I’m home now. Here’s my total trip mileage:

Here’s me at Boston’s South Station with my very heavy bike box. (I seem to have snuck a bunch of bike gear in the box along with the bike.)

Here’s who picked me up at the train station. (For those of you who don’t know, it’s my sweetie, Anna.)

It’s good to be back home. I’m glad to be seeing fall in New England.

Thanks all for reading and commenting. Stay tuned for those pictures, gear reviews and a few other things to appear here.

Jon

P.S. Quite an amazing trip and I’m so glad I was able to do it. I’d been dreaming of this trip since high school and I finally did it. I’m hoping to get to see the Tetons in Wyoming sometime soon and people tell me Nova Scotia is great for a  _short_  bike tour.

Anna asked me what kind of people one meets on a long-distance train. I said “The adventurous, the bold, lovers of the life on the rails and those terrified of flying. Those are they who do accompany me on this journey. Perhaps I will learn more of their ways in the coming days.” I did end up meeting many phenomenal folks, though none ego mentioned a fear of flying. Here I will tell about some of them and share some sights I saw along the way.

I met this lovely couple in the observation car. If you have never ridden in a car like this, you have missed out on an experience. The seats are arranged for people to enjoy the views and mingle. The windows are large and wrap around to the ceiling. The people who gather here are those who truly enjoy traveling. Roger and Judy in the picture above are such people. They have traveled many places and are huge bike enthusiasts, having toured in Nova Scotia and ridden from Santa Rosa (north of San Francisco) to Mexico. They are also part of the cult of Bike Friday, a manufacturer of folding bicycles. They toured on a folding tandem bike. They were also just a delight to talk with. I was also randomly seated with them and an aspiring bike tourer the next day at lunch, where tales of travel continued.

Me in the observation car, below. (I should let everyone know that these cars are only on western trains because they are too tall for eastern tunnels.)

I had two seats to myself most of the journey. I was disappointed to see this character sitting in the seat next to mine after I took an extended trip to the cafe car which included a stop in Rochester, N.Y.

My disappointment did not last, however. Ryan, pictured above, was seriously interesting. (Terrible lighting makes him look older and much graver than the light hearted fellow I met.) He is an activist who helps prevent evictions. He works against evictions that don’t make sense for anyone, but are driven by interlocking sets of rules intended to protect banks and their loan insurers. This will probably take some research and time to explain properly. He also separately works at a homeless shelter for a pretty bad ass nun. They take folks in who can’t handle the rules of the other shelters. They don’t take government money so they don’t have to abide by federal regulations.

I should mention about a movement to change the approach to homelessness, called “housing first.” The idea is that it is a lot more sensible to address homelessness by providing homes rather than shelters and other emergency services for most homeless folks. It’s much cheaper and had much better outcomes for the folks served, since it’s much easier to get your life in order when you’re not homeless. The other thing I learned is that Boston has one of the best anti-eviction organizations in the country, who’s name I am forgetting, so put it in the comments if you know it.

I am home now, but have a few more posts for this blog. I have a bunch of pictures to share of various parts of the trip, extended gear reviews and a few other things, before I put this blog into hibernation. Perhaps it may awake later for other (shorter) bike adventures.

Well the final phase of the journey has begun. I could go no further west so now it’s time to return home. Time to be with the woman I love. Time to find employment. Yet, for now it’s just time to enjoy my ride across the country. Time to reflect. Time to connect with some folks I owe a call, email or post or even a letter. Time to watch the world go by. Time to see what happens over the next three and a half days of this train ride.

I am content.

So, after crossing the bridge to San Francisco, there was ing important task to do to mark the end of my journey: I had to go to the Pacific Ocean and dip my wheels into the Pacific Ocean. This is a bit of a tradition among cyclists and a tradition I wanted to follow. It seemed a nice way to mark the end of the journey.

I made my way to Golden Gate Park, which was oddly located a few miles from the bridge and made my way siren the concrete steps to the beach. Here I observed two things: many bonfires on the beach and the extent difficulty of pushing a loaded bike through sand. The people were mostly folks who had just been to the mostly bluegrass festival. I did find a brave volunteer to take a pictures off the dipping

Now I’m happily at my friends Helen and Meso’s place, via a bike ride to civic center Bart. These are great folks who I know from the days when I lived in Oakland. They are simply wonderful folks to be seeing again.

Well I made it to San Francisco. After spending a few wonderful days in Santa Rosa with my cousin Meredith, her awesome cousin husband Steve, two cats, three ducks, and a few chickens, it was time to hit the road. (The full Santa Rosa post will just have to wait along with a few others, as it is late and I need some sleep!)

So, after packing up it was almost tinge to get on the road, but there was one little thing to do. Steve had promised me a ride in his eclectic motorcycle. So after getting all suited up with helmet and protective (armored) clothing, we headed out. It was a total thrill! A bit scary at points, since I haven’t ridden motorcycles much, but lots of fun. So, it was a bit of a late start.

