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Where do I begin?  Our goal was to ride from coast to coast, beginning as close as

possible to the Pacific Ocean and arriving in Boston, Massachusetts.  The reason

we chose Portland as our starting point was that we thought this might be a close

enough and large enough city for us to obtain a one-way rental of a reasonably

sized recreational vehicle to make this trip work.  In the beginning, we struggled

with the concept of being able to locate and rent an RV from a company.

Fortunately, Edward and Solange visited an RV show in Quebec City.  What they

found out was that there was a company, Cruise America, that had RV’s for rent

in Portland, Oregon.  After a few calls and a couple of trips to the Cruise America

office in Portland, it looked like we might have a pretty good chance of renting an

RV for a one-way trip, if the corporate offices of Cruise America approved.

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So, the next step was to determine the course we would take across the country.  As a member of Adventure Cycling, I knew that this organization was well known for its extensive amount of routes and maps they have developed over many years of research and work. 

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After going on-line and seeing that several routes existed from the PNW to the east coast, the next step was to take Adventure Cycling’s Network Map and determine which maps might be needed in order to make this work.  Originally, I bought one map to check out the quality and benefits of purchasing the maps.  What I found was a comprehensive map for each step of our projected route, consisting of very detailed maps with instructions and additional information for each map plate with valuable data, including accommodations and camping sites with phone numbers, addresses and instructions on how to find each one, emergency phone numbers, libraries, bike shops, city populations and available services, to name a few.

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With that noted, the next step was to select and order the maps that would take us on our course.  The only problem we faced was that, on the maps, when we arrived in Buffalo, NY, the route took us north toward Bar Harbor, Maine.  After spending extensive hours trying to access and use the NY Biking Routes, I came across an interesting book, entitled “Cycling the Erie Canal”.  This 400 mile route, explained in detail in the book, was perfect, since it took us from Buffalo to Albany, NY.  The only part of our course that was unmapped and needed our attention was the course we would take from Albany to Boston, the last five days of our trip.