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Biking Across America

Travel Blog

Starting on June 1st 2024, I'm embarking on a bike trip from Boston to San Francisco. My plan is to ride roughly 40 miles per day, to cover around 4,000 miles and visit a bunch of friends and relatives along the way. Several people will ride portions of the route with me and in Albany I'll be joined by Mark Greenberg for the remainder of the trip. I've wanted to make this ride since I was 20 years old working in a bike shop in Cambridge and later working as a bike messenger in Boston. Now I'm 62 and I retired so that I could make this ride before my body gives out :-)

Day #88: Logan to Woods Cross (79 miles)

It been a while since I had a picture of McDonalds on my blog... they've been few and far between out West... I thought today's ride...

chrisbentley349

3 hours ago1 min read

Day #87: Soda Springs, Idaho to Logan, Utah (74 miles)

Today was another 70+ mile ride... they all start bright and early and happy, and end with me feeling a little desperate to make it in to...

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1 day ago1 min read

Day #86: Alpine, WY to Soda Springs, Idaho (73 miles)

I started early enough to have a long shadow. It was also cool, so I layered up. This was all good for a long ride that only had...

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2 days ago1 min read

Day #85: Jackson to Alpine (38 miles)

Before I leave Jackson, I want to sing its praises... It has 2 or 3 really good sushi restaurants and an absolutely hopping downtown...

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3 days ago2 min read

Day #84: Grand Teton to Jackson (39 miles)

I could take pictures of Grand Teton mountain until the Bison come home... and I love these 39 mile days that start off cool, with a...

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4 days ago1 min read

Day #83: Yellowstone to Grand Teton (39 miles)

Re-tracing my path back to Grand Teton, I knew what to expect, so it was a relaxed ride. I started at 7:30am and it was cool enough for...

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5 days ago1 min read

Day #82: Rest Day in Yellowstone

One of the early expeditions of Europeans to explore Yellowstone, included an artist. Describing a waterfall, he said "it surpasses...

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5 days ago1 min read

Day #81: Grand Teton to Yellowstone (39 miles)

Since today's ride was only 39 miles, I had a relaxed morning. Slept in until 6am, had cereal with blueberries for breakfast, and was on...

chrisbentley349

5 days ago1 min read

Day #80: Dubois to Grand Teton (66 miles)

A beautiful, but long, day of riding. The first 33 miles were almost all uphill for a total of 3,500 feet of ascent... but the payoff was...

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Jul 41 min read

Day #79: Riverton to Dubois (80 miles)

A long, beautiful ride up the Wind River Canyon, with convenience stores located at the 20 mile and 50 mile marks. Had a great talk with...

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Jul 21 min read

Day #78: Rest Day

I had made a mistake in my planning of today's ride... I had thought there were no hotels in between, so I had signed up for a 140 mile...

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Jul 11 min read

Day #77: Wright to Casper (91 miles)

Today was my longest ride so far, 91 miles. Luckily there was a gas station near the half-way point. The day was sunny, but not too hot....

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Jul 11 min read

Day #76: Newcastle to Wright (73 miles)

Had a lovely dinner last night with Casey Thorson, who drove me in his pickup to the hospital last Summer. He's one of the loveliest and...

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Jun 291 min read

Day #75: Custer to Newcastle, Wyoming (38 miles)

The Wild Spruce Market in Custer has everything you need to make a "bagel supreme" :-). Yet another beautiful day, blue skies, not too...

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Jun 281 min read

Day #74: Keystone to Custer (28 miles)

Another beautiful day, riding through Alpine terrain, made friends with Dana McKnight at a diner in Hill City. Like me, he had ridden...

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Jun 271 min read

Day #73: Rapid City, SD to Keystone (30 miles)

Rapid City, South Dakota had thunderstorms last night, so the plane circled for 45 minutes before we were cleared to land. But the...

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Jun 261 min read

Day #72: Restarting the Journey

Almost a year after I had to suspend my cross-country ride, I’m getting back on the road… I had two operations (kidney stone and...

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Jun 261 min read

Day #71: Temporary break in the trip

I’m sorry for the lack of updates... once I got to Newcastle, WY, it turns out I had a third bout of bladder infection and the symptoms...

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Aug 11, 20241 min read

Day #70: Custer, SD to Newcastle, WY (36 miles)

Google showed that I would climb 1,400 feet today, but descend 2,500 feet. I didn't fully grasp that all the climbing was in the first...

chrisbentley349

Aug 9, 20241 min read

Day #69: Keystone to Custer, South Dakota (28 miles)

It was a glorious day... a little cool, so I had my long pants, sweater and wind breaker on for parts of the ride, but the sun came out...

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Aug 8, 20241 min read

Day #68: Rest Day in Keystone

Well, it was sort of a "rest" day... I left the saddle bags in the motel room and rode my pared-down bike the 850 feet up to Mount...

chrisbentley349

Aug 7, 20241 min read

Day #67: Rapid City to Keystone, South Dakota (16 miles)

What a miracle a good night's sleep is! At the end yesterday's ride I felt broken, but after 8 hours of rest I felt ready to get on the...

chrisbentley349

Aug 6, 20241 min read

Day #66: Interior to Rapid City, South Dakota (73 miles)

If yesterday was magic, today was a trial by ordeal... I think it was the hardest ride of my trip, because it was so long and the...

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Aug 5, 20242 min read

Day #65: Kadoka to Interior, South Dakota (34 miles)

Today was a magical day for several reasons... In the first place, the blast furnace heat from yesterday was gone at least at the start...

