Talk about a whole group of folks being hard on themselves. In this crowd, I am, frankly a wimp. I've only done 3 tours: one overnight camping trip, one 3 1/3 day 197 mile CC tour, and one 4.5 day 220 mile camping tour. However, these dinky little tours are only dinky little tours here, in this forum. Most cyclists aren't ready/willing to load up their bike with panniers or a trailer full of gear, and ride down the street, let alone cross a state line or national boundary.

I learned alot about how non-cyclists/non-tourers view tourers when I did my last trip, which I finished yesterday. Everyone, even family who know I really enjoy cycling, are shocked and impressed with the prospect of doing a bike tour. When I went to what seemed to be the only bar on the North Fork of LI, I was the most popular guy there. Why? Because I was the only person there who actually went on vacation by bicycle. When I went to the commercial campground(filled with RVs and SUVS), it was as if Les Stroud(Survivorman) himself had come to camp out there.

Frankly, every time one of us hops on our two wheeled steed and follows the rising/setting sun to someplace, we are doing something 99.9% of the public can't even contemplate doing. So stop being so hard on yourself, all of you.