I'm another who hasn't toured yet - but am fully ready to. I have been a roadie since the early 1980's and just got into mountain biking this past year. As a youngster in the 1970's my brother and I would ride our old, yellow Schwinn Continental bikes on the back gravel and dirt roads or our county and spend all day exploring - barns, abandoned houses, creek beds, we all targets. We had a blast.

Fast forward 30 years and my three oldest kids are really into camping. I've always wanted to do more with the bike and had a revelation last year that touring would be a perfect way to continue getting my kids interested in cycling. So I began the process of converting an mtb to a better set up for touring and acquiring racks, panniers, etc. My 12 yo is anxiously waiting for next summer when we'll head up into the hills around our home and do some overnight/weekend camping trips by bikes. My 15 yo has let his fitness go the past two years and is getting overweight. He's a good rider and these camping trips will hopefully spark a desire to stay in shape and enjoy the world more by bike.

There are two other driving forces. A couple of years ago I put a rack on an old 82 Nishiki and some rear panniers and used the bike to run errands periodically into town (10-12 miles one way). This was more liberating than I expected and touring became more and more something I thought of.

Finally, my wife and I have 6 kids - three who are orphans adopted from Africa. One of my ultimate goals in touring is to do a 2-3 week fundraising tour for orphans that would allow me to send money back to their countries and aid in educational programs for children still there. It may take awhile for this to happen since our life is nonstop with 3 teenagers and numerous extracurricular activities throughout the year - but it will happen someday.