think tank forum

so I thought I'd make a thread about this so I can post in it whenever I have thoughts about this plan of mine.

the tentative plan right now is to graduate and get my bachelor's degree in about ten months, in the Winter of 2008. right now I'm considering living at my mom's once my lease is up this September, so I'm not on another year-long lease for 2008-2009. this would be ideal because I could finish school and then spend the rest of the Winter and the beginning of Spring training and just finalizing all my plans for the ride.

I just thought of something else actually: school loans. I need to see what the deal is with paying these back, what the interest will be, when payments start, how much payments are, etc. if I can pull it off, I'd save up a bunch of money while living at my mom's and be able to pay these even while on the road without a job. that might be tough what with food expenses and things on the road, but we'll have to see!

here is the route I would like to take:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=106736012254650788734.000435f2381c28004217d&ll=38.68551,-97.03125&spn=68.850917,101.425781&z=3&om=1

all stops involve either relatives, friends, or landmarks.

I hope I actually do this.

dude you're going through kingston!

however by then i'll be in london. i see you have marked it on there... word.

i hope you do this too, this is epic

you mentioned something about stopping by in the "plans iii" thread I think. the Underground Railroad bike route starts somewhere up around there too.

once it starts getting warm I'll start doing some shortish rides around this area. eventually I'll do some two-day rides where I find a place to camp overnight. I need to learn about camping.

what do you want to know?

TTF IS ABOUT SHARING KNOWLEDGE

> you mentioned something about stopping by in the "plans iii" thread I think. the Underground Railroad bike route starts somewhere up around there too.

if you are around london you will be totally welcome to stay and relax, i give you my word

the underground railroad (ends) up in owen sound, about a 3 hour drive from london

> I need to learn about camping.

camping is fun, you will have to figure out a way to pack all your stuff with you when you bike

I want to know stuff that I probably won't think of but would figure out after camping a few times!

awesome, nestor. I'll probably just end up going from London over to Hamilton and starting thereabouts.

most people who tour do panniers on both sides of the rear wheel. I don't want to be riding with a bag on or anything so I'm definitely gonna have to figure out the packing thing. I want to keep it as minimal as I can without risking freezing to death or anything like that.

if you do it in the summer you could totally sleep outside, except for when it rained, when you would need a tarp (or if it was in august)

I'm not quite sure going through arizona is a good idea. Crazy people and deserts... it's like mad max beyond vegas out there.

hahaha MAD MAX

I was definitely planning on camping outside with a waterproof tent and such. just a one-person tent that's pretty lightweight so it doesn't take up too much room in my bags.

the route is definitely not final; I pretty much just drew straight lines to and from each place I want to stop for more than a night. once the time I want to do this gets closer I'll look in to finalizing a route and such.

how long do you think this will take?

honestly, I have no clue. a lot of it depends on how long I spend at my various destinations. some of them are just tourist stops like the MLB Hall of Fame, but in other places like Chicago I have relatives that I'd like to visit with for at least a day or two.

if I assume my route will be about 8000 miles (the route I drew up on Google Maps is about 7500) and I ride an average of 75 miles/day (which is kind of just a guess; the longest ride I've done was 66 miles and I did that in well less than a day. I'm assuming stops for food, relaxation, etc.) it will take about 107 days. wow, that's longer than I thought, haha. 3.5 months or so. wow.

75-90 is a good estimate, depending on what the terrain/wind is like. this is totally a worthy expedition and one you won't be able to do forever!

cooperstown eh? im assuming thats to hit up the baseball hall of fame. looks like a sweet trip tough. hopefully you hit montana and the mountains well before or after winter.

of course the the hall of fame :). I plan on the whole thing taking place over the late Spring and Summer, so that shouldn't be a problem.

I will totally ride with you. On my motorcycle, though. How fast can you ride? :-P

I could probably keep up a mid-20s pace for a few minutes :).

Ugh you totally missed canada... jeez

so im kinda curious how you exactly plan on entering montana. I think it would be an amazing bike ride to to come from wyoming and go over the Beartooth Pass, through red lodge then over to bozeman.

haha, sorry karpet! how far North of the border are you?

I have no clue how I plan on entering Montana. like I said, I just drew pretty much straight lines from point to point on that map, I didn't actually plan a route on any roads yet.

dude.. josh is back! woo

Currently I live in Vancouver BC... so not very far.

Lucas I'm always around...

This sounds like a crazy plan, I hope it materializes.

141 miles from Seattle. maybe I'll add it to my route :).