Tom,Dave,
You know I have sympathy for route making and really appreciate it when my tour mates don't complain when the route is longer, hillier, and has fewer services than advertised. Every tour has a few stretches of bad cycling but if we only wanted comfort we could stay at home.
This will certainly go into the bank of knowledge for any USBRS route but what we might do and what might be better for a USBR route are not necessarily the same. For us, a less direct, more sightseeing route would be preferable to the more direct I'd probably recc as an official route. If we ride from Hendersonville to Bristol Tom and I will only be a Burns to Savannah, and a ride across Memphis away from having cycled from Virginia to Arkansas. I can think of no reason other than one more night's expense to do five versus six days.
Speaking of cost, I need to look into Warm Showers along the way. I generally prefer to tour unsupported to remove the added planning needed to accommodate a motor vehicle. Taking your van would solve the problem of getting back and would allow us to take camping gear. I'm not absolutely averse to camping, especially if we should get a Warm Showers host who had both in house and camping available. I'll check along the route but to be honest, have not been successful in the past.
Bruce
You know I have sympathy for route making and really appreciate it when my tour mates don't complain when the route is longer, hillier, and has fewer services than advertised. Every tour has a few stretches of bad cycling but if we only wanted comfort we could stay at home.
This will certainly go into the bank of knowledge for any USBRS route but what we might do and what might be better for a USBR route are not necessarily the same. For us, a less direct, more sightseeing route would be preferable to the more direct I'd probably recc as an official route. If we ride from Hendersonville to Bristol Tom and I will only be a Burns to Savannah, and a ride across Memphis away from having cycled from Virginia to Arkansas. I can think of no reason other than one more night's expense to do five versus six days.
Speaking of cost, I need to look into Warm Showers along the way. I generally prefer to tour unsupported to remove the added planning needed to accommodate a motor vehicle. Taking your van would solve the problem of getting back and would allow us to take camping gear. I'm not absolutely averse to camping, especially if we should get a Warm Showers host who had both in house and camping available. I'll check along the route but to be honest, have not been successful in the past.
Bruce
Warm showers hosts are sparse along here. I did locate two possibles but they would require modifying the route to make it longer and hillier. For this ride, as in the past, Warm Showers is an unfulfilled promise.
ReplyDeleteBruce