When people here that I rode cross country, I get all the questions.  While we were riding cross country, we got all the questions.  Before I rode cross country, I had all the questions!!!!  Here are the answers!!!

  Your doing what?

           Biking cross country.

  Are you crazy??

            Not clinically!

  Where did you start?

           Palo Alto technically, which is a suburb of San Francisco, headed south to San Diego, then headed across to Florida.  Once in Florida, its north to DC and then home to Pittsburgh on the Great Allegheny Passage.

  Where are you biking to?

            Pittsburgh, PA....thats where we're from

    Did you bike to San Francisco?

            No.  Ryan was wrapping up a job there and I shipped out the bikes and flew out....I am not that crazy!

  How did you know where to go?

            We had maps put out for bicyclists from Adventure Cycling.  They gave us biker friendly routes, showed us places to eat, and showed us places to stay.  We also improvised with our own routes, based off of maps that were donated to us, or that we would pick up at a gas station.

  Did you go on highways?

             For a good bit in Texas we rode Interstate 10, which probably was our safest time.  We had a big shoulder and places to stay and eat every 40 miles or so.  There were other highways that we were on, which sometimes required us to ride in traffic.  Highways in the south do not always have a shoulder!!!

  Why didn't you go straight across?

            We started March 1st.  It would have been to cold to go straight across.

  How long did it take?

             3.5 months, in which we took about 15 days off.

  How did you get time/money to do the trip?

            Hey thanks,....I was laid off from my job.  Ryan was about to be re re-located and just asked for some time off in between assignments.  We both were fortunate enough to collect unemployment.

  How many miles total?

             5200 miles, give or take.

  How many miles a day did you ride?

             In the hillier parts, 50-60.  When it was flatter, 70-100.

  Where did you stay?

             Hostels, Motels, Campgrounds, RV parks, behind a gas station once, in a Church backyard once, with some amazingly nice people that we met along the way, and some other spots that we found.

  How many tires did you through?

             About two sets each.  The tread usually did not wear out, it was more to replace the junk that Bike Tech in Monroeville put on our bikes and as a preventative measure.  Also, due to sidewalls developing holes or tires exploding due to the wrong size inner-tube (Don't ask!!!)

  How many flat tires did you have?

             Now that is a good question!  Well, not to many on the easy to change front end, but probably about 15 each total, give or take.  That's with Kevlar lined tires, tire liners, extra thick inner-tubes, and slime inside the tubes.

  Any other repairs that you had to make?

             Spokes broke quite often.  Ryan had all of his spokes replaced in NM.  I had to buy a whole new rim in TX.  We had some chains pop every now and then also.

  What did you eat?

             A lot of Dairy Queen on the hot days.  Seriously, we usually had access to at least a gas station sandwich, a fast food place, or a small diner.  There were only a handful of times where we had to eat Spaghettios.  Towards the end, we actually preferred making hotdogs by the campfire!

  Would you do it again?

              Absolutely.  One thing though, is that I would not do that many miles again, just straight across next time!