Brooklyn, New York to Bloomington, Indiana via Bicycle. Sept 8th to Sept 19th 2008I had been looking at plane tickets out of New York and after being mildly frustrated with the prices, and overly impatient with the purchasing process, I decided to just ride my bike.
My bicycle is a 1980's Lotus road bike and while it's not necessarily meant for touring there are plenty of ways to skin a cat and plenty of bikes that will make fine "touring bikes." My friend Vincent rode 900 miles on a fixed gear track bike! So while I would love to have a nice touring frame I don't think it's totally necessary.
After loading my panniers with food, water, a hammock and some tools, I was on my way out of the big apple! As far as a route was concerned I ended up taking my friend Lances advice and just heading west.
So Here are the pictures from my 11 day 900 mile journey through New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, a little bit of West Virginia, Ohio and Finally back home to Indiana!
The Hudson river
A river in between NJ and PA
This the super sweet bike shop that totally hooked me up with all kinds of goodies! Thanks dudes!
It's a good thing that bike shop gave me a new tire because I ran over a broken bottle and put a huge gash in my tire. dis!
Booyah! I finally made it to PA!
Camp site/someones back yard?
Pretty roads of eastern PA.
Lunch time!
Self portrait while eating
Easton, PA
Pretty fields....
Chocolate town!
Choo choo!!!
I like rivers
And bridges
Appalachain trail
Amish dudes ride!
Me on top of a mountain!
The first of many mountains
Round 2...
Ahhh....
Round 3.....these things are getting tuff.....
Coming down the other sides not so bad.
This is my super awesome highway with a totally sweet shoulder.
Camping...
This is where fairies live.
what a stud!
The sun finally came out after two days of rain and helped dry my clothes/sleeping bag/hammock.
hill?!?
Another bridge.
Bridges go over water.
This highway took me from eastern Ohio all the way into Indiana!
What?! a bike lane in the middle of Ohio? Booyah!!
Holy crap! a city in the middle of Ohio? a most welcome site after being in the sticks for so long.
Pirates?! in Ohio? Yarr!!!
Hammock time!
Praise Allah, the holy land!
Indiana=soybeans.
Indiana=corn.
After looking at these pictures I feel they don't fully express the epic badassery of the 11 day trip. I was riding anywhere from 8 to 12 hours a day, using baby wipes to clean off with and picking gnats out of my beard and that's kinda hard to capture. I guess I could of been more diligent about documenting the whole thing but I was busy riding! If you really want to get the full experience just hop on your bike and start riding. I hope these pictures will inspire you to go on a totally excellent adventure and if you need a partner in crime I'm totally down.
