Four weeks out / Sauvie Sunday - The Road to Rome, Part One: America - CycleBlaze

May 3, 2021

Four weeks out / Sauvie Sunday

Four weeks out

We fly out to Minneapolis four weeks from today.  Suddenly it feels like it’s almost time to break camp and that we’re running out of days to prepare ourselves.  We’re starting to mentally run through what needs to happen before then, and feeling just a bit stressed.  We haven’t left on a ‘real’ tour since last August when we departed for Croatia, and we’ve gotten pretty relaxed since we returned by the convenience of being able to haul our raft of junk around with us in the car.  We need to start thinking small again, and take preparations seriously.

The Mapping Problem

One item we’re wrestling with is maps and GPS devices.  As usual, I’ve planned out the entire five month itinerary from MSP to Rome in a series of routes on RideWithGPS - one for each of the roughly 100 travel days we anticipate.  They’re just a plan of course, and much deviation will undoubtedly occur on the road; but we like to at least start out with a plan.

So Rachael has been working on loading maps and routes to our Garmin 64S devices, using the same method we’ve used for the last decade.  It isn’t going well this time though, because our map source - free open street map downloads - doesn’t work the same way any more.    As recently as a year ago you could select all of the fairly small quadrants you needed, order a download of the set, and transfer it to the devices. 

Easy enough then, but seemingly no longer an option.  In fact, it looks like maintenance of these maps may have stopped about a year ago, and they’re starting to go stale.  The only option now is selection of entire countries and entire states; and the size of these maps blows past the storage capacity of our antiquated devices.

In theory we could select by state or country and load as we go - load just the maps for Minnesota and Wisconsin first, then replace those with downloads of Michigan and Ohio, and so on; but for that to be practical we’d need a method for downloading on the fly.  Rachael’s been experimenting for several days with this, trying to download directly to the phone (from which we can transfer them to the Garmins).  She’s not had much success though, and thinks she needs a real computer with a USB port.  So we spent a day or two looking at minicomputers, trying to decide whether it made sense to buy one that she could carry instead of her IPad and also use as a file transfer device.  None of the options really looked quite right to us in the end, so we moved on.

The other idea is to buy downloadable maps, which we’re more than happy to do.  Garmin sells downloadable maps suitable for cycling - one for all of the US, and one for all of Europe.  These would work fine, if we could load them onto our 64S’s, but they’re too big.  We could get them on micro SD cards that provide extended memory, but we aren’t really keen on that idea either.

So now we’re considering upscaling to more modern devices and are looking at the Garmin Edge 1030 Plus.  This new device has lots of capacity and comes preloaded with USA and Europe.  We’re not there yet, but it’s looking likely that we’ll go this route.  We’d better decide soon - the sand is draining through the hourglass.

The Plan

So as long as we’re talking about maps, we may as well look at one.  Here’s the plan for the first half of the tour: Minneapolis to New York.  It’s gone through quite a few revisions since we first started teasing it out, but we’re feeling pretty good about it now and think that barring the unexpected we’ll generally follow it.  It’s broken down into 56 stages, which leaves us quite a bit of flexibility - We’ll leave Minneapolis on June 3rd and (hopefully) fly out from Newark to Amsterdam on August 10th, so that leaves 12 float days to play with.  And there are enough places where we can shorten the route if we’re running short of time that we should have no problems.  Barring the unexpected.

Some stats:

  • Start June 3, at the MSP airport terminal, and end August 8th in The Bronx.
  • 56 travel days, 12 slop days.
  • 10 states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut.
  • Total distance and elevation, not counting day rides: 2,400 miles and 68,000’.
  • Average travel day: 43 miles, with 1,100’ of climbing.
Minneapolis to Rome, Part I: America
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Patrick O'HaraI was just anticipating your upcoming tour's route maps last night! That's a shame about OpenStreetMaps. Looks like a great route! Looking forward to following along as usual.
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3 years ago
Scott AndersonTo Patrick O'HaraI’m really looking forward to hitting the road again. It feels like it’s been a long time. There’s a lot of this country that will be completely new to both of us.
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3 years ago

Sauvie Sunday

It’s becoming a bit of a tradition to bike out to Sauvie Island on Sunday, as long as the weather is agreeable - which it nearly always has been since we returned to Portland.  The city is just coming off of its driest April on record.

