Our Tag Team Teardrop-Bicycle Adventure

Hi All!

Back in January we posted that we were planning to retire and embark upon a cross country bicycle adventure (the first of many). Our plans have firmed up considerably since then, and they've changed a bit. We've moved up our departure date by one month, hoping to time things so that we can attend our first Camp Inn Camp Outt in late September. Our plan now is to leave Sedro Woolley, WA (near Anacortes in northern Puget Sound) on the first of August and we'll arrive in Orlando, FL some time after mid-November. We plan on wintering in Florida in Palmetto (south of St. Pete).

This trip is our first real chance to meet other Camp Inn owners. We'll be on the road for at least 100 days and we'll only be covering about 50 miles per day, so we'll be easy to chase down, in case anyone would like to creep along with us for a day or two (or more).

Our blog went live a few days ago:http://tagteambike.blogspot.com/

That will be where wewill provide details of our plans and progress as we get closer to our launch date, plus the blog has an embedded map where we will be posting our cycling progress (probably on a daily basis, provided we have internet access), complete with embedded pictures of our day to day happenings.

Also on the blog is our intended 5,000+ mile route, which links to a more detailed map that is overlaid on the various Adventure Cycling routes that we'll be following.

The blog has some links for subscribing to the posts, but I'm a bit clueless about exactly how (or even if) all that works. I'm also maintaining a Google+ circle of folks that expressed an interest in following our progress; they will all get notified by e-mail whenever I create a new post. If you want to be added to that circle, either contact me (Steve Malone) through Google+ or e-mail me at steveandalea@gmail.com and I'll add you to the circle.

We'll likely be moving pretty much continuously, though we'll be laying over for about a week in Grand Forks, ND to visit family, and we'll likely spend a few days each in Murphysboro, IL and Carmi, IL for some family history research. By the 15th of October we hope to be out of Illinois and searching for warmer weather. At that point the only time constraint will be to reach Orlando by Christmas.

 

All I can say is that is one hell of a bike ride.

I look forward to following your adventures. If your route takes you through Austin, I would love to meet up.

 

Right now we're tentatively crossing back across country to San Diego next spring, and we'll definitely be passing through Austin. We'll be sure to look you up. We may actually linger in the area for a while, as I have nieces that live nearby (as well as some ex-inlaws). I'd love it if one of them would want to continue on with us to CA and then take the train back, but I suspect that is wishful thinking...

 

Thanks for sharing. Look forward to reading more once your adventure begins!

 

Steve and Alea, so excited for you both on your cross country bike trip and will follow your blog! Would love to meet you, maybe at the CI/CO in Sept. Safe travels and super adventures! Best wishes!

 

There are some great campgrounds in the area...once you have an idea of when you will be passing through, we could do a weekend trip and meet you at one of the parks. Depending on time of year, they fill up fast so it's always good to get as much notice to lock in spots.

 

Steve & Alea - looks like you have a nice start to your blog. Sounds like it should be quite the bike trip. Look forward to following your adventure.

 

Hi!

We've got a lot of miles to cover before we can be certain of anything, but we're thinking we might be in the Austin area by late March or early April, as we could end up crossing the Mojave Desert twice later that year (once along the Southern Tier, then back along Route 66), which we'd want to do earlier in the year rather than later. Hopefully that would be off season for camping in your area...

 

Back on the 19th of January we placed our order for a new tow vehicle - a 2015 Ford Transit Connect LWB XLT Van. It arrived in the US earlier this month (it was made in Valencia, Spain) and we're hoping that we might take possession of it in the next few weeks. If it does, then we should have time to customize it as shown in the picture below:



The explanation of why we chose this scheme can be found on our blog:http://tagteambike.blogspot.com/2015/06/making-it-ours.html