“Gone Biking”

“Regularly scheduled programming” will be interrupted at the BikingBis website for the next couple of weeks as my son and I head to the Great Plains for Biking Across Kansas, aka B.A.K.

We talked last winter about doing another week-long state bicycle tour similar to the Cycle Across Maryland and Ride Around Washington that we did when he was younger.

We picked the 475-mile B.A.K. (I'm told it's “B-A-K”, not “back”) because it was one of the few bike tours that had the right dates for his college and summer work schedule.

Familiar road

Also, the first couple of days in western Kansas follows the route of my 1984 TransAmerican bicycle travels, and I'm curious if I can recall any of it. My friend from high school days lives in Kansas City and offered to be home base for our trip.

While gone, I'm going to attempt to autopost a few pre-written articles and file a daily report with a photo from B.A.K.

Although I've done these types of group bicycle rides before in Maryland, Virginia and Kansas, I don't remember putting in so much work to get ready for one. I guess it's the job of getting two bikes ready for the trip.

Boxing bikes

Originally we considered just throwing stuff in the back of the car and driving there. But as gasoline prices looked like they were heading past $4 a gallon, airfare suddenly became an affordable alternative.

We chose Frontier Airlines because of their new policy to price bicycles as regular luggage ($20). Most other airlines still gouge the traveling cyclist.

Getting a couple of assembled bicycles to fit into boxes is tricky. It took a few hours and another visit to the bike store to find a suitable box for my older bike. Now I only have to worry about the bikes getting damaged enroute and replacing lost, damaged or left-behind parts after I arrive.

Today is packing day, when we find and wash a week's worth of clothes and camping gear and pack it all into a couple of duffle bags.

Some extras

Here are a few extra things I'm packing:

A Solio Rocsta Hybrid Solar Charger that I picked up the other day to charge the cellphone. It actually charged a bit when I tested it here on a cloudy day, so I expect it will work in Kansas;

A small Grundig radio to fit in my jersey pocket so I can monitor the path of any tornadoes that might be bearing down;

Two dirt-cheap personal fans to keep us cool at night;

Usual assortment of small digital cameras.

Lastly, I'm hoping my buddy in Kansas City has some folding camp chairs I can borrow, although we can survive without them.