Bike Trip 2019, In Transit 1

As I write this I am on board the Empire Builder. We just cut through the bluffs along the Mississippi, to be greeted by the golden glow of the setting sun through the early summer foliage. It has been a long, but basically successful day, travel-wise.

I left Glen Arbor at 5:45 am, heading south. I parked my car in the ample parking lot in Dowagiac (SW corner of Michigan), and heaved my 48 lb suitcase/bikecase and my 35 lb. duffle onto the Blue Water. It was a relief to have that first obstacle out of the way. I had been fretting about the great schlepp for several days. After my agony of luggage on my Portland, ME, trip, I was worried about having more than I could handle again.

It mostly worked, although when I got off the train in Chicago and marched down the platform, I had misgivings. The duffle is really too big and heavy to ride on the top of the roller suitcase. I was quite uncomfortable by the time I reached the very crowded lounge in Union Station. It clearly needs some rethinking.

But at least everything fit in the luggage rack, and no conductor said, "Sorry, Pal. That's too much luggage." 

There certainly was no trouble with luggage on the Empire Builder, since I have a sleeper car in which, if necessary, I could put one of my bags. It wasn't necessary, of course. The bags fit nicely into the luggage rack. 

Bike trip 2019

In four days I will go west, young man, to start the epic 2019 bike tour. Well, Jon's trip is epic. Mine is fairly ordinary.

Jon is finally scratching the itch that he has had for 40 years, namely the ride across the country itch. He and Tom J started the trip in 1982 (I think), but had to abandon when tendnitis reared its ugly knees. Ever since, I think, Jon has dreamed of the great transit.

He has encouraged me to dream big, too, but it was never in the cards.  Three months on the road? In my unmarried days, perhaps, but certainly not now (even though I, as a college professor, wouldn't even need to take time off).

We have done exploratory tours, reunion tours (as it were), but no grand tour.

But now he's doing it. He'll turn 61 in transit, his health becomes progressively more precarious, he is between (or perhaps beyond) jobs, and it's time. 

So I'm going along for part of the ride--quite small, actually, but better than nothing. I started my "cross-country" ride in Portland, Maine several years ago. I got as far as Rome, NY.  Cindy and I rode from Buffalo to Clyde, NY, along the Erie Canal. I have also ridden, in stages from the Mississippi River to northern Michigan, by various routes. So there are only a few discontinuities in the eastern portion, namely, Michigan to Buffalo, and Clyde to Rome. Now I am going to start at the other Portland (OR) and head east.

I'll meet Jon (and, for several days, a cousin and friend) in Astoria (I think), and follow the Columbia River to Walla Walla, then into Idaho, and finally to Missoula (700 miles, or so) where I'll bail out and jump back on Amtrak for the trip home.

I'm taking the clown-bike-in-a-suitcase, which I bought specifically for this purpose. The suitcase turns into a trailer, and then, at the end, back into a suitcase. Odd looking, to be sure, but it actually works pretty well.