Trip Planning

Matt, Sara, Steve and friend in Cuba,
with our tandem loaded for touring
Here's my first post about why I'm riding, and why giving to Water Life Hope will make you both smarter and better looking.

 People often ask me questions that all boil down to the same thing -- how do you plan a trip like this?  Some people talk about how they love heading out on their bikes in the morning not knowing where they will sleep that night.  Not me. 

I want to know where I'm going, and that I'm going to have food and a place to sleep at the end of the day.  A shower too.   And since this trip is longer, planning has more dimensions.  Matt needs to know where we'll be when in order to plan a sojourn with us.  We have to be able to get email.  If we don't have all our tax documents in order before we go, something will have to give.

 So every day I hunch over Adventure Cycling Association maps, crunching mileage numbers and looking for places to stay.   Bits and pieces from Adventure Cycling Association maps, Warm Showers, Free Campsites, AirBNB and Google flotsam and jetsam fill in our calendar day by day.  Even though the plan may not work exactly as written it's better to have one.  And this one's big.

 The first trip we did this way was to Ireland in the late 90's.  We borrowed a trailer from an experienced bicycle touring couple, and took the trailer's weight limit of 75 pounds to heart a bit too much.   Steve and I rode a big, black tandem followed by the cumbersome trailer.  It attracted plenty of attention, including a local who mounted the captain's saddle and pantomimed his way through adventures that stirred in his Guinness-fueled imagination.  We cracked a hub going up Corkscrew Hill in County Clare.  Since our Irish adventure we've completed more practical forays to France and Florida, the C and O Canal and Cuba and more. 

So how much of this effort will pay off?  We'll see.  The process has already uncovered a stubborn fact about the desert -- it's cold in the spring.  The solar shower is out.  Ed the bus will have yet more personal hygiene accessories.  Details in an upcoming news flash.

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