(By Jeff)

Joy and I had originally planned a three month, 5000 mile tour from Florida to Washington this summer. Those plans changed after Joy got a new job in Lebanon, Illinois, about 25 miles east of St. Louis. So we're temporarily postponing the big trip for a future summer, and are doing a six week loop tour starting in the middle of June.

We'll leave our new place in Lebanon and head east on country roads until we cross the Wabash River and enter Indiana, near Vincennes.

From there, we'll head northeast through Indiana, again on quiet country roads where possible, until we hook up with Adventure Cycling's North Lakes route in Monroeville.

After that we plan to meander through the lower and upper parts of Michigan, deviating from the Adventure Cycling route when we feel like it.

We're still working out the route after that, but we'll probably ride through Michigan and Minnesota before heading south through Iowa. After that we'll probably be in Missouri for a while. We have the the map for Adventure Cycling's Lewis and Clark route through that area, so we may use that. We might do some of the Katy Trail to get to St. Louis and then back to Lebanon.

We'll be doing mostly camping on this trip. We've never toured together, and this will be our first attempt at merging our disparate touring styles. Unlike my previous tours, this one will be more budget-minded, so there will be fewer 100-mile days rewarded with a night at a Hampton Inn. We're also carrying cooking equipment, something I've barely done. Luckily, Joy knows what she's doing.

We'll try to maintain this journal "live" while we're on the tour, although we haven't decided who will do the writing. I tried to make the case to Joy that she should write it, since she has a PhD in English. She pointed out that this is her summer vacation... Maybe we'll take turns.