Doug Walsh's Blog, page 19
October 15, 2014
Three French Weeks
As Doug mentioned in his post about Quebec, we start nearly every interaction in France with the same two sentences: We don’t speak French. Do you speak English? We receive far more “no” responses than we expected. Everyone tries to help and fortunately we are usually able to communicate our basic needs like finding a […]
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October 13, 2014
5 Cheap, Light, and Useful Items Under $5
The dozen bags strapped to our bikes are stuffed with all manner of gear, clothing, electronics, and other pieces of kit that many would consider essential or, at the very least, obviously useful for long distance bicycle touring. But those panniers and duffels have also come to contain a handful of very small items whose usefulness far […]
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October 1, 2014
Forget Portland
Mass-participation, organized bike rides aren’t for everyone, but their popularity can’t be ignored. The most famous — infamous? — typically have the prefix Trans- in their title or are commonly known simply by their alphabet-soup acronym. I’ve ridden a few of these some years ago. Rides like R.A.M.R.O.D., Trans-Rockies, and S.T.P. to name a few, the latter of […]
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September 16, 2014
Bike Culture: The Real Dutch Treat
“If you think the cycling infrastructure in Germany is good, wait until you get to the Netherlands.” We heard this statement over and over from people during the past week as we described our route. The cycling culture in the Netherlands and, in particular, Amsterdam, really can’t be fully described in words. There are literally bicycles […]
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September 1, 2014
To GPS or Not to GPS
That is no longer the question. After making our way across North America without the use of GPS (and sometimes without a map or directions) I have turned the stress of navigation over to Google and Garmin. You see, worrying about what we were missing wasn’t the only burden of route-planning that was proving too heavy to […]
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August 15, 2014
Scotland: There are No Wrong Turns
“Of course I’m biased on the route I would take, as I’d always go West to the Highlands!” The island of Great Britain is less than 8% the size of the contiguous United States, but it presented a very big question: Which way should we go? We began our trip through the United Kingdom in […]
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August 1, 2014
Atlantic Crossing
After four wonderful weeks in NJ visiting family and friends, we are back on the road, or more accurately, sailing towards new roads. We boarded the Queen Mary 2 on July 28th to begin the international (sorry Canada) portion of our trip. We’ll land in Southampton, UK on August 5th and the following day board […]
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July 18, 2014
Manhattanhenge 2014
We interrupt this month off the bikes to share a series of photos I took last weekend in New York City. Our good friends Alan and Katrina traveled east to spend a week with us in New Jersey and that nonstop whirlwind tour of city, beach, and amusement park landed us in Manhattan during the […]
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July 8, 2014
Jersey in July
We rolled up the driveway of Kristin’s parents’ house in Far Hills, New Jersey on Saturday, June 28th, following a trail of red and yellow balloons through the last couple turns of our 4,885 mile journey. Sisters, parents, and our niece and nephew maintained a constant watch for our arrival, ready to provide just the […]
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June 24, 2014
Pedaling Down Memory Lane in Maine
“We’re turning south from Quebec to Vermont and New York and then back to New Jersey to visit family before going to Europe.” This was our plan since we left Seattle over three months ago. Then one morning in Quebec, we woke up and decided to continue east into Maine and Acadia National Park. Doug […]
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