New Route

I've changed the western third of my route pretty significantly. My sister and Jacob are getting married at the end of May. Then, at the end of June, they're having a big party about getting married. I didn't know you could do that. Well, they are doing it, and I'm happy enough about these events that I've decided to attend both. So a few weeks ago, I began looking at my maps


(they were pinned around the walls in my room, so looking at my maps meant standing in the middle of my room and spinning my head), and wondering if there were any places along my route that I could leave my bike and fly out and back. I started to think about riding further South, toward Utah, where Dusty and Lisa live. Seeing Dusty and Lisa, and Southern Idaho, and Utah, and Northwestern Colorado sounded like so much fun, that I began seriously rearranging my schedule and route to make it work. Making it work includes cutting about 450mi of Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas entirely out of my bike ride. I agonized over that for about five minutes.

This would be my third major reworking of route and schedule. So I tentatively publish to you the scaffolding of my final route, in six distinct acts:

I) Astoria, Oregon - Logan, Utah (May 13 - 25, 995mi, ~85mi/day)
If my ride has an impossible section, this is it. I seriously don't know about riding that much every day for 12 days in a row. But on top of it, I'll be riding through spring rain (snow?), pretty significant mountain passes, and long sections of Southern Idaho with no human beings. Also, I have a minimal buffer for failure: two days. I'll be arriving in Portland, and taking a bus to Astoria, late on the 11th. With grocery shopping, rebuilding my shipped bike, and all the little things that I haven't thought up yet, my earliest start date will be May 13. I've already purchased my flight out of Salt Lake City to VA for the 27th. That means I've got two days of insurance to cry about sore legs or sit out a late spring storm before my daily quota of miles begins shooting through the roof. I've received a lot of advice about bike touring, and this leg of my tour breaks a good portion of that. This is also going to be one of the more spectacular sections. My first 15omi will be South along the Oregon coast. That gets me really excited.

II) Logan, Utah - Colorado Springs, CO (June 6 - 15, 675mi, ~70mi/day)
My mom and dad are joining me for this section. We're going to drive out to Logan from Virginia after Jacob and Kim get married. Then we'll ride through some pretty awesome sections of Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado. My mom's been training to be able to ride some with me.

III) Medora, Kansas - Carbondale, Illinois (June 17 - 24, 645mi, ~80mi/day)
My parents will shuttle me across Eastern Colorado and Western Kansas and drop me off in Medora, a little town that seems like a nice place to start riding again. They'll drive on to a family reunion, and I'll begin pedaling hard to get to my Aunt and Uncle's in Carbondale. At the end of this section, I'll fly out from St. Louis to Jacob and Kim's wedding reception.

IV) Carbondale, Illinois - Waynesboro, Virginia (July 1 - 21, 960mi, ~55mi/day)
After I fly back to St. Louis, I'll begin the relaxed leg. I'm planning to ride slower through the East, and take off at least a day a week to explore little towns and interesting parks. This section is especially exciting to me. I hope I can take a side trip down to Mammoth Cave. My only schedule constraint is to meet my CO friends in Waynesboro by July 24.

V) Waynesboro, Virginia - Front Royal, Virginia (July 24 - 26, 120mi, ~40mi/day)
Dan, Melanie, and Jessica are meeting me for this section. We'll pedal up the Skyline Drive. We'll pass a lot of territory that's familiar to me, including the house I lived in from kindergarten through 2nd grade, and a mock frontier home in which my sister and I volunteered to dress up in period costume and call our parents "Ma" and "Pa".

VI) Front Royal, Virginia - Kilmarnock, Virginia (July 28 - Aug 1, 250mi, ~50mi/day)
I'm hoping Dan will join me for the rest, from the North end of the Skyline Drive to the coast. Depending on a few factors, we may wander our way to the Atlantic. We both know a few families along the way. I don't really have any constraints on my finish date. I just have to get out to Grad School by sometime mid-August.

Some of this feels a little too rigorously scheduled to me. Surely it's unwise to try to meet so many checkpoints at such specific dates. Que sera, sera.