yes, yes i do want coffee.

i woke up to a brisk morning today and everything covered in dew. i had hit my snooze button a few times because i really needed the sleep and i was nowhere that someone would stumble upon me. i eventually got up, packed my things, fetched an apple i had picked the other day out of my bag, and rolled off. i set a leisurely pace still trying to wake up. also, because i had nowhere to be but just to be going west.

about a half hour after i started riding i decided to pull over and take my jacket and gloves off. i picked a random telephone pole and started opening panniers. a womon was sitting on her porch about 50 feet away called out, "want some coffee?" my first reaction was to say "no", and i actually started to, but then i stopped myself and said, "sure, that would be great." after all, i have all the time in the world. so there i was sitting on some retired school bus driver's porch drinking coffee at 6:30am. she waved at just about every car that drove by. i ate a biscuit. after 2 cups of coffee and some 45 minutes i sincerely thanked her and went on my way. now that is a good way to start the day.

freedom and arby's.

i have good days and i have bad days on the road. i have small moments of utter transcendent joy and others of self-loathing depression. i find it hard to balance the two as of yet. i still haven't found the rhythm of the road yet and set my pace of life. it will happen for sure, it may take a few weeks, though. i can be patient.

that, having been said, for partly budgetary reasons and partly because of the authenticity of the experience i'm camping 99.9% of the time. and of that it's pretty much all freedom camping. for those that aren't familiar with that term, i learned it from a friend of mine after he spent a few months touring in new zealand freedom camping the whole way. it's where you set up camp wherever it suits your needs, often in unauthorized locations. here it's more commonly referred to as "bandit camping". i'm not a big fan of that term because it perhaps implies ill-intent. freedom camping, on the other hand, implies just that, a life of freedom... and that is what i'm after.

this type of camping is not for everyone, however. it takes a certain amount of bravado to risk being caught in order to get some sleep. to be more specific, the locations you find yourself spending the night literally cover the entire spectrum. no location is verboten. but with risks come great rewards.

sometimes you find a location out of sheer necessity. for example, 2 nights ago i rolled into a town after a long, hard day of riding and i was just absolutely beat. i had just got to a grocery store and gotten some food for that night and the next day when it had just started to drizzle. the weather radar showed a lot more rain heading my way over the next several hours with a bright band of orange/red in the middle. i was too exhausted to do any more riding and further more, i had run out of time, the rain was happening now. i had spied an out-of-business arby's right down the road on my way in. it had a doorway with plenty of coverage and it was not terribly visible from the street. welp, that's the spot for tonight. not glamorous but i stayed dry. and man, did it pour that night.

other times you have the luxury of stumbling upon a location that just pops. you just know that this is it for the night, even if you have plenty of time and energy to ride further. a few nights ago i had taken a rest day and spent my time at the local library and made a very leisurely lunch in the grass out back. with plenty of daylight left i decided to go find home for the night and started on down the road. i had spied a few potential locations using google satellite views [an absolute necessity for freedom camping] and decided to check them out. i never even got to the first one. i had rolled up on a section of the delaware river that was so scenic and so abandoned. the water was crystal clear. the weather was perfect. the vibe was totally right. i knew this was it for the night. i made some coffee and some dinner. i went for a night swim. i woke up and went for a morning swim because i can. it was a magical night.

when you spend the night in a location that you get you into some trouble you have to get up extra early so as to not get pinched. that has it's own side benefits. as a photographer i want to shoot in interesting light and weather conditions and those things often happen before the sun rises. after clearing out my yard sale from arby's and after a night of heavy rain the fog was thick...  very thick. long before the sun comes up it just makes for interesting and gloomy ambiance. but near sunrise everything changes; the fog remains but the sunlight makes everything look magical. i've gotten quick with my travel rig so i had it up and shooting in no time. if my day was over right now i'd be okay because i just scored, big time.

with any camping, but especially the camping of this type, the "leave no trace" mantra is of utmost importance. you absolutely need to respect the location and take away everything with you. nobody should ever know you were there... unless they look at the GPS data of your photos... in which case, whatever, chill out.

short-sighted on a long-distance tour.

i've only been on the road for 6 days and i've become very short-sighted. i found that all i end up concerning myself with is that it's too hot for anyone's good, where can i find a spigot, is that another f*cking hill, i should find shade and nap, and where is a grocery store because i'm getting very hungry. i can think all of those either at my house or very close to it. i haven't been doing what it is that i wanted to do when i set off on my trip.

what are these things? i want to explore new spaces and just be curious about the places that i ride through. i want to photographically document a true adventure in a way that is more that just snapshots that will bore friends and family. yesterday was the first day that i stopped focusing on the short-term and started to get to the real purpose of the ride. google maps had sent me through stewarts state forest in NY and, just like the other day the route actually sent me up onto interstate 84 for some reason. at the edge of the woods i decided it was completely off and just decided to figure out my own way through the park. did i mention the approaching thunderstorm? i set off on one of the very well-marked dirt roads through the park and found that i was no longer anxiously searching for a way to get back on route but was just enjoying myself. i was thinking about nothing but how well-groomed the roads were. about how nice the park was and wished it was a lot closer to home. about how i should stop and have a snack because, why not? about... what the hell is that thing?

