I’ve always wanted one of those. I bet the lights don’t help riding it, but one can always rig something for night time.

Hi,
Where the heck does one find a camel in Minnesota in December ? Now the camel must be REALLY cold!
Cheers,
Keith

You’re making me cold looking at the snow! We got back Thursday night and are still having major jet lag and it’s cold here! We had a little snow here today but after being in Nice, France it feels way to cold for bicycling. It doesn’t help that we are suffering from jet lag. You sure are tough.

Stay in Oregon through the winter and, if I know you as well as I think I do, you'll eventually get tired of not riding your bike and you'll be putting in your 42-miles no matter how snowy or cold it is.

Yeah, I crash on the ice a couple times every winter. Like a fool, I keep coming back for more. I think there's a saying out there about climbing back on your bike after falling . . . an inspirational "try, try again" type of thing. I guess I'm motivated by that, but those falls hurt a little more each year.

So, every bike tourist has his or her own skills. Your high-mileage, ride-through-the-toothache-pain is legendary. My skill is nothing more than pretty good balance on snowy roads and bundling up in ridiculous layers of clothing.

You're right, the mask you're wearing makes Jason Voorhees look like a choir boy.

Cool! I mean cold, very cold. Are you nuts? Never mind, that's a bit of a rhetorical question. I'm embarrassed to admit that I sometimes have trouble convincing myself to ride in cold weather even though my weather is much tamer than what you deal with - so now I realize that I really have no excuse. I have wrecked on ice before, so I'll avoid days with icy roads - short of that you have shamed me into riding on days when it's just cold. Gee whiz, guess I better go pump up the tires now and get out into the relatively warm Oklahoma weather.

Big difference in touring compared to a cardio workout! Touring involves a LOT more exposure. My cardio workout rarely exceeds 2 hours in good weather, not much over 1 hour when it is below freezing, and I look like a horror movie villain with my homemade face mask!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3249928203190&set=t.1116514192&type=3

You are tougher than I am. I’ll go for a walk in the snow but not for a ride if it’s sticking very much.

True! Thanks to reading a lot of touring journals in other parts of the world, I'm thankful that most U.S. campgrounds have picnic tables. Besides being good places to write, cook, and eat, picnic tables are a great place to sort out your gear.

True, but I hugged it tightly nevertheless.

Thanks for recognizing the value of a notebook, Charmaine. Long before there was an internet, I wrote journals of my travels in those things. Most of them have never been seen by anybody but me.

Always nice to have a picnic table! :)

Good shady spot for camping. :)

Oh yuck!