Indiana Toll Rd, Ohio Turnpike and Pennsylvania Turnpike "Tour"

I'm driving my daughter from the Chicago area back to her dorm near
Philadelphia over Labor Day weekend. Going down, I figured I'd throw my bike
on the rack, too, and make it a more leisurely tour punctuated by the
occasional 20-25 mile ride, taking 3 days instead of one. We'll be on
hybrids. We'll stop and look at stuff. I'm looking for suggestions.

Here's what I've got so far for ideas:

Indiana: Amish country in Elkhart and/or Lagrange counties. Perhaps a ride
to Shipshewana or Topeka. This might be a good contrast with the Lancaster,
PA area.

Ohio: ?? I really need help here. I've biked in the Cincinnati area, but
never done anything in northern Ohio except drive through it as fast as
possible.

Western PA: ??
Maybe the portion of "route A" near Beaver Falls?
ftp://ftp.dot.state.pa.us/public/pdf.../bike_A_10.pdf
or some segment of the Allegheny Trail?
http://www.atatrail.org/seg-maps/overmap.htm

There's some chance we'd dip down and pick up the C&O towpath trail near
Hancock, but that's about 25 miles off the turnpike so that's an extra hour
of driving. Or perhaps we could continue the southerly route and take
another bike stop around Gettysburg. Is bicycling a good way to see the old
battlefield?

Eastern PA: There ae some routes on the Lancaster Bicycle Club site
(mentioned in a recent r.b.r thread)
http://www.lancasterbikeclub.org/st/st.asp
such as the Letitz ride or Tick Tock Ride (Millersville to Watch Museum in
Columbia)


I'm not going to overplan this. I want to take the suggestions and some
maps, and see how we feel along the way. My daughter's been doing 20 miles
a day, 2 or 3 days a week, so we should be OK for 1 or 2 of these loops a
day. The rest of the day we will be sitting in a minivan.

--
Mike Kruger
The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it.
You have to catch up with it yourself.
[Benjamin Franklin]

"Mike Kruger" posted:

I'm driving my daughter from the Chicago area back to her dorm near
Philadelphia over Labor Day weekend. Going down, I figured I'd throw
my bike on the rack, too, and make it a more leisurely tour punctuated
by the occasional 20-25 mile ride, taking 3 days instead of one. We'll
be on hybrids. We'll stop and look at stuff. I'm looking for
suggestions.

Or perhaps we could continue the southerly
route and take another bike stop around Gettysburg. Is bicycling a
good way to see the old battlefield?

Definetely. There are zillions of monuments and a visitors center. But
get a guidebook and read it in advance, so you'll understand what's
where. I was impressed by James McPherson's "A Walk at Gettysburg,"
which outlines the battles and gives a tour:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...2/104-6892705-
5405560?v=glance&vi=customer-reviews
Or it may be available at your local library.

- Max


--
MisterMax
Slideshows of Angkor Wat, Bali, Crete, France, Malaysia, Maui, Morocco,
Mt Holly, Sicily, St Tropez, Singapore, Thailand, Tour de France:
http://buten.net/max/
(Yes,RemoveDoubles is part of my email address. The double letters in my
last name are not.)

"Mike Kruger" wrote in message
...
I'm driving my daughter from the Chicago area back to her dorm near
Philadelphia over Labor Day weekend. Going down, I figured I'd throw my
bike
on the rack, too, and make it a more leisurely tour punctuated by the
occasional 20-25 mile ride, taking 3 days instead of one. We'll be on
hybrids. We'll stop and look at stuff. I'm looking for suggestions.

Here's what I've got so far for ideas:

Indiana: Amish country in Elkhart and/or Lagrange counties. Perhaps a ride
to Shipshewana or Topeka. This might be a good contrast with the
Lancaster,
PA area.

Ohio: ?? I really need help here. I've biked in the Cincinnati area, but
never done anything in northern Ohio except drive through it as fast as
possible.

http://www.nps.gov/cuva/planavisit/t...n/bicyclin.htm



Western PA: ??
Maybe the portion of "route A" near Beaver Falls?
ftp://ftp.dot.state.pa.us/public/pdf.../bike_A_10.pdf
or some segment of the Allegheny Trail?
http://www.atatrail.org/seg-maps/overmap.htm

There's some chance we'd dip down and pick up the C&O towpath trail near
Hancock, but that's about 25 miles off the turnpike so that's an extra
hour
of driving. Or perhaps we could continue the southerly route and take
another bike stop around Gettysburg. Is bicycling a good way to see the
old
battlefield?

Eastern PA: There ae some routes on the Lancaster Bicycle Club site
(mentioned in a recent r.b.r thread)
http://www.lancasterbikeclub.org/st/st.asp
such as the Letitz ride or Tick Tock Ride (Millersville to Watch Museum in
Columbia)


I'm not going to overplan this. I want to take the suggestions and some
maps, and see how we feel along the way. My daughter's been doing 20
miles
a day, 2 or 3 days a week, so we should be OK for 1 or 2 of these loops a
day. The rest of the day we will be sitting in a minivan.

