frequently asked questions - FAQ
aka, the Usual Questions
These are questions I get asked most frequently. I call them the Usual Questions.
Q: You're going WHERE?
A: From New Orleans, Louisiana to Nashville, Tennessee.
Q: How far is it?
A: Fifty miles. Ish? Right? It IS isn't it?
A: Around 650-700 miles.
Q: On THAT?
A: (sigh) Yes.
Q: Are you camping?
A: Yes, I have a tent and a sleeping bag, and will be camping. I'll also stay in some motels. On my first trip, in the summer of 1982, I pedaled about 3,000 miles and only stayed in a motel twice. Now that I'm getting older (and have a paying job), I tend to cough up the money a bit more frequently, although I frequently regret it when I do. I lie in bed thinking that I could be sleeping in my tent outside under the stars.
Q: What if your bike has a flat?
A: I have a patch kit and can fix it. I carry a small tire pump which will allow me to pump it back up on the side of the road if necessary. I also carry a spare tube, just in case I'm unable to repair either one of them.
Q: What if your bike breaks down?
A: I also carry other tools, and have even changed out a broken spoke. I carry spare spokes in the seat tube inside my bike. Like me, a bike is a fairly simple thing, and isn't that difficult to figure out.
Q: How heavy is all the stuff you carry?
A: For most of my trips I’ve carried 30-35 lbs of gear. In 2020, because there was a pandemic, I started carrying enough food for the trip, as well as a camp stove and some other items I hadn’t traditionally taken (including, embarrassingly, a lawn chair). I ended up carrying about 70 lbs of gear last year. This year is a longer trip so I’m carrying even more and it totals right at a whopping 85 pounds.
Q: How many miles do you average in a day?
A: Around 50-60. That may seem like a lot, but consider this... there are 24 hours in a day. Let's say you sleep 9 hours (does anyone?). That leaves 15 hours. An hour each for breakfast (which, in reality, takes 15-30 minutes), lunch (if I eat slowly it takes 30 minutes, including a rest break), and dinner... that leaves 12 hours. An hour to set up camp and an hour to break camp, and you're down to 10 hours. Ten hours left to do nothing but pedal. If you ride an hour, take an hour break, ride an hour, etc., that's five hours of riding (NO one would take that long of a break that frequently). If you travel a mere 10 miles an hour (a slow pace, even loaded), that's FIFTY MILES you've ridden. Take away two hours of your five hours of break time and you've gone 70 miles in a day. I'm not a super athlete. It's just a matter of sitting on the bike and pedaling.
Q: What's the farthest you've ever gone?
A: On a single trip, the 1982 trip was my longest (just short of 3,000). In a single day, 138 miles on July 4th, 1991. I had a nice tailwind that day, so it wasn't all me. The longest I've traveled without a tailwind (and, in fact, I had a headwind for the last 30 miles) is 117.
Q: What was your shortest day?
A: No one ever really ever asks this, but I thought if I tell you my longest I could also tell you my shortest. Prior to my first trip in 1982, someone had told me that if a newspaper interviews you they’ll buy you lunch for your time. I had more time than money (read: I was pretty broke) so, passing through Henderson, KY, I called the newspaper and asked if they were interested. Unfortunately, however, I wasn’t smart enough to add, “And will you buy me lunch?” I think my subconscious plan was just to look hungry and pathetic. The reporter finally showed up about noon and interviewed me, but didn’t offer to buy lunch… I was left to my own devices for sustenance. Consequently, by the time I left it was after 1:00. After just a few miles I passed a house where there were three people sitting on the veranda. They eyed me for a minute as I slowly rolled past, then almost simultaneously began yelling: “Hey! Stop! We’ve got lemonade! We’ve got pork chops! We’ve got beer!! Stop!” I stopped, and ended up not only having lunch, but dinner as well, after which they offered their spare bedroom for the night. Total distance for the day: 8 miles.
Q: What if it rains?
