Yan 

During your two-years-not-working bike tour, did you also light a fire under your ass in order to average 140km (87 miles) per day with zero rest days? That's some applaudable self-motivation, I'll admit.

jamawani 

In my 30s, I could regularly do 80+ miles per day - sometimes nudging a century.
Fully loaded, will all the camping gear & stuff.
30 years later, I can't do as many miles for some reason.

indyfabz

No, but that wasn’t my point. Not even close. But I did experience touring and camping and camp cooking, which were all new to me. Took one 62 mile fully loaded day ride before the trip started and practiced pitching the tent in the living room. Carried pounds of film camera equipment and supplies that 6,000 miles. Pulled right up to my front door and had to dig down in a pannier for my key. Quite gratifying, but it wasn’t over.Five days later I participated in a two-day, 150 mile charity ride that I had done the last seven years. Despite it being supported, I carried all my gear.

jamawani 

Well - - for some time, now, we've suspected you were a little nutz.
But I'd do the same thing.

tcs

New York City to Chicago, Northern Tier to Minneapolis, Badlands/Black Hills/Devils Tower/Bighorns (Parks Peaks & Prairies) to Yellowstone (hey, Yellowstone has got to compensate for missing Yosemite!) and either Lewis&Clark or TransAm (scenery smackdown: what's your vote?) to the ocean.

https://www.adventurecycling.org/rou...e-network-map/

mev

One of the symbolic things I really like on an extended multiple month tour.

Normal life seems to accumulate a whole set of different keys, e.g. house keys, mailbox keys, office keys, vehicle keys, etc. Before going on a long tour, I've often slowly divested myself of those different keys until I only have one or two left. For example, get rid of the vehicle, turn in the office, have house sitters take the mailbox key, etc. It is symbolically nice to see that key ring shrink until I only have the one or two critical ones including say a residence key. Even that can be stored down deep in a pannier. Now while on tour, might occasionally get a key but they are more temporary, e.g. a motel room key.

I like symbolism of shedding multiple keys tied with complexities of my non-touring life as one aspect to know I really am on tour...

indyfabz

After I finished my third tour (Seattle to Cortez, CO) I did some car camping with my then girlfriend. The complexity of having so much stuff while camping was totally new to me. We even had a Scrabble game. It seemed like we were always searching the trunk for something we “needed” I found it burdensome.

mev

Yup. My first trip across the US was 40 days and 3610 miles so an average of 90 miles/day with 18 of those days over a century. Subtract off the few days at the end where I stopped in Boston before finishing in Maine and the 13 mile day on first evening and the core part of the trip was 3460 miles in 36 days or ~95 miles/day. I could do that at age 29 but can't do it now at double the age. The issue is less about average speed than about how many hours I enjoy riding in the saddle and how much I can repeat that day after day.

I've never been a fast rider, but at certain ages I could make repetitive long days throwing enough time at it. One does need to have the right mindset that this is actually the type of trip you are setting out to ride and expect to spend large portions of daylight hours riding.