Gordon Taylor from Stone is cycling across the length of the United States this summer – 3,800 miles from Seattle on the Pacific coast to Boston on the Atlantic. He’s pedalled over 3,000 miles and has cycled into Canada to visit a relative. Here’s the fifth of his regular reports of his adventure. Click HERE to read previous installments
[dropcap]C[/dropcap]anada! After 3,060 miles in 33 days, without any days off, averaging just under 93 miles each day, I’ve reached the lovely home of a distant cousin on the northern shore of Lake Eire.
It seems a bit strange to think that I’ve come south into Canada, but this part of Ontario around the Great Lakes protrudes along way into the USA. Three thousand miles on a bicycle seems extreme, but to be honest it’s been pretty straightforward. I’m not an athlete by any stretch of the imagination but it’s surprising what you can achieve by just pressing on.
However, I’m now going to have a week off to enjoy some Canadian hospitality. I’ll be back on the road soon, though, to finish the last leg to Boston.
The USA is an easy country for cycle tourists. The Adventure Cycling Association, based in Montana, produce a series of maps for cross-country cyclists and for most of the time I’ve been following one of their routes. The maps show distances and directions, obviously, but also useful details such as campsites and convenience stores. In the USA, you don’t need to carry much food or water on the bike as it is usually available absolutely everywhere.
Although I speak some French, touring in English-speaking countries also makes life easier – especially as the Americans and Canadians you meet on the road are so friendly and accommodating. Non-cyclists are convinced that riding a bicycle is dangerous, but once you become confident in traffic it is lovely and often much more relaxing and interesting than sitting jammed in a car. I’ve found the drivers in the USA to be brilliant. Traffic is slow and patient in towns and out on the highway there is usually plenty of room for all of us. I’ve had one large truck overtake uncomfortably close to my elbow in a month… I wish I could say the same about my daily journeys up and down the A34 from Stone to Stafford!
For a “gentleman of a certain age” like me, the fact that toilets are so readily available is also one of the good points in comparison to travelling in the UK. There are “vault toilets” on most of the trails and often at rest areas or remoter highways. We don’t have these in the UK, although I’ve seen these in other countries. It’s a toilet without water, an earth closet in effect. An area like the Downs Banks, for example, would have maybe one or two of these toilets if it was in the USA. .They are wheelchair accessible and have the effect of opening up the countryside to many more people. I like them.
There are a couple of other things that are also strikingly different to the UK.
For the past two weeks I’ve seen hundreds of roadside signs saying “Hiring Now” or “Help Wanted.” Most of these are recruiting for fast food restaurants or motels, but there are others for drivers, welders and machinists. The pay, in many cases, however is very poor. It is also heartbreaking to see in some gas (petrol) stations, that there will be a collection bucket on the counter seeking funds to help with a local person’s medical treatment. Despite Obamacare, there are still many people without medical insurance and those who have cover are not insured for “pre-existing conditions”.
The costs are huge too, the man I mentioned last week (whose wife had died of cancer) was actually insured – but the family was still being faced with a $20,000 bill for additional medication and care. The USA is an extraordinarily wealthy country, but seems to have many more inequalities than the UK. I like and enjoy the USA, but wouldn’t like to live here.
The past week has been great, though.
I can recommend cycle touring in North America to anyone with a bike who’d like a bit of adventure. The people are lovely, hospitality is great, traffic is benign, routes are easy, there’s lots of food and the roads are big and easy. There are plenty of, er, toilets too!