A: No big deal. I just put on my rain jacket (and rain pants if it’s a heavy or cold rain) and keep riding. It's pretty unusual for it to rain all day for several days. If there's a 75% chance of rain, that doesn't mean it's going to rain 75% of the day, just that there's a 75% chance it'll rain at some point during the day. If it rains in the summer, especially along the Gulf Coast, it's generally just an afternoon shower. It'll rain for 30-60 minutes, then stop. Sometimes I take cover until it passes, then start riding again. The kind of pannier bags you have make a big difference. My current panniers, Ortliebs, are waterproof. They advertise that theirs are the only bags in which you can take your pet goldfish (as in, completely waterproof so you can fill them with water). In 1982 I didn’t have very good gear. My bags were “water resistant.” That means that if you sneeze while standing within 15 feet of the bags, everything inside will get soaking wet. On one occasion, not realizing how permeable they were, I decided to ride in the rain since I only had 8 miles until I reached my final destination for the day. It was an odd sensation, because with each passing turn of the crank everything got heavier and heavier as it became saturated with water. It felt like I gained 50 pounds over those few miles.
Q: Aren’t you worried about…. (someone hitting you with their car, someone robbing you, lions/tigers/bears)?
A: No. In fact, even after 40 years of doing this (reread that: FORTY YEARS) every time I take a bike trip my faith in humanity is renewed. Every. Single. Time. It's amazing how generous and kind people are. Maybe it's because I'm on a bike (what am I going to do? ride off with their TV?), or maybe it's because of my boyish charm (Heather says No), but everywhere I go people open their arms to help me out. I've been sitting outside a convenience store in Mississippi when the bread delivery guy walked by and said, "Hey, you want a loaf of bread?" I just strapped it to my bike and ate it with some peanut butter I bought. I've been in the middle of West Texas when a hailstorm was only minutes away and an old farmer pulled up in his battered pickup truck and said, "There's a hailstorm acomin' - You just go over to that house there, they ain't nobody livin' in it, and stay there ‘til it passes over. If anybody says anything to you, you just tell 'em 'Usup sentcha.'" I was safe inside the abandoned house when the hail hit. I've asked where a good place to camp is and, repeatedly, people have said, "Right here in our yard!" And later, "Why don't you just come inside and have supper with us? We have plenty."
Q: What do you eat?
A: Roadkill, mostly. It's really not that bad if you season it right.
Q: What do you REALLY eat?
A: I never took a stove until last year. Historically, I would arrive in a town and ask the first person I saw where the best place to eat is. The locals generally know (although I usually ride through small towns so there's sometimes only one place). However, as mentioned above, I now carry a lot of food with me. In fact, one of my large rear panniers is ALL food, and that doesn’t include the stove, utensils, or any other gear… just food.
Q: How do you decide where to go?
A: It depends on the trip. Sometimes I just buy a map as I enter a state and pick a route at that time. I always travel on the smaller back roads through rural areas. On other trips (like this one), I purchase maps from Adventure Cycling Association. They have excellent maps that tell you what size the next town is, what services it offers (camping, motels, cafes, libraries, emergency services) as well as addresses and phone numbers for each. They also have historical information about each area. The routes have been selected for their scenic beauty, safe roads/wide shoulders, and historical significance. I've been impressed every time I've used one of their maps, but have found that a touring cyclist isn't a novelty and the locals aren't as interested in chatting with you since they've probably already talked to someone from Cleveland, or Australia.
Q: Have you done this before?
A: Yes. Here is a list of my trips:
1) 1982 Waco to Houston - My first trip was in 1982, when I rode from Waco, TX, over to New Mexico, then up to Denver, then east across Kansas. I dipped into Oklahoma, just to add another state to the tally, then traveled northeast to St. Louis where I stayed with some friends for 5 days. When I restarted I continued east across the southern tips of Indiana and Illinois, then turned south through Kentucky and Tennessee. I stayed with another friend in northeastern Alabama for 4 days, then turned west and pedaled across Mississippi and Louisiana, ultimately finishing my trip in the Houston suburb where I grew up.
