Last week I wrote up the story of my very first bicycle tour using the type-written copy of my contemporaneous journal.  It was called A Most Unusual Bike Trip (By Normal Touring Standards) and one could probably look it up here on Cycleblaze if one was so inclined.  It had never before been published. 

This journal is about my SECOND bike trip and it HAD been published online once before.  Somehow, partly due to my own fault, it disappeared.  The good news is:  I have a handwritten version of this journal too.  So I'll be entering that here over the next week or so.

As you will see, I hadn't learned a whole lot about bicycle touring in the seven years between my first bike trip and my second bike trip.  One thing I did learn, however,  is that touring with a knobby-tired mountain bike is slow.  STUPID slow.  

In each of the next six years that followed my first solo bike trip I rode along with 10,000 crazy cyclists on RAGBRAI--the famous bike ride across Iowa.  If nothing else, I learned you can go a lot faster and a lot further on a roadie bike.  Still not aware of the existence of bikes specifically designed for touring, I transferred my bike rack from my mountain bike to my roadie bike, bought a set of rear panniers, and planned a bike trip with that set up.

Oh yes, I was so naive.  In fact, I still am.  I don't ever want to be an EXPERT bike tourist.  I like being a fish out of water, a Yugo in a parking lot full of Range Rovers, a Dr. Seuss in a world of Shakespeares, a dude who would order a big, greasy hamburger in a Michelin 3-star restaurant.

I just wanted to ride my bike, in my own way, all the way to the far off land of Duluth and back.  (About 400 miles)  I studied some maps, picked a starting date, and asked a few friends if they had any interest in riding with me.  You would not believe the incredulous looks I got.