Hello,
This is perhaps a lot to ask as 1993 was a very long time ago, but I am interested in contacting anyone who rode coast to coast between October and December of this year.
It was my first long bicycle trip, as well as the first time I visited North America. At the eleventh hour, a friend couldn't make it so I decided to 'go it alone'! Despite family and friends thinking I was mad to even think about a solo trip, I'm glad I ignored their advice and the experience, though at times hard, was incredible and worth every pedal stroke.
I used a combination of the then Bikecentennial maps, standard road maps and the advice of locals to navigate from San Diego, California, to St. Augustine in Florida, (How easy it is to type the names of those places!), cycling from 40 to 120 miles a day. I've never been very good at steady averages and am easily distracted by an interesting view, place or person.
I've read with interest books, magazine articles and forum accounts of long distance cycle trips ever since. The many pleasures and pains are easy to identify with, but as anyone fortunate enough to have pushed their personal boundaries (and ignored the 'rational' advice of others and themselves) and decided to travel by bike will know, the perceived limitations quickly become advantages.
The physical and psychological effects of riding, especially alone, quickly become not just travel but a way of life. I have ridden a few tours since, but nothing has matched the spectacular sense of being a guest of the seemingly barren expanses of the southern states, especially New Mexico and parts of Texas.
It would be great to hear from anyone who was riding across or around the country at the same time.
Regards, Bottombracket.
