The end of our cross-country journey

We made it to Yorktown, Virginia today - the official end of the TransAmerica bicycle route and our own cross-country journey. We carried our bicycles across the beach and dipped our tires in the water. Not quite the Atlantic but it was salt water, so that seemed good enough.

My parents met us at the finish with champagne. We celebrated the end of our trip together and then loaded our bikes and bags into the two cars and headed back home to Northern Virginia.

It’s been a hell of a ride. It’s hard to imagine just a couple months ago we were in Kirkwood, California and I was freaking out about the Nevada desert, which seemed entirely impassable at the time. We’ve faced a lot of adversity but we’ve also had some amazing experiences. Apart from the dogs in Kentucky and the headwinds of Kansas and Illinois, I wouldn’t change anything about the trip. It was everything I could have hoped for. I feel incredibly proud of us and I feel like I could climb any mountain. Mike and I are already talking about our next cross-country trip. I think we’ll start in Astoria, Oregon on the TransAmerica, ride to Colorado and then take a different route a bit farther north than we went this time so we go through Pittsburgh, where the Joneses live. And so that we avoid the dogs of eastern Kentucky.

Highlights

• a victorious finish in Yorktown
• celebrating the finish with my parents

Lowlights

• literally none

Julie’s food

• Breakfast: tofu scramble
• First Snack: Clif bar
• Lunch: bagel and hummus, bagel and Miyoko’s cheddar

Stats

• Total distance: 14.73 miles
• Elevation gain: 497 feet
• Weather: dry, high of 66 degrees Fahrenheit

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Bicycle trip in retrospect

Unsung heroes

• Needle nose pliers - Mike had a leatherman toolkit with a pair of needle nose pliers, which he got a lot of use out of, from pulling staples out of tubes to fixing brakes.
• Flick stand - my ancient bike has a flick stand. It attaches on the down tube and flicks up so it can hold, the front wheel in place, which makes the bike sturdy and prevents it from getting all floppy and unwieldy. Flick stands aren’t manufactured anymore, so Mike’s next big idea is to get a 3D printer and make them. He was consistently jealous his bike didn’t have one. His front wheel was particularly wiley and unmanageable.
• Piece of wood - back in the ‘80s, my dad needed a way to keep the rear rack on my mom’s bike off of the brake cables. He wedged a piece of wood into the frame to hold the rack of. 40 years later that piece of wood is still going strong and still an integral component of the bicycle.
• Squeezable peanut butter - we had a lot of roadside peanut butter sandwiches on this trip. The discovery of squeezable peanut butter was a game changer. I believe we first came across it at a Walmart in Carson City, Nevada. Since then, we’ve gone out of our way to buy only that kind, which didn’t require dirtying any cutlery while making a sandwich.

Things we will do differently next time

• Two-tiered rear rack - we usually had to remove the dry sack we carried on our rear rack before we could get our rear panniers on or off the bike. Tubus makes a two tiered rack that has a platform for a dry sack and a separate bar for attaching a pannier. That would definitely be the way to go.
• Fenders - while fenders do add weight and aren’t useful all the time, after riding without them for the whole trip, Mike and I think we would sacrifice the weight in future in order to have them. Going downhill on a wet road without fenders is miserable. We would be covered head-to-toe, front-to-back in mud.
• Better lights - our front and rear lights were a bit crappy. The attachment mechanism for the front lights was a not-heavy-duty-enough rubber band. Mike’s broke early on, making the headlight unusable. After that, I didn’t remove my headlight at all, but that meant I needed to charge it while it was on the bike, which wasn’t always feasible. Our rear lights had a little rubber cover that kept water out, but not well enough, because my rear lights broke very early on after a rainy day. Our lights also took a long time to charge, especially the front lights. In future, I’d want to invest in good lights that are easier to remove, charge faster, and are less prone to breaking.
• Lighter tent - we regularly used all of our camping gear except our tents. Although carrying a tent was an important insurance policy, our tent was quite heavy. We didn’t buy it for the trip, we just used one we already had. Next time, we’ll get a lighter and smaller tent.
• Handlebar bag for Julie - I was the only one without a handlebar bag, and it was apparent how useful they are for carrying the commonly accessed items.
• new pump - early on we learned how important it is to pump up our tires every day. Next time, we’ll want a compact and light pump that is also a floor pump with a pressure gauge, much like the one Kelly and Jordan had. Ours was a hand pump without a gauge, so we had to buy a separate one. I also wasn’t able to get enough pressure using the hand pump so Mike had to do both bikes every day. I would be able to get enough pressure with a wee floor pump though.
• waterproof booties for Mike - poor Mike couldn’t find booties big enough for his feet during the trip
• waterproof gear that is waterproof
• timeline - have oodles of time for the trip so that we could choose to not bike if biking seems unpleasant (ie 20 mph headwinds, excessive heat, excessive rain) or if we are someplace nice and want to explore
• food/shelter - we would want to spend less time in super remote places, which made consistently acquiring food and shelter challenging

Things we would do the same

• Paper maps for navigation
• Ear buds for turn-by-turn directions for the last mile to lodging and off-route journeys; podcasts and audio books
• Ortlieb panniers - They did an impressive job at being waterproof, and are durable and easy to put on and take off the bike.

Things we’re looking forward to about being done with this trip

• Wearing our wedding rings
• Not using folding cutlery (which have a tendency to fold at inopportune times and throw food about wildly)
• Not writing a blog post every night when I’m tired and ready for bed
• Having access to well-stocked grocery stores and a pantry and a proper kitchen
• Not having to do laundry every night (either in a washing machine, bathroom sink, or bathtub)
• Not having a constantly sore butt and legs (Mike)

Things we’ll miss once this trip is over

• Spending all day outside, watching the scenery (slowly) go past, breathing (mostly) fresh air
• Not looking at a screen all day
• Sleeping really well. Like insanely well. I could sleep for 10 hours if I wanted to.
• Eating whatever we want, whenever we want. Because you burn all-the-calories when you exercise for 6-9 hours a day, every day

Things we’re not looking forward to about being done with this trip

• Spending 3 hours a day commuting and 9 hours a day sitting at a desk looking at a computer every day (Julie)

Number of socks at the end of the trip (number of socks at the beginning of the trip) per cyclist

• Jordan: 2 (3)
• Kelly: 6 (8)
• Mike: 7 (7)
• Julie: 9 (9)