I feel I need to reflect on the past 2 months of travel across north america.  (Well, almost two months, and almost cross country as never actually saw Atlantic Ocean)

When Jeanne and I started talking about the trip and we decided to do it, logistics discussions start in real quick.  It was obvious to fly to the east coast with bikes and do the trip, renting car from Albany to visit friends, then bike as we did to Washington D. C., but J. R. thought why not enjoy the area between.  Skipping over all that country just seems wasteful.  (Never mind reality) I checked on train which would be fun but several days and expensive.  Why not drive?  Jeanne immediately said no – she is not into road trips as much as I am.  But after she thought about it why not.  We could ride bikes a bit every day, and carry all our stuff ( more than we would ever carry on bike), so she said yes.

Well did not work out exactly as planned as more cold, rainy, and we forgot it gets dark early this time of year and camping would be 12 hour nights.  We are spoiled in Alaska with camping – no dark.

Now that the trip is almost over my thought is “It is easier to think about driving cross country than actually driving cross country”.  Duh!!!!

But it has been awesome.  Got to see places one would normally just fly over and not realize it is home and happiness to a lot of people. It is good to see that.  These places makes the world tick.

Biking was fun, although flat, but that presented different challenges.  Mud, rain, carrying minimal amount.  It worked.  Nice to see how other areas deal with bicycles.

and an important lesson, what you pay for a motel has nothing to do with quality. You do not always get what you pay for. Our worst was the most expensive and best was one of the cheapest. And often mom & pop motels often do not replace mattresses as often as they should.

On to the next trip