Well my first long distance ride ended last Wednesday. 1061 miles in all. Some notes about the trip.
1. no mech issues at all.
2. WX was excellent. I did not even break out a raincoat.
3. No fast moving/bicycles issues. I did have to drive into the grass shoulder 4 times as I chose to not be squeezed by semi's meeting.
thanks for helmet mirrors. A week before the trip a semi driver told me that at meetings of 2 vehicles and a bike makes the bike rider a loser every time.
4. No human/bike rider issues. i.e. , no words, I did have a sheriff wake me on one nite and say that a local called them and mentioned
that an older, tired, homeless and distressed looking fellow on a bicycle was hanging around a campground and he (the sheriff) was just checking on me
5. I did not pack a weapon other than a pocket knife for household use only
6. Really the biggest issue was always the roads and lack of good shoulders to ride on. Lots of miles in Montana and South Dakota it was a white line for the shoulder. And check out this pic. They built a new road and did this too the shoulder. That is gravel on the right. I was pissed.

And I had one 16 mile stretch of highway that instead of rumble strips on the side of the road, the whole road was a rumble strip. An asphalt grinder/leveler did this to the road.


Fun trip. Lost 20 lbs. Montana (home) took a long time to get out of. Got my first Century Ride in. Very happy with the trip.

Thanks,
Marlowe