Originally Posted by
Enthusiast
This spring I'll be riding from New Orleans, LA to San Diego, CA. I haven't spent much time in the Southwest so there are MANY places I want to visit and people I want to see. I'm having difficulty chosing a route. If I tried to see every place I wish to, my route would zig-zag all over and it'll take forever to get to Californi, but I'd enjoy it the whole way. Or I could just hop on the ACA southern tier route and zip right along. I've never ridden a designated route and I like the idea of meeting other touring cyclists. But I don't wish to feel like I missed out on much of the Southwest.
On my last tour from Vermont to Louisiana I was 1500 miles in and only 200 miles away from where I started. I felt a bit silly.
Do other tourists who make their own routes run into these issues? Most routes I've seen seem to head in a general direction. When you know you won't be back in a region, how do you pass by a "attraction", knowing you will probably never be that close again?
It depends on your reason for going does it not? If it's too see things along the way, then you need to decide what you want to see, and plan your route and time accordingly. Go to AAA and get the travel guidebooks for the states your passing through and decide what you must see, what you would like to see, but is optional, and what you don't really care about. You plan your route according to what is on the must see list. Note where you are close to a would like to see, and if your slightly ahead of schedule then you can go see it, if you don't have time, then you can skip it. The AAA books usually list facilities like hotels/motels along the way, including what is provided and rates, don't remember if camping locations are included or not, although car oriented, they can still be helpful. You can always go back to an area at some point in the future, unless your either giving up riding or are running out of years.