070: Completing the Cross-America-Cycling Tour

Dear all,

This is May 22, 2022, and Christine and I had to make a couple of changes to our travel plans for this year. We originally planned to complete the last about 725 miles of the Cross-USA cycle tour in July with the Camino de Santiago following in August-September. 

Two factors made us change our plans. Firstly, Christine had a procedure on both her thumbs and we want to give these as much rest as possible prior to any cycling. She is doing great and we do not see complications at this stage. Secondly, we ran into uncertainty with the Schengen Visa-application process for Spain. We have to apply through the Spanish Consulate in San Francisco, but their response has been extremely unsatisfactory to date. So, we decided that I will complete the 725 miles from about May 24 to the middle of June, 2022. This leaves another three-four weeks of availability for the visa-application appointment in San Francisco. 

I would love to complete the tour while Christine is not so motivated for, especially, the gravel sections in eastern Washington State. There is a good chance that she will join me for the last week or so, but we shall see how well her thumbs recover. 

So, yes, now it is for a quick preparation of the bicycle and a decision on whether I should take the trailer or not. I wrote the first draft about 10 days ago and never posted it. We have so many things to do that there is just not enough time for everything (have you said this before as well???). 

I started a major landscaping project at our daughter's home while we still want to do work in our garden, etc. Anyway, all these will now be halted and Christine will take me to Missoula on Tuesday morning so that I can start that afternoon.  

The route will continue to follow as much of the Great American Rail Trail as possible. The first part will be to get from Missoula to St Regis MT for the start of the Olympian Trail and thereafter the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes to Plummer Idaho.

 From here the route would follow the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail almost to Seattle. From Seattle it is to the Olympic National Park and on to La Push on the Pacific Coast. 

Tomorrow, Monday, is set aside for all the packing and last-minute stuff like planting the new trees in our garden (yes, these must come out of their pots), completing other outstanding tasks and then rest before the trip begins. I think I am going to have a couple of tough days in the beginning, as we have not cycled for some time. But let us see.