Once I had the initial “dots” on the map I thought it might just be a case of filling in the dots in between but not so – just as well I am planning my little bike ride well in advance, which is quite a novelty for me – my previous big bike rides involved pointing the bike in the general direction I was going in and hoping for the best,  a method I can not fault as it seemed to work (mostly)!

So in my first post I had 9 dots on the map – at some point I hope to have a map to show here,  but how to do this is evading me – riding a bike I can do – uploading maps I’m not so hot at!   But I am wandering – back to the dots – I started with 9 and I am now up to the grand total of 11 – sounds like progress is slow but I don’t think it is – it has taken a lot of research to get to 11 dots.

I have just finished reading Bruce Weber’s book – “Life is a Wheel – Memoirs of a Bike-Riding Obituarist”and I have been making notes throughout of places he has passed through and recommended.   One such place is Sparta,  Wisconsin – it doesn’t sound particularly attractive in itself but it is know as the “bicycling capital of America” so what better reason to cycle there – it also has the “Deke Slayton Memorial Space and Bike Museum” – one more dot added but to do this I have removed another 2 – The Oz and Mark Twain Museums have unceremoniously been taken off the dot-to-dot list but this in turn has also shortened the route a little – 4069 miles rather than  4195  – leaving 8 dots on the map and  126 miles less of pedal turning.

Mr Weber has also cycled the “Going-to-the-Sun-Road” in Glacier National Park, Montana – the road is 51 miles long,  climbs to 6,646 feet at The Logan Pass and crosses The Continental Devide.   “Up to 24 m of snow can lie on top of Logan Pass – the road takes about ten weeks to plough – the road is generally open from early June to mid October, with its late opening on July 13, 2011 marking the record for the latest opening since the inaugural date of July 15, 1933.”   This is a road I need to cycle and another dot is on the map.  Back up to 9 dots and about 200 extra miles!!   I could shorten the route by finding a lighthouse to start from on the  Washington coast rather than the Oregon coast but Heceta Head Lighthouse has been calling to me ever since I saw a picture of it in a calendar at work so no changes to the dots there.

I’ve also added the following 2 dots –

  • The Museum of the Plains Indians,  Browning,  Montana
  • “Cheers”,  Boston

And the total 11 “dots” so far –

  • Cape Blanco Lighthouse,  Port Oxford,  Oregon
  • Heceta Head Lighthouse,  Florence,  Oregon
  • Glacier National Park,  Montana
  • The Museum of the Plains Indians,  Browning,  Montana
  • Yellowstone National Park,  Wyoming
  • Crazy Horse Memorial,  South Dakota
  • Mount Rushmore National Memorial,  South Dakota
  • Deke Slayton Memorial Space and Bicycle Museum,  Sparta,  Wisconsin
  • New York (City),  New York
  • “Cheers”,Beacon Hill,  Boston,  Massachusetts
  • West Quoddy Head Lighthouse,  Maine

At this point Google Maps is going to fail me and I need to find another map source for planning my route.   Google maps will still be very helpful to get me going but it will only allow me to have “10” dots on the map at any given time and I’m going to need much more than 10 dots to see me across America!   Or maybe (you can probably here the wee white cells whirring into action as I type) I should divide the maps into the States that I will cycle through??