Greg’s right - you really don’t need much preparation (other than conditioning) or gear on a several day ride, especially if you aren’t camping out. On my first significant tour, from Indiana to Montana, I just jammed everything essential into a modest sized rucksack. The hardest hurdle, IMO, is just deciding to do it. Well, and for some of us, to wait for the snow to melt.

You will find that a multi-day tour (or multi-week tour) is nothing more than a few overnighters strung together. You won't have to carry much extra gear. Well, socks. Always carry a change of socks. Unless you go deep into the wilderness, you should be able to get food and water at least a couple times per day. What more could you need?

When it comes right down to it, any inspiration I might provide pales in comparison to your own inspiration. When you're ready, and you really want it, you'll do it. I know.

Yeah, I'm pretty good on simple one night overnights. It's that multi-night self supported hurdle I have yet to overcome. Got a couple potential trips in mind for this year, Covid permitting. If I'm successful on any of them, you get full credit for inspiring me. :-)
Bob

Yeah, that pig treatment was a real downer. I think the driver of the pickup was a bigger pig than the pigs.
I don't know if I've really inspired anybody to go on a bike tour, but your message gives me hope that maybe you might be the first. DO IT!

Greg

Thanks for sharing this journal Greg. I really enjoyed it, except for the part about the pigs. That part made me both very sad and very angry.

And great advice about just taking a bike trip, and not worrying too much about the gear, or if you can do it, or whatever other excuses you can come up with. Now I just have to learn how to take that advice!

Hello Scott,
You sure are easy to trick these days. Seriously, though, I get it. More than once I've started reading a journal that looked like it might be interesting, and then five or six pages in I'll realize, "What the hell? I've read this thing before." Like a good book, some journals are worth a second read. Thanks for re-reading this one. (And you are excused from having to "like" anything the rest of the way.)

Greg

Tricked again, darn it! I knew this sounded and looked familiar. I too read it on ‘the other site’, and I’m sure liked several photos along the way. Why am I liking them again? I’ll keep reading, but don’t expect me to like it.

Hi Led,
That wasn't G-2, that was me. G-2 didn't exist until he became my alter ego several years later. But thanks for noticing the resemblance.

And, yes, you might have thought you were reading this journal in real time, but I wrote it up on Crazyguyonabike a couple years later--one page at a time. Ironically, my original blogging site, Blogspot, never gave me the boot when I started posting exclusively on CGOAB.

Your pal, Greg

Hi Paul,

It takes a true cognizanti to be cognizant of the overuse of the word cognizant, much less remember the overused word was actually the word "cognizant." Your half-cognizance is admirable. The paragraph full of "cognizants" was not-so-admirable.

I was cognizant of you using a word repeatedly. I just can't remember what it was....

Hi G-2. great to see you and Gregory (I suppose). I thought I've read this journal live, so 2012 seems a bit early before CGOAB and FB times, I think I'm going through a 'Time Warp'

Yup, I think your notes are accurate. As usual, I didn't take the time to research what I was seeing at the time. I tend to be satisfied with "that's cool, I wonder what it is."

It’s ‘The Cribs’, if my notes from our tour are accurate: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/duluth17/to-duluth/#1761_dd287bd888a4e2727da64f8dd6e5807b. But why would anyone think they would be?

I remember reading about your stay at the Grant House. Of course, I read your whole journal because that's the one where I met you guys in person. I only had breakfast there, but the ambience of the place was pretty unusual in such a small town.

Sorry about that trick, Jon. I probably should have written that it was a stock photo right in the caption rather than way down there in the footnotes. On the other hand, I appreciate you liking it, because it now it has gotten more "likes" than any of my actual photos ever have. I don't know if I should be proud of that achievement or ashamed.