Added fenders to the bike this weekend, assuming that it might rain in the over two months I'll be gone. Had a little fun this week on google earth looking at some of the places I will be riding. Made the mistake of showing Charlotte some of it and her reccommendation is for me to sit in front of the t.v. and google earth the entire bike trip. Says it will be a lot safer and I can still experience it all. Didn't help my case any when I showed her a picture along one of the highways of an elk standing close to the road. Her comment was, "What if that had been a bear?" I said , " Well, I guess I would be peddling way too fast to get a picture!"
If that didn't do enough to worry her, she recieved a bit of encouragement today from an anonymous friend. An article addressed to her that appeared recently in the local paper about preparing to be a widow. No joke! Well intentioned I am sure, however, just what she needed to comfort her prior to me leaving for a bike trip. It takes me months to make her feel comfortable about the whole concept and a few seconds in an anomymous letter to undo it. The article pointed out that over 1,500,000 women are widowed between the age of 55 - 65. I figure that's true and mostly from couch potatoes whose wife wont' let them do anything exciting and they die from boredom. Or maybe he's trying to escape from a boring woman! Charlotte isn't boring! Thought too, that maybe it's because many of these 50 something women were married to 80 something men. All kidding aside, if you really want to know what causes this phenomenon, go to any restaurant or bar on a Friday or Saturday evening ( or any evening ) and it becomes obvious why this happens.
 Just in case the "anonymous" person reads this, she ( Charlotte ) is very well covered if anything happens to me. Hope that doesn't encouarge her though. :-)  Enough for now, gotta go eat a couple of quarter pounders, some fries,  a bowl of ice cream, wash it down with a couple of colas, and take a nap!  Might even order my Mountaineer football tickets! Now that's enough to do me in!

" Our eyes reveal what lies before us; our minds what lies behind us; our faith what lies ahead of us; and our heart what lies inside of us"            mod

Took advantage of the snowy weather and finished trip itinerary. Made a spreadsheet with the day, distance, town leaving from, going to and where I plan to stay. I am sure this will change somewhat as I travel, but I need a plan and a daily goal.  Used adventure cycling maps for routing to Ohio, then road map through Ohio. Will be followng the Lewis and Clark trail to Williston, ND, then the Northern Tier route to Monroeville, IN.  Total distance approximately 3650 miles, but this doesn't include off route camping and hotels, etc. Longest day planned is 95 miles and shortest being 33. Longest day without services, such as food, water, camping, etc. is 75 miles in Montana.
Coninue to weight train and work on flexibility. Have started doing push-ups, crunches, and stretching during commercials in the evening while watching t.v., but can't keep dogs from thinking its play time. The second I hit the floor, they hit me. Usually in the face with their feet or jump on my back, but it adds a bit of excitement to another wise boring routine. The time is passing by very quickly and I know June 11 will be here before I know it, so I have to pick up the pace and keep busy. Trying to get all the little things done over the winter, so I can focus on riding when the weather breaks.

" Love is a gift, not a loan!"   mod