Vicarious Bicycle Travel

August 15, 2013

One of my favorite parts of my job in the summer is reading the blogs and tweets of cyclists on the road. I can't closely follow every cyclist's journey but I usually end up choosing a few to tune into regularly. It keeps me in touch with the issues folks might be having on the routes for various reasons and it fills my coffee and lunch breaks with a bit of vicarious thrill! I hope you enjoy these three as well.

I first came across Crystal's trip from Washington DC to Santa Barbara, California, when she started asking questions with me on twitter via @acaroutes about routes. We chatted about maps and I recognized her as a fellow map geek. She and her partner, Adam, ended up combining some Adventure Cycling route maps with others to meet their needs. As an added bonus, I got to meet them when they came through Missoula. (And eat some of Adams's fabulous homemade bagels!) You can catch up with them at Crystal's blog, Aesthetics of Everywhere, as they finish up their journey.

With Jessica, the meeting came before the reading. Though I had seen some of Jessica's tweets earlier, I hadn't dipped into her blog until I met her at the Adventure Cycling office during a rainy stint here in Missoula. I enjoyed our conversations and added her blog to my morning reading list. She is riding to raise $25,000 in support of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation's work in childhood-obesity prevention. At some point this fall, I think I'll have to go back to the beginning and read her blog, Road to Rhode, from the start.

While he doesn't have a blog, Stuart often posts great pictures to the #acaTransAm hashtag from his Twitter handle @5tuBC. This trip on the TransAmerica Trail is a dream that Stuart and his dad, Ellis, both harbored and only recently realized they shared. Once the discovery was made, why not do it together? Again, I had the pleasure of meeting them when they passed through Missoula.

Photos of Crystal & Adam, Jessica, and Stuart & Ellis from the Adventure Cycling Visiting Cyclists gallery.

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GEOPOINTS BULLETIN is written by Jennifer 'Jenn' Milyko, an Adventure Cycling cartographer, and appears weekly, highlighting curious facts, figures, and persons from the Adventure Cycling Route Network with tips and hints for personal route creation thrown in for good measure. She also wants to remind you that map corrections and comments are always welcome via the online Map Correction Form.