Buddy,

You've done a lot of background work that could be valuable for someone else looking for a similar challenge. It's a shame to not leave that information available. IMO, it would be a service to the community to leave your journal up.

I really do intend to ride this route someday - current plan is to just push it until next year at about the same time - so I plan/hope it will eventually get published permanently.  But in the meantime, I don't think it would be right to leave up a "journal" of a bike trip that never even got started.   If I was only looking at a few months delay I'd probably just leave it up till then, but I expect to be unable to cycle for at least a few months after they finish whittling on me, and then I'll likely need 6 months of training to get strong enough to tour again - too much uncertainty.  

I gave some notice so that anyone who had an interest in that route could be aware that the journal was going dark for some unknown time.   So for those anticipating the 10x10x10 CycleBlaze journal celebration; you know, the widely heralded fireworks, rum, and line dancing shindig; this  -1 journal complication thing is still on. Some time Friday - well, like Arnold said...

I'm giddy with excitement to see the 10 cubed journal hit the press.   And this little complication of deleting a journal just makes it even more fun.  Hmmm... you know what, an unscrupulous person could lurk in the shadows with a ready-to-be-made-visible-to-the-public journal, and just as soon as the 10 to the third power journal bursts forth, he/she could delete one of their older journals and then publish the Roman Numeral M journal again so they could also claim that honor.  In fact, numerous folks could publish the thousandth journal that way, and each would temporarily be the 1,000th journal author.  

NOW this is really getting to be fun.  Maybe I'll delete my 4-day tour seeking Bigfoot journal from last year, and then I could... - oh, never mind - but I'm sewing the seeds of a mental chess game that could be played amongst some of the site's prolific authors as they jockey for the 10^3 title.   Sigh...it'll probably happen at night when I'm asleep anyway and I'll miss all the fun. 

"... an unscrupulous person could lurk in the shadows with a ready-to-be-made-visible-to-the-public journal ..."

George, I'm not sure how you managed but you've read my mind.  I have a number of as-yet-unreleased journals in various stages of draftiness (some might uncharitably use the term "windiness" but no matter), describing the rationale behind and thoughts around tours I thought I'd undertake this year but which have yet to be launched, for various reasons.  It had occurred to me that, were I the nefarious sort, I could release them in a batch and get to the 1,000 mark.

But I won't do that. 

I'm not trying to "be the 1000th journal" but I will take off on my Great Lakes to DC tour in about 7 weeks. Maybe I'll be the 1001st journal or something. In the meantime, if you're interested in the route/journey, you can satisfy your curiosity with the map below

I will start my Exploring Northeast Oregon tour in about 6 weeks. To avoid being complicit in any 10-cubed conspiracy I will probably wait until after the tour to publish the introductory page.

A description of the tour is on the last page of my most recent journal. Since Paul demonstrated that we can embed maps in messages, here's my map. The small embed is hard to comprehend compared to the big screen version.

I'm with Kelly--don't delete your journal.  I speak from experience.  I had a tour planned for Texas and New Mexico and had to cancel it one week before my flight to El Paso because of the onset of Covid.  Thinking I could resurrect the tour in a few months, I left my journal up.  Covid continued.  I wrote some more pages over the next year, but eventually I saw no hope and took down the journal.  I've kind of regretted that decision ever since then.  In fact, I've recently been thinking of re-publishing it, not only because I'm vain, but also because I did put a little work into the journal.  In addition, I'm starting to think it's a decent chronicle of the uncertainty many of our bike touring comrades were feeling during the Covid years. 

If I do re-publish it though, it won't happen before journal #1,000 comes up.  I don't want to throw that kind of monkey wrench into the works.  My hope is that #1,000 comes from a first time Cycleblaze author.  I think that would be pretty cool.   

We are all going to look back on COVID reactions years from now and it will seem like a bad dream. Rereading our 2020 border to border journal, and reading the COVID commentary in the journal, it seems like a completely different time. As it was happening, I wasn't sure that touring was the right thing. This remains our favorite tour ever. I think a piece of that was the adversity of the times. 

There aren't a lot of journals from that time frame, but I enjoy reading how different cyclists and communities handled COVID reactions. As we rode through small town western American in the summer 0f 2020, it seems like the smaller the town, the more normal things were - IE, no masks, partitions, shop closures, etc. 

I'm wandering around a bit here - the point of the post is to say that your COVID cancelation tour is a picture of a window of time that deserves to be preserved and acknowledged by being published. Perhaps you will even dust it off and ride the tour!

Good points Greg.  I've actually put a lot of effort into research for the tour, and I've written pages that will remain hidden until/if such time that the tour becomes real.  All the research I have done has motivated me to ride the route - but it won't be this year.   My physical health seems to be a bit flighty these days and I'm learning that I shouldn't broadcast my intentions to tour too soon. The fact is that each tour any of us take could very well be the last, meaning each journal could very well be the last.   And any journal we start could very well remain unfinished should we meet our demise while on tour (lots of possibilities; meteorites, space aliens, rattlesnakes, politicians, werewolves, etc.).  

Since I'm certain I won't be starting this tour for many months to come (probably a full year from now), I haven't earned the right to occupy the online space with the journal.  However, I vote that since you once had the journal for your Tex/New Mex tour up and public, that you MUST take that tour in the near future and publish your journal.  And the same goes for me as well, I MUST ride my planned Mex/Can route in the near future and publish the journal.  "Near future" is nebulous enough to provide us both lots of wiggle room, but it's sort-of a semi-real commitment.  

Currently at 997, the countdown to 1,000 continues. Will it happen today? Tomorrow? This Week? Next Week? The anticipation builds like hoarfrost in the deep woods...

There were many downsides about COVID relating to the constantly changing rules and closures, but I remember a few things fondly:

1. A historic decrease in traffic that might never be repeated.
2. Nothing was crowded, even places that were famous for crowds.
3. Motels always had vacancies.

Kelly like many other cycle tourists, I have a few covid tales. One of them isn’t quite finished yet and I’m hoping it will result in another CB journal. Perhaps the 1030th or thereabouts. Definitely not the 1000th.

Three years ago, when Australia suddenly announced it was about to close its international borders, I was in NZ with my wife’s family. I’d taken a folding bike and some lightweight touring gear with me to do local rides. 

With borders clanging shut, I had to make a quick decision to return home on the first flight I could get carrying just a pannier as cabin luggage. Expecting to return in a few months, I left my bike, other panniers, riding clothes etc at my in-laws.

That was over three years ago, and the bike & gear are still there. It’s only in the past year that international air travel has returned to any semblance of reliability. 

The good news is that I’m heading back to NZ in November with a plan to collect the bike, and to do a cycle tour in NZ. And write another journal to add to CycleBlaze’s growing collection.