I've been there. I scheduled a tour down the west coast, from Seattle, Washington to San Luis Obispo, California. Halfway through I was wondering, "What was I thinking? Why did I have to set such a long distance for a goal?" I made it most of the way, but quit in Santa Cruz after developing a spoke-breaking problem that just kept getting worse.

Ever since I've set goals when planning tours, but have also decided before I started that I would quit whenever I felt like it, and not beat myself up over it afterwards. After all, I go on tour for fun, not to punish myself. I'm proud of the accomplishment of cycling really long distances, but there's a point of diminishing returns when the pain, or loneliness, or fatigue, etc. outweighs the pride of accomplishment. Loneliness, especially, is a factor that's hard to anticipate. If you're in a good head space it's easier to push on. If you're lonely, you start looking for reasons to quit. Like another person said, what you think a tour will be like when you're planning it is always different from the reality when you're out there.

This summer I had planned to ride from Seattle to Montana on the Northern Tier. However, after a week I had struggled over two passes - the North Cascades and Loup Loup - and arrived in Omak, Washington in 105 degree heat. I had two more passes to climb and the temperatures were supposed to go even higher. My knees were bothering me after the two passes. My Bob trailer didn't work as well as I'd hoped - it felt really heavy going up the passes - and I'd sent home some stuff to reduce weight - stuff I was missing. I was having trouble finding suitable food for my diabetic diet in the remote parts of the tour, and the route was going to get more remote. AND lastly, my friend in Omak said he would give me and my bike a ride back to Seattle, solving the problem that was looming of how was I going to get back? It was time to quit. I regret not doing the good parts of the tour that were waiting in northeast Washington, Idaho, and Montana, but I'm not sorry I quit. It was time. It was a relief.