Tag: touring
HODGENVILLE, KY. — We thought nothing could smell sweeter than the good country air of the Kentucky bluegrass country, until we left Bardstown.
We had just finished an unsatisfying lunch at a shopping center deli in the hometown of composer Stephen Foster (My Old Kentucky Home), when we caught the fragrance of good home cooking in the air. Bruce said, wherever it's coming from, “that's where we should have eaten.”
We rode on for a half-mile and saw the entrance sign for the Heaven Hills Distillery, the source of that fragrance. If we could have “eaten” there, our trip would have ended, no doubt. What we smelled cooking must have been sour mash. We merely cycled past huge warehouses full of booze…
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2020/05/30/1984-bike-tour-day-18-that-fragrance-of-home-cookin-is-all-bourbon/
HARRODSBURG, KY. — What did I say about bicycle touring and the kindness of strangers? Forget it.
Tonight we're at the Parkview Guest House. When we walked in the front door of the two-story men's-only “guest house,” a guy told us to wait right there for the manager who would soon be home from work. We sat in a couple of chairs in the hallway. Soon the manager walks in:
“What the hell's going on here? And get that thing off the table.”
Bruce removed his helmet from the lamp table. We asked for a room. The old guy said he had one but didn't know whether he'd let us have it. It only had a double bed. “You're not going to get drunk and puke in bed, are you?”
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2020/05/29/1984-bike-tour-day-17-not-everyone-welcomes-bicycle-tourists/
BEREA, KY. — We didn't make as big a splash as some people upon entering Berea, but we felt heroic all the same and did receive a warm welcome and invitation.
We arrived in Berea about 10 minutes ahead of the Olympic torch. AT&T was sponsoring the torch run through all 50 states on its way to the Summer Games in Los Angeles. We just happened to ride into Berea at about the same time as the torch. A local woman had raised $3,000 to carry the torch for a mile and people lined the street waiting for her arrival.
While we waited, a woman came up and started a conversation. We were the first bicycle tourists she'd seen this year. She and her husband bicycle. Their house is listed in a national organization's newsletter as an overnight spot for travelling bicyclists. Would we like to stay? Of course we would …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2020/05/28/1984-bike-tour-day-16-a-good-welcome-to-berea/
We awoke to roosters crowing Monday morning. They walked down the hill from the house and strutted around our campsite.
Bruce and I climbed out of the tent at 5:45. It took us two hours to get ready, and most of that was just repacking our panniers so that the stuff we'd probably use first was at the top.
After pop tarts and coffee (the water heated on a one-burner Coleman stove), we were back on the road at 8. …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2020/05/14/1984-bike-tour-day-2-first-roadside-attraction-shirley-plantation/
Sunday, May 13, 1984
Yorktown to Charles City, Va. 40 miles
Note: I’m republishing my journal from a transcontinental bicycle tour my friend Bruce and I took back in 1984. This tells what bike travel was like 36 years ago. No smart phones, no Garmins, no kevlar tires, no wifi. It took 10 weeks, …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2020/05/13/day-1-dude-wheres-my-campground/
One of the common worries of bicycle travel involves pulling into a state campground late in the day and finding out that all the campsites are taken.
The prospect of heading out on a dark road or stealth camping in the woods looms ahead.
A policy update by the Washington State Parks assures this won’t …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2017/06/13/how-bicycle-travelers-can-pitch-their-tents-at-full-wa-state-park-campgrounds/
My friend Bruce unearthed this old photo of us walking across the sand at Virginia Beach after dipping our rear tires in the Atlantic Ocean to start our cross-country bicycle tour in 1984.
After our ceremony, we climbed in a car with our girlfriends and drove to Yorktown, Va., where we actually started our 11-week …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2014/05/13/odd-memories-from-a-1984-bicycle-tour/
Most bicyclists traditionally avoid gravel roads and paths like the plague. It can make for sketchy, tipsy riding, and the friction makes for slow going.
But as the alternative sometimes is riding a bike on busy or narrow highways, many more are discovering the new-found pleasures of a crunchy ride. Many turn to mountain bikes …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2014/02/03/bicycling-dirt-and-gravel-roads-gaining-popularity/
Organizers announced the route for 2014 Biking Across Kansas on Wednesday, and it looks like they’ve squeezed every mile possible into the west-to-east across-state bike ride that’s celebrating its 40th anniversary.
The bike tour rolls out from Elkhart in southwestern Kansas on June 7 and heads in a northeast direction to a finish in White …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2014/01/29/biking-across-kansas-2014-the-long-way/
Singer-songwriter-political activist Pete Seeger, known for penning such songs as “If I Had a Hammer,” died on Monday at age 94.
While I’ve enjoyed the message in his music over the years, what struck me this morning was the line in many obits that Seeger “dropped out of Harvard University in 1938 to ride a bicycle across …
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Permanent link to this article: https://www.bikingbis.com/2014/01/28/before-pete-seeger-had-a-hammer-he-had-a-bicycle/
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