March 15 Decatur and Vicinity

First ride on my bike carrying all of my gear. The bike was nice and steady, felt comfortable on the bike, but quite sore after the ride. Will need to get into better shape before starting the real thing. Felt it in my shoulders more than anything. Have a lot of conditioning to do before I tackle this ride.  My knees have been bothering me lately. Has nothing to do with the bike riding as this seems to have started with the weather change.  Getting old is simply not for sissies!

Route

“If all difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all.”  Dan Rather

In Jack Canfield’s words “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”  Stalwart persistence...resolve...fool heartiness...how to describe the thoughts that weigh while contemplating the “what ifs” that scurry through the mind when planning such a daunting trip.  “Why travel alone?”  Quite simply, so no one can see...  One peddle at a time, hour by hour, day by day, week by week...no one to judge weakness or strength...and just maybe after endless peddles...there it is...the journey and then the destination.

So...what’s planned?  Gear, bike, body, and spirit will be conveyed through the night via an Amtrak Sleeper to Washington, DC.  Awaking in the morning at Union Station, I must somehow find passage to the hotel carting a crated bike, packs, and miscellaneous gear all of which must be assembled before getting a night’s sleep.  Starting early, to avoid traffic, it is off to the Vietnam Memorial as the starting point.  After a time of reflection, I will then course through city streets, capital trails, Georgetown, and hopefully connect to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Towpath.  This recreational trail, once a navigable waterway long ago rendered obsolete by rail technology, will be the route for the next 185 miles.  If all goes well, arrival at Cumberland will mark the connection to the Great Allegheny Passage.  Built mostly on an abandoned rail bed, I’m prayerful that the grades will be relatively gentle albeit, warnings noting “be prepared for ruts, tree roots, mud and mosquitoes” abound.  After 153 miles of this, Pittsburgh is to be the destination which, by the way, is reputed to be “America’s most livable city sporting a plethora of museums, medical centers, parks, research centers and cultural diversity.”  This said, “Cabbies, take note, I’m an old man on a small bike in a very big city so show me some of that ‘livable’ and give me a little space alongside those city roads!”  Surviving this, it is onto the Underground Railroad Pittsburgh Spur that combines paths, roads, trails to Erie, Pennsylvania for yet another 153 miles.  This portion of the route remains a bit ambiguous and in need of study...as well as prayers from those who wish me well.  Let’s leave this for now and move on to the Lake Erie Connector portion of the trip that courses across Michigan for yet another 492 miles.  I hope to catch at least two ferries, one of which is reported to be intermittent in its service, in order to give my legs a rest.  Hope that pans out!  Next is what is called the North Lakes Route that snags a bit of Michigan before taking on the width of Wisconsin in its entirety.  In Stillwater, bordering Wisconsin and Minnesota I will catch the Northern Tier, an assemblage of back roads that will then go on forever...and ever...and ever...through Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington.  4400+ miles will be the grand total.  Completing it in its entirety will be challenged by fleeting interludes to attend ceremonies marking my younger daughter’s completion of her surgical residency, the birth of my older daughter’s second child, and my wife’s family reunion.  How all this plays out will require precision, endurance, patience, and the guidance of “road angels.”