Last year, "Pic"hard and I decided, barely knowing each other, to hit the road for 29 straight hours of driving in the worst possible weather (being in mid December). The end result: the best time ever, for both of us and our wallets (540$ Can. all included for 2 weeks in Fort. Myers, FL).
My resources for the end of year 2006 are quite thin because of a 35 days volunteer stage, which I really enjoy, but don’t get any bling. So I was thinking of a date quite accessible for every rider at McGill; our study weak. 07’s study break goes from Feb 19th to 23rd. Kind of early but far enough to start putting pennies in your “special study break account”.
One week is kind of sort for training, but the timing is excellent for the first “E to the triple C” uhn! road race.(this one’s for Action). I also don’t want to restrain the idea of a trip for road riders only. I’m sure that there are affordable places we can travel by plane that has nice MTB trails and roads.
So boyZ and gilrZ, this leaves us 3 months to plan and save/get/steal/sponsor money. I’m starting to look for places that are not just warm, but HOT ! Oh YEAH! 8)
If anyone has connections anywhere in the world, or any idea that could cut the price of this trip, let me know. Also I’ll (and I invite anyone) to start posting ideas of places very soon.
“T” told me that plane tickets to Las Vegas are cheap because a lot of american girls get married fast over there. So “T” (Tom) concluded by saying that we could get there and settle in a nice little town and start riding!
Yo quiero mucho viajar (pronounced V-ahar) en Cuba. Adoro el cigario Monte Cristo, Ron de Havana tambien.
Let me know if your down and have ideas to make my dream study break possible.
I was just talking to Martin about your “dream” vacation there the other day. We were talking about somewhere a bit further north than Florida to head to for reading week (perhaps one of the Carolinas). Some hills would be good for our too much time on the trainer legs I think too.
The upside to that would be that we seem to be good at finding wheels for these types of road trips and if we were careful it might come out being pretty cheap. Nevada is quite pretty and I know of some beautiful desert areas for riding, but unless arifare is Really cheap it may not be as feasible.
When I used to be on the Triathlon team, they would go to Arizona every few years. Perhaps we could organize something with them wherever we decide to go, in order to help share costs. They used to have some pretty freaking fast people that could be fun to train with.
In any case I’m in for sure. I will have just finished my thesis by then I think and will be desperate for an escape and some riding! :twisted: 8) :twisted:
Just my two cents on this idea (a great one!)
Peter
PS Yeah perhaps we could approach a few local businesses that we have an ongoing relationship with for money for such an excursion.
Re: Tri club trip to Tuscon, Arizona… This year Andrew Deutz and I are planning on going to Moab instead. Numbers for the Tuscon trip had been low in recent years and the Tuscon trip has gotten kind of old.
Forget the road riding you can do all summer long–MTBing on slickrock in Moab is were it’s at.
The exact date hasn’t been picked yet (Andrew Deutz is organizing it–he used to ride with MCT and the tri club a few years ago and now lives in Washington–so he gets to pick the dates). It will be end of February/early March. I can keep you posted as the details arise. In fact, I’ll drop him a line right now.
So my parents are big time snowbirds, meaning they will end up in Miami, FL for 3 weeks including our study break. I haven’t decided yet but I could have a nice week in the sunshine state for very low cost.
Tell me what you guys think. We could find an hotel close to the A1 and do lots of riding. If I go I’ll be riding almost everday. Like our FL trip last december ( we added 100km everyday).
Our study break doesn’t get into the occupied airline season. It starts right after our week off.
If we go somewhere as a team for a spring break ECCC training camp there was talk of renting an RV as a cheap option for traveling to somewhere warm. I did a quick internet search:
It seems like it’ll cost ($2100/week), which could be a somewhat decent price if split several ways. The RV claims to sleep 7, although I’m not sure if that’s really true.
THe website said it would be $1000 plus another $600 in mileage, based on South carolina as a rough estimate of how far we’d drive it and based on 900 miles to SC and a gas mileage of 7-13 :? that’s $500 more in gas. If like 6 people came that’s only about $300-400 per person for housing and travel.
I’m really not sure if it would be doable to hook up one in February though…
That’s also commiting to 20 hours of driving each way! I think it might be doable if we had a big enough group, although for some reason my better judgement tells me to be hesistant.
What do others think of this plan/prices?
Anyone have any other ideas?
If you want to fly all the way across the continent you could meet me in San Diego for reading week… Warm weather, outrun the cops as you bike to Mexico, free lodging for the week…
Free lodging because I’m there for a conference and will already have a hotel room paid for. So basically I could fit 3 more people, and maybe plus a cot. I’m taking my bike for sure. If more people wanted to go, rooms can be had for under 90$US divided by 7 (4+3) people for a week is less than 100$ each for lodging (and probably includes breakfast). Anyway, a far off thought I know but didn’t want to miss the opportunity - if you can afford the travel there.
Umm, I also have multiple sides of the family that live in Florida that I could check into about lodging. But it is far away.
