Originally Posted by
cyccommute
I’m not necessarily touring in the middle of nowhere but I have found over many years of touring that there are places where you have to carry the kitchen sink. The midwest US has vast distances between towns and some of those “towns” only exist in name only.
Not necessarily. Those towns that exist in name only used to have grocery stores but many of them have closed because a HelMart opened 60 miles down the road. If I don’t carry food, I won’t eat. Not every campground has a store.
[size=33px]
I have no interest in doing multi-week long distance touring. So, I won’t bother touring in those vast emptiness of the midwest. (Grew up in the Midwest, have zero interest in going back, certainly not by bike).
For me, the whole point of bike touring is to be intimate with the towns, villages, and its people. Riding through no man’s land kind of defeats the purpose. I’d rather cover those empty distances by car or bus or train…
I get where you’re coming from. But it’s not the kind of touring I’d like to do.
Different job, different bike. [/size]