Southern Tier Question

[Tri Girl]

I don't have any ideas, I just wanted to wish him the best of luck on his adventure. I want to one day do the cross-country thing, and think it's really great that he's making this dream come true. When he gets his journal started on crazyguy- please post it. I'm a CGOAB junkie and I'd love to follow along on his adventure.

[evangundy]

This is the first time I really looked at the Adventure Cycling maps. There are 7 maps that cover the Southern Tier. I don't think I'll list all the towns along the way. Would be too long a post.
1)San Diego, CA to Tempe, AZ 411.5 miles via Brawley, Quartzite, Wickenburg
2)Tempe to El Paso, TX 540 miles via Geronimo, Silver City, Las Cruces
3)El Paso to Del Rio, TX 451.5 miles via Fort Hancock, Fort Davis, Marathon, Langtry
4)Del Rio to Navasota, TX 431.5 miles via Leakey, choice of Austin or Lockhart, LaGrange
5)Navasota to St Francisville, LA 416.5 miles via Kirbyville, Oberlin, option for Baton Rouge
6)St Francisville, to DeFuniak Springs, FL 435.5 miles via Bogalusa, Mobile, Pensacola
7) DeFuniak Springs to St Augustine, FL 428.5 miles via Tallahassee, Wellborn, Gainsville

We have talked about me flying out to meet him in New Orleans for a long weekend. It would be a side trip for him, but it sure would be fun. Neither of us have been there before. We have to work out the details. And yes, Texas is spread over 3 maps. I knew TX was big, but that surprised me.

It would be fun to do this trip with him, but I can't take that much time off work and I've got almost 10 years before I retire. I wasn't going to make him wait. We figured it would be best for him to do this now, at 63, while we know he is healthy and strong enough for it. He might still be able in 10 years, but then again, he might not.

Edna

[Aint Doody]

Edna! I'm soooo excited for Dave. Is he going alone? With a group? Did I miss that info somewhere?

A group from Pendleton is going to do the northern tier this summer using Adv. Cycling Maps. They asked me to go. I'd rather do the southern tier, but I can't be gone that long anyway.

Do keep us posted. Maybe you could start a thread with short accounts for those of us who just want to check in periodically.

Susan

[AnnieBikes]

I rode the Southern Tier from March to May, 2007 and my journal can be located at http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/annesoutherntier2007 I did lots of little "side" trips and highly recommend the route through Florida and a swim in the Springs at Itchetucknee and Wakulla. Both were beautiful. We rented Kayaks on the Wakulla River outside the park and got some great up close and personal views of the wildlife. It was such a wonderful trip and I have tons of recommendations but many of them are in the journal. He will love the route. It is so great. We did go South of Austin in the Hill Country but it was a beautiful, if very hilly, ride! Have a positively awesome ride!

I went with WomanTours and we did not stay exactly on the ACA route but did a few detours due to length of rides, etc. We stayed in motels every night. I am happy to answer any questions that Dave has. My email is anneandbenhike at gmail dot com. It is the most wonderful route and I highly recommend it for touring. We saw lots of people on the route and we had mostly good weather at that time of year. Good luck!!

The route for the entire ride is posted, by segment on http://www.bikely.com This site has routes everywhere in the country and my husband is using it for routing on a tour he is doing in May.

I am going to be away visiting family until the 28th, so I may not be able to respond to an email immediately but am pretty good about answering and would be glad to talk on the phone if there are questions...after the 28th of January.

[AnnieBikes]

...oh forgot to say, I see you are from Portland. I am starting a ride in Portland for 1500 miles on July 31st! It is also with WomanTours!

[evangundy]

...oh forgot to say, I see you are from Portland. I am starting a ride in Portland for 1500 miles on July 31st! It is also with WomanTours!

So will you be coming to town early for this - any extra days to be able to see the sights around here and maybe meet some of the TE ladies from the area? If you need anything, let us know - we'll see if we can help :-)
Edna

[evangundy]

So planning is winding down, and packing is ramping up. Airline ticket to San Diego purchased, hotel booked for that night. Some contacts made, phone numbers and email addresses exchanged. Found out that a new job of a friend of ours takes him to close to DH's route in Louisiana 1-2 weeks each month. They are hoping the timing works to see each other there. DH got his blog set up this past week. http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/Slug if anyone wants to follow along.

We are planning a Bon Voyage open house for Feb 22, in the afternoon, after the Jack Frost Time Trial http://www.obra.org/flyers/2009/jack_frost_tt.html . I am hoping I'll have time to race before coming back home to host the open house. Recumbents are sent off first starting at 9:45am, so we should be done racing by 11:00am, I could be home by noon. Open house start at 1pm. Tell me I'm not nuts to try to do both

Edna