My summer trip

[pecunium]

I've been roughing out the trip. It has, in effect, four legs (there is a fifth in there, but it's a one day ride, and the end points are known, so...).

I've roughed out the first one, Palo Alto to Oak Ridge. I turns out I'll be swinging into LA, because of the parameters I set.

About eight hours of riding time, per day, and notable cities as waypoints.

So, take a look, and if anyone has a couch to offer, or friends, along that route, to whom they might extend letters of introduction, that would be swell.

Comments

[onyxlynx]

Don't forget to go offroad for a minute or two and look up at the stars. ;-)

[onyxlynx (from livejournal.com)]

Looks good. They should by now have finished the portions of B through E that were still under construction. :-)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

That would be a first. I've traveled B through E five times in the past 30 years, and it's never been complete.

[vicious-wench.livejournal.com]

Nothing on this leg, unfortunately.
The more northerly routes I may be of more assistance with.
And on the TransCanada, I highly recommend the town of Field, on the border between Alberta and BC. It's a railroad and tourist town, in the middle of Yoho National Park, small town, good hostel www.fireweedhostel.com, absolutely lovely people (and some of my favorite hiking in the world, but that's not the point).

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Looks reasonable. That leg from ABQ to OKC is going to make for a long day's riding, but I've done crazier things.

Don't know if you still have any sort of a military ID. If you do, there are several decent transient BEQs along that route.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of road repair going on funded by stimulus money. I'm pretty sure you'll see some of it.

(Along the lines of that 30 year thing, I drove through Texarkana on I-30 a couple of years ago and there was no construction!!! But they've fixed that now. There are once again proper construction zones in Texarkana -- at least as of last month when my wife and daughter were there. The universe has been saved.)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

One of the things I need to clear up is my status. I am told I get a retired ID now, which has all sorts of lovely perks. The problem is the nearest places to get one are some distance away (Monterey and Sacramento).

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Reserve retirement, or full medical retirement? Either one will get you into a transient BEQ of course.

I'm currently assigned to the "Fleet Marine Reserve" which gives me a pink U.S. MARINE CORPS RESERVE RETIRED ID card and access to the commissary. When I turn 60 in 4 years and a couple of months, I'll be transferred to the Retired Reserve and get another ID card, monthly retirement payments, and TriCare.

I'm told Monterey is pretty. Maybe you can take a run down there. I note as a warning that all military ID card offices are now actually run by Homeland Security and don't answer to the base commanders or even the DoD. The one at Ft. Meade seems to specialize in pissing people off. So be sure to have all your ducks lined up before you go, because from what I can tell they delight in telling people no.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It's because of the disability. DHS.. oh boy. I think Travis becomes the better bet, since the Presidio has become a bit of a bother (too much worry about DLI being a target, or something). It's gone from an open post to a locked down post.