Messages

61

Routes / Re: Key West and Gulf Coast - State Parks

« on: April 12, 2024, 06:50:16 pm »

Been all there and done all that. Stealth camping in the Keys is possible, and God bless if you can find a spot to do it. Free spaces even that miniscule were few and far between. Be that as it may, if you search long and hard enough, if you are willing to tread oh so lightly on some town ordinances, you are sure to find something.

The west Florida route could be hwy 41 or 301 or a combination of various roadways.  Then you get 98 to Perry FL. From there your most interesting ride would be hwy 90. There are also 20 and 98. The next thing you know you are in Mobile, Alabama. Big bridge or ferryboat ride are the choices here. 90 would take you along the gulf coast clear across Mississippi. 90 will also run you right down to New Orleans.

You could enter Alabama from Florida two ways. One is hwy 90. The other is the Dauphin Island Ferry in Mobile Bay. That would require taking 90 into Pensacola, and following the extreme coastal roads to Fort Morgan.

62

Routes / Re: Southern Tier (El Paso - Las Cruces)

« on: April 11, 2024, 12:25:32 pm »

It is a good route to take.  I have bicycled El Paso to Las Cruces quite a few times.

63

General Discussion / Re: Do u have favorite cycling sounds (i.e, not music : ) ???

« on: April 11, 2024, 04:35:11 am »

My favorite sound is blissful silence. I oil and plug in deep my swimmers ear plugs to shut out the extremely offensive and very loud blasts from illegally modified exhaust systems. The plugs work miracles for preserving nervous health.

64

General Discussion / Bicycling southern tier, side roads near I--10 Van Horn to El Paso, border towns

« on: April 05, 2024, 06:31:25 am »

It was winter in 1984-85. My girl friend from England and I bicycled from southeast coastal Florida to San Diego, California. In El Paso we went into Juarez, Mexico and did a loop in Mexico, reentering the US at border towns Agua Prieta and Douglas, Arizona. In Mexico the policia pulled us over. They advised us to go back to the American side. they said there had been robberies and crimes where we were headed. they said it was not safe. Years later, circa 2010, I bicycled from FL to CA. This happened on that stretch of highway between Van Horn, TX and El Paso. It was on that stretch of road where you must exit I--10. You know that road. It has all those small towns strung out along the way. Fabens is one town. Anyway, it was zero dark thirty. The border patrol stopped me at the side of the road. They told me this. If anybody waves or gestures to you in any way to stop, if someone or ones try to befriend, DO NOT STOP. Keep going. Recently two tourists had been lured to go party and drink and some fun time with the senoritas. What they got was robbed and murdered. After that I wrote about the possible dangers of cycling the Mexican roads along the border, naming Laredo/Nuevo Laredo as a possible danger zone. The people on the bicycling forum seemed to think the risk was negligible, and the threat exaggerated. Someone from Nuevo Laredo posted a sort of denunciation of my warning. She insisted theirs was such a good place to live. It was a decent area for tourists to visit. Shortly after that, several corpses were found hanging from a bridge in that decent safe little town. They had been horribly mutilated, some probably beheaded with their sex organs mutilated. Another time I bicycled from Florida to Brownsville, TX. It is right on the US / Mexican border, across from Matamoros, near the gulf of Mexico. I was in Brownsville in a cafe, drinking a cup of coffee and reading a a newspaper. This story was in the news. A Mexican border town had voted in a new chief of police. He had vowed that bribery would not rule the police in his jurisdiction. His position was anti illegal drugs and anti cartels. One day after his election, they shot him dead in the street in front of his office.

65

General Discussion / Re: How much water to carry?

« on: April 04, 2024, 03:22:09 am »

For road cycling and long distance touring through towns, two 24 oz bottles of water are sufficient because service areas are so numerous.  None of my cycling (36,000 miles through 19 countries) was all that  remote. 99.9 % roadway cycling. Remote raises questions.  How remote?  How long in remote?  Are there water sources you know about there? The more sources of food and water available to you constantly, the less you need to carry, and that is one way of reducing weight.

