Can't disagree with any of your post, Thomas!

What a great way to end your trip.
And I absolutely love the sunset photo of you and Joy!
Xoxoxo

I just uploaded a pic of us on the boat:

https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/2024tbd/manitowoc-then-to-ludington-michigan-on-the-ss-badger-6ef/#55108_uz0tqcs4jse5urcuqjo0jiviu7p

I wanna see a photo of you and Joy on the SS Badger.

Your amazing mileage and climbing statistics no longer surprise me, because you've done it so many times before. Nor do the most frequently asked questions. But the three bottles of Nyquil and the fact that you persevered through all those coughing fits is most impressive.

I don't think I've ever been asked if I'm afraid. Interesting, being female. I have been asked if I'm alone, but I always quip that my husband sleeps in, and rides fast, he gives me a head start because I"m slow. All true statements. Perhaps his potential for catching me is enough to keep people from asking if I'm afraid? I'd guesstimate that I ride alone 95% of the time. The exception being our Europe tour, where I made advance arrangements with Jacinto to ride together. But that's not our norm.

To my knowledge, I've toured once with a man carried a gun in his handlebar bag. I didn't know until weeks into the tour when he mentioned not being concerned about bear along the route, because he had a gun, and of course he carried a gun for personal safety. Why would I think otherwise?

Good summary - I enjoy recaps of bike tours, it helps in understanding the route and the adventure. I also get asked the "Aren't you afraid?" type of questions. I think the folks who ask this live their own lives in fear and would never consider undertaking an adventure such as you just did. And I can't imagine carrying a gun on a bicycle tour - I think folks who think they would need to do so are too frightened to undertake a significant bike tour anyway.

Thanks, although this is probably the oldest I've ever looked in a photo :|

This is a great picture. :-)

Thanks! We did take the Badger across the lake. I just added a page about it.

I'm sorry about the dogs in my home state that caused you to abort your tour.

Yes, I believe blisters are one of the reasons backpacking is harder than bike touring.

The bike touring equivalent would be saddle sores though, right?

I think real saddle sores while bike touring are probably a lot less common than blisters while backpacking, though.

Thank you for a great journal.

(Note: I will not be replying further, regardless of whether or what Gunton says.)

IT looks like Gunton has read the above comment and had some interesting things to say. He brought up his kinship with Trump originally, and I decided to honestly compare him and Trump, AGREEING with him that he and Trump have a special kind of kinship.

Instead of deciding to be introspective and think about how he can improve, he simply decides that someone who would offer an honest opinion has "TDS." From just the few paragraphs, he's decided I have this fictitious thing called, "TDS." I looked this "TDS" thing up. Apparently, anyone who has anything bad to say about Trump has this "TDS" condition. No more needs to be said about it here because nobody takes accusations of "TDS" seriously.

What I find odd, though, is that Gunton says that he was a liberal before becoming "independent." However, his losing customers didn't start until he started dressing his own users down in his forums for disagreeing with him about subject du jour. It's not his web site or the software that is the problem. The people aren't leaving because they're liberals, or commies, or horrible people. They left because he ran them all off. It's that simple. His page doesn't need new features or bug fixes, and there's not a magic piece of code that is going to make it the magical one true site for cycling tourists. He just needs to act professionally and let the site be about bicycle touring without injecting his toxic politics into it. That's the only thing he needs to do.

There are other special interest pages or channels on the internet whose authors and owners have decided to bring their own personal politics into it. Same thing happens there, too. People leave. They may attract a few replacements who are there for the poisonous dialogue and not the cycling or tech. I prefer to stick to sites that fulfill their actual purpose and eschew divisive topics.

Wow! I just read Neil's huge diatribe regarding this entry today Jul 31 2024. I was surprised he brought up a ton of things that weren't even apropos to the April 1st entry. Racism. Trump. Autism. Cats. Assassinations.

As an outsider, it's very easy to see why he feels this kinship to Trump. He and Trump are quite a bit alike. They bring everything on themselves, yet, the consequences of their own actions is never their own fault, it's always someone else's, and they play the part of the poor, poor victim of everything that happens to them, and in both cases, it's an Oscar-worthy performance. "Woe is me! Everyone is out to get me! I'm the only one telling the truth and everyone else is lying! Oh, the anguish and woe! Will this sorrow never end?!"

I'm an outsider, and from my viewpoint, he's absolutely right: He and Trump are indeed soul brothers. Both are weird, immature, paranoid little crybabies. Anyone disagreeing or showing a slight hint of disloyalty is thrown under the bus, even if they're a paying or donating customer.

After seeing how Neil takes absolutely everything personally, to the point that some things that aren't meant as insults do become insults to him, it's very easy to understand how his site has become an utter failure, simply because he kicked all his own customers off.

He simply has no idea that he's running a business, not a social media site, and the cyclists are CUSTOMERS, not USERS. If he'd shifted his thinking just a little bit and acted like a legitimate businessman instead of a "Trump" businessman, he would have started to make money instead of hemorrhaging it. Instead, someone checking a box to agree with someone that said something he doesn't like becomes an act of terrorism or character assassination, in his mind, so he runs everyone off of his web site. It's probably too late, as the word has probably spread through the cycling community that his site can be toxic if you "earn" his ire.

My advice to Neil: Grow up.

Of course, there is a zero percent chance he'll do it. It might simply be too late.