A change of plans...

Well, Mother Nature just didn't agree with me taking this trip right now. It's 12:30 a.m. and my train was scheduled to leave at 9 p.m. Amtrak had a car on the tracks (no kidding), multiple trees blown across the tracks, and numerous electrical issues because of the storm. That was just between La Porte and South Bend. Freight trains were backing up because of problems and they were estimating at least another 3-4 hours before we would leave South Bend. And there was no telling what was between South Bend and Pittsburgh.

So, I've postponed this trip. My timeline had only a little bit of flexibility in it, and it just isn't worth rushing through and missing the things I was really looking forward to. So I'm hoping to reschedule in August. In the mean time, I'm looking at a couple possibilities in Michigan for a 3-4 day trip over this weekend. After all, everything is packed and ready to go!

An interesting start!

We're at the Amtrak station and sitting here under a tornado warning. My train being held in Chicago because of weather. Let's hope this isn't a sign of things to come.


- Posted from my iPhone please excuse the typos.

All packed!

Since I will be taking a public transportation bus from Pittsburgh to McKeesport to start my ride, I decided to put my panniers in a box and check them on the train. I figured it would be easier to haul a box on the bus than haul 4 panniers, a therm-a-rest, rack bag, and handlebar bag individually. I just have visions of getting off the bus and leaving something on there. That could be a problem.

Since so many people have asked how heavy all of this stuff is, I finally weighed everything. My bike is a dreamy 37 lbs. To all my roadie friends...breath...it's OK! This is a touring bike with racks, fenders, and a built to carry a lot of stuff. So it's not a fast low weight carbon or Ti bike. My gear weighs in at just about 50 lbs. That's not too bad considering that is all my camping equipment and clothing.

Amtrak Bike Box

One of the exciting parts of this trip is that I'm going to be riding over to DC and not driving any real distance. My lovely wife will be dropping me and all my gear off at the South Bend train station tonight and I'll start riding in Pittsburgh in the morning (technically McKeesport after a short public bus ride). Then I'll take the train home from DC. 

Fortunately, Amtrak takes bikes and provides special bike boxes. The Amtrak boxes are not your run of the mill bike shop bike box where you have to take off the front wheel, spin the fork around, and remove the seat post. 

These boxes are pretty big. I had to take off my pedals and handlebars. I was able to bungee my bars to the front rack to keep them from moving around. I rolled the bike into the box and taped it shut. Granted, I wouldn't want to put my bike on a delivery truck like this, but for a train ride where I'm not transferring trains, this is wonderful. For anyone else planning to do this, my bike is a 56cm LHT with Surly front and rear racks and fenders, and it fit just fine.

The box I am using was used by someone bring a bike to South Bend. So I'll leave it in Pittsburgh for the next cyclist. Hopefully, someone will leave one in DC for me. If not, I'll buy one for $15.