how do you get that jamboree feeling?
Just doing a little reflecting after my first self-supported tour.....had a great time, went w/ a small group of 3, stayed at campgrounds but the thing I missed the most was having a lot of people around who were doing the same thing. Last summer, I did a sag-wagon tour with 75 people and it was so much fun meeting all those new people and having a group of 6 or 7 to ride with. and I loved camping on school soccer fields and seeing all those tents in the morning. I found staying at campgrounds on my self-supported tour a iittle depressing -- you're surrounded by people w/ kids in RV's. I like getting to meet other cyclists which is something I don't get to do too often in my daily round. Soooooo.....how do you get that jamboree feeling without the big price tag of say an Adventure Cycling tour? I'm kind of tempted to go the ACA route just b/c I would then be surrounded by other cyclists, but spending $1,000 to do a 10 day tour when I could probably swing it for $250 by cobbling together my own little group of tourers is hard to swallow. Any suggestions?