Touring - How do you kill mass quanties of time?

Okay, simple problem...maybe if you are one of those people that can sit around doing nothing all day long it won't sound like a problem. This does sound like a stupid question but I'm a little stumped right now and trying to come up with a solution before I have to deal with the problem.

I have a couple of simple problems, one I'm in shape and two I'm in shape. Sounds retorical(sp?) but I mean it quite seriously. This past summer when I went on my tour everyday was pushed for one reason or another. I knew I had a deadline for getting to western Ohio which I didn't quite make so I called my mom and her and my brother met me about 80 miles from her place and picked me up so I could get to her place that evening, pretty much a requirement. The second leg I knew I was trying to get the roundtrip leg to St. Louis back to my mom's place before the remenants(sp?) of Hurricane Issac made it into Ohio. The final leg coming back to NH I was trying to continue my nice stretch of dry riding weather and until I ended up coming down with a case of the stomach flu a little over half way home I was maintaining the pace that would have gotten me home before the rain arrived.

I was averaging 113 miles a day over the course of the whole trip. Like I said, I'm in shape. My longest day in western NY/PA/northeast OH was 172 miles and the second longest day of the trip, two days after the stomach flu hit, was going across PA heading back home and that was 146 miles.

This coming year my challenge is to change everything around for the entire year with the first qualifying criteria being I'm not going to ride a single 100 mile day all year long. So far in 2012 I've rode at least 100 miles in a day on 95 days. I'm hoping to hit 100 days of 100 miles or more a day before the end of the year. Yes, I over 20,600 miles so far this year. Next year, with all my challenges I'm hoping for 25-30K miles.

With all the extra time while touring next year, what do you guys typically do with the extra free time when you're stealth camping every night. As it was this past summer I was typically getting on the road around 8-9AM, mid August-mid September, and depending on the day I was either riding all day until around sunset or I would end up taking 1-2 hours off at a McDonalds along the way and get online for a while and end up trying to reroute the ride to make it shorter/take less time to get to where I was trying to get to. I was normally getting into town around sunset and then spending the evening at McDonalds on Google Earth looking the town over for a place to stealth for the night and then wait until it got dark enough to set up camp.

I know this coming summer their is a very good chance I will be going through far more remote areas, midwestern US, than anything I saw this summer. How do you kill massive quanties of time while on tour? I can easily see while in the midwest being on the bike 4-5 hours a day and have the rest of the time free with nothing anywhere around to occupy the time.

Why would you artificially restrict your daily mileage? If you're comfortable with 100 mile days and can see/do whatever you want while racing across the country, why not? You should control your down time, not the other way around.

Strangely, 'killing' down time has never been a problem for me. I ride 5-6 hrs/day. Hang out in places with wifi, usually eating. Sight see. Visit with strangers. Spend time with WS hosts. Set up camp, cook maybe, read. Helps if you've got a buddy to tour with. I'm one of the many 50 miles/day folks.

It sounds like you're in it for the miles more than "smelling the roses." To each their own, but I don't understand why it's important for you to limit your miles/day. Especially if you're aiming for more miles/year.

I target around 50 miles/day with generous variance for sightseeing or aiming for a specific campground. I don't stealth camp, so I'm free to set up camp and spend my time cooking, sightseeing, talking with folks, eating, writing, and planning my next day. I don't recall ever being bored off the bike.

I prefer the local eateries, so I avoid large chain restaurants as much as possible. I can eat McDonald's every day of the week at home if I want. Give me local diner with an unhurried, friendly server any day on tour.

On thing that might help is camping in plain sight rather than stealth camping. The ability to do that may be dependent on where you tour though. It worked fine for me in places like the western half of the Southern Tier, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, and Wyoming where it was pretty easy to camp in picnic areas or other impromptu places, but in plain sight. In places on the west coast, camping in the cheap ($4-8) hiker biker sites was always fun because there were plenty of other tourists to hang out with.

