dense traffic to deal with on a road whose paved shoulders have suddenly disappeared for a long stretch. Generally speaking though, 90 might be considered something of a cyclist's dream road.
There is plenty of room, and its shoulders are extensive and wide and run a very long way. Traffic is quite moderate. Its surface is smooth--until you get to Milton. Here is a verbatim entry from one of my less detailed journals.

"I just kept on pedaling through the small towns, through road construction, on an old concrete slab and brick road built in 1921, resting at small stores and grinding over the hills. The wind came from the side much of the time. From Milton, Florida and west, 90 turned bad for cycling with grass debris all over the shoulder, disappearing shoulders, and large expansion cracks, and a rough surface---very different from the rest of 90 across N. Florida."
April 30, 2007.

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General Discussion / Re: Living on my bike

« on: March 05, 2009, 12:54:49 pm »

I think I know what bikerjames and tourista829 are talking about. There is this man. His name is Cecil. I consider him an itinerant worker. His bike is his transportation. He is a nice enough person. He meeds medical attention for his heart. Most of his teeth are gone. He smokes like a chimney, but is a nondrinker. He will ride his bike thirty or forty miles to a town and work there doing whatever, odd jobs, picking tomatoes, that sort of thing, maybe painting someone's porch. No education to speak of much. He will go to another town say 35 miles away. It may take him two or three days to get there. He will set up his rag tag little camp, stay there so many weeks perhaps, and pick oranges for a living, and so on and so forth. He is a poor homeless man whose only transportation is a bicycle. Or maybe that is not what they mean.

There are people riding bikes long distances who are not what we might define as bicycle tourists. They are people out there on the road, and most likely mainly around bigger cities who are basically down and out. They are not likely to be adventurers; perhaps they are more like misadventurers who are in a hole they do not know how to climb out of. They have their bikes, and that is their only way of getting around. On the other hand, I have lived in China for long periods, and there the velocipede is the main mode of transportation for hundreds of millions of people, and I assure you many many Chinese evince that down and out aspect in their appearances and finances.

The down and out types in the US are not what I consider to be long distance bicycle tourists, but maybe some of them are.

1418

General Discussion / Re: Osteoporosis and long distance cyclists

« on: March 05, 2009, 12:33:55 pm »

I second that totally. Jogging, running, lifting weights, calesthenics. I have done it for years, but not in the past few months. I ran / jogged for years and years and was still doing so regularly up until some months ago. I have always read that kind of exerceise increases bone thickness and density and strength. Not to mention too much about the fact that you feel a lot better in just about every way with a proper regimen of exercise and a good diet. The longest I have ever run at one time without stopping was seventeen miles. I once worked out extensively three times a week for eight months, and went on a real healthy diet before going on a long bicycle tour. There I was, 53 or 54 years old, and I was built pretty darn good. I have a photo of myself, and if you had not been able to see my face, you might have thought I was thirty at first glance. The problem is I simply do not pump up the way I did when I was younger. Father time has a lot more to say about such matters than I will ever have. Therefore, I do have some extensive experience with what Biker James is talking about, and I wholeheartedly agree. Varied forms of exercise, aerobic and anaerobic.

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General Discussion / Re: Living on my bike

« on: March 05, 2009, 08:15:40 am »

There is no need for tourista to make an apology. Everybody sees the world in the light of his own experiences, and by whatever vicarious learning he can acquire along the pathway of life. What he has seen is what he has seen and known. It should not be taken as a negation of anyone's point of view, but as a valuable contribution to the broad spectrum of realities we call the human experience. Therefore, some people may be thriving on the "life on a bike" lifestyle, and others may be in a very bad way. Perhaps those are not adventurers by choice, but down at the heels, destitute persons who can afford only a beat up old bike for transportation.   

