A Couple of Weeks to Go

I fly to San Luis Obispo on June 13th. I'll probably spend a day getting ready on the 14th, and start riding on the 15th.

I had my local bike shop here box up my bike yesterday. It's hopefully now on its way to Red Tail Bikes, a shop in Morro Bay, where it will be reassembled. This is the first time I've shipped my bike to the start of the tour, so I'm slightly nervous about the process.

I still don't have a definite route for any of this tour, not even the first few days. I did have a nice conversation with John Egan recently. As usual, he had a lot of good routing ideas.

I haven't ridden the bike much lately, because I've been busy trying to get a lot of work done. So I'm not in great shape for the start of the trip, but that's been true for most of my tours.

I need to settle on a title for this journal. Here are a few ideas. These are mostly self-indulgent, semi-obscure in-jokes, but I feel like bicycle touring journals are inherently self-indulgent, so that's fine.

Back at It
Not Training For RAGBRAI
What Would Neil Gunton NOT Do?
"Yes, By Myself"
Not Putting a Motor on It
Roadside Memorials of Rural America
Bad Back Bike Tour
Answering the Usual Questions Across America

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Bill ShaneyfeltBad back comeback?
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6 months ago

Jeff LeeTo Bill ShaneyfeltThat might work.
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6 months ago

Mark BinghamTo Jeff LeeI second Bill's title, or something similar:
Back on the Bike
What will your subtitle be?
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6 months ago

Jeff LeeTo Mark BinghamLots 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.]
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6 months ago

George (Buddy) HallI'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.
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6 months ago

Jeff LeeTo George (Buddy) HallThanks. 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.
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6 months ago