Rob_E

Fascinating.

Two fingernail brushes? One in the repair kit. What's that for? And no mention of nail polish, so what's the other one for?
Two cameras. I don't even carry one. A wireless mouse and a bag for the computer, but no mention of the computer itself. Medication as part of the repair kit? And it's all duplicated in Medicine, so does that mean two stashes, or is it just listed twice?
I've considered using my mandatory week off at the end of the year to do some riding in Florida. Didn't realize that even down there it gets into the 30s overnight. Good to know. Of course if it's too cold to camp, $55 for a hotel isn't a bad deal.
So much information and that only on the first two pages.

jamawani 

Where ya thinkin' about headin'?

indyfabz

LOL! I was watching "Dr. Strangelove" last night. When I read some of their columns, the scene where Slim Pickens is reading the list of contents instantly came to mind.


Camera, camera charger, extra camera, extra camera charger, extra, etc., etc., etc. Sounds like they are prone to losing and/or breaking things.


My favorite is probably the umbrella. What's the thermometer for? The fact that it's right below chamois butter gave me a vision I won't share. Gas-X. Why not be preemptive and take Beano instead? "Softener", as in stool softener? Tums is under bike repair. Wonder if they get agida if they have to change a flat.


This has literally brought tears to my eyes. Thanks, @Alan S. I need to spend more time on Crazy Guy.

indyfabz

Flying to Missoula and heading west to St. Regis then Wallace, ID then to T. Falls via Dobson Pass (NF-456), King's Pass (unpaved) to Murray and Thompson Pass. Cabinet Mountains and through the Yaak to Lake Kookanusa then Whitefish. If it looks like Logan will be open I will head to the park for a few days to ride the west side of Going to the Sun, then Bigfork, Lake Alva on MT 83 and back to Missoula.


The original plan had me going through the town of Yaak to Libby and then along the east side of Kookanusa up to Rexford, but then I found the journal on CGOB that showed this option:


https://ridewithgps.com/routes/19154778


Would never have guessed that it's paved.

MixedRider

My wife uses wordpress. Seems to work well. Our friends and family can access it easily. Also, sometimes we have pictures from just day trips she posts which are fun as well. So you don't need to keep a journal of everything if you just want to post pictures of a fun ride.

Machka 

I'm actually toying with the idea of going to wordpress rather than using my own website.

On the one hand, my own website is good practice ... on the other hand, wordpress might be simpler.

leanneg

Oh dear

To get back to the original question, it really depends on what your goals are with your journal, and how much effort you want to put into it.

If you want full customization, and to maybe be able to earn money with your blog, then set up your own website. Blogging is not the same as journaling, though, and there's definitely a difference between a daily trip log and a website that's optimized for monetization. Independent blogging seems to be one part writing about your experiences in a way that readers find useful and valuable, and two or more parts marketing. Not everyone is into that, or interested in being a webmaster. This option can be a lot of work, and very expensive if you're not good at writing and marketing in a way that sells.

If you want all the features of a blog (control over design, etc.), but don't want to have to pay for web-hosting, and don't necessarily care about monetizing, then a free blogger or wordpress site are good options. Give your link to friends and family, and whoever else asks for it along the way. These sites tend to be hard to find for the average internet user (they don't usually show up in the first few pages of search engines), so if you care about other bike tourists being able to find your site this is not necessarily the best option.

Crazyguyonabike is an excellent place to put a daily travel log. You're not paying for hosting and you don't have to worry about web design, and plenty of other bike tourists will find the day-to-day minutiae of your trip interesting and useful to their own planning. You still have a discrete link that you can give to friends, family, and people you meet, so they can read about your whole trip. There are other sites that host travel logs for bike tourists and other types of travelers, but CGOAB is undoubtedly the most well known. Subjective opinions about site design aside, I simply know of no other site with the breadth of content about bicycle touring, contributed by hundreds or even thousands of users over more than a decade and a half. The oldest journals I could find were dated to 2001, which is practically eons ago in internet time.

If you just want to keep your friends and family apprised of what's happening to you, just use whatever social media platform(s) you use already. Downsides to social media is that it's usually not searchable, and it can be hard to navigate to content older than a few hours or days (depending on how much is posted), but if you don't care about maintaining an easy-to-read record for strangers, then this is the easiest and most convenient option.