Day -110: The route

January 22, 2020

You're not taking the interstate, are you?

First, some related photos from the day.

She wishes she were coming. But she's better suited for the cold than the heat.

I can't believe I set the bike trainer up FOR the kids.

Now, on to the route.

"Okay, Google. Give me directions to St George, Utah...Nope."

"Okay, Google. Give me _bicycling_ directions to St George, Utah...hmm, maybe that could work? But are those good roads?"

"Okay, Adventure Cycling Association, show me what you got. Now that's what I'm talking about."

So it looks like Adventure Cycling (or ACA) has us 90% covered as far as in-advance route planning goes. Now, ACA doesn't make their routes with little kids in mind. But our younger kids will be attached to us, and our older kids have been bike commuters for a few years, so they're pretty road worthy. And they'll have us with them.

The Underground Railroad connects to the TransAmerica Trail, which connects to the Western Express, which connects to Utah Cliffs, which we could use to get to St George...if we make it that far.

And are the Adventure Cycling maps as good as people say? We ordered our first the other day (a segment of the Underground Railroad), and...Yes! I could spend half an hour editing a two minute video showing it off, or I can just let Adventure Cycling do the work for me.

But before we can take advantage of all that researchy goodness, first we gotta get to the Underground Railroad trail. And this is where Grandpa Tom and his "Good Sam" tome to the rescue. (Thanks Grandpa Tom!) I don't yet know Indiana like I'd like to, but Southern Indiana is full of fantastic looking spots, like Spring Mill State Park (SP), Patoka Lake, Ferdinand State Forest, Lincoln State Park (yes, that Lincoln), Scales Lake SP, Angel Mounds SP, and...well, then we're on the Underground Railroad. So for the first little while, our days may look like this.

Morning
US: Today were going to [another awesome place]!
KIDS: Yay! Wait, how many hills are there?

Evening
US: We made it!
KIDS: Can we get pizza?
US: No.

So I think we're good...well, at least till we get to the Colorado Plateau. Utah. It's the part of the route about which I'm most excited —and the most scared. I've always wanted to ride the Hells Backbone; I just never imagined I'd be doing it with kids. But traffic is low. And what views!

And what climbs! And it'll probably be in July, so it's likely going to be very hot during the day. We'll probably be biking in the wee hours of the morning and late hours of the evening when we get there, and we're going to have to plan carefully to make sure we always have tons of water, and some way to cool off during the day. So that's a part of the route we'll be researching very closely as we approach that point—again, assuming we get there. There's still 1400 much-flatter miles between us and Utah.

On the bright side, by the time we get there, we should all be toughened up a bit, and acclimated both to the heat and to the altitude.

And you know—once upon a time, people walked.

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