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Aug 5, 20242 min read

Day #64: Murdo to Kadoka, South Dakota (43 miles)

Not too long a ride today... if the wind picks up it will be against me... but my big concern is the heat... it's supposed to hit 104...

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Aug 3, 20241 min read

Day #63: Presho to Murdo, South Dakota (33 miles)

The temperature was forecast to hit 100 degrees, with a bit of a headwind as well, so I wanted to get out early to beat both the wind and...

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Aug 2, 20241 min read

Day #62: Oacoma to Presho, South Dakota (40 miles)

Nice conversations all day... with a woman in her pickup truck, with a dad doing a road trip with his extended family, with a truck...

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Aug 1, 20241 min read

Day #61: Kimball to Oacoma, South Dakota (26 miles)

Originally this was going to be another long day, but when I told Google that I was searching as a car, it found a much shorter route......

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Jul 31, 20241 min read

Day #60: Mitchell to Kimball, South Dakota (49 miles)

No math today, but I should mention I loved Trev's comment on the shortest path. If the paths have width of course he's right, since...

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Jul 30, 20241 min read

Day #59: Madison to Mitchell, South Dakota (70 miles)

So, Fengmei and Zoë were of course right about yesterday's math puzzle: path A and B are the same length. One way to see this is to...

chrisbentley349

Jul 29, 20241 min read

Day #58: Brookings to Madison, South Dakota (44 miles)

Small math question: which of the two paths from Start to End is shorter? (Hint: it's a trick question :-) If you peek down to the...

chrisbentley349

Jul 28, 20241 min read

Day #57: Marshall to Brookings, South Dakota (60 miles)

Today was long... according to the forecast, the wind was 10-18 mph gusting to 30, hot and humid. On the plus side I figured out...

chrisbentley349

Jul 27, 20241 min read

Day #56: Morton to Marshall (57 miles)

The day was supposed to be hotter than the previous few days ... hitting a high of 90 degrees, so I started around 6:15am. The sky was...

chrisbentley349

Jul 26, 20241 min read

Day #55: Hutchinson to Morton (57 miles)

Today was a beautiful day for biking: cool with hazy blue skies, but by the end it was tough, fighting a northerly wind whenever the path...

chrisbentley349

Jul 25, 20241 min read

Day #54: Waconia to Hutchinson (32 miles)

Another short ride and shorter blog update... I had breakfast at McDonalds and met another cyclist who had ridden across the US several...

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Jul 24, 20241 min read

Day #53: Minneapolis to Waconia (36 miles)

The day started overcast and cool with a few drops of rain. It was a good day to get back in the saddle. A short ride and a short blog...

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Jul 23, 20241 min read

Day #52: Third Rest Day in Minneapolis

The W hotel in Minneapolis is in the Foshay building, which is a classic 30 storey skyscraper build in 1928. It has an open air viewing...

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Jul 22, 20242 min read

Day #51: Second Rest Day in Minneapolis

I intended to head West from Minneapolis today, but I had a hard night, so I changed my plans and decided to stay in downtown Minneapolis...

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Jul 21, 20241 min read

Day #50: Rest Day in Minneapolis

Oh my goodness, seeing family is wonderful! Last night we had a lovely dinner with Joe's parents and lots of the kids' friends and...

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Jul 20, 20241 min read

Day #49: Hastings to Minneapolis (51 miles)

Today's ride followed a bunch of beautiful bike paths along the Mississippi and then through Saint Paul and Minneapolis, but it was also...

chrisbentley349

Jul 20, 20241 min read

Day #48: Wabasha to Hastings (56 miles)

Today was gorgeous from start to finish: on the cool side all day and hardly any headwind, whew! Google wanted me to climb two steep...

chrisbentley349

Jul 18, 20241 min read

Day #47: Winona to Wabasha (45 miles)

The Google elevation diagram warned me that there was going to be a steep climb mid- way through today's ride: What Google could not...

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Jul 17, 20241 min read

Day #46: La Crosse to Winona, Minnesota (36 miles)

La Crosse started as a trading post located on flat land in between the many cliffs, known as bluffs, that line the Mississippi on both...

chrisbentley349

Jul 16, 20242 min read

Day #45: Tomah to La Crosse/Onalaska (46 miles)

The day started off in a dense fog... But it soon burned off and gave way to a lovely morning... I went grocery shopping last night, so I...

chrisbentley349

Jul 15, 20241 min read

Day #44: Wisconsin Dells to Tomah (61 miles)

I was planning to start at 5am, but this is what was happening at that time: So, I watched a YouTube video about the making of Monty...

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Jul 14, 20241 min read

Day #43: Beaver Dam to Wisconsin Dells (60 miles)

Today's ride was longer than I've done for a while and the forecast said it would get hot, so I started at 6am, a little after sunrise:...

chrisbentley349

Jul 13, 20241 min read

Day #42: Fond du Lac to Beaver Dam (33 miles)

Back in the saddle and heading to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where my cousin Katie and her family live, and also where Oliver and Claire...

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Jul 12, 20241 min read

Day #41: Second Rest Day in Fond du Lac

We had another restful day in Fond du Lac, hanging out with Jim and Diane and their daughter Kim's family, and getting ready for the next...

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Jul 11, 20241 min read

Day #40: Rest Day in Fond du Lac

Today I got to visit with my cousin Kim and her husband Adam and their three kids: Lukas, Macie and Levi. What great kids! After lunch,...

chrisbentley349

Jul 10, 20241 min read

Day #39: West Bend to Fond du Lac (30 miles)

My destination today is Fond du Lac, which is where my father was born and grew up and where my aunt and uncle, Jim and Dianne, live...

chrisbentley349

Jul 9, 20241 min read