Route associations

I went and visited the ACA website today to see if anybody had anything to say about our proposed route. While some of our route does follow the ACA Lewis and Clark route, I can’t really say that I am simply going that way because there is a mapped-out route. In fact, I am doing all the route planning and supplementing it with comments from places like crazyguyonabike.com or other travelogues of cycling journeys.

We have invited former participants as well as wannabees to ride with us along the route. It seems that the Midwest offers the best opportunities for that. I quickly scanned the requests for touring companions on the ACA site. Being a non-religious type, I did a double take when I saw that somebody wanted to travel through Kirtland Ohio and Palmyra NY. Maybe there are good genealogy research facilities there, or perhaps they wanted to follow a spiritual path. After all, we are basically following along part of the route that Lewis and Clark traveled. Considering the many hours of training we have done, it won’t be hard to imagine ourselves as rugged pioneers in an unknown land.

Departure day approaches quickly so I decided that it might be prudent to think about gathering essentials for the trip. I once thought that a tourist who carried only some bean sprouts on his back rack and traveled with only the clothes he wore was a definite oddity. I am thinking that perhaps he had it right. Then again, he mooched off everybody along the way. Although we let him share our food and accommodations for several nights, he never contributed a thing. It would be interesting to know which group of kind souls he latched on to next.

We will be taking advantage of the kindness of strangers, but expect to return it in kind sometime in the future. Our plans are firmed up with our hosts for the first few nights. Hope that they have unlimited supplies of bag balm.