The day’s awesomeness continued with Meredith and Steve riding out with me. Meredith rode with me all the way to Petaluma. From there it was lots of fairly pleasaunt riding with some hills down towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

Here’s a great guy I met at the pizza shop on the way.

Lots of cyclists once I got further south, three of whom I had the pleasure of riding with a different times. They provided good company, conversation and, essentially, directions. Here’s Kid(?) from Tiburon, who rode with me quite a ways.

One guy even let me draft off him for a bunch of miles, allowing me to get to the Golden Gate Bridge before sunset. I took a bunch of pictures there and felt the thrill of accomplishment. Here’s a few.

Fellow cyclist enjoying the moment with me.

Not much to say about my first day in Tahoe. I slept in. I napped. I ate lunch and came back for a nap. It was that kind of a day. Riding in the cold definitely wiped me out. Here’s the hostel living room.

The next day was a bit more adventurous. After breakfast I was planning to take a small hike in the hills behind the hostel. That’s when Ed walked in.

Ed had been due in the same day as me, but a collision that neither the deer nor his car survived delayed him a day. He mentions a hike up Mount Rose an days “Want to come with?” So a little while later we’re riding in his rental car to the trailhead at 8,000 feet.

We see a whole bunch of water bottles and granola bars and learn just before helping ourselves to what we thought we leftovers that they were for a group of fourth graders that were hiking the mountain that day. We started  the trail.

That’s Ed and some scenery. And that’s all for now. I’m eager to  get on the road to Santa Rosa, where I’ll see my cousin Meredith and her husband Steve. Upcoming posts: up the mountain, Donnor pass, the Sierras, and music in Davis. Yep, im a bit behind in this blog, but be assured that I am safely in California’s central valley and that there are plenty of tomatoes for everyone.

Well, Reno was Reno and some people enjoy that sort of thing, but I was glad to be on the bus to Truckee with my new wool socks from the bike shop and hand knit mittens in shades of bright orange from the thrift shop. I hoped I was ready for what was forecast.

Truckee is a nice little town with older buildings and a “California welcome center” where I was able to re-assemble my bike at leisure as other passengers came and went. Some teen girls speaking Russian and giggling stayed a while and other folks filtered through. I slowly got all my parts attached, adjusted and tightened. It was good to see my bicycle whole again, ready to do its job.

A German man on a bike with a small camping backpack and a RidgeRest sleeping pad came by. He said he always rode this way and he wasn’t going to change what worked, and that it made it easy to just leave his bike and go hiking. All through my journey people had been telling me that I was packing light. He had about half the gear I did and didn’t even carry a lock. I was impressed and curious, but our conversation was about travel rather than equipment. He had been on many tours, including one that he described as the “stupidest thing” where he ride across Canada from Montreal to Vancouver. I guess a lot of riders don’t enjoy the plains and I skipped a good chunk of the country myself, but it was hard to hear his assessment of a trip so similar to mine. He has, however, continued to ride in his own way; now his tours are more meanders around places he finds interesting, such as California, rather than aiming for a goal. It definitely gave me something to think about.

Then the sleet started. Hard to see in the picture, but here’s a bit on the ground.

With my bike assembled I hit the road with an hour of light to go. I took a nice 14 mile ride along the Truckee river up to Lake Tahoe. It was cold and I was glad for the warm jacket I got in Laramie and the mittens and socks I got in Reno. Nice wide shoulders and then a bike path for the last five miles as darkness set in. As I got to the lake I stopped in a convenience store to warm up with coffee and hot chocolate. The guy working there and I shared stories of work, love and life. And then it started snowing.

Here’s John from the convenience store.

I still had another ten miles to go until the hostel, but I was warm again and the rest of the way was bike path, followed by road with a good bike lane. The snow continued.

I was very glad for those mittens and that warm jacket and so happy when I walked into the hostel. I felt like walking into a friend’s house.

I slept well.

The next day was a day off relaxation and naps and meeting other travelers at the hostel. Yesterday I had a great hike up Mount Rose, but that’s a story for another day.

Yep, I’m in Reno Nevada now. The forecast for the Tetons was not very good. Rain, snow and wind would have not been much fun, so I changed plans and rode the bus all the way to Reno, Nevada yesterday. It was a long ride, with no heat on the journey from Laramie to Salt Lake City, leaving an hour late at 4:30 AM. As the sun was rising I saw the Tetons forecast and updated my plans. This journey turned from tolerable to quite interesting due to meeting fellow passengers Jim (below) and Willie. Jim is a fellow traveller. A serious hiker, walker and long distance biker, who travels with a trailer. We shared stories and Jim had many to share. He seems to mostly work to enable his travels, which he has been doing for many years. Great guy, as was Willie who was not a traveller, but had much to share himself and also greatly improved the journey.

