Fifty Plus (50+) - I'm nervous...my 1st, albeit, short multi-day tour

I know I'm ready physically. I know I can ride 80+ miles per day. I'm not sure I can cook my own food over a whisperlite. Never done it before. But I think I'll be fine.

OK, so my rambling is saying this: Tomorrow morning I take off on a 3 day, 195 mile trip to a men's retreat. It will be mainly rural roads, some flat, some very hilly. I've already done 1500 miles this summer pulling my loaded BOB, so I know I can handle the riding part. I just get this way before any trip, be it my bike or motorcycle or car. Tomorrow I go about 86 miles and camp in a state park. Thursday I do a few less miles and camp again in a county park. The last day will only be about 45. I've prepared a food bag with quick oatmeal, raisins, brown sugar for breakfast and of course coffee. For evening I'm planning something with chicken breast and pasta and vegetables. I figure I'll just stop in a grocery store on my way past. That's the only part I'm not sure about.

I'm still nervous.

A little nervousity is good. Deep down, you know you're ready. I'm guessing the shopping will be no problem. Hey, worst case scenerio: a deli sandwich.

Sounds great!

Have fun. It's been awhile since I toured, but I found it easier than I thought to rack up the miles. You're not at home, no distractions, really nothing to do but get up each morning, get on your bike, and ride. Just get started early each day.

One fun thing you will likely experience is meeting more people than your normally do. Something about being alone on a bike and traveling that raises people's curiosity -- it's easier to strike up conversations than it is if you were traveling alone in a car.

Have fun!

Good luck with your trip.

Whatcha gonna do at the men's retreat?

One fun thing you will likely experience is meeting more people than your normally do.

Unforturtunately, I doubt this on this route. It's pretty much all very small towns and county roads. I hope I'm wrong!!


Whatcha gonna do at the men's retreat?

It's a church retreat at a camp. It's very cool to hear 600 men sing!

where's the ride report? tell us about cooking and share the pics!

And don't forget that you need to also buy pie for the meal.....

No ride report? Perhaps he was ambushed on a back road. Perhaps he found it so wonderful he just kept going. Perhaps I am just a bit silly. Touring does that (and touring stories).

OK so the ride was fantastic! First day was about 80 miles with some little side-tracks geocaching. I had about 35 miles of state hiway and then 35 on a bike trail and then some more on fed and county roads to a county park for the night. The bike trail was awful! Well, that's not fair entirely. The first 10 miles were awful. It was an older section that had never been updated over the years and was rougher than nearly any road I was on. I went from my house south of Brayton, Iowa to Spring Lake Park north of Jefferson, Iowa. It was a gorgeous day.
I made the mistake of getting on US 30 on the north edge of Jefferson for about 6 miles. It started out with a very nice paved shoulder, but that soon disappeared and the road narrowed. Very busy with lots of semi traffic. Drivers were polite though. (I had a bad experience near Guthrie Center with a pickup driver pulling a trailer with a skid loader on it. He deliberately tried to run me off the hiway. If I could have gotten his license number that would have been called in.)
I stopped at a local grocery store to get food for the night thinking of a chicken breast, pasta, brocolli mix of some kind. You can't buy food like that for one person/one meal! I ended up with mac/cheese and tuna, some apples and a cookie (I like those better than pie!) This grocery store chain usually has a manned meat department, but in this small a town, they apparently leave before 4.
The park was beautiful. It's a small lake and even has a roller skating rink! The park ranger was a rude jerk. There were no signs anywhere about where tent camping was and after pedaling about a mile around the place, I decided to just set up. After supper, he came around and charged me for camping in an electric hook-up. I asked about signs. He must have had a bad day. Like I said, the grounds were beautiful. My neighbors were very friendly.

Day 2 was cool and drizzly all day. The roads I took were so quiet that I flat out got lonely! Pulled into Webster City (POP 800) and looked for a couple of geocaches and food. Saw a youngish girl/woman riding a bike so I asked about Mexican food. She tried to explain where it was and then just brightened and said, "I'll take you there!" She was probably high school, maybe college age. She sure knew and used her hand signals, although I could barely keep up with her. She took me about a mile right to some Mexican place. A delight...food and the young lady. I told her I could hardly keep up with her and that she obviously enjoyed riding. With a big grin she told this was her car.

I spent about 2 hours in that town between lunch and a couple tricky geocaches.

Moved on to Clarion, Iowa and found City Hall. I asked about pitching my tent in a city park. Nope, not allowed. I also asked about a swimming pool thinking I could get a shower there and then find some hidden place to camp. After finding the grocery store (beans and a potato!) I headed north of town to another county park with a lake. Beautiful place and easy to find tenting.

It cleared up during the night and I was on the road after breakfast/coffee by 7. (BTW breakfast is easy. I set up servings for me with oatmeal, raisins and brown sugar) Great riding today. Had a fun conversation with a local construction worker when I stopped for more coffee and a donut. That BOB really attracts attention. Got to Clear Lake, my destination, by 11 am. Visited the Surf Ballroom where Buddy Holly died and then had a great shower and nap at the retreat. All in all, a great 5 days!

Nice story.

Would you be willing to explain geocaching? It sounds interesting!

Geocaching is an international scavenger hunt where you look for hidden items using the coordinates entered into a GPS. Items hidden will be anything from a miniature container, some as small as a thimble, to as large as 3 gallon pails. There will always be a log to record your find and there may be trade junk. I found 15 caches on those 3 days of riding. You can go here: www.geocaching.com (http://www.geocaching.com) to learn more.

Glad to hear you had a good trip. There is a great sense of satisfaction in completing a multi-day trip by yourself. I bet it won't be your last.

What a great experience. (Mostly) great riding and interesting people. You didn't mention lunch. How did you handle that?

I bet it won't be your last.

Quite sure it won't! In fact I'm ready to leave tomorrow again. I'm hoping to do a 2 week ride to Memphis next summer and then take Amtrak home...at least to within 60 miles of home. I was hoping to do that this summer, but I lost an employee and couldn't get away. (I have my own retail store.) Then I hope to do a transam. The only thing I really don't like about that whole idea is that my wife has NO desire to join me. I would love to do that with her. She'll travel all over the nation with me on a motorcycle, but not bicycle.


You didn't mention lunch.

Lunch was just whatever I could find. Pizza one day, Mexican one and some fast food joint the 3rd.