jrozzelle

My wife liked having that sag wagon and knowing there was always someone planning who wasn't me. Not that she thinks I can't plan. I moved Signal companies around Europe. It's like this: we were on a supported bike tour of the Eastern Townships. Pretty flat mostly except for this one climb on day two which went on for quite a ways. My wife is in great shape but doesn't bike as much as I. I was beside her as she granny geared up and she said, "This is why I can't go on a trip you plan; if you'd planned this trip I'd be really mad at you right now." That is a distillation of our entire married life, but I digress. So we did three Backroads trips, paying the big premium for the guides and vans. Last year we were planning a trip to Ireland and my wife, on her own, researched bike touring. Backroads does trips there but she came to the conclusion on her own that we didn't need that level of support in Ireland. She found a bike shop in Galway which set me, my wife and daughter up with bikes and bags, arranged our overnight stays on a custom itinerary, all for much less than the fully supported tours. John Kennedy dropped us off at Maam's Crossing on the outskirts of Galway and sent us on our way for five days, four nights around Connemara, self supported. It was a fantastic trip. This leads us to our imminent adventure. We're dropping our daughter off at Colgate next week. Instead of coming home to her empty room and being depressed we're going to pedal around The Finger Lakes for a week, completely self supported. Of course, she planned it all, very little input from me, but still, this is a big step. I shipped our bikes last Thursday. I'm very excited and a little nervous that it all will come off well. I'll post a pic when we get back.

Join Adventure Cycling if you're a bike tourer and aren't a member. Come by if you're pedaling through San Francisco. I have a very well-equipped home bike shop. I have chain lube.