Author: greg

Success! The Bums have done it again! Nick and I breezed through the flatness of Ohio, mostly without maps – instead, we opted to simply point our bikes at the fiery orb in the sky each morning, and continue along nicely paved backroads until we hit Lake Erie. This method of navigation was greatly enhanced by Western Ohio’s strict adherance to the Jeffersonian grid system. You gotta give it up for the mile square. Having dined on sauerkraut pizza, we spent our last night camping in Castalia, in the shadow of the Blue Hole, which a gas station attendant assured us has no bottom, and that those who dared to try and find it have perished in the act. The next day found us racing along Lake Erie, eventually reaching the ritzy west-side suburbs of Cleveland, where Nick’s friend Ryan met us for an enhanced dip on the North Coast. We ended our quest with good times and great fun, meeting Sarah and Matt at the Great Lakes Brewery. Later, the illustrious John C. Rowland joined the fray. The next day, I hopped on my steed one last time and made quick work of the bike path leading to Akron, finally sailing up my parents’ driveway in good ol’ Mogadore. I made it home just in time to head out to the Portage County fair for the Demolition Derby, and I was astounded to see all the rage fantasies towards automobiles i had concocted over the last two months made flesh as the melee of cars systematically destroyed eachother to the bloodlust cries of the crowd. And so here I am, wearing normal clothes, sleeping in a normal bed, transitioning myself from the nomadic lifestyle of bike touring to the individually-wrapped cheese slices and on-demand cable of suburban living. It’s been one hell of a ride – looking at the photos from the beginning of the trip, it seems like I’ve been traveling for a year. This will not likely be the last post to the site – I may post a more conclusive ending, and I would say that there’s still a 60-70% chance that I will continue on to DC in late September (those odds can be increased by goading from Death Star residents). OK – thanks to everyone I met along the way! Ride on!

Well, i’m at it again. After three weeks off the saddle, i’m back into bikebums mode, on my way to DC. Things are going well so far – great weather, nice backroads, good scenery – but the ghost of zach humes haunts me. My knee is giving me much grief. I think i’ve got the problem licked, so we’ll see if it holds out.

as i was crossing the ohio river, i saw that it was bespeckled with ivory towers of hope, aka nuke plant cooling towers. I decide to document my proximity to so much radiation with my trusty camera phone. About half an hour later, as i was tediously crawling my way out of the river valley, i saw behind me the flashing lights of johnny law. That’s right – i got pulled over for taking a pic of a nuke plant – about six miles after the fact. The PA po-po never lose a bicycle riding terrorist. Lord help us if the bad guys start using mopeds or telephoto lenses. I feel safer – do you?

Things are going well so far. I’m on a 300 mile long trail that should take me all the way to dc. It also gets me through the mountains without exceeding a 1 percent grade! Not bad! Yesterday had a few frustrating/harrowing detours where the trail isn’t finished, but i think it’s smooth sailing from here on. The scenery has been amazing – sorry, not many pics – the camera phone wouldn’t do it justice. The weather has been a bit chilly, especially this morning, but other than that, it’s gorgeous. I only slightly regret that i’m about 2 weeks ahead of the fall leaves being in full swing, but it’s cold enough. My knee isn’t 100%, but i’ve got it under control. Well, it’s bedtime – catch ya later.

Well,folks – I made it! Not quite coast to coast, but close enough, I say. The last few days of riding were a lot of fun. The trails were really nice, and offered some great scenery, although I did detour off of them fairly often – the trails were certainly smoother than a mountain bike path, but it was still off-road riding, which was tough on both my bike and me – it’s hard to get in 80 miles in a day when you have to work to get above 12 mph. Of course, when I detoured onto the local roads, I found myself on a self-propelled roller coaster of steep hills. It was hard, but a lot of fun.  Anyway,  I recommend the Great Alleghany Passage Trail/ C & O Canal Trail to anyone looking for a fun 300+ mile ride from Pittsburgh to DC. So, there you have it – I started under the Space Needle and ended under the Washington Monument, and had a heck of a lot of fun along the way. Met some great people, saw some amazing sites. I now have 10,222 miles of self-supported bicycle touring under my belt – if I keep up this pace, I’ll have 50,000 by the time I’m 40! But for now, i have to go back to Oakland and find some work so I can start saving up for the next adventure. Anybody got suggestions as to where I should ride next?

Our preparations are being hastily made, but we definitely do not seem to be in any condition to be boarding a plane the day after tomorrow. Nonetheless, we’ll be spending the next two days tying up loose ends and stuffing our panniers full of the gear we’ll be using the next two weeks. I realized that this trip has involved the least amount of planning and preparation of any of the other three, yet it seems like it ought to involve the most, since we’re traveling halfway ’round the world. I’m telling myself that it’s because we’re pros at this now, and we don’t need to spend as much time getting ready. Guess we’ll find out soon…

OK – it’s on. I just barely fit my bike into a box, but other than that, things seem to be going well. Big ups to my awesome roommates for the send-off smorgesbourg they prepared. We just shaved my head, so we must be ready now. We’ll try and update y’all once we make it to the other side.

