Finishing the Journey


The day of departure approacheth. I'm riding the green line. I've already done the orange. 

I am finding it harder and harder to concentrate. Unlike all my previous trips I have no anxiety. Just excitement. All my jitters are excited anticipation. Maybe that'll hit later. I dunno. 

The trip starts just east of the magical 98th meridian (yellow line above). Roughly 80% of the US population lives east of this line. Interestingly, the ecological divide between the West and East was at the 100th meridian based on annual precipitation, but thanks to climate change it's been moving east and is now also the 98th meridian. Will that mean people will find life increasingly hard in the new west? I dunno.

What is clear is that I'll be headed into more densely populated areas. And flatter areas. Some friends wonder what's the point. If you can have the Rockies, why bike the Loess Hills? Well, why not? I love the West, but I love the small towns, rivers, and lush landscapes in the Midwest and East. I love the history and old buildings wearing their age. I love what I see when I look closely. I love that there is almost always a deserted backroad to avoid the scary highway. I love the chance to meet even more people. 

Along the way I'll see some sights. They include:
- A stop on the Underground Railroad 
- A Thomas Bombas troll
- The home of Bix Biederbecke, early jazz great
- My college, site of a Lincoln Douglas debate
- The site where women were poisoned to death for clock dials
- Home of the Sons of David, a baseball barnstorming religious commune
- The cereal mecca of America 
- The newly opened Gordie Howe Bridge
- Sandy spits along Lake Erie
- The US city that sings the Canadian national anthem
- The Erie Canal
- My family 


August 22nd, I'll bike out of the airport in Omaha onto a planned 41 day trip into New York City. The first stop will be a bike-in campsite 20 miles north of the city. So it begins.


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