Down the Road

Recently I have been dreaming about taking an extended bicycle tour. I have always thought it would be fun to hit the road carrying all of my supplies with me, sleeping in a tent, eating in small town cafes and enjoying the slow pace of lightly traveled country roads.

I have had a on again off again relationship with my road bike for about twenty years. In recent years it has mostly been off as my physical condition indicates. But, watching Lance Armstrong ride the Tour de France and the book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” has re-ignited my interest.

While an extended trip is probably not practical in the near future I do plan to start putting a few miles on my road bike. I recently had it tuned up at a local shop and finally took it out for a spin yesterday morning. My ride in through the local park proved to be a challenge. The rolling hills felt like the Alpe d’Huez to me. But, with frequent stops and lots of water I felt pretty good in the end. I hope to get into shape over the next few weeks and ride a few local rides this fall.

A few web searches turned up some really interesting blogs about people that have taken bicycle touring to the extreme. This one, downtheroad.org, really caught my interest. It is about a husband and wife that sold their house and spent the last few years touring the world on bicycles. Some of their videos are fascinating. You can see more videos here.