Forty-Four Down, Five to Go
I had to cancel my Spring/Summer 2025 bike tour, in which I planned to ride from my home in Kentucky to Newfoundland, when I underwent my second back surgery in two years.
The neurosurgeon says that I'm allowed to ride a bike again on July 22nd, and I'm hoping to do some sort of late-summer or early-fall bicycle tour. I've only ridden the bike four times this year (!) and am woefully out of shape, so who knows what I'll be able to do.
I have five states left to reach my goal of bicycle touring in all 48 contiguous states plus the District of Columbia, so my plan with this tour is to knock out one or more of the final five: Arizona, Delaware, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and West Virginia.
Here's a list of all the states (plus D.C.) where I've toured, with links to each tour, for the excessively curious and/or bored readers:
*** Arizona ***
Arkansas (2023)
Colorado (2006, 2010, 2013, 2016)
Connecticut (2008)
*** Delaware ***
Florida (2008)
Illinois (2006, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2022)
Indiana (2008, 2012, 2016, 2016, 2017)
Iowa (2008, 2012, 2013, 2019, 2022, 2024)
Kentucky (2006, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023)
Louisiana (2021)
Maine (2008)
Maryland (2008)
Massachusetts (2008)
Michigan (2012)
Missouri (2006, 2012, 2015, 2018, 2022, 2023)
Nebraska (2013, 2016, 2019, 2022, 2024)
New Hampshire (2008)
New Jersey (2008)
New Mexico (2016)
New York (2008)
North Carolina (2008)
*** Oklahoma ***
Pennsylvania (2008)
*** Rhode Island ***
South Carolina (2008)
South Dakota (2016, 2019, 2024)
Tennessee (2018)
Texas (2021)
Vermont (2008)
Washington (2008)
Washington, D.C. (2008)
*** West Virginia ***
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1 day ago
1 day ago
1 day ago
If I'm feeling very ambitious, I could try for a long tour and pick up Oklahoma and Arizona. But that would be very, very ambitious.
1 day ago
I love this list! Illinois wins with eight, even beating out Kentucky ;-)
So glad to hear your recovery is nearing an end. Looking forward to reading more on your plans.
Jeff
1 day ago
Yeah, I guess it's not too surprising that Illinois is my most-traveled state so far - it's on a few major ACA routes I've done, plus we lived there for six years and I started tours from there, and finally, even though we live in Kentucky now, if you start a tour here and want to ride west-ish, you pretty much have to go through Illinois.
Jeff
1 day ago
Anyway, whatever route you come up with, I look forward to reading about it. And I think your surgery and minimal training time excuses you from having to ride your normal daily mileage. In fact, PLEASE don't do that.
12 hours ago
21 minutes ago