--
Mike Kruger
The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it.
You have to catch up with it yourself.
[Benjamin Franklin]

The McHenry County (IL) bike club has several cue sheets and maps for IN Amish.
I'd go from Shipshewana to Howe to LaGrange. If that's too far skip Howe. Eat
at the Blue Gate in Shipshewana. Buy a pie!
http://mchenrybicycleclub.org/MCBC_m...e%20-%2040.htm

A friend in Cleveland wanted a group of us to visit and ride the Emerald
Necklace.
http://home.earthlink.net/~bikeohio/emerald.html


Mike Kruger wrote:

I'm driving my daughter from the Chicago area back to her dorm near
Philadelphia over Labor Day weekend. Going down, I figured I'd throw my bike
on the rack, too, and make it a more leisurely tour punctuated by the
occasional 20-25 mile ride, taking 3 days instead of one. We'll be on
hybrids. We'll stop and look at stuff. I'm looking for suggestions.

Here's what I've got so far for ideas:

Indiana: Amish country in Elkhart and/or Lagrange counties. Perhaps a ride
to Shipshewana or Topeka. This might be a good contrast with the Lancaster,
PA area.

Ohio: ?? I really need help here. I've biked in the Cincinnati area, but
never done anything in northern Ohio except drive through it as fast as
possible.

Western PA: ??
Maybe the portion of "route A" near Beaver Falls?
ftp://ftp.dot.state.pa.us/public/pdf.../bike_A_10.pdf
or some segment of the Allegheny Trail?
http://www.atatrail.org/seg-maps/overmap.htm

There's some chance we'd dip down and pick up the C&O towpath trail near
Hancock, but that's about 25 miles off the turnpike so that's an extra hour
of driving. Or perhaps we could continue the southerly route and take
another bike stop around Gettysburg. Is bicycling a good way to see the old
battlefield?

Eastern PA: There ae some routes on the Lancaster Bicycle Club site
(mentioned in a recent r.b.r thread)
http://www.lancasterbikeclub.org/st/st.asp
such as the Letitz ride or Tick Tock Ride (Millersville to Watch Museum in
Columbia)

I'm not going to overplan this. I want to take the suggestions and some
maps, and see how we feel along the way. My daughter's been doing 20 miles
a day, 2 or 3 days a week, so we should be OK for 1 or 2 of these loops a
day. The rest of the day we will be sitting in a minivan.

--
Mike Kruger
The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it.
You have to catch up with it yourself.
[Benjamin Franklin]

The Little Miami Trail from Springfield to Cincinatti is a paved tresure.

Guy
College Park MD

Mister Max wrote:
"Mike Kruger" posted:


I'm driving my daughter from the Chicago area back to her dorm near
Philadelphia over Labor Day weekend. Going down, I figured I'd throw
my bike on the rack, too, and make it a more leisurely tour punctuated
by the occasional 20-25 mile ride, taking 3 days instead of one. We'll
be on hybrids. We'll stop and look at stuff. I'm looking for
suggestions.


Or perhaps we could continue the southerly

route and take another bike stop around Gettysburg. Is bicycling a
good way to see the old battlefield?


Definetely. There are zillions of monuments and a visitors center. But
get a guidebook and read it in advance, so you'll understand what's
where. I was impressed by James McPherson's "A Walk at Gettysburg,"
which outlines the battles and gives a tour:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...2/104-6892705-
5405560?v=glance&vi=customer-reviews
Or it may be available at your local library.

- Max



And when you get there (if you decide to do Gettysburg), take the 1/2 hr
to sit through the overview that they do at the visitor's center. You
sit around a huge map that's on the floor, and the overview goes through
the 3 day battle showing where the various troops were, their movements
over the three days, etc. It really gives you a good overall perspective
of what went on there and it helps you to put things in perspective as
you tour various places on the battlefield.

We did the tour in our car, so we bought a self-guided tour CD, but I
did see some people on bikes that had a portable CD player with them and
were also using the self-guided tour. (It's also available on casette tape)

Janet

"Mike Kruger" wrote in message ...
I'm driving my daughter from the Chicago area back to her dorm near
Philadelphia over Labor Day weekend. Going down, I figured I'd throw my bike
on the rack, too, and make it a more leisurely tour punctuated by the
occasional 20-25 mile ride, taking 3 days instead of one. We'll be on
hybrids. We'll stop and look at stuff. I'm looking for suggestions.

Here's what I've got so far for ideas:


I'd have a hard time not having a look at the abandoned PA Turnpike
Tunnel approaches?

http://www.jersey.net/~khjc/pa-turnpike.htm

http://www.ecsr.net/~jamieo/Turnpike_Page.htm

But then again I've always had a fetish for abandoned thoroughfares.