Leg 1, Ride 3: Jefferson to Waukesha

We started today with some minor hills, then we had an unpaved rural trail, which changed to a paved suburban trail, and we finished on city streets. Basically, the same thing as yesterday, but in reverse order.

Today was our first ice cream stop since we started pedaling, at Marna's favorite ice cream stand from her childhood: Le Duc's in Wales. Or, I should say frozen custard!

If you're not familiar with frozen custard, the deliciousness hierarchy looks like this: ice milk < gelato < frozen yogurt < ice cream < frozen custard.

I don't really have a ton more to report today, so here are some questions that people have been asking us at our rest stops:

How far will you be pedaling?

About 1600 miles (2600km)

How long will it take?

Two months

What is your route?

Roughly speaking: Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Detroit, London, Toronto, Buffalo, Syracuse, Troy, Boston.

Wait, why are you going through (Grand Rapids, Toronto)? Isn't that out of the way?

Yes it is. We are not optimizing for the shortest path; we're also trying to visit places that we like or that we've never seen before.

What's the matter, don't you like Cleveland?

We do, but the riding generally looks better and more interesting north of Lake Erie.

Are you camping?

No way!

Do you have the whole route fully planned out?

Yes! We have every single turn mapped out. Wanna see?

What happens if you get sick/injured?

If it's minor, we'll just skip a day or two of riding. If we're in a populated area, then we'll hop on a train or bus to get to the next stop. If we're not, then we'll fall behind schedule for a little while until our next chance to skip ahead. If it's major, then we'll just bail on the trip and come home. No heroes.

What happens if you hit bad weather?

Generally, we'll just ride through normal rainstorms. If there's hail or nasty thunderstorms coming, we'll adjust our riding time to avoid it, as possible. If it's something major like tornadoes or hurricanes, then we'll fall behind schedule for a day or two until our next chance to skip ahead by train/bus.

What happens if something goes wrong with your bikes?

We have enough tools/parts with us to fix any reasonably-forseeable problem. Or at least bodge it well enough to limp to the next bike shop.