Welcome

WELCOME

Welcome to my bicycle tour blog.  This blog will allow you to follow my travels on an interactive map as well as read about the places I visit and people I meet along the way.  Please feel free to leave comments and I will do my best to respond as soon as possible.

The number one question I got when I told people about this bicycle trip is  - "Why are you doing that?"
Well that turned out to be a hard question to answer because there are many answers - such as:

• It's something I've thought about for a long time.
• It's a challenge.  Partially a physical challenge and partially a mental challenge to just keep going and see the project through. 
• For exercise!!  (I need to get into better shape.)
• To meet new people and see new places.
• Finally, one of the biggest reasons for this bicycle tour is to SLOW DOWN (and, hopefully, smell the roses).  Our lives are so busy with work requirements, family obligations, and the constant bombardment of media.  The media particularly numbs us by constantly subjecting us to one horror story after the next.  The more sensational the story, the more their ratings go up and the more papers they sell.  Even the Weather Channel uses one hyperbole after another just to keep us glued to the TV set, or tablet, or whatever screen we're tethered to.  More than a year ago, after another night of horrible programming and depressing news, my wife and I decided to cancel our TV cable and newspaper subscriptions and I must report that we are both still alive and, I think, better off.

I envisage traveling by bicycle to be similar to turning off the TV and media.  When you are traveling at 10 miles per hour on a bike you see more things, you notice smells and sounds, you get to experience a place more than zipping through in a car.  In a car you get in at point A and plan on arriving at point B, often by the quickest route the GPS can find.   By contrast, most touring bicyclists will tell you that it is the journey that is more important, not the destination.  It's stopping in small towns, eating at a local diner, asking people directions, accepting hospitality, thanking people with a handshake and a smile.  That's really what I'm looking for.  I'll let you know if I find it.