about this journal - 1982: Stories of the Young and Dumb, aka My First Bike Trip - CycleBlaze

about this journal

I took my first bike trip in 1982. I journaled it, but since there were no computers at the time I used an old fashioned pen and paper. The pieces of paper I wrote on were typically squares slightly larger than your palm, although I sometimes used the smallest spiral notebook I could find. When I finished my trip, I tucked them away in a folder in my file cabinet for a few decades.

I eventually pulled them out and  found that the paper had aged and wasn't in the greatest shape...  it was discolored and sometimes even falling apart, so I transcribed it onto my computer, or at least what I could read. 

Most of it was legible, but my writing "style" (if you can call it a style) was to write now-cryptic phrases and separate everything with a slash. 

You'll be happy to know that 90% of the original got culled because, really, who wants to know about when I "ate figs" or that I ate "got up to P and drink OJ?" I also changed it into narrative, and filled in the blanks from my memory of what happened.  

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this is my entire journal (I wrote on both sides) and my expenses
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trip expenses, to the penny
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The challenge is to recall what those phrases mean. Fortunately, even after forty years, just reading a few words opened up a galaxy of memories. Most of it easily floated back up to the surface....  the faces, the scenery, the conversations, the heat, the cold, the exhilaration, the insecurity....

the Adventure.

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Jeff LeeI love reading "vintage" touring journals, so I'm really looking forward to this one.

It's interesting that you spent less on a hotel room on May 29 than you did on "blank tapes" on June 1st.

Or was the $9.75 for your portion of the bill of a room you shared with another rider?
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2 years ago
Mark BinghamTo Jeff LeeI just looked up that date in my original journal, and it appears that the $9.75 was my portion of the room the three of us shared in Walsenburg.
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2 years ago
George (Buddy) HallVery enjoyable reading! This reminds me a lot of my early attempts at bike touring in 1975 - 76; absolutely no idea what I was doing, but the energy and wildness of youth made up for that lack. Looking forward to reading the rest of your journal.
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2 years ago
Charles ThompsonAll right! There is no possible way I could be more excited to read this journal. It is going to take a large amount of self restraint to not binge read.
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2 years ago