A few weeks ago, I started thinking about a new and interesting place for a bike tour.  I consulted my most reliable resource--Rand-McNally.  In today's world, a six-year-old road atlas is probably the LAST place most people consult for planning a bike tour.  I'm not most people though.  I'm ME, and Rand-McNally's book of maps is the FIRST place I look.  It used to be the ONLY place I looked.  I did not care about techno-maps at all.  I love how paper maps reduce the world to a beautiful simplicity, which works out well for a simple-minded person like me. 

I must admit, though, that in the last few years I've started to look at internet maps in conjunction with Rand & McNally's product.  Oh, how far I've strayed from the ideals I've expressed in previous journals!  

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Karen PoretI’ll say “your alter-ego doesn’t know where to go”…For starters, unless you are in England, you are headed down the road on the wrong side of the road! Please don’t get squished before you even begin, Gregory….
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6 days ago

Bruce LellmanIt definitely is a sign, where you will go, that you are on the left side of the road. Maybe it was some subliminal thing going on and you don’t even realize you have made up your mind that you are going to Thailand.
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5 days ago

Gregory GarceauTo Karen PoretG-2, Son of Bing Bong, and I will do our best to avoid that squishing situation.
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5 days ago

Gregory GarceauTo Bruce LellmanIt's amazing you were able to pick up on that sign before I did. It must have been hidden way back in my subconscious mind. I never even considered going to Thailand for a bike trip until I started reading your journals. Your current journal, in particular, makes me want to go there, but it won't be this year.

I've always wondered how long it takes for an American to adjust to riding on the other side of the road. One week? Two weeks? A month? I'm so used to riding on the shoulder of the right lane, that I'd worry about setting out in the wrong lane every single day. Have you ever accidentally ridden in the right lane and had a bad result? If so, that story sounds like a good journal post.
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5 days ago

Bruce LellmanTo Gregory GarceauI had the same fear but actually, and surprisingly, I switched sides in my mind immediately. I think most people would. There is much reinforcement constantly when you look on the other side of the road and there are trucks zooming along. So, I wouldn't worry about that at all.

There is only one time I can remember when I took off one morning on the wrong side of the road. Andrea yelled, "Left, left, left." I thought she wanted me to turn left so I turned left!
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2 days ago

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I had a couple ideas for touring in my favorite biosphere--the desert.  I love the American deserts.  Unfortunately, I became more and more confused when I started looking at Rand & McNally's Atlas.  I cursed those guys because I was distracted by literally hundreds of other places I'd like to tour.  For sure, I love all of America's deserts.  But which desert for a tour?  Then I saw a few possibilities in America's mountain ranges that looked appealing.  But which mountain range?  Or which part of the Great Plains?  What coastal route?  What river route?  What midwestern cornfield route?  What route in the steel belt?  What route in Dixie?  North?  South?  East?  West?

I was more confused when I closed the map book than I was when I opened it.  All I can say with any certainty is that my tour will be somewhere in North America.  Maybe that's because I'm afraid The Feeshko would divorce me if I went to Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia or Antarctica without her.  Or maybe it's because I'm afraid she'd strangle me if I DID bring her to another continent, only to leave her alone while I took off on a bike trip.  (She's not a cyclist.)  Or maybe it's because I'm afraid overseas travel is too expensive.  Or maybe it's because I'm afraid of being unable to speak any foreign languages.  Or maybe it's because I'm afraid of all the extra hassles of transporting a bike on international airlines.  Or maybe I'm afraid of the paperwork nightmare of obtaining Visas and travel insurance.  Or maybe I'm afraid of having to bribe border agents, roadside bandits, and secret police.  Or maybe I'm afraid of all of the above combined.  Or maybe it's because I'm just AFRAID, period.  (Or maybe I've read too many bike touring journals.)

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Who starts a bike touring journal without knowing when or where he/she/they are going to ride?  There may be a few such people out there, but how many of them go the extra distance and post a SECOND page while still having no destination in mind?  I might be the only one, which, some might say, makes me a uniquely revolutionary, badass cycle-journalist. [Take note, Pulitzer Prize committee.]  Others might say it makes me a uniquely indecisive, lame-ass cycle-tourist.  An argument could be made for both viewpoints, I suppose.  I'm going to have to figure out whether journaling or touring is more important to me.

I'll keep working on a destination and, hopefully, I'll come up with something solid before I post another page like this one.