Absolutely looks like a sword wound!

Sure, I sutured my own ankle in a treehouse, but that's like a child playing with a whiffle bat compared to the badassedness of riding with a wound vac...TWO DAYS LATER AFTER SURGERY!! Hats off to the true warrior.

Really?!?! Anyone with a different opinion than yours is an idiot?!?! How do you like our economy now? How do you like having a president that can barely make a complete sentence? How do you like all of the TRUE corruption? I was enjoying your story until now... I think I will pass on the rest of it.

Buddy,

Your experience is an endorsement of doing what you can, while you can. You never know . . . . your trajectory sounds promising. I hope it continues.

The Lewis and Clark was my first big tour, in 2004. It's a fairly easy trip, and really gave me confidence that I can do long tours. I enjoyed the route and would recommend it.

I was interested in following the Mississippi River, but a couple of different people assured me that the poverty all along the river would make the tour impossible to enjoy. I ended up abandoning the idea. Humidity was also a factor.

Hill Country in the spring sounds lovely. It is a very long drive from Colorado and one I would have to make alone, because Jacinto is still working. Result - probably not happening soon.

Here's wishing you well.

Kelly

Kelly - I have tentatively planned to ride the ACA Great Rivers South in 2022. It includes most of the Natchez Trace, and I've never seen it so that's an attraction for me. I do enjoy the ACA routes, because it makes the pre-trip and in-trip planning easier if you are following their route. I also have an interest in riding the Lewis & Clark route from east to west, but that won't happen next year.

Unfortunately, my back has developed into a serious hindrance since I have returned. I did something and now have a herniated disc that's putting pressure on a nerve and it interferes with the operation of my right leg - so while the problem is in my back, I feel pain in my right hip and leg. Currently I'm in a wait-and-see mode; it's possible that the situation will fix itself, but it can take months. I have gotten better - when this first happened about 6 weeks ago, I needed a wheelchair to get from the parking lot into the doc's office. Since then I have recovered enough that I can walk about a mile or so and I am doing 14-mile rides on mostly flat ground now. I'm afraid to tackle any of the steep hills near me, cause I'm uncertain whether my leg can handle it. Weird.

If I don't continue slowly improving, then surgery is an option - they basically go in and roto-root out the stuff that's putting pressure on the nerve. I'd prefer to avoid that, but I have been warned that I will need that if the leg doesn't keep improving. So that's where I am - next year has a lot of uncertainty for me. I'd prefer to ride the route starting in late April, but if I can't train then maybe I can ride it in the fall.

So I feel like I have aged 10 years in the last couple of months.

Buddy

Inquiring minds would like to know what your spring plans are!?

We have our summer 2022 tour planned - a 2,000+ mile meander through Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. My choice, because I turn 60 and I'm the Princess all year!

With such a long summer trip planned, I hate to plan anything for spring, as I don't want to burn myself out. I have far more potential routes than I have time . . . .

I hope your back gets better. My back is finicky also. I think that's a bane of being tall.

Kelly

I met you guys on my eastern ride in Circle, MT (Doc, mostly, IIRC). For future riders I want to second your suggestion on taking the Minnesota trails route, really nice. I consider Minnesota a hidden gem on the tour. In fact I would take it a step further, consider riding straight through Minneapolis. I needed a bike shop so continued on the Lake Wobegon trail past Albany all the way into St Cloud. I followed Google Maps bike route through Minneapolis and rejoined the tier in Prescott. Most of route was either dedicated bike path or bike lane. Minneapolis is very bike friendly and you ride through a lot of nice, old neighborhoods. Don't miss the Mill Ruins Park area Downton on the waterfront, really nice area. I was able to find a hotel there for $75 on Priceline.

Congratulations on finishing your tour, I'm dreaming of another one.

I lost 20 pounds on this tour as well - but it was different, because I had trained well for this tour and I started at a relatively good weight for me. I finished this tour at 192 pounds, and that's the first time I have been below 200 pounds in at least 15 years. On my Transam tour, I wasn't as well conditioned to start - I think I was about 15 pounds heavier at the start. But I needed to ride farther each day to make the schedule required for my work - so the Transam I did in a total of about 10 weeks, whereas the Northern Tier I did in a more-reasonable time of 12 weeks. Now if I could just figure out how to keep the weight off between tours...

