Just letting you know that I did reply. If you don't see it in your inbox, check the spam file. -Greg

Hard to believe I'd set out on a trip like this without knowing what a goatfucker was, but you know, "young & dumb." Except I wasn't young.

If I had to choose between a goathead and a goatfucker, I'd choose the goatfucker.


...unless of course, you know, I was a goat.

Enjoying the journal.

Now you know how I felt the whole time I was following your Northern Tier journey. I was constantly thinking, "hey, I remember that" or "wow, I stayed in that town" or "darn, I missed seeing that even though I must have ridden right by it" or "I wonder why I didn't take a picture of that." I'm glad I got to meet you guys in person while you were on that trip.

Thank you for reading, George.

And I had thought about that kind of death for a very long time, so I didn't just say it for shock value. It just seems like getting mauled by a bear or mountain lion would be a relatively quick way of going--horrifying and painful--but quick.

I took the same picture - the locals told me that "Buddy Kahl was a local rodeo cowboy." Although you didn't always follow the Northern Tier, your path crossed it enough that it brings back a lot of memories when reading your journal.

We camped there too! It was a great spot and our campground was almost exactly in the center of that photo (but on the other side of the trees).

You wrote;

"I think I'd rather die being attacked by a wild animal than in almost any other way," I announced after debating the merits of carrying pepper spray. There was a momentary look of horror on his face. "It would be better," I clarified, "than suffering a long bout with an incurable disease or any death on a hospital bed."

Agreed! A bicycle warrior's death would be a good death. I'm enjoying the story so far, reliving some of my own memories from last summer.

Hi Mike,

Since you provided me with your big announcement in advance, let me be the first to formally welcome you to Cycleblaze. And thank you for the warning about "the walls having ears," but it comes too late. I got pretty much the same e-mail from Neil last night and, from what I've been reading on Leo's thread on the Cycleblaze forum, so have quite a few others.

I can't say I'm surprised by this. Things have been deteriorating rapidly over there since we last exchanged messages. Back then, I mistakenly had the sense my activities on Cycleblaze were safely flying under the radar. I also thought I was being a decent, respectful, contributing citizen on CGOAB. I guess not.

Anyway, I deleted my account within minutes of receiving the e-mail and when it was done a great sense of calmness came over my whole body.

Thanks for the message and I look forward to more exchanges with you on this fine website.

Hey Greg, Mike Jamison here with more juicy cycle touring gossip. I'm going to make a formal introduction of myself to the Cycle Blaze community in a few days, but you'll appreciate this preview: Last night I received an email from Neil Gunton via the Crazy Guy site. It said: "Hi Mike, I see you have decided to post on cycleblaze, which I regard as an overtly hostile website. As such, I'm asking such people to download their journals from here, make sure you have everything you need, so that I can close out your account. I do not want people here who are ok with what cycleblaze is. Please let me know if you need time to download anything, or if you have them already." So I have been cast out from the warm embrace of Crazy Guy. A head scratcher. Perhaps it's all for the best. It was good of Neil to allow me to save my journals. they're safely downloaded and I'm really glad I can put them here on CB. Anyway, as they used to say in East Germany during the Cold War, "The walls have ears" (didn't they say that?) The point being the Crazy Guy Stasi are everywhere. Be careful what you say and where you say it :-)

Thanks for sharing that story about the guestbook message you got. He popped in on an exchange I was having in one of my guestbooks recently too, which took me by surprise. (It was on the Topicwise Cooking topic, which almost nobody reads, which made it even more surprising.) It wasn't political or anything, and it was a relevant comment, but it really showed that he monitors almost EVERYTHING that goes on. Between that kind of scrutiny, and the incredibly lengthy responses he writes on the forums, and the huge number of right wing websites he cites, it's no wonder that nothing ever develops with the revolutionary, new and improved, integrated Topicwise Empire he's been promising for years.

