Sorry for my delay! My dad and brother were out visiting me last week so we had a bit of a break from planning and training for our trip. So what have we done in the last few weeks? Good question! Well actually we have . . .
-Finalized our route. We will post it as we travel but the general idea is to take the Mississippi River to Davenport and then head across Illinois to Kentucky and then Nashville.
-Cleaned our bikes. Okay so this was a mess and I wish I would have taken pictures but honestly I was so covered in grease, degreaser and dirt I couldn't bring myself to touch the camera. Basically we wanted make sure our bikes were ready to go. We cleaneds the chain, derailers and gears. Then, since we don't trust ourselves we took then in to be looked at by a professional. At the recommendation from our neighbor we headed to The Alt. They were super laid back but were very thorough with the bikes. Glad we took them in because we were in need of new back breaks!
-Practiced some camp food. I planned to give some cooking tips along the way so stay tuned for that.
Otherwise, I am just starting to feel really nervous about the trip. We are less planned as far as packing goes then we were for Oregon which has me nervous, but also we just have a busy week. We are trying to find a home for Louis - a stray cat we picked up, I have an interview and an eye doctor's appointment, a birthday party and BJ has been working late a lot. Plus I have the normal stress of my knee and wondering how it will hold up on the trip. I just keep reminding myself that in less than one week my only concern will be putting one pedal in front of the next pedal -repeat - and eating -repeat!
Stay tuned in for a gear breakdown - bikes, panniers, camping equipment and food!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Gear Update
So I am a bit behind on packing our gear but I promise later this week I will have an updated posting on the gear we are taking!
See you then!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
A Cold Evening Ride
So unlike our Oregon tour, we decided that it would be best to tour for this trip. There are a few reasons for this: 1) we are planning on covering more miles 2) my knee has been bothering me a bit and 3) we have some seriously long days planned - like 90 miles.
For training we wanted to mix things up so we decided to try a ride with the Twin Cities Bike Club last night. If you like to bike and are looking for a group to bike with you should totally give it a try. They have different levels and it is really affordable. Anyways, the details of our ride . . . I have to say it was a great idea. It was so energizing biking in a group of people and it really made sure we kept our pace up. That said, the route was a bit hard to follow and the leader wasn't that sure on where to go. The good news - I heard this is rare. Below is the map of our ride:
I promise to learn how to get a better map on the blog before a trip. This was a B level ride which says the average should be 14-16 mph - that includes the slow climbs. We really did average 14 mpg over the 27 miles and we were near the back of the group. This ride was a B level ride so if you want something slower/more leisurely I would suggest a lower level. The ride itself was absolutely beautiful!! If you have not been yet you totally need to head out to Hyland Lake Park Reserve. Go there by bike or car - but really you want to head there.
For training we wanted to mix things up so we decided to try a ride with the Twin Cities Bike Club last night. If you like to bike and are looking for a group to bike with you should totally give it a try. They have different levels and it is really affordable. Anyways, the details of our ride . . . I have to say it was a great idea. It was so energizing biking in a group of people and it really made sure we kept our pace up. That said, the route was a bit hard to follow and the leader wasn't that sure on where to go. The good news - I heard this is rare. Below is the map of our ride:
I promise to learn how to get a better map on the blog before a trip. This was a B level ride which says the average should be 14-16 mph - that includes the slow climbs. We really did average 14 mpg over the 27 miles and we were near the back of the group. This ride was a B level ride so if you want something slower/more leisurely I would suggest a lower level. The ride itself was absolutely beautiful!! If you have not been yet you totally need to head out to Hyland Lake Park Reserve. Go there by bike or car - but really you want to head there.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Some Background
My husband and I have been on one other bike tour. We biked from Portland, OR to southern OR along the coast. All said, we bike about 500 miles and had a blast. Here we are with the bikes and gear setting off from Portland.
We didn't blog about this trip because we just didn't see a need. The route was well documented with lots of information about there. There is even a book!
That Oregon trip was 2 years ago and this spring came around and it was time to pick a summer vacation. We started grand - 3 weeks in India. Then I got let go from my teaching job due to budget cuts and well our budget got cut as well. So we started rethinking our summer plans. We knew we still wanted to get away for 3 weeks, but what could we do that was affordable and eye opening - you guessed it! - we decided on another bike tour. This time we are heading from Minneapolis, MN to Nashville, TN and biking about 1000 miles. This is our blog documenting the trip.
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