This is a big one that we've never done. I read cross USA tours with interest, but have no desire to ride. I try and talk myself into it, every so often. After all, all of the other kids are doing it, I should join in!

We rode border to border in 2020. It was our favorite tour, hands down. Cross country?  I can't quite figure my lack of interest out, but at least I know there is none!

Have you ridden cross USA? If not, do you feel you've missed out?

I biked coast to coast across the U.S. near the Canada border and near the Mexico border. I can't say that those tours were more special, memorable, or life-changing than my other tours.

Pedaling coast to coast in the U.S. or Canada is a huge accomplishment. I don't want to belittle or discourage cyclists who are determined to do that. But my experience is that coast to coast routes are not the best touring routes in North America.

My first ever tour was the TransAmerica Trail, Virginia to Oregon, a year after I started riding a bike, when, in retrospect, I was laughably inexperienced and clueless. I consider that two month trip probably the greatest experience of my life. It was certainly life changing. Seventeen years later, I still think about it surprisingly often.

A few years later I rode from St. Augustine, Florida to Anacortes, Washington. So, two coast-to-coast tours. Since then, I've done other long-ish tours, including Mexican border to Canadian border. I haven't really felt a burning desire to do another coast-to-coast tour, but I might do one again.

While I think the TransAmerica Trail routing is not so great in several places - mostly because Adventure Cycling has been unwilling to alter the route as conditions have changed in the last 40+ years - there's something very special about the way the scenery unfolds and changes every few days, especially if you ride it from east to west. I found it a lot more interesting than the Northern Tier, which had long sections where not a lot changed. And there's something pretty cool about traveling a route that thousands of other cyclists have done since 1976... Even if nowadays I prefer to make my own routes.

It's intriguing that your border to border tour was your favorite - and I really enjoyed your journal for it, by the way - but that you're not interested in riding coast-to-coast; it seems like a coast-to-coast tour would have the same sort of appeal as border to border, only with even more of its "epic" qualities.

If you do ever change your mind about riding coast-coast, I will enjoy reading your account of it!

We rode across USA in 2021, a Modified version of the Northern Tier     and in Eastport ME cycled down to Boston

  I (and I think Patrick) can say we are not too much interested in cycling more in the USA on roads other that backroads and Rail to Trails. Why? Because of traffic and the vehicle drivers who have no respect for cyclists. If we were younger, we’d be doing more of the bikepacking thing and off road. There are too many countries that respect cyclists and more enjoyable to see.

Rachel

I’m with you on this, Kelly.  I have no interest in riding across the USA nor across my own country, Canada. 

I like the *concept* of riding across my own country, but then I think about what would be involved:  busy highways with no shoulders and no alternative route in so many areas. I’d really rather spend my time and money elsewhere, on quiet roads with services at reasonable distances, not-so-subtle variations in cuisine and culture, etc. 

Our first long tour was in 2012, when we crossed north america from victoria to quebec city, with a few forays into the u.s. We also, a few years later, crossed the southern tier of the u.s. and also the west coast north to south. These tours were all interesting and challenging in their own ways, but we much prefer Europe and since 2016 are no longer willing to go into the u.s, so Europe (and winter tours in Mexico) are our touring destinations.

Hi

I've ridden across the USA twice, or two and a half times if you count the effort that conked out in Kansas. The first time was on the Northern Tier, followed by a month in Canada; the second was a home-made route that had the Western Express as its second half, from the White House to the Golden Gate; and the failure was with a group riding the Transam.

I enjoyed all those but I had the difference in being a foreigner in a parallel universe, a place in which you suspect things are going to be the same but then discover, to your delight, that they're not.

I can see why North Americans do it, be it in the USA or in Canada, because the ride has a start and an end. There is an ocean at the start and at the finish. That isn't possible here in Europe.

Equally, I wonder why Americans who do it don't do it elsewhere. For all that Americans insist that the USA is varied, the truth to my eyes is that figuratively you're never more than 20 minutes from a Coke machine. The money doesn't change, the language doesn't change, the culture doesn't change.

Europe is at the other extreme. Riding from France to Istanbul, the language, the money and the dominant culture changed all the time, sometimes so quickly that a sleepy brain had to recall which country we were waking up in.

But nothing beats riding across the USA for spontaneous generosity and friendship. Where else would a mean dude of a policeman resent and invite us home for the night? Where else would an isolated village hold a barbecue in our honour? Where else would a woman drive out to a campground to offer a free room in her hotel because she was worried we were camping in the rain?

There were so many other examples and I'm touched by them all. But we were never more than 20 minutes from a Coke machine.

Times have changed. I never see Coke machines except inside motels. I agree about the corporate sameness that prevails in most of the U.S.

Europe has a north-south coast to coast bike route from North Cape to Punta de Tarifa (or any place on the Mediterranean). I think that's also an impressive accomplishment, from the Arctic ocean to the Mediterranean.

Well, as I said, you're never figuratively far away from a Coke machine. It wasn't intended as an analysis of their actual availability and distribution!

Indonesians have a delightful answer to questions when the answer is obviously “No” or “Impossible”, but they want to do their utmost to avoid disappointing the inquirer, or to indicate they’ve given up hope. 

So Kelly I’m going to answer your question as an Indonesian would.  “Belum”, meaning “not yet” but really meaning, ‘as much as I’d love to, the harsh reality is that I probably never will’.

I’ve had a long term wish to cycle across the USA. It’s about the same distance as my own country Australia which I have cycled across. The similarity of distance is probably the only similarity there is. Cultures, population density and geography would be almost totally different. And it’s those differences I’d love to experience by cycle touring.