Okay, here goes...
Scheduling is one of our biggest constraints. The feeling of being "Rushed" over certain segments of the Inaugural relay was the effect of having only 26 weeks (schedule based on 6 month time frame) to cover 48 states and Canada. We could start sooner, but I don't know what the riding weather is like in other areas (except I'm pretty sure Southern California rides year-round like we do here in FL). If we started today from Florida or California would we have somewhere to go from there? There are still long, desolate stretches to cover in the West and across the plains states that are a real challenge for the regional coordinators as well as the riders. A routing map might be more useful if participating riders were able to "flag" their location, kind of like the way our member map is SUPPOSED to work, but would only include those riders that are able/willing to participate.
As much as I enjoyed kicking off the Inaugural relay, after seeing some of the conditions our members faced through West Virginia, and especially the Central Rockies (my guys still draw up just thinking about it), I was wondering if a West Coast kick-off would work better? I have attached a loose map with a loose route and loose dates as a preliminary suggestion. You'll see that Central Rockies would occur a full month later than last year, but Northern Rockies/Western Canada kicks in much sooner than last year. Hey, Team PNW, are the loose dates shown even possible (late June)?
The red circles are 350 miles across, something I figured was a reasonable, one-way, one-day ride. I know many have ridden further, and the actual distance would be greater since we are rarely able to travel "as the crow flies". Allowing one week for each 350 mile circle wraps us up on the Central East Coast by mid to late August. There are only 24 one-week "Zones" shown here, so with a two week cushion puts us at early September with a 26 week time frame. The attached (loose) routing (in blue) does not touch all 48 states nor all Canadian provinces, and it is NOT my intent here to skip anybody. I would hope we could touch all 48 and Canada, leaving it to the regional coordinators/local riders to hammer out the final routing to make it happen. The red circles are merely for reference and the routing could vary greatly to accomodate each region/rider locations as necessary.
Any constructive input is welcome, I offer this up for discussion mainly due to a lack of any other detailed suggestions. We can use one of our 2012 backup batons for the 2013 ride, and I can have it delivered anywhere we decide to kick this off from. I've got a pair of backup log books ready to go too. The attached pdf map was whipped up using MS Streets, so if anyone can use that format to try their hand at alternate proposals please feel free to contact me for the ".est" file since that file format is not listed as one of the permitted file type attachments.
I merely offer this as a very rough draft. Sure would be great to do this again, although I don't have the resources (i.e. TIME) to serve as overall coordinator, I am willing to help as much as I can.
I'll bet we can do this...
