Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Friday, October 21, Teaneck, New Jersey
This is where I grew up. As I did on the last day of my trip in 1993, today I rode past
my old house and took a few pictures, shaking my head at how the neighborhood had
and hadn't changed. Then I took a room at the Marriott less than a mile away that hadn't
existed when I lived here. It's right on the entrance ramp to Interstate 80, at the base of
the Palisades that line the Hudson.
Tonight is the last night before my reentry into life as I once knew it—that is, in the
spring. Yeah, it's about time to be back in my own bed like a settled adult and in the
newsroom like a reporter with a real job. But it will be difficult to say good-bye to this
three-month interlude of enlightening exercise, to trade in the outdoors, the physical
expenditure, the unpredictability of every day, the adrenaline pump that has been pro-
pelling me through cycling's inherent hazards for the daily repetition of home and office,
home and office.
I can feel a period of brooding coming on, a big melancholy, but for the moment
I'm excited and to celebrate—and amuse myself—I'm taking a little inventory, counting
stuff up, making lists.
For instance, I've imagined all the dinners of the trip on a big buffet table in front
of me. Dinner has been the big meal of the day, and it's usually been really big, its con-
tents determined by the cuisine of the restaurant closest to the motel. I've eaten a num-
ber of steaks, a sackful of pork chops, maybe a dozen chicken fajitas, several portions of
lasagna, three pizzas, more than a few takeout egg rolls and wontons, and a variety of
fish: snapper, salmon, tuna swordfish, trout, walleye. I ordered sushi once, in Cumber-
land, Maryland. Wasn't so bad.
Without looking at the map, I'm trying to remember the towns I passed through:
Seaside, Cannon Beach, Manzanita, McMinnville, Estacada, Troutdale, Hood River, The
Dalles, Biggs Junction, and Umatilla, Oregon; Touchet, Walla Walla, Starbuck, Pomeroy,
Endicott, Saint John, Dusty, Cheney, Spokane, and Newport, Washington; Rathdrum,
Spirit Lake, Priest River, Sandpoint, Colburn, Naples, Bonners Ferry, and Moyle Springs,
Idaho; Troy, Libby, Kootenai, Rexford, Eureka, Whitefish, Saint Mary, Browning, Cut
Bank, Chester, Havre, Malta, Rudyard, Hingham, Harlem, Dodson, Wolf Point, Circle,
and Glendive, Montana; Beach, Sentinel Butte, Medora, Belfield, Hebron, Glen Ullin,
Dickinson, Richardton, Mandan, Bismarck, Medina, Carrington, Cooperstown, and
Hillsboro, North Dakota; Ada, Mahnomen, Zerkel, Park Rapids, Hackensack, Pine River,
Brainerd, Mille Lacs, Onamia, Mora, Minneapolis, Eagan, Red Wing, and Winona, Min-
nesota; Trempealeau, Onalaska, Sparta, Norwalk, Elroy, Reedsburg, Madison, Cottage
Grove, Waukesha, Racine, Kenosha, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Waukegan, Lake Forest,
Highland Park, Skokie, Evanston, Chicago, and Des Plaines, Illinois; Muskegon, Saugat-
