Eric,

I'm sorry things didn't work out and I hope you are feeling better.

What most people leave out when talking about bicycle touring is the mental aspect of touring. Touring is 90 percent mental, 9 percent comfort, and 1 percent gear and everything else. Riding for day after day with nothing but sagebrush and towns that all look the same after a while will test most everyone. Rain and wind isn't fun either. I missed my family greatly and decided a month was enough back in 2005.

I've never considered my tour a failure though. I learned a whole lot about myself.

I've cut down my tours to a few days or a week at most for now about once or twice a year. When my daughter is a bit older, I might try a coast to coast tour.

We all learn from our experiences both good and bad.