Well, our ted-powered chariot awaits.

See ya!

we made it! megans pannier stayed in philly but they’re sending it here.bikes are fine.spent all day walking in praha.

It was pretty amazing how smoothly everything went with our travels from Germany to Prague. We were able to buy tickets at a counter in the airport that took us all the way from Munich to Prague. We transferred a bunch of times, but were still able to buy all the tickets at one place. It may have been slightly cheaper to buy the Czech tickets in the Czech Republic, but that would have involved changing money first and finding the ticket window, then hoping the person understood what we wanted or spoke some English. The woman at the German counter spoke English and was very nice.
Even though US Air lost my pannier, they did deliver it to Tasha’s house a couple of days later. The only travel snag we ran into was when the conductor of the Czech train didn’t think we had bought tickets for our bikes. He was annoyed that we don’t speak Czech and surprised that we don’t speak German. We had the correct tickets, and pretty much just kept showing them to him while he talked at us in Czech, and eventually he saw what he needed to and let up on.
Transferring from the German train to the Czech train was pretty interesting. The German trains were very modern and clean-looking. The Czech train (and maybe it was just the line we were on) looked really old. It wasn’t dirty like the streets of New York, it mostly just looked a good twenty years old. Like those old brown-seated New Jersey Transit trains, the ones that are all sown together versus the new ugly pick trains with the doors that open at the push of a button so that you don’t have to wrestle with the sliding doors.
For anyone who’s planning a similar trip, here’s what we did: we bought the Bayern pass, which was 29 E for up to five people traveling anywhere in Bavaria. That includes the S-Bahn (the subway that you take from the airport to the train). We also bought two bike tickets from Munich to Prague for 10 E and two people tickets from Cheb (say Hyeb) to Prague. It all adds up to about 85 E, which is cheaper than the 190 E per person it would have cost to get the direct train from Munich to Prague. Plus, it wasn’t crowded, so traveling with our bikes was pretty easy. But, after being on a 15 hour flight, a six hour train ride instead of traveling from about 1:30 pm until about midnight with three transfers, it might be worth the extra euro to take the direct train.

Old Town Square

We went to see the clocktower in the Old Town Square and watched an orchestra that was dressed in military-style clothing that played songs from Czech movies, the Titanic theme song and a John Williams medley. We ate three pastries that cost a total of 25k ($1.25).

Jedna Cappuccino Prosim

We’ve been wandering around Praha for a couple of days now and it’s been only the beginning of our adventure. We’ve been trying our best not to be obnoxious American tourists. I’ve gotten pretty good at ordering coffee – jedna cappuccino, prosim – does the trick. But I keep slipping up when asked any other questions, like if I want sugar (suka is very similar to sucre, in French) and answer “one” or “yeah.”
I’ve noticed that people smoke everywhere – I guess I’m pretty spoiled by California. Also, people eat a lot of fried foods and mayonnaise, but most people look very healthy and skinny. Perhaps it has to do with McDonald’s being so expensive here. It’s just not the default if you don’t have much cash.
The food we’ve experienced has been mixed. The cappuccino has been lovely; it’s my only hope for dealing with the time change. The beer (pivo) has been delicious! Greg and I have both bumped our eating habits up a notch. I’m not trying to not eat dairy and Greg has been eating meat. Dealing with both the language difference and strict diets would just be more than we could handle. In fact, last night we stopped at a pub that had offensive cartoons all over the walls. Greg ate goulash and I ate a brick of fried cheese for dinner. We have been trying to keep with Czech culture and to stay away from all the touristy stuff. The best food I’ve had was a Café Bar Bar where I ate crepes with cranberries, various cheeses, and apples. Mmm… Plus, our lunch, with a beer each, cost about $12.50. We’ve been eating pastries every day – just because it’s so cheap for us. It’s pretty luxurious. We figure we won’t be back here any time soon, so we might as well try everything. We’ve been trying to say prosim and dekuji even though most people here speak English.
A note: anno (yes) can be shortened to “no” and Czechs don’t like it when you don’t give them exact change.

Mapa…kolo?

After frustrations over the map store we needed being closed (we just assumed that stores would be open on Saturdays), we found all the bike maps we needed at an alternate store. It’s exciting to think about biking again. Prague itself is not such a kolo-friendly place. The streets have cobble stones and the sidewalks are all made of small cubic stones. There are lots of trams, which are great for getting around, but not so great for skinny bike tires. Also, people drive fast and pedestrians have to be aggressive, other wise they would never get across the street. It’s a stark contrast to the abundance of bikes we saw locked to all the racks at all the train stations in Germany. The few bikes we’ve seen here have been mountains bikes, which are probably much better on the cobblestones. Many of the riders have been bike messengers.
Greg had a lot of fun buying a new derailleur cable at a local bike shop. It involved lots of pointing.

Anno, I mean uchet.

A note on restaurants: when you’re finished with your pivo, never give the waiter a thumbs-up to say that you’re satisfied and don’t want any more. A thumbs-up means one, he will bring you another beer.

first day riding went great.late start,got lost at first.each ate a pizza for dinner.camped w/ bees