You Want Pictures?!

Well, here's all the pictures you can handle:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jason.haserodt/BikeTripAcrossAmerica200702

The Mighty Prius

For those who doubt the the Prius is indeed larger on the inside than on the outside, I present startling new evidence.

On the ride back from Rhode Island, we fit three people (me, Rachael and Jason) in the car as well as both bikes and all our gear (and some of R's luggage) for the ride back to DC. Amazing.

Just the Facts, Ma'am

Ok,
so for those of you who love statistics and rankings, here is a breakdown of the trip.

Riding Breakdown:
Total Miles: 4195 (lets call it 4200 for argument's sake)
Total days of trip: 59
Total days riding: 54
Total time riding: 354 hours 11 minutes
States visited: 15
Canadian provinces visited: 2
Average miles per day: 77.7 miles/day
Average hours biked per day: 6.55 hours
Average speed: 11.85 mph
Longest day: 138 miles (the last day, into RI)
Shortest day: 35 miles (going up Logan Pass in Glacier Park)
Fastest speed (eric's bike): 45 mph
Best roads (state): Illinois
Worst roads (area): Buffalo, NY and surroundings

Bike Breakdown (this is a pun):
Flat tires (total): 7
Broken Spokes: 7 (all on Jason's bike, rear wheel, non-drive side)
Rear Derailleur Falling apart: 1 (Jason's bike)
Loose pedal bearing: 1 (Eric's bike)
Lost objects: 1 each East German Handkerchief (Jason), 1 each blue high-tech underwear (Eric)
Objects taken away by Canada (or "surrendered to the crown", as they say): 1 pepper spray "dog repellent"


Cost Breakdown:
The costs below reflect the money I actually spent during the trip, but include everything during that time. They do not include the cost of my bike or the camping gear (fairly considerable), which I already owned. This is just the money that I spent, and doesn't include Jason's expenses.

Cash Spent: $1400
Credit Card Purchases: $2100
Plane Ticket: $300

Total Expenditure: $3800
This is pretty good, considering that my original estimate was $5000.

Now That the Elephant Has Been Consumed...

What should I do with this blog? I have a few more things to post here yet about the bike trip (statistics from the trip, edited movies, links to a much larger selection of pictures, etc.), so don't stop checking. But after all that is done, I'm not sure what to do with it, so I have set up a poll to the right.

I could just abandon it as it is - it was meant as a way to tell people about my exploits on the bike trip, and it has served that purpose, but that is essentially over.

I could keep it going as a bike touring blog, discussing biking, future (shorter) bike trips I take, bike gear/technology, camping, etc. If I went this way, it would be updated more infrequently than during the trip, since I really would not have tons of relevant stuff to talk about.

Or I could turn it into "eric's blog", since I don't have a blog. In this case, it would become only marginally about biking, and mostly about books, video games, pirates, and monkeys (probably).

So, let the people decide! Vote in the sidebar on the right!

PS3: The Ultimate in Luxury Bike Touring

While biking, we spent some time discussing what additional luxury items would be nice to have on the bike trip. We decided that the two most useful luxury items would be a cooler (for meats/cheese and drinks/beer) and a laptop (for amusement and WiFi Inernet access). But I figured that for the ultra-luxury bike tourist we needed something more, so I bought a PS3. Seems reasonable.

Ok, so we are actually not taking a PS3 biking, but I did buy one (on amazon) back in Rochester.

The forces all seemed to be alligned there. Sony just did a $100 price drop (but this isn't as benign as it sounds: After announcing a $100 price drop (to $500) for the 60GB model and introducing a new 80GB model (at $600), Sony subtly stated that they would be phasing out (read: discontinuing) the $500 60GB model - meaning that soon the only model available will once again be $600). My Xbox 360/PS3 vascillation has more recently been leaning more towards PS3, more due to my annoyance with Microsoft than affinity for Sony. Particularly, Microsoft's persistance in charging $50/year to play online and their attempt to expand this "service" to computers. Also, Sony seems to earnestly want to make the PS3 a multimedia box, whereas the Xbox seems to be doing the bare minimum. Also, the current deal of getting 8 Blue-Ray movies free with the system (5 from the Blue-Ray consortium and 3 from amazon), which is worth about $200, pushed it over the edge.

So soon I'll have a PS3. And, yes, you can come over and play.

I Just Biked in From Seattle and Boy Are My Legs Tired!

Well, we did it (essentially). We performed a series of absurd tasks and are now in RI. We were supposed to come in later today, but made a last minute decision yesterday at lunch to turn 2 days of biking into one super-long day. So yesterday we got on the road late (9 AM, thanks to late biking the days before), did one of the hilliest days yet (curses to Central Conneticut), finished 137 miles, and got in at 11:30 PM. That will probably stand as the greatest bike feat for a while.

So all we have left to do today is to go to the ocean, which around here is essentially everywhere.

Q: What Can You Get for $0.40 These Days?

A: Enough gasoline to fuel your camp stove for an entire cross country bike trip. Seriously, its like a loaves/fishes type miracle.