2) 1988 Burlington to Baltimore - I flew into Burlington, VT, then took a ferry across Lake Champlain. From there I traveled south through upstate New York (the Finger Lakes, Lake Placid, etc.), across Pennsylvania (the Amish county of Lancaster, which includes Intercourse, PA), and finished in a suburb of Baltimore.
3) 1989 Houston to Tulsa - On this one, I traveled with Rob and Rich when they were 12 and 10, respectively. They were real troopers. The most memorable thing about this trip, besides the guy we met who claims he actually saw a UFO, was the heat.... I don't think it ever dipped below 90, even at night.
4) 1990 Lexington to Glasgow - I flew to the Lexington, KY, airport and assembled my bike, then took a 4-day trip across Kentucky, ending in Glasgow. I stayed overnight with someone I had met on my first trip.
5) 1991 Portland to Pueblo - Certainly one of my favorite trips, I started in Portland, OR, then pedaled east across Oregon and Idaho to Missoula, Montana, then south through Wyoming and Colorado. My route included part of Yellowstone Park, and I finished in Pueblo. If I recall correctly, I crossed the Continental Divide 11 times.
6) 1994 Atlanta to Virginia - I started from the airport in Atlanta, Georgia, then pedaled east. I stopped a couple of days in Augusta where my younger sister, Wanda, was living. From there I continued east until I hit the coast then traveled along the coastline, including the Outer Banks and Kitty Hawk, until I crossed into Virginia.
7) 1999 Steamboat Springs to Orem - This is the only trip I didn't enjoy. I started in Steamboat Springs because it's 1,958 feet higher in elevation than Orem.... downhill, right? Those were the worst few days of riding I've ever experienced. According to the weather reporters, the wind was "unseasonably strong" that week, and it was blowing from the west. I've become a fair judge of wind speed, and I would say it was blowing from 22 to 25 mph each day. It was somewhat calm in the mornings, but by 11:00 it was substantial. I began waking up earlier and earlier each day... not my idea of a vacation, and by the third day of pedaling hard to get nowhere I realized I wasn't having much fun (I actually had to pedal to go downhill). SO, I took another trip that year....
8) 1999 Knox City to Rocky - This was a short three-day trip I took with Heather. We started in Knox City, TX, where I was living at the time. On the day of our scheduled departure, I walked outside, checked which way the wind was blowing, then started pedaling with it. Since it was blowing from the south southwest, we traveled north northeast. Three days later, we were in Rocky, Oklahoma.
9) 2000 Logan to Soda Springs - This was a short trip through the beautiful mountains in Utah and Idaho.
10) 2001 Rocky to Lincoln - I picked up where I left off from my 1999 trip and continued on through Oklahoma, across Kansas, and to Lincoln, Nebraska. I had a tailwind on this trip for most of the way and averaged over 100 miles a day. It really wasn't me, though - it was the wind. I could've put my feet up on the handlebars and leaned back and still made it. Well... almost.
11) 2004 San Francisco to San Diego - I traveled with my sister, Wanda, on this trip. We used the Adventure Cycling Association maps and stayed mostly on the Pacific Coastal Highway except where the map rerouted us because it was too dangerous for bikes. It was a gorgeous trip, and Wanda did exceptionally well, even after sustaining a bad wrist sprain.
12) 2007 Seattle, WA, to Shelby, MT - This was an amazing trip, one of my favorites. (It's hard to pick a real favorite trip - they're just different. It would be like picking a favorite child)
14) 2008 San Diego, CA to Jacksonville, FL - This was my second longest trip, started between jobs (Mayo and the VA). I did it for my 50th birthday.
15) 2020 Quincy, Illinois, to La Crosse, Wisconsin - Taken during the pandemic, it was therapeutic. I traveled with Karen, my wonderful friend from PA School, on this one.
I've also taken shorter trips here and there over the years, two and three day trips.
Q: What do you do when you come to the mountains? A: Pedal. I don't mind the mountains. You go up, you get to go back down. It's the wind that's demoralizing.
Q: What all do you take? A: This post is getting too long, so there's a list of everything I'm taking on this trip in the next post.
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