One of the worries that I, and the main objection to this whole trip by my husband, has been safety. Because of course, this isn't a car trip. We're going to cover in two weeks what would be done by vehicle in 5 hours. We're going to be on laden down bicycles hurtling at maybe MAYBE 20 miles an hour, likely 10, on roads, trails, city streets. How do you keep yourself safe?
Well first off, we're not traveling during dusk/evening/dawn. Plain and simple we plan to be doing all the biking in broad daylight. I have no desire to be traversing the roads relying on lights and red beams painting lines on the road and praying someone isn't an idiot at night. Nuh uh. Nope. Will we still be decked out in lights and little devices that toss red lines on the road around us? Oh hell yes. Anything to make us more visible.
We'll also have reflective vests on, mesh ones, highly visible. I'm also going to have the kid bike ahead of me. In my research, and in answers to my question on a touring forum, someone suggested that I need to keep 45 feet between me and the kid and preferably with him in front. That way if - god forbid - I get taken out, he's far enough ahead that the odds of him being smacked are low. very low.
At any given time, we'll be within 2 hours of the husband, or a trusted friend in WI. On our trip up to Madison this past weekend - Hello R.E.I. - I wanted Gerry to meet up with a friend of mine and his nurse wife who live in the middle of Wisconsin. The same folks who offered to let us join them at a timeshare near Madison and their family for a few days of waterpark fun. There we solidified just what their definition of "help" was. Which turns out to be 'broken bike? call. Broken bones? Call. Stuck somewhere? Call. They'll get their truck and come and get us. Because once we hit the WI border, they would be a far sight closer than Gerry.
Did I mention part of the reason why I chose Wisconsin is that so much of the state has dedicated bike trails that traverse through their state parks and into the cities. [The Military Ridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Ridge_State_Trail) will factor in a great deal leading up to Madison. It is a nice segue into Blue Mound where there Cave of the Mounds is and where we plan to camp at least one night before the short trip into Madison.
There is of course, so many things that we can't account for on the trip. For all that we can pack extra inner tubes, small tool sets, a first aid kit and anything else that we can think of to make the trip as safe as possible, the fact of the matter is that shit happens. Things you can't imagine, could happen. the best we can do is have back ups for back up. To pack those tools, to have friends ready to grab us at a phone call. To make ourselves as visible as possible when we have to ride on a road - and the road that we will take, we drove down and my husband was satisfied with the wide paved shoulders and the traffic was minimal for a holiday weekend even. I wouldn't take my kid on a trip if I didn't think it would be safe, if I hadn't done the research and seen that other folks have taken their younger than mine kids on the exact same trip.
And in the end, if we only make it to Madison Wisconsin, I will consider it a success. Because it will be something we haven't done before, something together and will create wonderful memories to talk about. You know.. that time we did something totally crazy.
And who knows. Maybe after that, we'll attempt RAGBRAI.
No comments:
Post a Comment