Because of the pandemic, we were forced to reassess our direction. What we learned in our time away from the front burners was how pervasive America’s uninhabited lands really are – well over half of this country is unpopulated and desolate. Even though I have seen much of this with my own two eyes on my Trans Am bike rides and during my 2009 HiWheel. Ride from San Francisco to Salt Lake City, I never really understood how much of the USA these lands represented until I saw this map –  

With that in mind, our focus has shifted from dialing in the route across America we have forged to celebrating the bicycle merit found in the 20 NBG anchor cities between and including San Francisco, Indianapolis and Washington DC.  Since Indianapolis is the Greenway Capital of the World,  led by the only Downtown Greenway on Planet Earth, the world class Indianapolis Cultural Trail,  we will be using the Indianapolis Anchor City Page we created as a template for all of our satellite cities. Across each of them, we will build a map similar to this small section of the map at left  that we configured  for Indianapolis Central.

From Indianapolis we will begin this campaign by moving east to Cincinnati and northwest to Chicago. But we need to clean up the connections to both of them. Since most of  the connection to Chicago is fairly well-known thanks to mapping done by USBR 35, our first order of business will be to:

– Dial in the route from LaPorte, IN where it ends about a dozen miles from the shores of Lake Michigan the rest of the 70 miles to Chicago. For this we will need a scouting run.

– We will also need to dial in the route from Indianapolis to Cincinnati. We need someone or a group to ride from Indianapolis to Cincinnati and report back to us with the best route to make that connection possible.

After we have firmed that up, our next order of business will be to spec out a map across Cincinnati and Chicago with the help of local cyclists in each of those two cities.

While we are then busy getting each of our Anchor Cities mapped, we will also bring the bicycle nation’s attention to Indianapolis. Instead of trying to bring America to Indianapolis in 2020 for its  Bicentennial with our National Mayors’ Ride, neither of which happened, we will be bringing America to Indianapolis possibly beginning as soon as 2025 to celebrate it as the Greenway Capital of America.  Hopefully we can use these annual events as the build up to my 2029 ride from Indy to Washington DC with hopefully my now 11 year old son. 2029 will mark the  20th National Mayors’ Ride, the  40th Anniversary of the NBG and  the 50-year celebration of my first solo bike ride across America. 

With this strategy, all of our cities will be fleshed out with the cyclist in mind. When a bike tourist enters one of our population centers, they will know in advance where to ride, eat, sleep and play in each of them. This will not only benefit long-distance pedalers, but it will make each of these population centers familiar for anyone who moves about in them  under their own power. In the not too distant future, this is how cities on and off of our route must plan for the climate changes we are finding ourselves more and more compromised by.

Fully aware of this, advertisers will see this as an opportunity. In order to take advantage of this, once we have more of our cities specced out with Indy  central like  maps, we will then begin recruiting for sales staff to help us monetize these cartographic offerings and all the supporting documentation that drive people to them

These monies will he be used to finance the bigger picture of this undertaking which can be found at the NBG Blueprint many of you may have seen me write during the pandemic. I hope to finish this as a book over the winter…..