John's Story

Last year my brother Ed and I ticked an item off our bucket lists by riding self-contained from Washington, DC to the Pacific Ocean at Seaside, OR, and back to Portland. The big kahuna. Check! What next?

The idea arose to rotate 90 degrees and do a north-south ride across the country.  Not the whole continent mind you, just the USA.

Decision #1: North to south or south to north? It's a no-brainer that south to north is the better option for a spring start, and north to south for a late summer start so we can follow the changing weather. Somehow we landed on a spring start.

Decision #2: From where to where? Thought about and discarded for various reasons the notions of riding the West Coast or the East Coast, or starting at the southern tip of Texas at the Rio Grande River or at Key West, or riding up through the Rockies (although that thought still teases me for the future).  After a good bit of cogitation we decided to start from Pensacola, FL and head (more or less) toward Memphis and the Mississippi River, then up the river to it's source at Lake Itasca, and on to the Canadian border. Originally the plan was to touch Canada at International Falls, MN, then return to Minneapolis to fly home. We revised the plan to cross the border into Canada at the far northwestern corner of Minnesota and go on to Winnipeg. That way we won't have to backtrack to Minneapolis, and Winnipeg has infinitely more resources than International Falls in terms of bike shops (20:0), airlines (10:1), daily flights (dozens:2), and so forth.

Decision #3: When to start? Spring, yes, but when in spring? Brother Ed lives in Fremont, Ohio, in the heart of totality during the April 8 total eclipse, so not before then, but how soon afterward? We don't want to wait for hot weather to set in (though it might despite our best laid plans), so we've marked April 12 on the calendar as the day we start out from Pensacola.

Decision #4: All the way or in stages? Ed tells me he can't be gone from home long enough to do the whole tour at one go, so we're breaking it into two pieces.  This spring we will ride from Pensacola to Davenport, Iowa (or thereabouts, convenient to the Quad Cities International Airport in Moline, IL), about 1,300-1,400 miles. Next year we will finish the tour from Davenport to Winnipeg, about 1,000 miles. 

In case it hasn't occurred to you yet what "Crossing the T" is about:  Overlay this route with last year's east-west route, and it looks like a wobbly italic "t".  Sorry, that's the best I've got. Maybe I should be thinking about creating a font of bicycle touring routes.