I always have a good book or two with me. Besides that, I maintain an online blog and spend a good deal of time arranging photos and writing daily entries, which I find very enjoyable. I also research the areas I pass through, keep in touch with friends and family back home, pass the time talking with strangers or other bike tourists I meet along the way, and take leisurely meals.

The best way to ruin a tour for me is to give me a rigid schedule and a deadline that requires high daily mileage day after day. It's not just about the biking to me. It's about seeing and experiencing more than that. It's about spending mornings relaxing with several cups of coffee, and taking my time getting on the road. If it's not hot I usually don't hit the road until 10am, sometimes even later. If it's hot - that's a different story. I will (reluctantly) hit the road as early as 6am but will finish riding early so still have plenty of time for lazing around doing the things mentioned above.

Look into geocaching. There are geocaches hidden in all parts of the country and the world. Get yourself a GPS and you can easily burn a day, hunting up a few geocaches within a few miles of almost anywhere.

There are more reason to ride than just to ride. I know my challenges for next year are CRAZY, I'm also looking at making them something more just riding. You can ride a bike, even tour across the globe on bike, but what good is that. What does that do for anyone else. I'm looking at next year as spreading it out to being not just about me. I'm trying to set up next year as an inspiration year and not just another year of riding 'worthless' miles. Inspire others to get off their ass and get on a bike, rather than just pollute the air more while getting fatter. I want to keep my mileage/time spent on the bike each day 'short' so that what I'm doing isn't something that only 'Lance Armstrong' can do, but rather something anyone can do. You figure ride 4-6 hours(including commuting to work) a day, work an 8 hour job, sleep 8 hour, and still have 2-3 hours each day for other things while still riding 20,000+ miles a year. Can't be done, right? In actuality I'm also planning on a year of extreme climbing, climbing enough vertical throughout the year that I would have climbed to the International Space Station, 250 mile roughly, in one year. Can't be done, right?

I already know I can ride 20+K miles a year without even trying, I've did it this year. Now for a completely different challenge next year while still riding the bike and getting around without a car.

I admit to not eating at McDonalds, I just use their wifi. I'm sitting at McDonalds right now as I type this out, I don't have internet access at home. I rarely eat out, unless it's carbo loading at Pizza Hut during the lunch buffets.

If I'm around a bigger town somewhere that's one thing. I can see it being quite easy to occupy time if your in a decent sized town, 5-6K or bigger, but if your in someplace like eastern CO, western NE, SW SD, heck even someplace like US20 through NY like this year, places where there is nothing, not even much in the way of towns anywhere what do you do to occupy your time. I may be just trying to cover bases before they may never happen but I would rather give myself some ideas in case I need them.

I know of one or two things I could differently compared to last year but then again that doesn't add much killed time, talking maybe 15 minutes a day unless I get into a real nice scenic area.

When I say stealth camp I simply mean camping someplace other than established campgrounds, whether it be behind churches, city ballparks, truck stops, behind big box stores, hiking trailheads, etc. Yes, I've camped out behind Wal-Mart already, literally right behind the store, same for Lowes. One of the campsites I had this summer was within 100 yards of McDonalds and maybe 200 yards, if that much, from the front door of Wal-Mart...right behind a gas station/truck stop just 150 yards from the on ramp to I-70, and yes, 2 feet from a corn field. Unless you was looking for me you would have never found me. I make it so I can't be seen by anyone unless they are going out of there way to try to find me.

I do like and will remember the TX picnic areas. After seeing them this year while down in west central TX I liked them but could not understand the reason why TX ever put them scattered along the roads, especially the roads I saw them on. I'm already planning on using them next year when/if I head back down that way, hopefully by bike. If it's by car then that will change those plans. I know I'm looking after the TX event about catching US385 and possibly riding all of it from Big Bend to the Black Hills...why not, being in Big Spring for the event puts me awfully darn close to the southern end of 385 to start with and since I'm looking to go up to the Black Hills and it takes me there why not ride the entire road south to north. I don't have to follow stinkin' established routes, I can create my own.

