My first big tour is coming up and I can't be more excited. In essence, I still haven't lost my touring virginity but I certainly know when the desire was planted in me. My dad told me when I was a kid about how he and his friend bicycled "around the state of rhode island." To me at the time, this seemed like a feat unlike any I could imagine! Cycling around a whole state!? I even knew that Rhode Island was tiny as states go but a state was still a massive object to a kid who had only cycled around his block. It was the essence of freedom as you describe. That stuck with me and has been in the back of my mind ever since whenever I've considered a bike tour.