USA TRAVEL NOTES

Barry and Margaret Williamson

September 2005

The following notes summarise our experience of 4 journeys through USA by bicycle and motorhome, the last 3 forming part of separate round-the-world journeys.

During our summer holiday of 1992, we cycled 3,200 miles in 46 days from Vancouver in the west to Niagara Falls and Toronto in the east, but mainly on the American side of  the border with Canada. This is the northernmost of the 3 classic cycling routes which cross the USA. With its wide broad-shouldered roads, light traffic away from the freeways, great distances, mountains, high plains, deserts, prairies, rivers, lakes and forests, friendly people, inexpensive motels on the old and now deserted US Highways and a culture that supports feeding, watering and sheltering travellers 24/7, America is ideal for both the cyclist and the motorhomer!

In February 2001 we returned to the USA, after crossing Australia by bicycle and riding 4,500 miles up and down the full length of New Zealand. On this occasion, we rode the southernmost route: 3,650 miles in 65 days from Los Angeles to Key West via San Diego, the Mexican border, the Gulf coast and down the east coast of Florida through Miami and along the Keys.  

In January 2003, after a New Year in Los Angeles, we paid a brief visit to friends Dick and Audrey Valentzas (first met motorhoming in Sicily) who live in San Rafael in Marin County, a few miles north of San Francisco. We cycled a little with Dick in the Marin County hills, where the mountain bike was born, and rode across the Golden Gate Bridge to explore the steep streets of San Francisco with their daughter, Paget Valentzas.  

In 2005, we have hired a 22 ft Fleetwood Jamboree 'C' Class coachbuilt motorhome in Los Angeles for a 7-week, 6,000-mile (10,000 km) circular tour through the American West.