Tag: cross country

Previously bike, now car

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You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?

When I was young I cycled evrywhere with my then boyfriend, later to be my hubby. Sometimes we went on the train with our bikes then cycled on to our destinations. I was fit enough to cycle 100 miles on our tandem. I enjoyed the trips and went round the lake district and over to places like Harrogate, down to the Midlands and into Wales. We travelled in all sorts of conditions, Sun, rain, snow, ice, wind. It was interesting to see the world pass quite slowly and yet for the landscape to transform as we passed through valleys and over hills. Whipping down hills, wind in my hair. Then one day I was knocked off my bike by a drunk driver. After a short spell in hospital I started cycling again. But unknown to me the bike had been damaged. A year later it collapsed as I was cycling up a hill. The down tube had pulled away front the headset (the tube between the handlebars and the forks.) I took the bike to a cycle shop but they lost it and the replacement bike I bought was not the right size. By the time I got my old bike back I had learnt to drive. I needed a car because I had a job requiring me to work in different towns. I still had my bike but the car was convenient. If I had continued to cycle every day I think I would be fitter now.

Car

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You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?

Hopefully I could share the trip with a friend as I don’t drive far these days. Cross Country would be a limited journey, probably into Wales, the Peak District or a bit further afield to Devon or the Lake District.

We are very lucky to have beautiful countryside in the UK, I guess because it rains so much it keeps the plants watered most of the time. But things have got a bit worse over recent years with droughts and flooding.

The UK is about the same size as the American state of Texas, but the geology here is very varied, so you can enjoy all sorts of interesting and also historic places on this hypothetical cross country trip. From ancient monuments like Stonehenge, to Scottish battlefields and great mountains. I’d also recommend places like the Welsh village of Portmeirion, an Italianate style village on the coast near Snowdonia. It was built by an eccentric architect and  appears in the 1960’s adventure series “The Prisoner” which is equally eccentric.

I would not use a plane, train or bus to travel, I prefer to stop when and where I want, so it can take a long time for me to get from A to B, (probably taking in C D and E at the same time). But these days I keep my carbon footprint low, so it’s not going to be a frequent thing. If I was young and healthy it would be by bike. I have fond memories of cycling through the English countryside, but that’s another story.