Next tour about to start!

A few years ago I realized that I had ridden my bike in a lot of states. I sort of like counting, and keeping things in order, so it occurred to me that riding in all 50 states was an appealing goal. Here's what I've done so far: California - home, so it goes without saying that I have ridden lots and lots of miles here Washington - lots of cousins, some of whom are also cyclists, so that was added to the list soon after I realized that for me, cycling had actually become a thing Oregon - no relatives, but an office I visited every year, so the bike began to accompany me Arizona - relatives AND an office Idaho - I signed up for the inaugural Ride Idaho after a fellow club member promoted it. It was a challenge, but beautiful Ride FAR - an AIDS ride that took in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and a bit of Connecticut - did it 3 times Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Texas - friends and relatives New Mexico - travel with friends, bike ride sneaked in Hawaii - relatives, and Haleakala (yes, up, not just down!) Northern Tier - Washington (again), Idaho (ditto), Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York (we rode over Lake Erie, so got some wonderful Ontario but missed a couple of US states) And various trips that have allowed me to ride in all but: Alaska Louisiana Mississippi Alabama Illinois Indiana Kentucky Missouri Arkansas Oklahoma We are heading out on Thursday, flying to Chicago where we will ride out with no fixed route. But we will head to Indiana Dunes first. It's a national park - one I was embarrassed to admit I had never heard of. Well, I was embarrassed until I learned that it only became a national park last year. It sounds like a great place, so we expect to spend at least a couple of days exploring it and the adjacent state park. Our general plan is to pick a destination, call and make a reservation, ride to it and see what we find. If we like it, we will stick around until it feels like time to move on. If there's not a lot to see, we will just spend one night there. I spent a fair amount of time looking at eBird's hotspots. I looked at the lists of birds that had been seen in the fall, and if there was interesting activity, I added a location to the list of possible places to visit. I have also read a few blogs of cyclists in the area, which gave me a few more ideas. Our current thinking is that we will head to central Indiana to explore the large Amish community (won't it be nice to be sharing the road with horse and buggy traffic?), and turn south to work our way to Kentucky. We have chosen western Kentucky, again based on cyclists' blogs, which seem to suggest that dog activity is less of a problem in the rolling hills of the horse country than it is in the Appalachian eastern half of the state. We have also found a place called Land Between the Lakes that looks very appealing. It's a national recreation area of land between two long, long, narrow lakes. It extends from northern Kentucky more than 20 miles south, and ends in Tennessee. It offers all sorts of appealing activities, including canoeing. And it is quite close to the Missouri border, so we might even manage to sneak in a fourth state! So perhaps St. Louis, then if there is time and energy, on to Springfield so we can visit the Abraham Lincoln historical exhibits. Whenever we are out of time - or energy - we will find our way to a town big enough to rent us a car, and drive back to Chicago for our flight home. Time to pack!