Sauvie Island is one of our favorite local cycling destinations, but to get there you have to ride for about seven miles each way on busy Highway 30.  This road just seems to get worse all the time, and during the week there’s enough large truck traffic that it’s not really enjoyable any more.  Rachael doesn’t care for it at all now, except on the weekend when the trucks are mostly gone and it’s much quieter.  Sundays are the best.  I think Rachael has been out every Sunday since we arrived, and I’ve joined her on three of them.

We’ve seen plenty of Sauvie Island here in the blog, so mostly I’m just going along for the ride now.  I almost didn’t even take the camera yesterday, and didn’t stop for a shot until over 20 miles into the ride, not until the north end of the road along Multnomah Channel.  These last few miles are the best of the best though, and there’s always something.   today it’s the sheep and lambs, always a delight at this time of year.  I finally pulled the camera out for a few shots, Rachael was kind enough to wait for me, and then we rode straight home.

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I love this old brick silo. I wonder what its history is? It looks like it could have been a windmill in the past. Or a lighthouse. Or a Genoese guard tower. I think it’s been a long while since anyone has scaled that ladder.
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Now though, it’s a parking lot for toy dump trucks.
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Along Multnomah Channel. Actually,I think I could be pretty happy with the houseboat life. No lawn maintenance, for one thing.
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Gregory GarceauNo lawn maintenance, but maybe an occasional dredging operation?
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3 years ago
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An interesting collection.
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The mountain is alway a nice sight, but today I especially liked all the bands of brown in this stubble field.
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Two tractors.
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Some canola.
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The best of the best of the best - the sheep at the north end of Sauvie Island Road, just over the county line. Today many of them are strung out along a tomato chow line. It’s quite a noisy spot in springtime, with all the newborns bawling and bleating.
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On Sauvie Island.
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Such a suspicious look.
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Time’s up! Put that camera away, Scooter!
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Suzanne GibsonI am sure you have good reasons for navigating with your Garmins, but I started using my phone for navigating a while ago and find it much more convenient. I use an app on my pc to plan the routes and they are automatically visible on the app on my phone. I haven't discovered any disadvantages so far. You can also download your routes in case you don't always have internet. Have you considered that as an option?
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3 years ago
Nicholas BowringHi - I have really enjoyed your journals over recent years and am pleased I can re-read the Spanish/French one (Bilbao to Sete?) now it has reappeared on here. The photography is excellent too. As for the navigation, I switched from Garmin to Wahoo recently and it has proved much easier to upload routes on the fly. It was great in NZ, France and here in the UK. I use Komoot to plot the route on the phone and seconds later it is on the Wahoo device.
Looking forward to following your next adventure. Nick
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3 years ago
Scott AndersonTo Nicholas BowringHi, Nicholas. Thanks for the input - both about the mapping question and about our blog. And thanks for following! Unless I’m misremembering, I don’t think we’ve heard from you before. It’s always nice to know someone is out there keeping us company.

As far as the advice goes though, you’re either too late or we’re too hasty. We’ve already committed ourselves and have sprung for a pair of new 1030+ devices. Hopefully I’m not too old to learn a new trick!

Cheers,
Scott
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3 years ago
Scott AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonHi again, Suzanne. Thanks for the thoughts. Yes, we have experimented with phones a few times recently, enough for us to decide they’re not really quite right for us. In any case though, you were too late - we’ve already ordered up new 1030’s. Hope for the best!
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3 years ago
Suzanne GibsonHope you have fun with the new Garmins! I'm sure they're top equipment!
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3 years ago
Scott AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonI’m optimistic that they’ll work out well, once I train myself. We just got them last night, but I haven’t had. Chance yet to confirm that Gauting (your town?) is on the map.
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3 years ago
Suzanne GibsonIf Gauting isn't on the map, they're no good. :)
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3 years ago