Coast to Coast in 2007 - Request for Moderation

[bamabikeguy]

Intro-

Last summer, when I did the Denver Round Trip it was with the crappiest AAA foldup maps. And it was without the benefit of THIS "greatest forum on the internet*" (quoting somebody else, but I concur).

I can't sit around and wait for a hurricane to get us together, so help me plan a tentative route, east to west, approximately 2867 miles, starting at a friends house in Charleston SC, ending at my son's house in San Diego.

I'd like to start with MAPS. The mileage, using Mapquest, have interstates involved, so my mileage number 2867 is bogus anyway.

I've divided it into 3 chunks.

Charleston SC to St. Francisville LA (Cookies Bike Festival Idea) 866 miles. Starting with my feet in the Atlantic waters. I'd like to get within range of Itzbenz in Jackson MS.

St Francisville, LA to Las Vegas NM 1068 miles. The only reason I chose Las Vegas is I understand it is at the bottom of a Rocky Range.

Las Vegas NM to San Diego 933 miles, and I'm flexible on the Pacific landing zone, just as long as I get a picture of the bike on the beach.....My son can drive me to San Diego after the tires hit the waves.

That is PART A


I'd like to make it a shared adventure, drink beer in the sunset, figure out where the swimming holes are. St. Francisville with Col. Cookie, race those Spookytoothers, ride alongside as many forum folks as possible.

What I have in mind is creating an Appalachian Trail type journey, where benchmarks can be established, goodwill generated in small towns via pre-arranged newspaper articles. Places I can UPS supplies ahead of time, like the hikers do on the AT....

The whole point is somebody is GOING to do it one day, and I'd like to try it after the spring kidding season is over. If somebody else takes the forum knowledge & routing, precedes me or tries for a better time/distance challenge, that would be EXCELLENT.

With the forum assistance and input, it may be fun to share the whole enterprise from start to finish.

 

[gone_fishin]

to get your map into your post...go to "printer friendly" page, save the resulting pics, upload to your gallery...

Charleston SC to St Francisville LA Map 866

bamabikeguy, find your personnel & figure out how you wanna do things, let us know, & the 'board will do whatever it can to help keep it all organized for you 8)

 

[bamabikeguy]

TY Deputy Dawg,

Okay, that will work for preliminaries. I can see I have to divide the 3 chunks into 4 or 5 peices chunks, to slice through the peanut farms in S. Georgia, stay above Interstate 10, miss Jackson Mississippi by a full 100 miles durn it. INPUT S CAROLINA, S GEORGIA, S ALABAMA, S MISS and the St. Francisville last leg...

I'm thinking a reasonable 200 miles per day, with a occasional 275 mile kicker or two for those long flat parts of Texas.

So, 3 "general maps", then the forum can help me orient those into 5 individual pieces. 15 days has always been the "back of my mind" requirement............

What would be "really cool", would be to have some sort of "Gazetteer" ability, that $25 map each state has with all the back roads, but only containing the 15 daily maps I would need.

15 pages of printer generated maps.................laminated..............

Unlike those AAA maps I used last time. I missed some cool places directly south of my Oklahoma leg, which I may try to hit on the way to New Mexico....definitely NOT hitting that Hwy 3 in the Panhandle, been there, done that....

Interactive mapping would be VERY cool

 

[Cookie]

bama I know some folks in OK send a list of towns may have some places for you to stop and rest and you know you can stay with us for a few days.

Cookie

 

[bamabikeguy]

TY Deputy Dog,

Phase 1 is Charleston to the Mississippi River, approx. 1,000 miles.
4-5 gallons of gas.

Cookies Bike Festival meetup is tentatively in June 2007

http://ucmmuseum.com/bikefest.htm

The tentative route is less than 1000 miles, and I notice it sure does hit a lot of the hurricane prone area our group could assist.

I'm also noticing a whole lot of Texas on the other side of the river. That's a summer bummer........

So, if I headed NORTH, to the Great Lakes, took a picture of my tire in the water, "called it the Pacific Ocean", 3,000 miles is 3,000 miles, right?? 8)

Lewis and Clark didn't know what they would see in the future, while I already know how to find Texas WITHOUT a map:
You ride west until you smell it, south until you step in it.....

Anyway, I'm thinking "HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS" is more important, scouting out some possibly excellent towns to decend upon next storm season......small towns we could "adopt".

Input, suggestions invited.....

 

[bamabikeguy]

Speaking of Texas- I ALREADY SET THE RECORD- for least amount of Texas highway crossed - one way.....

When you look at the Oklahoma map up above, note I took a right hand turn at "Slapout", and 4 miles later, hit the Texas state line....

I had already held the bladder all morning, so....... 8)

Then I went south 5 miles, didn't even slow down at the only stop sign, and headed east 8 miles to the Oklahoma line. 13 TOTAL MILES OF TEXAS, you can't get any shorter than that.

When I got to the "exitexas", there was a half mile wide NO MAN'S LAND, the historic marker says they STILL don't know where the northeast corner of Texas really is.....they've tried to figure it out many many times, NINE seperate surveys.
"One man claimed he went to bed in Oklahoma, and awoke up in Texas......." :?
Next survey they were Okies again...... dual citizenship I suppose "Hook'em Sooners"

 

[gone_fishin]

'bikeguy, you have a pm

 

[locoWelder]

hey bama, any update on this trip?