Having been born and raised in the Ohio and currently living in New Hampshire...having just finished a 35 day roundtrip bike trip to the midwest(St. Louis), yesterday...I can say a little here. Make up your route. Don't follow any of the suggested routes that everyone else follows. What do YOU want to see, not what does everyone else want to see. What do YOU like, not what does everyone else like. Make up your own route based on what YOU want not what everyone else wants.

I designed my own route from start to finish. It was actually a 3 stage ride. My family still lives in Ohio and the original intent of the trip was to ride back and see them...I don't own a car anymore and I hadn't seen my family since 2004. I knew the only way I was ever going to get back to see them again was going to be by bicycle. So I designed up a route last summer that I was planning on taking. Hurrican Irene came along and stopped me dead in tracks. I couldn't get west out of New England. I had to delay the trip until this year. By this year I was taking a look at several different possible routes. In the last week or so I came up with a whole new possible route for getting back and ended up taking that route.

Back in the spring I thought up the crazy idea of extending the trip on to the Mississippi River and ending up riding roundtrip from the Atlantic to the MS by the time it was all said and done. I figured I would end up going out to Quad Cities area as my point along the MS. On a very unplanned car trip, helping out some hang glding friends, I ended up going to TX for the end of July. Coming back I thought why not take the bike trip to St Louis instead. Whenever I think of the MS I think of the Gateway Arch and not anything else. That immediately changed my target for the OH-MS-OH leg of the trip.

While visiting family and attending the World Hot Air Balloon Championships in Battle Creek, MI I made up my route for the OH-St Louis-NH ride. I figured once I left my moms place I would ride to St Louis and then make the beeline straight for NH. Little did I know Mother Nature had better plans for me.

I left for St Louis having already changed my plans to make it roundtrip back to OH to sit out Hurricane Isaac. Can you say my plans were constantly in a state of change. Nothing like they would in the last few days of the trip but nonetheless they were already starting to change.

I got back to Ohio and made up one route for the trip back but I still didn't like it so I changed it again so it would catch and follow the the toughest stretch of the RAAM course(Athens, OH-Hancock, MD). I had a whole new route set up to get me back to NH pretty much dry.

First day out went smooth, right on target, the second day I got up in traffic in Columbus, OH and that set me back and started the whole changing process. I stuck with the planned route through Hancock, MD and then everything started changing. I decided to try to make up some time and go flat instead of sticking to the hills and went in Hagerstown, MD which was almost a mistake. Thank God I was using a backpack and not rack and panniers or I would have fallen even further behind.

After pretty much a day off(only rode 24 miles to get to a hotel) thanks to the stomach flu I ended up doing a major route change. I was trying to get home ahead of the next storm front that was moving in. I had had a dry trip thus far. I only had one evening where I got caught on the bike drenched and that was under warm conditions, fortunately. Pretty much everyday I was changing the route thereafter trying to find the shortest distance and least climbing possible to get me home as fast as possible.

I spent 4 nights in hotels. One after getting drenched, I wasn't about to set up the tent in the pouring rain when I was going to be in town that night and I didn't know where any potential stealth campsite might be. Two other nights I played it safe and went for a hotel room because I knew my camping gear would take me down to 50 degrees but I wasn't sure if I would sleep or not if it got any colder than that. I didn't have a sleep bag on me. The forecast was calling for lows in the mid 40s or even colder. I bailed for the hotel to play it safe. The other night was the night after I came down with the stomach flu. I got the stomach flu on Thursday evening last week around 10:15PM. I spent the night two doors down from McDonalds, stealth camped beside a Sheetz gas station in Shippensburg, PA. I was expecting a visit from the cops. I wasn't surprised when they came. I wanted a little safety thanks to the flu. I knew the gas station was open 24 hours and I was sleeping on that montra. I was originally planning to spend the night in the ballpark on the east side town but when the stomach went wild I bailed and went for safety. Friday I rode up toe Carlisle, PA and grabbed a hotel for the night. Those 4 hotels room were around $239 total.

Total on trip I spent was $501 over 2828 miles and 26 days on the bike, three of the on bike days were rides around my old stomping grounds in Ohio.

I stealth the whole way anywhere from trail crossing, trails, churches, truck stops, gravel yards, ballparks, cemetaries, to behind Walmart, heck the last night of the trip I stealth camped 5 feet outside the rear door of the Shermin-Williams store.

Learn to use Google Earth. I use it for everything, from route planning to finding stealth campsites. For route planning...is this stretch of highway the maps show as limited access...is it really limited access. Zoom into street view and see if their are any signs that indicate bike are prohibited. I use it to find stealth campsite. Look for areas like parks/ballparks or cemetaries, etc that have no houses nearby. The easiest way to go out and not have the cops bother you is for no one to know where you are camping at. If they don't see you go into the cemetary or ballpark than they aren't likely to call the cops on you and you won't get paid a visit by the police. I look for spot that don't have houses nearby. They can even be found in town/cities. Typically I was always sticking to smaller towns(even up to 10,000 population) and avoiding going for the metro areas. Other than the night I was expecting to be paid a visit(Shippensburg) I never got woke up over night by the police or anyone else. Not once.

I didn't carry a stove with me. I always bought what I eat along the way each and every day. I ended up towards the end always eating out and buying less in the grocery store. I could have easily cut the cost of the trip by $50-100 if I would have carried a stove with me. I would have had to change some of my campsite toward the end of the trip. I was getting very bold a brazen on my camp sites toward the end. I would not have been able to cook at all the last night out given where I was camped out at.

Like I said in the beginning, a cheap trip is very feasible. The key is design YOUR trip not someone elses. I have a friend of mine that went on a crazy bike challenge to hit the highest possible road in each of the 50 states. He's got them all except HI. I decided to have some fun and go for state capitols. Then I ran into the fluke early on and started going for including all the Springfield's. That help to make up my route for me. I wouldn't change the concept in future. I would make/take MY trip...not someone elses.