Well, in 5 short days, the NoTier (Northern Tier) will be taking off from Bar Harbor, ME heading west to Seattle, WA. I’m so excited for them .. some of my team mates from last year will be doing the ride and I can wait to follow their journey and send care packages! From now until the end of October I will have friends that are RIDING THEIR BIKES everyday! How awesome is that! Kaylyn is going to be leading the NoTier team, the PacCoast team AND the SoTier team! How amazing is that!
In about 40 days, I will be taking off for an adventure of my own and as I am typing this I am realizing that I am very behind on my planning. So, today is the day I am going to make some decisions on which route I will take for this ride. I want to experience as much as I can while still getting to my Aunt’s house as quickly as possible — at the same time saving money by finding cheap lodging throughout my trip. So, today I will be using these resources:
- Warmshowers – a hosting site for cyclists that are doing long distance cycling and need a place to crash. Kinda like couchsurfing for cyclists
- Google maps – the imaging they have, even for italian roads, is amazing! with a few clicks, I can see the roads I plan to ride on – to see how big shoulders are and even get a feel for how busy the road might be.
- AirBnB – another site for lodging – can be pricey but can also find some great locations
- Strava – By inputting my routes into Strava, I can click on segments and find riders that have been riding those roads and see how often they are ridden. I can find popular (and safe) roads to bike this way.
Technology is amazing!
So, today I want to say good luck to all my friends and the strangers that are about to begin their journeys across the US for MS. I will be following and thinking of you all!