has a bike lane, and even that is frighteningly unprotected. But even that luxury isn’t found on the highway overpasses we had to navigate around inside the city. We took a winding and improvised route through service roads, recreation trails, and parking lots, getting lost and finding a kickball along the way. Finally, we rolled up to a strip of hotels and checked into the cheapest one, then ate at a dieing restaurant where we could feel every eye on us. Cameron commented as we filled up at a salad bar: “They’re just so excited to have young people in here.”

Day Two saw us waking up in a room that strongly suggested it was designed for children. There were even little pictures of cars and trucks on the quilts. Not one picture of a bicycle. We had more geographic confidence while leaving the city, and we would have even made it back to the trail relatively quickly if a pothole hadn’t snapped my rack loose, nearly spilling my load. Fortunately, our combined repair kits had enough shoelaces and zip-ties to MacGyver a solution.