The adventure begins

After months of waiting and planning, the time has finally come. The bicycle and all the gear has been packed. Some of it has even been tested. And now I'm off on my transcontinental adventure. Unlike my friend Peter, who I'm connecting with in Kansas, I'll be doing the western half of the country by rail/bus. He'll have the great experience of being able to do the whole thing on two wheels. I have no doubt that the eastern half of the continent will be plenty of riding in the upcoming weeks and months (gasp!) to get my fill.

The plan as it stands at the moment is loosely as follows: I'll take Amtrak from Sacramento to Denver, where I'll switch to Greyhound to Wichita, Kansas. In Wichita, I'll unpack my bike and ride the 30 miles north to Newton, Kansas where hopefully Peter will be waiting. From there we'll cruise east for a couple days to the Missouri border, where we'll turn northeast to meet the Katy Trail, a bike/hiking trail that winds east across Missouri to St Louis. Then it's southeast across the southern tip of Illinois and then basically due east across the whole of Kentucky. Our route through Kentucky should be neat, with such sights as Mammoth Caves, the Makers Mark Whisky distillery, and hopefully a short detour to Sacramento, Kentucky (population 517). After Kentucky, well cross Virginia to our destination of Yorktown, where we'll find ourselves on the shores of the Atlantic. 

From there we'll turn north to see friends and family in DC, New York, and Boston. I have these grandiose ideas of side routes we can do around the east coast and New England, but being as how I've yet to pedal even one mile on this journey, planning to add hundreds of bonus miles at the end might a bit premature. But whatever happens and whatever paths we choose to take it's going to be an experience. Adventure awaits!