Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
It's been an odd early December, weatherwise that is. Riding in 60 degree weather in all of November and now some of December. I ended my road season a bit early, but am enjoying my gravelling around the vast stretches of country road gravel throughout the state and national forests. I've been mountain biking, too, at Brown County State Park, some of the best trails east of the Mississippi.
Early in November we went down to Tennessee to finish scouting the Heart Cycle tour that I'll be leading in May 2018. The colors were spectacular and I got some riding in on new roads that I found. I hate to say it, but it equals southern Indiana.
Besides riding over 5,000 miles this year, I've been busy presidenting for the Bloomington Bicycle Club the past five years, and will be retiring from that in February. I expect to be busy with this new business venture.
I've been busy advocating for a bike/ped bridge over long awaited I-69 that will be separating the east and west Bloomington metro area even more. I'm trying to stay optimistic on what this interstate will do for bicycling down here. There will be some new frontage roads to ride on and much safer crossings of the busy four lane highway. The current short cutters will leave Old 37 and it will again be safe for us bicyclists.
I'm still trying to have USBR 235 created for southern Indiana. Indiana currently has east-west USBR 50, basically the RAIN route, and north-south USBR 35, and USBR 36 up in IlliMichiana. USBR 35 avoided the scenic and bicycle historic area of southern Indiana due to the hills. The creator was not a true cyclist! So, USBR 235 will head west and south of Indianapolis to Martinsville and Bloomington, and then east to Nashville, and hopefully link back to USBR 35 in Columbus. It's been both a blessing and a curse dealing with the politicians of these counties. I've been at it for a couple of years. Patience is indeed a virture. My "Weekender" offering features USBR 235 and USBR 35 and truly represents all that Indiana has to offer to bicycling.
I'm getting all of my ducks in a row for Indiana Jim's Bicycling Adventures: lawyers, insurance, and marketing. I'm humming Warren Zevon's "Lawyers, Guns, and Money" now. January 1, 2018 I will be all official and open for business. Our first winter vortex is supposed to be arriving this weekend.