So,you ride as fast as you can to get someplace,you get there early and now you need something to kill time because your early? Is that about right? I don't get it......Is this a race of some kind?

Slow down?....Ride farther?.....Quit looking at the time?.... Get drunk?..... Pick up chicks?.....Do crossword puzzles?......Clean your bike?......Take up knitting?.......Hunt Rocky Mountain Spotted Snipe?....Teach yourself about plants and stuff?....Learn how to make crop circles?

If I could ride 100 miles in 4-5 hours on my touring bike,on ANY bike....I'd quit touring and take up racing......

Have a child. That took care of it for me! ;-)

But seriously, expand your horizons by forcing yourself to talk to people more, perhaps stop at local small (and big) museums, etc. Learn about the places you are riding through, and what make the local people "tick." Take a mid-day nap during the heat of the day. Get a Kindle and load it with lots of books to give you something to occupy your time.

It sounds like you need a mind-set change rather than ideas on killing time. Or, as others have said, if that's not your thing, then just ride your miles and do what works for you. If people ask how many miles you ride each day, lie to avoid sounding like Superman. Or, just accept that it's who you are and how you like to travel. Nothing wrong with it! "Ride your own ride."

I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, but your posts come across as a bit of grandstanding despite what you are saying about wanting to be humble and inspire people. But maybe I'm reading too much into it.

Some people seem to kill mass quantities of time with excessive posting on this and other forums.

I don't know where you are riding but you should perhaps find some different roads. Find a road with features that feed your curiosity.

Watch the wildlife
Cook more elaborate meals.
Stop and chat to people
catch your own food
Read a book
Spend more hrs on the bike.
Chillax

I don't know your age, but if you're young enough and you can train 24,000 miles in a year, you need to do more interval training and turn pro. Seriously, very few of the elite pros in the world ride more than 24K in a year, most are in the 20K year range.

Some people seem to kill mass quantities of time with excessive posting on this and other forums.

...and excessive reading of those posts, too.

Hey, OP, carry more stuff. Spend every evening unpacking and repacking it. Works for me.

I Play Music in Pub Jam sessions and drink what ever is served, locally :beer: when I can..

If you are really looking for a challenge, why don't you take a couple of weeks off and ride the Race Across America:)

I tour on a tandem with my wife, and we can kill any amount of time with great ease. We once were stuck in our tent for 4 days during a mountain rainstorm. It was fun, one of our best times. I recommend Moby Dick or War and Peace. Crime and Punishment is a good touring read, though it's hard to beat Moby Dick. Read Anna Karenina and be ready to see the movie. Most of us read those books when we were entirely too young to appreciate them. Now we can take them with us on a Kindle and save weight. Get a girlfriend, dude.

Stop somewhere in the middle of the day to have a leisurely lunch.
Stop somewhere in the middle of the day to see the sights ... go for a walk along the beach ... check out a museum ... go for a hike in the red rock countryside of the west.

You can easily fill a day just looking at all the interesting stuff there is around you.

Other ideas ...

-- take in some concerts of various sorts
-- go to the local outdoor swimming pool
-- try boogie boarding or surfing at the beach
-- many campgrounds have internet access ... take your laptop and browse the internet
-- bring a decent camera and document everything you see in photographs
-- write stories
-- read stories
-- sketch (a recent acquaintence of ours went on a cycling and sketching tour in Spain)
-- drop in at some night classes in the places you stay. Many places have 1-day community classes on cooking, arts, and various other things
-- learn to play an instrument


And start staying in real campgrounds so you can get internet access, and so you can meet people and talk to people. Some campgrounds have recreation rooms and swimming pools and stuff like that where you can read, watch TV, play games, workout, etc. etc.