I'm sure it's in here somewhere - I've been reading your TransAm tour and you noted at Canon City you had lost 20 pounds in five weeks! How did that compare to this tour, weight loss wise? I never lose weight on tour - we must eat too well!

On the recent Fall Colors Tour, we ate a restaurant breakfast almost every morning, plus a restaurant meal in the afternoon/evening. I was afraid I was going to gain weight on that tour! I didn't, but I don't know how . . .

Kelly

Kelly;

Toenail is recovering slowly, thanks - about 25% of it has regrown now. I still wear the road shoes that caused that issue, but only for my short daily ride (guess I'm kind of cheap and hate to throw out something that's useful if I can find a way to get some good from it). I learned my lesson - I'm only going on tour with my comfortable old mountain bike shoes! I have seen some modern "hybrid" shoes that look like a cross between road shoes and mountain bike shoes - they look pretty comfortable, maybe I'll buy a pair of those someday.

Buddy

Thank you for your detailed light reply. I used to commute and used a Dinotte headlight, which I still own. It has been years.

BTW, I'm sure I'm not the only one wondering how your toenail is doing!

Kelly

On my 2008 bike tour of 21oo miles, I found lots of tools, most of which I gave away to friends and relatives along the way. Pliers, screw drivers, wrenches, sockets, knives, and of course lots of bungees and other misc. useful stuff. There were also a couple sledge hammers and framing hammers as well as a huge wrench at different places, but I just left them because of all the hills in S-W Ohio, S. IN, KY, TN, NC and GA.

There's a lot of good stuff that just falls off... mostly pickups? or roof tops? Not convinced that it would be worthwhile if that was the point of bike touring.

With the coin shortages in recent years, I have noticed a sharp decline in roadkill coins. For the last few years before I retired in 2008, I had a 3 lb coffee can for roadkill. It is about 2/3 full and 30 some dollars, riding the same 12 mile route each way, about half being on bike trails. Not been so careful to pick it up in recent years, although I do take note when I spot it.

Kelly,

Almost forgot about your first question - the answer is that I was still working in 2017 and that was the best time I could arrange to get 5 weeks off. It was definitely hot, but early starts made it bearable.

Buddy

Kelly;

I have a SON dynohub, the headlight is a B&M Luxos U and the taillight is described as "B&M TL Toplight Line Plus Brake Tec pulsing." I have 19,000 miles on that bike since 2015, and have always had those lights on it. Basically I run lights 24/7. The dynohub and lights have all functioned well since I got them (except see below).

I really like having a dynohub and not having to think about the lights. When the front wheel is rolling, I have lights. There are probably brighter and better lights now, but these were pretty good when I got them in 2015. There is a lot of technology in them, and in 2015 they were billed as being the world's most advanced bicycle lights. During the day the headlight is running a daytime-running-light, and that changes at night. Also, when traveling really slow, most of the light is directed to the sides and just a little in front - when my speed hits about 9 mph then the light is directed more to the front so you can see farther at speed. My taillight has a brakelight function built in - when you start slowing down, it senses the dynohub putting out less pulses and that causes the taillight to light up brighter, just like a car brakelight. The headlight has a sort of "bright light" function - I can cause the output to go from 70 lumens to 90 lumens by pushing a button - for an oncoming car it looks like I "flashed my brights" at them - this is helpful when a car is coming at me and blinding me with bright lights. The headlight has an attachment cable that I can use to charge anything via USB. I thought I might really use this, but honestly it's just kind of a gimmick - it does work, but you don't have enough power to run lights and charge so you have to choose - and you don't get a lot of charge.

There is an issue with my taillight that took me a while to figure out. When the temperature is really hot (85 degrees seems to be the cutoff), my taillight will light up for about 5 minutes and then quit. Once I come to a complete stop, and then take off again, the taillight comes on but will again go off in about 5 minutes. Again, this only happens when the temperature is 85 degrees or higher - and that's a pretty exact number, if it's 83 degrees outside I don't have that problem. Fortunately, it's only that hot in the daytime when I don't need the lights anyway. I suspect there is some issue with a heatsink in the light causing it to shut off. When I first got the lights and noticed that happening, I returned both the headlight and the taillight and replaced them with new ones - and still had that problem. So it appears to have been a design issue with those lights in 2015. (the taillight is wired to the headlight, the headlight controls the taillight, so that's why I had to return them both).

Peter White's website has the best overall info on lights - it's truly educational. https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/lightingsystems.php

Buddy