It’s impressive to hear about your extensive cycling through so many countries, @Westinghouse. Your point about the availability of service areas influencing the need to carry water is well-taken. For our trip, we’re planning ahead using Google Maps to map out known water sources ahead of time and will consider the balance between carrying enough water and managing weight.

That is the way to determine how much water to carry. When you have mapped your water sources on your route, you can figure out how much water to carry by knowing your projected daily mileage, and knowing about how long it will take you to get from way point to way point.  You might have to plan ahead. On a bicycle, the forces of nature, which we can afford to pretty much ignore back home on the block, can become a determining power for or against you. It is nice to have the plan all done and arranged. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, a headwind from hell comes slamming against you, or a powerful driving rain with strong side winds, and what to do then? Your projected 30 miles to the next oasis is not to be. You cycle 15 miles and hurry off to stand shivering under the overhang of a dilapidated abandoned old farm house. There are variables to offset the best laid plans of mice and men. Google check weather forecasts frequently enough that you always know what weather is headed your way days before it reaches your location. And what the hell.  There are people around.

66

General Discussion / Re: How much water to carry?

« on: April 04, 2024, 02:56:03 am »

I think you may know this, however, just in case, Wal Mart sells the Sawyer water filter.  It is a big favorite for those who hike the Appalachian trail, the great divide trail and the Pacific crest trail, and many other trails for sure. All reviews I read and saw on you tube were positive. You can use it to draw clean drinking water from fresh water ponds, lakes, streams, brooks etc.  IMO, everybody should have one.

67

General Discussion / Re: How much water to carry?

« on: April 03, 2024, 02:15:28 pm »

For road cycling and long distance touring through towns, two 24 oz bottles of water are sufficient because service areas are so numerous.  None of my cycling (36,000 miles through 19 countries) was all that  remote. 99.9 % roadway cycling. Remote raises questions.  How remote?  How long in remote?  Are there water sources you know about there? The more sources of food and water available to you constantly, the less you need to carry, and that is one way of reducing weight.

68

General Discussion / Re: GDMBR cell phone company ?

« on: April 03, 2024, 02:05:19 pm »

My input is probably known to just about everybody, except me.  Only from reading about the GDMBR I think there are areas where phone connections are  unavailable.  I bicycle toured the wide world without a cell phone.  It should not be a problem, but one never knows what emergency might arise.

69

General Discussion / Re: Overseas medical and crash insurance

« on: April 01, 2024, 07:00:41 am »

Having that kind of insurance is a capital idea. Many people seem to think accidents, catastrophes and other hazardous visitations always happen to some other persons, not to themselves.  The thing is, to everybody else, you , we,  I are those other persons.  Traveling and living overseas as I did for 12-13 years, I encountered 1 train derailment. I survived it.  Eighteen were killed and 70 injured. The injuries were severe mutilation and dismemberment. In Yemen where I was, near me were one attempted assassination of the British deputy of mission in Sanaa, lethal riots, marches, demonstrations and one mass murder killing 50 people and wounding about 300. In Kuwait I worked for the ministry of defense.  We had 25 teachers. Two were killed in traffic. Seven to ten others were in accidents of varying degrees of severity.  Donald Viner, Shaddy from Egypt, Moosa from India and I were smashed into at a high rate of speed.  It was a serious wreck.  In Riyadh there were about 15 actions by people in vehicles to run me down deliberately in the street.

There were many other incidents. Problems definitely come along. Certainly, every day, people traveling the world need insurance to cover the costs of the exigencies of an uncertain world. I did a lot of bicycle touring in western and eastern Europe and the  former Soviet Union.  I did a lot of train touring around Europe by Eurail. Personally, I did not carry insurance in those days. I read too many Superman comic books when I was a young, pliant, impressionable little boy. I grew up thinking I was invincible invulnerable. Besides that, I could not afford it and played the odds.

