weather on southern tier route

[meandangel]

how cold is the sountern tier cause i'm from alaska and it gets pretty cold here, whats the temp?

I plan on traveling the southern tier starting oct 14th of this year!

[Westinghouse]

I have done the southern tier four times, three and a half actually. In my opinion, winter is the only time to do the ST. It can get snowy and quite cold at times, but mostly it is crisp and clear and invigoratingly cool, and perfect for cycling. Expect to get rained on in Louisiana. Summer is too hot. I was drinking three gallons of liquid daily until I got to San Angelo, TX where my motel burned down and I got put up at the local Howard Johnson's for a few days. In San Angelo someone said west of there was known as the other side of hell. It did cool off quite a bit west of San Angelo, and my daily mileage went back up.
The southern route is south enough that winter conditions are easy enough to bare. Starting in October you will still have some quite warm days. It is nothing compared to Alaska. "When it's springtime in Alaska it's 40 below."

This message was edited by Westinghouse on 10-7-08 @ 11:24 AM

[randyberlin]

I'm also from Alaska and plan on starting in Austin on Oct 31st. Has anyone heard anything about any problems left over from Ike?

[Westinghouse]

I do not know for sure about Ike, but if the Galveston area is anything like the Gulf area I was cycling through after Katrina, there is hell to pay.
I cycled the Gulf rd. 90. For many many blocks only the concrete foundations remained of the neighborhoods that were once there. The national guard had set up a roadblock barring traffic at all through one section. They said Pass Christian had been completely wiped off the map. I stopped at a small restaurant for a beer just before camping for the night. I met two younger fellows there. They were volunteers planting trees to replace those destroyed by salt water surges. They told me that where we were sitting then was under sixteen feet of water during the height of the storm. And we were quite a distance from the Gulf of Mexico.