Thanks. I've had bike shops box up the bike at the end of a couple of tours for shipping home, but of course there's not much pressure in that situation if something goes wrong.

I'm spending a little more money for the bike ship in California to put it together, but it's worth the peace of mind for me, especially since I'd undoubtedly run into problems trying to do it myself, given my lack of mechanical ability ;)

I'm using Bike Flights for this, so I'm glad to hear it worked well for you.

I've shipped my bike to the start of a tour 3 times, and once had a local bike shop assemble it and have it ready when I arrived. That's a good approach, because the LBS can assess whether the bike suffered any shipping damage and perhaps fix any such damage prior to your arrival. The other 2 times I shipped the bike to the start I re-assembled it myself in a hotel room. I prefer the LBS approach, because it eliminates the stress/time-crunch of having to assemble the bike yourself when you might prefer to be riding instead. I've also shipped the bike home from the west coast once - in that case I took the bike to a LBS and had then disassemble and pack it and I arranged for Bike Flights to pick it up from the LBS. I had better experience using Bike Flights than just using FED-EX or UPS and this is what I will do on future tours.

Great satire and quite factual! Getting kicked off of CGOAB was a shock to me at first, but discovering this site more than compensated for it. This is a much better place, and it's actually easier to create journals here than it was at CGOAB. I'm very happy to be here.

Lots of "back" puns will work... But maybe I shouldn't jinx myself by prematurely bragging about my recovery?

Another thing I've thought of using as a title is a marital in-joke: "Vibes". That's the shorthand that Joy uses to refer to my apparently annoying tendency to refuse to plan most activities, instead relying strictly on my feelings ("vibes").

For example, when I ride away from the Pacific, will I head northeast, east, or southeast?

It depends on the "vibes" I get when I start riding, of course :)

[I deleted this comment, then added it again after changing "west" to "east" in three places. Clearly it does not bode well that I'm already confused by east vs. west, and I haven't even started the tour yet.]

I second Bill's title, or something similar:
Back on the Bike
What will your subtitle be?

That might work.

Bad back comeback?

Thanks, John. It's been six months since my discectomy, and so far so good.

I'm looking forward to reading about your tour. Any chance you'll be coming through my area of Kentucky?

Hi Jeff
Herniated disc? Been there, done that. Unbelievably painful. Couldn't stand for ten seconds without blinding pain. My discectomy worked wonders. I hope you have the same experience. (Ten years with absolutely no back issues whatsoever.)

Now it's 30 years on and I have lumbar spinal stenosis. I've had it for at least eight years. In that time I've ridden about 80,000 miles including over 10,000 miles of loaded touring.

At 68 I have all kinds of other aches and pains but I'm going to start a tour from DC to Tulsa on Monday. Knock wood.

Good luck.

I did the St. Francisville bridge on my first X-USA in 1987.
By the way, you are a mileage madman.
And I called Betty Ford about your Little Debbie habit.

Thank you for furthering this sad story, Jeff. At first glance, their ages and incorrect assumptions presume you to believe it was their fault of reckless driving, when they actually were victims of their young ages, as innocents..
Two grieving families for sad behaviors people don’t wake up enough to actually change.

Too bad this sign is so worn out you probably would have to stop to actually read it.. However, this is the point.. S… L…O…W Down 😬

I looked it up just now. They were rear-ended by a woman driving under under the influence of alcohol and meth, at a high rate of speed.

She was sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Yes, I thought the same thing.

Speed kills..read previous post..:(