This is an email I received from another transamerican cyclist. We met him in Yellowstone on our first night in the park. We we're cooking dinner when he pulled into camp. We noticed he didn't have much food to eat besides oatmeal so we offered him to join us for spaghetti around the campfire. Steffen was around 25 and was touring from his home state of New York all the way to Washington State. We asked if his family thought he was crazy and he replied, "oh yeah."
Steffen was on the the road to enjoy his last summer before he began medical school. We exchanged information and I had totally forgotten about him until I received his email earlier this week.
Hello friends from the road!
First off, great to meet all of you and thanks for your generosity. People like you made my trip and I am grateful. At every stop along the way, every state, every town, people were welcoming and helpful to me, a total stranger.
The first attached picture is a foggy morning in New York City's Harbor from the southern tip of Manhattan, Battery Park, on the day 1 of my trip, June 14.
I took the "scenic route" from NYC, traveling about 4,000 miles through the northern US and southern Canada. New York, Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington. I plodded on through cities old and new, suburbs, small towns, rural villages, the big wheat/corn/soy bean farmlands, smaller produce areas, wine regions, ranch country, frontier country, oil country, mining of every kind, national forests, national parks, the Great Lakes, Land o' Lakes, mountain ranges (that's a BIG plural), a detour to do some proper mountaineering, some high desert, and on and on, and always a stiff headwind out of the west to assure me the trip wouldn't be too easy.
Each place had a unique story to tell and those stories more often than not came when I least expected it. Meeting many of you was a testament to that.
The road going west ended in Port Renfrew, BC, Canada on August 4. The second attached picture's background is the Pacific Ocean from the rugged southwest coast of Vancouver Island. It was a real pain dragging the bike the last hundred yards to the coast but well worth it. I then made my way down to Seattle to spend a few days with old friends, finally taking a plane back east. 7 weeks out, 7 hours back. Next time I might just take the plane both ways... :)
Please pass on my greetings to those in your circles that I met, but don't have email addresses for. If any of you happen to come through my neighborhood in Manhattan, I would certainly extend whatever hospitality I could to you.
Cheers,
Steffen
First off, great to meet all of you and thanks for your generosity. People like you made my trip and I am grateful. At every stop along the way, every state, every town, people were welcoming and helpful to me, a total stranger.
The first attached picture is a foggy morning in New York City's Harbor from the southern tip of Manhattan, Battery Park, on the day 1 of my trip, June 14.
I took the "scenic route" from NYC, traveling about 4,000 miles through the northern US and southern Canada. New York, Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington. I plodded on through cities old and new, suburbs, small towns, rural villages, the big wheat/corn/soy bean farmlands, smaller produce areas, wine regions, ranch country, frontier country, oil country, mining of every kind, national forests, national parks, the Great Lakes, Land o' Lakes, mountain ranges (that's a BIG plural), a detour to do some proper mountaineering, some high desert, and on and on, and always a stiff headwind out of the west to assure me the trip wouldn't be too easy.
Each place had a unique story to tell and those stories more often than not came when I least expected it. Meeting many of you was a testament to that.
The road going west ended in Port Renfrew, BC, Canada on August 4. The second attached picture's background is the Pacific Ocean from the rugged southwest coast of Vancouver Island. It was a real pain dragging the bike the last hundred yards to the coast but well worth it. I then made my way down to Seattle to spend a few days with old friends, finally taking a plane back east. 7 weeks out, 7 hours back. Next time I might just take the plane both ways... :)
Please pass on my greetings to those in your circles that I met, but don't have email addresses for. If any of you happen to come through my neighborhood in Manhattan, I would certainly extend whatever hospitality I could to you.
Cheers,
Steffen
Trey, this was so neat to read. Thank you for posting it. Isn't it great to know that in the masses of humanity there are real people worth knowing!!! I'd like to visit Mahattan - want to go??? love, gammy
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