Day: June 21, 2019

A Conceit…

One of the small conceits I have as a touring cyclist is the need to name my tours. The 2016 ride from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Key West, Florida was “Beach2Beach,” which was inherited from my aborted ride from Atlantic Beach, Florida to Pacific Beach, Washington. I’ve told the story about how that all happened elsewhere in case you’re interested- here’s a [link]. In 2017 I did “Brook2Bayou”- a ride down the length of the Mississippi River from Lake Itasca, Minnesota to the end of the road in Venice, Louisiana, out on the delta in the Gulf of Mexico. The year 2018 started with the “Banjos2Bayous” ride- round trip from Nashville, Tennessee to Natchez, Mississippi and back on the Natchez Trace Parkway. I couldn’t think of a “B2B” nickname for last fall’s Washington, D.C. to Kansas City, Missouri trip- I considered and rejected “Bureaucracy2Beefsteak” as too cumbersome- so settled on “DC2KC” for that one. And thus here we are.

“Side2Side” refers to the start and endpoint places: Seaside, Oregon and Seaside, New York. The latter Seaside is a suburb of New York City out on the Rockaways. I have a whole list of great names like this- I call them “cognates”- for transcontinental rides: “Port2Port” for Eastport, Maine to Westport, Washington and “Head2Head” for Heceta Head, Oregon to Nags Head, North Carolina are examples. There’s lots of others.

I know, I know. Maybe too cute for some. But I have friends who name their bicycles, so there’s that. I’d never go that far.