I've done numerous over night tours on motorcycle but have none by bicycle yet. Looking forward to knocking out a couple on 2012.

My first overnight camping tour ride was from my place in San Francisco to China Camp State Park back in 1998. It's 35-40 miles one way, IIRC. Was riding the Rivendell Atlantis I built up from a bare frame. Had Arkel panniers front and rear, Vaude handlebar bag, and the rig weighed 93lbs fully loaded. What a pig, but could it ever fly downhill!

My first overnight tour was BRAG (Bicycle Ride Across Georgia) back in 1986, and the ride was about 350 miles from Stone Mountain to Savannah over a week. I was living in Savannah and working as a reporter, and talked my editor into letting me go along and covering the ride for the newspaper. BRAG was started by the local bike club and at that time always ended in Savannah. My editor made me file two stories a day for the morning and afternoon papers, and it just about wore me out. When we got to camp at the end of the day, everyone else would go drink beer and party while I was interviewing cyclists and writing my stories. This was before the days of laptop computers and email, so I had to call into work every night and dictate my articles over the phone. I worked my tail off but had a fantastic time. My wife rode the tour with me, her first and only bike tour.

Kind of cool to do a tour as a paying gig.

I'm not totally sure if this was my first overnight tour but it was one memorable one. My dad build a tandem from several old bikes and on the maiden voyage we took it for a tour around the Bodensee (Lake Constance). A lake situated at the border of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. We started from our home in Germany where I grew up.

One one night we slept under the Autobahn (Interstate) bridge on the river Bregenzerach in Bregenz, Austria. The tent was setup down by the river, not very far away from the water. I noticed the water raising and mentioned that to my dad but he told me not to worry. Everything was fine but the next morning a local pedestrian that came by told us that the dams upriver often open up and the water rises well past where our tent was.

On a quiet morning I remember us riding down a hill in a town where a trumpeter played a nice tune that was overshadowed by our breaks squeaking horribly loud. That really ruined the idyllic morning. Quite often the chain on the front would drop and I'd continue pedal like crazy and propel us forward. On Sunday both breaks failed which made slowing down on a hill difficult. The other difficulty was repairing it since everything was closed. We finally were able to find a place with some tools and supplies to jury rig one of the breaks. I believe the lead end of the cable came off and a nut was placed on it allowing the breake lever to work again.

Around the lake there is a bike/hike path which makes it great for a bike tour. On the Swiss side there was a part where the left side of the path went up and the right side went down toward the lake. My dads pedal got caught on a rock coming out of the left side throwing us down into the bushes. Since I was a kid and light I didn't go as deep down as my dad, and he ended up landing in burning nettles. Near by railroad tracks were used to hammer the pedal straight again.

It was a lot of fun and the blue homemade tandem added to several memorable moments. My dad likes to build stuff so there are also stories about the backcountry skis he build for me. We had a successful tour up a mountain where we stayed overnight in a snow and then resorted to use the cabin because the igloo started to melt. However at the beginning of the second tour the ski binding failed causing us to end the trip early.

Unfortunately there are no pictures of any of our adventures because my dad doesn't bother with a camera. I can see a camera altering your experience of your surrounding as you are thinking of taking pictures and what looks good then just be worry free. Of course there is a neat story about that too. We toured through Yugoslavia by car and stopped at a tourist attraction where a guy had a bear. Through the language barrier he told us about taking a photo of me and bear. So I ended up sitting on the back of a bear while both, my dad and that guy, were waiting for the other to take a photo. Neither of them of course had a camera.

While my dad is still traveling the world in his style, I spend money on equipment and take a camera and other gadgets with me on my adventures. And of course he has the better stories now.

My first overnight tour was 35 years ago on a Schwinn Super Le Tour. Rode to Giant City Park in southern Illinois for a few days.

Belfast-Galway-Dublin-Wales-Train to London. On the heaviest pos gaspipe 10 speed in Great Britain. Saw a meteor from the Aran Islands that went from horizon to horizon. Raced a loose bull as the farm hands chased him. "keep goin' keep goin'" they yelled as it pulled alongside me and kept pace. 1998, just after the Omagh bombing. I'd been working with kids in NI, and had time to kill before studying in London.