WHAT'S THE PLAN??

While biking last year (when I was 9 months pregnant, biking 20 miles to help encourage Grant to come out) Todd and I came up with an idea of biking the early Saints’ journey. We decided we could do it once a year, one portion of their journeying at a time. We decided to start this year off by taking a 300 mile bike ride from Palmyra, New York to Kirtland, Ohio. We invited my mom to join us, which she gladly accepted (she’s a glutton for an adventure). My youngest sister, Lana, offered to watch the boys, but we still needed an adult to help her out. I called up my dad, and he was kind enough to agree to help her out. (he secretly wasn’t sure we could safely do this bike ride and he wanted to be close by to help us – he’s very sweet that way).
Todd had not taken much school off for the last four years, so when it came to the end of his last year, he had about 8 weeks off. A week and a half was spent by Todd going to his parents and having some alone time with them. Two weeks was spent in Utah. Two weeks were spent in Ogdensburg, New York, and a little less than a week for our bike trip. We planned on starting our bike trip on Monday, June 1 and reaching the Kirtland temple by Thursday evening. Todd had an exit interview on Friday morning he had to be at down in Athens before he could graduate on Saturday, June 6th. Because of this interview, we had to push it to make it to Kirtland in time.
We got our bikes ready, bought riding gloves, bike helmets (nope, I've never had one before), reflector vests and other supplies. A friend's mother-in-law who is in our ward had gone on an organized biking trip across Iowa about 5 years back. I pumped her for information and tips. She lent us some good cushioned biking pants and some great anti-chaffing lotion. When she and her husband had gone on their trip, they had ridden a tandem bike. She said it was one of the hardest thing about her trip. I had often teased Todd that I thought we should do our trip on a tandem bike. hehe Todd wasn't ever really sure if I was serious or just teasing. Either way he was very firm in his refusal. He claimed that I only wanted to do the tandem bike because then I could sit back and enjoy the ride while he peddled my butt (his words, not mine). I thought it was quite rude of him to claim that about me...maybe he knows me too well.
With all the things we got, this is really all we each had. We were traveling light. The one thing that made that possible....credit card. Originally Todd had wanted to camp at night. I informed him that if I was going to be biking 70 miles a day, I wanted to sleep on a bed, plus packing a tent and sleeping supplies on the bike was not desirous at all.
I packed two pairs of under clothes garments, two pairs of socks, two shirts, and two pairs of padded pants. I would try washing one pair of everything at night and hope it would be dry enough to wear the next evening - wasn't as successful as I had hoped. I did wear both pants the entire time. The extra padding did help, even though I felt like I was walking around with a dozen Kotex in my pants.
My mom had brought bandannas (she LOVES them), and even though I joked about them at first, I wore one the whole time because it covered my ears, protecting me from getting earaches from the cool wind. Of course my bandanna was bright orange (my mom also loves bright colors) so with that and my reflector vest, I looked like I was a construction worker. Sexy I know.
We would get snacks and protein bars to help energize us between food stops. I really enjoyed having Starbursts to suck on while biking.
I mapped out our ride using Google earth and put in for the walking directions. I printed the directions out, but I also have an iphone which uses Google maps, so that is what I actually referred to most often.
The directions had us going on back country roads across New York, but when we arrived around Palmyra, we noticed a bike trail that was running along the Erie Canal (the canal the Saints had ridden on). I stopped at a nearby bike shop and inquired how far the bike trail went. He told me the Canalway Trail went all the way to Buffalo! ( it only goes to Lockport, NY - I should know, I've ridden it) We immediately decided that we wanted to go that route. After our change in the journey, we would meet back up with the original map at the western border of New York. From there we rode the five following the Seaway Trail. This trail runs along Lake Erie. It is so beautiful. We followed this road into Ohio, then weaved our way down to Kirtland.
At the last minute my sister Lyndee decided that she would go on the bike ride with us. Todd and I have an old mountain bike (one that we had been riding regularly until I got my new bike last year) that is at least 10 years old and is a heavy, awkward, uncomfortable beast, we lovingly call it the Ground Pounder for that is what is written on the bar. Because Lyndee didn't have a bike, we brought it along...with Todd knowing full well (and admitting to me) that he was going to be the one riding the Ground Pounder, at least he's honest with himself.