Also stay with people (warmshowers, couchsurfing, etc.) or visit people ... you could spend the evening chatting.

Concur with that, Machka. I've traveled a good bit, and feel that traveling is all about the people you meet. Sure the places are nice, and if you're touring the riding is fun, but it's the people that make the tour, that make the memories, which is why we tour. The places are the stage sets for us, the actors.

I'm not sure I see the problem.

If you think spending 4-5 hours on the bike isn't enough time, then spend more time on the bike. If you are doing your own tour, nobody is telling you how long or short your daily distance needs to be. If you think your daylight hours are cut with sunset, start a little earlier in the morning.

If you think spending 4-5 hours on the bike is enough time, then do other things. While touring you can choose to travel to interesting areas, meet people, see things and likely also do similar things you would otherwise do at home when not bicycle touring.

It sound like you are traveling by yourself and have ability to adjust the trip distances and times to work for you. So just do that.

contrived conflict.

however, words for the conflicted.....

"The slower you go, the more you know." M. Beck

there's a lot of great stuff to see in this country if you look thoroughly.

Hanging out at a McDonalds surfing the web doesn't qualify.

Yikes!
How 'bout spending a month in a Buddhist monastery?

from reading your posts, i'm not quite sure why you even bother 'touring.'
you didn't say anything much, if anything at all, about the places you've been
or want to go, the sights you've seen, the people you've met, or the things
you've experienced. it's just a compilation of longest days, highest, longest,
fastest, equivalent to the tallest, blah, blah, blah.

maybe you'd do better posting under long-distance/ultra/endurance/extreme
cycling, since what you're doing isn't what most people would consider
cycle touring.

and really, why leave the house at all? you can set up your stationary bike
with video and controls to simulate a landing on the moon.

Heck, just tour with me and carry all my gear. Set up my tent when you get to camp, cook the food, wash my clothes, do the maintenance on my bike, etc. That way I can increase my mileage and you can kill time. If you need to go slower even more, we can just strap some cement blocks to your bike. Merry Christmas!

O.K. I'll bite....Take up smoking. I was a smoker when I crossed the country. I only did a couple of days over 100 miles.

Concur with that, Machka. I've traveled a good bit, and feel that traveling is all about the people you meet. Sure the places are nice, and if you're touring the riding is fun, but it's the people that make the tour, that make the memories, which is why we tour. The places are the stage sets for us, the actors.

Ditto this. At your level of fitness, you won't even notice the cycling part of cycle touring. So you can enjoy the people part even more. Forget the bike for a while every day, it's just a passport that gets you to meet more interesting people.

Write a book my friend. That takes a lot of time and dedication.

I went to a seminar the other evening and a few guys did a Trans AM.... 3500 miles plus in 37 days. When I heard that I thought maybe he didnt get a chance to really enjoy the ride and what he was seeing. He stood up in front of all of us and that was the first thing he said... he didnt have a chance to really enjoy the towns and the people and such. He said he regretted that.

For me, if given the chance to tour like the gent does above, I would slow down, enjoy the sites, take pictures, meet people, learn stuff and have fun.

Being in shape is not your problem, finding interests other than sitting on your bike is, or it's possible the heavy miles are an avoidance behavior that isn't working anymore.

For me, the riding time on a tour is fun, but the off-bike moments define the trip. Enjoy these moments. If you see a stunning waterfall or if there's a great view from the summit, get off the bike and just savour the experience. If you stop at a small town in the evening, take a walk downtown and have a look around. Each town has its own special character. Look for the quirky curio shop which also sells homemade ice cream, or the coffee shop with the best cinnamon buns in the region. Chat with some of the locals. They'll probably have plenty of questions about what you're doing and some might even try cycle touring in the future.