70

General Discussion / Re: Best Tips for Cooking on the Road

« on: March 30, 2024, 12:36:52 am »

I read in crime reports the most frequently stolen items in the United States are cell phones and bicycles. This happened when I got my first touring bike. I brought it home. I left it in front of the house with the front of the bike pushed into a bush. It was a thick bush and the front of the bike was inside the bush. There was a cable lock going from the bike to the root of this book. That was the first time I had the bike. I came out the next morning and somebody had tried to steal it. The bike was pushed over on its side and there were several scuff marks on the side of the house where they had pulled and pushed and yanked on it where the saddle had rubbed against the wall of the house he outside wall. I guess they gave up and took off. You talk about theft? In my hometown of Stuart Florida there was a driveway up to my house. I locked my car every night and I do mean every night without exception. I always locked it. Only one single night did I neglect to lock my car. The next morning everything inside the car was stolen it was missing. I was cycling through Scottsdale Arizona. I stopped at a Wendy's restaurant. I left the bike out front in Plainview through this big picture window. The manager said is that bike locked? I told him no I can see it. He said somebody had been there before with a bicycle. The guy put the bicycle outside against the wall just like I had. The cyclist went inside to get something to eat. Some black guy came running up lickity split grab the bike, he mounted it and took off. By the time the cyclist was on his feet and outside, the thief was a hundred feet away. This stuff happens all the time.

71

General Discussion / Re: Hotel/motel vs camping

« on: March 25, 2024, 01:51:49 pm »

Coastal pacific western states have the right idea about the camping, and where else in the contiguous USA will you find similar to that? Nowhere I know.

Exactly!!! The only such place was in Italy on the Via Francigena where Catholic church sites offer lodging for 20-25 Euros for a bed and a shower... And in Italy we eat even better than in North America 

I bicycle-toured Italy twice.  I loved it.  If I  had been independently monied, I would have never left there. Not sure they had the church accommodations in 1994.

72

General Discussion / Re: (Catastrophic) injury insurance while cycling?

« on: March 25, 2024, 01:42:00 pm »

I have health insurance and I know hardly anything about it.  It is overly complicated for me.  If anything bad should happen, I would just hand them the card and hope for the best.

73

General Discussion / Re: Best Tips for Cooking on the Road

« on: March 24, 2024, 08:20:03 pm »

"I also have a pet peeve about how a lot of "bike friendly" businesses put the bike racks in an out-of-the-way place so the bike thieves can do their evil work without the risk of being observed."


The business people are probably not cyclists.  They are unaware.  Tell them.  It may be unlikely that a thief will steal your bike or steal from the rack and panniers.  The facts remain that thieves are everywhere and the very real possibility of theft is extant.  If the owners own belongings were left in an area vulnerable to undetected thievery, they would move the rack. Nobody is going to care about and look after your gear, bike, money, house, belongings the way you will.  It is an observation.  No matter what anybody tells you, nobody cares about you as much as yourself.  It is always perfectly fine to position those bike racks the way you describe---so long as other people's bikes are located there.

74

General Discussion / Re: Hotel/motel vs camping

« on: March 21, 2024, 02:12:44 am »

Free camping is much less costly than motels, hotels, hostels, etc. With a black card membership at Planet Fitness, you can get hot showers at any PF in the US. Van Horn, Texas had the least costly motels and they were small, clean.  They might still have. Motel rates have gone through the roof. Bicycle touring, within certain limits, can cost about as little or as much as you have to spend on it. I bought a good used frame. I outfitted it with all new components, gathered my gear and went. All my gear and the bicycle and the entire journey, transcontinental, cost less than some others paid for only their bicycles.

Campgrounds have the niceties. The thing is, I come from a background of poverty. The idea of spending $20.00 and more for a few hours on the hard ground is anathema. Coastal pacific western states have the right idea about the camping, and where else in the contiguous USA will you find similar to that? Nowhere I know.

75

General Discussion / Re: Health + Accident Insurance

« on: March 20, 2024, 10:44:59 pm »

From my old train touring and back packing days around western Europe, I remember people discussing their travel insurance. So, companies do sell specific insurance for travelers, I assume which can be used in foreign countries.  I do not remember any specifics that might be useful.