Getting Ready for Our 100 mile bike trip!

 Nathan and I have both enjoyed biking for a long time. When I was younger, my uncle Mark biked across the US. I thought he was the coolest person ever. I promised myself that I would do something like it someday. The summer before Nathan and I met, he did an 800 mile bike trip through Montana. When I met him, I thought he too was very cool. We have a dream of biking across the US from Canada to Mexico someday.....

Fast forward 8 years and 3 kids later. We decided it is time to stay preparing for our dream. We took the kids on a 12 day 122 mile bike trip. When we first started planning, it was an ambitious 160 miles visiting 8 state parks, but once we drove the route, we realized our sights were set too high. Most of the roads we chose were busy or dirt (neither of which is good with 3 small kids and road bikes). We revamped and re drove our route until we were happy with it. We planned close to 100 miles, 5 campgrounds and 1 hotel. We decided to have a day to rest and let the kids play and enjoy the state parks. 

There was so much preparation into this trip. I think we spent at least as much time planning, driving, shopping, comparing, searching, studying maps, talking to the local bike shop and REI, as we did on the trip.

Bonnie sewed fleece "sleeping bags" for the kids. She made them go over the arms, like a baby sleep sack, this way, they cannot wiggle out of them. The boys picked the material. Thanks Grami!

 

Our new tent arrived.We ordered the smallest 4/5 person tent we could find from REI. It was still huge! The tent weighs 11 pounds. The next size bigger was almost 20 pounds! That is a lot of weight to tow!

Making sure we all fit and there is room to grow into. When the kids are a bit older, the tent will be very snug! Hopefully by then, the kids will want to sleep in their own tent and we can take 2 smaller and lighter tents.

 Preparing the garden for our absents. We put hay down and staked all the tomatoes and beans (something we failed to do before we left for our 3 1/2 week PA trip. We came home to a very over grown garden. All my plants were doing great, but so were the weeds.

07/28/11 Here we are! We started at Lieber State Recreation Area. It was a beautiful campground with LOTS of flat area (very important when sleeping on the ground). Grami Bonnie came on the trip with us. We were happy to have her enjoy this trip with us. Nathan and Bonnie drove the truck and the Saturn to Brown County State Park, our destination, on Friday. They left the truck there and drove the car back.

 Bonnie finishing setting up her tent, and making sure all her gear fit in the BOB trailer.

 Aurora is very excited about the trip, although she will probably sleep most of the time. She also likes to show off her 1 tooth.

 Little monkey. She loved climbing into the Burley trailer we borrowed from our wonderful neighbors. Thanks Benharts, you were with us the whole trip!

The boys playing cars together. They each got 2 new cars to play with on the trip. Sometimes they are so cute.

 Leaf and Grami enjoying a bedtime snack.

Tent and trailers set up. The trailers are empty at this point. We spent 2 nights at Lieber.

Getting ready for bed. I made the kids cotton sleep sacks. Everest was so excited, it was hard for him to get to sleep. I made cotton sleeping bags for Nathan and I. I didn't have to worry about Aurora, she has plenty of fleece and cotton sleep sacks.

 Night, night Leaf. I also made the boys pillows.

Thanks for checking on us. We have had a wonderful summer. We have been so busy, I have had very little time to blog.