Trip Report: Key West - Savannah - Arkansas - Milwaukee

Thanks for the reply. I had used County roads the day before coming up
toward Streator from Bloomington, and they weren't bad. In IL, the
topography is flat enough that the "off-roads" aren't any hillier than the
main state roads. That isn't true in a lot of states.


"Kristian M Zoerhoff" wrote in message
.net...
In article ,

says...

The "scariest" parts of the trip were
coming into Miami from the south on US 1 because drivers aggresively used
the curb lane, and in northern IL on Route 23, where there was a narrow
2
lane road and heavy traffic, including cement trucks and semis.

Welcome to Illinois.

Seriously, all of the rural state roads in this part of the state are like
that. You're often better off on county roads, though the quality can vary
significantly by county. Next time you're heading through, give a shout; I
have
a pretty good collection of bike maps that can plot you a better route (or
at
least, one with fewer trucks).

--

__o Kristian Zoerhoff
_'\(,_
(_)/ (_)

"Ron Wallenfang" wrote:

What's it like riding those long bridges in the Keys?
Scary?

The bridges between the keys were no problem. Plenty of width on the
roadways, and not a lot of traffic.

OK

I'm in Missouri

Would love to escape winter by flying me and bike to
Keys for a ride

So it CAN be done safely then? Yes?

wrote
Would love to escape winter by flying me and bike to
Keys for a ride

So it CAN be done safely then? Yes?

Yes, except that you aren't going to fit the bike on the plane I took from
Ft. Meyers to Key West - too small. I believe there may me larger planes
available but you have to check it out. Otherwise what I did was send the
bike down ahead of time by UPS to a bike shop (the particular one I used is
called The Bike Shop), have them reassemble it and pick it up. Also given
my expensive experience looking for a place to stay in Marathon Key (Key
West + 50 miles), you may want to make a motel reservation ahead of time.

Mr Tell Me State ,,,

Here is an idea for ya.. take your bicycle to Florida on a commercial
airline, like Southwest etc. You can take the boat from Marco Island on the
west coast of Florda to Key West. There is daily service in the winter. I
took the boat to Key West from Marco and I took my bicycle .. it was fun. I
didn't bicycle back, took the return trip by boat, but I did see a couple
who were doing this. They were starting out for the trip up, up and across
the USA, and all.

You could fly into Tampa airport. Bicycle down to Marco, would take a
couple of day maybe. Then get the boat to Key West.

I copied the following but I don't know if it will go through to the
newsgroup.. if not just look up Marco Island to Key West on the computer.

{ Get away to America's Caribbean Paradise aboard the fun vessels of the KEY
WEST EXPRESS
Sailing daily from the Ports of Ft. Myers and Marco Island (in season) KEY
WEST EXPRESS is the fastest, and most FUN way to visit Paradise!

================================================== ================================================== ===

wrote in message
...
"Ron Wallenfang" wrote:

What's it like riding those long bridges in the Keys?
Scary?

The bridges between the keys were no problem. Plenty of width on the
roadways, and not a lot of traffic.

OK

I'm in Missouri

Would love to escape winter by flying me and bike to
Keys for a ride

So it CAN be done safely then? Yes?

"Ron Wallenfang" wrote:

Yes, except that you aren't going to fit the bike on the plane I took from
Ft. Meyers to Key West - too small.

Well I'm looking at buying a folding Bike Friday NWT to
rung bike to solve that problem

see link

http://www.bikefriday.com/


called The Bike Shop), have them reassemble it and pick it up. Also given
my expensive experience looking for a place to stay in Marathon Key (Key
West + 50 miles), you may want to make a motel reservation ahead of time.

Marathon more expensive than other places Keys?

What bat camping along way? Not possible?

Also....have any problems with attacks from drivers,
locals? Ever feel unsafe in that regard?

In article ,
Ron Wallenfang wrote:

Key West - Savannah - Arkansas - Milwaukee

The "scariest" parts of the trip were
coming into Miami from the south on US 1 because drivers aggresively used
the curb lane, and in northern IL on Route 23, where there was a narrow 2
lane road and heavy traffic, including cement trucks and semis.

You can avoid most of this if you don't mind arriving in Wisconsin a
little further west (say, around Sharon, WI). South of Streator there
are parallels to IL 23 which are quieter (e.g. E. 11th Rd, E. 22nd Rd.).
Stay on IL23 to Ottawa because that's probably the easiest place to
cross the Illinois River (not so hilly and the bridges have bike lanes).
Then north of Ottawa (say, around N 42nd St.) you can switch to the
county roads that go through Leland and Waterman, rather than take
the portion of IL23 which equals US34 (which stinks). North of Waterman
to DeKalb, IL23 is excellent riding. From DeKalb north, IL 23 gets
pretty bad (especially DeKalb to Genoa). I might suggest the many
paved bike paths through DeKalb (where I live), which end at north
1st Street near the edge of town. Follow Five Points Roads to Kingston,
then work your way to Hill Road and up to the town of Garden Prairie.
Take County Line Road to Capron, and then head north to Sharon.
That last bit is very pretty -- even hilly, by Illinois standards.

But I have to say I have ridden almost all of IL23 and, on a good day,
it's not so bad. Certainly better than alternatives like IL47.
I wouldn't send someone else there, but this is my home turf.

It's perhaps worth mentioning that the State of Illinois produces
maps showing all the roads (except roads within cities) in the state
and their bike-worthiness:

http://www.dot.state.il.us/bikemap/STATE.HTM

dave

In article ,
says...

It's perhaps worth mentioning that the State of Illinois produces
maps showing all the roads (except roads within cities) in the state
and their bike-worthiness:

http://www.dot.state.il.us/bikemap/STATE.HTM

Just make sure to sanity-check the routes with another source. The state map,
for example, has US-20 around Elgin tagged in green (best possible BLOS) when
in fact it's a freeway (and a dangerous one at that) from which bikes are
forbidden.

Dave's route is prettier than mine; I'd have routed you east on the Great
Western Trail from Sycamore to St. Charles, then north on the Fox River
Trail/Prairie Trail to Genoa City or thereabouts (or via some back roads that
roughly approximate that route). Slower going, but loads of services.

--

__o Kristian Zoerhoff
_'\(,_
(_)/ (_)