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January 2025 - San Diego to Las Cruces

What can I say that would be positive about this route? Well the California part was nice. The roads had nice shoulders and they were clean of road debris; the rest of the route not so much.

It was raining when we flew into San Diego and it continued to rain. Our first day on the road it rained all day as we slowly climbed up into the Laguna Mountains. It was cold and there was some major snow up at Mt. Laguna, but we avoided all that mess.

After we crossed into Arizona, the roads were just OK-- lots of road debris. At this point, I think I need to point out that this is not an easy route. Between Yuma and Phoenix we had to ride on Interstate 8 to Gila Bend and then Highway 85 to Buckeye. The shoulders were OK but riding on the interstate is not the best ride day.

There are large sections of this route, 50 miles or more, with nothing so if you have not spent much time in the middle of BFE, then you might want to avoid this route.

Interstate 8. Owl, Arizona

Interstate 8. Sentinel, Arizona

The end of a 90 mile day riding on the interstate

Mesa, AZ

Globe, Arizona has to be one of the top three most dangerous places I have ridden.

The roads from Globe to the New Mexico state line have very bad shoulders. On Hwy 70 there was so much truck tire debris that in many places the only way to avoid it was to ride in the road. Many places the thorn bushes have grown onto the shoulder forcing us again to ride on the road that has a lot of truck traffic.

Hotel Duncan was very nice in Duncan, Arizona

The road instantly changed when we crossed into New Mexico. The shoulders where wide and clean.

Our last two days on the road were marked by a major weather shift: major afternoon windstorms which caused major dust storms. We had to start our day extra early between Lordsburg, Deming, and Las Cruces to arrive before the dust storms began. As you can see by the photo, we did not make it to Deming in time. We had already done the interstate part of the route but the dust became pretty bad on the frontage road we were riding. Two hours of breathing through a Buff was not a lot of fun.

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June 2024 - Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands

Our ride through Luxembourg City and on to Arlon, Belgium was in one word awful. It just poured rain as we rode through Luxembourg City which seemed nice from what I could see in the rain. For the next several days it just rained all day. As we rode through Bastogne, Marche-en-Famenne, Andenne, Namur and finally Brussels it continued to rain.

The traffic in Brussels was pretty bad but we finally had a little sunshine. At this point we had enough of rural Belgium. This is farming country which means the roads where muddy and wet. After 15 days of being wet and covered with mud we where headed to Amsterdam fast. The last days through Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, and on to Amsterdam, we were hauling ass doing 80 mile days with the last day into Amsterdam close to a 100 miles.

Not a lot of photos of Belgium. These were mostly between storms.

Outside of Luxemburg City

View from our hotel window Arlon, Belgium

Frites and cokes Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium.

Namur, Belgium

Bike path heading into Brussels

Parc du Cinquantenaire, Brussels, Belgium

Kapellen, Belgium north of Antwerp

Etten-Leur, Netherlands near Rotterdam

Leiderdorp, Netherlands near Amsterdam

Aalsmeerderbrug, Netherlands just outside Amsterdam

Central Amsterdam

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May 2024 - Switzerland, France, and Germany

We arrived in Basel, Switzerland in the dark and it was raining. After a cold wet ride from the train station we found a Vietnamese restaurant across the street from the hotel and had beers and Pho. Little did we know it would rain every day for the rest of our stay in Europe.

From Basel, we followed the EuroVelo 5 route through central Europe along many canals and along the Rhine, Rhone, and the Saar rivers. This was a land of World War Two battles. At every, turn there would be some monument for a battle and many small towns had Patton squares in honor of General George Patton who liberated their city.

Rhine River at Basel, Switzerland.

The Rhone - Rhine Canal

Patton Park, Sarralbe, France

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May 2024 - Italy (Part 2)

After a train ride to Orte, Italy, we have bypassed Rome and are in Tuscany. This without a doubt is the most beautiful part of Italy. The route had a ton of climbing and the towns are mostly closed on Sundays but the scenery was great.

