Describe your moments heading off on tour
Originally Posted by
BikeWonder
Describe that feeling you had leaving on your first tour, second etc; what did it feel like? What was going through your head? What were you concerned about? How do you think about a tour now and what did you learn from before?
I read a lot on everyone mentioning that leaving for one is the hardest part, but from there it's smooth sailing. Just wanted to see what everyone else's experiences were like....
Now I'm about to embark on a trip to Vancouver and I'm excited once again. I truly feel like a kid again about to explore a neighborhood.
Originally Posted by
andrewclaus
I shake in anticipation, full of adrenaline. Best drug ever.
I’ve not thought about about such feelings before, so thanks for the chance to reminisce. Most of my/our (with girlfriend then wife…same person) tours have been pretty perfunctory out and back local tours, and just getting ready were our thoughts.
Two seemingly challenging tours come to mind though with the thoughts, “I (we) can do this.” The first was my very first overnight tour 50 miles out then back, to visit relatives, with no long distance cycling experience:
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
…Back in the 60’s in the Motor City, I had an “English Racer,’ and longed to tour at about age 14, but then joined the car culture. In Ann Arbor MI in the 70’s I really realized the utility of bicycles for commuting, and began touring on a five-speed Schwinn Suburban…
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
… So while this [time now] is my pinnacle of bike ownership, I started out in 1972 as a poor college student on a $90 Schwinn five-speed Suburban with wire baskets that on my very first weekend tour imbued me with a love of cycling that has been my lifestyle since….
then as I further describe in my cycling biography
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
…but soon bought a Mercier as did my girlfriend, later my wife. We toured in Michigan and Ontario.
In 1977 we moved to Boston on our bikes, as a bicycling honeymoon from Los Angeles to Washington, DC
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
The trip was back in May to June of 1977 on our honeymoon as we were moving from Michigan to Boston and managed a two-month hiatus from work. … within few miles turned inland past San Juan Capistrano and
onto the Ortega Highway and our very first mountain pass ever.
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
Route 74 [Ortega Highway] between San Juan Capistrano and Lake Elsinore, due to its narrow width and high traffic volume,
holds an ominous claim to fame as one of the most dangerous highways in the state
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
…I can remember two distinct times on that trip when either one of us hit low a point, and were bouyed up by the other; me in Kansas and her in Ohio.
BTW, that trip was 32 42 years ago and we're still together.
We have toured in New England and the Maritime Provinces, and one trip to the DelMarVa peninsula.
While our touring days are in the past, I have attended a few far-away organized weekend rides in conjunction with informal "Fifty-Plus Forum Annual Rides." (link)
I have described my anticipation driving from Boston to Watkins Glen, NY for the first one I attended in 2010; I had been on BikeForums for two years prior
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
...After reading all the pre-departure postings, as I drove to Watkins Glen on that beautiful Friday morning
I had the strong ideation of a group of disparate people who did not know each other, traveling separately en route a mutual destination with a shared yet vague purpose in mind; not unlike the characters in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"...:
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
...For those Rides, the draw besides the new scenery was meeting other BF subscribers.