Also, consider keeping a journal or setting up a blog about your experiences on the road. Your approach to cycle touring will appeal to the more competitive riders who are interested in touring. Write down the things which interest you the most. Make notes about your speeds, the weather conditions, the hills and anything else which grabs your attention. Other cyclists will want to know these things as they prepare for multi-day rides.

from reading your posts, i'm not quite sure why you even bother 'touring.'
you didn't say anything much, if anything at all, about the places you've been
or want to go, the sights you've seen, the people you've met, or the things
you've experienced. it's just a compilation of longest days, highest, longest,
fastest, equivalent to the tallest, blah, blah, blah.


There is room for different styles of touring and for folks to do what works for them. My style has changed over time.

I've never been very fast, but when I started in college I was somehow into mode of started at earliest daylight and then cycling all day until close to dark. As you might imagine, if you ride long times, there are also longer distances. One example I remember was when a friend and I had agreed on a weekend overnight ride where we went our separate ways on Saturday, met at a campground and then cycled together on Sunday.

When we met up Saturday night, it was interesting since we were essentially speaking different languages. Mine was essentially all about distances, routes, miles and how far. Her description was about getting lost, finding a rhododendron park and wandering through to explore, about meeting people and what they said. My questions to her were along lines of "yes, but what route did you ride and what distances" and her questions to me were along lines of "yes, but what did you see, who did you meet".

Over the years of touring, my style has evolved a bit more closely to her style, though I'm still one of those personalities that keeps track of distances as well. I no longer see it as necessary to ride every hour of daylight and physically that isn't the same as when I was in my 20s.

So I'm sympathetic if the original poster might want to ride in a different style. However, it doesn't get much sympathy if this is somehow posed as "a problem" since the answer seems more obvious - if somehow this doesn't work for you - then do it differently. If style isn't the same as mine, that is fine, but if you ask for advice and say it is a problem then expect me to come and tell you what works for me.

How do you kill massive quanties of time while on tour?

I have the opposite problem ... on tour, and in life in general. Each day, I seem to have a list of things I want to do which would take up about a week rather than the 24 hours that make up a single day. :lol:

Yep, and one of the things that keeps Machka occupied is editing her photographs. She can, on a good day, take up to, let's say, 200 pictures, then she gets out the computer at night and sorts through them, "processes" them, crops them, and stores them away. That takes up a good part of the evening...

Then maybe the OP should find a nice young woman to tour with who, likewise, can take up the rest of the evening <wink wink, nudge, nudge).

And one of the things that kept us occupied (well, mainly Machka) on our current travels was planning the next few days' routes. We were open-ended most of the time, and we rarely use goggle and maps and other electronic stuff... so it's out with the paper maps and the train timetables, and away we go with the planning.

Plus a call into the information centres in each town inevitably turns up something worth seeing. Often you've got to pay to get into the attraction, but there are plenty of other things that are promoted that are free. Often they are often off the route you are travelling, so that can soak up a bit of time, especially if there are a few in opposite directions to each other so you have a ready-made hub-and-spoke sequence within the main tour.

As mev says, all this really does require a change in touring style. We've all been in the same mould, at some time or another, where getting from Point A to Z was a matter of urgent achievement.

But you will find after a while that (a) people's eyes start to roll back in their heads with incomprehension when you tell them that you rode 3000 miles in 25 days (b) and your satisfaction will start to wane with each successive ride...

When you start talking about what you saw, what happened, and the people you met, the interest will always be there.

If you want examples of this, go to CGOAB, and read the journals that say: "I got up at 7.00, on the road at 8.00, rode 120 miles, got into camp at 5.00... great day!", then read the ones that go into some depth about the things that were done, the people they met, the emotions they felt (good, bad and indifferent), and maybe even the history of the places they went.

----------------

By the way, no-one is denigrating (at least outright) your ability to ride long distances. That's great. The beauty of that ability is being able to get through quickly and efficiently what can be boring parts to get to the exciting stuff on the other side. The real talent comes from being able to slow down and recognise and enjoy that exciting stuff.

