This book shows how Indianapolis not only opened the frontier, but made it possible for St. Louis to call itself the gateway to the west. You will see how from trains and cars and the roads upon which they travel and even airplanes, Indianapolis has long been on the cutting edge of transportation. In coming full circle, you will also learn how the Crossroads of America rebuilt itself with Greenways. And why one of them, the Indianapolis Cultural Trail has made ours the most bike friendly downtown in the world. Something we hope to replicate on a coast to coast basis, the National Bicycle Greenway!
NBG Blueprint explains our route and shows how most of America west of Indianapolis is uninhabited. In explaining the 20 Anchor Cities That hold our route together, you will also see how there are only five anchors between Indy and California, where there are seven. We make note of them. because each will get.an Indy Cultural Trail like Downtown Greenway.
The Downtown Greenways that we foresee will be needed to transform each of the economies in these areas. And in time, as the NBG expands, the entire US economy. These programs, which the book also explains are:
- Anchor City Biking Report Cards (like Fodor travel guides that cities use to compare themselves to each other)
- NBG Membership
- Downtown Lodging (making it affordable to NBG Members who begin to fill these areas)
- Point of Interest Maps (generation of sales for positions on them)
- Merchant discount programs that also cause shopkeepers to look out for cyclists.
After being pronounced clinically dead and wavering between life and death from a head injury, Martin Krieg regained consciousness but was paralyzed and completely helpless. This book tells what it feels like to be in this state and how a victim of head injury reacts to strange and terrifying surroundings—powerful, seductive forces which pull the patient from the outside world into nothingness. As he began to recover, the bicycle became Martin’s favorite rehabilitation tool. His tremendous comeback efforts are chronicled including his much publicized transAmerica ride which reached 40 million people for what is now known as the Brain Injury Association. Finally Martin shows his goal for a more fit and healthy America by describing his plans for the National Bicycle Greenway which are now well underway at BikeRoute.com.
This book uses my rehabilitation from a massively debilitating car wreck and my subsequent two bike rides across America to show you how you can use love to move any mountains that may stand in your own way. My long hours on my pedal machine, made me me brutally honest with myself enough to see how I brought on the colossal mess my life had become. And how as my own worst enemy, I needed to learn to love myself first before I could expand that love to others on the way toward achieving a fulfilling existence.
Along the way, I also learned that love is a discipline that must be regularly practiced. And that is what this book will help you do as we take example from what the bicycle and my set back have taught me about love. And finally you will be much inspired when I show you how the National Bicycle Greenway will be the natural result when a critical mass of people love themselves enough to make bicycling an important part of their lives.
The bulk of this book was written over a two year period for cyclists riding TransAm to Cycle America 2000 in Washington DC by two time TransAm veteran and "Awake Again" author Martin Krieg. It continues to be updated and edited online and reflects many contributions from the on line cycling community as we yearly crossed America with our National Mayors’ Rides (https://bikeroute.com/NationalMayorsRideOverview/) from 2002 to 2018..
As I work to actualize the Greenway I envisioned in 1986 after my second bike ride across America and committed myself to in 1994 with “Awake Again”, this book is set against the National Mayor's Rides we have run since 2002. In this follow-up to my true comeback story, how I used the bicycle and two Transamerica bike rides to rebuild my body, mind and spirit, I describe what I have been doing to make the coast-to-coast National Bicycle Greenway real. Here you will see the coast-to-coast route we have recently specced out and learn about some of the tools we will continue to use to build awareness for it. The implements you will become familiar with include the 15-person Busycle, my attention getting HiWheel bike, and our decade of working with elected officials all across the nation. In terms of precedent for turning the route we have identified into the bicycle greenway we long have foreseen, you will learn about the Lincoln Highway and how it was one man, Carl Fisher, who led the charge from Indianapolis that would result in the Lincoln becoming the first car road to connect the coasts. You will also see how Ray Irvin, aka, Mr. Greenway, transformed Indianapolis with Greenways, turning it into the Greenway Capital of the World!
