JAN 31, 2011 – 12:00AM

My son came in from playing the other day and, beaming as he stripped out of his cold-weather gear, proudly proclaimed, “Well, we can cross one thing off my life list.”

Maybe, I thought, during a break in snowball making, my brilliant 9-year-old boy had discovered a cure for cancer. Or perhaps, as he was digging in his ice cave, he had stumbled upon a conclusive Theory of Everything.

Just what great lifelong quest had he fulfilled?

“I tackled a snowman,” he said.

And that was on your life list?

“Yeah,” he said. “That, and I want to go to Death Valley, the Sierra Nevadas … and Wisconsin.”

I’m not one to criticize another’s life (or bucket) list, so I wasn’t about to question horsecollaring Frosty, but Wisconsin?

“For the cheese,” he said. “I want to go to Wisconsin for the cheese.”

Hearing my fourth-grader talk about his life list — really? at 9? — made me think about mine. Doesn’t exist.

Awhile back, I did blog about my bike-it list, however, in which I wrote about the rides I’d like to complete before I kick it.

Last among them is the Bike Across Kansas, which was called to my attention just this weekend when the route for the 2011 BAK was announced — coinciding, not coincidentally, with Kansas Day.

Some BAK fans debate the merits of northern versus southern routes, argue about the best towns in which to stop and discuss the ins and outs of diagonal rides. Personally, I figure any ride that covers the Sunflower State is pretty equal to any other, so the towns are more means than end.

But I checked the BAK.org website out of curiosity … and now I’m thinking maybe I’ll cross BAK off my life list this summer.

Now, I have to admit, Scott City and Hoisington don’t really trip my trigger — no offense; I’ve never been to either, so I’m pretty ambivalent about both — but two stops along the 474-mile route caught my eye.

On the fifth night, BAK stops in Cottonwood Falls, home of the lovely Chase County Courthouse and a place I’ve wanted to visit for years but never have for one reason or another.

And the end of the ride comes just after La Cygne, a burg in which my father owns property and where I spent many, many days as a young whippersnapper.

The ride starts June 4 in Tribune and, over the next seven days, goes through Leoti, Scott City, Dighton, Ness City, La Crosse, Hoisington, Geneseo, McPherson, Marion, Cottonwood Falls, Emporia, Burlington, Waverly, Garnett and La Cygne.

I’ve only been to a handful of those towns, but two of them are enough to make me think this might be my year.

Assuming I can bear to be away from my forward-thinking, snow-man tackling son and his sister, I just might do it.

And who knows? Maybe sometime during the long pedal from Hoisington to McPherson, the Theory of Everything just might come to me.

Or maybe just the desire to tackle a snowman.