Dedicated to my father.
Introduction
(Go
directly to Day1)
Hello, welcome to the journal.
My name is Mikhail and I wish to share
the experiences of my cross-country bicycle trip that started in
You may ask,
why would I want to write all this?
Well, I believe that these journals can
encourage other people to do something similar, which is a beautiful way to
live a life. I, personally, was greatly inspired by similar journal dairies of
other cyclists, from different parts of the world.
Later on, I will probably mention some of them,
who are particularly wonderful, in my opinion. And lastly, it’s a lot of fun
creating something like this, which I hope some one will enjoy.
How did I get the idea of going on a bike trip?
It is a long story and as I mentioned
above, I was greatly inspired by existing journals of other people.
Also, it was a long-time wish
that I grew up with, same as many other people who have similar thoughts.
I have never planned the actual trip,
until about two years ago, when I met two wonderful girls (sisters), that
came to the States from Holland, to cross North West and ride into Canada on
their little clepsible bikes.
In April, I set up the time of
departure - the end of July.
I still, however, didn't have the
actual bicycle or any other needed gear, but isn't it half of the travel
pleasures - to get prepared? :) By the way, I was living in a suburb of
After visiting few bicycle shops, I was
surprised with prices for touring bikes. Cheapest one would start at around
$600, which would be hardly suitable for real touring.
The ones recommended by the salesmen
were around $1000 and more, not to mention all the additional accessories
required.
I didn't want to spend that much money
and started looking for a department store bicycles for a while. After all it's
a new bike.
Major problem was that all of them were
mountain bikes, which means they were heavy and not very well suitable for
mounting racks. Many had front forks with shocks. The prices, however, were
much more reasonable - around $100.
At the same time, there were many older
road bicycles around.
So, one time, walking out of Wal-Mart,
I saw an older man unlocking an old, grey, road bicycle. When I was closer to
him, I asked if he would be interested in selling the bicycle. He said that he
would sell it. I asked if it was ok to sit on it and make few circles around
the parking lot.
After trying that, I realized that this
must be the bicycle to get. When I asked how much he wanted for it, the man
said - 20$. I didn't expect such a low
price, and was thinking he didn't know value of the bike, but he added that he
also had another one and lived near by.
The purchase was made. I thanked him
and while talking, mentioned that I wanted to ride it across
Well, now that I had the actual bike, I
could start preparing it for the trip.
More about this read in the bicycle section.
P.S. Since English is the language I am learning, the text contains enough ;) grammar, punctuation and other types of mistakes, which I hope you can forgive me, or, let me know, so I can do the necessary corrections. I always like to learn new things and highly respect proper punctuation and spelling.
Best wishes,
Sincerely,
Mikhail Scosyrev.
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