Anyway, like you, I have enjoyed that website and I have a lot invested in it. But I'm very conflicted about whether or not I should leave. If I had another place to post my articles, and my stuff on the Hiking, Paddling, Cooking, and Bicycle Life topics, I probably would have left a couple years ago.

By the way, I did read your Michigan journal and enjoyed it -- as I do all of your journals. And I'm not going to bill you because this has definitely been a good MUTUAL therapy session.

Thanks Greg! I've sent a note to Jeff Arnim and am waiting for his reply, but I'm on board with the idea of simply re-entering the journal from scratch. I completely get that you enjoyed doing that with yours.

Yeah, I feel the same way about the latest salvo of "Trump is being robbed by the Deep State" on the recent forum thread. I have come really close to weighing in, as you did, but am seeing there is NO way any of the hard core Trumpers want to have a reasonable discussion in that regard. The level of belief about these conspiracy theories is beyond "fringe." It makes me feel badly because I like the CGOAB site and for the most part the community, but these crazy outbursts make it hard to feel good about being present there.

Here's a recent tidbit in regard to CG, that gave me some chills ... My wife and I rode a tour in Michigan in September, and I wrote a journal about it on CG. For the most part I tried to leave out too much reference about the upcoming election, but as there were Trump and Biden signs all over the place, I did slip in some mild notes about my distaste for Trump. Someone sent me a guestbook message mentioning the elections and hoping I'd survive it. I wrote back saying I couldn't wait for it to be done and DID specifically say I was shocked with the attitude of Trump supporters and their signage, like: "Guns, God, Country," and "No More Bullshit." A day or two later I was SHOCKED when Neil sent me a guestbook message as a reply to what I'd said, saying: "Well, it was this deplorable Trump supporter's pleasure to feature your journal this week." With a smiley face attached.

That creeped me out because he obviously takes time to peruse the guestbook messages and replies of people who post journals on the site. At best that seems voyeuristic and at worst feels like being stalked. Jeez.

OK, bill me for this therapy session. You're part of my HMO network I hope. Thanks for letting be bother you, and great to hear from you.

Hi Mike,

Yeah, I get it. It's getting increasingly difficult to go over there hoping to read an interesting discussion on the forum and then finding the whole thing has been taken over by long screeds about crazy conspiracy theories and thoroughly disproven "alternative facts." And that's not even mentioning the nasty tone of some of the comments. I thought I'd be able to ignore it and just not participate in the forums at all, but I guess that's proving to be harder than I thought.

Anyway, to answer your question: Believe it or not, I re-typed every single word and re-posted every picture as if I was writing a new journal. I actually had fun copying those old journals. It brought back a lot of memories and also I was able to add a few things.

Having said that, I believe there is an easier way. You can contact Jeff Arnim, the administrator of this site, and he has a way to transfer entire journals from other sites. At least he used to.

Good to hear from you, Mike, and good luck.

Hey Greg, it's Mike Jamison from CGOAB. We've exchanged the occasional message over there in the past. I'm looking to take my journals from CG and add them over here on Cycle Blaze for a variety of reasons (the latest forum conversation on CGOAB being one). Any advice on the best way to do that, as you did here? Simply cut and paste text and pictures by hand, or is there a less work intensive way to manage that? Basically what was your method to get that done? Thanks in advance for anything you can share.

Hi Paul,

Yes, I'm sure it's a pretty common misunderstanding between cyclists and motorists.

On one of my tours I went into a truck stop in Iowa and noticed they had showers and a lounge for truckers only. I thought of going into the lounge, claiming to be a trucker, and taking a nap. I imagined a conversation something like this:

TRUCK DRIVER: So what kind of truck do you drive?
ME: I drive a Long Haul Trucker.
TRUCK DRIVER: Um, is that made by Peterbilt?
ME: No, it's made by a company you probably never heard of, but it's sturdy, comfortable, and is capable of hauling some pretty heavy loads over long distances.
TRUCK DRIVER: Really? I should look into getting one of those. Can we go have a look at it?
ME: Um, that probably wouldn't be a good idea. I gotta go.