What can I say about cycling in the United States. Well, we cycled in nine states and I can honestly say each of them were different. The people were different, the roads were different, the scenery was different, the weather was different. It is a very diverse country.

I should have written a blurb about each state after we had cycled through it as a reminder for me when I eventually wrote about the “Thoughts on the US”, but I didn’t. So here goes.

As most of you would recognize from the blog we didn’t like the southern States (Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama). I think the fact that we were chased every day by dogs influenced our decision and also the weather. As we cycle along we notice things far more from the back of a bike than you would do from a car and one of those things is the amount of garbage in the ditches and along the side of the road. These three States were the dirtiest of all of the States we cycled through. There would be signs stating “Do Not Litter – fines of $250.00” Then there would be huge bags of garbage underneath the sign.

We felt as if the people in these three States had no pride in themselves or their States. They are the poorest States in the Union, but even if you are poor you can keep your ditches and yards clean.

The rest of the States we cycled in we thoroughly enjoyed.

My two favorite States were Texas and Oregon.

I really enjoyed Texas, the people were fun albeit a little fanatical about their guns, but they had a great sense of humour. We would stop at a convenience store for something to eat or a grocery store and the people would chat to us. When we told them what we were doing and what we had already accomplished the expressions they used were hilarious “Dang, that’s a long way”. One guy I spoke to just kept saying “Dang”.

The drivers in Texas were considerate, they always gave us plenty of room and would wait until the road was clear before passing. We found that to be the case in all the States we went through except California.

The scenery in Texas went from beautiful hill country to big open spaces and big cities. We really enjoyed the City of Austin.

New Mexico was an interesting State historically. It felt as if it really should belong to Mexico, as it has such a Spanish influence in the buildings and the people. Most things in New Mexico were in Spanish and English, which surprised us. We thought the US was uni-lingual, but they definitely accommodate the Spanish speakers in this area.

California was the worst state to cycle, the car drivers had no time for cyclists. They would pass on blind curves and hills. However in the cities there were a lot of cycle lanes and dedicated cycle paths.

Oregon was my other favourite state. The car drivers were patient, the roads had wide shoulders and it was clean. The people were friendly and enjoyed the outdoors. The State has an abundance of recreational facilities to encourage people to be active. Of course we loved Portland.

Washington finished on a high note. When we came into Washington there was a lot of industry, logging trucks, paper mills etc. When we left we had three days on dedicated cycle routes away from traffic and it was lovely.

The people in the US are incredibly kind, generous and considerate people. They were interested in what we were doing and what we had done. We were invited to stay in people’s homes on a number of occasions. If we looked lost, people would stop and ask if we needed help.

We met a lot of touring cyclists, both on the Southern Tier and the Pacific Coast Highway. More cyclists stopped to chat on the Southern Tier than on the PCH and that was probably due to the hills. On the Southern Tier we found that most of the cyclists were American, on the PCH most of them were from the UK, Germany, Holland and only a handful from the US.

It was great cycling through the US. We did struggle when we saw the amount of poverty and the effect the two recessions have had on a number of the States that we cycled through.

We cannot understand the gun culture, we were surprised how many churches offered gun courses, in the southern States. One fella commented “If everyone had a gun no one would get shot because you know the other person has a gun”. How about if no-one had a gun no one would be able to shoot anyone.

Surprisingly the obese American was not as rife as we thought it would be. Yes, there were a lot of chunky people, but there were also a lot of people who were fit and active.

The US has a lot of well-mapped routes. That is primarily due to the work of the Adventure Cycling Association. One of the other routes we want to cycle in the US is the Underground Railroad. This is a route from Mobile, Alabama (those dam dogs again) to Owen Sound in Canada. It follows the routes that escaped slaves took from the deep south to freedom in Canada.