Bubba's Pampered Pedalers: An Evaluation

Bubba says "Its ALL good!".  Should you take a trip with Bubba?  If you have read my blog of the Coast 2 Coast trip I took in 2012 with my husband, John Langhans, you will know that it is most definitely not all good.  That said, we are not sorry we went and we would not discourage others from going.  Bubba is a great guy who has lots of fans and I ended up being one of them but caution is advised.  Riders considering the C2C trip may be interested in my evaluation.

The greatest problem of the trip from our perspective was that Bubba was too popular.  This was his third time across the country and when we signed up he said he planned for 15 people.  As we watched the email list grow in advance of the trip we really began to wonder.  In San Diego the group numbered 35 riders and 11 staff.  Two of the riders had been added within the week before the trip began!  This meant that logistics intended for a smaller group all had to be reworked.  Places where it was planned we stay in cabins were no longer large enough.  Places with one or two toilets had to serve for all 45 of us.  Although Bubba covered pretty well, we could tell he was only one step ahead of us in planning-- overnight sites fell through, catered meals had to be arranged at the last minute-- he was on his cell phone a great deal of the time.

The staff was superb.  Bubba was very lucky in the people he had helping him-- he is Mr. Personality but it was up to others to make things run as smoothly as they did.

The "camping" varied wildly.  While Bubba told us that at times we would be in "commercial campgrounds", it wasn't clear (at least to me) that this meant R.V. parks.  In retrospect I realize that campgrounds in much of the U.S. have evolved into R.V. parks.  We almost never encountered other tenters and the few we did see were self-supported cyclists.  The R.V. parks ranged from really tacky to very nice but in every case they were not designed to accommodate a group like ours.  The lack of bathrooms was the most notable feature but they were crowded and mostly non-scenic as well.  We also slept in churches, armories, a town park, a town recreation center, and thankfully four state parks and four hotels.  The tents and mattresses were excellent.  The tent was comfortable and roomy, the mattresses thick and reasonably reliable.

The food was not the gourmet food that Bubba promised on his web site.  I will say no more than that instant oatmeal, instant mashed potatoes, and instant rice, eliminate any possibility that the cooking will be gourmet.  I admired our chef because I think he did very well under the circumstances and  they were very accommodating about my vegetarianism.  Thankfully I eat fish but in only two cases was I left without a vegetarian option-- neither of them the chef's fault.

The cue sheets were far from satisfactory.  The distances were always off and always more than the mileage provided to us.  This became so routine that we added 5% for "Bubba Miles" to each day.  While this may seem a minor thing, an additional 4 or 5 miles added to a very long day can be extremely aggravating.  In addition, some of the waypoints were inaccurately described-- we were told to turn at a Gold's Gym, for example, when there was no such facility at the right place.  It was beyond our comprehension why no effort was made to make the sheets more accurate--  in other trips the SAG drivers have paid attention to the cue sheets and made corrections and adjustments when necessary.  Asking for information was always foolish-- we were often given stupid information-- "it's mostly downhill", "it's about seven miles", "it's one of the prettiest days on the ride" (said countless times and rarely true), "we always get a head wind on that day", etc. etc.  Why was I gullible time and time again?

Bubba's web site says "you will be bicycling mostly on very lightly traveled back roads, however at times on more heavily traveled roads".  The opposite was the case-- there was lots of interstate and several days of riding on heavily trafficked roads with high speed limits and rough surfaces.  In some cases the shoulder was poor or in very bad condition.  A rider who had done the route before said that Bubba had deviated from the standard bicycling route, eliminating some long climbs at the cost of less scenic and more trafficked roads.  That said, anyone who chooses to do this ride should understand that particularly in the western part of the U.S. the road options are extremely limited and in many cases do not make for pleasant riding.  I kept reminding myself that one can't ride coast to coast without riding through the spaces between!

My advice?  Go if you want to-- you will probably have a great time.  Just remember that there will be more hills and headwinds (real and metaphorical) than you imagine.  If you have a vision of pleasant riding on a bike path across the country you need to read my blog again.