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I'm taking off on another 2 day trip tomorrow

I've been doing these fun rides lately... Pick a cool town about 50 or 60 scenic miles away. Book a nice room near town. Ride there (in my case, with my dog along). And then have my wife drive there to meet for a nice, romantic night on the town. It takes her an hour or two, to drive to where it takes me and my 20LB dog to get in a leisurely 6 hours or so. Some fine dining. A hike. Shopping. Maybe live music.
Next morning, charming breakfast, etc... Then I ride home, usually a different route.
It has been great. I get two days of serious riding, and she gets fun little get-a-ways close to home. We are exploring towns near us that we would otherwise never spend a night in, except that for a cyclist, it is a day's journey.

Healdsburg, CA. a few weeks ago
Halfmoon Bay, CA. a couple weeks ago
Tomorrow, Guerneville, CA. Staying at a place built in 1905. Cabins on the Russian River.

I guess you could call it short range, luxury touring with a spousal inclusion component.

Anyone else into this kind of thing? Or lucky enough to have a girl that will do the rides with you?

I'm taking off on another 2 day trip tomorrow

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeff400650 (Post 19433391)

I've been doing these fun rides lately... Pick a cool town about 50 or 60 scenic miles away. Book a nice room near town. Ride there (in my case, with my dog along). And then have my wife drive there to meet for a nice, romantic night on the town. It takes her an hour or two, to drive to where it takes me and my 20LB dog to get in a leisurely 6 hours or so. Some fine dining. A hike. Shopping. Maybe live music.

Next morning, charming breakfast, etc... Then I ride home, usually a different route.

It has been great. I get two days of serious riding, and she gets fun little get-a-ways close to home. We are exploring towns near us that we would otherwise never spend a night in, except that for a cyclist, it is a day's journey.

Healdsburg, CA. a few weeks ago
Halfmoon Bay, CA. a couple weeks ago
Tomorrow, Guerneville, CA. Staying at a place built in 1905. Cabins on the Russian River.

I guess you could call it short range, luxury touring with a spousal inclusion component.

Anyone else into this kind of thing? Or lucky enough to have a girl that will do the rides with you?

I quoted your post in its entirety because I have thought about such rides for a long time. My own personal last tour was in 1986 for three days. I recently posted:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston (Post 19401676)

My wife and I toured together for years, including a cross-country honeymoon. As our son passed the toddler stage (too big for a trailer) she stopped cycling and I am mostly a [solo] commuter. Fortunately we both enjoy social ballroom dancing, every Saturday night, something we picked up while still mutual cycle-tourists...:D

A couple years ago I thought about making up such list for weekend getaways, as you described, and posting to the local Metro Boston thread. We live in downtown Boston, and can go out in all directions (except eastward into the Atlantic Ocean). So for here on the Right Coast, counterclockwise around Boston, such destinations would be:

Newburyport, MA (did a mutual cycle trip there once)
Portsmouth, NH
Nashua, NH
Lowell, MA
Worcester, MA
Providence, RI (did a car weekend trip there)
Plymouth, MA (one mutual cycle trip there).

One other destination,within the ring of towns listed, is Cape Ann, about 40 miles north of Boston. Just this year, as I recently posted:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston (Post 19426740)

Recommendations for bike vacations like Cape Cod?

Besides Cape Cod and the Islands (Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket), Massachusetts also has “the Other Cape,” Cape Ann, and I recently posted:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston (Post 19374514)

...In addition, for the first time we bought a second home in a resort town on a nice cycling route 40 miles long north of our condo in downtown Boston. The region is also good for road cycling, and train service with the fully assembled bike is readily available. I described it in my Cycling Guide to MetroBoston as

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston (Post 9085402)

…North Shore: Beautiful Atlantic coastline, especially north of Lynn, to include Nahant, Marblehead and Marblehead Neck, on through Salem, Beverly and into ritzy Beverly Farms, and up to seafaring Gloucester, Rockport, Ipswich, etc…

So one could travel by train [and/or bike, in either direction] from Boston to Rockport…which itself is an interesting walkable resort town, including beaches.

Rockport is on Cape Ann on the North Shore, and known as Boston’s "Other Cape," in distinction to Cape Cod, which begins at about 80 miles from Boston, with no train service, requires crossing one of two bridges with horrendous traffic jams on the summer weekends, and is best traversed by car. Just last night I was chatting with a colleague who has a vacation home on the off-Cape Cod Island of Martha’s Vineyard. They have to plan their weekends months in advance to secure car passage on the ferryboat.

ADDENDUM: Parking in the center of Rockport is extremely limited [we have on-site parking], and visitors who drive there often have to park a couple of miles away and be shuttled into town by bus. Rockport as a convivial tourist destination was featured in the movie Coma (but not as the scary part).

I tweak Cape Cod in comparison to Cape Ann partly in response to the query of that original post, and partly because a quintessential romantic getaway song was sung by Patti Page in 1957:

"If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air
Quaint little villages here and there
(You're sure) You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod
(Cape Cod, that old Cape Cod)

"If you spend an evening you'll want to stay
Watching the moonlight on Cape Cod Bay
You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod..." :rolleyes:

Enjoy and take some pics to share.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeff400650 (Post 19433391)

Excellent ideas, Jeff! Why didn't I think of this? :foo: Seriously, this would work for me/us as well, but I'd rather get my wife to go with me, and I am working hard at that very thing. I'm building her a bike right now, and she's getting her bike clothing wardrobe all set.

And I can confirm, Pepper is a great touring dog. :) Hi Jeff!

Howdy, Daniel. Life is good here. You still rollin'?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeff400650 (Post 19433391)

**Like** :)

Rowan and I ride together. We drive out to different locations and then do hub-and-spoke tours from there. A hub-and-spoke tour is one where you spend the weekend in one location (the hub) and cycle out in different directions from there.

Because we're also into Randonneuring/Audax, often one of our rides is an event or a long-distance training ride.

Check out the Short Tours thread: http://www.bikeforums.net/touring/10...ort-tours.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeff400650 (Post 19437599)

Howdy, Daniel. Life is good here. You still rollin'?

Yeah buddy. Just arrived in Antigua, Guatemala. Hills in Guatemala are no joke.

On topic, this kind of touring is a great idea. I guess with her driving too, you don't need to take a dedicated touring bike. You can ride something a little more nimble if you wanted to. Either way, it's a nice way to keep the significant other involved in the cycling hobby even if they're not actually interested in doing the cycling themselves.

i love this idea. mi chica will want to ride with, i'm planning her next bike (she has 3) as a bikepacking/touring setup. def want to start with overnighters, there are plenty of places to go around tahoe/norcal. she has to start climbing hills, tho!

Now if you could just convince her to drive an RV, your horizons would be unlimited.

These are the types of rides I like to do. However, my wife is not as much of a cyclist as I am, and I get more of a rush doing these rides when it's just me, my bike, and whatever I can carry in my bags, so to have her drive out and meet me would kind of defeat the purpose. I do miss her at day's end, though.

The good thing is that she is very much into attending weekend and weeklong meditation retreats, so what I do is plan my rides for the times when she is away on one of those.