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May 2024 - Italy (Part 1)

We arrived in Brindisi, Italy on the ferry from Igoumenitsa, Greece at 10 PM. The next day we started our adventure in southern Italy. Italy is a large country south to north and we still had all of Europe to ride on a 90 day tourist visa. We had already decided we would ride most of the way to Rome, then take the train around Rome, avoiding all the big city riding. We would then ride north through Tuscany then take the train from northern Italy over the Alps to Switzerland.

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April 2024 - Europe (Greece Part 2)

After crossing on the ferry between Rio and Antirrio, we rode along the the Gulf of Patras coast to Missolonghi, Astakos, Palairos, and then to Vonitsa. There is a tunnel between Vonitsa and Preveza that does not allow bicycles. We met a nice couple from Amsterdam who were visiting family who had a farm near Vonitsa. They used their farm truck to give us a ride through the tunnel to Preveza.

We continued our trip along the Ionian Sea coast to Igoumenitsa and then the ferry to Brindisi, Italy.

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April 2024 - Europe (Greece Part 1)

In April 2024 we flew from St. Louis to Athens. Greece. This was our first ride in Europe. We started in Athens with the intention of riding through Europe to Amsterdam.

Our ride started in Athens then followed the Megara Gulf coast crossing over to Corinth and then along the Gulf of Corinth to the ferry at Rio.

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January 2024 - New Zealand - Part 2

We flew from St. Louis to Dallas and then to Auckland. At Auckland we had a short regional flight (prop plane) to Kerikeri in Northland, New Zealand. We rode about 1200 miles from Kerikeri through Auckland and down to the bottom of the North Island at Wellington NZ.

This was the height of the New Zealand summer, so there were places where the traffic was bad and we had our share of cool and not cold riding days. Will we return to ride the South Island ??????

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January 2024 - New Zealand - Part 1

Starting in January, 2024, we rode the North Island section of the Tour Aoteoroa route starting from Kerikeri, Northland, New Zealand.

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Spring 2022 Bike Tour

This was a 1800 mile tour using the Empire State Trail across New York and the Erie to Ohio Trail through Ohio.

You can see by some of the photos, it was a cool and sometimes wet spring. The route took us pretty far north to Buffalo,New York and then south through Akron, Columbus, and Dayton, Ohio.

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After a long pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we finally started to travel beginning in Spring 2022. Just for ease of use, we posted photos and minimal commentary on Instagram. What follows is our 2019 through 2025 cycling adventures.

June 2022 - New York City to Edwardsville. IL

January 2024 - North Island of New Zealand

April 2024 - Athens, Greece to Amsterdam, Netherlands

March 2025 - San Diego, CA to El Paso, TX

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After a couple of days in Coyhaique, Chile, we are on our way home.

We started our trip in Mendoza, Argentina and ended at Coyhaique, Chile: 2200 miles through mountains and deserts.

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Last day on the road with sun and rain, killer traffic, road construction, and a tunnel.

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Still cold and rainy; will it ever end? We had a nice riverside cabana in Villa Manihuales complete with wood burning stove. 

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Getting out of the rain at Puyuhaupi, Chile. Took a day off at the Hosteleria Alemana where the hostess was shocked at how much cyclists can eat for breakfast! The following day we rode (and hike-a-biked) more than 55 miles on gravel, in the rain--and snow at the top of the climb to Villa Amengual.  We were welcomed, drowned rats that we were, at Casona Del Bosque Hosteria, which was like staying at your Chilean grandma’s house.  No photos because we were wet, cold, and had miles to go before we slept!

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Headed south on the Austral highway. They have these cool single lane bridges that are modeled after the Golden Gate Bridge.

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Now we are in Chile. Crossed the border at Futaleufu and we are headed over the Andes to the Carretera Austral.