The musical instrument idea mentioned by fietsbob and Machka is pretty sound. Claire, who is a sometime member here and a friend of ours in Paris, tours with her fiddle attached to her bike. It means when she gets into camp (and she camps a lot), she can wander into town to see if there is a jam session happening. She had a great time on a recent tour in Berlin and Ireland, as just two of the places she did this.

And if money gets short, a bit of busking on street corners or even in campgrounds might be a good way to raise some cash.

I suggested knitting to someone else who recently posted about whiling away the hours on winter tours. Or if knitting doesn't appeal to you, there are lots of other hand crafts ... cross-stitch, embroidery, lace-making ...

Go to a Michaels or other craft shop and see if you can find something that appeals to you.

In the old days of cowboys, didn't some of them sit around the campfire and whittle things ... there's another idea for you.




Maybe you and shipwreck could plan a tour together ...
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/861350-Long-winter-nights

Being in shape is not your problem, finding interests other than sitting on your bike is, or it's possible the heavy miles are an avoidance behavior that isn't working anymore.

It's not so much an avoidance behavior, even though I don't handle boredom worth a crap. I've never been one that can sit around and do nothing for hours on end. I always start to fidget, when I had teeth I would bite my fingernails all the time. Now I just sit there and pick at the nails, pick at scabs, anything to keep my hands busy. I don't handle boredom worth a crap. I'm not a person who can sit around for very long and enjoy the view. I can do it for a little bit but then I get bored and have to find something else to do/move on. If I've already ridden 95 mles for the day and I'm around the area where I want to spend the night and it's noon time...

I don't mind the big miles, but I would like a different challenge for next year. Next year my main focus is actually on climbing miles and not so much on 'horizontal miles'. I know I have no option but to ride horizontal miles as it takes 'horizontal miles' to give you elevation gain. 50, 60, 70 feet per mile takes a while to add up to 250 miles of climbing for the year. Obviously, if I end up reaching my challenge for next year, I will ride a lot of miles. I would rather ride them in short daily distances rather than go out, like I did this year, and do a bunch of 100-225 mile long days. I also know I have one big project next spring that is going to take a fair amount of time to get done. I want it done before I head out to the midwest. That means I have no other option that to try to get it done in as short of time as possible while still getting in the climbing miles here in New Hampshire. I won't get much in the way of climbing miles in while I'm in the midwest. As a results I figure the only way I can really do two things at once is to ride 90-95 miles in the morning, starting at the break of daylight and being done by 9:30-10:00AM and then
I will have the rest of the day free for working on the other project.

The trouble comes once I leave for the trip, I would still rather do a more relaxed ride than I did this year. I didn't mind the big mileage days as I knew I had to do them. I hope I don't find myself in the same scenario next year. I would rather off keep the mileage to under 100 miles a day. The trouble is handling the boredom. When you are in the middle of the midwest, not the most scenic of locations by far or the most populated I realize I will have the tendency to run into boredom. Not following the standard bike routes everyone else follows but making my own means I probably won't see many other bikers either. I know a few places I plan to stop at, depending on what I actually end up doing, route wise, for the trip. Again the problem there is being in the midwest doesn't provide the most opportunities unless I were to radically change my route around, especially west TX to central NE. I know two spots, both in NE where I will definitely spend some time. Plenty around the Dakotas, but there isn't much down south of there other than nothingness.

There are two things I can try to do, probably won't succeed the best at either one though, avoid the wind and avoid the heat. LOL:)

Hence why I've asked the question in the first place. It may not be an issue but if it is I would rather off some things in mind for staving off the boredom.

Then maybe the OP should find a nice young woman to tour with who, likewise, can take up the rest of the evening <wink wink, nudge, nudge).