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General Discussion / Re: Osteoporosis and long distance cyclists

« on: March 04, 2009, 10:13:08 pm »

Well, whatever. I have been looking it up and that was what I found, so far. I have only those two books with me, and I am overseas in a place where books on that sort of thing are not easy to get, or are prohibitively expensive. What they are saying is that if you are losing calcium through the excretory process to the point there is a negative mineral balance, there is some  dysfunction causing that much calcium to be flushed out. In other words, your system is not properly metabolizing that mineral, and the cause of that problem could be too much vitamin D, too much protein, alcohol, smoking etc. The sweating is not the actual cause of the osteoporosis because if the system were properly metabolizing the mineral, it would not be available in such large quantities to be drained out to begin with. Being mindful that we are talking about losing calcium to the point that some harmful debilitating disease such as osteoporosis results from it. We are not talking normal loss of calcium here. The body takes what it needs and lets go of the rest where vitamins and minerals are concerned. If you have a proper diet, you should not have to worry about calcium, minerals, and vitamins. If there is a problem with metabolizing, the problem may very well be with the diet, but there are also other causes for malabsorbtion and such.

Nutrition used to be a favorite private study of mine, but I have not kept up on it for years.

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Connecting ACA Routes / Re: West Coast of Florida Connector

« on: March 04, 2009, 12:02:53 pm »

If you go down the west coast, you can go as far as Naples or thereabouts and get Tamiami Trail across the everglades. Be careful camping in the glades. There are large alligators, many of them, and they will kill you and eat you. Be careful getting near any canals or ponds or lakes. They slip up beneath the surface of the water, and come shooting up out of shallows like lightning. This is no BS. The panthers will not bother you, or so we are told. I haven't ever heard of a mauling. Get across the glades and there is a gambling casino run by Indians. At that point, it might be Krome Avenue but I cannot remermber, you might be better off going south to connect with US 1 to the Keys. East of Krome Avenue had a very bad reputation years ago as being a high crime area. I don't now about now, but why take the chance unless you are determined to go into Miami for some reason which you can do, and get Brickle(spelling?) Avenue to US 1 from there by crossing the Miami River and heading south.

1422

Routes / Re: How much to save to do the TA

« on: March 04, 2009, 11:43:52 am »

If you camp, buy food in grocery stores, cook your own food, and are careful how you spend, you could do it for thirty dollars a day. Motels can raise the ante, but they are worth it occasionally. Somebody said about $3000.00 American. Sounds about right. The fact is, within certain limits, it can cost about as much or as little as you are willing and able to spend.

1423

Routes / Re: East to West

« on: March 04, 2009, 11:37:54 am »

Every person makes his opinions on his own experiences, and we can also learn from the experiences of others. From my experiences I will say this much. DO NOT USE GREYHOUND BUS except for short hauls, the shorter the better. If Greyhound bus were the ony single choice I had for transportation back to Florida after cycling to California, I would pack up my gear, haul it out to the roads of America, and hitchhike back.

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General Discussion / Re: Looking for Cross Country Tour Group that accepts Trikes

« on: March 04, 2009, 11:20:02 am »

Sounds interesting. I have always used upright bikes, though I have heard of the advantages of the recumbents. Never used redumbents two wheeled or three. Cannot say anything one way or the other. At one time I did think that trikes were a bit wider and might be a problem, but if experienced riders say the opposite, that's the voice of authority. After all, the proof is in the pudding. If they have been out there and doing it, that's all I need to know. If I ever get in another converstaion about trikes as opposed to uprights, I am going to say that recumbent trikes draw more attention, and drivers give them more space than uprights, and experienced trike riders said so, and give reference to this forum. That's the way I do things.

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General Discussion / Re: Osteoporosis and long distance cyclists

« on: March 04, 2009, 11:09:21 am »

Vitamin D is used for certain disorders of the parathyroid gland. The Food and Drug Administration of the United states recommends 100% to 250% more vitamin and mineral intake than all the medical experts in the world combined. Nobody over the age on 22 needs any extra vitamin D at all. Among all the vitamins it is the one that can cause the most trouble if you take too much. It can upset calcium metabolism, and drain the calcium out of your bones, deposit it in your kidneys, and cause kidney stones, which at their worst can cause death. Even small doses can sause great harm to babies. You can even get vitamin D by exposing yourself to florescent lamps. Most people don't even have to eat to get vitamin D.

Reuben, David, M.D. Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Nutrition. Avon, NY. 1978. 37, 66, 97, 11, 15-16, 14-15. A national best seller.