When we wrote our last post, we had reached Kosciusko, Mississippi on our 3-week Nashville to New Orleans bike trip via the Natchez Trace Parkway. So… let’s see. From there, we continued riding south, and took two days to reach the area of Jackson, Mississippi. When we got to Ridgeland MS (a suburb of Jackson), …
Cycling the Natchez Trace Part 1
The past few years, Zach and Jennifer have taken a bike trip in the fall, and this year, Jennifer suggested that we bicycle the Natchez Trace Parkway. Part of the reason she suggested it was because it goes through Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee, which would get her down to missing just Alaska in her quest …
Summer 2016
We had a pretty busy summer. Nothing really seemed to qualify for its own “adventures” post, but we had a lot of fun and went to some beautiful places, so I thought I would post a photo gallery of some of our summer activities, which included: June – Adventure Cycling’s National Bicycle Travel Weekend – …
Canoeing the Buffalo River: A Slightly Epic Adventure
On May 6, Zach, Jennifer, Jennifer’s dad Al, and his partner Gwen left on a 3-day drive to Arkansas, where we planned to meet up with Zach’s mom Virginia and cousin Donna (who drove out from Georgia), for a 5-day canoeing and camping trip on the lower section of the Buffalo National River, between Grinder’s …
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Adventures in Remodeling
For a few years, Zach and I have been talking about remodeling the kitchen. Our kitchen, living room, and dining area, when we bought the house, had a semi-open floor plan, but there was a big wall, not quite up to the ceiling, between the living room and the kitchen. This meant that when we …
Hawaii, the Big Island
In November, we took a 3-week trip to Hawaii, where we spent 2 weeks on the Big Island of Hawaii (Zach’s mom Virginia joined us for the middle week of that), and 5 days on Oahu visiting with family (Zach’s sister Valinda and her family are there, as well as Jennifer’s cousin Luke and his …
Minnesota cycling part 3: Driving back
After finishing our bike ride across Minnesota in Fargo, North Dakota (see previous post), we packed everything back up in the car and set out to drive home on Wednesday the 23rd. We drove most of the way across North Dakota, and camped south of Medora in Sully Creek State Park, which had a very …
Minnesota cycling part 2: Cycling across the state
After our road trip to Minneapolis (see previous post), we set off on Tuesday, September 15 on our bicycles. The Adventure Cycling route we were following started in Stillwater, Minnesota, which is about 30 miles west of Minneapolis. The map we had provided a “spur” route from the Minneapolis airport to Stillwater, but we weren’t …
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Minnesota cycling part 1: Driving there
Zach and Jennifer are both (not too seriously) trying to visit all 50 United States; they’re each down to less than 10 to go. A while back, we compared our lists and found that neither of us had ever been to Wisconsin, Minnesota, or North Dakota. Minnesota seemed like a nice place for bicycle riding, …
European Travel Logistics as of 2015
We’ve been traveling around Europe for a month now (about to fly home), and I had some thoughts about the practicalities of how we’ve been traveling that I thought would be useful to share. Packing and luggage We both used travel packs for the trip, which allow you to either carry your stuff on your …
Prius V Sleeping Platform
It became clear to me last winter that I must get a new vehicle that is easier to drive in the snow. My Nissan pickup truck had been great in warmer climates, but here in Spokane where the snow is frequent in winter, it is not so great. But one feature I loved about the …
International Selkirk Loop, Aug/Sept 2014
We decided to do a bike tour at the end of the summer of 2014 on the International Selkirk Loop, which meant that we could leave and return from our front door. It sounded pretty nice, and we thought early September would be a good time for the trip. So in July, we sent off …
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Planning Rides for the Garmin Edge Touring GPS
Garmin recently came out with the Garmin Edge Touring, which is a combination GPS and cycle computer unit that is specifically made for the recreational and touring cyclist. I decided I needed a new toy… I haven’t had it for long yet, but it seems to do a great job of showing me a map …
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Upper Missouri River
The week of September 14-21, 2013, Zach, Jennifer, and Jennifer’s dad Alan took a canoe trip on the Upper Missouri River in Montana, which we all really enjoyed. This section of the river is a designated national “Wild and Scenic River”, and it is within the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, administered by the …
Riviera Maya
On Thursday, March 7, 2013, Zach and I (Jennifer) left the house at about 4 AM for a short but very pleasant Mexican adventure, courtesy of Zach’s employer. We flew from Spokane to Cancun via Denver, and were driven to our very posh home for the next four nights: the Grand Velas Riviera Maya, a …
Allerdale Ramble
I was in London last week to attend DrupalCon, where everyone who works on the Drupal software open-source project (Drupal is the software I use to build web sites for my clients) gets together. Since it is very tedious to fly to Europe, and I was going to have to adjust to 8 hours of …
A Moving Adventure
We have just moved across the state, from the Seattle, Washington area to the Spokane, Washington area! The place we left was a pleasant 1500 square foot house built in 1960, located in a hollow in the city of Shoreline, Washington, about three blocks north of the Seattle city limits. It was in an urban …
Thoughts on Equipment
At this point in our trip (i.e. the end), I think we’ve been touring long enough to form definite opinions on the bicycle/tricycle/trailer equipment we are using. There are certainly pros and cons to each of our setups. Here are some thoughts: Description of our Setups I have been riding a Bike Friday Sat-R-Day recumbent …
Racks and Signs
I’ve posted two picture galleries, one showing all the Bike Racks I photographed in Europe, and another of the various Signs we saw. Perhaps not very useful, but I enjoyed collecting them, and perhaps someone will enjoy looking at them. To find them, follow the links at the top of the blog page, or click …
Jakobsweg
Several times during our trip, we saw directional signs pointing out “Jakobsweg” (Jacob’s Way), with a distinctive starburst on the signs. We saw some in the first few days of the trip in Switzerland, and then later on when were were in Germany on the Danube. I was curious about who this Jacob was and …