You're not suggesting I should try to steal Machka out from under you are you? LMAO:)

My number one problem, at least this year, is changing the route often, sometimes multiple times a day. Trying to do advanced planning is great as long as you don't screw up your route and miss a turn or...how shal I say get anxious and decide to take a different route to maybe speed things up a bit. The only stretch of next year route, if that stretch happens, that is pretty well decided is fortunately one where I will stay on the same highway from one end of it until the other end of it. That would be easy to do research on and I already know several spots along that stretch I plan to stop and visit once again for the first time in 13-14 years or more. The entire rest of the ride only has start and finish points, some 700-1500 miles apart and no set course. Pretty much take it as it comes.

Bikenh

I'm just a little curious about what an average, non touring, riding month looks like for you.

I know during the short period in my life when I was racing, I had a very hard time juggling work family and training. Even with an understanding employer and wife it was always a struggle. Our peak mileage was about 400 miles in a week. This was just for one week not every week for the entire year! I do remember one week at a little over 460 miles. The reason I remember it is my wife was out of town with the kids and our only car; and I rode 30 miles on a non-training day into a nearby town to pick up her birthday present.

I suggested knitting to someone else who recently posted about whiling away the hours on winter tours. Or if knitting doesn't appeal to you, there are lots of other hand crafts ... cross-stitch, embroidery, lace-making ... In the old days of cowboys, didn't some of them sit around the campfire and whittle things ....

I just had this vision of cowboys knitting and crocheting.

Is you want to stop the boredom try to find work in the places you stop. Cut someones grass, do some dishes for food. Help in homeless shelters for a night.

Ride with out your money and depend on the kindness of strangers. The miles won't matter when your looking for your next meal.

I just had this vision of cowboys knitting and crocheting.

Who knows ... maybe some did!! :lol:

It's not so much an avoidance behavior, even though I don't handle boredom worth a crap. I've never been one that can sit around and do nothing for hours on end. I always start to fidget, when I had teeth I would bite my fingernails all the time. Now I just sit there and pick at the nails, pick at scabs, anything to keep my hands busy. I don't handle boredom worth a crap. I'm not a person who can sit around for very long and enjoy the view. I can do it for a little bit but then I get bored and have to find something else to do/move on. If I've already ridden 95 mles for the day and I'm around the area where I want to spend the night and it's noon time...

I don't think too many of us just sit around and stare into space. Most of us have a variety of interests which can keep us occupied when we're not on the bicycle. Some of us have so many different interests, it is hard to know what to do next.

I've given you heaps of suggestions, as others have too. You have to figure out what you'd like to do. After all, that's how we become well-rounded individuals ... we learn, see, do lots of different things.

My own personal interests are sight-seeing and photography.

I visit lots of tourist information centres, gather information about the places I'm visiting, and then go visit anything that catches my interest ... even things that don't look like they'll amount to much such as small musueums. Once I start doing that, I very quickly discover that there's way more to see than I'll ever have a chance to see. I'm sitting here right now surrounded by brochures and maps and stuff that I've collected during our very recent 6 weeks in the US (we just got back into Canada yesterday), and in glancing through it all, we only saw a small fraction of the interesting things we passed by. There's heaps to see once you start looking.

And when it comes to photography, I have frequently wished I had my good camera with me. I'm making do with my little one, and I've taken thousands of photos with it (to the point that it is wearing out, despite being only a year old). The world is a beautiful place, and I'd like to try to capture some of that in photographs.


Then I read or do Sudoku when I'm not busy with sightseeing or photography.





How old are you? And what do you do in your non-work time at home? You cycle, of course, but what else?

And how did you lose your teeth?

Doug64, I'm with you, would love to see his log book because 24000 miles a year translates to 66 miles every single day of the year with not a single day off. I've read several journals kept by some of the elite cyclists in the world and the years when they hit these mile numbers, they did nothing but eat, sleep and ride. They had no other life, no other job, and of course a very understanding spouse.

I'm in the 50 - 70 miles a day area. Using up the time is not a problem I have. If it's very hot lie in the shade for a couple of hours. Or stop and boil water for a coffee. Stop and take pictures of something from different angles and distances looking for the best shot. Stop in the shade and rest reading a book. If you hit a town have a stroll off the bike for a while.

