I used to bartend in a popular bar in Buffalo. After 7 years of it, I had had enough of partying and socializing and having to entertain people and see them all the time doing the same things over and over, and the thing I wanted most at that point was some solitude and some quiet. People are really unabashedly quite noisy.

So I saved as much as I could in the last 6 months there and announced that I was leaving for good, and when June came by, I took off with my bike and spent 6 weeks in the woods. I wasn't even really "touring" at that time. I was pretty much in the same woods - not even 60 miles away from Buffalo - taking trips to the local supermarket when I needed to and certainly living off of my touring rig, but otherwise not traveling around. It was 6 weeks alone and away from all the noise and the people, and it was probably the most rewarding stretch of time in my adult life. I've put together more interesting bike tours since, but I haven't had that much time alone before or since, and I really enjoyed it.

I never did go back in that bar either.

No regrets. I love bicycles and I love camping and I love touring and I think they saved my life in a lot of ways.