cycletourist

Rainman,

I do this kind of touring all the time and I LOVE it! There are 4 state parks (with showers!) within a 3 hour drive from my house. Once a month or so I drive out to a state park and use it as a base camp for day-touring.

My job, by the way, is perfectly suited for this. I work four days a week and am always off work Tues,Weds,Thur. If I get up really early on Tuesday morning I can get there and set up camp by 7 a.m. and still get in 3 full days of riding.

Here's my number one piece of advice which I learned the hard way. Take a handlebar bag with snacks in it - granola bars or something - just in case you don't find a place to stop for lunch. Either that or plan on doing a figure-8 tour each day so that you end up back at camp right around lunch time.

The Missouri Department of Conservation publishes an excellent state atlas, organized alphabetically by county with amazing detail of local roads. I find it VERY valuable for planning day tours. Your state probably has the same thing.

And yes, what you are doing IS touring. Any bike ride taken purely for pleasure or sightseeing, whether around the block or around the world, is a tour. I just wish the bike industry understood that; maybe we would get better designs for road bikes.