But as already said if you prefer riding more hours and doing big miles that's OK as well.

I agree, touring in the rural USA is boring during the off-bike time. It's a trade-off - interesting places usually have too many people, therefore too many cars, therefore the riding is not as nice, but the off-bike time is better.

When I'm solo, I read. An e-reader with the ability to download a new book from anywhere is a great tool. When I'm with a friend, we hang out & chat.

I don't care about "talking to locals" most of the time. Occasionally I have nice conversations, of course, but seeking out conversations as entertainment doesn't work for me - it's an artificial interaction, so for me it just feels .... artificial. Plus, it usually doesn't kill that much time, but that's probably b/c I don't like it very much so I don't extend it.

If I'm lucky enough to be somewhere with good scenery or some kind of interesting feature, i go check that stuff out. However, that requires that you are close enough to the interesting stuff that you can do that, and I don't like riding in the dark so there's another limiter. If I'm lucky, I get something like this once a week.

I think this will be different when I tour somewhere that is really different from my home country - when I go to Europe, I expect there will be more to explore - walking around little towns looking at interesting old architecture, that kind of thing.

Always picking McDonalds for your sitting around time, though, is a problem. You should branch out to non-chain restaurants, for a little more interest.

Rather than worry about the miles per day, remove your cycle-computer, so that you have no clue how many miles you've traveled, and just toodle along at whatever pace you feel like going, gawking at the scenery, talking to the people you meet, stopping to picnic at a park (edit: Consuming mass quantities - Beldar approved!), and taking routes you've not taken before, and rack up your "experiences per day" instead. ;) What would one call this? "Experienceage?" Just switch up your measuring criteria, I guess! ;)

Though it would be interesting to see pics of you learning to knit... :innocent:

It has been said, "Time, in your life, is like pulling on a roll of TP, it goes around faster,

as the end becomes nearer." :innocent:

I just had this vision of cowboys knitting and crocheting.

Once upon a time, knitting was considered a trade skill for men. At least that's what my son tells me, and he knows everything ;)

Don't waste time, it's the world's most valuable commodity. Bikenh, have you ever watched an anthill? That right there can be hours of free education. Once I came across a small stream where a stick was balanced on a rock, occasionally dipping in to the water and spinning around. Amazing. I spent who knows how long trying to reconstruct my own version. Someday when I'm in Minnesota I'll be sure to visit the World's Largest Ball of Twine. I have a couple friends that I could just say "fringe monkey" to and we would burst out laughing - from a campground story one of us told years ago. None of that would I consider wasted time, that's time very well spent. Learning is not wasteful, experimenting is not wasteful, meditating is not wasteful, storytelling is not wasteful.

How do you kill massive quanties of time while on tour?

You poor child.:cry: It is the rare day I do a century while loaded for touring. It has been many, many decades since I could do a double century loaded or unloaded. If you are really stumped, may I suggest you tour west of the Rockies. I will gladly map out some routes for you that you will struggle to make thirty miles before sunset.

As for myself, I have all but abandoned point A to point B touring. I like to explore areas. If I arrive at camp early I am quite likely to continue riding unloaded. If the opportunity presents itself I will put on my dirt tires and spend the next day exploring off the map and return to camp making zero miles towards any destination. I know I never get bored and never have time to kill.

"One Hundred Bottles of Beer on The Wall One Hundred Bottles of Beer..."

"Everybody..!"

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Someday when I'm in Minnesota I'll be sure to visit the World's Largest Ball of Twine.

Sounds good, and if you ever get to Iowa be sure to check out the Worlds Largest Popcorn Ball! Heck, we would not have known about it, if it was not for chatting with the local old timers at their coffee klatch in a small cafe.:)

http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy112/Doug64_photos/Bike%20Trips/Worldslafrgestpopcornball.jpg