- Warm weather and improving health have nudged me to start thinking about a tour.
- I went to Friday Coffee Club and talked to Felkerino about the Sierra Cascades Adventure Cycling Route. He said it was not a climbing hellscape, had lots of services, and is very pretty.
- So I just sat down and mapped out a tour using Adventure Cycling’s interactive route map.
- Take Amtrak to Chicago (I’ve ridden across Ohio and Indiana enough, thank you.)
- Ride Bike Route 66 from Chicago to Marshfield MO. (Basically this is in west central MO.)
- Hang a right and take the Trans America Route west from Marshfield to Pueblo CO.
- Take the Western Express Route from Pueblo through the Rockies, the canyons of Utah, and the basin and range terrain of Nevada to Alpine Village CA, near the southern end of Lake Tahoe.
- Switch to the Sierra Cascades Route north to Sisters OR.
- Switch back to the Trans America Route and head west from Sisters to the Oregon Coast.
- Ride from the coast to Portland and fly home.
- This tour would be 3,700 miles long. That’s 600 miles shorter than last year. This one is considerably hillier and hotter, though. I guess I could do it in 65 days.
- If I were feeling spunky, I could ride down to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. This would add 300 miles and a week. Also, a side trip into Bryce Canyon would take a couple of days.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 
Whew, sounds like an ambitious itinerary, especially the more mountainous and hotter parts. There’s a fine outdoors quilt show in Sisters, Oregon, on Saturday, July 13…probably not a high priority for you, but very nice to see (and might mean all accommodations will be taken in town on that day and a few days before and after).