After a frantic change involving a quick ticket change at Salt Lake City onto a west-bound bus I settled in for another long ride. It was on this segment that I met Kevin. We had a lot to talk about. Kevin is a deep thinker. We covered all sorts of things from international events, militarism, meditation to race relations and religion. He’s the kind of guy who really makes you think and who’s presence is such that I felt more apt to reflect and develop my thoughts rather than reflexively retell already formed opinions, ideas and stories. Thanks, Kevin.

I don’t have much to say about Reno. It’s kind of a dull town, with folks staring into slot machine screens in nearly empty casinos. The hotel rooms are super cheap, though. It’s hard to get a meal at 10:30 at night, too, though I did end up meeting Jim on my search for food. He was fairly drunk, apparently homeless, initially quite hostile and made good conversation over the dinner I bought us. He had this classic green Schwin Collegiate bike with original matching handlebar tape in great condition.  I didn’t get to hear him play guitar since the was two strings short last night. Our meeting started out with me muttering “How’s it going?” and him retorting “What the fuck do you care?” Well I just couldn’t pass that up. I told him of my travels and how incredibly well so many people had treated me. He softened and opened. We ate and talked. We met some other local street folks and parted.

This afternoon I take the bus up the hill to Truckee, re-assemble my bike and ride to a hostel on the north side of Lake Tahoe. It’s only 13 miles, but for of those miles have a steady 7% grade. The weather will be chilly, but I will have a warm bed waiting.

So I just installed this weather app on my new phone* which shows what kind of week I was looking at. Here’s the screenshots.

Yeah, that’s not looking too promising, what with the snow and all, “But what about those winds?” you may be wondering. Perhaps a nice breeze from behind like the one that sailed me across Colorado would make it all okay. Well it might have made it better, but …

and

Yep, that’s a week of nice steady headwinds.

Now some of you may be thinking, “Now that’s some crappy weather!” but others of you may be thinking, “Where can I get me a sweet weather app like that one?” Well if you happen to be one of a very special select group of people (you have an Android smart phone and want to know about weather in the U.S.) then you can grab you a copy for a measly buck from apps.joncaplan.net.

I wrote the app a while back to suit my notion that a weather app should produce a usable forecast. Rather than just a semi-useless graphic of the sun. Despite a couple bugs that await my return to the east coast it has served me well. It even earns me a bit of money. I’m thinking that if I get some friends to download it and get some good reviews then I might get higher rankings and more downloads and who knows what crazy adventures that might lead to.

* Yep the old phone died of micro USB port corrosion. If you’re telephonically inclined please make note of my new number:
339-222-2579. No voicemail on this phone yet, tho.

Hi all. I’m in Laramie. The weather is cool (58 °F / 14 °C) with light rain and stiff winds and the altitude is 7,100 feet (2165 m). The end of summer has arrived and the weather has started to change. I’m passing the day hanging out in town with a warm bed at the Ramada motel waiting for me.

After yesterday’s ride I started to do some investigation into my route to the Tetons. I discovered that Wyoming is a very large state with a limited number of roads suitable for touring bikes. I also discovered that any route I chose would involve a minimum of 10,000 feet of climbing over about six days and I would remain over 6,500 feet the whole time, with the most direct route taking me to 9,500 feet (2900 m). I checked the weather, which indicated a good tailwind for today with light rain and a stiff headwind tomorrow.

I was able to manage yesterday’s climb, but don’t feel ready to do that kind of climbing at this altitude, which I am not yet acclimated to, especially with strong winds and cool weather. I am wiped out today.

A change of plans was unavoidable, but I’m not ready to give up on some of the things I want to do and see, so tomorrow at 3 AM I will be boarding a Greyhound bus to take a 25 hour trip to Jackson, Wyoming via Salt Lake City and Idaho. I’d go tonight, but both of the bike shops are closed and I need a box for my bike to go on the bus. (One shop says “Out Riding” for its Sunday hours.)  I will have plenty of time to gaze out the window and reflect.

Laramie is not a bad little town to spend a bit of time in. I’ve managed to find a great little coffee shop, a pizza joint that offers whole wheat crust and a library to update my blog that doesn’t require me to sign up for a library card to use a computer. I even ran into a couple of guys who were driving cross country, but headed West to East. Ah, well. Time to contemplate things on the bus.

I’m planning to spend a few days hiking in the Tetons and maybe getting up to Yellowstone. After that I don’t know. I may take the bus down to Salt Lake City and continue from there, perhaps via rail or perhaps by bike. Only time will tell. I still intend to see California!

Thanks everyone for your support and well wishes on this journey. It is changing in some respects, but I still hope for some interesting times. I’ll keep you all updated with pictures and stories.

Jon

PS I’ve added all sorts of little buttons to this site for sharing things, so use or ignore them as you like.