Need help planning tour

[MomOnBike]

Tri Girl - and anyone else interested in this:

My daughter is defending her thesis (apparently against ninjas on unicycles) on the 10th of July. The family will be spending the rest of the week doing celebratory, touristy-type stuff. I'm thinking of taking off sometime that weekend.

I'm figuring that the trip will be right around 2,000 miles and I tend to ride 50-mile days when touring. so that's, what, 40 days and 40 nights. (Hm, sounds biblical)

You could join me for all or any part of the trip, if you want. I can't stress enough that I'm slow, but stubborn. I am heavy, the bike is heavy, and I'll be hauling a bunch of stuff up steep mountains. (Oh, but think of the cred I'll be getting crossing the Bighorn mountains on a loaded touring bike!)

If you are serious about joining me, check out my tour on Crazy Guy, then shoot me a PM:

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/springfever2005

It gives a pretty good idea of my idea of a good tour.

On the routing side, DH is considering driving to Seattle for the shindig there. That would solve the bike transport problem, and if we go through Yellowstone in the car, he hopes it will get the silly idea of biking Yellowstone out of my system.

[OakLeaf]

My duck feet are just delighted in the men's wide Lake shoes I got last fall. It's super hard for me to find shoes that are wide enough.

Not sure what you might find now, since Lake lost their US importer last year and may or may not have been picked up by a new company. But there are NOS shoes available online at deep discounts if your size is still available.

[Dog]

Congrats to your daughter and to you for taking advantage of a great opportunity to get in some touring! It is a beautiful time of year to ride in the northwest. I wish I could join you, but my calendar is full in July. I'm hoping to do a portion of the Lewis & Clark trail in June if I can get the time off from work. Make sure to keep us looped in. Cheers!