Whenever I travel, I obsessively check for my wallet and keys. Losing them can ruin your whole day. On the second day of my trip from DC to northern Indiana, I lost my vest on the C&O Canal. (I made a hurried exit to get away from a camper who was grossing me out.) A few hundred miles later I was caught in the rain. I stopped at a convenience store and bought some 30 gallon garbage bags. I take a 27 gallon bag but you have to make do with what you can.
Today, the cleaning people came to our house. I took off for the gym. It’s 3 1/2 miles but I went the long way to kill some time. By the time I arrived,I had ridden 22 1/2 miles. I dismounted and immediately noticed that my pannier which contained my lock was not on my bike. Oops.
Retracing my steps wasn’t an idea that pleased my frozen toes so I decided to ride home and see if I left the pannier there. I found the pannier inside the front door. I never carried it outside. Moron.
I rode back to the gym and worked out. By the time I arrived at home, I had ridden 33 miles.
This evening I began mapping out the route I plan to take to the Pacific Northwest beginning in late May. I had figured I’d do about 3, 700 miles. Wrong. It will be more like 4,200. Dang. I selected some maps from the Adventure Cycling Association. One was out of stock. I hope they print more or I am in a bit of a pickle.
Basically, the route goes from DC to Iowa, turns north to Fargo, North Dakota, then west to Montana. There it angles southwest to Missoula (home of Adventure Cycling) before turning west again for the Pacific Coast. I’m still trying to figure out where on the coast I should go. Once there I plan on heading north into Washington State where, if all goes well, I will flop on my high school classmate Tim Jones‘s lawn and declare “I will ride no more forever.”
All I have to do is follow the black line that I drew on top of Adventure Cycling’s U. S. route map. (Note how there are multiple routes through Montana to the coast.)
One of the cool things about this route is that it is all downhill and there are nothing but sunny skies and tailwinds.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 
Yay, I am so glad you revealed your actual garbage bag size, comes in handy when planning birthday presents 🙂 I can sympathize with the whole leaving the lock at home thing…today I left my tablet on the plane (I guess I was too excited to be in Mongolia) but thankfully it was still there when the security dude escorted me back to the plane.
Ah!! Your tour plans look awesome, you are gonna have a blast and a half out there 🙂
I am currently in the throes of a pre tour freak out. It will ease once I get past central Ohio.
Pre tour freak outs are the worst! But also the best, ’cause once you get on your bike and ride down the road and realize that all the time, effort and emotions it took to get there it will be completely worth it 🙂
Come visit Seattle! We’re still using your old boxes to store stuff! I’ve also got fun people to recommend visiting if you go to Portland!
Have an awesome journey.
When you said, “Iowa,” I was hoping Western Iowa and I’d just you! You could follow vthe Missouri River up instead of the Mississippi!!
Thought about it but reading takes of flooding turned me off
*tales
*host you
By the way…… SSSssoooooooo jealous!!!