Simple-Tour

In the woods! As much as you can be in Pennsylvania, about 190km from New York. And the way here had everything one might want from a bike ride and some more: quaint towns, colourful streets, quite streets, some rural looking areas with no cars on the road, long bridges, and short ones too, fields, occasionally lovely architecture, a few bike path and hills, so many hills! It is a constant up and down, and you never know which one will be a stopper. A stopper is where you just had enough, get off the bike and push it. It didn’t happen today, but I was really close.  I stayed at a really nice warmshowers host yesterday, and I also had to fix my first flat during the trip. I really hope it won’t be a regular thing…the big cities are coming and I’ve seen city roads here, hence I have little confidence…meanwhile August is knocking on the door! I did bike through July with one (+1) rest day(s)…The hills will continue tomorrow, I don’t think they’ll ever end! A vadonban vagyok!  ...

In York! Not the new one just yet, although if the old York is in England, this could technically be a new York as well! I’m at another lovely warmshowers hosts, who, like I like to do, bikes (one of them) to literally everywhere, whether it’s shopping, dentist…wouldn’t be nicer to have more people do errands on bikes and less car on the road? Wouldn’t be better for everyone, especially for the drivers, who actually cannot take a bike for any reasons? (Any reasonably reason, because there is always something that prevents people from biking.) Anyhow, the ride was lovely, rolling hills and nice weather (the heat is out again!), and I stopped at…Gettysburg!! They have a nice exhibition and a cyclorama there, sharing details of the battle that took place in the hills of Gettysburg in 1863. It is worth to visit. Oh, the last photo is an evidense that tiny wires can make a biker’s life more difficult… Yorkban!    Még nem az újban, bár ha a régi York Angliában van, akkor ez tec...

The second day in Pennsylvania brought the first real rainy day during this trip. Right at the beginning, for about 130km it was raining periodically. Most of the time it was a light rain, but at times it just poured. This in turns resulted the lack of photos. I only have the phone to take pictures with, and since everything was wet and I didn’t bother finding shelter to clean the screen and my hand for a photo, I didn’t really take pictures. Believe me, Pennsylvania is beautiful. Most (not all) towns are quaint, with a cool historical downtown and early, mid 19th century architecture. And as a bonus, the tiny county roads are paved! Compared the surfaces to the previous states, either Iowa or Illinois, the roads so far are way better. The county roads do not have shoulders, nor traffic, however. Oh, and the hills. According to my GPS, the total ascending today was a record during this trip. I climbed more (in a single day) then any other day so far, including through the Sierra Nevada...

Crossed three state borders today! On a train, I’m not that fast on the bicycle…and ended up in Pennsylvania, which so far exactly how I imagined it. There are no straight, flat road segments. Once passed Pittsburgh, in about 30km everything started to either go up, or down, left, or right. I can’t see too far (if compared with Nevada or Nebraska) and I feel as if I constantly climbed. I had two mountains today, not as large as the Rockies were, but with very similar (or more) ascending due to the infinite number of hills. I also danced around the storm today, which finally caught me just 5km before my destination. Fortunately it’s hot enough that it didn’t matter too much (besides the fact that it washed my dried sweat into my eyes), as long as my riding clothes are more or less dry by the morning… A few words about the train. It is very comfortable, huge spaces, clean etc. The information generally in the station could be a little more obvious, it wasn’t easy to realize where the act...

The memories I take from Chicago probably are not representative, so if any of you travel there, ask someone else for tips, please. I stayed with a lovely family, and spent yesterday evening listening to amazing stories and shared a few by myself. They let me stay in their home this morning without them being there. So far, the America I read in the news and the America I experience is not that close to each other. Although I suspect the biking community generally comprises like-minded people.  I rode to downtown today, and after getting a few things done in the morning, such as laundry and mailing a few things back to Vancouver, I didn’t have a lot of time to go places. However, I got some suggestions from my host, Rod and his wife, Laura and I did visit the Riverwalk in downtown Chicago. Essentially, it’s a river (probably a canal) running through downtown, meandering amongst skyscrapers. Not just high rises, skyscrapers. And one can walk along on a built path. It was a continuou...

Yess!! I’m in Chicago. Afte over 3900 km of riding I finally made it to the end of the first part of the tour. I’ll be catching a train tomorrow to Pittsburgh, where I’ll continue on the east coast. I’m not sure if skipping the relatively gradual buildup and jumping into the Appalachian is actually a good idea, but that’s what’s going to happen. I’m not sure what Pennsylvania will look like, but I probably have to say goodbye to the smalltown midwest US, which, despite its unfovourable riding conditions, made it all the way to my heart. Today, after riding out from Rockford (where you don’t want o ride a bike, period.) I started to feel the increase in traffic. Closer and closer to Chicago I avoided the roads more and more persistently. Even using sidewalks (where existed) with terrible surfaces seemed a better idea than one distracted driver. That also changed near Chicago, where proper bike paths began to appear. Then, all the sudden I had my first glimpse of Lake Michigan. After an ...

Another state!! And this time I got a photo of the welcome sign. I also crossed the Mississippi! Which means I’m getting really close to the second part of the trip, the East Coast! But to put everything in order, first I’ll cycle to Chicago tomorrow. Then, I’ll catch a train to Pittsburgh, sort of skipping Indiana and Ohio, to be able to spend more time on the East Coast.  As I expected, Illinois so far looks and feels very similar to Iowa. The steeper hills surprised me a little, not that I mind them, they are good training for the Appalachian, I’m just trying to amplify some difference between the two states. Perhaps the only other thing I could mention is the bike friendliness in the city of Rockford. Or the lack of it. In Iowa I quickly realized that in a bigger city there are a more or less connected network of bike lanes, or paths. They just felt a tiny bit less car dominant, then other cities I came across (except perhaps California). But Rockford…could probably be said to ...

The last day in Iowa! I’m next to the Mississippi river, which acts as a natural border between Iowa and Illinois. I only have a few states left of my tour, and so far Iowa may have been the biggest surprise yet. Yes, there are typically no shoulders on the highways, and yes, from a cyclists point of view riding a bike through Iowa is rather a constant safety check, however, I think I can say “small town Iowa” is so far one my favourite parts of this route. I met really nice people, strangers offered help a few times, I met some amazing bike enthusiasms and somewhat like minded people. I liked the rolling hills and yet the infinite sky at the same time. I liked the little towns, which finally did not look like ghost towns, mostly. I also had the chance to get a glimpse of the state’s history…it feels as if I got a brief but a good general overview of the state itself. Illinois comes next, for a shorter period, I just hope a little better road conditions… One more one surprise: there is...

Started the day early! My lovely warmshowers hosts sent me off this morning, they brought Iowa closer, and made my yesterday better! And it turns out, if you don’t have shoulders on the road, you better be in a small county/local road, far from any small, medium or large size city. And you’ll be alright. Unless there are collapsed bridges on the way you ride and have to do a few detours on a gravel road. I got good tips yesterday, so I avoided the big closure, just ran into a few small ones. Fortunately the detours were only a few kms, and I at least can say I basically did an imperial century because of them. I also learnt more about RAGBRAI, which sounds like a must-ridden event! I also found a small pub, (with nothing else in the 40km radius), which really, really made my day as I was starting to having second thoughts about my choice of route for today. I have to say “small town Iowa” is a pretty cool place. And Iowa city, with its university looks like a really fun place to be. Ho...