as i rode on the last stretch of dirt road leading out of the park i see an abandoned building tucked away in the woods. now, as an adult, i reserve the right to act like a child whenever i want and this was one such time. i couldn't not go in and explore... and besides, where did i have to be? was that thunder i just heard again?  i have no idea what the building could have been; it was completely gutted. the ceiling was in shambles, concrete and metal bits were everywhere, all the windows and doors gone and plenty of graffiti. i must have just walked around, climbed on, crawled over, and squeezed through stuff for almost an hour. this is what i intended to do. just explore. freely explore my surroundings at my pace and to whatever extent i want.

i feel like a lot more days like this are coming. the further west i go the more it seems like an adventure. whenever i travel, usually by car or sometimes by plane then car, my head is on a swivel. i am fascinated with every field, row of trees, shitty building, hill in the distance, creek, or sad-looking house. i want to know more, i want to see more. i'm slowly finding my pace and my routine. in no time at all i'll find the things that i am looking for.

one part google, one part giant grain of salt.

google failed me today. i pulled up directions to a rough estimate of my destination today and the elevation profile didn't look too bad... except for one really sharp spike in the middle. oh well, pretty much every route i looked at had a similar profile but this one was the shortest. well, we'll just have to see how that goes...

another early morning trying to log some miles before it became impossible. i lucked out and had some fog and some otherwise low-floating clouds until about 9:30 and then the sun was all business. shortly there after i got to that nasty spike in the middle of the route and it was a deusy.  there was no possible way to ride it so i had to push. i think this road would have broken the legs off of anyone on any bike let alone a loaded touring bike. dignity retained. i was pushing up 50 feet at a time stopping in what little shade there was. after about 20 minutes of pushing a guy in a cherry Studebaker rolled up on me and asked where i was headed. "up and over" i said. "no sir, this is a dead end".... fuuuuuuu**. that's not what i wanted to hear. i asked if it just turned into a dirt road or even just a trail and he said it did not and that my best bet was to head back down and around. i told him i felt like Sisyphus and he said "well, i don't know about that but if you think this is bad you haven't even hit the steepest part yet".

back down it is. it's for the best, anyway. it's a 90-degree day and the sun is relentless. i head into pawlings, NY. to the library for some air conditioning and wifi. i don't think i'll get too much farther today. i'll just scope google maps for a spot to camp. dinner tonight: soft tacos.

mild heat stroke.

so i've left. just with my luck we're in the middle of a heatwave... my second day i literally only made it 10 miles before i almost died of heatstroke [my estimation, as a non-professional]... my destination was a library, a good place to enjoy air conditioning, wifi, outlets, and spigots. they were closed. i still hung out for the rest of the day using all of their amenities except i had to lay on the concrete to cool off, as pictured over there. also, there was an apple tree. bingo.

today was a very long 30 miles. i got a very early start trying to reach my destination before the worst of the heat set in. i was on the road at about 6am and i had a blast. temps in the 60's and no cars on the road. i found some fantastic roads, some dirt, some well-traveled... some went straight up. i didn't care for those at all. i had to get off and push the bike up some hills a few times... undignified, but i had a few excuses.

i think the hardest part is right at the beginning. i'm starting to get the hang of this.

mission statement.

most people that have strapped a tent onto their bike have probably daydreamed about doing some grand tour for weeks or months on end. most probably won't for one reason or another. of course, the older we get the amount of reasons that stand between us and dirt-bagging it across the country start to pile up and the chance of a long tour plummet or are completely squashed. and so it goes...

back in february of this year i made a very important decision in my life, to leave a perfectly fine job that pays very well [by my standards] and do such a tour. like so many other ideas or plans i've had in my life that never go anywhere this one was certain to happen. fast forward 6 months and the departure date is a few days away and i can't be more excited or stressed out. it is happening.

the idea had come to me within the first year of running the bike shoppe. i had told myself that when i eventually close that i'd do the ride then. of course, i closed the shoppe for financial reasons so i had no loot to do a tour... life and finances had gotten in the way. this time i had the foresight to start planning for it well in advance. if i was going to do it i was going to do it right. there's no guarantee i'd ever get another chance so i was going to maximize the time i had in the saddle and i was going to do everything and anything i wanted along the way... and that's exactly what is happening in 2 days. squee.

i do want to state, for the record, that i realize a blog about a bike tour is cliche. these days it can't not be trite and it will be difficult to keep my head out of my ass at all times, but ill try. i acknowledge and accept these things in their entirety. however, this is my tour and i'm going to write about it, dammit. stay tuned.