May 17, 2021
The Plan
My cycle tours in Europe have always involved a bit of train travel along with the cycling – a combination I find very appealing. It’s more difficult to do this in the United States, where the passenger train network is quite limited. I did manage to add a train leg on last summer’s tour on the Katy Trail, but needed a car to travel from my home in Iowa to the train/trail hub in Sedalia, MO.
I moved to the Raleigh/Durham area in North Carolina last fall and now have an Amtrak station located in my home town – a mere three minutes by bike from my house. I’ve stopped by the station several times for extended conversations with the station agents about traveling on Amtrak with a bike. They’ve been especially helpful in my understanding all the different “bike rules” for the various trains/stations, especially in figuring out on which trains you can take your assembled bike without needing to off the front wheel – a requirement to fit in the new bike racks that Amtrak has decided to use. Armed with this knowledge, I devised a car-free itinerary for this Empire State tour.
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The plan for this upcoming tour is to take the train from Cary, NC to New York City, the place of my birth. I’ll spend a couple of days in the city exploring some of my parent’s old haunts and visiting family, including a distant cousin who contacted me through a genealogy search. I’ll start cycling in lower Manhattan, following the Hudson River Greenway to Albany where I'll board the Empire Service to Buffalo. After a day checking out Buffalo and Niagara Falls, I'll cycle east to Albany, generally following the Erie Canal Trail with a detour through Finger Lakes to visit friends in Ithaca. The journey home – Albany to NYC to North Carolina – will be by train. I've purchased the outbound tickets and reserved bike space, planning to roll out from home on the morning of June 5.
Vivien George and Vincent, my trusted steed and knit-buddy, will join me on what promises to be an most enjoyable reconnection with family, friends and a bit of history. We're all very excited to be touring again!!!
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3 years ago
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3 years ago
Oh very similar to this, only it’s westbound from Manhattan to buffalo, with ongoing service to Erie and Pittsburgh before heading back to Georgia.
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