A Few Questions About the TransAm

[Westinghouse]

yeh yeh..2007..i had just graduated college and was heading eastbound back home to virginia with time constraint of starting job in august.
i'm not sure i recall meeting ya'll on the road....as i recall there weren't too, too many folks heading eastbound that i ran into, esp compared to the amount heading westbound....i had biked from grant village, wy (in yellowstone) to dubois, wy on july 9th....so i must have passed you folks somewhere along the way between oregon and there but you all might have been resting out of plain sight? or other way around.  once in colororado i took detour off TA and went through rocky mtn national park down to boulder and then hooked up with route again....i dont' really recognize ya'll from blog pics...nice blog though!!
here's my blog if care to skim through

www.dubobikingxc.blogspot.com



I notice you had the same set of tires for the entire tour. That reminds me I have to stop chinching on buying tires. Only once have I ever gotten that kind of mileage from a back tire. Could you tell me what kind of tires you used on that tour? That was some awesome mileage, really good.

[John Nettles]

No one has mentioned the weather.  You can get tornadoes anytime of year but especially between mid-March to mid-June.  Also, the severe storms the central plains have are much more intense than those of the coasts (hurricanes excluded).  That said, the weather forecasting in this part of the country is actually pretty accurate and they can track tornadic storms pretty well and forecast where something will be hit within a mile or two.  The thing about tornadoes are you are safe unless within 1/4 mile of one.

I used to storm chase when younger and have seen EXTENSIVE damage but also just a block away, absolutely nothing wrong.  Bring a small (pack of cards size) radio (does not need to a weather radio) and listen to the forecast.  If it is going to be bad, get a motel or head away from it (harder with dog if you can only travel 20 miles max per day).  I have never heard of a touring cyclist killed by a tornado, but I have seen a bike struck by lightening before (awesome, scared the !@#$ out of us), and leaves a little weld mark).

Use reasonable common sense and you should be fine.

[dunedigger]

Thanks for the info on the weather, I'm defiantly bringing a hand crank WB with me on the trip.

[Westinghouse]

Take it from someone who knows. It is not a good idea to disregard warnings of heavy weather that might be coming your way. Keep an ear out for the weather channel. If a powerful storm front is charging in your direction, do the best you are able to do to decrease its assault upon yourself. Those storms can be lethal with thousands of lightning bolts slamming to earth all around. It seems in some parts of the country storms crop us out of nowhere, do their destruction, and peter out. I am from Florida where we can usually see hurricanes coming from a long way off in the Atlantic or gulf, then fight or fly.  In Texas, Minnesota, and Kansas they seemed to just pop up and go slamming around. If you are out on the plains with nowhere to find shelter, and one of those hurricane force or worse storms comes sweeping into your area, you would be in for one hell of a very bad time. That is the chance you take.Travel has always been fraught with hazards. I have been caught out in some very lethal storms, lethal for anyone caught out in them. I still wonder sometimes how it is I could still be alive. I know one thing. If I ever hear a severe weather warning again on the radio when I am out cycle touring, I am going to do a lot more to prepare for it than I ever did before. As Americans we tend to be sheltered. We have forgotten what the weather can do to us when we are out there in it.

[staehpj1]

Take it from someone who knows. It is not a good idea to disregard warnings of heavy weather that might be coming your way.

I don't bother with a radio.  The locals will be quick to warn you when the weather looks dicey, especially if you ask.  You need to respect the weather, but then again I think it all to easy to be overly cautious to the point where you worry about every little thunder storm.  I don't think we would have ever gotten across Montana and Wyoming if we had holed up whenever there were thunderstorms in the forecast.  They were forecast pretty much every day.  And most of the time we could see one in the distance.  Yes they could be scary, we did have lightning all around us at one point up on a butte with nothing sticking up higher than us.  We probably should have gotten as low as we could and waited it out, but we raced as fast as we could for lower ground instead.  Maybe not the smartest move, but we lived to tell about it.