George, you are correct in the we are not yet on the Eastern Express as Adventure Cycling has defined it, but ACA only took over the route earlier this year from those who developed it. Before ACA took it over, there was a stand-alone website dedicated to the Transamerica Eastern Express. It was under development for 5 or 6 years before that.

On the website the developers laid out a suggested daily itinerary from Washington, DC to Walden, Colorado that avoided a lot of the big hill climbing in the Appalachian and Ozark Mountains that you find on the original Transamerica to Yorktown, Virginia. I laid them both out in Ride With GPS and the Eastern Express had 40,000 less hill climbing between the East Coast and Walden than the original Transamerica.

The developers included on their website day by day Ride With GPS routes from DC to Walden with detailed logistics information along the way. That’s what I used to develop our tour route over the past two years. So, yes, we are on the Transamerica Eastern Express route as envisioned by those who developed it, not as ACA modified it to suit themselves.

The Eastern Express route presented to ACA started in DC and followed the C&O Canal towpath to the GAP to the Montour Trail to the Panhandle Trail; on to Wheeling, WV, across the Ohio River into southeastern Ohio where we are now; then roughly west between Dayton and Cincinnati to Terre Haute, IN, Effingham, IL and across the Mississippi River at Alton, IL. The rest is pretty much as ACA has presented it.

I talked to ACA and they told me they cut off the eastern part and routed it up to Indianapolis for two primary reasons: 1) the C&O and GAP are already very well defined and described, and 2) they wanted to tie it into their existing Chicago to New York City route.

When I get back home I may put our route out there as a single Ride With GPS route, to show what it looked like in the minds of those who did the work to create it.

Thanks Jane…I waved back.

"She also started in Washington DC and is on the same Eastern Express route that we are." I'm sure you know this, but just in case; you aren't actually on the Eastern Express yet. The EE runs from Indianapolis to Walden, CO - you are currently on the Chicago to New York City route and should commence on the EE in about 230 miles. You are riding a route that I researched recently for consideration as a potential future tour, so these details are fresh in my mind. Enjoying your journal, best of luck!

I met Marianne in 2021 on the Northern Tier route - at that time she was making her 5th continental crossing! She had a little dog in tow with her then. I'm not able to post a pic in a comment, but there is a photo of her and a conversation with her in the video on this page; https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/warriordeath1/day-45-alexandria-mn-to-fergus-falls-mn/. My, what a small world it is!

They are a pain but what ever it takes to keep motors off the trails I’m ok with!

Product of Denmark!

*waving from NW Ohio* Good luck with the hills!!!

And water through lead pipes! :-/

Hate to see old town buildings like that crumble. Roof rots first, caves in, walls fall or it becomes a hazard and has to be tore down.

Hahaha

No E-assist. She talked about getting over some hills at 1 mph!

How amazing to meet two solo women on the same day. Extra happiness that they are of silver hair age. Does Marianne have E assist on her trike? I would guess 99% of the trikes I see in Tucson have E assist.

That's a section that was destroyed by floods a while back. It took years for the new concrete to be installed. Much better than the old detour.

It does kinda look like a jail, but it's really a high water outlet drain. No risk of it being needed at the moment.

That’s my kind of camping!!